The Dale Jr. Download - 336 - Brandon Marshall: Breaking the Stigma

Episode Date: April 21, 2021

Dale Earnhardt Jr. welcomes NFL All-Pro wide receiver Brandon Marshall onto the show for a conversation intertwining both athletes’ careers and lives after competing professionally.As two recently retired competitors, they answer whether or not they miss suiting up to play and race. Then Brandon expands upon the dynamics of playing wide receiver in the NFL and his mentality taking big hits and making big plays. What do football players compare themselves to in NASCAR? Hear the answer that surprises Dale Jr. and co-host Mike Davis.Could Brandon Marshall be on the comeback trail? He shares what position he would play if he tried to return. Plus, hear why he credits his strength that propelled him to great heights among all receivers. Life after stepping away from full-time competition is a critical juncture in an athlete’s life. Both Marshall and Earnhardt Jr. have recently faced that crossroads and emerged from it with new purpose. Brandon explains the moves he made before leaving the game that set up his post-career transition. Then, the two broadcasters touch upon what it took to make it in the TV world and how they approach criticizing their former competitors behind the microphone.  Jay Cutler threw touchdowns to Marshall when he played for both the Denver Broncos and Chicago Bears. Mike asks Brandon whether the criticism Cutler receives is fair. Marshall provides insight into working with Cutler and how he impacted his life to this day. Plus, why he thought they could have won multiple Super Bowls together in Denver. When the duo reunited in Chicago, Marshall explains why they wanted to get back together and how divine intervention played a role in leading him to the Bears.Every athlete searches for advantages in their respective sport. Dale Jr. inquires about what professional football players do with their equipment to find an edge and how playing conditions impact their performance. After being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in 2011, Brandon has been transparent about his experience in an effort to help others with mental health. He shares his story with Dale Jr., including why he initially refused help, what he was like at his worst and the breakthroughs that allowed him to stop pointing the finger at others.The 2012 Pro Bowl MVP then talks about starting House of Athlete, where he’s helping other people with their mental fitness. Plus, its specific focus of working on the mental side of being an athlete. Hear how he broke the mental health stigma in the NFL and his hopes to see it further ingrained into the professional sports environment. Next comes a question we’ve all wanted an answer to – who are the biggest $hit talkers in the NFL? Hear Brandon’s unique response and how he describes the battle between receivers and defensive backs. Brandon’s legendary 21-reception game in 2009 is still an NFL record. He shares details about that game, why he didn’t realize what he was doing and how the feat almost fell short. In Ask Jr. Presented by Xfinity, Dale suggests what Richmond Raceway could do to improve the racing and shares his favorite Office characters and moments. Plus, the story of why he missed an opportunity to visit the set.   Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. The Dell Jr. Download. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dell Jr. Download. Today's guest, Brandon Marshall, NFL ride receiver. I've been looking forward to this one, Mike, and we've got a lot of questions to ask him, but should be pretty interesting. Can't wait. We've not had an NFL star wide receiver in the table before, so we're going to do that. It's going to be fun.

Yeah, we have it. So there's a lot of great topics in researching him that I can't wait to discuss. I think some of the things that he might have to say might be pretty helpful. So let's get started. Let's jump right into the open segment, though. The other day, I was watching NBCSN. And they had the World Chase Tag. Championships are tag.

There's a tag team. Tag. You play tag. Professional tag. Professional tag. There's an international championship for competitive parkour involving the game of tag. So I'm watching it on my screen, and I'm watching it on my screen, and I'm thinking, dang, I've never seen Tag on TV before.

Right. Right. But it's more than Tag. It is parkour, really, and with Tag as a component. That makes sense. I can see it. You know, my little nephew goes to parkour practice, and I'm like, what is parkour practice? But if you add tag to the element, it makes sense.

Yeah, and going around the neighborhood a little bit, I've been seeing some of these parkour-style things hanging out of people's trees in their yards, like their kids. like their kids are, that's like this new, so it's the new jungle gym or the new, you know, the new thing for kids to be playing with, I guess. I guess. I mean, like, yeah. I see it all the time now. I mean, I mean, I mean, like again, my nephew says, you know, I've got to go to parkour practice. Does he have this?

What do you practice on park? Does he have the thing in the backyard with this thing hanging from the trees? Yeah, I guess he does. I mean, like, what are you going to do? How you practice it? I mean, curbs. Well, let's explain what the international championship for competitive. Park Court involving the game

of tag is. There's two teams per game, six players per team, 16 rounds per game. The tags only count by hand. You can't tag someone by their foot. All right. That changed. With your foot, I guess. Yeah. Can't kick them. In each 22nd round, there is

a chaser from one team and an evader from the other, right? So it's one-on-one. One-on-one. Yeah. 22nd rounds. The winning player from the round stays on the evading side and the loser player is substituted for a teammate who then chases get him out uh one point is awarded to a team after their player evades a tag for 20 seconds kind of like riding a bull for eight seconds you stay on you get a yeah you know you get a score right yeah when you said tag championships i'm like oh god how long could that go on but no 20 seconds you got 20 seconds a tag yeah i was watching this in bar the sound what known i couldn't i don't know i couldn't

figure it out like how it was working right but this makes so much more sense but this is a great bar televising if you're in a bar watching tag that makes sense if a player steps off the quad it's the quad is sort of the ring i suppose then their team loses the round teams with the most points in the 16 rounds wins and and there's one u.s team that's made up a hollywood stuntman that's kind of cool you love the stories right makes these people human yeah that's one of them yeah yeah i would imagine being able to humanize a tag person. Well, you want to make the, you know, in sports, you want to make the athlete human,

and the Hollywood stuntman team is now immediately my favorite team in tag, professional tag, because that's the only team that I have a story about. Okay. What are they called? I don't know. They're called the Hollywood Free Runners. Oh, you know this.

Well, so I may have been researching this yesterday, and I may have got sucked into their YouTube channel longer than I probably should have. the only thing that when I was watching it with the sound turned off the only thing that I might say I would add is so the quad or the ring is basically a bunch of piping that they kind of climb through and under and over and it looks a bit like a maze might look

but without you know you can see through it right and I believe that it might be more interesting if you couldn't see through it. Like it was more like a maze where you could be sneaking around this thing trying to find your component and then once you sort of have located him, then it becomes a game of tag

and then he could lose you by making a turn, a quick turn or a jump over, whatever, you know. I just think being able to, because when they start, they basically can look across the ring and see the guy and wherever he goes, they go, right? And they kind of try to cut him off. And I was like, man, it would be cooler. I think if they couldn't see each other right away.

Had to hunt them, find them, right? Give them more than 20 seconds, but yeah. Yeah, it's more like hide and seek. Professional hide and seek. With tag and parkour. With tag and parkour. Boom. Did we just create a new sport?

We did. I love that you are, you are, your experience in this is about, you know, a couple minutes from a bar and you already are taking a position on how to change a sport for the better. Like this is your Nashville fairgrounds, but for this sport. I think I would have only. I would only came up with that thought had the sound been on, I wouldn't have been able to develop that thought. But since the sound was off, I was able to think in my head for a minute.

Because if your sound was on, you'd be listening to it and not thinking for yourself, right? Does that make sense? Yeah, I guess. You're sort of speaking against the broadcast analyst profession, which you are one in NASCAR. Like, yeah, I see what you're saying. I was, I thought it was interesting. So I guess if you want to watch some of that, it's on NBCSM. Did you want to do it yourself?

No. You wouldn't want to just, like, have a tag competition? It looks extremely difficult. Well, against them. No, no, no. It looks extremely difficult to maneuver this sort of jungle gym. It's imperfect, right? It's not like this consistent thing when you're running through it.

And there's all, it's just really imperfect and very injurious. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. There's ACLs all over that course. Bant ankles and everything. Yes, there is. I would not last 10. I would not last a 22nd round

without breaking something. I have a tag injury that actually scarred me for life. Yeah. And it happened on my tooth, which you'll be glad to know. Yeah. Third grade, Elaine Adcock pushed me down.

Illegal elbow, I believe. Yeah, I'm not over it. Illegal elbow. Chip tooth, man. You don't mess with my teeth and lived a tell about it. Well, you'd never know it. You'd never know.

You would never know that you. Dennis did a good job, huh? For sure. Alex Bowman wins at Richmond. Greg Ives pumped up the tires for the last run. Is that what he did? That's what he said. Yeah.

I read an article where he said he thought about something that happened between me and him at Richmond years ago that helped him with that plan. There you go. Which I thought was neat. Yeah. He said that he did something similar with me and it didn't quite work out. the way we wanted and we and him had a conversation afterwards that helped him understand how to make that work better.

That's cool. You don't remember that though. I'm imagining that he pumped my tires up for a run that was a little bit too long. Probably. Right. Because that don't work for... Right. Or maybe I don't know. Whatever, he didn't, he learned something. And the other thing that I thought was interesting about what Greg I've said was knowing that they had a

competition yellow at the first of the race, they pumped the tires up then to give it a bit of a test trial run. How smart is that? He's a smart guy. How smart is that? That is smart. I mean, sounds like common sense now, but in the moment, if you're on the box and a crew chief and preparing for the race, all the things that you got your hands involved, do you think of that? Do you apply that much foresight into?

I don't think you do. No, right. Good for him. We're going to have him on the show here soon. Jimmy Johnson made his IndyCar debut at Barber Motorsports Park, finishing 19th. I think he spun out one time coming over a hill, but he was super pleased. If he's pleased, I'm pleased. The fact that the rich, so the cup race was on at three, the IndyCar race was on at three,

and I didn't get to really see everything that I wanted to see. I wish they could work it out to where they weren't on top of each other like that. So I wished I'd have seen a little bit more of Jimmy's debut. I kind of feel like an obligation as a NASCAR guy to watch the NASCAR race, so I ended up doing that. But yeah, Jimmy, Aaron 19th, he was happy they didn't qualify last. So I'm assuming that he's happy that he didn't finish last. He needs to give himself a little more credit.

But that would have been nervous. I thought he did give himself a lot of credit. He got out and said, mission accomplished. That was fun, ready to do it again. Good for him. We'll be able to watch more. But why would they go head to head? That made no sense.

It didn't make any sense. I was disappointed because, oh, and check this out, man. I mean, fantasy sports, right? I play a little NFL fantasy sports. I also play NASCAR fantasy sports. We had this fantasy league that Jeff Minkie with NBC has had all of us get involved in like two or three years ago. And so we've been doing this league, and it's called the NBC Sports NASCAR America Beat the Broadcasters League. And there's 10,684 members, right?

10,684 members. After how many races? Nine. Guess where I'm at in the rankings? Top 50. 10,000. Top 100. I'm 17th.

Wow. Hey. Dude, I'm pumped. I finished in the top three last year, I think third. When I say top three, not overall. When I say top three, I mean of the broadcasters. There's like 10 of us in there. Kelly Stavis won.

Marty was second, and I think I was third last year. And so it's really competitive. We have this email chain where we're very competitive against each other. And they're like, man, you're doing great. Junior, you're out to a big lead over us, and I'm sure you've used up all your Denny Hamlins by this point. Have you? And I said, well, I pumped the tires up. Ah, just like Greg Ives. Fantasy humor. Got me a big lead. But anyhow, man, I was pretty proud of that, so I thought I'd share. Well, good for you. Congratulations. 17th overall. Come back to us when you won.

It's a shame. Right. We're about the finish line here. Okay. So we mentioned our guest Brandon Marshall's coming on the show, NFL wide receiver. Me and Mike kind of challenge ourselves to look outside that kind of NASCAR bubble. And we've got a great opportunity to bring somebody in who we can talk to somebody about something that we really don't know that much about. I've been a huge football fan all my life. So obviously I've got questions. but Brandon's got some other things too that he's very open about, very comfortable sharing, and that's mental health.

We actually have a partner this week in one of the ad reads that relates to that, which is coincidental. So we're excited to talk about that. I wonder how some of his conversations with mental health may intertwine or overlap with some of my experiences with concussions, or maybe something else, somebody else in this room may have went through or be going through. I'm sure his comments are going to be helpful. But we had, I think back, like we have a long list of guests that we want to have on the show.

And there are some in there that aren't NASCAR guys, right? Right. And we want to challenge ourselves. We do, you know, obviously NASCAR is kind of our niche and we love doing the history, but we also want to challenge ourselves to step outside of that box every once in a while and get a breath of fresh air. And I expect Brandon's going to be just that. He's going to be that. He also does a very successful podcast that's on YouTube that is called I Am Athlete,

and he does it with a few other NFL retired players. And you are going to be on that program, too. He's in town. We're sort of doing a tradeout. But you're going to do something that's also pretty cool, and you're going to give them some rides at Charlotte Motor Speedway later today. So I can't wait to talk to him about that. He does have, first of all, he is a NASCAR fan.

And so I love talking to people. that are NASCAR fans, but not inside the sport. Like, you know, and so I don't know if, like, there's people that'll sit there and, you know, critique our levels of questioning. That was dumb. Look, today may be a bunch of dumb questions, but we are just fascinated by an NFL six-time pro bowl wide receiver who likes racing, who has done very well for himself after football, which is, you know, and probably gleaned a lot from his experience in the, in the league.

I can't wait to talk to him about it. Yeah, he works in broadcasting as a TV personality as well. I got a few questions about that and his experience there. But the other thing, too, watching his I Am Athlete podcast with Bubba Wallace, there was an exchange about being an athlete, or race car driver is an athlete. Right. Right. And so I'm excited to see what their takeaway is from the laps in the car.

Now, they're going to be riding shotgun with me in a car, and it's a good car. So they don't want to be driving the car, but usually when I do take people that haven't been out on a racetrack in their lives and they feel the G-forces, the noise, the heat, the vibration of the car and the speed, they do kind of get, they think in their mind, I can't imagine being, doing that with 40 other cars or 39 other cars, right? And that's when it sort of sinks in a little bit to most people that have that experience. So I'm looking forward to their takeaway from that. And if we, we can have that discussion again. Now do you think that there's any, any, you know, there's any athleticism in driving a race car.

Right. So it'll be interesting to hear that takeaway. That's one of my favorite things to do is to take somebody for a ride in a race car that's never been in one. I mean, that's a lot, that's everybody, right? That's most people. Like, my wife, my, you, me. Even to take Kelly, like Kelly and my sister raced, but she never ran around Charlotte.

She never ran 170 miles an hour. So she, I took her around Bristol. She was shocked. And you would think, you know, having had driving experience, it wouldn't have been such a profound, you know, such a profound deal for her. But it's so much fun to take people and get their initial. The only problem is, is I stay strapped in the car for the next person to get in.

So I want to jump out and go have a conversation, right? So what you think? Right, right. So I miss out on that, initial right out of the car reaction. But it's one of the most enjoyable things I do. And again, like, if you, If that person is an athlete from another sport like Brandon, it's even better because you want to respect what you do and you want to respect what they do, right?

Yeah. They're a common ground. For sure. Yeah. Just, you know, listen, it's a different type of physical toll that you take on your bodies, but there is absolutely a physical toll that a race car driver experiences in wrestling that car at that speed around those tight turns. And in three laps, you do get the sense of that.

So it will be interesting to hear how he does that. And I look forward to hearing your interview with them on I Am Athlete because it's, It's Brandon does this podcast with Chad Ocho Sinko with Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor, all of them former football players in the NFL, just unique experiences. So I can't wait to see you with those four guys talking about all that you all that you all have to talk about. It'll be fun. But first, we're going to have Brandon in here and get the front end of that conversation. Well, all right, he's here.

So let's bring him in. Brandon Marshall on the Dale Jr. download. They're trying my name Just give me the ball I'm a break an ankle We can run it again Up top, y'all, a down low Our wide jaw, I'm full show

You can throw it deep or throw it short I'm gonna cast the ball We need to spark Just 60 minutes That's all we need No yellow flags, I'm penalties Five down limies and a few will be Run it back, good tight in

Three receivers, some fireplayers A good head coach and a coordinator A fail go kick and something gay to aid To rejuvenate me I'm ready to play What's up man? Oh my crap Yeah What's up?

have been a driver. You have a whole city here. What's up? Welcome. You ever been in a race shop? No. Come on in and tell us about it. A black guy from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was thinking about all our stuff in here. I was like, I never thought it was clutter until today. Oh, you think it's cluttered? I got it.

I was kind of feeling like clutter. Because he's coming in here, because you're coming in here and you're like, oh man, there's stuff everywhere. Like, it's just a lot to look at. Well, I mean, when you do amazing things and you're so accomplished. We just gathered up. We just gathered all my junk and brought it here. That's all it is. All your junk. All my stuff.

We're ready to this house. That's right. That's right. What's up, Mike? Hey, how you doing, man? The beast is here. I can't believe this. This is awesome.

We were, Dale and I were talking. We haven't had an all pro NFL wide receiver on our show. This is an honor. All right, we got to get more guys. I appreciate it. You're it. You're the one. All right, cool.

I appreciate the invite. This is amazing. I really am amazed. I should have been a driver. I mean, this is what comes with it. I guess, I mean, you're a bit, like, there's not many big, big guys in our sport. Like Michael Walter was probably, Michael was probably 6-2 or something, 6'5. But it's tough for you guys to get in a car because the cars are.

But we can build it any way we want to now. Yeah, you can. You can. We got Shaquille O'Neal in a car. That's right. I forgot about that. I race Shaq. You race them?

Did he get you? Did he get you? We almost crashed. We did. What? Yeah. It was tight. Oh, I'm not getting in that little thing with you later than if you're saying it was

crashed. No, no. Like we, so, um, Shaq was at a, we were at this little short track. Yeah. And he did really good. So, uh, he had a little practice and he gets out there and he's running around, but he kind of stayed in the middle of the racetrack. And I, I think they started me with like a two lap handicap or something.

Right. So I'm coming around the track. And I got to. of pass him once and then come past him again to beat him. And as I'm coming up on him, he's in the middle of the track and he kind of gets closer and closer to the wall. And I just barely went through the middle in between him and the wall. It wasn't too bad, but it was close. Wow, that would have been bad. Oh yeah, you think? It was for a TV show. He was doing that show called Shaq Versus. And so he was going to compete against different athletes in their own

professions and sports. And he was scared. He did not want any part of that race car. Yeah. Really? He was good, though. I mean. You know what? I once, I once went, What's the fastest I've gone in the car? We were leaving Jacksonville hitting down to Orlando, and I had a Jaguar at the time. Jaguar excess, I believe, just got it in Denver, 2009. And my buddy was driving. He hit 120 miles per hour, and I freaked out.

He hit 120 for about five seconds. I said, bro, you're tripping. I wouldn't want to be riding with anybody doing that either. Well, you guys go on a baby. I like to drive, though. When I got the wheel, I can go as fast. Yeah, but ride with somebody else is not fun. Yeah, but even just that, I mean, that's a lot.

That's too fast. Like, why do you want to go that fast? So you're going to ride with Dale Jr. later on today? I don't know. Yeah. Are you nervous? You can't turn back. He just said he almost crashed it with Shaq.

Don't worry, he'll go a lot faster in this car with you because they're at a big track. There's two ways to do this, Brandon. So when I get out there today, I'm going to, the first person that rides with me, whoever that is, I'm going to need. I'm going to need a couple laps to sort of get up to speed. And then once I figure that out, which is about three laps, then I'm going to say, all right, here's the ride. Now I'm starting, right?

And we're going to go a few corners. But then the next guy that gets in, and the next guy, the next guy, they only... You're hitting it. I'm ready. So we'll just... Oh, I'm first, then, if I go on. If you want to go first, you get more laps, is what I'm saying. But not as fast.

No, we'll get there. How fast we go? I guess the last run will be the fastest, yeah. And how fast is that? I won't 70, probably. I don't need that. Just give me one. 120. Remember, that's my max.

Oh, man, 120. Can we feel pretty slow? I'll tell you what. Let's do the pace car. The pace car is just fine. I just want to be on the track. I don't need to go 170 miles per hour. We'll get our phone and it's got that app on there where it tells you how fast you're going. And we'll run 120. Yeah.

And you can hold your phone and you'll realize, man, this ain't nothing. This is slow. So let me ask you a question. I know I'm here and you guys are supposed to ask the questions, but do you miss it? I know you still, you're like semi-retire. But, you know, as a football player, I mean, you only have so much time. Well, that's the thing, you know, that's definitely in my notes to talk to you about because I know that you haven't officially claimed to be retired like you still want to play. Who are you Barbara Walters?

Is that true? Where did you find this information? Where did you dig this up? Well, I mean, you. We don't remember a press conference. Wow. So the question is what? So I guess I miss it bad.

Right. And my problem is that. that when I first retired, I didn't. Right. I was busy. I was going into broadcasting. That was exciting. I had a lot of, I'm like, I was, everybody was like, yeah, you got to retire to something.

Not retiring from racing. You're retiring to broadcast. I'm like, okay, I got that. That's a good frame of mind. But the further removed from driving, the worse it's getting. Like I am, and I don't know what that means. Some of that is good to have when you're broadcasting, having that missing it some. Uh-huh.

You know, the passion comes out and liking what you're seeing. wanting to be out there. And so it's getting, it's getting worse. I don't know what to do about that. For me, I mean, well, yes, I haven't officially retired. I need to put my paperwork in so I can get my benefits. There's some severance out there, a couple hundred thousand severals I can use right now, you know, making some huge investments.

I don't miss football. I don't miss, you know, running 21 miles per hour, 30 yards down field and having a hit on collision with another guy or going across the middle, getting smacked. You know, I actually, you know, watch these games now and look at it and say, I don't know how the hell I did that. Right. Right.

That's when you know it's over because all my life it's been tough and, you know, contact and violence. But now it's like I cringe watching these games. I'm like, oh, this is brutal. What I do miss is the competition. I miss the chase. I miss, you know, setting goals. before the year and saying, you know, all right, I want 1,500 yards, 100 catches, 15 touchdowns, and being able to check it off, check it off, check it off. And also, seeing that I'm off

track halfway through the year and adjusting, saying, okay, well, it's not 1,500 yards this year, but can I hit 1,250, right? And I think that's what I miss. I also miss legacy. You know, for me, one of my goals was to retirees, one of the best to ever do it. And I was so, close. And in my last year in New York, I snapped my ankle. And I mean, I was two decent years. And I'm not even talking about good. I'm talking about decent years away from retiring top five and almost everything. Right. So that's what I miss. But I'm fulfilled now in other things and business and life. Absolutely having a great time. But I did that my entire life. I mean, six years old, I was playing organized ball. Yeah. That helped.

because that helps me understand. So I tell Mike it's kind of like that, you know, when you were a teenager and that girlfriend that you broke up with and then you miss her and you get back with her and you're like reminded by all the reasons why you broke up with, right? Right. So like racing, I forget all the things that I didn't really enjoy about it, all the things that were hard.

I watch guys as a broadcaster crash and go, man, I don't want nothing to do with that. I'm glad I'm not dealing with that or having to worry about that. We had a race at India a couple, just like two years ago, where a couple guys hit really, really hard. And I'm like, the possibility of me being in a car and that happened is I can't do that. But isn't that everything right? Like you have to have that, you know, to be able to compete?

Yeah. Because isn't that what made you great for 24 years? Having the... Just like, you know what? Like, you know what? I'm going for it. Yeah. You know, you can't be thinking out there.

You got to just go. And that's what separates the good from the great is having that in you where it's like, you know what? I'm going and you're not thinking and people ask you like well how the hell did you do that do you remember this happen I don't remember yeah you know it just happened I know so we always say saying racing like when a guy's really fast if he's got like raw speed you put him in anything and he's just quick you can't explain it we say it's because he's not hit nothing hard yeah he hadn't hit the wall yet oh really yeah once he hits something hard he'll start thinking a little bit more about what he's doing we think of the psychology involved once you feel it like going across the middle right if you go across you're like fearless and then one guy cleans you out you think about you know that don't you well so i think like there's something in you know athletes and i consider you guys athletes and that's going to be a debate with channing crowder tonight okay i know i saw the bubble wallas yeah right well this is why so i watched the but not to interrupt it no i train of thought here but um i watched the bubba episode and saw that and i thought and then when um my my my gang was like man they want to

they might want to get you on that show. I was like, well, I want to take them for rides first. First. That's why. That's the only reason. So, yeah, all right, make sure you hit 200 for our channel. That's the reason why we're going around a racetrack. Right.

I want to see. Oh, very strategic. Not to change is mine, but I just want to see what he thinks afterwards, right? Right. Absolutely. Yeah, it should be fun. That's going to be good. There's a physical toll that it takes on a body different than what you guys would experience,

but nonetheless, a physical toll that we're just, we're eager to hear what your reaction to that is and compare notes. but I got to ask you question, though. All that stuff you said about missing football, is there a reason why you have not filed those paperwork yet? Is there, are you hanging on to a little glimmer? Well, what would end up happening was there was a few teams that called like a year and a half ago.

And so I was working out behind the scenes because I was going to make a little transition to tight in. And then the pandemic hit and, you know, pivoting with my company, my business just didn't have had time to really sit down and do it. I'll probably do that soon. Okay. But let me go back to the last thing because, like, you know, I never finished that thought. And I, because I want to hear y'all perspective on this, but as an athlete, because you talked

about going across the middle and getting hit and down that change is like, well, he hasn't been hit hard yet. Well, I feel like there's some guys out there, you know, where some of the greats you've never seen really take big hits, right? Like going across the middle as a wide receiver, you know Troy Paul Amel. Malu, Ed Reed coming, you know where they're at, right? So you just have this vision of where everybody is on the field, right? So for me, you got to have the toughness and the willingness to take that hit because you

will take some, but it's not as much. It's not as many, you know, because the guys are so savvy. They have the vision and, you know, they have the understanding too. Like they see it before it's already happening. Like, this is cover three. you know, this guy's going to drop here. I got a 20-yard end cut. I see him pushing, so here's my hole.

So I'm going to throttle in his hole just for a second to give my quarterback a window, and that's when I'm going to go. I can just listen to this all day, right? I know. Let's talk schemes now, right? Yeah, cover three. But I feel like it's the same, and that's what I'm eager to learn. I feel like it's the same, you know, in NASCAR, right?

Like, I'm wondering, like, there's some guys that, you know, damn Kyle Larson. Like, Kyle Larson, his ass being 9, 10, and all of a sudden, boom, he's been first. And then there's some guys that just stick right there 12, 13, 14 is like, make your move. Go! And I'm like, why, like, what are you? Like, what's the strategy here? It's hard, man. It's hard to tell them.

Is it that hard? Are you serious? Well, but I think that one of the components in racing is the car, right? The car, the motors, and, like, the car's got to be good. It's got to handle good. You've got to have a good setup underneath it. If that isn't working, that's a problem. If the motor's not as good as this guy's motor, like the guy in front of you might have

10 more horsepower or 30 more horsepower, right? And that's hard to overcome. You've got a bunch of different variables. And I don't know if does that happen in the NFL? That's kind of interesting. Is there equipment? I know that, you know, guys. Well, yeah, your equipment is your damn body.

Right? Yeah. So you're turning yourself physically to be better than that guy to help you have that advantage. Kind of similar. What's interesting is we compare ourselves to cars. Yeah. Right? So like NASCAR drivers.

Like, you know, our athletic trainers, physical therapists will come in beginning to season and say, okay, here's a difference. Like, you know, it comes down to inches when you talk about what you guys do. And for us as athletes, sometimes we just go, go, go on the physical stuff. We don't hone in on nutrition. We don't hone in on sleep. We don't hone in on recovery. And that is the difference, right?

Like we're talking about, you know, if there's a loose bolt, that could be the difference between winning and losing for you guys and control, right? So it is interesting, you know, and I think that's where guys get edges. But the guys who, there's a lot of guys that can run fast, jump really high and ball. But you got to put it all together, you know, and that's not just on the field, but it's also off the field, right? So, you know, I think that the drivers who do a phenomenal job, the guys that, you know, are super successful, or the guys that have both. And I compare it to football players as well.

Like, yeah, you got to have a fast car. Obviously, that's so much for me to learn as well. That's why I'm interested in the sport. Is the business behind it? It's like, man, like, yeah, like you said, 30 more horsepower. That's a huge difference. But you also have that it factor as well and be a little fearless to go when you need to go. Yeah. So you talk about transitioning to tight-in or thinking about doing that.

Well, I was. You were. I know. It were. So I was thinking about that in my mind. You notice I'm wearing this Washington football team shirt, and we don't have many tight-ins on the roster right now. What, so, and in reading about you. He's pitching you. In reading about you, you know, people had, they talk about you like you're a tight-in playing wide receiver. Right. That's how they would, they would describe you. And so what, what does that ensure? tell for you. We see people, you know, change positions. What would you have to do? What would you physically need to do? How do you put the pound on? Like, you don't have to put on weight? No, not. I mean, I'm 245 right now. So you're there. Yeah, I walked around in the offseason at 245 and trained at 245 and we'll just drop down to 230 or 235 in season. And I've always played the game that way. Like that's what, you know, it was cool about.

you know my experience in NFL is you know I'm this big dude playing wide receiver doing what those little dudes do yeah um and nowadays it's a little different like if you asked me this question 15 years ago you know the tight ends what we asked the tight ends to do you had to go hit so that's like it would have been different there now they're but these tight ends nowadays they're they're glorified wide receivers like you just got to be able to chip a little bit hold up you know you know do a little bit of double teaming, but they're not asking to do a lot in the run game. They're not asking George Kittle or Travis Kelsey to do a lot in the ring game. So what's, so how.

George Kittle is actually a dog in the ring game? How is the, how much of a lure is that for you to know that, man, I could go play tight-in and extend my playing days if you had, you know, if you had, if you had that fire or passion to do it. Most players, they, the game, they either get injured or they, you know, or they age out. Race car drivers, same thing. you age out, you get injured, younger guys coming in and taking your spot. But if you literally have an opportunity, a rare opportunity to extend your career by changing positions. Some guys,

how big a lure was that? Well, it was never a lure because it was always a part of my plan from the beginning. You know, early on in my career, I looked at, you know, who I was as a football player and realized that my number one asset was my strength. And a lot of guys age out or or get kicked out the game because they lose their speed at the wide receiver position. Well, my game has never been built on speed. It was always, you know, my physicality and my size. I'm 6'5, 235 pounds in the season playing wide receiver.

If you look at my film and my highlights, I was never open. You know, there was always somebody on me. I just out-muscled them and out-physical them. And when I got the ball in my hands, it was just night night, right? So I looked at that. And then I also looked at, you know, the corners like Charles Woodson's of the, of the, you know, of a football that went from corner to safety.

And I said, wow, that could be the evolution of, for me, is go from wide receiver to tight in. Larry Fitzgerald is a guy who pretty much did that. Like, look at Larry Fitzgerald. You know, he's older than I am, but he was in a phenomenal situation where they pretty much made, you know, moved him to a tight in position. That's what I would be playing. And I thought that was going to happen. And, you know, when I went to Seattle, that was the goal. You know, when they brought me in, you know, that's all we watched was Larry Fitzgerald's

film. It's like, perfect. I'll play another five years like this because I'm going to be going against Nichols. I'm going against linebackers and safeties. And then we had a receiver go down. And I had to, I was thrust back into that exposition at the wide receiver. And it just didn't work out. And I was cut, you know, five months later.

I think it was like week in 10 or something, right? But we never got to that. And then after that, you know, the NFL was like, I was done. But you're somewhat unique, I think. I want to ask your perspective on this, and that you actually have things in place, businesses, obviously your TV career. You started doing that as you were still playing, correct?

Yep. So you're somewhat unique in that you were an athlete that had the forethought to go ahead and start planning life after football. And we've had a lot of, you know, old race car drivers, you know, other athletes that sort of lacked their identity. Once their playing career, whatever the sport was is over, when they lost that identity, they didn't know what to do with themselves. I felt like a bull put out to pasture.

Yeah, 100%. How did you, I'm curious about your approach to that, and also what is your observations on athletes in general when they are forced to face retirement or their playing careers are done? Right. Well, I love chess, big chess player. I played probably like five games a week and absolutely love it. And so in chess, you know, the people who are really good are the ones that, you know,

are playing five to ten moves out. And early on in my career, you know, we hear about the numbers, the statistics, and, you know, guys making that transition and how they struggle. So what I end up doing early in my career and I was a big reader, I'm still, I'm a big reader, but read some books and just thinking about just transitioning and just business. I was like, damn, there's so many guys struggling in that moment that just that period of leaving the game, game being taken away from them to what's next. And I didn't want to do that.

So what I end up doing is spending three months with Harvard during a case study on athletes in transition, but did well with their platform. So in 2014 is when I put the plan in place. So everything that I'm doing now is pretty much damn near orchestrated. Yeah. You know, and I spent time with Professor Anita L. Bursa's class, and the reason why I jumped in TV, like I don't really like TV. Okay.

I'd rather be behind the scenes. And, you know, I'm here with my buddy Alicia and Anthony from Jersey filmmakers. I'd rather do what the hell they're doing. But what I realized was for me to build House of Athlete, for me to help build I am athlete, I need to be in front. you know, Magic Johnson was somebody we studied. And I was like, why is Magic Johnson? He's worth a half a billion dollars.

Why is he traveling around on ESPN talking basketball? Right? And he's probably making $2 million. Maybe they overpaid him a little bit and gave him $3 million. Who knows? But he's doing that once or twice a week. And so that was my mom. I was like, all right, well, that's what I'm going to do.

So what I end up doing, I put this thing together called a tour. So every offset, I say, until I retire, I'm going to go on tour. I'm hit all the networks. So I get my reps. I meet all the producers. and when it's time for me to make that transition, you know, I'll already be ready. I'll have the reps. I'll be prepared and I'll have the relationships. The first week out, I went to ESPN Bristol. Then I went out to L.A. start doing some,

you know, lifestyle stuff with like E. Entertainment and all that other stuff. And Josh Piot from W. Me called me. And all these agents start calling me. I didn't even know you needed a broadcasting agent. I thought my football agent was going to be the one that, you know, did my deals. So Josh Paiet calls me. He's like, hey, I think you're brilliant. Love you. I'm like, who are you? He told me. I was like, I didn't know. And then a couple weeks later, he was like, hey, what would you think about going on inside the NFL showtime? And I said, that would be phenomenal, but I live in Chicago. He said, we'll figure it out. And that's how I end up doing it. And I just couldn't pass on that deal. But Josh is the one who pioneered this whole, you know,

inside the NFL and fast track, you know, my, my broadcasting career. You still working with Josh? Yeah, he's a good dude. He's a great dude. You said you weren't really striving to go to TV, but it's a great outlet for you to use as a vehicle. But you have to be critical or you have to say it like it is. People, the viewer knows when you're being going easy on somebody. So how do you do that? You've played against some of these guys that you have to go out there and be critical about. I kind of struggle with that.

Yep. Because they're going. They text you the next week, call you up. Their mom calls you, their girlfriend calls you. or they tweet about you. And so how do you manage that? Like, you know, being honest about somebody making a mistake on the field or not playing, not doing their job.

And that's interesting. When you sit down with networks as an athlete in transition, that's the first thing they ask you is, are you willing to go there? That's the very, everyone asked me that question. For me, one, I'm already outspoken. But what I realized is we've been there before. We understand that we get it.

So we can speak to it and we also can keep it real, but it got to start with you. So what I always like to do is first start with me. Say a guy, you know, who may be struggling off the field. You know, I may say, you know, look, I've been there before. You know, I know what this feels like. But then I'll, and then I'll transition into my point, you know. So I'll validate, you know, the situation and actually dive into it,

you know, put myself in those in his shoes. and then I'll go into my critique or crushing them. Okay. Because after a while, it's like if you got a guy, you know, who's struggling and it's like, you know what, I've been there before, but it's been five years. It's been five years and you're making the same mistake. Something has to give. Like, we have to look ourselves in the mirror and figure it out.

So I think the art of it is really throwing yourselves in their shoes and then all the body language, but that's all TV stuff. It's interesting. Let me give you an example. Jay Cutler. Right. Is the criticism that you played with him for two different teams, Denver and Chicago, correct? Yep.

Is the criticism that Jay Cutler gets? Is that fair or unfair? I think it's fair. It's fair. Yeah, it's fair. I mean, because Jay, but that's what comes with it. Jay doesn't care, right? And I think that we all should embrace that.

Oh, he doesn't care about the criticism. No, he doesn't care what you think. So, like, you know, he's going to be sitting on the sideline, know he has five, six cameras on him, and he's going to be dog cursing somebody. He's going to be when everybody else, a Peyton Manninger of the world, you know, even Tom Brady, we see them, you know, have their moments. But they're aware of that stuff. And they make sure, like, okay, I know there's six cameras on me right now. Let me make sure I'm protecting this. I'm doing that.

Jay doesn't care, right? So when you don't care, that criticism, you got to accept that and what comes with it, you know? because, you know, they put this box around us, players, quarterbacks, and they say this is how you're supposed to operate an act. Now, if you step outside, because you know what that is. Now, when you step outside of that box, you got to know what's, you got to be prepared for what's coming with that, you know? Yeah.

And, I mean, Jay's, Jay is one of the smartest guys I've ever been around. I mean, you talk about Noah, he gets it. High football IQ. Super, super smart. Brilliant. And it's not even in football. I've learned so many things about Jay. Like, even how I started raising my kids and routine and child.

Like, I learned that from Jay. Nutrition. I learned that from Jay. Jay was the first that came in, you know, and I'm like, bro, what are you eating? And he started explaining to me these things. I've learned so much, you know, books. You know, and then on the field, he can make every single throw on the field, you know, brilliant talent.

And I think what happened with him is how things started off or ended in Denver. You know, we had the number one offense in 2009. And then playoff times Drew Drew Breeze end up, you know, taking our spot. They won the Super Bowl that year. We slipped to two, but we were phenomenal young guys. The team fires Coach Shanahan. Yeah. Remember that?

So Coach Shanahan's fired, insert Josh McDaniels. Josh McDaniels come in, the very first thing he did is threw up all of our highlights offensively. He said, you guys think y'all tough and bad. No, you guys aren't great. We're, statistically, you know, we are. And, like, what we were doing last year, you know, we're pretty good. And he just crushed all of us, crushed all of us. And he tried to trade for Matt Castle.

And then Jay, when he did that, they had one conversation, Jay said, I don't want to be here. You know, trade me. And I think from that moment on is where Jay's career got off track. But if he were to stay in Denver, I truly believe we would have won multiple Super Bowls. And the story around Jay Cutler would have been different. You end up going to play with him again at Chicago. Right. So since you think so highly of him, that had to be a pretty – was that – do you orchestrate that opportunity to get there?

Yeah, so 2011, I believe it was. I'm watching like Thursday night football or something, and he's just getting crushed. I mean, absolutely just getting crushed. Had no offensive line using Mike Martin's offense, and they're asking him take seven-step drops with no offense on line. He's getting smashed. And so I called him and I was like, man, bro, just keep your head up, man. You know, and I haven't, and our relationship, we, we were still friends, but we weren't talking like we were in Denver. I just called him out of the blue and just wanted to show him love.

Like, bro, you know, just keep going, man. Like, I see what you're going through. And then we just started this conversation. And he was like, yeah, man, I need an ex receiver. And I was like, oh, that's cool. He's like, you. I was like, all right. Well, let's talk about it after the year.

You know, I'm down here in Miami. just signed this big deal and he's like no we need to talk about it now right so um we started talking about it and i said let's just let things play out and you know i'm one i will go up to the owner or the general manager and ask for a trade if i'm that happy or something like that if i think you know it's not a great spot but i in this situation i said you know why i'm let god like just you know put me where i'm supposed to be and um you know in our offseason i get a call from my agent canaure maguire a football agent canard maguire who didn't do my broadcasting deal by the way and he's like, hey, the Miami Dolphins want to trade you.

There's a couple teams out there, but the Chicago Bears want you. And this is going to go down. And I was like, oh, wow. So Jay Cutler went to the team, and they asked Jay, what do you need? Jay said, I need an X, Y receiver. And they said, okay, we'll go get your X. Look about all these guys in the draft and these guys coming up in free agency. They said, no, Brandon Marshall was my ex.

Right. And they made the deal. because Jay stood on the table. And we put the band together, we went and got a couple more guys that was with us in Denver. That's pretty cool. Yeah.

I've always kind of wanted to meet Jay. You should have him on a show. You would love him. Yeah. You know what we need to do? I talked to Jay during a pandemic because we haven't talked for it. Because in Chicago, things ended up bed.

And then we started talking and reconciling during a pandemic. Oh, okay. And then he went cold on me again. Jerk. We should reunite on your. your show. That's awesome.

Can you get it done? I might be able to. Working on it right now. We have to work together. You think we can have him by the end of the show, guys? Anything? But no, you'll love Jay. He'll be a phenomenal guest on your show.

He's funny. This is something I've always wanted to talk to a football guy about. This is kind of, so I'm, I'm a mechanic in my mind with, you know, so I think about cars and how they work and how to make them faster. and I think about things outside of racing the same way. So as I've been a fan of football and watching football since the early 80s, and it seems like to me, I could be wrong, but it seems like to me that the injury rate has ramped up,

particularly with like knee injuries and so forth, guys in your position. And I go in my head and I think, all right, so, and you can tell me how awful wrong this is, but I go thinking in my head like the length of the cleats, right? So and the artificer turf and some of the, like I'm being a Washington fan, I know all about the turf and how good and bad it can be at that field. But the length of the cleats, so we adjust our cars and put them on the edge, right?

We want to push them all the way to the edge but not spin out and crash. Are you guys pushing the cleats, the equipment, just same way, right? You're trying to get everything advantage-wise you can out of the cleat because it can improve speed, grip, turn, cutting, and all that. But you also have to be careful of how much of a risk you put yourself at, your knee at, or your body at, right? Is there anything – is that true? That is very true. It's interesting. And it's actually a hot topic right now that nobody's really talking about are covering the right way.

And we can get to it later. But there's a lot of teams opting out right now of off-season workouts in there. the conversations around COVID, but it really is around injuries. Because last year was the first year where we saw that injury rate drop. So what we learned last year was you don't need an offseason. One, the guys are overworked, okay? You don't need an off season to prepare for a season. So now it's this whole positioning play and this whole play of power

to figure out how do we eliminate this wearing tear on our guy's body in the off season. So that's that. But when you talk about the cleats, there's so much to it because you have grass, you have turf, you have slow turf, fast turf. So then you got to look at the cleats. You have screw-ins.

Screw-ins is literally that, like, at the bottom of your cleats, and you have different sizes. Right. You know, you can go to the guy, and usually you wear those on grass in bad weather. But some guys, you know, everybody has their own preference. And you go before the game, you go to your equipment manager and you can start screwing stuff off and tweaking stuff.

But then you also have molds, okay? You know, and then you got to figure out when do you wear those cleats, you know, and what turf, what grass do you wear those? So I was a guy that always pushed the limits. You know, I used to cut things off of my cleats. I used to wear like soccer cleats for more speed and understanding that I'm losing, I would lose, traction at the top of my routes when I need to decelerate.

So I would actually change how I would decelerate because I wanted more speed, right? And also my shoulder pads. I was never a guy that would run into somebody intentionally and hit. I think that's one of the reason why I played so long is because I'm like, yeah, I'm a big guy, but I makes no sense for me to just run right into you. I'm going to try to run around you. I'm trying to push you out the way. So like my shoulder pads, I had no protection in my shoulder pads.

I never took hits. I never did that. So I would cut out all the equipment there. And I wore the same shoulder pad. Like I took my college shoulder pads. I wore them in the NFL and all this new equipment and how they innovated this stuff. Like I was like, no, the same thing. Same thing with my helmet a little bit. And then they forced us to change things. So I was always a guy that like cut, like, give me, I didn't want any pants. No pads in my pants. If you look at, if you look at video of like pick any game from the 80s. Like everybody's got all the knee pads in. The pants go down past the knee,

the big thick pads right at the thigh. And nobody's wearing none of that stuff anymore. Well, yeah, nowadays they're making us like, and it's so interesting you say that, because now they're making us wear pads again and put the pants over your knees. And so what guys are doing now is you'll have this, you'll have, let's say, a thigh pad, okay?

Yeah. And it's just all this cushion. So what we start doing is cutting the cushion, taking the cushion off, and now you just have this little thin, little plastic plate. It's not much protection, but, hey, it gets the job done, checks the box. I have my thigh pads on. You know, guys didn't want to wear that.

Guys don't want to cover up their knees. How come? Just because of the speed? Yeah, well, for a lot of reasons. Speed, you know, feeling good and comfortable and movement. And then there's some guys just want to look good. Some guys just want to look good. My favorite player was Art Munt.

Yeah. And he used to cut his sleeves. And man, when he'd run, his sleeves are flying everywhere because he's cut the bottom of them. So you cut your sleeves, did you? Of course I cut my son. Do you embrace the way the evolution of the rules has sort of taken over to NFL and college football, but like targeting, for instance? And I know that we want to ask you a lot about, you know, the mental health and the repercussions to come with it. But, you know, like, as fans, we'll be like, man, it's gotten too soft.

You know, like the 85 bears used to decapitate a quarterback. Right, right. Right, right. And so where do you net out on that? I love it. Okay. Yeah, I love it. I mean, you got to think about it. I mean, we weren't created to, you know, have car collisions, you know, 40, 50 times a game. You know, our brains, they're not built to sustain that. So I think there are better ways to do things. And I think the NFL has done a good job over the last 10 years of making a game safer. and I know there's this huge debate

between the old guys and the new guys who's tougher, et cetera, et cetera. I'm like, man, none of that stuff matters. The hell with that. You know, I care about where you're going to be 20 years after the game. You know, yes, take the head out of the game. So

is it still a violent sport absolutely? But is it safer? Yes. That's good. That's good. Because I imagine you know people that are probably dealing with the consequences of a very physical sport, you know, playing it their whole life. I would imagine that's the case. I know we've, just in your concussion experience, Dale, you've come across other athletes.

I mean, you know, Dale can tell you more about this, but obviously the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is where you were receiving treatment from concussions. And, man, hockey players, football players, they were all up there. That's right. And, man, they're dealing with this for the rest of their life. That's right. They're in for the hall, you know. Well, it depends.

I mean, every case is different. And I think that you have to be proactive and you have to do what Dale did, right? Like, you can thrive. And you should be able to survive most cases if you're doing the right things. Everything matters. How you train, you know, a lot of times, you know, well, why are these guys unhealthy? Why are they, you know, making these type of decisions? Well, because their whole lifestyle have changed.

And we're talking about they don't have healthy habits anymore. You take a car that we're talking about just a boat. If a boat is loose, that could be the difference in winning and losing and the attention and detail in that process every single day for 24 years or a professional athlete for 20-something years, how you took care of your body, and then all of a sudden you go to the opposite end of the spectrum, and you don't think you're going to have issues, right? So when you have these athletes that make these, you know, it's in transition, been rich, tired for years and now they don't have healthy habits anymore. There's a lot that comes with that.

So the things that I always say, and these are the five pillars I live by, you know, continue to train, continue to fuel correctly. What does that mean? Well, we should be getting our macros and micros through food, but it's hard. So make sure you know how to supplement. Continue to supplement. Mental fitness is the third pillar. Well, what does that mean? Well, it could be any end of the spectrum. You know, how do you deal with anxiety? How do you deal with depression? That stuff is real. It doesn't only affect athletes.

It affects everyone. But we don't understand how to seek help, especially men. We don't want to talk about it. You know, we don't want to identify with that. And then on the other end, it's just like, you know what, I just want to be better. I want to take, I want to go to a whole other level. So meditation or being able to say, you know what, I want to reach peak performance again. So what can I do to get more out of my body and my brain?

The fourth thing is recover. Well, hell, if you're not sleeping right, how the hell are you going to recover? You know, so bad backs, bad knees and ankles. Well, you're a professional athlete for so long, and when you had an injury, you took care of yourself. And you know how that feels when your body doesn't feel right, you know, what that does to you mentally. Now all of a sudden you're retiring and you're not going to fix that bum back or you're not going to go work on that shoulder. So you've got to continue that. And then the last thing is tribe.

A lot of our guys live in isolation. They don't have people around them. They don't have a team, right? And that's important. Look at this. I'm here in this freaking city, J.R. Motorsports. And look at this team. None of us made it to the top without a team.

And now of a sudden you don't have a team. We're all meant to do this. Like, this is your locker room. You know, a lot of guys don't have this. Right. You know. Yeah, I agree with you 100%. On, especially on the exercise.

Like, after my career, when I was going through. the concussions, a lot of the things that I did to rehab that were simple exercise. And I'm thinking, man, this is, how's this going to fix my head? You know, and, but it made a profound difference in how I felt emotionally, mentally, anxiety, all those things. And so I know, I notice, and you as an athlete, so to get that last 5% that elite go from, go from good to great, you know, you got to work really hard to find that little bit. And, and, you know, and, And we would sustain that as when we had a job, you know, to do. When we were racing or playing football, we sustain that, working hard and doing all the things we do.

But then when you don't, when you retire and you're not racing anymore or not playing football anymore, and you lose that little 5% because you don't train anymore, you don't exercise anymore, you do start to descend, right? That's right. And I've noticed it. Like having, you know, my last year was 2017. And in 2017, I rode my bike 2,400 miles. Wow.

Yeah, on the road highway. And I've had years since then that I've not rode a mile. Wow. And I can feel, I feel less, you know, mentally, sharp, less emotionally, you know, happiness. There's less happiness emotionally sustained, you know, throughout the year. I, man, that's everything. For me, it's weekly.

Like if I'm that training, I feel it right away. Yeah. You know, so I time block. pocket and 10 of 12 is my personal time is when I'm working out this year. You know, it wasn't up until a month ago where I got back on track. But I started off this year, going back to December actually, where, you know, things got off track for me and I went a couple of months and I really wasn't training. You know, hit with COVID.

Businesses is taking off, a little overwhelmed there with so much going on there. And then also hurt my back. So I wasn't working out, and I felt like trash. Yeah. You know, you got to, you have to schedule. And I think the tough thing for us athletes, like, you know, in transition or retired is our entire life, we had an itinerary. We always had someone telling us what to do. Well, when you're done, you have to make that itinerary, you know, even in business.

Like, I had to time block when to check emails. And I'm still horrible at it, to be honest with you. But at least I have it marked down. and I may get through half of them. But before I was like, this is overwhelming. No, there wasn't a Pete Carroll. There wasn't a coach Mike Shanahan telling me do this at this time. Like, I had to create that.

And I'm still in process of creating what that itinerary is as far as priorities and what makes sense for me and when. So I've experienced a lot and learned a lot through my concussions, but mental health is a really broad, you know, that's, that's, I don't even know where to go with that. But one of the things that I was curious about is that we were talking about this before you came in here. I'm a firm believer in therapy. I've been in and out of therapy all my life for various reasons and believe in the help that that can provide somebody to be able to sit down and talk to somebody through your problems.

But a lot of people, I think, don't know they need help. A lot of people, like, how do you, how does someone know, like, I could probably get some help for this? Where do you get in the moment that you wake, you can say, hey, man, I think I can get this, I can be better here. That's right. How do you, how do people get that realization? Well, first, I was that guy. I didn't know I was suffering. I didn't know I was suffering in silence.

You know, it wasn't until I was at McLean Hospital where I was like, like, I've been hurting. I didn't know it. So I was absolutely that guy. I think it starts with awareness. So a lot of people don't know. need to hear your story, they need to hear my story, you need to hear Kevin Love's story, they need to hear Demi Lovada's story,

they need to hear Kelly Osborne story, they need to hear the Rocks story, they need to hear Obama, Michelle Obama's story, they need to hear people's story. And that, to me, you know what, that's the most gratifying thing is when I'm out

and I'm traveling and people are like, you know what, I heard your story and because of it, I seek to help, right? And I also think that the other side to what you asked is, you know, you got to have a want to. There's a lot of people that don't want to talk. Like there's a certain way you go through therapy. There's a certain way, you know, you seek help.

There's a lot of people that's resistant. I want to be here. I ain't doing this. No, you got to be open. You got to be vulnerable. You got to say, I need help. You know, it's the same with substance abuse. And I think that's where transformation starts is when you say,

I need help. Where you feeling, when you started to reach out and get help, how long is that process? How long before you start to realize that this is a good thing for you? All right. So for me, it took a couple years because I was pushing back. It was everybody else. It was the world. You know, it was everybody else.

I'm pointing the finger out. It ain't me. It ain't me. It ain't me. And once I got to McLean Hospital, I was there for three. months in an outpatient program diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. And I was in self-assessment, which is a group therapy where you just literally just, you sit in a circle and you talk about what's going on in your life. I was in mentalization therapy. A lot of people diagnosed with

borderline personality disorder, things black and white, you know, and it teaches you the skills and tools to be able to process and be able to evaluate. Well, maybe, you know, not just draw conclusions right away and react off of that, which is never good. Cognitive behavior therapy. dialectical behavior therapy. I was doing one-on-ones with the great Dr. Gunderson. And so I was there for three months in this amazing program. And literally at the halfway point is when I realized, like when I had my first breakthrough, because that's the first time where I stopped pointing a finger

everybody else. And I just said, let me see how I contribute to it. And that's all I did. I just focused on that. whether it was 20%, 50% or 75%. That's the only thing I focused on. And my world drastically changed right then and then. That's awesome.

And that's about 2011. Is that right? That was 2011? What was borderline personality disorder, even though you wouldn't have known about it? What was it at its worst for you? Oh, I mean, it was really the first four and a half years of my career. So you were in the NFL?

Yeah, I was in it. I mean, yeah, I mean, it was that. You know, we're talking about everything from the relationships with my family, the relationships with my wife, the relationship with my teammates. Everything. It was like I was living, it was a living hell. You know, it was absolutely everything. I couldn't control my emotions. I didn't have the skills and tools to be able to self-regulate.

You know, I was just a ticking time bomb. Who recommended to go to the hospital? So interesting process in the NFL, you have, like, you know, we have a, there's a program. Like if you get a DUI or if you, you know, you fell a drug test, they throw you in a substance abuse program. If you get in trouble, you know, they throw you in a program where you got to talk to someone. So for the first four years of my career, you know, I was talking to people, but it was always everybody else's, it was always, you know, it was always someone else's fault. And, you know, I remember my fourth year in the league, they reached out to me, say, hey, we want to fly you to Waltham, Massachusetts. So we want you to sit down with Dr. Gunderson.

Flew out there for two days. And, you know, we had a conversation, and then I just left. You let? You left. He just sat down, talked to me for a day. I was there for two days. And then I left a couple years later, traded to the Miami. Dolphins and Ricky Williams just launched his 30 for 30 doc and it was it run Ricky run.

Oh yeah, that's right. You know, and I'm looking at this guy and I was just there and he premiered it. This dude was in like Australia living in a tent. And I remember one part of the video, Dr. Gunderson came up and talking about Ricky Williams and all this. I was like, Dan, that's the same guy I talked to. Okay. So you have that picture of Ricky, but then I'm in a locker room with them every day that year. and he's phenomenal.

And I'm like, this is not the guy that was living in that tent in Australia or whatever it was. Like, this dude left millions of dollars to go live in a tent, right? And I'm like, who is this guy? So that year, 2011, 2011, I mean, I just, it was horrible playing for the dolphins. And I would walk in and say, well, I know the coach was going to say something I don't like, but I'm going to bite my tongue. I'm not going to say anything. and then I would say exactly what I said I wouldn't,

you know, I would do exactly what I said I wouldn't do. And I was like, holy fuck, I need help. And I went to Ricky. I said, Ricky, do you think I'm bipolar? He said, no, Brandon, I don't think you're bipolar. I just think you say the things that we all want to say but shouldn't say. And I was like, man, tell me about Dr. Gunderson. And he started telling me about Dr. Gunderson.

And I was like, I'm going to go to that guy. If he helped Ricky Williams, then I'm going to go to that guy. And then I flew out to meet with Dr. Gunner and said, well, I called him first. And he said, well, first, let's talk first. And we had this conversation. And it was awesome. It was like an hour conversation. And then he called me back and said, okay, you can come in a program.

And so, all right, great. I didn't know it was a question. He said, yeah, because the reason why I wanted to talk to you, because if you were the same guy, same guy from a couple years ago, I would have said, no, because that guy, I could not help. he said something's different in you now and that was the vulnerability of wanting to help he said where I think I can help you so that's how I end up you know seeking help but I still was hard-hitted it was my football agent and my longtime assistant my football agent canard maguire and my long-time assistant Kathy Lee who came in and said brandon you need help you should go to this program like they really pushed me over the edge bang so what's a

give me an example of of an experience in the program. Like what what type of things are you guys doing? Right. So the program I was in, borderline personality disorder is like an emotional disorder, being able to self-regulate. You know, somebody can walk in his room right now and something happens and we all see it, we fill it,

and someone who may have, you know, may not have borderline personality disorder, under control in their life, it's going to take them, they don't have the skills and tools to be able to self-regulate and to cope with whatever just happened. You guys may be able to get over it

in a minute. You know, for someone, you know, dealing with borderline personality disorder, it could take them an hour. It could take them two days. It could take them two weeks. Does this, is this every, is this anything?

No. Just some things. Just some things. Just some things. things in everybody's case is different like borderline personality disorder BPD presents itself in over 265 different ways wow right like Ricky Williams like Ricky Williams was diagnosed with BPD I was diagnosed with BPD two different stories right um so how did it look in the program it was like being on a college campus that's what it was like you know I would wake up you know every day around seven I think get the

campus around eight maybe my first group our session was at like 839 and I'd be there till five and after that I would go to rebuck's headquarters I was assigned to rebuck at the time and I would train for the season but it literally was that I was just jumping around eight to five every day yeah because I was going from mentalization therapy to dialectical behavior therapy self-assessment one-on-one with dr. Gunderson so I would literally just be on campus bouncing around what was interesting is while on campus though you know there was a few times where you You know, I'd be walking and I'll see someone talking to them. So I'm like, hey, buddy, how you doing?

And they just wasn't there. Like, damn. And those were reminders, like, I'm really at a mental institute right now. I'm at a hospital, right? Or I walk into a session and there'll be blood seeping through a bandage of someone's arm, you know, from self-harming themselves. You know, you hear the stories of, oh, yeah, I tried to commit suicide last night. there was a young lady named Sasha. We call her Sasha Bear who completed suicide on campus, right, while I was there.

So it was interesting, and it was probably the most phenomenal experience of my life. My gosh. Yeah. Man. So now you're – I was wondering why you were so eager to share, so eager to speak about it. I mean, that right there says enough. What is your goal going forward? How are you?

What is your, I know you started the House of Athlete. There's a lot of components in that business that deal with mental health. You're trying to help those guys understand what that complete package is. It's not just on the field. But what other things are you doing or how are you trying to help other people? House of Athlete is McLean Hospital to me. You know, when I was at McLean Hospital, it was five pillars that I linked into earlier, that's what I was doing. So the transformation that happened in my life, I was training every day.

So when I leave in McLean Hospital, I was going to Reebok's headquarters and I was crushing it, right? Not everybody has to train every day, just a couple times a week. I was also leaning into my nutrition. Mental fitness, obviously I was at McLean Hospital, but I also was practicing meditation. I was praying, I was reading, I was doing so many things spiritually there. The fourth thing was recovery, taking care of my body, you know, sleeping, massage, you know, taking care of, you know, if I had a hamstring problem, my back was hurting. And then I had my team that was there.

I wasn't up there alone. My long-term trainer was there. And then also I had like a little crew because I filmed everything that they turned into my family. So I wasn't there by myself. So those five things is the pillars that make up House of Athlete. Because a lot of times when we have this conversation about mental health, it's so clinical. There's so much stigma around it. When you talk about House of Athlete and you talk about mental fitness, it's more, you know, welcoming.

Yeah. You know, it's not as scary. So at House of Athlete, you know, we focus on the fundamentals of health. You know, there's a thin line between impairment and performance. And so when you come there, we have, and I think this is how we should approach. it, you know, just to be disruptive and really make it comfortable for everyone. You know, but when you come to the House of Athlete, we have mental health professionals on site. On Wednesdays, there's no training there.

We have some of the top athletes trading there now. We have 50 pro athletes training there. We have a couple hundred gym pop members there, youth athletes as well. Wednesdays, there's no downlifting weights or running on a treadmill. You can come recover. You can take the self-assessment class that we can. call mental fitness, you can do our mindful mobility class, you can jump in a float pot, right? And so that's what I'm doing now. And I think that's, you know, that's one of

things when I talk about legacy in the NFL, that's one of the things that I wanted to do was, you know, make sure that it was mandated that every club had a mental health professional on staff. It wasn't like that back in the day. You know, they did, they did, they made that move a couple years ago. And then the biggest thing for me when I was playing in the NFL, instead of me meeting with gal in her room next to the janitor's closet on third floor when I was playing for the Chicago Bears, instead of meeting with her in her room, I would meet with her in the middle of the train, the weight room when guys was there to break the stigma. And when I was with the jets, I would do it in the cafeteria. When I was with the Giants, I would do it in the cafeteria doing

lunch hour so everybody can see it. So I feel like we need to take our mental health professionals and put them right next to our strength and conditioning coaches. Where we train physically, we should also be developing mentally. All right, it's time for a message from our partner Vavilene, the original motor oil. Not only were they the first patented motor oil brand, they also had many first in the industry of motor oil, like being the first high mileage oil, the first synthetic blend. The first racing oil, and they never stopped innovating. They are constantly reinventing formulas

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What is the biggest mistake athletes make when they get into the league? Ooh. Wow. Freedom. So the biggest mistake is, What got us there is the routine, you know, and stay in focus, the humility. And then when we have freedom, you know, it's like, you start breaking routine. You know, you start doing things you've never done before.

And I think that's a huge mistake. You just got to stay focused. Eli Manning, you know, his entire playing career, he did the same thing over and over and over again. And the reason why I, you know, mentioned him because, like, if you go in a row with Eli Manning, and you're like, hey, Eli, let's go to this amazing steakhouse where, you know, it's the only time here all year. Oh, I can't break routine. I can't break routine, right?

So, you know, it's probably a better answer there, but that's the thing that was top of mind for me. Well, I mean, I ask that because I'm hearing you talk about House of Athlete. Yeah. Is it fair to say, you're equipping people. You're equipping people from a mental standpoint approach. It's not just the physical abilities that they, the God-given abilities, have. You're equipping them with all the other things that they don't know they need, right?

Oh, I don't care about the physical. I tell those guys all the time, like, you can watch our show on FS1. It's come out tomorrow and, like, I don't, I'm not on the field running routes with guys and there. There's some amazing receivers out there. You know, I'm not out there teaching them X's and O's, unless they come up to me and ask me, I'm talking to them about their mind and their brain, you know, because life in sport is 80% mental. And that's what separates the good from great or that's what keeps you from walking in your purpose if you're just clogged up up here right so that's the thing that i i focus on it's all mental for me so would it be fair to say that the house athlete is that place to get that 5% to go from good great to from good to elite

that that that that little bit that's hard to find i would say so and who can go there everybody it's it's so you know what what we've what we've created is a place where the top athletes come in and train for their seasons, youth athletes. That's where we started in athletic performance. Youth athletes through college, through pros, over the last two years, we opened it up to the gym pop. So we're projecting 1,200 to 2,000 members per facility and we'll open up globally.

We'll open up 19 facilities within the next five years. Wow. How do you handle the frustration, I guess, of trying to get through to that younger person to help them understand? Because, you know, they're thinking about just blowing up, right, and getting big. And we deal with it with our young guys coming in to NASCAR. And you're like, man, you got to stay focused on this and this is important.

You better pay attention to this part. How do you – because I was watching you guys work at a house athlete and talking to some of these young kids, and I can just see – seeing their faces, they're like, man, I'm overwhelmed. How do you help them sort of realize that that mental mental? part is so critical. Right. Just telling our stories, but how I protect myself is knowing that not everyone's going to get it and some people have to go through the hard times to get it. Like, I was one of those guys where I had to fly, I had to fall flat on my face to get it. And, you know,

unfortunately, some people don't make it back. And fortunately, some people, you know, it's exactly what they need, right? So as long as you're giving them the information, then you have to be okay with that and that's what I lean like I'm giving you the information here's what it like I played 13 years in national football league six-time pro bowler made a ton of money you know I'm doing X Y and Z now after now you study the greats over here look what they're doing they're doing the same thing here's the information take it use it obviously you're equipping them with far bigger implications of what I'm about to ask you but I've always wondered this right are wide receivers the biggest talkers and And if so, what is the psychological warfare going on between a wide receiver and a defensive back when they line up at the line of scrimmage?

Right. I got to know. No. So the biggest sh**ters are defensive backs and defensive linemen. So like the corners, like the Richard Sherman's of the world, the Jalen Ramsey's of the world. You know, the thing that kills me about defensive backs is this. I'll run a route. I'll beat you.

defensive back, clearly beat you. The quarterback throws a bad ball. And then what do they get up? They do this thing where they put their arms on their chest and then they cross it out. Like, no, incomplete. It's like, bro, I just whooped your butt. Like, what are you doing? You know what I?

It's just like, they live out there on an island. They don't get a lot of attention. So they got to make a lot of noise for people to, you know, pay attention to them. So they're the biggest trash talkers. Defense alignment, they're big, sometimes sloth. poppy guys, okay? And so for them, you know, they have to make noise because they really think that they're sexy. They think that they're like position guys.

So you'll see them next time. Pay attention to this. Defense alignment, they dress like wide receivers. They dress like defense and wide receivers. Pay attention. It's like, bro, like you're wearing the cleats. Like, you're 300 pounds. I can wear these speed cleats.

You need power cleats. Why do you have your towel the way I have my towel? You look like Dionne Sanders. So those are the biggest trash talkers. And I think that they're really good wide receivers and defensive backs. It's chess out there. You know, so it's, you know, you know, okay, lining two yards outside of the numbers 80% of the time, I ain't doing this. And he knows it.

Lining two yards outside the numbers with my left foot up instead of my right foot on the left side of the ball, I am doing this, he knows it. How do I use it to my advantage? Or what is he going to do? You know, third down, third and one, two minute drill, fringe area. Fringe area is 40 yards. You just crossed the 50 yard line. We're in the 40. That's the fringe area. About before we get to the red zone, it's going to be zero blitz. Man and man. He's going to step with his left foot first. So let me go to his right foot. He's going to be off balance. So like that's the difference between really. good and great wide receivers and defense defense of backs like it's a chess match like i i had some great battles with uh nomdi awesome wall darrell revis um richard sherman whereas just get after just go go go i remember and i'll i'll finish this topic with this is like i was playing for the jets and we went up to foxborough to play the patriots when i'll line up on the right side and i put my right foot up the defense the back would turn to a safety and give them like hand signals and i was like damn like What's my tail?

What's my tail? So I spent the first half, like, trying to figure out what's going on because I had this guy in front of me, Logan Ryan, he's good now. Okay. Logan was with the Tennessee Titans now. He's with the New York Giants. Logan, I'm sorry, bro, but you couldn't be on the field with me. But they were double teaming me.

And Logan, you know, he had my tail. Bill Belichick gave him my tail, whoever. And so depending on what I was doing with my feet, determine how they would double team me in the leverage. So it took a half to figure it out. I got to the locker room like, holy crap, and this is the best year. I'm in, you know, halfway through the best year of my career. So I'm really bawling.

Half time I figured out, boom. So I started doing the opposite, and I was crushing them. And so the next time around, because we play the Patriots twice, the next time around, I'm like, I go to Coach Bowles, who's now the defense coordinator for a temp A. Bucks, a phenomenal coach. And I go to Ryan Fitzpatrick. I say, this is it. I got the game plan. Ryan Fitzpatrick, your quarterback now, Washington, he'll confirm this.

I said, all you got to do is look over, look at the guy over me and it's going to tell you what their defense is. When he's on me, on first step, when he's on me, hit up close within one yard, and the safety's in the middle field, it's three bell. If he's three yards off of me, this is what they're doing. All you got to do is pay attention to me. And we crushed the Patriots. We crushed the Patriots.

And all he did is looked over me. So it's like chess. It's amazing. A lot going on that we don't see. I know that was a lot, right? No, man. The football IQ stuff is awesome because, yeah, we dig it. There was a game in 2009, December.

You got 21 receptions. Yeah. So that's a record in the NFL. Yeah. Are you in the middle of that game? Like, is anybody talking to you saying, hey, man, you got 15 catches? Right. Yeah.

Are you talking to your QB and going, two more catches? Are you, I mean, what's going on? Because I know there's got to be something going on in the middle of that. You don't just end the game and go, oh, by the way, you got 21 catches. I did. Right. You know, you had to have known through that process. That's a lot because, you know, I've watched enough football to know that that's outrageous.

So you had to have known somewhere in the middle of that game, like, this is a special game. Well, I love this game, not because of the 21 catches, but because. of like performance and being in the zone. High performers, people study people like you and I, right? Like how do you get in the zone? Like CEO, people out in the valley, lead in tech companies like, how do I get in the zone? Right? And so they're trying to build applications and built products that can help people get into

that zone, which is damn near impossible. But this is a real thing. Before the game, I went to Michael Smith, who was reporting for ESPN. at the time. Now he's with Peacock. And I said, this is going to be the greatest game of my life. And I just took off. I said, I'm telling you now because I want you to report, I want you to know that I said this before. Right. And it was all like I was crescendoing all week, like just like tapping in. And what I was focusing on was being locked in on a moment, nothing else. So I didn't know. I didn't have a clue until the very end. So the entire game,

You know, if you watch that game, I get up, I get hit hard, or, you know, I make an amazing catch. I'll just get up, flip the ball to the ref, and I'll just walk back to the huddle. And I was actually channeling my inner Jay-Z at the time. Jay-Z was just ascending to like something different. And I was like, man, it's like effortless for Jay-Z, like how he posed for his pitchers, how he talks, the business moves that he's making. And I'm like, that's me in football. Like, I'm going to channel that. So that was my swagger on the field that day.

And so I'm sitting on the bench is what, maybe at the end of the third quarter or beginning of the fourth quarter. I don't remember. And Kenny McKinley, rest in peace. You know, he actually completed suicide. He shot himself the next year. Terrible story. But Kenny McKinley walks up to me, sits next to me. I'm on my bench by myself just, like, locked in.

And he's just looking at me. And on game day, I'm a different person. I'm morph into a different person. I don't know how it is for you, you know, race day. And so it just felt weird. I'm like, bro, why the hell are you staring at me like this? And he's like, bro, you have 18 catches. You know you're about to break the record?

And I looked at it. I said, man, why the hell you ain't telling me this before? Why are you waiting so late? So anyways, I end up, there was one catch. I had one catch to go and it came down to our last play. And that was the last, that was, so I went. to coach McDaniels and Kyle Orrin's like, I got one, I need one catch to break this record.

Give me the ball. That was the first time I came out of that, like, that zone. Yeah. And they was like, all right, we got it. We got it. We got it. So actually it was third down. So we had two more downs to go.

And it was third down. And they call it easy, just a bubble screen. Kyle Orton gets nervous. He dirts the ball. Oh, God. I mean, we're talking about, like, right here. Just toss it right here. Just toss it right here.

He dirts the ball. So Coach McDaniel was trying to. get me the record. And I'm like, Kyle, what the hell are you doing? And then it's fourth down now. This is it. And I go in a huddle. Kyle's trying to call a play. I said, screw all of that. Keep your eyes on me. Don't worry about where I go. I'm going to get open. I said, I was posed around like this 20-yard scene route down the middle of the field and versus cover two. It bends into the middle. I said, don't worry about all that. Just watch me and I'll get open. So I end up like running like, like ran outside, threw the guy off me, ran a slant, got to the little safe

space. He, you know, I caught the ball and that's how I broke the record. I knew something like that was going on. I mean, in a moment like that, you got to imagine that you're absolutely aware of it. That's pretty funny. The only other thing that I was wanting to know is this is something that we deal. So when we talk about the athletes, and this may come up later today, but we talk about racing and being athletes, one of our arguments to help.

our argument is that we lose a lot of weight. We sweat out probably about eight pounds of water, six to eight pounds of water per race, right? Yep. And, I mean, I could, every weekend, I could drive a race, get out, weigh myself, and it was gone. Right. The temperature in the car and all that being very hot. And I know, like, that, I used to burn, I knew how much calories I was going to burn on Sunday in the car. I just knew, and I could factor that into my,

the work I was going to do during the week and how many calories I was taking in every day and all those things, right? And so I've always wondered what you guys were burning during a game calorie-wise. I would go, as a fan of Washington, I would go get a chance and be lucky enough to go to training camp every once in a while. And the food that you guys were eating and the amount of calories you guys, I mean, it's astronomical. It is crazy. And so what kind of calories are you guys burning just in a four quarters of a football game? You know what? Similar, almost the same.

And even when you talk about how much weight loss during a race or a practice, it's the same. So we have to weigh in and way out before practice and games. Well, more so practice. Because you have guys, and I was one of those guys, especially. especially when the warm weather months, camp, end of July, August. Man, guys are losing 10 pounds in a practice. Wow. You're out there for two hours, similar to you guys, out there for a couple of hours,

and boom, just like that. Because if you're not hydrating, you understand what it does, injury goes up, et cetera, et cetera. So it's damn near identical. That's why our athletic trainers and physical therapists, our medical staffs always compare us to you guys. Really? They do? Yeah, like your body, like that car, that's us.

That's how we look at it. You know, because a lot of people don't look at it, you know, your body is a machine. You got to understand those things. A lot of these young players or even players in general, they don't approach it that way. You know, they're not eating with their stuff. Like you're talking about, oh, I was carving up. I was eating this and that. A lot of guys weren't doing that years ago.

So that's why we always compare ourselves to you guys. is because, you know, that's why I always go back to that bolt. Like something that simple could be the difference in winning and losing, right? And so something as simple as, you know, hey, on Friday night is when you should probably carve up because those carbs are good carbs are going to be released on Sunday when you really need them. A lot of guys think, oh, the day of the game is when I'm going to carve up. No, you need to be carving up days before. Right, right. So help me understand there's the going to, there's adding that. additional regular season game.

And to every man or the layman that sounds like, well, it's another game, right? Help, help, there's more to it than that. So what is the more to it? Why is that such a difficult addition to the regular season as they extend it one game? Why is that one game such a tough deal for the players? For the players, okay. All right, I put it this way. Keep it short and sweet.

week eight, week nine of the season. You're walking in the locker room and literally guys are going to be using tape to put their, like keep their arms up or their legs together to go out to practice. I'm talking about brutal. Guys, I mean, we're getting away from it now, taking tortals, getting shots to go to practice.

You know, it's a violent sport. It's hard. You know, injury rate 100%. Yeah. That's why. because towards the end of the season, you're running off adrenaline. Really? Does that make sense?

Yeah, absolutely. I never forget. This is when I knew it was over because it was the first time I realized this is when I snapped my ankle playing for the Giants. I remember seeing Damon's Snack Harrison, Big Snacks, before practice. Like, he had knee injury, elbow injury, and literally it's just like tape, tape, tape. And he's limping out there, limping out there. I'm like, you're now about to go out there and practice for two hours? It's dangerous.

Yeah. So, Brandon, I believe you are Hall of Fame eligible in 2023. Unless he comes back to play tight-in for the Washington football team, which we think it's going to happen. That's what we're going to work on. But assuming you don't. Right. I was looking at statistics.

Like the average Hall of Fame wide receiver has 769 receptions. You have 970. An average Hall of Fame wide receiver has 11,791 yards. You have 12,351. you have 83 touchdowns, these six pro balls. How important is the Hall of Fame to you? Do you think about it? I did think about it.

And being transparent, it's important to me because, and this is from a worldly perspective, just as a competitor. Every day I woke up, I woke up to be the best, that version of myself. And then also compete at a level where it's like, damn, he did some amazing things. So, you know, it's important because of that. but at the end of the day I think I'm in a good place well I know I'm in a good place because there's guys out there

that it's everything for them like for me it's all competition you know before when we go back to McLean Hospital first four or five years of my career football was everything it was my identity when I left McLean my identity

became you know being a face of mental health it was bigger than just me in football right so because of that it's like, man, if it happens, it happens. If, you know, if it doesn't, whatever. But from a competitor standpoint, it's like, you know, I never heard those stats before. But from a competitor standpoint, I thought about that playing. And the reason why that's important because that's all I did all my life.

And I'm a guy that is goal-oriented, you know, so that's, like, I thrive on that. Like, here's my goals and I'm checking them off. you know it's like it's just cool to me to be able to say i'm setting out to do this five years from now and i'm gonna freaking do it so so so that's why you know it's a it's a big deal well congratulations on i mean your success off the field is just as remarkable to us is the on the field the on the field is amazing right i mean you know i am athlete podcast uh in the show i can watch that forever when when when when you and chad get into it and and start arguing, that's like some of the most entertaining stuff I've ever seen.

I mean, just two weeks ago, the video y'all dropped. But it's an amazing accomplishment. And you guys just started that last year, right? Or you started it. Did you start that? Yeah, it was my idea. But we have a whole team in place, but yes. Well, it's, I, we're so excited that Dale gets to go on that with you guys

because it's really well done. No, really. We're also excited to hear what you guys say about that ride that you're going to take. I mean, just take it easy. I don't take it easy. I'll tell you that, but I might not just. Crush Channing. Freaky Fred will be fine.

He'll love it. Freaky Fred. Ocho, he's the wild car. You never know what you're going to get from Ocho. You don't do you? You never know what you're going to get from Ocho. He's going to get out and then he's going to try to enter a race as a driver. Because that's like, he still thinks he can go out there and do it.

No, he's going to be like, you know, give me a head start. I can beat this car. You know what I mean? He's that type of guy Like, oh, let me just run against the car really quick Let me see if I can beat him in 60 meters You know, like that's Ocho, that's the wild card You know, me, I'm more conservative, you know

Of the four of y'all, who will scream? Me? Me and probably Channing Crowder. Oh, yeah, I think he wants you to get Channing. No, no, no, no, it's probably just me because Channing like dives, he dives with Sharning. sharks. He has a whole shark company where you can go diving with sharks out in like Pompano, Florida or wherever it's at. But Channing's wild. He, he hunts

alligators. He does that type of stuff. He wrestled like, he's a wild boy. Yeah, sounds like it. It'd be hard to impress him. Yeah, that'll be tough. This won't be anything. This won't be nothing. Well, well, well, Brandon, it's been a great conversation, man. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Folks are going to love to hear this. You got to I'll be pulling for you. You got a new fan in me, man. Everything you got going on, everything you got going in your life. It's going to be fun to watch House of Athlete continue to grow.

I love the idea of you out there helping people understand to take their mental health seriously. And I enjoy, I'll enjoy, yeah, watching you continue in broadcasting. And however far you want to take that, right? That's right. That's right. That's whatever you want it to be. Well, I appreciate you paving away for us, you know, us athletes and showing us that there is life. after the sport. So you've done a phenomenal job.

Man, that's appreciate that. We all appreciate you. And Mike, keep crushing it. You see, you're like sober today, Mike. Like, I felt like I was going to get, you know, the wow Mike today. When have you seen wild, Mike? I've done some research. There's been some moments. Like, you're going to mix it up a little bit. You mix it up a little bit. You asked the, you asked the right questions. He's the seasoning. He's the seasoning. That's right. That's right. Hey, listen. I think a lot. I think a lot. lot of the things that you guys apply is that sometimes we're just naturally curious about people and we just want to talk and man you have just given us so much stuff to just insight that we've

just been wanting to ask somebody and you're it and so thank you thank you so much all right this is awesome brandon marshall on the dale junior download brandon marshal on the dale junior download i'm about to go rock this garage baby you want to go in there yes of course good like hey this is amazing First of ten, I'm in the game. You hear the crowd they're tamer names. First of ten, I'm in a game. You hear the crowd day tamer day.

First of ten, I'm in a game. You hear the crowd that tampername. It's finally time for our favorite part of the show. Ask Junior brought to you by Xfinity. Let's check out the questions our fans sent to at Xfinity Racing on Twitter. Hey everybody. It's Dale Jr. here for the Ask Junior portion of the podcast. And this is brought to you by Xfinity.

A proud premier partner of NASCAR. I'm a customer and enjoy the service. So people think that we probably get our Exfinity Internet for free, but I pay for my Exfinity Internet, and I'm happy with it. So, yeah, we've got some questions that you guys have sent into at Xfinity Racing on Twitter. I hope you guys enjoyed last week's show with Josh Barry, and having Josh as part of the Ask Junior segment was a lot of fun for me. and we got some things coming down the pipe with the podcast that you guys are going to love.

There is one guest that I am so excited about. You got some questions. Leah's going to help get those out here so we can get the answers. Our first question coming from Eddie Wagner, what needs to be done to bring back the excitement and difficulty of Old Richmond? I'm telling you, man, that's a great question, and I'm glad you asked it. I've said this for, you know, the fun. funny thing. I was watching the race and I was having a conversation with a friend of

mine about the action on the track, or the lack of it, or compared to the past and what we've seen there in years past. And I googled, or I didn't Google, but I went on Twitter, and I searched my username and the word sealer to see how many times I have said on Twitter or commented on Twitter about sealing Richmond. And it was a good amount. It was what I was, It was what I expected to see. But I've asked them about sealing that track again. They used to put sealer on it years ago, a long time ago. I think the last time they did was around 2004.

But what the sealer does is, you know, you've seen an asphalt sealer, driving around town or maybe you sealed your driveway. When it gets water on top of it, it's really slick. But it's got this kind of sticky kind of texture to it. and it's kind of maybe it's similar in a way of the PJ1 and how it,

when you race on it, and you get it hot, the surface gets hot, and you get tire rubber sort of mixed into it. It kind of improves the grip. The cars go faster. And, uh,

but the problem with it is it does wear off or wear away. And that's when it gets really, really good. So if they sealed rich, completely. The track would look a lot darker and the first race on it would be very treacherous. The first lapse on that sealer would be a handful. If you look back at articles of written when the track was sealed in the 90s and in early 2000s, the drivers complained about how treacherous the racetrous the racetrack was on the new sealer. But once they get laps or a good, you know,

good day of practicing or so forth on the sealer and get it sort of, it breaks it in, if you will. The track gets better, gets more comfortable, the drivers get more comfortable. But eventually, over years, over many, many races, that sealer wears away. So if the guys are running right on the bottom of the racetrack, they will eventually use that sealer up. And they'll have to go up the racetrack with the right side tires to find more sealer. and you just keep doing that over the period of time, you go higher and higher and higher. Race after race after race,

you're going further and further up the track, chasing that sealer, kind of like a cushion at a dirt track to find speed and grip. Until you're way up the track, you know, and while that grooves fast, the bottom's still competitive in a way for a guy to make a pass. It just really makes the track really dynamic. And it adds multiple grooves,

where right now you can pin a guy down if you're on the top and beat them, but the bottom line is really where everybody wants to be. The problem is, is I've asked Richmond about sealing the track, and they're afraid that it really takes a lot of years off of the life of the surface, and it could actually end up breaking the surface apart. The improved grip will increase the forces and pull and tug on that asphalt as the cars go around the corner and they're afraid that it will it will break that surface apart and eventually they'll end up having to repave the track years before they would they would have hoped

so that's the fear in doing it i think aside from the fact that the drivers are really going to complain very loudly during that first experience of using the track with sealer on it so there's also the idea that maybe today's tire with the chemicals and and ingredients that it's takes to make won't work well, won't work well with the sealer, as opposed to what, you know, they used to make tires with different chemicals and compounds and stuff years ago. How would today's tire react to the sealer? I'm not, I'm not certain it might be even more treacherous than ever, which is not a bad thing if you're watching a race.

You want it to be treacherous. You want it to be dangerous. The louder the drivers are complaining. Usually that means it's more entertaining to watch. If it's easier, it appears easier, then it's less exciting. So I don't know. I would, it'd be a, I can understand, and I'm going along here on this, I know, but I can understand if I was the Richmond guy, if I on the track,

I'd be pretty nervous to pull the trigger and get that, you know, get that sealer on there. I'd be nervous because there's so many what-ifs and risks, but it's easy for me to sit here in this chair and say, seal it, let's seal it, put that sealer down, let's go, because it needs something. And it don't need PJ1. We don't need to spray that on everything. Our next question coming from Josh Seda. Do you think it's possible to have 16 or more winners in the regular season based on how the first nine races have gone?

We debate that as well. Me and my booth mates at NBC, Jeff Burton and Littarton, the consensus is that it's not going to happen. It would take a few miracles or a few wild card. It would take more than Michael McDowell at Daytona. It takes several of those to make that happen. We get close. We get really close every year. but I think there's just so many guys in the playoffs at 16 drivers

that you're never really going to have that many winners in one season. And we got to expect at some point, Denny, Harvick, Chase, those guys. I mean, we're going on to these road courses where you're going to have guys starting to get those multiple wins. We're going to have, even though that, you know, Denny and Harving those guys haven't got the wins now, I still feel like there are a four, five, six-win team, even with just this much left in the season.

But if that happens, you know, a couple teams like that get on a run, you're definitely not going to have that, you know, more than 16 winners. Our next question coming from Higgie and all of your ride-alongs, who freaked out about the speed the most? Does anyone stand out in the ride-alongs that you've done? Kelly, we went to Bristol. We got to do the Dale Jr. Foundation ride-alongs at Bristol. Excuse me, we've been doing the ride-alongs for a long time and we usually do them at Charlotte Merge Speedway, and they're pretty fun there. But at Bristol, we did it for the first time, and it was a really amazing experience. I think probably for the person riding along, it was as profound or as hardcore as you could

probably make that for somebody. And a lot of people that go into it not knowing what's going to happen, it's over before they really have a chance to ask you to stop or slow down or freak out, right? My sister, having had some driving experience, I think she kind of had an idea of what this might be like, and she got to that point much quicker of, hey, this is fast enough. I don't want this anymore. So it was, she'll disagree.

She might say, no, I was saying go faster. This, you know, I felt like that she really was surprised, I guess, by what,

what that experience was like riding in a car at Bristol because it's unlike any other racetrack. She's the one that probably, probably comes to mind, but that was also the most recent one. But, you know,

we go to Charlotte and you can go, you can, so at Charlotte, it I can I can run 170 but the you know the cars are running much faster than that and so I feel like we're not we're only getting about three quarters of the experience we go to Bristol we ran that car I was like only uh I was in a second off of uh like pole speed or or or hot laps in practice the laps that we were running that's about what they run on old tires in Bristol and so in my mind I felt like we were getting a much more similar experience than what the cup guys are getting there.

Next question coming from, Alex Martinez. Do you agree with Bubba's suggestion that an F1 race in Miami should be used as a lead-in for a Cup Series race at Homestead in the same day? Yeah, it's asking a lot of people because Homestead's a bit farther. It's like an hour drive. And man, when I go to a race or a sporting event of any kind, when it's over, I'm done. I'm tired. I'm running to go home. You know, especially like a race weekend is an experience.

People come a day or two ahead of time. They're camping and they're doing whatever. And I don't know if you want to split that up. What do you think, Mike? I like him thinking outside of the box, but I don't think it's a very likely thing to ever happen. I mean, just the logistic, just the traffic, just all that, like, that's asking a lot for one day.

I do, yeah. I agree. It's a very robust idea. And you want to make as big a splash as you can make. But I doubt that if one would want to share their event with anything else happening in the region, especially that first one, and NASCAR's not going to want to play second fiddle or be the closing act or I don't know. It'd be tough to do. I don't see it had ever happen. Our next question coming from Dale Sown.

My local track, Western Speedway in Canada, will soon be lost. We've only got two more seasons. Any suggestions on things people miss when they are preserving memories of a track? I plan on taking lots of pictures, but looking for other suggestions. Yeah, pictures. Oh, I don't know, man. We've done, lost Speedway should give us the answer to that. But it's been, I'll tell you this, like the physical evidence of these tracks,

if there's any way possible that you can acquire something that that would remind you of that track, some kind of keepsake or something no matter what it is, those things are kind of important. It might be something that really doesn't even make sense now, but 20 years from now, that piece or that item is going to be a big deal to you or somebody that has some history there. A great example of doing that the wrong way is I used to race late models in the 9th. and we'd bang up a door or tear up a fender and throw it out behind the shop and put another one on the car. And then I got, you know, 20 years down the road in my career and I'd die to have any of that sheet metal. And I've worked hard to find whatever's out there.

But, I mean, there was piles of sheet metal and stuff like that left laying behind shops and in the back room that I'd love to have my hands on. and it doesn't exist anymore. You know, that piece of, that piece of, that evidence or that physical piece of that race track or a guardrail or a billboard, whatever that you can acquire during the disassembled of the track is something that you might really appreciate hanging on to. Our next question coming from Allen Harkle Road. Many races were broadcast virtually last season. Which track are you looking forward to calling races at in person again?

Or is there anything about calling them from the virtual? booth that you'll miss. Nothing about that all missed, man. I'm telling you. It was nice just to drive down the street to Charlotte and go to work. I ain't a lie, but I did miss traveling. I just miss, you know, I missed being at the track because the energy from the race itself or the fans in the grandstands, all that stuff really improves your ability to broadcast the race. You feel that energy and it comes out in your voice. So I'm looking forward to that. I was just on the phone Jeff Burton and Rick Allen the other day. Just talked to Jeff yesterday about us traveling together, being able to talk.

So what I won't have is the practice, the qualifying. That's so important as a broadcaster because it helps set up the stories for the weekend. Who's fast, who's not fast, who had trouble in practice, who was great in practice. It sort of helps you shape how you think you feel about the race, right, and what you might talk about during the race. And we don't have that anymore. where we come in cold, jump right there, just jump in the seat and green flag go, right? So being able to fly together and travel together

is going to be so helpful for us to be able to have a conversation and communicate in person, leading into their race and setting up our stories about how we want to open the broadcast and all those things because we all, we talk about that and make those decisions ourselves. So I'm really looking forward to doing those things again. And I can't wait until we get some sort of, form of practice back, you know, some type, just 45 minutes or an hour or whatever it may be,

something, some warm up or practice, some sort of qualifying procedure. I don't know what that looks like if it ever comes back or what it looks like in the future, but I'm hoping there's some component there that helps us, again, like the opening chapter of the weekend, it helps us really understand how this race might go. Our next question coming from Billy Townsend. David Pearson, Richard Petty, Kale Yarbo. You have to wreck one, pass one, and fight one. Who are the three again? David Pearson, Richard Petty, and Kale Yarbr.

My gosh, that's so hard. I love this. I thought it was so funny. What did you say? Rec one. Rec one, pass one. Pass one. And fight one.

Passing one's easy. Oh my gosh. I would probably fight kale. Because you'd either have your hands full. I can't imagine trying to fight Richard Petty. that would be weirdest thing ever. So I'd probably

fight kale and then we'd be like best friends afterwards in my mind. Rick David Pearson because again I can't imagine wrecking Richard Petty

right? He's the king so I'd pass the king I guess. Passing the king. All right, one more question. This one coming from

David Hitchcock. What's your favorite episode of the office and who's your favorite character from the office? I don't know you pick it favorite episode. I think my favorite episode.

I think my favorite. character was probably Jim. You know, that's by far my favorite show. Always, I think it always will be. I used to think that it was like, I mean, I had a, there's been one of those, there's been several shows like that in, in each decade. Like, Cheers was a big deal. You know, Norm coming in and everybody hollering, Norm.

I used to watch Cheers all the time. And there's been other shows like that that you sort of, you don't, you'd latch on and you just don't, you don't stop watching it. but office came in and just blew them all away in my opinion one of my favorite shows ever yeah i want to know a funny story we were going to race in fontana i guess we had lined up for me to go to the set oh this is all coming back to me yeah so we were going to go to the set of the office that was yeah that was going to be great right i didn't know if they were going to be filming or doing any work or anybody would be there but we were going to the set and that was going to be

this you know kind of cool thing we did as we flew in for the weekend And on the way there, I chipped a tooth, eating something in the plane. And I freaked out, and I called a buddy of mine that lived in L.A. And I was like, hey, you got a dentist. I need to see a dentist now. And he's like, yeah. And so we ended up diverting to the dentist instead of the office set. Oh, man, I'll never get it.

I forgot that. I'm so disappointed. Never did get together. Same thing sort of happened with Nirvana. I was a huge Nirvana fan, and I was going to college at Mitchell in Statesville, North Carolina, and we were going to go to, I think, the Omni in Atlanta, or something like that.

We were going. I think they were playing the Omni. And, man, we were going. We had planned to go, and that morning, he's like, I don't want to go. And we didn't go. And then, like, they were, yeah, never got a chance to see him again.

Anyhow, huge fan of the office. Thanks for that question. All right, hey, some great questions. I hope you guys have had a great weekend. I sure did. Hope you're going to have a great week. Appreciate you guys supporting our YouTube channel and everything we're doing here at Dirty Mo Media.

Doorbump are clear. Those guys will be glad if you listen to their show as well. Take it easy. See y'all next week. My favorite part of the show is over again. It goes by too fast, Mike. Yeah, it's almost like we get through it at the speed of Xfinity X-Fi. Well, X-Fi is more than just fast.

It's also reliable, powerful, and secure, meaning anyone can do more of what they love with faster Internet. That's true. You can keep your crew connected with Wi-Fi coverage that delivers the speed your devices need. So your crew can stay in the fast lane on race day. Remember, everyone, send your Ask Junior questions to Add Xfinity Racing on Twitter. All right, before we hit the road, thank you to Xfinity. proud premier partner of NASCAR.

Last call, man, that's a great show. Thanks to Brandon Marshall for coming in, coming in town to be at our desk at our table. Great conversation with him.

The Dale Jr. download with Brandon Marshall will be on NBCSN this Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern. 6 p.m. Eastern Thursday. A new episode of Door Bumper Clear

after Richmond is out now. T.J. Brett and Freddie are joined by John Wood from the Woodbrose. He's a hilarious. If you don't follow the Wood Brothers account on Twitter, you should. John runs it, and it's quirky and funny. Plus, they discussed the lack of cautions recently at Richmond.

The worst drivers they've spotted for. That should be pretty good. And much more. Door bumper clear, available on all major podcast platforms. It's a great show, guys. Enjoyed it. Hope you enjoyed it. Have a great week.

We'll see you. This bit of bad assery was. Mad Ashery was made by Madassery. Dirty Mo Media. Dirty Mo!