Green Light with Chris Long - The Kili Tapes with Haloti Ngata. The Biggest Man to Ever Climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

Episode Date: February 23, 2020

Haloti Ngata is the biggest man to ever climb Mount Kilimanjaro. On Episode 4 of The Kili Tapes, Chris Long sits down on an actual chair to interview former Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle, Haloti Ngata. About Chalk Media: Following the unfiltered voice and vision of Chris Long, Chalk Media is the interactive online community for you, the intelligent and humorous sports fan. Driven by access, Chalk delivers a unique perspective that cuts through the canned talking points and provides a variety of content from your favorite sports and entertainment celebrities. Here at Chalk, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are rooted in challenging the perception of professional athletes. We embrace the “real” with a unique combination of humor and intelligence. Chalk is a community with a voice beyond 240 characters that brings a perspective and vibe to a traditionally brash and boastful sports media space. Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more. Nothing is off-limits at Chalk - 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

So it was really great to talk to Lodi Nata in Tanzania. You know, he came with the water boys to do Conquer and Killi, which means we're going to climb Kilimanjaro, which is a 20,000 foot mountain. And he is the largest, I'm going to make this unofficially law. I needed to get in touch with the Guinness Book of World Records, but he's the largest man to ever summit Kilimanjaro, a solid 340. Shout out to dudes who wheelbarrowed him down. He was so exhausted.

And shout out to me for pushing his big ass up to mountain. And what I got in return was a great, great interview with a guy who doesn't do a lot of interviews. One of the best teammates ever had, one of the most humble, gentle giants that I played with and a great football player. Retired on top of Kili, talk to me when he got down. So hope you enjoy this interview with Helodianada.

So we're here at sea level now, thankfully. But we're not out of the woods yet because we're at the emergency assembly point. I have no clue what the hell they do here. But the emergency today to me is that Helodinaata has recently retired from the NFL officially. One of my favorite players I played with. I think it's a tragedy.

We don't have you in the league anymore, but here you are. You're now unemployed. How did that feel to get to the top and just say, I'm done with this? Honestly, it was really emotional, emotional time. Being up there, first getting up there, I mean, thanks to you and our guide leader,

pushing me up, literally. We had a time up there. But it was really emotional, man. I just started thinking about my career and what I kind of accomplished. And I just couldn't think of a better way to announce my retirement. That's the biggest way I've seen anybody do it.

And to me, like, that challenge for people that don't know getting up that mouth is really hard, whether you've done it before or not. And we were joking, you and Bo were trying to compete to see who would break the record to be the biggest to ever summit. I think you win, because Bo, got down he had lost a bunch of weight yeah it was a grind I mean it was a

grind for all of us what's going to your head once you get over the rim at 18 and a half thousand feet you got another you think you're there it's like a false summit and you got another thousand well we got to that that what was that point called Gilman's Gilman's point yeah and they said that oh we still got another thousand feet to go I'm like hour and a half yeah hour and a half I'm like I was like a slap in the face yeah I was like what we We still got another hour and a half to go, which took me a lot longer. But it was a slap of face.

One of the toughest things I've ever done in my life. I've never done something this mentally, physically, spiritually tough. Like it's just like everything. It just tested everything in my body. Because it's monotonous. Yeah. We're used to doing something where the play is three to five seconds. You got a quarter.

You know when the quarter's over. The offense can get the ball. It feels like you're on a never-ending drive, and all your subs are hurt. Yes. And like- You have to stay in. Yes. So the remarkable thing for me was, like, everybody moves slow, but a lot of people take breaks.

And you were struggling. I was struggling. Like, people are having a hard time, but you never stopped. I think a lot of it had to do with what was in your backpack for both of us. Yes. Yeah. So, yeah, I was like I couldn't stop. There was no way.

I'm going to bring a flag up to announce my retirement and not make it all the way. That flag would just sit. I mean, you have to play another year. Nice. I'm done. I wasn't stopping and thankful for you and our guide. Orca.

Legend. I would have never made it up without you guys. Wow. It's just, it's, I was so emotional and so, like, excited, happy. and I don't know, so many things that hit me all at once when I threw that flag up there. Well, I cry every time I get to the top for a different reason.

With somebody different, like, and you were the dude this year that I was like, I just really want to see this guy get to the top because, you know, and universally respected as a teammate, as a player, as somebody who had an amazing career, somebody who I think has a shot at Canton. I know you joke that you're like, well, I'm going to be dead,

you know, my ghost is going to have to come back. But I think it's been an amazing run. And you talked about what goes into retirement. We talk about it all the time. It's a really tough balance to strike. Like you want to play as long as you can, but you don't want to get hurt and go out that way. You got hurt in Detroit year before you come to Philly.

What goes into that process for you? Yeah, so I got hurt my last year in Detroit week five, tore my bicep, season any injury, had surgery. And I was like, and I was actually planning on having retiring after that season. And I was like, there's no way I'm going to retire after my career just on season and the end or on IR. So I was like, I'm going to sign another year deal somewhere. And hopefully with the team that I can go to playoffs with and compete and ended up in Philadelphia. And we had a great year.

Yeah, it was fun. I mean, we were a couple plays away. And I really felt like you were, you made a good decision and you were a big part of our D-Lines. So kudos to you for finishing on your terms. I think a lot of people don't get to do that. And I think that's maybe why some people struggle after ball. I mean, it's going to be a challenge for all of us. But talking about your career, the thing I'll always remember, you as in my book,

even with four or five pro bowls, as the most underrated part of that defense in Baltimore, who were some of your favorite players to play with? And who was maybe somebody who you felt never got the credit in that. Yeah, so Terrell Suggs, I love playing with that guy. I mean, that guy is amazing and he's fun, keeps everything loose and relaxed. You got Ray Lewis. You got Ed Reed. Those guys are your leaders that are going to, you know, do all the right things.

They'll gamble a little bit and do their thing. But I think a lot of guys that don't realize that are as underrated players, Jared Johnson. Love him. That's one of my favorite players. I love to play with him. Favorite guys. But there's so many guys on that defense that were so awesome. Chris McAllister, Trevor Price.

We had him come through. Kelly Gregg. So all these guys are just, you know, I learned and molded myself with those guys. Yeah. And it helped. Our defense was just so awesome and fun. It's amazing to me that somebody like a Trevor Price could get lost in a defense like that with the career he had. That's crazy.

And that just speaks to kind of the quality of that team, which of course it culminated in that Super Bowl, which I believe was in New Orleans. Yep, in New Orleans. Because I went for the parties. And then when I was in St. Louis, we never were actually playing those games in the new year. But I was watching that game at home. and I think one of the crazy, it was an amazing game.

It was one of the most entertaining Super Bowls to me in the past decade. And one thing that stood out to me is really crazy was that blackout at halftime. And you know how when you go into a Super Bowl, if you've never been there, you're like, holy shit, halftimes, how long?

Yeah, exactly. The flow of the game, the flow of the week is bigger than even the opponent. How do you guys rebound? How did that go down behind the scenes? We almost lost the game because of that blackout. So the blackout happened in the third quarter. and we're sitting there for like literally 30 more minutes

just like out there on the field waiting for the lights to get a turn back on and we like lost our momentum like we were we were just defensively getting off the field offensive scoring points we were scoring points on special teams and like we were just like on fire

and that blackout kind of just took it off and the you know the fire was gone and San Francisco was coming back and would you guys think when the lights first came out where people like holy shit Or was it like, is something wrong? Yeah, like, I thought there was something wrong. Like, something that's going on around the building.

Like, somebody must have, like, did a fire or, you know, did something to cut off power somehow. But it was, yeah, we were worried. I was worried a little bit. And then they were like, oh, no, they're just kind of figure out how to turn the power around. Which was weird to me, like, you know, multi-million dollar business company that can't have power. It's kind of crazy. How did it feel to come out on the other side of that? Best thing.

I mean, for me, it's like, I watched the Super Bowl with my dad when I was a kid all the time, and that's the only time we watched TV on Sundays. And I think, like, thinking my first Super Bowl, I was going to go, like, oh, this is all about me. Like, this is what I've always wanted. And when we won, all I could think about was my family. Family. My brother, sisters, my wife, my boys. I just wanted to find my kids.

You just want to find my kids. You just find my wife. That's all about my thought about. I was like, oh, my gosh, I did it for them. It wasn't about me. It was about just doing something from my kids. family. So that's all, like, all I felt. It makes you thankful that, you know, you have some time in the league to gain perspective before you do it. I mean, there's never a bad time to win a

Super Bowl. Yeah, but like for me included, you know, waiting a long time, was better than winning early. You know, when I talked to my pals back in the day, he won like a second or third year. And they kind of took it for granted. And he always told me that he thought, you know, we'll be back. Yeah. But it's not the way it works. Yeah. I mean, you look at like one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time Drew Brees, it's been a decade. Yeah. I mean, and to me, he's like a, he's a machine. I mean, and the closest he got was like this year. I thought they, you know, if we, if we didn't go, I thought they were the team. But I mean, it just goes to show you you can't take it for granted. Later in the career is even better for perspective.

Even better. Even better. I think it's way better because you realize all the stuff you worked so hard to get there, how hard it took you. Yeah. And I think, yeah, you're right. When you're young, You couldn't definitely take it for, or you take advantage of getting to the Super Bowl. You never know how often you can get there. What's the best game you ever played? Like individually? Yeah, and you can't say St. Louis Rams when you scored a touchdown and high stuff in the end zone. I mean, it was 2011.

We were terrible. It was a fun of recovery. I mean, I think Ray Lewis hit the ball out of San Bradford's hand. Yeah, it happened a lot. We didn't have an override. We jumped start at Tori Smith's career. He had three touchdowns in the first half. But was there a game that stood out to you in your whole career that you're like, man, I remember that or a play?

I guess it would be a Steelers game where I got through the line real fast and made Menon Hall fumble the ball, hit him real good, got a fumble recovery. And then our next series that we went in, I tipped the ball, Ray Lewis intercepted it. So it was like, for right there, we had like 14. points turn around from like two plays I just did and so it was like I love playing against the Steelers always great to play against the Steelers I like watching those games yeah those games are the best I loved him so so switching gears you you know obviously you know um Tongan and I asked you who your favorite Tongan player in history was and and and with a lot of great athletes yeah and you looked at me you said football I said well

what it was like the NBA and you were like well what about rugby yeah so first who is your favorite Tongan football player and why didn't you play rugby? So, yeah, football player, Vice Sekehama. You know, he played for the Eagles. And it's kind of weird because, like, he's like one of the first Tongan players to ever play football, I mean, in the NFL. So, of course, you know, a lot of Tongans look up to him. The only weird thing about it is that he was a skill position player.

You guys are all-phings guys are all-limin D-Lyman. Buck kickers. Yes. So that was the only weird thing about it. But like other than that, he's just like a pioneer of our culture and, you know, making it into the NFL. What's that culture mean to you? It's huge. I mean, we're just, we're big, family-oriented.

Very, there's like a hierarchy in our culture where we always respect our elders and, you know, people that came before us. So it's really, you know, made me who I am, like just the culture, the warrior spirit, you know, the fire and passion. all comes from like my culture but um it seems like if you if you give respect you get it and you get a ton of respect yeah yeah we respect our elders when big h walks in the locker room so you mentioned rugby i think you would have been i mean i think it would have been unfair why didn't you yeah rugby so yeah rugby is i love rugby is my favorite sport i love playing it um because everybody anybody gets to run the ball you know no matter what size you are and it's just um they never had scholarships back when I was younger to go to school.

And they do now. It's getting bigger and bigger in America. But, yeah, they didn't offer any schooling. And I couldn't pay for school. My family couldn't. So I had to stick with football scholarship and go that route. But rugby, yeah, I would have loved to play rugby. It would have been amazing.

Well, I think there's a lot of rugby players that are happy. You went a different direction. And you had, in my opinion, just an unbelievable career. Somebody I'm really proud to call a teammate and a friend, and I'm really proud to say that I was there the day you got to the top. So I appreciate you and I appreciate you being on this trip, man. Thanks for having me. I couldn't, you know, everything you've done for me, all you do for Africa, the water boys.

And it's amazing, you know, I have my own foundation and, you know, looking at what you're doing and just makes me want to continue to do work, you know, good work around the community, the country. But yeah, I appreciate you. You know, having you literally pushed me up the mountain and made me cry a little bit. I was crying. I didn't want to show. I didn't want to show right.

Yeah, I didn't want to show. Yeah, I don't want to show. And we were all crying. Yeah. But I'm glad we made it. And now it's transition time. What's next? And what are you going to do with your foundation in the future?

Yeah. So my foundation is education-based. I fell the ACT test multiple times. So we create this free class for students. And, but yeah, that's what I'll kind of be doing. Just trying to get a lot of these kids to continue their education. and I'll just be raising my kids. You'd be skiing.

And I'll be snowboarding, yeah. You're snowboarding. If I see you coming down the slopes, I'm getting out of the way. No, people think, yeah, I can maneuver around. Oh, you are, big athlete. If you see Helodi in Park City, just get out of the way. I would advise it. But, man, congratulations on a great career.

Thanks for being here, bro. Appreciate it. Love you, bro. Love you, man. Appreciate you, both. So that was a great combo. So again, you know, the heaviest man unofficially to ever summit, probably the heaviest man at that altitude of all time. To ever summit, Kilimanjaro for sure. I'm going to go out on limb and say that.

Alodi Nata, it was great to have him and I was really, really happy. I'm happy whenever I see any of my buddies get to the top of that mountain. But when somebody's able to retire, you know, getting up to the top, busting that flag out, calling it quits.