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Marquez Valdes-Scantling: "I'm Grateful For This Opportunity" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Marquez nice yes or quiz either one. How did this
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  Speaker 1: uh wak out to end up coming to Seattle? I
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: think it? Uh, I think that was all Clint. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we were together in uh New Orleans, and when he
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  Speaker 1: took the job here, I think it was a a
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  Speaker 1: great fit. You know, obviously they they lost some really
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  Speaker 1: good receivers, so I kind of opened up a door
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  Speaker 1: for you know, me to come in and and kind
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  Speaker 1: of step in where you know, they lost those two
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  Speaker 1: two held with players. So how excited are you to
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  Speaker 1: have that opportunity to stay with Clint after the success
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  Speaker 1: you had. Yeah, I'm I mean, I'm very excited. You know.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously I was only there for you know, seven eight
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  Speaker 1: weeks whatever it was, and I was able to put
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  Speaker 1: up some some pretty big numbers, you know, in a
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  Speaker 1: short amount of time. But two head coaches and three quarterbacks,
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  Speaker 1: you know. So I I think I'm you know, grateful,
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  Speaker 1: uh for this opportunity, and I think I'm super excited.
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  Speaker 1: You know what Clint has has done and what his
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  Speaker 1: offense looks like. What is it about Clinton his offense
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  Speaker 1: that seemed to be such a good fit for you? Well,
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  Speaker 1: I think it's just uh it was a very similar
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  Speaker 1: offense to what I ran when I was in Green Bay.
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  Speaker 1: I'm under that same Shannonhan family, and I had a
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  Speaker 1: lot of success, you know with that play action and
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  Speaker 1: you know, taking shots down the field. And obviously that's
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  Speaker 1: what I've done, uh, really well for a lot of
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  Speaker 1: my career. And being able just to kind of get
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  Speaker 1: back to doing that, you know, it's been good. And
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  Speaker 1: then he's also giving me opportunities to showcase my game
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  Speaker 1: in other ways, you know, so not just hey, just
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  Speaker 1: throw the ball down the field. He's giving me a
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  Speaker 1: chances to catch on the routes and slants and screens
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  Speaker 1: and everything. You uh have a favorite route to run?
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  Speaker 1: And which routs do you think? Really? Uhuh anything against me?
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  Speaker 1: The ball man? Yeah, I don't have a favorite oute, man,
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  Speaker 1: anything that uh Sam likes to throw. It's my favorite out.
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  Speaker 1: What's the last year bed life for it? I mean
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  Speaker 1: last eighteen and with Kansas City, Man, it's been crazy, man. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, scaring touch on the Super Bowl, getting released,
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  Speaker 1: signed in Buffalo, it not working out, uh, getting released again,
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  Speaker 1: and then being you know picked up in in New
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  Speaker 1: Orleans the next week, and you know, relighting the fire
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  Speaker 1: it's been uh crazy, you know, to say the least.
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  Speaker 1: But that's the NFL man, and it's all about the
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  Speaker 1: right situation, you know. I I think that that's the
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  Speaker 1: most important thing. You know. My faith never wavered and
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  Speaker 1: my confidence never dropped down one time, you know, no
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  Speaker 1: matter what the circumstances were. And like I said, I
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  Speaker 1: had some really high highs and some really low lows.
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  Speaker 1: But being able to stay you know, even killed throughout
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  Speaker 1: the whole thing is you know, how I always how
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  Speaker 1: I live my life. Did you keep that Super Bowl
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  Speaker 1: for sure? Yeah, it's it's at the house, locked up somewhere. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: In your career, what's been your perception of the Seahawks
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  Speaker 1: when you've played against them? Just kind of hearing about
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  Speaker 1: them from Yeah, I got to play against them in
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  Speaker 1: a twenty eighteen my rookie year. But I mean this
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  Speaker 1: has been a really difficult place to play. It's, you know,
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  Speaker 1: a a tough team to to play. They always gonna
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  Speaker 1: be competitive. I got to play against him as well,
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  Speaker 1: uh when I was in KC. But I was when
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  Speaker 1: we were in Kansas City. But it's just been a
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  Speaker 1: resilient team. And obviously it's been historically a good football
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  Speaker 1: team as well, So you know, you're never gonna have
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  Speaker 1: a team that's gonna come in and lay down. How
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  Speaker 1: how would you describe him's offense explosive, you know, And
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  Speaker 1: that's what I love about it, you know. I think
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  Speaker 1: he's done a really good job of manipulating defenses and
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  Speaker 1: getting his playmakers to ball in different ways, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of shifts, a lot of motions, and then just getting
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  Speaker 1: the defense to see the same thing. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: we're doing something different, and I think, you know, for
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  Speaker 1: a guy like him to understand that and how to
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  Speaker 1: you know, attack a defense in different ways. Uh, it's
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  Speaker 1: fun and you know, it makes makes being on offense
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  Speaker 1: really easy. So he had another quarterback to work with.
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  Speaker 1: But your first impressions of Sam Darnold, man, Sam can
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  Speaker 1: spin it, you know, and I think he showed that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, last year. You know, obviously he's we came,
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  Speaker 1: we were the same draft class, and he was drafted
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  Speaker 1: high because he has the ability and it's all about
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  Speaker 1: the right situation, man, especially at quarterback. You know, you
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  Speaker 1: get put in the wrong situation, you know, you will
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  Speaker 1: you won't ever succeed. And I think he was putting
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  Speaker 1: the the right situation last year and to show that
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  Speaker 1: what he can do and I'm super excited about you
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  Speaker 1: know what he can do now. You didn't have as
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  Speaker 1: much success in Buffalo and then you don't have four
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  Speaker 1: touchdowns and they starts in or the same person? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: what what's different? How do people not know you're the
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  Speaker 1: same person? What changes to make that? I mean, I
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  Speaker 1: think it's just the situation, man. You know, offenses are different,
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  Speaker 1: you know, schemes are different, and you know the focus
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  Speaker 1: is is different. You know what you know Buffalo was
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  Speaker 1: was doing just didn't fit what I did. You know.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's the simplest way to put it. I
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  Speaker 1: don't think it's necessarily like, oh, you know, they were
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  Speaker 1: bad people or anything. I love those guys. You know,
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  Speaker 1: me and Josh talk all the time now and he's
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  Speaker 1: one of, you know, one of my closest friends now.
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  Speaker 1: They're just my short time. Literally just boke to him
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  Speaker 1: a two days ago, and so I think it's just
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  Speaker 1: the right situation, man. And that's just the NFL that
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  Speaker 1: happens with so many guys around the league where it's
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  Speaker 1: just like, man, I I'm in the wrong place. I
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  Speaker 1: could never succeed. Tell people what they should expect, like
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  Speaker 1: Tobac are like behind the scenes, not necessarily Clint is
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  Speaker 1: now he's act see really really like cool man like
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  Speaker 1: real like chill dude, you don't really see a whole
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  Speaker 1: lot of like ups and downs man like, no matter
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  Speaker 1: what's going on, he's gonna attack your head on and
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  Speaker 1: take responsibility when he needs to, and he's gonna hold
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  Speaker 1: people accountable. And I think that's something that I respect
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  Speaker 1: the most out of them. You know, we go into
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  Speaker 1: our our meeting rooms and if we played terrible, he's
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  Speaker 1: gonna say, hey, we played terrible. And if he calls
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  Speaker 1: a terrible play, he's gonna say, doubt's on me. I
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  Speaker 1: called a terrible player, I called a terrible game plan.
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  Speaker 1: So I think you know, players respect that. It's like, man,
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  Speaker 1: if I didn't do my job, I want you to
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  Speaker 1: hold me accountable, and vice versa. There any guys on
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  Speaker 1: the roster that you have prior connections with, not that
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  Speaker 1: I know of. I hadn't really looked at the roster yet.
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  Speaker 1: I was more excited about just Clint more than anything
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  Speaker 1: else in Sam, to be honest, So I haven't even
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  Speaker 1: looked at you know who's here. You know NFL changes
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  Speaker 1: so much. Man, you know, thirty percent of your roster
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  Speaker 1: switches every year, So I have no idea. I know
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  Speaker 1: ray Sealm was here last year, and you know, me
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  Speaker 1: and him grew up together, the Griffin twins, we grew
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  Speaker 1: up together too, So I got some got some history
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  Speaker 1: with some guys who've been in this hard's uniforms of
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  Speaker 1: Mike McDonald. Yeah, I mean, like I said, he's a young,
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  Speaker 1: young coach and like I said earlier, coming in and
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  Speaker 1: replacing Pete is not an easy thing to do. And
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  Speaker 1: I think the players love him. I think he's been
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  Speaker 1: able to create a dynamic where players respect him but
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  Speaker 1: also like appreciate being around him. And I think that
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  Speaker 1: I'm excited about that. How able to know that? And
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  Speaker 1: you know, you're man, people people talk, you know, and
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  Speaker 1: like you You can tell though, you can tell like
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  Speaker 1: guys enjoy playing hard for him, and I think you
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  Speaker 1: can you can kind of see when a team is
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  Speaker 1: motivated by their coach, by how they play, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: how they you know, even if they're having a you know,
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  Speaker 1: up and down season, if they're still competing that that's
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  Speaker 1: usually a testament of like the head coaches getting goudsto
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  Speaker 1: by him. How do you approach that? I mean, DK
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  Speaker 1: and Tyler are pretty pretty big shoes. Yeah, I mean
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  Speaker 1: you don't try to, you know, fill those shoes. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you know I have the same question when I went
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  Speaker 1: to Kansas City and trying to fill the shoes of
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  Speaker 1: Tyreek Hill, like you just you can't do that. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you go out and you be the best version of yourself,
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  Speaker 1: and whatever that looks like is what it looks like.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you can't go out and you know, try
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  Speaker 1: to m Tyler is a fifteen year back, you know,
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  Speaker 1: however long he's been playing field like forever and put
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  Speaker 1: up you know, so many yards, and DK is you know,
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  Speaker 1: one of a kind, you know, so you can't really
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  Speaker 1: recreate something that's was only created once. And you know,
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  Speaker 1: you just go out and be the best version of
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  Speaker 1: yourself and that'll be enough. How you chang, if you've changed,
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  Speaker 1: how you changed since be good. I don't think I
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  Speaker 1: necessarily changed, man, I think I just got just better.
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  Speaker 1: I think I've just you know, learned more about being
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  Speaker 1: a professional, learn more about myself and and how to
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  Speaker 1: do it. I think even my my time in the
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  Speaker 1: Saints is probably where I seen the most growth for myself.
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  Speaker 1: I think coach dubbed uh Williams, he is uh one
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  Speaker 1: of the best receiver coach I've ever been around, and
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  Speaker 1: he got so much out of me in those eight
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  Speaker 1: weeks that I was there, and I'm I'm grateful for
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  Speaker 1: that guy because he's kind of revamped, you know, who
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  Speaker 1: I was as a as a player, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: made me buy into things that I had never done before.
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  Speaker 1: And so just learning those things and like I said,
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  Speaker 1: it's not something that I had never seen before, but
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  Speaker 1: just the constant like having to do it every day
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  Speaker 1: with something that I that I learned how to do too.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's not necessarily like a one time thing.
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  Speaker 1: It was more so a like a mindset of like
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  Speaker 1: how to play receiver. You know, especially when you get
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  Speaker 1: into the NFL, you get kind of lost in these
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  Speaker 1: systems of like, hey, you gotta clear this out for
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  Speaker 1: somebody else, Like you know, you're not getting the ball
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  Speaker 1: on this play, so you got to do this for
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  Speaker 1: the play to succeed. But his mindset was like, no
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  Speaker 1: matter what the play is, you have to go win
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  Speaker 1: the route. And I think taking that mindset on opposed
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  Speaker 1: to just like falling into a system of like, hey,
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  Speaker 1: the ball's going here, so you know you're not getting it,
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  Speaker 1: so you don't really have to go in and win
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  Speaker 1: on this play, opposed to like, nah, win every single route,
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  Speaker 1: no matter for getting the ball or not. Speaking of self,
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  Speaker 1: you told us about your faith. What what are the
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  Speaker 1: unique stuff? Can you tell us that we might I
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  Speaker 1: like to cook a lot. I'm into fashion really heavily. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: design clothes and learning how to sew so I can
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  Speaker 1: sew close so long garments. So that's that's next on
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  Speaker 1: my list. I don't know, man, I'm like a I'm
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  Speaker 1: like an onion. More you peel back, the more you cry. Uh. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I got this shirt. I got this shirt when I
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  Speaker 1: was in Paris for fashion week and I thought it
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: was cool cause they were they were giving out like
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  Speaker 1: NBA stuff. I was like, nah, give me the girl stuff,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I mean, let me we support the girls
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  Speaker 1: a little bit. So you're serious about fashion? Yeah, I'm
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: serious about fashion. Yeah, Yeah, I'm serious about it. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: You have a Yeah. I have my own brand. It's
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: called sixth Election. I have my own screen printing company.
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  Speaker 1: It's called crap Tea They're both based out of Saint Petersburgh, Florida,
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  Speaker 1: where I'm from, and I'm I'm in there daily, man,
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  Speaker 1: learning how to do stuff and make stuff. I have
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  Speaker 1: a fashion show that I'm doing April twelfth down in Tampa. Yeah, man,
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  Speaker 1: I'm I'm big into the fashion space. I'm an introvert
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  Speaker 1: by nature, and fashion has kind of been my way
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  Speaker 1: of expressing myself and that's kind of how I've always
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  Speaker 1: seen it and done it, and it's kind of grown
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  Speaker 1: every year since then. How close were you with the
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Griffin twins boring up? Uh? Very close. We grew up
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: since we were like two or three years old, so
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I've known them my whole life. We went to preschool together,
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  Speaker 1: we played little league football together, we played high school
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  Speaker 1: football together. Like I've known them since we were like born.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, good, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,