The Dale Jr. Download - 543 - Bussin' With The Boys: Pouring Gas On The Fire

Episode Date: May 22, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits down with Will Compton and Taylor Lewan of Barstool’s Bussin’ With The Boys. Dale and the boys kick things off with Will and Taylor’s early days cutting their teeth on the college football level. Since Dale never went to college, Compton and Lewan walk Dale through what the college experience looks like as a student-athlete. Taylor explains the chaos of the NFL combine and shares the roller coaster ride of NFL draft night. Will shares the origin story of the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast and the story behind finding the iconic bus. The group moves on to discuss the injuries Will and Taylor have encountered over their careers, including the injury that left Lewan heartbroken. Will shares the reason why he turned down the New York Jets late in his career and how he ended up playing alongside Taylor at the Tennessee Titans. The two share the hilarious story of the time they played each other on the football field, which is now known as “The Bussin’ Bowl.” Dale, Will, and Taylor finish the conversation by shootin’ the breeze and sharing the story of how they initially became friends.It’s the longest DJD episode so far this year and for damn good reason. You won’t want to miss this one.  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.

Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. This is the ally guest segment today, and we have a special one for you. Not a NASCAR guest. These guys are from the NFL and also from the podcast, Bussing with the boys. Taylor Luan and Will Compton are coming in the studio. Been friends with Will for a while. And I'm excited to be able to get them here today and talk about what they've been up to. Let's get this started. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media.

Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. Dale Jr. You're back again. Hey, everybody's Dead Union back, back, back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. Bogganger Studio. Hey, everybody. Bustin with the boys.

Now on the Dale Jr. download. An article comes out the next day and they talk about a couple of people that follow me and you're one of them. I'm thinking Dale F. Jr. follows me. Everybody knows it. Like you're one of the most, like you don't know that you're Dale Earnhardt Jr. So we're back in the Bojangles studio. today and while we're talking Bojangles, don't forget now until June 9th sausage

boberry biscuit for free. If you order on the website, bojangles.com, or if you go and order on the app, participating stores, you will get the sausage bowberry biscuit for free. Use the promo code Dale Jr., D-A-L-J-R, and get that Bo-Berry biscuit. All right, so we want to thank Alli for bringing this guest segment to us every single week. Ally has been a great supporter of everything we do here at Dirty Mo Media. And I've been wanting to, you know, every once in a while, change it up and not have a NASCAR guest. And who do you bring in? There's all kinds of people out there and other parts of the entertainment and sports to bring to the table.

And we've got a great opportunity to talk to Will Compton today, Taylor LeWan. Both of these guys played football in the NFL. and then they also joined up to start a podcast called Bustle with the Boys. If it's not the most, it's one of the most popular sports podcasts, especially by athletes, in sports today. And so, you know, I want to talk to them about how they've built that brand and what their plan is and vision is for that. It's actually really unique.

They started from nothing, really, and created a very profitable business. And so I also want to touch on their careers, how they got started. I know a little bit about their NFL careers, and obviously that's easy to go fine, but may touch on their beginnings in high school and so forth and how they became, how they learned they would become NFL players and stars. So it's going to be a lot of fun. They're in the lobby waiting all the way from Nashville. They came here today to talk to us, so let's bring them in the room, get started.

Is that, is that mine? This is your, yeah, they give us. Yeah, you guys hooked this up. Okay, there you. That's pretty cool. Yeah, that is. So, um. Do we have, is there coffee?

You want coffee? Would love some. Is there any coffee? You know, I, you know, just get a little caffeinated. Yeah. Dale, let me tell you something. Yeah. This establishment you have here, incredible.

Yeah. We walked out. Everybody here stopped, went, they planned out the trip to come and see you that's sitting outside your facility right now. Yeah. They went, they had a buckies. They had a nice morning there, and they came right here. This is their spot.

Yeah. This is, yeah. This is awesome. Yeah, man, y'all got, y'all go and take a look around after the, after we get done here, so you can see the shop and all the cars and the shit comes together.

Yeah, man, this is where we are, man. This is where we've been forever. This is awesome. Yeah. There's just some coffee. I don't know how you like it. Thank you.

Yes. Is that your coffee? This is mine, yeah. I was wondering. I was like this weird new coffee. Yeah, just fill it up halfway.

Yeah. What kind of operation you're running here? That's as a metaphor for life. So Will and Taylor. here from Bustle with the Boys and I've been on your show twice now. I think I did one call in on Zoom back in the day when we were all Zoom and everything. Yeah. And then I came to the bus in Nashville and I had a blast. You guys have created something really special and so I'm thankful to be able to have you guys come over here and check us out and be on our show. Why are you in Charlotte? What are you

doing here? We're here for you. Yeah. What else are you doing here? Nothing. We're going home today. Yeah. Y'all. We flew in last. Last night landed about 10 o'clock, you know, drove to our hotel, which is like 10 minutes away, slept, and we're here for the Dale, the Dale Jr. All right. Pressure's on. Pressure zone. So we, I've been seeing y'all, though, y'all been touring around to y'all were at Atlanta a couple weeks ago or a couple days ago. Yeah. So y'all take your show away from the bus from time to time, right? And we've got, you know, you've got all kinds of training camps and OTAs. rookie camps and all kinds of shit firing off in the NFL. And so you guys take an opportunity to drop in on some of the organizations

and do some certain interviews. So how do y'all, you know, decide where are you going when you're going to do something? Who's helping y'all build that? Nobody. Me and Will kind of sit there and we go, we'd be a cool place to go. Really? Yeah, we pick a couple places. Like this year, Oregon was a big one we wanted to travel to.

We'll end up going to that. And so we do, you know, we do a fall tour where you go to about five or six stops. And then we'll go catch a game, do a vlog, those types of things, not really interview-based. And then in the springtime, we'll pick mostly colleges. And this year we actually ended up doing two NFL teams. And we'll just kind of go and check out their spring camp stuff going on, go check out what that city has to offer, do a couple interviews and buggy out of there. Everything we do, we try to do within a 24-hour time span. I know Will's dad and you're like, from what I can tell, I'm going to dive in your career here in a minute, your careers.

For what I can tell... Taylor's a father of two. I know. But I wanted to say that from what I could tell, you're dadding and you're also like 100% full on busts with the boys and your own personal content. Would that be a good synopsis? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Bussing with the boys. Taylor... It looked at the football career a little bit, but dad life, yes. Taylor is not quite as transparent to me. Like, what is your life like? What are you doing?

I know you're right on the tail end. You're right on the tail end of your career, right? Yeah, we could put a bow on it. I just haven't signed papers. Exactly. 255 pounds. Need to be 310 to play my position. It's probably not going to happen anytime soon.

Taylor's genetic makeup, he can easily put the weight back on. He can stay there and we think about maybe some tight end. Yeah. Some 23 personnel. I firmly believe I would be the best blocking tight end in the NFL today. But my life, me. What are you spending your time doing? Dude, pretty much for the most part, what Will does.

I mean, I'm not as involved in social media. as Will is. Will does a great job at that. But my main focus is growing busing, getting the guests we want to get, traveling, how to stand up new verticals with Will. And then for me, it's go home. I got two daughters that are six and three. And with my wife, my wife is more private. She's like, she likes to kind of keep the personal life personal. So she's always on me, hey, don't be posting about the kids. Don't be this. Because there are times I want to. But, you know, we've had a couple of things. I'm sure you've had a couple people on Instagram or whatever, say things about your kids. Do you just don't want those types of things.

So we kind of just stay away from that. And I do keep a little more cards to my chest when it comes to those. But it's really busson, family, and I don't really know if I have any hobbies right now. Come on now. Hey, hey, Black Jack. Oh, yeah. And I'll speak for Taylor because he's being a little modest. He also has some ambition with, you know, he looks incredible.

But being in front of the camera, he got to do a really cool thing. We can't talk about it. We can't talk about exactly what it is. But he got to do something really cool where he went to Mexico for 30 days and film something. but I feel like you have some aspirations in that area as well. I've always loved the entertainment game. And even playing football, there was always with offensive linemen, there was like you better be seen, not heard.

And I just chose not to live that way. And it's worked out in a lot of ways where you get out in front of the media and these older vets, these 10-year vets, like, what are you speaking for? Because usually it's a fine. If the older vets in the NFL see you talking to the camera, automatic $100 right there. What? Yeah, all right away. Depending on the fine system, switch from team to team.

Right. Wait a minute, sorry. That's pretty universal. Any kind of conversation? Like any kind of media? There is a set of unspoken rules that the offensive lineman will go over in OTAs after the draft. When the rookies first get in, can't talk to the media. There's sexy fines.

There's ugly fines. There's when you see the owner, if you're, hey, good to see you. How are you? Big hug? That's $1,000 right there. That's what it is. And so it goes into this pot. And at the end of the year, we do like an O-line trip.

Whether it's Vegas, guys go to Miami or whatever like that. But it's all for the cause of the boys. at the end of the whole entire trip. So, you know, my rookie year, I was just talking to the media a whole bunch. I enjoyed it personally. And so I really like the entertainment aspect. And I don't know if I can act or not act.

I like to just see if I can do it. And just kind of, you know, you play a sport for so long, eventually that's going to end. And it's obviously over for Will and I. And it's like, what other lives can you live? Yeah. So there's other things I'm into besides that love airplanes,

obsessed with airplanes. Like, why? You started getting your, you're going to get your, pilot's license? Yeah, I did about 20 hours. Yeah. And then it kind of, then I got a knee and then football became a thing, had another kid. And so now I'm the guy that's like, I'm going to get it someday. Yeah. But yeah, there's a lot of things I want to do. It's just kind of figuring out that, but making sure to take care of the main thing, which is blessing right now. You're in this really

cool place where you were playing football and wheels did this too, I know, but like you, you had, everything was football. It couldn't be any other way. And it, and it every, you know, any outside of, like, your family and other priorities, man, you did everything you could to be great at football. And now you have this, like, you're, it's like a, you know, big bull being let out in the pasture, man. You're like, what it? What else is there? Yeah. It's like a blank slate, you know, right? And you get this opportunity to really kind of do all these things that you never had a chance to do or really give it, put all the time into that you wanted to put into, like flying and so forth. Yeah. It's going to be interesting, I think, for you

for the next several years to see what you end up landing on, right? Really, aside from Bussing, I know you guys want to create that and continue to grow that. I want to talk about, this is going to be interesting trying to interview both of you at the same time, but, yeah, I mean, because both, I mean, I want to learn about both of your careers. You got to watch a little bit of mine. Yeah, I did. But I want to go back to your high school days. Oh, perfect.

Well, for example, you know, we see you guys play on Sunday, and we just assume, man, you were that all your life, but you played wide receiver in high school. Allstate. He was an all-state wide receiver too. Second team all-state. Like, Wilcocton was Missouri for a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was coming out, like in the recruiting database, I was listed as an athlete. So, hey.

And I'm glad JPs here. We love to do. We love joking around about our old. days. But just so being listed as an athlete, that's the coolest thing you can get on a scout or rivals. It says athlete, not just O-Line. Like, you are the man. My very, my very first, that's cool. Yeah, my very first offer was a wide receiver, Wake Forest. Yeah. And I also had, by the end of it, it was like Arkansas had called talking about Peyton Hillis's spot, like Peyton Hills's position, but I was pretty set that I was probably going to be a linebacker. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You get to

Have influence your skin tone? Yeah, I mean, look, so your boy in middle school, I share the high jump record. I hold the record for high jump. I could jump 5-11 as an eighth grader. And I started to go, when I go to high school and continue my track career, if you will, I couldn't hit six foot as a freshman. So you start to put on the mass to where you start to have a little bit of self-awareness. So it's like, yeah, I can do these things, whether it's offensively or whatnot.

but hand size length you know what I mean like being a receiver clearly you know it wouldn't have worked out I don't believe that for a second brother you you you remember doing those agility drills yeah you're pretty good at those you pretty had changed the direction you could play with mike campanaro yeah maybe at wake forest maybe maybe but uh yeah I always enjoyed I enjoyed defense and when I got recruited mostly for defense it's kind of like you know you're kind of following those signs of I'm gonna be a defensive player and so um Taylor for you where you did you have you had you have other positions that you like to play. Dude, the first, I was in like 13th grade time, I was kind of like done with sports.

I played like every sport between five and about 12. And then I was like kind of anti-sports, anti-joc for a little bit, got a little bit of trouble. And my dad's like, listen, you got all this aggression, you're going to go play football. So I ended up playing nose tackle for my freshman year. We go eight now. Boys go eight and I was ineligible for the last game because your grades, my grades weren't too great.

the next year we go 15 and 0 win a state championship. And I was like, this is unbelievable. Like football is the coolest. I'm officially bought back into sports. But I'm, you know, 6-6, real lanky, and I'm playing nose tackle. Like that is, I'm so out of position, it's crazy. And so my junior year, we're playing this school called Chaparral High School. They're down in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Real nice school. And they come, they beat the brakes off of us. But when I played Pop Warner, one of my coach there, his son went to Chaparrow. And he came over to my dad. And he's like, hey, your son. He's kind of built like a left tackle. Like maybe he could come down here. There's this kid named Craig Rowe.

He's got 20 offers. He's an All-American as a junior. Maybe he would want to come to Scottsdale and get a little more exposure. So I go there. Yeah. And I end up playing two football games. And I kind of just put them out there. Like send them the little DVD, send them out.

And three weeks later, I had over 20 offers. And I became an All-American off those two games. And I was, I got my first-armor. You were Under Armour. You were under Armour. I was offered by Utah State. And I didn't even know. like Utah State coach comes up to me and he's like hey I'd love to have you and I was like yeah man

that'd be awesome and then my coach comes up he's like hey what do you think and I was like yeah nice guy he's like they just offered you a scholarship and I told him my dad I was like dude I'm going the NFL he's like well hold on your grades are terrible you need to hold you need to make sure you're eligible I was like dude I'm going to the NFL that is the coolest thing ever and so it was an insane like ascension that out of nowhere I was going from in my head I'm like you're doing construction manual labor is in your future no question about it and then all of a sudden I get offered and I'm like holy there's a whole another opportunity out there that I had no idea was even possible what does it mean when you transfer from one high school to the other and

what does that mean for your family like how how far away was the distance it was only like probably a 30 45 minute drive so it was still yeah nothing nothing it didn't change anything like for you or your family you just went to a different school no the family part wasn't the big issue for me it was leaving my friends I had these boys man we called each other the sexy six or the dirty half dozen. There were six of us, and we little road together everywhere, always in a pickup truck, Anthony Stevens, riding his car, and we all played football, and that was like our thing.

Fridays, we go to Anthony's house, we go play the game, and so Cactus Shadows, the first school I was at was going on spring break. Chaperill High School was going off of spring break, so I didn't get the spring break. I just did that weekend and then went right into the school. And the hardest thing for me was telling my boys that I'm going to go to the other school, who were, by the way, Sheparrow is going to play Catcher Shadows next year.

Oh, no. And I was heartbroken about it. I got kicked out of the sexy six. They kicked me out and I was, that was the hardest thing for me. For my family, my dad, he was kind of rented a place and so he went and got an apartment that was, you know, less than a tenth of a mile away from the school.

So I was in the district and then I was just in the next day. And so that wasn't, the family part wasn't difficult. It was leaving the boys, man. That was the hardest thing for me. And two games is all it took to convince college programs to give you offers. It was a weird time because I was so lanky and tall. And then right as I'm ending my junior, going to my senior,

I just kind of found my body as far as like, propioception and be able to like, all of a sudden could run. Just downing protein shake after protein shake? I would wake up at three in the morning because I was always a light guy. I would wake up at three in the morning, have a protein shake and go back to sleep. Always constantly trying to gain weight. And yeah, put those two games out.

And out of nowhere, like offer after after after after after offer, just came in. And the school is that wanted to offer me, looked at my grades with like, no shot. Like Jim Harbaal, who is now at the Chargers, he came to my school to meet with Craig Rowe, who had a 4.0. And the Harbaugh's at Stanford at the time.

Yeah, he's at Stanford at time. And he's like, yeah, we'd love to have you. And he looked at my transcript and he goes, there's no shot. You can get into Stanford. And he's like, appreciate you. Shook my hand, and he walked out the door. But it was incredible, man.

It was a crazy, crazy situation. And so you get an offer from Michigan? Got offered from Michigan. And they liked your grades? I mean, it's Michigan, yeah. Somewhere in Nebraska. Top 15 public school in the world. Here's how I really think Michigan offer me.

And Michigan has this tradition of being such a great school. At the time, they were kind of like Lloyd Carr was leaving and Rich Rodriguez just came in and it was kind of Michigan was headed towards the down years, which when I played there. I would tell everybody that me and Craig were best friends. And Craig, they loved Craig. And so they probably thought to themselves, if we could get, if we get Taylor, we could probably get Craig as well because Craig was nasty in high school. He was the only kid that

played with technique. He was unbelievable. And so I would play that up to them quite a bit. And they ended up off from him. And I went for a visit. And I only took two visits. I ended up going to Michigan, this guy named Jake Long, 2008 was the number one overall pick. He wore number 77. That's why I wore 77. I was just thinking to myself, I'm trying to get to the NFL. They put out offensive linemen. This is where I need to go. Yeah. And so I got there, shook Ridge Rodriguez's hand, and said, I'm committing. I don't know. what I have to do, but I'm committed. But I'm yours.

What was your experience like? Getting recruited? So I initially, like I would get offered from the majority of probably Big 12. I had some Big Ten. The SEC, like Arkansas and Notre Dame were very late. I grew up wanting to go to Notre Dame. Went to Catholic school until fourth grade. Then I went to public school.

But growing up up until fourth grade, our principal would always go to a Notre Dame game every year. And each year there are only six kids in our class. between grades four through six. There was four fourth graders, one fifth grader, and one sixth grader in our class. So she would bring back memorabilia for us since we were such a small class. So I just kind of grew up wanting to go to Notre Dame. So I'll go to the summer camps in Notre Dame trying to get offered.

And I remember I ran really well. It was like my sophomore year, junior year, and a Princeton coach was like, hey, you got a lot of eyes on you. You ran a really good 40 time. I think it was like a 451 on that day when Charles. Wiesce was the head coach and then I was just wanting to go to football camps like I'm wanting to go to my favorite teams football camps is there three four day camp you stay in the dorms you're getting to know different people and everything else and a Princeton coach who was like in charge of our group was like hey you got some you got quite a bit of eyes on you like keep it up keep

it up the linebacker coach kind of pulled me aside there's a high school coach from Michigan because at all these camps they bring in high school coaches locally to help run the camp and there's this one cat out of Michigan and he was telling me kind of some similar stuff so from that moment, I was like, oh, man, like, I could probably get recruited and play Division 1 college football, which is what I always wanted to do and always felt like I could. Being in Bontair, Missouri, there's not a lot of, in that area, there's not a lot of D1, there's not a lot of recruiting that goes on. Like my mom, my mom and I, in our head coach at the time in high school, would put together

the VHS tapes. My mom would send them off, you know, with our letters, the things that you would learn about what to do when you're trying to send your tape off and resume off to schools and everything else. Like your height, weight, your grades, like all this different stuff. Basic stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, all the basic stuff. And then from there, I went to a Nike camp going into my senior year. And I won, I was an MVP.

I was the linebacker MVP in the Nike camp. And from there, how do you get? You just, you go through drills. Like, you, you know, you do all the testing. You go through drills. You're doing one-on-ones. You're doing a lot of competitive stuff with, like, you know, whoever flocks these camps, they hold all these Nike camps around the country.

And I had won MVP of that camp, not of that. of the position group of linebacker. And from that day, like, you know, teams just started texting me. They started getting all your information because a lot of coaches are there. And so I started to get recruited. Rob Iinello from Notre Dame, I will always remember Rob because I've always, I wanted Notre Dame to offer me so badly. And I was basically like their rebound guy.

Like if guys didn't commit, ultimately they offered me to go to Notre Dame, but they also offered me as a fullback. They're like, you can start there. Their class was loaded at linebacker. And so that kind of like turned me off of Notre Dame. But Nebraska, Michigan, Michigan State. Who were the people, I mean, what is that guy's position at Notre Dame? Which guy?

At the time, the guy you mentioned. Rob Ianello, he's just my recruiter. He was the wide receivers coach, and he kind of oversaw the Midwest, like that area. He's kind of like that regional recruiter. And so he would always kind of keep me on the line with like staying patient and everything else. But during that time, Nebraska golfers, Missouri, Illinois. I say those three because those are three I was kind of down to going to. That year was when Chase Daniels, Jeremy Macklin, they were on fire with Missouri in the Big 12.

Illinois just got done. They lost in the Rose Bowl to USC, but they had Juice Williams, Rashard Mendenhall, Jay Lehman was an All-American linebacker. So those schools were within three and a half hours of where I grew up. So I had in-state pressure to go to Missouri.

I also really liked Illinois because they recruited me really hard. And I liked Nebraska at the time. Like Bill Callahan was the head coach there. They had a bad year, I think five and seven, then he got fired. But throughout the year, I committed to Bill Callahan and the Nebraska staff. But as the year unfolded in Mizzu,

on top, Illinois was on top, Nebraska was on the downslide, Bill Callahan's getting fired. My recruitment's basically opened up without saying like, hey, I'm decommitting from Nebraska. And then toward the end of my, toward the end of the like around December or November, whenever Callahan got fired from Nebraska, Tom Osborne becomes the AD. Tom Osborne, legend. Yeah. And he flies to visit me at my high school. And I wasn't as familiar with Tom Osborne as like all.

the, you know, my dad and all the older heads were like, there were teachers running down the hallway to get his autograph after I met with him in the high school office. Crazy. That's so awesome. And he didn't tell me who he was going to hire, but he was talking about how they wanted, like, you know, I was a priority to stay committed. I think you're really going to like who we bring in. Then eventually, Bo Polini gets hired. The LSU, they had the number one defense nationally for like two years running. LSU was winning national titles at that time. Boe gets hired, and they basically like a full court press like recruiting me and it was awesome and I remember going into my whole commitment week uh, Missou had just got done visiting my mom at her school. I was riding with I was

writing back with my boy Logan my best friend Logan and uh I was like yo I think it was I was torn between Illinois and Missou I wasn't going to go to Nebraska my mom cried when I said I wasn't going to go to Nebraska because beau had took her to church had done all the things on my official visit and uh, Beau called me on my that drive home that day after visiting with Mizzou and he was like, hey, can I do one more thing? Can you do me one more favor before you make your decision? At that point, I was kind of tired of recruiting.

I was like, yeah, sure, like, what is it? And he was like, I want to fly my defensive staff in to watch the championship weekend with you, like NFC championship, AFC championship games. I want to fly them in and I want them to spend the Sunday watching games with you. I was kind of like, oh, man, how did I walk myself into like another home visit, basically?

And the staff flies in. We have an incredible time that day at the house during the championship weekend, And they walked out the door and I was like, those are the guys I want to play for. What was this? Echler had like a tattoo, like a temporary three-month tattoo that looked real with like my name.

Yeah, with like my name, Nebraska black shirts. He's like, this is how committed we are to you. And it was just a great time. They walked out and I was like, I don't know what I was thinking. Like, this is the staff I want to play for. So I chose Nebraska based on the staff. They have incredible facilities. And fortunately, Bo and that staff was there pretty much.

my bow was there for all five of my years but that's how i committed to that's how i ended up at nebraska yeah did you um i mean i probably now it doesn't matter um and your loyalty to those to you know your loyalty to nebraska michigan is is as strong as it can be but is there points in the first year or two that you like were thinking maybe made the wrong choice or was they yeah really thought that was michigan dude i was i actually tried to decommit from michigan before like a couple weeks before I went, but I already signed the L-O-I and everything. So far away, you know how young love is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. There was this girl that was going to you, and I was like, I had an offer of you. I'll just go there. Yeah. I'll just go to Tucson, Arizona, of all places. So I try to decommit.

I talked to my head coach. He's like, listen, you decommit, you have to sit out for a year. They start, essentially tell me, listen, dummy. Like, put it away for a second. You're going to be all right. Think with the head on your shoulders. Right, right.

And then when I got to Michigan, I mean, the first snowfall was like the real first I really seen snow and I remember walking to class I was going to angel hall and I'm getting pelted in the face of snow and it's like melting on my face I'm like I'm wearing a pair of vans some black jeans and a zip up hoodie and I thought basically what you're in now basically what I'm in now because I'm not wearing a hoodie and I'm like all right I got to get the hell out of here I'm actually so glad that the NIL and the transfer portal was because I would have I would have left you wouldn't have been yeah you would have yeah because at the time I was like this I like the weather's terrible. I'm so used to be in Arizona, and you take it for granted in Arizona because there's like five days of the year that rains. It's like five days that's cloudy.

And so I get there and it's like, weather's all over the place. I'm in a place I don't know. Midwest is so much different than the Southwest. I was just kind of like a massive culture shock for me. So that first semester in my office line coach, Greg Fry, was he was one of those coaches that when you're on the field,

it's like I want to kill this man. Like everything he said to you was so over the top and horrible. Then once you get off the field, he's like dapping you up and giving you some love. It was such a, you know, it was an abusive relationship in my head.

I was getting gaslight 24-7. And so I was like, I got to get out of here. And then luckily, you know, you put a little weight on, you start to play and you're like, all right. Coaches are in your ear a little bit. Yeah, I'm bleeding blue.

There was never, I never, like times where it would be hard, you're just assuming like, y'all, we're playing, this is Division I college football. It's supposed to be like all this way of this stuff. Like, there was just a really good staff there. there's a group of guys.

Our freshman class was a lot of fun to be around. Dorm life kind of sucks at times. But you're just as wide as... I never went to college. Dude, dorm life. I disagree. I think dorm life is the best. But go ahead.

I mean, you're just, you're in the very first, the Cellic dorms that we were in, very beaten down, very old. And you're just like, you know, you're bunking up. You're in the small, you're in the small room. There's bunk beds.

You're sharing space with somebody. I usually don't, not that I don't do well, but internally, I built up a resentment with whoever I'm usually living with. just because I like my own space. I like my own time.

You're a miserable roommate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are you an asshole? No, I'm not an asshole. I just in my brain, I'm thinking this guy doesn't know how I'm starting. Resistment. Sounds like you might be.

Like, we, I would be driving us to workouts. I would hear him chew and just, just a crackling that go on. I beg God, sometimes he'd have some bad morning breath to where it's just, it fills up the car.

Yeah. Did you say anything? No. Dude, no. No. Because, yeah, yeah, there'd be at times where I know he does.

And then I still smell. I'm like, all this must just be like maybe a genetic thing. Who knows? Maybe a genetic thing. It's tough to bring it up. But when you're in that small space, it's just, you love it because you're playing video games with guys down the hall.

Like, you're doing all the stuff that freshmen do. But there's times where you're like, you're just assuming like this is what it's supposed to be like, like even if I'm a little scared from being away from home right now. So yeah. Yeah, like I remember, I never went to college, but I went to military school, which was we lived there and holy shit, dude, the first two weeks was. miserable. Like just being out of that comfort cycle of your own house, your own bedroom, and now you're in this brick building when no, you know, nothing on the walls.

You're in a military school, you're probably in a little room, a little dorm. Yeah, it was a dorm. Yeah. Yeah. You're sharing it with this guy. You got nothing but, you know, a couple beds and it's hanging clothes and it sucked. See, I thought the dorms were the best. I, because I always wanted to be around my boys, wanted to hang out and like always be around friends. I was very different from well. I was actually the bad roommate. Will's, the person he resents, Will and I were roommates.

He'd be like, get me the hell away from this guy. I had like, I would always snore so loud. My roommate would just throw socks at me, his dirty socks until I'd wake up and get mad at him for waking me up and then go back to sleep and snore again. But I stayed in West Quad, and West Quad was across street from South Quad.

And every snowfall, every year is tradition, like people pull the fire alarms and you have a snowball fight. But South Quad always have the baseball players. And so you're having a good time trying to like tease a girl throw a little ball at her or something like that and then all of a sudden one rips by your face being like i might get taken down yeah but being in i thought the dorms were awesome you had to do one year well i don't know if it was like this for in Nebraska but you had to do one year yeah and then you get like a stipend where you get like if you had the grades you could go off campus and i always thought

i i was excited to be in a house but as soon as they got to the house i was like the dorm was so much easier you had food you had the access there's people around all the time and then all of a sudden i have to go get my own food I have to walk over, and I stayed off campus my first year. It was miserable. I loved the dorms, though. I thought that was my favorite part of my freshman year. Some interesting times in the dorms. What about fraternities?

Dude, fratts didn't really mess with the football team. So no experience with fraternities in Nebraska. Yeah, there was never any collab. There was never any intermingling with the football team of fraternities. It wasn't like I outwardly hated the frats or anything like that, but you just never heard of guys hanging out of fraternities. Yeah, it was hot and cold with the fraternities. Like Michigan has a great Greek life, but you'd walk up, you knock on the door, you're essentially trying to invite yourself into their parties.

And so you kind of open the door and hope to God they recognize you. Like, oh, football, you come on in. Yeah. But it was always that awkward, like knock on the door and they'll kind of just stare at you for a little bit. They're essentially sizing you up to if they're going to allow you in or not. Right. And so there was one that was like kind of near West Quad we would always go to. We got in tight with them.

One of my hallmates, he was in the frat. So we really enjoyed going over there because, I mean, that first year of college, you, there's no rules. You can do whatever you want. We would always come in. We would get nice sauced up. We'd take the OXCorp, we plug it in, play the Blinquent 82s and the older, like, you know, 2000s and just assumed that everybody loved it.

And that's when like EDM was getting made. Everyone was like, turn it to this. We're like, we'll get you. We'll get you a second. Yeah. But I always would play like the good Charlottes and the Blinkwood Atees. And we thought we had the best time with that. I feel like it was mainly that Ritchie Incognito story that kind of separated.

In Nebraska. Football and fraternities. Yeah. It was just kind of a thing. He was just kind of like, hey, don't get in the trouble, don't go to the frat. So Richie Incognito. Legend. This is a fun story, legend.

There was a walk on. Rigoni. I want to say he got jumped or something happened where a fraternity guy, like jumped him or whatever it was. And they had a team meeting the next day. And basically the coaches were like, take care of your own, like giving the speech, yada, yada, yada. Richie took that personally. Now, hold on. Do you know who Richie Encognito is?

Okay. All right, good. But Richie goes to Rigoni and was like, hey, get in the truck. I want you to show me where these guys are. And Rigoni and Richie aren't like boys or nothing. Like Rigoni, if I can recall correctly, it was kind of like nervous, like Richie, you know, being like, hey, come on, come with me. And they're driving down the Greek road, Greek house road, whatever.

And Rigoni points at the house where the guys are or what had happened. And Richie basically gets out of the truck. He's like, come on, come with me. and they knock on the door and the minute it opens, Richie kicks the door in, beats the shit out of the first guy, and then guys who are in the house,

he just goes after him, just starts beating the shit out of everybody. And ultimately, you know, talking to Bo about it because Bo was on that staff, not as a head coach, but a position coach. Later, Bo was like, yo, the next day when they came in,

it's like, we knew we gave the speech, but we didn't know it was going to be taken to links like that. Like, hey, Richie, like, maybe tone it down. Like, let's kind of maybe stay away from those team, meetings but yeah beat the hell out of everybody in the in the fraternity that got him kicked out right

because of that i don't know if that got him kicked out he did other things like richie did a few things apparently that got him kicked out and then he ended up going i think to organ which is a wild i thought of richie in Oregon yeah yeah and then he just had an incredibly long career in the NFL but heaviest hands i ever felt he is one of those human beings where you just hand him weights and he just lifts him with ease i would train with him in arizona at exos and he would be like 150 pound dumbbells and he would just kind of look at you staring at you staring at you at you. I just pumped the weights. No problem at all. Just like the strongest fast twitch. What do you play 15? 15? Like he was out of college for 15 years, but he had the year in

Miami that he like missed the next year. And then there was another thing that he missed because of that. But a guy that when his head was in a good space took care of his body, was a great leader. Good dude. Like one of the human beings you want in your corner. He was awesome. It's just when things got a little sideways. Yeah. But what a what a tail. What a war daddy. Yeah. war tale. My wedding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to ask you all about the landscape of college today versus when you guys were going and now the players are, you know, you can transfer and you're getting paid to play in a sense and the college, EA sports games coming back and everybody's all excited about that.

I am. Yeah, me too. So, you know, what is y'all, what is, I guess, while that's going on, you know, you guys came up in a different time and a more traditional time. What's your, what was your instant reaction to the big changes that have happened in college sports? I think it's hard because we, you know, I'll speak for myself, like, not being in that time. I think my first reaction is thinking that these kids are soft. And then over time, like you start to, you know, be fluid with the thinking in it. It's like, yeah, I mean, I remember when players wanted to kind of unionize when we were in school because, you know, you make, all these schools make so much money off of college football and the players aren't necessarily

benefiting. And then when you have the generation before us, it's, it's always the same thing, right? Like, oh, you guys have no clue. One day it'll be like the NFLPA, we're going to be telling those players, like, oh, you guys have no clue, how good you have it. And we had it really good. I think it's just one of those things to where it's part of the game now. And I think it feels, It's still relatively new. It is. It's still the Wild West. It is.

It's crazy. I think it's tough for, and listen, I hate being on the side of the schools. I don't hate it, but I also hate it because capitalism, you want guys to be able to make their own decisions. They feel they're doing what's best for them and their family in that time and in that moment. Fair. I think it's tough now for colleges because you are, you're not necessarily, like in the NFL, you have contracts. Whether it's one years, five years, whatever. locked into that contract unless something happens, unless you get traded, unless you get cut.

And in college, basically, this is free agency daily now. Yeah. Like different periods of time throughout the year where you can enter the portal. So I think it puts the teams in a tough spot. I think it's hard to navigate building culture because times where you need it to be hard, it's like, hey, I know this sucks, but you got to trust me. Like this is going to be hard for several months. You're going to feel down.

You're going to doubt yourself. You're going to feel like, oh, I want to transfer. I want to go here. I want to go there. But you stick to the process. Like you'll come out to the other side. Like I'm more into that mentality, but also there are better situations. Like we got to sit down and interview Dylan Gabriel, who's transferred.

How many times, JP, four times? Like four times and kind of get his perspective on transferring and entering the portal. We interviewed a couple kids in the spring tour like that. You kind of come out of it. Like you can understand why it happens. And if you play well, maybe you're out of smaller school and you can get set up for a better position at a better school or a better, you know, you just get into a better situation. and that's just the game that is now.

So mine, it's like mixed. I go all over the place. Yeah, I think there's pros and cons to both. I think one of the cons of paying players now is you're essentially, you're creating status in the locker room, which to me is a bummer, because when we were in college,

it was like, we're all bawling on a budget. We're all trying to do the best we possibly can. Some guys are getting Pell Grant, some guys are not. But at the end of the day, we all kind of live on the same line of like we got to pay our rent and then pray to God,

there's less a month at the end of the money. You know, you just kind of want to make sure you can make it to the next paycheck. And there's always like a level of community in that sense. I think it's a good thing from the sense that you're giving guys money now and how many stories do we hear that 30 for 30 broke where guys go, they get money, they get swindled by somebody or they spend all of it. This is just more time for them to learn how to handle and manage their money. I think the things that need to happen in colleges, there needs to be, you know,

there needs to be a set of rules because it is the wild. where you can kind of transfer once in the spring right after the season. There's all these times you can just go. And if you're going to sign NIL deals, there should be some sort of contract relate with it. Like, we're going to pay you a seven-figure deal. You have to be at this college for the next 24 months. So you're committed for those two years you have to be there because there are times. Like I referenced my first semester at Michigan.

When it started to snow, I was like, get me the hell out of here. And that's just snow. I just didn't like the snow. And guys will take the easy road out unless you're kind of built to get. go through the suck and understand that 6 a.m.'s happen and the punishment's happen. Yeah, you have to weather the storm. You can be the buffalo or the cow when it comes to the storm. So there's goods and bads. I think as long as it keeps like evolving, it's going to be a good thing. Yeah. But right now where it stands, it's so great. You could pick any side of the fence you want.

And it's becoming transactional. It's like, you know, I was talking to one coach. And at the end of the year, when you do the end of the year like player reviews and you're, you're, as when I would sit there, when we'd sit there, you're figuring out like, you know, what does coach think? How can I get better? What areas I think I'm weekend? Where do I need to lean toward? And you kind of am out of trying to learn and put together a plan for the offseason. Now I was on the phone with one coach and he said that all the players basically come in and essentially name a price or they're going to hit the portal type of mentality.

Maybe not as cold, but ultimately the theme of it all is like, hey, here's a price or I'm going to be entering the portal. So it feels a lot more transactional, which I think it's just going to take time to adjust to it. but ultimately, like Taylor said, it'll be a good thing because ultimately that's where it's moving anyway, whether anybody likes it or not. Yeah, I think everybody agrees that there was some value for the players that they were, you know, they deserve.

But I didn't really, you know, I'm so far removed from it as a fan. I'm kind of like, yeah, it sounds chaotic. It sounds like a fucking mess. It'll work itself out. But then you have Saban retire or quit coaching. You know, he's going to TV. He's going to be fine.

he probably maybe already knew that, but he comes out publicly and says, basically the same story you just told me how, you know, he's sitting in his office and the players are coming in going, well, what's it going to take to keep me here? And he's like, this ain't what it, you know, this ain't what I signed up for. I'm not, you know, I'm not shaping young men and turning them into, into adults anymore at this point. Which was a great clip. Dude, it was. And it made me go, you know, this is more, maybe more concerning than I thought. But also on the other side, pro player, when coaches retire and you go there for Nick Sabin and he retires or a coach moves and takes another job elsewhere.

If coaches get to do it all the time and play the – I mean, you know how business works. That's just – that's the nature of the game. There's always going to be something to complain about. Right. There's always going to be something. So then when it's – it was not perfect. Yeah. So then when it comes to arguing for the players, it's like, yeah, players should be able to do the

the same thing if they don't like their situation. Or they find a better situation just because if a coach is in a bad situation, like they're moving on, retiring, whatever the case may be. It's just, you know. Because before NIL, like, when we were in college, like, he'd give us a bagel, but no cream cheese, because that'd be an NCAA violation.

There was just so many crazy rules, and people are making billions of dollars off all these kids every single year, and these kids aren't seeing anything. Like, a guy like DeNard Robinson, shoe lace, who was our quarterback. He literally, he played quarterback, but he was an All-American running back because he set, like, a record for most rush yards.

The amount of money he could have made at Michigan is insane. he was on the cover of NCAA 14. Guys like that, you look back and it's like, man, if he was just born eight years later. Yeah. They'd be making so much money, so much money. And a guy like DeNard, he's got a great head on his shoulders. Like he's a type of guy, you're like, man, I wish he made some more money.

Because in the NFL, he gets there and he's, now he's in between. He's a running back, but I'll be honestly, DeNard, if you're watching this, you can't, he can't catch. Like, he had no hands at all. My boy had bricks, but he could run. He could see the field really well. It's just like, you kind of just wish you walked away with some money. in college.

Yeah. I mean, what's the likelihood of somebody, with, you know, with this new landscape, what's the likelihood of somebody going back

and retroactively, like, you know, having litigation against the A or somebody about over a cover from 15 years ago. I think stuff like that's going to ultimately happen.

It's got it, right. So, where some players are going to get paid. Yeah. Like, you know, all the legal stuff that happens and takes place,

I think in due time, like stuff like that, yeah, could, it probably will happen. You would always have to cut corners, like the bagel cream cheese. Like,

I remember a coach, he couldn't give me. a temporepetic mattress, but he sold it to me for a dollar. Yeah. Stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So that way. Nebraska. I didn't know they were like that, huh? I did get one free meal one time. I went to a place. I ate. I was ready to pay the other, but like, you're good. Go ahead.

That was one thing I got. That's it. Yes. Your entire college career. It's not the SEC, man. Yeah. We did it, but we did it by the rules at the Big Ten. Okay.

Well, they weren't winning either, so nobody went to. Yeah, that's true. We were not winning. So, um, both of you have, incredible college careers. I guess the one thing I'd like to understand or if you could help me kind of get inside your head during maybe, you know, the NFL draft

or during that time, right? You didn't get drafted, you were undrafted. What was all of that like knowing, I mean, you know, you told you told dude years ago, I'm going to go in the NFL, I'm going to make it, you're trying to get there yourself. Both of you want to get to that point. You're, you know, your moments away or weeks away or days away from learning where you're going to play in the NFL.

You know you're going to have this opportunity. Walk me through, you know, some of the memories that you have of that time frame, how overwhelming and that must have been. Maybe you were naive. Maybe you had no clue how big the moment was or how big a step that was for you personally. And maybe some, you know, maybe some interesting stories from going through that process. Because, you know, we don't have anything like that in NASCAR. There's not really a draft.

And there's, you know, you get called up. You get the phone call. Some guy wants you to drive his car. It's like, holy shit, what a great opportunity. That's kind of akin to that. But, I mean, you guys know that's in your future. You're working toward it, you know, and that's where you're headed. And finally you get there.

So what was that like? And NASCAR should have a draft. That would be crazy. That would be sick. Because it's right, you get a phone call, say Dale calls you to, okay, we're going to call you up or something. You're fired up with your family, but it's not like a some spotlighted national moment to where. You just kind of like tweeted out. It's like, hey, every, you know, I don't know all the tiers of NASCAR and stuff, but let's just call it the minors.

Like you're in the minors and then there's going to be this day that's dedicated to, hey, what drivers are going to go to the next level? That would be sick. Yeah. Do you want to go first? It doesn't matter. You can go. I think as a football player, we all live at like a level of. of like delusion and constantly keeping a chip on our shoulder.

And anytime you succeed in a goal, that goalpost moves to the next thing. There's not a whole lot of time to like, you know, get excited about achievements. So for me, when I get to Michigan, it's like, man, if I start at Michigan, that'd be sick. Yeah. And so I end up starting.

I'm like, man, if I could get all big 10, that would be something. I could probably get closer. I'd probably be like, you know, I could get drafted. And so you become all big 10. And then it's like, man, but if I get all American and can become like a top five tackle, now I'm,

I can be a first round pick. And then you start to achieve these things. And every time you achieve the goal, it's like, hell yeah, we did it. And then you're on to the next thing. So my junior year, I had the opportunity to leave. There's a thing you do in college after, you know, once you're eligible, which you have to be three years removed from high school.

Once you're eligible for the draft, you can send in this paperwork into the NFL and that give you a conservative piece of paper that says, hey, we think based on your film, you could be this draft pick. After my junior season, played South Carolina in the NFL. outback bowl, played against you, Davey and Clowny. He had that infamous hit. And I put the paper in.

I always said that because JP's a big Gamecox fan and it comes up all the time. But I put the paper and it comes back and says you're going to be a first round draft pick. So now I'm evaluating, do I go to the NFL? Do I not go to the NFL? And it was pretty split down the middle, 50-50 with friends and family.

Guys are like, hey, you've got to go, get your money if you can. Other people are like, what about the degree? And all the types of things. Inevitably, when you're in college and you buy into a program the way Will and I did, you drink the Kool-Aid enough to be like, I want to achieve what I'm at here. So I end up coming back for my senior season with the whole goal in mind of, I don't know,

getting more of a better first-round grade. I end up going to the draft. And the process of going to the draft for me was you finish your last game, Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl against Kansas State. We get the brakes beat off of us. The bus leaves me because I have so many friends and family members there, the bus leaves me. And that's like at the end of my college career.

And I was like, they just kind of forgot me and kept going. and then I immediately go into training. I don't train Arizona. I train in Florida. And then you go to the combine. At the combine, it's like, it is the most stressful time ever. You're up at 4.30 in the morning. You're taking a drug test and you're going to get, you know, a thousand MRIs.

You're meeting with all these different teams. You have to be on your best behavior. You're just like overstimulated the entire time. And at the end of those four days, you go get in your underwear and you go run as fast as you can. And so that's like you spend between the Buffalo Wildings Bowl to the, Combine, only training for the Combine. And once that ends, it's like, okay, now you have top 30 visits. So I'll go from Arizona. I would go in one day, like Arizona to Detroit, from Detroit to Minnesota, and then finish the day in St. Louis, sleep there, meet with St. Louis, and then go to the three other

teams and then back home. So it's just this crazy run. What are the meetings like? What are they asking you? It depends on, it depends on the people. There's meetings in Combine. There's official visits, and then there's like the train station was what they call it because it's in Indy and there's like this old hotel that had like trains in like you'd sleep in like one of those cabooses or wherever they're called um the train station is very informal it's kind of position coaches they're sitting with you they're talking exes and nose hey our zone scheme front sides single double triple back sides a bc this is a front yeah they kind of test you a little bit what would you in the situation what kind of front is this over under sam on the ball

25 front all these things and so you're kind of taking a test and then you go into the official meetings and in there there will be the GM sometimes the owner the head coach the or D.C. based on what position you play. And then like a therapist will sit there and they'll be evaluating you and kind of ask you about things you've had in college, different situations. They'll bring up stuff. Like I got in trouble in middle school. They brought it up. Yeah, they brought it up. They do all of their homework on everything. So you're kind of sitting back like, oh my God. And then there's wild stuff. I remember I was sit with the Bengals and I was in the train station. And some guy pulls me over to the corner. He goes, when I finish this question, you have one

minute to answer, pulls up his iPad, he goes, how many things can you do with the paperclip, go? And just presses, like, it films me, being like, oh, you can unfold it and make it a little. It's just wild. Hey, that is. And the whole idea is kind of find out, like, where your brain goes. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if I pass or failed that text, but it's, it's, it's crazy. And all those things, you're kind of like not truly present in the moment because you're just so, the end goal is getting drafted. So you're just solely focused on, like, checking that box, checking that bucks, checking that box. And then my draft was the last one in New York at Radio City.

Yeah, Radio City. Radio City. And I remember Monday. The draft started Thursday, Monday. I'm in Arizona in my mom's apartment. And the Atlanta Falcons are like, hey, we're in town. We want to come meet with you. Atlanta picks at six.

And they come to this small little apartment. There's like eight of them in there. And they're like, hey, just so you know, if you're there at six, be ready. I'm thinking, oh, my God. That's where I wanted to go. I wanted to be a dirty bird. I went, I went to Flower Branch, checked it out, met with Arthur Blank, who's the owner who started Home Depot, and he was like this suave, like always wearing a nice suit with one of those little puffy, like, scarfs that come out. He had a, you know, mahogany desk with a picture of him on a horse, and I was like, this is the kind of guy I want to get behind.

This is where I want to go. So the draft comes, and I'm, you know, sitting in the green room and I have this, like, old phone that sits there. You just wait for it to ring. That's your phone. That's my phone. Who's going to call? Who's going to call? Six comes around.

I'm like, look at my family, this is it, we're doing it. We see so? So you, I've always wondered, like, when you're sitting there, I mean, some of the players have an idea, a really good idea, right, of when they're going. Am I right? Yeah, you have an idea. I mean, I think if you're a top 10 guy, you have an idea. Like, we know the needs of these teams.

You played every game in your head of, like, it was like a couple teams, maybe Atlanta. I don't know if Tennessee was, like, on your radar, but. I met with Tennessee. But Tennessee, they had Michael Ruse, who was 10-year left tackle. Like, he was, like, been there forever. And they just got Michael Orr from the movie The Blind Sign who was playing right tackle. They got him in free agency that offseason. So I'm thinking, there's no way Tennessee's going to take me.

But if you can kind of look at based on where people are evaluating you and what the needs are and you can be like, okay, I know these teams are going to pick me. I'll probably end up here or here. Tennessee actually wasn't a team. I remember meeting with the Cardinals, and they were picking at 20. They're like, hey, if you're there at 20, I'm thinking of my head, please God, don't be there at 20. But come up and get me because I want to go back to Arizona. So six comes around, and there are three tackles in this draft, Greg Robinson, Jake Matthews and myself.

And it was kind of like a revolving door of who that everybody felt was the best. Well, two comes around, St. Louis Rams. They take Greg Robinson. Greg Robinson is now in prison. Six comes around, and it's like, me and Jake. Like, who's it going to be? sucks for Gray. Yeah.

Bad news. Yeah, he was, yeah, peddling some marijuana off the Texas border. Did not work out well for him. Just keep stomping him out. Yeah. Keep stomping him out. Hell of a talent, though. Hell of a talent.

So Six comes around and I'm thinking, all right, here we go. I'm looking around and all of a sudden, phone starts ringing, and it's two tables down, and it's Jake and his family just starts celebrating. And I am, I'm so mad. Oh, no. I'm so livid at this point. I get up and I walk, I go down the hall, and I look at myself in the mirror, I'm like, you are, this is essentially.

the Truman Show. Everyone's been playing a joke on you, but they've been watching your whole life. Yes, you're the center of the universe. And this is finally where the prank gets you. You've never been good at football. You're actually terrible at football, and they're just tricking you now.

I go, I sit there, and I have to sit through Detroit at 10. I'm like, please, I do not want to go back to Michigan. Detroit was bad. And then 11 comes around. I get picked by Tennessee, and I was so mad. I was like, how am I going to play?

I, like, you know, they was like best available in their mind. Obviously, now sitting here, I'm like so happy I went to Tennessee, but damn, the time I was so I was pissed that I was taken not in the top 10 I was pissed that I wasn't you know I wasn't the first tackle taken or even the second tackle taken it kind of goes back to in the beginning what I was saying is you live in this level of delusion as a football player

constantly thinking everyone's always out to get you and then give you more of a reason for motivation or whatever I'll show them all show them that this you know they made the wrong decision here right and so you get done at 11 and the next day in Tennessee Southwest C-34 sit in the middle seat from New York to Nashville, meet with them, go back home for a couple days, and you're running to OTAs. It was a wild experience. Yeah, I wanted to do and accomplish all of those things. I think every time he kind of recites his stories and everything else, it's like my mind frame is like in all of those things that you like work for. Because every football player that if you get the opportunity to go to college at the Division I level, I'm assuming everybody,

I know everybody in my class at Nebraska, you're wanting to go to the NFL. Like, yes, you love playing college football you love that you're embracing the suck with the boys at that university but everybody's main goal is to get to the NFL like Taylor said there's just that delusion that you just you're always thinking about you all want to be an NFL player it's like I write being an NFL player for like you know secret questions and stuff in high school and I'm assuming every athlete does that for their sport that they want to go pro in and uh you know going through my senior year in Nebraska you know you would meet with agents and know that you're kind of projected a little bit lower in the rounds and you know they had a projected 40 time of like 4-8-7 and some things is where it's like you're

seeing the guys who are ranked ahead of you and you're playing that game like yeah you're watching their tape and finding those edges or finding those things where you think you are better than them and so when the end of the year came thought I had a solid year and didn't get invited at the combine was pissed that I didn't get invited to the combine because a lot of it's like man if if they're saying that I run a 4-8-7 like I'm and doing it. all these things and running slow and doing all this little stuff. Like I know I'm going to wow people in my brain. I'm thinking I'm going to wow people if I get to go to the combine.

And not only that, but Bo and all my coaches and everybody would just say is once you get in front of people, like that's what you need. Like that is where you'll make your money and do things. So me, I'm just wanting to get in front of people so I can get on the whiteboard, talk knowledge, talk football, talk all these things. And then I knew I would test well. And so when I didn't get invited to the combine, I was pissed about that because basically if you don't go to the combine, your focus is on pro day.

And so all training and everything went into pro day at that point because it's like, and fortunately, Rex Burk had given me this book. It was called The Mental Edge and Rex and I would always share videos and stuff with each other. But, you know, it's like, you know the sun is going to rise the next day and you can continue to pout that you're not going to be a combine guy or you can, you know, continue and be intentional with working on the pro day. And so all focus was on the pro day. Had it had an awesome pro day.

He ran a four or five, ran well, did all the bench, all the things well. Got to meet with a couple coaches, get on the board, felt really good about that. And the consensus was like, hey, you made money today. And I was on cloud. And I remember calling my parents. I remember calling my boys, just fired up. And my projection was fifth round of PFA preferred free agent. So didn't necessarily know if I'd get drafted or not.

It was hopeful and thought that I would. Had people over at the house in Bontair. And did you, were you hesitant to invite? No, no, I was never hesitant. Because also it's like, even if, in my mind, too, you go through all the mental gymnastics of everything. Like if I didn't go in the fifth round or, you know, upper six round, you're kind of wanting to, in my head, I would just tell people like, it's almost better to be a preferred free agent,

even though you do see, you want to see your name come across the screen. But that is the case, though. That is actually the case. Yeah. Yeah, you would rather get to pick your opportunity versus you get driving. after your seventh round because basically those lower round guys are essentially you're all the same. And you can evaluate teams. You're right.

You're right. You're right. My best shot to make the team is this team. Right. But no, I was never hesitant on like having people over and stuff because it's like, you know, family wanted to come in town. It's like you have this dream your entire life. Like I remember being in the front yard with my dad pretending to be the Dallas Cowboys. Like I was Michael Irvin Emmett Smith, Troy Akeman, Jay Novichick, all these cats, right?

And I was obsessed with wanting to be in the NFL. So no matter what, I knew I was going to go to a team. I didn't know if I'd get drafted or not, but we're all celebrating that like, yo, regardless, I'm going to get to go to a team. And that's, you know, everybody, we're all hype about it. Yeah. And so the draft happens. I remember day two, the Chargers called.

And I think it was Joe Barry on the phone, who I ended up playing for eventually in Washington. And he was talking about like, hey, you know, I don't know how the draft is going to shake up, but we're looking at you in the later rounds. And I was fired up about it. well, they drafted Manteo, like the second pick of that day. And so the Chargers, that was like the only call I had. I had like the Vikings, I don't say the Redskins, the Buccaneers, the Bears.

We're kind of calling like later in the draft. And you just keep seeing these backers go off the board, these middle linebackers go off the board, and that I'm thinking in my head that I'm better than the end of the career, only one outlasted to me. John Bostic, hats off to him. But you're seeing all these cats. you've seen all these cats go off the board that you're kind of like jaded about

and ultimately you have to be patient you have to just like hey this is like an uncontrollable and then my agent calls he's like hey it's buccaneers bears Washington and I'm thinking it'd be sick to go to the buccaneers because get to play with Levanti David who was a teammate of mine at Nebraska then my agent calls quickly calls back

hey you're going you're Washington Redskin you're going to Washington not really I didn't get to give much input like other than I have no clue it all happened so fast and then he kind of just tells me you're going to Washington and $2,500 signing bonus. Hell yes. Yeah.

Undrafted, get there. And obviously my career has played out to what it was, but in those times where you first step in the building, like my first interaction was RG3, and he's like fired up, hey, welcome to the team. Like, you know, you're going to rookie minicamp. You see London Fletcher on the treadmill, kind of like, you know, putting the WD40 on getting ready

for his final year of his career. And you just see all these growing men, all these guys that, Alfred Morris, these guys that you know about Santana Moss. and it was a grind man I mean I was like at the bottom there were seven of us in the linebacker room we ran a three four at the time so two inside guys and I was seven I was seven out of seven in that room there's an undrafted cat who was even ahead of me uh on the depth chart at first which is very what was his name Jeremy Kimbrough and we were we were good buddies at the time

that entire year and and shout out Jeremy Kimbrough but yeah I was seven it hit it hurt the ego I was also number 46 that was my jersey. That was also Alfred Morris's jersey who just got done when had a pro bowl year. So to me it's like damn, the writing's kind of on the wall. Double number. Yeah. Yeah. That's not a good sign.

Not a good sign. Not a good sign. That's the worst sign you can possibly see. It's because of a pro bowl or has the same number as year. Yeah, yeah, man. And like it sucked. It was hard. Like, you know, all things are like playing and playing football at that level is hard.

You go through the summer, you train and do all these things. You get into training camp. Day one of training camp still seven out of seven. So I'm like, I get to mix in with the three. So I probably get three reps a day, probably. So you're trying to maximize those, right? And I remember all summer I would just game plan the offense because you're going to be running the same install, install one through five.

Like you're going to be running those main installs. The plays aren't going to change. They're going to run a wide zone on day one. Day two, the wrinkle of a boot or play action is going to come in. So I would game plan the offense. So that way when I was out there, I could be loud. I could beat the monsters. There's, hey, look for this. X is nasty. He's inside the numbers. Alert, play action pass.

Like, s' like that to where they have confidence like, okay, comp kind of knows what he's doing out there. Day one of training camp, Keenan Robinson. And again, you've been a Washington fan. You're familiar with all this. Kenne Robinson tears his peck on day one of training camp. He was either the starting mic or the backup. So right from there I go from being a four, which there wasn't fours, but being that seventh to now I'm fully working with the threes. That undrafted cat who was ahead of me, Jeremy Kimbrough, he's now working. working with the twos. Week two of training camp goes by, Kimbrough tears his hamstring. So just like that, I'm thrusted in with the twos. And I remember my first day rocking with the twos. I had a little hamstring issue going on. And I remember telling the trainers like, hey, if there's a way we can

kind of like, I just use the term like duct tape this up to where, you know, I'm taking tour at all, all the things to where I can practice. I'm like, I'm finally getting an opportunity to rock with the twos. Your reps go from three or four to now you're getting 20-something reps a day. And I remember that first practice when I was a two. I had two interceptions and one PBA. I picked off R.G. I picked off Kirk. And I remember Shanahan, we get to our first preseason game at Tennessee.

And Shanahan, the night before the game, first time I get to kind of meet him, you know, you're kind of nervous around the head coach. And he's like, oh, Mr. Interception. I'm just thinking, holy shit, he knows my name. That's so awesome. And that day, like, I remember they're like, hey, comp, you're going to work with the twos. Coaches want to see you play with the second team. And I didn't think my linebacker coach really liked me much of time. He's kind of an older coach, very much a veteran type of guy, like the vets and everything else.

He's like coaches want to see you work with the twos. And grind through that preseason, led the team and tackles for the team. Wasn't very good on special teams. So I ended up making the practice squad. And I remember scouts and everybody else being like, hey, we feel like we have something in you. You need to work on your special teams and everything else. But you had a hell of a preseason. So from that moment, I was on practice squad all year.

And that was kind of the, that was the undrafted life, man. Yeah. Week 17, got activated, week 17. I was pissed too because week 16, they said that I was getting activated. I call my dad, we have a little teary-eyed moment together. Like, yo, I'm about to dress. Your boy's about to dress. It's like Rudy.

I'm about to play this week. Or not play. Well, I was going to be on special teams. Like it's happening, NFL. Because practice while doesn't travel or any of that stuff. And they go on to week 16. with the roster of 52. They leave one off.

Even though coach told me, like, I'm getting activated, that $14,000, $15,000 that I would have got, always pissed me off. But I got active week 17 that made the team the next year, but that's kind of the story with going undrafted. When you see the preseason and guys who are fighting for a position, those undrafted cats or the, you know, six, seventh rounders, they are working like a linebacker.

It's going to play every single snap at linebacker and then all four special teams. And it's just while, as you get, Later in your career, if you're an established starter, you might not play a preseason game. You're hanging out, you're doing the seeds. It's like, it's actually one of the most fun times in preseason because you're watching a football game in your uniform,

but there's zero stress. And you'd see these cats come off, like pouring sweat, blood, and all of them, then you're like, hey, brother, you're going to be all right. Keep going. Yeah, bro. And it was, you know, you and, you know, the five office line stars, we would just hang out, tell jokes the whole time.

and it's so interesting because it's like these guys are fighting for their lives right now. So much anxiety. Like God, if I can just play well. And me and the boys are, you know, starters are kind of just sitting there like, man, we got this guy week one. It's just totally different mindsets on the same exact team. It's a crazy contrast. It's like a fringe guy might be coming up to you like, hey, what are your thoughts? And you're kind of just thinking like, I mean, you should be all right.

But you're thinking about week one. Like you're thinking about going and getting the Super Bowl. Because fortunately, I got the, once you taste that sweet nectar of sitting out the fourth pre-season game, it's a different vibe. You can't beat it. When you go into the locker room and you're like, man, nothing. You see all the boys stressed out and you're kind of like a little louder in the locker room. Laughs are a little heavier because you have nothing to worry about at all. You know, hey, in two weeks we have our first game, won't be so stressed out then, but not today.

Not this day. Coach tells you, hey, you're sitting. Look up with the crowd, see your family. Hey, we're doing. I always like going to the third preseason game because that. that was when you got to see the bubble battles. Yeah, the players that were trying to play their way on the team. Always, I mean, preseason, you know, you've got an idea of the depth chart as a fan.

You've got an idea of the depth chart, but you're learning who these new guys are, right? That are the fourth, fifth, seventh rounders and the free agents that are trying to work their way on the roster. And it was always interesting to me because we always, for Washington, we had a couple. there were two, I can't remember their names, but there was a couple times where we had these little, there's little dynamo running backs. One of them was a goofy little dude that you were on the team back then. Probably, oh, man. And he didn't make the team.

He had a hell of a preseason. Maybe Mack Brown? No, he was, no, I don't know why I want to say he might have been from Oregon, but I can't remember. But he was small, but probably third or fourth string, but he played. a lot in the preseason and had some really good runs, but he ended up on the practice squad and then flamed out and ever played. Is he stunk or something like that?

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What the hell? Fast dude from Oregon. Yes. The running back room was kind of, there was a couple times it's like you had, you had Alfred, you had, who was it?

So like, you worked with him from Florida. Matt Jones, and then you had Mac Brown was an undrafted cat who kind of made the roster a few different times. I'm kind of be a fringe guy. You had a Rob Kelly, Fat Rob, Chris Thompson. So sometimes they don't make it literally because of the numbers,

the numbers game that goes on. I get that, but you're sitting there watching a preseason game and you're like, I know they're playing against the second, third string players, but this guy's, he's different than every other player on the field. I mean, you're watching the game and you're like, he's got a little step on everybody on the field, but he doesn't make the...

If I could guess, and Taylor, you can help out too. I think a running back, if you're not the starter, a situational guy, like the biggest thing that a coach is going to look for in you, if you're lower on the depth chart and on the fringe is, are you good in pass pro, third down, picking up blitzes, and are you dependable, and can you play special teams? Because even though you're running the ball well, if you're not going to be a guy running, you know, Toting the Rock over Alfred Morris and Matt Jones and these, it's Chris Thompson,

then you've got to be able to know this guy he can play and he understands all the third down packages, he can pick up blitzes and he can play special team. So that was, I would assume, probably wasn't his strength. It always depends, too, about positions. Like you're a wide receiver group might be stronger than your running back group and those couple of wide receivers that aren't going to see the field on offense they're going to see the field on special teams and that might take that running backs position on the special teams and then you're like if you're if you're not a starter if you're not in the top two of the depth chart and you're not rocking all four special teams yeah it's probably it's fascinating to me because you wonder like man if this guy say this guy

did have a clear path to playing and making the team like what is what would his life had been turned into right yeah could it have been something you know different. But dude, I mean, there's a guy who'll go out there and ball out and preseason then you never hear from again. You're like, what the hell happened to that guy? I know, he's just gone. That's the craziest thing too. We were talking to a rancarthon. That episode's going to come out next week, but we're just talking about cutting guys and all that because in college, you're so used to, hey, I got to get bigger, stronger, faster, that 1% next year I'll be a starter. Next year they'll do this, next year I'll do that. As soon as you get to the NFL, unless you're a top

three round draft guy, even the third round, you're not guaranteed anything. There is no next year. Like if you don't make it here, you're probably done. And it's just crazy seeing guys when those cuts come in like later in my career when they started just doing that one big time cut after the third preseason game, it was just like you see guys who thought they were going to be all right. It'll take a year and they're coming in crying and their dreams are getting just destroyed. It is so sad to see it.

It tears you apart to see those guys. Yes, that is, yeah, that is got to be tough. With the NASCAR season well underway, it seems like the new diecast releases from Lionel racing just keep on coming. You got Chase Elliott's universe throwback. That's the throwback to my victory in the 2014 Daytona 500. Their late model diecast built on Lionel's brand new tool that we were begging them to release. And then you have the raced wind cars that Lionel offers every week. For collectors like myself, it can be a lot.

lot to keep up with. So if you want to make sure that you don't miss an important diecast when it's offered, then you'd be wise to sign up for the latest news from Lionel Racing, the official diacast of NASCAR. To sign up, just go to the homepage of lionelracing.com, scroll to the signup for emails box and enter your email. It's that easy. And for the latest diecast content, don't forget to follow Lionel Racing on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok. You know, we both share commonality and that we, you know, we built playoff or built podcast platforms, and we kind of almost did it around the same time. And you guys started podcasting during your playing careers, right?

And I know reading all the notes and everything that we've compiled that this was a source of concern at times for you specifically. If I had to guess, I'm thinking, you're thinking, man, this is going to be fun. I see other people doing similar things. I kind of want to have some fun here. I remember the, you know, the rudimentary origins of Bussing and how that all started. You, you know, per the notes and kind of per how, you know, per how you reacted to being on the show seemed a bit reluctant because you didn't, you know, again, like I said before, like you're an NFL player that takes precedent over everything you can't let this look like

or be perceived even as a distraction even if it's not um so how did y'all navigate all that i mean i know you started it for fun but and it's become something much more serious so how how was there was there was there was there a moment where you're trying to talk him into doing this oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah uh i mean the origin of busting started in the cafeteria of titans like we will and i would sit there. When Will and I first met, we'd have our breakfast club, and it was me, Will, another individual we've already referenced, is Mike Campanaro. And we would sit there and just laugh. Mike and Will, we're on one year deal. So they kind of found camaraderie there. And I was walking by one day and they're having a good laugh. I'm like, yo, what are you guys talking about?

I want to laugh too. We're new free agents. So we're kind of finding our common ground friendship. Exactly. And so we sit there and I think two days later, I have to do the OTP, which is the official Titans podcast. They just started that year. And I was like, Will, come with me. And we just go up there. Mike Keith, who's the voice of the Titans, he gets three words in the whole podcast. Will and I are talking the entire time. We just met. FaceTime and Will back and forth. And this is 2018, right? Yeah. 2018, we're playing the Colts week 17 of the season. This is a win and get in game. Whoever wins between these two teams are going to make the playoffs. We get destroyed. The Colts beat the shit out of us. And so Will and I, after the game, we have a couple

of extracurriculars. We go to a Chinese buffet or a Chinese restaurant. And we're sitting there. Best walk. Best walk. And the not the best part of town. Yeah. And it's me, Will and my brother-in-law. We're kind of sitting there.

And Will's like, dude, I want to do a podcast. And Will's talked about it a couple of times. And he can tell his side about being at the Redskins and keep people kind of getting his ear. But he's like, would you, I'm going to do that. He's actually like, I'm going to do a podcast regardless. I feel a whole lot more comfortable if I have my boy do it with me. So I'm like, you know, in a unique state of mind. I'm like, dude, yes, I'll do that podcast with you.

No problem. Three days later. I get on a plan, I go to California and train for three months. And Will's like calling me, text me and say, hey, you got to promise you're doing this. Because if not, I'm not going to wait for you. I'm going to start getting the ball rolling. Because where Will was in his career, I'll let him speak more on it. It's like he saw like the end was coming.

And for me, I just signed a very lucrative deal with the Titans. I thought. Biggest in NFL history for an offensive lineman. I'm playing forever in my mind. So I come back. We meet with this production company called Cardboard Cutout. what are they called? Cardboard films.

Cardboard films. And Will gets there to meet with them, and I'm late. And they're like, hey, there's this bus out back of Wedgwood Houston. If that'd be a cool, like, studio for you guys. And Will sees it and your reaction? I was like, I hate it, but Taylor's going to get here and he's going to love it. And it's Dale and Hard Jr. bus. Because my anxiety is like, we need to start doing podcasts.

If I'm only, if Taylor's only going to stick around during O.T. because he's going to go back and train again. But it was kind of like, you know, you want to get to doing it. And you see the bus and you see that's going to be a project. And it's like, I don't think we have time for a project. Right. But Taylor gets there. Yeah, I get there and I see it.

And I was like, even if we don't use this, I'm going to buy this bus. And if it doesn't work out, I'll just put it in my backyard. This bus is badass. It doesn't run. It's like a 74 bluebird. It's all rusted out. You walk in. There's stickers for all the places.

Because this bus used to travel from NASCAR event to NASCAR event. And I grew up. my grandparents would always take me to the PIR and we would go like every year to that. That was like kind of a cool little deal. So we put, you know, $10,000 into it. Yeah, it was like 10 to 12 and you're okay. These guys said that they could turn around in like 10 days. Yeah, and they got it.

They get the whole thing done and we're shooting our first episode two weeks later. And at the time, yeah, it was, I was a little more reluctant to do it because we talk about the delusion of a football player and how the football player is perceived. if you don't seem like you're solely 100% focused on ball, people think this guy doesn't care about his career. He doesn't care about the main thing. When in reality, guys get home, they're playing video games, they're venturing in real estate stocks,

like they're trying to add to their portfolio. They're doing things outside of football to create that wealth once football is over, and people just don't get to see that. This being on social media and a platform that people can come, evaluate and judge, I was extremely uncomfortable with that because I was like,

we all become, victims. I don't know if you are. You don't seem like this kind of person, but getting on Twitter and putting your name in the search bar and seeing all the horrific things people are saying about you. We're all victims of that. And I thought, I don't want to give anybody your reason for X, Y, and Z. Sure. So we came up with this plan of we're going to do as many episodes as we can, backload them. And then during the season, I will not do it. And that would kind of be my insurance policy. And we did that for a couple years. And we did that for a couple years. Yeah. Maybe feel better about it. Maybe feel like, all right, I can

keep the main thing, the main thing. Because to me, it's like to take out an hour a week, regardless of when it is to do a podcast, that's not a big deal at all. But it seems like such a massive deal to these fans who are relying on you to, you know, have their, they want to be their team to be successful. And if you're a massive piece of that, you want them to feel like, all right, like our guys got our back. So there was definitely like Will bought in obviously immediately. And it took me until the back out, like the back end of my career to where I was like, all right, I'll, I need to put more into this, you know, shoulder the burden of a bustling with the boys and how much it goes into it and but that didn't happen for the first two three years. You said you almost quit a few times

that I never knew about. Yeah. There was a couple times I was like I'm just going to stop doing this. Oh yeah. Yeah. I was I was gonna yeah level ahead's prevailed but I was definitely like just like yeah there was a couple times I was like why am I doing this node in national yeah because I did I told my ACL in 2020 and there was I mean Will and I were doing a show together I wouldn't text back Will for, what, a month? Well, not a month, but yeah, yeah. I would just go radio sound. I was in the deepest, darkest holes in my head.

He's like, hey, I'm going to go here for a couple days, and a couple days turns into a week. Hey, I think we're going to get the family out here and we're going to be out here for a month. Yeah, and it was just. We'll take the operation out there. Like just, yeah, yeah. Ups and downs.

Up and downs, man. Well, did you ever have any kind of a significant knee injury like that? I tore my PCL. You did. Yeah, yeah. Ward Daddy still played? Yeah, I tore my PCL in, man, when was that? 2016.

Okay. 2016 I had torn my PCL, but no, I never, thankfully, knock on wood, you never tore my PCL or ACL. How challenging was that? I mean, coming from my perspective as a fan. Challenging. Yes. Like, to me.

Yeah. As his boy, challenged. Yes. So as a fan, that is the market, that's like an ACL is as bad as it gets. Like, that's one of, that's the worst injury that, you know, Any player has to, I'm just assuming, like, that has to be the fear for any player in the league. It's the most, it definitely seems like the most common ligament issue that people have. I think Achilles is right up there with it.

People have back issues and neck issues all the time. Like, with football, the injury rates 100%. And so you're going to get hurt. It's just, hey, what's it going to be? And a lot of times, like for me, I remember my senior year of high school. And I saw this kid, his last name was Williams. Kyle Williams, his brother was. was Kyle Williams.

But anyway, Williams, he goes across the middle, plants, tears his ACL, and I was a senior in high school, and I thought, holy shit, you can get hurt playing football. I had no clue.

And I had, in college, got my tonsils out when I was 21 years old, and dislocated my elbow that they reset, didn't have to get surgery. It was back in six weeks. So I never had injuries.

I was always a guy that, a couple of nicks and bruises here and there, just like every player has, but never went through an ACL or any massive surgery, anything like that. So 2020 happened.

And I go, I'm evaluating both doctors, Dr. Eletrosh, who's in L.A. and then Dr. Andrews, who was in Pensacola, Florida. Do you remember the moment it happened on the field, right? Oh, yeah. It was a pass screen left. It was to a two wide receiver side. The wide receiver was supposed to push up and then come back. And he didn't, it was AJ Brown.

AJ didn't do, get the shoulders turned to the corner. So when I came, there was very little room for error for me to get that block. So I went to plant and dive. and as I planted I kind of just kept going in the direction I was initially running my knee gets all hot and I'm kind of laying there like yeah that's weird that's a weird feeling yeah I felt

the same thing with my elbow disoicated like it didn't hurt like a pop snap nothing you didn't hear anything it just felt like uh just felt it really really warm wow it was such a weird feeling it's same thing I have with my elbow like I remember I went down to the ground with some guy and I was like damn my arm feels like hot and I looked at it my palm was facing the opposite way

and so the bones like switched sides There's an elbow doctor there. He popped it right back in. It was terrifying. I thought it was over. But it's so hot. And then Dr. Petty, who is our, like the team surgeon, comes over, checks my knee. And I go, it's my ACL, isn't it?

And he's like, I don't want to say anything right now. In my head, I'm like, confirmed ACL. So they get me the blue tent. And I sit there. I'm like, can you just check it one more time? And he's like, yeah, I can check it if you want. And in my head, I'm like, maybe it's miraculously back. He checks and he goes, it's your ACL.

And I remember. How can they tell our? There's this test where you hold the thigh and then you relax the calf and you can pull. And when you pull the calf up, the ligament's supposed to stop the knee from going forward. When there's no like hard stop, that usually means that the ACL's been torn. So he checks it again and he's like, you tore your ACL. And I'm not in any pain at all. Zero pain.

I go and I grab him and I just like sobbing in his chest. Like I'm soaking his shirt. I'm just crying so hard because I've never ever had an injury for a real injury. This is in the tent. This is week five against Houston, Texas. In the middle of stadium, full freaking grandstands, game going. Right. And you're in your own little thing. It's crazy the different worlds you live in.

Even during a game when you're not hurt, like you're everyone, like, there's 11 guys in the field, but there is still like an individual storyline going on for everybody. You're essentially playing this game in your head of, I'm taking care of this. And you're not really thinking about anybody else other than the people you have to communicate with. And that's it. And now you're just doing your job. So while a game's going on. I'm like, oh, this is crazy.

I've never been hurt before. I go up and my wife's in the suite with our kids. My youngest daughter is like a couple months old. And I like walk up and I'm still in my cleats, shoulder pads, jerseys off, but I have pants on still, cleats, the whole thing. You went to the suite. I went to the suite to see him because I was like, I just wanted to feel safe in that moment. You know, you get this taken away from you.

It's like, I know my season is over. I know that this is going to be a long road because you see guys don't go through it all the time. and it was just like, I just wanted to be with them for a little bit. So I sit there, we watch the game, and then she comes downstairs with me in the locker room. I get changed. I sit. And then the evaluation starts about who to go to. And the two best doctors are Ella Trosh and Andrews.

And Andrews was just closer to me. And I had a friend Tyler Hubbard, who was part of Florida Georgia Line. He had a tour bus. And he said, hey, man, if you want, because when you fly, if you have any kind of issue at all, that inflammation is massive. And I know we got to get inflammation out there. I'm thinking in my head everything I can possibly do to make sure that this thing is as good as possible. So next season I come back. You think about Adrian Peterson.

And he came back. You were trying to come back in like three months. Yeah, because Dobson, Will Strait coach at Nebraska, calls me a day after I get the ACL and he's like, you know, Sue came back in four months. I was like, done. That's what we're doing. Challenge accepted. So I get on Tyler's bus. We drive down to Pensacola, Florida.

And I end up choosing Andrews because he was closer. And we, this guy had a good track record. I mean, he's, he's arguably the best surgeon of all time. Like, he is one of the best, if not the best orthopedic surgeon ever. And I meet with him. He does my surgery, tells me everything goes amazing. And then, you know, I'm having the whole time swelling. I'm having pain, the top of my knee pain where it's like, I can't really squat.

And it's just, you know, bad thing after bad thing after bad thing. And I'm like, what the hell is going on? And I'm doing like, I already said my dog. I was like two months, two months old when this happens, three months old. My kids do not see me. I am laying in a chair. I'm elevated. And once I was able to walk, I was on crutches. And I was doing my rehab, cold tubs, red light therapy. I would fly this lady in named Anna Hartman from San Diego. She would stay with me for months at a time. So I could do three, uh, uh, rehabs a day, to working on core, work on this, doing Pilates. Like literally I would, my day would be from like 8 a.m.

until I went to bed at night. And I was like, it was just me and my own world to my kids are missing out in time with me. And I got so bad to the point where, like, Will and Taylin would call each other and figure out how they're going to handle Taylor. Like, what this guy's going through the hell right now. I'm in a different mood, all that.

And the person I was training and Talen sit me down and essentially have like an intervention with me, telling me this is all in my head. Like everyone says the doctor, keeps at an MRIs. He says, you're fine. You're okay. You just never been hurt before.

Essentially, they're calling me a mental midget. They're saying, like, this is not it. How did you feel about that? You know, how do you think you... You probably didn't feel too good about it. Bad intervention? Do what? It was a bad intervention?

It was a bad intervention. Because to me, it's like... You ever watch that show? 12 steps or whatever it is. No. The show's called intervention, I think. I don't think I said around. They, they have, like, notes.

How have you affected my life? At the end of every show. It's a drug intervention show. You've never watched it. No, I'll be it out. I'll check it out for you. It's serious, dude. All right, I'll check it out.

Yes, I've watched many shows. Yeah. But at the end of every show, there's an intervention, and they either go and get well, and then you see this like 12 months later, we're great, or they get up and leave. Oh, did you get up and leave? What did you do? I can't remember. I remember we were sitting on the back patio, and they were sit me down, talking to me.

And it was like one of those, they were talking me, and they're giving me the intervention, and I didn't realize this is an intervention until, like, it was almost done. I'm like, wait a second. Are you guys saying, I'm a crazy person? And this is all great because they kept getting swollen and all that. So, you know, whatever happened there, I was obviously really mad about the situation. And then the season comes. And right before the first week, I remember calling Will and I was like, dude, I'm so back.

Like, we are about to have the best game of my entire career. Like, we put it in a game plan. There was a lot of screens that were only to the left. You've been through practice. You've been through, you've been on the field. You were feeling nervous. Yeah. Oh, no.

That was- I was-jitters. I was feeling jitters because I was like, man, this game, the game plan, the offensive line I don't have like a lot of things, but like you can tell when the game plans are being put together, like what they're leaning towards doing. And a lot of them, the hardest blocks, it seemed like they were put on me quite a bit.

It tailors on an island while a slide the other way. Yeah. Yes. And, you know, during camp, my, you know, my knee would hurt, but they'd give me like a couple days off, and then I would go do a couple of things, and they'd just kind of keep your confidence up the whole time. I have one question.

Sorry to interrupt. Go ahead. Now you're good. I've always wondered, like, when you have an injury like that, the first time you really go full speed. Like, do you remember that day? Yeah. I'm going to go out there and I'm about to see if this can happen. They do a good job of easing you and Todd Torricelli, the head trainer, like, you'll go and they're like, all right, you're going to do the conditioning test. And that's when they kind of evaluate if you're going to be on Pup or not, which I don't know what Pup stands for, but essentially it means like you're not ready to enable or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, there you go.

And I do the conditioning test. And our GM, John Roberts, comes up and goes, hey, you look good. We're not going to put you on pop. We're going to allow you to go and practice. So the first like week of camp, I'm only doing individual, which is kind of nice because camp is brutal. It's a hell of a time. I go, I do the warm up. I would do individual.

And I just remember like doing cutoff drills. I would turn. You have to plan on that right leg and just kind of, trying to like dig into the line of scrimmage with it. It just felt, I was like, oh, okay, I don't know about that. And then you get a couple more reps. I'm like, all right, that feels a little bit better. Okay.

And then. That would be nerve-wracking and shit. Yeah. Just like kind of like planning on it for the first time. Yeah. And I think like a test of a true athlete or a really good athlete is like, athletes are the ultimate compensators. So if you have a shoulder, you'll figure out ways to not use that shoulder as much,

but still be just as, you know, do your job just as good. And so I was kind of in that process in my head of being like, okay, if I can't plant, maybe I put my leg a little farther back, and I can lean more on my left leg, and you're just kind of playing things in your head always, but it takes time. Yeah. And it's funny because I remember the day before the Cardinals game in 2021, I call Will. I'm on my way to a guy named Adam Bobo's house and go get an IV,

and I'm telling Will about this game plan and how, like, you know, kind of, there's a lot that's riding on me doing my job in this game. And I was kind of stoked about it, but I was also very, very nervous. But, you know, we're giving each other the whole, like, miracle pump-up speech, Friday night lights type of stuff. Get the fight started. Like, yeah. Get the first head out of the way and get moving.

And that day I woke up, it was a noon game against the Cardinals. And it was the first game I ever played or before the game where I was like, I'm not nervous at all. Like this is going to be the exact storybook ending to a traumatic experience. Comeback player of the year type of situation. The guy was playing against had five sacks that game. The first play of the game, we run an open side to my side, open side, outside zone. and he gives me a step outside, goes inside,

tackles Derek for a loss, and it was just hell all day long. I go up to the suite after the game, and I'm sitting there with Taylor, and I haven't even showered. Just put my clothes on. I was like, you don't deserve to clean this off you yet. I sit with my wife, and she goes,

I go, that's the worst game I've ever played in my entire life. And my wife goes, that's the worst game I've ever seen anyone play in my entire life. And we were just kind of in consensus about how bad it was. That night Will comes over, and I'm just watching film. and he's just kind of sit with me and we're just quiet in my room just quietly being sad like he's like being sad for me

that was stuff it was a tough year for sure so it didn't go the way I wanted so did you ever um did you ever feel like you got back to elite no unfortunately no because I played um I played 20 21 toward the end of that 2021 toward the end of that season like you were you were you were based on the roller coaster promotions and everything else and having that start from that first week. I know the back half of the year, you, like, you were, you know, you're obviously playing more consistent better because you had a couple of hiccups to wear before the Seattle game. Hyper extended my knee in Seattle.

You know, he extends his knee in pregame. The same knee. Right. Yeah. Same knee. And then he can't play in the game. Yeah. Couldn't play in that game. And then something happened in the Rams game where it's like, my knee was just hurting. And I was like, I can't squat down. So I didn't play the There's only very small window where you played like a few games. Because even at the end of the year, I think you might have a back or something. because that's awesome when my mom passed. Yeah.

Yeah. We played a Thursday night game against the 49ers, and I got back. In the first quarter of the Steelers game, I got an SI thing, and I played that game, and I couldn't walk. Did you ever?

Yeah, because you were able to come. Yeah. You were able to come to the hometown. Yeah. When the Titans were played. Just like showed up. Yeah. Did you ever, do you think you,

if, you know, for most players that have that type of injury or any injury like that, do you, have you ever able to like not think about it? Like is it going into every game or every snap or every time you're going to put your foot on the ground? I think, you know, time heals all wounds. Like when you are practicing for the first time, it's all you're thinking about. The first game, you're like kind of check in with it always. But as you get farther and farther removed, it's kind of like, it's like when you get sick

and you think, man, all those times I didn't wash my hands when I should have washed my hands. when I should have washed my hands. I'm going to wash my hands so much more. Then once you get done, get sick, you're like, yeah, yeah, you get farther away, and you kind of just go back to your old routine. Yeah. That's how I envision it going.

For me, I did, you know, the ACL in 2020. 2021, I missed five games. 22, I was still having swelling and pain, but I was like, it was kind of became long enough where I was like, this apparently is just how it is now. You just got to keep playing. And then the first play of the second game, like. Sniper.

Sniper. Got me in the, like off a. play action. And I just kind of laid there. And that's when I knew the writing was on the wall. And that's when I found out all the stuff about my first surgery and how to get a redone and stuff like that. What was the things that you found out? Well, it is an ongoing lawsuit right now. So it's not like a whole lot I can really get into. But I was just told that the way my knee was done isn't the best way a knee should have been done to have an ACL for the most maximum recovery. And so I went to Eletrosch.

When I spoke to Eletrosch, he made it seem like from the day I was sewn up. It was just not going to work out. And that's because of the swelling. And I think that's the biggest bummer to me is besides my career being over, is when I got my ACL, I was seven years in the league. And I remember Todd Torreselli, the head trainer, sit me down. He goes, you want to know the good news, the bad news? And I was like, tell me the bad news.

He goes, your ACL's torn. The good news is your knee looks great. there's no cartilage, like there's no cartilage damage. Like your knee looks like a knee that hasn't played seven years in the NFL. So you have that going for you, which is great. A lot of guys would trade knees with you right now, even with the ACL. So I was fired up. Fast forward to 2022 when I had to get my surgery done again, I sit down with

Eletrosse and he's like, yeah, we got to fix that ACL. It's an incompetent ACL. And it looks like based on the knee to generation you've had, you're going to need a knee replacement by the time you're 50 years old. And that's how I was like, damn. Because I was, because of the ACL, my joint apparently had to rely on other things. To where now there's a whole bunch of degeneration and the cartilage and the kneecap and all that. So a lot of stuff that, you know, it was way over my head.

I didn't go to school for, but it was a wild deal. What if, so you have the knee and maybe other things. You talked about how football is 100% injury rate. Will, what ailments do you walk around with today after your, after all of your We have enough time Yeah Like I mean

My low back is my biggest Usual probably I still get arthritis My foot Like I had a few surgeries In college I had a sport I broke my foot

In college Yep I had I was apparently born With an extra perineal Tendon in my ankle Hell yeah

So I had to get that removed Yeah Yeah Yeah I was like oh It's not like It's like an extra thing The black guys

Where they get extra muscles And stuff I got to get my removal What else? Oh, labrum surgery. I had full reconstruction in college on my right labrum. And fortunately, I, you know, avoided the knife in the NFL. I tore my PCL.

That was great too, but there's not a lot of surgery that you can, they're like, oh, you can, once we rehab this, it was toward the end of the year. They're like, you'll be, you know, you'll be solid. I still, like, it'll get inflammation at times. But I also had a Liz Frank on my right foot. that was in 2017, I believe. What does that feel like? Dude, honestly, I planted my foot in the ground and felt like somebody stood over me with a shotgun

and shot me in the top of the arch. And I went down immediately and I remember like kind of like getting to the side and I was like, my entire arch is broken. Yeah. Like just thinking my entire arch is broken. Yeah. And then you learn about the Liz Frank. Fortunately, it tore, I guess, in the most perfect way possible to where I didn't need

to have surgery. But then the next year is when I went to the Titans. So I'll still get arthritis and stuff. there at times but so all of it man i feel the most in my low back my low back bothers me the most right what is that injury that um it's kind of like a pain tolerance situation but it's the heel of your foot uh happens all the time you're talking about uh the planter fasciitis yes i have it phasciitis i have it's a it's a monster to go away you probably have to are you doing rehab every day no no that is one you have to stay on like every day because those suck i went to the doctor

Turf toe, parapheritis. Turfato's a different dog now. Yeah. I have that going on my right foot, and I went to the, I couldn't hardly walk on it, right? It's just like my heels polarized. It feels like all of, it's just painful as shit. And so I don't know how it happened or why you get it, but I went to the doctor. They gave me some insoles, gave me all this tape and shit and this tape stuff I got to do, and I did it for a while, and it kind of got a little better, and then I thought, all right, I'm over it. but it's still

Yeah, classic guy move. Dude, you get almost done with it. You're like, all right, we're solid now. I'm just like, man, it's just going to go away, right? If I just go easy on it. What sucks is ultimately injuries, they all suck. It's like you're like, oh man, would I rather have this? What I rather have that?

Then when you have it, you're just thinking, oh, this sucks. Unless you get like the major surgeries. Like the shoulder was four months. Did you ever have turf toe? Yeah. Yeah. That's impossible. The worst part on some of those, like planter,

fresciitis, turf toe, tendinitis. If those act up or if you get something like that early in the season, it's going to be a long season because it's like you need rest to kind of help it. But there is no rest when you're in the season. I can't imagine how you can do anything with turf toe. Anything soft-ish as well. If you get that in camp, you're essentially going to have that issue the entire year. There's really no way to get around it.

Unless you take weeks and weeks off. So, Will, you got a call from the Jets to play at the end of your career and you said no? No, not at the end of my career. That was the first year into podcasting. So we got the podcast going. You didn't? You said no to the Jets. So I'll give you what my strategy was behind it.

And fortunately, it played out. It kind of played out each year like I was hoping it'd play out. Like it, my transition out of the NFL is probably the best I could have envisioned it. After I got done with the Tennessee Titans that first year, and we started up the podcast and everything else, a draft of Rishon Evans in the first round. And when you're in a spot, a position like I am, you almost need somebody to go down or get hurt or something. Rishon never got hurt, which is a positive. But in my situation, you almost need that to happen so you can get an opportunity so that we can have film.

So going into that next free agency is one of those things where I sat and thought about it. As we're starting the podcast, I knew I wanted to go all in on it because I thought it would be, you know, it was awesome to have Taylor involved. And Washington and I kind of dabbled with the idea, but I never had the courage to do it. And then there was a bit. In Washington? And dabbled with the idea of podcasting. Because when I had my Liz Frank, I, and you're, you know, you're on IR for the rest of the year. You know, I'm listening to podcasts.

I'm listening to, you know, the Rogans of the world, bigger pockets in real estate. Like, I've always loved podcasting. And I always thought it'd be cool. And let me tell you, man, I mean, for everybody listening, like, you ain't making no damn money in the first handful of years podcasted. No. It's not, you're, you need a salary. Like, you know, I know you're playing football, but. I'm, I'm, because when I've just, I don't know how to say this politely to some of the people that are part of the Durymo Media, but, man, we started this stuff.

I was like, yeah, okay, I don't listen to a podcast, whatever you want to do, right? And, you know, I kind of took it halfheartedly for the first handful of years before I realized, okay, I mean, I don't know how you had the vision and like, man, this, I'm going to do this podcast thing and it's going to become something. So are you asking the vision stuff? Well, yeah, I mean, it's part of the conversation of you're saying no to the Jets for whatever reason. You're going to tell me that. But you're also creating this podcast thing and you're actually pretty sure about it or you're wanting to build it. Like I wouldn't have expected it. I wouldn't have thought that a player would think, you know, yeah, podcast.

I'm going to make some fun. I'm going to do some podcasting. Especially the time that we started the podcast too. There was no active. Podcast wasn't podcasting back now. There was nobody doing it. But it also kind of was. Like there's always these waves of it.

We were the first NFL, like active NFL players that owned the podcast. It wasn't Bleacher Report. It wasn't anybody being like, hey, we're going to pay you a little bit of money. You do a show for us. Yeah, it's our show. The thought was, man, and Taylor knows this. Like, even when he talks about breakfast club, like when you're at the cafeteria, when you're having all these conversations in the locker room and the saun and the cold tub,

whatever it is, like there's some fascinating conversations. In football, you're always wearing a helmet. You're told the sacrifice for the logo, the name on the front, not the name on your back. And so the idea of podcasting, like kind of being into podcasting, and then seeing that there was money to be made, you'd see McAfee, he retired two podcasts with Barstool, and you see JJ Redick doing it in the basketball world. And there was a few athletes doing it a little bit, and then you kind of see, you know, you see where Rogan's at, you see what podcasting started to do as we're starting the podcast.

and the whole idea was how can we bring the locker in the life? How can we get all the, how can we take these conversations that we're having in passing around training camp, around the facility, and put microphones in front of us and bring the locker room to life? And so the thought of going all in when Taylor and I decided to do the bus and get the bus decked out with the studio and our first podcast with Delaney Walker starts getting written about

in pro football talk and national media kind of grabbed it because he talked about an IV. He almost died from an IV. He's telling a funny story in a funny way. He didn't actually like almost die. Maybe he did. Maybe he didn't. But ultimately, that is now getting showed in the team meeting.

Like, you have to be careful what you say because they're going to take it and run with it. Now the training staff looks bad because it seems like we put a bad IV in the Delaney Walker. And then Vrable comes on, talks about cutting his dick off for a Super Bowl. That goes viral. Jerylind Ramsey comes on, talks about how he DMs receivers, girls on, you know, and then brings it up to him when he's standing across from them at the line of scrimmage. That's taken. I get on the phone with McAfee. I remember getting on FaceTime with Pat McAfee.

And he was like, look, if you're going to podcast, you need to do it consistently. If you're going to show up once a week, you need to show up once a week every week. You need to treat your audience, like everybody who's tuning in, like your friend. Like you need to just treat them like your friend. If you're saying you're going to show up once a week, you need to show up once a week. And Taylor and I went on a terror one week. Terror one week. And we blogged like 12 podcasts because it's like, how do we stretch us out over the

season because we were only going to do it in the summer and then focus on football for the season. But I was like very much all into doing it. And my thought behind it was when Rashon played that year and I didn't get a lot of, I didn't get a lot of action. There's not a lot of tape. I'm going to be a veteran going in the year seven, I believe at the time. And I know I'm going to be a minimum veteran. Like I'm going to get the vet minimum. There's going to be no signing bonus. I'm going to have to be on a 90 man roster now and make the 53. After my career, after my stint with Washington and growing the way I grew there and then having an opportunity to hopefully win a starting job with the Titans that didn't work out. I was kind of over the whole, you know,

that undrafted, like just putting your head down, reinvent yourself on another team that the organization knows nothing about you. You'd love to stay with the Titans because they do. You'd love to have coaches with Washington because they know you. I'm going to have to really make the team. And I was kind of over that grind period of doing that. Like my agent would say, hey, Eagles want to fly you in for a workout. Or they want to fly you into practice in OT. but they're not going to sign you, they just want to see how you perform. I advise you not to because it's all risk. All you're doing is risking.

If you get hurt, they don't have to pay you any money. And so I would turn down, I turned down workouts from the Eagles, the Jaguars. This was in the springtime during OTAs. I knew I wasn't going to do OTAs because my thought was I'm just going to bet on the resume I have at this point. Because if I'm going to play, it's going to be the Joe Berries, the K.O., the coaches that I've played for who are going to want to bring me in because they know me. And a linebacker is going to get hurt, and you can find a lot. of guys that can run and tackle and plug and play. And I knew I could figure out a playbook

fairly quickly. So it was like, I'm going to skip off-season stuff and I'm going to go all in with this podcast with my boy. He's in town. He gets back in OTAs or four OTAs and then also doing the podcast. So it's like, I can't leave because if we're trying to build this thing and grow this, like, you know, if I just leave now, like it'll never get off the ground. And then we get the training camp and my thought is like, again, betting on guys getting injured. I don't want to do a training camp. at all. Like I don't want to go through the grind of being a training camp. Saints called right before day one of training camp. Hey, we'd like to bring Will in with the intent to sign, you know, bearing all

this stuff workout wise. And I remember saying no to that because we had a couple pods lined up, a couple of things going. It's like that's when Shaw comes on. Kyle Van Nuoy, the Patriots coming to town to practice. Taylor on an off day might come in. I kind of can't remember. I think I did Van Nuye. Yeah, the boys all in for, you know, the boys all in for season. choice though to say yeah I'm not going to do that I'm going to work it was scary like just because it's risky it's like because football is all I know and it's like man you know it's obviously good money it's podcasting good money now it is then no no no no no no we you put up like close to six figures to just basically have all the equipment have the buzz right even hire some contractors at the time

because we didn't have any full-time guys like we do now so I mean and you're so you're just in the red for we were probably in the red for two years two and a half years yeah probably Taylor did you know, did you think him not taking those deals for the Saints and so forth was a good decision at the time? I actually didn't know he got offered by Eagles and Jacks to get those like to go to OTAs. The game plan that Will was going with when you get to that point of your career, that is a good move. Like, yeah, kind of waiting out camp because the only thing that could happen in camp if you're not, if you're not guaranteed for D.3 is get injured. Right. So if you can get on. There's no signing bonus. You're not getting any money. Right. Got it. And so

for Will it's like to focus on something. else but also kind of keep this like in his back pocket just in case because it ended up working out the next three four years was like you know week four have got to call it's and the raiders call you know the saints he ends up in the stories about the tell he ends up going to the saints for those 10 days and was going to play but ends up getting hurt and it's like it's just kind of like it's it was a tactical move but when you get in that situation you can't just think oh i'm going to go play for the love of the game because then the the risk and the reward they don't they don't it's not good Yeah, yeah. And so say no to that. We end up doing a few pods. I think a week or two, preseason, somebody goes down for the St. Saints call again for another workout. They're like, we'll just work well out individually because we said no the first time. Like, no, he's not going to come in with a group of linebackers. You're going to bring him in solo or he's not going to come. So the second time, like, hey, we'll bring him in solo. In tent to sign. We had somebody go down. Again, it was a no, which was, again, it's like I'm trying to finesse to where I don't have to really play in the preseason or play in training camp or put that wear and tear on my body. And again,

we're podcasting. We've had a few things hit viral. It's like, oh, it's is a kind of a fun thing. It's kind of cool. And so the Jets call, who was the cat? Avery was Avery. Avery Williamson. He tears his ACL. Jets call and they're like, hey, we want to bring Will in right now to sign and play, but the Jets weren't very good. So I said no to that. Then we have Sean Johnson on the Olympic gold medalist. He should have signed with the Jets. Yeah. And then the next week, another guy from the Saints goes down. And they're like, hey, we plan on signing Will. We just want to work. work them out and we'll be good to go. So go and work out for the, that's when it was like, okay, I'll go to the Saints because I fly into the Saints 48 hours before their third preseason game.

I do a workout. What's the workout like? A workout was pretty tough because I was by myself. It wasn't coaches I knew and they're kind of putting me through the ringer. But at that time, I'm still in shape. Like I'm still taking football seriously. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. At that point the next two years is where I was kind of like, you know,

having more fun than anything else. But I was ready to go. Like I was in shape for those workouts and they're like hey what do you feel more comfortable at mike will i was like either one doesn't matter put me wherever you want put me wherever you want and we have 48 hours so the third preseason game i go through basically a helmet's only practice and i take like maybe two reps maybe do a couple walk through things and i'm kind of picking up the playbook a little bit toward the coach asked like hey we weren't going to plan on playing you in the third precinct game but i mean would you want to and i'm thinking i got nothing to lose i can truly show these i can truly show these cats that i can

I can, you know, take information in and put it to practice. But now I'm a little nervous because I'm like, either I am, I say I am or I'm going to be a fraud out here. End up playing well in the third preseason game. Torre, now I get moved up to one base. I'm starting Mike for week one and two until Alex Anzaloner comes back from his injury. So they needed a mic backer to start week one.

Hold on. If you are on the roster on week one, you get the money for the entire year. For the entire year. That's what you're trying to finesse to do. You know about a high six figures. Yeah. Yeah.

I think at that point it was year seven, $900,000, $7,000 would have been guaranteed, like whether you get cut or not. So if it's Wednesday of week one and he's on the roster and then the next Monday he gets cut, 900,000. Yeah. And while this is going on, because I remember talking to you and Taylin on FaceTime too, but before I sign with the Saints, I'm nervous about signing. And I was more homesickness.

If I'm being honest, I was just being kind of a . . . . . . and had homesickness. I had my engagement ring in my backpack. I knew I was going to propose to my wife at some point that year. and busing was fun. You just carried around your backpack a whole fucking year? Yeah, well, yeah. And I remember calling my wife and just being like, you know, I don't know if I want to sign. They had the contract and I was like, oh, I'm still sitting on it.

I hit up Matt Lafleur in Green Bay and I'm like, hey, we'd love to come play for you trying to get Green Bay. And again, I was just in a new environment. I didn't really know anybody. I was just being a p-uh about it. I was being homesick because I remember calling you. I was on the phone, Charles was like, hey, like. we'll be here like you know don't worry about coming back and forth and stuff like that like we'll make all the we'll make everything work we'll be here yada yada yada so fast forward to i get moved up to

the first team on base as a mike i go into the fourth preseason game like hey we're just going to play you the first quarter knock some more rust off um and get you ready for for week one so i'm fired up and bro i play that first quarter and catch just a bull-ass roll i get rolled up on Hey, by the way, a hell of a play. It was a wide, eye formation, wide zone, wide lead. I run through the left tackle. I run through the left tackle, hit the fullback and make the tackle, a tackle for loss. But the left tackle I run through ends up falling on top of me and I catch up bullshit-ass ankle sprained.

I think I played two series, three series, five tackles for your boy, but it was pissed because I was going to be a New Orleans saint. get brought up the next day we kind of go through the MRI my shit is hurting like it was one of those things where you just know if you just had a few weeks like you'd be good to go but they again needed a back or four week one because they had a few guys injured that was going to be until like week three until alex a zolone was healthy see the MRI stuff we go up to um we go up to see terry who's the GM at the time I believe and he's just like bro this truly is nothing that you did like we were fired up um we just just need a backer. They end up trading for Kiko Alonzo before that week one, before that week

one hit and got cut. That was the 10 days I spent on New Orleans. So I end up rehabbing, watching the first part of the Titan season where they start off two and four. And every weekend episode comes out, I'm just like, holy fuck like this. Maybe we need to pause busting because it was brutal in the streets. And we were getting, I was getting murdered because I was suspended for the first four days. Taylor with the P, yeah, the suspension was going on. Taylor and I are hanging out. Yeah. We're like hanging out. We're watching the games on Sunday together with Matt Neely.

Yeah. Yes. And then I go back. We play the Bills. First game, I don't think there was a, there was no touchdowns. It was all field goals. We lose. And the first play of the game, I like get a holding call.

People are like, this fucking guy. A false start in a third down situation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just bad, bad. Getting an argument with some backup, Shack Lawson on the Bills. And the Bills Mafie comes after me.

They're murdering busing. Yeah. And then we go play the Broncos. That's when Marcus Marriota gets benched, and then Tannan Hill has to come in, and we just get destroyed by then. We're two and four. And me being on the couch, like rehabbing my ankle and getting ready to whoever's going to call me.

It was eventually the Oakland Raiders. But we're doing tailgates. We're towing the bus to the stadium for Titans games. I'm driving by honking my horn and waving to the boys as I'm going into the stadium. Yeah. And we have like a crowd there that's like, you know, we're tailgating together. We're tailgating around the bus, bus with the boys. We're trying to grow the brain and stuff.

like that and they end up like having a bad start yeah bad start they hate us like this guy all he cares about us podcasting truly what we talked about in the beginning just worried that people yeah it all my biggest fears were happening shut up and dribble shut up and blah type of thing and but then what happened we're so we're in this bubble of it all and i'm sitting at home when taylor is finally playing and it was like a tight game with the chargers you guys won that one we won that we beat the charges but it's like you know you're just holding off your dear life because your anxiety's up too that that's the most recent roster and locker room and team meeting scenario that I knew. So I know the height of the anxiety

that's happening. I'm having it at home. And fortunately, the Oakland Raiders call, hey, we want to fly well and work them out, intent to sign. And got to talk myself into that because I started enjoying the nice life of not playing on Sundays, knowing that they lost, but I'm not in the team meeting the next day. So I can kind of go on with my day to day. And so I go out to Oakland and then you realize like you're just in such a bubble like hey people out here are talking about bus in and i sign with oakland max crosbie brings up bus in and have a good year it was kind of one of those things like hey this is probably my last year i'm gonna just enjoy i'm just going to enjoy this have fun before practice i'm basically just rolling out and doing like my own little tempo warm up

not taking not like being the serious structured this is what i have to do every day i'm like just rolling out to get ready for practice and ultimately there's a situation that goes down in the linebacker room to where the coach, he's like, hey, we brought you in, John Gruden, the head coach at the time, Jay Gruden is who I played for in Washington. They're like, hey, we know, like, do you feel comfortable running the green dot and doing all the making the calls and stuff? I was like, oh, yeah, I can rock that. I end up getting to start three games. I have a little badass three game stint and by myself a couple more years because I'm thinking I'm just going to play teams. It's going to be it. Let's grow a bus in. Let's do what we can. And, you know,

we'll go into the offseason. Got eight years or whatever that was at the time, seven years. Good career. Will and I would have like weekly check-ins like every couple of days, FaceTime before bed. Hey, how you doing? How's practice? You're making any friends? Yeah, making friends out there. I'm giving the boys hats to guys like guys love it out here. And Max Crosby who at this time Max is a rookie. Now he's like essentially the face of the Las Vegas Raiders now like an absolute stud should win defensive player of the year this year. He goes up to Will and he's like, yo, I love your show. I love watching bustling with the boys. And so Will's like kind of fine as rich incognito's in the locker room. Yeah, I sit in the first defensive meeting and he's like, yo, this dude's a celebrity. You guys have no

clue and I just come like chuckling so uncomfortable yeah so uncomfortable he's like yeah we're gonna bus with the boys I'll watch you guys shit every week I was just a bit last night yeah we're still in the red at the shop episode yeah I'm thinking that is fucking cool that your peers are like seeing it noticing it and the cool part is that the season is we play each other we I am it's like the fourth the last game of the year or the third of last game was it the last second of last game in oakland radio radio stadium yeah and so will and I go from having these face time calls every week that all of a sudden Raiders are playing Titans. Ain't no face time

calls. Nothing's happening. No one's really talking. And we go out, we get there and everyone's got their routine, but you usually go out before, kind of get warmed up, kind of do your own thing. How is grass feel? You're kind of just getting in the zone. And we are both on the field at the same time. And the way the stadium works is like you walk in and out the same area and you kind of take a right and you go into your locker rooms.

Will and I are on the field at the same time. We don't say a word to each other. Like, it is true. But I never come across, Taylor, but I'm literally chopping it up with everybody that I was seeing on the Titans, like wondering when the boy's going to come back. Oh, I saw him.

I saw Will. And I was like, no, dude, fuck him. Yes, yes. But so Max, where he comes to the equation, Max is, you know, a fan of busts and everything. Will tells Max, he'll give him $500 for every stack he gets on me. And he's essentially, he's hiring somebody.

Yeah. Need it. And you guys were up. What? You guys like, better pick? in the first quarter. Yeah, but we were tied at half and then you guys took off.

Took off. We went off on that after. The play action, AJ Brown deep. Yeah. Yeah, they beat her ass. It was cool too, because after the game, obviously it's all over.

Will I got to block oil twice that game? Yeah. I know that one time. We ran a gap scheme. We ran a gap scheme and my goal is like, essentially get the linebacker. And if he goes over the top, you just wheel them out.

There should be a hole there. Will's job is, whatever his job is. Getting over the top. Yeah, so Will goes over the top. And I just wheel him out. And I go, one and no. And he's like, you bitch and we just like kind of like run off yeah then after the game it was cool because

will spent one year on the Titans after the game I think 25 of the 53 guys I came with their jerseys signed them like we all had like big photos yeah truly one of the coolest moments it was awesome like I we had a big huge hug like we lined up all the jerseys for will and it was awesome but then well has to go in the locker room after we beat him like 40 to 21 or something like that we beat the brakes off of like 37 17 and will is the last guy in the locker room. After getting your ass, we holding all these jerseys like a dumb ass.

Yeah, bro. I mean, it was probably, it was probably 10 jerseys, something like that. I think it was more. I think we were in the teens. There was a lot.

We can send you the photo. I don't know. It was really cool. If you put up references and stuff, but I can send the photo. But I have all of these jerseys holding them, right? And that's why I gave you mine.

Oh, wait. No, I took it in so we could write on it. But I have all these jerseys. And the guys like, hey, we got to get up to the locker room. Like, they're waiting on you.

go up to locker room it's you go upstairs then you enter in the double doors i go up the stairs the double doors are open and once i get to the top step the entire team is huddled up and there everybody's just looking everybody's just looking back at me the worst because i am truly the last guy in the doors and uh john just looks at me coach grunge he just looks at me and then he just gets to whatever his speech is but i felt pretty shh-h-y in that in that moment then the next week they're busting my balls, Rich Pissaccia, who I fucking love and is near and dear to my heart. He's just like, you know, this week, you know, comp, you're going to be in in this situation. I hope it was worth getting all those fucking jerseys, you and your, you and your fucking

buddies out there. We're trying to win a football game this week. How about we lock the fucking type of mentality? I'm sitting there like, asshole tight, like, God damn it. But yeah, man, and those three games that I had where I got to play linebacker, the next year, I go about it the same approach. Nothing in the offseason. Taylor and I is focused on busing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, because the ACL hadn't happened at that point. No, this is 20. This is when we get to get reunited. Yeah. Taylor's going about his business. Oh, yes. Taylor's going about his business. You know, we're doing the pod.

We signed with Barstool. Yeah, we signed with Barstool. And that's when COVID and everything happens. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. That's when you're zooming on and we're like navigating through that and everything else. Hold on. Hey, COVID, we can agree it was a tough time in the world.

We had so much fun. Yeah. We were up late. We would play. risk on Xbox. It'd be me, Will, Will's buddy, Brad Labrott, Dennis Kelly, and Corey Levin, and we would play risk, like the board game risk

online and just be like, I'd be in California training. About four in the morning. We'd get one game, maybe like midnight, I'd be like, one more boys. And it'd be four in the morning, be like, man, forget it. Bro, yeah. It was finally go to sleep. It was so much fun. That was a wild year, but it was still, it was the same approach. Like, how can I

finesse? I have now proven that I can go in, pick up a playbook fast and play well. And having the green dot and everything else. So Raiders offered me, but again, they only offered me minimum. They had signed two linebackers for good money that offseason. They were wanting to bring me back and how excited they were and the defense played better.

And I'm thinking like, man, maybe I'll get a little bit in free agency. And so COVID happens. The market goes down for a lot of guys. And I eventually get offered a minimum deal with the Raiders. And I'm kind of like, listen, the guys, I don't need to come out there. no signing bonus. They're like, what will it take? And it's like, well, something fair. Like, a guy I beat out last year that you put me in over was making two and a half million dollars. And you took him out and put me in. And he just signed for two million dollars with the Panthers.

He just signed that contract. And it's like, all right, we'll talk to John. And I go through this whole spiel in the defensive corner. He's like, can you tell this to Coach Gruden? Coach Grun calls me. He's like, Will Compton, you're harder to sign than Keishon Johnson, man. And, you know, last I was like, oh, I bet you offered him more than minimum with the subway gift card as a signing bonus and he laughs and we never get it figured out because they're the only team in the market for me so they don't have to offer me money unless there's somebody competing there's no need to offer any money which is that's the business and so i'm hanging out i'm stringing it out go go up until training camp we're 10 days out of week one of the

nfl season and the fucking titans call and uh they're like hey we want to work you out i'll talk to raves like hey lebeck uh we have the same agent so he's like i'm not just bringing him in to be a camp body or anything like we're gonna we'll have him on for the season and so I call Taylor and I'm like bro guess what he's like what'd you say you're like don't fucking do it yeah and then I was like bro guess and he's like are you signing with the fucking titans and I was like I'm coming in for a workout tomorrow morning and we're just getting hype on the phone he just got out of practice yeah and we had an off day that day too yeah the next day so I was going to pick up food for the fam headed over and I get that call it's like no fucking way reunited bus here we had a

We had a squad too, so I was like, we kind of like, we could have won it. I, we went 11 and five and lost to the Ravens in the fucking first round. And that was the year that, the year prior to that, we were in the AFC championship and we returned everyone. It was like, in our head, we're like, yo, we could win the Super Bowl this year. And then Willie gets a call to be on the week one roster. We're like, yeah, bro. This is going to be the best year of our lives.

At the workout, the equipment staff, the trainers, like, we're all excited that I'm out there, like doing the workout. And I only had to do a couple drills and Braves like, hey, you're good to go. And then I get signed, dude, and it's all time. 10 days before week one. So, again, got to finesse it. The next day, there was like, that was when all the shit was going down with protesting. Yeah.

Protesting and diversity training. And, like, there's a whole deal that happened to where. BLM was going hard and guys on our team were like, we should march down to city hall and we should demand. One dude was like, we got to ask someone to keep killing us. I mean, I've got this team meeting where everybody's open and talking about. And this is my first day back. And I'm just sitting here like, everybody's protesting around the league.

Like we're not practicing today. People are going to go out in the community and do stuff. So I'm sitting there 10 days out. My first day back is an off day. And then the day after that was supposed to be like a light off day or something. I'm just thinking like, yo, this is gravy, bro. But everybody's like being loud and arguing. And I'm just thinking like, yo, this is crazy to be back with the boys.

Yeah. And then get on the week one roster and get to play with the Titans. We started 5 and 0. Yeah, dude. Spooktober was riding high. Yes. it to the Broncos first game. No, no fans in the stands at all. It's the quietest game ever. Crazy.

Will, dude, this is a crazy story. So Will, like, obviously signs 10 days before the season. And so he goes up to Rishon Evans and who else? Jayon Brown. Jayon Brown. And he's like, boys, if you could just not get hurt this game, I don't have the lung capacity. Like, playing in Denver, you could be in great shape. The minute you get to Denver, it all goes at the window. Yeah, my training wasn't like the year before. Because I remember, But Taylor, Taylor, they were to ask, hey, what's the plan? Like, are you thinking about being done? Like, bro, you f***.

You know, he's like being a boy. He's like, let me know, hey, if you're going to retire, like, you've done awesome. He probably doesn't know whatever games I'm playing in my head. He's right. Maybe I don't want to fully commit to it. And the minute the Raiders offered, Taylor, like, come up, shook my hand. He's like, you wanted to be offered by somebody. And now you can say no and leave on your own terms.

Remember that? Yes. And so my training, like, I was training, but I wasn't, like, up to where I was the year before. Sure. And we go into Denver. I go up to Rashon Jay and I'm like, hey, motherfuckers. Nobody tap out this game because, yeah, I don't have the lung capacity to be out there. First series, Rashon Evans punches a titan in the face and gets ejected from the game.

I see it when it happens. Before a flag is thrown, I see him punch this dude in the face. I'm thinking, oh, God. I'm thinking, oh, I'm like basically reaching around for my wall. I'm trying to find my helmet and shit. I'm like, I'm going to have to go fucking play this game. I just got here. I just got here.

And it was, oh, it was a blood bath, bro. I don't know how it was on defense. We had like two 16 play drives on offense where there's no talking anymore. Tana Hill gets the call out and we're like, boys hope everybody knows what they're doing. We're not saying a fucking word. It was so hard to breathe. We were dying. We went on a field goal.

We missed four field goals. Yeah, we won the game though. Yeah, we started finding out. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. Nobody ever talks about that. Like, even on broadcast, they don't tap into like some of those.

Like, you never, I'd never even think about how playing in Denver would be more challenging. Oh, the worst part about Denver, too, is when you play there with their fans, in the fourth quarter, they'll, like, do this thing on the Jumbotron where they're showing the visiting team using oxygen masks. So in your mind, you're like, I can't, I can't use the oxygen masks. I can't get exposed. Oh, yeah, yeah. You're just, like, located on the next screen. Yes, your lungs hurt so bad after the game.

That was a brutal game. That was a brutal game. Who we play the next game? Minnesota? No, we went home. No, I forget who we played. But we, that was a fun. year. I mean, we went 11 and 5, man. And we beat the Ravens in a comeback game, came out in the second

half. That was one of the games I got to play in at linebacker for the entire half. And we had an awesome comeback. Derek just always gets stronger in the fourth quarter in that second half. The old line just bullying dudes. And the Titans had such an identity for those few years. And 11 and 5 was like the two seed, I believe, in the AFC. Derek goes 2,000 yards. Derek goes 2K. We clinched the AFC South for the first time in several years or something like that. Yes. And we were riding high, man. It was awesome.

And we lost that first round of the playoffs. We shouldn't have to the Ravens at home when we beat them at their spot. I know. It was a fun time. You talked about signing with Barstool. So, you know, you created the show. You created Bustin with the boys. You're learning as you're going around the league, how even you're,

your peers are paying attention to it and listening to you. And I agree. I don't know of a better compliment when somebody who's in your industry says I listen to your show. How did you get approached by Dave or anybody at Barstool or did you take the idea to them? Because that was kind of what put you guys over, I think. So when we started the pod, I remember when I'm talking Taylor through this and the importance of owning your IP and we're going to be an athlete-owned podcast.

Like it's not, that's not out there. That's not really out there yet. I think JJ Reddick, he had to rebrand from The Ringer, JJ Reddick's podcast to the old man in the three because they wouldn't give him his IP. Yeah. And so at first it's like, oh, we're not going to go with anybody because we're just going to own it.

Nothing's going to happen. Then you learn the partnerships that, hey, you can own your IP. But to answer your question, when Vrabel cutting his dick off was going viral, when Jalen Ramsey, that was hitting the scene and going viral, they were fairly like within a month. bar stools account DM Bussens and said would you guys be interested in a conversation and our guy who was running social media at the time matt neely rip he had passed away that year

um and uh he's fired up because he's a stoolie he's a he's a barstool guy he's like hey erika the CEO and they want to get on the phone with you i remember being excited about it then it was like the stuff you say like no we're not going to sign with nobody yada yada yada you're just kind of excited about they want to talk to you on the phone we jump on the phone and I didn't realize Erica was was Erica female I'm like oh what's up Eric and it's like gas was on the phone too there's a few of them he's like oh it's Erica so oh Erica my fault they're like what are you up to I'm like I just watching my fish tank on my TV screen right now like just keeping it light and they talk about like hey would you guys be interested in a

partnership it's like yeah I don't think anything's off the table like what do what do you like what do you like what do you like we don't want to change anything that you guys are doing we just want to pour gasoline on it If you want to stay in Nashville, if you want to, however you book gas, like, we essentially want to give you a bigger platform. And we just want to pour gasoline on your fire because we think what you guys have is special. We think your guys is chemistry. Like, it's just the look, the feel and everything is we love it. And so as we're again, it's like, okay, then we try and figure out how serious they are by shooting them an email.

Like, hey, if you guys are serious about this, we'd love for you guys to fly to Nashville. if you can and we can talk in person. So they, within five minutes of that email, they respond with dates, that they'll fly. Erica, the CEO, and Gaz will fly to Nashville. So it's like, okay, they are into us. And we picked the date to where Taylor, on one of Taylor's off days in training camp.

And they fly in, we sit down into true foods, chop it up. We don't really talk negotiating. We don't really talk terms or nothing like that. We just kind of get to know each other, which was interesting because when I told you that I said no to the Jets because we had Sean Johnson, to film the next day.

That day that I said no to the Jets, the Saints called that third time. And I didn't answer my agent until we did the Sean Johnson episode. I was like, sorry I was working out. Like, they want to get you on the first flight out. That day so happened to be the day we met Barstool. I wanted to meet with Barstool.

So I was like, if we could do it the early the next morning, I'll go to the Saints. And so all that stuff just, it's like the stars aligned for that conversation to happen. And we sit down and we just talk shop, and we kind of told them that here's our plan. We have probably 15 episodes in the bank. Like we had to have some bye weeks,

what we referred to them as. But we kind of want to run its course throughout the season. We really want to focus on ball, like even though I was about to go to New Orleans. So it's like, you know, I'm going to focus on the season. I was running the intros just in, like we'd be in the hotel, my hotel room that they put me in. I would just be in the closet with that little,

with that, you know, that I forget what it's called, but that like microphone basically. Yeah, the recorder. I'd just be in there, like doing the ads and doing the intro. Like, you know, you guys will enjoy this episode. Make sure you subscribe. Rate five stars, all that. Yeah.

And, you know, we're like, we'll just focus on this year. And then maybe we can circle back toward the end of the year. We circle back toward the end of the year, started talking terms. And then we finalized the deal at the Super Bowl that next year in February of 2020. February of 2020. So that is how that deal came about. Like there weren't really, there were other shoppers, but it was kind of like smaller media crews that were out in LA. Nothing like a national like a big like a big one.

like a bar stool or like a bleach report ESPN's nothing like that. Barstool was really, you know, on to us for that entire year. So that's how it worked out with them. Yeah, and so I think that that was a great move by you guys because it kind of legitimized what you were doing a little bit. And they did pour some gas on that fire. A couple quick questions about that. So gambling sports books.

Gambling sports books opened up this year in North Carolina. So we've been in it. and we've got our own gambling podcast around NASCAR and so forth called Dirty Modo. And it's pretty fun, but gambling on racing, it's all a new idea, gambling as far as legal gambling in North Carolina is also a new idea. So it's a good space for us to sort of see where we can grow. But that's bar stool in a nutshell, right? And they've been, you know, they've been involved in sports books for many years. And so how, you know, how interesting is that for you guys?

guys having been players, right? Like I couldn't even be on draft kings when I was driving race cars because you know, as an athlete, you're not even allowed to have an account. But like, so having come from, I guess being on one side of it now, switching over, you're

interviewing players, right? So you're talking to players as a journalist for the most part. I mean, you know, it's weird for all of us, I think, to call ourselves journalists having no fucking background other than the podcast. But we are, you know, in a a media person, right? And so

getting into the sports book, and I see you guys out there promoting that part of it. But I mean, I see you, I don't know about you, Taylor, but I see him all, you know, not recently for some weird reason, but football season. Yeah, right? So during, like, college football, man, you're like, got your parlayers, you're pushing out there, and you're taking losses and, and, and, I mean, losses. Listen, I don't, but I don't have to do that, see, like I have my, my, my

podcast, those guys, you know, will give their advice. I'm not giving advice. I'm not sitting there going, dude, I would bet on this guy or I'd bet on this guy or this is how I would play this weekend. You are. Right. And so that is, you got to know, man, just like, that's a, that's a, that's a very dicey space, right? Yeah. Yeah. And so how do you, how do you feel like you've, how's that experience been? I guess I'm asking because it may be a space I'm in one day. So it sounds like we need to talk Dale into doing the space. Yeah. Everybody at Dirty Mo Media, we need Dale to talk about gambling, right?

Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I'm apprehensive, man. We sat down with Stephen A. Smith and he was talking about having relationships with players while also being objectively evaluating them. Yes. And if you are just open and honest about how you feel about their production, then there's

nothing they can be upset about it because you're objectively saying, this guy erased well, or he did not race well. This is what he did wrong in my opinion. This is what he did right in my opinion. If you keep that that way and don't keep it personal at all, then if they're upset about anything, that's their own ego getting in the way. You just lock him in a little Lucy.

Yeah. Nice man. Are you a nicotine guy? No. I used to smoke, but I quit a long time ago. Lucy? No, I'm good. Those things right there?

Is that your... Vanilla latte in your mouth, brother. Because you had to quit dipping or trying to quit giving? No, I actually started with... What the fuck? I saw, we joke about it. I saw one Heberman. video and Taylor he had been trying to get me on it he sends me Huberman stuff like the science

behind nicotine and being beneficial for brain performance and it's all I needed to see was a TikTok clip and now I'm now I'm into it a little bit all right but the gambling yeah yeah sorry we do two gambling shows uh during the fall we do bet the bus which is a college gambling show and then slips and picks 500 which that title will probably change for those of you wondering who watch a show because it just conflicts with the actual S&P 500 yeah um and that's that's an NFL gambling show and it is tough when you start saying things about people and maybe a San Francisco quarterback you say they're not very good and then they murder you for it because you know these guys. I had a thing where I said Brock Purdy's not the man. I was told that and sure enough he starts going off and people are at my

neck about it. Christian McCaffrey six weeks. George Kittles texted me telling me, hey, you're an idiot for saying that. Yeah. And so it is, that does make it a little difficult sometimes. What about making a parlay, right? Just something simple as this. Okay, I know this is silly, but what about making a parlay and putting it out there like this is my belief do you put do you build your parley yeah man and you're going to be like hey man I believe this will happen yes and then when when it falls apart and it blows up your face like what's been your your experience with that I mean yeah you never want to lose money but people on the internet audience like whatever it is like failure is attractive so when you lose your bet and then you have fun with losing your bet there's almost a humanizing factor of relating to people

because everybody, we're gambling, you're probably going to lose. Chances are you're probably going to lose. But we have enough experience where we think we can put some of these things together. Sometimes they do hit. The playoff Willie Parles, you know. They usually locks. To me, it's like part of the game of the business of like social media and stuff too. Like you want to put your neck out there.

You know it's a very popular thing that everybody does. So I like to put whatever my bets are that's going to be out there and ride those bets and talk about them heavy. Yeah. Kind of lip off or mouth of the people who are against it. And then when I lose, it's like, you know, having fun with the losses because ultimately you're trying to engage and relate with the fans and everything else. So the building parlay is I feel like it's easier than being like, you know,

we have our bet the boys parlay where it's like kiddell's going to have over four and a half and four and a half receptions and Chris McAverver is going to have an anytime touchdown and Derek Henry is going to go off. And so I just have fun with it. And even if I'm saying something, like, if George doesn't get four and a half, best believe he'll have a text post game. Like, hey, brother, great game out there. I'm glad you guys won.

I kind of needed you to have five catches. I'm not going to tell you why. But maybe let's get chin hands here a little bit for next game. And so you're just kind of like, you know, you're just playing the relationship side of it all. You're having fun with it. That is, that's also something that I wanted, it's not really a question, but, Will, your social media is, like you, have built a persona on your ex account, on your Twitter account.

Like there's this, if you tweet, people have like an expectation of what's coming. There's a standard. There's no fucking normal tweets with this guy. No. He's not, hey, this is, you know, I did this yesterday. That was fun. There's none of that. No, no, no.

I read yours and you're basically just like the rest of us. Yeah. But this guy is every free, every tweet is like cutting edge. There was a point when Will, I think, got over $100,000 followers when we were sitting there and we were talking about social media and Will goes... It was around like the same time, I think. And Will goes, I think I finally found my thing. Yeah. I think I finally found my lane that I really enjoy.

And I was like, yeah, hell yeah, brother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what do you... So that just comes easy to you? I don't know. I mean, you know, taking people into the closet and putting people in the trash can and... Man, I like... Mess them with people that are, you know, messing to all the haters online.

Yeah. You seem to have a lot of fun with that. Yeah, I mean, because everybody goes through like Taylor talks about Tater. Taylor talks about, like, typing your name in. And there are, you know, there are times playing on the Redskins, like the fan base, as you know, can be pretty vicious. But I don't know, once I got into the back end of my career and it didn't bother me as much because I kind of knew the direction I was kind of going with everything. People like clapbacks. people like you having fun.

You tell like when you're resistant actually, you know, responding personally. Like you just see that people like, hey, you know, there's really no need to, like, why are you even bothering with this? And they're right. It's almost like, why are you getting so mustard? But if you turn it into a joke. But yeah, if you have some fun with it, turn it into a joke. And then I kind of just grew to realize like, again, X is my favorite app. Twitter turning into X has always been kind of my favorite app.

I love the comments. I love how witty people are and creative. I love the memes. I love video responses to things. And if you're, say I have something that I have typed up and I'm like, okay, this could be better in a video. How can I do that? Because as you know, like it's weird, like putting a screen on your face and being like, who

am I actually talking to out there? But if I have fun with it, if I figure out always have fun with it, while still getting across the same message with my, whether it's enthusiasm or personality, to where people might not just read a few words and think like, okay, what does he mean by that? And then give their own spin on what I meant by that. Being in group chats, understanding the group chat humor, you know, just busting balls with the boys. And it's like, I want to take that online.

Yeah. Not, I want to take that online like it hadn't been done. But you see the way Dave Portnoy would have handled stuff with press conferences. And, you know, you listen, like when Barsoil are people that are experts in media are kind of giving advice, like the algorithms and the, you know, people enjoy when your face is in front and you are the one talking. Yeah. Trying to, like, get over that hump and just, I don't know,

it's like bring it all together. And I just love some storytelling aspect. I love, like, some dry humor. Yeah, I enjoy it, man. I love just finding creative things that have fun with. I love seeing what everybody talks about and then being like, okay, how can I involve myself with this? Though all white versus all black team.

I know. Sometimes there's, like, you have a real, you have a real unique knack for, skirting into some spaces that could be potentially dangerous canceling spaces, right? You know what I'm saying? Without. Yeah. Yeah.

But people know you and a lot of people in your own industry and people you've played against and played with know you and know your sense of humor, right? And so, and you're dead. And there's some great self-deprecation in there as well, which I appreciate. And so, but I always kind of wondered like how there's a, You know, I think for me, you know, I look at social media as a dangerous place that I've got to be careful with, right? I can't go in there and just entirely be myself, right, because will everybody be okay with that? And so I think a lot of people, especially mostly athletes, tend to approach it in the same way and approach it with some precaution.

Whereas you're like, man, this is who I am. Yeah. I don't. Just a racist guy from Missouri, man. Just between now. No, I think, you know, it's like self-deprecation. That's kind of important with it. It's like, you know, me, like the locker rooms I've been in,

my teammates know me. So there's a sense of like, okay, I know this could come off a certain way, but I know who I am and I know what I'm being about this. And then you kind of just see what happens. Like when I did the all-white versus black thing, I didn't know. I was like, here it could be a time where I find the line for real. Right.

but you know you have those people like you know laugh with you and you realize that you know with all the things that go on in our country like it's one side it's the other hey what harrison butker said last week about homemakers and not being career women like everybody takes it and runs like you're either that's insane or it's like oh there's some belief to it and then all those people get mad at each other over it yeah and it's like we all talk about it there's so many so many more people that are in the middle and I think if you just embrace whatever's kind of happening like whether it's both sides of the conversation, maybe you have a stance on one,

but you're kind of handling it with whether it's self-deprecation or humor and fun. Like I just feel like that humanizes you with people and people relate more to that because the majority of people who's watching your stuff isn't even engaging with you. Like they think like, okay, if I like this, maybe somebody will see it.

Like they're not, the ones who enjoy you aren't going out of the way to drop in the comments and say something positive. It's usually the negative ones. But I'll get text on the side. It's like if I say something about maybe some, or make fun of somebody at ESPN. Like, I'll get people on the side who are in that universe

that, like, think it's hilarious and love it, whatnot, or the other that kind of like, you know, stamps that approval. But it's like, I don't know, I'm like feeling my way through some things because there are times where I'm like, okay, this could be a little, this could get a little dicey. But if it gets dicey, it's another opportunity to create or make another video or give more context to yourself in a fun way. It's like, okay, oh, the boy's getting killed right now.

Maybe Nebraska Luzza, I'm just laying out in the middle of the street or something like that. Like a way to go even more extreme to let people know like you're being lighthearted about everything and your intentions are. You're not taking nothing too seriously. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. I think that that's a, it's a unique quality that you have to be able to do that and do it without fear and with such, you know, I don't know. It's a very rare personality trait that not a lot of people have. And I think it'll serve, it's serving you well now, but I think it'll continue to serve you well as you. your podcast and your brand gets bigger and bigger.

Thank you, Dale. I appreciate it, man. It's how we got connected. Twitter. Yeah, it is. I mean, you're a fan of Washington. No, but, man, I mean, no, you know, I would. Dude, our friendship is the craziest.

If you hadn't reached out, yeah. It's the craziest story. I'll just never forget when I realized I was going back and forth with DeAngelo Hall and Kevin Durant because Kevin Durant is a fan of Washington. And I was kind of being that, you know, being myself, like I was starting. I took over the starting job. We were having fun. We went on the run and went to the playoffs.

We were just on a run, and it was like one of those things. I just thought it was so cool that I was playing with DeAngel Hall, who I had watched. And these guys that are like, you know, I'm the signal caller. And you see Kevin Durant, I'm like, hey, D. Hall, they were like going back and forth on Twitter. I was like, hey, D. Hall, introduce your boy, but don't, you know, seem cool about it. Like, don't make me seem desperate. Like, while he's tagged in it. So he's like, comp, I know you, man.

And I'm just, you know, I'm just like lighting up, being like, you know, this is so sick. and then an article comes out the next day and they talk about a couple of people that follow me and you're one of them. I'm thinking Dale fucking Jr. follows me. I go to your page, see that you're following me. I screenshot it. I send it to my strength coach.

You Taylor referred to earlier because he's a massive Dale Jr. I'm like, bro, check this out. And we went back and forth in DMs and then the next OTAs. You're like, hey, good luck in OTAs. I'm just thinking, yo, this is crazy. Because I think everybody knows it. Like, you're one of the most, like,

you don't know that you're Dale Earnhardt Jr. Which is the coolest kind of thing. Yeah, it's so cool. Then you come to some flock of people outside just waiting to meet you. Yeah. There's literally, we walked away. We're taking their time. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, we really are. They've been out there for hours. I have no idea how long we've been here. But these people are like, when's he coming out? Yeah, man. And it's just sick, dude. Like you had message yesterday and JP was sent by my phone. He was like, what a crazy thing to see.

Just Dale, Dale Jr.'s texting you. And it's cool, man. I appreciate you. And it's fascinating that we are now on your podcast. You took time out. out because we did the Zoom when you're like hey whatever you want to do it man just let me know and I'll find a day and I'll come out to you guys and that was massive by you and super I also got to go drinking Nashville at night so yeah yeah yeah fun thing for me either way

but you and uh Tony yeah we yeah man we left the bus it was on dude but that that was so that was awesome of you bro and that really helped our podcast like you were one of the most viewed episodes on bus with the boys like Taylor said like a rough paint job earlier and I'm thinking like oh hey that was a Dale Jr., Dale Jr. 8 bus. Dale Jr. 8 paint bottle. Yeah, it was just a, it was patina now. It's good, it's good. But it's like, you got to have Dale Jr. on this bus.

It was such a full thing when you came on. Signed the 8. And it's just like, yo, this is nuts. What was even crazier is that Chargers video just recently where they had the little bus on the site on their. Yes, bro. I'm like, fucking six, six connections or whatever that shit with Kevin Bacon. and it's like all the fucking how in the fuck right to this bus.

This dude made this bus one day in his backyard. He's like, I'm going to the races, man. And now that bus is in this charges video. Yeah. Now it got there is the craziest story. Crazy, man. It's insane. Yeah, you guys' relationship, but to me, whenever Will talks about how you guys met

and stuff like that, I'm like, that's just cool. And you had like a farewell thing, I think that year and you're like he had DM me. He was like, hey. they told me to give a list of players I want to come like you're on the list so make sure you let them know that you're on the list

and it was in training camp so we got to miss a day of practice it was me, Kirk Morgan Moses and Ryan Carrigan we got to go to the track and I got to ride with them I'm doing like Snapchat with like the puppy dog tongue out

like selfies with them and we're just having a great time and I'm just thinking like yo he's just driving fast on fucking sitting in the passenger and we're just boys yeah but oh dude

Dude, D. Hall was a, Dee Hall was a cool dude. I, um, I, I'm a, you know, you guys are fans of things in your lives and I was a massive fan of

Washington Steel Am, always will be. And, uh, anytime I have interaction with players, man, I mean, I don't care if it's from the 80s or whatever,

right? I mean, I was, I mean, it's just, they're heroes of mine, right? They're like,

special. And so, uh, I was walking into, I only got to go to like one game a year. and I was walking down to the sidelines and the D.Bs were all huddled together just right before the exit of the tunnel. And they're huddled, man. They're freaking hyping each other up and freaking it's home.

And D. Hall seeing me out of the corner's eye and he goes, Jr. And I was like, holy shit. How cool is this? Like I was just coming to the game. I was happy to be there. It was like the greatest day of the year, right? Yeah. For any of the players, right, to acknowledge you, man.

De Hall. Bad ass. And he was insane. Yeah. What a player he was, but, yeah, it's, it's just crazy. So I always, I appreciated you and any of the other players that would ever engage, man, because that was just kind of, because y'all were in this other world, right? Right.

And I grew up as a, you know, since 81, I've been a fan. So it's like the coolest thing in the world to have any interaction with them, right? And you got, you know, you both got to know that y'all, y'all did that, y'all did that for all kinds of fans all through your careers. man I've enjoyed it I've enjoyed talking to you guys I know you came a long way to spend some time with me today so I appreciate that I've been a big fan of what y'all have done with with busing and I wish y'all the success I know you're you know you're already successful in a sense but I know in y'all's heads y'all got a bigger vision and there's a lot of greater things that y'all want to accomplish and now I think since you know taylor you're able to put more focus on it you guys are We'll be able to achieve everything you want. So pretty awesome to be able to share today with you, talk about your careers and say hello.

So thank you very much. We appreciate it. Subscribe to busing out there. Yeah. And thank you for having us out here. Like this is the establishment you have. Thanks, yeah. You inviting us out unreal.

Who would have thought, bro? I know. A couple best friends start a podcast on a Dale Jr. bus. And now we're out at Dirty Mail Media. That is not. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's like the spot's like.

spots we grew up. I know in small town Missouri, it's, it's, it's NASCAR in WWE. WWF going to WWE. So it's like, it's surreal, man. It is a wild experience. It's crazy how when we first started the podcast, we really just, we had no idea what would happen. And even two years ago, we're like, we never thought it'd be this big. It's just gotten bigger and bigger every single year. I know. I'm honestly, man, y'all are, y'all have inspired me in a lot of ways and how I podcast and and and and y'all will create opportunities for for other podcasters other athletes that want a podcast. It's the you guys are creating a blueprint, a pathway.

You don't even realize, you know, what you're, what you're doing, uh, and how you're inspiring and motivating other people. So just keep kicking ass, man. I know you will. Thank you, man. Appreciate you. All right. Bustin with the boys on the Dale Jr.

Download. All right. So, um, coming out of a long, two and a half hour interview with Bustin with the Boys podcast hosts Taylor and Will. That was a fun conversation. I'm going to bring Andrew in as Andrew was in the booth producing and you came out, Andrew and you said that was the longest show that we've had in two years. Yeah, Steve Mill was about two hours and 40 minutes and I'm betting that this is going to be. I mean, we're at the 242 mark right now on my report time.

I really enjoyed it. I got to pee real bad. But I, you know, I didn't want to cut anything out. We did sort of skip a bunch of their professional NFL careers. I knew we were going to have to when I looked at the clock and I saw how much time we'd taken to get through their college careers. And, you know, I don't know who, I don't know how interesting this might be to people. but you know

I'm biased because I'm good friends with Will and I am curious about all the things I wanted to ask them and got to talk to them about today but give me your honest opinion what's your honest take on it Andrew? My honest take I had heard of Bustin with the Boys I haven't really listened to a whole lot of their podcast until I found out they were coming on the show

and they gained a new fan out of me for sure and honestly I don't really follow football I don't watch it a whole lot but hearing all the combine stuff and, you know, the train of them going from one team to another, I thought all that was really fascinating. 100%. So I really enjoyed learning about them a little bit more and just celebrating them, just like we bring in people and set them at this table.

And I often to think about the frame of mind that I want to get into for the show is, it helps me when I think that, man, I really want to celebrate this person. I want to put a spotlight on them. And I've been, I'm very appreciative of Will and the friend that he's become and getting to know Taylor through Will and watching them build the podcast, basically kind of linear or, sorry, parallel with what I've been doing as a podcast host has been kind of fun because I've learned a lot and they are, they're ambitious and they push the envelope a little bit and they're going to continue to have in, ambitious plans and big visions for their show. And it's a bit motivating for me to push myself in this space and not get complacent or satisfied. And so, you know, we, they help motivate me on the podcast side. So it's fun to kind of collaborate or talk a little bit about that.

And so just thankful they came. I can't believe they came all this way to do the show. They're going to jump on a plane and go. home and Stefan's taking them for a quick 10 cent tour out there on the

shop floor so they get to see that but man cool time great guys I love when we have people from other sports

come in here because we get to learn about what it's like behind the curtain some of the challenges that they deal with

that we would never even know exists and so you know just I mean I mean of course you you know

if you really bear it down and thought about it, you would realize that playing it in Denver would be tougher than playing anywhere else. But man, to hear them describe it, it's like, holy shit, they didn't even, he kind of didn't even want to go in the game because he wasn't, you know, he wasn't ready to play. His body wasn't in football shape, right? And they talk about that. People will come back from injury and it's like, you know, not in football shape yet. What's that even mean? And so, pretty cool. Also, I was appreciative of how transparent they were talking about injuries and so forth.

We didn't get into concussions. I had that on my notes. I really wanted to talk about that. It just kind of slipped my mind, and we didn't really ever get to it. I know that Taylor dealt with that at points in his career. I'm not sure about, I'm not sure about Will, but it's something I was just curious about what we might have uncovered or how that conversation might have been, but maybe for another day.

Great time, appreciative that they came. Sometimes we've got to mix it up, jump off the NASCAR train, and do something a little different in this guy. This was that week. I hope everybody enjoyed it. Thank you, Ally, for bringing us two Allies to the table today. This has been an awesome segment. The guest segment brought you by Ally every single week.

And here we are with another one, a great episode. Ally has always been a great supporter of the Dale Jr. Download and Dirtymo Media, and no matter what you're saving for, whether it's race tickets, a new car, or even a brand new home. We're all better off with an ally. Let's move on to the white flag. Let's see, dropping Sunday night. If you haven't listened to it yet, the teardown from Jeff Gluck and Jordan Mianke.

They talked about everything that they experienced during the North Wilkesboro All-Star weekend, and they recorded that immediately after the race that night. Fresh thoughts about what went on at the racetrack in Wilkes County. Dropping Monday, actions detrimental with Denny Hamlin. driver's point of view of what it was like to compete in the All-Star race and what the Wilkesboro racetrack was like. Door bumper clear also come out Monday,

and those guys are obviously going to be giving their opinions on everything going down, and there were some that I didn't agree with, particularly T.J. thinking that 800 laps of testing the tire at Wilksboro for Goodyear had no bearing on Joe Ligonho's performance. all of a sudden. I mean, how could you even say that? Kelly Crandall was great. It was great. Appreciate her coming in for the week. Yesterday, our dirty air show dropped, and that's always fun for me.

One of my favorite shows that we do, and I hope you'll listen. And today, Speed Street with Connor Daly and Chase Holden. That is dropping, and Connor is in the middle, in the throes of trying to get ready for the Indy 500. So there's tons of great content there around, what's happening in Indy this week. And then Dirty Mo Doe drops Friday. Usually that drops Thursday, but this week it'll drop Friday. With Steve LaTart and Tampa Tims as they talk about the upcoming Coke 600 in Charlotte.

And they'll have the lines for that and some of the best bets to make. J.R.M. Fanday presented by Lionel is tomorrow. If you're in the area, come down here and see us at Junior Motorsports. Fan Day is going to start at 9 a.m. there'll be autograph sessions and live music, and then there'll be three live Dirtymo media shows as well. At 10 a.m. Dirtymo, the Dirtymo game show, hosted by Andrew Curlin and Jordan Bianchi will start.

And then Door Bumper Clear's live bonus episode is at 1115. And then there's a DJD reloaded with Carla, Mike Davis, and T.J. Majors at 145. So there's going to be a lot going on for quite a while throughout the day here at Junior Motorsports tomorrow. And then I'll be at Hendon Motorsports. as well on Friday for an hour, I think around lunch. I'm looking forward to that.

I hope everybody is excited about this race weekend. It's going to be a lot of fun. The race at Charlotte has been a good one the last several times we've been there at the Oval, and I think this weekend will be more of the same. So let's get it started. Hopefully we bring home a win for Junior Motors and get to go to Victory Lane. The Denny Hamlin Brackett Challenge is back again for year two. Last year, we had 20,000 fans show up.

32 NASCAR drivers will be going five races starting in June going head to head each week until ultimately at Gateway, the final two, will battle for the ultimate top prize of winning the second annual Denny Hamlin Brackett Challenge. Hopefully more details will be coming out soon on Dirtymo Media social handles and dirtymoomedia.com. Stay updated. fill out a bracket, have some fun with us. I'm going to do it. Me and at least 20,000 other people are going to do it. I know we'll have probably more turnout this year. You'll get to understand, too, by doing it this year,

what to anticipate in next year's NASCAR tournament, in-season tournament. So you'll not want to miss the Danny Hamlin bracket challenge. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.