Games with Names - 2014 NFC Championship with Michael Bennett | Packers vs. Seahawks

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Michael Bennett is in studio! The Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champ is with us to relive the wild 2014 NFC Championship between the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks. Michael joins us on the couch (0:49). We go back to January of 2015 (29:21). We get into these rosters (47:44). We dive into the game (1:25:14). We score the game (1:49:43). We wrap it up by hitting the ol hotline (1:52:24). Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the Scopes Monkey Trial to O.J. Simpson, trials have always made us reflect on the world we live in. I'm Mira Hayward, and my podcast, History on Trial, will explore fascinating trials from American history. Join me in revealing the true story behind the headlines, and discover how the legal battles of the past have shaped our present. Listen and subscribe to History on Trial, now on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Immediately after that game in locker room. It was shock. Why did we not run it? Yeah, I think that was what everybody was thinking.

Oh, was that everyone's mind? Yeah, I think Pete still thinks that. I think that's one of the, he would probably never say that, but I bet in his head a little bit that like, he wonders if what would happen if he just ran the ball, right, I think that's one of, he would probably never say that, but I bet in his head a little bit that like, he wonders if what would happen if he just ran the ball, right?

I think, yeah. Well, most likely could did two quarterback sneaks. Yeah. Sorry that I'm thankful that they ran. Welcome to Games with Names. I'm Julian Edelman, they're Jack and Kyler, and we are on a mission to find the greatest game of all time.

And on today's episode, the 2014 NFC Championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks with 11-year NFL vet, Super Bowl champion, three-time Pro Bowler, and former teammate Michael Bennett. We get into talking the story behind his pads, or lack thereof. My shoulder pads are super small. I enjoyed it though, you know, everybody would be like, how'd you even, every game they'd be like,

huh, like, I don't care, I'm about to knock somebody out though. His fight with Rob Gronkowski in the Super Bowl. I don't know, I'm just like, man, they won. You know what I'm saying? Like, let's fight, you know what I'm saying? And what it's like to play for Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick.

In Seattle, they never really called out, like, wrestling certain things, but like, but Bill will call Tom out on everything. How's a guy who's been to MVP four times go this route right here? And you're just back there like, dang, going off on Tom Brady right now. And then we hit the old hotline.

You got to stick around to the very end. Let's go. Games with names is a production of iHeartRadio. January 18, 2015, Century League Field, Seattle, Washington. The back to back Super Bowl is on the line. Russell Wilson throws a pick down, two scores with five minutes left. The Packers have a 99.3% probability to win. So you're telling me there's a chance? There's always a chance.

This is the 2014 NFC Championship game. Yeah. Yeah. My dog. It's so hard to explain a football, American football game to someone who's never seen it, like international. Yeah.

Cause I have a couple of people that, you know, you have these international friends you meet and they're like, oh Oh football, what is that? You know, like, Oh, you guys stop every play. I'm like, yeah, it's very strategic. You gotta get 10 yards and four tries. Yeah. The ball exchange when kicking is always confusing to them.

Why are you doing this? They don't understand nothing. You try to get them. It has grown though. Well, I get confused with rugby too, cause I don't understand it. I'm like, but why would you want to get hit like that? How much are they paying? Like that doesn't make any sense. Don't they make money in other countries, though?

Who rugby rugby? Like Australia? Yeah, they got to make money. You always like looking at the four of yourselves like, what's my wife? I should have been a race car driver. I don't know if you could fit in a race car. No, but I've been a first, you know, they would have to make it for me because everything's changing.

You got to make everything for everybody. I could sue them because they don't have the right size car for my body. It could be a whole thing. It's a weight thing. I can force my way into that. It's a weight thing though. You should sue NASCAR. Yeah, just doing DEI.

I could just do it. I could literally just DEI my way right to the top. I could come in last and just be like, but this for tall people. I'm the first tall person to come in last place in NASCAR. Like I'm in the history books. Freaking the Bennets. I mean, this is the kind of shit that Marty was saying offensive team meeting when we're about to go like the AFC championship.

Marty would be like, have a random thought. Just like that. So it's it's hereditary. Yeah, it's hereditary. I was just like, yeah, I should have been NASCAR. Like looking at Lewis Hamilton, like, man, 85 a year. That's that sounds pretty good. Well, that's not NASCAR.

I'm saying Formula One. Yeah. Those guys make a lot. All right, let's get it started. Welcome to Games with Names. Today, we are talking the 2014 NFC Championship between the Packers and the Seattle Seahawks. Welcome to the studio, Michael Bennett. Well, nice to be here, man. This is a nice studio, though. I don't think people realize

how nice it actually is. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it is. It's like, you're surrounded by wood right now. It feels very warm. You know, if that comes from you, a man who's in architectural digest school, he's got furniture companies. I mean, that means I'm doing something right.

No, you're doing something right. I've been to a lot of athlete's houses, and sometimes I'm like, just because you got money don't mean you got taste. You know? Well, take it. Well, the Nuthouses got taste. That's right, baby. They definitely got taste. All right.

So in one sentence, why did you pick this game? I would say maybe one word, grit. I think it was a gritty game because sometimes in, as you know, those championship games, like when you guys played the Falcons, it was like, the only way you can win that game is true grit, because it takes everything. A lot of times people get into those moments where the game just seems very impossible and you're just kind of looking around at your teammates and looking at who's going to give up, you know what I mean? And every once in a while you look around and you're like, damn, nobody's giving up.

And then that becomes the most grittiest moments in the game. Those are the games that you really remember. Great. That's probably one of the best one sentence answers that we've gotten on this. Hands down. That's a football freaking answer. Now is this the greatest game of all time?

Nah, not the greatest game of all time. Maybe my greatest game of all time, but there's been so many great, I don't think there is one great greatest game of football because I feel like football is constantly changing and things like at one point the people who would make the Hall of Fame in the 1960s wouldn't make the team now. You know what I'm saying? Like the game is changing and evolving and there's just more beautiful moments that keep

happening. Sometimes it's purely offense and then it's purely defense. It feels like more football is like... These years is more offense than it is defense. There's so many great games. You look at Patrick Mahomes last year, every game changes and I think it just happens. I don't know. There's no one great game of football

because the game of football is just great by itself. Another great answer. But I did hear one thing last 10 years, eight of the Super Bowl champions had top five defenses. Wow. That's important. I think people overlook defense. Hey, defense wins championship.

That's right, baby. Yeah, offense score points, but you gotta have somebody to stop it, you know? You gotta make one stop. Yeah, what's the point of having a big pool with a big ass leak? What's the point of having a big pool with a big ass leak?

You jump in that bitch and bust your head wide open. Like there was no water there. It's like blood sport. We can make it a fighting thing now. Remember that? Blood sport. Oh, I love that movie. They be fighting in the pools that are half done.

And kick boxing when he was kicking that tree. Yeah. I saw some chick doing that. I think she was from Russia or something. Those Russians are crazy. Man, people don't really give Joe Clever down his- His props. His props, like, all these action movie stars.

This guy was doing his own action movie. This guy was a, like, every movie back in the 1980s and early 1990s, you know, you're watching movies with him. Time Cop, I love Time Cop. Double Impact. Man, Double Impact. Lionheart. Lionheart.

Oh, and then the one where he was going on that trip and he was fighting and then he had the, he stole a guy's name in New York in like 1919 or something. Is that Timecop? No, no, it's not Timecop. It's the one where they were like, I can't even think of the name of right now. I'm gonna have to text you about it.

That's not Double Impact. No, it's the one where they were, there was a championship, they had to name of right now. I'm not the texture. That's not double impact is the one where they were. There was a championship. They had to win that thing, that championship. And he got he stole something. They left him in Thailand and he learned how to fight. That kickboxer? No, it's not kickboxer. Same premise, though.

I guess they all are. I think they were all my favorite movie by him was Cyborg, though. I liked Universal Soldier. I forgot about Universal Soldier. Yeah, yeah. He's like we need to give him some given his props. I liked Universal Soldier too. Oh man, I forgot about Universal Soldier. Yeah. That was the- Yeah, he's like, we need to give him some, give him his props, right?

Cause like- Flexible, freaking yoked. Yeah. He could do all the, there was every one of those movies had at least a 10, 15 minute montage of him doing some kind of like split, freaking like Kung Fu type, like leisureful. I don't even know what it's called, but that

crazy stuff. Put some respect on it. You don't even watch it for the language or the talking or the script. You just like, he whooping they ass, ain't he? In the face. And then the double kick where he like, do, kick two people at one time, he jumps at the- In the split kick? Yeah, that one, that one.

I mean, he did it in like at least six of them. Loved it. That move, yeah. He should have been in UFC. I don't know. Those guys will choke him out. No, but the other guy was like him too though, but people forgot about that guy too, the guy from Canada.

St. Pierre? Yeah, remember him? Yeah, he was a monster. He was a monster, but he didn't... Unfortunately, he didn't catch being part of the time where money was a big part of it. No, it was still new. It was a monster. He was a monster, but he didn't, unfortunately he didn't catch being part of the time where money was like a big part of it. No, it was still new. It was still new. Like, Conor McGregor, like, he made so much money because like the time-

He's a huge thing that catapulted the UFC though. He was like one of the first real big superstars of it. That's true. We had Dana come on and talk about it and he was loving that up. I mean, I know they have their things, but like he's very appreciative of Conor because of his world success. So clearly nowadays, your daily life schedule is watching a lot of fighting. You're a big fighting fan?

What does today look like now that you are retired? Average day? Average day. What are you doing these days? Average day I wake up, make myself a barista coffee myself, get my own coffee machine, get my own beans. What's the coffee? I like this one. I got my own coffee machine. Get my own beans. What's the coffee? I like this one.

I got this one from Columbia. I was just in Columbia for- Is it an espresso or is it a coffee? I do espresso sometimes, most of the time, but then I do make my own. I like flat white, so I make my own flat white, but I have to get the machine- A froth. Yeah, dude. The frothing shit is hard, though, bro.

It is. It's a mastery. I actually have a lot of respect for Starbucks every time I go there now. At first, I used to be like, damn, hurry up with the coffee, man. I got some shit to do. You know what I mean? But then I'm like, hey man, calm down. The shit they doing is very hard.

I tried it at home. I'm empathetic to Starbucks at 5 a.m. That little tree they make is not easy. The little tree thing they make with the milk is not easy. That's art. And you got to spell the name right? Come on, man. That's's art. And you got to spell the name right. Come on man.

That's some art, you know, but I wake up, make myself a coffee, take the kids to school, jump into meetings because I'm designing so much stuff. So it's like, I'm always like meeting manufacturer and the team and like, you know, contractors just designing really kind of mostly what the day is. Studio Kerr? Can you explain what a Studio Kerr is?? Studio cur is like, I guess it's a moniker of the studio name that I use for my design practice, which is, it means home in Wolof, Senegalese language. When I retired, I went to interior design school and architecture school and then I just started designing after that. My brother always said I had great taste, so he was like, it was super easy to go into design. But I always didn't want to just go into the design from a sense

of this highness level where it's just like, I've made some money and I'm just going to not do it the proper way. I think because I went to football, it was like going to school with collegiate kids. I mean, the first time I went to school, that first time was all about going to NFL. It was like, what? No, I'm running a sprint. Yeah. But this new time was the second time I went was really about learning. It was learning. It was like it was very good. But it was like, I was like, damn, I don't know how to use a computer. I was in that bitch like, like, I didn't know the computer could do all this.

You know what I mean? Like, I'm just straight up like email and looking at WorldStar. And then, you know, I'm 100 percent the same boat. Like now that we, you know, we've made this production company, we got all these Google docs and we have, you know, the workplace. I'm like becoming a little bit of, you know, I.T. guy. How many Google docs have you actually opened? I open them every week. You open every Google because we do.

We do the Google docs for Fox kickoff. Yes, several. You forgot you got seven jobs. So, you know, this guy has like seven jobs. Seriously. But I like everything on the Google doc because for Fox Kickoff. He has several. You forgot he got seven jobs though. This guy has like seven jobs. Seriously. But I like everything on the Google Doc because everyone can throw it in there. No, it's you learning. And I think the thing I learned about in design school is just to have humility, right? I think to start over to transition to something else, you got to be able to be okay with not

knowing anything and be okay with being coached. And I think having those skills from football actually made going into architecture school a lot easier because I know that my wife was like, why are you up at four o'clock in the morning doing a project right now? I'm like, but I'm doing it. I wanna do it from the traditional hard way of learning.

But being in football, I kind of learned all those things. Precision, teamwork, collaboration, like work ethic, all these things that you want to find as an athlete to put into somewhere else. It becomes very difficult sometimes because a lot of people don't know where to put that skill at. But there's a lot of things you could do that don't require you to go get hit anymore, that you could take these skills and apply them to something else and become really good at certain things. The things that, if you were a guy that was in the league

for a consistent amount of time, those skills can be applicable to anything. Like what kept you in the NFL, what got you to the NFL, if you treat anything like it was the NFL and you had a longer career, you could apply those to anything, it'll translate. And I, you know, you have three daughters, they're here right now, they're beautiful,

and they're looking at schools. And I'm so, I so try to bring that into my fathering with my child with what you just said. You learned how to learn through sport. Because that was your passion. I try to tell that to my daughter, you know, like right now, when you're doing soccer, you're learning how to learn.

Ooh, learning how to learn. You're learning, cause you're learning communication when you have to lean on a teammate. You're learning the accountability factor of when you didn't put your practice in and you did something wrong and you're gonna feel embarrassed around your teammates because they're doing the right thing.

You learn all these real life moments in team sports. And I love that you say that I'm going to have Lilly watch this specific part, and there's no F-Bombs yet. So we're good. No, it's true, because I tell my kids all the same thing. I think in the NFL, what they say, the tape don't lie on Monday. It's going to be revealed if you were supposed to be in the B-Gap and you were on Sunday, you're like, I wasn't in the B-Gap, boy, but you're in your head.

You know you wasn't in the B-Gap. You were not in the B-Gap. Yeah. And when the coach was like, but they just ran a power in the B-Gap. You're like, but I was there. You argue it in reality. You're like, I wasn't in the fucking B-Gap. And so it's like being accountable.

Why this guy don't lie? No, it don't. the fucking B gap. You know? And so it's like being accountable. I'm this guy, don't lie. No, it don't. And so results don't lie. So like having your kids understand what sport is for, like it isn't so much about the championships or, it's just about, I mean, of course in the NFL, but at that level is really about learning how to learn, how to learn.

And then- Or how to be a teammate. Respect and loss so much that you respect winning. You know what I'm saying? Like what is losing feels like? And then when you win, you like, what does that feel like? You respect losing so you can understand winning. You know what I'm saying? I think that becomes very complicated for kids sometimes because, you know, it's like, well, it's always like, nah, it's about the process. You know, everybody always get caught up in the finished product. And we

live in a generation where everything is microwavable. And it's like, we always see the finished thing of everybody. We look at Kim Kardashian, but we missed them years when she didn't have that. You know what I'm saying? Nobody remember that part. We just remember the finished product. We missed the years she went to law school. We missed the years that she really goddamn smart or goddamn, she grinded her. But that's what I'm saying.

It's so much about we miss, we live in a generation where Instagram and Facebook, they only give us the finished product of things. And we miss the phases that people go through. And I think that's important for children to learn through teams. It was like, you're not going to win. But like I said, that's why I said the word grit, because you find out who grew up in the gritty situations. I remember Coach Carroll brought Angela Duckworth to the team and she wrote a book called Grit.

And I remember, I was like, man, what do white people know about grit? But then she taught me something. You know what I'm saying? But it was good though. Michael is Marty and Marty is Michael, bro. Go ahead, keep going. But it's true. It's like, you got to have grit to survive, right?

Because it's like- Only the strong do. And it gets more complicated the more wealth you achieve and how do you teach people that have to have empathy, to have understanding about other people's experiences, to respect the journey of others is really, really hard. So your daddy's right, literally. Practice. Practice. Practice. Now, talking about your team,

you came from a household of six. Your family was military family. You're moving around a bunch. What was that like? What was growing up in the Bennett household like? Man, growing up in the Bennett household was very fun. Me and my brother are very close. My parents got divorced and my dad got remarried.

And then we went separate ways. But then we also kind of always got together as a family. Like my brother and my other sister live with my mom. And then me and my brother live with my dad. And then my dad and his new wife had a baby. And also it was like a blended family. So I feel like America is kind of like this, like traditional families. It's just kind of blended, right? And I think we grew up really between Texas and Louisiana was like the main place, but like growing

up in California, living in San Diego, living in Bremerton, traveling around, been in the military. I feel like I was born to go to NFL because I feel like that's kind of like how things are in the NFL. Like you were lucky, you were on one team for a long period of time and a lot of guys got to move around a lot. But you earned that though, I'm not saying you were given to you, but you earned that way to be on one team. A lot of times you get moved around, but I think as a kid, seeing my dad in the military,

my stepmom was a teacher and which that was really great because I got to see how school systems work. But it was a very traditional family. We had dinner, everything, but it was a sports family. Me and my brother, we just played everything together. We shared a room. We did play college football together, high school football together. The only time we didn't play together was in the NFL. We did have a chance though when I was coming out to go to Chicago, but then my brother was like, you know what, stay in Seattle, because that's your thing, you know what I mean? And plus once I called and they said Julius Peppers was leaving, I was like, I thought I'm good. I thought JP was going to

be there, so I was like, I always want to play with Julius Peppers, and he was leaving. But growing up and just moving around kind of like, and being from Louisiana and growing up in Texas, they're very close. I got a lot of times spending during the school year in Texas, then going home to the countryside of Louisiana during the summer times. I learned so much. I think that was where we played football. We wanted to be Alvin Harper. We wanted to be everybody, the Cowboys.

I grew up, my favorite team was the Tampa Bay, so I was like, Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay. Why? I just love defense. I love Warren Sapp, Rondae Barber, everybody, John Lynch. Brooks. Shelton, Derrick Brooks. Winfield. Winfield.

Barber. Yeah, Barber, Greg Spires. Like this has had tons of people. Mike Ocelot. Mike Ocelot, he shot John said like, you know, everybody John Gruden, you know what I mean? Yeah. Before John Gruden got hit with the racist thing, but you know, hey, you know, you can't kid, hey, you know, you never said anything to me, but you know, but, but I just loved, loved the Tampa Bay.

It was a defense, you know, so it was like seeing all of those guys, Rush the passer, Warren Sapp and just everybody, Booger McFarland, like those my team. So I just run Tampa too, all the time. Tampa too, Tampa too. And Madden. Madden, that's all I ever did with Rondé Barber. Then Blitz, Rondé Barber. Yeah. I think everyone, what years were those? 99, 98, 2000. I think Mark Dunn was on the cover, wasn't he?

Yeah. I believe, yeah. Shout out Monty Kiffin, Tampa too, baby. Monty Kiffin, oh yeah. Monty Kiffin was the innovator. That defensive tree though, like sometimes when I play for Tampa Bay, like when I used to go up there and look at that tree, I'd be like, dang. Who?

Tony Dungey, Raheem Morris. He was head coach then. Yeah. He was head coach then. Tree though, like sometimes when I play for Tampa Bay, like when I used to go up there and look at that tree, be like, dang. Who? Tony Dungy, Raheem Morris. He was head coach there for a second. Yeah, he's a head coach, but he's also like-

Like 22 years old too. He was also a part of like the younger tree, you know, like looking back when they just had all the extra coaches, like you, and then knew they had Mike Tomlin, they had, they had, who else they had? They had so many coaches on that team. But it was just crazy when you just go up there and see Herm Edwards, it's just like a lot of great people

on that team that were coaches and you like look back and like, not only did they have a hall of fame staff, have a hall of fame players, but they also had hall of fame staff and coaches, like all those guys became head coaches and made their own impact in the game. Mike Thomas has been coaching the same team. Same team, you know. And lost.

And had a losing season. Yeah. Been pretty impressive with no offense this year. Yeah. It's been crazy. Are you still watching ball? Man, come on. I love football.

I watch football. I watch it on YouTube though. Yeah, just the highlights? I watch the 10, I gotta get the 12 minutes. The 12 minutes? Yeah, get the 12 minutes of it in. It's like, you know what I mean? The two hours, three hours of watching one game,

I don't know if I have, sometimes I'll do it if it's a really key game. That was my first thought when you were living in Hawaii. I was like, how do you watch ball? I watch it later on. But that time difference. I get to go to the beach and do all the earthly things, and then I come back and be like, yeah, well.

How is it living in Hawaii, bro? Oh, I love it, man. That's gotta be amazing. It's super, it's a, I think while I was playing in NFL, it made a lot of sense to like, you know how the season is kind of hectic and it's just like- Reboot. Yeah, it's like a reboot.

And then sometimes you go back, you like, how did you even do that? Like, how did you even like, it felt like just like a whirlwind when we think about it. Like you really just getting up to get beat up again, then to get beat up like, it felt like just like a whirlwind when we think about it, like, you really just getting up to get beat up again, then to get beat up again, then to do it again. Like, you go back, you're like, that was kind of amazing, like, for us to like go through

all that. But like, being in Hawaii after a season would always be grounding with my family. And like, and then like living there just made a lot of sense after. I just stayed there really, because it's just a beautiful place. It's beautiful people. People are really nice to everybody. It's a very family oriented type of place. The Hawaiian culture is so fascinating to me.

I mean, I grew up in the Bay, so we grew up around a lot of Pacific Islanders like Tong and Samoa and Hawaiian. I went to San Mateo, so there was always the Hawaiians that came over. And I never got to experience it till about two years ago. That was the first time I ever went to Hawaii.

And I was like, man, people are so nice. Their culture, they're very traditional with a lot of like their old, old like hundreds and thousands a year generation, like culture traditions are still intact and stuff. And they're warm people. Yeah, they are. The most loving, coolest people don't know if they're on a different football team, they'll

rip your head off. Yeah, they'll rip your head off. But if you're their boy, they love you. They love you. They love you. That's what I like about it too, is like, it's always that thing that's always really complicated when it comes to culture. Because how do you take culture and also fast forward to make it modern?

And I think sometimes like you find ways that Hawaii does a good job of being able to play homage to the past, but also live in the present and kind of talk about the future with the island, what kind of feel like. So I think when you think about the politics of all that, it's super hard to keep a culture intact over years and years and years and generations, right? And I think that's what makes Hawaii really cool because they do that, you know, and all the little things and nature,

the trees and learning certain Hawaiian words. Similar to New Zealand, New Zealand is like that too. When you go to New Zealand, it's kind of like the market culture and like, you know, they kind of keep it. In Morocco too, like you're in Morocco and you're like, well, I guess a lot of good places that really have culture like that.

You think about it, the Moroccan tea though, I used to love Moroccan tea until I realized it was just sugar. I was like, God damn, three cubes of sugar for one? I never had it. Four ounces of sugar? Tea? That's a lot. Is this like sweet tea?

It's beyond sweet tea. It's beyond sweet tea. Moroccan tea, we're going to check it out. Yeah, like the guy smiles at you and you're like, whoa, he has no teeth. Like sweet tea? It's beyond sweet tea. It's beyond sweet tea. It's- Moroccan tea. We're gonna check it out. Yeah, like the guy smiles at you and you're like, whoa, he has no teeth. It's probably because he's drinking. He says, more sugar?

You're like, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, league? Man, that was super hard though,

cause it's like being on drafted, it's just like, it's the hardest thing. Cause you just like, you get the last rep. It's like everybody eating, they'd be like, what's left over? You'd be like, damn man, a little crumbs there, huh? Yeah, like y'all just left the tail of the chicken wing. So it's like, it was just really complicated

because it's one of those things where you have to really go as hard as you can every single practice. Every single practice is a championship game for you. Every single moment to the point where people have to tell you to slow down. You know what I'm saying? Like, nah, I see rookies in there

and they're kind of like, you know, real lackadaisical and real cool. Back then it was like, nah, I was like, you had to get it how you live. And it was like out the mud. So being a draft that it just had to switch my mindset to realize that every single moment counted, every single play would count, every single thing that I would study. It couldn't be one of those things where I would go into the game not being fully prepared.

It was like, man, at practice I had to watch film. I think that made me a better player as I got older because it was like, man, at practice I had to watch film. I think that made me a better player as I got older because it was like I took those same ideas and they just became a part of my identity as a player. Your habits. Yeah. So that's really what it comes down to. And drafted is just you have to make your mind up to like, or being even, you know, being a six or seven round is pretty much the same thing.

I was right there with you, Bub. Yeah, six or seven round is kind of, you get a bigger bonus, but you don't have, the opportunities are the same. The opportunities are the same and it's almost worse to go on the sixth or seventh because you're locked down for four years. When you're a free agent, you only have two. Yeah, that's true. So like, it's cool to get a $49,000 check,

which whatever, it was a lot of money to me at that time, but it's the same, you know That's a vacation for some people. I thought I was rich after that. I did too. I got 49 racks Did spend a dollar of it? I said I'm keeping this in my bank account I mean you feel like a different person like a different person But I think that's the really challenging part of the game, but I kind of I missed that old NFL I mean, I don't miss the concussions that everybody got, but I do miss like the practices and like the amount of

contact, like, you know, just out there just really playing. I mean, that's, we all, anyone who played that game, we all have a little something missing. And you know, to crave contact, you know, that's, I used to, I mean, that's something you always missed, just competing against another guy when you're at your best and he's at his best. Yeah, you didn't shy away from that. I remember going against Walter Jones and my hip still hurt from Walter Jones and he

pushed me in my hip bone time. I was like, damn Walt, but Walt was a Hall of Famer, but it was so good to go up against Walt and learn. Or being in my first years in Tampa where we had Jeremy Trueblood, Daven, Karl Nicks, Donald Penn, Jeremy Zutah, that was the office of line. So every single day in practice, I was like, man, I was like, I'm going to get my reps because it made me such a better player like going against Karl Nicks.

Karl Nicks was like the best guard. If he never would have had a toe surgery, he would have been the first battle Hall of Famer. So going against those guys every single day Nicks was like the best guard. If he never would have had a toe surgery, he would have been the first battle of Hall of Famer. And so going against those guys every single day would just make me a better player. But I enjoyed that. You had guys that would like hide against the best players. I don't want to go against Carl. I don't want to go against- You know what I mean? Without a doubt. They want to look good. But even a loss against Carl was almost a win. Because when you start

winning, you're like, I'm ready. You know what I mean? I'm Jeff Fane and all those guys, like it was kind of like dope to go against those guys when I was there. That's the battle within the battle. Like what he's talking about right now, the wins in practice, you count those when you're a late round guy or you're an undrafted guy, you count every play you had. Was it a win or was it a loss? Because that's exactly what the goddamn coaches are doing. So it's life or death.

It literally is life or death. It's life or death. Every freaking rep you got, and you have to control your emotion because there's only three reps every week maybe that you might get. And similar to you, I had to do the same thing where it was like, I had to learn more skills.

You know what I'm saying? So I had to learn how to play inside, I had to learn how to play nose, I had to learn how to play nose, I had to learn how to play whatever they wanted me to play. You had the versatility. So I'm actually thankful for that because they gave me a longer career, right? Because you have to learn how to do all those things. You have to be a good blocker.

You can't be the, you know what I'm saying? You can't come in and be like, I'm not going to be good on blocking. I'm going to be good only on sled routes. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, you got to learn all those skills to become a better player. And I think that was something that really helped me kind of grow as an NFL player talent. When was the moment you felt like you made it?

Like when did you feel comfortable? Cause I know the first few years, I lived that for five years, right? I thought I was getting cut every year. I thought I was getting cut every year too. I feel like the first time I actually felt like second year in Seattle, I feel like the first time I actually felt like second year in Seattle, I feel like every year before that, I just had like maniacs attitude, like, man, I'm

getting cut. You know what I'm saying? Even though I was out there starting, like I was a first year on Tinder, like, you know what I'm saying? And like, I was still like making plays, but I still was always like, man, I was undrafted. Why would they keep me? Insecurity. And then they also drafted people every year. Every year trying to replace you for cheaper. And you beat them out every year. You know what I'm saying?

You're like, dang. But I guess when I got to Seattle, I felt like I kind of belonged a little bit. I feel like that was the first time I... My time in Tampa was really good because I feel like if my defense in line would have stayed together and didn't get helped, didn't get hurt like Gerald and Adrian Claiborne, and we stayed together for longer, we probably would have did what we was supposed to do. Cause we had a really good team in Tampa. Like we had Akib to lead,

we had Kelle Winslow before, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Akib's a good teammate. Akib's the best teammate. Akib is the best teammate. Nice and neat. We had a lot of good people on that team and so we didn't win.

But being in Seattle, there was a lot of like-minded people. When I got there, I was like, man, the team, we're just Joe. We all had the same attitude. Yeah. I mean, it was apparent. We'll dive in more to the team, but let's get let's get into this segment. We'll be right back after this quick break. Hey, hey, hey, it's Rob Gronkowski here and I'm with my bro

or my dude Jules. And we are super excited to tell you about our new show Dudes on Dudes. We're just regular dudes as well. Sometimes we can't read. Sometimes we can't speak properly. But that's what dudes do. But Dudes on Dudes, seriously, who named this? Anyways, we're spilling all the behind-the-scenes stories,

crazy details, and honestly, just having a blast talking football. Every week, we're discussing our favorite players of all times, from legends to our buddies, to current stars. And the best part, we're finally answering the age old question, what kind of dudes are these dudes? Is Travis Kelce a stud or a freak?

Is Tom Brady a dog or a dude's dude? We're gonna find out. Every episode drops every Thursday during the NFL season. Those are some good questions right there, Julian. We're going to find out soon and watch us on YouTube. Listen wherever you listen to podcasts. And of course, follow us all over social media. So hit that subscribe button.

Follow us everywhere and join the dude party. You don't want to miss this. Dudes on dudes. Let's go. Whoa, whoa, everywhere, and join the dude party. You don't want to miss this. Dudes on dudes, let's go! In July 1881, a man walked into a train station, pulled out a gun, and shot the President of the United States. James Garfield's assassination horrified the American people, and they wanted his killer, Charles Gatot, punished. But Gatot, many experts believed, was insane.

What had seemed like a black and white case was now much grayer. Could the justice system truly deliver justice in a situation like this? Gatot's trial was extraordinary, but not unique. Important trials have always raised questions and made us reflect on the world we live in. I'm Mira Hayward, and I'm exploring the stories of these trials in my new podcast, History on Trial. Every episode will cover a different trial from American history and reveal how the legal battles of the past have shaped our present.

Listen and subscribe to History on Trial, now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Now this is a segment we go back in time when the game took place. This game took place January 18th, 2015. Always messes up because it was a 2014 season, but it's a playoff game. So it's in 2015.

That's right. Number one movie, American Sniper. Did you ever see it? Of course. That was a good one. Sad at the end. Sad at the end. I wasn't expecting that.

I wouldn't. I don't think anyone was. That was badass though. Yeah. But how badass was the other guy too doing it in like Nikes? Yeah. You know what's so crazy though? Cause everybody always gives the sniper, people always give the snipers the credit, but I How badass was the other guy too, doing it in like Nikes? Yeah. You know what's so crazy though?

Cause everybody always gives the sniper, people always give the snipers the credit, but I always think that the guy, the spotter is the most deadliest person. Cause he can see him? No, because the spotter really talks another guy into killing somebody. The spotter. Who's your spotter guy? That should be the friend. I'm just saying like, I'm just saying the spotter guy's like, hey, he's right there

on the friend. I'm just saying like, I'm just saying the spotter guy's like, hey, he's right there on the 45. If you want to pull the trigger now, you can or you could do it at 32 degrees to the left and you blow his brains out this way. It'd be a lot of blood on the ground, but you know, like, hey, no blood on my hands. I didn't pull the trigger. Like the spotter is pretty dangerous if you think about it. He just facts. He just calling.

Seriously. He's just calling the shots. He's calling the shots. Literally. Hey, Jack's your spotter. I got you, bro. Keep an eye out here. Yeah's calling the shots, Larry. Literally. Hey, Jax, you're a spider. I got you, bro. I went a little bit over here. Let it fly.

Man, that movie was crazy. The number one song was Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars, featuring Mark Ronson. Ronson. Ronson. That was a good song, though. He was like all over this, the Grammys this year and stuff. Oh man, this was the year bro.

This was the year for music that year. That was a fun year. You went to the Grammys that year. I went to the Grammys. Yeah, I remember him performing it I think. He performed it at that. Huh? That was a flex.

That was a little light flex. Him and Malcolm Butler throwing up the rock. Oh yeah, damn that hurt more now. Sorry. Still too soon. Still too soon. Sorry bro. I'm not even talking about the macklemore throwing up the rock. Oh yeah, damn that hurt more now. I just caught on. Still too soon. Sorry bro. Oh that dude's running the ball.

No, but True Detective, I love that show. Oh my God. Was this the best one? Yeah. I don't know. What's your favorite season? I've only seen this one. The third one's not bad. The third one's not bad.

The third one's not bad. Yeah, that one's not bad. The first one was the best because it was more- By far. Yeah. The last one was not bad, but it kind of like, they almost made it too spooky for us. Oh, the Jodie Foster one? I still haven't watched it yet.

Yeah, it wasn't bad, but- I need to get in there. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrison, that's how, anytime those two people are anywhere, that sounds like a good time. Oh my God. Who's going to be there? Matthew McConaughey and Woody? Oh, y'all be there. You know, like that makes you want to be there? Matthew McConaughey and Woody? Oh, y'all be there.

You know, like that's what makes you want to go. I think they're brothers. Really? There's like lore, yeah. There's lore that they're brothers. If you look at it- There's some shady dad happening around there that they conferred that maybe there's some stuff going on.

I think they could be brothers. Wow. You ever see Woody in Hawaii? No. I think he lives in Maui though. Oh, okay, that's right, Maui, my bad. So this was also, when this movie came out or this show, this was like the first big show where like movie actors

I felt were going to end doing the HBO shows that were like movie actors. I'm like, what, they're doing a TV show? I don't remember any other time before this where you saw that. It's not the first, but it's definitely early. It was early stage. And McConaughey won Oscar and Emmy same year.

Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, and then the, the, the, Kari was in there, and Cory Fujimura. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like his camera angles that one scene where they went into the trap house and it was like running through, and that camera was like on his back and it was like that, it was like, he was catching everything that was happening. And then like, it was like fast forward and back, and it was like that, it was like, you was catching everything that was happening, and then it was fast forward and time forward,

and it was just very incredible. The integrity of the art. The art is crazy, bro, if you think about that. The integrity of the art. I'm gonna write a book about you, the integrity of the art. Post Malone drops White Iverson on SoundCloud. That was a pregame.

That changed White America. That changed White America. That changed White America. That was like post-mortem. But he changed though, like now he's like, he's like a ghetto country music star. Full country now. He's hit a whole lot of different ranges. But he has no tattoos right there.

He's like literally like- Crazy, bro. Crazy, like he's like, he's a country music, but White Iverson, he changed that. That changed White America. What about Eminem? Nah, Eminem, it was like that. That changed White America. Like that was- What about Eminem? Nah, Eminem, it was like a different type of White America.

He was still like dirty shoes, White America. Like this is like clean Air Force Ones, like throw a little chain on and stuff like that. Yeah, like that was like, nah, it's cool, bro. He changed it. He changed it, man. Shout out Posty. What was on your pregame mix?

Pregame mix? Lil Boosie. Lil Boosie? Yeah. That's it? Lil Boosie. Lil Boosie? Yeah. That's it? Lil Boosie, Jay-Z, Rick Ross. That always makes me laugh though, cause like, white America, like, you be in the stadium and they be playing those songs and you just be like, I don't think they know what that

actually means. Like, I remember like being in Texas A&M and they would be playing Rick Ross, Push It To the Limit. And I'd be like, do y'all know he's talking about cocaine right now? You know, like, it's like, push it to the limit, yeah! Put this on Jock Kid, baby. And they're like, this is- Jock Kid.

Yeah, they're playing this and their kids go home like, daddy, did you hear about this? Push it to the limit. They're like, what is this? But it's so funny because they play it in the stadium and the music be so like, they don't get the content in it. No, maybe cocaine's a real talk Or maybe they do maybe maybe I'm the fool and it could be that too. Maybe they do

Shake Shack goes public. I wish I could have Invested in that are you shake Shack guy? I like Shake Shack, but I wish I would have been more important moment if I would actually put some money into it Did you have an opportunity? No, that's what I'm saying. That would have been all time. I feel like Tom Brady is the only person that gets those opportunities. He's always in the right rooms. The other day I seen he had $6 million for watches for sale.

I was like, damn, Tom Brady, you got $6 million for... Those are just the ones you're selling? That's what I was thinking in my head. At this point in his career, he already had three Super Bowls. Yeah, so he was in a meeting when they were like, we got this thing called Shake Shack, you want to jump to him? Yeah, exactly. I mean, he'd probably been in a lot of them rooms.

He's also been in some rooms where those investments didn't go well. That's true, true. We're the insider trading, didn't they, off? Oh, I forgot about that one. Hey, but that sound like a good idea, though. I can imagine three days. It do sound like a good idea. It sound like a good idea though. I can imagine it. It did sound like a good idea. It sound like a good idea when he first did it probably.

It was like, yeah. Are you a burger guy? Yeah, I love burgers. My wife gets mad at me sometimes when I go out the country and I'm just trying to find the best burger in God damn China or some shit. She's like, they're not going to have it, Michael. But I keep trying though. Japan probably has insane burgers.

Japan does have some good burgers. They do. I think they had the overall, yeah they did. I didn't like the burgers in Italy. London is okay, but they got a, they can't, they have this rule that they gotta cook ground beef all the way to the, to the end. Yeah, they can't have it like.

What do you like your burger? Medium rare? Medium plus. I like medium plus, I like that. Yeah, medium plus. I just wanted a little pink. And then I'll leave a steak place if they'll know what medium plus is. I just medium plus. I like that. Yeah, medium plus. I just wanted a little pink. And then I'll leave a steak place if they'll know what medium plus is.

I just get up and leave. I'm like, this is... It's not a steak place. You guys don't know what medium plus is? Bring out the guy in the back. It's not medium well, but it's not medium. I gotta pull up on the phone. There is a medium plus. It's right here.

It's right here on the steak chart on Pinterest. You know? Like, you got to go off on them like that, like, because they don't. In the sports world, 2014, 2015, Aaron Rogers was the MVP. Boy, he was in this game. Yeah, he was. He was in this game. He lost. He hit you guys with one of those cadence touchdowns. Yeah, he did. He always does that. It didn't work the last week though. It didn't work.

It got a coach is not there no more for saying something about it. I don't know. What are your takes on that? I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know. I feel like he said something. He tried to make us feel like, you know what I'm saying?

Definitely some... I believe that that thing doesn't happen without Aaron Rodgers having a little part and make a decision on that, right? You know what I'm saying? Or that is something people have been thinking about, but to be fair to Robert- It's the Jets. The Jets have done stuff like- But to be fair to Robert Salah, I mean, they took the quarterback from, what's his name?

I forget his name. He's out in the league right now. I didn't like him anyway. I didn't like his haircut. Zach Wilson. I didn't like his haircut. I didn't like his haircut. Zach Wilson. I didn't like his haircut.

It was something about his haircut. He's pretty. He was a baby of the Post Malone area. Yeah, he's definitely- That Post Malone baby killed him. He should have been a baby of- He's Mormon too, right? Zach Wilson, yeah.

I think he's Mormon. BYU baby. That was the beginning of the end right there. They just could never get the quarterback situation right. And they thought going with, whatchamacallit, with Aaron Rodgers, they wanted the big name so bad. But it's like, there's been so many great quarterbacks that they missed out on. Lamar Jackson, god damn.

It's just C.J. Straugh, you know what I'm saying? Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold's in the room. He's killing it now. He got dropped at the bottom too, man. Yeah, they missed on him too. But they missed on him. But to be fair to Sam Darnold, it's unfair to put certain quarterbacks in certain situations without the proper office online. And then also with the proper personal

development. You got to develop. Lucky to Sam Darnold, he's into a situation where he's probably primed to be where he needs to be to make the next situation. I mean, you look at some of these other quarterbacks that maybe had one good year, and then after that they don't turn out to be any good. It's like sometimes the preparation as a quarterback allows you to develop a lot better and understand the game a lot faster. Like, you know, like they can't make the right throws. The NFL's getting a lot faster.

It depends. A quarterback's so much that they don't even pay the office alignment. You're lucky if you have a good office alignment now as a high-paying quarterback. Yeah. The cap keeps on going up. Now they're just, they're giving a percentage of the cap to the quarterback. Now it's different. Now what are they getting?

Like 20% of the cap? 20% of the cap. You know at the beginning of the year when they bring that NFL PA and they did a little cap chart, remember that? Yeah. And they show like the- What teams had- beginning of the year when they bring that NFL PA and they did a little cap chart, remember that? And they show like the- What teams had- Oh, what's the percentage of your team on the spinach?

And it's always like, wow. But you know, when you look at that percentage and like- This is the PA used to come in roughly every year at the same time to give us the information that wasn't associated with the team. So we'd have a player association meeting with the PA leadership that would come into the facility that had nothing to do with the team and they would show us all this stuff. Yeah, they show us the chart of where our team

is spending the money. Whenever you saw the defense and offensive line is one of the highest paid, you're like, the team's probably good. Good. You know what I'm saying? Like, if they- Drenches, baby.

Yeah, if the team had like, you're like, damn, offensive line, they're a pretty good, sturdy team, you know what I mean? And like, usually you can only do that when you have a good young quarterback like a Russell Wilson. What about Patrick Mahomes and that line? They got Tooney, who's one of the highest paid. Exactly.

And drafted well, too. But Patrick Mahomes at this point, like, what does money even mean to him? Like, at the end of this thing, he'll be the first player probably to ever reach a billion dollars through just purely sports and football. For real. He's going to. He's the best player that we've seen come out the draft and the only player to... I would say that Lamar Jackson is the best athlete we've seen in many years, but the best player

I would say is by far Patrick Mahomes. I mean, it's not even close anymore. And he has fun playing the game. He does, but he's also tapered his game and he's become a disciplined football player where early in his career he was all about hero ball. It's been way more impressive these last three years, the last two years, where he's reinvented himself and had the discipline to take what the defense gives him, play to the strength of his team, which is the defense, and and not make the mistakes which he's made interceptions this year but he still

put his team in situations to always win like Patrick Mahomes which Lamar doesn't do anytime it is a third down and the team needs it whether it's four minute when they need to seal the game or they need to get the drive going to continue the game he makes that play and the drive going to continue the game. He makes that play. And that's what the greats do. Right now, Lamar hasn't done it. Blitz Zero has killed them.

I'm in the TV. I'm watching the film. As of late, the Lamar like he can't he hasn't. That's why he hasn't won Super Bowls yet. The only guy who does it and can sisterate all the time is fucking Patrick. Well, also, to be fair to Lamar to Lamar Jackson is that every single play call that's being designed with Andy Reid at the helm. That's true.

The play, there's always a check down receiver coming out. There's always a way for him to get rid of the ball. And sometimes with Lamar Jackson on a lot of those places. He's on his third OC. Yeah like you think about the Blitz Zeros like those come in like they're like, they're his receivers, like, I mean, I think them actually- The last two seasons have come down to Blitz Zero. That's what I'm saying, and like, sometimes the receivers aren't really well-versed

in the game. Let's get a freaking plan, coach. Let's, like, when we, in 2004, in 2000- But Derrick Henry's changing that, because Derrick Henry gets an opportunity to do less plays. I'm not worried right now. I'm not like right now.

It's regular season and we don't know. But I think they never had Derrick Henry. I think Derrick Henry in the playoffs, as you see the NFL's get to a place where I saw some plays against the Broncos, not the Broncos, the Buffalo Bills, that I for sure saw people not tackle. Not tackle. Business decisions? They were life decisions.

And it's not even cold yet. It's not even cold out. They did not want to tackle this. Wait until it gets cold and you have to tackle it. And that's what I'm saying. I think with Henry, the game is going to change for the Ravens in a playoff. 100%, but their defense isn't what it was.

Their defense is struggle bus right now. Yeah, but the first two games, the first two games, they didn't get a ball to Derrick Henry. They didn't know how to use him. Then they did that third game, like, well, he is Derrick Henry. And then they just started like pounding it and pounding it. In the playoffs in December, I'd need to see Derrick Henry with 30 plus carries every game. Maybe they didn't do it at first so they could taper off the carries for the older fella.

No, the way he eats and the way he's doing, he's a different type of athlete. But I think- Who's the craziest athlete you ever saw in the locker room that you're like, this dude's a specimen? Like, is it- Percy Harvin. Percy Harvin. Pound for pound, spes.

Specimen, man. Like, that guy, Percy Harvin, like people forget about Percy Harvin. He was a mon- he ran a touchdown back in the Super Bowl with you guys. Percy Harvin was like one of the best athletes I ever seen. You know who you say that also? Josh Friedman too. Josh Friedman was a crazy athlete, too. Hernandez used to tell me that Percy Harbin was the best athlete he ever seen. Yeah. Probably shouldn't have said that.

The TV show is very interesting. I haven't watched it. I've only seen the clips. I don't know if it's really true or not, but I'm like, I suspect it's not. It's acting right. That acting rocks, man. Oh, my don't know. I suspect it's not. That acting rocks, man. Oh my gosh. Man, dunking the ball in the goalpost became a 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty. Is that Jimmy Graham rule?

Is that the Jimmy Graham rule? I think he did it once and it bent the bar and they had to postpone the game for 45 minutes. Yeah, I don't know why you- No fun, man. You can't, I mean- I mean, not a lot of people can even do that. You know what I'm saying?

It's like a very rare feat that you can actually jump up there and dunk the ball. I mean, on every team, there's probably like four of people can even do that. You know what I'm saying? It's like a very rare feat that you can actually jump up there and dunk the ball. I mean, on every team, there's probably like four guys that can actually do that. Yeah, right. I think a lot more guys can do it. No, like really get up there and do what Jimmy Graham was doing. That was some hops. Like-

Gates could do it. That's about it. Yeah, not a lot of guys can do it. Not a lot of guys could really go up there and like really jump. Yam it. Yam it. Like guys can get it over- I saw someone do it recently.

Yeah, you saw A-Guy do it recently. Who was it? I don't know. You didn't say over- They're back. I saw someone do it recently. Yeah, you saw a guy do it recently. Who was it? I don't know. You didn't say, like, everybody's doing it. Everybody can't do that. He didn't get fined. Yeah. I can't do that.

I used to do that in practice. I don't believe it. I would finger roll it. Oh, finger roll it. Antonio Brown, too, though. Billy Hoyle. Billy Hoyle out here. Fundamentals, baby.

Antonio Brown was a crazy athlete, even though he didn't practice very much when he was at the Patriots. When he did though, it was pretty amazing. Bro, you remember when he, we didn't have a ball touch the ground when Antonio practiced. We had the best week of practice. Remember how crisp that practice was? Because he rose the level of everyone else. He was so good, man.

He was a monster. He really is a good player. He was. Man. If he would have just- Tom tried everything to make sure of Nick. We would've won a Super Bowl then. Yeah, Tom tried everything.

We would've won a Super Bowl in 19 if he would've stayed. Tom tried everything. Tom was just like, you know, just like, just come on, man. I'll drive you to work, you know what I mean? Like, didn't he have a place to live? Like, what do you need? Like, you want my trainer?

You want my food? You want to like, just come to work and do what you're supposed to do. Like, Tom knew, like, he literally tried to get him to like- God loves to win and do what you're supposed to do like like Tom knew like he Literally tried to get him to like I love his wins. The guy loves to win. I was the win man But I can win on that sack dance. What is this though? The Rick Rude? Yeah I like I think everybody grew up being a WWE fan I mean, who's WWE at that art?

I know W. Yeah but you can't even say anything cuz like You can't even like anybody cuz like if you like somebody like you like them You posting that you like them like two years later like people can go back and look at your post and then the guy turns out to be like a Killer or like might be diddy or so, you know say like it'd be anything like all of a sudden you're like Yeah, I gotta knock my post down. So like even with this in man is like Haven't seen that one either. I was. I just read some of the stuff.

I'm like, you did what? Like who does that? But anyway, I loved WWE and like, you know, Rick Rude and all those guys growing up was something I really liked. Did you ever get fined for a dance? They told me I could only do two pumps. Two pumps?

The Key and Peele rule, man. I know. Three days was like, that's Too much. Hey, stop it. Three gyrations is too much. You always knew that the two is just right. I don't even want to say his name, but there's a ref that was always a little stickler with all that shit. I want to say his name, but he knows who he is looking at you.

Cleat Blakeman, Scott Novak, fucking Scott Novak. Look, he looked like a principal out there just trying to hold court always. Didn't even let you jive with him. And the crazy part about the referees, they all have good jobs. Yeah. You're like, what are you? They're all lawyers and judges.

You're a doctor? Yeah. It's like, what do you do? Oh yeah, I'm a medical doctor. Like, what? How do you have time to do this? There's a couple former players now though. Yeah, but I'm just saying it's kind of crazy though when you think about those guys and

you talk to them and you're like- Well, they're not full time. I mean, you would think that the league would make them full time. They all have guns now too. It's like an arms race to get bigger biceps. It's so zypic. Yeah, but now they're all going hock or hawk. That was old Hockley.

He was the first one getting all jacked and now his little sons getting all jacked. You gotta get jacked up out there. They don't want to be getting tossed around out there. Yeah, you can't. During the fight. But you can't really talk to the NFL referees like that. But NBA, you can say whatever you want. Let it fly, baby.

This guy. Dick Bavetta, take it all. Jackie, let's set the stage for the Green Bay Packers. Sorry, I got caught up on Scott Novak's LinkedIn page over here. He went to University of Phoenix. University of Phoenix. Get out of here. According to this, he did. Who knows? Maybe we'll take a look. Let's not put his name out there.

He's in the inaugural crap. He log into University of Phoenix. Mike Purnell was on that team. Shut up. Yeah, let's move into the Packers here. 12 and four. This was Mike McCarthy's ninth year. We know he's down in Dallas now. This was a Dom Capers led defense, undefeated at Lambeau, tied for the league best record 12 and four with the Seattle Seahawks this season.

Won the NFC North four years running, led the league in scoring 486 points. That's Rogers, Eddie Lacey, James Starks, Devonte Adams rookie year. Mac Daddy. Mac Daddy, James Starks, shout out Buffalo. College. From Niagara Falls. Yeah. Crazy. Jordy Nelson, speaking of fines,

he's one of the officers now. Yeah, he's one of the fine guys. Who is your fine guy? Remember Merton Hanks used to be one of the guys? Those fine people, they get paid pretty good money, man. Oh, do they really? Yeah, they get paid pretty good. I got so mad, I used to love Merton Hanks.

Can I get that job? What's a fine guy? I have no idea. So like when you get fined for like on sportsman, like conduct, or I threw the ball on the stands once got fined for that. You got like a little hearing. So the NFL sets you up with some guy, former player, former player. So it's like friendly fire type shit. You're over here trying to buddy him up. Like I was talking to Merton like, you know, you're such my favorite guy when I was a kid with

the neck thing and everything. Didn't even do anything. Slapped me with the fine. Didn't even reduce it. I'm like, come on. No, that's how it go, man. It's like you're in prison and then they got the prisoners judging if you're going to get out or not.

But he's like, I ain't never got out. So, you're staying in. No, I was like, but he's like, I ain't never got out. So you know, you stand in. No, I was just, that's crazy. That's exactly. That's crazy. You know, they make pretty good bread though. That's funny. Oh my gosh.

And we talked about this guy earlier, but they added Julius Peppers in the off season to bolster that defense. What a legend, hall of famer. What was your thoughts on this Packers team going into this? You guys were already- Fun fact, you know, Tom Clemens' wife is Kathy Clemens

and they do Clemens design. No, they're not. Yeah, fun fact. But the- We'll see this year. Don Capers, that defense, I think that was one of the best defenses. They weren't like a super physical defense

compared to like the 49ers, but they were strong and fast. I think people forget about Clay Matthews. I think Clay Matthews should be a Hall of Famer. He was out there with Julius Peppers on both sides. Nick Perry was coming off of it. Then you got A.J. Hawk. That team was stout. A.J. Hawk. And people forget it. I've been knowing Jordan Nelson because he went to Kansas State and I went to Texas A&M. So we always played against him. He was one of the best receivers. And

he just kind of disappeared one year. He was like super good one year. The next year he was gone. Yeah. Then like Randall Cobb and Eddie Lacey, you know, speaking of Derrick Harvey, like nobody want to tackle Eddie Lacey at that time. He was big, big boss. He was quick this game too. He had some fast. He was strong. They had that play that they they had the office lineman kind of spread out a little bit.

Then they would kind of do a a gap run there, kind of do a little stretch with him, with John Kuhn. Then they had James Starks, who was a really good running back. And they had a good old Matt Flynn, you know, and then like the office alignment was really good, too, right, because they had Batiari, like TJ Lang, like, you know, Josh and I had to go against them late. All those guys, although they had a really great offense in line, they didn't really give up that many sacks that year.

And they were just a really over good team, I think. That was one of the better teams that we played. Obviously they had a stacked team. And kicker Mason Crosby didn't really mix that many kicks or whatever. Then Martin Barnett. Still kicking somewhere. Yeah, right? Mason didn't like, defense in know, that was pretty good.

That was probably, the defense and line is probably the least known people on that team. Like Mike Neal from Purdue, Mike Pinnell, Dante Jones from UCLA, like all those guys, like those guys, Mike Daniels was pretty good player. Went to Pro Bowl, I think the next year. Overall, that was a pretty good, strong team, you know. 12 and four, they were really damn good.

Aaron Rodgers won the MVP. Yeah, and then you got Randall Cobb. People forget how great Randall Cobb was. He was really good at the time. What a beast. He was young. This was a young Randall Cobb. And Julius Peppers, can't even say enough

about Julius Peppers. The freak. Pet, baby. And then A.J. Hawkins was really good too, man. A.J. Hawkins, cold. National champion. Yeah, and then like- Super Bowl champion.

Look at the stats, you know, you're two receivers over a thousand yards to almost over 1300. You know what I'm saying? You know, 1500 1200 Devontae Adams was a baby receiver at that time, but he was learning from all the dogs. You know what I'm saying? Like 38 touchdowns, no five interceptions, man. I think Russell Wilson threw five interceptions in that game. You know what I'm saying? Like Eddie Lacey was, you know, so that team was really good team. That was a really fun team to play against because they had so many stacked players

and they were just really great overall. Was Charles Wilson wasn't on that team, was he? No, he wasn't on that team. What was it like sacking Aaron? It was always fun. But Aaron is like a really like competitive person too. So like, if you make a good player, he'd be like, good job, you know what I mean? Or you make a good player, he'd be like,

good job. You know what I mean? Or something like, he'd be mad, but he'd be like, you're a good player, or something like, you know what I mean? Is he trying to love you up so you don't get harder the next time? Yeah, but I think Aaron Rodgers is a hard person to like though, because it's like, Tom Brady's a lot easier person to like. I feel like there's those people that are like, you're just like, man, I don't know what is about him.

How was Tom compared to when you didn't play with him from when you met him? Man, I feel like Tom is also like a great student of the game because like, he knows like if you're a good player, like Neil, not if you're a bad player, but if you're a good player, Tom can repeat to you like certain things that you did in the game or how you do it. Like he's a very respectable player. He is the type of player that you don't have to have pro bowls for Tom Brady to respect you.

You just have to be a good player. Like a player that did something great for the team that were influential to the way that that team played, like how you were a nucleus. Like there's some people who get a lot of pro Bowls, like, you know what I'm saying? Like the Patriots, like y'all have a lot of good receivers, but sometimes y'all didn't get the Pro Bowls that y'all deserve, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, Wes Walker did,

but like other people didn't, you know, get those ones, but y'all did have great people in your team and people who were on the league would respect the players that y'all had. You know, maybe they didn't show up in all with the, you know, oh, that's the guy. But then you like, man, like, or Julian, like that, he tough, but you gotta respect him.

Like, you know, like, even when we played y'all, it was like, oh yeah, Julian Ellerman, like, yeah, that's one of the guys that like, he's like, y'all all gonna have respect for him at the end because it doesn't matter the play of the game or how you respect the way that he plays the game. He gets up from the hits, he does whatever team, like people, you know what I'm saying?

Like, you might not know it because you're in another locker room, but they show you and they're like, this is how you're supposed he plays the game. He gets up from the hits. He does whatever team like people, you know what I'm saying? Like you might not know it because you're in another locker room, but they show you and they're like, this is how you're supposed to play the game. So this guy's blocking right here. This guy's giving up from the field. Like they point out those types of things and the players know, you know what I'm saying? The fans may not know. And Brady, Brady did that with guys. Yeah, you can tell that. Yeah. He's, he's a fan of the game. He's a fan of the game. Belichick is too though. I even think that Belichick take a guy to just... I don't know Belichick, even we just

want to know what the guy's thinking. He's like a really... So what do you think about this? Belichick just respects the players too. Certain guys, he just respect us in the league and they always end up there, but they don't. You know what I'm saying? There's a place where sometimes good players go to die, you know, but overall, it's like he respects the way that you play the game. He probably wants to know how you play it.

So what do you think about all the narrative of how Bill is portrayed to players? You're saying something completely opposite of basically what everything has been coming out about, like, oh, the TV shows, the this, the that, they're all saying this guy, you can't work for him. What was your experience being an out here? I just didn't like it there. That was the only thing I did overall. I just felt like I didn't fit into the situation.

I felt like I just was completely different. It's like I just came from a very free-spirited place. The small, having to wear knee braces at practice, I'm like, I ain't ever do nothing like that. You know what I'm saying? It's just stuff that even I had planned for Bill Belichick, going to the meetings and doing everything. I didn't like my position coach because he didn't know nothing about defense.

You know what I'm saying? Like defense events or nothing like that. You know, so, but overall, my experience with the Patriots was a good experience. Like I said, I just wasn't used to like living in the country and all that type of shit. Like, people don't know, man, like, playing for New England, bro,

like you like, through y'all lived in Boston, but the other, everything else around New England is like, oh my God, where am I? Like, I never, ain't nowhere to eat. I'm just like, where is- Hey, there's Dunkin' Donuts, oh my God, where am I? Ain't nowhere to eat. I'm just like, where's- Hey, there's Dunkin' Donuts. I'm like, where am I? But I don't know.

I feel like I was in Pleasantville or something, man. I was just like, bro. What made Pete Carroll more free-spirited? Well, Pete, I just, also Pete, I just like, Pete didn't really bother us that much about certain things. You know what I'm saying? It was just like you do your job, come to work. It was more like team type thing.

And then like, and every team I ever been on, the defensive line was the most, like one of the most important parts of the team. 100%, you guys were the best. Yeah, so like, whatever it was like, and New England, I feel like it was more about the secondary and the linebackers, you know what I'm saying? Like, if you're a linebacker, like you,

outside linebacker, you've got more opportunities than a front defensive lineman, like a three, four defensive lineman. But I do think if I would have went to New England starting off, then it would have been completely different. I think I would have fit in way more, because that would have been the system that I know. And I feel like with Bill Belichick and my skillset, I could have been really good in that system.

But where I was at, just coming from Philly, it was more like, well, line up wide and just- Just go. Just go. You know what I'm saying? There was nothing about the plays. I liked the plays that was called. It was like the teammates in New England, I was super great. All the guys, it was super fun to hang out with.

It was just always fun in the locker room. But I was just like, the team was completely different. It's a different place to play. It's completely different. It reminds me of like a college town kind of like, we play at one o'clock and it's like very, corn on the cob type shit. You know what I mean? I'm like, what's going on?

Like, here, corn on the cob. Whole town shuts down. Yeah, whole town shuts down. It's just like, but. Were the practices different? Because I felt like he practiced us hard. He did practice us hard in a situation completely different because I also too didn't like, like I got hurt in New England like at the beginning of the training camp and like I

broke my collarbone. So I basically was there. And that's probably was too why I was also just like, man, they want me to play three, four, and I can't even lift my fucking right arm. If it was my left arm, I'd be like, okay, you know what I'm saying? But not my right arm, it's the one that I actually need. The left one I could have did without, you know what I'm saying? I could have made it work.

But it was the right one, my collarbone was still sticking out right there. AC joint. Yeah, it was just gone. I couldn't lift my arm up the whole time I was there. I had to deal with those. Those. AC joint. Yeah, it was just like, it was just gone. I couldn't lift my arm up the whole time I was there. I dealt with those, those are the worst. Yeah, especially-

Your shoulders go, you can't grab, you can't catch. And you try to hold up another lineman at three, four? At 320 pounds, and that guy's a force. Like the shoulder, I remember, shoulders always go with the big boys because they're sitting in there locking in. There's so much goddamn pressure in between both 300 and 300 pound or two, whatever. Like, if a guy loses a shoulder, Lyman were done.

Yeah. And I remember I didn't curse the coach out, but I said something that was, it sounded like I was cursing him out, but I didn't curse him out. Yeah, you just allowed. I said a curse word, but the way I said it, he took it the wrong way. But I remember Bill being calling me and was like, hey, Michael, can't have you doing that. Look, I want you to come in, but yeah, it's not, you're looking in the handbook page three,

38.9, you can't do that. I'm like, let me look at 38.9. Yeah, you certainly can't do that. So I'm gonna have to find you and you're gonna have to stay home this week. See you on Monday, get some rest and be ready to go when you come back.

I'm like, nah, I'm good. That's not, that's not how you, that's- That's exactly, he brought out the number and everything. Yes, chapter six, 30, yeah. I remember when I came to New England, I was like, man, that's exactly, he brought out the number and everything. Yes. Chapter six, 30. Yeah. I remember when I came to New England, I was like, man, I was like, man, I want a couple more million or whatever. And Bill was like, well, tell me why you need more. And I was like, this, this, this, this, that he's like, okay, let me think about it. You know what I'm saying? But he's really like a type of person that if you give him like, he's really a numbers person, you know

what I mean? Like it really comes down to like what you doing, how you doing it, why are you coming through? Like, and he kind of like going into his office is like, you know, you learn a lot. Even being at the Patriots meeting, like they never really like in Seattle, they never really called out like Russell and certain things, but like, you know, like, but Bill will call Tom out on everything.

How's a guy who's been to MVP four times has won the championship six times Don't this fucking route right here. It's like you you suck. You have never seen it before Thomas like And you just back there like they're going off on Tom Brady right now. Let you know everyone's own limits yeah, and I remember the first meeting and preseason and and OTAs or something and Bill came in there and he had the little paper and he dropped. And it was one of those things where it was like, I think he was just sitting on stage

to tell everybody, if you question me, shut the fuck up. But basically, because he was like, here's my credentials, basically, it was like seven times, it was just going down the rails like 20 years of winning the in this like 17 deep. Remember it was like all the stats of all the things and you were like, it's like, so I know what I'm talking about. I was like, yeah, he does. He like that.

That's it right there. He right. He know, Hey, we listen to him. So I got a good time there. But like I said, I just didn't fit into the defense at the time because it was kind of changing. Yeah. We love, I loved having you in there because I was real close with Marty

and you were kind of like a little Marty-ish to me, but I didn't get to see you in everyday meeting, but I'd always jive with you in the locker room because we'd always, you know, defense offense, we're kind of different teams, but Bill would address the team for 50 minutes, 45 minutes every morning, the whole team. Which is probably different

than anywhere you else have been in either. Like he'd break down offense, defense, special teams in front of everyone. So everyone heard the lashings of everyone else. Just so like when you're walking down the hall, everybody got it, you know what I'm saying? It was just like, yeah, you knew like that meeting there was really cool. And so I enjoyed myself there. That we were nine and one the last 10 games.

Let's get on to the Seattle Seahawks. Let's get into these Seahawks. 12 and four Pete Carroll, Dan Quinn led defense, Darrell Bevel, coach in the offense. This is the fifth year of the Pete Carroll regime. We know about the Legion of Boom. They're looking to repeat, started three and three and then just like Michael said, finished nine and one. They were hot. Beat Green Bay in the first game of the season there. That will a little foreshadowing for this matchup here. Repeated as NFC West champs.

Let's get in on some of these guys, Russell Wilson, Beast Mode, Marshawn Lynch, Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Curse, Chris Matthews, who got hot around this time of the year. And then the defense, we know the defense baby, Curse of course, Cliff Averill, Michael Bennett, Bruce Irvin, Bobby Wagner, KJ Wright, Kam Chancellor. This was stacked, Earl Thomas. Earl Thomas.

Shurm. Shurm. Now, is the Legion of Boom just a secondary or is it the whole thing? I think it's the whole defense, but it depends who you ask, right? I think the Legion of Boom kind of started with there before I got there, kind of, and I think it became a lot better once me and Cliff and C-Mac got there. Heck yeah. But I think it was considered the whole defense, I think.

I mean, it depends who you ask, right? I mean, they do have a little office, a restaurant called Legion's and Sherman Cam. It's pretty good. They got gumbo. I like any place that got gumbo, honestly. Like, that's a sign for me to be like, yeah, that's a good place. Restaurant. He's from Louisiana. Yeah.

Never had gumbo. You never had gumbo? Until I went to like Ohio and like Ohio. That's not the place to get it. I know, but like all our coaches were from the South. You know what I mean? So like anytime you go anywhere for the first, I was a California kid. Then you go anywhere else, all coaches are from the South.

That's true too. So like we always had like, you know, the catered food would be like gumbo and barbecue. And I never really had it. Never had grits before our college. Never had grits? We're oatmeal people. Yeah, y'all. One of the Cobb, you know? Yeah. and barbecue and I never really had it. Never had grits before our college. Never had grits. We were oatmeal people.

Yeah, y'all. One on the cob, you know? Yeah. Oatmeal people. Oatmeal people. I don't know. I would say the strength of the team, like when we were preparing for Seattle

and the Super Bowl the next, or a few weeks Super Bowl the next few weeks later, the next week, it was it all came down to the defensive line because they could get pressure with four guys and then everyone else was on a string and everyone did their responsibility so damn good but they did what you guys did what you do. Yeah. You didn't change for really nobody. No, didn't matter. You know that's kind of that was the thing about Dan Quinn and his defenses. They do what they do.

Everyone's gonna play on a string. They're gonna get pressure with four. And so the Legion of Boom to me has to be associated with the defense line. The front box has to be in there. Yeah, I agree with you too. Cause it's such a, you guys played such team defense and everyone swarmed.

Everyone was super unselfish. If it was a screen, like you watch plays when I caught a screen or something, fucking Bennett would be there, the defense alignment would be there. They would all swarm. Nothing was more, you'd always hear, Bill would throw in a tape of Pete Carroll saying, ball, everyone after the ball or does he say shit like that? Yeah, ball, ball, it's all that matters is the ball. So like we knew going into them that this defense, they swarm, they're going to get pressure with four and then the secondary, they had Sherm back there, Cam, Earl Thomas

was a fucking torpedo and like you guys just, you guys were insane. Yeah, we were super fast too. Fast. Swarm, that's why I was Yeah, we were, we were super fast too. Like, that's warm. That's why I was like, everybody was like, everyone was fast. Everybody like, I think the slow person ran like a four, six, you know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, like a defense.

So it was like a super fast defense. So everybody was like sprinting the whole time. And like, and I just remember like being on that defense and like, we would make so many plays and like on screen games returns in general, just had so many turnovers just because like you said, we stayed too. We were regardless of who we were playing. We were like, look, we're going to make them beat us. Now, how do you sum up this team?

This is just grit again? Yeah, I think this team was, there was a versatility and grit. I think there was a lot of versatility that season. Just like people being moved in and out. We lost some good guys that prior season. Brandon Meebang got hurt during the year. That kind of changed a little thing. But we also had Kevin Williams, which he was a Hall of Famer, and he was with the Vikings. So we had some really good guys.

But yeah, I think grit too. I think grit was his team because we, came off the Super Bowl and the whole idea was like, how do you go back? When you win the Super Bowl, you know, it's like, it's a feeling but it's not like, it's just a day. You know what I'm saying? It is and then you gotta do it again. It's just like you wake up and do it again.

It's like there's no eternal thing. It's like you happy for like 10 minutes and then like they're trying to see who's going to win it. It's a business, you know? Yeah. The highs aren't as high as you think they're going to be, but the lows are lower than what you think they're going to be. Yeah, that's true. Like because when you go out and win a Super Bowl, it becomes so much harder the next year that you have to work harder than you did the year before

to maintain it to get there and I never got I never went back to back like because you become America's most number one target you're on that that billboard anytime you play a team they're circling you because you're a measuring stick and it just becomes so much harder and then there's a whole year of film of what you're you were great at that teams are combating. That's what makes Patrick Mahomes really great because it's like every year this guy's in the Super Bowl, even if he doesn't win it, I'm like, he's back. You know, like that's crazy.

Yeah, it is. It is. Now, can you describe the atmosphere in CenturyLink? Oh man. I played there once and it was so freaking loud. Like how do you guys get those people out? Man, those people, they're so crazy, man. Like we, you know, we couldn't play future, but we did.

I'm joking, like guys, I hope you remember. But like we would play like Rick Ross of Future, like that stadium when it was raining, like it'll be rocking. It was just so loud. It was really hard for opposing offenses, like to really do- They lead the league in like offsides penalties by away teams.

Yeah, for me, getting off the ball in there was just like, it was just super easy. It was just like, you always get that first step because it's just like, you are just, the stadium is so loud. The way that it is, also the way that it's designed too, it's kind of designed like this. So the way that the noise and Sonic bounce off of it, sorry, I'm just going to tell you. But the design kind of like- I've heard that. It closes, it keeps sound in.

So like it becomes louder than it may not be. Unlike, you know, like the Arrowhead where they pump in sound, you know, they say they don't but it's clearly pumping inside. Arrowhead or I thought it was Indie. I think both. Both. But I think you want to see that when you, or like, when you're doing commentating and stuff, you see the behind the scenes stuff.

So you see a lot of the- I mean, I heard Indy did. I know Ersay just came out and said, no, with Ersay, we'd love to have you come on the podcast and combat it, but you know, we'll see. Yeah, I think they do. In my opinion, I think they do. Maybe they don't though. I think they do.

But I know for us, it was it was natural. Was no BBLs. You know, when the crowd noise starts skipping, something's up. When the track skips. Speaking of Brazilian buttlifts, what's up with the pads that you wore? I just I never really like the shoulder pads thing. I feel like if I didn't have to wear them, I probably would just go. You barely you didn't wear shoulder pads.

I know, I know, I know. But it's like these shells. They're just shells, basically. You wore shells. You didn't get a shoulder banged up. I mean, you didn't wear shoulder pads. I know, I know, I know. But it was also- Were they shells? They were just shells basically. And you wore shells, you didn't get a shoulder banged up? I did. I mean, you had bad shoulders. Just the one time in New England, doing God damn Aggie drill,

that drill we used to do, that Oklahoma drill, that they said it wasn't Oklahoma drill. You know what's what I'm talking about. What is it, the blocking drill? Yeah, the blocking, it's like, this is a routine block drill. I'm like, no, this is Oklahoma drill. Like, we're not supposed to be this type of contact right now.

They call it like Tulsa drill. Yeah, so yeah. They changed it. It wasn't Oklahoma, but it was Tulsa. Who you fooling? But Tulsa's a place in Oklahoma. That's what I mean. They're too smart for their own good.

They're too smart for their own good. Do you know Tulsa's a bad place for black people? Black Wall Street, they burned down. They're going to for their own good. They're too good. Do you know Tulsa's a bad place for black people? Black Wall Street, they burned down. They gonna name it after that. But we did that. But no, I just always liked to be movement

and I had my jersey a certain way. So I was always really good with my hands. So it didn't really matter about the pass that much. It was also better so the offense line couldn't hold you. Yeah. And then when I used to hit people, it was like, I was good at tackle for loss, so I used to always hit the right back

before he got the ball. Yeah. So it was like more tackles like that. It was quick. Yeah, it was really quick. I never really had to like a linebacker. Maybe if I was a linebacker, it would be different, but since I was like, and also too,

I grew up loving the way that Justin Smith played the game. He always had like, you know. Zero. Zero. Justin Smith was one of my favorite players growing up. John Abraham, O.C., like all those guys are people that I looked up to. Zero. Zero. Justin Smith was one of my favorite players growing up. John Abraham, O.C., like all those guys are people that I looked up to. Wow. I used to watch, I remember, same thing,

like when I became a receiver, you'd always want the smallest pads because I didn't want, like when you'd rip and I'm trying to get under on a speed release, I didn't want him to get his shoulder pad or his hand on my shoulder pad. So the smaller surface area is better for you. Oh, it is.

This is true. But it was a fine line because I get tackled and I'd fall on my shoulder and separate my shoulder. Yeah. So like, I would always, I remember walking, I was like, is he wearing fucking shells out there? My shoulder pads are super small. I enjoyed it though.

You know, everybody would be like, how'd you even, every game they'd be like, I don't care, I'm about to knock somebody out though. When did that start? I started when I was in Tampa. I used to always cut my shoulder pads in the GEM. He used to always be like, you can't do that. If you have to do that, you have to sign a waiver. Did he? Yeah.

It was at JR? No, no, it was Mark Domine. Mark Domine. Yeah, Justice Smith was a dog. I don't understand why Justice Smith is not in the Hall of Fame yet. I forgot about him, man. I was a Niners fan, too.

But look, go back to that picture, man. Look at this picture of America. This guy's like, he's bleeding on his hands. You don't even see people bleed no more like this in the NFL. That face mask? Yeah, that guy's really come out there to play football. There's new football stuff, two fingers taped around the hands. Now, guys gotta like, I don't know, man, it's not the new Travis Scott's, you know?

Like, it's not hype beats, you know? Like, this is the one that Jay-Z has on. Kanye doesn't have any cleats. Like that guy right there, like- He looks like he eats cement. Yeah, that guy plays football. That's a guy that plays football. He eat, that guy takes-

Those are the guys that I grew up watching, you know? Not everybody's doing all that kind of stuff. That guy don't do that kind of stuff. No. He like the kind of guy that if he slap you in the back of your head, your neck might hurt, you know? Yeah, he definitely looks like he will slap you in the back of the head. Bull ring.

The extended bull ring too. Bull ring, oh my gosh. That's probably so he can get a finger in there when someone's getting, going like this. Guys, we can, bleeding everywhere right now. Ma'am. Come on, I'm just saying. All right, Jackie, let's get into the game. All right, let's get into a little lead up here.

As we mentioned earlier, there's a rematch a week one. Seattle took that one 36-16. Finished on a six game win streak. Green Bay, on the other hand, finished winning seven of their last eight. Seattle was the number one seed, got that first round by, beat Carolina in the division around 31-17. Green Bay number two seed, first round by also beat Dallas in the division. That was a notable game. That was the Dez catch game. Remember that one? Is it a catch? Is it a catch? I think it was

a catch. I think so too. I don't even know what a catch is anymore. It's so hard to define. I think it was a catch. I think so too. I don't even know what a catch is anymore. It's so hard to define. I think that was his, that was his only time that he's able to get to the Super Bowl. I thought that was... That was it? I feel like Jerry Jones has done so much stuff that God is like, when you die, you win the Super Bowl. But you can enjoy it up here with me. You won't get to enjoy it on Earth, because you enjoyed too much stuff on Earth. He got boats.

He got a lot of stuff. Because it doesn't make sense the amount of money that they put into Dallas at this moment, not to have won something. And that year was a great year. Demarco Murray. Beast. Tony Romo, the offensive line was stacked. Defense was pretty good.

Was that the Romo-Flubb snap game? No, that was next year. No, that was like 2006. Yeah, that Romo Flub Snap game? No, that was that was next year. Like, no, that was like oh, six. Yeah, that's what Seattle wants. Yeah, that was in Seattle. That was crazy. But and then another one here in Rogers, the calf was a little banged up in this one. So I was used to this.

Need some built in excuses coming into it. Now, how do you how'd you guys get hot? Would you guys change up? You guys just recalibrate and focus after having a little Super Bowl hangover? A little hangover. I think we just had a team meeting and was like, what are we going to do, man? Now who leads that team meeting? Is it Russell Wilson?

No. What? No. It is. Camp Chester was like the more of the heart of the team. Yeah. I can see that. Cam Chesler was like the guy that like, he's not going to say a lot of stuff, but like

when he starts to say stuff, because Earl Thomas doesn't really talk that much, you know what I'm saying? He just kind of like more chillin' with his big road voices outside, you know, ready to come to practice. And then Cam is like the guy that's like, he says something, he's kind of, Sharman's the talker, but then Cam's like the enforcer, right? So Cam was the guy that kind of like,

that pulled the team together at that moment, because he cares so much about the game. Like I don't think people realize how- He didn't swear much, did he? No, no. Yeah, I remember. I always tell a story about when the first block, I would always go in and block the force,

and I would lay the ham on him. I would fucking, I was short, I wasn't small, I was still at 198 pounds. So I could go in and I could light a guy up to let him know the first play, we're gonna be here all day. I did that to fucking camp chancellor and I got woozy. He knocked me out damn near first play of the game

and he felt like he was rooted, like a tree. He's a big guy, man. And he's just strong. He's a big guy, man. He's just strong. He wasn't even looking at me. He just gave me an arm and I went in and tried to give him helmet to helmet because that's what you do as blockers.

You know, you want to give a little kiss and he fucking lit me up and he knew I was a little jacked up. He says, it's going to be a long day, young fella or something like that. It's kind of low nose things like, like Cam Newton is the same way, right? Like people don't realize how big Cam Newton was.

Cam is huge. Yeah, there's some people that are just like genetic freaks, you know? So Cam came in there and we had the team meeting and kind of got it together, kind of bring everybody together because you're like, people start finger pouring. Who's the success, who's not the success?

No, we winning because of me winning. Like, no, we winning because of each other. There's a balance. Like, yeah, we're a great defense, but if they don't score points, I mean, we just need y'all to score like six points. You know what I'm saying? Like we can hold them to three.

You know what I mean? But if like the whole point is that we needed to get them to come together and like with Earl, I mean with Cam and the defense coming together and offense and just Kumbaya. And then Doug Baldwin was a really good leader too. So Doug was- I always respected Baldwin, man.

I thought he was, he always made big plays when the team needed it. He always, you know, like you guys- He's the black version of you. It could be. He was tough. He blocked hard. He's the black version of you, man.

Is he? Yeah, yeah, yeah. How, is he the same size? Yeah, yeah, about the same size. He was good. I'll take it. He scored some touchdowns, some Super Bowls now. I'll joke, I'll joke, I'll joke. No, but Doug was a super good player,

and he was tough and he was tenacious, and he would do the things like you said, like the blocking. He respected every part of the game. He was a student of the game. And I think with Doug and Cam coming in, that kind of changed the whole thing. Yeah.

And so when this game was, so I remember specifically, I was getting ready for the game and they delayed our game because you guys went to overtime. Yeah. I was like, what the fuck is going on? This is national football. These multi-billion dollar corporation.

Why are we postponing a goddamn game? Oh, because they want everybody to watch y'all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They need to take two minutes to the next one. If you want to watch this one, we're moving that one back. We own this shit. And so I go into the equipment room and it was right when the on-site kick happened. I'm like, no fucking way.

Like I didn't realize until I started doing, I mean, I remember back in the day, this is 10 years ago now, but I forgot how fucking crazy of a game this was. I started doing I mean, I remember back in the day, this is 10 years ago now. But I am real. I forgot how fucking crazy of a game this was. Oh, yeah, it was crazy because like you guys had to go line stops in the first quarter off of a pick and off of a what kickoff return fumble. Yep. And like I'm sitting here like, how the fuck did this team win?

And then we get back and we'll get into the game. But like, I remember specifically, I'm sitting here like on-site kick, wow, there's no way they're getting, and you guys got it, and then that's right when we had to go out. And so it was crazy. Cause I think we only gave a one touchdown. No, yeah, one touchdown.

It was the cadence, the cadence touchdown. Yeah, and I think I jumped off sides. But sorry, we still won. But at the end of the day, that was a hard game because Russell threw so many interceptions. It was just like, Russ, come on, bro. Like, not three against this team. And that kind of happened the year of the next year

when we lost against y'all, but we had a kind of beat up season. But we still was able to put it together. We beat the Lions and then we went down to Carolina. And that's when Carolina, that's when Kim New was at his best. We could have won that game too, but Russell threw so many interceptions that game. And it was just like, bro, God only gives us this every once in a while. Do what you do with thing.

But that game was just a challenging game because on defense it was like we had to keep going and stop. But like, that was the first game that like, when I was on defense, that when they threw an interception, it wasn't people going like, it was like, all right, all right, like, let's go, like, like, how are we going to do this? Like, it ain't going to be us, you know what I'm saying? They ain't going to be, they not going to give up nothing on us today. So that's how we went out there every single time was like, look, we about to go out here

and stop them, stop them again, stop them again. Like, you know, even in that fourth quarter, like those stops that we made to get the ball back, those were hard stops, because they try to run the clock out, you know what I mean? Yeah, what made an offense the toughest part? That's the part there, it's harder than two minutes a lot of times, because it's like they got,

so that was a really hard game, because- Now what goes into a goal line stand? Like, what do you have to do to stop an offense from running the, like what is it? Defense line has to have penetration, what is it? Penetration kills all runs if you know that, especially on stretch plays. Anytime you get it, that's why three techniques

are so important in certain schemes, because three technique is kind of the pillar to getting the defense going. What's the three technique? Three technique is the one the pillar to getting the defense going. What's the three technique? Three technique is the one that lines up on the guard. The one that lines up on the guard for you listeners. Yeah, he could be a two eye, he could be a three depending on the shade of it.

But most of the time you have people like, the people that you know that are in the Hall of Fame, they mostly all were three techniques, you know what I'm saying? Cause they're the ones that get the sacks, they're the ones that get off the ball. I was a three technique anti defensive man. So that was a hard, hard place to play. But we, in this, in this game,

it was just like getting the penetration and stopped them from being able to move forward on the running with a guy like Eddie Lacey. That means you gotta have a lot of people. He's not, the first person probably not gonna take him down. So everybody has to be able to score. Swarm. So we have to swarm a lot to be able to do that.

How was it playing under Quinn? Man, Dan Quinn, I still talk to Dan Quinn a lot. I feel like Dan Quinn was one of the best defensive coordinators I ever had a chance to play with because he just knew the game and he just would teach you and he wouldn't settle for anything. If you notice like almost every team he goes to, the defense is pretty good.

And he, defense in line is his favorite, you know what I'm saying? So like, you never gonna see him with not a stack defense in line. Like, look at the defense in line of the commanders. They had a stack defense in line. You know? They were selling a bunch of guys.

He's developing guys too now. He's developing guys, but still they had the two D-Tacos that were beast. He loves D-Tacos. So like, looking at the Cowboys, looking at the Falcons like always, you know, but sometimes there's cracks in the defense if you don't come back, you know,

he's been a part of the two worst comebacks in NFL, but still, still a great defensive coordinator. I mean, he's still got to get there. And he's, he's taken the team to the Superbowl and he's got a young quarterback and Jayden Daniels, that's looking really damn good. He's got a good situation. Only thing I get scared of with Dan Quinn is the same thing that happened in Atlanta when Kyle Shanahan leaves what how's he gonna react oh he's

a great piece he knows how to defense but once Kyle Shanahan left Atlanta wasn't the same yeah but Cliff Kingsbury is there right now he's gonna develop Jayden Jayaden is looking great. What if he leaves and gets a head coaching job next year? That's true, but then he has to be able to have the right people behind him to... It's hard though. You have good coaches. That's what people don't realize.

When you win, you lose. You're losing players and you're losing coaches. You don't look at the Chiefs. I think that's why Washington never leaves the defense coordinator because he's like... Spags? He's already kind of done that. It's like, this is a good situation. You know what look at the Chiefs, I think that's why it wasn't that he never leaves the defense coordinator because he's like- Spags? Yeah, it's like- He's already kind of done that. It's like, this is a good situation. You know what I'm saying?

Like, I get to worry about defense and I know we're going to win. That was a lot of why we had our success because our coaches stayed intact. Like the Ivan Fears, Scar was there for a long time. Chaddy O'Shea was there for 11 years. You know, the Belichick. There was a bunch of guys that stayed. We had Matty P and Flo and all those guys. Once they, you know, that's a huge part of it.

But a lot of those guys be good coaches, but then it's like, it's different when you lead your own team because some of the tactics that- Yeah, you can't, you gotta learn how to be your own figure. Yeah, yeah. You can't just go try to be Bill Belichick. Yeah, and that don't, everybody don don't yeah, it's hard for other people Jack the game

Yeah, so we covered the the intro here two picks in the first five minutes. That would be a theme for the day interceptions By both sides We got a Green Bay field goal after the first one one of those first defensive stands on the goal line that we talked about after the first one, one of those first defensive stands on the goal line that we talked about. Then the Doug Baldwin fumble on the kickoff. Another stand on the goal line only resulted in three. Then at the end of the quarter we got the 13-0 with the free play. Rogers to Cobb only touchdown of the day for Green Bay. Moving in the second quarter two more Russell interceptions. Rogers interception. There's a three drives in a row that all ended in interceptions, a Rogers interception. There's three drives in a row that all end in interceptions.

And then- Pickfest. Yeah, Pickfest. 9.37 left, he throws his second one. Still has yet to make a completion, Russ. I mean, we got three picks and no completions, crazy. In the first half? In the first half.

How did, first off, what's Pete Carroll's halftime like? And then what's halftime of this game with defense like? Pete Carroll's like, so what we're gonna do, we'll play good defense, we'll get a ball to march on, and Russell, just complete some passes, we're gonna win. All right, guys, we can go out there and win. We can go out there and win,

if we play good defense, and get a ball to march on, and we just play the game. All right, guys, we're not really down by much. Let's go out there. And it's like, bro, 16-0. How many, how many pieces of gum does he go through again? I don't know, man. He chewed that gum without the gum.

Does he have a gum guy? He has a gum guy. Everybody, you're not really rich if you don't have a gum guy. Hey, uh, Ryan can I have a piece of gum? Yeah, you got it. Yo, he's got a Monarch guy too. He rocks those Monarchs too, baby. Oh, the Monarchs. He loves the Nike Monarchs, man. He brought them, Pete Carroll brought those Monarchs too. He rocks those Monarchs too, baby.

He loves the Nike Monarchs, man. Pete Carroll brought those Monarchs back. He did, bro. Single-handedly. It's something like Kanye. It was Pete. Now, what do you guys, as a defense, is Quinn talking to you guys? Are you guys having a players only?

We're having a players defensive meeting just being like, look, coaches don't even need to come in here. Let's come down to us doing, executing at the highest level. Look, it doesn't matter what Russell does or what Hart does. We don't, we gave up some points. The field goal still mattered to us, you know what I'm saying? So at the end of the day, it's like, don't even let them get in field goal position.

Like, let's just keep them back, stop them every opportunity that we get, play great defense, you know what I'm saying? And just, anybody that get the ball, knock them out. You know what I'm saying? Like, a good chance, hit the quarterback, make him feel it, off his line, no excuses. This is the ball, knock them out. You know what I'm saying? Like, it could get you just hit the quarterback, make him feel it, off his line, no excuses. This is the last game of the year.

If you don't play this game, you're gonna have a great time in Kabul in a week. You know what I'm saying? Like, this is about going to Arizona. So it was like, look, I don't care if your shoulder hurt. I don't care what you're going through at home. Like, you need to be hyper hyper focused right now, detailed, you know what I'm saying?

To win this type of game. And I think that's what we kind of settled down and did. Now what's Marshawn doing in a locker room at halftime? I don't know, I don't wanna speak on that. I love Marshawn. Marshawn is, he just like, bro I been telling y'all to give me the ball, man. Y'all wanna win the game?

Like what are we doing right now? Like, I'm trying to get high key out here. Y'all stop to win the game like what like what we do it right now Y'all stop me from dancing like you know I'm saying to the skittles, you know, like he's just like he's like I've been telling you all just you know, like what we do it. What's your best? What's your what's your best Marshawn story? Man, nothing I can say on camera man light-hearted one the best thing about I can say on camera, man. A lighthearted one. The best thing about Marshawn is that each day is real regardless of the situation. Whether winner or loser, you get the same person.

I think that's what I love about Marshawn. He's just a funny guy, man. Even in Hawaii, he comes to Hawaii and then he'll have a turkey drive or whatever. Marshawn is the type of person that's always going to go to wherever the most impoverished people are in the world and go there first. He's not gonna, if he go to London, he not gonna go to the Buckingham Palace. He gonna go to London to the East side.

But that's just who he is, right? He grew up in that type of area. So it's like, that's the one thing I have to say about Marshawn. Like that's just the thing I like about him is that he just keeps it real like that the whole time. Dude, I went, so I grew up in the Bay and I had a lot of friends that went to Berkeley

with Marshawn and there's such a funny story where Marshawn was coming off of the practice field in his full getup, right? And he liked my boy's bike. He's like, yo, my boy loved Marshawn because Marshawn was a superstar. And so my boy goes, I'll trade you my bike for your helmet. And he goes, fuck it. And he goes, I got a Sharpie. Will you sign it?

He signed it. My buddy still has assigned Marshawn Lynch hat or helmet. Could you imagine going back to in college? Where's your helmet? I don't know. I got a bike. Yeah. Like Marshawn. He's just real. Just real. So fucking funny.

But he was really beast in that game. Those really unreal, unreal, like the runs and the hits and things that like how he played the game, you know, like Marshawn, like he was just in one play. I don't think that the Green Bay wanted to tackle him in some of those plays later on in the game, like especially the third, the fourth. He runs angry. He runs angry the whole time.

So he was very like, he was very instrumental in us winning that game was him taking over the game and him getting the ball more. Now, where does he fit amongst running backs career? I would say that he's definitely in hall of fame, right? I think when you think about his time period of the three running backs that were like the focal points for that time,

which would be Adrian Peterson, LaShawn McCoy and Marshawn Rich. Like those are the three guys, if you think about the 2010s. Elk House. Those are the guys that you would hear about. There was other guys who like do good for the season, but like consistently,

these were the guys that were the most consistent. I don't know if I'm leaving somebody out, but, so Marshawn and his time period was definitely one of the best running backs. I agree. And y'all probably, when y'all was watching y'all probably, he's probably one of the key players that y'all were talking about, cause I don't know,

what were the key players that you guys are looking at when you guys were playing? We have to stop Marshawn. Yeah, see? On offense, we are, as a team, you know, we had to stop Marshawn and then we had to get vertical against the defense because you guys swarmed so much. Yeah. And ball security. That was like, those are the three things that I'm just thinking off of Dome. Yeah. Yeah, he was a

huge, I mean, I loved watching Marshawn and we played him a bunch when he was in Buffalo. Yeah. You know what I mean? So we knew what he was about. And he, I feel like his game went to another level when he got to. Without a doubt, but he was still, he was still a franchise running back. He was still a first rounder guy, you know? And he just made crazy plays.

He's always, I wish I got to play with Marshawn. He seems like a fucking awesome teammate. He's the best teammate. You know what I mean? He shows up to all the kids birthday parties, all the things he shows up. I can see if I was, like if, cause guys are always up and down in the locker room.

People don't realize we see each other at our worst and at our best. So that's the thing I feel like people didn't connect to Russell about, right? Cause you got like a guy like Marshawn who kind of shows up to everything. Then maybe Russell doesn't show up to everything and people start feeling a certain way, you know what I mean?

Because it's like everybody's showing up to everybody's thing, but it's like, wait, you're not coming? But it's like you go to everybody's birthday party, go to all kids' birthday parties, you know, weddings, all these different things. So like people want to see teammates invested in those type of things.

And when people smell that, they can understand that something feels weird. Yeah. Now, what do you guys think about, what did you think about you guys grind back? You guys somehow get a touchdown for the because the offense wasn't doing anything all day. And do the fake field goal, fake field goal touchdown. When you get that two point version, are you sitting there like?

Well, at that time, I also believed that Russell Wilson was a great person who didn't really get overcome by anything. No matter how much noise he was hearing, how many things that was happening, he would be super focused, hyper focused. Even in that situation, Bryce Young, he wouldn't do that. Bryce Young is saying that it's not his fault that he played bad. I'm like, it was your fault.

But Russell Wilson at that time, you could see that he still wanted to win. He wasn't going down. He was talking to himself. He was really... He made some mistakes, but he definitely was... When his team needed it, he made a couple plays. Yeah, he wanted to win. The resilience of that was so incredible watching this. At halftime, he's two for nine, 12 yards, three interceptions with a QBR of 0.0.

It meant to come back and- When did you feel you guys were going to win this game? Was it the whole time? Yeah, I thought we was going to win the whole time, honestly. I felt like we were just a moment in time before we'd have that win. I felt like when they went and capitalized on all the interceptions and the turnovers, that eventually we would get it and we would figure out maybe we should just just start running the ball because it was kind of cold that day too. You guys. Well, you guys ran the ball while you were down two scores of five minutes to go.

Yeah, we got that's crazy to me. We got more challenge without a doubt. But we did do that in the Super Bowl, which has never made sense to me. I'm like, you know, I'm like watching the game like you watch that little part. And it's like, well, we thought we'd do like they threw the, like, y'all was ready for it to play offense. You know, like, no more, yeah, so I don't know. We ran the ball in that game and believed in Marshawn, but Marshawn, and that game was just a tough game,

because Aaron Rodgers, like I said, you knew he was gonna be MVP here at an incredible season, so us stopping him and not scoring gave us a lot of opportunities to be able to win that game. That was huge there at the end with like five left. Russell throws his fourth interception in the game, you're down two scores, like, oh shit. And then the biggest, I mean, the biggest three

and how you guys forced was you getting up the middle and getting through the Lacey back to back times tackles for losses ends up third and 16 forces that punt. And like- I was in my head, I was like- You were balling, bro. I was like, they better not run this way. Cause right now, like I was going to go for it. You know what I'm saying? Like I was going to head, I was like- You were balling, bro. I was like, they better not run this way, because right now, I was going to go for it.

You know what I'm saying? I was going to go through the person and go to make that play. I didn't care. Like some Hulk shit. Yeah, some Hulk shit. Literally, it was like three people blocking me, and I picked the tight end up, threw the full back down, and made the running back. I was just like, I don't care right now.

I don't really care about my body at this moment. I really just want to win this game. Your helmet blew off. It was like full warrior mode. That's the beauty of playoff football. Cause whether guys will say it or not, there are calculated risks during the regular season. In playoffs, all that's out.

That's why it's the most dangerous time to play. Cause guys don't give a, there's no tomorrow. No, there's no you playing. There's no tomorrow. Like I There's no you playing like that. There's no tomorrow. I didn't care. I know that tight end probably was like, he's just going to come off the ball right. But then I'm like, plus the tight ends, I never let tight ends block me because I just

like... Yeah. You can't let a tight end block. Gronk was good, but you know. Gronk could block. Gronk could block. And after that, we love Gronk. After that, that awesome stand, only 18 seconds come off the clock.

Score, get the onside kick, which is crazy. Chris Matthews, Mr. The Man of the Month. Did you guys remember practicing that? You saw that in practice? Yeah, but I also was like, Chris Matthews just had a great month, you know what I'm saying? If I was him, I would have played the lottery like every day. Like, you know what?

Like, it's my time. Why did he have a great month? He played so good in that game. He played great in the Super Bowl. Yeah. And that, he was like, it's my time. Why did he have a great month? He played so good in that game. He played great in the Super Bowl. Yeah. And that, he was like the champion of that game really when we think about it. Two touchdowns, like 130 points. Insane.

That was most of his career production. That was the end of his career. Yeah. And then Marshon, the go-ahead touchdown, leaving like, that was so sick, the way he walks he goes backwards. He always does the home-a-dee. Home-a-dee. He did it like while he was looking at the guy.

Did you see it? Like he didn't do it to the world. Yeah, he didn't do it to the world. He didn't go full beast quick diving backwards. Then he went and shook his guy's hands. He's like, but he did the home-a-dee before. Yeah, he did. On a sneak.

I don't think he was thinking like that. Maybe he was though, he was. He's one of the smartest people I he was thinking like that. Maybe he was though. He was. He's one of the smartest people I ever met, honestly. I love Marshawn. We gotta get him on here. We gotta. Then this thing goes into OT. Leave a little too much time on the clock.

Mason Crosby feel a little forces overtime. Russ and the boys get the kick, or get the coin flip, go down six plays, 87 yards, three minutes, 19 seconds. Russ was three for three for 80 yards with the walk off Duddy. The walk off, that changed Jermaine Curtis life, right? Cause that was a tough catch. Jermaine Curtis is really one of the most

underrated receivers. He loves those seam routes. Yeah, he made a lot of big plays that people overlook, you know, like. The Malcolm play. Or the one where he like kicked the ball and caught it. Yeah, the one that was on Malcolm Butler. Oh yeah.

Like on the seam, right? In the Super Bowl. Yeah. Where like, yeah, cause Malcolm had a great play on it. But Jemaine has a great hand-eye coordination like- Play the ball in the area. Well, he's also like a really great golf player. He's a decent tennis player, can't beat me, but.

You're good at tennis? Great at tennis. Jeez. Hell yeah. Yeah, good at tennis? Great at tennis. Jeez. Hell yeah. Yeah, punch grunk at the end. Yeah, so the aftermath, let's get into the aftermath. So did you get a little, you did your little bike thing. Do you remember when Marshawn did it

with the field car in college? Yeah, I remember him doing that, but I was just like, I was tired. I was like, let me get around this. You know, black people in the police, we don't really get along. That was like, that was really kind of, it was an opportunity to change the world if they would have just followed me on that. You know? What do you mean? Like I was brisk, I brisked it. Was that a cop, that was a cop bike?

Yeah, I was like, give me a bite. I'm a commandeer in this. Did he cool, he was cool with it? He was cool with it. I don't know if that would have happened if I was like in the streets in Chicago or something. Let me do a quick victory lap. Yeah 28 22 just to clear that one up Seattle with nothing to 22 you guys coming back from 16. Oh down You guys are flying high Being in the Super Bowls there. I mean that's that's a fun. That's a fun feeling after like us a close We played the Chiefs and beat them on the road in 18,

like close games in the NFC championship, you feel so exhilarated because you're, you finally get to go to the last game. It's almost like certain teams once you like, I remember when I first went to the Superbowl in 10, 11, like it was like we won because we were going and there were certain guys that were like, nah, we're not done. Yeah. I think that's one of those things you realize too is how hard it is to get to that whole level of Super Bowl and trying to stay in the moment.

And actually getting there and having really playing a tough game and in that second half, really the Patriots really did a great job. So the aftermath was really interesting because I think that was one of those turning points. I think if we win that game, we probably would probably end up going to three Super Bowls back to back, right? I think, you know, the coming, that following year was very difficult

because it was like, took the whole season to kind of like finally get together as one unit because everybody was pointing fingers at whose fault it was. But my head was like, it's everybody's fault if you lose, honestly. This is just like a really unique play where it's like comes down to it, but you know, we gave up points on defense,

the offense didn't score enough for it. We didn't do this. It's just like everybody plays a role in it. Yeah, I mean, it's a team sport. It's the ultimate team sport. 11 men have to do their job for five seconds. And if one guy messes up, it could be a colossal fuck up. I'm choking Gronk on this one.

So can we talk about this? How did this go? I don't know, I just was like, man, fuck they won. You know what I'm saying, like let's fight. You know what I'm saying? Like, let's just fight. Like who winning the fight? You know what I'm saying?

Like might as well at this point, what's gonna happen? It's that theory that you don't know if you like winning more than you hate losing. Yeah, it's just like, man, like all that to be here. Yeah, and I was playing really good this game and I was just like, I was just like, wanting to like, yeah, but it all turns out, it is what it is.

Now, immediately after that game in locker room, was there like? It was shock. Why did we not run it? Yeah, I think that was what everybody was thinking. Oh, was that everyone's mind? Yeah, I think Pete still thinks that. I think that's one of, he would probably never say that,

but I bet in his head a little bit that like, he wonders if what would happen if he just ran the ball, right? I think. Yeah. Well you guys were down four. You were down four, so it was third down, was it third down?

Second, I believe. Second down, so they had three downs at the two. I went through it to fourth down. And we was on, yeah, so, yeah, most likely could have did two quarterback sneaks. Yeah, that, sorry that I'm thankful that they ran. Yeah. Yeah, that. Sorry that I'm thankful that they ran. Yeah. Legacy, the Mount Rush, more of Seahawk defenders after that one.

I think they still you still got Earl Thomas. Earl Thomas probably goes down as one of the best safeties. I think it'll take him a little bit to, you know, everything that kind of happened at the end will be shaky. But I think he still is a Hall of Famer. I think Shurm for sure. Shurm has done a great job in retirement and career, all the things he's done in football. Bobby for sure. Like, KJ is really good.

Cliff was great. Cam was great. Like, there's a lot of great defenders on that team. That's just the whole defense is a legion of boom. The whole defense is on the wall. The whole defense is on the wall. The whole defense is on the wall. Take a great defense to win. It does.

I think where did we go as the best defensive history? Yeah, where does this go in the best legion of boom? Some people say number one and number two, depends who you ask. Competing with what, 85 Bears? 85 Bears are the Ravens. Ravens, oh, 2000 Ravens? Yeah.

That's even cooler. Statistically, we were kinda the best, we were statistic wise. How, what statistics show that? Scoring, running, passing, turn, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. So, I don't know.

Some could say. Some could say. I mean, it was a fucking tough defense. You had to earn everything. You had to play so precise. Any fuck up against that defense, they made you pay. The thing I loved about that defense too was just the competitiveness. It really was the practice, not really the games.

It was just really the amount of people who compete at practice. That's crazy when you think about like, Sharon really trying to intercept Doug when defense is super great. Well, the 49ers was good too, though, so I don't know. That one time the 49ers had a really great defense for all of them. Smith, Jethro, Smith, Patrick Willis, Nabarro Bowman. Oh, yeah. They always have a good defense.

They still have a good defense. But I don't know what's up with their defense right now. They can't stop the run. They gotta stop the run. They lost to Armstead. What's his name? Hargrave just got hurt, didn't he? Yeah, stopping a run is a decision.

I think they made pass rushing so important to overlook defense. Some people would be like, oh, I want a guy who... If I'm a defensive coordinator, I'll take a guy who gets between 10 and 15 sacks and has 25 TFLs and a lot of quarterback hits and disruptive. More than a guy who has like- 20 sacks. 20 sacks and that's all he does is rush up the field to get the sack, but it's like, that's my problem with Michael Parsons.

Michael Parsons, right? When you watch some of the games, it's like he's a really good defender, but like there's some things that he can improve in on the run game. Like even when you watch the game against Ravens, like there was plays where, you know, he was supposed to be in the gap and you could see him over pursuing, but he's a smaller guy up front playing defensive line. But at the same time, sometimes with the defenders, when you to get better at the run game, keep his sack total.

He gets 18 sacks, let's just get 15 and let's get you 30 TFLs. Let's be in the field. J.J. Watt was really good because J.J. Watt had a lot of TFLs. When you look at the end of the season, he had a lot of plays behind the lines, scrimmage in the run game. It was kind of overlooked.

Yeah. I mean, he was never overlooked when we played him. We played him a bunch. No. I'm just saying, people talk about his pass rusher, but yeah, a lot of players- I think that's what made him better than a pass rusher. Yeah, he was just an overall player. Like Terrell Suggs, you look at the end of the year-

T. Sizzle? Those guys were overall good players to where it was like they were just great defenders. They weren't great pass rushers, great defenders. Every down guys. Every down guys that could do it all and get to the back of the quarterback to get to hits. They could have TFLs. They would always have 25 plus TFLs, you know? I mean, that's how Bill looks at it, I feel.

Just because like anytime we'd always have an outside guy come in and join our defense I get out like they would always get mad like we have too much response like they're not even going for a goddamn sack you know what I mean because we would have a thing where you keep them in the pocket make them beat them with the deep you know there's always like a strategic thing of the defensive line rush yeah where we were at as you probably can talk to or a lot of guys were like, that's not what I came from. No, no, exactly.

But I would say that's the thing I would say that when I watch football now, you see a lot of guys, even like Derrick Henry, a lot of those runs are just guys just being out their gap. Purposefully? No, I think sometimes it's just like when they run in those stretch plays or they double up on the offense and line where you get nudged by the tackle and the tackle's working his way up to the linebacker or you're a two-eyed and the center bumps you and he's on the way to the mic, you know what I'm saying?

And they isolate in DBs on some of those crunch plays. Nobody likes those crunch plays where you're making the quarterback tackle. Those are hard plays to stop. You look at that type of defense and then you got a good blocking receivers, it's hard. It's a decision. Like you said, you said blocking the run is a decision. Life is a decision when you come out the football.

Are you choosing violence or violence is choosing you? So choose the violence. Choose the violence on the football field. On the football field, in between the wins. Not on the field, on the field, in between the lines. Not on the off the field. On the field, in sports. We miss anything about this game? No, I think you got it right.

I think this is one of the, it'll go down as one of the most, one of the greatest division championship games because it came down to like two great teams. The great offense did what the great offense was supposed to do. And then at the end, the great defense did what it was supposed to do. And they end up with one team just making one more play than another. Dude, I couldn't agree more. It was so fun going back and watching this game.

Cause I don't really remember, I didn't remember it as much because I was in the AFC. But going back and seeing this, like we may never see a game like that again because the on-site kicks and you know what I mean? You can't get an on-site kick nowadays. No, you can't. It's fucking impossible.

You gotta declare this certain amount of guys can't be over here, like that with the interceptions. It's just, it was a fun game to re-dive into. I appreciate you fucking coming and talking about it. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back after this quick break. In July 1881, a man walked into a train station, pulled out a gun and shot the president of the United States.

James Garfield's assassination horrified the American people, and they wanted his killer, Charles Guiteau, punished. But Guiteau, many experts believed, was insane. What had seemed like a black and white case was now much grayer. Could the justice system truly deliver justice in a situation like this? Guiteau's trial was extraordinary, but not unique. Important trials have always raised questions and made us reflect on the world we live in. I'm Mira Hayward, and I'm exploring the stories of these trials in my new podcast, History on Trial.

Every episode will cover a different trial from American history and reveal how the legal battles of the past have shaped our present. Listen and subscribe to History on Trial now on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Anything? Wait, I got one note here before we go. The Quest is what we were trying to think of earlier with Jean-Claude Van Damme, baby. The Quest. The Quest. 1996. That's it. That's it. Christopher DuBose, just like you said. Shout out Jean-Claude Van Damme. Jean-Claude Van Damme, baby. The Quest. The Quest. 1996. That's it. That's it.

Christopher DuBose, just like you said. Shout out John Claude Van Damme. John Claude Van Damme. We need to get John Claude Van Damme on the show. Oh my God. We got to. That would be all time. I wonder what would he do, like a soccer game?

No, he'd be football. I'm sure he'd watch football. He was in America and then, worst time, hanging out with like, Michael Jackson. A kick fighting match? I don't care if he reads a phone book. I'll let him in here doing whatever. Real quick, before we wrap this thing up, we gotta name the game. What's the name of this game?

It doesn't have to be any of this. We have the Victory Lap game, Gimme the Bike game, the Danger Russ game, Bennett's Bike Ride game, or could it be a different game name? The name of that game would be... Out of someone very artistic like you, you expect something really creative. No pressure. Witches Brew. Witches Brew.

Miles Davis. There was a lot of things in that game. A brew of competition, a brew of offenses, defenses. Plays by everything. The Witches Brew game. Yeah. Could be one of the best names we ever heard. I love that.

Let's score the game. Is this the greatest game of all time? Let's score it. Michael, stakes, zero to 10, decimals okay. The stakes of this game. It was definitely a 10, the stakes of this game. 10, 10 to go to the Super Bowl. Star power.

I'll go nine. Star power of this game, nine to nine. Star power, nine. Nine, I'll give it a nine. Aaron, I mean, you got a lot of Hall of Famers in this. Back in a seven, nine, I had an eight, nine. Star power, nine. Nine, I'll give it a nine. Aaron, I mean, you got a lot of Hall of Famers in this. That kind of seven, nine, I had an eight, one. Eight, one, what is it? What do you call stars?

I got, what's a 10 star game? Pro ball for me. Oh, okay. That's like the worst star power, honestly. Not a lot of effort being shown in that one. Brandon Marshall would argue the opposite because when he came on this show, he talked about his Pro Bowl game that he got a MVP in.

B-Marsh, you gotta stop with that shit. You gotta stop with that shit. You gotta stop with that shit, man. The gameplay of this game. The gameplay, I would say a 10 because of the amount of, between nine, I say nine. Nine. Nine point five because I feel like it was like, it took a lot to come back. High level, low, like there was a lot of pillars make big plays.

Those interception, those players made those plays. They weren't just throwing interception. Those guys made great plays. Without a doubt. I'm an offensive guy. I'm going to have a little bias. I want to see some points. But if you're a real football person, this had, I mean, this had special teams touchdown,

special teams fumbles over time. Everybody was involved. Everyone was in. It's the witches brew game. So I'm gonna go with the 8.7. So fun. Onside kick recovered, recovered in the game. That's gonna be a high score. That kind of 8.9 out of 9.1. We're recovered in the game. That's I'm gonna be a high score

Jack got a point nine. I had a nine point one We're all in the same region there and the name of the game. You have to grade the name I'll take a ten for cuz I made it so ten I'm gonna go with an eight point eight. Okay Jack had a seven. I just see I scored this before I knew we were calling her, which is weird. But what is it? Where does it land? This is an eight point seven. This is going to land high.

It's got to change. I've got to change the metrics with the name now that you guys are in. I know. Give me a free name. I'd like to bump it up a little bit. Eight point seven five. This puts us really high. Eight point seven three. This puts us tied with the 1999 Women's World Cup China versus the USA.

That was a good game. Yeah, just me and him was in that one, right? Yeah, the Rose Bowl. Brandy Chastain took her shirt off. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I remember. We, China versus the USA. That was a good game. Yeah, just blue. Me and Ham was in that one, right? Yeah, the Rose Brand and Chastain took her shirt off. Yeah, oh yeah, I remember. And we had her on the show, she was awesome. Tied for six, this is a great game. This is a really great game. This is a great spot for this game.

Thank you, thank you. Man, Michael, anything else? No, no, thank you guys. You gotta plug anything? No, no, man, no. Well, I appreciate you coming in and I hope the college looks with your daughters go great. Yeah, it'll go good. I think it'll be good. I'm getting old now.

It's, that's gotta be, I mean. It hit me the other day when I was like, you know, buy her a car and like stuff. I'm just like, damn. Going on college tours, man. This is the last time, this, this October 2nd is the last time you'll be in the house with us, you know? Real man crying, man, real man crying. The days are long, but the years are short. Yeah, the days are long. Well, thank you so much, man, and this is gonna be awesome.

Thank you, guys. Thanks. Man. He's awesome. He's just, that family. They're so like, they're really smart people. Him and Marty, Michael, like, I think they're a little misunderstood. He's, I think they're like brilliant people.

They're like interesting human beings who happen to be football players. As opposed to who are football, like, you know? Michael loves football. Like, he was, he's for sure watching. You listen to how he was breaking down the game. He watches the game, like, you know, he's making up a cool chair right now,

and some cool rugs on his own, but you know, when it's Sunday, or Monday, he's watching the football game, he loves football. You respect losing so you can understand winning. You respect Michael Bennett said that on the pod today. I know profound, profound. We got to put that on a crochet that onto a pillow. Put it on the couch, something because that is

that's an all time quote from the Nuthouse. I love that. Let's put it on a pillow. What a guy. I mean, so talented. Hey, I'll make a pillow out of it. Studio. put it on a pillow. What a guy. I mean, so talented. I'm gonna make a pillow out of it. Studio Kurt, check it out, man. He is one talented dude. And I liked that a man of taste, such as himself, gave us the cosine.

He gave me the cosine taste. He saw the Nut House. He's like, this is tasteful. Real, recognized real, baby. Champagne taste with a beer budget. Yeah. Facts. Champagne taste with a beer budget. Yeah facts Champagne taste with a beer bud. Hey, you got a gum guy, bro. You got that you got that champagne budget

When George Costano have a gum a gum. Oh, I gotta look that up. I should know that Seinfeld Jerry did here. He had a gum guy. Oh, yeah down in like a dip. Yeah that dip guys for years now But I ain't that rich. Let's hit the whole hotline, guys. Let's go. Again, that number is 424-291-2290. Hey Julian, I love your show, but everyone knows the greatest game of all time is the ice bowl.

Ice bowl? While a couple of them are still around, you need to get some Lombardi-era Packers on your show to discuss the ice bowl. Thank you. I agree a hundred zillion percent. We need to, that'd be awesome to hear about the gridiron game that I love by one of the founding fathers. 1967, December 31st, Lambeau Field, baby. Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, 21-17, the Packers edge amount.

Still the coldest game in NFL history on record. Minus 48 degrees Fahrenheit with the windchill. I remember what? That's one of the first games on the East PN Classic I watched. It was awesome. I remember they're telling the of the first games on the ESPN classic. I watched it was awesome. I remember the time the story were like the like not to make this racial, but the white players were like jealous of the black players because the black players could wear like gloves.

They had these like black gloves they could wear and the coaches couldn't tell it was there. So they were in those and all the white guys hands were freezing. I wish you would have said that in front of Michael. No, I don't would have said that in front of Michael. No? I don't even know what that means. Also everyone she wears gloves is gold. You know who went to this game?

Was at this game? Ernie. Probably. Willem Dafoe. You know Willem Dafoe the actor? I feel like I did. The Green Goblin, baby. Green Goblin.

Yeah. Shout out Florida Project. He was at this game. There's a NFL film story about it. We got to get him on. So let's get Willem on the top. Screw an old Packard. I want Willem Dafoe.

Who, Doc? Saints? Yes. Go. Dude. Great question. What a legend, bro. We should do some more old, old timey.

Psycho man. Willem Dafoe's a beast. I like that call Hi, my name is Brenda. I'm from Providence, Rhode Island. I actually want to leave a message for Trudy's mom I actually met her your lucky year. We are set down to dinner in the back hallways The stadium I didn't know who she was at first, but we were trading, we were trading, showing each other what we bought at the Photoshop, and then you came over and said hello.

So say hello to her. She's a very, very sweet woman. Bye. Well Brenda, I'll tell my mom hello for you. Mom, Brenda says hello! Mom the meatloaf! Mom what is she doing back there? I never know what she's doing. Shout out Angie we love you. She's actually here. She's actually here. Hi Joel, hi Kyler, hi Jack. This Whitney Connett. I'm making a recommendation. I think you guys should get Stone Cold Steve Austin on the pod if you can. You can literally talk

about anything I think, like football, like Texas, any from Texas or something. I don't know, or some old WBG matches. I don't care, I just want this custom butt on the pod. I love you guys, hope you're having a good day. Can't wait to listen to the pod some more. All right, bye. Wow, Whitney, I couldn't agree with you anymore. Stone Cold Steve Austin was my favorite wrestler.

Same as a kid, I used to drink two freaking cokes and slam them after. And that's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so. Austin 316 just whooped your ass. I still remember one of my earliest disappointments, kindergarten, Miss Henry's class. Shout out Miss Henry,

when my mom told me I could not go as Stone Cold Steve Austin for career day, her point was that's a man, not a career. I still don't get the distinction. That's bullshit. I am so pissed, bro. Wait, what's career? I had to go as a doctor. A doctor?

Yeah, I couldn't go as Stone Cold Steve Austin for a career day. You know what? That's bull. I know bro. I think you should be able to. I know. I'm just gonna have to get him in the Nuthouse and I'll meet my guy. We're gonna have to... We might have to start doing some wrestling moves and

try to join the WWE to prove that teacher wrong. That's right bro. Just asking 8 yearyear-old Jack, what do you wanna be when you grow up? I think it was five-year-old Jack. I wanna be him, yeah. What do you mean that's a man? That's my career path, baby.

We gotta get Stone Cold on. He'd be awesome. I have to. He'd be electric. Oh my God. I'd wanna drink a beer with him. Is he sober? No, he's got his own beer. We've had it before. We need to get on the beer.

And I wanna to hear. I love our theme music, but we're just having the glass shatter ever. Oh, man, Whitney, I could not agree more. We agree, Whitney. Shout out, Whitney. We get some, let's just say, interesting voicemails that kind of start off the same. I'm so glad this one went to a better place.

Yeah. You know, they're like, hi. Usually goes to a bad place. This one, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Good place. Good place. The Texas Rousenake. Oh, is a good place. Zang. Queen's World. Yes. Korean, right? Is it Korean? Was it Filipino? No.

Can't can't can't. And the Cantonese. Yes. What's your name? Cassandra Cassandra. Oh, she rocked. Yeah. And what's his name? Rob Lowe was trying to trying to usurp. Yeah. Yeah. She got Rob Lowe on the show. He's got an NFL shield. Well, what a fun game to go back down.

High scoring, high scoring. But then that was a I forget, I forgot about that game. That's what's great about this podcast. You get to relive the game again. Seriously. Oh, and with Mike, what a guy. Michael Bennett, awesome guy. Thanks again to Michael Bennett.

You know, I wish them the best luck with him and his family. I'm finding university for his little daughters. Such a family guy. Awesome. No, Peter Griffin. They spent the day here. Hope my mom didn't wear him out. Mom was sitting back with them. But that's been another episode of Games with Names. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Comment a game you want us to do and remember.

Rate and review. Remember to follow Games with Names on YouTube, Instagram, X, TikTok and Snapchat. Leave a message on the hotline at 424-291-2290. We'll see you guys next week. Later. Games with names of production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. From the Scopes Monkey Trial to OJ Simpson, trials have always made us reflect on the world we live in.

I'm Mira Hayward and my podcast, History on Trial, will explore fascinating trials from American history. Join me in revealing the true story behind the headlines and discover how the legal battles of the past have shaped our present. Listen and subscribe to History on Trial, now on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.