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Craig Wrolstad - NFL Official: The Inspiring Journey · Quarterback DadCast | Intentional Fatherhood & Leadership at Home

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Riley.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: And I'm Ryder and this is my Dad's Show.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Hey everybody, it's KCJ Cox with the quarterback Dadcast.
• 0:13
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• 0:20
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• 0:28
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• 0:38
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• 0:40
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• 0:41
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• 1:01
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• 1:03
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• 1:09
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• 1:18
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• 1:25
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• 1:30
  Speaker 2: So with that, let's welcome LatitudeSitka to the podcast and get right to today's episode.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Well, here, everybody, it is Casey Jaycox with the quarterback, dad cast, and we are in season four.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: We're getting towards the end of season four, which sounds fun, as we prepare for season five, which even sounds more fun.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: But this next gentleman if you had told me that, he would have be a guest in my podcast back in, I think, 1992, and I met him in a biology class where I was pretty much not understanding anything because I was in the sharpest tool in the shed in the classroom, but he was our teacher.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: His name is Craig Rolstead and you might recognize him not from his days at Meeker or coaching baseball at Lindberg, but he was reunited to me by the former guest Casey Bell, the former guest, one of my mentors in life, coach Marty Osborn, and we got to give a shout out to coach Jeff Schumek, who just retired, and I told coach Schu that we're going to have Rolstead on.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: He was super excited and he's listened to every episode.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: So, coach Schumek, thank you, but Craig Rolstead now is an NFL official Since 2003,.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Started as a field judge, ward number 89.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: And then he got promoted to a NFL referee, did a Super Bowl, did a Pro Bowl.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: He now wears number four.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know if that's because of Brett Farrer, we'll find out.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: But with all that said, we're more excited to talk about Craig the dad and learn how he is working hard to become that ultimate quarterback, a leader of his household.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: So, without further ado, mr Rolstead, welcome to the quarterback dad cast.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Casey.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: You know it's been 30, 40 years.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: You don't have to call me Mr Rolstead anymore, Craig just fine, how about that intro?
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that was fantastic, I lost myself in it.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Well, as you mentioned, you've listened to a few episodes, so you know what's going to come.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Next is we always start each episode with gratitude, so tell me, what are you most grateful for as a father today?
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Well, most grateful as a father probably is the health of my family.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: I'm actually a brand new grandfather, so I have a six month old granddaughter named Jade, and so you know it just brings a whole new perspective to you.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: And the fact that my daughter came through, you know the pregnancy in great shape and the fact that you know my son is son is healthy after a long career in playing baseball, never really had a major arm injury, and that my wife is healthy and I'm healthy.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: That's, that's what I'm thankful for.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Until you go through like any injury.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: It's like it's funny, you take.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: That's one of the things we as humans take for granted, so it's good.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: I do a gratitude journal every morning and one of the things I talk about say you know, god, thanks for waking me up today and thanks for my health.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: I'm grateful for health to go exercise and like keep the body moving and because when I don't have that man it stinks.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Today we are in end of July.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: This episode will come out in probably about a month, right at the start of our NFL season, so it'll be a nice timing.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: I'm grateful for the experiences I'm having right now with my kids.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: It's a little craziness inside the house.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: My wife's on the East Coast, I'm playing, mr Mom.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: My daughter flew out this morning to a basketball tournament in LA.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Tomorrow my son I go up north to play and he's playing in a golf tournament, and then the three of us travel back East to be with my wife and then they're going to be on a boat by themselves.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go speak at a company and then me and my son are going to fly all the way back to Seattle for the state Washington Junior Golf tournament which you qualified for.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: So I'm just grateful for these experiences and these moments, because I know time is not slowing down and I just do my best to like slow down, to just appreciate these moments, and just watching them grow has been a blast.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, those are great times when your kids are teenagers and you kind of get to sit back and see what they're becoming.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: That's a great time.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: So that's a fun time to enjoy that.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Well, the one thing my kids unfortunately I passed down Craig is the skill of sarcasm, and they are both intense, intentional smartasses at my expense and they don't miss a beat.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: So maybe I'm not grateful for that.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Well, they'll come around and realize how cool their dad was when they get to be 30 or 40.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: So I think I got a long ways to go from there.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: So, okay, so you're a grandpa, which I love, and but I want to go inside the huddle, maybe talk about your wife, each member, maybe your kids, and then a little bit about your being life as a granddad too.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: Sure, well, my wife's Crystal.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: We went to high school together, so she's a Lindbergh Eagle.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: We have close ties to many.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: I know you're a former Kent Ridge Charger, but I was 10 years before you probably but we have close ties to many of the old Kent Ridge Chargers people, so shout out to them.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: I actually was then fortunate enough to be able to teach at Kent Ridge, so I have a lot of ties with Kent Ridge.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: So you think you mentioned a couple of the guys that I see very rarely, but I have fond memories about old coach Osborne and coach Shoemake.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: But so I met my wife in high school and we basically became good friends in high school and didn't really date too much, kind of just as friends, and then we ended up running into each other again in college and the rest was kind of history.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: So we both graduated from the University of Washington.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: She just is a fabulous lady, fabulous supporter, fantastic mom.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: She is now retired, so that's nice that she's able to be retired and obviously she's a brand new grandmother, so she's loving that.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: I have two kids.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: My daughter is Makayla.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: She just turned 27.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: She's married to my son, la Sam, which, for those of you who you know, you basically raise two kids your whole life and you think you're gonna have two kids and that's your family.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: But then they go off and get married and then you actually double the number of kids you have.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: So that's fabulous.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: I mean it's awesome because I always wanted more kids but I was always gone every weekend.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: So it's kind of hard to talk my wife into you know, growling, you know four kids instead of two.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: But my daughter is now married to Sam and they have a beautiful six-month-old girl named Jade.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: So that's my granddaughter.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: And then my son.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: He's 23, just out of college, spent five years kind of kicking around college baseball, which was a lot of fun to have them to watch them do that.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: And I kind of mentioned earlier, you know, the most important thing when you're an athlete is not being injured.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: So being injured, you know, basically knocks you out for a year.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: So when my kids were coming through, I didn't pray that they, you know, started or you know, led to league and home runs or whatever.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: I always just prayed that they didn't get hurt so that they could play the next day, you know.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: So I've seen so many kids, you know, obviously get hurt over use, injuries, things like that.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: So I really wanted them to have a full shot at their dream.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: So and he's getting married.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: I guess we're in July.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: So he's getting married in August, late August, so he will be.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: He's actually moved back into the house.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: So I know you always talk about you get 18 summers with your kids.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: Well, sometimes it turns into 20 summers and 20, 23 summers and you know what that's awesome the fact that he's willing to move back in and save some money before he gets married.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: So he's living back at home right now and working before he gets married in August.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Very cool.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: And what's, what's his name?
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: His name is Brock Brock.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Okay, and where did Brock play baseball?
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, brock played.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: He went to Seattle Christian High School.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: Didn't get a whole lot of looks there, so he ended up going to Pierce College and he was both a hitter in a pitcher he was Ohtani before Ohtani came along, I guess, and not quite at that level, of course.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: So he ended up being like all conference DH and so he got some interest from divisions to schools and ended up down at Missouri Western in St Joseph, missouri.
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: They haven't, you know, just a fabulous league down there and incredible facilities, a little better than the facilities at Central, I might say.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: But Sorry case, I'm sure the football program's got great facilities, their baseball program doesn't have great facilities.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: So he ended up down at Missouri Western during COVID.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: They actually got to play.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: I think they played 30 games that year where most of the schools up here didn't play any.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: And then he ended up getting his degree down there and came back up here and actually played.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: He was gonna just get his masters and and st Martin's knocked him into playing.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: So he played one year at st Martin'sa Couple years ago.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: So now he's done.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Very cool.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Was it harder on you that he was done or harder on him that it was done?
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Oh, I think it was harder on him.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: That is that it was done.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: I mean, we loved watching him play, yeah, but you know, hey, he lived and breathed it every day, you know.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: So you know it's his journey.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: So, but no, we just like sitting on the sidelines and watching him.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I kind of asked that tongue-in-cheek, I know.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: When I got done playing at Central, my, it was like it was like a super hard, almost like, yeah, there's like a emotional day when I was like, oh my god, I'm done playing football.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: It's like I can't believe it's over.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: And then, but my, I really wrote my dad loved it when he was still alive, like just loved a journey, and Sometimes I joke that's like I think might have had a harder hand.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: He wasn't dad, like lived vicariously through me.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: He was like adding, an average high school athlete, but like he just loved.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: And remember, I remember like my freshman year when I was third string quarterback playing Kittner, he, he would literally get there just to watch warm-ups and he told me, man, he had a great game today.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Okay, so it's like dad and I didn't play like hey, did you went like 12 or 13 in warm-ups.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: That's awesome, that's perfect, that's what that's what a dad should do, right.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: And just they loved it.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: They just loved any time they could watch.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: So it's like I, that was a great lesson I learned is like just being there and and I love your, your great.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: You think you talked about health.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Like I Always tell my my daughter when she plays hoop, I said play, you know, play healthy, play fast, play strong, play well, you know just four things that you think about like I don't care about.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: You know, you know three pointers.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Or do this just play hard, have a red face when you're done, be healthy, be a good teammate and you know the rest will take care of itself.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: So Okay, so I would like to.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: I like to always learn from people of what what life was like growing up for for you.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: So maybe let's like to go back in time and learn about life for Craig as a young Stud.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: What was it like like growing up for you and how did your parents?
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: What was it talk about the impact your parents had on you?
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Now that your dad and a grandfather yeah, I grew up in.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: I grew up in Renton, so I didn't get very far.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: We moved like three times but not very far.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: So I was able to kind of stay in the same Relative area when I was growing up.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: So I basically had friends from the time I was five till the time I got out high school.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: So I, you know, grown up for me, I grew up in the the decade of the 70s, which you know I still think that's the greatest decade for for sports, athletics, you know, baseball, football, basketball.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: The 70s were awesome if you live through them and I was just all all athletics all the time.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: So it's funny how I ended up being, why I ended up being an educator and I was.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: I was a science teacher for a long time but Everybody thought because I was so into sports and athletics that I was just a PE teacher.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: I and I shouldn't say just a PE teacher, but they thought everybody thought I was just was a PE teacher because I was into athletics so much.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: But yeah, basically played football, baseball, basketball growing up, and then that you know, during recesses we play, you know, soccer and volleyball and all that kind of stuff.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: So if it had a ball.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: I was, I was involved in it.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: So I had real supportive parents they grew up in.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: They grew up in North Dakota and kind of migrated out here with basically a trailer in the 50s.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: So they didn't have, they didn't come from, they didn't come from a real wealthy background, but they were.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: They instilled a, you know, hard-working Work ethic.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: My dad had, you know, a number of different jobs, but you know, they basically had high school educations.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: High school educations.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: My mom was a mrs Renton, not really mrs Renton, but she worked at the, the Sears Robuck Store down in Renton for 41 years.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: So she basically knew everybody in Renton and everybody in Renton knew her.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: So it was always fun.
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: She'd come home and say, hey, I saw so-and-so today and Seems like she saw two or three people that we knew every single, every single day.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: But they were, you know, incredibly encouraging.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: I never, I never realized we didn't have any money because I Guess they always provided everything you know and they were, you know, incredibly encouraging.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: That always, you know, got us to do our best and you know that you can be anything you want to be in, anything's possible and that sort of thing.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: So you know it was, it was a great, great time growing up.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Now our mom and dad still with us.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: My mom is.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: My mom is 89 Years old and she still lives.
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: She was real close to Valley Medical Center there in Renton, kind of close to where I grew up.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: My father passed away in 1998 on January 27th, on a Super Bowl Sunday, actually before I, before I got an NFL, about five years before I got an NFL, but he was.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: He was very encouraging.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: He had seen me kind of move through the ranks from, you know, high school official to a small college official.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: I hadn't quite gotten into the pack 12 but he just he thought it was amazing that they would, that, that they would pay me to go out and watch football, and he always thought he'd missed his calling Because to be able to go out and watch a game and get paid for it, he thought that was, he thought that was pretty awesome.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Wow, now what did dad do for a job?
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Well, he worked at Boeing for a little while and then canteen services and he ended up his last part of his career.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: He worked at continental airlines.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: So that that actually was a kind of a blessing for our family, because I don't know if it's a little known fact, but if you work for an airline then you can get discounted airline tickets.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: So you know, for the first ten years of my life we basically were a big camping family.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: You know we'd camp around the state of Washington and things like that.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: But after you got a job at continental airlines it was actually cheaper for us to fly.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: You know, we could fly to California or we could fly to Texas or to Florida to visit his sister, and we even flew to Hawaii Because I think at the time the price of a ticket was like ten bucks to fly.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: So so, wow, we were called non revs I think still they still have them but yeah, that it cost us ten dollars to fly to Florida.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: Now we were the last people on the plane and and if the plane was full you basically got bumped.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: So I spent a few.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: I've spent a few nights at the Stapleton International Airport in Denver on the floor as a kid, but but it was.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: It was just awesome to be able to, you know, fly all over the country when you know you hadn't.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: I really hadn't been used to that.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: My first ten years of my life Did you have to dress up back then with yes, yes, how ridiculous right I have have a eleven, twelve, thirteen year old kid wearing a button up and a tie.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: My dad actually had to wear a suit coat, oh, yeah but yes, we had to, we had to Look the look and then they'd stick us in row 38, right in the middle, you know, back by the toilet, and you were happy.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: You were happy you got on the plane.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: I.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: So I don't know if you remember well, issue was Kerry level at the time.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: Mike Kerry and I we sell grades.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Sweetheart, married.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: We've married by 25 years in February.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Her dad was a pilot for a continental.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: He got furloughed 83 and then he was with Alaska Airlines for 33 years.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Her, his son, ryan level I was a captain Alaska Airlines.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: So, like we're, when we were in high school we would do, we would non-rev to Phoenix where you have to call the airline to get the loads and I remember I'd put you Know, dress up to go see here grandma.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: And so I know all about non-reving and the, the From people who's like, oh, he must be nice, you get work there, like these free tickets, but like they don't see the, yeah, the three flights I missed.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: And then you're, you're sitting next to the John where guy just goes back there and blows the thing up and you got to sit back in a stench for an hour and a half.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: That's exactly right.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it sounds great, $10 to Texas.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: But you know nowadays I'll pay the $500 exactly Now where you're, out of random curiosity, where your parents are, they buys and fan from North Dakota like they were fall the football team.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: You know they were.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: They moved out of there before North Dakota State was really a was really a deal, so Not really buys and fans.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: But you know what I have?
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: I have probably a hundred relatives still in North Dakota and I'd say 90 of them are North Dakota State Bison fans and I actually had a cousin play for them.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: So oh yes, they're big-time buys and buys and fans Bison supporters there in North Dakota Well there's small world.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: My my shout out to Chris Bartz if you're listening.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: So Chris Bartz was a client of mine.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: He was at AT&T and Back when coach Baldwin, bob Alden, was at Eastern.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: When Chris Bartz was a customer of mine, we would talk about football all the time.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: He was a huge, huge north North Dakota State fan.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: His brother was a huge North Dakota State fan.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: He was his brother.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Lily would buy tickets to the following 1a championship.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: They they day of the game.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: He was that confident they're gonna go the next year.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: And the game season even started yet that's nice.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: So we had I, just just because of Chris, I ended up following North Dakota State, and Did you have any brothers and sisters?
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: Yes, I have a brother.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: He's uh, he's 11 years older than me.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: He's moved out of this state and he lives down in Texas, but he was kind of like a second dad to me, being 11 years older than me.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, he went off to college when I was, you know, six years old, seven years old.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: So you know, it was fun to kind of have him as a as kind of a second father mentor.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: And then I, my sister, my sister's, four years older than me.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: She's recently retired as an educator Up an Everett.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: She was in the Edmunds School District as a elementary school teacher for 30, 36 years, I think, maybe.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: So yeah, Very cool.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: You mentioned hard work earlier was it was a theme that your parents taught you.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: But as you think back, what were other talk to me about other values that really were instilled maybe a story or two that comes to mind.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: That were life lessons you learned growing up that were really important to you as a father.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I, when that comes to mind, I guess, is when I was in high school.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: I was a pretty good student, but I think different things would come up.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: Like the Sonics won the championship in 1979 for Seattle Super Sonic fans and they weren't going to have her parade the next day, and I guess I might have been in eighth grade.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: But I was trying to figure out a way I could skip school and go to this parade.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: And my mom was big into.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: You know, you get up every day, you go to school every day, you do the right thing and you get good grades and all this kind of stuff.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: So I nagged her for the two or three days before the Super Sonic parade was going to happen and finally she gave in and she said well, fine, you can go to the parade as long as you get all A's.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: Well, I was a pretty good student, but that meant I had to get all A's.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: So I really actually kind of buckled down after that and got all A's for a long time until I ran into a couple of my high school teachers, but that was sort of the message that she would you know, you can do some things, but as long as you get what's important done.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: So I ended up going to that Seattle Super Sonic championship parade and it's pretty awesome.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: That pretty awesome, was it?
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: We were able to do that.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: I'm one of the save our sonics kind of guys and I can't wait till we get the sonics back in Seattle.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah it would be great, yeah, and you know, so that sort of work ethics sort of thing was there.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: And then kind of being a lifelong learner.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: They kind of set the bar there.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: Even though they were only high school educated, all three of their kids have earned college degrees and you know we continue to continue to be a learner.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: I think that's been instilled in us.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: And then kind of treating others the way you want to be treated, the golden rule I think that was big in our house, you know, coming through in the in the 70s Obviously the civil rights era was the late 60s and so they raised us to treat everybody the same and that you know it doesn't matter your, your religious orientation or you know your, your race, you know everybody, everybody's equal.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: You know everybody's the same inside.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: So I think that was instilled in me, you know, as a kid which at the time I don't think that was instilled in in all the kids around, but I'm very thankful that I was able to, you know, get that kind of upbringing.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: So you know, learn that at a young age.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: I love that man.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: So it's, it's.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: I always think back.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: It must have been a hard thing.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Maybe not hard, but I may, maybe would.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: I mean, when parents are growing up in the 70s, during civil rights, you know race, wars, race.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: You know challenges.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: I think back to you know Oakland, the even 90s with the LA riots, even like what we went through in 2020, you know, I think it still goes back to a choice and of doing the right thing, which sounds simple, but it's, it's.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: For some reason, people make it difficult and they don't always want to do the right thing.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: They don't always want to treat people the way you want to be treated, which, again, is really simple.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: We slow down to think about it.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: And I met a fantastic human being, got him Dale Favors, who's a great friend of mine to this day.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: I actually interviewed him in the height of Black Lives Matter White dad interviewing a black father what does it like to be a black father?
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: During Black Lives Matter?
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: And we did it live and I just wanted to get super uncomfortable and I wanted to ask questions that I was like maybe a little nervous to ask, but I was like, hey, this is great growth opportunity and I always, you know, like in the coaching world I do, I always ask my clients you want to be comfortable on the sidelines or uncomfortable in the game?
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: And, yeah, I might go out and throw a pick, but I'm going to learn.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: I might fumble the ball, but I'm going to learn.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: And it's like Dale, it was a.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: He's such a great dude and great father and great man doing great work in diversity and equity, inclusion and just helping bring people together.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: And it's through patience, through curiosity.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: So shout out to your parents for instilling that in a time where probably wasn't quote unquote cool and I love that you.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: That's still top of mind for you today, absolutely, absolutely.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Um, when you said lifelong learner, talk about that like what.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: What are some areas you still think about ways to learn and grow and that maybe you have shared with your kids as well?
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you know I was in education, for I was in education for 35 years.
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: I don't know if we mentioned that I was.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: I was a teacher for for about 10 and then became an assistant principal and athletic director.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: So I did about I think I did 33 years in education actually.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: But it's about it's.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: You know, it's about when I came in and there was a way of teaching that that you know we thought was the best way of teaching.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: But in education, you know, they're always searching for better ways.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: So you know, for example, like teaching science, you know, when you were going through science and biology, you probably I probably wasn't a very good teacher, because I was.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: I was about my second year and I was probably giving you all the vocabulary to learn and all the all the words you know.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: Like you know, biology is known for having you know the most vocabulary words in any single subject area and you were probably like what am I doing trying to learn all these words?
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: Where you know nowadays, if you're teaching biology, that you get out there and you do more labs and you go outside and you you get back to nature and and you learn about, you know, the plants and the animals and things like that.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: So it's more hands on.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: So you know that just that sort of thing is, is, and you know the, the, the boom in technology.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: If you don't, if you don't know how to work technology, you're going to be left on the sideline.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: So you know the fact that you're doing, you know we're talking here.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: We're not even next to each other.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: In the olden days I would have to, we'd had to meet somewhere, you would had to rent time in a, in a, in a studio and all that sort of thing.
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: And now you just flip it up on your computer and you're interviewing somebody in your, in your, in your den.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: So you know that's a sort of lifelong learning we're talking about.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: So always take the opportunity to to get better at whatever you're doing.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: We talk a lot about in officiating.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: If you're not getting, if you're not getting better, you're getting worse.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: You know nobody stays the same.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: So you got to you better.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: Be getting better every day.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: Lombardi said that Paterno said that Coach John Zamberelin shout out to coach Z at 1998.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: I remember as a junior, in a September, not September or August we were running and he, we were doing our sprints at end of practice and he said man, if you have a choice, you're going to get better, you can get worse.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: No one stays the same.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: I'm like what is this dude talking about?
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: I'm like 19, I'm hot, I'm tired, I'm 47.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: And I still remember him saying that I can still.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: When you said that, it brought me right back to coach John Zamberelin, and it's true.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, though, these cliches in life, they, they, they might be cliches, but they are true.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: Like I'm passionate about the word or the number, um 1,440, which is the number of minutes in a day that we all have and we all get the same.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: No one gets more, no one gets less.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: And so when people say, man, I'd like to do that, but I don't have time, I'm like, really, how do you, how do you not have time?
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: Did, because we have the same amount of time.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: Just, I'd rather you say you just you're choosing not to do it because we all have a choice.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: And then we kind of slow down and kind of like focus on that it's you can get a lot.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: So I think I love that you're even the NFL level the officials are talking about that because it's um a great, a great lesson for our kids.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: And you mentioned technology.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: You made me think like my, my dad, when he worked from home.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: When I was in high school, you sold appliances for Whirlpool for like 35 years.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: I remember like this was like when computers were starting to get involved and a fax machine, and I remember seeing how stressed out my dad was like.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: It was like that's what he told me.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: He was like that's what he called.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: He was like learn computers, I'm a disaster.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Like he didn't know what the hell he was doing.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: And I mean like for us.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Now we got AI coming at us.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: We got these things it's like and so like.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: With this podcast, I just, in the last two weeks, adopted AI to like do our the summaries of our conversation and it is so scary, craig.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: So when we get done, I I upload our audio, I produce it real quick and then I put it into this little thing, I say I tool and it literally spits out a fantastic summary with the transcript, with chapter markers and like, and it saves me a ton of time, wow.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: So I use those stories to tell my kids like hey, your, your old dad is still, I'm using the AI.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: How are you using AI?
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: So it's just trying to trying to stay with the times a little bit.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: So what went?
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about the, the, your educator, and then you start referring games.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: Talk about that transition.
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: Hello everybody.
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: My name is Craig Co and I'm the senior vice president of relationship management for B line.
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: For more than 20 years, we've been helping fortune 1000 companies drive a competitive advantage with their external workforce.
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: In fact, b lines history a first to market innovations have become today's industry standards.
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: I get asked all the time what did Casey do for your organization?
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: And I say this.
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: It's simple.
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: The guy flat out gets it.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: Relationships matter.
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: His down to earth presentation, his real world experience applied to every area of our business.
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: In fact, his book when the relationship and not the deal, has become required reading for all new members of the global relationship management team.
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: If you'd like to know more about me or about B line, please reach out to me on LinkedIn and if you don't know, casey Jay Cox, go to Casey Jay Coxcom and learn more about how he can help your organization.
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: Now let's get back to today's episode.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: You know I wanted to be an athlete, right, but I was.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: I was the average Joe athlete played football, baseball, basketball in high school, actually went to PLU to play basketball and the there was a coaching change and the new coach discovered that I wasn't as good as maybe I thought I was and so I didn't make the team.
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: And that was my freshman year of college and on our exit you know he's a good guy Obviously I wish you would add a different opinion, but it everything turns out.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: Turns out for a reason, I believe.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: And so he asked me hey, you know, since you're not going to be practicing with us, the intramural gal came to me and asked if there'd be any of my guys who would want to officiate basketball games, you know, on Tuesdays and Thursday nights, let's say.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: And I said, well, what does that entail?
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: And he told me he says, oh, and it pays, you know, pays five bucks a game or whatever.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: And I'm, you know, I'm a kid in college who's, you know, coming from not a real wealthy background.
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: I thought, well, shoot, I should probably contribute.
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: So I actually took the job as a basketball referee at at PLU's intramural gym that that year, and from the very start of officiating basketball.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: I loved it and so the next year I transferred to the University of Washington, which was about, you know, five, five to 10 times cheaper going to a state school and obviously I'd given up on my dream of still playing basketball or baseball and I started officiating.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: And I started officiating football and I did.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: I basically did football and basketball for at the high school level for 18 or 19 years before I made it made it to the NFL.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: But yeah, so I I was.
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: I thought about being a doctor, I majored in chemistry and biology and then at at some point I was going to be a athletic trainer and I'd go to these games where I was refereeing while I was in college and I talked to the trainers and I did a little couple of internships with them, but I found that the trainers were the first person in the gym about an hour or two before the game and about an hour or two after the game they were the last person shutting the lights off, leaving the gym, and I was at the time officiating these games and I'd roll up when the parking lot was full and get there about a half an hour before the game, get dressed in the locker room and as soon as the buzzer sounded, I jogged off the court, took a shower, put my stuff on and I was out the door.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: And so I thought well, you know what, if I'm going to stay close to athletics, maybe I should just continue to do this officiating thing rather than rather than this the trainer thing.
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: So I I basically get an education degree and became a teacher, and teaching was a great way to stay close to athletics.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: I had to kind of make a decision at the time what.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: What was I going to coach and what was I going to officiate.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: So I think when I started I was in college I did I refereed football, basketball and softball, slow pitch softball.
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: That was a great way to make money on the weekends that do the beer league softball games, because you could do five six games on a Saturday and five, six games on a Sunday.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: So that was a good way to make money.
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: But I wasn't real passionate about the game, the game of softball, at the time.
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: And then when I started, when I started teaching I I had long been my favorite sports baseball.
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: So I'd long been a baseball guy, and so I got a coaching job at coaching baseball and coaching basketball and so basically coached two sports and then I gave up softball officiating and I refereed to sports basketball and baseball and I kind of balanced that every every day after school.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: You know, school was done at two, two, 30, I could leave at three and the game started at three, 30 or four, at you know different, different schools around the area.
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: So that's kind of how I, how I worked it Now when.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: how old were your kids when you started refereeing?
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: So I started officiating.
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: I started officiating basketball when I was, uh, when I was 19 years old.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: I guess football started when I was 20.
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: So I wasn't even close to having kids or being married.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: They didn't come along for my daughter.
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: I guess came along 10 years later.
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: But I mean, maybe I'll rephrase the question.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: So when your kids were young, were you still able to referee?
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you almost have to just keep.
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: You almost have to keep going.
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: Every year.
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: If you don't keep officiating can you lose your standing in your local organization, you know, trying to move up to be able to do playoff games and state championship games and things like that.
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: So yeah, as my kids were growing up I continued to officiate absolutely and then slowly moved into like small college football and that sort of thing.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: So yeah, in order to be an official, obviously you have to have a wife who's almost a saint, willing to make a lot of sacrifices so that you can be gone on a, you know, like during a football season.
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: If I was referee in high school and small college, I would do a high school game on a Thursday night, a high school game on a Friday night and a small college game on a Saturday, and that Saturday I'd get up at six in the morning and maybe drive to Whitworth and Spokane and, you know, get home at eight o'clock at night.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: So the whole entire Saturday was shot.
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: So yeah, it really takes a in order to be an official.
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: It takes someone who's willing to, you know, kind of be the parent on some of those days.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Tell me where do you think the drive came to do that?
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: Because that's a choice, like the passion for that.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: You know, obviously I played the sports and then I've always been.
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: You know, I like the strategy of the game and you know, in order to kind of know the game real well, you actually have to know the rules.
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: So as a player growing up I probably knew the rules a little better than most kids Trying to get the edge here.
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: I wasn't real athletic so I had to maybe know all the nuances of the rules so I can get away with things right.
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: And then you know, just growing up you start doing it and it's a passion, it's a lot of fun, you stay close to the game.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: I used to talk to coaches who were maybe coaching one sport and we're going to start officiating another.
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: I say, well, the good thing about the tough thing about coaching sometimes as a coach is you, you know, practice five or six days a week and then you have one game.
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: You practice five or six more days, you have one game and that's okay for the first couple of weeks.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: But by the time you get to week eight and a week nine and week 10, you're practicing five or six days and then you have a game and you're like you know, the practice is get a little long, get a little long for the kids, get a little long for you.
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: Well, if you're an official, every day is a game day.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: So when I was coming up, you know I do Mondays with JV games and Tuesdays with junior high games, and Wednesdays were freshman games and Thursday, you know, you start a varsity games.
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: And so there was a point I think my fourth or fifth year where football season was eight weeks long, nine weeks long.
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: There was a point one year where I worked a hundred football games and that means I was working basically a game a day on Wednesdays and Mondays that you could work two games.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: You could work JV games, and then on Saturdays or Sundays I might work, you know, three or four junior league games, and you know it was just something I love to do.
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, and the reality is you're watching sports and you're working and you're staying in shape and you're getting paid to do it.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: Awesome Talk about.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: Tell me the hardest part about that journey as a dad, when your kids were growing up.
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, the hardest part is not being there.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: You know, I think you've talked in past episodes about, you know, being present.
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: And being present isn't just being home, but it's, you know, it's interacting with your kids.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: And you know there are times where you know I'd work, I'd work, you know, the entire work week and then I'd officiate.
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: You know I'm putting in 30, 40 hours in officiating, so you're adding up to 90 hours of work a week and so you get home and sometimes you know I probably wasn't the best best at being present, being there for my kids, you know.
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: So that's I really worked hard actually.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: My son, obviously, was into sports as well and if there was any time that he asked to go out and play, you know, catch or throw the football around I always made sure that I got up and got out there and we, you know, we're playing with football or he was pitching to me or throwing the football around or whatever.
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: I never.
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: I always made sure that I wouldn't, you know, short him just because I was maybe exhausted from the work day.
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: Love it.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: You mentioned small college football.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you remember this memory, but this is one of my favorite stories I love telling.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: So I remember like one of my very first like legit actions at Central I for those scoring home.
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: So Central Washington Division II school, Ellensburg, Washington, middle of the state, and I remember just taking a huge hit, and Isn't it at the Harvard of the West?
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: It is the Harvard of the West.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: Many people don't know that, but that's I definitely I do.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: But I remember this is back in the day when it was like and I'm gonna make myself sound old like a leather helmet guy here, but like a quarterback could throw it thousand one, thousand two and still take a shot and it was okay.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: There were the late hits that are getting called now or not even remotely close to what I know when I played Because I remember getting like called out in film room like you got to step, step into that and take it I was like, oh you, you step in, take it.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: Dude's 250 sprint right at you, picking your body, sound, yeah.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: And I remember I get blasted and I'm like getting up and I hear this get up, Jay Cox.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: I'm like what in the hell?
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: I turn back and it's the one and only Craig Rolstead.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: I'm like I'm getting shit talked by referee.
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: What the hell?
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: I'm sure I didn't?
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: I'm sure I didn't say get up, Jay Cox, I'm sure I said something like Casey, can I help you up?
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: No, you said, get up.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: I remember it.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: I remember it and it actually was awesome because it made me laugh.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: I was like, okay, this is, this is gonna be fun today.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: I'm like I remember like talking to you real quick.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: I'm like I didn't because I didn't see you like during the coin toss, because maybe I wasn't a captain then, but I couldn't believe it.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: This is crazy.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: I'm playing college football and my frickin 10th grade biology teacher is a rep.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: This is so cool.
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: That's true.
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: So, true statement.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: When?
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: When did the NFL became a reality for you?
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Marcy Stout, ceo and co-founder of rebel coach, a consulting and coaching company dedicated to cultivating leadership, building cohesive teams and fostering wellbeing in the workplace.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: At rebel coach, collaboration is one of our core principles, which is why I'm excited that Casey Jay Cox and I are partnering together to host a monthly mastermind called the intentional sales leader mastermind, where leaders can share ideas, exchange insights and gain valuable knowledge from industry experts.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: It's our promise to you that joining our mastermind will provide practical insights on how to use curiosity and humility to build relationships while exceeding revenue expectations.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: We'll also teach techniques so you can stay committed to priorities like family, health and, quite frankly, things that bring daily joy.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: You can learn more about me and my work at rebelcoachcom and, if you want to work with us and other sales leaders who are committed to results both personally and professionally, visit Casey Jay Coxcom for more information on the intentional sales leader mastermind.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: Now let's get back to the podcast.
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: Well, little known fact that officials when they get to the division one level so I was working in the pack 10 at the time, wasn't the pack 12, I was working the pack 10 at the time and the only known fact is that the officials actually get scouted by officiating scouts.
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: The NFL sends scouts out Just like a, you know, just like a team send guys out to watch, watch the players.
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: There actually are scouts that go out and watch officials.
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: So I was lucky enough to be on a crew with a gentleman who was being scouted by the NFL and when the rule was if they go out and watch a crew, a crew is made up of seven officials to go out and watch one guy and they actually have to ride grades on everybody on the crew.
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: So it was my first year in the pack 10 1999, I guess and they came out, watched one of the hot shots on my crew who was, you know, five or six years probably into college officiating and I was a prospect to be in the NFL and they saw me.
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: And it just so happens the guy who was the scout mentioned to another guy who was at the game who was my, my small college assigner.
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: He says hey, that field judge over there, craig Rolstead, why?
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: Why isn't he applied to the NFL?
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: And so I got a call from my assigner the next morning and said hey, you know, the NFL was asking you about you.
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: They want to know why you haven't applied to the NFL.
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: And I was like heck, I didn't even know you could apply to the NFL.
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: I don't even know what.
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: What are you talking about?
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: I knew there was.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: I knew the NFL was the next, you know, the next step after major college football.
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: But I just gotten into the, I just gotten into the pack 12.
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: So I wasn't thinking about the NFL at the time.
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: But so, anyway, that spurred me to, you know, start asking some questions and and I ended up putting my resume out there and over the next five years, different scouts would come watch me work and and I was lucky enough to get the chance to interview.
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: And you know it's quite an extensive process to become an NFL official, but I was fortunate in 2003 to become an NFL official.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: Wow, so cool and what is like.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: So maybe for those scoring home what talk about.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: What is a typical week NFL official?
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: Like what?
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: What does that look like?
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know I laugh when some people think, oh, you guys just go out there and appreciate for three hours a week and then you walk away and that's it.
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: Well, that couldn't be further from the truth.
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: Let's take like, from the moment we finish the game, so we'll finish a game and I might be in.
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: Let's say I had the jet so I might be in New York, and as soon as that game is over I'm handed a.
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: Well, we have to file reports on the game.
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: So we basically write down anything that's significant to happen in the game.
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: We have to report all of the penalties that we called.
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: We have to report anything we saw that maybe was close to a penalty that we didn't call.
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: And we fill out these game reports in the locker room at the end of the game.
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: Then we send those into the league and we are assigned a supervisor who will now look at that game and evaluate every play of every game for every one of our officials.
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: So we have seven officials on the field and two guys in the replay booth, so all nine of us will get graded by that supervisor on that game, every play of every game.
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: So as we walk out of the stadium they hand us a little thumb drive and on that thumb drive is the game.
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: So they rush us to the airport.
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: We immediately jump on a flight home.
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: So I'm able to get home from New York at about 11 at night.
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: So I'm able to get into bed by one in the morning, usually on a Sunday night.
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: But in the meantime, on the way home I'll watch the game a second time and I'll review our performance.
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: So I review my performance and then all of the other six guys on my crew on the field and then the two guys in the replay booth.
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: So I look at all those things, so I basically grade the game as well, so that when I get a phone call so like on Monday night, a lot of times we'll continue to have, you know I might call a guy on my crew, I might call the umpire and say, hey, take a look at, you know, play 2369 and play 4873.
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: What did you think of the left guard on this play?
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: And so he might have been close to holding or things like that.
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: And so when the supervisor calls me on Monday night or Tuesday night and asked me about different plays, I may have already had, you know, a conversation with the guys on my crew about you know what, what happened on that play, and so basically by Tuesday they come out with the grades on the game.
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: They have preliminary grades.
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: We can, you know we can answer their questions.
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: A lot of times they'll have questions about a play or things like that, and so we come, come back with our explanation, what we're looking at or maybe what we saw, and then the final grades kind of come out with with uh on, uh, I guess usually Wednesday morning and uh, you know, we can have conversation, I can have conversations with my supervisor or or my uh or the vice president officiating about different plays, you know, and occasionally there's, you know, something controversial that you know I may have to comment on in the media, but not not too often Does that happen.
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: And then, uh, the whole week, uh, we basically have uh, we have different rules, tests that we take.
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: Uh, we have different videos that we watch.
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: We have videos that are for the for, like, the downfield officials that might involve pass interference.
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: We have videos for the line of scrimmage guys that might involve, you know, false starts and neutral zone infractions.
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: We have videos for uh referees that might involve, uh, you know, roughing the passer, intentional grounding, things like that.
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: So, uh, we, we watch a lot of tape.
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: Uh, I can pull up any play of any game on my computer and watch, uh, you know, watch, uh, you know you dialogue with other officials around the league and they say, hey, look at this play from the, you know, kansas city game and we'll look at that, um, and then we start, basically start preparing for the next week.
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: Um, so, uh, the next week, we, we actually, uh, we'll look at our performance and grade that.
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: Uh, I will, uh, I will pick plays from our past game and we'll review them as a group together.
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: Uh, we'll also look ahead at the teams we have for the next week.
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: Uh, we'll scout them.
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: Uh, and scouting is a little different, but you know, we look for trick plays and and, uh, you know, uh, we call them frequent flyers.
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: A frequent flyer in terms of an official, as somebody who might be leading the league and holding penalties.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: So if I have a five, the.
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: You know, let's say, the Denver Broncos have a left tackle that's leading the league and penalties.
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: I know that before the game starts, uh, and you know, I like do the preventive officiating say, hey, yeah, make sure you keep your hands in today.
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: And of course, the guys say, hey, I never hold and and I'll know that you know he has 10 holds in 12 games this year.
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: Um, but you know, I, I uh just want to make sure he knows that I'm looking at him, so maybe he doesn't hold today because, believe it or not, officials don't want to throw flags.
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: We just have to throw flags if there's a, if there's a penalty.
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: And when is so game?
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: On Sunday.
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: When are you usually traveling?
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we get up early in the morning.
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: Uh, since I live in the West coast, I usually got to get up before 4am on a Saturday and catch like the six am Flight out of out of Seattle.
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: Uh, if it's a West coast game, I get there obviously early, uh, you know, by nine or 10 in the morning.
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: If it's an East coast game, I usually can't get there until about four.
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: And then, uh, since I'm the head official, I have a meeting of uh, of a three hour meeting that I'll run with the guys that we'll look at, like I said, place from last week, place from this week.
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: We actually talk, uh, we, we do rules tests, we do, we look at mechanics, things.
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: Uh, uh, we look at.
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know the guys share.
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: Well, you know they might, we might have had a play last week on a punt play that you know something didn't go right.
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: So we'll talk about our coverages on punts and things like that.
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: So it's, it's a, it's a pretty long process, uh, but you know, if you're a, if you're a referee or a or a football nerd, it's, it's kind of cool.
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: So, uh, most of us are kind of football nerd.
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: So so we, we, we like it.
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: We, you know, we basically talking football for three hours on a Saturday, uh, before before our game on Sunday.
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: So tie in this back to your parents uh, the skill and the, the, the work ethic of lifelong learning, um, uh, I mean you couldn't be doing.
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: Proven that more right now.
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: Like yeah, this is my 21st year in the league and there's always something new that happens in a football game.
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: You know you wouldn't think that would happen, but you know you say, wow, I've never seen that before and that happens, that happens every week.
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: Uh, basically, um, in football and and, believe me, I've watched a lot of football and uh, for for there to be plays every, every, every week, where you go, I haven't seen that before.
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: Uh, it's pretty amazing.
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: But uh, you know, football coaches are pretty innovative and they come up with new stuff all the time, especially those special teams coaches.
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: They're always looking for the edge, you know, right?
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: Um, as you think about your journey as a dad, um, that's through education, through football, you know, one of the questions I like asking dads is like an area of our dad game.
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: Or maybe you know you're, as a grandpa, like that.
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: Maybe you knew or you know it's not quite where you want it from a skill perspective and I always like to lead my witness a little bit like mine's.
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: As a competitive person, I have to really watch my patience, so sometimes that gets the best of me and but, um, so that's an area of my dad game and I think every time I get to talk to a dad on this podcast it's like free therapy for me.
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: So, like from from your perspective, craig, talk about an area your dad game that might relate to others at home, of an area that you're.
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: You might not always be where you want it to be, but you're working hard to come, just be that you know, follow the skills of life on your learner and just working hard to become better in an area.
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, let me talk first about when I was a young dad.
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: Um, uh, you've had a guest on here named Bruce Brown, who talks about the car ride home, and I actually learned that when my kid was about six or seven years old, uh, and he was playing ball, and I don't think I wouldn't think I was the coach, but I would, you know, I'd ask him about different plays during the game, whether it was basketball or or or baseball, and uh, you know, he, he didn't seem real excited to talk to me about, you know, what might have gone wrong.
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: And I then I went to a conference and and, uh, I was probably a new, a new coach, and uh, bruce Brown talked about, you know, you're not, you're not your kid's coach.
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: When you're riding home in the car and and your kid doesn't really want to talk about, um, maybe what went wrong, uh, your job is, is is basically to be a uh, uh, you know to, to believe in your kid and praise your kid, and at that time, is is not the time to ask them about situations.
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: So they want to talk about it later and that's fine.
• 54:40
  Speaker 3: But I just learned then that, uh, you know, even though I was a coach and, uh, an official and an athletic director at one point in my life that if my kid's playing in the game, I'm just a fan.
• 54:52
  Speaker 3: I'm just a fan and I'm just happy.
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: I should be just happy that they're playing, happy that they're healthy, uh, and happy that they had fun.
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: So that kind of changed, that kind of turned my perspective a lot when I was, when I was a young, young, young dad, and I think that's very important.
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know, there's one thing you know, you you talked about earlier it's not like you're living through your kids but even even pressing them so hard that now it's not enjoyable.
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: I mean that that would be the worst thing that I would have a kid quit, uh, one of my kids quit a sport because it wasn't enjoyable to them.
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: So I always wanted to make sure that it was enjoyable.
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: So that was one of the things I think very valuable thing that I learned as as as a young dad.
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: I had the same, the same experience.
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: I remember I read Bruce Brown's article.
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: A guy named Mark Zender who's a baseball coach at Kentwood High School.
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: He was a coach's clinic and he gave us this article about Bruce Brown.
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: I remember like God this is.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: I was guilty of that.
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: I remember when Ryder was like eight or nine, I was like I'm like buddy, what happened that play?
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: You always make that play, right, you know.
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: And then I read this.
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: I was like whoa, I'm not that.
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: And I remember like just saying, man I love, and Bruce Brown for everybody don't know his article talks about just telling him man, I love watching you play, and when the kid, when your kid's ready to talk about their performance, that he or she will talk about it.
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: And I put it to the test and sure as you know what it worked.
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: And I'm so grateful for my friendship with Bruce coach Brown.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: I spent five hours with him at his house up in Camino Island and I feel like I was meeting with Yoda just the wisdom.
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a great dude and you know it's amazing, is he?
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: Thank goodness he stepped back from coaching at one point and, rather than being a high school like varsity coach, he put all his coaching into middle school for the last you know, I know, the last 15 years of his career.
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: Rather than just keep striving to be, you know, the big high school varsity coach, he decided to step back and be a middle school coach.
• 56:51
  Speaker 3: And what a what an awesome opportunity it was for those kids at that middle school to have Bruce Brown as their coach and I actually know that one of his former students is Heather Tarr, the University of Washington.
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: Uh, softball coach who's, you know?
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: Just an outstanding coach in her own right.
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: Uh, but it's pretty, pretty awesome that that he was able to step back and do that for kids.
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: He talked to me about Heather Tarr and so, it's funny, I met Bruce.
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: I got to meet him through.
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: My buddy got him Josh McFadden, former guest in the podcast.
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: He actually played for coach Brown at that middle school.
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, nice, nice.
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Really really cool story.
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: Well, I actually officiated for Bruce at that middle school and it was like he, he, you looked at the coach and and a lot of middle school coaches are screaming and yelling at kids and screaming and yelling at the officials and I looked at this guy and I thought, whoa, that guy's a class act.
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: Who is that guy?
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: And then I got into educate I was officiating when I was in college and then I got into education and I met him.
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: You know five years in and what what a great guy Wow.
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: Love it.
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: Um, okay, if we had to summarize kind of what we've talked about today, um, we, we talked about a lot of things.
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: Um, what would be a you know two or three things top of mind for you that that dads can take from our conversation today um to to work on being that ultimate quarterback or leader of their household?
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: Tell me what comes to mind.
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: Well, since we're just talking about kids and sports and things like that, this goes with all of their.
• 58:19
  Speaker 3: You know, the kids' whole life is, I think, about John Wooden's quote be slow to criticize, be quick to commend.
• 58:27
  Speaker 3: So you find things that you can commend your kids on, you can praise your kids about.
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: They don't need to hear more criticism from you, but if they're not doing it right, they'll hear criticism.
• 58:42
  Speaker 3: So you know your job is kind of to inspire your kids and be that positive presence and mentor.
• 58:51
  Speaker 3: So I guess the biggest thing is kind of teach your kids to believe in themselves, you know, teach your kids to believe that things can happen and that you're the ultimate encourager when it comes to not only athletics, but you know really anything in their life.
• 59:14
  Speaker 3: You can be there, you know you're there to encourage them, and so I mean that would be my biggest takeaway, I guess.
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: Love that For people that obviously this is an audio-only podcast, but Craig and I can see each other on video and the behind me is a believe sign.
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: It's from Ted Lasso, but it's also a word I use in my coaching world for businesses and leaders, and I learned the power of that word from a guy named John Kaplan when he used to ask me Casey, do you believe what you do matters?
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: He would ask people that, and so it's a word that is not used enough and I love that you said that, craig, because it's.
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: I talk to my kids all the time about that word and I wish I could go back to seventh grade.
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: When I was the.
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: There was six kids that were seventh grade that made the first cut, the meeker baseball team, pizzolotto.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: Remember that name, pizzolotto?
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: Pizzolotto.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: Mr Pizzolotto, yeah, he's a math teacher.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, pizz.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: And then Forney was the ninth grade coach and I was John Forney.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, there was one kid that got cut as seventh graders to eighth grade team and you're looking at him and it was because.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: So I made the first cut but I didn't make the second.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: Because I remember talking to some of my buddies as seventh graders I said, hey, do you think you're going to make it?
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: And some of the buddies were like, oh yeah, I'm making it.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: And the fact that I had to ask him, the fact that I didn't something inside didn't quite believe, was why I got cut, I think.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: And I look at guys like John Kittner, who made it in league for 17 years.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: Again Mike Riley, who's a stud at Central, played in the CFL for years.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: Their level of competing, competitiveness and I had it obviously in college.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: But even in business world the power of belief is so important.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: So you've obviously struck a chord with me and I'm glad that you mentioned it and I hope that dad's a home, if you're not using that word inspiring belief.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: Start today because Bruce Brown talks about he has a book on confidence and he says confidence is built by one person inside the home and one person outside the home.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: So, all right, I'm off my soapbox, all right.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: So if people want to learn more I don't know if you're on social media or not but if people want to learn more about you and the life of an NFL official is a place I can send them, or they just look for you on TV on Sundays.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, yeah, we don't really do social media.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 3: If you could believe this, if I did social media, I would guess that maybe 95% of it would be negative.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: So I don't really need that negativity in my life.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 3: So I really don't do social media.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 3: I'd have them, you know.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 3: They can contact you and get a hold of me.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: What I would like to put a plug in for is that right now, high schools and youth sports are absolutely dying for officials and referees and it's you know.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: People ask me hey, it's pretty tough, coach is always yelling at you.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: The reality is, the coaches are not always yelling at us and in fact in the NFL coaches are rarely yelling at us.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 3: Now, at the lower levels you might get a coach that gets out of hand and that sort of thing, but it is, you know, I just think, as an avocation.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 3: So it's obviously a side job, but as an avocation it's just awesome to.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 3: It's way better than I would say, it's way better than waiting tables.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 3: You know, if you're a college kid looking to make money, you know, sign up.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 3: You can sign up to your local high school association and you can work and you can work.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 3: You only want to work Mondays and Wednesdays.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 3: You only have to work Mondays and Wednesdays, or you can work just Saturdays and Sundays or whatever.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 3: So and I'm not talking just football, I'm talking every sport every sport needs officials volleyball officials, basketball officials, soccer officials, and so I'd probably want to put something on there, a thing that where they could contact people to become an official, because that's very important.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: We're going to, we're going to end up at a point where we're not going to have our kids, aren't going to have games because there aren't going to be anybody to officiate the games, and that'll be a sad day.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 3: So we just need need more officials.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: Well, we faced that.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: Actually last year we had games moved because of a lack of officials.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: So you're right, I used to run a basketball organization here in my community and we would meet with head of league officials and they warned us and I think a lot of it's unfortunately, by the way they're treated.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: Some parents get out of control and, you know, freak out and parent.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: The rest are like I'm done, I don't want to deal with it anymore, and so hopefully, if there's a dad or mom listening or a grandpa that's inspired by this conversation, we'll make sure that's linked in the show notes of how they can, at least in the state of Washington.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: How you can, how can you, how you can go find a place to, to, to sign up to be an official, because we, like Craig says, we definitely need people doing it and we're lucky enough to play sports.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: Give our kids those same opportunities.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: All right, you told me before we were recording you're a little worried about the lighting around.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: This is where I go random on you and all the effects that you saw me take at the central, those hits that I should have got a roughing the past or you didn't throw the flag.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: So now, now that that's gonna karma is going to come back.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: Yet I'm going to ask just random questions.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: Your job is to answer them as quick as you can.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: My job is to try to get a giggle out of you.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 3: All right, but it did build toughness right.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: Well, play that laugh.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: For me does not count, I didn't.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: We're not scoring yet.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: Okay, true or false, you once beat Ed Hockley in arm, wrestling.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 3: Oh, that'd be a big negative with Ed's pretty strong guy.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: For those scoring at home.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: Ed Hockley was the most jacked ref.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: I think he wore a medium shirt, but God, he had guns for days, it's not?
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he wore the medium.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 3: I was lucky enough to be on his crew for five years.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 3: He's a he's a great official.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 3: He was, he was great.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 3: He's been retired now for a couple of years and people still ask me hey, did you ever talk to Ed?
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 3: I said, well, yeah, I talked to him, but he's not.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 3: He's not an official anymore.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: So good, tell me the last book you read.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 3: Last book I will read.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: The luckiest man, I believe, is the life and times of Lou Gehrig.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 3: Life and life and death of Lou Gehrig.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: Cool.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: If I was to come to your house for dinner tonight, what would we have?
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: Well, we probably have salmon and a baked potato and corn on the cob and we'd grill the salmon and actually my wife's a better cook than I am, so if we were having guests I would have her do it.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: There we go.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 2: Tell me your your most favorite memory as an NFL official.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 3: Wow, that's a good one.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, probably my one of my most vivid memories, one of my most memorable games was I had the game on Monday night in Oakland, the night after Brett Farve's father passed away and Brett Garve had a game in which he everything he threw up in the air came down.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 3: It was my rookie year, actually 19 or 2003.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 3: Everything he threw up in the air came down and was caught by by the Packers.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 3: I mean, there were raiders, you know, covering them and every catch, every pass seemed to come down into the Packers and he had like three touchdowns at halftime and he ended up throwing for, you know, 450 yards and four or five touchdowns.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 3: And the fact that he wasn't going to play his dad had just passed away the night before and he wasn't going to play and then the fact that he played and that the Raider fans, who had been known to be kind of tough on on the opposing teams, actually were kind of cheering for the guy during the game.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 3: It was just, it was pretty awesome.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: Wow, tell me who you were, the the the biggest starstruck NFL person you met.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: Who was it?
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 3: I'm not starstruck by any of that.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 3: The guys around now I guess, but you know, I guess the fact that I met, you know, jim Brown, you know obviously he was he was almost done by the time I started watching football, but to know, you know, to shake hands with Jim Brown, the greatest running back of all time, I mean that's, that's pretty awesome, and so it was a little starstruck there actually actually was able to meet.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 3: I actually shook hands with George Hallis at one point in my life and that was that was way back in like 1979, but I'd say that those are, those are two of the guys to be starstruck shaking hands with.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: Wow, if you were to build a dream for some and you're one of them you get three picks dead or alive.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: Who, who you playing with?
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've actually heard this question before and you can go a couple of different ways and I guess you know what I'd do.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 3: I would actually I'd golf with my father since, and then I'd bring my brother, mark, along to have the chance to golf with him, and I guess I'd probably also throw in Jesus Christ, because I'd have to be.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: I'd have a few questions for him.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: Last question, actually two last questions here If there was to be a book written about your life, tell me the title.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 3: The whistle doesn't always stop the play.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: There we go.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: I like that that's, that's good good ring to it.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: Now, this book you've probably heard me say it before.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: I love asking this question Netflix, hbo, hulu, they're all fighting for it, because I know they got Craig Ross of that, the Ralph, we're gonna, we're gonna.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: This book has turned into a fantastic movie that they want to, they want to get out there to let everybody see.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 2: But I need, I need to know what Hollywood actor will star you and you're the casting director.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 3: Oh gee, I'm terrible at acting and even knowing the names of actors.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 3: Um, how about?
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 3: How about Harrison Ford?
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 3: Solid choice, Indiana.
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 2: Jones yeah, I could see that.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: I could see that.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: And last question tell me two words to describe your wife.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 3: Incredible and caring.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: Solid Lighting around's over.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: We didn't go for as many giggles this time.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: I wanted to make more serious, but I'm so honored that we um, I'm grateful for Casey Bell and coach Marty Osborn for saying we gotta get Ross on there, and I'm, and I'm so grateful, coach, that you uh, you've spent time with us today.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 2: I want to say shout out to Glatitude Sica, my boy Assam.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: Thank you again for the amazing experience we had this year together and if you guys are looking to get to Alaska, I highly recommend it.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: I've lived my whole life here in Seattle and never been up to Alaska until just this year, and it was an experience I'm so grateful for.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 2: And I would highly encourage you to visit latitudesicacom, where you want to go with a corporate event, 40, old birthday party, leadership, or treat yoga or two.
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 2: Whatever you want to do, go up there and visit these guys.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: It's so worth it.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: It was some of the most beautiful majestic views I've ever seen in my entire life.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: And, um, if you're a dad listening home, you've not taken time to leave us review.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 2: Wherever you consume your podcast, please do it and please share this episode with other dads that you think might enjoy it.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 2: It'll help us continue to do this, week by week, and and continue to hopefully inspire dads to improve the emotional intelligence we're looking to improve inside each and every one of the homes we serve.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 2: So, craig, thank you again for your time, brother.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: I really, really appreciate you.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 2: It's been a blast reconnecting.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 3: You bet.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 3: Thanks so much for having me.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 3: Thank you.