Green Light with Chris Long - Damon "Snacks" Harrison NFL Journey, Speaking to the Media, Flying, Best Sacks and Snacks.

Episode Date: April 13, 2020

00:00 - Waylon's Podcast Bomb. 0:48 - Open and Snacks NFL Career. 10:00 - Snacks Journey to NFL. 16:30 - Snacks and the Media. 26:30 - Game of Thrones Feature. 29:05 - Snacks in Detroit and on Blocking Techniques. 37:35 - Chris and Snacks on Flying. 46:15 - Quick Hitters. 49:25 - Snacks on Basketball and UFC. 54:00 - Snacks on Quarantine snacks. 59:00 - Chris and Snacks on favorite beverages. 1:01:26 - Toughest Guards in the League. 1:03:05 - Snacks NFL Sacks. 1:08:20 - Snacks on Social Media and Music. 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. 🌍🏀🏈SUBSCRIBE NOW ⚾🏒⛰️ http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Say what's up snacks. What's up, boss? You're talking, are you being all shy? Get out of here. I'm trying to work. I'm trying to work. Shut that door. You got to go down with mama.

Okay, cool. Welcome into the Greenlight Pod. Come on, man. Get out of here. So this is works. This is podcasting from home, dude. This is Damon Snacks Harrison for everybody. My son messed up the intro.

I was going to intro. you as one of the best run stoppers of the decade, maybe that I've ever seen, NFL linemen, eight, nine years in a league now, Damon? Going on nine. Going on nine. So that does mean we're going to play next year. Yeah, yeah. It's looking that way, man.

It's looking that way. Good, because I heard something where you had said like you were thinking about retiring, so I didn't know. I've had that feeling for like eight years in a row when I played in St. Louis, so I totally can identify. Oh, man. Yeah, it's just a little, you know, how a bad season can wear on you mentally as well as physically. And I think the report has asked me a question.

And I got caught up in the emotions. It was what I was feeling at the moment. It was very honest. But I've had some time to think about it, and I would like to continue playing. That's great, man. I think the game's better with you in it. Not only that, but one of the best social media follows in all of sports here. He is not hold back, ladies and gentlemen.

I like that about you, Snacks. Oh, no, man. That's my platform and I like to play with. Well, that's great, man. So, yeah, I mean, I guess we'll just start with that. The emotional press conference, I've been there. I mean, you know, I think I've added this up a bunch. Over my eight years in St. Louis, we won four games a year.

So, you know, you haven't been in New York, New York, and the Detroit, you've had some rough goes as well. I know, I know the feeling. I know at the end of the year. all the emotions, because you've got to keep them inside for 16 games, because you can't be weak during those games. But then when it finishes, it's like a flood of like, I don't know if I want to do this anything.

Right, yeah, exactly. What do people miss about the dedication and where did that come from, that emotion? I'm just a very emotional guy with everything I do in life, no matter what it is. I speak from the heart, and that gets me in trouble. It's my gift and my curse. And, you know, I just try to be very very. very honest and everything. I do it, especially being honest with myself. So it's another reason why I don't do a lot of interviews because I just have a hard time lying.

Dude, we got a lot in common. The problem is that lately, being in the podcast game, I got to talk all the fucking time. So I do, I have a hard time holding back. But when I watch that interview, I said to myself, I'm glad you did that interview. And obviously, you didn't do that on purpose. Those are real emotions. But I think that fans sometimes, they lose side of the fact that, you know, fans live and die with it. We appreciate the fans. And you played in front of three great fan bases, storied fan bases. The ones in Detroit, they've been through a lot. Yeah. But you're dedicating everything to it, and you haven't had that taste of really winning yet. Yeah, that's the toughest part of it all. You know, some of my best years have been on

nine playoff football teams. And I don't, I don't regret the thing. I wish we'd won some more games. But like you said, it's been three really, really great fan bases. So it was all worthwhile. Well, it's hard. It's hard to like get the accolades you want besides the winning. I mean, I think players know, players know you respect you. I remember when you were young in the league. But now you are a season vet and one of the best runstoppers in the game, the solidified reputation. You know, it's hard to get the accolades. I think one year you were all pro. Yeah. First team all pro. Yes, sir. You're good.

Then fuck you from here on out. You're good. You just go win some ball games. What about now? So, like, we're here in Dallas. That's what I've heard a lot about. And you live in Dallas? Yes, I live in Dallas.

So that actually was my first choice. When I spoke with my agent, Drew, we had a long conversation. And I kind of gave him a list of some teams that, you know, I would like to see if we could pursue. And Dallas was one of them, but Dallas went in a different direction. There was some reports about them internally speaking about it, but as far as I know it wasn't true. What's the right scheme for you?

What's the right fit for you next year? The stubborn me would say 3-4, you know, get back to my roots, the zero technique, the shade, something that I haven't done in a while a lot, which I've had my best years in a 3-4 being able to be the zero-nose. But I think more of a 4-3, man. I'm playing this. I'm still continually dropping weight.

going to play at about 330, 335 next year, which would be about a 20-pound difference than I've done my whole career. And I know that'll make a big bit of difference. What do you like quarantine, right? We haven't gone anywhere in like a month. I know I speak for us both and we're both sitting in the house with our kids or our wives. And, you know, it's easy. I plug my computer and I can talk to anybody in the world. I can do my job just fine. But you have a job to do. And I know the feeling, you know, for somebody who I know takes their craft, seriously, that looms on you. Hey, the season may be coming and maybe not.

It might be late. I'm a free agent. How do you deal with that? How do you work out and stay mentally strong through this time? Well, one, I didn't take my wife's Heeds series. She told me about two weeks before everything happened, you know, what's going to happen? We won't be able to go anywhere or do anything. And I didn't take the series.

So I've been pretty much everything that I order has been on back order. I've had to order some equipment here at home, turning garage into my personal gym here in Texas. And I just really haven't been outside in about a month, man. Dude, look at me, dude. Hey, look at me. All right? It's fucking sunny outside. I'm looking at myself in this thing.

I'm like, I don't look in the mirror a lot. Jesus, I need some vitamin D or some sun or something. You know, like, you sit in the house, you lose your mind. Right. It's scary because I know I have to get outside and work out. I have to run. You know what I mean? I can only do so much in my drive, boy, or in my old house and in my backyard.

I don't like to work out by myself, if that makes sense. I like to be around guys so I can push myself. And I have my father of six, soon to be seven. Congratulations. Thank you. I have two nine-month-old twins here, and one of them have respiratory issues. Wow. Yeah, I can't really take that risk going outside or trying to go into a workout group.

working out with those guys and jeopardize, you know, my son or even my pregnant wife right now. So I'm kind of in a tough spot trying to do all that I can without exposing myself. But the weight's down, so that's great. What's the heaviest you ever were playing weight? Playing? Yeah. Mean on game day? Is game day the day that you can, that you probably weigh the most during a week?

Yeah, yeah. I would say, if not, well, no, not game day. I'll probably say a Monday or a game day. Tuesday. I say Monday the day after the game because now, you know, hydrating, trying to put all the fluids back into my body. We're going back in the next day and working out. Everything that I can't eat during the later parts of the week.

I try to get it in on Monday and Tuesday knowing that weigh-ins or Thursdays or Friday. So but the heaviest I've been on game day, which my coaches in New York didn't believe me. I was 360 on game day. Oh, they ain't too bad, dude. 362, but once you put on all the pads and everything about 390. Right. So we actually brought the scale to the stadium and I got on the scale before the game and I showed them and I actually went out and had one of the best games in my career,

which they still weren't trying to hear. I had to make my weight, which I was fine with. Yeah. You know how it is the day before way in for big guys, man. Oh, I know. I see him in there in the sauna and, you know, like, listen, we used to wear back in the day before it became like kind of faux pa you couldn't do it anymore was wear those sweat jackets to practice.

I don't know if guys are still doing that, but we used to do them all the time. They don't let you do them during training camp anymore, but I wear a hoodie. I used to wear the sweat jacket, a hoodie, and the one, the zip one that come around in the hide my sweat jacket inside of my hoodie and over the other sweat jacket, if you will. The problem is, is like when you get out of training camp, they're like, okay, you can't wear them in training camp, but then September 7th, it's still fucking summer. Right, right. And that's the point I never got. You know, it's not the safest thing in the world, but I know big guys, they have to do a lot of extra stuff. It's like a weekly battle.

So I just played with Helodio the last couple years, and, you know, Helodi was on it. You know, Helodi away in about $3.50, 360 just walking around, too. Yeah, I got to call on Helodi soon. Somebody gave me his number. I got to have a conversation. He's a good dude, man. I heard. One of the best teammates I ever had.

So your long winding journey to the NFL. It wasn't, you know, from guys that know you that I talked to, they say he had a hell of a journey and, you know, I know he's stronger for it, but small school undrafted the whole nine yards. grew up in Louisiana, yeah? Louisiana, yes, sir. So talk to me about what made that such a unique road for you. Just because of the way I grew up, watching my mom, single mother, I had a stepfather, but he wasn't much of a stepfather. He treated us exactly like we weren't his kids. And just seeing my mom struggle, man, walking to work, me being a 10-year-old kid,

afraid from my mom walking to work with all the crime that was going on. So I would walk her halfway to work. And having a kid of my own, once I got to college, I just knew that I wanted better for my kid and my family. So I just decided to put my all into it, and it actually worked out. The small school thing was a blessing in disguise. I had some opportunities to go to some big schools after my freshman year. And I was about to take that opportunity. Cal.

I was about to Cal. Yeah. Yeah. I actually almost transferred to Cal after my first year. I was a little older than you, but yeah, we were running a 3-4 at Virginia, and I didn't want any part of it. Now, you would have been just fine at Virginia. You should have gone to Virginia.

Yeah. Well, see, that's the thing. I ran a 4-3 in college, so once the NFL scouts started coming around, they told my coaches they wanted to see more of me in the 3-4. Now, to my understanding, 3-4 was odd defense, zero and 2-5 techniques, and I wanted no parts of it. So you ran a 4.3-second 40. I thought you said you ran a four three.

I was like, were you one of these converted safeties and why the fuck did they convert you? I ran a four, three, 20. My 40 time was actually pretty bad, man. I think it was like a five, six. But you know what? Like, I see this and they put these big guys out there and some of these alignments when you watch the,

to me it's as much about how they look moving, the big guys, like the interior guys or their alignment, and then like how fast they're really running. It's a bonus if you're Tristan Worst, the guy from Iowa and you run a 4-8 or whatever, like, hey, that's impressive. I don't know what that means, though. Yeah, but during that whole entire time, I was running 505-5-10. Yeah.

So, but once I got to, I thought the pro day was going to be at my school, William Penn, which that was the plan. But the scouts were wanting to go up to Iowa State to see Collets you. Yeah. So what they were supposed to do is make their rounds to Iowa, Iowa State then come to William Penn. But then one scout had this grand idea of me going up to Iowa State

where to come to William Penn, I think it was about 18 scouts confirmed to come, but at Iowa State it was 31, I think, 31 or maybe all 32. So they just wanted to get me out in front of a bigger audience. I personally think they didn't want to take the extra drive, which was about an hour. Isn't that a motherfucker? It's just an hour.

So look, when I got to Iowa State, I had my routine and everything, but I'm from a small school. I never talked to media. We played in front of our fans at that time, maybe with 500 people at our football games. And I get to Iowa State, and I see all these scouts or all these NFL jackets on, and it just blew my mind. And then I saw Ted Thompson on the sideline as well, the former general manager of the Packers, right? Yeah. Yeah.

So I spoke with him a little bit. And now I'm just, I'm starstruck with everything that's going on. It's cameras. They're here to watch us run. And I'm thinking I'm going to warm up and get ready. But I didn't know how it worked. So Iowa State worked out and stretched their guys on one side of the field. And they gave me the other side of the field to stretch on.

And I didn't know what to do. You're all alone. I was all alone. So I was just doing just the regular stretches, man. And once I got warmed up, okay, cool, I'm ready to run. But I'm the last guy to run. And by the time I got up there to run, I was cold, I was stiff. Yeah.

And it just looked bad. The same thing in the wait room. I think I ended up doing 33 reps or 34, something like that. I could have done more, but by the time they told me, I was the last guy, I warmed up immediately as soon as I got in there, but I did it too fast. And I didn't want to go back and do it again. Yeah. I could fight some reps. So I had about 40, 45 reps in me.

But I was stiff, man. That was a tough process. You think about like small school guys. I'm sure you think about them every year and you probably pull for him. But I mean, because of the coronavirus, you have lost pro days. You've lost the ability to go out

and scout smaller school guys. Right. Because again, I know the way that I was just explaining how my pro day went and how difficult that was for me, with some of these guys having no opportunity whatsoever to showcase what they can do in front of the, the scouts is, I think it's going to hurt them more than it more than to help them.

I think some guys, it helps some guys that will go earlier in the rounds that may have dropped if they got a chance to go out there for the pro day. Right. Yep. But the smallest school guys is going to hurt them bad, man. Absolutely. So you get to New York, and that's got to be a big far cry from anything you ever really, because where in Louisiana are you from?

New Iberia and Lake Charles. That's like New Iberia is near Baton Rouge and Lake Charles. You're near Texas, right? Near Texas border. Yeah, because I heard Zero talking about Lake Charles in... Yeah, stop that, man. What you go about Zero, man? Come on, Mo City Dawn, man.

Oh, man, don't do that. That's my favorite rapper of all time, man. Okay, give me your favorite three Zero songs. Damn, you just put me in the... Yeah, we'll do it later, do it. I'll give you time to think. Okay, okay. Dude, I fuck with Zero.

Zero is a legend. Most of the Dawn is my number one. Yeah, Mo City Dawn. That's my number one. Head to Lake Charles and headed the Lafayette. Maybe I'll sit down in Alexandria. Come on, dude. Hey, come on, man.

You know, listen, zero, zero. I'm old, too. So, you know, when zero was really hot, I was in, like, college, I feel like. Yeah. So it's a big difference. You go to, you go to New York, and you end up playing in big cities now, your first eight years, coming from. from a small school, a small town, you know,

what adjustment was that? It was tough because like I said earlier, we didn't have media at my school. So I wasn't prepped as much for it. And it's not a knock on the school because it was something that, you know, they weren't a question to getting guys ready for. So I never did interviews.

I never did, you know, TV or I know how to properly answer interview questions. So when I got to New York, I'm a kid from a small, small town, went to a school in a small town, and then I get to the biggest media, where the media capital of the world. Yeah. It went from four or five hundred people at the games to five thousand people at the

practices. Yeah. And reporters in the locker room, hundreds of reporters in the locker room. And it was overwhelming for me. And I think that's the reason why myself in the media didn't get along at first because they didn't understand me. They didn't know this is all something I'm not accustomed to. You asked me if I want to talk and I'll tell you no.

Because I don't like talking. They saw it as something else. But I was just trying to protect myself because I saw what the media did to a lot of guys. Yeah. And New York is bad as anywhere. I mean, I was in Philly and that was, you know, my first eight years, I was kind of lucky. It wasn't like Virginia's not some big time. I mean, it's a big football school. It's an ACC school, but, you know, it's not like I was under media scrutiny. And then I get to St. Louis and St. Louis is chill.

Like they do not care. I mean, the media, they care about football, but they're not going to hold your feet to the fire. And then I know you get up to New York, it's got to be like, you know, I was in Philly my last couple years and I was blown away by how many reporters in the locker room. They just need to make a story happen every day, which I respect their job, like the ones who do it with integrity. But there is this need that even if it's at the player's expense, there needs to be a fresh story every day. But you're well adjusted to it. I mean like, dude, yeah. So the Snacks Harrison I'm talking to now

was not the Snacks Harrison rookie year, was it? No, no, not at all. And I think when I go back and I look at myself from back then and the way that I handed the media, I'm kind of disgusted. But again, I understand why I was coming from and even coming in as a rookie. It's a machine for them.

So they expect everybody to be media ready. They expect everybody to be media. prep. And here I am coming in from William Penn. Um, when you have guys like Quinn Coble's, the Mario Davis, Stephen Hill, who were prep for this, not only in college, but in the places that they for, like, for the combine and everything. And that was just my first shot at it. I went straight from William Penn, straight to New York, like with no training, not, no media training, no prep for the media at all. And I was just thrown into the locker room for working minicamp. And it was, it was just too much. What, uh, did you get

do it with Francesca? Yes, I did. What happened there? He talks too much, man. That's fucking what he does all day long. And it's just a guy who I went out to his kids school, spoke to kids at his kids' school, sat there with him for about a hour and a half maybe, signed autographs for everybody there before I left. I stayed an extra 30 or 45 minutes signed autographs for the kids. And, you know, I didn't know. I didn't know. that the guy hated me so much behind the scenes. Had I known that earlier, then I would have already, you know, brace myself forward.

But that's another thing I was mad at myself for. I let my guard down once. Right. Then I see this happening. Like, I, it sent me through the roof. It's true, because everybody wants to be your friend, and I have friends in the media, and, you know, there are some people you got to watch for it.

You know, it's just, it's a trap. A lot of it is. And I know there's a ton of young players come from small schools that, like, could probably wish they could have talked to you and heard the whole transition, you know, what it's like to go through that. What would you tell a young kid coming from a small school if you'd give them any advice on the media? Well, I had an opportunity to speak to two draft classes, the Jets and the Giants draft classes. They brought them together, and I was able to go speak to those. I think it was two draft classes

that I spoke to, and they asked me some of those same questions is just prepare yourself for the worst. Come in with a good mind and good attitude, but just know that any opportunity that they have to tell you down, they will. No matter if you first round pick or an undraft guy, the moment that you do something wrong, they will tell you down. Don't take it personal. Just move on.

Because if not, it's going to consume you and it's going to distract it. Yeah, I mean, I feel like T.O. gets snubbed for a bunch of shit just because he was not great with the media. I mean, they literally can turn it in. to this vendetta and like you said, tear you down. And you don't even have to be that much of an asshole. You just have to not give them what they want. Right, right.

And that's the thing, me being that guy, that open guy and everybody knew that. Yeah. Once I did, I once the NFL forced me to start talking because I would avoid them for, you know, weeks at a time. And then, you know, I got a memo from the NFL that I need to start talking. Once they saw how open and honest I was, everybody wanted to speak to me. I couldn't give the quarterback answers, you know, the generic answers, the stuff I'm supposed to say, they didn't want that. So when I did that, they spun it into something else.

It's so funny to me because for somebody who got to know you, like, through Twitter, you know, your personal side, I knew you on the field, but seeing your feed, seeing your interviews, you would have never thought that you went through that learning curve, that, that, you know, that couple years where you were making the adjustment. So good job, man, you know, like anything's possible, very. I was a small school kid in the Big Apple, learning how to deal with all the snakes in the media. Man, it's tough, man. I feel for it. And I think the media played a part in a lot of players' downfall in New York. Now, their own field performance did as well.

But, you know, some of those young kids, they killed them before they even had an opportunity to start, to kill their confidence. Who did they tear down, you think? I think Stephen Hill, D. Miller. again, these are some guys who, their play did. Yeah, but you're always, if the media has decided that, hey, this is a guy that we're going to create stories off of,

then it's always going to be under a bigger microscope than the next guy on the roster. They didn't give those kids a chance to, you know, to overcome some of the obstacles that they had. And the media has a lot of power in New York. Yeah. They post a story. Everybody's running with it. If he wants to coach out, the media will get coaches.

out of town as well as here. So I think they play the part in it. Coaches are afraid sometimes of, you know, coaches read too. They want to tell players don't read news clippings, but they're the first ones to slap like a fucking, it doesn't even have to be ESPN. They'll slap like a message board post.

Right. You had to dig for for three hours to find on the PowerPoint and be like, hey, guys, we got to play harder. I'm like, wait, hold on. We're not reading press clip in Z. Right. Or the pressure of, hey, this player, you know, the, you know, this player is times up. Like, that's kind of the consensus in the city.

And then the coach is reading that, like, well, there's pressure there that I have to make a move here. Right. I've seen that first hand. So one thing the media is not into, I want to hit you on, which is run-stopping throwback players, okay? And you're one of the best run-stoppers I'd seen in my time in the league. Definitely. If they're, you know, I don't know about all this all-decade team stuff. Did you make the all-decade team?

The one that they just, no, the one they just put out. Okay, I barely looked at it because they don't want to give any respect to the guys who put their hand in the dirt and play the run. How hard is it with the all-decade team, accolades, pro bowls, like just general thing, consensus? And then like your bottom line, you're trying to go get a job to know that you're a guy who does something that the league has devalued a bit. I mean, it would have bothered me a lot more if I didn't have the type of upbringing. that I had. I've been overlooked in everything that I've ever done in my life, so this was nothing new. You know, I was from the middle school football team.

I didn't play football until my senior year in high school. I was on the bench a lot, basketball coming up until my sophomore year in high school. So I've always been an underdog. So once I got here, you know, I understood that I had a chance to rewrite my story professionally, And I tried to do that. But one thing that I regret doing a lot, my rookie is I read a lot. I didn't know how not to. I saw it on my Twitter feed.

I was online looking at it and I was reading the story. They were writing about guys all the time. And I was reading on myself, you know, how I was a camp body. I wasn't going to make roster. There's no way in hell that, you know, this guy would be even a remotely decent football player. My own agent at the time told me that I'll be fighting for a practice squad job for two years and then the third year. I'm sorry, I'll be on a practice squad for two years and then the third year. I'll be fighting for an active Rochester spot.

Now, this was told to me while I was still in college. Like, I didn't even get into, you know, the NFL year at the time. So, you know, that shit kind of pissed me off. Excuse my language. This is not a clean podcast. But I told them I don't like anybody to put limbole. on my life, man. That's, that's my model. I refuse to let anybody put limitations on my life. Yeah, and you played that way. I want to, are you a Game of Thrones fan going back to the Giants real quick?

Hell yeah. Okay, this is going to be cool. Okay, so you know who George R. Martin is? Was it the writer or the director? Yeah, the guy who did all the Game of Thrones books. Mm-hmm. All right. So I got to interview him last summer, and you came up in the interview, okay? Uh-oh. Yeah, he's a Giants fan.

We traded away Snacks Harrison, who was a big run stuffer up the middle, caught the middle. Great play. And the knock against him was he didn't get a lot of sacks. So he didn't get a lot of pressure on the quarterback. He just stuffed the run. So we trade him away, and then what do we do with the 17th pick? We draft a guy who's a big run stuffer up the middle, but doesn't get a lot of sacks.

So we replaced snacks with young snacks. Yeah. And why didn't we just keep old snacks? Yeah, the proven snacks. I like the proven snacks. So there you go. There's George R. Martin talking about one of his favorite players he told me on the Giants, who did Game of Thrones and never thought they should have trade you away.

How do you feel about that? That's crazy. My cheek wrong. I heard it's funny. It's amazing how many people outside of the football. small community that we have that actually know who I am. I got a chance to meet Spike Lee.

And Spike Lee had a reaction as if he just seen, you know, one of his childhood heroes and it threw me off. I turned around. I was looking like... That's amazing. He's talking to somebody behind me, but he was like, no, you, snacks.

I'm, oh, man, that blew my mind. But that's crazy that he knows who I am, man. That's my favorite show of all time. And it, well, it's one of my favorite shows, but the ending was, and he didn't, George R. Martin didn't have anything do with the ending. It was a new record. I heard, yeah.

Who should have sat on the throne? Are you? Yeah, I was with you there. I was with you there. Are you? Yeah. They tricked it off, man. They just plain tricked it off.

They didn't have enough time to wrap it up. There were too many storylines and they just blew a bunch of shit up, which was perfectly okay. But, yeah, for me, my favorite show of all times, The Wire, I put, like, I put Game of Thrones in the top five. I got Breaking Bad in the top five. You know, everybody's favorites, but I thought Game of Thrones had a chance to solidify themselves as like the number one or top three. And they kind of tricked it off at the end.

But George R. Martin loves snacks. So there you go. Detroit, I know you've been kind of guarded here, so I'm not going to press you, but why wasn't it a good fit? I mean, it didn't seem like you disliked the fans or the city or even your teammates or you were a model citizen, but just for you, it wasn't a good fit. Yeah, because when I got there last year, it was fresh, it was new, and I was a bit angry. And to be completely honest with you, I didn't want to go to Detroit because of some things that I heard from some guys in the past and some guys who were there. So when I got the call that that's why I was traded, you know, I didn't answer the phone for a couple hours. Bob Quinn was calling me

and I didn't pick up the phone because I was trying to figure out a way to get out of it. So when I got there, I didn't know anything about the scheme. I was a nose-tuck of my entire career and one technique, shade, you know, zero, some two-wide, I get there,

and it's two, three techniques. Right. Now, for me, in my career, the most frightening thing for me, I was playing three technique because how far back the guards was set. Yeah. And they get away with it.

Right, right. And I felt like I would have to stand up because I wasn't much of a get-off guy. I'm an immediate contact because the center's right there. He can't run. I can put my hands on them immediately and handle them anywhere I chose. So when I got there and found out I was preparing pre-technic.

I tried to get out of, we had some conversations about not doing it anymore. And they kind of incorporated some of that zero nose shade in there to kind of fit my play style. But it was something that I wasn't comfortable with. I had some success doing it. But the next year, this past year, I think it kind of came back to bite me in the ass. I wasn't prepared for the season mentally. I came into camp in shape. But during the first three weeks of camp, I think I kind of worked myself out of

shape because I wasn't doing anything. And that was a time where, to be honest, which we were trying to facilitate a trade. I was hell bent on getting out of there. And there's nothing against the people of Detroit, the city or anything like that. I forever loved the city of Detroit. But I just had to go try to put myself into a situation

where I saw myself there for two or three years. years, you know, to end my career and I just didn't see myself in Detroit for that. You don't want to, like, I totally get this because I think this is the thing people don't understand is, listen, I've asked for a trade before in my career, okay? I'll just say that. I'm not going to say when or where. I asked for a trade before. And at times there's things that have, it's not personal, or maybe it is, but, you know,

for me, you only have a certain window as a football player, and you're getting old. And to your point, you want to finish your career somewhere where you have a solid foundation that fits you. I don't think people understand that like seeking a trade, when you got traded there in the first place, you didn't have a choice is not being disloyal. It's just saying this is bad for business for me because in a year when I hit the market, if I'm playing this shitty scheme that doesn't fit me or I've got this issue or that issue, it's going to hurt me. You feel like it hurts you now? I don't I think it did but more so my play more than anything because mentally I was just out of it man I couldn't focus on football I was too busy trying to get caught back up with everything it was just it was a rough training camp for me the roughest training camp in my career and I just

spent a lot of time just pondering my future my wife my family was back in Texas my wife was having issues with her gallstone with a gallstone and I was in Detroit and I couldn't help. We live in Texas where we don't have any family. At that point she needed me there and I wasn't able to be there because I was in training camp. But luckily one of our neighbors were able to kind of take care of things here while she was at the hospital

and it's up in Detroit. But, you know, Matt Patrice is a great coach, a great guy. I have a lot of respect for Matt Patricia. They had nothing to do with him personally. Yeah. I mean, I like Matt, too. I do. I played for Matt in New England, and we didn't always get along, like, when it came to the X's

and O's, like, I did not like the scheme in New England. Okay. You know how he is, dude. Yeah, I mean, like, me and Matt, though, we're still tight, and I like Matt. It was tough trying to get adjusted to a new team, new coach, new training stuff. You got to learn everybody. Everybody has to learn you. And I think it just got out of hand.

And early on, and I was trying to do too much to catch back up, and my body suffered for it. So, but I wanted to get back to my hope, my three, not my three technique, the two-ey-shade, you know, one technique to where I can be the best player and get the best out of, you know, me. Yeah, well, space is tough for, you know, bigger guys and guys that, like, your strength is a phone booth, man. Like, you want to, you want the fight to happen right now. Right now. You know, and honestly, I think there's certain blocks as a defensive end even that space makes it tougher. And to somebody watching the game, you might think, well, it's supposed to be easier to play a three or half man. Sometimes you want to be head up.

Sometimes that close quarters is good. So, yeah, I mean, like, what's the toughest block that you have to play? What's the block that you hate playing? Is it like a backside scoop? Is it in a three? Is it? The piggyback. Is that considered the backside scoop?

Yeah, like if you're in a three and that, there's some people who are going to rip us because we don't know what the fuck to call it. We just play it. Right. Backside scoop, the block I used to hate because I play in like a four-eye sometimes. I'd hate being half-man and having somebody go away from you. Like just bump you. And then the guy is on his back shoulder. It's like that piggyback technique because there's no way.

And then everybody's like, how are you getting cut off? I'm like, you fucking try it. It's impossible. We're on different levels. The guard wants to get off me or the tackle wants to get off me. I hate that block. Right. And so Matt Patricia and I, as well as our defense-aligned coach

and assistant defense-in-lawing coach and defense-supporting Coach Pascalone, we spent a lot of time last season going over that block because it was a block that was troubling our entire defense-in-law. For me, especially- I wonder why, because it's really hard. But coaches, they seem to not understand. It's easy, man, just sliding in there, punch him and scoop.

You can't do that. That's not what he's doing. Oh, dude. He's showing us the drill, okay, when he turns like this to go, you push him, put your hand here, and I'm like, no, he's not going that flat. I can control a guy who's trying to run away from me. I can control a guy who's trying to come right at me, but I can't control a guy who's trying to run sideways.

But to see, the piggyback was easy for me to play at the nose because now the center who's trying to get away from me, I can grab you immediately. And he's small and he's head up on you. Right, right. So I can punch him and control him. And the other guy, if he wants to come, let him come. Yeah. Nobody's on the back or not. Right.

Their center was supposed to get there, but I got the center. Yeah. If the center goes flat now, I've been taught to attack who is trying to block me. Yep. So the center is going to fight pressure. Right, fight pressure with pressure. If the center is going to. the way and the guard's coming, I'm going to attack the guard.

Yep. And that's just the way I was taught. And that wasn't the way that we played it. And Coach Patricia- I'm having flashbacks to like fucking 11 years of arguments. Like cordial arguments. They weren't like blow-ups, but I spent 11 years. And players, you know, any player would tell you this,

like coaches, unless they played, it's hard for them to understand how a scheme feels. Right. So that's one of those things. I just don't feel like they get in the run game sometimes that it's not, you know. So, okay, so one thing, a big scary dude, I've identified one thing you're afraid of,

and that's probably space. Flying, okay? I heard you were afraid of flying. A little birdie told me that you don't like flying. Talk to me about that. Man, I have terrified of flying. I'm not much of a traveler. In the beginning of my NFL career,

I had to take sleeping pills to try to sleep on the flights. before I got to New York I was on two flights one to Florida to train and one back from Florida and that was the only flights out and my God I must have went into this

this cold sweat like I couldn't stop sweating I wanted to talk to the pilot do we I wanted to know did we have parachutes do we have enough gas like do you need to change to all like are the tires

properly air I wanted to know everything man and you wanted to have a sit down You had to make sure things were straight. But my first flight was doing a storm. I didn't know about turbulence. I didn't know you could even... I thought once you go over the clouds, man, you don't hear anything.

And that wasn't the case. We were shaking all over the air, man. I didn't want to get back on the plane. So, yeah, flying is probably up there. Like, if it's not one, it's number two. What's number one, then? Snakes. Dude, fuck.

You and me, dude. I fucking hate snakes. I can't stand them. I mean, I've held a snake before, but I could never do it now. I did it like when I was younger. Right. You know, like there's no chance. But flying for me, when I was younger, I used to take anti-anxiety meds on the plane.

Eventually, I grew out of it and I'm pretty good now. I don't know. For me, it's, I don't know if it's a lack of control. You know, like, I'm just sitting there looking sideways out the window. Right. I don't have perspective. I can't see. You know what happened one time?

One of our charters, team planes, they let me and Rob Quinn sit in the front during the flight. So me and Robert Quinn got to stand there with the pilots while they were flying the plane. And up there, it's like a big 180 degree vista. You can see everything. And so that made me feel better about like up there, I felt like they were just driving a bus. And then, you know, I had a conversation with the pilot. He's like, listen, like turbulence can't make a plane really go down. Maybe he was lying to me.

But he was like, think of it like a. boat on the water, okay? Like, it's chop. It's just chop. You just ride in the waves. People have told me, you know, statistically, you have a better chance of blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, I don't give a fuck.

That's right. No, no. Because if I get in a car accident, it might be over fast. Like, if the plane is doing this, it's going to be a long three minutes. Right. So listen to this. Check this out.

Coach Sherman's first year as the Giants head coach, right? I'm down in Texas. OTAs are starting. I didn't plan on going to OTAs because I wanted to take that time off to really get my body right and really focus on my family. We moved to Texas. We lived in New York up to that point six years, I think. Yeah. We moved to Texas, so I wanted to stay home, but it was a new coach. He's calling me every day when you're going to come in, when you're going to come in. I said, okay, man, I'll come in. So I took a private flight to New York. Now, on that flight, it was a shared private flight.

So it was like seven other people on that. You were on an Uber ride share. Pretty much. It was your problem. It was the cheaper option. But I'm on there with Giants fans. Yeah. We won't stop talking to me.

They ask you be questions. I'm already terrified. So we're flying over Philly. We're almost there. all of a sudden the plane just goes crazy. Like absolutely crazy. The guy in front of me starts praying. The lady's screaming.

The stewardess was standing up with the cookie tray right when it happened. So she went flying and hit the couch that was on there. She's trying to hold on. People are screaming and I'm losing my fucking mind. I don't know what's going on. I'm sitting facing opposite the cockpit. Right.

And I'm too scared to turn and look to see what the pilots are doing because in my mind, one of them just had a heart attack or something and shit, somebody's going to have to Google how to fly a plane or something. So for about 35 seconds, it was pure chaos on the plane. Once the plane came back, the stewardess said, that, well, the pilot said that it was a pocket of turbulence they hit with some bad air or something like that. The pilot in front of them, the plane went through the same thing. Cool. We land in New York. Now, I have to get to New Jersey. I literally flew into New York.

I was going to take a helicopter ride over to one part that was closer to the tunnel. I don't know exactly where it was. I was feeling brave at the time. It's an hour and a half drive. I didn't want to take the drive. So by the time that shit was over, the pilot was there to take me on the helicopter. I told him you could go home. I'm not getting on this. Yeah, dude. No, no chance. I took an Uber. It took me two and a half hours. Don't care. Just I'm going to be a thankful fucking dude in that Uber for two and a half hours. But here's the kicker. Later that night, the owner of the airline or whatever it was called me and asked me if I was okay. And I told him, yeah, then he told me what really happened.

He told me the pilot lost control of the plane. We dropped, I think he said it was 25,000 feet. And had we been closer to New York, we would have crash landed. So we were starting our descent into it because we were fine over Philly. But I think he said had we been maybe 20 or 30 miles closer to where we were

we were to crash landed because how fast the plane dropped. Got to read, dude. Yeah. So it was crazy. Call me crazy. But I took

another private flight back home. I stayed there a week because I couldn't do it. I were only supposed to be there one day but I couldn't just get back on the plane. No. Law of averages, you're, you know, it's not going to happen twice.

Oh, yeah. That's what, you know, that was my thought process that's why I went ahead on and did it. But just so happened that the same guy who was in front of me praying when that flight was on the same flight back and I was terrified. Listen, and you're right, you got to look at the pilots and you were afraid to, but my thing during turbulence is always to look at the flight attendants. And when they look flustered, you know, like on the charter plane, I was the guy who was always like, you know, we were always getting the snacks first. We were always in the back of the plane, like cool with all the old flight attendant ladies,

They would tell us they knew we were afraid of flying. Is this scarier? Is this not? One time in St. Louis, we were landing, come back from San Francisco, so a big plane. And I think what I remember is we hit a big bump, like kind of one of those, like, you knew you fell a while, which is always, to your point, further than you think you fell. Because, like, you could fall, like, you could feel like it's normal turbulence and you fell a couple hundred feet. you know but if you fell a couple hundred feet in an elevator you'd be like feeling like you're you know like you're gonna fall of the center of earth right so everybody's like what the fuck just

happened the uh the flight attendants get nervous they start buckling up we're like oh shit it's game time dude it's game time like you know this is it i'm gonna send some texts and whatnot turned out we hit a flock of geese like sully yeah and the pilot we hit him so hard we lost in the engine, we thought that the pilot thought he hit a small plane. Wow. Bro. Yeah. So I was very thankful, but I got to fly a lot.

And I guess what I've done to just get over it is try to relinquish control. Like, I know I can't control the situation. I accept the statistical probability, which is very low. And I talked to some friends who are pilots and they say, hey, you're probably going to be good. Yeah. So fear of flying, that's one thing. I want to hit you with some quick hitters before we let you. go some more fun stuff because we've been on some serious stuff. I want you to build me

the perfect defensive tackle with your favorite guys in the league, all their attributes, like a Frankenstein. Athleticism, got to go with Aaron Down. Quickness of the line of scrimmage, Jerry McCoy. Oh, yeah. Strength? I would have to go with Lemwell Joseph. Was Fletch in there? I got to get something for Fletch. Yeah, yeah. Fletch was in there. No, AD was the pass rushing. Flex was the athletic ability. Yeah. Fletch and Darrell get off the ball as quick as anybody. Yeah. Yeah.

And it's crazy because Fletch is a big guy. He's tall, like he's tall, and that's what's crazy is I watch some of these guys coming out. I don't know if you watch a lot of college tape, but I was watching, you know, the top two guys in Brown down in Auburn and then the guy

Kenlaw from Sack. I like the guy Kenlaw now. Yeah, I do too. I do too. I like Brown. I like brown as well. The Detroit fans kind of forced me to look into Brown some because after I got released. Oh, yeah, that's where they might pick. You know, it was just tweeting me about and tweeting me about them. You think that's what they go with?

I think so, but I think that corner, was it the Ohio State corner? Akuta. Yeah, he's pretty good too. Yeah, I've seen him. But quarterback, they're safe there. Right, yeah. Matt, I mean, you like Matt a lot. Stafford's the man.

Our season would have been completely different had Stafford not gotten hurt. I know it. You guys were top everything in all the offensive categories before he got hurt. I mean, I don't know what it is that people always want to dog Matt Stafford.

You know, I don't think people realize how hard it is to win in certain franchises in certain situations. Especially being in the division with Aaron Rogers. Right. It's kind of like being in the division with Tom Brady.

I don't care who what quarterback you bring in there. It's never going to amount or add up to what Tom Brady has done. Yeah, in the past 20 years, how many AFCs quarterbacks have been, you know, given the opportunity to excel. Right. It hasn't been a great quarterback division outside of Tom Brady. So give me three teammates that you got to, that you'd have to socially isolate with in a smaller apartment.

If you had to pick three of them, who would have been? You got to stay in for a month, and you can't leave the yard. Quandry, Biggs, Darius Lay, and Odell. Like, we all have a genuine bond. Like, I can stand, most people I can't stand being around longer than 10 minutes. With those guys, we can talk for hours. Like, we laugh and we joke, we talk about any and everything. So, and I think they would bring the most excitement and the most fun.

I could go with a couple other guys, but after a while, their personalities won't be able to stand up to being isolated over a long periods of time. Quandre, Odell, and Slater, it's pure comedy, man. I saw you shooting hoops, okay? And I was impressed, all right? I was really impressed. So if you're in the NBA and I give you starter minutes for 82 games, how many boards a game can you pull down?

Boards? No, no, no, no. I was a shooting guard. Okay, but first, let's start with the boards, Because some people are going to, like, how many boards and how many points? Okay, since you want to go there, how many points? 82 games, you average 20 minutes a game? If I could train for it, you mean, like, if I had time to train for the NBA and actually.

Yeah, you got two months. Two months. Damn. It looked, hey, dude, the Jay looked really natural when I saw it in the video. In my current state, two months? your best state my best state two months i could give me six boards a game six boards a game how many points a game 16 right you go to the all-star game almost i take it man six fans are going to love you 16 six um i could give me about three or four assists a game as well i wasn't

going to ask you this question because i don't want to put you on the spot but it seems like you've got the confidence to answer it who could get that work in the NBA right now currently one-on-one who could you dominate? Could you beat anybody one-on-one in the NBA right now? Ooh, man. You know, last time I answered a question like that, I had a UFC champion at my neck. Challenge you? Who was it? Wait, I don't know anything about this. They asked me a question, a random question. It's a TMZ reporter, man. Do I think that I could be a UFC champion? And I told them, yeah. And I think they asked me if I could beat the current heavyweight champion. I'm not sure. I think they spun it a little bit. As as

the MZ does. And I didn't know who the guy was. I had no idea, but they asked me that I think I could beat him. Like, what the hell you want me to say? Yes. Yeah, I can beat them. Yeah. I beat the shit out of them. Right. If I, if I was properly given, I told him if I was given the amount of time that he was given to train for it, yeah. I'm not going to say I could go out there now and do it. Hell no. But if that was my profession, And I trained for it as much as he did. You fucking ran out of you. Well, so there's a big weight difference.

I mean, like, if the rules didn't apply to you and, like, you didn't have to get down below a current weight, I mean, I could see you roughen up a couple of UFC guys. I mean, they're scary. I mean, their technique, they could knock you out in a second. Like, you know, you would. I don't like that kicking you can get caught. Yeah, the kicking, you can get caught.

Do you not remember who the UFC guy was? Stipe Meochich. Yeah, this is the guy. He's a big Cleveland Browns fan, too. Did you guys ever squash it? No, it kind of just died, man. Well, I mean, like, if you're a fighter, I understand you've given your life to that sport.

And, you know, it'd be like somebody saying, of course, I can play football. But it's a little different because you have size, you have physicality. But you have to expect that, like, the mindset of a fighter, you'd have to at least respect the guys saying, like, yeah, I like my chances because that's, like, they wouldn't say no.

Right. And I made it very clear, too, that only if I was given, opportunity to train as much as he did. Yeah. I can do it now. I'm not saying I can do it now. I'm probably going, I'm not just going to get my ass with, I'm going to lose.

What's your style going to be? I'm aggressive, man. I'm a puncher. I'm not much of a kicker, but I just want a brawl. Let's just meet in the middle of the ring. Fuck all that dancing. Let's just get it out of the way. So you didn't like that one fight recently that was, did you watch the fight where the

dudes danced around for Adasania and the other dude, danced around for a solid five rounds. People were mad. They wanted to give their money back. Oh, no, no, man. That's kind of why I stopped watching boxing. I admire Floyd Mayweather a lot. It's tough. One of my favorite boxes of all time, but it's kind of boring to watch. It's, it's beautiful, but it's bored. And the two can be true. It's like, I used to argue with this, because all the D.Bs, they love Floyd, okay? The D.Bs, we used to argue about this all the time. okay like Floyd's the greatest out there right now he's technically a wizard bro it's it's amazing to watch but it's also boring to watch at times and the two can be true right you know if there's a really

good football team and you don't like their style of play it might be the best in the league but I don't like their style of the play it's not appetizing for me to watch that so the next one I saw was Burger King okay you were tweeting about Burger King the other day best burgers I don't need to take but You got crushed for it. Why Burger King out of all the fast food chains? Man, back when I was eating the beef, just the quality of it and the taste of it and the texture and the bread. And the bun was amazing. I wasn't a big mayo guy, but whenever they made a mistake and put mayo on it, I wasn't mad at all.

I ate mayonnaise, bro. But on Burger King burgers, man, like the double whopper or triple wopper, you throw some cheese on there, man. Like it was nothing like it, man It was nothing. How good would it be to have? Well, you say you don't eat meat anymore. You're vegan? By the end of this year, I'm trying to convert fully.

I'm still trying to find some stuff that I can, that I like. Because the last time I tried to just jump into it, like it was tough. It's tough. And you feel better, though. Do you feel better? Right, yeah. Yeah. Okay.

All right. I don't hate the Burger King take, and I know people were crushing you for it, But McDonald's to your, like, I would eat the shit out of a McDonald's burger. Okay, I still like them. But, you know, and in and out, I like, but in and out, it's a little bit overrated. Let's just, let's just lay it out there, bro. Please put that out there. Please put that.

In and out's overrated. Do you get any of these Cali dudes you play with? The many you go to the West Coast are like, we need to get to an in and out. Like, I'm like, for what? I mean, it's good. It's solid, but I'm not going to wait in line and go drive 40 minutes in traffic to eat it. That's exactly what we did. It was Leonard Williams who went to you.

We went in California and he was just hell bent on getting everybody to end and out. So I wanted to go see what all the fuss was about. And it was, it was just a regular burger, man. You were about to say trash. I would. I didn't want to disrespect nobody. Yeah, no, no, listen, like, if I'm hungry, I'll eat the fuck out. If In and Out had a, you know, a store in my front yard right now in the middle of pandemic,

I'm there right now. But Burger King, though, I'm with you. And then McDonald's, I used to eat about full. 40 chicken nuggets in high school in one city. Oh, yeah. The chicken nuggets were good, man. Hell yeah. What sauce are you picking for the chicken?

Barbecue. I'm sorry. No, the chicken nuggets. Sorry, sweet and salad. I was on the honey. I was just... Honey. Honey, yeah.

They used to have the honey sauce back when I was a kid. Does he, the barbecue or sweet and sour, definitely sweeten sour. And then I wash it down with some Dr. Pepper. Nah, man. Oh, yeah. Oh, you said Dr. Pepper. Yeah, yeah. No, no, no, no.

I'm a big doctor. Well, it was a big doctor. Pepper guy. Dr. Pepper. What was I? No, was I. I can't drink, I can't have any caffeine.

I can't have any caffeine, not even in, in like a Coke or something. Yeah. Because I get too wired, bro. I do. And then I can't, I can't sit still.

Okay. So Burger King, it is. What's the toughest snack to, to resist in the pandemic, in the fridge? What's staring you right in the eye every night when you open the bridge? Because I got a few.

The ice cream, man. Oh, yeah. Ice cream, the vanilla ice cream. in Bluebell. Bluebell was big during my childhood. Hadn't seen it at all during my time in New York or in Detroit, but once I got back to Texas, is that and the Pop-Tarts.

Pop-Tarts? Yeah. You stocked up with which flavor on the Pop-Tart? Carberry. Do you have to have them hot? Yeah, you gotta put it in the toast or the microwave. I'd eat them right out of the fridge. I eat so many things cold, bro. I'm weird like that, bro. Oh, man.

Hell, why wouldn't you... Have you ever had a hot one? Yeah, I've had a hot one. but I got a lot of shit to do, man. You don't have two minutes to wait for it and then wait for it to cool down. You don't got to wait for it to cool down. You get you some milk, bite it, so you just throw it down on some milk. Lop tart got a little weird with some of the, you know, like stick to the blueberry and the strawberry, the other flavors.

Cinnamon and all of that night now. Cut that shit out. Yeah, I'm with you on the vanilla ice cream. There was a stretch for a week where I was having because I had my birthday, my wife's birthday, my mom's birthday, all in 10 days. I eat cake and ice cream every night. earlier in March, actually. I've gotten the point now where I've got to mix the cake with the ice cream.

It's not enough, either one alone. Do you have a favorite ice cream other than vanilla? Do you have a favorite Ben and Jerry's? I've never been a big Ben and Jerry's fan. Cherry Garcia, do you like cherries? No. Oh, see. Ooh, see.

Strawberries, I like strawberries. I like strawberries. I'm weird because I don't like lemons, but I like lemonade. Who likes lemons, though? Who like... Not weird, because nobody likes lemons, bro. Nobody wants to eat a lemon. Like, but even with...

So what does a peanut collada consist of? Pineapple and coconuts. Coconut. You don't like coconut water. Not at all. Like coconut water, regular coconuts, nothing. But I love Pinacolaola. Oh, dude, I love Pinacolados.

If I go on vacation now, and my wife and I are at the beach, I'll slam like five virgin pinacoladas and go work out just to work it off, just so I can have those peanut colladas, bro. Doesn't even need to have alcohol in it. Like a 13-year-old kid at the pool. No, man, all my drinks are virgin these days. I used to be a big drink, man. Now I can't drink at all.

What was your drink of choice back in the day? I was a cognate guy, Remy Martin, Hennessy, and Duce. That was whatever you threw at me. I'm still whatever you throw at me, but not as much. Banned from drinking patrol. Oh, are you? Yeah, Willie Cologne, actually. Willie Cologne and Nick Manko

Bambi from Drinking Patrol. Does an alter ego come out? The last night that I had it, yeah. What's the alter ego's name? Because usually if you got to drink an alter ego, people name it. It was Damon. It was Damon. It was Damien.

Not snacks. No, not snacks. Not Dame, not Big Dame. What are you like, irritable when you're on the tequila? on the patron? Yes, very. See, vodka does that for me. Vodka gives me headaches.

Yeah, vodka makes me a little bit like, you know, like my Irish ancestry, the potatoes in there. They unlock, like, in a video game. If I was in a video game and my character found some vodka, I'd get, like, real big and angry. Like, the brown liquor, it's all chill for me. So I'm a big Scotch guy right now and a little bit of bourbon. So, yeah.

You drink. Huh? How do you drink that? Scotch on the Rocks. Sometimes, though, this is going to fuck up some of the viewers or listeners. At Prime 112 in Miami, actually, with Miles. Shout out to Miles, if you've been down there. You like Prime?

Have you been to Prime? Miles is my guy, Eagles fan. Best food. I was there New Year's Eve this year. One night I was drinking late with Miles at the bar, and I decided to try to shoot some Scots. So I had them chill the scotch like they would any other shot and poured in a shot glass. And I had it. It's the greatest thing ever.

I know a lot of people like to sip scotch. But you can shoot it too. So yeah, dude. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. Broaden your horizons, man. Come on now. Okay.

So that stacks in the pandemic. How about toughest guard in the league? Toughest guard in the league yonder for me. I know he's retired now, right? Yeah. Yeah, Yonda. And the toughest center was Alex Mack, the Cleveland Alex Mack. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. He was a dog. Vice Chris. Frederick was a close second as well as Frederick because he was so smart. And Alex was the rare combination of the smarts, the strength, and the athletic ability. I know Kelsey said he always had a hard time playing against you. Oh, yeah. No, Kelsey was my next one.

It's Mac, Kelsey, and Frederick. Yeah, yeah. They're pretty good. That kid, Clinton, Nelson's not bad. Oh, no, not at all. Not at all. And my bonus one was Eric Wood and Buffalo. Oh, Eric, very underrated.

He was huge. Your brother disrespected the shit out of me while you. What do you do? We played Chicago, right? I think we were in New York, and it's a close game. you know, everything's going on in the trenches we were going against each other and like literally during the TV timeout

he looked at me, he told me, he said, dude, like, you're a great run stuff like, but you're a fucking shitty patch rush. Like, you're fucking terrible. Hey, hey, did you tell him fuck you that doesn't pay my bills? I didn't know what to say. He wasn't lying though at the time,

so I was like, shit, I was that. But what's crazy is I think I got to cut them Did you? Okay, that was one thing I want to ask you. Do you know how many NFL sacks you got? 11, I think. Can you name all the quarterbacks that you sacked? I can tell you the very first one because it's the- I know the first one. It's a picture that I still have in my home in New Jersey. As soon as you walk in my house, it's Tom Brady. But Tom Brady, Aaron Rogers, Chase Daniels, Kirk Cousins. Did he smell like money?

Not at that time. He was Washington. You were still asking if you like that. Yeah, exactly. I don't know if I've sacked Kirk Cousins. I don't think I have. I missed him. I never got Tom.

I never got Aaron. Have you gotten Eli? I've gotten Eli a bunch. He was one of my first sacks. He was my first second league, and he was almost my last. He was sack one and sack 69, 68. Because I, yeah, I got DeShan a couple times right before the So yeah, I got Eli a bunch.

Did I, Alex Smith? Was he one? I'm stumped. But you know what? Like when you get there a lot, you don't even have to worry about it, Snacks. Like, you're the man, bro. You know, if I can, you know,

somebody who doesn't get there a lot would remember all of them. Come on. Like, you do this, bro. Come on. I missed a bunch. I've missed a bunch, too. I'm terrible at finishing. God, I've missed a bunch, man.

There's no worse feeling. then laying on the ground and knowing that like, A, this is going to look terrible on film. I'm losing money. I'm on my back. I hear the crowd cheering because he just completed like a bomb. Like, that's the worst feeling in the world. Is that worse than having somebody else steal your sack? Steal your sack?

Right. Ooh. Man, dude. Olivier Vernon. He owes me about four. So, okay. Yeah, I like this. Okay, so what was it, did he turn it in?

Like, okay, for the people listening, me and Damon know this well, but you come in on Monday, on, you know, there's film, guys argue over who was there first. The fucking target's always moving. So the guy that has one rule, one week is going to have a different rule the next week. But eventually, it's kind of a code with D. Lyman. You settle it in the meeting room. Right. The coaches will fuck with you because they want to put one guy in the pro bowlers.

something. So they take a sack and they'll say, oh, that was player X's sack. Right. Sometimes a player will leave the meeting room and turn it in. Right. You can go upstairs and have the media guys turning in for you. So was Vernon taking your sacks and then going upstairs with it? It was a situation to where I break through the line. I got the quarterback. He's not going, like I'm in a process of taking him down. He comes off the edge and completely, He completely takes him out of my hand.

And takes you out with him. Yeah, like takes him out of your hands. Right. So I had Matthew Stafford in my hand, wrapped up. Olivier comes off the edge, the right side, takes him out of my hand. Stafford stumbles, one or two steps falls to the ground. It's Olivier's side. Dude, we used to have these arguments so much in St. Louis, man.

And then, you know, like, there would be a time where I think I paid James Laronitis, thousands of dollars not to turn one in one time. because he was going to turn it in. And it was my sack. Like, literally, at the very end as they're blowing it dead, I'm falling off. James just runs in and adds. So then he wants to turn in the sack because he thinks he's going to get a bonus. It's not going to get a bonus.

He has, like, four more sacks you get. He's not a pass rusher. So I paid him a bunch of money. Like, don't turn it in. Like, I've done, me and Mike Bennett used to argue about this stuff like every week. That's a good deal. Yeah, yeah, Mike, yeah. But me and Mike were both, we both want to,

our numbers, you know, like that's make no mistake. And the D-Ns need it more than the D-tackle, so I'm sure you were cool about it, but that shit is still, it hurts. Yeah, I lost a couple of sacks like that, too. Half-Sax. I lost a couple of half-sax. Oh, there's nothing worse when you think, bro,

when you think you have like three in a game and then it turns into one. Then you come back in and you realize that they gave it to somebody else. Oh, I've just, Case Keenham. Okay, there's another one. Excuse me. I just thought about that we were talking. about the sex, too, that was a set up for me. I think we were in London, and that's the only reason why I remembered it,

because he had promised me like two games before then, like, bro, we're going to run the me game, and the me game was, he's coming inside, taking out the goal, and I'll wrap a pound, flushed by the pocket. Every single time we called it, he never did it. So you're literally looking like a fool at the line of scrimmings, trying to entertain this center, hoping he's coming in, he never, comes in. So you got to, like, and that's something we do at defense events. Sometimes we think, hey, I like the inside move. We might say me, me, and then, you know, don't hold it against us.

So y'all are a different breed, man, on the outside. We got a different breed. Okay, so how about a social media pet peeve real quick? I hate when people try to tell me what I can and can't say on my profile or tell me that I don't deserve to have an opinion. When I respond to something someone else said, people question me on my question of somebody else. How does that make sense? You're telling me that I can't question something somebody else is saying,

but you're questioning. You're doing exactly what you're mad about. Right. That's my name is paid Pee. Oh, there's so many. I forget when it was, but you were like, hey, I need some good rock and roll. I sat there and made you like a hundred song playlist. I just went through my favorites real quick in like 20 minutes.

Did you listen to any of this stuff and what are you on now? I did. I did. It's Phil Collins rock and roll. Yeah, I guess. I don't know. Like, Phil Collins is fucking awesome. But yeah, I would say he's rocked.

And the reason why I was so, I caught on to him because the Jets, you know, that's the song they played during stretch at every home game. And I would play the airdrums when that part came on. and I remember the song. So that kind of what made me go into that realm as well as Nick Mangold and you know, you go into the locker room and you hear that shit in the wait room and you're wondering,

like, what the fuck are they saying? What's going on? But all the office alignment are excited and shit, I'm trying to understand it and I have no idea what's going on, but I know it has to be some good shit because there's too many people listening to. Yeah, yeah. When the O-Lignment has to

have the ox cord. Right. I don't like it when the D.Bs have the ox cord because listen, I love rap, music, hip-hop as much as anybody, but the new shit they're playing is garbage. Right. You can't understand that shit either. And those are the ones you don't.

The linebackers, you can't really give it to them either because they'll start listening to some stuff that'll get boring or maybe they'll try to throw some curve balls in there. But I would just give it to the D-Lylinman, man. We have a good balance of everything. We do. We do.

We're the fucking coolest people on the field, dude. Like we got the edge. We got the intellect. We got it all, man. We get along with everybody, I'm telling you. And that's the only position group where every other position group flocks to. Like you have receivers in there with D-Lyline, offensive alignment, kickers, punters, quarterbacks, everybody.

We're also not to be fucked with. Exactly. And I think that's why everybody draws to. Well, snacks. Thanks, man. I appreciate the time, bro. And best of the family, stay safe, stay healthy, and keep me posted.

Yes, sir, same to you. Thanks for having you.