Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Eric Weddle reacts to the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl, Criticism Will Campbell is getting for Pats' OL struggles + more
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Yo, based by Sean O'Connell's show, You're Home of the
- 0:07Speaker 1: Best Inside of your Units. Let's get back to OOC
- 0:10Speaker 1: from the Murder Chevrolet studio of ESPN seven hundred FM.
- 0:23Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Sean O'Connor show.
- 0:25Speaker 3: Welcome in Eric Weddle, the Utah football and NFL legend,
- 0:30Speaker 3: friend of the program, and of course he's.
- 0:34Speaker 2: The head coach of the Rancho Bernardo Broncos. Well, what's up?
- 0:39Speaker 4: What is up? My friend?
- 0:41Speaker 3: You know, we're just watching some short track speed skating
- 0:44Speaker 3: in these Winter Olympics.
- 0:46Speaker 4: Okay, okay, I get I.
- 0:49Speaker 2: Don't know how you are when it comes to the Olympics.
- 0:51Speaker 3: I've become an expert on every sport that I only
- 0:53Speaker 3: watch once every four years. I really love the Olympics
- 0:58Speaker 3: summer more than winter, but even these winter ones, I'm
- 1:00Speaker 3: all in, where do you stand on the Winter Olympics
- 1:03Speaker 3: that are going on right now in Milan, Cotina.
- 1:07Speaker 4: Uh? You know, I couldn't tell you what events are
- 1:13Speaker 4: going on, what channel, what time been a little? Uh
- 1:18Speaker 4: you know, at night, very rarely do we are we
- 1:21Speaker 4: sitting there watching TV. So and then during the day
- 1:25Speaker 4: I got some of the things going on so I'm
- 1:29Speaker 4: I'm I'm not really in tune with it. Not saying
- 1:32Speaker 4: I won't be, but as of right now, I couldn't
- 1:34Speaker 4: tell you one thing or another about it.
- 1:37Speaker 3: Well, very un American stance by Eric Weddle, who's usually
- 1:40Speaker 3: super super super American. But you know what, I can't
- 1:44Speaker 3: have it all all right, That's fine.
- 1:47Speaker 4: You know, I mean, just other things occupy my time
- 1:51Speaker 4: right now other than watching the kids.
- 1:54Speaker 3: That's fine, that's fine. We will, we will pick up
- 1:57Speaker 3: the slack. We will give extra support to our countries athletes.
- 2:00Speaker 2: There we go.
- 2:01Speaker 4: How we do it, We work together.
- 2:02Speaker 3: Since you refuse, all right, let's talk about this Super Bowl.
- 2:06Speaker 3: We're now heading into this long dark period where we
- 2:09Speaker 3: have no actual elite level football for seven months. Although
- 2:14Speaker 3: I guess I should give the UFL or whatever it's
- 2:16Speaker 3: called now some credit. They're they're trying to give us
- 2:19Speaker 3: spring football, and we'll have spring ball with Morgan Scalley
- 2:22Speaker 3: soon enough. The Super Bowl, though, was I mean, look,
- 2:26Speaker 3: it wasn't the most viewership friendly one. It wasn't the
- 2:28Speaker 3: most exciting back and forth game. But if you're a defender,
- 2:32Speaker 3: defensive mind, you might have loved that games.
- 2:35Speaker 2: How did you feel about it.
- 2:38Speaker 4: Yeah, it was you know, the ins and outs, how
- 2:45Speaker 4: they handled certain things, how the inept you know, I
- 2:49Speaker 4: was really I was really shocked at our lack of
- 2:53Speaker 4: an adjustments that the Patriots did offensively and defensively. They
- 3:00Speaker 4: didn't they didn't adapt and didn't adjust to what Seattle
- 3:05Speaker 4: was doing and on both sides of ball that I
- 3:08Speaker 4: felt could have could have had a real impact on
- 3:10Speaker 4: the game because it was close for the majority of
- 3:13Speaker 4: the game, and so I was I was taking back
- 3:16Speaker 4: a little bit of that, and the best team won. Honestly,
- 3:20Speaker 4: like when you look back at the Seattle Seahawks, the
- 3:24Speaker 4: connection the team and that overtime win against the Rams
- 3:28Speaker 4: down sixteen to nine minutes ago, you just kind of
- 3:32Speaker 4: felt that this was their year, that was at this
- 3:35Speaker 4: at the fining moment of their season, and they took
- 3:38Speaker 4: it and ran with it and never looked back.
- 3:42Speaker 3: I mean, for me, because we had talked about this
- 3:44Speaker 3: before the game was even played, that the NFC Championship
- 3:47Speaker 3: was kind of like the de facto Super Bowl.
- 3:49Speaker 2: For a lot of people.
- 3:50Speaker 3: Most thought that whoever won that was going to end
- 3:53Speaker 3: up winning the Super Bowl. And I think the way
- 3:55Speaker 3: that the actual game played out reinforced that for me.
- 3:58Speaker 2: Did you feel the same.
- 3:59Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, for sure, Like, uh, those those two teams
- 4:04Speaker 4: slugging it out and the winner obviously being Seattle. You
- 4:09Speaker 4: kind of just felt like that was a pre Super
- 4:11Speaker 4: Bowl and whoever won that game which ended up happening.
- 4:15Speaker 4: And if you're the Rams, you just got to be sick.
- 4:17Speaker 4: Back to back years you have those games in the
- 4:20Speaker 4: in the in the palmier hands for a win and
- 4:23Speaker 4: potentially two more Super Bowls that flip away. Oh, you
- 4:28Speaker 4: got to be sick for my Rams, and uh, seeing
- 4:32Speaker 4: how those the back to back Super Bowls have come about.
- 4:35Speaker 4: But Seattle was just loaded. Man, they had just great
- 4:39Speaker 4: have said this and we've talked about the US and
- 4:42Speaker 4: we talked about it about with BYU last year about
- 4:45Speaker 4: their team, watching them, how connected they were, Like connection matters.
- 4:50Speaker 4: And I don't know if you've noticed the head coaching hires,
- 4:54Speaker 4: and I really like enjoy listening to the press conferences
- 4:58Speaker 4: and seeing how like their first intro, what are you
- 5:01Speaker 4: all about? What are you going to emphasize this? That,
- 5:04Speaker 4: and a lot of them, to a man have talked
- 5:07Speaker 4: about the why and the connection and the relationships, and
- 5:13Speaker 4: I really believe at the end of the day that
- 5:14Speaker 4: that separates the good and the great and championship caliber teams.
- 5:21Speaker 3: So Sam Darnold completes his like great career comeback story,
- 5:26Speaker 3: he gets a Super Bowl championship as the quarterback of
- 5:29Speaker 3: the Seahawks, and you know, like, I think he's approached
- 5:32Speaker 3: the whole thing the right way. He never talked about
- 5:34Speaker 3: having a chip on his shoulder about it. He didn't
- 5:37Speaker 3: even after the game. He wasn't like, yeah, I told
- 5:39Speaker 3: you so. He's just been kind of like, I'm grateful
- 5:41Speaker 3: that my teammates believed in me, and that the Seattle
- 5:44Speaker 3: Seahawks believed in me. Did you play with anyone in
- 5:46Speaker 3: your career that had kind of been written off by
- 5:49Speaker 3: the league, maybe had bounced around to a bunch of
- 5:51Speaker 3: different teams, and I don't know, you watch him in
- 5:56Speaker 3: practice or you see what they can do in games, Like,
- 5:58Speaker 3: what the heck? Everybody got the guy wrong?
- 6:02Speaker 4: Oh man, that's a good question. I wish you could
- 6:05Speaker 4: have prepped me on that, so I can really.
- 6:10Speaker 2: Let's keep dog.
- 6:12Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, when I got to Baltimore, there was
- 6:15Speaker 4: a player his name was Anthony Levine and he's now
- 6:18Speaker 4: the special teams coordinator. Just got hired on with Jesse
- 6:22Speaker 4: Uh when he took over this you know, this season,
- 6:25Speaker 4: and I first got there, and he was just a
- 6:28Speaker 4: special teams guy for probably his first four years in
- 6:32Speaker 4: the league. And I'm sitting there, we're we're in meetings
- 6:35Speaker 4: and practice and I see him, you know, in drills
- 6:38Speaker 4: and moving around. I'm like, man, this guy, this guy
- 6:41Speaker 4: has some unique ability, right, some traits. And I pulled
- 6:45Speaker 4: him aside and I'm like, it's the deal, Like, why
- 6:47Speaker 4: why haven't you played here? Because they just signed me
- 6:49Speaker 4: at safety and I'm looking at this dude. I'm like, man,
- 6:51Speaker 4: this okay, this guy could play, So why'd they sign me?
- 6:55Speaker 4: And uh, he goes, I'm just a special teams player
- 6:58Speaker 4: and I'm like, hold on a second, what do you mean.
- 7:01Speaker 4: It's like that's what they've told me. And so from
- 7:05Speaker 4: that point on, I was like, well that's going to
- 7:06Speaker 4: change here, so you just you just follow me, and
- 7:10Speaker 4: I'm going to help you out in any chance I got.
- 7:14Speaker 4: I found ways to get him on the field and
- 7:19Speaker 4: being able to you know, help him in areas that
- 7:22Speaker 4: he needed help, but just really instilling that confidence and
- 7:25Speaker 4: he became a core like third down dying linebacker for
- 7:30Speaker 4: US safety and really prolonged his career and so like
- 7:34Speaker 4: for that, it's just it just comes down to like
- 7:37Speaker 4: do you believe in somebody and are you willing to
- 7:39Speaker 4: give him a chance? And for Sam, it's you know,
- 7:45Speaker 4: so oftentimes he was in a tough situation and it
- 7:49Speaker 4: always comes back to the team. The team, the team,
- 7:52Speaker 4: the team, and do you do you have a good
- 7:55Speaker 4: team around you. It's hard for an individual to carry
- 7:59Speaker 4: an entire team. And so to see him see his
- 8:03Speaker 4: success and his bounce back per se. You know what's
- 8:08Speaker 4: even crazier is Ryan Clark, holy smokes. He needs to
- 8:11Speaker 4: get reprimanded for that comment saying he would take nine
- 8:15Speaker 4: other quarterbacks ahead of Sam. I mean, holy smokes, Ryan, Like,
- 8:19Speaker 4: come on, now, he can't. We can't be saying that's
- 8:22Speaker 4: how a gibberish. So I've seen it happen, not to
- 8:26Speaker 4: the extent of Sam, especially in his case where he's
- 8:30Speaker 4: a quarterback and very rarely do you even get a
- 8:32Speaker 4: second or third chance, and he has and man, he
- 8:35Speaker 4: made the most of it.
- 8:37Speaker 3: I want to go back to that story you just
- 8:38Speaker 3: told about taking a teammate a new teammate kind of
- 8:41Speaker 3: under your wing and helping him improve his career. How
- 8:46Speaker 3: typical is that where a guy in your position, In
- 8:50Speaker 3: that case, the more veteran guy sees somebody who's talented
- 8:54Speaker 3: that is a threat to whatever longevity, playing time, whatever,
- 8:59Speaker 3: and still, for the sake of that individual, for the
- 9:01Speaker 3: sake of the benefit of the team, is willing to
- 9:05Speaker 3: be like, all right, let me help you get better,
- 9:07Speaker 3: because I mean, I know that that's very much part
- 9:11Speaker 3: of your personality. But how many guys in the NFL
- 9:14Speaker 3: do that with the guys in the locker room.
- 9:19Speaker 4: Well, when I got to Baltimore, it was year ten,
- 9:23Speaker 4: and you know, you grow, you learn, you become very
- 9:29Speaker 4: confident in yourself of what you are, what you can bring, leadership,
- 9:33Speaker 4: talent as a teammate, how to bring others with you.
- 9:37Speaker 4: So in my mind, when I got to that, like
- 9:39Speaker 4: I'm I was very secure with myself even early on,
- 9:43Speaker 4: Like I knew who I was, I knew what I
- 9:45Speaker 4: could bring. It was just more like becoming that type
- 9:48Speaker 4: of player that you want to become. So when I
- 9:51Speaker 4: got to Baltimore, I'm like, hey, it's my time. I've
- 9:54Speaker 4: done the All Pros, I've done the Pro Bowls, It's
- 9:56Speaker 4: now about getting more out of every everyone else, right,
- 10:01Speaker 4: getting everyone to play at the level that maybe they
- 10:04Speaker 4: didn't know they could get to, and then how can
- 10:08Speaker 4: we build the best team possible to go win a
- 10:10Speaker 4: Super Bowl. So that was always the focus and never
- 10:13Speaker 4: was oh gosh, is this guy gonna take my job?
- 10:16Speaker 4: Is he? Is he going to be better? I mean, like,
- 10:20Speaker 4: at the end of the day football, you're either going
- 10:22Speaker 4: to go earn it across the white lines or you're not.
- 10:25Speaker 4: And people that are scared of competition there of adversity,
- 10:29Speaker 4: don't want to put themselves in those positions. They never
- 10:31Speaker 4: make it. And so I try to welcome it any
- 10:34Speaker 4: chance I could get. I'm out there competing and pushing
- 10:37Speaker 4: my teammates, pushing myself because we all get better in
- 10:41Speaker 4: the long run. And if I end up getting beat out,
- 10:43Speaker 4: then I get en up beating out.
- 10:47Speaker 2: What do you make of.
- 10:48Speaker 3: The hyper focus on Will Campbell, the left tackle for
- 10:53Speaker 3: New England. I thought he's handled it after skipping postgame media.
- 10:58Speaker 3: I think he's handled it pretty well since then. He's
- 11:01Speaker 3: a young player that a really bad Super Bowl and
- 11:04Speaker 3: got dragged in the media for it.
- 11:06Speaker 1: Uh.
- 11:07Speaker 3: What do you think of the focus on him, and
- 11:09Speaker 3: I guess how that story will develop moving forward.
- 11:14Speaker 5: Well, I mean, as a football player, you're gonna have
- 11:18Speaker 5: moments where you are told how bad you are. You're
- 11:23Speaker 5: not a good football.
- 11:24Speaker 4: Player, you're not to the level that is needed.
- 11:30Speaker 5: And we've all we if you're if you're a football
- 11:32Speaker 5: player and you get to the tippy top, you're going
- 11:35Speaker 5: to go through that. I went through it everyone my
- 11:39Speaker 5: first couple of years in the league, saying why why
- 11:41Speaker 5: we trade all these picks? This guy can't play, He
- 11:43Speaker 5: can't cover, he can't tackle. He has one hundred and
- 11:46Speaker 5: twenty five tackles. It means it means he can't cover.
- 11:50Speaker 5: And just like people on the outside, they really don't know.
- 11:52Speaker 5: And then you'd love how coach Rabell handled it and
- 11:56Speaker 5: instilled confidence and belief. And look, he's a rookie. He
- 12:00Speaker 5: battled injuries and got thrust into a moment that he's
- 12:04Speaker 5: just at the moment, he's not good enough. But that
- 12:07Speaker 5: doesn't mean he can't get there. And you just hope that, uh,
- 12:11Speaker 5: he'll take that approach, which he most likely will. I
- 12:14Speaker 5: mean his mindset and dedication to his craft. You go work,
- 12:18Speaker 5: you work, you work, and then he'll pay dividends over
- 12:20Speaker 5: the long haul. So, uh, you know, I loved how
- 12:24Speaker 5: Big Wit Wit and Fit's podcast he talked about this
- 12:29Speaker 5: and he got into details about it, which you know,
- 12:33Speaker 5: the easy the easy answer is, oh, just moving to
- 12:36Speaker 5: guard and he'll be a great guard. Well, they didn't
- 12:38Speaker 5: draft him play guard and they're gonna keep me tackles,
- 12:40Speaker 5: So what are you gonna do about it? And Wit
- 12:42Speaker 5: had a great observation about it, and he put it
- 12:45Speaker 5: like this, like Will Campbell is playing the position as
- 12:48Speaker 5: if he's Andrew Whitworth or if he's if he is
- 12:51Speaker 5: uh a six to seven long art long limb player athlete,
- 12:57Speaker 5: where that's not him, that's not his body. And he
- 13:00Speaker 5: said he needs to watch I can't remember the guy
- 13:05Speaker 5: the tackle, but basically watch this player because that's who
- 13:10Speaker 5: you look like, that's your body type, and go watch
- 13:14Speaker 5: how he plays and how he jumps sets, and how
- 13:16Speaker 5: he's aggressive and how he mauls guys in the run
- 13:19Speaker 5: game but also in the past game, and how your
- 13:21Speaker 5: offensive coordinator can help that by chips but also setting
- 13:25Speaker 5: it up so you're when your number is called, where
- 13:27Speaker 5: you're one on one and you got to block this
- 13:29Speaker 5: guy that you're confident with it and not just drop
- 13:31Speaker 5: back patching every other rep. So I thought it was
- 13:33Speaker 5: really good intel and just intuition of the position. And
- 13:37Speaker 5: I expect him to be fine. He seems like a
- 13:40Speaker 5: great kid, and it just so happens that he struggled
- 13:43Speaker 5: in the Super Bowl. But whether he played good or not,
- 13:45Speaker 5: they weren't gonna win.
- 13:48Speaker 3: If if Robert Kraft called you today and said, hey,
- 13:52Speaker 3: you're my GM, what do we need to do to
- 13:55Speaker 3: make sure that this team stays at the top of
- 13:58Speaker 3: the AFC and we can try to another little dynasty.
- 14:01Speaker 2: We've got the right guy at quarterback.
- 14:04Speaker 3: What are you What are you drafting around Drake may
- 14:06Speaker 3: or how are you using capital with trades or anything else?
- 14:09Speaker 3: So what are you adding to that Patriots team? So
- 14:12Speaker 3: next time around they are good enough?
- 14:14Speaker 5: Yeah, I think I think where they're picking at the
- 14:17Speaker 5: end of the round one, they would be tough to
- 14:18Speaker 5: maybe grab one of those top receivers. I think just
- 14:22Speaker 5: an explosive wide out like I think eight has some ability.
- 14:26Speaker 5: I think Diggs is on the way out, not that
- 14:29Speaker 5: he can't play anymore, but he's an aging veteran, so
- 14:32Speaker 5: we need some explosive just like a go to guy
- 14:36Speaker 5: that can beat man to man coverage, that can win
- 14:38Speaker 5: over the top, So maybe identifying that person, I don't
- 14:41Speaker 5: know if that's there's someone like that in the draft.
- 14:45Speaker 5: And then also like a tight end to a couple
- 14:49Speaker 5: like I know with McDaniels and the type that they
- 14:53Speaker 5: the type of offense they want to run with the
- 14:55Speaker 5: play action and under center, and I think they got
- 14:57Speaker 5: away from that in the super Bowl. They want to
- 15:00Speaker 5: run the football, play action and hit those shots in
- 15:05Speaker 5: a timely fashion. So his tight end out there, I
- 15:09Speaker 5: know that guy from Morgan's one of the top tight
- 15:12Speaker 5: end in the draft, so can is there anyone in
- 15:14Speaker 5: the second third round? But I'm trying to load up
- 15:17Speaker 5: offensively with skill guys and then any type of pass
- 15:21Speaker 5: rush help to help their defense because the secondary is
- 15:27Speaker 5: top notch. They have young studs. The safety is a
- 15:30Speaker 5: young guy. I think he was a rookie.
- 15:31Speaker 4: I think it was his name was Williams or.
- 15:34Speaker 5: Watson or something, but he was making plays all over
- 15:37Speaker 5: the field. So I think they can rebound. The schedule
- 15:41Speaker 5: is gonna be tougher, obviously, being first, they're going to
- 15:43Speaker 5: play a bunch of tougher teams, but the standard is set.
- 15:46Speaker 5: Rabel is one of the best coaches in the league,
- 15:48Speaker 5: so I expect them to have a good season.
- 15:50Speaker 3: They shoot, you're way way too early prediction for the
- 15:55Speaker 3: Super Bowl champion. When the game is played in twenty
- 15:58Speaker 3: twenty seven, Who's gonna win it next year?
- 16:01Speaker 5: The Rams? The Homer e dub is picking the Rams
- 16:06Speaker 5: in so far. Uh. And I'll even go to the
- 16:09Speaker 5: extent that they'll have I don't want to put this
- 16:13Speaker 5: out there, but they'll ask coach Weddle to come back
- 16:16Speaker 5: as a player coach to help in the playoff runs.
- 16:21Speaker 5: And I'm gonna pleasantly decline because they need it.
- 16:24Speaker 1: You're gonna say yes, You're going to accept that challenge.
- 16:30Speaker 3: You're gonna hey, extra five years of health insurance, dog
- 16:34Speaker 3: do you?
- 16:35Speaker 4: I'm with you. I need to pull a little Philly Phil.
- 16:38Speaker 5: My insurance is coming up this year, so there'll have
- 16:42Speaker 5: a big dent in my in my monthly payments.
- 16:45Speaker 3: The thing is, dude, you could just like you could
- 16:47Speaker 3: just be the holder or something. You know, you've done
- 16:48Speaker 3: it all on a football field. You could fill whatever
- 16:51Speaker 3: role there they need, just you know, be the be
- 16:54Speaker 3: the p A T holder.
- 16:56Speaker 5: I definitely could. I mean, hey, if Sean calls, I'm
- 17:00Speaker 5: definitely gonna take the call, and I doubt nothing anything
- 17:03Speaker 5: will come from it other than hey, how you doing wrong?
- 17:06Speaker 3: If you get that call, you owe it to the
- 17:09Speaker 3: rest of us old retired slubs.
- 17:11Speaker 2: You gotta you gotta take it. You gotta you gotta
- 17:13Speaker 2: go take it.
- 17:15Speaker 5: Okay, Okay, I'll do it for everybody else.
- 17:17Speaker 2: All Right, you're the man, dude, appreciate you have a
- 17:21Speaker 2: good one.
- 17:22Speaker 3: That's Eric Weddle, the Utah football legend, I hope and think,
- 17:27Speaker 3: the future NFL Pro Football Hall of Famer and the
- 17:33Speaker 3: head coach of the Rancho Bernardo Broncos.
- 17:36Speaker 2: Uh.
- 17:36Speaker 3: Pretty soon he's going to be more famous for being
- 17:38Speaker 3: Gage Weddle's dad.
- 17:40Speaker 2: So you might as well take those phone calls.