Latest / Best of the NFL Podcast Network / The Season with Peter Schrager: Lions GM Brad Holmes [Encore]

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The Season with Peter Schrager: Lions GM Brad Holmes [Encore] · Best of the NFL Podcast Network

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  Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Scheger is a production of the
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  Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, everybody, This is
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  Speaker 1: Peter Schreger and you're listening to the Season with Peter Schreger.
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  Speaker 1: We are in the middle of July right now, which
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  Speaker 1: is the NFL's quote unquote slow season. But if you
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  Speaker 1: follow the league and you love the game like I do,
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  Speaker 1: you know there is no days off when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to an NFL season. This podcast has been a blast
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  Speaker 1: this summer because we're getting coaches and gms in their
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  Speaker 1: homes and we're getting them at their vacation houses that
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  Speaker 1: we're getting them maybe a little bit off the clock,
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  Speaker 1: which means they can be a little looser than they
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  Speaker 1: might usually be. I say this with great confidence. I
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  Speaker 1: don't think I've enjoyed a podcast more than the conversation
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  Speaker 1: you're about to listen to since we've begun doing this
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  Speaker 1: thing back last September. This is Brad Holmes, the manager
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  Speaker 1: of the Detroit Lions, with no further ado, really excited
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  Speaker 1: about this guest and trying to get him on for
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  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks and we got him, and I'm excited,
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  Speaker 1: and it's right before the start of training camp, so
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure he's fresh as a daisy. This is the
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  Speaker 1: Detroit Lions general manager, mister Brad Holmes. Brad, what's up man?
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  Speaker 2: How you doing man? Thanks for having me. Glad we'll
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  Speaker 2: be able to finally get this together. I hope you
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  Speaker 2: to think I.
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  Speaker 1: Waste No, you know what, it's funny because this is
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  Speaker 1: like the off season, but it's also the only time
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  Speaker 1: that people can get away. So it's yes, I'd love
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  Speaker 1: to do your podcast, but I also have a family.
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  Speaker 1: I'd like to see you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's and you know, really like during the season.
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  Speaker 2: I know we started talking about during the season, and
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  Speaker 2: the season is probably the most like normal, lies regimented
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  Speaker 2: part of the whole year because you kind of know
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  Speaker 2: what's gonna happen. But when the season ends, that's when
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  Speaker 2: it gets like crazy crazy and then we actually we
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  Speaker 2: do quite a bit after the draft preparing for the
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  Speaker 2: upcoming year. So but you know, fresh off vacation, Uh,
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  Speaker 2: you know, got a good little week at home and uh,
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  Speaker 2: it's a great time. Man.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's a good segue. So take us through,
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  Speaker 1: and you are a general manager, what is the schedule
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  Speaker 1: because I think most people think, all right, draft and
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  Speaker 1: then kick your feet up and then free agency, you know,
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  Speaker 1: but it's really year round.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is. Man. You know, you have a
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  Speaker 2: training camp and you go through that and you you
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  Speaker 2: know a lot of rods reduction stuff. But after training camp,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I say, the season. Everybody thinks like the
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  Speaker 2: season is like that's the basest part, because it's the
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  Speaker 2: football season. But from a GM standpoint, it's actually probably
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  Speaker 2: the most regiment a part because you pretty much know, okay,
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  Speaker 2: you got game day. Game day is going to bring
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  Speaker 2: all your stress and emotions. And but after game day,
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  Speaker 2: Mondays you're dealing with you know, injuries and medical stuff.
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  Speaker 2: And then Tuesdays you're dealing with you know, roster management
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  Speaker 2: and getting all your moves done. And then the week
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  Speaker 2: starts and actually we actually kind of devote a lot
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  Speaker 2: of that time for draft prep actually, so because you
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  Speaker 2: kind of have the time. Yeah, and then you kind
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  Speaker 2: of just operate normally. But then after the season ends,
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  Speaker 2: and that's when you're like full throttle, like you know,
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  Speaker 2: you're head straight into you're balancing free agency and draft
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  Speaker 2: at the same time, and then you're going all the
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  Speaker 2: way up to free agency so that's probably the most
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  Speaker 2: hectic time. It's pre free agency because you're kind of
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  Speaker 2: doing both, and then once free agency kind of like
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  Speaker 2: that second or third wave kind of hits, you can
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  Speaker 2: start downing more so towards straight draft, and then you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's kind of just full throttle through the draft.
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  Speaker 1: Because we're heading into the twenty twenty three season and
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  Speaker 1: we're still just a couple of months removed. I want
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  Speaker 1: to go back to that first round for you guys
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  Speaker 1: in the Detroit Lions. We're going to get into your
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  Speaker 1: story in a second, but I feel like just the
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  Speaker 1: excitement about the Lions is real, and you've read all
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  Speaker 1: the headlines. I'm sure you've blocked as many headlin you
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  Speaker 1: can't out about how this is like the hot team
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  Speaker 1: in the NFC. But the draft, you know, right in
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  Speaker 1: the days leading up to the draft, I had a
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  Speaker 1: couple of birdies in my ear man, like I think
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  Speaker 1: Jamiir Gibbs might go earlier than the mock drafts are saying,
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  Speaker 1: and another one saying he might go before be Jon Robinson.
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  Speaker 1: Sure enough, you guys, you get him early top fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: and everyone around like, oh, I want a shot. But
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  Speaker 1: like people that I was tart to say, that's not
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  Speaker 1: such a shock. That's about where he was slated. When
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  Speaker 1: did you fall in love with Jamir Gives and what
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  Speaker 1: did you love about him?
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  Speaker 2: Man, it's funny that she said you heard that about
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  Speaker 2: him going at early because I was sitting here thinking, uh,
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  Speaker 2: I was like, nobody's going to do this. And then
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  Speaker 2: and then after we picked them, and I heard all
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  Speaker 2: these other gentlemen.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, that's what we wanted.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right, I'm glad you picked them. He wasn't
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  Speaker 2: gonna make it. But no, I first fell in love
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  Speaker 2: with him. Obviously, I didn't know about him that much.
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  Speaker 2: Like it's at Georgia Tech year before. So I went
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  Speaker 2: to Texas Alabama game earlier in the year and I
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  Speaker 2: kind of got tipped off about him, like right before
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  Speaker 2: the start of the game. Man, I was like, okay,
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  Speaker 2: and I saw his body type and like this I
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  Speaker 2: was intriguing. And then I kind of saw what he
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  Speaker 2: was doing in both phases. Yeah, I mean he can
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  Speaker 2: run it, but when he was doing as a receiver
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  Speaker 2: and the explosiveness and everything about him, and we just
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  Speaker 2: kept doing work on him and like I said, kind
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  Speaker 2: of do some draft prep during the season and kept
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  Speaker 2: doing work on him, and that was just kind of
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  Speaker 2: it for me. I was like, this guy's uh and
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  Speaker 2: he's he's a weapon. He's a weapon. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: we talked about all the running backs going in the
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  Speaker 2: first round and all that kind of stuff. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I always say, like, if he's a weapon, then forget
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  Speaker 2: the RBS.
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  Speaker 1: That's like, that's how that's that's.
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  Speaker 2: What he is. Like, that's like he we thought he
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  Speaker 2: was a multi phase, elite explosive position list weapon and
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  Speaker 2: you know he was a special player. You know, you
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  Speaker 2: have some you have to combine to confirm some things,
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  Speaker 2: you know, but he ran what I thought he was
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  Speaker 2: gonna run. And you know, all the testing and his
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  Speaker 2: workouts and we're just really excited about him. I think
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  Speaker 2: you're gonna he's gonna bring another dimension to our offense.
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  Speaker 2: That's as good as we were offensively last year, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I think something even better this year. But bottom line
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  Speaker 2: this is you just got to get the guys that
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  Speaker 2: you want. And I kind of look at especially this
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  Speaker 2: past draft. You know, everybody was saying like this is
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  Speaker 2: a different draft, is a different draft. Well, let's call
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  Speaker 2: it what it is. It just wasn't as strong of
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  Speaker 2: a draft as it normally has been.
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  Speaker 1: And by that you mean blue chip guys top twenty yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Like you know, in a normal year you had
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  Speaker 2: like true first round talent players, you might have about
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  Speaker 2: seventeen or eighteen guys. I really haven't seen any higher
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  Speaker 2: than twenty in all the years that I've been doing it.
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  Speaker 2: This is we ended up with fourteen guys, and that
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  Speaker 2: was at the very end. It was less than that
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  Speaker 2: at one point, Like at one point we had like
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  Speaker 2: nine or ten, but Jamiro was always one of those guys.
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  Speaker 2: So I just looked at it as like, damn, look,
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  Speaker 2: let's just get the who the hell we want and
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  Speaker 2: let's get the hell out of there and let's see
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  Speaker 2: you know, like like like one of my favorite movies
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  Speaker 2: is Training Yeah, like me and my dad one of
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  Speaker 2: me and my dad's favorite movie. And uh, there was
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  Speaker 2: a scene in Training Day where have yeah, so like
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  Speaker 2: it was one of the scenes where you know, he
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  Speaker 2: goes into this you know, the rough area, and he
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  Speaker 2: goes to his lady's house and takes his money and
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  Speaker 2: then he goes out and him and even Hawker trying
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  Speaker 2: to get out of the neighborhood and the girl comes
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  Speaker 2: out there and rats him out and says, hey, this
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  Speaker 2: guy just took our money. And then Ze just send
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: his shootout and he's just shooting out trying to get
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  Speaker 2: out of the neighborhood, and he's basically shooting his way
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  Speaker 2: out of there. And I was like that drafts kind.
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  Speaker 1: Of get me out of.
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  Speaker 2: Get get who we want, and just shoot our way
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  Speaker 2: out of here and get on out of there. And uh,
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  Speaker 2: we were just ecstatic about how the whole thing went.
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  Speaker 1: Would you say that you and Dan Campbell are Jay
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  Speaker 1: Quoy and Alonso Harris in that film? Would you put.
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  Speaker 2: You know? I don't, I don't want to have that,
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  Speaker 2: but I will say we we work as a pair
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  Speaker 2: very very well. We partner very very well. You know. Again,
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  Speaker 2: I know a lot of people know now that we
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  Speaker 2: didn't really know each other that much before we got hired,
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  Speaker 2: But always give so much credit to Sheila and Rod
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  Speaker 2: Wood and Chris Bilman and Mike dis and everybody was
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  Speaker 2: involved in that interview process of that. I guess that
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  Speaker 2: they just knew that, you know, we would pair so
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  Speaker 2: so well. And he's a joy to work with and
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  Speaker 2: he's a hell of a coach.
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  Speaker 1: He's cool and he's got a great personality, and those
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  Speaker 1: players really rallied around him, especially in the second half
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  Speaker 1: of the season. You look at that running backs room,
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  Speaker 1: obviously it's it's Gibbs and now it's Montgomery. Last year
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  Speaker 1: you had something fun with Williams and Swift. You know,
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  Speaker 1: everyone might say the value of the positions devalued and
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  Speaker 1: whatever you want to say about it. That's a pretty
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  Speaker 1: big change for the running backs room. Considering you guys
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  Speaker 1: were so red hot at the end of the season.
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  Speaker 1: You feel good about where you guys are at with
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  Speaker 1: that position group.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean overall, when you look at it just systematically,
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  Speaker 2: I do think that we'll be better offensively. And that's
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  Speaker 2: no knock on the contributions that that those other two
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  Speaker 2: guys gave us, because Swift is a dynamic player and Jamal,
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  Speaker 2: you know, he was a great leader for us and
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  Speaker 2: he did he did so much for us. He had
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  Speaker 2: a great season, awesome touchdowns. You know. Yeah, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: but what we do think that Montgomery, You know, I
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  Speaker 2: think we make Montgomery and Jamal are different backs. You know,
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  Speaker 2: Montgomery does a little bit more in the passing game, uh,
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  Speaker 2: And you know, adding being able to add Gibbs. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I think he just he's so dynamic as a receiver.
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  Speaker 2: And look, he's a home run hitter as a running back.
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  Speaker 2: I mean that's the easy part. But what he does
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  Speaker 2: as a receiver, I mean he runs routes like I
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  Speaker 2: mean like a receiver. Is that right?
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Because I you know, you get all this Alabama talent
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  Speaker 1: and then here's another one and it's like, no, this
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  Speaker 1: one's special and has his own skill set that maybe
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: because he's only there one year, didn't get the same
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  Speaker 1: hype as the other guys.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he was just different. He was just different. And
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  Speaker 2: you know, going through that process, I was like, man,
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  Speaker 2: how many guys have I seen that was like equally
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  Speaker 2: as effective? You know, Like when I first got with
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: the Rams in two thousand and three, Marshall Fulk was
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  Speaker 2: still there and I was a huge Marshall Faulk guy
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  Speaker 2: just coming in and so just kind of seeing what
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  Speaker 2: he does in both phases, and then just from a
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  Speaker 2: scouting standpoint, when Christian McCaffrey came out, he was like
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  Speaker 2: the last guy. I was like, holy cow, like this guy,
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  Speaker 2: I can run routes like a slot receiver. But also
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: run it, and so you start getting reminders of you know,
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  Speaker 2: some of those players. I'm not sitting here those players,
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  Speaker 2: but you know, just a special weapon like that, just
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  Speaker 2: you know, we have a lot of excitement otism.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think the offensive coordinator story is pretty
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  Speaker 1: cool too. Had opportunities to interview for other head coaching
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  Speaker 1: jobs and kind of withdrew his name and said, I'm
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: good here in Detroit with this group. Take us through
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: that decision from Ben Johnson and what that meant in
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: the organization as a whole man.
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  Speaker 2: That was huge, And you know, look at the end
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  Speaker 2: of the day, Look, it's it's hard to keep the
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: good ones, you know, I mean, eventually the cat gets
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: out the bag and you know there's there's just no hiding.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: But you know then, you know, you saw it right
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: out the gate. You know, even when he was a
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: tight ends coach, and you know obviously Dan, you know,
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  Speaker 2: had had prior experience with him, but you know, when
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  Speaker 2: things got rough in that twenty one season and we
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: had to make that change from Anthony Lynn and you know,
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  Speaker 2: Ben basically became the passing game coordinator basically, but Dan
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: was called in plays and Dan plays before and and
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  Speaker 2: Dan was just doing a great job and just having
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: fun with but Ben just added this other element was
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: just like, Wow, this dude's crazy. But you know that
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: that's another component of when I when you asked you
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: a question about the running backs about and I said,
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  Speaker 2: I think will be better offensively this year as good
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: as you were last year. It's just that you know,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Ben going into his second year as THEOC, like I
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: think last year he showed everybody like I can do this,
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  Speaker 2: like I'm legit, but going you know, having the experience
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  Speaker 2: under his belt going into year two, having shared with
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: him going in year two, and then all the other
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: components that we had in creating in the draft. That's
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: why I feel better about William to be better.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Real quick, a couple more things Lions related, then we're
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: going to get more into your story. The Jack Campbell
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  Speaker 1: picked that was one where if Gibbs was like okay Campbell,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: that left people slack jawed and just being like, wait,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: what not not a first round mock draft guy whatsoever?
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: And yet I saw Jack Campbell, I turned to my
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: co host on nfn R like, well, that's Chris Spielman
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: just walking through the door again. That's what I who,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: of course works in your organization and has a great role.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: But a linebacker another position not considered necessarily the same
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: as pass rusher, offensive tackle or quarterback in this league.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: And you guys, you liked them, you took them, and
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: away we go.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, you know, I think with these I
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: think sometimes it's almost like the draft's not that easy,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Like the draft is not Oh, you take these positions
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  Speaker 2: and these players that played these positions put them up
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: top because they got stats and they've been on the internet,
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: and put them up top. And then these players have
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: played these positions put them at the bottom and that's it.
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  Speaker 2: And just working for a couple of months.
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  Speaker 1: And Daniel Jeremiah says, mel Kiper says, take him there, Like, come.
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  Speaker 2: On, I give it a little bit more credit to drafts.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Not that easy. And he's going to look me talking
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: about building a defense and me and Aaron going to
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: have very similar philosophies in terms of like what does
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: it take to really elevate you? And you got to
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: have guys the front. You better have guys that can cover,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: so you know, often the inside linebacker or the off
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: ball linebacker, like we took Malcolm Rodriguez year before sixth round,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: and he had a great year. You know he's gonna
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: be He's going to be something that's going to be
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: contributed for us going forward. But it was just that
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: you got to look at the player like, not not
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: the position. We don't draft positions. We draft players. And
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: so when you looked at the player of Jack Campbell
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: and we saw it as like, no, we're not drafting
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: inside linebacker. We actually went into after we signed if
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: to resigned Alex Angeloni, and we feel really good about,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: you know, the direction that Derek Barnes and knocking Rod
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: Driguez was heading. It's not like inside linebackers like oh
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: you better get like it's not just like no, but
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Jack Campbell was just a hell of a football player.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: And I just think that like we're looking at it
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: as he's going to be an anchor in our defense,
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: not we're drafting an inside linebacker, Like no, we're just
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: taking an anchor. That's defense. And we tell about guys.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: We look at free agency, you look at inside linebackers.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: You know, you might have this whole list, But then
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: when you're looking at guys I can actually wear that
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: green dot and really run the show, that list shrinks
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: down like this, like it goes from this and it
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: goes to this. And so then when you have a
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: guy like Jack Campbell that's six five, two fifty, that's
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: extremely instinctive. He's he's heavy in the run game, he's
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: extremely smart, and I just love how the kid is wired.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: I mean he's wired to fake what we're all about.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: We're all about grit, doing it the right way, like
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: the truly earning it. And this guy just loves football.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: He's he he's all business. And so it's about the player.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: It's not about not about oh it's gone place. It's
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: notline it's got a place running back. No, like go
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: to Jamiri gibbss Like, oh no, he's a weapon. But
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Jamira Gibbs is really smart. It's not like you know,
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: oh yeah, he can align all these different places. You
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: got to be smart to line in all these different places.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: You don't just align all these different places, No, Like,
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: you got to be really smart. You got to be
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: really heady and instinctive. And so I thought Jack Campbell,
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: you know, had all the trades that we look for
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: in a football player. And so that's how we felt
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: really good about it again going back to what I
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: was saying about in one but a certain amount of
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: players that we had in that first round bucket, and
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: he was one of them. And but I say it
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: was only fourteen guys. Jack Campbell wasn't fourteen, you know
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: what I mean? So like it's that's that's why I
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: just it was it was easy.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I love it. You guys have your board, you have
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: your guys, and hey, if we can get this guy
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: at eighteen, and he was a top fourteen player of
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: ours and may even higher top ten, we're taking them.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Mock drafts be damned.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of what that's that's our stance. We're
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: just we do a lot of work. We're very thorough,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: and I know I think every team is going to
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: say that, but we just have a lot of conviction
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: in our process and in what we believe, and we
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: just stick by it, and that that's what we did.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: I love it. And last year not only had Hutchinson
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: step up, but you had so many rookies playing big roles,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: especially on that defense, that it's hard not to say, Okay,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: let's give them the benefit of the doubt. Let's see
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: before everyone starts giving them, you know b's and c's
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: on their draft grades based on what the mont Draft said.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean that's always say like it's such
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: a psychological component of like the mock drafts and look
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: it's no, I'm.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Not looking at it.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Look I know you, like, I.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Know you do much, yes, but take a lot of
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: pride in it.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: But like, but I'll say this, I mean, stra you
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: you do football every single day, Like that's what you
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: do all the time. You know a lot of people
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: you I mean, like, I like I look at like
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: So I'm not going to say like I don't look
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: at mock drafts. Yeah I look at him because people talking,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: people do the research and all that. But you can't.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: You just still have to have ultimate belief and ultimate
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: conviction in your own process. But but no, there's plenty
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: of guys that are doing that. I respect, And I'm like, man,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: I know this guy knows people. You know, he's done
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: a lot of work, you know, and I think he
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: puts a lot of pride. But when it doesn't go
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: down the way you projected it, your your brain doesn't
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: really like that. And it's kind of.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Want to be right.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Everybody wants to be and so then now you're mad,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: and now you're like, damn it, no one said he
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: was gonna go that high. And then now you got
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: to sign a grade while you're still mad. So now
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, no one said you're gonna go there. No,
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: And I'm just like and I was like, at the
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: end of the day.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: I'm like, march, you know, because really the.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Only ranks that really matter is the thirty one other
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: general finishers and uh and and those are the rankings
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: that nobody has. And that's what makes the draft so fun.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: And so when when when when I see people get
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: mad about, uh, it didn't go the way, I'm like, look,
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: you should embrace the excitement of that, Like that's that's
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: the part. You don't know how it's gonna fall. And
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: you see a name that goes out and be like, whoa,
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: I didn't know that.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: It's like embracing it is ultimates the ultimate reality show.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: It's more than the season even because it's so rapid fire.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: And I say it before the draft, I beg my
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: colleagues on Twitter on ESPN, I don't tip the picks.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: It is such a fun experience as a viewer. If
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: you don't and you guys in the war rooms and
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: then trying to manipulate the chessboard. It's it's war games
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: and it's fun to watch from outside, but I'm sure
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: it's stressful as hell in your chair.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: But it is. You're right, it's fun. And and what
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: I was I was selling a lot of people out
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: in the draft, you know, I was like, Okay, this
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: was the draft, this was the draft season. This was
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: you know, the build up, and then when it's over,
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: then it's over. And then now now the ota start
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: and guys start get on the field, and now that's
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: the thing. And then now training camp is about to start,
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: so that'll be a thing. So it's like it goes
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: in phases where it's just like I was telling you
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: about the movie, you know, with Ethan Hawkins Denzel Aushington.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: It's like you do the shootout and the back windows
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: shot out, and you know, the cars kind of shot
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: up a little bit, but they got out. They go.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: You gotta so you gotta take the you know, the
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: d's and halfs of the mock drafters and all, okay,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: all right, you know it'll be it'll be back at home.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: I love your story. I think it's a story of perseverance.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: But also you've had a great career. Can can we
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: go back to your high school days. You're a star
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: player in Tampa, Florida. You were I want to say,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Homecoming King, Is that true? I did my research. Homecoming King,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: captain of the football team. You go to North Carolina
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: A and T, and you're having a great freshman sophomore
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: here and then a major life moment occurred. I'm going
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: to say something and then you take us back and
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: explain what happened. But I'm just going to say the
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Music City Miracle game and then take us backwards and
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: lead up to what that game means in your life.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Oh man, So yeah, you know, I'm at home visiting,
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: you know, my my parents once Ampa, and you know,
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: have a you know, near fatal car accident, just get
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: get sidelined, and you know, I mean, I mean, I
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: see you for a week and it was it was
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm just I'm I'm very blessed and lucky
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: to pull through that. But yeah, I was. I was
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: in I see you in Saint Joseph Hospital in Tampa, Florida,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: watching the Music City Miracle and I never forget I was.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: And then when I got released from the hospital, watching
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: then in nine rams, you know, uh go their Super
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Bowl when they played the Bucks, you know, and then
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: NSC Championship game, and uh it was. I mean I
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: was watching that just just kind of couch written when
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: I got released. But those moments kind of really resonate
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: with me because you don't you don't take anything for granted.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: And you know what what that taught me is that,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: you know, look, if you have something that you believe,
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: all is believe it and don't let anybody take your
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: dreams away. Because I never forget that. My college coach
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: phil As visits in the hospital and you know, he's
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: he sees one of his players in ICU bed mangled up,
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: and I'm sitting there telling them that I'm gonna play again,
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: and he's like, all right, yeah right, I mean, like
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: you're lucky if you'll walk around like no, I'm gonna
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: play again. And sure enough, it just gave me time
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: to get as healthy as I could rehab. It was
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: able to, you know, join the team. I had missed
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: that whole spring, and I joined the team during summer
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: workouts and a big part of my rehab process was
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: my grandfather coming down and my grandfather played golf twice
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: today and just driving his car really kind of just
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: or yeah, like just getting used to even driving again.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Stuff like that. And you know, you go through all
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: this occupational therapy and all that, but but be able
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: to join my teammates that summer and I felt actually
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: stronger than ever was. I felt even better in shape,
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: and you know, and we we went on and you know,
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: I was able to finish my career at North Carolina
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: A and T. But that's definitely the biggest adversity that
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: I've ever overcome in my life and and something that
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: I'll never forget. And it sticks with you.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: You went into a coma, you had a stroke, and
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: then what was it? How many how many weeks or
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: months in the hospital were you?
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: And yeah, so I was in I was in ICU
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: for almost two weeks. You know, it was like ten
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: days in ICU, and then I had almost close to
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: another week when I got released and moved from ICU.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: But yeah, had a had a coma stroke, was paralyzed
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: all the way on my right side. And you know,
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: I still to this day, I still have like I
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: still don't feel like I have the exact same amount
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: of strength, you know, like in my right arm as
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: my left or you know, it's just it's certain things
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: that kind of just give you some reminders of that moment.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: But having kids now, being a parent, I just can't
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: even think of you know, uh, my, my my parents.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: Getting that call from one of my closest friends Gape GALAGOSU.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: I just saw back when I was on vacation that
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: you know, he's the one that had to make that
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: call to my parents of what happened, and it was
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: I just can't even fathom me get in that call
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: when day just out of the blue, and you know,
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: I just I just have so much respect for my family, uh,
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: my closest friends. Uh and you know, I just I
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: just kind of it's just one of those moments that
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: lives with you in really a good way.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say, is it almost in a weird way?
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: And they say this about survivors of traumatic events, but
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: also survivors of illnesses. It's almost liberating where you're like, wait,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: I've been through that, I can do anything now.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Like it's yeah, it's it's not a good
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: moment because it's life threatening, but at the same time,
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: It's one of those moments that shape for sure, and
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: those are one of those things that I think kind
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: of started my journey. Like I felt like I was
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: always a hard worker. I always felt like I always
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: had that mindset that was kind of overcoming the odds.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: My father had taught me that a long time ago,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: you know, he had he he played in the NFL
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: for a short a while, and I never forget he
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: bought me a weight set, you know, when I was
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: in length the seventh grade and and he was like
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: it was no, it was in the eighth grade. I
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: think it was in eighth or ninth grade, but he
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: bought me a weight set, And I never forget he
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: told me. He was like, Brad, it's it's not about
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: what other people are seeing you do, and it's about
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: what you're doing, about what you're doing when other people
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: aren't watching, about how hard you're working. And so I
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: always felt like I was a hard worker. But going
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: through that car accident and going through that process getting
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: back on my feet and not only having a chanced
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: play football, but having a chance to have life again,
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: I'm just forever grateful and fortunate. But I do think
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: that that did kind of spark that fuel of getting
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: to where I got to now because I had to
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: take a really long road. It was a very unconventional
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: path in terms of getting started and just you know,
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: being told no when I first shot to get into
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: business and just keep fighting at it, and I think
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: it both will.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: It's an amazing story. And I think what you're alluding
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: to with your career, I was looking in your bio.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: You were in Atlanta Hawks public relations, you know, entry
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: level guy doing PR for the Atlanta Hawks coming out
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: of school for you, and then you were at the
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Saint Louis Rams doing p R, which is yeah, setting
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: up interviews, which is working on messaging for the team,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: which is helping the players you know, talk to the
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: media and arrange that kind of How do you make
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: that jump from PR to being an NFL GM twenty
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: years later?
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So my degree was in PR, and in credit
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: to my mother's been in the education field forever, and
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: like halfway through college, I started off as a business
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: and marketing major. I didn't even know why. I just
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: thought that was the cool major to be in. And
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: then my mom was like, right, you might want to
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: change that, dude, Like you're more of a verbal writing person.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: You're not a man. I was like, all right, So
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: I changed my degree to PR and uh, and it
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: was it was the best thing for me. And I
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: really like my grade to start to change. But anyways,
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: when I got done playing, you know, I knew I
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: wanted to get in the NFL and you know, try
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: to get into Scout again. I sent my resume to
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: all the teams like everybody else does. My dad had
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: a complic actions, but none of that fell through. So
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: my mom was basically like, dude, you got to come
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: back home. You know, You've got to come home and
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: just figure it out. And so I moved back home,
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: and I was ringing cars for Enterprise Rental Cars, and yeah,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: I was rinting cars for Enterprise Rental Car and uh,
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm wearing the shirt and tie, washing cars
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: and rinting cars and all I'm doing is I'm thinking
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: about sports. And that was a very psychological and emotional
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: period of my life because that was the first time
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: that I was not getting ready to play football. I
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: wasn't like I'm going through It's like.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: In July, you don't have a training I don't have.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: A training camp. Awaiting for me. I'm not involved in football.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: So I'm in that little branch that Enterprise rental car
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: just thinking about football all day and saying about sports.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: And so finally an opportunity came about with the Atlanta
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Hawks for a media relations trainee, and so I talked
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: to my mom about it and I'm like and my
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: mom was like, look, at least you'll be back in sports,
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: and I was like, yeah, you're You're right. And so
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: I got that opportunity with the Atlanta Hawks. And because
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: like I only could only work forty hours a week
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: with the Atlanta Hawks, it was a meat relations trainee position,
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: but because of my experience with Enterprise, Enterprise allowed me
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: to work part time at the Atlanta airpe Line. So
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: one of the one of the greatest perks that the
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Atlanta Hawks gave me was a free Marty card. Because
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: I didn't have the money to I lived way up
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: in Norcross and had this little one bedroom apartment and
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: so I would take the you know.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: You're taking ups arena.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: So I had to start up top at the Furthest
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Formal station.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: In the early two thousand. Yeah, you know about that's
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: not a yeah, all respect to the marks that ain't
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: the New York City subway system.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: So you literally added take the door into the northernmost
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: stop and go down and then drop me off downtown
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: at to see an Inventor Center of building. And that's
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: when I would do my meat relations trainee job. And
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: then when I got off, then that's when I would
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: go down to UH. I get off and I take
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: the Marta down to the Atlanta Airport and then I
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: go to the Atlanta Airport and I would just work cars,
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: so probably about about eleven o'clock at night, and then
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: you know, the Atlanta air Force is the last time,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: so I'd have to take that that Atlanta Airport Marta
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: all the way back up to that door bill station
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: up north and UH. And that's really what's the lesson.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: What's a lesson from Atlanta?
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: What's a lesson for kids? Right now? Who are I say? Kids?
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: College graduate? I want to get in sports, I want
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: to be a GM. You hear that story that that
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: could be discouraging, but it should also encourage.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: It should encourage you. And again, like I said at
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: the beginning, man, look if you're confised on what you
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: want to do, don't let anybody ever tell you know,
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: and people will tell you no, and you got to
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: use the nose as fuel to just keep going. And
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: you just gotta have you just got to be convicted,
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: and you just got to know that you're not going
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: to have the easiest path. Yeah. I had plenty of
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: friends from college that got these high paying jobs and
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: all this stuff, and it was it was, it was great.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: But I was struggling. You know, I wasn't making I
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: think I was want to make like eight bucks an
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: hour as a relations trainee, and then maybe I was
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: making like nine dollars an hour renting cars. But I
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: had enough to survive, as you know, to pay for
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: my apartment and pay for my bills. But the great
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: thing about that year, though, in two thousand and three,
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: was that the NBA All Star Game. I remember.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Yet contest that year. Just as a fan.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: I actually thought it was a cool job because one
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: of my main duties was I had to get the
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: post game quotes from the opposing teams. So, like Jordan
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: and everybody, they would be coming in and I'm like
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: in the locker room and I'm like, holy cal, Like
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: this is Tracy McGray, Like, holy cal, this is like
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: I'm saying, like, this is Shaquille O'Neil, Like what Like
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: I thought it was awesome. So, but the NBA All
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: Star Game comes and then my boss at the time, ARTHA. Trish,
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: was a he was a president communication for basketball for
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: the House at the time. He knew I wanted to
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: get in the NFL, and he said, hey, look, man,
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: a lot of these PR directors from the NFL come
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: to the All Star Game. You know, I can introduce
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: you to some of them. And so I met Dwayne
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: Lewis and we just kind of did a little kind
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: of lunch interview and he had offered me a PR
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: internship and I was like great, And so then I
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: just did the PR Internship of the Year and during
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: that year, so I was starting the two thousand and
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: three season.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: So you make the shift from Sharif Abdurraheim and Dan
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Dickau and Dion Glover and my man Alan Henderson and
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: now you're at where you're going, you go, do you
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: move everything? Go to Saint Louis for an internship.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So I just kind of packed the U haul.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: I just I just packed the U haul and drove
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: the Saint Louis and and I just started there.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Had you ever been there before?
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: I've never been the same. I've never been.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: This is the lesson. How many of these people that
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: we talked to are like, yeah, the opportunity, but I'm
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: from New York. I'm not moving to you know.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: Like, no, I think it's easier when it's when you're
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: single with no kids a little bit. But but you know,
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: I'm now. I was twenty three years old, twenty two
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: years old at the time, so but yeah, I just
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: packed the U haul and just kind of drove drove
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: the Saint Louis. Uh it's about eight nine hour drive,
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: I think or something like that. You know. Then I
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: started my PR internship and back then the RAMS would
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: have training camp in Macomb, Illinois, Illinois. So uh, it's
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: like assume I get there and I'm there for like
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: maybe a week. And then I got to go to Macomb,
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: Illinois and start my PR internship, and uh, it was
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: it was it was cool again. I was doing interviews
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: and with Marshall Faulk and stuff like that, and I
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: was like, this is great. But during that time, you know,
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: during that training camp, I see these guys that weren't players.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: They were just regular guys and they had their helping
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: out in practice and I'm like, what are those and
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: they're like, oh, there was a scouting assistance and I
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: was like scouting assistants and I'm like, they can like
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: help out in practice and walk through and stuff. And
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: it's like yeah, I'm like wow. So I'm like I
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: gotta get So, you know, I struck up a good
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: relationship with our running bass coach at the time, Wilbert Montgomery,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: former Eagles. Yeah. I mean, and I think Wilburt just
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: saw that, you know, I was just a young kid
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: fresh out of college that I love football, and we
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: would just taught football and h Then as our relationship developed,
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: I would start helping him out with stuff. I would
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: help him. I would help him do his running back
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: risk band things, you know, I do that kind of stuff.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: And one day he just asked me, He's like, man,
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: why are you in pr Like why are you not?
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: I said, Wilburt, Man, I don't know anybody. I don't.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: I try to get in, but I couldn't. And so
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: he was like, hey, look man, I'm gonna talk to Charlie.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Charlie Armers our gem at the time, and he said,
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna talk to Charlie. And at the time, all
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: the Scotting assistants kind of had this it's called it
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: like a nepotism kind of everyone. Yeah, like one uncle
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: was the president, another one, you know, his dad played
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: quarterback for the g another one is like his his
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: grandfather used to be the owner's far like all. And
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: I'm just like, I don't have any of that. And
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: he was like, look, I never this is Wilbur talking.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: Wilver's like, look, Brad, I never go to Charlotte or anything.
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: So he knows it's real. It's real. So he talks
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: to Charlie and he comes back. And one thing that
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: I had to do as a PR internship is I
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: had to print out the daily clips. And I had
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: to print out the daily clips and pass them out
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: to all the coaches offices in the gym's office.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: And so here's what Bernie milk Klass wrote about the
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: team this week.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: Right is Thomas Bernie mclass like all of them and
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: so and so, and you know, now we get them
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: all and PDF and all that. I let I tell
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: these interns now, I'm like, we used to have to
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: print these things out.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: You print out, You cut out the newspaper article, you
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: put it on a piece of white paper, you paste it.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Then you gotta go to the copy machine, make forty copies,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: and you gotta staple it. And this is every day.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: It every single day. And so now on that again,
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: I can look at it as grunt work or but
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: I was looking as an opportunity. Like I had to
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: hand out some clips to Lovely Smith's office deep into Coordinate,
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, holy cow, love Smith, like you know
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: what I mean, Like I was able to meet. So
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: after Wilfrid told me about that, he talked to Charlie.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: I had to pass them out to the general manager's
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: office and I passed it. I gave the clips to
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: Charlie and Charlie said, hey, uh. I talked to Wilburt
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: and he said, you know you're interested, and so come
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: come come meet me on Friday in my office. And
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: so I'm like, holy coun like this is it, like
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: it's coming. So I didn't know, and this is being
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: a young kid and not knowing really how to communicate
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: affectively and handle business right. So I didn't tell Dwayne
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: Lewis or PR director because.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: I'm not giving that job?
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: Am I supposed to? Yeah? I'm like, what am I
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: supposed to do? Like tell him I'm about to leave,
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean? So, so, you know, and
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: Fridays were like a dress down there. So Friday, T
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: shirt Friday, I'm sure. So people are looking at me
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: like I just got dressed up. And so I go
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: up there, I meet Charlie Army and it was him
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: and his assistant Debbie Pollam in there, and I just
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: had a bunch of writing samples from my time with
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: you know everything that I and I wanted to show
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: Charlie like I can write, Like.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: I can write.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: I have a passion for writing. I love like I'm
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: a grammar snob to this day. All my staff kind
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: of jokes on me all the time because I'm like, man,
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: why is he not a comment or something like that.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: But anyways, I want to show him that I can write,
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: you know. And so I'm in there and I'm sitting
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: at this table with Charlie and his assistant Debbie, and
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: then next thing, you know, my PR director Dwayne Lewis
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: walks into Charlie's office and I'm like, and Dwayne's looking
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: at me and He's like, what the hell did you
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: just do? Like he's like, why is why is my
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: PR intern in the general manager's office. And and so
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: Charlie was on the phone and Debbie tells Dwayne that
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: was like, no, he's fine, he's fine, he's fine. And
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: so then Charlie gets off the phone and he just
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: tells Dwayne. He goes, hey, look, I was talking to
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: Brad here, and you know, he's interested in getting the
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: scouting So after he's done with your internship, he's going
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: to be by intern starting the draft prep process.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: He hadn't even told me that you found out.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: I'm just like, I'm like, whoa, okay, right, and so
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: so then you know I had a you know, I
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: had a sorry, yeah, a.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: Quick lesson on what this guy takes president.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: So so yeah, so that's that's that's how it got started.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: And I got a shot to be, uh a scouting intern.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: So when the season ended, you know, basically like January
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: through the draft and I was a scouting intern and
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: I was just you know, labeling beta tapes and you know,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: entering reports, and you know, you have to make profile
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: tapes we call profile profile tapes, and you got to
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: write the time codes from the beta tapes and all that,
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: and every now and then they should watch these tapes
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: during the draft meetings. And so every now and then
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: Charlie would ask one of the scout assistants, you know,
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: to come in and talk about the player. And so
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: I never forget the first who is the guy? He could?
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: They called me in?
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, come on, give it to me. I want to hear.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: God, I can't remember who it was. I don't want
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: to make some but but I probably should remember it.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: But I never forget he called me in. And it's
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: like the room is like dimly lit and projector screamed
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: on and they're watching my profile tape and it's a
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: room full of scouts in the GM and Lawrence mccut
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: player personnel director, and I'm like, smokes, and he's like,
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: what did you think? And I just told him I said,
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: I think he's this, I think he's that. I think
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: he's boomom boom, bom boom. And he was like, all right, thanks,
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: and I stopped out the room and I'm like, I
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: have no idea like anybody thought what I said. But
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: but you know, there was a scout, Big Daniels, who's
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: been been one of my mentors for a long time,
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: and I remember he came out and he told me,
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: he said, grad, you did a really good job. And
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: he was the one that really taught me how to
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: construct the scouting report and how to kind of ride a.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: Play or a young kid come in like give me
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: your thoughts on Roscoe Parish.
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: Go and you're like, no, it was it was. It
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: was intimidating, man, and you just had to be right.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: But guess what, it was just me and those PR skills,
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: the enterprise front facing salesman skills, all of it comes
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: into play because guess what you're presenting.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely. It's almost like another one of my favorite
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: movies is The Karate. You know, the scene of when
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: he's complaining about you're not teaching meaning karate, you know,
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: like I thought I was supposed to be doing karate
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: and he's like, no, wax and watch off paint the
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: house like he's doing. And he's like no, Like do
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: you get it now? Like you've been learning it this
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: whole time, you just now it's showing. So but yeah,
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: you're right, like all those skills just goode. Well, but
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: as a young kid, you don't realize that at the time.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: So after I got done with that draft, I believe
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: that's when we drafted Steven Jackson in the first round.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: And I'll never forget that. And then Charlie he hired
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: me on as a full time scouting assistant, and you know,
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: I did that for like three years, and uh, we're
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: just picking players up from the airport. Just a lot
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: of just you know, going to the combine, not watching players,
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: just grabbing lunch for the GM, you know, between workouts
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: and stuff like like that, and keep doing profile tapes
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: and you know, just enormous scouting assistant duties and did
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: that for three years and then that's when I became
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: a combined scout in NFS Combine scout and that, to me,
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: that's the best training that you can get from a
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: scout because you're always woroking on the next year's draft
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: class and so like so, say it's the H five
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: draft and that March in April or February, March April
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: whatever like that, will you're working on the six guys.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: And so what I think is the best training is
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: I'll never forget my first junior day. I just had
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: to go to university Missouri, and you know, I met
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: the pro liaison and he just gives me a list
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: and he was like, here's a list. He walks me
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: into the film room. I don't know anything about him,
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: and I just had to sort out that whole roster,
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: like I don't know what anybody is, I don't know
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: how good anybody is. And I remember I just grinded like.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: Some of that justin Smith first round pick, or it
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: could be a guy that has no chance of being drafted,
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: but you've got to do it.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you just do. You don't know, and you don't
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: know until you watch him. And that's why I tell
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: my Scott's all the time, like You're like all these
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: free agents and all these guys that are undrafted guys,
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, well, you don't know if they're free
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: agents or guys you look at them. So but that
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: that moment right there kind of showed me like, look
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: and going through the whole spring, It's like it kind
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: of gave me the whole thing of don't worry about
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: what anybody else thinks, like just trust for your I,
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: C and and and that's all. I mean that that's
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: kind of a hard thing to kind of especially as
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: a young scout, because you got a lot of noise
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: that affects you, and you got group think and all
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: this stuff that affects you. And just like we were
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: talking about earlier about the mant dress up, you want
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: to be right. And so it actually takes a very
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: special skill to be able to say, look, I don't
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: care what anybody else thinks, this is what my But
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: being a combine scout forces you to be in that
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: moment of like you're riding all these players for the
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: up for the next year's draft class. And there is
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: no mock drafts out, there is no nobody's talking.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: About change from the combine to the draft, and yet
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: you hear this guy's rising up aboard. But it's like
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: that's the group thing where it's like, well, maybe we
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: have taken another look at.
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: This guy exactly exactly, And so that's I've always been
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: big on the psychological part of the draft process and
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: still am. And so but those are the one of
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: the things of the group think. The it's a very
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: or just the whole conformity. Always look at the Solomon
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: Ash conformity experiment that you look at on YouTube, and
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: you know it's all those guys in the room and
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: they're looking at these lines on this paper and it's
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: this guy. They say all the wrong lines, and then
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: the guy knows that he has the right answer, but
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: he keeps sharing something else and he's just like, oh, shoot,
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: it's gotta be three, but everybody's saying two. So I
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: guess I'm gonna say two. But in your heart you
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: know that no, it was three. It's not it's not two.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: And so those are the things that you know that
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: I'm always big one and try to eliminate that group thinking,
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: try to cut out that outside noise. But I think
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: that being a combine scout really really helped me out
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: with that. And you just kind of get training in
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: all aspects of scouting, of running a pro day and
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: having your own conviction and all that stuff. So doing that,
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: you know, or I did the Midwest and cross checked
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: the Southeast, and after that I finally got an area
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: job doing the Northeast, and you know, we had a
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: new regime come in, you know, fit Billy Devaney became
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: my general manager and began the Northeast area scout job.
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: And then the rest of his.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: History fast forwarding to the You're Rising up the chart
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: with the Rams Go twenty thirteen rolls around. This kid
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: out of Pittsburgh is a defensive tackle. What was your
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: initial thoughts and feelings on Aaron Donald the prospect?
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: So, Aaron Donald, he's another great, great study in terms
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: of blocking out the outside noise. And because at the
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: time we had I think we had Michael Brockers and
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: Kendall Langford and you know, we had already drafted Chris Long.
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: So we had these big defensive linemen at the time.
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: And I'm going to pitt and I'm like, this guy's amazing.
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: But I'm like, the coaches are gonna hate him because
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: he's not big. And I'm like, and then, so now
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: you're battling.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: Sure, you know, going in, how how.
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: High of a grade do I give him? Because I
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: get this guy this high of a grade, but the
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: coach is gonna be like, what are you talking about?
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: This guy's only six foot and twenty five. So, but
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: I'll never forget. And this is why always say to
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: this day the intangibles are the separators of success. Is
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: that I knew the defensive coordinator at Hit the time,
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: Matt House, because he was working with Stagnola in that
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: previous staff under spags. And so I go in the
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: pit and I see Matt and Matt tells me, hey, Brad,
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: are you staying for practice? And I said, yeah, yeah,
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: he said come out about a half hour early. And
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: he didn't tell me why. He just told me to
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: come out of holf. So I'm thinking, as a scout,
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, he's gonna give me some more background information,
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: some more intel. He'll be out of practice earlier. So
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: he didn't tell me that. He just told me to
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: come out of practice early. So I come out of practice early.
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: You know, they practiced in that bubble at the Steelers Steelers,
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: and so I go out there and I walk out
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: to the bubble and it's the ball boys, the equipment managers,
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: the specialists, the kickers, the punter of the long snapper,
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: and Aaron Donald. Those are the only people in the bubble.
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: And Aaron Donald is sitting on this bag fully taped
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: up with this which in his knee as if like, man,
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: I've been waiting all day, like where's everybody at because
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: I've been waiting on this all day? And so then
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: I see Matt House. He comes out with other coaches
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: and Matt goes, Brad, you come out early. I was
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: like yep, and he goes, did you see it said?
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: I was like nothing else needed to be said. I
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: was like, that's that's it. That's it. So yeah, Aaron Donald,
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: I mean a very talented player, ny explosive, very strong,
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: I mean all that, very athletic. I mean, he had
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: this rare combine. But it's his work in indangibles and
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: his passion for football that a lot of people just don't.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: I mean they know now, but at the time, like
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: and that was my story that I told, you know,
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: less need and Jeff Fisher like, I'm like that said
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: it all to me is that when Matt House told
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: me to come out there early, and and sure enough
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: he's always been that way.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: When he starts slipping in the draft, are you in
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: the war room like, hey guys, Scott or is it understood, Like, hey,
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: if he's there, we're taking them.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was pretty understood. You know, we had two
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: picks that year, so you know we had we we
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: we took Greg Robinson and then and then you know
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: that's the that was the premium position, that was the
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: talented you know what I mean, like, that's that's that's
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: what it was.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: So and guess what, every mock draft had Robinson going
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: first or second.
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: There's no doubt it was himboy Sammy Watkins that I
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: think we were we were targeting, and then finally we
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: just kind of settled in on Greg Robinson. But that
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: that was a great draft. But I mean that was
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: after that. It was so then after that when we
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: when we when we got to that next pick, it's like, now, yeah,
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: Aaron Donald, you got you know, Mike Evans, you got
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: Zach Martin. It's just yeah, so many that was a
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: great go down Odell Beckham, I mean, c J. Bos like,
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: you got all these great players and so but you know,
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: the sites were said on on Aaron Donald. I never forget.
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: We got to that pick and a team called and
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: uh they offered a pretty tyson trade offer, and I'm
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: never Jeff thetheless was like, absolutely not, We're pitching this guy.
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: And that's just it. And uh, I'll never forget in
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: that draft meeting of our assistant general manager Ray Agne,
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: he was the one that really like in that draft
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: meeting leading up to that draft because a lot of
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: people are saying because of the size, you know, he
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: was going to be a sub rush you know, specialized
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: nickel sub rush guy. And I never forget. Rad was
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no,
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: he's every day like it is. No, it's no specialized nothing,
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: and like he said it with the most passion. And
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: you know Ray Agnew, you know Tompson Page like he's
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: like when you hear Ray Agnew and Radnews, very salt
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: smoke guy. But when he hit said, I was like, Okay,
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: this is real.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: They played you guys played Tampa and it was a
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: thunderstorm and I remember I don't know who the decordinator
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: was at the time, as probably Greg Williams. They were
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: lining airing up and outside linebacker in a three four yeah,
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: and I was like, I've never seen this before and
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: it was in a rainstorm and he was just out
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: there sacond quarterbacks from the OLB position.
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: He is he has rare I mean, if you look
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: back at his combine, he had Shuttle times like he
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: had dB Shuttle times, but he just had like thirty
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: reps in two twenty five and ran a four six.
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: And because of the way he's built and he's still
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: got long arms and he's so explosive, but again like
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: he's talented. I tell the story all the time about
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: Aaron Donald and I say it about Cooper Cup as well,
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: and it's like, yeah, man, like this guy loves football
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: and he was hard, like because that time where he
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: was the first one in that bubble in practice, He's
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: been that way a freaking old day. He's the first
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: one out at practice every day. And I'll never forget,
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: even his rookie year, before he was even starting, I
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: never forget. I had to run to the facility real quick.
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: It was. It was a Saturday, Saturday night and I
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: think I was heading out on the road somewhere the
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: next day, and so I run the facility grab stuff,
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: and it was Aaron Donald and he was in the
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: world because I was like, there's no players here. It's
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: like it's like eight nine o'clock at night, Aaron Donald
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: in the whirlpool watching his iPad like he's not even
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: a starter. He's not even the starter, but he's preparing
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: like he's the starter as a rookie. And and it
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: was it was the same way with with with Cooper
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: Cup when you know he drafted him, and that's when
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: it really it hit me. I'm like, look, man, if
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: these players don't have the tangibles in the passion and
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: the work ethic in the football character, it's not gonna work.
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: It's just bottom line.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: I love this stuff. We're gonna we're gonna do rapid
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: fire and then we're gonna wrap this up. We'ven't been
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: gotten into some of the Lions stuff I want to
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: talk about. Jered, I thought it'll be another time. Yeah,
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go rapid fire and you just give me
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: some answers and we go from there. Your greatest mentor
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: as a football professional non life, but it's a football
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: person in your career. Who is the person that kind
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: of you look to and say, this guy showed me
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: the ropes?
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: And I have to say, Dick Daniels. I have to
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: say Daniels.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know that name. So tell
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: me who he is.
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so so Dick Daniels. He was a Northeast scout
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: at the time when I first joined the scouting apartment
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: as a scouting intern. And he's the one that kind
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: of took the time out. That's the that's the guy
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: that told me good job after I winning that Yark
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: rooman stilled my gut, it's about this player on this
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: profile tape I made, and and he just kind of
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: told me like, hey, look man, like this is this
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: is what you got to do. This is how you
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: do it. And we went to this college All Star
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: game called the Cactus Boll It was like this small
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: school college all star game down in Texas. This is
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: back when they saw like one forty yard dash and
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: stuff at All Star games. And I remember it was
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: just me and him and every morning before he went
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: out to practice, we would sit in that lobby and
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: he would just tell me just all the ins and
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: outs of Rochster building, team building. I mean like he
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: was he was that guy, and you know he had
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: been in the league for thirty years you know then
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: there and he just would just give me so much
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: knowledge and intel. So if I there's a lot of guys,
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: That's why I kind of like that, because a lot
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: of guys I can name. I can name Lawrensman, Cunson,
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: I could, I can name less need but uh, from
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: from the very gig go, I'd have to say the game.
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: Who is the player that you remember being most convicted
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: about and using your voice the loudest and maybe if
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: you want to say, pounding the table to be selected
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: in any any draft, any team you've been a part of.
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: Hm hmm.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: Could be a late round guy who you're like, hey,
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: let's take a shot on it. Could be a first
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: round pick, someone that you were like, this is my dude.
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: And I remember asking Jason Light about this and he
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: was like, in Philly, Trent Cole was my guy. You know,
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: like you just have this random guy. They're like, that's
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: my guy. You know.
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: For me, it was John Johnson, the safety BC.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: Talk about it. I love this.
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: So it was funny that draft. I remember it was
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: like that's when we first hired Sean McVay, and you know,
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: we had a lot of new coaches and Less, you know,
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: Less was in that whole hiring process, so you know,
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: he usually is like deep diving and everything all the time.
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: He didn't have that kind of time because we're doing this.
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: No, he's interviewing Doug Maroon and guy.
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: Regime makeover and so I'll never forget. We get into
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: the third round and you get to those points in
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: the draft where the board just looks kind of foggy,
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: like no one's really standing out. No, one's really it's
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: just kind of just static and staying and everyone's kind
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: of staring at it, and you know, everybody started names
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: and I just said I was just like John Johnson.
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: I said, just let's just pick John Johnson. And I
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: never forget Wade Phillips. He looks over at me and
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: he's like John Johnson. I said, I'm telling you, this
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: guy's a starter, Like he's a starter. So Wade Phillips.
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: I love Way Phillips. He just like, oh, he's a
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: starter man. And so I just and so I just
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: kept on the table for John Johnson. I said, I'm
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: telling you John Johnson, like, because I remember I went
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: out the BC Yukon game saw him live, Like I
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: just love what I saw out of him, like another
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: guy just high and tangible is how working. I actually
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: thought he was going to be more of a coverage
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: player and then he actually transformed himself into more of
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: a box kind of player. But I'll never forget. I
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: just that that was the moment I think that I
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: felt like, you know, I had just like a voice,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: and I think it was a needed voice because everybody
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: was new, Like, you know, he had a whole new
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: coaching staff. You know, we did just a lot of
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: change and you know, make over there and I'll never forget,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: you know, I just had a lot of.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: You're in New Orleans NFC Championship game a few years later,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: who makes the biggest play of the game.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: Oh well, you can say a lot of guys did,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: but I actually think Jared Golf played one of his
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: best games there. Johnson john made the big thing at
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: the end.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that Golf was awesome in that game. You know everyone,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: And I've worked with Sean Payton this past year and
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: he's still sensitive about it because obviously the non call
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: on the Nicole Roby Coleman thing. But I always said,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: you're up thirteen to nothing at home, you got you
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: got the ball first in overtime, you got to close
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: the door. But Jared Golf that day would not quit it.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: Like what people don't realize about the game. It was.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: It was the loudest thing ever. And it's like he
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: literally he couldn't hear his headset win all these He's
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: busting enough to try to run to the receiver before
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: the PLAYFOD game to tell him to sit like that.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: It wasn't just about his stats, about him throwing. It
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: was about the adversity came through. But it's funny saying
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: that about Sean Payton because I talked about I talked
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: to Dan about that game and this is when sure, yeah,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: and and you know Dan, like me and Dan are
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: just we're so much like the same in person. Dan
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: he never said anything about all that call was. You know, No,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: he was like, no, we shouldn't have put ourselves in
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: position to actually get to up you know what I mean, Like,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: you know, he like, we're all about accountability, Like that's
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: just waying so much in our building. And Dan was like, no, no, man,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: we shouldn't have put ourselves in the position to actually
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: give y'all an opportunity to do that, you know what
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: I mean. So you know, you gotta love Dan's response
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: on that. This is like, that's such a Dan Campbell.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: Were you were you at Jared Goff's pro day at Cow?
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: Were you there that day?
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: No? I wasn't at the pro day.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: They speak, they speaking legendary. I mean, I think Mike
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: Silver wrote a beautiful piece on it when it happened.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: But like the Rams, whatever its private workout or a private.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: It was a problem. Range. Yeah, we actually purposely didn't
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: really send people out to his pro daye because we
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: kind of, yeah, we kind of wanted to keep it
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: close of the best. But no, I remember the private
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: workout and I wasn't there, but I know less you know, Jeff,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: all those guys were there and you just heard it
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: was just like man like because I think they did
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: him and Carson Wentz like back to back, and I
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: guess you know, it was all good for Carson Wentz
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: in terms of the weather and the conditions, but Jared
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: and I never I think we kind of gave Jared
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: a choice to move the.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: Location and he's like, no.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: Let's go, and and he was out there just whipping it, man,
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: and he's extremely talented, and I'm so happy for him.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: Just kind of too.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, I've been covering Jared since he got in,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: but like for you, it's a personal connection where you know,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: you draft him in La then you yourself get this
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: job in Detroit in the first big movie you make,
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: because you trade their franchise quarterback. And it almost felt
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: like it was a throw in, like yeah, we'll give
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: you golf, but here's Jared Goff. Last year as one
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: of the best quarterbacks in the NFC.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: Well, I remember when we were hammering out the details
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 2: of the trade. I'm because you know, it was kind
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: of that carousel of available quarterbacks that year in terms
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: of like who was going to be available. So obviously
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 2: you know Stafford was getting traded to the Rams, but
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: I never, forget less asked me. He was like, do
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: you want Jared in this trade? And I was like,
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: hell yeah, like absolutely, Like it wasn't like, just give
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: me any quarterback and I was like, no, I want
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: Jared in this trade. And the reason why I'm so
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: proud of him and I'm so happy for him is
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: because that first year, man, like you know, look, it
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: was almost like the guy as a starter in LA,
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: Like we're out of five years, he's in the postseason,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: if not super Bowl, and so it's like the one
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: year that he did. But yeah, so like we make
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: the trade, and the way that the narrative was of
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: how the trade went, it kind of went like, up
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: when Jared Goff can play? And I'm like, dude, this
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: guy was just in the divisional playing with a broken hand,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: completing seven percent of his passes, Like why can't he
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: play anymore? So then we start the season and me
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: and Dan we tear the roster down to the stunt.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: I mean literally, the only thing we really had was
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: an offensive line, and even all of those guys got hurt.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, besides Fenny Sewell, all those guys are beat up.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: So we really didn't have much in the skill player department.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: We didn't really, I mean, we had a beat up
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: offensive line. We didn't really have any weapons around him
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: to throw to, Like we thought that we didn't have
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: any money to play with in free agency really, so
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: we kind of had to play the cow formula. And
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: then we got Tyroll Williams number Shan Paarriman as like
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 2: the oh we have those guys, and then Tyler Williams
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: kind of gets hurt. He's there. We cut with Sean Pairman.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: So now we have like this rookie a Moners Brown
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 2: and that like that's it and so and then we
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: kind of claim but you know, everything that he went
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: through that year, I mean, you know, you gotta think Detroit,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: you're talking about a football town, Like this is a
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 2: fan base that is unlike anything I've ever experienced. Like
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: this fan base they care about their football. I mean,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: it's legit I absolutely love them, but they're mad at Jared.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, he was getting the booze and all that,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, all right, we don't have any weapons
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: for this guy. Offensive line is beat up. We had
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 2: to make a mid season offensive coordinator change plays for
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: the first time. Actually did a really good job at it.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: But and I'm like, what quarterback would be successful going
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: through that kind of situation? Way, Like, I don't I
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: don't know what quarterback would be six.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: I like, I tell you something also doesn't happen.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: An offensive line didn't have a no c Like do.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: You know where I got my respect for him? The
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: toughness and all that's great, and that's quarterbacks. And yeah,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: didn't say a peep, didn't speak negatively about McVeigh once,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: even though there was rumors out there that like, oh yeah,
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: McVeigh couldn't win within him just kind of put his
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: head down, went to work. Okay, I'm a quarterback, let's go.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: And I know he's a number one pick and he
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: makes a lot of money. And everyone says, well, that's
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: what It's a lot easier said than done.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, And that's I've always said about Yeah, like
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: you said, like the toughness. Yeah, the quarter you gotta
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: have that, but the mental and I've always respected Jereds's
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: mental toughness, Like he that's one trait of him that
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: I think kind of goes under the radar a little bit,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: but he has like top level, elite mental toughness because
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: I've seen a lot of things that he's been to,
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: Like if something off that NFC Championship game first New Orleans,
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: like people want to talk about, like the noise that
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: he had to deal with and all that stuff, But
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 2: he goes to that twenty one season and he does
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: not complain. He just goes through it and it starts
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: coming together late in the season and then you know,
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: he has a year that he had last year, and
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: now it's like, oh, Jared Golf's good, And I'm like, well,
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 2: he's actually always been good. But everybody, like I talk
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: about the psychology of the process, it's the recency box,
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: and it's like, oh, well, the last thing we saw
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: is Jared Golf got cast it off, so he can't
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: play anymore. It the last thing we saw is him
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one, so he can't play anymore, right,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: Like I'm like, no, he can't play. So when he
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: had the season he had last year, I think a
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: lot of people were like, oh, Jared Golf, and I'm like, no,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: he's He's always been a good quarterback. He's always been
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: uber talented, you know, he's always had those traits to
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: excel the football team. And so again I'm just super happy.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 2: But like what you're saying about him, not complaining him,
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: not you know, saying this and that, Like that's what
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 2: makes him pretty cool. He's a Detroit line like he's
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: he's he's that, Like he's embodied what the city's about.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 2: And I think the toughness and everything that he's endured,
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: and i think everybody just has a lot more appreciation
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 2: about him. Man. Again, i think we'll be even better
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 2: offensively this year coming up. And I'm just I'm excited
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: about it.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: All Right, we've been on for over now, we're going
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: to wrap it here one last Yeah, it's been amazing.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: I could do I could honestly do an audiobook with
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: you for six hours. I'm loving this. I want to
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: talk about Tavon Austin. I want to talk about Steedman Bailey.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: I want to go I want to go deep. I
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: want to go deep, dude, I want to talk about
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: what that was Another one of.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: Those drafts though, man like that twenty thirteen drafts.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: Man, I know I want to talk Toby Dress for
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: the next hour with you. Let's wrap it with this.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: Lions fans listening. This is the first time in two
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: decades I'd say that they actually have a little pep
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: in their step and there's actual some national media attention
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: saying the Lions could be the team. I know you're
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: excited with what you've built. What would be your message
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: to Lions fans as we head towards the start a
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: training camp.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: You know, just continue to stick with us and just
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: continue to know that we're not done yet, and just
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 2: know that we're always gonna work hard, keep our pedal
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: to the metal, is going to stay aggressive. You know.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 2: I love the fact that it's a lot of this
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 2: what they call buzz and hope, and I think this
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: fan base and our city deserves that just through all
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: that they've been through. But at the end of the day,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: me and Dan know that, you know, we hadn't made
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: the playoffs yet, and so that's that that's what has
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: to be. We got to get in the dance and Uh,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: you know we we we have full faith and optimism
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: that I think we have the right structure place, uh
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: that that we can we can get that done. But uh,
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 2: we got to go out and improve it. And that's
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: that's how we're wired. We're we're all about accountability and
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: earning it and do it the right way. And that's
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: what the city of Detroit is. It's roll up to sleeves,
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 2: get it done, no excuses, and just know that you
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 2: know that your your your football team is doing the
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 2: exact same thing. And I think it's a lot of
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 2: reasons for the optimism and excitement, but I do think
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: that you know, all the very healthy and all that.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: I do think that the fans would be really excited.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: And first game Thursday night kickoffs.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Brad Holmes, this was awesome.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: Honestly, I feel like we should do a weekly hour
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: long show.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: Oh this is awesome. I didn't even know it's an hour.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: I'm like, you've been a good conversation.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: Out the clocks. I love talking to you. I think
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: you're great at what you do. But I really honestly
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: think you've got great perspective, not only on football, but
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: on life. And it's cool your path man. I didn't
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: know the enterprise running car stuff, but it makes a
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: lot of sense to me. Yeah, as well rounded a
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: guy as you'll meet in the NFL. I love you
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: coming on. Thanks so much for joining.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 2: Thanks a lot. You do it the right way man.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: I got a lot of respect for what you do. Man,
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 2: And you know you.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, I had I had Jack Campbell in my top
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: ten just so you know. In Brad Holmes, everybody thanks Brad.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: All right, all right, So if you're listening to that,
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: you're like, all right, this is the guy. That's the guy.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: The Lions are in great hands.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 2: Aaron.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you had a great familiarity with
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: with Brad Holmes. Aaron Kaufman, my producer, your thoughts.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, I love hearing his like his stories from
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 3: the draft room and and you know, it's such a
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 3: real story. Everyone is talking about every pick and the
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 3: Lions in particular had so many comments that you every
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 3: draft pundit is talking about they took the wrong people
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 3: at each spot. And I love hearing him just being like, no,
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 3: this guy was was like you said, yeah, who we.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: Want Amble as a top fourteen guy, So screw it.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: We're taking him Enterprise rental car to working as a
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: as an assistant to the media coordinator with the Atlanta
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: Hawks in a different sport, to working at the airport.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: Like I hear that stuff and it's like, yeah, there's
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: there's it takes hard.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 3: Work, yeah, yeah, and his resilience and like sticking with
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 3: it and just I also loved I was out in
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 3: the field and I saw these guys that were over
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 3: there helping with practice.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: I was like, what are they?
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: I want to be that. Yeah, Brad Holmes was awesome.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: If you're listening and you're Alliance fan, I think you
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: got to feel pretty good. If you're not a Lions fan,
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: you gotta at least respect the hell of the guy
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: who's calling the shots in the front office. This is
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: the season with Peter Schrieger is what we do. We
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: talk to men and women around the league and we
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: try to get them in a different light than you
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: usually see in front of a press conference or at
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: a podium. It's produced by the great Aaron Wan Kaufman.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: I want to thank Chason English. I want to thank Kurt,
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: our editor, who's going to do a bang up job
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: on this. I want to thank Jack Rudd, our music maestro.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: I also want to thank over on the NFL side,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: the great Jason Kleinman and Matt Schneider and Meredith Batt
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: and David Jurenka and their team at NFL Media having
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: a blast. Gu season is rapidly approaching, but these off
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: season episodes are some of my favorite. Hope you listen
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: to next week's Got Another Good Guest Up Ahead the
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: season with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.