New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce - Alejandro Villanueva on his NFL Career, Serving in Afghanistan and Blocking James Harrison | EP 46

Episode Date: June 30, 2023

92%ers we are a little late but we are back with another episode of New Heights presented by our friends at Fireball.  In this episode, we are joined by maybe the most interesting man in the world, former Army Ranger turned Pro-Bowl left tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers Alejandro Villanueva.  In our incredible conversation with Alejandro, we get the back story on what happened when he was cut from the Eagles (17:55), why he thinks the NFL Regional Combine is a scam (31:00), how he gained almost 100lbs to play for the Steelers (37:02), what is was really like going up against Jame Harrison in practice every day (49:20), and why Mike Tomlin might be selling himself short (56:26).  We also touch on his time in the US Army and his path to playing football at West Point (58:02), what it was really like to serve three tours in Afghanistan (01:06:45), and how he became an Army Ranger (01:18:00).  As always, watch and listen to new episodes of New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce every Wednesday & check us out on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show.  One final programming note. We will be dropping our video from the first ever New Heights Beer Bowl next week, so subscribe and turn your notifications on so you don’t miss it.  Support the Show:   Merch: https://homage.com/newheights  Fireball: Enjoy the #1 shot in the country responsibly and visit https://www.fireballwhisky.com to find out where you can purchase those little cinnamon delights  ACCELERATOR ACTIVE ENERGY: Available nationwide at Target or visit https://ashoc.com/ to find the store nearest you  PUP-PERONI - To learn more about Pup-Peroni Original Beef Flavor treats, go to https://www.pupperoni.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So we get not wearing doing rest I smell very badly. Oh, so are you gonna go put some on? I think honestly the reason I smell those, because I've been using the dove body wash that's in the shower at the beach house. I don't have my dial bar. You're a bar man. Yeah, I'm a man.

I'm not wearing dove body wash and with lotion built into it. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to New Heights, presented by Waste Sports Entertainment brought to you by our friends over at Fireball. And you guys, you guys bring this to everybody and we want to bring Fireball to everywhere we go because it's so goddamn good. I say, Goddamn good, I got damn good. We are your hosts. I'm Travis Kelsey.

He's my big brother Jason Kelsey. Out of Cleveland Heights. Oh, hi you. He he he. Nothing's a hi shout out. New episodes come to you every single Wednesday. We're a little late this week because we're in Philly and we're getting ready for beer bone.

So sorry we're getting this to you a little late, but I'm glad we got it to you. Subscribe on YouTube wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on all social media platforms. Add new Heights show with one as Jason. Tell them what we got it to you. Subscribe on YouTube wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show and all social media platforms add new hide show with one as Jason Tell them what we got coming up. We got a great episode as always. Damn it. That's right. We're gonna get to everything you need to know that happened in Titan you. We're gonna touch on, of course, our not dumb questions submitted by all of our 92% and most importantly, we're going to get to our guests today, Mr. Alejandro Villanova.

Woohoo, man. I don't know if Dos Esquis is still doing those most interesting man in the world commercials, but if they are, we got the real one right here. Yeah. But first before we get to our guests, we're going to get to out of the house. Get out of the house. I don't know if you could guess what the out of the house is, but it's Travis going to Nashville, Tennessee for Titan you out of the house is brought to you by our friends at Pup Peroni. It's great to leave the house, but when you return

home, be your best friends, best friend and give them some Pup Peroni, the original meat snack, treat, whatever they call it, it's delicious. With a snort. Yeah, I like that myself sometimes. Uh, who, who'd you meet? I met Dalton King Cade. Dalton. Dalton King Cade, rookie out of Utah. Nice.

He's playing a first round draft pick to the Buffalo bills. Is it tight end? Jotye is drawn. Well, yeah, he's drawn some comparison to, you know, maybe being that hybrid, receiving, you know, maybe being that hybrid receiving, you know, really good receiving tight end. Do you have a lot of questions for you? Did he pay attention to me?

He didn't ask me one single question. Didn't ask you anything. No, guys had his wits about him. I'm not gonna lie. He, he's got any questions. He looked like he was just absorbing everything. You know, as a rookie. Not a big question.

Yeah. Mostly, I mean, when I was a rookie, I wasn't asking a lot of questions. I was just trying to figure it out. Who else did you get me be the brandy quarterbacks there? Yeah, we had Josh Allen, Sam Darnold. Who else showed up? Yeah, we had some good QBs. Is it just a happy Sansi?

Tray Land. It has two quarterbacks, three quarterbacks, it also could have played tight end. Yeah, literally all three of them. It had been great tight ends. Yeah, those dudes are great athletes. Man, it's a lot easier playing tight end. It is quarterback, guys. It doesn't work out for you.

It was cool. In terms of like meeting guys, I'm pretty familiar with the majority of the guys in the league playing tight-end nowadays. But I did get to see Rob Grant Kowski talk about some football, man. What do you say? You want to talk about Nugget the gold, man?

What was the biggest thing he gave you that you took away from his? It sounded like he was just the ultimate fucking teammate football man. You wanna talk about nugget of the gold man. What was the biggest thing he gave you that you took away from his? It sounded like he was just the ultimate fucking teammate man. He was just so willing to do whatever the team needed him to do at any moment and making sure that he was always ready. He's ready on selfish. Very on selfish dude man.

I mean that sums up Robin and Crosco have ever heard of. Yeah, it was awesome hearing him talk ball and just talk about how you need to be in the building and how accountable you need to be and the desire that you need to have to be that, especially when you got, you know, great players around you. You got a chance to win, you know what I mean? Yeah. So it was awesome here and him and talk through some plays on the screen.

Is he talking through run plays routes? Dude, he was talking through really what was Rob Garneckowski's like greatest plays highlight tape. So it was like a sum of stuff and it was his fun watching him. All right, here's what you're going to want to do. You're going to want to stiff on the shit out of this DB and throw him five yards up the field. And there was a mentality he would talk about having that.

Yeah. No. He would use his size. Obviously him talking through using his size and just tight ends being able to use their size and route running and and things like that. When you have a ball, yeah. I mean, it's fascinating stuff. I love to hear everything. What did you teach the tight ends? Dude, I found out that I found this out three years ago. Really? I'm not a great teacher. You're not a great teacher. No, I'm not a great teacher. I think that I can teach, but when I watch myself on video teach,

I'm like, what the fuck is this guy talking about? I think you're giving yourself a little bit of not the right amount of credit. I've heard from other tight ends on our team that have went, they said that you actually have some really pointed things about coverages and why you run routes and things. Yeah, well, all right, well, at least,

at least a register for somebody. It's difficult for me to be able to you know articulate kind of how I like to look at the game and how I like to do it because I'm never sat there and tried to make it make sense it just makes sense for me right. Yeah so to be able to yeah be able to I don't know discuss that in front of a group and have everybody in the room understanding and let alone have them understand it but be able to take that with them. Take take what I'm saying and be able to translate it into their game. Years past I talked about a lot of you know what we do in Kansas City and kind of what I'm the the I don't

want to say the um the adjuster yeah I want to say the adjustments that I make but the the ability for me to um go off script yeah the freedom that I have in my offense guys don't have I have in my offense, guys don't have any freedom in their offense. Let alone if you're trying to. In the works. All right, no, that's what I'm trying to tell them. Did Andy give you that?

Or did you just go right out? No, I think I could. I think I could. I feel like that's the way it works. Like JJ, nobody has a license to backdoor tackles on the out on on zone plays. I should do it in the tackles. When the tackles were lost, I'm like, hey,

why don't you keep doing that? Yeah, no. I would say I did that more in practice than I did in games. You definitely want to try it on a practice. You do not want to do this in games, dude. Bold move, try it in the middle of the game. Basically, I'm not afraid to get yelled at during practice. But I would tell them things that I did that kind of,

you know, make me a better player, and they didn't have that freedom in their offense to be able to do it. Or at least they were trying to make the team to where they didn't wanna use the reps that they were getting to, you know, I don't know, screw up or maybe do something unscripted. So I tried to make this year a little bit more

of like how to channel your own professionalism and just give kind of keys and notes of how I like to run certain routes versus certain coverages. So I don't know. I try to make it more relatable for everybody in the building or everybody in that room instead of just kind of directing it

towards the style of tight end that I am. Yeah. All right. Well, are you in Darnell, Washington, and friends now? I did not see Darnell Washington up there. Was he? I don't think he was out there. Maybe he just didn't go to your summer. I didn't mean it. May I didn't meet him? I don't think I met him. Did you learn to block? Yes.

I finally figured it out. I got my towel drill. I got my blue drill. What's towel drill? It's the kiddos, you know, you grab the towel. No, no, towels on the floor. Towers on the floor. Yeah, it's like you can do with the towel on the floor. You got to, it's set your angles. It helps you with footwork and being able to, you know, set your angle on a certain defender, whether you're running inside, it's on the outside. Basically, over the towel. Yeah, because you can do that anyway. You can do towels, anyway, you can't, you can't, everybody has a board at the house. There you go. Yeah, because you can do that anyway, you can do towels, or else anyway, you can't, you know, everybody has a board at the house. There you go. Yeah, same premise.

I'm gonna use that to my advantage or sure. Don't need a towel either. Don't need a towel or a board. Well, Jason, it's why you're the fucking number one center in the Nashville Valley, because you don't need that kind of stuff. A guy like me, not in the top five tight, it's because I can't fuck a block. Fuck. Oh, like gosh. Do you have anything else to add from Titan you before we end this segment?

Like, dude, it's so much fun. I just wanted to thank all the guys for coming out. Is it fun because you're teaching Titan you or is it fun because it's a national tendency? It's fun because the everybody really does come out, go out there with the intentions of gathering as much information as possible. Like how everybody, their attention, the questions, the like the ability to go out there, work out, sweat, really kind of get after their craft and try and get better.

I think that's what makes tight ends so much fun. And then on top of that, yeah, the parties are free at the end and we raise a lot of money for a lot of good causes. I got to admit, you got a trophy for tight in you this year, didn't you? Yeah, yeah. And I was a lot of money for a lot of good causes. I got to admit, you got a trophy for a Titan you this year, didn't you? Yeah. Yeah.

And I was a little, I was a little wasted when they, shouldn't they give out the plomas? What are they giving out trophies? Yes, so they gave out trophies. Everybody in the group decided to are voted on who was kind of like the number one Titan or I forget what the actual trophy's name was. But basically, yeah.

So in your head, the trophy was just on the best Titan. But that's not what the actual name was. But basically, yeah. So in your head, the trophy was just on the best title, but that's not what the actual trophy was. I think that's what it was. I didn't get to take it with me. They said they're going to engrave my name on when he gets and send it to me. So nice. Yeah. Again, I was a little, it's a little drunk. I think that about wraps up tight in you. As you can can see a lot of riveting conversations and good tight end topics where they talk blocking route running catching balls And of course

drinking We're gonna get to our guest now mr. Alejandro Villano way of something way more exciting and interesting for Jason Everybody give it up for Jason. For ruining another segment. Alright, we're gonna be back to the show in a second, but first we gotta shout out our partner. Fireball. Mm, fire, but that's cinnamon delight.

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Made lime made your cherry. Today we are joined by a man that grew up in Spain. Graduated from West Point Academy served three tours and Afghanistan was an army ranger and it all earned him a bronze star. And if those life achievements weren't enough for one person in their lifetime, he then decided to play in the NFL for eight seasons making two probals with the Pittsburgh Steelers

as one of the best left-accos in the NFL. 92%ers, yeah, it's a big one this week. 92%ers, please welcome Mr. Alejandro Villano Weiva. Woohoo! Exactly. For being in Philly. Yeah, it passes. What pal?

It wouldn't pass in Spain. What else are you going to do in this life, dude? Dude, he's a fruit farmer now. I'm a fruit farmer now. Take it over the farm in the industry perhaps Now but I don't think I don't think any of the you know the resume sounds a lot better than what it actually is for sure No, do that sounded pretty fucking sweet. All right, we're gonna get to the new news

As always we hit it with a new news New news all of our guests to do their own new news. So we got to hear your new news my new time My new news. Yeah, you know, you know, whatever you want to say. Yeah, the Wagner group having a attempt of a Coop oh, yeah, it's going to another direction. I was not prepared for it. Is that new news? It's definitely new news I mean, we're gonna work on our show to jump the segment off though We're he's gonna say new news I'm gonna say new news and then you're gonna hit your time

of the new news. We can go back to the white group. Yeah, we do you want to be curious to, do you have anything new news? Yeah, that's it. That's actually what he was getting into. New news. Back to the new news.

Back to the white group. So, you're a farmer now. I am a farmer. You played eight season in the NFL, served in the military, overseas, and now you farm fruit in Florida. How is that going? What should, what do you have to tell us about the farming industry that you've learned so far?

I feel like it's a very broad question. I mean, let's see how you answered and we'll see if I can hear it down here. I feel like the transition out of the NFL is extremely difficult. It's very similar to the transition out of the military, for example, where you have to find a new identity. And I think that farming has always been in my family. I think that farming is something that I've always considered very noble. And something that the United States has always considered our priority to make sure that

we don't depend on other countries to feed our people. And so for me, farming has been a passion that I've always had. And in South Florida, it represents a very niche type market that offers tropical fruits that are not offered anywhere else in the United States. And so for me, it's been an incredible transition. And so I'm very excited about this new chapter in my life for sure. What is the biggest perk of owning a fruit farm besides eating a lot of fruit? I think that's the biggest farm. But I know, I think that as a football player, you always in tune with fans and what the fans want.

If you have a good game, you'll get certain feedback. If you have a bad game, you have a different set of feedback. But when you're creating a product that people consume, you're hearing a different type of feedback. And you're appealing to a very specific type of consumer and you learn about the consumer markets And so you you get embedded for the first time into the economy not as a product You know as in like we want to buy your jersey and we want to see you catch touchdowns and do the little ducky You know we want to we want for the first time to consume what you're producing and we want to evaluate you on on the Type of products that you're making out of your farm. And so obviously being in a subtropical area like Miami, Florida,

and appealing to the community of Miami is extremely interesting because you can connect with your community and you can connect with with a consumer market that is there's very interesting in what you have to offer. Damn. This guy, sounds like you're pretty buttoned up already. No, no, no. Sounds like you're about to kill it. This episode is about the launch before the 4th July. You told me before we agreed to do this or whatever, that you're going to Spain for the 4th July. Do you always go overseas for the 4th July? Like is there? Well, unfortunately, or fortunately, or however you want to frame it, I'm still on the NFL schedule. You can July off as a month through relax.

I guess now I can go in August. Yeah, but I've always found to be extremely rewarding to celebrate for the July and Europe, you know, what is that? Rubberton their face. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But I actually American. I do. I do. I do. I've always celebrated for the, I've always seen the celebration of for the July happen in my hometown. I've eroded a station, which is a joint base

within the Spanish Navy and the American Navy and they put in a big show, fireworks, all the things that they've historically done in the United States. And so for me, it's always awesome to not only be in my hometown in the hot months of July and August, which are extremely popular, but also be around the US military,

which is, for me, sort of like my first home. I feel very uncomfortable when I'm in the civilian environment, when I'm inside the confines of a military installation, always feel extremely comfortable at home, always. That's awesome, man. How many places have you lived? So Miami's the 18th city that I lived in. And so I lived in 18 cities for six months or longer throughout my life.

Dude, I admire that. I love traveling. I love playing in different places. I like just getting out of the house. This guy, he could stay in one city for the rest of his life. Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Philly, that's all I got. Right. I'm in the three. Yeah, well, I've got three. I've been in the Midwest my whole life. Right. I mean, I do feel like in the tree. Yeah, well, I've got three. I've been in the Midwest my whole life. Right. I do feel like a lot of military kids will say,

you know, for me it's 24 or 30. You know, they've just been moving around through other, other, entire lives. You know, I grew up in a military environment and then when I became an adult, I served in the military. So I was always constantly moving from one place to the next. It almost seems that I could never stop moving

to a different place. After two years, you almost feel like your body's saying, like, okay, what's next? You know, where am I going next? But I think I settle in South Florida. South Florida has been incredible to me. It's been an amazing place, a lot of culture, a lot of people from different places.

And so hopefully I can, hopefully I can give my kids a little more stability that I did not have growing up. I respect it. All right. We got to get to just thing moving, man. Yeah, as you've already noticed, this isn't an actual interview. We just to get to, um, just thing moving, man. Yeah. As you've already noticed, this isn't an actual interview. We just sit down and we chat and talk it up and, uh, talk about some bold topics, man.

See what you're up to and, uh, Jason, while you start them off through with some of the, some of your time with the Eagles, man. My first love. Yeah. I figured we'd start with your first stop. Well, it wasn't my first stop. My first stop was actually Cincinnati. Yeah.

I got invited to go to the, That was right after college, right? That was actually touring college. Was it during college? Yeah, so the military academy you graduate usually, late May, and rookie minicams happened a little before that. So I don't know how I got invited to go to a rookie minicamp with Cincinnati. German Gresham was the first big.

Carlos Dunlap was the second round big. Genoacans. That was a good draft lesson. It was incredible. We're definitely, and I remember it's kind of crazy because as you both know, and you probably forgot about this, but you rookie mini camp and showing up to the airport and getting picked up by the team staff and get into your locker. It's an incredible and surreal moment.

Take a picture of your locker with your name. Right, right, right. So that was for me in Cincinnati. And I had my locker right next to Carlos Dunlab. And I was able to become acquainted with such an incredible group of men. And that was my first experience. Then after my first deployment, I went to the Chicago Bears.

Yeah. Shama Kellen was the first one pig. Alshan Jeffries was the second round pig. And so for me was like, as a Titan, by the way. Both of these were Titan, right? Both of these were Titan. I played Y receiver in college my last year. So because I play Y,

Tackle is well in college. So I play defensive in tackle and why receiver Tide ends seem to be the best Combination of all three sounds like you could do it all and that's when you're when you can do it all You they just put you at tight end put you tight in right, but then my first actual My first actual opportunity to to make it into an enough roster was with Phil Delphia and I say there was my actual first You know chance because it was longer than a rookie mini camp. And so I was a camp with the Eagles, obviously where I met Jason.

And it was an incredible experience. I mean, I know that for you, you've probably seen so many players go through your entire life. No, I'm sorry, wait a minute. No, no, no, no, no. But for me, I promise you,

because you were that first OTAs, you had just got there. You were 200 and what 60 pounds you first Yeah, it's just like maybe yeah, and They said you're playing D. End you're an armored range you surf three tours in NF gas So way different right from right from there. You were still in the mode of running What was it like six miles every morning? Yeah, so you would be out there and he would be out there in the morning Running laps like around the field,

around the state, like all that. And we're like, what's going like this? Was it a very different condition here? You were just, you're not gonna have to run that many miles playing for that. I mean, I feel like anybody who runs, where I understand is in terms of, there's an addiction to the runners high,

to being able to run and being in that mode, where you just like in a subconscious state. But when I was with Phil Delphi, I was still in the military. So Monday through Thursday, because Chip Kelly did not have OTAs on Fridays. Yeah. Who guys were, and that was Chip Kelly's offense.

What you guys were running like 200 plays a day. For the offense, but the defense, they wanted big 3, 4 D, D, D tackle, no words like. Okay. Space eaters. There you go, baby. Yeah, so Monday through Thursday, I will go to OTAs, and then Thursday I have to practice a 1 p.m.

I will get in my car and I will drive 95 South all the way from Philly to Savannah, Georgia. Yeah. Through the night, I will show up in the morning to formation. I will have a days of work on Friday, and then on Sunday, I would sign out on leave again, just so that my leave time that I have accumulated over the five years that I was in the military would suffice to be able to complete OTAs in training camp and perhaps have a chance to make them into enough holostro.

Man, that's not stupid. But I do think that that's crazy. Chip Kelly, imagine doing that, Jason. No. This is... I've gone through training camp and I've always been terrible. I can't even breathe, let alone function mentally and you're out here working to save.

I guess how did you end up in Philadelphia? Was it Billy Davis, was it Jerry Asanero, was it Chip Kelly? How did you end up in Philly? Okay, so when I got down with my third deployment with the Rangers, I came to a, I came to realization that, I mean, I don't know if this controversial to say, but I knew that we were not going to win or have a clear decisive victory in Afghanistan. Okay. And so at that point, the army was having a, what's called a

Brake movement, so that we're reducing the size of the force. So each brigade in the army, we have nine divisions. So each division was downsizing from four brigades to three brigades. I know this is all going over your head, but what it means is that the army was downsizing. And when you downsize, you're going to have an excess of officers. And so my time in the army, I spend it all, and the infantry try to be as close to the action as possible. And when it was time for me to transition

into my next career phase, I had to wait 18 months to get command because I went to a light infantry unit, I had to go to a heavy infantry unit so I had to go to Fort Hood. I had to be in a tank and that obviously, as you can tell, panicked me a little bit. And I just got married. And so I didn't know if I wanted to give my kids

the same experience that I had of always picking up and leaving, not having an identity, not having a home, not having any of that. And so like most officers that I ever, you know, out of West Point for example, I think like 75% of officers leave after five years. Really? Yeah, so I mean, it's just, it's a pyramid, you know what I mean? The higher you get to the top, the less officers are going to be. So I decided to get out of the military and I wanted to, you know, one of the things that I found out about, you just said I'm going to join the NFL.

No, it's even crazier than that. So one thing that I realize about higher institutions like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, you know, is that you always competing with your classmates, whether you're at the academy, which you have a rank, well, you're at the academy, or after the academy, you're always competing, you always seen like, how was Jason doing, how's Travis doing?

What was your highest rank? My highest rank, so I was, I think it was in the hundreds academically, I was mid of the pack physically, and I was almost dead last militarily, which is the three categories that they would do. They would do it. Now, I was,

what's a militarily mean? Militarily means they grade you on how you did on your assignments as a leader at the academy. So, you know, that you have, during the summers, you're a cadre, leader at the academy. So, you know, you have during the summers you're a cadre, so you instruct the new cadets on how they should behave themselves, how to march, how to salute, how to do all the basic drills.

And then during the academic year, you have a lot of assignments too. They could be like, you could be the company commander for your company, so you're in charge of all the, you know, they divide the core cadets into regiments and into companies. Yeah. And so you're in charge of your classmates, in charge of the daily activities. Yeah. So I did not perform as good as I should have in my activity. Obviously, I was very focused on football. You also could have just got caught with some absolute knuckleheads.

No, I mean, I do think the Army football is an incredible and very fascinating subculture of the academy. Imagine if you were a football player and you have your own values of the locker room and the NFL are very similar to the values in any NFL locker room. Imagine if Cincinnati, you're like, okay, now you're in charge of these cadets

or these students from University of Cincinnati and you have to mentor them and you have to advise them and then you have to be in charge of them. Based on how late he was today I know for a fact that Thomas would be you know second second you know he would be bad not early bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad But I could end this was my was my security. Physicality though. That's the way I that's what I'm a guy. Physicality kind of job right thing. Physicality you got to run you got to run long distance.

I could know I am a I'm a long distance runner. Okay. So I don't run six miles. You played basketball basketball. I feel like all the basketball players couldn't. Yeah.

I was actually lucky that dad made me be a athletic trainer the year that I was ineligible for football because the basketball team was forced to be a on the cross country team if they weren't playing playing a spring sport or at least go to a cross-country practice and I was like, man, good thing dad made me train or travel. I'm in here taping ankles and handing out water. Nice, nice, yeah, yeah. So do you think that the same structure and leadership styles and teaching styles that work in the military are the best ways to

teach players and Take that football. That's an amazing question that I've that I've asked myself many many times because it's been always hilarious to see how NFL teams Utilize the military and use a lot of lingo like who gonna war boys Like you know, then I got a war you you got to get to get to get to get to a little different. This is this is this is this is a hundred percent pseudoscience pseudoscience. My understanding what I always tell people because for me was interested in very impactful, you know, as a European coming to the

United States and walking into a college football team and seeing how people scream during practice. Yeah. And they pitted each other during practice like one on once. You know what I mean? Like, you know that you've been, that one on once is like the, the one on once. And so, when I did a little bit of pseudo research,

I'm running as a DB, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, so much fun. Little guys run around. Yeah, man, it's the best. You can do me. 101 past fuckery. Yeah, with Justin Houston, that's a fun. My fricking year. That's a good time. Yeah, Oh man, it's the best. You should meet one on one pass. On the one on one, back on the four. Justin Houston.

That's the fun. Tom Motley, my fricking year. That's a good time. Yeah, that was a great time. I learned a lot about myself. That was actually my first card against Tom Motley. You played with Jay Houston, man. That guy's a fricking strong as anybody ever.

I'm amazing him in being though. Oh great dude. One of the best. One of my favorite teammates. And I tell you that dude, every single time he went up against me to help me, as he was running past me, that's how you just sack the quarterback again. He's, hey, Gail, she's gonna need a few more cheeseburgers tomorrow.

He's like, damn it. I had 10 yesterday. He's like, oh, you know, what I thought about football is that football was created out of the lack of war between men in between war periods. And so men in order to feel themselves as, you know, worthy or whatever, they came out with this game of football, which includes a lot of the same concepts as the military.

And so football and the military have always been, you know, they've used the same values, they've used some structure. So it's extremely similar. Now, in reality, it's not the same at all. Right. But screaming during a drill, like, why are you screaming during a drill? Because I'm bored. No, but like, that's a adrenaline. Let's go. Inducing stress into the player in order to it's not good Stress is good, right? Yeah, that's right. It's good But that's what they do that's what they do during Basic training. Yeah, so when I felt when I was going through drills and they were screaming like

Oh, go go go go go go that sounds a lot like yeah like like I'm going through basic training And so it was very did you have a problem with that type of leadership and Basic training? I think the military is always ahead of society. When it comes to everything, I think the military is always, because the military truly represents the country and the nation. And so the military years and years ago,

they realized that if you scream at a millennial, the millennial is going to be a good thing to say, what's wrong with you? You know, why are you so angry? Yeah. It's much better if you explain it to me, rather than screaming at me. So the military transition before the NFL did. Yeah. In that aspect. And so when I went through training camp with the Eagles, and they were interesting. Yeah, always always has. I mean, if you look at, in terms of social progress,

the military's always been leading that they're usually ahead of the curve. They use it because they have to recruit people from the American population. And so they have to understand with the American population once and knees and how they operate. And they have to cater their training to them.

Yeah. And so when I went through the NFL, I was like, what, why are you, like Jerry has an hour, like, why are you screaming at me? Buzz is going to touch on him next. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're a defensive end of 260. Like, do you think if we would have started you out as an offensive lineman, you would have tied in? Tie down. Tie down. You would have never heard of Travis Killsie. Let's go, man. Don't be fizzpump, you're gonna be a love game.

You're not gonna be, I'm not gonna be. I wanna flank my way into the mountain. No, that's my excuse because I never got a chance to play. I did score a touch than once, but I never, but I never, but I know that's thank you, like, no, I just can't, be the gritty. I hand the find a way to pay for business school That's my goal and then I got two choices. I can either go to American Idol or I can try the NFL I'm a horrible singer and so I decide because of this this blackout conversation that I have with my teammates in Savannah

Georgia to say dude they got this thing called the regional combine and the regional combine If I don't know if I'm allowed to say there's an obvious. I mean, it was a scam, basically. It was like opening up the ability to play in the NFL. Anybody. What's the scam, though? The scam is the fact that you're not going to go to the play. So you pay $380. Oh, so they make you pay to get in there?

They make you pay. So it's crazy. I was so 90. Make you pay to get in there. They make you pay. So it's crazy. I was so naive. Make you pay. They make you pay to run a 40 and to do the five shuttle drill and to do it. So when I was in Georgia, I was like, yeah, I could play in the NFL.

You know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, and so I paid this, this admission fee and I went to a tryout in flowery branch Atlanta, which is the, the, the, the Falcons facility. Yeah. And I run a 40, 515. It's an offensive line, I'm gonna run. No, no, no, for that in.

And then I ran a couple routes. I think I dropped one out of three. And then I ran the 515, 515, whatever. And then the staff at the regional coma were like, we know we're trying to make a story out of it. Can you can you can you can you can you long snap, you know? Yeah. And I was like, yeah, I can slow it.

Like, whatever you do, yeah, I can do it all. But somehow it worked out and I was able to go to the, are you ready for it? Super regional combine. Woo hoo! Which is another, just that one. I think it was like $800. Yeah.

Yeah. Ha ha ha. And then I paid off in the end, but I had to fly to Detroit. And then I did the same exact workout, which is kind of like a regional, like a combine at the same time. I mean, you talk about like, you have bartenders there that have been watching TV for everyone, like, I can play any, I can, that can score a touchdown. You know, you got P teachers, you got random people just trying out for the NFL.

Yeah. So I was one of those guys. Yeah. And when I tried out for doing a regional comeback. You walked into that room, did you like look around like, oh, I fucking got this. No, no, I've never been. I mean, maybe in the back of my head, I was going through the motions, but I knew that it was a scam.

I knew there was no way that they were going to have a 41-year-old bartender or PE teacher, you know, play safety for the, you know, Arizona Cardinals, you know, is impossible, you know, is extremely competitive. And I had the experience of the minicamps to know that you have to be an incredible athlete. Well, I think I think your resume kind of stood out a little bit more than the bartender. And you know what? That's all they were looking for. They were looking for stories that they could promote in this region. To the first other players.

So yeah, it felt a little bit like, like a cryptocurrency type, you know, like, hey, you know, like, come on in, you know, try out, you could be, you could be the next great. You could be the next Travis Kelsey. I was like, you said $200. Yeah. So I, I, I, I try out for the Super Rouge look combined and it just happens to be a scout for the

Eagles was there. Who, do you remember who it was? Complete forgot. I mean, don't put me in the spot right now. The scamiest of them all. The Eagles were in the But the fact the fact that I was in the military attracted the Eagles and off the shore. They just they search for stories all day to their

It was it really it really was a story, you know, and so they invited me to do a workout during my block leave. So everything matched, you know, I was able to hide everything from my chain of command and then I went to Philadelphia and then we're like, okay, we're gonna do a tidying workout. So I brought my tidying gloves, you know, they did not do a tidying workout at all. I did a I did a all office line workout with Statlan and he was like, you're too light, you know? And I was like, okay, well, you know, that sucks. And then I did, I did a, a D line workout.

And Jerry as an arrow saying, I'll take the motherfucker. Yeah. He was like, I'll, you know, I'll take him out coach him. And Jerry, you, yeah, it was, it was a great moment, I guess, in my, in my intentions, but all I did when I was in the parking lot After doing the workout was Google the starting of defensive lineman for the field Ilfe Eagles and I was like flexor connox. Mm-hmm. It's a pretty deep field. Yeah, very different who it was

It was so Benny was the nose guard still was Benny there was a Benny Logan Fletch Vindy Curry vindy Curry Brandon Graham Logan, Fletch, Vindy Curry, Brandon Graham, Connabarwin. And then on top of that, once I assigned this contract, which felt like, okay, you mean maybe there's a chance here, then they signed two defensive linemen in Taylor Hart, Bob Allen. So at that moment, I knew the for a fact that was not going to make it, but I was able to stay with the team throughout OTA's in training camp.

And for me was, you know, in this huge man. Yeah, for me, I mean, coming to the United States has always been like a movie for me. And being able to be, you know, being in an NFL team and realizing the personalities, the characters, the different places that people are from, it was unbelievable. I think I still remember all the players, you know, that were on the Philadelphia Eagles. And the math is was one of my favorite human beings that I've ever imagined. You know, all the Jason Peters, you know, going against these players was amazing. But I knew in the back of my head that I was not going to make the roster, you know.

And it was very unfortunate because When I accepted and I signed the contract to become a camp body, which is what I was I knew that I was resigning on my military career that I put so much effort into So I was an exo- You signed that your- The moment I signed that they the military initiated a process to separate me for the military And that's when I started driving back and forth from Savannah to Philadelphia. And so it was kind of like unfortunate the fact that I

couldn't say no to the opportunity to play in the NFL. But at the same time, I knew I was not going to make it in the NFL. I knew that we're not going to say, Fletch, you know, a very job here. But, you know, like, we got this new player here from Spain, who is three seconds late off the ball every single time. You definitely were green. You had not played in a long time. You never played that position. I'm trying to figure that out. But you are also one of the first players and probably the only player that I've seen cut. You were cut after the third preseason game or second. Third preseason game. I was the first player to get cut. Yeah, but you told me about this so when you

Got cut you were one of the first players I've ever seen where other players are like what are we doing cutting that guys a big tall Athletic strong dude like he just started playing football Six months ago. Why aren't we giving this guy a longerint and seeing what he can do with like a full off season and they tried to come back and sign a practice squad, I believe, right? But you had already signed a deal with the Steelers, right? I was in the Steelers office about to sign a practice squad deal and then they call me from the Eagles saying like, hey, and I was like, dude, I can't see. You know, I already drove the Pittsburgh, you know what I mean?

But it was literally just like that. I was like, I feel bad telling this man in front of me. I'm not gonna stand with you, I'm gonna go back to Philly, but for me it was an incredibly emotional moment because leaving the military is extremely scary. You know, you know, you no longer have bros around you, which is, you take that for granted, you know, to be able to wake up every morning

and have bros, even the person who sits next to you in the locker room, the person you take that for granted, you know, to be able to wake up every morning and have even the person who sits next to you in the locker room, the person you be breakfast with. I mean, that's, I feel like that's one of the biggest problems with men, you know, today. The fact that they don't have bros around you. And when you're in the NFL and you're with all these personalities, I meet your brother, your brother actually, by the way, was the person that told me that I was going to get cut. I don't remember it like this, but he does. The Eagles told them, Don, the security guys, he's still there. Yeah, Don, yeah. Don, he told them that I was going to get cut.

And for him to tell me that I was going to get cut. And so after the third preseason game, we played the Pittsburgh Steelers. We finished the game and your brother was like, hey, what are you doing today? You know, I'm not doing anything. I'm going to go back to the hotel. I was like, I want to we go out and we went out to a bar. We got an absolutely blitz. In the middle.

In the middle. That's our third pre-season game. Not a lot left for the starter. Right, right, right. In the middle, I love you, man. You're the best. He drops out the dude. They're going to cut you them all.

Tomorrow, I'm just giving you the warning right now. They're going to cut you them all. And I was like, oh man, like, you mean they're gonna keep fletch your cocks like, what are they thinking? And so at that moment, it's just, this is crazy. This is like every man's, every Phil Delphi of person's dream. Kelsey said, do let's go out tonight. And we're both wearing flip flops, and we're both wearing sure the same outfit is wearing out, and we went out in Philly. And I got the chance to go out in Philly

with Jason Kelsey, you know? That's incredible. That's like, that's amazing. Everybody knew he was, we got into everywhere. I mean, for me to realize that Phil Delphi is the city of brotherly love, you know, through Jason Kelsey. I mean, for me to realize that Phil Delphi is the city of brotherly love, you know, through Jason Kelsey. I mean, it's incredible. And so the next day, I went to practice, which is kind of a, it was kind of a dick move to let you finish practice. But I did, I did recognize

and I want to give out sort of props to Chip Kelly in this. Chip Kelly had a philosophy that he was going to cut players a day before the rest of the NFL. In order for those players to hit the portal, one day before the rest, so you would have a chance to maybe catch on to another team. So the next day, I got the finger in the shoulder, go grab your playbook, you know, the hard knocks sort of like, oh wow, this is seems surreal.

And it was like a moment where you're like, oh wow, like this is happening to me. You know what I mean? Like I'm going, I'm meeting with all the coaches. Jerry Azanero told me that I should join the Susquehanna semi pro football team. And then it was hilarious how every other person that I talked to that day.

And this is the only thing that I got away from that day, which is a pretty terrible day, especially for most players who end their dreams that day. And they didn't play football since they were three years old and then you could cut. Every single person that I talked to was like, dude, how you did incredible. You did absolutely everything that we asked you for. Is there anything that we can do for you? This is, we feel terrible.

Is there anything in the world that we can do for you? And I'm like, so I know you're doing things the right way, man. No, man. I'm sure. No, like, you give you a spot in the team. I like you. There's one thing you can do for me. I don't have the back of my head. Yeah.

No, that's, uh, so yeah. So I got cut and then the next day, I mean, it was like the stereotypical, you know, like, to give you Greg, who's the equipment guy, still the equipment guy. Yeah, I'm so mad. Yeah, yeah. So Greg gives you a black plastic bag and you go to your locker and then you pack up all your things and then you walk out and it was like a summer night like this is raining, so you're walking in the rain

to your car and then the media's there taking pictures like first person to get cut. We got a former Ranger, Vellan Wives, so you got a new car and you're like, oh man, this sucks and then I drove to my in-laws house in Maryland and I was like, wow, I'm out of you're like, oh man, this sucks. And then I drove to my in-laws house in Maryland. And I was like, wow, I'm out of the military and I'm out of the NFL. So I guess tomorrow I'm gonna go find a job,

but they don't have internet. So I had to go to the public library to go apply for jobs in the public library. And I'm sitting there filling out on my resume. I don't even know what a resume is. And that's when a couple of days later, that's when the Steelers called me and they were like, hey, we want to bring in for a workout.

And so that was a very huge blessing, I guess, in the whole story. And did they work you out as an offensive lineman right away? No, no, so they start you as. So surprisingly, I got two quarterback hits and three tackles against the Steelers. Oh, baby.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did well. That's what I thought I was like, I thought Brandon Graham like a car. I thought a brand of Graham's gonna cut, you know what I mean? But they they they worked me out as a defensive lineman. Mike Mitchell who's a legendary defensive line coach, you know, I think he did the finish the workout. And he saw that, you know, my potential as a defensive lineman

was was always gonna be capped by the fact that I just cannot get off the snap at the snap. And Mike Munchack, who's a cool, yeah, a man. She's just a phenomenal human being. He worked me out. He did a couple of those like combine tests of like, put your hands behind your back and do a set, squat, set, yeah. Yeah. And so when he saw that, he was like, you know, yeah, he said, I can use him. And then the next day, you know, I came to practice, had a number and a locker and then that was it. I was in practice squad, I was reading cards and, you know,

go out. So were you still at 260 or were? No, no, no, both Lane Johnson and I were just as insecure about our weight and we were just stuffing ourselves every single meal trying to gain as much weight as possible. And so I went into the field of the figure, it was at 265, 260, and then I left the egos at around 300, and by the time my practice squad year

was over, I was at 344. You got really big in Pittsburgh. My issue was that I did not have the experience. And so I remember Chip Kelly made everybody do a heart rate variation, piss test, and weight every single day. Now that's a scam. Maybe, maybe not. I was falling orders.

But I remember one day doing the weight behind Jason Peters. And I saw that he was 340. Yeah. And so I said to myself, Jason Peters was my inspiration. I remember one day we were doing one on one against him. And he said, and he looked at me and he said, I'm gonna put you in the trunk. Then I said, because nobody wanted to go against him

one on one. And I was like, I'll go against him. I'll show him. I give him a move. And he looked at me and he said, I'm gonna put you in the trunk. And I said, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, you know, I looked up to Jason Peters so much. He was so talented. It was meant to play the tackle position.

No matter fact, my stance, my sets, everything was after Jason Peters. Right. And so I thought 340 was the weight that you had to achieve because you could overcome a lot of, you know, technical deficiencies if you're just really big. Come on in as a big man. Right, exactly. So I thought that if I weighed 340, then I would overcome a lot of my deficiencies and technique

that I do not have because I do not play the position for very long. So I always try to gain weight. Even though now looking back, it just makes no sense. There's no need to be that heavy. You're going to obviously get really tired, really quick. But 340 was the way that I had to achieve. So you gained 90 pounds in what, two years?

In a year, yeah, yeah, yeah. So by the time it was, by the time it was, by the time it was, Dude, I wasn't a good guy. I was laughing. Did you feel sloppy? Did you feel? We were talking about earlier when we were at the bar.

It's very difficult to recreate pain. It's very difficult to recreate. And everybody always looks at me and it's like, oh my god, you look amazing. Like, didn't you feel better? Like, I don't know. You can't, I cannot imagine what I was like when I was in 40.

I do remember that to use the toilet, I would have to put my hand in between my legs and like lower myself because my knees hurt so much in the morning. How many times do you break the seat doing that? No, man, man. I broke up. I broke up absolutely everything.

But 340 was, you know, if you, if you six not, I mean, another thing that I must say is not beneficial to be so tall playing tackle. It really isn't, you know, if you, if you six not, I mean, another thing that I must say is not beneficial to be so tall playing tackle. It really isn't, you know, you want to have long arms, but you don't necessarily want to be tall. Exactly. I'm not made to be a tackle. I made to be a tight-in for the Gensady achieves. Multiple super balls. That's what I usually do. I did use it. But I was, you know, I was, I was a little bit too tall. And so for me, I thought that talking about Andrew Woodworth, you know,

I saw the guys on my videos and I saw, you know what, I got, I got a game away, I got a game away. It was an obsession that I had when I was playing. It was always to make sure that I was as big as possible to be able to absorb the number one and only move the 99.99% of as rushers you use, which is. Borish. Borish.

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Yeah. To learn more go to pupperoni.com, that's pu-p-e-r-o-n-i.com. Wolf. So you go to piss for, especially in the AFC North, on this PU P P E R O N I dot com. Wolf. So you go to Pittsburgh, especially in the AFC North, that's a bull version. Is a bull version? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Or a division.

So you go to Pittsburgh, first year practice squad, first year practice squad. Second year, beach and get hurt, right? That's how you initially got in the game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So first year practice squad, I mean, I would have to say that the practice squad year, now looking back was the most amazing year

that I spent in the NFL, because I was, I was, I would get two tickets to the game. The Steelers don't allow the practice squad players on the sidelines. So you'd have to sit in the stands. So I would go sit in the stands, get absolutely house, you know?

And I would sit like next to my brother and be like, I'm Richard Ehrin College. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just throwing that yellow towel up in the hair with everybody. Throw that yellow towel and I remember, let's go team. I remember sitting with my brother going like, oh, I know they played with this as a pass. And you know, they were on the ball.

You know, I've seen this one before. I've seen this one when they go, watch the guy like, they're going to pass. Here comes the reverse. But it was awesome. It was awesome to go to the games in Pittsburgh, to feel the energy, to watch the game from the stage. Yeah, 100%.

It was incredible. To tailgate and to be able to go to the bars before and after and get to experience the city of Pittsburgh, which was the first city that I actually lived in after the military. So that becomes a veteran is a process. And I thought there was no better city that I actually lived in, you know, off to the military. So that turns it, becoming a veteran is a process. And I thought there was no better city than Pittsburgh, because Pittsburgh had the highest concentration

of Vietnam veterans in the nation. Really? And so it was the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the 100 generation. It was either you go to the mills or you go to Vietnam. Yeah. And so Vietnam for any infantry man, especially there was, you know, born in 1988,

was kind of like the reference or the, the most romanticized version of an infantry men, especially that was born in 1988, was kind of like the reference, or the most romanticized version of an infantry man. All the training that you do in the military was always based on Vietnam, doing a patrol base, river crossings, and I was like, I don't know, there's a lot of rivers in Afghanistan, but we'll go ahead and do this. We'll go ahead and do this river crossing.

So it was an amazing year, and then I had a chance to go. I mean, honestly, what I thought made my career, my confidence to be when I play the the tackle position is the fact that, you know, three days into my practice squad days, Jim's Harrison decides to come out of retirement and join the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, so I got a chance to go against Jim's Harrison every single day during practice. And Jim's Harrison is an incredible human being, you know, in his own ways, but he's a phenomenal football player. And he has a lot of, and he's very smart, you know, can stay. Right. And so for me, it was really, it was really interesting to learn how to observe an outside land backer by going against James Harrison. Yeah. That to me was was was was was was incredible, was incredible. If you knew that the slide was coming,

and we're going to look to technical, but if you knew the slide was coming, and the guard has your inside. Exactly. What he would do is he would get, he would start inching to the inside, so you would not set out. Mm-hmm.

You know? He would start getting inside. I think he was going to do an inside move. Yeah, so you would not... Can you stop your feet? Get in, you stop your feet. Yeah. And then he would starting to get inside thinking you're gonna he's gonna do an inside move. Yeah, so you would not you to stop your feet Get in you to stop your feet. Yeah, and then he would try to do the the little rip lean on you No, no, no rip but the arm down clamp it. Yeah, break your arm and then spin around and pivot on to the quarter Those of you that did not watch James Harrison

with any type of technical standpoint he had the most vicious dip and rip move. For about a decade, I mean, he would give so low he would lock this in and he was so strong. Super. Once it was locked in, there was nothing you could do. Scream. Because then he just, he would just lift you off the ground now, you're. Well, he actually wasn't as much of a bull rush here as you would think.

Yeah, he didn't really go down the middle of the guy's very often. He would do it occasionally, but he would sit you up for it. Yeah. And so that's when I started the different rip was his main. That was his main move. That's when like with playing Kansas City, he needs to get a sack, the win the game. He's going to dip in rip and he's going to try to call the flag that came. I know. I know. I know. You're talking exactly.

Yeah. I feel very privileged to go against a player who was also undrafted and also had a very unconventional way to get into the NFL. It's incredible. He will never give you any compliments and everything, but he had his own ways of being able to coach you and and guide you in the right direction. So for me, I spent a whole year in practice going against him. Blocking him. Blocking him.

And so once I felt that I could block him and I will say it, if I'd have faced him in a game, I would have blocked him. That's a bold statement. I've told him to his face. It's not the first time. Is that just because you knew what he was coming with? No, I guess what you had to do was hide your outside shoulder. Just don't let him get that. So don't let him get that client shoulder.

Show him the square in the last minute, turn your shoulder and hide it away from him. Yeah, and he will try to get it. You know, anybody couldn't get it. So you have to blog them like this. But again, obviously I'm just, I'm just talking smack right now. You know what I mean? You would never know what happens. But, but he was a huge part of my development.

And so Pits were had an incredible offensive line. He's penalty, Marcus Gilbert, a little faster David the Castro. They were coach and months. You guys were at the top of the league for a long time. Yes. I hate rankings. You know, don the top of the league for a long time. I hate rankings. You know, don't, don't, don't pFF me right now.

We're not pFF and we're just saying you're one of the better offensive lines in the league. Rest play. That's what I'm right now. That's what I'm saying. That the only reason, but you pFF pays agents. Yeah. Yeah, but this everybody knows that.

It's worth it. Right, right. But what I, but what I think, I think what I'm saying is the offensive line was very established and they were very mature and they had a culture of work that was established through incredible leaders and because of that I was able to identify some of the common themes in the military work hard

and fortunately, my whole goal, obviously we talked about business school, when I was in practice, what all I was doing was applying to business schools. Yeah, get in my G-Mail I had a good my G-Mail done like 37 times to be able to get into Carnegie Mellon, which was you know in Pittsburgh Yeah, and and start my MBA and so during the weekends I was doing my homework, you know when Kelvin Beachham was getting ready Yeah, when killing they can't work one job. You got to work too. You're a two job kind of guy But I never thought I was gonna make it in the NFL, you You know, I never thought for one, even when you stop James Harrison

and practice, you're like, nah. Yeah, I was always like, because here's the reality about the NFL is that you get labeled as an on-drafted guy. Yeah, it's not the same as being a drafted guy. It's hard to, it's hard. You got to do above and beyond to break through. Right, so I'm 26 by the time I saw it. Like for you, if Calvin Beecher never gets hurt,

if you don't get that opportunity, maybe, who knows, right? But not only, Killin Beecher gets hurt, Mike Adams went to high school. Yeah. Also got hurt. So two guys in front of me get hurt. Right.

In order for me to have a chance to play. Yep. You know, I, I know, it was never in my plans to play in the NFL. I just wanted one year salary, which back then was $480,000. All right,80,000. To be able to pay for business school

and then move on with my life. That was my only goal out of the NFL. I didn't want anything out of the NFL other than paying for business school. It just happened that Pittsburgh had an amazing business school right there and there in Carnegie Mellon. And so that's what I cared about. And the weekends when Kevin Beechin

is studying the playbook and doing the tests and all of that, I was doing my homework and I was getting ready for Monday and class. But unfortunately, one day he gets hurt. He gets hurt and playing against the Cardinals and is like one of those like, hey, I'll come on the score.

And that's one of the, oh my God. Oh, this is happening. I gotta go. This is happening. It's like when you get to the top of the room. Was it the child of Jones Air? It was Dwight Freeney and Kalei is Campbell.

Human Hurricane. Yeah, Roughly start a hundred percent you get a nice inside I got the spin I got it now remember it's hilarious because when you go in there, you know, it's coming You're like hey, I'm gonna hide this out. I sure Remember I remember going into the field it was coach Tom and Monchak I remember I remember going into the field. It was coach Tom and Munchack, Todd Haley, go like, he's got an inside spin. You know, I was like, I got it, I got it, I got it. And sure enough, first third down inside spin.

You know, fortunately, like every quarterback, you know, like every office, let me say they balls out. Yeah, right. Balls out, baby. And so that was getting out. Yeah. Yeah. So that was my first start.

Play call. And then and then after that, I started the rest of the season. It was incredible because we made a good play of run. And I thought that year we're going to win the Super Bowl, had it not been for Peyton Manning giving himself up, standing up and converting a third down, which I think later got changed. I think it's the Peyton Manning rule now.

There's a Peyton Manning rule? I think if you give yourself up as a quarterback, you give yourself as a quarterback. Yeah, because I think James Harrison, somebody was about to sack him, or William Gay the James Harrison and somebody was about to sack him or William Gay on a blitz was about to sack him. Yes. But pain in the name gave himself up. Like he went down to the ground. Yeah. So he was the, oh, so he went down. All right. So I don't know. He went down. I said, like, don't please them murder me. Yeah. And so the nickel, um, uh, back her just kind of like ran by him. And then

he stood up. Oh, so they didn't blow it dead. Dead and blow it dead. And it was the fourth quarter. We're about to win the game. So you can't he pick it in it. I don't like did like the fake slide. Fake slide. I don't know. I don't know what's going to be dead yet.

Baden. Oh, man. I don't know. That was the paid man. But that year was like, he heads up play, Peyton. They didn't touch you. But that year was incredible because I,

my first year as a starter, we got to change the play against the markers where I got to change the play against incredible football players. And so, you know, it was a really cool process to be able to go from, you know, I'm trying to play in the NFL so I can pay for business school to like now. I got to hide the fact that I'm going to business school because I don't want anybody to think like, are you really paying as much attention to the football field? Yeah, you know, focus or whatnot?

You don't want to start a podcast or anything. Right. All right. Before we pass up Pittsburgh, you're not focused on what now? You don't want to start a podcast or anything. Right, right, right. All right, before we pass up Pittsburgh, you played for Mike Tomlin for seven years? Seven years, yeah. What was that like? Mike Tomlin is a one of a kind. I think sometimes,

sometimes I get a little pissed off when I see him because I know that he can have a much bigger role in society than being a head coach. You know, he's got incredible leadership skills, incredible charisma. And Mike Tomlin's telling himself short. No, Hanover said he's telling himself short. Hanover said, you know, that's for sure. But I think he sees people for, you know, where they're from.

He's, he was a college, he appreciates and he values when coaches have been to college because not only have they been able to coach a player when they have no one else. If you're a coach in the NFL, you said, I can draft me another center. I mean, Coach Tomlin was somebody who believed in coaching and he believed in being a part of your success story.

And so for me, obviously, I can attest to that. But he's also incredibly interested in geography and where people are from within the United States. And so because of that, I was always extremely fascinating. You know, he could say that guy comes from Georgia, he played in the SEC, he achieved a lot of success, the Trans-Syctioned TNTFL is gonna be ex, you know.

And so that to me was incredibly fascinating. And you know, had an incredible relationship with him, helped me out tremendously. He wants to be part of your dream in the vision that you have for yourself. So for me was an amazing, amazing, amazing time to be able to spend time with somebody as remarkable and as fascinating as possible.

I mean, I've had a few conversations with him and I know everybody speaks the absolute world of a man. So coach Donald and we need you to run for president. And so 100%. Jason, you wanna touch the... Yeah, let's get, so football career obviously is an incredible part of your journey, but the beginning, I guess if you're football career at, was that army, right?

Is that the first time you played football? No, so this is hilarious. I went to the most fascinating high school. I think, I mean, obviously, both of you went to probably successful high school, pro-king, and all that stuff. Come to Cleveland Heights, baby. Yeah, right, right, right. It's pretty fascinating.

Five. That's the best record I had in high school. Yeah, yeah, I think mine was. We had'm a good guy. I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy. I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy. I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy. I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy. I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy. I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, I'm a good guy, Belgium at a high school called Shape. It stands for Supreme Headquarters, L.I. powers Europe. And it was an American high school for all NATO kids. So all the kids that were in my class

were from all the different NATO countries. So I would have a German kid next to my, you know, to sit next to me. Don't ask. It NATO going over and stuff, right? Do you know what NATO? I don't even want to do this. It's got to be an acronym, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it is an acronym. So my high school experience was incredible. And obviously, it's what led to me deciding to come to United States. Discovering football was also when I discovered Europe. So I got a chance to go to the Vatican, watching the Chappelle show for the first time on a portable DVD player.

At the Vatican? They're playing it as a Vatican? No, no, no, I'm seeing like one on the bus. Which episode? Well, all of a game. All of a sudden. I mean, for me, for me was, I was discovered American culture. Yeah.

And then I was discovered in all of Europe. He started to discover American culture through Dave Chappelle. Dave Chappelle, yeah. This is fucking awesome. A hundred percent, it was incredible. It's coming in hot. And so for me was amazing to see Western culture through this high school.

You know, to travel all throughout Europe. I guess football was like a way, a medium for me to get to know American culture. And then obviously when I went to West Point, it was the same way because in West Point, you have a fairly equal representation of the United States within each graduating class. So you go right to West Point. Why'd you go to West Point? Yeah. So it's interesting. So I had a Euro Mullet when I was in high school. The Euro Mullet. Yeah. I've never

ever heard of the term. Is there a difference from the Euro Mullet? Then the... The Euro Mullet is not as... Just have gel on it? No. No. The Euro Mullot is not as just have gel in it. No, no, the Euro-Molot is not as obscene maybe as the American 80s-Molot. It's more like the soccer player Molot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I blast your Molot. I didn't speak English very well. Obviously, my mind was, you know, I was European, you know, like I was I was I was I was center around, you know, European culture and whatnot. And then when we played Naples, so we took a trip, we stayed in a gym, and we were in a gym, and that was the time where people had the portable DVD players. It was a kid, and the football team team captain

who was watching the movie Black Hawk Down, and he was watching the movie, and he was in tears. He was just completely crying watching the movie. And I was like, you know, I've never meet personally, it's been with my family, I cry and you know, I know that I know that maybe for the cause of the different, but I've never had one. For me, crying is like, yeah, like, why, why, why, why you crying? You know, I mean, this guy, man, he said something I'll never forget. You know, I was like, I like, you know, why you crying? You know, watching a movie that happened in 1991 or whatever, some all you happen. And he said, you know, I'm saddened, I was like, you know, why are you crying? You know, watching a movie that happened in 1991 or whatever some all you happen. And he said, you know, I'm sad and upset because I cannot be there to help him.

You know, he's watching a movie and he's suffering because you cannot be there to help him. So then I started realizing, you know, that the sentiment that the people that join the military have, which is very different from the rest of the world in the sense that it's all volunteer force. You know, people volunteer to be in the United States military. And that's a huge concept because a lot of militaries

have aristocracies or families that are into the military and then the kids do in the military. But in America is anybody. Made a tour service or whatever it is. And so my math teacher, who's one of my favorite teachers from Pittsburgh as well, he told me, I was gonna look at the play basketball, to play football in the United States.

And he said, don't go to college to play sports, you know, play sports to go to college. Sure. For me, it was really difficult to understand this concept because most European sports are not played in college. You know, they're played at a club level, but athletes have to give up their education to play sports. Wow. But in the United States, it's paired up. In the United States, I know the NCAA and the NIS is a little bit controversial, and you

can argue that in a thousand different ways. But the fact that they're educating athletes is a huge advantage in life. And so for me, it was an opportunity to be able to go into an amazing school if I was willing to serve. And so I went to both the Naval Academy and the military academy, always wanted to be a Marine. A Marine was my dream.

I always wanted to be the few, the proud of the Marines. To the Naval first. I went to the Naval Academy first. They barely, they were like, yeah, yeah, they knew what road a naval station was because it wrote as a naval station. So they were very familiar with where I was from. And they were like, yeah, you know, to play coach football, you got to be like an athlete, you know, this is not something you just signed up for and whatnot. So they were not

very welcoming, you know, and during my visit. But then I just drove up all the way to West Point and West Point was incredibly welcoming. And I think one of the traits about the armies that in the army, you truly have to know where your soldiers are from. Not only do you have to love them, but you have to know everything about them in order to love them. And so they were extremely interested about where I was from.

They were very interested about my background. I got a chance to spend a night with a player who volunteered to host me for the night. And I know the most college host, you know, sort of events are like crazy in parties, but we just sat in a laptop and we watched videos of the Iraq war, you know. And he was telling me how excited he was to join the army so he can fight alongside his brothers.

And so at that moment, I found a cause. And I said, you know what, he told me about the range of regimen. He told me about the range of culture. He told me about the United States Army. He told me about all the different divisions, the infantry, and whatnot. And of culture, he told me about the United States Army, he told me about all the different divisions, the infantry, whatnot. And at that moment I saw it, I was like, okay, you know what? This is the second time that I see this.

If people are so committed to serving, and they're committed to serving in this type of way, you know, sticking their face in the fan, I don't care if I'm 6'10", you know, I'm gonna do this. And so, now 17 years old, I applied, I got accepted, and then I just took a flight one day, lent him to Newark, winked at the Statue of Liberty on my way in, and I started at West Point.

And so that was sort of my adventure into the Americas, with the same mentality of like, you know, there's not coming back from this. You know, I'm coming here and I'm going to make my future. I don't know anybody in this country. I'm going to try to make the best out of it. And in the infantry, the Rangers, the culture of being able to be in the front lines, the bit of spear was always something that was very much in the forefront of my thoughts.

And it was a different time as well. I have to recognize, you know, back between the ages 2006, 2010, when I was at the academy, between all the alpha males at Westbourne, there was a race to get the combat. It wasn't that people were shining away from combat. People were trying to get the combat before the war was over. And so thankfully I had a good enough class rank to select the unit of my choice. So I was drafted, you know, to the division that I wanted, which is 10th Mount Division. Why'd you want to go there? Because I got a tip hours before I selected that unit that they were going to get reassigned from Iraq into Afghanistan and they were going to go to Zariah

District in Kenna Har, which is the most kinetic place in the war. And so I said, I got to be in 10th Mountain Division. 10th Mountain Division is one of the units that deploys the most. Also one of the units in Blackhawk down. Yeah. And so, you know, I said, I'm 10th Mountain Vision it is. I've stayed in New York, not an ideal place for most, you know, cadets. Usually they want to go to Italy, they want to go to places that are a little fun. But I wanted to go to 10th Mountain Vision because I knew they were deployed.

So I graduated in May. I took a couple weeks of leave, shortened my leave in order to accomplish all my training as fast as possible because I knew that they were deployed in March. And to accomplish all my training as fast as possible because I knew that they were deploying in March and I completed all my training uh infantry basic office of leadership course, Ranger leadership course, airborne school, and then I showed up to my unit and I deployed a week later. I mean, that's awesome.

It's crazy, right? That's awesome. But it's not, it's not that crazy when you're taking account that everybody was trying to do that. I was just able to be new buddy in your shirt. Oh everybody in the inner circle of West one Yeah, 2010 which is what you're graduating. Yeah, they were all trying to go you said that That was one of the most kinetic areas What do you mean? But like what made that area like yeah, so it's such a center point

Yeah, so Afghanistan is an interesting country. Called the graveyard, the graveyard of empires. It's been a country that has been trying to, you know, many empires have tried to conquer Afghanistan throughout throughout the ages. It sits in the middle between Asia and Europe and one of these, you know, these, quote unquote, trade routes, you know, between the two. So it's always been a very natural area of interest for all empires to control sort of the center of the chest table. Sure. You know, and Ken Dahar is one of the oldest cities in Western culture. It was founded officially, I guess, by Alexander the Great.

Alexander the Great named it after him like many other cities throughout, you know, his territory. So Ken Dahar actually comes from East Kandar, you know, which is how you pronounce Alexander in their language and from East Kandar, you develop Kenahar. And so Kenahar is actually the de facto capital of Afghanistan in the sense that it does have the most influence in the culture of Afghanistan. So Afghanistan is a country that has divided into many different tribes, many different, you know, areas, ethnic groups. The Pashtuns are the ethnic group that was generating the most amount of insurgents. They were protecting the terrorists that we were going after. In Kenahar was sort of the de facto capital. So Mula Omar, who's the founder of the Taliban, was from the village that I was in from Zariah district. And so because of that, obviously, was a tremendous

stronghold for the Taliban that they had to, they had to hold, they had to maintain a lot of variables influence this, the fact that they're very close to Pakistan. So just like in Vietnam, you know, being able to go into summer, conduct attacks on US forces, and then retreat back to Pakistan with our safe, made Kenahar, and all the provinces that were on the border with Pakistan, the most kinetic areas, meaning there was the most amount of incidents where you have attacks on ISAF forces.

And you were there for how many months? First of all, it was 12 months, and then I deployed to the point the RCE So the the way that the United States divided Afghanistan was until regional commands. So you have a regional command self I'm looking to travel his face right now I'm not much different than I'm So they so they so the way you know when the United States you're doing better than me. So when the United States invaded Afghanistan,

they could start conducting operations. They divided the country into regional commands. So regional command south, and I think involve Zabu, Candahar, Helm and Province, maybe Harat, I'm not sure about Harat. RCEs was all the provinces that were on the Eastern border, Kona, Pactika, Khoz, Gazni, Wardag, RC North. So you have different areas of the country

that you could be assigned to. Sure. So think of it as a chess board. We remember the middle of chess board, the East South, just think of it like that. Right, right, right. So my first deployment was to RC South, and that's the desert.

So the desert is, I could be a weatherman for Afghanistan right now. It's gonna be 110 degrees every single day in sunny, you know, and it's, and it's, and it's, there's not a thing that's fun. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's a desert, but it is incredibly interesting, you know, first. You have to get to where tank tops of it's to not. You're wearing your sweat as much as you can. Yeah. You start actually questioning whether, now, I remember, again, pseudoscience, and I may remember against pseudoscience, you know, like, the whole thing about like drinking water, you know, I always thought that,

the whole thing about drinking water was all promoted by bottle water companies and gatories, why not? You just think you didn't need to drink water. If you drink a lot of water, you're gonna be sweating a lot. You're gonna be losing a lot of water and you're gonna be incredibly uncomfortable, you know, the Afghans are not drinking water,

you know, like, like, like, like, pound and water. So you're saying that we don't need a drink water? I did not drink as much water, either when I was in the NFL playing or when I was in Afghanistan because I did not want to sweat consistently. Now, I got it, whatever. Yeah, go out to Afghanistan, put on 70 pounds of gear,

long-sleeved boots, and start doing patrols up and down for 14 hours. Tom Brady said that sunburn is a direct result of dehydration. I don't get sunburn. I don't know about you guys, I don't get sunburn. But you have a different complexion. Right, right, right.

So I will get torched. But Bacana Har was an incredible city, not only because of the history that I just mentioned, it's one of the oldest settlements of a human civilization, but because they grew grapes, and talk about the farming thing. They grow grapes without water. The water comes from the mountains.

Do you understand how it grapes? Yeah, yeah, I kind of like the Napa Valley very, very similar. You have mountains out in the east and all the water melts. The grapes are better when there's no rain. You're about to teach in your own house, huh? You heard the fruit farmer too? Grow up, Jason. I'm going to, two in one.

But no, but it was an agricultural community. They grew pomegranates, they grew grapes on the legal side. And on the legal side, they grew a lot of marijuana and they grew a lot of opiates. So I remember you showed me a picture of a marijuana plant taller than you. Yeah, yeah. I took way too many marijuana pictures when I was over there. Yeah. I mean, it was a pretty taller than you. Yeah, yeah. I took way too many marijuana pictures when I was over there. Yeah. I mean, it was a pretty impressive marijuana plant.

Yeah, yeah. Like it's like when you take the pumpkin to the state fair. Yeah, yeah. This is a marijuana plant. You take the state fair. Yeah, but it was a big one. I'm not gonna lie again, I got a lot of street credit for my life when I was showing videos and you're walking

through fields that are miles and miles long of nothing but marijuana plants. And to get hash out of that, it supplies all the European markets. But Ken Ahar was a very fascinating city. I mean, the first thing you notice is, it kind of looks like the Bible. It looks chill. I mean, how is it made out of mud? People live very rustic sort of lives,

except for cell phones and motorcycles. You would think that you're in Abraham's time. Yeah. So you ended up that you're in, you know, Abraham's time. Yeah. So you ended up doing three tours in Afghanistan. In what ways did that like transform you into like who you are today, I guess? Every infantryman, every person that goes into Afghanistan, especially for the first time, they have this romanticized idea of what is like to be a soldier. You know, you do have this idea of all the movies that you've watched that you're going

to make a huge difference that you're going to be... Rambo. You're gonna, and better not even Rambo, but you're gonna be doing something for your country that is going to, or have a direct relationship with the safety of those that are back home. Right. And then when you get to Afghanistan,

you realize that there's a lot more complex. And nothing is what it seems, you know. I mean, just to give you a perspective, right now, we're having a relationship with the Taliban, you know. I mean, just to give you a perspective, right now, we're having a relationship with the Taliban. You know, we supply them and we try to help them. And you don't know who's a good guy. You don't know who's a bad guy. The people from Afghanistan always had the backs of the Taliban.

The Taliban is their sons and daughters, well, not daughters, but their sons, you know. And it was very frustrating to be able to go to a country where your mission was to protect the people from his art district and everything that you do. And then go to a country where your mission was to protect the people from his already district and everything that you do And then get to a country where you're not being welcome or they're not cooperating with the information where you feel like Hold on a minute so you guys don't want us to be here, you know, liberating you guys from the Taliban My first deployment was very frustrating in that sense, you know

We were what's called a battle space owner. So we had a We had an area of operations. In my case, it was it was it was Sanjury village. We had a cop that was around highway one and we conducted operations, you know, daily out of the cop. And you know, at first, you're just trying to be like, hey, you know, we're going to deny the Taliban freedom of movement. We know there's a lot of Taliban going around here. We're going to get getting kicked out of here, you know. But then you realize that the people from the city of Sanjury are, you know, you know, hosting these people on their help on and giving information.

And so then you start questioning, okay, so, so, so, so what are we doing here? And then you, you stand up the Afghan national police and the Afghan national army and you realize that their motivations are, are not aligned with what you're trying to do. You hear from politicians that you're not there to nation build. You know, that was one of the biggest things that they always, you know, said, you're not here to the nation build, but we to nation build. You know, that was one of the biggest things that they always, you know, said, you're not here to the nation build, but we were nation building, you know. So you're not trained to nation build,

you know, you're trained to conduct fire drills and you conduct a, you're trained to do, you know, maneuver on the enemy or whatnot, and that's not at all what we were doing. And so that, that, that, that then kills a little bit of your romantic dream, you know, of the things that you were gonna be doing. Then again, you start understanding a little bit

of more like how the United States operates. So you understand that very quickly, that almost the majority of people that you see in Afghanistan are military contractors. They're not people in uniform, you know, with a US flag. The military contractors that are contracted because it's cheaper for the United States government to contract somebody than to give them benefits for life.

Wow. And so when you start seeing that, then you start questioning, you know, what, what, what, what of the effort, you know, we all align on a clear objective. And when you start seeing the amount of money that is being generated and the amount of money that is being made, you know, by, by defense contractors, then you start questioning whether everybody's on the same page, you know, and a lot of people, maybe are not, you know, as, as interested in, and finishing the war or having a clear strategy. And I think that was one of the biggest themes is that you didn't think that there was a clear strategy to come up with a decisive win.

Yeah, and football, whoever's got the most points wins. But the biggest question in Afghanistan was, what does winning look like? You know, what does winning in Afghanistan was, what does winning look like? What does winning in Afghanistan look like? What is going to look like in the end? And I thought, after I served one of the training camps, the castor and I used to watch documentaries are in training camp, and we watched the Vietnam documentary by Ken Burns, which is one of the greatest documentaries

that I've ever seen. And you watched that there was a lot of the same themes between Vietnam War and Afghanistan. And how in the end, the relationship that we have with Vietnam over the years was able to sort of, even after the war, you were able to establish a good relationship with the country of Vietnam. And so, even though it didn't look like a win for the American people, in the end, it was very positive.

So maybe as a veteran, I'm waiting for that end result, that we will have a good relationship with Afghanistan in the future. However, it looks that I will be able to go back with my boys, you know, when I'm older and I'm able to go hike the mountains of Afghanistan. That would be incredible. But, you know, especially in the last few years when the war ended, when you saw those images of people claiming that climbing out to the plains, it was not an easy pill to swallow, you know, the fact that you've done all this, that you have, you were completely, you know, devouted to this cause. And it did not end up panning out like you thought it would when you were 21 years old.

So, you know, a lot of interesting concepts about how the military, the US military operates. And I was crazy because I was born out of that sort of cause. You know, the United States sells weapons and aircraft to tornado countries. And then those sells weapons and aircraft to the NATO countries. And then those pilots have to come to the United States to train. And that's how it was born. So it is kind of like a full circle sort of,

situation scenario, but very unfortunate. I feel extremely passionate about all the soldiers who lost their lives in the war in Afghanistan. I also feel extremely passionate about all the soldiers who lost their lives in the war in Afghanistan. I also feel extremely passionate about the loss of life and the loss of a way of life that we cause and we inflicted and the people from Afghanistan. So ultimately, I think Americans have extremely romantic ideals, but the reality is a lot more complicated than those, you know, you know, blackhawk down, saving private Ryan's type of, you know, moments that motivates you to do something good. Yeah, I appreciate your sharing.

Jesus, man, that's all right. Well, let's bring this down a little bit. You became a ranger. How does one become a ranger? So there's actually two sort of versions of a ranger. So the rangers were an all-volunteer force during World War II. They were created. I mean, I'm not a history major, but I think they were, and I have to know this at one point, but they were, you're a West Point major. I don't know that's where we should. So there were styles in Ireland.

So before, if you watch the movie Seven Private Ryan, those are arrangers. They were all volunteer soldiers who became part of a unit that was tasked to do a different type of mission sets. And so the arrangers have an incredible history and incredible reputation, quiet professionals, they're not about making movies and being on podcasts, you know, with them. Which one, you're not gonna name names though? Of who?

Of the, what regiment is about making movies? He's not about a regiment? No, no, no, but you know, all jokes aside, all units in the military, incredibly different, and unique in their own ways. But the, the, the ranges are very specific and interesting unit because they both serve, especially as an officer, in the convention army

and then they also serve in the range of regiment. So they go back and forth. And the, and the charter of the, of the, of the Rangers is to be able to bring the values, the techniques and the tactics from the Ranger Regiment into the big army. So the Ranger, the Ranger Regiment, you know, Ranger culture created a Ranger School, which is a, you know, if you go straight through the three month course, leadership course where they put you into a lot of different stress situation, they teach you how to patrol, and they evaluate you in that and it gives you the

Ranger tab. And then if you want to join a Ranger unit and you have to go through RASP which is Ranger Assessment and Selection process, it takes place in Fortbending, Georgia and then you become a member of a Ranger of a Ranger unit. You know, so we currently have three regiments and a support training battalion, first range battalion out of Savannah, Georgia, Hunter, Mayor Field, second range battalion out of Fort Lewis, Washington, and the third-rich battalion in Fort Benning, Georgia. And so for me, you know, they're not a big unit, but during the years of the war, they rotated every four months.

So every four, you know, four months, you deployed, eight months, you're home, four months, you deployed. And so for me, it was the fastest way to get back to being a leader in combat. And so that's why I wanted to go join the Rangers. And was it a fort Benning where you get hunted for like, what a week or something like that, where they have to, you have to try and knock it caught. No, that's in a, that's in full rocker. That's, yeah, yeah, that's the, that's the training

that they do do especially for pilots and for people that are in situations where you have to resist torture. Yeah. Did you have to do that? No, no, no, I did not do that. I did Ranger School, Airborne School. 6-10 trying to hide, man. Yeah, good luck.

Okay, it can happen. Yeah, all right. Well, let's get to the, you don't have to answer, but we got to ask. Go ahead. I'm going to answer all of them. Here we go. Alejandro, this is the segment where we actually ask your questions that you don't have to answer.

First one, did you really teach Juju Smith Schuster how to drive? I did not teach Juju Smith Schuster how to drive. He's an excellent video game player, but I did teach him and I did help him get his driver's license because he was still in the L.A. mentality that he can uber everywhere. Whatever the reality, he had to go through the process of being able to get a driver's license. That's crazy. I didn't know that. Did you get the Steelers to use the quote, dilly, dilly from the Bud Light commercials? I did. You did? How'd that come about? So as you both know, because you guys are both offensive players cadence is like an office

Attackles best friend yeah, but if you haven't an experienced officer line if you hear Monday January Alpha, yeah, right. Yeah, it's gonna be a one and so we're trying to get out to the D-Liamen Yeah, if you're on office if you have deep as a limony here Monday Monday Monday You know and you have a a player from San Diego State who's a rookie coming in from the practice squad. It's all one. You know what I mean? Sorry I ruined the NFL season before the year. We'll be able to change our one count now.

But yeah, no, so the commercial was going on. It was hilarious and Ben liked the whole daily, daily thing. So we used it. And I think I guess we can admire it because they're taping all the, it was the Thursday night game I think. And then we used the field daily. And we actually did, we did Philly Philly for the Philly special play. Oh cool tight. Was it an illegal play? I mean they didn't call it so okay cool. Who complains more troops are football players offensive lineman complain It's the only way we can get through life. It's it's a miserable position. A hundred percent is not

Absolutely. It's the only way we can get through life. It's a miserable position. A hundred percent. There's no upsides. You know, there's zero upsides. The upside is you do your job. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The upside is you get crushed and put in.

The only thing I'm going to show you when you're going to touch down, I'm going to show you when you give a penalty, when you make a mistake, you know, so you know, you know, to, you know, utilize defense mechanisms, you're going to complain to my life. It's a life of misery. A hundred percent. So I only know, you know, offensive lineman and so on so on the best way to bond is through shared misery a hundred percent Assault just complain a lot too, so I don't know Maybe I want to answer that one because they both complain a lot and I'm a I'm a I'm a broof

I'm a PhD complaint which complaints are more warranted soldiers are off its line. I sold you for sure Going back to the conversation that we had earlier I did feel one of the things about the war that I felt the most guilty about was standing in front of my men when they would ask questions like, sir, what are we doing here? And I have to give them like a political speech. Sure. You know, I saw all the things that we were doing.

Empty promises and whatnot. And so I think their complaints are more warranted and they had carried a little more weight for sure. Makes sense. This is a huge controversy in the world, but mostly on this show, how many holes does a straw have? Two. Oh my God, this is fucking.

Did you just count the ends or did you actually think about it? I mean, I counted what's the definition of a hole and how many of that, you know, I thought with you, listen, you're, or the same kid. You're supposed to be really quick questions, so we'll keep moving. Do you believe, do you believe that you don't need to use body wash when taking a shower? Dude, I'm the worst person to, I'm an organic farmer, you know? So, I, uh, I don't use, I, you know, you just told me you don't use deodorant.

I don't use deodorant, I'm brushing my teeth, I don't do anything. You don't brush your teeth. The whole brushing your teeth. You don't even drink water. Is that it? This is the best. So you don't need water and you don't need to brush your teeth. Why is it that you're not at a dentist, Ricka Man?

Like, what's up? What's up with all of the teeth? I'm a big one time, because it doesn't make sense to brush it in the morning. I haven't eaten anything all night. I get brushing it, not dude. I have zero cavities, zero everything. I don't go to the dentist. I mean, you know, it was the worst.

You got good genetics, Alejandro. Well, maybe that's what it is, but I did feel when you come to the United States that everything is consumerism and trying to sell you something. No, 100%. In brushing your teeth, using the odorant and all that stuff, it's just bottle water.

I think it's just things that are trying to sell you and then create a marketing campaign behind it to say like, you got to brush these three times a day, you know. Speaking of that, if you guys are looking for extra energy, you guys need to check out accelerator. That's natural way to take in energy and caffeine. Thermal genics, plant-based thermo genics. Yeah, I do want to ask one more.

What is a harder transition, leaving the military or leaving the NFL? So I feel like most people decide to become a soldier right before high school. Yeah, when they look at their choices, very, very few service members always knew that they wanna become a soldier. I'm obviously inculcating that into my son.

He will become an urban ranger, he has no choice. But people decide to become a football player from a very early age, And I've noticed that. I've noticed that their identity becomes a football player. So I've seen pictures of you, both of you, in your little pads, like, ah, you know what I mean? The Kelsey brothers. Ah, look at this. Talk about the Kelsey brothers one more time facing each other in the Super Bowl. Ah, you know, most players. So you were sick of it, you got it. Exactly. By the way, I've been to both your Super Bowl wins. So you're coming next year to Vegas, baby?

I don't know. I'm not superstition. There's just a little stitches. I'm putting it on you. If I'm not there, I don't know if you're going to win. No, no, no. But go, you got to take it now, so. But I have felt that, you know, most of the playing the NFL,

they started playing in P.W. Football. Their identity was obviously when they were two college. They were not there for the academics. Yeah. And they were just there to play college football. And Kelsey, how's the Jason Wentz for academics for sure? To college. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't think that's exactly right. So maybe for you, it's an easy transition. But for a lot of players, they just like football is their only way in life. And so because of that, most players in the in the army do five years and then they get out, but in the NFL, man, you know, the journey to get to the NFL is extremely long. And when there's no longer football, it does become a very difficult transition into your identity. You know, people don't call you as much.

When you don't play because they don't want to need tickets. You know, when they need tickets, they call you the whole time, Hey, Travis, how are you? You know, yeah, kind of get three tickets for the Kansas City Chargers game. Yeah, come on. It's a lot different when you transition out of the NFL in the sense that you definitely lose your quote-unquote fans. But both of them are very similar in the sense that it is

you take it where you're uniform. Maybe it's the Kansas City uniform, maybe it's the Camo uniform, but it's a completely different life, and they're both very similar in the way that not only they resemble each other, you know, with how you practice and the things that we talked about, but also, you know, the change of identity. Now you gotta become like, pick it, you know, a fruit farmer, I got a fruit farmer, there you go.

You gotta find your fruit farmer boys, man. You gotta get your bros in there. I got no bros in there. All vegans, you know, they don't like the bro, the bro lifestyle, you know. You don't have to get some life in there. Tugging beers and you stake. They're in on the No Deodorant though.

100%. 100%. Last thing before we wrap up, Alejandro, we want you to be a part of our favorite segments. No dumb questions because there's no dumb questions, just dumb people. No dumb questions is brought to you by our friends at Accelerator.

It's right there. Triv has some from Eva on Twitter. What is your amount rush more of summer activities like at a barbecue? So I think what she's going for is things that you would do at a barbecue. Not like go to the beach or something like that. At a barbecue, so I'm not a summer barbecue

that's a very American concept. So I'm making barbecue in Spain. No, no, there's not as much barbecue. You shrimp on the barbecue? No, the barbecue. Barbecue, the barbecue barbecue The the concept of the 4th of July taking a week and off to go back to work in your summer job I mean Europeans take June July August off. Do you just told me how excited you were to celebrate 4th July over in Spain? Yeah, I was obviously out. I have a barbecue over. Okay barbecue. So I liked

barbecue so Cornhole corn yep. Okay. Spikeball. Spikeball. I will put Spikeball above anything else. Okay. Really? I will put Spikeball above it.

I'm a huge Spikeball guy. What's the strategy? Spikeball. Because I can't really understand it. This is a surf. You've never played. Other than getting the ball to the net, I don't, is a surf. Everything's a, it's a lot of movement for a big fellow.

No, no, no, no. I play Spikeball on a man I was big. Yeah, you can, Spikeball is the funnest game in the world. Behind Ping pong, maybe. no. I play a spike ball and I was big. Really? Yeah, you can, it's spike was the funniest game in the world behind ping pong, maybe. How would have thought you were so in on spike? Ping was the best. Ping was the best. I like pickleball more than ping pong.

A more of a table tennis guy. It was a ping pong. Oh, okay. Right. He is. I would say, I thought it was never mind. I like to be the barbecue first of all.

Do you like to be the barbecue or? I. Do you like to be the barbecue-er? I like to wear sandals. Do you wear like a apron? No. Sure it was. Tongues? Spatula. Spatula.

Yeah. Burgers. So I like to be the guy in the grill. Do you like barbecue sauce? No. Can't, so what do you put on your meats? Catch up. Is that barbecue sauce? No, I mean, well, Kansas City based barbecue sauce is based in the city. I know. Can't, so what do you put on your meats? Ketchup. Is that barbecue sauce?

No, I mean, well, Kansas City based barbecue sauce is based in City. Now I got that, I can't say city. Yeah. Ah. Burger is cheese, burger, ketchup, buns. But if you're making, do you ever make ribs? Are we talking about like,

that's not, I'm thinking about like a easy, simple barbecue. I'm talking about like burgers. Do you want to talk about smoking something? You want to talk about like, like smoking a pig? And now, okay, yeah, I'm going to pick it for sure. That's all, yeah, yeah talk about like smoking a pig and now? Okay, I swung a pig after sure, that's all. Yeah, yeah. So Mount Rushmore is pickle ball. No, no, no, no, no. Can we push shotgun and beer? I mean, I'll put that on my my my my. I wish I put shotgun beers. All right. Is it before spike ball or spike ball beating shotgun

and beers? Oh, these are not dumb questions. These are incredibly complicated questions. Yeah. I have to win a spike ball. I have to be the king. I have to be trying to spike ball thing. 100% spike ball. I think I played it. We used to play in the locker room. Who used to play in the locker room. My teammate was Chase Claypool. He was my, he was my, my teammate. A good teammate. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Covert athletic range. And we used to play doing COVID year, which is the funnest year NFL history. You know, we used to play.

Spikeball for hours before practice. Hours. What's the strategy to surf? To surf. I thought the surf had to be nice and easy. No, no, obviously that's number one. But if you make the surf too easy, the other team is going to score right away.

So you have to make the surf as complicated. You have to play game theory. You have to threaten to make a really hard surf. And then do it like a little, little, little. Yeah. So then they're like really far away they can make it. The serve is 90% of spike ball. In psychology, you have to intimidate your teammates, your opposing team.

High-companied and spike ball. Do personal stuff. Aggressive spike. Oh wow, some trash talking. Yeah, personal, you go personal. What's the best way to get in somebody said trash talking? Talk about girlfriends, wives, kids, all the above. Whatever makes him insecure.

You keep trying until you find him. No. All righty. Well, dude, you're the best. No, you're the best. Dude, the most interesting man in the world. There's no such thing. I appreciate you.

Now there is, and you're him. It's insane. I've never sat down with you and not been thoroughly enthralled in whatever you're saying. Enthralled. That's just because I'm a great bullshitter. We speak four other languages. Yeah, every person is interesting. Equally is interesting.

I don't know about equally. Don't PFF me, right? I like. Dude. If your PFF rating on level of interest is 99. No, don't PFF me, but it's higher than Aaron Donald. No way. Bro, how much is Aaron Donald's agent name? We're sorry.

All righty, that about wraps up this episode of New Heights. Thank you to Alejandro Villano-Wave, for sitting in with us this week. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube to the New Heights channel so you know when all the new episodes are coming out. Listen, subscribe, wherever you reach your podcasts. And remember, next week, we will be releasing our special Ocean Drive episode, which will feature the New Heights beer bowl.

Once again, New Heights is presented by waste force entertainment and brought to you by our friends at Fireball. Fireball. Delicious cinnamon. Do they drink, do they drink fireball in Spain? No. It's America's number one shot. Yeah. Well, liquor is, I feel like real American. Do they drink, do they drink fireball in Spain? No. It's America's number one shot. That's right.

Well, liquor is I feel like real American. Follow the show on all social media. Follow the show on all social media platforms. At new high show with 1S for fun clips throughout the week and thanks to our production and crew. You guys are always making this look good. And thank you to all the 92%ers for tuning in, baby. Enjoy your weekend, guys.

Peace.