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Transcript

The Jermichael Finley Conversation · Go Long Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Hey, what's up everyone?
0:01
SPEAKER_01: Tyler Dunne here at golongtd.com and right inside the Substack app.
0:08
SPEAKER_01: We are your home for long form journalism in pro football.
0:12
SPEAKER_01: Man, am I thrilled to share this conversation with you.
0:16
SPEAKER_01: Jermichael Finley, the former Green Bay Packer, gets into everything.
0:21
SPEAKER_01: Growing up there in Texas,
0:23
SPEAKER_01: raised by his grandmother,
0:24
SPEAKER_01: to Austin, to Green Bay, to all the what could have beens.
0:28
SPEAKER_01: This is somebody who really believed he'd be wearing a gold jacket,
0:31
SPEAKER_01: that he was on a trajectory to be one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history.
0:34
SPEAKER_01: The size, the athleticism, the speed, a very rare specimen in the sport.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: And it all ended October of 2013 with a bruised spinal cord,
0:45
SPEAKER_01: told by doctors that he may be a vegetable.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: What was going through Jermichael Finley's mind?
0:50
SPEAKER_01: In that moment in the hospital when,
0:52
SPEAKER_01: yeah, you're not playing football, you may not ever be able to walk again.
0:56
SPEAKER_01: He opens up on all of that.
0:58
SPEAKER_01: And of course,
0:59
SPEAKER_01: he gets into the comments made by his former quarterback on a recent podcast
1:03
SPEAKER_01: that he is, quote unquote, not smart.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: What does Jermichael Finley think?
1:08
SPEAKER_01: Father of five, his oldest at Notre Dame.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: He's really redefining himself as a dad trying to be in his kids' lives in every way possible.
1:18
SPEAKER_01: Jermichael Finley, a really interesting conversation.
1:20
SPEAKER_01: And of course, he does retrace the steps of that relationship with Aaron Rodgers.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: When were things going well?
1:25
SPEAKER_01: Where did things go south?
1:26
SPEAKER_01: You'll get all of it right here at the Go Long podcast.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: I hope you enjoy.
1:31
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1:32
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1:34
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1:36
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1:39
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1:41
SPEAKER_01: So I greatly appreciate you growing our community here into season number seven at Golong.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: All right.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: No further ado.
1:50
SPEAKER_01: Here is the great Jermichael Finley on football, on life, and a hell of a
1:57
SPEAKER_00: lot more.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can't be too professional.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
2:27
SPEAKER_01: We would always just bullshit at the locker around the town, right?
2:31
SPEAKER_00: No, that's the old way of doing it.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: I was just trying to freestyle.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I'm ready.
2:37
SPEAKER_01: I remember that word when we got together at Play Bistro in Green Bay for
2:41
SPEAKER_00: a certain feature at Milwaukee.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: You wanted the freestyle.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: That's all you wanted to do, Jay.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: That's all I wanted to do, bro.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: All that, just buy the book.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: We ain't going to do that.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
2:52
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's what made you unique as a player, a teammate, everything.
2:58
SPEAKER_01: You could turn it into basketball, turn it into this art form at tight end.
3:04
SPEAKER_01: That was all Jermichael Finley.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: No doubt.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: That's me, man.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: And that's still the day.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: But like I said, raising five kids now.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: So it's a total different man now.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: Total different.
3:16
SPEAKER_01: Well, man, this is long overdue.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: I'm just absolutely thrilled to be sitting here talking with a go-to guy out
3:25
SPEAKER_01: in those Packer days,
3:26
SPEAKER_01: covering the team,
3:27
SPEAKER_01: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
3:28
SPEAKER_01: Jermichael Finley, one of the absolute all-time greats in Green Bay.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: We all remember watching you.
3:38
SPEAKER_01: You were one of one, right?
3:40
SPEAKER_01: There weren't many guys playing the position like you,
3:43
SPEAKER_01: Dropped into the middle of one of the best offenses in NFL history when you look at
3:47
SPEAKER_01: the numbers and what you guys were able to do together.
3:51
SPEAKER_01: But it's been a while, man.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: It's been 13 years since you played.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: I can't believe it.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, time flies.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: And they say time flies when you're having fun, too.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, it's been 13 years, man.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: A lot has changed.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: A lot has went on in a positive way, in an upward trajectory.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: And now, man, just like I said, enjoying life.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm enjoying the fruits of my labor.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, raising five kids, loving all my family here in the great state of Texas.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: And man, it's been a hell of a ride though, but a great ride.
4:26
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
4:27
SPEAKER_01: we haven't caught up in forever and it was so great to just shoot the ball with you
4:31
SPEAKER_01: on the phone a couple of weeks ago ahead of this podcast and hear,
4:35
SPEAKER_01: you know,
4:36
SPEAKER_01: you can just hear in Jermichael Finley's voice how much you love being a dad.
4:40
SPEAKER_01: It is your whole world.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: You've got Caden out there with the Notre Dame fighting Irish.
4:45
SPEAKER_01: Just playing at Lambeau Field, which was surreal for you, I know.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: But five kids,
4:49
SPEAKER_01: being a dad,
4:50
SPEAKER_01: what is life like for you day in and day out for those who have no clue?
4:54
SPEAKER_00: Man, life is enjoyable.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: It's a great time.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: Like I said,
4:59
SPEAKER_00: right when I open my eyes up at 6.30 in the morning,
5:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm rolling and getting it going,
5:03
SPEAKER_00: getting lunches going, getting kids to carpool line, getting them out the door.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: Running to the Montessori School down the road for my four-year-old.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: And then running back to the middle school for my 14-year-old.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: And then going to get my coffee at my little coffee shop.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm a creature of habit, so I do the same thing in and out every day.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: Then I run up here to one of my homeboy's house at H5 Barn and get my workout in.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: And after that,
5:33
SPEAKER_00: We back on to getting the kids from school,
5:36
SPEAKER_00: getting to practices,
5:37
SPEAKER_00: and doing all of the logistics that,
5:39
SPEAKER_00: you know what I mean, that helps me be a great dad.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: How old are your kids?
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Let's hear their names.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: I'll start from the youngest to the oldest.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: So I got a four-year-old, Lil Zeppelin.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: I got a nine-year-old in Brooklyn.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: I got a now, what, 11-year-old, just turned 11 a couple days ago, in Hilton.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: And I got a 14-year-old in London.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: And I got my 18-year-old out at Notre Dame in Caden.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: So it's, like I said, it's a fun ride.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: All boys, too, so you couldn't ask for better.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: Where, you know what I mean, we can go out and hit the backyard and hit the football field.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: And like I said,
6:20
SPEAKER_00: it's just one of those things where,
6:21
SPEAKER_00: you know what I mean, my career ended and so happened God just gave me five boys.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: And he was like, your career is not done.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: On the grid, August done, but in life, you just started, you know what I mean?
6:33
SPEAKER_00: So he pushed,
6:35
SPEAKER_00: gave me five boys and it's just been,
6:37
SPEAKER_00: what I say, it's just, it's been a hell of a ride, man.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: It's been an awesome ride and I'm enjoying being a father, man.
6:46
SPEAKER_01: You can just tell, I mean,
6:47
SPEAKER_01: you're pouring yourself into fatherhood and I mean,
6:50
SPEAKER_01: we're going to get into everything,
6:52
SPEAKER_01: but that's kind of where my mind goes when I think of you, Jermichael, is 2013.
6:58
SPEAKER_01: It was October 20, 2013 against the Cleveland Browns.
7:02
SPEAKER_01: You're having a hell of a game.
7:05
SPEAKER_01: Things are really rolling for you.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: Finally, there's some ups and some downs.
7:11
SPEAKER_01: The injury during the Super Bowl season, you get back.
7:15
SPEAKER_01: You're hitting your groove.
7:17
SPEAKER_01: You have the bruised spinal cord.
7:20
SPEAKER_01: Your career ends right there.
7:23
SPEAKER_01: I know you tried to come back,
7:25
SPEAKER_01: but it's When you reflect on it,
7:27
SPEAKER_01: it's over,
7:28
SPEAKER_01: and it's always hard for all players to move on when they don't have
7:31
SPEAKER_01: a career-ending injury, let alone somebody whose arrow is doing this.
7:36
SPEAKER_01: Brock, Jimmy Graham, revolutionizing the position with a future Hall of Fame quarterback.
7:43
SPEAKER_01: How long was that period to adjust?
7:45
SPEAKER_01: I know you probably went through some dark times, some depression, trying to find a purpose.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: yeah, no doubt.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, it took a minute, uh,
7:52
SPEAKER_00: which it,
7:53
SPEAKER_00: like I talked to former guys now and guys that career not only ended,
7:58
SPEAKER_00: but ended off of them not wanting to get picked up till they retired three.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: If it's a career injury and every one of them,
8:06
SPEAKER_00: all the stories matched up, everyone leaves the game discombobulated of some sort.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Because if you think about it, man, um,
8:16
SPEAKER_00: Your whole life,
8:18
SPEAKER_00: me playing in junior high,
8:19
SPEAKER_00: me playing in high school,
8:20
SPEAKER_00: me playing in college and going to the National Football League,
8:24
SPEAKER_00: you always had a time to be somewhere.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
8:27
SPEAKER_00: If it was practice in the morning in junior high,
8:29
SPEAKER_00: high school, you had to be at morning practice or morning lifts or things like that.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: Then I got to college.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: You had to be at, you know what I mean, some sort of lift in our classroom at the time.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: And then you jump and go to Your dream and my dream was playing professional sports
8:47
SPEAKER_00: of any sort because I started playing basketball, baseball, football.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: And I told my grandmother, hey, I'm going to play some sort of professional ball.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: And so happened.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: It was football.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: And then it ended.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, because you always looked at a screen.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: It says 630 B here, 730 B here.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: 8.30 go to special teams.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: Then you got 10.30 position meetings.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: So it was kind of like a machine robot type.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
9:15
SPEAKER_00: And then so happened in a blink of an eye, my career ended.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
9:21
SPEAKER_00: You have no kind of sort of structure, no sort of been anywhere, no sort of certain time.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: So it was hard to adjust.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: I went into,
9:32
SPEAKER_00: I did go into some sort of like If you want to say depression,
9:37
SPEAKER_00: trying to find my niche, trying to find what I'm doing next.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: And it was tough.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: And I went into that sort of life, what, downward spiral.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: And it was, in my opinion now, it was helping me grow into the man I am today.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: And so having been,
10:01
SPEAKER_00: now me and Courtney's still together,
10:03
SPEAKER_00: my kids are So, man, it grew me into who I am today.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: And financially, you were in probably the best shape of my life, man.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: God gave me more than I was supposed to get.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: And now my kids are, like, Caden's in Notre Dame.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: I got a 14-year-old, probably better than Caden.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Caden.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: But he's just a beast.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: And I got an 11-year-old now, which is just an animal also.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: Then I got another kid that's a little Reggie Bush.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: And I got my little baby 4-year-old that'll be at the house his whole life.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: So he's my baby.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: So it's just, man, it's a life where I would think any man would love with five boys.
11:05
SPEAKER_01: It's nothing like being a dad.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I can just see you from afar pouring yourselves in to all these boys.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're just ripping them through NFL-style workouts, probably.
11:15
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Caden, I mean, he was a little mini J-Mike at 12, 13 years old.
11:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's one of those things that as a parent,
11:25
SPEAKER_00: with me and Courtney,
11:26
SPEAKER_00: parents and these boys, like at some time of the day, we like, geez, we are tired.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Because we got such a rhythm and a routine that, you know what I mean?
11:38
SPEAKER_00: It wear downs on us because we want our kids to be a certain type of kid.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
11:44
SPEAKER_00: Not only sports, but academically also.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: We want them to be very,
11:50
SPEAKER_00: Physically and mentally educated,
11:54
SPEAKER_00: you know what I mean, around what's going on in this world now.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: And I do have,
11:58
SPEAKER_00: I have my boys in a really,
12:02
SPEAKER_00: really strict routine and how we run things and how we do things.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: And it's very mapped out.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: And so that's, everyone sees the glitz and glamour and where my kids are at now with Caden.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: But the structure and the things he had to do to get there with,
12:18
SPEAKER_00: Being at school,
12:19
SPEAKER_00: being at practice,
12:20
SPEAKER_00: doing treatment,
12:21
SPEAKER_00: which you have to do treatment at such a young age,
12:24
SPEAKER_00: doing the personal training that he done day in and day out.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: It's the things that no one's seen and no one really gets, you know what I mean?
12:36
SPEAKER_00: And those are the things that you've got to do to be a really,
12:40
SPEAKER_00: really good student athlete nowadays.
12:45
SPEAKER_01: All the more impressive when, I mean,
12:46
SPEAKER_01: we should probably take it back,
12:48
SPEAKER_01: go all the way back to your own upbringing,
12:50
SPEAKER_01: your own childhood, because you didn't have that father figure in your life.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Right.
12:54
SPEAKER_01: You know, you didn't have that example to look to.
12:56
SPEAKER_01: So what was, what's your childhood like, Jermichael?
12:59
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of people that have no clue.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my childhood was very, very different.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in Dowball, Texas, a little small town in East Texas, population of 4K.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: You got two stoplights.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: You got your Dairy Queen, Dollar General.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: You got your little Sonic, Jack in the Box, maybe.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: And I grew up with my grandmother, which was a really, really hardworking lady.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in a hunting lodge that probably no one in this world would be like,
13:27
SPEAKER_00: you grew up in a hunting lodge.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: You grew up, my grandma...
13:30
SPEAKER_00: Worked in the hunting lodge.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: She was a chef.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: So the guys would go out there and shoot,
13:34
SPEAKER_00: shoot the deer, shoot the hogs or go doe hunt and do all of them things.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: Bring all the meat back and she's in the kitchen just scrapping it all up,
13:43
SPEAKER_00: getting it all ready to go.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: So I grew up a country boy, you know what I mean?
13:49
SPEAKER_00: And grew up very tough,
13:51
SPEAKER_00: very in a strict household where like you had to like,
13:56
SPEAKER_00: before you get your butt ready, For school, take out the trash.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: Make up your bed.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: And if there's some dishes on the stove or if the dish is dirty,
14:08
SPEAKER_00: I need you to wash some dishes before you hit that bed because if you didn't,
14:13
SPEAKER_00: your butt would be blistered.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: That was back in the old days.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
14:18
SPEAKER_01: You took a few weapons?
14:20
SPEAKER_00: I took a few, but I was very...
14:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, you give me once, but that next, I'm going to think about it.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to make sure the dishes are out the dishwasher and the things like that.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: But I grew up very disciplined.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: And I grew up in,
14:37
SPEAKER_00: like I said,
14:37
SPEAKER_00: a structured household where my grandmother was a hardworking lady, worker.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: And she took very, very good care of me.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Got me the things that I needed, not wanted.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: And that's what made me work so hard to get what I got today.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: Like I told her, I was a Section 8 baby.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
15:04
SPEAKER_00: I was a kid that grew up in poverty.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: And I told her, She'll tell you today, she's 81 years old.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: She's like, this boy right here, he always wanted to be great.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: And he always wanted to go get out his own financial, own things and the nice things in life.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: And so it happened.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
15:26
SPEAKER_00: And everyone wouldn't believe I was supposed to play basketball.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Lute Olsen came and recruited me in a small town in Dowball.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: And I was going to go to Arizona, play with the Wildcats.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: Went down there, visited him, done a little logistics, and went to a couple games in Arizona.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: Then he was like, oh, you play football too, so we're going to give you a football scholarship.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: So I was going to be a dual sport athlete,
15:52
SPEAKER_00: and so happened that good old Mack Brown came to Dabaw,
15:57
SPEAKER_00: Texas, and put on that little political talk that he do.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: And so my grandma didn't want me to go play such a far way because I was a –
16:10
SPEAKER_00: Grandma's baby, if you want to say.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: And so Mack Brown came and said,
16:14
SPEAKER_00: here at the University of Texas, we're going to offer you a scholarship.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, wow.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: So you're going to let me play basketball and football?
16:22
SPEAKER_00: He said, yeah, we'll let you be a dual sport athlete.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: So it happened,
16:27
SPEAKER_00: got the scholarship,
16:29
SPEAKER_00: went out to the University of Texas, signed my letter of intent.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: So, uh,
16:54
SPEAKER_01: Your relationship with your mom and dad,
16:56
SPEAKER_01: how did you kind of become raised by your grandmother all these years?
17:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, me and my mom, she's awesome, man.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: She's in my life.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: She was in my life when I was a kid also.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: It was more like she had me at a very, very young age where it wasn't.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
17:14
SPEAKER_00: To have the means and the funds to be able to maintain a little young kid.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: So my grandmother took me over, but me and my mom are very tight-knit today.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: More like brothers and sisters, but she's still getting on my butt.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: But she's awesome, man.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: My father wasn't around, but you know what I mean?
17:33
SPEAKER_00: He's came into my life now, man.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: And taught me a lot of things now.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: And now I got my boys, my boys, you know, I mean, getting a relationship with them now somewhat.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: But he's, he has came back into my life.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: And it's been, it's been, man, awesome.
17:52
SPEAKER_01: That's so good to hear.
17:54
SPEAKER_01: So you get to little old Green Bay,
17:57
SPEAKER_01: Wisconsin,
17:58
SPEAKER_01: after a hell of a career at Texas,
18:00
SPEAKER_01: obviously,
18:00
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to gloss over anything you'd like to delve into there in Austin,
18:05
SPEAKER_00: but Yeah, Green Bay.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: So what did you think Green Bay, Wisconsin was like?
18:13
SPEAKER_01: Did you even hear Green Bay, Wisconsin before they drafted you?
18:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got that call from Ted Thompson, Mike McCarthy.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: My family had saw it before I did because I was back in my hometown where I lived at.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: We was outside having a little barbecue, a little country barbecue.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: And I was paying attention, but I wasn't.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: And everybody saw the name.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: I got the phone call, and it was like Michael Finley, third round of Green Bay.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Green Bay?
18:43
SPEAKER_00: Out of all of like 32 teams, Green Bay drafted me?
18:47
SPEAKER_00: And next thing I know,
18:48
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I'm coming from Austin, Texas, headed to Green Bay, Wisconsin.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, that's total two different worlds there.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: You get what I'm saying?
18:59
SPEAKER_00: And so I get a call from a couple guys, Texas boys, Johnny Jolly at the time.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: And Mike Montgomery, if you guys know them.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: And I was like,
19:10
SPEAKER_00: you better bring every Nintendo,
19:12
SPEAKER_00: every kind of TV you got,
19:15
SPEAKER_00: everything possible because it ain't nothing to do here, my guy.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, God.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: And he said, when I say it's freezing here, sir, it's freezing.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: I was like, man, out of all the teams, Green Bay.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: But like I said, it was probably the best situation for me.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: You feel what I'm saying?
19:37
SPEAKER_00: It was all about the fans.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: It was all about going to work.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: It was all about being a family man.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: And that was really good for me because,
19:50
SPEAKER_00: like I said, I was raised in a small town starting off anyway.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: So going to Green Bay was a shock coming three years from Austin.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of it, all panned it out in the right, right way.
20:04
SPEAKER_01: It really did.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, J.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: Mike in the big city could have gone a different route,
20:08
SPEAKER_00: I'd imagine,
20:09
SPEAKER_01: at that point in your
20:10
SPEAKER_00: life.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: It is.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: It could have, man.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: Because,
20:12
SPEAKER_00: you know what I mean,
20:15
SPEAKER_00: coming from where I came from,
20:16
SPEAKER_00: coming into the money that you come into, it can distract some people.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
20:22
SPEAKER_00: It can really fog your mind to thinking that you're invincible and you're really not.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
20:29
SPEAKER_00: A lot of guys didn't get over that hump of being Been fortunate enough to get by
20:35
SPEAKER_00: with not going bankrupt,
20:37
SPEAKER_00: with not getting in trouble in the streets or getting that DUI.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: I was fortunate enough to never have a rap sheet, never been able to be worrying about finances.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: And like I said,
20:52
SPEAKER_00: I just had some kind of angel looking right over me at the time because,
20:56
SPEAKER_00: you know what I mean?
20:58
SPEAKER_00: I did make some hiccups where it just didn't.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Didn't just punish me to a certain degree.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: So like I said, Green Bay was awesome to me, man.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, the fan base was amazing.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: The town was amazing.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: Great food there.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Great little honeycomb,
21:14
SPEAKER_00: like little spots that you can go to and get like some good gourmet food.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I'm a foodie.
21:20
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's the beauty of Green Bay, too.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: I loved living there.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: And you would just run into everybody.
21:27
SPEAKER_01: I remember...
21:29
SPEAKER_01: Being out as a 21, 22-year-old and seeing you guys at Vintage.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: That was a great bar, Washington Street or, you know, at the gas station, anywhere.
21:39
SPEAKER_01: And when I sat down with you for that feature,
21:42
SPEAKER_01: I want to say it was 2012 we went to play East Road.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: Yes, 2012.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: Yep, I remember that.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: I remember that Barbado, man.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: That was a fantastic spot.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: That's a spot every time I go back for appearance or I go back to Green Bay and,
21:54
SPEAKER_00: you know what I mean, do some things there.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm a creature of habit, so I'm like, let's go to Play Bistro.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: I want that.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: I want that patatini alfredo with some chicken.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: Cut it up.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: And so it's just one of those things where, like, you know the spots you're going to hit.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: You see the same people there.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: It's one of those towns where nobody ever moves there.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: It's like, Everybody just soaks in and just stays there, raise their kids there.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: And it's just, like I said, it was one of them, a dream come true for me.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: So like rookie year, you didn't play much.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: You know, you're kind of getting acclimated to the pros.
22:31
SPEAKER_01: And then 09,
22:33
SPEAKER_01: you break out and,
22:35
SPEAKER_01: you know, had 676 yards and five touchdowns, big plays, big moments.
22:40
SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking of those Viking games, you know, facing Brett Favre.
22:46
SPEAKER_01: In the old Metrodome, that stadium was rocking.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: I think it was a Monday
22:50
SPEAKER_00: night game.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: It was a Monday night game.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: Facts.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: It was rocking, man.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: And my thing was, I love to play indoors.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever been to Green Bay, I know what you have.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking to our audience here.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever been to Green Bay, it's cold.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: It's brutal.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: And everybody's like, oh, we got home field advantage.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: Hey, no, it's really not home field advantage.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: We are cold, too.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: So I love to go and play in there.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: Brett Favre used to say that too.
23:16
SPEAKER_01: His record in the cold was incredible.
23:18
SPEAKER_01: He's like, I don't like playing in this shit either.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: It's freezing.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: So we got to the domes, Detroit's of the world, Minnesota's of the world.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: It was like heaven.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, I'm on a fast track indoors.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: Ain't got to worry about switching my hands up a thousand times to catch the ball,
23:35
SPEAKER_00: chess passes and whatnot.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: So it was just a place that I loved to play.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: Minnesota, the fans were amazing.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: Just outrageous.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: Fans was loud.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Fans was just, man, it was a hostile environment.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: So I love to play in hostile environments where you can shut the fans up.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: So that's why I love to go torture them guys.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then in 2010, you guys win the Super Bowl.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: Your season ends after five games.
24:04
SPEAKER_01: You've got the ring.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: You're a part of this team that will go down in history.
24:10
SPEAKER_01: Anybody from that team,
24:11
SPEAKER_01: you can go back as a conquering hero to Green Bay and the larger Brown County area.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: But it had to have been bittersweet, too, to not be out there, right?
24:21
SPEAKER_01: Like, what were the emotions through that season?
24:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh, the emotions, man.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: It was, you know what I mean?
24:26
SPEAKER_00: It was bittersweet.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: Sweet we won the Super Bowl.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: Bitter was that, you know what I mean?
24:32
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't on the field.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
24:34
SPEAKER_00: I gave, you know what I mean,
24:36
SPEAKER_00: 25% of that championship, of course, playing five games of the season.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: But other than that, it's one of those things.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: And the NFL is not...
24:46
SPEAKER_00: That you're going to get hurt is when you're going to get hurt.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: No, because the game is moving so fast.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: So it was heartbreaking.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: It was a couple of us out that year.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: Nick Barnett, I think Brandon Chiller.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: It was a couple of us out at the time.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Morgan Barnett.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: Ryan Grant.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, see the list goes on.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: And so happened.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: What's the sweet part about this is that These guys still pushed through, you know what I mean?
25:16
SPEAKER_00: Still got and still figured it out, still made things happen, and you can't downfall that.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: You can't look down on that because they found,
25:25
SPEAKER_00: they made a way, found a way, and made things happen.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: They went on a run in the playoffs there and all the way games, you know what I mean?
25:33
SPEAKER_00: And went and got the job done,
25:35
SPEAKER_00: so kudos to them guys at the time,
25:37
SPEAKER_00: and Like I said, it was just experience just being there, being a part of that team.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: And like you said, it went down in history.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: You can go back there and be a rock star,
25:48
SPEAKER_00: superstar now because no championships have been there since.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: And Green Bay is due for one.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: It's about that time.
25:59
SPEAKER_01: Your head coach, Mike McCarthy, I know you two had a special relationship.
26:05
SPEAKER_01: We've talked about it over the years.
26:07
SPEAKER_01: And really,
26:08
SPEAKER_01: over time,
26:08
SPEAKER_01: you gained such a respect for Mike McCarthy because he did value those one-on-ones
26:13
SPEAKER_01: with guys.
26:15
SPEAKER_01: It seemed like you were somebody he'd want right in your office.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: Talking face-to-face through all the ups, all the downs.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: Take us into that office.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: What was that relationship really like with the head boss man at 1265 Lombardi Ave?
26:29
SPEAKER_00: Oh, man.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: It was very special.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: His nickname for me was Man of War.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: It was like, boy, you can do anything.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: You can come out and play football,
26:36
SPEAKER_00: and then you go out there and do what you want,
26:38
SPEAKER_00: do that, and Just you can do anything.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: And man, it was very special.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: It's like, you know what?
26:44
SPEAKER_00: I need to see you once a day in my office.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Every morning you come through them damn doors, I need to see your face.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: It's like, and bring me some coffee upstairs.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: I was like, all right, I got you.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: At the time, if you knew me, I was like, bring me some coffee.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: All right, I think you need to have me some coffee.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: And then at the time it was like,
27:02
SPEAKER_00: and you know what, you and 12, you two need to get your asses on board together.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: We need you guys seeing eye to eye at all times.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: And so we had that special bond where I can talk to him and he can talk to me
27:15
SPEAKER_00: and we knew the lingo.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: We knew it wasn't no disrespect.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: It was all about winning and making this team better.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: And that was one of the things that we did was every time I came in the building,
27:27
SPEAKER_00: he said, I just want to know what your ass is thinking all the time.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: We just need to know what 88's thinking.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: And because if 88's thinking right, this team can go here.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: And every morning I ran upstairs.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: What's up, McCarthy?
27:41
SPEAKER_00: How are you?
27:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to go today.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: My mind's right.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: He said, this is what I need from you.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: I need you in 12 every Saturday.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: I need you two asses, your asses in each one of your rooms.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: If it's his room or your room,
27:55
SPEAKER_00: I need you guys to get this game plan right because if the middle
27:58
SPEAKER_00: the field is open, we can get Jordy and Greg Jennings and all them guys.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: We can get them going.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: So we got it going for a good two years.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: And if you know the offense at the time, it was in an upward trajectory.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: And things was rolling.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: Offense probably had the best offense on turf at the time.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: You know that too, Tyler.
28:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, 2011, you guys are 15-1.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: The cover of Sports Illustrated, we could all picture it, right?
28:26
SPEAKER_01: All the weapons.
28:28
SPEAKER_01: All around Aaron Rodgers on that cover.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: It was rolling.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: And me and 12 met in each other's room for two years straight.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: If it was a fly on the wall,
28:39
SPEAKER_00: it would be a very interesting conversation because Really,
28:42
SPEAKER_00: we really didn't even talk about,
28:44
SPEAKER_00: we talked about football probably 10 minutes,
28:46
SPEAKER_00: went over the game plan, went over logistics, where he wanted me to be.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: If he's taking three steps, he wanted me to go five on a couple of routes, break it off.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of it, we talked about family.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
28:59
SPEAKER_00: And that's why when I see him talking on little podcasts, I'm like, all right, whatever.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: And it was really a relationship and no ill will, No hate, no nothing.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: And I was just one of those guys was just gonna shoot you straight.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: There wasn't gonna be no sugarcoating.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: There wasn't gonna be, I said this, I said that.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: It was just gonna be straight down the line.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: No doubt, Jermichael.
29:27
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
29:28
SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking about 2012 when we sat down for that feature I mentioned earlier
29:32
SPEAKER_01: and you stressed wanting to just freestyle and not have to overthink
29:37
SPEAKER_01: and play your ball.
29:39
SPEAKER_01: He probably felt a certain way, Aaron Rodgers, about that, right?
29:42
SPEAKER_01: Because he wants his receivers in a certain spot and an offense run a certain way.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: He is a mad scientist.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: There's a reason he'll be a first ballot Hall of Famer, four-time MVP, all of that.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: But, yeah, you know, what I'll say is this.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: When I wrote those stories that he referenced on that most recent podcast,
30:03
SPEAKER_01: Cam Hayward's Not Just Football, which...
30:05
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
30:06
SPEAKER_01: I watched the whole thing, and I'm like, this is awesome.
30:08
SPEAKER_01: Aaron Rodgers just letting loose on every topic.
30:11
SPEAKER_01: This is great.
30:12
SPEAKER_01: We only ask for transparency
30:15
SPEAKER_00: when we're talking to all these players, all these coaches.
30:17
SPEAKER_01: He's transparent.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you think about his opinions, it's what he thinks.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: And then he dropped that where he doesn't mention you and Greg Jennings by name,
30:27
SPEAKER_01: but it's the two teammates called you, quote, not a smart person.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: Which, hey, that's his own opinion.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
30:36
SPEAKER_00: I have my opinion.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: He has his.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
30:38
SPEAKER_00: And we do live in a country where you can say it's freedom of speech.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, man, really threw me off.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: I really didn't see it live or someone sent it to me.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: It was like, This guy don't know you don't think.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I don't think he does either.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
31:01
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, can't be too dumb.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I'm raising a family.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: I got a kid here in Notre Dame living really good.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: Really don't even think or have anything to say bad about him.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: But I just think,
31:15
SPEAKER_00: like I said,
31:16
SPEAKER_00: he's on a rampage of,
31:18
SPEAKER_00: I guess, making himself feel good or making himself feel, you know what I mean?
31:23
SPEAKER_00: Worthy.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: But his job is right now is to go win football games.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
31:27
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he's supposed to do.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: He's not supposed to worry about the past or anything that's going on now.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what that was all about.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: And I wish him nothing but the best.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, he knows nothing about me.
31:41
SPEAKER_00: I haven't heard his voice.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't heard my voice.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't seen my face.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen his face.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: But like I said, I'm a phone call away.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: And he can always hit my line and really see what I'm up to and really see
31:55
SPEAKER_00: the intelligence and the smarts I got.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: Because obviously what he said was dumb.
32:02
SPEAKER_01: And anybody who has five boys embraces fatherhood and keeps that at the top of
32:07
SPEAKER_01: the priority list is the smartest,
32:10
SPEAKER_01: most intelligent person in my book and a lot of people's books.
32:13
SPEAKER_01: When is the last time that you even talked to Aaron Rodgers?
32:17
SPEAKER_00: Realistically, probably when I left, when I was in the hospital.
32:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: Really?
32:23
SPEAKER_01: That's the last time you talked to him?
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Hospital, never really contacted each other outside of that.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: Never reached out.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: Never, yeah.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's about the last time.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: But like I said,
32:38
SPEAKER_00: me and McCarthy has been,
32:40
SPEAKER_00: we talked,
32:41
SPEAKER_00: the last time we talked was right before he took the Steelers job, though.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, I embraced his relationship We was in Green Bay together last year for a game.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: He was in a box,
32:52
SPEAKER_00: and we was just,
32:53
SPEAKER_00: when I say we, it was just like a reunite of just like all great energy.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm a big McCarthy fan, and McCarthy is my guy.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, I hope he does really well here with the Steelers.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, man, it's a game of what have you done for me lately too.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I know.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:18
SPEAKER_01: And just to defend you and Greg Jennings because you guys are taking those bullets.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: Look, I wrote a story of Bleach Report,
33:26
SPEAKER_01: I think,
33:26
SPEAKER_01: in 2016 and then another one a couple years later looking at the whole what
33:30
SPEAKER_01: the hell happened in Green Bay after Mike McCarthy was fired.
33:34
SPEAKER_01: And it was after that one when Aaron responded by calling you and Greg, quote,
33:39
SPEAKER_01: I want to say irrelevant and bitter,
33:42
SPEAKER_01: which has caught a lot of passes from Aaron Rodgers, you know.
33:45
SPEAKER_01: Greg, some of the most famous passes he's ever thrown in that Super Bowl.
33:49
SPEAKER_01: And you're laying your body on the line.
33:52
SPEAKER_01: Your career ends in that 2013 season, as we referenced.
33:56
SPEAKER_01: All I say is this.
33:58
SPEAKER_01: I'm calling as many people as I can, talking to as many people as I can.
34:01
SPEAKER_01: You two were willing to put your name on it.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: You're not alone, by the way.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: There are some names that would probably surprise people that agree with you two in
34:12
SPEAKER_01: the way that you described his leadership and him as a teammate.
34:16
SPEAKER_01: Not taking anything away as a player.
34:17
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, one of the best ever.
34:20
SPEAKER_01: But I don't know.
34:20
SPEAKER_01: I feel like your opinions matter.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: No doubt.
34:23
SPEAKER_01: If you're willing to put your name on it,
34:24
SPEAKER_01: if you're catching all these passes, you're there firsthand.
34:28
SPEAKER_01: And here you are kind of taking the high road as well.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, that matters for people to know.
34:37
SPEAKER_01: I'm reaching out to you.
34:38
SPEAKER_01: You're picking up the phone and simply answering questions.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, from here on out, I take the high road.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
34:47
SPEAKER_00: I have kids and people and
34:51
SPEAKER_00: I got bigger fish to fry.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: I got a lot of things going on in my life that's positive.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: And I want all my blessings, man.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: I want things that pan out right for me and the pieces move in the right direction for me.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: So everything I do from here on out will be Strategic, it would be in a smart way.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, Aaron Rodgers is one of the best quarterbacks to ever touch the pigskin.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: I really believe that.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, if you ever need me, want me, I'm here.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: And I'm always be straight down the line.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: Let's bring him on.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: Next week, Aaron, come on, if you're watching this.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: It's been 13 years.
35:36
SPEAKER_01: So there you go.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: What a great reunion.
35:39
SPEAKER_01: So you are spending those Saturdays together in the hotel.
35:42
SPEAKER_01: And that was before every game,
35:44
SPEAKER_01: just going over football stuff, talking life, because he referenced those as well.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, going over life, going over places.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: And we had cover two,
35:52
SPEAKER_00: we had cover three,
35:53
SPEAKER_00: we had cloud,
35:54
SPEAKER_00: what he wanted me to be, how he wanted to look, because he is the quarterback.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: So I had to listen.
36:00
SPEAKER_00: And it was just, it wasn't that I didn't know, things like that.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: It was just, If I got going in the middle of the field, it helps the other guys get open.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
36:12
SPEAKER_00: So I didn't get what he was saying.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: He had to help me.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't no help.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: It was just two guys,
36:20
SPEAKER_00: obviously,
36:20
SPEAKER_00: that didn't see eye to eye on things, and they just wanted us to come together.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't nothing like, oh, Finley didn't know it.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know this play.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know that play.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: It was just if Finley got the ball and got the game going,
36:35
SPEAKER_00: In the right way, guess what it does?
36:37
SPEAKER_00: It get the running game going.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: We can get the play action going and get the middle field open.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: Or we can get the shot plays on the outside to get Jordy Grigg, James Jones, driver.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: And at the time, it was Cobb was coming in at the bottom as a rookie or second year guy.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: So it was just really to get the relationship going.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: So I guess he lost his thought process of what it really was.
37:06
SPEAKER_01: Remember that in the moment in real time,
37:09
SPEAKER_01: that was what you would stress repeatedly is you just you really wanted
37:13
SPEAKER_01: a relationship off the field.
37:15
SPEAKER_01: You really knew how important that was for it to bleed on.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because if you if you look today's game,
37:19
SPEAKER_00: if if you have no relationship with the quarterback, it's nothing.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: I mean, now they handed out tons of money, tons of money to all the players at this point.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: So like the quarterback is the head of the quarterback.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: Of the offense, you know what I mean?
37:36
SPEAKER_00: So you got to, you got to be on the same page as him.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: You got to be seeing eye to eye with him.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: Cause if not,
37:44
SPEAKER_00: it's just,
37:45
SPEAKER_00: you're just not really maximizing the opportunity of what y'all can do in
37:50
SPEAKER_00: the offense.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: So, you know what I mean?
37:52
SPEAKER_00: I dropped my pride.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: I dropped everything I had and I was like, let's, let's get it going.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: Because if, if we,
37:58
SPEAKER_00: if we can get it going and,
38:00
SPEAKER_00: uh, Then everybody else in the offense would bloom, and it did bloom at the time.
38:08
SPEAKER_01: That's the thing,
38:08
SPEAKER_01: you had, I mean,
38:10
SPEAKER_01: you can go back to Donald Driver,
38:11
SPEAKER_01: Jordan Nelson, Greg Jennings, Randall Cobb, a lot of mouths to feed.
38:18
SPEAKER_01: You're producing still,
38:19
SPEAKER_01: I mean, so 2011, statistically your best season, 767, eight touchdowns, but...
38:30
SPEAKER_01: I remember we talked about it then into 2012.
38:32
SPEAKER_01: There's still this element of there aren't many human beings sculpted like Jermichael Finley.
38:38
SPEAKER_01: There's another tier here that everybody can feel, everybody can see.
38:42
SPEAKER_01: Then there's the ups and downs of 2012.
38:45
SPEAKER_01: But then it really did feel like in 2013,
38:48
SPEAKER_01: maybe you were turning a corner and figuring out who you could be as a player.
38:53
SPEAKER_01: I mean, take me through 12 to 13.
38:57
SPEAKER_01: Up to that game against the Browns,
38:58
SPEAKER_01: and where you thought your career was going,
38:59
SPEAKER_01: because it was your sixth year in the NFL,
39:02
SPEAKER_01: really five, because you missed all of 2010, all but five games.
39:06
SPEAKER_01: But where was that arrow really pointing for you?
39:09
SPEAKER_00: It was, the arrow was just unbelievable, just biggest day, biggest day.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: Man, it was going up.
39:19
SPEAKER_00: I looked at myself as going down as the greatest tight end to ever play
39:25
SPEAKER_00: the position,
39:26
SPEAKER_00: of one of the greatest tight ends to ever play the position,
39:29
SPEAKER_00: just because of, one,
39:30
SPEAKER_00: the quarterback I had,
39:31
SPEAKER_00: because I had a lot of respect for him and his ability to throw the ball,
39:36
SPEAKER_00: to the sort of offense McCarthy had created around the tight end and in
39:43
SPEAKER_00: the play-action game to get me open and to create mismatches.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: Which he did very, very well.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: And three,
39:52
SPEAKER_00: just the speed and the size that it was unequal to the linebacker's safeties,
39:59
SPEAKER_00: even when you want to split me out on the corner.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: And I just,
40:02
SPEAKER_00: at the time I got injured,
40:04
SPEAKER_00: it was devastating because I was really coming into my own at that time,
40:09
SPEAKER_00: literally at that time.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, I was supposed to have a yellow jacket on today.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: And so having it didn't,
40:19
SPEAKER_00: like I said,
40:20
SPEAKER_00: what I always tell people,
40:23
SPEAKER_00: if I don't have it on, one of my kids will have a yellow jacket.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
40:26
SPEAKER_00: Because I will implement all the things that I know and all the physical tools
40:32
SPEAKER_00: that I know how to get to that point into my kids.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I believe, man.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: I was coming into my own at that time.
40:43
SPEAKER_01: It's like the five Finlet adventures.
40:47
SPEAKER_01: They're coming for you.
40:48
SPEAKER_01: Here they are.
40:49
SPEAKER_01: They're coming.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: You're going to hear it over and over and over.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be Finley boys.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: Even if it's Major League Baseball, it's going to be something.
40:56
SPEAKER_00: You're going to hear them.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: That's most definitely.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what do you remember about that play where you got hurt?
41:05
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember it below or does it just kind of vanish from your memory?
41:09
SPEAKER_01: You ran a little slant, right?
41:10
SPEAKER_00: I remember bits and pieces.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: I remember, of course, the slant route.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: It was a quick read from Aaron Rodgers, quick release, caught the ball.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: Then when I looked up, that's when everything shut off.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: But other than that, man, it was just a bang-bang play.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: It was football.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't nothing he did wrong or right, nothing I did wrong or right.
41:33
SPEAKER_00: It was just such a quick bang-bang play that no one had time to think
41:38
SPEAKER_00: or no one had time to adjust to get my head up or anything like that.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: So it's part of the game.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: And I live by it and I die by it.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
41:50
SPEAKER_00: My career ended off of such a play where no one had time to adjust.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
41:58
SPEAKER_00: So it's like I said, Tyler is part of the game and it is what it is.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: It is.
42:08
SPEAKER_01: It's the most terrifying part of
42:09
SPEAKER_00: the game,
42:10
SPEAKER_01: though.
42:10
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's every player's worst fear.
42:12
SPEAKER_01: It always blows my mind covering a game up in the cozy confines of a press box,
42:17
SPEAKER_01: climate controlled.
42:18
SPEAKER_01: You can get some food in the back, get a little popcorn during the game.
42:22
SPEAKER_01: Some press boxes even give you beer.
42:24
SPEAKER_01: We're far removed from the violence of professional football.
42:29
SPEAKER_01: It always blows my mind, Jermichael, to watch a game.
42:32
SPEAKER_01: It just happened last week to the Packers.
42:35
SPEAKER_01: Jayden Reed against the Jets.
42:37
SPEAKER_01: First drive.
42:38
SPEAKER_01: And to see a player not moving,
42:42
SPEAKER_01: motionless,
42:43
SPEAKER_01: get peeled off of a turf,
42:45
SPEAKER_01: loaded onto an ambulance,
42:47
SPEAKER_01: driven off,
42:48
SPEAKER_01: and for those 10 other players on the field to then have
42:51
SPEAKER_01: to throw themselves right back
42:54
SPEAKER_00: into it.
42:54
SPEAKER_01: And it's so different when you're standing on the sideline
42:59
SPEAKER_01: and you hear these collisions and you see these collisions, you feel them up close.
43:04
SPEAKER_01: You're going through those mental...
43:21
SPEAKER_01: Computations.
43:22
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
43:23
SPEAKER_01: I got, we got it.
43:24
SPEAKER_01: You can't slow down because you're the one
43:27
SPEAKER_00: that gets hurt.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: And now it's happening to you.
43:29
SPEAKER_00: In practice, if you've seen that happen, it's called five yards up.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: You move five yards up and the training staff is back there handling that person.
43:36
SPEAKER_00: You're like, damn, the game is pretty vicious.
43:39
SPEAKER_00: This game is like, this is a cold blooded game.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, guess what?
43:45
SPEAKER_00: We signed up for it.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: And, um, You know what I mean?
43:49
SPEAKER_00: They are paying you a good amount of money to go out there and be a gladiator.
43:53
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
43:54
SPEAKER_00: And it's part of your job at the end of the day.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I tell my kids today.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: If you don't want to get hit,
44:03
SPEAKER_00: we might as well start really focusing on academics and let's get a good degree
44:10
SPEAKER_00: and let's go do something else or let's go to band or something.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't like getting collision or hit,
44:16
SPEAKER_00: we need to find something else for you to do.
44:18
SPEAKER_00: Or if you don't like going to get that just grit, just that work.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: Or if you don't like going with my 11-year-old now,
44:25
SPEAKER_00: it's like, Dad, I don't want to go to lessons today.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: I was like, well, let's go over here and get this book and read this book real fast.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't like the grind,
44:34
SPEAKER_00: if you don't like the dirty work of it, there's so many kids that need the grind.
44:41
SPEAKER_00: The sports world and need like the financial part of it.
44:45
SPEAKER_00: There's some kids out here that's hungry as hell that's really going
44:48
SPEAKER_00: to go like really work for this shit.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: So sorry for cursing, but really work for this and really want this.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: So like if you don't really want this, bro, that's how I talk to them.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: Like, let's go do something else.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: And then I'll get in their heads like, Dad, I'm ready to go to lessons, Dad.
45:06
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
45:06
SPEAKER_00: So, like, that's one thing I play, like, you know what I mean?
45:11
SPEAKER_00: I play mind games with my kids.
45:12
SPEAKER_00: Like, if you don't want this, like, let's do something else.
45:15
SPEAKER_00: And then next thing I know,
45:16
SPEAKER_00: I'll leave them alone,
45:17
SPEAKER_00: but I'll be in the room getting ready for lessons because I know he's about to come
45:21
SPEAKER_00: in and say, let's go.
45:21
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, well, I'm ready now.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, that's what I'm saying.
45:26
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's going to take.
45:27
SPEAKER_00: But it's going to take some time or another where daddy's not going to be able
45:31
SPEAKER_00: to have to give you this pep talk to get your butt up to go do this.
45:34
SPEAKER_00: So it's just part of the game.
45:37
SPEAKER_00: Like I said,
45:38
SPEAKER_00: I even got a field in back in my yard where a football field and like
45:43
SPEAKER_00: where we train day in and day out.
45:45
SPEAKER_00: It's like some hard ass work.
45:48
SPEAKER_00: And you see some of my training on Instagram, what we're doing, like it's tough.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: And the kids and I used to train,
45:56
SPEAKER_00: they'll tell you, like, Mr. Finley's workouts are, it's not no game.
46:00
SPEAKER_00: It's not a game.
46:01
SPEAKER_00: It's like, it's 30 minutes and it's up-tempo and it's got a sense of urgency on it.
46:06
SPEAKER_00: It's how I played and how I trained.
46:09
SPEAKER_00: That's how I train kids.
46:10
SPEAKER_00: And it's,
46:11
SPEAKER_00: it's what they,
46:12
SPEAKER_00: that's what, they're going to need it because nobody really gives, nobody cares.
46:16
SPEAKER_00: They want to see what can you do for me now.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I'm trying to teach these kids because when they get
46:21
SPEAKER_00: into collegiate sports, these coaches are going to say, What can you do for me?
46:26
SPEAKER_00: And it's just part of it.
46:27
SPEAKER_00: They might not tell you that, but that's what it is.
46:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you were a maniacal trainer.
46:35
SPEAKER_01: I remember as a player,
46:37
SPEAKER_01: you went one speed to turn your body into this well-oiled machine on Sundays.
46:44
SPEAKER_01: So your kids are going to live that.
46:46
SPEAKER_01: But I guess it's like a two-parter for you,
46:48
SPEAKER_01: Jermichael,
46:49
SPEAKER_01: because the way your career ended,
46:51
SPEAKER_01: the way football ended for you,
46:53
SPEAKER_01: Was there any hesitation for you as a dad to introduce football to your boys?
47:00
SPEAKER_01: And then is there any hesitation in their mind as they're deciding whether to play or not?
47:05
SPEAKER_01: Have they seen the highlight?
47:07
SPEAKER_01: Have they seen the play on YouTube?
47:09
SPEAKER_01: It's all out there.
47:10
SPEAKER_01: They can see their dad.
47:11
SPEAKER_00: We're in a world of kids getting phones early.
47:15
SPEAKER_00: We're in a world of TikToking and YouTube TV and all that.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: So they haven't seen it.
47:20
SPEAKER_00: But my two oldest ones, they stuck in the game.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: They love the game.
47:25
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, Caden's already in the collegiate sports, so he's in it.
47:30
SPEAKER_00: My 14-year-old is just, if you see him, he's just different.
47:34
SPEAKER_00: He's bigger than all the kids, faster than all the kids, so he's in it.
47:39
SPEAKER_00: Now my 11-year-old, he's like the lawyer doctor.
47:42
SPEAKER_00: He's like, so, Dad, I don't think I want to get hit, Dad.
47:46
SPEAKER_00: I was like, all right, Dan, bro, we'll put you at quarterback.
47:49
SPEAKER_00: You're going to have to be our pitcher, our first baseman.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: He was like, yeah, I think baseball is going to be at that.
47:55
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, all right, well, we're going to quit football.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: And now I got him straight baseball.
48:00
SPEAKER_00: But my nine-year-old, you'd think he was born in Dabal, Texas.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: He's a dog.
48:06
SPEAKER_00: He's different.
48:06
SPEAKER_00: He's like a Reggie Bush type.
48:08
SPEAKER_00: So he's going to be in the game too.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: And so, man,
48:11
SPEAKER_00: it's just like I said,
48:12
SPEAKER_00: it's, It's in them, it's in their blood, so it's nothing I can do at this point.
48:18
SPEAKER_01: That man of war.
48:20
SPEAKER_01: Like McCarthy said, it's in the blood.
48:22
SPEAKER_00: Finley, we need to teach you how to practice because you got one speed and we got
48:25
SPEAKER_00: to figure out how to adjust, like how to tempo your speed and practice.
48:29
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Coach, I'm sorry.
48:33
SPEAKER_00: I go one speed and that's what I'm going to do here.
48:36
SPEAKER_00: And he always said, we need to teach you how to practice.
48:39
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I didn't know you had to learn how to practice.
48:45
SPEAKER_01: In terms of like tempoing down?
48:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was like tempoing down.
48:48
SPEAKER_01: He said, Finley,
48:50
SPEAKER_01: he's like,
48:50
SPEAKER_01: Crazy H, you got one damn speed and we got to slow your ass down in practice, man.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: I was like, all right, I don't know what to do, coach.
48:58
SPEAKER_00: And I never adjusted, never figured out how to practice, quote unquote, to him.
49:03
SPEAKER_00: And I just had one speed and one speed only.
49:08
SPEAKER_01: When did you come to in the hospital?
49:11
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it was earlier then when you were in the hospital, that October night in 2013.
49:15
SPEAKER_00: When I came to, like, all my limbs came back.
49:19
SPEAKER_00: What you mean?
49:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, or even just, like, knowing where they are.
49:23
SPEAKER_00: It was probably the next day, but still had, like, the tingling, the feeling in my body.
49:31
SPEAKER_00: I had a lot going on, you feel what I'm saying?
49:34
SPEAKER_00: And it was tough to grasp, you know what I mean?
49:38
SPEAKER_00: Because I...
49:41
SPEAKER_00: Everything was just shut off.
49:43
SPEAKER_00: It was hard to even connect fingers and really turn my neck and had
49:48
SPEAKER_00: a little tingling sensation in my left arm and legs was dead.
49:54
SPEAKER_00: It took me probably two weeks or so to really just come to feeling some sort of my body.
50:02
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
50:04
SPEAKER_00: It was a hell of an ordeal, man.
50:06
SPEAKER_00: It was tough.
50:07
SPEAKER_00: It was tough.
50:10
SPEAKER_01: So when you were taken off the field,
50:12
SPEAKER_01: you went right to the hospital and you can't move at that point?
50:17
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what's happening in your mind?
50:19
SPEAKER_00: That was my first time I've ever been in an ambulance.
50:22
SPEAKER_00: You would think growing up in Section 8,
50:25
SPEAKER_00: you'd have been in an ambulance because we used to play a game called Killer Man.
50:30
SPEAKER_00: You throw the ball in the air and whoever touches the damn ball first gets hurt.
50:34
SPEAKER_00: You would think I'd have been hurt at some point, but that was my first time ever.
50:39
SPEAKER_00: Been on the stretcher, been in the ambulance.
50:42
SPEAKER_00: And the next thing I know, the media's there.
50:45
SPEAKER_00: I was just hearing a couple little things.
50:48
SPEAKER_00: So we got to take you down through the basement of the hospital.
50:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay.
50:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm just sitting there on this thing just shocked.
50:59
SPEAKER_00: When I say in a whirlwind, because everything's moving so fast, but really slow.
51:04
SPEAKER_00: You feel what I mean?
51:05
SPEAKER_00: And life is moving fast, but in my world, it's like, I'm still trying to gather all my senses.
51:11
SPEAKER_00: Next thing I know, they get me there, put me in the CAT scan and do all these things.
51:16
SPEAKER_00: I hear, I'm like, what the hell is going on?
51:18
SPEAKER_00: Cut my helmet off, cut my pants off.
51:22
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's moving fast.
51:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, what's going on?
51:25
SPEAKER_00: I was like, you're paralyzed.
51:27
SPEAKER_00: I was like, what?
51:29
SPEAKER_00: I said, what?
51:31
SPEAKER_00: I said, well, I haven't been able to play football again.
51:33
SPEAKER_00: I was like, This is the least of your words.
51:36
SPEAKER_00: You need to figure out how you're going to be able to live without sucking out a straw.
51:39
SPEAKER_00: I was like, what?
51:42
SPEAKER_00: Sucking out a damn straw?
51:43
SPEAKER_00: I was like, now we got a freaking problem.
51:47
SPEAKER_00: I was like, yeah, we don't think, I mean, it's 90-10.
51:52
SPEAKER_00: 90% of people don't come back.
51:54
SPEAKER_00: 10% of people do.
51:55
SPEAKER_00: So one out of 100 people come back from this injury.
51:59
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I just poured down to tears.
52:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what the living hell.
52:04
SPEAKER_00: And, uh, it was just one of those things.
52:06
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
52:08
SPEAKER_01: That was in the hospital.
52:09
SPEAKER_01: You're hearing all this from the doctor.
52:11
SPEAKER_00: Shit, Lord, because I'm asking him, like, would I be playing, like, playing again?
52:15
SPEAKER_00: Because I, you knew me.
52:17
SPEAKER_00: I love the game.
52:18
SPEAKER_00: I was like, shit, I need to be back on that field.
52:23
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, uh.
52:25
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, you can't move, really.
52:27
SPEAKER_01: What can you move at that point?
52:28
SPEAKER_01: Anything?
52:29
SPEAKER_01: Because when, once you get a spinal cord injury,
52:32
SPEAKER_00: um, They don't want you.
52:34
SPEAKER_00: They can't move you.
52:35
SPEAKER_00: You can't move.
52:36
SPEAKER_00: I could move just from my senses, but they can't even move you.
52:41
SPEAKER_00: They can't torque you and do all that because you're sensitive at the time.
52:46
SPEAKER_00: Things can break.
52:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking them like, I need to be back on that field next week.
52:53
SPEAKER_00: I was like, you need to simmer down.
52:56
SPEAKER_00: I was like...
52:57
SPEAKER_00: Next week.
52:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know what I mean?
52:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I need to be back out there.
53:00
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, it don't look good.
53:03
SPEAKER_00: Because at that point, they're thinking you could be paralyzed from the next down.
53:08
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's a possibility for life.
53:10
SPEAKER_00: And so after that, man,
53:13
SPEAKER_00: I was just so just messed up in the head from,
53:17
SPEAKER_00: you know what I mean,
53:18
SPEAKER_00: that upward trajectory I was going on and just figuring out the game.
53:22
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm laying paralyzed on the hospital bed.
53:25
SPEAKER_00: And Having Courtney steer me around with the belt,
53:29
SPEAKER_00: learning how to walk again at some point down the road.
53:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, she helped me use the restroom.
53:36
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what the hell is going on here?
53:38
SPEAKER_00: I was just a superstar in the National Football League.
53:41
SPEAKER_00: And now, I mean, it's a possibility I can be a vegetable.
53:45
SPEAKER_00: And so that didn't sit with me right, you know what I mean?
53:49
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah.
53:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what's going through your mind?
53:54
SPEAKER_01: When you go from ascending...
53:56
SPEAKER_01: You're thinking gold jacket, one of the best to ever do it to, I might be a vegetable.
54:01
SPEAKER_00: A lot is at the time, a lot as far as like, screw all of this, you know what I mean?
54:08
SPEAKER_00: Forget it, you know what I mean?
54:10
SPEAKER_00: After that, you know what I mean?
54:12
SPEAKER_00: Coming back,
54:12
SPEAKER_00: little senses coming back here and there,
54:15
SPEAKER_00: then I'm really grasping like,
54:18
SPEAKER_00: I went, I came back, my limbs are coming back after a couple months.
54:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm back lifting weights and getting back strong to try to push back to the NFL.
54:28
SPEAKER_00: And then I get to the Steelers because the Steelers doctor, Dr. Maroon, done my surgery.
54:33
SPEAKER_00: And then I get wheeled out the surgery.
54:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm passing WWE, John Cena.
54:41
SPEAKER_00: Man, he's getting wheeled out from getting the next surgery.
54:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting wheeled in.
54:46
SPEAKER_00: He was right next to it.
54:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
54:47
SPEAKER_01: No way.
54:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm getting wheeled out,
54:50
SPEAKER_00: and John Cena coming out with the same neck injury,
54:53
SPEAKER_00: because you know in WWE, you get slammed, so they get the same type of injury.
54:58
SPEAKER_00: They get it daily.
55:01
SPEAKER_01: This was the C3, C4 fusion that you had done?
55:04
SPEAKER_00: Yep, and get that surgery,
55:06
SPEAKER_00: come back stronger,
55:07
SPEAKER_00: start lifting again, get back out to Scottsdale lifting with Ian Danny, the trainer.
55:12
SPEAKER_00: And then I pushed back, got back swole, got back ready to go.
55:15
SPEAKER_00: Went out to Seahawks, visit Snyder down in Seahawks.
55:20
SPEAKER_00: Went to the Steelers, visited the Steelers.
55:22
SPEAKER_00: And then Steelers was ready to go.
55:24
SPEAKER_00: I was like, you know, you're ready.
55:26
SPEAKER_00: You're ready to go.
55:28
SPEAKER_00: Then went, because we was doing a contract also with Snyder and Seahawks at the time.
55:34
SPEAKER_00: And they came back and was like, no, I wouldn't do this if I was you.
55:38
SPEAKER_00: I was ready to go to at the facility.
55:42
SPEAKER_00: And all of the grand scheme, getting back to the NFL.
55:46
SPEAKER_00: And Snyder was like, oh, bro, you got a bruise on your spinal cord.
55:53
SPEAKER_00: Our neurology doctor said, I wouldn't let this kid come back.
55:57
SPEAKER_00: And next thing I know, I went out to Mayo Clinic, said the same exact thing.
56:02
SPEAKER_00: So a couple people say that.
56:04
SPEAKER_00: I had to listen at some point.
56:06
SPEAKER_00: I was like,
56:06
SPEAKER_00: if you get even tapped one more time with your head,
56:09
SPEAKER_00: That's when that straw, the sucker that straw came back.
56:11
SPEAKER_00: I was like, uh, Courtney was like, you're going to be a dumb MF if you come back.
56:18
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, yeah, I would be.
56:20
SPEAKER_00: I was like, then I had the,
56:24
SPEAKER_00: then I had to go, I had the insurance policy at the time on my body.
56:31
SPEAKER_00: So I was like,
56:32
SPEAKER_00: she was like,
56:33
SPEAKER_00: if you do the math,
56:35
SPEAKER_00: you get the,
56:37
SPEAKER_00: Several million dollars and you got to pay in the NFL another five years
56:40
SPEAKER_00: to get this equal up to.
56:42
SPEAKER_00: Let's just take this issue to the policy, sir.
56:46
SPEAKER_00: And so I did.
56:47
SPEAKER_01: Blake Barrett's Institute for Athletes for the one there, right?
56:51
SPEAKER_00: Still my brother today.
56:53
SPEAKER_00: And we've done that, man.
56:57
SPEAKER_00: And what a time it's been.
56:58
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, it's been a miracle.
57:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm here probably in the best shape now of my life, too, also.
57:06
SPEAKER_00: And just living the American dream, though.
57:10
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
57:11
SPEAKER_01: Man, that's why we have to listen to our wives, right?
57:13
SPEAKER_01: Because, I mean,
57:14
SPEAKER_01: the competitor in you,
57:16
SPEAKER_01: that man of war, that dog, that kid from the country of Texas is dying to play.
57:23
SPEAKER_01: I mean, right?
57:23
SPEAKER_01: Like, you're probably in the best shape of your life.
57:26
SPEAKER_01: Kill those workouts.
57:27
SPEAKER_01: Seattle, Pittsburgh, you're close.
57:29
SPEAKER_01: You're on the cusp.
57:31
SPEAKER_01: But these doctors are telling you,
57:34
SPEAKER_01: really – If you hit,
57:36
SPEAKER_01: if you take a head to head, if you hit wrong awkwardly in a certain way.
57:40
SPEAKER_00: You can be really back to sucking out that straw, like seriously.
57:45
SPEAKER_00: And so listen to that.
57:46
SPEAKER_00: Went to the best hospital in America and Mayo Clinic down there in Minnesota.
57:52
SPEAKER_00: And they told me the same thing.
57:54
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, kudos to y'all.
57:55
SPEAKER_00: Thank y'all for to go live my life.
57:59
SPEAKER_00: And I did that.
58:00
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, now I can just implement it to all my kids that.
58:05
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
58:06
SPEAKER_00: Hard work does pay off, but you got to be smart, too.
58:12
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's allow you to dream, though, for a second.
58:14
SPEAKER_01: If this collision ever happens, what would you have done with the rest of your career?
58:19
SPEAKER_00: If it would have never happened, for sure, probably would have been the best.
58:23
SPEAKER_00: It would have been hell on the NFL.
58:25
SPEAKER_00: I would have seen something that.
58:26
SPEAKER_00: Probably they haven't seen at that time.
58:29
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
58:30
SPEAKER_00: For sure what I did,
58:32
SPEAKER_00: the numbers of what they predicted for me would have beat all odds for sure,
58:36
SPEAKER_00: which I already have beat all odds,
58:38
SPEAKER_00: but really just smacked the stats in the face and would have been getting prepared
58:44
SPEAKER_00: to put that yellow jacket on.
58:47
SPEAKER_00: That's most definitely.
58:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
58:50
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're probably talking some more Super Bowls,
58:52
SPEAKER_01: too, because you look at those playoff losses that came in 13 and 14 and 15 and 16.
59:00
SPEAKER_01: You probably would have made a difference in those games.
59:03
SPEAKER_00: No doubt.
59:04
SPEAKER_00: And it would have been at least two more Super Bowls there in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
59:09
SPEAKER_00: That's 100%.
59:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
59:12
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
59:12
SPEAKER_01: To be able to pour into your boys, I got to think it's the most fulfilling sensation.
59:19
SPEAKER_00: Anybody could have.
59:20
SPEAKER_01: Forget player, just a human being.
59:23
SPEAKER_01: It's got to be just so gratifying to see them loving football,
59:26
SPEAKER_01: loving sports, loving life, and becoming the boys, becoming the men that they are.
59:31
SPEAKER_00: It is one of the most fulfilling things on earth,
59:34
SPEAKER_00: man, to see my boys just pan out to where they're going and who they are today.
59:40
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the most fulfilling things that I didn't conquer here in life and
59:46
SPEAKER_00: on earth as we speak, bro.
59:51
SPEAKER_01: I've already kept you longer than you planned for, but you were in Lambeau.
59:55
SPEAKER_01: How was that return for Caden's game, stepping out of that field?
1:00:01
SPEAKER_01: I'm guessing, was it for the first time since 2013?
1:00:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was surreal.
1:00:05
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
1:00:07
SPEAKER_00: The crazy part is, my kid started his career where my career ended.
1:00:12
SPEAKER_00: So it was one of them divine moments where, like, this is what's supposed to happen.
1:00:16
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
1:00:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:00:19
SPEAKER_00: He came over.
1:00:19
SPEAKER_00: Usually he's on the other side of the rope.
1:00:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm the player.
1:00:23
SPEAKER_00: He was the kid and whatnot.
1:00:25
SPEAKER_00: Then so happened he went back to Green Bay.
1:00:28
SPEAKER_00: He was the player.
1:00:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm over there like a fan.
1:00:30
SPEAKER_00: Like he came over.
1:00:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, hey, Roll Switch over here.
1:00:35
SPEAKER_00: And it was just like, man, when I say like experience that I never, never imagined.
1:00:40
SPEAKER_00: It was just like bone chilling.
1:00:43
SPEAKER_00: Green Bay was, it was rocking.
1:00:45
SPEAKER_00: That stadium was going.
1:00:47
SPEAKER_00: And, uh, He was jacked up and juiced up, ready to go.
1:00:50
SPEAKER_00: And it was just very exciting to see him.
1:00:54
SPEAKER_00: Just so excited and just full of just, man, he was jacked.
1:01:00
SPEAKER_00: He was jacked.
1:01:01
SPEAKER_01: But what about you?
1:01:02
SPEAKER_01: It had been a good feeling for you because as a player and then even
1:01:06
SPEAKER_01: since you've been done playing, fans have kind of been all over the place, right?
1:01:10
SPEAKER_01: Taking the cue from the quarterback.
1:01:11
SPEAKER_01: If he says a certain thing about Jermichael Finley,
1:01:13
SPEAKER_01: of course, they're going to support the quarterback.
1:01:15
SPEAKER_01: Even on the field, there were ups and downs.
1:01:18
SPEAKER_01: To be out there at Lambeau, I imagine they're yelling your name, they're cheering for you.
1:01:22
SPEAKER_01: It's got to be universal at this point that they love Jermichael Finley.
1:01:26
SPEAKER_01: That had to have been a cool feeling.
1:01:27
SPEAKER_00: Very cool feeling, man.
1:01:29
SPEAKER_00: Very cool feeling for my family.
1:01:31
SPEAKER_00: All the boys was there that had the 18 jerseys on,
1:01:34
SPEAKER_00: had Cadence jerseys on,
1:01:36
SPEAKER_00: and they was hanging over the rails, just jacked up, had them on the sideline.
1:01:40
SPEAKER_00: We got to see them at pregame warm-up, running out the tunnel.
1:01:44
SPEAKER_00: And it was just, man, it was...
1:01:47
SPEAKER_00: It was a feeling that I won't be feeling for a long time.
1:01:51
SPEAKER_00: It was a great feeling.
1:01:53
SPEAKER_00: It was.
1:01:54
SPEAKER_00: And now he's a diehard Packer fan.
1:01:59
SPEAKER_01: This was amazing.
1:02:01
SPEAKER_01: I got to let you go.
1:02:02
SPEAKER_01: We have to do it again, Jermichael.
1:02:03
SPEAKER_01: We can do it again.
1:02:04
SPEAKER_01: Anytime.
1:02:04
SPEAKER_01: Folks love hearing from you and probably want your thoughts on these Packers, too.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_01: And Tucker Craft, now they have a tight end.
1:02:11
SPEAKER_01: Finally, it's been 13 years.
1:02:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:02:14
SPEAKER_01: But we'll have to do it again.
1:02:16
SPEAKER_01: This was great.
1:02:17
SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for taking the time.
1:02:18
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, too, man.
1:02:19
SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_00: We're going to run it back, and we're going to make this a thing.
1:02:23
SPEAKER_00: So I look forward to it.
1:02:27
SPEAKER_01: Hell, yeah.
1:02:28
SPEAKER_01: I heard the man.
1:02:29
SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much, J. Mike.
1:02:30
SPEAKER_00: See you soon.