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The Season with Peter Schrager: Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah · NFL explained.

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, Everybody, Welcome to
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: another episode of the Season with Peter Schregar. We were
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: officially in the off season. This is the off season,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: yet NFL news is everywhere, you know. Friday, on Good
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Morning Football, we announced that Dalvin Cook was officially going
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to be released by the Minnesota Vikings. And it didn't
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: send shock waves, you know, through fans of the NFL.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: But I think a lot of people are like pointing
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: to his stats and pointing to four Pro Bowls and
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: four thousand yard seasons the last four years. And I saw,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: you know, my co host Kyle Brant was going big
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: on that and saying, you know, be careful what you
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: wish for releasing players of that quality. And I agree,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I agree, Dalvin Cook was set to make a lot
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: of money this year. And my big takeaway for a
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: monologue as we enter this episode, and we're gonna have
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: a very special guest, is that I don't know what
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to tell you. It doesn't make sense on paper, but
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: running backs are just not valued positions anymore. And that's
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: a cold, hard truth. It's something that we've known has
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: been trending this way for a long time, but it
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: has never been more apparent than this offseason is, particularly
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: the last seventy two hours. Sakwon Barkley had a great
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: charity event yesterday. The local New York reporters were smart.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: They went and they got them on camera talking and
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I'm going to quote some of the things he said,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and then we're going to go back and kind of
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: do some revisionist history on this whole thing and kind
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: of break it down. Here's what he said via Jordan Renan,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: who did a great job on ESPN getting not only
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: on camera but kind of wedging himself in there to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: take a charity event to really make news, which I
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: appreciate from a reporter standpoint. You're spending your Sunday away
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: from your family to go to whatever event Saquan's having,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and you're going to get the most out of this,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: not just for the charity side of it, but also
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: to kind of create some news and get some information.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Here's what Saquan said to Jordan, who is a freehold
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: New Jersey residence. So I respect Jordan through and through all, right. Quote,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I think they're open to talking. I'm open to talking.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day, if you
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: really break it down and look at it as a whole,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: there is no rush. There is still time on the
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: table to get to July seventeenth. July seventeenth is not tomorrow,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: it's not in a week. This is how I look
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: at it. Maybe that is the naive way to look
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: at it. I could be completely wrong, but for me,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: that's how I look at it. I could be completely wrong.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Hopefully I trust in the giants that we can get
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: something done. End quote. They asked Saquan about the running
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: back market, and here's where I'm going to pick something
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: apart here. He said, they, as in NFL franchises tag
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the top three guys. We didn't even get a chance
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: to hit the open market. They put the cap at
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: ten million, and when they have the tag, they have
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: all the leverage. That's the reality. End quote. This use
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: of they as in like the NFL is colluding against
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: the running back position. I have to push back on saquon.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: This is the market. This is the market. Christian McCaffrey
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: found someone who was willing to pay him sixteen million dollars,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: so San Francisco forty nine ers, and last year they
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: agreed to pick up that contract from the Carolina Panthers.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: They knew going in and they saw him as a
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: sixteen million dollar value. Saquon The Giants do not view
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: him as a sixteen million dollar value. They don't view
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: him as a fourteen million dollar value. They don't view
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: him at a twelve million dollar value. And when you
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: say they, it's it's almost acting as if it's someone else's.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Probably it's just the market. It stinks. Look, you look
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: around the world at housing situation right now. If you
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: have a house in a desirable place right now, it
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: is valued less than it was during peak COVID times
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: when interest rates were different. When you know it was
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: a different time in the climate economically. If you work
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: in sports media like I do, there was a nice
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: gravy train there for a couple of years for some
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: of the top guys, whether it be Romo, Aikman, Buck
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: name it. I don't think they're giving out those salaries
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: to those top play by play and announcing guys at
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: the moment because sports media has changed and there has
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: been a how about podcasting and Aaron, you could be
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: on this as my producer. They were handing out crazy
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: deals for podcasts to Megan Markele and Prince Harry and
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Obama and whoever else. Those deals aren't in the news anymore.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Netflix overall deals to whoever or these companies giving like
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Ryan Murphy and Shandra Rhime's like four hundred million dollar deals. Well,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: the streamers crashed a little bit and it seems like
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: stocks are down and you will not see those deals going.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: It's just the market and it sucks, and I hate
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: to hear but to say they, as in the collective
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: NFL has decided to turn on running backs. It's not
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the case. Look, you go through this thing and it's
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: one by one and eventually it's just this position is
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: not as valued as defensive end or tackle or quarterback
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: and now receiver and tight end. But Josh Jacobs left
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the league in rushing, got a franchise tag. You know,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: no one linked and I David Montgomery was a really
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: good Chicago Bear, great player off the field, great in
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the community. They opted not to resign him and roll
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: with Deonta Foreman and Khalil Herbert. Jamal Williams scored I
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: think seventeen touchdowns seventeen touchdowns from the running back position
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: for the Detroit Lions last year. It's the most sins
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Barry Sanders. I think he broke Barry's record. The Lions
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: were like, we're good. We're gonna not only not resign you,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: We're gonna sign Montgomery, We're gonna draft the rookie, and
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: then we're gonna also get rid of DeAndre Swift, who
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: was traded. Jack McKinnon was a stud for the Kansas
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: City Chiefs down the stretch. He sat and waited and
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: waited and waited and just signed a deal that I
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: promise you. When Jack McKinnon was carrying the load at
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: points this year for Cancie, I didn't think this is
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: the deal he was going to get. I don't think
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: he thought this was a deal he's gonna get. The
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: one guy who I think did really well with Miles Sanders,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: who early on pounced, took an offer from Carolina, goes
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: back to Douce Staley and where he's the coach of
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the running backs there and he's gonna make good money,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: but nothing crazy. And then Dalvin Cook gets cut. It's
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the market, it's not they This was nothing against these guys.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: It sucks for them, and I hate talking about other
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: people's money like this, but it also is just the
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: harsh reality of it. And Aaron, as a Buffalo Bills fan,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I turned to you, it's like, hey, Devin Singletary was
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: a nice player. We're gonna go with James Cook and
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Damian Harris this year, and they didn't draft their running
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: back in the first round. And it's like, this is
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: what the NFL is when you see the Chiefs being
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: able to roll into the Super Bowl with a three
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: headed monster at running back and the Eagles, you know,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Miles Sanders barely touches the ball in the Super Bowl
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and it's you know, Boston Scott and whoever else in
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the big Game against the Giant. Like I don't know,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I don't have to tell you, like a lot of times,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: this running back by committee thing might make more sense.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: And it's unfortunate because we love the running back position
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and it's a big part of fantasy football. But it's
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: not a coincidence that around the league it doesn't seem
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: like there's these fifteen million dollar guys outside of Derreck
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Henry and Christian McCaffrey.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then also Zeke got cut Mason was like
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: on the bubble he might have been cut at you know,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: there's all this talk with him. I mean think one
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: of our earlier episodes in the offseason, we were parsing
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: through the words of the head of player personnel, who
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: was like, as of right now, he is on our roster.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So my message there is the market and we're
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: going to have a guest on who just had to
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: make a really tough decision. We're going to bring it on.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: It's quasi at Dolfo Mensa, who is the general manager
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: of the Minnesota Vikings. I don't want to press him
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: so much on the contract, and I don't want press
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: them so much on current events because really my goal
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: with this stuff, and we'll do it, but my goal
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: with this podcast, as you know, Aaron, is let's get
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: to know these guys. Let's talk about philosophy, let's talk
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: about their stories. And Kaisei's being cool enough while they
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: still have mandatory mini camp coming on to pop on
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: and talk about himself. We're gonna get to him in
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: one second, real quick. Aaron, do you play golf?
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: I have you ever picked up a club?
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: I've been to the driving range, like once or twice
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: with some friends.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I had never picked up a club until last year.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: My wife said, you know what, like your friends all
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: play golf. For my birthday, she bought me golf lessons.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: She got me ten lessons. It was really generous. I
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: went to two of them, and I think they expire
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: like I just I kind of said. Then my friend,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: while we were all from Good Morning Football, invited me
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: out to play golf, and he was like, I got
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: to spare a thing of clubs. Just come and enjoy
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the day. I went. I had a blast, hit the
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: ball pretty well, and I was like, you know what,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: this summer, I'm in a golf So I went and
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I got myself some golf clubs, which was probably an
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: irrational thing to do. It was way more expensive than
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: I thought golf clubs would be. But I was like,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: I'm treating myself. You know, Father's Day is coming up,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna get myself a Father's Day gift. So
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I went to Paramus, New Jersey, to a place I'm
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: not look, I'm not getting anything out of this. I'll
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: tell you what. It's called a place called p XG
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: which is like a golf like warehouse slash fitter of
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: like clubs. But it' supposed to be like the Rolls
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Royce of clubs. I'm like, I'm gonna go and get
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: fitted by the best of the best, and they're gonna
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: show me what I need. So I got fitted for
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: all these clubs in Paramus, New Jersey. I ubered out there,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and then I took a train back from secaucas to
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Penn Station, and then from Penn Station took the two
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: train back to Brooklyn like I did the cute. This
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: was like planes, trains and automobiles to get these clubs.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: But this weekend, on Sunday night, my son, who is
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: six years old, we played mini golf together. We watched
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: this Canadian Open finals between Nick Taylor and Tommy Fleetwood,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: and I will tell you this was one of the
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: most entertaining half hours of sports I have watched, maybe
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: since the Super Bowl. They go back and forth four
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: playoff holes and then from seventy two feet away, Taylor
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: nails a putt. He's from Canada. He does it in
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: front of the home crowd. First time someone of Canadian
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: ancestry has won that tournament in sixty years. Seventy two
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: years jim Nantz going nuts. They're champagne all this stuff.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: And my son looked at me and he's like, that
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: was awesome, and he's like, can we play golf? And
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, So this is how kids get hooked
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: on sports exciting moments, and it was just a really
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: cool moment. Did you happen to see the highlight? Did
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: you watch? Like? I think people were ready waiting for
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: sixty minutes to the Tonys and I got sucked into
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: the golf. Yeah.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: I think it'd be tough if you follow any sports
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: media this weekend you had to see the highlights. I
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: mean I followed nothing related to golf, and I saw
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: it so many times, So yes, I saw it.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: It was amazing. I also watched the Tonys. Did you
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: catch the Tony's at all?
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: I watched parts so a friend of mine won a
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Tony last night. Actually, who's your friend?
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: I watched it all.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Alex Newell?
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Alex Newell, who was inside from shocked Shocked? Okay, one
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: best actor? Right? Yeah? Okay, awesome speech speechless throughout and
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen shocked. You saw shucked?
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: I actually have not seen it?
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Great friend.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we were in the midst of getting Yeah,
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: we were trying to figure out when to see it.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we were gonna get tickets. Let me take something
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: about this Shucked, because I like the Broadway shows. I
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: see ads for it all over the subways, and I'm like,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know what this is, uh, and I'll maybe
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: see it, But like I'd obviously seen ads for Parade
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and some like it hot and New York, New York
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: and all these different things. And then Shuck did well,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: and then that Kimberly.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Akimbo Kimberly Akimbo also did very well.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I enjoy the Tonys and I think it was cool
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: to see Aaron Rodgers in the third row with CJ. Yeah,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: CJ I think produced a play. He's in the theater
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: like he helped like fund one of the plays. So
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers was there with him, and to pick up
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: where we were last week with with Hanka's area, like
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Rogers just playing the New York pr playbook to it,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: like to have the wherewithal to know like I've got
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: practice tomorrow. But the Tony's is like a very New
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: York thing and like a very affected New York event,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: like the Top of the Top of there. Sure enough,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: there's Rogers on the red carpet. We're going to get
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: to our guest right now. I know you were interested
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: if you're a football hardcore fan and hearing my thoughts unshucked,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: but I will promise you this I thought and Juliet
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: got robbed. Okay, that is my ending of my Tony's take.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Let's get to our guest, Quacy Adolfo Mensa. All right, now,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: it's time for our guest. One of the great young
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: minds in the NFL and a very pivotal position as
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: the general manager of the Minnesota Vikings. He's in his
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: second off season with Minnesota. Very well respected, very well
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: liked guy. But we are now at a crossroads for
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: the Vikings franchise, and it's really cool to have on.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Quis Adolfo Mensa. Quisy, what's up? Man?
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: Shreg's always good to see you man, Thanks for having me.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Oh, it is so good having you on. You know,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: this podcast is more evergreen. As I always tell my guests,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: it's not about currents. What my hope is that two
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: years down the line, someone listens to this podcast and
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: it's like I got a lot out of that interview
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: and I got a lot of that conversation, but I
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: would be remiss just to give you an opportunity to
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: speak on what happened in the last seventy two hours. Obviously,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: you guys, with a lot of speculation going into it,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: you finally did release Dalvin Cook. If you just want
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: to spend a second either on the release or just
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: what Dalvin meant to the Minnesota Vikings, I know you
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: guys had some statements just to kind of tie a
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: bow on the Dalvin Cook era in Minnesota.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's a part of the job. These
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: are all really tough decisions. You talk about Dalvin Cook
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: a franchise pillar, incredibly productive over his time here, and
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: I'm glad I got to see that up close last year.
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: A guy who wants the ball, wants to help his
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: team win, can do it from all levels of offensive play.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: Just a talented player. His teammates love them.
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: And again, these are really hard decisions we have to make,
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: but they give us constraints in the NFL, and you're
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: always trying to build towards that ultimate goal, and sometimes
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: these decisions are the ones you have to make.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: They get made with a lot of care and thought.
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: Because obviously you're dealing with people, but also just ring
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: of honor type players, which Dalvin Cook is. And again
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: these aren't easy, no doubt in my mind. But ultimately
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: we made the decision and we wish them the best,
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: and obviously we'll always be fans of his here in Minnesota.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: That's cool. Yeah, you guys are very classy with some
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: of the statements we saw from ownership and from you
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: and from Kevin. And I think you know whether or
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: not the wound is sore right now, when time will
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: tell how it goes for Dalvin. But at the very least,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I think you guys handled it as well as you
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: could publicly, which leads to I think your story because
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of people for years had this
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: vision of general manager being a guy who lived in
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: the back of a van and would scout, you know,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: small schools in southern Texas and then get on the
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: car and then say, okay, in twelve hours, I got
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: to be in eastern Nebraska. And do you have a
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: different path? And I think the I think you're often
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: described as like a moneyball guy, but I think that's
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: short changing you a little bit. Take us through a
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: your college experience, and then maybe your postgraduate experience, and
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: then how you ended up working for the forty nine
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: ers in twenty thirteen.
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I'm not sure I know how this
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: all all happened and got here, but I will say
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: that that guy in the van who goes and scouts
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: to small school, that guy is important. That guy's valuable,
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: and it's you know, this job has really evolved over time.
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: You know, we do media, we do contracts, we do
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: you have to oversee an organization or really you know,
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: a really profitable organization.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: So I think my skill.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: Sets have kind of aided in the new NFL, the
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: new definition of the job versus kind of what it
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: was before. But you know, going back to my undergraduate experience,
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: you know, it was great. Honestly, I was just a
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: kid in South Jersey immigrant parents, you know, grew up
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: in my family's from Ghana, West Africa. So super proud
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: of that and how that all impacted my life. But
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: went to Princeton, you know, I thought I was a
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: cool kid and I was going to go study with
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: a bunch of nerds. Turned found out that I was
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: just as nerdy as anybody else there. And uh, you know,
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: but you know, I love my time there. I was
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: actually I went there just as a student. I really
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: loved math and economics. That's what I studied. Happened to grow,
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: you know, seven inches my freshman year, and uh so
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: I went.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: From did you play ball in high school?
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: So I actually got cut from the basketball team my
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: sophomore year. Really really tragic story. If you want to
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: talk about over.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: What is it Cherry Hill South? What was it called?
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: What was the school?
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: Cherry Hilly?
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: Cherry Lee's Cougar's shout out to all my people out
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: back there, love so much love for my time growing up.
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: But yeah, you know I was a cerebral point guard.
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: I had handles, but I wasn't very quick. I hadn't
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: really grown into grown into my body just yet. There
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: was some better players they thought were available. But ultimately,
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: you know, you're never gonna agree with those decisions. Everybody's
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: been cut at some point in their life. Uh And
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: but ultimately, you know, I played golf actually in high school.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: I got coupled the basketball team and became a high
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: school golfer, which was great. You know, you talk about
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: a sport that teaches you process, how do you move on?
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: From the last batchot to the next good shot really
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: and that connected me to my Wall Street job, because really,
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: when you make decisions, it's all about process.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: How do you get over that trade that you lost
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: money on? How do you move on to the next one?
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: And process and things.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Like that, like a cornerback.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's no doubt, no doubt.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: And so that's really what what led me to, you know,
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: studying at Princeton and major in economics and all that
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: good stuff. Really got interested in behavioral economics and how
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: decision making and human emotion really are interact together, which
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: took me to Wall Street where I intern on a
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: commodities desk trading gold and silver. The summer after my
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: junior year, got to live in New York down on
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: Water Street and do that experience. As you know, as
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: we talk about in New York all the time, my
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: favorite place on earth. But you know that that took
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: me there, and then obviously had that career, went to
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: Stanford where I want to become an econ professor. You know,
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: I have a passion for teaching. I think you know,
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: the way I learn is very simple. I try and
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: every step try and learn its cords foundation, which makes
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: me able to teach it back to other people. I
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: think a lot of times teachers are people who understand
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: things at high levels, can't teach because the simple things
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: are just so, you know, so easy for them that
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: they really don't whereas me, I'll go over every single step.
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: And that's really my gift is a teacher. And I
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: wanted to teach economics. So I went back, learned and studied.
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: You know, I wasn't I don't know that I was
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: going to change economics, and so I, you know, there
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: was a little bit of a competitor still.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: Left in me.
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: I still want to apply and practice my my my
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: knowledge and industry. Was really interested in sports, and you know,
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: wanted to seek out an opportunity. Obviously, the forty nine ers,
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: it was fortunate they were happening to be looking for
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: somebody to advance their efforts. Brian Hampton and Prague mart
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: I got connected with them at the MIT Sports Analytics Conference,
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: and rest is what they say, is history.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: So wait, so you go to Sloan in what like
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: twenty twelve, twenty.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: Thirteen, twenty twelve, twenty twelve, twelve, and you're just.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: A Stanford graduate student who has a Wall Street career,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: and you're like, look, I'm doing this, but I want
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: to get into sports. I'm willing to sacrifice everything to
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: give it a shot. I'm assuming your entry level pay
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: was not what it was on Wall Street.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, I tell you know.
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: So I showed up to that conference where my white
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: Stanford polo, you know, not knowing anything. And what was
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: cool about that conference is you just got to meet
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: a lot of great people. I mean I got to
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: I remember, got to go up to the Kiki Vandawaye people
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: that I had like learned RC Buford. Was there just
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: a lot of talented people were in one place, and
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: I wasn't there really looking for a job. I was
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: just there to like kind of learn about sports. Had
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: I actually had a great conversation with Jacoby. This is
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: early you know Jacoby and Jalen those days.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Dave Jacoby sure, yeah.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and so and then obviously I met with the
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: forty nine ers and they said, hey, let's talk when
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: we get back, and that's what we did.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: And obviously, you know, things worked out for us in
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: the end.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: You mentioned you grew seven inches in college, so you
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: come in there not as an athlete, but as a student.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: So you get into Princeton and then you grow seven inches,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: I have to think. You know, someone on campus is like,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: have you considered ball? If you played at least at
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: any level.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: You'd be surprised.
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: You walk around Princeton every there's a lot of six
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: or three guys walking aroun around. There's a really yeah,
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: a lot of a lot of people play sports there,
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: whether it be waterpole of eyepall, whatever it is.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: And I was friends with all those those people.
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: But there's a lot of athletic people walking around that campus,
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: so they weren't necessarily looking for me. But I you know,
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: I showed up to practice that first day and my
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: little Kobe Hafro.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: You know, I was the Jadwin Jim where yah.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Jadwind Jim.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: You know, I put put my summer in, uh you know,
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: all those two day workouts with my friends, and you know,
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: obviously I was good enough to you know, play on
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: the JV team and do some practicing and all that
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: good stuff. And you know, again, super cool because the
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: fifteen year old of me that you know that never
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: got off that floor got cut. You know, got to
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: see that dream fulfilled in a small way, and that's
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: something I always take with me.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: And that's awesome mentors. I feel like, if you go
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: to Princeton or you go to Stanford, you've got the
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: leaders in thought and you've got the leaders in you know, leadership.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Especially let's go to Stanford. When I talk about Stanford
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: football to a lot of people, it's it's often not hey,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: I learned this from Harbor or David Shaw. It's I
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: was also connected to this guy and Silicon Valley, who,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: by the way, happens to run a venture capitalism firm,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: and also as a mentor to X, Y and Z.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Like when you get to those institutions of that academic prowess,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: with those alumni bases, did you know at the time,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: like I got to make the most out of this
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: and make connections Or is it one of those things
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: that if you just go there, it's hard to avoid
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: getting connected to the right people.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: It's one of those things that I probably and I
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: don't really live a life with regrets. If I could
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: have pushed myself a little bit would have been more.
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: If I could tell any kid to come after me
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: seek out those relationships, I kind of let them happen
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: by chance, I happen to take a class with Daniel Connoman.
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: I happen to take a class with Burton Malcolm, who's
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: become a great mentor of mine. When I was at
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: Princeton and then at Stanford, I was lucky enough to
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: take classes with you know, A Hasty and he's he's
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: a really he's a big titan in the analytics world
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: and different people like that. It's so fortunate. But I
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: don't know that I sought it out as much as
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: I should have. And if I could go back again,
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: you know, I Matt Angelou was at Princeton when I.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Was there, Is that right? You know what I mean?
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: Like, you know, and I have to you know, I
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: wish i'd maybe got and coffee with her or whatever
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: something like that. So to everybody who comes after me,
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: please make sure you seek out those relationships when you
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: have access to them.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, So you get to the Niners. You're back
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: in the Bay after some time in New York. How
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: did you apply your Wall Street skills? And we did,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: and then try to integrate that into what at the time,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: I know the Niners are always forward thinking, but also
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: at the time, like football is kind of meeting potatoes
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: as well.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was probably the biggest challenge, you know.
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: I got there after they had won three NFC championships
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: in a row, been to a Super Bowl.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: I got there right after they had lost the Super Bowl.
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: So I'm not going there thinking I'm helping them, right,
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: I mean, they seem to have it pretty figured out
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: by them. So I really took it at just I'm
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: here to learn. I'm going to show them my thought
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: process and how that works. And really, I think a
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: lot of times in the analytics world, people are it's
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: almost like a project where you're studying things.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: And that's good.
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: You want to study things, but you also got to
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: make decisions and decisions to have ramifications. They have good
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: things that happen, bad things that happen. You have to
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: be able to quantify them and really understand them before
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: you make a decision. So that was I would say
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: my best value add was really coming from a practical
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: decision making standpoint and saying, hey, I know this is
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: what the model on the analysis says, but I've done that.
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: I've lost a million dollars and ten minutes. I know
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: how that feels. I know how this feels. I know that,
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: the emotional side of it, and really having to understand
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: to get a whole building together behind your thought process.
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: That's different than just computing something into a code and
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: outputting something.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: That's very different.
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: And so I think that was the thing they appreciate
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: out of me, appreciated about me the most. And then second,
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: I didn't know anything. You know, I'm here because I
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: didn't know anything.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Humility, right, I just well, it was easy because.
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: I actually didn't know anything, right, so I could go
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: into an office and ask, hey, hey, Cipho, tell me
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: about the run game. Tell me everything you need to know,
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: because I'm not insecure about that because I don't think I'm.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: Supposed to know.
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: And he doesn't mind teaching me because I've helped him
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: with some other thing.
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: And so just so many relationships I've built.
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: And I was just talking to our scouting associates who
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: just got here to start, and.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: I was like, jes, be curious.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: If you can do one thing, be curious, just ask questions,
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: because I'm telling you, I'd satin rooms with people who
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: have been in the NFL for twenty years who never
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: asked that question. And I'm like, well, I know that,
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: and I've only been in the league ten years because
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: I because I wasn't scared to ask, and I don't,
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: I don't. I don't think they're a dumb question. So
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: that was really the best thing that helped me get here.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: What was your life like in New York City when
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: you were a wellser You said you interned and then
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: you took a job. So you don't have to name
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the companies or you can. But I see just on
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the website says day trader like, I could be a
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: million things. So take us through your day to day
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: as a young twenty three year old quacy like, because
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what you and I have talked about it.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: I did my twenties in New York different deal. I
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: wasn't a Wall Street guy. I was more of a
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: struggling sports writer living with five guys and a loft.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: But I think we had similar paths. I'm sure where
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: you work hard, you play hard.
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: No doubt, man, I had similar paths. I lived with five,
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: five and then six guys in a lofty six guys.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: We still we still have a text group called Hotness
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: because that's what we because that's what we.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: Called our place. I love those guys of Death, the Brothers.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: Am I where it was?
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: The place Water Street?
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: Is that where you living? No? No, that place was
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: dirtieth in Madison, Okay.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Murray Hill.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Part of it. You're at Bank Cafe every day.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: Let's go Bank Cafe.
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: We had a little deli, miscase deli downstairs. I don't
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: know how clean it was, but we ate there a lot. No, man,
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: I smile so much because that time of my life
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: was just such a blessing. Living in New York City
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: is something that will always just be grateful that I
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: got to do all the experiences. You know, you go
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: out in New York City on a Friday night with
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: your wallet and your cell phone and anything could happen.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: It feels like anything happened. Anything it happened.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: But you also meet anyone and everyone from all different backgrounds,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: and we joke about it like, oh it was crazy
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: wild times. But gosh, I'm raising my kid in New
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: York City. I think it's a pretty cool cultural experience.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: It's it's incredible, man.
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: It's you know, you're in your Friday night New York
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: is very different than your Tuesday afternoon New York.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: Right there's different people's different vibes.
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: Just again, such a blessing, but you know, connecting that
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: to the work side of it, Yeah, we worked really
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: hard to getting the trade is an edge that I
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: just I'm so fortunate for I feel like the world
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: has become so dug in on what they think and
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: for me, I got to go make decisions and be
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: wrong and be right, but also be wrong and have
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: somebody really smart take the other side of my view
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: and have to think about that and being like, hey,
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: I think I'm smart, but this person's really smart and
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: they disagree with me. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe that
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: open mindedness that I have comes from pain and loss.
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: It comes from being on the other side of really
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: smart people who were right sometimes and when I was
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: wrong and really just not thinking I have the world
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: figured out, and that just that blessing that I was
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: able to receive in that education is something I've taken
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: with me and I try and get back to other people.
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: Actually have a nonprofit where I try and teach really
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: you know, yeah, finance to what's it called donut?
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: It's you know, donut.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: It's a term we used to use on Wall Street
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: to a friend of mine made up where you don't
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: want to.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: Obviously, a donut's a bad thing.
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: So I'm trying to teach people to obviously not be
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: a donut, and I do it with some of our players.
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: And I think all this stuff and finance is learnable.
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: It's really applicable to every aspect of your life. And
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: so I'm passionate about giving back to other people.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, you said you went to the sloan comment.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Sorry if I'm fixated on this area of your life.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: But so many listeners of this podcast are on the
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: treadmill right now. They're traveling, they're on a plane and
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: they're flying to another sales convention, or they're working out
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: because they've got to get to the office by sen
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: And if I only had the opportunity to and like,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: we know it's a giant leap, but you made the leap.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Was there a morning where you woke up or like
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: I just can't do this anymore? Or was this where
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: you were like, I'm a single guy and this is
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: what I want to try to do. Like what was
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: there a turning point or was it just this is
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: months in the making.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: It was a longer decision I just and I as
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: much as I loved Wall Street, I just didn't want
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: not to be morbid. I always think about what do
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: you want your tombstone to read? You know, how do
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: you want it to read? And I didn't want that
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: to be the sole thing that was on there. Not
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: not that it was a bad thing, but just I
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: wanted more in my life, and so, you know, I
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: think I always wanted to pivot at some point to
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: do something different, and obviously football just you came calling.
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: I was really fortunate to go meet everybody at the
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: Sloan Conference, but there are a lot of hard days, man.
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: You know, I think you asked me earlier going from
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: what I was making to I mean, you're talking about
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: making one.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: I think I did the math.
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: It was like one twentieth of what I right, right,
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: one twentieth one twentieth right, So with.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: No guarantee that there's a huge upside.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: No guarantee right, it's crazy.
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: My boss who wrote my recommendation for Stanford, you know,
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: when I got in and I was leaving, he's like,
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: so you're really going, like, I don't think you ever
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: believed me.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: I would be as a friend. I would have been
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: asking you the same thing.
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: And you know, obviously we're all glad that it worked
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: out here, But there were a lot of days where
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: I was like, what did I do? You know, there's
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: certainly I'm not going to sit here and tell you
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: it was this easy, you know, easy path. I went
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: from you know, money not being a big variable in
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: my life to hey, maybe hey, what's that cup on?
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: What's that? What's that?
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Ms? Not terrible for Tuesday night?
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and so you know, but I'm again, I'm so
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: fortunate to have had that experience and grown from it.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: I was.
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: I took it as a challenge. How do I how
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: do I humble myself? How do I changed my life
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: to accomplish my goals? And I'm glad I did it.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: I said the moneyball thing because I think when you
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: got hired, that was thrown around a lot, and I
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: kind of cringe because I'm like, he's more than that. Obviously,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: he's had a decade of experience in the NFL. He
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: obviously scouts players like they go from Trent Balki to
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: John Lynch. There's also a new leadership. How do you
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: kind of integrate yourself into a new GM and try
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: to sell yourself again and say here's what I bring,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: here's the value. I know Lynch is one of the greatest,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: but like, that's the thing. Also, the new Boston town.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: One hundred percent. I got to give a lot of
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: credit to Jail.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: Jail's one of the most open minded, collaborative people I've
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: ever met, and so a lot of that was just
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: him wanting a lot of smart people in the room
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: and he's like, Hey, if this guy's smart, I want
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: to use him. And so, honestly, randomly, I had met
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: Jail my second week on the job. He was doing
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: TV a preseason game and they had asked me to
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: go spot You know what spotting is?
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I didn't know what it was.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: So you were the spotter, like, hey, the third lineman
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: on a spotter for the listeners at home. It's basically
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: you're helping broadcast crew when they don't know all the players.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: You're pointing out who is and you're handing information and notes.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: So in a preseason game, when there's seventy five guys
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: out there, you're the one who's kind of helping out
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: the broadcaster saying and usually these guys are volunteers, but
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: you were doing it as an employee of the team.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: Right, So they asked me to do it.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: And I get there and Jail and Burke Carter there
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: and I'm honest, I'm like, hey, I have no idea
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: what I'm doing, and they're just and they called somebody
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: it right away.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: Jail's like, hey, man, I love you, but we're going
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: to go with somebody else.
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: And so I love so the first day on the
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: job that we kind of rehashed and laughed about that storage.
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: But yeah, So I met Jail, and obviously I hadent
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: a lot of research to help with the hiring process
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: and just talking about the great organizations what they have
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: and they have alignment and people with no ego and
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: collaborative and different things like that. And Jail was the living,
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: breathing embodiment of that. And I had written this document
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: for the forty nine ers that talked about all these things.
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: And he read it and there was a quote on
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: there by a family friend of his talk about life
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: being just this is random connection and he's like, hey,
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: who wrote this?
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: Who you know? And it was a trader.
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: It was a trader that I, you know, one of
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: my trading you know people that I looked up to
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: when I was in that industry, So he.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Was that trader. I love getting the credit here in
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: the names.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: Paul Tutor Jones. He's one of the best best there is.
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: I read about him in a book called Market Wizards,
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: and that was actually when I started to change my
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: mind frame and trading and really started to understand what
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: that business was. And so to have that quote be
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: a thing that me and him were able to connect on,
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: it's just you talk about life being just this fortunate circle.
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: I'm just so happy that we had that relationship.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: All right, and not to a pinpoint what you did
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: for the forty nine ers. But before we move on
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: to your next stage in your career, let's just say
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: the Niners we know so smart with compensatory picks, always
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: loading up with things that you wouldn't expect. Also great
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: on day three. So I'm just going to say a
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: name and just hypothetically tell me, like when this may
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: pick was made, like your role in the process or
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: what you're input, Like George Kittle's a fifth round pick
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: and you were there, So what's Quacy do to help
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: contribute to a George Kittle selection?
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: So that was the first year they got there.
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: So I wasn't as involved in drafting business I was,
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: but I did things. I did models, a lot of
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: models that would take information like their on field production
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: or their combine and kind of give a number that says, hey,
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: this is pretty good. This is actually better than everybody's
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: talked about. So they had all my model grades, and
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: our models liked him a little bit better than the consensus.
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: But I said this at my opening press conference. I didn't.
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: I didn't say George Kiddo would be the you know,
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: one of the best tight ends that ever play this game.
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to sit here and try and take
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: that credit. But on the margins, it did like him
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: a little bit better than you know, some other sources did.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Sure. All right, so you have this great success with
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: San Francisco, you know, all the way to a super Bowl.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Then you go to Cleveland. Do you join Andrew Berry
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: in Cleveland? Another IVY League guy from a different school.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Of course, he's a Harvard Man. How do you make
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: that jump to Cleveland? And why did you make that jump?
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: That's a blessing, you know. I met Andrew in an
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: elevator bank at the combine.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, decidedly.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, completely random.
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: And I had heard about him, and I guess in
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: hindsight he had maybe heard a couple of things about me.
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: But you know, we just started a relationship pad dinner.
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: You got a network. You got to meet people. You
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: never know when their opportunity would come. And I had
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: dinner with him in about five minutes. I was like, Oh,
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: this guy's gonna be a GM. You know, it's if
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: you've met Andrew Bert before, you would know that brilliant,
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: brilliant kid, just down to earth, great human, great family.
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: Just and so you know, that relationship started. And look,
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: you've seen what was in that San Francisco building. There
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: was a logjam of really talented people.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Let's go through the news. Because Rand Carthon's now at
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: GM with Tennessee John Lynch Parague is now going to
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: own leads. I think I think that's about happening yourself.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Who else we got, like, who are there other? Brian
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Hampton really well regarded.
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: Brian Hampton, Ethan Wallas now assistant GM, and Jacksonville, Adam Peters.
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: Adam Peters is a stud So you're just talking about
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: a lot of people, And look, I wanted that next
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: step of my career I wanted to grow. There's certain
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: rooms and conversations I wanted to see and be a
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: part of. And sometimes you have to leave in your
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: career to go take that opportunity. But that doesn't mean
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: there's not a ton of love and respect and admimation
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: for the people I work with in San Francisco.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: So you go to Cleveland and then the Minnesota GM
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: job opens up. You interviewed for Chicago as well.
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: I want to say, yes, I did.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: How do you prep for a general manager position? In
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: those interviews and Minnesota specifically, what did you hone in
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: on and really try to get that job because it's
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: one of the obviously crown jewel franchises in the NFL.
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: You know, for a GM job, it's really you have
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: great mentors that help you. So Andrew Barry was one
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: of my best sources. I joke with him, I think
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: I owed him a commission just for getting all the preparation.
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: You know. Really, when I first got there, he said, way,
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: you're going to be a jam one day.
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: And I wasn't even sure at that point that I
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: should be a VP of ops, you know, and he
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: was pushing me, Hey, if you're making decisions.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: What would you do? What would you do?
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: And so really I had a book and a really
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: an approach and a thought process built over two years.
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: So I was ready when I got to those positions
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: because of him. And then people like Charlie Cashley, who
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: you know, is really helpful. He reached out to me,
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: somebody I just texted with the other day, just kind
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: of taught me about, you know, how things go, how
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: different buildings, the history of the game and all different things.
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: You really just want to get ready, get prepared with
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: their roster, but they have to leave that in that
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: interview knowing who you are, who is Quacy? What are
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: the four things that we're going to get with Quacy?
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: And honestly, that's just genuinely that's got to come from
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: who you are. That can't that can't be fake. I
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: can't try and be Andrew Berry or John Lynch. I
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: got to be the genuine to myself. You know, I'll
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: never forget the first banking interview I had in college.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: I got to the final round and I got nervous.
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: I was like, well, I got to try and act
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: like what I think an investment banker is going to
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: be like, and I didn't get the job.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: I got.
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: Getting get the job is the only interview, at least
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: in that cycle that I didn't get the job. When
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: I got to the fine around and I told myself,
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: if you're going to go out, just be you. Yeah,
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: if that's not good enough, that's okay, but just be yourself.
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: And I took that and obviously was that in the
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: interview process. And look, I'm a little different. You know,
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna say words and in a football interview that
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: other people aren't going to say. But I'm going to say,
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: I'm going to be myself, be my authentic self. And
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: ultimately that took me where I wanted to go. But
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: the minicine or interview. What I was so impressed with
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: their process was a lot of it was about leadership,
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: leadership and culture. I think a lot of times people
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: like you said earlier, trying to make the GM job
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: head scout, and that is a portion of the job,
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: but a lot of the job is leadership, setting up, process.
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: Building, culture, vision, all those things.
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: And Minnesota immediately impressed me with how they sought out
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: those things.
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: So it was just a match.
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: And I know they tell the story of how I
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: came skipping down the stairs from my office to my wife,
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: But it really was I was so invigorated by by
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: that because those are the things that I had prepared for.
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: That's what I think is important in the job. Look,
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: I'm going to hire smarter analytics people than me. I'm
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: going to hire better scouts. To me, that's the point.
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: I've got to just know enough to be dangerous, to
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: be able to manage them, lead and combine all the
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: information to make decisions. And I think coming from Minnesota's
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: interview process, I was sure that that's what they.
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: Were looking for.
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: And then to your point, the ownership group, I mean,
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: the Wolfs are just they're incredible people.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: I think it's not to cut you off. I think
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: it's the best facility in the NFL. I would say question.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: I think the NFLPA survey said a lot. When you
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: have a plus across the board for the way people
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: are treated and the will family. They're relatively new owners
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: i'd say last twenty years. Obviously they took over and
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: you get that new stadium thing, like players love playing
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: there too, so you've got a nice advantage in your
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: back corner where there's like a lot of positive things
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: going on before you even step into.
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: The job, no question and no question.
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: And look at these jounts are so rare though, So
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: it's not like I was sitting there saying, you know,
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: let me hold out for the crown Jewel type of Minnesota.
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: But you know, good fortune had it that they liked
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: what I was putting down, and I obviously loved the
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: organization that I came to.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: All Right, so you get there. Last year, you guys
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: win thirteen games, You win I think eleven games like
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: in the by one score, like I would have to
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: imagine that maybe you didn't. Maybe we were like, we're
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: gonna win Suer Bowl in your one. But that's at
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: the bar pretty high for year two and beyond, what
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: was your one? Like with Kevin O'Connell.
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: That that was incredible. You know, I can't believe we've
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: gotten this far without talking about Ko. But you know,
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: he's just my po he's my partner in crime.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Did you guys have a good relationship in San France?
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: We met, we had lunches together because he's just such
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: a great guy.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: And I remember the man. But it was a chip right,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: it was chippy day and Kevin O'Connell. They had all
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: these young guys.
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and he had this weird title like special Projects
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: or something like that. So we joke I was the
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: R and D analyst and he was specially or Projects.
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: And now we're head coaching GM together. But we had
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: lunch together a few times. And I remember, again, like
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: I said, I picked people's brain when I get to
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: talk to him.
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: So I asked him about quarterback play.
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: And so when the wils asked me about him after
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: my first interview, I was like, oh, you know, I
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: haven't stay in touch with him, but he used to
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: tell me the smartest thing about quarterbacks and I just
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: kind of left, could not think of anything of it,
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: you know. And obviously then I get to the GM
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: job and I know that they think they're in high
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: regard with him, and I watched the interview and I
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: start doing my reference work. I mean, he's a home run,
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: a a plus guy, and I think we can win
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: championships together.
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: I just got to do my part of the equation
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: and handle the business.
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: But you know, last year was incredible, you know, and
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: obviously it's set a high bar and you don't know,
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: you can't when.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: People say exceed expectations.
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: In the NFL, there's just the margins are so thin,
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: so thin, right, you know, And so I think you
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: can generally say, hey, I think we're a playoff team,
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: or we're a team that should be Final four good
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: or maybe bottom third good, but you don't really know specifically,
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: As you said, thirteen or eleven to one score games
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: for them go differently, the records different I understand that.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to sit here and tell you I don't.
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: But you can set yourself up to succeed with a
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: team that you think should be a playoff team, and
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: we did.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: We thought we had a good team.
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: With the culture, real building, the veteran leadership that we had,
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: we were really and ultimately that's what I think Carrie
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: the day in those eleven to one score games, right,
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: veteran leadership. And this year we're taking the bet that
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: those young players that were on the roster that saw
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: those games, now, hey, this.
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: Is the standard.
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: This is how the Minnesota Vikings show up and show out,
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: and so that's what we're thinking, little Carrie us this year.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: It's an interesting second season because you have the benefit
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: of the doubt now after year one, but there are
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: some popular guys. I think Adam Thielan is a beloved guy.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Dalvin Cook was a beloved guy. You see their jerseys
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: in the stands. But you made tough decisions. When you
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: make those tough decisions, and then do you read the
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: fan responses? Are you one of those guys that doesn't
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: really like I would imagine a lot of fans are
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: not thrilled when you let go of the longtime veterans
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: who had great seasons last year with the Vikings.
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: I got to Sapy, I don't know that you have
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: benefit of the doubt in this business. I think it's
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: as surely urgent business. The second that season ended, I
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: went back to, you know, not make not knowing what
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: I'm doing, and that's I respect that, that's that is
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: the job. I'm one of those gms. He doesn't read it.
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: Pretty private person. So one of the one of the
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: hardest parts about this job for me is that, you know,
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: I people say my name or anything like that. That's
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: really hard for me. And so the way I kind
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: of stay out of that is to just kind of
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: not watch it. I tell my friends, please don't send
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: me anything, and it's good or bad it's nothing to
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: do with that. It's just, you know, I just want
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: to stay focused because I'm really hard on myself. I
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: don't know that any comment or on Reddit or Twitter
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: or announcer could be any harder himself than myself. And
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: so trust me, if there's stuff going wrong in this building,
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: I'm the one who's who's driving that and driving us
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: trying to get better and so yeah, but those are
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: hard decisions. I can't sit here and tell you I
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: know for certain right. Decision making under uncertainty is because
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: you don't know. But you have to have a good process,
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: make your bets, and ultimately with the consequences. And that's
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: what we do in this building.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: Really quick, a couple quick hitters, and then we'll let
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: you go because this has been really informative and we've
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: got to know you at a different level than just transaction.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: X y Z.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: Here's how it was done. Your greatest mentor of your career,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: who you would point to and say this is the
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: person I take leadership lessons from would be.
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: Who oh man, come on, it's like name of my
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: top five rappers. Man, I'm going to hurt somebody if
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: I leave them out. Yeah, I got a name, one.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Name, two or three. Let me hear the names. I
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: love this.
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: Stuff, all right, Okay, I'm going to go Andrew Berry. Obviously,
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: I think he's a superhuman. I don't sometimes don't know
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: if there's anybody more qualified to do this job than him.
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: John Lynch, just the genuineness with which he conducts business,
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: open mind.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: It is like all the stuff I talk about. Just
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: really a hero of mine.
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: And then if I can give you like an off one, yeah,
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: you know, outside of football, My mom my hero.
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: I think she's an incredible person. She taught me how
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: to lead her way. Her way was demanding process. She
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: always demanded that I tried hard. It was never what
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: happened at the end of the result. It was hey,
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: well what did you put into it? Can you get
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: better next time? Her emotional just compassion for people, and
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: that's how I try and lead. I need people to
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: know that I care about him a lot, and that's
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: something that's big with Kevin.
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: So I'd be remiss to not mention her as well.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: I love it. The unsung member of the Minnesota Vikings
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: roster that people might not talk enough about that you
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: guys look at and You're like, that guy's a core
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: pillar to what we're doing.
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: Josh man Tellis, Josh man Tellis, I think he's a
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: guy go on talk.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: Because I hear that name. I'm like, I don't see
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: you know, Okay.
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, he's a safety and he'll play some more
• 42:40
  Speaker 4: this year, so I think you'll see the stuff that
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: we've seen before that. But he was a special teams
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: just stalwart last year, team captain type. You know, I
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: was in the team meeting room when later in the season,
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: after somebody got hurt, he was giving team captain and
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: you could feel when somebody's teammates really love them, really
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: appreciate them, and really want to follow them into battle.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: And he's one of those guys. He's somebody.
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: He's everything that the Minnesota Vikings are about, and I
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: think the fans and people are going to really appreciate
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: that more this season.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins' best quality is what.
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: He can make every throw. His arm talent, he's he's accurate,
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: he can hit every level throw. The decision making is
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: really solid. The game of football is you hold that ball,
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: that beautiful ball that means everything, and you got to
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: make sure that you take care of it. You don't
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: give it to the other team, and you take chances
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: when it's time. And obviously he would tell you could
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: always improve, but that's one of the best things he
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: does is make sure that he gives us a chance
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: to win every Sunday, which he has done a time
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: and time again in his career.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: Your top three rappers are.
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: Whom well, okay, I came up in that era. Notorious, Notorious,
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: that's my guy. You know, I'm an East Coast guy
• 43:44
  Speaker 4: and just loved him, everything about him.
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: His flow.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: See, I would think Philly, I would immediately go to
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: these Philly rappers, but you're a South Jersey guy.
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: I'm a South Jersey guy.
• 43:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean you're talking about all time, right,
• 43:54
  Speaker 4: this is all time, all time.
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: I gotta go him. You know, I'm a huge jay
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: Z fan, yep.
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: Just you know his style, his charisma, his lyrics, his
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: ability to talk about things just in different ways. And
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: then you talk about what he's become as a mogul,
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: different areas of his life. Just an incredible and I
• 44:12
  Speaker 4: don't know that I'm allowed to say this person anymore
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: just because of how it's become.
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: But I was a big Kanye fan.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: I think there his music is still genius.
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: He's a genius, right, I think he's an unbelievable creative.
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: You know, just somebody I've always been impressed with. I
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: think what something I love about musicians is their ability
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: to elicit feelings listen, you know, create feelings for other people.
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: And he's somebody just I can think back to very
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: vivid memories in my life, happy, sad, elated, whatever it is.
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: And there's a Kanye song that kind of will play
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: in the background to it.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: And then my last one. Your message to Vikings fans
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: about this twenty twenty three team and what you guys
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: hope to do moving forward.
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I think it's a little bit of unknowns, right.
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: You've moved on for some of the players that you've
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: come to know and love, and we've got to take
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: a chance together to really appreciate and embrace these young players.
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: But you know, they've been on this team, they're learning
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: this culture. We're really excited about what we are. We're younger,
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: you know, we're fast, we're hungry. We've got two great
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: coaches on both sides of the ball. Kevin obviously, West
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: Phillips is offensive cording to Brian Flores, who you know,
• 45:13
  Speaker 4: we have closed the man we haven't talked about, but
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: he's he's a special cat. And so I think people
• 45:17
  Speaker 4: are gonna love what they see and we're building towards
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: something great. I just just know that they know that
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: our goal is to win at the highest level, and
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: that's how we're gonna measure myself over these these years
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: that they give me a chance, and uh, you know,
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: that's what we're trying to aspire to in every move
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: that we make is with that in mind.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: We didn't even mention justin Jefferson's name, we didn't mention
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: Howkinson's name. Like, there's so many guys we can go
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: through here, but real quick, the first round pick Addison,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: who we haven't seen in an NFL field yet, you
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: scattered him obviously. I love I love him coming out.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: We're gonna draft you, We're gonna get paid, and you're like,
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: g You're like, well, we're gonna pay you what you're paid,
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: but yes, maybe in the second contract. What do we
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: get out of Jordan Addison so far since he's been
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: around just in rookie camp and whatever else.
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: And it's so funny that that was the interaction people saw.
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: He is he is so quiet, works his butt off,
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: U super cerebral studies as plays.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: Because I feel like it was a natural thing to say.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: He didn't mean like financially, we're gonna get you say.
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: I say to everybody, if if they've just achieved their
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: childhood dream, what comes out of their mouth might not
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: be what they think comes out of their mouth.
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: And so but now he's incredible.
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: You talk about an elite separator off the line of scrimmage,
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: he just he just understands body feel, leverage, how to separate,
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: get open from guys.
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: Really good hands, good after the catch up.
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: We're really excited to have them, and we're gonna make
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: teams think about what they want to do to us
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: on the offense side of the football. With that alien
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: Justinett Jefferson and the TJ and then Jordan and then
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: kJ and the run game, we're gonna get going. It's
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: just we got we got a lot of options so
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: we can we can stress defenses, and we're really excited
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: about what we're going to be doing on that side
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: of the ball.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: You got things to do. I appreciate you so much
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: for taking the time and in another interview we'll talk
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: about the backdoor pass and what it means to Princeton
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: basketball and why do you have to execute it and
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: why Pete Carmody was just as good as Pete curlew okay,
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Pete Carmony or Bill Carmondy. What was his car?
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: Bill?
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: Bill Cardy? I loved Princeton basketball and Crazy loved our
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: time together. Dude, thank you so much for taking all
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: this time, especially where there's mandatory mini camps and you're
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: not sitting on the beach. We really appreciate it.
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: Shrake's always a pleasure man.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Crazy's unbelievable. I just think he's really authentic and he
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: is who he is, and he's made really tough decisions
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: and Aaron, you're listening to him. I kind of. I
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: didn't mean to dismiss the other types of gms who
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: are lifetime scouts, but like, his background is not a
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: linear Hey, you do this. You work in an organization
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: for fifteen years as the VP of personnel, You scout
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: the Southeast region, you scout the Southwest region. You eventually
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: go to college and do I don't know what you think.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: You find him really impressive.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: I loved him. I mean, I love anyone who's in
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: a high position who's also like I am, not like
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: worried about what I don't know. I will go and
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: ask someone I'm not going to be self conscious about
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: saying I don't get the run scheme. Tell me about
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: the run game and learning from those people who know it,
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: and then like making decisions with that. So I love
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: I love his whole vibe. I was texting my Vikings
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: friends throughout. I was like, we've got this Guy's amazing.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: You guys should be very happy.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you though, it's funny because there's a humility
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: in there, and he could be arrogant, he could be
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: a know it all. He could come off that way
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: because when you start mentioning Princeton and Stanford and the
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: word analytics in the NFL, people are very quickly turned
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: off and say, oh, here we go. Here comes the
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: nerd in the room or the know it all in
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: the room. But his humility is so disarming that he says,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: I just want to learn and I want to be
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: the best I can be and help others. And it's
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: almost like that approach to it. How could you do
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: anything but root for that guy?
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, he was great about talking about how
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: difficult some of the roster decisions are. But he seemed
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: so thoughtful about it too. I don't know not to
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: just like kiss up to him, but I thought he
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: was great.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: I know. Yeah, very quick transition, yet one of the
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: most startling left turns we can do, from talking football
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: with Quasi Adofo Mensa to something you told Jason English
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: and I Jason, of course our iHeart partner. Here we
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: were in between transitions and you were talking about the
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: Tonys and he said that you have a love for
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: theater as well, and in passing, I said, you know
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: Leah Michelle, she performed, but she wasn't nominated, and you
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: went through the rules that she wasn't eligible because she
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: didn't originate the rule. And then you mentioned that you
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: knew some of the people because so.
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: Alex Knewell who won last night. I know Alex because
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: the two of us auditioned together for Glee, and go on.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: I've known you for a year. I know you tried
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: out for Glee.
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: It was, you know, a different iteration of my life,
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: but specifically for the Glee Project, which was like the
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: feeding program into Glee and I was living in Houston
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: at the time. I think sent in like a video.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: On how old high school college?
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: Well, no, no, no, this was post college.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: I was post college, like I'm going to try out
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: for the show Glee or the Glee.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: Prop early twenties, early twenties. Yeah. I remember like texting
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: some of my friends and I was like, could I
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: pass as like a high school student? And they're like, yes,
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: like you could pass as a high school student now,
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: like you know, so auditioned made it through. However, many rounds.
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: They flew us out to LA and one of the
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: first people I met was Alex, and like immediately hit
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: it off with Alex. Was blown away by how incredible
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: Alex's voice was, like from this is I don't know
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: how many years ago, absolutely incredible. I think Alex was
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: coming from high school.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: And Alex goes on to get cast it in Glee.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: You do not, And then now Alex wins best lead
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: in a musical for the role in Shucked.
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: Yes, Shucked.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: Are you close enough with Alex where you would text
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: Alex this morning and be like, no.
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: Not texting me this morning, not texting this morning, but like,
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: you know, we've seen each other in New York, and
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: I've seen Alex perform other shows. But yeah, I'm not
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: like last night. I'm not running to my phone to
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: text Alex kind of thing. But yeah, no, Alex is
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: absolutely incredible. I mean, they're probably like five or six
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: vocalists that I've worked with in my life where I'm like,
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: I sing and I don't understand what you're doing.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: Who are the other vocalists? Give me? I just put
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: on Kosi on and he gave me. Not gonna say
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: stock answers, but you couldn't get wrong saying Bigie, jay
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: Z and Kanye First, the ones that you've seen in person,
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: and then your greatest vocalist in the history. Do you go, Jay, Selene,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: do you go Luther Van Dross, may a woman, you go?
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: Anywhere you want. Let's start with the ones that you've
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: seen in person.
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: Seen and worked with. Alex is probably number one. There's
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: an opera singer I worked with in Houston named Kenneth
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: Gale who performed here at Carnegie Hall maybe two or
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: three months ago. I went and got to see Ken perform.
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: Ken is like just the most powerful voice. That long
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: story to this, but the short version is I was
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: once on a yacht, like in the middle of the
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: ocean as Ken is performing Nesting Dorma and like on
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: the deck of the boat and it's amazing. And then yeah, yeah,
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: two long start yeah. And then I would say probably
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: the third vocalist. There's a singer in Houston, Sarah Golden,
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: who was on the voice and now she does performances
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: for like the Astros, like doing national anthem and stuff.
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: And Sarah just plays the guitar and I wrote some
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: songs and sang with her a bunch when we were
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: in Houston, and Sarah's voice just is outstanding. And then
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: I have another friend from Houston, Trisha Fox, who the
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: two of us sang together and like we Her voice
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: is so different from mine, and yet the two of
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: us sounded like we were siblings, Like our voice is blended.
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: So that's a long thing. So and then the love
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: singers that I would say like their voices are the
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: ones I'm always impressed with Torri Kelly, like for the
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: modern vocalist.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: I loved Kelly in the sing movies. Yes Yeah, beautiful
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: voice in those films.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: There's a video of her on YouTube performing pyt by
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: Michael Jackson, and she has this vocal lick.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: I want to say Tory was one of the original
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: Scooter Braun finds too right, Like didn't Scooter find Toy
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: and help bring.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: Her to fame okay on YouTube? And she's just like
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: sitting there, like playing guitar and singing. And I've worked
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: with other people who've worked with her. I think her
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: voice is unbelievable. There's another current one. Her name's Nao.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: I think it's now. I don't know the actual pronunciation.
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: Her voice does like these octave jumps that are ough incredible,
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: and then like I have to go with like Nina
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: Simone is yea, her voice is. If I could only
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: listen to one thing and it was her voice, I
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: would be completely happy.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: It's just those are not stock answers. You could have
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: very easily, said Mariah Whitney Celine Dion, and you know,
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: here we go. I'm gonna go, Barry Manilo, Luther Vandross
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: whoever you know you want to go. I appreciate those answers.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: This is the most cultured podcast we've ever done. I
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: love this. I love this because I'm a geek for it. Look,
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: I always say this and my wife and I we
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: try to do it as often as possible. We live
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: in New York City. When you choose to live in
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: New York City, if you don't take advantage of the arts,
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: if you don't take advantage of the restaurants, you're not
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: getting the biggest bang for your buck. And you could
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: say New York is dead. You could say that you
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: know it's time to move out and go set up
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: shop in Austin or Malibu or whatever the people want
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: to do. But there might be no cooler night out
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: than a going to see a Broadway show and getting
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: a great meal, or b going to like a small
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: club north of one hundred Street and seeing a musician
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: grind it out, and whether that be Lady Gaga when
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: she was getting started, or whether that be you name it,
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: a young musician. Like, that's pretty cool stuff. Have you
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: ever heard of the Potash Twins. I'm gonna throw you
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: for a loop here, the Potest Twins.
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: You mentioned them like la week. Do you know that?
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: I didn't know them? So I looked them up after that.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: I like, yeah, didn't know them beforehand.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: I'm really rooting for them. They are two twin brothers.
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: They're twenty nine years old. They're from Omaha, Nebraska. They
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: played trombone and trumpet and I got to know what
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: the charity thing last week for Big Slick. They couldn't
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: be greater young men, and like they're really good. And
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: I went on YouTube and on Spotify and it's all
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: originals and that's cool. But what they did at the
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: Big Slick was they played Benny and the Jets and
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: like dueling instruments and it was amazing. And they said
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: that they work with all these hip hop artists and
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: like whether it be t Paine or whether it be Drake,
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: like they've been featured on their stuff. But I don't know,
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: I think that's really cool. Like a young musician who
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: plays trumpet and trombone performing with Drake sounds like it's
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: pretty badass and that's very New York.
• 55:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and one of the great things too, like obviously
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: not everyone can afford to go see a Broadway show.
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: There's so many off Broadway shows, or you can like
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: go see Broadway performers at fifty four below, Like I've
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: seen Broadway stars do these small like cabaret style performances,
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: which is like.
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: Another way Sherry Lane Theater.
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's amazing.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: Unless Etharge and I have become friendly because of her
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: Chief's fandom, and she shows up on the Tony's Last
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: Night like presenting and I'm like, geez, Melissa, so I
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: direct messaged her. I'm like, so great seeing you. She's
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: got a Broadway show called I Think My Window or
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: Come to My Window coming out in September, and it's
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: based on all her book, her song, her soundtracks, all
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: that stuff, and it was off Broadway, and I'm like,
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: that's how it goes, like do you good enough? Off Broadway?
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: Do well enough? It's gonna be a Broadway show. And
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: I'm hoping for her because she's one of the coolest
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: people I've ever met as far as celebrities go. I'm
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: really hoping it's a success. There was another thing I
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: want to say, like that good Night Oscar that Sean
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: Hayes did, Like that started in Chicago and then it
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: was off Broadway here then it was not like that's
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: the stuff, man, that's cool. I love that.
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: Like this is not a new show by any means,
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: but I'd be remiss if we left the episode and
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: I didn't mention these two names. Three names really Hadestown,
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: which I've seen multiple times now I've lucked out and
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: saw it.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen it, you know, I was supposed to
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: see it then then COVID happened and we never went
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: and saw it. But what a Hadestown is supposed to
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: be unbelievable.
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: It is amazing. I mean, like there's no shortage of
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: people on the Internet talking about how great it is.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: I saw it in previews, so I saw the original cast.
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: Amber Gray is like one of the most unique voices.
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: She's no longer with the show. She's She's done a
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: couple of things post Evan Noble Zada who originated the role.
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: Actually I don't know if she originated, but she originated
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: on Broadway. Just incredible, incredible performers in that. Yeah, and
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: it's one of those things where it's amazing to see
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: a show and then also no, like kind of like
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: a sports team like someone else years Yeah, yeah.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: So haitistown one. What are the other two shows? If
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: you're not a New Yorker and you're in town and
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: you're like, you're not a theater person, but you want
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: to see what are the other two suggestions?
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, I love six. I don't know if you've
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: seen six.
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: My wife loved it. I didn't see it's supposed to be.
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: I think it is incredible. Yeah. And then my number
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: three right now, I mean shucked, even though I haven't
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: seen it, I guess my number three. My number three
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: would be like what can you get tickets to? Yeah,
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: and just like surprise yourself with because there are a
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: ton of things, like I said, off Broadway in Brooklyn
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: like that, you never know what it's going to be.
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: Like Yeah, like that Bruce, that Sydney Bluestein's window. You
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: get to see Oscar Isaac and he's like baring his
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: soul and it's like, you know, it's for forty bucks,
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: fifty bucks in person you're watching, you know. The other
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: one was I don't know the name of it, of
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: fans it was at a time, but like Judy Coomer
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: is like just a woven show and you're like, gosh,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: he's the US at their craft and they're doing it.
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: So I don't know.
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: I think there was a stretch where Bam had like
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: Oscar Isaac and then like a month later James McAvoy
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: and I mean, just like doing Shakespeare.
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: They had Bobby conna Olli and rose Byrne together doing something.
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: So anyway, this is the most amazing podcast we've ever done,
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: and that we have probably a bunch of listeners who
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: came in to listen to Kirk Cousin contract analysis, didn't
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: get it from our interview with Quaycy. And then we're
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: ending with talk about Hadestown and trying out for Glee. Aaron,
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: That's why we do it. I get to know you
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: more and more every single time we do this. Hopefully
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: you respect my bona fides as we talk Broadway. Can
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: I hold my own? Yeah? Okay? Good to the listeners,
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: we love that you're listening. We're gonna keep going throughout
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: the off season hopefully guests like this. I thought Quaycy
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: was incredible and to those of you guys who listen,
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: we really appreciate it, and obviously I'd like to thank everyone.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: That's what we do on this thing. So, Aaron, this
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: was maybe one of my favorites we with you, Aaron
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: Wan Kaufman, you are such a man of many talents.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: You are special. Jason English who is always sitting shotgun
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: and listening from iHeart Matt Schneider of course and his
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: team over there with Jason Kleinman and Meredith Batten and
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: David Jurenka and all the folks back in New York.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: And then I want to thank Grace Fuz who has
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: been our editor from day one, is fantastic editing these
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: things together. And then Jack Rudd, who is our music man.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: We appreciate it. Guys, It's the Season with Peter Schregl
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: will hit you next week. Enjoy your Broadway shows. The
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.