New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce - Michael Strahan on Championship Sunday, Super Bowl Predictions, Sack Records and Life After the NFL | EP 177
Episode Date: January 28, 202692%ers, welcome to another episode of New Heights brought to you by Intuit TurboTax. Today we are joined by Hall of Famer Michael Strahan! First, Jason and Travis debate the perfect slee...ping setup, and we have a way for you to win some of our incredible new merchandise. Later, we are joined by Michael Strahan to recap everything from Championship Sunday. Do we believe in the Patriots, can Sam Darnold finish the job, and what is the most exciting matchup headed into Super Bowl LX? We also get some incredible Spags stories, his thoughts on the broken sack records, candid stories from the Giants' 2007 Super Bowl run, why he loved transitioning to media, his retirement advice, hysterical stories from his battles in the trenches with Jon Runyan, and so much more!Full T&Cs for our Pro Standard Giveaway: https://teamprostandard.com/pages/pro-giveawayCheck out all of our brand new merch at https://amzlink.to/az0JVda6JMjOrWatch and listen to new episodes of New Heights every Wednesday during the NFL season and follow us on Social Media for all the best moments from the show: https://lnk.to/newheightshowYou can also listen to new episodes ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. ...Download the full podcast here:Wondery: https://wondery.app.link/s9hHTgtXpMbApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-heights/id1643745036Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1y3SUbFMUSESC1N43tBleK?si=LsuQ4a5MRN6wGMcfVcuynwSend something to the New Heights Mailbox. Don’t be weird though. C/O New Heights Productions135 E OLIVE AVE, BURBANK, CA 91502Support the show: XFINITY: Cheer on Team USA and keep the same internet price through the next Olympic Winter Games with the Xfinity 5 Year Price Guarantee. One price. 5 years. Guaranteed. Visit https://Xfinity.com/teamusa to learn more. Restrictions apply. Select plans only.INTUIT TURBOTAX: File your taxes with TurboTax in the Credit Karma app. Learn more at https://turbotax.intuit.com/lp/ck2ttcampaign/1625/?cid=bn_wk_12ABODE ACROBAT: Adobe Acrobat transforms your documents into shareable, AI-Powered PDF Spaces with access to easy content creation and trusted PDF tools that help you take any project from idea to done. Do that with Acrobat.ALLSTATE: Check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds: https://allstate.com/CLAUDE: The AI for problem-solvers. Visit https://claude.ai/newheights to learn more.LIQUID IV: Tear. Pour. Live More. Go to https://www.liquid-iv.com/ and get 20% off your first order with code NEWHEIGHTS at checkout.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
That's going to be a fun matchup right there.
Yeah.
Through young, up and coming,
get both of them at the top of their game right now.
I'm excited for that matchup.
You know what's so funny, man,
we're watching a game,
and J.S.N. gets to catch the touchdown.
Howie's like, Michael, it doesn't look like he's working.
And I'm like, how in the world,
if you got to cover anybody?
That's the dude.
How does he get open?
And you know what, Howie said to me?
He goes, that's the same thing we said about Kelsey.
Welcome back to New Heights, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, a Wondry show brought to you by Xfinity.
They got that best deal ever, five-year thing.
We're going to talk about it later.
We're your host.
I'm Travis Kelsey.
My big brother, Jason Kelsey, rocking the same hoodies from the old New Heights Clubhouse out of the University of Cincinnati, Cleveland Heights, alum.
Shout out to Cleveland Heights.
Well, Cincinnati alum and Cleveland Heights alum.
Subscribe on YouTube, Wondry Plus wherever you get your podcast.
and follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with 1S.
mentioned the Kelsey Clubhouse.
That's dot com if you want to check out anything, Kelsey, anything new hides.
Jason, why don't you tell everyone that's listening what we have coming up?
92% is we got a great episode as we do every week.
That's right.
We're going to touch a little bit of that championship Sunday as well as look ahead of Super Bowl 60.
Hey, I'm Super Bowl 60.
Yeah, you know what else I like?
Tell me.
Michael Strayhan is here.
Straight.
That's right.
The one and only.
We're going to talk his career, giant Super Bowl run, and so much more.
Oh, yeah.
Before we get any of that, we're going to start with some of that new news.
New news.
New news is brought to you by sleep number.
How about it?
Such a comfy sleep.
Every single time.
Jason, do you know your sleep number?
It changes, I think right now it's a 55.
Oh, you are a soft sleeper.
What are you?
You firm?
Yeah, I'm a little firmer.
I'm around the 70s.
I like a good 70.
I fluctuate between 55, 65, 65.
Nice.
All right, Trav, you're officially a mattress man.
Yeah, baby.
I am the mattress man.
I'm selling mattresses worldwide, baby.
And there's a song that sounds like mattress man.
What is it?
Minute man.
Minute man.
No, no.
I'm thinking of like, I'm the mattress man, the mattress man.
There's something, there's some type of song that I'm thinking of that's got that kind
melody and rhythm to it.
It does.
I don't know why I can't think of it either.
Muffin Man.
The Muffin Man.
That's it.
The mattress man, the mattress man.
How's the rest of the song go?
I don't remember this one.
Free of charge, sleep number.
You can have that.
You can have that free of charge.
I'm not thinking of mattress, man.
There's another one that's like...
No, you're definitely...
The one I'm definitely based off a Muffin Man, but it's not the exact same thing.
You just did Muffin Man, though.
It's not.
It's slightly different.
I got to think of it.
I got to think of it.
I'm pumped, man.
I've been a huge sleep number fan for a long, long time.
They actually have teamed up with the NFL for the majority of my career.
Yeah, I feel like.
And since 2019, and I've been a huge fan of all their products.
I've been big fan of all the sleep number products that I've received.
I've actually handed some over to my dad and spread the wealth a little bit.
And I just think it's an amazing product.
It's an amazing team.
I believe in the vision that they have going forward.
and I'm excited.
I'm excited to be a partner as well as a member of the sleep number family.
Good for you, Traff, because these things are the best.
I love sleep number.
It's hard going back to a regular mattress.
Yeah, like a hotel and like a, dude, it's so fucking different.
There's multiple issues with the hotels, which don't give me fucking stuff.
But it's like the difference night and day, obviously.
It's the mattress.
I mean, listen, you go to four seasons.
They got a nice mattress too.
But I do prefer for, I do prefer sleep number beds now.
But the other thing at the hotel, like, dude, you want to talk about something.
that grind your gears, these fucking goddamn temperature regulators and telling me how hot or cold
I can put a room at that I fucking paid for, fuck you!
That's what I got to say.
Fuck you!
Sleeping in this goddamn room, sweating my ass off, not getting any sleep.
It's fucking bullshit is what it is.
I love you.
It pisses me off so fucking bad.
I'm on this fucking comforter.
Just fucking sweating.
Profuse.
Won't let you go colder than what?
I don't even think it fucking doesn't.
anything. I try to put it colder. There's no way it's that temperature in the room. It's
fucking hot as shit. I'm just down to the sheet and the sheet isn't comfortable just
sleep on that. I like a little bit more weight on top of me.
It's fucking not. It's useless because I'm fucking sweating so bad. I try to jimmy rig it.
It doesn't even work. That's how I know these thermostats don't even work. I take the
hairdrier out of the cabinet and I position it. Right on the thermostat. So it thinks the room's
98 degrees. It still doesn't get colder in that motherfucker. These thermostats don't.
don't do fucking shit in these hotel rooms.
The only way it works is if it has,
if it's on a, what are those called?
The only way it works is if the hotels have the,
one of the ones where the unit is in the room.
It's not like a centralized air system.
It's like mini splits.
If there's a mini split in the hotel room, perfect.
It should be a law requirement
that you have to have a mini split
in the hotel requirement in the room.
But this is why I'm not running on the same OAC
that the hallway's on.
That's what I'm saying.
Man, fuck that.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Anyways, back to sleep number.
Yeah, this is why I'm with sleep number.
Sleep numbers thought about these situations that you find yourself in,
and they have temperature-controlled mattresses now.
That's why I believe in the vision.
What's your sleep number set up, like top to bottom?
What all products you're working with?
What's Travis Kelsey's ideal sleeping system?
What are all the things you're doing to sleep?
You got a fan, you got to know, just falling asleep.
Put it at 67, 66, and go to sleep.
and go to sleep.
I got the cooling system sleep number.
I got my sleep number set up.
I think it's your 55 or 60.
I can't remember it honestly off the top of it.
But then I got,
you ever heard of chili pad?
Of course.
You put that thing over top,
cool that thing down.
Then I got the comforter on top of that.
Then I got a fan blowing wind on my face.
And I am just in bliss.
Nice.
What kind of sleep position you go?
Are you a side,
you're back,
you're a stomach.
You know, when I was younger,
I used to be a stomach sleeper.
I used to sleep on a sleep.
stomach, but now I'm just lay on my back and just pass the fuck out.
Yeah, sleeping like Dolly Parton now.
I get it.
It's harder to sleep on the stomach.
I fancy myself a side, sleeper.
It's your right side, left side.
You just go back and forth all night?
Yeah, I go back and forth.
My shoulders get sore, so I got to switch it up, but I like sleeping on the side.
I'm predominantly sleeping on the left side, but I'll switch over to the right side to even
it out.
According to these pictures, I'm not quite as curled up as a fetus.
and I'm not quite the, what is that, the urner?
Yeah.
Somewhere in between a fetus and a urner is where I'm sleeping.
Yeah.
I usually have a more...
Pillow in between the legs.
Pillow in between the legs.
I'm not the soldier, but I'm the starfish for sure.
Like, I'll go like, yeah, I'll go like, I'll sleep on like the outer hip and I'll still
have my shoulders flat.
And I sleep like that.
My mouth is dry as fuck.
And it's usually because I've passed out drunk and I'm sitting in that position.
chalk drawing on the sidewalk where the guy's just dead i don't sleep like this either i'll sleep like
here and here you know what i mean like my i'm not just like straight up are you a split down the
the middle of the sleep number or are you a full sleep no full sleep it's not the best for cuddling
i like the full mattress because i like to roll into it roll out of it and if we're both if i'm
sitting up we're both sitting up it's really good for getting actual good sleep because now kiley
likes to put her side up because she's, especially when she's been pregnant, she really enjoys
the ability to set up the top.
There you go.
And for me, when I snore, she can just raise my side and then I stop snoring magically.
So there's a lot of benefits to independent top usage that we, we certainly enjoy.
I'm excited about this, uh, this partnership with sleep number.
Obviously, believe in the product.
And I'm excited to, uh, to work with them in the future, uh, and create some fun, uh,
opportunities with you guys.
Oh, we're also going to announce another huge announcement.
New merch.
We're doing a giveaway of some of our new pro-standard sweats.
I'm not going to lie, they are incredible.
I'm a big fan.
I would tell you if I didn't like it.
Jason, as you know, Jason is very open with his opinions.
I think a lot of people like the soft, fuzzy, fluffy interiors.
I'm out on the soft, like, fluffy, fuzzy.
I'm in those two.
I like this hoodie, though.
This is a good wear and tear.
I like, you could go through some shit on this.
This doesn't feel synthetic at all.
It feels like a natural fiber that my skin doesn't feel at all weird about.
I don't like the texture of those fluffy things.
And it's like, you know, it's just polyester and it's made of shit, but not this fucking thing.
This thing feels real good.
All right.
Here's how to enter.
Follow New Heights and Pro Standard on Instagram and comment your favorite moment from any
episode so far on our giveaway post.
and we're going to pick three people, three people.
Wow, just giving these things away.
All right, pick three people,
and we're going to send you a New Heights Pro Standard kit.
I'm excited about this Pro Standard collab, man.
They do it right, and it took like a few just like test runs on what they have to offer.
And, man, I absolutely love it, man.
It's a good gray, too.
It's a solid gray.
I like it.
The kit is going to feature a New Heights merch as well as a Pro Standard NFL jacket from your favorite team.
That's awesome.
Make sure you guys check out this new merch and make sure you guys enter to win the kit.
that features the new heights in a pro standard merch.
And that about wraps up new news, which is brought to you by Sleep Number, my new exciting part.
All right, let's get in some bold topics brought to you by Intuit TurboTax.
I say we do it.
Jason, you want to do the honors?
All righty, our guest today is a six-foot-five defense event from Texas Southern University.
He is a seven-time pro bowler, six-time All-Pro, 2001 defense a player in the year, two-time Emmy winner.
a Peabody Award winner, a Super Bowl champion,
and a member of the pro and college football Hall of Fame.
Damn!
You know him from $100,000 pyramid, Good Morning America.
Fox NFL Sunday, he's literally been to space.
He is still the record holder for the most sacks in a 16-game season.
92 players.
Please welcome Michael Streeter.
Yeah.
That ain't going to like, man.
That was the best introduction I literally.
I said I've never had.
Never had.
Come on now.
Let's go, baby.
That's the good next I've ever had.
And honestly, I didn't realize that did all that shit.
That's the best part, man.
When you got this many things, it's easy to forget.
But, man, you've been on some incredible things, Mike.
Yeah, it's been fun, man.
It's been fun.
What's your favorite thing on that list right there?
What's your most prized?
Super Bowl.
It's always.
Yeah.
You know what?
Player of the year, all that stuff.
And Pro Bowls is great.
But as you guys know, when you win a Super Bowl,
it's like, you can celebrate that.
together with the guys.
And I'm still on a group chat with all the guys on the D-Ly.
Every day, we're hitting each other up.
It's either questions, mean, support each other, you know, whatever, encourage each other
or just flat out cracking jokes on each other like we did in the locker room.
Hey, who's the biggest character that group chat?
Every group chat has one guy that's like, really.
It's just like, all right, here he goes again.
Oh, man.
You know, Osi, you know how Osi's the trip?
Because Osi lives in London now.
He does in the NFL.
What?
He does the NFL broadcast.
I'm very, very proud of him because he's in London doing an NFL show.
And he's won the equivalent of an Emmy in London for a year, years ago for the show.
So it's equivalent to somebody here in the U.S. winning an Emmy for cricket.
We'd be like, what did that school?
Yeah.
So obviously been amazing.
But I've noticed every time I talk to him or I listen to him, all of a sudden he's got the deep English accent.
I'm like, oh, no.
He went over there.
It just got a little just
No, you went to Troy.
You went to Troy.
You lived in Atlanta.
Oh, man.
Yeah, yeah.
But he's the character.
All the guy has the characters in their own right.
That's great.
I love that.
Listen, the D-Line is notorious for being the one room in the entire building
that just has just one on top of another,
top of another, just different lifestyles, different,
but different dudes and just some of the funniest guys ever, man.
I don't know if you spent a lot of time with Chris Jones,
but he is one of my favorite people of all time.
I guarantee you he would light up that group chat like no one else.
But I tell you what, man.
I got a chance to see Chris this season.
We came to your guy when you got played the Eagles on the road.
We were in Kansas City.
And I got a chance to see Chris after the game.
And I tell you what, man, I love the dude.
I wish I could have played with him.
I'm telling you, man.
He's unblocked.
And the knowing Spaggs defense because Spaggs helped me win a Super Bowl?
Oh, yeah.
I would love.
Man, I love to play with Chris.
Let's get into it, man.
I got to ask you, you already mentioned my guy that coach Spagg's, man.
He's one of my favorite guys.
One, because it's so challenging.
Obviously, we get to work with them throughout the year in the off seasons and in training
camps and stuff like that.
I get to experience what it feels like the frustration of how much he has in that, in
that defensive playbook and everything.
But he's also one of the best humans.
that I've ever met in my life.
And off the field or on the field, he's one of the best motivators.
Tell me, tell me, you got any good Spag stories that aren't out there from your days playing for him?
Well, I would tell you what Spaggs is one of the nicest of him is.
His wife, Maria, they baked cookies for this.
Oh, yeah.
I had some of the best lemon cello I've ever had from the Spag's household.
Insane.
What the thing is?
You're crazy.
I have no bad stories on here because he's such a good guy.
But I will tell you this, the year my life is here in the league.
We start out 0 and 2.
We gave up 80 points in two games against the Cowboys the first week
and then I think 45, then we gave a 35 against Green Bay the second week.
And Spax comes into the meeting room on, you know, guys,
you think you're going to so open that meeting room,
you're going to just let everybody have it.
You're like, oh, yeah, we're garbage.
We're going to hear our garbage we are.
Dude walks in and goes, hey, I want you guys to know,
just trust what we're doing.
Trust the defense.
There's not one of you that I would trade for anybody else out there in the league.
Now, I know he was lying.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
I had a few guys.
I'm like, coached, yeah, he got right there.
I don't know.
But he made us believe in like, okay, just stick with him.
Believe in the system.
Believe in this dude.
Believe in each other.
And we just turned it around, man.
And all that, I contribute all that to Spags
and making us feel good when we should have.
Most coaches make you feel bad.
I do got to ask you, because one of the things that stands out with Spags is his blitzes, right?
He can give it from every single direction,
Zero, zone blitz, man pressures, games, all that stuff.
But I know as a defense alignment, that's not always what you all want to do, right?
Especially when you're the great Michael Strahan sack leader.
Coach, don't have me slaying in Angling.
Just let me beat the crap out of this tackle right here.
What did you feel like playing in that system?
I'm assuming he probably called less blitzes with you on the field.
I really didn't need to bring more than four quite often.
Yeah, there you go.
You know, I'll be honest with you.
I've always been a nice guy, man.
I really am.
Yeah.
But in the days of football, I was a different nice, right?
There you go.
There you go.
You know, we all have a switch.
We're nice guys.
People know we're nice.
But it's a switch.
Like, I get out there and I'm a whole different thing.
Got to be.
After the survival.
I got guys like you too.
I can't.
You're trying to kill me.
I got to survive.
Right?
Yeah.
So I hated the slants and stuff wasn't my thing, but I would do whatever.
But don't make me drop.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Even though I do have a few picks in my career.
one against Walker Day for a touchdown.
But don't make me drop.
Why do you drop in the best pass rushers and you got these little lighten the ass
dudes running in there getting rejected from the club?
I mean,
those are being thrown out of there.
Like, yo, don't come in the club with fake IDs.
Yeah, but I just didn't like dropping.
I love pass rush.
You know what I love most, though?
I love playing to run more than I love playing the past.
Really?
That's surprising.
Absolutely.
I don't see a lot, I don't hear a lot of DNs say that.
So why do you say that?
Just because it was more like toughness, more like inserting your will?
Like what is it?
100%.
And I felt like it was toughness.
It was inserting your will.
It was literally, I can take the life out of a guy.
I look in your eye and I can see if you wanted to be there or not.
And that was important to me.
I wanted to look in your soul.
I wanted to take your soul.
And I was going to just go every play.
I just looked at it like this.
You or me, every play.
I ain't going to quit. Let's see what you're going to do.
And when we turn on that tape tomorrow and we're watching it, I will not be embarrassed in front of my teammate.
I just will not.
We got to just jump into it, man.
My guy Greg Olson, man.
He told us an amazing story last week on our episode with him about his welcome to the NFL moment where they decided to run power as a rookie at Michael Strayhan.
We had a home game, my rookie year in 07, and Michael Strayhan is playing like a, I don't know if he was in a four-point stance, but it felt like he was like an eight-point stance.
And he was playing, he was playing six technique, right?
So he was like on my head.
The worst.
But he would, the worst.
And like, you go too far inside and he just caves you down.
You stay on his outside shoulder and he just presses you back.
And I'm like, I'm going to bring everything I got.
Everything I got.
I'm bringing it.
well, he like two gaps me.
He locks me out, presses me, heading the hole.
He takes me into the full back, into the backside pulling guard.
Oh, no.
And like, and I was like, I ran off the field.
Swab the hole.
I guess you threw them across the line of scrimmage onto the other A gap.
Do you remember this play?
I do not.
How do I say, there's no chance.
No, that was just a regular Sunday.
You know what I'm saying?
You know, I don't remember to play.
But I did have this thing where my first coach in the league,
Earl Leggett, rest in peace, Earl Leggett.
He was Howie coached coached with the Raiders back in the day.
And that's why Howie and I've always been so tight.
But Earl, man, he worked us more than anybody.
I couldn't survive more than two or three years in the league without him
because he taught me technique that lasted my whole career.
And I just couldn't rely on being athletic.
But Earl had this thing.
He said, if any tied in in this league,
blocks you son, you should be a shame of yourself.
So any time I saw a tight end, it was like, I'm going to literally, I got to kill you.
Like I got to murder you right now.
I cannot.
I got to watch the coach.
And Earl would talk bad to you.
Oh, he talked so bad to you.
Oh, Kirk, God, you got to fight him.
I can't go out there.
I'm too old to fight for you, son.
He would say some other things I cannot say on this podcast that gave me in trouble.
I love some good old ball coach, man.
It literally made every tight-in I lined up against made me like salivate because I knew I had to embarrass him.
I couldn't be dealt with like that.
But I'm glad Greg remembered it.
That's what's important.
There you go.
But I love Greg either.
And he's the best, too, by the way.
Oh, the best.
You know it.
Yeah.
That's too funny, man.
I had to ask you about it.
We mentioned earlier that you're the sack leader for 16 games.
You made the comment.
Obviously, congratulated Miles Garrett and gave him his flowers for, because I unbelievable.
feat that he accomplished as well
being the sack leader for 17 games.
But have you heard the claim that
Bubba Baker, Al Bubba Baker
actually has the sack record
from his rookie season in
1978?
Okay, I dispute that.
My question is,
what would Michael Strahan
be doing to an offensive lineman
in 1978?
Oh, at seven years old, I'd be
getting out there getting beat up.
You know what? He might. They didn't keep the records until later, which the reason I disputed is not for myself.
When I was coming up, man, one thing that I loved is that I, guys I admired, like Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Chris Dolman, Dexter Manley, Charles Mann. Every time I got a chance to meet these guys, they like took me under the wing.
And it was really great to me, man. I couldn't believe it. But the one guy, the older of all of them, would deacon.
Deakin Jones.
Deacon Jones, man.
That head slap, baby.
Look out.
Exactly.
My ears are ringing right now.
When you said his name, my ears rung.
It was crazy.
Deacon swore to me he had a hundred sacks in the season.
I'm telling you.
He swore you had 100 sacks, man.
Oh, that's fucking ridiculous, man.
He swore by it.
He's basically like, I don't even know what the debate is.
I had 100.
Sometimes talking to those old school football guys, man, is just the fucking best, man.
Oh, yeah.
And even Bruce Smith is one of my favorites and like my brother, man.
And Bruce really took me on this wing, played a lot of golf with Bruce and just spent a lot of time with him.
And Bruce orchestrated the 100 sack club.
So at the Super Bowl, you get like all the guys that have at least 100 sacks get together.
And so Bruce gets in front of the room and Bruce goes, hey, I'm glad everybody showed up at the 100 sack club and everything else.
I was going to do a 200-sac club, but I didn't want to be here by myself.
It only took you 25 years.
We didn't want to play that long, damn it.
That's too funny.
Your name and all these greats, I got to know.
What's your Mount Rushmore of sack leaders?
Mount Rushmore of defense-alignment getting after the quarterback.
Geez.
I mean, there were interior guys and there were outside guys.
Let's say, outside, outside.
Outside guys, outside guys, I would say Bruce Smith, I would say Reggie White, I would say Miles Garrett.
Put yourself on if you want.
Feel free.
You know what?
I'll put myself, honestly, in the top two or three of all around defensive ends ever to play the game.
Because I played the run as well as I played a pass.
It wasn't like hit a running back if he happens to have the ball going to wait to the quarterback.
So I'll put myself in that realm.
But as far as my whole thing is, I started football late, man.
I mean, I played one year in high school.
I lived in Germany.
I wouldn't, yeah, I wouldn't play football.
So you were in Germany all the way up until you were 18?
Yeah, you have 17, 17.
And so I came over, I played one year.
My dad was like, going to get a scholarship.
And I think if you don't tell your kids what they can't do, they could do anything.
And my dad, I was like, it was guaranteed.
You're going to get a scholarship.
Next thing you're going on.
I get one scholarship, the Texas Southern University.
I was like, dad.
I don't know.
He's like, what?
only you know it's free, that's where you go.
And then he's like, when you make it to the pros and when you do this and when you do that.
So my dad was always that when, not an if guy, which was important.
Like I do that with my kids, like win, win, win, never if, never give doubt.
So I came to the Giants.
I mean, I was at TSU, man.
I was just basically reliant on athletic ability, just running and working until a guy got tired and then I'd make plays.
But I had no first three.
for years, I didn't know the game of football.
You know, I was always behind.
So I always wonder what it would have been like had I had the opportunity to, like,
learn football at the earlier age.
But I'm kind of glad I didn't because it always made me interested.
Always.
I'm always interested in football now.
Like I watch stuff now.
I'm still interested in the game.
I didn't beat myself up.
I feel better now than I felt when I were retired.
So, yeah, I got lucky.
I got really lucky.
That's awesome, man.
When you came over when you were 17, 18.
I believe you were with Art Strayhan, right?
Your uncle?
Oh, my uncle, yeah.
I stayed my uncle.
And he played a little bit in the league, right?
Did you learn, like, at least the basics and understanding, you know, the old put your forehead right through the chin or...
Did I?
Man, man, I came over and stayed with my uncle.
I didn't know.
Really, I was green.
If there was the color deepest green, you could find, that was how great I was.
My uncle would take me in the front yard because he played seven years in the league.
Oilers, Falcons, stuff.
He would take me in the front yard, man.
He would just be slapping me around.
This is how you fuse the art.
And you know, my uncle's like six, seven country-ass-fron.
Big old hands, man.
He just beating this teenager up in the yard.
But, hey, I went through it and I looked back.
I could laugh at it.
Be it at TSU, Walter Highsmith, my head coach,
whose son, Alonzo Highsmith,
the first round pick out of the University of Miami.
Back in those Jimmy Johnson days, his dad was tough.
He would make us run gassers in, you know, Texas, 100-something degrees.
And the devil leaning to give the gold post, waiting for you to pass out.
It's that high.
And he would say, we're going to run until somebody turns in their scholarship.
No, give up your scholarship.
Oh.
Passing out, I would have fell out.
I was just a little.
But, no, give up his scholarship.
And we had, and we thought he was joking.
Man, wasn't joking.
I ain't.
This dude was a beat.
But when I came to the pros, it was like, you can.
can't kill me. I've been to hell already.
Yeah, right. You got to argue,
you don't have shoes. I want the same pair of cleats
in practice in the game every season
for the whole season. Now, I get new
pair of the shoes every week. This is
crazy. You are bringing up
something. No, but this is something I've thought about
where, you know, there's so much sports
science and, like, load
managements and, like, stuff now where
I feel like if you've never
pushed yourself to the extremes, how
do you really know how far you can go?
Yeah. Right? And 100%
When I went to college, I used to think I knew what hard work was.
And then I got put me through a workout in the weight room, Jordan Roth,
and I couldn't even lift my shoulders above my, my hands above my shoulders by the end of one of those workouts.
And I was like, bro, what is this?
I never worked out of my life.
I thought I was working hard.
I don't know what hard work was.
I think that's so important for young players or even something you got to work out as an adult, too.
You got to push yourself, man, right?
And the harder I found that I pushed myself playing football, the easier the game became.
The more I studied, the easier the game became.
I could, I would be the last one to get my stance because I'm just looking and look at
formations going, I know they ain't going to run this way or they're only going to be able to
do this out of that.
Like you knew.
And if you got old, if you really paid attention, became the student, the game slowed down
and became easier.
But you got to work at it.
And the harder I've worked in sports, like now, everybody goes, you work so hard.
You're here.
You're there.
I'm like, you don't understand what hard work was.
When you're in training camp and you guys know, two days.
And you got to put those.
wet paths that are still wet from the day before on and running to somebody who you don't want
to feel like running into a kid and fighting for the next two hours, you're laying on the ground
to stretch and it's still got that cold morning dew on it.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
You can't think about you trying to peel yourself out of the bed.
That's hard work.
Talking for a living.
If I knew it was this good, I've done it a long time ago.
That's so good.
So perfect.
Thank you to our presenting sponsor.
X-Finity.
X-Finity is a proud partner of Team USA for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games.
Let's go, baby.
I'm pumped to watch Team USA crush it as always.
As always.
I love seeing them.
Every time I get a chance, one of the great regrets of being a football player is you don't get to represent your country.
The Olympics are incredible.
So happy to see XFinity is sponsoring this segment and the Team USA Winter Olympics.
group going over to Italy.
I can't wait to see them all lock in every single sport, every single event.
Did you know that Xfinity can guarantee that your internet price will stay the same for five years?
I did not know that.
That is pretty awesome.
Okay.
One price for five whole years.
Guaranteed no contracts or commitments.
That's a pretty good deal, Tray.
Man, I wonder if they could help us lock in on an event or a sport specifically to maybe get to the Olympics and be on Team USA one day.
Well, if we're going winter, I tried curling recently, and I don't think we can do that.
All right.
I tried bobsledding.
They said I had some potential.
We'll have to see about that.
Xfinity, imagine that proud partner of Team USA.
Restrictions apply.
Select plans only.
All righty, thank you to our sponsor, Intuit TurboTax.
Tax season is here, people.
Filing just got an upgrade.
For those of you that use credit karma, now you can file your taxes with TurboTaxe.
checks right through Credit Karma app.
How about it?
And get your max refund.
Wow.
And when you get this year's refund,
credit karma helps you take it further
with a personalized plan showing how to make the best use of your money.
It's all right there in the app.
Whether you're looking to start building savings or improve your financial knowledge,
Credit Karma with TurboTex supports you through the process so you could get your
refund fast and make your money go further.
This year, get every dollar you deserve.
Get started now by downloading the,
the Credit Karma app and navigating to the tax section up at the top.
Thank you to our partner Adobe Acrobat.
Oh, the Acrobat has been reimagined for powerful collaboration and to help you create high
quality work all at one place.
Brandon, can you give us a hand here in showing the 92% of us how to use the incredible new
features?
I love it when Brandon shows us things.
Please.
Less work for us, more work for Brandon.
Thanks, guys.
I never mind doing more work for you.
But that's right, guys, Adobe's got new features like PDF spaces,
which basically helps you pull anything from the internet that you might want,
and let's just call it a podcast, into one document and figure out where it goes a lot faster.
Usually when we put together the show, we have to dig through a lot of articles,
game notes, box scores, highlights, screenshots of tweets,
whatever Jake was mad about the Jets doing that week.
It's a lot of stuff that goes into making the show.
And honestly, the segment that's toughest to put together is Stamp of the Week.
There's actually a lot more nominees that we never really even show you guys.
We look through everything from game highlights, what's going around the internet.
I watched a bunch of clips of people in Philadelphia going crazy in the snow.
That was my personal stamp of the week.
But we can drop everything into one PDF space.
And this tool can take it all into one document, put it there, organize it.
We can ask the AI assistant, hey, AI assistant, based on everything here, who is the strongest
stamp of the week nominee?
And why?
Do we end up just yelling out names to each other?
Yes.
but before that we can actually have some kind of plan of attack.
Well, I think you intern Brandon.
You're the best intern podcast could ever ask.
Faster prep and better picks so we can get more done together.
That's right.
Learn more at Adobe.com slash do that with Akabat.
All right.
Before we touch on more of your career, Mike,
we want to talk.
It's championship Sunday.
Let's talk about currently.
All right.
We got the Super Bowl coming up.
Let's talk about Patriots, defeating the Broncos.
What did you think of the game?
Oh, man.
Oh, a Patriot Broncos game, I thought the Broncos should have won the game.
I want to lie.
Yeah, it felt like the Broncos should have won the game.
I felt like Houston should have won the game.
Houston had some bad bounces that went their way on some stripped fumbles and all that stuff.
If they recover a couple of them fumbles,
Will Campbell, everybody wants to get on him, I'll give him a couple of sacks.
He fell on those two fumbles and saved him.
And I know nobody tries to play bad, but C.J. Stragis need to give them something.
something, man. He had to give him something. And I felt bad for the kid because I liked the kid,
but in big moments like that is when you really need to show up. Like everyone talks about
Eli Manning's record is 150, 150, whatever it may be. But in the biggest of moments, that
can't show up. He always showed up in the biggest moments. And that is the mark of a real,
like, that's how you get over the hump and really get yourself out there as the big moments
it rides up. But against Denver, I thought that they should have kicked that field goal.
gone up. I know early on.
Early on. Take the point. You knew it was going to be a low-scoring game. Just take it.
Yeah, but I don't get these off these coaches now.
Because fourth down now is automatic, go forward more than it's not.
And I get analytics, but you've got to fill the team. You got to fill the situation.
You've got to, you know, I got to back a quarterback in this weather is, weather's awful.
I felt that naked coming from as soon as they thought about.
You know what I mean? Because I believe they called a timeout to think about it.
Yep.
I felt it from that point.
I'm like, man, they're about to run a little play action boot.
Yeah, and I felt bad from Sean Payton because Sean Payton coached me back in 2000 or something
like that.
I love John.
And I talked to them the day before the game, very confident what they were doing.
But in playoffs, I felt like, just take the points, man, take the point, put pressure
on New England, especially on the road to beat you with a great defense like they have.
And their defense had been playing great up into that point, right?
Like, it was just like, man.
And the Patriots defense ain't bad.
And so you need to take the points that you can freaking get.
When you can, yeah, I hear you.
And I think Seattle game was great.
I mean, that was a great game.
But Rams had opportunities that fourth down stop on the goal, your fourth and goal.
Red zone.
Yep.
The muff punt.
That really was kind of big turning point of the game, even though the Rams came right down and answered.
But I'm happy for Sam Darnel.
So happy for that dude, man.
Yeah.
I played in New York.
It's hard, man.
And he comes here.
The third overall pick, doesn't go well.
It gets beat down mentally.
physically, and then five teams in eight years, and everyone thinks he's washed.
And then he goes to Minnesota, plays well last year.
But then they get beaten the playoffs, and they're like, he's done.
This guy can't play.
Why Seattle pay him all this money?
Well, now you see why.
I mean, it's been awesome to see the resurgence and to see him answer the critics again.
Like, you're always rooting for the guy that have been downed out and to answer that.
His ability to take that heat from everybody and still be the calm, cool, collected
cat that he is, the confident guy he is in his abilities, man.
I'm fucking. I've always been a big fan of his, man.
And it's cool to see him finally get it, dog.
But I'm with you.
I thought the Broncos had a really, really fucking good chance.
Even with the backup, Stid Am Inn, man, they could have gone either way for him.
But what do you feel about the Super Bowl, though?
What are you two feel about the Super Bowl?
Are we allowed to talk about that now since you've got to talk about it, Jason?
You know, I've learned about this TV deal.
You can't give all these speakers out right now.
You've got a whole son back.
We ain't hold them back over here.
You know, I think it's obviously, you know, the Seahawks look like the favorite, right?
Their defense has been so good all year round.
That offense has been fantastic.
Pat's offense has struggled throughout the playoffs.
Now, they played some unbelievable defenses, right?
They played the Chargers.
They've played the Houston Texans.
Then they've just played the Broncos.
They're going to get another test with the Seahawks who have another amazing defense.
Yeah.
I don't know that people are given New England's defense, including myself, enough credit.
Like, I thought the Broncos, I was like, I don't think the Patriots are going to move.
the ball on on the Broncos, but I didn't really think about as much as like this, this New England
defense, the last really three, four weeks is playing really good football.
The way they're blitzing, they're doing a good job of mixing, mixing up these max pressures
and these zone drops and simulated pressures.
And I just think they're doing a great job as an entire unit right now.
So if I'm picking, I'm going Seattle.
But I'm looking forward to a good game.
What do you think?
Well, I mean, Travis, you're still playing officially.
so you can't say nothing, okay?
I can't say any.
I'll say this.
I'm at least interested in the big matchup
outside the numbers.
Now, that's going to be a fun fucking matchup right there.
Too young, up and coming,
both of them at the top of their game right now.
I'm excited for that matchup.
You know what's so funny, man,
we're watching a game,
and J.S.N. gets to catch the touchdown.
He's just catching balls,
conferting, doing all these things.
And we're like, it doesn't even look like he's working.
How he's like, Michael, it doesn't look like he's working.
So he catches that touchdown.
wide open. And I'm like, how in the world, if you're going to cover anybody, that's the dude,
how he get open? And you know what, Howie said to me? He goes, that's the same thing we said
about Kelsey.
I said, everybody knows he's going to get to mall. How do they help you get open? And I think I said
that to you. And I was like, dude, I got to hell. But it's going to be, that's going to be a
great matchup, man. It really is. I think Seattle had the edge. I
feel like they're just, they're physically a dominant team.
I agree with these guys.
I don't think it's going to be a cakewalk because we all know from our win against
the Patriots, one game.
Football's not like the other sports.
We get the best of.
If you don't show it with your best at one day, it's a rap.
So I feel like Seattle, but anything can happen, of course.
Right there with your dog.
Let me ask you this.
A lot of people complain about that Broncos game this past week because of the weather.
Where do you stand on snow games?
That's fun.
What are you talking about?
Are you kidding?
I knew you'd be a real one, man.
You know what?
I was like, man, when you hit somebody, you just slide.
Now, now, if you would have asked me, how is it to be like 25 degrees in raining,
that's when I'm out there looking going, oh, when it's just over.
Cold rain is different than snow.
That's a good point.
I prefer it.
I prefer.
I love snow.
I love rain, warm rain.
Part of my favorite thing of all.
Oh, interesting.
I like sitting outside of the.
I don't know why I just said that.
Let's go.
All right.
Are you like in the rain or you're covered?
No, I like being undercover.
Garage open.
There's some of a smell of rain.
Yeah, garage open.
Yeah, I like that.
I thought you just walking out there with sitting in the rain.
I'm like, it seems like that's something that needs a little deeper discussion in a private
setting with somebody called a therapist.
That's too good, man.
All right, let's throw it back to when you were in the Super Bowl, man.
Did the 2007 Giants have the hardest path to the Super Bowl ever?
Ever?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know what?
That probably would say you.
I mean, we were a six seed.
We had to go to Tampa.
It wasn't too worried about Tampa.
Yeah, they had to go through John Gruden and the bucks.
Then once we went to Dallas, I got a lot of you.
All my Stomp You-out speech is, if you look chronologically, chronologically, I was like,
stomp him out.
Dude, they're talking all kinds of creighting.
Uh-huh.
We got the doubt.
I'm like, yo, it's been a pleasure playing with you guys.
Within my head, I'm like, this could be it.
This could be it.
15 years, I'm done with nothing.
And so that, they, because they were stacked, man.
And then we go to Green Bay.
And you're in Green Bay in all years, like the history, the history, the history.
They're like brain watching you on TV and you're sitting in your hotel room.
And it was so cold that you had a cup of water, warm water, and you threw it up and
and just turned into, like, like, dust.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
That was so cold.
cold, man. But yeah, well, I think we had the toughest role. And then we played the only team.
I mean, they were undefeated, 18 and 0. And they had a group of all-stars. We just produced this
documentary on our 2007 Super Bowl team. That's coming, that's coming out. And I was watching
a cut the other day. And I was watching with a friend of mine, he go, Randy Vaugh,
Tom Brady, Bruske, Seow, Rodney, Harry. He just started naming all these guys.
And I'm like, yeah, this team had, they were beyond that.
The first reason they were undefeated, yeah.
Yeah, they were beyond.
So, yeah, I think we had the hardest path.
And thank God we won so I can retire.
Went out on top, baby.
What's the thing you remember most from the run?
When we bonded as a team, like we went to London.
We went to London to play the Dolphins.
And we, they were, they hadn't won a game.
I think they lost every game that year.
And we were like, we can't be the team they beat, especially overseas.
So we go to London.
we end up beating the dolphins.
And I hosted, I like set up a party because, you know, I was the oldest guy there.
I wanted the old guy.
But I wanted to make sure I look out for the young guy that to me, the best way,
make sure we're all together.
Like, not this guy.
We ain't gone over there, especially in Europe.
Half these guys have never been out of wherever the heck they were born.
So we had the best after party.
Plastic old births like Mike would have had that much fun since college.
Like, hell, you guys slam dancing.
Next thing, you know, shirts are off.
If you would have walked in there at the wrong time,
you probably would have thought it was some other kind of party
because he cats were naked, basically, running in Twitter.
Y'all getting a little too hype up in here.
But we had the best time.
But it was just like that bonding.
And if we got to the point of where we just didn't want to let each other down,
I think we won because we didn't want to let each other down
and disappoint each other.
And we just weren't ready to go home.
You know what I'm saying?
We're not ready for this brotherhood to end.
Yeah, when Tyree caught the ball off,
off the helmet, even before they threw the touchdown to Placico, I realized we're going to win
the game because I'm like, there's no way you catch like that. The story doesn't have a great
ending. I'll hear you on that, man. It just feels like it's so right. Do you guys think any type of
way when you heard that Romo went on vacation? Oh, no. Is there any discussions? No. No, I think
what got us, and it's in the dock, Jerry gave the team, each player, their two tickets to the
next game, NFC championship game. He had already given those guys their tickets to the NFC
championship game like, oh, the Giants are pretty, are done.
Yeah.
So here are your tickets already.
So we made sure that those tickets were invalid.
Bullets and more material for you.
Yeah, exactly.
Let's keep it in the Giants world.
What do you think of the Harbaugh hire?
I love it.
I love it.
You know, I think it brings credibility, accountability, and accountability to the team.
I just love the fact that he's an established coach.
I think the second he walks in the door, he's getting respect.
Immediately.
I think you have a nice young lunucle nucleus of players.
Dart, I think, could be good.
Just got to teach him to get the hell down and stop taking hits.
Scatibu.
Scatibu, I thought, would probably get knocked out before he got hurt in the way he got hurt.
I was like, dude, you can't run like this and have a long career.
You got to learn to pick your battle.
And then once you get neighbors back.
You can't knock a guy out like that.
He's just unknockable.
You get in a fight with him.
You just got to leave the fight.
If he was knocked out, we would just.
never know. We never know. He's one of those dudes. You ask him what day it is before a concussion
he doesn't know. Exactly. She concussion, no, that's how he is always. Don't worry about it.
Every day is Sunday. He says this all the time. Every day's Sunday. But I love it that he brought a lot
of energy. He and Dart brought a lot of energy, a lot of swag for these young guys. We haven't had that
with the Giants. It's always been like conservative type stuff. But I love our, we got a good defensive
nucleus, I think, and just some pieces here and there. But I
I love Powerball because of the credibility, man,
the respect that he's going to demand an accountability
because you can't get away with some of that stuff.
I think some of the guys were getting away with
from what I've heard over there.
I think he's going to make guys more accountable for their actions
that make sure that they focus on playing the game of football,
which is what it's all about.
That's how you make it live it.
Focus on it.
That's right.
That's right.
Thank you.
I got to ask you,
this Super Bowl coming up,
is there anybody in the game in the trenches that you're looking forward to watching?
Who are the guys?
you're like, man, I love watching these guys play.
I love watching Leonard Williams.
I love watching Leonard, who was with the Giants.
We see like we have great player than when we let them go.
They go on to be all world.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'll tell you this.
Everybody in Philadelphia knew how good Leonard Williams.
I can tell you that, man.
I thought you're going to say Sequin.
I was about to just slap up.
Well, that one too.
That one too, but.
But Leonard is the beast of a player.
So I love watching the letter.
I just like watching.
And I like watching D-Ly battles because, you know, that's what those trenches is where I lived.
So anytime I see a quarterback back there just bouncing up and down, no pressure, I'm pissed.
I ain't allowed to.
I'm so pissed.
I'm like, dude.
And when I see guys running there just go straight into a guy and they just hold on to each other and dance, I'm pissed.
Like, dude, look like you're trying to get there.
You don't have to get a sack, but pressure, just making them feel your presence could be a disruptor.
And there are time, man, I wake up and I'm like, at one time, I'm going to lie to you about two years ago, maybe even less.
Like, man, screw this.
I'm coming back, man.
No, no way.
A full of river's decided.
I'm coming back.
Go-bo.
My body feels good.
And, man, really no surgeries, no, nothing.
I'm good.
You can give them a good four or five games, huh?
Well, just a quick four or five?
I did one workout and I changed my mind.
It made me realize.
Oh, hell no, that ain't happening.
I'm past myself.
That's done.
Nope.
Now I just, I just Google me.
Google me.
There you go.
Yeah.
Go on you too.
Look it up.
As an all-time great pass rusher, what would you say, if somebody was going to say, like,
how do you rush a pastor?
What's the art?
What are your like keys to getting after a quarterback to beat in the offensive tackle?
I always tell people, perhaps wrestling is about, you know, athletic ability.
And, you know, it is.
But it's about, it's like chess to me.
That's why I love doing it is I was known at the bullrush.
So you go back and watch me and John Runyon, it was like, bro, I have three nose
clipped over and over again.
It's epic.
Yeah.
But I had to have strategy against him because that was the strongest.
Once you put them hands on you, I might as well just stay down to the next play.
But I learned, like, you know, and I used to do it to everybody.
I know when you watch film and I self-scout, like I watch myself to see.
but I know guys expect me to bull rush.
So you know what I do?
Bull rush the shit out of you.
First three rushes.
The first three rushes up the field, first step, second step, plant,
turn, head in the chest, lock out,
and don't stop your feet.
Don't press and then start a rush.
Nope, right through you the whole way.
I don't even want to say, I just want to make your hop
and get back of your quarterback's face.
And then after I do that, I'll look at you and go,
hey, a little bit stronger than it looks on tape, huh?
Like, you thought you're going to stop that.
You knew it was coming.
and you couldn't stop it.
So I hit you with that three, four times.
I ain't worried about a sack at that point.
Then big down comes up.
I run up, plant, give you that same look.
If you're a big dude, you don't want to get pushed back.
So you squat and you lean, and then I chop you and come across the out round.
Then I beat you.
I make the play.
And then in your head, you're like, oh, my God, push me back.
He beat me to the outside.
Next time I come up, I give you that fake power to outside move.
Then I'll give you a power.
Then I give you enough.
fake outside, power to outside move.
And then need another big play, give you the fake power to outside, make you think
I'm going outside and club you come inside.
Oh.
Now, I beat you straight over you.
I beat your outside.
I beat your inside.
And then I look in your eye and I see you don't want no more because you don't know what's
coming.
That was to me the strategy and the psychology of football.
But I didn't talk much unless you talk to me.
Oh, and that reminds me, Greg Olson's play.
I do remember that play.
Olin Cruz.
the center. Oh, yeah. He had pissed me off. He had pissed me off. He had pissed me off.
I remember that. He cut you? He cut you on a TV or something. He did something. He was talking.
And I took it out on Greg. I do remember. You got to know who you're talking shit to, man.
Yeah, he was a great player, the old and great player. Now that we're talking a little D-line,
O-line, you brought up Runyon. Cam Jordan. One of my favorites to ever go up against, man.
recently just said that offensive linemen aren't athletic.
What's your opinion on that take?
If they weren't athletic, I love Cam, by the way.
This is not a sense.
He's one of the greats.
He had a hell of a long career.
But if they weren't that athletic,
Cam would be like Deacon Jones that had 100 cents in a year.
First of all, and I wish people at home who really love the game
could get a chance to come down and watch like some plays from the sideline
to see how big, strong.
and fast these big dudes are and footwork.
I mean, these dudes are athletes.
Jordan Malata?
You want to talk about Google somebody?
Google Jordan Malata back when he was playing rugby.
And you know it's so funny between Jordan and Lane,
when we do with Eagles games, obviously,
and in person and I always look at Howard and I say,
yeah, man, I wish I got that I'd get him a rough for their money.
Howie looks at me and he's like, Michael.
In my mind, I would get him a rough for their money.
But then I'm watching them abuse.
everybody else, but I'm different.
Right.
I hear you.
You were different.
You were different.
Nah, dude.
You know what's so funny?
I literally laugh.
I don't remember, like, I know I play football and all that stuff and the accolates and you guys
bring that stuff up.
But it's so funny that it's very hard for me to even consider myself to even be like a great
football player or, you know, people go, oh, you're a legend.
You're in the Hall of Fame.
It's like, yeah, it's kind of weird to me because I played for respect.
that's all I you know and and I guess the respect come from those type of things but I didn't
you know I play when you're young you play you're like okay I want to be respected but I want to
make some money you know yeah but then after a while you realize making money is not enough to
keep you playing a game that's so hard yeah and it's great but I want it respect I wanted that and
I got that but it still feels weird to me um for all that stuff I don't know it feels I feel
uncomfortable with it, man. It's weird. You got the respect out of everyone. I think that's
the reason you got all, yeah, they're showing you that respect by telling you you're one of the
greatest ever play, man. Well, I appreciate that. And me saying that in the, I feel like I need
one of those therapy sessions when Jason's done with his, I'm up next. Oh, it's good.
Well, listen, straight, you got to figure out. You already know, you got it all figured out, baby.
It's, it's been fun to, it's been fun to not only watch you dominate in the NFL, but dominate the
afterlife of NFL, man. And you paved the way for a lot of us in that regard.
to and gain that respect for a lot of NFL guys trying to try to kind of walk that path after
the, after the game's over for it. Well, I appreciate it. And I got to say, Jason, you're doing
a great job with it. And, you know, Travis, I'm not going to get into what you're going to do,
but you're going to be great as well. You're both great with this podcast, which is, which is
incredible. And, you know, and the one thing that I know, and everybody tries to give everybody
advice, and I'm not trying to give you advice here, but I just realized.
If I was from Australia, you know that.
At some point, you never put on another helmet.
You never put on another pair of shoulder pads.
You never slide those pants on with the knee path and thigh paths.
You never take your wrist again.
It's final.
There is no big three in the NFL.
You know, there is no other league.
So I realized for me, after 15 years, I'd done everything.
There was no way that I was going to cry at a press conference in my retirement
because I knew I put everything I had to it.
And as long as you know that final, you'll never do it again, then great.
That's how I looked at my career.
And everything that came after is kind of, I'm going to say, kind of happened on accident from working hard and enjoying what I'm doing.
It's just having fun, good things seem to happen.
But yeah, man, it's, you guys are crushing it and everything that you do.
I'm happy you invited me on to do this because I've been watching all these podcasts going, damn.
When do I get it?
Come on now.
Like, come on now.
You've been at the time.
And one more thing I got to say, though, for people out there watch, it's about character, okay?
Both of you have character.
You're raised right, okay?
And Jason, every time I've seen you, you've been the nicest, your wife and everything that you guys, you've always been great.
And Travis, you may not remember.
And you probably do remember, but it said a lot to me.
And I tell a guy I was talking to Highway about this with you the other day, is I was at the airport and I get out the call.
and you come coming across the,
you got out of your car you're already in,
to come over and say what's up,
which I didn't even know you were there.
And most people sit in that car and be like,
nah, man, a little guy, I ain't go.
But little things like that,
so charactered,
and I always appreciated it,
appreciated that from both of you guys, man.
And like little things like that,
you think nobody's really paying attention to
really mean a lot to a lot of people.
And, you know, I'm always here for you guys,
if you guys,
never need anything.
And I'm not saying that like we've done podcast,
and let's keep on going, I'm sorry.
No, no, no, no.
I appreciate that.
And I still got to take you up
for some of that golf down there in Florida, man.
Man, you know I doubt, John.
You know I remember that.
I haven't forgotten any of that.
Florida, Bahamas, I got your coat.
There we go.
You were kind of talking on the retirement talk,
and obviously I'm juggling it all right now.
Did you know going in,
it sounds like you kind of knew going into
that 2007 season, that was the last hurrah?
I kind of felt like it.
But I will say, had we lost to the Patriots, I really would have strongly consider coming back.
I really would have because there's been like, man, this close, almost I got to get one more run.
And I'm glad, trust me, I'm glad we won because that was kind of like, okay, what else am I trying to prove?
A body feels good.
I've won every individual award.
Now I've won the ultimate award, which is the Super Bowl with my team.
So there's nothing else for me to accomplish.
And I had a deal already signed with Fox, just had the deal in the drawer and they're going to
knew about it. And so I knew I had a gig after that. And so I was able to kind of write out to the sunset
on my own terms, which is very hard because most people, they don't get to end their careers
the way they want to end it. So whenever you have that opportunity, man, you're blessed. And so I
realized I didn't want to stick around and be on the team and I have my heart wholeheartedly into the
game and just stick around for what a paycheck. Stick around some of one of these young guys,
and go, hey, I remember when you used to be.
And I'm like, shit, I'm still here.
What you talk about used to be?
So, yeah, man, I kind of went into it with the idea that that was going to be it.
And I also went into it the attitude that I don't care about a pro bowl.
I don't care about sex.
I don't care about nothing.
I just want to have fun with the guys for once.
How about it, man?
Because a lot of the other years, man, the other 14, I'm so worried about winning
if guys are on their game.
And I started saying, hey, we're all grown.
You got to be on your game.
I could motivate in every way I can.
But guys going to have to show up on their own.
And they did, thank God.
You mentioned you already had the Fox Steel Inc.
At what point did you know you were going to go into broadcasting?
Oh, man.
You know, I started just doing stuff because it was fun.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was with you.
Hey, Mike, you want to do this?
And back then, they had a show called Beth Down Sports Show, period.
Oh, yeah.
Come on, yeah.
That was an incredible, like, breeding ground to, like, get your feet wet and television.
And so I would go on it on a bi-week, I would go and host a week of it.
I tried to deal my last year or so where every Monday I would go sit in front of a camera
and I would have to do the show.
Every Monday, win or lose, always showed up because, you know, I signed up to do it.
You show up regardless.
But doing that show kind of gave me a vibe for broadcasting.
Let me know I would like it.
I did a Super Bowl for ESPN when I was still playing, ABC.
I did CBS.
I did Fox.
I did all the networks.
and I didn't really know guys made a good living doing it,
which I thought football was like, man, this is the best opportunity I'll ever have.
And so broadcasting was never on my forefront of my life.
And I'm very much like this.
When I'm in something, you get everything from me.
It's my primary.
All the other secondary stuff, and I'll make it work, but I'm not affecting my primary gig.
So broadcasting was just secondary to me.
And I think I got a call from one of these network executives who asked me to go to breakfast
with him.
So I meet him at breakfast.
And the first thing out of his mouth was, how much long do you want to play football?
And they were talking about it.
And that let me know, damn, they're looking at me to actually have a job and I'm done playing,
commentating.
And I went to Fox out of all the networks because it was the most fun.
It was the most fun.
And it's like I hang out with my teammates and we laugh and we joke and we had more fun off camera
as much as we, more than we have on camera,
which we have a ton on camera.
It's more about personalities.
And to be honest with you, we don't,
it's entertainment, you know?
Right.
For sure.
People sit in meetings all week.
You want to watch a football show and watch another meeting?
Or you want to make a fun, man.
You want to have fun with.
So that's why I ended up with Fox.
But I realized probably my last two years in a league
that there was an opportunity for me outside of the game.
But forget about sport.
All the other stuff after that, I had no clue.
That's what's really the most eye-opening is how much you've done in TV.
Like you start, you're doing the Fox and all that.
You do morning shows.
You got game shows.
Like, what is your fate?
What brings you the most joy that you do on television?
Football.
Still?
Nothing whatever changed that.
Nothing.
I love it.
And don't get me wrong.
Like, I love doing the news.
I love, I love it.
You know what?
Because it keeps me interested in the world.
It keeps me engaged with so many things that are going on.
and keep me very aware of what's going on, which I think is important.
And I get to talk to interesting people.
I get to travel world to do interesting stories.
So that part I love.
That's awesome.
The game show was great.
But we shoot a whole season in a week or two.
That's what's crazy about that stuff.
Yeah.
Rapid Fire, man.
Yeah.
And you and Travis know, because I was telling Travis.
I watched your show.
I dove in a little bit, man.
You already know.
Those shows can get crazy.
man. I got more comfortable as it went on, but
that's a different world that
you know, I have fun with, and I'm sure you did too, man.
But I think I'm right there with you, man.
There's just something about talking about football and being
around the game and given the expertise that you've
gathered over the years.
It's also this, and I'm sure you would back this up, Mike,
but one of the things you miss most about playing
is just being around the guys.
Like, nothing replaces being around football players.
I don't know why it is.
You miss that locker room, like, that's the thing that you miss most about the game,
or at least that's what I do.
And once you're back on a set talking ball, it's not even that you're, it's kind of
talk of ball, but it's also just being around like-minded guys that think about the game
the same way, the sense of humor is the same.
And you get flashback to that, you know, sitting at the cafeteria table, making fun of, you
know, whoever it is or talking about, do you see what that guy did last week?
Yeah.
I don't know.
Oh, what would you say, but what would you say?
I don't want to show you that.
I don't want to show you what they already sit since we ended on Sunday.
But we're on a group chat and we've got talk a year-round.
Even Jimmy's still involved on it because he's part of the history of the show.
And the crazy thing is there is no age gap when we're all together.
You know what I mean?
Jimmy is 80-something, Terry, 70-something.
And you feel that when you're watching it.
You do.
You really do feel that.
Yeah.
There's no age gap that we can make fun.
of each other and we play off each other, but we respect each other. And everybody has accomplished
more in their life and as football and in sports than we ever imagine. So this is like gravy and
we're so grateful. And there's no, no attitude. There's no anything about any individual. We're
very much about our team and about, you know, loving each other and making sure we each are,
all of us are taken care of and validated and happy. And I think that's a big part of why
our show works. And, you know, but yeah, the group chaps and, you know, but yeah, the group chaps and
and all the other stuff.
And I found, like, the older guys, Terry, Jimmy,
they're the least mature of all of us.
Because they're at the age, man,
when we be back in the green room,
they didn't say some stuff.
You can't do.
You can't think I can say that on air.
Don't say that with the mic.
They grew up in a different era.
They grew up in a different era.
And exactly.
Well, they're at the end of Fox NFL Sunday.
I got to ask you,
talked about the Fox family,
the addition of Robert Grankowski,
Gronk joined the Fox family not too long ago, man.
You got to tell me what it's like working with Gronk, man.
You know what I always say, and it's kind of like Terry.
People think that Terry Bradshaw is crazy.
Terry's one of the smartest people.
I know.
I said, Terry, you've done better in your life playing the dumb guy than anybody I've ever met my.
Terry's a brilliantly smart guy and the businesses, the horse business and all these other things that he does.
And I think I feel the same about Gronk.
Gronk is incredibly, incredibly, first of all, he's part of the sweetest human being on the plane.
The dude is like one of the nicest human beings.
And one thing I realized from my experience that coming in the Fox after they've been
on the air for 20 years or whatever, 18, 19 years without having anybody else come in
and here I show up, it's intimidating because you're looking at guys that you watched,
that you were a kid, and you admired who are now, you're sitting next to them.
But it's tough fitting in.
And Gronk has done an incredible job of fitting in, first of all.
And secondly, I think that Gronk has done a great job.
of fighting his lane? Because that's the hard part. But you got personalities who are established,
what's your lay? This is my lane. That's your lane. But he's getting more, and I love he
get more comfortable because he's still not quite comfortable. And I don't blame it. But he gave
more comfortable. And I always tell him sometimes, dude, don't wait for us to wait for to jump in.
You got something to say, just jump in. We're like very casual. Guys will shut up and let you have
your take. No one's worried about you getting more words than the next guy. We don't do a workout here.
It's like, we just want you to be comfortable and happy because you're helping this show.
And yeah, Grock, I love him.
We flew back to New York together and on Monday yesterday.
Just the salt of the earth human being, man.
I love working with it.
That was bold topics brought to you by Intuit TurboTex.
Thank you to our sponsor, Allstate.
Checking Allstate first could save you hundreds on car insurance.
That's smart.
That's right.
Not checking your tea time before heading to the golf course.
Not smart.
No, no, that's not.
You'll never hear the end of it from your friends if you're that guy that has to be carted out to join your group for the second hole.
Ooh, that's the worst.
Missing the first hole, two off the tee.
You don't get two off the tea in the second hole.
Yeah, checking first is smart.
So checking Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds.
Really smart.
You're in good hands with Allstate.
Potential savings varies subject to terms, conditions, and availability.
Allstate North American Insurance Company affiliates Northbrook, Illinois.
Thank you to our part.
partner, Claude.
Ever notice how quickly people want answers these days?
Yeah.
Right.
It's all shortcuts, I guess, huh?
But the best solutions don't come from taking the easy way out.
No, no, no.
While other AI gives you fast answers it keeps you scrolling,
Claude's built for the people who want to work through the complexity.
Yeah, like tackling the hard problems and the why behind the answers they're searching for.
Man, I tell you, this is right at my answer.
is for the people who are up at 2 a.m.
Because they can't stop thinking about something until they solve it.
Not just checking a box and going about to their day, you know.
That's right.
Well, whether it's building something with purpose,
diving deep on a complex decision,
or feeding genuine curiosity about understanding something Claude's built
to expand your thinking, not rush you past it.
Breakthroughs versus shortcuts.
That actually makes sense.
Check out Claude.
dot AI slash new heights for problem solvers who keep thinking.
Thank you to our partner, Liquid Ivy.
As two guys that have been there, we know that hydration is crucial when you're getting ready
for the big game.
And Liquid IV is here to make hydrating so much easier with their sugar-free hydration multiplier.
Just one stick and 16 ounces of water, people, that hydrates you better than water alone.
It's clinically tested.
the nutrients turn ordinary water into extraordinary hydration.
And there's tons of flavors to choose from like strawberry watermelon, lemon, lemon, lime, raspberry
lemonade. And there's other ones too.
Yeah, there is.
No matter what you choose, it'll hit the spot.
So get your favorite flavor now at liquid iv.com and use code new heights at checkout for
20% off your first order.
And don't be scared to go big.
Orders over $90 get a free limited edition Liquid Ivy tailgate kit while supplies
last. Yeah, baby, tear, poor, live more.
Head to liquid iv.com and get 20%
off your first order with code. New Heights Head Checkout.
All right, Strait, before we get you out of here, we always end
our conversations with a little segment called
We Gotta Ask, but you don't have to answer. You can just tell us
the fuck off, but We Gotta Ask is brought to you by Allstate.
Oh, boy. You do not have to answer? Yeah, you can tell us the fuck off.
I'll be on with you. Kind of hard. Kind of hard not to answer, though. I kind of
like skating on the edge, man.
There we go.
All right, here we go.
We'll talk about skating on the edge of the atmosphere.
What was it like going to space?
Amazing.
Dude.
Crazy because the whole thing was like 12 minute.
Boop, boop.
Felt like hours.
What?
Really?
To be in the light and you're looking up as space,
looking at the darkness up there,
and then the rocket starts taking off.
And it's not like Apollo 13 movie with Tom Hank.
It's kind of just gradual,
it's like a gradual push.
and you look at your little screen because these seed have the little screen tells you the altitude, the speed.
You're like, oh, 40,000 feet.
I've been in a plane.
Then you're looking down.
Then you look back as like, you're 200,000 feet, your 2,000 mouths per hour, something crazy.
And you're going, oh, my God, this is real.
And the design of the ship is amazing.
When it goes up, it's designed to twist.
So you don't have to turn your head.
Just look out your own window and you get to see the full 360 because they're the emergency booster in the middle.
So you got to keep your head back because something happens and that shoot you off.
That shoot you off at nine Gs.
When you're going out, there's like three and a half.
Yeah.
Like your top gun or something.
But the gradual push up is like three and a half Gs, I want to say.
Coming down is like five Gs.
But when you get up there and they release the main rocket from the capsule and they go,
and then you realize, oh my God, my arms are flowing.
And then the lights go off.
You can undo your belt, put your belt up.
and you,
but you push as hard as you two,
your two fingers,
like holding the cell phone,
like that kind of pressure.
And then I'm doing flips,
man.
My big ass has never done a flip.
I haven't done a flips out of the kid.
And I'm doing,
I'm doing like flips.
We had a little mini football that you do like that.
And it just goes,
it doesn't,
none of it.
It's just,
and blowing in one face
and doing like the cartoons
where you're flapping,
you have nothing.
You'll just sit in one spot.
And then it's just amazing to float around.
You're looking back at Earth.
And it's,
like you're watching when you leave your, um, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your,
your, your, your, your, your, your, and it was literally you, you, it, and it was,
literally you, I want the best parts with Sean's kind of creepy is that you have to come to
turn with death. Oh, wow. And by that, I mean, before you take off, you become so
relaxed and free. That's the way to put it. You just come so, yeah. If it's God's will, this is what it is. This is
is how I go. And, wow.
Believe me, though, I was happy to come back.
But everybody on the ground was crying.
And stuff for my mom, my mom was like, your dad did worse.
He was jumping out of planes all the time.
He was a paratrooper.
I'm like, well, damn, mom, you know what?
Come on.
But everybody else was crying, but all of us on there were just so happy, man, so filled with joy.
And it was one of the best things I've ever done in my life without a doubt.
Wow.
That is incredible.
I wanted to hear, baby.
And that was a long explanation, but I...
No, I loved every second of it, man.
I'm so in.
I tell you, you would love it.
They do an incredible job from start to finish.
And I would highly recommend it.
If you get the opportunity to do it, I would jump on it in a heartbeat.
It's a life changing.
A lot of ways makes you realize how insignificant you are on this in the world.
But it also makes you realize how important you are to the people that matter the most
to you, because I'm...
on there thinking about my family and like I'm not ready to leave them and they're not ready
for me to leave either. Like it really puts a lot of things to perspective. That is beautiful,
man. You've done so much, Mike. What's next? What is the next thing for Michael Strahan? A retirement.
Like full, just all around work. Nah, man. I know. There's no way. You know what? Yeah,
there's the way at some point. Some, some point, man. You know what it is? I love Fox. I have
I absolutely love that. But I just want to, it works so much. And then I want to go here. I want to go there. And I can't do a lot of things because I got these commitments and schedule stuff. And I think at some point, I have to look at time lived and time left. I got you. And you guys are young, man. Y'all, y'all, y'all enjoy it. You got more time ahead of you than behind you. I got more time behind me than ahead of me. So I'm starting to look more in that vein of life. And I'm not just going to completely disappear. But another thing is,
I love business and I got a lot of other businesses that I do.
And those things interest me like football did because I had to learn them.
Like I had to learn football later.
And I love doing those things.
And I think I could get a lot of, you know, validation or out of just, you know,
not feeling completely retired and doing nothing.
But that gives me enough.
And on top of that, I still, I do Fox until they throw me off of Fox.
Man, I don't want to be 80 years old on Fox, but I stick around a little bit longer.
You got some fun stuff coming up with Smack Entertainment, right?
You guys got some docu-series coming out, right?
Yeah, we got a docu-series coming out.
Coach Vic, and this is the second one we did with Mike.
Because Mike, we did the evolution of the black quarterback with Vic.
Yep.
And which Andy Reid, your coach played a big part in that doc,
because think about the quarterback, he McNabb, Vic,
all these guys that he really brought in and gave a chance,
when other people probably wouldn't have.
So he's been very instrumental in that.
So that and now we have Coach Vic
and his foray into coaching at Norfolk State.
That's right.
Folks State, baby.
Him and Deshawn Jackson going at it right there.
Two former Eagle grades.
I came down for GMA and I was at the stadium
and we had both of them there
because they were doing the game there and at the link.
And I'm like, I felt out of place in Philly, man.
All that Eagle stuff.
I'm like, we could have done this at a neutral sight.
Don't bring them here to interview these guys with this plate.
So we got Coach Vic coming up.
We also, we have a movie coming out too.
I'm going to screen it right after we get done here.
And that one is about John Madd.
We did the documentary on the Mad video game, John.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
And then we did Bill Belichick on the Madden, Madden Cruiser for the Super Bowl in New Orleans.
We produced that.
and now we're doing the Madden movie with David O. Russell's directing Christian Bell
plays Al Davis.
Nicholas Case plays John Madden.
And so that I'm going to screen now because that's coming out.
Man, I can't fucking wait, man.
That's going to be good.
That looks awesome, man.
That looks so fucking awesome.
It's going to be incredible.
And obviously, John Madden is he's one of the biggest personalities that I, I, like,
he was the world when I was growing up.
And I can only imagine what it was to actually be like.
be in a room with him and to enjoy who he was as a person, man.
But you know those pregame meetings.
I mean, imagine doing those pregame meetings and you're meeting with John Madden.
That's crazy.
And then you're at the stadium and that bus is sitting there and you're like, oh, my God, John Madden
fear.
That was more pressure than freaking John Runyon.
I got to ask, you brought up John a couple times.
I do got to ask you this.
I see the highlights.
And I see a lot of Michael Strayhan.
highlights. I know you've always given John
his credit as being tough, physical,
but what was it really like?
What was it like for Michael Strayhan going up against John Runyon?
Tough. Easier when he first got there.
Because he was in Tennessee.
And then when they brought him to Philly,
the whole thing with him, we brought him to Philly to stop
Strayhan, which pissed me off.
So I studied John Runyon more than I probably
study anybody. I could tell what he was going to do before he can do it.
I could tell he was going to fart before he farted.
That's how much John knew that can, right?
But I will say as we played each other more and more over the years, the tougher it got, the more savvy he got.
He and Eric Williams with the Dallas Cowboys, my number one toughest guy.
John Runyon and Leon Searsie, who the offensive tackle played at Pittsburgh and then in Jacksonville, were the word 2A and 2B.
and so freaking strong and tough and smart.
And I love John because John made me a better player.
Those three I named made me a better player because playing against them made everybody else seem easy.
And even at my Hall of Fame induction, John Kane, which meant the world to me.
And I had to get him a shout out.
I had to get my shout out.
So I said, John Runyon, 6, 7, 350 pounds, whatever of twisted steel.
and no sex appeal.
So,
so I got to go give him a compliment.
Oh, no.
Could you have ever called out
that he was going to be the VP of rules
and policy and handed,
additional fines for guys
that are given late hit and cheap shots?
You know, it's kind of like, what's that?
Catch Me If You can character.
That's exactly right.
You hired a guy who does the crime
so that you know how,
who now.
who the cats
doing the crime.
John, man,
I couldn't believe it.
I'm like,
how are you fining anybody?
We should go
and retroactively find your ass
for what you were doing.
Oh, man.
That's so fucking good.
All right, man.
We got to wrap
and get you out of here,
Big Dog.
We appreciate the time,
but we always end
these interviews
or these talks
with a welcome
to the NFL moment.
Man.
What was your welcome
to the NFL moments,
Dre?
Oh, man.
I've had, well, one was I was actually playing in the game, the other one I was just actually
a rookie at the game.
As a rookie at the game, we were playing the 49ers in the playoffs in San Fran.
And I just remember being there, and I'm coming from Texas Southern Man.
I'm watching Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Ricky Waters, all these guys.
And I'm like, can I have your autograph?
That's what I wanted to do.
I want an autograph.
A lot of hear those Jerry Rice come around.
they running like a damn stallion.
That was the most amazing, amazing thing.
But my welcome to the NFL moment was playing the Cowboys, playing against Eric Williams.
And we're out there and we're fighting, man.
We're battling.
And I'm like, you know what, mother, you wait till next time.
I'm going to do that.
I'm going to do that.
He looked at me and he said, let me tell you something, young fellow.
That may happen in the future.
But right now, you just take this whipping like a girl.
You just take this ass with a man.
You just take this ass whipping like a man.
Oh, my God.
Whoa, okay.
And he was right.
You gotta take that ass whipping like a man.
And that was my welcome to the NFL.
There's some bad boy die here.
You know always king of the jungle.
I love that.
That is so good.
That's similar to mine.
I've told this,
we probably won't even put in the episode,
but I got to tell you this after that.
I got a Jay Ratliff with the Cowboys.
And it was my first time playing like a head-up nose
or a 5-0 and everything.
So it's me and him.
him one-on-one, and he was whooping my ass.
Like, I could not block him.
He didn't have a sack.
I get a holding call later in the game.
And I'm, and I didn't think it was a good call.
I started yelling at the ref.
And I look back at J-Im, like, man, you know that's some bullshit.
He's like, son, I've been whipping your ass all day.
I had to figure I deserve one of them.
You know what?
I ain't got nothing to say.
You're right.
But we all have that one guy, man.
Yeah.
All got that one guy.
We all had those moments.
But, hey, if you didn't have those kind of moments, you didn't play football.
Seriously.
Who was yours?
What was your moment?
I had about five of them.
I had one of those guys on every team, actually.
It was, you know, the one I saw twice a year was Vaughn Miller, though.
Von Von Von, you know, when they were on those Super Bowl runs with Payton, man.
Von was a, he was a beast and he was mean, man.
I've learned to know Vaughn.
Von is like he's a great guy, like just a, just an A1 human being.
But man, when he in between those whistles, he was trying to embarrass you.
I tell you what, man, I was, I was in the Bahama and then Vaughn came over to hang out.
I'd never seen somebody with legs that big.
Oh, yeah.
He's, he's, he's, he's an animal now.
Really?
I wouldn't expect that.
I didn't even more splendor.
I didn't either.
I was like, I mean, I should be calming on another man's ass and
legs, but I was like,
damn, if I was built like that, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah, he produces some torque, man.
With that being said, though, before we go,
I got to give a shout out to my guy,
Miles Garrett, though.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
It was quite an incredible season, unstoppable, unblockable player, man.
I've never, you know, usually a guy has like one move or something like that at a counter.
There's nothing he doesn't have.
And it's crazy.
You're watching him and going,
how could a guy that big be that fast and lean that low?
How could the guy be that big and that strong and run somebody over?
How does he open after hips and come inside?
He's such a savvy ball player too, man.
He knows what's coming.
But yeah, congrats to Miles, man.
A incredible season.
I'm so happy for him.
And he really is a good dude, man.
I've had a chance to have lunch and spend some time with him and hit him up and talk
to him before and after that.
And I always try to encourage him because, as you guys know,
we play and pretty soon we're just another.
guy who played in the league in so many ways, and it's time for the next generation.
And you just got encouraged them because I always had guys that encouraged me.
And I hate to see when, when, you know, old guys, we tear down these young players.
Games different. Pay is different. All these things are different.
I remember making $3 million a year. And I was the highest paid defense of being in the league.
And that was a big deal because I was making as much more than Bruce Smith and Reggie and all those guys.
And then I end up jumping up like $8 million a year.
And that was unheard of.
Now, five times that would probably be the going rate.
But you can't think back because back then, like that was doing well in those times.
So I always want to encourage these young guys.
I always wanted to encourage these young guys, man.
Don't just look at them as if he didn't play in my era and you couldn't play.
Okay, okay, fine.
They weren't born.
What can you do?
Money in the parents.
No doubt.
No doubt.
We can go ahead and leave it right there.
That was beautifully said, Big Dog.
And I can't thank you enough for the wisdom, just you being you, your personality.
Seriously.
I'm telling you, man, what you've been to just me as a player and always reaching out and being kind, man.
I can't thank you enough for being you, big dog.
Well, I appreciate you both for having me, man.
And really, in all sincerity, I think you two are the best.
So keep on doing it.
And I love the brotherly love.
And I love the fact that you guys are just who you are and you're being yourself.
And that's your, that's the magic.
of the Kelsey brothers, man.
Come on now.
Thank you, big dog.
I appreciate my.
You're the best, brother.
All right, fella.
Straight.
You're the best, man.
Appreciate the time, dog.
Once again, that was,
we got to ask,
brought to you by Allstate.
All right.
Let's wrap up this episode
with some stamps of the week.
Stamp of the week is brought to you
by Adobe Acrobat.
Anna.
Jets fans finally have a quarterback sort of
in the Super Bowl.
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Look at this.
Jake Chatsky.
I hope the Patriots get fucking shit rocked
in the Super Bowl.
What's the disdain?
That's an hilarious tweet, though.
I'm fully biased.
I fucking hate the Patriots.
They've ruined the majority of my football watching life.
You're putting the Patriots at fault for the Jets being an awful organization?
As a Jets fan, I don't like the Patriots.
Jason, like, you don't like the Cowboys.
I understand how fandom works.
Right.
I'm just saying, don't blame the Patriots for your guy's mouth practice of what football has been played.
Well, and all, yes.
I agree. Fine. Those are separate issues.
But when one of the teams that is like my bitter rival has six Super Bowls and all this success,
and then I have to hear about Patriots fans like going through a hard time and their rebuild
of what, four fucking years and two quarterbacks and that's it.
Yeah, it's bullshit. And so I hope that they get fucking shot up in Super Bowl.
To me it is. To me it is. I don't think it's bullshit. I think they went out and got to
a great head coach and then they found a great quarterback.
I don't think it's bullshit.
I mean, yeah, that's it.
Well, it's just, I can never have nice things.
The Jets just keep fucking up.
And like, if the Patriots words.
You can just turn in that Jets green for some Patriots gear.
And you can have nice things.
You're going to make me puke.
No, I would net.
That's not like how.
That's going to make you puke more than your, your experience with the Jets over the past
however many years.
I'm a loyal guy. I will be loyal to the Jets until the day that they finally kill me, which is probably how I'll end up dying.
But I will not turn my back on the team, even though they keep making dumb decision after dumb decision.
And if the Patriots weren't smart enough, they'd probably have Gerard Mayo and we'd have Mike Vrable.
So like that makes it even worse, is that I have to watch Mike Vrable, who is in all likelihood, probably going to be the Jets coach last year, go do this with the Patriots.
It's just, it's a nightmare of errors. We should have had Sam Darnold. He should say,
still be our quarterback, but no, he had to, like, go to five different teams before he could go to
the Super Bowl. And now I just have to root for Sam Darnold to avenge his ghosts and let me have,
like, a slight win in the fact that Patriots fans will not be happy. How many great Jets players
are playing in the Super Bowl? You have Sam Donald, another one people don't want to talk about
Leonard Williams. Leonard Williams is a stand out of the Jets. Yep. Who else is there? There's got to be
some other names that I'm not even thinking about that are playing in the Super Bowl. They lost
the Leonard Williams and the Jets, yeah. I can't think many off the top of my head, but
Well, all I'm saying is it doesn't sound like you can blame the players or the Patriots.
I just don't, I don't want good things to happen to that franchise.
In particular, like, the people who root for that franchise are like people who have been
tormenting me personally for 30 years.
And those people don't change.
You know what I mean?
Like the Patriots fans who are rooting for Tom Brady and being like, ha, ha, ha, fuck the Jets.
They're the same people who get to enjoy Drake May now.
So I understand it's like a different team, but I will not be happy for them.
that. All right. That's understandable.
Who are you room for, Tram?
I probably, you know, I like, I fucking love a good Mike Vrable story, man.
I love Braves. He's always been the fucking best, man.
He just felt like he would have been an awesome coach to play for.
But I do love the same Donald story.
I love, I got a lot of guys over in Seattle that I admire.
It's a tough one. There's a good, there's a good storyline on both of them.
Cincinnati Bearcats got Kobe Bryant over there playing DB.
I'm rooting for him.
I'm rooting for AJ Barner, another Cleveland kid,
both of those guys out of Cleveland.
So I don't know.
Sam Darnold is, I like that story right now.
And to see him flourish would be pretty damn cool to see him go from where he's been
to winning a Super Bowl.
I like Sam Darnold.
I love the Seahawks defense.
I like the way they play.
There's just a certain amount of respect that you have.
Kenneth Walker, the way he was running this last game.
Oh, my gosh.
It's a beast.
But then there is, like, I like Drake.
man. I like the rookie quarterback.
There's nothing to not like about the Patriots.
It's just the story of the Seattle.
I like, I don't know, man.
I like that defense over there in New England.
I like Milton Williams, my former teammate.
Mack Hollins, my former teammate.
Yeah, it'll be interesting.
I can't wait to watch it.
Mack Holland is like Anderson-Barris-O.
He is, which you know I was a big Anderson-Vargeau fan.
Who was it if you were a cast fan?
I do think, I think teams overthink the third receiver sometimes.
I think Matt Holland is.
Dude, he is a, he's been amazing everywhere he's been.
He really has.
I'm saying, they, I feel like they're always trying to get like this shifty, like,
route runner.
And it's like, dude, it's so much better.
Get the guy that just plays ball, man.
Dude, get into 11 personnel and have a guy that can do all these things that you can do
out of 12 if you want to play nickel.
And I, I don't know, man.
I just think he, and then it's also like a mismatch height-wise and size-wise for a lot of
the safety's trying to guard them.
Like, anyways, all right.
Let's get back on track.
Stamp of the week, stand for the week, stand for the week.
I'm going to go our old Cincinnati GA.
Yeah, Jesse Minter.
Obviously, his father is a well-renowned coach in the college in NFL.
And Minner has been unbelievable since he's been with the Chargers,
really since he's been in Michigan under Harbaugh.
But now is the new head coach of the Baltimore Ravens.
Has some big shoes to fill over there in Baltimore.
But happy as hell for you, Coach Minter.
And good luck.
and the AFC next year, brother.
That's a great one, Tray.
I love that one.
I'm going to go, I mean, we just talked about hating the Cowboys and Jets Jake, hating the Patriots.
I'm going to go to former cowboy, DeMarcus Lawrence.
This is a great quote, man.
Dude, he called this back then, and when he said it, I was like, this is a bit much.
But God damn, I got to give him credit now, DeMarcus Lawrence said back in March,
when he signed in Seattle and left Dallas Cowboys, where he had been his whole career,
Yep.
He said Dallas is my home, but I know for sure I'm not going to win a Super Bowl there.
And DeMarcourt is now going to the Super Bowl with the Seattle season.
God, damn it.
At his age very well.
He also got into a back and forth with Michael Parsons over this,
where Parsons was kind of calling him out on his podcast or whatever platform that was.
And DeLaw shot some words back at him.
And now neither are in Dallas.
But yeah, there's one common denominator.
Either way, yeah, DeMarcus Lawrence is, you know,
this has aged very well to age even better if they end up pulling and went off against the Patriots.
And maybe I should wait on this?
Should I wait until after the Super Bowl to make this the stamp of the week?
Is it not good enough until he's won the Super Bowl?
Nah, I see.
You got to cash.
Yeah, you got to cash in on that when you can.
Delaw, just the fact that you call this and you're in it is enough for me.
And that wraps up, stamp of the week.
Brought to you by Adobe Acrobat.
And that wraps up another episode of New Heights.
Thank you to Michael Strayhead.
No doubt.
We've also got some more new heights coming this Friday with a Super Bowl edition of Heights Hotline.
You're not going to want to miss.
So make sure you subscribe to the new heights channel on YouTube and follow New Heights in the Wonder app or wherever we get your podcast.
You can listen to new episodes of New Heights ad free right now by joining Wonderly Plus in the Wonder app or on that podcast.
Once again, New Heights of Wonder Show brought to you by Xfinity.
Make sure you follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with Wines.
Thanks to the New Heights production team for always making us look amazing and making our job so much easy.
here and we really appreciate what you guys do and tell you 92 percenters you guys should appreciate
them too because we appreciate you you you guys should appreciate them and we love you guys we'll
see you guys sounds like friday ticto was trying to ban me trav only three ticks in they were trying
to talk me what you post i think it was because i had ticot in my username my username was
and they were like we can't have that on the platform it didn't really give me a lot of good
answers and then when we reached out it was like you can't have ticot in your name so i thought
about doing like jason kelsey hates this app and i was like you know what's not
The let's just fucking get Jason Kelsey.
That's why Jake's best in the biz.
He said, just use your name.
I'm getting banned like tomorrow.
What'd you post?
I sometimes leave comments and sometimes those comments
aren't what people would call helpful.
Give us a mundane one that isn't going to get you in trouble.
If it's a front-facing video and you're in your car recording it,
I know I'm in for a bad time.
The second you get this and it's like,
all right, guys, let's talk.
I'm like, I'm already furious.
If the car is moving and you're talking into your camera,
furious.
I'm not a big selfie taker.
But my TikTok right now,
I have two that open up on my face, and I think they're funny, so I got to break that trend?
You'd be fine.
It's ironic when you do it.
It's funny when you do it.
When people are generally want to see their own face is when I get disgusted.
Why are you this so confident?
What is wrong with you?
You shouldn't feel this good about yourself.
All right.
I'm going to yell into this camera.
Let's do this.
