07-25-25 - *FULL SHOW* Live from Broncos Training Camp! Lauren Boebert; Flip phones

Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (CO-4) joins the show to talk about immigration, the "Epstein Files", and her ZIP Code bill about to become law!

Also, as I'm broadcasting from Broncos Training Camp, my KOA colleagues (and sports/Broncos experts) Ryan Edwards and Nick Ferguson will (probably) join me during the show.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sitting here at Broncos training camp. This is Koa at
training camp powered by Chevron. Thank you very much to
Chevron for supporting us with this. Chevron is committed to
our local communities and safely delivering affordable, reliable energy the
powers Colorado Forward.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
And yes, thank you Chevron. I'm a big.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Believer in actual good forms of energy, so it's legit.
My support for Chevron is legit. So anyway, interesting to
be here. We're gonna talk some football and Broncos obviously
during the day. Part of the reason we're here in
years past, sitting in my vantage point. Let's see what

(00:37):
side are we on here, Shannon, This be the west side, right,
We're on the west side of the practice field. And
so normally in previous years I would look north and
there'd be that hill over there with hundreds of people
sitting on it. But now it's a construction site and
they have built a lot. It's not just like empty
ground with a fence around it. There's serious construction already
done there. Structures that I would call like have finished.

(01:01):
And so the bleachers are behind my left shoulder, but
I'm sitting in a tent, so I can't see them,
but they've put bleachers up that'll hold something on the
order of eight hundred people instead of what was it, Shannon,
close to three thousand out on the hill something like that,
So it's a lot fewer people, but at least they
did do something to get people in and that's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
And as always, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Free to come to practices, but you got to get
a ticket, so go ahead and do that if you
want to come to a Broncos training camp practice.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
They've done a couple of warm up days.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
I guess today is sort of the first official real
training camp and obviously the first one open to the public.
Well I shouldn't say obviously because maybe it's not obvious.
So we'll talk about some of that stuff over the
course of the show. But we're also it's not gonna
be an all football show. I got lots of other
stuff to do, including in less than half an hour,
Lauren Bobert is gonna join the show. We got a

(01:54):
lot to talk about with her regarding Epstein and immigration
and her zip code bill and her and the letter
that she and Gabe Evans wrote to Governor Polis and
stuff like that. So let's do a couple other stories.
I saw this piece over at XUS a couple of
days ago, and you will recall, you may recall if

(02:15):
you were listening, that we spoke with Mayor Mike Johnston
about a week ago, and part of the conversation there
was about this bond plan, eight hundred million dollars bond plan, and.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
He said, look, this is stuff we need to do.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
I will say I made a little bit of a
mistake in sort of guessing what it was going to
be about. I thought that a lot of it was
going to be about beautifying the city to make it
a better, more interesting place for tourists and conventions to
come and things like that.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
But that doesn't seem like what it is.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
It seems like it is about needed what you might
call deferred maintenance for the city, a lot of it anyway,
and it's not about other things to.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Boost it as a tourist destination.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
In any case, the mayor said it won't require any
increase in taxes. They've already got the funding for it.
I have a little concern about that, given that the
city in County of Denver is facing a two hundred
and fifty million dollar ish shortfall due to a decline,
or it's not exactly a decline, it's kind of staying
flat while they had budgeted for an increase but in

(03:21):
sales tax revenue, so there at least a couple hundred
million dollars short. We talked with him about how he's
gonna deal with layoffs and all that. But now with
the thing I wanted to update you on this Axios
headline where the big bucks go in Johnston's now nine
hundred and thirty five million dollar bond plan.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Right, so it's gotten even bigger.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Now, Look, if he if it's really true that they
can do this without raising taxes, that probably makes it
a slightly better idea. And if it's stuff that really
needs to be done, then then it needs to be done.
So I'm not saying I'm against this. I'm just saying
when the city is in a bit of a financial trouble,
I just want to make sure they're budgeting right so
they don't have to come back to people to raise

(04:04):
taxes or cut things that they really don't want to cut.
So some of the big things in this project, the
biggest one looks like eighty nine million dollars for the
eighth Avenue via duct replacement and multi modal improvements. Normally,
when you hear the term multimodal in a Democrat city,
and it's not always true, but it's often true that

(04:27):
when you hear multimodal, you should think not just you know,
car and bus or car and light rail, but car
and bike, you know, bike paths and other wastes of
time and money like that.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
So but anyway, that's one.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Seventy five million dollars for a first responder safety training center,
seventy five million dollars for a Marion Street underpass for
the Globe Villain and Laria Swansea neighborhoods. It's seventy million
dollars for the park Hill Park build out, and I
I guess I'll stop there, but it's a lot of

(05:02):
stuff like that, bridges and viaducts and Santa Fe streetscape
and multimodal safety improvements. Anyway, it's up to nine hundred
and thirty five million dollars now, and the next step
will be the City Council will vote on whether to well.

(05:22):
So a committee of the City Council voted already to
send this whole new package to the full city council.
And then the full city Council will decide whether to
send this to voters in November, and then voters will
have to decide whether they want to borrow nine hundred
and thirty five million dollars.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
So we'll see, we'll see.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Also from Axios, Council President Amanda Sandoval warned the city's
shrinking staff may not have the capacity to pull off
all this stuff, and noted that some projects from Denver's
bond isshuents in twenty seventeen, eight years ago, are still incomplete.
So that's the world we live in. And one other

(06:05):
thing I want to mention real quickly here. I told
you that my friends over at Advanced Colorado are going
to be suing the state of Colorado, and I guess
they have filed the lawsuit already. They are suing the
state of Colorado over the law that the state legislature

(06:26):
passed and the governor signed that says that even if
the federal government decides not to tax overtime, the state
will still tax it. And that law that is law now,
it does it is not in effect for this tax year,
even though the federal part is, but it would be

(06:47):
an effect for twenty twenty six. And on the one hand,
I am against not taxing tips in overtime. I am
against saying, well, just because you, you know, you got
your income a slightly diffferent way than I did, so
we're not going to tax yours and we are going
to tax mine.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
And you know what, if it were the other way,
hopefully I would say the same thing. But that's not right.
I am for lowering taxes for everybody.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
But in this lawsuit they make a different point that
I think is really important. If there were no change
in law, and since the Colorado government uses since Colorado
tax authorities use what you report as your federal taxable
income as what you get taxed on in Colorado, if

(07:32):
there were no change in state law, then your taxable
income for Colorado's purposes goes down if you earn overtime,
and therefore your tax bill will go down if some
of your earnings are overtime. They passed a law saying no,
we're going to tax it. But that this lawsuit argues,
is it self at tax increase.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
The Left will.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Probably argue, no, it's just preventing a tax decrease, but
it's not. It's a tax increase because without any change
in state law, the tax number will be whatever it'll be,
and they want the number to be higher, and so
they passed this thing, and the lawsuit says, no, that has.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
To go to a vote of the people.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
And even though I do think overtime and tips should
be attacked just the same way as any other ordinary income,
I actually think this lawsuit has a very strong point.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
We'll be right back on KOA.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
So yesterday I went over to all Right, I'm gonna
tell you exactly what I did, because you guys.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Know how I shop.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
This is not this is not a secret how I shop,
right chan and everybody everybody knows. I went to the
best Buy outlet where you can buy things that somebody
else bought and returned, and then they grade them by excellent, good, fair,
and I bought an excellent version which looks like actually
looked like the box had been opened, but the thing

(08:50):
had never been out.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Of the plastic.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
A little almost old school style flip phone, not one
of these fancy thousand dollars flip phones that you owe.
And it's got the screen, but the old school kind
that it actually does have a little screen, a very
small screen, but it doesn't do it doesn't do apps,
it doesn't do any of that.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
And it was seventy bucks, right.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
But the reason I got that, and it ties into
an article that I saw a couple of days ago
with the New York Post. And maybe you know, if
you're the parent of a if you're the parent of
a teenager or young adult, you might be going through
this yourself. But a lot of young people are sick
of the smartphones and they want dumb phones because they
want to be able to text with people, or call people,

(09:35):
or have some other very basic kinds of functionality like
maybe a camera even if it's not very good, or navigation,
even if it's not very good, but just the basics.
And they are they're recognizing, they're waking up to the
fact that smartphones generally and social media specifically is just, yeah,

(09:56):
sucking the life out of them. And the New York
Post of this piece just couple days ago, flip phone
summer gen Z vows to resurrect low tech before their
brains turned to mush, And uh, let me just share
a little this with you because it was just funny
to see this at the around the same time that

(10:16):
my that my teenager said to me, you know, I
want a dumb phone. And what my teenagers can do,
by the way, is keep the smartphone, but without a
phone number, right, and so just you know, when connected
to Wi Fi, if if he needs to do something
with an app, he can do it, but it won't
have a phone number, it won't write. So just the

(10:37):
only actual working phone will be this dumb phone. Gen
Z is flipping the script this season, hanging up on
the addictive call of the smartphone. Teens, tweens, and twenty
somethings are instead going retro, ditching their digital devices for
two thousand's era flip phones.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
They quote this.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
One young woman who I don't know, a TikTok person
or something, but says it's it's flip phone. Summer life
will be so simple. It's an ease that comes with
less time on screens. The gen zs youngsters under the
age of twenty seven but older than something. I don't
know what that what the lower end is because below
them they got jen Alpha. But anyway, have recently begun

(11:20):
rehabbing their high tech fixations with the help of low
tech tools forgetting iPhone photoshoots. Gen Zers are virally all
in in favor of snapping picks on vintage, digital and
disposable cameras, insisting that a camera from two thousand and
seven gives off a certain vibe that something like an
iPhone can't produce. The whipper snappers are also preferring cassette

(11:44):
tapes and vinyl records over music streaming platforms, and Walkman
headphones over ultramodern bluetooth earbuds. By the way, I saw
Shannon the other day. You know, we got a bunch
of music stations in our building, and those program directors
often get albums that I bringon put out whatever.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
So Metalla could just.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
I think maybe re released an album. I don't think
it's a new album. And I saw sitting on one
of these program director's desk. I saw it in vinyl
and on cassette. When is the last time you saw
a new cassette. This is Metallica re releasing an album
on cassette. It's just a I still have my cassette
player from back in the day. Oh and one quick

(12:21):
shout out, and this is not to a gen zer.
This is to a slightly a gal who's been around
a little longer than a gen Zer, But I wanted
to give a big shout out to listener Bernadette, who
sent me an actual piece of mail, an actual letter
that showed up at my desk at work, and she
said she listens to the show on her Sony Walkman

(12:42):
while she's walking around because she doesn't do high tech.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
She's got the Sony Walkman.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Bernadette, Thanks for listening, and you're way ahead of the
curve because all the gen zers are following you to
low tech. Now we'll take a quick break. When we
come back. Lauren Bobert joins the show. My friend Laura
and Bobert Republican member of Congress representing Colorado's fourth congressional district,
and we have a ton of stuff to talk about today.

(13:07):
So Lauren, thanks for making time for us, and it's
good to talk to you again.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yes, good morning, Ross, and you're probably not wrong. I
don't know how welcome I am in Denver.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
I want to ask you a question that has nothing
to do with what I was planning to talk to
you about, but relates to the last thing I was
talking about on the show, because you have you have
kids who might be of an age that this would
apply to my older kid who is a teen late
teen told me that he wants to get rid of
his smartphone and get a flip phone, a dumb flip phone.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
And we went and bought one yesterday.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
And I guess this is a whole trend in like
gen Z And I'm wondering if you've stumbled across this
in your own kids or anybody else.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
That is not something that I've come apaused at all.
This is the first time hearing.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
Anything like that.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
But you know, I would love for my kids to
just have a flip phone. We definitely have some summer
phone restrictions that are in place because we don't want
just the entire summer to be wasted away with screen
screen time.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Well there you go.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Well they're they're calling it flip phone summer, So you
might ask your kids to look into it, because I
think that'd be good for everybody. Uh, Okay, I've got
a ton of stuff I want to talk to you about.
I'm going to go in no particular order, But I
saw an article about a letter that you and Gabe
Evans and Jeff Crank wrote to Governor Polus Quote expressing

(14:33):
grave concerns over Colorado's continued policy of covering illegal immigrants
with state medicaid funds.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
Can you elaborate for us please?

Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (14:43):
So the way most the way most states to are
sanctuary states and support illegal aliens on their on their
UH healthcare dockets. They do it through state programs and
and then some of it goes it comes directly from
medicaid itself. But no matter what, those.

Speaker 5 (15:04):
Dollars are still flowing.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
From the federal government and coming into the state and
then kind of being laundered into other state programs and whatnot,
or just directly used by illegals on medicaid itself. And
so right now Colorado is a sanctuary state because of
the laws that are on the books. It doesn't matter

(15:28):
what are what, how howld of a count you are in,
what your county commissioners have declared. Because of Colorado state laws,
we are a sanctuary state. And this is another thing
that we need to fix and get right so we
can put Colorado's and Americans first. We we cannot have

(15:49):
UH illegals just taking all of our tax benefits and
and and it's really unfortunate, but this is a state
where they are allowed to do that freely.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
So it separate for them or in addition to the
kind of principled argument that you're making about you know,
illegal alien shouldn't be getting taxpayer funded benefits.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
I'm not looking at the details now.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
Of what you wrote, but I isn't there also some
potential risk to the state as far as federal funding
if they keep allowing any kind of illegal alien.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Access to federal medicaid dollars.

Speaker 6 (16:28):
Yeah, well, well, first of all, you kind of broke
up on some of that, so I'm going to answer
what I think you asked. But with the way this
federal government has made promises to put America first and
to end the presence of illegal aliens, you're in this
country to secure the border and to have mass importations

(16:48):
and to you know, have the CBP one app where
people can self support, they get paid, their communication with
their home country so they have a place to go
when they when they get home, they have their their
own countries supplying them with healthcare needs and food and
whatnot to get them on their feet.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
And so this federal government, President Trump and his administration
had said that he's going to start pulling funding from
sanctuary states, sanctuary cities, sanctuary states, I would prefer if
he started with the City of Denver here in our
state before something like that happens, because Mayor Johnston has

(17:29):
explicit ordinances in place that make it illegal for Denver
employees to coordinate with ICE agents, and that ordinance it
just really strengthened that sanctuary policy that we see at
the state level. And so I would like President Trump
to first make make an example of Denver before it

(17:53):
impacts the entire state, because our entire state is not
in favor of this. But there will be consequence, says,
for those who who are are not following the executive
orders and the agenda that's being laid out through legislation
and everything else. So we we've got to make sure

(18:15):
we are putting Colorado first, that we are securing the
federal funds that should be coming back to our state
and really fortifying some of the great things that do
come here, rather than putting illegals first.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Right.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
And the part of that that that you that was
directly responsive to my question, I understand you didn't you
didn't hear all of it, but you did you did
touch on it, and that is that there's a decent
chance that that the government will pass a new law rule. However,
it'll work, that will reduce the federal matching funds for
Medicaid coming to a state if the state allows illegal

(18:51):
aliens to access federal Medicaid dollars. So that could be
a very big.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Well yes, but also with that, I mean, that's where
we should have taken care of that issue directly in
the Big Beautiful Bill, and we've failed to do so
entirely because the way those federal dollars work right now,
when states put in one dollar for Medicaid, the federal
government comes in and puts in another dollar thirty three.

(19:15):
And that's for your vulnerable, that's for your pregnant moms,
your infant, your your senior citizens, those who actually need
Medicaid but with able bodied adults and illegal aliens through
through Obamacare, through extended through extending Medicaid. Now, when a

(19:36):
state puts in one dollar, those people get nine dollars
from the federal government. So it's a huge it's scam, fraud,
money laundering scheme. And we are absolutely doing what we
can to reduce that. We should have done more in
the Big Beautiful Bill.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Yeah, I agree, I do think there's I want to
just you know, make sure we're clear on this. Theoretically,
illegal aliens can't get medicaid, but like you said that,
sometimes through state programs they do these sort of work
around so it's not like most illegal aliens get medicaid,
but really, if any do, it's not.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Right, right, And you know, we've even seen like, what
is it. I think it's Cali, Caare, California. It's the
California Medicare Medicaid. They accidentally sent over their entire roster
to someone who is really trying to kick start this

(20:33):
mass deportation machine on steroids. And while going through that list,
they are finding many many illegals there, most of them
on the state program, but we still do find illegal
aliens on the regular medicaid as well. And that's the thing.
It's if they're not illegal and they can receive it, well,

(20:56):
then there's no big threat to losing it, right, But
we're seeing that there's at least one point four million
illegal aliens directly receiving medicaid.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Okay, let's stick with immigration a little more and then
I want to do some other things. There's an interesting
I would call a friendly disagreement right now between you
and another Colorado Republican Gabe Evans on something called the
Dignity Act, which, as I understand it would allow a

(21:28):
certain kind of permission for certain kind of illegal aliens
to stay in the country on a renewable but temporary.
Temporary but renewable basis not a path to citizenship. It
has a bunch of other things border wall fundings and
funding and things that are supposed to appeal to conservatives.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
He signed on as a sponsor. You are not a fan, no, But.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
I am a fan of Gabe Evans, and he's doing
a tremendous job. And this is certainly not something I'm
going to beat him over the head with, but I
am going to try to stop the sill from passing.
So Gave Evans has done an amazing job in leading
as a freshman. He's on one of our eight committees.
He is on Energy and Commerce, and he takes his
job very seriously. He's already passed multiple bills out of

(22:12):
the House. Uh and and uh, you know, he's he's
at the table at a lot of the in a
lot of these important discussions that are taking place in Washington, DC.
And of course when we come home, he's you know,
right here with with the constituents where he needs to be.
But with this bill, this Dignity Act, it is amnesty
for uh, for about ten million people. And I mean

(22:34):
this is uh, maybe maybe a little less than that,
but this is amnesty, and it's uh, it's really what
I ran on the first time I got to Congress.
My predecessor had a Workforce Modernization Act that he supported,
and he said that it wasn't amnesty, and I said, no,

(22:54):
if you are in our country illegally and then you
get to stay here, that is amnesty, and that that's
exactly what this is. And as far as border funding
and all this other stuff that could be in the
Dignity Act, well we already took care of that in
a big, beautiful bill. We have the border wall funded,
we have increased border patrol agents, we have increased their wages,
we have increased positions, we've increased ice agents, their entire

(23:18):
departments funding, and so much more. So we have already
done that. It is not a matter of resources, and
amnesty has to be removed from the table.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
We're talking with Congresswoman Lauren Bilbert, Republican representing Colorado's fourth
congressional district, mostly eastern northeastern Colorado.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
So I actually agree with.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
You that allowing any illegal immigrant to stay is amnesty.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
I am not on.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Board, but I think part of what's happened with language,
especially on the right, is that the word amnesty has
come to be taken as an inherently bad word, and
so conservatives use it and say that's amnesty, which is
kind of synonymous for saying that's unacceptable. But given that

(24:10):
there is some upside for the American economy for American
businesses to have at least some of the employees they
have now, especially in these industries where it will be
difficult or impossible to fill those jobs with Americans, why
isn't some limited kind of quote unquote amnesty, which might

(24:31):
not be the Dignity Act, but why wouldn't some limited
kind of amnesty actually be good for this country?

Speaker 3 (24:38):
Well, first of all, wrong, I think it's offensive to
Americans to say that they're never going to do these
jobs and we can't fill these jobs without illegal workers.
And you know, it's really an argument that I hear
a lot from the least and even someone the right
when talking about our farms and agriculture, and well, who
else is going to clean your toilets, and I think

(25:00):
that's very insulting, and it's inventured servitude. I don't think
it's compassionate because many of the folks who come here
illegally are brought here by the cartel themselves, and they
are indebted to the cartel, and many of course are
are trafficked and and and hurt in many ways that
I won't describe in detail on the radio here today,

(25:21):
but it's very it's it's the opposite of compassion to say, Okay,
you know, you're incentivized to come here because we got
a job for you. When you get here, you can
get on our medicaid, We'll take care of all of
your food, will help you out with housing, and and
the journey that they have to go on. If they
survive that and make that, it's it's extremely dangerous, and

(25:43):
like I said, many of them are indebted to the cartel,
and so a lot of those dollars that they're actually
making here are being sent back. We already are the
most generous country in the world. We naturalize one million
resident a year. You know, we allow we allow new

(26:04):
immigrants to come in every year up to one million,
and to have someone come in and cut the line
and say that it's compassionate to have some sort of
structural fest with them. It is not correct and and
it's it's really not moral either. Also, just jump in
for visa. Wait, wait, let me just want one more thing.

(26:26):
You know, I've been talking for a while. We have
this these we have h one B visas, we have
twin bees, all these visa programs, these work programs. But
also you see companies like Microsoft who are laying off
nine thousand or more American workers and then applying for
almost five thousand work visas.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Right, So I get that, and I think so you
said a lot of things there. First, I think there's
two different conversations to be had about high skilled workers
and low skilled workers. There's you know, some overlap, but
those are different policy discussions. Of saying that perhaps some
illegal aliens should be able to stay here and do
some jobs is not supporting cartels. Everything you said, you know,

(27:06):
cartels and trafficking and all that stuff is terrible. But
what about somebody who just makes their way across They
don't know money to a coyote. They're they're making a living,
they're mowing a lawn, they're cleaning a hotel, whatever you
know what that might be. It's not indentured servitude. It's
a it's a voluntary contract between an employer and employee.

(27:27):
It's not slavery, it's not any of that. I'm not
saying there aren't bad examples, but there's a lot of
examples that aren't that. And as far as Americans, no, wait,
hold on, it's my turn to finish now, it's it's uh.
As far as Americans doing the jobs or or not, yeah, okay,
at some price you can go get Americans to clean

(27:48):
the toilets, or you can get Americans to pick the lettuce.
But at that at those prices, will you be able
to afford to stay at a hotel?

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Will you be able to afford to eat lettuce?

Speaker 1 (27:57):
And and you know, to me, I think there's some
middle ground, and I'm not saying I think we're going
to reach it. And I don't know that the Dignity
Act is it, but I'm probably somewhere in between you
and Gabe on this.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
Okay, So is that moral to say, well, you come
here and you get our lowest wages paid to you
because we don't want to do these jobs. You're not
worthy of actually going and getting another job to make
more money. But you know you could start here at
the bottom and sure just be in our country. I
don't think that that's moral at all. Why Why aren't

(28:33):
they deserving of the American dream to come here to
do it the right way, like one million immigrants to
every year. And to think that the cartel do not
have operational control of the southern border is absolutely insane.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Now, no, I'm talking about people who are here.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
Control, but they certainly did the past four years and more.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
I get it.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
But even the Dignity Act is only talking about people
who were here before that. So I'm not talking about
opening the border or anything like that. I'm all for
an absolutely secure border. Anyway, I want to do one
more thing because we only got a few minutes left,
and we can do that another time. You and I
have talked a couple times on the show about your
zip code bill that I've loved all the way along,

(29:15):
and it had some speed bumps, but I guess it's
passed now.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yes, so my unique zip Code Bill did pass the House.
And this is a bill that I love so much
and I'm working on getting it passed out of the Senate.
Now I will be talking to the Senate a whole
lot until that happens. But we have sixty five communities
that are listed on my Unique zip Code Bill, fifteen
of which are in Colorado. And this just forces the

(29:43):
United States Postal Office to assign these communities with a
unique zip code so they have their own identity, they
have better first responders time, there's more accurate mail delivery
in place, and it even impacts sales tw revenues that
are already being collected. I'm not raising taxes anywhere, but

(30:04):
the sales tax revenues for home deliveries and whatnot, they're
not going directly to these communities and many circumstances, and
so it allows that actual city like loan Trees, loving
millions of dollars a year through online shopping. That's going
to home and it's not going to loan Tree. But

(30:26):
those taxes are still being collected, so they will be
able to actually put a very unique zip code and
lay claim to millions of dollars and sales tax revenues.
And then it also impacts homeowners insurance rates because a
lot of times these communities should have a lower rate,
but their zip code ties them into the city next

(30:48):
to them, where homeowners insurance rates are higher.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, you know, it's the last two towns I lived in.
Both have zip code that shows up like in Google
Maps or postals systems as Englewood, but neither of the
one of them is actually Englewood, And so I've been
living that.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
I'm curious.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
You and I have been talking about this for a
long time, and there were there I think you brought
it up in the last Congress, and then you brought
it up again in this Congress.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Is that right?

Speaker 4 (31:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Okay, And I was wondering if in that time period,
because I think you had told me that you learned
of a few other communities that weren't on your original
list that have the same problem, were you able to
add any communities to the bill in that time Yes.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
So since it's the new Congress, we redrafted the legislation
and we were able to make additions there. Last year
we had about fifty communities listed, and now we have
sixty five. So there were fifteen other communities that were listed,
some in Colorado, some throughout the nation, and even one
of the reasons we were kind of fighting with the
Senate to get it passed in the last Congress, was

(31:55):
senator said, no, I have cities in my state that
need this, and it's not on the scale, so I'm
not going to pass it.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
And they really just wanted to build, strengthened, And so
I do think that it has a higher probability of
passing the Senate and being signed into law this Congress,
hopefully this year, if I have anything to do with it,
And so this will be a huge benefit. But we
have we have cities like Frederick and Severance and Terry

(32:22):
Hills and Centennial, Keystone, Loane Tree, Highlands Ranch, and so
many more right here in Colorado that are impacted. And
of course I would be remiss if I left out
the beautiful town of Silvercliff. That's where this journey started
with me. It began in Silvercliff when they raised this issue,
something they've been fighting for thirty years. And so hopefully

(32:47):
by the end of this Congress or before, Silvercliff will
no longer have to share a zip code with Westcliff.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Oh fabulous.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
You know, folks, this is just an example a lot
of times, you know, the national stuff or the trumpy
stuff or the Epstein stuff that I didn't get to
with Lauren today. It takes up a lot of the
oxygen in the room. But every once in a while,
Congress does something that just really affects your daily life
in ways that can make a real difference. It might
not seem like the you know, the top line headline

(33:17):
in the New York Times or whatever, but it really
impacts your life.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
And this is one of these things.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
And Lauren has been the champion of this for a
couple of years now. So I'm not sure whether I
should say congratulations because I'm slightly superstitious, so I will
just say well done getting it through the House, good
luck getting it through the Senate. I think you got
a decent shot, and I look forward to the day
when we can talk about it being signed into law.

Speaker 6 (33:43):
Yes, I look forward to that day as well.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
And you're right, this does impact so many people's day
to day lives, and that's why it is such a
huge priority for me. I have other pieces of legislation
that directly impact Colorado as well that I'm fighting just
as hard on. But this is not something that people
campaign on necessarily, and I've made it a priority and
I'm going to do everything that I can to get
it passed, and so if you I be superstitious, I'll

(34:06):
be a little stitious and we'll talk on the other
side of its passing.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
That's funny, all right, Lauren Bobert, Republican congresswoman representing Colorado's
fourth congressional District, Thanks.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
For your time as always, Lauren, talk to you soon.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
Thanks so much.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
Ra all right, we'll take a quick break. We'll be
right back on Kiowa.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
This is koa At training camp powered by Chevron, committed
to our local communities and safely delivering affordable, reliable energy
that powers Colorado forward. Thank you Chevron for supporting this.
A quick shout out to my buddy Mandy Connell, who
is now number thirty four on the Talkers magazine what

(34:44):
they call the Heavy hundred list, the one hundred most
influential radio talk show hosts in the country. Mandy is
up to number thirty four, and I'm a little behind
her at number fifty five. I've moved up the list
as well, and I will say if I can just
pat both of us on the back.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
A little bit.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
There are very few radio stations in the country that
have two hosts on this list, and as far as
I know, any of the other ones that have too.
Radio hosts on the list are in huge markets like
New York or LA So congratulations to Koa really and

(35:25):
to us.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
So there you go. There's that.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
I did read all of your listener texts from folks
who are texting in about Lauren Bobert and that conversation.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
I think I'm not going to go back to that
right now.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
I want to take a moment and talk about the
south Park thing, the south Park Donald Trump thing.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
So I watched some clips of the south Park.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
Episode, and actually, if you want to watch them, I
actually put them in my blog. So if you go
to Rosskiminski dot com and click on the TGIF blog cast,
I've got a few videos in there that are selections
from that. I think it's season two, maybe opening episode
of south Park, and I have a couple of things

(36:05):
to say about it. One, they absolutely destroyed Donald Trump
in that show, in partially by having him throughout the
entire episode threatened to sue people. He's gonna sue everyone
all the time. He is also Satan's lover with very
small yet you know they show Trump naked with a

(36:30):
you know cartoon, Trump naked with very small you know so,
and it was it was pretty funny, I have to say,
not not because of any view I have of Trump.
It was just pretty funny. The South Park people are
pretty funny. And I think that I think that the
White House made a mistake by calling South Park, you know,

(36:53):
a fourth rate show that's hanging on by a thread, right,
I mean, South Park is one of the most popular
television shows of all It's up there with.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
With Seinfeld and The Simpsons.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
I mean season twenty seven, All right, Season twenty seven
was that telling. And you heard in our news broadcast
right there they just signed a deal to stream their
old episodes for a billion dollars. So I understand, of
course why Donald Trump in particular and the team around

(37:26):
him would not have found the episode to amusing because
it was very aggressive against Trump and even a little gross.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
But that's what they do over there.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
But you gotta handle it a little better, and and
you gotta even though what they did was sort of insulting,
coming back and saying it's a fourth rate show that's
hanging on by a thread when they just signed a
billion dollar deal, means that everybody knows you're lying about
the show, and that's just dumb pr that's dumb communications.
So they could they should have come up with something else.

(37:55):
They should have come up with something that was a
little more like well, actually even even funny would have
been good. Maybe, you know, not the easiest thing, but
that's what these people are paid to do.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
In any case.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
The second video I have embedded on my blog there
definitely has a bad language.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
You know, I'd call it R rated.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
So especially with that second video, if you if you
go watch it, you know it's not for kids or
or for very very sensitive people.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
So anyway, that's.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Up at the TGIF blogcast at Rosskaminski dot com. So
I'm here sitting here at training Cramp Cramp training Camp.
I think I'm gonna have Ryan Edwards on with me
in about twenty five minutes and we'll talk football and
other things. It is so cool to be here the
first serious day of camp, the first day.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
Open to the public.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
We've seen a few Broncos players kind of run right
near me, just to my left as I'm facing west,
facing east and waving up at the crowd in these
bleachers that are here now in years past, the people
would go sit on a hill on the north side
of the practice field, but that hill has been completely

(39:07):
overtaken with construction. And they're obviously moving very fast on
this construction because this stuff is I mean the physical
framework right, the framing, the metal framing, primarily, I see
steel beams, some exterior kind of dry wall, concrete. It's

(39:27):
all done. It's it's really they've been working fast. So
they put some bleachers up kind of over my left shoulder,
and so we had players run by and wave at
the bleachers and everybody's cheering, and it's pretty fantastic.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
It's pretty fantastic to be here. You know what.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
I have a ton of stuff I still need to do,
and I want to make sure I give everything enough time.
So let me just remind you of something I'll be
doing later in the show. Today, we have partnered with
Flatiron's Fire to give away a really gorgeous outdoor or
fire pit. It's I think it's a yard square about

(40:04):
and it's hand finished concrete for the surface. It has
an electronic ignition, so you don't need lighters or matches
or something to light it. And the way we're doing
this is we have given away three entries a week
for the last three weeks. Today is going to be

(40:24):
the last day. At some point I will give away
one entry on the air. There will be two entries
on social media, and you should check that out right
now because there is a noon deadline to enter. X
dot com slash koa Colorado, Instagram dot com slash koa Colorado.
You will see the pinned posts at the top that

(40:44):
tell you how to enter. And what's cool about this
is we're only gonna have twelve total entries.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Again.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
We've done three for three weeks. Three more today, that's
gonna be a total of twelve. Producer a Rod will
randomly choose one and that person will win. So if
you want an entry, you got a one out of
twelve chance of winning this thing that's worth over four
thousand dollars thanks to flatirons Fire, which should be your
home for all your fireplace and outdoor fire pit needs

(41:12):
flatironsfire dot Com. We'll be right back on Axios and
it's actually written by a guy named Jim Vanda High
who is founder and CEO of Axios, which is a
fairly major news outlet. They also have a local arm
Axios Denver that does a lot of good reporting and
is not a political story, and I just thought, especially
on a Friday, I'd like to share it with you,

(41:33):
just for a few minutes. And it's entitled be Curious
Not Judgmental. And he starts like this Ted Lasso, stealing
a line that he and many others wrongly attribute to
Walt Whitman nailed an anecdote to the things driving us
crazy be curious not judgmental.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
By the way he at the end of this Vanda.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
Hih links to a scene from Ted Lasso that's up
on YouTube, and I actually put it on the blog.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Is the very last thing on the blog.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
Today, and it's a really interesting three minute long scene,
really worth watching. If you go to Rosscimminsky dot com
and click on the TGIF blogcast today's blogcast and you
can see it. Anyway, those four words, which is to say,
be curious not judgmental. Oh, there's an airplane flying over us. Huh,

(42:21):
because I'm at Broncos training camp. If you didn't know,
those four words can radically shift how you think and
feel about politics, social media posts, your employer, and even
friends and family. It's natural to react emotionally or defensively
when people do or say things you think are wrong
or flat out bonkers. But what Jim suggests is try

(42:44):
the opposite approach for a week. Be genuinely curious why
they do or say those things. Worst case, you'll burn
less and learn more. I'm naturally drawn, he says, to
contrarian thought, strange views, or idiosyncratic people are situations. But
only when I drop the judgment do I truly allow
myself to see things more panoramically. He said, Here are

(43:06):
four possible areas for your test drive. One politics stop
assuming the other side is corrupt, inept, or dumb. Take
an idea you find most defensive and try to understand
it clinically, like a scientist in a lab. Study it
dig into columns, speeches, or podcasts. Anyone who adopted this
mindset in twenty fifteen might have seen Donald Trump's rise coming,

(43:29):
for example, and later his resurrection. The same will be
true of the next Trump like figure. And I will
add that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a Republican.
It could be anybody, right, I mean, look at what's
going on in New York right now. Number two social
media never in history of humans wasted more time getting
more worked up over more topics than when doom scrolling.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Instead of taking a bait, take a break.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Focus on one person in your feed who agitates you most.
Google them to see if you can learn more about
where they came from and what motivates them. See if
they'll their roots and worldview. I've found most people, regardless
of their public or social profile, quite eager to explain
themselves if you approach them like they're a human, not demonic.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Jim says.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
We talk at Axios about assuming positive intent when boneheaded
or befuddling things happen, maybe the other person will readily
admit a mistake.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
Try this with strangers. Number three the workplace.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
One of the smartest things we did when founding Axios
was to be extremely transparent about the business and our beliefs.
This demystified things internally, dramatically, reducing the gossiping and wonderment
about what.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
We really think.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Yeah, you should hear what we say about Ryan Edwards
around here on my show.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
He has no idea.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
We encourage people to be curious, and you should be too.
At work, Take one topic or one leader you find
baffling and dive deeper. Try to understand things through the
company lens or that person's eyes. Yeah, try to do
that with Ben Albright and you'll be really confused.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
You'll get a.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
Better understanding of the joint where you you spend much
of your life and number four, family and friends. Almost
every time my wife is pissed at me, it's because
I didn't take the time to ask one simple thing,
why do you feel that way?

Speaker 2 (45:10):
Then listen with genuine curiosity.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
It's so much easier to judge her or declare my
own righteousness, but it never resolves anything, and it never
opens my mind to a better understanding of her. So
take a relative or friend who's grating on you and
ask them to truly walk you through there thinking stipulating
that you're genuinely curious and won't offer judgment or solutions,

(45:33):
and then actually listen. It might turn out that your
judgment was right, but you'll learn more about their motives
and meaning, which can mean and can make a more
clinical appraisal.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
So that is a great piece. It is linked on
my blog.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
It's by Jim vandhyat Axios called be Curious not Judgmental.
I thought that would be a lovely piece for a Friday.
When we come back, Ryan Edwards joins the show. Bronco's
Training Camp koa at Training Camp is powered by Chevron,
committed to our local communities and safely delivering affordable, reliable
energy that powers Colorado Forward. Sitting to my left is

(46:09):
the one and only Ryan Edwards. Actually might not be
the only one. There's probably someone else in the world
named Ryan Edwards.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
Don't know about Ross Kaminski.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
As I said earlier, Ryan has forgotten more about football
than I will ever know. So I always learned a
lot when we get a chance to talk. So it's
good to have you here, dude.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
Things. I appreciate it. Thanks for being here. Yeah, absolutely,
I liked your ti last segment.

Speaker 7 (46:28):
In the last segment, those good listen highly recommend, highly
recommend a lot of Apple TV stuff. And this is
no promotion or anything, but they do a lot of
good stuff. Also recommend shrinking if you haven't seen it.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
M h yeah, well, shrinking kind of reminds me of
what they did to a certain part of Donald Trump
in that new episode of South Park.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
They definitely did see that. There was some did you
watch the episode? I did watch the episode. My gosh,
I did watch the episode. All right, well, let's.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Talk football for a bit and then maybe we'll do
some random other stuff. There's a whole bunch of dudes
doing some calisthenics in front.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Of us right now.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
And is this the first day that they would call
like real training camp?

Speaker 7 (47:05):
He probably They labeled the other two days earlier this
week that I was at as acclamation practices. So in
a lot of ways, from my advantage, the two practices
before this resembled OTA's offseason training, so that this would
be the closest thing. And I think part of it
also is just you know, the fans here. It really

(47:26):
doesn't feel like training camp until you have the fans present.
And so for me, as much as I did enjoy
coming out here and watching practice the last couple of days,
this feels like training camp to me.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
And by the way, I should have mentioned, folks, Ryan
is co host of KOA Sports every weekday on KOA
from three pm to six pm, so that's where you
can go to get a lot more of Ryan Edwards.
So I mean, let's I hate to be so predictable,
but let's start where everybody starts, which is quarterback, and
Bonix seems to be getting a lot of respect at

(48:01):
the beginning of the season, and talk about that a
little Yeah.

Speaker 7 (48:04):
Well you say that, and then there's there's still a
segment of national media that are not quite willing to
come off of their pre draft expectations of what he
was going to be. And so there'll be some out
there that continue to say, well, he's a bit of
a product of Sean Payton. But it's like, you know, hey,
every quarterback in the league at some level is the

(48:26):
product of the system that they play in.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
Yeah. Right, he didn't work out bad for Drew Brees.
It did not.

Speaker 7 (48:30):
And again, you know, as great as Tom Brady is,
it's not to say that Bill Belichick didn't do anything.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
He certainly had his impact on the things.

Speaker 7 (48:38):
And we can look across the league as some of
the great coaches and if they don't have the quarterback.
But the point of it is is, yes, expectations are
higher for bo because what he did is rookie season,
especially as he improved along the year. You know, he
started out pretty slowly. He had four interceptions to the
first two games, and then he ended the season with
a total of twelve, So to see that he was

(48:58):
able to kind of her tail that to be as
effective as he was and really like not mimic or
or double down on the mistakes that he made early on.
I think that's where a lot of the optimism is
stemming from.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Obviously it's been super early, just these couple of days
of like you said, acclamation or whatever they called it,
but uh, they seem to be a lot of people
impressed with with his arm, both strength and accuracy. And
I think he showed that pretty well last year, especially
for a rookie year.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Do you do you think that's right? Yes, oh, absolutely, no.
He you know, he was hyper accurate in college. But
a lot of that.

Speaker 7 (49:38):
In what people would point to is is sort of
the shorter passing, uh nature of the Oregon offense. And
you know, we they'll did still see some of that.
And and you know, for me and I think for
a lot of NFL fans, that can be kind of
each side of the coin discussion. So on one hand,
you want to you want to push against defenses, you

(49:58):
want to make them believe that you can he get
the ball down the field. And as the season war on,
he did do a lot more of that, But you
also want to stay on schedule, and it tends to
be what does that mean, Well, so getting positive plays
on first down, getting the positive play on second down,
putting yourself in a third and manageable right, so third,

(50:19):
third and four and shorter right like that, That is
on schedule. It's if you have an incompletion. Well, let's
just say this off schedule. You run it on first down,
you get one maybe two yards, so now you're second
in eight and then you have an incompletion because you're
shooting deep or whatever on second down, and now it's
third and eight. Well, that's not a manageable down in distance, yeah,
and you're not. You're off schedule. So to stay on

(50:41):
schedule would be getting probably around four to five yards
of play, and then you're giving yourself manageable odds to
score points. And that's where I think boat Knicks really
does thrive and oftentimes get used against it. Wow, you
short throwing all these short passes. I think a lot
of that in some ways was a function of their
lack of running game last year.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
They really needed.

Speaker 7 (51:02):
Him to be able to facilitate the short passing game
to help the running game.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
That just was completely absent.

Speaker 7 (51:09):
So he gets judged for that, I think a little
unfairly because a lot of the successes last year were
the fact that he got rid of the ball fast,
did not take a lot of sacks, and they really
didn't have a run game to represent.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
Okay, so when he's throwing the ball, he's throwing the
ball to someone, and it looks like a bunch of
the people that he'd be throwing the ball to are
standing in front of us. Correct, right now, by the way,
is one of these guys r J Harvey or no.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
No, RJ?

Speaker 7 (51:32):
The running backs are I can't see them things there
behind what's his number?

Speaker 2 (51:37):
Thirty seven? Thirty seven? Okay, who's who's thirty nine? Right here?
Do you know thirty nine? Is we need to look
at up?

Speaker 7 (51:45):
Yeah, Kyrie's rowing. In fact, he just changed was Kyrie's white?
Yeah until I don't know, maybe even just today. Okay,
so he he's a guy that just got here this season.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
Noticed the hair, Yeah, yeah, definitely got great hair. Yeah.
And interesting to see running back with number thirty nine.
I mean a wide receiver with number thirty nine. So
who are you focused on in this group?

Speaker 4 (52:05):
Right?

Speaker 2 (52:05):
And right in front of us for the season.

Speaker 7 (52:07):
Well, I mean certainly Corlin Sutton, right you see him
out there practicing you team now running around as a
Davon Vley who had a really nice rookie season. I
think he is pretty much cemented as wide receiver to
Troy Franklin number eleven out there.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
He was a rookie last year. And then there's Marvin Marvin, So.

Speaker 7 (52:23):
Those are your top four guys right right off the bat,
and then Pat Bryant's the rookie number thirteen.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
He's catching the pass right now.

Speaker 7 (52:30):
What's interesting about this group is usually you keep six
wide receivers right around five or six wide receivers.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
Well, they're pretty much done.

Speaker 7 (52:40):
Like there isn't a lot of competition at the back
half of this roster because they brought in Trent Sherfield,
number five, and he's going to be a special teams
ace for them, and then then you drafted Pat Bryant,
so you're six.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Because we just laid laid them all out there.

Speaker 7 (52:54):
Your six were pretty much set unless there's an injury.
So it really is fascinating for the rest of this group.
That is the first time, and this is my sixteenth
camp for the Broncos. That's the first time I've ever
entered camp where we haven't had any competition whatsoever in
the wide receiver room.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
Usually we're like, well, we know who the top three are.

Speaker 7 (53:10):
There's a lot of you know, ambiguity and competition for
the bottom three, bottom four.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
That is not the case this year. You know exactly
who the top guys are. Wow.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
So I think I count maybe eleven over there somewhere
around all right, somewhere around eleven eleven to fifteen is there?
So these guys, do you think they think about it
the way you're thinking about it, like either I'm in.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
Or I'm out.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
And if they're out, or even if they're in, I mean,
they got to be competing for something. Or are they
trying to show off so that maybe they get picked
up by another team when the Broncos cut.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
Them or what is it?

Speaker 7 (53:48):
So they'll say they're not paying attention to that, but
they absolutely are.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
Every single one of them know the count. They all
know the count.

Speaker 7 (53:54):
So if you're let's just say you talked about thirty
nine there in row, or if your number eighty Waking
Davis or Georgeawan Newton, number eighty one, is still getting
familiarized with the names and the numbers. But if you're
any of those guys, you're trying to impress in preseason
because you get to put up film, You get the

(54:15):
opportunity to put up film in front of everybody, and
when you get down to the cutdown, which is at
the end of July, you will be out on the street.
Maybe the team that you've been working with all off
season and training camp will say, hey, we want to
bring you back on practice squad if you're still available,
so that that would be the first option is like, hey,

(54:36):
I get to make an NFL paycheck as a practice
squad player. Maybe there's an injury I get called up,
or maybe you know whatever special teams I can carve
out a role there.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
That would be the first option.

Speaker 7 (54:46):
And the second option would be some other team out
there is like, oh wow, this guy.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
Really impressed in preseason.

Speaker 7 (54:53):
We really we liked him in the pre draft process
or as an undrafted free agent, and now he's a
free agent we have a chance to go grab him.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
So those are your two options. I do love watching
this stuff.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
I think you know this, but I was very briefly
and not well a wide receiver in college. And you know,
I'm a five foot nine jew who had no business
being on a football field, but.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
I did love it, and and my hands.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Got to be pretty good. But just watching the way
these guys can catch a ball coming at high speed
and maybe behind them or a little too high or
a little too low. It's just the you know, the
skill level for one of the only positions that I
feel like I'm kind of almost in a place to
judge is just it's it's mind boggling how great these

(55:39):
guys are.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
Well, it really is.

Speaker 7 (55:40):
And it's oftentimes, you know, because I do the pre
and post game for the Broncos as well on the network,
and so when I'm doing the post game and I'll
get a caller in that I'll talk about this guy's
a bum or this guy's trash or you know whatever
like that, I'm like, you realize that the smallest percentage
of the population get a chance to even be in
this spot right here, Yeah, which is the ninety man roster,
but even smaller percentage actually make an active roster, and

(56:01):
then you even narrow that down to actually get to
play on Sundays.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
It's truly remarkable. So you said it.

Speaker 7 (56:07):
I mean, the skill set to do what these guys
do cannot be quantified by somebody that does what we
do or somebody that sits on their couch and watches
the games. So I always try to kind of frame
it that way of like, hey, you may say this guy,
based on what the requisite ability if he should have
for his position, isn't doing what he should do. That's

(56:28):
probably fine, but you can never really call him trash
because the fact that he's here and you're there is
a very good read.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
There's a good reason for that. And that's that's true
in every professional sport. Sure, right, it could be NBA,
it could be some much smaller sport.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
I mean, take it.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
I mean professional freaking curling, right, the worst professional curler
And I've never done curling, but I would really like to,
let's go, the worst professional curler is better than I
could be, even if I spent the rest of my
life trying to be good at it.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
And so exactly, I do.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
Recognize that have there been any important changes in coaching
here from last season to this season?

Speaker 7 (57:07):
Not really that they've had a lot of continuity there,
especially with their coordinators. They've had a few position coaches
that have moved on and gotten promoted. Detroit ended up
Chicago and Detroit into hiring off a couple of their
position coaches that got they got promotions in those those places.
But yeah, for the most part, that they've had a
lot of continuity here, you know. I mean, and I

(57:28):
think especially at the places that really matter, So not
only your offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, but even your
offensive line coach in Zach Streef.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
I mean, I think having continuity.

Speaker 7 (57:38):
You have the same offensive line coming back this year,
which is something that's a very underrated aspect because most
of the time you have changed every position, especially on
offensive line.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
But the fact that you have the same five.

Speaker 7 (57:49):
Guys coming back this year and you have the same
coaching staff, you know, for a while there, Garret Bowles
would kind of joke about not only the different the
like fourteen different quarterbacks that he had worked with, yeah,
but also like the seven different offensive line coaches that
he'd worked with early on his career. Every single year
it felt like he had a new coach telling him no, no, no,
forget everything I just told you, just learned do something

(58:11):
completely different, and honestly, like you get to a point
where it it's not confusing so much as it's just
frustrating because you have to just wipe the slate clean,
and the techniques and everything that you were you spent
so much time on for an entire year now get
just get wiped away. And it's like, no, this is
the way you need to do it, because I am

(58:31):
your coach now and honestly explains sometimes why guys struggle
or fail.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
And that's really at every position, including quarterback.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
If you're just joining, I'm ross And that voice you
just heard is Ryan Edwards. You can hear Ryan on
KOA Sports every weekday from three pm to six pm.
There's been a little bit of stuff in the news
about Mike Biglinchy walking off yesterday, any updates anything, We.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
Have not heard anything yet.

Speaker 7 (58:56):
Sean didn't talk after practice yesterday, so it was so
it's it's just kind of a weird you know, it's
training camp, so they don't owe us a practice report.
So even today when Shawn speaks to the media, he
may decline to really tell us very much. But the
weird part for me, more than anything, is that he's
not standing out here watching so like at Perry, who's

(59:19):
on the pup right now, he is on the what
the pup? The physically unable to perform? Okay, So he
was the only guy coming into camp that was not
going to be able to go. He had some off
season surgery stuff, so he's rehabbing. But he's the only guy.
He's even out here like he's he's hanging out with
the guy with the receivers. He's part of the meetings
and all that. Usually if a guy is a little

(59:40):
bit banged up, and they can and they will stand
out here even if it's in a ball cap and
watch practice, and especially for a starter, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
It's going to be out here. But he's not.

Speaker 7 (59:50):
And so he left right before the media portion, as
we heard from a couple of people that saw him
walking in yesterday, and we have not heard an updates since.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
One more offensive line thing I want to mention, So,
when Garrett Bowles first got here, yeah, maybe the first
couple of two years, you could count on him to
get one hundred and seventeen holding.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
Penalties per game.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
And I was actually surprised they didn't trade him because
he seemed like a liability to me from the cheap seats.
Like we were talking about before, right, I don't claim
to know a lot, and to me it is very interesting.
Not only they didn't trade him, but you know, the
coaches they must have just said, like, this guy really
has the tools, he really has the skills, he really

(01:00:36):
has the mindset, the brain all that as well, and
we think we can correct this. And then they did,
and now he is an elite offensive lineman in the league,
which I think is an interesting story.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
It absolutely is.

Speaker 7 (01:00:50):
It goes to show you where you're drafted doesn't matter,
especially with the opportunities that you're given.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
So as a.

Speaker 7 (01:00:57):
First round pick for the Broncos, he's going to get
longer leash of opportunities.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
If he was a fifth or sixth round.

Speaker 7 (01:01:03):
Pick and making all those mistakes, yeah, they would have
replaced him by the next year. Maybe maybe he would
have gotten two more years. But he was a first
round pick. The organization believed in his skill set and
they gave him a long leash enough to develop. And
now he's had on his third contract, which again you
talk about a remarkable story, because if you'd have told
me that seven years ago, I'd have said that's impossible, right,

(01:01:26):
quite literally, of all the things to believe including you know,
of say Peyton Manning playing into his fifties, would I
would have said, that's probably not gonna happen. But here
we are, and you're right, he is one of the
best left tackles in the league. It was it was
a good contract, was a savvy contract to get done
last year, because if you didn't, you were going to

(01:01:48):
enter free agency looking for a left tackle, and if
you didn't get one there, you're going to enter the
draft meeting desperately.

Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
It was a savvy contract for the Broncos to get done, yes,
and that you weren't saying for Garrett Ball to get done,
although it'd be fine for him too, as long as
he gets what he wants.

Speaker 7 (01:02:03):
Yeah, Garrett got what he wanted. Yeah, Garrett got what
he wanted and he wanted to stay here.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Yeah, his family's here.

Speaker 7 (01:02:09):
He wants to retire abron I mean they all say that,
but he like, he's really entrenched in the community.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:02:15):
I don't know if he gave the Broncos a hometown discount,
maybe a little bit. But more than anything, the Broncos
it was savvy for them to get it done because
it's such an important position, as you know, I mean,
you watch football, it's left tackle is a big deal.
And if you entered into the next season free agency
and then the draft saying boy, if we don't find

(01:02:36):
a left tackle, we we're totally in trouble.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:02:39):
To get that done and have your same starting five
coming back for another season with a rookie contract quarterback
now on his second year, that's a big deal.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
Yeah. Yeah, gotta protect the blindside. All right.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
I want to do two more minutes with you on
something completely different. So a couple of weeks ago, President
Trump sent out put out a social media message saying
that he talked with the CEO of Coca Cola and
Coca Cola was gonna switch to real cane sugar. And
Coca Cola didn't confirm that, and I said on the show,
they're they're not gonna switch.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
There's a lot of reasons not to.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
But Coca Cola did announce that sometime pretty soon. Uh,
they're going to add to their lineup cant To coke
made with real cane sugar, what you and I might
call Mexican coke when you you know, and I like
Mexican coke, and I would like to know Ryan Edwards's
opinion of whether you are likely to drink Coca cola

(01:03:33):
with real cane sugar.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
I don't even know if you drink soda. I don't
drink it often, usually as a mixer something.

Speaker 7 (01:03:40):
If I'm gonna have it, okay, So you know, Jack
and Coca's something nice, nice drink.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
But I'd say, I don't know if that moves the
needle for me.

Speaker 7 (01:03:49):
Maybe it moves the needle for some people. Yeah, I
mean I've had Mexica Coca four. I've had that, and
I mean it's it's ill. It's very good, but like
it's it's soda. So I think if you're drinking soda anyways,
I don't know if it's all of a sudden like
holy cow, I gotta go make sure I buy cases
of that, just because.

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
We're gonna have to do an on air taste test.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
Yeah, of Jack and Mexican, well, the new the US
version of Mexican coke and the and the usual stuff
with the high frotose corn syrup, and see if you
can taste it different, if it improves, it improves it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
I'm not gonna say that. I'm not gonna try.

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
It now, are you one of these guys who when
it's a jack and coke it's like eighty percent jack
and twenty percent coke, Like you're just doing that, like
the way I eat a little bit of lettuce at dinner,
so I can say I healthy and you and you
don't have to say you're just you're just slamming the
jack Daniels.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
It depends what I'm doing.

Speaker 7 (01:04:41):
If I need to be focused, like like, for example,
during the show, yeah, well, but like where we go
to like say Blackhawk or something, and they're serving your drinks,
well I'd rather not be heavy handed.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
Well, don't worry about it. At black Hawk, They're not
gonna give you a lot of jack exactly, So that's
not a problem.

Speaker 7 (01:04:59):
But if I have some to do, like say we're
playing cards at a friend's.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
House, yeah, well I don't want to be you know.

Speaker 7 (01:05:04):
Two drinks in, it'd be like whoa, I'm calling everything
what's going on here? So I think if I've got
nothing better to do, then I don't think I care.

Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
We're gonna have to do that taste test, folks. That's
Ryan Edwards. You can hear him every weekday three pm
to six pm on KOA.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
Sports we'll take a quick break.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
We're broadcasting from Broncos Park here at training camp.

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
We'll be right back.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
Today is the last day that we're doing the giveaway
of the that you can win an entry into the
giveaway that we're gonna do. I guess next week probably
of this fantastic fire pit from Flat Irons Fire. It's
an outdoor fire pit. I've seen it. I've seen the
actual fire pit you're gonna win. It's I think it's
a yard square within a circular fire pit inside of

(01:05:50):
that and it's just a it's a beautiful thing. It's
got electronic ignition so you don't need to light at
yourself with a lighter or something, and retails for over
four thousand bucks. And over the course of the last
three weeks we took nine entries. We're going need three
more entries today, so anyone who gets an entry has
a one out of twelve chance of winning this thing.

Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
So that's pretty fantastic.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
So before we do the on air one, I would
like to ask producer A Rod to give the proper
instructions because I'm not that bright as to.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
What people should do to win.

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
To gain an entry through our social media channels a Rod.

Speaker 8 (01:06:26):
If you would, all you must do is go to
either our X or our Instagram page. Technically you can
do both. You can only be a the chosen one
on one of them. But if you are listening to
the show, you follow us on X and Instagram at
Kalai Colorado.

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
Technically there's three opportunities. You can only become one of
the twelve. But you're up in your chances, so go
right now.

Speaker 8 (01:06:47):
It is pinned on both our profiles at Kili Colorado,
AX and Instagram.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
All the instructions are right there for how to enter.
Good luck.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
There you go, all right, go do that, folks x
dot com slash Kwa Colorado, Instagram slash Tayaway Colorado.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
You will see the.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
Pinposts that a Rod made so that the instructions are
easy enough that even I could understand them. So we're
going to do one entry giveaway now by text. As
I speak to you right now, it's eleven oh seven.
We will take text number what a Rod.

Speaker 8 (01:07:21):
We are hoping for a big second year from mister
bow Nix, and he wears number ten.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
We're going with ten.

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
Okay, so now listen carefully, folks. I got very specific instructions.
It'll be Texter number ten at eleven ten. Okay, Texter
number ten at eleven ten, and your text must include
the following information your name, your email address, and the

(01:07:47):
answer to this question, what product has Coca Cola announced
that they are going to introduce into the.

Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
US market later this year? Got it?

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
Texter number ten at eleven ten, your name, your email address,
and the answer to that question, what product is Coca
Cola going to introduce into the US market later this year?
All right, and a rod when you have a winner,
let us know the winner's first name. All right, let
me do something completely different, and we'll maybe do a

(01:08:20):
little more football a little bit later on, especially if
Nick Ferguson can find a place to park. So you
know that in the era of Trump, especially the second
term of Trump, there has been a enormous and very
welcome push against DEI, which Christopher Rufo and some others

(01:08:40):
call racialism. I might just call racism, but I am
not a fan of DEI, and.

Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
Especially the E part.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
I love diversity, I love inclusion, but the E part
came to mean something else, and the E part came
to mean choosing people in particular for jobs based on
skin color rather than merit and other things. And I
just think that's immoral. And I'm gonna get to some
other a couple other aspects of that in a second,

(01:09:09):
But the specific story that I wanted to mention to you,
you probably remember there was a story that got a
lot of attention a while back when I think it
was United Airlines talked about they're gonna they're gonna hire
pilots using some DEI thing, right, and and people said, look,
I'd love to have a black pilot or whatever, purple pilot,
pokedadded pilot, don't care, but I don't want a pilot

(01:09:31):
that was picked because of that, right. I want a
pilot who knows how to fly a plane first and foremost,
and then if you can, you know, diversify among that,
then great. And not a lot of people know that
there was a similar thing that was going on, believe
it or not, within medical schools. And there are these
big medical school accreditation organizations accreditation yeah organizations, And what

(01:09:56):
they do is they are the organizations that say that
a medical school is allowed to produce medical doctors. And
they many of these organizations put in DEI stuff, and
it was incentivizing these training hospitals in medical schools to
either get employees or students who were chosen significantly because

(01:10:22):
of race. And just like a pilot, right, if there's
a pilot who's a great pilot who's black, I don't
care at all about the skin color. I just want
a freaking good pilot. And that is exactly how I
feel about my doctor. Happy to have a black doctor,
happy to have a Hispanic doctor, happy to have a

(01:10:43):
Navajo doctor, or a Vietnamese doctor, or a Martian doctor,
or a polka dot doctor. I just want a good doctor.
And here's the problem with all this stuff, as we've
talked about it in the past, it is really unfair
to excellent black doctors, pilots, whatever, to have that guy

(01:11:05):
or gal be in a position where someone is gonna
have to wonder, did you get this job because of
your skin color. Imagine how unfair that is to the
black pilot, the black doctor who was let's say, first
magne cum laude in their college class, and now someone
is going to wonder why they got the job.

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
That's just one reason I don't like it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:26):
What I want to tell you is that most of
the major accreditation organizations for medical related stuff. And it's
not just medical schools, but it's dentistry, and it's veterinarians,
and it's psychologists and it's physical therapists. I think there's
ten of them. Seven of the ten have cut way
way back on their DEI stuff where they're eliminating it,

(01:11:46):
and I think that is great. Now, let me just
do one minute on the other side of this. There's
way too much focus on, you know, hiring or admitting
someone based on skin color, and not nearly enough focus
on why they need that help. Why should it be

(01:12:07):
that too many African Americans potential or other minorities need
this extra boost to get in because otherwise they're not competitive.
That's the problem. How as a society do we fix that?
And I think there are two answers. And it's not

(01:12:28):
like I'm gonna fix it, but I think and I'm
gonna focus specifically on the black community here because that's
where most but not all, of DEI was focused. Now
it's not only there, but that's a big part. There
are two particular aspects. One way way too many homes
where the children and it especially matters for boys, are
growing up without dads at last data, I saw something

(01:12:51):
like two thirds of black babies were born to single moms.
And that's no good. And you I don't need to
go through the whole thing about how growing up without
a dad, especially perhaps in a poorer neighborhood where you
might have gang influence, is likely to lead kids to
go the wrong way, not finish school, not have help
with their homework, and all this stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:13:11):
So that's one thing, and then the other thing relates
to what I just mentioned.

Speaker 1 (01:13:15):
School schools have not just for years, but for decades,
let black kids down. And we have let them public schools,
we have let them let black kids poor kids, not
just black, but in you know, outside of Appalachia, many
of the poor kids will be minorities. In Appalachia, they'll
be white. And these schools have let these kids down.

(01:13:38):
And we need to do much more, starting with eliminating
teachers' unions so that we can hire and fire teachers
based on who actually teaches the kids, so that we
can get to a point where you don't need DEI anymore,
because whether it's black or Pacific Islander, or like I said,
purple or polka dot, they don't that boost because they

(01:14:01):
come out of their family situation and their high school situation,
able to get into a good college and then able
to get into medical school or whatever without needing all
this other stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
That's where the focus needs to be. We'll be right back.

Speaker 1 (01:14:14):
A Rod is gonna is gonna pick a random winner
out of our twelve entries. Well, you still got about
forty minutes actually to enter on our social media x
dot com slash Koa Colorado, Instagram dot com slash Koa Colorado,
and you can enter that way. Those will be the
last two of the twelve entries. I am at Training Camp.
KOA Training Camp is powered by Chevron, committed to our

(01:14:38):
local communities and safely delivering affordable, reliable energy that powers
Colorado forward. All right, a couple of short stories I
will share with you just for.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
You know, just for fun.

Speaker 1 (01:14:50):
Oh oh, this is it's not so much a story,
just a thing I wanted to mention so you know
that I am Mike a Loprino Free Enterprise Fellow at
the Common Sense Institute. It's a position I'm very very
grateful for. I love being associated with those folks. And
my second research paper of the year and I'm not
going to claim that I wrote it. I was involved

(01:15:11):
in writing it, but I'm not going to say I
wrote it. Is about Colorado and medicaid, and I know
it sounds very in the weeds, but here's what you
need to know. The main thing you need to understand,
all of these changes that the Democrats and the state
legislature have put through to expand the scope and cost
of medicaid are going to cause are already causing, but

(01:15:35):
are going to cause even much more serious financial issues
for the state. And so the new report is called
Colorado Health Policy at a Crossroads, Growth, Costs and Consequences,
and that report is out now at the Common Sense
Institute's website. It's also posted on my blog, and I
will talk about it in more detail next week, probably,

(01:15:57):
but I just wanted to alert you to it in
case you are a nerd who likes this kind of thing.
Easiest website CSI like Common Sense Institute, COO like Colorado
dot com or dot org, Csico dot org. Go check
that out and we'll talk about it more next week.
But it's a very serious issue. But again, it's a Friday,

(01:16:20):
it's late on a Friday. I'm not going to go
into it in more detail. All right, here's a nutty story.
A guy named Edward aber ab E r Maybe who
is a former commander at the Laplata County Jail. And
I'm quoting from the Colorado Sun here because this is

(01:16:40):
a really nutty story.

Speaker 2 (01:16:41):
Quoting from the Colorado Sun.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
He faces more than one hundred criminal charges after an
investigation by Stateton local officials found that he accessed the
videos of one hundred and seventeen female inmates being strip
searched and watch the videos multiple times. According to the
Colorado Bureau of Investigation, they just announced this yesterday. He's
sixty two years old. He's charged with I don't even

(01:17:07):
want to say this, but I'm going to one hundred
and seventeen counts of you ready for this invasion of
privacy for sexual gratification. I think you know what that means.
I'm not going to explain it. And one count of
first degree official misconduct. The charges which were filed earlier
this week. They're all misseddemeanors. He resigned last July as

(01:17:27):
officials investigated allegations that he made sexual contact with female
inmates and sexually harassed numerous female employees. No cases, no
charges were filed in that case. Anyway, investigators believe that
he viewed the sensitive footage showing female inmates multiple times
over five years, from February of twenty nineteen to January

(01:17:51):
of last year. He gained access to the videos through
evidence dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
How about that?

Speaker 1 (01:17:59):
Who knew that was a then a digital evidence management
system and he gained that access when he was promoted
to jail commander a year before he started this stuff
in twenty eighteen. Anyway, that seems a little bit creepy,
doesn't it. One other, very quick thing I'm gonna mention.
I'm not sure yet if Nick Ferguson is gonna be
here when we get back. But one just very quick

(01:18:20):
thing I want to mention. Donald Trump went to visit
the FED yesterday. This is something that doesn't happen very often.
Presidents go don't go to visit the FED very often.
Trump met with Powell and there was a very interesting
scene while we were walking around from this construction site.
And Trump says, yeah, well, I guess it's now up
from two point seven billion or two point six or
two point seven, it's up to three point one or

(01:18:42):
three point two billion, now, huh. And Powell's like, what
are you talking about? And he said, well, he says,
Trump says, well, it just came out, like he's got
some breaking news, right, Trump's I've got breaking news. It
just came out the cost of your project rehabbing the
FED building has gone up even more.

Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
And Powell said, did that come from us?

Speaker 1 (01:19:02):
Because I've never heard of that, and Trump's like yeah,
and he pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket,
and again Trump thinks he has some breaking news, and
then Powell looks at the piece of paper and he says, oh,
you just included in here a building that was finished
five years ago that shouldn't be here. That building was
finished five years ago. And then Trump sort of mumbled like, well,

(01:19:25):
it's part of the whole thing, right. But I'm not
actually mad at Trump about that. I'm mad at whoever
gave Trump that information and who tried to sneak one
by like they're trying to make the FED look bad
by saying it's three point one billion adding in a
building that was finished. It was really dumb by whoever
gave Trump that information. And I hope whoever gave him

(01:19:47):
that information gets some kind of modest punishment because they
actually made their own boss look bad. We'll be right back.
We all remember a teacher who made a difference in
our lives. Actually, even separate from this thing, I was
talking to someone about one of my teachers, and I'll
tell you that story in a minute, but we remember
a teacher who made a difference, who believed in us,
who challenged us, who made learning fun.

Speaker 2 (01:20:08):
And now this is your chance to say thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:20:10):
With Iheartradios, think a teacher powered by donors choose.

Speaker 2 (01:20:14):
So here's how this works.

Speaker 1 (01:20:16):
You go to iHeartRadio dot com slash teachers and you
nominate an outstanding public school teacher who's gone above and
beyond for their students, and that person may win five
thousand dollars towards stocking their classroom for their students. So
iHeartRadio dot com slash teachers. If you hear a little

(01:20:36):
airhorn in the background, it's because I'm at Broncos' Training
Camp KOA. A training camp is powered by Chevron, committed
to our local communities and safely delivering affordable, reliable energy
that powers Colorado forward. And I am so happy to
have my friend Nick ferguson back, who, of course played
for this very team.

Speaker 2 (01:20:55):
And what hat are you wearing? Their nick? What is that?

Speaker 1 (01:20:58):
It's just a Nike had all right? I thought it's
like it's red. Like does he wear in a Washington
Capitol's hat? You wear in a San Francisco forty nine
ers hat? What's he wearing? You never know what the
fashion you are.

Speaker 5 (01:21:09):
Here are the Broncos practice, Even though I coached for
the forty nine ers at one point, I can't wear
forty nine ers hat at the Broncos practice.

Speaker 2 (01:21:16):
You never know your nick ferguson a lot.

Speaker 5 (01:21:18):
No, no, no, no, I'm trying to stay in the building.
Now get kicked out of facility.

Speaker 1 (01:21:21):
Okay, all right, Before we get to more football stuff,
I'm just going to ask you this teacher thing. Do
you remember a teacher who made a difference in your life?

Speaker 2 (01:21:32):
Yeah? Absolutely, tell me a story.

Speaker 4 (01:21:34):
My fourth grade teacher. His name is Missus Shirker.

Speaker 5 (01:21:38):
And he it's wild because I grew up in Inner
City and there were not so many non African American
teachers at our school, and he was one of those
guys who definitely stood out.

Speaker 4 (01:21:52):
He was like a hippie.

Speaker 5 (01:21:54):
Teacher because he actually introduced me to Credence, Clue Water.

Speaker 4 (01:21:58):
Revival nice right.

Speaker 5 (01:22:00):
And the way that he taught his class was he
used a guitar. Right, He used a guitar to play,
and that's how you know our music utaste kind of grew.
And he would take us outside. He was one of
these teachers that he's got to get on the board. No, no,
he wants you to take he wants to take you outside.
And funny enough, which I thought he was crazy for doing.
I don't know how he pulled it off, but he

(01:22:20):
took a bunch of inner city kids, not one year,
but two years to.

Speaker 4 (01:22:25):
The freaking Everglades.

Speaker 5 (01:22:26):
Could you know how many things could have gone wrong
in the Everglades? Inner city kids at the Everglades. But yeah,
I got a chance to meet him again. My wife
actually found him through Facebook because I've been I was
trying to find it.

Speaker 4 (01:22:40):
Yeah, and she found it. We met up.

Speaker 5 (01:22:42):
We went up to uh, what is it, Boulder somewhere
Bolder and his daughter was living up there and he
comes out of this restaurant.

Speaker 4 (01:22:50):
He sees me and my family and the first thing
he does is he starts crying.

Speaker 9 (01:22:56):
Right, my wife is crying. I'm like my daughter's crying.
I'm like, I'm not crying. That's not gonna happen. But
it was great because I hadn't seen him in years
and to see where I came from growing up in
the inner city of Miami to have a family on
my own, and it was a huge impact on him.

Speaker 4 (01:23:16):
And we just spent the whole day with him.

Speaker 5 (01:23:17):
So I understand this whole thing with teachers, because teachers
are so vital, so important, and these are the individuals
who shape the minds in the future of kids. And
I think for me, I feel as though from a
budgetary standpoint, teachers don't get paid enough money.

Speaker 1 (01:23:33):
All Right, I got two follow ups on that. Did
he definitely remember you?

Speaker 2 (01:23:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:23:38):
He did.

Speaker 2 (01:23:39):
That's amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:23:41):
He remembers my mom and my brother as well. Wow?

Speaker 1 (01:23:44):
And what was it that he did other than being
the white dude with the guitar that you think like
made it different?

Speaker 2 (01:23:52):
Like how did he change your life?

Speaker 4 (01:23:54):
All right? So he made love reading?

Speaker 2 (01:23:57):
Oh that's big.

Speaker 5 (01:23:58):
He made me love reading because this whole thing was like,
if you did well in class, you didn't have to
take a test on Friday, or he gave you your special
reading time that you earned. And I think during that
time there was this book company called I think Troll
or something like that, and you had an opportunity to
order books, and I mean I loved reading. And also

(01:24:21):
he introduced me to Star Wars.

Speaker 4 (01:24:23):
Yes, wow, yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:24:25):
Because he had this this VCR vhs right they myself,
so we used to have to put it on this
big kind of this rolling type of apparatus and bringing
up the elevator. And I remember we were listening it
in class one time and I was like, man, this
TV is heavy, and he was like, you know why.
I said why. He was like, all the star cruisers

(01:24:45):
that get blown up, they sit at the bottom of the.

Speaker 4 (01:24:48):
TV, right, And I was like, no, get out of here.
But yeah, mus shirker Man. He had a huge impact
on me.

Speaker 5 (01:24:56):
And believe it or not, he remembers a lot of
kids from his class. He remembers the ones that made
it yeah, but he also remembers the ones that didn't
make it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:05):
Wow. What are you reading right now?

Speaker 5 (01:25:09):
Oh? H book called The History of the United States?

Speaker 2 (01:25:13):
Do you remember the author's name? Round?

Speaker 4 (01:25:16):
I don't remember that.

Speaker 2 (01:25:16):
I read a lot of history.

Speaker 1 (01:25:17):
Is that a thing for you or are you just
kind of read all different stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:25:20):
Well, I was really into history, you know, seven, eight
ninth grade, and then as I got older, I got
into other types of things. So I didn't really you know,
stick with it a lot. But after the past couple
of years, I said, you know what, I love it.
I need to dive back into it. And then there's
a lot of things that would happen politically, and I'm like, well,
I need to educate myself on what's actually going on.

(01:25:43):
And it's just like I got to go back and
start reading.

Speaker 4 (01:25:45):
So yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (01:25:47):
Don't think I properly introduced Nick. So you can hear
Nick ferguson Weaknights On on Broncos Country tonight six pm
to eleven, Is that right? Yes, and with our mutual
friend and colleague Ben Albright as well, who I think
is under the weather right now. And and Nick played
for the Denver Broncos and who else did you play for?

Speaker 4 (01:26:08):
Houston Texans and the New York Jets.

Speaker 2 (01:26:10):
There you go, all right, do you have a favorite Broncos?
Of course that's what I thought.

Speaker 4 (01:26:15):
Yes, Now listen, I will say this.

Speaker 5 (01:26:19):
I sent this message to Mike Shanahan this morning because
down at the ACC I guess conference where they were
getting together.

Speaker 2 (01:26:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:26:27):
Bill Belichick was asked a question about Mike Shanahan and
he's and it was about whether Mike belongs in the
Hall of Fame, and he basically said the same way
I feel.

Speaker 4 (01:26:40):
Damn right.

Speaker 1 (01:26:41):
You know you've you've had some interactions overlapping with some
unbelievable coaches.

Speaker 2 (01:26:50):
I mean, you're Bill Parcell's story that I won't ask
you to retell again. But Shanahan, I.

Speaker 5 (01:26:55):
Mean Waite Phillips was a great coach. Waite actually he's
he's still my guy. I love him to death because
he gave my first opportunity. If it were not for
him willing to take a chance on.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
Me, yeah, this would have never happened.

Speaker 1 (01:27:09):
Yeah, I always I remember those people too for radio.
I'll tell you one very quick teacher story for me. So,
my parents were in the Navy, so we were moving
around a lot, and I was in this I did
two years of private school in K through twelve and
all the rest of was public school. But the two
years of private school were the first two years of

(01:27:30):
high school and sophomore year.

Speaker 2 (01:27:32):
There was this teacher and the school is called the
Bishop's School.

Speaker 1 (01:27:36):
Even though I'm a Jewish kid was an Episcopal school
in La Jolla, California, and there is this teacher named
doctor Otto Mauer German dude, he's passed away now.

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
And he taught introduction to Philosophy.

Speaker 4 (01:27:48):
Introduction to Philosophy. Yeah, that sounds like a Roskamisky class.

Speaker 1 (01:27:52):
Yeah, And normally they it was only for juniors and seniors.
And I was a sophomore and I went to the
teacher and I said, my parents are gonna get transferred
out of California, and I'm I'm not going to be
able to take your class later.

Speaker 2 (01:28:05):
I really want to take your class. Will you let
me take it? And he did, and it was just
the most amazing thing.

Speaker 1 (01:28:12):
And I think the easiest way to summarize it is
with what Steve Martin says about philosophy. And so, you know,
in the seventies or eighties, when Steve Martin was doing
his stuff on one of his albums, he says, you know,
if you study geology, it's all facts and it's all numbers,
and you forget it as soon as you're done with school.
But if you study philosophy, you remember just enough to
screw you up for.

Speaker 2 (01:28:32):
The rest of your life.

Speaker 1 (01:28:34):
And so it's Scott Hastings nodding his head too, So
that that's my that's that's the teacher I remember. And
I he was not young back then. Yeah, and I'm
a lot older than you, and so he's he's long past.
But that's that's the guy who really made a difference.

Speaker 2 (01:28:52):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:28:52):
That's the thing about teachers, the profound impact long term, Yeah,
impact that they have on us. And for me, that's
a way to keep their memory alive. Yeah, all the
lessons that they taught. Because usually we think that our
parents are the only ones that raise us. There are
other people's outside of our homes that raise us, you know.

(01:29:13):
And for me, it was it was coaches, it was teachers, right,
I mean that's where a lot of my level influence
actually came from. Didn't take any philosophy, right, but I
still understand now more of ross commissy.

Speaker 2 (01:29:27):
Now, Yeah, that's just the kind of nerd I am.

Speaker 1 (01:29:32):
Well, let's take a few minutes talking about football, since
you know a lot more than I do, and so
let me just start with a very macro question, how
are you feeling this year about this team?

Speaker 5 (01:29:41):
I'm really excited. Me I'm a defensive person you know
by heart. So I was really happy that the Broncos
draft was leaning towards the defense and looking at free
agency heavily towards defense.

Speaker 4 (01:29:55):
And that's the one thing I believe that Sean.

Speaker 5 (01:29:56):
Payton understands, like sixty three sacks was historic this defense
last year, and they finally made it after nine years
to a playoff game.

Speaker 4 (01:30:04):
They didn't win, but they made it there, and.

Speaker 5 (01:30:06):
That's kind of the first part of it, showing those
players what life can be on the other side. So
now they got that bitter taste in their mouth. Now
they want to get back and I'm expecting a lot
from bow a lot from this offense, and it's all
based on the addition to the defense.

Speaker 4 (01:30:21):
The defense.

Speaker 5 (01:30:22):
If they can get close to sixty three sacks, which
I think is gonna be tough, bow Nick's gonna have
more opportunity to score points.

Speaker 4 (01:30:30):
And they did a great job, you.

Speaker 5 (01:30:32):
Know, filling out the running back room, you know, RJ. Harvey, JK. Dobbins,
and then bringing Evan Inger over here. So I'm really
optimistic for this team this year.

Speaker 2 (01:30:41):
Is J. A.

Speaker 1 (01:30:42):
Barron as good as you as good as you were
when you played, Yeah, he.

Speaker 4 (01:30:46):
Was drafted in the first round. I wasn't drafted at all.

Speaker 1 (01:30:48):
So that tells you luck, you know, But that's just
because they didn't know what they were doing when they
were looking at you.

Speaker 2 (01:30:54):
Yeah, very true.

Speaker 4 (01:30:55):
True.

Speaker 1 (01:30:56):
But what do you I mean, you're the guy to
judge that player, So what do you think about?

Speaker 2 (01:31:00):
You know what?

Speaker 5 (01:31:01):
I know some individuals who worked out in Texas, Texas
where you went to school, and I watched him play.

Speaker 4 (01:31:06):
I mean, he is a dog of a player.

Speaker 5 (01:31:08):
And when you think about what the Broncos already had
in place, you had Riley Moss who was coming into
his own, You already had the defensive MVP and PS two.

Speaker 4 (01:31:17):
You just add to that.

Speaker 5 (01:31:19):
Now you created essentially a turnover machine. And I'll say this,
when I look at the Broncos defense and how it's
sort of been set up, I go back to and
I asked, way you peel about.

Speaker 4 (01:31:31):
This, Sue?

Speaker 5 (01:31:31):
When I talked to him, you know, I say, well,
here's what it reminds me of what vance Joseph has
the ability to create the same thing you did.

Speaker 4 (01:31:38):
With that Super Bowl fifty ten, that defense.

Speaker 5 (01:31:41):
You know, Edge Rusher's second level players great, the guys
in the back end great.

Speaker 4 (01:31:46):
Now can they get to that point? I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:31:48):
We get a chance to see. And that's a great
thing about living here in Denver.

Speaker 1 (01:31:52):
Right, Well, I'm kind of yeah, I gotta going on
my baseball hat.

Speaker 2 (01:31:56):
Today. We're talking with Nick Ferguson.

Speaker 1 (01:31:59):
You can hear Nick and All right weeknight six pm
to eleven pm on Broncos Country Tonight. I love talking
football with you, but I think I have more fun
just like hearing stories and just shooting the breeze with you.

Speaker 2 (01:32:12):
So I want to kind of combine them. You told
me a story.

Speaker 1 (01:32:15):
I think we were standing on the field before the
game at Broncos Stadium last season, and you told me
a story about maybe when you first got to I
don't remember it's high school or college, but you were
signed up to play offense, and then how you got
to saying I want to do that other thing.

Speaker 2 (01:32:37):
Do you remember? I mean, this is a big thing
for you. I'm sure it must be.

Speaker 5 (01:32:41):
Okay, so obviously everyone knows me as a defensive player. Yeah,
but at one point, you know, I was unsure where
I wanted to play, and I tested the waters on offense,
and all it took was for one time for being
hitting the chest and I immediately was like, nah, you
know what, I want to do that, right, because as

(01:33:02):
I always tell people's better to be the hammer than
the nail and playing defense. It's almost like you see
those national geographics where whether you got the big cats
that hunt, I'd rather be the person chasing trying to
feed myself opposed to being the food.

Speaker 4 (01:33:18):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:33:19):
Yeah, you don't want to be the impeller or the
ward hug.

Speaker 5 (01:33:21):
Oh, you want to be the predator, not the play
so defensively, you know you had an opportunity to hunt. Yeah,
and when I play, that's kind of mentality.

Speaker 4 (01:33:29):
It was hunting.

Speaker 2 (01:33:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:33:31):
If any of my teammates were in the way when
I have my eyes focused on the target.

Speaker 2 (01:33:36):
Yeah they got it too. Yeah, I would hit them too.

Speaker 1 (01:33:40):
I mean that's what all the I mean think about
people like Steve Atwater right, anyone in that category, right,
you're gonna get run over if you're in the way,
no matter even if you got my same uniform on.
And don't take it personally, I didn't even see you there.
I want to focus on something else. We see, here's
the difference. See, I don't say I didn't see you.

Speaker 5 (01:33:58):
I saw you, I saw you, but you were in
in a damn way. I've even used my teammates to
shield off wide receivers so I can make tackles because
they showed no.

Speaker 4 (01:34:09):
Sense of urgency.

Speaker 2 (01:34:10):
Well even in a game.

Speaker 4 (01:34:11):
In the game, this.

Speaker 5 (01:34:13):
Is how we made our defense one of the better
tackling defenses in the league.

Speaker 4 (01:34:17):
You gotta do.

Speaker 5 (01:34:17):
I'm in the secondary with Kenoy Kennedy and John Lynch,
So you better get that guy on the ground really
fast or we're gonna hit you too. Right, that was
the mentality to sum it up. He was get down
and lay down. Wow, how about that?

Speaker 2 (01:34:33):
Yeah, that's why did.

Speaker 4 (01:34:35):
You Why did you pause for a second to count
of process? Though?

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
Well, it's just it's a it's a it's a mindset. Yes,
you know that I had that.

Speaker 1 (01:34:44):
I admire and in a way, you know, I'm not
I'm not athletic enough to be anywhere near a professional athlete,
but I think if I were in your shoes. Oh,
let me say, I hope I would have that same mindset,
because you gotta have it. Or like when I was
an options trader, you know, on the trading floor, waving
my hands and yelling. You weren't literally running people over,
but I did the trading equivalent of running people over,

(01:35:07):
like you're in my way, I'm gonna take you know, Ross.

Speaker 4 (01:35:11):
It's the same thing.

Speaker 5 (01:35:12):
And what you do every single day when you have
guests on or you're talking about a specific topic, it's
just like, you know, I move right, Yeah, make your
statement or get the hell out of the way, because
if you don't, I'm just going to steamroll you.

Speaker 2 (01:35:26):
H But I think what you did is more satisfying,
you know what.

Speaker 4 (01:35:30):
I would have to say that it is. And you know,
I wish that more.

Speaker 5 (01:35:34):
People had an opportunity to experience just just a fraction
of what my teen years were like, the good stuff,
not the bad stuff, the good stuff because being able
to run out of the tunnel with the smoke and
see your teammates and fans screaming, it does something to you.

Speaker 4 (01:35:51):
But when we on the.

Speaker 5 (01:35:52):
Sideline before the games, we have conversations and it looks
different on the field level opposed to sitting in the state. Yeah,
and you you look at and I used to look
at as a kid like man, I would love to
know what that feels like, right, And so I was
blessed him to be able to do it all.

Speaker 1 (01:36:09):
Right, one quick coming and then you and I are
going to play name that tune. So I was very
briefly and badly wide receiver in college, and uh, I
remember what it felt like the first time I got
hit in the chest, and actually I was brand I
didn't play football in high school, so I just went
we had such.

Speaker 2 (01:36:24):
Bad football team.

Speaker 1 (01:36:25):
They said, anybody can try out, and I love football,
so I did and it was But here's what, here's
what happened.

Speaker 2 (01:36:31):
So I was wider.

Speaker 1 (01:36:32):
I caught the ball and I started to run without
looking up, and it turned out that the cornerback or
maybe it was a safety.

Speaker 2 (01:36:40):
I think it was a cornerback was right in front
of me.

Speaker 4 (01:36:42):
That's like, oh.

Speaker 10 (01:36:44):
My god, like that, I was dizzy. I was actually dizzy.
You know what? You know what technically that's called concussion.

Speaker 2 (01:36:58):
That what happened to me,