Latest / NFL explained. / Doug Pederson and Frank Reich
Transcript
- 0:10Speaker 1: What's going on everybody. I'm Peanut Tillmans. This is my guy,
- 0:13Speaker 1: Roman Harfer, and this is the NFL Players Second Acts Podcast.
- 0:16Speaker 1: We're in Phoenix, Arizona, at the NFL Annual Meetings. We've
- 0:20Speaker 1: got golf, we've got sunshine. We're trying to hit the
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- 0:26Speaker 1: two scratch is you're a true strash golfer. Don't be
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- 0:32Speaker 1: because we don't lie to you on this podcast. Here,
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- 0:47Speaker 1: check us out. This is what we do. We bring
- 0:49Speaker 1: you top tier guests, former players that are now all
- 0:53Speaker 1: in their second acts doing great things. And we got
- 0:55Speaker 1: two good ones to day. We got two former players
- 0:58Speaker 1: that are now head coaches. We have the Jacksonville Jaguars
- 1:02Speaker 1: head coach Doug Peterson and the new head coach of
- 1:05Speaker 1: the Carolina Panthers, Frank Reich, check it out. Today, we
- 1:12Speaker 1: got a special guest with us. This gentleman is the
- 1:15Speaker 1: head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He previously played for
- 1:18Speaker 1: the Packers. He won a super Bowl when he played
- 1:21Speaker 1: with the Packers, and he won a super Bowl when
- 1:23Speaker 1: he was a head coach with the Philadelphia Eagles. Welcome
- 1:27Speaker 1: to the show, Doug Peterson. You know what, let's just
- 1:33Speaker 1: get the awkwardness out of the way. Coach with the
- 1:35Speaker 1: Eagles could how what was it like to be in
- 1:38Speaker 1: Philadelphia to win a championship? Playing in Philadelphia under Shan
- 1:42Speaker 1: Well Sean Payton on the Saints we go to Philly.
- 1:45Speaker 1: He was like, look, the game. The game plan is
- 1:47Speaker 1: to get the crowd to boo by halftime because it
- 1:50Speaker 1: is so rough. And the fans they are so special
- 1:53Speaker 1: and they are so unique. What do you mean you
- 1:57Speaker 1: mean they're like they helped bring the Teagle? What was
- 2:03Speaker 1: that like? It was, Um, it's very special. I played
- 2:07Speaker 1: in that city. I worked with Coach Reid on his
- 2:10Speaker 1: staff in that city, and obviously I was a head
- 2:11Speaker 1: coach in that city. And it's um, you just said
- 2:15Speaker 1: something right there. When you were with the Saints and
- 2:17Speaker 1: and coach Peyton said, Hey, if we can jump up
- 2:19Speaker 1: and the crowd's gonna turn. Well. I took a Jacksonville
- 2:23Speaker 1: Jaguar team in there in Week four, Week three or
- 2:25Speaker 1: four this past year and I said the exact same thing.
- 2:28Speaker 1: I said, guys, if we get up on this, on
- 2:30Speaker 1: this guy, on these guys, the crowd is gonna turn.
- 2:33Speaker 1: And it was four, we were up, fourteen, nothing about
- 2:35Speaker 1: to go in twenty one, nothing and the crowd was
- 2:39Speaker 1: turning on him. It was turning on him. But but
- 2:41Speaker 1: that's their that's their passion. And then for for us
- 2:44Speaker 1: to win a championship that year, um, the way we
- 2:47Speaker 1: want it with the guys that we want it with. Uh,
- 2:50Speaker 1: you know, as you guys know, it's a special it's
- 2:52Speaker 1: a special bond. We've all been in the locker room.
- 2:54Speaker 1: We all understand what that means. And and uh, you know,
- 2:56Speaker 1: we lost some guys that year. But for the city
- 2:59Speaker 1: of phil Delphia to wait fifty two years and that
- 3:02Speaker 1: organization to win a championship, you know, Coach Reid took
- 3:06Speaker 1: him to a Super Bowl, and I have a lot
- 3:07Speaker 1: of respect for Coach Read they lost. He's been to
- 3:10Speaker 1: like five or six NFC championship games with the Eagles,
- 3:13Speaker 1: you know, and and so for us that year, um,
- 3:17Speaker 1: it's it's very special. And um, you know, I hate
- 3:20Speaker 1: to say, but there's a lot of Eagle fans around
- 3:22Speaker 1: this country. Yeah, I run into all the time. I
- 3:24Speaker 1: just couldn't get down with the grease selling them. The
- 3:26Speaker 1: poles didn't they like, oh, they didn't want him to
- 3:29Speaker 1: climb up them and to tear him down. But they
- 3:31Speaker 1: were still climbing up the boy were trees and they
- 3:35Speaker 1: just yea, yeah, they're just different. They got that little
- 3:38Speaker 1: jail selling and they had like a holding room in
- 3:42Speaker 1: there in the stadium. I mean, it's just Philly's Philly, man.
- 3:45Speaker 1: I mean I think that's I think that's what makes
- 3:47Speaker 1: Philly so unique. And a lot of respect for those fans,
- 3:51Speaker 1: and and I'll tell you they're they're passionate, but they're loyal.
- 3:54Speaker 1: I mean we I hate to say, we could be
- 3:56Speaker 1: four and ten and they're still gonna show out there's
- 4:00Speaker 1: they're gonna pack that you know, that stadium, and you
- 4:02Speaker 1: know they're gonna hang with you all season long. So
- 4:04Speaker 1: how would you compare Eagles fans to Packer fans? Now,
- 4:08Speaker 1: Packer fans are like, oh you know that that real
- 4:11Speaker 1: deep Wisconsin on all. You know, all they got that
- 4:15Speaker 1: that thing there. Oh, I've been there a few times.
- 4:19Speaker 1: I feel like they're like the nicest fans though, Like
- 4:21Speaker 1: they are extremely nice and loyal in the cold, and
- 4:26Speaker 1: they get so much snow. They don't throw snowballs out there.
- 4:28Speaker 1: Hold on, hold on bread far Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, they've
- 4:34Speaker 1: had two quarterbacks for like fifty years and you know
- 4:38Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So they've had it well, they've had
- 4:41Speaker 1: it good. They've been to they've had a lot of success.
- 4:43Speaker 1: They've been to a lot of playoff games, a couple
- 4:45Speaker 1: of Super Bowls. So it's a different crowd. But you're right,
- 4:48Speaker 1: they it's a it's a um. You know, in the
- 4:52Speaker 1: in the in the winter time, you're gonna see nothing
- 4:53Speaker 1: but blaze orange, you know, because they just caught got
- 4:56Speaker 1: out of the hunt Huntever and then they came to
- 4:59Speaker 1: a game at twelve noon. Um. But again, they're they're
- 5:03Speaker 1: they're very loyal, they're very supportive, they're passionate about the Packers.
- 5:07Speaker 1: I loved playing there for the eight years that I did. UM.
- 5:10Speaker 1: And again, there's a lot of Packer fans around this
- 5:12Speaker 1: country and I still run into a lot of them. Yeah,
- 5:15Speaker 1: they travel well, they do. They travel well. So when
- 5:18Speaker 1: you so when you were in Green Bay, um, I
- 5:21Speaker 1: was back on our Brett farm, Like, what was that
- 5:23Speaker 1: experience like for you? And how did you make it
- 5:26Speaker 1: last so long? Being his not just the back back
- 5:29Speaker 1: up to him, but that quarterback room what we had,
- 5:31Speaker 1: like because you had a lot of great coaches there too,
- 5:34Speaker 1: and all those Uh I had Steve Mariucci and ninety
- 5:37Speaker 1: five when I went there, and then and then it
- 5:38Speaker 1: transitioned to to Marty Morton Wagg and the ultimately we
- 5:41Speaker 1: had Andy Reid. Yeah, you know, Andy Reid was our
- 5:43Speaker 1: position coach there. Um. And you know Daryl Bevil who's
- 5:48Speaker 1: still coaching, he's in Miami right now. Um, you know,
- 5:50Speaker 1: he was one of our position coaches at the times.
- 5:52Speaker 1: We've had a lot of a lot of great coaches,
- 5:54Speaker 1: you know, coaches. Tom Rossley was the offensive coordinator at
- 5:57Speaker 1: the time, you know, and and then you know in
- 6:00Speaker 1: our room, there was there was Brett, There was Jim McMahon,
- 6:02Speaker 1: There was Matt Hasselback Jim, Yeah, Matt Hasselbeck was in there. Man. Yeah,
- 6:07Speaker 1: you know, we've we've had you know, Henry Burrus, who
- 6:11Speaker 1: oh my good from Canada? From Yeah you know why? Yes?
- 6:22Speaker 1: In Chicago app a great cup? Yeah, I want a
- 6:25Speaker 1: great cup. So we've had we've had really really good
- 6:28Speaker 1: uh quarterback rooms. Um. Obviously they were very lighthearted rooms.
- 6:34Speaker 1: There was football being taught, but we we enjoyed each
- 6:37Speaker 1: other and had had had a great time. So Doug
- 6:41Speaker 1: following up that question, so after you finish your career
- 6:44Speaker 1: playing wise, when did you know you wanted to get
- 6:47Speaker 1: in coaches? You just routed off seven different great head
- 6:50Speaker 1: coaches that were all around you at your different times
- 6:53Speaker 1: in Green Bay. We weren't even talking about with Derek.
- 6:56Speaker 1: Coach Rhodes was coaching defense too. I wasn't with him
- 7:00Speaker 1: though we missed. I missed I missed coach ros That's fine,
- 7:03Speaker 1: but you still had an influence of yeah, when did
- 7:07Speaker 1: you know that you want to get in that professor?
- 7:09Speaker 1: So my my last my last two years in Green Bay. Um,
- 7:14Speaker 1: I really started thinking, you know, I was the backup
- 7:17Speaker 1: quarterback and it really started getting me. Um thinking about
- 7:21Speaker 1: what I wanted to do after football, how I wanted
- 7:23Speaker 1: to transition. I wanted to stay in football somehow, someway
- 7:26Speaker 1: and so the wheel started turning. And it was not
- 7:28Speaker 1: untill that last year in two thousand and four that
- 7:31Speaker 1: I really felt like coaching was going to be in
- 7:33Speaker 1: my future. I just didn't know at what level, whether
- 7:35Speaker 1: it's gonna be high school, college, pro. You know, I
- 7:38Speaker 1: spent a lot of time with coaches picking their brains,
- 7:41Speaker 1: you know, to see just as you guys know, the
- 7:43Speaker 1: grind of a season, to grind a lot of year.
- 7:45Speaker 1: It's a lot a lot of time what these coaches
- 7:47Speaker 1: go through them like, I really really want to do
- 7:49Speaker 1: I really want to do that. You know, maybe if
- 7:52Speaker 1: you college. You know, if you're a college coach, you're
- 7:55Speaker 1: on the road recruiting, biting two cell phones. You know,
- 7:58Speaker 1: it's a recruiting phone, and you're I don't know if
- 8:01Speaker 1: I want to do that. And so I settled on
- 8:03Speaker 1: high school football. Uh. Mike Sherman, who was my head
- 8:06Speaker 1: coach in Green Bay when I when I stepped away,
- 8:09Speaker 1: um gave me some great advice because he was a
- 8:11Speaker 1: high school football coach, you know, in his time. And
- 8:14Speaker 1: he said, he said, Doug, he said, just you got
- 8:15Speaker 1: to find a place where you enjoy teaching the game
- 8:17Speaker 1: of football. Yeah, wherever you can go and just teach
- 8:20Speaker 1: the game, figure out where that is for you and
- 8:23Speaker 1: then and then plug in. And so for me it
- 8:25Speaker 1: was it was high school. So I as soon as
- 8:27Speaker 1: I retired, I got into high school football down in Shreeport, Louisiana. OK. Yeah,
- 8:31Speaker 1: I did that for four years. It was Calvary Calvary Academy.
- 8:35Speaker 1: I was in there with evangel Christians. It was pretty good.
- 8:39Speaker 1: They beat the Brakes office a couple of times. Um.
- 8:43Speaker 1: But yeah, I did high school coaching for four years.
- 8:45Speaker 1: But in my was that immediately after you right after
- 8:50Speaker 1: five I got no time head. Yeah, I went right
- 8:54Speaker 1: it as a head coach, um and did that for
- 8:56Speaker 1: four years. But there was still something inside of me
- 8:59Speaker 1: that there was more. Right, there was more. And having
- 9:02Speaker 1: been in the league for a combined total about fourteen
- 9:04Speaker 1: years on and off, you know, when you're around the game,
- 9:09Speaker 1: you want to get to that next level. And so,
- 9:11Speaker 1: uh Andy Reid had a had a quality control job
- 9:14Speaker 1: open and hired me in two thousand and nine to
- 9:18Speaker 1: come back to Philadelphia as a quality control guys. So
- 9:20Speaker 1: I dumped from high school back into the NFL. So
- 9:22Speaker 1: did you have any other plans or career plans or
- 9:25Speaker 1: goals aspirations, I would say outside of coaching when you
- 9:29Speaker 1: were done. No, this is what it was like, Man,
- 9:31Speaker 1: I'm going on chips are like here we go. Yeah, no,
- 9:37Speaker 1: I you know, I'm a business major, got a degree
- 9:39Speaker 1: in business. But I was like, I don't think I
- 9:41Speaker 1: really want to sit behind a desk or you know,
- 9:44Speaker 1: I'm not the type that's gonna go sell something. Yeah,
- 9:46Speaker 1: you know, I was a football guy, and so I
- 9:50Speaker 1: mean you could be a head coach, so like, yeah
- 9:52Speaker 1: you could. I'm feeling it now, like you you could
- 9:54Speaker 1: sell me with it. You can sell me with that.
- 9:56Speaker 1: I like your I like your confidence. How was what
- 9:59Speaker 1: are those conversations like though? When you you know you
- 10:02Speaker 1: typically it's the oc DC and then you have a
- 10:05Speaker 1: successful season or two and then your name kind of
- 10:08Speaker 1: gets floated around becoming a head coach, Like what are
- 10:11Speaker 1: those conversations like? Is it just are you on the
- 10:14Speaker 1: phone talking to other teams? Is that you're your agent? Like, Hey,
- 10:18Speaker 1: I got some news, m Philadelphia Eagles want to possibly
- 10:23Speaker 1: your your name's been trounation And a good question because
- 10:26Speaker 1: you as sean something very similar to this yesterday. Yeah,
- 10:29Speaker 1: like how does how does that even? Like occur or
- 10:32Speaker 1: how does it arise about you coming head? So for me,
- 10:36Speaker 1: for me, I was the offensive coordinator in Kansas City
- 10:38Speaker 1: with with Andy Reid, you know, because we when Andy
- 10:41Speaker 1: got fired in Philly in twenty twelve, got hired in
- 10:44Speaker 1: twenty thirteen. He brought me as an offensive coordinator. I
- 10:47Speaker 1: was just a quarterback coach and Philly left to go
- 10:50Speaker 1: be AZOC and then you know, we had we had
- 10:52Speaker 1: early success in Kansas City. Alex Smith is our quarterback,
- 10:55Speaker 1: and we had early success for those first two three years. Well,
- 10:59Speaker 1: as you guys know in this in this business, ocs
- 11:01Speaker 1: and DC's, when you have success, their names start to
- 11:04Speaker 1: pop up around the different circles for for head coaches
- 11:07Speaker 1: and and so for me, my agent, you know, had
- 11:10Speaker 1: been been kind of talking to, um, you know, some
- 11:13Speaker 1: of these different circles, the guys that you know, the
- 11:15Speaker 1: powers to be around the NFL, and and um you know,
- 11:19Speaker 1: actually it was in twenty fourteen my name had come
- 11:22Speaker 1: up the first time and I told my agent said,
- 11:25Speaker 1: I'm not ready. I'm not ready to be head coach.
- 11:27Speaker 1: I need I need another year. I'm just I'm just
- 11:29Speaker 1: not there yet. Um. So I played or coach the
- 11:32Speaker 1: twenty fifteen season, and that's when what's from Philadelphia And
- 11:35Speaker 1: there was a lot of familiarity with going back to
- 11:37Speaker 1: Philadelphia for me. Uh, it was a good transition, good
- 11:40Speaker 1: fit and um got hired in twenty sixteen. So in
- 11:43Speaker 1: that that little time where you were like, I'm not ready,
- 11:46Speaker 1: did you start to prepare in another way? Did you
- 11:48Speaker 1: start to say, Okay, I might need to think about
- 11:51Speaker 1: you do app you need to? You do you have to?
- 11:54Speaker 1: You have to really transition your mind from you know,
- 11:57Speaker 1: you're you're an offensive coordinator coaching one side of the
- 12:00Speaker 1: ball right now, you gotta think big picture. Yeah, you
- 12:03Speaker 1: gotta think organizationally. Yeah, not just the football side, but
- 12:06Speaker 1: you're also dealing with the business side, right businessman? Yeah yeah,
- 12:11Speaker 1: So for me it was about okay, learning learning more
- 12:15Speaker 1: of the business side too, and and you know, um,
- 12:20Speaker 1: but do you do that as like so when you're
- 12:23Speaker 1: the OC in you're under like I think Andy Read
- 12:26Speaker 1: we can say he can be a Hall of Fame
- 12:27Speaker 1: coach one day, like he's an amazing coach, But you're
- 12:32Speaker 1: you're doing a job calling all the plays and getting
- 12:35Speaker 1: the offensive side of the ball or offensive players ready.
- 12:40Speaker 1: Do you get coached as the OC. Are you actually
- 12:43Speaker 1: like taking notes on how coach Read is running the team,
- 12:47Speaker 1: how co Tread is running the business, how co Tread
- 12:49Speaker 1: is interacting with the team, how co Tread is doing
- 12:52Speaker 1: everything with the GM and the pro personnel in college, Like,
- 12:56Speaker 1: did you start taking notes of like, Okay, this is
- 12:58Speaker 1: what he this is what he does. Okay, he does this,
- 13:00Speaker 1: he does that? Like are you still getting coached herself?
- 13:03Speaker 1: You know. It's it's interesting because the three years I
- 13:05Speaker 1: was in Kansas City being the offensive coordinator, I got
- 13:08Speaker 1: to spend a lot of time with Coach Read because
- 13:10Speaker 1: he's an offensive mind and all, and so we did
- 13:13Speaker 1: game plans together and the whole thing. So those three
- 13:16Speaker 1: years he really started pouring into me what it was
- 13:20Speaker 1: like to be a head coach. Okay, and so for
- 13:23Speaker 1: three years I was just like a sponge just absorbing
- 13:25Speaker 1: everything that he all his knowledge and wisdom and everything,
- 13:29Speaker 1: because you know, he's been fourteen seasons as a head
- 13:32Speaker 1: coach in Philadelphia before he went to Kansas City, and
- 13:35Speaker 1: so this is the first time sort of behind the
- 13:37Speaker 1: scenes look for me of what a head coach looks like.
- 13:40Speaker 1: And so he but he does that with all of
- 13:44Speaker 1: his guys. You look at the Sean mcdermotts and the
- 13:46Speaker 1: Ron Rivers and the guys that have you know, Matt
- 13:48Speaker 1: Naggie's and the Eric the enemies of the world and
- 13:51Speaker 1: those guys that are going to go on to have
- 13:53Speaker 1: been head coaches and will be head coaches. You know,
- 13:57Speaker 1: you just named like six head coaches that came off
- 13:59Speaker 1: of him. I guess I didn't realize that, you know,
- 14:01Speaker 1: But but that's what he does. Yeah, and he he's
- 14:05Speaker 1: more about coaching his coaches than he is coaching the players. Yeah,
- 14:10Speaker 1: you know. And um, and that's what he did for
- 14:12Speaker 1: the three years. And that's Uh. You just got to
- 14:14Speaker 1: be a sponge and take it all in. So when
- 14:17Speaker 1: you're when your coaching career ended with the Eagles, all right,
- 14:20Speaker 1: you you really took You took a whole year off.
- 14:23Speaker 1: I did. And how important was that for you to
- 14:28Speaker 1: take a full year off to kind of decompress. I
- 14:30Speaker 1: did that after my career playing Gears. P Nut did not.
- 14:34Speaker 1: I did not, so foolish. What would you say was
- 14:37Speaker 1: the reasoning behind that and would you suggest it for others?
- 14:41Speaker 1: The reasoning for me um coming off of the twenty
- 14:44Speaker 1: twenty seasons right after the twenty twenty seasons. That's the
- 14:46Speaker 1: pandemic season. It was rough on all all clubs, and
- 14:49Speaker 1: it was obviously rough on us in Philadelphia. We didn't
- 14:52Speaker 1: play well. Quarterback issues and things like that, and I
- 14:57Speaker 1: was not in a good place mentally physically. I just
- 15:01Speaker 1: was not in a good place. And and and um, looking
- 15:04Speaker 1: back on it, it was probably a blessing to be
- 15:06Speaker 1: released because I did take I did. I need I
- 15:10Speaker 1: needed time. I needed time, you know, for me, I
- 15:12Speaker 1: needed to get away from the game. I needed to
- 15:14Speaker 1: get away from from football and just separate myself just
- 15:17Speaker 1: a little bit and really kind of clear your head
- 15:20Speaker 1: and really think about what life is going to look like.
- 15:24Speaker 1: Either either you're going to step away from the game
- 15:26Speaker 1: and retire, or do I want to continue and coach.
- 15:30Speaker 1: And so as the twenty one season went, and I did,
- 15:34Speaker 1: you know, I had some issues with my brother and
- 15:36Speaker 1: and um, you know, he passed away to pancreatic cancer
- 15:38Speaker 1: that year. So I got to spend a lot of
- 15:40Speaker 1: time with our brother. I appreciate it and spend a
- 15:43Speaker 1: lot of time with him and his wife. And so
- 15:44Speaker 1: there were life things. We had a wedding, our oldest
- 15:46Speaker 1: son got married that year. So there's things in life
- 15:49Speaker 1: that come up. And sometimes, as you guys know, and
- 15:51Speaker 1: football you miss, right, you miss sometimes the job proceeds
- 15:56Speaker 1: family and that's you know, you don't you don't like that, right,
- 16:00Speaker 1: So this gave me a chance to really dig into
- 16:03Speaker 1: the family a little bit and be around family and
- 16:05Speaker 1: and um, also give me a perspective to how, if
- 16:10Speaker 1: given an opportunity again, how to how to coach again,
- 16:13Speaker 1: and how to be a better coach, and how to
- 16:16Speaker 1: really influence players right, and how to how to lead
- 16:19Speaker 1: an organization, lead a team. Um, because I knew it
- 16:24Speaker 1: didn't take long. It took a couple of months, but
- 16:26Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to get back into coaching. It
- 16:28Speaker 1: wasn't I wasn't done. I was young. I'm young. I'm
- 16:31Speaker 1: in you know, mid fifties, but I'm relatively young something. Yeah.
- 16:37Speaker 1: It was same, the same, same hair, y'all like. But yeah,
- 16:47Speaker 1: so that year was really good. So I you know,
- 16:49Speaker 1: but you look at Frank Reich. Frank Reich got let
- 16:52Speaker 1: go during the middle of the season and he got
- 16:54Speaker 1: right back into it this year, which for its different, right,
- 16:58Speaker 1: it's just but for me, it was what I needed
- 17:01Speaker 1: at the time to get back in because that window
- 17:04Speaker 1: of opportunity closes so fast in this league that I
- 17:08Speaker 1: didn't want that to pass by either. Um you know,
- 17:11Speaker 1: and I had opportunities to be a coordinator again in
- 17:13Speaker 1: twenty one. I just the teams were not going to
- 17:16Speaker 1: get the best version of me right right because I
- 17:18Speaker 1: wasn't a I wasn't a bad place mentally and physically.
- 17:22Speaker 1: Kudos for you for like realizing that and kind of
- 17:25Speaker 1: stepping away, and thanks for sharing that. I think a
- 17:28Speaker 1: lot of people need to do more of the you
- 17:30Speaker 1: know what, I just need take my time off, take
- 17:33Speaker 1: my three sixty five. You got great advice. Who told
- 17:36Speaker 1: you to take your time off? You your GM my GM. Yeah,
- 17:39Speaker 1: Mickey Lumis told Mickey Lemis said, you know, if you
- 17:42Speaker 1: want to be involved with football in any shape, form
- 17:44Speaker 1: or fashion, he said, I was a just you take
- 17:46Speaker 1: take some time, take a year off, like you've been
- 17:49Speaker 1: able good, you played a long career, you made plenty
- 17:51Speaker 1: of money, Take some time really decompressed, and then figure
- 17:54Speaker 1: out like self reflecting, like really get away from the
- 17:58Speaker 1: game and then say you might start sing it again
- 18:00Speaker 1: kind of like maybe what you did well and you start,
- 18:03Speaker 1: you start, you start feeling better, and you feel like
- 18:06Speaker 1: you can be a better version of yourself the next
- 18:08Speaker 1: time around. Right, because of the experiences that you went through. Yeah, um,
- 18:12Speaker 1: you know leading up to that decision, this, that was
- 18:14Speaker 1: your first break because you stopped playing, stop playing, high
- 18:19Speaker 1: school coaching, NFL coaching. So yeah, it was your first break,
- 18:22Speaker 1: my first break in a long time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good. Well, yeah,
- 18:26Speaker 1: good for both of y'all for doing I don't I
- 18:27Speaker 1: don't think I ever took time off. I just kind
- 18:29Speaker 1: of kept going. So I'm envious to both of y'all
- 18:32Speaker 1: for for doing that. But yeah, that's another another topic
- 18:35Speaker 1: another day. So when you were in Philly, Uh, Jalen
- 18:39Speaker 1: hurts you guys drafted him and it probably wasn't received
- 18:43Speaker 1: well around the league. Now I know you're not with
- 18:46Speaker 1: We talked about these Philly fans booing, so that natural,
- 18:49Speaker 1: It is natural, but it wasn't very well received in
- 18:54Speaker 1: the beginning, right, I know you're no longer there, but uh,
- 18:57Speaker 1: he's gone out played well, you know, had an MVP
- 19:02Speaker 1: MVP caliber season. What was it about Jalen that drew
- 19:07Speaker 1: you to like lacking him and drafting him? So I
- 19:10Speaker 1: was there obviously when we drafted him in twenty twenty UM,
- 19:14Speaker 1: and we're we're sitting there on day two of the
- 19:16Speaker 1: draft on Friday, and you know, um, Howie Roseman, Um,
- 19:22Speaker 1: Jeffrey Lurie, myself, I can remember having a conversation saying, Hey,
- 19:27Speaker 1: if if Jalen is sitting there at our pick, we
- 19:30Speaker 1: should pick him. We should take him. And I was
- 19:32Speaker 1: like yeah, all of us were like yes, yes, And
- 19:37Speaker 1: it wasn't. It wasn't to draft him to replace Carson
- 19:41Speaker 1: Wentz at the time. In this league, you need two quarterbacks,
- 19:44Speaker 1: you need you need a solid backup quarterback. And so
- 19:47Speaker 1: we felt like that this was our This is a
- 19:49Speaker 1: great option. He's a tremendous athlete, good quarterbacks, smart kid.
- 19:53Speaker 1: But before all of that, I've had a chance to
- 19:57Speaker 1: talk to Brian Dabele who coached me in Alabama, right
- 20:02Speaker 1: Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma. You know, I talked to a
- 20:05Speaker 1: lot of people and just watching his film and knowing
- 20:08Speaker 1: his story. This guy's this guy's wired the right way.
- 20:13Speaker 1: This guy is a football player. And I just felt
- 20:17Speaker 1: that if this kid gets an opportunity wherever, whether it's
- 20:21Speaker 1: in Philly or maybe somewhere else, down the road, this
- 20:24Speaker 1: kid is gonna shine. I just I just felt that
- 20:26Speaker 1: my heart of heart's just understanding who he is. And
- 20:30Speaker 1: so for the short you know, one year that I
- 20:33Speaker 1: was with him, I saw that I saw his work ethic,
- 20:37Speaker 1: the way he prepared, and he was he was the backup.
- 20:39Speaker 1: He was he started the season like the third quarterback,
- 20:43Speaker 1: and then he made him made his way to the
- 20:45Speaker 1: second and then ultimately played and started the last four
- 20:47Speaker 1: games of the season that year. But I just knew
- 20:50Speaker 1: that if this kid, if this kid gets an opportunity,
- 20:53Speaker 1: he's he's gonna do some really good special things. And
- 20:56Speaker 1: you know we've seen it here now, not only last year,
- 20:58Speaker 1: but this past season, or I should say two seasons
- 21:01Speaker 1: ago and then this last year. Um, just what what
- 21:04Speaker 1: he's capable of doing. And and I had a chance
- 21:07Speaker 1: to see him back in February and just, uh, you know,
- 21:10Speaker 1: just tell him how proud I was of him and
- 21:11Speaker 1: how he's he's battled through. Owe you like they owe
- 21:16Speaker 1: you a ton well for bringing them in. I think
- 21:18Speaker 1: his former player, as a former player, it really does
- 21:21Speaker 1: mean the most. When you have your former colleagues, your
- 21:24Speaker 1: coaches that you passed through times and they really still
- 21:27Speaker 1: all keep up with you and ye there and when
- 21:30Speaker 1: they you hear those words like hey, I'm watching, I'm
- 21:33Speaker 1: proud of you, we do take that for granted. So well,
- 21:35Speaker 1: we don't take it for granted. And it does mean
- 21:37Speaker 1: a lot. And I'm sure you had that when you
- 21:40Speaker 1: we're a former player and went run to other coaches,
- 21:42Speaker 1: other coaches and stuff like that. Yeah, tell you, tell
- 21:45Speaker 1: you those kinds of things, yes, yeah, and means a lot.
- 21:48Speaker 1: Chris Ballard was my guy. Chris Ballard's after me, so
- 21:51Speaker 1: I could I could talk to Chris and I could
- 21:53Speaker 1: text Chris right now, And I tell everyone to this day, man,
- 21:55Speaker 1: I came to Chicago because Chris Ballard he saw something
- 21:58Speaker 1: in me, the hard heart, and it was just like, no,
- 22:01Speaker 1: I'm telling you. Get this kid from Louise and Lafayette.
- 22:04Speaker 1: I know, no one knows the school, nobody knows where
- 22:06Speaker 1: it's at, but draft this kid, he's well the Louisanna connects.
- 22:11Speaker 1: I appreciate it, no doubt so so Doug Um in
- 22:15Speaker 1: your current situation, we all heard the stories about how
- 22:17Speaker 1: toxic this situation was in Jacksonville before you arrived. And
- 22:22Speaker 1: what could you say was the biggest thing, um, and
- 22:25Speaker 1: how important Sorry not the biggest thing, but how important
- 22:27Speaker 1: was it for you to change that culture? You know?
- 22:30Speaker 1: The biggest thing for me? And again this was all
- 22:33Speaker 1: part of twenty one being out of football. How was
- 22:35Speaker 1: I going to be the better version of myself? And
- 22:37Speaker 1: then when when the Jacksonville thing started gaining a little
- 22:40Speaker 1: more traction, and then that might be the landing spot
- 22:43Speaker 1: for me. I had to kind of research the situation
- 22:46Speaker 1: a little bit and see just kind of went on
- 22:48Speaker 1: that what went on down there? And um, it wasn't good.
- 22:51Speaker 1: It wasn't good. Um the players, the players were really
- 22:55Speaker 1: in a bad in a bad place, you know, mentally
- 22:58Speaker 1: coming out of that season. And and for me, for me,
- 23:02Speaker 1: it was about, Okay, I'm the next head coach standing
- 23:05Speaker 1: in front of these guys. How are they going to
- 23:07Speaker 1: trust me? Because they lost faith and trust in the
- 23:10Speaker 1: in the head coach before, So how are they going
- 23:12Speaker 1: to trust me? I'm just I'm a head coach figure, right,
- 23:16Speaker 1: So I didn't even know if I was gonna have
- 23:17Speaker 1: players at the off season program, right, volunteer program. Everybody's
- 23:21Speaker 1: out and they're like, I ain't going you know, we
- 23:24Speaker 1: got we got drove into ground our practices were hard.
- 23:27Speaker 1: I mean, this is the off season. I mean, you know,
- 23:29Speaker 1: so I put together a message, um to the guys
- 23:34Speaker 1: that first day, and and I actually did it over
- 23:37Speaker 1: the course of a couple of weeks. But we I
- 23:39Speaker 1: talked a lot about communication. I talked a lot about that.
- 23:42Speaker 1: I talked a lot about trust, you know, and in
- 23:44Speaker 1: me trusting you, you trusting me. Um. I talked a
- 23:47Speaker 1: lot about the people that we surround ourselves with, right,
- 23:51Speaker 1: the right people in our building, outside of our building.
- 23:54Speaker 1: And so I just kept kept formulating these ideas with
- 23:57Speaker 1: the players, and slowly, over time, I think I was
- 24:01Speaker 1: able to gain their trust, right and and and then
- 24:05Speaker 1: you know, we just kind of worked through, you know,
- 24:09Speaker 1: because there were questions like, coach, how are these OTA
- 24:11Speaker 1: practices gonna go? So, what do you mean, We're gonna
- 24:13Speaker 1: be out there an hour and twenty minutes, We're gonna
- 24:14Speaker 1: get our work done. We're gonna be done. What what
- 24:16Speaker 1: are you talking about? It was gonna be easy, you know,
- 24:17Speaker 1: We're gonna meet you and lift some weights and you
- 24:19Speaker 1: can go home this our day. Wow, you go get
- 24:21Speaker 1: paid whatever. Um. But But I think too, I think
- 24:25Speaker 1: they had respect for me because I sat in their chair,
- 24:28Speaker 1: you know, as a former player, and and I could
- 24:31Speaker 1: relate to them and and so there's a there's a
- 24:34Speaker 1: lot of that that goes back and forth. Um that
- 24:38Speaker 1: that really sort of impacted our football football team really
- 24:43Speaker 1: heading into training camp that year and still really not
- 24:45Speaker 1: knowing how we were gonna do. You know, I felt
- 24:49Speaker 1: like we could be a five hundred ball club that
- 24:51Speaker 1: first year. Yea. Um, but uh, you know, we exceeded
- 24:55Speaker 1: probably everybody else's expectations but our own. As you guys know,
- 24:59Speaker 1: you only leaving yourself and your team, and you felt
- 25:01Speaker 1: like you're a good football team. And we did some
- 25:03Speaker 1: good things last year. So one of the things we
- 25:06Speaker 1: all have our welcome to the NFL moment, right, I
- 25:09Speaker 1: know we all have them as players, But I'm gonna
- 25:11Speaker 1: switch it up and I'm gonna ask you what was
- 25:13Speaker 1: your welcome to the NFO moment as a head coach? Like,
- 25:17Speaker 1: what what was that moment where He's like, damn, so
- 25:19Speaker 1: this is what it's like to be a head coach?
- 25:20Speaker 1: Like I didn't. I didn't. I didn't see that coming.
- 25:23Speaker 1: And it just like really like holy you know what.
- 25:25Speaker 1: It It kind of shook me. What what was that moment.
- 25:29Speaker 1: It was actually my first my first regular season game
- 25:34Speaker 1: in Philadelphia in twenty and sixteen, played the Cleveland Browns
- 25:38Speaker 1: at home at Lincoln Financial, and you know, I coached
- 25:42Speaker 1: the preseason games and it was like, oh, these are
- 25:44Speaker 1: great preseason games, but this is the regular season. Yeah,
- 25:47Speaker 1: And that ball teed up and it kicked off, and
- 25:50Speaker 1: I went, oh boy. In my mind, I'm like, Okay,
- 25:55Speaker 1: this just got real because now you're you're you're you're
- 25:58Speaker 1: managing the game. Yeah, I got a red flag in
- 26:00Speaker 1: my pocket that I may have. Yeah, you know, I've
- 26:03Speaker 1: gotta I'm gonna call time outs and you know I've
- 26:06Speaker 1: gotta oh wait, I gotta I gotta flip to the
- 26:08Speaker 1: defensive side, and I gotta listen to what coach Schwartz
- 26:11Speaker 1: is talking about, you know. And so it just it
- 26:14Speaker 1: just became for me. It just became kind of that aha,
- 26:17Speaker 1: like this is real, this is now. Okay. I kind
- 26:21Speaker 1: of like it, but at the same time, you're kind
- 26:22Speaker 1: of paranoid a little bit. That's the first time I've
- 26:24Speaker 1: heard a coach saying that, It's like, man, this has
- 26:26Speaker 1: got real. I heard players say it all the time,
- 26:28Speaker 1: but I say something it gets real because you're you're
- 26:33Speaker 1: you know. And then at the end of the we
- 26:34Speaker 1: won the game. Um, plus we're playing a rookie quarterback,
- 26:38Speaker 1: Carson Wentz a rookie first game. Yeah, he's a rookie,
- 26:40Speaker 1: you know. So there's a lot of things kind of
- 26:42Speaker 1: going against you a little bit in that in that
- 26:44Speaker 1: first uh, that first deal we ended up seven to
- 26:47Speaker 1: nine that season. But um, you learn, right, you learn.
- 26:51Speaker 1: You learn from the good, the bad, the ugly, as
- 26:53Speaker 1: we say, and um, each week we got a little
- 26:55Speaker 1: bit better and and uh end up winning a championship
- 26:59Speaker 1: in year two. Now pick one real quick, because I
- 27:01Speaker 1: got to know this. I know they want us to
- 27:02Speaker 1: hurry up. I know we've got a couple of minutes.
- 27:04Speaker 1: But who are you rooting for in this past Super Bowl?
- 27:06Speaker 1: The Eagles are the Chiefs? I plead the fifth alight.
- 27:11Speaker 1: I don't accept that answer. I would like that answer.
- 27:14Speaker 1: It was very close. But I had to know. I
- 27:17Speaker 1: had to know that here's a good duck who is
- 27:25Speaker 1: on your personal Mount Rushmore of influence, not just football
- 27:29Speaker 1: but in life for you. Well, you got four. I
- 27:32Speaker 1: get four because some people might not know how many
- 27:34Speaker 1: of the Mount Rushmore. I get it. I didn't understand.
- 27:36Speaker 1: But one of them, one of them is my Lord
- 27:39Speaker 1: and Savior, Jesus Christ's love. Yeah, he's number one. UM,
- 27:43Speaker 1: number two. I would definitely have to put Andy Reid
- 27:46Speaker 1: up there. Um the impact he had not only as
- 27:49Speaker 1: my playing career, but but as my coaching career, professional career.
- 27:53Speaker 1: Um Andy, Andy would be one of those. Uh, my dad,
- 27:56Speaker 1: My dad's on that list. My dad passed away. He
- 27:59Speaker 1: never got to see me coach of head football as
- 28:01Speaker 1: a head coach. He never got to see me coach
- 28:04Speaker 1: a game. He passed away actually the last preseason weekend
- 28:09Speaker 1: right before the first regular right before that Cleveland Browns game.
- 28:13Speaker 1: So he passed away that week before. So he never
- 28:15Speaker 1: got to see me head coach. So, but he's on there.
- 28:18Speaker 1: The impact he had, uh in my life as a
- 28:21Speaker 1: you know, he coached me, coached me hard, probably shaped
- 28:24Speaker 1: a lot of my beliefs and the way where I
- 28:27Speaker 1: am um um today. And then the fourth one, Um,
- 28:33Speaker 1: the fourth one for me I could name. There's a
- 28:40Speaker 1: lot of guys that have influenced or shaped shaped my career.
- 28:45Speaker 1: I'll tell you this. Mike Holmgren was another head coach
- 28:48Speaker 1: had in Green Bay. He pulled me aside. I was
- 28:50Speaker 1: I was playing. He pulled me aside during during training camp,
- 28:54Speaker 1: and um, we were actually passing each other in the
- 28:56Speaker 1: building and he told me, he says, he said, Doug
- 28:58Speaker 1: your you're a good quarterback. You can be so much better.
- 29:01Speaker 1: He says, you need it. You need to really focus
- 29:03Speaker 1: on taking your game to another to another level. You know,
- 29:07Speaker 1: the offense, you know what to do. You can manage
- 29:09Speaker 1: the whole thing. But it's now it's kind of like
- 29:11Speaker 1: just cut it loose. Yeah, right, don't hold back. Just
- 29:13Speaker 1: go cut it loose, take it to another to another notch.
- 29:16Speaker 1: And and that really challenged me from a player's perspective.
- 29:19Speaker 1: But it also challenged me now a little bit, you
- 29:23Speaker 1: know because back in seventeen we were you know, I
- 29:26Speaker 1: was thinking about, you know, do all these fourth down
- 29:28Speaker 1: decisions and two point conversion decisions, and you know, it's
- 29:30Speaker 1: like taking your team to another level. It's like cutting
- 29:33Speaker 1: the guy's loose, don't hold the guy's back. Um. And
- 29:37Speaker 1: and so for me, those would be the four guys
- 29:39Speaker 1: I would put up there. Um that that really shaped
- 29:43Speaker 1: and influenced, uh, you know my career now was that
- 29:47Speaker 1: Uh is that baby Jesus or is that the old Jesus?
- 29:50Speaker 1: Is it thirty thirty two year old Jesus was the
- 29:52Speaker 1: baby Jesus? Jesus? This is a full grown Okay. My
- 30:02Speaker 1: last question though, is Um, we retire every year and
- 30:07Speaker 1: you when you were retiring, you were trying to figure
- 30:09Speaker 1: out what should I do next? What would your advice
- 30:11Speaker 1: be on a player that is retiring after this season
- 30:15Speaker 1: going into retirement? What what would your advice be to him? Wow? Um,
- 30:23Speaker 1: First of all, if if if somebody, if somebody is
- 30:26Speaker 1: either if they're contemplating retirement or thinking about retirement, UM,
- 30:32Speaker 1: just just make sure that it's it's it's the right decision,
- 30:35Speaker 1: because you know, I feel like that when when when
- 30:40Speaker 1: guys get in that in that situation one, there's probably
- 30:44Speaker 1: something waiting for him right post post you know, career, right,
- 30:49Speaker 1: whether it's still in the business or somewhere else. You know,
- 30:53Speaker 1: so that that usually pulls guys, guys into different in
- 30:56Speaker 1: different directions. UM that way, but you know, the advice
- 31:00Speaker 1: is just to enjoy, reconnect with your families, right, reconnect
- 31:05Speaker 1: with your your friends, reconnect some of the relationships that
- 31:08Speaker 1: sometimes football UM can can tug one just a little bit.
- 31:12Speaker 1: I you think about our our spouses, I mean they
- 31:15Speaker 1: you know, they're the ones that probably sacrifice the most
- 31:17Speaker 1: in this in this especially on the coaching side, you know,
- 31:20Speaker 1: because the time away, and they're the ones that are, um,
- 31:23Speaker 1: you know, running the kids to schools and grocery shop
- 31:26Speaker 1: and keeping the house together and all that kind of
- 31:28Speaker 1: stuff and so reconnecting, reconnecting right there. But just enjoy it,
- 31:33Speaker 1: Enjoy enjoy the memories, Enjoy your teammates. Um. As you
- 31:38Speaker 1: head into retirement, look back on your career, you know,
- 31:41Speaker 1: enjoy those moments that um, the bonds that you had
- 31:46Speaker 1: in the locker room, I think those are the ones
- 31:47Speaker 1: you carry for a lifetime. Rite those those friendships, whether
- 31:51Speaker 1: it's you've been on you know, multiple teams or one team. UM.
- 31:56Speaker 1: But but just enjoy it, enjoy life. UM back and
- 32:00Speaker 1: you know, um, just think about the next chapter in
- 32:03Speaker 1: the direction you want to go? Cool? Does that's a rap?
- 32:07Speaker 1: Appreciate it, man, thanks, you really appreciate it. How can
- 32:18Speaker 1: you not root for the Jacksonville Jaguars after listening to
- 32:21Speaker 1: the dug or coach Peterson, UM, I'm really excited. I
- 32:24Speaker 1: didn't really know a ton about him, but I'm really
- 32:27Speaker 1: rooting for him now moving forward and in the decisions
- 32:30Speaker 1: and where this organization is going. Like I'm really excited
- 32:34Speaker 1: about where they're going and what he's doing. I think
- 32:35Speaker 1: you should be, Doug. He really showed himself. He was
- 32:37Speaker 1: very natural, very candid with us, and really opened up
- 32:40Speaker 1: about his own experiences as being a head coach and
- 32:42Speaker 1: also a former player. This next coach you're going to
- 32:50Speaker 1: be listening to Frank Wright really excited about what everything
- 32:53Speaker 1: he's doing for the Carolina Panthers and going forward. Let's
- 32:56Speaker 1: listen in on his experiences, what brought him to this
- 32:59Speaker 1: place and where he's leading this organization. Our next guest,
- 33:08Speaker 1: and I'm getting to do the honors of introducing this man,
- 33:11Speaker 1: this young man right here. He's currently the head coach
- 33:14Speaker 1: for the Carolina Panther. He's a two time Super Bowl champion,
- 33:18Speaker 1: winning a ring with the Colts and the Eagles. He
- 33:21Speaker 1: also played quarterback in the NFL for thirteen years. Mister
- 33:25Speaker 1: Frank will coach, head coach Frank right now. But I
- 33:32Speaker 1: wasn't all the way done here because I want to
- 33:34Speaker 1: talk about the press conference when you got introduced to
- 33:37Speaker 1: the Carolina as the Carolina Panthers latest head coach. I
- 33:40Speaker 1: thought your family you were good, but the family overall
- 33:44Speaker 1: was excellent. You guys had the Carolina Blues nailed down.
- 33:48Speaker 1: The lighting was excellent, your speech was great. They showed
- 33:50Speaker 1: the highlight tape of you throwing the first touchdown pass
- 33:54Speaker 1: and Carolina Panthers history. It was to Pete Meslar's the
- 33:58Speaker 1: tight end. As a matter of fact, they had white
- 34:00Speaker 1: jersey's on. He had Pete Meslars there. He had a
- 34:02Speaker 1: whole bunch of his former teammates there. The Carolina Panthers
- 34:05Speaker 1: really went all out. David Tepper, everybody, Missus Wright, the daughter,
- 34:09Speaker 1: everybody looked great that day. It was beautiful. I must
- 34:12Speaker 1: say I was amazed. I was wild and now I'm
- 34:15Speaker 1: in the presence of greatness. So thank you. Hey, I
- 34:17Speaker 1: love love that intro, and yeah, it was a great day.
- 34:21Speaker 1: And when you have three daughters, you got to get
- 34:23Speaker 1: the fashion right right right. It was on, hold are
- 34:26Speaker 1: your daughters. The daughters are all married, so they're thirty three,
- 34:28Speaker 1: thirty one, and twenty seven. Yea. The husbands look good too.
- 34:32Speaker 1: Everybody was in the colors. Grandkids, you know, the whole best.
- 34:35Speaker 1: But the grandkids were kind of not in the shot
- 34:37Speaker 1: in the spotlight. But we had a great day. That's
- 34:40Speaker 1: that's pretty cool. So okay, here we go, So let's
- 34:43Speaker 1: just get the awkwardness out the way. So I didn't
- 34:45Speaker 1: even notice until I read a little bio earlier, was
- 34:48Speaker 1: that you were the quarterbacks coach in the Indian app
- 34:52Speaker 1: with the Indian App his colts in Super Bowl forty
- 34:54Speaker 1: four where your team was fourteen and two in the
- 34:57Speaker 1: regular season and you eventually to the Super Bowl to
- 35:01Speaker 1: a thirteen and three New Orleans Saints team. Yeah, how
- 35:04Speaker 1: was that possible? You guys are favored by most of
- 35:07Speaker 1: the experts all week long. What what went wrong that day?
- 35:11Speaker 1: I love the fact that you're just hitting me right
- 35:13Speaker 1: in the face with us to start. That's the way
- 35:15Speaker 1: to go, and that's the way to bring it strong.
- 35:17Speaker 1: Um you know we did. We had we had a lead,
- 35:20Speaker 1: I believe at halftime, and they came out of the
- 35:23Speaker 1: fake on you know, surprising on sidekick you know called
- 35:26Speaker 1: by coach Payton start the second half. Really turned the tide,
- 35:30Speaker 1: you know, really turned the tide. But um, we were
- 35:33Speaker 1: I was just talking about that with a couple of
- 35:34Speaker 1: guys last night, that that game. But a couple of
- 35:37Speaker 1: the Eagles guys about the difficulty of losing the Super Bowl.
- 35:40Speaker 1: It's rough, you know, it's a rough feeling. It's a
- 35:42Speaker 1: bad game to lose. Yeah, I've I've lost two. Um
- 35:46Speaker 1: flipping it. I'll give you. This is a layup though, Like,
- 35:49Speaker 1: how was it you know, your first coaching gig two
- 35:51Speaker 1: thousand and six, two thousand and seven, you were one
- 35:53Speaker 1: of the I think quarterbacks are quite just an I
- 35:56Speaker 1: had kind of been an offseason intern was not actually
- 35:59Speaker 1: there during the season, but had been there in the
- 36:00Speaker 1: off season. So the real first experience of it on
- 36:03Speaker 1: field as far as the victory was in Philadelphia in seventeen. Um.
- 36:07Speaker 1: I did do that internship when they won it in
- 36:10Speaker 1: in seven, but the true experience was in seventeen with
- 36:13Speaker 1: the Eagles. Yeah, because you were on staff, not on
- 36:17Speaker 1: staff with the Bears Colts, and I was on the
- 36:19Speaker 1: field with the Bears at the time. And to answer
- 36:23Speaker 1: the question to follow with it, yeah, it sucks. I
- 36:25Speaker 1: still haven't gotten over my two Super Bowl losses. I'm
- 36:28Speaker 1: like owing two with Peyton Manning. I don't even like
- 36:30Speaker 1: Peyton Manning because just like destroyed us in Super bowls,
- 36:35Speaker 1: man I just, uh, why did you bring that up?
- 36:38Speaker 1: And he never lets me live that down. No, because
- 36:40Speaker 1: I because you won my one. And you know, the
- 36:43Speaker 1: on side kicked like you talked about. We had practiced
- 36:45Speaker 1: that so many times and I was supposed to recover it,
- 36:48Speaker 1: but your guys, I'm not gonna bring his name up,
- 36:51Speaker 1: but kind of touched it and then it kind of
- 36:53Speaker 1: went awry. But that's why you on side kick it
- 36:55Speaker 1: to the same sideline, because we knew if anything goes wrong,
- 37:00Speaker 1: we wanted to be on our sidelines so we could
- 37:02Speaker 1: get the refs and be arguing like it was us.
- 37:04Speaker 1: And that was back in the day when you couldn't
- 37:05Speaker 1: pull guys out of the podt Was that one of
- 37:07Speaker 1: those one where just the kickoff team knew it was coming?
- 37:09Speaker 1: Did you guys tell anybody else? Or like, did everyone
- 37:12Speaker 1: knows a pre game? Like you never even heard the backstory? Okay,
- 37:15Speaker 1: all right, right here we go. So we get in
- 37:17Speaker 1: a halftime, you know, it's an extended period at in halftime,
- 37:20Speaker 1: Sean comes over to the defense because most of the
- 37:22Speaker 1: defense is on the kickoff team. He said, I'm running
- 37:25Speaker 1: the surprise on site and we're like, yeah, okay, whatever,
- 37:28Speaker 1: just like like, and we thought he would change by
- 37:30Speaker 1: the time we actually went out there and he was like,
- 37:33Speaker 1: I'm still calling it like it's still up running ambush
- 37:36Speaker 1: and we were like, all right, let's go. So my
- 37:38Speaker 1: I don't think I even got nervous because I'd recovered
- 37:41Speaker 1: it so many times and practiced it. And then when
- 37:43Speaker 1: the play went awry, like we had never practiced that,
- 37:47Speaker 1: we didn't know what was going to happen, if it unbelievable,
- 37:50Speaker 1: if it went wrong, and it went wrong, and we
- 37:53Speaker 1: just happened to follow on it, so it kind of
- 37:55Speaker 1: went crazy. But yes, that is a whole backstory. Sean
- 37:58Speaker 1: came in the beginning, he said he was going to
- 38:00Speaker 1: do it at halftime. As soon as we went in there,
- 38:02Speaker 1: he was so confident with it, and we were like,
- 38:04Speaker 1: all right, let's do it, and we knew we needed
- 38:06Speaker 1: to do something because we literally had not stopped the
- 38:08Speaker 1: Colts all day. You guys. Yeah, I also think in
- 38:11Speaker 1: that game, if you remember, you know, we got a
- 38:13Speaker 1: little you know, at the end of the first half,
- 38:15Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, we got a little conservative. Did
- 38:18Speaker 1: you went with a fullback dive? You should have just
- 38:20Speaker 1: stayed pedal on the medal because we hadn't slowed you
- 38:22Speaker 1: down at all. I know, I know, I still we
- 38:24Speaker 1: still got that one a little bit. But those are
- 38:27Speaker 1: the only things that really changed that whole game. That's awesome. Um,
- 38:30Speaker 1: all right, well here we go. Let's go to currently.
- 38:32Speaker 1: So what drew you to Carolina? Besides your former you know,
- 38:36Speaker 1: playing there all those other things, What really drew you
- 38:39Speaker 1: to this opportunity? Because I know when David Tepper talked
- 38:42Speaker 1: about it, he mentioned, you know, the other candidates, and
- 38:45Speaker 1: he said, look, when Frank Wright came in, he had
- 38:48Speaker 1: it nailed down of a future plan. Yeah. His vision
- 38:53Speaker 1: was something that everybody could just get behind immediately. Yeah.
- 38:56Speaker 1: And really, what I felt when I walked into that
- 39:00Speaker 1: room in the interview was like I felt like we
- 39:02Speaker 1: were working. I mean like there was an instant connection,
- 39:05Speaker 1: you know, with the Teppers, with David Nicole Tepper, with
- 39:08Speaker 1: Scott Fitter, you know, the GM, with the whole crew
- 39:11Speaker 1: that was there, and you know, just felt like a conversation.
- 39:14Speaker 1: It didn't feel like an interview. And that in both
- 39:18Speaker 1: the first interview and the second interview. So obviously I'd
- 39:21Speaker 1: played there and lived there for thirteen years, so I
- 39:23Speaker 1: already felt like home. My children are living in North Carolina.
- 39:28Speaker 1: But the commitment and just hearing you know, mister Tapper
- 39:31Speaker 1: talk about okay, you know, he and Nicole had been
- 39:34Speaker 1: owners now for a number of years, but hey, they're
- 39:36Speaker 1: ready to put the pedal to the metal. Let's go.
- 39:38Speaker 1: The commitment from them, that's a big deal. Yeah, it is.
- 39:41Speaker 1: And so this is your second opportunity as a head coach. Yeah,
- 39:44Speaker 1: and maybe you could give us a little bit insight
- 39:47Speaker 1: of some things that you learned from your first experience
- 39:49Speaker 1: that you will be different and how and how will
- 39:52Speaker 1: you treat this from different overall as well? Yeah, I
- 39:54Speaker 1: mean it's it's unbelievable. How I don't want to say
- 39:57Speaker 1: it's it's easy. It's not easy. But like when you
- 40:01Speaker 1: first become a head coach the first times, it is
- 40:03Speaker 1: a little bit like drinking you know, water from a
- 40:05Speaker 1: fire hose, right, I mean, it's it can be overwhelming,
- 40:08Speaker 1: you know, so much stuff going on. Uh, this time around,
- 40:11Speaker 1: it just felt like, okay, let's go season. I know
- 40:14Speaker 1: what we're doing. This is version two point Oh. You
- 40:16Speaker 1: know you get to debug things, right, It's like an app,
- 40:20Speaker 1: you know, you get version two Um, it's updated it's improved.
- 40:23Speaker 1: You got out the bad program. You know. For me,
- 40:27Speaker 1: you know, that was just a question of understanding the
- 40:29Speaker 1: chemistry of the staff, you know, understanding you know, the
- 40:32Speaker 1: team we're trying to build, and that's what we were
- 40:35Speaker 1: able to go in and paint that vision for mister Tepper.
- 40:37Speaker 1: So what's what's been the toughest thing being a head coach? Like, say,
- 40:40Speaker 1: you your first time, like I was, we just asked
- 40:42Speaker 1: a bug that you know, everyone has that welcome to
- 40:45Speaker 1: the NFL moment as a player, What was your welcome
- 40:48Speaker 1: to the NFL moment as a coach? As a head coach? Yeah,
- 40:52Speaker 1: I mean I think it's you know, you're no longer
- 40:54Speaker 1: just calling the plays. You know, you're over every aspect
- 40:57Speaker 1: of the of the football operations. So that's both the
- 41:01Speaker 1: you know, welcome to the excuse me, welcome to the NFL.
- 41:04Speaker 1: But honestly, for me, that was like what I wanted,
- 41:07Speaker 1: Like that was like I couldn't wait for that. I
- 41:09Speaker 1: felt like I was made for that. So you know,
- 41:14Speaker 1: to learn to go in to dive in with the defense,
- 41:17Speaker 1: you know, you get to know the defensive players, get
- 41:19Speaker 1: you know, get in defensive meetings with the coaches. You know, understand,
- 41:22Speaker 1: I'm not trying to micromanage what the defense is doing,
- 41:25Speaker 1: but you really got to put your hand in touch
- 41:27Speaker 1: on every part of the team. Yeah, Doug talked about that.
- 41:29Speaker 1: He said, like, you know, he remembered like, oh man,
- 41:32Speaker 1: I'm not just calling him offense play, i gotta switch
- 41:34Speaker 1: over to the defense. R It's like listen in and
- 41:37Speaker 1: it really is different. Was your main goal always to
- 41:41Speaker 1: be a head coach or like when did that decision
- 41:44Speaker 1: come into factor? Like, you know what I'm gonna coach.
- 41:46Speaker 1: I want to be a head coach. Well, naturally, you
- 41:49Speaker 1: want to be probably the best, which is the head coach.
- 41:51Speaker 1: You want to be the league guy, especially playing a quarterback.
- 41:53Speaker 1: When did that happen for you? Like when I was
- 41:55Speaker 1: like six, you know, I mean, I'm not kidding. I
- 41:59Speaker 1: mean I came from a family of coaches, you know,
- 42:02Speaker 1: so you know, I wanted to be a player first,
- 42:04Speaker 1: you know, like all of us, right, we wanted to play.
- 42:07Speaker 1: But when I was in nineteen eighty five my rookie season,
- 42:11Speaker 1: Bill Pollyan came up to me after the season was over,
- 42:14Speaker 1: who was the general manager at the time. He said,
- 42:17Speaker 1: you're going to play a long time as a as
- 42:19Speaker 1: a player, and then when you finished, you're gonna be
- 42:21Speaker 1: a head coach in this You're gonna be a head
- 42:22Speaker 1: coach in this league. That was in nineteen eighty five,
- 42:24Speaker 1: after my rookie season, So you know, having a guy
- 42:27Speaker 1: like that come up to you. M. I come from
- 42:30Speaker 1: a family of coaches. My dad was a head high
- 42:32Speaker 1: school coach. My mom was a coach. She coached everything.
- 42:37Speaker 1: She coached field, hockey, cheerleading, track and field. I mean,
- 42:41Speaker 1: you know, she was the the ultimate high school teacher.
- 42:44Speaker 1: I can coach anything. So my brother's a head coach.
- 42:48Speaker 1: You know, I just think I've wired that way, but
- 42:51Speaker 1: I brought up that way, so M. But the thing is,
- 42:54Speaker 1: you guys know this, you know, seeing it from the
- 42:56Speaker 1: player's side that you know, as a coach, you don't
- 42:59Speaker 1: want to be that guy who's coming in just trying
- 43:01Speaker 1: to climb the ladder. So I never took it like that.
- 43:03Speaker 1: I honestly did. I knew, hey because I played fourteen
- 43:06Speaker 1: years so and then I took seven years where I
- 43:09Speaker 1: was out of football before I got so I didn't
- 43:12Speaker 1: get back into coaching until I was really in my
- 43:14Speaker 1: mid forties. So could I ever think I'd make it.
- 43:16Speaker 1: I didn't know. I was just gonna take it year
- 43:18Speaker 1: by year, do the best I could and hope that
- 43:20Speaker 1: it worked out. So when you got away from football,
- 43:23Speaker 1: you set for seven years, right, Yeah, what were you
- 43:25Speaker 1: doing in that time? We all didn't ask players. Doug
- 43:29Speaker 1: said he never took time off. He went straight went
- 43:32Speaker 1: right into coaching. You took a year off. I didn't
- 43:35Speaker 1: take a year off. I wish I would have took
- 43:37Speaker 1: a year off. Like, what did you do and what
- 43:39Speaker 1: made you just decide to stay away from the game. Yeah,
- 43:42Speaker 1: so I had opportunities to go into coaching right away,
- 43:46Speaker 1: but as we talked about earlier, at the onset of
- 43:49Speaker 1: the program of three young daughters, you know, I think
- 43:51Speaker 1: when I finished, they were like nine, seven and four.
- 43:56Speaker 1: So I knew once you get into coaching, man, it's
- 43:59Speaker 1: one hundred plus hours a week. And I was like,
- 44:02Speaker 1: I know, I want to coach, but I want to
- 44:04Speaker 1: help raise my children first, you know. So I wanted
- 44:07Speaker 1: to help them with homework, go to swim meets, you
- 44:10Speaker 1: know all that stuff. So I said, I'm going to
- 44:12Speaker 1: take a couple of years really invest into my family,
- 44:14Speaker 1: my children, you know, my wife and I could do
- 44:18Speaker 1: some things together because once you get into coaching things commitment,
- 44:22Speaker 1: and then we also you know, I also you know,
- 44:24Speaker 1: I went into full time ministry and so I was
- 44:27Speaker 1: able to kind of keep my own schedule, did a
- 44:30Speaker 1: lot of traveling and speaking. So that was the combination
- 44:33Speaker 1: of things that I did for those few years. So
- 44:35Speaker 1: now that you are head coach, every coach has their philosophy,
- 44:39Speaker 1: Every coach has their saying of what they think the
- 44:42Speaker 1: team should be. We obviously know when Carolina is to
- 44:45Speaker 1: keep pounding. I played in carol. We both played in
- 44:47Speaker 1: Carolina for a year where you played two, I played one.
- 44:50Speaker 1: What has been your philosophy or what is your philosophy
- 44:53Speaker 1: late going into the season. Yeah, No, the keep pounding
- 44:57Speaker 1: thing is a way to talk about what we've always
- 44:59Speaker 1: talked about for me, and that's that that keep pounding
- 45:03Speaker 1: is a relentless pursuit for sustained excellence. Right, So we
- 45:07Speaker 1: talked about that as an organization already with the Panthers. Right,
- 45:10Speaker 1: So we're gonna clearly define what keep pounding and that's
- 45:14Speaker 1: a relentless pursuit for sustained excellence. Um. Yeah, we all
- 45:17Speaker 1: want the goal, we all want the Super Bowl that
- 45:19Speaker 1: we're talking about. But we think the best way to
- 45:22Speaker 1: get there is is to create that sustained excellence, like
- 45:26Speaker 1: create a high floor so that when the opportunities present
- 45:29Speaker 1: itself to reach for those championships were in striking distance.
- 45:32Speaker 1: So you're with the Panthers. Now, you guys have made
- 45:36Speaker 1: the trade of the off season. Let's let's go ahead
- 45:38Speaker 1: to call it what it is. Extremely busy. I like
- 45:43Speaker 1: the moves you're making those. I like it. I like
- 45:45Speaker 1: it with this opportunity to draft a franchise quarterback, like
- 45:49Speaker 1: all the pressure that comes with that, all the decision making,
- 45:52Speaker 1: all of the thought process, the mindset that so many hours,
- 45:56Speaker 1: the manpower to create all these things, this opportunity. Could
- 46:00Speaker 1: you just give us a little bit of insight. I'm
- 46:02Speaker 1: not telling us to give us the pick, even though
- 46:03Speaker 1: I think I know. But yeah, as anything, that's great. Um,
- 46:10Speaker 1: you know with Scott Fitter, the GM, Dann Morgan and
- 46:13Speaker 1: assistant GM, the whole whole crew. Uh, mister missus Tepper,
- 46:17Speaker 1: they've been great. So the processes, you know, dive in right.
- 46:21Speaker 1: Scott and his crew they already have the event. They've
- 46:23Speaker 1: been evaluating these quarterbacks for you know, forever. So I
- 46:26Speaker 1: just get here. So I sit down. I listened to
- 46:29Speaker 1: where where are our scouts at? Where's Scott at? On
- 46:31Speaker 1: his view of all these quarterbacks as we as a
- 46:33Speaker 1: coaching step begin to dive in. Now, Hi, let's get
- 46:36Speaker 1: out and meet these guys. Let's you know, let's go
- 46:38Speaker 1: to the pro days. Let's sit down, have dinner with him.
- 46:40Speaker 1: We've seen you. Yeah, let's bring them into our building.
- 46:43Speaker 1: You know, Let's let's dig down deep and take every second,
- 46:47Speaker 1: every hour, every day to finish and confirm what we
- 46:50Speaker 1: believe from the very start of this process. And that's
- 46:53Speaker 1: what we're doing. It's a lot of fun. These guys
- 46:55Speaker 1: are all these guys are fun to hang out with.
- 46:58Speaker 1: So yeah, that's yeah, I didn't well and that and
- 47:02Speaker 1: then and then and then on top of that, right,
- 47:04Speaker 1: so you get that trade as as we're talking about
- 47:06Speaker 1: and when you said about the moves, the big one
- 47:09Speaker 1: was going to number one. But now this free agency thing,
- 47:12Speaker 1: you know, mister Tepper has just said, Okay, let's go.
- 47:14Speaker 1: Let's surround this guy with some playmakers. Miles Sanders, right,
- 47:18Speaker 1: DJ Chark, Adam Feeling, you know, Hayden Hurst. Right, Let's
- 47:22Speaker 1: get some playmakers. So he is, so is the is
- 47:24Speaker 1: the owner? Is he like super involved and like, hey
- 47:28Speaker 1: I want this guy, want that guy. No, he's uh,
- 47:31Speaker 1: he's has his you know, he's looking and hearing everything. Okay,
- 47:35Speaker 1: he's you know, he's obviously brilliant guy and brilliant enough
- 47:39Speaker 1: to know, hey, let's Scott and I handle that. But
- 47:41Speaker 1: he's involved in it, you know, he wants to know
- 47:43Speaker 1: um and in particular, I think he's involved in all
- 47:46Speaker 1: the numbers and the cap and the contracts and how
- 47:49Speaker 1: everything's set up. I think he has his hands on
- 47:51Speaker 1: all that. So you you know, we're talking earlier about
- 47:54Speaker 1: your your your coaching staff. You got it. You got
- 47:56Speaker 1: a lot of ex players. You got Josh, you got dudes,
- 48:00Speaker 1: got dan'elow on, Josh mccolln. Let's put a name on it.
- 48:02Speaker 1: Oh not everybody just knows John you right, he played
- 48:06Speaker 1: eighteen years. We should he was. He was one of
- 48:10Speaker 1: my teammates. I was with him, he was with me
- 48:12Speaker 1: in Chicago. I was with his brother Luke in New Orleans.
- 48:14Speaker 1: So I know Josh very well. But you're your coaching staff.
- 48:17Speaker 1: It has a lot of former players in it, Like,
- 48:19Speaker 1: tell me what that process was like to hire those
- 48:21Speaker 1: specific guys. Yeah, I mean, Deuce was the first guy
- 48:24Speaker 1: I called, because you know, the first one on staff. Yeah,
- 48:27Speaker 1: he was. You know, we were together in Philadelphia, and
- 48:29Speaker 1: I just know, you know, I'm mister even kill Listen,
- 48:31Speaker 1: I'm not a yeller and screamer. Everybody knows that I'm
- 48:33Speaker 1: kind of even killed. Keep you know, poised, you know
- 48:36Speaker 1: their intensity and all that, But I need Deuce's fire
- 48:40Speaker 1: and brimstone. He brings the fire and brimstone, you know,
- 48:43Speaker 1: so um and then brilliant offensive. You know, he's a
- 48:45Speaker 1: brilliant offensive mind. But really has helped me when we
- 48:48Speaker 1: were in Philadelphia in the run game. His perspective on
- 48:50Speaker 1: some of the stuffs in the run game was really good.
- 48:52Speaker 1: And in the protection world, which you know you have
- 48:55Speaker 1: to be great at um. But overall, I just wanted
- 48:59Speaker 1: to blend right. I liked the former player thing. Obviously.
- 49:02Speaker 1: I think there's advantages to being a former player, but
- 49:04Speaker 1: I also think there's advantages to the coaches who have
- 49:06Speaker 1: been coaching since they've been twenty you know what I mean.
- 49:09Speaker 1: They bring a certain football acumen that former player who
- 49:13Speaker 1: played for these guys been coaching ball all those years
- 49:15Speaker 1: that we were playing, you know what I mean. So
- 49:17Speaker 1: there's a certain advantage that so get the blend of
- 49:19Speaker 1: that old young get the whole thing. I just liked
- 49:22Speaker 1: it when he yelled so much, like he gonna yell
- 49:25Speaker 1: and give you everything to him. Well, it was funny
- 49:28Speaker 1: because when you saw NFL Hard Knocks, it really put
- 49:31Speaker 1: like I really shine the light on that whole Detroit
- 49:34Speaker 1: staff and the staff with the stars and so we
- 49:38Speaker 1: could talk about the players, but nobody cared that we
- 49:42Speaker 1: were rooted. Everybody was rooting for that staff, and Deuce
- 49:44Speaker 1: really came out the bucks. I didn't realize how fire
- 49:47Speaker 1: he was until that whole deal. Him and Aaron. I
- 49:50Speaker 1: was like, they was my two favorite people on the show.
- 49:52Speaker 1: It was really good. Man ag Okay, Frank, so we
- 49:56Speaker 1: well coach, right, sorry, no, you're good, Thank you please.
- 50:00Speaker 1: It's hard for me. Yeah, it's still coach, even though
- 50:04Speaker 1: you're older and we're kind. Yeah, I still say coach too.
- 50:07Speaker 1: All right. Uh. They want me to ask you about
- 50:09Speaker 1: your Mount Rushmore and I want to get to that.
- 50:11Speaker 1: But I got to know this because you burst on
- 50:14Speaker 1: my scene and I became a fan of yours when
- 50:16Speaker 1: I was a young man, when you led the Buffalo
- 50:19Speaker 1: Bills back with this big comeback in the playoffs, like
- 50:21Speaker 1: that is the greatest comeback. That is who Frank Wright
- 50:24Speaker 1: was known for for the longest time. And now you're
- 50:27Speaker 1: the head coach. How has that been this transition of like,
- 50:31Speaker 1: all right, this is what I'm known for, this backup
- 50:33Speaker 1: that was the Macklin comeback forever, and now the head
- 50:36Speaker 1: coach that's going to go and lead this program in
- 50:38Speaker 1: this organization to hopefully win in Super Bowls. Yeah, I mean,
- 50:42Speaker 1: I think it's a great Uh. I think it's a
- 50:45Speaker 1: great background to step into this position. You know, because
- 50:48Speaker 1: I knew, right I was a part of that team.
- 50:50Speaker 1: I was a backup quarterback, right, you know, I was
- 50:52Speaker 1: just a back. I was a backup guy, right. So um,
- 50:56Speaker 1: and I know that when you have a comeback like that,
- 50:58Speaker 1: it ain't one guy, it's whole team. Right. So now
- 51:01Speaker 1: as the head coach, that's really what I want to accentuate, right,
- 51:05Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, listen, we know we talk about the
- 51:07Speaker 1: coaching staffs and how good our coaching staff is in
- 51:09Speaker 1: the Detroit, but you guys know, more than anything, this
- 51:12Speaker 1: is a players game. It's a players game. I always
- 51:15Speaker 1: tell the coaches. I mean, I always tell the coaches
- 51:18Speaker 1: it's it's like ten to twenty percent coaching and it's
- 51:20Speaker 1: eighty or ninety percent players making plays. But we got
- 51:23Speaker 1: to put those guys in the best position. And so
- 51:27Speaker 1: you know, I just think that background for me. But
- 51:30Speaker 1: you got to put all these guys together, coaches and players,
- 51:33Speaker 1: and it's got to be a team. I mean, it's
- 51:35Speaker 1: it's got to be all about the team. And I
- 51:37Speaker 1: think I've witnessed that and experienced that with some of
- 51:39Speaker 1: the teams I've been with. All Right, now your mount
- 51:43Speaker 1: rushmore of influence on your life? Get four? All right?
- 51:48Speaker 1: Who are those? Who are those four that are up
- 51:50Speaker 1: there on that hill? Okay, well you know obviously you
- 51:53Speaker 1: know have to start, uh you know with my mom
- 51:55Speaker 1: and dad. I'm putting those together. I'm cheating, so okay
- 51:58Speaker 1: we can you know. Um, but you know, in particular,
- 52:03Speaker 1: I'm assuming this is football related. Um, and so you're coaching. No,
- 52:09Speaker 1: it didn't have to be. It's just what made you
- 52:12Speaker 1: you today. These four people made me me perfect. Okay,
- 52:16Speaker 1: So it starts there up one and um and I
- 52:20Speaker 1: and I do think I do think, uh, the influence
- 52:23Speaker 1: a had of me that I'm a blend to the
- 52:26Speaker 1: two of them. As a coach man, I just idolized
- 52:28Speaker 1: my dad. You know, he was a stud man. He
- 52:30Speaker 1: was he was a stud player. He was a stud coach. Um.
- 52:34Speaker 1: He was a winner, and you know he was the
- 52:36Speaker 1: he's a man's man. He'd like played with no face mask,
- 52:38Speaker 1: broke is. You know, he's just a tough love dude.
- 52:41Speaker 1: Like I don't cuss very much or almost not at all,
- 52:45Speaker 1: but like I want to say, when he was a
- 52:47Speaker 1: tough man, he was tough dude. He was a tough
- 52:51Speaker 1: Yes he was. And this game is about toughness, right,
- 52:54Speaker 1: So I just feel like that he put that in
- 52:56Speaker 1: my soul, right, he put out of my soul. Um.
- 53:01Speaker 1: As far as coaches, the two coaches, uh, you know
- 53:04Speaker 1: it's got to be the two other people would be
- 53:07Speaker 1: uh Marv Levy, right, so played for Marvel, you know
- 53:10Speaker 1: head coach. Um. You know, just an incredible person, like
- 53:14Speaker 1: he knew how to push every button. He was cerebral,
- 53:17Speaker 1: but he was just connected with players. He was an
- 53:19Speaker 1: older man, but yet he had a way to connect
- 53:21Speaker 1: with everybody. Of great highlight films, just the NFL films,
- 53:24Speaker 1: It was just watching him talking, watching him, just watching
- 53:27Speaker 1: him talking say things on the sidelines, great highlights. I've
- 53:29Speaker 1: had a chance to meet him twice. I've never met him. Yeah,
- 53:32Speaker 1: I was like, man, well he's from from from scott
- 53:35Speaker 1: you know, it was in Chicago for a long time.
- 53:37Speaker 1: So um. But him and then kind of his partner
- 53:41Speaker 1: in crime, you know, Bill Paulian who was the GM, um.
- 53:44Speaker 1: And then you know, he was the guy drafted me.
- 53:47Speaker 1: He was the guy when we went to Caroline, when
- 53:49Speaker 1: when he went to Carolina as the GM. You know,
- 53:52Speaker 1: he signed me as a free agent to be the
- 53:54Speaker 1: first quarterback in Panthers history. I mean just for a
- 53:57Speaker 1: couple of games until Carry Collins would take over. He
- 54:00Speaker 1: was a fifth pick in the draft. You didn't even
- 54:01Speaker 1: have to say that, but we'll take that on. Yeah.
- 54:05Speaker 1: But Bill, everywhere I've been in my football career, Bill
- 54:08Speaker 1: Pauline's stamp is on it. Right. He's been like a
- 54:10Speaker 1: football father to me in many respects. So that's three.
- 54:12Speaker 1: And then of course you made me today as my wife.
- 54:14Speaker 1: You know, um, you know my wife, we been married
- 54:17Speaker 1: thirty six years. Um. You know, you go this journey
- 54:20Speaker 1: of the NFL, it's crazy journey right, there's high highs,
- 54:24Speaker 1: there's low loads. You got to have a center, you know,
- 54:26Speaker 1: you got to be centered in on things. So you know,
- 54:28Speaker 1: our relationship has been a real foundation for me of
- 54:31Speaker 1: strength and peace. That's a that's awesome and only that
- 54:35Speaker 1: the woman can dress like I tell you. For those
- 54:38Speaker 1: that didn't see it, go back out and watch the
- 54:40Speaker 1: press conference. It was beautiful. The family was beautiful. Thank you.
- 54:45Speaker 1: So here's my last question for you, Frank, what was
- 54:49Speaker 1: your co coach? Sorry and Peanut kind of already talked
- 54:55Speaker 1: about this as the head coach, but I want to
- 54:57Speaker 1: know you're welcome to the NFL moment as a player
- 54:59Speaker 1: as well. Like mine was my rookie year in training
- 55:01Speaker 1: camp where I looked up one of the injured guys.
- 55:04Speaker 1: He had shades on his underneath his helmet. While riding
- 55:07Speaker 1: in my bicycle, I was like, man, this is like
- 55:10Speaker 1: this is the league, Like this guy's big time. I
- 55:12Speaker 1: want you to tell me what it was like in
- 55:14Speaker 1: the in the eighties, Like in the eighties, okay, okay,
- 55:20Speaker 1: when football was real and I'm gonna this is really
- 55:23Speaker 1: you guys know this when you see the old film,
- 55:25Speaker 1: but like when football was real, when we came into
- 55:27Speaker 1: a halftime. We came in a halftime of our very
- 55:30Speaker 1: first game in the NFL, and uh, I'm not going
- 55:33Speaker 1: to mention any names because not that it matters, but
- 55:36Speaker 1: I came in. One of my teammates they just lit
- 55:38Speaker 1: up a cigarettette. It's smoking a cigarette at halftime, and
- 55:42Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, welcome to the NFL. You know. But
- 55:47Speaker 1: one other quick one if I could just you know,
- 55:49Speaker 1: for me, the real first moment, like welcome to the NFL.
- 55:53Speaker 1: My very first preseason game was against Chicago and Walter Payton,
- 55:59Speaker 1: you know, and I'm on the field warming up and
- 56:01Speaker 1: nervous Walter Payton and this is a guy that I idolized.
- 56:04Speaker 1: I mean, I just I couldn't believe it. I was
- 56:06Speaker 1: on the same field as Walter Payton. I was incredible.
- 56:09Speaker 1: That's that's awesome. Yeah, we always have that man. That's
- 56:12Speaker 1: that's beautiful. Thank you so much. Frank's all right. Exciting
- 56:18Speaker 1: times ahead for Carolina Panthers, obviously with Frank fright at
- 56:21Speaker 1: the hell and really exciting news. Just you know, now
- 56:24Speaker 1: that they have the first overall pick, I think I
- 56:27Speaker 1: know what They're gonna pick that quarterback but that's up
- 56:29Speaker 1: to them. What do you think, you know, I think
- 56:31Speaker 1: they're gonna do something good. We already know what they're
- 56:33Speaker 1: gonna do. They're gonna pick a quarterback, so let's let's
- 56:36Speaker 1: let's just lay it out for him to play it out.
- 56:38Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in. I'm Peanut Tillman. That's my guy,
- 56:41Speaker 1: Roman Harper. We appreciate y'all. Thanks for listening.