Bussin' With The Boys - Ryan Clark

Episode Date: August 18, 2021

Recorded: August 10, 2021 | Ryan Clark's name has made waves in Nashville before with his comments about Derrick Henry, but in this episode Ryan looks to turn over a new leaf with the city... or does he? Ryan Clark is the definition of the working man and he starts the pod with telling us the story of how he got his first job with ESPN, and also how he thought Stephen A. Smith wanted to fight him. Will follows it up with the questions we all want to know the answer to about Skip Bayless. Next, Comp gives Ryan the floor to explain himself for his interesting opinion on King Derrick Henry's run style. His explanation may or may not make Titans fans feel better about his comments last season. To wrap things up we get an inside look at Ryan's near death experience with sickle cell and how it helped shape his perspective on life. Joe Rogan needs to watch out because the boys are getting the hang of these long pods, you're not going to want to miss a single minute of this one! ----- BUSSIN' MAIL: Send a video to The Boys! bit.ly/BussinMail ----- EARN YOUR WOLF: Want to be featured on our Instagram Story? Screenshot this episode, tag @bussinwtb, and share it to your Story. The Boys will take care of the rest... ----- SHOP: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/bussin-with-the-boys FOLLOW THE BOYS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bussinwtb Twitter: https://twitter.com/BussinWTB Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BussinWTB Website: https://www.bussinwtb.com ----- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS: Chevy Silverado: The Strongest, Most Advanced Silverado Ever. Bearbottom: Go to https://barstool.link/BearBottomBSS and use code BUSSIN to get Free Shipping on your first order. Roman: Go to https://barstool.link/RomanBUSSIN you can get your first month of Swipes for just $5, when you choose a monthly plan. Georgia Boots: Head over to https://barstool.link/GeorgiaBoot and use code BUSSIN for 20% off Showtime: GO TO https://barstool.link/PPVShowtime TO ORDER NOW!For more, visit barstool.link/bussinwtbSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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 podcast. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest

moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsClyce on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on on TikTok. Before we jump into all the MMAs, are we ready to roll? Yeah, we're here. Busting with the boys. We have Ryan Clark on. Ryan, um, Ryan and I go way back. We played one year together. That's how far back we go. What year was that? It was your last year.

13. Yeah, you look 13 for me. What that was? No, it wasn't? It was my last year. It was your 13. It was 2014. 2014, though. But it was my 13th year, though. But it was my 13th year. season. Yeah. Yeah. So you play 13 years in the league. You are on how many segments on ESPN now? Not counting the podcast. Too many. I do get up, first take, live sports center. But you know, man, ESPN, they're going to get their pound of flesh though. Like, that's the way, that's the way it works. Until you could be Stephen A and they pay you astronomical amounts of money to do it. Yeah, but you do, you do all that stuff. You do, you have face first podcast, which you know to get into. You train dudes in the off season or maybe all year round. I don't.

don't even know at this point. I saw you coaching some underarm. I saw you coaching some underarmor game. Yeah, man. What else? What else are you doing? We should have the notes on here. No, that's enough. I mean, that's pretty much all it is. And I mean, shoot, you know the family. And so that's what I'm saying. How do you, how do you balance everything? According to my wife, I don't. So that's the, you know, so that's the big thing. Jordan's at ASU now. He plays for her. So he's going into his junior year. My oldest just graduated from LSU. She's about to start, she's moving to San Fran and start working and do some type of course at Berkeley. And then my youngest is a junior man. So now I'm about to be an empty nestor, bro. And like, I'm just trying to figure out like what do like normal people

do. Right? Because my wife wants like, she's like, you retired. We need to do this and like take trips. And I'm like, well, that's not really how it works for us. You know, like I'm still in this. still working and so you know you do your best to balance it man and and and I'm still still working on getting it right maybe you can help me with it because now you're married and stuff too yeah but I'm not doing near as much as you I like it's admirable I like of course I follow you have we've been you know since we've played together I followed you ever since because I feel like you were transitioning into that media world which we'll get into but hearing all that stuff it reminds me of the Chevy Silverado do you want to hear about the Chevy

Silverado yeah tell me about are you a big fan of the Chevy Silverado and you are you're a huge fan because my first car was actually Chevy though. So go ahead. Oh, I love that. The strongest most advanced Silverado ever. The Silverado is strong, advanced, dependable, hardworking, like Ryan Clark and the boys. The design is big, bold, commanding this truck turns heads, a partner with grit determination. Anything is possible with the Silverado.

Do you want to hear a few of the benefits you give with the Silverado? Can you please tell me? Tailgating, hauling that new big screen, towing, off-roading, moving day, helping out your friend or family member. Road chips with your family when you're going around and you're coaching all. American games. You're doing this. You're doing that and the fam's got to jump in with you. You're going to watch your son at ASU. You do it in the Chevy Silberado. Go to a Chevy dealership near you. Let them know the boys sent you. You might get a free trailer hitch. We've seen them from a fan out there that they got a free trailer hitch because they said,

hey, the boys. You get a few perks. But Chevy Severado, shout out the boys. No free shoutouts. All the love. Now we get to jump back in the right. It was crazy though. I was thinking myself, dang, I wonder if I could get a discount on a Silverado. Because you know, man, like I'm a truck guy now because in my retirement I don't drive well enough to buy a car that I feel like has to be cute. Right. Right. You get a Silverado. It's like I could go to work.

I could do these things and I clean it up. I can take my old lady out to eat and still be shop. Right. But will the busing with the boys get me a discount on a Chevy Silverado? We can probably hook that up. In some way, we can probably do something. Hey, I take pictures. I kiss babies. We got to start reaching out to him, hey, I promise he's going to do this.

Right, right, right. But no, man, I'm super curious because I'm going to backpedal this entire episode because I know how it all started for you, very similar with being undrafted. You played 13 years in the league, which is incredible and talking about the stuff I've learned from you and this and that. But I want to talk about you transitioning because I feel like I'm in the middle of transitioning. I feel like you're somebody who understood that they were on their back nine of their career. That's what I always refer to it as. And you started to see like, you know, this is going to slow down at some point. And you're somebody who was working on transition while you were still playing.

Right. And because I remember your last year with us, I don't know if you were doing it with the Steelers before that. But you would come to OTAs Monday through Thursday. Yeah. And then you would go. Yeah. And then you would fly to where was the- Bristol.

Yeah, Bristol. Yeah. To do stuff for ESPN and work on the media and everything like that. And then you would be back. You're the first one in the meeting room. You always have your nose super studious. But how did you balance? And when did you start to realize, like,

the game was coming to an end and you needed to figure out your plan B. It was probably about year 10. I think honestly, you should have noticed before that, though. Like, I'm an undrafted dude, you know, like, I worked at LSU. I was cut after my second year and had a regular job. Like, before Washington picked me up the first time, man, I had just left Will Munch Champ's office headed back during my lunch break, trying to be a GA, you know, but around that time, I had done some first take stuff.

Wait, wait, wait, being a GA, like, you were cut your second year? Yeah, so I was cut my second year. second year. Tom Coughlin sits in front of me, bro. Oh, in the league? You were in your second year and you had a normal job. I had a normal job. Yeah, I worked at Tiger Athletic Foundation. I was sitting on my sofa probably in like June of that year. I get a call and dudes like, hey, you want a job? And I was like, sure, what's the job? He was like a Tiger Athletic Foundation is like the fundraising, the fundraising sect of LSU. And so I started working. So I would wake up, bro.

I would wake up at 4.30 every morning, get dressed, drive from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. I'd work eight to five. I'd work out in the wake room, which was across the way from the office I had. Then I'd drive back home, take a shower, eat, go to sleep, and do it again. I went to the office to ask Mushchamp. I was like, hey, man, let me know what the process is to be a GA. I was like, I like to be a GA. I love football.

I love to coach. Walk back in the office. Agent calls me, Washington wants you to come in for a workout. Shaw and tea, God rest of the soul, hurt his knee. another guy tore his knee up because Joe Gibbs was like so ancient they had a mini camp the day before training camp right so go come in pass out the first practice yeah great Greg Williams 40 up downs deep ball drills right out the gate right pass out showan taylor comes over to me he's like hey man like you better do something bro they're talking about getting you out of here the db coach who is my db coach

in new york goes hey man if you don't do something in the second practice that's what back when they had two a day, they're going to bring in somebody tomorrow. I get two picks in that practice. Right. And after passing out of that morning. Right. And then, too, for anybody who's listening, I had the sickle cell trait. I didn't know how it worked then, but now I do. I was kind of messed up. All right. But anyway, and so, yeah, bro. And so, you know, I make the team and, you know, those things are going. But, like, I, you know, you fast forward. I do first take.

And I leave the meeting. You kind of talk about the notebook. Skip Bayless, man. Like, we're walking out of the meeting. I go out on the Sunday. Watch the game. Monday I'm gonna be on the show. I walk out of the meeting, skip bail, it stops the meeting, right? He stops everybody from walking out. And he was like, I just want y'all to know because I want him to say it.

Of every athlete or entertainer that came here, he's the most prepared, he was the most involved. I had my notebook, everything written down. Similar to probably the way we were all preparing in football. Same thing. You're sitting there in the beginning of the meeting, Ryan, he's like, the dude who comes in. Everybody knows who Ryan Clark is,

but he's sitting there being like the, the exam, the exam, of what a coach wants sitting there with your notebook out ready to take notes and had a lot of coffee that year too yeah but you know and that's kind of when you know well like I started kind of putting fillers out seeing what I could do okay now what kind of feelers like what are what are these things that you were doing so so so so what I did was did you go to those boot camps that no you didn't do none of that okay those are stupid um what I did bro let me tell let me tell you about the feeler okay the filler was Twitter okay right so I tweet year 10 I

I was like, man, if anybody needs an intern who's hardworking, who's looking to start a new career, hit me up. Trey Wingo DMs me. I was following Trey Wingo. Trey Wingo goes, you sit intern here. And I was like, do y'all do that? He was like, no, but I'm sure they'll do it for you. The Super Bowl is in New Orleans that year. I go to the Super Bowl to work on NFL live to kind of do a guest spot.

Trey says, come to me with me, introduce me to Seth Markman who runs NFL at ESPN. And he's like, Ryan Clark wants to do an internship. You should let him. He said, I'll take care of it. I go. I work for a week. And so usually when you go there, there's somebody who basically holds your hand as you walk around. Right.

And you do. And so this week for me, I got my emails like every other analyst. The producers reached out to me like every other analyst. And it was basically a test run for me to see if I liked it, but to see if I was even good at it. Yeah. I do that for a week, bro. That next Monday, I got agents calling me. And one of them said like the magic phrase, they go, I think I could get you paid to do TV while you play.

I said, you won. And so a little bit later, they work out a deal. And so basically, like, my last two years in the league, last with Pittsburgh, the one with Washington, I lived off of TV money and just banked my football money. No shit. Yep. So how stressful was it going back and forth and doing both? You know what? Or was it not that bad?

It's not bad, bro. Like, you know, you do this job. And I saw, I think it was a field Yates, you know, tweeted you, that you're an excellent podcaster, which you are. And we made me kind of proud. Because I was like, because I was like, that's a nephew. No, I know what I'm saying? He said this. No, no, I'm saying.

They made me proud. And so, but you know, like, there's preparation that goes into this. But when you are on the microphone, you're just you. Like, even with the Silverado, you know, the Silverado ad, like, you were just you. I know what the words say, but the words that you, the way you said it was Will Compton. Like that's what this is. And so going up for a weekend and talking about football, which I loved, which I watched, that wasn't stressful to me. I think it was more stressful in Pittsburgh because the first year I did it, we were o' and four to start that year, which is something that never happens in Pittsburgh.

So I'm sorry to cut you all. When our first year of doing the podcast and we backlogged a lot of episodes to make us last for the year, it's the year I ended up playing for the Raiders. So I wasn't on the team. but until I got picked up on the Raiders, I was, you know, a titan. Like, I was essentially a fan of the Titans tailgating with the Titans and the Busts with the boys. Titans started off like two and four.

Right. So every time the Titans lose, like, I'm sitting at home like, fuck, man, I don't even want to post this stuff. And I can only imagine what it was like for probably Taylor or having to go into the facility and continue to kind of be out in front of it. But, but yeah, no, go ahead. I just kind of went out. No, no, no, you're absolutely right.

And so in Pittsburgh, you know what it is. It's one of those things. It's like, oh, you ain't focused on football. You're on TV every Tuesday. Woo, woo, woo. And because it's a still town, right? It's a town that's about winning championships, which I had already done, right? And also, too, though, like people, they tweet me that and saying that.

I was like, mother F, I lost my spleen, my gallbladder, and peace of my liver for this team. Right. Like, I didn't done all that. And it's always that thing, right? Have a plan B. But your plan B can't be visible like mine was. You see what I'm saying? Like, say I was doing construction in the all season?

oh, that's admirable. You know, he's doing like an everyday working man's job. You know what I was doing? Look what Ryan Clark does in the office season. He builds houses. Exactly. Like, this is so awesome.

This is a man who was preparing. But this I was doing TV and it's during the season. It's like, okay, is that taking his focus? No, they just asking me questions about the freaking Pittsburgh Steelers. I know about them more than anybody. And so, like, that was the thing.

And it did become, it did become for me an issue because, Just like, you know, perception, even though it's not the truth, can be reality. Yes. Right. And so the perception of me throughout my career was exactly what you said. It was first in the meeting, always prepare, works extremely hard, like all these things.

And it hurt me a little bit for people to think that I didn't care anymore just because I understood the game. Yeah. Because like, and it sucks too because I feel like what plays into that perception too is because you care so much. much about like the team. And even though that perception, even though you know like the boys don't necessarily think that way, there's still a part of you that I know for me too, like you just lay up like, man, I hope coach or I hope, you know, the fellas aren't getting like any kind of wrong idea because I've read something on social media that's got me and my feelings. 100%. Like you, you internalize that. And that's the, you know, like people, we all want to live by like the whole

we don't really care what people think. And to an extent, I think, like, I'm very, like, I'm very much like that. But the other side of it is, too, is I don't, like, I don't want to be misunderstood. And so we had a meeting at work one time. And my boss, this is when, like, Jason Whitten was coming over to ESPN to do Monday night football. Okay. Before he had to go back to do football.

Before he had to go back? Because he wasn't really good at doing Monday night football. Before he had to go back or he had to go back. He made the right decision to go back and never come back ever, ever again. And so, like, he's going through, like, Jason Witten's 10 Twitter rules or something like that, right? And so, like, one of the rules was don't argue with people on Twitter. And so, like, you know, my boss and I love him and I text him about it. It was just kind of like, you know, make the joke the whole, like Ryan argues with guys with two followers.

And it's a big meeting, right? And I didn't do to him what I did to Jay Gruden that time when he was, like, talking subliminally about R.G. and I stood up and was like, hey, guys, we know he's talking about RG3. Oh shit, I forgot about that. Yeah, I was the captain. I could do whatever I was. Yeah.

I was like, just say it, bro. Like, we know what's going on. Like, come on, dog. You know what I mean? And so I didn't do that, but I text him afterwards, though. You know, and I was like, look, man. Who did you text afterwards? My boss.

Okay, okay. I texted him. I said, you know, I said, you know, I think Jason Whitney's fine. You know, I think Jason Whitney. This is before he started working. I was like he's a great man because he is. I've met him. I love talking to him, the things he does in the community.

But I was like, I ain't that dude. I was like, I'm a fighter. You know what I'm saying? And I was like, and to have a team, like, you got to have all types of people. You got to have a dude that's going to be calm and not get into arguments. And then you got to have a dude that when the argument starts, he going to be out front making sure everybody's good. But most of the time, bro, like, I reply to these things.

Like you could say, like, when people say, like, mean, stupid, ignorant things about me, I don't respond to that unless, like, I can see their profile pick. And they have some obvious deformity. that I know they might be insensitive about. And not like a real deformity. Or it's like a picture of their dog or something. Yeah, no, not a dog because that's not fun to talk about. Like, if the person is like slightly unhantom or...

Right, slightly unhantom. Yeah, that's what we'll say. Something like that. Slightly unhandsome. Well, I can take a shot and joke. I'll do that if they say something like they cuss me or something like that. But most of the time I respond because the reason they hate me or dislike me or disagree with me is because they don't understand it.

Like, I'm cool with the fact that you don't like something I say. Like, if I say something about Josh Allen and you disagree, which Bill's Mafia does often, and you have me 100% pegged the right way, like if I say, yeah, Josh Allen, you know, wasn't great. You know, we saw him ascend, but I didn't necessarily think he was the top 10 quarterback before last year. Now with Stefan Diggs, he's ascended. And you get that and you're like, nah, but he was great two years ago. I'd be like, nah, you stupid.

That's not true. but I'm not mad because you understood me. Like you got it. But when people like, like, you know, like sometimes I get the thing that I'm racist because I stand up for black people. No, I'm not racist.

Are you racist? No, I'm not. You know, like, my oldest daughter's half white. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you know, and so, but I'm not. But during 2020,

when I felt like it was important to speak up, I did. But because I spoke up, people was like, oh, you must feel this way. And I would have to reply to that because I don't want that misconception about me. No, if you don't, if you hear what I say and understand it and still don't F with me, so,

I don't even know you anyway. But I just don't want to be misunderstood because once those things get out, eventually those narratives begin to carry and I don't want that. So do you feel like it's part of the game that we are in as like in this world of social media, media in general, to have like certain, we call it branding to engage with fans as well. because, like, you could take the rules of, like, the example of being an analogy of Jason Whiton or don't argue with trolls or people like that on Twitter. Like, me and my seat, the reason I have fun and don't take it so serious and I'm out there,

I'm tweeting and stuff like that. Like, I wasn't, like, a quarterback or like Peyton Manning, who doesn't even need Twitter because whatever he does is going to be whatever it is. It's going to be goals, right? Like, they just think it's going to be funny because he doesn't need Twitter to build anything. But I feel like that plays into some of our branding as far as engaging. As long as we understand how to compartmentalize, you know, you don't want to be misunderstood. But like playing into all this stuff because we're like, why do you even give it, why do you even give it gas?

And for me, it's like, I mean, it's going to be funny. Like I think, like, some of it for me is, it's funny. Like I say, when I look at profile picks and talk, I also like to engage too. Like, you know, I started a new, I got a new M&A show and the comments are bad, but the DMs are worse. Like straight up, bro. How so? No, oh, man. they you stupid mother effort you don't know nothing because you don't think Islam

Makachev's last fight against moises was a good fight no it was boring as hell but what happens is right i answer those questions and i have those conversations with those people because a lot of times i learn because what what we know is this right you could be as good as you you could think you're as good as you want to be in that seat but it's about how people see you that's eventually going to get you paid period yeah right and in the and the and the and the and whether it's the higher ups that see you or executives in different places, or it's just the feedback they get from your show in a way to show rates. Like, that's how, like, that's how, like, that's how value.

And it's not the value that you have to internalize, right? Like, I don't have to walk out and be like, dang, I ain't worth nothing because these people don't agree. Nah, that's not how it works. How it works is if they don't hate me enough to watch it and talk about it or love me enough to watch it and talk about it, then I ain't winning, right? Kanye, who's bat crap crazy now, right, has a line in a song that's like one of my favorite lines ever.

And it's very simple. He said, everybody feel the way about yay, but at least they feel something. Like, people can't nothing us. If they just nothing us, like if they could take it or leave it, whether or not we on TV or whether or not we're doing our podcast, then that's not good. You know, if they could take it or leave it that this dude's fighting, then that dude don't headline paper views. or if they could take it or leave it that that you're not playing your game those teams don't

get primetime games like that's the way it works and so i think that's all a huge like a huge part of our interaction and too on who on who you are like i've been around you like you just legit are fun like like like straight up like in and in a way no i'm just saying like in a way like it even made me laugh one time you know like when the whole derrick henry thing was going on which I'm sure we'll get to at some point. It was probably somebody in here, tweeted something dumb about, you know, about Derek finally stiffed or somebody,

and it was on busting with the boys. And I was like, first off, you know, because I run all of my stuff. I was like, first off, Will's my nephew. He knows me. Like, if he wanted to know the answer to this, so he could text me or I'll come do the show. And he was like, oh, unc.

And when I see you, I'm going to hug you and it's going to be all love. And it just made me laugh because, like, part of me was like, well, if Will's a part of this, like, why would he even tweet that? Like, that's my dog. But then when you said it, I was like, nah, he's right.

You know what I mean? And like that part. And so that's what you portray and that's the way you interact. I'm actually like like this. Like, I don't like stupidity sometimes. Like, I don't like to be misunderstood. And I think that that comes across. But I'm also fun and I have a good time and I'm silly.

But all those things are what we have to portray in our brand where somebody like Peyton Manning, it's on display so much and highlight it so much. He doesn't need to show that. Right. And I did take from what you were saying and all that, too, like when you are engaging, like, there's a little bit of learning that goes involved with, like you said, if they hate you that much, they wouldn't watch you, they wouldn't listen to you and all that. But when somebody's obviously projecting and meeting you with some kind of friction and then you talk back to them in a way that you're either learning or you're saying something, they're like, oh, you know, I didn't know you were going to respond. And the energy is obviously different. But there's something in there, too, about responding with like, you know, I'm not so triggered by this that I can't like get something about like, you know, where are you? coming from or yeah you're right it was boring but this you know x y and z and um i do feel like there's there's that learning component that you have which obviously has ultimately gotten you where you are now yeah i think you know the the other piece about about learning that i had to learn bro is that like i can't like lewis riddick right louis riddick grew up differently than me louis riddick has had different

experiences than i have i can't out louis riddick louis riddick you know like i'm not going to get on there and be stern-faced the entire time and say these things that people think are always so eloquent you know like I can't do that and I just remember when I first got the job I wanted people to think I was so dang smart because kind of like what you said too about you know understanding and branding and this and that it was like I wasn't a hall of famer I won't be in a hall a hall of famer and I'm not a quarterback right and so in that and too like I wear colorful suits sometimes I had different times. Oh, hey, come on now.

Sometimes. You always don't correct. Oh, no, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I do different things with my hair. Yeah. And I understand like the perception of that.

So when I first started, I was like, man, like, I just want to be smart, man. So I would just study and study and study. And I would like spew the stats I learned and talk about the plays I saw. And it was, it was Josina Anderson who was in Washington, my first thing in Washington. And one day, man, like, we're just sitting in the green room. And she was like, I wish people knew how funny you were. and I kind of felt some type of way I was like what you mean

she was like I wish like your personality like your real personality show on TV and she was like don't get me wrong you do a great job and people here love you she was like but I know who you are and I wish that that showed and like I just this one when Get Up started and Get Up was kind of like struggling

and they were like and then the producer his name's Zach Benneby and he would produce me every day I was on he was like what do you want to do what do you want to talk about about how do you want to talk about because they were in a place where he understood like this is the way this show is going to get off and he just started let me be me and then because i did it on get up now first take wanted that me too now sports center wants that you too live wants that you too so it was truly when i started just thinking just started just being myself like being the same person that's sitting here talking to you was when my career took off i think and also when i started to enjoy it because it was like real work for me at first And football was never work. And you felt, did you feel stressed?

I guess trying to be this image that you wanted to have as being the smartest dude because you felt like you probably had to prove yourself in this world and overcome some of the thoughts that might be out there. And then finding that new voice of like balancing the humor with it or that new personality about to get up. One thing, bro, I'm not going to die of stress. Like, I ain't going to let that happen. So, no, I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say I was stressed.

I just, I definitely had to think about it and work on it more than I should have been because the personality part is truly just personality, right? And worrying about how people perceived me took away the personality part of it. And so now I still study the same way. I still focus the same way. I'm still up on Monday nights, I mean on Sunday night or Monday morning to 2, 3 a.m., get up at five to do get up. But when I get up to do it, it's not like, I got to say,

I got to make sure I hit this, play, that play, that play. It's I have an overall view of what happened. I have things that stick out in my mind. And if when I ask the question, that's the first thing I think about, I'll say it. If it's not, then it's not. Like, if you ask me a question and the first thing, and the first thing I think about is Bilal on house party.

And every time he tried to dance with a chick, they were saying his breast stink. And then he started singing in her ear. And that's the first thing I think about. That's the first thing I'm going to say. And if I'm on the show with somebody black, usually they catch it. If I'm not, usually they don't. Oh, as I'm sitting here, like.

And I just keep on rolling. You know what I'm saying? Hey, you're like, hey. He said if he's not, my eyes kind of look to the right on. Oh, shit, this has happened to me right now. But, you know, and like, and so the thing that's happened from that, though, is greenie ago, I'm sure that's funny, but I have no idea what you're talking about. You know what I mean?

And that, and that's the thing. But I think it's also, too, since I started. being that way. I think it's allowed, it's allowed other people to, to kind of live in that truth. And it's helped me, it's helped me work with other dudes. You know what I'm saying? Like, if you're on there with somebody who's not necessarily like the most personality, then I know that day, I have to be a lot of personality, you know, or if you go on the show and you know somebody feeds off of you very well, I know that day, I could throw alley-ups and they'll catch them. And that, and that's really, I think that's really when you start to

get in a sweet spot of of people telling you knowing and understanding that every time you're on a show you make it better because that's the that's the goal every time you're on the show you want the people you work with the people producing the show to be like dang when rc's on the show that's better and i think that's where i am now i feel like i'm learning a lot about his psyche on like going into all these different shows and everything it's pretty it's it's interesting to like listen to just because i i feel like you've had to uh you've you've grown through at all, obviously. You've approached it the same way. You probably, like me, it's still being a dumb football player, like being a football player

and carrying it over to the next world. But it's just insightful to kind of listen to, like, you know, going into these pre-meetings or thinking, like, finding your voice, and here's the sweet spot. And here's where I started to learn this. And I wanted to be smarter, but then I had to learn that here's how I had to adapt to bring this element to it. Before we go into the next thing, I got to tell you about barebottom clothing. Before you pack your next trip, check out the boys of bare bottom clothing, no free shoutouts, boys. Their lineup of versatile menswear is perfect for getting it done this summer.

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hey man that was actually very long you're gonna buy some killed it though you're gonna buy something now I'm trying to get all free stuff that's okay well we're gonna hook you up hey also too man you know that that that uh that five and a half seven I gotta get my vmos right them tear drops yeah it needs to be raining I'll say yes trust me I'm been I was doing the TKEs earlier this morning absolutely doc um Your face first podcast. I want to talk about that a little bit because I was watching your sit down.

I want to say it was, what was the one with the DBs called? Safety's first. Safety's first. And then you sat down with Troy Palomalu recently and Ike Taylor, legends. Talk a little bit about what that's about

and where you're wanting to go with that because I feel like you've made a couple pivots along the way. And now I feel like it's starting to get out there more than ever. So I'm curious what the brain is behind that operation. It's all happened accidentally on an accident. Accidentally on an accident. So it started because I wasn't, I'm not in love with TV. Okay.

Like I just, not in love in what way? I think, you know, like I get around people. Marcus Spears is one of my closest friends. Went to college together. He's excellent on TV. We're standing at the spring game at LSU one year, probably three, four years ago. And he goes, what do you want to do with this TV stuff? And I was like, oh, man, you know, I really love Ball and I love the fact they let me talk about it.

So as long as they pay me to do it, I'm going to do it. Yeah. And he goes, well, I want to be a TV star. And the first thing out of my mouth without thinking was I don't. And that's 100% true. Like I don't. I rather be seen less. Like if you look at my social media, like there's no, there's no video of me talking,

holding the phone in my face about anything, right? Like you'll never see me, oh, such and such just happened. It was this. Nah, like, because if I ain't on TV, then it ain't for my voice to be heard right now. Like, and it's strange. Like having the hot takes, like doing the selfie videos. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, and so for me, it started to become work in the sense that, you know, you got to talk about what's hot in the cycle. You know, you got to talk about Aaron Rogers all summer because Aaron Rogers is a story, but Aaron Rogers shows up on the first day in his shirt with Kevin from the office on it, right?

But you got to talk about it. And you got to talk about it in the way that people get excited about it every dang time you do. And so it started. at first because I was like, you know what, I'm going to start a podcast. Nobody ever has to listen to it, but it's going to be like therapy. If there was something I wanted to talk about that week, I'm going to talk about it. So that's how it started. And it was just me sitting, I did a radio show every week. And the dude was like, I'll video for it for you RC. Because the first it was in a, it was in a studio. It still will be, right? And so I was going to

say, I kind of dig the way you've been. It still will be. And so I took off for most of 2020 because right at the beginning of COVID, my mom got it. And so my mom has lupus, really bad. She has what's called aspergillus, which is basically like where you get pneumonia a lot. And I hope I'm saying this right. No doctors check me. Her lungs basically have calluses on them.

Right? And so if you would have asked me when I first heard about COVID, who's the one person in your life who can't survive it, I would pick my mom. Right? My mom growing up, my mom, my parents were my best friends on East Side. She was my best female friend. He was my best. My father was my best male friend growing up.

And so my mom goes to church, bro, like eight days a week, like 25 hours a day, stays in church. And so I call her when she first gets in and we're talking about it. And like, I'm fighting from crying. She's not scared of freaking. Oh, I'm freaked out. So every day, so every three days we drive down, bring her supplies, me and my kids and my wife. and my wife would sit on my sidewalk where I grew up. My mom would sit in the doorway with her mask on,

and that's how we talked to her. You know what I mean? And so, like, at that time, she didn't test negative for 46 days. Okay. Right? And so at that time, bro, it was all I could think about, you know?

And so I was like, people don't want to come here and me talk about my mom and COVID every day. And so then shortly after, right, we get George Floyd and we get Breonna Taylor. And that stuff consumed me. right so I mean a lot of people those that like with everything shut down it was kind of just the focus and magnifying glass was whatever was the big topic

coming out but yeah you know what I consume me and it was all I could do and it's all I wanted to talk about so I'm at marches and I'm giving speeches and I'm doing all these things and so I took off for that period of time and so then we kind of swung back around and I started up again in the studio and I just started getting like these ideas of people like I wanted to put on like people I wanted to talk to and because it was like my thing

thing. I was like, I can talk to wherever hell I want. But it was just all people I like. You know, like I had my best friend on who rapped and we made an album and the dude that does all my videography. I had him on and we did a show. And then I did a show about like undrafted guys because we're undrafted. And it was like, it'll be cool for people to hear these stories from dudes who aren't drafted. And it was the Shazer Everton, Mike Ford, people who I trained. And so it was like, I want to put them out that want people to see them. All the safeties that were on that show, they're like all my guys. Like, I train them all. Obviously, the Troy thing was kind of like the biggest thing for me.

He's one of my closest friends. He's definitely the best friend I have from my playing days and he don't ever talk publicly. Right. He's never out there unless you see a head and shoulders commercial. Unless you see ahead and show you're like, oh, there's Troy Paul Mello. And I think, and he's like one of the most, he's like one

of the more naturally intelligent people I've been around. Like if he's around it and he absorbs it, he can regurgitate it in a way that other people don't think. Like on that podcast, bro, I don't know if you finished it. He talks about when he knew it was over. Right?

Yeah. That, yeah, I love that part. It's just crazy, right? Like, I knew it was over because Jordan had to go open the door every Saturday in Virginia for the barber because I couldn't get down the stairs on Saturday. Like that was how. Jordan's his son. George was my son. Like, that's how I knew that.

And when he said that, I was like, bro, that was like low key, like the greatest flex of all time. Right. Can you tell everybody with, uh, so you can find this on face first podcast too to listen to Troy say it. Yeah. And, and it's on, you know, it's on, uh, on face first podcast, Instagram. It's on the Twitter. You'll see it. So he basically said he was in a position

where he felt like he'd create and innovate and make moves in the defense. He had a job, but he knew he could switch that job and try to make a play. Go from the A gap to half field. Make a play. And he goes, he's like, and then I thought about it. I had no more moves.

He's like, I had been in the A gap and went to the half. He's like, I had moved the D in the round. I'd move the nickel. I'd played corner. I'd played safety. He was like, there was nothing left for me to do. I jumped over the line of scrimmon.

Right. So I'm sitting there, listening to him. and like I'm saying right right and I sound like an idiot I'm like right right but I don't get it you know I mean like it's it's not it's not processing to me that you played in such a complex defense you've done all of these things that you truly feel just mentally it wasn't even physically he felt mentally there was nowhere else to go and that was like that was a moment that I learned something about him and like we talk all the time you know what I mean like like our relationship and my, you know, my wife used to make fun of us.

She's like, oh, did you comb Troy's hair today? Like, our relationship, no, I didn't. My, our relationship was one of those, like, really strange relationships. Like, he would always go home and see his family for home games, right? And I would stay at the hotel because, like, the hotel is for married people so you can get away from, like, responsibility. Yeah. You know?

And so, bro, and so if we had a one o'clock game, Troy would pick me up from the hotel at, like, 7.30, 8 o'clock. We'd go over. And, guys, don't like I'm gonna try to say this so it doesn't sound as funny so I'm just gonna pause it now pause right for the rest of the conversation okay we we'd get to the stadium bro uh we both like this is a no pause podcast yeah yeah like we we'd get to the stadium we get to the stadium like we set all our stuff up like our supplements our drinks whatever whatever put our shoulder you know

get our show the pads ready I would make a towel because I would make towels for our pants Troy is not fancy like that but he liked the towel right yeah so I so I do my towel I do his we put him up, whatever. He'd read the Bible. I'd read. And then he'd like walk past you like, you're ready. And we would go. They had two hot tubs. We'd sit there andace each other, talk in the hot tubs, whatever, whatever. Then we'd shower. He'd put his clothes and I put my, I know, that's what I'm saying. No pause. Yeah, I paused at the beginning. And we shower, we'd get dressed, we'd dab each other off, hug each other, and we say, I see you when the game starts. And like, we'd separate, do our thing. And then before every game, we'd hug,

we'd talk and we'd say one more of many more. Because that's what we started. Our first year starting together and we felt like we could do that for a very long time like that's dope like that's what we would do and so and um and so like we just had this relationship that was different and then there was ike who was totally different from both of us like we were both married we both had kids ike is like this dude from new orleans who's favorite saying is eye contact get you instant beef you know like i could like i could get it to it people during the game and then like if he saw you the all season it was not over like we're not going to have a drink none of that like let's square up like that's how he is like now he boxes like he goes to these different boxing gyms and spars with

people who actually box like that's who he is and so to get all those people together man and do that like that was a dream for me and i would have to text and like Troy is one of those people that like don't ever have a phone like he has a phone but he ain't worried about it so you i text him like hey bro let's do this podcast he'd be like two weeks later oh i'm sorry bro i didn't see the messages we could do it whenever and then i text him like hey man ike's in and a week later he's like okay is Ike still coming and I was like yes Troy we're gonna be there on Monday bro and so we go and that's how it happens and so now I got one coming out this Friday with James Harrison oh yeah I saw that you know what I mean and it's like and I have I truly I can be honest with you I don't know if I have

a goal or even a direction like I have a marketing lady now which is super weird you know and she's like well we got to do this with it and do that and I was like nah I just want to do shows and I think that's what it's going to be for for the time being because I don't know what the sweet spot is for it yet. Yeah. I mean, that makes sense. And so we'll see. Where have you gotten, like, obviously, busting with the boys?

But where else have you gotten inspiration from? Obviously, bustling with the voice. Podcasting. I feel like, too, like, I think it's cool because I've been trying to get him on. So if you can hook it up, that'd be awesome too. But watching I am athlete as well, I saw you going on that. You were there when my boy, Levante was on it. I'll watch out of episode.

I feel like what Brandon and them do is dope because of their production setup. I feel like that just builds on the inspiration of guys who want to do stuff. That's somewhere I grab now. No, that's crazy. Alicia, who produces it, you know, is like different level, though. You know what I mean? It's like it's I felt. They have rolling credits at the end of the show.

Bro, I felt, I mean, I felt super TV stupid riding over with her to do it. Because she produced, so they did like a path to the draft thing at House of Athlete. You know, I trained the DBs there. and like we're going over and she's talking about the hard knocks and she's talking about the showtimes like 24 she did all of floyd stuff and the way she got to doing floyd stuff what she did it's cold old stuff when he was fighting floyd and floyd was like give me her because she had me thinking that mother eff was going to beat me like she's like good like that you know what I mean and so it's just it's just such a top notch team and I remember going to do it and obviously so

Chad wasn't there so I was basically taking chad's place but duane way was there and I'll be honest with you. Like I walked in the building. I said on the show, I had, like, I had one plan. I was going to talk more than everybody but D. Wade. That's it. Like, Brandon wasn't going to talk more to me, Channing, Fred. None of those. Like, if I'm here one time, I'm going to get it in. But what they're doing, I think what they're doing is different because they have a great group of dudes and they talk like friends. They, like, they go in, obviously, with the topic. And it's easier when they have a guess. But whatever they're feeling, they share. share and I think people gravitate toward that and it helps when you have somebody like brandon

who's had such public struggles with mental health yeah and because he has what a borderline personality disorder something I don't want to misquote it so I know I've tried talking about it before too and I'm just like I don't want to go too much and do it because I'm not going to do that but uh you know he's very he's very honest about it he's very open about it he does a lot of service and and activism with it and so to have somebody like that who's already been so vulnerable allows the rest of people on the show to be and I think that's you know like that's a huge thing like I can't I don't necessarily know if I want my show to go in that direction because the other piece of it is like it's only me you know yeah like it's different if you get to and you're doing a saw you do a lot

of other things yeah and so it's it's different if you get to like if you're talking to the same group of dudes you know like the thing like you and taylor y'all obviously have like this great dynamic because y'all do it all the time and then when somebody else comes on it's like y'all too because y'all the boys and somebody else is on the bus and y'all kind of let them get it but y'all still throw in who you guys are i don't necessarily know like how that dynamic starts for me and with them too they got i feel like they started to take off on ocho got added to the to the whole segment i mean you got you got some known players who are all sitting around each other talking and when you got a character or a personality like ocho can't lose you can't lose you can't lose you can't lose you can't

because remember when it started it was reggie way that's right yeah that's right remember when So when it started, it was Reggie Wayne. And I think when you add the right people to stuff and they get started and you start saying, okay, like Chad, like Chad was Ocho Cinco playing football, you know, so let's get him doing what he, what he does and just film it. And that's what happens. And it's been, it's been magic, man. Like, I'm really excited for those dudes.

I'm happy for him because it also carves a different lane. And like, the way I look at is like this, right? If you play linebacker or if I play safety, which we did, and say, we are really good players and the top dude gets 200 million. I'm not mad at him, right? I'm glad that you've made the number there because now when they look at me and they say, oh, you're a pro bowler, okay, you're a starter for this long. You definitely ain't worth 200 million.

But you know what? I can give you 80. Where do I sign? Right. And that's what they're doing. They're elevating the game. They're making the podcast game different. And you can watch the moves they make.

You can watch the way they do. shows and then now you can pull from that what works for you and continue to build your brand. And so definitely shout out to Be Marsh and those boys for what they're doing. And it was great to be on there. That's why I wore my red jacket so people remembered. Hell yeah. You did too. And Levanti, he was so funny because I knew when I saw him post a picture with D. Wade,

I was like, oh, this dude, I know he went from six to midnight when he saw D. Wade playing basketball. Six to midnight. Is it? Yeah. Six to midnight. Never heard it. There you go.

You can have it. See how you didn't understand the black thing? I don't get that one. He's saying black. That's what I work with baseball. Like one of my partners is a baseball player, bro. And they're fascinated with that part of the body for some reason. And they say they say in baseball.

Yes. I mean, I feel like football players. Yeah. But they say some stuff sometimes, bro. And I'm like, wow. I don't get that. But it sounds wrong. It sounds real.

Y'all can go and keep that conversation. Have they, has I am, have they monetized that yet? You know, I don't know. Because, bro. Brandon has, Brandon has, has, has, has, as, I know he has other brands. He has big brain mentality. Long term thinking. Yes.

Because one, yeah, realize he made a ton of money. Right. Enough, like, because I don't know if you've ever met Quincy and Nunwa. He used, he was a receiver from Jeff. He ended up getting paid there before he got injured. But he played with B. Marsh. And I'm tied with Quincy and I was like, hey, what's, uh, B. Marsh like? because I was trying to get in touch with him.

He's like, bro, like, he's all time. Like, he's somebody who works extremely hard. He does, man. When he gets done with practice and say he'd have a helicopter and take a helicopter to go do, you know, TV or whatever the case may be. So it just talks about how much work he puts in this stuff, like House of Athlete, all this stuff. So I'm just curious what they're doing.

It's so crazy because he thinks we're alike, but we're not. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? How so? So I was the first one to do the TV while playing thing. He was the second. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, as far as paving the lane. Yeah, and so he was like, yeah, RC, you know, he talked to me about it.

And I'll be like, be, we're not actually the same. And then, like, even with the gym, he talked to me about, like, House of Athlete, like, five years ago. And doing that. And I was like, I don't really know if I, like, I think he has such a, like, I have a real, like, workers mentality. He has a very heavy boss mentality. Like, he likes to, he likes to delegate. like he likes to create and I like to and I like to create in a sense of I like to create for me like I like to like to feel good about doing things like he likes to create on such a mass scale you like to be boots on the ground you like to be involved all the time right and so and so like I think that's going to be the beauty of house of athletes for him and of I am athlete because he's not going to be in a rush like he's he's going to understand and see like this is like this is where I want to go And until he gets there, he's not going to do anything with it.

He's not going to rush himself. And I think that's the same thing that happened with House of Athlete. Like he was building and building and building and putting in architecture and putting in and looking for the right staff and to do the right things. And finally it got to where he wanted it and he did it. Morgan Wells, who is the head of his like pro pro department, right? Used to work for me. And like this dude, man, had brain surgery at LSU. He ran hurdles.

he worked at LSU Then he worked at traction for me with DB precision Then he went to XO's Then he went to IMG And Brandon was like after him After him after him after him after him And he meant it He was like I'm gonna get him

You know And then he gets to him And he has one of the largest Combine classes In the country One of the best combine classes in the country You do path to the draft You do all these things

And he's so meticulous about each step That I think you know He is a good one to follow not just based on what the podcast is, but based on the business around it. He's smart. You can tell he's like, he has freedom about not being in a rush for anything.

He also has no idea about NBA contracts. Hey, when he was getting dead. He is such a large human, bro. I know, bro. Like, people don't get it. Like, I got a picture with him from the... And you see that he boxed.

I don't know how well he buys, but enough for me to just be like, you know. Not to fight him. Yeah, right, right. Sure. I'm hitting him with something out of the gate. And you got to swing first too. But I've been talking to D.C.

about different holes and different submissions. That's more so where my fight game is going in my 40s. Hey, speaking of a fight game, are you ready to read? Are you ready to do an ad? Do I get to do an ad? Showtime pay-per-view. You get to talk about the Jake Paul versus Tyron Woodley. God, that's a very long ad.

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things happen, so you just got to focus on your craft. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at Rocket MortgageFieldhouse.com. Order now. Go to Showtime. app or showtime.com slash pay-per-view and watch the event live on any supported device. The event is also available via all major cable, satellite, and telco pay-per-view providers for 59.99. That's not 60. That's a cent less. So if you got 320s, you got enough money to buy the pay-per-view. And if you can, let me know what happened because I might not be able to watch

it because it's on the 29th. Ain't got to do something. Hey, bro, that was a phenomenal ad read. Well, thank you. Do you have a lot of teleprompter stuff with the TV that you do? So I finally got with this producer named Artie and he kind of saw me like differently than just a football player, which is always a thing. And so he was always a thing. It's like, man, I didn't know you were like this. I didn't know that you had this side of you.

Absolutely. And so one day we were on and they were doing like the top 10. And there was like, R.C, you were involved in the top 10. And so I get to talk like basketball, soccer, all these things. And like sometimes, like, I'd mess up names because, like, some of the names are weird, you know, and I mess them up. But they just laugh about it. Names are hard. There's not everybody has two first names.

Ryan Clark's very simple, very simple. It's like, I remember, and just off the subject, a recruiter comes down. I went to a capitalist school, predominantly white recruiter comes down. They tell him Ryan Clark is down there and he didn't know it was me because he's looking for a white boy. But anyway, so, and so, you know, so he was like, we're going to start let you read your bumps. but they wouldn't let me write them. Obviously, they were just written for me. What are bumps, sorry.

So, Bumps is, so say, say after, say I'm going to talk about the Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott's contract in the next segment. Okay. And they, what they might do is Sage, Steele, Hannah Storm, be like, and coming up, Ryan Clark talks about such and such, but they will let me do it for myself, right? So I'd be like, coming in the show, I'm going to talk about Dak, Prescott, he got 140 the ems what is ezeko elliott going to do and now what does this put the cowboys in the next season right and so they write it for me but they'd write it in like you know 45 year old white man

voice you know what i'm saying and so it's so like cornball head ass voices you know what's it's you know and so like in reading it i'd be like guys like that ain't me and so the first time i did it you know i kind of just bounced around like that and did it and it was like every time that's it that's the way you read it every time from now on and so like that that's that's the way you read it every time from now on and So like that, you get to do that type of prompter stuff. When Troy retired, they let me write this piece up for him. And I did that. And when I did that, I was in the prompter.

But they don't really give us those, like those kind of opportunities, which is the cool thing. Like, which would be the cool thing for you hosting this show. It's now become the cool thing with me having a show with D.C. Is like I get to read ads and I get to do bumps and do these different things. John Saunders. when he was at ESPN before he passed, we had a meeting, you know, like, I got a call. It's like, John Saunders wants to meet you.

I was like, who? Why? Like, he's like big time. Yeah. Like, what is? Why would he ever want to talk to me? And he sits me down and he goes, don't let them box you in to just being a football player. And at the time, like, I didn't really understand it.

That's like, well, I am a football player. But he was just basically saying, like, you are talented enough to do all of these things. and you should do your best to try. And that was like another thing with the podcast. It was like, I'm always doing the same thing. I'm basically doing other people's bidding, right? Like, this producer wants you to talk about this.

So you go talk about it. I wanted to be in a space where I wrote the content. I wrote the questions. I decided how the show was going to go. I controlled flow. And that's what I do. And like the cool part about it, too, it's like one time I went on and talked about when I almost drowned in Mexico.

I had nothing to do with sports. You know, another time I went on, because I've been to Mexico twice this year, another time I went on and I talked about when I was going to fight this dude at a pool in Mexico. Nothing to do with sports. But guess what? Can't nobody tell me nothing because it's my show. Right. And like that's the cool part.

So going into you doing other segments because I didn't want to get too far away from the fight game, you are now in that new MMA community working with somebody like Daniel Cormier, who's one of the goats. what was the motivation behind that? What made you want to get into that? Is that something you're very interested in? Oh yeah, I'm going to. So talk about how you got motivated on getting into that, getting that spot,

and then obviously now that you're in it, like battling the MMA community because you don't know enough about it because you played football. 100%. The first thing is I often laugh because the dude tweeting me or DM in me is probably like me.

You know what I'm saying? The sense of his fandom for the UFC. Right. You know what I mean? I still have like the ultimate fighting knockouts DVDs that I used to watch like back in the early 2000s you know what I mean there's no weight classes yeah like people fight it's just a huge tournament yeah like one dude got on boots and another dude got on a ghee but the dude in the ghee is 340 the dude in the boots is 160 you know right and like Gracie wins those joints you know

I mean and then and like my first like my first favorite fighter was Chuck Liddell and I just just always thought he was super cool because he was built like that and he could knock people out Right. You know, and so, like, I remember, like, my first championship fight was Couture Liddell won and Couture wins it, you know, but then it comes back. And then, you know, so I just loved all of it since then, and I just followed it. And so in the offseason, like, I would train in Kimpo in Pittsburgh. I do Kimpo as stand-up. I do jit-soo.

I'd grapple. And, like, I used to work on my tackling all the time. So, like, double-a, single-legs. And, like, I just always loved it and was fascinated with it. And then as it evolves, you get a guy like John Jones, who's this amazing, amazing athlete. both his brothers play football, Anderson Silva, right? Like you see all these dudes George St. Pierre, and I just fell in love with it.

So I would follow it. And then it became this game of, can I get my tweet on TV? Right? Like that UFC. Hey, sometimes all hashtag. Like, everybody's going to know I'm trying to get on the TV right now.

You know what I'm saying? And so like I am that type of tweeter. Like that's how I got a section on Get Up, a segment that's explaining your tweet. Because I like to, because that's how I talk to the world or have conversation because I ain't nobody at my house watching the fight like my son's gone he'll text me or face-time me when somebody gets put to sleep but I'm by myself in the front and that's how like I get interaction with people like oh you know and so like that would happen that would happen and my boss Seth Markman who runs NFL he was like bro you really love this jump don't you and I was like yes and so when I did my new deal did you ever get on TV all the time I pretty much made like everyone every time even before I got the job yeah and so um Not tight at all.

Yeah. And so, yeah, because, like, when one time, like, probably about during, like, the, during COVID, I tweeted one time, I was like, bro, how much do y'all think D.C. weighs? You know what I mean? This is before I had a show with him.

And he, like, tweeted me back. He was like, man, I'm retired, bro. You know what I mean? Gumbo, Jumbulli or whatever. For you to answer that question. Right. And so I got a pilot. So in my deal, I was going to get a pilot.

So say I wanted to do, say I was like, I could have called you and been like, hey, man, ESPN Plus 1. wants me to do a show. Like, I love to do some form of busting with the boys. Can I come talk to you, chop it up, how y'all do it, produce it, talk to your people. I could have went to ESPN and say, you know, yeah, like, I want to do a show something like this.

Okay. But I had to find my people to do it. Right. I had to find my people to do it. And so what happened, Ariel Lees. Yeah, that's a dude. Yeah, okay. And they give D.C. a list of names.

And I guess none of the people were of the MMA community, though. Right? So it was like actors, like other analysts. But they wanted. the show to like broaden its reach and they wanted because obviously you got dc like if you want real fighter now like the dude does detail like Peyton manning does detail he's crazy he's crazy good right and so uh and so i met dc probably four four years ago or so in the airport we walked it through Atlanta and he's like uh Ryan what's up and we're talking and like I remember walking away and

calling my son Jordan I was like jordan I was fired up for you bro what I was like Daniel corn me knows who I am yeah you know what I was like he called me or see I was like your dad might be a star You know what I mean? And so like he picked me, man, and my boss called me. He's kind of running down my schedule for the season. And he goes, oh, one more thing. There's this, D.C. is getting a new partner. He needs a new show.

They want you to do ESPN Plus and a podcast with him. Do you want to do it? And I was like, yeah, man, you know, I'm fired up him. Like I'm just like, yeah, yeah, I do it. And he's like, oh, and so they're trying to start it live in Vegas. like there's some fight in early July. I was like, oh, McGregor, Porriere? And I was like, yeah.

Like, they want you to be there to start the show then and, like, go to the fight and stuff. I was like, man, you know, it's like whatever the network needs, bro. Like, that's what, for the brand. I was like, that's what they need me to do. And, you know, I'll just make myself available. Like, I had some things, but I'll move. Bro, I hung that, like, I hung that, like, I hung that phone up.

I was jumping around. Let's fucking go. You know what I mean? And so, and so, bro. And so, like, we do the first one. And I think it's really good, right? Yeah. I was like, I'm talking about studied, bro.

Like, I'm watching, like, all kind of old fights. Like, I'm really into it. And we do it. I was like, you're about to take the old mentality of like, okay, I got to show the MMA community that I'm smart as shit. But see, though, but, like, no, not even that, though, because the cool thing was, like, DC put me at ease with this, bro. He was like, he was like, R.C.

Because I was, like, the whole time on a production meetings, I'm downplaying myself. Like, DC, I'm not going to try to, like, analyze it. Oh, buddy. I would have been super, yeah. Yeah, I'm not going to try to analyze, bro. Like, I know that's you. like I just want to come from a perspective or somebody that loves it, you know.

And he was like, shut the eff up, bro. He was like, nah, he's like, you coming at this from an elite level athlete standpoint. He's like, yeah, you're a fan, but you understand what it's like to be championship ready. Like, you understand what it's like to win championships. And he's like, and that's the, he's like, and that's the way you're going to come at the fight again. He's like, nah, you ain't got to analyze whether or not the submission was done right or what hold he uses. But you know what it's like to walk in to a training camp trying to prepare. prepare for something. So he kind of put me

at ease. Oh, he gave you a pep talk. That's a good talk. What I'm saying? I was fired up. And so we do the show, bro, and everybody freaking hates me. You know, you're saying like, hey, I'm talking about Will, I walked off like, man, that joke was good, man. Like, they're going to feel me. But

then, you know, the MMA community, especially since it's going to ESPN, because their ESPN is trying to broaden the reach of it. Obviously, Dana wants to broaden the reach of it. It's like Stephen A's doing it. And it's such a, like, The MMA community is almost like if bussing with the boys turn to yachting with the boys. Yeah.

Right? Because because they've been with y'all from here, right? And they're like grassroots from the bottom fans. Like when this thing blew up, like if y'all started bringing on like other people or got other people involved, like they would hate them because they would be like, that's not what it is. Right. When all y'all are trying to do is saying, nah, what we have is a great thing. and we just want more people to feel it. We don't want to get rid of you.

We always want y'all. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, we're the garage band. And just because we're selling out arena, we're not going to change our music. It just means that you got to buy your ticket earlier if you want to get as close as you got to us in the other arenas.

And that's kind of what we're trying to do. Shout out to Tier 1s. That's a good pet talk for the Tier 1s out there. That's like our elite level fan base. Wolfpack Tier 1s, whatever. Well, some of your tier 1s, when you say when I, when you fall. I mean, anytime I'm like, yeah, I got the boy R.C. coming on.

I'm just thinking, like, whenever I drop it, I just know because the majority of our greedy tier ones are Titans fans. Bro, you know what? So hang on, hang on. Do we need to get an ad before we talk about this? Oh, cliffhanger. I love it. All right.

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Make sure you're ready to have confidence again, Ryan, and control this summer the Roman ready way. So the whole time you're reading that, look what I'm thinking. All the tier ones are going to be like, yeah, that's probably what you're going to be. why you said that about Derek Henry, because even Will said it, you have erectile dysfunction. I mean, he's just bottled on ED. He's projecting.

Right, right, right. So let's get into it. You had some comments about Derek Henry last year. I'm going to need some memory. There we go. Derek Henry doesn't run over anybody close to his size. Dot, dot, dot. I assume there's some more context in that.

That's usually what that means. Has late play bravery. Now, I'm going to step back. I was on the team. You know, in my head, like, okay, we were going to humble the Steelers, which we showed up in the second half, almost did that.

We didn't show up for the beginning of the game. Rebel told us that after the game that we should have beat him, so I believe him. But go ahead, I'm going to step back, and I'm going to let you take this quote. Yeah, and so here's your rally cry for Pittsburgh Nation and try to get in by the row. They were so fired up.

Gosh, that was such a great play by me. Such a great TV moment. So here's the thing, right? And sitting in that seat, and sitting in that seat, it's very hard to get away from who you are. Right? You play with me.

Like, getting run over was never a thought of mine because I feel like gunfighters get shot. Right? Like, if you run up in there enough, you're going to get ran over. Oh, 100%. Period. Like, that's what happens.

Like, it's not a big deal. But, and you're not necessarily yet in this world, but you will be because you're good at this job. When you get around, no offense to these people. When you get around normal people, they see life different than we see it. You know what I'm saying? So that whole time I had been in meetings with people all week

that just talked about Josh Norman getting stiff-formed, right? And just from the plain football perspective or the physical perspective, one dude, six-four arms like Janus Atta Kempo. Bro, he is, any photo he has, I'm just like, how does this dude get bigger? Right, 100%. Like, if you can't, your arms ain't longer than his,

you ain't stronger than his, you're going to get stiff on. Like getting stiff-armed is not to me necessarily as physical of a play as the common world makes it. Right. Right. And so- Because now you got memes. Now you got videos.

Right. And so I just kept hearing it. And then if you think about his two most famous stiff form was turning Earl Thomas into a lead blocker, right, from a tackler. And then the Josh Norman thing. Two people that I'm bigger than, and I'm not big. Right. Right. And so, like, I just kept hearing it.

And I was like, bro, like, yes. Like, look at the dude. He's Chase Young that plays running back And that's faster Like that's gonna happen right But when I watch Derek Henry's run style Right his run style is straight up Right and so there are people I have lost two in the open field

You know what I'm saying like I've been in the open field Like Ray Rice ran me over one time in open field And I grabbed his leg and like held on Did you make the tackle? Yeah I made the tackle But then he walked over to like the crowd and he's flexing And I'm pissed off just because like I'm like bro You understand football you know what this was

I had to break down. I had to break down in the middle of the field. I still got you down. You're supposed to score. In practice, you're getting hyped up. Right. Defense like, yo,

let's go. Right, right, right. And so we get to the sideline of that play. I'm going off subject here. I'll be back. I don't know how long I got. Right? So we get to the sideline.

And I tell Vince Williams, I was like, I need you to give me a small space. And he's like, what are you talking about? I said, I said, if I'm inserting in the run, I need you to make sure that you have your blocker in a place to where Ray Rice doesn't have a long way to go. And here's why I say that. That's the right man to talk to.

Right, right. Yeah, exactly. So, but here's why I say that. I feel like that in that moment, right? In that moment where I know you only got one spot to go. You know I know you only got one spot to go. There's only one way out of there. Like, you got to go through me.

And in my, in my 13 years of NFL football, I've never lost that play. Ever. You can look it up. You can go try to find it. 13 years of football, a small space, you ain't got nowhere to go. I ain't going to never lose that play because I'm going to put my hands behind my back, jump off two feet, and we ain't going to stop until my face mask, hit your face mask, period. Right?

And so, like, that's the way I see football. He's getting fired up right now, boys. And in that way of seeing football, right? Because you get all the tweets of Tennessee Titans fans, me, in my prime, I like my chances against 22, right? And all I said that week was in that moment, ever seeing him in that moment, against people his side. I haven't seen him drop a shoulder and run through people. But yeah, when he get back there by DBs, hell yeah, he tossing him. Like, that's a thing.

And this is not for me. I, what camera I'm looking at? I think Derek Henry is a great running back. He's one of the top running backs in the league. Yes, I can say that and still believe all those other things I've said are true. Right? And so in that, you go back to Cleveland, short yardage near the goal line, has an opportunity with one linebacker,

the linebacker gets him down, right? Spillane in that situation, you can't totally take that, right? Because you got a little bit of T.J. Watt there to where Derek really can't run through it. And we're big Spelane fans because he was with Tennessee before he came down. I love him. But if you watch Derek's feet at those moments, they stop. Right? It's not one of those situations where he gets in that moment and it's like,

not it's time to accelerate through this guy's chest. But yeah, if I got you off to the side and I can get this long ASS alien arm on your chin strap on your chin on your face mask i'm gonna toss you yeah and so what i said about the late play bravery was so much of like the safety in me just being tired of hearing it and like and to my fault right to my fault i shouldn't have done it that way you know what i'm doing what way like the way like i did it in the way i do tv right i did it in talking like this but i felt like it made it you're talking about making it theatrical yeah which is part you're you're i mean you played for the Steelers.

Like, it was two teams. What are our records? We're both undefeated. Oh, it's huge games. And so it was a huge game. Right. And so, but I'm on TV, though, and, like, Stephen N. Max are, like, talking to me, like, people should be scared of Derek Henry.

And what I was trying to explain is, no, you should be scared of Derek Henry. Right? You know, like, like, and, like, that was the point I was trying to get across. You should be scared of him. I ain't scared of him. Like, when John Jones, like, when John Jones, I forget. I think it was at the Francis beat Steepa, right? And John Jones puts out this video, and he was like, y'all saying, like, I should be scared of Francis and Ghanu.

He's like, you probably ain't John Jones. And I felt that because you know why? I saw Francis and Gondonu in Vegas in the lobby and I'm scared. You know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, John, you right, John. I ain't you. I'm scared. You cannot be scared.

But when Miles Garrett with hands walks through the lobby, it makes me nervous. I was scared with hands. You know, and so, like, that's what I was feeling. And then, like, finally, like, on TV, bro. Because I had been fighting it all morning. It boiled over. And I said it that way. And I actually, like, for the first time in a long time,

I felt bad because I really respect Derek Henry in the sense that when you look at somebody like that big, that fast, that much vision, that type of lateral movement, like, he really is a very good back. Like, this guy has a chance to be a Hall of Famer. If this continues two or three more years, whatever happens after that can happen, he's probably going to be a Hall of Fame or not get that. But in that moment, bro, I was like, nah.

Like, I ain't never seen him against somebody who could look him, nobody looks him dang their eye to eye, can look him up in the eye. Who can look him up in the eye, who can be on the same rack in the weight room, not necessarily with the same weight, but on the same rack. So the coaches ain't got to take a lot of weight off.

I ain't never seen him move those people when they were standing right in front of me. each other. And to be honest, at this point in my life, which is a year later, I still haven't. And that doesn't mean that he can't. It just means that he hasn't. And like that was the point. The point I made is one, not only right. Two, it's true. It doesn't mean and it doesn't mean. But it does, there's still, he's still playing like it can happen this year and then no, it's no longer true. correct but it was true at the time and you know what happens when he does it i go on tv and i say you know what derrick you did something i said you couldn't do same way that people had to sit around and say you

know what yonis you was 17 for 19 in a close-out game in the finals the stuff i said then that was true i can no longer say and so then if anything happens after that i can't say derrick canary ain't never made his own hole. Right? Derek Henry ain't never stumped on somebody's chest without all the stiff of him. I can't say that. But guess what? Right now, tier ones?

Right now? I love how he's just got the tier ones. Right now, Tennessee Titans fans, I can still say it. And guess what? He can still be a good back, right? Like, I... What sucks? What sucks, too?

And I know you feel this way when you were a player. It was, is the fact that the worst case that comes from you. is you're like, I can go on TV and be like, look, Derek, he did, he did this. It is now no longer true. He has ran over somebody. Like, you can say all this stuff. And that's, that is your, like, punishment, right? Like, you don't have to answer that.

That's your way of getting around it. Like, that's what sucks as, like, a player. And I wanted to ask you about that, too, is, like, going fully to that other side to where you have to be so objective, to where you know that you're going to get, like, you know, the boys in the locker room, you're not that far removed. even probably when you had to talk about your Steelers at times when they weren't playing that well. Like some of the boys are like, yo, why is RC saying talking like that when there's zero context of the whole thing? Obviously, you've got to do within like 30 seconds.

But now your punishment for that is like when he does do it, and I will be the first one to go on TV. But that's your cycle. That gets to be your cycle now. No, that's you as a player. When you made it like when you made that play, like if somebody's sitting there or that, oh, we get to that story too. Like when that inch away from making that play on that. that ball in Super Bowl 45 with Aaron Rogers. And somebody,

Ryan Clark is out there. I haven't seen him make that play, blah, blah, blah. He's frigate, bro. Right. And then that young RC sitting there as an athlete, you know, you're thinking that RC on TV is kind of living a little rent free in your head, but you're like, I'm going to prove that wrong. When you prove it wrong, that person just gets to go on TV.

Okay, he made the play. Yeah, I mean, that's the beauty of it. But you know what, too, though, Will, man, I will say this. Like the one thing I'll never do is speak to the character or the character of football integrity of a person. You know what I'm saying? Like I don't think Derek Henry is scared. I just think that's the way he runs. You know, I think that's who he is.

You know, like I wasn't ever, like I was never going to go into the meeting with Coach LeBow and be like, hey, man, when they're in three by one and Randy Moss is on the backside, I want you to put me man to man. Right? Because you know why? I can't cover him. Like that's not my game. And so I think, you know, and so I think that like that's the one other thing too. It's like you can be, I can be as complimentary of a guy as I want all the time. But if something is true to me, right?

Because let's not say it's true. If I feel like I've watched enough film to be able to make a statement about the way someone plays and his fans don't like it, then you can never be right. Also, too, not only is that the punishment. You don't get to come back from that, Will. Right? Like, even now, like, when I said, like, I got a, I got a whole thread the other day. Derek Henry stiff-arming people his size. When, when one, I know he stiffs-arms people.

Like, that wasn't my comment. You know what I'm saying? Like, that wasn't, like, I get it. He can do that. Nah, I'm talking about face up. Me and you, like, you know, and so, like, you just, we're in a position where if you don't say good things about everyone all the time, you can't be loved by everyone all the time.

Yeah, that is true. Dan Olauski, who is super smart, sent me a text. Me and Marcus Spears, actually. And he was like, you know, man, he just said, and I hope Dan doesn't get mad about this. It's just saying, like,

I love the way that you guys aren't scared to be wrong. And like, I didn't know how to take it at first. Because I was like, is he saying I'm wrong, you know what I'm saying? I was like, dang, dad, do you feel like I'm wrong?

wrong a lot. And, but Dan's a sweetheart, so I didn't take it that way. And what I told him is this. I was like, one, we are constantly trying to be prophetic about other adult people, right? We're trying to predict the future many times of what's going to happen. I said, you can't be right. Like, you just can't. I said, but here's the thing. It's okay to be wrong. You just have to have a good reason for being wrong. And I think that's what's motivated the way I do TV. Like if I could

go to the, like if I can say, well this is the thing and here's the play of why I say why. Right. Here's the play of why I think this thing. You cannot agree with me, but I can say here's the evidence that it happens. Right. And so that's

always been my thing. Now, say Derek Henry comes out week one. He's faced up with somebody in hole and runs over him, which he very well could because he's a ginormous man, right? Then I could be like, man, shoot, of all the film I've ever watched, like, that's the first time I've seen Derek Henry do that. Now, if he's added that to his game, how do you stop this guy? Right?

And now, it's a nice way. That's a nice way out of it. Yeah, it's not, that's the thing, though. Like, that's the thing, no, bro, I don't need a way out of it. You know what I'm saying? That's your way out. Because, no, it's not even that. The thing is your way out.

I don't need a way. Because when he does it, you're going to be like, hey, I'm taking this one. But the thing is this, though, Tennessee fans, right, Tier 1 fans, right? Yeah. Are going to run to my Twitter to tell me about it. Let me say it again. I'm in his mentions. Like, like, say it again.

Let me say it again. They're going to run to my Twitter to say it. You know what else happens, though? Every time he plays so well, Deshaun Elliott, which really wasn't a face-up hit, right? Derek makes a move, Deshawn sticks him. Guess what everybody did? Ran to my Twitter, right? Spillane, sticks him.

What does everybody do? Run to my Twitter. So forever, right? Whether Derek Henry wins a play or loses a play, everybody comes to me because they're trying to say, and so. Ryan's an investor. So here's the hard part, right?

So here's the hard part. I never wanted to, I never wanted to walk that statement back. but I also didn't want it to be that I was wishing and hoping for Derek Henry to fail. You know what I'm saying? Right. And so now and so now you're like you're playing Twitter double dutch when people send you things right? Because on the one end you're getting things when he loses and you kind of want to be like yeah

that's you know people be like just like Ryan Clark said so to such like you kind of want to be like yeah that's what I said right? Right. Or you get him still forming like the big linemen last year and you know people like say you say he doesn't stiff arm people his size and then they want to be like no that wasn't what i was talking about and so now you got to play this game the whole time of people thinking you hate derrick henry when you really don't like he's like every other running back in the league like you hope he does well it doesn't really put money in your pocket if he does or not but because you say this now this is now always attached to you but that's part of the gig you know what i'm saying and so

with that being part of the gig the thing you got to do is you got to figure out you got to figure out who you doing this for. The Tennessee Titans fans are never going to love me holistically, right? They're never going to love me unconditionally. Even before I said that about Derek Henry, because maybe they'll have a new respect now because you're on bus with the boys. Right, but that's because you love me. That's because you're my family. Like, you're my nephew. They didn't want you to have me on here. You just did. Right. And so, like, I got to, like, I got to accept that. Matter, like, you talk about locker room. When I would do my top five every week, right, ESPN just likes me to do it because I do it in like a different way. Like, I barely talk.

about the team. I'm just being funny and saying things and having a great time. Just having a great time. Right. I didn't put the Steelers were undefeated and they weren't my number one team. Okay. The Kansas City Chiefs were. And guess what? I was right at the point because they were better. And so Eric Ebron, and I forget this tackle in his tackle's name, he was injured at the time. Ebron's active on social too. Right. Very active. Right. He's got a podcast. Yeah, I didn't know. Um, and so, uh, you. you know, he said something about, like, me not putting them number one or whatever, whatever.

And I was just like, well, man, you know, there's reason behind it. Like, I feel this and this. I had you guys, I have you guys at number two, whatever. I think Kansas City may have lost or something. No, Kansas City already lost. I still had number one. And, you know, and so, like, I was being nice about it, you know. I was like, he probably feels the type of way.

I played for Steelers. I was being nice about it. So he tweets me something again, right? So I tweet him back. And I was like, and, like, he, like, he's, you know, He's kind of joking. At least, I didn't really take it at that like that at first, but it felt like he was. You know, so I kind of joke back and say, yeah, man, you're right, you know, but this is how I felt.

So I said it. So he has another one. Now, you come at me this many times. Now I think we have a personal problem, right? I am 41, right? You got E.D. Oh, I got E.D. Apparently.

I'm going to go, what is it, Roman.com? I'm going to go to Roman. dot you know and so like eventually you know like it got to the point and I was like I don't play like that dog you know what I'm saying I was like I don't know what they tell you about me around there I was like but like that whole like checking me and stuff that gets like one or two tweets where I'm cool with it and then eventually is we have a personal problem and the only way I know I to handle personal problems is like face to face I was like the same thing that's first yeah I was like yeah pretty much I was like the same things I say on TV

I was like I'll come to your locker room and say you know what I mean and um Banner was his name and like he started saying some stuff and at the time like he was hurt you know what I mean and it took and I can admit like I'm not the best person at all times it took a lot for me to not talk about what his career was before that

and then him now being hurt but it was basically like hey man mind your business because then he jumped in with some stuff you know what I'm saying yeah and so like eventually like Eric was really cool like he called me or he texted me you know and it was like he got he found my number he like asked like people and he text me and he was very respectful and he was like man you know I'm a clown this and that and I was very honest I was like I am to an extent you know I was like when to me when you start

coming at me in like that public form like I address it in that public form and I'm I was like and I'm me every day all day like that's who I am you know but those are the things like you deal with as a player like when you talk about your former team you team is like whereas talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers in most of the time for sure an unbiased fashion is great for my job is great for ESPN it's great for how people see me right but actually in the building it's the issue like I get all the time for Steelers fans why don't you ever support us why don't you cheer for us well because I don't play there no more like they ain't writing the checks you know what I'm saying like I'm loyal to the people

that write the checks right I was a stealer when I was a Steeler when I was a a Washington team player when I was a Washington team player when I was a giant you know and um this weekend you know I didn't cry at Troyes I cried on the podcast but I didn't cry at Troyes it's so good if you cry it's true I would have if he would have but he didn't he was strong and I stay strong and somebody asked me you know there's like how can you not cry when he's talking about the Steeler weight and I had to be very honest I said well my way had to be my way I said, I was just blessed that my way fit with the Steelers for so long. You know what I'm saying?

Like, I wasn't drafted, you know? I was told by Tom Coughlin after a year or two. He didn't think I could play in that league, that arena, that they had arena football, that they had football in Canada, that special teams was what I had the work on. Then in week two, I'm, and I'm the same year, I'm facing up Tiki Barber in the second half of a game. You know what I mean? And so to me, it's like, though I.

I'm loyal to people, not places. You know what I'm saying? Do I love Pittsburgh? Like, was it great to be a stealer? Did I retire a Steeler? Where the best eight years of my football career being a Steeler? Where the lifelong relationships I have being a Steeler? Absolutely.

Right? But when my people are gone from that place, I don't owe that building anything. What I owe that building is the same thing. I owe all the other 30-31 buildings is to assess. them fairly based on what they do as it pertains to football. And I dealt with that with Antonio. I deal with that with rankings. Like that,

that's just what it is. And, oh, yeah, I remember the Antonio. Yeah. And, you know, and so, man, like,

that's what, like, that's the thing about the job, but that's the thing, like, that's the thing about life, man. Like, when we,

people don't get that the reason a lot of this, um, is addressed or people say things is because, like, when I do TV, now in the way that I do it like that's really me you know what I'm saying like I'm not a caricature of myself like I don't go on TV and act like I'm not on this bus like acting like this really is me and so the way that people perceive this is the way that people perceive me and in a lot of ways like that

authenticity is what's made me successful now but it's also the thing that makes you vulnerable to to critiques because if I know I'm lying, you can't hurt my feelings. You know what I'm saying? Like if I go on a show, if I go on a show, bro, to say something that I don't believe, which I have sometimes.

You know, like, you go on first take and you get the little sheet and they'll be like, Max is going to say this. This is Max answer. They don't tell you like what they're going to say, but they'll be like, no for Max. Yes for Steven.

Like which side to play on all the. Right. And they'll do that. And like I may, like, if I'm on if I'm in a situation to where I'm not attached to an answer, I'll just answer differently and understand why I'm answering that way, have great reasoning for answering that way, but not really be attached to it because I'm like, well, I could have answered that question in four or five different ways.

I just chose the one way that was different from those two because it would have been boring as hell for me to be like, Max, so I agree. Now, there are some things I'm so tied to as an answer and that are so much a part of me, I can't do that. Like, you're just going to have to have a boring ASS show, right? Or like even like during the Kaepernick stuff when I was still, when I was working, there were so many production meetings where they would say, are you going to say that on TV? And I used to be like, hell yeah. And they were like, we're not going to ask you.

And I got it. Right? Because it was not that that didn't just save the network. That saved me. You know what I'm saying? Like when when I wore a Kaepernick jersey on Mike and Mike the week after Greenie wore Trevor Simeon jersey and I got a. call that said you can't do that. I said, well, why?

Right? I said, Greenie wore Trevor Simeon jersey last week. I figured he wore a jersey of a quarterback he liked. I'd wear a jersey of a quarterback I liked. And they were like, nah, but you know what it means. I was like, I absolutely do. So tell me that I can't wear it because of that.

You see what I'm saying? Yeah. And so like, but that was me. Like that wasn't some dude playing TV. I did that as Ryan Clark. You know, I had to ask my old lady before I went on, like, I don't know how this is going to play. Are you okay with whatever happens after this? You know?

And so though like the media thing, man, is like super cool. You're going to, like, you have to find a balance of like what part of the game are you willing to play? And I think, I think they eventually get to the point where they know, like, you want what's best for the team, but you ain't playing the game. and I think that's the best place to be in. Like, they know I want to do entertaining, great TV. They also know I don't want to do TV to make friends.

You know what I'm saying? And I think once they get that, they respect you so much that they take care of you, which is kind of where I am. And that was well said. Thank you, brother. Georgia boot is America's hardest working boot. And for 80 years, Georgia has been making boots

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the hardest working boots in not only America, but the world. dude how what time are we at like it's I feel like we can talk I feel like this could be a Joe Rogan pot I feel like I could talk to you for three hours obviously I can't you got places to be

we you know you got people to see I have a couple questions number one what's Skip Bayless like I'm sure a lot of people probably ask you but I just want to know I would tell you

earlier when you said uh Max is gonna say Max is gonna play into this one the bill like you you essentially like they see that they're building like characters kind of like maybe WWE in a way like they know

Skip could be the villain. Skip kind of knows what role he's in, but I want to know what's this man like because at times he's the most hated man in America. So, I'm probably about to be hated. I really, really like Skip Bayless. I felt like, I feel like that's consensus because why else would he be

working with everybody? I like him just because, too, like he's, he's more, he's quieter, more soft-spoken away, but a true wealth of knowledge though. And he was one of those people that like because they're such a competitive business you know right i feel like

i feel like everybody feels like the the 10 year vet who plays the position the first rounder just got drafted in you know i feel like a lot of people feel like man i can't i can't really give you these things or tell you these things or give you these flowers in front of people because that may infringe upon what i have i think he was so secure and what he had built that he was he was always willing to like have those conversations always willing to you know help you out and help you understand parts of the business bring you in to the show uh stephen a has gotten a lot like that that too max from day one has been one of my favorite people um and i think because he's kind of like max is exactly like he is on tv skip was harder though right because you had this picture of who skip

was. But you also have to remember the first thing he ever said to me or about me really other than hello, I'm Skip, was I just want everybody to know of every athlete, of every entertainer that's ever came coming here, Ryan Clark's the most prepared. You know, so we started on such a good note. Did he ever talk shit on you before you got there, like as a player? You know, he's like a big cowboy's guy. Like he's known as like a huge hater on the stuff. Well, you know, we had the whole thing with Stephen A, the athletes, remember they had the athletes versus his commentator thing. When Richard Sherman told Skip,

he was better at life than he was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, like, during that time, I went on one day and Stephen A. wasn't on. And, like, the whole thing came up. And, like, Stephen A was talking about, like, how athletes won his job,

and they don't have degrees and carrying on or whatever. And, you know, I'm a Manship, mass communications graduate, Louisiana State University. Okay. You know, and so, like, it was my major. You know, and so I was on the show and I was like, well, I can do your job and I do have a degree and my hair line ain't pushed back.

You know? And so it's not, still not. And so when I said that, you know, he wasn't, Stephen A wasn't there that day. And Skip was kind of like quiet. Like he let me say it and he say nothing. And so, bro, like the next day, like Skip was egging Stephen A on and Stephen A went hard. you know like I'll come to the locker room and I'll say it woo woo and it's huge vocabulary too Stephen A he just starts throwing words

I never even heard of right so now I'm confused yeah too yeah and so he says all this time like at the time no we were like 12 and four like three out of last four years so I'm like that's stupid like we're just saying about my team not being good like that's dumb yeah and so he's going through all this stuff which is fine right because he had to shoot back I wasn't there I felt some kind of way though because I was like Skip you could have said something yesterday or whatever day I was on all of a says Stephen A's back and mom's the word and all that stuff.

Yeah. And, and at the end, bro, Stephen A goes and as for anything else, Ryan Clark knows what he can kiss. And like all the rest of it, I was like laughing

because it was like all football. Yeah. You know? And then when he said that, I was like, oh, Stephen A. Smith wants to fight me. Like, that was like immediately my thought, you know. And so Gail and Gordon,

I think Gailen's working with like ABC's like super big time now. At the time, he was producing the show and him and Stephen A are like jam tight but I talked to Gailen because I've been on the show whatever and I called him and he was having like an event in New Orleans and at the time I lived in Baton Rouge in the offseason

and I was like bro you got to cancel your event he's like well I'm gonna whip him straight up I was like all the other stuff was cool I was like but man gonna tell me kisses ASS I was like on national TV I was like he means he wants to fight me you know and it was and I called I got calls like hey man we got to pick one you get the got an uninvited

me or you got to cancel it because either way like I'm fighting and um it was my first conversation with Stephen A he called me that day and um first thing and I like I'll respect him forever for this I wish you did it on TV because you know you kind of shine on me on TV you can do it on TV but it was yeah and I'm sure he will one day and talk about how well he knows you and he was like but he was like uh first I want to apologize you know he's like how I he's like what I said was like was wrong. He's like, not the stuff I said before that. He's like, but I get why

you are upset about that. And I was actually in Southside, Pittsburgh. I was going to eat. I was going to a place called Nakama, it's aibachi spot. And I stood outside of the spot for like an hour. And we just talked. And he just, and like, he's become one of my best, my greatest mentors like there. But

even with that, like he don't play with me. You know what I'm saying? It's like sometimes like you got to let people know that you a little throat off if you are a little throw it off because it helps them helps you help them not do anything that's going to get them in a fight with you and i don't know if you follow that but i'm trying to well what it what it means is it's like it's like this right if i don't want to fight will compton right but i know that there are

things that will trigger will compton to fight me you know what i'm going to do i'm going to make sure i don't do none of those things right because i know that he'll click out and we have an issue now if i like with ike if you look at him the wrong way right yeah anytime i see that with it like Like a team man, like, what kind of life have you lived to feel that way? I actually felt that way. Like, I went to Abramson, bro. Like, that schools no longer exist in New Orleans. So, yeah, like, he played, and I played D.N.

And he was 140 pounds at high school. Yeah. And he ran 4-2, though, at Pro Day. So that's crazy they played D in high school. And so, man, you know, so, like, that's been, like, that's been the crazy thing about TV, man, is, like, understanding that some of these guys, some of these guys who are just really good at their jobs aren't necessarily those same people. Like if you watch Skip Billis now, what I think he's done a great job of is he understands that Shannon Sharp has a certain following that he brings to the show that's good, a certain charisma, a certain it factor, right? Shannon Sharp is a dunker, right? So Shannon Sharp needs Chris Paul, right?

Like DeAndre Jordan, he didn't need Blake Griffin, but he needed Chris Paul. And so what I think what I think Skip has done an amazing job of is whether Shannon believes it or not, Shannon loves LeBron. Skip's always felt a certain way about LeBron. Oh, yeah. But if you watch, if you watch Skip now, every other person in the world at some point is the best player in the world, never LeBron. Yeah. Right? But what does it do for Shannon?

It allows Shannon to wear goadheads and jerseys and show that he still should. swole even in his 50s, right? And so, and so, and so in truth, in truth, Skip has kept himself relevant by saying things, even we don't think he believes in a way that makes us think he might believe it. And now, that's all the thing. It's like a mystery. It's like, how does this do continue to do?

Because you're like, ain't no way. You're like, bro, he won the fourth one. Like, it's the 10th one. Come on, bro. Like, especially when he dies on the hill for the cowboys, but you can't, at some point. see some kind of light with LeBron James. Right.

And so I think like because he has done that and he's stuck with that, it's now created this persona or this aura that you love to hate. And so in truth, guys like Skip, guys like Stephen A, like they're really, they're really media geniuses in that they've mastered their craft, which is, which is the job that I have not mastered and probably will not, but, you know, that's just the thing. You know, I mean. But I think, man, too, though, you know, one, whenever the Mount Rushmore swings back around, I just want to be, I want to be.

Mount Busmore, no. I'm sorry, Mount Busmore. I want to be one of the 27 people you mentioned, even if not one of the four, not one of the four that makes it, because we all know how, how you do that. Yeah, I was just like, I was, I forget who I was talking to the other day, but it's like, hey, it's Mount Busmore. I can have as many people as I went on Mount Busmore as possible. Yeah, because it's not actually Mount Rushmore is actually not presidents.

And so what was great about it is I could tell your good guy came out in you. Oh, I know, dude. It's something I battle. You're talking about mentioning pretty much everybody. Yeah. Yeah, and you don't want to fucking. So I was like, it was when I was on the earnest pod and he's like, you did jelly roll wrong.

And I'm thinking, yeah, I did jelly roll wrong. I fucked up. But the thing is, though, who are, like, truly, give me the best four. I want the best four. There we go. Now you want it. Now you want it for real. You've had, you've, bro. You've had time. Like, you've had, you've had time.

And I'm sitting right here, though, so we're going to see if, like, the good, do you have to rewatch it to know? I think, I think what, if I can make it. I think what's tough is not. Oh, oh, so now you want me to include if you would be on it. Hey, it's on mine. Well, well, I made one. If I make, if I make one. So, so, so the next time, one.

And this is... To put it, to be open about it, it's tough because there's different criteria that run in my brain. It's like with you, like when you were wanting to be super smart and wanting to come off of smart and I forget who said,

hey, yo, I want people to see your personality. Like, there's always a line I'm not necessarily battle with, but I'm thinking about it because I'm like, okay, do I want to be the funny guy right now or do I want to be the serious, be a fucking wolf guy?

And so when I'm thinking of humor, there's a different criteria that goes into like that's a super podcast. Because Taylor's an entertainer. Like I love doing pods or it's, me and him and we're laughing our heads off. And it's like, is that the Mount Busmore that I'm trying to create? Or am I trying to create like, you know, what have I gotten out of or how have I been impacted by saying here and having a conversation?

You're definitely in the conversation. Look at me. Already creating that insurance policy. Hey. But for real. Like the way Blascher said always on mind, like you sit here and you have these conversations I know as I'm listening to you, the less I've spoken on a podcast, the more I'm like, I really fuck with a podcast because I'm learning and I'm like diving in.

like when you brought up being cut in year two, I don't know that about you because I'm so fascinated with people's stories. So it's like this dilemma I got to live him because I'm like, I love stories. I love when I get stuff. Darren Waller being on the podcast. He's somebody who's 100% on there. Like David Questenberry,

he's somebody as far as numbers and all that hasn't been in like, it doesn't make the top 10, but somebody who battled through cancer was on the Texans, rang the bell. Now he's playing on the Titans. Like he's overcame such a thing where I'm sitting there and I'm like, shit. I did not even know that about this dude. Like I just knew he caught a touchdown past the year before coming off practice squad and then spike the football. Like, and then there's

stuff I'm learning about with you. It's like it just makes it so damn hard. And then like I like, no matter what, Darren Waller, Dale and Hart Jr. being on the bus, they're no brainers for me. Because we, I had someone like Dale. When you, when you, so when you pick a guy, right, or you, or you go, calm me down. Call me down. No, no, no. Because like I really, like I really want, I'm interested in this because I think you have more like you guys have more. a vision for a podcast like in on face first i'm all i'm all six of these people yeah i yeah you see i'm saying yeah yeah i'm saying and so and so like i'm learning from you now so when you go into a podcast and you have a guest do you know if you want funny if i want to be a dog if i want

to learn something or are you diving into their story to see okay this is what i'm expecting and when you start getting it, do you like, or do you start getting it and feel like this is where this one is going, I'm going this way? Because the other piece of it is like, they don't say much, right? So the stuff that they can be feeling, like, they might be like, oh, ask this question, oh, I want to hear this, but you have to do that. So do you have a mindset of this is what I want this podcast to be? Or do you just get a guy, start filling them out and then let them kind of roll with it and you figure out how to work it? I think it depends. It's a mix because like, so with you, I know the relationship. I know the relationship me and you have. I know what how you referred to miss tier ones the entire episode. Taylor

messaging like Taylor doesn't know how close we are like I knew what kind of rapport that we have. So I knew when it was going to be me and you one-on-one sitting down. I knew we'd get a good juicy pod like this with depth and everything else. If Taylor's sitting on the bus, I'm sure we get in a lot of that stuff, but I'm sure a lot of time gets taken up talking about the Derek Henry thing and you're having more fun. So sometimes sometimes it depends if Taylor's next to me. But but credit to Taylor too. Like there's times where I get surprised. because I might think I want to go a little bit more in depth with this person than have so much more light and have fun. Like Dale, like Taylor and I were shut up the whole time and sometimes we'll both, we might both sit here and think, how do we want? Because Taylor, again, is a lot more of an entertainment factor. Like, and sometimes we might have a guest, and Alex does all the background search or the guys might come in like, JP wanted me to ask you about DC because he's a big fighter nerd. Right. I'm not taking it as a shot.

Like that's, you know, you are, though. I get it, yeah. But like sometimes Alex will have everything written out. I'll be like, hey, did you dive in on this story? Because I ain't get much time to like backlog. But before this, like, I know you have so much of a story that I'm in the sauna trying to grab all my notes. He already had an entire thing on you.

Okay. But I might come in and having like, just being like, okay, well, Will wants this. So even though I worked extremely hard on trying to find stuff on Ryan Clark, I know Will has all this stuff that he wants to look. He has other topic. Okay. But he had long list. He had everything mapped out for you.

But so sometimes it just. just depends. Like I would say who's somebody that's came on that I probably sat with one-on-one that I didn't know much about? Nate Bargotsie, a comedian. And so when it's just me and him one-on-one and Taylor wasn't going to make that one, I'm like, shit. Like, I'm going to have to kind of wing this one on my own a little bit. Fortunately, like Alex always has criteria to go by where I can dive in. You ask a question. They get to talking. You might mirror the last few words that they're saying to get them to talk a little more. Like, you know the whole interview game. A lot of it, too, is like we we like the open format kind of lesser structured as far as like let's stick with open

conversations let's get there and like the boys are so good in their own worlds like he was talking about taylor's an entertainer will loves to get kind of in depth and get more uh i don't know more like insightful to conversations and so their chemistry back and forth works so it really like sometimes we'll walk on here and not really know exactly the right the direction we're going to go which is totally opposite of what you'll see in tv on your side of things obviously right but it's worked and so we just kind to try to double down on that. I think that's the the beauty of the podcast. And they only don't they only won't they only won't talk if we have like a conversation like this usually like I'll tell them like if I'm doing a pot of my own or we

have somebody on here. I'm like hey well like we want like I want you guys to be a soundboard just because like I can't sit here and just look at a camera and be like these dudes who just do solo pods and just look at the camera go topic to topic hope people are maybe laughing entertaining them like a Taylor can but yeah like that's the that's the thing about doing face first when I do it in the in the studio it's you truly you truly don't know how things are received like what's good is there's two people you have no clue yeah they're like there's two people that work there so like sometimes you're here in the background ha you know what I mean and stuff like that you're like okay at least that was at least that was decent but that's it's not

affirmation right yeah yeah that was funny yeah but that's the and that's the the the strange part about entertaining and doing things by yourself, but it's also kind of the rewarding part is the learning, you know, and you also have to be willing to fail. I think, I think when I look at, when I look at football, like football, there was no decision making for me and whether or not I was going to try to do something in football. Right. Honestly, it's like, the only one thing you can try to do is make a team and play. Right.

But there was never, there was never a question of like, I'm going to give my all to this because that was about, that was so much about me. I've loved it since I was four years old. Like, since I knew it was a sport, I loved it. And so I was going to play it as long as I felt like I could. And then when I couldn't, I was able to leave it alone because I was like, man, I'm an undrafted dude. I got 13 years, man.

I've been to two Super Bowls. I was like, I played. way longer than I was supposed to. I got every ounce out of this body I could. I got no more. I'm okay. And there's never a day where I watch it and I'm like, man, I miss it because I don't. You know, I do miss this, right?

And I get it sometimes through this or I got it talking to Troy and talking to Ike and, you know, with James. Now, like I get it when I train the boys and we're on Face Times and text messages talking about the game and what they need to do. And some of the stories that have y'all just laughing and respond. So I still get that. but I don't play football and that's fine. The media side has been different to me because I actually got to try, you know, and everything, everything for me with media is extrinsic, not intrinsic, in the sense that most things aren't driven by me.

They're driven by what you get from doing things, you know, which is like, that's frightening to me. you see what I'm saying because you know you go out and you do face first and for me like I don't look at the numbers I don't care who's watching or who's listening but you have other people who are involved in your life or like you know like maybe my wife like did you check to see who's watching and I'm like no I don't want to but to her she can't she can't fathom doing something not caring how it's doing not caring how it's being viewed not caring if you can make money but to me it's like it just feels good Right? Football always felt good to me. Whether like I got cut or not or whether I played really well or not, you know, like there were days I didn't play really well, but I walked out and I was like on Monday, I woke up at five. I did this and it lasted all the way till two in the morning and get treatment. And that's what I was supposed to do. On Tuesday I did this on Wednesday after this. And that was fulfilling to me because the schedule and the regiment and the requirements that I put on myself was so much higher than the expectations other people put on me. I had to meet those. I didn't have to meet other people's. expectations or do things they like. It was about me. Right. And so in this, it's like, if you come on here, bro, and you're putting your heart into

busing with the boys, yet it doesn't matter necessarily how you feel about it. It's like, does it grow, right? Do the executives want another year of it? Do I get another contract? Do I get to do more? Right? That, and that's, that's a scary, that's a scary deal. whereas it's like this is one of those jobs where whether whether you're right or wrong whether

you win or lose is not based on you that's the dope part of football right i work all week and i have a true i have a true understanding of how well as a group we did our job because i could look up and look at the score you know what i'm saying that was something there was something so like so comforting to me and that. It was like, man, you know what? At the end of the day, I'm going to look up at this scoreboard and I know whether or not we did our job well or not. Or I could go in on Monday and we're going to watch this film and I'll know whether or not I did my job well or not. That's not how this junk works. And so when you talk about doing a pod by yourself or watching people who sit like a dude who I truly admire is Colin Coward. Oh yeah. Yeah, exactly.

That's a great example. Bro, dude just sits at a desk and bum, bum, bum, bum. bum, bum, bum, bum, like freaking issue to issue, right? Different, like different thoughts. And it's all his. And whether I disagree with him or agree with them or not, they're so well explained and so well thought out. And he does it for two or three hours on Monday. And guess what?

He come back and do it again on Tuesday. And then it's Wednesday. Like, that junk's to me. He's like, this dude is truly given himself. And like, we're buying it. Like that's, like, that's, that's, that's. that that's a special deal and so i think man with with with this this is truly like doing a podcast um doing the stuff with dc uh like i can be honest it's it's been fun but i know that all of

these things had to happen at the right time for me like i wasn't ready for this in 2016 you know what i'm so i wasn't ready for this in 2017 like 2016 17 i was trying to find my voice at my real job. And to where now it's like I feel free enough to where, man, like I could just be me. Like if you, if you were on busting with the boys, like the year I retired, it wouldn't have been this show. Right. And then to where now it's like, like it still would have been me and you, but the conversation

would have been so much different because I was like, this is what they know me as right here. Like I can't really. Right. You feel like you're in a box. Yeah. I can't really mess. I can't really mess this up. Whereas now.

I'm like, if they watch this podcast and they watch Bustin with the boys and they're like, man, like, I don't, like, I don't even know why he liked that. Like, I don't even like him. I think I'm pretty sure they're going to. Like, hey, like, don't give a dang. Like, you ain't got to, right? But you can't listen to me and be like, you don't agree with these things because they're my stories. Right. You see what I'm saying?

Like, don't give a dang. Who cares? Right. And, like, that's the dope thing about what y'all do, man. And, like, that's why I like the mom bust. It's, like, it's important. you know like it's important that you make freaking decisions will you know what I'm saying

nephew like we can't give me back in the you know what I'm saying like we can't just we can't just live in the world to where you float around giving excuses you know and you know I got I got DMed on Twitter from this guy who's like actually super cool and I guess he reports

or whatever I ask a simple question on Twitter yesterday which I thought was thought provoking and can have some conversations and people got pissed off right simple question I think Tom Brady's had the greatest career of any quarterback that's ever lived, right? Therefore, in our game, the most important position, right? The position that people care about the most, you make the most money, you have to protect the most. If you've had the best career at that position, you are the goat, right? He's the greatest of all

time. Yet, I don't know if Tom Brady has a characteristic, one individual characteristic that I believe he has more of than anybody where if I was building a super quarterback, I'd pick that characteristic of Tom Brady. People felt like I was downing Tom Brady. People felt like I was downing Tom Brady. When I wasn't, it was really a compliment because how does a man accomplish all of this crap? Yet, you don't have the strongest arm, not necessarily the smartest. You can't improv and get out of the pocket.

Like, I was thinking about all these things. Yeah, I saw that tweet. Yeah, like other people. And like, this dude who like tweets me all the time, sends me all these things in the business is like going on this rant. And I was like, bro, what the hell are you arguing? Like, it's actually not even an argumentative tweet. I'm asking for your trade that you would pick on Tom Bray.

Like, right, you might pick Josh Allen's own. you know, Patrick Mahomes arm, Aaron Rogers, accuracy, whatever, right? And, you know, maybe you pick Tom's brain, but I wouldn't because I'd pick Patent's. Right. You know what I'm saying? So, like, but people get mad about that,

and then they look at you like, you're wrong, you're criticizing the goat, you're nothing, you only won one Super Bowl, you only been to one pro, you know what I'm saying? You ain't been to none. I'm asking a question, stupid. And on the other side of that, you ain't Tom. He ain't your family.

He ain't your friend. He only know who you are. What's you mad for? You can't throw. You cannot throw, but you mad at me. And then I think about all this stuff, and I'm like, but that's the life. And it's actually the life that you want to get to because you want people to be moved by what you do. That is our job.

Our job is to move people. If we don't move people, then people don't watch. Then people don't care. and what happens is you actually only get to start moving people when you stop caring about which way you move them because if I only want to move you one way then I got to work at that

you see what I'm saying but if I'm just going to be me and I'm gonna let you figure out what side you fall on then I'm winning and you know that's why I get to come on the bus you're trying to tell me that saying like

you know I just need to pick my four No, that that was definitely a pep. Listen, you know, maybe what we do, man, you know, if I do, if I do well enough and the tier ones, at least accept me enough. We just come back and do this once a year and then I can have you and Taylor. One friend of the show. And one friend of the show. And then once Taylor is free because, like, I travel with the pot. Yeah.

We could do a busing with the boys face first combo. And we'll just have a good time and we'll talk. And I have my own questions for you and Taylor. And y'all have y'all questions for me. And then Taylor can be like, oh, but I'll treat you like I treated Josh Norman. I'll walk over to the sideline. And then when you walk up on me, you'll look like a tall. You might just be creating that.

You might just be assuming that. You're like you. You'll look like a tall little person and you'll be looking up at me like this. And then I'll ignore you because I'm all big and I can beat you up if I wanted to. But then if I beat you up, I'm dead wrong because I'm 320 and you're at 199. And what do I get if I, you know, all these things. And all those things might happen. And it might be more entertaining.

But I'm just saying that's that. And I belong. if I'm not on what is another mountain with people's faces it's Mount Bussmore dude it's a different mountain it's a different mountain

you saw how many heads were on that that mountain that wasn't okay by what how many seats are on this uh that gives me a good that gives me a better number

again it just said it all it all depends on the criteria you would 100% get to 30 if you had eight seats You should make a 56 man. Hell yeah, dude. I should make a roster. It's 53.

You can tear it. We can tear it. Yeah, we could do a first team all bus, second team all bus, honorable mention all bus. And you can have 11. Yeah, and you can have 11. You can have 11, right?

So if you go first, second team, honorable mention, 11 in each. What if you could only get one? just one one i can only vote one podcast Darren waller to me that's a note to me that's for me it's definitely no brain for him yeah that's my personal like hearing his story hearing how open he was about it

him talking about mental health like you know i know the world's kind of shifting and doing all a lot more mental health stuff and speaking on it and everything like that but he was one of the first kind of people that i sat and listened to speak in that kind of avenue doing it too on somebody who was passed out in a Sprout's parking lot and then going to rehab and now he's you know made a big contract with the Raiders. So I feel like Darren Waller's been my favorite podcast. I got to, uh, I got to do you got a roll? I got to know, I can't know where to go.

I literally flew in for this. Okay, good deal. I got to do his podcast last week. Darren's? He has a podcast called Comeback Stories with a guy named Donnie Starkens. And so Donnie is his yoga and meditation coach. And he's also Tyron Matthews yoga and meditation. We'd love to have Tyron on.

And he actually called me my way over here. Tyron? Yes. Did you tell him? I'm about to do about someone with the boys? No, I didn't,

but I can tell him. I tell him. He loves this type of stuff. And Donnie actually is my son's yoga and meditation coach because he's in Arizona. And my son's kind of like a big thinker. And I was like, bro, you need to relax.

Like, stop thinking so much. Like, I've ruined you as a child. The fact that I would sit in the stands and you tell you, coach, hold on a second. I go talk to my dad. And you'd come over. And we talk coverages.

And so, and so, like, you go on, man. And it's super cool. They kind of send you, like, they have a list of questions about, you know, your moments of pain and different things. And it was therapeutic for me, you know, like I ended up talking like a ton. And just much like this, I get so enamored with the people I'm working with at the time. Like, I started asking Darren questions. you know, and he was, and he answered and, you know, and then like toward the end, he's like, bro, like, just listening to you, like, just was a wealth of knowledge, like, you inspired me.

And I was like, nah, dog, like, I ain't come through none of the things that you have. And to now be in this point, in this place in your life where you're using your story to share other stories that mirror yours. I was like, that's what it's truly about. And so I agree with you, man. He's a, he's a fascinating human along with being a, shoot, super. duper talented. And so if he's your number one, bro, like, you got a good number one.

Oh, I appreciate that. Like his story, like, he's on the pot on me. And you know this too, like playing, you played at LSU. Like, he's telling stories about peeing, like, getting pee from other dudes, getting somebody to pee in his cup, being drunk on the sideline. Like, you just, you know when somebody says that you know that teammate or that athlete that you think about, like what you saw in college. And they go from somebody who has a.

who had a mindset like that because again you like under see you're like this dude ain't made doing shit if he continues to do it like this like this is a bad influence on my life i need to not be around that guy to like blacking out passing out oh ding in a parking lot to now being on where he's gotten as a human it's just it's just so interesting because it's ultimately like you said they ask questions where you're basically talking to yourself like you having that deep as conversation with yourself and figuring out building and growing from there about what emotions you and shit like that, I just find it super interesting. I think that mortality is like a very sobering deal, you know, when I dealt with, you know,

losing my organs and. Please talk about that. Oh. Thank God. Sickle cell. Yeah. Learning about that and that near-death experience. This is a good story.

Yeah. So in Denver, you know, we in Denver. I've gone before with Washington like year four and when I got back I kept telling the trainers I was like hey man what's under your rib I was like what is this

like what's under there and they kept laughing at me I was like nah bro like something's wrong and so we get to Friday I've been practicing the whole week getting burnt up too it's the worst to get burnt up by a scout team

you know what I'm getting burnt up and it's like he's all off I was like he's terrible and so they send me to the doctor they give me this they make you drink that stuff put you into the little CT machine or whatever

and they're like oh you have a spleen contusion. And I was like, oh, okay, cool, to give me some medicine. I can't go to the game, play the next week. Going to Denver the next time, first time in Pittsburgh, I make the joke leaving the house. Oh, hope my spleen's good this time, just being stupid, like, because I'm stupid. And so, man, we're getting on, play the whole game. We're getting on the bus after the plane after the game, and Ryan Gross was the trainer. And I was like, hey, man, like, my spleen hurts. And he bust out laughing, right? He's like, ha, how you know that? I was like, it's like, it's happened before it happened here too it's weird doctor comes up i'm sitting in my cdies you know

doing all this they get your bags i get my bags you go to the hospital they're kind of trying to figure out what happens so i have what's called a spleen infarction which means your spleen dies right so if you have sickle cell for people that can see us right your blood this is this is like your blood when your blood sickles it turns this way right so it's like an actual like a boomerang almost and so it doesn't pass through the vessels the right way so when it gets into your spleen which is like the largest organ in your immune system, parts of it could die. So the part dies, but they tell me like the next week I go get the test. They're like, you should be able to play.

Like you'll be back. You'll be okay. And so I'm running. I'm trying to jog around the field at practice every day. And every day they're sending me home at like 12 o'clock, bro, because it's awful. So man, like a month and a half or so go by, bro. And like, nothing happens. Like they keep testing me.

Nothing's wrong. But in this time, I went from 205 to 170. you know what I'm saying so I'm like bro something's wrong like one day the doctor comes in dog he goes through like all my numbers and then gives me the paper and he's like I'll listen to you complain now and I was like bro I'm not complaining like something's wrong with me but they couldn't find it right so one day man one day I'm in the house we play in Cincinnati obviously I don't get to go my mom's up helping my wife with the kids and stuff and I call my I call yonk I was like yon Do you have a window open?

And she's like, no. So like, I'm shaking. And not like shivering, bro. Like, I'm shaking. Like, the bed's moving. I was like, something's open. It's freezing in here. So they get like all these covers, man.

Like, they wrap towel around my head and stuff. And so my wife goes to get the blow dryer. But she had blow dried out of hair on cool. So when she put it under the cover, it was cold. And I was like, Jesus Christ. Like, you know what I? And so I'm like, babe, that's not it. And so, man.

So I'm shaking. My mom. Like I said, my mom praised a ton. So she's like rubbing holy all on my head and she's praying. So I just start praying, man. And I was like, you know, I was like take care of my kids. You know, I was like bless my son. Like I want to be a great man.

I want to be a great husband. You know, allow him to, you know, allow him to take care of his sisters and his mom. And I was like, and allow my girls to understand how to be independent and to find a great man. I was like, allow my wife to find a man to take care of him, to take care of her. I was like, only one stipulation. He can't be more attractive. than I am, you know, and then I was like, I just, I just remember it so vividly, man. I was like, and God, anything I've ever done that wasn't the way you wanted me to do it,

any way I've ever harmed you or I've let you down, just please forgive me. So you're thinking this is it. I thought I was dying. And then I said, and I'm ready. Like, I tell the story so often now because people ask about it. After I said I was ready, it was no less. I mean, no more than 0.001 seconds. I stopped shaking.

I wasn't cold no more. None of that. You know? And like in that moment, though, I was like, sheesh. You know, like, I worked all my life. Like that was year seven. Like, I got my, you know, a good deal with the Steelers. And, you know, we had a big house and cars and stuff.

And I was like, I didn't really pray about none of that stuff. You know what I'm saying? Like, I wasn't even really, like, I didn't really, I wasn't even thankful for any of it. You know what I'm saying? I prayed about the things that were important. And so about two and a half weeks later, I called a doctor who I'd seen a ton of times. And he was in New York. And I was like, hey, man, I need a test.

And you could tell in his voice, bro, he was so tired of me. You know what I'm saying? He's like, all right, I set it up for you, Ryan. You know, I'm like, you could just tell he was like, I've seen you all these times. Nothing's wrong with you. You know what I'm saying? So about hour later, he called. and he's like, where are you?

And I was like, we're in the car. He's like, don't pack a bag. Don't go to your house. Go to the hospital. They're waiting on you. And I was like, oh, this sucks. So they bring me to the hospital. And so the first night, this lady walks in the room.

She's the infectious disease doctor, right? And I have like this little bulb in me, right? And she like opens it up, bro. And she's like, oh, yeah, that's infection. But they wanted to see what the infection was. you know what I mean and so they they couldn't figure it out but they take the scan

and so my spleen was four times the size of a normal spleen because it was infected and so that's why I couldn't eat because it had closed my stomach that's why I was losing all that weight so man with they're doing this thing the doctor's like if we cut you open and take this out you'll never play football again

because he was like because you're because you're training and stuff your core whatever whatever so they vacuum it so they take me down and put me to sleep they got like just a little vacuum they vacuum they vacuum and coming through cool

They didn't get enough to do it laparoscopally, so I go back, right? I wake up in the middle of it this time, no. And so I look at the doctor, and I'm like, hey, I was like, he's like, can you, he's like, can you take the pain? That's what he asked me. And I asked the question any football player would ask, am I supposed to be able to? You know, and he's gone, I guess, like, it's up to you. And that to me made it seem like, well, normal humans do this. ain't no way

like no normal human gonna do what I can't so I just hit there and it hurts so bad so much so when they wheel me back in the room immediately my wife goes what happened

because she could see it on my face and I didn't tell her right then because you know she's like in mama bear mode but then I told her what happened or whatever and since I asked the doctor later I wasn't supposed to be able

to take it by the way but he wanted to try to get as much as he could yeah so that same night bro my fever goes to like 104 Right?

The team doctor tells the nurse, oh, just give them some Tylenol and all this happens all the time. Because it was happening all the time. Like every night I'd go to sleep. They'd wake up. We wake up at like two, change all the sheets, everything. So I could and change my pajamas and stuff because I would be sleeping in sweat. So man, we do that. And then like, so that we went in on a Friday.

It's Monday. And it's Tuesday morning now, bro. And I'm in the bathroom. And I'm throwing up, you know, I can say on this show, diarrhea, everything. It's coming out of both ends. bro. I'm like my fever's high as hell. And I just told my wife too, man. I was like, I'm tired. You know what I'm saying? I was like, I'm really tired. You know, and I was like, and it's not like I'm giving up. I was like, I'm just tired, babe. You know what I'm saying? I was like,

whatever happens from here, I was like, I'm cool with it. And my doctor, he looked like Tom Brady. I just called him, he walks in. He walks like, and he has seen me. Like, I had never complained, bro, the whole time I was there. And he walked into the bathroom and he's like, I'm going to take you now, you know. And so he goes down. He takes me. I see the doctor. I see the doctor that put me in the hospital the day after he comes to visit me and he tells me he's like had you not called me on Friday you wouldn't have made it through the weekend. Fuck. And so it was just like it was just, you know, it's one of those things that that shaped the way

like you look at things. You know what I'm saying? And that's why like I'm never going to die of stress. You know what I'm saying? Because it's just like when the normal everyday things happen, like those are normal everyday things. You know what I'm saying? Like when when you're dealing with the stuff that like we all deal with,

I just accept that as part of it, right? Because there's so much, there's so much else that could be going on or that you could be dealing with that's so much bigger than what every day is. Like, why are you going to allow that to change your mood? Why am I going to allow that to affect the way I treat the people, the people around me? And like, I have to. and whenever something happens and I do let it get me a little frazzle

like I get pissed off with myself because I got to bring myself back to what it could be you know and I think in telling that story like I love telling it in the sense of it helps me remember like man it could be worse

you know and it's so crazy like all of my best friends like only one friend came to see me and my cousin right because I wouldn't tell anybody how sick I was, you know, because I was in that, in that mode of, like, don't be a burden to other people. Like, you know, and so I remember, like, my best friend finally did see me.

He saw, it was like the next year. And at this point, I had gained some weight, too, bro. I was like, one 70s. So I felt swole. You know what I mean? Yeah. He was like, man, you had biggest shit. You know what I'm saying?

He's like, he's like, bro, what was, he's like, bro, what was, he's like, you didn't tell me you were that sick. And I was like, well, it was one of those things. The doctor's. never told me I was that sick though too. Right. You know what I mean? And so like how I'm gonna call you and be like, well, man, like I'm dying.

Like I feel all this when every day I'm being told that nothing's wrong with you. And so like that was just like that was that was a good, that was a moment that I remember because, you know, two days later, Sean got shot. You know, and, you know, a little bit after that. I'm on the- Sean Taylor. Yeah, Sean, you know, Sean Taylor. And a little bit after that, man, you get the call in. morning two words, you know, from one of my friends. He was like, he died, you know, and that was

it. And so now you're on the stairs explaining, you know, explaining to your seven-year-old, you know, when he asked, he's like, you know, that, like, what happened to Uncle Sean? You know, and so, like, you're dealing with the emotions of, like, knowing you were in the bad place. And then, and then, you know, now your friend passes and is killed and he's killed. And he's killed doing something that all of us would do which is protecting your own, you know, and then you're watching people on TV basically say he deserves it and say you live by the sore,

you die by the sword and all this stuff. And I see those people. I see them now, you know. They don't know. I hate them, but I do. You know, I work with some of those people. Oh, damn for real. Yeah, like, me and those people ain't going to ever be cool. They don't know. You know what I'm saying? Because I try to keep it, I try to keep it professional enough.

You know what I'm saying? When I'm around them. But, like, I got, like, I got, Like me and you, nah, it ain't gonna never be nothing. And so I think that, like, that's part, like that, that shaped me not talking about people's character. You know what I'm saying? That shapes me not talking about people's intent. It's like, I knew that dude, you know? Like, I love him still.

You know what I'm saying? Just because he's gone on me and I don't love him anymore. So you would honor him in practice every day because you wear a towel with this. number and everything else on it. Yeah, you know, I would, like in Pittsburgh, I tried to get my jersey number changed. They wouldn't let me. But I wore 21 every practice, my game shirt that one in my pads had 21 on it, my towels did.

And so, you know, like when you talk about, like, the things that that Darren has gone through, I think it's just amazing that now that story is going to inspire other people the way it inspired you, even if, and you ain't got to go through the same stuff. Like you go through stuff. But even looking at that, you could be like, dang, but it ain't that. You know what I'm saying? In the day you deal in, it's like, oh, but it ain't that. And so many times, like, that's where I'm at.

I'm like, you know what? It ain't that, man. And we have, whether we like it or not, bro, like, we have responsibilities now. Like, once you take this microphone, you have a responsibility. Not a responsibility to change the world, but a responsibility to be authentic enough to where doing. this actually matters. You know what I'm saying?

Like the fun, the entertainment, like all of that junk is important to me because that junk is going to be eventually like how we get paid. You know what I'm saying? But like when I walk around, I can be 100% candid about this, bro, like when I walk around and, you know, like I make like the white and black jokes and people get mad at me, but I'm from New Orleans and like that's what it is. Like light skin jokes and all that. But like when I walk around, bro, like, and brothers and black, like black dudes,

come up to me and they always like man I appreciate the way like you stand you stand strong like I appreciate the way that you're authentic I appreciate the way that you represent us that you represent where you come from like that matters to me you know because like that that is where I come from and it doesn't and I hate the fact that I hate the fact that loving who I am loving where I'm from loving people that look like me that talk like me that deal with the same things that I deal with and have dealt with means to other people I don't love them you know what I'm saying I think I think for so long for so long and I know this not what the show necessarily needs to be about for so long in this

country the people in power and the representation of loving themselves mean you mean mean that you thought others to be inferior. Loving my people doesn't mean I think we're superior in any way. It just means I think we are of value and of worth as well. The same way, I think you're of worth, and I think you're of worth, and I think all of you of worth. Right? I just think we're all of worth equally. And so in loving my folks, like, that's where, like, that's where you want stuff to go.

And so, like, you feel like in our job, like, I don't, like, I don't want to, like, you don't want to feel that responsibility. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't want to be sitting in a meeting, bro. Or, like, I don't want to be on TV with Paul Feinbaum in what was a very football question. Like, he was talking about Eli Manning. We were talking about Eli Manning not having it no more and Cam Newton not having it no more. Right? And that Eli was, like, going to retire.

And he said he was so sweet. Eli is this. And Eli deserves that. Eli deserves this. And I was like, I agree. Eli deserves that for what he is as a man and for what he did for the New York Giants as a quarterback. 100%. He deserves those roses, Paul.

And then he started talking about Cam. He's like, this guy has never cared about nothing but itself. Woo, woo, woo. You know? And it's like in that moment on TV with your colleague, like you got to make a decision. You know what I'm saying? Like, you got to make a decision like what team I'm on. You know, because you know it.

Like you're on this bus. you got to make sure Taylor looks good. You got to make sure your guests look good. Because if you F over your guests, you're not going to get more. You see what I'm saying? Like, Taylor doesn't feel a vibe with you. Like, he's not going to want to rock with you and do the show.

And you know, you have a value. He has a value together. You have a bigger value. And so now I'm on this show with Paul Feinbaum. I got to make a decision. Like, am I going to shine on Paul in this moment, right? And take up for Cam and talk about the differences in the way that he saw these two men,

even though these two men have both been pillars of their communities, these two men have both given back in this manner of way. Actually, one of those men has reached a team height that the other hasn't, but the other one has reached an individual height that the other one never had. You know, and so now I've got to explain that and do it in a way to where I'm true to the team I work with

and not disrespectful to that, but also true to the people I represent every day. And like, that's the, like, that's the place. you eventually get to those momentary decisions because like it's life right you know and so like you're gonna keep

moving up bro like y'all gonna keep keep doing things and like that's why I ask you that question like do you have like do you ever have a way you want to steer the show because it's basically exactly like talking about football like

you can't control this seat right like you couldn't control Darren Waller's seat like you can't control junior seat and it's like you have to be true to yourself obviously you got to be true to your fans but it's also like man like what this person is feeling like what this person is sharing is the reason i invited these people on the bus is because in some in some aspect i believe that this person had something to share right and that's your responsibility as a host but that's your responsibility as a host too will because it's like like 100% I came here for you you know

like I'll be honest I ain't have this Tuesday you know what I'm just gonna be straight up I know you know something about I got the show or something yeah how does he figure out yeah like you know I'm saying like I ain't have this Tuesday so what I did was like okay can we meet on Monday can we do the show on Wednesday like you know my old lady's birthday's tomorrow I'm going to Chicago like I had all this stuff going on because you remember I was going to try to do it in July because I wanted to be here when Taylor was here. Right, right, right. Because I was like, man, because I already knew. You said at certain day and I was like, that's right after the threshold where he goes

to camp. Right. So if you come, it'll just be me and you. I'm with that. I'm just letting you know. Right. And so once you said that, though, it gave me a little leeway of like, okay, I don't have to rush to try to get down and I can do it. But I made this happen for because of you. You know what I'm saying? Like, but I feel like that's the way, I feel like that's the way it's supposed to be, man. Like if you care for somebody, like if you rock with somebody, like that junk should show. in your actions, right? That juncture show in the way you live life

and the way you respond and all these things. And I think that's eventually how people win. You know what I mean? Like people are going to watch your show, man, and like other athletes and like other people and they're going to see, damn, when so-and-so went on this show,

like I love what Will brought. So there's going to be somebody who's dealt with things like Darren Waller, who are athletes, who are going to say, man, if Willemton invites me like Tyrant Matthew, He's been through this. Oh, I know Darren Wallet, me and Darren got the same guy. That's a show I can go on.

That show's not going to play me. Right? Because so many times I've seen people go places and be like, I ain't never effing with that again. Absolutely. Yeah, no, I definitely wanted to be at a place to where it's one of those platforms that people use it to just like this nature. Whether you're having fun and you want to have entertaining, like, you know, be about the boys and all that stuff. Or there's something of value and substance that's behind that person's story that we want to get to that brings it. out and kind of shines a light on it.

Darren Waller being an example. I mean, hell, you, it's like, you know, if I post out that Ryan's coming on, obviously a lot of the tier ones that we refer to think of the one situation. When I know myself, like, he's going to come on the bus and we're going to have an incredible conversation, which we have. So, dude, I appreciate you flying in for this thing, man. No doubt, man. It means a lot.

It does. When I first got to learn from Ryan, that was. 2014 so I had just started to start games because somebody ahead of me got hurt and so I think I might only started like five games that year with you. You was balding though. I was playing well. It was wild. That was fired up. But I remember like I want to say maybe it was LaValle and now that that I'm playing you know you're feeling a little bit more banged up you're like trying to learn about recovery like always trying to be a sponge around like the vets that have been there and he's like oh, Cuzzle, or he called me Cousal, you call me nephew.

He's like, oh, Cajor, I'll take you to Uncle RCs. And I go over to RCs to get an IV. My first time, like, getting an IV. Ryan sitting there, he's getting his feet massaged while he's got an IV in his arm. No, you did, did you not get that kind of massage? You wasn't even laid up on the table. You just sit on your couch. The games on that, man, just getting his foot massage.

But that's when I started to learn about, like, taking care of your body and everything else. But, I mean, it was, it was, it was pit. for me. So I do. I appreciate you making the trip out here coming on bus with the boys. No, man. This was good. This was kind of therapeutic, actually. Like, I'm going to go home and be a better person now. I think the thing I loved about it was, one, we weren't in the time limit, which I think you probably should have kept me on a time limit because this junk is very long. People are going to take six days of driving the way to actually finish this. And I'm sorry, people, for that next time. bite her back, I would be quicker.

But I think the huge thing is, is people are layered, you know, like Shrek said, you know, he's an onion. But then Donkey told Shrek be a parfait because who don't like a parfait, you know? Great reference. Yeah, and you, I got kids, bro. And

you allow, like, you allow those layers to unfold. And so I think people get a greater sense of who your guests are than they do, like me being on TV. Right, you have a little segments. You have certain, yeah, you have like 30 seconds. So what y'all do, man, is really dope.

Tell Taylor, I'll be back for him. Yeah. You know, I'll make sure. You'll have to. Yeah, I'll make sure, though, I get at least two or three tweets out about him this year. So tell him Bill these peas and cues. Okay, all right, I will, man. But I'm sure we'll link up again, bro, but thank you.

No problem. Subscribe to Buzz on the Boys. Also, Face First Podcasts. How many episodes? Is that something you're going to be, like, reassuring? Yeah, so we're coming back. I got James Harrison this week. I have Super Agent, Jailen Ramsey.

he's agent actually, David Mulliggetta on early September. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's definitely, because he's somebody who's like out there. Yeah, so I got him. Nate Burleson, actually, which is a cool moment for me, man. At Hall of Fame, I'm just speaking, saying hello. And he was like, when are you going to have me on your podcast? And I was like.

He seems like such a good dude. Oh, he's awesome dude. Short story, I'm sorry, I know we ended. We were on NFL network while still playing before I did my ESPN thing. And he was on with me. And I was like good for, football player. He was at that time good for somebody that had been doing it for 10 years. And I remember going home and being like, I'm never going to be on TV if they're going

to compare me to that dude. He's freaking excellent. Yeah, there's a, I read another short story and then we're going on the podcast. But I remember reading the story on him because he attained some award because I, you know, he was a little before me getting into the league. But yeah, he's somebody who just seems like he's authentically like just kind of grew, climbed the ladder through his authenticity. Yeah, bro, he's amazing, dog. Yeah, so. But face first podcast, Ryan Clark, subscribe, rate five stars. Bang the comments all day long.

Ryan, I appreciate you, brother. Bust some more. Yeah, bus more. Hey, that was fire, man. Oh, appreciate that. I enjoyed it. Big shout out to you guys. If you enjoyed this episode and love and support Bustin with the Boys,

go to whatever podcast platform you're on and subscribe to us. Leave a review, rate five stars. If you're already subscribed, unsubscribe, and resubstrived. subscribe again. It helps the boys climb the charts and again we can't we wouldn't be doing this and can't do this without you guys and all of your support. We also have a YouTube channel if you like if you'd like to watch our show or these episodes they're on YouTube at Bustin with the boys. We're also on social media at Buston wtb you can follow us everywhere go buy our merch you guys know that whole deal but thank you so much we are forever grateful for you the biggest of hugs and tiniest of kisses for the boys always in forever. 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 help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

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

their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.