Latest / Sports Done Wright w/ Vince Wright / Former Minnesota Gopher and CNBC Financial Ace Pete Najarian joins Sports Done Wright

Transcript

Former Minnesota Gopher and CNBC Financial Ace Pete Najarian joins Sports Done Wright · Sports Done Wright w/ Vince Wright

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  Speaker 2: this is Vince Wright the sports governor and host of
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  Speaker 2: the sports done right podcast aka the big smooth as
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  Speaker 2: well listen man I want to thank you for all
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• 2:42
  Speaker 2: All right, folks, this is a special guest edition here,
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  Speaker 2: Sports Done Right, and former Gopher CNBC financial analyst Pete
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Najarian joined me earlier today. And this is a fun one, man.
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  Speaker 2: Pete is just such a great guy, a lot of
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  Speaker 2: great jokes, and that smile of his, man, he is
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  Speaker 2: just a great dude. And I was honored. We've been
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: trying to link this up for a while, and it
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: finally happened. And I'm just going to get to it
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: because the interview was almost an hour long. So I
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: appreciate you taking that extra time to listen. But it
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: will be worth it because Pete has a lot of
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  Speaker 2: great stories. We talk about Minneapolis Conference football in high school.
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  Speaker 2: He went to Central High School before it closed. A classic,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: classic high school back in Minneapolis there. And from there, Gophers, NFL.
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  Speaker 2: you know, World League. You won a championship there. And
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  Speaker 2: then the big pivot into the financial realm where he
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: has done astronomically well. So sit back, relax, settle in. 58,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: or what is that? Oh, about 57 minutes. And we're
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: just going to get going here with Pete because this
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  Speaker 2: was a lot of fun. Thank you, Pete, for jumping
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: on with me, man. Here you go. Pete Najarian on
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  Speaker 2: Sports Done Right. All right, everybody. Vince Wright, Sports Done Right.
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  Speaker 2: And the sports governor is so honored to have a
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  Speaker 2: gopher legend.
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  Speaker 6: I mean, look at me.
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  Speaker 2: You see I'm all decked out for a guy here.
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  Speaker 2: For folks who don't know, Pete Najarian is a gopher stud,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: defensive prowess. I mean, all over the field, wreaking havoc
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  Speaker 2: back in the day. And let me say this before
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  Speaker 2: we get started. Pete, first, thank you for joining us. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you have lived a very unique life, which
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: we're going to get into here in a few minutes.
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  Speaker 2: But one thing that I wanted to do, because I
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: was talking with actually a couple of friends here. Now,
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  Speaker 2: for folks who don't know, Pete played at Minneapolis Central
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  Speaker 2: High School. Minneapolis Central was closed in... God, what year
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  Speaker 2: was it?
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  Speaker 6: 82, I think.
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  Speaker 2: Okay.
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  Speaker 7: And.
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  Speaker 2: For those of us who grew up in the city
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  Speaker 2: of Minneapolis, Minneapolis City Conference football was our own unique
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  Speaker 2: beast because, you know, mid 80s, we were kind of
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  Speaker 2: coming out of some of the glory teams like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Washburn had George Wehmeyer. And I think that's one state
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  Speaker 2: title in like the mid 70s, things like that. But Pete,
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  Speaker 2: you were one of the players that, you know, a
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  Speaker 2: lot of eyes were on for obvious reasons. Could you
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  Speaker 2: just tell us real quick, you know, take us back
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  Speaker 2: to Central High School and, you know, share with the folks, man.
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  Speaker 2: You know, what was it like playing Minneapolis City football?
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  Speaker 6: Oh, it was great.
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  Speaker 3: I absolutely loved it.
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  Speaker 6: You know, I went to Bryant Junior High before that,
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  Speaker 6: which is just down the street from Central. And, you know,
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  Speaker 6: Coach Robinson was one of the greatest guys of all time.
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  Speaker 6: He coached my brother, John, my brother, Dave, my brother, Paul,
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  Speaker 6: and then me. And, uh, he used to always tease
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  Speaker 6: me that I was going to go to Washburn. And
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  Speaker 6: he was like, why are you going to Washburn? And
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  Speaker 6: I'm like, I don't know where you're hearing that coach,
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  Speaker 6: but I'm not going to Washburn. But, uh, as a
• 6:02
  Speaker 6: matter of fact, I was part of a program called
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  Speaker 6: the magnet program where you could skip ninth grade, go
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  Speaker 6: to central, um, which is exactly what I ended up doing. And, uh, and,
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  Speaker 6: and so I got to know coach Robinson really, really well.
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  Speaker 6: He was, he was colorful when he coached my brothers,
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  Speaker 6: he got even more colorful. And, uh, Just one of
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  Speaker 6: the great guys, I swear to you. I mean, his
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  Speaker 6: whole family, his kids went to school with me. Many
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  Speaker 6: of them, the daughters and two of the sons. But, yeah,
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  Speaker 6: Central and Minneapolis football was great. I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 6: you had rivalries, of course. You know, Central against Washburn
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  Speaker 6: certainly would be one. Although, for a long time, Washburn
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  Speaker 6: had our number.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they did.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, they did. I got to admit it. But, yeah.
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  Speaker 6: And I hate having to admit that, but we had some,
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  Speaker 6: we had some good times, man. And I'll tell you,
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  Speaker 6: I got to know the other guys on the other
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  Speaker 6: team because most of them, I either played against when
• 7:00
  Speaker 6: I was in little league football or played with, you know,
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  Speaker 6: a lot of the guys ended up being on that
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  Speaker 6: side of the town. So they ended up going there,
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  Speaker 6: but I was in the district for central and that's
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  Speaker 6: where I was going to go. And I kept telling
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  Speaker 6: coach Robinson every time he bothered me about it, I go,
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  Speaker 6: Hey man, I don't know where you're.
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  Speaker 3: Getting your information. I'm going to central. Don't worry about me.
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  Speaker 3: I'll be there.
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  Speaker 6: There you go. There you go.
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  Speaker 2: Now, excuse me, as a Washburn graduate, obviously we would
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: have loved you in some, in the old orange and blue,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: but you know, that was the thing about city football, man,
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  Speaker 2: just Friday, you know, school's kind of coming down to
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  Speaker 2: a close.
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  Speaker 6: All right. Yep.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to see our central homies over here in
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  Speaker 2: a few minutes, you know, whether we're trekking over there,
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  Speaker 2: they're coming over to the burn. And, you know, obviously
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  Speaker 2: across the city, too, you know, you know, Edison, as
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  Speaker 2: they were kind of building a nice little powerhouse over there.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I just love city football.
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  Speaker 2: And let me ask you this here before we talk
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  Speaker 2: about the gopher career. When did I start kind of
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  Speaker 2: getting glanced your way from from the colleges? When when
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  Speaker 2: did you start realizing that, hey, you know, you know,
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  Speaker 2: might be able to give me a little scholarship here somewhere?
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  Speaker 6: Yeah. It was pretty early, but that's not to flatter
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  Speaker 6: myself or pat myself. I had older brothers.
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  Speaker 3: Who all played. And, you know, genetically, we all.
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  Speaker 6: Look a lot like each other.
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  Speaker 3: Big dudes. We do.
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  Speaker 6: So we started with John, but he unfortunately, his senior year,
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  Speaker 6: he broke his ankle, had to put a screw in
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  Speaker 6: his ankle and all the rest of this stuff. And
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  Speaker 6: he eventually still kept playing football, but he had to
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  Speaker 6: take off some time before he could. But he was
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  Speaker 6: a heck of a player getting recruited by everybody, it seemed.
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  Speaker 6: My brother Dave, same thing. But Dave didn't want to
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  Speaker 6: go play football in college until he did. And he
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  Speaker 6: went to Gustavus and was an All-American linebacker there and
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  Speaker 6: probably one of the bigger guys in the entire MIAC
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  Speaker 6: conference when he played because Dave was about 6'4, about
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  Speaker 6: 245-pound linebacker in Division III back in the 70s.
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  Speaker 3: So he's a big person.
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  Speaker 6: But then we have my brother, Paul, who arguably might
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  Speaker 6: have been one of the best, if not linebacker, or
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  Speaker 6: he and I both played linebacker and running back. And
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  Speaker 6: most of the schools that found me were recruiting me
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  Speaker 6: actually as a running back.
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  Speaker 3: I was the tailback at Central. You know, it was great.
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  Speaker 6: My dad was always so proud, but he would want
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  Speaker 6: me to get the ball even more and yell at
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  Speaker 6: coach about, hey, give Najarian the ball. and anybody, it's
• 9:36
  Speaker 6: too bad that it's not there anymore, but you know,
• 9:38
  Speaker 6: central Iowa was pretty classic. I just got to tell
• 9:41
  Speaker 6: you this. So we, we kicked off the ball at
• 9:43
  Speaker 6: three 30 on a Friday. You know why we did that?
• 9:46
  Speaker 6: Because we didn't have lights, no lights. We had no lights.
• 9:51
  Speaker 6: So late into the year, things got dark pretty early,
• 9:54
  Speaker 6: but we did not, not only did we not have lights,
• 9:56
  Speaker 6: we actually had no scoreboard either. So we had a, big,
• 10:00
  Speaker 6: huge piece of wood where we slide in, but, and
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: there's a story about that. I won't go there, but yeah. So,
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  Speaker 6: you know, we, we, we did not have all the
• 10:11
  Speaker 6: great facilities that the rest of the world had. So
• 10:14
  Speaker 6: it was kind of cool for us when we would
• 10:15
  Speaker 6: go places and, and see how beautiful some of these
• 10:18
  Speaker 6: places were, including Washburg.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: Southwest was pretty nice as well.
• 10:23
  Speaker 6: I think ourselves and North, but North ended up getting
• 10:26
  Speaker 6: sort of, I can't remember, they didn't get turf, but
• 10:29
  Speaker 6: they had some nice stuff over there.
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  Speaker 3: I think it might've been lights and a scoreboard. We
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: didn't have that.
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  Speaker 6: So everywhere we went, we just kind of were like, wow,
• 10:38
  Speaker 6: this is pretty cool. This is what it's really like.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: What name jumps out at you from those days playing
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: against Pete?
• 10:46
  Speaker 6: Oh, there was a running back at Washburn who ended
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: up going to Wisconsin and then transferring back to come
• 10:53
  Speaker 6: to Minnesota.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: Boy, I can't remember his name, but he was a
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: heck of a football player.
• 10:58
  Speaker 6: I'll tell you, there was some really good football being
• 11:00
  Speaker 6: played in the city conference.
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  Speaker 3: But we dominated when it came to that.
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  Speaker 6: My senior year, we had, as usual for Central, about
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  Speaker 6: 24 guys total. I mean, total. And 10 of us went, uh,
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  Speaker 6: both ways. So the quarterback was the only guy who didn't. Um,
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  Speaker 6: I think on that team alone, we put eight guys
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  Speaker 6: into full scholarships.
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  Speaker 3: So, um, we were really good. We had a nice
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: pipeline in Nebraska.
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  Speaker 6: Uh, coach Osborne came to central high school a lot
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  Speaker 6: and he and coach Robinson were best friends, man. I mean,
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  Speaker 6: me and coach, it's, it's really great because, you know,
• 11:39
  Speaker 6: fast forward to now, uh, Coach is probably one of
• 11:42
  Speaker 6: my best friends, if not a surrogate father in a
• 11:46
  Speaker 6: lot of ways. A matter of fact, we're getting together
• 11:50
  Speaker 6: just a couple weeks away from now. He's part of
• 11:53
  Speaker 6: something called Teammates, and he created it, and it's a
• 11:56
  Speaker 6: way for kids to have the opportunity to get a
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: little extra education at the end of the day and
• 12:03
  Speaker 6: all the rest of it that gives kids a chance
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: to get.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: Placed into colleges.
• 12:07
  Speaker 6: He's 98% the people that sign up for that whole thing,
• 12:13
  Speaker 6: it's 98% that they'll get into a school and then
• 12:17
  Speaker 6: the fees are zero.
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  Speaker 2: That is awesome. That is awesome.
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: He's a special dude. He's a special dude. But he
• 12:25
  Speaker 6: and I went through the list one day, and Vince,
• 12:27
  Speaker 6: you're going to think it's exaggerating, but he said we
• 12:30
  Speaker 6: got 26 guys.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: At Nebraska from Central over his career.
• 12:36
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: He knew where to go when he came into Minneapolis.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Man, I had no idea that there was a Nebraska
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: pipeline to Central High School like that.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, that is deep.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So let me ask you this. Your father was a
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: well-known physician over at the University of Minnesota.
• 13:00
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: As it came time to kind of make that choice
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: on the colleges, and, you know... Folks locally have obviously
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: probably heard of Pete's dad, Dr. Najarian. But Dr. Najarian,
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: one of the top doctors in the world. I mean,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: the planet, the universe, everything, everything. I mean, I've seen
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: him on TV so many times. Listen, we can do
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: a whole show on your dad.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. But.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: Did he have an influence on you winding up over
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: in Gopherland, over in Dinkytown there?
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: You know, it's a really funny, it's a great question.
• 13:37
  Speaker 6: And people who know me have heard that question asked
• 13:39
  Speaker 6: a lot. And it's for all the right reasons, though.
• 13:42
  Speaker 6: It's kind of like, how did it all transpire? So,
• 13:46
  Speaker 6: you know, I had signed up to go to the
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: University of California, Berkeley. That was my choice. You know,
• 13:52
  Speaker 6: I was lucky enough to get recruited by a lot.
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: And what I did was I decided, all right, well,
• 13:57
  Speaker 6: I'll go to one pack back then, pack 10.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: I'd go, I'd visit one pack 10.
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: It was Cal. My brother, Paul was already playing out there.
• 14:05
  Speaker 6: He and Ron Rivera were both sides of the outside
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: linebackers together. And there were roommates in college as well. So, yeah,
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: so we go, I go way back with Ron and
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: a lot of the players at Cal. So, you know,
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: it was kind of a no brainer in some ways. But,
• 14:21
  Speaker 6: you know, when I looked at the Big 8 back
• 14:23
  Speaker 6: in the day, it was going to be Nebraska. And
• 14:26
  Speaker 6: so the Big 10, I just basically said, well, it's
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: got to be Minnesota. I mean, I did take a
• 14:31
  Speaker 6: trip to Wisconsin. I turned down Michigan and Ohio State.
• 14:34
  Speaker 6: I just said, you know, I'm going to be close.
• 14:36
  Speaker 6: I want my mom and dad to be able to
• 14:37
  Speaker 6: go to games.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Sure, sure.
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: So my dad actually, a week before I'm supposed to
• 14:42
  Speaker 6: go to the University of California, Berkeley, and I was
• 14:46
  Speaker 6: recruited as a tailback there.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 14:49
  Speaker 6: I'm sitting there literally. And my dad goes, Hey, we're
• 14:52
  Speaker 6: going to take a trip in the boat. I go,
• 14:53
  Speaker 6: all right, let's take a trip. Two of us jumped
• 14:56
  Speaker 6: in the boat. He goes, all right, here, I'm out
• 14:58
  Speaker 6: here for a reason. I want you to cancel going
• 15:00
  Speaker 6: to Cal, even though my dad was an all American
• 15:03
  Speaker 6: defense and offensive lineman at Cal.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: He played the 49 Rose bowl and stuff.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: I had no idea. And dad was, dad was six,
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: three or four. And about 285 pound man.
• 15:14
  Speaker 6: So, a big man for back then, still a big man,
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: even to this, you know, to this day, if he
• 15:21
  Speaker 6: were still alive, but he, he, he literally looked at me,
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: he goes, I can't make the games.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: I can't get out there enough.
• 15:28
  Speaker 6: Your, your brother, Paul, I get out there twice a year,
• 15:30
  Speaker 6: first game of the year and the Cal Stanford game.
• 15:32
  Speaker 6: And he goes, I just can't do it because I'm
• 15:34
  Speaker 6: so busy. So I said, well, if that's what you want,
• 15:38
  Speaker 6: I'll do it. So I immediately got on the phone,
• 15:40
  Speaker 6: called up Cal. They were not very happy with me,
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: but yeah, And then I called up the university of
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: Minnesota and, um, they were pretty excited about it. I
• 15:50
  Speaker 6: was excited about it. And, uh, yeah, so it was,
• 15:53
  Speaker 6: it was, it was a stressful time though, because, you know, I'd,
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: I'd had myself set up. I'm going to play running
• 15:58
  Speaker 6: back here at Cal. And when I got to Minnesota,
• 16:01
  Speaker 6: they basically said, no, you're a linebacker for us. And
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: I'm like, dang, I kind of want to be a
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: running back still. But, um, but it was good. It all,
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: it all worked out at the end. And, uh, And
• 16:12
  Speaker 6: I really enjoyed it. But yeah, my dad was he
• 16:16
  Speaker 6: was the influence of going to the University of Minnesota. Absolutely.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: So let me ask you this. And again, folks, we
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: got Pete Najarian on with us on Sports Done Right.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: So high school ball's over. You're a gopher, you know,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Big Ten football. What was it like when you finally
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: stepped on campus over there? What was kind of like
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: maybe the first things you noticed in some of your
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: first practices now as a college football player?
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: Well, you know, the difference in age is so different
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: when you get to college. Because, you know, I think
• 16:48
  Speaker 6: the transition college to pro is a lot different. But
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: with high school to college, and I graduated a little
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: bit early, so I was just barely turned 17. So
• 17:01
  Speaker 6: I'm relatively young. But you're playing with players that some
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: of them are 21, 22 years old, right?
• 17:05
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: You know, I was, I was amazed at how big
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: and how strong and how fast and all the things
• 17:13
  Speaker 6: we all hear about, but it's all true.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's a different game.
• 17:17
  Speaker 6: It is not high school because high school, you know, there's,
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: there's always that one or two players that are great, right?
• 17:23
  Speaker 6: And you're like, wow, the rest of the guys, you know,
• 17:26
  Speaker 6: not so much, but you know, at the college level,
• 17:30
  Speaker 6: everybody's big, everybody's fast. Most everybody's pretty daggone strong, you know, and,
• 17:36
  Speaker 6: Minnesota had a good program as far as that goes.
• 17:38
  Speaker 6: I think that their strength program was probably second only
• 17:41
  Speaker 6: to Nebraska back.
• 17:43
  Speaker 8: In the day.
• 17:44
  Speaker 6: And Boyd Epley at Nebraska was amazing. But I'll tell you,
• 17:48
  Speaker 6: at the University of Minnesota, I mean, I looked at
• 17:50
  Speaker 6: guys and they're throwing around 400, 430 pounds on the
• 17:54
  Speaker 6: bench press, 450 pounds. And I'm looking at these guys going, dang.
• 17:59
  Speaker 6: It's just a different world. But, you know, you acclimate
• 18:02
  Speaker 6: when you do, and it takes a little time. It
• 18:04
  Speaker 6: took me a little time. I mean, I ended up
• 18:06
  Speaker 6: having to redshirt my freshman year because there was no
• 18:08
  Speaker 6: way I was going to be on the field. And
• 18:11
  Speaker 6: we had two great linebackers in front of me. One
• 18:14
  Speaker 6: of them was a guy whose nickname was Beast, and
• 18:16
  Speaker 6: I can't remember his real name.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: Glenn something.
• 18:20
  Speaker 6: And then one of the farmhouse brothers was. Oh, sure.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:24
  Speaker 6: You know, those two guys, man, the offensive lineman was
• 18:27
  Speaker 6: a huge human being. And his brother, the linebacker, was
• 18:30
  Speaker 6: dang near as big as he was. I woke up
• 18:34
  Speaker 6: real quick that I needed to gain some weight and
• 18:36
  Speaker 6: I needed to get in the weight room.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: And what was that like? I mean, having to put
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: on the weight. What did you do to add that
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: weight and add that muscle and kind of bulk up
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: a little bit?
• 18:47
  Speaker 6: You know, I would eat anything. I mean, you know,
• 18:50
  Speaker 6: they actually were doing studies on me because they were like, hey, man,
• 18:53
  Speaker 6: you're still stuck at like 210 pounds or 200 pounds
• 18:55
  Speaker 6: or whatever I was. And so they were giving me
• 19:00
  Speaker 6: all kinds of different advice and things I could eat
• 19:03
  Speaker 6: and everything. And so with training table, which was great,
• 19:06
  Speaker 6: I mean, I would sit in there for probably two hours.
• 19:09
  Speaker 6: I mean, I would just sit and.
• 19:10
  Speaker 9: Keep on eating and keep on eating, even when I'm full,
• 19:12
  Speaker 9: because I needed to kind of get that weight up
• 19:15
  Speaker 9: a little bit, you know, and it took me a
• 19:17
  Speaker 9: really long time eventually, you know, all.
• 19:20
  Speaker 6: Through the first, you know, I redshirted then four more years.
• 19:24
  Speaker 6: You know, I think I finished out at the university
• 19:26
  Speaker 6: of Minnesota close to 225, 230 pounds, which was about average,
• 19:30
  Speaker 6: you know, for a linebacker back then.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: But yeah, it took a long time to get that
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: weight on.
• 19:36
  Speaker 6: I just, my genes are different somehow because I was 5,800
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: calories a day and couldn't gain weight.
• 19:40
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: So let me ask you this, Pete. And excuse me
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: as I'm looking down because, you know, the stat is phenomenal.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: Here.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: So you finished your Gopher careers, the program's all-time leading
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: tackler with 482 tackles.
• 19:56
  Speaker 7: Mm-hmm.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: What made you so consistent? What was it about you
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: and your game, you know, that Pete Najarian at, you know, Minnesota.
• 20:06
  Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Became this dominant defensive player who became a, you know,
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: three times second team, you know, defensive, you know, player
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: of the year over there on the defensive side of
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: the ball, the Carl Eller awards. I mean, just on
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: and on it goes. What, what made Pete tick?
• 20:25
  Speaker 6: You know, I learned real quick with three older brothers
• 20:28
  Speaker 6: that I, and I was always the youngest or not youngest.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: I was always the lightest and smallest.
• 20:33
  Speaker 6: Oh, sure. And so I, it was just one of
• 20:36
  Speaker 6: those things where I finally was in an atmosphere where
• 20:40
  Speaker 6: I was eating as much as I could. I was,
• 20:42
  Speaker 6: you know, doing as much in the weight room as
• 20:44
  Speaker 6: I possibly could, but I watched Phil and I'll tell you,
• 20:48
  Speaker 6: it is amazing how much you can get out of
• 20:50
  Speaker 6: watching that film. And you pick up things that, that
• 20:54
  Speaker 6: a lot of guys who don't spend the time don't
• 20:57
  Speaker 6: ever get it. And I, you know, cause even a
• 20:59
  Speaker 6: lot of my own guys would say to me, they go,
• 21:01
  Speaker 6: how did you know the play was going to go there?
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: You know, and I don't want to say that I'm
• 21:06
  Speaker 6: as good as Keekly, but the linebacker down at Carolina
• 21:09
  Speaker 6: who just went into the Hall of Fame.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: But I feel like he and I thought about the
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: game the same way.
• 21:15
  Speaker 6: I mean, I watched so much film that I could
• 21:17
  Speaker 6: tell the quarterback's going to throw this time. He's going
• 21:19
  Speaker 6: to the tight end on the other side. You know,
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: just because offenses really do tell you a lot. You
• 21:25
  Speaker 6: just have to look for the tell.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 21:28
  Speaker 6: And so. I think the combination of getting bigger, getting stronger,
• 21:33
  Speaker 6: all those things were very important, but also just, just
• 21:36
  Speaker 6: watching film all the time.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: And I did, I watched it all the time.
• 21:40
  Speaker 6: And, you know, I, I think, you know, even to
• 21:43
  Speaker 6: this day, I can sit there and my wife and
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: I will be sitting there watching the game and she
• 21:47
  Speaker 6: loves football. It's her passion. She couldn't play it, but she,
• 21:51
  Speaker 6: she loves it. But she's like, how did you know
• 21:54
  Speaker 6: they were going to do that? I'm like, well, the
• 21:55
  Speaker 6: way the guards feet are, that makes it look like
• 21:58
  Speaker 6: something to me. And I said, he's going to probably
• 22:00
  Speaker 6: pull on this play and the quarterback's going to fake
• 22:02
  Speaker 6: it to the fullback. And it's going to be a
• 22:04
  Speaker 6: pass play because the wideouts are ready to roll. And
• 22:07
  Speaker 6: she's like, how do you see all that? Right. But
• 22:11
  Speaker 6: you know, it is something really, really, I think it's,
• 22:14
  Speaker 6: it's why it's so important when guys really do watch
• 22:17
  Speaker 6: a lot of film, you can make a decent player,
• 22:20
  Speaker 6: a pretty dang good player. And, you know, and, and,
• 22:23
  Speaker 6: cycle that all the way up so it's uh it's
• 22:26
  Speaker 6: pretty cool and i i just uh i respected the
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: game so much and my older brothers and let me
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: tell you i would come out after games i had
• 22:35
  Speaker 6: three older brothers and my parents telling me every single
• 22:38
  Speaker 6: play i did.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Right exactly exactly hey what were you thinking on that
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: play I was like, can we just go get some
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: dinner here and just chill out for a second?
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: And we'd go over north for some ribs. Oh, let
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: me tell you something.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Oh, where was the spot?
• 22:54
  Speaker 6: Where'd you go? Oh, it's right over by North High School.
• 22:58
  Speaker 6: And so it wasn't too far away from the, I'm
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: trying to remember.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: The name of it. It wasn't Rick's, but it was,
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: it'll maybe come to me, but it.
• 23:05
  Speaker 6: Was our favorite. It was a guy who went to
• 23:07
  Speaker 6: high school with us who ended up opening this rib
• 23:10
  Speaker 6: joint that was kind of a fancier place, actually. It
• 23:13
  Speaker 6: was beautiful.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: It was great food.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: So Pete, before we get to your NFL career and
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: the pro side of things, give me a couple games
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: that stood out, you know, during your time with the
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: Gophers here, because, you know, Gopher football, you know, back then,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: you know, people, you know, we're coming out of Memorial Stadium,
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: we're going into this dome and all that stuff. And,
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: you know, people were upset, things like that. But give
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: me a couple games that stand out, you know, back
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: in your day where, you know, These were like, yeah,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: these were a couple of my best showings.
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: Well, I'll start off with my worst because I'd love
• 23:52
  Speaker 6: to start there. So it wasn't necessarily just my worst.
• 23:56
  Speaker 6: It was just the worst game I've ever been involved in.
• 23:59
  Speaker 6: And it was at the university. It was at Minnesota.
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: But it was Coach Osborne in Nebraska came into town.
• 24:07
  Speaker 7: Oh.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: And you already know the game, right?
• 24:11
  Speaker 6: So– We get prepared, you know, and the coaching staff
• 24:15
  Speaker 6: had changed, and there was a lot of panic going on.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: And, you know, we played our very first game. We won.
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: We won down at Rice. We're coming back home, and
• 24:25
  Speaker 6: we're going to play Nebraska. We watched the film. They
• 24:28
  Speaker 6: got nothing but All-Americans, man. I mean, the offensive line
• 24:31
  Speaker 6: might as well have been for the Steelers or the
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: Rams or whoever. I mean, they were all good, all
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: going to the pros. Running backs, same thing, fullback, tailback,
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: wide receiver, everybody, quarterback. I mean, they're all going into
• 24:44
  Speaker 6: the NFL. So we're watching them, and we're doing this
• 24:48
  Speaker 6: and that, and I'm looking going, all right. So we
• 24:51
  Speaker 6: got the film, and none of us had any clue
• 24:54
  Speaker 6: how bad it really could get until we were there.
• 24:58
  Speaker 6: But they scored 21 points a quarter, which adds up
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: to 84. And we had 13. So it was 84
• 25:04
  Speaker 6: to 13. And I will never, ever forget that. If
• 25:07
  Speaker 6: I was a guy into tattoos, I'd probably tattoo it
• 25:09
  Speaker 6: on my shoulders.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Right. Just remind me. I didn't go to the game.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: I was, however, downtown with some friends on that Saturday.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: And that was the first time that I noticed this
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: wave of red in downtown Minneapolis as well. And it's like, wow,
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Nebraska travels like this? And yeah, sure enough. Let me
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: ask you a game where you get scored on 84
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: points and then we're going to jump from this nonsense,
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: but just the mentality, you know, you're going through it
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: in the game after the game, just how do you
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: move on from that one?
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: Or do you just say, screw it, F it, move on.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: You got to move on.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 25:54
  Speaker 6: And you still do have to learn something from it,
• 25:57
  Speaker 6: but you know, it was brutal.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: I mean, it really, really was.
• 26:00
  Speaker 6: And years later, I was with Coach Osborne when my
• 26:04
  Speaker 6: daughter decided to go to Nebraska, of all places, right,
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: for school. And she ran track over there and all
• 26:10
  Speaker 6: that stuff. She worked with the football program. You know,
• 26:13
  Speaker 6: as she was there, they opened up some opportunities for
• 26:16
  Speaker 6: her because Coach, for whatever reason, loved me.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: I don't know why. He still does to this day.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: And he's like a second father to me. He really is.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: He is the most wonderful man I've ever met.
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: But I asked him one day after we'd gotten to
• 26:28
  Speaker 6: know each other really well, I said, Coach, I got
• 26:31
  Speaker 6: a question I've always wanted to ask.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: I don't want to be rude. I just got to
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: ask this question. He goes, what's that?
• 26:38
  Speaker 6: I go, why were some of the starters still in
• 26:40
  Speaker 6: the game in the fourth quarter? He says, there's a
• 26:42
  Speaker 6: very good reason for that, Pete. And I'm thinking, oh,
• 26:44
  Speaker 6: he's got some philosophical. He goes, the guys, we ran
• 26:50
  Speaker 6: out of guys to put on the field and we
• 26:52
  Speaker 6: didn't have air conditioning back in the dome back when
• 26:54
  Speaker 6: it first opened. That's right.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: So it was hot. It was brutal.
• 26:58
  Speaker 6: And the first stringers and second stringers, you know, we're,
• 27:02
  Speaker 6: we're getting heat stroke practically. So the third stringers were
• 27:05
  Speaker 6: in there and then they got it. And then the
• 27:07
  Speaker 6: first stringers had to go.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: Interesting. So you basically said, he goes, Pete, he goes,
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: we didn't have anybody left.
• 27:14
  Speaker 6: We just had to put in the starters, you know,
• 27:17
  Speaker 6: and it was, it was unbelievable, but you know, that was,
• 27:20
  Speaker 6: that game did teach me so much though about, you know,
• 27:23
  Speaker 6: you're never, your ego's gotta be in your pocket.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: It can't be, it can't be on your heart.
• 27:29
  Speaker 6: You gotta, uh, You got to learn from some of
• 27:32
  Speaker 6: this as bad as it was and all the rest
• 27:34
  Speaker 6: of it.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: But I got a good one for you.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Talk to me.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: Two years go by. And our now coach is Lou Holtz.
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: who is the best. Another guy that I put very
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: high up in my list of people.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 27:49
  Speaker 6: He's a tough guy to deal with. He didn't like
• 27:51
  Speaker 6: a guy with long hair, facial hair, all that stuff.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: And I still have hair here. But he was, he was,
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: he was awesome.
• 28:01
  Speaker 6: And he turned us around in one year, one recruiting class,
• 28:04
  Speaker 6: he turned us around.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: It was absolutely amazing. And in the second year, even better.
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: I mean, so it was, it was really something special,
• 28:12
  Speaker 6: but You know, Lou was able to teach us so
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: many different things. And in the second year, we're playing
• 28:17
  Speaker 6: number one, Oklahoma. We stuffed them. We absolutely– it was
• 28:24
  Speaker 6: a baller kind of a game. They're the best team
• 28:26
  Speaker 6: in the country. They ended up, I think, winning the
• 28:28
  Speaker 6: national title that year. I'm pretty sure that they did.
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: Troy Aikman was the quarterback, but he got knocked out. Actually,
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: I broke his ribs. He got knocked out.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 28:39
  Speaker 6: I always say it to him to this day. I'm like,
• 28:41
  Speaker 6: you know, the reason– went to UCLA is because you
• 28:44
  Speaker 6: lost your job. So you might want to split some
• 28:48
  Speaker 6: of that money with me. No, but Troy's a great guy.
• 28:54
  Speaker 6: He was a great quarterback. He really wasn't a very,
• 28:56
  Speaker 6: very good, you know, option quarterback as well. And I
• 28:59
  Speaker 6: think he was out of Dallas or somewhere in Texas
• 29:01
  Speaker 6: and decided to play up there in Oklahoma. It was,
• 29:05
  Speaker 6: It was a game where we really had an opportunity
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: to win all the way to the very end of
• 29:11
  Speaker 6: that game. So when you think about two years before that,
• 29:14
  Speaker 6: here's the 84-13 game, and now all of a sudden
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: we're playing with the best team in the country and
• 29:20
  Speaker 6: had a chance to beat them. I mean, it was–
• 29:22
  Speaker 6: they had Tony Casillas.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: I mean, they had everybody.
• 29:25
  Speaker 6: The D-line, the linebackers, Bosworth and all those guys were
• 29:28
  Speaker 6: there at the time. I mean, it was– That was
• 29:30
  Speaker 6: a really, really good Oklahoma team, and we had the opportunity.
• 29:34
  Speaker 6: It was at home.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: We dang near got there, but we didn't quite get there.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: But that was that was a nice bounce back.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. And, you know, then for folks, you know,
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: our age and that time frame, Lou Holtz, the great unknown, because,
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: you know, everybody, you know, when he left for Notre
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: Dame and, you know, you can't you can't blame him
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: for leaving.
• 29:54
  Speaker 6: I'm with you. I'm with you.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: I hear people complain about that all the time. Still
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: to the, he passed away and they're still talking about it.
• 30:01
  Speaker 6: Exactly.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: It's like, come on.
• 30:03
  Speaker 6: The guy wanted to, that was his dream. It was
• 30:06
  Speaker 6: his dream, you know, and it truly was his dream.
• 30:09
  Speaker 6: And he and I talked a lot, you know, it's funny.
• 30:11
  Speaker 6: We didn't get along all that great a lot of
• 30:14
  Speaker 6: the time because I was a little bit more of a,
• 30:16
  Speaker 6: I'm going to hit people till the end of the whistle.
• 30:19
  Speaker 7: And, uh, And you know what, but, but he ended
• 30:24
  Speaker 7: up being like, he liked me a lot, even though
• 30:27
  Speaker 7: a lot of the time there was a lot of
• 30:28
  Speaker 7: back and forth that sometimes language wasn't always good between
• 30:31
  Speaker 7: each other and all that kind of thing.
• 30:33
  Speaker 6: But, but sweet Lou was great.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: And if, if I'm not.
• 30:37
  Speaker 6: Correct, I'm pretty sure I am. He, he told me
• 30:40
  Speaker 6: I was his only two year captain ever.
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 30:44
  Speaker 6: We had a good one with that.
• 30:45
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 30:45
  Speaker 6: That was pretty fun.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: So, Just a special guy.
• 30:49
  Speaker 6: It's funny because in stature he's so little, and yet
• 30:54
  Speaker 6: he was so intimidating too. Back then you could still
• 30:59
  Speaker 6: grab a player by the face mask and talk to him.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: He did that a lot and did a lot with me.
• 31:07
  Speaker 6: He used to always tell me, he goes, hey, man,
• 31:10
  Speaker 6: nobody gives away 15 yards on anything.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: So you and me. Can't do any more of that stuff.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: There you go.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, man, I mean, it was so sad when
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: he left. But, yeah, I was with those people. It's like,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: come on, man, this is Notre Dame. You know, I mean,
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: you know, he's not leaving us for Northwestern or, you know,
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: going down to Illinois or, you know, to Arkansas. I mean,
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: this is, you know, one of the pillars of the game.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: And like you said, obviously he made it known it
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: was his dream job. So I wish people– To this day,
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: who still give them that.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: Flack would let it go. Yeah, they need to let
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: it go.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: Exactly. So, okay. Again, folks, Pete and the jury joining
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: us here. So, Pete, when did you start getting eyes?
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: When did you start getting that feeling like, hey, NFL,
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: maybe that next level may be within reach all of
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: a sudden? When did you start figuring that out?
• 32:03
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 32:04
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: You know, it's funny.
• 32:05
  Speaker 6: I don't think it was an ego thing, but when
• 32:08
  Speaker 6: I was a little kid, I dreamed about being in
• 32:11
  Speaker 6: the NFL. I really did. You know, and we used
• 32:13
  Speaker 6: to go to the Viking games over at that stadium
• 32:15
  Speaker 6: and all that kind of stuff, you know, and in
• 32:17
  Speaker 6: the dome later on and all that. So it just
• 32:20
  Speaker 6: always was something that was in my head. I can't
• 32:23
  Speaker 6: wait to be able to be there. I want to
• 32:24
  Speaker 6: be there. I want to do that. I want to
• 32:26
  Speaker 6: get that. That's a big checkmark of something I wanted
• 32:28
  Speaker 6: to do. And I, you know, I went to the Combine.
• 32:32
  Speaker 6: I did okay, but I had some issues because I
• 32:34
  Speaker 6: had some injuries. I was trying to hide and, uh,
• 32:37
  Speaker 6: they found them. That part wasn't so good for me, but, uh,
• 32:43
  Speaker 6: you know, you, you gotta go because they're going to
• 32:45
  Speaker 6: check out everything. And I had had an issue with
• 32:47
  Speaker 6: the shoulder that was really bad. And I had a
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: couple of knee surgeries by then. So that was not
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: so great, but it was just a great, uh, I was,
• 32:55
  Speaker 6: it was flattering. Um, the teams that were calling me
• 32:58
  Speaker 6: and all that kind of thing with the opportunities and
• 33:01
  Speaker 6: stuff like that. And as we got through the draft,
• 33:04
  Speaker 6: I could see that I was not going to be drafted.
• 33:06
  Speaker 6: So free agency was going to be the way. So
• 33:08
  Speaker 6: that's the route that I had to take. But it was,
• 33:12
  Speaker 6: you know what, it opened doors and it gave me opportunity.
• 33:16
  Speaker 6: So then I just had to execute. And so it was,
• 33:19
  Speaker 6: it was fun and it was, it was stressful. You know,
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: you go to bed every night wondering, man, are they
• 33:23
  Speaker 6: going to knock Am I going to get cut.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: In the morning, you know?
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 33:28
  Speaker 6: So, yeah.
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: No, I'm sorry.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: Go ahead.
• 33:30
  Speaker 6: Finish. No, I was just going to say, so that
• 33:33
  Speaker 6: part of it was pretty scary.
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: You know, you're laying there in bed and you just
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: don't know.
• 33:38
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: Is that door going to be knocked out or not?
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: The old Turks.
• 33:43
  Speaker 8: Yep.
• 33:43
  Speaker 6: Knock, knock, knock.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: Bring your playbook. Yep. So, let me ask you this.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: Who did you wind up signing with? Seattle.
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: Seattle.
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: OK, so I went to Seattle, not for all the
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: right reasons.
• 33:57
  Speaker 6: You know, I had an agent who was a nice guy,
• 33:59
  Speaker 6: but I think I maybe made a mistake.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: I probably should have had somebody else.
• 34:04
  Speaker 6: And, you know, it was funny because no one's talking
• 34:07
  Speaker 6: to me during the draft. And as soon as, you know,
• 34:09
  Speaker 6: the free agency is there because the draft is over,
• 34:12
  Speaker 6: I'm getting phone calls left and right.
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: And I'm trying to there was no cell phones.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 34:16
  Speaker 6: So, you know, and it was one of those things.
• 34:19
  Speaker 6: And so, you know, I probably made a decision too early. Um,
• 34:24
  Speaker 6: and the guy that I used was okay, but he
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: went with the higher amount of money that was being offered,
• 34:30
  Speaker 6: but he didn't really give me the opportunity because they
• 34:33
  Speaker 6: already had four linebackers or five linebackers and, um, they
• 34:39
  Speaker 6: drafted one.
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: So my odds of being on the team weren't all
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: that great.
• 34:43
  Speaker 6: I didn't feel, um, you know, in Seattle and then
• 34:46
  Speaker 6: they were a good team that they had some, a
• 34:49
  Speaker 6: great coach, a legendary coach and a lot of very,
• 34:52
  Speaker 6: very good players. But it just wasn't the right fit.
• 34:55
  Speaker 6: But the good news was I talked to the head
• 34:59
  Speaker 6: coach and I said, look, I said to him one
• 35:01
  Speaker 6: day after about two weeks, I said, I feel like
• 35:04
  Speaker 6: I need to be cut. And he said, what are
• 35:06
  Speaker 6: you talking about? He goes, nobody, nobody asked to be cut. Well,
• 35:11
  Speaker 6: I'm asking to be cut because there's no way. I said, coach,
• 35:15
  Speaker 6: I'm laying there at night going through the numbers and
• 35:17
  Speaker 6: I can't see how I ever fit. You know, I mean, you're.
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: Only going to carry four.
• 35:23
  Speaker 6: And you got six and, you know, five of them
• 35:26
  Speaker 6: basically from last year or whatever. And then you've got
• 35:29
  Speaker 6: another guy that you drafted in like the second round
• 35:32
  Speaker 6: or something. So I'm like, I just don't see how
• 35:35
  Speaker 6: the numbers add up. And then the opportunity, I think
• 35:39
  Speaker 6: he actually stepped up and did me a solid because
• 35:43
  Speaker 6: when I got off the plane flying back from Seattle,
• 35:46
  Speaker 6: the Vikings gave me a call.
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: And I had an opportunity to go there. So. That
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: was what really opened the door.
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: So I always, you know, loving the head coach at
• 35:57
  Speaker 6: Seattle because he did a classy thing.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that is a very unique story because, like the
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: coach said, nobody's coming to him asking to be cut.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: And then to have it work, to welcome home.
• 36:10
  Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: You know, you're playing in the purple and got the
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: horns on. Now, what was that like coming home and,
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: you know, telling people.
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: Hey, I'm a Viking?
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was pretty cool.
• 36:20
  Speaker 6: And I'll tell you, the coolest part was, you know,
• 36:23
  Speaker 6: after watching them for so many years and so many
• 36:26
  Speaker 6: players that I've watched for so many years, right? Mm-hmm.
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: I'm walking in there and there's Scott Studwell.
• 36:31
  Speaker 6: You know, I've been watching that guy play middle linebacker
• 36:34
  Speaker 6: for the Vikings for a long time.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: One of my all-time favorite players. I've got pictures with him.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: I got his jersey in the bedroom right now, autographed.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: I love the way Scott Studwell played football.
• 36:46
  Speaker 6: Yeah, he played. He was he he really was. He
• 36:49
  Speaker 6: lived up to the name.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: And honestly, for an NFL linebacker with that name, too.
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
• 36:56
  Speaker 6: It doesn't.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's Hollywood scripting.
• 36:58
  Speaker 6: Oh, it is. He and I are friends to this day.
• 37:01
  Speaker 6: As a matter of fact, just this year, we were
• 37:04
  Speaker 6: out on some golf carts riding around together with Jim
• 37:06
  Speaker 6: McMahon and Tommy Kramer and some of those guys.
• 37:09
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 37:10
  Speaker 6: It was really a lot of fun, and I'll tell you,
• 37:13
  Speaker 6: Scott's still one of the great guys of all time. And,
• 37:15
  Speaker 6: you know, all these other players, you know, it's funny
• 37:18
  Speaker 6: because you've been watching them since you were in maybe,
• 37:21
  Speaker 6: you know, some of the older ones.
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: Maybe it was like ninth grade, and now here you are.
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: You know, you're playing with the same guys.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: Exactly, and that must have been insane. I mean, you know, yeah, just,
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: you know, you're looking at them, you're watching them, and
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: now they're right next to you, and you're on.
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: The same field doing the same thing. I mean, that's awesome.
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: So what was it like your time with Minnesota? It
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: was great.
• 37:46
  Speaker 6: The only problem that I had was that I was
• 37:49
  Speaker 6: almost too convenient for the Vikings. And what I mean
• 37:52
  Speaker 6: by that is there were times I was there for
• 37:56
  Speaker 6: a year and a half and there were times where
• 37:59
  Speaker 6: they would just cut me. And then two days later,
• 38:01
  Speaker 6: they'd bring me back.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 38:03
  Speaker 6: And then, you know, they'd release me again because they
• 38:05
  Speaker 6: need to get, you know, some room on the ground.
• 38:08
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 38:09
  Speaker 6: And it was one of those kind of things, you know,
• 38:11
  Speaker 6: because it's easy. The kid lives right here. You know,
• 38:14
  Speaker 6: even Prairie is just a hop and a skip over
• 38:16
  Speaker 6: there back when they were there. And, you know, so
• 38:20
  Speaker 6: that was a little bit frustrating. And so that was
• 38:23
  Speaker 6: an opportunity for me. The last time they released me,
• 38:26
  Speaker 6: I stayed released. And I was like, look, it was
• 38:30
  Speaker 6: the year of the when everybody held out. Oh, right. Yes.
• 38:35
  Speaker 6: And so I, I got three good game films out
• 38:39
  Speaker 6: for them to be able to see me. And so
• 38:42
  Speaker 6: one of them that we played was Tampa and that
• 38:44
  Speaker 6: gave me the opportunity. They Tampa called me up. They said,
• 38:46
  Speaker 6: you're a free agent. I said, I am a free agent.
• 38:49
  Speaker 6: And so I ended up signing with Tampa, which was
• 38:53
  Speaker 6: a dream thing to do. I tell you, I love
• 38:55
  Speaker 6: the city anyway.
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: I love Florida, Florida.
• 38:58
  Speaker 6: I think Tampa is just a really cool place to live,
• 39:01
  Speaker 6: you know, and all that kind of thing. So, I
• 39:03
  Speaker 6: was in hog heaven.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: It was great.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: It was great.
• 39:08
  Speaker 6: And I love my Vikings, but you know, there's something
• 39:10
  Speaker 6: about being after practice, getting to go over and swim
• 39:13
  Speaker 6: in the Gulf.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: For a little hang out. You know, I mean, some
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: of the food, not so bad.
• 39:20
  Speaker 6: I hear you. I hear you, Pete.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: I'm a big fan of coastlines and palm trees. Definitely
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: understand what you're talking about. So you get to the
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: point where your NFL career kind of maybe is winding
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: down a little bit. But, you know, now there's there's
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: a couple other leagues out there.
• 39:37
  Speaker 6: There's CFL.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: There's the World League.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: How did you get into the World League? Because you
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: won a championship there as well.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: And, you know, just your thought process, I've always found
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: this interesting for players, you know, because a lot of
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: people in the public go, well, you know, if he
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: can't play in the NFL, why is he even playing?
• 39:58
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: You know, that type of mentality. But there's still a
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: lot of good football being played in other places, an
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: opportunity to earn some money.
• 40:05
  Speaker 6: Yep.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: So what was that thought process where it was like, hey,
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: maybe this NFL thing might be coming to an end,
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: but there's an option here.
• 40:14
  Speaker 6: That's a great question, and I hopefully have a great
• 40:18
  Speaker 6: answer for you because I looked at it a different
• 40:21
  Speaker 6: way than you described, however. I looked at it as, hey, look,
• 40:25
  Speaker 6: if I can play here for one year, maybe the
• 40:29
  Speaker 6: NFL brings me back.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: And so I got drafted.
• 40:34
  Speaker 6: Really high, which I don't still to this day, I'm
• 40:36
  Speaker 6: not sure why I was drafted as high as I was.
• 40:38
  Speaker 6: I was like the third pick or something. And I
• 40:41
  Speaker 6: went to Sacramento and loved it. It was killer. I mean,
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: you know, we had great coaches, some historic coaches, actually
• 40:49
  Speaker 6: that whole league had very good coaching. I think a
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: lot of really good players that are out there, just
• 40:55
  Speaker 6: like me trying to show yourself to the NFL. Right.
• 40:59
  Speaker 6: And the second year of that league, actually the NFL was,
• 41:03
  Speaker 6: was getting involved with the league. That's how, how strong
• 41:07
  Speaker 6: the league was in, in year one. Um, and so
• 41:11
  Speaker 6: there was something where they were certain players in, in
• 41:14
  Speaker 6: the case of where I was San Francisco and Oakland,
• 41:17
  Speaker 6: they could put players to play over there in Sacramento too, that.
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: They had drafted or agents or whatever.
• 41:23
  Speaker 6: Um, One of the guys was a running back who
• 41:27
  Speaker 6: got converted into a linebacker, and my job was to
• 41:30
  Speaker 6: help him be a linebacker, and unfortunately, maybe outplay me.
• 41:38
  Speaker 6: Mike Jones was his name, and Mike Jones is a
• 41:40
  Speaker 6: little bit famous for one reason. In the Super Bowl,
• 41:43
  Speaker 6: he kept the receiver, and I'm trying to remember who
• 41:46
  Speaker 6: they were playing, but He was at the time playing
• 41:48
  Speaker 6: for the St. Louis Cardinals.
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: Rams.
• 41:51
  Speaker 6: Rams.
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: Tennessee, the Titans.
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: And he stopped the guy.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: Stopped the guy. Yep, at the one-yard line. That was
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: Mike Jones. Nice job, Mike.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: Super Bowl.
• 42:02
  Speaker 6: And Mike Jones was a running back out of Missouri.
• 42:05
  Speaker 6: Great guy. So I helped him out. And we had
• 42:08
  Speaker 6: a great time together. Good person. You know, to this day,
• 42:11
  Speaker 6: we still talk once in a while and stuff like that.
• 42:13
  Speaker 6: Just a wonderful guy. Had a really nice NFL career.
• 42:17
  Speaker 6: And I had, I had just had the opportunity to
• 42:20
  Speaker 6: be able to sign with the 49ers. I had a
• 42:22
  Speaker 6: really good year. I was all world in year one,
• 42:25
  Speaker 6: second year, I'm backing it up with another one. And
• 42:28
  Speaker 6: now all of a sudden I'm like, well, wait a minute.
• 42:31
  Speaker 6: I just had a play where this guy rolled up
• 42:33
  Speaker 6: on my leg. It's not feeling so good. I broke
• 42:36
  Speaker 6: my ankle. Uh, you know, so I'm like, you know what?
• 42:40
  Speaker 6: I don't think this is going to work.
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: Now this is the thing folks. Um, You talk about
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: a career pivot, a successful career pivot. And as I
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: was talking to Pete before we jumped on the air here,
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: I'm watching CNBC one day, you know, flipping channels and
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: not that I got any money to invest, but, you know,
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: always kind of, you know, stop every once in a
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: while and checking out, you know, some of the shows.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: And all of a sudden, I'm like, wait a minute.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: And sure enough, the name came up on the screen
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: and I had to like double check that said Nigerian.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: So Pete gets in the options trading and the financial world.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: And Pete, I mean, you, you have been very successful
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: and we'll talk about all that in a quick second here,
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: but you know, how did you get involved in, with the,
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: with the financial side of the world. I've always been
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: interested in this pivot. My ex-wife is, you know, kind of,
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: she's in the financial realm and selling and, you know,
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: annuities and all that stuff.
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: What brought this on? I mean, because you've been so successful.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I'm not trying to put business
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: out there, but you know, you made a lot of
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: money doing it. And how in the world did this
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: come about?
• 44:09
  Speaker 6: It's the greatest question because it doesn't make any sense.
• 44:12
  Speaker 6: I mean, the reality is I was pre-med. I worked
• 44:16
  Speaker 6: at my dad's labs up at the University of Minnesota
• 44:18
  Speaker 6: in the off season of both the NFL.
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: And the World Football League.
• 44:22
  Speaker 6: And in the last year of the World Football League,
• 44:24
  Speaker 6: we ended up winning the whole thing, as you mentioned.
• 44:27
  Speaker 6: And I had broken my ankle three weeks before. And
• 44:29
  Speaker 6: I just said, you know, I'm not going to the
• 44:31
  Speaker 6: Niners anyway. I'm just going to tape it up and play.
• 44:34
  Speaker 6: So I did. I played out the last three games.
• 44:36
  Speaker 6: It was you know, it wasn't very smart, probably. But
• 44:39
  Speaker 6: I just I just wanted to complete the games, man.
• 44:42
  Speaker 6: I wanted to I wanted to win that thing.
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: And we got the trophy and the rings and all
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: that stuff. So it was great.
• 44:47
  Speaker 6: And I also now looking and I'm like, well, it's
• 44:50
  Speaker 6: the middle of May or maybe it was early June.
• 44:53
  Speaker 6: And I said, I don't know where, you know, I
• 44:55
  Speaker 6: can't get into medical school right now. So I got
• 44:58
  Speaker 6: to wait almost a whole year to be able to
• 45:00
  Speaker 6: get in. Right. And so I called my brother John
• 45:03
  Speaker 6: up and I said, hey, man, you're down here in
• 45:04
  Speaker 6: Chicago trading options and stocks and all the rest of
• 45:07
  Speaker 6: this stuff. I'd like to come down there and see
• 45:10
  Speaker 6: what it's like, see if I can learn something. You know,
• 45:13
  Speaker 6: you never know. So I get down there. It's the
• 45:16
  Speaker 6: most confusing friggin thing in the world. I'm standing out
• 45:19
  Speaker 6: there going, this is crazy, man.
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: Everybody's yelling. It's right. You figure out anything.
• 45:24
  Speaker 6: But, um, over time and it did take some time,
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: you know, and everybody says it, if you're there long enough,
• 45:29
  Speaker 6: you'll figure it out.
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: And that's true.
• 45:32
  Speaker 6: Everybody's, you know, is it two months though, or six
• 45:34
  Speaker 6: months or what, you know, in my case, it was,
• 45:37
  Speaker 6: it was a little bit longer.
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: Cause I'm like, this is, it's, it's kind of crazy.
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: I can't quite, you know, figure it out.
• 45:43
  Speaker 6: And, um, and I never took a business class, none
• 45:45
  Speaker 6: of that kind of thing, but I was good in math.
• 45:48
  Speaker 6: And so, you know, at times, you know, that that's
• 45:50
  Speaker 6: all you really need. So I, um, I got into it.
• 45:54
  Speaker 6: I loved it. I loved it enough that I was like,
• 45:57
  Speaker 6: you know what, this is what I'm going to do.
• 45:58
  Speaker 6: I'm not going to, you know, to do anything else
• 46:02
  Speaker 6: right now. I'm not ready for medical school. Plus, I'm
• 46:05
  Speaker 6: already almost 30 years old. I think it's time for
• 46:08
  Speaker 6: me to stick with the, you know, something to do.
• 46:10
  Speaker 6: So I got into it, loved it. And, you know,
• 46:13
  Speaker 6: over time, you know, the people in New York and
• 46:16
  Speaker 6: a lot of the financial television people, um, get, got
• 46:20
  Speaker 6: pretty excited about the options world. And that's what kind
• 46:22
  Speaker 6: of introduced me to CNBC, which was a great partnership with,
• 46:27
  Speaker 6: with me and them for, uh, shoot the better part
• 46:30
  Speaker 6: of maybe eight or 10 years or something. Yeah.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: You were there for a long time.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: And, and, um, now I'm a free agent.
• 46:37
  Speaker 6: So I learned in football, you know, if you've got
• 46:39
  Speaker 6: free agency, you get a little bit more, whatever money
• 46:42
  Speaker 6: or whatever it might be.
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: Time, something.
• 46:45
  Speaker 6: And so that's where I am now. So I've got
• 46:47
  Speaker 6: I do things with News Nation. I do things with
• 46:49
  Speaker 6: sometimes Newsmax. I do things with Bloomberg and sometimes Fox Business.
• 46:54
  Speaker 6: So it's fun. It's keeping me busy. It's I'll tell
• 46:59
  Speaker 6: you what, it can be crazy sometimes, though. The stock
• 47:01
  Speaker 6: market can be about as crazy as anything that you'll
• 47:04
  Speaker 6: ever think about.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: And Pete, that leads me into my kind of next question.
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: You know, being an athlete, having kind of that adrenaline
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: rush of being on the field and this and that.
• 47:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: Do you get.
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: A version of that on the trading floor or making
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: the big trades or, you know, going into your office going, okay,
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: I'm going.
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: To click over here and buy this and sell that.
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: Do you still get a little bit of a. a
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: trading adrenaline rush. You know what?
• 47:29
  Speaker 6: On the trading floor, I would say to you 100%.
• 47:32
  Speaker 6: I mean, it's a fight. Right.
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it's very physical.
• 47:36
  Speaker 6: Right. It truly is a fight. But, um, you know,
• 47:40
  Speaker 6: because you're, you're, you're fighting and scratching for whatever trades
• 47:43
  Speaker 6: you can get because you're just trying to trade what that,
• 47:46
  Speaker 6: that middle margin is. Right. You know, you buy something
• 47:49
  Speaker 6: for a dollar and a half. You sell it for two.
• 47:51
  Speaker 6: You made money.
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: So that's great. You just keep on doing those kinds
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: of things. So, um, Yeah, it's competitive. It's physical.
• 47:59
  Speaker 6: It really helped that I already had the, you know,
• 48:01
  Speaker 6: the craziness of the hair being what it is.
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: I used to have to dye this. This doesn't happen anymore.
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: Hey, I'm keeping just for men and business over here, partner.
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: I hear you. But, you know, it is different now, though.
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: Everything's on a computer.
• 48:18
  Speaker 6: So it's not the same kind of adrenaline as it
• 48:21
  Speaker 6: once was.
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: But the trading floor was a great experience. It really was.
• 48:26
  Speaker 6: And it was, you know what? It was a lot
• 48:28
  Speaker 6: of really smart guys. And the fun thing about it
• 48:31
  Speaker 6: is you could have gone to Harvard. Maybe you're pretty
• 48:33
  Speaker 6: good at trading. You maybe dropped out of high school.
• 48:36
  Speaker 6: You might be a better trader than the guy who
• 48:38
  Speaker 6: went to Harvard.
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, so. The cool thing is it's all about opportunity.
• 48:43
  Speaker 6: It's all about how quick can you learn something and
• 48:45
  Speaker 6: are you able to be efficient with that and everything else.
• 48:49
  Speaker 6: That's why I love the trading floor. I do miss it.
• 48:52
  Speaker 6: I miss it a lot because it was so much fun.
• 48:54
  Speaker 6: It really doesn't exist the way it once did, which
• 48:59
  Speaker 6: is unfortunate because that was really great. But, you know, now...
• 49:03
  Speaker 6: You can be anywhere in the world and you can
• 49:05
  Speaker 6: make a trade from anywhere in the world.
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: So, I mean, that is something good and that's progress,
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: I guess.
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: And talk about your business now in the financial world because,
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: you know, you work with your brother and, you know,
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: built this business here. Tell the folks what you're kind
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: of up to with that.
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're close. market rebellion.
• 49:21
  Speaker 6: And we built something similar to that years ago. We
• 49:26
  Speaker 6: sold that off and now we've done, done it all
• 49:29
  Speaker 6: over again. And so market rebellions now been around for
• 49:33
  Speaker 6: a number of years. I think about shoot now, maybe
• 49:36
  Speaker 6: it's about nine or 10 years. And it's helping get
• 49:41
  Speaker 6: people educated for the option markets. It can be very confusing.
• 49:46
  Speaker 6: I mean, the option markets aren't at all like the
• 49:48
  Speaker 6: stock market. Stock market, you buy it at this price
• 49:51
  Speaker 6: and that's what you do. Options have different expiration dates
• 49:57
  Speaker 6: of when do they leave you if they're no longer
• 50:00
  Speaker 6: existing and all that. So there's a lot of different
• 50:03
  Speaker 6: things that go into that.
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: So we actually provide people with, As much education.
• 50:08
  Speaker 6: And that's the first thing I say to anybody who
• 50:10
  Speaker 6: ever says, hey, should I or could I ever do
• 50:12
  Speaker 6: what you do?
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, you got to get educated.
• 50:16
  Speaker 6: Because it is confusing and you don't want to, you know,
• 50:19
  Speaker 6: lose a whole bunch of money before you start making money.
• 50:23
  Speaker 6: You know, so it's yeah. So education. So we have that.
• 50:26
  Speaker 6: We have multiple people who do the educational side for us.
• 50:30
  Speaker 6: We've got a lot of different services that people can
• 50:32
  Speaker 6: use and all that. And I'm not trying to sell
• 50:35
  Speaker 6: it to anybody. But we have a lot of fun.
• 50:39
  Speaker 6: And we've just redone the entire website and everything. And
• 50:44
  Speaker 6: it's faster and smoother and more efficient than it was
• 50:47
  Speaker 6: two weeks ago. But we're building it up again. And
• 50:51
  Speaker 6: we're actually building a brokerage site as well so that
• 50:54
  Speaker 6: people who want to execute even, hopefully even better, because
• 50:57
  Speaker 6: we think our system is pretty good, that could be
• 51:01
  Speaker 6: something big for us. That's the next thing.
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: Nice. All right, folks, sports done right. Pete Najarian talking
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: money with us here. You know, you think you're on CNBC, but,
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: you know, we got the gophers here. We got a
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: few more minutes here with Big Pete. Let me ask
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: you this, Pete, and we talked a little bit about
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: this before we came on air here. Because of this
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: transition into the financial world, I asked Pete, earlier about
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: you know has he done any work with uh you
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: know the nfl you know former teammates just who whatever
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: the case may be athletes in general because of being
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: a former athlete walking in their shoes being exactly where
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: these folks have been pete have you done that work
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: with fellow athletes? And if so, you know, what is
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: that like? And maybe what is the biggest obstacle in
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: helping athletes? You know, we see all these documentaries about,
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: you know, like ESPN, the broke documentary and this and that.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: And we see all the stories about, you know, Floyd
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: Mayweather made a billion dollars.
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: Now he's broke.
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: What is it where the athlete, they just can't control themselves.
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: And can you, can you help? I mean, do they
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: come see you?
• 52:15
  Speaker 6: I don't know. I think you can. They have to
• 52:18
  Speaker 6: want it, of course, as well. But, yeah, I've done
• 52:21
  Speaker 6: that education for guys at the NFL level. I've done
• 52:26
  Speaker 6: it even in other sports, but I've also done it
• 52:28
  Speaker 6: at the college level. As a matter of fact, just
• 52:30
  Speaker 6: a couple weeks ago, I was the quote-unquote celebrity guy
• 52:34
  Speaker 6: or whatever to sit down with the linebackers and just
• 52:37
  Speaker 6: talk about things. And, you know, I wasn't talking just football,
• 52:41
  Speaker 6: and neither were they. I was more curious, you know,
• 52:44
  Speaker 6: what's your life like? What's your, you know, social life like?
• 52:48
  Speaker 6: And oh, by the way, how's everything in, you know,
• 52:51
  Speaker 6: with the books? Are you guys from an educational standpoint?
• 52:53
  Speaker 6: Are you paying attention or how's your GPA? How's this
• 52:56
  Speaker 6: all that? You know, so my goal is to try
• 53:00
  Speaker 6: to help guys as much as they can, because it's
• 53:02
  Speaker 6: such an opportunity that's in front of them, whether it's
• 53:04
  Speaker 6: NIL money, which has gotten bigger and bigger or NFL money.
• 53:09
  Speaker 6: which has gotten huge. It's absolutely amazing. But there's still
• 53:14
  Speaker 6: guys out there who've made in their career $ 100 million
• 53:17
  Speaker 6: that's gone. You know, that's happened. So I just do
• 53:21
  Speaker 6: my very best to get, you know, some financial literacy
• 53:25
  Speaker 6: for guys. I just want them to understand a lot
• 53:28
  Speaker 6: of the different things. And, you know, one of the
• 53:30
  Speaker 6: biggest and easiest ones for me to ever start with is,
• 53:34
  Speaker 6: so if you just signed in for a.
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: Five-year, $ 10.
• 53:37
  Speaker 6: Million contract, how much money did you get? They say
• 53:40
  Speaker 6: 10 million. I go, no, you didn't.
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: There's taxes, bro. So, you know, that's number one.
• 53:48
  Speaker 6: And then you've got to just go down the line
• 53:49
  Speaker 6: of all the things that you're going to be spending
• 53:52
  Speaker 6: money on. And, you know, it's great to be generous with,
• 53:57
  Speaker 6: you know, your family and all that kind of stuff.
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: And that's wonderful.
• 54:01
  Speaker 6: But you also have to understand, like, how much to
• 54:04
  Speaker 6: allocate here, you know, do this and that, and have
• 54:07
  Speaker 6: a plan for the future when you are done playing.
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: Where is that going to go?
• 54:13
  Speaker 6: Because it is a very difficult transition to play pro
• 54:17
  Speaker 6: sports at the highest level.
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's a lot of jobs out there, but
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: do you really want that job?
• 54:23
  Speaker 6: Maybe you don't. Well, what do you got to do?
• 54:27
  Speaker 6: You've got to figure out what you'd like to do
• 54:29
  Speaker 6: the rest of your life, something. Um, and, and, you know, and,
• 54:33
  Speaker 6: and yeah, have that money, but let that money build
• 54:36
  Speaker 6: up for you, you know, whatever that might be. And so, um,
• 54:40
  Speaker 6: I think that, and I get, I get a lot, uh,
• 54:42
  Speaker 6: dirtier when I'm talking just to the, so I won't
• 54:47
  Speaker 6: go there, but I can tell you that there, I, I,
• 54:49
  Speaker 6: I've broken this down many, many times with the guys and,
• 54:52
  Speaker 6: you know, a five year, let's say it's a five year,
• 54:54
  Speaker 6: $ 20 million contract that $ 20 million is, comes all the
• 54:59
  Speaker 6: way down to somewhere closer to four or five when
• 55:01
  Speaker 6: you get through all the things that I go through.
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: And, you know, and people say, oh, you're, you know,
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: you're exaggerating.
• 55:08
  Speaker 6: No, I'm not.
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: Why do you think the guy, he's out of $ 100 million. Exactly.
• 55:13
  Speaker 6: Warren Sapp is a good example. I mean, there's a
• 55:16
  Speaker 6: lot of guys. I don't want to just pick out
• 55:18
  Speaker 6: him and make him feel bad. But the reality is,
• 55:21
  Speaker 6: it is something that I'm really proud and want to
• 55:25
  Speaker 6: help those guys. And I love the fact that so
• 55:27
  Speaker 6: many players, will call me still to this day and go, okay,
• 55:31
  Speaker 6: here's what I got.
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: What do you think? How should I do that? You know,
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: and you know, I, I just give ideas.
• 55:37
  Speaker 6: I'm not giving them financial advice or whatever, but I'm,
• 55:40
  Speaker 6: but I'm letting them know that, uh, there's a lot
• 55:43
  Speaker 6: of things, you know, including your agent that, um, needs
• 55:46
  Speaker 6: to do things, you know, in, in the proper way
• 55:49
  Speaker 6: as well. And education, you know, I mean, the agents
• 55:52
  Speaker 6: should know, and I think they do know they just
• 55:55
  Speaker 6: don't always do the right thing.
• 55:57
  Speaker 3: So, um, You know, I think it's really, really important
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: for these guys to have that education.
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: Well said.
• 56:03
  Speaker 6: Well said.
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: All right, Pete, before I get you out of here.
• 56:05
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: You've also done some TV work as well. What was
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: that like? I mean, you know, I mean, here we
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: go again. Another kind of little pivot here. The guys,
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: you know, taking over the financial world and now he's
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: on TV and doing the analyst role and doing this thing.
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: Did you enjoy that, and what was that like for you?
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: I enjoy it, still doing it.
• 56:27
  Speaker 6: But I'll tell you what I really enjoyed and I miss,
• 56:30
  Speaker 6: and someday maybe I'll do some more of it again.
• 56:33
  Speaker 6: But for a number of years, I was lucky enough
• 56:35
  Speaker 6: to do ESPN. And I used to do a show
• 56:38
  Speaker 6: called Goal Line, which actually was a semi-rip-off by ESPN
• 56:44
  Speaker 6: of the Red Zone, but for college football.
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: Right, right.
• 56:47
  Speaker 3: And it was so cool.
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: I remember.
• 56:49
  Speaker 6: Oh, I loved it. And I was the first guy
• 56:52
  Speaker 6: doing it at ESPN. It was me and the guy
• 56:54
  Speaker 6: who's still there. It was so much fun, man. I mean,
• 56:58
  Speaker 6: we would go in there from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.,
• 57:01
  Speaker 6: no commercial breaks. If I need to use the restroom
• 57:04
  Speaker 6: or grab something to eat, I leave and he's there alone. Right.
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: So it was great. I mean, I absolutely loved it.
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: Our ratings were great and everything.
• 57:12
  Speaker 6: But I said to some of the guys at ESPN,
• 57:14
  Speaker 6: I go, you know, I'd really like to do some
• 57:16
  Speaker 6: games in person, though. I said, this is great. I
• 57:18
  Speaker 6: love it. it's, it's very stressful because we're covering 80
• 57:22
  Speaker 6: games when it's all said and done on a Saturday
• 57:26
  Speaker 6: afternoon and evening or whatever. But, uh, so I went,
• 57:29
  Speaker 6: I moved over to that and I loved it. I,
• 57:32
  Speaker 6: I still would love to do more of that. I
• 57:34
  Speaker 6: stopped doing it because I was just gone from the
• 57:36
  Speaker 6: house pretty days a week. But, uh, But I'll tell you,
• 57:41
  Speaker 6: if that opportunity comes up again, I worked with some
• 57:44
  Speaker 6: really great play-by-play guys. It was really a lot of fun.
• 57:47
  Speaker 6: I did a couple bowl games, which was great. And
• 57:50
  Speaker 6: it's something I still love. I still got the football
• 57:55
  Speaker 6: in me. So it's an opportunity to talk and say
• 57:59
  Speaker 6: things that some guys don't say when they're doing games.
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: So it's kind of fun. Pete, let me ask you
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: this here. And folks, Pete Najarian joining us. And then
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: I forgot to ask you when we're talking back and
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: talking about the Gophers here, but college football from your
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: time to now, obviously very different. NIL obviously leading the
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: way and all that stuff. What are your thoughts on it?
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, from a guy who, you know,
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: played back in the day and now these kids are
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: getting paid and flipping teams every year and yeah, meeting
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: with financial analysts and all this stuff. What, what are
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: your thoughts on just the current state of college football?
• 58:39
  Speaker 6: You know, I'm a guy who's sort of old school.
• 58:43
  Speaker 6: I'm not hugely– I haven't grabbed around the whole NIL
• 58:48
  Speaker 6: thing all that much, although I'm– you know, you have
• 58:52
  Speaker 6: to accept that it is what it is, right? So
• 58:54
  Speaker 6: you have to do it. So, yeah, I'm okay with it.
• 58:58
  Speaker 6: I think there should be some sort of parameters, in
• 59:00
  Speaker 6: my opinion. I mean, the NFL has a salary cap.
• 59:03
  Speaker 6: Why do we not have a salary cap for NIL?
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's it's a thought very interesting yeah
• 59:09
  Speaker 3: so i i sit.
• 59:10
  Speaker 6: And wonder about that and ponder about that and you
• 59:13
  Speaker 6: know i mean the big get bigger right i mean
• 59:16
  Speaker 6: look look at how it works when you know you've
• 59:18
  Speaker 6: got the right donors indiana's a great example how about
• 59:22
  Speaker 6: how about just michigan ohio state over all these years
• 59:24
  Speaker 6: they got all this money from those guys i mean
• 59:27
  Speaker 6: it's it's amazing um So, you know, there's got to
• 59:30
  Speaker 6: be something there where they can make it more fair,
• 59:34
  Speaker 6: more competitive to be able to keep these players. The portal,
• 59:38
  Speaker 6: I think there's got to be some kind of cap
• 59:40
  Speaker 6: on the portal. I mean, the fact that a guy
• 59:43
  Speaker 6: could be at Michigan one year, Utah the next year,
• 59:46
  Speaker 6: Cal and Oregon, and the next thing you know, they've
• 59:50
  Speaker 6: played five, six, seven years.
• 59:51
  Speaker 3: It's kind of like, okay, guys, I mean, what are
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: we doing?
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: I totally agree there. It's crazy.
• 59:58
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: Well, Pete, listen, we're coming up to an hour here.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: I don't want to take up too much of your time, but, man,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: this has been a blast. I hope we can do
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: this again down the road, maybe after football season, kind
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: of do a little maybe gopher recap and stuff. But, man, again,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: I've always been a fan, always enjoyed watching you on TV,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: no matter what you were doing. And, you know, yeah,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: and just prove folks that, you know, there are some
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: good things about Twitter. You meet some really good people.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: who actually interact with you. And if you ask them,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: they'll come on your podcast.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 6: Well, you're the man. Appreciate you, Vince. Thank you very much.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 6: You do a great job with this. It's awesome.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 3: And I'm happy to have joined. It's great. I appreciate it. Thanks.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: All right, folks, the one and only Pete Najarian joining
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: us here on the Sports Don't Write podcast. And there
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: it was, ladies and gentlemen, that was a fun interview.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: Pete is a great dude. I think he got a
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: sense of that, great sense of humor, obviously lots of
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: stories from his well-traveled past, and I'm sure even bigger
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: things coming for the future from him. So again, big
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: shout out to Pete Nigerian for joining us on Sports
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: Done Right. With that, we will call it a show.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: Thank you for hanging out. I really appreciate it. Getting
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: a lot of great feedback on these episodes here, so
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: we're going to keep them coming. Shout out to 7th
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: Avenue Pizza as well for sponsoring us. I am Vince Wright,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: the Big Smooth, the sports governor of Minnesota, and I
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: really appreciate you taking the time to listen to the show.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 6: Peace.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 8: Thank you for listening to Sports Done Right with your host,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 8: the governor of Minnesota Sports Talk, the Honorable Vince Wright.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 8: Check out Sports Done Right every Tuesday night. And when
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 8: it's over, stay up on all of the breaking sports
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 8: news and commentary by joining the Sports Done Right Facebook group.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 8: Let your voice be heard and join the conversation right now.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 8: You finally got it right with Sports Done Right.