Bussin' With The Boys - Will And Taylor React To Lamar Jackson Saga, Kirk Cousins Talks HIs Time In Washington, Fully Guaranteed Contracts + His Future

Episode Date: March 9, 2023

Recorded: February 9th 2023 | The boys start the Taylor trying to pull a little prank on Will, didn't workout the best. The boys then dive into the birth of Bussin' and everything that went into starting the podcast you all listen to and love today. Following that, they react to the Lamar Jackson saga. Following the intro, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins joins the boys in Arizona. He talks about his time with the team formally known as the Washington Redskins and his thought process on being there as well as backing up Robert Griffin III. Cousins then speaks on the work he and his agent went through to be one first players to ever get a fully guaranteed contract. Finally we talk about his future in the NFL and how feels about his Vikings team. Kirk ended the pod bringing Will to tears by giving him flowers. You won't want to miss it. 0:00 Will gets pranked 2:10 blas being a 2nd amendment advocate 2:35 Taylor sent a dick pic to the boys 3:45 boys going to Vegas for UFC 4:20 300k subs 5:10 Will is here 8:55 reflecting on how will feels about being pranked 12:55 Will took a dude on a walk 13:45 The cost of starting the pod and starting Bussin 32:05 Taylor to the Chiefs? 35:05 Taylor’s rehab is going well 40:26 Lamar Talk and Salary cap talk 52:39 Tier Talk 1:14:19 KIRK INTERVIEW STARTS 1:14:46 Guaranteed contracts 1:22:41 Kirk reflects on his time in Washington 1:27:26 difference in media market for Minnesota vs Washington 1:32:14 Kirko Chainz 1:37:20 the check down in the playoff game 1:39:46 how he handles criticism 1:43:42 what does the future look like for kirk 1:44:06 Kirk speaks on his time at Michigan State 1:54:41 replacing RG3 1:59:10 kirk giving will his flowers ---- 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 ----- Chevy: Chevy Silverado - The Strongest, Most Advanced Silverado Ever.For more, visit barstool.link/bussinwtbSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Another podcast from. some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs.

We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was part of you. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come until he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love.

This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Bus with the Boys, episode 207. You might be a little worried. You might be seeing this wide frame right now and not seeing my boy Will Compton. We're not supposed to start filming for another 15 minutes.

But we all get on the bus. We're sitting here. I just think to myself, why not pretend like we're starting our episode, starting our intro, and then when Will gets here, see just how he handles the adversity. See how he sits down, how he's going to react to. Hey, these boys start without me. Does he feel some type of way of it? or does he internalize it?

It could go either way. How we feel boys, we think he's going to make a big fuss over it or do we think he's going to internalize? He's for sure going to be like, dude, we talked about starting at noon. So if he shows up afternoon, then we're good.

Our bit runs. But if he shows up before noon, he's going to be like, dude, we had a set time. I know, but if I just say, hey, we were all here. Yeah. I play it like it's nothing for a second.

I mean, it looked like he was kind of aggravated this morning on Twitter. He got after that one time. He got after buddy on Twitter. You could see, like, I think it was like, in early morning. A Rue woke up a little too early.

Yeah. Pop up a little early. Had a tough day, dude. Tough day. See that again? Mitchie, if you're going to talk, please speak in the mic.

Jack, up, I don't know. It's one of those deals sometimes. You weren't like, I was driving down 8th Avenue, going to get my haircut, going to get this mullet.

And people were like, how about let's talk about your kid in the back of the car. Meanwhile, by the way, two weeks ago, I'm getting murdered for not having trigger discipline, which, by the way, I'm a fucking idiot for that. Like, that is truly something I had no idea about. I'm better for it now. But let's take a little gander at that.

Like, maybe we should all have a little more lessons on firearm safety. Am I right, Blas? Bloss is a big proponent of putting more rules on getting a gun in this country. He is not a big Second Amendment guy. Is that not true? I'm a big Second Amendment guy. Oh, canceled. Got him.

Got him. We got them. We got what we needed. we got what we needed before I know holding it and honestly I was holding it's different low key to the shoulder

not a lot of good mobility in the shoulder we're talking about the episode with Jeffrey Starr when we went to it we actually went to his house and we did everything it's in bus scenes right now you can find that

but I don't even know how much of this we're going to keep in it because this is all a ploy on how to get will but if he shows up in the next five minutes great what we were talking about before that though is I sent a dick pick to the boys the other day. Not like a full mass.

You got like the Eiffel Tower look where you're at the base trying to look up where you make it look real good. You all know what I'm talking about, dude. There's snapchatters out there. Yeah, dude, you take that fucking thing when you get that where it has a shadow cast over it. You know, get a big light, put it in the side. So that thing just looks gargantuan. I stepped on the scale and it was like 271. And I just took a picture, but barely got the little head of my peep in it. Once I got the head of my peep in it, I took a picture of it, sent it to Will. Will didn't even fucking notice.

bro, look how much I weigh. He goes, oh, I would have guessed 265. He looks so small. And then when I literally called Will told him, hey, buddy, do you not see my dick in that photo? He looks at it and he just starts laughing. And then 10 seconds later, we got the phone. He texts you boys.

What did he say? Talking to Mike, Mitch. He said, you guys, how much you think Taylor, Taylor weighs closest person gets 50 bucks? Yeah. Nice. You guys guessed a little bit, but by the way, Jack, you would have got that 50 bucks.

You said 271. one, didn't you? Yeah, what the fuck is up with that? Will is just a liar. He's tough. It was 271. It'll come, dude. It'll come with your predium

when we get to Vegas this weekend. That's all I wanted. Yeah, yeah, yeah. On the credit line. You! Put it on the credit line, dude. For those of you, like I said before,

I don't know if this is going in the episode, but we are going to Vegas this weekend. Our merch is out there. St. Patty's Day. If you're listening to this episode now on Thursday, spoiler alert, you're probably not going to get it

because we know how the business days work. Things can happen. They literally put guys on bikes from New York, I guess, just to send out merchandise to all you guys. But get it anyway because you're going to be set and ready to go for next year. And then you got a vintage tea now. You have the new boy, and that's great. But a year from now, people would be like, oh, you got the new thing? Yeah, this was last year.

That's how long I've been listening to the pod. A little more notes. A little more something to think about. 300,000 subscribers, boys. That is outstanding. What a fucking deal. Will and I both gave you guys flowers via the bird. But I do want to let you know, like, this seriously is because of you guys.

Without you guys subscribing, unsubscribing, resubscribing, doing the pay-a-forward method where you're telling two people who tell two people who tell two people going down and down and on the road. Like this bus would be nothing, dude. We have literally just a couple of voices and four absolutely talented studs in the back that are digitally putting our shit together. Other than that, we would be nothing without you guys. So thank you so much for just standing by us. Am I right? Am I right, boys?

there it is amen i like that i like that dude so that's what we're that's what we're fucking dealing with now we're gonna pause it and wait for will to get here i'm nervous yeah i'm nervous you feel it how long do we let him think we're doing it well well hey we'll feel that out yeah we'll feel that out yeah we'll feel that out for sure i'm gonna start talking about i'll start talking about kirk cousins once he walks in and then as i'm talking about kirk cousins you say Hey, should we do a little tear talk before we hit the episode? Oh, yeah, shit. We've got the episode.

All right, boys, like I said, we're going to keep it short today. It has been a phenomenal time, this 17 minutes with you. This episode this week is Kirk Cousins. Guys, is a fucking stud. Before we get there, we need to do tear talk. He's not wrong. We got to do. Look who made it, boys.

Will Compton's here. Hey. The episode without the boys? We said we were all here. We thought we just get it going real quick. Oh, I got you. I got you. Yeah.

So we got, we just, we're 17 in. Do you want to do tier talk with the boys? What's the tier talk? Tear talk's going to be your favorite albums of all time. We do research. I love it. For those of you that have been with us for those 17 minutes of this podcast, you just saw Will Compton's mental fortitude.

He just walked onto the bus after pulling up on time, thinking we started an episode without him, trying to prank Wilcompton. Yet, you fucking didn't flinch. Unfazed, didn't flinch. You got to be able to control your emotions. And you control the hell of them. There's a feeling in there.

And it's like, you know, it's whatever. The boys had fun. They had fun. They did it. It's what it is. Yeah. But we didn't start the episode. We literally got on the bus.

We're like, hey, boys, welcome to the episode. It's episode 207 with Kirk Cousins. We're going to wait and we're going to prank Willis if we've been doing the episode for 17 minutes. You guys did a good job. The 17 minutes is the part, the actual part that got me. Because I was like, oh, this is a joke. Well, I thought I might have just started by when I saw 17 minutes. I was like, that's what we're doing, boy?

You can't get a way. I think of you actually felt some type of way. Well, I'm thinking I couldn't get a heads up. Because I think there was, I mean, all of us really thought that he was going to make a more of a stink about it, right? A little bit more of a stink. But with that being said, hey, buddy, we're not starting to your talk yet. We can do in the beginning of the episode. For those of you joining us and saw the prank that went horribly wrong on Will, there's a reason why.

It's because he's horrible. How long has it been going? What will be covered? No, we covered nothing. You want to know what we covered? Nothing. We literally talked about shit. We talked about, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Small dick energy. Which, by the way. I do have a small one. I know, I know. No, it's not scrawny. It's nice.

Oh, okay, okay. We were talking about, which is all, which is all going to go on the deleted scenes part, by the way. We are going to, when you're taking a piss and you're sitting on the toilet and you pee, sometimes do you pee through the gap between the lid and the seat or the seat in the actual toilet? You don't got a little dick then.

Oh, no, no, no, no, hang on now. It's all right. I'm proud of you. Oh, wait. Hang on, I do got a little dick. No, no, bro. You got a big dick. No, no, no. Because when I'm peeing, like, I'm going to be pushing the boy down. No, yeah, but, yeah, see, that's where.

It's not like I sit there like this and I'm just here. Sometimes I just do that, and I let that thing just kind of wrecked. Yeah. Well, if I'm never, like, not pushing it, it's because I'm rocked up and I have to tuck it under the room. We've covered that, too. We covered that too. All that'll be on the back of the episode, boys. Please enjoy. But the reason why Will was not affected by these types of situations is because he's durable and reliable, just like our presenting sponsor,

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That's all I was thinking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just couldn't get any heads up. It feels like you're a little still kind of wondering what's going on here. No, no. No, you're good. Yeah, I'm solid. You're okay. Yeah, I'm solid. All right. Literally, like, could you guys tell I was feeling some type of way? Yeah, I mean, I sat down. I do. Yeah. You internalized it. Yeah, you did. Very much. That's all I was doing. I truly typed in like ZZ Top music albums because I was like, all right, I got to, well, I just got to think like, all right. what are my top albums? Like, I gotta get,

I gotta do the zoom out thing. I gotta fucking. Yeah, you gotta get rid of that. We'll tackle that after this episode. The boys are obviously in good vibes. Like, I'm not trying to be like,

like bring down the vibes. Yeah. I act badly. If we actually started this episode without, I would have pouted after we got off. Yeah. If we started this episode for real without will knowing, seeing your body language,

though, when you walked in, it did, it did have that, man, fuck these guys type vibes. Not, I felt like it was,

though, what the fuck's going on? Yeah. Starting the show. But if we would have done tear talk, you, I mean, you're a great actor. We've seen you in the Supercuts commercial. By the end of a tier talk, I would have got it together for the acting part. Just, all right, let's just, let's just join in the energy.

Yeah, yeah, there's nothing you can do joining the energy. But when the episode stopped, I would have been like, so what's. Yeah. I would have felt the same exact way. Like, what's the deal? Yeah. Zero heads up. That's the thing.

Like Jack's back there. fully you need up. He's got the fucking shades on. Yeah, he's ready. He's had a couple weeks of like, you know, hey, everybody check out my episode, a recent episode on Bustin with the boys. Yeah. He's ready to go. Everybody's sitting around. You know, you hear a couple last one, man, they've really been. And then it was the 17 minutes. We have the clock. Shit on that, Bloss. When the clock was going, I was like, they really did. Jack. It was a team effort. But you pressed, you pressed, you press start on the fucking time clock. Because what I was working through in my head, too, was like, there's no way you can just put the

clock probably on like 17 minutes. They probably did legitimately, they've probably done 17 minutes of shop here. I don't know why we all ended up sitting on here. Like, we all kind of just walked on the bus. We're kind of just chilling waiting like at 1145. Yeah. And we're kind of just like sitting. And it's like, I guess, hey, boys, we'll just, hey, and I was like, hey, run the clock. We're just going to, we're going to pull a little prank on Willie, which by the way, it worked. Shows growth. Definitely shows growth. What? Just you as a human being. No, just you ate that. You absolutely ate that. What am I supposed to do? If we're really going, truly, like, legit, if we're truly

going and you guys were in it, like, of course I could feel some type of way, but what am I going to do? Just start creating drama on the bus. There's two types of things you could have done. You could have done what you did, or you could have made a big bit about it and, like, literally put us all, like, the shame, and it had been like a part of the episode. It's just been like, just played into it.

Like, yo, what the fuck are you all doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't know who runs this shit? Like, just start being like that. Yeah, but. Yeah, we said 12. I was working through it. I was working through. Yeah.

We were legit sitting here for a while just hanging out. And then loki had kind of, we were just kind of talking. Yeah. Because I came in. I had brought the hats. They look sick. But I hear you going and stuff.

I'm like, and he's ripping on something. Like, did he just start? Like, did he like just start? And then I come and said, I'm like, hey,

you started the pot? And then again, the 17 minutes, I'm like, oh, these boys have been rolling. Everybody's got smiles. They're all feeling themselves out there. And then you're like,

you want to do tear talking, literally in my head. I'm like, yeah man yeah yeah what's the tear talk top top uh music gooms and i'm just thinking like all right just fucking just get in immerse yourself holding this anger until the crowd's way then you can yell at your wife go home and take it out your wife pisses you off at a party like i can't fucking wait to talk about that later low-key be cold to them and not cold enough for people who are noticing then literally one day we're all hanging out the squad's all hanging out and then that just comes up and charles like oh so that's why

you were that one day i'm like yeah that was fucking i was tight i was tight i was tight I was tight. Oh, dude. Speaking of being tight, dude, you fucking took a dude for a little bit of a walk today. I felt, you know, it's been a walk. It's been a while since I, you know, I enjoy the old, the old pantry walks to buckling in, just getting a little creative with, like, doing something. I thought it'd been a minute.

And we, by the way, I don't know if you already, if we've celebrated the 300,000 subscribers on YouTube. Yeah. But I'm fired up posting this thing on YouTube. I wake up this morning and I kind of see that comment. I'm thinking, the fuck is. this dude talking about with this negative energy? Yeah, you were saying something like you boys have already made millions or something like that?

Yeah, you guys have all made millions. Like, let's not act like you've actually been grinding from the dirt or something like that. And it's like, that's not the fucking point, dude. Ontario, Cape Creek, Arizona. Yeah. But even then, like, just from a, like, just from the business sense, that's why I wanted to go on those little tangents and talk about it. Because it's not like, it's not like we just sit there and we're like, oh, you know, we just have a fuckload of money.

Let's just spin ridiculously. And like, this stuff's going to work. Like, there's been a lot of, there's been a lot of sweat, equity. from all the boys put into this to where that's not going to be disrespected. Do you feel, do you want to tell people how much it costs for us to start this? When we got up and going, I was alluding to it on there, probably collectively about 70 grand total. Oh, 70? Yeah.

Up front, the upfront cost, the upfront cost of the equipment, the legal fees, yeah, all of that stuff. The bus, the inside the bus. Yeah, soundproofing the bus as much as we can. could. Yeah, because there's the element, that thing was more like 50. But hey, there, there, I want to say mine was like 52 and 50 something and yours was like 12, but it all, it all made balance. But from my, shout out Will by the way. From my, 52,000 dollars from my shoes. From my shoes, it was, um, I never wanted you at a thought because we're obviously boys, but we had,

obviously, we had also just met not even a year. It hadn't even been a year at that. No, it probably Yeah, it definitely wasn't a year. It's a little over eight months probably. And you signed your, like the record breaking deal when you signed it, there was zero part of me ever wanting you to feel like I was trying to you know, play into that role of like, hey, we need this, we need that.

You know what I mean? Playing me. Scam. Yeah, yeah. Just seemed like a leech on them or something. Because, you know, Taylor, like we talked, we've alluded to podcasts before about how we would be on FaceTime. And there's a lot of doubt and insecurity and fears like doing this thing. And, you know, a couple

times you're like wanting to be in you're like I mean I don't know I don't know if this is the route yeah you know what I'm saying so it's never like I wanted to come at you like hey you know you owe me 25 grand for all this stuff put it at any point because it's like you know we're just betting that things gonna work out I think at one point you're like we both got our money back in the situation like you obviously paid yourself yeah there well there's more legal stuff that came back around it it we made it all equal yeah we make it all equal yeah yeah but at the beginning but at the beginning it was like yeah it was in the thing too for those you're not you're not you're you who are thinking about starting a podcast or starting anything in general, like the base

original idea we had for this podcast, it's, it's not that. Like, we, like, being on a bus, we wanted to call it the den at one point. We. Well, yeah, but it was a fascination of the, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And we were more thinking of going down, like, a mental aspect, like, having a little humor in there, but make it a more serious podcast. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because when I was like, when I'm journaling it all down, I'm thinking, like, I'm going to have to go about this on my own. And then fortunately, when we ended up coming around and you're like y'all I'm down

and I'll thank God and then you joke at me about like oh working title working title which was good because we didn't want to do anything surrounding the boys yet because before the boys was such a locker room thing with Titans

we didn't want our peers from the locker room thinking we're trying to take something that we all were doing together on the Titans when we made the for the boys shirts in the middle of the season after we beat Jacksonville were we undefeated at that point no we went on a little streak we went on a little streak

And we, yeah, we definitely had the four boys had the wolf on the back. Yeah, yeah. We were all about the whole boys thing. Part of us didn't want to do, like, didn't want to take that and make it our own thing. Obviously, we ended up going with busing with the boys. But we were trying to find titles that was away from having to use for the boys because we just kind of felt we were in our heads about it. And like we were taking advantage of something that we were doing with the locker room. And there was even like some like discomfort with the bus.

Like I was all on the bus right away. You were kind of like more if you like, hey, like I don't know. I don't know about it. Yeah. Because when we saw the bus, I literally set up, like, Will said this and I doubled down on it. Like, hey, I'm buying this bus, whether we use it for a podcast or not. Yeah. Two grand for this thing.

Are you kidding me? Yeah. Because when we were working with a cardboard, they're like, hey, what do you think about this bus in the back? And I was like, I'm going to be honest. I don't want to do it at all. But we'll wait until Taylor gets here because I was actually your first time coming back in April. Yeah. And we were about to start putting the podcast together.

And I was like, but I know when Taylor gets here, he's probably going to want to do it. So let's just wait to see what he says when he gets here. Yeah. You go out back. you're falling in love with it. Oh, bro. I was looking at like, holy fuck. Look at this thing.

Yeah. There's a piece of gold just sitting in the back that no one was touching. And I was like, hey, look, bro, I'll put in 12 grand. If it works, awesome. If it doesn't, I'll sit that thing in my backyard. Yeah. And so I'm like, all right. And you're like, I think we can get this done in two.

We are, because we were like, we needed a space. It's like, I get it where you're back in April, but you're going to be doing OTAs. Because at that point, we were just wanting to do the podcast around football, not during, not like, we're going to do it offseason or anything? I'm just thinking like, dude, this is going to, like, take a minute. Like, we're already, we've already lost three or four months. We've been waiting on you to get here. Now you want to build up this fucking bust that's even going to take more time.

When we can start backlogging episodes. But you're like, I think you said like 10 days, 12 days. Yeah, because we talked to, who is that? What's that guy's name that did it for us? And he was like, I can get this done for you guys in less than two weeks. I'm so pissed off. I know. It's breaking my heart.

Once we know, we'll definitely reach out because, uh, man. And he does like carpenty work at Redwood Houston. great fucking dude told him. I was like, how much you think it would cost? Paying you. What's that, Blas? I almost just hated because we were also, we were also boys with them. Yeah, we are, we are boys with him.

He made me a chicken coop that I still haven't picked up from him four years ago. Yeah, loading dock. I can't remember his name. Awesome, dude. He looks for being. That's what I think is it Jeff? It might be Jeff. Yeah, Jeff.

All right, let's say Jeff. Jeff. So Jeff it is. So we talk to Jeff and I go up to him and I'm like, hey, how long do you think to take the like soundproof? like get this thing ready to like do an episode. And at the time, ASAP as fast as possible. We were like willing to pay more to get it done faster.

Bro, when we, I hope, do we have a photo? What do you, what Jack say? Nothing. It'll be a good super short. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just let it ride. Check out our Instagram. Yeah.

He's such a cuck. I said ASAP as fast as possible. God damn. But when we had this bus, like when we first got it, I hope we have a photo of it. But there was like chairs and like wasp nest, squirrel. Oh, yeah. It was sketchy. fucking sketchy bro like crazy shit you're like yeah we need to bring a priest in here and exercise

this place no it was you could tell like some demon shit went on yeah we had to burn some sage do some shit like that in here because it was fucking wild and buddy was like yeah i can get this on 10 days oh are you serious and i literally went to home depot that day and picked out the flooring and the color for the walls right yeah yeah i remember that and he's like we had to be soundproofing that was a cardboard though like you have to do some sort of soundproofing because the metal will radiate too much Yeah, yeah. Bounce off the... Bounce off the metal.

We'll say radiate, dude. We'll fucking... We'll say radiate. But yeah, dude, we do have a little documentary on Bustin with the boys, don't we? Yeah. If you're not subscribed

and you just go on our pages and that the video that's up, documentary. That's so funny, dude. I did see a clip because when I saw the 300,000 subscribers, I was looking for the photo from your birthday

when I pinned you up against there. And I was your birthday. I was slapping you up a little bit. Yeah, yeah. I was looking for that. And I found us with Roman Yosey talking about giving computers aids from looking at so much porn. Oh, man. And it was just me doing a bit of like four days going ham on this computer and like weird shit popping up.

Uh-oh. Oh. MP, making appearance. You! I remember that interview, too. That was actually when they were going around the locker room and talking about what for the boys meant because who was it? Rashard. Richard Matthews.

Yeah. Had just left the team or something like that. And Paul Karski was kind of making. a deal about it. Yeah, because he was like, Paul was like, oh, he's not for the boys because he left.

He retired or quit or whatever. And I somehow was like, he's still for the boys. Yeah. You know? Because at that point, everything is for the boys. The whole team

was saying for the boys. Like interviews, dudes were just saying, for the boys and shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a cool time, that was a very cool time. Then we fell apart.

Yep. Then we fell apart. But Rashar, I mean, he basically. I got a PD like two weeks later. He did, no, that was the next year. That was the next year.

Was it? Yeah. unless you knew in season that the next year you're going to get in trouble. No, is it 2019 or 2018? We started this. The season that we had that was for the boys was 2018, my first year here. Yeah, I'm saying, but like that. And then the next off season is when the podcast is.

Right. I was, my bad. My timeline was mixed up because... I hear what we were talking about wiping. Yeah, which we actually were just having that conversation. You guys will see at the end of this podcast when we're trying to prank Will and did a phenomenal job of not fucking flinching, bro. Not a flinch type of dude.

Thank you for going back in Memory Lane with us. Is there anything else you want to say about it before we change the subject? We're sure they quit on us. He really did. He retired on the boys. He just straight up quit, dude. He was our best receiver at the time. Like, I get any of the business side that goes into it.

Every player is an individual contractor. Like, there is a selfish element of playing. But when you're in it, like, you're trying to be for the boys. And the boys are what matter. Like, and that's the priority, you essentially quit on the board. And it was like week eight too. Like, bro, we're halfway. Yeah. Like if you add camp and eight weeks of the season, you're more than halfway.

Like, fuck, dude. He was a-he did you. He was a good time, too, in the locker room. He was always like really insightful. He would say some wild-wild. Wild shit. One of those guys who was like fun because he'd always bring that big-ass speaker everywhere. Even in a shower. Yeah. He'd have it set up like a massive fucking... My man did not want to be alone with his own thoughts. No. He had to have that music up or something like that. But yeah, Rashad, you, uh, Rashad? You, uh, Rashad? Roshad. Richard? Richard Matthews. But he was like seven more weeks.

He totally quit on us. Totally quit on us. He left the boys. He bounced. He bounced. And I was trying to sing your praises during. But hey. You did that was when all the boys are staying strong to the people.

Because Paul was the evil villain. Yeah. Remember he was taking pictures like look at these quotes around. He's like, is this for the boys? Because he's like, you know, Paul's always trying to find. He's always trying to find something. Yeah. And you can kind of watch like the turbulence that Paul's had playing that role for so long.

like he can't be an asshole forever. Hey, by the way, you threw a wild shot at him the other night. Did you like it? Wild shot. Is it a good one?

Like I smiled about I'm like, you didn't have to. Yeah, but I also, that's Paul and I actually have a good relationship. Like,

we would talk, he'd be very candid with me. I'd be very candid with him. But like, and I would always tell him, like you're, like you are the guy likes to stir shit up.

You are the villain of the locker room. Before COVID hit and we weren't allowed to have anybody in there. Now they can have the media in the locker room. But yeah.

Paul just saying shit about Jeffrey Simmons. It's like, bro, who, like, that is legitimately a strategic thing that agents tell you. Hey, you can do this. You can do that. You can delete all the photos off your page of the team. Like, because the whole goal of that for Jeffrey Simmons to take all the photos off is to cause a stir within the fan-based community. Fan-based community gets outrage. Just like we saw with Derek Henry a couple days ago, we see a thing.

Derek is on the trading block. The Titans are moving to, moving, The whole fucking Nashville world exploded. If this fucking happens, I'm done. My PSLs are over. We're fucking over it. All that shit. And then the next day, look what happened.

Oh, it's actually not a reliable source. It's not going to actually be a thing. Jeff, his situation, I saw a little more 50-50. You were like people like childish as fuck. And also like people are like, do something times, do something about it. But it is a strategic plan that agents and other people put in your head when you're trying to get that new contract, which we all know that Jeff deserves. Yeah.

No, that's a fair point. it's like if you're strictly looking at it objectively from a business standpoint, it does seem because I can, you know, you're like, you know, why, you know, why delete all that stuff off? But yeah, when you bring up the strategy behind it and everything else, it's almost like you do cause that little bit of a voice in the band-based community, which is like a public perception thing, which is, which is like a small piece of trying to create some type of, whether it's leverage, or that is an element in the whole negotiation is you want, you know, you want to show the fans like, hey, if you feel like you're being done wrong, I'm not saying that that's what's happening. But it's just a little element to move on the chessboard to try and cause that little stir to get the fan base, you know, buy the fan base more kind of on your side as a player.

Yeah, because people do feel pressure. The power of social media. Owners see it. GM see it. Right. Right. You see it. We all know Vrable is probably on Twitter right now as I'm speaking.

Yeah. He fucking loves Twitter. He is all about. Ready to toss a body bag out there. Yeah. And it's probably going to be you or me. At any moment, do I feel like I can get got by Vrabel any day. Yeah.

We're not even on the team anymore. Not unemployed. Not on the team. But just randomly, he was at the combine and he sends a selfie with him and some linebacker. And all it says is finding your replacement. Yeah, I haven't even been on the team in a minute. Like, go, did you tell him this?

Like two years. Yeah, I'm like, did you tell him it's the best player you've ever coached? And he goes, he loves you. But, you know, I don't know why I was saying that. That's crazy. Braybel didn't want to answer that question. He did. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He didn't even say that question. But, A, it's, does. dope that these fucking like the generation of these collegiate athletes are getting there saying that you know because Brace probably thinking like what do you love comp like what do you do? You know what I mean?

Yeah that's fucking tough to hear you say about yourself. I know but what do you do? If there's one team where I didn't do a lot on it was the Titans. Yeah. Like the Raiders I got to play and start and have a role the one you started against Colts? I did start against the Colts.

basically starting against the Broncos Right But not but not But not an optimal Not an optimal situations Yeah fair No no I guess what I'm talking about

Is the the role I felt like I was in The Titans Were different than the roles I felt like I was in with the You were star at the Redskins You were star at the Raiders Like I was a guy That they were frustrated to a starting position

On Brable There was never that kind of relationship Yeah That collaborative relationship From coach to the linebacker Like hey how we scheme and stuff like that's right throw will in there yeah we'll see how you know what i mean ravens i know dude hey ravens ravens called it's game no ravens call him

raven's called i mean i got the clips of you fucking you're having a playoff game uh no no no not that i'm talking about remember when i got cut and then i got put on practice squad yeah and then jion heard his elbow yeah yeah yeah i do remember that um that one and then i got to start for the colts the next week you see that right there yeah little vmo twitches But Rables Strong good All to say Rables is an elite

Ballbuster That's basically what it was The selfie Hey Finding your replacement It's like Going back to what you're saying About the combine

Dude when I was on the field During the Combine With Joe and stuff like that I'm like literally with Joe Thomas Who is a We'll have a Hall of Fame jacket Around his shoulders Come August

And dudes are like The fuck of the boy It's like jogging by After a drill Dudes are about it You touch Joe like No I didn't I sang that man's praise.

He's a stud. He's a fucking son. Hate his stance. He can't fucking stand the way he was in a Is Joe Thomas the goat of all losers? Yeah, there's no question. You know what I mean? I was immediately about to say no

because I think Trent, Trent is the goat offensive lineman. Right, right. But I'm talking about just the most loser franchise that he had to sit there and just be on this team and be the best player on the team for how many years?

Double did you years. Yeah, he played 10 years. And then. Barry Sanders. might have something to say about that too. Yeah, fair. Well, that's a good one. Fair.

It's more of like I wanted to put a ball player, though. Say that question in a full sentence. Is Joe Thomas the goat of all losers? End clip. Put it out there. Enclip. Rip it out there. Yeah, rip it out there.

Ten consecutive pro bowl. Yeah. And I wonder what the best record the Browns had during his whole time there. Look up. Look that up. Look it. Look that up. Let's use the computer.

He started those, however many years he played, he started every single game in a row, never missed a game. Yeah, 10,367 snaps. Yeah, in a row. Never. You know who saw his last snap? Me. I was on the field.

Pull up that clip, too. And you're trying to, like, yeah, you're trying to. Yeah, you tried to go give him a little ass tab or something. And he was like, bro, we started talking about that during the, during the broadcast of the NFL plus at the Combine. I started to tell that story, and Joe was all smile.

Because we were joking about how like, he's like, you're their last person to touch me when I play it. And I was like, yeah, that's probably the most embarrassing moment of my NFL career. By the way, been knocked out twice, torn ace, two TCLs. Like, that was way more embarrassing. He's like 15 yards away from me. And as he's getting up, I jog out there. And he jogs away from me. I'm like, get a little, get a little wisp of the middle finger on the back of his cheek.

Dude, and jog back in your pocket. Joe Thomas in his senior career, I believe it was. When was his first year? 2007 to 2017. in 2007 was their only winning season at 10 and 6. And then his final season with the Browns, they were 0 and 16. Yeah.

But yeah, only winning season was his rookie year. Only winning seasons is your rookie year. And think about it. You get drafted, you go 10 and 6 your rookie year. You're like, don't worry. You know, after that last game, hey, don't worry, boys. We'll be back. We're building something.

Yeah, we're building something special. Yeah. Man, that fucking sucks, though. And that just a fucking. Now, you guys have heard the story about Joe almost getting traded. to the Broncos. Remind us. So it's the deadline of the trading deadline's like week eight of the NFL season.

And apparently Peyton Manning called Joe Thomas. It was like, hey, I need somebody. We're going to win a Super Bowl this year. We want to trade for you. And I've heard we can, we can clarify with Joe. Joe was the GM of the Browns and said, please don't trade me. So the GM of the Browns put in the trade paper, fax machine, whatever it is, like five minutes after the deadline ended so it didn't actually go through and made it a

mistake so he could stay on the Browns really and he would have won a Super Bowl yeah because I think it might have been you who were telling me that because then I was like man what if somebody like hey you know I think I played the role of like Patrick Mahomes calls like hey let's go get this Super Bowl you see the Chiefs I did see that what's what's the what's the what's the eyes there with the chief you know you drop the eyes late night text right late night little deal what's the little deal what's the little just know that Elena Brown is now testing free agency. They didn't tag him either.

They didn't tag him. Yeah, that's why he's testing free agency. So it is going to be a bit of a deal. We'll see. I know there was like a couple conversations in the beginning. You know? And left tackle. I wonder if the number 77 is available. Look that up.

No, he wasn't. He was Andrew Wiley is 77 there, huh? You think Andrew handed it over? I think Wiley had a bag coming towards him for that number. Like, there's a handful of teams

that are seriously interesting to me. The chiefs are one of them. Absolutely, because they could basically check all those boxes. You're looking like at a Super Bowl, Super Bowl-ass team. Contender. Wiley,

we got to talk about number 77. And the Chiefs, the negative comments I saw of those, like 200 or whatever comments was, no, you're not in the field, blah, blah,

we're not paying you. Boyce, I'm going to let you know a little secret. The contract I would get is not going to be a big number contract. Similar mine. It would be relative. It would be closer to yours than it was to my old one. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. Yeah for sure. Yeah for sure. No fucking question, bro. You fucking suck, dude. Yeah. But there would be incentives. We'd be incentives and your boys, hey, I'm all about chasing it. That would be a two contending podcast in the same team together though. Ooh. New Heights. What an awesome situation for a little collab. That would be sweet. Big fan of Travis.

And for Raider Nation, we'd finally have somebody on the inside of that organization. Yeah. The franchise. Both of us. Yeah. Because they know the rules. You want me, you gotta take Will. Exactly.

And you'll play for minimum. Oh, yeah. Sonny, you know, my incentives. I'll have some incentives. Yeah. Yeah. What's the incentive? I'm tied to yours.

We'll have to look at your incentives and be like, all right, how should we break this up? Yeah. That's a good thing to put them on my contract negotiation is like, if Taylor plays 90% of the snaps, Taylor gets an extra million, Will gets another 200,000. If I make 16 starts, we'll get a million. Right. It's $200,000. I'll be in with the boys,

Willie Gay and Bolton. That thick gay neck, dude. And, you know, I'll be singing from the, from the mountaintops. We got the best linebacker in court in the league because those dudes are studs. And you. Exactly.

Yeah. And you would keep me in check with my incentives. Like if I had like a little hammy or something, a little soft tissue. Oh, 100%. Like, brother, you're playing. I'll be coming to that training room. Like, hey, I was talking to Andy.

I was just in Andy's office. Yeah. We got to go. Put some Ben Gay on that thing. Let's roll. Yeah. Yeah, exactly, bro. Let that thing fucking rip.

So, Chiefs. If we get action with the Chiefs, we'll very much weigh those options. Like I said before, this all goes into, can my knee handle the situation? I will say, though,

I squatted a 225 today for 10. No shit. So. We talking ass to grass? Put that in your back pocket. What's that? As to grass. Oh, buddy, we were down.

No shift to the hips or nothing either. My leg was twerking like I needed dollar bills. That thing was going fucking wild dog. After that, lunges, rear foot elevated. Tough, bro. Nothing like some bokewarm area and split squat. Yes. And guess what?

Full. Got my leg all the way down to the ground. Nice. So the rehab is, that's a nice feeling. If you're listening, if you're listening, things are going well.

Thank God for the second. Thank God for this second surgery is all I'll say. Yeah. Because Dr. Elitrosh really fixed a lot of things in there. I like how you phrased that. Thank you.

Speaking of ATG, Knees Over Toes guy, he DMs. He would love to come on the bus. He followed me the other day. Really? Yeah. I would love Knees Over Toes guy. And even do a vlog with him just like. And do a workout with him.

Yeah. Train us for however long you're here. Yeah. That would be incredible. I would absolutely be 100% down with that. A recline because he was saying how he goes out of all the sports that I work with. Because he did post a lot of stuff about him dunking and just the recovery he's had from all the knee surgeries that he's had. He's like football players are who DM me and want to work with me the most.

You know what's funny too is of the training staffs I've worked with, there's been a handful that have said to me like that shit is wrong. Like you shouldn't. Really? Yeah, like having that, like working that long, that flexion, like you don't need that. You shouldn't be doing your knees over your toes, blah, blah, blah. You should be doing things you need for sports.

Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see what he says about all this stuff. Yeah. Because remember when we were in Arizona for Super Bowl week and we were training with the boy, Drew? Drew at Exos. We were trying to boy Drew at Exos. Shout out Drew. He was incorporating some of the knees over the stuff in the workout. And he was talking about, you know, yeah, I would be interested to have him on and talk about all that.

That would be awesome. Is it Ben? I think his name's Ben. Yeah, Ben. Yeah, it is Ben. I unsubscribe because I was like paying for their programs. And then when I had, when I had to get my knee, have surgery again, I literally unsubscribe. and somebody from the ATG account like message me. I was like, hey, why are you unsubscribing? I was like, oh, I retort my ACL. Like, I'll be back. Don't worry. Like, okay, good. So I... They just say, we need that

money. Yeah. We're going to need that $75 a month, brother. We're going to need that. Yeah, dude, I think they do a... I love all... I love all their stuff. That's basically what I... Ben Patrick? Yeah, Ben Patrick. That's pretty much what I do. And the dude's fucking... Shreddy. Look at him.

Yeah, he's... He can jump out of the fucking gym, too. He can yank. Yeah, brother. And his body strength is incredible. Yeah, and the best part about all of his training and programming is he, obviously, they have a full library and archive of all the videos, but he explains it on such a level that you can, if you're an old lady or you're some well-trained athlete, he's got like phases for all of it.

So you can do it at home, you can do it on the go, minimal equipment. It's awesome. I love all of his programming. So I think having him on the bus would be sick. That'd be cool, man. For everybody trying to get right and get jacked in 20203, we need to have somebody on who's jacked. Yeah.

You can get us on the path. Yeah. Voice cut up for sure. Yeah. I'll know about jacked. Before we get into the, who is it? Kirk Cousins episode this week. He came on the bus when we were in the Super Bowl,

incredible individual. He literally came there, and I hope we had that clip because it played. He came because of Will. When you, I will let you guys watch this episode. You guys will get into it. It's an amazing episode. He goes into his mindset, where his head, heads out as far as his career, where Minnesota's going, where he thinks he can go.

But my favorite part of the entire episode was the ending of the episode. When he literally sat there, as we were literally getting up, like, I'm like going to stand up. And he's giving Will flowers. Like I've never seen somebody give somebody else flowers before my entire life. He almost brought me to tears. It was incredible. Incredible. And it says everything he said is absolutely correct about Will.

But before you guys see that episode, Tier Talk. Now, the Tier Talk this week is going to be best albums. whole music albums. Now, I don't know how it's going to go. I know Willie's Big Zigzy Top guy. They're a great band. Maybe not the best band of all time like Big One-A-2. But this is obviously all a preference for everybody.

They might not even make it. That was just my first thought when I was trying to get out of the internal. You were in a mental blender. A little bit of a blender. Yeah. And boys are going to Vegas tomorrow. We are going to Vegas. Staying at the Aria.

On the lookout. The boys will be out in the jungle. We'll be out in the wild. I want to get, I want to say this out loud. and hopefully the aria hears this. That's where we're staying. Phenomenal place. Crystal,

the lady that does all this stuff, does a great job. Cannot wait. Anytime you have to go to Vegas and stay at the ARIA, it's a phenomenal time. Yeah. Very accommodating,

very great people. It's gonna be awesome. Top to bottom. Whenever we met Nick that night, too, with Ben, yeah. Remember when Ben Jones,

you were all standing that little circle talking? Yeah. Ben had a phenomenal showing, by the way. A phenomenal showing. He really did. He really did.

I am very excited, but I do have a little warning for you, Aria. I'm coming for at all. Just so just fucking know that, buddy. We are coming for everything. Yeah. We're going to,

Ari is going to turn to the Luania when it's all fucking done, dude. It's going to turn to Luania. So better focus up. Let's take a five-minute break. Let's load up our tier talks. Should we talk it all about the Lamar Jackson stuff? We don't have to even. Like what he's getting franchise tag?

All the stuff that's going on out there. People are losing their minds right now. Like losing their minds. There's a lot of arguing going on. So I don't know what you've heard about Lamar. I've heard that him and the Ravens are not cool. He's basically like fuck the Ravens. There was a moment there where we heard about the Falcons.

A reliable source told us that's not. Very reliable source. We did to tweet something out and missed it by 15 seconds, boys. They said they're franchise tagging him. So now in the franchise tag, they can trade. People can still trade for Lamar. The thing that the Ravens did is they put a non-exclusive franchise tag on him. Like, again, we'll be talking this interview with Kirk.

We kind of talk about that because he's a guy who's gotten guaranteed contracts three years at a time. And he's been very brain. about his approach. But when Kirk was going through it, they would franchise tag him. He got franchise tag twice, two years in a row and never got a long-term deal.

And, you know, Lamar's trying to get a long-term deal, fully guaranteed, just like Kirk was trying to get at the time as well. But the Ravens put on a non-exclusive tag, meaning he can test the market, which I think from a, if we're going full objective business side of it,

putting yourself in the Raven's shoes, they're probably willing to pay him, in my opinion, but they want to know, they don't want to overpay them if they don't have to. Like, hey, go out there and fish. Go out there and see what you can get. Because the non-exclusive tag, you either trade two first-round picks

or you get to match the contract that the team is offering Lamar. So it puts them in a position and be like, hey, go see what your market is. And then we can make a decision after that. Now, all the emotion and stuff involved, like all that kind of stuff, I'm not as privy to. But I do understand Lamar wanting a fully, like, you see what Deshaun Watson did last year, right? And got that fully guaranteed deal for like 200. something million dollars. 130, I believe, over, what, five years?

Yeah. Like, he got a massive. You've seen these quarterbacks getting these high... Daniel Jones just got paid $43 million a year. Right. Which is... Which seems... Which seems assinide.

Now, like, me thinking about it, it's like, okay, maybe the Giants, like, whoever's running their stuff, they're not... You know, they ultimately just paid Daniel Jones when they probably didn't have to pay him all that money. Because they're two different organizations. It's not like, just because Daniel gets paid, and Lamar doesn't, doesn't mean everyone thinks, like, oh, this is a absurd. Why when they do that? There's some colluding

going on. And I know that it's a little thought or a conspiracy out there that they're not paying Lamar. And then ultimately all the teams are publicly coming out to say, we don't want to shop Lamar or have a market for Lamar because they're trying to collude in a sense to let people know

that they're not going to be paying fully guaranteed deals. And you get off of the standard that Deshawn was trying to set when he reached Sean really started with Kirk Cousins who's on the episode today. Right, right, right. But which, by the way Deshawn's even looking at restructuring his deal so that they can pay other guys in the market it's the last year but that restructure you can keep the guaranteed all you want all you do is

just take the salary and put it into a signing bonus and pay him the minimum that year as far as the salary and just the cap is no longer as big of a hit yeah like it all depends on how much money a team has to give you now i know there's a cap but some have more cash flow than other so if the cap is that like 210 because there because there's a thought i guess what i'm saying that you can speak to is like the cap doesn't exist, right? The cap's not real. People talk about the cap is not a real thing. And then people say the cap's not real.

And then you can go into kind of explain that, you know, teams who are cash heavy or cash heavy or not, then you can. So two teams. Well, one team that's a cash heavy team is the Dallas Cowboys. You see it the way they did Tyrone Smith's deal. It was like a $100 million dollar 10 year deal. Which when you see that $100 million is like, holy fuck, I think it was eight years. you're like, holy fuck, that's great, but they're only paying them 10 a year.

So you can do stuff like that. They put guys on longer, long-winded deals, that five, six, seven-year deals. But what teams do when they get put in position, like the Saints, like the Titans were in before a couple weeks ago when they started snippet a bunch of people, is they get below that cap number. All you have to do is get below the cap number before a certain date. Let's call it March 1st. Let's just say it's March 1st. Once you get below that, now the cap for that year really does. doesn't matter. If you're a team that thinks they can win and actually has the liquidity to go

and get those players, you can take your top three guys, turn their money for that year into a signing bonus. And once you do that, you've cleared up a shitload of cap. So here's a, good question, which would be a good example. You were owed, what, 14 points something against the cap this year? And they're like, oh, they freed up 14 million. If in this example, they would have taken that 14 million and put it into a signing bonus, they would have cleared that same, sort of clear that they would be able to do the 14 million they do like 13.5 and then I because if I was owed 14.5 then I make a million dollars that year so my game check. But you would only be a million to the I would be a million and now there are some smaller things like it wouldn't be a million my dead

cap would now be higher so really when you're transitioning that when you're taking restructuring someone's deal to this is their salary we're taking their salary we're putting it into a signing bonus when you do that you're make you're basically pushing your problem down the road you're saying hey a couple years we're going to have to deal with us, that's an issue, but we can win now. Then we have an owner that has the ability to shekel out this kind of money. Because they're cash heavy. Because they're cash heavy. There are teams. People who own these teams obviously are extremely wealthy individuals. Some of these people who own teams, the NFL is their main source of income. Like, that's like their main source. Other people have other money

and they're able to acquire. But if the NFL teams kind of like the right-off is a perfect example of this kind of guy. You always see like back in like 2015, 16, 17, when the Jags were kind of like, hey, shit, they went to the AFC championship. They were kind of doing something. They were Saxonville. You'd see guys just getting signed over and over 45, 50 million dollars deal, $60 million deals. You know, like, how the fuck does it happen?

It's because buddies got bags. And so he knows you can put it into a signing bonus. Move these guys. You take a guy like Callais Campbell, who you know is a stud for you. He knows he's going to produce that year. Okay, go and put that into a signing bonus. He's going to make a million. And then we can go sign this dude, this dude and this dude.

Imagine if they had Doug Peterson back to them. Holy shit, right? I think they, no, they didn't have them. But anyway, there is a lot of things you can do to manipulate the cap. It doesn't make all your problems go away, but it does take away those problems now, like a short term. We're trying to win a Super Bowl. We're a couple of pieces away. We need some big names, some big talent in here.

That's when you can go and get a couple of guys free up some cap. Like the bills, for example. I don't know who their owner is. I don't know how cash heavy they are. But they're a close team. I don't know how far they are away from the cap either, but they can easily take Josh Allen's contract. Restructure half of that.

What's he making, $45 million? Okay, so now it's at $25 million. And he's making, he's going to, he has a $25 million signing bonus. He makes $20 million a year. But that other 20, now you can go and sign other guys. And then push that problem back. Push that problem a couple years back.

Because the dead cap's going to get, it's going to go farther and farther down the road. And the issues that run into that are guys that get older. Let's say Josh runs into a situation like I did where he has a couple years of injury. injuries, not in the field as much. He's out there. He's doing great, but do we know if he's really going to be out there the whole season?

And then you look at his dead cap, and his dead cap's at $35 million. Someone's like, oh, fuck. We can't cut that because that just kills everything. Talking to another reliable source about the Lamar Jackson stuff, the question was, why don't you think, you know, why do you think teams are publicly saying this and that are like, why are teams, does it seem like they're not going to pay, Lamar? Not not going to pay, but why is this such a big story?

And his response was that it's he feels like a lot of teams There's a it's like there's a reminder of a few years back When the NBA started to make those massive jumps in contracts The same kind of things happening with some quarterbacks over the last couple years And you see a lot of these teams that have done that Kyler murray, Aaron Rogers DeShon mhawks Yeah but not Mahomes there's also another one

Josh Allen Josh Allen was up there but there was like a top four Russell Wilson? Was it Russell? Yeah, Russ got up that. Yeah, Russell. So let's say Russell Wilson, Deshawn Watson, Kyler Murray, Aaron Rogers.

And the response on top of that was a lot of those teams now that did those heavy deals for quarterbacks, they're now trying to actually get out of them or maneuver their way around them. Because they haven't worked out in the short term as much as they had hoped. So a lot of teams are probably sitting back like, yeah, the market.

that Lamar and all these guys are arguing for, that market's there because it's been established. But a lot of probably ownership or in those leadership groups that are paying this money are probably looking at like, hang on now. We got to try to real this in because we're seeing it with these other teams. Like Deshawn Watson is trying to, or is looking at possibly restructuring his deal.

The Packers are in hell with Aaron Rogers. Russell Wilson, we saw how that's played out. Kyler Murray, we see how that's playing out when they were hiring the next head coach. So a lot of things are like taking this, I feel like into account. I'll be like, hey, before we go, into this and again Lamar he was injured this year and he did the right thing not playing that's he made the right move yeah but again that's also going to be used as leverage this is why this whole

thing's whole thing's going to the right thing and letting the world i guess freak out about it yeah yeah but it's i think it's a little bit more controlled behind the scenes than than what it seems like in the in the media and it goes back to the tactical strategies that people are doing like teams will do strategic things and players will do strategic things and then everyone's kind of playing that game of chess that we always talk about. Yeah. Like they're both trying to, Lamar's like, great, I get to go see what everybody else wants. Lamar might get there in a couple of days when free agency starts and be like, fuck, dude, this

is not what I thought it would be, or it might be the exact opposite. He might go to a commander's or something like that. He might go to a different team. But the Ravens are sitting there and they're like, this is our best part, this is our best chess piece to move right now to show that he's not worth what he thinks he's worth. Right. Yeah. On his, on the topic of him, since, what's the franchise tag they put him on?

Non-exclusive. Not exclusive. So another team would have to give up two first-round picks. Or match the contract they've offered. So do they get to pick which years they give up those first round picks? I'm not sure. Yeah, that's a really good question. I'm not sure.

What if it's like, yeah, I'll give you one this year and one in 10 years? Yeah, yeah. You know, it's like, yeah, there's probably something. If that is, if you're able to do it, it's probably a cap. And which team picks? Good question for Ziegler. I can't, yeah, it's a great question. for Zig. I can't wait for one day because I think we're,

we will get Lamar Jackson on at some point. Yeah, I agree with that. Pack all that one day. I know. Well, I heard on the radio. I'm curious, too, how the whole approach has been without an agent. Because even guys who don't have agents, they still get to use the NFLPA and probably consult with people, I would assume, and advisors are some sort of hope happens.

But either way, I can't wait to just pick his brain on how all this has went for him, especially posturing that way with him representing himself. The last, I'm pretty sure this has only happened. like a handful of times in the NFL. And I'm probably wrong. But the last time this happened, I think, was Elway. Johnny?

Yeah. With just a situation? Yeah, the, what is it, non-restrictive free? Yeah, non-exclusive tag. I was going to say the only thing I can, yeah. It's like, Kirk, he had the exclusive franchise tag. So he was like under contract. He wanted to get paid before the first franchise tag.

They wouldn't. Franchise tagged them. The second one, he wanted to try and work out a deal. They wouldn't. So we got the transitional tag or whatever it's called. There's like two or three tags. I don't know if the commander's had Kirk right now though. I know.

They're sitting so much more pretty. Yeah. Because he's panned out. He's done it. Yeah. There's a lot of knocks on him. He can't win a primetime game. All that shit.

It's like he's still a stud and he can rip it. Yeah. And he talks about that. That's what it would be good for everybody. Yeah. I can't wait for you guys listen to that. Let's do, let's do Tier Talk. Because Tier Talk is so like personal base, we're going to designate to one person.

I believe that person is going to be Garrett. Garrett is going to do the tear talk this week, so you will see me. You will see Will and you will see Derek do that. All right, took a quick break. Took a quick break from this episode to do a little homework on TikTok. Garrett was ready. I was ready, but obviously Will showed up a little on time. So we didn't have time to break everything down.

We will now start with Garrett. Garrett, what do you got for your tier talk? Oh, we got to get down to three. I know. I got five. Should we do a top five? Should we do with top five? Five tiers one honorable mention.

Hey, well, we'll go first. Then I'll do my three and then y'all can do as many as you want. All right, all right. All right. So, best albums. These are ones that were just at a pivotal moment. I feel like in my life. Middle school, high school?

Exactly. It's everybody's pivotal moments of their life, bro. So tier three is going to be Kid Cuddy's Man on the Moon, the first one. It was electric when it first came out. Fire. Electric. Tier two is going to be. mechanical bull kings of leon that one came at the end of that came actually

2014 my first yeah in college right at the beginning it's got the fields it's got the rock it's phenomenal tier one keeping it in the family only by the night kings of leon that was when i started driving in high school and also partaking an extracurricular shout out to the fucking turtle clan that was our crew in high school that was our crew in high school all right little back A little backstory on Turtle Clan when they were building neighborhoods of Brentwood, we hit a little dry spot, so only the roads

were paved, no houses were going up for a long time. We would go to the back, farthest back cul-de-sac, and just chill. Get high. Yes. And drink, and drink and listen to Only by the night, and it was the fucking spot. And that

album is incredible. It's got, there's an inside joke between Jack and I that When you're hungover, take a shower in the dark and listen to Cold Desert, and you will wake up a new man. Oh, I love that. Oh, yeah. Hey, if we're running back on little stories, the song I walked out to was a song from Mechanical Bull. I wasn't super soaker.

I was running through the desert. Rock City. Rock City, bro. When I got drafted, we had like walk-up songs, and that's the song I came out to. That's how I met, Jared. Well, so 2015 when they did New Year's Eve here. I was at that Yeah

I was gonna say that was right when you got here Me and the girl I was dating We got a big fight I actually missed the concert It was Bitch Yeah Those are my three

Man I was running through the desert I was looking for drugs And I was searching for All right one word Willing to love Hmm One word

Fire Thank you Addiction Yes All right Willie You want me to go You want to go They're not going back there

We would have Come on Jake I can't. I was going to give a one word, though. Rocking. Passion. Faze. Hey, you should have saved that for me.

I'm about to be off in my shit in a second. I mean, I can go. I'll go. You'll go. You seem not confident yet. No, no, I'm ready. Okay. I'm ready.

My tier seven. Bro. All right, all right, not. Not that many, but I do want to give shout-offs to Zizi Top Eliminator. That's Sharp Dress Man. That's, give me all your loving. And also back in black, ACDC, 1980. We're talking Hells, bells.

Back in black, obviously. But, dude, I think what I was trying to look for in the ACDC albums, because I'm like, man, hopefully they're all, like, you know, kind of in, like, you know, ACDC's greatest hits. But, dude, my dad and I went to an ACDC concert one time, and they, there's nothing but fucking hits from ACDC, bro. nothing but hits. Yeah.

I'm not shitting you, brother. No, I'm with you on ACDC. I saw Jack change his glasses. So I was laughing at that. All right, my, so that's, you know, that's shout out to the boys. But my tier five is going to be, Drake, take care.

Hell yeah, fucking right. Shot for me. Marvin's room. Oh, dude, Marvin's room was a banger. In 2011, when we're in college, bro, like, you know, the culture's in it. Like, we're vibing to Drake. Yeah, vibing the Drake.

Viving. Vibing the Drake. Just on the outside looking in You know what? No, no, no. Okay, I got to switch a couple. My, uh, going off that same vibe, like in college, the Carter three, Lil Wayne. You were in college, Matt?

Yeah. To, what was it? My senior year of high school, you're a year old. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, wait, right? Yeah. Lollipop was a fucking jam. I think everybody wanted to sound cool on the whole late text when he did the whole.

Yeah, you don't want that late text. Better wear, better, wear a late text because you don't want that late text that I think I'm late text. Like everyone tried dropping that lyric thinking like, you know, I listen to that Lollipop. Yeah. Just captions, Amili, like Mr. and Mrs. Carter, all bangers.

My tier three. And here's where I got to get in and talk about albums that like I've, like that you listen to that like probably you listen to the most on repeat. And then also like something I really dove into and like felt.

And like, yo, this shit low key like changes me. My tier three is going to be Nickelback. All the right reasons. You got photograph, animals saving me, rock star, and if everyone care like Nickelback,

I know that Mike get some hate and some backlash, but Nickelback, first concert I went to is Nickelback. Old man made me go to Aerosmith with him, but willingly wanted to go to Nickelback. I feel like Nickelback was a fucking banger. Fortunately, we got to interview them when we had them on, and I got to give them their flowers

and felt good doing it. I wish that pot was longer. It's not out yet. It's not out yet. It's coming out next week. Yeah. And then obviously the earlier album, how you remind me, I wish that one was on there too.

But nickelback, when that thing was out, fired. My tier two is going to go to NF therapy session. NF's got several options. There might be a lot of people out there that aren't as privy to the NF wave. NF has mansions therapy session.

Search. The search perception. By your artist. This is, like, I got on Eminem shout out Adam Hayward. Adam Hayward was a teammate of mine in Washington in 2014, and he put me on NF, his first album then at that point was Mansion. And NF is somebody who is like literally, album after album can go and continue to dig deep down in all those emotions that he had

because he's big into therapy and his mind and everything else. And somebody who, like, goes into the basement and can truly storytell and put things together. And all of his albums call back to each other. It's like, it's genius that like I, every time he drops something, I listen to his album in sequence

because it's like truly a story that I love to listen to his albums in sequence. But he's been there in so many pivotal points of my life too. Like in Washington, Charo, like when I was finding my wife and Charo, what's a, when my mom passed away,

he was somebody. He has stuff that, again, he's able to dig in the basement and relate to you on such a crazy level. But tier two, NF, my tier one, salute to the fucking king, M&M, bro. Curtain call, he said, oh. Curtain call, the way I am, lose yourself,

mockingbird, what else I have on you? Sing for the moment. Stan, without me, all fucking bangers. All bangers. You want to do Eminem show, fire. His LPs, fire. But my favorite Eminem album, is, yeah, curtain call.

That is my tear talk. I wish I could do more. Music is so fucking hard, bro. Music is so hard. Bro, when you says, also on the NF, dude, how could you leave? First time you heard that song, did you not cry?

Absolutely, yeah. First time I heard that song, I bawled my fucking eyes out. Yeah. In the car by myself. It's incredible. It's incredible how he can, and again, he doesn't cuss.

Doesn't do all that stuff that it takes like a lot of rappers do. He does it on such a level and speaks to your fucking soul. Yeah, speaks to your fucking soul. And he's known, he was labeled. I know at one point, I don't know if he still was, but I'm pretty sure, but like a Christian rapper, yeah,

but throw that shit out the window. It ain't that. This is like, this is like an M&M type vibe. Just flow, he can go fast, he can sing. He's nuts, bro. He is a stud artist. That was incredible. Thank you.

I was sweating, like trying to put the in this. Oh, one word. Incredible. Hype. Impact. A lot. White. That needed to be said, bro.

That needed to be said. That list was going to come out there and it's going to, you know, it's going to be fun. Hey, I'll tell you what, you should have saved both of those for mine because we're about to take a little ride from 2001 to 2005 right now. Yeah. Yeah. So, boys, we're taking a ride down memory lane. I do have two honorable mentions in the situation.

I got to give flowers to a band that got me back into country music. I thought country music for a while was getting a little too beaty. a little too much, this, a little too much that they've been on the podcast a few times. I gotta give it to Midland, on the rocks. When they came out all, like, drinking problems, I gotta pull it up because they have so many hitters. I'm just so, bro, listen to this. On the Rocks. Lonely for you, make a little, drinking problems.

At least you cried. Burnout, out of sight. More than a fever. Bro, this, like this album, when I popped it on, I immediately called my buddy Nick Ben. I was like, buddy, how do you feel about new country music? I fucking hate it. Nick's got a lot of opinions when it comes to country music.

I had him throw this on. He called me an hour and a half later and goes, you were right. They're fucking incredible. So that is one of my honorable mentions. My second honorable mention, spoiler alert, it's going to go to Blinkly 282.

And the only reason why it's not in my top three is because I already got it. I already got a blink one in there and I wanted to have a little more of a deal. But Blinklin 82, take off your pants and jacket. Bro, first off, I was like 27 when I figured out that take off your pants and jacket.

Did you get that? Because I remember looking at the album It's black and it has like little colors And it's like literally a pant and jacket And it's like a plane And I'm like bro yeah That's a cool logo I guess But I'm 10

So I'm like I don't fucking know Dude anthem part two When that song just starts in the album You're like I know I'm in for it online song First date That music video is a fucking hitter And then you get to switch it up To happy holidays you bastard

It's like a little split in between the music For a little fun bullshit The Rock Show roller coaster Reckless Abandoned shut up Give me one good reason. Dude, it is so fucking all time. That is it. Now, that's all I have for that.

Those are my honorable mentions. My tier three, not everyone's going to see eye out of this. For me, when I think of my favorite albums of all time, it's what album can I put on and know every single word to every single track and sing every single song, no problem. And that, this tier three to me, don't know why it's such a banger. Panic at the disco, a fever you can't sweat out.

All of those songs. Dude, the vocabulary that motherfucker has, how he rips and flows and then it changes beats. And all of a sudden, he uses intricate, like, fucking violins and shit. Like violins and like an orchestra type stuff. And at the same time, he's just putting heat down over and over and over again. So that is my tier three. My tier two.

Once again, is going to go back to a time of my life when I was living on the ranch. This album came out. We actually brought up on the Midland podcast, and they were very disrespectful to it. is big and rich, a horse of a different color. Very unique, interesting blend of country music that a lot of people are probably against. But for me, it's just one of those. I remember sitting in my mom's truck.

She had a red F-150, it was stick shift. And we'd always go to this place called Kokomo Joe's. I would call it Tiki Taylor's because I just thought that was like a fun little bit I was doing when I was 13, 14 years old. And we listened to that back and forth, back and forth. It's like where we ate every day for like a summer. And for me, I was like, bro, I still put that on. I remember like going back to the ranch, chasing down ghosts,

trying to learn how to rope and do a whole bunch of fun shit. So that's like a level of nostalgia for me that had to get into my tier talk. And obviously my tier one, got to go back to the greatest band of all time. You know who I'm talking about because I've already mentioned them. It's Blinklin A-2. Their self-titled album, Blinklin A-82 from 2003. Let me just give you a couple songs on here, feeling this.

Are you fucking kidding me? I miss you. All right. Does he say, Ed? Does he say Ed? We don't fucking know. Stockholm Syndrome, down, go. Dude, it's always easy target.

Like, this album I put on, dude, shout out Alex Maxudian. The emo girl I was into in middle school, dude. We would get off the bus. She'd have her hair covering up her left eye. And I had the biggest, a little bit of a thick girl too now. All right? She didn't have a body on her or anything. But for whatever reason, Alex Max Judian, I was like,

be love of my life at 12, 13 years old. One day, I asked her out. she said yes. I was like, holy fuck boys, we've made it. I'm playing all, there's already wedding bells going on in my head. Four days later, I go to her house. I haven't heard from her in four days, by the way. She wasn't answering my aim. So I was like, oh, fuck. I go to her call her. She comes over the back of her wall in her backyard and hands me a letter. It's ripped out of a notebook. It's got lipstick kiss on it. And it's a breakup letter of why she can't be with me. We didn't talk for the four days we were dating, but your boy took it harder than anybody

could possibly take it. I put this album on and it saved me, bro. Who knows where I would have been if it wasn't for Blinklin 8-2's Blinklin 82 from 2003. Incredible. Incredible. Incredible album. We just took a little ride back. And that is my tier talk. What did you say for mine? Incredible. Damn. Oh, this was going to say for yours, but. But ours are so different. So different. I know. But that's what I love about. about this. And all your hitters, too. Unless you was like, man, I could have put those in mind too.

Bro, I know. I remember the quarter three. Yeah. And again, you're saying stuff. Again, it's speaking to just a different, it's like all the different phases of your life, man. And you talked about a breakup. Like, remember Usher, bro? Oh, yeah, dude.

Like, there's so many, there's so much good music. And then powerful thing. And then when you're talking about panic at the disco, for whatever reason, they're very different. But I started even thinking about Lincoln Park. Remember when Lincoln Park was hot back then, bro? Duh. Here we go for the 100th time.

Hand grenade pins in every line. You're definitely somebody like zero albums I've said. Do I know every song, every word? Like you're somebody who can, I feel like pick up lyrics. I don't know why. Brother Cody was always really good at that. He always knew every fucking lyric and I can never pick that shit up. You know Chris Arnold?

He could listen to a song a hundred times and he'll never get like, he'll get one out of seven words. But he'll sing it like he knows it. I'll get like a few phrases in each song. Yeah. And I will continue to sing it. I'll just not get it right. Yeah.

Masterpiece Yeah Yeah We play masterpiece We sing that song I look at you And you're just kind of mumbling In the corner to yourself

Hitting it Pivotal That's my word Pivotal Hyphenated good time It's gonna come as a shot But it's predictable That's okay

Blank Hifated as well Monster Energy For real dude I thought that was far That was fun To talk about It was fun to talk about

It's like you can't necessarily I guess you could go wrong, but not really. No, because it's you. Yeah. It's just what you grew up on. And it's always what you grew up on. It's never now. It's never now.

Because in 10 years, then that'll be the next one, dude. Speaking of now, those now albums. Bro! No, no one. Now four? Blue Dhabi Dhabi. Oh my groin doing that. Blue Dabody?

I think track. Now four might have been the best one. I think track four. I don't know. Because punk goes pop. Yeah, punk goes pop was solid, too, but it wasn't, it wasn't now.

But punk go, punk goes pop is a legit, punkgo pop, it goes pop is like a hardcore metal band that sing like trendy pop songs. Gotcha. And they were fire, actually. Gotcha. Devil wears Prada, dude. What's the song? They sing a fucking danger. Yeah, yeah, you just kind of go on there.

Like, yo, who the fuck are these guys, dude? Limewire. What do you on right now, Garrett? Speaking of now, as of February 3rd, 2003, we are on now 85. Wow. I thought the numbers would be higher. I wonder if kids are even still taking that in. I just remember the commercial.

When we were young, you would, you would cop it now. If you got the CD, I remember Easter. Every year I would get the now CD. I'm like, you know. Hey, look up Now 4 and see when the like Blue Doppidee is. That is, I think it's track 4. I had that one. I think it is actually track 4.

I had that one on repeat on my CD Walkman, bro. Now listen up. Oh, dude. No. Oh, fuck. If that is the sequence. And another one I'm thinking of too in middle school. Bro, meet Virginia.

Oh, man. Hit her, bro. John and the East Side boys. Middle school dances. Do you get low, bro. Bro, we'd be at middle school. Do you guys on one side, girls on the other, and to the window? Yeah, guys looking at him from a fun to the wall.

You know? Bro, for real. You fucking go up and you're like, bro, middle schoolers grinding at each other? Is there not a funnier? imagine being like a chaperone at one of those middle schools watching 13 year old boys

just fucking grind that shit out probably nutting in their pants a little bit There's only a couple Because everybody else is like It's like the posture in the play Like I think I'm gonna go do And you're like Don't push me

Don't push me You get out of it You get out of the circle a little bit You're out And there's anxiety of feeling They push towards a go do this And you're just like no no You get low-key mad

I'm fucking cool No I'm not mad at that just like I'm not about that dancing You know what I don't like dancing Yeah Just let me pick my shot. But there's always, like, that weird couple that found each other. Like, they were both kind of weirdos.

And they started dating and they make out real hard in the hallway. Crazy hard. And they're in the middle of that shit just fucking getting after it, bro. And everyone's like, holy fuck. Low-key, looking back here, like, yo, I wish I was that confident. I know, bro. Good on them kids. For real, bro.

Good on them kids. Yeah, I hate to bring this up because the Fred Warner podcast just came out, but Julie Giordano with the middle school with her, dude. I was staring her ass down. in fucking desert Kenyon. You want this, Julie? She's like, what the fuck

is this guy about, dude? What a wild. She'd DM me. So, dub. So, enjoy the Kirk Cousins episode. What a vibe to end the intro.

I know, I know. We'll get back on that. We'll get back on that vibe because that's, man, the music out there is just endless. Dude, I can't wait to see people's fucking

top three albums of all time. Because you're going to sit there and look at those comments just be like, damn, that is a good one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, fuck. Man, I did have some other. Do we have any ad reads? No, but we can shout out all of the women in our lives, even though this will come out tomorrow. Today is International Women's Day.

Shout out to the women. Shout out to the beautiful. We love you. Charo, shout out to it. Yeah. Shout to international women, dude. Come on, baby. Come on, baby.

Jack's living tonight. Did you talk about at the. beginning the spring tour tickets? No, I'm, when I'm not, I'm not joking. Like, we like said, we're going to do a prank and then talked about pissing through a toilet and shitting. And that's, that's going to go on the backside of Kirk.

Yeah. That's so funny. You can go on bus scenes. Yeah, it can go on bus scenes. It'll be on YouTube. We will tell you where it's at. I mean, it's not. We're telling you. But trust me, we're not breaking shit down that you guys need to know about, but it is a fun little hang between the boys. The post show. Yeah, the post show. Um, well, with that

remember the post show? Yeah, it was fun. It was funny as hell A couple of little episodes But our spring tour tickets South Carolina In Texas They're on sale They are on sale right now

And they're going fast They're going fast Fast, fast at a snail's pace The fastest snail in the fucking The only thing you need to know Is tickets are being bought Yeah tickets are being tickets Don't wait too long dude

This is a classic tortoise in a hair situation Yeah Yeah Yeah one ticket at a time Keep stacking the tickets dude Yeah Keep stack at a time Yeah

And dude shut out national Phil, bro. You fucking got our heads a little big with Zanis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's going to be a hell of a time. I don't care if there's six people in there. We're still them. No question. It doesn't matter if there's 50 there. Yeah. It's going to be the greatest time in the fucking world. World. Yeah. But anyway, go cop those. Enjoy the Kirk Cousin's episode. Buy the merch. Subscribe. Unsubscribe. We subscribe. 300's happened.

We achieve one goal. Let's go to the next 400K. Here we fucking come. Everywhere. We're rolling, right? We're good. Yeah. Make sure when you talk, you have the microphone up to your mouth. Tight to the mouth. If you didn't hear,

he said that his kid, his oldest kid is extremely smart, but he's not going to be Michael Jordan. How does that make you feel? Would you rather your kid be smarter athletic? I'm good. I feel like I've played enough sports for several generations, so I'm good.

But I would. That is a nice, nice comment. But I would like to, I would like to see my kids do well in school. So that's, we're set up well there. Dude,

on that note, you are like one of the trailblazers, I feel like, for getting guaranteed contracts. I've tried talking about it. I mean, I've talked about it several times about how you went about doing it, but can you walk everybody through how you put yourself in that situation to get the, was it the first fully guaranteed? Yes. In that back contract that big?

I think so. I don't know quite going back. I don't quite know all the history, but it was 100% my agent. I remember sitting at the Super Bowl after my rookie year, and Joe Flacco was about to be a free agent. He was also about to quarterback in the Super Bowl. And we sat there. I knew nothing about contracts,

and my agent said, what the Ravens are going to be able to do is either sign him to a long-term deal or they're going to have to franchise tag him twice. And so the entire negotiation will be based off of two franchise tags and what those two franchise tags are worth, and that's what they'll have to negotiate off of. And so I didn't know.

four years later, I'd be in a similar spot where I'd finish my season, be coming to free agency. And my agent just said, this is Joe Flacko all over again. It's a two-year franchise tag. That'll be the foundation of any negotiation. And he said, what I'd like to do is because I see those two years being basically guaranteed. I'd like to just do a three-year deal fully guaranteed.

And he offered that to the team. And obviously, they were not interested in that model. And he just said, okay, then we'll do the two franchise tags. you know, two years from now. And I'm, you know, simplifying it a little bit, but he said two years from now, we'll go to for agency and try to get that same deal, a three-year deal fully guaranteed.

And so that's literally what happened. I just watched my agent basically exercise what he had spoken about Joe Flacco after my rookie year, did it with me, kind of called his shot, if you will, and watched the next five years unfold exactly the way he said. And there's some risk involved in doing that and trying to get to the market. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, injury certainly. but if you don't play well. And I think I was in a great spot because I had great players around me, great coaches around me, and was in a place where I felt I could have success. I could be effective. And so I didn't feel like I needed to just take a deal.

I think sometimes as a player you take a deal because you're concerned about maybe your play going down. And I thought, no, I think I'm going to keep improving and I've got great people around me. So I'm okay going year to year. and certainly it worked out. When you were going through the process with your agent telling you that, was there ever a point of resistance for you?

Where just like you talked about like, hey, listen, what about if I get injured? Things you can't control, right? Everyone has confidence in their ability to play. But sometimes freak things happen on the field and there's nothing you can do about it. That's a great question. I think the short answer is no.

I was very comfortable with his plan and what he was doing. I knew there was risk, but I also felt like I had seen Tom Brady-Tarrer's ACL in 2008, and he comes back and plays another, you know, decade plus. Yeah. You know, Carson Palmer's done the same thing. I think twice torn his knee and come back and played at a Pro Bowl level. So I felt like even with an injury, you can come back at quarterback.

I do think that the position was unique. There are other positions where I don't think you would want to do what we did. Now, I think what's cool about this is I got to sit with you several times. like we were boys on the skins. And explain how it was important for you to even to get to free agency because you were thinking about that stuff ahead of time. I remember sitting with you in a meeting and talking like whenever the PA or anybody would talk about contracts.

And back, what you need is somebody to get somebody higher, you know, and status to get to free agency so that way they can start the domino effect for this stuff. And I know that was like a goal of yours to do something like that. Yeah, my agent had always said that no real. great player goes to the market, teams don't let them leave their building. And, you know, that's so common to just take a good deal. I mean, I think it's smart. Why, why need to go to the market if a team is offering you a great deal that accomplishes what you're trying to accomplish? But he did always say that somebody going to the market is the only way you could actually

get guaranteed money more than just one or two years. So that was part of why going to the market. it was part of why I think my agent wanted to get a fully guaranteed deal was hey we did all this to get to the market we're going to try to get this structure but um you know it wasn't a model that I think a lot of people have tried to follow since then I think Deshaun Watson was was pretty much able to be a free agent while still having a contract which was a unique situation um so you know he's probably the other one who who was able to do it but I do think there you know I've been guys who have benefited certainly from whenever another player goes to the market, another player does something, I think the whole league or all the players benefit from that in some way. Yeah. So if you have the model of fully guaranteed contract and you're fully guaranteed, people are like,

that sounds amazing. Why do you think that people have not followed that? It was a very surprised people didn't follow. Because it seems like that's when I was, I met Will when I was kind of going through my contract negotiations and he was already, we just met and he was like, why don't you do a fully guaranteed? and I'm like, brother, like, I can't do that.

Like, you're like, three weeks into our friendship. He's like, why don't you do a fully guaranteed? And I was like, I don't think that's how this shit works for me. Being a left tackle because the way we've said this on our show before is quarterbacks, the big time players need to be the ones to get the fully guaranteed contract. So it becomes a normal thing, a trickle-down effect for everybody else, position by position. And so you go and do it. You're the unicorn.

And we don't know the whole history, but it seems like you're the only guy that's done fully guaranteed contracts and it's worked. The bank account is doing fantastic. And so why do you think these players are not following suit with that blueprint? I think there's still pretty good contracts out there that are hard to turn down. And I think that it's still life-changing. And I understand why they take that way they do the deals they do. I don't think you need to go to free agency.

I think you can still have a great contract and change your life, your family's life. There's so much that, again, it's hard to turn down something that's on the table like that. I do remember when Matt Ryan, it was just like a month after I signed my free agent contract in Minnesota, Matt Ryan signed his five-year extension. And it was the first three years were guaranteed, but there were two more years on. So it wasn't a fully guaranteed deal. And I texted my agent to say, so it sounds like, you know, the next quarterback wasn't

going to follow our pattern like you're asking. And my agent texted back and he said, actually the opposite, the first three years are fully guaranteed. And it's for a lot more than what you got. Yeah. So his point was like he would never have gotten that structure of three years fully guaranteed at the number he did unless you had done the deal you just did a month or two ago. Now he did tack two years on to make it a five year deal.

Yeah. But he, you know, it was still a favorable deal for him in those first three years because. So that's my point. And you kind of can build on the previous person each time. And I've been kind of removed from it for a while now because once I got to Minnesota and got out of free agency, I was just kind of focused on, you know, being there as long as I can. And I even, after went to the playoffs in 19, signed a two-year extension that wasn't fully guaranteed at signing. So for me, it's just kind of been trying to, you know, trying to win, trying to stay in Minnesota and create a winning situation there.

When you're talking about your agent telling you that franchises don't let great players leave the area, Was there a piece of you or maybe some ego that was like, well, I don't want to be a guy that has to leave. I value myself as a player I am. Like, was there ever a time where you were fighting with staying with the then called the Redskins? No, you know, I think there's, first of all, everybody's in their own scenario. You know, I was a fourth round pick. Didn't really play a lot until my fourth year. So I understand like, you know, it's different than being a first round pick who starts all four years.

you know, so I'm aware that, you know, you can move on, players move on, it happens. I remember Greg Olson is probably a great example of a guy who to this day. I always wonder, like, why was he allowed to go to free agency and leave and go to Carolina? But he was, and he did. And so it does sometimes happen, but it's uncommon. You know, I remember Coach Gruden saying to me, like, we'd love to draft a tackle at one point in my time there. We'd love to draft a tackle, but, you know, they're not, they're not, like, you have to draft one, because great tackles are not available in free agency typically

because a team who has a great tackle does not let them just walk out of their building. And so there's a few positions where it's like, man, we'd love to sign that in free agency, but they just don't exist. And because guys do sign deals before going to market. Why don't you think you could have got something to done with Washington? You know what? Really the message was from my agent was we want to go to the market. And if Washington is the best deal when you go to the market,

or the best opportunity, I should say, then let's go back to Washington. That was my attitude. But where I was naive was thinking that Washington would wait on me. And they were smart because they said, I remember when Jay called me the day after they traded for Alex Smith, he just said, we couldn't wait on you. And I remember thinking, oh, yeah, like, that makes sense. You can't just wait on me and then be left at the altar. You were smart to go proactively get a quarterback and have a plan.

and but the whole process for me was I still think Washington is very much the best spot for me. I would just like to go to the market first and see what is out there. And then if it's Washington, it's Washington. And I think that's the thing that people don't maybe realize is when you're drafted out of college, you're drafted, you're told what your contract is. And then you're franchise tagged or you sign an extension and no one ever really gets to pick their situation or see what's out there for them or truly. be a free agent. So I just wanted to see that. But if it's Washington after looking around, then it's Washington. I actually thought it probably could or would be. They just said, we just can't wait on you. And I thought, you know, you're right. That's smart. You really can't,

you know, wait. Was there anything Washington could, that could have done that could have changed your messaging from we want to go to the market? Because you'd almost think like, yeah, your messaging is like, oh, we'd like to go to the market. But if you're happy where you're at, you kind of want to, the long-term place, or anything they could have done that they didn't do? I don't think so. I think that, you know, when Shaw McVey moved on, you know, that was tough to see him go. There have been so many good coaches there that had left. Oh, brother.

Will talks about what you guys had in there. It's just crazy. How you guys? Yeah, I mean, I remember that was the huge blessing of being in Washington. In addition to the players I got to play with was to look back and say, because you know how much coaching matters in this league to be able to say I got coached by Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan, Matt LaFleur, Mike McDaniel, Sean McVeigh, Matt Kavanaugh, Jay Gruden. Like, these are the people in the quarterback room.

And, you know, even Rahim Morris would come down the hall and sit in in the quarterback room in OTAs when we would stay extra and stuff. It was like really, really, and I didn't know it at the time, which I wish I did. I just thought this must be what every quarterback room is like. And it isn't. And so to get that foundation there was career changing for me. Yeah. When you left, when you left Washington in the last few years, all the stuff that's come out about the franchise, the owner, like, were you aware of any of that stuff going on at the time?

Or was it a complete, like, blind side for you? Yeah. I mean, different stuff has come out. And I haven't followed that closely since I left. But, yeah, at times, your other thing is, like, reports, you're like, well, are these even true? Yeah. I don't even know if these are true. So, mainstream media was, I mean, you always.

I felt like there was a cloud out there, no matter what. Sometimes you just shrug your shoulders and you're just like, I don't know. It's a major media market, right? You were saying when you came to the Titans, it's a way different. It's a way different vibe. I feel like to the big leagues, right? Like people come through there and now you see them on TV and everything else. But yeah, going to Tennessee and Rackpo was like, a comp, like, it's going to be way, it's going to be way different.

And you just see a few reporters standing. I mean, in D.C., it's just like, it feels like it's just nonstop to where, what's the contrast going to Minnesota? when you first started to see what was going on in Minnesota with the media. Yeah, it is a little different market in Minnesota. I got in mind the D.C. market. I thought that everybody was fair, and I think that at times ignorance was bliss for me, and I just tried to remove myself from it as best I could.

But even going back to playing Washington this year and seeing some of the local, you know, day-to-day coverage of the team, seeing those guys in the tunnel. You know, it was fun to catch up with them and see them. But, yeah, Minnesota is, they do a really good job there, of really, you know, trying to get it right and to follow it. And there's a, like Washington, there's a historic franchise there. There's a, there's a fan base that goes back decades that has followed the team closely. And, and I think that's huge, you know, when we go play

on the road at Miami or, uh, even at Washington, like the lower bowl on our sideline is mostly purple. And I think that's, that's not every team. And so that's huge to be able to play for a team like that. That's, yeah. So going, going to, uh, going to Minnesota. you guys have so much talent on that team. What is it going to take for Minnesota to become true contenders in the NFL? Well, I think when you win 13 games, you know, you're doing something right. So I do think we were able to find the inches this past year, which the previous year we were not. We felt we had a really good football team in 2021.

And we just were unable to find those inches. And in this league, those inches kind of are everything because we're all pretty good. So we found it more in 2020 to get to 13. team wins. But if you kind of looked behind the numbers, you could kind of see there were some spots where we can be a lot better. So, you know, again, we have like a high number of free agents this year. So you feel like coming back for OTAs in April that the locker room will be a lot different. And I don't like that feeling because I like our group so much. So I'm really hoping we can resign as many of these guys as possible and try to keep the group

together as best we can. But NFL stands for not for long. So you know that it's always changing. What position group do you think like, this is a tough one because it's like there's going to be guys that are going to hear this that play these position groups, but where do you think you were lacking on the offensive side of the ball this year? Was it offensive line? Yeah, I mean, I would often say like I go into games and I don't feel like we are lacking the horses, which is, which is huge because I think there are our quarterbacks who break the huddle and they're like, man, we got limitations here. I don't feel that, you know, I think more might be. I think more concern is like a lot of those guys that I didn't feel we were lacking are free agents.

You know, Garrett Bradbury is a free agent. Alex Madison is a free agent. So that's more of the challenges. Can we bring those guys back? And I also think we were in year one with our head coach, with our system. While there's some similarities and carry over to every system, there were also a lot that was new. So I do think that to be in year two together as a group would also really help take next steps to really feel like, okay, OTAs is not feeling like your rookie year all over. again, but feeling like you're two in this, in this system and this program. When you're with those guys being free agents, do you, is there a level of relationship you have with upstairs where you can be like, hey, I want to keep these guys around?

Yeah, I mean, when you say that, I know the answer back is, so would we. Yeah, yeah. There's a salary cap and there's, uh, we both know the salary cap's not real. It's a, it's a facade. They definitely can can work through things to push money out. But I, I think that, um, players, like, we just started this. conversation saying we'd like to go to the market. I think there's value in that. I think so is Garrett Bradbury and Alex Madison going to say that that, hey, we want to go to the market too and see

what's out there. And so, and I, you know, when I say to them, I say, I want you back as a Viking. I also want what's best for you and for your family in this business. And you understand that. And they understand that. And so anyways, that's where I think the NFL has succeeded as a business is that they make February interesting. They make March interesting. They make April interesting. Like there's very few months of the year where you're like,

there's not something that's very followable about this league. And somehow they've done that better than I think any other sports league. It's a fine line between wanting guys to stick around for the betterment of the team and for you and also wanting them to get what they deserve.

That is the difficult part of this business that I dislike is that because it's not a true like free market. there is a salary cap. Yeah. You have this stance of, man, I want, I want them to be on our team playing with us, but I also want what's best for them. And you're like, ah, and so you do have to treat it like a business

and not take it personal when a guy moves on because you know that that was what was best for him. The character of Kirkgo Chains. Let's talk about that. How did that get going? Yeah. You embracing it, getting shirtless on the plane or wearing the chain. Yeah.

The guy with a sleepy six-pack. Yeah. A sleepy. You don't really. And for somebody who box that thing on, he had the glasses on. You're like, and they kind of said,

oh shit, the dude's got a washboard going on a little bit too. I like that. For somebody who blocks out the noise, you know he was kind of taking that one in. Yeah. He doesn't have notifications on a Twitter but that one.

He added the notification. I love it. Yeah, it's started on the way back from London's, Christian Derrissaw. I'd just gotten his chain with CD on it, with the spinner. And we won in London on a double-doin' miss field goal

by the Saints. You want to talk about finding the inches. Yeah. the thing doinks out the sidebar off the crossbar and back out towards the field and so we got an eight hour flight back to minnesota and i hop on the plane and it's like a nightclub i mean people got boom boxes rocking you know guys got whatever they want they're just sitting on the no one's sitting everybody's kind of standing in the aisles and and kneeling on their chair and stuff and yeah somewhere in that before we'd taken off i think we might even been delayed to take off

so guys are just trying to you know have fun with the time and his chain ends up on me and Well, it's not just fell on you. Right? Like, how to... So on the way to London... You're sitting there and like all just oriented, they grabbed you and held you down and they put the cane on, Kirk. Well, I'm kind of putting on a CD on Blaster, but on the way to London, I'm like, you know, locked in. Like, I got my, you know, light glasses to block out the light.

I'm trying to get adjusted. I got my sleep. I know, like, the rhythm of, like, get your food. Then this time you go down to sleep. Like, I'm trying to be locked in. Yeah. I lay down to sleep. I'm like 20 minutes of sleep.

and behind me someone's just like sawing logs. And I'm like, oh, no, like I got like six hours and I can't sleep. I put on like headphones. I still hear him. It's CD. Like he's right behind me. And we finally land in London and Zedarius wakes up and he looks back and he's like, CD man, like you got to get that fixed.

Like that's crazy. You get to work on that. I was like, he was one of those fucking machines. Right there and you heard him. I'm sitting right here next to him. Yeah. So anyway, so that was on the way there.

but on the way back, CD's still right behind me. And so, yeah, we're just kind of all hanging out, you know, enjoying the music and socializing. And yeah, next thing I know, someone's put the chain around me and they got it. Next thing he knows. I don't even know how to tie it up, but they put it on me and then, and then, you know, the power of social media. So you didn't ask for the chain.

You didn't say, hey, I'm him. I didn't ask for it. But the spinner was also kind of a huge part of it. Yeah. Just spin it. The fidget spinner. Yeah, exactly. It kept me distracted and long enough for them to get it on you.

Yeah. then the next away victory coming backs you know it just same thing although it was everybody's chain and then and then from there it was this shirt's got to come off and then from there i'd know where to go which was a mistake my big biggest regret from the season besides losing in the playoffs was that i didn't get a grill oh dude you would be outstanding with a grill could you imagine you're showing up in august there's still time but you should show up in august with a grill so i can't I think it'd be epic. I can.

Pressors. Yeah, I don't know that world either. What that is, what you just said, I don't know. Like showing up the brisk. You know that world. I think it's a must. I think it would have been better, though, this season, you know, while it's still fresh,

while we still had the momentum. I know, I think you show up January 25th to the first press conference of the Minnesota Vikings season opening press conference, and you have a dark gold, like that grungy gold grill. That's the other thing. Like, that's why I didn't get it done was like,

okay where do I get one in terms of like I probably got to go to like a dentist to get it shaped or whatever and then where do I go to get the actual paraphernalia on there I don't know but but JJ did say he because he has one he's like I got you you know I got all the people I just never I never like I never like moved on it to actually get it done so so this season are we going to see you with the with the grill at some point you think I don't know I don't know that's that's I mean it's still early in 2023 Julie you want to see that don't you? That would be outstanding.

If you do that, you should get fake tattoos. The best part of the whole thing for me, the best part of the whole thing for me was the timing of wearing the chains and then coming back from Miami, I had like a white t-shirt on and black, like athletic pants, our travel suit.

Yeah. The white t-shirt, the chains, and the black travel suit. And then we come back from the by week. It's right around Halloween. And we go to play the Cardinals the day before Halloween. And there's all these fans in warm-ups

with black pants, a white t-shirt and chains as a yeah tucked in as a Halloween costume and I was like that's when you know this is bigger than me like yeah when it's becoming a Halloween costume in Minnesota this is fun god though and then you get a little kid at Thanksgiving at the Thanksgiving game a little kid who's wearing shirtless the whole game with chains sitting in his chair dude I love that you uh you mentioned or you mentioned a minute ago biggest regret losing the playoffs what is your biggest regret of that game and why is it throwing a three-yard route on fourth and eleven game one of the drive yeah so third down on the final drive we got man coverage for a play that is meant to be man coverage and i

can't remember if we had a can on it if we didn't get man or what but um we got man and i'm thinking yes like this is perfect and the ball you know man coverage is going to be tight coverage and the ball was throwing like one foot behind KJ Osborne. And if it's just a foot out in front of him, he catches that, runs up, and we're now hopefully in the strike zone, high red zone with a chance to go, it would probably go for two and try to win the game right there.

So that was the most frustrating play. Fourth down, you know, with where my read went and where my eyes went and Dexter Lawrence was coming, I felt like my options were either throw it out to TJ or take a sack in that moment. And if I had taken a sack, the optics probably looked better. It probably looks like, you know, oh, man, I got to protect him, you know.

But when you get rid of the ball to avoid the sack, then it looks like you're the idiot. So, but certainly third down was where I was felt like I was the idiot by not making that throw. When you knew as man coverage, you threw it a foot off. Did you bring that into the fourth down? Was there trouble with the short memory, all the cliche lines? What's important now? What's next? Next play.

You know, when we say cliche, the game has played one play at a time. That's really how it's played. Like you play, whatever happens, you next play. And you just go next play, next play, next play. And that includes like fourth and 18 against Buffalo when the play comes in. Like you don't have a play for fourth and 18. But when the play comes in, you're like, okay, next play.

How do we execute fourth and 18 if we're calling this route and this concept? And, you know, there's a timeout in that moment. So you're able to kind of talk with the team. Like, hey, this is the plan. This is how we're going to execute this. You understand percentages are low, but you also have to have a plan. Yeah, JJ's up there somewhere. Yeah, exactly.

When there is no next point. playing you're jogging out the field. What's going through your head at that time when it's all, when it really is over and you're like, fuck. Yeah, not a good feeling. And what's funny about our team this year is because we had always kind of found away in those one score games, like in Buffalo when they fumble and we get us down on their one yard line.

Yeah, that was nuts. There's a part of you even that's like as you're walking off, not converting that fourth down, you're kind of like still believing like what could happen. But you realize, no, they're just going to go out and take a knee and like it's over. It's hard to accept it. Do you ever think, like, did you ever think during that time frame, like, I'm going to get killed for this? Because there's this, there's this image of Kirk Cousins that I, I'll fight anybody over. Yeah.

That it's like, the man's going to get you 4,000 yards a year. He's going to get you one of the better QBRs. He's going to get you one of the better ratios in the league. But when it comes down to that killer instinct moment or just a play that anybody turns to, say that fourth and 11. Right. Where the image, when you, when it doesn't happen for you, it's like, you know people's mind might go there. even though you've won big games and everything else, do you feel like you hear that?

And do you feel like it's something that's like, man, I got to shake this at some point. Well, I think playing quarterback, you'll always have that. I think that you want to make sure that you care about the people who are in a position to judge. So the people who are in a position to judge, like, I need to hear it,

I need to be coached by it, and you listen to it, I need to fix it. People who aren't in a position to judge, I think you can drive yourself crazy if you try to, you know, prioritize that or listen to that. and people are going to say what they what they kind of want to say. So, yeah, you have to be big enough to just block it out, if you will,

or if you hear it, to just be able to be the bigger person and just move forward. But, you know, it's not even be the bigger person because they have a job to do. And if their job is to criticize or to point, then they're doing their job. And that's fine. So, you know, and you understand, like, guys like Tom Brady get it. Like, they get, you know, stuff thrown at them when, All they've done is win seven Super Bowls. So, you know, you understand it.

No one's immune to it. No one's immune to it. You just try to play the best you can and find ways to win and be as successful as you can. And I know that winning tends to cure a lot because there were games where I would walk away feeling like, man, I should really get it, you know, after this game coming away from this game. But we won. And I'd go to the post game presser and it'd be so easy because we won. People just didn't give me a hard time.

So I do feel like winning kind of covers over. over everything. And then the opposite is true. If you're playing out of your mind, but you're losing, like, as a quarterback, like,

must be something wrong with you, you know? Does that ever get difficult with, with, with, like, going through the noise? Because you have a good head on your shoulders.

You always have. You do a good job compartmentalizing. But as you know, the mental game is something you have to constantly work on. Well said. Do some of those years or some of those moments,

are they more difficult than others? Yes. Yes. I mean, I could go on and on about how, you don't sleep well a night after a loss or at a week you know going a week like we lose to the packers week 17 i think it was like i don't sleep well for like three days you know and and uh it just weighs you

internalize it too much where you have to say like you know there's something wrong with me like how do i how do i work through this so that i can handle it better because this isn't sustainable and what you know coach mcvay is kind of dealt with of do i keep coaching or not i think that a lot of us players kind of go through that every year of like do I come back for another year or do I subject myself to that because it's not from the outside it's like internal torment that you do to yourself you know where I've heard Tom Brady say and I would agree wholeheartedly with this that I hope my two boys Cooper and Turner find a passion that that they can have in life the way I found football but I hope they never feel the torment that football has also given me just because of the way

I internalize it and the way I grind at it. The game does kind of torment you in a way that I hope my boys never have to experience. Yeah. What does the future look like for you? Well, you talk about those conversations. I would assume it's a conversation you probably had. Yeah, I think, you know, Julie and I, after the season, we talk, and it's like,

are we going back around the horn again? And right now, you know, we feel, yes, you know, we want to keep going. But it does feel very year to year, you know, in terms of every year, what are you you're going to do next and uh you know for me it's just trying to trying to win a super bowl trying to win as many games as we can um and do whatever it kind of whatever it takes to to do that to get there um hopefully that's you know keeping our locker room together and and taking another big step in 2023 and and then you know go from there i want to pivot to college because i went to i went to michigan yes you did which is a long way

from Phoenix. Yeah, it is a long way from Phoenix. But good for you. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I was a desert rat. I just wanted to see four seasons. And I found out real quick.

I don't like... No, I think you've learned real fast. Yeah, I'll learn real fast. Why did you make the mistake of going to Michigan State? Well, you make the mistake of going to Michigan State that's what you want to call it when you don't have any other options. Michigan didn't offer? Michigan never offered. They got a guy named Ryan Mallett in my recruiting class from Texas.

who committed so early that they were pretty much not even looking. And... Like you were the better get there. Well, my... My journey was... Late Bloomer. Very late Bloomer. Very late Bloomer.

What's he doing? Do you even know what he's doing now? I don't. He had a good pro career, but... Yeah, he was a... I'm a hit a cannon, I know that. Wouldn't have worked out well for me because Lloyd Carr retired after my freshman year. Right.

Coach Rodriguez comes in. Probably wouldn't have fit his system as well as Bernard Robinson did. So probably wouldn't have worked out for me. either. But Michigan state on the other hand was a perfect fit. You got to have a pro style offense, got to have the same head coach, same quarterback coach all five years, got to play with great players all around me. They just kept recruiting better and better every year.

And it could not have worked out better, which is funny because I was not a big recruit. And so typically when you're not a big recruit, you got to go somewhere that maybe you don't want to go to as much or may not be as good of a fit. But for me, not being a big recruit, not having any big 10 offers in Michigan State offering, I look back and I say, if I had had 50 offers and could have gone to Michigan or Notre or these other places, I probably would have made a bad decision. Like, it's a good thing that Michigan State was my only option because it sent me to a place that literally could not have been better.

When you go into the rivalry for the Paul Bunyan trophy, like what is, what's like Michigan State's, like, rally cry to beat Michigan? They're pompous. They think they're better than you. That's a good question. A bunch of white-collar assholes. I think, I remember we lost in 07. We were up 10 with seven minutes left.

I'm registered. I'm not playing. I say we. we lost by we lost on a head henny and mario manningham i think a couple touchdowns and we lose and i remember walking off the field and there was a blue and yellow amazing blue sign in the audience in the crowd that just said still arrogant and i remember kind of walking off like yep yep yep and so i think that was kind of the motivation then for those next four years and uh crushed us right you had three and one against us we didn't we didn't like 2000

Yeah, well, the time I was there, what? Well, 2008, I didn't play. We won in the big house. And then 2009, 10, 11, I played. And you guys won? Yeah, yeah. But still. I went.

It's going to be like, we dropped one. I went. No. In the next three years I played. Yeah. Not even say we won, just I play. Michigan, I mean, to be fair to Michigan, it was the dark years. Correct.

It was the dark years. Turnover with Coach Rodriguez. Every year I was at Michigan would qualify. is the dark years. So Coach Carr retires, he kind of built a certain style of play. And then Coach Rodriguez comes in with kind of a different style. He's got to recruit his guys. And then by the time he had done that, he was like, oh, and now Coach Hope comes in

to try to return to what Coach Carr was doing to some degree. But it was almost like now we still have, now we have Coach Rod's player. So there was a lot of terms. So it was kind of timing wise. It was good timing to be Michigan State, if you will. Hey, it was terrible. It was terrible. But, yeah, it's just for me, I grew up in.

the state. You were from Phoenix. I grew up in the state. So like I knew if I go back to Holland, Michigan, there's going to be a lot of people there that are mason blue and a lot of people that are green and white. And so it was very, very personal, very real to me. And coach D'Antonia would always say that you win this game, you walk the streets, not the alleys of your hometown. And I would sit there and I would nod my head. Like, that's absolutely right. Like I know 8th Street in downtown Holland. And I know I'm going to be on 8th Street in downtown Holland the rest of my life. And I know that I'm trying to walk the streets of that town the rest of my life. And so when we won my senior year to have won four in a row and I knew that in the years I played,

we were three and O, that's when I said it at the press conference. Like, I'm going to walk the streets in my hometown the rest of my life. And I'm not saying this like with any kind of hyperbole. I'm literally going to walk the streets of my town with a Michigan State symbol on knowing that like, when I was there, we took care of business. So it is person. and it is very real to me because I grew up in the state. Hey, that's, that was fire. That was really good. I'm upset.

Yeah. What about now, though? What's about now? How good Michigan? How did Michigan State get back to walking the streets because they've been tucked into the alleys for a couple of years. My freshman year, or my, sorry, my rookie year with Washington, we lost in, Michigan State lost in Notre Dame, and I was, like, you know, it's upset.

I was like, ah, you know, and I'm a rookie. And Rex Grossman said to me, he's like, I think every year you're in the NFL longer, you kind of lose touch with your college program more and more. It's just kind of the way it goes. You'll kind of look back in your 10 like I'm at and you'll kind of be like, yeah, I'm not as close to the program as it used to be. And I think that's true. Big Prezzo. Yeah, I think, I think it's true. I just, you know, Coach De Antonio's retired now. All that staff has moved on. I don't know anybody at the program as well. I still follow it. I still, you know, love it. Coach is, obviously still on the basketball program is the same,

which is great, but even that'll change at some point. And so, It is a little harder to, like, stay close to it. I'll probably try to go back to a spring practice this year and say hello to people, but, you know, life goes on and you follow it, but it is harder to stay real close to it. Would not? Oh, about the black shirt defense. Let's talk about 2011.

Oh, no. In Memorial Stadium. Yeah. My worst, my worst performance. Yeah, we'll tell. Can I get on a soapbox about this? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, okay.

So I have deep respect for Coach Polini. And there's a few defense. defensive coordinators and head coaches who are defensive-minded head coaches that I've gone against through the years where I walk off the field at the end of the game and I'm like, smart fish. Like that guy knows what he's doing. And it was Sabin. We played Alabama and it was Polini.

We played Nebraska. Those two where you're like, he's getting, like he watched tape this week. Yeah. And he had a plan. And he was his plan, like, it was a good, good plan. It worked. So he had good players like Levanti David and Wilconton and Alfonso Dernard and, you know, Crick and all those guys.

But no, I just remember they had a, they had like a really good plan. You guys had a really good plan. It showed in the sat line. We threw for 80 yards. No, yeah. Man, I would always bring that up. Was that in Lincoln?

Yeah, I was in Lincoln. How were the fans incredibly nice to you after the game? Yeah, I think they, that was something we were going into the game. They told us it would be like. And then. In Filipinis in the stances, in Lincoln, Nebraska. So we, we were walk out of the field and we got our tails kicked. And they were just, good job, guys.

Good try. You know, it's wild. in your head. Yeah. But they had also, I can't remember if that was when they had, they hadn't built the, the,

uh, third deck. Like that stadium's huge now. Yeah. I think it's like 90 something. Yeah. It was, it was,

you know, like 7580 back then. Yeah, that's loud though. Bellini had it rolling. Yeah, we were rolling. Do you look back like,

bro, Michigan State, were you, they, yeah, you were scholarship from the get go, right? Yep.

Okay. Yep. You look back. Sorry, didn't mean any disrespect there. Fourth round pick. And the career, you've had, do you like look back and you're like, yo, yeah, how in the fuck did this come about?

You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, obviously, yeah, totally. I've been around you like you work your, your tail off. But it's like, yeah, it's like while looking back on like, man, we really did it when we as in your wife, not me and you. Yeah. No, we did do it. Yeah. Well, it wasn't a big piece of that, though. You were, like, don't take anything away from you, brother. All the time. Um, yes, if you, yes, if you had seen me in high school, you know, I remember going to getting offered to Michigan, getting offered to Michigan, getting offered to Michigan and accepting,

and kind of, I remember the narrative around town in my hometown got back to me, like, good for him, but like, he's not going to play there. You know, like, it's cool that he got a scholarship. And like, but he's not going to play. I mean, you were not like, yeah, I remember seeing the old photos. Yeah.

So even like, I remember the goal was like, get a scholarship. Can I just get a scholarship? That'd be so cool. And then it was like, maybe, but we'll ever play. Like, if I could just play, you know, start a game. That'd be incredible. And you do that and it's like, I can actually be good.

Like maybe we could like win the Big Ten. And then we did that and it's like, like maybe I could like one time like wear an NFL helmet. Like I remember when I went to Washington got drafted and I put on the helmet and went out to minicamp practice. I remember thinking like, well, I get cut today like at least I wore an NFL helmet. Like that's pretty cool to make it that far. And then you make the team and you're like, you get into a game and you're like, I'm playing in the NFL. So it's just this kind of gradual progression. And now you're saying like, it's funny because I'll say to my wife, like,

I don't think I could be, I could walk away from this career. If we don't win a Super Bowl, I don't think I could ever really like feel peace about it. Like, thinking back to these things, you're like, I think you've had a good run. You could feel about it. But that's what happens with like our job or anybody who's trying to have massive success. It's like, you set a goal, you reach it. And it's like, for whatever reason you sit there and you're like, you put the NFL helmet on. You're like, then why don't I feel 100% fulfilled?

What's the next thing? Yes. That's what the next thing. Coach Antonio would say to me. In the moment you get in front of the mirror before you go out to practice, you got the helmet on and you're looking like, this is, I did it. But then like two seconds later, you're like, but what am I going to do next?

What if I don't do anything with this? Then I'm a failure. And it's always something else. I mean, I think winning a Super Bowl, I think when you talk to people who have won it. Well, it's over, Bub. Well, when you talk to people who have won it, they make it very clear that that didn't fix everything.

Damn. That didn't fix everything. Like, like you get about two months. You get about two months of like, man, we did it. Right in the high. And then you realize, like, we got high expectations. Like, there's no reason we shouldn't do this again. And like anything less than this is not acceptable.

So it never ends, I guess. But, but yeah, Coach Antonio used to tell me there's a book called the Dreamgiver that he loves. And he would tell me, you know, when you, in that book, chasing a dream, you climb one mountain. You get to top of the mountain. You look around. You realize there's just more mountains to climb. And he's like, you can stop at that top of that mountain for a second and look around

and take it in. But like, in life, there will all. always be that next mountain to climb. And certainly in the football journey, we've all lived that. You were drafted in the fourth round. RG3 was drafted in the first round. He was going to be the franchise guy and you kind of sat behind him until you didn't. Do you look back on that? Can you speak back on like over making the climb to become the guy and that whole process unfolding with RG3 being like the face of the franchise and you're kind of like, you know, they're like integrating you into with all the drama and all the noise surrounding the whole thing and you're just you're just

like well I'm going to go out here and you know once you get on the field you're like you know let me play well enough to not to not be replaceable can you uh can you talk about that sure um first of all the model was you know back up robert and support him and if i play well in preseasoning games i'm going to get an opportunity somewhere in a trade Kyle shanning i made that very clear from the day i was drafted and Rex Grossman said to me you know this offense playing well is in is in your best interest because when a quarterback can be a part of a really good offense I think it makes other teams want you more so when when you know we had a great year our rookie year I really just watched as Griff won rookie of the year and Rex made the point like this is really good you know for your career to

just be watching someone playing at this level is really really good and I agreed and then um I just assumed, again, not knowing how the pro football works, I just assumed we'd run it back and be able to do the same thing. And the next year we went three and 13. And so you quickly realized just how hard this league is. And then Coach Gruden came in and that next year we went to 4 and 12. And again, you realized like, man, this is really hard. And then going into 15, you know, you're just kind of competing,

understanding that maybe if you practice well enough, you might get a shot. and then that was when Jay made the decision going into, you know, 2015 season near the end of camp, near the end of preseason that, okay, we're going to go with Kirk. But even then it was like, I got to play well enough to stay out there, you know. And I remember the game against Bucks, we got down 24 to nothing. And the buy was the next week. So if we don't win that game, you know, I've heard some people say on that staff, they thought they were all going to get fired if we didn't win that game.

And I probably don't come back after the by week as a starting quarterback. So we were one half away from probably. probably it never going the way it did. We come back and win that game 3-130, and then I yell, you like that in the tunnel. And we never really looked back. But, you know, you do realize how close it was to go on the other way.

Man. It's crazy. Why couldn't we get it done in Washington? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so we were at the Pro Bowl this past week. Yeah, and that's what made me think of it too. It's like he's crushing it in the media world, and he's sitting there interviewing you,

and I'm sitting there looking at that photo, like, man, they really went through some stuff, whether they're even, not that you guys were never friends, but you're almost, you're a lot wiser now, you're more mature, you're kind of just, you're both doing, everybody's doing their thing and everybody's happy for each other. And you went through some, like, tumultuous times, and it seemed like you guys were rivals and you guys just kind of had the weather that storm, whether he's kind of looking at you, you're looking at him, but it was kind of like, I saw that photo and that's what made me think about that. Yeah, well, first of all, Griff's really smart, really articulate, and he really knows the league. So what he does now,

he's good at doing. He's really good at it. Um, but yeah, he, uh, you know, he just did the post-game interview with me and Eli. And I had talked to him earlier in the week at the Skills Challenge and stuff and got caught up. I just hadn't seen him. I hadn't seen him in like maybe six, seven years because we hadn't played each other. Right. After 2015. And so I just never had run into him.

And it was great to see him. Great to get caught up. Um, and, you know, he, he, he's, you know, he put his arm around me after he finished the interview and just said, hey, man, like, I'm in your corner. And, uh, it was just really good to, uh, to connect with him. And I just look back and I just said, you know, likewise, but, you know, I'll never forget now being a starting quarterback and understanding how hard it is to do the job, I'll never forget what you did your rookie year. Like no fear coming in as a rookie and just taking over and making plays and putting your body on the line and the mental, physical toughness, learning a new system,

moving to a new city, taking on all that pressure of the media, everything. Like the way he handled it was just incredible. And I just told him that. And I'll tell anyone the rest of the rest of my life. Like what he did that year was incredible. You got anything else? Buddy, I'm solid. Hey, thank you for coming on, man. Thanks for having me. Great to connect you to you guys. I know you don't do this a whole lot. So I really do appreciate it.

And being transparent and talking about all of the stuff. Taylor, I don't know you too well. You got an unbelievable career, you know, all pro. Yeah, brother. Hold on. There's so much more. But this guy, this guy is why I'm here. And, you know, I, I'm always, when I go through life, I'm looking for leaders. because I think that leadership, everything rises and falls on leadership. And quite frankly, I think leaders are hard to find. And this guy's a leader.

He's a leader of leaders because he can build relationships with people. He can connect with anybody in our locker room, anybody in our locker room from West Coast, East Coast, inner city, suburbs, you know, farm boy. He can connect with anybody at any time, at any level. He's engaging. He's funny, but he's smart. He studies. He's tough.

Like, I keep a list of my phone of people I would hire if I ever start a company. and right there is the guy I would hire to, like, run the company for me. Oh, did you're going to call me. That is all time, man. Put my piece out there. He is why I'm sitting on this chair, and he is why I think this podcast will go as far as it wants to go. And I plan on when I'm retiring football, giving him a call and saying, what are we doing? That's all time, man.

I appreciate that. You're going to make me too. No, I don't know. I don't know. I respect the heck out of you. You know, I listen. You guys have a great relationship. I appreciate it coming on because of Will.

I'm just looking to be a part of it. I have subscribed. 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 Smygle and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your performance. Podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano.

It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was part of you. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come until he's like, you know I love you, dog.

You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your Podcasts.