Club Shay Shay - Davante Adams Part 1

Episode Date: July 17, 2024

Davante Adams, one of the NFL's premier wide receivers known for his exceptional talent and dominance in the league with multiple receiving touchdown titles, numerous All-Pro selections, and Pro Bowl appearances, joins Shannon Sharpe at Club Shay Shay for an insightful conversation. They discuss his journey from adversity to triumph. The discussion opens with Davante sharing his thoughts on entering his 11th season in the league, ignoring the critics, and emphasizing how he stays focused and motivated by setting high expectations for himself. He discusses his preparation, self-critique, and the importance of maximizing every opportunity on the field. Shannon and Davante also explore the depth of talent in today's wide receiver pool and the competitive drive that keeps Davante striving for greatness. The conversation takes a personal turn as Davante opens up about the challenges of leaving Green Bay and his longtime quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, to join the Las Vegas Raiders. He reflects on the difficulties of transitioning to a new team and his determination to make the best of his current situation. Davante even shares his excitement about wanting Tom Brady to come out of retirement to play with him and expresses admiration for Brady's legendary career and leadership. Davante also talks about watching the development of Jordan Love, Green Bay's new quarterback, and the potential he sees in him. Throughout their discussion, Davante's passion for the game and his unwavering commitment to excellence are evident, making this a must-watch for any football fan. Davante shares his commitment to his family, giving fans a deeper insight into the personal sacrifices and victories that have contributed to his success. He discusses the significant impact football has had on his life, transitioning from using it as a tool for personal advancement to prioritizing his children's future. The conversation extends to Davante's thoughts on his legacy and future in the NFL, discussing the uncertainty of how long he will continue playing and the impact on his family. He shares insights into his favorite NBA players like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Deron Williams, and Shaquille O'Neal, crafting his personal Mount Rushmore of basketball legends, and reflects on his top five wide receivers of all time, including Randy Moss, Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens, Calvin Johnson, and Marvin Harrison. In a candid moment, Davante discusses his upcoming Netflix series, offering viewers an unfiltered look into his life on and off the field, providing a glimpse into the real Davante Adams beyond the game. Don't miss this candid and revealing conversation with Davante Adams, exclusively on Club Shay Shay.   #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Tom Brady. Would you, Brady, how old's Brady?

Hell, yes. Oh, God damn! You ain't let me finish the question, Tay. I know, exactly. Hey, when you said Tom Brady, I knew what you was going to say. Let me see what he's going to say. And then you got to talk about Odie as I don't care. All my life, been grinding all my life. When you said Tom Brady, I knew what you was going to say. Let me see what he's going to say. And then you got to talkle paid the price. Want a slice. Got the roll of dice. That's why all my life I've been grinding all my life. Hello, welcome to another episode of Club Shea Shea. I am your

host, Shannon Sharp. I'm also the proprietor of Club Shea Shea. The guy that's stopping by for conversation on the drink today is one of the NFL best receiver. He's displayed generational talents and his ability leading the league and receiving touchdowns twice. He's displayed generational talents and his ability leading the league in receiving touchdowns twice. He's the three-time first-team All-Pro, a six-time Pro Bowler, Hall of Fame-level talent, once recorded 24 touchdowns

in a single college season. Fresno State thought so much of him, they retired his number 15, a superstar, Devontae Adams. Appreciate you having me, bro. What's up, bro? Appreciate you.

You good? I'm great, man. Hey, you know what? Bro, after what you've done your first 10 years in the league, six Pro Bowls, three first-team All-Pro, leading the league in touchdowns,

bro, we got to toast a bit. We're going to toast, man. And we were talking to our camera earlier. You're not done yet. I'm not done, man. Continue your success, bro. Thank you, bro.

This is my personal cognac, Shea Balaporte VSOP let me know what you think alright that's some good stuff right there I'm not a big drinker right

this right here is some good stuff that's what I'm talking you heard it I'm not going to lie because I've seen I've seen you talk about Henny and this

I'm not going to lie to you I don't like Hennessy at all we but we we don't we don't talk bad about the competition but we feel good with what we got but this this right here is that's that's him I appreciate that's him I thought I thought E40 my uncle E40 he sent me some uh some of that Tycoon I don't know if you had that that's pretty good but this is they y' y'all are right here with us. Okay. I appreciate that. So, y'all heard? Go out and get your bottle of that Shea Bible 48 BSOP.

Best tasting BSOP on the market. You know what? Thank you. Let's get right into it. Entering into your 11th season. The first 10, bro. Six Pro Bowls. Three first team All-Pro.

Led the league in receiving. But you've heard some of the critics. Devontae, yeah, he had 100 catches. His fourth straight 100 catch season yeah another thousand yard season ah you know the separation is not what it used to be yards per catch is not what they used to be man Devontae's starting to slow down how do you answer your critics I just I don't I honestly I don't answer him I don't I don't give an answer because I don't play for the the reason why people ask me what I attribute a lot of my success to and it's it's two main things it's the fact that I keep my life real simple real predictable the things that I'm

into I don't got a million hobbies I don't let my mind get all over the place I got a few things I do business wise you know and and I enjoy doing that but for the most part I just keep it real simple and the other part is I'm a I'm a self-pleaser, man. I'm not really worried about my own expectation far exceeds what anybody else expects of me on the field. So when they say that, I'm already thinking that about myself, about not the separation and the details and things like that, but, you know, as far as what I have and what I can give to the game,

if I'm not able to show that, I'm extreme. And as any of my teammates, coaches that I've had, I'm a real passionate dude. So, you know, they talk about this and that. I always tell them, man, don't tell me we got a whole lot of season left after two bad weeks or two lackluster weeks on offense or, you know, because it's not just about me. It's not just my show. I'm not expecting to get out there and be the only one making plays and you know this and that but if I'm out there and we can't get it going on offense and I'm not giving you know being

given my opportunities or the right type of opportunities well then I have something to say about that because if one day is I'm not going to be the at top of my game, but that ain't two day. You know what I'm saying? So it's going to be like that one day, but if it ain't me, then look, I can't have nothing else hindering my ability to affect each and every game and each and every snap that I get out there. So that's my mentality. So whatever anybody got to say, that really got nothing to do with me. That's their job.

They're supposed to go ahead and do that hate or comment on it or whatever it is but you know the the truth is in it is in the film too so if you watch the film and you're not just looking at the numbers all the time right which i mean we talking about it i had a you know still 1200 over 100 catches and and you know and that was a down year eight touchdowns if that's if that's a down year then you know i feel like we we're gonna be all right how much eval do you do from week to week year to year do you go back say you play a game do you watch yourself critique yourself during the year or do you wait to do an entire body of work after the season where you go back game by game route by route and break yourself down or do you do it week to week day by day wow day by day i'm you ask anybody like talk about the consistency over the course of, you know, 10, you know, maybe the first few years wasn't what we wanted it to be.

But then once once I got rolling, it's it's just because of the way that I prepare, man, and the way that I critique myself. What I expect from myself is, like I said, is I expect a lot. You know, I know what I can provide. So, you know, I may go out there and lead the league in touchdowns. I still feel like that wasn't enough because what do what you doing on the field got to do with me. Just because I led the league don't mean that I did my best. Oh, okay. Okay, yes, yes. I can go out there and have, you know, 150 yards,

and really it could have been a 220-yard game. So we can talk about it like it's good when you look at the stats, but that's why I'd say the stats don't always tell the story. You can sit here and look at it and say 150, and that looked like you'd come out of the game and say, okay, good game. And I'm like, okay, I appreciate it. I'm always acknowledging love, but at the end of the day, if I'm not able to maximize what I can do, it ain't got nothing to do with 100. Who decided that 100 yards is a good game? I didn't. You know what I'm saying? So for me, it's maximizing every every opportunity and and every

moment that i got in this league because like we was just talking about it's gonna be gone for you know it you know and i'm going into 11 people like damn it's 11 for you i'm like bro like you went back quick the first team right so i don't know if it's gonna be another 10 but but we ain't done yet tell you what i used to do like when i played i would leave a game kind of like what you said have 150 and i was like damn but those two drops that's probably another 10 15 right there now i got 165 okay if i come out of this if i just did this i could have broke that tackle probably got another 15 right do you constantly like it's never good you know you're you're you're satisfied but you're not but you're not satisfied.

Yeah, no, I know exactly what you're saying. And it's it's a tough game to play because you drive yourself crazy doing that. But the other side of it is that I don't mind being a little crazy if it mean that I'm demanding what I should for myself regardless, you know. And if you are a lesser player, your mind won't even take you there because you don't have that expectation for yourself but when you know what you can give to the game and help your team with for me I've been in this league for a minute now and I still haven't been to a Super Bowl so I feel like cool you could say that I had a great career this and that but I haven't been able to affect the game enough to win a Super Bowl yet so I feel like that must mean that I'm not doing as much as what I can or as much as what I need to you know even so that's the way I look at it like sometimes it may be a good day and

sometimes you do have those games where you say look I had you know 14 targets 13 catches and that one was way behind me and I couldn't do nothing about that right but every time I caught the ball I got busy and I made the dude tackle I didn't get tackled I made him tackle me you know I'm saying so it's days like that. But if you're really thinking about the game the right way and if you're hard enough on yourself, you should have a lot of moments where you say, I left something out there one way or the other.

When I look at the talented receiver pool that we have now, it's as good as far as depth-wise as we've had at any point in time. I look at yourself, Justin Jefferson, Reekek digs aj cd chase saint brown cup davante dk deep uh debo mcclurin jaylen waddle keenan allen puka nakua yeah when people talk about receivers davante adams is still in that list are you as high as you want to be or when you evaluate when the people start talking about receivers you like hey you know 17 still here now well this this is the reality man the and it's funny because i was just talking to my cousin about this this league is in and just the and when i say the league i mean the

the nfl culture so the fans the the some of the players you know they just they want uh they want to crown a new king every year, every year. You know what I'm saying? And the reality is they haven't been able to do that for a real long time. Right. So so as soon as you see a little chink in the armor, you know, as far as, you know, I come I come to the Raiders and we're not able to keep it rolling and go to NFC championship after NFC championship, like how I did in Green Bay with Aaron. And, you know, we had we had what we had. And then they want to compare it and this and that. But I say, look, man, if you watch the tape, I'm not a different player whatsoever. I'm still – I believe I'm still getting better. So sometimes the circumstance doesn't allow you to express that totally.

And I truly believe. And I'm not – that's why I say I'm not going to hate on you for hating on me because if you want to say you're the best, you've got to the best you can't you can't just say that so at the end but you got to do it over a period of time you just can't have one good year a couple good games correct but the the the good part about it and and why i love this league is that now you are getting some dudes that's some young dudes coming in going crazy like jj and and doing it consistently where you know his first year we say all right right, bro, you're a rookie, like whatever, like sure. You, you, you balled out and it looked good, but we'll see second year. It's like, all right, he coming around. We're going to see.

And then third year he do it again. You like, all right, man. All right. He might be the real deal. We do got some dudes that's like that chase and, and you know, Puka is another one that came on the scene and we're going to see what he continued to do. And I believe that it's going to continue to happen. So I'm always rooting for these guys. I never sit here and watch and be like, drop that, drop that. Like, I want to see you do it. Because at the end of the day, like I said, I'm not judging how my season went based off how you played.

I'm judging it off what I did. That's just like if you come in and, you know, if everybody just competing and like what they think the NFL is, like I'm sitting here, I'm going to line up, and I ain't going to tell the young buck to call. Like that's hurting me. Right. I need him to know the call. I need him to know what to do because we got to all want him to ball out. That way it's going to make it easier on me. Right. You know, and that may it may not make it easier on me when somebody on another team does. But as a as a fan of the sport and in the wide out position, I still love that's why I watch the games. I want to see those big players. I want to see all my favorite wideouts going ball out.

And I know I'm going to do the same. So, you know, hopefully we all just keep battling at the top. I don't want it to be where I got, you know, 1,900 yards and then everybody else sitting at 11. Like, I want it to, you know, I want it to be that. You want to be pushed. I want to be pushed. You know, I want to continue to have my peers and the guys that I see

and I get to work with and I'm cheering cheering for i want to see them going ball and then that that makes me say okay well then now i got to go do you know even better than that year after year and i've done that and and i think some guys haven't gotten to that point where they've solidified that but like i say they just want to crown somebody else so not that certain people are not worthy of high praise but like like you said, I'm still here. You were in Green Bay for eight years. You had Aaron Rodgers, a generational talent, four times he was an MVP, and we know what he represents. How hard was it for you to leave that?

Because the likelihood of you going somewhere and finding that elsewhere is not especially the relationship that you guys have built this is over a period of time y'all didn't develop this over one year or two training camps this is year after year after conversation after conversation game after game how hard was it for you to leave green bay and go to another situation even though you were joining your ex-college teammate it was difficult man and and honestly i could be i could be real and tell you that i knew it was gonna be hard but it was it was a lot harder than what i even imagined because you know it kind of felt like you you know you everybody had been in a situation where you got a your girlfriend whether it's middle school high school college whatever and you know it's not a good this this ain't this ain't what it

need to be and that wasn't based off our relationship, that's not what I'm equating it to. I'm saying more of the picture of the Green Bay situation at that time. And I felt like that wasn't necessarily what was best for me at that moment, especially with Aaron's, you know, his future in Green Bay kind of being up in the air the way it was and him ultimately leaving. I didn't want to be there. And, you know, in hindsight, obviously Jordan Love balling out. You know, it would have been great to do that.

But I'm the type of guy, once i make a decision i i live with it you know i'd drive yourself crazy sit here and be worried about did i do that i wish i would have did this and did that like you can't live life like that man ain't no rewind button so you got to make decisions and live with it but it was definitely difficult man it's you know there's a dear friend of mine that it's tough to just not even be able to see somebody that you're used to seeing for eight years every day you know having that go to where you can only see each other every few a few uh times in the offseason it's just not the same so it was hard but it was something that needed to happen just just based off the situation and you know still here trying to make the best of it but anytime you go from you know having the

best quarterback ever throwing you the ball to any type of change, it's going to be an adjustment. So it wasn't easy, but we're still managing. You watch Jordan Love every day in practice. I think he played one game with you, if I'm not mistaken. I think that the Kansas City, he played that game. Aaron didn't play. Right.

You kind of watched him. Had you known what you know now he's like because he balled out he did you did you see this did you see this look I would say based off of the the the potential you know we we don't I don't like using that word because I feel like that's a that's a high school word yeah about potential potential just mean you ain't done nothing correct exactly so based off what I've seen you know it was there was he had the potential to do what he's doing but there was nothing till you see somebody in live bullets they do it snaps it's hard to really determine if somebody got that you know that it factor which he's shown at this point that he has okay

you know it's we talked about the consistency he hasn't been able to show that consistently but when you look at the play style and just the i mean that boy be cool as the other side of the pillow out there too and that's one thing that people don't be giving him enough credit for i mean the release points a lot of these throws he's making he reminds you aaron i mean i saw him throwing the ball that was the thing that i saw when he played philly yeah i said man when he came in i said dude remind he wasn't he wasn't just sitting back there playing around i'll tell you that i one thing i will say i don't think that you know based off of aaron being a guy in green bay they don't always try to get the guy behind him all the way right because then it's a you know some issues of

well you're speeding the process up and getting me up out the door that type of deal right so so you you know i'm saying so i kind of felt like i didn't get to really see it because they never were he wasn't being showcased or really like coach coach like that because when you're in season you got to worry about the guy that's playing so you know you you're obviously going through your drills and all of that but it's more getting you ready for the game that's about to be played so being in in green bay having him you know just throwing uh jump balls to you know to the one-on-one practice squad versus Jair and seeing Jair go up and pick it off. Seeing that doesn't let you know for sure this guy's going to be a baller.

But being a scout team quarterback, that's some of the things that you've got to do. And then he just took advantage of the opportunity as soon as he got it, which is, I mean, now it's his. You're making the decision. Obviously, it's going to come down because you you got your pick of where you want to go. For the most part, everybody's not going to be able to afford your salary. So it comes down to the Raiders. Obviously, Derek Carr, you played with him in college.

So there's a relationship, although you hadn't played in a number of years. Yeah. How instrumental was he for you coming to the Raiders and then to see all of a sudden after a year, it's gone? Well, I mean, he played a huge part in that, man. I mean, I grew up a Raiders fan being from the Bay and my whole family being Raiders fans. So in a sense, it was kind of written. But at the same time, I don't know if I would have made the move had it not been him, you know, on the center when I got there. And then I talked about, obviously, when they got rid him I was I was not happy about that at all but

just based off the business and knowing how you know at that point it was I was going into to year 10 you know once they got rid of him so I'm thinking about it I'm like man this is the same this ain't the first and it definitely gonna be the last person that you know means a lot to me and my career that I'm not gonna be able to be around so you got a you got a roll with the punches and figure it out and I'm not really in the business of jumping around trying to skate around the states trying to find a home you know so I'm just had it we got a great team and great potential to be a great team so really for me it was easy to say

I'm gonna stick here and try to try to figure this out with these guys and go into work with guys like Max Crosby and you know having these type of dudes that it was a different level of competition when I came to the Raiders the Packers we won all these games and 13 games you know three three times in a row under Matt LaFleur but it was just a different type of feeling when I walked into that Raiders and went into that first OTA practice it was a different level of competition I never really felt in the league yet. And it made me feel a way about this team,

and I kind of was locked in from that point. Right. Had you known, and it's easy to say now, say, hell no, I wouldn't have come, but had you known what you'd known. But could you see the writing on the wall? Because a lot from the outside, a lot of people were like, man, Gruden really ain't really embraced, old boy. He always talking about everybody else quarterback.

But damn, you can't keep saying somebody else girl beautiful when you got a girl sitting right next to you. And it seemed like he kept saying somebody else girl was more beautiful. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news, previews, recaps, and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee. No dumb hot takes here, just smart hot takes. We'll talk every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone, so I'm bringing in the big guns from NFL media. That's Patrick Claiborne, Steve Weiss, Nick Shook, Jordan Rodrigue from The Athletic, and of course, Colleen Wolfe.

This is their window right now. This is their Super Bowl window. Why would they trade him away? Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl. I don't know why, Colleen. Catch the podcast, the NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal every day. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. And who doesn't want that?

Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Beautiful than the one he had. Yeah, they had an interesting relationship, to say the least. And I know he was on board with them and he loved Gru. And Gru loved me, too. And that was another reason why I was real fired up about potentially being a Raider was that I knew that you know he had strong feelings about me as a player so um and then once he left that was like

the first piece of it where I was like I don't now are they even gonna want me you know because you know I am who I am but that don't mean that every GM is like I'm he's worth this you know investment and like we say obviously you know it's no secret that it's going to be a pretty, you have to dig pretty deep in them pockets to make that work. So just being unsure about how he felt about that, I didn't know if Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler were going to come in and decide, yeah, we want to invest this money in this guy. And then when it worked out, it just seemed like it was meant to be.

And unfortunately, we weren't able to take advantage of it the way, money and this guy and then when it worked out it just it seemed like it was it was meant to be and unfortunately we weren't able to take advantage of it the way um you know and in a really weird season too because we lost i want to say basically all those games that year other than one by like less than six points yeah there were like one score game that it normally came down to the last possession right which was one way or another exactly which equates to not being a great team because you're not finishing it but when you look at it like you ain't we wasn't no team that people was like we're about to come in here and roll over these boys like we just wasn't figuring it out and finishing the games the way we needed to so we had we had the

chance to do it so based off what i've seen even losing those games my first year it gave me a good feeling about moving forward with this squad just provided we could fill in a few gaps to make this team really be the team we're supposed to be you see all the success that Josh McDaniels has as the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots yeah and then you's like man he got a great mind I see the way he what he does with Welker I saw what he did with Moss I saw what he did with Gronk and yada, yada, yada. And you're like, man, what is it about him that for whatever reason, obviously, Tom Brady, take Tom Brady out. But still, schematically, you should be able to scheme things and make things happen. What what is it about him? Because he's been in a couple of locations that wasn't New England, and it went horrible. Yeah. This is what I would say, and I actually had this conversation with him during the season that first year because we had some things going

where dudes was messing up assignments. They didn't really see him all the way locked in like how they were supposed to. So I went and sat in there with him, and it would just coincidentally have to be after a game where I had like two catches or something like that. So I go in his office, and as soon the first time, as soon as I walk in there, he, I know, I know, Taya, you know, getting ready, like starting off, like I know we got to get you the ball, this and that. I said, that's not even what I'm in here for.

I want to have like a real man-to-man talk with you. And what I basically taught him was like, I think we don't need to change our standard because you and I both used to winning games. And we were aligned on a lot of stuff. We were talking. I was actually a big advocate for him you know just because he I felt like maybe maybe the way the the offense went didn't didn't work great with us but the what he believed in I truly believed in

as well and he was he was old school and I always had old school coaches so you know him being hard on us in practice stuff like that never bothered me because you know I'm just I know what it is that he's trying to get out of us so greatness greatness. Yeah, exactly. And that's all that it was. So I go, I go in there and I say, we shouldn't change our standard, but I think you and I just to save our mental, we might have to change our expectation a little bit because here's the reality. You've had success in this offense and many, many years, Superbowl. I think he won six Superbowls, but the only difference is every single human being that walked through those doors and was sitting on the other side of him in those team

meetings they had a hand in every soul that was in there so when you picking and you got this super complex um you know slides and all these things for this old line you you getting these harvard grads and all these dudes that could really process this. We got dudes that grew in, you know, Mayock and them brought in and good talent. But these dudes are not the same. They may not be as intellectual. They may not be as disciplined as what you would have chose yourself. So that's like you walking into a room and coaching up a bunch of kids versus your own AAU team. Right. and you expecting that they're going to do the exact same thing. You don't know these kids like that. You haven't been able to really

put your blessing on them, put your hand on them and shape them to be the type of player or person that you want them to be as it pertains to the football game. So when you come out here, we should still keep the same standard as how hard we push them. But maybe let's ease up a little bit as far as the frustration and leaving out of every practice so pissed off that there was a few mental errors when you're not realizing that these are not, these ain't dudes that got PhDs like some of the guys you had. And just even fit that system the way that, you know, so we got guys that may be better in the system that we have now. And I've seen, I've been in multiple systems, so I've seen it. So I just basically had to tell them, I said, look, you've had a lot of success, but I think maybe we should start gearing to understand that these dudes are a little bit different and find out the best way to coach them up, best way to run this offense.

That way it'll work best versus trying to shove these guys into this mode that you want to have us fit into because the ultimate name of the game is is win the game it's not win a certain type of way yeah you know so i think what's most important when you're coaches shaping it around who you you gotta adapt you know you got a lot of times it takes to your point a lot of times what coaches do and the really good coaches can do it they'll fit their system around the players that they have correct and they don't say you fit my system right and i think he had a system at new england this is the way it was coach belichick says this is it yeah and guys and they draft the guys accordingly but when you go elsewhere you've got to all of a sudden you ain't

got tom you ain't got gronk you don't have this you don't got Tom, you ain't got Gronk, you don't have this, you don't have that. Well, you got to fit a system to the talent level that you have. Correct. And if you don't, you're going to be frustrated. And then guys are going to start being frustrated with you because you're going to MF them so much. They're just going to shut you out. And that's exactly what happened. That's exactly it. So you you completely understand how that goes. And that's that's how I feel genuinely like if you come in and you're trying to make something work it shouldn't just be about what it is that you believe in because you should believe in winning right and you you're used to that right and this

worked in the past so i get to a certain extent that he in his mind he probably puzzled because he's like i've been with all these dudes and we got all these guys but once you you got to sit somebody down sometime and say think about this part of it like this you you didn't these are not all you you didn't draft these guys right so even if you have a little bit of time with them like you got to work with them differently even if you if i'm running a team i'm not going to sit here and coach every guy the same way correct you know you got it you got to coach them however no if i got if one of my best players is going to sit there and cry when as soon as i raise my voice at them it may be unfortunate i may be in my office like man this boy is soft but i'm gonna do what i gotta do so we make it work yes you know especially when it's some of your guys guys

right you know you got to do what you got to do to to get that end result you want i think andy reed is a great example of that you look at the way andy reed coached when he had alex smith you look at the way he coached patrick mahomes you look at the way he coached donovan mcdowell each situation was different based on the player he had at quarterback based on the players that he had around him and the really good coaches can adapt yep and not say man this is my system your system ain't worth a hill of beans if them guys can't run it hey and and it can't be that good if i mean we got good players yeah so it ain't like we we lacking talent or you done went to a d3 from from uh from the youth right you know what I'm saying? We talking about high-level athletes,

and you look at that offense that we had, and for it to not work on different levels, whereas the receivers wasn't getting it done enough for them or the tight ends wasn't figuring out the blocking assignments or whatever it is, sometimes you got to do a little self-scout and figure out what it is and what's leading to that. What can I do different?

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And I'm going to see what you think about this, and I'll give you my point of view. When you left Aaron, people automatically assumed, man, he ain't been able to put up those numbers. Man, come on, man. Who y'all kidding? Y'all kidding? Y'all know who it was.

Right. And so now you feel like, bro, yes, I appreciate Aaron. We know he's a generational talent. Yeah, we know he's transcendent. Correct. But, bro, I'm on the other end of this now. Yeah, yeah. That's the curse.

And I talked to Aaron about this multiple times. We joke about it. And I'm like, that's the curse of being with a player. That's that. Like, it's much more of a gift because you're going to be able to, you know, he can then there's a day where you you're not there or whatever like the and and i've heard this from you know some of our guys with the raiders now when days where i wasn't there like days that aaron was present the way that team was flying around and looked out out there versus the days that he was in the training room during the you know whatever absolutely guys still working it ain't like they out there telling jokes and and just like walking in between but it's a different level intensity it is execution and all of that so not even just his his ability to throw the ball but just his presence brings a different type of it gets it out of you yeah essentially kind of i would i would equate it to how a coach like ap coming in you look at that next week after we you know did what we did in detroit and then we come back and then we we

did what we did to uh the giants you can say whatever you want about the Giants they still the NFL team we went in there and in certain guys that maybe weren't playing the way that they should one week later looked like different players and that's because of the presence of a human being and what they can do to get to maximize what you have in you maybe you don't even need new personnel sometimes you need somebody else to come in and make Shannon go a little bit harder. And then now that player is the player that you wanted to go get at the same price. Right.

The thing was, like, me playing with John is that what I took for granted, and I knew he was a great player. He had been to Super Bowls. He had been an MVP. Is that what you take for granted is that the ball placement. Like, if he put the ball between the eight and the four, he's telling me, Shannon, get up in your shadow. There's danger on the left or the right. So if you go left, you don't get your clock clean.

You go right. If he puts it in front of me, he's telling me I can continue to run. If you put it on my back shoulder, he's telling me I'm stopping you from a headache. You take things like that for granted because he's been doing like, oh, everybody going to be amen and the moment you bam like bro you didn't see that guy that's see that's the thing and it and and honestly the the placement is one piece of it but the the the even more important is the timing aspect of it you know like having a dude like aaron i was able to get away with some some things that maybe wouldn't be able to work with another quarterback. Like we have a stop route or a puma is what we called it in Green Bay.

It's a 15 yards, basically a comeback, but you turn it back inside. It's almost like a curl, but you're coming back down your stem. Right. That route was run at nine yards. That route was run at 10 yards. That route was run at 15 to 17 yards just based on what I needed to do. Right. run at 15 to 17 yards just based off what i needed to do right and having to do like that pulling the trigger having the ability to just whip that ball over there not sit here and just look me down the whole way but feel it out hold the safety and just feel my body language know that based off where

guys are that this is typically when he takes us a little bit deeper and not sitting there like it wasn't a whole lot of times he doing this and i'm not ready or vice versa right so having those reps together obviously that happened over time. But even the timing of a simple route off coverage, we got a dagger concept and I'm running an in route. Just knowing when to release that ball to where now, like, I've had a couple instances this past year where I'll come down the middle and the ball is where it needs to be. But it wasn't thrown when it was supposed to be thrown. Yeah. is where it needs to be but it wasn't thrown when it was supposed to be thrown yeah so now that headache we talking about you know i'm sitting there trying to convince these people in the tent

that i'm okay right when when it shouldn't even happen because that could have been a catch and and run so that's the part where i talk about where you talk about the people saying oh you know he didn't had a year that that we we because of seeing seeing him have and they didn't got and they got spoiled over the years too because they seen you know 1500 a few times and and you know almost 20 touchdowns in 2020 like they see this so now they think that that's the the standard which it which it which it is but they got that's hard though bro it's not easy to do it's hard to score one touchdown in this league but you know to get almost 100 in my career that don't happen by own accident so when people talk about a regression and this and that i'm saying you're just not watching the tape because if you would have known anything

about ball you would have known that you know in that game i just played that i had 71 yards if i would have got the ball a little quicker on that dig that would have been another 60 right because i've if you look at two weeks before that i got it earlier and it was 60 i i go back to the monday night game that you guys ended up winning i I think you kicked the last second field goal and he threw that dagger out. He threw that over out. And Fred Warren, I mean, he threw it. You're talking over the top of it.

Yes. Spinning pirouette. Yes, yes. And Fred got dealt everything. He couldn't play it no perfect. Couldn't, couldn't. But when Aaron released it and when you came out of that break,

the perfect throw will beat the perfect coverage. Every time. Every time. Every time. Every time. And that's one of them ones that, you know, the saying when you're breaking up with your girl and you say, it's not you, it's me. That's what you got to say to Fred in that moment. It's not you, bro. Hell of a job.

Don't worry about it. It ain't on you. It's us. And I had the easy job there, you know, just going up and grabbing it, putting that ball over the top of him when Fred is probably the most athletic linebacker in the NFL. I mean, you definitely miss those type of drives and those type of catches alone. No one is better at asking you, what do I, Shannon Sharp Sharp and the national media get wrong about Aaron Roger well I think see when you when you're a person and me and Aaron are a lot alike in this

when you are a person that is secure enough to not have to worry about clearing stuff up like like aaron's not you don't see him going on tv and on social media saying trying to deny any of the stuff that people saying like when you so solid with yourself sometimes it leads to people that's like your girl come and say are you cheating on me and you just go she's gonna be like oh he must be cheating yeah yeah when in your head you, I'm not worried about you. I'm all about you. I ain't tripping off nobody but you. That don't even deserve a response.

I'm not even going to give that no attention. So I think sometimes his approach with that is, you know, he's a very private person. And with a lot of his life being put in the light like that, it's tough to, you know, and we all got our things too. We all got, you know, different situations that are hard to explain unless you truly know what's going on. And the good thing for me and why I love him so much is that he's a dear friend of mine. So I do know a lot about the details of, you know, the things behind of what people say and what's led to, you know, why why people get that perception.

Right. But what I love about him is that he's not concerned with sitting here trying to, you know, change that and change it in your mind. If you feel a way, then that's just how you're going to feel. Right. And if and if that that hurts you, it shouldn't because it has nothing to do with you. And more people should approach it that way. And honestly, mind their business as it pertains to to his personal life. You know, because what the man doing with his vaccinations or non-vaccinations, immunizations and capitalization, whatever it is, that ain't got nothing. That ain't changing nobody's life, but his. Right. So at the end of the day, like people would ask me, like, how do you how do you come to Aaron? What do you say to him in a situation where he's in the media and y'all in there trying to focus for that? We like, man, we go in there and lab just like we do every other day. That man is a grown man. If he need to speak to me about anything, he know I'm here. I'm not getting in his business. Just like, I don't want anybody else to get in it,

but you know, there's pieces, obviously some things come out, you know, here and there and people are going to speculate, but I just love that he's secure enough to be himself and, and the people that truly know him, understand him a lot better than what's being put on the outside. And I'm just glad I'm not that level of celebrity. I got to deal with it all. Everything gets parsed and picked apart. 90% of what people talk about, they don't know about. So, you know, he just tried to keep it moving, and we all do the same with him.

In your two years with the Raiders, you've gone 14-20. Haven't made the playoffs. Derek Carr, Jared Stidham, Jimmy G, Brian Hoyer, Aiden O'Connell. Now it seems like Aiden O'Connell and Garner Minshew are going to be fighting for the starting quarterback. Do you have the pieces at that position? Because it doesn't matter. You can go out there and you can run the best routes in the world.

You can run the end cut, the dig dagger the day the shake all that good right man you see davante run that rock animal skates but if that ball sails out of bounds yeah eventually take them get frustrated right because bro i'm putting in this work i'm getting open i'm winning and i ain't gonna get no no looks. Yeah, man. It's always a tough conversation because when you talk about having the for sure answer, we don't know because we haven't seen Gardner in a Raider uniform. We've seen him make some plays, and we've seen it to a certain extent. Jacksonville, Indy.

Exactly. He's definitely been out there and had some experience. Aiden, on the other hand, hasn't had near as much experience. He had to pick up in an offense that's fit for a Tom Brady. It's an offense that you have to have extremely high level execution to be able to make it work. It's a lot of dink and dunk. It wasn't a million shots down the field.

I had much longer touchdowns in that offense, but it was honestly as a result of us figuring out on the fly. Like we said, trying to adjust and make it work. It was a lot of that. So when you got a guy, and me and Aiden talked about it at the end of last year, because I think we were in a hot tub, and somebody asked him, what do you think about this offense? And he said himself, he said, this offense just requires a really high-level execution. You've got to be able to really sustain a drive. Like, you don't get, just because you went, you know, three, you capitalize on a fourth down twice, you don't get five downs on the next one.

You've still got to move. So if you only done got 20 yards with two first downs, that's a lot of work you've still got to do to get down there. Especially, you know, the ball getting nailed in the end zone. You're starting way back there. You can still get three first downs and punt the ball right so you know it's not in a lot of offenses in these you know especially today these offense explosive man they you get three first downs y'all asking the score basically so you know it's tough to do you got to pick up in the middle of that as a as a young buck and then you come in you know the the game that jimmy gets

hurt he got to jump in and play against the Chargers, get sacked six times by the same freaking person. Like, that's not easy. And he kind of got thrown into the fire a little bit. So I do believe in Aiden, and I think he's going to be able to feel a lot more comfortable. He looked pretty good in OTAs, and we're just going to continue to grow and learn from each other. I've always been a big advocate for him because when he first came in,

he came in real confident, balling in the OTA period and in preseason and showed everybody what he has the potential to do. So we just got to keep working just like with me and Aaron. I mean, if you were trying to count your chickens before they hatch with me, then you wouldn't have had no eggs because my first two years wasn't exciting nobody to think that it was going to happen. Then you were going to turn that to what you turned out to be. Exactly.

So, you know, I'm the main person sitting there saying everybody relax. You know, you got to give time for the flower to grow. You know, we watering it right now, and we're going to ultimately see what happens with it. But it's hard to say for sure, like we're going to win a Super Bowl right now. But we got a lot of work to put in still, and i think we uh we got we got a good chance to to get a lot better so you would say that the offense under josh it required a lot of patience and a lot of precision correct because you know hey if you miss but you got to be able to come back and do it over and over and over and over again and a lot of times you're doing that without taking shots. Exactly. And this game is about, and that's a lot of snaps too.

Yes. So at the end of the day, when you got your team on the field for, you know, almost 80 plays, you know, you're going to be out there with a lot of so folks and maybe hurt folks. Right. Now, if you can get out there and get some explosives and your defense is out there and getting the ball back to you, then now that's less plays.

You're stretching the field. The morale of the team is different because now you've even got more confidence. Getting a first down, you know, on a fourth down is cool, and that can give you confidence. You want to have that in your bag of being able to, but you ain't trying to go down there just scoring on. Yeah, you ain't going to make a whole lot of living fourth down. Oh, this team goes for it the most on fourth down and all that.

That's going to get you in trouble. That's going to bite you in the butt eventually. In Philly that worked because they doing it different over there with the way they do it but you know when it when it's fourth and three and you didn't ran the ball third and six to get it shorter to do it like that like that's just not the type of ball i believe in i believe in being aggressive especially when you had a personnel to do so i'm looking at you guys had some issues the raiders man i remember al like I don't care what you guys oh Al Davis who's the owner of the Raiders his his philosophy was just win baby so he didn't really care about the off-field stuff

but this is a new age this is a new time Devontae and you guys had some issues that kind of maybe I don't know how much that impacted what you did on the field but it it can't be easy dealing with some of the things that you had to deal with yeah that wasn't football related right yeah i mean it's never it's never gonna make it easier anytime you got any type of distractions on the outside so we try to limit that and the other reality is if it's if it's player related coach related whatever it is like you want to ultimately if people can't like nobody's perfect perfect. So things are going to happen every so often. But you got to look at the type of things that's happening, obviously.

And if people don't fit that mold and they start to create too many distractions and hold the team back from, you know, realizing their full potential, then you got to do what you got to do, man. Like this, this, this thing going to keep rolling regardless. So and that's the mindset that I got to like, I got plenty of friends and I love continuing to grow bonds. And I feel like, you know, you hear about, you know, the guys like you that played and, and not any no more. I feel like the main thing I always hear is that what I miss most is that connection in that, that locker room field, you know, playing the games.

They, a lot of dudes that have played for a long time. They say, I don't miss playing. No, I'm good on that. But, but that camaraderie being together every day is, is just a, that's a whole different thing. So I'm So I got plenty of friends, like I said. So if you don't fit the mold and you don't bring the same type of attention and intention when you come in to, you know, the facility, practice, the game every single time you come out there and you out here doing this and that and you can't stay focused, well then, and that's how I would do it

if I was the coach. And like I said, it ain't a it ain't a one-shot deal and you out but if it's to a point where you are consistently and it ain't you ain't bringing enough positive and it's the wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast nfl daily with greg rosenthal five days a week you'll get all the latest news previews recaps and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee. No dumb hot takes here, just smart hot takes. We'll talk every single game, every single week, but I can't do it alone, so I'm bringing in the big guns from

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And who doesn't want that? Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bad is outweighing the good, then you serve no purpose here. It's funny that you said that. Do you feel like sometimes like the Raiders, because of the Raiders, it's kind of like if I was born a pirate, I think my job is a natural pillage and loot. And so if you get drafted to the Raiders, it's almost like I'm supposed to be a bad boy.

I'm supposed to be bad. I'm supposed to get in trouble. As long as I knock a lot of people on the field, I catch a few touchdowns. That may be. I never really thought about it like that. But like you said, you grow up in that or you get, you know, brought into that culture. The thing is, I think that that's kind of the older thing.

I don't know if that's the Raider culture as much. It's definitely that hard nose, tough, you know, you want people to fear you coming in. Right. You don't want them to fear that you're about to shoot them or rob them. You know what I'm saying? Nothing like that. So we can't be getting too out of control with it but but we try to you know definitely have that that same type of mentality

that's what he said i mean we we watch videos throughout the year you know little hype videos they put together for you week in and week out and we we get to see some of the stuff that that that jack tatum the boys was doing and al you go in the jail for that even on the field today i'm telling you john madden too them boys saying yeah we are saying, yeah, we're going to punch you in the mouth. What you going to do about it? And we want you to worry about that. We don't want you to worry about, oh, this man about to get a DUI tonight. You know what I mean?

So hopefully we can stay away from that type of stuff and just keep it about the hard nose. You said something very interesting. You said, okay, guys, you're doing things and maybe getting penalties here or there. And this is what I always tell guys okay it's called production and tolerance and as long as production is up here tolerance could be right here with it i'm telling you but tolerance is never going to get higher than production never so you got to make a choice yeah if you want if you want to be on the team as long as production and tolerance as long as production is here tolerance could be here 100 it's got to be but here. 100%. It's got to be.

But once it gets there, it's going to be tough finding a home. The other hard part about it is now these coaches talking. So they're going to say, well, you got rid of him. What was the situation? Well, he was a knucklehead. And you don't want that following you around in the league. And then people get mad and talk about, well, man, he blackballed me. Bro.

Yeah, when they bring the politics and all that into it, it's like, you being real what what did you do yeah that's what i need to know what did your ass do that led to you you know getting kicked off the team because especially the guys that's good players like three teams i'm telling you that's okay one time you're like you know what hey you know what we have disagreement he saw it one way i saw it a different way right okay that's that happened that just like a job. We can be on the job, me and the boss, me and the supervisor. We didn't get along. We buffhead.

I go somewhere, never have that problem again. But if I go somewhere, look at that job. Oh, it was the boss. I go to another place. It was the boss. I go to another job. It's the boss. The only common denominator, I got three different bosses, and I'm the only common denominator i got three different bosses and i'm the only common denominator somebody had no yeah and that's the person that when i see that and then i see in

the media that you know round three they're still on the same thing that let me know a lot of what i need to know and then i say you know i move i move accordingly from there but you make a little mental note about certain people that that you know got that following them around everywhere yeah at some point in time you got to stop being a victim in a situation you created. Correct. So, Tom Brady, would you... Brady, how old's Brady? Brady's probably...

Hell, yes. Oh, God damn! You ain't let me answer the question. You ain't let me finish the question, T. I know exactly... Hey, I knew when you said Tom Brady, I knew what you was saying. Let me see what you was saying.

Then you got to talk about O od is I don't care. I Don't care you take time in 47 48 58 right now Tom look Tom know about I feel about a man and the other part is I think I'll be the first person that play with Tom and Aaron so that it that would be pretty cool Yeah, I mean he getting older but mean, he got to still be able to throw it better than, you know, half these dudes in the league

at this point. You know, so. But you better be able to protect him because he ain't going to be able to take them hits better. And he ain't going nowhere either. He's going to sit right there

in that pocket, so you better have a nice secure little home for him in there. That's for sure. So what about these internet about you reuniting with Aaron? Is that something

you would be open to amenable to it. This had happened this off season. If a package that just offered a package big enough to satisfy the Raiders need and you be reunited with Aaron, would that have been something you'd have been open to? Well, I'll answer it like this. If I'm be reunited with anybody,

it would be Aaron, but I, or, or be, you know, relocated and be anywhere. It would be with Aaron, but that's, that Relocated and be anywhere it would be with Aaron But that's that's not really my you know There's a lot of that stuff going on last year in the media and them asking, you know

What are you gonna do about this? Are you are you thinking about going here and they talk about whatever without me even being involved in it and he ended up getting All the way to the point where it got in the locker room and people was thinking that it was you know I was with that force and I'm like y'all just don't understand man like when you and you know i hate to say it like this because it makes me sound like i'm trying to put myself on a pedestal but when you're the level a certain level of player you don't have to come from you and it most oftentimes is not coming from from you and i'm not the type of person that i enjoy going and putting that type of stuff out there.

I'm actively on the Raiders. What do I look like sitting here talking to other people about being on another team? And that's how I still feel about it right now. I'm locked in with the Raiders, and I really feel good about this team. And as far as I know, they feel good about me. And if that ever changes, if that got to a point where they weren't feeling the same way, you know, I ain't done playing. So obviously we would figure out whatever we needed to figure out.

But the thought of playing with Aaron is obviously amazing. Like, I already know what that's like, you know, which was similar to why I came here and reunited with Derek was because I had familiarity with it, you know. And anytime you have that, it gives you a little bit more confidence than starting fresh with somebody that you never played with before. And it helps that when they're the best to ever play the game, you know, or at least that's how I feel. I don't know how you feel about that, but that's certainly how I feel. Yes, he's clearly one of the best. And he's given me an opportunity to, you know, show the world what I can do and, you know, having him to start out with. I'm sure, you know, that what what I can do and and you know having him to start out with I'm sure

you know that you what we were talking about earlier about you know people say did Aaron create you or this and that no but naturally if you have a player that's a generational talent you know help elevate you exactly and you looked at the next year when I wasn't there with him it didn't look the same so if if you got a tandem anytime that you got somebody with some talent they're gonna make each other better. So I'm not afraid to say that he definitely made me better, but he definitely didn't correct me. You see, it was the same numbers the very next year in Vegas. So obviously I didn't quote unquote need him, but it makes life a hell of a lot easier.

That's for sure. makes life a hell of a lot easier, that's for sure. Given the level of player that you are, given the level of player that Aaron is, given what you had with the Smith brothers, and that team, did you guys underachieve in Green Bay? I believe so. I believe we did. I think any time you have that level and consistently can dominate the way that we did and then just find a way to not do it when you really, really need to.

I think you can you can say that I wouldn't consider it a failure. I know people would like to use that. So the way you said it, I would agree with more that way. It was definitely a underachievement because we didn't we didn't maximize it. We were the best team in football for a few years, and I truly believe that. And we weren't able to horse that trophy not even once. I didn't even get to play in the game. So, you know, anytime you can say that your personnel and the system, everything was great, and then you don't have nothing to show for it,

you know, I feel like if you're being real enough with yourself, you can comfortably say, yeah, we didn't achieve what we were supposed to. Does it keep you up at night knowing what you had you look at Jair you look at Preston and Z'Darrius you look at yourself you look at Aaron you look at what you guys had right you got had not only just like good players you got had pro bowl all pro level players all over the field for a for a good for let's just say for a good four-year period you guys had as good a talent as anybody right and for you guys not to have not even forget win the Super Bowl to even play in that game does that keep Tay awake at night knowing what could

have been what should have been it used to it definitely used to i think once i came to the raiders that's that was another reason why is that being in four or five nfc championship games in eight years and two of those years we didn't go to the playoffs so every base almost every year we went to the playoffs we went deep in the playoffs and just didn't get to the dance so you know it used to hurt me a lot that's a big reason i was like it kind of felt like that situation where you know whether it's a friend or and that's a big reason. I was like, it kind of felt like that situation where, you know, whether it's a friend or somebody, you know, a family member, whatever, you know it's bad, but you like, you know, it may not work with the next one, but it's worth at least moving on from this.

Right. You know, like winning those games, it almost made it hurt a little bit more versus just being like, I was hurt more after those Packer ones than I was, you you know last year not going because you didn't even like we didn't we didn't show that we were a team that should have been there right i mean but we after about week 10 or 11 tay you're right we're not going to the playoff yeah but in the green bay you're like hold on we got the mvp i'm an all pro we got five six seven eight pro bowlers at first round by three times and they got to come through lambo

and and got our ass whooped in by the most west coast team that it was so i don't think that the packers can ever use that uh got to come but we was practicing i'm talking about it was i think it was minus one in that game that we played in the in the playoffs yeah and i'm thinking you know and we came out firing too the first drive i think I had like like five kids. Oh, yeah, the 49 of gave that night game Yeah, I'm thinking you look either. Oh, we got this one and I'm feeling good cuz we mind you somehow For for eight years in Green Bay every single time throughout the week. It was always colder and then in the game It'd be cold as hell, but it was like it wasn't cold like during the week We have minus 20 in practice outside and people think that we just out there like just lab and just, you know, indoor or whatever.

We stretch in there, get get a little sweat, come out and hit it running. You know, it's hard when it's cold to get loose. Right. So we start aside and then when practice start right outside, we out there labbing and I'm out there in that. So come game time, I didn't got the adrenaline, the time feel, and it's not as cold as it was. So I'm flying around thinking it's going to be one of them games. And lo and behold, we come up short after being ahead the entire game once again. Now we're in the same situation and end up missing the NFC Championship game my last year.

And I think that one was essentially the straw that broke the camel's back. Did that hurt more than the Tampa loss? Because Tampa got I just knew you guys had that I put all my I served all my chips in Yeah, I showed all my chips. I say this is the year right here. I say I know Tom This is Tom's first year. Hey, they got this one man. Look I say this That I don't know which of those hurt more but I would say the one that hurt the most was my very first year. I mean, we talking about – I don't know how well you remember that one, the whole fumble onside kick.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. To them. To Seattle? We was up 15 points with basically no time left in the game. So we damn near doing this to the crowd. Y'all go home now. It's over with. We to the Super Bowl.

Because y'all got that last pick. And I'm – yeah, we got a pick in the middle of the field. And then I think Julius told Ha-Ha or Morgan to slide down. We end up giving the ball back to them. They go down. They done faked the field goal, scored it with alignment. I'm like, what is going on, bro? So then that happened.

I'm thinking, my rookie year, we all, we going to the Super Bowl. This is easy. This is how the league is And I even barely do shit this year like right with two Pro Bowlers like I came in and held my own but it wasn't no Justin Jefferson Odell Beckham, you know Jamar chase rookie year by no means I feel good about what I what I was doing and I feel like I didn't have the same pressure as those guys not being a first-rounder, but you know I feel like I was doing enough to feel good about it and then boom just yanked it

right up underneath us. So I had a real harsh introduction to the league as far as how hard it is to win in the playoffs, you know that first year and then next year we go, you know, we doing it again. I'm thinking we got it and then another time then it comes then it keeps happening later. So it just got to a point where I was like, right well maybe it's just not meant to be you know here i did i gave this place everything i got maybe it's time to try to figure it out somewhere else do you wish you had gone for it on that fourth down with matt lafleur because you guys had like you had like first and goal you had like three i think you had like three three cracks that like first to go because you got a first down like okay yeah i i

do i do and i don't it's always hard for me to say that because i don't want to make it seem like i don't trust the coach or this and that but you asking me and i do because and it i ain't on defense saying you know whatever like i got something to directly do with that and it ain't no surprise that if it was if we did it was probably coming to me right so and if you tell tell me you got opportunity to change this game right now, I've done that over the course of my career many times. So if you ask me in a moment, hey, Devontae, what should we do right now? Should we throw you this ball? You know what my answer is going to be. Yes. You know, especially at that point, we doing this, too. That was that was a great year as far as the way we were rolling Aaron and I.

this too like that was that was a great year as far as the way we were rolling Aaron and I so you know it hurt me to to not have the opportunity to be a little bit more aggressive in that moment but like I said sometimes you make decisions or decisions are made you got to live with them Josh Jacobs joins your former team and he's trying to recruit you to come back to your former team would that be something you would ever revisit would you revisit going back to green bay um i don't look i'd never say never but i i gave the the big part about this now and it's a piece that i know you understand but i don't know if most of the world out there that watches football would understand because they look at the opportunity as we're lucky to to have this not not we are blessed and we put all this work in to do it but we're lucky to have it so um for me the quality of life at this point is another piece

of it you know have it being in green bay seeing that my daughters can't go outside you know after halloween damn near because of how cold it is after labor day damn yeah she's right she's sitting here i got a picture of my daughter at like literally i think it was like november like like the fifth like it's still it ain't late late like that she's sitting there with her hand on the window just staring outside of the play structure looking like the saddest little girl in the world and i'm like this sucks man right and now it could be christmas night and they could be outside playing on the play structure out in Vegas now. So having that ability when when now I didn't play for a long time, I've given everything that I can to this game.

Being able to give something to my kids like that is another piece of it. You know, like I put being a dad over anything like I think I can play this position pretty good. But with being a dad, ain't nobody better. Wow. So I'm so I prioritize that. I think I can play this position pretty good, but being a dad, ain't nobody better. Wow. So I prioritize that. My kids being in school and all this thing, I'm not one of them dudes that, you know, if I was to get moved to another team, like, it would really hurt me to have my kids be in school in Vegas and me being in another city playing a game.

If I'm going three days somewhere, I damn near feel like I want to cry leaving leaving my kids, you know, especially having two little girls Yes, that's just the way that I'm wired I really like spending time and being around my kids and you got a newborn on the way Oh boy ain't got my boy on the way You ain't going nowhere That's why I'm saying thinking about doing all of that like like that's just a lot on my on my wife in which she you Know dropped everything she's an esthetician and wanted to pursue her career a little bit harder and to drop it for you know obviously you know it's a pretty good deal for her too she ain't losing out on too much but yeah but you know her being that unselfish and

and you know i just try to do the same for them right and also it's a lot to enjoy for me here as well how much did look there's no secret devae, you wanted the contract extension for the Packers before they was willing to give you one. You come out that great season, and they was like, okay, hey, Tay, we got these numbers for you. How much did that play a factor in you leaving? Because you felt like, bro, I've been asking y'all for two years, and now y'all wait now and

some and i'm a free age oh no that's that's basically how it went coming into that that year before you know i had that uh unanimous all pro and i you know and then the trend was basically ever since my first pro bowl it just got better so it wasn't gonna make it easier on them so i'm saying look right now you know the type of player that you're getting so what are you waiting on right and right now i'm telling you this is this was like so obviously going into the 21 season this is the offseason going into that where aaron was having his stuff in the media about whether or not he was even going to be there so i'm telling you like look right now aaron rogers future here is uncertain i'm willing if you do this now early

give me this extension like what i've earned i'm not asking for uh i'm uncertain i'm willing if you do this now early give me this extension like what i've earned i'm not asking for uh i'm not i'm not somebody no no bread i'm saying give me what i earned right just a little bit early which is not nothing that ain't new this is something that happens for you know generational players yeah you do that and and it can benefit the club too so i'm trying to tell him here and i approached the right way. I said, I won't even take into account that he may not be here. If we can do this right now, I'll be at Packer. And they said, okay, well, this is what we value right now. And they threw a number out there, and it was absolutely laughable.

So for me, I told my agent, I said, we don't even need to talk about nothing else. I'm going to be there in camp. I wasn't there in the OTA period. I showed up for mandatory mini camp. Because I ain't giving no money back. No. I ain't doing no reps now. I ain't doing no reps.

But I was there. You was holding in. I was holding in. I ain't never heard that one. I was holding in, man. And I told them, boys, I said, look, I really love this place, and I've given my all to it. So if you want me to continue to be here, you know, 10 years plus,

this is the way to do it. Let's do it now. They said that they, all right, well, this is what we see right now. And it just didn't make no sense. So I said, I'm going to go, and I'm going to be there, and I'm going to give everything that I got to this team. They're not going to notice. They ain't going to feel none of the drama and all this stuff.

They ain't going to feel none of the tension that I have towards you because y'all know y'all doing me wrong because I got to go navigate an entire season, stay healthy. And I was the 12th highest paid in the league at that point. Like you talking about dudes that's coming in that haven't even really done anything like at all yet that's getting, getting you know they're getting paid off potential so I'm sitting here like what do we think it and you could talk about like a lot of dudes don't want to play under these these tags these days it was worse

than that I had no security so I had to go get a Lloyd's of London policy to make sure just in case anything happens that that's gonna give give me something close to what my value would be correct you know so i didn't want to spend money and when you get insurance you hoping that you wasting the money yeah yeah yeah so now i didn't put more money so i'm losing more money by being here right right but i got to do whatever to protect myself because you got a wife and kids you got a family so you need that and and not to mention i'm not the type of dude that's going to go out there you know it's and i ain't gonna mention no names but there's some dudes out there that

get on that field just to be out there yeah and they ain't gonna go across that middle fearless like how i do i'm going across opening up doing what i gotta do to make the play like like i like i got security which i don't and you they sleep real good at night they never gonna have to worry about a davante got in some trouble never not. I mean, nose clean the whole time. And, like, nothing even came up. I got one thing that's happened, and it was the cameraman little fluke situation in Kansas City. Which I think everybody came to realize was I'm not the big bad wolf the way that they thought. They'd be like, oh, there it is.

His ass, yeah, he a bad dude, yeah. dude yeah and then they realized okay we was tripping yeah we were you know we you know whatever you want to say about it but i did everything that i that i could for that organization to where i felt like i was deserving of something to to make it happen to where we could you know make it work and ultimately got to a point where i said look i i'm gonna go and see what the market's talking about and they tagged me and i just said that's's not going to work for me. And, you know, we ended up, you know, working together and figured it out. And here we are now. Quick math, the less your business spends on operations, multiple systems and delivering your product or service, the more margin you have and the more money you keep. But with higher expenses on materials,

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the move, so do the math and see how you'll profit with NetSuite. By popular demand, NetSuite has extended its one-of-a-kind flexible financing program for a few more weeks. Head to netsuite.com slash SheaShea. This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two is also posted and you can access it to whichever podcast platform you just listened to part one on. Just simply go back to Club SheaShea profile and I'll see you there. Wake up with football every You just listen to part one on. Just simply go back to Club Che Che profile, and I'll see you there. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every

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