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Inside the Charge: Alec Anderson talks Offensive Line Pizza Parties, his unique upbringing, and more! · Inside the Charge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome into this week's episode of Inside the Charge. Maddi
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: glab alongside of one of our offensive linemen, Alec Anderson.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: You guys know him as nomber seventy is reporting as eligible.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: He does a great job of that every single game.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about what it's like to be the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: sixth offensive lineman. Can talk pizza, fashion and more. It's
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: gonna be a good episode. Aleck, thanks for hanging out
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: with us right off the practice field a little bit sweaty.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Had a good day out there. I'm glad the sun
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: is still shining in November. You have been a part
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: of this lineup this season. The Bills use six offensive
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: linemen more than any other team does in the NFL
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: right now, and we know when you report as eligible,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: you're going into the lineup as offensive lineman number six.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: What's the best part of doing that.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am, it is. It is a great time. The
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: best part about it, I would have to say, is
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: just knowing we're gonna get positive yards.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: I think it's super fun that we get to use
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: it as much as we do because I feel like
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: they're interesting, not just me, but the entire offensive line
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: of you know, putting the extra big guy in and
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: knowing like, yo, y'all got to get those yards. And
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I think it's so much fun when I get to
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: go in and we just get to get first downs
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: and move the chains.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: That is quite the mindset going in knowing you're gonna
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: get positive yards. It happens almost all the time when
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: you report is eligible. I would agree, where does that
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: mindset come from?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Comes from just myself and my family. I'd say growing
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: up we were all very competitive. We all played sports,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: from my grandparents all the way down to me and
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: my brother who are the youngest in the family, and
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: everybody in between. So I think growing up playing sports
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: with all your siblings and your older siblings, you kind
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: of get more of a competitive mindset. And I think
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: also for me, it's a sense of pride. I think
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: offensive linemen have a different type of pride than most
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: human beings that walk the earth, and so I think
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: just also that is a driving factor as well, like
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to let my other five boys down
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: that are playing, you know, just as hard every place.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: So I think it's a sense of pride that also
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: gets me in that mindset of like, all right, let's
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: go out there, move this person in front of me
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: and get James and Ray and tie a hole to
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: run through.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, you said offensive linemen have a different sense of
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: pride than other people that walk this earth. I'm going
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: to take that a step further. I think Alec Anderson
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: has a different type of pride than people that walk
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: this earth. You have the vibe Alec that is like,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: do not mess with me, Yeah, in a fun way,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: in a mean way on the field. Where does that
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: come from?
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I think it comes from just me being a competitive
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: person and really wanting to just be as aggressive as
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: I can under control, though with great technique. I've had
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: to learn that just over the years of you know,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: be in a controlled mindset, and I think from some
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: of the books that I've read about mindset and competitive toughness,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: I think the worst type of chaos is controlled chaos.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: And so I've tried to adapt that mentality to myself
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: over the years, and this year it's helped a lot
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: because I'm in, I'm out, I'm up and down, So
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: it really keeps you even keel the entire game and
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: saving up that energy of when all right, when I
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: go in, like it's let loose good technique. Try to
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: just smash that person in front of you into the
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: ground and do your job.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: How hard is it to smash the person in front
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: of you into the ground, but do it in a
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: controlled way.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: It is easy. It's easier than most people think because
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Chromer has great technique. And so when we use our
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: technique and you play long and use the proper stuff
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: you're supposed to use, I think it's it's easier to
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: execute your job and when For me, I think also
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: growing up doing different sports, wrestling was the main one.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: On the side, I also can you know, feel sometimes
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: people are off balance and when they're going to try
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: to shift their weight to the other side and toss
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  Speaker 2: me by. So it's a more feeling out thing as well.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: You talked about going in and out of lineup, in
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: and out of lineup. You know, when you're playing on
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: offense and defense. Sure you might be in for a
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: certain package or play here and there, you know you're
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: on third down, it switches up, But I feel like
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: you are in your own type of world, you know,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: reporting in and out of the game throughout the entire game.
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  Speaker 1: How do you view that and how do you were
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  Speaker 1: able to like snap into it, snap out of it,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: snap into it, snap out of it.
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  Speaker 2: I think it just as you have to adapt to it,
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  Speaker 2: like okay everything. The first couple of weeks, you go
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: out there and the adrenaline is just massive, and so the.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: First calm yourself at.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the breathing techniques really helps. So I try
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: to go four seconds in through my nose, hold it
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: for a second, and then go six seconds out to
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: try to get as much fresh oxygen out and all that.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Are you doing that right before you get onto the field,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: or once you're on the field.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Once I come out, once you come So once I
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: go in, it's more of we're in the huddle, Josh
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  Speaker 2: calls the play, I go snap, and we get to
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: the we get to the line, do the play. I
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: come out and you're just pulsing, just jacked up, And
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: so that's when I'll come out because I know we
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: most likely want go back to back on it, and
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: so I take my couple breaths and then I'm back
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: down to chilling and then bringing the energy on the
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: sideline when somebody has a big catch or a big play.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Your journey on this team is a really cool one.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: You you come here and you're an undrafted free agent
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: out of UCLA. You spent your rookie season on the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: practice squad. Now you're on the active roster. How did
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: you earn the spot of doing what you're doing this
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: season playing as much as you are.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: I think it's that mentality that you kind of mentioned earlier.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: It's how I approach myself and life and my business
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: and football is my business. And so I think that
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: last year when I was on the active for the
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: first time, I felt a sense of accomplishment of like awesome, Like,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: you know, one step further. You're undrafted guy, you made
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: it onto the active Now what's that next thing? I'm
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: always looking to, you know, get better as a competitor,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: and so the next thing was how can I help
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: the team on the field now? And so this past
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: offseason that's all I had my side step for. It was,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: you know, making the fifty three, but being that swing
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: offensive linement and also the sixth man that they can
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: count on to throw into any position when they need
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: me to. And I think I'd fulfilled that. And so it's,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: you know, great to have this sense of accomplishment this
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: season and I'm looking forward to, you know, the future
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  Speaker 2: years of it.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: You came in here as a tackle, I believe, and
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: then you moved over to guard and now you're also
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: our backup center. How crazy was that to learn everything
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: once you got here.
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  Speaker 2: It was my rookie year. We were going into the
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: bye week and we get there and Crow. It was
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: like the week before the bye week last game. Kerm
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: was like, hey, can you play center? And heck, yeah, man,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: I was like I can snap. I was like, oh,
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  Speaker 2: you've done it before. I was like, yeah, I've done
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: it before. And he was like, okay, Like let's take
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: a couple. So we did a couple and he was like,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: all right, it's not bad. It's not bad, Like you
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  Speaker 2: can work on some stuff. I was like, awesome. The
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: first time I snapped was my what is it? Pro
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  Speaker 2: day at UCLA and that was probably a mistake. But
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: other than that, after that, I went home on our
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: bye week, and the entire time for the bye week,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: I probably spent two hours a day snapping to my mom,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: my dad, my uncle, and my aunt and sometimes my brother.
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  Speaker 1: So wh whoever was home, shout out to the family.
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  Speaker 2: Shout out to the family, and then I made a
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: little baseball net with like a cardboard box into it
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: as the strike zone where to hit Josh in the chest.
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  Speaker 2: And every day before I I was like going off
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: roading or to the beach. I had to get twenty
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: into the hole and snap it into the strike zone.
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  Speaker 2: And so I figured that out and came back a
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: week later and did a decent enough job to where
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: they interested me to keep going.
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  Speaker 1: So that is awesome. It's wild. I love the confidence
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  Speaker 1: that you're like, hey, I can do it. Throw me
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: in there. I'm gonna give it a try, and then
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: you're gonna tell me it's good enough, and I'm gonna
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: go home.
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  Speaker 2: And if it's not, I'm just gonna fix it. I'm
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: gonna be I'm gonna try to fix as much as
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: I can.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Alec. We talked about the vibe a little bit, But
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: what do your teammates say about you and your personality?
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: I would say, who said it this? I think it
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: was smiling and I were talking. He was saying that
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  Speaker 2: I'm the nicest mean person he's ever met, and so
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: I think that comes off just off the field. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I'm willing to always help out and you know, give
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: a lending hand of people that need it, pulled people
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: out of the snow plenty of times in Buffalo, not
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: knowing how to drive in the snow. So other than that,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: I think the teammates, my teammates would say that I'm
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: a jokester but also a hard worker when we need
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: to get down to business. And I think throughout camp
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: this year, last year, the previous year, everybody knows that
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  Speaker 2: I won't shy away from a fight. Oh no, you
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: my teammates need me to be there.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Who's in the scuffle, Oh there's Alec again.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's but it's fun, you know, it's I I
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: think that's a sense of pride as well. Yeah, you know,
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: somebody's not gonna mess with my my family here in Buffalo,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: and I'm willing to go to really any links to
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: make sure my people are protected.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Alec, one of your uncles is on this coaching staff,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the assistant Special Teams coach, Corey Harky, who is an
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: awesome guy. How unique is it to have family on
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the coaching staff.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: It's crazy. I didn't know until I got here. He's
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: his brother, Tony is married to my mom's youngest sister,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: and so He's my uncle by association, not blood, and
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: so I grew up and knew he played for the
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Rams and he went to UCLA. And it was funny
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: because I went to UCLA by coincidence, not really knowing
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: that he went there. And then I would train in
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: high school and he'd come home, and every now and
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: then I'd go train with him and just go see
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: what a NFL guy did. And then we kind of
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: lost touch. And I got here and I was walking
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: through the building. I was like, oh, crap, where you
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: are here?
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: He was like, yeah, I am. I was like, oh, awesome.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: So it was It's really nice being able to go
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: to him and talk to him whenever, whenever I feel
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: like I need to, and vice versa for him. And
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: it's nice seeing his wife Bianca here and the two children,
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: and so it's a great time having the family, you know,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: away from California.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Home away from home.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Cali's a far place away, it is, but you know,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: when you're here on business, you can't you can't dwell
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: on it.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: How have you adjusted a Cali kid into the Buffalo atmosphere? Weather?
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: It was to the Jurassics, I was in the desert
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: and so growing up, it'd get one hundred and fifteen
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: one hundred and ten hundred and twenty out there in
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: the Inland Empire and coming to hear flipped opposite negative twenty.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: So it gets cold. But I think, honestly, for me,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: it's just I've always been in an adaptive person, and
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: so it'll be cold. But one thing my dad always
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: told us, you know, you can be sick, but don't
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: act sick. And so if you are cold, you can
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: be cold, but don't go out there and complaining about it,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: because it doesn't do anything but bring down the morale
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: and bring down the energy.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: You fit Buffalo too. I don't know you give me
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Buffalo vibes. You've been here for a few years.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: It's great. I love being here. I think it's a fun,
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: fun place.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: We love it too. Your offensive line men, your teammates,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: they do pizza parties. Started with Connor McGovern saying, hey,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I can cook a mean a me and pizza, and
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: then left tackle Dion Dawkins said, all right, show me,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: show me what you can do. And and last season
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: you guys started to come together for Connor's pizza and
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: other things, and you started to win games. And now
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: that has turned into a second season of doing so
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: how are the pizza gatherings this year?
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: The pizza gatherings are super fun. I think it's a
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: great time to kind of pause in the middle of
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: the week and mentally unplugged from the game plan and
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: you know, the long season that we have, and it's
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: just awesome to be able to break bread with your
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: brothers and know, really hang out and talk and get
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: to know each other even more. And it's every week
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: it's more and more fun. And so we all look
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: forward to going. And I think Connor does a great
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: job making a the Detroit style pizzas and his pepperoni
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: with the hot honey on top is amazing. And then
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: he makes the appetizer. I think the appetizers are the best.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: His steak bites, he has this like homemade sauce with
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: some like bell peppers and cheese on top of some steak. Amazing, fire,
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: very very good.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, what's your pizza order?
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: My pizza order at Connor's. I'll do one. I'll do
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: two slices of the hot honey pepperoni, and then I'll
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: do some cheese, and then I'll do some of the
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: the deep dish one and then he has one of these,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: like they look like muffins with their little pizzas, and
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: it's those ones are good too, nice and just moist.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: So you're a deep dish man.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: I'm just a Connor pizza fi.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's incredible that he does that much work for
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: you guys. I mean it's not easy.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: He puts hours into cooking pizza.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: And he's cooking his Is he cooking his own dough too?
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Or he preps his own do prepping his own dough.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Wow, you guys have a busy life here. He also
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: has a baby in his life and then to do that. Wow,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: what a teammate, What a teammate, What a leader.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: That's what a center is for, right.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: I love it. So you have an uncle on the
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: team who's on the coaching staff. You also have a
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: family member who is the owner of Vans?
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Yes, how old?
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: How many Van Vans things do you have? How much
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Van's clothing?
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: I have a lot. I have a lot of shoes.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: I buy all of them. Now, I don't get the hand.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: They don't have a code for us.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: No, no, I don't. I wish, trust me, I'd be
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: using it more than anybody. But yeah, I have probably
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: maybe thirty forty.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Pairs of vans, Oh my gosh.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Because my rule is anytime I go into a van's
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: store and there's a size six to that I don't
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: have at home, I will buy it.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Is it hard to find a size sixteen in a
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: van store?
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Super hard? Mainly I have to go online and buy
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: some of them and like custom make them. But nice
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: little nuggets that I go in there and they do
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: have them, I'll just buy them right there on the spot.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: And so it's fun.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: What's your favorite pair?
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: My favorite pair have to be maybe the new ones,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: the like the old school with the fat tongues. Okay,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: those ones are really comfy. I like those ones a lot.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: And then also maybe they're it's their classic skating shoe.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: That one's always awesome. I always have a pair of
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: those lying around, even if they're super old, and that's
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: the thing I wear mine until they have a hole
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: in the bottom, and so I love them.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Wow, So you were the crap out of them? All right,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: I'll give another pair.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: I got the van's bus tattooed on my leg.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: No way.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: I have a whole California little mural and so I
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: have the Van's bust going.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, you're Cali kid, You're related to the Van Zonner.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: You got the Vans bus tattooed on you. You're talking
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: about skate shoes. Were you skater boy in a former life?
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Did you ever dabble with that as a kid?
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: I did dabble. I dabbled in BMX riding and slightly skating.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: Most I could do is probably an allie and half
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: a kick flip too crazy.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: It's better than most you do, like off roading, I'd
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: love off roading. Is that just the next step? Like
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: if I can't be a mex bike, we're going to
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: do this in a car.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: I think no more came from just me wanting to
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: seek adventure. My family. We grew up no TV on
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: while the sun is up, and so I was outside
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: all day in the summer until the sun went down,
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: and then we didn't really want to watch TV. So
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: probably every Friday we'd do a family movie night. We'd
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: go bike down the Blockbuster. If anybody remembers something, we
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: go bike down a Blockbuster as a family, pick out
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: two movies, and then go get some ice cream from
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: the store, and we'd all bike back home and then
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: we'd shower, sit on the couch, watch a movie, go
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: to bit.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: I love that too.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: So I always kind of been naturally drawn to the
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: outdoors and loved doing it with my brother, my two
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: best friends, Domin Hunter, and then my cousins Connor and Brennan.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: We always go for at least a couple of days
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: to just go off roading and camp out there and
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: just kind of get back be one with nature and
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: kind of, you know, calm yourself down.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Do you like to do that in the off season?
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Get out?
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Oh, I love it.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Get out of Buffalo, get out of wherever you're living
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: in the off season, and kind of just lived the
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: outdoorsy life.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: My dad and I. That's why I have a tattoo
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: here of the Route sixty six on the van's bus.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: My dad and I did a road trip last year
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: after season from Buffalo all the way to California, and
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: we had nine states and so that's awesome. It was
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: a great time. I drove like thirteen and a half
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: hours the first day and we just kept trucking, made
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: it all the way to Colorado, slept next to the
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Colorado River, which was a bucket list thing. For me,
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: I've always kind of want to do that just because
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: it runs for so long and made it all the
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: way home through Utah, stayed at Zion National Force. If
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: you haven't been there, you should really check it out,
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: like beautiful and yeah, and so this year, my girlfriend
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: and I we're going to do a road trip from
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: Buffalo down to the Keys all the way to Florida.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: So that'll be fun.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty cool. When you were in high school, you
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: had your own moving company. I did call the Suns
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: for a day. You've got an entrepreneur entrepreneurial mindset. Where
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: does that come from? Do you have anything in the
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: works right now?
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: In the works, I can't give that out because I
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: want to put a patent on it first, but possibly, yeah,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: for offense alignment, so we'll colling soon exactly coming soon.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: You never know, protective gear, so we'll kind to see
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: where that goes. But no, it was more from my dad.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: We didn't get allowances, and so he was very much
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: into the because he's from Germany and so he's a
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: foreigner and he's always big into the American dream and like,
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: you know, making your own your own way in America
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: and life as a man. So I kind of just
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: took that to heart and I went into Xbox and
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: my dad was like, all right, just got to save
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: up for it. And so my best friend and I
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: dom He and I and high school made sons for
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: a day and our slogan was, We'll do anything you
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: want for a day. You can watch a football game
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: with you. And so we went to people's houses and
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: just did everything. Hung up lights, moved him out of houses,
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: moved into new houses, did manual laborers and like mowed
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: their front lawn, their back lawn, did their pools, all
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: that stuff.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: What's the weirdest thing you did?
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Weirdest thing?
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: I did?
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: Nothing too crazy. Everything was kind of normal. But most
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: of my brother and I moved somebody one time and
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: we were this big painting and we're like carrying down
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: the stairs and he was this. The owner came by
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: and just started chuckling. He was like, hey, guys, don't
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: drop that twenty million dollar painting.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Was like what?
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: And so we laughed and didn't think anything. Yeah, we
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: didn't think anything of it. And so we put into
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: the truck and I was like, excuse me, sir, Like
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: how much is that painting? Actually? And he was like,
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: oh no, that's actually twenty million. I was like, gosh,
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: all right, appreciate like the heads up on that one.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: So that's the most expensive thing that I had to move.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Your dad is from Germany. When did he move to
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: the United States.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: He moved here. I think when he was like fourteen
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: or fifteen years old. My grandfather, his dad was told
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: to go to the military and fight in Vietnam, and
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: so he went fought in Vietnam, met my oma over there,
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: and then her and him lived out there for a
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: long time until after Vietnam, and then they came back
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: to the States when my dad and his sister were
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: in their teenage years and then yeah, they moved out
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: to southern California and Pasadena lived out there.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Very cool. One more question before we go, because I
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: know you got meetings coming up This month in November
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: is Native American Heritage Month. You have a tie to tribe.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: What is the tribe and how does that trace in
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: your family?
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: So it traces from my dad's dad, my Opah, who
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: is from Evansville, Indiana, and his mom's side is Blackfoot
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Native American, and so you have a little bit of
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: that running through our veins, and so I think it's
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: awesome that, you know, I have so much you know,
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: diversity in me Irish. I'm German. My dad's half black,
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: so that makes me a little bit black, and I'm
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: also Native American and it's just really interesting to you know,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: be able to see America and myself as in a
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: melting pot, you know, And it's kind of, you know,
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: a little bit honoring to know that you have a
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: little bit more ancestry ties to hear, how.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Do you walk through life with all of that, like myself.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: It's cool, It's it's awesome. It's funny because a lot
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: of people don't expect it, and Dion loves to make
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: sure everybody knows it and so that you can see
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: how that goes. But it's it's fun I think it's awesome,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: you know, knowing because I do appear as a you know,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: a white male, but I think I do understand some
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: people in a different way of you know, being coming
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: from an interracial household that came from another interracial consuls
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: and so it's really cool to see what my parents
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: have kind of gone through, my great parents, great grandparents,
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: what they went through coming from Ireland and all that,
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: and you know, being foreigners themselves, and so it's it's
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: amazing life.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Very cool Alec Anderson, way more than just your sixth
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: offensive lineman. So many different stories in this one. Thanks
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: for sitting down and chatting. Love it.