The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 463: Brady Quinn & AJ Hawk - Preparing Like A QB, Showing Love Through Discipline, & The Craziest Draft Of All Time

Episode Date: March 13, 2022

Text Hawk to 66866 for "Mindful Monday" Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12    https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 Brady Quinn set 36 records at The University of Notre Dame.  He graduated from Notre Dame as one of their greatest football players ever. Along with 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 serves as one of the main analysts on Saturday's "Big Noon Kickoff" on FS1. He's one of the only people broadcasting both collegiate and NFL games. Now, he's on the radio every morning:  "2 Pros and a Cup of Joe" show he hosts with LaVar Arrington and Jonas Knox. AJ Hawk is the all-time leading tackler in Green Bay Packers history. He won a National Championship at Ohio State University and was voted captain of the Green Bay Packers Super Bowl-winning team in the 2010-2011 season. He was inducted into the Ohio State University Hall of Fame in 2019. Currently, he is a co-host on The Pat McAfee Show which airs weekdays on YouTube. Notes: Playing quarterback: "You can find the intangibles of being a quarterback in almost every profession in the world. There's nothing like it." – Brady Quinn You must be efficient and effective as a communicator. You have to prepare for all of the "what if" scenarios - "Have a plan, work the plan, plan for the unexpected." You have to be a great listener You need to be curious to ask the right questions "The quarterback runs the show. They need to be the person that you can go to when there are problems." - AJ Why has AJ resonated with viewers on The Pat McAfee Show: "You're relatable. People liked you for being a Super Bowl-winning linebacker, but they didn't know you then. They get to know you now on your show and they see that you're like them. They can relate to you." - Brady Dad Life - "Discipline is love. Do the hard thing. Don't take the easy way out." - Brady The Fiesta Bowl - AJ (the All-American linebacker from Ohio State) vs. Brady (the All-American Quarterback from Notre Dame) High-pressure situations: Must be prepared so you can let your instincts take over Need to learn from past failures to improve the next time Must work on the little things every day so they become ingrained habits The Draft - Your ultimate golf group. You can choose any person Brady: Chopper Quinn (Brady's dad) Elon Musk Chris Farley Tiger Woods Will Ferrell Ryan: George Washington Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson Eddie Vedder Kobe Bryant Steve Carell AJ: Samuel L. Jackson Sean Casey Charles Barkley Tom Cruise Pierro Manzoni

Welcome to the Learning Leaders Show, presented by Insight Global. I am your host, Ryan Hawk. Thank you so much for being here. Text, Hawk to 6-6-866 to become part of Mindful Monday. You, along with tens of thousands of other learning leaders from all over the world, will receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your weekall If you'll also receive details about how my new book, The Pursuit of Excellence, will help you become a more effective leader.

Text, Hawk to 66866. Now on to this very special episode with Brady Quinn and my brother, A.J. Hawk. Brady set 36 records as the quarterback at the University of Notre Dame. He was a first round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns in 2007. and since retiring from the NFL, he has worked in a wide variety of broadcasting roles. He currently serves as one of the main analyst on Saturday's big noon kickoff on Fox. He's one of the only people in broadcasting to do both collegiate and NFL games.

He also hosts a radio show every morning, two pros and a cup of Joe, with Lavaire Arrington and Jonas Knox. My other guest, my brother, A.J. Hawke, he's back, all-time-leading tackler, in Green Bay Packers history. He won a national championship at Ohio State University. Voted team captain of the Green Bay Packers team that won a Super Bowl in 2010, 2011, and he was recently inducted

into the Ohio State University Hall of Fame. He's currently a co-host on the Pat McAfee Show, which airs every day on YouTube. A few of the topics that we discussed. It was a lot of fun. The future of media and how AJ and Brady have both found their niche and some of the things they've learned

doing that as well as how they've successfully made the transition from one great career on the field to what they're doing off and what others can learn from that as well and then what it means to be a husband and a dad and lessons are trying to instill in their kids I love that part what it means to play quarterback and what you learn from high pressure situations I think that was a really fun part and then he described in-depth their meeting in the Fiesta when they played against each other in college. And then we closed this one out with another epic draft. I think you're going to enjoy it.

Ladies and gentlemen, this was a great one. It's Brady Quinn and A.J. Hawke. All right, Brady, I want to ask you first. First, welcome, guys. Different kind of welcome because we normally talk as it is. But what are the chances? So I'm going to tease something we're going to do later. We're going to have a draft at the end of this conversation.

Brady, what do you think are the? chances that AJ drafts somebody that gets him fired from his current job with Pat McAfee. All right. The chances of that happening are probably, I'll say 49%. I'm not willing to say like a coin flip quite. I think it's just a tad bit underneath that. But there's a strong possibility. It's almost close to a coin flip.

Age, what do you think? When I'm envisioning your draft. forward. I think it looks vastly different than probably mine and Brady's. And I'm wondering the names that are on there. Well, I guess you're going to have to wonder because I'm still trying to figure I have a few. I have like a group of people. I'm trying to narrow down for this. So don't worry. Just going to be run of the mill probably, you know, Webb Simpson, just like current PGA tour guys. Just don't worry about it. We'll be good. I think I have a good list I put together. Can I say this? I have one person in particular that I,

It's going to sound cheesy or cliche, but I feel like I may have to draft them number one overall, only so I don't have one of you guys steal them from me. All right. So I'm just going to say this right now. Just keep an eye on the number one big. Okay. Last time, so for episode 400, Brady, age and I did a draft with Pistol. And, you know, we said all this stuff on the podcast about like being a dad and retirement and what's next. and 98% of the emails and texts and people are like,

I can't believe you didn't draft Field of Dreams in your top sports. Like that was it. Or where's Hoosiers that? Right. So many complaints about our drafts. So we're teasing the draft later. We're going to talk about some other stuff before we get to the draft. But and I even said exactly what it is.

We just teased it a bit. But let's get into it. Brady, I was checking. So the last time we recorded, I don't know if you remember this. It was May of 2015, dude. It's been almost seven years. years. Wow.

Actually, episode number 11. I started listening to some of it earlier today. I thought, oh, God, I sound terrible. But one of the things you said during that draft, or I'm sorry, during that conversation was, so you were, you know, somewhat newly retired from playing, and you were broadcasting games, like live games. And one of the quotes that I remember about, actually wrote it in my first book, Welcome to Management, was about you being vulnerable, was you said it was like watching when

you were broadcasting. It was like watching the love of my life. life date another guy right in front of me. Like it was that painful. I was that hard. How do you feel now that more time has passed since you were a player and you're more into the broadcasting world? I think time heals all wounds. It's probably an accurate saying. I don't know that I get as emotionally wrapped up as I used to. I think I just try to enjoy it for what it is. Now, maybe that's because I'm what's almost seven years older than I was probably when we recorded that. So physically, I probably don't feel like I can still play. It's not as

recent off of that. My life's changed. The workouts have changed. A lot of things have changed in my life as far as my priorities too. Whereas back then in 2015, when you're segueing out of the only thing you've known for your entire life, basically what, 31 years of my life, it was probably pretty jolting as to, you know, how you go about figuring out what that next step is. And I always say, I've been extremely lucky in so many ways in my life. But that was one of them where I kind of fell into something that I never knew or never envisioned myself making a career out of. And so far it's gone great.

I made a lot of great friends from it. I've really enjoyed the experience. And it's allowed me, you know, the ability to stay with the game of football, the game I love while still spending time with my family and doing those things that I want to do. Yeah, I love your guys' show. And Fox, we're going to talk about in a second, your pregame show. that started from thin air and then is a direct competitor with one of the greatest like studio shows of all time ESPN Game Day and now you guys are are making some waves

and it's pretty cool to see age how about we you know we record every once in a while the last time was a little bit more than a year ago for episode 400 you and pat were were kind of just finding your way there was it was first called mackafee and hawk sports talk and now it's evolved and I think your show with Pat, I feel like I get stopped more about people talking about you as a guy on Pat's show than when you played. And it's wild to see. How do you feel now that more time has passed since you've played?

And you found like a really cool gig for yourself alongside a guy who's wildly different from you, but you guys seem to mesh so well. Yeah, it's been an interesting ride. I guess and I guess where I am right now compared to when we last were recording. The show has grown. It's taking on a whole new thing. I don't know.

Like it's just, it's completely organic. Everything that's happened that I do with Patton on a show and all the boys there just happened because it was fun. And we enjoyed doing it. I love coming on as a guest and then kept coming on every once in a while. And then all of a sudden, for the last couple years, I've been five days a week with him and spent a week out at Radio Road. with a Super Bowl with a nice big setup.

It had an, you know, absurd week out there, just bizarre all over the place, what was going on. Really fun. But I honestly, it's by far the most fun I have on any kind of broadcasting platform I ever go on. I've ever done. I didn't do any, I worked college games as a color analyst for the last couple of years. This was the first season. I didn't do any games.

I just didn't want to, with what I had going on five days a week with Pat and all of them, I didn't want to travel every week. I just couldn't exactly make it work. And I definitely miss doing games. I love doing games. I don't miss the travel. But it's something I really enjoy, but it's awesome, man, because we talk about NFL football mainly.

We talk about a little bit of college football, but mainly NFL football and anything else, like I don't really watch a whole lot else. I watch Ohio State play. I watch a lot of the big time college football games. I don't really get into the weeds of a lot of the games and what's going on back and forth. But I watch the NFL, and I love the NFL,

and we don't really have to play to, I don't have to touch on a bunch of different subjects. That would be work to me. Like, that would be work for me to have to watch certain things just so I could kind of have an opinion on it because I don't want to just give. That's another great thing about the show being organic and authentic. I just, if I don't know, I don't know. Like, I have no clue. I'm not going to fake an opinion here. I didn't watch the game. Sorry, like, that's just how it works. And I think that's why I've been very, very lucky where I'm at. And yeah, I hope to continue to it to do it. And I know Pat has plans for everything. He's always planning 15 steps down the road.

So who knows where it's going, but it's been fun. Brady, I assume you watch. I'm on, you're on the radio every single morning. And in the fall, you're traveling to locations for these games to 9 a.m. every day, right? Ryan, sorry to cut you off. Brady, six to nine a.m. Two pros and a couple, Joe. That's right. That's great. I appreciate the plug. But I want to, I want to echo what, uh, what Ryan had said, AJ, like I on the road, I'll have people come up and talk to me like, oh, okay, I'm supposed to. to call or text AJ right now to get his opinion on this or what he really meant this on your guys's show. And I'm like, I don't know. I'll reach out to him when I get a chance. Like, AJ's a tough

guy to get a hold of sometimes. I tried to do a three-way call with me and old Butnik that AJ didn't pick up because we were talking about a little bit of the AJ Super Bowl experience and a story he told me. I was like, oh, I go, you got to hear AJ tell us. Let's try to call him right now. Of course he didn't pick up. So it didn't work out. But same thing, man. It's, it's been awesome to just see the way AJ and Pat have kind of grown that show and what it looks like to, especially considering the recent news in sports. And now it's, I mean, a lot of things have really broken on their show. Well, we're recording this the day after Aaron Rogers called Pat.

I'm sure A.J. and Aaron talked about it too. But he called Pat and said, okay, you get to break this news. I'm coming back to Green Bay. And then even got to say, well, some of the media reports are wrong about the amount of the contract. whatever. It is pretty amazing that this, the, your connection with, with Aaron, as well as Pat's friendship he's developed with him and Aaron Rogers Tuesdays has become like the event that people in the sports world and the NFL world are all waiting and watching. And then you guys

are popping up on ESPN and all these other networks, you with some of the colorful types of clothes you wear sometimes, which I think are quite funny. people don't fully get. But isn't it wild though that your guys a show, which is, as Pat calls it, this little regional show on YouTube is now kind of a worldwide thing that people are watching and talking about. Yeah, I mean, it's been crazy. And obviously having, we've had Aaron Rogers come on every Tuesday for the last two seasons.

He's won the MVP both years. So that obviously is a gigantic help to what we're doing in the show and to getting people there. And then hopefully people come there, they stick around for a little bit, even when he's not on. But yeah, the cool thing about it is it's such a new time, a new era with how people like consume things that I'm sure, Ryan, you know, like from different people that you can see people that are like the demo that watch the show and that are big fans of Pat and he's built this gigantic audience.

They're so invested. That's what I've noticed how cool it is. People are super invested yelling like wherever I go yelling. Ryan was with me in Tahoe last summer like, I don't know how you swing a golf club those mangled terrible fingers like all these inside jokes from the show are what I hear out in the real world and when you played it's it's almost there's more oh yeah way more fame but more like well known than when you played yeah I think because also you're like I'm talking I don't talk a whole lot either that's the thing I got my kids every once in a while they see different clips or they see some

dad you don't ever say a word you don't ever talk dad I'm like good let's keep it that way then like I don't want to five days a week you'll get sick of me if I try to talk too much so you're all right that's fine with me. But yeah, I think because it's also the first time I've gotten like a long form, get to sit there and talk. I think with how I just interact with Pat, it's just fun. So although we're very different, I think I've probably been attracted to people like that my whole life that are maybe outside of just of what I normally, how I would behave.

I get a kick out of it. I think it's fun to hang out with those people. I think it's because you're relatable. You know, I think that's what podcasts do. They strip off whatever hat or uniform you're wearing. and adventures into this realm of like, oh, yeah, we all face like the same issues. Like we have kids. We've all changed a poopy diaper, like or been peed on by one of our kids trying to do so.

Like those things happen. Like I was telling on radio that the day, God bless her, our oldest Sloan had flooded a toilet. And I felt awful because when I walked in to find her, she was so scared that mom and dad were going to be mad at her. She had reached in the toilet, she tried to pull out the toilet paper. So her hands are all wet with covered with toilet paper. I was like, okay, I'm like trying to diagnose what happened.

But she was like almost in tears because she was afraid how we were going to react. And I'm like, you don't understand. Like, I'm proud of you. Like there was a problem and you're trying to fix it. Like as best you know how. So let's get you cleaned up. Let's teach you how to turn off the water in case this happens again because I'm sure she's going to use too much toilet paper like she always does.

And it's going to happen again. Or maybe Tegan's going to do it, her little sister. So I think that's what. it comes down to. It's like podcasts give you, to AJ's point, in a long form, an opportunity to say, like, yeah, I was a kick-ass linebacker, a Super Bowl champ, but like, this is who I am as like a dad and a person, too. And it's, it's, like, relatable. Like, yeah, I get ticked off in traffic, too, like everyone else. And I think then that's where, like, people start to be like, I really like that guy. Like, I love him as a player, but, like, now I really like him, I really like him

who he is as a person. I think people gravitate towards that. Speaking of times as a dad, I always kind of, I feel like steer it to this if somebody is a dad I'm talking to or a mom. And Brady, I'm curious, as age and I have talked a lot about this. Part of the reasons that probably all three of us have been able to do what we've done is because we've probably developed toughness and resilience and a strong work ethic and ability to bounce back when things don't go well. when you are raising your kids and you let's just you have plenty of money you have all you could provide them with whatever they want you could make their life easy and I think it's actually hard not to make their life easy because you want to be the guy who's like I got it I got this I'm the provider yes we're going to have it how how are you as a dad what is your philosophy to raise

your kids you have three daughters to raise them to be tough and to be resilient and to develop a work ethic, even though sometimes when you grow up as a rich kid, it's easy for that not to happen. So I'm, I'm really curious about your mindset towards that. It's tough because it's not only hard to do it because maybe you have the means to do so. It's also hard to do it because let's be honest, it makes your life easier as a parent. Like there's certain things you can do as a parent to make your life easier where I could just send my kid off the camp or I throw an iPad in there. Take the easy way out.

Yeah. It's hard not to take the easy way out. Yeah. So I think those things, they're really incumbent upon you waking up every day and reminding yourself, like, you've got a greater job. Like, I always try to, like, remind myself and talk to my wife about, like, your legacy. Because, like, my wife was until someone Biles came along was like the most decorated gymnast, a female gymnast in our country's history, at least as far as, you know,

medals and so forth and all that. And I always try to sit there. It was like, you know, the lasting legacy, though, is always going to end up being like what you impart on our three girls. And if we have another child, if we're so lucky, like, what comes after that? Like, I always think about that because that's going to last far longer than what she did in the Olympics. And, you know, it's a great example because, like, every four-year cycle, there's, like, a new girl who comes along and wins the hearts of America as a gymnast for our Olympic team. It's been Simone Biles of late. But then there'll be the next cycle of girls who come along.

And so like every four years, like you see this and you go, yeah, your legacy was great, but then it's over like a decade after the fact, or 12 years after the fact, they've had three Olympics where like someone's taken that place now. So I think how I try to address it is I try to teach our girls that like discipline is love. And I think that a lot of times it's hard for them to understand that concept. But, you know, in doing the things that mom and dad are asking them to do and whether that's consistently making their bed cleaning up, you know, coming out with me, to walk our dog and understanding like why we're making them do these tasks and all that and trying

to be tough on them to make sure like we don't take the easy way out. We're not letting them take a day off. We're making them consistent with that approach. It helps them to have them to have a better understanding of like what that means to me at least. Being consistent and being disciplined in your approach of how you're going to teach them, whether it's chores, whether right from wrong or even just like little things. Like when we're out there practicing soccer or something else, like trying to keep the mouth and understand they're going to, like, I was took Sloan putting the other day. She, like, kept missing putts. I'm like, hey, babe, this is the second time you ever done this. It's a really hard sport. Like, the fact that you've made a couple is amazing. You know,

so it's just kind of instilling some of that, hopefully at a young age, even though they're probably too young to really get much of it right now. You know, we've talked a lot about, actually a lot on podcast about this. Like, what are you, now you're coaching Lenin's team, you coach Hendricks team, you coach some of your boys and daughters' team. What are you thinking about to develop you and Laura. Actually, I should have said this at the beginning. Some people, I guess, I shouldn't assume people are aware. A.J. married Brady's sister, Laura. So Brady is A.J.'s brother-in-law. By the way. I didn't marry A.J.'s sister because A.J. doesn't have a sister. I get that question all the time. All the time. People are like, Brady married your sister.

We're like, we don't have a sister. No, he's married to Alicia. And so. Well, Ryan, did you see, sorry to cut you off. Brady, you're aware, a couple years ago, I believe, when someone mentioned something to me online. I'm not super active on social media, but one time I responded to somebody, they said, oh, they said, Brady Quinn married AJ's sister. They sent this to me on Twitter,

and then all I said is he's a very handsome guy, just to perpetuate the whole situation. So to continue that thing, even though, yes, there's three boys in our family, there's no girls. That's true. Yeah, it's true, true statement. I'm not lying. Your response was true. Anyway, by the way, what is the word

for my brother's brother-in-law. Does that exist? What does that mean? Brady, that's you to me. My brother's brother-in-law. I even Google this before we started. I don't know what that is because it's not my brother-in-law. It's my brother-in-law.

That's what Brady and my relationship is. So I'm not really sure what that means. The geeky side would be like the B-squared brother-in-law or something, you know? Like some, I don't know. Is that not a technical term? I don't know. I thought it would be, but I haven't seen. Anyway, so just to clear that up,

because I shouldn't assume everybody knows that. Age, when you think about this now as a coach for your kids and, again, developing toughness and resilience and work ethic, what are the ways that you've been thinking about it recently? I mean, I think about all the time just because of how nice we do have it at times compared to, you know, everything is all, everything's relative. No matter what's going on, it's all relative. There's always somebody doing way better and people that have it much,

harder than us. I've always tried to tell my kids, but yeah, I coached my daughter's fifth grade team this year. And that was a very, that was a learning experience teaching them every single day. Like, they respond well to discipline. Like, they wanted it. Like they, if I was too lax, yeah, I feel like at times they would, if I was too lax, they would get annoyed with me. If I, like, would let somebody dribble a ball while I'm speaking or something, someone's not paying attention. And then if I did get a little tight with them or tense with them, which I never, really was. I didn't yell at him. I was super positive, you know, hit the rock here, high five all day. Let's, let's cheer. We're going to win no matter what the score is.

We'll find a way. Let's just keep fighting. They responded well. My daughter, she's 11, and she's not scared to, you know, tell you what she thinks. She's in that age, that range where she's, she is strong. Like, she is, we say all the time, like, I don't think she's going to let some, you know, if she finds a boyfriend in high school, he's not going to walk all over her, I don't think. I think she's going to run the show. And in a good way, like, I feel she is like, Brady's sister. I was going to say Lord doesn't let you walk over her, right, Brady? In a great way, obviously.

It's been great. AJ is a saint, dude. I tell him all the time. And I sincerely say it because like I do what he married into. But I want him as a brother-in-law and I got to have you as my brother-in-law's brother. So I wanted to tell him what he was marrying into. I was like, no, man, do it. Yeah, make it happen.

Glad to have you on board. We'll talk later. Well, I appreciate you. Brady. I, you know, I'm glad. I'm glad it's all worked out great because honestly, it gets better and better with time. It truly does. I, I've said a million times. I'm obsessed with Laura. She gets annoyed with me because I just check in to try to see what she's doing. She's so busy all the time. So I just try to, you know, I got to act, you know, got to try not to bug her. It's the old cat and mouse game, Brady. You got to play hard to get, which I'm doing 15 years into our marriage,

I guess, still. Laura, I would say Laura, I wanted a public to say, Brady probably isn't the other. So I was, I was trying to, it's so hard to buy, to buy gifts for, for you for age. And I couldn't think if something I actually enlisted the help of one of my friends named John Rulin, who wrote a book called Giftology. So like, he's a professional gift giver. And he's like, I'm like, he's got everything. And so we came up with this kind of wooden mug that could be carved into all like the highlight moments of your life. And, and, but in order to do that, I needed Laura's help. So I sent her a bunch a question so that I could give to the artist to then create this artifact mug is what it's

called Laura's email back was amazing she was it was it was so detailed and concise about these great moments in both of your guys's lives and your relationship and you as a dad and the mug turned out really cool because of how thoughtful that Laura is in regards to helping me create that I've got stories obviously but I'm not I don't live with you you're a dad right you're marriage. So that's that's different from our stories. And I just, I just wanted to say, I thought that was like, it was really cool. Like you learn a lot about people when you kind of supply them with prompts and see what they say and how, uh, I would say how personal and thoughtful that it was. It was really cool. That, well, that gift was awesome. I mean, when you

describe it, it definitely doesn't do it justice. If you try to explain what it is, like, all right, that's stupid. Like, you throw that away almost if you hear someone talk about it. But I didn't know idea and all of a sudden, like, hey, Ryan said, we open this together. like she wasn't to be like she's supposed to be there and opened i'm like what is going on here and i know like you don't Ryan's not just half assing anything like it's going to be legit he's going to he worked on this and yeah so then you open this cool box it's this mug with all these cool carvings and then there's a video of the artist talking through each part of the mug each story from each person or family like it's it was awesome it's it's a very cool situation like and i'm glad

i actually want to see that email am i allowed to see that email that she checked out i'll send dude. Well, you ask her first, and then I'll forward. Oh, she said it's good. We're good. We're good. She said it's no problem. Anyway, no, it has been cool because I remember I was with you the night that you met Laura. It was after a game on a Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio. And I remember your level of excitement was quite high. And it was just cool now that it's been many years later and here we are. But one of the things that happened, I wasn't going to bring this up, but now that we're talking about it, one of the things that happened, A few months after that first night, was it the Miami game? I think you played AIDS against Miami.

Your senior year, you'd sacked my good friend, Josh Betts, a number of times who's a quarterback at Miami. Still see him to, he's over here coaching. I love Josh. He's a great coach for his kids.

And then he, blame me, he's coached my kids at different times. Yeah, Josh Betts, he's a stud. Awesome, dude. Anyway, a few months later, though, we find out that the Fiesta Bowl is going to be played

and it's Ohio State versus Notre Dame. And it just so happened that age is obviously the All-American linebacker from Ohio State and Brady, the All-American quarterback at Notre Dame. What a wild time. Brady, let's start with you. What were you thinking leading up to that game? I remember a lot of hype around your coach and how good he was about giving him all these days to prepare and that you guys would be ready to go.

What were you thinking leading up to that moment when you were going to play against Ohio State and AJ in the Fiesta Bowl? Yeah, so I guess I'd have to go back to, we had like a Christmas dinner before the game where we were actually both in Columbus. Was that right, AJ? Yeah, we went. We actually, I rode around with you and your family. We went to like random Christmas parties. Your uncle Dave had a Christmas party.

We showed up at his buddy's house and we went around. That was my first time meeting you and seeing anyone in the family, really. Yeah, so that's the first thing I kind of can remember is we like hung out beforehand. And so. That's like seven days before the game, seven or ten days. Wow. That's right. Okay. Yeah. It was like right before. And so he, it was, I was, I was kind of more just like, curious to see who he was, you know, how he would handle our family. Like, that's a, it's a pretty

crazy time. And I'm sure as AJ can speak to like, I mean, family Christmas at Peg's house. I mean, I'll let you speak on your impression of how that all went down. It was all, honestly, so it was kind of an uncomfortable situation for me. I, I'm not a social butterfly. I don't walk in the room lights up. Like, that's not my thing to be, you know, wheeling and dealing and making things happen. I just kind of like to hang out and talk to whoever is available. And yeah, I remember standing like in the kitchen, I believe of your grandma's house, Peg's house, and being surrounded by 30 or so people. I knew nobody. I knew who you were. I just met you a little bit before, but I know I'd met your parents a couple months before, so they were awesome. But your whole family

was great, man. Like everyone was awesome. But we did climb in the elk van. There's all this inside family stuff, the elk van of your cousin, of your cousins, and we drove over to a party somewhere at some house, just some random party. I don't know if you remember this, Brady. We showed up for about 15 minutes at one of your Uncle Dave's buddy's house, Corey's house actually. I mean, no CT anywhere here. You see that memory right here, Brady. But we just showed up. We hung out about 15 minutes, and then we took off and got in the van. And then I guess I went back and stayed in my dorm later that night. I eventually drove back to campus, or maybe went back to Senator, I don't know. But it was, it was definitely, I'm glad we did it. I'm glad I went along

for it. I was not exactly looking forward to it heading into that. I was, I was like, all right, I don't know. Like, I'm not, I don't know if I said anything. I don't know if I spoke that night. I have no idea if you remember what we did, but I just remember riding in that band and be like, okay, where, where are we headed next? I must really like this girl, I'm doing this. Yeah, it was, that's what I'm saying, like, for anyone who'd never been one of our family Christmas, and I'm sure since AJ's been back since, you know, now, now the days they'll host them. at their house.

Like he knows what he got himself into. But it was just, it was just kind of a crazy environment. And so I was more curious just to kind of observe how he was going to handle it because I knew what was in store and how typically like those weekends or those nights go.

I mean, getting out to Arizona, I think we may hang out one other time. Laura had gotten in town and maybe we linked up and like grabbed a sandwich or something from somewhere. But that was about it. I mean, he was in game mode. I was trying to prepare. I know going into the game.

I remember walking in probably however long it was before we had to prepare for the game. Charlie kind of said like, we're going to have to go score a lot of points because they're going to be, they're going to be tough for our defense to stop. And that was like a, you know, conversation we usually had, you know, depending on how, you know, who we were facing because we faced USC earlier that season and it was same thing. You said, hey, if we have the ball last, I think we win. It didn't work out that way. And so in this game, it was kind of similar.

I mean, we just knew with the speed that they had, the athleticism they had. we had to, you know, play our best game. And, you know, I think right off the top, not that it would have changed the outcome of the game, but we knew based on this personnel grouping and this formation that Ohio State likes to play quarters. And so we had a quarters beater lined up for it, a little stretch zone fake off of it.

And Samarja runs kind of like a move post. So he's going to run like he's going to block the safety and then release up. And I was so excited. I mean, it's Ohio State. It's where I'm from. And so for me, there is so much, as far as preparation and excitement in that game, wanting to win, I just, I threw it. And the ball barely felt like it came out of my hands.

And Ryan, you can relate to this from playing quarterback. Like, it felt so light, so easy, so pure. I was shocked. Like, I, and Jeff laid out for it and I just missed him. And I was like, oh, God. Like, because I literally felt like I barely threw the football. And then now we ended up driving down and eventually scored a touchdown. but on that same drive, but I was just like, oh, who knows how that would have felt or been had

that's how we started the game, one play, one throw, touchdown, here we go. Might not have changed things in the end, but that's like some of the things that kind of stick out to me, now looking back with that in the half jersey that everyone talks about all the time. Yeah, which we could talk about in a second. It's an amazing, though, you remember part of the game plan, the quarter's beater, the actual play and you remember the one you missed, right? We all like remember the ones we miss or we mess up, probably even more than the ones that go well. Just amazing how like, without even knowing we're going to talk about this. It was right here in your memory. Age,

what were you thinking about leading up to that game and then some of the some of the stuff that happened during the game? I don't mean, I don't, I'm trying to remember exactly like what I was thinking headed into that game. I know I was definitely thinking about my buddy, Bobby Carpenter. Bobby was like a questionable to play. He had broken his leg last regular season game and during the week of practice, he was kind of in between. Are you going to play or not? He was kind of tested himself. So maybe later in the week, we found that he wasn't going to be able to play in that game. So that was like our focus early on. I remember going into it. I mean, I was just excited. I was pumped. I knew how good they were. They had a ton of stars on their team, but I knew

we had a ton of great players too. Our offense was unbelievable. Our defense had so many great players. I remember one specific play. I do remember. I don't even know. I don't even know. exactly how you guys set it up, whatever you did it, but we saw it on film. It was an illegal play. This should be not be allowed, by the way. But hey, Charlie, he's just taking advantage of the rules. You guys would run this pick play where you would try to pick this pick a backer who's like an overhang dude with either receiver or whatever and you would run the running back like an underneath and catch like a shallow cross. And if I'm chasing them, I'm getting, I'm already picked by your receiver somehow. Do you remember that, Brady? Yeah, it's called.

So we do it out of trips formation. So I think it was called like Trips Right, 64, Utah comeback, H-Pick. That's what we called it. And we did it. We got Twitter. Yeah, we called it that. That's what it was. So it was like a timing element play. And really it was a, we kind of put a bigger learn on the backside, which Ron, you'll kind of understand a vernacular, where if you wanted to take the comeback, you could as just an isolated route or if it was pressed man, it would, it would fade adjust. So it turns into a go route. Otherwise, you had what a lot of people talk about is like their indie concept, right? You had like a basic, you had a basic end, you had a little shallow underneath or shallow cross coming that AJ's talking about. And then all the way on the

outside, you had your other under that was coming. So you could work that if you wanted versus some sort of split eye safety look, or really what we were trying to look for is, you know, quarters of a sort of prevent defense, we would read it that shallow cross to that comeback. And usually one of the two would always end up being there. But anytime we got in that scenario, it would just so timeout where when I draw back in a five step from gun or seven step, by the time Jeff was across, the running back was pretty much in position to be able to make contact right after that receiver caught the football down the field. And so that's probably the play he was talking about. But we ran that with tight ends, with wide receivers with a lot of people.

I just, I remember you ran. I don't know, I think you may have completed it and we tackled him right as he caught it. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but all I remember is instantly turning and yelling at your sideline, trying to feel. find Charlie and start yelling about it. I'm like, seeing this play on film, you're trying to come run this pick play on us. It's not going to work. Like, I just remember losing my mind. I think that kind of energized me a little bit.

I remember one of the sacks AJ had on me. And we decided to go for a fourth down in the red zone, right, instead of take the points, which I think that was early in the game. It was. I remember. It was a huge moment, a huge moment. We had a lot of just as a fan of, obviously, I didn't know you yet. But I think a lot of Ohio State fans, which we became, obviously, because of AJ going there,

we're really annoyed at this storyline of you can't give Charlie Weiss 38 days to prepare. And I was like, you can't give Jim Tressel 38 days to prepare, you know, like that type of thing. But that was like a big part of the storyline. So anyway, that's where kind of we were thinking. I remember that early fourth down. Yeah, well, I remember like kind of almost not questioning it because as a player, you don't question that. But thinking in my head with a play call that we ended up running, it was like a stick nod concept.

And so basically the play works is you have your like quick out by your tie end where he's faking it or the hook route and he's getting vertical. And then you have the slot receiver is going to act like he's run that stick concept where he's going to run a flat, but then he's going to return come back inside. Well, the problem is we did it from empty. And so we really didn't have a good answer if they were going to run some sort of blood zero, which they ended up doing. And so there was no quick answer.

And we didn't have like a great matchup. And I remember like it was a good disguise how they got to it. And we, at the time, one of the things was like we didn't want to burn a time out early. But we run the point. And it's like, I'm trying to get depth, hoping that like the tied end can make us move quick enough. He sees it. End up not being the case.

And obviously got sacked. It was a turnover on downs. But I remember thinking like there. I was like, that was a huge moment in the game where we like lost some momentum. Couldn't capitalize on it. Probably should have taken to three. But, but again, in retrospect, everything looks like when you lose, it was a bad decision or it was the player, one of the decisions that amounted to that.

the um you told me last time and brady you and i've talked about this a number of times like off microphone to one of the things you said is you can find the intangibles of being a quarterback in almost every profession in the world there's nothing like it and how being playing quarterback in age i want to hear what you think about this too you play a little bit quarterback in high school one of your best friends is the best quarterback in the world currently and brady and i obviously closest to you and we play quarterback so brady can you talk more about your thought process on how playing quarterback. I mean, just hear you break down plays that happened like 20 years ago,

like they happened yesterday. It's pretty amazing. But the intangibles that you have to have to make it happen as the leader, as a quarterback of a team, and how that's helped you so much in what you've done off of the football field, whether it's as a husband, a dad, and certainly in the work that you do every day now as an analyst, as a radio host, those types of things. I think the biggest thing that starts off with, you know, for a quarterback is you're in a leadership position.

And when you're in a leadership position, you have to be able to communicate in a very efficient manner and effectively. Like not all communication is efficient or effective, right? We could say a 250 character tweet is efficient, but is it effective at fully portraying what you're trying to say, right? Like, for example, recent events, you know, Aaron has to send out a tweet to clear up what's being put out there by the media. It's efficient. It immediately stops everyone saying, well, wait a second. Maybe we shouldn't be reporting what the details are to the contract if we really, don't know, but is it effective? Because does it truly portray what exactly is happening? Is the

contract agreed to to based on the terms? Is there actually a contract in writing? What are the actual values then if this isn't accurate, right? So I think the first thing always to me is communication, like understanding how to effectively and efficiently talk to people and whether it's delegating a task, whether it's confirming that they know what their job is, or even listening. Like, I always feel like that's the one piece that we miss so much in today's world is everyone's great at talking and saying what they want to say. But, like, the hardest thing about social media platforms is when you see something in writing, you don't hear the tone. I think the ability to prepare and be curious correlate to me, right? Like, you have to, as a quarterback, prepare for all these different situations, like all the what if scenarios.

So you have a plan. I personally think execution is so much easier and being confident in your ability to execute is so much easier when you've rehearsed it in your mind before or you've walked through it or you've thought about it. You know, what if this scenario plays out? How am I going to react? How am I going to handle it? Or how can I do something where I don't have to worry about that?

Like I can completely disregard that being an issue, right? That's the entire position of quarterbacking. And so to me, like the preparation is part of that. But it's the reason I say it correlates to curiosity is because you have to ask those questions. Like you have to, I don't care if you're in a business or anything else, you have to look at like what if scenarios. Those, you know, two, three things, however you want to look at, you know, preparedness and curiosity matched with, with communication to me are like pillars of what I think the quarterback position and all that entails. We would, when I played at Miami, I remember Coach Hepner, the late great Terry Hepner, would sit Ben and I down and say, you know, always we have, we're going to have a plan. We're going to work the plan. But most importantly, we're going to plan for the unexpected. And I think I always remember his words with everything I'm going to do because there's something unexpected that's going to happen. And I have to be ready for that. I have to be prepared for whatever that may be, to be agile, to be fluid in the moment. I think. think you learn that as a quarterback because it happens constantly and then you get out into the

world and with whatever job you have, have a plan, work to plan, plan for the unexpected over and over and approaching it that way, I think creates better responses to whatever is happening to you. And you get the good thing about playing quarterback is you have to do that every single play. The ball is in your hands. The team is counting on you. Your peers are watching to see, like alignment could actually completely miss his block and we can still score a touchdown. You cannot do that. As the quarterback, if you completely mess up as the throw, the quarterback center exchange, basically any part of it, the team fails, right?

It's like one of the only positions like that. And that's why I think it's such good training for whatever it is you're going to do afterwards. Age, I want to hear it from your perspective because seeing me and Brady, obviously with Arod, you get to talk to him a lot about this stuff. What do you think you played quarterback in high school some? What do you think about quarterback play and your observations, both doing it as well as observing others to it, who you're close to?

Well, playing quarterback at any level is impossible. So I always, like, you were a quarterback your whole life. I was running back linebacker, and I remember I backed you up when I was young or second, third, string quarterback in case you ever went down, you never went down so I didn't get any snaps until later on in my senior year. I had to play, I don't know, two, three, four games as a quarterback and just making simple basic reads as a quarterback.

That stuff in high school comes at you pretty fast, especially when I hadn't been doing it. So I was like, okay, this is impossible. I don't know how anybody plays quarterback. I don't know how you can play a pass. And I was just in high school. So I have so much respect for the position, I think. But I think every great team, no matter what level they're on, no matter where they're playing, is run through the quarterback.

Like, it has to be. Now, there's a million different ways of leadership. You don't have to be the rah-rah guy. You don't have to be the dictator guy, but you have to be authentic. And guys have to respect you. Like, I just know, even from being in high school, I'm two years younger than Ryan. But if there's ever an issue or anyone needs to know anything, like, I don't know, ask Ryan. Like, you ask the quarterback.

Like, the quarterback has the answers. He's the guy that runs that team. And I think it kind of has to be that way. And the best teams are that way. They're not led from the coach. They're led from the players. I think it's like any business or whatever. I don't know what you would equate a quarterback to be in some kind of in a job.

Would it be the CEO of a company? Would he be the quarterback? Maybe or like a senior level leader for sure. Sometimes a CEO may be like the coach or the general manager. But all of what leadership is and what work in general is now is just dealing with problems, fixing problems. If you run a company, if you're working something, okay, what happens? Like my wife, Brady's sister all day, she just fixes problems that her clients have.

She's an interior designer and she's working with new builds and contractors from the ground up. And she's fielding calls from contractors, from plumbers, from everyone just fixing issues. And that's what work is. You know, we're all just kind of figuring out how to get it done and find it away. And that's, I think, I can't tell my kids all the time. I can't tell you how to do that. You've got to find a way. I don't know.

I don't know how. I mean, I already don't know their math when they're trying to help me. I'm trying to help them with math and like, guys, I would love to act like I know how to do this. But I don't. You got to find a way. I can help you on my phone a little bit. But just figuring it out and not having somebody there to show you exactly how to do it. I think is a huge skill or a huge thing that you kind of have to develop.

And that doesn't really, I don't know how that equates to quarterback play. But I think quarterbacks are some of the people that from a young age sense it. Like they want the ball in their hands. They want the ball when it means the most. And they're not scared of that. They don't shy away from it. I think those are the best ones. I think going back to the dad stuff, because again, I think we probably all three of us think about it so much,

because it's the most important thing we have, our relationships with our spouses as well as then being a dad. It's like they're the same. That's why I love sports so much for kids. And I know not everybody is born is, is athletic gifted as others. I think that's okay. One of the reasons I love sports is just because it puts people in highly

pressurized situations. This weekend, I was in Louisville for a volleyball tournament with Ella, and her team now, it's pretty serious. You know, it's a club. We travel all over the country. for these tournaments. We won every single match leading up to the last one.

We're playing one of the number one teams from North Carolina. And these girls, four girls were taller than me on this team. They're eighth graders. You know, I'm six foot one. And these girls are absolutely in warm-ups.

I was like, oh, you know how you watch like how somebody walks and carries themselves? You can tell that they're good, you know, like pigeon toe and they like have good gait and the way that they're shoulders back.

And these girls, I looked at them, I was like, oh my gosh, they're going to kill us. But our girls, not as big, but we hung tough, won the first set, lost the second set, going to the third set. The score is 14, 14, and Ella's turn to serve. And you played a 15 and third set.

And so if she dumps it in the net or hits it long on the serve, it's over. It's over. She just lost for a team. And I remember being like, and I vividly like think about this. I was so happy that she was in this moment before it even happened because I thought, where else can you put somebody in this type of pressure, where all of their friends, all of the parents, the other team, the whole thing, they're all looking at you. One person who's got the ball on their hands and you got to hit a rocket because this team,

if you just loft it over, it's you're going to lose. And she steps up, had a big smile on her face. She told me afterwards, she was very nervous and then just hit a laser right to the back row. And I thought like, oh, this is like, I go, you can draw from that moment. You can pull, you can draw from that with other things in your life. That's why sports are so cool, man. And if she would have hit it in the net, we still would have learned from it, we would have talked about it.

But I think that's, to me, why sports are so great. Bray, I'd love to hear, like, your thoughts, like before we get to the draft here on pressure and sports and why it's so good to go through these highly pressurized moments because they prepare you for the other tough things that are going to happen off the court or off the field. Yeah, it's funny because you feel pressure, I think, in a couple ways. Either we're going back to the preparedness when you don't feel you're prepared.

Yep. There's times, you know, you feel like, you feel pressure because you're like, I don't know or I'm not, I'm not able to play as confident because you don't feel prepared for that moment. You haven't gone through it in your head before. You haven't practiced enough or before. So it kind of relates to preparedness. But I also think it's a natural fear of the alternative to success. And that's failure. And what you keyed in on to me is like the biggest thing and the biggest key in secret is, you know, learning from your failure. One of my buddies, Jeremy Bloom, he wrote a book called Fueled by Failure. And

And in it, and just from being around him and training with him, you know, we kind of joked one time. I think I was like drunk and we were all out of house, you know, together we were training. And I said to him, I was like, so are you better skier or football player? And he just kind of laughed and looked at me. He's like, dude, he's like, I've won world championships in mogul skiing. Like he's like, I'm much more accomplished in that way. But I had only related to him in the sense of what he did in the Olympics. And he hadn't won a medal.

And so then I'm looking at him in football. I'm like, dude, he set like records at CU. you know, had he continued on, he would have continued to set records at Colorado and, you know, been one of the best at that sport then. He got drafted, I think, in the second round maybe by Philly. After coming from the Olympics, I believe, immediately to the combine to testing in the 40 and all that.

I mean, he was just a ridiculous athlete and extremely talented. And he ended up having injury early on his career that I think, you know, plagued him and giving him an opportunity. But he talked a lot about the failure, in the Olympics and it fueled him and it fueled him in a way that you know really pushed him I think in football but also now to looking at what he's done in creating companies and his foundation you know wish of a lifetime as his foundation and integrate um that com is his company that he's built up and you start to look at that and you say like all this really was fueled by his failure

in sport you know and granted a much younger age too at that point but I just think when you you take on the perspective that, you know, any failure, any mishap is a learning opportunity. And you kind of take on this, this journey of lifelong learning. I think it helps eliminate pressure or at least, and it's okay to feel pressure. I'm not saying you shouldn't. But I think it changes your perspective in worrying so much about the outcome and then just living in that moment. And for example, Ella, you know, going through whatever her, you know, hit thought is before she serves or focusing on things where she needs to put the ball, you know, the volleyball. and focusing on all that.

So I guess that would be kind of, you know, how I kind of view it. Yeah. I, well, just being like in the arena versus not being in the arena. I think putting your, getting repetitions in the arena helps you be more prepared each time you do it. Age, what do you think like pressure situations, sports, bouncing back, being prepared for those moments just so you can just let it fly when it, when it comes time. What do you think about that?

Yeah, there's, there's a. a quote somewhere by somebody, something about if you have you all your, you know, if you work on your fundamentals every single day, your whole life, all this, when I think about like football at least, all the little tiny things, like little first read step we would practice, like your first step, how you're going to open up, if you're going to drop to the hook curl zone, all of these different little tiny movements or how are you going to rip or take on a blocker, you want to work on those things every single day, your whole life. So then in the moment, your instincts just take over. You don't think about any of that.

That's like the goal with anything. I feel like if you do, the work, you put in all of that, that it just naturally, you, you naturally have that confidence in you that, yeah, of course, I can do this. And I think it failing stuff, losing. It's like, okay, how do we know how, like, I don't know how awesome watermelon tastes if you don't know how bad a turd smells. Like you got to know, man, it's a yin and the yang of life. I'm not saying, no one's eating poop over here, but I'm saying you got to know what do we do. It's a business, this business leadership. Come on. Your analogies are just world. class. Thank you. I appreciate you.

Hold on. Hold on. Are you telling me, Axel has never eaten poop before age? Oh, no, he's definitely tasted poop. For sure, my four and a half year old. Yes, he has, but I'm here to tell you that. No question. Ryan, I know this is normal content. I think the last guy you had of probably, you know, like a billionaire. I don't forget who the last one was, but it doesn't matter. I'm sure they're talking about the exact same things. That's how they build up their life as a professional. But it's right. It's true, though. It feels so much better when things do go well, if you have dealt with adversity, if you've dealt with issues. And people love to talk about the chip on their shoulder and all of that.

And you can create a chip and make it big, like whatever, you can kind of make that narrative yourself. But it's true. Like when, when things go well and great things happen, like, it's fun to sit there and look back with your buddies who went through all the terrible times, the times when you lost when you were in, you know, two or three a days in practice, how tough it was, how much you disliked each other, dislike the coaches at that moment,

and then all of a sudden, look at us, look at what we did, and a lot of times it takes that to get to the greatness. It's a great point. So good. Are you guys going to draft? Yeah, let's do this. Okay, okay, so here, let me lay out,

Brady's going to go first. I'm going to go in the middle. So you guys are, it's a snake draft, okay, and what we decided on ahead of time so that we could put our draft boards together. Last time on episode 400, Age, Pistol and I did. Pist, are dead. way, in the name of Brady's dad and Laura's dad's name is Chopper. Chopper is an absolute

legend. It's just cool that our dads have these cool names. Chopper got the name initially for being a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, which I've talked to him a lot about over some of these Chris. What? Maybe. Not pilot. He was a gunny for helicopter. He's a gunny. He's a gunny. He was a few drinks that night. He might have told you he was a pilot. It was not a pilot. He was not a pilot. I bet he flew that thing a few times. He was a gunny. He sprayed cover fire. Really? Yeah. man. 220 confirmed kills. That's not confirmed.

I love chopper stories and I love seeing them every time. I always say, I love you chops and we give each other a giant hug. Your dad's the best, Brady. Okay. The draft last time we drafted sports movies. So we all got to pick our sports movies.

Age had some extremely questionable choices. He got dead last. It wasn't even close. So Brady probably going to happen again. it's between you and me to see who's going to win. So pull up your board. We said each person are going to draft five people in a snake order, Brady's first, I'm second, age.

You're going to third and fourth, and it snakes back and forth. And the draft is on a person that you would want as part of your golf group. So we're just going to get five. So it's going to be a pretty big golf group. But you want this person. And it could be any human being who has ever lived. So they could not be a lot. or they currently are.

And so first and foremost, before we start drafting, do you guys have a philosophy on who and why you're choosing who you're going to draft? Brady, you have a philosophy first? Because I have one. I thought a lot about this, right? Because you told me like a week ahead of time. So the first thing is I had to eliminate people who I don't know if they spoke English. and so that eliminated like a lot of like people like way back in the day right just because

well i mean Christopher Columbus right like I assume he did to agree I don't know for sure where is why wouldn't he speak English uh I believe wasn't he Portuguese oh I might need to edit this out I don't know I have no idea and then he flew for uh and I'm the one getting canceled here okay yeah you guys weren't about me getting canceled I mean look I was just going to say look what did you want he got here Brady exactly i'm not going to go on that he's going to cut that one out that's fine yeah no but the truth is so there there's a language component that i think i was like all right like you needed to be able to speak to them i like that with them that was one of the things okay and then the other things like i kind of

with each person there's a theme to it so that was how i looked at it i love it age what is your philosophy if you have one you don't have to have a philosophy for everything do you you can i just live can i just be can't okay so i figured you wouldn't have one. My philosophy is two things. I want to learn and I want to laugh. Oh, okay. Here I just, Ryan just grandstanding on us. Here we go. I want to learn. You obviously, I have to show you up. I'm trying. I'm here to win the draft. Yeah. Don't want to learn. It's subjective, but I'm going to win. I'm going to learn and I want to laugh. We're going to publish this. So that's it. That's all I want. So like by, by being able to learn and laugh, you have to be a good hang. Right. You know what I mean? Like you got to be a, we, we've play with a we go to Tahoe every year. I caddy for age. We've done it like 10 plus years. We play

with new people every time. There's some amazing people, but all of them are good hangs, right? So that's part of it too. I want to learn. I want to laugh. So Brady, first overall pick. This is setting the tone for the whole draft. So I got to write this down here. I got to look at my board. Who are you taking with the first overall pick? All right. So I don't want this to come off as cliche or corny, but you name it. That means it's going to. It's chopper. So, so, So here was the reason behind this, okay? Oh, wow. I was concerned that maybe you, but more so AJ, might throw him in his group.

Because a few things. One, I don't live near my dad anymore. You know, AJ obviously gets to see Chopper a lot more often than I do. And I tell people, my dad's still here. He's fine. I miss my dad, though. Like, I miss and I always sometimes regret not in being able to be around him every day. And I think there's people who have their dad who either is still alive with somewhere else or isn't here anymore, that they would probably say,

they'd love to play with their dad. So to play golf for four hours or knowing chopper, be closer to five. One, he'd make me laugh. I would learn something from him based on your criteria. But too, I just, I want to spend more time with my dad. So I wanted to get him number one off the board so AJ can potentially steal him. All right. All right. I love the pick. I do feel a little bit bad that Pistol is not on my draft board. I'm just saying Pistol, you know I love you, but I went, he's not my board. Age was pistol or chopper on your draft board. I had pistol all over my board, so I don't know what you're doing,

why you're not thinking of your father. So sorry. He was all five spots, actually. All right, I get to go. So I'm going to go first. And this one is, so Chopper Quinn, number one pick, which is awesome pick. This is my first pick is because I've been reading a lot about this person who I think, think is an amazing leader and to talk about fighting through adversity should have been killed

multiple times. And that is George Washington. Our first president is my first pick, Chernow's book about him, the same guy who wrote about Hamilton. It is amazing to read about this guy's life story. So I got to have George Dubs in my first pick. I have no idea if he's any good at golf or if he's a good hang. I think he might be, but he certainly is a great leader. So George Washington is my number one pick. He doesn't lie. We know that, right? Yeah, he's not lie.

Wait, yeah, I think. Wasn't that him? He's not he? No, that's honest. You're talking honest Abe? Well, that's honest Abe too, but I'm pretty sure. Didn't George Washington? Yeah, oh, yeah, genial George.

Never lied. That's what they said, I think, right? Age. Okay. Yes, I took George off the board. Not sure he was, that was my first pick. Yeah, okay. Age, you're, now you get two.

It's a snake draft, and that comes back to me. I love it. I honestly did. And I told you. I had like a larger group of people I was narrowing down, playing with pistol and chopper together was definitely an option for me that I would maybe would throw in here because we could do that on Father's Day. We do that off.

We get them that gift for Father's Day and then we do it usually not because we're with our kids on Father's Day. But yes, Brady, you got to come up for that. Those rounds with Chopper, I have a lot of those swings on video. And they are, we just pull them up and watch them. I'm like, Chop's, hey, take a look at this. It's just amazing. They're amazing. Do you understand how disappointed he is that I can't hit a pitching wedge 200 yards?

Every time I play with him, he's like, Chopper, what are you doing? You don't see these PGA players hit it 200 yards, Choppels. You should be able to hit that. He's just what do you got in your hand? We'll be literally on a like a 600 yard par five second shot. What do you got a pitching wedge? I'm like, yeah, I got 320 to the whole Chopper. I've got a pitching wedge in my hands.

Yeah, that's usually how the rounds go. Chopper has all different. He has multi, he probably has 26 different clubs. He has a couple putters that are very festive. Like, it's, it's a fun round for anyone. I think anyone that doesn't even know him would enjoy it. But I'm, so I got two picks here, right, Ryan? Yeah, you get two picks, two picks.

All right, good. My number one pick is still on the board. I'm very happy to know that it is the legendary Sam Jackson. Okay. Why? Because I'm, I will absolutely laugh if I play with, I'm going off your criteria here. You're the boss. That's how you can make your own criteria.

Well, don't worry. I can pivot wherever we need to go. Sam Jackson, I will have a ton of fun. I know A, B, he loves the golf. He's all over the place in golf. You see him play it all the time. I'm going to learn a ton. Like you said, you want to be a good hang.

I would imagine Sam Jackson's a great hang for four and a half to five hours. I agree. That's a good pick. Not on my board. Great pick. I'm kind of upset. He's not on my board. So not bad.

It's a decent start better than I expected you to start. Who's your second pick? Second pick, easy. Far and away. It could have been the first pick. The mayor himself, Sean Casey. Wow. Sean Casey.

Greatest hang of all time. Are you ever talk to that guy? I've seen him. You guys have had him on your show, right? Yeah, we've had him on your show. He just seen a still shot of that guy, I think will put you in a good mood. He is so juiced, so pumped at all times. And that dude loves baseball.

And I don't know a whole lot of people that love baseball right now. And he is all in on Major League Baseball, even though they're not playing currently. Wow. Sean Casey, I was surprised. That's just, I think you may have taken him a little earlier than you needed to. But, but, okay. I had to get the mayor off the board. I couldn't get me.

That was my guess. Okay. Okay. So I go and then Brady gets two. Huh. I got to. Okay. I'm going with the rock.

The rock is my second. Can he swim in a club? It doesn't matter. He's funny. He's entertaining. He can wear the clothes that he wore on the Super Bowl field and do his thing. I'm going to go with the rock. Has to be my number two pick because I think he hits all an amazing life story,

really funny, entertaining, no idea if you can hit a golf ball. My group, you'll see, I may draft the golfer, but I haven't decided yet. I think the rock would be awesome to walk down the fairways with like we do in Tahoe. Just listening to the rock, I think would be fun. So I'm going with the rock number two. I like that one. That was not on my list, but I wish it was. Yeah, Brady, you get two. I get two. All right. Elon Musk. I think I'd learn a lot from him. He seems like the guy, you get him a couple drinks or maybe a duby. Who knows where that conversation goes. and he's got his hands in so many different things.

I'd be curious just to get his perspective on like where he sees the world going because he's pretty good at that, right? Like everyone's driving EVs. Like I literally drove into our cul-de-sac there. I'm like, there's four Tesla sitting here. And I was just like that a year ago, that wasn't the case. But now with gas prices and everything else, all right. So Elon Musk is one.

You chopper and Elon. I hope they would ride together in the cart. How awesome with that. I would make them for at least nine holes. And the next one to me, he's not alive anymore. I don't know. I grew up. I used to think he was the funniest thing ever.

So he fits into the make you laugh in good times is Chris Farley. Oh, yes. Chris Farley to me, like, just hanging around him for four hours. And during his passing and all that, you hear people talk about the stories, how funny he was. He actually was one of the first people I thought of next to Chopper. So, yeah. Oh. I like that pick.

I didn't have, it wasn't, didn't think of him because I, I thought of a lot of comedians. I think that's a, that's a really good one. Chris Farley's a fun pick. Okay.

Um, my third choice, who, I, um, I actually want to be entertained a bit and hear a great storyteller. So I'm choosing Eddie Vedder for my third pick.

Oh, wow. Well done. I think, uh, I'd want him to bring a guitar. Better bring some cigs and some wine. That's fine. We can bring whatever they need. I wanted to bring a guitar.

What do you want him to sit there and serenade you in the golf cart? Absolutely. Why not? We bring speakers with us when we play golf. You don't want to hear him sing, society and like all the pro. You're right. You're amazing. You're right. Okay. So Eddie Vedder, I had a lot of musicians on the list, but I think he would be the one that could be a good hang, tell some amazing stories. And then he'd obviously, I would ask him to play. So I'm going, Eddie Vedder is. question for you. If you did, if you had a, I'm just wondering, I didn't have this on my list, but now that you're saying this, like if you had a singing group, does that count as one? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like if you had a band, if you had, if you had Drew Hill, the band that was with Cisco who sang Thong Song famously, do they count as one? Is it one or is it the group? I think, I think I'll allow it. I think I'll allow it. Yeah. I mean, we have strict

rules here for our drafts, but I think I'll allow a full group to count as a person. I don't know. Smash mouth works, Brady. Smash mouth works, Brady. You can use it next. I was thinking nickelback for me, but that's just me. So, yeah. Chad Kroger, don't steal my guys.

Age, age, you get two picks. I get two picks now? Yeah. The snake draft. Last time you got confused by how the snake draft worked, too. So I'm glad that we are still.

Tradition is alive. That's the only time I've ever done this situation is on here. All right, easy. This is easy. So after giving all the thought that I have to this, which I really did. and I wrote some names down. This one's easy.

I'm actually surprised this has not been used. Charles Barkley. Easy. Oh, yeah. See, he was on mine. All right. Barkley, I've gotten to hang with him a little bit,

talk to him out in Tahoe, see him there every year, never got to play with him. But he is absolutely the people's champ. Ryan knows we've got up this restaurant in Tahoe. Charles walks in. He legit, I think,

greets every single table because they all love him. They all know him. And buys him drinks. Yeah. buys drinks for the whole place. Like, he is the most generous. like fun, awesome, real dude, and playing 18 holes with him would be a special day, I think, for sure.

Yeah, I agree. It's a good one. Next one. All right. So in that same group, my second draft pick here, my fourth overall, and I want this guy to be in the group with Charles Barkley because I think the height difference and everything would be fun, the one and only Tom Cruise, obviously. That's such a random group. But aren't you curious as to what Tom Cruise is? Like, I would love to be around that dude for an extended period of time, be like,

So what is what are you? What like you are such a driven hard work? You're doing all your own stunts. Like what what are you? Like I just want to get to know that guy. Yeah. Valpoint. I saw I recently watched the video of him,

uh, jumping out of airplane with James Gordon. Yeah, he's a legend. Yeah, pretty good one. Oh, oh God. I have too many here that to choose from. I,

uh, I got to do it. So you get two now? No, I get one. And then Brady gets two. And those are Brady's last two, this fourth and fifth pick. So this is my fourth pick. This is tough.

But I think there's a love here that I just would love to have had a chance to talk to this guy. And now he's not with us. So we can't. And that's a huge bummer. And that's Kobe. So I'm going to go with Kobe Bryant as my fourth pick. No idea if he plays golf. He may not even, he may not have been a good hang.

But I guarantee you there's a lot of learning and just hearing his story would have been amazing. So I'm going to go with Kobe. Brian as my fourth overall pick. I like that. Yeah. All right, Brady. So this is your final two slots for your golf six some. So who's going to be the fourth and fifth members of your group?

I'll get one out of the way quick. I'm going to pick Tiger. Oh, I thought about it. I've learned how to play golf, right? And by the way, I would definitely try to get them to be more of the loose tiger that maybe we saw on more, you know, text messages, you know, exchanges, things like or emails or whatever. Voicemails.

A little bit, maybe. Yeah, just a little bit. Just to get that out of him. But I think he would help me understand the way to play golf and all that. Plus, it would be fun just to watch them. Like, I've never gotten to watch a dude at that caliber play golf or 18 holes. So, Tiger would be up there. Ah, this last one's tough.

This last one's tough. I've got a few names and like a bunch of different people in different reasons. Um, man. It's funny how the other four to me were really easy, but like this one's tough and trying to select who. Um, I'm going to say Will Farrell. Hmm. Um, and I just, I think he'd be unbelievable to hang around and be around. Now, Grant, I've already got a portion of that with Chris Farley.

But like, the problem is you're not going to be riding in the cart with them. Okay. For the entire time, you're going to have to mix and match some of the groups and all that. So you might not be around him as much. much that way you're still getting that comedic portion of things. And I just think he's got an interesting perspective on things. It's a good one. I had him on my list because I had a number of comedians.

So good group. So you have chopper, Elon, Chris Farley, Tiger Woods, and Will Ferrell. Interesting group. That would be a fun sixth. Okay, I got to, I'm trying to stall a little bit as I think of my last one because a number of my people are still on a list. What about me? You get to go after me.

I'm still thinking. I'm up next. Snake draft, man. Snake trap, I thought you put, I thought you put a thought into this thing. It's a snake trap. But that's the problem is I have like seven different people.

You got trust your instincts then. It's you. Can you talk us through like how you're going about selecting or eliminating? Yeah. So, okay. One of the top of the list is actually Brady to kind of your rule. I have Orville and Wilbur Wright as one person. That would count.

So that's one of my considerations. But then I'm really thinking of a comedian or somebody who's funny and a good hang, which I'm leaning towards that route because I think you need that for a good round of golf. I want somebody who's funny and is really good. You don't have one of those in your list right now, right? No. That's why I think I'm going that. That's why I think I'm going that route.

But I think I'm going to choose one that is maybe not who you're thinking of. So I am going to go with the comedian. Louis C. George Carlin. Who you want? Who you got? I'm choosing Steve Correll. Oh, yeah.

I have heard. I had to put on AJ's list. I have heard that Steve is one of the kindest humans on earth. And I think he's one of the funniest people. So there's no doubt he's got to be, I could be wrong, but I'd say I would bet big money that he is a great hang. So I'm going with my fifth choice, not necessarily maybe who you thought, but I'm going with Steve Correll as rounding out my team so that we could have some. some laughs along the way. He was in consideration, no question for mine.

Now, I pivoted recently over the last 30 to 90 seconds and changed my last pick. I'm not sure if you guys will know who this person is. You're not cultured very as well as I am, so you probably won't know. But my last and only pick, have you ever guys ever heard of the artist, Piero Manzoni? You just look this up. I can see on your computer. No, no, no, no. I'll tell you.

I brought this individual up before. No idea when this person died. I took a class, art ed 210, I believe, in college. Art education. We would learn all about different art. How anything can be art, right, guys? This dude, Piero Manzone, you can look it up on the internet, I'm sure. How do you spell this?

How do you spell it? No idea. You're looking it up right now. What do you want to spell it? He canned his own turds, and they sell for 225K a pop right now. He's not lying. In these, like, sardine cans. You're looking this up, Brady?

Yeah, I'm looking it up. They've got, it looks like. they've got like outlines or like I don't know that's clay yeah circa 19602 they've got clay outlines of what looks to be a poop pile it's it no it's in he can he put it in like sardine cans almost it looks like in they're sealed right now and they don't know they don't they don't guarantee it's poop it's organic matter it says it says can I cuss or no yeah yeah well it's Ryan's I mean right yeah literally it says on the sardine can to AJ's point artists shit contents.

I think that says 30 grand. You could have picked anybody in the world and instead this is how you end it. This is how you're going to end it. Freshly preserved, produced and tinned in May of 1961. This is so dumb. No, it's not.

Okay, you're intrigued. Brady already looked it up. No, I've looked up anybody else. What's his name? Pierre-Manzoni, I believe me. I don't remember a lot from school, but I remember this guy because I was like, wait, the dude took a dump in cans and this is

Art. So that really opened my mind up to what art can be. You think he would be fun to golf with? You think he's a good hang? I want to be like, first off, sir, Piro, when did you come up with the idea to can your dumps? And two, what gives, how do you have the gigantic balls to be able to do that and sell it? And some of them go for like 300K. I know this guy, I'm sure is dead now, but geez, what a, what a legacy. We talked about that earlier. The problem is, is like, you never recoup the value of your poop in this case until after you're dead. That's the problem. He's a family guy. He's thinking about it. There was, I did see an article about a girl who was canistering her farts and she was putting flowers and different things in there.

People were buying that. But like literally, I think that the crux. That's gross. Just so you know, age has successfully. Derailed. He's made. Yes. His whole mission here was to derail this entire thing so that so that every would be like, what is this guy messed up?

What is wrong with him? No. That's, it works. Or what is wrong with the other two? guys that they didn't know who Pierro Manzoni was. There's that. Hey, Ryan, can you recap your five? Because I only have four. I'm missing one of yours. George Washington. Yeah. This is definitely, I obviously won. So George Washington, the rock, Eddie Vedder, Kobe Bryant, and Steve Carell. I bet we put it out there.

Age got last for sure. So Brady, we'll let the people speak. They'll be arguing between you and me to see who won. Some may pick yours because you do have a good list, but I think, I think age is a distant, distant 10th place out of those. Who is my list again? Can you read my list? Sam Jackson. Nailed it. Sean Casey. Obviously nailed it. Way too early. Charles Barkley. Yep. Good pick. Tom Cruise, which probably your best pick, I would say, is Tom Cruise. Oh, I like Charles. I think Charles is his best pick. Yeah, yeah. Then Samuel Jackson. and then Tom. And some guy, Piero, something that nobody, whatever.

Camino is definitely a terrible pick. I thought I was looking up a different artist that AJ informed me about one time. I could put him on the list. I didn't put him on the list. Another person in consideration was it was two people jammed into one was Kanye West and the Pope. I was going to couple them as one person. You guys watch that docu series on Kanye. I've seen some of it.

Man, that dude is passion. He is passionate. Did the Pope, like, was he featured in a Kanye song? No, no, just, I'm just thinking, I'm intrigued by the, what is the Vatican? I've been to the Vatican. I'm just intrigued how it's its own country. So age is, age, your sixth pick is Kanye and the Pope. I'll add it to the graph.

So you're going to get six picks, which actually is seven. So Kanye and the Pope, what you're adding to your team, just to try to try to bring it back together, I guess. You're telling me, okay, let's say you're, you're struggling, waking up one, morning. I'm so tired. I don't want to get up early. Oh, wait. I got a 630 tea time with Kanye and the Pope. I think I'm, I don't, I don't doubt that. Those are two heavy hitters. Let's go back to the guy who poops and canisters and then seals them. What value is he bringing during the course of 18 holes? Just I, uh, when people are passionate about their craft or they're just completely bizarre, I really want to. I have a lot of questions. No, they're craft. They're art. Get your head out of

the gutter, man. Grow up. You got to. You got to. You got a. be able to like, I respect when people go all in on whatever they're doing. And Piero, he went all in. That's so. So Brady, age, age was trying to find a way to top himself when he chose alive as one of the best sports movies. Already seen that? And he's done it. He's done it. I have to give him credit. He has found a way to have a stupider answer than he had last time with one of the best sports movies by choosing some random Italian guy, I'm guessing. Okay. Don't don't tell the fans of piero that you don't know him you'll lose a bunch of listeners man who who is your favorite player person you've ever played golf with in tahoe age michael bolton that's who i had on my list too

michael bolton is a legendary round of golf i remember uh summoning up the courage was like the sixth or seventh hole i was like no i'll tell you no let me tell you right you okay you go first what do you think of office space remember him telling you telling us about the fact that he had been involved in writing a script for a sequel to the movie when I thought he was going to be like, I hate that movie because they used, you know, the character's name is Michael Bolton. And, and not, he completely flipped it on his head. He loved that movie. And not only that, but he wants the sequel with, with his character or Michael Bolton in it. So yeah, I thought, go ahead, age. I thought, I thought, I'm sorry. I don't want to catch you out. You said, you said when you finally summoned up

the courage, the sixth or seventh hole to ask him about office space. I remember it differently. I remember we were like walking to the first teen. You're like, man, I'm going to ask him about office space. I have to ask him about office space. I'm like, yeah, of course. Yeah, you got to. And I, from how I remember it, we were about 120 yards down the first fairway when you said, hey, man, you like office space?

And then for the next seven holes, he talked about office space too, the sequence of he wrote. Can you, Ryan, can you give a guide as to how you go about saying or asking an awkward question of someone that you don't know that I think that's what I just went for because I thought like he he's a different kind of guy. You know, I think he told me his best friend was his car. So like there was a yeah, it was kind of some weird stuff going on. He's an artist, man. He's an artist. We did tell him though like, hey, just so you know, our mom, maybe your biggest fan.

She is a massive Michael Bolton fan. And I looked at him. He had this. Michael Bolton fan. Huge, huge smile on his face. He loved it. I found that when you tell somebody that you love their work, even if they've been told it a billion times, they still love it.

They love it every time. You know what I mean? It's wild. If I said like, hey, by the way, I made my first and second child to your music with my wife, would he, would he like laugh at that? Would he be like, oh. He's heard that before. You know, he's heard that before.

I think he would be so honored, especially if it was Brady Quinn. Yeah, let me be in the room next time. Can I be in the room next time, Brady? I'll sing it live. Yeah. Why don't I sing it live? We can definitely. We'll get you that boy you're trying to have.

This has gone way too far. We're going to stop as if there's nobody left anyways because AIDS ruined the draft, which he successfully made it happen. So Bravo, you found a way. Feels good, guys. Thank you. It feels good to come on here and get a win. You get your show with Pat off track all the time.

I think it's one of the things you're most skilled at is finding way to derail the entire conversation, which Pat loves. I'm glad I got to experience it. It was amazing. you definitely got 10th place out of us three. So good job, but it was awesome. I'll talk with you guys. Brady, thanks for doing this.

What I brought up the idea, I'm glad that you were game. Dude, it was so much fun. Always. Yeah, anytime. All right. That certainly was a draft for the books. One of the things with AJ is you never know what he's going to say, and he proved that once again.

He always finds a way to top himself. And we just have so much fun doing these things. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. When I think about some of my notes, first and foremost, I'm just so happy and glad that A.J. and Brady both have found really cool jobs in the media since leaving the field. I think that's really hard for a lot of former players, and both of them are doing it extremely well. A.J. with Pat McAfee and the boys every day on YouTube. And Brady on Fox on Saturdays in the fall as well as his radio show every day.

It's great to see them doing well and making their transition from being a professional athlete to life after that. I love the dad life conversation talking about what we try to instill in our kids and trying to put them in pressure situations so that they have to experience failure from time to time and how they bounce back. I thought that was really valuable and fun conversation. And I liked hearing them talk about their time when they first met as well as the Fiesta Bowl. I had never spoken to them about those stories. so I was learning along with all of you. I just want to say once again, thank you for continuing to support me

and being able to have fun conversations like this one, even if they go off the rails towards the end of them. It's just so cool. It's so enjoyable. I think there's a lot to gain from this one, a lot of to benefit. You also get a little peek behind what it's like when we have Thanksgivings and Christmases together

with the Hawk and the Quinn family. It's pretty fun. And just, I hope you'd want to tell a friend or two, hey, you should listen to this episode of The Learning Leader Show with Brady Quinn and A.J. Hawk. I think you'll laugh. I think you'll learn, which was my criteria for the draft. You want to laugh and you want to learn. I hope they're a good hang. I think you could sense that A.J. and Brady are the best and so fun to be with. Because you continue to do that and because you continue to write reviews and rate the show on Apple Podcast and hopefully rating it five stars, you are giving me the opportunity to do what I love on a daily basis. And for that, I will forever, be grateful. Thank you so, so much. Talk to this soon. Can't wait.