Games with Names - Highlight Reels: Best of Wide Receiver Stories

Episode Date: September 28, 2025

We hear from the best of NFL Receivers telling us their favorite stories, and go behind the scenes on what it's like to play wide receiver in the NFLSupport the show: http://www.gameswithnames.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Ah, come on. Why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech, upgrade to the ThinkPad X-1 Carbon, ultra-light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity

with Intel core ultra-processors, blazing speed, and AI-powered performance. It keeps up with your business, not the other way around. Whoa, this thing moves. Stop hitting snooze on new tech. Win the tech search at Lenovo.com. unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, powered by Intel Core Alter processors,

so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that?

Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative. and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get. Listen NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Introducing IVF disrupted, the Kind Body story, a podcast about a company that promised to revolutionize fertility care. It grew like a tech startup. While Kind Body did help women start families, it also.

So left behind a stream of disillusioned and angry patience. You think you're finally, like, in the right hands. You're just not. Listen to IVF Disrupted, the Kind Body Story, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi there, this is Josh Clark from the Stuff You Should Know podcast. If you've been thinking, man alive, I could go for some good true crime podcast episodes, then have we got good news for you. Stuff You Should Know just released a playlist of 12 of our best true crime episodes of all time.

There's a shootout in broad daylight. People using axes in really terrible ways, disappearances, legendary heists, the whole nine yards. So check out the stuff you should know true crime playlist. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Chetty, and I'm the host of the on-purpose podcast. Today, I'm joined by Emma Watson. Emma Watson has apparently quit acting.

Emma Watson has announced she's retiring from acting. Has anyone else noticed that we haven't seen Emma Watson? in anything in several years. Emma Watson is opening up the truth behind her five-year break from acting. Watson said she wasn't very happy. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. A brand new highlight reel starts now with a compilation of a couple of our favorite

moments from the show. Now, Cooper Cup on what actually happens in the NFL offseason. How's the off season been going? It's been really good. Yeah. Yeah, it was probably my first off season. Having a full, having a full off season and being healthy out the gate where I can go and just train how I want to. Really, since, you know, the end of 2020 going into 21 was the last time I had a full off season.

And so having that's been been great. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you just can't, you can't put enough value on just that time and the preparation it takes to get your body right. to go make this push. Yeah, well, to put in context, what people don't realize is when you're banged up in an off-season, you're not getting better. You're trying to get to where you were at.

And the league is so smart that you have to reinvent yourself semi every off-season because there's film of how you've played the year before. So it really takes a hamper in like your off-season gains. Yes. When you're hurt. Because you're trying to get to zero. You know what I mean?

you're not putting anything on top. Oh, yeah. No, I've spent the last four years training with the same group. I had the same trainer who actually this off-season was hired by Atlanta. So thanks to Rahim for taking my trainer

who can no longer program for me. He's playing the, he's playing level 501 ball over there in Atlanta. Yeah. I mean, draft analysts, I would say someone different, but we can move past that. We're going to talk about that right now.

But they took them over Bill. Yeah, they did. It's crazy. But when I was touching, was the off season. We're getting off, we're getting on these rabbit trails. Off season.

I've been with these guys for four years. When you get to the end of the season, you go back and you hit your baseline that first week, right? And it's like, you don't realize how much your body breaks down the course of a season where that off season you start

so far from where you went into the season because there's just no way. Like you try to maintain things as you go. It's dang near impossible. You play these long seasons and your body's so broken. down there's so much just to build up like you said just to get back to where you were physically and then all the armory got put on to prepare yourself all the conditioning the things you got to do

to put you know create some change in your body to be able to take the adaptation from this off season going into OTAs and say okay now we're we're going to you know grind through OTAs then you get one month to basically gear up for training camp in a 17 game season yeah plus playoffs and so it is a it's a big deal but yeah man I feel I feel really good That's awesome. Now, what are some of the point of emphasis you have going in this offseason to your game? Now that you're healthy, you can self-scout, you can check out what you need to work on. What's some of the things that you are trying to get better at?

Yeah, I mean, I think the same mantra in every year. It's the bigger, faster, stronger. I think the mobility side of things have been a huge piece. Just coming off of the ankle surgery a couple years ago, things that come out of that. I mean, I think you get hurt, especially something. as low to the ground as an ankle, how it affects things up the chain. And you start compensating.

And once your body starts compensating, things start tightening, things start loosening. There's just a, you know, you want to keep your body back into balance and moving the way it's supposed to. Because I think professional athletes, we are professional at compensating and working through injury.

When you do that, your body's, that's not optimum. Right. It leaves you vulnerable. Exactly. And so it's pulling back and finding what that optimum is, again, that's been the big focus just in terms of how my body, how I want my body to work.

And then, you know, in terms of, you know, skill-wise, as you're moving through into, like, you know, the technical side of the game, there's so much that you want to, you watch film and, like, every year you look back, you're like, oh, man, there's just so much you can do better. So many things, so many details that you can press yourself on. And, like, you know, what kind of tools can add to your tool belt

as counters to what worked? Like, what worked? How are people going to stop it? How do I counter that? Yeah, and you're in the point of your career where you could watch film and you can go practice off a specific look of how it may not have went your way and you can put that and play that game in your mind

and you're probably at the point where you're running routes. Oh yeah. You're running routes. Yeah, exactly. I mean... You get better at playing football, playing football. Yep, exactly.

I think there's a few different steps that just like the visualization side of things of where you're like, you know, I know my wife knows that when I'm laying in bed and suddenly I'll just be like, wow, flinch out. I'll just like, okay. What were you doing there?

What was happening? Yeah, I got to think I was running this route. The safety was driving down. You know, like, it's like, it's real. It's like you get to this point where you're visualizing things to the point where your body is like reacting to it and you're going. You take the next step. And now we're, you know, in OTAs, we're running routes on air.

And we don't run routes on air just to run routes on air. Like there's an intent behind what you're doing. You're seeing, hey, this is how this DB is playing us. Let's run this route. And we're talking to Matthew. Like, hey, this is three carry. It's a tight carry outside. Like, how we want to run this route on this one.

and what angles are we coming out at? So now you're running routes on air and you're visualizing these things. So now when it does come time that you're competing, you've seen that. You've seen it, you've visualized it, you've felt all those steps that you're going to take. You've seen how he's going to play and react

to each move you're going to do. At that point, once you're playing the game, it's like, man, I've taken this rep over and over and over again. No, we used to call that deja vu. Next, we got Puka Nakuwa, revealing how much money it costs to change your number over the off season. Devante Adams.

That's a big addition. I think he's going to be a huge help for you guys. Being able to be a guy that could win on the backside, outside the numbers, consistently, something you guys kind of lacked last year, like, or a red area target. You guys would do all that hay and then you get in the red area and, you know, Higgsby was a little banged up. So having Devante there, that's going to be huge. What are you going to, have you guys talked? A little bit.

When he came out of science contract, I think he's still been out in Vegas. But one, first I want to get him out on the basketball. court too because I'm like I feel like I always see you like yeah as a wide receiver I feel like that you see it like how they kind of move through the on the basketball court but I know he's a big basketball fan too and I'm like we'll get up well for sure he's going to show up to OTAs we're going to get

a lot of routes in we're going to talk about it I'm like once I can see you on the basketball court I think I can understand how you think about football too I'm like you get that similar movement pattern is going to come out I think yeah 1,000% so what did you do for 17 like what did he that's a man so it's so fun

I how would have the number Did you give you a couple bands? I wish. He got it for the free ski. Free ski? Did you play pig? Were you going to play pig? What?

Did he beat you? No, no, no. He definitely didn't beat me in pig, no chance. So that didn't happen. But I was already planning to switch to 12. So you know, you got to file the paperwork and stuff like that. They got to buy out your jerseys and stuff like that. I'm like, I was still a fifth round pig.

I'm like, they asked like, how they're like, it will be 500,000 to switch your jersey. I'm like, I think you forgot when. I got drafted. I was like, I don't got that type of money. I was like, for a jersey number, no. That's the time. I was like, no. So you fill out the paperwork,

how to wait a whole year. So this year was like, I was getting ready to like the springtime. Once that official season, March or whenever it is, they switch over, I was going to be going to number 12. And it's like,

we signed Devante Adams and everybody's like, yo, what are you about to do? And I'm like, man, if I would have waited. You would have waited. If I would have waited like three more weeks,

like I would have got to at least. You could have come up 500. I know, that's what I'm saying. You go to $500 there, you get a couple here. And then we've got a fun trip in the offseason. I know. That's why I took the guys out. But now what DeMonte's got to do?

I'm going to make sure I'm holding up. I think you need a couple more Jewish people in your life. Okay, I'm just letting you know, bugs. You can't be talking about age and you can't be getting impatient with number changes. Let's go. Cost you a couple bill. Yeah, exactly. Now, Steve Smith on his favorite track.

If I hit you down low, that was because I didn't respect you. But if I didn't respect you, that means also because you hit me down low. Yeah. So we have no regards of each other's career. Yeah. So guess what? Let's do it there. Head is different.

You know, you knock someone out, that's considered a kiss. You take it out knees, that's considered a career. Yeah. And so I got to the point where guys knew I was like, bro, I'm hit you up top. Yeah. if you hit me low again or you cheap shop me I got one question for you

when I cut you and they got to do surgery my question is what kind of flowers you want to send you and they look at me just let me know don't and you see they go back to the huddle

and they're trying to decide do I really want to go there with them because I was thinking they're deciding tulips or roses or something maybe no they was like

really thinking like bro where do you come up with like did you you've thought that before oh yeah you've said that before oh absolutely now is this spur the moment shit talking where it just comes to you or are you like a poet where you have a couple of these you've you've thought about these situations you have a couple in the tool belt for when you see him say is is this just free free burden it's just some of it just like some of them i'm kind of embarrassed that i like said that i was like Dang, that was bad. What's the most embarrassing?

So I remember Stewie was telling me one time, Jonathan Stewart. He had played with one of the D.Bs that were out there. And so the D.B. had did something. And I just held him down. And I held him down until the referee came and grabbed him. And Stuy said, man, why did you do that, Steve? What did he do? And Roe was just like, I was like, he was born.

He was like, hold up. Because he was born Bro, that was just the first thing came out of my head Because I didn't have a legitimate excuse He was like Everybody's born But then I was like I had my head down

But I'm not engaging in that That was my answer, okay? Accept it or don't accept it But that was the kind of dumb stuff I said and did Yeah, I mean But that's, you know how But you know how terrible He didn't finish a game, bro

You got to put it out a goddamn t-shirt Is it on, you got it on a t-shirt yet? Yeah, they got it. Some dude, uh, trademarked and, and offered it to me. We, I watched it, and I, I remember as a kid, I remember when we played against each other. And, but you have some fucking straight poems out there with how you talk shit to fools. Right on the spur of the moment, post-game interviews, anything. I was sitting there like, this motherfucker should be a rapper.

You should be a fucking rapper. You spit like nine right after a game, the story. It's some kind of funny-ass way of doing it. You should have a marketing company or something. Appreciate it. Next up, Danny Amandola on what Texas football is really like. You went to high school in Texas, the Woodlands? Yep.

Shout out. You played in Texas Stadium in high school? Yes, sir. Didn't you play in the Astrodome in high school too? Yes, sir. Jesus Christ. And the Alamo Dome. And the Alamo Dome.

Yep. Just getting dumb. all over Texas. So much Texas Dome. The trifecta. Now, give us one cool thing of each of those stadiums. I mean, Texas, there's nothing like the old school Texas Stadium. You see highlights to Emis Smith, Troy Aitman, you know, Dion back in the day, making plays.

They hung a couple of banners up in there, too. So the tradition in Texas Stadium, it's a mecca for high school football championship games. A bunch of bowl games used to come through there. And you could walk into that stadium and you could. fielded the tradition. You know, it wasn't the prettiest site, but you know that, you know, there's, there's been great football played there. And they said, an old Texas, you know, folk tale is that they, they cut a hole in the

roof so God could watch. And America's team, right? America's team. So, so it was, it was really kind of, it was, it was the mecca for, for high school sports. I played a, I played a three overtime game versus Tyler Lee in that stadium. What year is this? This was 2003.

2003, this is your senior year? It was actually 2004. I think it was, it was one of those two years, football years suck. Yeah, I know, it was end of the 2003, right before I graduated in 2004, but it was the 2003 year of the season.

Is this state championship? It was a playoff game to go to the, it was a semi-finals, I believe. So we're playing playoff games in Texas Stadium. Yeah, yeah. A lot of great athletes play there. I mean, anybody that's ever played in a big high school football game in Texas has played in front of 40, 50,000

people at Texas Stadium and and we didn't play our state championship game there we played at rice but um it was it was you know these big stadiums get packed dude my my my I played in the state championship my senior year it was an all Houston final uh in Houston and we had 50,000 people there and it was the first time I really felt what a big game was was was really supposed to feel like wow that's what I mean Friday night's it's real yeah now what do you remember about the alamo dome where is the alamo dome the alamo dome the alamo dome the alamo is in San Antonio. You see the Alamo Donan bowl games. You see it

in a lot of college basketball finals. I've played the final four. They just played the final four there a couple weeks ago. It's kind of a basic stadium, but the city of San Antonio fully supports and comes out to any high school football, college football game

there, any basketball event there. And it's a staple in Texas as a premier bowl spot and high school game field. We opened up, they have Texas football classic there every year. You open up the season. First game of the year there.

We did that one year, and we got the opportunity to play on TV in the state of Texas at the Alamo Dome. And again, another opportunity to kind of get your name out there, show the world, the state, what you can do and try to keep moving up the ranks. Such a Texan show the world. Ain't no one outside of Texas in 2003 watching that goddamn game.

Hey, you Texas, everything's about goddamn Texas. That's one thing Texas people do love Texas. Now, what's up with the Astrodome? I played in the Astrodome. My sophomore year versus Duncanville was like, it was my, it was, you know, a big game, another opener of the season. And you play these schools all around Texas that aren't in your district. You really have an opportunity to play against a lot of great football teams.

It was old school turf, it smelled like old beer in there. I used to go to Astros games all the time, watch Craig Bigio and, Jeff Bagwell and, and, you know, you walk in there and the brightness of the turf, like immediately illuminates your eyes and then you just smell that old crusty beer in the seats. And it's like, you're like, this is what sports is supposed to smell like. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So you hit the trifecta. That's so cool. Yeah. What's like growing up in Texas? Um, you know, it's all about football. You know, my dad's a high school football coach in Texas. I actually played against him in the district.

And, um. So you went to a different high school than your dad's high school. school that he coached and you guys played them we played against each other they were in our district they're another really good really good team in our district how's that go down it's cool man he was a defensive coordinator obviously i played receiver so he just doubled you all game one yeah no we we he beat us my sophomore year then we beat them my junior and senior year but he was out on the numbers calling out the plays they're going they're doing this they're doing that he's been watching our offense you know as i came through the ranks and my brother came through the ranks so he knew every play that we were about to call. Why didn't you guys go to his high school? Because I lived in my brother

and I grew up in the woodlands. All our friends were there in the woodlands. That's where our house was. He traveled like 15 minutes south at the time to Westfield High School. And they were good, man. We went to the state finals in my senior year. And then the next year, his team went to the state finals. We both ended up losing that game, but really good teams. So the talent was there. Now, how's the dinner table after your dad meet you? It was, it was, it was quiet, man. You know, he humbled me early and got us he had to get some good players and then and then we um we got on my junior and senior year there's i have one great memory though uh we had we had an interception that their db ran down their sideline i go to tackle them i get blindside and blown up and into the

into the sideline my dad catches me and then throws me back on the field and i go back and i'm starting to run this try to riding this guy down but he's scored on it um so it's just you know i remember every every game before he played each other you know he'd come up tell me he loved me and he's proud of me and then he you know we'd go about our business and have fun for the next three four hours and then it was a great up it was it was awesome man great great memory how bad did you want to beat him i you know i was begging him to put you know guys on me that i want i knew i could toast i'm like give me give me bobby give me freaking give me you know whoever billy i don't care i want i'm gonna toast all of them and then you know he

put their best player. I think, I forget it was named, but he ended up going to play in college. And we had a battle, man. They had some, some really good, really good teams. Next up,

Keishon Johnson, on the biggest fight he ever saw between Parcells and Belichick. Before the half, Jimmy Smith scored, I believe. Yes, 52-yard bomb. Six seconds. Right as the half was exposed.

So I was supposed to go in the game. Oh. And it's safety. The beat of safety. Wow. Barcells and Belichick got into it. And it was the, craziest shit I ever seen on the sideline between two coaches ever. Because Belichick didn't

want to put me in. Parcell's wanted to put me in. Belichick said no. And they went right up the rail. Bomb, touchdown. And then Parcell just lit his ass up. Oh, my gosh. How was that relationship? At that time, I thought it was fine. It's great now. They like boys and shit. Now, but at that time i thought it was fine i didn't i don't know the difference right he came back the next year but that thing my eyeballs i was like because i'm standing there ready to go in yeah yeah he knows the situation you know and he's like no and parcell's told him at this time parcell said something to the effect of you think you know every fucking thing that's your fucking genius huh you think you know everything that's why you fucking got fired from cleveland yeah that that that that's you fucking got fired from cleveland

That'll get it. That'll get the fumes going. Shots fired. I was like this. Oh, shit. So when the situation came up again, I went in and got the interception. Yo.

That was the craziest thing. But I've seen Bill do that to the coaches before. Parcell's a type of coach that goes for neck. Oh, my God. He's going to go for kill shot. Man. Just to try to light that fire in your ass probably. Kill shot.

I watched Bill get at. I watched Bill get at Charlie. twice one time because you know how you do the cards. Yeah. The cards wasn't in sync. It was like all messed up. And at this time, Krispy Kreme donuts had just

became a big thing, came to the East Coast of New York. So we used to make all the younger guys go pick them up. Friday. Friday practice. Yeah, whatever. Yeah, pick them up, put them out. And Charlie would come to the players lounge and get some. We know Charlie likes some donuts. He had messed up the cards one time. And Bill said,

those these fucking cards, a crispy cream donut, you'd have got that right. Jesus. We was like, oh shit. Thanks for listening. Remember to tune in every Tuesday for a brand new episode and every Sunday for another Games with Names Highlander. Ah, come on. Why is this taking so long?

This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech, upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, Ultra-Light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity. With Intel Core Ultra processors, blazing speed, and AI-powered performance, it keeps up with your business, not the other way around. Whoa, this thing moves. Stop hitting snooze on new tech. Win the tech search at Lenovo.com.

Lenovo, Lenovo. Unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, powered by Intel Core Ultra processors, so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different.

Did you see the Colts Pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get. Listen to NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Introducing IVF Disrupted, The Kind Body Story, a podcast about a company that promised to revolutionize fertility care.

It grew like a tech startup. While KindBody did help women start families, it also left behind a stream of disillusioned and angry patients. You think you're finally like in the right hands. You're just not. Listen to IvyF Disrupted, The Kind Body Story, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi there, this is Josh Clark from the Stuff You Should Know podcast. If you've been thinking, man alive, I could go for some good true crime podcast episodes,

then have we got good news for you. Stuff You Should Know just released a playlist of 12 of our best true crime episodes of all time. There's a shootout in broad daylight, people using axes in really terrible ways, disappearances, legendary heists, the whole nine yards. So check out the Stuff You Should Know True Crime playlist. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Chetty, and I'm the host of the On Purpose podcast. Today, I'm joined by Emma Watson.

Emma Watson has apparently quit acting. Emma Watson has announced she's retiring from acting. Has anyone else noticed that we haven't seen Emma Watson in anything in several years? Emma Watson is opening up the truth behind her five-year break from acting. Watson said she wasn't very happy. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Chetty on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.