Green Light with Chris Long - Brian Dawkins! Weapon X talks Eagles vs Chiefs, Favorite NFL Memories & Leadership in the NFL.

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

(2:18) - Brian Dawkins on Leadership in NFL Locker Rooms, Being around the 2017 Eagles & NFL Memories. (20:05) - Brian on his Favorite Current Eagles & Being Impressed with Jalen Hurts. (38:30) - Brian's Career in Denver, Playing for Josh McDaniels & Brian Dawkins the Author. Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b   Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42   Green Light Tube YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/GreenLightTube1   Green Light with Chris Long:   Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Next Step. In Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, and Virginia, call 1-800 gambler. And at Michigan, 1-800-270-1-1-7-1-7. Tennessee, y'all too, 1-800-8-9-9. Welcome to the Greenlight Podcast. Oh, boy. We're in Arizona this week. That's right.

In the background, you can hear a couple of coyotes. You can hear the wind whistling off these mountains. I'm staring at a cactus right now. We are in Phoenix, Arizona, the side of Super Bowl. 57. We've had an amazing week out here. Great time. You've been following along on Twitter, YouTube, all of our platforms.

I know you have. And we've got Brian Dawkins today for you. That's right. Weapon X sat in our backyard, talked to Bo Allen and Chris Long about all things. Eagles, his NFL career, his nickname, becoming an author, even got into his time in Denver a little bit. You'll be plenty fired up after you listen to this episode. And I know you'll be watching the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Please have us on the side. We'll be live streaming on YouTube. From kickoff to the final whistle, make sure you have us on your side TV, on your laptop. Have us in the living room while you're watching the big game. Y'all please enjoy. Much love. All right, I'm here with Beau.

and Eagles legend, my guy, Brian Dawkins, who's been gracious enough to come join us at the Ponteros. Yeah, you had to let me get through my intro. And there's another Eagles legend. So, Doc, man, appreciate you coming out, man. My pleasure, brother. My pleasure. It's so good to see you. And we were talking off camera.

2017 was special for me for a lot of reasons. But one of the main ones was having you in the building every day. I can remember game mornings, night before game, you know, Wednesday afternoon, sitting and breaking bread with you, getting to soak in kind of the lessons. And, you know, not every player gets that in the NFL. So appreciate you. That was fun.

It was a blessing, man. I get a chance to come back and share some of the stuff that I saw. That's what I always tried to share. Some of the things that I saw and the things that I had seen that worked and those things that didn't work. And if I can add a little bit to you and give you a little something that could potentially help you out, then I thought that, you know, potentially that would help us get to the big dance, brother.

Were there guys for you when you were young player that were kind of good vets to you? Yeah. It was. And to get you to a point. So it, so, and that's the thing. So when I see something, I want to congratulate you on the thing that I saw because I know for me, I know I had somebody in to your point that would point those things out.

Like it was, yeah. And so you're playing the game as hard as you can. You don't necessarily know how to watch yourself on film sometimes. I know I didn't. And then you have someone pointing something out. And do you know how different that is? I'm like, no. No, that's different.

And so me being able to then pass that on to you was a blessing. And so one of those individuals from a health standpoint was with Irvin Friar. Urban had played in a while in the league for a while. And he said this one phrase to me, one time, when he was shaving in the restroom when I had walked in, he said, a rook, if you take care of your body now, it would take care of you later. And that changed the way that I saw myself as far as condition is concerned, what I ate and all those things.

But as far as on the field, Troy Vincent was probably one of those guys. Wisconsin guy. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, watching Troy and the technician that he was at the cornerback position, and people don't understand this or know this, that I was basically the fourth corner when I was drafted in Philadelphia Eagles. They put me in coverage a whole lot.

So I'm learning a whole lot of things, coverage techniques and all of those things from him, but not just that, how to handle yourself as a professional as well. So those are the type of things that he blessed me with. And I think like the new NFL, the one thing the guys miss out on is that old NFL veteran heavy locker room. Yeah. You know, I can remember in St. Louis, I tell this story a lot being 28. And I was one of the guys, but I'm 28, and I got the closest parking spot to the building, or the second closest. That's not good.

At 28, right? We need, we need those old NFL vets. Like for me, it was James Hall, you know, it was Leonard Little, Fred Robbins, those guys. And I don't think guys in this game get that as much. Yeah. I feel like the Eagles team, you know, this year has that a lot. Yeah. Like, I'm just thinking defensive line because that's kind of how our mind operates.

But, like, Sue, Linval Joseph's like. OG, OG, OG. I was talking with Kelsey last week, and he told me so much. He's like, dude, I wish you would have played with Lynn Ball because he is like, you know, like how JP was in the locker room for us. Yeah. And just that's something that like you can't replicate, man. Just those grizzled vets that like I've seen it all.

But also like those guys are around for so long because they're doing all the right stuff. Yeah. You know what I mean? And that stuff bleeds its way throughout an organization. That's why you end up with good teams. Yeah. You know? Well, this week's a week you need the vets.

We were talking about it. Like, give me your experience and being a leader on a. And you went down to Jacksonville. We were sharing stories about Super Bowl week and all the distractions at hand. I don't think people realize the game is the game, but the week is not your normal week. The whole dog and pony show. How did you handle that, especially back in the day when I feel like guys could get into more trouble? Yeah, well, not very well from taking it way too serious.

You took it too serious. The thing that I always tell people now, I wish I would have taken time to enjoy some of it. Yeah. I was literally like, I'm going to do it exactly the way. that I would do it in Philadelphia to the exact I'm talking about every detail I want to do it very similar to how I'd be home and I did it when I went to Jacksonville even though it was back home I didn't necessarily go see family members or nothing like that like I was like no yes hello everyone but I'm here to play a football game and this is what I'm going to do so I took it

way too serious from that point of view and again I wish I would have done it differently you know kind of celebrate allow yourself to you know celebrate some of the things that you've been able to accomplish to that point Were you tight before the game at all? No, I was just like overly anxious, man. And then, you know, it takes another hour seems like to start the game. Once you get on the field, you got to sit around and listen to different people saying a whole bunch of different things. And we had all these pageantry and all these different things.

I'm like, man, can we go? Yeah. And that's even amplified the Super Bowl. Yeah. Can we kick this thing? The half times long, the whole thing, the media day. We're going to go over later and ask those guys some. questions. So we're part of the problem now. Yeah. But you know, that's a whole deal, man,

that, you know, if you're a young player, if they don't prompt you correctly, you roll up to that thing and you're deer in the headlights. And I think it's different now because of the advent of social media. Yes. I think that they're a little bit more understanding that you're going to be asked questions. You're going to have to be able to share your, whatever it is that they're going to ask you, right? And be able to make wise, you. use of your words in specific instances. But back in the day, that was different. Like, you weren't expected to do all of those things all of the time. It was literally, once you got in the field, it was time to kick the ball off of play. Yeah, no question. The Eagles now, we were talking about it.

It's just a lot of fun being a fan. You know, like we got to be players, but there's no better organization to pull for after your career. They show you so much love. Yes. You know, Even guys like myself or Bo, we see you on the field. That makes sense. There's 60,000 people, chair. And we come home and we're like, do we deserve this? What do we do here? You know what that's what, you know, being a champion in Philly is about,

but or being a legend in Philly like you is about. And I just, I wonder how much you enjoy and being a fan of this team. Oh, man, I enjoy. See, I enjoy the growth of seeing where they came from. Same thing. You know, same thing. Yeah. first year didn't do up to my when we were there playing in me as an executive seeing the things the

struggles of that first year the things that we can the conversations that we had during the all season some tough ones too some tough challenging conversations that that I was blessed to have with some guys and then to see this team how they've been going into this year and even some of the expressions on the coaches on the sideline yeah last year the first year you know it was very wide-eyed yeah it's real you know just kind of in over there here's a little here's a little bit as far as some of the situations. And now this year to see what they've been able to do to put these players into the systems on both sides of the ball

that brings the best out of every last. Think about it. On the offense and defense, like both sides of the ball, guys are being put in a position to have success. And that's what you want. That's what you want to see. So I'm a huge fan of that because I saw, I had a defensive coordinator that was great at that,

John Johnson. Yeah. Same thing with Andy. had a seeing him how he was able to help guys. And we didn't have, we didn't necessarily have the AJ Browns back in the day. But the guys that we did have at the receiver position, he still put them in a position to have success.

So I'm a huge fan of that. Well, you brought up Andy Reed and like everyone's talking about it's a Kelsey Bowl, but it's kind of the Andy Reed Bowl too. I mean, you're with him in Philly. He's had so much success in Kansas City. Like, we were hoping we could get some, you know, some of your insights on him as a coach. And because he, players love him.

You know, he's such a genuine guy, but he kind of shakes up the mold that he's not a hard-ass coach, you know, but he gets so much out of his players. I was wondering if you could maybe talk about that a little bit. So I got a chance to see Andy kind of grow as a coach as well, obviously, because that was his first year with the Eagles. But I've seen him grow.

And the things that I'm most proud of Andy and being a former player of his is that he's, not only did he do that in Philadelphia. Yeah. He went to the Kansas City Chiefs and did that and then some. Right. So he's having success. And in both places, when you talk to players, to your point, we talk about the love that Andy has of allowing us. He would always say this. Be yourself. Let your personality show. Yeah. Be you. Don't try to be anything other than yourself. And I love that about it. Yeah. And so that in itself, and then Kansas City that they're doing jumping jacks in the backfield. Yeah, the spinnerama. Spinorama. So he's allowing guys to have. fun at the same time as playing the game that they love to play. So I think all of those things is one of the reasons that, you know, guys love to play for Andy Reed. Well, it feels like it leads

himself. Yeah, exactly. Which is important. You know, like, you can't fool a group of grown men like that. And I think if I had a buddy who was going to be a head coach in the NFL, like, my number one advice at him would be like, you can't fool us. Right. You know, so you got to be yourself. And I think Andy kind of wears, where is it? He's Andy Reed. And, That's who he is. He does the burgers. He does a burger. State Farm commercial where he's drawing mustaches on people.

Like that kind of genuine, like he's himself, that bleeds this way down. And it makes it fun, like kind of what you're talking about, like how you, you know, you wish you wouldn't have taken it so seriously. It feels like the chiefs at times, you know, they're kind of, they're like they're out there. They're having fun, man. Well, two lose teams. Yeah. There's two loose teams.

I agree. Yeah. And I think, you know, interesting to stick here with, with, you know, our 17 team. I keep making the people ask me about two different teams. They're incomparable. This team's better on paper for sure. But one thing that they've navigated that we didn't have to navigate was being the lead dogs the entire year. Yeah.

Which is a different challenge of sneaking up out of nowhere. You know, like being expected things of, I think I'm really impressed with how they've worn that and still had fun. You know, they're brash. They're almost cocky. Yeah, but I like it. I like it. You know, we weren't like that. No. You know, it's just every team has a different personality. Absolutely. And the difference with also the team that the two seventh thing that we had so many injuries that year. Yeah. So many key guys go down. Yeah. And all of a sudden,

the guy that steps in not only plays well, but the people that went down were like always in meetings. They never left a builder that. You never thought that they were, you know, away from the team. And they never felt that they were away from the team. They were still adding and giving their valuable time and things that they saw to the next player up. So that was a different set of circumstances for that team to grow under. And that's we grew into the underdog. Yeah. We loved that.

Oh, we loved it. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, we loved it. Yeah. We loved it, too. It felt right. It just felt like that's what we were about.

Now, this team is like, they're the top dogs. Yeah. But to come out after a thigh and play the way they have, like, you know, in the playoffs and stuff like that, like, I don't know if people. They're prepared. Exactly. They're prepared. All you can do is beat teams. front of you. That's all you can do. And that's what's just supposed to do. And so here's the thing for me.

One of the things that, and I'll get into it. So one of the things that happened that year, 2017, that was a blessing. I'm not, I don't like to see players get hurt, but a blessing was when Zach got hurt. Yeah. Was that got hurt. Then the ball needed to be spreaded to everywhere, right? Because I remember looking in practice that it would be in seven-on-seven and seven straight balls would go to Zach. I'm cool, like he's a great target, right? But you still have other guys on the field that get opened, right? So I thought that that allowed at the time,

Carlson at the time to spread the ball around. And now everybody, he began to see, okay, now I can do all of these other things. So that actually spread it out and made us a better team. Yep, right? This year, they had not faced any adversity. Yeah. Until the end of the season.

Yeah. And so it's hard for a team, a new year, young team to go into a season and then you win all the way up into the playoffs and you have no adversity so you have nothing that you have to come back from not getting tested there's no test there so one of the again one of the blessings i'm not saying i don't like privy to get hurt yeah but the point is is that the adversity of Dallas going down for a little while the adversity of then your started hurts going down for a little while yeah how do you move out for a couple weeks too yeah which is a big one

Right. So it's an opportunity. That's what adversity is. I mean, it legitimately is. As a football team and a football player, you know, it is an opportunity for growth. If you have the time to grow. And that's the thing. And that's the thing about being 10 and 0 or 9 and 1, like you give yourself a cushion to screw up a little bit and learn from it. Yeah. Get a little dirty. And I'm pretty sure in those meetings when you're losing that game, the Dallas, when you're losing it, you can have some very intense conversations in those. Even though you've won 10 games, nine games, 11 games, we can have some intense conversations. Boiling up, too, things that have been boiling up. Being a teammate, being a player, being a coach, like, there are relationships. You know, like, we spend more time with the people in the building than we do our wives and our kids during the season.

Yes. So we have like 52 relationships, you know, and they're all different. But like, sometimes shit is boiling under the surface that you need to lose for people to like let it out. and to get through it and to relieve some of the tension between a player and a coach or a room. Yeah. Just air things out a little bit. You know, get that elephant in the room out and open a little bit. I mean, some of the closest rooms that I've, you know, some of the closest D-line rooms that I've ever been in, like,

guys will get into it about, you know, certain plays and stuff like that and you're really hard on each other. And that's kind of what drives the greatness out of each other. You know what I mean? So it's funny to see that comparison. Like you're really close, but you're also like. If you can't argue with your buddy, you're not that tight. Exactly. And it's the same thing being on a football team.

You got to have a little confrontation. You do. Yeah. Also, it's a group of, you know, juice out. Yeah, guys. But the thing of it now always talk about is that it's a lot easier to have tough conversations with people after you lose. Yes. Yeah.

When you winning, it's hard. Literally, it's hard because in your mind, you know, everything's great. Yeah. And you want to be real as a coach, right? Like, because one of my pet peeves with coaches, they always, you know, sometimes they'll try to force their message into a win. And, and, you know, like, just shoot a. straight, you know, like tell us what we're not doing well after when. Tell us what we're doing well after a loss. You know, just be real with us. But you're right. It's really hard to convey that

after you win 387 or that sort of thing. Yeah. Cash app. The easy way to send, spend, save and invest with friends. Cash app helps you connect effortlessly with your finances and with your people. And that's money. I love going on to float with my buddies and my custom cash app card. We head out to the James River. We pick up some drinks. We pick up some snacks along the way. Somebody pays with their custom cash app card and we all share our cash tags and split the bill. That is what friends are for. Cash app provides us with an easy way to send and spend money, save and invest in stock and Bitcoin. Cash app, however, does not provide a dry pair of pants. You want to remember that when you get off the river. Try the number one finance app in the app store,

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Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories, and 3.2 carbs. If Brian Dawkins was a kid right now, he's an Eagles fan, whose jersey you buy him? Oh, 23. 23, yeah. Yeah, I got a 23 jersey. Yeah, big addition.

Listen, listen. I didn't mention him in this as far as that was a blessing in this disguise because it wasn't the best thing in disguise. Because when you lose, when you lose him, you lose a chest piece. Yes. You lose an eraser of mistakes. You lose a playmaker that didn't recognize. I don't, maybe he already knew.

We just didn't know. But I'm telling you, when I was watching the Saints games back in the day and now you bring them to the Eagles and now he's able to do all of these things. and freeing them up. And now everybody got to see what he can actually do. And that's one of the mistakes a lot of people make. Just because a guy can play man-to-man coverage well, you don't want to always put him in man-to-man

because you won't see other things he can do. Yes. Right? Eric Berry was the same way. To me, of a phenomenal safety that could have had so much more, but they kept him in man-to-man all the time. So we could never see the versatility. But now with CJ, you're able to see his versatility.

And again, I love a chess piece. I love a dude that you can move all over the field and he can make plates all over the field. And I love his dog on energy. His attitude. Oh, my goodness. I loved it when he was in New Orleans. He got two people to, what was it, two chain snatches on him or something like that?

I didn't know that. He got a couple people to fight him on the field. Somebody, who was that? It was William. Oh, it was whims. Yeah, it was whims from the, was it the bears? Yeah, in the playoff game. So if you get multiple people to do that, too, you're a bit of a shit.

You're doing something, right? I like playing with guys like that. I really do. That was our Timmy Jernigan. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so Jalen Hertz, you know, we were talking about this, the leap he made in a year. He had kind of a messed up way to enter the league and, like, you know,

all the conversation around him and Carson and what happened at the end of the game and I think 19 in Washington where they pulled him. And there's just all this crazy shit. Yeah. What do you think makes him tick? Because we were both saying we'd love to play with this guy because what he's got between his ears. And that's the thing. So even when he was not necessarily playing the best on the field as far as his consistently throwing the football.

Because he did struggle. I'm not going to, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that he was having this year's success last year and a year before because he was not. No. So he was struggling. Yeah. But before he even got to the Eagles, I saw. young man that knew how to handle adversity. I saw a young man that go from Alabama gets to play Alabama and keep a mindset that they can keep, you can keep the microphone in his face.

And he never said anything to shame his parents, his name, the Alabama or anything else. He always said the right thing. And he didn't say, and I didn't get the sense he was singing because he knew he had to say the right thing. I got the sense that he was saying those things because that's what he was feeling. And then he goes to Oklahoma. And I think, He's second in the highs. So that tells me that you have a young man that can fight through adversity. Yeah. That can have a coach sitting down in the national championship game and still keep a smile on his face, but not just a smile on his face.

To get better the next year. Yeah. So every year that he's been challenged, he's gotten better. Think about that. Better. Now, you have that same mentality of getting better, taking criticism your way, seeing. what they see getting better and you bring that attitude to Philadelphia. Yeah.

Come on, man. Like seriously. What are they going to challenge you on, right? They're going to be challenging the dog got you all the time. Yeah, everything. So if I can take some of the things that they're saying, see with some of the stuff that they're saying, and then get better every year, come on, man. So that tells you have a mentally tough dude.

So you have a mentally tough dude that's able to run the ball effortlessly, right? Yeah. Make people miss. Does not take big hits all the time. And now he can throw the ball down the field with consistency and accuracy. Right. Beautiful, Deep ball. Great.

That's a great. So to me, that's, now you have all things working for you. You have a guy that can run the football, throw the football, and he's mentally tough and he's smart, understands the game. And just his character in the way he handles himself. Like, I saw something this week that he's only 24 years old and I did. I had to read it again. I was like, damn. Because like he seems like an old soul or like, you know, whereas I don't know him personally, but he seems so.

I wish I did he seemed so like unflappable you know like he's always kind of like you know like he's he just seems so cool and like calm and like just in control you know what I mean this team humble in a lot of ways yeah he talked about how damn good they are right and everybody telling them not too humble they are and the whole thing but but jalen after the game at the podium always took you know the proverbial high road the humble side of the street um you know the we got a lot of stuff we got to work on Yeah. You know, and I think that having that voice, you know, saying it out loud from your leadership is big.

That's huge. On a team like this. Oh, it is huge. Yeah. Because, and you know, just like I know, that the quarterback position, especially the way the NFL is doing things and the quarterback's position will be a leader of your team. Yes. And in some cases, that can be a forced thing.

Yes. And in other cases, that can be, and it should be. and earn things. Like you earn the respect. Just because you're the quarterback, I'm not necessarily follow you. I need to see some things from you, how you perform, how you handle yourself, how you do interviews, right? And then I'm like, wow, this is someone that... It's a football player. Yeah, this is a football player. Yeah, yeah, I understand. So even though I'm a veteran, yeah, what you got to say, Hurst? What you got to? I'm pretending to say. Yeah, I was like, damn, he's tall. So what you got for him? So now I'm listening to this young cat because he's earned that respect.

Yes. And you could tell. talking to Lane and those guys, you'd have to earn their respect. He was respected right off the bat. What do you think, man? We were talking about Andy Reed. If you're Andy Reed, step into his mind with two weeks, what's the game plan to try to slow down these rushers and still be able to move the ball? Andy Reid's always been big in the screen game.

Sorry to steal your thunder. Yeah, that's what I said. I couldn't wait. Yeah, that's good. So the screens. A vitamin problem and the different levels of screen, different kinds of screens. Yeah. To get defensive line, you only think you're going to run this way the whole game.

Now we're going to have you running this way, that way, back this way, keep you guessing so that you can't just go one way the whole time. So that would be my, especially the first 15 plays. A lot of different personnel. I can maybe even see some hurry up a little bit, you know, to keep them on the field, keep a certain personnel on the field, kind of see if they can get some of this big dudes tired out a little bit. So all those are the top of the things, I think, will happen, especially the first 15 plays. I want to talk to you about Tom Brady, man.

You know, this is retirement number two. I don't personally believe that he's done because he left the window open the other day. He was talking to somebody. Yeah, what did he say, Reed? He said that he still loves football. He still wants to play. Wait a minute. He's not fin of pump figures like Brett Farke.

I think it might be Brett Fargan. He's a pump figure? I think it might be Brett Farron number two. But like, you know, I look at his status if he walks away. And it's ironic that Patrick's playing this week because he's the guy who probably would have the best chance to ever be in that conversation. At this point with free agency and the way things aren't so hard to fathom, a guy went in seven rings. But what do you think a guy would have to do to be in that conversation? Like, you played against Tom.

Wow. And to the point, first of all, it's longevity, right? Yeah. being in the right place for that long period of time. And you're right. It's not just Mahomes, though. So it's what they have created around him. Yes.

It does not need Cheetah anymore. He doesn't have to have that guy, but he can do other things because of his arm talent. I think that with Tom in that system that they had in, with the Patriots, some of it early on was probably more coaching. Yeah. And then as it went on, it became more about, you see what I'm saying? Yeah, like three careers.

Right, right. You know, in the beginning, it was like he was running a system. The defense was winning them games. Yep. He was clutch. You know, he did his job, right? And then there was the prolific Tom and then there was the older Tom. Yeah.

You know, it's like, it's interesting. And sometimes I actually feel bad. for Drew. I got to interview him recently. It was like, you know, he definitely, uh, that's, that's unfortunate that your back up's Tom Brady. I mean.

Yeah, that's major. I was just trying to think who, what, what other sport that has happened that? Wally Pip. I don't know. Wally Pip. That's the only, that's the only, yeah. Yeah. But I mean, if you think about it, I mean, it's, it is a longevity. It's, and part of it was Bill. Like, you think it was kind of 50-50 when you attribute the success

they had over that time. Yeah. Because you mentioned something that people don't necessarily mention all the time, is that defense. Yeah. Like what they did to Marshall Falk and the list goes on, the schemes that they came up with to stop these different offenses, to put them in position to not have to throw score a lot of points.

They're always being game so that then when clutch Tom does throw those couple of balls, he didn't have to throw a whole bunch of them. He just had to throw a couple of it because the defense were balling out so much. and, you know, Seattle, right? Defense basically won the game in that one. So he didn't have to win all of them. He was clutch. But to your point, those three-tiered ways of doing things, it's a longevity thing.

So it has to be someone that has longevity, not just what that person, though. And that's what I guess that's also what I was trying to say. Tom didn't have longevity by himself. He had longevity with a sister. Yes. longevity with a coach. Yeah. Right.

So, you know, and I don't see, and please don't take it this way. I don't see Big Red retiring in time soon. Yeah. But my point is that longevity is very important. Yeah, you're right. And, yeah, I mean, he'd have to coach for a lot longer to catch Tom if you want those two to do it all together. That's a lot of rings, man.

If we extend this conversation a little bit, I was asking if you saw LeBron last night because he broke the scoring record. We were both in transit, but the highlights were cool. People always argue about MJ and LeBron, right? And it's always like the old heads. We want Jordan to be the goat and young guys want LeBron to be the goat. Trent Daufer this week was talking about how, I don't know if you heard this, he's not impressed with today's quarterbacks because of the way the defense has played and litigated in today's NFL. How, How do you compare eras? You know, like how different was the game really?

You know what I mean? Like people say that a lot, but you played it and you kind of were in the transition, right? Yeah. And that's the thing about it. It is tough to talk about eras. So I couldn't do some of the things that night train lane could do. The game was not, they weren't throwing the ball a little bit of yard anyway, but the specific things that were not called flags that were called flags when I was playing.

With the understanding of the NFL that the quarterback is not a position that just going to stand eight yards deep and throw the ball all over the yard. I'm not saying there's not guys that can do that because there are. But that's no longer the model. The model is a more mobile individual, not necessarily a runner, but someone that's more mobile to be able to get some things done. And then with the continue to push the envelope as well. far as putting receivers or receiver like individuals in the lineup, that changes the way that the defense can, you don't, you no longer have like this run stuffing middle lineback necessarily, right?

Yeah. Because that person would not be able to survive. Yeah. So you need a versatile individual to be able to, yes, stop the run. But I need to be able to run and get to the deep middle. Look at the 49ers. 49. Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly. With Juiche and their lineup McCaffrey in the slot all the time. and all the creative different things they can do with Kiddle and Debo. And I mean, that kind of seems like that's, you know, where it's trending. Now, I'm not saying that that has not been the case because the 49ers have had some pretty good linebackers. Yeah.

Right. And they say Fred Warner's like bigger than me. Yeah. Like he's, if he walked through the door right now, he'd be, it's like we ran into Brandon Marshall at the airport yesterday. He's huge with him. I'm like, that's a good cat, man. He's huge.

But like Fred Warner's a big guy. Drake Greenlaw is great linebacker. Right. But yeah, you're right. So the versatility in those guys. So some of these things are starting when they're in little leagues in Pot Warren. Like the positions are more seamless, I would say. Like you're not, again, if you're a linebacker, you're going to be this tough, you know, gap,

A gap to A gap. How about the way running backs you use now? Like, do you think we're going to see a resurgence in the importance of running backs or do you think it's going to continue to be one of these? Like the Eagles, the Cowboys pay their running backs. They're going to tag Tony Pollard. They pay him and Zeke to combine amount that I think the Eagles have paid running backs for like the last five years. And that's going to be the case going forward.

Each team are going to put the emphasis on the things that they think are most important. Yeah. And the Eagles for the longest period. Even like even when I was there, Andy, when he came in, it was running back by committee. Yeah. Right. It was no longer Deuce Deuce was the guy. But then Brian Westbrook, and then we had, who else we grab?

Buck Holter. Buck was back there as well. So it was always a running back by committee type of thing. And so if you look at today's NFL, that's kind of how it is. It's kind of a running back by committee for it. It's kind of how it was for us in 2017. Same thing, yeah. J-Jive, LG, Corey Klan played so well in the Super Bowl, stuff like that.

Who were the guys when you played that you had to really bring your hard hat to go tackle. You know, I know you were on the winning end of 99% of them, but there had to be maybe one guy that you were like, damn, he runs hard. Hard? Yeah. It was just a big dude. He ran hard, too, but like Brandon Jake was. That's exactly who he was. He was a defense friend. He was a big target, though, too. Yeah. Like, so I just like me, I wasn't a great tackle. I just kind of fly in there. And I was like, I'm not going to miss this guy. You know, like, but he's, but he's, And that's the thing about it. I would rather, and this is going to sound crazy,

I would rather tackle a big dude than a shifted dude. Yeah, me too. I agree. Any of the other one. You're hanging on a block and there's a small, like we were talking about Pacheco for the, for the Chiefs, yeah, and how hard he runs. Yeah.

And how he's just run a million miles. Like, that's a dude that's hard to tackle and, like, in between the tackles because you're hanging on a block and he's coming full head of steam and like. Arm tackles. You can't really get a full, you can't get great vision on it. I feel played in my hand from Marshawn Lynch. he ran through an arm tackle

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In Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, and Virginia, call 1-800 gambler. And at Michigan, 1-800-270-1-17. Tennessee, y'all too, 1-800-8-8. Josh McDaniels, he's in Vegas. Were you with him in Denver? You were with him in Denver? Okay, because I would. Do you think when you see a coach's first time around,

do you think that that coach is capable of learning and, like, improving upon their second time? You know, like sometimes guys don't get second chances. Like Frank Wright got a second chance as head coach. I think people realize it was kind of a screwed up dealing Indy. Todd Ball has got another one. Did you ever think Josh would get another job? Yes.

You did? Yeah. So they've had too much success. Yeah. With the Patriots, even though it went as bad as it did with the Broncos. It's like he goes back to the Patriots and they go back to having success again. So I knew at some point somebody was going to be like, well, maybe he's learned some things. Maybe he needed to give him another chance.

So I knew at some point he was going to get another change. Yeah, Josh. He did not stay just to take it over from Belichick. Josh was like, I had him in St. Louis and then I had him in New England. I really liked him. He just probably had a lot to live. learn about how to like deal with players. I think probably one of the hardest parts as the first time I coach is this stuff, you know. What was your experience there? My experience with Josh was

Josh was, Josh didn't know who he was yet. He didn't know who he was. It was so much about how he communicated and how he did things was Belichette. Right. Yeah. It was some of his dress to, you know, the way he's like his mannerisms. Like if you, and I wasn't. even a player with Belichick, and I can see what I, that's not him. Yeah. And to your point, some of the communication. So, and he tried to micromanage too many things. Right.

He wanted to have his hand in a lot of things. And here's the crazy thing about it. Like, he's a brilliant dude. He is. The stuff that he would give us to prepare for teams would be like right on point. So it's not like he doesn't know what he's doing. I just think that he, you know, with the Broncos, he didn't empower. Like, you're the defensive coordinator.

Yeah. But you're not the defensive coordinator. Right. I'm the defensive coordinator. Right. Right. You're the offensive. I'm going to hire you for the offensive coordinator,

but you're not the offensive coordinator. Right. I'm like, you're the special teams coach. Yeah. But you're not the special teams. So he was trying to do what they did. That's why you got delegate. Delegation, there's like, it's like, don't try this at home with Bill.

Yeah. You know, like even with Bill right now, he's having a hard time doing it. Yeah. You know, you can't. Bill Parcells, I heard, like, he said, I want to buy the groceries and cook dinner. You know, like I want personnel and influence. I want the coaching. decisions made. Like, that's too hard, man, in today's game. It's tough. Yeah. It's tough. And not only

that, it's tough from a mental, from a physical, it drains you. And I can see it. It was really draining out of it. So hopefully he has, he knows who he is in this next step. And hopefully he's empowered those in the, I'm not saying that he can't give some of the tips that he has. But ultimately, I trust you because I've hired you to do this thing. This is what I've seen. And you can added to what you do, go ahead. But if not, I trust you. So that I can concentrate on being the head coach and the offensive coach. Okay.

B-Doc. This is cool, man. We were talking about this. You're an author, which is like people don't associate that with being a football player, right? Because I'm a jock, right? Right, right? We don't, yeah, we're not that smart. I can't even read.

But you got, dude, you got that next to your name now. How's that feel? And tell me about your book. It's called Blessed by the Best, my journey at Canton and beyond. And you can find out more about it, I presume, at bryndalkins.com, right, man? Yes, yes, yes. Now, so first of all, I never thought that I would have author beside my name. Yeah.

I was going to say that earlier. I thought that authors were for other individuals, people that more astute than myself can author a book. And it really came to fruition that my heart began to change on that subject matter when I was preparing my speech. I didn't write my speech. I don't know if you know that I always speak for my heart. Right. So I just write a couple of names down, a couple of topics down that I always speak for my heart.

And I wanted to put those experiences in a book to allow people, again, to see my journey to Canton and beyond. And some of the things that I'm about to begin to do now as a mindset coach and all of those things is to once again begin to open up and wake up those things and help other people. I can't do anything. But what I can do is I can help you see what you can't see that I see and help you then come up with a plan to go after that thing that you would not have gone after and your family would not then be blessed to then pass on to generations to come had I not been able to speak into your life. Right. So that's the space I'm entering into. So that's what the book is kind of about. The weapon X thing, there was, I mean, like, some hardship in that, right? A lot of hardship.

Yeah. So, you know, weapon X, first of all, weapon X was idiot man for a long time. I called him idiot man. Idiot man. That was idiot man. Like, what's this guy doing? Yeah, that's idiot. But before he was idiot, man, he was just, I was just an angry kid.

Yeah. And those were emotions that I would be pouring. out on the field because at the time I didn't know, I know it now, but at the time I didn't know that I had anger issues. Yeah. I was throwing going to fits of rage and things of that nature. And I use anger all the time. Right. It wasn't passion. Like it was literal anger for a long period time in my life. I just used anger. It's always an angry guy. But I had to then learn to reimagine the way that I talked about that rage at that that. that anger, that anger, that rage was really just information or energy or information,

however you want to say it, that I can use it a different way. Right. And once I began to understand that, then when I stepped on the field, I wasn't all, I wasn't an angry. I'm like, I was a, I'm going to come to get you because I can. So it was a more enlightening. I was a more, I was a, it was a more in passion with. of going out of football instead of me being just as angry i'm a punisher of thing because i'm mad at yeah does that make sense yeah no it makes a lot of sense and like knowing you the way we got to know you man like if i was to put a bunch of adjectives on a whiteboard about you angry would not be even close to one of them like you're the most humble chill awesome dude self-possessed

yeah and like and and you know can talk to anybody the whole thing but we also know you're intense with the capital i and t e n s e and s e and And that might be the number one adjective. I'm putting on the board next to you. And, like, intensity, your intensity to find out it was one's anger, it's just, it makes a lot of sense. But it sounds like you harnessed it and used it, you know, as fuel, which is crazy. Yeah. And I don't know if you remember the story that I told you right before the Minnesota game when I spoke in front of you guys.

And the story that I told you was not, what was literally was something that I was blessed to receive in my stutter time, my prayer time. that a flood comes in and a flood flash flood destroys everything in its path. Yeah. But when you have a dam up and it has vents, that same brush of water, you can then decide how far, how wide, and how long to open the vents up. And that vent then all of a sudden powers generators. So now in my mind, wow, I get a chance. I can refocus this energy that I'm feeling one space.

Yeah. And use it in another way. Wow. So I mean on gangby, I can pour out all that frustration or everything that I was, I can pull. So you feel me? So again, I'm no longer being pulled down by anger. Yeah. I'm being uplifted. So right. Yeah. So now again, it's so I'm operating from a completely different space. It's no longer this heavy space of anger that I'm operating it. I'm operating from this place of the passion and intensity. I like, I like intensity. the intensity of being able to play this game and do it in such a way as to to be one of the best I've ever done it, right? And to raise levels around you. Yes, absolutely. And like I told you, I want to invite people to my party. Yeah, bring people along.

Yeah, so come on. Yeah. It's a welcoming intensity. If I was your teammate, I would have been over there like, yo, let me get some of this. Let me get that charger and plug it in here. When I was talking to the truck, that he brought up something about a play he made.

He made the play in the back field, and I was like 20 yards down field. He said he did his, he did his axe job. And as soon as he turned around, I head butter. So that means that I ran 20 yards full speed. And I was like, yeah, man, yeah.

I wanted a little bit of that. I want some of that handy. So it's that same thing. You make a play, bro, and I see you make, and I see it. I'm going to assault you. I'm coming, though. You know, I'm coming, though.

Because there is nothing better than the feeling of I made a play in four of my brothers jump on my back. It's exhausting, though. It's exhausting, but you damn to hurt you sometimes. But you're like, we are on right now. And you feel my electricity. I'm feeling yours. That's what playing great defense is. And in the back of my mind, I'm about to one up you.

You got this, you know, but I'm about to go do. So that, like, that was always no mentality. That's so awesome. Love. Love. How do you get it out of your system now? Yeah. How do you, because there's, you know, it's still in you.

We were joking. We were one. If you're ever like, you know, at home, walking around and you stub your toe or something on a corner and then you black out and you come back and weapon X. You know, like, is there anything? You ever relapse and turn into the Webinx? Yeah. Like a plane's going off, some plane noises. I've studied the brain.

I've studied like a neural science and stuff. So that's the direction I'm heading to kind of understand those things. And I will tell you, but I let I let that dude come out to play, man, when I work out. Yeah. Yeah. I still, when I get in there, I get in there. Like, I don't, I don't necessarily run the way that I used to run. But I still do my sprint things and stuff on the treadmill.

But when I live, bro, we need it. Yeah. It's amazing how much we need it after football. I wasn't working out enough. And, you know, like, I wasn't healthy. I just wasn't feeling right. And just getting back in the gym and getting and challenging yourself, you know, mentally and physically, the endorphins from it.

Chris has got to go climb a mountain every year to, he's got to climb Kilimanjaro every year to get that out. Yeah. There's the thing, man, that physical activity, your body, if you just look at it, I don't want to get too deep into this, but if you just look at it, there's a reason why that when the person's in the hospital, they move them, they try to flip them. Yeah. When you lie and you stay stagnant, you begin to atrophy.

Yeah. So your body punishes you so that, you know, when you don't move, but it rewards you tremendous. When you are doing exercises like that in that moment, especially when you feel like you've killed it, your body releases the best combination of feel-good chemicals into the system that you can ever receive at any yes.

But it's a combination of a whole bunch of it into your system. So it blesses you. And for all of us, it can help, can help mitigate your anxiety. People who are anxious and you're going through. I'm not saying it's going to cure anything. It can, because I have anxiety and, you know, like I've dealt with being, you know, some downs,

you know, like clinical depression or whatever. But, you know, there's a lot of changes going on for us after we leave the game. And I'm telling you, I couldn't write the ship until I got my ass in gear and got back to doing what made us happy for so many years. You know, we don't have a choice now. It's like how we're wired. And you would think that would be the case for everybody, but it's not. There are individuals that worked out because they had to.

I worked out because I love to. I love to. And that's a difference. I love to work out. And I love again. I love the feeling that I feel. I can walk into, I can go by a couple of days without lifting, say a week, without lifting. And my wife literally tell me, when the last time you worked out?

Cranky. Yeah, because I started getting cranky, right? And it's like, when I go in, I feel. one way when you come out you feel like oh yeah yeah yeah i feel more like me yeah that's all those feel good chemicals the body body is blessing you with because you blessed it to move all right give me a final score prediction before we let you go man i've been stuck on 35 30 brother 35 30 sounds like the over for the people at home who like to play uh i think it's gonna be a you know high scoring game Well, good, man.

That's going to have those high scoring game, but the Eagles, you're going to pull it up. Go birds. Go birds. I didn't even need to ask the team. Yeah. So one more time, Brian Dawkins.com. The book is blessed by the best. My Journey to Canton and Beyond.

And Doc, you're an author, Hall of Famer. And somebody, we're really proud to call a friend. Appreciate you coming out to hang with us, dude. I really do. Yeah. Thank you for having. Yeah. Thanks a lot, man.