Barn Talk - I Won a Super Bowl as a Rookie. Here's Why I'm Going Back to Farming

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

Welcome back to Barn Talk! In today’s episode, the conversation focused on the incredible journey of Grey Zabel, who demonstrates that you can make it to the absolute peak of professional sports while remaining a farm kid at heart. From growing up in Pierre, South Dakota as a fifth-generation farmer to his college football career at North Dakota State and being picked 18th overall by the Seattle Seahawks, Grey’s story is both inspiring and down-to-earth. A key theme that emerged was the importance of faith, family, farming, and football, which Grey describes as the four pillars of his life. The discussion explored the challenges and triumphs of his rookie NFL season—including a Super Bowl win—his dedication to running Northland Farms, and the decision to invest in land rather than adopt a flashy lifestyle. Several points were raised, including the parallels between the hard work required in farming and the NFL, the pressures faced by young people in agriculture, and the enduring power of rural values. Whether you are a fan of football, farming, or stories of perseverance, you won’t want to miss this episode packed with heart and grit. JOIN THE BARN TALK NEWSLETTER & GET LIVE EVENT ACCESS: We're on a mission to get 10,000 subscribers, and once we do, we're hosting a live event at the barn! Sign up to get exclusive access to tickets and details.👇🏻 Help us get there: https://www.joinbarntalk.com SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR   SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c  LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY  APPLE ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● Barn Talk Instagram ➱ https://www.instagram.com/barntalkshow  ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS    ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4    ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS ● Sawyer’s X ➱ https://x.com/SawyerWhisler  ● Tork’s X ➱ https://x.com/TorkWhisler       13:59 Choosing Football over Baseball in College 20:58 Draft experience and relief 34:42 Rookie dinner experiences with the offensive line 51:26 Importance of family history in farming 01:01:45 Moving from hands-on work to management 01:06:49 Diversifying strategies in grain farming and livestock 01:13:04 Discussing the rising cost of land prices over decades 01:31:30 Discussing first class ticket networking 01:41:00 Hunting trip at the farm in December 01:52:05 Enjoying college football days 02:00:11 Trust and Faith in Farming Life ------------------------------- ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠  The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this podcast without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional, professional broker or financial advisory. Understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this website at your own risk. RISK STATEMENT– The trading of Bitcoins, alternative cryptocurrencies, NFTs, individual stocks, etc. has potential rewards, and it also has potential risks involved. Trading may not be suitable for all people. Anyone wishing to invest should seek his or her own independent financial or professional advice. #EP208 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name. Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens that the barn stays in the barn, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you guys. Man, just can't say enough thank you to you guys. The show has been growing like a weed in 2026, and it's a big credit to you guys. And the guests that we've been able to land is all credit to you wonderful people. that tune into the show every single week, whether you're listening or watching.

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If you want to see this show succeed and you want to see it grow and you want to see us get more great guests, come to the barn and have some awesome conversations with us, that's what you can do for us. and that's all that we really ask. You can also leave review on Spotify or Apple. Those always give us a lot of credibility

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And given our opinion on it, giving our thoughts on it. and when we got a goal with that right now, if we get to 10,000 weekly newsletter subscribers, we're going to throw a live event right here on the farm, in the barn, and bring every great guest that's had an impact on you guys that's been on the show,

try to get them here to be in person, and you can meet them, and they can drop some value in person and all that. So just have a good old time is really what we want to try to do. That's what I'm after. That's what you're after. You're the star of the show. I don't know about that.

I think here's the thing about dad. He gets energy from talking to people. That's for sure. Like he is, when you think of an extrovert, Torque is an extrovert. For me, by the end of that night, I'm probably going to need to go sleep. But you're going to be up until 3 in the morning.

Sorrel will just do an Irish goodbye. He'll just turn around and he just won't be here. He'll be asleep. He'll just be, he might be asleep up here in the haymow. I don't know. Yeah. We'll see how it goes. But we got to get there first.

We do got to get there, so. But I think we'll get there. I do think so. I love the newsletter. It's just a little bit. It's kind of like a weekly hot topics with us because we're getting the point where with all these guests, we don't get to do as many hot topics as what we used to. And it's kind of like getting that in your inbox every week.

So if you like that sort of thing, sign up, subscribe. we kind of got another theme going. Last week's episode, we actually had to like pause in the middle of it because it was raining so hard in the barn that usually it doesn't pick up, but it was so heavy that it was picking up on the mics and we had to shut her down for a little bit. And we actually are starting a little later than what we thought we were going to today with our guests because the same reason.

It's rained like crazy here in South. I'm sure we've had well over an inch of rain. I didn't check the gauge because it was still raining as we came over. And so our normal deal is we worry about dry weather. I'm pretty sure that the corn's got plenty of moisture. In fact, we might have too much. I just got my update from Sky Scout. Some of you might know that we're demo and Sky Scout from Landis Cooperative this year. And we just, I just got the update this morning, the flyover. And you're starting to see instead of drought stress, you're starting to see all those places that need tile and got a little too much water because they're, they're starting to fall behind. So, you know, I mean, I got to have something to complain about her.

They'll come take my farmer card. So too much rain now. I'd like we always, we've been saying this for years. Rather have a dry year than a wet year because wet year, we had a wet year last year. and I think a lot of people kind of agree that for whatever reason that wet year is not as fun well in a wet year's fine as long as it stays but the problem you get is like this corn is you know waist high or shorter somewhere in there and it's not rooting down because there's no reason to root down so if you keep getting rain that's fine but once it stops raining that corn usually can't root down fast enough and then it really gets stressed so anyway We can talk about all that another time, but today, today we got, this is going to be, as Soria would say, this is going to be a banger.

Today we've got a guess who proves you can make it to the absolute pinnacle of professional sports and be a farm kid at heart. Gray Zabel grew up in Pierce, South Dakota. He was an all-American offense alignment at North Dakota State, turned down massive NIL money to stay loyal to his program and was drafted 18th overall for the Seattle Seahaw. In his rookie year, he started at Left Guard and just won Super Bowl 60. Not a bad rookie season.

But off the field, he's the owner of Northland Farms LLC, taking over his late grandfather's land in South Dakota. He says his life is built on four pillars, faith, family, farming, and football. We're going to talk about winning a Super Bowl, the state of farming, duck hunting, and why he spent his NFL money on dirt. So without any further ado, let's get into it.

Well, shit, boys. We're live. So, Gray, Zabel, welcome to Barn Talk, brother. Appreciate it. Thanks for being here. This place is sweet. Yeah, no, dude. It's unbelievable.

We appreciate you making the trip. We have been fans of yours for a while now. I've followed you on Instagram. I'm like, plays the NFL, Farm Kid at Heart. This would be a perfect episode. So, man, no, we appreciate you making the trip, and we're excited. We're going to hit you with a good one right off the rip. So you're the 18th overall pick in the NFL draft.

You just won a Super Bowl as a rookie, starting guard for the Seattle Seahawks. And yet you've said publicly that the day you're done playing football, you're going right back to sitting in a tractor in South Dakota. Why is the farm the ultimate end game for you? Oh, dude. What a tough question. We're throwing you in the fire. No, I just think from a young age, I mean, I believe I'm a fifth generation farmer.

And from a young age, I've just been interested. like going there's nothing better in the summer going up to the grandparents going up to the farm and all that and then we're talking it's just the peace of mind being in the middle of nowhere in a cornfield and and that's that's really what i want to do and so like i think from the moment we got done with the super bowl i just already had a checklist of things i had to get done at the farm before oTAs started up this spring so it's one of those deals. That's that's the end goal. And I think that's going to be the coolest part about this journey is I know what I'm wanting to do after I'm done playing football. So I can play football for as long as I want. And at the end of the day, like, I think my true identity is in farming. And whenever the

day comes that I'm done playing ball, it's, I'm immediately back to the farm, which is, which is the cool part of my life. Yeah, the freedom too. We were talking last night, the freedom farming gives you. It's a peace, but it's a freedom to be able to do what you love, but have a little bit of set your own schedule. Yeah, you got a million things you've got to get done, but you have the freedom of saying, I'll piss on that. I'm not doing it today. I'm going to go do this instead.

You still got to get it all done, but it's like you don't, you're your own person standing over. You go, you got to get that done. Yeah. It's like, yeah, I just finished side dressing. And I think my fertilizer guy, I don't know how long I had the rig, but I think longer than I've ever had it

because with all the rain, it's like you go out and you're like, is it dry enough? And then you make one round, you're like, oh, no, this is not dry enough. I'm lucky I got out of there. And then it gets dry enough and then you go and then it rains.

And then you're out. And finally got that off the list so I can go work on everything. I can just fuck off. Yeah, well, that's all we do here. you know, hogs basically raise themselves. So, I mean, you know, check them once a week, whatever. They'll be fine.

Yeah, just make sure the feedline ran. Well, yeah, we got those fancy controls that you just look at the, you look at the app and it's like, oh, it's powers on. They must be good. Yeah. All right. I'm going fishing. Yeah.

Well, is there a moment when you're growing up that you're just like, yeah, this is in me. This is what I'm doing. Like, this is what I want out of life. God, yeah. I think from a young age, like just, Like there's nothing better than riding in the tractor with your grandpa and like him doing just kind of the daily chores or like things you had to you done. You're just riding in there and you're like this is the life. Like and then what you don't see on the flip side of that is like something breaking. Like then you're like, is this is this really for me? Like having to be underneath a planner or something trying to fix something or you have a screw up and you back up with a planner in the ground and you're sitting there trying to get the mud out of the opening wheels. You're like the same for me. Yeah.

What am I doing? Like, I'm in over my head, but I think the back during COVID when we didn't have school and I got a plant like, I can't even tell you. I think it was like 200 acres with a six-year-old planner. That's when like that week. You were hooked. Oh, yeah, I like fell in love with it. It was awesome.

Everything didn't go right. Yeah. But it was sweet. And something came out of the ground. So we did something right. Yeah. So that was the time where I'm like, all right, this is this. this is what I want to do.

Yeah. Yeah, if you can have an experience like that and don't mess anything up to where your dad or your grandpa just absolutely rips your butt for, you know, 20 minutes. Yeah. Or when it doesn't come up, it's your fault. That's a great, that's a great experience. Yeah. And I think the coolest thing that we do at our farm is like, we embrace, like, the fuck-ups.

Yeah. You're getting your picture taken in front of it. Like, there's a middle. That's awesome. There's a middle finger in every single picture. If it's, you're stuck, my dad bent a snout on our corn head. If it's, I backed into the backless shed, hooked up to a sprayer, trying to hook up to the sprayer, bent that bar to where it was like cursive.

And you're getting your picture in front of it. And then we're keeping that deal in the shop of like. There's your coffee table book. Sore and I were just talking about doing like a coffee table book of photos around the farm. That would be, if you could get. just a bunch of people that had that and just assemble like a like a book of fuck-ups yeah farm fuck-ups i'd buy that i would buy that so it's hilarious too like there's my dad got stuck trying to like combine just a little bit of corn on the edge of a slew and he

just slid right in i've never got my phone out of my pocket so fast because you know when you when you get stuck oh you're an idiot yeah what you knew that was too wet what were you thinking you're sitting there and you're like well my bad like i've seen you do this 15 times but you don't dare say that yeah yeah but when he got stuck oh my phone was out of my pocket so fast to get a picture of that because you got to document it yep and then you're sending into the family text getting a few ha ha ha's on the on the image and it's great like you're living large well now you're probably bigger than him so he can't really say shit now he's still got that old man strength oh he's got the farmer's yeah yeah he grabs your wrist or something and it's like yeah you're

your arms gone. You get the neck grab. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Torque's got, he's, you're, you're, that used to be. You got some mighty strength too. Yep. Yep.

Low key. Yeah, that, that was the, that's the church grip. That's, you know, when your kids, you got a kid on each side of you in church and they're, they're causing trouble. You just give them that little, that little grip. And then as they squirm, you just increase the pressure. No, you would always do it. And then you'd really know,

over and you'd say, do I need to take you in the car and beat your ass? Are you going to shape it up? I would have never said that in church. Yeah. Whatever. You made it known, hey, time to shaping up, buddy. Yeah. Well, how do this, how, okay, let's back up. So, growing up, you were probably, did you play a lot of sports? So you're a sports family. Oh, yeah. What all, what all did you do? Yeah, so growing up, which I, love my parents for. They let us do anything we wanted to sports-wise. If it was basketball, baseball, football, I even played soccer. Yeah, we wrestled. I did cross-country my sixth and seventh grade year because we didn't have football. That I tell you what, like if there were smartphones

and you could record that, that would have sold for millions of dollars. You weren't a graceful runner. No, me and the back of the pack just like huffing and puffing. Yeah. Coming in dead last in cross-country meets. Yeah. Yeah. But so we did everything. I think that was the coolest part about my upbringing is like I didn't know what I wanted to do in college. I thought I was going to play baseball for a while all through high school. I thought I was going to go pitch somewhere and play baseball. And then you start playing football and you get a little bit better and a little bit better. And then it's like university Iowa is calling and Iowa State and you're like, oh, maybe I have a chance to play football and you just kind of go from there and then you wait till kind of the very

last second to decide if I got to play football or baseball and I chose football. My body probably wishes I would have chose baseball but here we are. I think I heard you tell the story that your dad kind of made a good point with you about like baseball versus football. How about what like you can play co-ed softball or whatever. But once you take the pads off, how did that go? That was my dad's like famous saying that he told us is like, so he played football in college for a division two up in northeast South Dakota. And he said like you'd always tell us growing up like you can play City League basketball

when you're older. You can play Beer League softball or amateur baseball. And you can do all that. But like when you're done playing football, you'll never put the pads back on. Now you're starting to see some like 60, 70 year old guys like go out play like Sunday scrimmage, just like each other up, which is comedy. It's funny. Oh my gosh.

When you're done playing football, you're done. And it's, you kind of appreciate that more as you like start getting older. And now at this level in the NFL, it's like, okay, like this might be my last play of playing football ever. And so you just find a little more appreciation when it comes. comes to playing football or putting those pads on. And you just said that from as long as I can remember.

I felt myself getting hangary. I had to come get a snack. If you could see crop issues before they cost yield, would you? That's exactly what Sky Scout from Landis does. With advance in-season aerial imagery and agronomic insight, Sky Scout helps farmers catch stress earlier and make smarter decisions across every Schaefer. Learn how Skyscout works for your operation at landus.org. Now I'm going to finish my snack and get back to it. So why, so you're getting, you're getting your schools, your offers,

you're going on visits. Why North Dakota State? Like what, what drew you there? Yeah. Well, it's one of those deals where I got three offers. I got to go play football. I had North Dakota State, South Dakota State and South Dakota. And being from South Dakota, like, I think everybody in the state of South Dakota thought I was going to choose one of those two. And I was leaning towards North Dakota State, but like in the back of my mind, I'm like, I think it'd be sweet to play at Iowa, Iowa State or Kansas State. And so we went on visits to those three schools. And I was offensive flying coach at the time said, I would never be big enough and I wouldn't be able to play in the Big Ten. And so I was like sitting there. I'm like,

damn and at the time i'm six four two hundred thirty pounds like soaking wet after a huge breakfast and we go down to kansas state and kansas state kind of says the same thing like i didn't have the frame i wasn't quick enough so i was like damn like okay and then go up to north dakota state and i still remember coach kramer our strength coach i get on the scale and i weigh 230 pounds and he starts laughing he goes oh yeah i i can get you to 300 don't worry about that i'll get you to 300 and i was like Here we go. And at the end of visit wherever, they take you through a trophy room and they have like, I can't even remember.

I think they had like eight national championships already at the time. And I'm like, this is sweet. Like, I want to be a part of this. Like, I want to go win. And I chose there. And World comes full circle because the Iowa O-Line coach at the time that said that became my head coach the last year at North Dakota State. And now he's one of my really good buddies. Did you impress upon that you'd actually gotten, you thought that you might have the

frame to play. Oh, when he showed up, he comes walking in that first team meeting and I'm in the back corner of my normal spot and I'm just death glaring him. I'm like, this dude, like, he told me. Like, and like before my senior year, I got like reached out to like transfer. Like pre-portaled is what they call it like to transfer for big money and I was like, nah, I'm staying. Like I'm going to stay at NDSU where they believed in me and he comes walking in and I'm like, I can't wait to tell this guy like and he remembered it he oh he he got a good chuckle out of it he apologized yeah no we look back at that and laugh and now it's all like funny and stuff because where I'm at and and how it kind of turned out I never change it obviously but oh god it was funny

yeah well that's a good motivation yeah put a chip on your shoulder yeah oh that's awesome man so going going from NFL to or going from college the NFL. Like, did you, is that one of those things where you felt like, so like in high school, you said you just got better and better and better. And college was kind of the same thing where you just got better and better and better. And then you were just getting closer to your senior year. And you're like, I think I could play in the NFL. Or did you kind of have that, did you kind of always have that thought of like, man, I think I can go to the NFL no matter what? No, not. I would say up until my sophomore year of college, I was hopefully,

going to graduate college and then go back to the farm and get into like crop insurance or egg banking and then farm part time and stuff and just do that and then going into my junior year one of my best buddies was like I like I think you got a shot to play in the NFL and at the time I think we were like 10 beers deep like I'm like yeah right dude like good one like good one and uh you go through junior year and stuff you have some agents reaching out to you wanting to represent you for the NFL and then into senior year you're like okay like I can maybe do this you're getting some like draft buzz and all that stuff but the end of the day it's like there's always that self doubt yeah and and same exact way in farming am i going to make it is this going to be

the year that goes south like and you always have that but then you start having a good game and then you have another good game and then it starts like okay i can do this i can do this and then it's you're getting you're getting a phone call, April 24th, saying we're going to take you with the 18th pick. And at that time, you're like, holy shit. Like, this is getting real. Yeah, this is serious now. I feel bad. You said that about, you know, you thought you might go back and do like crop insurance or something like that.

I feel bad for all the insurance agents out there because one of the most famous clips about being drafted is that clip of Tom Brady talking about how he just kept falling in the draft. and falling in the draft, and then he finally, he goes out and he walks around the block with his dad and then the Patriots call. The first thing he says is he goes, I was just like, oh, thank God I don't have to be an insurance salesman.

And every time I hear that, I'm like, you know, poor insurance guys. It's not a bad gig, but yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's such a classic. Oh, gosh, it's so good. And yeah, my entire college career, I thought, like, no shot. And then it happens.

And you're, like you said, you're like, I gotta go play football for another, at least another few months, another year, another few years, like waiting on my big boy job till then. So, yeah,

that can be on the back burner. Yep, that's badass. You don't have to quite hit Adalting 101 yet. So what was that, what was that moment like getting drafted 18th overall like? Did you, did you know,

like, did you have a feeling you were going to get picked in the first round, that high? Did, or you just, I mean, describe that moment. Yeah, you hear speculations and you have like no idea though. And I felt so bad, a few of the guys in my draft class, like the prank calls, like that would be brutal.

And like you look back now and they probably like laugh about it and stuff. But that would be brutal because in that moment you're just sitting there, you have your ringer on and you're just like, everyone else is talking, but like you are just so like zoned in to wait for that phone ring. Yep. And you got to think like, okay, you're not getting called the first pick for sure all the way through like maybe the top 10 to 12 picks. Like you don't got to worry about that. You're just watching as pure hoping your buddies get drafted and all that stuff. And then like it starts to be like where your agent's like, hey, this might be your time. You start texting them and stuff. And then you're just sitting there and it's kind of on edge and on edge. And I remember like somebody, I think somebody texted me beforehand. And then. And then you're just sitting there. And it's kind of on edge and on edge. And I remember like somebody, I think somebody texted me beforehand. And They're like, you can't choose where you go to. Just enjoy the moment and be happy to whoever gives you a chance. And that phone starts ringing on Pick 16 and it's Renton, Washington. And I'm like, rent in, I have no clue, the state of Washington or where anything's at and stuff.

I'm like, rent and like, hello? This is so-and-so with the Seattle Seahawks. We loved you everything in the pre-draft. Like, we're going to take you here with Pick 18. And you're looking on your screen, it's Pick 16. Oh, wow. You're going through, you're talking to them and stuff. And my parents obviously know and stuff.

And like a few people at my draft party were like, we honestly thought you were going to the Bengals because it was going to be the next pick. But then you realize like the draft has to be behind on TV for these teams to pick. Yeah. But it was sweet. Yeah.

What a experience. Surreal. Yeah. That's unreal, dude. So how, from the time that happened, like how long is it before you go meet anybody from the Seahawks and like all of the, I'm sure that it's like

you got to kind of get your wits about you as to what that looks like going to play for them. Oh yeah, it was well first, so I got drafted Thursday night and I think within five minutes after taking that phone call, somebody brought a beer up to me. Like, dude, take the edge off, like, have a drink and stuff. And you're like,

okay, yeah, perfect. And then you get on the phone and you're doing all this media and all that and then Seahawks people are reaching out to you saying like hey like we'd love to get you on a plane blah blah blah well my parents scheduled the draft party for Friday night thinking like I was going to probably go like round two or three from what from when they scheduled it yeah and so I'm like hey this is going to sound really bad but I can't my mom's going to kill me if I miss this draft party like I can't fly out tomorrow and they're like Oh, no worries. Like, we'll get you a first flight Saturday morning to get out here and see everybody and meet everybody. Like, no worries, you have a blast. I was like, okay. Perfect. And then it was full throttle.

Like, we enjoyed, like, we enjoyed the night, both Thursday and Friday night. We didn't get much sleep. Wow. That's crazy. That's awesome. What was the biggest, what was the biggest, like, holy shit, I'm in the NFL moment. that was the difference between college and NFL. I honestly think like when you walk in to that first,

it was a preseason game versus Raiders and you walk in and you see your jersey on the shoulder pads with Zabel on the back, you're like, holy shit, like this is happening. Like I'm about to, I know it's preseason, but you're like, I'm about to play in the NFL. Yeah. Like I'm about to go out there on national television and play football. And that was like my first like kind of holy shit.

this is happening moment and it's it's sweet it's nothing like it what what about like on the field like was there uh during your rookie season was there somebody you went against or did somebody do a move on you that you were like holy shit yeah that's that's insane it was well first off all training camp like the first two weeks i thought i was getting cut like Leonard williams byron murphy jaren those guys, I couldn't block them. Like, it was just a free pass to a quarterback whenever the play was called. And I remember calling my dad, and I'm like,

that, like, this isn't good. Like, I don't know if I'm cut out for this. Like, this is, I'm going to get a desk job. I'm going to work in the cubicle. Like, that's going to be my life. Like, I couldn't do it. And then we kind of started catching stride, like, week three and, like, understanding the tempo and the pace

and the speed that it's played at. And then it just keeps on working. working but and then you get into that first game and this was my true welcome to the NFL moment it's like the first or second play of the game and i it was a past play dude just bull rushes me and puts me and i'm like drew thanks for getting the ball out appreciate that yeah and then it was like you kind of like wake up and you're like all right like i go against three of the best interior d lineman in national football league every single day in practice like just take a deep breath and from there it was okay but yeah that was the that like first or second play against the raiders game i

just got worked yeah like this is the nf does max crosbie does he always does he always play on the edge or does he sometimes come inside or no yeah he kind of moves around he does move around and that's why like just those there's unicorns of defensive lineman max crosbie miles garrett that i'm missing guys for sure like trey hendricks and like those guys are are Jeffrey Simmons, like those guys are true unicorns because it doesn't matter where they line up. They're going to dominate. And you just got to be able to stay in front of them for hopefully two and a half seconds for the QB to get the ball out because it's one of those deals like they're going to win.

It's just how quick do they win? And that's where you see those really good offensive linemen in the NFL like Joe Tooney. Those guys like, yeah, they get beat, but they aren't getting beat till four. until it doesn't matter. Four and a half seconds into play, yeah, where it doesn't matter. Yeah, you just got to make it long enough. It's like bull riding.

Yeah. Way shorter. Way shorter. You know, there's a lot of speculation right now of a division rival of your guys is that, uh, that it's pretty good that they just got Miles Garrett. And, uh,

there's some talk that they might have somebody that's been pretty good in the NFL come out of retirement to join him. What, what do you think about this chatter? about Aaron Donald and Miles Garrett to teaming up, especially you being a guard. I like, I jolted awake this morning thinking Aaron Donald was, was coming out of retirement, but it was just the Iowa thunder. It was just a rainstorm in Iowa.

That's a good analogy. Yeah. No, it's first, Miles Garrett, unbelievable player. Like, no doubt about it. And it's when that trade went down, somebody in the locker room was like, Browns just gave us Christmas present in middle of June. and everyone's like, great. Like, we got to go against this guy, but the, the Rams were so talented up front.

They're like, yeah, he's a really good player, but like they had six guys that were all really good players. And they just traded one out for miles. If you want a $3,000 a month payday for life, what would you feel free to do? Maybe take a long weekend, every weekend, or try a bunch of new hobbies. Would you feel free to upgrade and listen ad free? Don't worry, we get it. Every $20 ticket could win you $3,000 a month for life and supports life-saving cancer research at the Princess Margaret.

Feel free to buy your payday for life ticket today. Raffle number 155-2194. Please play responsibly. Garrett, who's elite, but they're still a great defensive line. So it's that they're going to be really good and we're going to have to be prepared for them. And at the end of the day, it's the NFL. It's nature of the business.

Yeah. Another day at the office. Yeah. Buckle up. Well, I bet it's awesome to play against somebody like that. I mean, yeah, it's tough, but like the honor to be able to play with a, I mean, he's Hall of Famer. First by all. Yeah. You know, so it's pretty, pretty cool to go to battle with him.

Well, you won a Super Bowl your first year. Like, what, like, most guys play their whole entire career and ever win one. Or it takes them forever to win one. You know. How do you process reaching the peak of the sport like that early on? Yeah, I think the thing I just fall back to is like in high school, I won three state championships in football. In college, I won two national championships.

And then you go to the NFL. And I think the cool part about it was you're always chasing to win the last game of the season. And then in the NFL, the season was so long that I look back and I truly didn't appreciate what we just did. Like in the moment, I was not appreciative of what we were doing, the teammates around me, how we were doing it. And I look back and I'm like now in this next season, like I'm going to appreciate it a lot more because it's,

you hit the rookie wall like week 14, week 16, and you're like, why am I playing football right now? This is brutal. Let me go home for Christmas. I want to see my parents. And then it just turns into like a job. You're just waking up, the time card like you're not having fun and then you win the Super Bowl and you go

have that parade and that's when it's set in about like what we just did like millions of people in the street of Seattle where you're you're taking shots at tequila chasing it with beer not a not a great combination for you guys watching awful combination and and you're celebrating with your team and you realize what you just did and you're like that's pretty sweet like that's so surreal you are at the top of the mountain you just did what every other NFL player is chasing and I look back and I'm like dude I I didn't appreciate week 18 going to San Fran arrival and and beating them or or beating them again in the divisional or the unbelievable games we had late in the season versus Rams like you

don't appreciate those but you look back and you're like that was pretty sweet like that was pretty special like kind of makes me mad that I wasn't more in the moment but when you're going through it, it's like, give me the next day. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's something we talked about last night. You know, I think a lot of people just look at like pro athletes. You're like, oh, you know, like just deal with it. You're getting paid millions of dollars or whatever it is to play a sport that we would all love to play, whatever.

But it's like any job, I'm sure. Like you have those days where it's like, it's a grind. Like you're in the mental side. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I asked you last night, is it more physical or mental? And with any job, like, you. you know, we have this podcast every weekend.

It's like there's sometimes where neither one of us might not want to do it. And that's just part of any job. Like if you're going after something, you're going to have days where you're just going to be like, no matter how great it is or you feel like you're doing the thing that you always wanted to do,

you're still going to have days where you're just like, I don't want to do this. I told you last night, like Sawyer's like, oh, we're having gray on. And I'm like, God, I hope this kid's not a fucking print. I don't need an entitled football player, but you passed. You're good shit. I'm sure that, like, they don't get that, but I'm sure it's just like any other job where you're like, you got those days, you hit those walls. It truly is. And there's days where it's like,

it's not even a job. It's your passion. It's what you love. Like, you're getting paid to, to block a three tech and lift weights and hang out with your buddies for eight hours out of the day. and it's like it's the greatest and then there's days you wake up and you got an AC joint grade two AC joint separation and you're just like your shoulders drooping down as you walk or you got a bone contusion and a tweak in your MCL and you're like struggling to bend your knee and then then it's like this sucks yeah this job like yeah they don't pay us enough to to handle with this but no we occupational hazard as we always talk about.

Speaking of occupational hazards, this is a theme that we hear about. One of the pleasures that you get when you are a rookie and you get drafted high enough is you get a treat your group to dinner.

What was your experience like? And I guess, correct me if I'm wrong, but the group that you get to treat being the O-line, O-lines are notorious for the level of the level of food that they're going to require at that dinner. So how did that go? Like when does that happen?

Yeah, that happened our bi-week after week 18, like in the playoffs, that Friday. And, oh, I still remember we beat San Fran week 18, and this will be etched into my mind. forever. And they came up to me in the locker room and they're like, hey, rookie dinner's Friday. And I'm like, oh, God, this is going to hurt. Call my financial advisor now. Like, this is going to hurt. And I work with an unbelievable agency who represents me in the marketing girls there, Brady, or Braden and Bailey, unbelievable. And I call them and I'm like, hey, rookie dinner, got to do Metropolitan.

Please help me out. Like, can you guys set this up? They're like, yeah, yep we'll handle it we'll get it taken care of like okay perfect and they send me a a schedule like an itinerary of like this is when the the party bus picks you up this is when you're getting to the metropolitan grill in downtown seattle this is when it's picking you up to take you to the casino afterwards like this is when it's going to drop you off after casino and at that moment i'm like okay we're we're in good hands but this is still going to hurt like this is going to be expensive and we show up there and we get there and they already got the app on there it's like wagu meatballs it's it's uh the brisetta that's unbelievable they had like i was

saying they have some sort of i got to find out what it was it was like some sort of butter or something that was on before you put the tomatoes and then like shrimp and lobster cocktail and they just had these huge trays of them on this table and the vet there was like this is the this you'd planned well and stuff and then it's the little menu a little sheet not the full menu just a little sheet. It's like the chef's menu. Yep. And the waiter tried saving me too

when Josh, our vet, was like, where's the menu at? He was like, oh, since it's a larger group, this is what we prepared,

like all this. And he's like, looks at me, he's like, nah, you ain't getting away with this. Like, bring us the full menu.

Everyone's getting full menus. Right there. I'm like, oh, it's over. How many people were you treating that night? I think there was an 11 or 12 offensive line.

And we had a tight end or two come with. as of course. They're like not going to give up a free meal. Yeah, absolutely. And you get to a point where like that week in the locker room are O-line vets, like,

they are inviting everybody they can. Like, Sam, Coop, you guys want to come to O-Line dinner? Like rookie dinner, you guys are invited? And I'm just sitting there and I'm like, yeah, there's another thousand to $1,500 right there. Like every person he invites, you're just adding it up in your head.

And then you get there and then we start. to order in wine and give me a couple bottles of Caymus wine and I'm like, holy that's, yeah, that's, that's not cheap. And he's just like, the worst part was the, the Louis 13. I still don't know what it is. It tastes awful. But Louis 13 doing rounds of those, it's like $330 a shot and you're like, that's a bag of corn seed right there. You're just, you're just putting everything into farm terms like, but no, it was good. It wasn't too bad as,

I say it wasn't too bad as still. a bit. They scared me. They punged me pretty good with the first bill. So, yeah, when they, when they brought you the first bill, we talked about this last night and something I didn't even think about. I was talking to my wife. And so you, you manned up and you get out your wallet and you put your credit card in there. But had you ever, had you, like, did you know if you had a credit limit high enough to pay that? No idea. Yeah. So were you like, It was probably decline. It was going to probably decline.

Yeah. Were you like, okay. Because you had a number. Before you went in, you told us last night, you had a number in your head where you're like, all right. If it's here, I'll just swipe the card. Yep. And then the first bill comes out and you're like, it eclipses by a huge amount what

you thought it was going to be. Yeah, I was like, it's like I may have been cool as a cucumber in the moment, but I've never been shaking in my boots. so bad when I first opened that up and I'm like I'm just sitting there thing I'm like this is a tractor like I could buy a nice I powered horse power tractor for this yeah and I'm having to spend it on a dinner for like my buddies and all that stuff and then then you like

put in the card and you're like okay whatever like it's gonna be worse if you just don't pay it yeah and all the guys are gonna think like this pre-Madonna dude like classic so you just pay it and as he was walking away with it. I still remember Josh Jones, our vet, grabbed the waiter's wrist, and he's like, ah, he's good. He's good. Give him the real one. Like, and I'm like, they were testing you. I'm like this. You made the right decision. Yeah. This is just everything, all my good karma was just used right in that moment. Like, I'm going to have bad luck for the next 20 years, strictly based off of that moment of that happening. And it was, it was good.

because I ended up, we went to the casino afterwards and won some money back. So I couldn't complain. Yeah. And you also made a good, you made a pro move. The party bus picked you up and shout out to your marketing ladies having tequila in the party booths before you. Yeah, we had some drinks on. Yeah, you got to loosen them up because if they walked in there sober, it was. Thirsty and hungry.

Oh, yeah. That's going to be. That's another. That's going to be much worse. But it was hilarious like Metropolitan Grill, super fancy. steakhouse down there and I'm asking for a beer to drink everyone else is like wine give me a tequila on the rocks give me a tequila soda lime like all that and I'm like you got please tell me you guys got like a light beer that's non-IPA well so that's a good that I thought about that too so when you when you go

when you go out to Seattle uh is bush light anywhere to be found in the state of Washington it's tough you got to you got to do your searching yeah there's I know there's one bar by our facility that keeps bushlight on hand. And I appreciate the hell out of Dino's, the little thigh bar. Then you got to look at like your safe ways, your quality food, all that stuff. And look at those stores trying to figure it out. But I'll let you in on a hint. This rainier beer. Yeah. It's not too bad. It's not bush light, right? Right. But it's not too bad. It gets you through in a spot. Yeah. Some people say like it gets the job done. Yep. There you go. Yeah.

Nice. You know, there's kind of parallels with being an offense alignment and also being a farmer. You know, you're in the trenches. It's definitely an underappreciated position in football. You know, everybody knows an offensive line is super important, but you don't get the recognition. You probably should. And, you know, I think farming sometimes is the same way.

People show up to the grocery store. They grab whatever they want and they think, well, it just shows up. I grab it. I don't even think twice about it. And I just think it's cool. Like, does that, do you feel that connect sometimes? Like, that you're kind of in two worlds where you do some really important work, but it might not get appreciated enough, I guess.

No, that's, you said it perfect. I have two examples of describing offensive line and farming. When you're driving down the road, right? And it's the same way with offensive line and football. When you're playing football, you're driving down the road, and you're looking on both sides. There's just fields of corn, wheat, sunflowers, soybeans, and you're driving. You weren't thinking anything of it.

Just keep on driving. And then you see a field and there's like four rows that didn't plant or something. And you're thinking like, what dumb ass did that, right? Same thing with football. You're playing the game. You're watching the game. O' linemen misses a block or like loses to a defense alignment, a guy gets a sack. and everyone in the stand's like that dumb ass.

Look at that idiot. Dude couldn't block his guy. And then it goes back to your driving through cornfields and stuff and the games just keeps on going. And that's what playing offensive line and farming is like. And I think like you said, farming and football are very, very similar in ways of like you work all off season and all season farming to harvest one time.

Or to you work the entire week to play one game on Sunday. and you don't nobody sees that work that you do they just see the finished product or at the end of the day like can you grow 225 bushel corn well nobody saw you side dressing or fertilizing or going through all the the work with the data and the off season of what hybrid to put down or how much fertilizer to use and going through your books a break even they just saw the four rows that didn't come up that the planter skipped and like that guy's an idiot yep they don't see the 90 blocks you make you make you they all remember the one you missed. Exactly. And they don't realize like, oh, maybe it was a system malfunctioner, a sensor gone wrong on your N4 rows of a planner

that's causing this issue. Like they're just seeing that four rows that don't get planted, and they're like, this guy sucks at farming. How could you not realize when we're planting on those four rows? But that's perfect parallels

of farming and football. Yeah, no, that's great. Let's go into farming now. Let's talk about your farm and your family's legacy and just that whole thing. So you form Northland Farms? Okay, so you have your own farm, Northland Farms LLC, that you, so you bought, you picked up some ground. When did you pick up? Yeah.

When did you pick up some ground? Yep. So Northland Farms, it was originally my grandpa's. And then he passed away in 2019 and there was kind of like a limbo period of there wasn't, it was just kind of there. And then in 20, 24, it would have been the fall of 23. I got an opportunity to kind of start farming that next year of 24. And it just kind of 242 acres.

And it's not much, but it's honest work, as I like to say. And it was one of those deals where I'm in college. I'm 21 years old. I'm broke as can be. and I'm asking my dad and my dad was all for it. He was like, yeah, you should farm it. Like go do it. And I was like, okay, well, I have no money.

I'm going to have to put together this pitch to the bank and figure out how to get an operating note. And my dad's like, okay, well, start doing your due diligence and then just kind of run it by me. And so I was like, okay. I still remember spring of 24. I thought it, I was like, dude, how could a bank not lend me money? and I do this and my dad's like okay what's what's what kind of equity you got I'm like well I got like 600 bucks I was like okay maybe three bags of corn awesome what type of collateral you got and I was like well I got my pickup like my nice 2016 F150 lariat and he goes awesome so the pickup that

has my name on the title you're putting down for collateral yeah that's going to go great great Like, can't wait to hear this. Can I just be a fly on the wall for this conversation with a banker? And I'm like, well, I got, this is what I'm going to fertilize all this. And he was like, gotcha. So you're going to have to grow 33 bushel corn to even break even at $3 corn with what you're paying in land rent and fertilizer prices and all this stuff. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, you're really trying to talk me into this, dad. You're doing a great job.

I'm like, yeah, this is, okay. Well, so the bank's not happening. and I'm like, great, I can't farm. And my dad was like, you know what, I'll be your banker. And that's the greatest, like, I will say I have the best parents in the world. And my dad is the man, like, awesome. And he carries so many hats, like dad, banker, best friend, partner. Now he's a land tenant for me.

So he's renting the land that I own from me. Like, he's awesome. And so he's like, I'll stake you. Like, what could possibly go wrong? so I farmed in 2024 and obviously you lose money first year farming like I could anybody could tell you that and I had to write an I owe you to my dad for like 20 grand it was brutal yeah and so then you get kind of your first big boy paycheck with with the NFL and all this or a marketing deal you did and you just start slowly chipping away at it and then it's like hey uh can I borrow some more money

for land rent here before I get maybe drafted and make some more money and then here we go again and last year and it was one of those deals that you can't appreciate how much the opportunity that he gave you until you look back at it and you're like

he was either crazy dumb or really really loved me. Yeah, I think all those things and he's probably thinking well you know what if this NFL thing doesn't work I'm going to have an indentured servant for as long as that kid lived. He's going to be my cheap labor for, yep, I'm going to keep him stuck here for a long time.

Yeah, he's going to pick rocks for the next 20 years to pay me back and it's going to be great. It's going to be awesome. Yeah. Me and mom are moving to the villages. Just have him take care of it. Yep. So let's talk about your grandpa's legacy a little bit. Talk about your grandpa.

So that's where the family farm was is your grandpa's house and you'd go there and that's probably where you really formed your love for farming, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, my grandpa Denny, he is known statewide of South Dakota, strictly based off the legacy that he left. It was, he never missed a sporting event. He was always there supporting us. When we went hunting or fishing, he was right there taking us with, it was, he was the greatest dude, hands down, I've ever met in my entire life. And I got, I got buddies who still, to this day, said, like, he was awesome.

We miss him. and like he's the best. And it was one of those, the best way to describe him was, I think in the summer of our baseball games and stuff, he would be out there chasing foul balls with little kids going to pick up foul balls because that's just what he was.

That's just what he did. Yeah, that's badass. What about like, like farm, farm wise, like, did he, was it his dream to always pass the farm on? Like, did he always want? want somebody to get involved and and and keep this farm's legacy going. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was it the way our farm set up is our main place. It's just really for kind of hunting. There's there's food lots or food

plots tree belts. There's it's it's built for hunting. Um, and then there's our farmlands just kind of all around that spread out. And so he always like wanted it to be like a place. You where everybody could go to enjoy and to go opening weekend of pheasant season opening week in a deer season hunt over Thanksgiving up there and so now it's just trying to keep that legacy living and how can we improve it how can we take out some old shitty fence lines and mow it up and make it look nice to like you look back and you're like what would grandpa denny want yeah when we're looking at this stuff and spraying it makes sure there's not a ton of weeds and stuff like that added. So that's the legacy that he really left behind for us. Yeah. No, I mean, I think that's one of the things about farming that I love the most. And I think that's part of the reason that I think farm kids

could be, I guess you'd say, quote unquote, built different is you don't know how powerful knowing where your family came from is. But man, it's such a driver. Like, as far as like what you want to do and where you want to go and what you want to do with the farm and and how you look at things when you have that perspective of what your ancestors, you know, fought for, what they lived for, what their legacy was. Like, that's, that's a, I mean, that's a big driver for me. And I know that's a big driver for a lot of farm kids is like, in just small business owners kids, you know, or business kids that are going to get the business passed down to them. It's like the importance of knowing where your family came from. I just, I don't think you can stress it enough. Yeah. You

you said it perfectly right there is when you're when you start farming right there some people it might be a burden on some guy's shoulders it it might be weight on their shoulders or but for me it's a driver like i don't want to be the one that that loses the family farm like i want to pass it on to my kids so they can pass it on to their kids and how do we make it better just year after year after year to make it more successful to where like when my grandpa passed away my dad kind of took over shop there and started just slowly improving it and now we're improving it together and like like you said and it's the same way here at this place here it's it's you want to make things better for your next generation for their next generation and you guys are doing an unbelievable job with what you got

and it's so cool to see stories like you and have this podcast and show the world kind of what drives you and it's it's pretty sweet well man i appreciate it yeah i appreciate it it means a lot to me and you know it's funny like most guys probably taking it 18th overall they're buying cars they're buying a house they're buying you know chains they're buying whatever right you're like piss on that i'm buying right off tax right off so i'm buying right off so i'm buying I'm buying some ground. Yeah, give me some tax write-offs. Give me that chore truck out there.

Yeah. Doesn't do much, but it's pretty sweet. And when I got drafted, it was one of those deals. I was like, all right, one time in my life, I'm getting the truck that I wanted. And as a kid growing up, nothing's sweeter than a Ford Raptor. So you're like, all right, I'm getting it. I'm doing it.

And you did it. It's out there. It'll haul seed corn. Yeah. It'll do the trip. Not as many bags as like a 2,500 or something like that. They deliver. Yeah.

They'll deliver. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, when you get to this, you know, when you, like, get in the game and you're, you know, you're where you're at, like, is that the name of the game when you get to that level is like, man, taxes are a bitch. Like, we got to, we got to, like, we got to play this game of this tax. We got to, like, is that, is that like your main focus now with, like, preserving this and how can I, you know, farm, but also how can I do this the right way, you know? Yeah, it's, well, to start, it's you look up a Google search and just put in like, Gray's able. The first three options is like probably like net worth contract, Seattle Seahawks.

And like your contract is extremely public and all these people see like, oh, this is how many millions you've got? Well, I'm not going to see half of that due to taxes. And then you're sitting there and you're like, okay, with what I got, how can I miss? mitigate my tax loss with buying stuff that's going to appreciate in value. Like, yeah, that Ford Raptor is cool, but every mile it depreciates a dollar. Yeah. And you're sitting there and you're like, great. So, okay, you're driving that for looks and because a 12 year old gray wanted that.

But you try and figure out, okay, what's my greatest return on investment? How can I spin it to where I'm able to get a tax break from it? And then three, it's like, okay, how can I save as much to start investing? Because compound interest and the rule of 72, it's, I'm 24 years old, okay? So my money has a chance to double six times before I die. Something that I did not even think about. And maybe you can, I think this is the way it is. So is you're like, when it comes time to do taxes for you, football player, Gray,

is that a complicated deal because do states tax you when you play there, even though your paycheck comes from Seattle, Washington? But like when you play in Los Angeles, doesn't California tax... 13%. Yeah, so how the hell that... So your game check gets taxed based on where you played. Correct. So what's that look like at the end of the year when you're meeting with a...

You've got different... So every check, not every check, but you've got a bunch of different taxes from a bunch of different states that all have to be paid. Am I right? Yep. Yeah. So, well, I'll just break down our pay schedule because I'm sure a lot of people don't understand or know. So there's 18 weeks of the NFL season. You get 18 game checks.

They're split in half. The NFL started that probably five to 10 years ago, I would assume. They're split in half. So you end up getting paid for things. 36 weeks out of the year. And then they, you can tell them when you fill out your like direct deposit to form, how much you want to take. Do you want to take the minimum amount? And do you want to take 25% for taxes, all this stuff? And I was like, take the max amount out because I don't want to have to pay taxes come April. Yeah. And so they take it right out your paycheck. And then you go

on this app and it shows you every, we get paid every Friday. It shows you what your paycheck was. So like when I play in Seattle, half of a game check's like, I don't know, probably 14 grand or something. But then when you play in California and it's nine, I'm like, God. Holy cow. That's good old California. It's beautiful state. Don't get me wrong. Yeah. Love vacationing there. But like when you live there, it'd be, it's like, thanks, Gavin. I appreciate it. That hurts. Yeah. Yeah, dude, that's crazy. I didn't even think about that. Yeah, I was actually talking to a guy at the men's breakfast. morning because he asked who we were having on the podcast. I told him. And he's like,

you should ask him about the tax deal. So he had a guy that he had a guy that he knew that explained to him like that, oh yeah, I get taxed in different at every state that I play in. I was like, oh, my God. That's crazy. So you're in the NFL right now. I mean, that's your fall, right? Like that's your main career. That's your focus. So who's holding it down? right now at the farm while you're playing and like what's your goal with because obviously you want to you want to keep you want to farm like that's your end game that's what you want to strive for and you're you're doing everything you can to like invest in that now but like what are you trying to do now when you're in the NFL to kind of further your I guess your farm or your knowledge right now yeah um

well when I'm well first off our farm we're we're slowly starting to get the equipment and machinery to be able to do it ourselves. But we have our neighbors, Ritter Farms, Brandon Ritter, custom farms, majority of it for us. And I was saying last night, like, there's brilliant people, there's innovators, there's wicked smart people, there's Brandon Ritter, and then right above Brandon Ritter is Elon Musk. Like, that's how smart. He better, he better have, he better give you a beer next time. I'm, I'm, the one who always gives him beer because all the stuff he does for us. And he's super innovative on the farming side of thing.

So he custom farms for me and my dad. And he does a lot of it of like, I have these ideas. And he's like, okay, this is what I think. If I give him five ideas, he says we could probably do two of those. Visit BetMDM casino and check out the newest exclusive. The price is right for. chin pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetmGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Like two of those would probably work and so he's wicked smart, but he does all kind of the maintenance and the planning, the harvesting, spraying, all that stuff for me, which is the best. Like, he's awesome. No better family, I think, in the Midwest than the Ritters. They're unbelievable. And that's how I'm able to operate the farm when I'm out in Seattle.

It's a phone call, or he's sending me videos of the probably going through the best soybeans of my field saying like, hey, this field's looking good, but he's going through the low spot. that just to make me feel a little bit better. But that's how we do it. And we're slowly starting as we accumulate more land and pick up some more acreage that we're starting to buy us. We bought a sprayer and we're probably getting a planter here in the next eight to 10 months to start planting our own stuff. And that's kind of what it is.

But we Northland farms, my dad, we would not be able to do what we do without the Ritter family and his boy, Xavier, who's. just graduated high school and he's already knows more about farming than me and my dad will our entire life combined yeah it's it's crazy yeah got a passion for it yeah wicked smart too and when i break something first call Xavier brandon ridder yeah hey happened again yeah so like for you are you you said it last night like you want to in the next five years like you're trying to figure how to just be the best operator you can be so that when the time does come you're going all in on the farm and NFL career is done like you can step in and just crush is that like the goal you know yeah yeah and we talked about last night like I think the past five years I was strictly just like I did the grunt work like I was the plant and I was the lead mechanic self-proclaimed on our farm but I broke most of the stuff so I was fixing what I broke and I was just doing a all that. Well, now as I start to buy land and I have the football and stuff to worry about,

like I'm moving more into like a management type role, not that I want to, but it's, I have to. And we were talking last night about being able to manage cash flow, being able to manage employees, being able to manage the workforce and in a timely manner. Time management's huge in farming. The sexy side of agriculture. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. behind the scenes. Yeah, exactly. And that's where I'm really trying to like hone in to get good at that because I think the best operators right now in America are the guys who have kind of their ducks in a row. They're able to say, hey, you too, this is your job this spring. You guys are strictly spraying. You guys are planting. Like, let's master your crafts and go from there. And then being able to say like this field is ready to plant.

let's wait a day on this field. And just that's where your break-even starts to become less and less because you're able to manage so much of the moving parts where in this day and age, you've got a zillion things that could go wrong that you've got to worry about. And if you can manage or be good at managing everything behind the scenes, your farm's going to be very successful. You're setting yourself up for success.

So let's talk about this passion. year. Like, you've told a story about fertilizer, like, via fertilizer for this, like, tell, tell us about that story. Because, I mean, you're, you're kind of new in this management role, right? Like, you, rookie season last year, like, this is going to be the way, the way the things go for the foreseeable future. So talk about some of the trial and errors that you've had to, like, and go through. I found out real quick that, like, if you aren't on your peas and cues with farming, it's going to kick you a square in the ass. And I was telling Sawyer the story last night that we, my dad this past fall was calling me. I'm out in Seattle playing football. He's calling me.

He's like, hey, just heads up. Like, I would get some fertilizer marketed because there's, it's, there's some issues coming down the tracks. I'm like, yep, got it. Hang up. Go back to watching film or playing video games or walking to a meeting and stuff. And you just put it on the back burner. And then it's like you get so far down the line. And this spring we went in and I bought like half my fertilizer. And I'm like, holy shit, that is up a lot from what it was last year. And then I bought, I only bought half of it in like February. And then I get my fertilizer bill like last week. And I'm calling my dad. I'm like, I think they put some of your fields under Northland farms. Like my dad just starts laughing. Yeah. He's like, yeah.

What did I tell you last fall? Yeah, I learned the hard way there. So we're going to, yeah, that hurt. The fertilizer bill hurt this year. Yeah, a lot of caught a lot of guys. I mean, it, you want to think, it's such a, it's such a crap shoot because we truly are in a world. It's a world economy when it comes to your inputs. And, you know, guys looked at that last fall and we're,

like, okay, well, this thing's going to sort itself out. You know, I'm not, I'm not paying that. I'm going to wait till spring. And then it's just never, it never got sorted out. And it's go time and you're, you're spending double what you spent last year. So yeah, you'll have plenty opportunities to play Monday morning quarterback on your farming operation and be like, you idiot, you should have done that. That's how you learn though, man. I mean, you know, try. and air for sure. And I don't know, what are, like, let's talk about just like your outlook on

agriculture in general right now. Oh, that's a great sound. What's, what's your, like, outlook on ag? Like, as a young guy, you're in, you're in the game now. Like, you're, you got your farm. You've got to do this management role, but I guess it's a tough time in ag right now

for a lot of guys. And a lot of people are vocal about that. I think there's a ton of opportunity. Every person we have on this podcast that comes on. They all feel like there's a ton of opportunity in agriculture. So, like, are you thinking you strictly want a grain farm? Do you want to get into livestock? Do you ever think you want to do like a niche, create your own market kind of deal in some capacity? Like, where's your head at when it comes being a young guy in ag? Yeah. You hit the nail on the head there. Like, I think you have to diversify.

and and and figure out ways to if let's say you want to be your your main thing is going to be grain farming row crop well you got to kind of diversify in ways that you can better yourself on the grain side of things if that's livestock and figuring out like hey let's do some sort of livestock so i'm able to get manure on the farming aspect so you aren't having to buy commercial fertilizer or as much commercial fertilizer and and so you got to find ways like if you're going to I always say like if your fastball is going to be grain farming, you got to be able to have a curveball in off farm income or a slider in livestock or if you want to change up and go kind of on a different route and be specialized of some sort saying like the farm to table beef side and only let's say 10 cows a year. You finish 10 cows, but you butcher them and then you sell them in your local town or something like that. that you got to you can't just throw your fastball the entire time through life and expect to be

kind of dominant you got to have multiple kind of streams of income feeding into the lake so you don't run dry yeah and i think i'm 24 soyer i'm going to guess you're still in your 20s 26 to work i'm not 30 i'm not going to guess 30 what oh 55 i gotcha i got you i get it I want to set you're a day over 42. You know, I really like you. Stock's going up. We're in our 20s, and I think it's good that we're experienced these hardships because right now is where you learn like fertilizer, start marketing at prices that

allows you to make a profit or break even. And you learn that young to where in your 40s and 50s, if there's good times in agriculture, sure you can make a lot of money because you kept your break even low. Or if you hit another tough time, it's the same any worse than back in the early 2020s to 2025 of farming where it's like, okay, I've been through this. I've done this before. This is what allowed me to continue to grow to keep farming and go from there. You got to come up with a better plan than powerball or marrying a nerd. or a lawyer or marrying out of the plat book yeah well you two are both young enough you know that's

still possibility never underestimate uh marrying from the plot book there's there's a famous saying that my dad told me when i was a young young boy i bet you i know it said you can marry more money in five minutes than you can make in a lifetime remember that's pretty good that's pretty good yeah if you got to get that that township plot book hey just go right ahead no judgment from you i guess yeah Yeah. What would you always say? Watch the obituaries. Watch the obituaries because there's a lot of widows out there that need consoling.

So, yeah. Is there any, is there any projects on your farm currently that you're striving for or that you want to disclose? Are you, are you keeping that pretty close to your chest? Yeah. In my situation, like, you want to keep your moves. You want to hold your cards close to your chest in this day and age and stuff, especially. with how cut-throat agriculture it is. But I think, like right now, I told you,

I'm trying to build a feedlot. And that's got to tear out some old fence and old feedlot and all that stuff and redo it. Because like I said, we're kind of diving in, head first to it. And the real reason, I'm not going to get into cows. I want that to be known. Everyone out there that I said

that could kick me square in the nuts if I ever got into cows, I'm not getting into cows. I'm getting into this feedlot because I think the manure that you can produce from livestock is going to offset your kind of break even by great amounts with not having by commercial fertilizer. And if you're paying,

can't even tell what an application of spread manure is per acre these days, but you're getting it for pennies on the dollar compared to commercial fertilizer. and we've seen what hog manure injected into soils does for my dad and some of land he has and I'm like I just want a slice of the pie like just give me the tiny corner piece of spreading if it's cow manure out on one of my fields like give me a tiny piece of that and let me just not have to pay so much yeah yeah yeah you got to keep trying keep working the angeles and see what works and you know what they're there there it may be something that you that grows that you want to get more into it just depends so that's good what do you think yeah go ahead

tax breaks yeah that's all i had to say tax breaks what do you think about land prices like we were talking about this last night i mean for us like what is it around here 20 20 21 000 better an acre 20 bucks yeah i wish i wish i'd be throwing that out No, like, you know, as young guys, you know, getting into the game, making the ground pencil even is crazy, you know, service in that debt, it doesn't even pencil like around here anyways, buying new ground. The farm is not going to, it's not going to pencil very well.

But it's like, how do you grow? So I was just curious, like, in your situation, how are you thinking about land prices? Do you think they're going to continue to go up? You think they're going to go down? Like, do you ever want to move your farm from where you currently farm to somewhere else? Like, because you talked about also like yield, you know, it's different in different places. Like, what's your whole thought on that, thought process on that?

God, how long do you guys got? Well, no, it's, it's, it's, I look at it two ways. One, wicked expensive right now. Like, who would have ever thought that this would be the price of length? land and you, you probably go back 20, 30 years ago and you're like, why didn't I buy that farm, which I thought was way too expensive at the time? And you think about that and you're just like, now it's, now how I think about it is if I'm going to pay, let's say, four grand an acre, am I going to look ahead in 20 years and think I should have bought more land at $4,000 an acre?

or am I going to think, man, why didn't I buy more land when it was only $4,000, and now I'm having to pay $15,000, $16,000 an acre? You are 100% going to wish that you bought more land wherever. And I can tell you my, so where my two barn site sits, that farm, my dad did end up buying that land, but he had the option of buying that land back in the 60s and I want to say

that the person that had it offered it to him for $550 an acre and he said that was too much and asked them if they would take

$4.50 for it and they said no but we'd take 525 and he's like, nope, can't do it. fast forward to the 80s, and he bought that 240 acres for $1,750 an acre, and he thought that he would never,

that he would never be able to pay for it. Then, within, within three years of that is when land prices started to move again, and land was 3,000. It had doubled in no time at all. And then within 10 years, it was $10,000 an acre. There was an auction here in our county of a family that had,

they didn't farm, but they had accumulated a bunch of ground, and they had, they farmed in partnership with people that crop rented it. And they sold all those farms. I can't remember if there was six of those farms or five, but $10,000 an acre. well today $20,000 an acre so

the old adage that when should I buy land when somebody's selling it that's exactly right the tree theory the issue though is how do you like how do you

figure out a way to pay to pay for that and I think that I think land's going to keep going up because I think our dollar

keeps getting devalued. And people look around and they want an asset, a tangible asset. And so it just keeps drawing more people not only within agriculture, but people outside of agriculture that just keep pushing chips in on it. So that's not going to make it easier for you, but that's my analogy. It's one of those deals where, honestly, like, how I look at it being 24 years old, It's take it, take a big, take a big bite and then figure out how to chew it. It's one of those deals like you can either walk in slowly in the shallow end or just go dive head first in the deep end and figure out how to swim.

And I think it's one of those deals. Like maybe that's such a flawed way of looking at life. But at the end of the day, like what's the worst that happened? You go bankrupt? Damn, you're still breathing. Just start all over again. and start from square one. And that's where I think guys our age,

and I was telling a story about this, guys are age that want to hustle and want to go make a name for themselves, there's so much opportunity in this world with the phasing out of the older generation of if it's farmers, if it's bankers, like if you want to work, there's work out there to be had.

and you can make a shitload of money doing it. It's just, would you rather be working on a Saturday or golfing? Yeah. And some days I would love to be golfing on a Saturday. And other days, I'm like, I got to go work. That's something I respect about you a lot is that, you know, like, you've made it to the pinnacle of your sports career as far as like, you're in the NFL, you just won a Super Bowl.

You got a long career ahead of you, you know, God willing. and like it's awesome but you're also you're driven outside of football man like that's something that I think is awesome and I asked you this question last night like where does that come from because you know like I think a lot of athletes their whole goal of their entire life is I'm getting to I'm going to the I'm going to the league like that's what I want to do that's all I've ever know what I wanted to do like athletics is the goal athletics is it like that's it but like you're there but you're still hungry to you know want to grow one to invest one want to get into farming, thinking about what are you going to do after

after football? And I just, I think that's freaking awesome. And you can definitely tell. So like, when you look at your, like, when you look down the road 20 years, like, what does your farm look like? Like, what is, what do you want it to look like? Uh, do you want to be a BTO? Like, do you want to farm a shitload acres? Do you want to have enough that it's fun and then be diversified in other ways? Like, where's your head on, had on that. Yeah, I think I think the coolest thing about what I want to do is is football is only a tool that helps me achieve what I want to be when I grow up. And that's that's a farmer.

That's a dad. That's a, that's a grandpa. And I think me playing football now at this age allows me to get kind of head start in life with with money, relationships, opportunity and all that. And I think at the end of the day, like, I don't want to be a BTO. That's the last thing I want to be. I want to be, I've said this to my dad, and he knows it. I promised that I want to farm about 2,000 acres and be able to have the land paid for, the equipment paid off, and just do it purely for fun and joy. And if I don't, if I lose 20 grand in here, dang it. Like, I have other outside source of revenue and all that stuff. I got to spend my entire spring, summer, and fall doing what I loved.

And that's not being tied to an eight to five. That's not having a boss. That's doing what I love doing. And that's farming, being outdoors, being in peace. And I said, like, I want to be able to have it to where I'm able to plant in the spring for a week and a half, two weeks, spray once in June, spray again in July. I'm able to play golf on a Tuesday because I don't have anything to do at the farm or fix anything. And then in the fall comes around, I'm able to have a couple of kids that can help me on the farm or a good hired hand or a few good buddies that come up and we can harvest our crop in a week, two weeks, and then go down to Arizona and enjoy the winter and enjoy life.

Call into Pat McAfee and tell them what all the young bucks are doing wrong and how you would have made that. and wouldn't have missed that tackle. Oh, Pat, these kids, they don't get it. They don't get it. He shouldn't have done that. Yeah. Footworks terrible. How didn't he see that safety rotating down into the box?

He knew the Blitz was coming. You got to know that. I didn't know that the first seven years, but now I do after I can be an armchair coach. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that probably, I would look forward to that. You know, when you, like as a football player,

when you are on that size of stage and you know that you're getting all these people that are just they're coaching you. Like they're telling you how they could have done it better. When you finally do get to that point that you can be an an analyst, it's got to be kind of fun to be like,

oh yeah, that, you know, they shouldn't, it's kind of got to be fun to give your two cents. Yeah, and I don't know. A few guys love it because of the personalities that they have and they're really good at it. Like Pat McAfee's top two. Goat. He's awesome. Like ESPN hitching their wagon to that horse was probably one of the smartest business decisions that they made.

But you watch that and like you said, you have no idea like the entire world. I would say, I'd take that back. I would say 98% of people watching have no idea. what the play call was, what everybody's responsibilities were, they're just seeing a bad throw or an overthrow or something. And it's like, here comes Twitter, Twitter warriors, like, or people saying shit. And you're just like, dude, you have, what are we doing? Yeah. You have no idea what could have happened or what breakdown could have happened that you didn't see that caused this as the result. Or they did something that you thought they weren't

going to do, but they did it and they threw you, you know, like there's so much stuff. Other than Tony Romo when he started, when he started as an analyst, it was hilarious because he, yeah, he was good. He was so good that he knew what to play. Like he knew, it's like, this is what I'd play and this is what, or this is what I'd call. This is what I'd do. And then it would happen. Yep. Yep. That final drive of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game when they played the Chiefs. Yeah. And Tony Romo, that I've never witnessed such brilliant like commentating. Like, Grancowski split out up on top of the screen.

I'm assuming they're going to try and run a fade and have them get out of bounds. And next thing you know, it's back shoulder, 15-yard pickup, Gronk runs out of bounds. And he's like, now there's some time on the clock.

I got to assume they're going back to the run game, maybe some outside zone, try and target a safety rolling down into the alley. Yeah. And I'm like, for a moment, I was like, he has to be like watching it.

Is he got a mic? Is he got somebody? he's Mike. And it's every and then the final one, it's like oh, they got a light box. They think they're doing play action here. I, and I'm like, what is going like this dude?

Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. Of being a quarterback. He had to know every everything. But yeah, no, man. What are, like, what are some ways we talked about it last night and you can disclose as much as you want or not,

but like what are some of the ways that you're diversifying outside of just farming because that picture you just painted, it sounds awesome. Like I think everybody, every farm kid would, you know, that sounds like, that's what we're all working for. Yeah, that's what we're working towards, you know. Like, so, yeah, you said, okay, if the farm lost $20,000,

I would hope to have some diversification somewhere else. Like, what are those things that you're thinking about right now? Where do you think the world's headed? Yeah, like, where are you trying to invest in outside of farming? God, hate this for what it's worth. but I think the there's few really like they're the old saying like you don't invest in the company you invest in a leader and and there's a few guys out there that are wicked smart they have a vision of what they want to do and it's we we talked about like the Hilbert boys investing in Bitcoin

and all that I'm like that is crazy because he saw something that's coming down the line and now it's getting to a point like how often do you guys? carry cash on you. I don't. Not very much. I do because I'm old. I like having a little cash. I hardly carry cash to me.

The only time I carry cash is when I know I'm going somewhere that like it's a cash bar at a wedding or something like that. Then I'm stopping at ATM, but I don't ever carry cash. Well, now you're looking down the future like, okay, well, our next generation wasn't brought up carrying cash.

So no shot. We're teaching our kids to carry cash. And what says it 40 years from now that Bitcoin is you want to buy a new truck. Awesome. It's one in one point two five bitcoins. And you just wire it straight to them. And I think that's as much as we don't want it to happen. That's where society is trending. So I think like you said, like diversifying. Like I think I think real estate's going to be king here in the next 40 to 50 years because three things that you got to need is food, water and shelter. and I think with the interest rates of where they're at,

there's going to be more people leasing than buying. And you see that and like you see trends. And a lot of the times like my dad always said back when he was 20, 30 years old, he could see the trend. He just didn't have any money to capitalize on it. And we've talked like if you're young and want to hustle and go make money and are smart enough to see what's coming down the train tracks, you can make a shitload of money and,

and change your family dynamics and generations to come. Because instead of your kids inheriting a couple hundred grand, they're instead inheriting four apartment complexes that are paid for and they cash flow every single month. And that's where generational wealth is built. Or farmland, hog barns. On the agricultural side, that's where like you're head of the eight ball.

Yeah. Yeah, cash flow is king like we talked about last night. And, you know, something that there's a story you told. And I think it's, I never heard it about flying, about flying and where you're flying. And the first class theory. Yeah, talk about that and talk about that story with that guy. You don't have to disclose everything. But just talk about like that, that story, the first class theory and the value of that,

but then also like what that turned into. Yeah. So I have this theory, first class theory, is when you, fly sitting in the first class and making conversation with the person sitting next to you because if they're flying in first class as well they either trust fund or they've made money themselves to be able to put themselves in that situation and just pick their brain and ask questions and all that. And from when I first got drafter, when I first kind of made a good chunk of money, I started flying first class, not because I wanted to. It's I'm flying for the person I had to

have to sit next to an economy. It paid for the ticket. Yeah, and how big I am and stuff. I would feel awful if I got put in like middle seat or have to sit next to somebody and I'm just huge. And so I started flying first class and then I was flying back home to get back to a farm during OTAs this spring and I'm sitting there talking to a guy. He's flying out of Seattle.

We're going to Denver and I'm like, hey, what do you do for work and stuff? And he's like, oh, I'm a work for a construction company and we're, we're going to looking at places to build a few places out in Washington. I'm like, oh, that's sweet. Like, what are you guys thinking about building? Like, are you guys in real estate or commercial, all this? And he's like, we're actually building data centers. And I'm like, okay, that seems, that seems pretty cool. And so we just continue to talk. And he's like, yeah. And I'm like, so like, how many have you built? Because there's talks of data centers going up in South Dakota. And I'm just, I want to learn about what I'm walking into and and he was like yep we've already built 40 we're we're finding land to build um or

we're finding land to build more we currently have 60 in the works but we're planning on building 200 like we got permit to build 200 like holy shit I'm like you I'm like you don't got to answer this but like who uh who are you building these for and he's like oh it's a company called like anthropic and all this and I'm like sitting there and I'm like Anthropic, Anthropic, Anthropic. Just trying to memorize that. When you're a mid-sized business, you need every competitive advantage you can get.

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Company, because I'm like, this is, I want to be part of this and get off the plane. I call my older brother who's wicked smart, super into investing right now. Like, dude, I don't know what this company does, but we need to get into it because they're building data centers. And he's like, oh, what company? I'm like, it's like, ant, he's like, you're like, anthropic, you dumbass. Like, the biggest growing company in the entire world. How do you not know about this? Like, dude, leave me alone. Like, I've been playing football the past week. And he's just, he's like, yes, like, they aren't IPOed yet, blah, blah, blah.

And so I'm like, okay, well, another one is he compared it to SpaceX. And my, and they're like, my brother's like, yeah, SpaceX, like, I think within the next year or two, like, they're going to IPO. So then obviously, what do I do is I call my financial advisement. It's like, hey, I want to get in on SpaceX. Or I want to get in on Anthropic and SpaceX. And he's like, well, Anthropic, you need. I couldn't even tell you. Crazy number.

Millions and millions of dollars. I was like, okay, don't have that. But how about SpaceX? And he's like, yeah, I think they're going to IPO sometime this summer. I'm like, let's get in pre-IPO. So I was able to do that, which is very fortunate. But we go back to a deal. It's you don't invest in companies.

Invest in leaders. And like I said, Elon Musk, wicked smart. And so it's like just try and hitch the wagon to that. And for all of you out there, I didn't pay him to say that about Elon. I thought this was an honest conversation. Everybody knows Torx and Elon fan. Hey, you know, the only thing that sucks about your theory on first class, and I'm going to try this out, and I'm going to call you when this happens,

because what will happen to me... No, what will happen to me is I will pay for the first class ticket, and I'll sit down next to somebody, and I'll say, hey, what do you do? And they're like, oh, I'm unemployed. I just heard this guy that said you should pay for a first class ticket, because there'll be somebody there that you can learn something from. And I'm like, well, damn it, I thought I was going to learn from you.

And then we're both going to sit there and go, well, I guess we just pissed that away. Yeah. Well, we'll probably end up sitting next to each other. Yeah, well, I'm not letting you buy a ticket. Yeah. You can sit in that economy row where the exit window is. Yeah. You get some leg room there.

Yeah. Yeah. That's all I care about is if I can get some damn leg room because it gets tight. Yeah. It's tight for sure. I don't know what that's like. I could fit anywhere. Yeah.

Dynamite comes in small packages. It does, baby. Yeah. Are you guys, so I got to know this because this is a hot topic in the NFL right now. When the plane lands, do you guys immediately stand up, stretch legs? Or is that like very frowned upon? You're like pissed that whoever does it. If I'm closest to the Iowa, I will.

Okay. But if I'm in the middle or if I'm closest to the window, no. Yeah. Because it's like, this ain't going to rush. You're getting off the plane at some point. Yeah. Yeah, the only, that annoys me to death. Like, it isn't the people that stand what annoys me are the people that are, say, you're over halfway back through the passengers and you're in a middle seat.

And the first thing you do is get up and you got to get your carry on out of that overhead thing. And it's like, why? Because you're not going anywhere. No. Like, it's going to be a good, solid 10 minutes before you. It's like, if you're towards the front, you're on the aisle, okay, I'll give you some grace there. but you're stock. Like just to do.

Just chill. There's nothing worse than that middle seat warrior who's like that plane hits the seatbelt, ding. They're up. Excuse me.

I'm like, dude. Come on. Like, what are we doing? Yeah. And the best videos, some of the best videos

are those people that get in arguments on airplanes. And it's always somebody that's like that. They just are Russian. Don't give a shit about anybody else. They're going to try to save

three seconds. Yeah. They're just dants of the world. Yeah, yeah. And if you're landing in some place like Chicago, it doesn't matter that little, even if you save a little bit of time. You're delayed anyways.

Yeah, you're either going to miss your connecting flight. I hate Chicago airport. It's like every time I land there and I have a layover and you think that it's long enough to get to the gate, you land and you're like, okay, yeah, you look at your watch. Like, oh, yeah, we're good. And then you start taxiing. and you're just taxiing and taxiing and taxiing.

Like you're literally taxing for like 20 minutes and you're watching your watch and you're like, oh, we ain't going to make it. Yeah, we ain't going to make it. Then you finally get off and you're just flying, you know, trying to get there. And then they move your flight anyway. Yeah.

Oh, I hate that. I had that happened to me this spring on the way back to Seattle for OTAs. I flew home one weekend to work at the farm and spray and all that stuff. And that's Sunday night. we fly there or we fly out of here to go to Denver and we land in Scots like Scots Bluff, Nebraska. And I was watching a movie like whatever. I opened up the window and I'm like, where are we at? This is not look like Denver right now.

Maybe we landed on like some weird like strip over like opposite side. I'm like, runway ZZ. Yeah. And so they're like, welcome to Scots Bluff, Nebraska. Sorry we got diverted like blah, blah. And I'm like, oh God, I'm going to miss my flight. We have 8 a.m. meetings Monday morning. Like, I'm S.O.L.

And so I'm just sitting there, and then they delayed my flight in Denver. And then as I'm flying, we leave Scottsbos, as I'm flying into Denver, we are almost about to land. And the pilot pulls up. And I'm like, what are we doing? I was at the time we're low enough where you have cell phone reception. And luckily, my tight end, really good buddy, Eric Saabert, was flying out of Denver as well because he lives in Denver. He's flying out the same exact flight as me. And I'm like, dude, we just about.

land and we just have to circle around again. And at that point, like, I'm getting close. Like, I'm going to miss this flight. I've accepted it. And Sabby's like, just, just once you get here, just sprint. Like, I'll try and hold them up, like just sprint. Like, I think we got like a 15-minute delay. So we circle around, we land. We taxi forever, like you said. And I'm like, just sitting here watching my phone. And it's 820 leave time. And I'm still on the flight at 814. And I'm like, dude, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, for like I'm getting prepared to call my O-line coach and being like yeah I got I missed my flight in Denver like got delayed I can't be there I'll get the first flight in the morning and we're waiting I grab my bag I go sprinting through the airport and if you watch me run like it was like an old

an old OJ Simpson hurts rental car where he's just hurtling through no it's like people are wondering if I've had both hips replace knees gone like ankles are non-existent like I'm sprued sprinting through the airport. And I go sprinting and he's like texting me. As I'm running, I'm looking at my phone and they're like, like final people are just boarding right now. I'm sprinting. I go from Terminal A to B.

I get there to the gate and the doors closed. Nobody's there. Like, fuck. Pull out my phone. I have my O line coaches contact pulled up. I'm going to hit it. The door opens.

It's the flight attendant. And they're like, gray? I'm like, yeah. And they're like, all right, let's go. We got to go.

We got to go. and I go, we're sprinting down the jet bridge and we get on the plane and the two flight attendants were like, they're like, just take a deep breath. You're on this flight. We're going to close the door right behind you. Like we got to get going like, blah, blah. Your buddy told us that we got to wait for you. So we told the pilots that you're coming like blah blah blah. You may have name dropped you. And I'm like, I'm okay. Like I'm on the flight could care less. Like I go, I sit down. I'm still panting. Like I'm starting to sweat. Like I'm like, oh, like we made it. Sabby's switches with the guy sitting next to me and he's like, dude, I can't believe you made this flight. Like, this is incredible. And I'm like, dude, I was like, when I sprinted up and that door was close,

I'm like, I hate my life. I just sprinted, looked like an idiot through the Denver airport just to miss the flight. Like, this is awful. Yeah. I wouldn't want to be somebody that got in front of you in the airport. I would have been like, this guy's got to go.

I'm like, those, have you, the Denver airport, they have those like, like horizontal escalators that like speed you up, lifting my bag up, sprinting on it. Yeah, felt like I was running a four, four, 40 on those things, like, just flying. Yeah. No, that's hilarious, dude. Yeah, no, I think that theory is awesome. I've never even heard of that first class theory. And I think it's just, it's anybody, any young person listening, I think the importance of being able to talk to a stranger, shake their look at them in the eye, like, and be a constant learner, that obviously can take you a long ways.

Because, like, that opened a door for you that, that taught some, you learned something that then you took that knowledge and applied it. And it's paid off in a good way, you know? And like, that's, you, if you're, if you're shy, if you're not willing to talk to people, if you're not willing to, like, put yourself out there, ask questions, like, that shit's not going to just happen, you know? I just think humiliations, like,

best form of growing. Like, I'm like, I don't know what it is, but weddings, live bands, dance floor, get quite a few drinks in me. I am out there. I have two left feet when I dance. Like, it's not, but I'm out there dancing. And it's like, I love weddings, strictly the fact that like it's the one time, like, nobody cares. Yep. What you look like. We're just there celebrating two people who love each other, getting married. Like, they're awesome. Like, they're the best. Well, you can look like a dumb ass. Nobody cares.

Yeah. Ties on my head sideways. Like, yeah. It's the best. I love it. Yeah. What's one of your most memorable hunts of your life that you just, like, think about to this day still? That if you could relive it again, you would.

God. Oh, it's a no-brainer. So, back story of it. My grandpa passed away November 2nd, 2019. and that deer season rolls around and first weekend there's a few big box up in our farm that we're like chasing and first weekend goes by we don't we don't see them and stuff and we're very particular we're horn hunters let me preface this that we're horn hunters we aren't just shooting a deer to shoot a deer like we want the big trophy ones that we can put up on the wall and stuff and let her herd grow

and all that so first weekend second weekend I'm going to miss or no second weekend was Thanksgiving. We hunted all Thanksgiving. Didn't see him. Third weekend. Final weekend. I have to go up to NDSU for a college visit. This is in December.

I talked to my parents and to let me go up Friday morning. I went up Thursday night to the farm. And I said, let me hunt Friday morning and pick me up on the way through to Fargo because we go straight through a farm. And we'll pick me up whenever we're leaving. But I want to go hunt because I won't be able to last season. So I'm up there alone. and up in the tree stand we have the enclosed blinds heater just live in life it's the best

and here comes two of the shooter bucks come walking out it's snowing like perfect like beautiful hunting conditions out like you can't make this up and here's the two when they're out there mows in and around i remember like calling my dad and i'm like hey which one's the bigger one again is the one with the tall horns or what and i'm calling him he's back in pier like and I ended up shooting the the one we were chasing after and I shoot it and I'm sitting up in the stand and I'm like well shit I'm the only one up at the farm I can't dress the like I can't clean this buck and lift it up into the truck by myself like this I just not strong okay and it was so I called my grandpa's two buddies and they ended up picking up the third one but they came up to

help me load that buck into the truck and I tell you what when I drove out of the farm those antlers of that buck were like it was a f-150 but the antlers were sticking up higher than the bed of the truck were like it was a big ass buck I remember pulling up and my neighbor saw those antlers so he stopped and he stops by and he goes holy shit you got the big one I'm like yeah you would have just saw that rodeo that I had a bunch of old dudes trying to help me and I'm like pulling the antlers up into the truck, they aren't helping. They're just making sure. And that was my, by far, like, I will take that memory to the grave. It was picture perfect. But God, it was, that was, I'll remember that hunt forever. Yeah. That's awesome, man. What about what's like a hunt that you

haven't done in your life that you, like, you want to do? Like, have you shot hogs out of a helicopter yet? No, that seems sweet. I want to do that. We want to put a damn hoghead on this barn. Yeah, we do. Walls at some point. We got to do it. I was saying, like, right up there would be perfect for either, like, a big-ass longhorn. Like, with those horns going out, like, my grandpa used to raise a few long horns. And either that or, like, a big-ass hog would be sweet.

But, no, that helicopter hunting. Looks so fun. Fishing with dynamite there. That's what it looks like. Yeah. Yeah, it does. That's a good analogy, honestly. I spent my Super Bowl bonus.

My mom thinks she thought I spent my entire Super Bowl bonus on the thermals on those AISO Cuyahun. You think you're like the dominant species out in the middle of the night with those thermals, seeing everything. And then coyotes start howling all around you. You're like, I'm prey. Yeah. I am prey right now.

Just please stay away for me. Yeah, right. That's that's good time. Those thermals are incredible, though. Yeah. That technology's gotten so good. Yeah, people love, I got a few buddies that's bought them and it's fun. Are there coyotes down here?

Oh, yeah. Thick. Oh, yeah, thick. Yeah. A lot of pigs, a lot of compost piles. A lot of bucks. They love them. Yeah.

A lot of coyotes. Yep. So is that, what is that, what is that hunt you haven't done that you'd want to do? You said it. Like, you know how sweet it would be to go up in a helicopter and just mow down? Yeah, they do it for. coyotes up in our area do the hunting coyotes out of a helicopter plane. I just got to tell you right now, I'm feeling it.

We know the boys at Contra pretty well, and Luke Schultz, we had him on here and we were hitting him up. He'd do it. He'd do it. I think, Luke, here's your door gunner. We'll make it happen. Let's go. We'll put it together.

Maybe we need two helicopters. He came on and he's a big hunter too. and he talked about, I don't know if you listen in that episode or not, but he came on, what they do, they backpacked,

horsebacked in, what, where was it? Was it sandhills or? No, it was out in, it was out in Wyoming, wasn't it?

I don't remember. Oh, elk? Yeah, they did elk on horseback, seven days. You're a different breed if you do that. Just up a mountain all day,

go and camp out, and they got, they all ended up getting elk, but he said, his fucking ass was just chafed. And he said it. And then I asked him, would you do it again?

He goes, oh, in a heartbeat. Yeah, he said he left. He said, I'd never do it again. And then now he's like,

I'd go back tomorrow. I'd go back tomorrow. That's insane. Yeah. It's like crazy. There's so many hunts that you could do. Okay. Yeah,

let's do, I mean, I guess I want to close out with one more thing before we go to the lightning round. Like, you're in Seattle. Like, where,

where do you hope to, to go from here, like in your NFL career. Like, are you just like, man, Super Bowl won another one next year? Like, what do you think your team's capable of? You guys think you can repeat? Like, where's your head out there? I wouldn't even say repeat.

Like, just go win another one. Yeah. We truly, we got a different team now. And you saw it last year. Like, I think, like, culture connected, like, enjoying each other. while playing football, like enjoying each other's presence and like being around each other. Like that was so cool.

And I think it's one of those deals like we could, we have the talent. We have the coaching staff. We have everything. Now it's just, all right. Execution. Yeah, execution. Training camp's going to be rough because it's going to be iron sharpens iron and it's going to be the brotherly love.

There's going to be fights, no doubt about it. But at the end of the day, we're all in one locker room. we're all one team and the sky's the limit. And you see these other teams and it's the NFL. Like any given Sunday, any team can get beat, which is the coolest part about the league that we play in. It's any given Sunday. So I think the sky's the limit.

Yeah. I didn't ask you this question, but what, how loud is the 12s? Like, is that as crazy? is, because I've never been to that stadium, but, you know, is it just, like, live up to all the hype? I can't even describe it. Like, the one, like, the stadium was shaking when, uh, Rashid returned that kickoff against 49ers in the playoffs. Like, the stadium was actually shaking, and it was so loud.

Like, I couldn't hear a thing. Like, we just grabbed our helmets and went sprinting for a field goal. and it was on like they're just in the nicest way possible they're the craziest fan base in the entire world like that parade and you're riding on buses through downtown and there's like well over a million people there and you got people like yelling my name and I turn and I look and they're throwing up a bush light to me yeah like what are like yeah I missed one just absolutely nuked my buddy in the back of the head I felt so But they don't pay me to catch bushlights. Yeah.

Yeah. They're unbelievable. And like, they just embrace you for who you are. Like, who would root for a Midwest guy who only drinks Bushlight and is just an absolute bonehead out on the football field? Well, the 12s embraced who I was. Like, I didn't have to change. I'm just who I am and just having fun with it. And they somehow love it.

I don't know why. But I guess they love it. Yeah, it's awesome. That's awesome, man. Let's go rapid fire here. So, like, answer to ease as quick as you can, but, you know, context if you need to. Toughest defense alignment you face this year. Jeffrey Simmons.

Jeffrey Simmons. Or, well, that I face, yeah. The guys on my team are, like, Leo, Jay Reid, B. Murf, those guys are studs. E-Law. Yeah, D-Law is good, yeah. Favorite meal your grandma makes? Probably, uh, not. She makes these German strudels with mashed potatoes and gravy and Salisbury steak on the bottom of the gravy.

I was going to ask you this. We talked about this last night. You said seafood Seattle is insane. But like, do you ever just sometimes miss that home Midwest cooking? 100%. There's nothing better. You guys are going to probably say the same thing. There's no better cook in the world than your grandma.

Right. Right. Like, obviously she might use a pound of butter. on every single meal possible. But that's to worry about when I'm 55 and we're good. But it's unbelievable. Like you said, the seafood out there, I was never a sushi or seafood guy. And then you go out there and then off to the races.

Yeah. John Deere, K-I-H. Or something else. We're K-Sah-H. Nice. I like it. Yeah. Just because John Deere is too expensive.

Yeah. What's the biggest adjustment or thing? that was just weird to you going to the West Coast, going to Seattle. Hmm. Oh yeah, this is going to be where Pacific standard time.

I don't think there's a better time zone than out there. Really? So, okay, let's just say, you guys, NBA fans, like, do you ever watch basketball or anything like that? Yep.

Like the East Coast games that start at 8 o'clock, that at 7 o'clock here, you're watching the game, or even in the NFL, like Sunday night football is at 7 o'clock, you're watching the game till 10, 11, 11 o'clock at night. Out there, it's, you play at 5 and you're done before 9 and you're at home. Oh, yeah. Like by 10 having supper and going to bed. Or you wake up, the stock market opens at 630. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. The one shitty thing, though, is when East Coast people call you at the,

the start of their work day. Yeah. And it's like, you wake up and you're like, dude, it's 5.30 in the morning, leave me. Why are you bothering me? Yeah. Like, how don't you know I'm in Seattle right now? Yeah. What's one thing you miss about college football that you didn't, you don't have in the NFL?

I think truly playing it for the love of the game. Like, well, nowadays kids make NIL. That's a whole different subject and story. But like back in the day, like, I said I would give up the NFL and all that stuff to go back and play college again, simply based off the fact like you win, your games at 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday, you win,

you go out to eat with your parents, you bag them for 40 bucks so you could go to the bar. And you go walking in that bar with 40 bucks, and like you feel so rich because you can go buy a beer or a bottom shelf vodka lemonade for, for two, three, four bucks. Yep, you're good all night. Yeah, you're good all night.

And then at the end of the night, if you got like six bucks, you're like, walk over to the bartender and you're like, hey, appreciate you. Like, just tipped you six bucks and like you just feel like a big dog. But that is what I miss about college football. And then you wake up Sunday with your boys and you watch NFL football all afternoon while you're trying to just recover. Yeah. And then it's like Monday morning, you start all over again. You go to class and you go and do all that, but that was the best.

College football is the greatest sport in the entire world. Nothing better. Yeah. I have a few buddies that played football in Iowa. They're all O-line guys. And, man, it sounds like to me and being around those guys, the O-line, the O-line would just be, it's the funest group. Like, you guys just get after it. You eat a bunch.

You drink a bunch. You have a lot of fun. And you just dominate and push people around. and it just sounds like the best time. There's no egos in the O-Line room. You're all working one direction. And then the greatest thing ever is like there's like one quarterback or on a team

there's three to four quarterbacks. The O'Line, there's 12, 15 college sometimes up to 20 dudes. You go into a bar together. It's a riot. Like people are clearing tables. You're pushing tables together so you can all sit together and you're just hollering. Like you just take over a bar.

Yeah, it's a force of nature. that yeah and there's there's there's nothing better like yeah i got there's a there's two guys from ianan the sea ox uh mason richmond and and bow steffins or steffins but two iowa boys and they just said like the same exact thing that they're like dude it was so fun the nightlife of iowa city not because of like partying or or girls or all that he was like you went out with your boys and it was, okay, who can drink 20 beers the fastest. Yeah. 12 guys just in a bar, like just in a football bar,

who can drink the beer the fastest? Yeah. I'm like, God, Iowa seemed. Feats of strength. Yeah, they got it right. Yeah, no, they, I've heard some good stories. They got, they definitely got after it. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update.

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And they're, you know, and they're all good guys. Like, all of them are all down earth. All of them seem like you can just get a beer with them, shoot the shit. Like, that's the best. That's the best. So we have a segment that we like to end the show with, man. We call it tip of the hat. who's somebody in your life,

what's a brand you use or a product that you use or somebody that you just want to say, man, they're just doing it right and I want to tip my hat to them and give them their flowers because they deserve it. And you probably have multiple hats

so you could tip multiple hats if you want. Dad gets pissed when I say that, but every single time we say this, somebody goes, well, I've got multiple hats. Like, I would honestly say like, okay I'm going to go with two and they both work like side by side

and like I'm not saying this because like I'm contractually like abided to or like bush light and how they do like for the farmers and different cans and like supporting and all that stuff like there's no like there's no better

beer doing that out there and like making the I think the corn cod cans or the ones with the tractors on them. Like those were so sweet. And they do it right. And then on the back half of that, farm rescue. Yes. Yeah. That was my cause. My cleats was farm rescue this year. And like what they do is, is unbelievable. Because I'm sure you guys know about them, but they go to communities that the tragedy or something has happened. And they bring their combines and tractors and grain carts or

planners and they go and they do stuff for farmers that have had a crisis or a tragedy happen and like we we didn't talk about it and we all probably obviously know but like the suicide rates and farming are way too high and and you you see a organization like that who like strictly does what they do purely for the the betterment of the world and small towns and agriculture, like, farm rescue holds a pretty, like, special place in my heart. And, like, when they brought up my cause my cleats this year, there was one, it was farm rescue, no doubt about it. Yeah. And they made some sweet cleats for them and stuff and, like, auction them off and all that.

But, like, farm rescue is what they're doing up there is, is the Lord's work. Yeah. And it's unbelievable. Those are a two that I think are pretty, pretty. sweet. That's awesome. Those are some damn good hats. I didn't ask you this, but I want to ask you, how important is faith to you? Because I know that in the intro, you know, like, I think you had a quote of like four things, faith football, farming. There might have been one other one, but how important has faith been on your journey? Yeah, I think I'm a God-fearing man. Yeah. And try and get to church.

In our town, they do church on Wednesday nights, which is awesome. I think kind of with how the world's going with because you wake up Sunday morning or something you're going to try and find every excuse not to go to church so Wednesday nights is unbelievable and it's I try and make a make it a habit in the off season when I'm back is is getting to church and stuff but I think at the end of the day like farming is the biggest risk gamble just giving yourself to the Lord and saying like just help me like just please don't completely crush me me with a hail storm and 80 mile per hour winds. Yeah.

And at the end of the day, like, we're doing it for the man upstairs. Like, you guys starting this podcast to bring awareness to agriculture. Well, it all starts from, it's all starts for something. I mean, first thing I noticed when I pulled in was the, I love our church sign. Yeah. That you guys got posts up in your driver. That's awesome. That's real small town, U.S.

like that's what it's about yeah and it's huge i mean we do chapel every saturday night before the games and our pastor out there is unbelievable and some of his sermons like you leave that and you're just like wow like he i don't know if he's trying to but he just spoke directly to me without knowing it it's it's huge and and you got it you got to believe in something and and obviously i believe in the lord yeah that's awesome That's awesome. Well, you've always said, we'll end this here, but you've always said, like, you've said that many times about, like, faith and informant and how they... Yeah, I think that it's...

People ask about, you know, your faith or how strong is your faith or... Or some people think it's difficult to have faith in something you can't see, like, you know, whether you're a Christian or not. And I feel like farming, it's just one of... of those things that you you are totally at the mercy of everything because you you put these seeds out every year you you you pharaoh pigs you cavs you whatever and you know it's your responsibility to care for that and that is a total act of faith that you're going to get a crop that you're going to be able to sell that crop for a profit and that somehow you're going to be able to do it all over again and that you're going to be here another year to do it. And so I think,

you know, for a farmer, I don't think faith is nearly as much of a, of like an abstract thing. I mean, it's part of your everyday life. And it's like you said, you've kind of picked this up, that, you know, God's, you were put here to, how do you say it? Co-create on God's ultimate creation. And I mean, that's a farm. Yeah. So. Yep. Well, amen to that, boys. Amen. Where can people find you if they want to support your journey and follow you online and root you on from afar?

Probably Graze Abel on Instagram. You'll see Northland Farms in my bio. Trun through through and through. Are we ever going to see you on YouTube? You ever going to pick up the vlog camera and start ripping? Well, that's the hardest part is you try and do that. And then it's like, oh, guys are just watching a dumbass behind a camera to break things and then be like, this is what not to do.

Like, it's one of those deals like, why would it be a comedy series of anything? Oh, no, there's value in that. There's value in that. People love when shit breaks. Yeah. Yep. They do. Maybe down the line or something, but I'd have to get really bored to start carrying

a camera around with me and film in my every day at the farm. Yeah. People would get bored. That's something you'd like Sunday afternoon you need to take a nap. Oh, just throw on Northland farms on YouTube and you're out like a light. Do you have a farm dog? Maybe you need a blue healer with a blue healer cam. Maverick.

Maverick. Chocolate Lab. Oh, there you go. English or American? American. Okay. Autumn completely intoxicated at a Delta Waterfall banquet. Greatest, I think it was like $1,300 I've ever spent my entire life.

The best. Nice. Maverick. Parents were so pissed, but it was. now he's like my dad's best friend like of course yeah that's always my dad have to save maverick or me he's probably saying like gray i hope you had all your orders in line and yeah and got a will in place mav let's go get you fed yeah yeah all shit man this has been an absolute pleasure we appreciate you making the trip coming on the show you're doing an awesome awesome job and

uh in football and farm and guys if you got any value from the show go give gray a follow follow the farm, check out what he's doing. Share the show with the people that you know. We love you guys. We appreciate you. And we'll see you back here next week for another episode.