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Where Do NFL Players Come From? · NFL explained.

0:06
Speaker 1: NFL Explained is a production of the NFL in partnership
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Speaker 1: walk around with that there are? Is it somewhere safe
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Speaker 1: or absolutely it's somewhere safe, no pun intending? Okay, Oh
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0:52
Speaker 1: a brand new edition of NFL Explained. We have been
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Speaker 1: having an absolute blast doing this show. I'm gonna make
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Speaker 1: you jealous a little bit later on this episode. So
0:59
Speaker 1: that is what we call in the business a tease.
1:02
Speaker 1: We have gone down two out of the five international
1:05
Speaker 1: game MSWY two they have been played. It has been exciting.
1:09
Speaker 1: We've had some dramatic moments. Today. We're actually gonna be
1:11
Speaker 1: talking a little bit about where NFL players are from,
1:14
Speaker 1: both internationally and here domestically, and there's some real nuance
1:19
Speaker 1: on the domestic side and some trends that we found
1:22
Speaker 1: absolutely fascinating. But I know for you, m Rob, you
1:24
Speaker 1: are entrenched in youth football. Explained to me how the
1:28
Speaker 1: league can sort of move this needle internationally and grab
1:31
Speaker 1: even more players because we're seeing a contingent have some
1:34
Speaker 1: success on Sundays. Yeah. Absolutely. First of all, this about
1:37
Speaker 1: finding the best coaches, the best football coaches Football Americano
1:41
Speaker 1: UH coaches in the world, and making sure that the
1:44
Speaker 1: product is being spread and taught by just the best
1:47
Speaker 1: teachers that our game has. And obviously some of the
1:50
Speaker 1: best they're in the National Football League with jobs and
1:53
Speaker 1: leading teams. But to me, it starts there, just how
1:56
Speaker 1: is the game being presented to young people in other countries?
1:59
Speaker 1: How is the game being presented to the fan bases
2:01
Speaker 1: and other countries. That's number one, and number two is
2:03
Speaker 1: just and I think you hear Troy Vincent talk a
2:05
Speaker 1: lot about this, it's just finding those entry points. I
2:08
Speaker 1: think flag football has taken off. It's the fastest growing
2:12
Speaker 1: sport in North America. Girls flag football is also taken off,
2:16
Speaker 1: and it's just finding that entry point that Yeah, maybe
2:19
Speaker 1: eleven on eleven tackle isn't for everybody at first? Maybe
2:25
Speaker 1: maybe this is everybody at first. And honestly, I'm not
2:28
Speaker 1: gonna lie until I went to the World Games and
2:29
Speaker 1: went to the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, over the
2:32
Speaker 1: past year and saw flag football competition live in motion
2:36
Speaker 1: and to see the excitement from the fan basis and
2:39
Speaker 1: the international fan basis and the people with the flags
2:41
Speaker 1: just going crazy. I mean, it did something to me, man,
2:44
Speaker 1: and I think flag football can be that entry point
2:46
Speaker 1: that spreads the game. You Now, some people might be
2:50
Speaker 1: listening to this and said, all right, I'm Robert, I
2:51
Speaker 1: get it. You work for NFL Network, is an NFL podcast.
2:54
Speaker 1: Here's what I can tell you. I remember being in
2:56
Speaker 1: studio and we were doing live hits. You were down
2:59
Speaker 1: and now about, and you were hot because I saw
3:00
Speaker 1: you beating up sweat. You were legit excited. And every
3:06
Speaker 1: time you've had an opportunity to talk about flag football,
3:09
Speaker 1: there is a You're always positive, but there is like
3:11
Speaker 1: this another level of excitement that you have, like you
3:14
Speaker 1: legitimately love it absolutely and the excitement comes from Again.
3:20
Speaker 1: I never thought that flag football can get to a
3:23
Speaker 1: level that maybe people are can make a living off
3:26
Speaker 1: maybe this is something that can be televised and can
3:29
Speaker 1: have a life of its own. And then again to
3:31
Speaker 1: see it in motion in person, to see how excited
3:34
Speaker 1: the fans are about the players, and then it's a
3:36
Speaker 1: totally different game. Really, it's it's not quite playing quarterback
3:40
Speaker 1: and flag football is a little different to player quarterback
3:42
Speaker 1: and eleven on eleven tackle. When I saw the differences
3:45
Speaker 1: and then I saw some of the similarities, I just
3:47
Speaker 1: got excited about it because again, when you see people
3:50
Speaker 1: who criticize the game, they only they criticize the you know,
3:53
Speaker 1: the violence of the physical side of it. When you
3:56
Speaker 1: talk about flag football, that totally alleviates that. And it's
3:58
Speaker 1: funny because you mentioned women's flag football and I saw
4:02
Speaker 1: some of the competition on NFL Network and it got
4:04
Speaker 1: me thinking about being fell and what they've instituted. This
4:07
Speaker 1: International Pathway program which they started in tween. It actually
4:11
Speaker 1: aims to provide international athletes the opportunity to compete and
4:15
Speaker 1: earn a spot on an NFL roster the league and
4:18
Speaker 1: this is really cool host combines and other countries to
4:20
Speaker 1: find talent abroad. One of our friends and colleagues, Maurice Jones,
4:23
Speaker 1: Drew always talks about a lot of these combines and
4:26
Speaker 1: opportunities for players that live abroad to get an opportunity
4:30
Speaker 1: to play in the league. And I know what you're thinking, like,
4:32
Speaker 1: how many dudes actually make it? Well, I got that
4:34
Speaker 1: answer for you. Last year, the NFL posted combines in
4:37
Speaker 1: England and Mexico that included fifties six participants from sixteen countries.
4:42
Speaker 1: Past combine participants who are currently on NFL rosters f
4:46
Speaker 1: a Obada who plays for the Commanders, Yakob Johnson Germany
4:50
Speaker 1: playing for the Raiders, Jordan my Alatta, who just got
4:53
Speaker 1: a huge deal from the Eagles. He obviously is from Australia.
4:57
Speaker 1: So in fact, as we taped this podcast, two international
5:01
Speaker 1: combine is taking place in England. Forty four athletes from
5:04
Speaker 1: a number of country trees across Europe. They're going to participate,
5:07
Speaker 1: with twelve from Nigeria, for from New Zealand to from Mexico,
5:11
Speaker 1: and one from Japan. There are also a number of
5:14
Speaker 1: professional leagues abroad, with the most competitive being in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland,
5:19
Speaker 1: Italy and Japan. Those leagues have been in operation for
5:22
Speaker 1: at least twenty five years. You're talking about former n
5:25
Speaker 1: c Double A Division one athletes that are overseas trying
5:29
Speaker 1: to make this thing a career because they love the sport.
5:31
Speaker 1: In fact, actually one of those college players, Chris mcclarin,
5:34
Speaker 1: who went to Michigan, helped launch the Chinese National Football
5:37
Speaker 1: League in Hell. Yeah, shout out to Chris. That's what
5:40
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. So it feels like there's a lot
5:44
Speaker 1: m rob that is just a hurdle for some of
5:47
Speaker 1: these leagues and momentum to get bigger high schools, secondary schools,
5:51
Speaker 1: just in general. How do you increase that footprint? Do
5:54
Speaker 1: you think? Well, that's a that's a such a deep question. Well,
5:57
Speaker 1: first of all, I talked about before the coaching again,
6:00
Speaker 1: the ambassadors of the league. Obviously, you know former NFL
6:03
Speaker 1: players that go out in Kentuck and speak the story
6:07
Speaker 1: of the National Football League. I think our NFL legends
6:09
Speaker 1: are the best ambassadors of growing the game. But again,
6:13
Speaker 1: the coaching, when these leagues start up in other countries,
6:16
Speaker 1: we we definitely have to make sure the people coaching
6:19
Speaker 1: the fundamentals are coaching it the right way and making
6:21
Speaker 1: sure that the football is being played the right way.
6:23
Speaker 1: That way, some of the injuries that we've seen in
6:26
Speaker 1: our games past doesn't wear it's ugly. Head back up again.
6:29
Speaker 1: But look, my question about our game growing is in
6:33
Speaker 1: some of these other countries. You know, it's not by mistake, Mike,
6:37
Speaker 1: that of the National Football League is African, American are black.
6:41
Speaker 1: I say that by saying based off our status and
6:44
Speaker 1: based off the history that we've had here in America.
6:48
Speaker 1: I've seen it because I run you football, that community
6:52
Speaker 1: chases the dream like no other community I've ever seen.
6:56
Speaker 1: Right Like when some of these communities that I run
6:59
Speaker 1: these youth football leagues out of, it's just you football.
7:03
Speaker 1: And I'm always telling the adults like, do you really
7:06
Speaker 1: have to speak that way to each other? Do you
7:08
Speaker 1: is not that serious? We're playing a game, And I
7:10
Speaker 1: always have to keep reminding them of of you know,
7:13
Speaker 1: our kids supposed to be happy. Our kids are learning
7:15
Speaker 1: how to deal with adversity based off how the adults
7:18
Speaker 1: in their life deal with adversity. And so I always say,
7:21
Speaker 1: even when I talk to guys the league office, Troy
7:23
Speaker 1: Vincent and things like that, as we're growing this league,
7:25
Speaker 1: I'm always looking at the communities and the countries that
7:28
Speaker 1: were going to and if there's enough of that struggle
7:32
Speaker 1: so to speak, or experience so to speak, from the
7:34
Speaker 1: population that will make them go after the game so hard.
7:39
Speaker 1: I think that's vitally important. Does it feel like they're
7:41
Speaker 1: almost hitching the wagon to a dream? Is that a
7:44
Speaker 1: bad way of describing it, um, But I think it's not.
7:49
Speaker 1: I think that's a lot of communities just in general,
7:51
Speaker 1: and and a lot of players that are thinking along
7:54
Speaker 1: those lines, like you and I and and hell you played.
7:56
Speaker 1: You were in the locking room with more guys, certainly
7:58
Speaker 1: than than I've ever been around. I've heard some of
8:01
Speaker 1: those stories where you know specific players, guys that we
8:05
Speaker 1: both know that actually worked at NFL Network that weren't
8:08
Speaker 1: some environments that weren't always the healthiest the safest for them.
8:11
Speaker 1: And in a lot of ways. One guy I'm thinking
8:13
Speaker 1: of in particular, he's like, Yo, the community actually helped
8:16
Speaker 1: me because they were protecting me to make sure that
8:18
Speaker 1: it's like, no, we want this dude out of here.
8:21
Speaker 1: This is his chance, world class athlete. He was a
8:23
Speaker 1: first round pick, played the wide receiver position. He's the
8:25
Speaker 1: guy that I'm thinking of. But that's just one story.
8:27
Speaker 1: There's gotta be a not a million, but there's gonna
8:30
Speaker 1: be a ton of stories and people that have had
8:32
Speaker 1: that similar path tons. I mean, you can almost go
8:34
Speaker 1: by almost all. You know, all the guys that are
8:37
Speaker 1: in all the athletes are in the National Football League,
8:40
Speaker 1: especially the African Americana black ones, a lot of them
8:42
Speaker 1: have that that same experience. I come from the streets
8:45
Speaker 1: of Richmond, Virginia. I always tell people I owe so
8:47
Speaker 1: much to that community. And you know, some of my
8:49
Speaker 1: contemporaries like Mike, why do you say that? And I'm like, well,
8:52
Speaker 1: I needed to go through some of that stuff. I
8:54
Speaker 1: needed to encounter that drug peddler that always tried to
8:58
Speaker 1: get me to buy something from him when I was
8:59
Speaker 1: thirteen years old. I had to encounter him. I had
9:02
Speaker 1: to have that experience to make me the guys that
9:04
Speaker 1: I am right now, and those experien aparances they empower
9:07
Speaker 1: our athletes, and those experiences of what make our athletes
9:10
Speaker 1: tough enough to make it in the Nation Football League,
9:12
Speaker 1: Because Mike, it ain't easy physically and mentally, it definitely
9:15
Speaker 1: ain't easy. Well, we're going to go through some of
9:17
Speaker 1: the numbers and how difficult the path is and put
9:20
Speaker 1: it into perspective. But when it comes to international players
9:23
Speaker 1: having success. He actually saw nine players born internationally that
9:26
Speaker 1: are Pro Football Hall of Famers. One guy in particular
9:29
Speaker 1: that stands out to me Martin Anderson from Denmark. I
9:32
Speaker 1: don't even realized that he was an international test The
9:36
Speaker 1: only one who thinks more and Anderson and like the
9:38
Speaker 1: single you know back in the day. There's a couple
9:43
Speaker 1: other notable current NFL players that were born abroad. I
9:47
Speaker 1: feel like every time I do a highlight on NFL Network,
9:49
Speaker 1: Chase Claypool out of Canada, like his name always pops up.
9:53
Speaker 1: Daniel Hunter is certainly another name. Young Wayku the kicker
9:57
Speaker 1: from Atlanta. Mitch which Nowski, who played at Utah, covered
10:00
Speaker 1: him when he was playing for Kyle Winningham Kyle Hamilton's
10:03
Speaker 1: I don't even know. We just had the draft. I
10:05
Speaker 1: don't even know the come to that was in our
10:07
Speaker 1: research packet. They sent it to us digitally and the
10:10
Speaker 1: real copy I had the hard copy of the digital one.
10:12
Speaker 1: Let me just tell you. It got to the point
10:14
Speaker 1: when I was doing the draft on NFL dot Com,
10:16
Speaker 1: I was talking to our researcher and I would say
10:18
Speaker 1: who was the last pick? Because I couldn't process it. Anymore.
10:22
Speaker 1: You cut it around three and four, You're like, what
10:24
Speaker 1: is going on right now? This thing is moving so
10:26
Speaker 1: darn fast. Our neighbor to the Northea, Canada. They actually
10:30
Speaker 1: currently have the most international players over twelve, safety Javan
10:34
Speaker 1: Holland another guy that actually we talked a whole lot
10:36
Speaker 1: about around the draft, Josh Palmer, the wide receiver. Those
10:39
Speaker 1: guys from Canada. The country with the second most is
10:42
Speaker 1: Nigeria with over ten, including Nelson Agalore the wide receiver,
10:46
Speaker 1: and Manuel Ogba and em the players from the smallest countries,
10:50
Speaker 1: Rakim Nuniez roaches from Belize. You know the population of Belize.
10:54
Speaker 1: How about our research team is so damn good they
10:56
Speaker 1: put them in there. I was like, how big is Belize?
10:58
Speaker 1: I know about Belize? Four and twelve thousand. Yeah, man,
11:03
Speaker 1: we got like, that's like a little city. Um, you
11:06
Speaker 1: actually hung out, if I'm not mistaken on Good Morning
11:08
Speaker 1: Football with the wide receiver from the Bahamas, Michael Strong. Yes,
11:13
Speaker 1: I did. Man. We had some issues trying to say
11:15
Speaker 1: his name. He corrected us, He got us right. It
11:17
Speaker 1: was all good and get your mind right. Danielle Hunter
11:21
Speaker 1: out of Jamaica, an absolute monster from Minnesota, Jamie Gillen
11:24
Speaker 1: out of Scotland. Here we go from the Giants, and
11:27
Speaker 1: a guy that I got to know pretty well, Penney
11:29
Speaker 1: Sewell out of American Samoa. Here's what's wap. Look, we
11:33
Speaker 1: got a lot on America's Samoa here and it's been
11:36
Speaker 1: a pipeline. I think a lot of our fans listening
11:37
Speaker 1: to this podcast are familiar. They're like all of their
11:40
Speaker 1: students in the NFL. Dudes, a college there's a real
11:43
Speaker 1: West coast college contingent there. That is a massive pipeline
11:47
Speaker 1: for some of the big boys up front. And you
11:49
Speaker 1: know this, man, because Penn State, you know, you had
11:51
Speaker 1: some of those what we like to call the country
11:53
Speaker 1: strong dudes, some of those big boys up front out
11:56
Speaker 1: on the West Coast. A lot of the college programs
11:59
Speaker 1: have to go and recruit in America's Samoa, and there
12:01
Speaker 1: is a great tradition of sending players the league. Four
12:04
Speaker 1: are actually in the NFL. The population just check this
12:07
Speaker 1: out here of American smallA is right around just under
12:09
Speaker 1: sixty thousand, which means the chances of making it to
12:12
Speaker 1: the league are about one in fifteen thousand. You know,
12:17
Speaker 1: you're all right. I think someone hears that, it's like, oh,
12:19
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like a great lotto ticket. That's a
12:22
Speaker 1: great lot. It's a great lotto ticket. Just given you
12:25
Speaker 1: context here, a rough estimate in the U S would
12:28
Speaker 1: be one in two hundred thousand that lotto ticket. Now
12:32
Speaker 1: it's going to be American Samoa one. So you are
12:35
Speaker 1: fourteen times more likely to make the NFL if you're
12:38
Speaker 1: born in American Samoa, then then the US and m
12:41
Speaker 1: Rod that actually doesn't top the city of Booty, Louisiana,
12:44
Speaker 1: who had four players in the league at one time
12:47
Speaker 1: from just one town of three thousands. That's something in
12:51
Speaker 1: the water, Mike, gotta be something to jil Man. I
12:53
Speaker 1: just turned forty one. I've been waiting for my growthsburg
12:57
Speaker 1: and the whole entire time. It's just in northern New
13:01
Speaker 1: Jersey where I grew up. The water. It wasn't like that.
13:05
Speaker 1: M Welcome back to the NFL Explained Podcasts, Michael Robinson,
13:15
Speaker 1: Mike am with you, all right, So the world is
13:16
Speaker 1: feeling a little bit smaller here. But how realistic is
13:19
Speaker 1: it that you think, I'm rob we get an international
13:21
Speaker 1: NFL franchise within the next ten years. Um, if you
13:26
Speaker 1: would have asked me that five years ago, I would
13:28
Speaker 1: have doubted you. But now, especially with the explosion. I mean, look,
13:33
Speaker 1: that flag football experience at the World Games was an
13:36
Speaker 1: eye opener for me because I'm telling you, folks, he
13:39
Speaker 1: really does love it. I'm telling you like it was
13:41
Speaker 1: an eye opener because I just didn't know how people
13:45
Speaker 1: outside of the United States would digest the game of football,
13:48
Speaker 1: and to see the love for flag football, just to
13:51
Speaker 1: see the love for the game. I mean, the Mexican
13:54
Speaker 1: women ended up winning the goal down there in Birmingham,
13:57
Speaker 1: and they were bigger fans of the National Football League
14:01
Speaker 1: than I am. And this is my job, this is
14:02
Speaker 1: what I do. I look at film every single day,
14:05
Speaker 1: I mean analyze everything. And they were telling me things
14:08
Speaker 1: about the Seahawks, they were telling me things about the
14:10
Speaker 1: Raiders that still I mean, they knew everything. They knew
14:13
Speaker 1: everything about the game, and so that was an eye
14:16
Speaker 1: opener for me. Um. I do think it's gonna be realistic.
14:20
Speaker 1: I do think that the world is getting smaller, as
14:22
Speaker 1: you mentioned. I do think there will be some small
14:25
Speaker 1: hurdles we gotta get over. I think we gotta understand
14:27
Speaker 1: that these athletes are human beings. And human beings. The
14:31
Speaker 1: body requires recovery. The body requires um stopping, Mike, I'm
14:39
Speaker 1: gonna do that fast. We talk about that on another podcast. Um.
14:43
Speaker 1: But the body requires some stuff. And you know, let's
14:46
Speaker 1: say we get and I can see this happening. A
14:49
Speaker 1: tech giant in China or one of these other rich
14:52
Speaker 1: countries say Hey, I want to participate. I want to
14:56
Speaker 1: be I want to be in the club, I want
14:57
Speaker 1: to own a I want to bring football, the American
15:00
Speaker 1: version of football to the country and open up the
15:03
Speaker 1: gateway that way. Yes, I can see that happening. And
15:05
Speaker 1: I and see the NFL being flexible enough, being showing
15:08
Speaker 1: its ingenuity and being able to, yes, have a franchise
15:12
Speaker 1: off Land, not on the United States, and being able
15:15
Speaker 1: for them when they are on the United States, have
15:17
Speaker 1: a facility and be able to operate. It would be fun.
15:20
Speaker 1: It definitely five international games on the slate this season.
15:25
Speaker 1: To me, it almost makes sense. And I know there's
15:28
Speaker 1: a lot of people way smarter than I am, but
15:29
Speaker 1: I almost feel like, why not just have a division
15:31
Speaker 1: in Europe or globally right, so that you have multiple
15:35
Speaker 1: teams located geographically in the same area, so it does
15:39
Speaker 1: limit some of the travel for a portion of that,
15:42
Speaker 1: and of course the valuations for NFL franchises might tip
15:45
Speaker 1: a little bit with a little more inventory, so the
15:47
Speaker 1: owners might not want something like that. But to me,
15:49
Speaker 1: it would just kind of be cool to have, you know,
15:52
Speaker 1: the Europe Division, It would be cool. And when we
15:56
Speaker 1: had NFL Europe, which was a developmental league for US,
15:59
Speaker 1: it costs each owner. I think somebody told me at
16:01
Speaker 1: around a million dollars or something like that to be
16:04
Speaker 1: able to keep that league going. I say that to say,
16:07
Speaker 1: for anything like that to happen, our owners are going
16:10
Speaker 1: to have to put some money into the messaging, gonna
16:13
Speaker 1: have to put some money into how the game is
16:16
Speaker 1: digested into other countries. And I think they're doing a
16:18
Speaker 1: great job with it with all the international games that
16:20
Speaker 1: we're having. All Right, So we kind of dipped into
16:22
Speaker 1: some numbers and the difficulty of making it in the
16:25
Speaker 1: NFL depending on where you live, but which states actually
16:28
Speaker 1: send the most players to the league? M Rob, did
16:32
Speaker 1: you know there's been six NFL players from your high
16:36
Speaker 1: school from my high school? Six? Oh? Really? Ken Willard
16:40
Speaker 1: me Uh, Dre branch Uh, Jonathan Lewis, Maurice candidate. Yeah,
16:46
Speaker 1: I think I named Okay. By the way, when I
16:48
Speaker 1: threw that your way, I thought it was just gonna
16:50
Speaker 1: like slide out of your mouth th real quick. Nothing
16:55
Speaker 1: wrong with that. Um So, I don't know. You tell
16:56
Speaker 1: me men and Virginia. Is that you know a top
16:58
Speaker 1: three state to produce NFL talent? Well, I think per capita,
17:07
Speaker 1: but just by sure numbers, California, Texas, the Florida's of
17:12
Speaker 1: the world, of the North America probably have better numbers.
17:15
Speaker 1: It's actually a great response your guests on Texas and California.
17:18
Speaker 1: Not not awful here because Texas actually has the most
17:21
Speaker 1: NFL players as a kickoff of this season with a
17:24
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety nine. Florida is second with five in
17:28
Speaker 1: California third with hundred and sixty six. Uh four and
17:32
Speaker 1: five not exactly easy to guess, but I'll put you
17:35
Speaker 1: on the spot five state. They get a lot of
17:41
Speaker 1: recruits from the big thirty three game, which is Pennsylvania, Ohio. Ohio, surprisedly,
17:47
Speaker 1: I think has a lot of guys coming out of this.
17:49
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say Ohio. Uh. Somewhere down south like an
17:52
Speaker 1: Alabama or something like that, or Georgia Gia, Georgia. Good guests,
17:58
Speaker 1: Good guests. I would have guessed New Jersey because, which
18:01
Speaker 1: I know sounds kind of odd, but I went to
18:03
Speaker 1: high school in New Jersey and I do know that
18:05
Speaker 1: high school football New Jersey is huge, So I thought
18:08
Speaker 1: that there was a chance for my home state. Not
18:10
Speaker 1: the case, but ding ding ding for you. George actually
18:13
Speaker 1: trails California with a hundred and fifty one, only fourteen
18:16
Speaker 1: players behind California, despite being almost three times smaller. Ohio
18:22
Speaker 1: a fairly distant fifth seventy four NFL players. Dive into
18:26
Speaker 1: the numbers a bit here, a little more deeper, and
18:29
Speaker 1: you can look at who actually produces the most players
18:32
Speaker 1: per capita, which is really the number that matters the most. Right,
18:36
Speaker 1: it's Georgia. Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are in the top four.
18:40
Speaker 1: There's a ton of talent in those areas. The South,
18:42
Speaker 1: em rob you know, they love football. Smaller communities like I, look,
18:46
Speaker 1: they're not big settings, right, Like, I don't think of
18:49
Speaker 1: them as having huge resources. So like, how do you
18:52
Speaker 1: explain it? Well? Um, can I just be honest? Yeah,
18:56
Speaker 1: don't lie to me, slavery, Um, that's a dark history.
19:01
Speaker 1: Our past in America. And again when you look into
19:04
Speaker 1: the history of of where some of these slave camps
19:07
Speaker 1: were and where plantations were and things like that, a
19:09
Speaker 1: lot of these genetics just haven't left the area. And
19:13
Speaker 1: let's be honest, right when you talk about some of
19:15
Speaker 1: these areas, some of these players are faster, bigger, stronger
19:19
Speaker 1: th That's just the way it goes. There's not there's
19:21
Speaker 1: not no mistake. Why you know, the bear Bryants to
19:24
Speaker 1: the world, even Joe paternal for while they look down
19:27
Speaker 1: in the South to get a lot of their talent,
19:29
Speaker 1: And to me, it's because of the bloodlines that have
19:32
Speaker 1: resided down there ever since that dark past, ever since
19:34
Speaker 1: that dark time time in history, that just hadn't gone anywhere.
19:38
Speaker 1: And Rob, here's another thing that to circle back on
19:40
Speaker 1: something we talked about a little bit earlier. In Georgia
19:43
Speaker 1: and Louisiana sending approximately one out of every seventy thousand
19:47
Speaker 1: residents to the League. What's kind of a mind boggling number,
19:51
Speaker 1: one out of every seventy thousand. Yeah, you're you're more
19:54
Speaker 1: than twice as likely to go to the league if
19:56
Speaker 1: you're from those two states. Then if you are from Texas,
19:59
Speaker 1: which I wouldn't have guessed that. I mean either Texas
20:03
Speaker 1: Lives Eat Slaves football Man. Welcome back to the NFL
20:13
Speaker 1: Explained Podcasts. Michael Robinson, Mike dam with you. You know
20:16
Speaker 1: at the top of the show, I said I would
20:17
Speaker 1: make you jealous, right, yeah, you don't like people are
20:19
Speaker 1: sliding into my d M, d D. I'm not jealous.
20:22
Speaker 1: My wife listens. I love my wife. Maybe I don't
20:26
Speaker 1: want nobody in my d M. That's Mike Yam saying
20:28
Speaker 1: he likes this like that. It's not like that. Although
20:32
Speaker 1: I do screenshot all of the questions, we have a
20:34
Speaker 1: nice little NFL Explained text, Rade, do you actually have
20:37
Speaker 1: been impressed by some of the questions that we've been getting?
20:40
Speaker 1: So I promise, if you have a question about the
20:42
Speaker 1: NFL you don't know who to ask, you want us
20:43
Speaker 1: to cover a topic, you can slide into either one
20:46
Speaker 1: of our d M SAM slide into mine, and I
20:49
Speaker 1: promise we'll work that into you one of our male
20:52
Speaker 1: Bag episodes coming up in just a bit. But m
20:55
Speaker 1: rob you want to go real deep on this because
20:57
Speaker 1: we can go there. Okay, Um, NFL rosters from week
21:01
Speaker 1: one by city. This is crazy to me, so Houston,
21:04
Speaker 1: Texas and Miami, Florida tops of the list, both nineteen
21:07
Speaker 1: a piece, Detroit, Michigan sitting at sixteen, Tampa fifteen. How
21:11
Speaker 1: about this one, Bradens In Florida fourteen. One in every
21:16
Speaker 1: four thousand residents are going to the league from there.
21:19
Speaker 1: How's that even possible? No idea? Man, have you been
21:23
Speaker 1: to Bradens In No, I haven't even heard of it.
21:26
Speaker 1: This show, I'm gonna be totally honest with people. I mean,
21:29
Speaker 1: it's all go up, you know. Yeah. You talked about
21:32
Speaker 1: my high school and even though we're pretty good, we
21:34
Speaker 1: won the state title in one One of my best
21:37
Speaker 1: friends is the high school coach there. He's head football coach.
21:39
Speaker 1: The four high schools with the most players in NFL
21:42
Speaker 1: are all from Florida. Wow, that's crazy. So I keep
21:47
Speaker 1: hearing about like I amg academy and all this stuff. Now,
21:51
Speaker 1: the first I had ever heard about something like this.
21:55
Speaker 1: You have friends that played pro tennis? No, okay, I
21:58
Speaker 1: just curious because you're an athlete and like I know you'll,
22:00
Speaker 1: all you do is just kind of roll in the same. Yeah, professionally,
22:03
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong. I have some some friends that
22:05
Speaker 1: plus at that certain point they stopped. Okay, So what
22:09
Speaker 1: I remember when I was covering tennis earlier in my career,
22:12
Speaker 1: I was always fascinated by the young guys who were
22:15
Speaker 1: and females too. They would go down to these schools
22:18
Speaker 1: down in floor and like live there and train them
22:21
Speaker 1: all year round. And I think that might be an
22:23
Speaker 1: answer to why Texas, California, Florida has so much success
22:27
Speaker 1: because you know, we talked about genetics a little bit
22:29
Speaker 1: earlier here on the podcast. But whether I actually think
22:33
Speaker 1: makes a difference where I grew up in the northeast,
22:35
Speaker 1: like you know, man like when it comes, yeah, like
22:38
Speaker 1: that it actually hurts. The winter is coming, like actually hurts.
22:42
Speaker 1: The summertime it's so humid where you just don't even
22:45
Speaker 1: want to go outside and practice. And so yeah, I
22:47
Speaker 1: agree some of those areas the weather does play a
22:50
Speaker 1: huge point, especially especially when you talk about some of
22:53
Speaker 1: the southern states like Texas, weather definitely comes into play. Okay,
22:56
Speaker 1: let's wrap up here with a little quarterback talk, because
22:59
Speaker 1: it's it's football talks. So it comes down to the
23:01
Speaker 1: to the signal callers. Only two quarterbacks from the same
23:05
Speaker 1: high school not named Peyton and Eli, who Both went
23:09
Speaker 1: to Istore Newman High School in Louisiana. So the only
23:12
Speaker 1: two quarterbacks from the same high school not named Peyton
23:15
Speaker 1: and Eli to win a Super Bowl are Drew Brees
23:18
Speaker 1: and Nick Foles. How did I know that? You didn't
23:22
Speaker 1: know that? Yeah? I feel like when Nick Foles was
23:24
Speaker 1: leading the Eagles during a Super Bowl run, I felt
23:27
Speaker 1: like that was That's something we talked about. He and
23:29
Speaker 1: Drew Brees went to Westlake High School in Austin, Texas.
23:31
Speaker 1: Not to be out done here, Emerrad, how about Bobby Lane.
23:34
Speaker 1: The dude won three NFL championships in the fifties, defending
23:37
Speaker 1: Super Bowl champ Matthew Stafford. Both of those dudes went
23:40
Speaker 1: to Highland Park High in Dallas. That one you did
23:44
Speaker 1: not know. I'm not that much of a historian of
23:50
Speaker 1: the game, all right. You you obviously had a lot
23:52
Speaker 1: of success as a quarterback at Penn State. We highlighted
23:55
Speaker 1: a lot of things that you did really well. Um,
23:58
Speaker 1: most quarterbacks from a specific state, anyone come to mind
24:01
Speaker 1: any of the guys that you played with? Two, I
24:04
Speaker 1: would guess California. Just again, whether size of the state
24:09
Speaker 1: all the above, not a bad guess. Texas, Most quarterbacks
24:12
Speaker 1: with seven Calie five, Georgia four, Florida three, and Hawaii
24:16
Speaker 1: to How about this one? How about this one? Here
24:20
Speaker 1: we go two dudes, sam High School to A and
24:25
Speaker 1: Marcus Mariota Saint Louis School in Honolulu. That's crazy. That's crazy.
24:31
Speaker 1: And you know what I feel like when I was young,
24:33
Speaker 1: every time I've seen Hawaii play on television, they were
24:36
Speaker 1: just throwing the ball like for so many yards. That
24:39
Speaker 1: may come into play as to why they get so
24:41
Speaker 1: many quarterbacks. There's some talent that's out there for sure,
24:44
Speaker 1: and they love football in that state, specific areas schools.
24:48
Speaker 1: Any rhyme or reason on the four and five star
24:50
Speaker 1: talent that they produce, oh man um, I don't think
24:53
Speaker 1: it's that much of rhymo reason, but I do think
24:55
Speaker 1: again in areas where they're heavy populations of black or
24:59
Speaker 1: African American communities, Yeah, you're gonna see the passion for
25:03
Speaker 1: the sport. You're gonna see the drive to get to
25:06
Speaker 1: the national football it's just a little bit more intensified
25:08
Speaker 1: again based off of the history. Alright, One other note,
25:12
Speaker 1: I throughout Alaska a little bit earlier, largest state by
25:15
Speaker 1: by size by mass Alaska only thirteen NFL players ever
25:20
Speaker 1: or right now ever? Yeah, yeah, evere. I thought it
25:25
Speaker 1: would have been at least man. No, it's cold, it's cold.
25:30
Speaker 1: I get it. I know. I made reference to it
25:32
Speaker 1: a little bit earlier. If you have some questions about
25:35
Speaker 1: the NFL things that you want answered, please send us
25:39
Speaker 1: those notes. You can follow us on social media at
25:41
Speaker 1: Mike Underscore. Yeah, at Real Mike Rob on Twitter, and
25:45
Speaker 1: that's also your I G handle too at Real Underscore
25:49
Speaker 1: Mic Underscore Rob. That's the only difference. I'm like, oh, wow,
25:51
Speaker 1: you have to use the underscore too, I know, man,
25:53
Speaker 1: somebody had it. Man, you know, don't get me started.
25:56
Speaker 1: And there's some people out there to just take your name. Yeah,
25:59
Speaker 1: that's not cool. No, not cool. And he's he's actually
26:02
Speaker 1: a big time people have mine and I have to
26:05
Speaker 1: use an underscore or as well. I always appreciate you
26:07
Speaker 1: guys listening. And of course, where do players come from? Well,
26:10
Speaker 1: we just explained it to you.