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Donte Jackson Interview · The Irish Steelers Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, folks, welcome into the Irish Theaters Podcast. This week,
0:09
Speaker 1: as we get closer and closer to the start of
0:11
Speaker 1: the NFL season, We're delighted to welcome in one of
0:14
Speaker 1: the newest players for the Pittsburgh Staars, quarterback previously with
0:18
Speaker 1: the Carline of Panthers, mister Dante Jackson. Dante, first off, valsa,
0:23
Speaker 1: as we say over here, welcome to the Irish Theaters Podcast.
0:26
Speaker 1: How are you doing?
0:27
Speaker 2: Going great?
0:28
Speaker 1: We definitely appreciate you coming on. Dante, Just firstly, can
0:32
Speaker 1: you talk to us around yourself internationally? Have you ever
0:35
Speaker 1: had the chance to leave the United States as an
0:37
Speaker 1: NFL player and have you ever had the chance to
0:40
Speaker 1: be just to visit Ireland before?
0:43
Speaker 2: Never visit Ireland?
0:44
Speaker 1: I was.
0:45
Speaker 2: I played in London one year, my second year in.
0:48
Speaker 3: The league, but yeah, that was the only time I
0:51
Speaker 3: was really out of the country for football.
0:53
Speaker 2: But yeah, never been to Island.
0:55
Speaker 4: Dante, very warm, welcome to the Pittsburgh Steters. Tell us,
0:59
Speaker 4: how do you see yourself fitting in on the Steelers defense.
1:03
Speaker 2: I feel myself fitting right in.
1:04
Speaker 3: You know this this this this culture and the standard
1:08
Speaker 3: here is built around hard those tough football you know
1:12
Speaker 3: what I'm saying guys who who, no matter the position,
1:15
Speaker 3: willing to come up and make tackles, guys who are
1:17
Speaker 3: willing to lead.
1:18
Speaker 2: And I think that.
1:19
Speaker 3: Just embodies everything that I've that I've always showed throughout
1:22
Speaker 3: my career, and I think this is the perfect place
1:24
Speaker 3: for me to just continue to keep growing as a player.
1:27
Speaker 3: And I'm just excited for this opportunity.
1:31
Speaker 5: Don't what was What was the feeling like when you
1:32
Speaker 5: got the phone call to say you were going to
1:34
Speaker 5: be at Petsburgh Steeler?
1:36
Speaker 2: Oh, it was. It was amazing.
1:38
Speaker 3: I just remember, you know, sitting and being at lunch
1:41
Speaker 3: with my my wife and kids and just getting a call.
1:44
Speaker 3: But I kind of already knew, you know, I would
1:47
Speaker 3: be you know, traded or something at some point, but
1:50
Speaker 3: just finding out that it was gonna be to the Steelers,
1:53
Speaker 3: it was just one of those lifelong dreams coming true.
1:56
Speaker 3: You know, all of us can say that we've been
1:59
Speaker 3: watching the Steelers with kids. You know, most people in
2:01
Speaker 3: this building can say that they've been watching a Stiller
2:03
Speaker 3: ship for a long time. So just knowing that I
2:06
Speaker 3: was get the chance to go be a part of
2:07
Speaker 3: this great organization, it was It was definitely a dream
2:10
Speaker 3: come true.
2:11
Speaker 1: You've been watching the team for a long time, Dante,
2:13
Speaker 1: but even in these first few weeks, first team months,
2:16
Speaker 1: have you been surprised at this sheer size of stil
2:20
Speaker 1: Nish and talking to some guys from Ireland here, I
2:22
Speaker 1: believe you were in Mexico as well last weekend.
2:24
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, Oh man, it's been amazing. I think,
2:28
Speaker 3: like the day, first twenty four hours of being a Steeler,
2:31
Speaker 3: right when I got traded, I got like like like
2:33
Speaker 3: ten k followers and like so much support, so much
2:38
Speaker 3: comments DMS. It was just it was just like it
2:41
Speaker 3: made like a surreal moment. It made it feel right,
2:43
Speaker 3: you know, just getting all the support and all the
2:45
Speaker 3: fans reaching out and having me just just welcomed me in,
2:49
Speaker 3: and it was it was a surreal moment, man. I
2:51
Speaker 3: think that that made it, That made me and my
2:53
Speaker 3: family kind of ease into it a little bit better,
2:56
Speaker 3: knowing that we had all that support and all that
2:58
Speaker 3: all those fans and most of whom really most of
3:01
Speaker 3: whom ninety or so percent of whom who've probably never
3:04
Speaker 3: seen me play, you know, being that I played in
3:06
Speaker 3: the NFC South and this is the AFC Nord, and
3:09
Speaker 3: you know, and as a pro you you understand that,
3:12
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, I understand that, you know
3:13
Speaker 3: a lot of people probably wouldn't have known who I was,
3:15
Speaker 3: but I didn't play on many many primetime games or
3:19
Speaker 3: you know, we weren't winning many games. You know, it's
3:23
Speaker 3: been sort of you know, playing in Carolina, we haven't
3:26
Speaker 3: been you know, very successful. So I picture you know
3:29
Speaker 3: a lot of people, you know, not knowing who I was.
3:31
Speaker 3: But with that being said, even though they didn't know
3:33
Speaker 3: who I was at the time, you know, just still
3:35
Speaker 3: receiving that amount of support and that amount of.
3:38
Speaker 2: Welcoming was still definitely a great moment for me and
3:41
Speaker 2: my family.
3:42
Speaker 4: Dante, you once had picked off the great Tom Brady.
3:45
Speaker 4: Can you tell us a little bit about bosh on
3:47
Speaker 4: how that kind of felt?
3:49
Speaker 1: Oh?
3:49
Speaker 3: That was that was? That was awesome, man. I think
3:52
Speaker 3: Tom Brady's one of my favorite players of all time.
3:55
Speaker 3: And just going into that week, well, Jackus, you just
3:59
Speaker 3: start back when when he first signed with Tampa Bay
4:02
Speaker 3: and you know, you find out he's gonna be your division.
4:04
Speaker 3: You're gonna get to play against Tom Brady twice and
4:07
Speaker 3: that was exciting and a loan, so it's two separate moments.
4:09
Speaker 3: You know, just finding out you get to go compete
4:11
Speaker 3: against Tom Brady, you get to go out there and
4:13
Speaker 3: watch film on him and really study him for a week. Man,
4:16
Speaker 3: and it just was a it was a great moment
4:18
Speaker 3: to see, you know, the way he you know he
4:20
Speaker 3: handles his business when he came into the NFC South,
4:23
Speaker 3: you know, just to see how what he took that
4:24
Speaker 3: team to and what he was able to do, you know,
4:27
Speaker 3: on his way out, that's one in its other. But
4:30
Speaker 3: just coming into that game, you know, that was my
4:32
Speaker 3: That was his first game as a Tampa Bay buccaneer,
4:34
Speaker 3: So I can say that I picked off his first
4:37
Speaker 3: Tampa Bay pass. The path first pass he threw, first
4:39
Speaker 3: interception he threw as a Tampa Bay buccaneer was to me.
4:42
Speaker 3: So that's yeah, I definitely have that boss. And then
4:45
Speaker 3: in a little case at the house. But yeah, just
4:48
Speaker 3: just going into that week, you know, that was.
4:50
Speaker 2: A goal of mine. I remember telling my older brother,
4:52
Speaker 2: remember telling my wife, like I just want to you know,
4:53
Speaker 2: I just want to get a chance, you know, like
4:55
Speaker 2: you don't make many mistakes, but like when he do,
4:58
Speaker 2: you know, I just want to get a chance and
5:00
Speaker 2: make a player on the ball and that would happen.
5:02
Speaker 3: We ended up getting a great pass rush off the edge,
5:05
Speaker 3: made him rush into a throw. I think he was
5:06
Speaker 3: trying to throw deep out.
5:07
Speaker 2: To Mike Evans. I was covering Mike Evans at the time.
5:10
Speaker 3: We had a good get off, a good rush from
5:13
Speaker 3: from my d line and made him force an air
5:15
Speaker 3: and throw and he ended up throwing it behind Mike
5:17
Speaker 3: and I ended up making a player on the ball
5:19
Speaker 3: and it was one of those moments I'll never forget
5:21
Speaker 3: for real.
5:21
Speaker 5: You know, speaking about great to the game, Donte, and
5:24
Speaker 5: what are your early first impressions of coach Tomlin.
5:27
Speaker 2: I mean, he's as advertised, he's as advertised.
5:30
Speaker 3: You know, when you're on the outside looking in at
5:32
Speaker 3: this thing, man, you always wonder, like man, I wonder
5:34
Speaker 3: if he's you know, really liked that on an everyday basis,
5:37
Speaker 3: you know, because you know, you when you when you
5:38
Speaker 3: don't know you're not here, you know, being a football player,
5:42
Speaker 3: being a black football player at that, you know, you
5:45
Speaker 3: look up to somebody like Mike Tomlin. You know what
5:47
Speaker 3: I'm saying just from from everything, not just from what
5:50
Speaker 3: he represents as a football coach, but what he represents
5:52
Speaker 3: as a man, as a black man in America, you
5:54
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying.
5:55
Speaker 2: So it was always something that that that was I was.
5:58
Speaker 3: He was always I was always just a fan that
5:59
Speaker 3: you always watching and you always think to yourself, like, man,
6:01
Speaker 3: I wonder you know how it is. And you hear
6:03
Speaker 3: stories from other guys who've played here, and your story
6:06
Speaker 3: stories from guys who played, and you hear stuff in
6:08
Speaker 3: the media. But he's as advertised, you know, just being
6:10
Speaker 3: around somebody who not only loves football, but just loves
6:14
Speaker 3: the relationships of football. And I think that's that's one
6:16
Speaker 3: thing that's one big thing that I've took taken from,
6:20
Speaker 3: you know, just from his team meetings, just from how
6:22
Speaker 3: he carries himself around around the team and how he
6:24
Speaker 3: carries himself around the facility. You know, he loves football,
6:27
Speaker 3: but he loves he loves building men up, He loves
6:30
Speaker 3: giving you confidence. He loves, you know, putting you in
6:33
Speaker 3: uncomfortable kind of situations that will make you comfortable at
6:36
Speaker 3: some point, you know. So he just a just a
6:38
Speaker 3: football mind, but is the greater guy, you know, and
6:41
Speaker 3: just getting to norm and just getting to just be
6:43
Speaker 3: around this organization. You definitely can tell where the standard
6:48
Speaker 3: and where the intensity comes from in this in this
6:51
Speaker 3: in this organization, you know, just from being around coach
6:53
Speaker 3: t and it's been an amazing experience.
6:56
Speaker 1: Congrats to coach Tomlin. Forget this extension. It was an
7:00
Speaker 1: until the weekend. And you've talked to the media in
7:03
Speaker 1: recent weeks and you have quote unquote said that you
7:06
Speaker 1: feel like you're a perfect fit for the AFC North
7:09
Speaker 1: and how excited are you to play? And what's really
7:12
Speaker 1: knowing now is such a competitive division.
7:15
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, it's it means a lot. You know,
7:18
Speaker 3: I played at LSU, you know, and you're going into that.
7:21
Speaker 3: You know, everybody's like, are you ready for the SEC?
7:23
Speaker 3: And I was in the SEC West, you know, so
7:27
Speaker 3: every week it was it was a fight.
7:28
Speaker 2: It was a dog fight no matter who you were playing, Bama,
7:30
Speaker 2: Missisi State, Auburn, Florida. Every week was a dog fight.
7:33
Speaker 3: And that kind of you know, the mindset you get
7:36
Speaker 3: into when you come into the AFC North.
7:37
Speaker 2: You know, it's no no game's gonna be easy.
7:40
Speaker 3: You know, you have to want to tackle, you have
7:42
Speaker 3: to want to go out there and play in cold games.
7:44
Speaker 3: You gotta go out there and play in tough games,
7:46
Speaker 3: you gotta go out there and expect to win on defense.
7:48
Speaker 2: You know.
7:48
Speaker 3: So all that is stuff I stand for, you know
7:51
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, All that type of stuff I stand for.
7:53
Speaker 3: You know, I've been you know, a hard news playing
7:55
Speaker 3: my whole life. I've been a confident player in my
7:57
Speaker 3: whole life, and I just think that this that's what
8:00
Speaker 3: you need to play in this division. You know, everybody
8:03
Speaker 3: can't do it, everybody can't be successful, but you know
8:06
Speaker 3: the ones who get it, they stick around for a
8:09
Speaker 3: long time. So that that's just been my plan, you know,
8:12
Speaker 3: go out there and just proved that I belong and
8:14
Speaker 3: just keep getting better every single day.
8:17
Speaker 4: Dante, Are you finding it easy to jail with your
8:20
Speaker 4: your fellow cornerbox Joey Porter Junior on com Zultan.
8:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, of course. Man. The whole room has
8:26
Speaker 2: been great. Man, the whole room has been great.
8:28
Speaker 3: We have a lot of great minds in the room
8:30
Speaker 3: as a collective, you know, Coach Grady, Coach Midget. They've
8:34
Speaker 3: been awesome, you know, just preparing us, you know, attention
8:37
Speaker 3: to detail, and I just think that the whole room
8:40
Speaker 3: has been you know, just buying into too wanting to
8:43
Speaker 3: do something great. And I think that that's that's been
8:45
Speaker 3: the biggest, like biggest message going through out o TA
8:49
Speaker 3: is going throughout this spring period is everybody just want
8:51
Speaker 3: to just get all they can get before you know,
8:54
Speaker 3: we break out for this this summer. So it's been
8:57
Speaker 3: just a great room and all together, you know, from
8:59
Speaker 3: the young guys to the older guys like you mentioned
9:02
Speaker 3: Cam Sutton coming back and me and Joey and Trice
9:05
Speaker 3: and Brush and we just get I can go all day. Man,
9:08
Speaker 3: this is a smart group. Everybody wanted to learn. Everybody
9:10
Speaker 3: want to be great. You know, everybody wanted got that
9:12
Speaker 3: make plays. And I think just having that that type
9:15
Speaker 3: of nature in the room is it only breeds competitiveness,
9:18
Speaker 3: It only breeds you know, hard knows football. So I
9:20
Speaker 3: think we've been you know, trying to just tailor into
9:22
Speaker 3: that and trying to just stick to to to getting
9:24
Speaker 3: better every day as a group, communicating, running around, running
9:27
Speaker 3: to the ball, just having fun together.
9:29
Speaker 2: And I think that that's something that we've been building
9:31
Speaker 2: on every day.
9:32
Speaker 5: You know, you mentioned about the off season, Dante and
9:34
Speaker 5: the NFL is one of the longest in all of sports,
9:36
Speaker 5: you know, nearly if nine months from games from Charline
9:38
Speaker 5: and the Petsburgh. How do you mean team not focused
9:40
Speaker 5: throughout them if n moments? Is it difficulty or is
9:43
Speaker 5: it something you're sort of warm to you?
9:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely something I'm warmed to. Man, this is
9:47
Speaker 3: my seventh year and you know, a great venom Mindes
9:51
Speaker 3: once told me. You know, you don't really get a
9:53
Speaker 3: full off season routine until about second year, third year
9:56
Speaker 3: to where you really get comfortable and really go to
9:58
Speaker 3: knowing what you like, what time you want to time,
10:01
Speaker 3: and the year do you want to start training? You know,
10:03
Speaker 3: what you want to do, whether it's yoga, whether it's
10:05
Speaker 3: you know, some guys like to go play hoops. You know,
10:07
Speaker 3: so whatever works for you. But I think at this
10:09
Speaker 3: point of my career, you know, it's definitely a time
10:12
Speaker 3: where I just you know, folks on getting my body right,
10:14
Speaker 3: getting my mind right, you know, spending a lot of
10:16
Speaker 3: family time, obviously, training every day, hydrating, just just coming
10:21
Speaker 3: up with stuff that that will just get me prepared
10:23
Speaker 3: to go out there and withstand a whole season. You know,
10:26
Speaker 3: I think that's why we get such a long time,
10:28
Speaker 3: because we probably do play the most excruciating part sport
10:32
Speaker 3: in terms of like body and what it does to
10:34
Speaker 3: your body and stuff like that. So you just taking
10:36
Speaker 3: that time just to get with family and not only
10:38
Speaker 3: getting physically right, but getting mentally right as well.
10:40
Speaker 2: And I think that at this point in my.
10:42
Speaker 3: Career, I think I have a pretty dialed in routine
10:45
Speaker 3: that I'm that I'm used to, and that that that seemed.
10:48
Speaker 2: To work for me.
10:49
Speaker 1: Final quick rund of questions here. And obviously the Stators
10:53
Speaker 1: have really strong links to the island of Ireland, and
10:56
Speaker 1: they've talked about, you know, hopefully at some point in
10:58
Speaker 1: the future maybe playing a game in Dublin. You've had
11:00
Speaker 1: the chance to be in London, I think all being
11:02
Speaker 1: an active at that game and taught them the atmosphere
11:04
Speaker 1: out there. I remember watching them TV. It was fantastic.
11:07
Speaker 1: How coold would it be to maybe play abroad for
11:09
Speaker 1: the Staters, even if it was in Ireland or Mexico
11:12
Speaker 1: or somewhere else.
11:13
Speaker 2: Oh, it would be awesome. It'll be awesome. Man. Just
11:16
Speaker 2: what this. I haven't played a game as a Steller yet,
11:18
Speaker 2: watch plenty plenty of them, but just you know what,
11:22
Speaker 2: this fan just the the jod of energy that this
11:24
Speaker 2: fan base gives to me, you know, anytime I open
11:27
Speaker 2: my phone or anytime I anything, you know, So I
11:31
Speaker 2: think it would be it'd be awesome, man. When I
11:32
Speaker 2: was in Mexico this past weekend, just seeing.
11:35
Speaker 3: The amount of support that that that Stiller Nation has
11:38
Speaker 3: over there, and just seeing how widespread that that the
11:41
Speaker 3: support and how widespread that that the fan base actually goes.
11:46
Speaker 3: I think it would be awesome to go out there
11:48
Speaker 3: play abroad and really get to really sit into that
11:50
Speaker 3: that feeling a little bit more, you know, in terms
11:53
Speaker 3: of like actually playing a game, actually going out there
11:55
Speaker 3: getting ready to go play a game, different from going
11:58
Speaker 3: to a camp or something like that.
12:00
Speaker 2: So I think it would be awesome, man.
12:02
Speaker 3: That would be something I would look forward to if
12:03
Speaker 3: I was, you know, in the situation of getting ready
12:06
Speaker 3: to go play in Ireland or any or any country
12:08
Speaker 3: for real.
12:11
Speaker 4: So in your rookie season for the Panthers, you actually
12:14
Speaker 4: played against the Steelers in Pittsburgh November about that.
12:18
Speaker 2: Night, Oh, I remember, I can tell you play for play.
12:22
Speaker 3: Well, remember what I remember, man? I know we got
12:25
Speaker 3: we got smacked, I know that right. And that was
12:27
Speaker 3: my first That game was actually on my twenty second
12:31
Speaker 3: birthday and I had to I had to go and
12:34
Speaker 3: guard Antonio Brown all game, so you know, I didn't
12:38
Speaker 3: get any sleep the night before that, that game with
12:41
Speaker 3: Big Ben and and A A B. You know, just
12:43
Speaker 3: the just the how they terrorized the league for so long.
12:46
Speaker 2: You know.
12:46
Speaker 3: So I'm a rookie and they tell me like you
12:49
Speaker 3: got them eighty four, and I'm just like, nah, that's
12:51
Speaker 3: in twenty year Brown. You're saying eighty four like it's
12:54
Speaker 3: just some regular guy's Tonio Brown, you know. So I
12:57
Speaker 3: just remember being super super excited for the opportunity to
13:00
Speaker 3: get out there.
13:01
Speaker 2: Like I said, I've been watching the stills my whole life.
13:03
Speaker 3: I was a huge fan of Big Ben, huge hughes
13:05
Speaker 3: fan of Antonio Brown at the time, and.
13:09
Speaker 2: It was it was just a bittersweet moment. You know.
13:12
Speaker 3: I wanted to be like, man, I'm playing at a
13:15
Speaker 3: night game and hind Spield, but I also was just like,
13:18
Speaker 3: I gotta go again. You know, Big Ben, he's you know,
13:20
Speaker 3: he's a bett, he onderstands a b great route runner
13:24
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. So it was definitely a bittersweet
13:26
Speaker 3: moment for a young corner to come in there. But
13:29
Speaker 3: it wasn't a night to remember I'll tell you that
13:32
Speaker 3: much for for for us in the UH in our team.
13:37
Speaker 5: Yeah, we had with a great roster back then, and
13:39
Speaker 5: obviously we have a great roster now. I'm just wondering, Dante,
13:41
Speaker 5: just a final question, do you think that's current roster
13:44
Speaker 5: is a team that can go all the way this year?
13:45
Speaker 5: Obviously you know talking about coach t standard and standard,
13:48
Speaker 5: do you think there is a possibility that we can
13:50
Speaker 5: go the whole way this year?
13:52
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm not one of those guys that that
13:54
Speaker 3: like did you say, you know, like yeah, you know
13:56
Speaker 3: going to that you know, you know, I think that
14:00
Speaker 3: we definitely have all the pieces in line, you know,
14:02
Speaker 3: and that that that is something that you know, most
14:05
Speaker 3: teams probably can say in June, you know, but we
14:09
Speaker 3: making when you're talking making it going.
14:11
Speaker 2: The whole way, going the whole ride.
14:12
Speaker 3: You know, that's gonna take every day coming in, you know,
14:15
Speaker 3: getting better as a team and taking the day by day,
14:18
Speaker 3: taking the game by game, week by week. And I
14:20
Speaker 3: think that we definitely have a group of guys that
14:22
Speaker 3: that that are that is ready to accept the challenge.
14:25
Speaker 3: And I'm just excited to be a part of it
14:28
Speaker 3: once and to see it keep growing, you know what
14:30
Speaker 3: I'm saying. We obviously definitely have a good roster, but
14:34
Speaker 3: this pros you know that don't that don't really entail
14:36
Speaker 3: that that you're going to be successful. You know, it
14:38
Speaker 3: comes with with camaraderie, It come with chemistry, It comes
14:40
Speaker 3: with you know, everybody coming up showing up every day
14:43
Speaker 3: to get better personally and to get better as a team.
14:46
Speaker 3: So I think that we are definitely on the right
14:48
Speaker 3: track and our intention to that, you know, and our
14:51
Speaker 3: focus to that. But like this doesn't seem like the
14:55
Speaker 3: place that that just looks looks forward. You know, We've
14:57
Speaker 3: kind of just been on a coastique and appreciate, you know,
15:01
Speaker 3: you win the day, you know, go out there and
15:03
Speaker 3: you know, get better every day. It's gonna be a
15:05
Speaker 3: great day. And he says there's gonna be a great
15:07
Speaker 3: day to day and I'm looking at the group, who's
15:08
Speaker 3: gonna who's gonna make it that way? And I think
15:10
Speaker 3: that's just be the the mindset for real.
15:12
Speaker 2: You know.
15:13
Speaker 3: But we definitely have the group to go out there
15:15
Speaker 3: and compete for for whatever we it is that we want,
15:19
Speaker 3: but it's just not gonna be given to us.
15:20
Speaker 1: For fantastic answer and it's it's it's a really exciting
15:24
Speaker 1: time for the Staels, both all and off the field.
15:26
Speaker 1: For people off the field over here on the island
15:29
Speaker 1: of Ireland, the Staelors are bringing a couple of players
15:31
Speaker 1: over this weekend for a camp with young kids and
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Speaker 1: both Belfast and Corks So stick out. We're gonna have
15:36
Speaker 1: content in person with myself, Jimmy and Dave this weekend,
15:39
Speaker 1: but for now, fantastic to welcome Dante to the Staels
15:44
Speaker 1: and to welcome to the podcast Donte. Thank you so
15:46
Speaker 1: much and all of that the season and thank you
15:48
Speaker 1: very much.
15:48
Speaker 2: Thank you appreciate it, and thank you all for having
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Speaker 2: me and belong