The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 011: Brady Quinn – Why Certain People Are Great Leaders And Why Others Are Not

Episode Date: May 6, 2015

Episode 011: Brady Quinn – Why Certain People Are Great Leaders And Why Others Are Not Wow!  Brady is an open book.  I absolutely loved how open and honest Brady was in our conversation.  He didn’t mince words and was not scared to voice his feelings about great players and coaches as well as bad coaches and teammates.  I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with Brady!  I promise you will learn a lot from listening to it… Brady Quinn set 36 records at The University of Notre Dame.  Graduating there as one of their greatest football players ever.  Along the likes of Joe Montana, Tony Rice, and Rocket Ismail... He was drafted in the first round by the Cleveland Browns in the 2007 NFL Draft.  He currently is a game analyst for Fox Sports… The only person doing both collegiate and NFL games. Welcome to Episode 011 with NFL Quarterback and Fox Analyst, Brady Quinn Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. The Learning Leader Show “Tim Tebow is a great guy, but he wasn’t a good teammate.” – Brady Quinn Some Questions I Ask: When have you failed? What did you learn from those failures? Why do some coaches fail to be decisive?  Is that the difference between great coaches and bad ones? Who is the best leader you’ve ever played for? Why? What has it been like transitioning to a job after playing?  How was Tim Tebow as a teammate? Who would you take with the first pick in the draft this year? What is it like playing QB in the NFL? In This Episode, You Will Learn: Which coaches were great and which ones were terrible (Brady is very honest!) Why Charlie Weis made Brady feel “invincible” That Eric Mangini doesn’t understand Quarterbacks How not playing football can be compared to watching the love of your life with someone else (great quote from Brady) Why Tim Tebow wasn’t a good teammate Why playing Quarterback is like fighting a fire “You can find the intangibles of being a quarterback in almost every profession in the world.  There’s nothing like it.” – Brady Quinn Continue Learning Go to Brady's Website Follow Shane on Twitter @3rd_Goal You may also like these episodes: Episode 003: The Incredibly Interesting Story Of Maurice Clarett And How He Built A 6 Figure Income After Spending 4 Years In Prison Episode 002: How To Take Over And Set Bigger Goals With Chris Brogan Episode 004: How Todd Wagner (and Mark Cuban) Sold Broadcast.com To Yahoo! For $5.7 Billion Episode 010: Shane Snow – How To Accelerate Success Using Smart Cuts Did you enjoy the podcast? This episode was absolutely jam packed with great information on a variety of topics.  I love how open Brady is.  I can promise we will be recording another episode together at some point.  Who do you know that needs to hear this?  Send them to The Learning Leader Show! Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell   Bio from 3rdandgoalfoundation.org Brady Quinn is an American football quarterback and Fox Sports analyst.  As a collegiate player for Notre Dame, Brady was a two-time team captain and broke 36 school records.  A finalist for the Heisman Trophy in 2005 and 2006, he went on to win the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award (best college quarterback) and Maxwell Award (best college football player) in his senior season.  With the 22nd pick in the 2007 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns selected Brady.  He has additionally played for the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs.  Currently, Brady serves as a studio and game analyst for both NCAA and NFL football.      

It was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do in my life. And I'm sure that sounds so petty in the grand scheme of life. But I compare it to this. It was as if every single day, every single game, I was watching the love of my life move on with some other guy. And it was like as if I was watching her for three hours, just basically go on a date with another guy. and then I would, you know, then it would finish and I'd leave and I'd start my process and preparation all over again, but there was this sense of heartbreak, you know, a little bit of depression. I mean, I'm not afraid to admit that. I think when it's such a big piece of your

identity for such a long period of time, it's hard. Are leaders born or are they made? Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders. Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success. You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. Hey and welcome to The Learning Leader Show. I am Ryan Hawk. Tonight's guest, one of my favorites. It's Brady Quinn. I love Brady and how open and honest he was on our conversation tonight. Brady set 36 records as a quarterback at the University of Notre Dame. He was the first round pick of the Cleveland Browns, and currently he's an NFL and college analyst for Fox on TV.

In our talk tonight, we got into a lot of things. We discussed failure and self-doubt and how you view each of those things. We talked about the best and the worst coaches and leaders he's ever played for, a very interesting part. We also discussed how not playing football is like seeing the love of your life marry someone else and how crushing it can be. Brady is so transparent, so open and honest about it that I absolutely loved it. A lot of great back and forth about quarterbacking too, which I really enjoyed. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Brady Quinn. What's up, Brady? How you doing, man? I'm doing well, Ryan. How you doing? Awesome, dude. Hey, I want to start off with an interesting question just to get us off before we get into your background and everything

that you're doing. Dude, what is your all-time favorite music album? Is it a cop-out if I don't even know the name of the album, but I know the artist? I mean, is that a cop-out? No, no, no, no, no. Because nowadays, dude, we're like in that age to where we do remember the CDs coming out and you actually bought like Pearl Jam like 10 or whatever. And but now it's like iTunes, you just buy one song at a time. So no, you can go ahead. Just name whatever you got. Well, it's funny. If we're going to go on genres. I honestly think Pearl Jam 10 would be up there. It would be one of them. But I don't think I listened to any album more than 50 cents first album when it came out.

Yes. I still remember senior year of high school putting that thing on repeat. I mean, it was it kind of just fulfilled all needs. You had your your workout, your lifting songs in there. There's some you can party to. You know, whatever you needed, 50 cent provided it in this very first album. I love it, dude. That's perfect answer. Thanks for kicking us off here on a high note, man. So, but no, welcome to the show. I appreciate you being on. Obviously, this one is one that I've been wanting to do since starting this podcast

because you have such a cool, interesting story, you know, leading and living an awesome life. And you've been through a lot of things, a lot of highs, a few lows, which are, which are, I think, are the most interesting things to talk about at times because that's what we learn from. So I really appreciate you being here, man. No, I appreciate you just giving the opportunity and taking the time. I mean, like you said, I feel like I've had an interesting journey so far in life. And, you know, a lot of people look at success and failure in different ways. And to me, at least, I always look at failure as, you know, like you had mentioned,

it's their learning experiences is what they are. And I never really look at them as failed attempts. I just always look at them as how can I learn from this experience and get better rather than failures. You know, I don't like bringing any sort of negativity and all that, you know, into my life or really into my journey in life. I'm glad you went there, man, because like I was going to get to this later, but let's jump right to it. So failure is an interesting thing. I've talked about it a lot with some really, really smart people on this podcast. And everybody has a different way that they view it.

And it's cool to see the way you view it because you've had so much success. Really, you know? I mean, anybody who sets 36 records at the University of Notre Dame playing quarterback, you know, the same place that a lot of incredible people have been, namely Joe Montana, among others, obviously is the definition of success. So when you talk about failures, can you think of specific times where you failed and what you learned from those failures? Oh, without a doubt. I mean, let's just start on the football field. Okay. You know, I remember one of my first practices when I got drafted to the Cleveland Browns,

and I threw a ball in a tight window, it got picked off. And, you know, the defense is going nuts because you're a first round pick, and it's your first interception. And I remember thinking my head, okay, you know, the defense is that much faster. The windows closed that much quicker. You know, that was my immediate thought process. It wasn't, oh, I failed on that attempt. It was that, it was learning experience.

It was, you know, now I have to adjust my game. and that throw I can't necessarily make or I have to anticipate it better or put it in a different spot for the wide receiver to go get where the defender can't get it. So I still remember who I threw it to too, too. A guy named Matt Stewart.

He actually lives in Powell, Ohio, went to Vanderbilt. It's like those sorts of things you never forget. Yeah. But it's just, it's funny thinking about that one moment because, you know, every single time, every loss, any interception or play like that, you know, you have an experience.

And you can either try to turn that negative experience into a good one and learn from it, or you can allow it to really handcuff you and keep you down. You know, I think a lot of quarterbacks in Ryan, you could probably speak to this. You know, you throw that interception, right? You go throw that out route on the sidelines. I mean, shoot, it's true freshman year we were playing Florida State. We ran this play probably nine, ten times in the game. We were down by a lot, so we had run a lot of, you know, no huddle signals.

And this guy finally, you know, probably sees the same thing. signal undercuts it takes it to the house on interception and from that point on i could always tell i was it was tough for me to want to anticipate and throw an out route whenever the coverage was tight because i was kind of scarred by that and it took me a little while to get over that and to get confident again in my ability to anticipate that throw and make that throw and not worry about the repercussions if it was bad yeah i can i'll take you back my freshman year at miami right so i started People know, I graduated from Ohio University, but I actually signed my letter of intent and went to Miami University out of high school. So my freshman year, we have, our quarterbacks are kind of banged up.

And they came to me in the middle of the week, and we're playing against Ohio University of all teams. And they say, hey, we're going to put you in. You're going to play. You're going to start in the slot, but then you're also going to get reps at quarterback. And we're going to, our first play is going to be a trick play, right? So you're going to start in a slot. We're going to throw you a little bubble screen, a backwards pass, and then you're going to throw it to our. guy in a slot who's on a wheel route to go and you're going to throw a touchdown pass on your

first collegiate play. What do you think? Right? And I'm like, dude, this is sweet. Yeah, I'm in. Like, let's do it. And this is midway through my year. And prior to that, we had planned to redshirt me. So anyway, we get to the game. You know, we practice that play probably, you know, probably 40 times where I'd launched the thing and completed it the majority of times that we did it. And it comes game time. I go in. Mike Bath, the quarterback throws me the backwards pass. I'm in the slot. Our guys miss the blocks. right? As you know on bubbles and the defenders come up after me so I have to pivot and kind of spin

back left and then try to plant my right foot because my receiver was open. I plant and I slip, dude, slipped in the grass, still tried to throw the ball and the thing came out unbelievably short. And so what do you think, what do you think happens? It gets intercepted. Absolutely. My very first collegiate play, I have a lot of action, so to speak, and I slip and throw a pick, dude, and I was absolutely crushed. It was just an awful, awful moment. But I did try my best to learn from

that experience, but it also kind of, I don't know, I think the coach has lost a little bit of confidence in me at that moment because I did. I mean, it's my fault. I did it. But those things can create doubt and self-doubt and it absolutely happened to me. So I wanted to ask you, when you try to squeeze the ball in a tight window, which you probably were able to do in college like Jeff Samarja or somebody or one of your big tight ends, and it works successfully, both in practice and in games,

which obviously it worked a lot. That first play that you get intercepted when you're with the Browns, you're a first round pick. All these good things are going on for you and you throw that pick. Did you start doubting yourself? Did you start saying, I'm not sure?

Like, am I, am I good enough here? Or is this going to be a lot harder than I thought? What was your thought process at that? that point. You know, for me at that point, and I think it's like this for probably, you know, half the amount of people who end up, you know, facing some sort of adversity, it was, you know, initially like, okay, yeah, I'm going to keep at it. But it was like once you have those back-to-back bad days of practicing camp or those back-to-back games where things weren't going your way, it was those moments where it was the hardest to keep that confidence up, not allow that self-doubt

to creep in the back of your mind. You know, I've always prodded myself on having confidence in my abilities. I think if anything, what's what hampered me as a player, and particularly professionally, because, you know, you don't have the opportunity to build that rapport like you do in college, but I think what would ham what hampered me a little bit was actually not having enough confidence in others. And what happened,

what would happen would be, you know, when I should have just done my job and anticipated and done the things that I was supposed to do and giving it a chance, I think I lost confidence in others and their ability to perform their job, which then affected me not pulling the trigger, affected me not doing what I was supposed to do. What made you lose confidence in others? I think, you know, in a game of football, and you can speak to this, every quarterback can, it's so much more than an individual game.

I mean, in order for a play to work, you know, it truly takes. takes 11 people involved. And as a quarterback now, you've got the ball on your hands. You're the ultimate decision maker, and you can make some people look good. But when you're talking about throwing a pass, I mean, the guy's still got to catch it. He's still got to run a good route. He's got to find a way of getting it. I think when a guy would run the wrong route or make the wrong route adjustment,

depending on what the coverage was, or drop a pass, consecutively. I mean, not once, you know, but they drop a pass, drop a pass. Then all of a sudden, in your mind, you're thinking, all right, I got to go elsewhere. I got to make my living elsewhere. I got to make something happen elsewhere or I got to do it myself. And unfortunately, I think, you know, again, losing confidence, others because of that, probably, you know, played a part or affected me. And then maybe even doing too much at times because of that, right?

You lose confidence in others. Now you feel like you've got to put more workload, you know, more weight on your shoulders to carry the rest of the team or whoever it may be. But that was, I think, one of the things that I think that, you know, lack of, or I guess doubt in others led to, at least with me. The other thing, too, and we've both kind of been through this, me and college, you and the pros, where you get on sometimes that the head coach has not really fully made the decision on who the guy is. And he at times will go back and forth, or maybe he's going to have a quick trigger and pull you out. And this happened to me in college, and it absolutely changed the way I played. fearful of throwing picks.

And when you play like that, you're not going to be nearly, like in high school for me and probably in college for you, I had absolutely no fear of throwing interception. If it happened, I knew I'm going to go get it back on the next drive. We're going to score whatever. In college for me, and you can speak to this, but in college for me, it was, if I threw a pick, I thought I might get pulled because I did. It happened sometimes. And it just, it's, I'm not trying to place blame on others because I shouldn't, you know,

you shouldn't throw interceptions. You got to take care of the ball as a quarterback. However, you know, even the best throw interceptions from time to time, right? But that changed me. So when you were going through the situations where you might get pulled or your coach wasn't fully behind you in the pros as being the guy, how did that affect your decision making while playing? Big time.

I mean, I had never really faced a coach wanting to have a short leash with me really throughout my life. Now, part of that was because of the production I was able to create. It doesn't matter if I was young. through high school or college, but part of it was also because I guess maybe it never had come to, well, it wasn't even like a thought in the back of my mind until it actually happened. You know, there's two instances, one in college and one of the pros, and there are two kind of short stories.

The first one is when Charlie White's got hired, one of the very first conversations he had, but he pulled me into his office and he said, you know, I've been watching a lot of film over the past two years that you've been here. and he said, you are my guy. He goes, we are going to, I'm going to push you as far as I can.

He says, here's your playbook. It's exactly what I was just running with the New England Patriots that we just won a Super Bowl with. He goes, I'm going to push you as far as you can go and you push the rest of your teammates

as far as you can go. But he said, you know, I love how you play. I love everything you do. He goes, I think the sky's the limit. Wow.

And that gave me so much confidence that I knew I could go out there. And I would be, I felt invincible because I knew this guy had my back. I knew that, for example, for example, we lost to Michigan State early that season, my junior year in overtime. And I'd thrown three interceptions. Now, there was tip balls, things like that, that aren't necessarily my fault. But yeah, like you talked about, we take accountability for it as a quarterback. But, you know, I ended up Thorne for a bunch of yards and five touchdowns or whatever it was. And he kind of brought me in after that. And I thought I was going to get reamed.

I thought I was going to be one of those, you know, you know, cuss you out, you know, whatever it may be. You know, now we're going back to competing. You might lose your job, something like that. But he actually gave me kind of a pick-me-up speech. Like, don't hang your head. He said, if you can do that, if you can bring us back from 20 points down when no one else in the stadium or even on the team believes, he says, I know we've always got a chance. So that was one instance where I felt as if the confidence of whether you want to call it a superior or a coach really. played into me, not only my ability to

perform at a high level, but I also think just my overall attitude, my overall energy, I mean, everything changed. It was transformative in the way that worked. And then fast forward in 2009, Eric Mangini is now our coach. I had Romeo Cornell for two years. You know, it was a rocky season for us. We ended up going, I think, 5 and 11. We won our last four games in a row, though. And actually, the second half the season,

I mean, we were a 500 team. We went four and four and we were honestly playing some pretty good football we probably had two other games we could have won a bit of seven and nineteen i mean literally it was that it was that close so mike homer comes in i get hurt i end up missing the last two games this season so i so you know i've got two years left on my deal and you know he's he's introducing himself to me and we're just kind of talking about the experience you know work with you know coach van genie and all that and i just said to him i said you know we had a quarterback competition which i'm 100% fine with It was equal.

The way they went about doing it was great. But the problem was we had our competition up until the Wednesday before we're playing Minnesota. It's crazy. You're sitting there going at some point, you've got to put your eggs in someone's basket and say, this is my guy. I'm going to let him go. You've got to be decisive as a leader, right?

I mean. You have to. You have to. So then he sat me down. He said, look, I understand. He goes, and here's how this work. He goes, when I was in Green Bay with Brett Farv, he said, he had had a few bad games.

And we had had our staff in a meeting. We took a vote. And every single person in that staff room wanted me to bench Brett Favre and put in Mark Brunell. And he said, I called in Brett. I had a private conversation. And I said, one day, either you and I are going to be holding a Labardi trophy together or we're going to be standing outside next to the dumpsters.

But either way, it's going to be one of those two things. And so he kind of said to you guys, He goes, so I understand what you're saying. I get that. He goes, I agree that you've got to, you've got to be able to not only from a leadership standpoint, build a back one guy, but also trust him through the adversity through that process. Because, you know, look, coaches make mistakes all the time.

You know, I think it's second guest or whatnot, but as a team, as a player, you've got to believe in that guy, man. You're going to fight through. You're not going to bench him and put in one of the assistant head coaches right away. I mean, it's just, you know, no one does that sort of thing. That's why I think it probably hampered me from that point on in my career a little bit. And it was tough to, it was, it was, it was tough to fight through and get over. So I find this to be, I've seen the differences, and you've lived the two specific differences.

Why do coaches struggle with this? Because the great ones don't. Like, look at, for example, Bill Belichick. So he's got the number one overall pick as his quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, who's great, right? And Bledsoe is playing really, really, really well, right? He's the guy. He's got all the money. He's done great for the team.

He gets hurt. They put in Tom Brady and Belichick realizes, man, this guy is special. Like, I think this guy is special. And what does he do? He's decisive and he's got the guts to say, that's our guy. You know, he is my guy and I'm sticking with him no matter what. And look what's happened versus, you know, and I don't know your feelings on Eric Mangini. But I remember specifically when that was happening because obviously we, as a family, we care about

you and everything and we're following it. And I'm thinking, what is going on? Like, I've lived through some of these things on a much, much smaller scale in college where the head coach has to make the decision. He's got to have that Holmgren type call to say, you know what? I trust in myself. I'm secure enough in myself. I'm going to make a decision and then I'm going to live with the consequences of that decision right or wrong. But the worst thing you could ever do, the worst thing is to just sit in the fence and just kind of sit there and say, well, Well, I don't know, I guess we'll see because you've got a whole team and the entire team is looking to you, the head coach, to say, who's our guy? Who are we falling?

Because the quarterback, this is more so than in any other sport. The quarterback is the guy who runs the show. He's the guy who means more to the team than any other sport there is, right? I mean, he's got the ball in his hands every play, making decisions and all those things. So if the coach isn't really sure, the team, I've never seen a team be successful. There might be a few exceptions. but I've never seen a team truly be successful where the coach can't make that decision to say, this is our guy.

Well, 100%. And you go back to the New England reference. You know, that happened when Bledso got injured. You know, it's funny, like whenever those quarterback changes happen and their success with the next guy, it's usually through injury, even Phil Rivers, you know, when Drew Brees got injured. And why that is is because there's a distinct, this guy's not even an option, we've got to move on, this is now the leader of our team. This is now the identity at our quarterback position.

It never works with a two quarterback system. Or it never works when you're on the fence for so long. I mean, it's laughable to me how you could put in so much time and effort preparing and preparing throughout the course of an offseason and training camp. And then all of a sudden, bench a guy and put in your second option. Like, what did you waste all that time, all that effort and all those hours, you know, trying to prep one guy and get something ready for a particular player? and now you're going to put someone else in.

It was a complete waste of time then. I mean, you should reevaluate yourself, which goes back to the root of the situation. And that's a lot of times I think coaches, they don't have the self-confidence to stick with decisions that they make. They don't have the ability to want to fight through all, whatever the trials and tribulations they go through. But they don't have the self-confidence to be able to stick through with their decisions.

and wait to see what it looks like at the end. You know, when the storm comes, it gets a little cloudy. They don't want to have to deal with it. They'd rather try to go another direction than fighting through the storm, you know, and being able to fight through the bad weather. Is Manjini, is he a good coach or is he an X-N-O guy? I mean, he's not a leader. He just understands X-N-O-guy.

Or what is it? He taught me a ton about defense. I think he's a great defensive mind. I mean, some of his schemes and the things he would do. He really was a good coach in that sense. I personally didn't get along with him because I don't think he understands the quarterback position. Yep. I don't think, you know, the way he handled things to me was very defensive-minded.

And unfortunately, I mean, look, defense wins championships. But that doesn't mean you can't have a guy who's the identity of your team at the quarterback position. You have to. You know, you can't sit there and flip-flop. You can't, you know, lack confidence in your decision-making at that position. You've got to go with the guy and live or die by it. And you're right.

The best coaches seem to never have that issue. So who do you think is the best coach you ever played for? Oh. And you play with Pete Carroll in Seattle. Obviously, I've heard a lot of good things about him. But who would you say? Yeah. You know, I would say, and it pains me to say this because he is who he is.

We played against him for so long. But there's something about Pete Carroll and the way he's able to, not only lead men, but the way he's able to energize them. You know, he kind of preaches on this mantra of always compete. And when he says that, Ryan, I kid you not, every single drill, every single deal he has is a competition. He wants you to compete with your spouse or your girlfriend. I mean, whoever, every single thing is a competition. And it sharpens you.

It makes you better. It truly does. I mean, it lets you kind of evaluate where you are and where you're. you want to get to. And it's just a whole different synergy and environment out there, what he has going on Seattle. And I played against it in college. And now seeing the flip side of it and seeing how he was, how he's able to put things

together and how he's able to handle a room and communicate to his team and get the most out of people. I mean, you've never seen a guy too that would go to a rookie free agent and work on the way he catches a ball coming across, you know, from one side to the other with his hands and just throw and play catch with him. on it with him. Because, you know, he just wanted you to be the best player that you could be. And I've never seen a guy, you know, take more time to do things like that. You know, again, this is a guy who's won a national championship in college. He's won a Super Bowl.

You know, in the NFL, I mean, he obviously gets it. He gets how to be a good coach and even more than that, a great leader. Yeah, I thought that might be the guy you'd say. And he also, going back to being definitive, you know, they signed Matt Flynn to a pretty big, pretty big contract, you know, from the Green Bay Packers, and then they draft. Russell Wilson was like the third round or fourth round. And he didn't do this, you know, he didn't do this back and forth thing. He said he determined that Russell was the guy and made the move. And obviously it turned out to be the right decision.

And it wasn't easy in the beginning, right? I mean, if you put on the film of Russell Wilson in his rookie year, he's missing reeds, missed a few throws. granted he had the athletic ability to get out of some situations and run with his feet and all that. And he took care of the football. And he also had, you know, Marshaun Lynch to rely on the good defense. But he stuck through it and they didn't win it in his first year. But in his second year, they end up winning it.

And then they get back to it in his third year. And it's incredible to see, you know, just in my time there. I mean, look, I spent an entire offseason that's not a year or anything else. But I've known Russell for a while now since that time. and it's incredible to see his growth and development. And Pete Carroll's been, you know, a big part of that. Yeah. So let's transition a little bit.

You're still actively working out, you know, throwing, doing all those things. I know you're in great shape. You recently went to the Free Agent Combine. So you're still an active player, so to speak, where you want to be. But you also spent last year doing a ton of TV work. I'm maybe the only guy literally in TV. doing both college and NFL games. I don't know if there's anyone else doing that.

Is that, I mean, for Fox, right? Yeah, no one else is doing that for Fox. You know, one of our college football analyst, Joel Clatt, who's really good, he does college games, and he hosts some segments for the NFL, which isn't easy either. But yeah, no one else was doing game analysis for both. But that was, I mean, let me tell you, Ryan, it was challenging just because the games are so different. I mean, look, it's football.

There's some rule changes, but just the style of the games. I mean, people don't realize how much harder it is to prepare for a college football game than an NFL game. Well, you've got to know, I mean, you've got to know the two deep of both teams and not only just who they are, but you've got to know about those guys and got to be ready to go and speak of them at a moment's notice, and you got to your little window, what is it like 10, 15 seconds before the next play, or even less if you were doing an Oregon game or someone like then? him to where you give your quick snippet and it's got to sound great. Meanwhile, you got a producer in your ear telling you whatever.

I mean, you can speak to that because I've never done that. But I mean, what is that like? What's that the transition from, you know, playing to doing the game on TV where you think, oh, this would be easy. You know, you just kind of talk about football or whatever. But I mean, there's so much more to it than that. Yeah, there is. I mean, you have to be concise with your words and you have to choose what to say,

when to say it. And look, I'm just starting off. So in no way am I necessarily the standard. But I think for my feedback, you know, obviously I'll continue to do this. Most likely with Fox as we are renegotiating my contract right now. But, you know, it's hard because it's mental gymnastics. I mean, you are watching what's happening. You're listening to your play-by-play and kind of trying to flow with the conversation.

But at the same time, while he's talking, you're talking to your producer about maybe what you want to see on replay or where you want them to shoot or what you want to talk about so they can, the director can then cut the different camera angles. I mean, a lot of people don't realize the game analyst really drives the story of the game. I mean, the game's played and it, you know, it kind of presents itself to you, but then how you tell that story really, really falls on the game analyst, the color analyst, and you're working with your producer and director in order to give the viewers at home that.

I mean, the play-by-play is just there to kind of provide that window of telling what's happening, right? And then you're kind of explaining why it's happening, which a lot of times is the greatest thing. It's helping to find a way of making entertaining, making it comical, but at the same time, helping to educate people and inform people why things are taking place. And then at a higher level, hopefully you are able to predict things and then help the viewer be able to see what's going to happen next because of past events. Are there certain mentors you have in the business that have helped you? Yeah, I mean, Joel Clatt, I name it.

He's definitely one of them. I mean, he kind of helped me a lot in the beginning, helping to prepare. You know, he's a former quarterback, you know, play to Colorado, was in the NFL for a little bit, and he takes that same approach. I mean, look, and anyone who does this job, I think it'd be hard to be better than a quarterback because of the way they see the game. I mean, as a quarterback, you know your offense, and then you have to know the defense you're facing, and their responsibilities.

So in your run checks or your audibles or check into a pass player protection, you have to know it all. And it allows you the opportunity to then better explain it and better give a general idea of what's happening and why it's happening for the viewer.

That's, I love learning about the TV. I could probably spend two hours talking about that, but I know there's a lot of other things I want to get to as well. Let's talk about, again, because you're in a different position where you still, I think, have the opportunity to play and I fully believe expect you to keep playing. But in the meantime,

while you're staying in shape and being ready to go, you're doing the TV work, which I think is also cool as you're taking initiative to say this is what I'm going to do when my days are done and I'm going to do it currently as well. So, but talking about the transition from playing football to then doing whatever it is you're doing in your life. And again, we have some similarities here because I can vividly remember my last college game. And it was, the thought process going into this game, we're playing at home against the University of Akron, and my parents are there for Senior Day. Both of them are there, actually, which is rare for us, because my younger brother, AJ, obviously, was playing at Ohio State at the same time.

So my parents, one of them would go to his game and one would come to my game every single weekend. And so it was very rare for both to be at a game, but they did it because it was Senior Day. I remember looking up at them and they're announcing us, you know how it goes on Senior Day. and I started bawling, man, like absolutely, like not just like a little tear, but like bawling because I was thinking about having to make this transition from to not be a football player anymore. And it crushed me and it affected me for a long time, not just that day. But, I mean, it was embarrassing too. I mean, I'm sitting there.

My teammates are seeing this and I have to go lead them to play. Fortunately, I actually played okay. But it was just, it was really, really tough and it lasted for a long time. I don't want to say there was a depression because that might. do a disservice to people who truly are depressed, but there was some of that there. And I felt it for a very, very long time. I even occasionally still feel this, you know. And so I'm curious this to you and how you feel because it's not like it's, you know,

there's a chance that you're, there's a good chance you're still going to play, but you also have had to have those moments to where you're like, man, maybe, maybe I'm, only doing TV or maybe this is what I'm going to do. And it's a great job and you're obviously very good at it. and fortunate to have it, but it's not the same as playing. So I wanted to dig into that a little bit because you see a lot of this in the news about how tough it is for guys. And like I said, I felt this on a different scale, but it was just absolutely brutal, man.

So I want to get your feelings on that. Yeah, you know, last year I was with the dolphins in training camp. And I, you know, didn't really get much of an opportunity. I had four pass attempts. I won four for four, but that was it. Really just in one game. I was there for two. They didn't play me that the, the, the, the,

second game I was with them for and then I got released and then I was doing TV and you know as the phone rang but no really nothing really ever solidified you know I'm doing these college football games which was different it was easier in the sense that you can't go back and play college as much as you miss it it's it's out there you're not looking down there saying I should be down there but yeah you then turn a few weeks later to an NFL game and as you do you know the production for for these games. You interview coaches, you interview players.

Some of these guys you played with, some of these guys you played against or they know you. And all of a sudden, you know, for me it was like this quick transition to, I was on the field and training camp with the team. I literally shook hands with some of these guys. Now,

now I'm sitting there doing their game. I mean, we played against Tampa. You know, I'd love you Smith and those guys. And I talk to Josh McCown after the game. Now I'm talking about Josh on television for the audience.

and it was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do in my life. And I'm sure that sounds so petty in the grand scheme of life. But I compare it to this. It was as if every single day, every single game, I was watching the love of my life move on with some other guy. And it was like as if I was watching her for three hours, just basically go on a date with another guy. And then I would, you know, then it would finish and I'd leave and I'd start my process and preparation all over again. But there was this sense of heartbreak, you know, a little bit of depression.

I mean, I'm not afraid to admit that. I think when it's such a big piece of your identity for such a long period of time, it's hard. I mean, it's hard, man, because it's such a, it's such an amazing game that touches you. It's physical. It's emotional. There's obviously a certain spirit to it. I think that you should play with and demonstrate.

And to be without that, it's so hard. And, you know, and again, to be at my age, I'm 30, I'll be 31 this year, to be in good shape, to feel as if you can go down there and play because I'm confident in my abilities. I mean, that's the other part is now I'm looking down there saying, you know, you're looking at this long lost love, right, that you're saying, hey, I'm still the guy. Like, you should be with me.

It's tough to deal with. I think, you know, getting space from it, you know, in this offseason and all that. that I've come at peace with it for whatever reason. If it doesn't work out or if it does, and I don't know if that's because of time and sometimes time heals all wounds, or if it's just because I've been able to see kind of the other side and that there is,

there's so many other opportunities and things out there. But look, I went to the Veteran Combine, if an opportunity presents itself, all without a doubt take it, because there's no other point in my life. I think, you know, I'll be able to look back and see, say, I want to go back and play in the NFL.

I mean, look, you can only do this when you're young. This isn't an old man's game. So you got to take the opportunity as well when they're there. How was that veteran combine? This is the first year we've had that. How to go? It went well for me. I just, you know, it was tough because with any, any, you know, I guess,

combine or anything like that in its first year, it's going to be incredibly unorganized, which it was. Oh, really? Yeah, I mean, you know, they were, they were harping to us the night before to be on time, be on time, and somehow, you know, they were late right from the get-go that morning, which bumped all of the other other groups back, you know, it's so much so that, you know, we, like the quarterbacks are whatever wants to see. People want to see 40s and they want to see the quarterbacks throw.

That's what it's about. And the NFL network was there. They're trying to broadcast it. Well, they ran over so much. They didn't show us throwing the wide receivers at all, which you'd figure you'd want to incorporate into your program. That's like the only thing that you want to see. Yeah, exactly. So I mean, I'm not trying to do any disservice any other position, but it's the truth.

I mean, you're not wearing pads or anything. So it's like if you're not wearing pads, you know, what do you want to watch the combine? You want like at the one in Indianapolis, you wanted to watch James and Marcus Mario to throw and you wanted to see who's going to run a fast 40. Other than that, it's like, you know, that's kind of all you really want to see. Yeah. And you know, and they took out all the other testing drills besides the 40, which again, let's go back and look at the logic of, Did you still have to run? Do you have to run a 40? No, I didn't have to run. But they tried to get guys to run a 40, which, you know, Michael Bush was there.

Michael and I were drafted the same year. You know, see he's 30, 31. Like, Michael Bush's experience, his wisdom, you know, his ability to know when to cut, how to cut, knowing systems, that's going to be his strength, not as 40 time. I mean, Frank Gore, Marshaun Lynch, all these guys who are older players. I mean, how fast do you think they run the 40 in? I mean, it can't, yeah, it can't be that. great, but they're still productive.

Right. So it's just stupid to then put a ton of weight and test like that for veteran guys. I mean, go sort of Spring League and let them play and let them show you their skills, you know, playing against other veteran players. I mean, that's because that's what we're talking about. These guys are, they're auditioning for a job that doesn't necessarily ever entail running 40 yards out of a spurner stance in a straight line. Right, right.

Was Tebow there? He was not. I don't know the exact circumstances as to why. I don't know if he chose not to go or if he didn't get his paperwork in in time or how that all worked out. But he was not there. How was he as a teammate? I know you played together in Denver with him. You know, it was interesting.

He was, he's a really, he's a really good guy. He's a really hard worker. I was in an interesting position because, you know, not only was I competing with him for a backup spot, but I was close with Kyle Orton, who was the starter. I was close with him and his wife, Bridget. And, you know, it's tough because you want to all get along in a quarterback room, but only one guy is the one, you know, behind center taking the snaps. So there's a lot of competitiveness going on. A lot of times guys come from different backgrounds.

They have different, you know, systems of faith or belief, whether that's politically or whatever else. And, you know, Tim and Kyle are probably as polarizing as it would get. You see the pictures, yeah. Yeah. on the internet yeah yeah i mean so so no matter how you go about it i mean whatever they believed or didn't believe it was it was tough to be you'll be be in that room and sitting there and i think when tim had first got there there there was obviously a lot of buzz and rightfully so because he's a first round pick he had a tremendous college career but if you're a good teammate right because

that was the question you had asked yeah when a lot of that stuff is going on and you're not labeled the starter, I think a good teammate says to the fans or says to the media, hey, I'm the backup, I'm just trying to do all I can to help my team and help prepare our starter. That's what I think a good teammate says and does.

You know, Tim never said that. Tim never did that. There was people putting up billboards and stuff and if it was me, I would have said, you know, that's not what the situation is. I mean, I remember being in Cleveland, being drafted in a first round pick and Derek

Anderson. It was a little different because Charlie Fry was the start at the beginning of the year. He got benched the half time of the first game. Then he was traded after that. Then Derek went in and Derek played really well. I went to a poleball that year. And I remember when people had asked me, I just say, I'm just trying to get better. I'm trying to help prepare our starter. I'm the backup.

That's not my role. You know, if people started to chant and a stanza or whatever, I'd tell him to quiet down. Because I knew that I never wanted that to happen to me. You know, I knew if I was in Derek Anderson's shoes, I would have never wanted it to be that way. Yeah.

You know, to have to deal with that. You know, I want, you know, I want people to win and be successful and all that. I want to be part of the team, not an individual. And that's what, that's what always kind of bugged me was, you know, and people always see the T-Bow and they always see that kind of stuff. And I've said it before, I'll say it now. You know, I'd rather pray with my teammates. Yeah.

You know, I don't want to go to the bench by myself and draw attention to myself. I'd rather grab one of my teammates' hands and get down and pray and taking me and do it that way. And that's just me. You know, everyone's got their own opinion. I think besides maybe those couple things, I thought, you know, he's as far as prepare,

you know, trying to prepare and working hard and all that stuff, you know, he's as good of a teammate as you'd ask. But, you know, you didn't come out and meet a lot of us for dinners and things like that, which, again, it's tough because, you know, people are going to bother. People want to take pictures and all that. Sometimes you don't want to subject yourself

to that kind of stuff. So I can see that side of things as far as socially not hanging out with the offense alignment as much and going to O-Ly and dinners or hanging out with your wide receivers and running backs as much. How did he deal with the complexities of an NFL offense coming from something like Florida where it was a lot of spread and guys are wide open and it was like one read and go? I think that's where he probably had, you know, probably some of his biggest struggles. And as a teammate, you know, myself and Adam Gase, you know, we were, we watch

a ton of film. A really college film. I mean, I was watching Oregon, West Virginia. I was watching Tim's old Florida film to install plays and ideas that would work

to his advantage. Wow. Because the system we were running with Kyle was so different. I mean, it was a very, it was an NFL-style system for a prolific passer.

I mean, Kyle was a very accurate, very smart cerebral-type player. And we had to change that because, you know, Tim had more athleticism. He was new in the NFL. so he wasn't, you know, he hadn't adjusted to the defenses that he was going to see. He, you know, obviously the system, you know, a lot of that increases, the verbiage,

the things that you're asking a quarterback to see and do. So we had to adapt to him and try to, you know, do the best we could. But I remember sitting down in the quarterback room by myself, you know, taking clips, putting him in the folders, email him to our offensive coordinator, Adam Gase and saying, our quarterback coach Adam Gase and saying, hey, you know, if we make this work, Mike McCoy was the officer coordinator at a time. He did it. And he did a tremendous job adjusting to Tim as well.

But, you know, we do our best to pitch in certain things. I mean, I still remember, maybe you'll remember this. Gino Smith was playing in a bowl game. And maybe it was the Orange Bowl. And they basically ran essentially a jet sweep out of shotgun. Tavon Austin would come in motion. And then at the snap of the ball, Gino would just tap the ball forward to Tavon Austin. And that's considered a forward pass.

So, you know, Tavon also would get it on this jet sweep. He'd get to the edge and he'd run into a touchdown. I honestly think they scored maybe four or five, six touchdowns, maybe in one game that I watched. They absolutely obliterated some team. And I kept pitching it saying this would be perfect because, you know, it's going to help get his completion percentage up. It's a good play, you know, if we can execute it properly.

And what's the downfall? If he pushes a forward and anything gets messed up, it's an incomplete pass. It's not a football. So it seemed like a great. play. I still never got it in, but, you know, there was just things like that that we were trying to do to help him adapt because we had to break it down very simply. If it's too high, throw to the right. If it's one high, third of the left. Seriously? Like that, like, that's like eighth grade level type being that basic? It got pretty basic at times. And I think it was, again,

it was due to the fact that he's a young player. I mean, he hadn't played many games his rookie season. I mean, he went in for certain packages, but it wasn't until the last three games in the season he was able to start and then coming in a training camp, you know, when you're in a quarterback competition, you're battling, you know, you're not getting as many reps as a normal starter. So even then he wasn't given as many reps as you would probably like them to you to prepare him for the season. So it was basic, but look, I mean, his big thing was he was able to improvise. I mean, at some points, we didn't matter what we called. You know, he was going to go out there and do his thing and he was going to find out his score and win anyway. So that was

always the fun part to watch. Yeah, we played Lake Tahoe Celebrity Golf Tournament. He was in a round. We were grouped with him one time. And I was, I was really interested to get to know them a little bit better in there. And I found that, you know, everyone there is a celebrity in their own right, whether they're an actor or a football player, basketball player, whatever. And, but there's all different levels of degrees of, of how these people act in that setting, right? They're playing a sport that they're, that's not their best sport, right? They're playing golf. So they're a little bit uncomfortable there, which I fully get. But then there's a lot of people around watching and interacting, there's autographs and things like that.

I found Tim to be hyper aware of the people and how he was viewed by them. And I also try to talk football with him because I like to do that with the quarterbacks, especially because I want to just kind of get a sense for how much they know and how much they understand, you know, a defense, how they, you know, what it's like walking to the line of scrimmage in their mind. And so, but by the way, he's a great guy. He was super nice. he asked me a lot of questions about me too, which not everybody does, because you don't have to.

I'm just out there, you know, long for the ride in the golf tournament. But like if you compare that to somebody like Matt Ryan, who we also play with, when you talk to a guy like Matt Ryan, the guy understands every single aspect of playing the position of quarterback, of being the guy, of having full confidence in himself. You could just feel it and sense it. And then when you ask him to talk about, like, describing a defense and how you're going to attack. HAC specific defenses, it's like it was, it was simple. It was like it was, it was more than memorized.

It was just ingrained in his mind of how you do certain things. And that's what I found was an interesting difference between somebody who's had a pretty great career and somebody who struggled to play the quarterback position, you know? Yeah. And I think, you know, everyone talked about Tim's throwing motion and they tried to make, they tried to make it seem as if, oh, he's, he needs to be fixed, he needs to go to some quarterback guru. even now he just signed in Philly

and people were like, well, Tom House fixed him. Look, the thing that I always noticed was, I mean, Tim threw the same way in college and he had maybe one of the greatest careers ever in the history of college football. So it wasn't as if his throwing motion wasn't effective then. And now you're saying, oh, well, he's in the NFL and that's what?

No, it was the mental aspect of things where if he mentally wasn't sure, he wasn't going to be as confident in his throwing motion. If you're not going to be as accurate, you're not going to put the ball where you want to put it. Or you're going to hesitate. and then your rhythm's going to be off, your motion's going to be off,

the ball's not going to come out the way you want it to. I think that was what people saw. People saw a guy who, you know, was in the early parts of his career trying to play and mentally just hadn't been given the reps and the opportunity that he needed yet to be comfortable and confident in his ability. I mean, Matt Ryan was able to come in day one,

be the starter, and be the guy that was going to be the face of that franchise. And there's no doubt about it. You know, I think with Tim, people were always hesitant to see if he could even play quarterback in the NFL. So I feel like it was hard for him probably because he had to always prove himself that he could be a quarterback in the NFL and he could play the position as opposed to a guy who's the second pick overall who got paid a ton of money so they're financially obligated on top of it.

Yeah, absolutely. I didn't mean to go off on that tangent, but I think it's interesting and you've got a great perspective because you've been around a lot of different guys. So let's, I want to transition. And by the way, how nice of a guy? guys, Matt Ryan. Like literally one of the nicest human beings I've ever been around, right? I mean, it was, it was, it was an awesome round, dude. Like he, but, but you know there's some people that just have that, I don't know, that aura of walking around of having complete,

um, he's the opposite of insecure. He's just super secure in himself. He's also a good golfer, by the way, which probably helped a little bit, but very secure in himself as a leader and a guy. and just one of those guys that you want leading your team. You could just tell. I saw him on Hard Knocks, too, and it was like he was the exact same there. You can tell he's the same guy at all times. I think we play with Wes Welker that round, too. So talk about an interesting round of golf,

because Walker's kind of a crazy man and is also another one of my favorite players by far in the NFL just because he's a little guy, and he just goes out and does it. But, yeah, Matt Ryan was just awesome, and he's great. Yeah, he's a tremendous player. I think it's funny, not to completely get off tangent, but everyone keeps making a big deal looking at this year's draft

about James Winston and how many interceptions he's thrown. First of all, it was what, Redshirt sophomore year? But Matt Ryan, like, I think he threw 18. Matt Ryan threw 17, his senior year at BC. And he was still the second overall pick. And it wasn't a doubt in anyone's mind. You know, he was going to be the franchise quarterback. And people are like, oh, no, James Winston, this or that.

I don't know, are you kidding me? Like, put on the 10. tape, man. He's young. He's extremely successful. Let's not knocking for, you know, trying to force in some balls because their team was down. I mean, holy crap. They got lost one game in two years. So you got the first pick in the draft.

Who do you draft? If I'm playing GM, yes. You know, it depends on what my team needs. So let's say you don't have a quarterback. If I don't have a quarterback, I think Jamis is probably

my best bet of this quarterback group to be my leader, to be the face of our franchise right away. And this is a really complex question because, you know, teams aren't as financially obligated to even the top 15 picks anymore with this new CBA. So you take him with the first pick, you know, you kind of want to get him in there and play him where he's not hitting a bunch of money against your cap and see if he's going to be your guy or not. If he's not, then you can draft again in three years and ship this guy. off or cut him or trade him, whatever you want. But that's starting to be the trend.

And it's because of the way the CBA structured the draft now, slotting them essentially. And, you know, I think in his case, he's the best prepared. If you look at Marcus Mariotta, do I think he's got a greater ceiling? Without a doubt. He's probably, you know, could be a greater player down the road. He's a safer bet off the field, all those sorts of things. But if he's going to be drafted that high,

someone's going to have to put him in and play him right away. And it's not going to play well if he's not comfortable being under center. If he's not comfortable turning his back to the defense, getting his head back around off the play action fake, and figure out the coverage and figuring out where he's got to throw the football. While he's trying to adjust to a new offense, while he's trying to identify new defenses he hasn't seen before, all these things he has to adjust to.

And it doesn't give him the leg up. Like with Jamis, you know, working with Jimbo Fisher at Florida State, some of the principles, the verbiage, will almost be identical to probably what he'll run in the NFL. You brought up an interesting point. I remember being in college. The interesting point is speed and decision-making in such a little amount of time.

So I was in college. We're doing seven-on-seven in the summer. I know you probably did that every year in college in the summertime, right? And the basketball players wanted to come down and watch. They wanted just to see what it's like. They wanted to run routes, too, but they wanted to say that they could play on the team. But anyway, so they're standing behind our group as I call the play.

We go up to line of scrimmage. You know, you take the snap seven on seven for those who haven't done it. There's no linemen. It's just like the skeleton, so to speak, you're out there throwing against dbs and linebackers and your receivers are out there. So anyway, I call the play, you run it and we threw a few plays. And I go back to some of our basketball players who are great players, by the way. A lot of them want to have shots in the NBA and play in Europe.

And they said, oh, my God. I can't believe how fast this is, like how quickly you have to drop, step, you know, whether it's play action, turn your head and make the throw. And all I said was, just wait till their linemen here. It's a million times harder because you got these 280 pounders coming off the edge trying to kill you. And I said, so this is the easy thing. Seven on seven, you're completing like 80% of your passes probably because there's

no linemen there in your way. And yes, it's fast and decision making has to be done. but I think that happens over time when you get enough reps to where it starts slowing down for you. And that's what I think people who haven't played there. And if you have a coach who maybe didn't play quarterback, they don't get that. And I've had coaches who didn't play quarterback. And they don't understand that aspect of playing the position. But you get these other, you know, semi-world class athletes back there watching you from behind.

And they can't, they just marvel out how fast it goes. Well, without a doubt. And that's why I always believe, and granted, we're both biased because we've played the position. and we understand it, but it truly is probably the most coveted position in all of sports for a reason. I mean, I think the people who have experienced it, either from playing it or who have somehow found a way to have some light shed upon them, what actually it all entails come away being just completely blown away with what all goes into it.

And it's just, it's hard for me to not always, I don't want to say. being like I always I always feel like I'm surrounding myself with other quarterbacks because I feel like we view life different we think we think different you know you put us you put us in that position we're going to lead or we're going to work together I mean it's just it's a very unique set of skills that takes to play quarterback no matter what level and I think any I don't care if you're a high school quarterback or you play college NFL whatever you all kind of have this all encompassing similar skill set where you just kind of get a

mom and you can just talk about things in a very quarterback-esque way. Yeah, I know. I felt that. Like you go to camps or you got other things and you always felt that little camaraderie and that's like a fraternity of guys who have been through and, you know, when you have to stand in there and the guys are coming down on you and you can't bail out, man. You've got to take it and you've got to drive, see the defense, look into, you know,

you see the guys coming after you, but you've got to feel them while you're reading the defense and then you've got to make your shot. You got to stick it, you know, one of those vertical routes down the middle in that tight window on time anticipating. It's tough. And that's why I always lean to when I see a quarterback throw a pick, right? I'm watching a game on TV. I lean towards not blaming them. Like I'm always like, let me see the whole play first, the all 22 film, to see exactly what happened.

Because, you know, it's not always on their shoulders now. They always get blamed and it goes on their stat sheet. but I always feel like, well, let me see what the receiver did. Let me see what the line did. Let me see if the guy should have ran hot. Let me see all these things before I'm making a decision of who's truly at fault for that interception. Oh, 100%. I mean, that's the toughest thing doing TV is, you know, they don't always like using the L-22.

You know, your producer or the director will tell you, they'll say, hey, you get won a game. You know, so pick the right way. Because to me, it always, like you're saying, it explains what's taking course. of what's happening out there. You know, look, let's go back to just the quarterback position in general. I mean, you literally could find some piece of every single career that's out there in what quarterbacks have to do, right? Oh, yeah.

You know, there's a form of communications between whether it's your coach, giving signals or personnel, whatever may be in him talking to you, right? The ability to sell a play in the huddle. I mean, Ryan, how many times if you get a play where you're sitting there going, this is a bad call? And you've got to sell it, right? You got to sell it. I've, hold on.

I want you to get back to it because I love where you're going. But I've used the specific example that you're talking about in interviews multiple times for leadership positions. The question, you're like, what if your boss or the CEO gives you a message that you don't believe in, but you must sell it to whoever? Because it's like, well, one, you've got to stay true to yourself. But two, I've been here. I've been in this position. When my office is coordinator, maybe he isn't fully sure what's going on, he calls it. he relays the play in and it's third in whatever and I'm thinking this is not the right play

for the situation. However, I have five seconds to call this play in the huddle. All eyes are on me. They must believe it. They must know that I believe in what's the end, what I'm calling, right? And if they, they sense even a little bit that I don't believe in it, boom, we're dead. We are dead. It's not going to work.

And so I think what you're saying, I love it. So sorry to cut you off, but that's absolutely right. Oh, no. I mean, I mean, and you can just continue to keep going, right? because now all of a sudden you break the huddle. And now you're in this, you know, management position where you're just trying to get, maybe even logistics. You're just trying to get people lined up, get people where they're supposed to go, right?

And make sure the play is in the right position. And then you kind of go into this, I mean, almost like you're an army commander, right, or management position where you're dictating what the protection is, what the blocking scheme is, as you then start to rehearse the cadence and all that. And then, man, once the snap of the ball happens, I mean, now you're producing. You're the engineer. you are creating this play or trying to avoid any mishaps or anything that's happened up front you've got to fix and you're trying to steer a certain way almost like you're you know you can

be a captain of a ship or a pilot whatever i mean you are flying that machine man and like you said you know when i i compare being in the pocket during a pass in the NFL to to being a firefighter because you know firefighters go in man when everyone's running out and they got to do their job and there's all this stuff burning and you know being incinerated around them but they still got to go in and be cool and calm do their job and get out and that's what it's like man you drop back you you've got this fire around you it's right it's trying to trying to burn you at every instance and yet you still got to keep cool and calm find your guy deliver the ball and then move on And it's funny, but it's just there's so many different professions that I think being a

quarterback can help prepare you for or there's a piece of it in it. I don't think you can say that about any other position and any other sport. That is awesome, dude. Like this is really, really great stuff. And I know we're winding down now, but this is like just great information. And I love it. Do you go and give speeches or give talks to companies, things like that? No, I mean, I honestly feel like.

You should. I used to do some public speaking when I was young. And I realized at a young age that as much as I kind of enjoyed it, I always found myself wanting to listen to others before I spoke. And even though I maybe felt comfortable speaking to groups, I always kind of wanted to hear what they had to say more. Like I always ended up making it interactive. And then at that point, you kind of just, you know,

whatever your intended purpose was, sometimes you either find a way of getting back there or you just can't it and you move on. So it all depends, but I just enjoy having conversations with people and kind of elaborating on thoughts and how people view things and view leadership and all that. Well, you should. I mean, and maybe we can, we got to work something out, man, because like I think this is incredible stuff, even if, even if it's like a Q&A setup, which I think those are some of the most interesting talks when it's Q&A because you can just kind of sit back and answer the

questions. That's kind of how I'm trying to do this podcast, right? It's lob up some questions for you and then have hopefully good follow-ups to where, you know, it becomes a really interesting conversation. I know this one has been, and it probably helps that we have a somewhat similar background this year is on a bigger scale. So I have one more question for you, Brady, and again, I appreciate you being here. And so the show, the title of this show is the learning leader show, because I love leadership and I love learning. I love improving. I love getting better.

I love all the things that entail both of those topics, right? And I want to get your definition of a learning leader. What does that phrase? What does that term mean to you? Well, a learning leader to me means they're going to be ever-changing and growing. I don't believe if you're a leader, I don't believe that you can stay in one place. I believe you truly have to, I mean, whether you're the business world and you have to adapt to the innovation, and the creativity that's out there, or just educationally.

I mean, we're learning more and more and more about ourselves, about the earth, the universe, whatever you want to say. And if you are not continuing to educate yourself, you're no longer leading, right? I mean, people are going to start, you know, migrating towards others, you know, and being around others who are at the forefront or who want to lead and want to take us into kind of the unknown, right, and continue to, you know, take us to higher places, begin and start new things. So to me, that's all about continuing to change and grow, right?

And that can be uncomfortable. It's so uncomfortable to have to change and change maybe even your identity, right? I mean, we're talking about something that I'm kind of doing in my life, possibly right now. And, dude, there's some times where it's so uncomfortable. But in doing that, I think you become more well-rounded. I think you become more confident and more secure in who you are as a person because you realize that no matter what changes in your life or around you, you still have those kind of core principles and core values, right?

And to be a leader, I think you always hold those things true. You know, those principles that are your cornerstones of your leadership, that never changes even though you should still strive to change and get better and grow. I love it. Leaping outside of your comfort zone, you know, feeling uncomfortable because those are the true moments when you do grow, you get better and others that you're leading see that you do that it helps them become more willing to do those things and that's how everybody grows and everybody gets better from you know following

your lead and then that in turn helps you create more leaders so it's like got this this powerful effect on others so that's a phenomenal answer and this whole this whole episode Brady has been sweet and I guarantee we got to got to do it again I would love to continue talking to you and so let's let's make sure we do it again Any time, brothers, let me know. Thanks for having me on. Awesome. All right, Brady.

Thanks, man. Thank you. Yep. See you, man. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Learning Leader Show. I absolutely love doing this show, as I hope you can tell by the passion that I bring to it on a daily basis. If you enjoy this episode, I'd like to ask one thing of you. You could go to Ryanhawk.net.

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