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Kliff Kingsbury: Work Ethic Is Everything | E02 · In Search Of Excellence

• 2:13
  Randall Kaplan: Welcome to my podcast In Search of Excellence.
• 5:03
  Randall Kaplan: It's about our quest for greatness to be the very best that we can be to learn, educate and motivate ourselves to live up to our highest potential.
• 5:11
  Randall Kaplan: It's about planning for excellence which requires hard work, dedication and perseverance. Achieving Excellence is our goal, and it's never easy to do. We all have different backgrounds, personalities and surroundings.
• 5:22
  Randall Kaplan: And we all have different routes on how we hope and how we want to get there. Today, my guest is my friend, Kliff Kingsbury. He's currently the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals football team.
• 5:32
  Randall Kaplan: He's a former outstanding college quarterback who won the Stanley ball trophy as the nation's best passer. And he finished 10th in the Heisman voting trophy, and he finished 10th in the Heisman voting his senior year at Texas Tech. As a coach, he is considered an offensive genius who has coached for former Heisman Trophy winners, Johnny Manziel, Baker Mayfield, Patrick mahomes, and Kyler Murray. He also gives back to his community. And not many people know this. And in fact, I'm sure the first one to tell anybody about this. He's one of the world's greatest snorkelers cliff. Welcome to my podcast, In Search of Excellence.
• 6:10
  Kliff Kingsbury: Thanks for having me, Randy. I appreciate it.
• 6:13
  Randall Kaplan: All right. I always start my podcasts with family from the moment we're born, our family helped shape our personality, our values and the preparation for our future.
• 6:22
  Randall Kaplan: And I want to begin with your parents. Your mom grew up on a farm and your dad received the Purple Heart in Vietnam after a bullet shattered his jaw and he was injured in a gunfight. Both were high school teachers. Tell us more about them what they were like and what kind of values they instilled in you.
• 6:39
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, both both incredible human beings. There was no that I was very fortunate to have my parents, both in the house growing up. You said it both educators. Both came from very different backgrounds. My mom was raised on a farm my dad was born in the city and kind of had a rough upbringing. My dad decided to volunteer to go to Vietnam. And when he was actually underage, lied about his age just to go so we could get away from that, that upbringing. And I think it's time they're really, in the military and serving in Vietnam really set the course for his life and what he was going to do moving forward and my mom was just surrounded by love, grew up on a farm had to kind of learn things about a farm was very resourceful, very outgoing. And so my dad's an introvert, my mom's an extrovert and came together and, you know, made kind of the perfect union. But I had an incredible upbringing that was focused on really, excellence in academics, excellence in citizenship and excellence in sports. And that's what they strive for me and my brother, and I was just very blessed to have role models like that throughout my childhood.
• 7:49
  Randall Kaplan: They taught you about work ethic. Let's talk about that.
• 7:53
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, first and foremost, that was what it was about, I think my dad was my high school football coach, as well. And so I would see him wake up, be the first one in the office, the last one to leave every day, you know, no matter what his contemporaries was were doing, he was always putting in the time. You know, in that regard, and then my mom was the same way. She was a high school teacher, but she always did some extra, whether it was mock trial, or she was teaching aerobics like that there weren't enough hours in the day for her as well. And so you had an early wakeup time, my brother and I did and you are going to be active as well. You're going to find things to do throughout your day and work at it and practice at it. And one of the big family rules was your gonna finish what you start. So if we got into a sport, and we hated didn't like, the coach didn't like our team, it didn't matter, you were going to finish that season, and then you'd have to play the next year. But that was a big go to in our household.
• 8:50
  Randall Kaplan: One of the values they instilled in you was do what's right. What does that mean? Exactly? And how did that influence the rest of everything you've done since then?
• 8:59
  Kliff Kingsbury: I think more than anything, they would they would harp on, you know, do what's right, when nobody's watching, it's easy to put it out there. Do the extra things the practice when you think the coach is watching or do the extra studying when you think the teacher is watching, but what are you doing when when it's just you and you? And that was a big deal. Just how you treat people, how you handle yourself in society, how you work, how you study, just doing things right all all the time and all phases of your life.
• 9:28
  Randall Kaplan: It's amazing. I think it's important to note also, it's easy to do what's right when people are watching you, but it's really better if it's an eight to in part of your personality to do what's right when no one's watching.
• 9:43
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, there's no doubt and that was that was a big line in our house. Like I said, Who are you and when nobody's around. And so that's always stuck with me even to this day. It's, you know, it's easy to like you said to put it out there and do charitable endeavors. So people We'll see and you get the accolades. But, you know, who are you every day?
• 10:03
  Kliff Kingsbury: And who are you to people who truly can't help you in any way?
• 10:08
  Randall Kaplan: They tell you about punctuation and punctuality. What? What about punctuality? And do practice punctuality today?
• 10:17
  Kliff Kingsbury: I do I do. I mean, my dad was was a Marine.
• 10:20
  Kliff Kingsbury: So it was, if you're on time, you're late, you know, if you're early, you're on time. And that's always how we lived our lives. And I've always found that, you know, the biggest, greatest commodity anybody can have is their time. And if you're disrespectful, that and you show up late or, you know, you're you're not being respectful of that, then that, to me is kind of the ultimate insult. So our parents, we were early to everything we'd be waiting to practice for anyone else got there, to make sure that that we were on time.
• 10:49
  Randall Kaplan: And what do you do now? Do any of your players come late? And if they do, what happens to those guys?
• 10:54
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, I mean, we hold guys accountable. I'm not as traditional in the Fine.
• 10:56
  Kliff Kingsbury: Since like, a lot of people in the NFL, I mean, we'll find guys multiple offenses. But more than anything, I kind of make them explain to me and explain to the general manager why they were late. And they tend to hate that a lot more than just paying a fine and, and moving forward.
• 11:15
  Randall Kaplan: So work ethic was something that you saw, did they actually tell you, you got to work hard to be the best at whatever you're doing? Or were you just observing it? Kind of and you're living it? I mean, you woke up early, you said, your dad was a Marine? Did he talk to you about work ethic?
• 12:25
  Randall Kaplan: Did he say those words, you have to have a great work ethic to be successful? And do you think that's necessary? If you're young and impressionable for a parent to tell you that you got to work harder? Is it enough just seeing it and watching it?
• 12:38
  Kliff Kingsbury: I think a healthy dose of both I know it started just watching them waking up early. You know, they were begin to exercise as well.
• 12:45
  Kliff Kingsbury: My mom would go for a jog to have her workout in the gym. You know, they'd always be busy always have something going on.
• 12:51
  Kliff Kingsbury: So you see it at a young age.
• 12:53
  Kliff Kingsbury: And then they decide examples.
• 12:53
  Kliff Kingsbury: You know, my Joe Montana was my idol growing up, and he talks about, he'd show me stories of Joe Montana's work ethic or, you know, Michael Jordan, you know, so I think a healthy dose of both, but I do think verbalizing it, it helps. And throughout my life, that's been the one constant when everything else I felt like was falling apart and things weren't going my way. And dreams weren't being reached, I could always fall back on work ethic, and it would take me to a good place.
• 13:21
  Randall Kaplan: I think as a kid, you want your parents to be supportive. You get positive reinforcement from them, it really affects the outcome, your confidence, the way you carry yourself, your personality. Your parents were very supportive.
• 13:34
  Randall Kaplan: You Your dad started coaching football, not because he liked it, but because he wanted to spend more time with you and your brother, Clint, could you feel the love?
• 13:43
  Kliff Kingsbury: There's no doubt, no doubt. And it was always wanting us to strive to be our best, but it was never.
• 13:49
  Kliff Kingsbury: Because they wanted us to do it.
• 13:49
  Kliff Kingsbury: If we didn't want to play anything, they would have been fine with that, you know, they wanted us to pick what we had in our heart and whatever passion that was, and choose that and try to do the best we could at it. But it was never a deal where hey, you're gonna play this, you're going to do that.
• 14:02
  Kliff Kingsbury: And I think that that's what meant the world to my brother and I because we had our choices. But once you're in it, you are going to strive to be the the best.
• 14:13
  Randall Kaplan: So you're talking about your brother Clint. He's two years older than you. You guys as young kids, you're he played football as well. Well, you guys competitive at one point, or what was the rivalry? Like if there was one was he looking out for you? And he said, Hey, you're my younger bro. Here's what you got to do learn from my mistakes. Were you modeling him.
• 14:34
  Kliff Kingsbury: He's like the best human I've ever met. You know, one of the nicest people has always treated people incredible. He's one of the smartest people I know. So I've always looked up to him. He wasn't as sports crazy as I was.
• 14:46
  Kliff Kingsbury: But he played. He's a big outdoorsman. And he's a mechanical engineer. So he kind of has that likes to make things and build things. mentality. But yeah, I think just his humanity the way he's always treated people his entire life. It was something I've always aspired to. Do.
• 15:06
  Randall Kaplan: You guys go hunting together at times. And I heard when you were younger, you killed an alligator together.
• 15:13
  Kliff Kingsbury: We probably killed just about every living creature in North America at some point early on. I don't hunt anymore. I got away from that. I like to fish. He's still an avid hunter. But nothing nothing crazy since then.
• 15:28
  Randall Kaplan: Where do you fish? What is there somewhere?
• 15:30
  Kliff Kingsbury: I love Yeah, I love to go to Well, actually I love to go to Key West. That's like my getaway recharge reset place. It just feels like it's kind of been trapped in a time time warp and you can get down there and unwind and get away and I'm a big fan of that spot.
• 15:45
  Randall Kaplan: You get a boat you get a big reel on the boat.
• 15:48
  Randall Kaplan: You just cast away hoping what do you catch out there?
• 15:51
  Kliff Kingsbury: I get a guy I tried to catch tarp and Barracuda and permit is what we kind of go after the same guy.
• 15:57
  Kliff Kingsbury: He's awesome. He doesn't Yeah, when you miss the fish or you make a bad cast, so it's just pure pure enjoyment.
• 16:04
  Randall Kaplan: So let's talk about what you were like as a kid. What do you do for fun?
• 16:06
  Randall Kaplan: What were you interested in? And when did you become interested in football?
• 16:13
  Kliff Kingsbury: I was forced crazy from a young age probably having my my dad be a coach. I was always around it grew up playing soccer, basketball, baseball, football, flag football. And so I just loved the game. And then being in Texas as you get older, you see the importance of Texas high school football, how big of a deal it is the entire towns coming out. And so I was really captivated by that I was captivated by the scheme of football, the X's and O's the strategy involved. And so just just fell in love with that. I still played other sports, but my main focus kind of transition, transition to that, but it was either sports or fishing or hunting. Growing up, my dad wasn't a golfer. So when we weren't doing sports, we were somewhere doing some sort of outdoors activity.
• 17:00
  Randall Kaplan: Sounds like you had a busy childhood. Did you have any odd jobs? And if so, what would you do?
• 17:05
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, I limited limited jobs. I think I went I mowed lawns one summer with like a yard crew, which was fun. I was a trash pickup, we have a huge water park in our hometown, like the one of the biggest cities in North America. So I was the trash pickup kid, where you just pick up trash, because lifeguard you had to sit in a stand. And you couldn't really talk to the girls because they would just go by on the riots and trash pickup, you could go around and still be mobile and talk to the girls. And then the last than I, I got promoted to funnel cake maker, which was a big deal at that time. And then the last job I had in high school was I was miniature golf course attendant, which is the slowest job of all time you literally just sit there you bluff the course. And then you sit there the entire day.
• 17:52
  Kliff Kingsbury: watching people play miniature golf.
• 17:59
  Randall Kaplan: How old were you when you played your first football game? And when When did you really become interested in the game?
• 18:07
  Kliff Kingsbury: I'd say I really knew what was going on probably around six or seven. I think that's when we were playing flag football. My dad was big, he was the coach. So he wanted us to wait till like middle school to play tackle football and be coached by coaches in the middle school.
• 18:24
  Kliff Kingsbury: And so we played flag football growing up and I'd say six or seven. I always played quarterback always kind of admired. Like I said, Joe Montana. And it just I like to be in that position like having the ball in my hands. I liked the leadership component of it.
• 18:36
  Kliff Kingsbury: And it just kind of clicked at an early age. That's what I wanted to do.
• 18:42
  Randall Kaplan: Your dad set up a tire in a trash can in the backyard for you to practice throwing. Tell us about that?
• 18:47
  Randall Kaplan: Where was the tire? How far away was it how high was hanging, and if Did you know the size of the opening of that tire?
• 18:55
  Kliff Kingsbury: I did not. But that's another there's another Joe Montana references like my third one already, you can see my affinity for the man. But I remember reading a book that had a picture of the tire or whatever that he used to throw through. And so I had my dad put one up on the back of the backyard, it was probably I don't know, five feet off the ground. The hole wasn't wasn't too big, but lots of throws at that. And then for the touchdown passes that we'll see if he could throw it in the trash can.
• 19:21
  Kliff Kingsbury: So we had a little bit of both.
• 19:23
  Kliff Kingsbury: You just throw one football and run, go get it and throw it back. And I didn't know any better back then.
• 19:30
  Randall Kaplan: So the average tire is 18 inches hole diameter, the diameter of a football is 8.66 inches, that's about five inches on either side of that ball to get it through the hole.
• 19:43
  Randall Kaplan: What how far are we talking here? I mean, and how many throws would you do per day.
• 19:50
  Kliff Kingsbury: I mean, I'd stay out there for quite a while and it was kind of like conditioning to because you jog, go get the ball and then come back. But I'd say probably close to 50 to 100 throws, and you'd start close work your three step drop them back up, work your five step drop and then back out where your seven step drop, and just throw and throw and throw and you could do it by yourself which I always liked.
• 20:13
  Randall Kaplan: So give us a sense of you said you worked on it a lot. Is this two hours a day? Was it four days a week?
• 20:19
  Randall Kaplan: Was it five days a week?
• 20:21
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, I'd say close to play two hours a day all in and it was five, six days a week whenever I could get out there and I became pretty crazy about it. Once I got to high school I just saw what Texas high school football meant to people and everything that came with it and was just super inspired and so from high school and I just was back there trying to perfect it.
• 20:46
  Randall Kaplan: And you mentioned your dad was a coach.
• 20:47
  Randall Kaplan: So when you were nine years old, he was taking a football practice he was doing too Do a day as you're going with them.
• 20:54
  Randall Kaplan: And you're bringing your buddy there, you guys are mapping out the plays, you're doing Exynos at that point, wanting to know how it all works, how many other nine year old kids? Do you think we're doing that at that particular at that particular time you think about excellence, you think about doing things that nobody else is doing at that age, or whatever you're doing at that moment in time. I talked about in the search for greatness, going about the extra mile, it's even better if you go the extra 100 miles. So were you thinking you want to get ahead at that point and do what no one else is doing? Or again, you're just doing something that comes natural to you. And it just so happens, no one else happens to be doing it?
• 21:38
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, I think you nailed it. I think more than anything was just situational.
• 21:40
  Kliff Kingsbury: And that's why I've always kind of felt blessed on my path is that I was able to be around that at that age and understand it and be embraced by football and the culture of it at such a young age. So I was around it. I always saw the X's and O's was always fascinated by him and just kind of put in a position to to succeed really in that game.
• 22:04
  Randall Kaplan: So you talk about Joe Montana, who wins four Super Bowls, three MVP, Super Bowls. He's the MVP, and three is three Super Bowls. He's the MVP. He is the highest passer rating in NFL history. 120 7.8.
• 22:16
  Randall Kaplan: He's nicknamed The Comeback Kid for his history of rallying late from late game deficits. And if you're a sports fan, you remember the catch, he throws a pass to tight end Dwight Clark and the 1981 NFC Championship game to win the game. You were two years old when that happened. But I know you've seen the play. And when you see someone do something extraordinary like that one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, throwing a perfectly thrown ball over a defensive back the game is on the line.
• 22:47
  Randall Kaplan: The clock's expiring. What are you thinking as you're watching that for the first time?
• 22:53
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, I mean, obviously I was young, but seeing the replays it. It feels that that moment like mastery of the position, mastery of the sport and playing quarterback such a unperfect game. I think you strive for perfection and settle for greatness because you're never going to never going to be part of this mystery to miss throw something you could have done better. But moments like that, when you see Joe Montana make a throw that he probably couldn't make, you know, 99 out of 100 times. But in that moment, at that time to propel his team, he's able to do it. It just feels like you're watching. You're watching mastery of the of the sport.
• 23:33
  Randall Kaplan: So back then, when someone asks you, What do you want to do? And you're when you're older, when you grow up?
• 23:38
  Randall Kaplan: I'm assuming you said you want to be a pro quarterback and for 99.99999% of young kids, it's not going to happen. So at what point did you realize you were pretty good and think you can actually get there one day that you can play college ball and then exceed their and even achieve your dream to make it to the NFL.
• 23:56
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, that's that's all I ever want to do growing up. But I think I came from a small town. There weren't a lot of guys going to division one colleges. And so I grew up thinking that that was just this incredible feat to get there.
• 24:09
  Kliff Kingsbury: And not many people have done it. And so it's like you would just have to be out of this world to reach that goal. And so I always wanted to be a pro quarterback. I always wanted to do it, but I think it didn't really set in until I actually got to Texas Tech and got the scholarship offer and got on that level and saw the competition that I was like, okay, I can I can really do this
• 24:36
  Randall Kaplan: is Texas Friday Night Lights. Like it was the TV show. There's a stadium there, there could be five or 10,000 people the entire town comes out here under the bright lights is that really Texas football, high school football?
• 24:52
  Kliff Kingsbury: It was it was I'm not sure. I mean, there's so much else going on in the world these days with social media and all those things to do. But it definitely was back then. I mean, it would be I mean, we had a town of like 30 35,000 people back then we have 12 to 15,000 at some games packed out everybody you knew was there.
• 25:11
  Kliff Kingsbury: And it was a very, you know, community driven type atmosphere and the community was raising these young men up and and watch them come up from junior leagues on and now they're out there and representing their city and there's a real sense of pride about it that I always carry with me. It was the most fun I've ever had, you know, being a part of anything and you know, I still keep in touch with those friends and anytime I think about I still get chills
• 25:41
  Randall Kaplan: at that point.
• 25:41
  Randall Kaplan: You must be a rockstar and you're a teenager and you're the quarterback and you're a good looking guy. There's a lot of attention coming to you when you're 16 You're 17 years old?
• 25:51
  Randall Kaplan: How are you handling all that I'm sure you're the most popular kid in school or one of them.
• 25:59
  Randall Kaplan: Tell us about what that was like, and then how you dealt with that and how you didn't let it go to your head.
• 26:04
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, I think I was kind of a late bloomer, I never saw myself in that way.
• 26:06
  Kliff Kingsbury: And I was just always focused on getting better. I'm a guy who is really hard on myself. So I always thought there was a lot left out there, and I could do better, and I could be better.
• 26:16
  Kliff Kingsbury: And then my dad, when your dad is a Marine, and your head, high school football coach, there's a lot of humbling moments. And he made sure this was kind of his thing to make sure he was always harder on myself and my brother than everybody else. And looking back, I'm very appreciative of that, because I would have never wanted to see favoritism, or anything like that minnows, always, if I'm gonna be hard on these teammates, I'm gonna be ultra hard on you and your brother. So humility was was easy to come by put it that way.
• 26:48
  Randall Kaplan: You mentioned playing on good teams. And when we're all trying to improve at our companies, when we're trying to get better and do better and have better results. It's about team and hiring people better than you who know things that are different than you. And one way to improve is to play with people better than you are we watch them, we learn from them, we get coaching from them. Was that something that was important to you? Did you seek that out?
• 27:14
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yes, as a young person, I think I was still trying to find my way. So I don't know if I really knew that. That's how to really, you know, take the next step is to get around people that help elevate you, because they're better than you faster than you showing you. I think I was still just trying to try to find my way. And as I got older, I understood. You know, the best way to bring out the best in yourself is to be against great competition and be around great players and people that that you're trying to catch. And that didn't come to me until really college.
• 27:51
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah. And then once you catch them, they're pretty much gone unless they get injured. And then once you're the quarterback, people are trying to catch you nipping at your heels. There's pressure there. Once you know that,
• 28:05
  Kliff Kingsbury: no doubt, it comes with the territory. And it's, it's like people say it's harder to stay on top than it is to get there. And there's no doubt at that position, particularly, I mean, one bad game, and they're calling for the backup, as you know. So it's it's week to week. And I do think that level of pressure is obviously helping my career as a coach and be able to handle certain things.
• 28:27
  Randall Kaplan: There's a lot of people listening and watching who have young kids, teenagers, young adults, what's your best advice to parents on how to motivate their kids to be the best they can be and live up to their potential? And in your view? Is there any particular age that parents should make a conscious effort to focus on this? There's a fine line between supporting your kids and pushing them too hard?
• 28:51
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, there's no doubt like I mentioned earlier in our talk, my parents, they, they offered a lot of things that we could get into, they never forced it upon us.
• 29:02
  Kliff Kingsbury: But they kind of made sure hey, this is tennis, or this is golf, and this is fishing. And this is. And if we took to it, I want to do it. We did it. And if we weren't going to be a part of it, then yeah, they wanted to see us work hard at it. Show up early to practice, stay late, do the extra finish the season, whether we liked it or not. But I think my biggest advice would be like all for all those things up, just don't. If it's not working the kids miserable doing it. They haven't finished it.
• 29:29
  Kliff Kingsbury: But let's not force them to do anything. I think that was the key to my brother and I being successful in sports was that our parents offered a bunch of options. We kind of came by it organically choosing them. And then we're in them. They definitely encouraged us to work hard and strive to be the best.
• 29:46
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, I have five kids. As you know, I have one son, Charlie, and he was an okay baseball player. And as he was progressing through the little leagues, he had a couple of big hits, he and the World Series hit a game winning symbol, the single to win the World Series. And he was starting to improve a lot and I thought he should keep playing.
• 30:07
  Randall Kaplan: And he said that I'm just you don't want to do it. And I really pushed him a little bit.
• 30:10
  Randall Kaplan: But he said that I don't want to do this. I want to be a skateboarder. And as a parent, I'm thinking that's the last thing you want your kid to do.
• 30:20
  Randall Kaplan: Riding in the bowls and flying in the bowls and hitting their head and I don't know if there's something more dangerous. I mean, football you talk about concussions skateboarding, which is what he pursued I wasn't happy about it. He lives at the park is there two or three times a week he goes to camp in the summertime doing all this crazy shit. He's broken his wrist. At one span he broke his wrist in four different places four times in nine months. And you know he loves it. As a parent you want encourage your kids to do what what they want to do. So there is a fine line, but like you, I don't push my kids very hard. I want them to be passionate about what they're doing. And I think being passionate about something will make them work harder. You can't make your kids work hard.
• 31:07
  Randall Kaplan: If it's something that they really don't want to do it they're not into.
• 31:12
  Kliff Kingsbury: I agree, I think allow them to chase their passions. And that's where they learn the work ethic. That's where he learns, going and, you know, attempting that jump until he gets it. I mean, because if you're not passionate about it, you're not breaking the risk four times and coming back, you know, you learn one time and you're done with it.
• 31:27
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, I mean, just to look at his body sometime it is bruised. It's like he he's getting a pounding on there. You fall on your side.
• 31:33
  Randall Kaplan: It's, it's, it's interesting, but I, you know, he keeps coming back at it. And I love it. I'm very proud of him for doing that. And it's cool for his bar mitzvah video, which was super cool. I'll show this to you.
• 31:50
  Randall Kaplan: Sometimes I got a bunch of clips for people say, Hey, Charlie, I'm happy Bar Mitzvah. And we had guys like, we had everybody.
• 32:01
  Randall Kaplan: And we had Matt Stafford did something. Klay Thompson, Dustin Johnson. And he was a skateboarder Tom Brady did something we'll talk about Tom in the later at the end of the show. And at the end, we had Tony Hawk, it was a skateboarding Bar Mitzvah. And so we had this whole montage in the montage. You know, I said, Hey, Charlie, what got you into this? And he said, You did that.
• 32:27
  Randall Kaplan: And, you know, that's, that's pretty cool. You know, your dad, your son wants to do something.
• 32:37
  Randall Kaplan: I mean, I, I never did the bowls. But I used to love my board. And it was a young kid, I took them to the park. And there's this really cool picture I have in the video where I'm holding his hand. He's like, six years old, and he's on the board. And it's just cool. It's, it's, it's it's super cool that one of the highlights of my life, you know, watching him get better.
• 33:05
  Kliff Kingsbury: That's that's big, allowing him to do what he wants to do.
• 33:08
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah. It's funny, because because we have like a frequent flyer plan now at you the earth, or the fetus.
• 33:18
  Randall Kaplan: Have a cell number, which is, which is funny. So you're playing high school football, baseball, basketball, you also ran track. So that's, I know, most great athletes play three.
• 33:31
  Randall Kaplan: Were you playing for the same time? And how do you do that? If they're overlapping? I mean, that's taking on quite a bit there. Yeah, usually
• 33:38
  Kliff Kingsbury: it was football, and then kind of basketball baseball track would overlap a little bit, but you just didn't know any better. I mean, it was a small town. Like I said, we grew up playing everything my dad was was a coach at the high school mom was a teacher. So it was just part of it. And I really think that was doing that day in day out was where I learned real work ethic and real consistency.
• 33:59
  Kliff Kingsbury: Because obviously, there's days where you get done with basketball, you don't want to jog over the baseball field, but you do it and you learn how to kind of compartmentalize everything and just keep going.
• 34:11
  Randall Kaplan: So your sophomore year, you're a good football player, your dad's the coach of Varsity put you on the JV team even though you're good enough to play varsity and he didn't think the reason why you should play varsity is because he's the coach and a pissed you off. In fact, I read somewhere is still pisses you off. Can you talk about that? Did that motivate you to work harder?
• 34:32
  Kliff Kingsbury: It definitely did. And I looking back, like I mentioned earlier, having my dad as my high school coach was like the most beautiful thing that's ever happened to me. But at the time, you don't understand why you're like I you want to be up there with the varsity the cool kids, the girls, the whole thing, Texas high school, you know, Friday Night Lights, but he knew that it would be better for me to kind of develop, get bigger, faster, stronger and not be in that type of spotlight just yet. And so it was definitely the right thing to do. But it was motivating. And you know, I have forgiven him since but I still think I should have been on varsity. But our JV team went undefeated. So we had that.
• 35:16
  Randall Kaplan: So junior year on varsity senior year, things really lit up for you. You lead your team at 13 to record you through for over 3000 yards 34 touchdowns. You're the MVP of the Texas coaches all star game not too shabby there. And our quest to be the best that we could be one of our goals is to make sure we're constantly improving. So what led to a huge improvement from sophomore to junior to senior year.
• 35:45
  Kliff Kingsbury: I'd say more than anything just consistency.
• 35:47
  Kliff Kingsbury: You know, we you go from the JV your sophomore year, you're undefeated. We think he's gonna get and then you know, I think we went four and six my junior year we got moved into higher classification playing really good teams got beat up, but just not letting the disappointment affect the work ethic, the consistency and approach and and just continuing to work on my craft and that led to the nature been highly successful. And once you get a taste of that and see the results, I think, then you're in and then you're sold and you just keep, keep trying to work harder and keep trying to get better.
• 36:22
  Randall Kaplan: So you have a great senior year, you're not getting any scholarship offers at the one schools and at the last minute, you get one from a coach named spike dykes at Texas Tech. First of all, I love the name, it's a hall of fame name.
• 36:37
  Randall Kaplan: Spike dykes comes in with a scholarship offers the only one you get at a D one program. And here you are, you've trained your entire childhood to pursue your lifelong dream of making it in the NFL. And you need to do that to play it to do that you need to play at a D one school before the offer came through.
• 36:55
  Randall Kaplan: You're worried about your football career. And that may be over after college and your dream to the NFL may not happen.
• 37:02
  Randall Kaplan: What were you thinking at that time?
• 37:04
  Kliff Kingsbury: You know, I think I was probably feeling sorry for myself. I remember having to talk to my mom, like, maybe I'll just go to school then like I thought I did great.
• 37:15
  Kliff Kingsbury: And I've seen other guys and I know I can do it, you know, but you're trying to handle the disappointment but I never gave up I just I think he I had that small moment where I'm like feeling sorry for myself. And and I remember saying you know what, if it doesn't happen, I'm gonna go to junior college, I'm gonna I'm gonna show everybody.
• 37:33
  Kliff Kingsbury: And luckily, Coach dice came in late and gave me a scholarship.
• 37:37
  Kliff Kingsbury: But I think as a young person, you know, you're gonna have those those disappointments and I was so lucky to have supportive parents that basically helped steer me, hey, you're gonna have disappointment, disappointment, synlife, you gotta keep fighting, you put in so much work, you love the game. And so they're able to kind of steer me in the right direction.
• 37:59
  Randall Kaplan: I want to go back to your parents, again, both high school teachers, stressing the importance of an education for your future, and you did not disappoint on that front. You're a great student.
• 38:08
  Randall Kaplan: You graduated three out of 450 in your high school class, academic all state played football in college, you'll have to tell us how many hours a day that is six hours a day. And then you have games and you have to study. It's like having full time jobs. You're an academic honors every year in college.
• 38:30
  Randall Kaplan: What was the commitment there? I mean, it's hard enough to be a good student. It's hard enough to be a good football player, you put those two together? What were your weeks? Like? I mean, you must, how many total hours a week were you working to achieve success at both of those things?
• 38:50
  Kliff Kingsbury: It was it was a lot it. But I was so blessed to have started that at a young age, it was always academics first in sports, if you weren't handling that part of it, then sports weren't gonna be in the picture. And so I didn't really know any better. At that point.
• 39:03
  Kliff Kingsbury: It was actually in college, when I kind of felt like, hey, some of these guys aren't taking this as serious as I am when it comes to the academic part. But that was always first and foremost, and my brother and I's lives and one of the great blessings I've ever had because our parents push it and push it and push us and they taught us to be competitive in that too. Just like in sports. That's that's an area you need to be competitive in as well.
• 39:29
  Randall Kaplan: You must have been sacrificing some things social life. You mentioned.
• 39:31
  Randall Kaplan: Girls and the podcast a little bit before. Did you have a social life? Were you able to make friends outside of football? Were you able to date?
• 39:44
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, not not much in high school, I was pretty one track minded. And then college really the same until I got a little bit older and kinda figured out how to be efficient in the process in football and academics, and then the social life came along a little bit more. But I think when you want something that bad, you know, you're gonna have to give things up. You're gonna have to stay in on nights that everybody else is out and doing things and there's a price to pay to, you know, to reach your goals.
• 40:19
  Randall Kaplan: So you're at Texas Tech. The first two years you're playing for Coach dikes, you're redshirted your freshman year you make the honor roll 1999 You're the backup. As a freshman you're playing in six games. Nothing great. There. You made the honor roll again. And a 2000. Coach dice retires and Texas Tech hires this guy named Mike leach would have been the offensive coordinator Oklahoma.
• 40:40
  Randall Kaplan: Never been a head coach before.
• 40:45
  Randall Kaplan: So tell us about Mike Leach and who he was at that particular moment in time. And as we talk about Mike As you talk about Mike, one way to achieve greatness is to try something new and different than other people haven't done before you're taking risks. So tell us about what he was doing that was different at that time than nearly every other coach in college football.
• 41:06
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, Mike Mike leach is He's extraordinary. And what he's been able to do in his approach the way he you know, approaches offense approaches, football approaches, meetings, everything he does, it was so foreign. When he got there, we're all looking at each other like this. There's no way that shits gonna work, like, what is going on? What is he doing?
• 41:26
  Kliff Kingsbury: How's he coaching, and then he just believes in it so much. And he's so you know, committed to his vision and not afraid to do things that everybody says can't work and continue to work at it even when it doesn't work. And he taught me a lot about persistence. He had such a vision for what his offense could be, and what we could do out there at Texas Tech, and you could feel that passion. And so as we, you know, developed in his offense, I think we all started to believe like him that you couldn't be stopped and you look at where he's won, he won at Texas Tech on an incredibly high level, we went to Washington State on incredibly high level places where traditionally, you can't do that. But he has such a great offensive mind, he's been outside the box his entire career. And to kind of see that on the ground level. Definitely is something that's impacted me and kind of how I approach the game as well.
• 42:20
  Randall Kaplan: You mentioned thinking outside of the box. So how important is that, to our success being different doing something that people haven't done before? It's risky, because if you fail, especially in a highly public job, like you were everyone watching you, man's, you know, you do something unique, it doesn't work. It's embarrassing.
• 42:39
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, it's easy to just do it like the other guy, you know. And if you do, there's people that can and they, they're substantially better than you can keep going.
• 42:46
  Kliff Kingsbury: But I think take the risk to do it a different way. And believe in yourself that that's where you can make these incredible leaps and really reach some uncharted territory. And I think that's what Mike was able to do in places that previously weren't able to accomplish it.
• 43:03
  Randall Kaplan: Okay, so let's talk about exactly what he did the air raid offense, what is the air raid offense and you can go deep talking about four wideouts and all that, but we'll try to keep it pretty simple. So what what was it before? And then what what was it when he put this new scheme in place?
• 43:22
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, we were more traditional football tight ends fullbacks. You know, huddles, and when he got there, it was all wide splits, the linemen were kind of spread out, you wanted to spread the entire defense. And it's just all about really getting the ball in space, finding leverage to defeat defenders and letting your guys run with it. And the you know, we throw 56 times a game which was very rare. In those days, it's more common now. But you just were defenses out your know how to every snap, you spread everybody out, you get into space it out attack, you do it again. And a lot of those little short passes were basically like run plays. And that's how he saw it and had a lot of success with more limited type athletes as well. We weren't getting the five star guys at Texas Tech. But we get kids that can operate in space and playing this system and he was able to perform at a high level with with that type of player.
• 44:17
  Randall Kaplan: And it's new for you as well. I mean, you got to be thinking like you said you were thinking what is this will it will it work but at the end of the day it really helped you.
• 44:27
  Randall Kaplan: Sophomore year you threw for 3400 yards 21 touchdowns, and he went to this my favorite ball of all time the gallery furniture.com bowl. You guys didn't didn't win. But you did have a 4.0 that year in college as well. Then junior year, you threw for 3500 yards 25 touchdowns, you had a couple of four touchdown games, which is awesome. You guys weren't ranked. And then senior year you come in the year as a candidate for the Heisman Trophy, which is awarded to the best player in college football. And you lit it up that year. 5017 yards passing 45 touchdowns your team goes nine and five. What was that like to hear your name mentioned as a candidate for the Heisman trophy? The best player in college? Was that one of your dreams as a kid were you then shooting for it? Was it exciting? Could you feel the extra pressure was all the hoopla a distraction?
• 45:24
  Kliff Kingsbury: It wasn't it was more I'm one of those guys the more success that comes the more I want it. It doesn't it doesn't feel like pressure to me. I just want want more of that. And so that was kind of it's like you have this thing being mentioned with your name.
• 45:40
  Kliff Kingsbury: Okay, well, let's go work harder and try to try to get it but that was a year that we'd all all of us really on that that team had been in a system three years now we've kind of grown up together and I were able to play at a pretty high level and I was around really good teammates, but I had a chance to win the Heisman is a true story. We had played Texas, I threw for six touchdowns. We beat them huge upset, then we go to ODU. If I if I play good and we win, I'm winning the Heisman like period, it's a wrap. And we get beat 60 to 50. And it was the longest night of my life, the most non competitive longest night in my life. And so, obviously dropped me down to the rankings a little bit. But incredible year incredible experience. And playing from Mike was something I'll never forget. And it's really and truly impacted my life anytime I'm in a situation like, Yeah, that's so you know, even though my sunlight that's outside of the box, I wonder how that would be perceived by NFL people, fans media, I just say, think of Mike Leach and say, Look what he's done. And he never let any of that outside noise affect him.
• 46:46
  Randall Kaplan: So did you know after that bad game, when you got your ass kicked that it really was over? We were hoping well, maybe they're gonna say
• 46:55
  Kliff Kingsbury: that it was that bad. It was as bad as you could possibly play as an offense and I was not long night.
• 47:04
  Randall Kaplan: They're all looking at you saying can you perform under pressure? Can you win the big game? And then at that point, if you can't even come close to winning the big game, then it's just like that black and white. You have four years of performance and one one night. It Yeah, it's over.
• 47:18
  Kliff Kingsbury: It's all over.
• 47:18
  Kliff Kingsbury: But that's the beauty of sports.
• 47:21
  Kliff Kingsbury: And that's the beauty of really striving for for greatness. I mean, you're gonna have those pressure packed moments and they either work out or they don't.
• 47:30
  Randall Kaplan: So you finished ninth in the Heisman, you didn't win. So you dropped down a bunch of places, but you did win the Stanley BOD trophy. nacin best passer, you graduated 39 Texas Tech records 13 Big 12 record seven NCAA records. Were you satisfied at that point?
• 47:50
  Kliff Kingsbury: I was being a Texas kid. And that being my only scholarship offer I was I was proud of what we're able to do out there because Texas Tech traditionally, you know, not not the Top program in the state.
• 48:00
  Kliff Kingsbury: And I felt like with what Mike had brought, there was a lot of hype. There was a lot of promise moving forward. And so I always felt very close to Texas Tech, like I owed it a lot and sort of be able to give back in that way meant a lot to me.
• 48:22
  Randall Kaplan: Here comes the draft. All the hours the footballs through the tires and the trash can the 1000s of hours of work, the sacrifices, the hundreds of games. It's all about the payoff dream come true. Hello, NFL. And here comes Draft Day, April 25 2013. You're sitting I'm sure with your family and friends on the TV watching ESPN, waiting for your name to get called. Figure out where you're going, where you're moving. Where you're going to be playing the first day comes and goes, you wait, I think in six hours the first day and one by one every 10 minutes. Must be agony sitting there. Then on day two. Same thing happens. You're waiting. And finally you're drafted in the sixth round number 201. What was that like?
• 49:10
  Randall Kaplan: You're almost the Heisman Trophy candidate, then you're number nine. Best High School passer in the country. What happened? Did you think you're going to be picked before was that a huge disappointment at that point?
• 49:23
  Kliff Kingsbury: I thought I'd go before. And so I actually sat around and I think we get through the fifth about middle of the fifth and I told my roommate in college they're like we're going let's go eat so we were at Red Lobster. When I actually got called by coach Bella check and was told I was drafted by the Patriots but it was Yeah, I think you're disappointed but then you know, once you realize hey, it's the Patriots and I got drafted I think you you just regroup and say there's a great honors what I've always strived for and now you know you're back to square one no matter what whether you're the first pick or the sixth round pick and you got to go prove yourself.
• 50:02
  Randall Kaplan: Tom Brady's a quarterback and he's a sixth round pick as well. So you gotta be thinking alright, I'm playing behind. Oh, yeah. But here
• 50:09
  Kliff Kingsbury: we go.
• 50:09
  Kliff Kingsbury: Lightning Strikes Twice baby Alright, let's let's go do it.
• 50:13
  Randall Kaplan: You don't want him to get hurt but here replace Drew Brees he was one of the best passes of his days and he never looked back and you know you always wonder Hey, what's gonna happen to me? No doubt. So your rookie season didn't go that well you you spent the entire year on injured reserve you hurt your arm. What happened to the arm?
• 50:34
  Kliff Kingsbury: Just tendinitis. Yeah, one of those deals is just too much wear and tear and so didn't didn't play that year. But I learned a lot.
• 50:42
  Kliff Kingsbury: I learned a lot that first year.
• 50:45
  Kliff Kingsbury: They had me doing some some things off the field since I wasn't able to really participate behind the scenes with the coaches X Isn't knows and things of that nature. And so I probably learned more football than I'd ever known before just being around those guys. Some great coaches on that staff and we all know you know what, what Bill does and is about. And so it was it was a crash course in NFL football, that's for sure.
• 51:09
  Randall Kaplan: It wasn't a loss. You guys want a Super Bowl, you got a ring on an event A Terry 41 yard field goal that years time was expiring. Brady, of course, is a Super Bowl MVP for the second time in his career. And then after that, you're waived one and done. What do you think at that point? Why did they give up on you after only a year?
• 51:30
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, I think when I had my opportunities, I didn't make the most of them, you know, I think should have would have should have and looking back I obviously wish I would have worked harder and done different things. But I think when you get there you see Tom Brady, you see this guy who's at this level, I think I did get discouraged. Because I'm like, I don't know if I can ever be as good as this guy. You watch them in practice and what he's doing and this and just kind of got down on my competence and when I my my opportunities there was wasn't as good as I needed to be.
• 52:02
  Randall Kaplan: Did you know you're gonna get caught at the at the end of the season?
• 52:06
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, I I kind of knew that I hadn't played as well as I should have or could have and probably needed to be somewhere else. And so it was definitely the right move by them. I hadn't done the job I needed to do.
• 52:22
  Randall Kaplan: You signed with the Patriots are the saints, your second season to the practice squad, which is not where you want to be either you didn't play. It didn't work out there. Then you move to the Denver Broncos practice squad again. You're only there three weeks, you're released. And then you go to the New York Jets. And you finally get in your first game. I think Chad Pennington was a quarterback then and you came in against the Broncos late, late in the game won one of two passes 17 yards. And then you're moving on again. Season Four Buffalo Bills you signed in training camp. You didn't see any action at this point. No more NFL except you played NFL Europe, the CFL. After it was clear you weren't gonna make it in the NFL. Why did you keep playing? Why? And why do you think you didn't make it? It didn't end though. The way you want it to. But what are you thinking? With all this? Why didn't it work? Yeah, I
• 53:22
  Kliff Kingsbury: think looking back now, I mean, obviously, like I said earlier, I think there's a point where you feel sorry for yourself, Oh, I didn't get my opportunity, I should have had a better chance. Why does this guy get a chance. But looking back, I wish I would have just been more dedicated to the process. I always thought I worked hard. But when you can step back and you see it from from my chair, now I you only have a limited time to try and make your run as a professional athlete. And I don't think the focus was what it should have been. And when I had my opportunities, I simply didn't didn't take advantage of it. And it wasn't a skill set. It wasn't you know, not being able to process things. I just when I when I had those opportunities, I didn't take advantage of them.
• 54:02
  Kliff Kingsbury: And so it didn't work out for me.
• 54:07
  Randall Kaplan: I've heard before from some athlete friends of mine professional athlete friends that they said there are these players who don't make it.
• 54:13
  Randall Kaplan: But who would have made it on a different team having the opportunity to play with different people and teammates.
• 54:20
  Randall Kaplan: Is that something that you've thought about? You think it may have worked out differently? And is that true?
• 54:27
  Kliff Kingsbury: situationally can matter? You know, I think especially being a coach, now in this league, you see how certain situations play out for certain guys, and some guys go places it just especially at the quarterback position to get beat up, lose their confidence, don't have a lot of talent around him.
• 54:42
  Kliff Kingsbury: And that's a tough, tough situation. But that, you know, my dad told me a long time ago, the cream always rises to the top. And if you're good enough, they're gonna find you. And so I do think situation can help. But the guys that are really the top elite players, you could put them on, you know, a little league team and they lift those guys up and be able to beat somebody.
• 55:05
  Randall Kaplan: See, you lived your dream, you achieved your dream, you played quarterback at a very competitive level. That was plan A and then what what was plan B? And are you thinking what am I going to do now?
• 55:17
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, that was the problem. There wasn't a Plan B I had subscribed to if you had a plan B plan a would never work. You know, I get that advice at a young age. And so it was just like blinders on. I'm gonna be this quarterback. I'm gonna be Joe Montana, Tom Brady.
• 55:29
  Kliff Kingsbury: And so when that hits you and you're like, Oh, what do we do now? I was pretty much lost.
• 55:38
  Kliff Kingsbury: Luckily, I've done well in academics, so I knew I could always fall back on my degree that I got and I really initially thought I was gonna go get my MBA, had tried to apply there and get my transcript and had a bunch of parking. You tickets, so I wasn't able to get my transcript. And then I was mad because I'm I did all this for the school and y'all give me my transcript. And so that fell through. And luckily had an old coach that allowed me to be kind of a quality control. graduate assistant in the University of Houston. And, you know, get started in coaching and never in a million years thought I would do it because my dad was a high school coach, I saw the hours I saw the stuff he had to deal with LM never doing that. But I got around it. And I realized how much I missed being around the guys. I loved the mentorship of young people and just fell in love with with the coaching process.
• 56:29
  Randall Kaplan: What is an offensive quality control?
• 56:32
  Randall Kaplan: Coach?
• 56:34
  Kliff Kingsbury: That's a great question. I think it it can wear a lot of hats. When I was there, I would really try to help the quarterbacks in preparation, help game planning in any way I can. And you're really going to do whatever they asked you to do from the lowest task on up. But it allowed me to just get around the game again. And I had a great kind of mentor at the time, Dana Holgorsen, who was the offensive coordinator, the University of Houston, that was the head coach at the University of Houston, but a great offensive mind. That allowed me to kind of be myself and learn, you know, offensive scheme and different philosophies that I'd carry with me later on. But he never kind of asked me to be in a box dress a certain way carrying myself a certain way.
• 57:18
  Kliff Kingsbury: And so that that really allowed me to, I think enjoy the process more than a lot of those young coaches are able to
• 57:27
  Randall Kaplan: tell us about Coach Belichick. You mentioned your first year with the Patriots. This is a guy that's won six Super Bowls. as a head coach, you think he's considered one of the three best coaches in history? I'd say the, I'd say, okay, okay, number one, let's
• 57:42
  Kliff Kingsbury: put them in the top.
• 57:43
  Randall Kaplan: You think about Don Landry and George halus. But I think he's number one as well, although I'm too young to know about Don or George. And you also worked under Charlie Weis who was a great coach there as well. You got to assume it's kind of like a PhD in football.
• 57:58
  Randall Kaplan: What? What is he doing different than everybody else in football?
• 58:03
  Randall Kaplan: What's up with his success? How does he do it? And living and breathing it? I assume watching his learning.
• 58:14
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, no doubt just being around it. I just think his attention to detail is something that probably has never been reciprocated in the game ever. He sees every angle you could possibly imagine he covers every angle. He has these thoughts that you'd never even think would come up in a game.
• 58:32
  Kliff Kingsbury: And so he makes you walk it through and you're rolling your eyes like this would never happen. And then week seven, it happens and you're prepared for and your team executes at a high level. And so I think his teaching attention to detail.
• 58:44
  Kliff Kingsbury: The leave no stone unturned approach is something that I've never seen anything like it, really probably in any profession. But he has an ability to do that. And the ability to be consistent in his approach, day in and day out.
• 58:57
  Kliff Kingsbury: And he never, never tired of it.
• 58:57
  Kliff Kingsbury: I mean, he's still coaching as hard today as he ever did.
• 59:04
  Randall Kaplan: And the challenges today are going to be a lot harder. I don't know if he's going to have the success for quite a while or, you know, they did
• 59:10
  Kliff Kingsbury: say they beat they beat us this year. That was That one hurt my soul. I saw that I want to hurt my soul. I was looking forward to that handshake after the win. It's hard to beat him. He's got some mind control.
• 59:25
  Randall Kaplan: You should have won that game, another missed field goal. And in that game, we
• 59:28
  Kliff Kingsbury: had a tough a tough ending, but it's just a credit to him in the way they were able to adjust different things to do offensively defensively, special teams to adapt to personnel and still in a down year where they saved all that cap room didn't spend all that money. had all these guys sit out they still go seven and nine. And it's just incredible.
• 59:46
  Randall Kaplan: Yep, it's for me, I love the Patriots, because as you know, I went to Michigan, huge Tom Brady fan. And I think I shared this with you. I took my kids to Puerto Rico. They were girls were eight and 10. I have twin girls. And my son, Charlie that we've talked about, we're staying at this small resort called a Dorado beach it had just open. And on Sundays we were uniforms. Were all in our lions jerseys. As you know, I'm a big lions fan. And this guy comes over the table. And he says oh, hey, you guys are Lions fans. That's cool. And I'm looking at this is this really happening? And we're having a conversation? Oh, and here Charlie says oh, we like the Patriots because my dad went to Michigan, Tom Brady. You know, he went there. And so I said that's so nice. And then I mean, he's talking to us for five minutes and he's standing up we're, we're sitting down. He he walks away and my son says Who's that guy? And I said, That's Bob Kraft who owns the Patriots.
• 1:00:58
  Randall Kaplan: Just that kind of guy. And, you know, all mentioned something else there, you know, it was a small resort. And he was there with eight people in his family, his kids, grandkids. And at the end, and you know, you'd see him around and we talk and I was a founder of a company based in Boston, he knew the company very well. And he said, when we're done, here's my card. If you guys want to go to a game, give me a call. And it was just very nice. That's the kind of guy that he is. And the last night we're there, we're taking photos. We're on the golf course. I love to take photos of my kids. I take 1000 to 3000 photos per vacation. I'm that guy. And you can see the craft family at the other end of the golf course they were all there.
• 1:01:45
  Randall Kaplan: They were far away from anybody.
• 1:01:45
  Randall Kaplan: And there they are playing flag football. There's Bob Kraft handing the ball off to his three year old grandkid. And as a football fan, you really appreciate this a guy owns a team. He loves football. And it's not surprising to me.
• 1:02:01
  Randall Kaplan: They've been probably the most successful sports team in the last 20 years. Yeah, I think it starts at the top.
• 1:02:12
  Kliff Kingsbury: No doubt, no doubt, and he just been around him. My time there. I mean, he's about excellence and he won't accept anything less and I actually saw him probably 2000 So I was there 2003 Assam 2018 Probably in LA just randomly at at a spot and he I saw Hey, Mr.
• 1:02:28
  Kliff Kingsbury: CRAF Kliff, Kingsbury is there remember you sixth round Texas Tech, I mean, just you know, and that's 18 years later, 15 years later, and so he, he's definitely dialed in.
• 1:02:43
  Randall Kaplan: So we're going to blow through a lot of your coaching career. I'm going to stop at moments because there's so much else I want to talk about, but you're in Houston for two years. You're promoted to quarterbacks coach, I mean, you're starting at the bottom bottom. Right. It's hard to get a job in coaching. So by the way, what were you making is the quality control coach?
• 1:03:04
  Kliff Kingsbury: It was $400 a month, and I just wouldn't even pick up my checks. I just left him over there. But there wasn't a big, big stipend at that time for that for that position that you have. Ah,
• 1:03:17
  Randall Kaplan: all right. So you're two years at 400 bucks a month. You get promoted a quarterbacks coach two years later. You're there four years you get promoted the CO offensive coordinator and as luck would have it, your quarterback has case Keenum who says the all time division one passing touchdown record. I think he threw nine touchdowns in a game against rice. He finished his seventh in the Heisman voting and Houston leads in every category, yards points per game, I think 50 points per game and you're the offensive coordinator of the year so here you go. The coaching thing is working. You go to Texas a&m, and he'd become the offensive coordinator there and good luck has it as well. You gotta read first read. redshirt freshmen named Johnny Manziel. The team goes 11 And two, you leave the SEC and total offense and it's amazing. This guy lights it up.
• 1:04:05
  Randall Kaplan: It becomes the only freshman ever to win the Heisman trophy.
• 1:04:09
  Randall Kaplan: He wins the Heisman a year later, Texas Tech hires you as their head coach or 33. You're the third youngest college coach in the country. And your offense continues to roll and I mean, this is just an incredible story. You've got this guy, Baker Mayfield, who is a walk on meaning no scholarship, and he beats out another highly recruited quarterback a guy by the name of Davis Webb Mayfield earns the starting job. I think he's the first walk on true freshman ever to start a season opener for a BCS school. And the guy goes five in a row and he throws for 1500 yards. That guy gets hurt. And when he's healthy again, he doesn't come back.
• 1:04:55
  Randall Kaplan: He's not happy. Davis Webb is the starter. And Baker transfers to Oklahoma. I think everybody knows what happened there becomes the starting QB who has the Heisman two years later, and then he becomes the number one pick in the NFL Draft. So you got this guy, Davis Webb, who's still there. But you got this big time recruit coming in and a year later, Webb transfers to Cal. By the way, Webb is a pretty good quarterback too. He gets drafted. He goes to the NFL. I think he's currently playing for the Buffalo Bills.
• 1:05:23
  Randall Kaplan: So tell us about how you got your recruit who he was when you met him. How you got into Texas Tech. And how my home town team the Detroit Tigers helped make this happen.
• 1:05:41
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, well with Patrick it was he had grown up being a baseball guy. His dad was a baseball player. Everybody thought he's gonna play baseball. You know, hands down.
• 1:05:52
  Kliff Kingsbury: You messed around with football in high school, but that wasn't going to be his path. And so I remember watching his tape and he was unorthodox, you know, made a bunch of plays, but just didn't look like a traditional quarterback. In his senior year, he got better. And I'm like, we got to get this guy just because he dominated he didn't look mechanically like you've maybe one or the footwork, like you may, but he just dominated was the best player out there. He could throw it a mile. And so we went after him. And as luck would have it, I think a lot of guys got scared off by the baseball thing. And he ended up coming to Texas Tech. And even when he was at Texas Tech actually saw him. Last weekend, we were talking about the glory days. He really thought he was gonna play baseball. And then he got to take sec and fell in love with football. And the rest is history, but phenomenal human being phenomenal person, and it's just been awesome to see the success he's had.
• 1:06:45
  Randall Kaplan: Do you know what round he was drafted in?
• 1:06:48
  Kliff Kingsbury: Say, like, like 3737.
• 1:06:52
  Randall Kaplan: So I had to look this up. I didn't know there was such thing as 37 rounds in a professional sport and baseball.
• 1:07:00
  Randall Kaplan: There's actually 40 And if you do the math, he's around the 1200s pic of the of the MLB Lakers. Yeah, so so you get them. And he plays behind Webb, who gets her but a sophomore season. Here we go. 4600 yards passing 36 touchdowns. Junior year leads the nation passing yards a game for 21. He throws for 5000 yards, 53 touchdowns, and so he's there three years.
• 1:07:35
  Randall Kaplan: 11,000 yards, 93 touchdowns, and he's a good runner, 845 yards 22 TVs, he still holds the NCAA record for most single yard passing yards, passing in a game 734 yards. And he's considered your best recruit. And the most successful quarterback at Texas Tech. He's as as we all know, he's drafted 10. Number 10 by the Kansas City Chiefs, Mitch Trubisky, who was just released by the bears was the only quarterback selected before him.
• 1:08:09
  Randall Kaplan: mahomes was the number two quarterback that year mahomes leaves you have two mediocre years. At this point, though, you're still considered the best offensive coordinator in the country. And you've done it now for seven years. But similar to the NFL, and college, you got to win. And you didn't win as much as people wanted your overall record was 35 and 40. And then you're fired. And when you're fired as a head coach at that level, it's not like you're working at a company and 10 people know about it. It's front news on every sports page. Yeah, 10s of millions of people know about it. That could not have been fun. What were you thinking? Did you did you have another plan at that point, and at the end of the day is, is winning and losing the only thing that matters.
• 1:09:04
  Kliff Kingsbury: What added to that was that was my school, right? That was Texas Tech, that was my pride and joy, I had all these visions of grandeur of being the prodigal son goes back and leads them to the promised land and for it to, you know, fail and not get there and, you know, deal with the scrutiny and getting fired and all that it was tough. I mean, I think it's hard to kind of keep your confidence and handle all those things. But at the end of the day, I was forever grateful for the opportunity I was given to be the coach there. And that's really how I felt after being fired. I knew it was time for them to try somebody else. And I had kind of exhausted myself in that cause. And so it was it was time for both both parties to move on. But I mean, I'm big on believing that you learn your most through your failures. And that was definitely six years of my life that I learned a ton and is helped me moving forward.
• 1:10:02
  Randall Kaplan: It's interesting you say that I'm I'm a venture capitalist, as you know, an entrepreneur and as a venture capitalist, seven, eight out of 10 companies fail, you think you're making a great investment the first time you look for a billion dollar opportunities.
• 1:10:14
  Randall Kaplan: You look really stupid when seven or eight of them or even nine of them have 10 sometimes fail. And I tell all my interns and my mentees, you learn a lot more from the failures than the successes. And there are some things you can't predict. But I think it's important to look back at the end of the day and say what didn't work What did work and then let's make sure what didn't work doesn't happen again.
• 1:10:43
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, no doubt.
• 1:10:43
  Kliff Kingsbury: I think that's the biggest thing is kind of the after action review if you will, of okay, this is what we liked. This is what we didn't like this what we weren't Got that is what we're bad at and how do we get better?
• 1:10:54
  Kliff Kingsbury: And how do we make sure that you said that the next time we had this opportunity, we were better at what we do.
• 1:11:00
  Randall Kaplan: So you had a lot of opportunities. You and I have talked about this before you go to USC for online, basically, and I think I sent you a Tex.
• 1:11:09
  Randall Kaplan: Cool, happy, you're gonna be in LA. We can hang out maybe when you're here. You had kindly invited me down to Lubbock. I didn't make that trip. I know, for me, it's fun. I'm sure you know, you would have said, you know, hanging out on the field, your game passes during the day,
• 1:11:28
  Kliff Kingsbury: that would have got the red carpet, that's for sure. That would have been
• 1:11:32
  Randall Kaplan: super fun for me. I still hope it happens with the Cardinals. But we can talk about that later.
• 1:11:38
  Kliff Kingsbury: Lions. We play the lions again next year, third row. So we're like, division opponents at this point.
• 1:11:44
  Randall Kaplan: When you played the lions, your first game, as you know, Madison, I came out to watch you and I said to Madison, you know, who am I going to root for? We went out and we got the we bought all the Cardinals stuff. I got the hat. I got the jersey and I said, you know, I was so happy for you. And you know how much I love the lions.
• 1:12:02
  Randall Kaplan: And I think the game went into overtime. I think it ended in a tie. I mean, Kyler did not play very well. I mean, we should have lost that. I mean, we should have totally lost that game. But we should have totally won that game as well. I mean, typical. Alliance. Yeah. This year, we're in a rebuilding year. So I think I'm gonna tip the scales. rooting for you guys.
• 1:12:24
  Kliff Kingsbury: I hope so. I hope so.
• 1:12:26
  Randall Kaplan: So, so you you leave USC after a month, you're 41 years old. You go to the Arizona Cardinals, you're one of the youngest coaches in the NFL, you're taking over a team that goes three and 13, the year before, a team that had taken that 10th pick of the draft in the first round on a guy named Josh Rosen, a quarterback was a rookie had the worst passer rating in the league. A team whose offensive line finished last and pass blocking efficiency and finished next to last and rush defense. So it couldn't get much worse. Other than you got the number one overall pick in the draft. Tell us about Kyler. Murray, who you had that when he was a junior in high school.
• 1:13:09
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, so going back to the USC deal. So took the job wanted to be there love LA love the opportunity that that we were going to have their thought with our offense the players they have, we could light it on fire. And the Arizona Cardinals job came open.
• 1:13:20
  Kliff Kingsbury: And you know, I remember sitting there thinking like, Am I ready to do this? You know, do I even know what's going on in college football and, and then thinking, think about the ridicule and all the stuff that you're gonna have to listen to because you got fired? And why are they hiring them and all that. And then it just came down to you know, I think another kind of one of my life philosophies is whether I've been ready or not, I just say yes. And I figure it out.
• 1:13:47
  Kliff Kingsbury: And that's was kind of my approach on this though. I knew offensive football inside our new quarterback play. And I just knew I'll work really hard and then I'll figure it out as we go. And I'm still learning this process and we got a long ways to go but that was kind of how that played out. And then so we get here. Argent General Manager, you know, makes one of the ballsy moves of all time in the NFL and trades his first round top 10 quarterback from the year before for to get Kyler Murray with the first pick and it's worked out so far we're kind of a work in progress and building it but love everything Cather's about love, his competitiveness, his work ethic, what he wants to be, and so hopefully we keep building it around and we get a shot to make a run this year.
• 1:14:34
  Randall Kaplan: He's the backup to Maker, Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma, and of course, he throws her 4000 yards, 40 touchdowns, and he's the number one pick and he was the Heisman as well. But let's go back for a minute. Where did you guys meet and he was a junior in high school.
• 1:14:49
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, he was probably 1615 years old. I knew him. His dad played played quarterback at Texas a&m was a very good player, well known player in the state of Texas. I knew him through his dad, I'd followed him and then recruited him hard at Texas Tech. We obviously didn't didn't get him there. But had built a good relationship with him. I just loved his kind of swagger, his Moxie, I thought he was one of the greatest kind of athletes at the position I'd ever seen. I've never seen a player be able to throw it like that and run like that. And so I had always hoped I'd be able to coach him. And I'd even said, and before we play to you, when I was at Texas Tech, I said, Hey, I don't know what y'all are seeing or whatever. But if I didn't want to pick in the NFL Draft, I would take this kid. And so the universe comes around, and we end up getting the first pick and we go to that spot and it happens and you can look that clip up. It actually happened and so you just got to be careful what you put on the universe.
• 1:15:46
  Randall Kaplan: It's good. It's good Carmine, it's interesting.
• 1:15:48
  Randall Kaplan: These relationships go way back in time and it's a small world that The end of the day, I feel like at some level people know each other and you can identify talent at a very junior age, you never know how things are going to end up. It's a very round world. So you take over three and 13 team, you go five and 10 and one curse against the lions.
• 1:16:06
  Randall Kaplan: You go eight and eight last year, you missed the playoffs by a field goal, number of field goals. And again, you can't blame one guy, right? But that guy at the end is supposed to make that kick. That guy's job is to make kicks at the end of the day. At at the end of the game when you're tied. All the strategy goes down to those last three points. Game after game.
• 1:16:27
  Randall Kaplan: You guys said Matt Prater.
• 1:16:32
  Randall Kaplan: Recently, my Detroit Lions kicker. We're going to have a rebuilding year. So I'm happy for Matt, I hope you guys win.
• 1:16:39
  Randall Kaplan: We'll go to the playoffs. I think when you guys make the playoffs this year, and then you signed JJ Watt in the offseason.
• 1:16:44
  Randall Kaplan: That's huge. You're doing something right. People want to play for you. But the fans are merciless. The press is merciless. And I'm reading now you're on the hot seat. It's a it's your make it or break it year. Do you listen to any of that shit? Are you talking to the General Manager? Who says there's no way that's happening?
• 1:17:09
  Kliff Kingsbury: No, it's, you know, like I said, I learned a lot out there in Lubbock and being at your alma mater, not having to say she wanted. I mean, every year out there, it was the maker break here. And you heard the scrutiny from fans and used to be beloved by this plays, and now they're on you, and you can't coach and you're not this. And you're not that.
• 1:17:28
  Kliff Kingsbury: And so when you've gone through fire like that, I mean, I don't blink at anything anymore. I mean, it's just blinders on.
• 1:17:34
  Kliff Kingsbury: We're focused, we're trying to be the best we can be and build this thing. And I love the progression we're on. We would love to make the playoffs last year, but got dramatically better in every area from year one to year two and expect to do the same this year.
• 1:17:50
  Randall Kaplan: Have you devised a play that no one else has done before you look at I think the Super Bowl, I forget what team maybe it was the saints in the playoffs where the quarterback runs left. It's a fake handoff and the quarterback ends up in the endzone by himself to the right. I think no one had seen that play before maybe it had been run. I think I read a couple of times in college. Now a lot of teams will save that play. But I think that was the first time you someone ran that plan. And I said Holy shit, yeah, we should run that play.
• 1:18:22
  Randall Kaplan: You have something in the in the back of your head or in the game plan this year where if it's on the line, you're gonna fire away at that one.
• 1:18:31
  Kliff Kingsbury: I like to think there's some that I've put out there that have been copied in you have to understand in football, play design, play calling mean imitation is the finest form of flattery. And there's a lot of that that goes on. But every now and then you'll you'll get a play up there. And you're like, I bet nobody's ever run that before.
• 1:18:47
  Kliff Kingsbury: Which is who knows if it's true or not. But it's fun, fun doing that. And I think the NFL was going more and more to that there's a lot of creativity in this league. There's a lot of brilliant football minds and I love watching everybody's stuff week in week out trying to take ideas and incorporate it into what we do.
• 1:19:05
  Randall Kaplan: Let's switch topics again and come back to struggles challenges, disappointments, your life and career we've couple we've we've covered a couple of them, we all have them. One of our hallmarks to success and excellence is our ability to overcome them. Can you talk about a few and I want to start with your mom. And then we can talk about we've talked about the firings from from or the firing of your job. If there's one or two more you can touch upon and how you overcame them. We'd love to hear about those.
• 1:19:34
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, I think football when I was done playing football coincided pretty closely, at least in the NFL with when my mom passed in 2005.
• 1:19:41
  Kliff Kingsbury: And so that was a tough period for me just because my mom was my dad was the coach. You know, the the Marine, the disciplinarian, and my mom was the love and the positivity and you know, I was a mama's boy and so you can lean on her for everything. So losing her, you know, kind of fading out of pro football fading out of the NFL at the same time. You know, I think there was two years that I felt sorry for myself and that was probably bouncing around the CFL, trying different leagues before I snapped out of it and said Alright, go to university, Houston said You know, I'm gonna put all these things that I've learned about work ethic and mental toughness and all that to use and stop feeling sorry for myself and go make something of myself and my mom has always been a big inspiration for me obviously. Just want to make her proud and everything I do, but that was a tough time. And that's why I can empathize with with players when they're going out of this league. And I try to talk to guys young players about hey, there's gonna be a time when this game's over for you.
• 1:20:47
  Kliff Kingsbury: And it's not going to be easy and they don't prepare you for it and there's no lesson for it.
• 1:20:49
  Kliff Kingsbury: And you just have to keep pushing and learn from all the things that the gotcha that point is a pro athlete and apply them in the next phase of your life.
• 1:21:01
  Randall Kaplan: Are there any more challenges you want to talk about and how you may have, or how you did overcome those besides losing your job at Texas Tech?
• 1:21:10
  Kliff Kingsbury: I mean, really, that that those are the two that stand out in career didn't make it. Like I wanted to, as a pro quarterback. worked really hard had really good success early, was fortunate, like you said to be around great players kind of thought coaching was easy. I'll do this, you know, with my eyes closed, you have case Keenum Johnny Football back to back, then Baker Mayfield and, you know we had talent, we you know, we should have won a lot more games that we obviously didn't.
• 1:21:39
  Kliff Kingsbury: And so getting fired from your alma mater, to me as a coach is I don't know what could be shittier to go through that. And so it was a huge disappointment, but it really mentioned earlier really was baptism by fire and made me a lot tougher moving forward. But that's kind of it.
• 1:21:58
  Kliff Kingsbury: Other than that, just on to the next and continue to try and to try to get better.
• 1:22:07
  Randall Kaplan: I want to talk about career goals. I've had the pleasure of mentoring a lot of people, one of the questions that always comes up is figuring out what people want to do, whether it's after they graduate, or later on when they're thinking about moving to a new company or choosing a new career. And what I tell him to do is rank the five most important things that are most important to them in order of importance from top to bottom.
• 1:22:32
  Randall Kaplan: Is it money? Is it the experience? Is it the location?
• 1:22:35
  Randall Kaplan: Is it having a passion for what you're liking. And what you're doing is that the team around you is at the growth opportunities is different for everybody. And when you thought about your future, where did you rank all of these? And what's your advice to others on how they should go about picking their careers?
• 1:22:56
  Kliff Kingsbury: That's a great question. And I think mine's a bit unique because it was always to play NFL quarterback, you know, as a young person, finish college still had that mindset.
• 1:23:04
  Kliff Kingsbury: Three years out, still had that mindset. And so I had to reset completely and be like, alright, well, what's next? Now? How am I going to go about doing that.
• 1:23:11
  Kliff Kingsbury: And for me, I wanted to be the best quarterback coach, you know, I could possibly be one to be regarded as the best play caller in any league and wanted to be a head coach at a young age. And so I'm still striving to kind of reach those goals have been able to have some success, but those are the biggest things I wanted. I as far as you know, quality of life, things of that nature. I never put that in the equation that that was just me. I knew, you know, going to college football, you'd have maybe had to live in some places that weren't ideal for a 38 year old single guy. But it was just part of what you're going to do to get where you wanted to go. And so I'm big on kind of reassessing year in year out alright, what does this year look like and where are we trying to go?
• 1:24:04
  Randall Kaplan: Let's talk about the intangibles of success, which I think are often as important or more important than the tangibles tell us about the cellphone breaks and the ice cream chocolate bottle service that you brought practice one day
• 1:24:22
  Kliff Kingsbury: the cellphone breaks is more you know you can bang your head against the wall or you can kind of go with a what what these young people are used to and can handle and so that I tried to have our coaches be really efficient in the meetings try to make sure that that we're keeping the guys attentions upbeat, high energy and then get them in and out and we'll give them to the grass.
• 1:24:43
  Kliff Kingsbury: We're a lot of guys learn better walking through these days anyways, and are more visual learners in that regard. And when we were at University of Houston, we did the just to keep things light, we had a really good team. So to keep things light, we brought in an ice cream truck. And just back in that day, I was in the club scene a little bit more. So I knew some some ladies that could serve the ice cream from one of the local clubs and so we had them come out and it was quite the hit back then, but we don't do that anymore.
• 1:25:19
  Randall Kaplan: I want to talk about the importance of being humble. I think it's important to me, I know it's important to you. I want to go back to when you and I met for the first time we were at a wedding and Baker's bay in the Bahamas back in 2015.
• 1:25:37
  Randall Kaplan: Very cool wedding at least I'm sure it was very cool for you.
• 1:25:40
  Randall Kaplan: It was very cool. For me the group that worked for the Patriots a while back. There were a lot of players there including Tom Brady. So for me I was I was super pumped to be there. By the way. I don't know if you knew this or not Matt Sn had introduced will and Stephanie.
• 1:25:55
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, remember that? That was the connection.
• 1:25:58
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yep. And
• 1:25:59
  Randall Kaplan: so one day, my wife and I, Madison rented a boat. A lot of the beaches there had pigs on the beach. And so there were no pigs on the beach where we were on the island called Baker's bass. So we thought it'd be fun to go out and see them and spend a day on the water. And my wife and I, my wife invited two of her friends and one of them said, Hey, there's this guy who's really cute. Can I invite him on the boat? And I said, of course, you can invite him on the boat. I mean, it's gonna give me someone to talk to and hang out with. I hope he's cool. I you know? Yes.
• 1:26:31
  Randall Kaplan: So we're on the boat, or we're probably just talking about nothing. And a half an hour into it. I say, Hey, so what do you do? And he says, I'm a coach. So cool. What What kind of coach football coach? Okay, well, you're not really telling me more. Are you a high school coach? So I said, high school coach, you said, no college coach. I said, Okay. I'm trying to pull it out to you. I said, Oh, what do you coach, offense or defense? You said, I'm a head coach. And I'm thinking at this point, like, this guy's gotta be a d3 or D to coach. I mean, he's just, he's a head coach. So I said, No, I'm Deewan. And I said, what school? I said, Texas Tech. I'm thinking, you know, that's very humble. It was extremely humble. The way that you said it. And I don't think you're trying to be humble. I really think that's, that's the way that you are. And I made a good first impression on me. I mean, then I went back and I Googled you when you got home.
• 1:27:39
  Randall Kaplan: You know, when I got home, we played football first, but then we'll talk about the football.
• 1:27:41
  Randall Kaplan: But I'm thinking of God, I had no idea. I mean, here's a guy, football star leading a big school. Look at all these people that a coach and it just, it made an impression on me how humble you are and what's the lesson and being humbled you get more being humble. As you get more being, hey, look at me, I'm gonna pound my chest, I can motivate you because of all the things that I've done in my career.
• 1:28:05
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, I'm, I was raised just to be about humility. And it was one of those things, let others do the talking for you. And that was like my parents biggest lesson like you, you don't ever brag on yourself, you don't ever talk about it, if you're good enough that people will talk about you.
• 1:28:21
  Kliff Kingsbury: And you know, when I meet other people, I want to get to know the person and I want them to know me as the person and none of that other stuff. What I do or who I am, has ever mattered me it's kind of how that person treats me and how I treat that person. And that's how I've always tried to approach all my relationships.
• 1:28:39
  Randall Kaplan: One of the fun things for me is when I meet new people, and it doesn't matter if they've had huge success or not, I love learning about new things and what people do. And I always like to know what motivates other people. And I asked you is that your dream job? And you said, No, I want to be an NFL Coach one day, and I'm thinking to myself, all right, you know, so do we all 32 I think it's great. I think I think it's great, by the way, I mean, I had goals and I I'm thinking God good for you, you know, how long is it going to take him to let that happen? He's got a win win win. And then the coaches you know, people got to get fired.
• 1:29:24
  Randall Kaplan: There's only 32 and there you are, you set a goal and you achieve your goal. I think it took you four years after that to achieve your dreams.
• 1:29:35
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, it worked out and I think a good point to kind of how my ascent to here has gone because obviously I didn't win at Texas Tech, like most people do to get that job but I think there was a point that we made here that I was at a level offensively and with quarterback coaching that just couldn't be ignored. And I think that like there's there's things you can do even if it doesn't work out at the top top if you keep pushing and you keep working hard. It doesn't always have to all come together as long as you're able to do something really really well you'll get noticed and you'll have an opportunity to continue down a path
• 1:30:17
  Randall Kaplan: I think the Rams coach big face that an example that allowed you and some other people to get job opportunities that you otherwise would not have had
• 1:30:27
  Kliff Kingsbury: yep no question a young guy like that high energy you know great offensive mind and come in relate to players and really lifted that up and and took them to incredible heights and now you know, we become friends and we got to play on every year which which sucks and we got to beat them soon.
• 1:30:47
  Randall Kaplan: Tell us about how he fucked with you one day when you guys are at dinner with Patrick
• 1:30:55
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, he had a, we were this was I was had just got the job, actually. And we were at dinner with Patrick and Sean was there and a couple other people and he had done something with his phone, like change the name or something.
• 1:31:11
  Kliff Kingsbury: And I had our buddy text him where it looked like Roger Goodell. So I'm sitting next to him. He's like, Oh, dude, this is not good. And he's like, shows me the text. He's like, Please tell me you're not at dinner with Roger Goodell, please tell me about a dinner with Patrick mahomes. And he's like, they'll take away draft picks. They'll do that. I had no idea. I just got the job. I have no idea what's going on. So I'm like, oh my god, I'm gonna get fired before I even coached you know, a game. But it was obviously a big prank and it was good. I was sweating bullets. I didn't know about broken or or what was going on.
• 1:31:42
  Randall Kaplan: All right. How did you become the world's greatest snorkeler?
• 1:31:50
  Kliff Kingsbury: We talked about humility. That was a humbling moment for both of us. I still, like won't get near a snorkel or any sort of wavy undertow. I stay away from it. And literally, you and I on that whole boat ride deck hung our heads in shame, because Madison was swimming like a mermaid and the other girls and you and I were near death, like battling to get back on the boat. That was that was a humbling moment, there's no doubt
• 1:32:17
  Randall Kaplan: they went. So just to put a little more detail on this. Madison, her two friends went one way. And we're in a bunch of coral. I mean, it's aqua, blue zerowater. We're in coral, there's a shitload of fish everywhere. But you really do have to navigate around the coral. And there is a current in the water. And we go the other way. And there's a captain on the boat skies like five, eight, he's in great shape. And we go the other way. And I think what are we 400 yards away from the boat, something like that. And we could see the boat out there.
• 1:32:50
  Randall Kaplan: And then I'm getting water in my gear, you got waters in your gear and you're coming up. And I think we're looking at each other. I mean, you're in amazing shape. I was in pretty good shape at that day. I'm not a great swimmer. But we have fins on I mean, you go anywhere with with fins. We were not going anywhere. And we we were making very little forward progress. We were getting backward progress get pushed back and we had our masks off. We're at some point having trouble breathing, and we're sucking water. And there we are waving our hand yelling Help, Help Help. as loud as we could. And it's hard to hear. I mean, you're in the water. And I think the guy probably thought at first we were joking and looking. And the next thing I mean where it's I'm screaming now worried worried screaming and worried time where I mean, the coral is sharp. I mean, you're not just sitting there with water. And so you know you're getting bumped. And he came out one guy, the guy's five, eight, and he toes us both back on the boat. So we bonded man.
• 1:34:02
  Kliff Kingsbury: And meanwhile, the girls are still just swimming, just having the time of their lives. And we're sitting there in shame for like an hour until they are the closest I've come to death.
• 1:34:10
  Kliff Kingsbury: Since I mean, I can't imagine a time where I'm literally like, this is not good like this, this could end really badly at this point that this guy doesn't come over there. So yeah, we bonded over that moment. For sure.
• 1:34:23
  Randall Kaplan: We, you and I joke, I send you texts of all the warm weather vacations that I take. Hey, not not 10th So one of the really fun things for me too is, for me, one of the most fun things I like to do. And one of the few things that I'm good at is throwing the football around and I said hey, when you go back, lets you toss the ball around. And so and so we did.
• 1:34:52
  Randall Kaplan: And you gave me the second best athletic compliment I've ever had. This goes down as my second best highlight of my athletic career of which I didn't really have when I played baseball in high school, I couldn't hit. I was on the JV team. I was a pinch runner because I was fast for the best player on the team.
• 1:35:12
  Randall Kaplan: But do you remember what you asked me?
• 1:35:15
  Kliff Kingsbury: Where do you play ball and where where'd I play
• 1:35:18
  Randall Kaplan: my college ball?
• 1:35:18
  Randall Kaplan: I was
• 1:35:21
  Kliff Kingsbury: everything No, I remember I remember because you were in good shape. You could sling it you could run and catch like fast and you love like throwing like you would have stayed out there all day.
• 1:35:29
  Kliff Kingsbury: And I remember thinking like this guy's he's a good athlete.
• 1:35:32
  Kliff Kingsbury: And so that, but I can tell like that. The way you are as dogged as you are in that and like wanting to throw and run routes.
• 1:35:40
  Kliff Kingsbury: It's like, to me that's kind of how you've been your entire career and just the work ethic you've had, with all the success you've had, you still have this incredible work that you still try to evolve you still have your routine each and every day.
• 1:35:51
  Kliff Kingsbury: When I would be off playing on my yacht in Cabo, right now, you still want to be better at your next gig, your next adventure.
• 1:35:57
  Kliff Kingsbury: And so that's, that's been inspiring to me. And it's been fun to watch.
• 1:36:03
  Randall Kaplan: Thank you. I appreciate that, you know, I was trying to really zing it that day and you know, you're warming up and you know, your, your passes, I think you probably thought, okay, you know, I'm gonna lob these in a couple of times. Just see if he can catch the ball. And I think once I could catch, I mean, these ball started coming in on a dime. I'm like, Oh, shit, like, don't let it hit you in the chest too hard to get the hands out in front of it. And then I started, you know, warming up my arm. And, you know, my balls can go far. I mean, not the kind of heat like yours, but my arm was fucking killing me. Like for last 10 minutes. I'm like, I don't give a shit. If I need arm surgery at this point. I'm gonna play but
• 1:36:50
  Kliff Kingsbury: I get it. I got a college ball. We're gonna keep this going.
• 1:36:53
  Randall Kaplan: That that bad trip, I got my first best compliment that'll go down to the highlight of my athletic career. And I don't think I shared this with you. But I mentioned this that Tom Brady was at the wedding. That's where I got the bar mitzvah video, I was thinking this was two years before Charlie's Bar Mitzvah. I knew what I wanted to do. And I said, I'm gonna take advantage.
• 1:37:18
  Randall Kaplan: I did two things. I brought a jersey. Massive Begley, you're not doing that. There's no way you're doing that. No one else is bringing the jersey Oh, mad.
• 1:37:28
  Randall Kaplan: pissed. And I said, I'm bringing the jersey. And I told her what I wanted to do with Hey, Tom, will you say Happy Birthday spa, Charlie. She said you're not doing that either. I said, I'm doing that too. I've got a plan.
• 1:37:39
  Randall Kaplan: And so this is two years out, by the way. And so I went I
• 1:37:45
  Kliff Kingsbury: only been married for how long been
• 1:37:49
  Randall Kaplan: married and no, we were brand new. So I think we got we got married in 2014. This is 2015.
• 1:37:55
  Kliff Kingsbury: So yeah, that was risky. Challenge. Yeah. I
• 1:37:58
  Randall Kaplan: mean, I had a lot of goodwill. It's not like our marriage was gonna end I was gonna, but you know, her friends were there. And you don't want to be that guy. But I I am that guy. I've made a career.
• 1:38:10
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yes. Asking for where you're at? No, I mean, you have no fear. You just go for it.
• 1:38:14
  Randall Kaplan: I thought the odds of him saying no, we're very low. So I went up for the jersey. He was annoyed, by the way. And he did it. reluctantly.
• 1:38:22
  Randall Kaplan: He was a little bit. You just, he was practiced a
• 1:38:31
  Kliff Kingsbury: roll of the eyes, or you were just like,
• 1:38:34
  Randall Kaplan: he paused. I mean, Tom, you know, I had a chance to talk to him later, that that trip, Madison had met him a few times. I mean, the guy could not be any nicer. You know, this. You guys are buzz I?
• 1:38:47
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, I mean, just couldn't have been nicer. I think it was the time it was like right after breakfast. You know, I mean, he had his coach there. They were throwing the whole day. And then I said, Hey, do you mind? Take a little video clip saying happy?
• 1:39:02
  Randall Kaplan: BarMitzvah, Charlie. And so Madison walked away. I told her that I was going up with the jersey and I was going for the video. And she said I'm out of here, did she she laughed. And he did it. And so there were all kinds of interesting people at the wedding. And you know, JJ do them who works for the developer that built in Owens Baker's Bay and he and I were doing a lot of jogging and you're gonna play football and he's a stocky guy, muscular. And so, one day I said, Okay, let's toss the ball around at at the beach and said, Okay, and so we're tossing the ball on the beach, and, and I'm warming up my arm, right and, and, you know, slow, lofty passes, and he's bullet bullet, bullet bullet. And so, I was at the end and he had room to roll.
• 1:39:57
  Randall Kaplan: So back up, back up, back up.
• 1:40:01
  Randall Kaplan: And finally, you know, his balls were not coming as far as so I would have to go in to catch his passes. And I could see Tom walking. Giselle was maybe 100 yards away on the beach. Tom was walking. what looked like a path right where I was. And I'm thinking alright, he's gonna walk right by me. And so I say to JJ, you know, back up, back up, and he rolls his eyes. He's like, you're never gonna fucking get the ball here ever. And so I like timed it perfectly. Tom is now he's like 10 feet, seven feet, five feet, and I let that fucker fly. And it went 10 to 15 yards over JJs head and Tom looks at me with wonder and looks at me. Holy shit. What I can't And, and I said, I looked at him and say, Michigan man and Madison was right behind me. And I turned to her and she said, I heard it. I heard it, he said, and I want to be hearing about that for forever rest of our lives. And I said, You bet your ass you're gonna be hearing about that for the rest of your life. So that is awesome. Two greatest highlights of my terrible athletic career. So I appreciate your compliment. And then no offense, but Tom's comment beat that.
• 1:41:24
  Kliff Kingsbury: It should it should greatest greatest QB greatest football player of all time, I'll take it.
• 1:41:29
  Randall Kaplan: So let's talk about the charity work you've done. It's so important for me to give back. I think it's in our search for excellence to be the best that we can be this is really important. You're involved in something called the 20 to kill Foundation. And then I want to know about the Kingsbury foundation what what that's all about.
• 1:41:47
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, the 20 to kill was something that I was a part of when I was in Lubbock, at Texas Tech, having a dad who served in the military and received a Purple Heart and you know, lost friends. And you know, who's still pretty reluctant to talk about his service, because it was that, you know, I don't want to say horrific, but it's the only word that comes to mind. I wanted to give back to that space. And so it's a group that tries to help people, our servicemen when they come back from the wars and kind of assimilate back and be at peace and not, you know, have these these terrible mental issues that so many of them have. And so it meant a lot to me, because of my dad's participation in the military.
• 1:42:35
  Kliff Kingsbury: And I know it meant a lot to him as well.
• 1:42:39
  Randall Kaplan: And what are you doing with your foundation?
• 1:42:42
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, right now, we're still transitioning from from kind of Lubbock out here trying to get it set up.
• 1:42:47
  Kliff Kingsbury: And so we're this last year where the pandemic it kind of got pushed back a year, unfortunately, but but this spring, I'm hoping to, to get that roll and still trying to figure out exactly how we're going to set it up and what calls but we'll get that thing going as soon as we can operate after COVID is finally eradicated.
• 1:43:10
  Randall Kaplan: I think it's really says a lot about people who do charity behind the scenes, they don't want the attention or need the notoriety.
• 1:43:16
  Randall Kaplan: With your Texas Tech, you paid medical expenses of an admin while she was battling a brain tumor. Tell us about that. Yeah, that
• 1:43:27
  Kliff Kingsbury: was her name was Jenny Bailey. And she was as players. They're kind of a second mom when you went to Texas Tech. And then she was still there and working when I was named head coach and just very close to me and my heart and just wanted to help her in any way way I could. And so I was able to do that, you know, financially in any other way. I could but tremendous lady, and then a lot to techstack and all of us as
• 1:43:52
  Randall Kaplan: players. And was she able to get healthy. She was not she was not
• 1:43:58
  Kliff Kingsbury: but she No, she lived a tremendous, tremendous life touch so many people and she was really at peace. With everything.
• 1:44:08
  Randall Kaplan: We're going to talk about something a little more cheery, which is your style. In your Texas Tech and cardinals contract you want to create a control over the team's uniforms. What's that about?
• 1:44:22
  Kliff Kingsbury: It was just a Texas Tech, the NFL controls all of the Cardinals stuff. But at Texas Tech. I really knew I didn't know but I wanted to be able to differentiate ourselves.
• 1:44:37
  Kliff Kingsbury: In recruits mindset, how can we have something that maybe other schools don't have flashy uniforms, different styles, different looks? I thought it could help us recruit guys that maybe wouldn't be out in Lubbock or want to come all the way out there. And so, in hindsight, it probably didn't help me as much as I needed to because I got fired but I just kind of had an overall thought hey, how are different ways we can differentiate ourselves in recruiting that that can you know, bring some some dazzle to to their minds and maybe get them out here?
• 1:45:12
  Randall Kaplan: People emulate your style. You're sporting the wayfarer Ray Bans and the all black Oakley Frogskins sunglasses. You met Kevin before it became a whole thing on campus. Everyone's following you guys are all following you. And most coaches have this coaching uniform. You got the pleated khakis, the shiny white jogging shoes, think of Jim Harbaugh who used to get the Walmart khakis and now he's upgraded to the blue Lululemon pants but you don't go that route. You've got the skinny jeans, no socks and loafer look, tell us about that.
• 1:45:52
  Randall Kaplan: I
• 1:45:53
  Kliff Kingsbury: just really more than anything. When I got into coaching, I just thought I told my friends like my close friends and said, I'm gonna be myself. I know, you know, coaching is sometimes guys get in a box and you're gonna do this way and I just said, I'm gonna be myself that that, that has no effect on the type of coach I'm gonna be the type of person I'm gonna be. So I'm gonna be myself, I'm gonna dress, how I dress. And that was really all it came down to. I just wanted to be true to myself, whether I was coaching or style or haircut or how I talk and that's what I've tried to do.
• 1:46:24
  Randall Kaplan: You're an NFL coach, you're handsome, you look like Ryan Gosling with no disrespect to Bill Bella check, or Andy Reid. No disrespect to them, you have a huge fan base of women who thinks you're a sex symbol. When you are at Texas Tech, a local business create a t shirt that says our coach is hotter than your coach, and the T shirts sold out it went viral.
• 1:46:47
  Randall Kaplan: What do you think about all that? And you're also single, what do you think about all that?
• 1:46:52
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, I mean, it's, it comes with the territory, I guess. I think it's more just the fact that I maybe don't dress like a traditional coach may not look, had the same coach type look that that gets played up a lot. But it's, it's part of it. I'll take it. I'd like to be known for more of like the great coach than the hot coach at some point. So we're working towards that.
• 1:47:19
  Randall Kaplan: There's no doubt you are. But if you're reading all this stuff online, it's
• 1:47:24
  Kliff Kingsbury: yeah, we're a lot more than that way. Right.
• 1:47:27
  Kliff Kingsbury: Now, we need to bring more back to that the X's and O's at some point.
• 1:47:32
  Randall Kaplan: So you're you're very eligible bachelor, you work your tail off, you're 38 years old, you make a very good living. You have time to date, and how do you meet women? Who are the kind of women that you want to meet, not necessarily the kind of women who hang around after the game, because they want to date? Players. I know, that's not the kind of woman that you want to meet, but you're very private as well. So we're not going to name names.
• 1:48:02
  Randall Kaplan: But so how do you go about that and find somebody great,
• 1:48:12
  Kliff Kingsbury: that I think that brings up a good point, because I do think we talked about it a little bit, but yet you there are sacrifices you make in everything to try and reach a certain level. And that's something that I have, you know, sacrificed to an extent, I would say would be the personal side of things. You know, living in university, Houston, when I first took that job, I slept on Dana Holgorsen couch, because I was making $400 a month. And so then I got that job and working these crazy hours for two years, and I go to college station, and that's not exactly, you know, for 30. I don't know if two year old dating Mecca. There and then you go to Lubbock, Texas, and you're busy all the time recruiting, you don't have a lot of time for to meet girls then and to really put a whole lot of time into it.
• 1:48:58
  Kliff Kingsbury: You just don't. And it takes a special woman to put up with those hours and that type of lifestyle. And so I think that's something that I have sacrificed a bit but I you know, I meet people and find a way to still have a social life and personal life, it's just hasn't hasn't exactly come to fruition just yet. So we'll see. But in a good spot. Now Scottsdale, this whole area, pretty strong.
• 1:49:26
  Randall Kaplan: Okay. There will be women listening to this podcast, it's important to me to be to have half of my podcast guests be men and women. So just for the record, you do want to get married and you do want to have kids, you do want to have a family and that's important to you. Just for the record, I'm just laying it out there. Right.
• 1:49:44
  Randall Kaplan: And
• 1:49:46
  Kliff Kingsbury: I go back and forth. I go back and forth on it. But yeah, I do. I think that would be I think COVID This whole pandemic has really opened my eyes to that like that that's important to me.
• 1:50:00
  Randall Kaplan: I'm sure you've heard this from your friends at what one of my friends named Rick Rivera told us to me he had four kids very young and I, I had known at the time and he said You are you find out the meaning of life once you have kids and for me and and most of my friends, I think that's true.
• 1:50:16
  Randall Kaplan: So I hope you get to experience that and I know you will at some point one day now I
• 1:50:20
  Kliff Kingsbury: appreciate it, planning on it.
• 1:50:23
  Randall Kaplan: Let's talk about sense of enjoyment and be good to yourself. You work your ass off. you're excellent at what you do. You're making millions of dollars a year as a coach and it's public. So it's not your humble guy. Unfortunately, people know what you make. It's time to treat yourself. Well.
• 1:50:40
  Randall Kaplan: And let's talk about Draft Day this year. The coaches are at home you got this beautiful modern house big windows on a golf course. Picture this go viral and you got Patrick mahomes have liked it. And they tweeted, I'm trying to have a home like cliff or a crib. I think he called it like, like Cliff and you know, the guy's got a $500 million contract now.
• 1:51:03
  Randall Kaplan: So I'm sure he has a nice crib.
• 1:51:03
  Randall Kaplan: So he's doing all right. He's doing okay. So what are some of the other things that you've traded yourself to besides the house.
• 1:51:14
  Kliff Kingsbury: And that was really it. Probably because I spent way too much money on that and still still on it. But no, I got out here. And it's beautiful. Obviously living out here and just wanted to to have a good place. You said when I was done working hard, I could separate and go home and have a relaxing atmosphere and was fortunate enough to be able to buy a place like that. But other than that, I don't spend I'm not a big like watch guy a car guy or anything like that. That's that's really it. I like to I like to take trips. I'm the big experience guy. So I'll spend my money, taking trips, going places, fun nights out different things like that. I'm a life experience guy.
• 1:51:55
  Randall Kaplan: Give us your daily schedule, start to finish.
• 1:51:59
  Randall Kaplan: What time do you wake up? What's the routine? And what time do you go to bed?
• 1:52:03
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, right now. It's pretty consistent. But I'll try to go to sleep by 830.
• 1:52:08
  Kliff Kingsbury: Try to wake up by 330. I try to get to work by four working out by 415 be done working out by five 515. And then then get to work and work can vary day to day. What we have going whether it's offensive install, whether it's draft preparation, whether it's free agency evaluation, I mean, there's a lot that can change. So the hours are consistent. I'd say what we're doing will change but work till usually 536 and then go home.
• 1:52:43
  Kliff Kingsbury: Have dinner. I usually eat dinner fairly early. Usually watching that Netflix show. Fall Asleep doing that.
• 1:52:54
  Randall Kaplan: What are you watching right now?
• 1:52:57
  Kliff Kingsbury: I just watched this documentary on Scott Meiji look, I believe about the fake art. This guy there done a bunch of these counterfeit paintings.
• 1:53:05
  Kliff Kingsbury: And it's an insane documentary.
• 1:53:10
  Kliff Kingsbury: But I saw it. Did you see it?
• 1:53:10
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah,
• 1:53:13
  Randall Kaplan: I thought I love Arthur.
• 1:53:14
  Kliff Kingsbury: Do you think she conspired in that? Or do you think she was really? I don't know. I couldn't tell either. I couldn't tell. I couldn't tell.
• 1:53:21
  Kliff Kingsbury: Because she would go through like six different experts that will check the box and know it's real. So how was that on her? I don't I don't know. But if you were mad,
• 1:53:33
  Randall Kaplan: yeah. What What's your daily motivation?
• 1:53:38
  Randall Kaplan: You wake up? And what what's what motivates you every single day?
• 1:53:43
  Kliff Kingsbury: I'm big on on improvement, you know, self improvement. And I'm a short term guy when it comes to that.
• 1:53:48
  Kliff Kingsbury: So it's kind of like, how can I get better today? How can I get better this week? How can I get better this year and this season? And so I just tried to be more efficient. Every day I try to, you know, not be on my phone as much or I try to watch more film or I try to come up with more ideas. And so that that's something that is highly motivating to me is like Alright, let's get better today.
• 1:54:11
  Kliff Kingsbury: Let's get better today. And you're gonna have your bad days.
• 1:54:13
  Kliff Kingsbury: There's days where I'm like, Oh, shit, I was on my phone all day.
• 1:54:15
  Kliff Kingsbury: This didn't get anything done.
• 1:54:18
  Kliff Kingsbury: My mind was scatterbrained. But as long as you can kind of reset every day, you wake up and you're like, Alright, how do I how do I get a little bit better today? That's worked for me.
• 1:54:28
  Randall Kaplan: You're 43 years old, you have a long life ahead of you. What are your top three things you want to accomplish in your lifetime?
• 1:54:42
  Kliff Kingsbury: Not in any order. But when a Super Bowl professionally, I want to have a profound impact. Somehow through philanthropy. I don't know exactly what that will look like. But I want I want to give back a lot spend a lot of time doing that. And then the third thing Yeah, I think, you know, family, I think at this point, let's have a family and be a be a good dad.
• 1:55:13
  Randall Kaplan: Do you have any regrets about anything you've done in your life or things that looking back you do a little differently today?
• 1:55:20
  Kliff Kingsbury: I think the biggest one would be you mean, you've talked about Tom a bunch.
• 1:55:23
  Kliff Kingsbury: His maniacal approach to the game and where every single aspect of every single day is about him being the best player ever. That I wish I would have had a similar approach. I worked hard, but I still want to have fun still wanted to go out and I could have I could have given myself a better chance to have a successful NFL career. And so I regret that at the same time. I learned a lot from my failings there and have been able to apply it to This next phase of my life, but I wish I would have given that a better run.
• 1:55:57
  Randall Kaplan: We're coming to the end. And before I ask my last question, I want to know what impact you want to have on the world.
• 1:56:05
  Kliff Kingsbury: Yeah, I want you know, I guess from from a coaching point of view, just because that's pigeon holed in that career, I want young coaches to be able to look at me and just say, Hey, you can do it your way you can. You don't have to be put in a box. You don't have to you can do it your way you can treat people good, and still have success if you work really hard at it. And then, overall, I think just like I said, Whatever chair bull endeavor it is just be able to help change lives and help people breathe easier in any way, shape, or form I can.
• 1:56:43
  Randall Kaplan: One of the messages about in search of excellent podcast is doing things we're passionate about doing and pursuing our dreams.
• 1:56:49
  Randall Kaplan: Your favorite book is The Alchemist by the Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. And the main idea of the book that individuals should live in the singular pursuit of their individual dreams. Is that your main message to our listeners and viewers today? And what other advice do you have for us in our In Search of Excellence, to live up to our potential and to achieve greatness?
• 1:57:14
  Kliff Kingsbury: It's funny, you mentioned that book because that I read that when I was kind of my dark period, my mom passed away, I was partying a lot, I wasn't focused, I didn't know what I want to do with my wife.
• 1:57:21
  Kliff Kingsbury: And I read that and it just kind of like, hit me. And it's a book I still read to this day just to kind of reset and, and refocus, but I would say to any young people listening, and I mentioned earlier, but but for me, everything starts with work ethic, if you truly want to be successful, and you want to create, you know, better situations for yourself luckier situations, if you will, it all comes down to work ethic, even when you have failings. Okay, pick it up, restart, and outwork the next guy, and eventually, you're going to get where you want to go.
• 1:57:57
  Randall Kaplan: I love it. I'm gonna put you on the spot. For a second before we go. I have a lot of things on my bucket list.
• 1:58:05
  Randall Kaplan: And I said, okay, my buddy cliff is now the head coach of the Cardinals. I like to come to a practice one day when it's open to the public. I'd love to throw a couple of passes to DeAndre Hopkins, or Larry Fitzgerald. So if you can make that happen.
• 1:58:22
  Randall Kaplan: We got AJ green now to set