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ITB Special: Vince Papale Joins ITB To Talk 20 Years Of Being 'Invincible' · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hello again, everyone.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Welcome to a special edition of Inside the Birds. Jeff Mosher,
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Adam Kaplan, and the man joining us today just happened
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: to have a film in 2006 made about his life.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: That's the great Vince Papale. Vince, good to see you.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Thanks, Adam. I don't think I've ever been called great before,
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: but I appreciate that very much. Thanks, man.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Well, the movie Invincible with Mark Wahlberg, it was made
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: in 2006. In fact, that's the 20th anniversary, which comes
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: up this week. But Vince, one of the things that
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: I sort of knew about you, but I didn't quite understand.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: I knew you were an athlete, but most people probably
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: do not know that you were an unbelievable track and
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: field person. Tell us about your track and field career
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: before you get into your football career.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Well, I actually went to St. Joe's on a track scholarship.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: I was too small when I was like five, five, seven, five,
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: eight as a senior, when you're playing in Interboro high
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: school in Delaware County. And, and I was going to
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: go to Westchester and get a walk on the Westchester
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: and So my track coach, my football coach, who was
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: my mentor, George Corner, invites me to come out for
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: the track team. I said, nah, I don't want to
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: do it. You know, I got my girlfriend. I got
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: all this. He said, please. He said, you can do
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: anything you want. And I said, can I pole vault?
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Because I used to pole vault across the creek in
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: my backyard and, you know, across the clotheslines and in
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Glen Olden where I grew up. And so he agreed
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: to it. And when you know it, at the meet
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: of champions, I beat all these guys who got scholarships
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: ahead of me. And I hit 14.6, and you'll see
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: it's just on 16. So, you know, I started from
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: no feet to a foot and a half off the
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: world's record. And at the same time, Luna Castro from St.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: Joe's comes up and gives me a scholarship on Father's Day.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: Father's Day, right? And I hand this to my dad.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: I said, Dad, happy Father's Day. We're going to be hawks.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: And I'm not going there. And then, you know, four
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: years at St. Joe's and, you know, had some great
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: times over there. And then I was ready to enlist
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: actually in the Air Force and the Marines. And because
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: Vietnam was hot and heavy in 68. And I got
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: a call from Interboro saying, we have a teaching job
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: for you. You know, get your teaching certificate. So Jack Ramsey, Dr.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: Jack was our athletic director. And I said, I need
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: to take four courses. I have no money whatsoever. And
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: he said, you did us good. And he said, I'm
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: going to give you these four. What I did when
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: I was at St. Joe's, I wound up leading off
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: the 440 relay. And I was a long jumper, triple jumper,
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: pole vault, and a high hurdler. And I did five
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: events every meet. And that eventually was what I thought
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: would be my decathlon thing. But that was it, you know.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: And then I couldn't get into the tryouts. And I
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: started playing semi-pro football above the rough touch I was
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: playing in the movies. Everybody was breaking my chops about
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: being a pansy, you know. And, you know, if you
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: could play real football, you could play for the Aston
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Knights or the Tinnegan Whatevers. And so I said, all right,
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: wouldn't you know it, I wound up leading the league
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: in touchdowns and recessions. And somebody from the World Football
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: League that started the Philadelphia Stars, the Philadelphia Bell, and
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: he saw me because he was one of the coaches.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: He invited me to a tryout. I made that, Lake Folds,
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: and then the movie picks it up where I'm looking
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: for a job and Dick Vermeule comes into town. And
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: as I say, the rest is history. 20 years ago,
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: it was pretty wild, man, I'd say. Unreal. I'm going
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: to be in Philly. I'm going to be in Philly
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: this week, yeah.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Nice, nice.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: And then my son and I are going to be
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: honored by the Italian embassy because Vinny, Italy's flag football team,
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: And they qualified for the Olympics. So it's going to
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: be pretty, I can't wait. I'm going to be in
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Philly all next week.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: It's so cool.
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: Fantastic.
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: And just hearing you tell that story is like, there's
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: a fork in your road. You want to be, you
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: want to parlay this track thing into potentially Olympics, right?
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: Because that's what everybody wants to do.
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: And then you wind up playing professional football after semi-pro,
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: then professional football. What a fork in the road that
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: turned out to be for you.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: Well, hey, you know, where Yogi Berra came out with
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: the greatest line, I said, He said, when you see
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: a fork in the road, he said, take it.
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: Take it. 90% of the game is half mental.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I guess I did the right thing. And
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: Coach Romeo, he liked what he saw in that tryout
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: we had. And that was done at JFK Stadium, which
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: is right now Xfinity Live Stadium. I don't know what
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: it's going to be now. I heard they signed that
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: big contract for the new arena.
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: So but yeah, that's that that was the beginning of
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: it all. And, you know, for three years, four years
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: of captainship later. And and here I am, you know,
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: in 20 years with the movie, it's been wild. We've
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: traveled all over the country, all over the world, you know,
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: with this. And it's been it's been pretty cool. All right. Right.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Before we get to the movie part. OK, before we
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: get the movie part. So you had your trial. Did
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Jim Murray find you, the former GM?
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: No, it was, I can't remember the guy's name for
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: the bell, but he had a vowel at the end
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: of his name, but I do remember that. And so no,
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: Jimmy Murray, actually, he knew about me because he's a
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: Villanova guy and I was a Hawk. And he knew
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: about me. And there was an invitation list that was
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: given out there. And I was on that list. Dick
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: Vermeule never saw it. He had no idea who I was, whether,
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: you know, Joe Schmo from Kokomo, you know, just this
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: kid from Glen Olden, South Philly. So no, but the
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: thing is, is after the tryout and now I'm in
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: the locker room because I was in one of the
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: invitees and I'm in the locker room, I'm looking around
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: and I'm a season ticket holder, Adam, for 10 years.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: I started my season tickets at Franklin Field for crying
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: out loud, right? And I can't believe there's Bill Bergey's,
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: there's Roman Gabriel's locker, you know, and there's Carmichael's locker.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: These are my heroes. And I get a tap in
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: the back from Otho Davis. And we all know Otho
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: was being, he's being a big, that's Janet in the
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: background with the trash. Hey, Janet, hi. So, you know,
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: so Otho, he taps me in the back and he says,
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: I want to see you upstairs. And, you know, Mr.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: General Manager Jim Murray wants to see you. So I
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: get upstairs and I get out of the elevator and
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: I look around and I see all these murals of
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: guys like now it's Tommy McDonald. You know, my idol
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: is on the wall, you know, and Chuck Bednarik's there
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: and all these all these guys that won the championship.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: So I walk through the door as I go past
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Coach Vermeer. Hey, Vinny. And I hear this and Coach
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Vermeer called me Vinny. And he says, that was a
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: hell of a 40. You just ran out there. I said, yeah,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: what was it? He said a four or five. And
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: I said, oh, yeah, not to cut that on grass.
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: And that was it. And he says, well, and so
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: I went in the coach and Jim Murray's office and
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: they get, they offered me a $ 21, 000 contract. And I said,
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: and I had two season tickets, like in the movie.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: And I was there with my guys. I said, do
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: I have to, do I have to give up my
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: season tickets? He says, you might want to hang on
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: to them. So this happened around April of 2000.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: April, 2000. Oh, April of 76. He said, but you
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: can work out here at the stadium.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: 50 years ago.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Wow. 50 years ago. 50 years ago almost to the day.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: He said, you can work out. And I said, we'd
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: like you to work out with Gus Hoffling. He's our
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: strength and conditioning coach. And he was also with the Phillies.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Phillies, yes.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and Gus Hoffling. So guess who I worked out
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: every day with? Roman Gabriel, Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton. I mean,
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: I was like, I'm the biggest Philadelphia sports fan.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: And I'm working out with these guys and Roman Gabriel
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: took me under his wing. And so now I worked
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: out with him for two or three months and he
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: was throwing at me every day. So when we got
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: to training camp at Widener, that first week was just
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: with some free agents. And Gabe wanted to keep some water.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: So he decided he was going to throw. He was
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: throwing at me all the time and we had a connection.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: And if it weren't for Roman Gabriel, I'd just put
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: something with his son, RG3. that, you know, if it
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: weren't for your father, I never would have, there'd be
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: no Invincible, you know. But, you know, Coach gave me,
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: but we had back then, if you remember, we had
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: six preseason games where we played football. We didn't play touch.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: We didn't play flag football. We played football in those
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: preseason games.
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: And different male with his third tempo training camp. You know,
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: this was not a country club. This was a training camp.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: And then we have 14 games, you know, so we went,
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: we went four and 10, five and nine, nine and
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: seven and 10 and six. And then we, then we're
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: in the Superbowl, which was, which is as great as
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: could be.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: So cool.
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: So, so amazing.
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: And that is such a signature line in the movie Invincible.
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: You might want to keep your, your season tickets.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. I want to hold
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: on to this for a while.
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: Well, yeah. Good advice.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: That was a made up scene. You know, when they
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: make that movie about used guys, You know, so that
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: was a made up scene because it was, the way
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: I found out I made the team was similar to
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: what they call the Rudy moment. And that's when the
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: final cut came up. I was pretty sure that I
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: was going to make the team because I had led
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: the team at touchdowns and receptions. And I had 10
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: receptions and I think four or five touchdowns and, you know,
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: moving guys around. That was pretty much a lot. And
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: I thought I was going to make the team, but
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: I was never told. And I'm looking around. the locker room,
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: and this is where that scene where, like I said,
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: I pushed the playbook forward. And what had happened in
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: the locker room is Bill Davis, who was the Turk,
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: the guy who cuts guys.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Billy Davis' dad, Jeff, by the way.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah right our billy davis's dad and he um
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: and he looks at me and and and i go
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: to hand him the playbook and he just started smiling
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: he says no and he went over to don zimmerman
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: who was the the six four wide receiver the number
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: 80 and he said and bring your playbook and i'm
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: thinking i'm out of my now i'm out of my
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: freaking mind I mean, this guy's getting cut and he's
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: going to lose his man, but I'm going to be
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: making $ 21, 000 a year. When I was a school teacher,
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: I was making about, I don't know, making about seven
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: or eight. I would have given that $ 21, 000.
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• 14:00
  Speaker 3: So now we get into the right field because the
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: stadium set up for baseball and we're in right field
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: and I'm looking up in my stance and I'm thinking, oh,
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: if the boys could just see me now, but I'm old.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: I made the team. And then coach Ramil came over
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: to me and he said, Hey, congratulations, old man. You're
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: a Philadelphia Eagle. Welcome. Welcome to the Eagles pups.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: 30 years old, right?
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah. 30 years old. I jumped up. I jumped at
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: his arms and, and we had both at that moment.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: And I said, can I make a phone call? And
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: he said, what? He says, well, you got a press
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: conference already?
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: I said, no.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: I called my dad. So I knew there was a payphone.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: Remember payphones? There was a payphone. I've seen them in
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: the movies. And I make a collect call to Stu.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'll never forget this guy. And he's the
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: shop steward. And I get through. And it's Vince. He's, oh,
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: my God. Oh, my God. I said, oh, Slim, his
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: name was. I said, Slim. And he's right out of
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: central casting, this guy. Hey, Slim. tell Kingy, my father,
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: tell Kingy that his little boy is a Philadelphia Eagle.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: And he starts screaming, Kingy, we're F-ing Eagles.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: Your son, your.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: F-ing son, F-da-ba-ba-da-ba-ba. And it was similar to Rudy, you know,
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: when he found out he was, and Rudy's my buddy,
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: by the way, and we laugh at this all the time.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: We talk all the time about that one. And he
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: called his dad and, you know, when his dad was
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: in My dad's at Westinghouse, right on the river there,
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: right by the airport. It was similar to that, so
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: they called that a Rudy moment. They couldn't use the
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: real scene, so what they did, they created that scene,
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: which turned out pretty cool. It was pretty cool the
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: way they did it. I liked that a lot.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Vince, let's fast forward to Disney. Who contacts you? How
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: do you find out that they're going to do the movie?
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: This is the coolest thing in the world. In 2002,
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: I'm I'm Pete DiStefano from NFL Films. And he's one
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: of the rookies there. And he comes up and he says, hey,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: you know what? He said, the movie Rocky's turning 25
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: this year. And, you know, you're the real life Rocky.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: That's what they always called me. And he said, we'd
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: like to do a feature on Monday Night Football comparing
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: you to Rocky. I said, he said, can we have
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: your permission? Your permission? Yeah. You know, and like my
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: kids are there. You know, Gabby's about eight. Vinny's about five.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: And so my kids are there, and I'm going nuts.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: I said, you're not going to believe what happened. So anyway,
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: they did the feature. It was Monday Night Football. Stuart
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: Scott and Jaws, and they're saying, yeah, and the Eagles
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: were playing the 49ers, and so they had one of
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: their guys, this distant replay. So we were part of
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: the distant replay thing, and they showed it, and the
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: next thing you know, Hollywood came calling. And so we
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: ended up with a guy after a lot of money
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: and fees and legal fees, we wound up with Ken Mock,
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: who created America's Next Top Model. And he decided to
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: take a risk and he was going to hire a
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: screenplay guy, a guy to write the screenplay. And just
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: for the record, I thought you might ask that. I mean,
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: here is the original screenplay right there. And he was
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: going to write the screenplay, and he got a guy,
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: Brad Gant, who actually wrote the Oscar de la Hoya
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: story and movie. So he wrote the screenplay, and we
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: did it. There's no Google. There's no internet. I'm sending
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: him stuff. We're talking on the phone. We don't have
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: Zoom like this. And then all of a sudden, in
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: October of 2004, they have an auction, and they give
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: the screenplay out to about 15 or 20 people from
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: Hollywood around And the guys that got the screenplay were
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray. And they happened to do
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: that little movie called Miracle. And The Rookie. And they
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: took it to Disney because it was a Disney movie.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: They handed it to this guy. And the guy they
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: handed it to, he's a Philly guy. He's president of
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: Buena Vista Pictures, right? He's a Philly freaking guy. He says,
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: this guy was my idol.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: Oh, my God.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: What a chance this is. It doesn't get any quicker
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: than that.
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: Oh, my God.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: So anyway, so they did it. They greenlit the movie,
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: and we started shooting. We were working out. You know,
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: all the football players were being the football league players.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: We were working out at Northeast High School, ironically, where
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: my wife went to high school. And we worked out
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: for two weeks. I got Mark every day for at
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: least an hour or two to do all the drills.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: And then they shot the movie in 05. And it
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: came out right around Labor Day in 06. And then,
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: but we really needed to get the NFL's endorsement. So
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: this is how my wife, Janet, became a Giants fan.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: We went to the NFL.
• 18:52
  Speaker 6: That's real.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, America on the Meadowlands.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they went to the, that was a little bit after. Oh,
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: a little bit before. So we go to somebody there
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: in the marketing department and said, we want your, you know,
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: we've already got, you know, show me the money. We
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: already got our, we already have our movie. So anyway,
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: Janet sort of had a little bit of a pedigree.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: You look over there, that's her jersey, USA, right there.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: And she was on the USA World and Olympic gymnastic
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: team back there with Kathy Rigby. Oh, wow. And she
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: coached at Penn from 1976 to 1989. Wow. So the
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: NFL decided, because we needed their rights, our branding rights,
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: to be called the Eagles, not the Turkeys. And they said, okay,
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: but here's the deal. And the deal was that Janet
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: had to be a Giants fan. And the bartending thing,
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: her uncle owned a bar right right off spring garden
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: street you know and like spring garden and sixth or
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: fifth or whatever it was and um and so that's
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: how they did it she she signed off on it
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: i said you don't have to do this she said
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: what are you nuts and uh and you know janet
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: has signed off on it and there was and number
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: one in the box office for two weeks and it
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: was pretty wild and here we are at 20 years later,
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: still talking about it.
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: Nobody loves grilling more than me. Could be 30 degrees
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• 23:13
  Speaker 4: LiveMomentous.com. Promo code BIRDS. So let me ask you. And
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: the movie, of course, Invincible. Great movie.
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: Not only that, Vince, but some great actors that they
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: got to be. Mark Wahlberg plays you. Greg Kinnear playing
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: Dick Vermeule. Elizabeth Banks, right, is your girlfriend.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: Oh, Elizabeth. She's so cool.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: She was awesome.
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: And, you know, we were out. Josh, we were out
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: every night. You know, I mean, Mark was staying at
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: the Rittenhouse. And, and, and, and we, we were living,
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: we were living in Cherry Hill at the time. And ironically,
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: my son, Vinnie, he lives at Rittenhouse Square right now,
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: but you know, we, every night we were out with
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: the producers, we were out with whomever, but I'll tell
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: you one, the one night was when we were out
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: and it was when the person from it, from Disney
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: came over and she said, that's, she said, she ordered
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: champagne and we ordered some champagne and we drank some champagne.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: She says, here's to the green light. And I didn't
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: know what a green light was. The movie was approved.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: The budget was approved.
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: Nice.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: And they went. We shot it. It took 13 weeks
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: to shoot it. And there we go. We spent a
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: week in Dallas, which was really cool.
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: Nice.
• 24:16
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: What's his name? Jerry played a little trick on me.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: He dressed my kids all up in Dallas gear.
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: Gary Jones. It was pretty funny.
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: Hey, I'm curious.
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: Once the filming started, right, and all these actors are
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: playing you, and these are some primo actors, and again,
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: great movie.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: Go see Invincible if you haven't seen it yet.
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: Did you have any kind of creative influence they ask.
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: Obviously they Hollywooded up a few things, as you mentioned,
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: but how much of your input in directing or writing
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: or storytelling was involved?
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: Other than the storytelling, you know, some of them, they,
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: you know, some of them were a little bit, a
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: little bit different, but the creative side of it and
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: all the, all the special team stuff. I, I, I
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: worked with the guy that was in charge of the
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: second unit and he was the same guy that was
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: in charge of second unit for, for, for miracle and
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: for rookie. So he knew how to put it together.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: And I spent a lot of time with him and
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: went over all the plays, went over all the strategies.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: And what they did is then they went and they
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: took a look at all the films. They looked at
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: me on film back then. There is actually one piece
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: for about one second where they show me in real life.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I had a big impact on the movie.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: But when I was there every day and they had
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: the director's chairs all set up for us and everything.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: They just, they said, just stay out of the way.
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: We don't want to see you.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: I did get in a movie, you know, I got
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: seconds of fame, you know, when he was running that,
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: when he sprinted into the end zone, you know, March
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: in the end zone. But my kids are in the movie.
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: Oh, I didn't know that.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: My favorite scene. At the end, right at the end,
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: when the Eagles were playing the Cowboys and now I'm
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: reflecting and driving through the city and all this, and
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: I see these kids playing football. Yeah. little girl throws
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: a ball in the street. That's my Gabriella. Yeah. Who
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: just had a baby girl, Evelina. I just left her
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: a couple minutes ago. And my son Vinny, who played
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: in the U that Delaware in the UFL. I mean,
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: he had in the USFL and Vinny, he's now going
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: to be in the Olympics. He's a little boy with
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: number 83 running out in front of the car, picking
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: up the ball. Awesome. That is it. Every time I
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: see that scene, I cry.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: I'd say it's just, you can't even imagine. I, I,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I've just blown away.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, you were, the retelling of your, not only your, your,
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: your sports career, but the movie, your family, your wife's career,
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: which is amazing. Your kid's career and everything else come
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: full circle. What, what a life you've had and plenty,
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: plenty to go.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: Oh, it was great. You know, and the Eagles back then,
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: they were, they were really cool. And, and you know,
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: we had, we had our, we had our invincible day,
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: you know, Mark was there, I was there and, And,
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: you know, I have a jersey that's not right behind me,
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: but I do have a few jerseys laying around somewhere
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: in Jupiter. But, you know, they gave me a jersey
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: in the 83 Invincible. It was really cool. So it's still,
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: you know, so every time I'm in Philadelphia, the Eagles
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: will have me working with them in the marketing department,
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: which is much appreciated. And look, I'm an Eagles fan
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: all the way back to way before, I mean, way
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: before when they stopped way before They won the world championship,
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: you know, against the Packers. And here I am now.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: And they call me a legend, which makes me laugh.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Well, before we get out of here, before we get
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: out of here, what are your thoughts on the Eagles?
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: People want to know. What do you think?
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, they've got everything they need. You know,
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: they made their choices. They made their moves. You know,
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: it's going to be interesting to see, obviously, with the
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: new offensive coordinator. And, you know, Sean, and he's going
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: to do things a little bit different. He's going to
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: sit up high and he's going to be in the booth. And,
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: you know, so the character in the, you know, I
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: guess the teamwork developed between Jalen and him is going
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: to be interesting, you know, and, you know, there's got
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: to be a lot of collaboration, a lot of trust
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: and those things. I mean, they've had, you know, every
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: other year at least they've had a new FOC. And,
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: you know, the offensive line is solid. The running backs
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: are solid. We got, you know, I mean, they're solid. And,
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: you know, see what the defense does. They made a
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: few moves. And, you know, we've got commanders coming up,
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: you know, and, you know, we'll see what's going on
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: on this Sunday.
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: All right, man.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Well, we appreciate it. For Mr. Vince Papali, I'm Adam Kaplan.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: He's Jeff Mosher. Thank you for joining us. We'll speak
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: to you next time.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: Fly, Eagles, fly, baby.