Latest / Best of the NFL Podcast Network / The Season with Peter Schrager: Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah

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The Season with Peter Schrager: Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah · Best of the NFL Podcast Network

0:07
Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
0:09
Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, Everybody, Welcome to
0:24
Speaker 1: another episode of the Season with Peter Schregar. We were
0:26
Speaker 1: officially in the off season. This is the off season,
0:31
Speaker 1: yet NFL news is everywhere, you know. Friday, on Good
0:35
Speaker 1: Morning Football, we announced that Dalvin Cook was officially going
0:38
Speaker 1: to be released by the Minnesota Vikings. And it didn't
0:42
Speaker 1: send shock waves, you know, through fans of the NFL.
0:45
Speaker 1: But I think a lot of people are like pointing
0:47
Speaker 1: to his stats and pointing to four Pro Bowls and
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Speaker 1: four thousand yard seasons the last four years. And I saw,
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Speaker 1: you know, my co host Kyle Brant was going big
0:57
Speaker 1: on that and saying, you know, be careful what you
0:59
Speaker 1: wish for releasing players of that quality. And I agree,
1:02
Speaker 1: I agree, Dalvin Cook was set to make a lot
1:05
Speaker 1: of money this year. And my big takeaway for a
1:08
Speaker 1: monologue as we enter this episode, and we're gonna have
1:11
Speaker 1: a very special guest, is that I don't know what
1:14
Speaker 1: to tell you. It doesn't make sense on paper, but
1:17
Speaker 1: running backs are just not valued positions anymore. And that's
1:19
Speaker 1: a cold, hard truth. It's something that we've known has
1:22
Speaker 1: been trending this way for a long time, but it
1:26
Speaker 1: has never been more apparent than this offseason is, particularly
1:29
Speaker 1: the last seventy two hours. Sakwon Barkley had a great
1:32
Speaker 1: charity event yesterday. The local New York reporters were smart.
1:35
Speaker 1: They went and they got them on camera talking and
1:37
Speaker 1: I'm going to quote some of the things he said,
1:40
Speaker 1: and then we're going to go back and kind of
1:42
Speaker 1: do some revisionist history on this whole thing and kind
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Speaker 1: of break it down. Here's what he said via Jordan Renan,
1:47
Speaker 1: who did a great job on ESPN getting not only
1:49
Speaker 1: on camera but kind of wedging himself in there to
1:52
Speaker 1: take a charity event to really make news, which I
1:55
Speaker 1: appreciate from a reporter standpoint. You're spending your Sunday away
1:58
Speaker 1: from your family to go to whatever event Saquan's having,
2:01
Speaker 1: and you're going to get the most out of this,
2:03
Speaker 1: not just for the charity side of it, but also
2:05
Speaker 1: to kind of create some news and get some information.
2:08
Speaker 1: Here's what Saquan said to Jordan, who is a freehold
2:12
Speaker 1: New Jersey residence. So I respect Jordan through and through all, right. Quote,
2:16
Speaker 1: I think they're open to talking. I'm open to talking.
2:19
Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day, if you
2:21
Speaker 1: really break it down and look at it as a whole,
2:23
Speaker 1: there is no rush. There is still time on the
2:26
Speaker 1: table to get to July seventeenth. July seventeenth is not tomorrow,
2:29
Speaker 1: it's not in a week. This is how I look
2:31
Speaker 1: at it. Maybe that is the naive way to look
2:34
Speaker 1: at it. I could be completely wrong, but for me,
2:36
Speaker 1: that's how I look at it. I could be completely wrong.
2:38
Speaker 1: Hopefully I trust in the giants that we can get
2:42
Speaker 1: something done. End quote. They asked Saquan about the running
2:47
Speaker 1: back market, and here's where I'm going to pick something
2:49
Speaker 1: apart here. He said, they, as in NFL franchises tag
2:54
Speaker 1: the top three guys. We didn't even get a chance
2:56
Speaker 1: to hit the open market. They put the cap at
3:00
Speaker 1: ten million, and when they have the tag, they have
3:03
Speaker 1: all the leverage. That's the reality. End quote. This use
3:08
Speaker 1: of they as in like the NFL is colluding against
3:11
Speaker 1: the running back position. I have to push back on saquon.
3:14
Speaker 1: This is the market. This is the market. Christian McCaffrey
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Speaker 1: found someone who was willing to pay him sixteen million dollars,
3:21
Speaker 1: so San Francisco forty nine ers, and last year they
3:24
Speaker 1: agreed to pick up that contract from the Carolina Panthers.
3:26
Speaker 1: They knew going in and they saw him as a
3:29
Speaker 1: sixteen million dollar value. Saquon The Giants do not view
3:35
Speaker 1: him as a sixteen million dollar value. They don't view
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Speaker 1: him as a fourteen million dollar value. They don't view
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Speaker 1: him at a twelve million dollar value. And when you
3:42
Speaker 1: say they, it's it's almost acting as if it's someone else's.
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Speaker 1: Probably it's just the market. It stinks. Look, you look
3:49
Speaker 1: around the world at housing situation right now. If you
3:54
Speaker 1: have a house in a desirable place right now, it
3:57
Speaker 1: is valued less than it was during peak COVID times
4:01
Speaker 1: when interest rates were different. When you know it was
4:04
Speaker 1: a different time in the climate economically. If you work
4:07
Speaker 1: in sports media like I do, there was a nice
4:10
Speaker 1: gravy train there for a couple of years for some
4:11
Speaker 1: of the top guys, whether it be Romo, Aikman, Buck
4:14
Speaker 1: name it. I don't think they're giving out those salaries
4:17
Speaker 1: to those top play by play and announcing guys at
4:20
Speaker 1: the moment because sports media has changed and there has
4:24
Speaker 1: been a how about podcasting and Aaron, you could be
4:27
Speaker 1: on this as my producer. They were handing out crazy
4:30
Speaker 1: deals for podcasts to Megan Markele and Prince Harry and
4:34
Speaker 1: Obama and whoever else. Those deals aren't in the news anymore.
4:39
Speaker 1: Netflix overall deals to whoever or these companies giving like
4:45
Speaker 1: Ryan Murphy and Shandra Rhime's like four hundred million dollar deals. Well,
4:49
Speaker 1: the streamers crashed a little bit and it seems like
4:51
Speaker 1: stocks are down and you will not see those deals going.
4:54
Speaker 1: It's just the market and it sucks, and I hate
4:58
Speaker 1: to hear but to say they, as in the collective
5:01
Speaker 1: NFL has decided to turn on running backs. It's not
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Speaker 1: the case. Look, you go through this thing and it's
5:06
Speaker 1: one by one and eventually it's just this position is
5:08
Speaker 1: not as valued as defensive end or tackle or quarterback
5:12
Speaker 1: and now receiver and tight end. But Josh Jacobs left
5:15
Speaker 1: the league in rushing, got a franchise tag. You know,
5:17
Speaker 1: no one linked and I David Montgomery was a really
5:20
Speaker 1: good Chicago Bear, great player off the field, great in
5:23
Speaker 1: the community. They opted not to resign him and roll
5:26
Speaker 1: with Deonta Foreman and Khalil Herbert. Jamal Williams scored I
5:31
Speaker 1: think seventeen touchdowns seventeen touchdowns from the running back position
5:35
Speaker 1: for the Detroit Lions last year. It's the most sins
5:38
Speaker 1: Barry Sanders. I think he broke Barry's record. The Lions
5:42
Speaker 1: were like, we're good. We're gonna not only not resign you,
5:46
Speaker 1: We're gonna sign Montgomery, We're gonna draft the rookie, and
5:49
Speaker 1: then we're gonna also get rid of DeAndre Swift, who
5:51
Speaker 1: was traded. Jack McKinnon was a stud for the Kansas
5:55
Speaker 1: City Chiefs down the stretch. He sat and waited and
5:58
Speaker 1: waited and waited and just signed a deal that I
6:00
Speaker 1: promise you. When Jack McKinnon was carrying the load at
6:03
Speaker 1: points this year for Cancie, I didn't think this is
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Speaker 1: the deal he was going to get. I don't think
6:06
Speaker 1: he thought this was a deal he's gonna get. The
6:08
Speaker 1: one guy who I think did really well with Miles Sanders,
6:11
Speaker 1: who early on pounced, took an offer from Carolina, goes
6:15
Speaker 1: back to Douce Staley and where he's the coach of
6:19
Speaker 1: the running backs there and he's gonna make good money,
6:22
Speaker 1: but nothing crazy. And then Dalvin Cook gets cut. It's
6:28
Speaker 1: the market, it's not they This was nothing against these guys.
6:31
Speaker 1: It sucks for them, and I hate talking about other
6:35
Speaker 1: people's money like this, but it also is just the
6:38
Speaker 1: harsh reality of it. And Aaron, as a Buffalo Bills fan,
6:42
Speaker 1: I turned to you, it's like, hey, Devin Singletary was
6:46
Speaker 1: a nice player. We're gonna go with James Cook and
6:48
Speaker 1: Damian Harris this year, and they didn't draft their running
6:50
Speaker 1: back in the first round. And it's like, this is
6:52
Speaker 1: what the NFL is when you see the Chiefs being
6:54
Speaker 1: able to roll into the Super Bowl with a three
6:57
Speaker 1: headed monster at running back and the Eagles, you know,
7:00
Speaker 1: Miles Sanders barely touches the ball in the Super Bowl
7:03
Speaker 1: and it's you know, Boston Scott and whoever else in
7:06
Speaker 1: the big Game against the Giant. Like I don't know,
7:08
Speaker 1: I don't have to tell you, like a lot of times,
7:10
Speaker 1: this running back by committee thing might make more sense.
7:13
Speaker 1: And it's unfortunate because we love the running back position
7:15
Speaker 1: and it's a big part of fantasy football. But it's
7:19
Speaker 1: not a coincidence that around the league it doesn't seem
7:21
Speaker 1: like there's these fifteen million dollar guys outside of Derreck
7:24
Speaker 1: Henry and Christian McCaffrey.
7:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then also Zeke got cut Mason was like
7:29
Speaker 2: on the bubble he might have been cut at you know,
7:31
Speaker 2: there's all this talk with him. I mean think one
7:34
Speaker 2: of our earlier episodes in the offseason, we were parsing
7:36
Speaker 2: through the words of the head of player personnel, who
7:39
Speaker 2: was like, as of right now, he is on our roster.
7:42
Speaker 1: Yeah. So my message there is the market and we're
7:47
Speaker 1: going to have a guest on who just had to
7:48
Speaker 1: make a really tough decision. We're going to bring it on.
7:51
Speaker 1: It's quasi at Dolfo Mensa, who is the general manager
7:54
Speaker 1: of the Minnesota Vikings. I don't want to press him
7:57
Speaker 1: so much on the contract, and I don't want press
7:59
Speaker 1: them so much on current events because really my goal
8:01
Speaker 1: with this stuff, and we'll do it, but my goal
8:03
Speaker 1: with this podcast, as you know, Aaron, is let's get
8:05
Speaker 1: to know these guys. Let's talk about philosophy, let's talk
8:08
Speaker 1: about their stories. And Kaisei's being cool enough while they
8:11
Speaker 1: still have mandatory mini camp coming on to pop on
8:13
Speaker 1: and talk about himself. We're gonna get to him in
8:15
Speaker 1: one second, real quick. Aaron, do you play golf?
8:19
Speaker 2: I don't.
8:20
Speaker 1: I have you ever picked up a club?
8:22
Speaker 2: I've been to the driving range, like once or twice
8:24
Speaker 2: with some friends.
8:25
Speaker 1: Yeah. I had never picked up a club until last year.
8:29
Speaker 1: My wife said, you know what, like your friends all
8:31
Speaker 1: play golf. For my birthday, she bought me golf lessons.
8:34
Speaker 1: She got me ten lessons. It was really generous. I
8:36
Speaker 1: went to two of them, and I think they expire
8:39
Speaker 1: like I just I kind of said. Then my friend,
8:42
Speaker 1: while we were all from Good Morning Football, invited me
8:44
Speaker 1: out to play golf, and he was like, I got
8:46
Speaker 1: to spare a thing of clubs. Just come and enjoy
8:48
Speaker 1: the day. I went. I had a blast, hit the
8:50
Speaker 1: ball pretty well, and I was like, you know what,
8:52
Speaker 1: this summer, I'm in a golf So I went and
8:54
Speaker 1: I got myself some golf clubs, which was probably an
8:56
Speaker 1: irrational thing to do. It was way more expensive than
8:58
Speaker 1: I thought golf clubs would be. But I was like,
9:00
Speaker 1: I'm treating myself. You know, Father's Day is coming up,
9:02
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna get myself a Father's Day gift. So
9:04
Speaker 1: I went to Paramus, New Jersey, to a place I'm
9:08
Speaker 1: not look, I'm not getting anything out of this. I'll
9:09
Speaker 1: tell you what. It's called a place called p XG
9:12
Speaker 1: which is like a golf like warehouse slash fitter of
9:15
Speaker 1: like clubs. But it' supposed to be like the Rolls
9:16
Speaker 1: Royce of clubs. I'm like, I'm gonna go and get
9:18
Speaker 1: fitted by the best of the best, and they're gonna
9:20
Speaker 1: show me what I need. So I got fitted for
9:22
Speaker 1: all these clubs in Paramus, New Jersey. I ubered out there,
9:25
Speaker 1: and then I took a train back from secaucas to
9:28
Speaker 1: Penn Station, and then from Penn Station took the two
9:30
Speaker 1: train back to Brooklyn like I did the cute. This
9:33
Speaker 1: was like planes, trains and automobiles to get these clubs.
9:35
Speaker 1: But this weekend, on Sunday night, my son, who is
9:38
Speaker 1: six years old, we played mini golf together. We watched
9:42
Speaker 1: this Canadian Open finals between Nick Taylor and Tommy Fleetwood,
9:49
Speaker 1: and I will tell you this was one of the
9:50
Speaker 1: most entertaining half hours of sports I have watched, maybe
9:54
Speaker 1: since the Super Bowl. They go back and forth four
9:56
Speaker 1: playoff holes and then from seventy two feet away, Taylor
10:01
Speaker 1: nails a putt. He's from Canada. He does it in
10:03
Speaker 1: front of the home crowd. First time someone of Canadian
10:07
Speaker 1: ancestry has won that tournament in sixty years. Seventy two
10:10
Speaker 1: years jim Nantz going nuts. They're champagne all this stuff.
10:13
Speaker 1: And my son looked at me and he's like, that
10:15
Speaker 1: was awesome, and he's like, can we play golf? And
10:17
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, So this is how kids get hooked
10:21
Speaker 1: on sports exciting moments, and it was just a really
10:23
Speaker 1: cool moment. Did you happen to see the highlight? Did
10:26
Speaker 1: you watch? Like? I think people were ready waiting for
10:28
Speaker 1: sixty minutes to the Tonys and I got sucked into
10:30
Speaker 1: the golf. Yeah.
10:31
Speaker 2: I think it'd be tough if you follow any sports
10:34
Speaker 2: media this weekend you had to see the highlights. I
10:37
Speaker 2: mean I followed nothing related to golf, and I saw
10:39
Speaker 2: it so many times, So yes, I saw it.
10:42
Speaker 1: It was amazing. I also watched the Tonys. Did you
10:44
Speaker 1: catch the Tony's at all?
10:45
Speaker 2: I watched parts so a friend of mine won a
10:48
Speaker 2: Tony last night. Actually, who's your friend?
10:50
Speaker 1: I watched it all.
10:51
Speaker 2: Alex Newell?
10:52
Speaker 1: Alex Newell, who was inside from shocked Shocked? Okay, one
10:58
Speaker 1: best actor? Right? Yeah? Okay, awesome speech speechless throughout and
11:04
Speaker 1: I haven't seen shocked. You saw shucked?
11:07
Speaker 2: I actually have not seen it?
11:08
Speaker 1: Great friend.
11:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we were in the midst of getting Yeah,
11:11
Speaker 2: we were trying to figure out when to see it.
11:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were gonna get tickets. Let me take something
11:16
Speaker 1: about this Shucked, because I like the Broadway shows. I
11:19
Speaker 1: see ads for it all over the subways, and I'm like,
11:21
Speaker 1: I don't know what this is, uh, and I'll maybe
11:24
Speaker 1: see it, But like I'd obviously seen ads for Parade
11:26
Speaker 1: and some like it hot and New York, New York
11:28
Speaker 1: and all these different things. And then Shuck did well,
11:31
Speaker 1: and then that Kimberly.
11:31
Speaker 2: Akimbo Kimberly Akimbo also did very well.
11:35
Speaker 3: Yeah.
11:36
Speaker 1: I enjoy the Tonys and I think it was cool
11:37
Speaker 1: to see Aaron Rodgers in the third row with CJ. Yeah,
11:43
Speaker 1: CJ I think produced a play. He's in the theater
11:46
Speaker 1: like he helped like fund one of the plays. So
11:48
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers was there with him, and to pick up
11:52
Speaker 1: where we were last week with with Hanka's area, like
11:55
Speaker 1: Rogers just playing the New York pr playbook to it,
11:59
Speaker 1: like to have the wherewithal to know like I've got
12:02
Speaker 1: practice tomorrow. But the Tony's is like a very New
12:04
Speaker 1: York thing and like a very affected New York event,
12:07
Speaker 1: like the Top of the Top of there. Sure enough,
12:10
Speaker 1: there's Rogers on the red carpet. We're going to get
12:13
Speaker 1: to our guest right now. I know you were interested
12:15
Speaker 1: if you're a football hardcore fan and hearing my thoughts unshucked,
12:19
Speaker 1: but I will promise you this I thought and Juliet
12:22
Speaker 1: got robbed. Okay, that is my ending of my Tony's take.
12:27
Speaker 1: Let's get to our guest, Quacy Adolfo Mensa. All right, now,
12:35
Speaker 1: it's time for our guest. One of the great young
12:38
Speaker 1: minds in the NFL and a very pivotal position as
12:42
Speaker 1: the general manager of the Minnesota Vikings. He's in his
12:44
Speaker 1: second off season with Minnesota. Very well respected, very well
12:48
Speaker 1: liked guy. But we are now at a crossroads for
12:50
Speaker 1: the Vikings franchise, and it's really cool to have on.
12:52
Speaker 1: Quis Adolfo Mensa. Quisy, what's up? Man?
12:55
Speaker 3: Shreg's always good to see you man, Thanks for having me.
12:57
Speaker 1: Oh, it is so good having you on. You know,
13:01
Speaker 1: this podcast is more evergreen. As I always tell my guests,
13:05
Speaker 1: it's not about currents. What my hope is that two
13:07
Speaker 1: years down the line, someone listens to this podcast and
13:10
Speaker 1: it's like I got a lot out of that interview
13:11
Speaker 1: and I got a lot of that conversation, but I
13:14
Speaker 1: would be remiss just to give you an opportunity to
13:16
Speaker 1: speak on what happened in the last seventy two hours. Obviously,
13:19
Speaker 1: you guys, with a lot of speculation going into it,
13:22
Speaker 1: you finally did release Dalvin Cook. If you just want
13:25
Speaker 1: to spend a second either on the release or just
13:27
Speaker 1: what Dalvin meant to the Minnesota Vikings, I know you
13:29
Speaker 1: guys had some statements just to kind of tie a
13:31
Speaker 1: bow on the Dalvin Cook era in Minnesota.
13:35
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's a part of the job. These
13:37
Speaker 4: are all really tough decisions. You talk about Dalvin Cook
13:40
Speaker 4: a franchise pillar, incredibly productive over his time here, and
13:44
Speaker 4: I'm glad I got to see that up close last year.
13:47
Speaker 4: A guy who wants the ball, wants to help his
13:49
Speaker 4: team win, can do it from all levels of offensive play.
13:53
Speaker 3: Just a talented player. His teammates love them.
13:56
Speaker 4: And again, these are really hard decisions we have to make,
13:58
Speaker 4: but they give us constraints in the NFL, and you're
14:01
Speaker 4: always trying to build towards that ultimate goal, and sometimes
14:04
Speaker 4: these decisions are the ones you have to make.
14:06
Speaker 3: They get made with a lot of care and thought.
14:09
Speaker 4: Because obviously you're dealing with people, but also just ring
14:12
Speaker 4: of honor type players, which Dalvin Cook is. And again
14:16
Speaker 4: these aren't easy, no doubt in my mind. But ultimately
14:21
Speaker 4: we made the decision and we wish them the best,
14:22
Speaker 4: and obviously we'll always be fans of his here in Minnesota.
14:25
Speaker 1: That's cool. Yeah, you guys are very classy with some
14:28
Speaker 1: of the statements we saw from ownership and from you
14:30
Speaker 1: and from Kevin. And I think you know whether or
14:32
Speaker 1: not the wound is sore right now, when time will
14:36
Speaker 1: tell how it goes for Dalvin. But at the very least,
14:38
Speaker 1: I think you guys handled it as well as you
14:40
Speaker 1: could publicly, which leads to I think your story because
14:44
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people for years had this
14:47
Speaker 1: vision of general manager being a guy who lived in
14:49
Speaker 1: the back of a van and would scout, you know,
14:51
Speaker 1: small schools in southern Texas and then get on the
14:54
Speaker 1: car and then say, okay, in twelve hours, I got
14:56
Speaker 1: to be in eastern Nebraska. And do you have a
14:58
Speaker 1: different path? And I think the I think you're often
15:02
Speaker 1: described as like a moneyball guy, but I think that's
15:04
Speaker 1: short changing you a little bit. Take us through a
15:09
Speaker 1: your college experience, and then maybe your postgraduate experience, and
15:13
Speaker 1: then how you ended up working for the forty nine
15:15
Speaker 1: ers in twenty thirteen.
15:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I'm not sure I know how this
15:20
Speaker 4: all all happened and got here, but I will say
15:23
Speaker 4: that that guy in the van who goes and scouts
15:24
Speaker 4: to small school, that guy is important. That guy's valuable,
15:28
Speaker 4: and it's you know, this job has really evolved over time.
15:31
Speaker 4: You know, we do media, we do contracts, we do
15:34
Speaker 4: you have to oversee an organization or really you know,
15:36
Speaker 4: a really profitable organization.
15:38
Speaker 3: So I think my skill.
15:40
Speaker 4: Sets have kind of aided in the new NFL, the
15:43
Speaker 4: new definition of the job versus kind of what it
15:46
Speaker 4: was before. But you know, going back to my undergraduate experience,
15:50
Speaker 4: you know, it was great. Honestly, I was just a
15:51
Speaker 4: kid in South Jersey immigrant parents, you know, grew up
15:55
Speaker 4: in my family's from Ghana, West Africa. So super proud
15:58
Speaker 4: of that and how that all impacted my life. But
16:01
Speaker 4: went to Princeton, you know, I thought I was a
16:03
Speaker 4: cool kid and I was going to go study with
16:05
Speaker 4: a bunch of nerds. Turned found out that I was
16:07
Speaker 4: just as nerdy as anybody else there. And uh, you know,
16:10
Speaker 4: but you know, I love my time there. I was
16:12
Speaker 4: actually I went there just as a student. I really
16:15
Speaker 4: loved math and economics. That's what I studied. Happened to grow,
16:18
Speaker 4: you know, seven inches my freshman year, and uh so
16:20
Speaker 4: I went.
16:20
Speaker 1: From did you play ball in high school?
16:24
Speaker 4: So I actually got cut from the basketball team my
16:25
Speaker 4: sophomore year. Really really tragic story. If you want to
16:28
Speaker 4: talk about over.
16:31
Speaker 1: What is it Cherry Hill South? What was it called?
16:33
Speaker 1: What was the school?
16:34
Speaker 3: Cherry Hilly?
16:34
Speaker 4: Cherry Lee's Cougar's shout out to all my people out
16:37
Speaker 4: back there, love so much love for my time growing up.
16:40
Speaker 4: But yeah, you know I was a cerebral point guard.
16:43
Speaker 4: I had handles, but I wasn't very quick. I hadn't
16:45
Speaker 4: really grown into grown into my body just yet. There
16:48
Speaker 4: was some better players they thought were available. But ultimately,
16:52
Speaker 4: you know, you're never gonna agree with those decisions. Everybody's
16:54
Speaker 4: been cut at some point in their life. Uh And
16:56
Speaker 4: but ultimately, you know, I played golf actually in high school.
16:59
Speaker 4: I got coupled the basketball team and became a high
17:01
Speaker 4: school golfer, which was great. You know, you talk about
17:04
Speaker 4: a sport that teaches you process, how do you move on?
17:07
Speaker 4: From the last batchot to the next good shot really
17:09
Speaker 4: and that connected me to my Wall Street job, because really,
17:13
Speaker 4: when you make decisions, it's all about process.
17:15
Speaker 3: How do you get over that trade that you lost
17:17
Speaker 3: money on? How do you move on to the next one?
17:18
Speaker 3: And process and things.
17:19
Speaker 1: Like that, like a cornerback.
17:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's no doubt, no doubt.
17:22
Speaker 4: And so that's really what what led me to, you know,
17:25
Speaker 4: studying at Princeton and major in economics and all that
17:29
Speaker 4: good stuff. Really got interested in behavioral economics and how
17:32
Speaker 4: decision making and human emotion really are interact together, which
17:36
Speaker 4: took me to Wall Street where I intern on a
17:38
Speaker 4: commodities desk trading gold and silver. The summer after my
17:41
Speaker 4: junior year, got to live in New York down on
17:43
Speaker 4: Water Street and do that experience. As you know, as
17:47
Speaker 4: we talk about in New York all the time, my
17:49
Speaker 4: favorite place on earth. But you know that that took
17:52
Speaker 4: me there, and then obviously had that career, went to
17:55
Speaker 4: Stanford where I want to become an econ professor. You know,
17:58
Speaker 4: I have a passion for teaching. I think you know,
18:01
Speaker 4: the way I learn is very simple. I try and
18:04
Speaker 4: every step try and learn its cords foundation, which makes
18:07
Speaker 4: me able to teach it back to other people. I
18:09
Speaker 4: think a lot of times teachers are people who understand
18:11
Speaker 4: things at high levels, can't teach because the simple things
18:14
Speaker 4: are just so, you know, so easy for them that
18:16
Speaker 4: they really don't whereas me, I'll go over every single step.
18:19
Speaker 4: And that's really my gift is a teacher. And I
18:22
Speaker 4: wanted to teach economics. So I went back, learned and studied.
18:26
Speaker 4: You know, I wasn't I don't know that I was
18:27
Speaker 4: going to change economics, and so I, you know, there
18:31
Speaker 4: was a little bit of a competitor still.
18:33
Speaker 3: Left in me.
18:33
Speaker 4: I still want to apply and practice my my my
18:37
Speaker 4: knowledge and industry. Was really interested in sports, and you know,
18:41
Speaker 4: wanted to seek out an opportunity. Obviously, the forty nine ers,
18:43
Speaker 4: it was fortunate they were happening to be looking for
18:45
Speaker 4: somebody to advance their efforts. Brian Hampton and Prague mart
18:48
Speaker 4: I got connected with them at the MIT Sports Analytics Conference,
18:51
Speaker 4: and rest is what they say, is history.
18:53
Speaker 1: So wait, so you go to Sloan in what like
18:56
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, twenty.
18:57
Speaker 3: Thirteen, twenty twelve, twenty twelve, twelve, and you're just.
18:59
Speaker 1: A Stanford graduate student who has a Wall Street career,
19:01
Speaker 1: and you're like, look, I'm doing this, but I want
19:04
Speaker 1: to get into sports. I'm willing to sacrifice everything to
19:07
Speaker 1: give it a shot. I'm assuming your entry level pay
19:09
Speaker 1: was not what it was on Wall Street.
19:11
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, I tell you know.
19:13
Speaker 4: So I showed up to that conference where my white
19:15
Speaker 4: Stanford polo, you know, not knowing anything. And what was
19:18
Speaker 4: cool about that conference is you just got to meet
19:20
Speaker 4: a lot of great people. I mean I got to
19:22
Speaker 4: I remember, got to go up to the Kiki Vandawaye people
19:24
Speaker 4: that I had like learned RC Buford. Was there just
19:27
Speaker 4: a lot of talented people were in one place, and
19:29
Speaker 4: I wasn't there really looking for a job. I was
19:31
Speaker 4: just there to like kind of learn about sports. Had
19:33
Speaker 4: I actually had a great conversation with Jacoby. This is
19:36
Speaker 4: early you know Jacoby and Jalen those days.
19:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Dave Jacoby sure, yeah.
19:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so and then obviously I met with the
19:42
Speaker 4: forty nine ers and they said, hey, let's talk when
19:44
Speaker 4: we get back, and that's what we did.
19:46
Speaker 3: And obviously, you know, things worked out for us in
19:49
Speaker 3: the end.
19:49
Speaker 1: You mentioned you grew seven inches in college, so you
19:52
Speaker 1: come in there not as an athlete, but as a student.
19:54
Speaker 1: So you get into Princeton and then you grow seven inches,
19:56
Speaker 1: I have to think. You know, someone on campus is like,
19:59
Speaker 1: have you considered ball? If you played at least at
20:01
Speaker 1: any level.
20:02
Speaker 3: You'd be surprised.
20:03
Speaker 4: You walk around Princeton every there's a lot of six
20:05
Speaker 4: or three guys walking aroun around. There's a really yeah,
20:08
Speaker 4: a lot of a lot of people play sports there,
20:09
Speaker 4: whether it be waterpole of eyepall, whatever it is.
20:11
Speaker 3: And I was friends with all those those people.
20:13
Speaker 4: But there's a lot of athletic people walking around that campus,
20:16
Speaker 4: so they weren't necessarily looking for me. But I you know,
20:18
Speaker 4: I showed up to practice that first day and my
20:19
Speaker 4: little Kobe Hafro.
20:21
Speaker 1: You know, I was the Jadwin Jim where yah.
20:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, Jadwind Jim.
20:25
Speaker 4: You know, I put put my summer in, uh you know,
20:28
Speaker 4: all those two day workouts with my friends, and you know,
20:31
Speaker 4: obviously I was good enough to you know, play on
20:34
Speaker 4: the JV team and do some practicing and all that
20:36
Speaker 4: good stuff. And you know, again, super cool because the
20:39
Speaker 4: fifteen year old of me that you know that never
20:41
Speaker 4: got off that floor got cut. You know, got to
20:43
Speaker 4: see that dream fulfilled in a small way, and that's
20:46
Speaker 4: something I always take with me.
20:48
Speaker 1: And that's awesome mentors. I feel like, if you go
20:51
Speaker 1: to Princeton or you go to Stanford, you've got the
20:52
Speaker 1: leaders in thought and you've got the leaders in you know, leadership.
20:56
Speaker 1: Especially let's go to Stanford. When I talk about Stanford
20:59
Speaker 1: football to a lot of people, it's it's often not hey,
21:02
Speaker 1: I learned this from Harbor or David Shaw. It's I
21:04
Speaker 1: was also connected to this guy and Silicon Valley, who,
21:07
Speaker 1: by the way, happens to run a venture capitalism firm,
21:10
Speaker 1: and also as a mentor to X, Y and Z.
21:13
Speaker 1: Like when you get to those institutions of that academic prowess,
21:16
Speaker 1: with those alumni bases, did you know at the time,
21:19
Speaker 1: like I got to make the most out of this
21:20
Speaker 1: and make connections Or is it one of those things
21:22
Speaker 1: that if you just go there, it's hard to avoid
21:24
Speaker 1: getting connected to the right people.
21:26
Speaker 3: You know.
21:26
Speaker 4: It's one of those things that I probably and I
21:28
Speaker 4: don't really live a life with regrets. If I could
21:30
Speaker 4: have pushed myself a little bit would have been more.
21:32
Speaker 4: If I could tell any kid to come after me
21:34
Speaker 4: seek out those relationships, I kind of let them happen
21:37
Speaker 4: by chance, I happen to take a class with Daniel Connoman.
21:40
Speaker 4: I happen to take a class with Burton Malcolm, who's
21:43
Speaker 4: become a great mentor of mine. When I was at
21:45
Speaker 4: Princeton and then at Stanford, I was lucky enough to
21:47
Speaker 4: take classes with you know, A Hasty and he's he's
21:50
Speaker 4: a really he's a big titan in the analytics world
21:52
Speaker 4: and different people like that. It's so fortunate. But I
21:55
Speaker 4: don't know that I sought it out as much as
21:57
Speaker 4: I should have. And if I could go back again,
21:59
Speaker 4: you know, I Matt Angelou was at Princeton when I.
22:01
Speaker 3: Was there, Is that right? You know what I mean?
22:03
Speaker 4: Like, you know, and I have to you know, I
22:05
Speaker 4: wish i'd maybe got and coffee with her or whatever
22:07
Speaker 4: something like that. So to everybody who comes after me,
22:10
Speaker 4: please make sure you seek out those relationships when you
22:12
Speaker 4: have access to them.
22:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, So you get to the Niners. You're back
22:15
Speaker 1: in the Bay after some time in New York. How
22:19
Speaker 1: did you apply your Wall Street skills? And we did,
22:21
Speaker 1: and then try to integrate that into what at the time,
22:24
Speaker 1: I know the Niners are always forward thinking, but also
22:26
Speaker 1: at the time, like football is kind of meeting potatoes
22:28
Speaker 1: as well.
22:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was probably the biggest challenge, you know.
22:32
Speaker 4: I got there after they had won three NFC championships
22:35
Speaker 4: in a row, been to a Super Bowl.
22:37
Speaker 3: I got there right after they had lost the Super Bowl.
22:39
Speaker 4: So I'm not going there thinking I'm helping them, right,
22:42
Speaker 4: I mean, they seem to have it pretty figured out
22:45
Speaker 4: by them. So I really took it at just I'm
22:47
Speaker 4: here to learn. I'm going to show them my thought
22:49
Speaker 4: process and how that works. And really, I think a
22:51
Speaker 4: lot of times in the analytics world, people are it's
22:53
Speaker 4: almost like a project where you're studying things.
22:55
Speaker 3: And that's good.
22:56
Speaker 4: You want to study things, but you also got to
22:58
Speaker 4: make decisions and decisions to have ramifications. They have good
23:01
Speaker 4: things that happen, bad things that happen. You have to
23:03
Speaker 4: be able to quantify them and really understand them before
23:05
Speaker 4: you make a decision. So that was I would say
23:07
Speaker 4: my best value add was really coming from a practical
23:10
Speaker 4: decision making standpoint and saying, hey, I know this is
23:13
Speaker 4: what the model on the analysis says, but I've done that.
23:15
Speaker 4: I've lost a million dollars and ten minutes. I know
23:17
Speaker 4: how that feels. I know how this feels. I know that,
23:20
Speaker 4: the emotional side of it, and really having to understand
23:23
Speaker 4: to get a whole building together behind your thought process.
23:27
Speaker 4: That's different than just computing something into a code and
23:30
Speaker 4: outputting something.
23:31
Speaker 3: That's very different.
23:32
Speaker 4: And so I think that was the thing they appreciate
23:34
Speaker 4: out of me, appreciated about me the most. And then second,
23:37
Speaker 4: I didn't know anything. You know, I'm here because I
23:40
Speaker 4: didn't know anything.
23:41
Speaker 1: Humility, right, I just well, it was easy because.
23:43
Speaker 4: I actually didn't know anything, right, so I could go
23:46
Speaker 4: into an office and ask, hey, hey, Cipho, tell me
23:49
Speaker 4: about the run game. Tell me everything you need to know,
23:51
Speaker 4: because I'm not insecure about that because I don't think I'm.
23:54
Speaker 3: Supposed to know.
23:55
Speaker 4: And he doesn't mind teaching me because I've helped him
23:58
Speaker 4: with some other thing.
23:58
Speaker 3: And so just so many relationships I've built.
24:01
Speaker 4: And I was just talking to our scouting associates who
24:03
Speaker 4: just got here to start, and.
24:04
Speaker 3: I was like, jes, be curious.
24:05
Speaker 4: If you can do one thing, be curious, just ask questions,
24:09
Speaker 4: because I'm telling you, I'd satin rooms with people who
24:12
Speaker 4: have been in the NFL for twenty years who never
24:14
Speaker 4: asked that question. And I'm like, well, I know that,
24:16
Speaker 4: and I've only been in the league ten years because
24:18
Speaker 4: I because I wasn't scared to ask, and I don't,
24:20
Speaker 4: I don't. I don't think they're a dumb question. So
24:22
Speaker 4: that was really the best thing that helped me get here.
24:24
Speaker 1: What was your life like in New York City when
24:26
Speaker 1: you were a wellser You said you interned and then
24:28
Speaker 1: you took a job. So you don't have to name
24:29
Speaker 1: the companies or you can. But I see just on
24:31
Speaker 1: the website says day trader like, I could be a
24:33
Speaker 1: million things. So take us through your day to day
24:35
Speaker 1: as a young twenty three year old quacy like, because
24:39
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what you and I have talked about it.
24:41
Speaker 1: I did my twenties in New York different deal. I
24:43
Speaker 1: wasn't a Wall Street guy. I was more of a
24:45
Speaker 1: struggling sports writer living with five guys and a loft.
24:48
Speaker 1: But I think we had similar paths. I'm sure where
24:50
Speaker 1: you work hard, you play hard.
24:52
Speaker 4: No doubt, man, I had similar paths. I lived with five,
24:56
Speaker 4: five and then six guys in a lofty six guys.
24:59
Speaker 3: Man.
24:59
Speaker 4: We still we still have a text group called Hotness
25:02
Speaker 4: because that's what we because that's what we.
25:04
Speaker 3: Called our place. I love those guys of Death, the Brothers.
25:06
Speaker 3: Am I where it was?
25:07
Speaker 1: The place Water Street?
25:08
Speaker 3: Is that where you living? No? No, that place was
25:10
Speaker 3: dirtieth in Madison, Okay.
25:12
Speaker 2: Murray Hill.
25:12
Speaker 1: Part of it. You're at Bank Cafe every day.
25:15
Speaker 3: Let's go Bank Cafe.
25:17
Speaker 4: We had a little deli, miscase deli downstairs. I don't
25:21
Speaker 4: know how clean it was, but we ate there a lot. No, man,
25:24
Speaker 4: I smile so much because that time of my life
25:26
Speaker 4: was just such a blessing. Living in New York City
25:29
Speaker 4: is something that will always just be grateful that I
25:31
Speaker 4: got to do all the experiences. You know, you go
25:33
Speaker 4: out in New York City on a Friday night with
25:35
Speaker 4: your wallet and your cell phone and anything could happen.
25:37
Speaker 3: It feels like anything happened. Anything it happened.
25:39
Speaker 1: But you also meet anyone and everyone from all different backgrounds,
25:43
Speaker 1: and we joke about it like, oh it was crazy
25:44
Speaker 1: wild times. But gosh, I'm raising my kid in New
25:47
Speaker 1: York City. I think it's a pretty cool cultural experience.
25:50
Speaker 3: It's it's incredible, man.
25:51
Speaker 4: It's you know, you're in your Friday night New York
25:54
Speaker 4: is very different than your Tuesday afternoon New York.
25:56
Speaker 3: Right there's different people's different vibes.
25:59
Speaker 4: Just again, such a blessing, but you know, connecting that
26:01
Speaker 4: to the work side of it, Yeah, we worked really
26:03
Speaker 4: hard to getting the trade is an edge that I
26:07
Speaker 4: just I'm so fortunate for I feel like the world
26:09
Speaker 4: has become so dug in on what they think and
26:12
Speaker 4: for me, I got to go make decisions and be
26:15
Speaker 4: wrong and be right, but also be wrong and have
26:18
Speaker 4: somebody really smart take the other side of my view
26:21
Speaker 4: and have to think about that and being like, hey,
26:23
Speaker 4: I think I'm smart, but this person's really smart and
26:25
Speaker 4: they disagree with me. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe that
26:28
Speaker 4: open mindedness that I have comes from pain and loss.
26:31
Speaker 4: It comes from being on the other side of really
26:33
Speaker 4: smart people who were right sometimes and when I was
26:36
Speaker 4: wrong and really just not thinking I have the world
26:38
Speaker 4: figured out, and that just that blessing that I was
26:42
Speaker 4: able to receive in that education is something I've taken
26:44
Speaker 4: with me and I try and get back to other people.
26:46
Speaker 4: Actually have a nonprofit where I try and teach really
26:48
Speaker 4: you know, yeah, finance to what's it called donut?
26:53
Speaker 3: It's you know, donut.
26:54
Speaker 4: It's a term we used to use on Wall Street
26:56
Speaker 4: to a friend of mine made up where you don't
26:57
Speaker 4: want to.
26:57
Speaker 3: Obviously, a donut's a bad thing.
26:59
Speaker 4: So I'm trying to teach people to obviously not be
27:01
Speaker 4: a donut, and I do it with some of our players.
27:03
Speaker 4: And I think all this stuff and finance is learnable.
27:05
Speaker 4: It's really applicable to every aspect of your life. And
27:08
Speaker 4: so I'm passionate about giving back to other people.
27:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, you said you went to the sloan comment.
27:12
Speaker 1: Sorry if I'm fixated on this area of your life.
27:14
Speaker 1: But so many listeners of this podcast are on the
27:16
Speaker 1: treadmill right now. They're traveling, they're on a plane and
27:20
Speaker 1: they're flying to another sales convention, or they're working out
27:23
Speaker 1: because they've got to get to the office by sen
27:25
Speaker 1: And if I only had the opportunity to and like,
27:28
Speaker 1: we know it's a giant leap, but you made the leap.
27:30
Speaker 1: Was there a morning where you woke up or like
27:32
Speaker 1: I just can't do this anymore? Or was this where
27:34
Speaker 1: you were like, I'm a single guy and this is
27:36
Speaker 1: what I want to try to do. Like what was
27:38
Speaker 1: there a turning point or was it just this is
27:40
Speaker 1: months in the making.
27:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
27:42
Speaker 4: It was a longer decision I just and I as
27:44
Speaker 4: much as I loved Wall Street, I just didn't want
27:46
Speaker 4: not to be morbid. I always think about what do
27:49
Speaker 4: you want your tombstone to read? You know, how do
27:51
Speaker 4: you want it to read? And I didn't want that
27:53
Speaker 4: to be the sole thing that was on there. Not
27:55
Speaker 4: not that it was a bad thing, but just I
27:57
Speaker 4: wanted more in my life, and so, you know, I
27:59
Speaker 4: think I always wanted to pivot at some point to
28:01
Speaker 4: do something different, and obviously football just you came calling.
28:05
Speaker 4: I was really fortunate to go meet everybody at the
28:07
Speaker 4: Sloan Conference, but there are a lot of hard days, man.
28:10
Speaker 4: You know, I think you asked me earlier going from
28:12
Speaker 4: what I was making to I mean, you're talking about
28:15
Speaker 4: making one.
28:16
Speaker 3: I think I did the math.
28:17
Speaker 4: It was like one twentieth of what I right, right,
28:19
Speaker 4: one twentieth one twentieth right, So with.
28:22
Speaker 1: No guarantee that there's a huge upside.
28:24
Speaker 3: No guarantee right, it's crazy.
28:25
Speaker 4: My boss who wrote my recommendation for Stanford, you know,
28:29
Speaker 4: when I got in and I was leaving, he's like,
28:30
Speaker 4: so you're really going, like, I don't think you ever
28:33
Speaker 4: believed me.
28:33
Speaker 1: I would be as a friend. I would have been
28:35
Speaker 1: asking you the same thing.
28:37
Speaker 4: And you know, obviously we're all glad that it worked
28:39
Speaker 4: out here, But there were a lot of days where
28:42
Speaker 4: I was like, what did I do? You know, there's
28:43
Speaker 4: certainly I'm not going to sit here and tell you
28:45
Speaker 4: it was this easy, you know, easy path. I went
28:47
Speaker 4: from you know, money not being a big variable in
28:50
Speaker 4: my life to hey, maybe hey, what's that cup on?
28:53
Speaker 3: What's that? What's that?
28:55
Speaker 1: Ms? Not terrible for Tuesday night?
28:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so you know, but I'm again, I'm so
29:00
Speaker 4: fortunate to have had that experience and grown from it.
29:03
Speaker 3: I was.
29:03
Speaker 4: I took it as a challenge. How do I how
29:05
Speaker 4: do I humble myself? How do I changed my life
29:07
Speaker 4: to accomplish my goals? And I'm glad I did it.
29:10
Speaker 1: I said the moneyball thing because I think when you
29:12
Speaker 1: got hired, that was thrown around a lot, and I
29:14
Speaker 1: kind of cringe because I'm like, he's more than that. Obviously,
29:17
Speaker 1: he's had a decade of experience in the NFL. He
29:19
Speaker 1: obviously scouts players like they go from Trent Balki to
29:23
Speaker 1: John Lynch. There's also a new leadership. How do you
29:26
Speaker 1: kind of integrate yourself into a new GM and try
29:30
Speaker 1: to sell yourself again and say here's what I bring,
29:32
Speaker 1: here's the value. I know Lynch is one of the greatest,
29:34
Speaker 1: but like, that's the thing. Also, the new Boston town.
29:36
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. I got to give a lot of
29:37
Speaker 3: credit to Jail.
29:38
Speaker 4: Jail's one of the most open minded, collaborative people I've
29:41
Speaker 4: ever met, and so a lot of that was just
29:44
Speaker 4: him wanting a lot of smart people in the room
29:46
Speaker 4: and he's like, Hey, if this guy's smart, I want
29:48
Speaker 4: to use him. And so, honestly, randomly, I had met
29:50
Speaker 4: Jail my second week on the job. He was doing
29:52
Speaker 4: TV a preseason game and they had asked me to
29:55
Speaker 4: go spot You know what spotting is?
29:57
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I didn't know what it was.
29:59
Speaker 1: So you were the spotter, like, hey, the third lineman
30:03
Speaker 1: on a spotter for the listeners at home. It's basically
30:05
Speaker 1: you're helping broadcast crew when they don't know all the players.
30:08
Speaker 1: You're pointing out who is and you're handing information and notes.
30:10
Speaker 1: So in a preseason game, when there's seventy five guys
30:12
Speaker 1: out there, you're the one who's kind of helping out
30:14
Speaker 1: the broadcaster saying and usually these guys are volunteers, but
30:17
Speaker 1: you were doing it as an employee of the team.
30:19
Speaker 3: Right, So they asked me to do it.
30:21
Speaker 4: And I get there and Jail and Burke Carter there
30:23
Speaker 4: and I'm honest, I'm like, hey, I have no idea
30:25
Speaker 4: what I'm doing, and they're just and they called somebody
30:27
Speaker 4: it right away.
30:28
Speaker 3: Jail's like, hey, man, I love you, but we're going
30:31
Speaker 3: to go with somebody else.
30:32
Speaker 4: And so I love so the first day on the
30:34
Speaker 4: job that we kind of rehashed and laughed about that storage.
30:37
Speaker 4: But yeah, So I met Jail, and obviously I hadent
30:40
Speaker 4: a lot of research to help with the hiring process
30:43
Speaker 4: and just talking about the great organizations what they have
30:45
Speaker 4: and they have alignment and people with no ego and
30:48
Speaker 4: collaborative and different things like that. And Jail was the living,
30:51
Speaker 4: breathing embodiment of that. And I had written this document
30:54
Speaker 4: for the forty nine ers that talked about all these things.
30:56
Speaker 4: And he read it and there was a quote on
30:58
Speaker 4: there by a family friend of his talk about life
31:01
Speaker 4: being just this is random connection and he's like, hey,
31:04
Speaker 4: who wrote this?
31:04
Speaker 3: Who you know? And it was a trader.
31:06
Speaker 4: It was a trader that I, you know, one of
31:08
Speaker 4: my trading you know people that I looked up to
31:10
Speaker 4: when I was in that industry, So he.
31:11
Speaker 1: Was that trader. I love getting the credit here in
31:13
Speaker 1: the names.
31:13
Speaker 3: Paul Tutor Jones. He's one of the best best there is.
31:16
Speaker 4: I read about him in a book called Market Wizards,
31:18
Speaker 4: and that was actually when I started to change my
31:21
Speaker 4: mind frame and trading and really started to understand what
31:23
Speaker 4: that business was. And so to have that quote be
31:26
Speaker 4: a thing that me and him were able to connect on,
31:28
Speaker 4: it's just you talk about life being just this fortunate circle.
31:31
Speaker 3: I'm just so happy that we had that relationship.
31:33
Speaker 1: All right, and not to a pinpoint what you did
31:34
Speaker 1: for the forty nine ers. But before we move on
31:36
Speaker 1: to your next stage in your career, let's just say
31:38
Speaker 1: the Niners we know so smart with compensatory picks, always
31:42
Speaker 1: loading up with things that you wouldn't expect. Also great
31:44
Speaker 1: on day three. So I'm just going to say a
31:46
Speaker 1: name and just hypothetically tell me, like when this may
31:49
Speaker 1: pick was made, like your role in the process or
31:51
Speaker 1: what you're input, Like George Kittle's a fifth round pick
31:54
Speaker 1: and you were there, So what's Quacy do to help
31:58
Speaker 1: contribute to a George Kittle selection?
32:00
Speaker 3: So that was the first year they got there.
32:02
Speaker 4: So I wasn't as involved in drafting business I was,
32:04
Speaker 4: but I did things. I did models, a lot of
32:06
Speaker 4: models that would take information like their on field production
32:09
Speaker 4: or their combine and kind of give a number that says, hey,
32:12
Speaker 4: this is pretty good. This is actually better than everybody's
32:14
Speaker 4: talked about. So they had all my model grades, and
32:16
Speaker 4: our models liked him a little bit better than the consensus.
32:19
Speaker 3: But I said this at my opening press conference. I didn't.
32:23
Speaker 4: I didn't say George Kiddo would be the you know,
32:24
Speaker 4: one of the best tight ends that ever play this game.
32:26
Speaker 4: I'm not going to sit here and try and take
32:27
Speaker 4: that credit. But on the margins, it did like him
32:30
Speaker 4: a little bit better than you know, some other sources did.
32:32
Speaker 1: Sure. All right, so you have this great success with
32:34
Speaker 1: San Francisco, you know, all the way to a super Bowl.
32:39
Speaker 1: Then you go to Cleveland. Do you join Andrew Berry
32:40
Speaker 1: in Cleveland? Another IVY League guy from a different school.
32:43
Speaker 1: Of course, he's a Harvard Man. How do you make
32:46
Speaker 1: that jump to Cleveland? And why did you make that jump?
32:48
Speaker 4: That's a blessing, you know. I met Andrew in an
32:50
Speaker 4: elevator bank at the combine.
32:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, decidedly.
32:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, completely random.
32:54
Speaker 4: And I had heard about him, and I guess in
32:55
Speaker 4: hindsight he had maybe heard a couple of things about me.
32:58
Speaker 4: But you know, we just started a relationship pad dinner.
33:00
Speaker 4: You got a network. You got to meet people. You
33:02
Speaker 4: never know when their opportunity would come. And I had
33:05
Speaker 4: dinner with him in about five minutes. I was like, Oh,
33:07
Speaker 4: this guy's gonna be a GM. You know, it's if
33:09
Speaker 4: you've met Andrew Bert before, you would know that brilliant,
33:12
Speaker 4: brilliant kid, just down to earth, great human, great family.
33:15
Speaker 4: Just and so you know, that relationship started. And look,
33:19
Speaker 4: you've seen what was in that San Francisco building. There
33:22
Speaker 4: was a logjam of really talented people.
33:23
Speaker 1: Let's go through the news. Because Rand Carthon's now at
33:26
Speaker 1: GM with Tennessee John Lynch Parague is now going to
33:28
Speaker 1: own leads. I think I think that's about happening yourself.
33:34
Speaker 1: Who else we got, like, who are there other? Brian
33:36
Speaker 1: Hampton really well regarded.
33:37
Speaker 4: Brian Hampton, Ethan Wallas now assistant GM, and Jacksonville, Adam Peters.
33:41
Speaker 4: Adam Peters is a stud So you're just talking about
33:43
Speaker 4: a lot of people, And look, I wanted that next
33:46
Speaker 4: step of my career I wanted to grow. There's certain
33:48
Speaker 4: rooms and conversations I wanted to see and be a
33:50
Speaker 4: part of. And sometimes you have to leave in your
33:52
Speaker 4: career to go take that opportunity. But that doesn't mean
33:54
Speaker 4: there's not a ton of love and respect and admimation
33:57
Speaker 4: for the people I work with in San Francisco.
33:58
Speaker 1: So you go to Cleveland and then the Minnesota GM
34:01
Speaker 1: job opens up. You interviewed for Chicago as well.
34:03
Speaker 3: I want to say, yes, I did.
34:05
Speaker 1: How do you prep for a general manager position? In
34:08
Speaker 1: those interviews and Minnesota specifically, what did you hone in
34:12
Speaker 1: on and really try to get that job because it's
34:14
Speaker 1: one of the obviously crown jewel franchises in the NFL.
34:17
Speaker 4: You know, for a GM job, it's really you have
34:19
Speaker 4: great mentors that help you. So Andrew Barry was one
34:21
Speaker 4: of my best sources. I joke with him, I think
34:24
Speaker 4: I owed him a commission just for getting all the preparation.
34:27
Speaker 3: You know. Really, when I first got there, he said, way,
34:29
Speaker 3: you're going to be a jam one day.
34:31
Speaker 4: And I wasn't even sure at that point that I
34:32
Speaker 4: should be a VP of ops, you know, and he
34:35
Speaker 4: was pushing me, Hey, if you're making decisions.
34:37
Speaker 3: What would you do? What would you do?
34:39
Speaker 4: And so really I had a book and a really
34:41
Speaker 4: an approach and a thought process built over two years.
34:43
Speaker 4: So I was ready when I got to those positions
34:45
Speaker 4: because of him. And then people like Charlie Cashley, who
34:48
Speaker 4: you know, is really helpful. He reached out to me,
34:50
Speaker 4: somebody I just texted with the other day, just kind
34:52
Speaker 4: of taught me about, you know, how things go, how
34:55
Speaker 4: different buildings, the history of the game and all different things.
34:57
Speaker 4: You really just want to get ready, get prepared with
34:59
Speaker 4: their roster, but they have to leave that in that
35:01
Speaker 4: interview knowing who you are, who is Quacy? What are
35:04
Speaker 4: the four things that we're going to get with Quacy?
35:06
Speaker 4: And honestly, that's just genuinely that's got to come from
35:08
Speaker 4: who you are. That can't that can't be fake. I
35:11
Speaker 4: can't try and be Andrew Berry or John Lynch. I
35:14
Speaker 4: got to be the genuine to myself. You know, I'll
35:16
Speaker 4: never forget the first banking interview I had in college.
35:19
Speaker 3: I got to the final round and I got nervous.
35:22
Speaker 4: I was like, well, I got to try and act
35:24
Speaker 4: like what I think an investment banker is going to
35:26
Speaker 4: be like, and I didn't get the job.
35:27
Speaker 3: I got.
35:27
Speaker 4: Getting get the job is the only interview, at least
35:29
Speaker 4: in that cycle that I didn't get the job. When
35:31
Speaker 4: I got to the fine around and I told myself,
35:33
Speaker 4: if you're going to go out, just be you. Yeah,
35:35
Speaker 4: if that's not good enough, that's okay, but just be yourself.
35:38
Speaker 4: And I took that and obviously was that in the
35:40
Speaker 4: interview process. And look, I'm a little different. You know,
35:42
Speaker 4: I'm gonna say words and in a football interview that
35:45
Speaker 4: other people aren't going to say. But I'm going to say,
35:47
Speaker 4: I'm going to be myself, be my authentic self. And
35:49
Speaker 4: ultimately that took me where I wanted to go. But
35:51
Speaker 4: the minicine or interview. What I was so impressed with
35:53
Speaker 4: their process was a lot of it was about leadership,
35:56
Speaker 4: leadership and culture. I think a lot of times people
35:59
Speaker 4: like you said earlier, trying to make the GM job
36:01
Speaker 4: head scout, and that is a portion of the job,
36:04
Speaker 4: but a lot of the job is leadership, setting up, process.
36:06
Speaker 3: Building, culture, vision, all those things.
36:09
Speaker 4: And Minnesota immediately impressed me with how they sought out
36:12
Speaker 4: those things.
36:13
Speaker 3: So it was just a match.
36:14
Speaker 4: And I know they tell the story of how I
36:16
Speaker 4: came skipping down the stairs from my office to my wife,
36:20
Speaker 4: But it really was I was so invigorated by by
36:22
Speaker 4: that because those are the things that I had prepared for.
36:24
Speaker 4: That's what I think is important in the job. Look,
36:26
Speaker 4: I'm going to hire smarter analytics people than me. I'm
36:29
Speaker 4: going to hire better scouts. To me, that's the point.
36:32
Speaker 4: I've got to just know enough to be dangerous, to
36:33
Speaker 4: be able to manage them, lead and combine all the
36:35
Speaker 4: information to make decisions. And I think coming from Minnesota's
36:39
Speaker 4: interview process, I was sure that that's what they.
36:41
Speaker 3: Were looking for.
36:41
Speaker 4: And then to your point, the ownership group, I mean,
36:44
Speaker 4: the Wolfs are just they're incredible people.
36:46
Speaker 1: I think it's not to cut you off. I think
36:47
Speaker 1: it's the best facility in the NFL. I would say question.
36:50
Speaker 1: I think the NFLPA survey said a lot. When you
36:53
Speaker 1: have a plus across the board for the way people
36:55
Speaker 1: are treated and the will family. They're relatively new owners
36:59
Speaker 1: i'd say last twenty years. Obviously they took over and
37:01
Speaker 1: you get that new stadium thing, like players love playing
37:04
Speaker 1: there too, so you've got a nice advantage in your
37:07
Speaker 1: back corner where there's like a lot of positive things
37:09
Speaker 1: going on before you even step into.
37:11
Speaker 3: The job, no question and no question.
37:13
Speaker 4: And look at these jounts are so rare though, So
37:16
Speaker 4: it's not like I was sitting there saying, you know,
37:18
Speaker 4: let me hold out for the crown Jewel type of Minnesota.
37:21
Speaker 4: But you know, good fortune had it that they liked
37:23
Speaker 4: what I was putting down, and I obviously loved the
37:25
Speaker 4: organization that I came to.
37:26
Speaker 1: All Right, so you get there. Last year, you guys
37:29
Speaker 1: win thirteen games, You win I think eleven games like
37:32
Speaker 1: in the by one score, like I would have to
37:34
Speaker 1: imagine that maybe you didn't. Maybe we were like, we're
37:37
Speaker 1: gonna win Suer Bowl in your one. But that's at
37:39
Speaker 1: the bar pretty high for year two and beyond, what
37:41
Speaker 1: was your one? Like with Kevin O'Connell.
37:43
Speaker 4: That that was incredible. You know, I can't believe we've
37:45
Speaker 4: gotten this far without talking about Ko. But you know,
37:48
Speaker 4: he's just my po he's my partner in crime.
37:50
Speaker 1: Did you guys have a good relationship in San France?
37:52
Speaker 3: We met, we had lunches together because he's just such
37:54
Speaker 3: a great guy.
37:55
Speaker 1: And I remember the man. But it was a chip right,
37:57
Speaker 1: it was chippy day and Kevin O'Connell. They had all
37:59
Speaker 1: these young guys.
38:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, and he had this weird title like special Projects
38:03
Speaker 4: or something like that. So we joke I was the
38:05
Speaker 4: R and D analyst and he was specially or Projects.
38:06
Speaker 4: And now we're head coaching GM together. But we had
38:09
Speaker 4: lunch together a few times. And I remember, again, like
38:12
Speaker 4: I said, I picked people's brain when I get to
38:14
Speaker 4: talk to him.
38:14
Speaker 3: So I asked him about quarterback play.
38:16
Speaker 4: And so when the wils asked me about him after
38:18
Speaker 4: my first interview, I was like, oh, you know, I
38:20
Speaker 4: haven't stay in touch with him, but he used to
38:21
Speaker 4: tell me the smartest thing about quarterbacks and I just
38:24
Speaker 4: kind of left, could not think of anything of it,
38:26
Speaker 4: you know. And obviously then I get to the GM
38:29
Speaker 4: job and I know that they think they're in high
38:31
Speaker 4: regard with him, and I watched the interview and I
38:33
Speaker 4: start doing my reference work. I mean, he's a home run,
38:36
Speaker 4: a a plus guy, and I think we can win
38:38
Speaker 4: championships together.
38:39
Speaker 3: I just got to do my part of the equation
38:41
Speaker 3: and handle the business.
38:42
Speaker 4: But you know, last year was incredible, you know, and
38:45
Speaker 4: obviously it's set a high bar and you don't know,
38:48
Speaker 4: you can't when.
38:48
Speaker 3: People say exceed expectations.
38:50
Speaker 4: In the NFL, there's just the margins are so thin,
38:53
Speaker 4: so thin, right, you know, And so I think you
38:55
Speaker 4: can generally say, hey, I think we're a playoff team,
38:58
Speaker 4: or we're a team that should be Final four good
39:00
Speaker 4: or maybe bottom third good, but you don't really know specifically,
39:03
Speaker 4: As you said, thirteen or eleven to one score games
39:06
Speaker 4: for them go differently, the records different I understand that.
39:09
Speaker 3: I'm not going to sit here and tell you I don't.
39:11
Speaker 4: But you can set yourself up to succeed with a
39:14
Speaker 4: team that you think should be a playoff team, and
39:16
Speaker 4: we did.
39:16
Speaker 3: We thought we had a good team.
39:17
Speaker 4: With the culture, real building, the veteran leadership that we had,
39:20
Speaker 4: we were really and ultimately that's what I think Carrie
39:23
Speaker 4: the day in those eleven to one score games, right,
39:25
Speaker 4: veteran leadership. And this year we're taking the bet that
39:28
Speaker 4: those young players that were on the roster that saw
39:30
Speaker 4: those games, now, hey, this.
39:31
Speaker 3: Is the standard.
39:32
Speaker 4: This is how the Minnesota Vikings show up and show out,
39:35
Speaker 4: and so that's what we're thinking, little Carrie us this year.
39:38
Speaker 1: It's an interesting second season because you have the benefit
39:40
Speaker 1: of the doubt now after year one, but there are
39:42
Speaker 1: some popular guys. I think Adam Thielan is a beloved guy.
39:45
Speaker 1: Dalvin Cook was a beloved guy. You see their jerseys
39:47
Speaker 1: in the stands. But you made tough decisions. When you
39:49
Speaker 1: make those tough decisions, and then do you read the
39:52
Speaker 1: fan responses? Are you one of those guys that doesn't
39:55
Speaker 1: really like I would imagine a lot of fans are
39:57
Speaker 1: not thrilled when you let go of the longtime veterans
40:00
Speaker 1: who had great seasons last year with the Vikings.
40:03
Speaker 4: I got to Sapy, I don't know that you have
40:04
Speaker 4: benefit of the doubt in this business. I think it's
40:06
Speaker 4: as surely urgent business. The second that season ended, I
40:09
Speaker 4: went back to, you know, not make not knowing what
40:11
Speaker 4: I'm doing, and that's I respect that, that's that is
40:13
Speaker 4: the job. I'm one of those gms. He doesn't read it.
40:16
Speaker 4: Pretty private person. So one of the one of the
40:18
Speaker 4: hardest parts about this job for me is that, you know,
40:21
Speaker 4: I people say my name or anything like that. That's
40:24
Speaker 4: really hard for me. And so the way I kind
40:26
Speaker 4: of stay out of that is to just kind of
40:28
Speaker 4: not watch it. I tell my friends, please don't send
40:30
Speaker 4: me anything, and it's good or bad it's nothing to
40:33
Speaker 4: do with that. It's just, you know, I just want
40:34
Speaker 4: to stay focused because I'm really hard on myself. I
40:37
Speaker 4: don't know that any comment or on Reddit or Twitter
40:40
Speaker 4: or announcer could be any harder himself than myself. And
40:43
Speaker 4: so trust me, if there's stuff going wrong in this building,
40:46
Speaker 4: I'm the one who's who's driving that and driving us
40:48
Speaker 4: trying to get better and so yeah, but those are
40:51
Speaker 4: hard decisions. I can't sit here and tell you I
40:53
Speaker 4: know for certain right. Decision making under uncertainty is because
40:56
Speaker 4: you don't know. But you have to have a good process,
40:59
Speaker 4: make your bets, and ultimately with the consequences. And that's
41:02
Speaker 4: what we do in this building.
41:07
Speaker 1: Really quick, a couple quick hitters, and then we'll let
41:09
Speaker 1: you go because this has been really informative and we've
41:12
Speaker 1: got to know you at a different level than just transaction.
41:15
Speaker 2: X y Z.
41:15
Speaker 1: Here's how it was done. Your greatest mentor of your career,
41:20
Speaker 1: who you would point to and say this is the
41:21
Speaker 1: person I take leadership lessons from would be.
41:23
Speaker 4: Who oh man, come on, it's like name of my
41:27
Speaker 4: top five rappers. Man, I'm going to hurt somebody if
41:30
Speaker 4: I leave them out. Yeah, I got a name, one.
41:32
Speaker 1: Name, two or three. Let me hear the names. I
41:34
Speaker 1: love this.
41:35
Speaker 4: Stuff, all right, Okay, I'm going to go Andrew Berry. Obviously,
41:38
Speaker 4: I think he's a superhuman. I don't sometimes don't know
41:41
Speaker 4: if there's anybody more qualified to do this job than him.
41:44
Speaker 4: John Lynch, just the genuineness with which he conducts business,
41:48
Speaker 4: open mind.
41:48
Speaker 3: It is like all the stuff I talk about. Just
41:50
Speaker 3: really a hero of mine.
41:52
Speaker 4: And then if I can give you like an off one, yeah,
41:54
Speaker 4: you know, outside of football, My mom my hero.
41:57
Speaker 3: You know.
41:58
Speaker 4: I think she's an incredible person. She taught me how
42:00
Speaker 4: to lead her way. Her way was demanding process. She
42:03
Speaker 4: always demanded that I tried hard. It was never what
42:06
Speaker 4: happened at the end of the result. It was hey,
42:08
Speaker 4: well what did you put into it? Can you get
42:10
Speaker 4: better next time? Her emotional just compassion for people, and
42:14
Speaker 4: that's how I try and lead. I need people to
42:16
Speaker 4: know that I care about him a lot, and that's
42:18
Speaker 4: something that's big with Kevin.
42:19
Speaker 3: So I'd be remiss to not mention her as well.
42:21
Speaker 1: I love it. The unsung member of the Minnesota Vikings
42:25
Speaker 1: roster that people might not talk enough about that you
42:28
Speaker 1: guys look at and You're like, that guy's a core
42:29
Speaker 1: pillar to what we're doing.
42:30
Speaker 4: Josh man Tellis, Josh man Tellis, I think he's a
42:33
Speaker 4: guy go on talk.
42:35
Speaker 1: Because I hear that name. I'm like, I don't see
42:37
Speaker 1: you know, Okay.
42:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, he's a safety and he'll play some more
42:40
Speaker 4: this year, so I think you'll see the stuff that
42:41
Speaker 4: we've seen before that. But he was a special teams
42:44
Speaker 4: just stalwart last year, team captain type. You know, I
42:47
Speaker 4: was in the team meeting room when later in the season,
42:50
Speaker 4: after somebody got hurt, he was giving team captain and
42:52
Speaker 4: you could feel when somebody's teammates really love them, really
42:55
Speaker 4: appreciate them, and really want to follow them into battle.
42:58
Speaker 3: And he's one of those guys. He's somebody.
43:00
Speaker 4: He's everything that the Minnesota Vikings are about, and I
43:03
Speaker 4: think the fans and people are going to really appreciate
43:05
Speaker 4: that more this season.
43:06
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins' best quality is what.
43:09
Speaker 4: He can make every throw. His arm talent, he's he's accurate,
43:12
Speaker 4: he can hit every level throw. The decision making is
43:16
Speaker 4: really solid. The game of football is you hold that ball,
43:19
Speaker 4: that beautiful ball that means everything, and you got to
43:22
Speaker 4: make sure that you take care of it. You don't
43:23
Speaker 4: give it to the other team, and you take chances
43:25
Speaker 4: when it's time. And obviously he would tell you could
43:27
Speaker 4: always improve, but that's one of the best things he
43:29
Speaker 4: does is make sure that he gives us a chance
43:31
Speaker 4: to win every Sunday, which he has done a time
43:33
Speaker 4: and time again in his career.
43:34
Speaker 1: Your top three rappers are.
43:36
Speaker 4: Whom well, okay, I came up in that era. Notorious, Notorious,
43:42
Speaker 4: that's my guy. You know, I'm an East Coast guy
43:44
Speaker 4: and just loved him, everything about him.
43:46
Speaker 3: His flow.
43:46
Speaker 1: See, I would think Philly, I would immediately go to
43:48
Speaker 1: these Philly rappers, but you're a South Jersey guy.
43:51
Speaker 3: I'm a South Jersey guy.
43:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean you're talking about all time, right,
43:54
Speaker 4: this is all time, all time.
43:56
Speaker 3: I gotta go him. You know, I'm a huge jay
43:59
Speaker 3: Z fan, yep.
44:00
Speaker 4: Just you know his style, his charisma, his lyrics, his
44:04
Speaker 4: ability to talk about things just in different ways. And
44:06
Speaker 4: then you talk about what he's become as a mogul,
44:09
Speaker 4: different areas of his life. Just an incredible and I
44:12
Speaker 4: don't know that I'm allowed to say this person anymore
44:14
Speaker 4: just because of how it's become.
44:15
Speaker 3: But I was a big Kanye fan.
44:17
Speaker 1: I think there his music is still genius.
44:19
Speaker 4: He's a genius, right, I think he's an unbelievable creative.
44:22
Speaker 4: You know, just somebody I've always been impressed with. I
44:25
Speaker 4: think what something I love about musicians is their ability
44:28
Speaker 4: to elicit feelings listen, you know, create feelings for other people.
44:32
Speaker 4: And he's somebody just I can think back to very
44:35
Speaker 4: vivid memories in my life, happy, sad, elated, whatever it is.
44:39
Speaker 4: And there's a Kanye song that kind of will play
44:41
Speaker 4: in the background to it.
44:43
Speaker 1: And then my last one. Your message to Vikings fans
44:46
Speaker 1: about this twenty twenty three team and what you guys
44:48
Speaker 1: hope to do moving forward.
44:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I think it's a little bit of unknowns, right.
44:53
Speaker 4: You've moved on for some of the players that you've
44:55
Speaker 4: come to know and love, and we've got to take
44:56
Speaker 4: a chance together to really appreciate and embrace these young players.
45:00
Speaker 4: But you know, they've been on this team, they're learning
45:02
Speaker 4: this culture. We're really excited about what we are. We're younger,
45:05
Speaker 4: you know, we're fast, we're hungry. We've got two great
45:08
Speaker 4: coaches on both sides of the ball. Kevin obviously, West
45:10
Speaker 4: Phillips is offensive cording to Brian Flores, who you know,
45:13
Speaker 4: we have closed the man we haven't talked about, but
45:15
Speaker 4: he's he's a special cat. And so I think people
45:17
Speaker 4: are gonna love what they see and we're building towards
45:20
Speaker 4: something great. I just just know that they know that
45:23
Speaker 4: our goal is to win at the highest level, and
45:25
Speaker 4: that's how we're gonna measure myself over these these years
45:27
Speaker 4: that they give me a chance, and uh, you know,
45:30
Speaker 4: that's what we're trying to aspire to in every move
45:32
Speaker 4: that we make is with that in mind.
45:34
Speaker 1: We didn't even mention justin Jefferson's name, we didn't mention
45:37
Speaker 1: Howkinson's name. Like, there's so many guys we can go
45:40
Speaker 1: through here, but real quick, the first round pick Addison,
45:43
Speaker 1: who we haven't seen in an NFL field yet, you
45:45
Speaker 1: scattered him obviously. I love I love him coming out.
45:48
Speaker 1: We're gonna draft you, We're gonna get paid, and you're like,
45:50
Speaker 1: g You're like, well, we're gonna pay you what you're paid,
45:53
Speaker 1: but yes, maybe in the second contract. What do we
45:56
Speaker 1: get out of Jordan Addison so far since he's been
45:58
Speaker 1: around just in rookie camp and whatever else.
46:00
Speaker 4: And it's so funny that that was the interaction people saw.
46:03
Speaker 4: He is he is so quiet, works his butt off,
46:06
Speaker 4: U super cerebral studies as plays.
46:09
Speaker 1: Because I feel like it was a natural thing to say.
46:10
Speaker 1: He didn't mean like financially, we're gonna get you say.
46:14
Speaker 4: I say to everybody, if if they've just achieved their
46:17
Speaker 4: childhood dream, what comes out of their mouth might not
46:19
Speaker 4: be what they think comes out of their mouth.
46:20
Speaker 3: And so but now he's incredible.
46:22
Speaker 4: You talk about an elite separator off the line of scrimmage,
46:25
Speaker 4: he just he just understands body feel, leverage, how to separate,
46:29
Speaker 4: get open from guys.
46:30
Speaker 3: Really good hands, good after the catch up.
46:32
Speaker 4: We're really excited to have them, and we're gonna make
46:33
Speaker 4: teams think about what they want to do to us
46:35
Speaker 4: on the offense side of the football. With that alien
46:37
Speaker 4: Justinett Jefferson and the TJ and then Jordan and then
46:40
Speaker 4: kJ and the run game, we're gonna get going. It's
46:43
Speaker 4: just we got we got a lot of options so
46:44
Speaker 4: we can we can stress defenses, and we're really excited
46:46
Speaker 4: about what we're going to be doing on that side
46:47
Speaker 4: of the ball.
46:48
Speaker 1: You got things to do. I appreciate you so much
46:50
Speaker 1: for taking the time and in another interview we'll talk
46:52
Speaker 1: about the backdoor pass and what it means to Princeton
46:54
Speaker 1: basketball and why do you have to execute it and
46:56
Speaker 1: why Pete Carmody was just as good as Pete curlew okay,
47:00
Speaker 1: Pete Carmony or Bill Carmondy. What was his car?
47:02
Speaker 3: Bill?
47:02
Speaker 1: Bill Cardy? I loved Princeton basketball and Crazy loved our
47:06
Speaker 1: time together. Dude, thank you so much for taking all
47:09
Speaker 1: this time, especially where there's mandatory mini camps and you're
47:11
Speaker 1: not sitting on the beach. We really appreciate it.
47:13
Speaker 3: Shrake's always a pleasure man.
47:14
Speaker 1: Crazy's unbelievable. I just think he's really authentic and he
47:18
Speaker 1: is who he is, and he's made really tough decisions
47:21
Speaker 1: and Aaron, you're listening to him. I kind of. I
47:23
Speaker 1: didn't mean to dismiss the other types of gms who
47:25
Speaker 1: are lifetime scouts, but like, his background is not a
47:29
Speaker 1: linear Hey, you do this. You work in an organization
47:31
Speaker 1: for fifteen years as the VP of personnel, You scout
47:34
Speaker 1: the Southeast region, you scout the Southwest region. You eventually
47:37
Speaker 1: go to college and do I don't know what you think.
47:40
Speaker 1: You find him really impressive.
47:41
Speaker 2: I loved him. I mean, I love anyone who's in
47:44
Speaker 2: a high position who's also like I am, not like
47:49
Speaker 2: worried about what I don't know. I will go and
47:51
Speaker 2: ask someone I'm not going to be self conscious about
47:53
Speaker 2: saying I don't get the run scheme. Tell me about
47:56
Speaker 2: the run game and learning from those people who know it,
47:59
Speaker 2: and then like making decisions with that. So I love
48:01
Speaker 2: I love his whole vibe. I was texting my Vikings
48:04
Speaker 2: friends throughout. I was like, we've got this Guy's amazing.
48:07
Speaker 2: You guys should be very happy.
48:09
Speaker 1: I'll tell you though, it's funny because there's a humility
48:11
Speaker 1: in there, and he could be arrogant, he could be
48:12
Speaker 1: a know it all. He could come off that way
48:14
Speaker 1: because when you start mentioning Princeton and Stanford and the
48:18
Speaker 1: word analytics in the NFL, people are very quickly turned
48:21
Speaker 1: off and say, oh, here we go. Here comes the
48:22
Speaker 1: nerd in the room or the know it all in
48:24
Speaker 1: the room. But his humility is so disarming that he says,
48:28
Speaker 1: I just want to learn and I want to be
48:29
Speaker 1: the best I can be and help others. And it's
48:32
Speaker 1: almost like that approach to it. How could you do
48:34
Speaker 1: anything but root for that guy?
48:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, he was great about talking about how
48:39
Speaker 2: difficult some of the roster decisions are. But he seemed
48:42
Speaker 2: so thoughtful about it too. I don't know not to
48:44
Speaker 2: just like kiss up to him, but I thought he
48:47
Speaker 2: was great.
48:47
Speaker 1: I know. Yeah, very quick transition, yet one of the
48:51
Speaker 1: most startling left turns we can do, from talking football
48:54
Speaker 1: with Quasi Adofo Mensa to something you told Jason English
48:59
Speaker 1: and I Jason, of course our iHeart partner. Here we
49:04
Speaker 1: were in between transitions and you were talking about the
49:07
Speaker 1: Tonys and he said that you have a love for
49:09
Speaker 1: theater as well, and in passing, I said, you know
49:12
Speaker 1: Leah Michelle, she performed, but she wasn't nominated, and you
49:16
Speaker 1: went through the rules that she wasn't eligible because she
49:19
Speaker 1: didn't originate the rule. And then you mentioned that you
49:23
Speaker 1: knew some of the people because so.
49:26
Speaker 2: Alex Knewell who won last night. I know Alex because
49:29
Speaker 2: the two of us auditioned together for Glee, and go on.
49:34
Speaker 1: I've known you for a year. I know you tried
49:36
Speaker 1: out for Glee.
49:38
Speaker 2: It was, you know, a different iteration of my life,
49:40
Speaker 2: but specifically for the Glee Project, which was like the
49:43
Speaker 2: feeding program into Glee and I was living in Houston
49:49
Speaker 2: at the time. I think sent in like a video.
49:51
Speaker 1: On how old high school college?
49:53
Speaker 2: Well, no, no, no, this was post college.
49:55
Speaker 1: I was post college, like I'm going to try out
49:56
Speaker 1: for the show Glee or the Glee.
49:58
Speaker 2: Prop early twenties, early twenties. Yeah. I remember like texting
50:02
Speaker 2: some of my friends and I was like, could I
50:04
Speaker 2: pass as like a high school student? And they're like, yes,
50:07
Speaker 2: like you could pass as a high school student now,
50:10
Speaker 2: like you know, so auditioned made it through. However, many rounds.
50:14
Speaker 2: They flew us out to LA and one of the
50:16
Speaker 2: first people I met was Alex, and like immediately hit
50:20
Speaker 2: it off with Alex. Was blown away by how incredible
50:26
Speaker 2: Alex's voice was, like from this is I don't know
50:29
Speaker 2: how many years ago, absolutely incredible. I think Alex was
50:33
Speaker 2: coming from high school.
50:34
Speaker 1: And Alex goes on to get cast it in Glee.
50:37
Speaker 1: You do not, And then now Alex wins best lead
50:41
Speaker 1: in a musical for the role in Shucked.
50:44
Speaker 2: Yes, Shucked.
50:45
Speaker 1: Are you close enough with Alex where you would text
50:47
Speaker 1: Alex this morning and be like, no.
50:50
Speaker 2: Not texting me this morning, not texting this morning, but like,
50:53
Speaker 2: you know, we've seen each other in New York, and
50:55
Speaker 2: I've seen Alex perform other shows. But yeah, I'm not
50:59
Speaker 2: like last night. I'm not running to my phone to
51:02
Speaker 2: text Alex kind of thing. But yeah, no, Alex is
51:05
Speaker 2: absolutely incredible. I mean, they're probably like five or six
51:08
Speaker 2: vocalists that I've worked with in my life where I'm like,
51:12
Speaker 2: I sing and I don't understand what you're doing.
51:15
Speaker 1: Who are the other vocalists? Give me? I just put
51:17
Speaker 1: on Kosi on and he gave me. Not gonna say
51:20
Speaker 1: stock answers, but you couldn't get wrong saying Bigie, jay
51:22
Speaker 1: Z and Kanye First, the ones that you've seen in person,
51:26
Speaker 1: and then your greatest vocalist in the history. Do you go, Jay, Selene,
51:31
Speaker 1: do you go Luther Van Dross, may a woman, you go?
51:34
Speaker 1: Anywhere you want. Let's start with the ones that you've
51:36
Speaker 1: seen in person.
51:37
Speaker 2: Seen and worked with. Alex is probably number one. There's
51:40
Speaker 2: an opera singer I worked with in Houston named Kenneth
51:43
Speaker 2: Gale who performed here at Carnegie Hall maybe two or
51:46
Speaker 2: three months ago. I went and got to see Ken perform.
51:48
Speaker 2: Ken is like just the most powerful voice. That long
51:52
Speaker 2: story to this, but the short version is I was
51:54
Speaker 2: once on a yacht, like in the middle of the
51:57
Speaker 2: ocean as Ken is performing Nesting Dorma and like on
52:01
Speaker 2: the deck of the boat and it's amazing. And then yeah, yeah,
52:06
Speaker 2: two long start yeah. And then I would say probably
52:11
Speaker 2: the third vocalist. There's a singer in Houston, Sarah Golden,
52:17
Speaker 2: who was on the voice and now she does performances
52:22
Speaker 2: for like the Astros, like doing national anthem and stuff.
52:26
Speaker 2: And Sarah just plays the guitar and I wrote some
52:28
Speaker 2: songs and sang with her a bunch when we were
52:30
Speaker 2: in Houston, and Sarah's voice just is outstanding. And then
52:34
Speaker 2: I have another friend from Houston, Trisha Fox, who the
52:37
Speaker 2: two of us sang together and like we Her voice
52:41
Speaker 2: is so different from mine, and yet the two of
52:43
Speaker 2: us sounded like we were siblings, Like our voice is blended.
52:45
Speaker 2: So that's a long thing. So and then the love
52:49
Speaker 2: singers that I would say like their voices are the
52:52
Speaker 2: ones I'm always impressed with Torri Kelly, like for the
52:56
Speaker 2: modern vocalist.
52:57
Speaker 1: I loved Kelly in the sing movies. Yes Yeah, beautiful
53:02
Speaker 1: voice in those films.
53:03
Speaker 2: There's a video of her on YouTube performing pyt by
53:08
Speaker 2: Michael Jackson, and she has this vocal lick.
53:11
Speaker 1: I want to say Tory was one of the original
53:13
Speaker 1: Scooter Braun finds too right, Like didn't Scooter find Toy
53:16
Speaker 1: and help bring.
53:16
Speaker 2: Her to fame okay on YouTube? And she's just like
53:18
Speaker 2: sitting there, like playing guitar and singing. And I've worked
53:22
Speaker 2: with other people who've worked with her. I think her
53:25
Speaker 2: voice is unbelievable. There's another current one. Her name's Nao.
53:32
Speaker 2: I think it's now. I don't know the actual pronunciation.
53:35
Speaker 2: Her voice does like these octave jumps that are ough incredible,
53:42
Speaker 2: and then like I have to go with like Nina
53:46
Speaker 2: Simone is yea, her voice is. If I could only
53:50
Speaker 2: listen to one thing and it was her voice, I
53:52
Speaker 2: would be completely happy.
53:53
Speaker 1: It's just those are not stock answers. You could have
53:56
Speaker 1: very easily, said Mariah Whitney Celine Dion, and you know,
54:01
Speaker 1: here we go. I'm gonna go, Barry Manilo, Luther Vandross
54:05
Speaker 1: whoever you know you want to go. I appreciate those answers.
54:09
Speaker 1: This is the most cultured podcast we've ever done. I
54:12
Speaker 1: love this. I love this because I'm a geek for it. Look,
54:17
Speaker 1: I always say this and my wife and I we
54:19
Speaker 1: try to do it as often as possible. We live
54:22
Speaker 1: in New York City. When you choose to live in
54:24
Speaker 1: New York City, if you don't take advantage of the arts,
54:28
Speaker 1: if you don't take advantage of the restaurants, you're not
54:30
Speaker 1: getting the biggest bang for your buck. And you could
54:32
Speaker 1: say New York is dead. You could say that you
54:34
Speaker 1: know it's time to move out and go set up
54:36
Speaker 1: shop in Austin or Malibu or whatever the people want
54:39
Speaker 1: to do. But there might be no cooler night out
54:42
Speaker 1: than a going to see a Broadway show and getting
54:44
Speaker 1: a great meal, or b going to like a small
54:47
Speaker 1: club north of one hundred Street and seeing a musician
54:52
Speaker 1: grind it out, and whether that be Lady Gaga when
54:54
Speaker 1: she was getting started, or whether that be you name it,
54:59
Speaker 1: a young musician. Like, that's pretty cool stuff. Have you
55:01
Speaker 1: ever heard of the Potash Twins. I'm gonna throw you
55:03
Speaker 1: for a loop here, the Potest Twins.
55:05
Speaker 2: You mentioned them like la week. Do you know that?
55:08
Speaker 2: I didn't know them? So I looked them up after that.
55:11
Speaker 2: I like, yeah, didn't know them beforehand.
55:13
Speaker 1: I'm really rooting for them. They are two twin brothers.
55:17
Speaker 1: They're twenty nine years old. They're from Omaha, Nebraska. They
55:20
Speaker 1: played trombone and trumpet and I got to know what
55:23
Speaker 1: the charity thing last week for Big Slick. They couldn't
55:25
Speaker 1: be greater young men, and like they're really good. And
55:29
Speaker 1: I went on YouTube and on Spotify and it's all
55:31
Speaker 1: originals and that's cool. But what they did at the
55:33
Speaker 1: Big Slick was they played Benny and the Jets and
55:36
Speaker 1: like dueling instruments and it was amazing. And they said
55:40
Speaker 1: that they work with all these hip hop artists and
55:42
Speaker 1: like whether it be t Paine or whether it be Drake,
55:46
Speaker 1: like they've been featured on their stuff. But I don't know,
55:49
Speaker 1: I think that's really cool. Like a young musician who
55:52
Speaker 1: plays trumpet and trombone performing with Drake sounds like it's
55:55
Speaker 1: pretty badass and that's very New York.
55:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.
55:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, and one of the great things too, like obviously
56:01
Speaker 2: not everyone can afford to go see a Broadway show.
56:03
Speaker 2: There's so many off Broadway shows, or you can like
56:06
Speaker 2: go see Broadway performers at fifty four below, Like I've
56:10
Speaker 2: seen Broadway stars do these small like cabaret style performances,
56:16
Speaker 2: which is like.
56:17
Speaker 1: Another way Sherry Lane Theater.
56:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's amazing.
56:20
Speaker 1: Unless Etharge and I have become friendly because of her
56:23
Speaker 1: Chief's fandom, and she shows up on the Tony's Last
56:27
Speaker 1: Night like presenting and I'm like, geez, Melissa, so I
56:30
Speaker 1: direct messaged her. I'm like, so great seeing you. She's
56:33
Speaker 1: got a Broadway show called I Think My Window or
56:35
Speaker 1: Come to My Window coming out in September, and it's
56:38
Speaker 1: based on all her book, her song, her soundtracks, all
56:41
Speaker 1: that stuff, and it was off Broadway, and I'm like,
56:45
Speaker 1: that's how it goes, like do you good enough? Off Broadway?
56:47
Speaker 1: Do well enough? It's gonna be a Broadway show. And
56:49
Speaker 1: I'm hoping for her because she's one of the coolest
56:51
Speaker 1: people I've ever met as far as celebrities go. I'm
56:55
Speaker 1: really hoping it's a success. There was another thing I
56:58
Speaker 1: want to say, like that good Night Oscar that Sean
57:01
Speaker 1: Hayes did, Like that started in Chicago and then it
57:03
Speaker 1: was off Broadway here then it was not like that's
57:06
Speaker 1: the stuff, man, that's cool. I love that.
57:08
Speaker 2: Like this is not a new show by any means,
57:10
Speaker 2: but I'd be remiss if we left the episode and
57:13
Speaker 2: I didn't mention these two names. Three names really Hadestown,
57:17
Speaker 2: which I've seen multiple times now I've lucked out and
57:19
Speaker 2: saw it.
57:20
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it, you know, I was supposed to
57:21
Speaker 1: see it then then COVID happened and we never went
57:24
Speaker 1: and saw it. But what a Hadestown is supposed to
57:26
Speaker 1: be unbelievable.
57:27
Speaker 2: It is amazing. I mean, like there's no shortage of
57:31
Speaker 2: people on the Internet talking about how great it is.
57:33
Speaker 2: I saw it in previews, so I saw the original cast.
57:37
Speaker 2: Amber Gray is like one of the most unique voices.
57:40
Speaker 2: She's no longer with the show. She's She's done a
57:43
Speaker 2: couple of things post Evan Noble Zada who originated the role.
57:48
Speaker 2: Actually I don't know if she originated, but she originated
57:50
Speaker 2: on Broadway. Just incredible, incredible performers in that. Yeah, and
57:57
Speaker 2: it's one of those things where it's amazing to see
58:00
Speaker 2: a show and then also no, like kind of like
58:03
Speaker 2: a sports team like someone else years Yeah, yeah.
58:07
Speaker 1: So haitistown one. What are the other two shows? If
58:09
Speaker 1: you're not a New Yorker and you're in town and
58:11
Speaker 1: you're like, you're not a theater person, but you want
58:12
Speaker 1: to see what are the other two suggestions?
58:15
Speaker 2: I mean, I love six. I don't know if you've
58:17
Speaker 2: seen six.
58:17
Speaker 1: My wife loved it. I didn't see it's supposed to be.
58:20
Speaker 2: I think it is incredible. Yeah. And then my number
58:26
Speaker 2: three right now, I mean shucked, even though I haven't
58:31
Speaker 2: seen it, I guess my number three. My number three
58:33
Speaker 2: would be like what can you get tickets to? Yeah,
58:37
Speaker 2: and just like surprise yourself with because there are a
58:39
Speaker 2: ton of things, like I said, off Broadway in Brooklyn
58:43
Speaker 2: like that, you never know what it's going to be.
58:45
Speaker 1: Like Yeah, like that Bruce, that Sydney Bluestein's window. You
58:49
Speaker 1: get to see Oscar Isaac and he's like baring his
58:52
Speaker 1: soul and it's like, you know, it's for forty bucks,
58:54
Speaker 1: fifty bucks in person you're watching, you know. The other
58:57
Speaker 1: one was I don't know the name of it, of
58:59
Speaker 1: fans it was at a time, but like Judy Coomer
59:02
Speaker 1: is like just a woven show and you're like, gosh,
59:05
Speaker 1: he's the US at their craft and they're doing it.
59:07
Speaker 1: So I don't know.
59:09
Speaker 2: I think there was a stretch where Bam had like
59:11
Speaker 2: Oscar Isaac and then like a month later James McAvoy
59:15
Speaker 2: and I mean, just like doing Shakespeare.
59:16
Speaker 1: They had Bobby conna Olli and rose Byrne together doing something.
59:21
Speaker 1: So anyway, this is the most amazing podcast we've ever done,
59:26
Speaker 1: and that we have probably a bunch of listeners who
59:28
Speaker 1: came in to listen to Kirk Cousin contract analysis, didn't
59:31
Speaker 1: get it from our interview with Quaycy. And then we're
59:34
Speaker 1: ending with talk about Hadestown and trying out for Glee. Aaron,
59:38
Speaker 1: That's why we do it. I get to know you
59:40
Speaker 1: more and more every single time we do this. Hopefully
59:42
Speaker 1: you respect my bona fides as we talk Broadway. Can
59:45
Speaker 1: I hold my own? Yeah? Okay? Good to the listeners,
59:49
Speaker 1: we love that you're listening. We're gonna keep going throughout
59:51
Speaker 1: the off season hopefully guests like this. I thought Quaycy
59:54
Speaker 1: was incredible and to those of you guys who listen,
59:57
Speaker 1: we really appreciate it, and obviously I'd like to thank everyone.
1:00:02
Speaker 1: That's what we do on this thing. So, Aaron, this
1:00:05
Speaker 1: was maybe one of my favorites we with you, Aaron
1:00:08
Speaker 1: Wan Kaufman, you are such a man of many talents.
1:00:10
Speaker 1: You are special. Jason English who is always sitting shotgun
1:00:14
Speaker 1: and listening from iHeart Matt Schneider of course and his
1:00:17
Speaker 1: team over there with Jason Kleinman and Meredith Batten and
1:00:21
Speaker 1: David Jurenka and all the folks back in New York.
1:00:23
Speaker 1: And then I want to thank Grace Fuz who has
1:00:26
Speaker 1: been our editor from day one, is fantastic editing these
1:00:29
Speaker 1: things together. And then Jack Rudd, who is our music man.
1:00:32
Speaker 1: We appreciate it. Guys, It's the Season with Peter Schregl
1:00:35
Speaker 1: will hit you next week. Enjoy your Broadway shows. The
1:00:56
Speaker 1: Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL
1:00:59
Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
1:01:02
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.