Bussin' With The Boys - Jeff Fisher

Episode Date: April 6, 2020

Recorded: March 4, 2020 We know you've been waiting patiently for this episode, so let's get right into it! The Boys sit down with legendary NFL coach, Jeff Fisher, for one of our favorite episodes yet. Topics covered include the Nashville tornadoes (this was recorded the day after the storm), what it was like relocating 2 NFL organizations, the full story behind the Music City Miracle, and why Coach Fisher decided NOT to draft Taylor in 2014. We wrap up with some hilarious stories from the locker room, and Taylor opens up about his leadership conversation with Eddie George. Enjoy! Want to be featured in an episode? Drop a comment below, or share your questions, feedback, and whatever else using #ForTheBoys / #DontGiva and TAG US @bussinwtb on all platforms. Have a song submission for Pickin' With The Boys? Send an acoustic original to [e-mail] and we might throw it on our platform. ----- SHOP: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/bussin-with-the-boys FOLLOW THE BOYS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bussinwtb/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BussinWTB Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BussinWTB/ Website: https://www.bussinwtb.com LISTEN iTunes: http://bit.ly/BWTB_Apple Spotify: http://bit.ly/BWTB_SpotifyFor more, visit barstool.link/bussinwtbSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, it's us The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

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Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsClace on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This episode of Bustin with the Boys, the Boys, is presented by Barstool Sports. Oh, dude, I'm fired out, man. Yeah, you can, you don't have to. You guys hear everyone. Hello, hello, hello. There it is. He's on this thing. Yo, this is, this is the marriage that people's wanted to see. You guys like my shirt. That's a good shirt. I would suck in most of the time because that angle does hit you at an awkward sign. I don't have to worry about that. Now, two years ago, I did, but, No. I feel like you've lost some weight. He's got the, about 22. Two years ago,

I old man dropped 22 pounds, man. Two years ago, I was on a Southwest flight, and you and your wife were going down. You were going to Vegas for Craig Stevens. No, Craig Stevens was going with his brother. They were going to have a soon. I was doing the old line trip. Yeah, you were, okay, yeah. It was a weird deal. I'm surprised you even remembered that. Yeah. I was sober for that flight. And then I wasn't sober again until the next flight I went home. Yeah, we were going in there. I don't know. I don't remember what time of year it was.

my oldest son's coat he was a defensive coordinator last year at southern Utah and they opened against UNLV so that might have been the trip it was summer maybe not I couldn't have been that because it was it was right after the our season ended so it had to be late

like late January maybe yeah and there's really I don't know there's yeah we were probably going back to Montana or something yeah cruising so what's up this is cool you like to set up yeah when did you first find out about busing when we were trying to tag you and get your attention Three days ago when the bar store reached out?

No, he actually followed. He either followed Bussin or something. Minut back because everybody was trying to flood his mentions to get him on bus in the woods. Oh, I love it. And so he favored it a couple things. And I was like, hey, we're stoked because we would pub it back. See, the hard part, when I found out about I wasn't here, you know, I was in Montana. So, you know, it's kind of hard to do it.

First off, you guys dodge some bullets here, man. Let's go there right now. I watched Governor Lee this morning talk about the devastation here. And I don't know if you guys have had a chance to go out and see it. But it is sad. Yeah. I drove through Germantown yesterday. Did you?

And I mean, you know Michael Ruse and then a couple properties he owns in Germantown have been hit by the tornado. It's crazy. I think the casualty is at 25 people now. Yeah. A few missing. Yeah, somebody posted a big list of people that they haven't accounted for you. Yeah, yeah. It's just so sad.

And, you know, and the governor was cool because he was talking about, you know, it's so sad and so devastating. And people's lives are going to be changed forever. But you know what? It's people come alive at this time. Yeah. You know, I was even reading stuff about something that's going on with the organization. Because I remember it brought back memories because in 98 we had one rip through here. And so we got the guys out.

did some cleanup and I'll never forget. As a head coach, as a young head coach, senior starting franchise quarterback, crank up a chainsaw and just get it with a chainsaw. It was a little unnerving for me, but I trusted that Steve knew how to do it because he's a farm boy, you know. So we got out and did a lot of work in the community. And if the listeners and the fans here are waiting, it's going to happen. You guys, your organization, everybody, even I'm thinking about getting some retired guys together and putting a group.

And you can't get in it too soon because everybody's trying to figure out what's going on. And Red Cross is doing this. But this is going to be a year, years before the stuff's rebuilt. But in a month or so, that's when you can really get in and make a difference. Especially in Nashville. We were talking about that yesterday. He went on the 3HL. Yeah, is it 3HL or midday 180?

Hout shoutout. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got to do it sometimes. But I heard his snippet, and then I heard like Jason Fitz with the SPN going on. He posted a video. And it's kind of like the city of Nashville just is different. It'll come around. It's wild. It's wild how this city definitely picks up and takes care of its own.

I mean, my wife is, she's big in the community and she's big online, just trying to help, whether it's for the homeless people in Nashville or when the hurricane struck Houston, she had a friend of hers that their family was directly affected. And so within two weeks, they did a charity event for that and raised over $100,000. And she has her little band of superhero friends. And they get together. And Chipotle reached out to us. Yeah. And then Chipotle, it was like 100 burritos. Yep.

Started going on and giving out burritos and stuff like that. So trying to start the initial help of just doing whatever you can. And when you're put into a position where you have a podcast that's doing well. And, you know, in this community since 2014 playing football, like you have that opportunity through the people you've met to kind of, you know, exhaust those avenues and get those people back on their feet as soon as possible. What was cool, I'll kind of give you a little history lesson. When we moved here from Houston, somebody had told me that Vince Gill was doing a concert at Franklin High School, okay, to raise money for the high school program. If Vince Gill went to a high school

to play a concert. Right. That's pretty awesome. But to do it for nothing to raise money. And so that was kind of the groundwork for the organization when we moved here from Houston. So that was, everybody was in the community doing all those kind of things. And in my mind, the golf tournaments run their course and everybody's doing them. So that's when we started

the softball game. So it'd be really cool to pick it up again. No doubt. Well, I was happy there if you can come. Yeah, I was going to say you're trying to get involved? Yeah. Yeah. The last time I bet it out of walk away, walk off, man. Walk off? Walk off. I just kind of tried around. Did you bring the fences in them? No, no, no, no. Yeah.

Well, you had a head kid and out to do those types of things. It was a shot. It was a shot, Sound Stadium? Yeah. Well, Sounds wasn't probably built that. When was the old? It was the old sound. Yeah.

The old Sound Stadium. And I refused to bat after that again. Yeah, you got to end on that. So it was really fun. But yeah, you got, I mean, it's a great town and that's what it's all about. Yeah. There's, you know, I mean, people say it's all the time. You know, you move into, and I can speak from experience.

You know, I moved, I coast around a little bit. So I coached on the East Coast, Coach of Philadelphia. And so, and then obviously moving here, you move here. And as soon as the movie van pulls up, there's people coming in with cookies and just food and everything. You can imagine all the neighbors are like, there to help you. Yeah. Move on the East Coast, no disrespect. They sit there and watch you crawl up the driveway with a refrigerator on your back.

Oh, no question. It's a different world. But over time, they become really, really good. friends. So it's just that it's that it's that difference. But it is this is a cool place. And and you know, we'll overcome this again. I mean, you know, we had the floods that, you know, dated you guys too. Was it seven inches over a weekend or something like that? Yeah, but what was on here talking about all that? Okay, let me put a perspective for you. The water in the stadium was up to the top of the wall to the first row of the seats in Nissan stadiums. You pulling that up? Yep. All right, cool.

Yeah. I mean, it was, yeah. To the top of the wall. To the top of the wall. Yeah. And the organization and the city did such an amazing job. You know, getting that water down and we had to close, you know, the area around the facility and everything. Because of Cumberland, they didn't know it was going to come over and there's water all over. But, you know, things settled down.

And it was a business as usual before you knew it. That's, that's a, I think whoever, and I always, I always allude to Butch because I think Butch is such an amazing job for this city. the way he's kind of developed it. I think Nashville does such a great job of transitioning from those things. And like you said, just going right back to business as usual. I mean, I wasn't here when Broadway was,

you know, not really the place to be. I mean, from what I've heard from outside was like kind of like, you know, a little prostitute central, a lot of drugs running around there. It wasn't a lot of,

it wasn't a great space. And then for the city to come in and revamp that whole thing, really this whole city is, there's not a lot of like quote of what bad areas like this city does a really good job of you know making everything nice and approachable and you can kind of go anywhere and feel it's all hands on deck all the time all hands on deck all the time and the city's it's constant it's growing whoever made the highway system is an idiot but other than that like in antitist yeah yeah the growth of the cities and i was 20 minutes to work in franklin to 20 minutes

boom yeah and you know less than six months ago i left downtown trying to get down to franklin and took me an hour and a half yeah that's okay i mean that that's all i mean there's crazy everywhere that's i mean cranes's freaking everywhere yeah yeah well my son and daughter them are are the only little business they're flipping houses in east national right now and they one they closed on on friday was when i was watching all this stuff go down you know the other night and i wasn't thinking about the house but you know obviously you worry about the people and everybody there. But I mean, this thing was just, it was teed up and lined up. And some reason he got in there yesterday and everything was fine. But everybody has done such

an amazing job in the surrounding areas here, whether it's Germantown, even West Nashville, and then, you know, Five Points in East Nashville and Mount Julia, it's all just growing. And, you know, this, this mother nature business is not going to set it back very long. No. They'll overcome it. Oh, yeah. because everybody's everybody everybody's rallying right now. It's like business is shut down. Mom and Pop,

business is shut down to go help out. Yeah. You turn on 104 or five. I listen to them when I'm, when something's going on in the city just to kind of get a vibe of what's going on. And I pop that on in the whole day. It's all about the tornadoes, all about people going helping other people and stuff like that.

I know Buck Rising. Yeah, I mean, everybody's texting, Buck Rising. Shout out Buck Rising. He's for the boys. He's texting getting in touch with the Chipotle people. We were out running around doing something.

You're like trying to communicate with everybody. Butch is calling. everybody's just everyone always comes to help like when our boy you know rip mad neely when matt passed away um the entire city in town when we have a tailgate and rally around him i mean everybody's just always helpful around here it's crazy and then barstool i'm waking up in the morning um after you know you get woke up by the sirens and the storm kind of passes you go back to sleep i wake up in the morning it's like five or six a m and barstool everybody had been reaching out hey we're trying to make sure it's at nashville strong like let's raise money let's

How do we help this whole thing? So it's been incredible. Yeah, if you go to BarstoolSports.com or Bus With the Boys.com, National Strong shirt, all those proceeds will go to helping the people that are directly affected by the tornado. What do we go here? Water on. Yeah, that's the part you were talking about. Now, I think it's obviously changed.

It's Nissan, but you can see it. Talk to us about the transition from when you got here. So you're, I think the only coach to go through two different locations. Yeah, bring up our notes. We get some notes. Houston, Tennessee, and then St. Louis, to L.A. Yeah, I moved two franchises.

I'm the only one to move two. That's unbelievable. So, played in five different cities, two franchises I worked for, and played in five different cities and six different stadiums. So, yeah. What was it like being at Houston going through that transition and bringing it here? Because you guys got here and went to the Super Bowl. Oh, yeah.

Well, it wasn't as, it wasn't that easy. Yeah, no question. That's what outside looking in. People see. Yeah. So, so, you know, just my first year as head coach was 90. So we took our Houston Oiler team to Tennessee to Marysville right outside of Nashville to practice against the Washington Redskins and training camp. Heath Schuller was their number one pick from University of Tennessee.

So it was kind of a cool deal. We're going to go in there and have, you know, like people do. We have, you know, joint practices and things like that. And during those, during that time, the joint practices, I found out that we were going to make announcement that we were looking into potentially. move in the franchise to Nashville and state of Tennessee. So that's when I found out. So that was 95. So went back to Houston in 95 and for all intents and purposes as being lame duck in Houston because, I mean, it's like we were kids in a divorce. Okay. And you got to walk the fine line and, you know, you don't want to trash Houston. You can't go over the top on Tennessee

because you're still in the fans in Houston to support you. So anyway, so we went through the 95 season in Houston. We went through the 96 season in Houston. And then finally in 97, the move was eminent and we moved. But we moved right down the street here to training camp. We had train camp at TSU. And we had no facility. We had nothing other than a place to have camp. So then in 97, we played all our games in Memphis. So imagine this. Imagine waking up in the morning here and having to travel to Memphis for your home games. You wouldn't go stay in Memphis the night before? We did. We went down. We went down and we would fly down to Memphis. How long was that for a home game? 15 minutes? Yeah, it's just you too. But, but and then the problem,

we had a problem that we solved, but, you know, the home game's in Memphis and it's 200, 190 miles, whatever. And now what do you want to do? You want to hang out after it's a home game and with a kid, family and friends and stuff and drive back? No, you had to come back on the airplane. we couldn't let you drive back because our owner at the time, bless his heart, and I'm forever grateful to him. We figured that if he looked at the manifest and saw that we were going down with a full team and coming back with nobody, then we would end up busing. And so we kind of, we had a big tent and everything. So first year in Memphis, that didn't go over very well. The second year, we moved back here and we played at Vanderbilt.

So our second season was at Vanderbilt. It was probably much more comfortable, easier to do that. It was. Yeah, it was. And yet we're still, we don't have an indoor. We have one practice field out in Bellevue. And, you know, we ended up a year with the last game against Minnesota. They were 14 and one going to playoffs.

We played them without any practice all week because there was an ice storm here. So we didn't even have practice. Season ended. We moved into the new stadium. Wow. And then, you know, what better thing for, Nashville, then moving into that new stadium, we were undefeated at home, the new stadium with the Super Bowl.

That's unbelievable. We set the bar pretty high. Set the bar very high. I thought we were going to get it this year. Growing up in Missouri. Oh, yeah. I don't want to hear all about it. Growing up in Missouri, lost to the St. Louis Rams.

Really? Yeah. I mean, obviously, Missouri was fired up. What was it that 95, 96 season when you're inevitably going through that divorce with Houston? What was the attendance like? What was the support? Mike from Houston? Well, it was, the league wanted to make sure that it looked different.

It looked okay. So, you know, on the, you guys read those play-by-plays after the game. You know, it's got the starting lineups and all that. Well, up on the top, it has attendance. So right next to the, right next to the, your, your temperature and wind and all that stuff. And it was always in that 30 or 40, but I promise you there was maybe 10,000, 15,000. Really? I never forget.

We played Steelers there. and Steelers travel obviously very well. Very well. And it was just one of those deals. I mean, Chris Berman, who's a friend of mine, was he'd call us the Tennessee tuxedos or the Houston whatever's and everything. It was hard. And there was a lot of politics involved. There were lawsuits and there was lawsuits there.

And then, well, I'll give you an idea. When we got back from Marisville and the announcement was made, we came back and we had our fourth and final pre-seals. game at the Astrodome. And we got out, both teams warmed up, and then I get called over to the side, and I'm told that they're canceling the preseason game because the groundskeepers failed to do the conversion. It was a baseball, so baseball converted from baseball to football. They didn't do the conversion.

The field wasn't safe. Neither team could play, and they canceled the preseason game. So here comes another lawsuit. So you got all this business going on in Houston, and then you have to get the votes and approve the move here in Nashville and raise the money and do the private money, the public money, and all that stuff. So there's a referendum, and the referendum was NFL, yes, referendum. So you got two things going on. You got a team, you got a city that just is mad and upset, and they're losing this franchise, this storied franchise, the Love You Blue stuff. then you have a new city that's like, come on, come on, come on.

And so finally, thanks to a lot of effort here in Nashville and a lot of the older politicians, the Breddissons, and, you know, Denny Bordoff, if Daniel, Daniel here that I mentioned his name, but these are the guys that were behind, really the nuts and bolts behind relocating the franchise. So it was not an easy deal. I mean, I remember, well, I don't know if you guys have crossed past with Al D'L. Greco, but he was our kicker at that time. Okay, and Al was kicked for us in Houston, and then he kicked moved here with us. Al had deposits in schools in three different places for his kids in Houston in case we played there.

In Birmingham, because that's where he's from, and then here in Nashville in case we moved. He didn't know where we're going to play. And so what was the transparency with the players? Like you kind of, you can. Yeah, and then you've got to be a head coach to everybody. Yeah. Oh, no, it's just all. You just tell him.

I mean, you tell him the truth and tell him this is what's happening. hey look you know if you go overboard on hey we don't there's no excuses we can't we got to go out and play it got to win games and that you mean you have to do that you have to dress that but what we were doing what floyd and i and the staff were doing is we're putting a pretty good team together as we were you know going through all that mess when i took over as an interim head coach in 94 huston was a run and shoot offense okay so that means four wides every single snap had one tied in on the roster that was a special teams player, had a fullback that was a linebacker.

And so I took over with four or five games left. I changed from the run and shoot to a conventional offense. So with that being said, you understand that that roster was built differently than it took time to build the roster. And I took over 95 was the first year of salary cap. So we had limitations. The Oilers were top in payroll. in 94.

And then 95, or, yeah, no, 94 was the first year. But anyway, we had to reduce our salaries to make the cap by $18 or $20 million. The time, that was a lot of money. So we had to go through this transition period where we had to build the team right. And so while we're doing all this moving and playing Memphis and Vandy, all that kind of stuff, we're building a team and obviously put together a pretty good team. Yeah, so many moves. in parts.

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going to the Super Bowl and playing against the Rams who you ended up coaching what was that Super Bowl like that was that was also Music City Miracle was that the same year

yes so let's back up so I'm on top so this is a wild card game yeah you help us out I'll take you through the ride okay so we got we open our season here in the stadium okay we moved into the facility and opened the season at the state

the facility that is there now the current facility yes and the guy and that was the that was the thing that kept the guys alive because we were working out of trailers for two years. From 95, 96, we were in trailers right down the road in Bellevue, right on the interstate. Okay, we were, that's where on meetings. Sorry?

Imagine that happening now. Oh, no, I was in there for two years. I was in there for two years. You'd be so mad about that. Hey, guys, I had to call freaking critter-ritter to get out there to remove a family of skunks from underneath the trailers. Guys getting blasted by skunks trying to catch a bench breast. Oh, by the way, offense, you guys know. you're meeting in the locker room because then the defense is going to meet over here in the one room that we had in the trailers

because Bud didn't want to put a partition in the trailer because he knew that it was temporary. So you guys got to sit around and do your meetings on the locker. Well, was the king of saving a dollar, huh? Oh, yeah. Again, I'd love him. I just, you know, he gave me the opportunity. I wish I got the opportunity to meet him. Yeah.

And guess what? His daughter's pretty good. Yeah, no, she's doing an unbelievable job. Amazing. Yeah. So anyway, so we go, yeah, we get in the. there and we finally opened the stadium. I never forget the time, the moment when I took the guys into the stadium for the first time.

It's like, whoa. It's like, you know, this is what we've been waiting for. Yeah. We opened against Cincinnati. Jeff Blake is the quarterback. And we were down by nine with four minutes left to go. And fortunately, Jeff Blake had cramped up and couldn't return to the game. I don't know if we had won that game.

but Steve puts 10 points on the board in four minutes, and we beat Cincinnati 36, 35, something like that, to win our inaugural game in the stadium. We went on from there and we were undefeated at home. And then the place was packed, was it packed the first game? Oh, it was packed. People were all about it. Just all about it, packed and going nuts.

So we pitch an undefeated record at home. And at that time, the Colts won the division. and no, I'm sorry, correct, I'm sorry. Jacksonville had won the division, okay? And we were a wild card, so we had to go, we had to start, we hosted a wildcard game against Buffalo. So that's the music's hitting. So that's everybody's first playoff game.

I might have had a handful of guys that had playoff experience that's being generous. So the first playoff game is a hard thing. So you tell them, hey, look, we'll find a way to win. The next one's going to get better. The next one's going to get better. But this one is going to be hard just because of the emotions and all that stuff. And sure enough, it was hard. I mean, they kicked the field goal with 16 seconds left.

And we were down. And we had been working this play every weekend, every Saturday. We work to play, you know, like you go through those things in the walkthrough. You got to go through every possible situation. I was a scenario guy and all that stuff. Then you did the trick playing. You got over. Yeah, so what are we doing this?

We're going to be doing this. We were talking about Darren Bates. Darren will tell you that on every single Monday, I'll put at least two, maybe three punt fakes in and a field goal fake in. And those guys know that I'm going to call it. Okay? Other places you've been,

you'll have your fake and you practice it. You know the coach is never going to call it. Yeah, yeah. But they know I'm going to call it, right? So they're always into that stuff. everything. So prior to the year, you guys remember the Stanford Cal game years ago in the band and the laterals and everybody's running through the band in the field? All right. Well, what we had was we had our Stanford Cal team. And that was the last play of the game. All right, you're behind.

You're going to get the kickoff. How do we get the ball in the end zone? So I would take, no, it wouldn't include you guys, unfortunately, no disrespect. But I would get all the athletes. I would get all the athletes. I mean, that's two disrespectful comments. too much. Hey, we'd go, they would go hands team at the Raiders, and then I would come off the field. Hey, white guys, get off the field.

It's not our play anymore. So I had left-handed and right-handed guys, and our deal for years was just to try to keep the ball live and throw it around and lateral it. And there was no method to the madness, but that was our team. Back-yard football. Prior to, so right at the start of the 9-9th season,

Alan Lowellie's special team coach came to me and goes, hey, I found this play during the summer and da-da-da. I go, this is really cool. We'll put it in. But let's wait until we get down to the roster. Where did he find the play in the summer? It was like 60s, like 60s from the Texas. A.N. Texas. Texas Tech. Dig it. From the 60s. I know. I know.

Yeah, I know. So he comes in and we go through it. So we put our, we put our, we called a home run throwback. So we worked it every Saturday. And every Saturday, we had our team. And we take 11 guys, usually practice squad guys. And they, you know, no helmets. And we kick the ball out here or there, wherever. You kick it to anybody. If you're a front line guy in a kickoff return team, you're the center. We're going hit the ball to you. What are you going to do it? you got to get it back to Frank. Okay.

Or someone's got to get the ball to Frank. So every weekend, every Saturday we worked. So sure is shit. We come down to the end of the Buffalo game, and there's a TV timeout after their field goal. And Alan walks up to me, and we simultaneously go, I'm on throwback. Oh, yeah.

So now I'm looking for Derek Mason, okay, because Derek Mason was our deep guy. Yeah. Okay. Derek is out. Okay. Derek has a concussion. He's next week someplace. okay so now number two i'm looking now this during tv time out i'm looking for he's out okay

so our number two was was uh anthe d d was cramping you ever oh in your career you've been around a teammate that just cramped all the time that's him 100% i'm a lot of it's 45 degrees out there and he's just wondering what the fuck you like yeah making us look like a bunch of puppies out here so no question so hey he's cramping so i kevin dyson is i'm yelling and Dice get over here and Dice is like, yeah, Coach. Now, Dice, I'd love Kevin. And Kevin, when we got him, it was the first round pick out of Utah, Utah State, whatever. And he actually liked the California kid.

It's like, oh, whatever, okay, yeah. So I'm Kevin. Okay, home run throwback. Yeah, coach. I said, we worked at every Saturday. I didn't pay attention. I said, Kevin, all you need to do. Well, you had a player tell you.

Coach, I didn't pay attention. He was number three. He didn't have to pay attention. I just said, so, okay, quick. I said, hey, look, whatever happens out there, we're going to get the ball to Frank. Okay, and all you do, I want you to stay outside the numbers. Here, these numbers, stay 10, 20, 30, and we'll get the ball to you and stay 10 yards behind.

Frank, because I got you, coach. I got you, coach. He just tells them all that. Oh, no. But everybody else had the play down. Everybody knew, we all knew, everybody knew what was going on. The only thing that was different was, of all the kicks we worked on every Saturday during it throughout the season, never worked.

on that particular kick. It was just kind of a, just a bloop kick to Lorenzo Neal. We would hit him hard here, hit him hard to the center, hit him hard to tackle, hit him to the deep guy and whatever, but that little bloop kick was something that we just, for whatever reason, never worked on it. So the ball is kicked on, go, oh, oh, fuck. So Lorenzo, yeah. So Lowe catches the ball. Well, Low's Martin doesn't want it, he gives it to Frank. Yeah, Dyson's over there picking flowers. And Kevin standing back over here, and you'll see, here's Lowe, he catches the ball. He's going to get rid of it.

Oh, my gosh, you hear, Frank, you take it. Frank sets it up, sells it and comes back. Look at that. 10 yards behind the ball, right? Just like we told him? Yeah. Now, how about 10 yards? 10 yards?

So right there, right there, I'm yelling, get out of bounds because field goes, and then I look ahead. I go, oh my gosh, get the end zone. See the kid jumping on the left? I don't know if you can back it up, but because that's funny story. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Talk about this part, too. Okay.

So this is controversial city right here. What do you think would have been called had there been replay. Well, there is replay. There was there? This game went to review. Oh, yeah. No, the wing official right behind Frank on their sideline is Byron Boston, and Byron Boston

points a lateral. So he points to our right, his left. And I saw that, so I knew it was ruled a lateral on the field. Which is half the battle. It is. It's going to stand now. It's probably going to stand. A lot of gray area. Yeah, so you have to,

yeah, so it's ruled a lateral. Now, Kevin, cleans it, he makes the play here, and then he goes. So, you know, right about here, I'm looking to my left going, oh, my gosh, you know, hey, we got a chance here. Let's, you know, I'm yelling, get out of bounds, Kevin, because field go gives us a chance. And then I said, oh, my gosh, here we go, score. So right here on the left, right on the end zone, jumping in the goal line, right there, that kid right there?

Uh-huh. Okay. Now, this is a good story. This kid right there. Okay. Okay. Now that we've seen that, I'm going to reference this. But anyway, so the ruling on the field is a lateral.

They're going to go to replay. Okay. So now, as a coach, I'm on the sideline going, okay, do-do-do-do. This thing's going to stand. They can overturn it. It's too close. I have to go for two. Okay, because this touchdown puts us ahead by five.

Right. Okay. I have to go for two. And I'm thinking when this is announced, there's no way our offensive group would be able to execute a play. Right. Okay. Right. I mean, you're looking at it and so you're supposed to be locked in the whole time. Sorry? There's no way they'll be like. Because of the emotions and shit and everything. New City miracle just happened. You have no chance to win the game. But 16 seconds. Everyone thinks, oh, we're fucking done. Well, good year, boys. So why this is happening. Okay, this is cool. Why this is happening. But at. Our owner is an elevator going down, okay, because the game was over. My dad was in the bathroom. He was in.

He came in from California to see the game. He's in the restroom. Okay, there's probably 65, maybe 66,000 people here. To this day, there's maybe 100,000 people that said they were there. Yeah, yeah. And people all over Nashville, people all over Nashville in intersections are stopped listening and get in out of their cars. and going nuts and intersections all over.

And the whole place is going crazy. So as history would have it, I went for the extra point. It was good. We went freaking crazy on the sideline. We kicked the extra point. Kick the ball off. Because in my mind, what are the odds of this happening twice in the same game? Right.

You know? No way. Well, what people failed to bring up is after we kicked the ball off, Buffalo, they pitched the ball around. They pushed that sucker past midfield and the game ended. That's unbelievable. As whole tight as shit.

God damn it, tackle the motherfucker! That is some stressful son. So now, so, okay, we won our first playoff game. Okay, we're going to Indianapolis the next week. So we had our home in Franklin, and after games, I had a group

of buddies that music guys and things like that would always come over. We would crack red wine and grill and stuff, and what they call it, celebration station. So I had a bunch of people over after the game. Bring your favorite left tackle. Yeah.

You would have been there. Well, remember Mike, you know, you've met Mike Silver. Yes. Mike Silver was in to cover the game, and he was in my kitchen after the game. So this little guy there that's jumping up and down, okay, that's my son. He was running Polaroids on the sideline during the season. Now, back then, you didn't have tablets and stuff like that. All you got was like a Polaroid.

shot of the formation and then another shot of the play beginning. So he's running Polaroids to offense, defense, special teams. That was his job on the sideline. And he's standing there in the kitchen going, hey, there I am. There I am. Look at me. There I am right there. I made TV. I made ESPN. I go, dude, what are you doing in the white? In the white? Oh, oh, yeah. You're supposed to be in the, but if you hit the official bumped you? That's a flag. This is over. Yeah.

Shit doesn't happen. No. Kid goes from being so happy about being on TV to be shut by his father. His mouth dropped and tears. And it was like, it just, the whole kitchen was silent. And I went, no, I'm just kidding. It would have been assessed on the kickoff. It would have come it.

Yeah. And anyway, that's the story. So it's pretty cool. That's badass. So that play today is still like when you walk into our facility from the players to the players lock in to the left, it's still drawn up. Oh, yeah. How it went down and everything.

Yeah. it's really good. So we called it home run throwback. Okay. Everyone in Buffalo, every Buffalo fan since 1999 to present calls it home run throw forward. Throw forward. Yeah, for sure.

But yeah, so it was with all this stuff going on in the league now in the 100 years and everything and all the 100 plays, this was the second, the top, it was number two in in playoff history to the Immaculate Reception. Yeah, by Franco. Yeah. So anyway, yeah, it was cool.

stuff. So this was, and you can imagine what the locker room was like, and I mean, Tim McGraw, everybody's in the locker room going freaking nuts. And so now we got to go to Indy. So we go to Indy and we got to beat the Colts. And then there was a couple of cool stories up there and we beat the Colts. And we came back from Indy and got off the plane and went through that airport. And you guys have gotten off if you bus or whatever. But we didn't, we came through the terminal and came down. And it was thousands of people in a terminal. Oh, that's sick. So cool.

And now we got to go to Jacksonville. Okay. Jacksonville won our division. Jacksonville, and when I said Jacksonville, you just got a funny look. It's just Jacksonville, right? It's okay. I get it. We started it.

Okay. So Jacksonville is 14 and 2. Okay. They had a week off. All right. They just pounded the Miami Dolphins, 60-something to nothing or thereabouts. In the divisional.

In the first round of playoffs. 62 to 7. Okay, 62 to 7. Marino's last game. Okay. You guys, this memory check stuff's pretty good. I like it over there. That's pretty impressive. Oh, the boys are on fire on this stuff.

Okay. So now we're going to go to Jacksonville. All right? But here's the stuff behind the scenes. This was the last time that the Super Bowl was one week after the championship game. there's not two weeks so we're going down to

Jacksonville we and two days before we go to play in the championship aFC championship game we got to send people to Atlanta our advanced people to Atlanta because if we win we're going to be Atlanta the next day it's not like you got a week

and all this kind of stuff it's like right you win the game go to Atlanta and I credit the organization because it was the last time and they had done their work and we're prepared we got a team there but so anyway I find out that Jacksonville's crew was in Atlanta kind of like, you know what, hey, you know, Coach Coughlin wants it like this. So we don't really care how you want it.

You know, so the assumption was they're going to win the game before we've even played the game. And the reason being is they were 14 and 2. Their only two losses came to us. We went down there and beat him and we beat him at home. Sounds very familiar. Yes. Sounds about right. Yeah.

So who's going to, you know, who when they're. their right mind thinks that we're going to, they're going to lose three games this year all to us. Okay. So. Especially come off 62.7. Yeah. Yes. Yes. And here we are.

We've been, you know, we had the emotional game at home. Now we go on the road to Indy. Now we've got to go down there. We go down there and we beat. So. 3314. I mean, that's an asshole. In Jacksonville and a winner.

Which is, like, if you play Jacksonville in December, yeah. It's always hard because you're going and you're playing these colds, old weather games, you're not used to the heat, and you go out of Jacksonville, and it's like September in Tennessee, that's a, that's a tough place to play. It is a hard place to play. There's so many good stories and underline things between the rivalry. So we go down there and beat them. Now we're going to Super Bowl.

This is Sunday late afternoon, and we've got to fly back here. We get on buses at the airport, and we bring the buses right, and as we were coming around from the airport to the stadium, it was Adelphi at the time, Nissan Stadium. We could see ourselves, our buses on the Jumbotron pulling in. And we got out, the whole team got out of the buses and we walked on to the field and there's 30, 40,000 fans there going nuts. Because we're going to the Super Bowl. So we did that. And then we come back to Baptist Sports Park, it was called. And we have a meeting. Because I got to, I mean, it's, the guys are, you know, this is a post game off the airplane meeting.

about what you've got to do between now and noon tomorrow because we're going to the Super Bowl tomorrow afternoon. You imagine how fast a turnaround. So I left the coaching staff behind, went down with the players, the team, left the coaches to game plan in their offices Monday and Tuesday. They came back, came down Tuesday night and we started our practice routine on Wednesday and Atlanta had just suffered an ice storm. So we practiced. We had our Super Bowl practices. We're at Georgia Tech outside on the Astor Turf on a frozen field.

Slipping everywhere. On a frozen field. So do you even think to yourself maybe not even practice? What if a guy slips, rolls his ankle? We had to get our work done. But we had played the Rams once before. We beat the Rams at home during the season. And so there was familiarity.

But the issues that we had was we lost our starting free safety in the Jackson. in the championship game. And then in the game, in the Super Bowl itself, we lost Blaine Bishop, who you're familiar with to injury. And I ended up with, you know, third safeties. And it was just, it was all those things that happened. But, yeah, it was a great run. It was a great run.

And it still came down to one yard. Yeah, a yard and a half, dude. That was nuts. The greatest show on turf. Yeah. Like a Marshall Falk. The Falk route coming out of the backfield. Yeah.

Unbelievable. Yeah. And we, you know, obviously, we were down at halftime. And we played, tried to play their game the first half. And the Super Bowl halftimes feel like three hours. And so we got to got ourselves together and got back to what got us there, which was you guys up front and Eddie.

We just had to do it. Eddie is unbelievable. Yeah. So we got that going again. And so this is, I guess, guys, this is the final play right here to dice. Mike Jones. Oh, my God. Mike Jones.

He misses that tackle. I know. I think that was raining like maybe. the best tackle in the history of the game. I think there was like some show where they did the top 100 shit. So that was it. And, you know, Eddie's, Eddie's check and he's releasing on the bottom. Frank ran his team.

And anyway, I'm not going to throw anybody under the bus. We are on the bus. I didn't watch this game for like 10 years. Really? Yeah, I finally watched it because I was doing some, I had to do something on it. And who was wide open? Well, no, you can imagine you got 11 guys in the last play of the Super Bowl, and, you know, all 11 have to do the right thing. Right.

And, you know, it just wasn't executed the way we wanted to. But anyway, we got a yard. I think we had we executed it properly. We may have walked in. So, and then, of course, I was asked. Man, that's a good tackle, dude. It is a great title. It's a great tackle.

Oh, yeah. So, and then I was asked, okay, you know. AJ Brown's schooling that. Would you? A.J. Brown, will see. AJ never gets tackled by the first guy. He's a rookie. Okay.

I mean, I'm nothing to get sised. If you score, you're down one. He would have got to tackle with my chance. If you score, you're down one, the extra point ties it. Yeah. And then, of course, I was asked, what do you do? And, you know, would you have gone for two and all that? The way, the moment.

You've got to take the point. The way the momentum had changed. I mean, Kevin Carter. And their whole defense was dead tired. I mean, they were done, you know, because we had put that together two freaking amazing drives. There's so many plays on this drive. I mean, if you want to know anything about Steve McNair, you know, who I think about every day, you watch this drive. You know, I mean, it's really cool.

Just dicing people up going down the field. Yeah, running around, shedding people. Poise, just shedding people, strong beast. I mean, you talk, you said something about Eddie. I mean, Steve and Eddie were like, like, they were the dudes, man. And they were kind of like a yin-yang, right? Eddie was, they were...

They're always suited and booted. Very proper, took care of it. We never be walking out, beer gut, hanging out, having a couple beers after the game. Yeah, like kind of like a Ben Rothensberger type. Steve was,

we could go hours on Steve, but your guys are awesome. So look at this stuff. That's awesome. How do you not go down there? How do you not go down there? This goes to Dyson. Look at that.

I kept the drive alive. Are there any other plays in the game that you think? think about besides the execution of that last play that you're like man if i would have if we would have called this like sometimes like you know like when you mess up like if i would have just fucking move this way that i know i should have moved i don't i just think that's great question i just think in general terms i think we got a little derailed uh in the first half uh because we got we're playing the greatest show on turf and i think offensively we wanted to show that we could

throw it around a little bit too right we got away from what got us there and i was pissed at half time and I just said, hey, this is how we're going to get back. You don't seem like this kind of guy, but there is definitely a battle of egos when you go to play another team that's the greatest show on turf, the greatest offense to ever be, type of thing. And like you said, you kind of like, you want to see how we can sling it too. It's football. It's football and your strengths versus their strengths. And how do you get them to do something that they're not good at and vice versa and all that? But, you know, I just felt like if we have any chance to win this game, particularly because of the injuries that we'd had in.

the game, in the championship game, we're down to third and four safeties. You know, and so you know, I just felt like we need to get this, Eddie, Eddie will take this game over and we need to hand that. He was a fucking, he was a stunt.

He was unbelievable. So we did and we got back and, you know, it made it a great game. But yeah, so, so game's over. I don't, I can't find Dick, Coach Vermil, because of all stuff. Yeah. And so I did have kind of a little moment

with Steve there that's, that I've never, and I won't, so don't ask, but it was, he and Steve and I in the moment there on the field, and then I went in, and, you know, it's like, you know, I mean, I watch Super Bowls now and are sympathetic to, you know, one team wins and one team loses, and, you know, it's not an easy thing. So in the locker room and the doors are shut and we're kind of putting things in perspective as best you can in the emotional thing. And so. Not a dry eye in the whole locker room. It's just, it's just, the, that emotion. is something that you don't feel, you feel once in a lifetime maybe.

So anyway, we're going through it and, you know, guys start clearing out and everything. And so now, now it's time for me to do my press conference. So I walk out and get up on the podium and I see my family and there. And my kids are, I can see them there with Julie. And my kids are crying because their dad just lost a Super Bowl. So I'm answering questions and things like that. And then immediately to my left, this guy says, excuse me, coach. And I'm kind of looking at him.

And he goes, you've got to take this call. And this is a bizarre request when you're doing a postgame press conference. And I said, what do you mean call? And I looked in our immediate relationship structure goes like that. I go, well, who is it? He goes, this is the vice president. And I go, well, what vice president? And he goes, Vice President Al Gore.

He wants to talk to you. The United States. Yeah. And I go. positive what? The whole country, sir. Yeah. I go, okay.

I go, hello, hi, this is Jeff. He goes, coach, man, what a great game. Because he was Tennessee guy. And just, and he's going nuts. I go, excuse me, sir, but we lost. Yeah. You know, but it was the best game. I'm so proud of you guys.

What a great ending. I'm going, oh, yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. So I thought that was really cool. I finished the press conference. Go in the locker room, everybody's kind of working their way out. I got both my boys in there, and I'm showering and changing and getting ready to get my bag.

Again, these guys come in with these freaking ear pieces and stuff. And he goes, excuse me, coach, you need to come with us and you need to take a phone call out here. I go, look, I've already done the phone call thing. And he goes, no, you need to come take this call. I go, well, who's calling now? And he goes, well, it's the president. Oh, shit. And then I go, what president?

Yeah, the president of him. Yeah. So it's like, what president? Of all of us, sir. Yeah. I said, okay, come on, guys, let's go. And they can't go, they can't. I go, no, they're coming.

Yeah. My boys are coming with me. So anyway, it was President Clinton. And the same thing was, what a great game. I watched it from the Oval Office and da-da-da-da-da. And you guys just be so proud. And well, thank you, Mr. President. If you're ever in Washington, come on by, man. You know, I love to have you there and show you around and all this kind of stuff.

You take them up on that? No. You didn't go? I didn't know. The Rams went. Well, yeah. But no. Hey, he's just there with the, when the Rams did.

But you know what? Happened to be the same day. No one fucking told me. Yeah. But so. He's in the team photo with him. All these things. Easy.

Hey, don't piss off our guests. I know. He's going to cover. So anyway, yeah, so the next day, we have our party and we, you know, we blow out there and come on back. And it was, it took a week to just, just because it was such a blur. It was so fast. Again, it was one week. Right.

You know, we just had no time. Do you think it had been differently if you had two weeks? I didn't mean to cut you. I don't know. you know, I don't know if the outcome would have been different. I don't know, but I know the experience would have been different because it was such a rush and the weather was so bad in Atlanta and, you know, all these things were going on. Ray was Ray Lewis had his deal. Yeah. You know, and so there's a lot of distractions going on. And so we get back, come back Monday, Tuesday we have this parade. Okay. And it's a parade. And it is every ball of all the players and we're buzzing around Nashville. and Broadway and everything, and fans just, you can imagine, it was like the draft or it's like a freaking Preds playoff game, but they were just all over the place.

So we get through that, and it's all over. We get back to the facility, and I'm sitting in the facility in my office, and Eddie walks in, then sits down. And I go, what are you doing, man? I thought you were on your way to Hawaii. I was not going. I can't go. No, I go, Eddie, you're, you, you're,

you're not going to the Pro Bowl? And he goes, no, man, I'm just not into it. I don't want to go. I can't go. I go, Eddie, wait, wait, wait, whoa. You voted to the Pro Bowl by your peers, by the fans, by this. You need to go to Pro Bowl. You need to have a freaking Pinacolada and practice.

You know? I mean, you've never done that in your life. That's where you can do that. You can have a cocktail and go practice and stuff. And he goes, no, man. I go, Eddie, what's up? He goes, I want to start on next year right now. He doesn't want to go to Pro Bowl.

But that gives you the mindset. Right. Of that team. And it was cool. ExpressVPN. Okay, so we all know ExpressVPN protects your privacy and security online. But here's something you might not know. You can only use ExpressVPN to unlock movies and shows that are only available in the other countries.

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Now back to this Bangor-Fisher episode. So then we come back to the next year and have a better team and then it was not a good ending that season. We lost the Ravens

and they didn't get a first down in the second half. And, you know, we blocked two punts in the game. We had to, we come back. The 2000 Titans, I think were better than the 99 Titans.

And we had the week off. We had home field two out. And we blocked two. two punts in the game, both of them went as a special team or both of them went sideways out of bounds. Fuck. And usually when you block one, like the chances on the street. You're just going to be scoring or what?

Boom, boom out of bounds. Chris Coleman blocked them both. And then I don't think they got a first down and second half. And Eddie took his eye off a checkdown. The ball bounced off your shoulder. Ray Lewis caught it ran for a touchdown. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

But anyway, it was a really, really, thanks for let me share. It was really cool run. Oh, yeah, for sure. We had a kiddle on the other day and Taylor asked the question. Would you have rather, what was it, make the playoffs. Would you rather go to the Super Bowl and lose or not make the playoffs at all? Emotionally, not like, okay, we're going to have a, it's going to set you up for next year. And he said, he said, did he kind of dance around the question?

You're going to, it's too soon to ask that kind of question to him. Yeah, well, he played it. It's, I don't know, going to the Super Bowl is an experience of its own. Like you said, very few people get to, like if you, even if you're a guy that's bounced around for eight years, but you've been in the Super Bowl. that guy's he's got something you can learn from. Yeah. And so that's definitely an experience. I think it's different for guys like, would you rather like go to the divisional round or not go to the playoffs at all? Like for me,

it's like, well, I mean, I mean, it's good because it's good for the community. It's good for the city and stuff like that. And you want to make the playoffs. But a lot of guys would sit there and say,

you know, well, you're taking too big's vacation away from me. You know what I'm saying? And the pay is not the same. Emotionally, what would, I mean,

what would you go to football and lose or not make the playoffs? Oh, no, you go to Super Bowl and lose. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you're, when all the dust settles, man, and you're, you've retired in 10 years or whatever after, that's what you think about.

You get to go. You got to go playing a Super Bowl. You think about that run. That's something that can never take away from you as you got to play in the Super Bowl. You know, and then to win a Super Bowl and then to win, you know, it's like I'm real close with Chris Long and, you know, Chris was, you know, never would have thought. You'd go to New England and do it and then come back and,

and next year and go and winning in Philly and do it. And beat New England and doing it. Yeah. And it just, he was just, yeah. But side note is Chris,

most funny he ever had was playing with us at the Rams. But speaking to having the most fun, we've had somebody sitting out in the parking lot the whole time while he's been on here. Who is that? DB.

Oh, yeah. I tell him to come crashing pot and come say what's up to coach. Yeah, tell him to come by. Yeah, you want to go back out,

bring him to the back just so we don't. So, I mean, I feel like we can have you on. Three hours. You got stories for it. Speaking of the ego thing, you're like, oh, you don't seem like this type of guy.

I have an ego story about Coach Fisher when he was on the Rams. When he picked two overall to Greg Robinson? No, no, no. We'll talk about that too. But it was the trade with R.G. And then they came, this was my second year. And I had just like, I was on, I was basically like, you know, special teams backup all year. And then I think Perry Riley, one of our linebackers got hurt.

And at the end of the year, I got to start like three games in the row. and one of my starts was against the Rams and shout out the boy, I had like 15 tackles. I was like so stoked with my dad afterwards. But anyway, he comes out and the Redskins had traded away like, how many picks for RG? You know what I'm talking about. How many picks was it?

Well, they gave up. We gave up a number. They gave up a number of picks, two ones, two, and the one next year. Holy shit. All these picks, right? Well, that's how we built the Rams. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, for the Redskins and then they got the number.

He sends, he trolls the skins by sending all the picks they traded because RG wasn't working out that year for the Redskins. That was kind of when he was on his outs with the Redskins. And he sends all the picks out to the middle of the field as captains. All the picks that they drafted that year off of RG, they sent them out as captains for the game. See, you guys didn't know that until it was over, did you? Because that's what I was told, because Daniel Snyder and Bruce Allen, none of those guys knew until after. Yeah, they probably did. And it was cool.

And I'm on, I take credit for things and then I give credit where credit is due. And Chris Long came up to me, you know, after, or before warmups or after warmups and said, hey, dude, he goes, do you ever think about sending all the, all the guys we got from the RG3 trade out as captains? I go, that's a hell of an idea. Yo, Chris Long did that? Yeah, Chris Barrett. Shut up. So I go, I'm going through the locker room, you know, going.

He wasn't. So now I got to go. I got to make a phone. He literally said here like 20 minutes ago. I got to make a phone call. call and and I find out who's on the roster

and who was still there and active so I sent the guys out for the coin toss but I had to tell a writer after the game I think that did we shut you guys out

that game maybe because we had I was just stoked to be out there playing let's go we had back to back shutouts when I was in

St. Louis search that up 2015 I think we shut the Raiders out at home in St. Louis and then we went there and shut the rest of it might have been like 23 nothing but anyway I had back-to-back

shutouts which is pretty hard to do yeah it's unbelievable but yeah so yeah so I did yeah we did that we sent all the guys out there and it was fun I mean I think Daniel loved that he you know he loved the he loves that stuff you yeah it was just kind of the stuff that we used to do back then it was kind of cool so you briefly you really imagine something telling that story and at all rich Rodriguez is my first coach at the university of Michigan when I first got there and then he got fired, and then the coach that came in was Brady Hoke. And the first year, Brady Hoke was there,

we went to the Sugar Bowl. And they asked Rick Rodriguez about it, and he's like, he said it's like making all the ingredients for a cake and then he let some other guy put it in the oven. Right. And so you said something about putting the Rams together. Does that, when you watch the Rams go on the run they did, not this past year, but the two years before that,

is there a sense of pride or disappointment that you weren't there? or anything like that? Well, it's a great question. Thank you. You're welcome. No one ever says thank you. You're going to say a good question. Yeah, I would you answer it.

So, thank you. You know, it was, obviously, it's disappointing, but I've been in the league long enough, and I was so fortunate to have been a head coach for 20 years, and at some point you're going to get fired. And so, you know, you roll the dice, the longer you're in it. And so I worked really, really hard to put,

that roster together and knew that we were very close and had just drafted Jared. And I played Jared the last four games, not even concerned about, I didn't care about myself. All I wanted to do was make a commitment to the owner, build the team as best I could, and put the right group of players together, and sustain it. Yeah. Okay. You can put players together now for a year. But the challenge is sustaining things.

And so I felt like we were building with the trades and this. And then we traded, obviously, to you guys with John and got Jared, trade up, got Jared. And we were moving the ride and then it didn't happen, didn't happen. But I knew what was there. And I knew that they were going to be really good. So you asked your question, yeah, I was happy for them. I'm happy for the players and happy for most of the staff. I mean, in this world, you learn about forgiveness.

you know, and stuff, but rejection sometimes trumps forgiveness. And, you know, so you're, you're going to be pissed or whatever it is. But I was really happy for the guys. And it didn't surprise me that they got there. The concern I have and the concern that they should have is sustaining. I don't think, and I'll say this to whoever's making the decisions there, I don't think they made the right decisions over the last couple of years to sustain. Yeah.

And that's, I think you'll see that over the next. couple years. Well, there's a lot of things you can do to sustain. I think just my agency, I'm with CA, and they're the best agency. Shout to CA. They're unbelievable. And they have guys that used to do cap stuff for other teams, where GMs for other teams that now work with them and kind of work with negotiations on the other side. And they say that one thing that the Philadelphia Eagles do really well is they set up guys' contracts to where, like, if you, if your, you know, your cap's not that great, you can convert into signing bonus. And then that saves you ex-a-matic. cap dollars and the guy makes minimum that year.

And so there's a lot of ways around like the salary cap to make sure you can sustain those there is. And there's an elite guys you have on the team. And there's two there's you have two you have two ways of building your team. One is through the draft. The other is through free agency. And you have to use both. And the draft is you guys hear there.

So everyone makes draft mistakes. I mean, yes, we made a mistake. Yeah. We'll talk about that in a second. Okay. But those things happen, but you have to have a plan and you have to be able to look ahead two or three years. And now things are going to get all kicked out of whack because of occurring in injury or some kind of problem or something like that. But if you have a plan, by and large, you can plug things in and make adjustments in here and stay competitive, you know.

And, you know, I see that with John Robinson and you guys. I mean, I was so jacked for you guys. I mean, I came to the Indianapolis game early September. I don't think you're playing. And that was the loss. And that was when we retired Steve and Eddie's jersey. And just there was something missing, you know. But I'll realize what it was, what was missing and what they went to.

And I'm not talking about Marcus per se, but I'm talking about just you guys rocking forward a little bit and running the football with the big dude. and which is a question I have is what's he like in the huddle what what is he what's what's he like in the hudderick is stud he's a complete stud yeah what Derek is very happy go lucky during the week okay and he's especially if he has a good game you can tell he's got a smile on his face yeah but when it comes to games like we'll have a couple I bring up there's a play action play that we have that I have to I'm going out to the end but and we're all kind of running to the left and then we set up so we do that the

the quarterback can set up, but I have to help the guard at first, and Derek's supposed to have my outside. So if we're ever in a timeout and that play is called, I'm always like, hey, Derek, you make sure, and he's like, listen, I fucking got it. Like, he is, he is so locked in, will not smile, has an attitude about him. He'll run the ball for four. The best way to describe Derek is the last game in the season. There really wasn't a thought of, like, let's get the rushing title because there were,

there was so many yards to get. But he goes, in the first half of the game, he had, 63 yards rushing, which is not bad at all. I mean, you double that year, 126 yards. That's like, that's a good game. It's good math. Thank you very much. I'm on a roll today. Yeah.

And we get at a halftime. He's fucking pissed. He's like, what can we do better? Like, if you guys just get this block, I swear to God, I'll get through. And he's got that, from what I've heard about Eddie George when he was there, he's got that mentality that he knows he can change a game whenever he has the ball in his hands. And he absolutely can't.

Yeah. He's got the breakaway speed, not the first guy can never tackle him. I'm very impressed. with him and how he holds himself in a game because he's never too high and too low. It's always stay right on course and basically fuck you, you're not going to tackle me. And that's exactly how. He's impressive. That's how Eddie was. I mean, I remember, you know, I got so many memories. But, you know, we're inside at two minutes and it's third and seven, and we get the first down, we kneel, games over. You know, and Jacksonville used our last timeout,

and here we go. We're standing the sideline. I go, hey, look, Eddie and Steve are standing looking at. I got options. You can put it on your hip and get what you can get what you can get it away or I can get it to you. He goes give it to me. And he looks across. He goes third and seven. He goes, I got you 10. I go, you good with that? Steve goes, yep, you got 10. And so the one thing, I mean, if I got any messages that you could take back to Derek is, man, spend as much time as you can with that big boy, 27 because Eddie understood what it took in the offseason. He got it. He was way ahead of his time.

You know, and it was, I mean, he and the great ones do that. The Jerry Rice's and all the ones that I've been fortunate to be around understand that as you get older, you have to work harder just to maintain. Not to get better, just to maintain. Now, if you want to get better, then you've got to work even harder, and that's how Eddie was. I mean, Eddie had that relentless thing. I'll take you back. We opened our inaugural season in Tennessee was in Memphis against the Oakland Raiders in Memphis, Tennessee, early

September, and we won in an overtime game, and Eddie had over 200 yards rushing, and he went and got IV at end of regulation, came back out, and we won. We pounded them in a 95, 100-degree day in Memphis, and the Raiders wilted because they had just come off at training camp in Napa. Yeah. Okay. And we knew that was how. We knew it was in our favor. Okay.

So Eddie's got 211 or 220, whatever it is. In Memphis on Sunday, we come back to Bellevue. I'm looking out of my trailer window and Eddie's running freaking hundreds the day after. that's that definitely that sound they have a lot of similarities and that's the that's the difference and that's what and you know some people need to be told that and some people figure it on their own figure it on their own but that's where um that's where if derrick wants to be the guy that which he is now i mean i'm just you know yeah yeah i got you know i was a db in the league tackling that dude that's like that's like freaking bouncing your

forehead off a frozen truck bumper. You know? It's not fun. And that's what you guys build around that. Shit, it's old school and no one in the division is going to want any of you. I think Derek, I mean, definitely Derek, was easily arguably the top running back

this year, the most yards. I think with running back, it's always sustaining. How many years can you do that? Because people say, that's on me. You only have so many carries in you. And one thing I noticed about Derek is, he doesn't really get tired. He doesn't, he genetics or whatever it is,

he works his ass off, but he's one of those guys that, if he's not the best, he's pissed off about it. And so he's definitely a great teammate, and he's awesome to be around. He sat in that same cheer. He was here. We had him on, what, four or five weeks ago?

Something like that. Four or five weeks ago, and he was sitting there, and he had a conversation with Eddie when he first, he got, he was a starter, and then he ended up being benched for Dion, and his words, not mine,

but did happen. And he said he called Eddie and he talked to him and Eddie was straightforward with him and said, you're not running hard enough. You're not like, it doesn't seem like you want it or I'm sure. I don't know of the exact words. Trying to do too much.

Those types of things. You're trying to be a 200 pound back. Yeah. Right. Be what you are and use your strengths. Yeah. And then you will go the distance. And he's done that since then.

But Eddie's so locked into this community and he's so walked in with the Titans because I had a similar situation where he went on radio. And he said, well, I don't, you know, something along the lines of, I don't think Taylor is viewed as a leader on the Titans locker room. And nationally, I don't think he's viewed as a leader. And I called him because, you know, if someone's going to say that,

I want to know, what's your reasoning? Because I'm not going to fight a guy over it. I just want to know the situation. Yeah, he's big, too. And so I call him, and I figured he'd get defensive and, well, I didn't say that or this. And he's like, yeah, I said that. I said, he said that there's, when he sees me doing certain things, it's not leadership. If I'm trying to do too much during a game, it's not leadership.

And I have, as long as I'm affecting the guy to my right, to my left, my left guard and my tight end, that's all you need to do is leadership and you're not doing that. You came back trying to do too much. And after I had that talk with him, I did exactly what he said. And I'm not saying I've helped the Titans immensely, but it helped me. and helped my game. It helped me with Roger. It helped me with the tight ends

doing triple blocks, trade blocks, those such of things. So he's done a great job for the Titans just on the outside, being able to talk to a few guys. And I appreciate the hell of him.

He got to sit there and through the prime of his career, he got to run behind Bruce Matthews. Stud. Yeah. And Bruce was really quiet. And Bruce wasn't a vocal guy. Bruce was tremendous asses.

athlete. He started every position on the offensive line and made the pro bowl at every position. He's in the Hall of Fame, you know, all that stuff. 14-time Pro Bowl. Yeah. And Bruce was just, he was just quiet about his job. And it's competitive. Bruce would, Bruce would stay out after practice or before practice get out there early and play whatever freaking competitive game, whether it was spinning footballs or whatever it is. He was always competing at something. But those are the guys that Eddie kind of got, was raised with. Now, Eddie, you know, obviously the Ohio State experience and all.

that and everything associated with the difficulties and what you know the thing the hard times that we went through made eddie george a man you know and sooner he was he always was but you know what i'm saying yeah he just got it in times of adversity yeah you have to grow and he you know eddie would you know and eddie was even even early on eddie he'd get mad and he'd want to talk to the team and you know because somebody was late and you know he just bitch in a meeting about his teammates and then the very next team meeting, Eddie was late. You know? Yeah.

So he figured it. That sounds a little bit like myself. Yeah. He figures it out over time. But man, I mean, lead by example is what he was about. Absolutely. Yeah. It was cool.

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I just said he was, and then we, we ran the football here, you know, and that's people go, you know, really? I go, yeah,

okay, we had, I had two 100-yard backs at Kansas City in the same game. Okay, at Lindel-W-Wyke. Chris Johnson. He had 100 yards.

Each of them had over 100 yards. And we came back to next week here and played Cleveland. And they both again had 100 yards, except I screwed it up because I got pissed at the head coach because he called the game was out of reach over. And he could call a timeout. And then he called another timeout. And they granted him back-to-back timeouts. And I was pissed at the officials. I was pissed at him because the game was over.

I said, screwed it. I sent goal line in there. And Lowe got knocked for a yard. or Lendell got knocked for a yard loss and ended up with 99 yards. Or I would have had, we would have had back-to-back games where we had two 100-yard rushers

had it not been for the decision I made to just pound it in there. But, I mean, we ran the football. I mean, that's what we were about. And Eddie was really the one that set that ball rolling for us. There's definitely a place for that in the league still. I mean, as much as people throw the ball around, if you have a dominant run game,

it sets up all that passing. I mean, shit, look at you guys. Look at the Ravens. Yeah. The 49ers who only threw the ball like eight times and 11 and like the entire playoff run until the Super Bowl.

But yeah, that's insane. I remember I would be in the front yard. I was a running back myself back in youth football and I would always like pretend to be Eddie George. Would you really? Yeah, because I was like taller. I was like, I'd tell you all the time I like peaked in high school.

My prime was like youth ball like just dominated. Just dominated off. Offensively. Stun. Yeah, but I would always pretend to be Eddie George. I don't know how much time we have, but I do want to catch on a couple things. Hang on. What was like a muddier transition?

The Houston, the Tennessee, or St. Louis to L.A. Because I grew up in Missouri, so me, I heard a lot more. Like, I would always be around more with everybody being pissed off when you guys went to L.A. Everybody was. I mean, anytime you pick up and move, the people that are affected the most are the fan base. Right. And that's just not fair to fans. So, you know, you got to, you know, you got to handle it as best you can.

And, you know, as a head coach, I'm not making those decisions. I'm doing what I'm told, and I've got to make the most out of a move. Now, they're hard. It's hard. You know, I give the example. When San Diego moved to L.A., it had a two-hour drive. They started off on four, and Philip was driving commuting in the car. You know, we moved three times on off-season.

You know, we had no place in L.A. when we left St. Louis and went to L.A., we moved into a Marriott Residence Inn in Oxnard, and that's where we had our off-season program. We lived in hotel. And then when the off-season program was over, when you're done with your last OTA and you have that summer break, you know, they had no place to train or live. And then they showed up to training camp, you know, two hours south at UC Irvine. And then you go, and then you were hoping that your temporary facility trailers again is done so you can have a place to practice. So, you know, all those things are unsettling. Now, especially L.A. was different than here. I can't say which one was harder. You know, this was different. I mean, I had a player come up to me and go, so we're checking,

these report to TSU for training camp. And back then, they gave them the 800 number and said, hey, call the 800 number. The move, you'll move your stuff. Make sure you're there in time for training camp. Where's training camp? Well, it's a TSU. Where's our facility? I don't know yet. And he comes up, he goes, yeah, my, my, my, my SUV got there, but my, I can't find my Mercedes. And my SUV got there with, you know, nine or ten or a thousand miles more on it. And they drove it and they told me their ship and it. And they can't, they don't know where my car is. So you got those little things, you know, they all add up.

But, you know, the LA thing was, the LA thing wasn't easy, just particularly because of all the moving and then the commuting. And then, you know, you're, you're on the road. in that particular year I was there, we played in Detroit, in New England, in New York, in London, at New Orleans. Everywhere. So, and we went from, yeah, we went from, we left L.A., went to Detroit, went upstairs, lost a close game, went upstairs, had a meal, went downstairs, went to the airport, and flew to London. You know, so those things are, you know, those things aren't easy. But that London trip in general is very hard. Oh, yeah.

Very hard to do. Yeah, it is. Raiders played in Mexico at London. We played in New York. Like, they were, they had flown everywhere. Oh, yeah, you're going to. You got no choice. Same with Seattle.

And so you have to adjust. And obviously, there's, you know, we, I feel like we did a really good job adjusting. I mean, the bottom line is this. I mean, and I think Mike Rable is all about that. And it's, he puts himself in you. your shoes, every decision that he makes from six o'clock in the morning until whatever time in the evening you leave, he's all about what you do. And how can he help that whole process?

And whether it's recovery, whether it's this or that. And so, you know, we did sleep studies and we did all kinds of different things and just innovative things. I mean, I even, my last two years there, believe it or not, you know, Monday was a recovery day. Our players day off was Thursday. Really? Really? Yeah. That's an interesting way to do it. Oh yeah, but Monday's all recovery, okay, because if you're covering kicks and you're playing, you're going to play 30 plays in a game and you're started and you guys hand a ball off 35 times, you played 70 plays, okay? And the practice squad guy over here didn't play, and he hadn't practice since Friday,

okay? If I throw the three of you guys in on Monday into the wait room and you guys got the same stuff to do. That's wrong. Your needs are different than his needs and your needs. You may just need a massage, period, and fluids, you know, and the Norma Tech and whatever. That might be your Monday, you know.

But by Tuesday, we kind of got everybody back. So Tuesday was kind of an install based stuff day. Wednesday was good Thursdays off, man. How'd you like to sleep in? And anybody ever tell you about my sleep in Thursdays? No. I think I've heard a couple of times.

We got a couple stories. You got to tell the Darren Bates. You got to tell the story, too. Oh, okay. But you can say it after this one. Is you coming late? No. Well, it happened here, and it was Kevin, we had Kevin Mawai.

I had Kevin White Center. And, you know, we had a physical stretch, and I just felt like we just needed something different. And so Wednesday after practice, I called a team meeting. Well, you know what happened. That never happens, right? Yeah, Wednesday after practice. Guys, when they're going, oh, oh, shit, who fucking? Yeah, yeah.

Someone got arrested. What's going on? Yeah, it's bullshit. And I got up and I just said, hey, look, I said, when you go home, we're going to finish up, whatever you're going to do. You watch tape, watch practice, get your work, whatever you're going to do. When you go home before you go to bed, turn your alarm clocks off, turn your phone off. I want you to sleep in the morning and sleep as long as you can.

Now, I said, that's no, that's not a pass to go freaking tear the town down the night because I'm going to go out, look for you, make sure you're not freaking in wherever in the bars. But the point is, is sleep in, don't take the kids to school. Don't get up early. Don't do anything for mama. You need the rest. And come in around noon.

I don't give a shit when you come in, but just try to be in by noon or 12, 30. And I saw Kevin the hall around 10 o'clock, and Kevin goes, Jeff, that's the best thing has ever happened in my whole career, 14 years, was to be able to sleep in. That's awesome. That's fucking sick. That's awesome. That's awesome. And so sleep in Thursdays took on a whole life of their own.

Right. And now it's, you know how you guys are after a big win, Sunday afternoon. It's Victory Monday. Sleep in Thursday. Sleep in Thursdays. It motivates you in a weird way to like, you know, hey, we're going to get this sleeping Thursday, boys. You got to get it.

So I win the fourth quarter like, yeah, we win this game. You know what it is. I went to Thursday day off. Thursday, totally day off. Yeah, so Monday's recovery. Okay. Tuesday, we're going to get your blood going and move around, get your soreness out and do all that kind of stuff.

And install base, half speed practice. Just a little bit more than a walk through. Once I say, we're going to go. You know, and then Thursday's your day off. And then come back and then. Friday's fast Friday. We never did a sleep in Thursday with Brable, but Brable does, towards the end of the end of the season, he does a really good job of knowing where the guy's bodies are at and knowing

what it takes now in this league. Yeah. Because a lot of guys, a lot of coaches will play in the 80s, they'll play in the 90s. They'll come and coach, like, well, this is what we did. Yeah. So, well, there's been a lot of advancement in modern science. Yeah. Let's take a lot of science.

Let's take a deep breath. Yeah, so sleep and diet and just all those things are so important, but just the rest and recovery, you know. But that starts, you should start that. I mean, I always had this philosophy, particularly because I played. I wasn't very good, but I played five years in the league. And I remember the day, the calendar year, and I'll ask both you guys, what day in the calendar year did you feel the absolute best, meaning physically in shape, ready to freaking go?

And your answer is probably the day before training camp. Yeah, I was just going to say. July. So what happens at training camp? You do this, right? Right. Okay. and then you never get it back.

Training camp should be up, and then it should be a, and then when the season starts, you're here. They want to work so hard in August just to fucking take away everything you worked up to. Yeah, so you're training during the off-season just to get through camp, not to use camp, but just to get through camp.

Now, it doesn't, you know, because back in the day, when I played, there were six pre-season games, and shit, you went to camp, And you were two days every day, okay, even Fridays. Water makes you weak. Yeah, yeah. And hundreds, you run 100, you run hundreds after practice.

Head coach tells you get on the goal line, we're running 10 hundreds. Guess what? You went to the goal line, you put your hand down, and you freaking ran 10 hundreds. If you were to tell you guys that now, you'd sit there to look and cross your arms and go, really? Well, you'd have guys, too, that if you're running hundreds after every practice, guys are thinking in their head halfway through practice, like, I better, I better consider some internet. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so no, so, no, so, no, I want this.

I want you to grab a couple rookies or grab whoever you want and run on your own. You know? And then I want to be able to say, no, no, no, no, no. No, no. You don't need to be running on Friday or whatever it is. But that needs to be the mindset. So, you know, when you come in the morning, you park in the parking lot, you run in because you can't wait to get to work. You look forward to getting to work, okay? And then I believe that our job is to make sure that when you're there during the day, especially on the

field that you are mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritual, whatever it is, ready to practice. Right. So that's all the shit. I got to, all the shit needs to be, you need to be clear, you know, so if that means that your mom called and she want a different color escalate on Friday, and she wants it now, and that's burdening you, that's a distraction. Okay. So I want a distraction-free, fond, understand what we've got to get done work-wise and get it

done and then, you know, you take the, you go to the next day. But so much of that, and then you have to change. You just have to be changed. And just like you said, what Mike did, you got to change. You got to get a feel and have a feel and back down, call this period off, do the shit. And then, and, you know, while all that's going on, you got to have fun. Yeah. You got to have fun. You got to laugh. You've got to just, just have fun and pranks and whatever. Because you're around each other literally every day, all day, from end of July, all the way to, you know, hopefully early February. You said pranks.

I heard Steve Waterson got you pretty good when you guys came in for preseason. Or was it preseason or November? It was November when you guys. No, it was preseason. We only came in for a preseason game, yeah. And Steve got you pretty good? He got back at us.

Okay. No, he didn't get us pretty good. He said, no. The ego. So you got back at us. You know Steve. Steve, I love Steve Death, Big Fish Story guy. Yeah.

So I want to know what's real and what's not. He said he'd get guys all of it. time. He was the king of pranks in his mind. Well, in his mind he was and he also was the target. We could go on forever about him. But yeah, when we came in for the preseason game, I had somebody, I still had

some ties and I got, somebody got a hold of his car keys and during the game removed all four of his tires. Put him on center blocks. Put him on blocks and stacked the tires up. So when he went out, when he went out to go home,

yeah, while we're playing them and I'm, yeah. Yeah, so he got everything going and got his tires back on. And as the buses were come up, he had the guys pull up the thing so our buses couldn't get out. And he yelled at the buses. So that was his version of getting this back. I think you got it back. The Cinderblock thing's hilarious. Now, Chris Long?

Chris and the DBs in St. Louis would always have. Yo, I heard Chris, and you can correct me in the story because the Bs are in the building. The building. He made a building. Oh, no. And basically put. He made three buildings. Made three buildings for the rookies, right?

Yeah, no, they were D.Bs. They were DBs. No, we were, we weren't, it was the last game of year, I think we were in Seattle, we're coming back, we were going to land late. And it was just right after Christmas, and we weren't in the playoffs. And Chris, they had the DBs and the D-Line have been going at it for a while. And so Chris had found a contractor, and he built these, he built three, just one room, four-sided with a roof buildings, okay? and big enough, big enough to put their cars in it. So he had them built.

He had the cars driven in, and then they pounded the nails, and they completely was four walls around their cars. And then he had, in Christmas lights, he had 21, 22, and maybe 23, the three DB's numbers outside on the wall. And so when we pull up, there's a field by the facility. Now, keep in mind, and we're coming all the way back from Seattle, get out the plane, his last game and guys are, you know, really, and we're getting that bus and we're pulling in and all of a sudden that started going and you can see all of the numbers on these three buildings.

Chris are told guys what he'd done, but the DBs, they go in their lockers and they're going to drive home and they can't find their keys and they're standing in the lobby, trying to figure out where their keys are. They don't even put two and two together that their keys are somewhere else, but their cars are in those three buildings on the field. Yeah, with their number on it. On the lock with their number on. So they cabbed home and stuff like that.

But yeah, they did stuff like that all the time. Yeah, that's hilarious. That's fucking legendary. Yeah. That is awesome. It sounds like you maybe want to get back into coaching. Oh, you never. I'll tell you what I miss.

I miss you guys. I miss you. I miss you too. I've never mentioned, but I miss you too. Yeah, but that's what I miss is that I miss the relationship with the players and all the fun and all the stuff. And, you know, that and competing the games and then the anthem. Yeah. I miss anthem.

That's awesome. Can you bring up? We'll have like fan questions and other stuff. Before fan questions, I want to know two things. You know what time it is because I got to catch a flight. It is. San Jose, so does Taylor. 1232. What time is your flight?

I'm all right. We got about 10 more. Okay. So two things happen that we are intertwined about. One was the 2014 draft. There were two tackles taking before me. There was Greg Robinson and number two with you guys, which I want to know you the process because you actually brought me and Greg Robinson in for the same time to

do visits. I remember sitting with you at your office. How was that, what was the deciding factors in those things? And then also, after my second year, they were talking about replacing me with Lammy Tunsell, number one overall pick. And you guys ended up trading for the number one pick. And so in a way, you helped me at the end. And I wouldn't rather be in any place in Tennessee. This place is unbelievable.

Right. But at the end, obviously, when you're going through the draft, you want to be the number one tackle. You want to be the number one overall pick, like all that stuff ended up being the third tackle taking 11th overall. So what were the things you saw in Greg in his game at the time that you didn't see in my game? Didn't see anything missing from your game, not at all. I knew that you would be a 10-year vet. You know, you would have a 10-year career and you'd be a pro bowl and all that kind of stuff. That's why he brought you in.

Oftentimes there are, they're good, the hard decisions, but they're a good problem to have. Okay. So you were slam dunk, okay? we felt like athletic ability-wise when I watched Greg walk on his hands and do throw foot and do that kind of stuff. In addition to that, they had a private workout. We'd done the background checks. I had a son on the roster at Auburn. It was playing at Auburn. He knew Greg. He liked Greg. And it was just kind of, I don't want to say, came down to a flip of a coin, but it couldn't go wrong. you know and it was obviously we went wrong you know but um it's just kind of one of those deals

I mean we in it I want to by comparable standards are probably not it's not a good analogy but you know four or five years ago my last year there we we traded the number one and we decided between Jared golf and Carson wins yeah that was a great problem to have yeah you know yeah and so um you know it's just one of those things I mean I uh I remember our interview. I mean, we got to the combine for a brief moment, and then we had you on the visit in there. And you were with Bidreau when you spent a lot of time and hung around. We loved you.

Sat down, single, double, triple, ABC, all those things. Man, it must be great to go on those visits. Yeah, it was pretty, actually, it's pretty awful. It is. It's not a fun process. One beef I have with the league. And you remember the conversation. How many visits have you had?

Oh, it was 14, 15. When are you going to work out? I mean, it's just like, you know, it's just travel, travel, travel, travel, travel. I came from Detroit. I flew from Arizona to, I think, San Francisco to Detroit and to you guys, all in the same day. When you wanted to be the number one linebacker taken in the draft, and there's like 15 to 20 that go ahead of you, what was it that you saw in them that you probably didn't see in me?

Well, let me see. Who are those that were taken ahead of you? I have no clue. I guess Mantaito was? I don't even know. I don't even know anymore. That's a fun question. So we had, like, you want to be number one, but I ended up being number three in the first round.

11. I was 11. Third tackle. It's interesting to get the perspective of coaches and personnel. Understand the process, too, because it all starts with an area scout. So we had an area scout at Michigan, and we had an area scout at Alabama, and they're both grading you guys, and they're different guys. Then you have directors and assistant directors of college scouting that graded you both independently.

And so now you've got like five different opinions on both guys. Right. Okay. So now after the season's over, now you start to mesh your opinions. Now I'm looking at tape. And then you've got someone else that's the O'Line coach is looking at tape. And so you end up oftentimes with just too much information. Yeah.

You know, and I fundamentally think right now that there's not enough tape being watched. I think people are sharing and talking. and social media grading and not doing the hard hands-on, sit down and watch you play. I watch you play, early, watch you play, middle watch you play late, but more specific. I'm going to watch and see who the best defensive end was because I want to see you pass-protect. And watch, I mean, watch games throughout the course of season. Well, that's how I do, but as a head coach, you can't look at everybody.

Yeah. You know, you really can't. So, you know, it's not right. It's not my place to tell the organization in the draft room in the fifth round, which guard I'm going to take because I hadn't seen them. Yeah. Right. And so, but you have to trust people that have seen them and you have to trust that your boards, right?

And I just think people outside, I'm not saying it's scouts, because scouts are doing the work, but I'm saying people in decision-making positions aren't spending the time to really truly evaluate the players. What do you think of PFS? I think they do a good job. They got a lot of people doing it, you know. And so I really haven't. I never used any outside sources or never knocked at mock drafts and never did anything. You just kind of sit there and just tell me what our, tell me what the team's needs are.

Okay. And then I'll sit there. We'll sit there in a draft room and based on their needs, okay, well, they could go here. They could go there. But let's make sure our draft board's right. I got you. You guys took Alicolkoyal tree the year before me anyway, so it's probably a tough question for you.

I think Marcus. Yeah, Alec is a stud. I think Marcus. Alex is great. He was the giants, right? Big money. Well, we drafted him. Yeah.

Well, you guys paid him big money and then traded him that same year. I was not involved in that. Okay. I was going to say, because I remember seeing that, I was like, what? So why is the big contract if you're just going to trade him? Right. How about this? So, how about this?

So we draft, we draft tree and, He has a pretty good rookie year. He wasn't in shape when he got there, but he finished really strong after that last three or four games. So you know the all-season program is gone. So first day of the off-season program starts. And all I want to do is just want to get a wait. I wanted to – because really, you know, you leave in January,

and you come back in April. The guys are all coming in saying, hey, da-da-da-da-da. So we waited everybody when they got in there. And I get a call. And coach. Yeah. Tree? Yeah, is he right?

He goes, he's like 32 pounds heavier than when he left. And I went, I go, really? I go, are you sure? Your scale? Are you sure? I'm telling you that. So first meeting. So this is like a half hour later.

I have told my assistant to, I said, go to Carl's Jr. Go to McDonald's, go to Burger King, go wherever, and just get shit. I want bags. I want the bags. Okay. And bring them as fast as you can. And I said, I called down the video. I go, hey, put a, I want a, I want a.

TV up on stage. I want a chair. I want a couple little dumbbells. And I want a table out there. And I don't even care it's hooked up, but I want a madden out in there. And they go, what are you doing? I said, just do it. I said, and bring me, bring me trees, jersey and a hoodie. And they go, okay. So, so we have our first meeting start the off-season program. And everybody's been gone for three months and everybody comes in and all, you know, everybody's up right. Everybody's going and fucking knows stuff to see everybody. Everybody's just like that. And I come walking around the, corner up on stage and I have a hoodie, I have glasses, I have 52, and I have a pillow underneath my, underneath a jersey, and I walk up. And in addition to that, I had cookies and chips and

shit, food all over the place. And I just, I walked up and as if nobody was sitting out there, I walked up and walked over and I popped some chips and, you know, and then I did this and I act like I was eating this. And then I was going over and guys start laughing. And I got to start laughing. and I'm walking around doing this, and then I sit back and I grab this, and I'm just playing some PlayStation, like, you know, and you can see, I'm just, and so I'm acting like, I don't even know they're there,

and they're just roaring, freaking laughing. And so I move around, I do this, I walk back, I bring some more food out, sit down, kind of like, oh, it's time to work out. And so I grabbed that two-pound dumbbell, and I just kind of ate, and I was like getting my workout in, put it down with the sleep.

And then I finished by, I finished, I had one more thing of chips and cookies and shit, and I didn't have a place to put them, and I just put them on the ground. And I don't know what possessed me, but I laid down on top of them and popped the chips like a dog. It just kind of rolled on the food. And I got up, and I said, hey, let's have a great offseason. And I walked out. So you think he got the message? Yeah, yeah.

He got the message. And it was, he still, I mean, I hear he still talks about that to this day. I mean, he just looked to, I mean, everybody went. down and goes, how's my weight? You know, it's like, oh, shit. And I didn't know we had to weigh in and da-da-da. And anyway, it was kind of, I didn't have to say anything to him about gaining weight, you know, gaining 30 pounds during the three months. And it's like, I don't even want to know how he did it. I just want him to slowly take it off and get into shape. But yeah, that's kind of how you send your messages nowadays. Can you tell you a tub story that

Tubbs? He's got it going. I know, but this is a phenomenal story. Oh, well, yeah. I mean, it was, um, We had a slow start. Yeah, we had a slow start, and we had an early buy. And I don't know, we were two and four, whatever it was. We had a bye week, and we just lost a close game. And now we're going into the buy week, and after a loss, and, you know, it's just, what are they, you know, you can imagine. You're going to sit there on a Monday after the game.

Oh, man, this is not going to be fun. We got by week. You can kill us, and da-da-da-da-da-da. I think it wasn't, it was later in the by week. It was right before the end, but before the guys took off. And I filled tubs up and have them covered with iced down beer. And I got up there and I just basically told the team that they just got a memo from the league that season's starting over. They, and it was just for some reason it's a fucked up deal.

But the league decided to start season over, clean flight, everybody's starting over. So this is your last week of training camp. You got the weekend off comeback. We're starting freaking undefeel. Let's go win the division. And in the meantime, boys, let's drink some beers. So you start tossing beers out. Yeah.

So we started tossing out. some beers out and shit, they went out and had a great buy weekend and then came back. So, yeah, it's just different stuff. That's awesome. That's a good way to get the boys going for sure. No doubt there. Yeah. That is the camaraderie, man.

It is the best. You're not going to get back. Well, we had a deal. And this would be the perfect forum. But we went out and practiced against the cowboys when we were moved, the year before we moved to L.A., we went out to Oxnard, had the joint practice against the cowboys. And so basically it was, you know, hey, you know, we're going to practice and we got, We have two practices, and they're padded, and I just kind of preach that, look, I don't want bullshit.

We're going to freaking physically play within the rules, kick their ass. This is a great measuring stick for us, but I don't want to bullshit. You know, I don't want to fight and all that kind of stuff. Da, da, da, da, da. Well, Des was hurt, and he had held out, and he wasn't practicing, and Des was standing on the sideline. And Des was just, I didn't know it because I was on the other field with the, I was on the other field with the office. offense. And Des had just gotten a little out of control and nobody really calmed him down. He was just MF and all the DVs. Yeah. But he wasn't practicing. He was just standing there.

So, you know, I got word on the way back to the hotel that this is not good. So, you know, I made a call and said, hey, look, is there any way you guys could maybe control Des a little bit? Because it's really inappropriate what he's saying and how it in his behavior and da, da, da, da, da. And I knew that that, that Des is hard to keep quiet. I knew there was probably the odds of it happened again. And if it happened again, I knew that the guys would take it in their own hands. And so I did the same thing. I filled the coolers on the bus with beers, knowing that the next day's practice was going to get cut short because of fights. Yeah, fighting. You always know when that's brewing.

Yeah. It's always a second day, too. It's always the second day. And it did. And it was, oh, my gosh. But Des was a recipient of a few. I got a lot more respect for him because that. that dude could take a hit.

No. He did. So, but we, yeah, so anyway, guys were just hooting and hollering and drinking beers all the way back to the hotel and in a train room and, you know, we had whatever. But it's just kind of those things, you know. I mean, you know, if you're in the locker room, as you should be, and you get a pulse and a sense and a feel, and, you know,

you have relationships with everybody. You know what you're teamed. Oh, absolutely. You just need to do that. And that's why, you know, that's why, you know, it's always. always, and I don't know how it is other places, but man, I mean, that locker room is a place for everybody. And I'm walking. I'm in that locker room three or four times a day, just hanging out and just whatever, because I don't want you guys to stop your conversation while I walk by. I want

you to feel like I belong there, you know, and all that. So you can't allow those things, you can't allow those things become whatever they are, sanctuary, whatever it is. You know, it's 20 years of doing it, you get a feel for it. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, we appreciate you coming on, man. No, you guys are great. No, I want to circle right back around to Nashville and to what you guys have got in store and what you got rolling in your softball game and all that kind of stuff to help these people here because this is unlike any place I've ever lived.

And I'm spending my time between Montana and here. I've got a remodel here. This is my home. My kids are here. And I love the city and love the franchise and, you know, you guys. just we have a responsibility to do what we can. I know you guys are doing that. So our thoughts,

prayers, all those things, and just confidence and patience and trust go out to all those people whose lives will be affected forever about this tragedy. We're going to need your help doing it too. You're a big state of all in the city.

We got the, hey, all hands on deck, dude. I know Tanya and I are hyped that this platform can finally do something, give it back and get involved

and use our voice and stuff. So it's good luck to you. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. I'm going fishing. See you. I love it. Hey, guys. It's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what?

We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. Nice. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you guys. get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy. Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

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