Bussin' With The Boys - Kirk Cousins On How He Feels About Michael Penix Jr. Draft + His Recovery From His Achilles Injury

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

Recorded: May 9th 2024 | In this week’s episode the boys are celebrating some good news as the Compton Family s adding a new member. Will is having another daughter and has a lot to unpack given how much he wanted a boy. He gets into how he isn’t disappointed that it’s a girl, he’s more disappointed in the fact that he would like to try for a boy a third time and never saw himself with three kids. All in all, he’s super stoked to have another girl. Following the intro, the guys drove down to Atlanta and sat dow with the boy, Kirk Cousins. We had Kirk on a couple years ago at the Super Bowl, but now he is on a new team. Will and Taylor talk to him about what the process was like getting signed by Atlanta and why he wanted to come here. The guys also ask Kirk how his recovery process is coming along after tearing his achilles in the middle of the season last year. Finally, Kirk talks about his feelings towards Michael Penix Jr. and what it’s been like having him in the building. Overall, Kirk is one of the best guys you will ever meet, he’s so genuine and is just a regular dude. You guys will for sure enjoy this pod. 0:00 Intro 9:56 The Compton Family Is Getting Bigger 22:08 Twisted QOTW 23:45 Gender Reveal 29:46 Nebraska Getting A Night Game 33:19 Shoutouts Of The Week 44:25 KIRK COUSINS INTERVIEW STARTS 44:31 Having A Vice 50:42 Kirk’s Routine 57:39 Netflix’s Quarterback Series 1:00:45 Raising Gritty Boys 1:04:04 Spending Habits 1:10:37 Choosing The ATL Falcons 1:15:40 Guaranteed Contracts 1:18:40 Tearing His Achilles 1:24:43 Love For Legos 1:27:59 Falcons Drafting Penix 1:37:43 Future of Kirk Cousins SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS Chevy: Head to https://chevy.com to check out all the Chevy truck grit and build your own Silverado. Twisted Tea: Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today at https://TwistedTea.com/LOCATIONS DraftKings: Download the DK Horse app NOW. New customers get a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT deposit bonus up to TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS when they opt in with code BUS! Only on the DK Horse app. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 18+ (21+ in certain states) to open/access an account and resident of state where DK Horse is available. Eligibility restrictions apply. Void where prohibited. Must be at least 18+ years or older (21+ where applicable). Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $25 deposit. Potential bonus amount equal to 100% of deposit after opt-in, up to $250. Deposit must be played-thru twice (2x) and bonus is released in $25 increments (e.g., $250 deposited, $50 wagered, $25 bonus will be released). Wagers must settle within 7 days (exactly 168 hours) following opt-in to be eligible. Excludes Show wagers. Once the play through requirement is met, bonus issued as withdrawable cash. Ends 5/26/24 at 11:59 PM ET. See terms at www.dkhorse.com/bet/offers/details. Sponsored by DK. America's #1 ranked Horse betting app based on Sensor Tower's proprietary data models, the DK Horse Racing & Betting App had the highest average rank among Online Horse Racing & Betting Apps in the US App stores 3/29/23-12/31/23. Sport Clips: Sport Clips. It’s a Game Changer. https://barstool.link/SportClipsBSS Duke Cannon: Use code TIER1 on https://DukeCannon.com for 15% off your first order Cann: Head to DrinkCann.com (that’s DRINK-C-A-N-N dot COM) and use code BOYS20 for 20% off your order of Cann and a free Roadie 6pk sampler. Cann is not for use or purchase by persons under the age of 21. Cann products contain less than 0.3% Delta-9-THC that is derived from hemp, do not claim to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and have not been evaluated or approved by the FDA. Lucy: Get LUCY shipped straight to your door. Visit LUCY.CO/BUSSIN and use promo code BUSSIN to get 20% off your first order. Subscribe for another 15% off & shipping’s always free! Lucy products are only for adults of legal age, and every order is age-verified. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.For 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. 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. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 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 helped 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your 20s can be so exciting, but they can also be really overwhelming, confusing, and honestly, just kind of lonely. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the psychology of your 20s is breaking down the science behind the biggest roadblocks we face.

I was six years into my career, the 80-hour weeks, and just the first one in, the last one out, and I ended up burning out. There was a large chunk of my 20s that I, like, was just so wanting to, like, be out of that phase out of my skin. And I just like really regret not living in the present more. You don't need to have everything figured out right now. You just need to understand yourself a little bit better. Listen to the psychology of your 20s on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Because it's fair to say, Kirk Cousers, the Falcons, there's no, there's no beef involved. No, I don't think there can be.

I don't think it's helpful. Like, we're trying to win a Super Bowl and it's hard enough. All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Bustin with the Boy. This is episode 276, and I want to talk to you about something that's near and dear to my heart, and that's the Chevy Silverado. Bus World DeBoys is presented by Chevy. This is a Chevy Truck podcast, the greatest truck ever built, and our good friends at Chevrolet have been a big part of the Busset family and even our personal lives.

Chevy Silverado, longtime awesome partner of the show, a truck with commanding and an unstoppable grit, legendary capability, and dependability too. So if you find yourself like so many of us, head over to Chevy.com to check out all the Chevy trucks, grit and build your own Silverado for doing yourself projects to road trips, off-road adventures, to tailgates. Whatever your thing is, it all starts with a Chevy truck. Tough start to my reading on this episode. But you know what? That's what we do sometimes. We are so excited to have you here.

Big podcast this week. A gentleman by the name of Kurt Cousins joins us in Atlanta. you want to open that, that, that gate up for the door for, Sammy? Yes.

Come in, in, Sammy. Let's give a round of applause. Sammy or Black Friday winter? Black Friday winter, Sammy, baby. Let me just give you a little piece of the character of Sammy. I show up before our meeting we have,

before we had a podcast, just before this episode. And Sammy's sitting up there, say hello to him, say what's up. There is sitting two big bags of Chick-fil-A and enough vanilla. the lattes to give to a whole family.

It was incredible. Came correct, Sammy. What's up? I appreciate you being on the show, brother. Thanks for having me. And you drove down from Chicago today. Is that true? Central Illinois.

Yeah, but I'm from Chicago. Central Illinois. How long is that drive? I left this morning at 2.30. In the morning. 2.30 in the morning. Why don't you just come down the day before? Mother's Day.

Fair. Once again, adding to your character, sir. Unbelievable. Yeah. Folks are indicator. Give me a little backstory on you real quick. age. Obviously, you're from Chicago, and how old are you when you lost your virginity? I'm 34, born and raised in Illinois. But unfortunately, I'm not given a ton of opportunities to be fans of good football.

So I was it 2010 or no, 2001 when the Oilers moved from Houston to Tennessee, the Tennessee Oilers for a year or whatever. But I needed a football team. And the Titans were a perfect kind of, uh, mold there, I guess. I like uniforms. I like sitting there. Frank Whitechak, Eddie George, the whole team there. Jeff Fisher was my guy. So long story short, I was a stoolie in 2011. And then once you kind of join the

mothership, if you will, it seemed like a perfect synergy between the two brands and I've been a fan ever since. I love that, man. Let's give this minute another red of loss. That was incredible. Thank you. Absolutely. It was big time. You walk upstairs and you see all the chick filet. You didn't come empty-handed.

My mom has always taught us never walk into a house, empty-handed. That's a great tip. That is beautiful. That's a shout-out, no-free shout-out. It really is. It truly, truly is. When people don't come empty-handed. Great shout-out, no-free shout-out.

Great shout-out. Is this everything you thought I would be coming on the bus? It's definitely surreal. Yeah. I mean, we've met a couple times, Barstall, Wards, Vegas. Scottsdale, maybe. It's just, but seeing this whole operation. is just insane to see live. And you're wearing the shirt that you wanted to be a part of.

You were saying you wanted to gamble with us in Vegas. Perhaps I might have brought some money too. What's that? I might have brought some money today. There's no casino's here. I know. Do we have a deck of cards? No.

You could be the house. No. That is nuts. It sounds like you have a proposition for me. Correct. Go ahead. Whether it's obviously you guys are slamful in June with obligations. but a power slap down the road

I will take care of all my travel, transport all that stuff. Hotel I would love an opportunity to be in a ton of chaos at some point. That's a huge ask. It's a big ask and I love that you're doing it on the bus too. That's why I brought the 10K

for whatever I would put on the table. If I lose I'd lose it. I do not care about the money. It's the fact that someone once told me that a victorious warrior wins first and then they go to war whether than losers go to war seeking to win. So I came

here today with maybe an opportunity to win. So you're going to come on this bus. You're going to bring Chick-fil-A, some vanilla lattes, have good vibes. Tell us a good story. Ten grand. And you're going to drop a Sun Su quote on me from the Art of War? That's what you're going to do right now? You told me that in Vegas. That's also incredible.

Yeah. We can talk about it. No, we don't have to talk about anything. At some point, We can go, you can come to a power slap event. All that stuff. You, me, Jackie and whoever else wants to come, because Jack is the biggest power slap fan of all of them. He's the road dog, man. He loves it.

I can promise you this. You and I can gamble together. You can use as much as that $10,000 as you want. I can't promise that you're going to gamble a Dana White. Is that fair? I don't care about that. I don't care about content or anything like that. I just want the experience.

I want to go to war. Yeah. Oh, my God. I've been a gambler since, I don't know, since turned 21. That's my first inmate. A smart thing to say, yeah. Yeah, I definitely did have a bookie that lived in Toronto. Two years before that.

Yeah. I mean, I know you just kind of fell in love with it, but it's been in my blood all my life. And I love it. And just the thrill and the whole part about being in the trenches with the boys, there's nothing better. I mean, you can't say a note of that. You can't say no to that. Favorite, here we go. It's a test.

Favorite sports betting app. Oh, draft Kings. I love draft Kings when it shouldn't have been draft Kings when it was the other guy. And I would happen to have to use, like I put like a dollar on the other app and then I'd use all the other money on draft Kings. Nice.

Just make sure I was supporting the boys a little bit. I love that, dude. Just the sang game parlay is all the stuff that draft Kings has. It's way better than any other app. And just for everybody watching, listening right now, wherever you're getting your podcast, make sure you are subscribed. Sammy, he was our black.

Friday winner, one of our big spenders last year, who's joining us for a day basically at the shop. For everybody who came for Kirk Cousins, that is in due time. It was a phenomenal interview. We talked to him about the quarterback, Netflix coming out, a fan favorite. His love for Legos. He has a love for Lego scratching that itch, Rex Grossman, like, hey, spend some money. Kirk is very much a laced up. Maybe one day he'll buy himself a watch or something. Right. He's made a billion dollars, and he's thinking about possibly buying a sports car someday. Truly, we've had him on the podcast before and it was great,

but something about this interview, he just seemed so much more loose, so much more relaxed. When you expected to kind of be the polar opposite after the whole Penn X pick at 8 and all that, like, which we get into with him. He was awesome. He was absolutely incredible. Talking about the Achilles, like the move from Minnesota choosing Atlanta, not resigning with Minnesota.

We got into a lot of stuff and you're right. Like afterwards, it's like he's a role model cat. He is. We said this on the drive back from Atlanta. Kirk Cousins is a guy You and your boys Who are going out partying with in college You make fun of you make fun of Kirk Cousins

When you're in college Like this guy, he doesn't do anything He's such a square of this, that and the other Fast forward 32, 32, 34 years old You think Kurt Cousins is the guy you want to be like Yeah He just represents what it is To be a family man

To be a professional The way he handles himself I have a lot of admiration for Kirk Cousins Especially after this interview Yeah and a leader man It's like even when he's somebody that you say you're in college with and say, oh, he does this.

Like he's kind of a square, yada, yada. You're ultimately saying that, but you know deep down, that's how you should be handling yourself. Right, exactly. And you just don't have the, you don't have the discipline in the world with all to be about it.

So it's easier to just make fun of it and laugh at it, but you know that we should all be that. We should all strive to be like Kirk Cousins. Obviously, we were super excited to have Kirk cousins on the show, but the thing that Kirk was most excited about being on the show was explaining to us that quarter socks are back. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely love those socks.

We should have wore some quarter socks. We should have. I'm wearing ankle socks right now, like some sort of 20, 23 bitch, dude. I should, I'm not with the times. Maybe we should do it with him. Go back to quarter socks? Because Fred Warner does it. And if Fred Warner doesn't, that's cool.

Yeah. Fred Warner's a guy when you see him, you're just like, this guy looks cool. He just is a cool looking cat. Yeah, he's got the build, but he's also got the dreads hanging out. He's got a little style to him. The swag. That's a guy you want to follow it because he's not too over the top. You're like, I can never pull that off.

Yeah. He's a dude that like, I can maybe do a little bit of that. and get some residuals. And then you just so happen to see quarter socks on them and you're like, those dude kind of go hard. Yeah, they kind of are nice. I wonder what's setting those shoes off right now, quarter socks. That's exactly what it's got to be.

I think we should do it. All right. I got some small white ones on right now. Those aren't quarters of those are ankle boys. Yeah. And the quarter ones are probably happening. They had to go over that little knot. Yeah, it would happen.

It would be better suited for this news we received over the weekend of we're pregnant. The dad vibe. We are pregnant. There's a lot of, a lot of hearsay, a lot of, a lot of, a lot of, a lot of, a lot of for interpretation on, on, on Will looks disappointed. He's bummed that it's a girl. I know I put the, the guy that looked excited and he's smiling, but has a gun to his head.

Right. There's a lot up for interpretation, but I will say this. I am disappointed. And it was one of those things. Oh, you're okay? You're doubling down. Yeah, for sure. I mean, my wife, she was, she was surprised just like me. Your boy, it's more of like, because I was telling you even. before I felt like I was separated enough from being pregnant because I think we're at like 12

weeks right now or 13 weeks separated enough to be like yo if I get another room like I'm playing with house money like I'd be satisfied I'd be solid like do I actually want a boy yada yada and it was when I saw that pink to where I realized how badly I did want a boy and not that it's necessarily there's no chances for having a boy because it could obviously take that risk again but also it's like I didn't know if I wanted three and now that that pink came out I'm gonna have two girls I almost am certain that we have to go for three to go for the boy

so that was part of my disappointment on my face too is like now we gotta go three and I don't know I don't think I was ready I don't think I wanted three right you hear everybody once you're outnumbered it's fucking it's war at the house you're playing zone the whole time yeah what you just explained

is how middle child syndrome develops everything you just said like I don't know who this child what this child's name's gonna be how what her personality is gonna be like I'm sure she's gonna be great if she's anything like Rue yeah however when that third and probably boy comes out that's why they call the middle child the forgotten child especially she listens to this episode of her old man yeah just being literally sat there with my wife we were scrolling through your instagram Sunday night and she goes if we have another girl you can't you can't post that I was like why that's funny like funny's funny's funny yeah she's like but

our daughter, if it is a daughter, which by the way, now that will, like women when they get their periods, they Bluetooth sync up when they're always together. They do that. Yeah. And they all get on the same period schedule. I am a firm belief that men that hang out together, we also sink up. I'm doomed to have another girl. We're on the same sperm cycle.

Yes, we're on the same sperm cycle. You, you can break the mold. Don't say that. I'm trying to reverse psychology of the universe. Like, hey, there's no shot. I'm going to have a boy. Am I right? You know? But are you open? playing the joke in the game because here's the only thing I'll caution is I felt like I was

separate enough to where I was like I'm not going to be I wouldn't be too disappointed my wife my wife my wife oh by the way the reason why Tylan said that is because eventually she's going to see that she's going to see that she's going to be upset anyway onward I I've already told my wife I will genuinely be disappointed if it's a girl genuinely I will and I'll be happy because it's a girl it's a healthy baby we can scratch off all those boxes that all people say when they're trying to be politically correct about having a kid we want a healthy baby blah blah that's all that matters true i want a boy i don't i feel like i need a boy i just want to feel with that other side of the fence is like i want to see how

green that guy god i didn't even touch it that time tipped it yeah better that was making sure the mic worked that wasn't even that wasn't i wasn't even doing that i was just making sure the mic work i was just made a boy every competitive male wants a boy They want offspring. They want an heir to the throne. To the throne. The thing that bothers me the most is watching you in your process.

If you were in trial getting pregnant and you stopping from the sauna, only doing the cold. Like reading the literature on how to have a boy and I'm like he's really going to pull it off. To the point where we're coming back after doing this podcast with Kirk Cousins, I'm thinking, there's no shot this man's going to have a girl. Because we had a full conversation about boy, girl, ball, this set and the other, just having a good convo. And I'm thinking to my head No fucking shot Will's having a girl Like he's for sure gonna have a boy

And in my selfish mind I'm thinking That means I gotta have a shot To have a boy Because if I break the mold Then it'll just be a dominole Yeah because we're blue too synced up We've got to be Bluetooth synced up

We're around each other way too much But now you have to break the mold man I don't know whatever it takes bro And I did I stopped salining for how many months Like last year I didn't 45 days When I learned that it took 45 days Like if you expose yourself to heat

You can kill off your sperm And it takes 45 days For it to just get back to baseline Because there's a part of me that's like, okay, I won't hit the sauna like a week out from ovulation during ovulation, but then I'll hit the sauna right after because then I'll know I'll have another month or another few weeks. You know, you're trying to tap into the biohacking. Yeah, get your T levels up. Which makes you also believe that maybe biohacking isn't real.

Yeah, bro. And then I do all those things and I'm like, you know, months not hitting the sauna because I'm like not heating a seat up, not hitting a hot tub. Right. Not staying in a hot shower too long. All those things. And I'm just thinking like, we got to have a boy. I know I know dude

But you know We're excited I'm excited We need girl dads to unite You're one I'm gonna need you to write me Whether it's a mini book A big book

I'm gonna need something About fathering To girls What to look for What to watch out for Hey don't do this like me Like be better than me Yeah

I'm gonna need this handbook from you And I need dads to unite Because look Being a girl dad rips. I think having Rue and having a daughter I'm like oh every guy, every guy that is going to become a dad, I hope we all get a

girl because having a girl is the best. It's incredible. But now knowing I'm outnumbered waffles a girl, my wife thankfully is a girl and now I'm going to have Rue and she who has not been named. And it's like I'm going to be surrounded by all this estrogen. And God

bless you. If you happen to get a third, I hate putting that in the universe. But that is where guys go silent. They get so outnumbered and that's how they just become these men that sit in the corner at all holidays and just you can even call them men yeah yeah yeah and they just get snipped bro you'll probably get snipped but you'll also get

sniffed your soul will get sniffed yeah you'll just be that quiet dad at parties and it's going to be like whatever happened to taylor and it's got like he had all those girls man he can't his voice just can't be heard at home he's too they've let him to believe that he is too stupid to talk and now he's just like now you're scared

to even say a word at any of these parties Because even when we have fun and we're laughing, we're having a good time, like, man, it was good to see Taylor. Your drive home is just going to be like, so you really went ahead and said that about, you know, when Willow? Or Willow speaks up. You really said that about so-and-so. And you're just a herd mentality. You just get put back in the corner. And it's scary.

And I feel for those girl dads out there. We need to unite. We need to talk about these things. Listen. Don't ever do what you just did again. Because right now we're talking, you're talking about how excited you are about a situation that I'm already in. knowing that there's hope down the road because you've already decided

in your head you're gonna have a three. I'm already staring at the barrel of a gun having two little girls and knowing that this is my last shot at happiness. And you're gonna do that. I'm sorry, bro. I've just, I've experienced these dads that I come to learn.

I'm like, oh, these are some good. These are guys. These are good men. But you never know about it until it's like, oh yeah, he's an outdoorsman. He goes hunting all the time.

He does this. He chops wood. And you're like, why don't I ever see that guy? And it's like, well, look at the environment. He's surrounded. He's been snipped from the soul.

and you got to bring it out of them. I hate every... Here's what we need to do. If you do have a third, I will make it my mission. So neither of us get snipped, our souls get snipped. To stand strong,

to stand up. Can I ask you this question? I'm really... I got to pivot out of this. I got to get out of here. I know. It's like, I'm making it about you and having a third girl.

Yeah. Congratulations, by the way. Thank you. Yeah. Congratulations on you. We are fired up. We are very fired up. We are very fired up.

Allegedly. I do have to leave in a very, like, a few seconds. Yeah, you're right. Should I wait? when tailing gets pregnant should I wait until the baby comes out you did hit it you did touch it but what happened what happens

what is it the cable can we get a new cable how's that sorry for raising my voice right there but I'm just thinking we're in the trenches right we come back to the sidelines like well can we get a new fucking iPad is that better okay and this is this is for the group Sammy you can chime in if you want to

do I wait to find out the sex of the baby until birth or should I do it at the 12 week mark I got one birth I got one birth That's you man Oh Sammy that's a thing about Bustin with the boys brother

We're a team here You know ahead of time You got to know ahead of time Okay so I got one to one Don't I want to hear you last Okay Have you waited ever before Or have you done 12 week mark both

For Winne Willow 12 week mark both The first time I actually found out I asked the doctor And I was like hey Is the sex of my child on that sheet They go yep

says girl here. So anyway, what we're looking at, and I was like, livid about that situation. The second one, I wanted to wait. We get the card, and I know that it's in the envelope.

And, you know, me. You know, I'm going to stare at this unopened card knowing this information there that I want. So the answer to your question, I have never waited for the delivery.

I think you wait solely because at 12 week mark, it's a lot easier to be disappointed. When you see your child being born, regardless if it's a boy or girl, I think the emotion will take over. Like, you know, you're not going to be upset at birth, even if it's a girl. I think you're wrong. All right.

I think you're wrong because having two kids, like, having, like, having your first kid. Yeah, I've never had a kid. Like, having your first kid is like everything's so new. Everything's so new. You're experiencing so much. Everyone's like, it's magical, blah, blah, blah. Everyone's so excited to hear the news. What's the kid, blah, blah, blah.

The second time you have a kid, your second kid, it's not less special to you, but it's like more normalized to everybody else. Oh, they're having their second kid. And about the time you get to the third kid, it's like, hey, congrats, I guess. Like, he goes about to be unnumbered. It's more becomes a burden to other people around you saying, hey, it's going to be tough. I don't, I don't know. I'm just saying, I'm just saying like the, uh, the excitement.

Just dad's talking. The excitement of that feels like it goes away when you're watching from a bird's eye view of how everybody kind of operates. Safe space. Dad's talking. I don't actually think you'd be able to wait though. I don't think I would either. Hey, Jack, but I do, we definitely appreciate that perspective because that's a real perspective

that that parents have. It's like, once it happens, it's like that is the, the beauty or the positive or the silver lining of doing something like that. My question to you before I answer, would you rather take one of the head or seven of the chest? One of the head. Then wait. Because then you just take it right then and there.

All right. And then if you take seven, you know, you do it at 12 week mark. You're just taking, you're just taking them to the chest. Yeah, you have time to kind of wrap your head around and everything else, but you won't have enough time. Why don't you wait? During the birth. I was excited to see the boy.

I was excited to see the blue. I told him. Great point. Maybe the next time we will wait. For your third, are you going to wait? Do what? For your third are you going to wait? Maybe you guys make a pact to wait.

He even got two out yet. For the third, you're going to wait? Yeah, we'll make it packed. If I have a third, I will wait as well. But I'll wait too? Yeah, you have to, you basically have to decide. Oh, I mean, here's the issue. Here's the issue is like, there's another person involved with making the child that might have to find out.

Listen, I think women would are easily on board with that. See, T'an's against it. I've actually had this conversation with her. And she said, I want to get like the nurse. nursery set up like that she enjoys that the nesting period is what they call for the women that are pregnant like they love getting the room ready and I told her I was like if I wait I'm not going in that room I don't want to see anything and I'll have to essentially tail will now know the information that I will not know okay devil's advocate go ahead because I feel like you guys are both kind of this

way you guys usually do like neutralish style colors that's true you got you could easily shape up the same thing you know what I mean yeah because the vibe of your house is very much like like a good natural, natural tones. Browns and grays. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Earthy colors. You could do something like that. Unearthed.

Just talk to the wife and maybe we'll have the pack next week. Because I'm, listen, I'd be scared too. No, I'm not going to talk to her about it. Go ahead. I'm in. I'm in. Okay, twist the question very quick.

I'll do the end, but Taylor's got to go and we want them to answer the twisted question. Brought toast by Twisted tea. There's zero carbonation, so it's easier to go smooth down. Great for tailgating. Great for Game Day.

Full flavor. Very refreshing. It's the perfect alcohol beverage for game day. Keep it twisted with the twisted kings again It goes down insanely smooth 5% ABV Keep it twisted with the boys Grab a refreshing Twisted T today

Mitch Did you have it ready? Mitch Mitch I gotta go I do I do I do This is one I've had in the bank for a long time I feel like we've maybe have sort of done something along the lines Would you rather listen to your least favorite song on repeat Or never listen to music ever again

Never listen to music again I have to go So the only song you do get to listen to is the worst song on repeat Your least favorite song? just that's the only song you get those two forever yes maybe maybe maybe maybe do your least favorite album you understand how that's a tough that's how that's a bad question maybe yeah I do I do I'm getting defensive I know I take it easy here's what I need you do Mitch I need you to take a couple of these lucy breakers I need you to lock in next time we have a twisted question because

that is insane that's wild love you right you know we love you right don't ever trust us you need you need to you need to figure out that twisted question I know I love you boys I got to go Sam, it was so great meeting you. Yes, you have the pen. You guys go ahead and go. Both of you guys go. And you can come back on just whenever. Don't worry about.

Perfect. Congratulations. Thank you, brother. Love you. Love you too, man. Enjoy, enjoy. Enjoy what's to come. It's going to be all right, right, guys?

Yeah, it's going to be all right, right, guys. Yeah, it's going to be right. Dude, it's going to be great. I truly, like, at this point, number one, I've already accepted and embraced it, but being a girl dad. I feel like I'm built for being a girl dad. Think about it from the view of capitalism. We are a girl dad pod. And if you had a boy, we would have to change some things.

Maybe sell some more stuff. But right now, the brand is the brand. You're right. However, I was excited to maybe do our announcement by holding the boy mom hats. Oh. Because that's one where we still got. And by the way, everybody who's looking for our boy mom merch, I believe that's going to be restocked here in a couple weeks.

But as far as dads and girl dads uniting on this front, we have all of our Father's Day merch. That line has dropped. We have some car heart hoodies, which would go great for your old man, especially come fall time when it's hunting season. Or Father's Day. Or Father's Day. Yeah, get out, get ahead.

As far as golf polos, golf gear hats, different style of hats. We're with the 47 brand now. I'm wearing one as we speak. These QZips feel incredible. Proud girl dads, we got to unite. And look, I know, like, we talk disappointment. We might be laughing. And then, like, you know, your wife or somebody might be like, hey, what if the daughter

sees this? We're just on it. We're going to save space having a good time on the bus. I'm being vulnerable with the dad's out there right now, with the audience out there listening. I am very excited about having another daughter. I am so curious what, which I feel like every parent thinks about is what they're going to look like. Are they going to be some of the rules? She's going to come out.

She's just going to have dark hair. Like, we're stoked for that. It is awesome. And Charo, my wife, she was just as surprised as the boy more in like a laughing way, like looking at my reaction and everything like that. But throughout the entire day, I had to go get, I had to tell my wife like, Hey, can you put Rue down? I need to go work out. I had to go to boost, get some work in.

I ran two miles on Sunday. I was like, I got to continue to sweat. And it's just like, I had to work it on me. But every time we'd be driving, she's like, she'd be like, babe, it feels any better to you. Like, I, there was zero part of me that thought we were going to have a girl. Like, I've been, she was ready to, like, be a boy mom. It just felt like the stars were aligned.

Before we cut the cake, got the cake out. And Rue, she had, she had all the opposite symptoms from, the first one. So like a mother's tail, that kind of tells you that it could be a boy or a different gender because you're not experiencing the same symptoms, like as far as sickness and everything else. And, um, Rue was saying brother more. Rue was saying boy more. So you're kind of like leaning into some of those. Uh, yeah, hey, what did you dream about last night? Like when we wake her up, she'd even say like, brother and stuff like that. So there was just a weird. And again, I feel like I had that separation to where I, I wasn't going to care like I thought I was going to

as far as like, oh, man, we're going to have to have three now type of thing, or go for three, God willing that it would, God would give me a boy, give me an error. But also when I was getting out the cake to cut it and do the, do our little thing together, there was a Rue's blue sippy cup was sitting out. She was, she was on her green, her dark green passy. I just felt like, I'm about to see blue here, boys like,

we're really about to have a boy. I'm going to have to wrap my head around, now becoming a boy dad in those fears of like, okay, I know how I've been with Rue, I hope I can stay in this same empathetic wrapped around the finger and not be too hard on the little pup. Like all dads, I feel like getting nervous about with raising their son. And then when it was pink, bro, it just, you saw the reaction. You Mitch can put up the photos and stuff, but.

We added up earlier. It was a shock. It was a shock. But we are very excited. I mean, it's still fairly early. We've gotten out of the first trimester. knock on wood that everything still goes well according to plan and everything else

and that we do have a healthy child because it'll be sick. Like Rue will have a best friend forever. I mean, you get to see Winn and Willow play with each other. Now that, because kids don't really like playing with each other until they're like three. But now that Willow's three going on four and you see how she interacts with Winn

and how Winn interacts with her. And you hear Taylor talk about and Tailing talk about it, very fired up to Rue to have like a best friend because we have neighbors who have a, a two and three year old. And anytime they're outside playing, like you see Rue standing there, like wanting to go over and hang out.

And you just see the dynamic between the brother and sister, just playing with each other and they always got each other to where, you know, babysitters. You kind of got, like Rue kind of goes to her thing. If it's a new babysitter, we get really sad because we feel like she's,

she thinks we're leaving her forever with this person. Now with this new one coming in, Rue will be able to teach her or be around her. And she'll just have a playmate dude. It's going to be sick and awesome. So two say a lot of positive things about this because I don't want to make it a joke and like I'm disappointed the entire time for the wives out there or the girlfriends stop making their boys listen to the podcast.

But it's going to be awesome, man. A couple announcements are live show, June 12th at Zanis Comedy Club in Nashville. The boys will be doing a live show. I believe the show is around 7 p.m. I think it's 7. Yeah. We will continue to post about it on our social media. So underscore Will Compton, Taylor 1, 77.

under or at bus and w tb we're going to continue to post about it make sure you get tickets i don't know how the links work on youtube if we could just if we could put a link up but go buy those tickets i do believe that our VIP might be sold out already but we still have 50 tickets left 50 tickets left 50 tickets left so if you're listening to this right now zanis holds about 250 if you're thinking about going if you want to go and you're in the national area come enjoy a live show with the boys we're We're doing stuff. We have some differences in our show that we had the first time where we had Ernest and Jelion.

I do believe we're going to try to get like a guest or two to join us throughout the stuff. But we do some fun things with our live show. But we will be at Zanis Comedy Club on June 12th. I've already talked about our Father's Day merch. Our Father's Day line is out. Buy that up. You know, so that way it gets here in time before Father's Day. What else do we have, man?

I know Kirk. Speaking about positivity, do you see this news? Nebraska Night Game. Colorado at Nebraska is a night game 6.30 p.m. Central Time on NBC. Look, everybody knows that I'm excited about Husker football. Everybody knows that I think we're going to have a big year. I think we're going to have a surprisingly big year. That falls in line with the expectation of Nebraska, but surprises everybody else.

I think the boys are cooking up something special. We just landed this four-star quarterback over the weekend, which, again, just speaks to, number one, I'm thinking to myself like, oh, it's sick that they had this kid commit when you have a five-star and a four-star that just committed in the last recruiting class in Nebraska. It just kind of shows the culture and everything that they're building over there. We hope that it's like stuff like this,

the trickle-down effect to where you have, say this kid is on campus with everybody else. You have a quarterback room with a couple four-stars, a five-star. It's just going to bring the talent, the talent to Nebraska. Kids like wide receivers, running backs, O-Liam and defensive, you're going to want to start committing. now to go play with these guys to build something special because again and i love what this kid said

i read his article he felt like a priority at nebraska he loved the way that obviously they made him feel everybody feels good on their recruiting visits but he wanted to be part of something special he he don't want to go just to a great team that was already established because again it's like that pitch to raola when i got to talk to him you know obnoxiously after he was already on campus but it's like yo you win at nebraska it's forever especially at the hell we've been through for the last that game. I will not take up a lot of your time talking about Nebraska football because I know you guys have heard it. It's just we're being a dead horse, but we're building something, boys. But night game, Colorado out Nebraska, we are fucking going, boys. We're going to that game

and I was thinking about it over the weekend. Not that it was, you know, because the night game wasn't announced yet, but I was thinking with Nebraska, like, we got to do it right again. And you guys know what I'm talking about. And you guys know what I'm talking about. Doing it right. Well, was Mitch with us? Mitch was not. Oof.

Wait, yes, you were. Huh? No. He said when we went to Barry's. No, when we went last year for the... Yeah, yeah, he was. He was. He was.

He was. Because Stephen was with us, too. Oh. Yeah. Flying out there, flying back. Doing it right. Doing it right. Um, but I won't get into a whole lot.

Oh, we have some shout-out. No free shout-offs. From Duke Cannon. Duke Cannon is... Listen, guys, their face routine stuff. We just did a little content piece. I thought the commercial was awesome. I don't think it's doing a whole lot of numbers on social.

I don't know why it's not in front of everybody, the masses. Here, here's our product right here. Let me grab it. I was trying to rip up. I can see my swamp ass. Boy, we had a couple interviews today. But all of our Duke Cannon products, it is the offseason. It's time to elevate your game by working harder and smelling better with our friends from Duke Cannon.

Throw away your old body wash and deodorant because you smell like a JV locker room. Upgrade to Duke Cannon for a varsity-level group. routine. The sense are elite and their products are made for hardworking dudes. And I will say on top of that, I know we talk deodorants and body wash, but I'm telling you, the face routine, man, there's a movement happening. Men are getting more into the face routine. You've got to start, you got to start getting yourself right. My wife is on my ass all the time about a good lotion, a good face wash, some SPF. Apparently we got to put SPF on our face even when it's cloudy out to protect our skin. Start getting in the routine, the face routine. We'll do this shit together. Night morning, it doesn't

make you a pussy. It makes you a man. Duke Cannon. Work harder, smell better. Mitch, Jack, whoever wants to start a shout out, no free shoutout. Sammy, we will be giving you the floor for a shot, a no free shout out. I know you gave a couple already, but Mitch, what do you got for us? My shout out, no free shout out this week. I went to a golf trip this weekend with a bunch of my college buddies. One thing that everybody, like all friend groups do this. And it's one of those things where it's like, you're going, somebody's going up to the bar, somebody's getting drinks and you're just like yeah grab me one and you there's that mutual understanding of yeah he's going to get me back it's not that like oh venmo me for that drink hit me like pay me back for that

drink like it's that mutual understanding of I'm gonna trust the trust the bond the the knowing of oh but he's going to get me back at some point that I thought like I did that to one of my buddies over the week I'm like that's kind of dope but he knows he knows I'm going to get him he knows I'm going to get him he knows I'm going to get him and I'm not even worried about like Oh, is he can ask me to Venmo him. Like, this weekend with, I got a shout out of all the boys. Connor, Griff, Mike, Colin, foul. Do they watch the pod?

They do. Okay, good. I want you to shout now, guys. Yeah, no, they all watch the pod. Will, Conner, I thought I just said Connor, but it was just a bunch of old football guys we used to play with. Just telling stories and shit. It was a good time, but the mutual understanding of getting rounds.

That's my shout on every show now. Love that. If you don't have friendships that aren't the classic revolving door metaphor, get the fuck out of here. Get the fuck out of here. We're not friends anymore. Friendships should be a revolving door. My shout-o-no-free shout-out goes to when you rediscover a pair of shoes,

it can be really any kind of clothing item, but for me it was a pair of shoes that have maybe been hiding underneath your bed or in a closet, but when you rediscover a pair you haven't worn in like six months, you're like, oh, I love these shoes. Start wearing them more, and you're like, dude, it's just, it's like buying a new pair of. but with none of the cost.

So you just rediscover it, whether it's an old pair of shoes or an old sweatshirt or maybe it's a t-shirt that you've, you know, maybe your friend had for a few months. And then you kind of get to like have that new. Oh, I forgot I had this thing. Yeah. And then you're like, then you wear them for a week straight and you're like, all right, I'll see you again in six months. Yeah, man. Rediscovering that pair of shoes or the sweatshirt to me is it's a good feeling and kind of

have a new little spark in your style. So shout out to rediscovering shoes. Yeah. shout out to that. Holy shit, I forgot I had this moment. I'm up. Sammy, the floor is yours, brother. So Mother's Day was yesterday. We got Father's Day next month. My shoutout, no free shout out, goes to aunts and uncles. I am one of them. I'm an uncle of five nieces and nephews in total. It's the absolute

best gig. Like, there's zero responsibilities. I've never changed one diaper, and they're all out of diapers now. We went to a cup game last Sunday, and the kids wanted ice cream. Dad wouldn't give it to him. Sam went. up downstairs. I've got some... Uncle Sam. Two helmets of ice cream and fudge and all that stuff in there. Did Dad care? I mean, at that point, it's too late.

Once I hear the kids want something, they have it. It's an absolute best gig. And going back to, now that you're having number two, I'm not saying I prefer the girls, but I absolutely prefer the girls or the boys. It's crazy. I would have never guessed that. I'm one of four boys. I'm way closer to the girls than I am boys. Yeah, bro.

They just, there's something about them. You know, because they say, when their little boys are like you heard randall cobb yeah he'll drop in a few in a few weeks we heard him talking about his boys and i've been around he's like man they're just they're on like you just on all the time wrestling like they just got that that different instinct and mentality versus like girls are so sweet bro they're so sweet and if someone's getting hurt it's going to be the boys the girls are going to dust it off and yeah and not really care they'll want to play soccer with you or basketball where the boys are i want to play xbox i want to play ps4 yeah

So that's awesome Shout out me An uncle man Yeah Yeah dude And too Because Jack he's a proud uncle as well Absolutely love you

You said you haven't Change any diapers Jack have you changed diapers Hell no dude I get to be the cool guy Zero responsibility She starts crying I just grab her by the nape of her neck

And give her back to her mother No I'm just kidding You should change a diaper I have changed a diaper before Okay And it wasn't even my kid It was no blood relation My mom was like working at a nurse

And she's like You need to learn how to do this and I was like fuck no I don't and then I did and yeah I hated it but you know I can see myself taking pride in it if it was my niece or my own but for now I'm good with all of the fun and being the cool guy was zero the responsibilities and then be like I got I got to go don't have any don't have any kids look after Jack you're for sure going to be a girl dad I I'm okay with that and you're going to be an incredible girl dad not that you guys aren't going to be great fathers you both are I just Jack's got that just that that empathy meter that I know that

know and he's a guy's guy he's a guy's guy he's a guy's guy he's a guy's guy and i just know he has the heart that is ready to be absolutely taken from my experience with my daughter i just know he's he's got the heart that's just going to be he needs to be a girl dad that you'd be a damn good one too thank you that that's really kind of you to say i'm very excited to be a father at some point when i'm ready um whether it's you know in nine months from now or whether you get that phone call yeah you never know but uh i am very excited for that but i love that shout out because I have a niece and my sister is also eight months pregnant with her second and it's another girl. So I'm absolutely over the moon.

Can't wait for her to be out here hanging with the actual fam. So yeah, shout out to the aunts and uncles of the world. They are real. My shoutout, no free shout out. We'll segue us into the episode, the interview with Kurt Cousins. If you stuck around with this, this song, we appreciate you. Please make sure you are subscribed. If you're listening on audio or watching on YouTube, mainly talking to the men because I know the women, they do a great job, but follow on and through with stuff.

Guys, you got to tell them over and over to make sure that they follow through and commit. Make sure you're subscribed to the pod. It helps us immensely when you are subscribed and everything else. But my shoutout, no free shout out, is going to go to when you get reminded about why you're boys with somebody. Kirk's sitting on the podcast with Kirk. And Kirk and I, we've had a great relationship since we were both on Washington together. And he was somebody that, you know, when Bitcoin, was a fad then. We're talking about stuff off the field. We're talking about business. There was

there was a mentor of his. I got to eat go and eat lunch with one on one. And I felt like Kirk and I always connected on things that went like just beyond football. We had fun playing football together. Like going back and forth talking schematics and seeing him grow as a quarterback, seeing him grow as a human being there when he was when he was married in Julie, like going to stuff with him and Julie. He's got an incredible family. And now I get to work with his business manager, basically his mentor his name's kin filippini and shout out kent he is mine as well and i am i remember when kirk reached out wanted to connect us it was one of those things where i just thought it was going to be hey i got this guy good investments like a great guy to get to know you trust kirk so you're

like okay kin flies out and basically does like a three-day seminar on leadership with me and really is studying me it's like do i even want to work with this guy because he has a phrase he doesn't want to work with uh dysfunctional ass clowns and uh i say all that to say like sitting on the this pod with Kirk and having the conversation with Kirk and just the role model that he is, the leader that he is, you just, it reminded me why he was somebody I wanted to gravitate towards like at Washington and seek out these mentors that he does have because I have such a trust in him and about what he's about as a father, as a man and all of it, dude, as a teammate. And so that is my shout-out, no free shout-out.

When you get reminded why your boys are your boys, because life happens, you're in different spots. You know, in a couple weeks when we have our tier talk, talking about our favorite teammates. I'm kind of talking through some guys that I don't talk to a whole lot anymore, but I got to sit there and talk about what they meant to me at that point in time. And you just know when you come back and meet them or meet up with them at some point in time, whether you're able to make it happen or not, you break bread, you have conversations and you leave the trip, the

boys trip, just reminded why you have such a core group that you do. Kirk is one of those guys. And so my shout-out, no free shout-out goes to, yeah, getting that reminder of why, you know, why your boys with your friends from long ago in the first place. Because again, life happens. It gets away from you. You kind of not forget, but again, that sitting down with him and it's just like, yo, he's a, he's such a good fucking dude. And he's, he's himself. Like, corny, whatever it is, he owns it. It's amazing. And you guys are really going to like this episode. We talk in depth about draft night when they drafted Pennix, how those conversations happened. Kirk's are very stoic and control what you can

control, like let's live in reality, not in this, and even asking him, hey, before you could control what you can control, what was the thought that ran through your head when that conversation, when that phone call came to you when Pennix got drafted. Talk about Coach Rahim Morris, the Atlanta Falcons. What led him to go to Atlanta and pick Atlanta over the other suitors that wanted him at my quarterback? The ups and downs with the Achilles. you know, you kind of get, there's like this humanized element to where you're chasing this championship in Minnesota. You have all these weapons. And then in your contract year, you go down with an injury like an Achilles, being older, watching on Sundays and you're not part of it anymore.

You're kind of the guy on the outskirts. He had incredible, a thought process that went into kind of galvanizing the group that was on IR or wasn't getting to play anymore, those guys in the training room. This is an incredible episode. You guys are going to love it. We talk about about the quarterback. We talk about you guys, again, I won't continue to steal your ear. This interview is awesome. Very thankful that Kirk came on and talked to us in depth the way he did and was vulnerable and talked about.

You know, all the things that he talked about. Again, if you're watching, make sure you subscribe. If you're listening, make sure you subscribe, Big Cucks, tiny kisses. Enjoy this episode, probably right after this ad read. But thank you guys for tuning into Bustin with the boys. All right, before we kick off the Kirk episode, sound the trumpets. It's horse racing time. Sammy said it earlier.

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New customers get a 100% deposit bonus up to $250 when they opt in with code bus. BUS only on the DK. Horse app. Enjoy this Kirk Cousins episode. Say that quote one more time. You got to feed the bad dogs so it doesn't eat the good dog. Right. And so we were talking about vices.

Like if you don't have one, you can't be trusted. What's your cousin's vice? Oh man. I knew that was coming. I need more time to think about. that um i love fast food i love uh sugar i don't like candy but like soda um you're a soda guy yeah i love like um like cinnamon rolls like like bakery like donuts junk food yeah yeah like i don't i don't eat chips like you know i got pizza chocolate shake burgers let's go yeah the five

yeah the five things in life you like do you like to snack on some delicious meals that's I've got the problem is on my apps. They all, you know, the algorithms recommend stuff for you. And I got on the Portnoy, you know, one bite everyone knows the rules, pizza stuff. And now, like, my whole feed is just his different pizza stops. And so I find myself, like, having these cravings for pizza. Do you watch them through? I usually watch, like, when they're edited down to, like, quick.

Yeah. Because, you know, the world we live in today, everything's fast. Yeah. But he's pretty good. But, yeah, unfortunately, he's making me always be thinking about pizza now, which isn't good for the. What are your top three fast food spots? This is a good topic. So, well, let's just, you know, recently moved to Atlanta.

So there's some, like, southeast part of the country food spots that, like, if you're from the Midwest, like I am, or from out west you don't even know about. So, like, Bojangles. Okay. The Bowberry Biscuit is unbelievable. It's fire. Then the cookout. We had it when we were in D.C.

They, like, started to work their way north. Yeah. But they're from, like, Carolina. and you get them in Atlanta too. And it's typical, like, get your burger, but then instead of getting like a side of fries, you get two sides. So you can get like a burger, a side of fries,

and then a side of nuggets, and then a drink. And a shake, probably. And then they have like a 50 plus flavors. A plethora of shake. That always was going to be a blender. Too many choices. I usually go like mint chip, but those two in the southeast,

that was something where I was like, oh, I normally don't get to have a blueberry biscuit and two sides of my fat. But yeah, I don't discriminate among fast food. What's your, what's your, there's, you left out a third? I mean, Chick-fil-A is phenomenal. Agreed. But I just don't, like Culvers being from the Midwest, Culver's, Butterburgers, really good.

Five guys, if you want to call that fast food, really good. I just don't, I don't discriminate. Taco Johns, I love Taco Johns. Potato-Oles. Nebraska, did they have Taco Johns in Nebraska? They did, but I never went to. Yeah, potato allays. You mentioned something a minute ago, mint chip?

Yeah. You're a mint chip guy. That's my go-to ice cream. Oh, I don't know about that, bro. That's the same as McCaffrey. I know. It is an interesting flavor. But I got a weird ice cream taste, too.

We talked about that. That's when I got caught by you and McCaffrey about my choice in ice cream. Yeah, well, I mean, I get down with your birthday confetti cake ice cream. Yeah, birthday cake remix from you. But you did say, oh, yeah, he just likes vanilla with sprinkles on it. No, vanilla with caramel and sprinkles. I think sprinkles is a good added texture to your ice cream. I think there's nothing wrong with it.

A big part of taste is texture. I learned that in high school biology. Culinary class biology? Yeah. Yeah. And then, yeah, it's a little basic.

Vanilla sprinkles, that's like what my five real son orders. No question. He'll graduate beyond that someday. I never did. I never did. I never did. And things are going okay for me.

So I'm happy boy. I'm doing just fine right now. I do enjoy vanilla ice cream. with caramel and sprinkles, when you can't beat it. Ice cream is the one thing for me as far as food goes. Yeah, that's the rest of my family.

If it's in the house, I can't say no. Yeah, I'm not an ice cream guy. Like my, my grown up, my family. Well, clearly, mint chip is... You gotta do it. If you're gonna, you're gonna, like,

hold my hand of the fire to go get ice cream. I'll get some mint chip, but I don't need it. And that's probably one of the few things that I can watch someone else eat and I'm not tempted to jump in. But if you get a pizza and, like,

I'm just ate, yeah, I'm gonna get a slice. You figure out enough room in your body. Yeah, I'll find a way. Yeah. Rationalize the pizza needs to eat. Dude, Colt and I would just be ravaging the ice cream bar before, like nights before games.

That doesn't do it for me. You have the ice cream bar. I will say, and I don't know if listeners know about the fact that when we eat as a team, I played on three teams and even going back to college, for some reason, you know, we have the registered dietitian, you know, eat healthy, let's get our collagen protein. They got, I mean, all week long, right? They're diligent on, you know, you need your beetroot juice to make sure you

handle elevation in Denver. And then sure enough, like clockwork, 9 p.m. meetings then, night before the game at the hotel, ice cream comes out, the cookies come out, the pizza comes out. And I'm like, what are we doing? What are we doing? But I brought it up one time. I was like, you know, night before a game, maybe that's not the best time to just like binge and let it all go. Like maybe that's the worst time, arguably. And I had a strength coach. He said, I was in Chicago. We brought this up and we did it. We said, it's gone. And he said, there was a riot. He said it wasn't worth the blowback.

Like we tried. We tried to remove it. And we saw what happens when you don't give the guys their outlet. Like the stress of the season and that outlet for coaches and for players the night before the game. When you took that away, it wasn't worth it. So it was back the next week. It would always blow me away. Like the night thing is.

It's every team. Yeah, but there's always a way to be like, okay, if I eat this now, I'll sleep it off. I'll be fine in the morning. It blew me away when breakfast hits. and there's the waffle maker and guys got loads of whipped cream on it. Yeah, with the strawberry sauce.

It's like a noon game. We played at 7.30. We played Chicago one year. Coach Callahan, Bill Callan, our online coach is from Chicago. So he's big on deep dish Chicago style pizza. And we go, you know, stay downtown.

And Coach Callan is all excited. He goes, I'm going to go get the linemen, you know, Giordano's. So he had ordered to the hotel, planned ahead. Deep dish. So the lineman just pigged out Saturday night on Giordano's.

And I'll never forget, get on the bus after the game. We won. And Morgan, Moses. We're on the bus to back to O'Hare Airport. And Morgan goes, I'm not going to lie. He's like, I was feeling that pizza the whole game. You know what I mean? Like, it's just so funny how we do it to ourselves. I know, but I always chalked it up. Like, I had a good fourth pre-season game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And I had ice cream with caramel M&Ms in it, candy.

That's routine. And I had a good game to where, when I was feeling that vice, which was often, I was like, well, it's kind of like my good luck charm. Yeah. To, you know, have a little, have a little true. That's the worst part about superstition. I know. It's because sometimes you'll accidentally do something and you'll play really well and you'll be like what did I do differently. Yeah, in the routine. It's always something that's not good for you. It's easy to. Yeah. So at Michigan State, our routine night before games was a movie. Coach St. Antonio, he wanted a movie and I realized after a while that the reason we watched a movie, it was nothing to the football. It wasn't like we're watching Rudy. Like we were watching like, you know,

just something. Whatever's out there. Yeah, whatever he wanted to watch, I guess, or whatever the team voted on, the captains voted on. So we watched a movie and I realized. And I realized, realized, for Coach Antonio, it was just like the two hours of the week where no one bothered him, where he was able to just like catch his breath and feel like he was doing something with the team, but really he was just watching a movie. So it was the movie was a big deal to him. Like, what's the movie tonight? What are we watching? Because he, like, he needed that break. And I feel like that's the ice cream. And you keep guys like, you keep guys like, you know, doing anything else. Correct. You keep everybody in the building. Hey, we know for two hours,

we're together. Then we'll go to the hotel after. I know you guys won't get in any trouble. I mean, I haven't gone to the ice cream bar yet with the Falcons, but I'm very confident that night before the first preseason game, our meetings are going to end. We're going to head to the lunch, the snack room, and it is going to be, look exactly like it did in Washington and Minnesota. It's going to be bad pizza and then those big tubs of ice cream just sitting out waiting for everybody. Do you have any superstitions?

I have, I always say it's routine. And there's a fine line between routine and superstition. So it's like I want to, you know, go out for one of them. at the same time. I want to make sure I go through the same warm-up. I want to usually get on the same bus. There's a lot of things like I do that it's more that I just have a routine. And I like to be able to turn my brain off. So I like to be able to just not have to think about things. So it's like, oh, I don't have to make, I don't want any energy towards decisions. I don't want to make a decision on which bus to get on or where to sit. I just want to know, this is what I do. This is how I do it,

so that all my energy is towards the game and not towards decisions. So it looks like superstition, but really it's really just, I just have routine. ever been thrown off and it kind of just puts you in a frenzy. Well, what's funny is I have to remind myself kind of like you did that I do get thrown off. I get really aggy before games. Like if you, you know, say something wrong, do something wrong, be like, come on, man. Lock it in. But after the game, I have to remind myself on the bus going to the airport, like, okay, it wasn't perfect. We played fine. We did well. We won. Like, you got to be resilient because you're going to have those games where it's a 30

mile an hour wind and it's snowing or it's, you know, your leg doesn't feel right. And like, if you need everything to be perfect, you're going to be a headcase. So you have to remind yourself when things weren't perfect and you played well because then it gives you confidence the next time when things aren't lined up and you play well. Do you remember? I felt like you had a year. I don't know if it only lasts a year or if it's still something you do. But you had, I believe, every 15 minutes journaled out.

Yeah. So that spun out of control. But here's what happened. Here's the original deal. So your second year, 2014, I got thrown in when Griff dislocated his ankle. And I had some good moments. It's like I showed flashes of like, hey, this guy's got potential. But then I threw a lot of picks.

And I was lost. I was still figuring it out and how to do it. But part of the problem I felt was I did not have routine. I didn't know where I needed to be when. I didn't know how long to stay after practice to make sure I was ready. So I went into games. I didn't feel ready because I didn't know what ready should feel like. So my wife noticed it.

We were first year of marriage. And, you know, I always felt like my wife is like a great sounding board to bounce things off of. Or if she says, hey, you should call this person or do that. I used to blow it off. Now I just do it because I'm like, she's right. I need to do that, even if I don't feel like it. So after that, going into 2015, that year that I started the whole season, she said to me, that last year didn't work. So she's like, I don't know what you got to do, but you got to figure this out. So that was when I was like, all right, let's sit down. Julie and I, let's talk through the week. Like, what should it look like? I should go to work at this time on Monday, come back about this time,

go see this bodywork person here. Tuesday, I'm going to take off. Wednesday, I'll be at the building until this time. So I just scheduled it out more so for me and Julie to have our plan of what life should look like. And we played really well. And I felt that peace. Like I would go home on Wednesday at 6.30 at night. And I'd be like, I'm good. I got my work done. I planned this out.

I said in August like at Wednesday at 6.30, I should have my work done for the day. So at 6.45, I don't need to be driving home feeling like I should still be at work. So it was almost like it gave me like a piece. Yeah. To be like when I'm off, I'm off. I don't need to still have my mind be at work. That was why I did it. Yeah.

And then we played well and I realized like, okay, this routine works. Like I'm just going to keep plugging away at this. And so I to this day kind of keep that same routine of Tuesdays off. You know, Wednesday I show up at this time, do this. And I kind of now I don't need to, you know, in a spreadsheet. But I did when I didn't have a plan for it. Yeah. Do you still have a spreadsheet?

I don't have to have some sort. I could probably go back and find it, you know, somewhere. It probably is saved. But it was just in the spreadsheet cells every 15 minutes. And I was able to fit it where the spreadsheet cells were every. 15 minutes fit on one page. So I was like, there we go. You know, that's Kirk Cousins, bro.

I know. I've heard this story before. I'm a planner. I like that. But once I, for me, like, once I have it locked in, then I'm, I'm, like, at peace. No decision need to be made. No decision to be made for you. And that's what really helped me.

That's how most billionaires are. Really? Yeah, they have all their clothes lined up. That's why you see billionaires wearing the same outfit and stuff like that. I have heard that. I have heard that, like, Mark Zuckerberg, part of the reason he wore the hoodie every day is he didn't want to think about what he wore. So if he just wore the same thing every day,

he can spend his time and energy thinking about Facebook and how to throw it. Yeah, because the brain's only capable of making so many decisions. So there's a little bit of that. And I don't think I have a capability to handle a bunch of things at one time. So I try to just say, all that stuff I'm not thinking about. And I can focus on why I need to focus on. Ken, you deal with this stuff. Yeah, you and I both know.

Yeah. Ken runs my life. That's why I will mention is the guy Ken. Ken the suit. Yeah, Ken Philippine. Shout out the boy Ken. He is the best. We interrupt this episode to bring you sport clips. Your hair may grow fast, but after going to Sport Clips haircuts,

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Sport Clips, it is a game changer. When your routine is so dialed in like that, and you go and do a show like quarterback, did that mess with your routine? It's a great question. It didn't. On the by week, it was something where it's like,

I'm used to just do whatever I want in the bi-week. Now I've got to give a day to do that. I did put off at times, I'd say, hey, let's film this at the end of the season. When the season's over, we can go back and circle back on this stuff. So I tried to when I could push it off. But then, yeah, there were times where you're like, I would love to not have to do this right now, but it was a part of what we agreed to. And I knew the end game would be worth it. And it helped that we had a great season. We were winning. But I felt like it didn't, it didn't interrupt my routine as much as it was just filming what I was already going to you're doing. Right. So it'd feel like a burden every now and then. I think there was a scene where

I think you're sitting by the fire and you're upset about a little maybe a burn mark in your, yeah. I don't think. Yeah, that was a deal like we won the games. That helped. But they were scheduled to be at the house whether we won or lost because they came into town to film. They were going to capture that content. And so I was like, well, it would really help if we won in terms of hanging out at the house afterwards. We won. And then yeah, you're like, I would prefer to just be hanging out with my family, but if I have to hang out with my family with the cameras, then so be it. Yeah. But I try to just make it like, hey, we're just hanging out. Let's not let the fact that their

cameras are on interfere with what we would normally be doing. Were you pretty happy with doing the quarterback? I feel like you came out pretty well. Yes. Yeah, it helped. First of all, it helped to win. I mean, I knew if you have a good year, it's different than if you were struggling. So I stayed healthy. We won, which was great. I think it was really important that you come across as who you are. So when I got a text from a teammate who played for the Bengals and wasn't with me that season, but he had played with me for three seasons prior. He texted me, watched the show. I told my fellow quarterbacks, that's who you are. What you see in the show is what Kirk was for three years. I was like,

see, that was the goal. Yeah. Is that the show wouldn't be somebody different. And Sean McVeigh, same thing. He texted me. Like, he just watched a show. It's the same guy I remember from 2016. And I'm like, see, that's what you want the show to be. It would be shame on me if people were like, yeah that's not really current like now you pull one over on people but thankfully I think the show is pretty accurate were you surprised at how well received you were because if you look at the

three quarterbacks in it I mean you definitely as far as like leveling up as far people have been like you know Kirk Cousin is actually the man this dude's awesome like you you truly won the popularity contest of those three guys you know there's a conversation there to be had of like yeah there are probably some

narratives that maybe weren't as true that were little lazy narratives that the show probably helped dispel a little bit, but even teammates now with the Falcons, they said, one of them said, we watched the show and I remember thinking, this guy's a lot tougher than I would have thought. And I never thinking like, nice to hear. Yeah, like great to hear, but like the previous seven years, like I don't love that you saw me as a wuss. So that was a little tough to hear at the same time. But I was like, boy, I'm glad I did the show. Otherwise, you would have thought I was like, you saw off. Pussy the whole time. Yeah. I can't have. I always say with Julie about my boys.

I'm like, we're raising two boys. I don't care if they're good at sports. I don't care if they're good at school. I don't care. They better be gritty. Yeah. Like, if my boys are soft, like, I got a problem. So I always say, like, I just got to make sure when they're walking across the high school

graduation stage that I know my boys have grit. And if they have that, everything else is gravy. Dude, that's actually a great topic. I mean, you being as successful as you've been in the league, the amount of money that you've amassed for your family, generation. type wealth, when you think about being a father and raising your two boys and wanting them to be gritty and growing up in an environment that's, you know, that on the outside, it seems much softer, seems much easier than most of the country. Like what, you as a parent as a father,

what are the things you do that instills grit or that you want to come off as with your boys? I think, first of all, when they're good at something, I don't want to tell them, well, you're really good at that. You're really talented at that. I want to say to them, I love how hard you worked at that because I want the feedback to be that you didn't just show up and, you know, and swung that baseball bat or played that piano. You didn't just show up and do it, even though maybe you did, you're talented. I want them to think I did it well because I worked at it. So it's almost like a psychological thing of making sure they know that they have something because they worked for it, as opposed to they could just show up and have it. So entitlement, you know, it's something I can't

stand. It's like I got to make sure my boys aren't entitled. But I said to my wife, I said, you know, growing up, I always knew that whatever I do, like, I got to make my way in life. My boys will know, and I don't have an answer for this, they will know that at the end of the day, no matter what happens, they do have a parachute. Like, they do have a soft landing that's sort of cooked into the system. And that, there's no way to, like, trick them into thinking they don't. So that'll be the key, is that their motivation comes intrinsically because extrinsically, there will be like a built-in mechanism for them to, you know, fall back on

because I love them and I want that for them. But intrinsically, I need them to not act like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's always a work in progress. What is it the family that's like, oh, they're not going to get nothing? Is it Bill Gates? One of those billionaire guys just came out and said. I think Ashton Coucher as well, right?

Shack had a great line. Shack said, I tell my kids. you guys aren't rich. I'm rich. You're not rich. And I laugh. Yeah, I don't know. We'll see how it all plays out.

My boys are six and five. So that's to talk like I know what I'm doing. I'm still figuring it out every day. But it's a topic I'm passionate about. And I read books on it, you know, to try to do it right. And we'll see how it all turns out. There are a couple you recommend? It's a great question.

I was actually, true at Kathy, the guy who found a chick-fil-a, wrote a book called Wealth. Is It Worth It? And that was pretty good. Um, there's a couple others. He's written specifically about raising boys, raising kids. There's a book called Preparing Ayers. Um, so, you know, I'm a planner.

So like I, I try to, you know, go out and learn and read. And there's a lot out there about that topic. When you're at the, the quarterback thing, and you're showing your family and your wife's dressing you and the coals and all that. And you just see, you see how, like, humble you are as a cat, because Will's already commented on, like, how much money you've been able to make doing something you absolutely love. Yeah.

Has there ever been a time where you're like, you're like, you see. I should go buy this one thing I should go buy. What a great question. Because it is, dude, you've crushed it. It's an uncomfortable topic. It's evolved. I'll never forget my rookie year. You know Rex Grossman.

You're really good. He was on a team. Great guy. I was lucky to get to play with him for two years. And my rookie year, he leaned over to me. It was during a walkthrough, I think. And he asked me a question, like, is there anything? You know, you're a pro now.

You got a signing bonus check. Is there anything that you want? And I looked at him. And I said, man I've always wanted a sports car I was like I would love a corvette but I was like I don't think I'm going to buy it and he'll never forget he looked at me and he goes

you should scratch that itch you should scratch that itch and at the time I was like well I'm not gonna right I'm not gonna I'm on the league minimum salary I haven't played it down yet I'll save save save down the road and what's funny is I'm in year 13 coming up I never bought the sports car And I'll sometimes think of that conversation And I'll be like, that kind of sums it up

That like, I never did And there's a point where at some point You do need to just go scratch that itch And I think Rex's point is well taken He was speaking from year 11 Where he was saying like, yeah, just go scry You only live once, go scratch that it's like have fun Like don't worry about it

It was what he was trying to tell me And he was right Right And so I think there's some of that But are you gonna buy one How close are we to just go? Have you looked into it Enough to know exactly what you want?

Yeah, so I love cars So I've like when we were in Vegas for the Super Bowl week. I went out to a racetrack, and I was going, like, I took my brother, and he's going for fun. And I'm like, I'm going because I'm trying to test drive these things. I'm trying to do what I want to get. But I still haven't bought one. But we came here, and Mercedes is a partner of the team.

The stadium is Mercedes-Benz Stadium. They've been great. So if I were to get one, I'd probably go that route, you know, get the AMG-G-T. But I've always wanted one. I just never really pulled the trigger. I feel like that's a easy avenue. You still got that? Well, my grandmas ended up getting told crazy stories.

So I buy my grandma's conversion van in 2014. Kept it going. It was fun. We took it to games with family. Probably kept it going. Yeah, probably kept it going. But it was sitting in a mechanic shop parking lot. And at 4 a.m. in my hometown, a guy goes off the road and runs into it and totals it.

Like the damage was like 10 grand and the van was worth like 4 grand. So it was begun. So I had to. You're thinking there's no way to. fix this with 10 grand. I could have. I could have doubled down. 10 grand,

the van's worth four. You think I'm going to put crazy top. Yeah. I could have doubled down, but I was like, you know, the insurance company check, I'll just take it.

But then we went in, we did buy a conversion van. We bought a brand new one. My wife was saying it's not, my wife was like, I don't think this is safe on the road anymore. She's like, let's just get a new one.

So we got a new one. So we do have the conversion, man. We splurged on that. Yeah. Sports on the conversion fan. I have nice thing. I don't want to lead the audience to think that I drive like a 1985 Honda Accord and like live in a cardboard box.

But we have nice things. Yeah, you're nice things. Julie still picks out your fashion. Yeah, because I don't trust myself. I dress myself this morning at like 6 a.m. You look fantastic. No, thank you. But I'm a pump that quarter-length socks came back.

I've always felt that quarter-length socks are the best sock going. Yeah. Like the higher ones are too tall. The low-cutter-t or too low. Quarter-length is perfect. but for the last 15 years, quarter-length socks were a big no-no. Like my wife was like, you can't wear those.

But they're back. You feel like a trailblazer bringing them back as well? I was at the Pro Bowl a year ago, two years ago. But they're back. And Fred Warner was wearing quarter-length socks with the Nike, like the dunks. Were you wearing quarter-length socks? I wasn't. I was still thinking low-cut was in.

So the quarter-length came back, and I realized that the Pro Bowl, like, oh, this is good for me. Like, this is good. I'm long on quarter-length. I think the motion would have been like the trailblazer to bring it back? But that's the thing. No, no, see, if I had been wearing them, they wouldn't have come back. So, see, I wore A6.

Like, your rookie year, I was wearing A6 around the building. Yeah. Everybody would kill me for it. They're like, dude, you can't wear A6 with quarter-length socks. Like, that's terrible. They're back. The swagiest guys in our locker room are rocking A-6 all day long. What's in A-6?

What is that? The running shoes. They're like big. Running shoes are big in tennis. Are they? What? What? It's a brand of shoe.

I don't know that brand. It's a brand of running shoe. Running shoes in general are back. Like, Brooks, A6, New Balance, Hoke, like, that's back. All right. That's the only running shoe brand I know besides. Quarterland socks and running shoes are in. If you can fact check me on this, I know because I go to the lift every day.

And the swaggiest guys are rocking them. But like running shoes and quarterlank socks are in. And I'm thinking I was 10 years early. But I'm in my sweet spot now. Yeah, you're back. Yeah, now you're in your bag. Now you're like the savvy, swaggy vet. Something like that.

You got the Coordained socks on it? Yeah, yeah. Have you bought yourself like a chain, like the Kirkgo Thuggins? Haven't gotten a chain. Jewelry doesn't really do it for me. Haven't gotten a chain. I'd like to get a nice watch someday. But a lot of them are like invite only to buy.

Yo, I love you so much, Doug. I'd like to get a nice watch today. I know Jonathan's in the watches. Big watch guy. Really? Yeah, he's like, kind of like that underground, like, understands the entire game because it's like a. Oh, I can't wait for.

Talk to him about it. Yeah, I got a teammate who... Who gets you on the right track. I got a teammate who knows an authorized dealer on who is maybe going to help me a little bit. What's the brand you're looking for? Rolex is iconic. Paddock Philippe, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, that's also pretty iconic. So something iconic.

I don't want to get like a deep cut. I like to get something where it's kind of right down Main Street. Yeah. One of our sponsors is True Classic, and he's a big watch guy. The CEO is a big watch guy. And he was telling me, Rolex is where people start. Paddock is where they finish. Well, maybe I should go to Paddock then.

That's great cool. Go right to the finishing line. You're good right there. Yeah, but I haven't done it. I haven't pulled the trigger on that one yet. Yeah, maybe something. Maybe I'll earn enough someday. You should just do it all one swoop.

One day, just like pick a day three years from now. You're like, all right, May 27, 2020. Yeah, I'm just going to scratch the edge of all the things. Maybe I'll bring Rex ghost food. Well, treat yourself from the show Parks and Rec. They have Treat Yourself Day where you just go to the mall, no judgment, do whatever you want. Get what you want.

Get what you want. Yeah. Need one of those days. Man. Is your wife from Atlanta? She's from Atlanta. Did that play a factor? So you'd have to know my wife.

Will does a little bit. If I had said to her, we're going to Japan to play. She would have said, great. Boys have learned Japanese. Let's go. Like, that's the way she is. She's built different. Yeah.

So it really isn't a big deal to her. It's a huge deal to her siblings, her parents. That, like, I can't believe our daughter and her son-in-law are not only moving back to Atlanta after being further away. but they're playing for the Falcons. Like, they're sports fans. So this is a huge deal for them that I'm playing for their team, if you will. But for Julie, it was kind of like, great.

That's fine, you know, but I would have been fine going anywhere, which helps. I mean, my wife, if I said, hey, we're going to play 10 more years, I'm going to play until I'm 47, she'd be like, okay, sounds good. And if I said, hey, I'm retiring tomorrow, she'd be like, okay, sounds good. So she's a little bit like, yeah, she's a little bit like, yeah, Whatever you got to do, I'm here to support. And I think a big reason that I've had any success in my career is because I have a spouse,

a helpmate who is kind of there for me and is a support and does take so much off of my plate. I think she's a big part of it. I remember when I got married, Ray Wright, the strength coach. I'm throwing all these names from the past, good times. Ray Wright pulled me aside. He goes, I firmly believe, Kirk. And Ray was a man a few words, but he goes, I firmly believe that players in this league do not play their best. until they get married.

And he's like, you got married, I think you're best going to come out. And that year I got benched. But the next year, the next year, we're on the rise. So it does, I mean, it's like, you kind of eliminate a lot of distractions that, you know, single men would have.

Yeah, I think you eliminate distractions. I think she helped create some structure. And she just has a great perspective, you know, like what happened today at work? Would you tell this person? How did you respond to that comment? Would you, hey, I think you said this to the media. I think you should have said this.

Like, it's like a built-in, coach. And if you listen, like, you can learn a lot of good things from your spouse. Yeah, man. You get to a point, though, when your season is dragging on, you're in week nine, you can't see the end of the road just yet. You go do the media and you come home and your wife's like, listen, you said it like this, I'll say it like that. Well, you're kind of like, honey. Here's what I get. Give me a couple of minutes here. I'm on a boat in Lake Michigan, July 15th. And I'm trying to enjoy my day. And Julie will say some crazy comment like, I can't wait for football season. And I'm looking at it. I'm like,

relax like football will be here i'm trying to enjoy this boat ride i'm thinking about i'm not thinking about football and she's like i just can't wait i just love ball i love football and i'm like yeah because you don't have to do two a days like you don't have to grind so she she she loves the season um but sometimes i need her excitement to just be measured because it's july and we're not there yet slow burn yeah july 15 you're 10 days away from camp and that's like when it starts to sink in like damn like it's really coming up yeah we really got to go through this camp what we're went into you choosing Atlanta? I would say the biggest thing was I felt going back years in Minnesota as we were trying to get an extension to retire a Viking and the offers were coming in each

offseason that it was a one year. It was a one year and I realized, you know, if I'm going to stay here for another year, I'm probably not going to get to retire here. And so I did sign a one year and did try to make it work, but then I realized, you know, this isn't changing. It's still a one year every year. And I realized, like, I want to go somewhere or be somewhere where I know I could retire there. And so that was kind of the feeling was when I signed with the Falcons that I think I'm going to get a chance to retire a Falcon. And that, that excited me. Were the Vikings ever, were the Vikings, obviously, they're in the conversation and stuff? Oh, yeah. Are they trying to do things to make it work? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, they were, they were very involved.

They were, they were great through the whole process. They were great. And they always were. they were always great. It was just that the structure and the structure is always kind of driven the conversation for me. The structure was more on a year-to-year basis. I thought, you know, I don't think that's the direction I'd like to go.

Do not. Sorry, go ahead. Oh, you had a, you've gone through this situation twice for your transitioning. You set up relationships, established a home, friends, all that stuff. You've made them move two separate times now. Emotionally, how do you handle that? Really difficult. Really difficult.

Well, thanks for asking. Yeah, it's a big, it's a big change. You don't, like, I don't even as a sports fan, I don't have an appreciation for when, like, Kevin Durant leaves the Warriors and goes to the Brooklyn Nets. I just shrug my shoulders and, like, all right, he's still Kevin Durant. I'm going to see him doing the same things he did in the Warriors. But you, when you live it, you're like, it's a huge change, you know, it's a huge change for family, for meeting people, for leading people.

You just hit the reset button, and it takes time to build up equity with people that they trust you and you trust them. And so you do feel like you're a rookie again a little bit. You feel like you're going backwards instead of taking steps forwards, which can be frustrating. But you also know that's what you're signing up for. So you kind of brace yourself for that. Structurally, like I remember sitting in our row and talking about guaranteed contracts.

You've kind of become like the example for guys around the league whenever a new contract pops for Kirk Cousins. You've had, I don't know how many guaranteed contracts. But when you're talking about structure and the way it looks, Now you're in a situation where you're in a four-year deal, not all guaranteed. Does that kind of like, is that kind of the game like you had, you were younger. So it's like, okay, let's go more short term because I know I can get, you had a goal of having guaranteed contracts. Did that kind of shift going into this next deal? Yeah, I've always said like you deal in reality and you deal in risk.

So I can tell you all the things I'd like in a contract. But if reality is I'm not going to get that in the market, then it's pointless to talk about. So there's a little bit of what's reality. The reality would be that I'm coming off in Achilles, that I'll be 36 years old before I start the next game, and therefore my market may not be as strong as I'd like it to be. There's also risk. Like, what are you willing to risk? What are you willing to put on the table?

What are you? And I was willing to play out a contract. You know, I said if all I'm going to get from Minnesota is a one-year extension, then I'd like to just play out this contract, and I'll get that one year when the season's over. But there's risk involved with that. So I try to deal in reality, and I try to understand risk and those two things, and I feel like the combination of those two is what drove the whole off-season process

to end up where it was. But I do think there are too many players and really sometimes teams that they aren't dealing in reality and they aren't recognizing risk. And so you have to realize those two things are a big part of all contract discussion. That last part you just said

about other players not dealing with reality and not understanding the risk. That is the majority of college, NFL players that are playing in it. Do you ever sit down and have those conversations with those guys? because it is a, so many guys live a delusional lifestyle playing this game.

And it's kind of scary to watch because you're looking at guys, you're my brother. You know, if you're an undrafted cat playing minimum and you're rolling around in the nicest car in the lot, like we got, there's a problem. Yeah, I've always said that they don't, you know, the 40-yard dash, you know, watch the combine on NFL network or whatever and I'll laugh. And I'll be like, until they have a 40-yard dash that the number tells you someone's emotional intelligence and self-awareness, you really haven't evaluated the player. Right. Like, you know, we'll get some. some guys and you're like, yeah, he's a great player, but like he is so unaware. There's no awareness. And eventually that's just going to limit what he can do as a player. Or vice versa. You say,

yeah, the guy isn't the fastest, isn't the strongest, isn't the biggest, but he's emotionally intelligent and he's very aware and he knows how to work. He knows the strategic things he has to be better. And so I'll play with him any day and he's going to be a great player in time. And so I don't think they've come up with tested the combine to figure out, you know, separate the two, but that's a big deal to me is people who can recognize reality and live in reality instead of, you know, a world that doesn't exist. Yeah. Or they think they might get, like, guys who could be in situations,

they think they're going to get something in a negotiation, and then it kind of, it's like they feel disrespected on something without understanding what the risk is or the market or... Business, yeah. The business part of it is people don't understand that all. Do you have something? Fellas, we interrupt this episode to bring you, Lucy. You hear us talk about it all the time.

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But lucy. Dot co slash bussing. I was just going to, I was going to transition to the Achilles. Yes. Talk to that. Well, quarter-length socks do protect the scar. Let's see. Let's see if you get that thing.

So when the scar, when it was, you know, no-show socks, the scar would be very visible. but now I can rock quarter length and I don't even have to show this car. You got a solid tan line coming in too. You've been wearing those quarter legs out. Once it came back. Once you saw it was okay, them things haven't even come off. threw away all the shows. They're sleeping them, boys.

But it's healing up. We're six months and change in. I was told nine months when I did it was kind of the timeline August 1st. But being a competitor, I'm hoping for faster than that. And we'll see if we can get there. Sorry. Go ahead. I was just going to say, I was going to ask if you converse with Aaron Rogers at all.

It seemed like he was very, yeah. I called him, I think I did it on Sunday. I probably talked to him on Tuesday just to say, you know, what, what do I need to know? Didn't even know what to ask, really. But he was great, he was helpful, gave me his perspective, his thoughts, what you want to focus on.

And then I probably circled back with him in December on our bi-week. And he was very helpful again. At that point, he was trying to get back on the practice field already. And, yeah, so he was helpful. I started researching people have torn their Achilles. It was a serious list. Like I made like a power rankings of the all-time people have torn their Achilles.

I know Al-Gore Tours Achilles'Illis. Got the spreadsheet. Al-Gore Tours Achilles, Judy Dench, Torr Achilles, the actress. We had Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and one other famous actor, all tore their Achilles. Russell Crowe. Russell Crow elected not to have surgery.

And like, it never got better. So like 12 years later, he got surgery. So I felt like that was a good argument to get surgery. But Brad Pitt, ironically, tore his Achilles while playing the role of Achilles for the movie Troy. No shit. Filming was suspended like four to six weeks

so he could heal. Damn. But Tiger Woods, I guess, tore his Achilles. I didn't know that. A lot of basketball players. Clay Thompson, Kevin Durant. Dan Marino. So I was just looking at all these guys.

And it was encouraging, honestly, because there were so many people who came back and lived meaningful lives post-Aquilies. Yeah, because you get worried about the Achilles. is because that ankle flexion, what has been the most difficult part for you in this recovery process? Well, I think a lot of it is trying to get the brain to recognize that you're good now. And so it's the innervation of the muscles and knowing that, hey, yes, we went through trauma. Yes, it needed to heal, but it's healed now.

You can go. We can go. I think the brain is still guarding like it always does after an injury. And so it takes time. And so you can do all you want. You know the exercise you want, but it's still time has to do its work. Is pain a factor at all? I think pain kind of becomes like your signal that you aren't healed yet, or that's your limiting factor.

So if you move and there's pain, then it's like, hey, why is their pain? Let's work through this. But it's interesting how as time goes, as you heal, as you do more rehab and exercises, you find you can do more and more and more. And where you're getting that moment of pain that's telling you to stop is further and further and further down the movement scale. So I'm really close now. And we just got to kind of break through that last push here to go from where I am to, like, fold. go. How'd you do mentally through it all? Like you go

from, you know, you're obviously making the push of the Vikings. Now, you guys didn't start the right way but the... We were ascending. Yeah, you guys were ascending. Like you guys were in those close games that you probably should have pulled out. We were really you were starting to ascend and then you go from you're now on the couch watching the game and everybody else. How'd you do that? No fun.

No fun. I was in a dark place for a while like anybody would be, you know? Football means something to me and it hurt. It was confusing. It was frustrating. And so I'd be lying to you I told you, oh, I was good, I was resilient. It's like, no, I dealt with the same feelings that anybody would feel, you know, frustrated and you feel like you're not, you're getting, you know, dealt a bad hand. But I had to remind myself that, okay, this football career, I don't own it.

I just steward it. I steward what I'm given. There's only so much you can control. And so you control what you can control and what you can't control, you've got to let go. If you try to hold it tight, you're just going to wear yourself out. So that perspective of being a stuarty, you're just going to wear yourself out. not an owner really helped me. And so I said, I'm a steward my rehab.

I'm going to steward my rehab well. And so what I did, and you would have done this too, Will, is I went into the training room every day in Minnesota and I thought, all right, so my team, because I'm really not with the team anymore. So my team is the guys who are also on IR. So like I'm the quarterback of the IR group. So we go in there every day. They were like six of us.

And I would say, okay, guys, we don't have parole. Like we're not going to get to go see the parole board Justin Jefferson over here is dealing with a bad hand me He gets to go to the parole board in like two weeks And get back in the game, but we don't So I kind of tried to have our group You know, stick together, keep each other up And then we did some trips together

Did some dinners together Just to kind of feel like we're in this together And I feel like that really helped me Feeling like I'm not alone There's five other guys whose seasons are over also And I think four of the five also had expiring contracts So we were kind of all in it together And that was really good

And then I was able to see the training room from the perspective of what they're trained to do. Like when I tore it, they showed me their level of excellence when it was like they, it was clockwork. They knew like where to go, what to do next. Every step, it was just clockwork. And so I had so much respect for our Minnesota training room because I got to see them in action. And even the culture in the training room, how they had like that bedside manner where they know that like we're all going through a hard time and they're able to kind of really talk us. through that and work with us. So a ton of respect for the Minnesota training room, and it was hard,

but one of the reasons it was hard for me to leave was knowing that, like, that's another place I got to start over. For guys that, anybody who gets hurt playing a sport, they go through that sad boy period. Yeah. What was the switch in your head? Because obviously you're having a hard time, and you took this amazing approach with the IR, making them a team.

Yeah. What was, like, how do you get yourself out of that funk to allow you to now, okay, I'm going to make this a good situation as opposed to just living in a bad situation. Yeah, I think time helped. Also, Legos. Yeah. So I took my, I told the Julie, I said to Julie, the team left for an away trip to somewhere. I think they may have gone to Atlanta or Denver.

Probably Denver. And I said to Julie, I texted you like, the team left for Denver and I'm sad, right? I'm like, golly, I should be in Denver. I shouldn't be here, you know, on a scooter. And I said, like, oh, we're taking the boys to them all. of America, we're going to the Lego store, and I'm going to scratch that itch. So I went in there, and I looked at like the Lego person with the apron at the entrance, welcoming me in, and I said, you're with me, get a cart.

We're going. I was like, whatever those two boys right there at five and six years, whatever they say they want, throw it in the cart. And we're going to start building. Scratch that inch of the Legos, bro. So we built the Lego Concord, we built the Space Shuttle, we built the Home Alone House. we built the James Bond car.

Like we just, me and my boys came home, did our rehab. We got time. Legos, let's go. Yeah. That's the clip to him listing off the Legos that they built. It's good. That's a clip and the caption is going to be this episode is everything you want out of Kirk Couss. Well, how did I get through it?

Legos got me through. Dude, you go through all those Legos and you just passed up the Titanic? Okay, so we can, I can go in on Lego. We can have a separate podcast. I am a huge fan. So I have the Titanic. One sitting in one of my rooms of the house. I'm proud of you.

Still not done yet. You're built a little different. Like my ceiling's probably 7,000 pieces. That's like 10,000 pieces. You're not, you're deep. I bought a year ago and I'm like halfway down. Understandable.

Yeah. I just kind of walk away from it for months at a time, but I'll come back, I'll stare at and be like, I'm going to take the next four hours of my life and I'm just going to do this. I love to build. I love to build and create.

And I also love following instructions. So like, you are. Some of them, though, are too big. I'm like the Coliseum, the Titanic, like I can't, where's it going to go when I'm finished? Yeah. So I see a picture of it. Yeah.

And then the basement. So we, like the Home Alone house, I'm going to pull it out every year as Christmas decoration. So like, yeah, like every year I put it in the shelf with other like Christmaseries and stuff. And now I'm going to pull it out every year for decoration. So everyone's got a. Everything I build, I like try to keep assembled. And like I built the, they have a Lego from the TV show to office. That's like an aerial of the office.

with all the characters and all the details and everything. So I built that and then I took it to our family office and just put it on the shelf. Yeah. I'm like, that will forever be here. So love Legos. Legos are the best. Shout out Legos. Sponsor.

She sponsored. Yeah. They should sponsor. We got a lot of brands here. Fast food brands, car brands, Lego brands. Yeah. Yeah, I think one right now, Paddock or Rolex. Wow.

Depends on the model. So like a rare Rolex that's like unattainable, got to know somebody to get. If someone's willing to let me get one, I'm probably going Rolex. Ironic. It is. But we're splitting hairs here. Yeah, both great brands. And you did say Paddick's where you finish.

So maybe that was the wrong answer. Repeating a cool quote that I heard less than a week ago. Let's dive into the articles that have been going around. Okay. Draft Night, Kirk Cousins. Michael Pinnock gets drafted. They call you when the pick is happening. Right.

You know, there's a Minnesota article that came out. A reason that Kirk left was they talked about them, drafting a successor high. So that was one of the reasons he comes to Atlanta. Talk about draft night. Kirk Cousins, the Atlanta Falcons pick and Michael Pinnix. Yeah, I think you're reminded again that there are things you control and there's a lot of things you don't control.

And so let's deal in reality, you know, and recognize that fact. And then be a steward, not an owner. So I just believe that I got a steward what comes my way and control what I can control, which what a steward does. But a steward doesn't worry about that, which they can. can't control. Yeah. An owner does.

An owner would be like, oh my goodness. So I just got to steward this and just, you know, do kind of what I've always done as a player and let the chips fall where they may. Before you fit, before your brain starts to compartmentalize and realize what's controllable and what's not the reaction when, the immediate reaction when Michael Pennix gets drafted. Well, I had. Well, I had, I was a phone call right before.

Yeah, I had like, I'm trying to think it was 21. So that would have been three years ago. Vikings three years ago, I was finishing up around the golf before the draft on Thursday, and I'm on like the 18th hole walking up to Fairway, and Clint Kubiak calls me, ROC. And he said, I just want to give you heads up, like, we may draft a quarterback tonight. I was like, okay. And this was on Thursday? This was on the Thursday, like a few hours before the draft.

So I understood that like for a while, you know, teams are always thinking about succession plans. They're always thinking about that. And they didn't end up drafting one that year. but you're made aware that like this is this is a possible direction it could go. So my point is is this isn't like a foreign concept. There's an awareness that this is the NFL, you know, anything can happen. And so it kind of was a part. I remember I was committed to Michigan State.

So I was trying to go to Michigan State, but they didn't offer me yet. I go on my official visit, no offers. They explained to me at the visit, they said we've offered five other quarterbacks. if any of them commit, we will not offer you because we're going to take one quarterback in this recruiting class. If all five don't commit, we would then maybe send you an offer. So you'll do this official visit,

but no offer, go home and we'll call you if something happens. So we did the official visit, and like a week and a half later, I get a call from Coach Antonio. He offered me a scholarship. What he was saying was is they went 0 for 5. So I said, okay.

And I didn't commit right there in the moment, but I slept on it the next day I called. call him, I said, I'd like to be a Spartan, so I committed. But I did understand I was the sixth choice. Yeah. And then two weeks later, so I signed my scholarship, and back then, once you signed, you can't back out. Like, you have to sit out a year if you transfer. So I'm, I'm locked in at Michigan State. No way to get out. And he calls me two weeks later, and he said, hey, there was a quarterback who didn't sign on signing day. He's extended his recruitment, and he's coming up to Michigan State for a visit. We're going to offer him, we think he's

going to commit. His name's Nick Foles. And I was like, okay, I said, now a month. ago you told me that there were five guys that if they committed, you wouldn't offer anybody else. Now, I committed, and those same rules don't apply. You're now offering somebody else. I said, what do you think that makes me feel like? So, and Nick was the man. I'm so glad our past crossed. We were together for a year, and he's been a Super Bowl MVP. Yeah. So, but I remember at the time thinking, like, it was going to be tough. Nick's a really good player, and probably only one of us will play at Michigan State. So I say all that to say, this whole competing. for your job,

coaches having to have a full quarterback room, have good players, trying to get as much depth as they can. It's more like, you know, copy and paste than it is something new for me because this goes so far back to kind of how it always has been. Right.

So it's fair to say, Kirk Cousins, the Falcons, there's no beef involved. No, and I don't think there can be. I don't think it's helpful. Like, we're trying to win a Super Bowl and it's hard enough. Like, you know what I mean?

Like, it's hard enough. So let's all be on the same page and let's try to go into Super Bowl. I'm stuck on the Michigan State thing right now. Hang on one more before you go back to the Michigan State. Because I was going to say too, like you brought up the example of Minnesota and Kubeyak calling you on Thursday, hey, we might draft somebody. We just had Ra on. Raw was kind of like in the mindset of like, you know, what did he say?

There was like a line that he said. But basically communicate, you know, when we needed to communicate. He's like, what if I told him before that, hey, we might draft somebody high. And then you don't end up doing it. what can still happen to a psyche. Not that it would go sideways, but there's all these variables that go in on how to communicate, and they're not always going to be right.

But it just had me thinking about that. It's like, yeah, you have a phone call. It's like, hey, we might, we could be taking a quarterback tonight. It doesn't end up happening. It's like, well, they're looking to replace at some point. Yeah, and there's also, like, going back to reality. Yeah. Like, there's a little bit of like, hey, you may not like what you hear,

but, like, it's reality. I don't know what to tell you. Like, I'd love to change reality, but reality is one thing. It's reality. Yeah. So, anyways. Michigan State. Yeah, let's go.

They go 0 for 5. Why don't you just go to Ann Arbor? So, tremendous question. And this would probably pain some Michigan state people, but growing up in the state of Michigan, like if you of M offered me, I mean, come on. That's an iconic program. And at the time, as Chad Henney's a starting quarterback,

I mean, they, pro-style offense, iconic coach and Lloyd Carr. Like, they did things in a way that people respected. So, yeah, but I was, you have to understand it. I was so far not on their radar. Like, I was nobody. And they had Ryan Mallet. Ryan Mallet had committed to them and was signed, and for good reason.

I mean, the guy was so talented. And once you get a Ryan Mallet, you're not even looking. And so, yeah, I wasn't even, I don't think I was, I have to go back to that staff someday and ask him, like, was I, do you even know who I want? I don't think you even knew. So you didn't have an offer. You didn't have an offer. Not even close.

I didn't even speak to somebody from University of Michigan. Like, I was so far off their radar. The only reason Michigan State came in was because their quarterback, their Ryan Mallet, decommitted. So they were left kind of at the altar in December, like, what do we do? Because I walked off the field of my last high school game with no scholarship offers. So all my recruiting happened in like the last month of the recruiting process. So were you fully expecting to still continue your football career,

even if you didn't get an offer? So when I was playing, I was very aware that, like, Division III was on the table. But what about walking on? Nah, I was thinking I want to play. So to just hold a clipboard and do the signals and live the dream of a division one play, that didn't interest me. I want to compete. So I visited the Ivy League. I flew to Princeton.

I remember on Thanksgiving weekend. My dad and I went to Princeton and we walked around the campus just to like, hey, if we can't get a scholarship, maybe the scholarship is to get into a school of this kind of prestige. So I was very serious about the Ivy League. I remember flying to Yukon and Yukon said, like, we'd maybe offer you like a gray shirt. like it was crazy like just standing there like please offer me a scholarship

I'd like to play for you and they'd be like we're just not sure God that had I'm sitting with Pat Fitzgerald in Northwestern and he's like you know we're not going to offer you

but we would give you a walk on spot and my dad goes how much would it cost to go to Northwestern just as a dad he had to pay for it he goes I never forget

and he was being honest he said tuition at the time 2006 was it was 38,000 $1,000 a year just for tuition. And my dad's like, it's going to be tough, coach. Like, I got to be honest. It's going to be tough.

So, yeah. So it was, but it's interesting because then you go play against Northwestern. And it was just such an odd dynamic. It's like, I was begging you to play for you. Right. And now I'm playing against you. And now I'm dropping 28 on you right now in the first quarter. It was like a unique dynamic.

Yeah. And when growing up, where was the line for you? Were you Michigan State or were you Michigan? It was neutral. My mom went to Iowa. I don't think he can do that. Her dad. played at Iowa. So I was a Hawkeye fan. And I was, again, it was another school. I went through

for them, worked out for him, toured the facility. Like, often never came. And I can't say enough how everything worked out. But yeah, it was kind of just neutral. Watched Michigan, Michigan State and just kind of enjoyed watching good football because my team was really Iowa was who I was watching. What was your size as a senior? So I was definitely undersized. I played my last game, my junior year at like six, one and a half, a hundred. 158 pounds. I remember that being like, I'm light. Yeah. And then to add insult to injury, my 40 was like a 5-2.

So I was like skinny, short, and slow. So like you're not doing it. You can throw the ball a little bit, but. Yeah. So then my senior year, I played at like 170. And I remember going to Michigan State and stepping on the scales now post-senior year at like 180 and just being thrilled. So I didn't look apart, didn't have a division one body. my dad always thought I'd be a baseball player

because he just assumed I wouldn't be big enough to play football. But yeah, I remember at my signing day event where the head coach talks about all the guys they signed and he said, Cousins reminds me of when I was a DB coach from Michigan State with Nick Saban and we were coaching against Drew Breeze at Purdue, watching his high school tape, his ability to have like different arm angles

and throw with timing and accuracy and see the field. He goes, it reminds me of Drew Breeze. And I thought, I remind him of Drew Breeze. like, at least I'm on the right track, you know? So that was a good sign. Well, brother, you've had a hell of a run. Thank you. Hopefully there's more to go.

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dot com and use code boys 20 for 20% off your order of can back to the episode how long do you want to play long time um i i i'm a perfect world crystal ball i'm a one year to time guy but for the sake of the podcast yeah i'd like to play out this contract and maybe do one more so uh yeah you know In the 40, in to 40. I think so. I think if my boys are doing well, if they enjoy the boys. The boys will honestly have a big playing it because if they're saying, hey, dad, we'd really like to have you stop. I'm done.

But if they're like, Dad, you can't quit, you got to go. Like, we're enjoying this. This is fun. I would go. So we should see how they view it, but they love it right now. Yeah, it was funny when we signed the contract here. My agent, as we were leaving the building, he just jokingly, I think he even said it to Minnesota, too, when we first moved there. He tapped him on the shoulder.

and he said, all right, thanks so much, guys. We'll see you. And he goes, we'll see you in three years for the extension. I thought that was a good line. We'll see, one year at a time. How is, I know I'm kind of jumping back up. I know we've got to wrap it up. When this news comes in about the draft and everything like that,

how did you approach talking with Pennix? Yeah, I just texted him that night. I just wanted him to have my number. Because, you know, just to have a resource to reach out to, like, hey, where should I live? I just want to make sure you have my number if you need anything. And then just congratulated him on an awesome college career. You know, like, lived it.

It's hard to do. And what he did is at the top of the top in terms of, you know, the college success. So just wanted to let him know that I have the utmost respect for what he's done. And they're ready to get to work. And I'm here if he needs me. So he's got my number. And he gets in, I think, this weekend for rookie minicamp. So I'll be able to see him now.

And we'll get going. Yeah, man. Do any of you guys have a question for Kirk? Have you heard the rookie minicamp schedule? It's light. It's light. It's when we were rookies. I had to do two rookie minicamps because of practice squad.

I was so pissed off. Your second year. That is the worst. K.O. came up to me. Fans won't really understand. K.O. came up to me. Explain why you had to do two first. So I had to do two rookie minicamps because I was practice squad my first year.

And I only played the very last game of the season. So which is you need three games to have accredited season to mean like you're not a rookie anymore. And so the next year, since I only had one game in 2013, the next year, we have a few OTA days. And it's not even on my radar. And K.O. comes up to me, the linebacker coach. And he's like, hey, just want to let you know, like, we want you to participate in the second rookie minicamp. And bro, I was so tough. You said yes, sir, though. I did say yes, sir. And he, he, it was, it was K. It was, it was K. It's hard because you have a full. week of work. You've already done four full

days and you have to keep going and then when the weekend is over of rookie minicap you have to start another week. And rookie minicamp is maybe the most dangerous weekend of the entire year. Playing with clueless people and it's two a day. Chaos spun it. Which ultimately is it was the right thing. It's for development.

And he was like, you know, they only drafted Trent Murphy was an outside backer. He's a past rush. He's like, we didn't draft any, hey, the good news, we didn't draft any linebackers. So he was like, myself, I'll get to work with you one-on-one versus like, have like Keenan, Perry Riley, all these guys that were ahead of me anyway. We'll get to do some one-on-one work together, Hazel. It'll get to see you more.

You'll get to communicate. Honestly, the rookie minicamp, like knowing the installs and knowing the calls and being demonstrative out there actually helped me go from three on the depth chart to then I was one on special teams across the board. Because Has came up to me and was like, comp, you know you can play, right? I'm thinking of my head like, yeah, yeah, I just, you know, I need an opportunity. And he's like, you do real well out here. he's like, where are you at on the special team step chart?

I'm like the fucking bottom. The next day, bro, I'm one across the board. That's interesting. And that second rookie minicamp actually was, you know, a big piece of. But it's a grind. It's a grind. If you feel disrespected because you're kind of being sent down. It's like being sent down in the minor leagues for a weekend.

For sure. But yeah, for me it was arrived Thursday. You get a physical two a day, Friday, two a day, Saturday, one a day, Sunday. So five practices in three days. And it was like, drink. through a fire hose it was a lot but now it's one practice and meetings in a developmental day yeah and like in like a meeting about how to take care of your finances that first time coming in a rookie rookie mini camp and just like trying to digest a playbook and then i don't know about y'all but the techniques

for an office a lot they want you to do techniques totally different than you have before it's like it's actually a scary situation correct it's it's interesting how good you can be at football if you're doing it the way you've always done it and the minute someone says okay now now do it from the pistol, something you've never done from the pistol. Or, okay, now do it with a motion going this way. Or, okay, now do it. Take this angle step instead of that angle step. And you feel like you've never played the position before.

Not only that, but also the comments like, hey, I don't know how you did it at Michigan State. You know what I mean? We do it a little bit different here, bud. It's just like it's shit. It ain't the big ten anymore, but I never thought about that. Like you being the pistol as opposed to be under center, how that could be so different for you. It just, yeah, like the footwork on it and where you step, the angles you take. You're like the play's the same, but I feel like it's a whole new offense I'm learning.

So there's a lot of pieces to start and over where you're like, it's going to take time because I'm not, I'm not the 13-year vet right now in this moment. I can get there. But right now, I'm having to start over. Part of the deal. Yeah, man. Dude, really appreciate you. You know how I feel about you. I really appreciate you for doing this.

It's great to get on and catch up. And now I've got to ask Jonathan about the watches. Yeah. No question. I'm telling you. I will tell you this, Kurt. Yeah, scratch that it's, bro. This is the second time you've come on this podcast

and the man that you are, being able to work through these processes going through trials and tribulations and being able to flip the switch being like, I can't control this. And moving forward is a special quality to have. I was thinking about that from my boys that like my boys are not going to have everything

go their way in their life. And I'm excited to say, what do you think dad did when he tore his Achilles? Or like, what do you think dad did? you know, when they tell him he's not good enough. Like, welcome to life, boys. Like, this isn't, and if I had had everything go my way, if I was the first overall pick and everyone told me how great it ways my whole career,

I don't have much to tell my boys. Like, my boys can't learn from that. So I think the blessing, similar to having to go to rookie minicamp, like there's a blessing there for raising my boys that they will be gritty when they're 18 because I feel like they're going to look at my story and be able to say, like, that's who we are. Like, that's what we do as opposed to, oh, we don't know what that's like, you know? Yeah, man.

Cousins never say die. Yeah, never say die, man. Just dig deeper. And you can be disappointed, but you can't be discouraged. You got to keep going. All right, guys. Appreciate you, brother. Thank you.

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. 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 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 Smigel 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your 20s can be so exciting, but they can also be really overwhelming, confusing, and honestly, just kind of lonely. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the psychology of your 20s is breaking down the science behind the biggest, roadblocks we face. I was six years into my career, the 80-hour weeks, and just the first one in, the last one out, and I ended up burning out. There was a large chunk of my 20s that I like was just

so wanting to like be out of that phase out of my skin. And I just like really regret not living in the present more. You don't need to have everything figured out right now. You just need to understand yourself a little bit better. Listen to the psychology of your 20s on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.