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Andrew Whitworth: Hollywood couldn't script it better · NFL explained.

0:10
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the
0:13
Speaker 1: NFL Players Second Acts Podcast. I'm Peanut Tuman and as always,
0:18
Speaker 1: I got my guy, my uncle Roman Harper with us today.
0:23
Speaker 1: What's up? What up? Hump? I'm doing good man. Obviously,
0:26
Speaker 1: we are a Southern family because anytime the uncle is
0:30
Speaker 1: younger than the nephew, it's it's a little bit of
0:34
Speaker 1: unique situation. So I always think that of us when
0:37
Speaker 1: we see each other. And I feel good because our
0:39
Speaker 1: guest today shares a little bit of something with me
0:42
Speaker 1: in common. Not only did he play in the SEC,
0:44
Speaker 1: but he's also a silver Fox himself, So I'm kind
0:48
Speaker 1: of proud of that, and we both rocket proudly and
0:50
Speaker 1: uniquely and beautifully as well. So before we jump into
0:54
Speaker 1: it and you introduced our our guests today, I want
0:57
Speaker 1: to thank all the listeners for tuning in. I want
0:59
Speaker 1: to ask you to get to spread the word, tell
1:01
Speaker 1: a friend, to tell a friend, to tell a friend,
1:03
Speaker 1: give us a rating, a review, and to follow on
1:06
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or wherever else you listen
1:10
Speaker 1: to your podcast. So, pe Nut, with all due respect,
1:13
Speaker 1: go ahead, my man, go ahead and kick us off
1:15
Speaker 1: with this one. So let me list these accolades of this,
1:18
Speaker 1: uh twenty of me. It's a lot, it's a lot.
1:21
Speaker 1: I don't know Roman numerals. But he won the Super
1:23
Speaker 1: Bowl when he was in LA. He's a two thousand
1:26
Speaker 1: and twenty one Walter Peyton Man of the year, four
1:30
Speaker 1: time pro bowler. Won the two thousand and three BCS
1:34
Speaker 1: Natural Championship with LSU drafted by the Bengals and O
1:38
Speaker 1: six in the second round. Retired from the Rams in
1:42
Speaker 1: two thousand and twenty one. Ken y'all, please show some
1:45
Speaker 1: love for Andrew with worm we sol fallas. Appreciate that.
1:51
Speaker 1: Appreciate that. Well, let's go ahead, let's talk about those
1:54
Speaker 1: accolades and then we'll ball. Okay, So you won three
1:59
Speaker 1: back to back, took of your off and then won
2:01
Speaker 1: it again. You won three national chair excuse me, three
2:04
Speaker 1: high school championships in football, right, yep? Do y'all get
2:08
Speaker 1: y'all got rings in Louisiana? Oh yeah, we got rings. Okay, Hey,
2:12
Speaker 1: Monroe's real, Doug like where he's at. They played some
2:15
Speaker 1: real ball. It's a lot of guys that they put out.
2:18
Speaker 1: Did you want a state championship in tennis? No, that
2:22
Speaker 1: is a great question. Though, so it's actually a fantastic story.
2:26
Speaker 1: I was at LSU and you know, you're going through
2:29
Speaker 1: the process of sports directors like hey, we need to
2:32
Speaker 1: like keep pubbing you up or how well you're playing.
2:34
Speaker 1: We're gonna try and get you on the All American team,
2:36
Speaker 1: get national attention. So let's name some things you've done,
2:39
Speaker 1: like you know, before you got here. So you know,
2:41
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, I want a high school sta attention. Football.
2:44
Speaker 1: I won the five A state championship in powerlifting in
2:47
Speaker 1: the heavyweight class, so like we're naming that. And then
2:50
Speaker 1: he's like any other things you want as a kid,
2:52
Speaker 1: like baseball and did you go the World Series or anything.
2:54
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I did you know? We went
2:56
Speaker 1: to the state title game in baseball when I was
2:58
Speaker 1: twelve and I won like a tennis deal when I
3:00
Speaker 1: was eleven or ten, So that starts that year. This
3:03
Speaker 1: is like my sophomore year in college. By the time
3:05
Speaker 1: I got to the draft, like I'm going with scouts
3:08
Speaker 1: and they're like, man, so what year was it that
3:11
Speaker 1: you won the high school championship in tests? I'm like, what, Like,
3:15
Speaker 1: I won like the local like you get a little
3:18
Speaker 1: Caesar slice a pizza if you're the one that beats
3:21
Speaker 1: the other kid camp in tennis, Like I can't win
3:24
Speaker 1: anything that that care is a trophy. So it's carried
3:27
Speaker 1: on throughout my career. I always get asked about it,
3:29
Speaker 1: and it's hilarious because it literally came from like a
3:32
Speaker 1: two minute conversation of stuff you've done as a kid,
3:34
Speaker 1: and it has lived its own life throughout my career. Man,
3:37
Speaker 1: just go win it, Just go win it. Just like, yeah,
3:40
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just like the white, three hundred pound
3:43
Speaker 1: male version of Serena and Venus combined, Like that's that
3:47
Speaker 1: is who I am. Like, I'm just I'm not real.
3:49
Speaker 1: We were literally talking before. I'm like, how's he running
3:52
Speaker 1: around dominating people at close to three hundred pounds. I
3:55
Speaker 1: couldn't imagine it. I'm like, how does this even possible?
3:58
Speaker 1: I can play tennis, but I ain't like that. I
4:01
Speaker 1: promise you that I'm a lefty. I grew up being
4:03
Speaker 1: an andre Agasy fan. I had me a wild thing
4:06
Speaker 1: racket when I was little. But you know, I was
4:08
Speaker 1: a big fan of the game. But no, I was
4:10
Speaker 1: never good enough to win in high school, that's for sure.
4:12
Speaker 1: Pickleballs my sport. There we go. See I'm a golfer,
4:16
Speaker 1: though you know he is a golfer. Now most people
4:20
Speaker 1: do not know this. I don't even know if if
4:22
Speaker 1: wit remembers this, but the first time I met Andrew
4:25
Speaker 1: Whitworth was at in Arizona. We were both selected to
4:30
Speaker 1: be Playboy All Americans going into our senior year in
4:33
Speaker 1: two thousand and five, and that was the first time
4:35
Speaker 1: I met this large human being. And I just randomly
4:38
Speaker 1: was walking around the whole place and he was out
4:39
Speaker 1: at the driving range, hitting bombs on the driving range.
4:43
Speaker 1: And he's the first one that really got me to like,
4:45
Speaker 1: you know what, I should maybe start to pick up
4:47
Speaker 1: golf a little bit. And I hung out with him
4:49
Speaker 1: and we actually got really cool at that point in time,
4:52
Speaker 1: talking way back when we both were seniors in college.
4:55
Speaker 1: And so I know he can golf, I know he
4:58
Speaker 1: can do all these other things. I just think it's
5:01
Speaker 1: awesome that you were able to accomplish that. So also
5:04
Speaker 1: you were also a Playball All American as well. So
5:08
Speaker 1: two thousand and five great classes. You know, just want
5:10
Speaker 1: to shout us all out out there. And sure, now
5:13
Speaker 1: I want to start off with this just a little
5:14
Speaker 1: bit because I'm sitting here with two of the guys
5:17
Speaker 1: that won one of the biggest accolades that I believe
5:20
Speaker 1: the NFL gives out, which is the Walter Paydon Man
5:22
Speaker 1: of the Year award. And you know, we see that
5:26
Speaker 1: you got a lot of recognition the longer you played.
5:28
Speaker 1: It was like, man, we really loved this guy, and
5:30
Speaker 1: we appreciate you more and more, and we were able
5:32
Speaker 1: to give you your flowers before you retired. And could
5:34
Speaker 1: you talk about how special that award is because I
5:36
Speaker 1: know Peanut was also a person that won the Walter
5:39
Speaker 1: Payd Man of the Year you also wanted. I did not,
5:42
Speaker 1: and I wanted many other accolades, but that one alone,
5:45
Speaker 1: it's such a special deal. Could you maybe just give
5:47
Speaker 1: us a little bit insight into that. Yeah, I just
5:49
Speaker 1: think when you when you think about that award and
5:51
Speaker 1: what it stands for, it was even tough to go
5:54
Speaker 1: through the process of being nominated for it and then
5:57
Speaker 1: be up for it, because it's kind of hard to
5:58
Speaker 1: be like, you know what, Like I mean, I'm getting
6:01
Speaker 1: acknowledged this and it's great and I think it's wonderful,
6:03
Speaker 1: But I'm looking across the league at the other thirty
6:06
Speaker 1: one nominees and I'm like, wow, like so much respect
6:08
Speaker 1: for everything they do, and it almost every year I
6:11
Speaker 1: got nominated, it was like man invigorated and be like, man,
6:14
Speaker 1: all right, I love I love the guys that I
6:16
Speaker 1: played a sport with man and their passion for people,
6:19
Speaker 1: because that's one thing I just to me, that's what
6:20
Speaker 1: life's all about. And so going through that really, for me,
6:24
Speaker 1: it was more of a reflection and a reminiscent of
6:26
Speaker 1: over my career just the impacts of people and communities
6:30
Speaker 1: and the special moments I've had of realizing not only
6:33
Speaker 1: just the impact that I was able to have on them,
6:35
Speaker 1: but more importantly to me, the impact they had on me,
6:38
Speaker 1: and that it gave me a you know, a passion
6:41
Speaker 1: and a purpose to play football, not just for sports,
6:45
Speaker 1: not just for you know, success i'd want to have
6:47
Speaker 1: on the field, but you know what, it created opportunities
6:50
Speaker 1: for me to go impact people off of it, and
6:52
Speaker 1: so I think that's one of the things I'm most
6:53
Speaker 1: grateful for the opportunity to play in the NFL for
6:56
Speaker 1: is I've had some really cool opportunities and a lot
6:58
Speaker 1: of growth as me as a person, and standing up
7:01
Speaker 1: there on that stage as y'all know, I mean offensive linement.
7:03
Speaker 1: You know. My my level of media experience leading up
7:06
Speaker 1: to that moment was like the local registry. You know,
7:10
Speaker 1: college kid who's got a tape recorder. You know. I
7:13
Speaker 1: don't get a lot of press conferences and podium so
7:15
Speaker 1: I was a pretty nervous when I walked up there.
7:17
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what, after I watched the video
7:20
Speaker 1: and just thought about the moment and where I was,
7:23
Speaker 1: it was like, man, I'm just I'm just gonna tell
7:25
Speaker 1: a story about you know, what I think so impactful
7:28
Speaker 1: to me and what I think so important in life.
7:31
Speaker 1: And it was a really special moment for me and
7:33
Speaker 1: my family for sure. Okay, so it was very it
7:36
Speaker 1: was I think it was. It was very natural. You know,
7:40
Speaker 1: the story that you told. I think people could resonate
7:42
Speaker 1: with with that. And again, congratulations, It's it's one of my,
7:48
Speaker 1: if not my greatest accomplishment while playing, you know, winning
7:51
Speaker 1: that award it means it definitely means a lot, especially
7:53
Speaker 1: being in Chicago, being from Chicago. Yeah, at a little
7:56
Speaker 1: bit sweeter. Yeah, yeah, I think I think even looking
7:59
Speaker 1: at my situation and like I thought it was, what
8:01
Speaker 1: was really cool was in that little couple of minutes
8:03
Speaker 1: they give you, you're telling this story about Derek Barnes,
8:06
Speaker 1: and really how cool that interaction was. But I think
8:08
Speaker 1: what was hard to paint the picture of it is
8:10
Speaker 1: like I think people walked away from it like, oh man,
8:12
Speaker 1: this impact you had on Derek Barnes, And it was
8:15
Speaker 1: like I wanted to make sure people understood it was
8:17
Speaker 1: the impact he had on me as well. I was
8:19
Speaker 1: a rookie in the NFL. I was in the Midwest,
8:22
Speaker 1: somewhere I had never been. I was lonely, trying to
8:24
Speaker 1: figure out who the heck I'm going to be as
8:26
Speaker 1: a person. And this young six seven eight year old
8:29
Speaker 1: kid was my buddy that like we hung out and
8:31
Speaker 1: threw the football and shield as a person girls club
8:33
Speaker 1: and yeah, like he was as much there for me
8:36
Speaker 1: as anything I was there for him. So that happened
8:38
Speaker 1: in my last year before I retired. I thought it
8:40
Speaker 1: was just such a cool story to tell because it
8:42
Speaker 1: was a great moment in my career that it's like, Wow,
8:45
Speaker 1: think back to who you were sixteen years ago and
8:48
Speaker 1: where are you at and where you stand right now. No, yeah,
8:50
Speaker 1: but the people that you impact on the day to day. Basically,
8:53
Speaker 1: you never know. You just never know. You can influence
8:57
Speaker 1: who's watching you, and that's really the true definition of
9:00
Speaker 1: character is And so you got that award literally your
9:04
Speaker 1: last year playing. And so at what point in your
9:07
Speaker 1: NFL career did you ever begin flirting with the idea
9:10
Speaker 1: of retiring. I mean, you played sixteen years, so you
9:12
Speaker 1: had a long time to think about this. Yeah, I
9:15
Speaker 1: don't know. You know, it's like, do you count the
9:16
Speaker 1: years that it seemed like every sports reporter is like
9:18
Speaker 1: trying to put it in your head that you probably
9:20
Speaker 1: should retire, or it's like you've entered the age just
9:22
Speaker 1: like I can remember at some point it's like I'm
9:24
Speaker 1: not bringing this up, y'all are bringing this up like
9:26
Speaker 1: you know, like you know, is this it? Is this
9:28
Speaker 1: the last years? You know, it's like they'd ask you
9:30
Speaker 1: those questions and you'd go through those seasons where you'd
9:33
Speaker 1: ponder it, and then a lot of the times I
9:35
Speaker 1: would think about, hey, you know what, like did I
9:37
Speaker 1: come up with this idea? Is this more like, hey,
9:39
Speaker 1: because you've reached a certain age or because you're at
9:42
Speaker 1: a certain experience level. That's just the narrative people want
9:45
Speaker 1: to talk about and so I think for me, it
9:47
Speaker 1: was just continuing to be like, you know what, do
9:49
Speaker 1: I feel good? Do I feel like I sell the
9:51
Speaker 1: passion to play this game? And then at some point
9:54
Speaker 1: it became at my age because I was an older
9:56
Speaker 1: player coming into the league, it was like, man, the mentorship,
10:00
Speaker 1: the brotherhood and my little brothers. You know, a lot
10:02
Speaker 1: of them called me uncle. A couple at the end
10:04
Speaker 1: called me grandpa, which is really offensive, but the gray,
10:07
Speaker 1: you know, it's like you guys have yeah, it just
10:10
Speaker 1: you know, it started to be like, hey, you know
10:12
Speaker 1: what the impact I get to have with these guys
10:14
Speaker 1: every years so much fun too, Like it was like
10:17
Speaker 1: I'm chasing playing because I just love the bond. I
10:19
Speaker 1: love the brotherhood. I love being able to be there
10:22
Speaker 1: for a guy when he has his first kid, or
10:23
Speaker 1: he's getting married, or he wants to know about you know,
10:26
Speaker 1: this next lifestep he's going through with his mom or
10:28
Speaker 1: his family or whatever, and so those kind of moments
10:31
Speaker 1: or things I remember almost as much as anything I
10:33
Speaker 1: did on the field. Yeah that's cool. So after retiring,
10:37
Speaker 1: you got into broadcasting run away, I was that was
10:39
Speaker 1: something that I did as well, you know, I retired
10:42
Speaker 1: I took like, I don't know, maybe the off season,
10:45
Speaker 1: a couple of months off, and then I started to
10:48
Speaker 1: I got into broadcasting right away. And Rome and I
10:50
Speaker 1: we talked about this often where when Roman hired, he
10:53
Speaker 1: took exactly three hundred and sixty five days off of
10:57
Speaker 1: doing nothing. I'm just hanging out, kids, fam just whatever.
11:02
Speaker 1: He wanted to do a lot of shopping, time with
11:04
Speaker 1: the wife, you during the day. Yeah, we did a
11:07
Speaker 1: lot of that. We did a lot of that. And
11:09
Speaker 1: I always say, if I could go back and do
11:11
Speaker 1: it again, I probably would have took a year off
11:13
Speaker 1: and just did nothing, because that's probably the one I
11:16
Speaker 1: probably said that was probably my big mistake. It is
11:18
Speaker 1: just taking a year off and not doing nothing, trying
11:20
Speaker 1: to get right back into just doing something right after retiring.
11:23
Speaker 1: So my question to you is, what have your experience
11:27
Speaker 1: has been like just getting right into football just I'm
11:30
Speaker 1: excuse me, getting right into broadcasting having no time off,
11:35
Speaker 1: you know, I think it was my first year was
11:38
Speaker 1: pretty crazy to have like now kind of sit here
11:41
Speaker 1: and enjoy a little bit of being retired. It's been
11:43
Speaker 1: nice out. The season's over and I'm kind of sitting still,
11:46
Speaker 1: but like I remember being at some point in like
11:49
Speaker 1: October November, like I'm having a blast doing this, like
11:52
Speaker 1: this is fun traveling. But I'm like, man, I don't
11:54
Speaker 1: even know what's happened the last six months, Like I
11:57
Speaker 1: have no idea where it's gone or what happened. I
11:58
Speaker 1: thought I was gonna have all this time, and I
12:01
Speaker 1: feel like I just go from one thing to the
12:03
Speaker 1: other every second. And I tell people this all the
12:05
Speaker 1: time too, And I'm sure you guys feel the same way.
12:07
Speaker 1: You forget too. Football was kind of your excuse to
12:09
Speaker 1: get out of things too, like hey, like why don't
12:11
Speaker 1: you come to this? Ah? You know what? Actually, like
12:13
Speaker 1: we gotta practice or I got OTAs or I got whatever.
12:16
Speaker 1: And now you have no excuse to say no. You
12:19
Speaker 1: better know the word no, because if you don't, you're
12:22
Speaker 1: gonna be busy all the time because they're like, now
12:24
Speaker 1: you're not playing no more, so you can come to
12:25
Speaker 1: this event or you can come to this thing. And
12:27
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, man, crap, I don't have an excuse.
12:30
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think my year got pretty crazy. It did.
12:32
Speaker 1: I was agreeing to anything and everything is like I'm retired.
12:35
Speaker 1: I want to go play in you know, Larry Fitzgild's
12:37
Speaker 1: golf tournament or I want to go play in this
12:38
Speaker 1: And then before I knew it, I was like, man,
12:41
Speaker 1: I'm here Monday, they're Thursday, this place Sunday, Like, oh, like,
12:45
Speaker 1: what did I get myself into? But no, I mean
12:47
Speaker 1: getting into the broadcast part, I think is probably the
12:49
Speaker 1: most enjoyable part of everything. It's it's been a lot
12:52
Speaker 1: of fun. I would say that in coaching my kids'
12:54
Speaker 1: sports has been the two things that like have been
12:57
Speaker 1: an absolute blast. And my wife's enjoyed it too, just
12:59
Speaker 1: to get to have me around so much. And so
13:01
Speaker 1: it's that part's been really fun. All Right. Number one,
13:05
Speaker 1: what sports are you kids playing? And then number two,
13:08
Speaker 1: I want you to kind of take me through some
13:10
Speaker 1: of the challenges. You know, you talked about you you
13:12
Speaker 1: really didn't do any big media press conferences. You're old linons,
13:15
Speaker 1: You're not getting a whole bunch of cameras in your
13:17
Speaker 1: face week after and so now you're I mean you're
13:22
Speaker 1: a prime time You're right there on Thursday night football
13:25
Speaker 1: is you're right there with Amazon. It's a great path.
13:26
Speaker 1: It's a great crew too. I really enjoy you guys,
13:29
Speaker 1: And is it safe to say that you're kind of
13:31
Speaker 1: a trailblazer. You are. You're not the only one because
13:34
Speaker 1: Joe Thomas was up there too, So you two guys
13:36
Speaker 1: are leading the way for you big guys on the
13:39
Speaker 1: tit television screen right now. Yeah, I tell you all.
13:42
Speaker 1: For the kids. Uh, you know, we're a little bit everywhere.
13:44
Speaker 1: I mean, the boys probably play almost all the three majors.
13:48
Speaker 1: I'd say, basketball, football, baseball. They're doing all that. You know.
13:52
Speaker 1: I've had one to mess around a little bit wanting
13:54
Speaker 1: to play some golf, but he didn't want to do that.
13:56
Speaker 1: He likes suping too much, so you know, they play those.
14:00
Speaker 1: My daughter Sarah is a volleyball player. I'm trying to
14:03
Speaker 1: get her on the basketball court. She's tall and lean
14:06
Speaker 1: and but she enjoys volleyball right now. And then my
14:09
Speaker 1: youngest daughter, Catherine, who's eight, uh, just started basketball, so
14:14
Speaker 1: I'm excited about her. She's having a blast. That's guy.
14:16
Speaker 1: That was always my favorite sport growing up and something
14:19
Speaker 1: I still did when I played. I kept the court.
14:21
Speaker 1: You know. I had a little half court at my
14:22
Speaker 1: house and had a little you know, your little old
14:24
Speaker 1: men leagues. You know. I had specific rules though at
14:27
Speaker 1: my size because the general guys didn't like me down
14:29
Speaker 1: the paint, so I had to I had to shoot
14:30
Speaker 1: from the outside, but uh, out in the paint. And
14:39
Speaker 1: see that's the guy that I don't like. I'm like,
14:41
Speaker 1: why the big guy always trying to bring the ball up?
14:43
Speaker 1: You take your shirt off the time, just dunking, dribbling.
14:46
Speaker 1: Come on, yeah, I'd have been just shirt off, sweat dripping,
14:51
Speaker 1: I've been get bagging it up, getting in Oh my,
14:54
Speaker 1: come on, y'all, I'd have been guy hated to play again.
14:57
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they hated me there, you know, doubt about that,
15:00
Speaker 1: but you know, so that that part was fun. But yeah,
15:02
Speaker 1: as far as the you know, being on Thursday night
15:04
Speaker 1: football and really the challenges, I think it has been
15:06
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. And I think for me, I
15:08
Speaker 1: do think of it that way. Like it's an offensive lineman.
15:10
Speaker 1: You don't have a lot of voice in the league
15:12
Speaker 1: when it comes to like press conferences and media stuff.
15:15
Speaker 1: I think that's why it's so cool to see right now.
15:17
Speaker 1: Jason Kelsey, you know, Joe Thomas, you know, you know,
15:21
Speaker 1: you've had O'Hare, you had some guys that you know
15:23
Speaker 1: have been out there. But it's like get to see
15:25
Speaker 1: those guys really spreading out who they are. Taylor Lawan, like,
15:28
Speaker 1: you know, guys, it's like regardless of like their personalities
15:31
Speaker 1: and who you like and don't like actually having a
15:34
Speaker 1: personality and showing it. Because I think in the offensive
15:36
Speaker 1: line room especially and you guys know this, you've played
15:38
Speaker 1: long enough, like that was kind of always a room
15:40
Speaker 1: where it's like be quiet, do your job, and that's
15:42
Speaker 1: kind of how the they were taught, Like you brought
15:44
Speaker 1: in young Lineman, it's like don't say a word, don't speak,
15:46
Speaker 1: just block, you know, like that kind of thing. And
15:49
Speaker 1: just seeing now that there's a little bit of these
15:51
Speaker 1: guys showing who they really are and having a personality
15:54
Speaker 1: and talking about what they enjoy and they're passionate about.
15:57
Speaker 1: I love being on the side of not being the
15:59
Speaker 1: trail blazer but changing that narrative and for all those
16:02
Speaker 1: guys because you trouble. Yeah, so I enjoy that, man,
16:06
Speaker 1: you know. But it's funny, like even when you go
16:07
Speaker 1: through these meetings, like I met with agents to talk
16:09
Speaker 1: about media, right, they would say stuff that I just
16:12
Speaker 1: get so fired, Like they'd be like, well, somebody can
16:14
Speaker 1: hire you, and like you could talk about on an
16:16
Speaker 1: alignment and I'm like, bro, Like, I don't know if
16:19
Speaker 1: y'all understand when football, like offensive linemen have to know
16:24
Speaker 1: so much more than how to block somebody that to
16:27
Speaker 1: even be good at what they do. So like to
16:29
Speaker 1: think that that was even the what your own agent
16:32
Speaker 1: might think. It's like, oh, man, you could talk about
16:33
Speaker 1: alignment blocking people, and I'm like, bro, I can talk
16:35
Speaker 1: about anything in this game, you know, you know, So
16:38
Speaker 1: I think you have to be an intelligent guy to
16:40
Speaker 1: play that position and also have a great concept of
16:42
Speaker 1: the game and how it moves and motions and coverages
16:46
Speaker 1: and how they rotate, and like to understand how to
16:48
Speaker 1: pick all those things up. You better know how the
16:50
Speaker 1: defense dances. Yeah, And so I gotta know how the
16:52
Speaker 1: offense what our plan is, and I gotta know what
16:54
Speaker 1: the defense how they're gonna dance to it, and and
16:57
Speaker 1: so you know that you can watch tape and understand
16:59
Speaker 1: those things from a Figger complex in just your job.
17:01
Speaker 1: So it's been fun to have a chance to do
17:03
Speaker 1: that and get to do it with Sherman Fitz and
17:05
Speaker 1: Tony and Charissa, all people who are just such special
17:08
Speaker 1: personalities in their in their own right, it's been a blast.
17:12
Speaker 1: I tell you that the biggest surprise to me. I
17:14
Speaker 1: didn't know i'd love it and have so much fun.
17:16
Speaker 1: I mean, I've had an absolute blast doing it. That's
17:19
Speaker 1: the best thing about it. So I didn't really watch
17:22
Speaker 1: a ton of football when I played. I didn't watch
17:24
Speaker 1: Monday night football, Sunday night football because we sit in
17:27
Speaker 1: the meeting room all day in a dark room, and
17:30
Speaker 1: you just watched the wide angle of plays all day long.
17:33
Speaker 1: So when I retired, I watched more football than I
17:36
Speaker 1: ever have in my life. Wish I didn't think I
17:38
Speaker 1: would do. So being retired, do you do do you
17:41
Speaker 1: feel more connected to the game just because you're doing
17:44
Speaker 1: the analyst thing or do you just did you think
17:47
Speaker 1: you weren't going to be watching that much football after
17:49
Speaker 1: being retired? Peter, I gotta tell you, I'm in the
17:52
Speaker 1: same boat. I don't know if I watched a single
17:54
Speaker 1: game when I played, Like, I don't think I were
17:56
Speaker 1: you serious, I didn't have to do with my was
17:59
Speaker 1: more and who I was just playing? I do it
18:01
Speaker 1: too much. Yeah, I wasn't watching it, And now I
18:03
Speaker 1: feel like it's like a like I can't not watch
18:06
Speaker 1: every single guy like, bro, I gotta see every game
18:09
Speaker 1: every snap, Like leave me alone, like get out of
18:11
Speaker 1: the room, like I'm watching everything. It's crazy, like I
18:15
Speaker 1: even got to the point this past season and why
18:17
Speaker 1: I really like realized how much shit changed for me.
18:20
Speaker 1: It's like the rams of INI like hey, why don't
18:22
Speaker 1: you come to this game or be cool coming this
18:23
Speaker 1: game where I talked to Sean or Stafford or something,
18:26
Speaker 1: be like, hey, you're gonna come this weekend, And it's like,
18:28
Speaker 1: I don't think I might miss one of the games
18:31
Speaker 1: like on the East Coast or something, So I actually,
18:33
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna sit at home, but I watch,
18:35
Speaker 1: Like but I'm gonna watch all the games. I couldn't
18:37
Speaker 1: go nowhere on Sunday because I was like, I gotta
18:40
Speaker 1: see every game, every snap. I want to watch it all.
18:44
Speaker 1: That's funny. So your first training camp that you didn't
18:47
Speaker 1: report to after you retired, I know mine was. It
18:51
Speaker 1: was for me. It was weird because I was like, Damn,
18:53
Speaker 1: I'm normally running, I'm in shape, I'm lifting, I'm running,
18:55
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get everything right. You know, I packed
18:58
Speaker 1: my bag, I'm gone for two yeks. What was that like?
19:02
Speaker 1: Not going towards trening camp after sixteen season? Did it?
19:05
Speaker 1: Did you miss it? Was? It? Was? It? Like, damn,
19:07
Speaker 1: I just something was off. I was that I felt
19:11
Speaker 1: like I played up until the meter read empty. So
19:15
Speaker 1: when I when I when I got done and walked
19:17
Speaker 1: off that field after the Super Bowl, m I felt
19:21
Speaker 1: like that was everything I had left. I mean, you know,
19:23
Speaker 1: and part of that may be because in my career
19:25
Speaker 1: I was really blessed with like being very very healthy
19:28
Speaker 1: for the most part. I mean things, but nothing that
19:30
Speaker 1: you'd say are and this is gonna hinder your career.
19:32
Speaker 1: And then the last really like two years of my career,
19:35
Speaker 1: I had the torn PCL at MCL, I had come
19:37
Speaker 1: back from. I had a presignificant need deal that went
19:40
Speaker 1: on a hip injury. So it was like, all right,
19:42
Speaker 1: it's kind of getting to be grueling to show up
19:44
Speaker 1: every day and go through this. And I was I
19:46
Speaker 1: really like from a body standpoint of feeling good enough
19:48
Speaker 1: to play, I felt fine, but it started to be
19:50
Speaker 1: frustrating to just get Sunday to Sunday. And I started
19:53
Speaker 1: losing the fun of that chase of like chasing my
19:56
Speaker 1: job all the time. And so that's I really kind
19:59
Speaker 1: of knew that was it at the conversation with Melissa,
20:01
Speaker 1: like we knew, you know what, this is the last ride,
20:03
Speaker 1: let's see how it ends. So for me, I was
20:06
Speaker 1: like in a pretty good spot, but I really knew it.
20:10
Speaker 1: Like the second week at training camp, I go out
20:13
Speaker 1: to the rams their practices down here in Cali, and
20:17
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, I'm gonna show up the first
20:19
Speaker 1: day of pads and I'm like, you know what, when
20:21
Speaker 1: once they do the acclimation stuff they're going in pads,
20:23
Speaker 1: I'm gonna show up. And I really know when I
20:25
Speaker 1: go to this practice. I show up at practice, I
20:28
Speaker 1: bet I lasted twelve minutes. Like I was sitting out
20:31
Speaker 1: there and I was like, you know what, like I
20:33
Speaker 1: go hit some golf balls right now, like I'm good,
20:35
Speaker 1: Like I'm out of here. I literally like I was like,
20:38
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna say that lows to the
20:40
Speaker 1: people on your say hello too, and then I'm getting
20:41
Speaker 1: out of here, Like I don't even want to sit
20:43
Speaker 1: here and watch it like much less practice it. So
20:45
Speaker 1: I literally pieced out like twenty minutes into the practice,
20:49
Speaker 1: and I knew then, like that's it, Like you're done,
20:52
Speaker 1: You're ready to just talk about this game and how
20:54
Speaker 1: much has changed your life and the passion you always
20:56
Speaker 1: will have for it. But playing it is over with.
21:00
Speaker 1: Does your body feel now? How do your knees feel?
21:02
Speaker 1: I always ask big guys that question. I feel pretty good.
21:05
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously there's things like I'm not sitting out
21:07
Speaker 1: here trying to go do a bunch of single legs
21:08
Speaker 1: squats or something for a bunch of reps and heavy weight.
21:11
Speaker 1: But I feel great, Like if you put a bar
21:13
Speaker 1: on my back, I'd be ready to go and squat
21:17
Speaker 1: and do everything else. I feel good. I work out consistently.
21:19
Speaker 1: One of the things that helped me play at that age.
21:21
Speaker 1: I mean, you don't play at forty if you're not
21:22
Speaker 1: pretty active, is that I had really adapted a lifestyle
21:26
Speaker 1: like That's who I was, like every day even to
21:28
Speaker 1: this day, Like this morning at five am, I'm in
21:30
Speaker 1: mym Fred Sauda. At six am, I did you know,
21:33
Speaker 1: the yoga with my instructor, you know. And then on Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
21:37
Speaker 1: I trained with my trainer and work out like I
21:39
Speaker 1: just go. That's kind of who I am. I'll always
21:41
Speaker 1: be that way, whether I'm playing or not. I mean,
21:43
Speaker 1: my schedule doesn't change much from that aspect because I
21:45
Speaker 1: just love training, not because I'm training for something. And
21:48
Speaker 1: so you know, for me, it's like I feel pretty
21:52
Speaker 1: good because I'm still really active. I try to be
21:54
Speaker 1: really cautious of conscious of like, hey, these are the
21:57
Speaker 1: things I need to do now to kind of unwind
21:59
Speaker 1: some of the things I did when I played. So
22:01
Speaker 1: I'm not lifting a bunch of weight, but I'm moving,
22:03
Speaker 1: you know, and trying to stay that way. So so
22:06
Speaker 1: with number one, I mean, that's the best way to
22:09
Speaker 1: do it is to just continue to take care of yourself.
22:11
Speaker 1: It's also going to help you initially too. It's gonna
22:13
Speaker 1: keep you mentally strong. I think that's what working out
22:16
Speaker 1: for me. That's what's kind of helped me prolongs. It
22:18
Speaker 1: just keeps me mentally all there. That's like the one
22:20
Speaker 1: thing when I get out of whack, it's like, dude,
22:22
Speaker 1: I need to go hit the gym and just release.
22:26
Speaker 1: The one thing I saw on your Twitter you talked
22:28
Speaker 1: about it about being in a dark place. You had
22:30
Speaker 1: seen all the tweet from Byron Jones, and you commented
22:33
Speaker 1: on it and you talked about how thanks for the
22:36
Speaker 1: great dialogue. How everybody's responding about how they're feeling, their
22:39
Speaker 1: feelings on how their bodies feel, and other people doing
22:42
Speaker 1: other jobs and how they say they're in pain and
22:44
Speaker 1: all these other things. You were just wondering, like was
22:46
Speaker 1: I normal? You know, I was playing at forty something
22:49
Speaker 1: years old. I got aches and pains. And is it
22:51
Speaker 1: from football strictly or is everybody at this age have
22:55
Speaker 1: certain aches and pains. We all hear about it from
22:57
Speaker 1: normal people as well. And I really enjoy your dialogue,
23:00
Speaker 1: and not only that, but your responses to some of
23:02
Speaker 1: the Twitter mentions and everybody else that responded to those
23:06
Speaker 1: things as well. I thought the open dialogue of communication
23:09
Speaker 1: was huge. That you know, so often in this world,
23:12
Speaker 1: especially football players, we're talking you gotta be tough, you
23:14
Speaker 1: gotta be this, and all of a sudden, when we're
23:17
Speaker 1: all of a sudden take that armor off and we
23:18
Speaker 1: actually open up about these things we don't feel. So,
23:21
Speaker 1: you know, strength is in the weakness. Right when you're
23:25
Speaker 1: at your weakest, sometimes that could be your strongest because
23:27
Speaker 1: you're not alone when you see other people going through
23:29
Speaker 1: a lot of those similar things. I would like to
23:32
Speaker 1: maybe you tell me, like what took you to that
23:35
Speaker 1: place where you started bringing that up, and also like,
23:38
Speaker 1: what did you learn from that experience of really just
23:41
Speaker 1: you know, leaving your emotions all out there on Twitter
23:43
Speaker 1: and getting it out there. Yeah, I think when you
23:46
Speaker 1: when you talk about the game and the passion it
23:48
Speaker 1: takes the player throughout my last probably I always call
23:51
Speaker 1: it my last five years, probably six years when I
23:53
Speaker 1: really when I was in my thirties, mid thirties, thirty
23:55
Speaker 1: four thirty five, I really did sit there and be like,
23:58
Speaker 1: all right, I mean, how many homeboys I got back
24:00
Speaker 1: that like are dealing with something or like you know,
24:02
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I remember so on so head shoulders surgery
24:04
Speaker 1: and fell on a basketball court or whatever it was.
24:07
Speaker 1: And I'd be like, man, I'm not the only person
24:09
Speaker 1: out here that's like dealing with something where I'm in
24:11
Speaker 1: this dark place where I don't know if I can
24:13
Speaker 1: get my body back to Let's put some perspective on it.
24:16
Speaker 1: Playing the most elite game in the world, like like,
24:19
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that you can't like function as a
24:21
Speaker 1: person in society, right, but in your mind it's the
24:24
Speaker 1: only thing that matters, And so you go to these
24:26
Speaker 1: dark places because you're like, man, I can't dunk a
24:29
Speaker 1: basketball anymore, Like at some point that I became a reality,
24:32
Speaker 1: like I can't it hurts Stephen try to dunk a
24:35
Speaker 1: basketball right like, but like I could still live a
24:38
Speaker 1: normal life. It's just my perspective is I'm comparing it
24:41
Speaker 1: to playing NFL football, which is the highest or the
24:45
Speaker 1: highest level. And so I genuinely asked the question because
24:48
Speaker 1: that's literally what I thought about when I played, Like,
24:51
Speaker 1: is there other people out there that feel like this?
24:53
Speaker 1: That work jobs where you got a strain a lot?
24:55
Speaker 1: Obviously there's not a lot of people that work in
24:56
Speaker 1: a office every day that have significant injuries, but might
25:00
Speaker 1: have daily things if they're not taking care of their body.
25:02
Speaker 1: So to hear people's perspective on that, and part of
25:05
Speaker 1: it was like it wasn't about whether I agreed or
25:08
Speaker 1: disagreed with, you know how, Like the feeling is that
25:11
Speaker 1: maybe other players have about that and about their body
25:13
Speaker 1: and about their experience in the NFL. It's that there's
25:16
Speaker 1: different points of view from all of us in all
25:19
Speaker 1: walks of life. And I don't care what we're talking about.
25:22
Speaker 1: We can talk about, you know, religion, racism, we can
25:26
Speaker 1: talk about injuries. We took all these things like everyone's
25:29
Speaker 1: viewpoint is their viewpoint and just being okay with like
25:33
Speaker 1: some people are gonna come with a little steam when
25:35
Speaker 1: you bring up a subject, and some people are gonna
25:37
Speaker 1: hit you with kindness, like but everyone's like they're due
25:41
Speaker 1: there how they feel. But let's just talk through a
25:43
Speaker 1: little bit of how it is you feel, Like I
25:45
Speaker 1: want to know why you feel that way or what
25:46
Speaker 1: you actually are experiencing. And I feel like for me,
25:49
Speaker 1: it's like at first you have to do that, and
25:51
Speaker 1: like the first people think like, oh, you're mocking somebody,
25:54
Speaker 1: or you're trying to go after somebody, or this is
25:55
Speaker 1: a take, you know as they call it. And it's like,
25:58
Speaker 1: now I'm just trying to talk, Like y'all want to talk,
26:00
Speaker 1: you don't want to talk, you know, that's the people
26:02
Speaker 1: don't know how to do that though, more though, that's people.
26:05
Speaker 1: People don't know how to communicate. People don't know how
26:08
Speaker 1: to talk. It is this we we're on our phones, right,
26:12
Speaker 1: so this is this is what people know. This is
26:14
Speaker 1: like the new standard. Nobody knows how to communicate. Nobody.
26:17
Speaker 1: If I do communicate what you with, I'm going to
26:19
Speaker 1: text you and then the text message that you get
26:24
Speaker 1: you read it a certain kind of way and it's
26:25
Speaker 1: like you took a finish to it. And I'm like, wait, no,
26:27
Speaker 1: you're interpreting my texting as a drawn rather than just
26:31
Speaker 1: picking up the damn phone and just say, hey, this
26:33
Speaker 1: is what I meant to say, this is who I am.
26:35
Speaker 1: And then you can tell by the I don't know
26:38
Speaker 1: the way my voice carries it, like you know, if
26:40
Speaker 1: I'm mad, happy, sad, whatever. Yeah, I try to tell
26:44
Speaker 1: my kids that all man. Hey, look I tell this
26:46
Speaker 1: all the time. My wife and I had this conversation
26:49
Speaker 1: one time, just about open dialogue, and she's like we're
26:52
Speaker 1: talking about something we fought over and I'm like laughing
26:54
Speaker 1: and we're making fun of each other, and I'm like, hey, babe,
26:56
Speaker 1: I just said like we were down to like half
26:59
Speaker 1: a car in the milk. And she was like, yeah,
27:02
Speaker 1: but I heard you say you're a bad mother you
27:04
Speaker 1: didn't put milk in the fridge for the kids. And
27:06
Speaker 1: I was like, no, I just I just said we
27:09
Speaker 1: need to get a new carton, like I said, but
27:13
Speaker 1: how it is right? Yeah, all I said was when
27:17
Speaker 1: needs some fresh milk, that's it. Like you just no, no,
27:20
Speaker 1: you call me a bad mom, like, well, no, didn't
27:23
Speaker 1: you know. So it's like those things can happen that way,
27:25
Speaker 1: even sometimes when it's clear communication. And so I just
27:28
Speaker 1: from me, I've always taken the thing like I can't
27:30
Speaker 1: be on this this platform if I can't handle criticism
27:35
Speaker 1: and I can't handle compliments and I can't run with
27:38
Speaker 1: it one way or another, like you know. And so
27:40
Speaker 1: for me, it's like, if I can stay calm and
27:42
Speaker 1: just have dialogue, then I can be on here. If
27:44
Speaker 1: it can't be like that, then it's not worth my
27:46
Speaker 1: time because my emotions being controlled by something that can
27:49
Speaker 1: be misread and misunderstood is wild to me, Like that
27:52
Speaker 1: just doesn't make sense. So I just wanted to have
27:54
Speaker 1: a conversation about it and see how people feel. And
27:56
Speaker 1: also I just hope for him, like you know, I
27:59
Speaker 1: feel wherever he is and he's at with all of that, man,
28:02
Speaker 1: just make sure you reach out and keep some perspective
28:05
Speaker 1: of really the blessings you have had in the game,
28:08
Speaker 1: the toughness that is the reality that we sign up for.
28:11
Speaker 1: You know, there's parts of it that you know, what
28:13
Speaker 1: the NFL could always do better, and there's no doubt
28:15
Speaker 1: about that. I mean I think we all can agree
28:17
Speaker 1: on that there's policies that every at every level that
28:20
Speaker 1: they could be better with, but we also sign up
28:23
Speaker 1: for the job, and so I think for me, it's
28:26
Speaker 1: just making sure you keep a little perspective in life
28:28
Speaker 1: and what things are like and what everyone else goes through. Yeah,
28:32
Speaker 1: And so just all that being said, Bro, I think
28:35
Speaker 1: the biggest thing I got out of especially you responded
28:38
Speaker 1: to all those comments, was that vulnerability is strength number
28:41
Speaker 1: one when you when you're able to open up and share.
28:44
Speaker 1: And I hope Byron Jones here's that as well, because
28:47
Speaker 1: his Vulnabi allows you to have the strength and courage
28:49
Speaker 1: to reach out as well and just like talk about it.
28:52
Speaker 1: And so that's huge for me. And then I got
28:54
Speaker 1: to get on my soapbox for a minute because I
28:56
Speaker 1: tell my wife all the time with I'm just like you, Bro,
28:58
Speaker 1: I'm like, look, you can't read them motions through text,
29:00
Speaker 1: so like I'm just asking the question here, Like I
29:03
Speaker 1: ain't saying nothing about you being a bad mom. I
29:06
Speaker 1: ain't said none of that, Like words matter, Like I
29:08
Speaker 1: didn't say none of that, like, and so I said this,
29:11
Speaker 1: and then you said what you heard, which is not
29:14
Speaker 1: what I said, So all right, I'm off my soapbox.
29:17
Speaker 1: That's why I say just pick up the phone or
29:18
Speaker 1: just physically talk to that person because you won't have
29:21
Speaker 1: the wrong interpretation. That's really what I was just don't
29:24
Speaker 1: even started with come talk to I started with now like, hey,
29:27
Speaker 1: let me tell you what I'm not saying, and then
29:29
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get to what I am saying. That's that's
29:31
Speaker 1: what I started with. Now, somebody need to use that one.
29:34
Speaker 1: That's funny. So I'm not in a dark place because
29:37
Speaker 1: I'm forty two and I can still dunk a basketball.
29:40
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just gonna throw it out there, right,
29:42
Speaker 1: I'm I got down in forty two vertically, don't trying
29:47
Speaker 1: to dunk on my kids eight and a half of
29:49
Speaker 1: a gold just like yesterday and my daughter pushed me
29:51
Speaker 1: and I missed that joke. I felt so bad. I'm like, bro,
29:54
Speaker 1: I can't even get a half sprike commercial right? Commercial
29:58
Speaker 1: act was that it was bad? Yeah, so um for
30:03
Speaker 1: the most part, when nobody really retires when they want to,
30:07
Speaker 1: like football retires you. We talked to a Golik about
30:11
Speaker 1: this at Super Bowl and he said, I didn't retire
30:13
Speaker 1: football the NFL retired me. I didn't choose to retire.
30:16
Speaker 1: I kind of didn't really want to retire. When I retired,
30:19
Speaker 1: I turned at ACL at thirty thirty four. Room. You
30:22
Speaker 1: were still playing, you were still doing things, um but
30:26
Speaker 1: you you were a little bit different though. Like you
30:28
Speaker 1: you had this Hollywood storybook ending oldest man in the
30:34
Speaker 1: league or oldest lineman in the league, won Walter Payton
30:38
Speaker 1: Man of the Year. You win the Super Bowl, then
30:41
Speaker 1: you choose to retire. My question is, had you not
30:46
Speaker 1: won the Super Bowl, would you have retired? You know?
30:50
Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, I kind of faced that similar situation
30:52
Speaker 1: when we lost to the Patriots, and in the sense
30:54
Speaker 1: that people kept asking me, will you retired, And that
30:57
Speaker 1: was really a moment where I was like, I don't.
30:59
Speaker 1: I mean, I never even thought about retiring. I mean,
31:01
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to chase it. I mean, I think Jared.
31:03
Speaker 1: I actually saw Jared Golf a couple of weeks ago,
31:05
Speaker 1: and we were telling that story when we landed from Atlanta,
31:09
Speaker 1: lost in the Super Bowl on Sunday, fly home the
31:12
Speaker 1: next day as a team landing from Atlanta, and just
31:16
Speaker 1: who I was and how I just love to push
31:18
Speaker 1: myself in the crazy ways. I put my headset on
31:21
Speaker 1: and put on my music, and as soon as we
31:23
Speaker 1: pulled up to the facility on our team bus, like
31:25
Speaker 1: I started walking doing a look a little walk jog
31:27
Speaker 1: around the field like because I was like day one
31:29
Speaker 1: starts right now. We already had a long season, Like
31:32
Speaker 1: if I'm gonna keep playing at my age, I gotta
31:34
Speaker 1: get moving. And so the guys are getting in their
31:36
Speaker 1: cars like ending the season, and I'm out there running
31:38
Speaker 1: on the field and it's like that's what my mentality was.
31:42
Speaker 1: But this one was totally different. When I walked into
31:44
Speaker 1: Week one against the Arizona Cardinals of the playoffs, I
31:49
Speaker 1: had already know this is it, this is the last ride.
31:51
Speaker 1: And you know what, you know, remember what a blessing
31:56
Speaker 1: has been to play this game. It's not a burden,
31:57
Speaker 1: because at times sometimes it can feel that way, but
32:00
Speaker 1: it's it's a blessing to play this game. And so
32:02
Speaker 1: I took that attitude and I'll never forget calling it
32:05
Speaker 1: up for that game and we were going to walk
32:07
Speaker 1: out the tunnel, and you know, there were things I
32:09
Speaker 1: wanted to say. There's things you want to talk about
32:11
Speaker 1: when it's football season. To be fired up. But there
32:12
Speaker 1: are things I want to make sure my guy's heard.
32:14
Speaker 1: And it was one that this game, you know what,
32:16
Speaker 1: has blessed and changed a lot of our lives. And
32:20
Speaker 1: remember that. And then also remember you are in the
32:23
Speaker 1: most elite percentile in the world. Man. So anybody that
32:26
Speaker 1: tells you anything you can't do, that's living. We broke
32:30
Speaker 1: it down to and we walked up that tunnel. Anybody
32:32
Speaker 1: tells you anything you can't do in life, and I
32:34
Speaker 1: don't care what it is on this field or off
32:36
Speaker 1: of it. Every single one of you or special men
32:39
Speaker 1: and special people, and that's why you're standing where you are.
32:42
Speaker 1: I'll never forget us breaking it down to that. And
32:44
Speaker 1: it was just a purpose, like this is the last run.
32:46
Speaker 1: I know how playoff gadens go. When you lose them,
32:48
Speaker 1: everybody scatters. I want you, guys to make sure you
32:51
Speaker 1: know I love you and that you are special. And
32:54
Speaker 1: don't you let anybody ever tell you anything different. Yeah,
32:58
Speaker 1: a man's live or what is false to make of it?
33:00
Speaker 1: I love it. Another great quote about Peter Huttilman man,
33:03
Speaker 1: I love no um wit man. Clearly you are a
33:09
Speaker 1: great leader and you grew into those leadership roles as
33:13
Speaker 1: you continue to play more, get more reps, and uh,
33:16
Speaker 1: clearly as the oldest lineman in the league at the end,
33:19
Speaker 1: you're definitely a great leader. And you told a story
33:23
Speaker 1: about about Derek Barnes about how you impacted this life.
33:27
Speaker 1: I read another story about when you were Joe Burrow
33:30
Speaker 1: were rehabbing in the offseason how you guys became great
33:32
Speaker 1: buddies as well. I mean, like hold on, they were
33:35
Speaker 1: hanging out on each other's birthdays. I mean, it's gotta
33:37
Speaker 1: be nice. And so at what point in your career
33:40
Speaker 1: did you begin to develop these leadership skills or qualities
33:43
Speaker 1: and when did you start to notice that, you know what,
33:46
Speaker 1: I think, I am becoming this leader because you don't. Actually,
33:50
Speaker 1: I'm sure most people don't try and aim to be
33:52
Speaker 1: the leader. It just kind of falls upon you. No,
33:54
Speaker 1: I think some people you don't. You do it naturally though.
33:58
Speaker 1: It's just it's natural point and you can hell yeah, yeah.
34:01
Speaker 1: I think for me, I realized at a younger age,
34:04
Speaker 1: probably when I got into college and then write my
34:07
Speaker 1: first couple of years in the league, that I had
34:09
Speaker 1: a special ability to pull people in one direction or
34:12
Speaker 1: the other. And I realized that just naturally who I was,
34:17
Speaker 1: I was a magnet, and so if I wanted to
34:20
Speaker 1: go the wrong way, I could take people that way,
34:23
Speaker 1: and if I want to go the right way, I could.
34:25
Speaker 1: And I needed to make a conscious decision of who
34:26
Speaker 1: it is I wanted to be. And so I think
34:28
Speaker 1: at some point, like after I met Melissa and we
34:31
Speaker 1: really kind of hit it off, or people who were
34:34
Speaker 1: wound in the same way mentally of what we want
34:36
Speaker 1: to do in life and what's important to us. I
34:38
Speaker 1: knew who I wanted to be in the sense of
34:40
Speaker 1: not becoming a leader, but I knew the man I
34:42
Speaker 1: wanted to be. And as I always have told every
34:45
Speaker 1: one of the guys that I've had a chance to
34:46
Speaker 1: be in the locker room with its, regardless of the
34:49
Speaker 1: title that football gives you or platform it gives you,
34:52
Speaker 1: you're a man before you're anything else, and you need
34:55
Speaker 1: to decide who that is. And so that's where we start.
34:59
Speaker 1: And so for me, it's always been about I'm gonna
35:02
Speaker 1: do one Like Peanut, you can teach what you know,
35:04
Speaker 1: but you'll only ever reproduce who you are. And so
35:08
Speaker 1: for me, it was like, I'm not gonna talk to
35:10
Speaker 1: guys about leadership or talk to them about why I'm
35:13
Speaker 1: a leader. I'm gonna show them who I am and
35:16
Speaker 1: the ones that want that in their life will follow.
35:18
Speaker 1: And you know what, if they see it and they
35:20
Speaker 1: believe it and they trust you, I think that, Like
35:22
Speaker 1: we just talked about vulnerability and trust, that happens at
35:25
Speaker 1: different times for everybody. Yeah, you know, and men and
35:27
Speaker 1: women you know are around you enough, they like eventually
35:30
Speaker 1: they put their guard down and say, you know what
35:32
Speaker 1: you're You're somebody showing me that you're trustable and that
35:34
Speaker 1: you'll truly like have good intentions. And so I think
35:38
Speaker 1: for me, it was just continuing to work on who
35:39
Speaker 1: I am and be the best version of who I
35:41
Speaker 1: can be, and if people want to follow that and
35:44
Speaker 1: they ask for help or they want my leadership, I'll
35:47
Speaker 1: be there for them. And I've always said, leadership to
35:49
Speaker 1: me is about the ability to want people to stand
35:52
Speaker 1: side by side with you and walk through a door
35:55
Speaker 1: like they like, I don't know what's on the other
35:56
Speaker 1: side of the door, but this is the dude, I
35:58
Speaker 1: want to walk through the door. And so I don't
36:02
Speaker 1: need them to command me. I don't need them to
36:03
Speaker 1: tell me how to do things. I want to stand
36:06
Speaker 1: right beside them, and I think to me that like
36:08
Speaker 1: the inagability to be able to do that is special
36:11
Speaker 1: and I'm never taking that for granted. Strengthens for service,
36:14
Speaker 1: not status, And I try to use my platform to
36:18
Speaker 1: help people, and considering what happened to my daughter back
36:21
Speaker 1: and oh wait, with a heart transplant, I'm always trying
36:25
Speaker 1: to help somebody out and just be kind, show true
36:28
Speaker 1: kindness to people. And it's helped me tremendously to help
36:33
Speaker 1: people that I don't know. That's probably like one of
36:35
Speaker 1: the greatest joys in life is helping someone you don't
36:39
Speaker 1: know and not really wanting anything in return. Now, you
36:42
Speaker 1: and your family are the true living testament of what
36:45
Speaker 1: that is. Helping out people and then loving yourself as
36:48
Speaker 1: your neighbor. What are you trying to convey and show
36:54
Speaker 1: your kids just with the kind of man and the
36:57
Speaker 1: kind of wife that you have. What's what's that message
37:00
Speaker 1: that you're trying to show your kids. I think for us,
37:03
Speaker 1: it's you know what, you know, you're gonna fail, you're
37:07
Speaker 1: gonna mess up, you're gonna have bad days. But I
37:11
Speaker 1: call it constant daily pursuit and the reason I say
37:13
Speaker 1: that is that it's one thing to pursue something daily,
37:18
Speaker 1: but to constantly choose to pursue it daily to me
37:21
Speaker 1: as a difference. So I call it every day. I'm
37:23
Speaker 1: on a constant, daily pursuit of a better version of myself.
37:25
Speaker 1: And then that accept my failures, accept my successes, and
37:29
Speaker 1: the next morning I wake up the same way, with
37:31
Speaker 1: the same process to find a better version. And I
37:35
Speaker 1: think for us, it's about everything starts at our dinner table.
37:38
Speaker 1: And my kids will know to love people regardless of
37:42
Speaker 1: where they come from, what they look like, what they
37:45
Speaker 1: expect from them. They'll love them because they love them,
37:47
Speaker 1: not because of anything else. And they're gonna want to
37:51
Speaker 1: make a difference because that's gonna be a passion of theirs.
37:54
Speaker 1: And so we try to make sure that anything we do,
37:57
Speaker 1: even if they can't participate, they come and they see
37:59
Speaker 1: it and they have a visualization of it. And you know,
38:01
Speaker 1: I've walked skid row with the kids, you know, and
38:04
Speaker 1: I've walked you know, many different places where it's like,
38:07
Speaker 1: I want you to see that people don't live the
38:09
Speaker 1: same way you live. And you've been very blessed, and
38:12
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to understand that at times that's gonna
38:15
Speaker 1: be a burden for you because you're not gonna have
38:18
Speaker 1: the grit and the toughness that other people have had
38:20
Speaker 1: to strive through. So you're gonna have to be aware
38:22
Speaker 1: of it, and you're gonna have to acknowledge it and
38:24
Speaker 1: be willing to accept it and come from a place
38:27
Speaker 1: of like, you know what, that is who I am
38:29
Speaker 1: and I did grow up this way. But how can
38:31
Speaker 1: I be a part of a solution? How can I
38:33
Speaker 1: be a part of helping people and always being willing
38:35
Speaker 1: to be in that mindset. I think that's the thing
38:37
Speaker 1: I've been most proud of. And people say, what's your
38:39
Speaker 1: proudest thing for me? Right now, it's my kid's hearts
38:42
Speaker 1: for other people. Some of the biggest things we've done
38:45
Speaker 1: in LA, whether it be with homelessness or different things,
38:48
Speaker 1: where actually ideas that my kids came up with and
38:51
Speaker 1: things they wanted to do, and I just trying to
38:53
Speaker 1: found a way to put them into action. And so
38:56
Speaker 1: that to me is where it's really important. Is I
38:58
Speaker 1: want my kids to understand we need to have those
39:01
Speaker 1: conversations at our dinner table, and you need to feel
39:04
Speaker 1: open and free to ask anything you want to ask,
39:06
Speaker 1: and if it's a tough combo, it'll be a tough combo.
39:08
Speaker 1: But I want you to have a full transparency on
39:11
Speaker 1: what life's all about. And um, you know what. To me,
39:14
Speaker 1: that'll be my proudest moment if they, you know, grow
39:16
Speaker 1: up to be the kind of people that they hope
39:19
Speaker 1: to be, and that obviously about you know, their mother
39:21
Speaker 1: and I hope they'll be. It's it gets better when
39:24
Speaker 1: they get older. I have a seventeen year old and
39:25
Speaker 1: we remember taking her on our college trip to Howard.
39:29
Speaker 1: Hopefully I want her to go to Howard, but it's
39:31
Speaker 1: wants that he wants that I do. It's like a
39:34
Speaker 1: different world, you know what I'm saying that That's what
39:36
Speaker 1: I feel like when I when I took her there.
39:37
Speaker 1: But seeing my daughter at seventeen and what her mom
39:42
Speaker 1: and I are teaching or have taught her, I only
39:45
Speaker 1: got another year with her before she's out, and she
39:47
Speaker 1: you know, she leaves the nest. So it's it's funny
39:50
Speaker 1: that you say that because Rome's got four kids. I
39:54
Speaker 1: have four kids. You got four kids too, right, yep? Yeah,
39:58
Speaker 1: and just and they're all so different. But you're trying
40:02
Speaker 1: to plant seeds in them to be open minded and
40:07
Speaker 1: to care for people, to love for people. So yeah,
40:10
Speaker 1: it gets it gets better the older that they're getting. Man,
40:13
Speaker 1: it's oh man, you're you're gonna have a blast at seventeen.
40:16
Speaker 1: I'm loving being a girl dad. It's it's one of
40:18
Speaker 1: it's like the best job ever being a being a
40:22
Speaker 1: girl dad. I love it. But we'll get back into that.
40:24
Speaker 1: We'll tell more stories about our kids. Right now, we
40:27
Speaker 1: got to pay some bills, so y'all hold on for
40:28
Speaker 1: about thirty seconds. We'll be right back. We're back, all right.
40:41
Speaker 1: We have my man, Andrew Whitworth right here. Tons of accolades.
40:45
Speaker 1: I mean, I still got one in my back pocket
40:47
Speaker 1: that I'm gonna wait till the end to throw out.
40:48
Speaker 1: I want to know if he knows this last nugget
40:51
Speaker 1: that I found out about this young man. Um. All right,
40:54
Speaker 1: So I love to ask this question because I have
40:57
Speaker 1: my own unique experience, and everybody on this podcast does
41:01
Speaker 1: and hopefully some listeners do is to do as well.
41:04
Speaker 1: But what was your first welcome to the NFL moment?
41:08
Speaker 1: You're like, WHOA, Okay, this is the league. I think
41:12
Speaker 1: I had multiple of them, and playing in Cincinnati in
41:14
Speaker 1: two thousand and six. Uh, we had an interesting team,
41:17
Speaker 1: let's put it that way. Uh, you know, there's some
41:20
Speaker 1: wild characters in that in that locker room. So I
41:22
Speaker 1: had a lot of them, everybody from Ojo and uh
41:25
Speaker 1: Whosh and Dexter Jackson and you know, I mean, lord,
41:29
Speaker 1: we we had guys from everywhere. But uh, you know,
41:32
Speaker 1: I met some really cool guys. Realized I was no
41:34
Speaker 1: longer in the SEC anymore, and it's a totally different world.
41:38
Speaker 1: But I think by like on the field moment was
41:41
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers my rookie year as my first start as
41:45
Speaker 1: a left tackle in the NFL. I think it was
41:47
Speaker 1: Week five, played Peppers and Mike Rucker and Mike Rutger
41:52
Speaker 1: and Julius Peppers. At that time, I think, like, you know,
41:54
Speaker 1: the last four years had like eighty something sacks is
41:56
Speaker 1: the most by a duo, you know, in the league
41:58
Speaker 1: at that time. And I had a play like late
42:01
Speaker 1: in the game, we're beating them, and I know we'll
42:05
Speaker 1: call it lucky, just so I'm trying to be nice
42:06
Speaker 1: because Mike calls me out, so I pancake Mike Rucker
42:10
Speaker 1: and I stood up. I'm just like I'm feeling good.
42:12
Speaker 1: So I talked some smack. We call the next play
42:16
Speaker 1: the same play, and I rised real quick what it
42:18
Speaker 1: was like to be a veteran the NFL and they
42:20
Speaker 1: know exactly what's coming. And he literally just ejects me
42:24
Speaker 1: into the running back like tackles him in the backfield,
42:27
Speaker 1: super embarrassing. I'm literally just like, all right, man, I'm
42:30
Speaker 1: gonna learn just I'm gonna hold on a little bit, like,
42:32
Speaker 1: you know, I had one good play. I kind of
42:34
Speaker 1: lost my tongue a little bit, and Mike putting me
42:37
Speaker 1: on my place, and I realized that I was I
42:39
Speaker 1: was dealing with grown men. So you know what, I
42:42
Speaker 1: found that out real fast. So when you play sports
42:46
Speaker 1: typically I don't know, six to seven, three hundred plus pounds,
42:50
Speaker 1: you always to me, you look like you're always a
42:52
Speaker 1: big kid. So they automatically just like, oh whitworth, Yeah,
42:57
Speaker 1: big kid, put them off asive line, Yeah you get chow,
43:00
Speaker 1: or they just put you in a position. If you
43:03
Speaker 1: could have picked a position to play regardless of your size,
43:07
Speaker 1: what position would have been. I think growing up, I
43:10
Speaker 1: always thought I was going to be a tight end
43:12
Speaker 1: or defensive end. I mean, I told you I loved basketball.
43:14
Speaker 1: That's actually what I played up until my senior year
43:16
Speaker 1: in high school. Um. I always thought of myself as
43:19
Speaker 1: being a tight end. Um I thought I'd be that,
43:21
Speaker 1: and then I kind of you know, like Mike Zimmer
43:23
Speaker 1: would say, I always had like a defensive mentality for
43:25
Speaker 1: a lineman. Um. I love like effort and running and
43:29
Speaker 1: just chasing people down and stuff like, Um, you know
43:32
Speaker 1: it's bad because it's an interception, but I used to
43:34
Speaker 1: love what we threw an interception, Like I want to
43:36
Speaker 1: be the one to get over there and make a
43:37
Speaker 1: tackle and being to be in the mix right people. Yeah,
43:41
Speaker 1: you know, and I had I tried that one time,
43:43
Speaker 1: but uh, you know, that was like my mindset. But
43:46
Speaker 1: you know what's funny, it's like how I chose my college.
43:48
Speaker 1: I was an LSU. I was a Louisiana kid, but
43:50
Speaker 1: I never really wanted to go to LSU. I always
43:52
Speaker 1: wanted to go to Florida Ucas Spurrier had like a
43:55
Speaker 1: lot of big tight ends and you know, back Fred
43:57
Speaker 1: Taylor and all them cats. So that's why I want
43:59
Speaker 1: to go. And every college recruited me that way, Like,
44:02
Speaker 1: hey man, you know, Jason Peters was at Arkansas. You
44:05
Speaker 1: had a lot of being tight end college football, and
44:08
Speaker 1: then I Nick Saban gets hired by LSU my senior
44:11
Speaker 1: year in high school, and he walks in the door
44:14
Speaker 1: and it's like, you're not going to be a tight end.
44:16
Speaker 1: As soon as you give in to being a left tackle,
44:19
Speaker 1: you're gonna have an unbelievable career. And I was like, man,
44:22
Speaker 1: I respect the heck guy. This guy he just told
44:24
Speaker 1: me what I didn't want to hear and then at
44:26
Speaker 1: the same time told me what I was going to accomplish.
44:28
Speaker 1: And so I like, for me, that just flipped a switch.
44:31
Speaker 1: And then the next day I called Florida and told
44:33
Speaker 1: him I wasn't coming there and I was gonna become
44:34
Speaker 1: an LSU Tiger and the rest is history. But I
44:38
Speaker 1: was that you wore number eighty nine. I'm like, we're
44:42
Speaker 1: played was number eighty nine in high school? You were
44:44
Speaker 1: eighty nine eighty nine as a sophomore. That was my
44:47
Speaker 1: sophomore year, first time playing. Then ninety nine is ninety
44:51
Speaker 1: nine as a junior because I played defense too, And
44:53
Speaker 1: then I went to seven when they finally moved me
44:56
Speaker 1: to offensive line by senior year seventy four, So that
44:58
Speaker 1: was my That was my ending. But one for one. Yeah,
45:03
Speaker 1: there's another one. Come on now, yo, yeah yeah, play that?
45:06
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, play that next one another we'll get on
45:22
Speaker 1: the board first. Oh yeah, come on here. You got
45:25
Speaker 1: to make sure you you notice who was supposed to
45:26
Speaker 1: be covering me on that play. That's my dog right there,
45:29
Speaker 1: Ryan Clark lsu brother. Uh. You know, I never let
45:33
Speaker 1: him live that down. I remind him, you know, at
45:35
Speaker 1: least every couple of years about me being open in
45:38
Speaker 1: the end zone right there. So that that was a
45:40
Speaker 1: cool moment actually though. Yeah, that was my That was
45:43
Speaker 1: my birthday and my wife was expecting our twins. That
45:46
Speaker 1: was our first kids. Um, we ended up having them
45:50
Speaker 1: in February, but that was actually all my birthday. First
45:52
Speaker 1: drive of the game, I think what's cool about that one.
45:54
Speaker 1: I haven't done the research yet. I'd love to know
45:57
Speaker 1: that was the only offensive touchdown scored in that game.
46:00
Speaker 1: Oh wow, So I'd love to know how many NFL
46:02
Speaker 1: games and offensive lineman has been the only offensive touchdown
46:05
Speaker 1: scored in the game. I probably would say none. I'm
46:08
Speaker 1: here we go, come home, baby, let's go. I'm goin.
46:13
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to get I'm just trying to get
46:14
Speaker 1: another plaque for my wall for podcast. You own that
46:18
Speaker 1: one all day, boss, That's that's that's so good. All right,
46:24
Speaker 1: here's another one. So we did a little bit deeper
46:26
Speaker 1: research too as well. You told us that. And this
46:29
Speaker 1: is on your Twitter again, all right, your top three
46:32
Speaker 1: old school hip hop artists. And when I saw this,
46:35
Speaker 1: I was literally like, tell them, tell show me you
46:39
Speaker 1: from Louisiana without telling you from Louisiana. And this is
46:42
Speaker 1: it right here. You have a screenshot of your top
46:45
Speaker 1: three old school rappers. Are Notorious Big, which everybody loved
46:49
Speaker 1: at the time, and you're more East Coast, which I
46:52
Speaker 1: get because you're in Louisiana. You weren't on two Pop.
46:54
Speaker 1: You're on the Biggie and then Mystical and Master Peak,
46:57
Speaker 1: which here I had many I have. I said all
47:03
Speaker 1: they needed was Silt the shocker bro and we were
47:05
Speaker 1: complaining that was it. That was it too? Yes, Hey,
47:10
Speaker 1: look you know what I ghetto d that was the first.
47:12
Speaker 1: I think I was the first CD. Like I actually
47:14
Speaker 1: went to the store and bought myself in high school.
47:18
Speaker 1: I remember as a freshman with my own money. Uh
47:21
Speaker 1: so you know what that was a freshman year. I
47:23
Speaker 1: believe eighth grade year. But yeah, I mean that was
47:26
Speaker 1: I grew up on master peaking those guys what everyone did?
47:29
Speaker 1: Break them off? Something that wasn't I wasn't left hit
47:32
Speaker 1: in what ninety ninety nine, two thousand? Yeah, when when
47:35
Speaker 1: when the hot boys was hot? You know, you really
47:39
Speaker 1: mess people up in Louisiana is my freshman year in
47:42
Speaker 1: college is screwed right, Like, so I started playing that stuff.
47:46
Speaker 1: Guys are like this, I'm like that bro, June June
47:50
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, Like, come on, you own. You go ten
47:54
Speaker 1: Westerton East and you're driving either way, you put you
47:58
Speaker 1: twenty seventh throwing and it will go for about twenty
48:01
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's about thirty five minutes of freestyle
48:04
Speaker 1: and roll. Right. I had a couple of Texas teammates,
48:10
Speaker 1: so I've never heard screw in Alabama. Until Texas guys
48:13
Speaker 1: came in. I was like, what is this. They're like, Oh,
48:15
Speaker 1: it's screwed like it's everything topped the screw. So I'm
48:18
Speaker 1: from Texas and that's literally from eighth grade whatever. Once
48:22
Speaker 1: I learned about it, you know what I'm saying to
48:24
Speaker 1: Ah Sound the North side of Houston, Man that was
48:27
Speaker 1: I could play it right now, but I know we
48:29
Speaker 1: don't have the license to play, so they're gonna blu
48:33
Speaker 1: bleep it out. But I think I like you that
48:36
Speaker 1: much more now because you just said you all about
48:38
Speaker 1: June twenty seven. Oh come on, man, oh my god,
48:42
Speaker 1: I got it. I got I got the slow jams.
48:45
Speaker 1: I got all the slow jams. They're called actions, I
48:48
Speaker 1: got them all, baby, Come on, they're called f actions
48:52
Speaker 1: as UC screwed up click big mode. You don't have
48:56
Speaker 1: you don't have a Howard? Yeah, Dina Howard T shirt,
49:03
Speaker 1: a shirt and my panties on. You really do yourself.
49:10
Speaker 1: I'm telling you that you're really this song these Oh
49:13
Speaker 1: my god, this is you. You're my new best friend.
49:16
Speaker 1: I think we just became best Did we just become
49:18
Speaker 1: best friends right now? We justcame best friends right now?
49:21
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this is like our step brothers moment.
49:24
Speaker 1: That is so dope. I don't even know what the
49:26
Speaker 1: next question I was gonna ask. We started talking about
49:28
Speaker 1: screw and I just got so excited. That's dope. So
49:30
Speaker 1: um oh yeah, yeah, Mount Rushmore, nol Rushmore. We asked
49:34
Speaker 1: a lot of the guests on this show, Um, if
49:38
Speaker 1: you could pick four, only four people to pick or
49:42
Speaker 1: put on your Mount Rushmore. Who would those people be?
49:46
Speaker 1: And don't have to be all athletics. It's just it's
49:50
Speaker 1: somebody who had some influence, someone that you love, somebody
49:53
Speaker 1: that was a mentor. That's tough, yow uh you know,
50:04
Speaker 1: I wanna stick. I wanna here's the thing, all right,
50:07
Speaker 1: this is what I'm gonna make it complicated because I'm complicated.
50:10
Speaker 1: So it's just like food, it's like music, it's like
50:13
Speaker 1: anything else. I don't like. I don't like to disrespect
50:17
Speaker 1: people when I talking about a certain genre of things.
50:19
Speaker 1: So I want to make my own genre of Mountain Rushmore.
50:23
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cheat. So my Mount Rushmore of sports, all right,
50:28
Speaker 1: my Mount Rushmore Sports. I'm gonna put up Michael Jordan's
50:32
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky. This might as well be what
50:40
Speaker 1: was the little show when we were kids on the USA?
50:44
Speaker 1: Yeah right now? Uh So I'm gonna on Michael Jordan,
50:51
Speaker 1: Gretzky Tiger Woods. And I think for me, just because
50:57
Speaker 1: I grew up, like I said, where I did, I
50:58
Speaker 1: was a massive fans guy Nolan Ryan. Because I'm gonna
51:02
Speaker 1: tell you why, man, Nolan Ryan was only an awesome pitcher.
51:07
Speaker 1: But I was actually at the game when he woked
51:11
Speaker 1: Robin Ventura when he charged them out. My dad. I
51:13
Speaker 1: always wanted to see him play, Yeah, and I was
51:16
Speaker 1: actually in the stands uh you know he was. He was.
51:20
Speaker 1: He was a baseball player that was a tough guy
51:22
Speaker 1: too at the same time. So that's the only reason
51:23
Speaker 1: he's on there. That's it, just because for me my
51:26
Speaker 1: world as a little kid. I don't know how old
51:28
Speaker 1: I was then, but watching him, I thought he was
51:31
Speaker 1: man just unbelievable. So I put him on there just
51:34
Speaker 1: for that. For sports. That's my one, my by one guy.
51:36
Speaker 1: Plenty of guys probably deserve it more, but he's my guy. Okay,
51:41
Speaker 1: all right, before we get you out of here, I
51:43
Speaker 1: gotta have you. I'm gonna hit you at one one
51:46
Speaker 1: quick question, and you gotta maybe just tell me this
51:48
Speaker 1: because I don't know this. Peanut asked Peanut this earlier.
51:52
Speaker 1: Peanut and I have never been ejected out of the game.
51:55
Speaker 1: I must know with What did you do to get
51:57
Speaker 1: ejected out of the game versus the Oakland Raiders the
51:59
Speaker 1: one time it happened twice? You were too nice? You
52:02
Speaker 1: wouldn't give twice. I got h In two thousand and eight,
52:12
Speaker 1: we were oz and eight. Uh. We played the Jacksonville
52:17
Speaker 1: Jaguars and the Saturday, the Saturday before the game, I
52:22
Speaker 1: finally just reached that point in your career where you
52:25
Speaker 1: lost it. And I was like, lit lit our offense up,
52:28
Speaker 1: You're going to walk through on Saturday, because I was like, man,
52:30
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm done with it, Like I'm done with
52:32
Speaker 1: how like you guys are just okay with losing. We're okay,
52:34
Speaker 1: we're getting our face kicked in, Like yeah, I'm done
52:37
Speaker 1: with it. Like I've never in my life been somebody
52:39
Speaker 1: who was somebody's you know what. And I was like,
52:41
Speaker 1: I just it ain't gonna happen anymore. And so we
52:44
Speaker 1: go out in the game. We're up in the game,
52:46
Speaker 1: and Chad like being Chad and t J like they
52:50
Speaker 1: finally like we're having a good moment, they're having a
52:51
Speaker 1: good day, and they start chewing at the d line
52:54
Speaker 1: for the Jaguars and it turns into, you know, everybody's
52:57
Speaker 1: at each other's throats and I'm facing big bad John
53:00
Speaker 1: John Henderson nine six nine and three ninety pounds whatever
53:05
Speaker 1: the heck he was he's a monster. He made me
53:07
Speaker 1: look small, and we got after it, like we started
53:10
Speaker 1: getting into it, and the next thing you know, we
53:12
Speaker 1: snapped the play and me and him just started throwing
53:14
Speaker 1: and we ripped each other's helmets off. We fight all
53:16
Speaker 1: the way across the field. Both get ejected. But as
53:19
Speaker 1: I'm leaving the field, I guess Cincinnati have anything else
53:21
Speaker 1: to cheer about. They're chanting to my name. As I'm
53:23
Speaker 1: leaving it, I'm like, there's actually a picture. I'm like
53:25
Speaker 1: pointing at my jersey leaving the field, And I'll never
53:29
Speaker 1: forget after that moment, like I was in the tunnel,
53:32
Speaker 1: I waited for the guys and like I was the
53:33
Speaker 1: captain the Cincinnati Bengals from that moment on, like that
53:36
Speaker 1: was that was it. That was the moment, Like you
53:38
Speaker 1: t J. Husmin's Ada gave me a hug and he's like, man,
53:41
Speaker 1: you said stuff yesterday and you backed it up today
53:44
Speaker 1: and that's like the greatest respect I could give you.
53:46
Speaker 1: And so after that moment, that's what it was. And
53:48
Speaker 1: then the Oakland one was Lamar Houston I think sacked
53:53
Speaker 1: Andy on like a dead play, like one of those
53:54
Speaker 1: where you know they blew it dead and then he
53:57
Speaker 1: still went through it the sack and kind of like
53:58
Speaker 1: superplexed Andy, and so I ran over there to like
54:01
Speaker 1: shove him. And it's kind of was that one was
54:03
Speaker 1: really less of a fight and more of a I
54:05
Speaker 1: shoved him. They had a veteran D line, yeah, and
54:08
Speaker 1: their veteran D line attacked and it was like me
54:11
Speaker 1: and all their D line. The best part of that
54:13
Speaker 1: story is that we get kicked out if that's when
54:17
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Bengals young, because I had a young offensive
54:19
Speaker 1: line at that time. They found out who Melissa Witworth
54:22
Speaker 1: was because she stood in the tunnel and my wife
54:26
Speaker 1: ain't going on no Twitter. If she got a problem
54:27
Speaker 1: with somebody, she coming face to face. She stood in
54:30
Speaker 1: the tunnel and waited for everyone in. They'll tell you,
54:33
Speaker 1: every one of these young linemen like you like you,
54:37
Speaker 1: next time my husband and I fight, you better jump
54:39
Speaker 1: in that pile. Like then, she was lighting them up.
54:41
Speaker 1: It was hilarious and only the way she can. She
54:45
Speaker 1: loves some football and she's got some fire to her too,
54:47
Speaker 1: So she was letting them young guys know like that
54:49
Speaker 1: ain't how you do it? Like you always have you
54:52
Speaker 1: get in there, you know, they were nervous. They were
54:54
Speaker 1: all like standing like looking like yeah, apparently not like
54:58
Speaker 1: they were nervous guys, but uh, you know what it was.
55:01
Speaker 1: It was it was a fun day because it's a
55:03
Speaker 1: cool memory for her and those guys because they love
55:05
Speaker 1: her and grew to love her and they always appreciate
55:07
Speaker 1: that moment you checked them a little bit. You know what.
55:10
Speaker 1: That is a very teachable moment right there, and that's
55:13
Speaker 1: what we do on this podcast. Here, I'm gonna teach
55:15
Speaker 1: you one guy's one more thing and we're gonna let
55:17
Speaker 1: wit work. Get up out of here. So did you
55:20
Speaker 1: know that you are second in all time in the
55:23
Speaker 1: NC Double A as far in Division One in career starts.
55:27
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. Yes, you have fifty two career
55:30
Speaker 1: starts in your career in D one football. That is
55:34
Speaker 1: second all time to only Derek Straight who had fifty
55:38
Speaker 1: three cornerback at Oklahoma. So I'm glad I got to
55:41
Speaker 1: teach you something today as well. So there we go.
55:45
Speaker 1: They no doubt man, No doubt, man, Thank you for
55:48
Speaker 1: blessing us with your time coming on here. Man, you're
55:50
Speaker 1: just as cool as the other side of the pillow man.
55:52
Speaker 1: The same way it was the very first time I
55:54
Speaker 1: actually got to meet you, um back all the way
55:59
Speaker 1: back when when we were in So man, I appreciate
56:01
Speaker 1: you for being who you are. Continue to be that
56:03
Speaker 1: light man, and we all will shine as long as
56:05
Speaker 1: we're around people like you. So thank you for that. Hey,
56:08
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Thanks, no doubt. Man. All right, well
56:12
Speaker 1: look let me let me let me get us up
56:14
Speaker 1: out of here. So all of our listeners, I want
56:16
Speaker 1: to make sure I think all of our listeners for
56:18
Speaker 1: always tuning in. Also, I want to ask you to
56:20
Speaker 1: hit review, give us a follow, continue to tell a friend,
56:23
Speaker 1: to tell a friend to tell a friend. Anywhere you
56:26
Speaker 1: pick up your or you listen to your podcast, whether
56:29
Speaker 1: it's iHeartRadio or the Apple podcast app, thank you so much.
56:34
Speaker 1: Continue to listen to us, and we'll see you next time. Peace,