Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Eric Weddle on being named to the Utah Football Ring of Honor at Rice Eccles Stadium

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Eric Weddle on being named to the Utah Football Ring of Honor at Rice Eccles Stadium · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: It's about Sean O'Connell's show. If you were home of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the best in side of Joy Hughes, Let's get back
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to OC. From the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: hundred and ninety two to one a f m Utah
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Football begins their camp, their first camp under Morgan Scaley
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: on August third. We just got an email about the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: media policies under the new head coach during the season.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: We'll get to that eventually. I'm gonna talk to Morgan soon.
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  Speaker 1: But we're lucky enough to be welcome by my good
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  Speaker 1: friend Crimson Club Hall of Famer, super Bowl Champion, All
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  Speaker 1: Everything Ute and now recently announced twenty twenty six inductee
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  Speaker 1: into the Ring of Honor at Rice Stadium, Eric Weddle
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  Speaker 1: here on the Sean O'Connell show, E dub How are you, sir?
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  Speaker 2: What's up? What's up? Thanks for having me on. It's
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  Speaker 2: always good. I always good be with my with my brother. Uh.
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  Speaker 2: Did that media release say that Morgan will only take
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  Speaker 2: questions after the game and nothing else.
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  Speaker 1: The media release said we are not going to get
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  Speaker 1: to watch any practice.
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  Speaker 2: I'm mad.
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  Speaker 1: I'm mad We're not gonna get to watch any I
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  Speaker 1: just want a one on one pass rush trail every
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  Speaker 1: now and again.
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  Speaker 2: Dare he how dare he not get any any insight
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  Speaker 2: scoot for our guys.
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  Speaker 1: Oh that's fine, let him do his thing. I'm excited
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  Speaker 1: for him and and all this. Uh, but yeah, I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to have you on. Obviously we're gonna be having
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  Speaker 1: conversations every week during the football season, as we like
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  Speaker 1: to do. But like, this is an incredible thing man,
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  Speaker 1: by extension, like, I'm just proud to know you. You're
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  Speaker 1: gonna go into the Ring of Honor, dude, Like that
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  Speaker 1: that is Hall of Fame is one thing. This is
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: another level. Tell me the process, Tell me how you
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: found out about it, Walk me through what it was
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  Speaker 1: like when this thing came to fruition for you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm Chanel and I celebrated are twenty
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  Speaker 2: one year anniversary yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: Congrats that in itself as a massive accomplishment.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: I know, like, who wants to stick around with me
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  Speaker 2: for that long? Let alone one years? Samely got eternity left. So, uh,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I was just sitting there, We're at a
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  Speaker 2: great day together at the spend time, and I just
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  Speaker 2: sat there and I said, I really can't believe that
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  Speaker 2: I'm going in as in the Ring of Honor, like
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  Speaker 2: my name is going to be in that stadium for
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  Speaker 2: the rest of the time. And I really was just
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: sat there in silence because just in shock. I think
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  Speaker 2: it really like hit me because I was told, like
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  Speaker 2: in springball they announced when I went that video clip
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  Speaker 2: when I was speaking to the team, Mark announced it
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  Speaker 2: to everybody that I was getting inducted, and just really
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  Speaker 2: cool and just.
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  Speaker 1: Speak to us.
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  Speaker 2: I just think, you know what we talk all the time.
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  Speaker 2: You think about your career, and you think about the
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  Speaker 2: good times, the bad times, the ups and downs, the
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: hard times. I just go back to the guys and
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  Speaker 2: the relationships and the team and stuff like this doesn't
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  Speaker 2: happen without everyone, right, Like I can't do it, never
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: could do it by myself. And just thinking about how
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: the amazing times at Utah and the relationships and the
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  Speaker 2: friendships and the family. I mean, we've got a house
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  Speaker 2: up there, my daughter's going to be going to school
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  Speaker 2: up there in the state, and it's just uh, I
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  Speaker 2: look back and think how amazingly blessed I've been and
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  Speaker 2: fortunate to be at a school that I call home.
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  Speaker 1: Now your kids are in age now where they have
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  Speaker 1: like a better understanding and a better appreciation of this
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: type of stuff. Right like when you were in the
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  Speaker 1: league league, I don't know, they were young for a
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: lot of that, and you'd have to tell me how
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  Speaker 1: much they were able to kind of like absorb and
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  Speaker 1: appreciate it, understand the unique situation that your family was
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  Speaker 1: in and how you know your job is so different
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  Speaker 1: from every other job. But now your kids are older.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, your son obviously has his own football aspirations.
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  Speaker 1: Your daughters are athletes too. What is it like for them?
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  Speaker 1: Do you think to see, you know, Dad's name is
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  Speaker 1: on the side of a football stadium, like you said,
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  Speaker 1: forever because of his work ethic, because of what he
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  Speaker 1: did as a member of this team. What is this
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  Speaker 1: like for your family?
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  Speaker 2: For your kids, It's it's like kind of puts things
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  Speaker 2: in perspective of what we try to teach them of,
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  Speaker 2: like hard work and giving it you're all, but also
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  Speaker 2: trying to leave an imprint on who you are as
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  Speaker 2: a person and a lasting legacy of whatever you're doing.
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  Speaker 2: Every you can do that you can have an impact,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: and then if you're lucky enough unfortunate enough and have
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: a lot of things go your way for a number
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  Speaker 2: of years, then something like this could happen. It could
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  Speaker 2: happen for anyone, and for me coming from Rancho Cucamonga,
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  Speaker 2: California and finding my way up to the University of Utah,
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  Speaker 2: like who would have ever thought in a million years? Right,
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  Speaker 2: And if you just if you just go for it
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  Speaker 2: and try your best. I think I always tell myself,
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  Speaker 2: I tell my kids, I tell anyone that is around
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  Speaker 2: me that the hard work will always prevail. And I
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  Speaker 2: really believe that if you're willing to work and put
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  Speaker 2: yourself out there and do things that others aren't willing
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  Speaker 2: to do, it'll prevail in some way, some form or fasset.
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  Speaker 2: It'll come back around. And I think that that's a
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  Speaker 2: true testament of how I try to do things. And
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  Speaker 2: now my kids can be see it and be involved
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  Speaker 2: and understand it to an extent is really special.
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  Speaker 1: That mentality obviously goes a long way in every walk
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  Speaker 1: of life. How natural has that been for you versus
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  Speaker 1: how how much of it has been Like I don't
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  Speaker 1: want to do this workout, I don't want to get
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  Speaker 1: out of bed, I don't want to do this film session,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: but I got to talk myself into it, or my
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  Speaker 1: wife is going to help me do this, or whatever
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  Speaker 1: it is, because I know it's necessary. Because there are
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  Speaker 1: some people right that are talented in this way. Work
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  Speaker 1: ethic is one of their talents. Where do you fall
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  Speaker 1: on that spectrum?
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  Speaker 2: Ah, that's a good one.
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  Speaker 1: I think.
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  Speaker 2: I think we all.
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  Speaker 3: Have a special abilities per se special talent to reach
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  Speaker 3: the pinnacle, but I think work ethic has to be
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  Speaker 3: near the top of that list. And I think for
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  Speaker 3: me it definitely was something that was separated myself than
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  Speaker 3: everyone else that I want. I took the field every
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  Speaker 3: week that.
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  Speaker 2: No one had outworked me or help prepared me.
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  Speaker 3: And I think that goes for anything in life. If
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  Speaker 3: you're willing to put in the work and do hard things,
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  Speaker 3: that's usually what successful people are.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Eric Weddles our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: He is, of course, recently announced as the twenty twenty
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  Speaker 1: sixth inductee to the Utah Football Ring of Honor. His
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  Speaker 1: name will go up there alongside Alex Smith, Ron McBride,
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  Speaker 1: Roy Jefferson and whoever else gets added in the years
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  Speaker 1: after this. Now, logistically This is not always easy because
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: you got, you got your own life, you got you're
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: a coach, you're a head coach. So the timing of it,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong. You're gonna be coaching a
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  Speaker 1: game here on the Friday night against Westlake and then
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: you guys are just hanging out for the football game
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  Speaker 1: on Saturday against Arkansas? Is that how this works?
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  Speaker 2: So?
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  Speaker 3: Actually, west Lake's come to us, all right? I told
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: I told when I when they first told me that, Uh,
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  Speaker 3: you know when the College Football Hall of Fame got announced, Uh,
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  Speaker 3: not not too long after that, Mark and Rudy and
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  Speaker 3: those guys said, we gotta you know, you're year up
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  Speaker 3: next because we can't have you go in the Hall
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  Speaker 3: of Fame and you're not in our Ring of Honor yet.
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  Speaker 3: And I and I'm you know, we I kind of
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  Speaker 3: I didn't. I don't think I was on the forefront
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  Speaker 3: of doing this as the Ring of honor guys like
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  Speaker 3: I've just looked in the past and historically we've had
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  Speaker 3: just some incredible people come through a program like but Mark,
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  Speaker 3: we got to do something to commemorate the amazing guys
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  Speaker 3: that have.
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  Speaker 2: Come through this program.
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  Speaker 3: Uh. And that's that's kind. And I said, hey, like
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  Speaker 3: I don't. I'm not doing it for myself, Like I don't.
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  Speaker 3: If my time comes is great, like, well, let's get
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  Speaker 3: to these Let's get to these older guys first. And
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  Speaker 3: so but I'll also told him, I was like, look,
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  Speaker 3: do not schedule me for a Division two, Division one
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  Speaker 3: on double a opponent.
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  Speaker 4: I'm not coming.
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  Speaker 3: I want I want to see a real game. It's
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  Speaker 3: it's gonna be during my season. I'll make it work,
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  Speaker 3: but I want to see a great game, and let's
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: let's make sure that happens. So it worked out. Uh,
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  Speaker 3: as long as Arkansas was a like after like anything
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  Speaker 3: after two o'clock, I can make it up. And I
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  Speaker 3: think it's gonna be a night game. So that's gonna
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  Speaker 3: be awesome.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it will be a night game. So yeah, I
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  Speaker 1: got that wrong. So Westlake going to you, and then
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  Speaker 1: you'll you and the whole crew. I imagine, right your your
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: family's coming, the whole, the whole Wettele clan coming.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, the whole, the whole plan will be there debating
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: on silver because, as most people know, they won Nationals.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: So she's competing in Worlds in Italy in September which
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: actually she flies out that Saturday, Oh wow, Italy, and
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: then or find out that Tuesday to go watch or compete,
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: which I actually got to miss a game coaching. But
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  Speaker 3: for all you dads out there, when you have a moment,
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: to put your kid before anybody else, even though I
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: have like one hundred kids that I've overseen, Uh, you
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: got to make sure your kids know that they come first.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: That's great advice, I think for all of us. But
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: by the way, I'm I appreciate this about you because well,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: you'd never lack for confidence. You're not a man of
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  Speaker 1: great ego. And I'm like, okay, you know we did
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: this when it was announced that the Ring of Honor
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  Speaker 1: was going to become a thing like who's a shoe in?
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  Speaker 1: Who is somebody that absolutely gets their name put in there?
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  Speaker 1: And you know, you think of the consensus all Americans,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: You think of the guys that were integral on the
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: championship teams. Alex gets I think correctly the first honor
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: being the first one to go in there. He was
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: not even a consensus all Americans. So like before you,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: there were only a couple of guys that received that
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  Speaker 1: level of honor nationally in the UH, in the college
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  Speaker 1: football world. So while I appreciate about you, you're like,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: we got to honor some of these old guys like
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  Speaker 1: you are one of the old guys now. The team,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the program didn't have like a ton of elite, elite
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  Speaker 1: competitors prior to you. Obviously you helped pave the way
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  Speaker 1: for a bunch of guys after you, but there's not
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  Speaker 1: a ton that had accomplished careers like you did before
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  Speaker 1: you came through.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, first of all, I haven't hit my
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: private So let's let's make sure everyone understands that and
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: knows that when you see Aldi dub run around that
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: he hey, he can get out there and run around
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: for a little bit. Perfect just one play, one play,
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: and then everything will be torn. So yeah, I mean,
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  Speaker 3: I just think, like you guys know me, I know,
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: like I don't. I don't say is to be like, yeah, like,
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  Speaker 3: I'm a confident guy. I know where I stand in
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: the grand scheme of things in the university. You tuck
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: the ball like I don't. I don't need to be
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  Speaker 3: put out there before others who I think are just
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  Speaker 3: as deserving or maybe more. But just a lot of
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: people don't know about them, so like that, you know,
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: like the lust of the world, you know, like Jordan
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: Gross had an amazing career, Luther l Like, there's so
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: many and even after me. So uh, I just love that.
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  Speaker 3: I love the place.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: I love uh the guys and the connection that we
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: have as the university and as his teammates and ex
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: players and even alumni like Steve Smith of the world
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: and you know, Mark Anderson.
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  Speaker 3: Like there's so many guys that you can think of
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  Speaker 3: that have come through before me or after me, and
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: we're all in the same boat. So uh, it's it's
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  Speaker 3: really surreal.
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  Speaker 1: Honestly, respectfully, respectfully, you're not all in this same boat.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: There's not a lot of guys are in your boat, dude,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Like respectfully, Uh, what do you have any special insight
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: on whether or not Aaron Donald is going to be
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: with the Rams this year? I know you, I know
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: you're in a group chat.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: Let's get down to the real stuff. Okay, that's talking
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: about you know really what really why I want you
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: on is they're not coming back.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, what's the point of having friends like
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: you if I don't get extra information Like you're I
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: know you're in the group chat. I know you and
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: McVeigh are picking each other's brains all the time. So
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: what's happened with the rams?
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: You know, I honestly haven't. I haven't talked a lot
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: about AD yet. Uh, all things considered, and I talked
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: to whether did I talk to with this about one
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: of the NFL guys, Moortsill? But basically it's my all Right,
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: you're ad, you got You've accomplished everything you can imagine.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: You have your Super Bowl, you're healthy, you got kids,
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: You're in a great routine lifestyle. Do you really want
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: to come back, uh to the grind both mentally and physically? Like,
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: that's really what he's got to answer, And he's really
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: got to be one hundred percent committed to because can't
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: he play physically? Of course he could? Could he get
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: ready to play a game in a couple of weeks? Yeah, Like,
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: I don't deny that one bit. It's just more so,
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: do you want to come back and you're getting paid
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: a million bucks instead of twenty five million bucks? Are
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: you gonna do you want to come back and go
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: through where you can't move the next day for what
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: like to win another Super Bowl?
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: That's important, but it is it. So I don't know.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: I can one percent believe that he'll come back, like
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: maybe the last four games of the season and work
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: his way through it and I'd be ready to rock
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: for the playoffs. He could get some reps the last
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: couple of games, but I don't see him going through
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: the whole seasons. I don't. I just don't.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: There.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, so one super Bowl is enough for you,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and you think one super Bowl should be enough for
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: a d.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: Well eighty is regardless of whether he wasn't another super Bowl,
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: he's gonna be one of the best. Arguably he's the
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: first bout Hall of Famer. If he had that upper
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: echelon Hall of Fame that like some people talk about,
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: he's in it. If you had one above that, he's
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: in it. So you're trying to like the twenty greatest
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: football players in the history of the game, he's probably
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: in there. So in my mind, and I just go
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: back to why I everready retired the first time was
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: I didn't want to do it anymore more so mentally
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: than physically, and it was just a lot of pain.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: My circumstance come back two years later was very different.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: Like they had nobody else. I knew it was a
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: max of five weeks. I could shut everything down, like
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: you've been away from the game and now integrating yourself
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: back into the team for a whole season, like just
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: for me doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Now
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: the last quarter of the season, to get some reds,
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: get your feeway, get your body ready to take on
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: some double teams, and then and then go from there,
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: like I think he could do that, and it would
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: it would be impactful. I don't see him doing the
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: whole season, all right.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Utah begins camp on August third. When do you start
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: with your rancho Bernardo Broncos.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: The Harvey Broncos. We are still in summer workouts getting
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: that work in. Guys don't like me. A lot of
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: good lifting and running right now, which is important to
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: make sure we're ready to rock. You know, in California
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: it says we're so smart. We started at thirty first
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: five day half of period and then we finally can
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: put on full gear and do live tackling. We only
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: get twelve days before our first scrimmage out and then
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: nineteen days before our first game, so not a whole
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: lot of time to get my boys ready more on
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: the safety aspect of playing the games right way. But
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: that's kind of the uphill battle scheduling things. And so
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: we started the thirty first. We have our first scrimmage
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: the sixteenth, and then our first game the twenty third,
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: and we're ready. We're rocking and rolling from there.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm very excited for you to be going into
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: the Ring of Honor. I'm excited that we'll see you
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: on the twelfth. More importantly, man, congratulations. It's really awesome
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: that you get this honor and that we all know
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: you like we do. And I appreciate you joining the show.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: We'll do it again on a regular basis this season.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: You got it, bro, Love you and look forward to
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: seeing you guys.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: Go use.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: Let's get to for a special season.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Maybe I see it.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: I see it in the in the midst huge playoff
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: national Chaps.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: That's what we need. That's why we love our guy,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Eric Weddle oh Man the best there is and obviously
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: that's the reason he's going into the Ring of Honor.