The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Hall Of Famer Jerry Kramer

Episode Date: January 29, 2020

Hall Of Famer Jerry Kramer

Jerry Kramer here on, right? No, I got you. We're all good here, Matt. Sorry. Jerry Kramer here on Radio Row here in Houston, Texas. Pleased to have him here with us, courtesy of Sierra Delta. So, Jerry, I remember the first time having you, and we've been coming to these radio rows for quite some time.

And we always had you on here, and the thing was always, Jerry, how are you not in the Hall of Fame? I remember the first one I did was 2012, I think. And I remember that most people were like me, we're like, we can't even, we didn't even know you. It was like it was an assumed fact. So now being enshrined in 2018, how do you feel, you must have a really good 2017 season for them to put you in an 18. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, you know, it was, first of all, it was kind of embarrassing to go somewhere. and be introduced as a Hall of Famer and not be in the Hall of Fame. And so there was an awkward silence that ensued, and I said, I'm not in the hall. Well, how come? Well, what's that about? Who'd you piss off?

Well, yeah. What's that? So, finally, we got to the point where we just forgot about it. Thank you. I just didn't say anything about it. And then we were nominated in 97, and we got angry because we didn't get in and we got pouty and who'd give a damn about that anyhow who cares about it doesn't mean anything to me i wouldn't go up they asked me all these little childish moments right and uh then somewhere along the between 97 and 19 18 uh i came to a piece with it i said hey it's been a hell of a ride you've had a wonderful career. You've had wonderful experiences. You've got five championships. You've been able to write some

books. You've been able to do a lot of things. And you're going to, you're upset because you didn't get one honor. I said, that's kind of stupid. So I decided that I had had a pretty good ride and that life was good and that I'm okay. If I don't make the Hall of Fame, that's okay. I've done a wonderful, it's been a wonderful ride and a wonderful life. So I got comfortable, with it and then the call came. Of course. As soon as you're at peace with something, that's when it changes, right? That's when it happens, yeah. Well, uh, guy, Joe Horrigan called. He's a president of the hall and, uh, first of all, a kid named Chad Auvett from

Wisconsin college said, congratulations. I said, for what? He said, your nomination. I said, to what? He said, the Hall of Fame, you've been nominated. Oh, wow. Cool. That's nice. I've been nominated again. That's the 11th time. Wow.

So Joe Horingen calls, and he said, and my daughter, Alicia, getting letters to the Hall of Fame from God to half of the world, it seemed like. But Joe said, Jerry, I want you to know that your selection to the hall is going to reduce my incoming male by 90%. So daughter Alicia was deciding she's going to help out and I go look I really don't want you to do that you know I'm not comfortable with you soliciting votes or whatever you want to do

and she had there was a governor's aide named Randy Wright and Randy said he wanted to help her and he said let's write to the Hall of Famers who are in and see if we can get letters and so we got like 60 letters from Bob Lilly and Stobbuck and most of the guys in the hall and so then she really got involved in it and I got involved in it much more if all these guys thought I belonged and I'm comfortable saying I belong you know it was a totally different moment

for me so once she got involved she said hell hath no fury like a daughter scored That's beautiful, man. Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer here on Sports Talk 7-9 in Houston. How are you feeling? I feel pretty good. Actually, I've had some back problems a couple years ago that are very difficult. It won't go away. But I'm busy.

I'm active. I'm having some really good times. I got my buddy, BJ Gannon here with me from Blue Buffalo and Sierra Delta. Yes. And we're trying to find a way to get some dogs to vets. We've got half a million dogs a year. We don't utilize, and we've got a lot of vets that need them, and they've become wonderful partners for a vet.

As you know, if you have a dog or a pet of any kind, how quickly they can become ingrained into your society and to your life. And so it's just a really great idea, and I've been in and out of different things with BJ for the last 10 years, trying to help out with the wounded warriors, and any way I can help the vet. I'm in, so got him along to help me out. I got him alone to help me out, right?

There you go. One hand washes the other. Yeah, so Sergeant B.J. Ganim, U.S. Marine Corps captain of your captain of the wounded warrior ampute football team. I am. What position you play? Any position you'll let me. Okay.

But I love lineback. I love playing defense. But I'm probably big enough to play the line now. No glamour position. No, no, no, no. Can't fling it downfield? Nope, no, nope. I can hit the guy that catches it.

That's what you like. That sounds like a Marine type of thing to say, right? You're the one that's happening. So, yeah, you're doing the Sierra Delta thing. So that's the service dogs for veterans. That's how long has that been going on? Three years. So it all started with Bill Bishop, who founded Blue Buffalo back in 2004.

He was a Marine in the 60s, and he wanted me to figure out a way to help more vets get dogs. And also, George W. Bush, who painted me in the portraits of courage, He told me, he calls me Blushie. He's like, Blushy, let me tell you something. I can give $5 million any one of these dog companies and it won't move the needle. And he was right. And so I sat down and tried to figure out, how can we do this better? Right?

Because we have guide dog organizations and they produce wonderful, wonderful dogs for people of blindness, people with theftness, mobility issues, severe psychiatric issues. But a lot of these vets don't need that level of dog. But we need something else. And whatever he's arguing about is public access. who can take their dog where. So what we've done is we said, all right, they're all service dogs. They're all Sierra Delta. If you need a guide dog, we'll get you into those academies.

If you don't need public access, like me, my dog helps me around the house when I'm in my wheelchair, and I don't have my leg on, she'll pick up stuff for me, but I don't want to take a dog everywhere with me. I'm enough just to try to keep up with myself. I don't need to try to keep up with a dog too, right? But having that dog at home means the world to me. And when I was going through my darkest times in 2005 and six, facing the divorce, a nasty divorce, bankruptcy, DUI, about to lose my career with Kraft Foods. I was really close to Indian at all because I was pissed off that I was no longer a Marine.

I didn't finish my combat tour. I had a bulldog with my very first convalescent leave I bought a old English mutt bulldog, you know, from somebody 500 bucks, whatever. And he was with me. And he had no talents whatsoever. I mean, he could eat a piping hot cheeseburger in one swoop or clear room with his farts. Other than that, you know, he was worthless to everybody else except for me. And when I was in those dark times and thought about into my life, even though I have a great family and support and friends, you just get in those dark places, right? It sometimes happens to us.

But the one thing that kept me from actually doing that drastic thing was I knew no one would take care of Dozer. And so that was enough to pull me out of it and get myself back on track. And what I thought was if an untrained, untalented dog can do that for me, imagine if we just put a little bit of training on all these dogs for all these vets and see where we go. public access out of it. Let's train it specifically to their needs in their own hometown on their schedule and let both these dogs. If they don't have a dog, we help them get a rescue dog. If they have their own dog,

we provide the training, we create a custom plan. It's all done on an app, right? And so everybody can watch it happen. We've got Blue Buffalo supporting us. My buddy's marketplace where you can get all your dog food, cat food that you need, and 5% of the proceeds go back to help run our programs.

Wow, that's great. That's interesting that like the sometimes it's one it's one thing when people are at the bottom right yeah it's your dog it can be the memory of something or you know who's going to take care of my mom who's going to take care of my fish or something anything that that is that's a very significant again and just make make the choice to stay all right well I'm glad you're here man thank you so I appreciate it we got to hit a break guys sorry I appreciate you guys that you just want to give a website or a phone number so Sierra delta.com blue buffalo.com or you can text Sierra Delta all one word to 444-999. 4-44-999. Sierra Delta. All right, that's Sergeant B.J. Ganim and Jerry Kramer. Thanks a lot for the time, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Thanks for having us on. All right. A quick break here on a Sports Talk 790. Houston live from Radio Row in Miami. Thanks to Low T Center and Twin Peaks.