Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Former Viking LeRoy Hoard talks 1998, Randy Moss and his radio career

Episode Date: February 4, 2021

Matthew Coller connects with former Minnesota Viking LeRoy Hoard to talk about why he was so beloved as a player and a variety of other subjects, including the 1998 season, why he was upset at the outside perception of Randy Moss, what he loved about playing with Cris Carter and how LeRoy views being a part of the media as a sports talk host in Miami. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizway or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider brought to you by Scout Logistics. Matthew Collar here. We welcome in Leroy Hoard, former Minnesota Viking, a legend in Cleveland as well, and now making his legend in Miami on sports radio. What is up, Leroy? What's happening? Leroy, are you aware how popular you are with Vikings fans? I just want to know that. Like, you certainly know that Cleveland Browns fans appreciate your efforts. But in Minnesota, you're 10th all-time in rushing touchdowns.

And even though you're playing with Randy Moss and Randall Cunningham and Chris Carter, there is a special spot in Vikings fans' hearts for Leroy Hort. I've been fortunate throughout my career that I've never had to change the way I played football. In high school, I was a physical guy. When I got to Michigan, a physical guy. I got to Cleveland, physical guy. And even in the past happy, wide open offense of Minnesota, I was still able to be the same type of player.

And so from that standpoint, when you are in Minnesota and you have Randy Moss and Robert Smith and Chris Carter and Jake Reed and David Palmer and all these, like, weapons, I kind of stick out like a sore thumb. Right? Because I'm just – my style of play was a little bit different. But it was needed because there's always a time in football, I don't care how wide open, run and shoot, there's always a time in football when you have to just line up in front of the other guy and beat the guy in front of you. And that was your specialty. I want

to know, before we get into some other things, like I want to hear about your media career, how you're liking that, and about, you know, playing for those great teams, and then the Super Bowl, but I want to know, much was you and how much was pads? Because you those guys in the 90s were the biggest pads. And I had I remember I had a football card of yours where I swear the pads are going past your ear holes. How much was your size? How much about 15 to 225 pounds at the most. And everybody, you know, for that reason, because of those pads, I could walk the streets wherever I played and nobody would ever know it was me because everybody, there's no way he's bigger than that. Right.

And so I remember I was in Cleveland and my uncle was in town. We went to a bar and we literally sat down and I bought drinks for a guy having a conversation about me for two hours without him ever knowing that it was me. And so I was always fine with that. Like I didn't, I got so much more out of football than the numbers um i love being on in a team environment i love being in the atmosphere i love like being you know seeing the fans and seeing them just ecstatic and happy i loved loved all that stuff and probably the numbers and all of that was a side note.

So from that standpoint and case in point, if you go look at my career, I probably had seven or eight games where I finished with 99, 98 yards. And the coach would say, you want to go and get 100? I'm like, what's two more yards? Right? Like 100 is the benchmark for what? Right. So I was like, no, the game's over.

Let's live to play another day. Right. Let Mo Williams take care of it at that point, right? Yeah. No, that's great because when I looked at your listed weight, I was like, really? Because you looked like Jerome Bettis. Yeah. And yet you were definitely not Jerome Bettis yeah and yet you were definitely

not Jerome Bettis size which I thought was cool and uh I let's talk about the 98 99 that those teams because you get here in 96 and then you take on this cool role of being the hammer of that team that was so finesse in 1998 and I just want to know when you guys knew you were great. Like, was it training camp and you saw Randy Moss run and you're like, oh, okay, this could be special. But, I mean, usually in training camp you get a sense for how the team's going to be. But did you ever expect it was going to be 15-1 and be one of the greatest

offenses in history? You know what you get a sense of in camp, and this is with everybody, because you don't really practice against anybody. You're practicing against yourselves. And the one thing we took out of that camp is, whew, Randy's fast. Right? Because we would abuse our defense, and we never thought we were that good because we were beating our defense.

Right. You know, because you got John Randall. He can't sack anybody. So it was always a little skewed. But the one thing you do in camp is you realize what type of team you're going to have as far as camaraderie, as far as maybe holding each other accountable as far as working together as far as you know if you have a good rapport with everybody you play with how quick are you going to be able to make adjustments right how are you learning the offense how are we able we had a unique offense in

that you didn't you didn't learn a play based on your position. You learned a play based on where you were on the field. So it was first receiver, outside, second receiver, and so forth and so on. So we could run the same play out of a bunch of different formations, and everybody had to know what they were doing based on where they were on the field, not what position they played. Interesting. And we picked that up pretty good.

We picked that up, and Chris was a veteran of it. There was a few guys on the team, Jake Reed, a veteran of it. And so as we kind of started going through camp, we were like, man, everything's clicking. Now, we didn't know how good we were going to be but then when you start playing the games and you see who this randy man this randy is really good we're running the ball really and you still never really get a feel for it i i think when it finally kind of clicked for us is when we beat Green Bay. Yeah.

Because that was the team, you know, and everybody threw up the numbers. Oh, you know, Minnesota hasn't beaten Green Bay. And that was, you know, that's probably the turning point when we realized that, hey, we got a chance at this. We're rolling. Everything is going good. You know, we had that one blip against Tampa, which was, if you look at that game and then realize what happened in the championship game,

they're very similar in that, you know, they were physical, pushed us around a little bit, and we didn't reapply pressure. Even though we had the ability to do it, you just get caught up in playing a certain type of game. And that's not even – that's the whole everybody. When you go into a game saying this is going to be a physical game and this is going to be a hard-fought game, right before the half, you don't think about, you know, going down and scoring inside your own 10.

You think about getting out of the first half with that 10-point lead. You see what I mean? Yes. And it kind of catches you off guard because you've had so much success, you don't realize, you know, that, oh, no, we can just be us. Don't worry. We're going to score 20 points in the second half. We're going to score three touchdowns.

You know, and the next thing you know, you're in a dogfight. Right. And you run out of time. And then every play matters. And then a field goal matters. And then you're like, oh, no, we lost. And that's kind of how it happened. Not, you know, and it wasn know now about how that game played out.

Sure. We would have handled it a little bit differently. Yeah. And so you got to give them credit because, look, they had nothing to lose. They were coming after the quarterback. They were, you know, wide open. And it's good on them, you know, good on Atlanta. So, yeah, but the only thing i probably regret from that season and this is what sports in general when you're good and you get on the run

you never really enjoy it because you're always expecting that there's going to be more sure yeah and when the season ended i'm like wow i only went to one nfc championship game and the only thing i took away from it was misery. You know what I mean? That is the Vikings existence. Right. And so from that standpoint, it was, you know, disappointing. But at the same time, it's sports.

It's how those things play out. I don't blame anybody you know sometimes you just get caught up and you know one of the signs of a great team and what when i say about kansas city is if you look at the different ways they've won games in the two years you can't pin you can't say they are only one type of team. Right, yeah. They've won games 17-14. They've won games where they were down 24.

They've won shootouts. They've won games where they had to run the ball for 200 yards. They've won games where they had to pass it for 400 yards. Like, they can come at you from so many different angles that that's a sign of a great team. I think back then, as good as we were, we were really only going to beat you one way. And that's the outrun you.

Right. Yeah. And I think it's interesting that of all the things that happened that season, all the numbers you put up, that your mind goes right to that game. Because I think that happens with everybody who's a Vikings fan because that felt like the best team that most people had ever seen. I mean, if you weren't around to see the Purple People Eaters in the 70s, that was the best Vikings team that you've ever seen.

And then you just end up with the regrets of if you're more aggressive on the last drive or if this plays out or if there's not a dropped interception here or there. I mean, it's one of the most fascinating games to analyze, too, to go back to if only one more thing had broken your way, you're in the Super Bowl. Well, you know what? I don't necessarily have any regrets about the plays that occurred during a game because one of the things that I tell people all the time is,

football is the closest thing to perfect sports. When you think about basketball, you shoot 40% from three, you're doing good. If you bet 300 in baseball, you're going to be a Hall of Famer. Football is the closest thing to 100% in sports that we have. And nobody ever gets it. And the thing is, is that we've all made mistakes during a football game. I've fumbled during football games.

I've dropped passes during football games. I've dropped passes during football games. I've missed blocks. The thing that is scary about making the mistake is you never know how crucial that mistake is going to be as far, and that's the only plays you remember as far as what, you know, what happened in that game. I'm one of those people that, look, I can't point the finger at anybody. Right. I've never played a perfect football game. fortunate that my mistakes weren't costly as some other people's mistakes, even though they may have been the same mistakes. Like, we don't remember Leroy fumbling, but we remember the guy that fumbled at the end of the game. Right, right, right. It may have been his only fumble of his life, you know, and that's just the way sports is. So I don't necessarily put any blame on it i would just say we had mistakes that occur during the normal play of a football game at the wrong times yeah that's a

good way to put it you see what i mean like if if if um gary anderson had missed his first field goal of the year and never missed one all year. What are we saying now? Do you think about the miss? Right. If he misses it in the first quarter instead of the fourth quarter. Right. If we lost the first two games of the season and then ran the table, we're Super Bowl champs.

Right. Right. We lost our second game in the AFC Championship game. So it's like, yeah, it's unfortunate. I wish that I had enjoyed it more and not taken it for granted. I think a lot of times you make assumptions, and maybe that played into it too, that we just assumed we're going to the Super Bowl. Right, right.

Like who's going to stop us? But, again, you have these mistakes here and there at crucial moments. It might have only been three mistakes the whole game. But they happen at the worst possible time. And that's why, you know, we didn't advance that year. And I think that what's interesting, you make that point about football. It's like if it's basketball and you miss the very last buzzer beater maybe people notice but if you shoot you

know 10 for 20 those 10 misses no one's going to go back and say well if he had only made that one or right didn't have the turnover but with football those like stay with guys forever the one mistake that they make and I remember think, hearing or reading about Gary and how tough that was on him to get over that. And kickers just have it the most brutal because – Well, when he came back the following year, we were fine. Like, nobody got – no. Come on, man.

Like, we're in this together. We were in this together regardless. And, like I said, said okay anybody who never made a mistake in a football game that was costly you go and say something to gary right right and guess what nobody's as good as it gets too so he was great for you all year exactly and but but i will tell you this i remember every time in my football career that I fumbled and cost this game. I fumbled my second year at Michigan in Ohio State game, and we lost 23-20. I remember I was in high school.

It was fourth and one. I got the handoff. I didn't get a yard. Like, I remember that vivid. It's just that's what football is. Football is the only sport that's negative reinforced. Yeah, that's a good is. Football is the only sport that's negative reinforced. Yeah, that's a good point. It's the only sport.

So not only do you have to be tough on the football field, you have to be tough dealing with, you know, with the adversity of not being successful. Right. You think about baseball. There's a guy that go one for 13. He don't have to answer questions about going one for 13 it's baseball yeah right right right that happens to everybody all the time right well football 10 minutes after the game if you screw it up you gotta answer for it yep people like me at your locker right exactly. Exactly. Which is fine. Like, I'm one of those people, I was always just a stand-up.

Like, okay, like, it's on me. Like, I made that mistake, you know, that you got to own it. Like, if you understand, you know, how sports is played and you know, people would always ask me, why did you fumble that? I said, you honestly think that, you know, I went into that game, that play, and said, you know, in this play I'm just going to fumble it and carry it loosely. Right. Oh, I'm trying.

It's shaped weird. That's why. That's why you fumbled it. I had those big shoulder pads. Yeah, that's right. In my arms. In these short little arms. Good point.

The give and take of giant shoulder pads is one of them. Can I ask you about Cunningham? Because that year is so fascinating for me. He is this, like, icon in Philly, and then his career kind of peters out there. He is, I think, the only company that was doing, like, drywall or something like that. Flooring and stuff like that. Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly.

And then he comes back to be the backup. He wins that crazy game in 97 against the Giants with the onside kick and all that stuff. And then he still comes out of the year as Brad's backup and then just takes off. I wonder what it was like kind of with the front row seat, seeing how all that played out for Randall, not only just having this renaissance, but doing it as a pocket passer, unlike what he did in Philadelphia.

I think it really solidified how great of an NFL quarterback he was. I'll tell you what, and this is not a knock on Randall, but if I drop back as a quarterback and my options were Chris Carter, Randy Moss, Jake Reed. Yeah. There is no need to run. Right. There is no need to run.

Like sometimes people, and I try to explain this this way. The thing that people misunderstand about athletes are when you get to this level you can do what is asked of you if it's within your abilities and so when he was in philly he could throw the football oh yeah but he was so dynamic running that he didn't have to take those chances down the field. Right. Because he could get the 15, 20 yards. He was very athletic. He could scramble around and get somebody even more open because they were worried about him.

That was just part of his game. When he got to Minnesota, he may roll out slightly to the right. Something about Randy Moss running down the field makes everybody want to throw it to him. Yes. Right? Something about having Chris Carter on your team always running the right route and being where he's supposed to be makes you throw it to him. That's part of being on a good team.

Like, we were fortunate at it. Here's the quarterbacks that were just there when I was there. Warren Moon. Mm-hmm. to that here's the quarterbacks that were just there when i was there warren moon um uh um what's his name johnson um brad johnson brad johnson yeah dim randall cunningham yeah we had a a minute of um of uh yeah jeff george jeff george who was the way, he threw the hardest ball I've ever tried to catch in my life. It didn't spin. Really? So when you say guys could spin it, like you could read his ball. It would just come at you like a missile, and it would hit you.

Like it was unbelievable. His highlight was Randy, by the way. It's like Jeff George's highlights throwing to Randy. Like the ball looks like it's shot out of a cannon. I mean, it doesn't look like a normal football pass because it goes so fast. And then, and wait, there's more. Dante Culpepper was. So you look at teams that have had one great quarterback

and then struggled to get quarterbacks. Right. And then you look at that stretch that Minnesota had from Warren Moon all the way to Dante Culpepper. Name another team that's had that. I know. I mean, in one quarterback room, Cunningham, Culpepper, and George has to be the strongest arms of any quarterback room in history.

Yes. Has to be. Yes. Yes. They all had cannons. And I wouldn't even count them. What, Todd Bowman? Oh, yeah, Todd Bowman.

Remember, wait. Guess who else was there? Jay Fiedler? Jay Fiedler, right. Who ended up being a quarterback in Miami? Before Miami. That's right.ler, right. Who ended up being the quarterback of Miami? Before Miami. That's right. It's unbelievable, the quarterbacks that came through Minnesota while I was there.

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because it's been my kind of feeling from talking with people like yourself, Gus Farratt, who's another quarterback that came after you, just that Randy as a teammate versus Randy from what the outside thought of him was a pretty big difference. I wonder if you feel that way. Here's the way I look at players. And this is players that I know, players that I watch, players that I come across, whatever.

Until I hear another football player say a negative thing about a player, I don't believe nothing that anybody else says. How many people have said anything negative about randy in terms of his former teammates none nobody right all right even all the situations he went through throughout the league on all these other teams who said anything negative about him right that's all you need to know about randy you can write what you want you can say what you want but the guys that are on the field and practicing with that dude every day have a better idea than somebody watching the damn TV. So enough of that.

That's a good dude. He gave you everything. You understand what Randy did for seven or eight years of his career. He ran sprints every game. Yeah. And so I want you to line up and run three or four go routes in a row in the NFL. And then you run a hitch and you take that playoff. Really?

Come on, man. So, no. I've never seen one person say anything negative about randy yeah never so anybody on the outside writing about him you just you just want something to write about because you don't know you ain't asking nobody in fact i've never even heard stories about sources yeah no that's, that's right. Never. I think it was. That's on the people writing about Randy.

That's not on Randy. Right. It was kind of a collection of some of the things that happened, like the play when I want to play, or there was the issue with, you know, whatever else. As I discovered with covering Stefan Diggs, people love to read into what TV shows on the sidelines. Right. For example, let's break this down. Okay? You remember when Randy Moss fake mooned?

Yes. Well, guess what? You know why he did that? And you know why everybody in the stadium was laughing? I think it was because of the bus incident, right? Every time we pull up to green bay the fans moon us yes right so randy did it to them right they all laughed and everybody in football flipped out yes right so understand where these stories are coming from. There's the reality of the story,

and there's what people want you to think of that play. Right. I found it very interesting. Gus Farratt said on the show that when I asked him about playing with Randy, he was like, yeah, we play dominoes together all the time. He's just a regular teammate to us. And I know that Randy, when he came back to be in the Ring of Honor, he said that he kind of wished that he had tried to be a little more open and things like that.

I think he was distrustful of media, and so he wasn't doing the puff piece interviews and things like that that would kind of help the image. And maybe that's where some of the difference was. And that gap has been closed, I think, since. And people understand a little more about Randy. But I've always found it fascinating that every former teammate I've ever talked to said the guy was working hard.

He knew all the, you know, the offense. He really knew the sport extremely well. He did his job. And yet there was sort of this, this guy's a problem kind of thing that was hovering over it. To be honest with you, that sounds like a you problem. That ain't a Randy problem. Right. Like, don't expect just because a guy plays football that he's supposed to have the personality that appeases you. Right. Right. You see, they've been other people in their profession.

That's not very friendly or is a little, you know, careful around the media. Right. Why do you think that is? Like, it happens. It happens. There's people that are uncomfortable talking. Like, if you want a talker or you want a comedian, go to a comedy club. If you want a football player, then watch what the guy does on the field.

And nobody ever had a problem with it. Nobody would. And what happened is because you didn't like him, then you start nitpicking his play on the field, which is unfair to him. Right. And so that's how – and then it's not going to get better. You think if you write something negative, oh, he's all of a sudden going to open up to you?

So I don't – look, Randy said that he don't he didn't owe anybody anything that dude did his job that dude was fun to be around and because some people may have approached him the wrong way and he shut down be more careful next time understand that under like i try to explain people what it's like you know you come out of college you ain't a pub you're not a public speaker right right you don't necessarily have the personality to entertain the media right that job to do, they think it's part of being a professional to entertain them. No, it's not. It's not. And as soon as you can get off your high horse and understand that, and understand that sometimes when I ask a question, I might not get to ask a follow-up because he's going to be short.

Some people are just like that. Right. I mean, think about this. Right off the top of your head, do you know what Marvin Harrison sounds like? I don't think so. I don't know how many interviews I've ever heard with Marvin Harrison. Correct. How about Andre Johnson?

Oh, definitely not. Definitely not. One of the quietest guys, right? Okay. You see what I mean? Yeah. Like there are people who just aren't, they're not made for it. It's okay.

It's okay that you don't have the ability to communicate like everybody else. That's life. That's life. It's not your thing. And people get all sensitive and, oh, he won't talk to me. We're, you know, we are the voice for it. No, you're not. Like, just call it for what it is.

You want to do a story. The player, you know, wasn't feeling it. So move on to the next story. It's okay. Yeah, I think with Randy where the conflict would be is that he was just so popular. So everybody kind of wants to be in there or write something or say something interesting about him. He was popular because he was good at what he did, not because he was a comedian or a talker or said a lot of things. That's okay.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. You know, in some ways, I think with things like this, it's just that maybe you can understand why media wants to interview him. You can understand why he doesn't want to. But when the perception gets shifted to the guy is a problem when that's not true, that's what I dealt with that with Stefan Diggs here, where his teammates weren't saying behind the scenes or in public that he was a problem his former teammates don't say he was a problem and yet people kind of put

together a few things that were an issue with him and the team that were business related and say well he must have been a cancer or he must have been tearing the locker room apart and it's like as a reporter I'm trying to tell you know fans no that's not how it was working but the narratives kind of take off on their own it's easy that's the easy way to do it yeah the easy way you know here the the basic uh fundamental of sports is this if you suck we don't want you and we don't care about your contract yeah and if you great, you have to stay here forever. Yeah. Yep.

Like, that's how it works. That's how it works. You know, so if Stephon Diggs only had 70 catches instead of 120, right? Yep, yep. And he wanted to leave, they were like, kick rocks, bye, right? Yes. And you have to understand that. So when you have a situation like that, you know,

you got to do what's best for you. Right. You have to because, you know, nobody can – look, and we have this situation going, you know, throughout the league where you go from one team to another team and your numbers go down not because you've lost the ability to do your job but the role that you have on that team is different because of fantasy and because of stats and because of that to them to to fans and to the media it looks like oh you didn't have a good enough year as last year. Whereas if you catch 80 balls for the team you're at,

that might be like 130 on the team you left. Right, right. You know, we don't ever look at those nuances of stats and stuff like that. We don't. You know, if a guy had 1,500 yards and he goes to another team and only has 1,000,000, he's falling off. Not to mention they throw for 5,000 yards. Like, no.

So it's a weird dynamic. Once you're in sports, you kind of understand it. I've probably gone a little blue in the face trying to explain it to people. I feel like this is the first time you brought this up. No, it's a conversation I have with, you know, guys, with players, you know. I had it with LeBron, you know. We're not mad that LeBron left Miami. We're upset. We're mad at how he left. No, you're not.

No, you're mad he left. Right. If the hot girl leaves you, you're not upset how she left. You're upset that she gone. Let's be honest. Right. We wanted LeBron here. And, you know, I got to say, this is a reason, by the way, to respect and appreciate Jake Reed, who took on that number three role,

and his numbers went down. But he was a massive part of that offense. And I think that, you think that even someone like yourself, you're kind of a 1A type of running back in Cleveland, and you're then splitting with Robert Smith. But you guys are making the team so much better by being in those roles. It's always been – I've always just had a great appreciation for what Jake Reed did. Like he – although social media wasn't around,

maybe then he would have tweeted his way out of it, but I doubt it. But keep in mind, we also had Matthew Hatchett. Yeah. And one of the things you have to understand is that goes back to what I talked about that camp, how we all got along, how we all, you know, we all hung out. We, I mean, we didn't know that this is what that season was going to be right but we enjoyed being around one another we enjoyed being with each other we enjoyed doing things together and so from that standpoint um you know when it got to we were having success nobody felt bad for the

other guy or nobody would right right you know it should be me or anything like that. And so, you know, look, we always looked at it as if you're going to double Randy and you're going to try to do something with Chris, Jake Reed can get you. Right. And there was no question. And everybody knew that. You know, so, and then if Jake Reed started having a couple of catches and you rolled the coverage to him, now you got to deal with Randy. Chris Carter was going to be Chris Carter. Chris Carter is right now, Chris Carter is doing exactly what in Arizona. Larry Fitzgerry fitzgerald oh yeah yeah yeah he's doing the exact same thing right right right like so it's almost like he could play that game forever because he was so smart he knew where to be how to do it and he did it uh forever that that's you know so like yeah we we had we had an excellent just

camaraderie it all clicked um you know we made any play look good and our coaches put us in good good uh situations on the football field yeah and i like to argue that you know you can never have too many guys who are wide open all the time. Right, right. It doesn't hurt your chances to win football games. One thing I'll say about Chris Carter is, you know, a lot of people, you know, have things to say about Chris Carter. I will say this, whether you like Chris Carter or not,

on the football field, dude was not a diva. Like he would come into the huddle and say, yo, Randall, if I run this crossing route and they come down on me, Jake, Randy's going to be over the top. Like when you think about receivers and how they are, Chris Carter was about winning. So whether you liked his personality or not not or how he did things or whatever, the one thing I will always respect about Chris Carter is on the football field,

it was all about winning. And it didn't matter whether it was him. Now, I don't know if he's always been that way, but I know when I was there, it wasn't about him. It was about that team and winning and everybody having success. I want to remind you about our friends at SodaStick. If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER, you can get free shipping at SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods.

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Funniest quote maybe in football history was Buddy Ryan saying, all Chris Carter does is catch touchdowns, like as a criticism. Yeah. That's the worst thing you've got to say about the guy, then I think I'll take him. If that's the worst thing that's ever said about you, you're doing pretty good. Right. All Leroy Hort does is run touchdowns.

That's all he did. Let me ask you before we wrap up here, because I've kept you like way longer than I said at first in my email to you, but your sports radio career and just how things are going for you now, how have you felt about being one of us? Now you're the media guy now, even though, you know, hey, you've got the credibility played in the game, but now you understand us better, right?

I mean, just how's everything going for Leroy and Horne these days? Look, I'm fine. I'm in a unique situation that I can do everything from my house. Yeah. So when I'm banged up, you know, when, when my body's hurting, I don't have to travel anywhere. And that's, you know, that's the way it is now, you know, before when I had to go to the, you know, go to the studio,

I would be on and off a little bit, but you know, look, health, health isn't a joke. Don't take health for granted. Sure. You know, that's what I'll say. But I enjoy it. I enjoy talking about sports. I enjoy having conversations with my friends about sports. It's fun.

As far as, you know, am I one of you? No, because there's one thing that I always take into account when talking about sports and this is what bothers me with other athletes that do the same thing i go into it with the understanding that i used to do what that guy did and even though i can have a problem with how he did something. I still have to respect the fact that he is in the NFL. Right. And he is part of the elite. You know, so I will say when there's a problem or not,

but I'm not going to just say a guy's trash. Right. I'm not going to just say he's a bum. I'm not just going to say I understand that understand that hey it took me a minute to get going right i had some success early in my career but i didn't become a professional until middle to the end of my career right to where i knew where to be how to do things how to prepare how to train how to eat um it took me a couple years years. So when I see a young player struggling, I'm always going to think, man, you were there. You weren't perfect when you started.

Cut that guy some slack. Give him an opportunity to grow. And so that's the only difference that I have. I think a lot of times the media, they don't have that perspective. They think that if a guy's a pro, that means it's open season. And I would say to anybody out there, the first day you got your new job, were you perfect at it? Right. Football's a job. Yep.

Like it takes you a while to pick up on the speed, to understand that, you know, in college and high school, if things failed, you could just run away from somebody. Right. Right? Right. But now that 6'4", 260-pound guy can keep up with you. It's terrifying. So you got to find other ways. You got to learn how to read defenses.

You got to learn how to pick your holes you got to learn how to accelerate through all things that you have to learn and it takes time man i love that you use the word terrifying because i i've always thought in terms of respecting what the guys who make the team can do from the first guy to the 53rd is when you go to camp and there's 90 guys and you see the guys that get on the field for the first time and they were maybe the star at whatever college they went to and they're like holy you know like this is way over my head i got no chance here and there are guys who just look terrified and basically they tap out like i'm not making a team and i'm out so you have to respect the guys who make it i'll'll give you a perfect example. When we do minicamp and the wide receivers run across the middle and they're just extended and

hands up, we write that number down. Why you write that number down? Because I want to see if he's going to put that hand up when there's a safety in the middle of the field. With me, I played the same style of football. If you want to play it in practice, we can play in practice. You want to play in the game. We can do it in the game. I only know one way to play football. So it did. To me, it never it never mattered because it was just a matter of how tough was I willing to be to outlast the other guy? Yeah, because I wanted to say, hey, you need to know that if we're playing against each other, I'm never going to stop. Right.

Right? But eventually, that other guy, he may turn to the side a little bit, and then those two-yard gains become five-yard gains. And then he may avoid the hit altogether. And then those five-yard gains become 20-yard gains. And so so basically played chicken with my body for for 10 years you know and so you know i understood and i got into my sweet spot pretty quick in football sometimes it takes other guys a little bit longer or who

they're going to be as a pro i think that that is the mentality that I would have expected it to take for you to have the success that you had in your career, Leroy. This was so much fun, man. I mean, I just reached out to you hoping we could talk a little old Vikings, and I've absolutely loved this conversation. So you be good. You enjoy the Super Bowl, and you enjoy your gig, and I'm glad you get to do it from home. It looks like you got a cool setup there.

So I'm really happy we could connect. I'd love to do it again, man. Okay. Sounds good.