Green Light with Chris Long - The Kili Tapes with Rob Ninkovich.

Episode Date: February 21, 2020

Rob Ninkovich joins Chris Long on Mount Kiliminjaro for this episode of The Kili Tapes. 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

Hey, y'all, week two of the killy tapes. First off, interview with my good friend, former teammate, Super Bowl champion, Patriots, star, Rob Dinkovich. No matter where our convos start, they always go somewhere different. And Rob is a very paranoid person. As soon as we touched down in Tanzania, it was all about the various ways that he could die, whether it was black mamba's altitude sickness, lions.

somehow we got into bears. He's got a strategy for defeating all these these animal foes. And as you can imagine, this interview is, in my opinion, hilarious on his part. So enjoy. Check it out. I'm here with Rob Ninkovic at 11,400 feet. And we're two dudes on a rock. Rob.

Yeah. How are we doing? The rock is a little pointy. It is. Yeah, a little bit. I'm okay, though. I feel okay. You're comfortable.

You're good. You're comfortable, yes. I mean, this kind of adds to the whole thing about, like, you know, I feel like you are kind of a neurotic, paranoid person, and you've got a list of ways that you could die on this mountain. Few. One slip. Yeah. We drop at least eight feet. Yeah, that wouldn't hurt me.

Would be named. I'd be okay. Just the helicopter would have an issue landing around here. I'll be fine, though. I really feel confident in my ability to, my heart rate was. low, so I'm not really nervous about that. And the brain swelling thing, I mean, what are you going to do about that? We play football for a living.

Yeah, I've had plenty of brain swelling incidents. You talk about the helicopter, right? I mean, so the deal is on this mountain, you know, if you hurt yourself, and I've seen it happen, I saw somebody just snapped their leg, you call it Flamingo. It's Flamingo. That's when your knee goes the wrong way. So, you know, if Flamingo walks, their knee goes this way, like, if you're like a safety or like, like, you know, you're coming downhill flamingo. That's a terrible thing.

You step in a hole and you go flamingo, you're in trouble. You're not getting down. Well, no. So I'm here to tell you you are getting down. I've seen somebody get gurneyed down. But the problem is, like, dudes are carrying you, and it's just, they're in a hurry, and you're bump, you know, and your legs broken.

So. Yeah, it might hurt a little bit. So my thing is, like, if you're going to hurt yourself up here, go all the way so you can get the chopper. Right? Get the chopper. This is a chopper. You want to get a chopper.

You want to get a chopper. gonna get the chopper and it's gonna skip the four hour drive back to hotel it just take you back to hotel quick some painkillers you'll be it on safari be good within 12 hours it's just you know it's a little bit out of my comfort zone i would say but it's an experience a life experience i would like to say so once in a lifetime experience it's not gonna happen often probably just once for you judging by the fact that probably but you know what there's this is a little bit nicer than I anticipated. Right.

As far as convenience and sleeping arrangements. The A team, our guide group is doing a tremendous job. Yeah, so they've done great job. And we're tent mates. We, yeah, in the altitude, I had a little bit of gas, a little flatulence, but I'm okay now. I think I'm. As long as you don't stand like in the front

and you get to the back. Yeah. But like honestly, I was shocked, I was shocked to hear somebody with a beard like yours who's ever slept outside. Yeah, this beard is more so like, it's like a false, like, I'm kind of, like, look tough and rugged and, like, I might be outdoorsy, but really,

kind of clean guy, like to, you know, wash often. Not really outdoorsy. I've never camped. I mean, that's kind of like something you do at a young age, and then it progresses into something bigger. You know, my family, they never camped. You know, I never went to step outside. Yeah.

Well, so, so it's like, it's like big tires on a Jeep in the city or like a witch. Yeah. Yeah, similar. Yeah. It's just for show. It's like a Ford Raptor. It's like a Ford Raptor. Like most people never go off road with that, but they buy it and it's a Baja car, but it's never going to go off road. And it's too wide for all the parking space. Yeah, you're not going to get in your garage with two cars. So, so how was sleeping outside last night, how was being 10 mates and what's the experience like so.

It was good. I have a little like relaxation. You heard it. My little relaxation music that I put on. It's nice to relax the mind. I thought it was fine. There was a lot of zippers going the whole night, but it was fine. I slept good. The sleeping bag is warm, so I had to, you know, kind of like Ace Finchura and Pet Detective, too. Kind of hot in these rhinos. Yeah, you were in the rhino. I just wanted to take everything off because I was sweating. So at the end of the night, it was cold, so I felt great. So you run hot.

You do run hot. You've been sweating a lot this whole trip. Yeah. I was a little bit concerned about you, the first. day? I didn't feel great the first day. I think it was the jet lag got me a little bit. Sleeping hours are kind of messed up, but felt great today. Got a lot of energy, you know, like that high and low stuff. So you're doing this a lot mentally and emotionally. That sounds like something you need to be concerned about. And the meditation thing. So like I'm trying to sleep last night and I'm reading a book just to get tired.

You're doing notes with your pen. Yeah, I'm doing notes with my pen. Like I'm going to retain any of the fucking information. Like I'm an intellectual guy. You're losing a lot of brain cells at altitude, so you're trying to gain them by reading. I'm trying to gain them back. Yeah. I get it. So, so, so you turn on this meditation thing. Yeah.

Which to me was anything but relaxing. The guy, which was creepy as hell. It was very soothing. When did you start doing that? I mean, I just, it's, you know, if you went in my phone, it's probably from the first iPhone I ever had. So it was just, it's really old. So I just do it every now and then. Nothing crazy.

Yeah. Helps me go to sleep if I don't have a fan. I usually sleep with a fan, like a box fan. Yeah. So like my oscillating or box box? Like, you know, Walgreens, 20 bucks, box. This is a great tool. But for me, it was just really fucking unsettling instead of like relaxing.

Okay. But anyways. Well, you, I mean, you know what else is been? You're kind of weird too. You got a little oddness to you as well. I'm quirky, but you're really quirky. I would put you on a scale of corkiness. Absolutely.

I think anybody in this camp would say you are like out there in a good way. Everybody, the reviews are great on NNCO. I would say I'm more funny. You are funny. Corky. Yeah. Because people enjoy my company. So usually corky people, you're like, wow, that guy's a weirdo.

Don't go around him. My big question for you is, as paranoid as you are, and I know you've thought of it. Like top five or like top three ways you can die in and around this mountain, because I know you've run through them all. Well, I go back to the day we were on the phone and I committed to this challenge to climb Kilimanjaro for a great cause obviously water boys love them so I thought about altitude sickness my brain swelling and not coming down because I'm stuck up here frozen like an ice cube where are you gonna get frozen like an ice cube because it's cold up there's fucking glaciers on the top you might be able to see one anyway

they weren't for the clouds but there's there's glaciers that are melting on three top three deaths okay then I thought about a wild animal you know like like buffalo like a big buff they say buffalo I say buffalo like a big buffalo Havolo hiding in the brush and just hornin me and just mauling me up, you know? Right in your leg, goring. Oh, and just hoofing me, you know? It's low-ble-blooding. Just something's going on.

I just don't feel right. Like, can we get down fast enough? And I can't. I think you... Then number three was snake bites, like Black Mamba. Snakes on a plane? No, snakes. Um, uh, anyway, what the heck is the movie?

So snakes are three. Snakes are three because you get hit with a snake. Guess what? You need frozen anti-venom, and you need to be there within 45 minutes. Do research this, which is impressive, because most people don't know. I absorbed knowledge and I was in the car, I was listening to one of the drivers. He said 45 minutes, you don't get, you don't get anti-venom, you did. So I was like, okay, great, no anti-venom, we're gonna be about six hours from civilization.

I would speak highly of you at your funeral. Hey, well, at least we have some video. They call it a seven-step snake. Okay. Because you have seven steps. Then you're gone. But there's no mommas up here. Okay.

So they said. On this rock, what if a spider beat my leg, poison a spider? Are there any poisonous spiders up here? Well, I don't know about poisonous spiders, but as short as your shorts are, they probably go in there and get the... I think there's a shorter. We could do a measurement. Well, let's not get into that. Yes.

Another thing is... Yes. You, like, your first day was funny to me, never having slept outside. This is definitely outside the box. You FaceTime me from REI seven times. With the guy at REI who's like, this fucking guy, Commission City. Oh, that's good. You showed up looking like Safari Dad or REI mannequin.

This is REI? Like, everybody on the trip was just impressed. Your whole outfit. I mean, day one to day two. I mean, it's been, like, what have you enjoyed buying? I enjoyed the backpack. It was a fun experience because they've weighted it and they're like, put it on your love handles and see how it feels.

You got love handles? A little bit. You know, like I look like a, no offense to, the plumber electrician. I kind of looked like, you know, Joe the plumber, but it's okay. You know, that's, I played a long time in the NFL. You were also an iron worker. A little bit. That story has, you know, it's like a tail and it just kind of grows. I worked two weeks, ironworking, made a good amount of money for college. A lot of money. Yeah, good amount. How much an hour? 3250 double time, 6430. Like 6450. It's insane. Like it's good. Ironwork.

Workers work hard. They do. But it's double times. You go nine at night to nine in the morning. Yeah. Yeah. Was that hard or was it like challenging? It was a little, it wasn't that bad.

I mean it was two weeks. With your pops? No, my dad wasn't there. It was my cousin. Yeah, a lot of my family are iron workers. Good Midwestern boy. You know, hard work in Chicagoans. I know you are.

Like to drink the beer. But I heard the rumor is you're not really from Chicago or you're from the Burbs. I'm from the Burbs, but I was born, like my family's from Chicago. Then we moved out, you know, for school and I'm from school and purposes and you know I'm a suburb so like Juliet Jake Joliet Illinois the prison's there one hat black does that make it tough you tougher because no no no I'm not tough if you like go fire no you are tough like I'm tough like in a certain way but I'm not like fighting like if anyone in the confrontation I'm like all right rank the people on this trip in mortal combat

from easiest to hardest not including the vets because I'm not fucking with any animal you can't include those guys because they would you know they got they got a trigger on yeah They're seeing shit that dude. Like, they'll just, they'll go on you. So, you know, I think number one psycho would be yourself as far as modal combat. Because your finishing move, like you'd have the biggest eyes, and you would do something like, your eyes would just be like, look, ah, and you would just like lose it. You wouldn't know what happened. You, me.

It'd be a good one. It'd be a good one. So you got really big hands. You really rank me ahead of, yeah. Dude, think about who's on the trip. Well, okay. Last, the last person I'm fighting is. Big guys, big guys, they get tired quick.

Once you get tired, it's over. Fuck that. You're fighting Helodi, it's... Helodi, I wouldn't want to fight Helodi. I wouldn't want to fight him. It's not a fight, that's a mall. Do you think he'd mull you up like that? He would put you in a pine box.

I mean, I don't, when I talk to him and I see his personality, he seems so gentle and so nice. Don't piss the guy out. How angry could he be? Don't piss the guy out. And Bo, I don't know. Bo he might get tired. I'm not worried about Bo. Kelsey seems like he'd be like, hey man, why are you doing this? I'm your friend. No, Kelsey, Kelsey, Kelsey has a switch. He's got a switch to? Oh yeah. We all have a switch. No, but Kelsey's switch. Yeah. I'm going to put, the easy answer is Cortland. Oh, you think Cortland? I think there's a lot to lose with Cortland because because of his size. Well, it's a lot to lose. So my thing is if I'm fighting a little guy, I'm kind of worried about it because if I lose, it's embarrassing. Yeah. If I

if I had a big guy, there's no shame in Hologi boxing you up. So, like, for me, I'm going to Cortland first. I got some pretty good hands, though. I box a little bit. So I think. I've seen you at the gym. The big guys. I've seen you at the gym.

I think the big guys, I could get them and move a little bit, get them more, get them tired, and then they wear out a little bit, then you go to work. You know, Cortland, you've got to get in first and slam him down and stay on top and kind of hope that he doesn't have superhuman strength, which he looks like he does from the caverns in all the veins he has. He looks like he might just, like, Hulk out. He's vascular. Oh, he's very vascular.

Low body fat on that guy. Listen, he's one of the toughest guys I've ever played with. Yeah. I mean, and he's just scrappy. He's fun. I like him a lot. But, I mean, you've got big dogs and smaller dogs. Yeah.

Sometimes the small dogs. Listen. They bite more than the big dogs. Alodi's a wolf. You think he's a wolf? He's got the bite force six times of a... He's got the hyena bite force. Yeah.

So or a guy is named orca. Orca. This is the most badass dude on the mountain. Great wheels. I was picking his brain last night about what kind of animals we have up here for your sake. And, you know, our first camp is called Simba Camp, which means lion. Yep. Now, they say lions would wander up to 13,000 feet here in the 40s and 50s, but the traffic has run them off.

Yeah. But he's seen, I think, leopards up here. Yeah. And he saw hyena shit a couple weeks ago. See, hyenas, you don't mess with the hyenae because they, they're grown up. He said they'll crush your skull. You go right in your tent and just... Yeah, that's it.

And you're just like, you wake up in the morning looking for me death. You're gone. They drug you about six miles up that way, and they're all just having a feast. They seem like the types that would just kill you for fun. Yeah, and... But another thing that I learned about a hyena, they will eat their prey alive, as opposed to a lion kills their prey first and then devours. Hienas enjoy as they're alive.

So it's almost they're way savage in that aspect. And they're big, dude. Have you ever seen the internet? Like, do you Google a hyena standalone? I did I show you the video of the hyena? I was from me to you and a hyena with a small fence. You had a fence. Yeah, small fence.

You had a fence. All I'm saying is like they're big dogs. Oh, yeah. They're not like dogs. So when I think of a dog, like say a dog's going to attack me, I'm just grabbing that thing up and I'm dropping all my weight on its head. And I'm hoping that it like stops dead in its tracks. And you just you just stop that dog.

But a hyena, I feel like the, you know, you ever see the, have you seen, what's the movie with Will Smith? And they have those dogs. And they're like, why would you have to kill a dog? If it's attacking you. I guess. Say it's a wild dog and it's just coming after you. Like, say it's trying to attack one of your kids and you're like, oh, that's not happening. If the dog is attacking a whale and it's got to go.

You know, say it's a, you know, like a dog that isn't right, you know, it's inbred or something's wrong with it mentally, and it's coming after you. You've got to do something. Like a chupacabra, which are like these hairless dogs. They're like blood sucking. They suck the blood out of livestock down in like Central America. But it came to find out dogs with mange. So a dog with mange, maybe you got to put it out. Okay.

You know, but I get that. But I think it's a little harsh to think about choking a dog out. Like I am legend with Will Smith. Like I am legend dolls. When the dog comes out and then he's like, like to do-d-d-d-d-d-d-to- Like right his face, like a dog like that. You couldn't kill that dog.

That's like a hyena though. That's what I'm comparing it to. A hyena. Yeah, you couldn't kill a hya- You couldn't do it. No chance. So like you heard about the mountain lion that the guy couldn't choke.

Yeah, I had a lot of questions about that. What do you want to know? Questioning the size and like, you know, strength, health, you know, like, maybe that lion wasn't in great health. He was elderly? Maybe it didn't have the strength Maybe it was an elder.

It was young. It was really, really hungry. Very, very, like, imagine you didn't eat for about six days. You're on the verge of death and you got in a fight. There's no chance. Yeah, I'm losing. You're going down. But there was another guy a couple years ago in California.

It felt really bad about killing a mountain lion. He was like a college wrestler. Yeah. And he felt bad, but I'm like, the mountain lion is trying to kill you, bro. I don't know if you've had a cat. He was jogging. If a hunter gets killed by an animal, that's your fault. Yeah.

If you're trying to kill an animal. Yeah. You know, it's not like I want to see anybody die, but it's just like, okay, like you played that game. You played that game. And they have usually guns, which is ridiculous. Yes. So, I mean, you know, I was hearing a story today about a grizzly bear.

Have you heard this story? One of the few guys. One of the last things, because I do some backpacking in Montana, and it's just, it's scary. That movie with the Revenant? Revenant. Yeah, I think that might have been unrealistic, but what I heard about was Revenant, great movie, by the way. Beautiful movie. Love it.

Aid a Candy the first time I went and saw Revenant, and it felt. like that first fight scene was... It was like three hours long. Oh, like the guy was riding in on a horse, like, slow-mo-skelped. And then the scene where he's eating the snow? Yeah. Oh, I was laughing my ass off.

So, in addition, this guy killed a grizzly bear. He's one of the few people without a weapon to kill a grizzly bear in history. It mauled him in, I think, Wyoming. They have the bear stuffed in a bar. Yeah. The bear had his arm, and he had to wear with all to stick his, because you remember his mom told him this.

Yes. What a mom told him to stick his hand down the bear's gullet and grab his esophagus. So he let go and then he get this. This fucking guy bit into the bear's, what is it? Carotid artery? Yeah, it's your carotid artery. He found it and bit into it. I'm saying.

I'm saying. Here, look, look, I'm just going to tell you this. That's a complete BS. That's BS. What did he do, bro? There's no way because guess what? I have a 200-pound mastiff and a bear is a lot bigger and you can't even get to the carotid artery because there's so much skin It's kind of like it's kind of like a video game boss video game bosses are huge

But they always have one weak spot your mastiff you can't fit your hand in its mouth That bear has that one lumped down on your arm. It's just breaking your arm No not if you grab its esophagus I don't know I don't know if I was a day if I had no chance and I knew I had no chance and the bears on all four I'm just freaking running as fast as I can and I'm hitting that bear in the chest and I'm just saying hey like maybe he'll respect the fact that I did it too You think you respect you maybe you just hit him as like like one time in a real quick football story one time I was trying they said don't bull rush incognito he's too big I said you know what I won't I won't bull rush him I swear but you know what I did I tried and I got thrown out of the club But he respected you I don't know but anyway. I mean he at least he told me he respected you yeah he respect

respect me because I tried and he scoop me up and threw me away and I said yeah I probably shouldn't bull rush anymore but I tried it maybe the bears watch the Patriots because guess what if you run that bears running 35 miles an hour no they're tracking you down with about six inch claws and they say if it's black fight back in Appalachia if you're in a black bear if it's brown lay down which you roll in a ball you've got to have serious stones to lay down and feel that bear's just breath and you're closing your eyes and it's just like you do that pounce thing like you a hickey and the thing

that most people don't even talk about is like a bear's claw is probably going to kill you. It's going to put like a three inch opening. No, that's the thing to a lion. Think about like, you ever have a cat or kitten run up your leg and you're like, oh, that just went right in my skin. It hurts really bad. Think about a lion. Their claws are this big just as sharp.

Yeah. So they hit you like this one time. They're all the way down to your rib cage and you're just like, oh shit, a lion. No, I'm not, I'm not falling for that. I'm not that. It's not happening. Because guess what? If it's coming this way, you're not sitting there.

I'm not. I'm not, but all I have to do is outrun you. thanks for part one oh thanks you a higher altitude and tackle some harder subjects let's do it i'm excited good fun dude thank y'all for watching uh hit the like and subscribe for me one time please and we'll have some more of these killy tapes we got a lot in the pipe there uh from last trip up the mountain uh we'll have that next week and keep it going