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O-Zone Podcast: Brandon Linder · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Ozone Podcast presented by by Star Credit Union.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: All Right, welcome into this week's Ozone podcast presented by
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: by Star. And I'm excited about this next guest because
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: he's been around a long time. He doesn't love to
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: do media, even with a nice guy like me, so
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: we haven't talked to him a whole lot. But it's
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Jaguars Fanner, Brandon Lender and Brandon and doing a little research,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: which for me means hitting Google. Um, you are now
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the most tenure Jaguars player eight years? Is that hard
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: to believe? Is just gone by quick? Yeah? I mean
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: in the moment, it hasn't gone by quick, but when
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: you look at the whole picture, it's definitely flown by.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's already it's crazy that we're already in December. Um,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: It's it's been a it's been a incredible career. I mean,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: I love Jackson. Oh, I love to be here. I
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: want to finish my career here. But it's definitely flown by.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I'm definitely trying to I'm going into like these weeks
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: and these games. You know, I really try and savor
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: every every emotion that I'll feel on game day. I
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: guess the nice way of saying it is you've seen
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: some stuff around here. I mean you've seen some yeah,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: well some turnover. I mean, uh, can you even come
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: close to naming all the offensive lineman you've played with? Oh? Yeah,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember if we had some time, but
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: i'd had to really, I had to white. You want
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: me to do that right now? No? No, it's just
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: conceptually speaking, There's been a lot of players in and
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: out of the facility. Also, Tyler chat Lee is also
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the longest tenure with me eight years. Um, so we've
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: definitely seen, uh seen some faces coming in and out
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: of this building. But I think you've got two or
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: three days on chat because you were drafted and then
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: he came along like two days later. Do you ever
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: hold that over him? No? Never, never, that's my guy.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: That's my guy. Judge. Hey, uh, I know the center
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: in the quarterback, I have a special relationship. Uh tell
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: me about Trevor Lawrence. What are your impressions after being
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: around this kid for for seven or eight months? Yeah,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: I mean my impressions of this kid. I mean, the
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  Speaker 1: kids are stud the kids in absolute stud The thing
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: that impresses me most is his maturity level. Uh, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I think he just turned twenty two. I mean, I
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: know when I was at his age, well, heck, I
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: think I was still in college. But I mean the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: maturity level on this kid's incredible. Um. The football intelligence,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and he's learning, he's but you know, he wants to learn.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: He he wants to get better, and it's it's really
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: cool to see. It's just a confidence the poise of
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: this kid. I mean, you know, obviously our season hasn't
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: gone the way we wanted it to, but we're always working.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: He's always striving to get better. And I mean he's
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: gonna be here for a long time. And Jackson has
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: got a great one in him. Tell me about his
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  Speaker 1: football intelligence, meaning, I know, you are a guy when
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: you're at the line, you see what's going on, uh,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: and you're a veteran who knows what's going on behind him.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Is he picking it up pretty quick? And in terms
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: of seeing that the line of scrimmage and in terms
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: of understanding what he's seeing out there, Yeah, he is
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: picking up fairly quick. And you know that's something that
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I think your quarterback and center always trying to do
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: is get on the same page when looking at the defense,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I ding it and you know, getting everyone on the
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: same page. And he's back there. He's able to flip
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: protections and to help me along the way. Um, so
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: it's nice to have a sounding board and again just attached.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: You know, we're like Avatar, attached with our tails. But
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: now the kids, the kids very impressive and he's I mean,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to watch him on his journey. For sure,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: you're not an old man, you're twenty nine. But are
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: you seeing a difference now like when a young lineman
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: comes in when you're talking to Walker Little or Ben
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Bart Do you feel older than those guys yet? Is
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: there is there that sort of a difference? Still young?
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  Speaker 1: I feel, Oh, I'm young at heart, Baby, I feel
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: younger than I You know, I might, I might have
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: a few more aches and pains in them and a
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: few more miles on these treads. But you know, I
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: still feel I'm I'm I'm an old sult that I'm
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: young at heart. Tell me about this offensive line. It's
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: it's an area that fans love to criticize any offensive line.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: They don't really know what they're praising all the time.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: How would you assess this group. Where are you guys
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: at Yeah, I love this offensive line. I love our room. Um.
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  Speaker 1: I mean we truly genuinely our friends, you know, inside
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and out of this building. Um. I mean we come
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  Speaker 1: to play every game. Um, and that's something we pride
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  Speaker 1: ourselves on, no matter what what the play is called.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: You know, we're we're in there trying to execute. Um.
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  Speaker 1: I think I think we've been doing a good job. Obviously,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: there's always room for improvement, always room for improvement, and uh,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: you know we're striving for that always continually. But I
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: love this line. I wouldn't trade it for nothing. And um,
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  Speaker 1: I mean I think this is now our third year altogether.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: You know, losing a j that hurt. Um. But Ben
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  Speaker 1: bart is stepped up. I mean it's honestly, I mean,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I'll take this line over any line in the NFL.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Urban talks constantly about talking to you and other veteran
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: players about the state of the team. Uh, how is
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: that leadership role gone for you? How is that relationship?
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: And I sort of guess where have you and other
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: leaders helped him in the process. Yeah, I mean I
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: think it's yeah, yeah, very cool thing. Um, it's nice
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: to be able to you know, he he wants to
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: get our opinion, open communication, um, you know, from the veterans,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: and being able to kind of help him through this process.
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  Speaker 1: You know, he's not used to all all the NFL stuff.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: But um no, it's been it's been great that he
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: you know, asked us for our opinion and we kind
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: of share with him what we think and um yeah,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: it's kind of open for him, kind of bouncing ideas
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: off each other. And uh so it has been nice.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: And you cracked me up in your availability this week
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  Speaker 1: when you talked about communication or the lack thereof being
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: the world's biggest problem. I expand on that a little
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: bit if you will. Oh. I mean I'm big on
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: over communicating, right. I mean you see it day in
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: and day out. Everyone sees it in their work life
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: and their home life. People don't know how to communicate, right.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: And I think it's just because people don't want to
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: have conversations, don't want to have the tough conversations. But
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: like that's how we go about it in the offensive
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: line room, you know, just over communicating, um and because
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: then I mean then you know what everyone's thinking. And
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  Speaker 1: I mean I don't know I just I'm a big
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: fan of over communication. You know, nobody's a mind reader,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: nobody knows what the other person is thinking. So, but
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: that is the world's biggest problem, one one of them.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Everybody wants to text and communicate now, so that's the Yeah,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: that's the other thing that's probably probably with you kids, Brandon. Yeah. No,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Well again, I'm an old soul. I'm ana face to face.
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna look you in the eye and talk to you.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I don't want to text you, I don't
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: want to call you. I'd like to see you face
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: to face. I got you. You You wish my son was
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: like that. So it's a he's a the younger generation. Hey,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: um my, cause my cleats, tell me your story. I've
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: heard it before. But for the fans who don't know,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: why do you go the direction you go in this? Yeah?
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: So I think I started I started doing in two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and seventeen with my buddy, so Steve Thompson, one
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: of my best friends from back home. We grew up
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: playing little league football together, freaking fishing together, you know,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: playing together. I mean, that's that's my guy. And he
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: got diagnosed with testicular cancer, kind of spread through the body.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: He's had an incredible journey and incredible battle. I mean,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the kids amazing, the kids resilient. I lean on him
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  Speaker 1: a lot just through my daily stuff. I mean, how
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: could I go moping around? Right? I mean I played
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: for him, right, I do everything for him. Um so
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: but yeah, so I I do these cleats um to
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: just uh Testicular Cancer Foundation and um, and it's not
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: it's you know, I get a pair of cleats for
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: myself and my offensive linement style of cleats, and then
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: I also get a speed pair for him, and so
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I sent him to him every year too. Um and
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: he enjoys that. But but yeah, that's what I've been
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: doing for my my cause my cleats. And you know,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Steve was at the Tennessee game, that home game here, Um,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: he did that first du Val chant. You know, the
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Jaguars were incredible. Uh, I mean they're outstanding, first class,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: you know, show them around on the field, you know,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: the box everything. So, uh, Steve is an incredible person.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: He has an amazing story and I think everyone should
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: definitely hear it. And he's really a guy you think
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: about before each game. It sounds like, oh yeah, definitely definitely,
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  Speaker 1: I draw I draw strength from him. I mean he did,
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  Speaker 1: he would do anything to be out there, to be playing.
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  Speaker 1: I mean he was once a collegiate athletes. So uh oh,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: of course it's fantastic. Tell me something before we get
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: to our final segment. Tell me something for the fans
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  Speaker 1: who are watching this team and see two and nine.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Tell me something that you would tell fans. Why it's
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: going in the right direction. Why do you believe in
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: it right now? Because number one, you always gotta believe.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: You always gotta be optimistic. You always gotta be positive.
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  Speaker 1: That's how I go about my life. That's how I
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: go about day in and day out. Um, and you
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: just keep going. Yeah, things aren't going our way, uh
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: young quarterback, young team, new head coach, whatever you want
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: to say, but you just always keep going. You come
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to work every day and you you strive to get better.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: And that's that's how you pull yourself out of these
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: funks and out of these ruts. And uh So, you
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: always gotta believe. You always gotta believe, and we want
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: to finish this season strong, and I mean that's the goal.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Tell me about James Robinson. Most guys are most fans
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: don't know him that well. He's a quiet guy. He
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: seems to me like he must be a great guy
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: to block four because of the way he sees holes
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: maximizes runs. Yeah, James Robinson, I absolutely love that man.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Um a guy that comes to work, doesn't say a word.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: He'll give you, he'll crack a smile and then he'll
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: run a dude over. I mean, the guy is like
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: in the in the offensive line room. You know, we
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: love the block firm. We want to block firm. We
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: want him to have success. I mean along with all
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the backs, but James in particular, and I mean he's
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: probably said I don't know, maybe five words since he's
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: been here. And I mean I just love it. The kids.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: The kids, Uh, the kids a badass, that's for sure.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: I mean I love that kid. The last thing we
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: do here, Brandon I called the ozone five five quick questions,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun. We'll get you out of here. Uh,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: your last binge watch if you have one. I have trouble.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I have trouble to picture and you're watching TVs. Maybe
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: you don't, but what's your last game to watch? That's funny.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: I haven't watched TV in four years. But it was
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Game of Thrones. When I did, I after I think
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: it was the two thousand seventeen season. I took like
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: two weeks and I crushed out like four or five
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: seasons of it four years. Since you watch TV, I
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: don't watch TV. You're an intellectual, is what you are?
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: So intellectual, philosopher or whatever. I don't know what you
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: call it. The last song that you heard in your
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: car this morning driving in my life is music, seriously,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: music is a big part of my life. But I
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: was listening to Cody Jenks. I really like Cody Jenks,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: country country singer songwriter, and uh, he just pushed me
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: in a he put me in a good mood this
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: morning on the way into work. You know, I was
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: crossing that heartbridge. The song was coming up, so it
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: was good. What's the best fishing day you've ever had? Man,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I've had a bunch um The best fishing day, well,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: me and me and my wife. Uh, this was in
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the summertime. I think it was around June. Just her
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: and I went off shore. Uh we were fifty sixty
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: miles off shore. We did like a hundred and sixty
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: eight round uh mile round trip day. But we loaded
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the coffin box. I mean we called a scant grouper
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: mangrove snapper, mutton snap for my king fish. It was
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: just a day where everything came together and it was
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: just her and Eye out there, and I mean she's
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: my best friend, so that was that was definitely a
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: day I'll cherish forever. It's burned in my brain. That's
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: very cool. Your go to breakfast food, Oh, I every
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I hate the same thing every day. By the way,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: it's uh, five hard boil hard boiled egg whites. Uh
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: maybe like three or four pieces of bacon, you know,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: to help the mag whites go down, and then a
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: big gass bowl of oatmeal and brown sugar and then
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: like a like a vegetable smoothie. Who's the person who's
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: most responsible for you being here in the NFL. That's
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: a good question, John, Well, thank you. Um. I mean yeah,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: I mean I think there's a there's a multiple of people.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: But I'm gonna have to go with my parents. I'm
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: both of them. I can't single out one over the other.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: But uh, you know, my dad taking me to football
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: practice ever since I was a little kid, you know,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: helping me with working out and just kind of a mindset.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: And then my mom, I mean just being there, uh
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: you know, making me incredible food, uh, you know, getting
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: my nutrition all that stuff, helping me along the way. Um,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: being a sounding board for me. So my parents were,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: I would say, the biggest factor. And you know why
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting here today after eight years or you know
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: in my eighth year talking to you. Did your mom
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: start you off with the breakfast routine? Actually, my well
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: both of them, but my dad, Um, we he would
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: make us these shakes when we were when we were kids,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: and you know, it just had it would just be
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: packed full of veggies and fruit and stuff. You know,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: so that was a great way for us to get
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: it without eating it. But you know, look at me,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: I wasn't I wasn't that piggy growing up. You know,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: I'd eat pretty much what was in front of me.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: But uh, you know, my parents, Yeah, my parents were
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the biggest um you know, reason I am who I
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: am and also why I'm here today. Fantastic Brandon, go
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: get your lip in. I appreciate you doing this during
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the season and I look forward to talking to you soon.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Thanks for being on that great questions, John, I hope
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I can be back on here alright. I appreciate it, buddy,