Latest / NFL explained. / The Season with Peter Schrager: Richmond Flowers III
Transcript
- 0:07Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schreeger is a production of the
- 0:09Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's up, everybody, It's this
- 0:24Speaker 1: Peter Schreger. This is the Season with Peter Schreger. I'm
- 0:27Speaker 1: smiling because we're having a blast here on a rainy,
- 0:30Speaker 1: rainy New York City day here in Gotham. Gotta go
- 0:35Speaker 1: Taylor Swift, and we got to discuss it. You could
- 0:37Speaker 1: turn off the microphones, you can shut off the podcast,
- 0:39Speaker 1: you could fast forward five minutes till our guests. That's fine,
- 0:42Speaker 1: but I just have to address it because I have
- 0:43Speaker 1: different takes and everyone else, and you got to hear
- 0:45Speaker 1: from the authority me. I got a tip Sunday morning
- 0:49Speaker 1: that Swift might be at the game. I didn't do
- 0:53Speaker 1: anything with that tip, because what's the report. I go
- 0:55Speaker 1: on Fox NFL Kickoff and I look into the camera
- 0:58Speaker 1: with a serious face. I mean talking about CJ. Gardner
- 1:01Speaker 1: Johnson injury news that Taylor Swift might be at a game.
- 1:05Speaker 1: I kind of love how it was revealed. Rich Russo
- 1:08Speaker 1: is the lead director for Fox Sports and a good
- 1:11Speaker 1: friend of mine. Like an awesome dude, Jersey guy originally
- 1:15Speaker 1: from Long Island, like a legend in the in the
- 1:18Speaker 1: broadcast industry. This wasn't a big thing. It was just like,
- 1:22Speaker 1: all right, game opens and they shoot to the box
- 1:24Speaker 1: and there she is with Kelsey's mom and it says
- 1:27Speaker 1: like twelve time Grammy winner, like she had a stat
- 1:29Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, And then it was just pandemonium.
- 1:32Speaker 1: And for me, who fancies himself a pop culture guy
- 1:36Speaker 1: and likes to consider myself like in the know, and
- 1:40Speaker 1: then for Kelsey, it's like this is like for the
- 1:43Speaker 1: for the NFL broadcaster who also enjoys like the Taylor
- 1:46Speaker 1: Swift like pop culture world, and where she's at in
- 1:49Speaker 1: New York, like this is the shaded part of the
- 1:51Speaker 1: then diagram. Baby, Like this is like right in my wheelhouse.
- 1:54Speaker 1: I come at this at a very what's the word,
- 1:58Speaker 1: Pollyanna view. I like it. I think every time I've
- 2:02Speaker 1: seen Taylor Swift dating one of these guys, some brooding
- 2:05Speaker 1: musician like you, Aaron, and it's like some British guy
- 2:08Speaker 1: who's in an indie band and she's and the guy's
- 2:10Speaker 1: got the shoveled hair and he's like writing, like writing
- 2:13Speaker 1: love songs about like misery or something. She's with the
- 2:17Speaker 1: jock she's with the jock. She's with Travis Kelcey, And
- 2:21Speaker 1: I was a little skeptical the whole thing. The whole time,
- 2:24Speaker 1: I'm like, what's the play here? Because of the way
- 2:27Speaker 1: it was unveiled and there is there a pr element
- 2:30Speaker 1: she's got. I'm like, what here? I love young love.
- 2:34Speaker 1: What if after all her trials and tribulations she fell
- 2:39Speaker 1: in love with a guy who I have fallen in
- 2:41Speaker 1: love with as a player and a personality in the NFL. Like,
- 2:43Speaker 1: you can't not like Travis Kelsey. He might be you
- 2:46Speaker 1: might think he's corny, you might think he's cheesy. He's
- 2:49Speaker 1: a good dude, he's a champion. He's maybe the greatest
- 2:51Speaker 1: tight end to ever played. Don't tell Gronk. And furthermore,
- 2:54Speaker 1: he's like positive, he's likable, he's fun. Uh, this is
- 2:58Speaker 1: a cool match to me. I like it. I'm not
- 3:00Speaker 1: obsessing over it. I don't think it's worthy of that.
- 3:03Speaker 1: But my favorite thing was what came out yesterday. So
- 3:07Speaker 1: the chiefs guys told me that they beefed up security
- 3:09Speaker 1: a little bit. They got worried that she was there
- 3:12Speaker 1: and like they didn't want a crowd or all the stuff.
- 3:14Speaker 1: She came with her backup dancers. She had a couple
- 3:16Speaker 1: of friends in there, and it was like in a
- 3:17Speaker 1: regular experience. But I don't know if you saw this, Aaron.
- 3:21Speaker 1: There were hundreds of fans outside the suite and they're
- 3:26Speaker 1: waiting for Taylor Swift to leave the suite so that
- 3:29Speaker 1: they can, you know, get a picture or take a photo.
- 3:32Speaker 1: And she never left the suite. You never saw her.
- 3:35Speaker 1: And yet later you'd see Jared Payton, who is Walter
- 3:38Speaker 1: Payton's son and the two thousand and four Rose Bowl MVP,
- 3:41Speaker 1: and he's got a video of Taylor Swift and Travis
- 3:44Speaker 1: Kelcey leaving the stadium together. And then there's this amazing
- 3:47Speaker 1: shot of them in a convertible, a Camaro that's just incredible,
- 3:50Speaker 1: and they like dripped off into the sunset like it's
- 3:52Speaker 1: like you know, the movie Grease or something. But she
- 3:56Speaker 1: never left that suite. Well, there's some next level stuff here.
- 4:02Speaker 1: We've got friends who are Philly folks, and yesterday we
- 4:05Speaker 1: spent some time with them. And our friend Dana is
- 4:08Speaker 1: a hardcore Swifty and a hardcore Eagles fan, and she
- 4:13Speaker 1: notified me of when Taylor Swift leaves her concerts, they'll
- 4:19Speaker 1: often put her in a custodial closet of sorts, and
- 4:21Speaker 1: they'll wheel her out in a custodial closet. There'll be
- 4:25Speaker 1: like a broom attached to this giant structure, and then
- 4:29Speaker 1: the fans don't see her. There is video of a
- 4:33Speaker 1: giant metal box with a big bag of popcorn on top,
- 4:37Speaker 1: leaving the suite and being wheeled out of Arrowhead Stadium
- 4:41Speaker 1: suitet level. There is one video that's out there of
- 4:45Speaker 1: a fan saying, at the top of her lungs, oh
- 4:48Speaker 1: my god, that's Taylor, Oh my god, that's her. They
- 4:50Speaker 1: wheeled her out in a giant popcorn box. They put
- 4:54Speaker 1: a giant metal box she slid in like the movie
- 4:57Speaker 1: The Prestige, or like the Trojan Horse, shout out to Homer,
- 5:04Speaker 1: and they wheeled her out in a giant steel box
- 5:08Speaker 1: with a popcorn bag over it so the fans wouldn't
- 5:10Speaker 1: see it. This is why you listen to the season.
- 5:13Speaker 1: You want to know what's really going on. I can't
- 5:16Speaker 1: confirm it, but I think Taylor Swift crouched, put her
- 5:20Speaker 1: six foot body into a metal box. They dropped a
- 5:24Speaker 1: bag of popcorn on top of that thing. They had
- 5:27Speaker 1: two people wheel it out. They went down the elevator.
- 5:30Speaker 1: She comes out of the box. Hello, cuckoockachew here I
- 5:33Speaker 1: am Piekaboo. She pops out, she sees Kelsey. They're not
- 5:38Speaker 1: holding hands. They go off. Now the next level to this.
- 5:42Speaker 1: Kelsey wore a shirt called I think Bedroom Painting?
- 5:45Speaker 2: Was it?
- 5:45Speaker 1: The makers of that outfit which is honestly just a
- 5:49Speaker 1: crazy outfit he was wearing, and I give him credit
- 5:53Speaker 1: that he could pull it off. They changed the name
- 5:55Speaker 1: of the outfit from bedroom Painting to nineteen eighty nine
- 6:00Speaker 1: bedroom Painting, so that when anytime anyone searched it, you
- 6:04Speaker 1: get the cloud of the tailor swift stuff to it.
- 6:06Speaker 1: One more thing. Michael Rubin, the godfather of fanatics and
- 6:11Speaker 1: the man who's actually running the world. He tweets out
- 6:15Speaker 1: the numbers that Kelsey's jersey sales are up four hundred
- 6:19Speaker 1: percent and it's the number one selling jersey in the NFL.
- 6:23Speaker 1: And everybody is winning from this thing. Now are they
- 6:27Speaker 1: going to be doing this week now? Rob Hyland is
- 6:30Speaker 1: the producer of Sunday Night Football's Game. It used to
- 6:34Speaker 1: be Freddie Goodelli. He moved on from NBC. Rob Hyland's
- 6:38Speaker 1: the guy now I text with Rob here and there.
- 6:40Speaker 1: I like their production. They do a nice job. I
- 6:43Speaker 1: already hit him up on like Tuesday morning. I'm like,
- 6:44Speaker 1: have you gotten word if Taylor Swift is going to
- 6:46Speaker 1: be in the box at MetLife. He's like, I have
- 6:48Speaker 1: not gotten word yet. We will monitor the situation. But Aaron,
- 6:51Speaker 1: I come at it with a I mean, I love
- 6:54Speaker 1: my wife, we had a storybook romance. We were meant
- 6:58Speaker 1: for each other. These things are possible. Aaron. Are you
- 7:02Speaker 1: in on Swift and Kelsey or are you a p miss, jaded,
- 7:08Speaker 1: miserable New Yorker who is so against everything and she
- 7:13Speaker 1: should be with a poet? What's your thought?
- 7:15Speaker 3: Uh? Well, first of all, I just want to say
- 7:17Speaker 3: how thankful I am that I get to work on
- 7:19Speaker 3: a show where we can reference Christopher Nolan and Homer
- 7:22Speaker 3: all in the span of five minutes.
- 7:26Speaker 1: We're gonna nothing but go on, go on.
- 7:28Speaker 3: I think my feelings around it are wrapped up entirely
- 7:31Speaker 3: on the coverage of it and not about them at all.
- 7:34Speaker 1: Media critique.
- 7:35Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm very happy with the build up to this
- 7:40Speaker 3: rumor of Kelsey and Taylor Swift. It was fine, And
- 7:44Speaker 3: you know what, I bet he seems really happy, like
- 7:46Speaker 3: his brother seems happy when he talks about it. I'm
- 7:49Speaker 3: all in on that. That's great. And like you said,
- 7:51Speaker 3: she's been with kind of a host of guys who
- 7:54Speaker 3: like Matt Healey, Yes, John Mayer, the Jonas brother, the actor.
- 7:59Speaker 1: She was with a guy from Tom h No No, no, no, no,
- 8:02Speaker 1: in between Hidelstein, Hidlstein. He's been bar Mitswa Hilstein, in
- 8:06Speaker 1: between Hittelstein and and the Matt Healey from the nineteen
- 8:10Speaker 1: seventy five. There was a guy she was with for
- 8:12Speaker 1: a long time.
- 8:13Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 8:13Speaker 1: I think he's an actor, but again, brooding long hair,
- 8:17Speaker 1: I'm just throwing arrows and darts here.
- 8:19Speaker 3: No no, so yeah, I think that that's the two
- 8:23Speaker 3: of them. If they're that's great. My gripe specifically, was
- 8:27Speaker 3: last night watching the Steelers game and the announcers go,
- 8:31Speaker 3: and I bet Taylor Swift would be happy with the
- 8:34Speaker 3: play right here because she might have been at the
- 8:36Speaker 3: Chiefs game. But Taylor Swift is a self proclaimed Steelers fan,
- 8:39Speaker 3: and it's like, she's not here, what do we need her?
- 8:42Speaker 1: Breathings?
- 8:45Speaker 2: Last night?
- 8:46Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 8:46Speaker 1: Sorry sorry, yeah, like about.
- 8:48Speaker 3: And it's like, what are we bringing her up for
- 8:51Speaker 3: in this game. I mean that just it just seemed
- 8:53Speaker 3: like I know, I know, but then there were so
- 8:55Speaker 3: many like for yes, like bringing her song titles inside
- 9:02Speaker 3: wash my god, that's what I Garrett the hour. I
- 9:07Speaker 3: don't I don't need that. Yeah, if they you know,
- 9:10Speaker 3: I love that she's there. I think it's awesome. We
- 9:13Speaker 3: love when celebrities are at games, and like the Rob
- 9:15Speaker 3: Low NFL hat Bradley Cooper's there in the Stanley. I
- 9:18Speaker 3: think it's great that she was there. It was so
- 9:20Speaker 3: fun to see, like her sitting next to Kelsey's mom.
- 9:23Speaker 3: Loved all that. I just don't want like suddenly like
- 9:27Speaker 3: how many Taylor swift lyrics can we work into the
- 9:29Speaker 3: broadcast and then it's just gonna be that. I don't know.
- 9:31Speaker 3: That's that's my one take. It's nothing against her. It's
- 9:34Speaker 3: simply about like how she suddenly consumed the coverage. Also,
- 9:38Speaker 3: like Usher was announced.
- 9:40Speaker 1: Who cares done? No, Sorry, I'm employed by the NFL.
- 9:44Speaker 1: I might use my job for saying that. But like
- 9:46Speaker 1: that last you know, I think you got like four
- 9:49Speaker 1: hours in the Kardashians, like you know, you know she's
- 9:53Speaker 1: dating Odell. No one cares like all other News took
- 9:56Speaker 1: a back seat. What's her name? What's her name? Who's
- 10:01Speaker 1: saying Carrie Underwood was in the truck for NBC? No
- 10:03Speaker 1: one cared. It's like, it's what's it's Taylor Swift. It's
- 10:06Speaker 1: done all right. So there's multiple sides to the negative
- 10:11Speaker 1: on it. Now, there's that side. There's a lot of
- 10:12Speaker 1: critique of why did Rich Russo and the Fox cameras
- 10:15Speaker 1: go to her so many times? There's a lot. I
- 10:18Speaker 1: think Chris Russo was very vocal saying she could have
- 10:20Speaker 1: been nude in the botto. I don't need to see
- 10:22Speaker 1: her that many times. I won't go as far as
- 10:25Speaker 1: I would say it's forty one nothing. You've got a
- 10:27Speaker 1: pop culture moment. They're showing her as much as possible.
- 10:31Speaker 1: Second critique, which I gotta say, guilty pleasure. I love this.
- 10:35Speaker 1: Kelly Keegs on Barstool did you ever follow her? No,
- 10:38Speaker 1: she's a Taylor Swift obsessive, but like she she's got takes,
- 10:43Speaker 1: and her take is that Travis Kelcey's corny, and like,
- 10:48Speaker 1: you build up Taylor Swift so much and like here's
- 10:51Speaker 1: this corny guy that like all his content, she rolls.
- 10:55Speaker 1: If you want to go with that take. That's an opinion.
- 10:58Speaker 1: I'm for that. It's the it's the stuff that I
- 11:01Speaker 1: hat just like, she would never I don't like it
- 11:05Speaker 1: she would never fall in love with him, Like why not?
- 11:07Speaker 1: Kelsey's great dude.
- 11:08Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and he's he has so much energy. He's fun.
- 11:13Speaker 3: He seemed I mean, you've hung out with him. I've
- 11:15Speaker 3: never hung out with him. I feel like he would
- 11:17Speaker 3: be like just NonStop joy. He just seems like a
- 11:23Speaker 3: great guy.
- 11:23Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 11:24Speaker 1: I have interviewed him. I'm not exaggerating. Probably a dozen times.
- 11:28Speaker 1: He's in my phone. I text with him. I'm that famous, Okay.
- 11:33Speaker 1: I didn't really get the Kelsey experience until this past summer.
- 11:39Speaker 1: Paul Rudd and Wriggle and Sedekis and Stone Street and
- 11:45Speaker 1: Heidi Gardner do this thing called the Big Slick Charity Classic,
- 11:49Speaker 1: and they invite all different people from all walks of
- 11:51Speaker 1: life to come play in a charity softball game. Then
- 11:54Speaker 1: we visit a children's hospital the next morning, which is incredible,
- 11:57Speaker 1: and then there's like a big event at night where
- 11:59Speaker 1: people perform. And Kelsey and Mahomes were a part of
- 12:02Speaker 1: it this year. Last year they were not. When I
- 12:05Speaker 1: my first time, but I got to go this year
- 12:07Speaker 1: and I was with Kelsey for much of the night.
- 12:09Speaker 1: He's wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots and this
- 12:14Speaker 1: guy is a sweetheart. And he's talking to everyone, and
- 12:17Speaker 1: he's talking to the parents of children with cancer, and
- 12:20Speaker 1: he's talking to Darius Rucker, and he's talking to the
- 12:23Speaker 1: people who work at the stadium and people who work
- 12:25Speaker 1: at the hospital. Kelsey is an awesome dude. He's got
- 12:30Speaker 1: just tons of joy and positivity. And oh, by the way,
- 12:34Speaker 1: if not the greatest, the second best player at the
- 12:37Speaker 1: tight end position in the history of the sport. It's
- 12:39Speaker 1: not like he's some nobody who's like trying to get caught.
- 12:42Speaker 1: He doesn't need this for celebrity status. He hosted Saturday
- 12:46Speaker 1: Live last year.
- 12:47Speaker 3: Right, and he did well too. I mean, like, you know,
- 12:49Speaker 3: his SNL s get He had the one with Please
- 12:51Speaker 3: Don't Destroy where he throws them around and beats him up. Yeah,
- 12:55Speaker 3: he was good. I you know, as much as he's
- 12:58Speaker 3: you know, caused problems for the Bills throughout his career,
- 13:01Speaker 3: especially the last few years. I like him. He's great,
- 13:04Speaker 3: you know. Yeah, I'm I'm all on board with the
- 13:07Speaker 3: two of them having a great time and if it's
- 13:10Speaker 3: a long relationship, amazing, and if it's not, that's okay too.
- 13:13Speaker 3: Although I do hope that he can survive the fallout
- 13:16Speaker 3: because I do know a lot of time that's okay.
- 13:18Speaker 3: Her ex boyfriends tend to get punished online by her falling.
- 13:22Speaker 1: But he's not okay a we're not one hundred percent
- 13:25Speaker 1: confirmed that they're an item. She went to a football game,
- 13:27Speaker 1: they weren't holding hands. The TMZ stories that they rented
- 13:30Speaker 1: out a place called I think bar so Seal or
- 13:33Speaker 1: Kansas City so Seal. They rented out the roof and
- 13:36Speaker 1: a couple of guys. But Mahomes is talking with Aaron
- 13:38Speaker 1: Andrews and Aaron's like, what did you think of Swift's
- 13:41Speaker 1: He's like, I haven't. I haven't met her, haven't met her,
- 13:45Speaker 1: so like it's not like they've been like hanging around
- 13:47Speaker 1: and you know, Kelsey Malmes are tight and like, it's
- 13:49Speaker 1: not like they So the word is that Kelsey gave
- 13:53Speaker 1: the Chiefs heads up that she might be coming on Friday,
- 13:56Speaker 1: told the players, and Mahomes said it in that interview.
- 13:59Speaker 1: He's like, I don't you know, okay, or like maybe
- 14:01Speaker 1: said postgameling. I didn't think anything of it, like Travis
- 14:04Speaker 1: says things like I have no idea, and then Sunday
- 14:06Speaker 1: warning like Chiefs building security in the Chiefs Organization was
- 14:10Speaker 1: given the heads up that yes, Taylor Swift will be
- 14:12Speaker 1: sitting in a suite with Donna Kelce. The whole thing
- 14:16Speaker 1: is fun. And in a season where we lost Nick
- 14:20Speaker 1: Chubb but we lost Aaron Rodgers, I'm watching teams lose
- 14:24Speaker 1: seventy to twenty and forty one to nothing. Hell, I'll
- 14:27Speaker 1: take some fun that seventy to twenty is a good,
- 14:31Speaker 1: good little intro for our guests. I think you're really
- 14:34Speaker 1: gonna dig this. If you're not familiar with him, you're
- 14:36Speaker 1: going to hear his story. And I don't know, We're
- 14:40Speaker 1: going with a different route here for this guest. This
- 14:42Speaker 1: is Richmond Flowers, the third one of the top coaching
- 14:45Speaker 1: agents in the NFL, but also a guy with quite
- 14:48Speaker 1: a story to tell himself. Here on the season with
- 14:54Speaker 1: Peter Schrager, we like to have the most interesting guests,
- 14:57Speaker 1: the most connected guests, and give you the story behind
- 15:00Speaker 1: the story. And for this week, after putting up seventy
- 15:02Speaker 1: points in a ballgame, my immediate thought was like, let's
- 15:05Speaker 1: get Mike mcdael on the show. Then I was like,
- 15:07Speaker 1: all right, I know, Mike, We'll get him on in
- 15:09Speaker 1: the off season when he could be truly candid. Who
- 15:12Speaker 1: is the closest person to Mike McDaniel that I can
- 15:15Speaker 1: bring on? Who is someone who knows his story from
- 15:17Speaker 1: the very start, and who is someone who has as
- 15:19Speaker 1: connected in this league as anybody when it comes to coach.
- 15:21Speaker 1: Isn't that person? He's the founder of Collective Sports Advisors
- 15:25Speaker 1: and the QB Collective. He's one of the premier identifiers
- 15:30Speaker 1: of Scout of coaching talent but also quarterback talent, and
- 15:33Speaker 1: I just think he's a fascinating story. Guys, you might
- 15:36Speaker 1: not know his name off it, you will love this guest.
- 15:39Speaker 1: And he is with me now Richmond Flowers the third Richmond,
- 15:42Speaker 1: how are you man?
- 15:43Speaker 2: I'm good, Peter, how are you doing.
- 15:44Speaker 1: I'm doing great. So I'm watching McDaniel pour it on
- 15:48Speaker 1: and then take call off the dogs, and then the
- 15:50Speaker 1: backups come in and they're pouring it on and he
- 15:52Speaker 1: tries to call the Eventually they had to take a
- 15:53Speaker 1: knee to end this thing, and I'm like, what a
- 15:55Speaker 1: story for Mike Mike was an assistant for Shanahan all
- 15:59Speaker 1: these years, waiting his turn, waiting his turn, blocked interview here,
- 16:04Speaker 1: blocked interview there. Finally gets an opportunity to interview for
- 16:07Speaker 1: the Dolphins head coaching job, gets it. There are skeptics.
- 16:10Speaker 1: They go to the playoffs last year and now it's
- 16:11Speaker 1: like he's the toast of the town. When did you
- 16:14Speaker 1: first meet Mike McDaniel, And then we're going to tell
- 16:17Speaker 1: the story of your connection with him to where you
- 16:20Speaker 1: both are right now.
- 16:22Speaker 4: So I had been calling Mike Shanahan and Kyle for
- 16:26Speaker 4: about two to three years. At this point it was
- 16:29Speaker 4: twenty ten. I had just had my first child. My
- 16:34Speaker 4: wife was still in the hospital, and you know, after
- 16:38Speaker 4: again two years of calling Mike Shanahan, trying to be
- 16:40Speaker 4: ready if I could get an opportunity. So anyways, fast
- 16:43Speaker 4: forward twenty ten, Mike Shanahan calls me up. We're in
- 16:47Speaker 4: the middle of running around Cedar Sinai and Mike Shanahan says, Richmond,
- 16:54Speaker 4: meet me at the Combine and Mobile.
- 16:55Speaker 2: And so I jumped on a plane.
- 16:58Speaker 4: Kind of felt kind of bad for my wife at
- 17:01Speaker 4: the time, knowing that she was probably going to find
- 17:03Speaker 4: out what it's like to be a coach's wife very quickly,
- 17:05Speaker 4: and so I go down to Mobile. You know, my
- 17:08Speaker 4: interview was pretty seamless. It was Richmond, You're hired, and
- 17:13Speaker 4: Mike was there the whole time. Mike was there, you know,
- 17:16Speaker 4: he was in the Alliance at the time, you know,
- 17:18Speaker 4: I think the Sacramento team, and he was there around.
- 17:22Speaker 4: Kyle had been with him at the Texans obviously, and
- 17:24Speaker 4: he was running around. He had his sort of a
- 17:27Speaker 4: presentation and PowerPoint that he had done where he had
- 17:31Speaker 4: charted the run game efficiency and the correlation between the
- 17:33Speaker 4: playoffs and passing game and the run game and the
- 17:36Speaker 4: efficiencies of the system.
- 17:38Speaker 2: And you could tell he was super smart.
- 17:40Speaker 4: And he was down there the whole week and we
- 17:43Speaker 4: were hanging out for a little bit.
- 17:45Speaker 1: This is Mobile, Alabama Senior Bowl. You're interviewing for a job,
- 17:48Speaker 1: and for the listeners, you had a prominent college career.
- 17:52Speaker 1: We remember you on Hard Knocks. You tried out for
- 17:54Speaker 1: the Cowboys. You didn't have a long NFL career, but
- 17:57Speaker 1: you were like, I still want to get into the league.
- 17:59Speaker 1: So you end up being a coach and when you
- 18:01Speaker 1: interview for the job, there's what twenty five year old
- 18:04Speaker 1: Mike McDaniel with his glasses interviewing you how's that going down.
- 18:07Speaker 4: Mike was the you know, he was Kyle's ace at
- 18:10Speaker 4: the Texans. Widely documented he had some issues, so did
- 18:13Speaker 4: Gary Kubiak send him on a hiatus, and then Mike
- 18:16Speaker 4: was still at the the Sacramento team at the time.
- 18:19Speaker 4: When I did walk in there, again, I'd like to,
- 18:22Speaker 4: you know, tell you that I had some extensive interview.
- 18:24Speaker 4: But again, I was really Kyle's buddy from college that
- 18:29Speaker 4: played in the NFL and that would go home with
- 18:31Speaker 4: him back to the Broncos and Mike Shanahan's house in
- 18:34Speaker 4: college and trained with the Broncos.
- 18:36Speaker 2: So I'd been around him.
- 18:37Speaker 4: We were super close and the trust factor was there.
- 18:40Speaker 4: So I think the fact that I played in the
- 18:42Speaker 4: NFL meant that like he could get away with hiring.
- 18:46Speaker 4: In my case, I'm probably the one guy who was
- 18:48Speaker 4: like he did hire his friend.
- 18:52Speaker 1: I played with Kyle at Duke, and I became the
- 18:54Speaker 1: coach with Kyle.
- 18:55Speaker 4: I was I was the I am the guilty party
- 18:58Speaker 4: there when it comes to like Kyle hired his frint,
- 19:02Speaker 4: but you know, he knew I'd get out there and
- 19:04Speaker 4: and and kind of fight and figure it out.
- 19:06Speaker 1: So you're coaching with Washington. Who's in that room in
- 19:09Speaker 1: twenty eleven.
- 19:10Speaker 4: In that room is Sean McVay was the other quality
- 19:14Speaker 4: control coach with me. Matt Lafleur had his first quarterbacks
- 19:18Speaker 4: coaching job.
- 19:20Speaker 2: You had obviously, Kyle.
- 19:22Speaker 4: You had Chris Furster, You had John Embrey, Bobby Turner,
- 19:29Speaker 4: great running.
- 19:29Speaker 1: Backs coach, legendary running backs coach.
- 19:31Speaker 2: Yeah, right.
- 19:33Speaker 4: And you had Chris Morgan who's currently the offensive line
- 19:36Speaker 4: coach of the Chicago Bears. He had come from working
- 19:40Speaker 4: with Tom Cable and became Chris Furster's assistant. And Keenan
- 19:44Speaker 4: mccartal j mc cardle. Actually, you know, he tracked back
- 19:48Speaker 4: to all the different times before even I was a
- 19:50Speaker 4: coaching agent. But Keenan and I were at the Jacksonville
- 19:55Speaker 4: Jaguars together, and you know, he was a savvy vett
- 19:59Speaker 4: and so I kind of walked up to Keenan at
- 20:01Speaker 4: the Senior Bowl that during that exact same time and said, hey, Kyle,
- 20:06Speaker 4: you needed me. Keenan he's the hell of a wide receiver,
- 20:08Speaker 4: knows the position. Good dude, talk to him. Kyle hires him.
- 20:13Speaker 4: So as Keenan, John Embry, Bobby Turner, Chris Furster, Sean McVay,
- 20:18Speaker 4: Matt Lafleure, Kyle myself, and I like to say, like
- 20:22Speaker 4: I walked into the building, and you know, it doesn't
- 20:24Speaker 4: take very long to realize that because you played in
- 20:26Speaker 4: the NFL, that you're a little bit behind and that
- 20:29Speaker 4: you've got a.
- 20:29Speaker 2: Lot to learn.
- 20:30Speaker 4: Yeah, Sean, I really couldn't probably turn on the copying
- 20:34Speaker 4: machine and Sean could take it apart and put it together.
- 20:39Speaker 1: So the McDaniel thing, you guys start coaching together, when
- 20:43Speaker 1: do you make the change to say I don't want
- 20:46Speaker 1: to be an NFL coach, I want to actually be
- 20:48Speaker 1: an NFL agent and represent these guys.
- 20:51Speaker 4: You know, the truth is my dad's remain college was
- 20:56Speaker 4: Jim Bates, so I'd grown up around Jeremy. We went
- 20:58Speaker 4: to the Johnny Major's football camp growing up, and you know,
- 21:01Speaker 4: I actually almost transferred to Severe County High to be
- 21:04Speaker 4: his wide receiver.
- 21:05Speaker 2: Tells your kind of family come from where you're like a.
- 21:07Speaker 4: Guy who moves up lives in Severe County alone to
- 21:10Speaker 4: catch footballs. So I was super close to tracked his career,
- 21:14Speaker 4: tracked Kyle's career. I think at the time, I was
- 21:16Speaker 4: slinging apartment buildings at LA for Howie Roseman's brother in law.
- 21:21Speaker 1: Actually, Mindy's brother is who you were working for.
- 21:26Speaker 2: They have all these brothers, and one of them went
- 21:28Speaker 2: to Duke with me.
- 21:29Speaker 4: So I got connected to Matthew Friedman, and I was
- 21:31Speaker 4: slinging apartment buildings, sitting in a cubicle after selling luxury
- 21:37Speaker 4: real estate for Roger Staubach when the market tanked, And
- 21:40Speaker 4: so I'm sitting there going I'm pretty sure I need
- 21:43Speaker 4: to get back to what I know and love in football,
- 21:45Speaker 4: and I hate this desk and I just want Son
- 21:48Speaker 4: to hit me in the face.
- 21:49Speaker 2: I got to get the hell out of here. Even
- 21:50Speaker 2: though the.
- 21:50Speaker 4: One profession that I always kind of knew that I
- 21:54Speaker 4: wanted to stay away from was coaching. To be honest
- 21:56Speaker 4: with you, as a player, that's all I ever wanted
- 21:58Speaker 4: to do is play. I really never saw myself as coaching.
- 22:03Speaker 4: But I think sometimes it takes losing foot all, leaving
- 22:07Speaker 4: what you love and losing kind of a focus of
- 22:09Speaker 4: being around the thing that you really love and know
- 22:11Speaker 4: to really want it back. So really my strategy was
- 22:15Speaker 4: to go check it out, get thrown in the middle
- 22:18Speaker 4: of it all, it was obvious that you were going
- 22:19Speaker 4: to kind of be in the path of progress, and
- 22:22Speaker 4: so the opportunity to get down there and be around
- 22:24Speaker 4: Mike Shanahan and Kyle and all those guys, it was
- 22:27Speaker 4: more of a I believe I could be a really
- 22:29Speaker 4: good agent, and I know that I'll be a better
- 22:32Speaker 4: agent if I'm thrown into the middle of whatever Mike
- 22:34Speaker 4: Shanahan's going to do next. And so I kind of
- 22:37Speaker 4: had a hunch walking in. I figured out my path.
- 22:40Speaker 4: But ultimately you recognize what you're really good at and
- 22:44Speaker 4: what you can be really good at, and then you
- 22:45Speaker 4: know you have to be honest with yourself and assess
- 22:48Speaker 4: if you have a ceiling or not. Good things would
- 22:50Speaker 4: happen if you throw yourself into the middle of something
- 22:53Speaker 4: led by Mike Shanahan. I had so much respect for
- 22:56Speaker 4: him and had known him for a really long time,
- 22:58Speaker 4: and Kyle was really my best friend time who was.
- 23:01Speaker 1: Your first client. When you leave coaching and you say
- 23:04Speaker 1: I'm going to be a coaching agent, I know that
- 23:05Speaker 1: there's you know, titans of the industry, whether it's Jimmy
- 23:08Speaker 1: Sexton or Bob Lamont. These guys have a stronghold on
- 23:11Speaker 1: all these head coaches and there's legends told about them.
- 23:14Speaker 1: Here's this young gun coming from being an active coach
- 23:18Speaker 1: to now I'm going to be an agent. Who was
- 23:19Speaker 1: the first client that said, I'll jump on that wing
- 23:21Speaker 1: with you?
- 23:22Speaker 4: I mean, the first client was Mike McDaniel, because we
- 23:26Speaker 4: really sort of sat in the room together for two
- 23:28Speaker 4: years and we would just talk about all this stuff.
- 23:31Speaker 4: I mean, you know, we would talk about the vision
- 23:34Speaker 4: for our careers. We would talk about the build out
- 23:36Speaker 4: of collective and what it means and the importance of it.
- 23:39Speaker 2: We would talk about where we're going to go.
- 23:42Speaker 4: I had I'll be the first one to tell you,
- 23:45Speaker 4: because I think Mike's story is all about people needing
- 23:49Speaker 4: to see it before they can believe it, you know.
- 23:51Speaker 4: And I'll never forget one of the first times I
- 23:54Speaker 4: met Mike. Doesn't take it very long to show you
- 23:57Speaker 4: his resume, and at the top of his resume, it's
- 23:59Speaker 4: going to say I'm going to be a Super Bowl
- 24:00Speaker 4: winning head coach.
- 24:02Speaker 2: And you know I and so I remember.
- 24:04Speaker 1: Wait a second, I'm the resid. It has that statement.
- 24:08Speaker 1: It doesn't say Yale undergrad and coaching Texans. It says
- 24:11Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a super bowling head coach. I mean,
- 24:13Speaker 1: that sounds awfully arrogant to me.
- 24:15Speaker 4: It's absolutely arrogant. Didn't you see the play callers? That's Mike,
- 24:22Speaker 4: you know, I mean it, it's that belief in self
- 24:26Speaker 4: that separates him. I mean, but that is honest to gods,
- 24:29Speaker 4: truth went to Yale, you know basically that. I mean,
- 24:34Speaker 4: that's what it says at the top of his resume.
- 24:35Speaker 4: And I remember at the time thinking, all right, you know,
- 24:39Speaker 4: just like I said, Mike came in the second year.
- 24:42Speaker 4: And the funny part of that is Mike has probably
- 24:45Speaker 4: me to thank for coming in the second year, because
- 24:50Speaker 4: I was if you were to write down what I
- 24:53Speaker 4: was probably really not very good at, it would have
- 24:55Speaker 4: been the job description of the quality control that I
- 24:57Speaker 4: would have. And so, like, Kyle's tough, and I've experienced
- 25:03Speaker 4: a firsthand, well he's a lot tougher when you're his
- 25:06Speaker 4: buddy and you get hired. So my job was to
- 25:11Speaker 4: look at one picture and find it the little small
- 25:13Speaker 4: detail that was the mistake and then fix it.
- 25:16Speaker 2: And I'd bring it to Kyle.
- 25:17Speaker 4: And then he'd be and sitting back down the hallway,
- 25:20Speaker 4: and so like he made me enough that had opened
- 25:22Speaker 4: the door for Mike, and I think by the end
- 25:24Speaker 4: of year one, we should probably bring Mike in here.
- 25:27Speaker 2: Now we're not going to let him take Richmond's job.
- 25:29Speaker 4: And so that's when he created himself into a run
- 25:32Speaker 4: gurgle because he went with Chris Furster at the O line.
- 25:35Speaker 1: So yet Mike as a client, what year is that?
- 25:38Speaker 1: Because it doesn't happen overnight for Mike McDaniel. He's an
- 25:40Speaker 1: assistant for Kyle for a long ass time before he
- 25:43Speaker 1: finally gets an interview to be a head coach.
- 25:45Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 25:46Speaker 4: So first my two first clients were truly it was
- 25:50Speaker 4: Mike McDaniel and then Vic Fangio and that's another story.
- 25:54Speaker 4: But twenty eleven, Mike comes in there, and for me,
- 25:59Speaker 4: it's all about perspective and your experiences, and when you
- 26:03Speaker 4: have you gain a perspective by being in this one
- 26:07Speaker 4: of a kind environment and having experiences next to each other,
- 26:11Speaker 4: it changes you. And so like for me, I had
- 26:14Speaker 4: the perspective of getting to see Keenan mccartal come in there,
- 26:18Speaker 4: and then next year Kyle brought an Ike and I
- 26:21Speaker 4: think that that just like anything, when you get your
- 26:23Speaker 4: opportunity to be a coordinator. Kyle's kind of finding his
- 26:26Speaker 4: way and figuring out the dynamics of his staff and
- 26:28Speaker 4: what works and what doesn't and the importance of it. Man,
- 26:31Speaker 4: when Mike came in, you see this unassuming guy that
- 26:35Speaker 4: doesn't immediately strike you as this is the next Vnce Lombardi.
- 26:38Speaker 2: But as a former player, I had so.
- 26:41Speaker 4: Much appreciation for the way that somebody could kind of
- 26:45Speaker 4: distill in their mind how to teach a position, the
- 26:48Speaker 4: progression recall from plays that really aren't as hard to find,
- 26:53Speaker 4: because when you love something so much, you know how
- 26:55Speaker 4: to just piece it together. But Mike was so organized
- 26:57Speaker 4: and he had been collecting edits and building a library
- 27:00Speaker 4: to teach from. So I remember when I saw him
- 27:04Speaker 4: on his Exos computer one day and I walked over
- 27:07Speaker 4: there and he basically showed me how he breaks down
- 27:09Speaker 4: the wide receiver position. And I'll never forget I really
- 27:14Speaker 4: learned more in that discussion than I had learned in
- 27:19Speaker 4: the previous two years. But as a career trying to
- 27:21Speaker 4: be a professional wide receiver, because of the way that
- 27:24Speaker 4: he broke down the opponent, he broke down the different
- 27:27Speaker 4: techniques of the starting at the line with press coverage,
- 27:30Speaker 4: whether it's soft shoe man or it's cloud, how to
- 27:33Speaker 4: attack it, the different techniques, the minute detail when you're
- 27:37Speaker 4: running a route, whether you know how you're standing at
- 27:39Speaker 4: the line, whether you're you know, opening up to break
- 27:42Speaker 4: it down and then you know a false acceleration, and
- 27:46Speaker 4: the details of how you come out.
- 27:48Speaker 2: Of your breaks and catch the football. All of it
- 27:49Speaker 2: was right there.
- 27:50Speaker 4: And the way that he organized it gave me this
- 27:53Speaker 4: picture and it was like, holy, okay, I now you know.
- 27:57Speaker 2: I just learned so much.
- 27:58Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 27:59Speaker 4: It was that experience combined with Kyle walked into my
- 28:03Speaker 4: office one day when I was the pictures and basically said, Richmond,
- 28:07Speaker 4: you got a chance to be a Rian receivers coach
- 28:09Speaker 4: one day, but you got to.
- 28:10Speaker 2: Get these pictures right.
- 28:11Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 28:12Speaker 4: And then and he wasn't probably thinking at the time
- 28:14Speaker 4: that Mike was going to become the wide receivers coach.
- 28:17Speaker 2: But when you're in the meeting.
- 28:20Speaker 4: Room and you're watching the players and the way they
- 28:23Speaker 4: respond to him, and you have a comparison, and then
- 28:26Speaker 4: he walks in, this unassuming.
- 28:28Speaker 2: Guy who's super authentic, who's put.
- 28:30Speaker 4: All this work in and has been staying up all
- 28:32Speaker 4: night long and can stay.
- 28:34Speaker 2: Up all night long and you know, stay focused on
- 28:36Speaker 2: the task.
- 28:37Speaker 1: Man.
- 28:38Speaker 2: Every word that he said, those guys listen to.
- 28:40Speaker 4: They hung on everything he put them in a position
- 28:43Speaker 4: to succeed.
- 28:44Speaker 2: He would give him tips.
- 28:46Speaker 4: It was Pierre Garsan and Leonard Hankerson and Santana Moss
- 28:49Speaker 4: and those guys were so attentive, and you realized, I
- 28:52Speaker 4: don't care what anybody says, this guy is going to
- 28:55Speaker 4: be a good receivers coach.
- 28:57Speaker 2: He's going to be a great coach, because.
- 28:59Speaker 4: What is more important than the players just listening to
- 29:03Speaker 4: your every word, believing and knowing that investment that you're
- 29:07Speaker 4: making every time you walk into that meeting room. I mean,
- 29:10Speaker 4: and that's second to none.
- 29:12Speaker 1: I met Mike when he was with Cleveland for that
- 29:14Speaker 1: year and then he was with Atlanta, and it was
- 29:16Speaker 1: always this. I was always tight with a lot of
- 29:18Speaker 1: those guys. But he had the flat brimmed hat. Always
- 29:20Speaker 1: before it was cool, he'd wear the giant hat. He'd
- 29:22Speaker 1: have his sunglasses on and before the game. He was,
- 29:25Speaker 1: you know, twenty something year old guy. And let's call
- 29:27Speaker 1: it like it is, unassuming, gangly guy with glasses coaching
- 29:32Speaker 1: elite NFL wide receivers, and yet they would respond to
- 29:35Speaker 1: him in such a way where it was like, Oh,
- 29:36Speaker 1: this guy's got swag, He's got something to him. Did
- 29:39Speaker 1: you know that right away when he walks in the
- 29:41Speaker 1: room that oh, immediately like he passes the eye test
- 29:43Speaker 1: of this deal. This dude's the real deal.
- 29:46Speaker 4: I became friendly with Andrew Hawkins, and it's widely documented
- 29:50Speaker 4: how much he respects and loves Mike, and I mean,
- 29:54Speaker 4: you know, yes, absolutely, I mean, at the time, the
- 29:57Speaker 4: truth is, Mike was the only run game coordinator wide
- 30:01Speaker 4: receiver that probably ever existed in the NFL. Yeah, for
- 30:04Speaker 4: the Cleveland Browns, which it makes sense because you know,
- 30:08Speaker 4: Kyle was hired late and so there were some other
- 30:11Speaker 4: coaches on the staff, and you know, it gives you
- 30:13Speaker 4: a little insight into the importance of staff continuity. And
- 30:17Speaker 4: you know, it's also widely documented how what a great
- 30:20Speaker 4: job Kyle's done keeping his staff together and how he's
- 30:23Speaker 4: fiercely fighting for his people because you know, that investment
- 30:28Speaker 4: that you're making in the coaches on your staff, man,
- 30:32Speaker 4: this system is teaching you to look at the world differently,
- 30:35Speaker 4: not just the game, you know, because you're building based
- 30:38Speaker 4: on what you don't know, and I feel like, you know,
- 30:41Speaker 4: one of the.
- 30:42Speaker 2: Things that became real apparent.
- 30:45Speaker 4: And I was so fortunate to be around so many
- 30:46Speaker 4: people with a lot of great experiences in the league,
- 30:49Speaker 4: but you know, a bunch of young guys that felt
- 30:52Speaker 4: like innovation was the norm and everything everywhere else is
- 30:55Speaker 4: like this, which is not the case, really, not absolutely
- 30:59Speaker 4: not the case.
- 30:59Speaker 2: Now.
- 31:00Speaker 4: I don't think those guys ever stopped to realize that
- 31:02Speaker 4: other places aren't like this. So it's a benefit to them,
- 31:04Speaker 4: but for me, not sure if I wanted to coach.
- 31:07Speaker 4: I was kind of looking for the next thing in
- 31:09Speaker 4: my path. And so when Chris Burster would always say, Richmond,
- 31:14Speaker 4: I've been in the league for a long time. I've
- 31:16Speaker 4: worked for Denny Green, I've worked for Tony Dungee, and
- 31:18Speaker 4: these are all amazing coaches, but this is different. This
- 31:22Speaker 4: is such a football focused environment. It's all about the
- 31:24Speaker 4: right things. You're getting empowered here. You're not just being
- 31:27Speaker 4: told what to do. You're serving with a real purpose
- 31:29Speaker 4: and the experience and how everybody was prepared to have success,
- 31:35Speaker 4: you knew. And so when Chris would say that to me,
- 31:37Speaker 4: I started thinking, wait a second, so we're learning something
- 31:41Speaker 4: super rare that you know, ninety eight percent of the
- 31:43Speaker 4: other organizations and staff probably aren't doing things exactly like.
- 31:47Speaker 2: We're doing them.
- 31:48Speaker 4: And that just kind of meant that I was building
- 31:49Speaker 4: equity in something by the time I left.
- 31:53Speaker 2: I mean, you you know, when.
- 31:55Speaker 4: You're a part of a one of a kind environment,
- 31:57Speaker 4: I mean you just know it, you feel it. And
- 31:59Speaker 4: that was exciting to me because I didn't know exactly
- 32:02Speaker 4: where things would go, but I knew whatever was happening
- 32:05Speaker 4: was special and you and you just had a gut,
- 32:08Speaker 4: so did everybody else. But ultimately, you know, when Kyle
- 32:12Speaker 4: brought Mike to Cleveland, that's so important to have someone
- 32:15Speaker 4: who's lived it, who's been there, who can teach the
- 32:17Speaker 4: other coaches and set the standards and you know, and
- 32:20Speaker 4: so that was a really big deal. And I think
- 32:23Speaker 4: Kyle would have brought some other people along with him,
- 32:25Speaker 4: but he was hired a little late.
- 32:27Speaker 1: So Kyle then goes to Atlanta, brings Mike with him,
- 32:30Speaker 1: and then Kyle gets the head job in San Francisco,
- 32:32Speaker 1: brings Mike with him, and then for years Mike is
- 32:34Speaker 1: on staff and then finally finally a head coaching opportunity,
- 32:38Speaker 1: it's him or Kellen Moore. I'm not solving any secret.
- 32:41Speaker 1: You will know that what was the interview process for
- 32:44Speaker 1: Mike McDaniel at Post Brian Flores going into Miami And
- 32:47Speaker 1: how did you prep him for that? That meeting with
- 32:49Speaker 1: Steven Ross, who could be a pretty intimidating guy.
- 32:52Speaker 4: You know, Mike had had actually had an opportunity to
- 32:56Speaker 4: basically have a kind of a virtual interview, and they
- 32:59Speaker 4: had a little exposure to him.
- 33:00Speaker 2: I'll never forget.
- 33:02Speaker 4: I got a phone call from Brandon Shore and Mike's
- 33:07Speaker 4: journey special to me because it did take him five
- 33:10Speaker 4: years And do you know if that's exactly how long
- 33:14Speaker 4: it took, But the bottom line is it took him
- 33:15Speaker 4: longer than it should have. And I think the timing
- 33:18Speaker 4: worked out, and everything you know in life is about timing.
- 33:21Speaker 4: And you look at kind of the situation of the
- 33:23Speaker 4: Miami Dolphins and the way they were transitioning, Mike became
- 33:27Speaker 4: the perfect fit kind of what they were looking for
- 33:29Speaker 4: at the time, and so like, it's probably not a
- 33:33Speaker 4: team in the NFL that that I hadn't spoken to
- 33:36Speaker 4: over the past five years or person to talk to
- 33:38Speaker 4: him about Mike and this was it.
- 33:40Speaker 2: This was the opportunity.
- 33:41Speaker 4: This was the one team that was going to believe
- 33:43Speaker 4: in him, and they were like, hey, Richmond, we're taking
- 33:45Speaker 4: a serious shot here.
- 33:47Speaker 2: We mean business were interested.
- 33:49Speaker 4: And the culmination of everything that's happened for Mike's been amazing.
- 33:54Speaker 4: I mean, you look back at Atlanta and I remember
- 33:57Speaker 4: even you know, you kind of look at Mike and
- 34:01Speaker 4: how you go from being this quality control coach or
- 34:03Speaker 4: this unassuming guy. You know, I used to say, look,
- 34:06Speaker 4: Mike's trajectory's pointing up. The guy was in the broom
- 34:08Speaker 4: closet at the Falcons and h and you look at
- 34:12Speaker 4: I got a phone call one day from Tom Pelliasero
- 34:15Speaker 4: and we were talking and and you know, Mike's alcohol
- 34:21Speaker 4: issues are also widely documented, and I think that this
- 34:25Speaker 4: is a league that it can be difficult if you
- 34:28Speaker 4: if you make certain decisions and you have some roadbumps.
- 34:31Speaker 2: Not everyone makes it back.
- 34:32Speaker 4: I think it's a testament to Mike and his focus
- 34:35Speaker 4: and and his drive. But ultimately, you know, that was
- 34:39Speaker 4: lingering over Mike, rightfully so, and I think that there
- 34:42Speaker 4: was this moment where he needed to get that behind him,
- 34:46Speaker 4: and he was in this amazing place and I was
- 34:48Speaker 4: talking to Tom and I kind of just said, you
- 34:50Speaker 4: know what, Tom, you need to talk to Mike. You
- 34:52Speaker 4: need to to spend some time with him. You know,
- 34:56Speaker 4: he's going through some he's been through some interesting moments
- 35:00Speaker 4: and times and and he's growing. And and I kind
- 35:03Speaker 4: of left it at that and put those guys in
- 35:05Speaker 4: touch so they could talk, and Mike opened up.
- 35:09Speaker 2: And and you look back.
- 35:11Speaker 4: At the Super Bowl when the Falcons played the Patriots.
- 35:17Speaker 4: You know, Tom was at USA Today at the time,
- 35:19Speaker 4: and and and that's when he put that article out
- 35:22Speaker 4: there where Mike talked about his problems. And I think
- 35:25Speaker 4: he became, you know, a real guy then and and
- 35:30Speaker 4: you know, human, and and a little bit more eyes
- 35:33Speaker 4: were on him. And then you know, the reality is
- 35:36Speaker 4: the talent is undeniable, and the amount of work and
- 35:39Speaker 4: the relentless nature is there. And I think, you know,
- 35:43Speaker 4: the one element of when you think about Mike, you
- 35:46Speaker 4: think about what do.
- 35:47Speaker 2: The players say?
- 35:49Speaker 4: And those players they're not being asked to say anything,
- 35:52Speaker 4: they want to say something because they build a special
- 35:55Speaker 4: closeness and appreciation for those who can help impact their career.
- 35:58Speaker 4: Between Kyle and Chris Furster and Mike and and all
- 36:01Speaker 4: these guys that just invest in the development of those players.
- 36:05Speaker 4: Those guys are singing his praises and you ask them
- 36:07Speaker 4: and it sounds different, and I think it's it was
- 36:09Speaker 4: really easy once a team actually decided.
- 36:12Speaker 2: You know what, we're really going to take a real
- 36:14Speaker 2: look here.
- 36:15Speaker 4: We're not worried about what some people say, or we're
- 36:18Speaker 4: not worried about that, Oh, you know, Mike can't hold
- 36:20Speaker 4: a room, can he?
- 36:21Speaker 2: Uh?
- 36:22Speaker 4: You know all these things that you're seeing that Mike's
- 36:24Speaker 4: special qualities and what people are you know, all the
- 36:27Speaker 4: rage about you know, those were the elements that were
- 36:30Speaker 4: people were afraid to pull.
- 36:31Speaker 1: This of course, you know, and eccentricity, if you will,
- 36:34Speaker 1: like sprinting from the steadycam guy on the Sunday night
- 36:38Speaker 1: for the most of Stark interview or with me last
- 36:40Speaker 1: year in Buffalo and we're having this like ridiculous interview
- 36:43Speaker 1: mid game and people are like, he's goofy. I'm like,
- 36:46Speaker 1: he's authentic. He is who he is. He's not trying
- 36:49Speaker 1: to impress anybody with like some like cliche or something
- 36:52Speaker 1: like Mike is funny as hell, but he's also smart
- 36:56Speaker 1: and he also is authentic. I think the players respect that.
- 36:58Speaker 4: Well, there's no doubt, and you know he was a
- 37:01Speaker 4: part of that that situation. I mean, you look at Tua,
- 37:04Speaker 4: and you look at what he's doing with Tua, and
- 37:06Speaker 4: then you ask yourself, and as long as you're honest
- 37:08Speaker 4: with yourself and you say, who wanted that job at the.
- 37:11Speaker 2: Time and who was ready to take on Tua?
- 37:13Speaker 4: Well, I mean it's widely documented that many people were
- 37:16Speaker 4: not ready to take on Tua. There were people who
- 37:18Speaker 4: wanted to bring in Tom Brady, there were people who
- 37:20Speaker 4: wanted to figure out other quarterbacks. Mike not only embraced
- 37:23Speaker 4: Tua but made it the centerpiece of his candidacy with
- 37:26Speaker 4: the Miami Dolphins and spent hours upon hours upon seeing
- 37:30Speaker 4: something that probably very few could see, found it knowing
- 37:34Speaker 4: not only the importance that he needs to sell this team,
- 37:37Speaker 4: but the importance of needing to sell Tua, that he
- 37:39Speaker 4: has someone who fully believes in him. And Mike just
- 37:43Speaker 4: knows the power of that. Why, Well, he's walked the
- 37:45Speaker 4: shoes of somebody that no one's ever believed in that
- 37:48Speaker 4: you know, that grew up with this vision for where
- 37:50Speaker 4: he wanted to go, and so much of Mike's career
- 37:54Speaker 4: has been preparing for it since he was, you know,
- 37:57Speaker 4: this kind of lonely kid raised by a single mom,
- 38:01Speaker 4: and you know, and then those experiences, whether it was
- 38:04Speaker 4: starting and building with Kyle and Houston and then having
- 38:07Speaker 4: it taken away, and then going back to Washington being
- 38:10Speaker 4: a part of this year in twenty twelve where all
- 38:13Speaker 4: these young, driven coaches, you know, at the beginning of
- 38:16Speaker 4: their careers were given the task of building a system
- 38:20Speaker 4: around the quarterback that.
- 38:22Speaker 2: They didn't know how to use.
- 38:23Speaker 4: And I think that Mike articulated it so amazingly when
- 38:29Speaker 4: we were preparing for his interview. That experience shaped them
- 38:32Speaker 4: all And it's really an extension of what's happening with
- 38:37Speaker 4: Tua is that they had been through, that they had
- 38:39Speaker 4: experienced it, they had come together in a really collaborative
- 38:42Speaker 4: way and shaped a system that allowed a player to
- 38:46Speaker 4: excel that other people weren't sure if he was fit
- 38:50Speaker 4: for the NFL. Well, Ta it is no different. And
- 38:52Speaker 4: Mike walked in and probably sat down with the Miami
- 38:56Speaker 4: Dolphins and you know, and told him that this was
- 38:59Speaker 4: a great investment. And then for them to see and
- 39:01Speaker 4: understand Mike, he's an innovator. You know. In this league today,
- 39:07Speaker 4: so many coaches pull up the big playrail and they
- 39:11Speaker 4: look at what's working. There's nothing wrong with that. I mean,
- 39:14Speaker 4: what invitation is the best form of flattery. But ultimately,
- 39:18Speaker 4: you know someone's creating, and there's other coaches that are
- 39:20Speaker 4: creating in this league. But there's no question that Mike
- 39:25Speaker 4: probably you know, was pretty confident in letting those that
- 39:30Speaker 4: organization know that he's going to bring innovation, he's going
- 39:32Speaker 4: to bring a culture, He's going to bring exactly what
- 39:35Speaker 4: they were looking for at the time. And it was
- 39:38Speaker 4: an amazing kind of one of those moments when you know,
- 39:43Speaker 4: I think in my career, you set these north stars
- 39:47Speaker 4: and things that you want to happen.
- 39:49Speaker 2: That's how you well, you love what you do.
- 39:52Speaker 4: And I actually didn't start by building a coaching agency
- 39:56Speaker 4: per se, because at the time, when you get into
- 40:01Speaker 4: this industry, one of the things that I noticed is
- 40:04Speaker 4: you would ask coaches about an agent, and most of
- 40:07Speaker 4: them really said the same things, Yeah, I have an agent.
- 40:10Speaker 2: I don't really talk to them that often. Oh no,
- 40:13Speaker 2: they didn't help me get this job, and I'm not
- 40:15Speaker 2: really sure why I pay them.
- 40:16Speaker 4: And so at the time I thought to myself, well,
- 40:18Speaker 4: that's one profession I'm going to stay away from I
- 40:21Speaker 4: don't think it has that much upside for my family,
- 40:23Speaker 4: And then was it was thinking about that and then
- 40:27Speaker 4: also having this great appreciation for living in the shoes
- 40:31Speaker 4: of a coach and commanding environments, and you know, just
- 40:34Speaker 4: realizing how much more opportunity that these coaches could provide
- 40:40Speaker 4: outside of just their day to day jobs. And you know,
- 40:43Speaker 4: Mike was such a big part of helping me build
- 40:46Speaker 4: some of the things that we did to build the agency,
- 40:48Speaker 4: the events outside to network with coaches, knowing that ten
- 40:53Speaker 4: teams would want to run that system in the next
- 40:55Speaker 4: five years, and so all the video and interviews and
- 40:59Speaker 4: things along the way, thinking.
- 41:02Speaker 2: Man, one day, this guy is going to get an opportunity.
- 41:05Speaker 1: Yeah, let's sell. You've got Mike as your first client,
- 41:07Speaker 1: and obviously he's your north star and it all but
- 41:10Speaker 1: for the listeners, just to name a few, you represent
- 41:14Speaker 1: Brandon Staley, You represent Robert Sala. You mentioned ever, Oh,
- 41:19Speaker 1: you've got a very deep client, right, So is there
- 41:24Speaker 1: a recruiting process of Hey, I'm identifying these talented guys
- 41:28Speaker 1: because you've been with Sala for a long time and
- 41:30Speaker 1: he was also a quality control guy in Houston.
- 41:34Speaker 4: You could argue Sala was also my first client. It
- 41:37Speaker 4: was kind of Mike and Sala and Dan Geo. I
- 41:41Speaker 4: left after those three years in Washington and went to
- 41:43Speaker 4: the San Francisco forty nine ers. And that's always when
- 41:47Speaker 4: you're able to look back on. You know, you go
- 41:51Speaker 4: somewhere and you think one of two things, I'm super
- 41:53Speaker 4: prepared or I'm buying the eight ball. And I got
- 41:56Speaker 4: there and thought to myself, I'm super prepared. I went
- 41:59Speaker 4: from being what was probably the worst guy on the
- 42:01Speaker 4: staff to like elite NFL knowledge in my own mind.
- 42:04Speaker 4: But also I experienced an offensive staff who really didn't
- 42:08Speaker 4: want to hear my perspective even though we were trying
- 42:11Speaker 4: to engineer plays for Colin Kaepernick. Watching Washington Redskins film
- 42:16Speaker 4: and it struck me that.
- 42:17Speaker 2: Chris Furster, this is what he was talking about.
- 42:20Speaker 4: And you know, you knew at the time then that like,
- 42:24Speaker 4: I need to stay connected to all those guys because
- 42:26Speaker 4: something's really special. And I realized kind of two things. One,
- 42:30Speaker 4: it was obvious what I was going to do is
- 42:32Speaker 4: build a coaching agency, but only build with rules that
- 42:36Speaker 4: focused on the spawn of the coaches that came out
- 42:40Speaker 4: of the Shanahan Tree. And then when I went to
- 42:42Speaker 4: the forty nine ers, I realized that that was a
- 42:44Speaker 4: little close minded, because there was a guy on the
- 42:47Speaker 4: defensive side of the ball that reminded me of a
- 42:49Speaker 4: guy who would have been a perfect fit at the
- 42:52Speaker 4: Washington Redskins in Vic Fangio. And you know, Vic and
- 42:57Speaker 4: I became close without really knowing each other. I think
- 43:01Speaker 4: there's this like unspoken relationship that says, well, the best
- 43:06Speaker 4: defensive mind knows what the best offensive coaches are doing
- 43:10Speaker 4: and who they are.
- 43:11Speaker 2: That's his job. And so there was a great appreciation, and.
- 43:14Speaker 4: I think he knew that I came from a place
- 43:16Speaker 4: that kind of had a pretty good sense of what
- 43:19Speaker 4: good offense was, and so we had a great relationship.
- 43:23Speaker 4: I think it was probably around that same time that
- 43:25Speaker 4: you started seeing, you know, articles being written left and
- 43:28Speaker 4: right about from Shawn and Matt and Kyle about how
- 43:31Speaker 4: defense you know, Vic Bangio's best defensive coach that ever lived,
- 43:37Speaker 4: and and ultimately I became really super close with him,
- 43:41Speaker 4: and you know, to just be really honest with yeah,
- 43:45Speaker 4: I mean, you're around him and all your thinking is
- 43:48Speaker 4: that this guy's a head coach, and you look at Stamford,
- 43:50Speaker 4: and you look at forty nine ers, and you look
- 43:52Speaker 4: at the Bears, and you look at the Broncos, and
- 43:54Speaker 4: you look at the experience, and there's this thing that
- 43:56Speaker 4: binds a lot of these people together is especially the
- 43:58Speaker 4: guys that we represent, it didn't happen for them overnight.
- 44:02Speaker 4: And I think that that gives you a perspective and
- 44:05Speaker 4: an appreciate And what I kept hearing from different general
- 44:10Speaker 4: managers throughout the league, he's just a defensive coordinator.
- 44:13Speaker 2: He's the best, but he's not a head coach in
- 44:15Speaker 2: my mind, Well, I mean, if you've got a defensive.
- 44:17Speaker 4: Coordinator who gets you to number one every single time,
- 44:19Speaker 4: every single season, essentially within two to three years, I mean,
- 44:22Speaker 4: that's a head coach. And so you know, Vic ended
- 44:25Speaker 4: up making a transition and became one of my first
- 44:29Speaker 4: clients and I learned a lot from him, and really,
- 44:32Speaker 4: you know, he was the first guy became a head coach,
- 44:35Speaker 4: and it was super rewarding because you kind of, you know,
- 44:39Speaker 4: just like any other coach, you need someone to believe
- 44:41Speaker 4: in you. Yeah, you know, you just need someone to
- 44:44Speaker 4: believe in you. And then it's that two way street
- 44:48Speaker 4: working together with a commitment once you just see it
- 44:51Speaker 4: as long as it it means as much to both
- 44:54Speaker 4: of you. You know, it's super cool to watch Vic
- 44:56Speaker 4: get that opportunity.
- 44:58Speaker 1: But you know, all right, so you got Vic as
- 45:00Speaker 1: your veteran guy, You've got Mike McDaniel as as your
- 45:03Speaker 1: junior guy, if you will. But one of the things
- 45:05Speaker 1: I love that you put together that always comes out
- 45:07Speaker 1: online in the offseason. You'll put all these guys together
- 45:10Speaker 1: and they're coaching what high school and college kids and
- 45:13Speaker 1: there's these like seminars and I'm watching in action Mike
- 45:16Speaker 1: McDaniel coach because you guys are filming it and the
- 45:17Speaker 1: QB Collective stuff. If you can't find this online, guys,
- 45:20Speaker 1: go look it up Mike McDaniel coaching or Sean McVay coaching.
- 45:24Speaker 1: You'll inter And I remember Hackett this summer was like,
- 45:27Speaker 1: got to go out to Vegas. I'm doing this thing
- 45:28Speaker 1: for Richmond. The Quarterback Collective, Like what is it? And
- 45:33Speaker 1: where was the genesis of that? Where you get all
- 45:35Speaker 1: these coaches together and then you film them actually coaching,
- 45:37Speaker 1: which ultimately leads to great content because we don't see
- 45:40Speaker 1: that on a day to day basis.
- 45:42Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that came as a result of my
- 45:44Speaker 4: experience as a player, and then combined with the experiences
- 45:47Speaker 4: in Washington Man. After those three years, all you could
- 45:50Speaker 4: think of was, God, I wish I had this stuff
- 45:53Speaker 4: as a player when I was a kid.
- 45:54Speaker 2: I wanted it so badly.
- 45:55Speaker 4: I didn't know where to find it, and I didn't
- 45:57Speaker 4: know it exists because it didn't. And you knew whatever
- 46:00Speaker 4: you learned and the way that you saw the world
- 46:02Speaker 4: at that point in life. It was too late for
- 46:03Speaker 4: me as a player, but it wasn't too late to
- 46:05Speaker 4: figure out, how, you know, to realize that this would
- 46:09Speaker 4: have changed my life, would have given me an opportunity
- 46:11Speaker 4: to have been half as talented and played twice as
- 46:14Speaker 4: long by having this access to this knowledge. And so I,
- 46:18Speaker 4: like I mentioned, it was a one of a kind experience.
- 46:20Speaker 4: I wanted to give that to someone else, and that
- 46:22Speaker 4: you knew that you needed to. If Chris Burster said
- 46:26Speaker 4: that no other staffs like this, and then you believed
- 46:29Speaker 4: that you were going to build out of the lineage
- 46:32Speaker 4: that would grow in the future. You also then at
- 46:35Speaker 4: that point know that, huh wait, a second Senior Bowl.
- 46:39Speaker 2: Combine that's two events, and if you don't go to those,
- 46:42Speaker 2: you're out of luck.
- 46:43Speaker 4: And if you do go to them, if you're lucky
- 46:45Speaker 4: enough to grab a beer next to someone, that'll be
- 46:47Speaker 4: the catalyst for the rest of your career.
- 46:48Speaker 2: Could that could be the reason you get hired.
- 46:50Speaker 4: So it wasn't very hard to get people hired, and
- 46:53Speaker 4: you needed an event where you could bring people together
- 46:55Speaker 4: that was had the context of what we experienced in Washington,
- 47:00Speaker 4: because you knew that was really powerful, so even if
- 47:02Speaker 4: you could get a taste of it, it could impact.
- 47:06Speaker 2: And so what we did is really just started building.
- 47:09Speaker 4: Brought in the top quarterbacks in the country, brought back
- 47:13Speaker 4: you know as a favor, Sean, Kyle Matt, We had
- 47:16Speaker 4: Kevin O'Connell's there the first year.
- 47:19Speaker 2: You know, a great group.
- 47:20Speaker 4: Of people, and then you know that these parents and
- 47:24Speaker 4: these coaches, these are the market experts. They've been taking
- 47:26Speaker 4: their kid all over the world to go see all
- 47:28Speaker 4: these events. They just needed to see this product. And
- 47:31Speaker 4: coaches were not impacting in that space. Private coaches were,
- 47:35Speaker 4: and people with social media were essentially exploiting parents and players.
- 47:41Speaker 4: And so in my mind, this was how you could
- 47:45Speaker 4: look at agency differently. Insert these coaches at the top
- 47:48Speaker 4: of the food chain and allow them to then insert
- 47:51Speaker 4: leadership into a space that really had none.
- 47:54Speaker 2: That was the hunch.
- 47:55Speaker 4: The only way you find out if you're onto something
- 47:57Speaker 4: is that you get those guys there, let him, let
- 48:01Speaker 4: them run the event, and then watch and these parents
- 48:04Speaker 4: and these coaches and everybody. It was almost like the
- 48:06Speaker 4: parents have found the founta of youth and they were
- 48:09Speaker 4: so excited and they.
- 48:11Speaker 2: Were hanging on every word.
- 48:12Speaker 4: We focused on the classroom versus the field because that
- 48:15Speaker 4: was something that you really couldn't get and see, and
- 48:18Speaker 4: it was just this amazing experience that kind of confirmed
- 48:21Speaker 4: that to a certain degree. Picking up on what Verster said,
- 48:25Speaker 4: if this was so rare, then we needed to build
- 48:27Speaker 4: the VIP room of coaching. We didn't need to tell
- 48:30Speaker 4: people that. We said it's the QB Collective, but it's
- 48:32Speaker 4: a development pipeline for coaches and quarterbacks to identify develop
- 48:37Speaker 4: represent led by the brightest minds in the NFL.
- 48:41Speaker 1: It's cool. It's like the Avengers. You watch these videos
- 48:44Speaker 1: and I hope we have the right I mean, Aaron,
- 48:45Speaker 1: can I toss to a some sound of McDaniel from
- 48:48Speaker 1: this we' got the approval right there. Richmond there we go, yeah,
- 48:51Speaker 1: and we'll play it. But like you hear mcdannil's talking
- 48:53Speaker 1: to high school kids, but he's really talking to the world.
- 48:55Speaker 1: Because this is a rare opportunity, and you guys smartly
- 48:58Speaker 1: turn the cameras on and we get an opportunity to
- 49:01Speaker 1: listen how these guys actually coach, not just their press conferences.
- 49:03Speaker 1: We show and then right when you get to the
- 49:07Speaker 1: to the Mesh Foyd.
- 49:11Speaker 2: Google Tom Brady play action, you'll.
- 49:12Speaker 3: See aggressive snaps that Ryan was awesome.
- 49:17Speaker 1: So three s'soo all right, so we hear McDaniel there,
- 49:22Speaker 1: Well we hear McDaniel there, like, that's what it's like
- 49:24Speaker 1: being in the quarterbacks room.
- 49:26Speaker 4: Yeah, oh man, I mean, and then you know, getting
- 49:31Speaker 4: all those guys. And the truth is, when we first started,
- 49:34Speaker 4: I didn't know exactly why.
- 49:36Speaker 2: I knew.
- 49:37Speaker 4: I truly did know. You did know that these guys
- 49:41Speaker 4: were all going somewhere. You knew that this system would
- 49:45Speaker 4: catch fire. You also knew that it would grow so
- 49:48Speaker 4: fast that the traditional way of building a coaching staff
- 49:52Speaker 4: was out the door because it was going to grow
- 49:54Speaker 4: so quickly that people were not going to hire people
- 49:57Speaker 4: they had actually worked with before, and so could this
- 50:01Speaker 4: event replace having worked with someone on a staff by
- 50:04Speaker 4: spending three days with them in the right kind. Absolutely,
- 50:08Speaker 4: and so you know, to a certain degree, you know
- 50:10Speaker 4: you're you put this forward knowing that let's capture it all.
- 50:15Speaker 4: In my mind, there was like maybe one day this
- 50:17Speaker 4: will turn into kind of the last dance the yeah,
- 50:20Speaker 4: you know, as the as the whole entire league goes
- 50:22Speaker 4: through this like transformation, at a bare minimum, will be.
- 50:26Speaker 1: A footage of something yeah. Yeah.
- 50:28Speaker 4: And then then you would go back and you would
- 50:30Speaker 4: look at this stuff and you would see Sean you know,
- 50:33Speaker 4: spitting fire to young kids that happened to have Caleb
- 50:36Speaker 4: Williams and Bryce Young and dj Angalele and Tanner McKee
- 50:39Speaker 4: and Matt corral Uh and and all these guys Year
- 50:43Speaker 4: one in twenty sixteen. Because that event was focused on development,
- 50:48Speaker 4: not trying to capture marketing opportunities as they enter college.
- 50:52Speaker 2: It was truly about development.
- 50:54Speaker 4: It was a truly authentic environment, and these coaches only
- 50:57Speaker 4: knew one way all in and so over time when
- 51:00Speaker 4: you would look at that content, you know, you didn't
- 51:03Speaker 4: realize that you were building equity by listening to coaches,
- 51:07Speaker 4: but at the same time you were starting to see.
- 51:09Speaker 2: Like, God, this guy is so good.
- 51:11Speaker 4: And when you're watching these guys back to back to back,
- 51:14Speaker 4: you know, you just kind of take a mental note
- 51:16Speaker 4: and build a library of you know, the immense talents
- 51:20Speaker 4: of some of the best teachers.
- 51:21Speaker 1: If I'm a parent of a high school kid who
- 51:23Speaker 1: I think has a shot, like, is it one of
- 51:25Speaker 1: those deals where I can sign him up and he
- 51:26Speaker 1: could be a part of the Quarterback Collective or is
- 51:28Speaker 1: it you guys send invitations.
- 51:30Speaker 4: It's invitation only, you know, I think long term, I
- 51:34Speaker 4: always viewed the QB Collective as the central nervous system
- 51:38Speaker 4: of intelligence and the sport of football to grow into
- 51:40Speaker 4: the future, and so that would be.
- 51:42Speaker 2: Something and we've toyed with it.
- 51:44Speaker 4: I think two years ago we ran forty six camps
- 51:47Speaker 4: and they were all sold out, and that was sort
- 51:48Speaker 4: of available to everyone. But I felt like it was
- 51:51Speaker 4: diluting the brand, and we needed to focus on this
- 51:53Speaker 4: high end invitation only a network of private coaches that
- 51:58Speaker 4: could kind of allow us to bring the best of
- 52:00Speaker 4: the best into an environment and then even make it
- 52:03Speaker 4: smaller and bring the future and really tutor and train
- 52:07Speaker 4: and develop and give these guys a perspective that shows
- 52:11Speaker 4: you very quickly that the value proposition is unlike anything
- 52:16Speaker 4: that they've ever experienced in that space, because it truly
- 52:19Speaker 4: would change their lives. When you get an opportunity to
- 52:22Speaker 4: work with you know, you're sitting there in high school
- 52:24Speaker 4: and it's Ben Johnson and then at Jiro is giving
- 52:26Speaker 4: you the perspective of the defensive coach, and Mike McDaniel
- 52:30Speaker 4: and Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay, and they're not just there,
- 52:34Speaker 4: they're investing in coaching.
- 52:36Speaker 2: They're coaching.
- 52:37Speaker 1: My last question as we wrap this up, I used
- 52:39Speaker 1: to get sent to the Senior Bowl for Foxsports dot
- 52:41Speaker 1: Com when I was a writer, and I'd say early
- 52:44Speaker 1: two thousands, and I have told the story in the
- 52:46Speaker 1: podcast before. I knew I was never going to be
- 52:49Speaker 1: John Fox's guy. I knew I was never going to
- 52:51Speaker 1: be Rex Ryan's guy. I knew I was never going
- 52:53Speaker 1: to be Sean Payton's guy. Those guys were of a
- 52:54Speaker 1: different generation. But I saw young coaches that's in and who
- 52:57Speaker 1: they were. So I would look at the staff of
- 53:02Speaker 1: each team and try to find the youngest coaches and
- 53:04Speaker 1: one of those guys was Sean McVay. Who was a
- 53:06Speaker 1: twenty seven year old tight ends coach with Washington, and
- 53:09Speaker 1: I emailed him literally like Sean dot McVeigh at Redskins
- 53:13Speaker 1: dot com and was like, Hey, I'm thirty or twenty seven,
- 53:16Speaker 1: let's get a beer. I'm gonna be in Mobile. He's like, yeah, sure,
- 53:18Speaker 1: let's do it. How just stress how important that Mobile
- 53:22Speaker 1: Alabama Senior Bowl thing is if you want to be
- 53:23Speaker 1: a coach or if you want to be immediate, if
- 53:25Speaker 1: you want, that's where you go. You don't go to
- 53:26Speaker 1: the Super Bowl to meet people. You go to the
- 53:28Speaker 1: Senior Bowl.
- 53:29Speaker 2: There's no question.
- 53:30Speaker 4: I mean that can be a pretty depressing environment as well,
- 53:33Speaker 4: a bunch of coaches walking around with their cell phones
- 53:36Speaker 4: and resumes.
- 53:37Speaker 2: But coach Shanahan and Kyle the way that they.
- 53:40Speaker 4: Picked that staff, and that's where I look back and
- 53:43Speaker 4: it's kind of like, gosh, it don't talk about it
- 53:46Speaker 4: enough for Mike Shanahan to allow, you know, a bunch
- 53:51Speaker 4: of young guys and twenty something to come together like
- 53:53Speaker 4: that that they knew what he knew what he was
- 53:55Speaker 4: looking for.
- 53:56Speaker 2: And I met Sean down there and the Yeah.
- 53:58Speaker 4: The Senior Bowl is an amazing place, opportunity to meet
- 54:01Speaker 4: a bunch of people. But whenever you mentioned just Sean,
- 54:04Speaker 4: I mean, like the that's not a who figured it
- 54:07Speaker 4: out later in life. That's a guy who also knew
- 54:09Speaker 4: exactly what he wanted to do, how he wanted to
- 54:11Speaker 4: go about it, was preparing for it since he was
- 54:14Speaker 4: in probably fourth grade. Went to the Miami of Ohio
- 54:17Speaker 4: because it's the cradle of creda. Yeah, he helped me
- 54:19Speaker 4: so much going in there realizing how little I knew.
- 54:23Speaker 4: I mean he literally started from scratch, did for me
- 54:25Speaker 4: probably what John Gruden did for him. He was training
- 54:27Speaker 4: me to draw x's and o's and the importance of
- 54:31Speaker 4: the detail. And and you know, again it doesn't take
- 54:35Speaker 4: very long when you're around all those people that it
- 54:40Speaker 4: just took these amazing individuals and then put them on
- 54:44Speaker 4: an accelerator that was looking at football differently and looking
- 54:49Speaker 4: at more because when you're building, you know, you've heard
- 54:52Speaker 4: the adage in football and coaching like.
- 54:55Speaker 2: We're not really worried about what they're doing.
- 54:57Speaker 4: We got answers for it, you know, And and that
- 55:00Speaker 4: was not this this was open minds.
- 55:04Speaker 2: Figure it out.
- 55:05Speaker 4: We're going to we're going to figure out we're gonna
- 55:06Speaker 4: build based on what's being presented, and we don't know
- 55:09Speaker 4: what's gonna happen, and then what happens forces you to
- 55:11Speaker 4: think in a way that you didn't and so really
- 55:13Speaker 4: you're seeing more.
- 55:14Speaker 2: And I think that really that's sort of a good.
- 55:17Speaker 4: Way of packaging up and saying, you know, how did
- 55:19Speaker 4: all these guys from the same staff have so much
- 55:22Speaker 4: success so fast? Well, those experiences and then coming together
- 55:27Speaker 4: and challenging one another.
- 55:28Speaker 2: To build and create and one up the other guy.
- 55:31Speaker 4: I think they were looking at things more deliberately, you know,
- 55:34Speaker 4: ten X, learning on a day to day basis, and
- 55:37Speaker 4: then over time, when you get your opportunity, you do
- 55:40Speaker 4: go to that next spot and you go, damn, I'm
- 55:42Speaker 4: super prepared. Sean was an amazing example of that. And
- 55:46Speaker 4: uh and it's always been pretty amazing the way that
- 55:49Speaker 4: he's support didn't come on out to our to our events,
- 55:51Speaker 4: and you know, he'll probably be sitting in your chair
- 55:54Speaker 4: one day, so he's probably learning from you.
- 55:57Speaker 1: Maybe maybe I know that that almost happened a little
- 56:00Speaker 1: earlier than expected. Richmond Flowers the third we didn't get
- 56:03Speaker 1: into your family's history of football. Incredible. You're a good man,
- 56:07Speaker 1: You're a busy man. I appreciate taking the time and
- 56:09Speaker 1: specifically giving us a little window into the beautiful mind.
- 56:12Speaker 1: That's Mike McDaniel absolutely in closing. This is not a brand,
- 56:17Speaker 1: like you must ask. I'm asking because I think there's
- 56:20Speaker 1: actually a cool story behind it. I see. You know,
- 56:23Speaker 1: if you're watching the video here, you're wearing a shirt
- 56:24Speaker 1: that says your Bay plant based energy, and I'm like,
- 56:28Speaker 1: half of me's like, all right, just let it go.
- 56:30Speaker 1: Half of me he's like, why is Richmond wearing a
- 56:32Speaker 1: shirt with a brand? And then you start talking to
- 56:35Speaker 1: you about it, and there's like there's a cool story
- 56:37Speaker 1: to be told, all right, So this is not a
- 56:38Speaker 1: brand product placement, but it kind of is explain why
- 56:41Speaker 1: you're wearing a shirt called your Bay and then let
- 56:44Speaker 1: the listener decide whether this is a roll your eyes
- 56:47Speaker 1: or this is okay.
- 56:47Speaker 2: That's interesting, well interestingly enough.
- 56:50Speaker 4: You know, first of all, a lady named Didegar who's
- 56:54Speaker 4: the head of sports and Entertainment at Goldman Sacks. She's
- 56:56Speaker 4: been there for thirty nine years. We're super close. She's
- 57:00Speaker 4: like immensely respected in the industry. She came out to
- 57:03Speaker 4: one of our events and it was the right event.
- 57:05Speaker 4: It was Mike McDaniel's and fire with Chris Furster and
- 57:07Speaker 4: Frank Smith next to him, and Brandon Staley in the background,
- 57:10Speaker 4: and Questiadolpho Mensa sitting on the fringe with Mike Silver
- 57:13Speaker 4: and Jordan Rodrick and Nikki Jababala and all these creator
- 57:19Speaker 4: reporters and some of the young future of coaching, letting
- 57:22Speaker 4: Mike McDaniel hold court. And she saw that and it
- 57:26Speaker 4: was super impressive. Fast forward two years and we'd built
- 57:31Speaker 4: a great relationship. She called me up and said, hey, look,
- 57:33Speaker 4: you were looking for a sponsor for your event, and
- 57:35Speaker 4: she introduced me to the founders of a company called
- 57:37Speaker 4: your Bank. Said it was an energy drink. Didn't think
- 57:41Speaker 4: much of it. She put me in touch with them,
- 57:42Speaker 4: and it was very clear that they were already engaged
- 57:45Speaker 4: on the value of coaching. And so now that's what
- 57:51Speaker 4: Collective represents is the innovative, brightest minds coming together.
- 57:55Speaker 2: I'm the doorman so that.
- 57:56Speaker 4: We can help the coach does not have them pick me,
- 57:59Speaker 4: and then it's like have them in there, and then
- 58:02Speaker 4: what's the best use for that?
- 58:03Speaker 2: And in my mind when we got started, it was.
- 58:07Speaker 4: Emerging technology brands using virtual coaching, and they're the new
- 58:12Speaker 4: influencers in the NFL. So we looked at this as
- 58:15Speaker 4: an incubator, and I was always sort of looking for.
- 58:17Speaker 2: The right product fit, because it's got to be right.
- 58:20Speaker 4: You looked at the product fit healthy energy, plant based energy,
- 58:24Speaker 4: you know, the crap that's in those other energy drinks,
- 58:28Speaker 4: and more importantly, then you thought to yourself, hold on,
- 58:31Speaker 4: this could work.
- 58:32Speaker 2: Coaches are always going.
- 58:32Speaker 4: To be low and they're always going to be feel
- 58:36Speaker 4: fine with having an energy drink that's healthy for you
- 58:39Speaker 4: and it's plant based, et cetera. And so for us,
- 58:41Speaker 4: what this really was about was let's see if we
- 58:44Speaker 4: could partner up with a company like this that said
- 58:47Speaker 4: we don't do sponsorships, and so wow, that was the
- 58:50Speaker 4: real test.
- 58:50Speaker 2: Would coaches invest.
- 58:52Speaker 4: In a product because they really believed in it, because
- 58:54Speaker 4: they saw the product fit. And coaches will have a
- 58:58Speaker 4: certain appreciation for getting that opportunity because they don't do
- 59:02Speaker 4: sponsorship deals. They don't think they're worth you know, they're
- 59:06Speaker 4: not thinking about anything besides we believe and we like
- 59:09Speaker 4: the way it tastes. And the truth is, you went
- 59:12Speaker 4: and introduced yourself, you know, I introduced them to Lincoln
- 59:16Speaker 4: Riley and Kyle Shanahan and and uh and and this
- 59:19Speaker 4: amazing group of coaches, and they immediately all said the
- 59:22Speaker 4: same thing.
- 59:22Speaker 2: We like the way it tastes. We believe in it.
- 59:25Speaker 4: They hadn't invested in other products, but they invested in this.
- 59:29Speaker 4: And the truth is what we're doing as a company
- 59:31Speaker 4: is we've got these amazing coaches. But ultimately, can coaching
- 59:37Speaker 4: move the needle on emerging brands? Can coaching move the
- 59:40Speaker 4: needle on a publicly traded company through influence at the
- 59:43Speaker 4: highest level because they truly believe in the product and
- 59:47Speaker 4: we'll find out if So that's kind of where I also.
- 59:50Speaker 1: Open the doors to the next thing, a running shoe
- 59:53Speaker 1: or if he a headset or whatever it is.
- 59:55Speaker 4: So I like, hey, so maybe it's not a placement,
- 59:58Speaker 4: but at the end of the day, we felt like
- 1:00:00Speaker 4: just deserved the opportunity.
- 1:00:02Speaker 1: What's the word we use with McDaniel, it's authentic, that's it.
- 1:00:05Speaker 1: It's not like you're out here promoting an underwear brand
- 1:00:07Speaker 1: because they're giving you a couple hundred thousand dollars. You're like, no,
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: this is the product that these guys drink. Let's try
- 1:00:12Speaker 1: to do someone with it. I respect that. I respect
- 1:00:14Speaker 1: that your mind is always working that way, and I
- 1:00:16Speaker 1: respect that you gave us all this time.
- 1:00:17Speaker 2: Richmond, Thank you, bro, thanks for having me on.
- 1:00:24Speaker 1: Interesting guests different Aaron, Like, Richmond's a character, he's smart
- 1:00:28Speaker 1: as hell, and his roster is as good as anybody
- 1:00:31Speaker 1: as far as coaches go. But like, I just wanted
- 1:00:33Speaker 1: to get a look inside the new the I guess
- 1:00:35Speaker 1: the origin story of Mike McDaniel.
- 1:00:37Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it was really cool hearing Mike's interview process,
- 1:00:42Speaker 3: and you know, like you said, he was a guy
- 1:00:45Speaker 3: who hadn't who had been up for jobs, hadn't had
- 1:00:48Speaker 3: the interviews, and then went in and he was he
- 1:00:51Speaker 3: said it later in the interview too, the right guy
- 1:00:53Speaker 3: for that job at that time. And clearly that's working
- 1:00:56Speaker 3: out for him now.
- 1:00:57Speaker 1: No imagine, imagine you're an owner and you draft to
- 1:00:59Speaker 1: a fifth overall and everyone comes in and says, well
- 1:01:01Speaker 1: two is not your guy. I got plans for Tom
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: Brady or we've got to draft someone else. So there's
- 1:01:05Speaker 1: and then McDaniel comes in, as I've already driven, I've
- 1:01:07Speaker 1: already drawn up the entire offense around TUA, and this
- 1:01:09Speaker 1: is what's gonna work you'd like, all right, I'd like
- 1:01:11Speaker 1: to take the benefit of doubt, and I'll have to
- 1:01:13Speaker 1: start all over again. That was cool. That was different.
- 1:01:17Speaker 1: We'll see how the Dolphins finish out. But I figured
- 1:01:20Speaker 1: it as a three and oh team after just putting
- 1:01:21Speaker 1: seventy points up. If you can't get McDaniel, let's get
- 1:01:23Speaker 1: his closest friend and the guy who represents him in
- 1:01:25Speaker 1: his business affairs real quick.
- 1:01:27Speaker 3: Not to call us out, but the three and old Dolphins,
- 1:01:30Speaker 3: who I think neither of us picked for Let's stop.
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: What are you doing? We move right along. What's the
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: Kevin James meme? Like Peter, you didn't pick the Dolphins
- 1:01:39Speaker 1: to make the playoffs. And then that's the picture of
- 1:01:41Speaker 1: me with my hands in my pockets making that the
- 1:01:43Speaker 1: fetching look that Kevin James has. In closing, I did
- 1:01:47Speaker 1: want to hit on two little things. One Thursday night
- 1:01:51Speaker 1: football Lions versus Packers. I will not be watching live.
- 1:01:55Speaker 1: Can I tell you why?
- 1:01:57Speaker 3: Because you'll be I don't know.
- 1:02:00Speaker 1: Melissa Ethridge, die hard Kansas City Chiefs fan, sent me
- 1:02:05Speaker 1: an invite to go to the premiere of her one
- 1:02:08Speaker 1: woman Broadway show that is premiering Thursday night and I
- 1:02:13Speaker 1: said yes, so I'll be in the house. I don't
- 1:02:17Speaker 1: even I don't know what it's called. I think it's
- 1:02:18Speaker 1: called like come to my window or something, but like
- 1:02:20Speaker 1: it's Ethridge. She did an off Broadway one Woman's show
- 1:02:24Speaker 1: this past spring. I think it got rave reviews, it
- 1:02:29Speaker 1: got picked up to be a Broadway show. And I've
- 1:02:31Speaker 1: known Etherage since she started watching Good Morning Football. We
- 1:02:34Speaker 1: DM We texted all this stuff. I get this lovely
- 1:02:37Speaker 1: invite from her, like, why don't you and your wife
- 1:02:38Speaker 1: come to the premiere. I don't know if this is
- 1:02:40Speaker 1: winning any Tony's. I don't know what I'm in for.
- 1:02:43Speaker 1: And this is a story that I come in pretty
- 1:02:45Speaker 1: blindly on. She's had some real tragedy in her life
- 1:02:48Speaker 1: in the last couple of years. She also was a groundbreaking
- 1:02:51Speaker 1: musician in a lot of ways, and I love her.
- 1:02:53Speaker 1: So I will be attending Melissa Ethridge's One Woman Broadway
- 1:02:58Speaker 1: Show Thursday night. If you want to talk about a
- 1:03:00Speaker 1: podcast that really hits all culture angles and the truth
- 1:03:03Speaker 1: of the matter is long before Taylor Swift was a
- 1:03:06Speaker 1: pop star repping the Chiefs, I go day one with Ethridge.
- 1:03:10Speaker 3: Okay, I love it, so Homer Christopher Nolan most etherwards,
- 1:03:14Speaker 3: there we go. We got our trio right there.
- 1:03:17Speaker 1: At it come to my window and you know what,
- 1:03:20Speaker 1: she's not gonna sue us. She's not because we're friends.
- 1:03:25Speaker 1: And the last thing, you know, the travel story that
- 1:03:29Speaker 1: my friend Jay gave last week, like the responses were
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: through the roof. But I'm tapering it back. I don't
- 1:03:34Speaker 1: want to be a complaining podcast. I don't want to
- 1:03:36Speaker 1: be a podcast that just makes you feel anxiety. I
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: don't want to be a podcast that suddenly we have
- 1:03:40Speaker 1: our niche and it's just a guy who gets paid
- 1:03:43Speaker 1: to fly and travel. Handsomely, it is about travel the
- 1:03:46Speaker 1: entire time. However, I sent you guys, and Jason English
- 1:03:51Speaker 1: is here from Iar. I sent you guys a photo
- 1:03:53Speaker 1: that was like the sneakiest photo I've ever sent Aaron,
- 1:03:57Speaker 1: did you see anything in the photo that I sent
- 1:03:59Speaker 1: or was it too blurry food to even see what
- 1:04:01Speaker 1: it was going on? And I sent you a photo
- 1:04:03Speaker 1: Saturday morning from my delta flight.
- 1:04:06Speaker 3: There is no amount of blurriness that photo could have
- 1:04:09Speaker 3: had to hide the two bare feet on point.
- 1:04:13Speaker 1: I'm seated next to a cretan, a caveman of a man.
- 1:04:21Speaker 1: I get seated in a seat and it's one of
- 1:04:24Speaker 1: those where you're sitting next to somebody. It's just a
- 1:04:27Speaker 1: two of us and I sit down and it's seven
- 1:04:29Speaker 1: in the morning and flying out to LA from New York.
- 1:04:31Speaker 1: All I want to do is close my eyes and
- 1:04:33Speaker 1: go to sleep. Well, I sit down, I start to
- 1:04:37Speaker 1: doze off a little bit, and I notice out of
- 1:04:39Speaker 1: the corner of my eye a toenail. In my vision.
- 1:04:44Speaker 1: This man might have been in his sixties seventies, and
- 1:04:47Speaker 1: I would say he is like a hippie type. And
- 1:04:50Speaker 1: when I say hippie type, he like kind of had
- 1:04:52Speaker 1: like free flowing gray hair. He thought he was like
- 1:04:54Speaker 1: a silver fox of some sort. I hope he's listening.
- 1:04:56Speaker 1: I didn't get his name. And he immediately sits down,
- 1:05:00Speaker 1: slips off his loafers, and he just is rocking barefoot.
- 1:05:05Speaker 1: So what would one do in the situation? Sit and
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: fester and be grossed out the entire No. I spoke up.
- 1:05:16Speaker 1: I said to him, sir, and he looked at me,
- 1:05:17Speaker 1: shocked that someone would even address me. Go, do you
- 1:05:19Speaker 1: mind putting on some socks or some slippers? This is
- 1:05:22Speaker 1: a long flight and I can't be looking at your
- 1:05:24Speaker 1: feet the whole time. And he said to me, excuse me,
- 1:05:26Speaker 1: I said no, in all honesty, I have my things,
- 1:05:29Speaker 1: and one of them is I am grossed out by
- 1:05:31Speaker 1: bare feet. If you don't mind, would you either put
- 1:05:34Speaker 1: a blanket over your feet or put on some slippers.
- 1:05:36Speaker 1: And he put on some slippers. Oh, I fell asleep.
- 1:05:40Speaker 1: I fall asleep. I hear some rustling. I see this
- 1:05:44Speaker 1: gentleman walking in the aisle to a bathroom on a plane, barefooted,
- 1:05:51Speaker 1: use the bathroom, and then come back slide into his
- 1:05:55Speaker 1: seat right next to me, still barefoot, and I just
- 1:06:01Speaker 1: I just closed my eyes and I said, I already
- 1:06:03Speaker 1: had my one. I spoke up. I'm not gonna do
- 1:06:05Speaker 1: it again.
- 1:06:05Speaker 3: So he has slippers on and then intentionally took them up.
- 1:06:08Speaker 1: I think he was waiting for me to fall asleep
- 1:06:10Speaker 1: so we can get those darned slippers off, Get those
- 1:06:12Speaker 1: get those mittens off my toes, let them be free.
- 1:06:15Speaker 1: And its feet were not well pedicured or manicured, whoever
- 1:06:18Speaker 1: the term is. It was disgusting. I mean, hairy toes
- 1:06:22Speaker 1: the whole thing. Just another week of travel, my friend.
- 1:06:26Speaker 3: I mean, frankly, from that story, I'm not too concerned
- 1:06:28Speaker 3: with what was on top of his feet. Now I'm
- 1:06:30Speaker 3: worried about what was on the bottom of it. Right
- 1:06:32Speaker 3: into the bathroom.
- 1:06:33Speaker 1: Didn't care, doesn't know what's been going on in that bathroom.
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: Just barefoot.
- 1:06:37Speaker 3: Also, we've had some stories from flights in the past
- 1:06:39Speaker 3: month of disasters.
- 1:06:41Speaker 1: No, my flight was smooth. I took off on time,
- 1:06:44Speaker 1: I got home on time. Everything was great. The airlines
- 1:06:46Speaker 1: did wonderful, Delta and Jet Blue, little combo deal. Delta
- 1:06:48Speaker 1: in the on the Saturday out, jet Blue on the
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: Sunday home so I can watch the games. All baseful.
- 1:06:53Speaker 1: You can't control who's flying your planes. Again, not gonna
- 1:06:56Speaker 1: go big on it. Don't want to complain. I'm paid
- 1:06:59Speaker 1: to fly. It's great. I had a lovely flight. The
- 1:07:02Speaker 1: in flight meal was delicious. Just a disgusting barefoot man
- 1:07:06Speaker 1: to me. And that's just lucky to draw sometimes.
- 1:07:08Speaker 3: And just for clarification, this is because Jason's sitting next
- 1:07:10Speaker 3: to you barefoot right now, right here's.
- 1:07:12Speaker 1: My guy, Jason. Jason, your feet are always welcome. Guys,
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: different kind of podcast, that's what we want. Thanks for listening,
- 1:07:23Speaker 1: Tell your friends, subscribe, write a review. If you hate this,
- 1:07:27Speaker 1: write a review if you like it, write a review.
- 1:07:30Speaker 1: I'm pretty proud of the work we're doing over here,
- 1:07:32Speaker 1: and I want to keep it rolling. So this Season
- 1:07:35Speaker 1: with Peter Schrager, let's get into one of those top
- 1:07:37Speaker 1: ten playlist things on Apple or Spotify or whatever it is.
- 1:07:41Speaker 1: Let's go up there with the New Heights podcast or
- 1:07:43Speaker 1: all the rest. We want to be the best football
- 1:07:45Speaker 1: podcast there is. I certainly know we're giving you the
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: most unique content. All Right, guys, thank you. The Season
- 1:08:07Speaker 1: with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL and
- 1:08:10Speaker 1: partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
- 1:08:14Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.