The Fumblerooski Podcast - Interview with Chris Martin -A Fumblerooski Special

Episode Date: April 16, 2022

Adam Wright sits down in an interview with New England Bearcats Wide Receiver Chris Martin and asks him questions about life as a Semi-Pro athlete!

here's edelman broken up and the pass is no sign yet edelman comes down with a football they're saying it's a catch This is what makes Sideline touchdown unbelievable! Swings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! Good evening. You are listening to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 Dean Radio and Fans Only Sports Network. For this special episode, I am Adam Wright. So, I'm proud to announce that I have accepted an internship with the semi-pro football team known as the New England Bearcats broadcasting

their games. I'll be doing play-by-play and our co-host CJ Medeiros will be doing color commentary. He would be here with us, but he had other things to do, but he'll be here next week. So the Bearcats played their first game last Saturday, beating the main machine 14 to six. So we will also be interviewing players on our show right here. So Frankie, Frankie Desiderio and Brian Cody were unable to make it. They'll be able to come next week. But here we have Chris Martin. He's from Derry, New Hampshire, wide receiver for the New England Bearcats. His first year there, but he's been playing in semi-pro football since 2012. So Chris, welcome to the show.

He's here on the phone right now. Why don't you introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey through football. I didn't play any college ball, and I really didn't have any experience at the high school level either, just due to work and lifestyle back then. But about 19 or 20, I heard about the Wolf Pack in Manchester and went out and ended up trying out and playing with them for a few years. And then they had a, an affiliate, the Timberwolves. And so I played for them. They ended up getting bought out by the Northeast Empire. Played with them for a couple of years. Then had a stint with the Southern New Hampshire Beavers for about a

year, and then I was with GSD for Granite State Stories for about the last five years. And then this is my first year with the Bearcats playing spring football. I was committed to playing with them last year, but I ended up breaking my ankle in the wintertime and missed out on their games. Then they went on to win the championship last year. This is my first year with them, and I'm looking to run it back. Awesome. You mentioned before that you didn't really have much football experience before playing semi-pro football.

So what was sort of the process to sort of learning the game all while playing it at the same time? So, I mean, even though time commitment-wise in high school, I was working two jobs, so I didn't get to play on the team, obviously. I loved football growing up my whole life, so I was always playing in my spare time, backyard. Anybody who went to Pinkerton in the early 2010s, uh, they knew we played pickup games every Wednesday. Um, and then, so the process of playing organized football for the first time really in your life, uh, it's, it's a little intimidating going in. Uh, most of these guys have played at least high school. A lot of guys played at, uh, either D three or above college. Um, but there school a lot of guys played at uh either d3 or above college um but there's a lot

of people like me there as well that you know they kind of loved the game and they wanted to play when they were older it's just 18 plus and we signed up and uh it was tough the first couple years uh just just learning lingo and learning the routes and learning the scheme and just kind of the travel. It's semi-pro, so you have to buy your own gear, stuff like that. So it was just a big learning curve. But the love for the game and the knowledge of playing football was always there,

even though I didn't really have the experience in high school and college. Definitely. I would imagine, man. I've played a lot of pickup. I never played myself, but playing a lot of pickup, it's a lot of fun. So when you played just with your friends, did you have any favorite positions to play, like quarterback, wide receiver, or anywhere like that? Yeah, it was always – I mean, it varied depending on who was there. But receiver always stuck out to me.

Just, you know, it's just a flashy position. You get to show off, you know, it's just a flashy position. You get to show off, you know? Yeah, I bet. That's the same with me, definitely. Big wide receiver guy. I love catching footballs. And especially, you know, when you have that relationship with your quarterback where you guys are just on the same page

and you're just, you know, and then you catch touchdowns and then you're, you're celebrating the play with your quarterback. That just feels, I mean, just, I, like I said, I never really, I didn't play, but you know, just playing, playing pickup football. That was definitely like one of the, that was definitely one of the, one of the, one of the, the highlights from that. But looking back at semi-pro football, so there's obviously a lot of media coverage of what life is like as a pro football player, but there's not really much on semi-pro athletes. So would you be able to take us through a little bit of what it's like

sort of being a being a pro athlete or a semi-pro athlete yeah no it uh i mean these last few years it's gotten a lot better exposure wise um there's some people out doing some some great things um like uh link bishop the media the third spin move 360 so there's people doing a lot of coverage on us now and getting semi pro a lot more exposure now which is great and what you're doing as well it'd be great to see you do this in the future as well even after your internship yeah yeah so it's I mean, it's kind of just a you have to love it kind of thing. It's not like playing rec basketball or beer league softball. Like you, whether you wake up in the morning like I do real early, go to work,

and then go get beat up one day a week for practice and then pad up against an opponent on the weekends and then most of the time have to go to work in the morning. It's not fun going to work woozy because you got a concussion or limping around because you got a helmet to the knee or something. So that's not fun. It's something you got to love. You got to love the game. You got to love playing. You got to love the game more than the pain, kind of.

There's a lot of guys that literally go to practice. They, it's six to eight at night and then they go work the graveyard shifts like right out of work. Um, there's other guys that have worked all morning from 5.00 AM till, till three o'clock in the afternoon and then drive down from Boston to play for a New Hampshire team or a main team or something like that, just to practice. A lot of us like to think we're great and amazing players like the NFL and stuff like that, but it's more of a love for the game, want to still stay athletic and still play the game you love and deal with the consequences,

especially the older you get. So, yeah, it's a pay-to-play league, and we pay in multiple ways, but you got to enjoy it and go out there every week and do it. Yeah, certainly. So you mentioned doing – so you mentioned that a lot of you guys have other jobs that you work. What kind of work do you do outside of football? So since 2012, I've had a couple different jobs. Most of my life I worked in the restaurant.

So my first few years I was literally working a double shift and then either on my breaks, like I'd take like a couple hour break for the night shift, I'd go do my game on a Saturday afternoon or just find a way to get that day off or something like that. And then for the last few years, I worked as a FedEx driver. So going in and 6 a.m. to do that. But right now I'm a I'm a carpenter. So, like I said, it's it's tough waking up before a clogging more than that you've been beat up on the seat especially getting older and then going doing a physical job like that which a lot of the players in this league do obviously there's some people that have office jobs and stuff like that but uh in my experience most of

us are working some sort of labor intensive uh job outside of football yeah so you mentioned um so you mentioned that there's a lot a lot of players have a lot of trouble um sort of uh sort of being able to you know do all both of these at once. So you personally, have you had any difficulty sort of balancing, you know, semi-pro football along with, you know, working the jobs that you do? Yeah, I mean, like I said, when I was in the restaurant, it was tough because we played our games for the most part. I played on teams where we played Saturday early at 1. But for the most part, the games are Saturday nights. So if you work in a non-traditional job like a restaurant or something like that where you're working mostly nights and weekends it's

really tough to uh to make that work um and some people are able to navigate that easier than others uh myself when i was younger and working in the restaurant football came first so I would work my entire schedule all around that but now I work a Monday through Friday early morning job so it's more just keeping the motivation that once you're out of work that you still have to flip that switch and go to practice or to a game as well so it can be difficult for a lot of people, but you, you get what you put into it. So some people work really hard to, uh, to make it work and some other people can only make it work when it's

possible. It varies for everybody. Yeah, definitely. Um, so we, we've been sort of levitating a little bit towards some life outside of football. I'd like to sort of stay there for a little bit and ask what sort of extracurricular activities do you enjoy outside the game of football? You know, what kind of other interests do you have? So when I was – this year I'll be 30 playing this season. So before back in the day, anything active. I'd go play paintball, anybody playing pickup basketball down at the park. Any sort of physical activity I could do is what I try to get out and do the most. Now that I'm getting a little older, a little more beat up, like I said, I'd like to go home, relax, play some video games,

stay young that way. Just started coaching high school football again. So in the summers, my life is work, semi-pro football, high school football, try to get some sleep and some food in there as well yeah it's it's it's uh it's more of a just uh find ways to relax kind of outside of football nice so back when so back when you used to play um you know play other uh pickup sports did you ever did you have a favorite outside of football that you liked to uh that you used to play other pickup sports, did you have a favorite outside of football that you liked to play? It really – I liked everything, so it depended on the season. So if it was getting cold outside, I used to – I'd like to play – I'd sign up for the indoor rec basketball leagues, adult basketball leagues.

And then spring, summer, just a nice relaxing day. I do softball. It's low impact, low risk. Just a fun way to get out there and move around um but most of us add a lot of flag football into our into our off season and off time as well uh me not as much as others but a lot of people that i play with they'll they do a lot of flag football on top of this i get them at a very high level as well. Nice. So what was the most that you used to do when, you know, you were playing a lot more sports? Like at my peak, I'd have football.

So that's two to three nights a week. And then I'd have like a softball league going. And then in the summer I'd have a softball league going and then I'd go play pickup basketball down if anybody knows Derry, New Hampshire, down at Hood Park, run some basketball down there. So I was in the heyday when the knees were great I was uh I was doing something active almost every day that's awesome man hey so levitating a little bit more back towards uh towards semi-pro football towards your play uh playing what kind of mindset do you set

uh going into games that you're about to play like what sort of place do you set yourself mentally? So everybody's different, just like in anything else. There's people that are over the top, like high energy, high in your face, let's go kind of mentality. Me, I kind of I get lost in it. It's like, it's one of those, it's one of the rare times where you can just go out there and you don't think about anything. You just, you're out playing football. It helps a lot when you, when you play with a team where you like really care about your teammates and

you have a lot of good friends on there. But for me, I go out there and I don't have to think about anything. My job doesn't matter. Any problems going on outside of work. I mean, outside of football don't matter. I just have a blank mind just, just based on football for a solid two hours. It's like an escape.

So when my switch flips, I don't get all hype and go crazy and go nuts. I just zone. I get into a zone where for the next two hours, this is all that matters. And, yeah, that's where my head goes when they know it's game time. So what I'm getting at is you're very – when game time sort of comes, you're more, you know, calm and collected and sort of, you know, but still, you know, still focused. Is that kind of the mindset that you get into? Yeah, yeah.

Like I said, it's different for everybody. Every team has that one guy that's jumping around, getting everybody's face, getting everybody hyped up, everybody going. But for me, it's laser focused on what we're doing that day. And I'm just ready to play. Like I said, nothing else matters. I'm just ready to go up there and do whatever we need to do to win that game. Awesome.

So looking at going in, you know, whatever you need to do to win games. So are there any – so a lot of you know a lot of athletes as a former athlete myself i know there's a lot of i've had a lot of teammates with a lot of superstitions who do a lot of who do a lot of interesting things before games um sort of in a superstitious manner do you have any sort of superstitions that you have going into games? Me? Not so much. I mean, like a couple routines I have where I have to like spat my ankles a certain way at a certain time before the game starts, like in a certain time period.

I show up and I like to just get ready, be suited up, be ready to go. Because I feel like I have to be in that. Football is totally different when you're not padded up and you don't have a helmet on than it is when you are. So I need to get there, get my pads on, get my helmet on, warm up that way. So my body is ready for that. It's not, I go and run around just shorts and a t-shirt

because then I get in that mode and it's hard to explain, but like I need to be my body needs to feel the pads and the helmet so I know that I'm in that zone where my body needs to move with those become like almost one with those those parts so they move with you um but outside of that, no, I don't have like a – I have to eat lasagna before the game or like I have to run to the 20 and back. I don't have any of those. Just more of a routine for me than a superstition almost. Yeah, man.

I mean you'd be surprised what you would hear from other athletes. I used to – so I used to hop on with one of my good friends on their uh on their on their baseball show and he interviews uh minor league players and there was one who straight up he keeps gummy bears in his back pocket in the dugout uh he's a he's a he was a relief pitcher and he straight up just had gummy bears that he would eat he would i think he would eat like one per outing. It was some weird stuff. And there was other stuff that we saw that was, it was interesting, but that, I mean, yours kind of makes sense. It's sort of, you know, running around and playing in pads is a lot different

than playing in shorts and shorts and a t-shirt. So you kind of want to get suited up early, kind of get up, get sort of get in there and you know go through your warm-ups and run around uh like that so that you're ready to go is that is that correct yeah because like like you if you just run around catching passes it's different than when you have a face mask in your face like so i just have to my my body just has to get acclimated with the fact that hey you're gonna have a helmet on people are gonna be trying to hit you you're gonna have to twist and move your body with these restrictions that the pads and the and the

the compression stuff put on you so i just have to get to there um but, on what you were saying, semi-pro has some players that have some very, uh, weird and strange pregame, pregame warmup suspicions, uh, superstitions and stuff like that. So I hear you on that. It gets weird. Yeah. So it certainly does get a little weird, but I mean, you're, like I said, man, you're, I mean, you're, you're, you're, yours makes a lot of sense, I will say.

It's just trying to – being prepared, just trying to get the best version of yourself out there to put your best foot forward. And some people have some interesting stuff to kind of set themselves in the right spot mentally and just be like, I have to eat gummy bears right before I go out and pitch. You know, it's, it's, it's interesting, but it works. So if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Right. Yeah. Whatever, whatever gets your mind in the place you need to be at, uh, have at it. Exactly.

Um, so what do you have? Uh, so I've got, I've got to ask, do you have any, is there a football player or an athlete, uh, in the pros that you sort of look up to and sort of model your game after? I mean, you know, I think it's the same as any other 5'10 slot receiver that plays in semi-pro football around my age. Like we all grew up watching troy brown west welker and then we all try to emulate julian edelman i mean if you're under

six feet tall playing wide receiver in new england most of the slot receivers of that height and stature are wearing bright red receiver gloves because we all want to be Julian Edelman. Not only just the way he plays, just his style, his grit, his little bit of trash talking, you know. So I fit that mold as well. Like, he epitomizes football for me, so that's kind of who I watched and try to emulate as best as possible. Even if I didn't come close to matching it, if I could have been somebody, that's who I'd try to be. So you sort of, okay, awesome.

So you sort of value that, you value that hard-nosed toughness, blow-right-through-your-face kind of guy who's tough, but he brings it when he's really out there, sort of that kind of player. Yeah, I mean, because I myself am not the fastest. Obviously, I'm not very tall, 5'10". But I pride myself in seeing him, the fact that you're willing to go over the middle, get hit, make the play, move on, not staying down, you know, just kind of, you just got, you weren't blessed with the skills, so you make it through with toughness and grit.

Certainly. So, I mean, I noticed you did mention two New England football players in Wes Welker and Julian Edelman, who do both have the same play style. So are you a New England Patriots fan? Yeah, so my sister, when we were growing up in Willamette, Connecticut, she was a cheerleader for the Pop Warner team there. I was probably like four. They were just the Connecticut

Raiders or whatever. For half of my life, the Raiders were my team just because that's what I saw. Even though I was a Pop Warner team, I saw that logo, saw the black, so it's silver. That was my team. Then, when you turn 12, you grow up, your dad's watching.

What he's watching, you get into it. So pretty much since I've been 11, 12, it's been Pats all the way. Wait, so let me ask you, were you a fan during the tuck rule? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, my outtake on quarterbacks is they're always going to change the game for them regardless.

It worked out for us, so I'm like, let that, that ruling stand. But, like I said, they're going to, every year they're going to change something because something that happened to a quarterback that year. All right. I mean,

you can't hit them in the head because somebody got hit in the head. You can't hit them in the legs because Brady blew up his ACL. Every year they're going to change something to the quarterback. So that call went our way. So I accept it the way it is. Yeah, it is interesting how they call things in favor of quarterbacks sometimes, especially with the unnecessary roughness rule, the roughing the passer. I remember in 2018, that rule was just unbelievably poorly called, I felt. It was – it's either a quarterback would get absolutely smothered

and they wouldn't call anything. And there were also moments where, you know, they would sort of – the edge rusher would barely touch him and they would call a flag. It was crazy. Yeah, they would rush their head or something, yeah. It was crazy. But going back to your career, so across all your time in semi-pro football, so going through all your time in semi-pro football, what is sort of your all-time favorite memory from playing?

So I got to say, football is about winning. So 2019, I was on the Grand Estate Destroyers and we won the ECFL championship. We went down to their Rhode Island. We went down to their home field and beat them on their field and won the championship. And it was just, it was a great feeling. I had players on that team, a lot of new players that have only played with that one year, but I had a lot of players that,

that I've been playing with throughout the years on different teams since 2012. And we were all came together. We were all on that team. We won that championship game and we all just like lost our mind because we've all been doing it for so long and had never won the whole thing and we all went crazy and that's probably my best experience obviously because winning and just doing it with guys that I've been teammates with for forever, for seven, eight years at that time yeah it was that was crazy especially since again we were we had to travel down to their

field played on their field and we're in the parking lot with with champagne and just celebrating our first year in the league celebrating a league championship is just crazy. Yeah, certainly. Winning is definitely great, especially after you don't, you know, you play a few years and sometimes come up short. So when you were coming up short for that stretch of time, was your team still making the playoffs,

or was it one of those things where they were kind of coming up just short? So I've played on some pretty bad teams, and then I've played on some pretty great teams. So there was a couple years where we were fringe playoff. We made the playoffs, but we did knock out in the first round, stuff like that. And then being on GB, the destroyers, we were always right there, always in the playoffs, always one of the top two, three teams.

But then something would happen. We had a year where we ended up going through five quarterbacks just because of injury and life outside of football. People having babies, can't show up, stuff like that. But we were always right there. Like we were always one, two, three plays away from being in the championship, winning the championship, and then sort of finally add the right pieces and actually get over that hump is crazy. It was incredible.

So which of those years would you say was the most disappointing where you say, man, we really should have had that one? Is there any one game or season that sort of sticks out to you where you're saying ah you gotta have it you know yeah so i'd say probably the year after our championship game um we were coming in we were we were ranked uh like top we were ranked, like, top. We were ranked, I think, one or two or three in the country as semi-pro football teams because we'd also gone and won a national championship down in Skaneckia, New York. We played a team from another league, won the national championship.

So we came in very highly ranked, especially in our league. But we had some turnover, different quarterback. But still, we were right there. We were in the North championship game. So whoever won that would go on to the league championship. And we just couldn't get the pieces together and and we should have beat these guys um no disrespect to them at all but yeah but but we should have beat these guys and we just we didn't come together and and put together the game that we should have uh so we beat ourself beat ourselves more than they beat us, which those

losses always suck way more than if someone comes in and just steps on your neck. When you know that you lost the game, they didn't beat you, it sucks a lot more. So I'd say probably I believe it was 2020 um yeah just that one hurt the most that's it because we were right there and just beat ourselves were there any sort of instances where that was kind of apparent where you know you guys just didn't gel but um if you had you know you would have had it. Like, is there anything specific?

Yeah, so, I mean, like I said, we changed quarterbacks that year. The quarterback that we won a championship with, he had moved on to another team. You brought in another great quarterback. It was no fault of his own uh but we uh i the longer you're around semi-pro the more you realize you can tell from the sideline who's gonna win and who's gonna lose that game and because a bunch of it's a bunch of grown adults and so you can tell if they're getting at each other's throats on your own sideline or or or the vibe's not right on your, your own sideline, you can kind of tell how that game is going to go. And that's just how it went. We, uh, things, when things would go even a little bit wrong,

we got so down and, uh, and then the finger, the finger pointing and blaming and stuff starts to happen. But again, that's semi-pro. And that's how you know when you're on a really great team is when things are starting to go bad and your demeanor doesn't change. And then when you're on not such a good team is if things start going bad, the finger pointing, the blaming, the arguing arguing starts happening and that's how you know that that's not your year so you meant that's when sorry sorry go um so um so you mentioned how um how sort of the what defines a team uh when it comes to semi-pro is um sort of how they are in the sideline, how they sort of mesh their chemistry.

Is it more sort of that, you know, chemistry, how the players get along than the talent on the field? Yeah, I mean, obviously teams come down – talent is a huge factor. You're not going to beat the best-ranked team most of the time. You still can, but you're not going to beat them most of the time if you just don't have any talent. But when you have that talent, you've got to mesh, and you've got to, like I said, you gotta be there for the ups and,

and be upbeat and like love it and enjoy it and stuff like that. But once things are going the opposite direction, you can't go the opposite direction with it because then at that point, it doesn't matter what talent you have. If offense is coming off the field saying defense you're letting up all these points like you gotta stop the turn you gotta stop him scoring you gotta do this you gotta do that and you're and then the defense is telling the offense they gotta score and they gotta keep us off the field and stuff like that at that point it doesn't matter what talent you have because you lost it.

Like, you're not working together anymore at that point. You're one of 11 just trying to play for that one instead of the 11. And it's, like I said, it's semi-pro. It's not pro. So when your ego gets overpowers the talent that's on the team, that's how you know you're not going to win. Yeah, certainly. So looking at the play on the field and looking towards your more recent game,

so you guys as an offense were able to move the ball a lot. Unfortunately, weren't able to move the ball a lot. Unfortunately, weren't able to put as many points as the board as you might've wanted with 14 scoring about 14, two passing touchdowns. What adjustments are you guys looking to make to translate into more scoring for the next game and going forward in the season? Yeah. So like you said, we moved the ball a lot and we just, we just didn't finish drives.

In my opinion with that is, is that we have a lot of players that spring football is new to us. We've all been playing the summer leagues for a very long time. Frankie's been in it for, I don't know, he might've started semi-pro it's been a long time. Frankie's been in it for, I don't know, he might've started semi-pro. It's been a long time. And we have a couple of players that have just, we've all just been doing it for a long time. So we all made the switch. Well, not so much the switch, but we started to,

we took on the spring league experience. And so we all kind of came into it a little later. We don't have the continuity yet to put it all together. I think I've caught probably 20 passes from Frankie, our quarterback. So that's just – we just got to get the reps and the continuity up so we can just – we can communicate on the field without having to spell it out and communicate with each other, if that makes any sense. Yeah, definitely. So what I'm getting at, it sounds like um you know it's the beginning

of the season a lot of you guys are sort of are sort of new to the team and uh perhaps new to football and um it seems that you guys are trying to sort of mesh and sort of get to know each other and get on the same page uh you know for uh uh down the stretch for this season yeah and like i said we have we have a lot of guys that just even if we have been playing for a very long time we haven't played together for a very long time and so but i i can just tell with i'm not in the defensive huddle and stuff like that so i can can't speak on that. They played great. But on the offensive side, I can just tell with the group of guys that we have that once we're all on the same page, we'll be putting up a lot more than 14 points because we missed out on a lot of opportunities, a lot of scoring chances

strictly just because we weren't on the same page. We don't know each other's timing, speed, stuff like that. Absolutely, man. Is there a certain formation, a certain play call that you guys were excelling the most at? guys were you know exceed excelling the most at so it started to kind of like split gun so four receivers one back shotgun Frankie our quarterback he could the play action worked better for him out of that role just because he

could catch a snap put his hands out and be looking down the field the whole time so he could see the field pull it throw it if he if he saw something instead of I formation where he kind of has his back to the play. But so I'd say that started to work for us the best just for spreading the defense out, getting less guys in the box. And it worked for our running game. We have a couple great running backs. So it got some guys out of the middle hitting them, as well as Frankie, our quarterback, could see the field during the whole play instead of having his back turned to it for a play action

or something like that at a high formation. Certainly. It did appear, and I will say we did notice from the booth, that you guys started off with a lot of eye formation, a lot of run first plays. But once you guys started sort of transitioning sort of into more shotgun formation, the pass game opened things up for the rushing game. The offense all around just flowed much smoothly. Is that something that you sort of saw saw as the game kind of went on?

Yeah, because like I said, he can see when he doesn't have to have his back turned in the game and he can play action, he can see what we're seeing. Because any receiver can run back to a huddle and be like, listen, I was wide open. There was nobody near me. It turns out you got a safety on your back that you just didn't see so when you come and you say my slant's open he says no somebody's undercutting it you're just not seeing him it's it works great for that so be like oh cool so i gotta make this move or this adjustment um so it's great. It works better for everybody to see what is happening at the same time. As well as like I said, you put four guys out wide, you can't have eight in the box

because you got to play some sort of pass defense. So our running backs like Rizzi and Cushman and Damian, Davion, sorry. So they have a lot more room to run when you're spread out. So when you're spreading out the defense and your quarterback can see the whole field for the whole play, it works better for our style of play, I believe. Nothing wrong with smash mouth eye formation football either, but when you get into a higher scoring game, it's going to be nice to have that spread spread offense in our in our arsenal absolutely and it it does certainly make sense

as you know once you once you do snap the snap the ball in an eye formation you have to turn and fake and if you're not if you're going to do a pass play, you're going to fake hand the ball off to the running back. And from all that time that the quarterback had his back turned, that's time where you could have been open. Or one of the wide receivers or one of the running backs on an intermediate route could have been open and could have caught a pass and got some yards after the catch. So that sort of sums up kind of how things went this past Saturday. Like I said, once we start finishing those drives, which we will, we'll fix some things. But it'll be nice to move the ball like that and then score on them as well.

Absolutely, man. So just a couple questions left. Here's one that's more on sort of a deeper level, so in your time in football, what is one thing that you've learned playing football that you never would have learned had you not played football at all? Let's see. I mean, the first thing that came to my mind is kind of just the work ethic of a person. You kind of learn to see through a lot of things, which translates to anything.

Translates to work, family, just friends and stuff like that. You can see kind of through people's bull crap a little better because you see some people put on fake personas to kind of up what they want you to think about them, whether it's skill level accountability just whether that what they're saying is true or not so seeing that and people learning how to see through it whether it's whether it's real or whether it's fake and then on the flip side there could be this quiet person who doesn't talk who who doesn't say anything, who doesn't get all hyped up, doesn't jump around in your face, doesn't do all this and that,

but he's one of the hardest working people, one of the most genuine people, and will have your back no matter what. So just you see a little bit of everybody in semi-pro from all walks, from all upbringings, from everything. So just being able to read people and kind of see through certain things. And like I said, that translates to anything because then once you can read people, you've got the guy at work who's always I'm this, I'm that, I'm this great, I'm that great, this great and that great

and he's one of the the worst workers and then or he's great and it's true but um like i said just you get to read people because you get to see every walk of life and every kind of person um but you don't really you don't normally get to interact with so many people on a daily basis in your real life. I can certainly see how that would work out. Because even just looking at the nature of the game, it's one of those things where everybody wants to point out at all these positions that are most important on the field, and this position's underrated. This position's overrated. A lot of people like to say it's a quarterback-driven league.

But let's say your left tackle isn't doing his job or you have a left tackle who doesn't do his job as well as he could have, then that quarterback isn't going to be able to do much because he's going to be, he's going to be pressured all the time or that quarterback, if he doesn't have, you know, very good, if he doesn't have weapons, um, any, uh, player, uh, players to throw to, then that's another thing where they might, they might play a little more on the lackluster side. So it's the ultimate team sport where everybody has to do their job and everybody has to sort of be able to have chemistry with each other

or else it all falls apart. Does that sort of sum things up? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And just one thing on that statement, Does that sort of sum things up? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And just one thing on that statement, just so everybody out there knows, and this is coming from a wide receiver, this is an offensive line-driven league. You don't win with a bad offensive line in this league. So a out to them although the hogs they they drive this game I've had I've played games with some amazing

quarterbacks that look like you said they look like a fifth string quarterback because you snapped the ball and you got three defenders in your face. And I've seen absolutely mediocre quarterbacks, mediocre at best, look very proficient because they have a great offensive line in front of them. So I just wanted to throw that out there that this league is 100% an offensive line-driven league instead of quarterback or even receiver running back defense yeah that is that i mean that does make a lot of sense because you know the the court the wide receipt the you know the wide receiver can't get the ball if the quarterback um you know is on his ass half

the time and the running back can't get much yardage if the if the if they're not getting any any sort of protection if they're and if they're not getting any sort of protection and if they're not getting any holes. And once you have a lackluster offensive – a total offense from all of that, then the defense is going to get tired and that's – then you're going to have some issues with them because they're going to get exhausted from playing all the time. That makes a lot of sense, and I could definitely see that, not just at the semi-pro league, but anywhere.

Sort of offensive lines matter, definitely. Oh, absolutely. I couldn't agree with that more. But just at this level, they're just so important. It's just astronomical the difference they can make when you have a good offensive line than when you have a bad one. Certainly. All right, Chris, here's our last question.

This has been awesome. Thank you for being with us. So what is one piece of advice that you would offer to that one kid or young adult or anyone who is just starting out in football at any level? What sort of advice would you offer them to be able to make an impact on the game? I mean, step one, just do it. Like you can, you can tiptoe around it all day, but I promise you, like, if you're a young kid, just do it.

Talk your mom or dad to signing you up. It's going to be great. It's you're going to have friends for the rest of your life uh and that that goes to any level of football but especially when you're young um you're forced to meet people you're forced to get intimate with people um that locker room mentality when in some instances can be bad but for the most part 99% of the time that it that creates a family uh environment and um even if you're not very good um you're gonna you're gonna get so much out of the experience uh that it makes everything worthwhile. So, yeah, just one, just do it. And two, soak everything up. Like, learn from everybody.

Like, I've played with guys that have, like, not NFL guys, like guys in our league that I try my absolute hardest to emulate. Watch them, study them, try to do what they do. Ask them for advice. Ask guys who play a different skill, a different position than you, like what they see and what they think that you could do better. Because the more you hear and the more you learn, like you're going to absorb it. So even if, like at my level, I started playing football, like they organized football, like 1920. It just, you just learn from everybody. You take everything you can from

everybody. You find out what works, what doesn't, you can file it down, narrow it down, um, and, and make it your own. But when you're first learning, like, learn from everybody. And then over time, like I said, you'll learn what was bad advice, what was good advice. But in the beginning, just take everything you can from everybody and just, like I said, one, just do it and enjoy it, and then two, just be a sponge. That's awesome, man. All right, well, there you have it.

Chris Martin, wide receiver for the New England Bearcats. Thank you so much for joining us, Chris. The Bearcats' next game is Saturday, April 23rd, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, against the New York Crusaders. Is that? Yeah, yeah. So New York Crusaders. Is that? Yeah, yeah. So New York Crusaders. Be sure to tune in to that on Roku TV and live on their Facebook page

to see Chris Martin in action. So, Chris, do you have any other thoughts before we end the show today? I mean, I appreciate you having me on, and it's great what you're doing. I can't wait to see what you turn out as a product. And like I said, we'll put something out there for you to film and commentate. And I can't wait to see what you do with it. So I appreciate you, man. Thank you.

Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Same to you. All right. So that'll do it for us tonight. Thank you for listening to us. Be sure to tune in to us live Tuesdays and Thursdays at 730 on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube through Fans Only Sports Network. Be

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