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The Life of a Practice Squad Player · NFL explained.

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Speaker 1: NFL Explained is a production of the NFL in partnership
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Speaker 1: with I Heart Radio. It's a brand new edition of
0:17
Speaker 1: the NFL Explained podcast. Mike yam joined by a Super
0:21
Speaker 1: Bowl champ. I've been having so much fun with you
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Speaker 1: on these shows. In the saddle. You good, I'm excellent.
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Speaker 1: My Buffalo Bills one week one, my rebuilt Seattle Seahawks
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Speaker 1: one week one. So I'm pumped up. Of course you
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Speaker 1: should be. You have been the flag bearer for those
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Speaker 1: squads on Total Access when I've been able to work
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Speaker 1: with you. But look at the end of the day,
0:41
Speaker 1: where you're all huge NFL fans, and what we try
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Speaker 1: to do on this podcast is really educate people around
0:46
Speaker 1: different aspects of the game. Now when you watch on
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Speaker 1: a Sunday, there's so many things that are happening, even
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Speaker 1: just away from football that I think fans aren't always
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Speaker 1: aware of. You got stadium operations, broadcast teams are all
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Speaker 1: watching the games, the technology around some of it. M
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Speaker 1: Rob though, I think there's another piece that doesn't get
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Speaker 1: enough love when we talk about what actually happens on
1:08
Speaker 1: the football field. You were on the fifty three man roster,
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Speaker 1: You're not necessarily worried about your role, but maybe just
1:14
Speaker 1: a little bit, but look at the end of the
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Speaker 1: day to get ready. We keep hearing this phrase and
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Speaker 1: it was big. If anyone watched Hard Knocks with the Lions,
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Speaker 1: you know this idea of the practice squad. So today
1:25
Speaker 1: on the NFL Explained podcast, we're gonna look at life
1:28
Speaker 1: on that practice squad to paint the picture of what
1:31
Speaker 1: it's actually like for some of these players in the
1:33
Speaker 1: conversations behind the scenes about guys that do still need
1:36
Speaker 1: to help out their squad. Well, first of all, I
1:38
Speaker 1: want our listeners to understand the fifty three guys or
1:41
Speaker 1: the forty six, because that's what's actually eligible to play
1:45
Speaker 1: on game day. The forty six plus the third string
1:47
Speaker 1: quarterback forty six they go out there that you see
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Speaker 1: on television every Sunday. There's a lot more that goes
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Speaker 1: into that team taking the field than just those guys
1:55
Speaker 1: going to meetings and going on the practice field. There's
1:57
Speaker 1: a whole group of guys the practice squad that their
2:00
Speaker 1: task which showing the squad the other team. Meaning if
2:04
Speaker 1: you're trying to service your defense right, the practice squad
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Speaker 1: has to recreate the opponent's offense. And do their plays,
2:12
Speaker 1: kind of be their players and give the starting defense
2:15
Speaker 1: a good look and vice versa. Right scout defense they
2:18
Speaker 1: have to be in the right defense, is the right shelves,
2:20
Speaker 1: the right things that the players do. And these practice
2:24
Speaker 1: squad players, they're not only the good teams. What they
2:27
Speaker 1: do with their practice squad players, they still use the
2:30
Speaker 1: same verbage that they use in their schemes offensively and defensively,
2:34
Speaker 1: So you provide an element of cross training to it.
2:37
Speaker 1: But there hasn't been a Super Bowl champion team that's
2:40
Speaker 1: happened throughout history that hadn't had a practice squad. They're
2:44
Speaker 1: very important. You actually touched on something that's really important.
2:46
Speaker 1: It's something that we will dive deep into. When you've
2:49
Speaker 1: mentioned verbage. Now you know, we did have our episode
2:52
Speaker 1: about play calling and why that's significant. If you're in
2:55
Speaker 1: a practice squad, that doesn't mean you're gonna be playing
2:57
Speaker 1: for that team. You might actually end up on another roster.
3:00
Speaker 1: There are some rules and regulations around some of that stuff,
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Speaker 1: which we'll get to coming up here on this podcast.
3:05
Speaker 1: But you touched on an NFL roster. It's made up
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Speaker 1: of fifty three spots, but each team can have up
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Speaker 1: to sixteen other players on the practice squad. Now that
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Speaker 1: number is actually increased from ten in twenty twenty, and
3:17
Speaker 1: it was in response to the pandemic, but it was
3:19
Speaker 1: voted on by the NFL and the nfl PA to
3:21
Speaker 1: keep those expanded rosters, which I think is actually kind
3:24
Speaker 1: of level. Means some extra jobs and some less tough
3:28
Speaker 1: decisions for teams as they're trying to navigate some of
3:30
Speaker 1: those rosters. But right now, of the six team players
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Speaker 1: on the practice squad, six of them can have unlimited
3:37
Speaker 1: experience in the NFL, and ten players need to have
3:40
Speaker 1: two or fewer accrued seasons in the league. In additional
3:44
Speaker 1: all that in, the NFL actually randomly selects a division
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Speaker 1: each year whose team can each add one additional international
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Speaker 1: player to their practice squad as part of the International
3:54
Speaker 1: Player Pathway program. Currently, all four teams in the a
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Speaker 1: f C South have added international players in accordance with
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Speaker 1: the international program, but none have actually made the fifty
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Speaker 1: three man roster. To me, it is pretty cool. It's
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Speaker 1: one of these big initiatives that the NFL has had,
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Speaker 1: and it does open up the door to get some
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Speaker 1: of these players who don't necessarily have that college experience
4:13
Speaker 1: an opportunity to really thrive and learn how to play.
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Speaker 1: But how do these extra players, how do they help
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Speaker 1: NFL teams? Well, I'm glad you explained how the practice
4:24
Speaker 1: squad rosters are made up. You know, ten of those guys,
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Speaker 1: ten of the sixteen or guys that have been on
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Speaker 1: NFL rosters for two or less years. Right, that's a
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Speaker 1: big deal. That's really with the practice squad as for
4:35
Speaker 1: as development. What was added was the six players with
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Speaker 1: unlimited experience. And I say that's important because I got
4:42
Speaker 1: to a point in my career where I was no
4:44
Speaker 1: longer eligible for the practice squad and if sixteen guys
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Speaker 1: with that extra six was added when I was, you know,
4:50
Speaker 1: thinking about retirement, I may still be playing. Because at
4:53
Speaker 1: the end of the day, practice squad ain't a terrible job.
4:56
Speaker 1: Like it's not like I tell people all the time.
4:58
Speaker 1: If your team is playing away, you may work three
5:01
Speaker 1: days that week. You come in Monday, you're watching the
5:05
Speaker 1: previous weeks games, so you really didn't have much to
5:08
Speaker 1: do with that. You know that that week game, so
5:10
Speaker 1: you're not looking at the film with with that type
5:12
Speaker 1: of eye where you're evaluating yourself. So you may come
5:14
Speaker 1: in get a lift, and then you go home. Tuesdays
5:17
Speaker 1: the player's day off, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of those
5:21
Speaker 1: days that you work, and if the team is playing away,
5:23
Speaker 1: oftentimes they travel on Friday. If they change time zones
5:26
Speaker 1: and you don't travel, you stay at home. So you
5:30
Speaker 1: get paid. And I know we're gonna go on how
5:31
Speaker 1: much these guys get paid every single week. But you're
5:33
Speaker 1: gonna get paid X amount of dollars for three days
5:35
Speaker 1: of work. It's a pretty good gig. And for me,
5:38
Speaker 1: I was on that fifty three man roster and I
5:40
Speaker 1: was a fullback, and most rosters, if you have a fullback,
5:43
Speaker 1: it's only one, it's only one on the roster. So
5:47
Speaker 1: in days and weeks, especially late in the season, Mike,
5:49
Speaker 1: where you know, Coach Carroll was trying to take care
5:52
Speaker 1: of us right where we went wearing past as much
5:55
Speaker 1: I knew, I still had to have a physical job
5:59
Speaker 1: during the week. If I did not get my neck
6:01
Speaker 1: and my shoulders some type of contact, I would get
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Speaker 1: a stinger on Sunday and it would totally mess my
6:08
Speaker 1: game up. And so we had a practice squad. Player's
6:10
Speaker 1: name was Mike Morgan. Okat he went to sc played
6:13
Speaker 1: with Pete Carroll, always been on Pete Carroll's teams, but
6:16
Speaker 1: he was one of our practice squad guys. And this
6:18
Speaker 1: is what I loved about mikey Mo. We called him
6:20
Speaker 1: mikey Mo. Mike would be coming off the field and
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Speaker 1: I would say, hey, Mike, look, man, I need you
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Speaker 1: to go put on some pads. Bro Like, I know,
6:28
Speaker 1: we just practiced for two hours. I know you're tired.
6:31
Speaker 1: You're on the show scout team for offense, the Show
6:33
Speaker 1: Scout team for defense. You're running on special teams giving
6:36
Speaker 1: us the show. You are just as tired as I am.
6:39
Speaker 1: But I need to bang, man, I need I need
6:41
Speaker 1: this contact. Could you go in, put on your helmet
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Speaker 1: and show the pass? And I need about fifteen reps
6:46
Speaker 1: of us just running into something a little bit. I
6:48
Speaker 1: know it sounds a little weird, but I played fullback.
6:52
Speaker 1: That was my job and if I didn't have that
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Speaker 1: during the week, I couldn't do my job on Sunday.
6:55
Speaker 1: So practice squad players are vital, and oftentimes the championship teams,
7:01
Speaker 1: the practice squad guys go above and beyond to make
7:04
Speaker 1: sure that their guys are ready to play on Sundays.
7:06
Speaker 1: Kind of fascinating to hear something like this because it
7:08
Speaker 1: almost sounds like a de facto coach. And hear me
7:11
Speaker 1: out on this because you know, I spent a lot
7:12
Speaker 1: of time in my career also covering basketball, and you'd
7:15
Speaker 1: hear this where basketball player would need to say to
7:17
Speaker 1: a coach like, Hey, can we show up six am?
7:19
Speaker 1: Can you meet me at the gym? I need someone
7:20
Speaker 1: to rebound for me. And look, it's different because most
7:23
Speaker 1: coaches aren't gonna trap it up. Look on time at practice.
7:28
Speaker 1: I will tell you about that on another episode. I
7:31
Speaker 1: actually do want to hear that story. But that's that's
7:33
Speaker 1: pretty cool how many of those guys actually embrace it,
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Speaker 1: because I got to think from a mental standpoint, most
7:38
Speaker 1: of these guys feel like, hey, I can really contribute.
7:41
Speaker 1: I should be playing on Sundays. And in a lot
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Speaker 1: of ways, it's just about getting the dudes who are
7:48
Speaker 1: going to be playing ready. Yeah, you know, I'm not
7:50
Speaker 1: gonna go and say names. But when I played for
7:52
Speaker 1: the San Francisco forty Niners, it just showed a difference
7:55
Speaker 1: in the culture of the teams at the time. Now
7:58
Speaker 1: this was back in you know, the two thousand nine
8:00
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight seasons when I played for the
8:02
Speaker 1: San Francisco forty Niners got to the Seahawks. But when
8:06
Speaker 1: I was with the forty Niners, we weren't a very
8:08
Speaker 1: good football team for four years. Every practice squad guy
8:11
Speaker 1: we got, you can tell they were just using the
8:15
Speaker 1: practice squad as a mode to get another job somewhere else.
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Speaker 1: They didn't really want to be there. They wouldn't want
8:20
Speaker 1: to stay after, they wouldn't want to do the extra
8:23
Speaker 1: to get us ready. And then as a player, you
8:24
Speaker 1: don't want to say, man, I'm gonna go to the
8:26
Speaker 1: coach and tell a coach that you you don't want
8:29
Speaker 1: to do that. But at the end of the day,
8:30
Speaker 1: you sometimes you need practice squad guys to do a
8:33
Speaker 1: little bit extra. And yeah, it's a testament to the cultures.
8:36
Speaker 1: And when I was in San Francisco before coach Harball
8:38
Speaker 1: got there, we had a losing culture and practice square
8:42
Speaker 1: guys didn't do the extra. When I got to Seattle,
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Speaker 1: it was a testament to what John Snyder and and
8:47
Speaker 1: the type of guys that John Snyder and Pete Carroll
8:49
Speaker 1: actually brought into the building. There was never a guy
8:52
Speaker 1: that turned me down for the extra work. There was
8:54
Speaker 1: never a guy that I knew that turned Russell okung
8:56
Speaker 1: or somebody offers the lineman down for extra work. So clearly,
8:59
Speaker 1: and you alluded to it there, these guys are are
9:02
Speaker 1: not doing it for free. They are being compensated. There's
9:05
Speaker 1: some rules regulations around some of this stuff, which we'll
9:07
Speaker 1: get to, but you have any idea and Rob, what
9:09
Speaker 1: some of those checks look like? No, Okay, So when
9:12
Speaker 1: I played, I think a practice squad got got about
9:16
Speaker 1: nine K for the year. You know what I'm saying.
9:20
Speaker 1: And so yeah, so nine d K for sixteen seventeen
9:24
Speaker 1: weeks and you only work in three days a week. Man,
9:26
Speaker 1: that's a pretty good gig. It's it's not it's not bad.
9:29
Speaker 1: It's it's good if you can get it, and especially
9:30
Speaker 1: if it leads to a job on a fifty three
9:32
Speaker 1: man rosters. So here's what we got for you. As
9:35
Speaker 1: far as the weekly paycheck, the c b A actually
9:37
Speaker 1: dictates a fixed amount of money for practice squad players,
9:40
Speaker 1: but salary guarantees, bonuses and incentives are actually barred from
9:44
Speaker 1: being part of practice squad contracts. We should know what
9:47
Speaker 1: the salaries. By the way, the practice squad guys do
9:50
Speaker 1: not hit the team's salary cap. Rookies and second year
9:54
Speaker 1: players who are on the fifty three man roster for
9:56
Speaker 1: eight or fewer games as a rookie actually received the
9:59
Speaker 1: same weekly pay and for the two season, that's eleven thousand,
10:04
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars per week. Now that's going to increase
10:07
Speaker 1: each year untill twenty thirty when they could make sixteen thousand,
10:11
Speaker 1: seven hundred and fifty dollars a week. Keep hearing about inflation.
10:14
Speaker 1: Let's roll here. May see that means of a rookie
10:18
Speaker 1: or a player in their second years on the practice
10:20
Speaker 1: squad for all eighteen weeks of the NFL season, they'll
10:23
Speaker 1: make an annual salary of two hundred and seven thousand dollars,
10:27
Speaker 1: which is really not chump chains. That's not bad. That's
10:30
Speaker 1: some decent coins there. I know it's on Aaron Rodgers money.
10:32
Speaker 1: But the point is like that's still you're you're a
10:35
Speaker 1: professional player at that point. If you are a second
10:38
Speaker 1: year player and that was on the fifty three man
10:41
Speaker 1: roster for eight or more games as a rookie, the
10:44
Speaker 1: pay scales a little different each week. There's a minimum
10:46
Speaker 1: and a maximum pay scale in twenty two, you can
10:49
Speaker 1: be paid a minimum of fifteen thousand, four hundred and
10:53
Speaker 1: up to nineteen thousand, nine hundred a week. So it's
10:56
Speaker 1: a arrange really over the course of the year of
10:59
Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy seven thousand to about three hundred
11:02
Speaker 1: and sixty thousand. So once again there's some cash to
11:05
Speaker 1: be made for some of these players. It is some
11:07
Speaker 1: cash to be made. And what I used to tell
11:09
Speaker 1: practice squad guys all the time, it's live bro. This
11:12
Speaker 1: is an opportunity for you to save your money and
11:14
Speaker 1: invest it right to money principles. Right, save some of
11:18
Speaker 1: your money so that you have something for when you
11:20
Speaker 1: You never know when your last player is gonna be
11:22
Speaker 1: in this league, So save a little bit of that
11:23
Speaker 1: money invested so you can grow it. Like there were
11:26
Speaker 1: times when I was just listening to with Larry Allen
11:28
Speaker 1: when I was in San Francisco, just listening to him
11:31
Speaker 1: talk to his financial people, and it helped a lot.
11:34
Speaker 1: Helped me get out of the two thousand and eight
11:36
Speaker 1: two thous financial crisis and helped me thrive in that
11:39
Speaker 1: environment just listening to Big Homie and what he was doing.
11:42
Speaker 1: So again, save your money and also have an opportunity
11:46
Speaker 1: to grow it. How many guys did you play with
11:49
Speaker 1: that word? Understood that they probably weren't going to be
11:51
Speaker 1: playing on Sundays, but at the same time, knew that
11:55
Speaker 1: they had some legs right, like, they had an ability
11:57
Speaker 1: to be a practice squad player, and just sort of
11:59
Speaker 1: embrace that and knew, this is my path to being
12:03
Speaker 1: successful and making some of those connections that you're talking about,
12:06
Speaker 1: the ones that you've seen in the National Football They
12:08
Speaker 1: actually make it from the practice squad. Actually, you know,
12:11
Speaker 1: guys that don't get drafted go to a practice squad,
12:13
Speaker 1: get on the active roster, and never go back to
12:16
Speaker 1: the practice squad. The reason why they like that is
12:19
Speaker 1: because they're cut a little bit differently, they're able to
12:21
Speaker 1: get on the practice squad. Understand Look, this doesn't necessarily
12:24
Speaker 1: mean that I'm not good enough to play in the
12:27
Speaker 1: National Football League. Oftentimes guys are on practice squad because
12:30
Speaker 1: of the guy in front of them making a lot
12:32
Speaker 1: more money. It's a business decision, but the team wants
12:35
Speaker 1: to keep you in their circumforts of influence, so they
12:37
Speaker 1: put you on the practice squad, and the guys that
12:39
Speaker 1: are enthusiastic about it usually come off on the better side.
12:51
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the NFL, explains Mike m and m
12:53
Speaker 1: Rob with you. I'm gonna ask you to We had
12:56
Speaker 1: just had an episode where we were talking about college
12:58
Speaker 1: players and more specifically, which universities do the best job
13:02
Speaker 1: of creating NFL talent, which, by the way, it's a muscle.
13:05
Speaker 1: Listen to episod haven't you can go and check it out.
13:08
Speaker 1: I want you to flash back to your day as
13:09
Speaker 1: a Penn State because I've been around this a lot
13:12
Speaker 1: and I think it is still one of the coolest
13:13
Speaker 1: things that happens in college football, and I think we
13:16
Speaker 1: have someone of an equivalent on the NFL side. You
13:19
Speaker 1: know that moment when a dude goes from non scholarship
13:22
Speaker 1: walk onto all of a sudden getting that scholarship, and
13:25
Speaker 1: how the entire team erupts. I would imagine when a
13:29
Speaker 1: guy has been on the practice squad and all of
13:31
Speaker 1: a sudden gets that call from the general manager and
13:33
Speaker 1: he's got an opportunity. It's got a feel kind of similar, right, yeah, man, Well,
13:38
Speaker 1: first of all, first of all, when a practice squad
13:41
Speaker 1: god gets called up. The first thing and again our
13:45
Speaker 1: listeners have to understand, Okay, oftentimes because of injury. Because
13:49
Speaker 1: of the way that the NFL weeks go, sometimes these
13:53
Speaker 1: guys don't find out until late in the week. Sometimes
13:56
Speaker 1: they don't find out till the Thursday or Friday before
13:58
Speaker 1: Sunday game. Yeah, they were taking reps through the week
14:00
Speaker 1: and they thought it was a chance. But the business
14:04
Speaker 1: of football happened, and so now they get their chance.
14:07
Speaker 1: First thing happens is they go straight to their locker,
14:10
Speaker 1: they get on their phone and they call a mom. Mom,
14:15
Speaker 1: guess what. I know. You've been watching our team every
14:17
Speaker 1: single week for the last ten weeks, and you haven't
14:20
Speaker 1: seen me because I've been sitting next to you or
14:22
Speaker 1: I've been on the phone with you. But this week
14:25
Speaker 1: you can see me run out of that tunnel. I
14:27
Speaker 1: may not get a care, I may not get a play,
14:29
Speaker 1: but I will be dressed up. I mean. And what
14:33
Speaker 1: happens is, oftentimes in God's family, mama calls the cousins
14:37
Speaker 1: and the grandmama said, and you might have a thousand
14:40
Speaker 1: people now just from that one call, just from that
14:43
Speaker 1: call up from that player. Now have a thousand people
14:45
Speaker 1: from one town watching the game. And to me, that's
14:48
Speaker 1: the beauty of our game. That's the beauty of football.
14:50
Speaker 1: So there's two ways to handle that. One you silence
14:52
Speaker 1: your notifications on your phone, or you just walk around
14:55
Speaker 1: and you stick that phone up in the air. Good
14:58
Speaker 1: keep coming, keep it coming. There is also some financial incentive,
15:03
Speaker 1: clearly from from being elevated um the practice squad to
15:06
Speaker 1: the active roster. So keep this in mind here three
15:09
Speaker 1: times for regular season and an unlimited number of times
15:12
Speaker 1: in the postseason. Any player who are elevated from a game,
15:15
Speaker 1: they get one seventeen of the minimum salary. Got seventeen
15:19
Speaker 1: games that you're gonna be playing, right, We can do
15:21
Speaker 1: the math figure that out. Now. The rookie minimum salary
15:23
Speaker 1: for the twenty two season is seven hundred and five
15:26
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Does that hold up? Is that for real? Yo?
15:29
Speaker 1: That is real? That's the rookie minimum. Do you know
15:32
Speaker 1: what the rookie minimum was? What do you got? Home?
15:35
Speaker 1: Ye got another when I was in the league, three
15:37
Speaker 1: hundred and five thousand dollars. And guess what when I
15:41
Speaker 1: first got to the service school for then is the
15:43
Speaker 1: big team meeting with all the veterans and stuff there,
15:45
Speaker 1: they acted like I got so much money? Like they
15:48
Speaker 1: acted like that oh Man. When I was a rookie,
15:50
Speaker 1: whee only got a hundred some thousand. And I'm sitting
15:53
Speaker 1: there like, Bro Larry Allen, Man, you'll make ten million,
15:56
Speaker 1: and you're talking about my two hundred thousand, oh Man,
15:59
Speaker 1: seven hundred thousand. Well, now you sound like the old
16:02
Speaker 1: man who says, get the ball off my line. So
16:05
Speaker 1: just to be fair here, you sound exactly like the
16:08
Speaker 1: Vets did when they hear a number like that. So
16:10
Speaker 1: the seven thousand dollars that comes out to about forty
16:14
Speaker 1: one K when the game is over. So that's that's
16:17
Speaker 1: what your game check is, which is not bad. So
16:19
Speaker 1: there is some incentive there. I would imagine that I
16:22
Speaker 1: would say plays with your head, but it's probably even
16:25
Speaker 1: more than that. Like, that's a huge chunk of change.
16:27
Speaker 1: I mean, there's people in this country that are making
16:29
Speaker 1: forty one k, sadly and trying to survive. You get
16:31
Speaker 1: that in the one game check. I'll sign me up,
16:34
Speaker 1: sign me up. And again, like I said before, it's
16:36
Speaker 1: an opportunity for these guys to inject some capital into
16:39
Speaker 1: their life too. Again, I tell people all the time
16:42
Speaker 1: when rookies first come into the NFL, that first signing
16:44
Speaker 1: bonuses for what you did in college. I mean it
16:47
Speaker 1: really is. You haven't proved anything in the National Football
16:51
Speaker 1: League to get that extra money quite yet. And for
16:53
Speaker 1: a young guy that's been on the practice squad all
16:55
Speaker 1: year to get caught up and be able to get
16:57
Speaker 1: this financial boost, man, it's pretty cool. And I think
17:00
Speaker 1: the NFL does one thing that I think is really
17:02
Speaker 1: important for some of these practice squad players, and I
17:04
Speaker 1: think it incent to vises teams from sort of grooming
17:08
Speaker 1: their own players. It's maybe the best way to think
17:11
Speaker 1: about a couple of workarounds for teams who are trying
17:14
Speaker 1: to balance that fifty three man roster. How teams can
17:16
Speaker 1: elevate up to two players from their practice squad to
17:19
Speaker 1: their active roster per week. That allows them to increase
17:22
Speaker 1: their roster size from fifty three tote. Okay, you know
17:26
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, but m rob, when the game is over,
17:28
Speaker 1: players automatically get reverted to the practice squad after getting
17:32
Speaker 1: elevated for that game. Now, teams can instead sign practice
17:35
Speaker 1: squad players to active roster contracts rather than elevating them
17:40
Speaker 1: on a game to game basis. So this allows teams
17:42
Speaker 1: to keep their players on their active roster and eligible
17:44
Speaker 1: to playing games a little bit longer. But it also
17:48
Speaker 1: would subject players to waivers upon release, which is not
17:51
Speaker 1: the case with players who are simply elevated for a
17:54
Speaker 1: given game. That waiver wire game once again not the
17:57
Speaker 1: reference hard knocks, but I think that they do the
17:59
Speaker 1: best job of giving everyone a real life glimpse of
18:02
Speaker 1: what this actually is. How many times have we seen, Hey,
18:05
Speaker 1: we hope this guy is able to clear waiver so
18:07
Speaker 1: we can bring him back to the practice squad. And
18:08
Speaker 1: that conversation happens all the time. It happens all the time,
18:11
Speaker 1: and it's easy for us, especially us here in the media,
18:15
Speaker 1: and you know, our fans to sit and say, oh, man,
18:18
Speaker 1: you just got waived. They said they want you back.
18:20
Speaker 1: Just relax, you'll be fine. Well, first of all, there's
18:23
Speaker 1: a financial degradation there. Okay, I could be on the roster,
18:27
Speaker 1: but now I'm not. I'm on the practice squad. There's
18:29
Speaker 1: a little bit of difference of of pay there. But also,
18:32
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, as a player, in
18:35
Speaker 1: your mind, you think you're good enough to be on
18:38
Speaker 1: the active roster. You think you're good enough for this
18:40
Speaker 1: team to win games with. And I ain't gonna lie.
18:43
Speaker 1: It is a little bit of a a gut me
18:45
Speaker 1: feel like he's knocked down a little bit like, oh man,
18:47
Speaker 1: I'm on the practice squad. But again, like I said before,
18:50
Speaker 1: the ones who take it in stride, the ones who
18:52
Speaker 1: understand that, look, this doesn't define me, This is just
18:55
Speaker 1: my situation Temporarily, those guys end up being successful. So
18:59
Speaker 1: it's a small fraternity of players that have been able
19:01
Speaker 1: to play in the NFL. These are really small circles.
19:04
Speaker 1: Coaches who end up with one team and that coaching
19:07
Speaker 1: tree from various other spots. You know, everyone's on the
19:10
Speaker 1: phone with each other. You know that there's preseason games
19:13
Speaker 1: for some of these players who don't make that active
19:14
Speaker 1: fifty three man roster. They're on a practice squad, but
19:17
Speaker 1: they got film. So what happens when a guy goes
19:21
Speaker 1: down and all of a sudden you're in need. You
19:23
Speaker 1: might get a call as a practice squad player and
19:25
Speaker 1: get your shot. There are plenty of examples that m
19:28
Speaker 1: Rod that I know you have practice squad player to
19:31
Speaker 1: NFL stardom. We will unveil some of those names coming
19:34
Speaker 1: up next on the NFL Explained podcast. Michael Rob' siting
19:45
Speaker 1: Mike Yam with you back here on the NFL Explained podcast. Now,
19:48
Speaker 1: we touched on this a little bit earlier. Just because
19:50
Speaker 1: you're on the Bill's practice squad one week doesn't mean
19:52
Speaker 1: you might be playing for I don't know, the Chiefs
19:55
Speaker 1: in another week. Yeah, that potentially could happen, But there's
19:58
Speaker 1: some rules and regulations around stuff like that. Any practice
20:01
Speaker 1: squad player can get signed to another team's fifty three
20:04
Speaker 1: man roster, but the CBA bands practice squad players from
20:08
Speaker 1: being signed with his team's next opponent later than four
20:12
Speaker 1: pm Eastern Time on the sixth day prior to the
20:16
Speaker 1: game and no full moon. Sorry, trying to stay with you. Okay, okay,
20:23
Speaker 1: that's a lot man specific it is, and and rightfully so,
20:27
Speaker 1: because even on bye weeks there's some issues. They're right.
20:29
Speaker 1: Practice squad players must sign at least ten days prior
20:32
Speaker 1: to the game. After a conference championship game, practice squad
20:35
Speaker 1: players on Super Bowl teams may not sign with their
20:39
Speaker 1: teams super Bowl opponent. So if you're a practice squad
20:42
Speaker 1: player who signs to another fifty three man roster, yeah,
20:44
Speaker 1: they're guaranteed three weeks of salary even if they are
20:47
Speaker 1: released before then, Yes, I'm me for that. Why would
20:50
Speaker 1: a team go after another squad's practice player? Maybe, and
20:54
Speaker 1: it has nothing to do with need well, um, so
20:57
Speaker 1: I can equate it to Okay, I got cut from
21:00
Speaker 1: the San Francisco forty Niners the last week. It cuts
21:03
Speaker 1: after the fourth preseason game. That was we had four
21:06
Speaker 1: preseason games and was only a week after the fourth
21:08
Speaker 1: preseason game to the regular season. I got cut on
21:12
Speaker 1: a Saturday. Okay, I had to clear waivers because nobody
21:15
Speaker 1: was gonna pick up my rookie salary or whatever. I
21:18
Speaker 1: cleared waivers and then the Seattle Seahawks picked me up
21:22
Speaker 1: Sunday night. Like Sunday after four I had to clear
21:26
Speaker 1: waivers after twenty four hours. The first opponent for the
21:29
Speaker 1: Seattle Seahawks for the San Francisco forty Niners, it was
21:32
Speaker 1: the weirdest thing ever. I had just led a stretch
21:35
Speaker 1: six days earlier against Patrick Willison to kill spikes. Now
21:39
Speaker 1: wearing a different helmet going up against them and yams,
21:42
Speaker 1: it definitely wasn't advantage for the Seahawks. I literally stood
21:47
Speaker 1: up in the defensive meeting room. But Gus Bradley, who
21:49
Speaker 1: he's the d C for the Colts, I think right now,
21:52
Speaker 1: and I gave every signal, I gave every code word
21:55
Speaker 1: I gave. I literally was running practice as the d C,
21:59
Speaker 1: telling them exactly what was going on. And I remember
22:02
Speaker 1: coach Singletary, Mike Singletary, he was in San Fransco, forty
22:05
Speaker 1: Niners coach the time. He had a press conference a
22:08
Speaker 1: couple of days after I guy released and he said,
22:10
Speaker 1: I don't care who Seattle has, they can know our
22:12
Speaker 1: entire offense. They still have to stop us. And then
22:15
Speaker 1: we went out there and I say all that to say,
22:19
Speaker 1: you damn straight. It is a competitive advantage to bring
22:23
Speaker 1: somebody's practice squad guy in. They know the offense, they
22:26
Speaker 1: know the defense, they know the scheme, they know co words,
22:29
Speaker 1: hand signals, all of that. That's why you see, as
22:32
Speaker 1: you read earlier, the NFL put all those rules up
22:35
Speaker 1: so that you can't just go to your next opponents.
22:38
Speaker 1: It's sort of fascinating to me because you even touched
22:40
Speaker 1: on that's the top of the show. You're in meetings
22:42
Speaker 1: doing everything, You're doing everything is if you're preparing for
22:45
Speaker 1: the game, you're doing everything. And to me, if you
22:48
Speaker 1: have a quarterback that's on the practice squad. That's a
22:50
Speaker 1: very valuable dude. I mean quarterbacks think a little differently,
22:54
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, the practice squad
22:56
Speaker 1: quarterback is also in the regular quarterback meeting room hearing
23:00
Speaker 1: all the stuff that the starting quarterback is hearing. It's
23:03
Speaker 1: pretty it's pretty cool. How many examples you give when
23:06
Speaker 1: it's the reverse you were on the roster and the
23:09
Speaker 1: team that you were playing for said, you know what,
23:11
Speaker 1: by the way, when you said, like clear waivers, you
23:13
Speaker 1: know what I'm thinking fantasy football staring at you between
23:20
Speaker 1: raivers and fantasy football. Like all of us you know
23:25
Speaker 1: at home GMS, we know exactly what that experience. Just like,
23:28
Speaker 1: please don't want pick up this dude, Please don't want
23:29
Speaker 1: pick up this dude. I need this guy for Sunday. No,
23:32
Speaker 1: no signals and inside information. But did that happen frequently
23:35
Speaker 1: when you were actually on the roster hearing what was
23:38
Speaker 1: coming your way? And no it didn't. It didn't necessary.
23:40
Speaker 1: So you're saying, if like we had a guy that
23:42
Speaker 1: we knew our opponent or somebody we're going to play
23:44
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks, took that guy off of
23:47
Speaker 1: all practice squad. Yeah, there were a couple of times.
23:49
Speaker 1: I can't necessarily remember where it made a difference because
23:52
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, especially when I was
23:54
Speaker 1: with the Seattle Seahawks. Pete he's a psychology major man,
23:58
Speaker 1: so he was one of those guys he never really
24:00
Speaker 1: cared what the other team was doing. It was literally
24:02
Speaker 1: always about what we did, so we couldn't cared less
24:06
Speaker 1: what they knew. Uh, did you text Coach Singletary or
24:09
Speaker 1: call him after? I wanted to, but I wouldn't. At Petty,
24:12
Speaker 1: I knew I was going to be in the media
24:14
Speaker 1: one day, and I knew I was gonna have to
24:15
Speaker 1: keep that relationship with coaching, even though even though he
24:20
Speaker 1: cut me, so you know that, you know there's something there.
24:23
Speaker 1: And we did a podcast a couple of years ago together,
24:25
Speaker 1: one of the podcasts on here on NFL Network, and
24:28
Speaker 1: he kept it real. Yeah, Mike, I cut you, So
24:30
Speaker 1: what what're you gonna do about it? I'm like nothing,
24:32
Speaker 1: It's all good, Coach, I love you, you know. Speaking
24:35
Speaker 1: of those cut situations, can I tell you how? And
24:39
Speaker 1: I would imagine if they went really bad hard knocks
24:41
Speaker 1: with steal But over the years, just watching these dudes
24:44
Speaker 1: get cut a the amount of gratitude that they have
24:48
Speaker 1: for that experience and not they don't. It doesn't come
24:51
Speaker 1: across like they're salty about it, like I'd be so
24:53
Speaker 1: pissed and I would be petty about it. I'm not
24:56
Speaker 1: gonna lie like I would be, forget petty about it.
24:58
Speaker 1: What I've learned about the young person now, First of all,
25:01
Speaker 1: they used the word love a little bit more than
25:03
Speaker 1: what we did in our generation. They understand things. They
25:06
Speaker 1: accept everybody and who who they are. Um. But these
25:10
Speaker 1: young people, you know, when I came into the league,
25:12
Speaker 1: we always wanted security. Security was obviously financially, but we
25:15
Speaker 1: also wanted long term deals when we wanted to know
25:18
Speaker 1: I could be with this team for four or five
25:20
Speaker 1: years or whatever. These kids don't care. You know, They're
25:23
Speaker 1: okay with I can play here this year, I can
25:24
Speaker 1: play their next year. You know. I hope some schools
25:27
Speaker 1: in the recruiting process and kids love to be recruited
25:30
Speaker 1: the process of it. They don't necessarily like making a decision.
25:34
Speaker 1: They like to be courted, They like to be flown
25:38
Speaker 1: places and all that. It's the same with practice squad players.
25:41
Speaker 1: Kind of interesting now. Earlier here on the podcast, I
25:44
Speaker 1: made reference to dudes who are practice squad players that
25:47
Speaker 1: all of a sudden found some success in the NFL.
25:50
Speaker 1: I got some names. What's that? Uh? James Harrison? People
25:55
Speaker 1: almost broke my hip, Mike at a Pro Bowl. You
26:00
Speaker 1: won't even hit like that at a Pro Bowl. It's
26:02
Speaker 1: like return, I'm gonna kick off from jogging down. We
26:06
Speaker 1: hit a little bit or whatever, and I'm like, man,
26:08
Speaker 1: good job. He was like, yeah, good job. Been robbed. Man.
26:10
Speaker 1: I got a lot of respect for you. And he
26:12
Speaker 1: slapped me on my ass bro and my hill on
26:16
Speaker 1: my left side. But I almost couldn't play no more.
26:20
Speaker 1: He's that strong, seriously, But I'm not making that up, Okay,
26:24
Speaker 1: can I This is probably inside baseball. I don't know
26:28
Speaker 1: if it's gonna get added out of the podcast. I'm
26:30
Speaker 1: gonna tell this story anyway. It reminds me of what
26:32
Speaker 1: you and I just went through on Total Access. Jason
26:36
Speaker 1: Peters another guy. Yeah, Danny would have Tony Richardson to god.
26:42
Speaker 1: Smith is another name. I'll throw one your way. Arian
26:46
Speaker 1: Foster and Foster dude might have been the best outside
26:51
Speaker 1: zone runner of this generation. Really, I mean, it's beautiful
26:56
Speaker 1: as poetry emotion. Oh my goodness, Gary Kubiak outside zone offense.
26:59
Speaker 1: It's literally with Kyle Shanahan and what they do now.
27:03
Speaker 1: Arian Foster as the general manager of Yammers Boys, which
27:07
Speaker 1: that's my fantasy squad. He he was, he was to
27:10
Speaker 1: do that really helped me out in a master too.
27:13
Speaker 1: You know, I got a fas that's my guy. Hey.
27:16
Speaker 1: One other thing, and I don't know if I brought this.
27:18
Speaker 1: I probably should have brought this up because we're talking
27:20
Speaker 1: about compensation. You mentioned the guys that helped you out
27:23
Speaker 1: on the practice squad any like, did you guys do
27:25
Speaker 1: stuff because we always hear about, you know, quarterbacks like
27:28
Speaker 1: purchasing Rolex Is for their offensive lineman or you know,
27:31
Speaker 1: however stories like that, anything come to mind. Well, we
27:34
Speaker 1: we would always if you had a practice squad guy
27:36
Speaker 1: in your group. So if we were running backs and
27:39
Speaker 1: we had an extra guy, an extra practice squad guy
27:41
Speaker 1: in our group, we would always take our fine money
27:44
Speaker 1: because I mean as a runner, literally, if you take
27:47
Speaker 1: a six inch step when your toes are wrong, it's
27:50
Speaker 1: a twenty dollar fine. Like if you fumble inside the
27:55
Speaker 1: tin yard line, that's a critical phone. That's different than
27:57
Speaker 1: a fumble inside and between the things like it's crazy.
28:01
Speaker 1: It's five dollars when it's it's all if you If
28:04
Speaker 1: the guy you're blocking sacks the quarterback, that's another fire.
28:07
Speaker 1: So at the end of the year, this you know,
28:10
Speaker 1: during Christmas time, this pot of money, it's few grant. Okay,
28:14
Speaker 1: we would always take that money and have a boy's
28:17
Speaker 1: night out with my practice squad guy. Ask them what
28:21
Speaker 1: is it that you just gotta have for Christmas, whether
28:23
Speaker 1: it's a four wheel or whatever the case may be,
28:25
Speaker 1: and we just go get it for him. If we
28:26
Speaker 1: didn't have a practice squad guy in our meeting room,
28:30
Speaker 1: oftentimes there's a practice squad guy in the offensive linement room,
28:33
Speaker 1: and so you go do that for that guy. Any
28:36
Speaker 1: memorable moment, guy's face just lights up, like because we
28:39
Speaker 1: don't actually legit. I don't know if I've seen those
28:41
Speaker 1: on social media, like fe like social media thing. Well,
28:44
Speaker 1: because a lot of times guys keep that in the
28:46
Speaker 1: house because again, this is the practice squad guy. People
28:50
Speaker 1: don't always understand how important they are to a championship team.
28:55
Speaker 1: That's why I'm glad we had this episode about it,
28:57
Speaker 1: because these guys get the starters ready and so you
29:01
Speaker 1: don't I don't I don't think they would post it,
29:02
Speaker 1: and they may look at it as a negative, But
29:04
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, these guys get us, right. Uh.
29:07
Speaker 1: I can't think of an individual necessary moment, but I
29:10
Speaker 1: think there was one in Seattle. For get the offensive
29:13
Speaker 1: lineman name off the top of my head. He didn't
29:15
Speaker 1: play much after that year. I think it was during
29:17
Speaker 1: the season, and we got him a four wheeler. We
29:21
Speaker 1: got him some bottles of champagne, and this dude thought
29:25
Speaker 1: that he had won the lotter. We cried and everything.
29:27
Speaker 1: He called his mom or whatever it was. It was
29:29
Speaker 1: a pretty cool deal. That's awesome. Those are those moments, right,
29:32
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's the equivalent of the you're you're
29:35
Speaker 1: on scholarship. There you go, that's what that is. One
29:39
Speaker 1: last thing here and you've experienced this. Your super Bowl
29:41
Speaker 1: champ you get in that rank, your practice squad. Guy,
29:44
Speaker 1: Do they get the ring? The short answer is yes,
29:48
Speaker 1: they do get the ring. The teams have the ability
29:52
Speaker 1: to give them rings of lesser value. No, man, I
29:55
Speaker 1: don't know. I know. I know the Super Bowl forty
29:57
Speaker 1: eight winner that we were everybody got the same ring.
30:01
Speaker 1: And actually I was a part of the committee that
30:03
Speaker 1: Pete put together to helped design the ring and we
30:06
Speaker 1: actually you know that that that subject came up and
30:09
Speaker 1: we actually was like, oh, hell no, no, these guys
30:12
Speaker 1: are players like us. Yeah, And once again that's the
30:15
Speaker 1: teams have the option. Not every team, to your point,
30:17
Speaker 1: has to go down that path. Similar in appearance is
30:20
Speaker 1: the phrase that people would use, you know, you can't,
30:28
Speaker 1: you can't do it, you can't do it. Um. Look,
30:31
Speaker 1: I know we've gotten some messages about this podcast. I
30:33
Speaker 1: have had an absolute blast doing it with you. It's
30:35
Speaker 1: been a ton of fun. If you have some topics,
30:37
Speaker 1: some questions, I'm keeping tabs. I don't know if you
30:40
Speaker 1: realize that anytime someone tweets me with a question, I
30:44
Speaker 1: copy and paste it because we do these mouth bag
30:46
Speaker 1: episodes every once in a while at Real Mike Rob
30:49
Speaker 1: at Mike Underscore a game, if you have a question
30:51
Speaker 1: fired off to us, will look, we have a whole
30:54
Speaker 1: research team here. You think I know all the stuff
30:55
Speaker 1: that I just sent this podcast kidding me Like, no,
30:58
Speaker 1: I don't all your stories. Like that's that's your life,
31:01
Speaker 1: So you've got to go and do it. But I
31:03
Speaker 1: always appreciate you guys following the show, sharing the show,
31:07
Speaker 1: and more importantly just checking us out whenever you can.
31:10
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. That, of course, is life on the
31:12
Speaker 1: Practice Squad Export