Green Light with Chris Long - Robert Mathis! Indianapolis Colt Legend on Strip Sacks, Dwight Freeney, Super Bowl XLIV & The HOF.

Episode Date: November 26, 2021

(2:25) - Happy Thanksgiving! (4:15) - Indianapolis Colt Robert Mathis on Pass Rush Technique, Playing with Dwight Freeney and Andrew Luck, Being Named a Semi-Finalist for the NFL Hall of Fame, the Colts 2009 Season, Winning a Super Bowl and Quarterback Tells. Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42 Green Light 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. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Tennessee, y'all too, 1-8009-9. Welcome to the Greenlight podcast. I'm Cowboy Reid. On today's episode, it's a past rush party. Chris and Macon talked to Indianapolis Colt and strip sack legend Robert Mathis on Pass Rush Technique, playing with Dwight Freeney, the 2009 Indianapolis Colts winning a Super Bowl in the Hall of Fame. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I hope it was a wonderful holiday. We interviewed Robert Mathis, and that's coming up in just a couple minutes.

Before that, we wanted to get you Macon, Chris, and Stanford Steve's picks for the weekend. We didn't want to miss out on that this week. So in order, Stanford Steve first, and he is sticking for. to his guns with Detroit, which was a loss. He's also rolling with Seattle Green Bay, and he's going with UVA in the Commonwealth Cup. Macon's picks are Cincinnati to cover against Pittsburgh, Miami to cover against Carolina,

and Washington against Seattle. And in college football, Macon has Notre Dame over Stanford on Saturday night. And for Chris, he's rolling with the Rams over Green Bay. San Francisco over Minnesota will align with his pre-season pick of Minnesota under season total wins, and he's taking the Baltimore Cleveland under. We'll be back Monday morning with a week 12 NFL recap. Happy hunting. Enjoy your weekend. We're thankful for you all.

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Robert Mathis one of my favorite guys that I watched Played for years And now he's gonna be in the Colts Ring of Honor in Indy Congrats Robert, how are you man Oh good man thanks for having me on Of course, of course thanks for coming on And we both do some win bet stuff now

So the game That's going to be going on in the field When you get honored This weekend is going to be Bucks Colts which is all of a sudden a really, really good football game here happening this weekend. The line is two and a half. The bucks are favored. The total's

51. Do the Colts cover? Do they win? And where do you see the total falling, Robert? Man, I picked this game for a reason because B.A. is coming back in town, Bruce Sarians, but also Tom Brady, a guy that, you know, that was my favorite quarterback to get to.

So a whole lot is going on, but I always say to be the man, you got to beat the man. And the coach, they're getting high at the right time. So I'm going to pick my Colts to win, man. There we go, outright.

And that's where the value is going to be. You might as well. If you're going to take them at two and a half, you might as well take the Colts to win it. And I actually like the over here. I think these teams are going to roll. I think the Bucks corner situations kind of shaky. They don't look like the same team to me.

What's it like? Because you've been a self-admitted like Pat's Hater. You know, there have to be some feelings for Tom Brady. But the CBA, as you called him, Bruce, who was an indie and, all those places before win alongside Tom. Is there mixed emotions there? No, you know what?

To clarify, I'm a avid QB hater. So, but, uh, I think it's more, it's more about Belich and a Patriots. I don't really have anything towards Tom Brady since he's been with the buck. So, and I think my love for BA kind of overrides all that stuff. So I tolerate Tom Brady now. So he's okay with me. That's cool. He was just, he was wrong place, wrong time for a number of.

years for Robert Mathis, that's all. I'm very anti-Belich. You do defensive players to watch, and I know you've got a lot to choose from on Sunday, Bucks, Colts. Those fronts are awesome. Who's somebody that you think is going to affect the ball game the most? Or during that game, was not 45 for the books? Yeah.

He's something special. You got Shaq Barrett, JPP, but on our side, you got the Maniac. And you have Kidney Moore and you have the Forrest Buckner. So you really got to throw their names in a hat and just got to pull one. But I want DeForest Buckner to go. I would have said Buckner. I would have said Buckner because, you know, it's like kind of a cliche, but the way you beat Tom is pressure up the middle.

And he's not getting any quicker, more agile in the pocket. And Buckner is such a monster. If you don't, if you do not touch Tom Brady, like we always tell my guys, touch him in some shape, form of fashion. It was a sack, pressure, hit, knockdown. give him an elbow across the helmet going back to the huddle, but some way somehow you have to get him off his game a little bit,

make him angry. But if you don't hit him, you're not winning at all. Right, right. That's so you've got to heat him up. And then we talk about another great quarterback this weekend. You got Aaron Rogers playing. But of course, and I know I'm probably the same way. You watch a game and a tackle goes down.

You're not happy somebody gets hurt. But now the Packers are down to their third tackle. And the last time I saw number 73 was Nick Bosa getting out after him week three of the season. So the Packers are playing, unfortunately, this weekend. And Bakhtiari evidently just found out that he's getting his knee scope. So it's going to be a little bit. They're playing the Rams, and they're going to be playing Leonard Floyd.

They're going to be playing Vaughn Miller. So when you have like a fish like that, as we would call him, no disrespect to the guy. I don't know. Fish. He's a fish this week. He could end up being an all-timer, but he's a fish this week. How would you, if you're the Rams, keep those two rushers off balance this weekend? Like because when you and I played, if we had bad tackles in front of us, you know it was something.

It was sideline to sideline. It was a screen game. It was chips. I mean, but when you and Dwight played together, you can't chip two people at the same time. So what do you think is something that if you have a fish, the offense can do to negate the skill level you have defensively? I kind of counteract that because in the AFC South during the days, Dwight and I played, they went punt for seven-man protection. Seven man. Yeah, man.

So tight-ins and running backs, they were. Lockers, chip on their way out, things like that. But you, you have three dynamos on that front for the Rams. So you must find Von,

chip bond. You must take the center to Aaron Donnell, wherever he goes, follow him. Yeah. And Leonard Floyd has to, he has to take advantage

of those one-on-ones. So that's, that, to the victory goes to spoils. They have to create, he has to win. He has to win at one-on-one. And his

versus the blind side guy. So keep him over there, keep him on that island and really get after it. But A-Roc, he's A-Raw, so he knows how to get out of that. Yeah, no question about it. And it's funny. Sometimes you see the fish on tape on Monday, and everybody in the D-Lon room gets all excited, and people are arguing over who wants to get rushes over there. But the pressure is on the guy with a lot to lose.

So if you're like a Leonard Floyd, you better get a two or three-piece. And if you don't, it's going to be hell on Monday. Yeah, yeah. If you don't get two or three, that was a failure. Epic fail. Yeah, epic fail. Before you get to Robert and his 123, I would just want to circle back about Belichick. That felt a little more personal than just rival coach. Why do we not like Bill Belichick? Yeah, I said it with my chest. He said it with his chest.

Yeah, well, he kind of blocked us from like two or three rings. So I'm still a little salty. So I'll be honest. I'm salty. Let me ask you a question that. I mean, because, yeah, I think you guys. win three or four championships if the Patriots don't exist back then and and in fact one of the one of the years uh you guys are 14 and oh i think it was and they pulled the starters the last two weeks of the season so you guys had a chance to go 16 and oh you guys think you get there if they don't pull those starters that's what's funny because it was so much hostility between the colts and patriot we wanted to go for it like 100 just to see just a seal the deal and uh if we went on the win in the september should we

lost to the Saints that year, but to have that one up, we wanted it. We wanted every bit of that, but it was just not wise to do that at risk of injury and not making a Super Bowl altogether. But hindsight, 2020, it was a wise decision. Yeah, probably. I mean, you love to hear it the older you get. Like, when you're younger, you want all your, I still want my buckets at 33. Like, so when I'm out there, week 17, I'm like, oh, there's a bright side to this,

but it is nice to get that break. Like when coach comes in on a Monday and tells you the snap counts, it's kind of like, all right, I can take a week off. This isn't bad because it's going to be a long road in the playoffs. Absolutely. But when you go back, even like at this point in my career, trying to get in the Hall of Fame at 123 sacks, but we used to, we used to be done by like week 14. We used to start resting our starters, but that was part of it, part of the success. So it was a great run. So I'm just happy to be a part of it. Yeah, that adds up to two games a year or so that, you know, Robert Mathis and Dwight Franey are not playing a whole bunch. That adds up a whole

bunch. So talking about the Colts this year, I was really high on Quitty Pay coming out. I haven't paid as much attention to him. I know he's come on late and I think with rookies sometimes you have to remember, pass rush is one of the hardest things to learn in the league. I mean, like you can't expect guys to just get buckets right off the bat just like receivers do or some of these other people that have, you know, you can be dependent on an offense around you or that sort of thing. Like, you've got to go earn your reps. What do you see out of Quitty Pay and is he doing something different lately or the bucket's just starting to fall? Well, I mean, he kind of stumbled out the blocks a little bit with the hamstring injury early in the season.

So it looks like he's recovered from that. And so he's starting to get going. But just like you said, pass rush is not easy. You're not just going to walk in the door and just start wrecking O-Lyman like that. Yeah. It's so much goes along with that. So but he has his head on straight. He goes about it as a professional.

So I think by this time next year, we'll probably see a completely different guy, but he's still learning the game, the speed of the game, the adjustments of it. So I really like that pick. Yeah. He's definitely a bright future guy. Well, it's tough. Like, you know, like for him, the bright side for him as you walk into a D-line room is a unique

situation where you could argue he could go higher and maybe to a worse team. But he walks into a really nice D-line room that he can get, it takes the pressure off him. Like, they don't need him to be an 8-10 sack guy the first year. He can kind of learn from the other guys. You want him to step up. But you mentioned he had a hamstring and that sort of thing. When you look at this Colts team, do you see a team with a Super Bowl ceiling? I do

I do All the pieces are in place The GM Chris Ballard He did a great job Of putting piece by piece Drafting guys And bringing in Carson Wins

I think I think they do have a chance To run the table Yeah Because you know Chris you know It's about who gets hot At the right time

That's all And they have And being healthy At that time So they definitely Have the pieces They just got to put The puzzle together

Yeah And the Titans on the other end of it, like, you know, they've, they've been amazing. I've got to give them respect for how they've won football games in different ways. I've been calling them like a team. I mean this endearingly. They're like cockroaches. You can't kill the Titans, bro. Like, they're going to be here last for whatever reason.

But they are trending in a different direction with the injuries and that sort of thing. And without Derek Henry. And now Jonathan Taylor's starting to get touches. They waited to give him 20 carries a game until November is kind of slick. So he's going to get a full. a full menu going in November and December. They look like a team from when like I grew up watching football.

They're big, they're powerful. They got a big back. They got a big pro-style quarterback. They're fun, man. The defense, the whole thing. So they're trending in the right direction. I want to talk about you in the Hall of Fame and your sidekick, Dwight Frini. It's really special to have a guy on the other side of you

that rushes at a high level. But then to be able to do it for decades and they didn't break you all up. Like that's pretty cool. And the fact that you guys are both going to be eligible for the Hall of Fame here coming up shortly, hopefully both going in soon. You made a comment about Dwight that I heard. You said he might have 200 sacks if he didn't play with you. Can you explain to people what you meant by that?

Yeah. Quite honestly, I say what I said. When it comes to one-on-one, like if I knew Dwight had just a straight-up one-on-one versus an officer tackle, But I feel he's the most dominant pass rusher in history. But at the same time, I could just be, you know, being biased. But it was the fact that he and I literally had to race to the quarterback just to. Yeah. And I stole a few from him.

He stole a few from me. But he ended with 125 and a half. And I really think he was in a 140 and up. But, I mean, that was just. And also, we haven't, our playoff seats locked in. And it was a lot of games. he just didn't play. Yeah.

And that's a lot of, that's like five to five sacks a season that if he had dressed and played and if it was meaningful games, he, he's in a 15 sacks, 15 to 20 sacks per year. So I definitely feel he was in that upper echel line numbers wise. Oh, no question.

And he basically trademarked, both of y'all actually trademarked that spin. I mean, to have two guys that had that many tools in their toolboxes on one team at the same time, It was almost illegal, but I want to take you to your final game of your career, 2016. You're playing Jacksonville. You're sitting at 222 sacks. Everybody knows you're retiring.

You go out and get one. You and Dwight talk on the phone that week. He's sitting at 122.5, dude. Are you guys, like, talking before the game? Is that part of the reason you knew you had to go out and get one? No, we actually talked. I talked to him when he was in a Super Bowl, and playing the Patriots.

He was with the Falcons. I called him, and I said, look, because I was ahead of a, at the time. I said, look, bro, you got to go win the Super Bowl or you got to come back and play another year. He was like, what do you mean? Like, I'm up on, I'm up career-wise sex. And he was like, you know what? You're right. And so, you know, he went out there, you know, they didn't get, they didn't get it done in the Super Bowl. So he came back and played and he taught me. So it's weird, each of us biggest motivators, man. But it was kind of an unsaid, uh, rivalry, uh, challenge or whatnot. But in the end, uh, he gets to the quarterback.

Like I had to light my hair on fire. I got to get mine now. Well, dude, it was so funny because I'm like, I'm looking at it. I'm like, damn, I didn't know that that y'all were that close down to the end, like two guys, brothers on the field and then down at the end, like right down to the wire. And then he comes back for another year. And I'm kind of wondering if he came back for that year just to what up. I mean, he still has some gas.

Yeah, he did have gas. But I do joke with them. I say, look, I may just have to come off the couch a little bit so I can pass you up two or three sacks in a season and then retire again you should that would be the most petty shit of all time hey i do petty we all do we all do petty that's one thing we haven't commented the dline room is everybody's petty as fuck so i could see robert math is coming back and playing for the you know some random team in 2020 and just one-opping his friend did you all used to fight over sacks like in the d-line room because because me and quinnie like we'd get there at the same time

and we'd be like dude that's mine that's it and then the coach is you don't turn your friend sack in. Was that the code in Indy? No, we call him a lie. I will call the lies in a heartbeat. No, sir. No, sir. We would, the thing with us was

we would get to the quarterback, either raise your hand or just get up and do your sack dance, like right now. So now the pressure is on the other guy to prove that you didn't get it. So get up and do your sack dance now. That's what happens.

When people at home, watching two guys run in different directions towards the cameras. Or, you know, the whole finger up thing? You know, when you get up and you just run away with the finger. It's my. You never get up with a 0.5. You never get up with a 0.5. Nobody gets up with a 0.5.

But you know what? A lot of people do not know. And if you get that ball out, you get the whole sack. The whole thing. You get the whole sack. Because you can't split a fumble. We're big prep guys here, crunching a lot of tape. And it seemed like, you know, a lot of guys, you see them just swipe the

entire arm try to get lucky. You always got the football. You were, you were hitting the football. Is that something you were always cognizant of? Or, or am I wrong? And you were also getting lucky? I watched a lot of Derek Thomas when I was a child, like a young, a young player first starting out. Yeah. And he always had, he secured the tackle and came with a tomahawk and just try to totally, totally just collapsed the whole arm. Yeah. So it, I mean, the older you get, the more, uh, precise you get with your strikes and so you kind of knew what a quarterback was going to be with the with the ball so i just kind of go in that in that area whether it's the inside or outside hand and just try to get the ball out because osee he said the best it was funny why get dirty when you

just get the ball out yeah exactly john abraham told me that one time he was like i don't know why anybody tries to even make a tackle i just go straight to the arm bro and i was like you know what i'm too dumb because i'm just trying to i've tried to light up a quarterback but you You know, when you get in the room and people at home don't know this, a lot of times on a Monday, we'll be in a D-Line room, and we'll see that the sack went to the wrong guy. You as a player can go upstairs and be like, hey, turn that in. And by turn that in, I mean, send to the league,

and the league will come back and tell you who got the sack and who didn't. You guys would turn in your sacks on each other? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That's so good. That's so fucking good. We can tell each other to their face. I'm the fuck that.

Hey, man. The year you and Robert Quinn were racing to, 20, I used to be like, Rob, man, I can't get like, you know, you can't let me slide on this one, bro. You've got the, no, no. But that's also true, though, because sometimes people say, you're so lucky there's somebody on the other side of you. Yes and no. Like, it's not bad, but I think having a tackle right inside you can actually, like, improve

your sack totals more. And so working in concert with that tackle. I think the other guy works in concert with you when you, and I don't know if you guys did this. I'm sure you did. Did you rush high, low? Did you and Dwight, like, kind of, okay, so you guys coordinated your rushes? Right, right.

So if the running back was, if we knew the running back was going to chip Dwight, he was automatically going low. He's going to do the inside stand. I knew it. He knew it. Everybody knew it. And they automatically told me to go high because more times and not the center will go away from the back.

So that's how you waste the center and the running back. So go away from him. So I go, I take it outside and move. Dwight take the inside move to the running back. And that's how, Jay, he waste him. So if he gets out, if he gets out over Dwight's outside shoulder, there I am to collect. But if he steps up, that's a sack for Dwight. Yeah, it's like it's a lot of times you get these 10-yard deep kind of full-speed rundowns.

And it's because you got one guy coming underneath based on the protection or a chipper. And then vice versa, if he runs away from you. and steps up to five, well, that's Dwight's. So it's like a lot of people don't see that. You talk about, well, what's the actual draw to having a great rusher on the other side? You've got to work together. It doesn't just happen that two great rushers make things easier.

It does because one less guy to chip and double team. And how did you decide on who got the fish? How did you decide on who got 73 on a Monday, you and Dwight? Well, Dwight played the right side. I played the left. And they just, whoever was out, like, man, you better, you better eat because if you if he get a couple sacks early, they're going to, they're going to bring extra attention over there. Yeah.

So now that's how you feed off of each other. Yeah. Now I'll get a chance to get a one-on-one because they have to account for the white. Yeah. Two, maybe three blockers. And so now our inside guys can get going. So that's how you spread the wealth. And that's interesting what you just said, because people would always late in my career

or at times my career when I was a free agent and they'd stick me on the right side. I fucking hated it. And people were like, what's the big deal? Are you afraid to go into the left hacker? It's not that. Like, you have a dominant side that you prefer. It's like being left-handed and right-handed. You felt the same way about rush on the left?

Yeah, well, I had to rush on the left. I was a right-end by trade, but we had somebody here called Dwight Frini, so I couldn't. So I had to learn how to rush on the left. And so you're absolutely right. There's certain moves you simply cannot do. You can not do it.

I feel drunk. I feel drunk trying to take certain counters and stuff on my non-dumptide side, dude. Yeah. It's crazy. How about John Tierlink, man? How much did he mean to you guys? Oh, man. And when it comes to Pass Rush, he met the world because he let us do it far away.

Yeah. He always said, as a coach, my job is to put you in the best position to succeed. And you guys have a talent. So go out there. I'm going to coach around you. And that's what he did. He just let us go. And he let us get creative with some of the rushes that we did,

the stunts and quite honestly we had to because we had a lot like max pro punting pro and these max protections and so but we were still commanded to get to that quarterback and we had to do it by any mean necessary but he was he was he drew it up and we executed and he gave you freedom to kind of like because every pass rushers different I think a lot of times people are like well you got to try this like chop club didn't work for me for some reason my body just wouldn't allow me to hit the chop club like Rob did. Like we're built different, but I could do a one-arm post a lot better than Rob could and vice versa. So like when you're getting taught by a great D-line coach, do you feel like they got to give you that freedom to kind of go in the direction of whatever, you know, whatever suits you as a player?

Absolutely. When you have guys that can get to the quarterback, and it's not a lot, it's a very few, you got to let them go. Whatever you do best, whether it's, we call it cover, whether you can, you have a two-way go. Like Chris, you got a two-way go, and I'm going to cover you as the three technique. And you just got to let them go, man. Let these guys get going, get that rhythm. Because, you know, once you get in that zone,

it's a problem for them all game. So you got to do whatever you can to get them going. And with Dwight, Dwight was our lead dog. And he would get going, and it was just a domino effect. And then he would call stunts and guys get two-way goals. Because that's all you want as a pass rush. I want two-way. Yeah, I don't want to plan shit.

I have a game plan coming in, but I have to be able to react. There's a lot of guys you play that they look different on tape. Somebody does something that you're like, oh, I could do this to them. And then for some reason, it's not there. So you have to, like, be able to vary what you do. And so, like, on top of that, if you're letting a guy, if you're covering for a guy, a lot of times you're going to get the bucket. Yes.

There you go. And there's people don't understand that. They think, well, I'm not going to do a run a grab game with this guy and just be a crash, dummy. That's not what it is. That's the guy that gets the sack. Yes. Yes, exactly.

I didn't play defensive end at a particularly high level and Chris is always Tell him your height and weight and tell him your 40 time and all that shit because we just did a combine. Tell him that stuff. I'm 6-4-175. I ran a 6-1 in the 40. Now, but Chris in here.

That's gross. Now, Chris is always using terminology here in Studio J. Take your pick here. ankle flexion, key the baller the man, strike to the sternum, inside tit outside tit. He heard you on Macapestey

saying inside tit. What do any of these things mean inside tit outside? Oh man, if you want to go outside, well he says tit that means outside arm. If you're going to run along going, if you're going to take the edge, that means you've got to hit that outside arm. Yeah. If you want to counterback,

hit that inside tit. So you always want to keep their momentum going whatever direction is going. I would say, I mean, you can't fight the laws of gravity. So you don't want to push a 300-pound man that's drop his anchor and lunging forward. You don't want to try to push him by. You want to collapse that and get the edge because once they stop their feet, that's when they give you their hands.

And now it's about who's the better athletes. So you don't want to just, what's that? Occasionally, they'll stop their feet on a stutter bull, which is my go-to. There you go. My co-host could pass rush if he could run. Dude, you could definitely pass rush if we got those numbers up. Thank you. The whole stutter bowl thing you've been listening.

But it's true. That's 6-1 is filthy right now. I'm kind of stupid. I jump, though. I jump, what, 14 inches in the air? He did jump 14, so there's that. So, no, but it's what Robert's saying is right. It's like you don't know what you're going to be given before a snap.

Like, you take what you're given. And if somebody wants to stop their feet, then I'm going to jerk you down. and pat you on the back and that sort of thing. But if you're going to keep floating, then I'm going to stay with the power. So, like, plans are good until the ball snapped. And so it's like marrying that pregame plan with the, hey, the bullets are flying. Yeah.

Mike Tyson said it best. Everybody has a plan until you get punched in the mouth. So he's ready for that. He's definitely somebody can get. You're ready for that, right? You got a plan? So I get hitting the tip. Okay.

Until you get hit now. So let me ask you this, because this always made me curious. You're one of the best pass rushes of all time. You and Dwight getting ready to play. in a Super Bowl. You've been waiting your whole life to play Chicago. I know, man. You tell me, you wake up in the morning, you look outside and you're like, fuck, it is raining. It kind of took on a little bit more because we was, we always labeled, well, we can't do it in the elements and rain and snow. And that was one of those other demons that we had to exercise

on top of the two weeks prior to that we had, we could never beat the Patriots. So we had to beat them. Lo and behold, we go to sunny Miami. First time it ever rained in the Super Bowl. It rains on our Super Bowl. So, man, it was just like, she. Hey, we beat the Patriots. So that was the Super Bowl. We're not going to even think about the mayor. Yeah, what we're supposed to do.

Do what we're supposed to do. Yeah. How about the seven studs? Did you put the cleats on? Because a lot of times it was raining, they tell us to get the right cleats on, get the right cleats on the D. Never listen. That's why you see DBs fall down on the field.

We always put our seven studs on. Is rushing in the, in the rain? Is that worse for you or for the tackle, you think? Oh, that's worse for me. I hate it. I hate it snow and rain game because, I mean, you just try, I'll put this three-fourths. And if I can find a one-inch screw-in, give it here. Like baseball plates.

Yeah. I mean, if you're, I wasn't a power guy. So I was trying to rely on speed, you know, get around the edge to set up my counter. Yeah. And if it's raining and then just muddy, it's just, uh. See, I didn't have what you had. So I was like, oh, yeah, let the rain come down, man. Maybe he'll slide backwards when I hit him with the one arm.

So, yeah. I used to depend on the white to get the bull rush, the collapse of pocket, and I'm going to just go clean it up. Yep, yep. Those wet games, it was just sloppy and just, I didn't like that. I didn't like it. And you played in the RCA dome for a long time.

You played on turf turf, right? Yeah, my first three seasons, it was turf. How brutal was that? Since you lived the other side of it, most of us haven't actually played on turf, and, you know, you were kind of right at the end of it. Yeah, so, yeah, you were in with the Rams, so you just missed it.

Yeah, just missed it. Oh, wait. Yeah. It was straight carpet, man. And we practiced and played on that stuff. So I still got turtow on both toes. My knees is no, I'm not even going to get into it. It was, I'm paying a price right now.

So Toradole, Toradole was a must. I heard you talking to A.J. Hawk on the, and AJ Hawk didn't do vitamin T. I don't know why he's not playing now. If he never took tour of the man, let me tell you so. Yeah. Tourdoll, we used to race to that line to get that tour at all shot. And, uh, hey man, I don't feel like I could have played without it, man.

Man, let me tell you. When I got to Philly, the trainers, this was when they started giving the pills out. They were like, hey, we're going to stop giving you a shot here. You'll have these pills I have to do. I was like, first off, no. And I can remember getting ready to play the Bucks. And they were like, Chris, we're not doing Tor doll here anymore. I was like, well, Chris isn't playing. So you can go get the coach. and the head coach comes over like, what seems to be the problem here? He's like, well, give him some fucking Torto.

I'm not playing. Literally, late in my career, probably couldn't play without it. So for people at home, when you hear Toradole, it definitely does feel like a warm blanket. You come to the stadium, you limp in,

and then in warm up when it kicks in, it feels like you're 17 again. I don't, ooh, you don't feel anything in warmups. That's the greatest feeling. The best feeling, dude. But when you don't have it, maybe you skimp for a preseason game

to save your liver. I don't know if you took Torval on preseason. If they offered it, I took it, but they didn't, they didn't pretty much and offered that too much. What's the best tell you ever had, like a pregame tell? Like a lot of times in D-line rooms, we'd be like, oh, the quarterback, back when they'd be under center, a lot, a lot of quarterbacks would bail, their hands might go backwards before the snap. Did you ever have a tell that led to like a big game for y'all?

Oh, absolutely. 100%. The most hits we had in the game were like 33, and it was on Kurt Warner when he was when he was in Arizona. I think it was a Monday or Sunday night game in 2008, 2009. He would get a shotgun and they'll go through his cadence. But the second he put his right foot back, the ball snapped at 100% of the time. And we lit his ass. So, you know, Dwight and myself, we would kind of get just a little wider just so we can see. Yeah. And the second he put that foot back, it was on. Hey, those outside backers get great tells. They're standing up. They're like

nine yards wide they can see everything but you're right like if you get a good tell it could be your best game of the year like and you want to brag about it but you can't tell anybody you self you got to be something did you tell the other so would you if you had to tell are you telling the guy inside you i would i would well you can't tell young guys no because they'll fuck it up yeah man just like what he's doing your ass up yeah i would tell i would tell the white If I had a tell I would tell Duwait, we had Rahin Brock, like older guys, because they can handle that kind of information. But young guys can't handle that.

So I'm not telling them nothing until we watch film. You're so right, dude. Oh, that's so true. I'm glad I felt like an asshole when me and Bennett used to, me and Mike Bennett late in our careers, we get a tell, and we just keep it to ourselves. Maybe we tell Fletch, BG, but if you're like third year or less than the league, you don't get to know.

You get nothing. You'll like it. Speaking of young players that you actually treated well, Andrew Luck, you guys had a great relationship. It sounded like, what clicked with you and Andrew? Because it's just, you know, like quarterback's your quarterback hater. He's a guy with a flip phone. He drives probably a Volvo.

Like, you know, like quiet guy, but what clicked with you guys? What you see is what you get with Andrew. He could have worked for damn geek squad with a best guy and a damn librarian. That's what he is. That's what he liked to do. Fine. But you can, you can throw a football or you can put up points. So you're okay with me because that gives me more rush opportunities. So you're my, you're my guy right now. Absolutely. But he came in and took control, man. We just let him know, bro, you don't have to be, don't be Peyton. You're not Peyton. Don't you don't have to be that. Reggie Wayne and myself. It's just like, be who you are. And I have fun doing it. In the meantime, throw Reggie the ball and then and get me a lead. That was it. Give us a lead. Great guy.

So he was very humble. I talked to him last week, actually. Oh, man. He's a great dude. He's a great dude. I did remember hitting him and he legitimately told me great hit. And, you know, usually if it was anybody else, I'd be like, shut the fuck up. But it was Andrew Luck and I just respect him and I like him.

So I was like, oh, thanks. I remember that. You lit his ass up too. I think so. I think so. And that's the game. Y'all smacked us. We smoked y'all.

And I got a Sunday hop on a fumble return. Quinny. Yeah. Quinty, I got a Sunday. Hop just pop right in my yeah but but luck is definitely like he's legitimately you put it perfectly what you see is what you get there is no fake imagery with this guy you know a lot of guys in our league you don't know who they really are their brand might be better than their personality this guy's legit so all right you're going to the ring of honor one more time congratulations

as you're you're seeing your name i don't know if they pull the the curtain up or what like uh it's pretty damn cool whenever it happens what's going through your head who are you thinking about you know, like over your journey and Indy, like maybe people who don't get shouted out enough, like people that you're thinking about as you take that moment in. Well, I think a lot

about, like our trainers, managers, guys like that, man, the second I walk through the door, these were guys that I've been with and they're still there. John Scott, T, frog, smack, Aaron Burrell, Hammer, these

kind of cow. These are the guys that's behind the seams and day in and day out help me get ready for practice, help me stay on the practice field, and just true friends. So these guys are just as important and a part of this of my name going up there as I am.

So I'm very thankful for it. No question. There's a lot of awesome people in a football building and don't get shouted out. We had a smack too. There's a smack in every football building, I guess. He was an equipment manager. But Robert Mathis, now in the Ring of Honor, soon to be in the Hall of Fame. I am, you can book that. One of the best rushes I ever saw.

So thank you so much for your time, man. Oh, man. Thanks for having me on. I still hate quarterbacks, and it's still not an official stat. Okay, good. All right, I like that. Robert, take it easy, man. Tick Pick should be your first choice to buy football tickets

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