Latest / The Craig Way Show / Roschon Johnson on Bears' Offseason, Longhorns in the NFL, BrainVault

Transcript

Roschon Johnson on Bears' Offseason, Longhorns in the NFL, BrainVault · The Craig Way Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to The craig Way Show and the Voice
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: of the Longhorns.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Craig Way.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Follow Craig on social media at Horn Voice.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: We want to be back to the program this afternoon.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: It's not often that we come back from a break
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: here on The Craigway Show with Texas Fight, even though
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: we are the flagship station of the long Horns, even
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: though I am the play by play voice of the Longhorns,
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: we don't do it that often, but we do it
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: on special occasion. We do have special occasion there because
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: we're visiting with a lifetime Longhorn, a guy who not
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: only is the pride of Port Arthur, Texas and certainly
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: a big pride of the Texas Longhorns, but making a
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: lot of people proud of what he's doing with the
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Chicago Bears in the NFL. Roshawn Johnson joins us now Row,
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: I appreciate the time, and especially as training camp is
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: winding down and you guys are getting ready for the
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: start of the season.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: How you holding up through all this?
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, man, thanks for having me on.
• 1:09
  Speaker 5: Craig Feeling good man, Just you know, glad to be
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: up and healthy and you know, back playing ball. Again
• 1:15
  Speaker 5: and looking to make some noise this season. So yeah,
• 1:18
  Speaker 5: I'm just glad to be back.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: I want you to hear a sound by This is
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: from from your head coach down here. Steve Sarkisi said
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: it just this morning at practice when he was asked
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: a question about intensity of practice in fall camp and
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: getting ready for the season and how there have been examples,
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: went from when he first got here on how to
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: do it right.
• 1:38
  Speaker 6: We're practicing fast, we're practicing hard, we're practicing physical, and
• 1:43
  Speaker 6: when you don't right now, you stand out. You know,
• 1:46
  Speaker 6: it used to be the other way around here we
• 1:48
  Speaker 6: first got started. You know, when de marve on Overshowing
• 1:50
  Speaker 6: or Roshawn Johnson practiced really hard, they stood out because
• 1:54
  Speaker 6: maybe not everybody else was. Now everybody else goes really
• 1:58
  Speaker 6: hard and so when you're not stand out the other way.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, see you you and Demo.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Were setting an example back in the day, I imagine
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: for hard practice. How did that And we talked about
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: it after games in the past when he played at
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Texas about how hard and you and to Marvi and
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: and Bijean and and several other guys who worked so
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: hard in practice, how did that become habit for you
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: and how has that helped you now that you're taken
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: the next step and you're getting ready to enter your
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: fourth year in the NFL.
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, I think we had some great competition down
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: there on the forty Acres.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Like you said, I mean, you're going against.
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: The Marvion Oversawan, like you better bring it because he's
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: gonna bring it every day. So there was a lot
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: of iron shopping and iron down there on that campus
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: while I was down there. And yeah, I feel like
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: we just had a mentality that we, for one, we
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: took from the guys before us. I mean, I think
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: Sam Elliger did a great job of displaying that to me,
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: as long as guys like Malcolm Rose, Steven Duberne, you know,
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: the list goes on. But yeah, I think it was
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: really really just a mindset and us just wanting to win,
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: us just wanting to like change change the culture.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: While I was there and finding a way to do that.
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: And I mean the only way that.
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: I really knew was you know, hard work, so uh,
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: day in and day out, whether that was you know,
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: competing with Demo or competing with the guys on the
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: offensive side of the ball, like my motto was like,
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: I'm gonna try to be the hardest worker on the team.
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: So I feel like we we definitely as time went on,
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: invited that mindset and.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: Uh, you know, we would surely like to.
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: Have went won more games than you know we won
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: while while I was there. But I think we definitely
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: instilled a culture that uh is uh, you know, prolonging,
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: prolonging today.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's one of the things that Sarks talked that
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: Sark has talked about, is is the culture that was
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: established by you guys. And we bring up these names,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: we bring up Demo, and we bring up Bjeon, and
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: we and we bring up some of the other guys
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: you managed, Malcolm wrote several of the other guys as well.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Several of the guys that you just talked.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: About are uh playing in the NFL now, some are
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: household names obviously in the NFL.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: Here you are getting ready to start your your fourth
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: season with the Bears. How much do you keep in
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: contact with those guys other than you know, we always
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: see the shots after a game. When when college teammates
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: get together, maybe there's a jersey swap or maybe just
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: a hug and well wished and all that. How how
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: would you describe what it's like when you're not seeing
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: them every day as you did as college teammate, but
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: you know that they're in the league and they know
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: you're in the league.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Do you get a chance to keep in touch with
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: these guys.
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: You know, it's obviously not as often, you know, as
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: guys you know go to different teams and you know,
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: lives start to change and you know, the expectancy of
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: the league is very demanding, so obviously the relationships kind
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: of altered, but we all have the same respect. From
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: time to time, we tap back in and you know,
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: text each other and uh, you know, just kind of
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: keep in touch and not as often you know as college.
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I mean, for sure, when we see each other,
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: it's all love and we you know, when we get
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: the opportunity to to you know, reunite, it's just like
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: old times. So yeah, but you know, as guys grow up,
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: guys start to have families, and it's definitely cool to
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: see as you as you grow up and as it
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: just you know, I guess ga game more experience within
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: within the league just to see people's lives change for
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: the better.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: So yeah, but it's all love.
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: Once we once we see each other and get the
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: opportunity to to talk again.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: We're visiting with Rochean, John said here on sports Radio
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: AM thirteen hundred of the Zone. Rochean, one thing that
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: you established in addition to that toughness was how you
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: were willing to contribute and by whatever means, whether it
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: was running the football, catch and the football blocking, and
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: then on special teams as well. And you carried that
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: mindset on to the NFL. You know, the amount of
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: hits we always hear there's a finite amount of hits
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: and it can take its toll. And obviously you've had
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: to battle some injuries as well. How has that mindset
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: for you been able to stay aggressive, to stay physical
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: even in the sport where over time those kinds of
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: hits and things like that can take its toll.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah. We play a barbaric sport, you know, in football.
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: So I try my best to be proactive towards any
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: type of injuries, you know. So I think for me,
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: the most proactive measures that I can take is, for one,
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: knowing what my assignment is and how to do it
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: the best that I can do it.
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: In the smartest and most effective way.
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: And you know that that a lot goes into that,
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: you know, not just from the things that I wear,
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: but how I play as well. So yeah, I feel
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: like I've taken a lot of preventive measures as it
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: pertains to you know, injury on whether it be you know,
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: bodily injury or you know, head injuries, any type of injuries.
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: I feel like I've taken a lot of preventive measures
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: by my diet, my workouts, and even the esssiies that
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: I were on the feld as well. I mean, you
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: might see me with a Guardian cap along with a
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: Q collar and a brainbow mouthpiece that helps me, you know,
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: be as proactive standrides as I can.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: Roachean brings this up in our conversation with Rochan. Is
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: brought to you by a brain vall and you brought
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: it up, so I want to give you a chance
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: to talk about it. This is something that's a mouthguard
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: that has scientifically proven to significantly increase next strength, a
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: key factor in helping reduce the risk of head related injuries.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: This is backed by published science and research, and it's
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: been in the league for like sixteen years. You go
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: back with this a little bit, don't you, And how
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: did you get involved with in it and explain to
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: folks what it does to help make the game safer
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: for you?
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, So as a pertains to the brainball mouth guard, essentially,
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: what it does it aligns your jaw in such a
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: way that is the pressure is evenly distributed within your
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: mouth and which allows your neck to stabilize better.
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: So it essentially acts as as a seat belt for your.
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: Brain within these many collisions that you may take on
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: when you play the game of football. So yeah, I
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: feel like it does a great job and stabilizing my
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: jaw and helping me brace my neck for impact and
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: you know, it helps me dish out the impact as
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: well without taking as much of a toll on my body. Yeah,
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: I feel like it's done great for me thus far,
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: and it's definitely just another tool that I feel like
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: it is something that you can add to the toolbox
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: to prolong you, prolong.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: Your career and just keep you on the field.
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: So yes, it's been great and it's been something that
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: I've I've worn throughout the letter years of my career
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: thus far.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: And I've heard the other former long Horns also been
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: Michael Taff has been one of those guys, and.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: And several of the other guys.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: One of the things I like about it is that
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: they they say to get locked in because of what
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: brain vault can do for you. I mean, like you said,
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: kind of lockch in place so that you can brace
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: for impact by having that mouthpiece in there, right.
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: Yes, it essentially disperses the pressure in which you on
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: your bite force bites down. It disperses it evenly in
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: order for your neck to stabilize better, so on impact
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: you're able to utilize all those muscles, little tiny muscles
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: within your neck in order to reduce, you know, your
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: head from rattling and ultimately reducing the chances of a concussion.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: And then the other thing role I think it's important
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: to point out here what I've heard about it is
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: it's comfortable. A lot of people think, boy, if you're
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: taking preventative measures and you're doing certain things, uh, it's
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: gonna it's gonna take out of your comfort zone and
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: make it make it where you're not comfortable, where your
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: head's not comfortablehere, your mouth isn'tcomfortable.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: That didn't like this with this brain vault piece is it.
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: No, no, no, not not at all. Definitely something that's
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: very very easy, very easy to use, fairly noticeable if
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: any when you where you're able to talk, you're able
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: to move around. It's not something that's spulky or something
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: that gets in the way. I think of it almost
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: like an in visi ligne in a sense. But yeah,
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: I mean it's not not a house at all, I
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: would say.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: And and this is the thing also in hearing from
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: from other guys that while it's been approved and in
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: league used for the past sixteen years and then going
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: all the way back to Sam Bradford was one of
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: the first to do it, is that, uh, there's still
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: there's still an education process, isn't there Just a little
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: word getting out and I imagine you've probably had some
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: teammates asking, hey, what is it you're doing, you know
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: that that sort of thing, and and uh and at
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: that point that bit of curiosity on their their part
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: gives you the opportunity and the platform to educate them
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: on it a little, doesn't it.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you, sir, I feel like that's the most important thing,
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: just kind of knowing what does what and seeing if
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: it makes sense, especially with a lot of guys in
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: the league, I feel like longevity is really really the key.
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: I mean, guys want to play for as long as
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: they can, so I feel like guys are very receptive
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: to that information. And then not just with guys in
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: the league, but you know, kids at the youth level
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: as well. I mean, you want to do anything you
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: can to protect your loved ones and make sure you
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: know they don't they don't have any type of injuries
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: in any regard, but any proactive measures that make sense,
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: I feel like it's an no brainner right.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: The one other thing I wanted to mention that brain
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Vault is currently doing some custom fittings here in Austin
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: at local area high schools and teams groups and all sports.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: And they've also set up fittings at their local office
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: right here in Austin, and you can go to brain
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: vault dot com for more information brain vault dot com.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Roachan.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: Before I'll let you go, I want to ask you
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: about this Bears teamt you guys come off getting into
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: the playoffs, got the big winner for Green Bay, had
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: the heartbreaking loss to the Rams. But I know you
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: guys feel pretty excited about what you have going into
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: this twenty twenty six NFL season.
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, sir, Yeah, most definitely.
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: I think last year was definitely a foundational step in
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: the right direction for this organization. I feel like we
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: learned a lot from that season and what to do
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: and how to handle things and how not to handle things.
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: You know, we had a lot a lot of thriller
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: games that we felt like we deserve to win, and
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: then you know, a lot of games that we did
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: we felt like we didn't have to make so close.
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: So there's a lot of things we can learn from
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: from that season. But at the same time, I think
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: Ben has done a great job of instilling within this
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: team that like that was last year, this is a
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: whole new year and we can't really get complacent with
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: how that result went went for the team. We know
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: the city has a lot of you know, expectation coming
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: in in this year, but in the same sense, I
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: don't think anybody anybody's expectations that trump are. So yeah,
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: we taking the right steps in the right directions and
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: we'll capitalize on it to season.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: Hey, final thing here, I always hear about this from
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: players in whatever sport.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: If you have Texas players.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Former Longhorns former Oklahoma suitters, former aggies on the same
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: team that you guys kind of even if you don't
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: have the friendly wager with one another, we have to
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: wear a jersey or something like that. You guys do
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: kind of give each other a little bit of Greek
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: good natured grief in business. Will that be the be
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: the same with some of your teammates. I know Kayla
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: Williams also played USC clearly, but merely the fact that
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: he was an Oklahoma suiter, and you've got guys from
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: other teams that you went up against when you're in college.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: You guys still give each other a lot of good
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: nature grief about that.
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, Kayla is one of the
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: main ones.
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: He always likes her of that one particular game that
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: he had resus US. But yeah, we always have some
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: you know, friendly banner back and forth as we go
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: throughout the years, and as you know, college football ramps up,
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: and then you know, everybody's obsessed with Texas. Whether you
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: hate them or you love them. Everybody always has something
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: to say about Texas. So uh, we we tend to
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: garner a lot of attention. So uh, I mean I
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: love it. I mean I'm always hard wrapping the school
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: every every Saturday that I get while I'm up here
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: in Chicago. So uh and even you know, I'm it's
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: always cool for me to see from this perspective, because
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: I mean the in the off season, I go back
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: down to Austin and you know, run with the team
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: sometime and uh work out down there at the facility,
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: so I get to see, you know, certain young guys
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: play and uh.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: You know, it's just cool to see from the outside
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: looking in.
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: Now, you know, guys, young guys coming in and working hard,
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: working their way up and.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: Having success on on Saturdays. So yeah, it's it's always fun.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: That's terrific. Hey, ro I appreciate you doing this. Like
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: I said, I know you're getting near the start of
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: the season. It's great to visit with you. Wish you
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: continued health and happiness and uh and we look forward
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: to seeing what you and the Bears do, uh this season.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: I know you'll be looking in on the long runs
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: as well. Thanks much for joining us. Again, I really.
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: Appreciate it, Yes, sir, appreciate you. Correct.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: All right, that's Roshan Johnson.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: And again our conversation with Rochan brought you by brain
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: fault and go to brain vault dot com for more.