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Sam Darnold: "This Locker Room Is At The Top" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, guys. Uh, I feel like, you know, good last
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: couple of days preparing for these guys. Obviously a really good,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: really good defense we're playing. You know, I feel like
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  Speaker 1: these last few games they've played played really well, disturbed
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  Speaker 1: the quarterback a little bit too on on some of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: those pressure downs, and uh, yeah, we're we're looking forward
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  Speaker 1: to the challenge as we are every single week. Tells
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  Speaker 1: about the your cause and the athletes there, yea. So
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: it is the Jesse Reese Foundation, you know, you see
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  Speaker 1: it all the time as an ego. It stands for
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  Speaker 1: never Ever Give Up. It's a foundation for children fighting cancer,
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  Speaker 1: and it just tries to spread joy to these kids
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  Speaker 1: that are fighting cancer, you know, and and doing everything
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  Speaker 1: that they can. They make these things called joy Jars,
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  Speaker 1: which they deliver in the hospitals, and there's just a
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  Speaker 1: ton of you know, cool little, cool little toys in
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  Speaker 1: there for for kids to play with, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: coloring books and all and all sorts of things. So
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  Speaker 1: and then they do a lot of great things, you know,
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  Speaker 1: to to help raise money for the cause as well.
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  Speaker 1: So just people I've been working with since high school
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  Speaker 1: and uh, you know, very happy to to represent them.
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  Speaker 1: As my my uh my cleats my cause connected with
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  Speaker 1: them in high school. Yeah, so going to a Lead
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  Speaker 1: eleven as a high schooler that that you know, quarterback camp.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Jordan Palmer was helping run it, who's actually
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  Speaker 1: my still my quarterback coach to this day, but he's
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  Speaker 1: very highly involved in in you know, their organization, their foundation,
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  Speaker 1: and uh, you know, there was a kid there. He
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  Speaker 1: was very little at the time. Now he's grown up
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  Speaker 1: and he's bigger now. But his name is Kate's Panillo.
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  Speaker 1: Super Kate is what they called him, or what they
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  Speaker 1: still call him, and uh, you know he's just he's
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  Speaker 1: an incredible person. And you know he really touched my
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  Speaker 1: heart with just his story and how he battled and
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  Speaker 1: how you know, Nigu really helped him get through some
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  Speaker 1: really really tough times, you know, battling battling cancer. So
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  Speaker 1: you know that, you know, it just really hit home
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  Speaker 1: for me when I was in high school, and I
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  Speaker 1: feel like I've you know, developed a good relationship with
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  Speaker 1: the people there and and a lot of the kids
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  Speaker 1: that you know Nigu tries to tries to help throughout
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  Speaker 1: that whole process are Yeah, yeah, you know, they've I
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  Speaker 1: think They've done some really good work in Seattle. You know,
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  Speaker 1: hopefully these next couple of weeks, especially around the holidays,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we'll get to a hospital, you know, and
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  Speaker 1: and try to impact some of the kiddos' lives. Sam,
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  Speaker 1: when you went back and watched the take from last time,
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  Speaker 1: they sort of jumped out to you. Yeah, I think
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  Speaker 1: for me, like I just got to go through my progressions,
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  Speaker 1: you know, listen to my feet, you know, and and
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  Speaker 1: just you know, be able to you know, just not
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  Speaker 1: necessarily just get stuck on one or two guys and
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  Speaker 1: be able to just move on in progression. Do you
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  Speaker 1: do you how do you look at take differently now
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  Speaker 1: at this point of your career that maybe you did
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: when you were in your first couple of years, especially
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  Speaker 1: when you look back at and maybe a tough game
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  Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, you know, I think for me, like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, especially with with you know, the guys that
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: they have on defense, I feel like they did a
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  Speaker 1: really good job disguising and you know, for me, it's
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  Speaker 1: just about keeping keeping my eyes down the middle of
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  Speaker 1: the field, you know, and uh just moving from there,
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  Speaker 1: you know, keep my eyes down the middle of the field.
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  Speaker 1: Seeing the show a little bit better and just getting
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  Speaker 1: to the right spots with the ball, getting one or
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  Speaker 1: two guys. I think just you know, just having a
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  Speaker 1: better you know, understanding when the ball snapped, you know
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  Speaker 1: just what the coverage is, and you know when you
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  Speaker 1: know a guy is gonna come open and when he's not.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I think just you know, getting when I
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  Speaker 1: say get stuck in a progression, I mean just seeing
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  Speaker 1: one side of the field and feeling like there's you know, uh,
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  Speaker 1: there's a chance that someone's gonna get open over there,
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  Speaker 1: rather than just moving on and and clicking through my
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  Speaker 1: progression as I normally do with Smith and leading. Yeah, again,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: it's you know, that's uh for me, it's just I
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  Speaker 1: go through my progressions no matter what the play is, first, second,
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  Speaker 1: third down, no matter who we're playing. So I think
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  Speaker 1: it's just you know, continuing to do that and do
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  Speaker 1: it at a high level. Sam, what is part of
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  Speaker 1: the position Just how aware of you as a leader
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  Speaker 1: at the next play, mentality and the awareness that your
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: demean is going to change after a play when you
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: go back to that huddle. Yeah, you know, my demeanor.
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  Speaker 1: I hope it doesn't change, you know. I'd like to
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  Speaker 1: think it doesn't change at all. You know, things are
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  Speaker 1: gonna happen throughout the course of a game. Obviously you'd
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  Speaker 1: love for those things not to happen negative plays, but
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  Speaker 1: you know that's football sometimes, and for me, like I
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  Speaker 1: just you know, have to have a mentality of moving
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  Speaker 1: on in the next play because there's nothing that I
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  Speaker 1: can do once you know, I throw an interception or
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  Speaker 1: fumble or you know, you know, there's nothing nothing I
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  Speaker 1: can do at that point to change that. So it's
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  Speaker 1: about moving on as fast as I can, understanding why
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  Speaker 1: I'm messed up, you know, looking back at it, and understanding, okay,
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  Speaker 1: this is this is why this happened, and just being
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  Speaker 1: able to move on. And uh, you know, I felt
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  Speaker 1: like I did a you know, pretty good job of that,
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  Speaker 1: you know in LA. Obviously it didn't go the way
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  Speaker 1: that I wanted to, and the mistakes kept happening, but
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  Speaker 1: I felt like when I did make mistakes, I was
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  Speaker 1: able to just move on, you know, the way I
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  Speaker 1: normally do. Is that easy? Is it? I mean, do
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  Speaker 1: you fight you have to fight the urge to yell
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  Speaker 1: and just do whatever you would naturally do, is it? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, well, there's you know there's some times that
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  Speaker 1: you know, I you know, I'm able to yell and
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  Speaker 1: to a towel or do whatever, maybe slam something down
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  Speaker 1: on the ground. But yeah, there's definitely times where I
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  Speaker 1: get angry on the sideline, but you know, I do
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  Speaker 1: a pretty good job of hiding it. I guess Ernest
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: comes up after you in the press conference and says
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  Speaker 1: what he says, like, what what does that mean to you?
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  Speaker 1: Just you personally? Just what to say about this team? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we have you know, we've put a lot
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  Speaker 1: of work in up to this point, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: I think myself included, but all those guys in the
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  Speaker 1: locker room, you know, we've all put a lot of
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  Speaker 1: work in. You know, when when things you know, don't
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  Speaker 1: necessarily go the way that I want them to, especially
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  Speaker 1: you know on game day. You know the reason that
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  Speaker 1: it that it sucks for me is because I feel
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  Speaker 1: like I'm letting those guys down. And I feel like
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  Speaker 1: a lot of the guys in the locker room feel
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  Speaker 1: the same way. So that's that's kind of you know,
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  Speaker 1: that energy, you know, and the things that he said,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it meant a lot to me, just to
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  Speaker 1: you know, for a guy to have my back like that.
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  Speaker 1: But again, you know, it doesn't I know, I know
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  Speaker 1: that the guys are just gonna go fight no matter what,
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  Speaker 1: no matter what the case is, and so I'm gonna
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  Speaker 1: do everything that I can to put my best foot
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  Speaker 1: forward and go execute at a high level. In locker
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  Speaker 1: room unique in that way? Or is that the NFL
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  Speaker 1: progression room? Yeah, not every you know, it's not every
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  Speaker 1: locker room that's like that. You know, I've been around
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  Speaker 1: some really good locker rooms, some locker rooms that you
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  Speaker 1: know aren't necessarily as close. But you know, I would
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  Speaker 1: say this this locker room is is at the top
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  Speaker 1: for sure, just the way that you know everyone comes together,
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  Speaker 1: the way that you know they you know, just fight
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  Speaker 1: for each other. I think it's very evident with the
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: way that you know we play football on Sundays. See
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: not every turnovers created equal, obviously, but I think over
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  Speaker 1: the last four games, you guys have twelve who combined
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: kind of how do you read that? I know some
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  Speaker 1: of them are different than others, obviously, but like, I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure that's a number you're not super happy with. How
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  Speaker 1: do you guys try to focus in on getting that
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  Speaker 1: where it needs to be Yeah, I mean it's unacceptable.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we understand as an offense, we have to
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  Speaker 1: be better. I have to be better protecting the football,
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  Speaker 1: and we're doing everything that we can in practice and
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  Speaker 1: when the game comes to to try to, you know,
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  Speaker 1: take care of the football a little bit better. What
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  Speaker 1: do you like about the way the team responded, not
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: necessarily to the turnovers, but just kind of the looking ahead,
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  Speaker 1: knowing where the corrections need to be made and almost
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  Speaker 1: the result instead of the disappointment. Yeah, I think you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's something that coach mentioned right off the game, you know,
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  Speaker 1: just understanding kind of where we are and you know,
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  Speaker 1: if that ball goes through the uprights on the last play, like,
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  Speaker 1: there's no reason to look at it any different. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we're still gonna come in here and make the corrections
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  Speaker 1: and do everything that we need to move on to Tennessee,
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  Speaker 1: which you know, that's where mind mind is at and
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  Speaker 1: so that's uh, that's kind of where we're at and
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  Speaker 1: where we were at, you know, the last couple of days,
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  Speaker 1: you know, leading into Wednesday. Good appreciate it.