Green Light with Chris Long - Matt Ryan on Kaepernick, NFL Offseason, and Giving Back. NFL to NASCAR with Former Teammate Marshall McFadden.

Episode Date: June 24, 2020

0:42 - Open and NASCAR Update. 25:14 - Matt Ryan on Colin Kaepernick, COVID-19 and his GoFundMe program for the Atlanta Community. 52:32 - Marshall McFadden on Life as a NASCAR Pit Crew Member. Check Out Matt Ryan's Gofundme: Advancing The Lives (ATL) Of The Black Community https://www.gofundme.com/f/ATLFund 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

Could you beat Tom Brady at golf? Because I hear you're pretty good, and he didn't look that great on TV. I watched the match. And I'm not, listen, I'm not going to talk any shit because it's not easy when you're playing with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, and you're the only people on the course. But from what I saw, I think I might be able to get Tom Brady. It's a crazy time, and we're all doing what we have to do to get through it. Two big things for me, this podcast, and we've had a ton of interesting guests of late,

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Go check them out at allbirds.com, the tree dashers. Happy Wednesday. This is your host, Chris Long. This is the green light pod. And I got to get straight to it. We have a little bit to talk about when it comes to NASCAR and Bubba Wallace and the whole news thing. We're going to get into that right away. But I want to preview who we have coming on.

We got two guests today, one you've heard of, one you might not of, both football players, but leading very different lives right now. Matt Ryan's the first one, obviously quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, one of my draft classmates. back in the Stone Ages in 2008. And then Marshall McFadden, a guy played with in St. Louis, also played for the Oakland Raiders and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Special teams type guy, downhill thumper type linebacker, unsung type guy. But when his career wrapped up,

and I think he stopped the CFL before doing this, he moved on to the world of NASCAR, and he has been spending his time in pit row. So not only is he a black dude in NASCAR on pit row, but he's a former football player on pit row. And that's not, you know, that's actually not that rare. When I went to Martinsville a few years ago for a NASCAR race, the only one I've been to, maybe that changes in the future. I had a pass and I walked around pit row and ran into five, six guys that I played against in the ACC.

I mean, ACC country, Charlotte, Charlottesville, Virginia, you know, at NASCAR headquarters, a lot of these guys from this area that play college ball get pulled to go work on these pit crews. You know, football is a game of inches. NASCAR is a game of seconds, milliseconds. And these pit stops have to be done quickly and you're moving big, heavy machinery around. You're basically like an athlete. So there's really no surprise to me that NASCAR has put a premium on these former college

football players, these former pro football players, and Marshall McFadden is a perfect example. And he loves, from everything I know, his life in the NASCAR world. Now, full disclosure, you know, when I first had Marshall on, that was earlier today. I've done both these interviews already. It's about 11.30 at night, trying to wrap up this open so I can get the bed. Things have changed. Okay. So, you know, part of our conversation was about the noose and Bubba Wallace and everything that went down, you know, the past few days.

I think it's irresponsible to, you know, to push those questions and answers out because things have changed. Now, luckily, I was just really excited to talk to Marshall. He's a guy I played with and a guy who can give me insight into just how difficult and dangerous and demanding it is to work on pit road. and the transition from football to NASCAR and how so many guys are making that transition. So it was a very interesting conversation. I think you're going to like it. But first up is going to be Matt Ryan.

And there's a lot Matt Ryan and I will talk about. But the main event today in the sports world is the conclusion of an FBI investigation that dropped around 5, 6 o'clock tonight. That was a bit of a surprise, to me at least, that there was no hate crime. You know, Talladega this weekend, Big Race, Alabama, NASCAR, Bubble Wallace, one black driver in NASCAR has been receiving a lot of hate, a lot of heat, probably a number of threats since he did the Black Lives Matter thing on his stock car. So, you know, people were puckered up for Talladega, rightfully so.

there was allegedly a noose in his garage. Now, I don't know how these garage situations work. I certainly don't know how they work in the middle of a pandemic. But I would imagine that if people in NASCAR were troubled enough to call the FBI, this was a serious thing. So I hadn't tweeted anything about Bubba Wallace or the noose in the past few days. certainly I hadn't tweeted anything about the news at all, actually. I'm glad I didn't, admittedly.

But from the information we've been fed from NASCAR, there was a quote unquote noose hanging in the only black driver's garage in Alabama in the wake of him throwing a Black Lives Matter bumper bumper sticker, essentially giant bumper sticker on his car. In a sport that of all the sports, you probably, you know, if you're going to be pro-black in any sport in America, NASCAR would be the last one. Consensus probably. I don't know, bull riding NASCAR.

I don't know if there's more rodeo dudes than there are NASCAR drivers of color. But yeah, Bubba is the one. And he took a bold stand before any of this stuff hit in Talladega. And lo and behold, we get the Talladega and we hear. there's a noose in the garage. So everybody believed it. I believed it. Yeah.

But was it some smoking gun for me that there's racism in this country or that NASCAR has at least a few fucked up fans? No, I didn't need a noose in Bubble Wallace's garage to know that. I did take it at face value, knowing that we know the truth in a couple of days, and now we do. We know that that noose was there in October of 2019 as well. Now, I don't know. I'm hearing that, you know, it's a mechanism for a pulley system. You pull on, you know, this noose to pull the garage down and that it's fairly common. I guess I wonder if it's that common why NASCAR presumably saw the noose and was troubled enough to go to the FBI.

about it, why a member of Richard Petty's team saw the news and was troubled enough to go the authorities of NASCAR about it. And NASCAR, in turn, as I said, going to the FBI about it, turned into this big thing. I mean, if it's that common and it looked that inconspicuous, then why? Now, I don't know the sport, admittedly. I'm learning the sport. I don't know what it looks like in one of those, you know, garage situations there they have going on.

I just know that as a fan of sports and as somebody with a podcast and somebody who hasn't been living under Iraq the past few days, that was at face value what we were talking about. And we know more now. We know that, again, it was their last fall. And we know there's a noose. You can't pick and choose what you believe when it comes to the FBI. They do say explicitly that it was a news. now whether you think it was a pulley or not. We just talked about that.

So either Bubba is a fucking diabolical clairvoyant, and he staged this entire thing, or he had nothing to do with it. The fact is that he didn't report it or find it himself. So again, let me speak slowly for some people. Either Bubba Wallace knew that there would be a pandemic in 2020, and he knew that the country would be a captive audience and that there would be a guy named George Floyd

who would get executed by police and it would spur this giant, kind of like mini-American revolution and consciousness about racism and police brutality in the United States. And he knew that in the fall. So he went to Talladega in secrecy and hung a noose in the very garage that he knew that he would occupy a year later. So you could believe that.

or you could believe that he had nothing to do with it. Because we know for a fact that, you know, he didn't report it. In fact, he never saw it. So save the hoax talk. I've seen that a lot today on Twitter. And I know who's using that. I mean, we all know, you know, disingenuous nature of people who would love to make this thing a giant, some clandestine

liberal agenda save the Jussie talk, okay? Again, a hoax would mean that he's in on it. The Jussie Smollett thing I know you guys wanted it so badly to be a Jussie Smollett thing and by the way, Jesse Smollett is a piece of shit.

He took advantage of racial tensions that are very real in this country and used it for personal, I guess personal gain or attention. Fuck that guy. And anybody making excuses for him, you're a weirdo. But Bubba Wallace, come on, this is not a Jussie Spillett situation. I also saw that a ton of conservative talking heads were mad because Bubba went on GMA or something

and called people who didn't believe the story a name. And that's been a big talking point because, of course, there's no redact. deeming value, you know, in, in, there's, it's not a big enough victory that this wasn't real. You know, you need bubble Wallace to be behind it so that you can feel good about this win for you. And he's not. So you reach and you say, yeah, but he called people a name who said that this wasn't true. So if you don't just read these conservative talking heads tweets and you actually click the video that they're referencing where, you know, Bubba is mean to people that don't believe his story. Bubba has posed a question where he's asked, what do you have to say to people who believe

that this is a hoax or that NASCAR has orchestrated this? So when he is saying that, you know, these people that fit this description are X, Y, and Z, I think that he's right. I think he should stand by that because anybody accusing him of orchestrating this automatically is an asshole. And anybody who thinks that NASCAR orchestrated this on purpose as some sort of a PR stunt is a fucking moron. Why would NASCAR create an elaborate hoax and then call the feds to investigate their elaborate hoax? And why wouldn't Bubble Wallace hypothetically refer to those people as morons in so many words. I don't think Bubba has anything to apologize for here. And people have searched for an apology from, I guess, the media and whatnot or anybody that's

been using this as a rallying cry. Listen, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that there aren't people in the media who use certain situations to mobilize a base or to prove a point. you know at face value a guy who just put a black lives matter decal on the side of his race car who happens to be the only black guy in NASCAR had a noose in his garage that's what we knew um this misunderstanding or coincidence if that's what you want to call it if you're considering it like a crime this is a victimless crime so who the fuck gets an apology I guess the only way you'd be offended by this is if you're in the crowd that would hang a noose in Bubba Wallace's garage, which I know that there is a contingency of those types of folks in this country. I didn't need a noose in Bubba Wallace's garage to know that. Bobbo was on CNN tonight. I got to watch more of that. But he maintains that it is a noose.

It might not have been for him, but it's a noose in his garage. and he's a black driver who's probably hurt all types of ugly things. Threats, except for the past couple weeks, and they'll only get worse now. So I don't think his life is getting any easier, and it's no fault of his own. And the reaction here shows that there didn't have to be a noose in his stall to confirm or deny racism in this country.

You guys are proving it. Dustin Skinner, okay, he's the son of Mike Skinner. Quote, I wish they had tied a noose around Bubble Wallace's neck and dragged him across pit row. You ever think about what you just said, dude? Do you ever like say it out loud and then think about that visual? You know, some people aren't going to change. Some people just need their fucking asses kicked.

That guy could use a solid ass kicking. He also called Bubba a piece of shit for supporting Black Lives Matter. You had a truck driver, by the way, leave the NASCAR truck series over a Black Lives matter car. Oh yeah, the Skinner guy also said, I know that this isn't what you want to hear, but my hat is off to whoever put the noose at his car. He also called him a scumbag piece of shit. So Dustin Skinner, who I hope gets his ass kicked at some point in his life, is not only not shocked that there was a noose in the garage, he was congratulatory towards whoever did it. Again, some people won't change.

Some people need their asses kick. Then he apologizes and said it wasn't about race. Of course not. And his own dad distanced himself from his son and his son's comments like twice. And as cynical as I am and I want to believe that, you know, maybe his dad was much wiser and less of a racist piece of shit. I want to believe that his dad probably isn't like his son, but I'm cynical enough to wonder if the conversation went like this. Like son, you can't say those things in public.

And that was like the extent of it. And I got to kind of fry you in public now and we'll go back to family dinners tomorrow. I don't know about you, but like if my son grew up and said something like that, he's on his fucking own. he's on his own you know this isn't some 14 15 year old kid impressionable spewing some bullshit which would be terrible in and of itself this is a grown man

we're also as we turned on the TV this weekend looking at a confederate flag flying over Talladega a guy chartered an airplane to fly a confederate flag over Talladega with the words defund NASCAR.

Do you think the noose really means anything either way, whether it was real or it wasn't? Maybe that was why I didn't jump at tweeting about it or talking about it or joining the masses of people who were understandably outraged if that were true because I didn't need the noose to know that America is kind of fucked up and that NASCAR has a long way. way to go. I think the bottom line is this. We should all be relieved that Bubba did not have a

noose targeting him in his garage. And I'm going to do something really tough for me right now. I am going to take off my cynical hat and believe that the FBI investigated this thoroughly. And although it was a noose and it was their last fall, it wasn't for Bubba. I'm going to do that. I'm going to take it at face value and be relieved that nobody was targeting Bubba Wallace with a hate crime. How hard is that? Instead, everybody's mad for whatever reason or everybody's happy for whatever reason and gloating. A nuisance in bubble Wallace's stall wouldn't have taught me anything new about this country.

And I am relieved that it wasn't for him. because he's a guy who stepped out and taken some risks in a sport where I have wondered if he is as safe or if he will ever be as safe again in and around a NASCAR track. And unfortunately, if it's any indication, his job's only going to get harder and it's no fault of his own. So welcome to the party NASCAR. This shit gets messy when you talk about race, when you confront it head on. I hope this doesn't dissuade you from continuing to try to do the right thing. You know, I had a conversation with somebody today

on Twitter about this. You know, they said that, you know, NASCAR's done more in the past few days than, you know, for Bubba Wallace, then the NFL's done for Colin Kaepernick. Absolutely. That's also a very low bar. You know, I think NASCAR had it

been confronted with this whole situation in 16 and 17. I mean, I don't have to think. I know there are quotes. They're, you know, they're excerpts. They're, you know, prominent drivers and personalities in the sport

who were very disapproving of Colin and his cause. I think that if NASCAR had seen this in 16 and 17, they would have pissed down their leg on this thing. But they're doing the right thing now. The new leadership is stepping up. I hope that this doesn't scare them all. and that they stay the course. And you know what help?

You know, Richard Petty showed up, you know, the king, stood with Bubble Wallace this weekend. Richard Petty, who spoke out against Cap, you know, and essentially said if you don't like the flag and you don't like the anthem, leave the country, you know, he's had a change of heart in a few years. That's great. Need his voice.

Need more voices going forward. You need to eliminate. you know, the bad fans. You need to thin the herd. You need more people to leave the sport indignantly because you're not going to fly a losing battle flag over the infield or in the parking lot. You know, I would say if I was running NASCAR, good riddens.

I hope they stick with it. And I will talk some more NASCAR, this pod, but it won't be the bubble loss situation. We're going to talk about some X's and O's. You like talking sports. We're going to talk about the sport of NASCAR with Marshall McFadden. But first, Matt Ryan. Matt Ryan, again, somebody I respect greatly,

somebody who's resilient, loved by his teammates, never heard anything bad spoken about him from inside a locker room. That's a great indicator when it comes to being a teammate. I've never heard anybody say a bad word about Matt Ryan, and he's a quarterback. His leadership, his grit, his hard work. The guy's also just a great player. You know, you're talking about a guy who threw for 4,000 yards, nine straight years, and he's had talent around him.

The only times he hasn't thrown for 4,000 were early in his career when they were running the rock with Michael Turner, who, by the way, was one of the toughest tackles I have ever had to make in the NFL. the guy was a bowling ball. And those Falcon teams have always been pretty physical offensively. Not so much lately, but their lines used to be very feisty. And Matt Ryan has always been a hell of a quarterback. It's fun to see him continuing to sling the ball around the yard.

But I had to play him in the Super Bowl. And we're up 28 to 3. And this is part of the reason why I hate the conversation about quarterbacks. well, he's got one ring, he doesn't have one ring. Listen, if a guy has six rings, he's doing something right. There's a pattern there. If a guy has three, he's doing something right, there's a pattern there. And even then, you have to judge people based on context.

But Matt Ryan could retire in three years without a ring. Matt Ryan had that Super Bowl won. When you're up 28 to 3 in a Super Bowl, you generally want to do something called running the football. And the quarterback's job is generally done. Now he has to make a couple throws there, which he did. He made a huge throw to Julio on the sideline. That's when we thought the game was over. Then he took a sack to Trey Flowers.

Then there was the hold on Jake Matthews by yours truly, which, by the way, Matt completed a ball that would have put him in field goal range. They kicked that field goal. It's over. That is not on Matt. 28 to 3, blown lead. Now, if Matt doesn't get a ring, he's one of those. ringless quarterbacks. Context matters. Matt Ryan's a hell of a quarterback. And Matt Ryan,

the next year, got his Atlanta Falcons back up off the mat, which is so hard to do to make it all the way to playoffs. Again, I'm on the other sideline, this time in Philly, comes up to Philly on a really cold day, defensive struggle, and really easily could have won that game. And we go on to win the Super Bowl. So bad luck for the Falcons. But each time that team gets off the mat this past year start off really poor, second half of the year, they're rolling. They're like a playoff team. If they had slid in the playoffs, not a lot of teams want to see them. I think they went to San Francisco and won. They beat in the Saints. They played a lot of teams close. I want to say they went like six and two the second half of the year, shuffled some coaches around, did some things.

They're going to be tough to deal with this year. Not only you see a great quarterback, not only they're going to be good this year, even in a good division. He's a guy who spoke out. And I appreciate that. He didn't just speak, though. He also has a GoFundMe. He is encouraging people to donate. It's www.

gofundme.com forward slash F, forward slash ATL fund. And Matt kicked this GoFundMe off with a $500,000 donation. I'll let him tell you what its aim is. And without further ado, let's get Matt on. Franchise quarterback here. One of the best, one of my favorites, somebody from my draft class, I've known from way back when, ACC Media Days, you know, the,

what was that, what was that thing we, by the way, it's Maddie Ice, Matt Ryan, the one and only. Matt, what was the thing we went to out in the desert? Was that the Playboy All-American retreat in the desert? God, I don't, what were we doing out there? I don't know, man, but like this. It's been a long time. Yeah, the 11, 12 years has flown by, and I got out while I still could.

You're still swinging it around the yard, throwing for fourth. thousand yards every year like it's no problem do you feel old yet we're playing two different positions bro you can age a little bit differently at my spot than you can at yours but uh i still feel pretty good you know some days are better than others but i still feel pretty good and i can't believe i'm going into year 13 i feel like we were just in the desert kind of hanging out i know it was yesterday you know i know and uh i did see like you know these people i watch these games late in the year last year and you guys were kind of out of it but but you didn't play like it obviously the new Orleans game is always a heated rivalry but i can remember you tuck in the ball and running to the

right sideline to the pylon it wasn't to the pylon it was just the first down you were selling out with everything you had and you still look fast man well i couldn't quite make it to the pylon i didn't have enough juice to actually get there but i did get the first down which was uh you remember the play yeah yeah i know exactly which one which was good enough it doesn't happen very often for me yeah no i My man still has his wheels. Yeah, probably like 5-240 these days. Yeah, I don't know what I would run if I had to do the combine again. What do you think?

Currently, what do you think right now? I'm going to be kind to myself and say a 5-flat. That's pretty good. That's bad for being on the couch. Yeah, that's pretty good. I would take 5-flat right now. I'm not sure I got it in me. Now, what I couldn't do is jump real high.

I think that's the first thing you lose is the ability to jump straight up vertically. Yeah, luckily, it serves no purpose. That's an Achilles way to happen. And for you, it's just celebrating when you jump. So, but you've been, listen, you have been, and I've always known you to be a stand-up guy, you know, you're one of those guys that I could tell just you don't change in a good way. You've always been Matt. I mean, you've always been the same guy since BC. And anybody that plays with you, you're a leader, you're a guy that takes care of his teammates. And you stepped up big time recently for your teammates, for your peers around a league.

and in an age where we've been thirsting for these, you know, big white quarterback voices, you stepped out into the forefront and talked about these issues that we're grappling with as a country. What did that, what went into that for you? Well, you know, it started kind of in a setting like this. You know, with everything going on, we had a Zoom team meeting. And, you know, just listening to some of the other guys talk, one of the things that they, you know, mentioned was it would be. be helpful if, you know, some white players, some white teammates would step up and be vocal. In the past, and you probably know this being in locker rooms as well, there was always support

within the locker room, you know, there was always that like, hey, man, I got you, I'm with you, I can, you know, empathize with what's going on. And I regret probably not having spoken up sooner than this, but the timing is what it is and the timing is now. So it just came from listening to those guys and saying, all right, man, I'm with you. You know, I'll go out there and let them know what I'm thinking and how I feel about, you know, this situation. And it's been a good thing. I mean, there's been a lot of positive feedback within our community in the city of Atlanta. you know, I've started this GoFundMe account where, you know,

we're raising money to try and advance the lives of the black community within our city. So it's something that's probably long overdue for myself, for, you know, being out there publicly and, you know, letting people know how I feel about this. But I'm hoping that it can create some momentum in our city and kind of push the narrative forward and, you know, make, you know, make our country a better place for all of its citizens, right? and make sure that everybody's treated the same way. I think that's the key.

I mean, you and I look at the flag, and we think of it one way. I mean, we grew up as white kids in the suburbs, and, you know, police were there to protect us and that sort of thing. And our perspective is very valid in our own circle. But I think it's just the ability to just open your ears and say, okay, my perspective is not, I don't own an American perspective. It's not just mine. I mean, this country is made up of a bunch of people with different perspectives,

is and a lot of them live in locker rooms with us. And so I think, you know, we have a really unique opportunity in such a diverse workplace where we can have these conversations in like a safe place. You know, guys, you know this. I mean, you've been at it for going on 13 years now. And guys have these tough conversations. But now it's time to push them to the forefront publicly. And I think it's awesome that you did that.

And then also you were specific. I mean, you said, we cannot continue to lose lives to police brutality. And these are tough, touchy subjects. It's not to say, you know, I hate every police officer or anything like that. I mean, we all know good ones, but this is high time for accountability. And I thought it was cool that you spoke up. That's all. And have you gotten feedback that was negative?

Because I know you have a lot of people who are your fans who might have never had these conversations before. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely, you know, been both sides of it. You know, some negative pushback on it as well. And I think, you know, I think that's part of any conversation. conversation, right? There's going to be there's going to be voices on both sides and that has to be okay, you know, but we have to listen and you can't continue to just have the same things happen over and over and over. And with the police brutality deal, you're exactly right. There's tons of great police officers and men and women who, you know, are doing an unbelievable job of keeping

community safe and keeping, you know, the citizens with safe. But there is an issue, right? There is this issue of police brutality towards black males. And it happens all too often. And to ignore that, you know, I just don't think is right. And so I'm not sure what the solutions are. I think there's, you know, there's people that spend more time on this than myself. Yeah.

But the two things that I have that can help push the message forward are, on a platform and two resources to be able to make an impact. And so those are the two things that, you know, in addition to my time, those are the two things that I'm going to be, you know, giving. Real quick, before we transition out of this stuff into the X's and those, have you had white players reach out to you and say, hey, it took balls. I saw what you did. How do I do it? You know, give me some sort of a roadmap. What's it like when you step off that ledge? Well, yes, you know, I've had, I definitely have had different teammates, you know, step out and say, you know, what's the pushback? What, and my answer to them is, you know, who cares? It's the right thing to do.

Right. Yeah. So whatever, you know, however you choose to do, everybody's different and everybody's personality and, you know, how they choose to share things is different. And the platform that they have is different. So, you know, my encouraging to those guys is, you know, if this is in your heart, leave this the right thing to do. Do it however you have to do it, right? And just stay true to who you are. Yeah. And it's that simple. It really is. I mean, the guy that's been floated in the middle of all this and, you know, is in the news again, as owners have talked about maybe, hey, listen, the door's open for cap. Whether or not, you know, we know the ins and outs of in what kind of shape he's in or how the ball's looking coming off his hand, what is a challenge that you

would imagine, you know, a quarterback would have sitting for three years, whether it was his fault or not? I mean, that's just timing. Like, and your feel for pass rush. I mean, that's probably the biggest thing. You know, you can throw seven on seven all you want. But it's a different, it's just a different game when you get out there and there's people moving around you and there's pass rush. That's, that to me would be, you know, the hardest, the hardest thing to get back, to get that feel back when you haven't played for that long. But, you know, I hope he gets an opportunity. I really do. I think he's deserving of it. And we'll see what happens with him. You know, I hope he's not playing against us. He kicked my ass too many times going against him.

No, dude, I was individually championship game. I'm still a little salty over it. Oh, you are? Yeah, yeah. I left about five, seven sacks on the field because he was just so electric that year. And I think a lot of people forget that, you know, that San Francisco team was so stacked top to bottom, sure, but he was not a facilitator. He was the reason they were in. I mean, that defense was great when you look at those names, but statistically, they weren't carrying that team like a Ravens team or something like that from the turn of the century.

They were running up, you know, the points and the yardage. Yeah, for sure. We played them in the NFC championship game. And I think we had like 21, 24 points at halftime, you know, it wasn't like they just shut us down. And the second half, it was a different story. I mean, he just, he kind of ran all over us and made some big plays in the past game. I was right there, Matt, when Jolon Dunbar turned Alex Smith's lights out on a scramble on my side of the field at Candlestick Park.

And I had no idea. Jolon. Yeah, you know, Jolon. Yeah, BC. So I'm literally jogging over to get in on the tackle. And little did I know I'm seeing history. Right. Because had that not happened, who knows how long.

doesn't get in a ball game and doesn't set the league on fire. And now the conversation that we've all been thrust into and it's the right thing, he certainly has a big part in that. So I don't want to put you on the spot with bulletin board material right off the bat, but this is an important question about your division rival, Tom Brady. And I'm going to hold you to answering this question. Could you beat Tom Brady at golf? Because I hear you're pretty good and he didn't look that great on TV.

I watched the match. And I'm not, listen, I'm not going to talk any. shit because it's not easy when you're playing with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and you're the only people on the course. But from what I saw, I think I might be able to get Tom Brady. I think. Yo, did you just end up on Tom shit? He's just hitting it right and just kept going right. Hey, listen, he's got to be bad at something.

It's not even like he's bad. I think he's probably pretty good. I don't know anything about golf, but the, you know, everybody took pleasure in turning on the TV that day because there was a captain. audience and saying, oh my God, there's something that I might be able to hang with Tom Brady at. And that was all regular Joe's were on. I didn't know that he was bad or good, but I hear you're very good. I'm okay.

But I think Tom's actually, he's got like a good swing. It looks good, you know. I think it might have just been one of those days that it's just like it was not his day. How about your favorite golfer? Oh, man. I think growing up, like Tiger Woods, I think for everybody, right? like R.A. watching him kind of come of age and just dominate. It's hard to like pick anybody else other than him.

I've gotten to play with Phil a little bit though. And he's fun to play with, fun to spend time with. So I just root for the guys I get to know. How about best football position for golf? Because you play with tons of guys in the league who's actually like quarterbacks are generally pretty good, I think. Yeah, decent. I would say kickers and punters too.

Because they have so much time. They don't do shit. It's a good gig if you can get it. It could be if you get one of those guys kicks. like Adam Venetary is going on 25 years. Yeah. We do it forever, man. So you're facing COVID.

It's a different year. I've heard you speak about this, about some of the things you were getting guys together on, you know, some of the smaller focus, targeted sessions. You know, what's the hardest part about organizing the drills? I mean, certainly, but the coaching aspect of it. There's no coach to reinforce, you know, the drill that you're putting on. You're now a coach and the quarterback.

Yeah, I think. I think it's easier, you know, being at this stage of my career, you know, than it was like when we were locked out in 2011, it was kind of overwhelming as a younger player of trying to get everything organized, trying to get people together. So it reminds me a little bit of that experience that we had then. It's different, though, because back then, I mean, we could really, you could get your whole team together if you wanted to back then, you know? With this COVID deal, you have to keep the numbers. down and you've got to make sure, you know, guys are, you don't want to pressure guys

into do it if they're not comfortable doing it. You just have to be aware of, you know, different people feeling differently about it. But I've been lucky we've, we've all, you know, we've all kind of stayed healthy, been on top of what we're supposed to at the point, the guys that have gotten together. And so it's been good. I think the coaching aspect of it sometimes is, it's almost even better when you remove coaches from it. Not to say that our guys don't do a great job, but you get to spend time, you know, explaining things from my perspective and why I need, you know, certain guys in certain spots and for them to save, you know, space on the field in a certain way. I think you don't really

get that chance with the way our off-season are currently set up. You know as well as anybody. I mean, your time structure in the building. Yeah. I mean, you don't have much time. It's not yours. And there's a lot of inefficient work too. And especially on defense, like I really feel like we're in the building 10 hours a day because of the offense. And, you know, it would be unfair to send the defense home while y'all are grinding away. But the reality is, as a de-linement, I study and have to study far less than you do in your receivers. And you're trying to explain to a guy the minutia of if you're not breaking here, you're not going to get the ball, you know, that sort of thing. Like, you know, for us, it's assignment, alignment and repetition.

So I think it's unique and especially like you're, you've got kind of a nice situation because in your division, continuity is going to be huge, say you guys play this season. I mean, there's two teams, a lot of continuity in your division right now. Okay. It's it's you in New Orleans, your favorite team. And on the other side of the division, you've got new quarterbacks, new system in one place.

And, you know, albeit a hall of famer, but a new guy in Tampa. So how much of a challenge is it for you to get on the same page with somebody like Hayden Hearst? I mean, you've got a good rapport with Julio, with Calvin, with these guys. But Todd, Hayden, you know? Yeah, yeah, those are the guys. To me, those are the guys that it's critical, right? Like, we have the same coordinator back, which is huge, a lot of the same key position guys back. It's going to be no problem getting, you know, the rhythm and timing back with Julio.

We already have, you know, however many game reps, we already. speak the same language. He already knows what I'm talking about when I'm saying certain thing. I think it's been really important to spend time with Hayden. And I've spent a ton of time with him this offseason. And, you know, credit to him. I mean, he's been driving back and forth. Jacksonville's home for him. And he's been, you know, driving back and forth from Jacksonville for the last, I don't know, like nine weeks, 10 weeks and spending three or four days a week here, you know, getting to spend some time on the field. And just, I think, more so than anything, just to get to know me and then just to get to hear,

hear the terminology, you hear how I talk, here, you know, here's what I mean when I'm saying this. Like just feels like that. It goes a long way because, you know, inevitably when we get to the season, like he just needs to know what I'm talking about. You don't have, you don't have that much time to be able to explain things when you're game planning and trying to just get ready for a week. So I think, you know, honestly, I think it's maybe been a blessing that we only have one

new guy really in the passing game that we've had to break in and we've had to do it this way where it's just been he and I spending so much time together. Is this the best group you've ever had skill-wise? It's got to be right up there. You know, I think so. I've been lucky, you know, I've had some great guys that I've played with. So, you know, I think it's hard to say if this is the best. We had a pretty good unit in 2012 with, you know, Roddy White, Julio Jones, Michael Turner, Tony

Gonzalez. I mean, those guys were all pretty good, but I've got to imagine, you know, this is, you know, right up there with them. I think you're talking about Julio in his prime, Calvin Ridley going into year three coming into his own. You got Todd Gurley, who's hungry, who wants to, you know, prove it this year. Hayden Hurst, another guy, first round draft pick, who just ended up in a spot where, you know, the way they were running the football, I mean, it was no fault of his own. It just... Yeah, you never know what he could turn out to be in the passing game. And then also he had to share that load with a lot of dudes. I mean, they had a lot of options there. So I think it'll be great. How about like COVID, the prospect of maybe no fans?

I'm not saying we're not going to have fans. But if you don't, what are you thinking about as a quarterback? Like, I think about like as a rusher, if I was playing somewhere like Seattle and I get five sacks a year on crowd noise, how is my year going to change for a quarterback? Communication, you know, silent count. Like, have you thought about all that stuff? The thing I think about, the thing that's going to be a pain in the ass, if there's, if there's no, if there's no noise, is how often we're going to have to change,

like audible words, code words, cadence. Like, because you guys are so good. I mean, you talk about from the D-Line perspective, you know, when you're playing at home at a place like Seattle, yeah, you're going to get five snaps a game where you're off the ball before the tackle's ready to. to go. But by the same token, if you're just getting into the rhythm of our cadence and listening to, you know, listening to it over and over, you know going against guys in practice, you get used to

going against that same quarterback all the time and you kind of get into, you know, how they sound. So, you know, from my perspective, I think it's going to be like a lot of work of, you know, hide in our code words, changing our code words, and then really working on ways to use our cadence. Yeah, because, you know, we, we're thinkers. too, Matt. Listen, you guys are cheaters on that side of the ball. You know it. Hey,

they're always upside. Yeah. What about, yeah, that's what we say about the tackles, which is actually reality. You know, it's almost like when you all score more points,

the ratings go up. So what about, what about, did you see these helmets that they're talking about, these prototype helmets? Like, that looks wacky. I mean,

it's got to terrify you. For a position player, it's one thing. But if you got to put on some halo looking helmet on for your vision and your periphery, like, isn't that kind of, how that's going to work. Yeah. Like I, I, you know, I just don't know how, you know, how,

how you could do it. So I'm sure if push comes to shove and you got to make it work, we'll figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It looks like a lacrosse helmet. It looks like somebody, you know, at, uh, the sides of it would be tough. You know, for us, I mean, your peripheral vision is, is huge, particularly for like pass rush, you know, like just feeling that flash on the side of you is, huge for movement. So I just don't want to get. I'd love to be a left end. I'd love to be a left end this year and and unabated, you know, on somebody's ball hand side. I mean, the helmet might make it really tough to anticipate that. How about, how about, and this is, this is when I'm not, I'm not jabbing you, because I was on the other side of it, but the Super Bowl, you guys talk about

that a lot. Is it like, we don't bring that up? Because, listen, as a quarterback, and you're one of my favorites, not just because I know you well and we came out the same year, but you did everything you could to win that game. And I know you're not a blame guy, but that had to sting, but it wasn't really your fault. Like, how do you get over that hump mentally and do you guys in the building talk about it or just say we don't talk about that thing? I think I've matured as a person to knowing like if you just bury things, it's probably not good for you. Yeah. And I think that's the same professionally too. You can't just have this thing that's sitting down there that, that, you know, if anybody brings it up, you just can bust. And so, you know, it comes up.

We talk about it. And, you know, I think, I think the hard part in sports and the hard part of playing football is your one-third of, you know, of each play. I mean, you're, you're, you control one-third of it. And, you know, you try and work as hard as you can. and prepare as best you can. You got to be able to sleep at night. And I feel good about it. I felt like I did what I needed to do in order to give us a chance. And it didn't work out first.

Yeah, I was there. You did everything you could have done. I mean, there was a moment in that game where I was just saying to myself, holy shit, we're going to get run out of this building. This offense is on fire. Now, things tightened up and that sort of thing. And you all had some bad breaks for sure. But, I mean, I always think it's unfair when you're judging quarterbacks by just,

you know, rings. because to me, you won your team a Super Bowl, and it just wasn't the finish. How about the next year? Are you pulling for the birds over the pads because you grew up a birds fan? God, man. You pissed me off twice.

That one hurt. That one hurt in Philadelphia because that was a hell of a game. It was a great game. It was a great game. And then to have four chances, you know, from basically inside the 10-yard line, at the end of the game, that was tough, man. That was a tough one to swallow because because we had answered the question so much

that entire year, too, of like what happened the year before? Can you guys rebound? You know, and everyone, you know, kind of forgets. I mean, we were a handful of plays away from, you know, getting deep into that playoff run. Could have gone either way. And I'm as proud of that team as I am of any. I've been a part of because we dealt with a lot of shit that year. Yes, and that's the thing about resiliency.

That's one thing I can tell about the Atlanta Falcons. It starts with you is you guys don't fold, okay? Like we knew that coming in, you know, that playoff game. It is so hard for a team that appears in the Super Bowl, let alone that is a part of something that hurt like that to get back on the horse. And you guys did it. And really, there was one play in that Philly Atlanta game. And you might know the play exactly I'm talking about before the half,

the tip ball that falls right off of Neil's hand. into Tori's hands, and we're able to go get points. That's huge. Yeah, I don't know if you guys win the Super Bowl, if things go differently, but you guys were a damn good team. And then on the other end of it last year, everybody writes you off for dead early in the year. The second half of the year, you guys are a playoff team.

What is it about your team? What is it about Dan Quinn? And then also, like, how valuable is it to have an owner like Arthur who doesn't panic? Because it's so prevalent in football that we just discard head coaches. Yeah, I think it's huge. know, it starts there. I mean, you've been around enough places to know that's not always the case, right? And so for Arthur to understand that we have a great head coach and we've got a guy who the players

played really, really hard for a weekend and week out, we've got a guy who's a really, really good football coach. We had a lot of weird things happen in the first half of the season. You know, but to start one and seven and then to finish six and two, to me, you know, that almost says more about, you know, what kind of staff you have, what kind of guys you have in there, then if things just go well from the start and you finish 10 and 6 and losing the first round, right? Like that year is great. You get an opportunity in the playoffs, but it doesn't show me much about the team. Like last year, show me a lot about the guys that we have, the type of people that we have.

And that makes me excited for this year. Did you all really draw names to pick who was coaching what on defense? Was there some process like that, or is that urban legend? I don't, I wasn't in, I wasn't in on when they decided who was good. It worked. It worked. I mean, we took our, the next thing I know, our wide receiver coach, who was Rahim Morris's former defensive coach for a long time. Yeah.

But he was coaching wide receivers for us. The next thing I know, this guy's calling the place on defense the next week. I'm like, all right, man, whatever. Back of all trades. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It worked. Real quick, before I let you go, can, can you, can you drum up three,

compliments for either the Saints or the city of New Orleans. Man, three, three's a lot. They got good food down there. They do. Marty Graw can be a good time. Okay, that's kind of one. Yeah, so that's like, that's two for me. All right.

That's saying a lot. And then they're all white uniforms are pretty sweet. I'll give them that. Yeah, okay. You know, yeah, the throwbacks are nice. And by the way, your new uniforms, are you getting used to them? You go with them? I'm getting used to them.

I'm getting used to them. I liked our throwbacks. You know, I'm kind of an older school guy. I love the throwbacks. I like the ones we have. Hopefully you guys get to don the Jeff George's at some point because those are the best, in my opinion. Now, I'm buying the Falcons this year.

I'm excited about you guys. I'm excited about you, man. Keep trucking. Keep leading by example. And always nice to see somebody from the draft class ball and out. So Matt Ryan, appreciate you joining us and best luck this year. Thanks, Chris. Appreciate it, man.

So that was fun catching up with Matt Ryan. I mean, we've talked, now I've sacked him a few times. I've hit him a few times. But, you know, other than a, hey, good game, buddy, great seeing you again, you know, keep up to good work, that sort of thing. The things you say to guys, you know the 50 yard line, we haven't had a conversation like that since we were seniors in college in the same, you know, conference. And it was cool catching up with Matt. He's a good dude. He really is. Genuine dude. So without further ado, let's, and by the way, I couldn't say this, you know, too Matt explicitly, but I am, whatever the, the win total is on the Falcons, I'm on the over this year.

Fuck yeah. Let me get Marshall McFadden. Again, pick crew, gas man, NASCAR, black dude in a sport that can use some diversity, but evidently it's coming in the way of guys on Facebook. Pitt Row, former football players. Let's get him on. I got another old teammate with me now, former NFL linebacker, and he was a stud. He would come downhill and blow you up. South Carolina State, Pittsburgh, Oakland, and then St. Louis is where we cross past. Yes, sir. Marshall McFadden, who now is a part of the NASCAR world. How are you doing, man?

I'm doing great, man. And thanks for the awesome introduction, man. So that's a good start. I don't know way it's going to go from that, but it's a good job. I'm doing great, man. In St. Louis in the mid-2010s, there were a lot of tough times. You know, listen, I agree, but, you know, we persevered through all that stuff, so we good now. We did. And now Marsh is out on the other side in another sport. He retired, walked away from the game, and he is now working on Pit Row in NASCAR. How long you've been doing that? What do you do? This is a, this would be my third year. So at the end of the season here, I completed my third season. And I'm the gas, man.

So in the NASCAR world, it wouldn't work if I ain't out there putting gas in the car. So, yeah, that's what I do, though. See, I hear gas man. I think a different kind of gas. But I, so you're that. I ain't that gas, man. And sometimes, so if I go home because, you know, from the untrained aisle, or just not educated on NASCAR.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm the gas, man. And I'm like, well, not that kind of gas, man. And, you know, this is what I do, a pick card. But, I mean, you're one of the most important guys. I mean, because you got to be, what, you've got to be accurate and quick with it. Like, how has a pit stop changed over the years and the expectation and then the bodies and the people, you know, the athletes? I mean, was there a time when, you know, Pitt Row was full of guys who were really good at that skill, but they weren't athletic. And now you've got athletes involved like yourself.

So way back when, especially when it first started, obviously the time. it took longer to pit a car, but it was comfortable, comfortable with that, you know, just from with their competitive standpoint. So you can go put a guy out the street and pit a car. And back then they had guys like 400 pounds, 300 pounds, 200 pounds, hitting cars because at that point, the competitive nature just wasn't heightened. And then it almost like a domino effect. One team going to get, you know, say a college football player. And then, you know, say if he had carrying, he's pretty good. So other teams feed off that to it got to the point where now they're talking the ex-N-N-FF players and college players and, you know, also in the Times had Jurassic

a drop for 20 seconds to almost 11 seconds, you know, so that's a big difference. So you want to go and get, you know, your top players, your top guys, and where you're going and get those guys from? Football, basketball, you know, college, you're going to get those guys. So now it's real competitive out there on pit road. And it's good. And the fans love it. The fans, they, when all the car, when you see 40 cars come down on pit road,

And they're trying to see, you know, who the first person get out. I mean, it just is crazy. It almost becomes as important as the drivers. I don't want to, I don't want you to walk you into sounding like you're more important than the drivers because I know you, but, but what you guys do, I mean, these seconds become crucial. And, you know, I went to Martinsville a couple years ago. This is the only race I'd been to in person right down the road from me. And I noticed walking through, because I had a pass, walking through pit row, I ran into like five

dudes that I played in the ACC and, you know, who were football players. Has that been the main, I know you said basketball maybe and some other athletes, but they're looking for these football guys. Man, and we all over. You talk about a couple guys. One that I actually pit with the same is his name Jonathan Witter. He played with the Clemson Taggart and also played with the Tennessee Titan as well. And the list go on the Appalachian State.

Another Clemson got us on Pit Road from Arizona. You got all these guys with different walks of life played at different school professional level. college level and that's kind of about all you see on pit road you know and it's it's a great transition for for professional athletes or college athletes and you're talking about the longevity of that sport as well you're talking about football average maybe three or four years when NASCAR and if you're good at you're talking about 10 to 15 years easy and not a lot of wind tearing your body and make a pretty good living out of that i think it's a great transition for a lot of guys what do guys get paid on the high end in pit row. I think to $250,000 on pit road. That's that beat that beats a padded practice and all that.

And I tell people all the time, I was like, listen, you know, because a lot of these guys, some even come out of high school and they make really good money for, you know, guys who just went to high school. But I'll say you think about it. You know, you're getting paid. Just say $100,000. I think that's pretty good. I live in 10 to 15 years. I think you can set you and your family up to live a pretty decent life. And you're not getting beat up on, not two and a half hour practices. I can tell you a practice for me. We have practice around 8.30.

We have maybe an hour, hour and a half practice. We are doing that time, we're pit in the cars. We go watch film on our previous race or something like that. After that, after that, we have maybe a workout, you know, maybe CrossFit or workout in the gym. Because we have trainers, we have all that stuff. It's just like the NFL. It's like a football facility, yeah? Yeah, facility, just like any other facility.

But everybody's in Charlotte, Marshall? Most of the teams are in Charlotte in the surrounding areas, but most of the teams are the headquarters at Charlotte. So a lot of the big teams. But you guys have a wait room, and each team has their own weight room. Each team has a film room. What are you watching on film?

Basically with NASCAR's chemistry. You know, you work with five guys, and they all got to be in sync to do a 10, 11, 12-second pitch stop. you know so you know you got a you got a carrier you got two changes you got your jack guy and you got your gas guy so all so we go and watch what we can get better at for one changes hitting lug nuts pulling the tire jag guy pegging a car jacking up as fast as you can make sure you spacing is right with everybody because when that changer pull that tie out that jack got that carrier got to throw the tire in there so you want to make sure you're spacing right and coming back it just you got to be so

and seeking out to run that 12 second stop so. when we go and watch film, we have our engineer guy here being there breaking all that stuff down for it. Now, each job's way different. Which one's the hardest one? The hardest. I'll say the hardest probably before the changer. Because you can, you're trying to hit five love nuts in, you know, in millimeters of a second.

Yeah. And then you, when the tie you go back on, you're doing the same thing with hitting five on. But then it changed. It used to be six-man-pick crew. Now it's a five-man-pick-cru. So now that allows the jack got it. Now he got to jack the car and get a tire and throw it on for one of the changes.

So it makes his job more valuable and more harder because you got to jack the car, throw the tire, come back to the jack, take the jack down, run around the car, do the same thing on the other side. How much of the tires way? From about 60 to 70 pounds. You know, yeah, yeah.

That's why you got to work out. Yeah, so what's the most dangerous job at it? I mean, you told me what the hardest was is probably the changers. But what's the most dangerous job? And how many accidents happen? I mean, I'm sure we don't see a lot of practicing. Yeah, yeah. I don't see a lot of behind the scene stuff.

What do you, if you look at the history and I start with my job, you'll see where some even gas guys, they got caught on fire, you know, with, you know, plenty of gas, skewering up way. You got a guy down there hitting lug nuts and you get a spark and it can go in flames. But I think now they're then, you know, kind of dumb down on that way that's, you know, with the stuff you're wearing the things they use with the guns and all of that stuff. But I say now the main thing is, you know, running out in front of the car, especially when they're coming down on pit road about 60, 70 miles per hour.

So, you know, timing it up because you can't just jump out there. It's when they cross the line, that's when you're able to jump out there. So it's going to be pretty tight. So I think for carriers and changes and Jackman, the most dangerous part is getting hit by their car when it come in. Also, too, when you just say if you're on that side jacking, you still got cars coming in behind you going into the pit stall. So people have gotten hit as well just by picking the car on the right side. So it's a dangerous job. And I'll tell you the story last year, you know, a guy hand got caught in the tire well or will.

snap and snap when his fingers clean off, clean break. You'll never see that finger again. Yeah, there was no ice box reattachment on that, wasn't it? At all, at all. Could have been worse. It could have been worse. It could have been worse. I agree.

What's a bad gas fill up when you get yelled at in the film room? And, you know, like, when you miss a tackle on the goal line, what's the, what's the equivalent of a bad gas fill up for Marshall. I can take one of the worst feelings in the world is coming into a fit stop and you got Because it can weigh 100 pounds. You know, and so you got to find your target, make sure it's flush because you don't do it flush, you're not going to get the right kind of flow.

Mind you now, you only got about 12 seconds to do this. So if you don't get it flush, you're going to be sitting there trying to get the gas to go in. And then you got to, when those guys come around, now you got to re-engage, and then you've got to go back into it, get another can. So it's been, and it happened plenty of times, where teams was up for being good position or win,

and maybe a lap of two left, they run out of gas. One of the worst bill is ever. It's also like, yeah, there's money involved, just like football. I mean, there's certainly money and prestige involved when you screw up a play. But a lot of times when you mess up a play on the football field, you might not even, your teammates might not know it was your fault until Monday. Oh, yeah, without a doubt. You can, you can hide it with football,

but NASCAR is rat there in your face because when you get ready to do a stop, You got the crew chief and everybody up there on top of the pit box. We're looking like, man, we get a whole week to get a good stop. And you ain't get enough gas in it, they're going to show. And everybody can be like, man, martial running. That ain't a good feeling, bro. This is crazy. I mean, because it's so funny, most casual fans.

And when I mean casual, I'm setting a low bar. People that know the objective of NASCAR might watch a race every now again. I don't think people know how athletic. I mean, like, you guys are truly, you're still an athlete. 100% one and in the competitive nature especially with the company that I worked for with the guys the competitive nature just working out you you you've been in it Chris when you got the guys in there a bunch of alpha males and especially when you're working out you know the egos are big you know so you got to compete you got to be competitive if not you get washed out just like any other sport

and how tight are the drivers with the pit folks I mean like do you are with which team now I'm With CGR, Chip Ganesha race, and we run the 42 McDonald's car and the one Monster Energy Kurt Busch car. Oh, yeah, that Monster Energy car is cool looking. Yeah, yeah, it's dope. So, yeah, those the two guys, on the backup guys on both of those cars. And I also work with Starcom on Sunday Cupbreakfield. We do the double zero with Quinn Huff as well.

So you get to know, you get to know what these, you know, we're talking about athletes. And there's some people that say NASCAR drivers aren't athletes. I would say they are because this is a, you know, it's a handoff. sport, it's an extreme sport, it's a risky sport, and it's a sport that takes a lot out of you. Physically, you're sitting in essentially a hotbox for hours, right? I mean, these guys are pissing and shitting themselves. Man, and that's a real deal. I didn't heard a drive, but like, hey, I don't want to do this, you know, because it's so hot.

You know, and, you know, with the engines and you're talking about on the asphalt, when you're going around, it can be a hundred, but it's like 120 or 30 in that car, you know, with all the heat that they generate. But it's a real deal to be in that hot car and you got to drive and, you know, you got to be where your other drivers. You're talking about accident where people actually died before, just getting in an accident. So you got to have a set, set of big one to go out there in a car and race for 500 miles. Man, that's pretty tough, bro.

Yeah, it almost makes you want to ask what's wrong with these guys. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, man, ain't no way because me, you're pet in the car and I'm sitting out there. You're talking about four hours, four hours. in the car driving around different courses. Oh, yeah. That's tough, bro. Oh, yeah.

And the communication is pretty constant with the pit crew, right? Yeah, yeah. Well, the communication is spot on, man. You got the crew chief. Well, the lingo really goes from the spotters and the driver, because the spotter letting the driver know where it's blind spots and where people at. And then you have the crew chief who communicated with the spotter and the driver,

asking the driver, hey, what do you need when you need? you come in with this pit stop so our boys can get it done for you. And the crew chief, he relayed a message to us. And we hear all this on the radio. We hear in all this. So when it's time for a pit stop, the crew chief are come in and say, hey, we're doing four tires, few, adjustment on the right side, adjustment on the left side, clean the grill. And that's where we come in at that, get his adjustments right after he didn't been out there

for a safe 50 miles. He didn't been out there. So he needs some adjustment. The car needs some fine tuning. What's the next race? The next race is in Okina, PA. We had out Friday. We'll be racing Saturday and Sunday.

We do trucks in the Trinity on Saturday. We'll be doing Cup. Actually, we do Cup Saturday and Sunday. And we have a truck and it's been in the racing as well. So quadruple, so it's going to be hot. And we got to go and get to it, you know, in a full fire suits, man. It can get pretty smoky in there. How much weight do you lose?

In a race, you can lose 10 pounds easy. Yeah. especially you having like a two o'clock race. So you're talking about four to five hours. It's like you can't practice. Yeah. That's what it's like. That's what it's like.

Well, I appreciate you. I appreciate you coming on, man. This has been really illuminating. I know that, you know, people don't get to hear from the guys who are down on pit row enough. And albeit something, you know, a dude that has added diversity to a sport that desperately needs it. And, you know, you're living it right there on the front line. So I appreciate you, ma'am.

Hey, no doubt, Chris. And one more shot that I want to give the company that I work for is a TGR, Chip, against Racing. It's a very diverse program. And out of all the teams, we probably got the most diverse out there. So we set in that example. And that comes along with from, you know, Sean Pete, Mike Metcalf, the two coaches. And it just came out with a book with the 12 second coach.

So if you get a chance, go check that out. And then talk about the diversity and having leaders understand putting other people in different roles so what they're able to succeed. to talk about everything that we just talked about today. So shout out to those guys, London as well. And yeah, man, we're going to keep pushing. We're going to keep making the game. And hopefully, like we say, 10 years for now. We'll see the difference. Indeed, I will see you to race soon. And, you know, again, thank you, Marshall McFadden, formerly a thumper, a downhill thumper in the NFL. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's the gas man. He's the gas man. So appreciate you, man. And good luck this

weekend. Don't miss it. We call it the plug. We call it the plug. You don't want to miss a plug. Don't miss the plug. There's a lot. The plug, the gas, man. It sounds funny to me. But yeah, go get it, dude. I appreciate it, Chris.

Good seeing you, man. And continue to do what you do, man. Yep.