The MeatEater Podcast - Ep. 520: What's the Play? Bass or Bluegills with Clay Matthews

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

Steven Rinella talks with former Green Bay Packers linebacker and Super Bowl winner Clay Matthews, Ryan Callaghan, Max Barta, Chester Floyd, Seth Morris, Randall Williams, Phil Taylor, and Corinne Schneider.  Topics discussed: Attending Packers games in blaze orange; when you lose a fight to an octopus; ever-bigger Super Bowl rings; why MeatEater's American History: The Long Hunters (1761-1775) has two narrators; lipstick on a pig; the beans before the frank; when a mountain lion attends your wedding; the Matthews Family football dynasty; what's the most hunting-est and fishing-est of the professional sports?; Clay's first duck hunt; recalling Trivia with Pete Alonso and the New York Mets; perfecting your celebratory move; Steve’s mom, the major Chicago Bears fan; listening to the play-by-play on the radio; “When the Packers were playing, you could hunt anywhere you wanted!”; freak accidents; Clay's perfectly line up chestnut trees; nerding out on biochar; getting ducks stuffed; the MeatEater crew argues about which fish Clay should stock in his pond; and more. Outro song: “Where ‘Dem Duckies At?” by Collin Peterson Connect with Steve and MeatEater Steve on Instagram and Twitter MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YoutubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Linebacker Clay Matthews. There it is. No, it wasn't worth it. He's got a Vikings female sweater on. It is female because it's my fiance. Okay. All right.

He's trying to shake your confidence, man. There's a joke Chester made that I only just now got. Yep. Can I explain it? Yeah, you can explain it. This morning when Clay and I were driving down the road, Clay Matthews and I were driving down the road, and Clay Matthews was talking about moving to play with the Packers.

And he commented that how much people in Wisconsin like their deer hunting and he said they would come to the games dressed in hunter's orange that's your joke right yes sir yeah Corinne said wear jerseys and I didn't have a jersey so I put on some blazer orange because that's pretty much the team colors during the home game when it's cold that's that's when you know it's deer season it's late november when gun season opens there's camo and blaze orange you can see that all around landau field dude those games are this is my sporting jersey i don't have to do with wrestling what's's one I have? It's wrestling octopus. I'd like everybody to know that Steve is holding a shirt out in the exact fashion a small child would.

That would say, ask me about this. It's an octopus wheel. So I got a gaffe into a huge octopus. Oh, I need to share this with you. In case you're one of them in this situation. I got a gaffe into a huge octopus. And he fought me off and got away with the gaff and then later we were laughing about now that octopus is running around down there with a gaff so why why would i be in this position in the future or have i as the

story not if you ever get out so here's when you lose a fight with an octopus, here's what happens. He gets stuck to the hull of the boat. And there's no amount of, nothing is going to get him off the hull of that boat. Okay? Okay. But when you give up the fight, he just drops away. So I got this gaff in his arm. He's huge.

I have pictures of it. I got a gaff into his arm, and we can't drag him him on the boat my wife and her friend are not being kind of helpful and i eventually he he keeps moving down the hole of the boat and i can't hold on it's either i'm gonna get dragged into the ocean or i'm gonna have to let go and i let go i told this story on a podcast and the guy wrote in with the most genius idea in the world when you get one stuck to your boat like that and you can't get it in the boat just reach over there and put a hook into it on a rod oh get a hook into the meaty part of his arm and then be like okay you win i give up

open the bail. He's going to then you get a second chance. Fight him back up to the boat and fight him again. Dude, sounds like a mess, man. Grab your second gaff. That's great. No, that is a great tip. I didn't see you writing any of this down. I will keep that in mind

next time I'm gafting octopus. Yep. Gaffing. Gaffing. I'm sorry. I haven't done it before. Can I see your Super Bowl ring? Yeah, of course.

What year is this now? This is from 2010. Damn. Yeah. And that's nothing now. Nowadays, because every team that wins the Super Bowl, it's a- The thing's massive. It's how can they make it bigger than the year

prior? So the last couple of years teams have been making, so that top part can actually, and this one doesn't, but you can actually take the top off and inside they'll have like a replica of the stadium and whatnot. So that's, you know, from Super Bowl 40, 2010. So, I mean, it's an older, I would consider

an older Superbowl ring. You compare it to the other ones. I mean, they might as well be wearing on two knuckles now. It's, they're that big. Did you get any sacks on this game? I didn't. Can you ever get these just done in brass

knuckles? Five, four rings all together? Tom Brady could. Yeah. Not many others though. That's impressive, man. Yeah. Better pass that thing around.

So do you wear it out and about now and then? No, I've never worn it out. Because you feel like a blowhard or what? Yeah, yeah. It's not very practical. Every year there's a new winner every year. So you can't, and I feel like it's a great thing to wear when you go back to, you know, if I go back to Green Bay for whatever it may be.

You know, for instance, next year, the Hall of Fame, the Packers hall of fame, perhaps I'll wear that. But otherwise like you're wearing your Superbowl ring out. That says a lot about you. It's kind of like wearing a hat with more personality than you have. I used to bartend in Missoula and there was an old timer who played for the Raiders and had a Superbowl under his belt and he wore his, his Superbowl ring. Um, but at that time, uh, you know, I imagine, uh, that was more of a common thing because it looked way more of a ring than, uh, this.

Well, I'm not saying I wouldn't wear it for free drinks. I'm assuming that's why he was at the bar with you. You might not be old enough to get this reference but when i put it on i feel like liberace i know liberace there's a lot of sparkle and a lot of sparkle you ever hear players get a little hard up and selling their rings yeah i've heard what do they get for them when they do that uh it depends on the player um i mean there's there's been some who will put their i don't know about rings and I'm sure it's happened, but bigger name guys will take it to auction, and they'll bring in lots of money.

So if Tom Brady sold his whole ring collection, that's going to be millions of dollars. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what that would go for. If he sold one ring, I'm sure that would be at least seven figures. It's a heck of a weight. Oh, yeah. It's really heavy of a weight. Oh, yeah. It's really heavy.

That's wild. Okay, hang tight, Clay. Okay. We're going to cover off on some stuff. All right. First, I have the opposite of a correction. What would you call it, Phil? You know when we do corrections where you're wrong?

Yeah. What would you call it if you were right? So someone's writing, proving you're right or the person writing it is correct? I said something, I got shot down, and then it turns out I'm right. I think that's a, eh, eh. Okay. You're just proving your point. Yeah.

Okay, I'm going to prove my point on something. Yeah. The other day, there was a biologist named Carmen Van Bianchi sitting right where you're sitting right now. And I was telling her about the late comedian, Jerry Clower, who would tell, uh, as he said, he doesn't tell funny stories. He tells stories funny.

I was talking about how Clower is such a, uh, fan of great detail in his hunting stories. And I was saying that a miss, a mess up that Clower had is he's telling a story about a guy that used to, he didn't believe in shooting raccoons out of a tree. He'd like to climb the tree, knock the raccoon out with a stick and then let the dog, let the raccoon fight it out with the dogs. Cause he felt you had to give a raccoon a fighting chance.

And if that raccoon wanted to lick all those dogs and walk off, it was up to him, but he didn't want to shoot it. And I, and Clower has a story about this guy, John Newbanks climbing into a tree and getting into a fight with a, it's not a raccoon. He punches it with the stick, but it winds up being as Clower said, a lynx. And Clower says it was a lynx. We called them souped up wildcats. Now,

Carmen Van Bianchi that was in your seat is a lynx researcher. Then someone said, well, I don't think clower messed up. I think that there's so much name confusion because the Bobcats Linnaean name is links Rufus, right? So they're like,

I think that people used to use links and Bobcat interchangeably, or in some areas they would call a Bobcat links. But, and i listened to that story to check what i was talking about clower just prior to that uses bobcat yeah i i noticed that too he says when i were in the truck cuts out you don't have to worry he says he's talking about his dog brummy he said when oldmie cuts out, you don't have to worry about no possum or no bobcat. Then when John Newbanks

gets into the tree, he says, it was a lynx. Which don't range into Mississippi. Now and then Cal will get frustrated if we talk about something that does not matter. Can you imagine him right now? Was that the face he was just giving you like this it's like you're inside my brain yeah i was like what am i doing well i want everyone here to know note the patience that

i was having because i was really thinking that it was going to come back to our podcast guest surely this is going to come home and hit home in some way that's near and dear to me to our podcast guest. Let him mix it up somehow. Surely this is going to come home and hit home in some way that's near and dear to me, Calisthenics. We're going to, so Chester's here. Hello.

Max Bart is here. I've asked you, I can't remember the answer. You have no relation to Treadbarta. Yeah, I do. You do? Yeah, he's my uncle. Oh.

I knew I asked you. No Yeah he's my uncle Oh No I knew I asked you No he's not Oh he's not I tell everyone that But no Same spelling though Yeah same spelling

Yeah isn't it Wasn't his slogan I don't do things The hard way I do things The bard away Yeah You could just

Do you ever just steal that I should Tattoo No I Get a tattoo No I said that's a tattoo right there. Oh. I do things the part of the way.

Seth Morris is here. Howdy. Dr. Randall in Callahan. Corinne's off where she sits where no one can hear. Dr. Randall, we're excited. We are. About the Longhunter audio originals performing nicely. People are enjoying it. We're very excited. We are. About the Longhunter audio originals performing nicely.

People are enjoying it. We're very excited. It's got some negative reviews. Just only a couple. The top review, Clay opens up the reviews. So me and Clay narrate it. Worked on it with Randall.

Clay opens up the reviews in the first review. I don't like that Clay Newcombe guy. It just deflates you, man. And Clay opens up the reviews in the first review. I don't like that Clay Newcomb guy. It just deflates you, man. It's so bad. You always want to call Apple and be like, can you just move that to another area? A lot of people say they like Clay's voice.

There's always going to be some negative thing. Can't please everybody. The people who say positive things typically, that takes more energy to write in about something positive than to complain. Yeah, when you like something, you just sort of quietly like it. It's, yeah. And don't feel the need to tell anybody about It's way more fun to criticize things.

Yeah. My buddy Tommy Edson, the blue collar scholar, he might have a criticism. He might have wrote it. I get a text from him. Why are there two narrators? Tommy Edson, the blue collar scholar, he might have a criticism. He might've wrote it. I get a text from him. Why are there two narrators? I said, it's a long story.

That's it. Just, just that. That's it. He didn't say, Hey, it's pretty good. Got a question for you. Nope. Nope. Jeez, Tommy.

Nope. He didn't compliment sandwich that. No. Oh, Corinne, did you see the article about how you shouldn't give comment sandwiches yeah right did you share that with me i think i might have been the one the compliment sandwich which we've covered on the show is like you say do i need to do it again i do it all the time people get it we're good to offer criticism the new way to offer criticism is to say um i have a hell of a lot of respect for you. You could do better.

Wow. That seems like your dad's like yelling at you about something. We're going to do the second installment of, oh no, first we're going to do this. We have a kids podcast coming out. We're going to do a bunch and see how they do. We're going to do this. We have a kids podcast coming out. We're going to do a bunch and see how they do. We're going to do five. We're going to do five kids podcasts.

Four or five kids podcasts. Five, right? Why did it change a minute ago when I talked to you? Let's go with five. It's a real peek behind the curtains going on right now. No, we're going to try it out. I don't really know. People discourage you from kids content. there's an ongoing email chain as we speak trying

to get down to the bottom of this so just so people know when they see it here's the thing that's going to happen if you listen to this and i never tell people that this is there's kids that listen but i never tell people this is a kid's show because you'll find out in a minute one of the reasons is not a kid's show when we get to talking about uh a broken reproductive organ on a wild hog but but in all fairness i would talk about that with my kids because we're pretty open with them about stuff um here's the trouble with the kids but it's not trouble the kids podcast it's just hard we're gonna see if people like it i think that we i know we have a ton of young parents out there that listen and we did a kid's book and our,

and our kid's book was became a number one New York times bestseller, which inspired us to do a kid's podcast. The kid's podcast is going to run like this and you're going to see it in your feed because we're not going to build. I don't think we're going to build its own feed. We're going to see how people like it and how they respond to it so if you're listening and you start seeing this kids podcast pop up in your feed and you're not a kid and you don't have kids just ignore it go on to the next thing it's

the kids show the kids show is very short it has three components to it there's i will i come on and do a little mini history lesson okay We're going to do and I have kids, so I've had kids for 13 years. I don't want to toot my own horn. In 13 years, I've established my credentials as someone who explains things to kids a lot. So I kind of get how to explain things to kids.

I'm just doing it all the time. I talk about in the first one why teddy bears are called teddy bears. Which is a bear hunting story. And then we're going to do one why teddy bears are called teddy bears okay which is a bear hunting story and then we're going to do one about animals that are crepuscular not nocturnal not diurnal but crepuscular stuff like that then we do a thing that kids are going to love where it's animal noises and it's like a clue game as you build up to guess what animals making that noise and we we have some phenomenal wildlife noises and

you'll hear it you'd be like that ain't no animal um but it is and so it's a guessing game and then there's kids trivia where we have a bunch of kids come into the studio and it's a three question trivia show and instead of them competing against one another which is what they would like to do they work as a group to raise money for conservation so you know like the only game show where conservation always wins meet eater trivia, like the only game show where conservation always wins, meat eater trivia. This is the only kid show where conservation always wins. And the other day, the only kid show where belching always wins. No.

How did that go, Phil? That was a good joke. We don't want to spoil it, but there's some burping involved. So get pumped, kids. The kids at the table earn money for every right question they get, and it can be accumulative. So if you ask 10 kids a question and all 10 kids get the question right, they would earn 50 bucks, 100 bucks, something like that.

And it goes on, and so they're contributing by getting the answers right and wrong. They're contributing to a pool of money collectively that then goes to support conservation organs organizations we don't let the kids pick i guess spencer picks for him yeah spencer hosts that and it's a panel of kids so if you got kids you might like this and if it works well we'll keep doing it if if not and i'll we'll keep you posted if it's not resonating people don't like it we're not going to do it because it's a it's a it's a heavy lift. It's hard to find advertisers for a kid's podcast. I'm just being really upfront.

I was wondering why there was all kinds of havoc going on the other day. Oh, yeah. Just running around, and next thing I know, they're in my office eating a bunch of candy. You know the worst thing about having the kids' podcast? My kids participate. And I'm always bringing junk from home and putting it on the free table. The minute my kids come through that door, they go to that free table, find stuff, and then bring it back to my house.

I gave them some stuff. No. They don't stop. They know there's candy around if they look hard enough. The first thing they're going to do is go to that free table. Fill a bag up with a bunch of hats. Whatever. Yeah.

And then go back home with all that stuff. And fight about it like it was never laying around. I'm like, the reason it's on the free table is because it was here and no one wanted it. I think you're kind of underselling the show, though. I'm going to switch back here. Get in there. I thought I sold the hell out of it well you did but you're like I don't know if it's going to happen it's hard to do we'll see but I just want to say that we played it

for Spencer the other day and he thought it was one of the best things we've ever done as a company hold on you played it for who? we played the rough cut of the pilot episode for Spencer and he loved it he was over the moon about it it's the best thing we've ever done.

I'm 27 years old and I think I'm going to listen to this podcast. I might learn a thing or two. I'm not under, I'm trying to oversell it. I'm just trying to clarify why you see a kid's show in this feed and I'm asking people to bear with us.

Don't be annoyed. Don't be like, what in the hell is this? It's just because we're doing it to benefit America's children. We're going to need Clay's opinion. That sounds noble. We're doing it for America's children. And then after five, if we see an appropriate response, it'll move and live on its own. And so you won't always have to wonder why this kid's show is on your thing.

If you have parents, I think you're going to like it. We're going to jump into a second installment. Oh, can you share the pictures with Clay Matthews? Yes. We're going to jump into the second installment of our trail cam series. The last one we did cats. We focused on ditch cougars mountain lions bobcats and and then but there's a the last time we did crazy trail cams there's a little thing that happened where we were talking about what not to send in

and we were laughing about someone who just sends in a picture of a pig, a wild hog with his lipstick out. And current, we were laughing about current has to open all these up. And so we were sort of pointing this one out as an example of something not worth sending in like pigs, get excited pigs reproduce just because you happen to get a trail cam photo of a pig ready. Aroused. Aroused.

That doesn't need to go to Corinne. And so we dogged on the guy. Then the guy wrote in saying, you got me all wrong. I've seen a lot of lipstick and this one's worth checking out. He's like, sure, this guy does have his lipstick out all the time. But he points this out.

It's stuck out and he said it's flopping around so he's always right flopping all the time flops lower place never goes away over time it's not that he has it out it's just out my wife had a chihuahua like that. Oh. Hang tight. So we're going to call a veterinarian here and she's going to explain something.

Can you hear this good? Put the bottom of the phone right up to the front of the microphone. Make sure your volume's all the way up. Where are you talking? Volume all the way up. Davina. Hey Steve. Are you ready to talk about the pig so i'm on the phone with davina we have a resident genius we have dr randall but he's not the resident genius we have an actual resident genius

an actual resident genius named hunter spencer and i'm on the phone with hunter spencer's spouse who is a veterinarian and i called her about this pig and she clarified she's not a hog man but she has some things to discuss davina i have some i do have some animal knowledge okay that i can share so share it with this gentleman named Jacob who we teased, and now we owe an apology and an explanation. Put the phone to the front of your mic, Steve, where you talk. Are we referring to the pig or are we referring to dogs and cats? Well, you can do what you think is going on with the pig

based on what you know goes on with dogs. Okay. So in the photos that you sent, obviously the pig's penis is out. That's called paraphimosis in dogs and cats. Pigs, it actually is a rare phenomenon, but can't can't happen it's more common in dogs um it can happen for a number of reasons but the most common reason in dogs is that they get an erection the penis comes out of the prepuce which is the skin that houses the penis, the penis dries out and then it can't go back into place. Sometimes you can also, especially on large, in long-haired breeds,

the hair can get wrapped around the penis and prevents it from going back in. So it's typically one of those scenarios. Davina, can you hold on a sec? Yep. Clay, you tracking? Yeah. A lot of penis talk around here. Okay, we're good.

I just wanted to make sure our guests was following. Just lining up with anything you saw in the locker room. Just wait. You can answer that later, but we'll get back to it. Go on, Davina. Sorry. So anyway, I would say what's happened with this pig is that he's had an erection, and for some reason, the penis just hasn't went back

into the sheath or the prepuce. In dogs, it can cut off circulation, and the penis can actually end up falling off, which I have seen happen. But in that particular photo that you sent, it doesn't look like the penis is engorged. It looks like it's just more flaccid and just in the out position. So, yeah. Can you tell folks how you fix it in dogs this is a crazy story oh what surgeries did you do on animals today i did a dental on a dog and then um we also did what did we do on that dog. Had a pyometra spay,

which was an infected uterus in a dog. Spay and neuter your pets to prevent that. I have to plug that. And then the other dog we did a sedation on and we did

trim the nails on that dog because it won't allow them you had to sedate a dog to trim his nails yes yes peanut butter on the wall that happens quite often yeah they hate their nails to be trimmed got it so talk about how you fix this on a dog because this is uh i don't know I don't know. I don't know what it is. I thought it was interesting. The most simple way to fix it, and generally what you do is you just wash the penis off gently using cool water.

You apply some lubrication and then just pull the skin back over the penis. If it is too big to sit back in, you would apply a hypertonic saline solution or sugar. Sugar pulls fluid out. So you can actually just pack the penis with sugar. Really? Yes. A few minutes.

And then pull the fluid out. I feel sorry, Michelle. Do you have to go to the vet for this? Yeah. And then you can push it back in. Sometimes you have to open, make the opening larger in order to get it back over the penis. And then in cases where the penis has died, you actually have to amputate the penis and make it basically visually like a girl.

You would just suture an opening up and the dog would pee through the opening instead of the end of the penis. Would they still lift their legs? Oh, yeah. Can you ever cure them of lifting their leg? They normally will still do that, yeah. Just old habits. Yeah, behavioral response, yeah. So if you see that five-pound bag of sugar at the vet,

they're not just drinking a lot of coffee. Davina, dude, you don't even know how much we're going to call you on this show. Now that you did such a good job of this. Oh, her family's from, her family's longtime bear, like Appalachian, black bear hunters. Long hunters? Yep. Oh, plug your vet business. Well, I work, so we live in Virginia Beach.

I work at Kempsville Veterinary Hospital in Virginia Beach. And are you looking for clients or are you just trying to have it be that you don't have to do anything down there? We always welcome clients. Yeah. So yeah, call us up. Until you become the regional penis specialist. Like that's what's going to result out of this. So plug the business again.

It's Kempsville Veterinary Hospital in Virginia Beach. Okay, I'm not catching the first word. I'm sorry. Kempsville, K-E-M-P-S-V-I-L-L-E. Got it. Kempsville. Kempsville. Kempsville.

Ask for Davina. Yes. Okay, don't let other podcasts call you up, all right? No, but. Kempsville. Kempsville. Ask for Davina. Yes. Okay. Don't let other podcasts call you up. All right? No. What?

If another podcast wants to talk about something, tell them you can't. Because you got an exclusive. I'm loyal to you guys. You got an exclusive here. All right. You're like Dr. Phil used to be the Oprah for us. Am I thinking of the right guy? Yeah. Dr. Oz. Dr. Oz.

Dr. Oz. Alright, thank you, Davina. You're welcome. Have a good one, guys. Bye. Alright, so there you go. The guy we goofed on made it right. And we all learned something. Yeah. Jacob. There you go, Jacob. Sorry to dog on you, man.

I didn't think you were a pervert. Well, I have a female dog corinne might i don't know oh oh yeah so this i i'm catching the theme now another guy wrote in where do people go to see all these pictures you want to post some of them on instagram maybe, but if they're watching this episode Oh, okay. So yeah, if you're wondering what we're looking at, you can go on just go watch the show on YouTube and you'll be able to see the pictures. This one is a guy I wrote in.

He's got a picture of this buck alive and he's got a picture of a buck dead. The buck dead is hanging right side up. Head up. And the gentleman that wrote in thought that his, that the deer's scrotum was in front so if you imagine a deer going down the trail his penis is leading in the way leading the way and his scrotum is taking up the rear cal what'd you say something about frank's

in the back oh that that's a something about mary reference got got the beans before the frank no how'd you make that happen yeah yeah yeah so your frank is first your beans come take if you're a deer your frank is leading the way and your beans are behind typically sends in a picture where there's a deer with his beans are the head of the frank corinne sends it to heffelfinger deer biologist great friend of the show heffelfinger says there's a couple things going on one his heffelfinger says what you're looking at what you think are a tumor, a scroll shaped tumor riding ahead of the Frank beyond the Frank behind the Frank and maybe related to the tumor is an atrophied scrotum. Next picture. I was going to say those don't look like testicles.

Looks like something else was happening there. That's a helpful finger, thanks. What do you think about that picture, Clay? I think it's a hernia. And I bring that from my sports background. You hear people having herniations and they have to get that wire mesh put in. I had that happen.

A buck hernia. You could see what looks like the intestines might be spilling out. Maybe this veterinarian in Virginia Beach can do a wire mesh implant before this buck was killed. Too late for this fellow.

I don't know if you'd mind me sharing personal information of yours. No no go for it seth got uh diagnosed with i recently shared the experience of going down and having it having the boys uh sonared yeah you and i had a very very similar experience and uh they told they they read seth's results what do you call that when you when you're having a baby ultrasound ultrasound yeah they read seth's results it's like live scope but and they're like oh you got a hernia and then seth goes down to the hernia guy and he takes a look and tells seth to get up and go home he says 90 of the people they send me down here supposedly with a hernia don't have a hernia

Yep Surprised the hell out of me What did you have just like a lot of gas or something Well yeah I do have that But uh No it was just a strained muscle Hey can we put up Phil do you have the technology to put up

A photo of Max's hernia Oh boy If he sends it to me yeah We'll do that the technology to put up a photo of Max's hernia? Oh boy. If he sends it to me, yeah. The last part of the trail cam, the last trail cam picture we're going to get into, and you got to, there's nothing extraordinary about the trail cam photo.

So June 3rd, 2023, 429 p.m. It's a mountain lion walking through what looks to be a riparian area. But the story behind it is pretty crazy. Because a man and woman that own this place, they're getting married on their property. And they get married on, they get married at whatever the hell,

4 o'clock, June 3rd, 2023. Okay. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. They get married June 3rd, 2023 at 4 p.m.

In this cell cam picture is a mountain lion that was snapped at June 3rd, 2023, 429 p.m he's got a picture of where he got married and an arrow pointing to where the trail cam is yeah at 4 30 okay and unbeknownst later they just pulled the card and they're like oh my god a mountain lion and they looked pulled the card and they're like, oh my God, a mountain lion. And they looked at the date and time and that lion was there while they got married. Like right behind where they got married. That's cool. Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Yeah, that's good. I had years ago, I was at a wedding in Taos, New Mexico. And the gal I was with, I didn't know the people getting married, but she did. And the preacher commented on the hawks circling overhead. They were buzzards. Oh. I turned to my date and said,

I mean, hawks. I think the mountain lion thing would be good luck. You know how they say if it rains at your wedding, it's good luck, good juju? No, I don't know that. No? Steve, do you actually want me to send that to Phil? I think it would be a good idea. Okay.

I just think if folks out there want to see just what a real, no need to go get no ultrasound over this hernia. Yeah. Give me one sec. It's definitely a hernia. There's that Bob Dylan quote, don't need a weatherman to tell the way the wind blows. Right?

And that hernia diagnoses itself. Yeah. Is he putting it up right now? Yeah, it'll be 30 seconds here. So Clay Matthews, your first duck ever today. First several ducks different first different kinds of ducks stay closer to your mic will you yeah sorry oh you're all right uh did not grow up around hunting though i didn't i grew out in the outside of los angeles and hunting no one

hunted in my family because they all. Cause they all played football. They all played football. Yeah. They were all busy during the fall, the best time of year to hunt. But yeah, I don't know. Once I got to, uh, uh, and I wasn't even, I was always an outdoorsman. I always enjoyed the outdoors, uh, just, just messing around out there as a kid, but there's limited opportunities where I was living. And I think once I went to Wisconsin and green Bay, that's when, you know, I started to

be around, immerse myself in that culture of, you know, whitetail deer hunting, um, turkey, black bear, walleye fishing, King salmon. And I think that just kind of lit the fire, so to speak. And then I, you know, had the means to, to book some of these hunts and, and travel a little bit more. And I think I just started down the path to where I'm, that's where I'm at now. I might. Oh, there it is.

Okay. Yeah. All right. Not to be interrupted. Oh, dude. Look at that. That's a hernia. That's not a testicle.

I promise. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Surgery. Yeah. Anyways. That was a difficult segue i saw clay register that picture out the corner of his eye

striking hey folks exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. And boy, my goodness do we hear from the Canadians whenever we do a raffle or a sweepstakes. And our raffle and sweepstakes law makes it that they can't join. Our northern brothers get irritated. Well, if you're sick of, you know, sucking high and titty there, OnX is now in Canada. The great features that you love in OnX are available for your hunts this season. The Hunt app is a fully functioning GPS with hunting maps that include public and crown land, hunting zones, aerial imagery, 24K topo maps, waypoints, and tracking.

That's right. We're always talking about uh we're always talking about on x here on the meat eater podcast now you um you guys in the great white north can can be part of it be part of the excitement you can even use offline maps to see where you are without cell phone service that's a sweet function as part of your membership you'll gain access to exclusive pricing on products and services hand-icked by the OnX Hunt team. Some of our favorites are First Light, Schnee's, Vortex Federal, and more. As a special offer, you can get a free three months to try OnX out if you visit onxmaps.com slash meet.

onxmaps.com slash meet. onxmaps.com slash meet. Welcome to the OnX Club, y'all. Were you the kind of kid who was just good at everything, good at all the sports? Not really. I was good when I was young. Um, very good. And then I got passed up because, uh, I went through puberty real late, like almost like my junior and senior year.

You shared that with us. Yeah, I did. Yeah. That's a, it's hard to explain to people why I'm talking about my, you know, becoming a man, but you know, and so I, I wasn't, I had played in high school. So then all of a sudden you weren't big anymore. Exactly. And I was getting passed up by everybody. I, and my knees hurt my heels hurt i had shin splints i was

not a very good athlete and finally my senior year i grew about three inches and put on about 40 pounds and i was i was still coming into my own you know as far as an athlete is concerned but my dad was uh our defensive coordinator and opted not to start me. So, you know, that goes to show. Well, a lot of parents. What a low blow. Well, I mean, rightfully so. I shouldn't have been starting. So I don't hold it against him whatsoever.

But it makes the story that much better. Yeah, lay out who all in your family is involved in professional. Sure. Like college sports and NFL. Yeah, it started with my college sports yeah yeah it started with my grandfather uh clay matthew senior he uh went to call he played football and was a boxer um but he went to georgia tech and then played for the 49ers and ended up serving in the korean war and this was back when football you didn't make a whole lot of money and then two of of his sons, which is, one is my father, so Clay Matthews Jr.

He played 19 years in the NFL. Whoa. And his brother, so my uncle, Bruce, he played 19 years as well. It's like the family business.

It's unheard of to play 19 years too. He's in the- You got to have some sore parts, man, every 19 years, man. My dad seems to be

in great shape. My uncle's, he's got some locked up elbows from being in the trenches, but he's in the pro football hall of fame and um however gosh how many of his kids he's had uh one is currently the starting left tackle for the atlanta falcons jake matthews who i've done a number of hunts with uh my other cousin kevin played for the titans for four or five years.

That's incredible. Another one of his brothers. Another one of my cousins was with the Pittsburgh Steelers for a minute. Then on my side of the family, obviously I had my career, 11 years in the league. My younger brother played. He went to the University of Oregon. He played five or six years.

Then my older brother didn't play in the NFL, but played college ball at University of Southern California. So I don't know how many that is. But yeah, football. Lost track. Yeah, it's a world football family. They're like, what's your last name, son? Matthews?

Okay, come on. Yeah, we've been blessed to have a body that can, you know, with handle the rigors and punishment of the game. But I also think we're, I think we're a little different in the sense of the competitive nature that we have and how, you know, we want to be great. but I got a friend who he, he's the first baseman with the Mets, Pete Alonzo, you know, you ever hear of Pete Alonzo? Yeah. He's been on the show and he's all right. He never knows if he's going to be able to hunt on bunch. Cause if he's on a, if they don't make the playoffs, it's a killer hunting year for him.

Yeah. Cause he's what, done in September? You get done. Yeah. Yeah. If you make the playoffs, you're screwed. Yeah. October. So I asked him, I said, do get done, yeah. Yeah. If you make the playoffs, you're screwed. Yeah, October. So I asked him, I said, do you ever wind up sort of in the back of your head hoping that you don't make the playoffs?

He's like, no. Well, football's tough because our season. Yeah, you're screwed no matter what. Yeah, if you're the worst team or the best team, we start in late July and we go all the way through, you know, the Superbowl goes through the first or second week of February now. But even if you don't make the playoffs, you're finishing January 1st, 2nd. So you could forget all those good hunting seasons. There's gotta be a lot of NFL guys that like to hunt turkeys. Cause the only thing you can do. Honestly, there there's, there's not a lot of NFL players and I could be wrong. I could be wrong, but I would say generally on each team, you have a handful of guys, but maybe two to four people who might actually hunt. There's plenty of players who are, who love to shoot guns and, um, you know, who might be getting

into archery or whatnot, but as far as putting the time, it's really difficult. And it's not until after their career, much like myself, that they start really diving into it. So there's because the time thing, exactly. Just because of the it's just it's too difficult now you hear stories of brett farve just obviously having played up in green bay he show up you know he'd go out who knows four or five in the morning and come back with bloody hands before a game yeah there's some wild stories about brett farve of his hunting days and you know just buck blood down the back of his truck bed and whatnot. But yeah, otherwise it's, you know, I feel like there's not too many. What is the, in your mind, what's the hunting and fishing-ist of the sports? In terms of like, you know, of the pro sports, what ones are most inclined?

It's gotta be like hockey. I would say hockey just because I feel like hockey is predominantly like Midwest, East Coast. It's like Northern. Not the Northern because there's a hell of a lot of hunters in the South. It just kind of has that feel to it. Yeah. I don't see many basketball players going out hunting. I just don't.

It doesn't seem like that's part of their. It's not culturally woven in. I don't think so. Football, you have a few. Remember we had that whole room full of baseball players? It was the day the wall-eyed scandal broke. We played trivia with all those guys? Yeah, a whole shit.

I didn't know a team could have like 80 pitchers. It was like a room full of like a dozen dudes. I was like, are you sure you guys all pitch for the same team? Steve, I don't think I can name a single hockey player that like professional NHL player that like hunts. Oh, I don't know why. A lot of times I have strong feelings about things about not being right. Oh, Mike Fisher? Yeah.

Yeah, that's one. What do you think is the hunt in this pro sport? Baseball? Baseball or football for sure. Baseball's good. Well, it wouldn't be football because you got to play football.

Well. Baseball, you might get done in time. No, hockey, the NHL hockey season starts in October and goes till June. So they can't do, they can't do the rut or spring turkey. No, neither of them. But a baseball person can hunt.

Yeah. If they neither of them. But a baseball person can hunt. Yeah. If they're no good. What about a kicker? You always see those words. Kickers just want to golf. Kickers are notorious for golfing. They like to golf? They are amazing golfers.

Yes, because during practice and during training camp, kickers have one job. It's to kick. So they don't have to be in certain meetings. They got to be in team meetings and whatnot, but they don't have to be in certain meetings. They got to be in team meetings and whatnot, but they don't have to be, it's a specialty. So while we practice for two hours, they might be called up for two periods in which you're

kicking for three minutes here and five minutes there, whatever it may be. So they got a gravy job. Yes and no. I'm actually really good friends with our former Packers kicker, Mason Crosby, but it's, you don't need to be at the peak physical fitness, but at the same time, you're the first one they want to blame when you miss the game winning kick, when there's a million other plays throughout the game

that could have affected the game one way or the other. Like a lot of people could have made a point, but when he doesn't make a point, he just knows. Yeah, it's probably one of the most stress filled jobs, especially not for the kicker who might be able to see past that unless he's got a case of the yips, but family members watch it. At least with me, I get an opportunity or used to 50, 60, 70 plays a game. You slip and fall, no big deal. You miss a tackle, you'll get them next play. You miss a kick, you're not getting them the next play.

You're going to hear about it. The other thing they do to you is you talked about how you never had a sack display. You never had a signature. Oh, a celebration. You never had a signature. I had one for a little while, yeah. You had a signature? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What was your signature? Can you get up and do it for us? It's been a while. I might throw something out. But no, so my first year, I would point at my watch and let everyone know what time it was. And it was like, that was my little thing. Game time. Yeah, just letting people know.

Yeah, game time, right? But my next year, my brother's like, hey, you're going to – I got hurt in training camp. And I didn't come back until week one. So now I actually didn't have time to perfect your celebration. Everybody's got a celebration. And so my brother goes, hey – my older brother goes, you need to do something cool why don't you remember that uh that scene in predator when

arnold faces off with predator and a predator kind of outstretches his arms like this and he flexes at uh oh yeah and i remember that scene to do that and so i i got a sack on the first third down of the game and in my head i'm like you know like arms trying to remember how to do it yeah exactly and i it was the worst one my hands were still clenched it looked like i was like sumo squatting with but then i i kind of perfected a little bit and then i got it out there this is what i was doing so that was my thing for a while dude i remember that yeah and then you know after after so many years and so many sacks you're just kind of like all right you just kind of just you do your thing but yeah everybody's yeah there's a there's yeah it was it was something like that yeah it took the background

oh see i thought we're when we were hunting ducks this morning i kind of got a sense that you were a little bit eye rolly about the celebration no no well no we were we were talking about somebody's family you know they look they just come from a different era where you know the celebrate it was all about the team but nowadays it's like everybody you score a touchdown you get a sack you make a tackle yeah it's all about you you sell, you know, the celebrate, it was all about the team. But nowadays it's like everybody, you score a touchdown, you get a sack, you make a tackle. Yeah. It's all about you. You sell yourself. You're building the brand.

So while, you know, the old heads and, and, you know, exactly the old heads, they, they, it's more about the team, but nowadays, you know, they're trying to sell, sell jerseys, sell, you know, fans, sell out venues. I remember Joe Paterno used to say, act like you've been there before. Yeah. A well-reader celebration would convey to me that they're quite accustomed. He's very proficient.

He used to say that all the time, but that just meant score your touchdown. The times are changing, too. Who's the guy from your state that got in all that trouble? Wasn't that him from Pennsylvania? That was Joe Paterno? Yeah, Joe Paterno. Yeah, well, Sam Dusky brought him down with him, didn't he? your state that got in all that trouble wasn't that him from pennsylvania that was yeah that was yeah well sandusky brought him down with him didn't he yeah and here you are quoting him well i was celebrating like a stalin quote that's what that's what

act like you've been there before i don't think i have any st quotes. No. When you're on a team, how many of the people do you like a lot? You just mentioned you're good friends with the kickers. Sure. If you had to imagine, here's the whole lineup. There's got to be some you can't stand. Sure. Some you're like, whatever, don't really talk to much. Some are really

good friends like what's that split look like well you know i think the first thing is and not to get politically correct but you're working towards a common goal so you get along with everybody and you you're accountable to one another but that being said what's great about the locker room is you can have a guy who grew up in the suburbs of LA hanging out with somebody from Miami, Florida, um, somebody from Maine up to Oregon, you know, working towards a common goal. So it brings people together that you'd never have an opportunity or you would never think that you would get along with. So I'll preface all that by saying that, but. No, that was diplomatic. Yeah. And I get it because it's true though.

Okay. Yeah. Cause the rivalries, the rivalries can't. But some of my best friends to this day, I mean, are guys where you, I would get together with them and it would, you know, we'd look like one of these Hollywood movies of the two cops, you know, you got the white guy and the black guy and that's how it would be. But, um, you're closest with your position group. You spend the most time for me, it was a linebacker. So there was a group of maybe seven or eight of us in a, in a, in a room.

And that's, you know, we spend all our time together and then you break out to go to, for defense, to defensive meetings. So you got half the team there. And then when you have a team meeting, so you don't spend a whole, a great deal of time with the offense for me personally, um, forging those relationships. But I do have some of my best relationship with the offensive lineman who i went against and played against excuse me the most but um to answer your question yeah i mean there's guys that you really click with but they're generally going to be in your position group and then it kind of it you know furthers itself out based on how much you're together with them because from the time you get there everything's structured you show up at this time you have special teams meetings then Then it goes to team meeting.

Then you go to defensive meeting. Then you go to, you know, you break out for walkthrough. Then you have workout. So you're structured in who you're with. So you just hope that you're with a good group of guys. I'm sure there was that one guy though. Nah, there's never that one guy because they don't last long. You know, you kind of got to buy in.

What was the, if you think back gotta you kind of gotta buy in what was the if you think back that you grew up without the exposure to the outdoors and now you're you know you're in a position where you can start doing some hunting and have been taking advantage of that situation can you what was your first awareness that this was a thing people did probably when i got out to Green Bay. I remember when I got drafted, I was, you know, I had to, I was still using Wikipedia to find out where Wisconsin was on the map.

Oh, Green Bay. I know there's so much history, but I had to look it up. I had no idea where I was going, but I remember. Cause you were what age? Well, I was, I was 22, but you just, you're from the West coast, you know, like the East coast, but you don't study the Midwest. And so at least I didn't and no it's pretty you know yeah and so um that's not that's

not crazy that like i grew up michigan if you would have told me um if you just said oh uh salt lake city right i've been like yeah ut, but how that fits into the broader, like what touches that, you know, at that age. But when I was flying in, it was, you know, everything was green. I flew in in, you know, spring and it was beautiful. But then once I got there, I mean, I can't name an exact time or place, but just being around the culture more than anything of hunting, fishing, outdoor, I think just kind of helped bring that out. And because I was there, you know, for so long, for 10 years, I think you just kind of immerse yourself in that culture and you assimilate. And there was just opportunities to go whitetail hunting, to go turkey hunting where people are like, Hey, you know, come along,

come, you know? And so I picked it up and had a blast doing it. Everybody walking around with a bag of jerky snack sticks in their back pocket. Oh, you got to go to a tailgate at Lambeau. I mean, there's beer, cheese, and brats. So you can't go wrong with that. I thought you were going to throw mosquitoes in there at some point. Mosquitoes? Yeah, mosquitoes. Are there bad mosquitoes up there?

I guess I didn't go far enough north. Not in the parking lot. Not when it's that cold. No, not in the parking lot. Yeah. Not in the fall. Or July. Yeah, no, I'm just.

Yeah. July's not too bad for, I mean, where we were, I'm not sure if maybe up in the Northwoods or it could get pretty bad, but where we are, you know, when they tell you to make that hand of where, you know, Green Bay is, I guess. No, they don't do that hand for Wisconsin, do they? Yeah. Like you hold it up like that. Territorial over there.

No, that's Michigan, dude. Yeah. Yeah, they do. But they got Door County. Yeah, Door County's right there. Wisconsinites will throw the hand? Yeah. We just call that Miss Michigan.

Yeah. They'll throw the hand? Yeah, they'll throw the hand. That's terrible. Yeah. Do you want to explain that, Steve? No. Okay.

Just edit that out. Kids podcast. This is why we're having a kid show. Was there much of a rivalry between just growing up in Michigan, like even outside of football if you're not the biggest sports fan, just like Michigan versus Wisconsin versus Illinois? Here's the deal though my mom was from illinois and she remained my dad didn't know anything about sports at all

uh my mom was a big sports fan she had been raised in illinois and what was when she was a kid like farm country which became a big chicago suburb naperville but she remained so dedicated to the chicago teams she's like the cubs the white socks and we all like she was religious about the bears right yeah okay she would be out there there was a i still some weird way i remember this there was a radio there was a radio station there's a talk radio station in chicago wgn and my mom actually had an antenna and would always be messing with this antenna on the roof it was the antennas on the roof she would be on the roof messing with my dad would be or whatever but she would just listen to wgn and would sit and listen to baseball games and would sit and listen to football games on the radio it's a great rivalry i mean i think it's so i'm not aware of who she viewed the rivals

to be but i know that um one of the highlights of her life she's still alive one of the highlights of her life was whatever the hell it was 1984 or something the bears you know trounce the patriots oh yeah yeah i think was it the 85 bears when they yeah 85 bears like jim mcmahon uh fridge perry yeah they were mike single super bowl shuffle yeah the album they had my mom had that album nice but that was my that was my exposure as a kid like that's what i knew about football was i knew about my mom listening watching you know following the chicago teams because she just felt i don't know that part of her never went away even though they lived in michigan yeah well growing up in la you just don't have rivalries like that and moving out there and just it's it's a big deal of where

you're from who you root for and and you know how much it means to them not just the team but the whole state the city that you get that win whether it's the bears like you had mentioned white socks cubs or brewers packers bucks i mean it's it's big out there you know here uh it's a little bit funny because you guys could be able to tell me better than me, but there's no team. Okay. No professional team. And then you go one state South Wyoming, there's no professional team. I feel like it's just a grab bag. There's no, like, there's no sort of, there's no, uh, I was living in Seattle when, when,

when, uh, the Seahawks, I don't know what I would have held six, seven years ago, six, seven years ago, the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. Yeah, they were rolling. Dude, I remember I went to run an errand during that Super Bowl game. I'm not kidding when I say this. I was going through downtown Seattle, running an errand. I was up on, I went through Capitol Hill. There were no, I'm not kidding you. There were no cars on the road. And you're like, what's going on

today? And it was, but there's nothing like that here. Some guys are like, oh, I like this team, that team. There's nothing to get behind. You know WGN, obviously, right? So that's one of the only stations that we had in Montana before cable and all that stuff. You had WGN? We had WGN.

So they would broadcast. We had that in Washington State growing up too. I watched a lot of C? We had WGN. So they would broadcast. We had that in Washington State growing up too. Yeah, I watched a lot of Cubs games. Are you serious? So they would broadcast the Cubs and the Braves. Mm. And so consequently, there were a lot of Cubs and Braves fans in Montana because of WGN.

And then you would get, yeah, you're right. For like pro football, it'd be kind of like a grab bag. So there were like consequently like some Falcons fans once that happened because people were already Braves fans. But lots of stories are like, oh, my kids liked the Bengals. I grew up with some kids in Missoula who were just like diehard Bengals fans. Because of what? Why? Who knows?

One of the brothers was like into them as a kid. And so the whole family just became Bengals fans. Why? Who knows? One of the brothers was like into them as a kid, and so the whole family just became Bengals fans. Suffering. Yeah. But there are a lot of Packers fans. Oh, yeah. And that bar that I bartended in, Reds in Missoula, there was always a big contingent of Packers fans

that would come down and watch those games. The guys I hunt with in Wisconsin, this guy I told you about, Pat Durkin, he's got a big Packers sticker on his truck. Yeah. He's got stickers on his truck of different famous bucks that have been killed, like the silhouette of the famous bucks that have been killed. Yeah. His topper is made out of plywood on his truck.

Really? And then he's got Packers stickers, big Packers fan. But those guys used to joke that when the Packers were playing, you could hunt anywhere you want. There's your one chance to go hunt the neighbor's place and just know you were no way, no how going to get caught. Clay, do you think some of that culture that you were there like stuck with you? Because I can go and say, hey, I'm Chester from Wisconsin.

If it's another person from Wisconsin, it's like immediate connection. Do you think any of that culture stuck with you? Do you have a place back in Wisconsin still? Oh, no. I sold that so fast. You kidding me? I got that? No.

I was going to say there's only one right answer here. No, I will say, though, that when I meet people from Wisconsin or happen to hear them, it's a great kind of segue into that if they're not a Packers fan or whatnot, where they lived in the state. There is that little bit of connection. Even from my 10 years there, you know, it's like you're an honorary Wisconsinite just because you spent time up there.

It just seems, at least, I don't know how, I mean, obviously, you know, growing up in LA, there weren't people from Wisconsin out there. Can you tell Chester's from Wisconsin? Say you betcha. Oh, you betcha. Yeah. Oh, the women out there, the older women in Wisconsin Have the thickest accents

And a very particular haircut too People are like Where is she from? Like not from The US, they think she's from somewhere else Foreign country, she's from Wisconsin What's it like to become uh

you know we keep goofing about wisconsin and all that i mean do you ever does it ever do you get tired of the whole thing like it's like yeah yeah yeah yeah i played for the packers but do i need to be like wisconsin's you know spokesman i think well i i think it's more so, no, I don't get, I don't get tired of it. In fact, the more I'm removed from Wisconsin and the Packers, just like anything, the more you come to appreciate it. My wife and I. Is that right? Yeah.

Yeah. My wife and I were reminiscing, you know, because when most guys get drafted or moved to Wisconsin, oh gosh, there's nothing to do out there. And then, you know, well, I'm talking about 22 year old football players, you know, or 21 year old. Hey, these athletes want to hunt something else. All right. But we were reminiscing over just, you know,

cause we have a young family, you know, the parks and where we lived in the neighborhoods and how well we were treated out there. And I think, yeah, my, our time up there was fantastic. I really enjoy it. And there's certain aspects that I miss. I was able to get back this past year to do some walleye and king salmon fishing up on Lake Michigan.

And was back at Lambeau for two of my teammates were put in the Packers Hall of Fame. And now my kids are such big Packers fans too. So the human element of when they tell you they don't want you anymore, where you're like, these sons of, you know, you come full circle and you grow up a little bit and you're like, yeah, all right, okay, all right, go Packers.

So you spent 10 years there. 10 years, yeah. And then finished your career. A year in LA for the Rams, yes. What was that like? LA was fun. It was a lot of fun. For me personally.

Was it weird being back home? No, it was great. It almost made the season go home? No, it was great. It almost made the season go by even faster because I was training and I was just so lucky that the Rams facilities were all of 20 minutes from where I grew up out there. So my parents, my family were able to come to every game, practice. The weather's a lot warmer than it is in Wisconsin. Physical therapy, massage therapist, the gym in which I trained at was all right there. So everything was already how I spent my off

seasons. Now I was just there year round. So it was, it was real fun. In fact, I thought I was going to do that, uh, for much longer, but you know, they had other plans. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Uh, when we were duck hunting this morning, I was asking you about what you were talking about getting your jaw broke and they wired your jaw shut yeah and it was an interesting detail i never thought of you're telling me that they give you a wire cutter yeah in case you got a puke or something yeah yeah they need to like be ready to get your mouth back open yeah but i was asking you what's the relationship between when you injure someone bad someone injures you is there any sense of obligation to like acknowledge that you're saying this is not part of the culture it's not part of the culture now i think if it was accident

well they're always accidental i mean very rarely are there you know malicious hits or something yeah intentional but i think if you you were to tear somebody's knee up or a season ender, you might reach out and offer your condolences to them. But I just feel like it's not in the culture. I mean, I got absolutely blindsided up in Philly. Guy peeled back on me, lit me up, landed on my labrum.

I tore it up. I still deal with problems. I haven't heard from him and I don't expect him to. It's part of the game. But, you know, on the flip side of that, I can't,

how many guys, I broke, there was a quarterback who I, I broke his arm just with my helmet. I went to hit him. Actually,

I think he was playing for the Bears. You can't remember the guy's name? Hoyer, Brian Hoyer. So you don't send him flowers? No, but it's just,

you probably should It's kind of I ran into him If I shot Max In the foot hunting Well It was an accident I would say

It's an accident Part of the game I'd be I'd be doing everything I could for him I feel like it's a little different But I'll go along with it And just say

It's kind of that next man up Like you're on You feel bad There's the human element Of that You're like Oh man You put yourself in that position It's the Why me But I. You're like, oh man, like you put yourself in that position.

It's the, you know, why me? But I mean, you can't, you're onto the next play. You know, you're onto the next game. You can't focus on that. It's a very cold business. Maybe just have some, just sign one of those posters of you doing that. And send him that and say, thinking of you. Sorry, I ruined your season.

Or say, gotcha. Remember, was it, was it, who was it? Not Namath. Who got the compound fracture on national TV? Oh, Theismann. Theismann, Joe. Yeah. Now, there's the dude.

I don't remember who it is. It'd be easy to find out. There's some dude out there that is saying, man, I gave that dude a compound. LT. Who's LT? It was Lawrence Taylor. No, I think. He's not like, man, I gave that dude a L.T. It was L.T. It was Lawrence Taylor. No, I think. He's not like, man, I gave that guy a

compound fracture. That guy's got more, he can pick any, he's the best, arguably the best defensive player to have ever played the game. So I'm sure. He's got a long list. He's got better accolades than, you know, I broke this guy's leg.

But that messes you up though. When you see a compound fracture or something pointing to the other, it's one thing when a guy blows out his knee, it just, but you don't really see it. You see the guy down, but when a, you know, a guy lifts his leg up and it's pointing this, oh, you know, it's like the, it's the, the

DeMar Hamlin. Are you familiar what happened to the DeMar Hamlin on the bills? I think this was, was this last year, two years ago. The Bengals. He, yeah. And so, I mean.

We'll remind people. Cause I'm, i remember this but when you were going to say that i thought you're going to say the guy that the hockey player oh yeah but um yeah demar went to make a routine tackle and you guys have to film me on what it was called but um i guess he took such a shock to the chest that it gave him a heart attack yeah gave him a heart attack and he just he fell down the field they had to do um uh chess you know it's not cpr but um the chest yeah compressions and everything on the field and you're just watching it at home like just we just watched somebody die on the field and i guess he did die for you know all intents and purposes and so they called the rest of that game off they're

like we're done it just it messes with you and and we're i'm going off on a tangent here but let you know that that you know it is bigger than than sports but yeah with certain injuries it's almost like you're you know you're on to the next one but with others you're just like that's that's that's it you know that american hockey player that recently was killed and he's on a european league yeah adam johnson yeah caught a skate Minnesota guy caught a skate caught his juggler yeah which is insane oh yeah well my daughter plays hockey back in november yeah a couple months ago my daughter plays hockey a couple days after that dude i'm not kidding you every girl net guards well it's actually she's on co-ed as boys

and girls all net guards and i'm talking my daughter's all scared of someone cutting her throat with a skate i'm like rosie you gotta appreciate man how many people are playing hockey for how long and they can point to one guy like you're not going to all of a sudden go out there and get and also trying to explain to these people are 250 pounds yeah i think i think there's only been like you're not 100 there's only been like two or three deaths ever in hockey with a skate getting cut in half. There's more than one. I was trying to sell her. That was the only one.

I know there's a goalie and there's one other. She's nervous about it. How much are we going to whine about them? Two or three fatalities max. We enjoy watching at home with our beaters. That was harrowing. It's just one of those freak i heard about a guy like my neighbor's friend he um uh apparently this guy

broke a ski pole and ran that broken end of the ski pole right up into the joint of his leg and groin severed his artery and the guy was dead in seconds. Jeez. On the snow. 30-something years old, man. Jeez. Makes the inside of your leg hurt. Mm-hmm. Hey, folks. Exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada. And boy, my goodness do we hear from the Canadians whenever

we do a raffle or a sweepstakes. And our raffle and sweepstakes law makes it that they can't join. Our northern brothers get irritated. Well, if you're sick of, you know, sucking high and titty there, OnX is now in Canada.

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onxmaps.com slash meet. Welcome to the OnX x club y'all clay and i had a great conversation when i was dropping him off at at the uh hotel we got to get into a land management but more more so than that i do want to get into a land management, but more, more so than that. I do want to get into his land management. Go ahead. Uh, you know, cause you're a fly around the field, kind of meat stick head thumper. Your words, not mine. I'm pretty sure you said that today. I was going to say that came very naturally.

No, but, uh, we were talking about soil ecology, soil health, and just some of what you're getting into and like exploring the American chestnut. How's that for a turn of conversation, right? Well, yeah. I mean, we, we, we kind of put the, we, when I was done playing, we were building a house in

California, moved out there where your typical, you know covid family we reassessed and we moved outside of nashville now and we were lucky because uh we pretty much purchased 200 acres and it's got farmland it's got year-round running water a four acre spring fed pond um hardwoods backs up to the natchez trace i know we were talking about that earlier but um you'll find uh ladies and gentlemen you'll find mention of the natchez trace in long hunters available now american history available now 1761 to 1775 and uh already pitched him on that good good good well i just i you know i find myself as soon as the kids are dropped off at

school i just go down there and i i i mean there's there's i can get into anything you know what's going on yeah whether it's just splitting wood or clearing brush recently had the pond dredge just because i know we had talked about this the oxygen levels were low yeah too much muck so now that's filling back up when it drained it out was anything surprising in there uh there no there wasn't i was fully expecting to find like some civil war era relics dead bodies giant fish oh no you know it was kind of it wasn't very satisfying because i just assumed there would be a pool of fish at the end that you could you know fish and get them out but they unfortunately they slowly died because this was middle of summer the water was too hot And so they just piled up on the shore.

But no, like, oh my God, that was in here? No, but we had caught some big, some big bass out of there, but nothing. There was a propane tank in there. One of the many reasons why I, you know, wanted it dredged to know what was going on. But I started looking at trees to plant out there, you know, fruit trees and whatnot. And I think it was an Instagram ad was, you know, plant chestnut trees. It's, it's, it's the, you know, it's what deer prefer over, you know, every other. So I went down the rabbit hole in that.

And then I started researching the history of, of the American chestnut and how it was the tree of the Appalachias. And I think they're, they're functionally instinct now because blight came over, wiped them all out. It was a main source of wood for everyone in that area. The chestnuts were great for wildlife.

You'd sell them at market. And very recently they've been able to reintroduce them because they've been breeding them with the Chinese chestnut. I forgot we had a dude, we had a guy on about GMOs. Mm-hmm. been breeding them with the chinese chestnut i forgot we had a dude we had a guy on about gmos and um at the end he he works with him and understands gmos and the risks and perceived risks and everything and i remember at the end of the conversation i said to him so let's say you

fell off a tall building and you were falling and you had to tell the world to pursue GMOs or not. Would you say yes or no? And he said, as I was falling, I'd go, maybe. But he told the story of, he says, if you're going to hack on GMOs, hear me out on the American chestnut. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're coming back. In fact, a lot of people who I kind of run in the same circle with have started, you know, doing their own research on it, not only for wildlife and food plots, but just for the history of it. Yeah.

They changed like a gene and now it's resistant to the blood. So I planted 120, 119. Were they expensive? Uh, no, but the ones I found weren't. I found them like, I dug deep. I had to drive down to. But not like a hundred bucks a piece. No, no, no, no, no.

They weren't that. But yeah, I had one, I think they were about three years old. They were about anywhere from six to eight feet. But I had one chestnut burr on all the trees last year. I was so pumped to see it like open up and possibly have these, uh, you know, these chestnuts. It was, I went back, it was gone. Like I think some of the wildlife had already

gotten to it, but I didn't get a chance. So hopefully this next year, now that they've had a chance to, you know, kind of set their roots and whatnot, start getting some production. Yeah. So. Did you plant them in rows or try to plant them like a natural stand?

I'm so OCD. I was out there. You rolled them out? I was out there. You rolled them out? I was out there. I bought all these stakes. I bought this mason string that had to stretch. I drive to the front of my property on my range. I look up.

So when you pull in, you'll see it. And they're offset 30 feet from one another. And they're offset every 15. So no matter where you go, it's like an optical illusion. They all line up perfectly. So satisfying. I feel real good. And then I put all these, it's like an optical illusion. They all line up perfectly. I feel real good. And then I put all these, which took like another six weeks. I put all these tree tubes on them as well.

My fingers are so they're, they're, they're these white tree tubes about five feet tall. Yeah. To push the growth up at the zip ties, the zip ties and having to do that. I was so thankful I was done. And now of course it's been a year and I'm like all right i'm gonna plan another hundred this year or maybe i'm gonna move on to pears or a different type of fruit so you've been digging that kind of stuff well do you know anything about biochar no hit him with that well i just i just started learning about that as well because um i guess they've been doing you you you got to fill me in this well they've been doing, you got to fill me in on this. Well, they've been doing this in the Amazon for ages.

This Preda, I'm butchering it, however you pronounce it. It's called Black Earth down there. But anyways, biochar is when you burn organic matter through pyralysis in the absence of oxygen. So you have charcoal. And by itself, you put it in the soil, it'll actually take you know, take the nutrients out, but you inoculate it with, you know, whatever it may be, whether you, a lot of people will put it in their, their compost pile, their manure pile. But this that I bought was inoculated with humate. And so now I just need to put it down and it just helps. It helps the soil biology, the microorganisms in the soil.

So that type of stuff, which, you know, coming from pro sports, football to, to wanting to know about. Like juice in the soil is nothing. You know, like the MPA, you know, all that in the soil. It's not like you were hanging out with the landscaping crew, right? No, no, I wasn't doing any of that. So that, that's, you know, I was chopping wood one time and my mom called me. She's like, well, you grew up in the city. Like what?

Like you're from, like what happened? And I'm like, happened and i'm like just prepping i just i'd watch where the world ends on netflix i'm over there kevin bacon you know chopping my wood and whatnot so i don't know where it came from but i'm having a blast doing that's awesome learning yeah you got to connect with uh our buddy doug so yeah the the humus is a big is big buzzword in the, uh, land management world right now. Cause, uh, they're, if by just kind of

reconstructing that soil biome, uh, you can, uh, all of a sudden grow, uh, things in soil that, that people didn't think were, were possible before. So humus is, is just like super decomposed. It's like the ultra, um, end result of a really good compost pile. Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to. Uh, explain your plan with you, the Landy bot. We're going to live out there. Um, but we like the idea of just, just being more independent, more self-reliant and less, you know, dependent on, on the supply chain. So my wife, um, she's not a prepper, but she, she loves the idea of having this homestead, you know, growing our own fruit and vegetables, having our own cattle and livestock and chickens and whatnot.

Year round running water, as I discussed, discussed just you know having that that fall back fail safe if you know if it hits the fan you know and and then on top of that the opportunities that affords the children i've got three young children that um i mean they they have so much fun when they're there yeah i mean it's just yeah it's just getting them off their ipads and and just getting them outdoors they absolutely love it it could just be yeah, it's just getting them off their iPads and just getting them outdoors. They absolutely love it. It could just be, you know, I bring my kids there and they're on their iPad. No, no, we don't want to go. And then they don't want to leave because they're just messing around building a dam in the creek or they're collecting, you know, the acorns or black walnuts, whatever it is.

They just have so much fun. So I think it's the opportunities and yeah, really the opportunities it provides us as a family. You really, no, it's just opportunities and yeah, really the opportunities it provides us as a family. You really. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. No, it's just interesting that you're in, in Tennessee, because I mean, it's literal 40 acres in a mule country where it's like every 40 acres

has a spring. You know, it's, it's, you can't, what you can do with 40 acres in Tennessee versus what you can do with 40 acres in the vast majority of Montana is so insanely different. Yeah. Like your ability to actually make a living. You put a cow on there, it's going to destroy it. Yeah. And don't, you probably don't want to drink the water because it's so alkali, you know, it's like, but over there it's, yeah, it's wild. That, um, so where are you, where are you at in the, in the, have you guys started growing food

yet? We, um, we have not started. I, I, most of the gardening I do is in our own backyard. We've got some raised garden beds and I've, I've done everything from beets, carrots, tomatoes, pumpkins, watermelons, uh, herbs. I mean, I've done peppers.

I've done quite a bit of peppers. In fact, I even grew those Carolina Reaper peppers. That was a nightmare. They, they, they, they grew. I mean, they, they were fantastic, but, um, I put like a sliver in some, one of my eggs and then my stomach was hurting for the next couple hours. It is that I forget what it's the.

So it was as hot as you thought it would be. It's as hot as the appetizer. Yeah. But naturally I'm like, I'm going to grow up the Carolina Reaper. I got going to grow up the Carolina Reaper. I got them to grow and everything. But as far as the land's concerned, we just did some no-till drilling for some clover back there for a food plot for deer. But we're getting ready to pour the foundation for our barn out there.

That'll be kind of like the central hangout. Planning on having a prep kitchen like, you know, where we were at today. And, you know, having a hangout while we build the house just to get down there a little bit more. Cause right now there's nothing there. There's no electricity. The kids, you know, after those two or three

hours are ready to go home. There's no, you know, home base, so to speak. Walk-in refrigerator. We can, we can really give you the ideas for what you need out there. We already have a little four by six walk-in refrigerator. Yeah.

We've already got it mapped up. We've got a good team working on it, but now we've got to, we've got to have an even better team bringing the cost down because good grief. Yeah. What were your impressions of hunting ducks this morning?

Cause you never hunted ducks. No, it was a blast. Turkey's though? Turkey's. Hunting turkeys. Turkey's, turkey's is a lot of fun, but as far as ducks, that, that was, that was a lot of fun. People had told me for the longest time that elk hunting and duck hunting are two of the best hunts.

And I'm going to tell you that turkeys are one of the best. Well, turkey is a lot of fun. I think anything that, and that this doesn't go in line with duck, but anything you can kind of hear and you can call in and I can't really call, but you hear them getting closer and you know, something's out there. It's it, it kind of gets you going, but the ducks was great because, you know, you set up these decoys, you, you know, you guys calling them in and you have an opportunity at least where we were at today, um, every so often different varieties and, and then obviously kind of, you know, test yourself with the shots that you got to place on them.

So different shots and scenarios, it's not always the same thing. Yeah. But I had a blast too. And you're going to get a couple of ducks stuffed. Yeah. I don't think I was ever with someone. Maybe I'm wrong. Who,

who kept the duck to get it stuffed. They've all got them, but I just don't think I've ever been with someone that got one that they were going to get stuffed. Well, my wife was like, she wants a bird. She wants, she wants some birds to be,

I told her I'd bring home some, obviously some meat, but you know, she's like, when are you going to start getting some, cause I got all these heads on the wall, you know, it's just, and she's like bringing home some, the birds look good on the wall, you know?

So you can do a couple of cool arrangements, like hanging out by fishing line and flying, which would be pretty cool. Yeah. I'll have to, I spent enough time on Google images, just like type in the type of bird and mounts. Have a little fan mounted up there. You can flip on, get everybody to line she might she might draw the line there yeah what i wanted

to ask you about too um you were you were talking about the debate in your head we discussed this a little bit this morning of what's when do you get kids involved and you kind of got in your head you're talking about you had your head like 10 when I was sharing with you in this state, 10 is the legal age. Yeah. Yeah. Talk,

talk about that or explain kind of how you've debated that in your own head about, well, there's, there's this fine line. You know, these kids are so desensitized nowadays, but you want to teach them the respect,

you know, they see a dead animal. You want to show them why you're doing this. Why are we, you know, how, this is why we kill animals because, you know, we're trying to, to support us and, you know, keep everything in balance. And I've told them as well too, cause they were

like, Hey, can we go hunt this? Can we do that? And so I just make up an ambiguous answer. It's against the law. You have to be 10 years old. So that kind of, that gives me some time to get my ducks in a row. Because you're trying to plan. Yeah. Well, they asked for, we talked about, they asked for a go-kart. Can I get this for,

you're not old enough. And I was like, besides, you have to be 10 years old before they let, so they let off for a little bit, but I've included them as much as possible. But I just, I feel like for me personally, with where my kids, um, I'm not really ready to hand them a firearm. Now you had mentioned, which I thought was great, you know, having your child on your lap when they do their first turkey hunt, whatever it is. Yeah, my kids, when they shot their, so my daughter got her first turkey at eight. My boy got his first turkey at eight, which in their home state, they can't hunt at that age. Right. But we would go to a state that didn't have the age requirements and they both shot their first turkeys.

But I mean, literally in my lap yeah now how'd they do with the you know waiting in the blind and all that because i feel like they'll sleep oh that would be my nightmare if they're just no they fall asleep okay man you drag kid out of bed like 4 30 in the morning that kid's gonna sleep yeah but it's more a matter but our buddy yanni he's not here right now but he's he had these funny pictures of uh he hunted pretty hard with his daughter this year he's got these pictures of her sleeping in the most just like awkward positions awkward spots you know those uh slumped over against a tree sleeping what are the the like tube dudes that like blow up you know charlotte's and stuff yeah his this series of photos that uh it was his daughter as that you

know and like you cut the fan off and it's just like that's what it looked like when i would take them out young sitting in my lap because they get comfortable you know yeah they're like oh yeah you'd realize all of a sudden you think they're just being real good and all of a sudden you kind of hear like when they breathe real heavy like that oh yeah and i just i just let them go you know wake them up but man i don't know there's different there's different approaches people have i hear people all the time i hear this so much that it must be true that people are like reluctant to burn their kids out they don't want to give them a bad experience they're going to burn their kid out you know i don't want to blow it right um that must happen but that's not been my experience

and of the kids that i'm i have a lot of buddies that have kids in our kids ages you know in the age of you're my kids brackets and and who are push it you know and i haven't seen that happen yet i'm assuming it must happen but it might be from a past generation too because like um i'm just so much nicer i'm so much i'm kind of mean to my oldest boy but i'm so much nicer to my kids than like my dad was to me yeah about hunting just night more considerate about their well-being. I'm not opposed to, you know, any age restrictions and kind of getting those kids out there. And perhaps with these people who have, you know,

putting on a, it's kind of a one and done deal. Like we need to kill something. And if we don't, they're not going to have a good time. And maybe they don't go out for another year. But the fact that your kids are, you know, around or mine in this case, like we're always going to our land and we're always out there putting out corn or whatever it may be to kind of keep them within the process. Perhaps that keeps them more engaged than, Hey, we are taking this trip, you know, this three-day trip. We're going to try and kill or hunt white tail, turkey, whatever it is. And

if you don't get it, all we did was sit in a, gotta have an hour. It ain't going to happen. How old are your kids again, Clay? They are eight, seven, and four. What is it, boys, girls? Boy, girl, boy. Yeah, we got Clay the fourth. I figured I'd be like every other athlete and name him after me. So my oldest boy is the fourth.

Now, are you way leaning on your kids that they have to play pro football? Not at all. Not at all. They can if they want. My dad didn't do that with us at all. But I just found that, at least this is broad stroke statement know, most boys want to grow up and be like their fathers. And I know that for me, they have taken, at least my youngest, my youngest is a monster. He just, you know, we have to tackle every night before going to bed, but he loves watching the YouTube clips of me back in the day.

Oh, really? Hey, type. That's funny. Type in your Clay Matthews highlights. I, and I'm like, I'm not, I'll end up watching it.

Your dad was, your dad was all right. But I, you know, if they want to grow up and do it, I have no problem whatsoever. I'll probably be, I started playing tackle football at eight years old.

I don't think there's a reason that kids need to start that early. Not that I have anything against it, but you know, perhaps we start with flag, work your way up until you're at maybe 10 years old. You know, when they can start with, you know, tackle football. Yeah, it's the age at which you do serious stuff. Yeah.

You know, we had Bo Jackson on the show years ago. I was surprised when he told me, he said, I wouldn't let my kid play football. Listen, I understand both sides. It was the, I mean. Yeah yeah yeah no it wasn't the lifestyle it was the injuries yeah i understand that but i mean first of all i wouldn't be the position i'm at today if it weren't for football just that's just you know god's honest truth you know the financial freedom that it provides you is unbelievable the opportunity to meet people

to help others to to, you know, push your platform. Yeah. You do a lot of charitable work. I know. Yeah. And I, but I just think there's also this, this other side of it, the, the teamwork aspect, which I think is so important for young kids, especially coming from a sports background is being a part of a team and not just always individual sports. You learn how to manage your expectations, win together, lose together. Um, um i mean there's so many emotions that you go through and and similar what we were talking about earlier bringing people from all walks of life together for a common goal i think it starts early and i think it helps them become better humans as they you know as they grow up so for me i think there's it's it's not just

the oh yeah you can make tons of money and do. I think there's so much to it than the fame and money that come from it. Yeah. You said you don't really, you don't miss the fame terrible. No, not really. You said it haunts some people. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know.

The roar of the crowd, right? Exactly. Yeah. For me, I've, you know, I had, I kind of came onto the scene real fast. In our second year, we won the Superbowl and I was playing very well. And so, you know, you have, and, and, you know, when you put your, your self image and your worth in the hands of the media, it's dangerous, you know, and, and they'll, they'll, they'll tear you, or, I mean, they'll lift you up just to tear you down.

So for me, it's almost been a relief, you know, kind of taking a step back and focusing on everything else, whether that's, you know, being a dad, a husband, being able to go hunting and not worrying about, you know, the criticism or the praise that comes along with it. So for me, I, I truly have not missed it. Uh, you know, it's nice when you can get to the front of the line, certain restaurants and whatnot, but, uh, and those paychecks that used to come in. But for the most part, for me, I'm good with it. But yeah, I mean, there are people who. Yeah. All that's nothing compared to some perfectly lined up chestnuts, man.

Yeah. I'm telling you what, we spent weeks on that and I feel good about it. That'll be there for a while. That legacy right there will be there for a while. So you had, you had some hunts prior, like during your NFL days. Yeah. So I would try and schedule at least one hunt, um, after the season, uh, which would, you know, obviously end in January, February. And I usually, I have family in Texas.

So it started with the exotic hunts, the high fence hunts in Texas. And those, those were a blast. And, but I kind of grew out of that and I started to enjoy just the, the fair chase hunts in Texas. And those, those were a blast and, but I kind of grew out of that and I started to enjoy just the, the fair chase hunts. And so I've done, uh, uh, pronghorn, white tail. I'm just trying to think what's up on the wall. Mountain lion. Um.

Where'd you hunt antelope? Uh, Colorado. Now I'm blanking on where it was. I went elk hunting, um, in La Vida, Colorado. Now I'm blanking on where it was. I went elk hunting, um, in Levita, Colorado. Uh, did black bear in Utah this year. So yeah, then, you know. Did you get one? I didn't.

I guess they had gotten a lot of snow this year. So when we went up there, they just, they weren't. You were spring hunting. Spring hunting. Yeah. With hounds too. So there wasn't, there just wasn't a lot of movement. It was, it was.

Is it right that, are you cautioned because everybody's a brand kind of in the NFL, are you cautioned to like what in your personal life you can, you can share when you're, when you're playing? Absolutely. Yeah. I think there's, um, for me personally, um, I

mean, I know who, you know, who cuts my checks when I'm, you know, who cuts my checks when I'm, you know, doing these endorsements and commercials on TV, not just outside of the football teams in which I played for, but they're usually in New York or LA and, and predominantly are, you know, either anti-hunting or, you know, yeah, anti-hunting. So for me, it's like, I just, I choose not to post that or, or, or really, you know, dive into it and talk about it unless somebody within the community, the hunting outdoor conservation space wants to, but for the most part, it just, it benefits me just to kind

of keep it to myself. And not that I'm, you know, I wouldn't say a sellout, but the opposite of that. But I just, I also think there's, um, for me, and one of the things I really enjoy about, you know, meat eater and watching the show and the content you put out is it doesn't feel like it's just some overweight white male shoots animal takes, you know, picture smiling over them. No, dude, I'm super skinny. And that's why, but, and I think there's, you know, you watch animals that, you know,

you would look at and historically, you know, you might look down on mature, okay, why are we, why are you hunting this animal? You know, how does this benefit, uh, you know, the other animals, the ungulates, whatever it might be. And then you do a great job cooking it up at the end and you also tell a great story with, with the people involved in it as well, which I think

is phenomenal. And I think it's helped bring, it's helped, uh, eliminate the stigma of hunting animals which is just you're this you know you're the you're blood hungry and you just want this trophy for the wall there's so much more to it that you really can't explain to somebody which i think you're doing a phenomenal job who has never hunted before so uh and i forgot where i went off on this time we recently had a uh brian harman who won the british open was on and who is the hunter in golf yeah possibly and he said when he in in england they were taking a real the in the

interviewing you know they were asking a lot of hunting questions he thought they were interested in hunting but it was you know then he was dubbed the uh. Yeah. I, you know, and it's a shame. And he's like, oh, these guys are really interested in hunting. Let me tell you another thing. All along, not knowing that they're going to try to roast him over it. Yeah.

Well, and I think you just have to, you just have to commit, but I mean, that's, you know, that's who was paying me. And so I wanted to just kind of fit in line, but I was still able to, it's not like they said, hey, you can't hunt or you can't do this. So I still got to do everything I wanted to. I just chose not to. And I've, I've always been like that. I've kind of kept an, uh, you know, an arm, uh, the public at

arm's reach just because of the, um, you know, how much access they give to, um, athletes nowadays. And now, you know, to whether it be your children or whatnot, I'm like, Oh, I'm good with that. Like everything you see on TV, all the commercials and stuff, that's, you know, to whether it be your children or whatnot, I'm like, I'm good with that. Like everything you see on TV, all the commercials and stuff, that's, you know, that's, that's fodder. But everything that's at home, I try and keep that as, as private as possible. Oh, I understand. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks for coming on the show, man.

I appreciate it. I had a blast. Thanks so much for taking me out and hanging with the boys and everything. This was, I'm glad I didn't have to hide this. Maybe now that I'm on my next navigating this post. No one can yell at you now. Yeah, posts, yeah. I mean, they're not cutting my checks for as much anymore, so I'll probably be asking for a job here at Meteor soon enough.

Well, Clay gets stuff done, I'll tell you that, because I have to buy tags for people all the time and whatnot, and I was working with some other guys, and Clay just called me up. He's like, what do I need? And the next thing you know, he sends an email over like three minutes later, got all of his tags, just gets it done. That's just what I told you, all right?

Don't let the DNR come around. No, but like, that's, that's huge. I was like, ah, this guy knows how to navigate a website. Yeah. Hey, they're difficult. Once you get that social in there, you're good to go. Good shooting today too, by the way. Yeah, no, I appreciate it.

One more thing to end on. You were talking about which fish you should stock your pond with. So maybe you should do a poll here. Yeah. Oh, no, this is great. I already know. Don't even worry about it. I've gone back and forth.

So, you know, now that I've, so when I drained the pond. What's your options? When I drained the pond, I had northern bass. You had northern pike? No. Aren't there two different types of bass? There's Florida largemouth. There's northern largemouth.

I'm sorry. Well, yeah, there's a bunch of different bass. As far as largemouth is concerned, there's the Florida, and then there's the northern. Oh. I'm sorry. I should have clarified that. Guadalupe.

You know what? Don't get too in-depth. You're talking. I love all the intricacies of fish and all the differences, but I've never had any exposure to anything with the largemouth. But yeah, there's like the Virginia. I don't understand.

There's a bunch of different subspecies. So there was crappie in it as well and some type of bluegill. So I brought in. That's what I was going to say. I brought in somebody who does, you know, trophy pond. So he goes, okay, well, you got to stock them

with Florida largemouth. So initially I was like. Don't put largemouth in there. I haven't made a decision. This is why I'm. It's so predictable. We shouldn't have brought this up, Corinne. Don't put a largemouth in there.

Let's do the guest a favor and let him finish the sentence. So I'd go back to these, I guess these northerns are more aggressive, but they don't get as big, but they were, my kids were enjoying catching them. And then there's the Florida largemouth, which obviously, you know, can be massive.

And then there's these, he wants these painted bluegill, which are a Florida subspecies. They get really big too, which is fine. But he said, don't put crappie in. I guess they breed earlier than the other fish, eat up all the phytoplankton. It was one of those that kind of went over my head. I was like, okay.

But I started, and then I want catfish. I want catfish because my kids, you know, everybody loves catching catfish, but he goes, don't do it. Don't do it. They'll ruin the whole, you know, the chain of command, so to speak within there. And, but I, so ultimately where I'm at is bluegill's fine. I think I'm going to go with channel cats, but I'm curious on bass. So I'm just curious what everybody's opinion is. Bass is going to eat everything else

that you put in there. Yeah, but your kids are going to have a lot of fun catching bass. So I got four different opinions. Bluegill. But the bass and bluegill were in there before. Put bluegills back in. That's it? Listen, just put the bluegills in there. This world is not going to run out of bass.

They're going to run out of bluegills. Well, just put bluegills in there. My kids are going to run out of patience with me. Oh, no. When your kids go down there with a little teeny popper. So that's what's cool is that they'll eat on the surface. Oh, they'll eat on the surface. Oh, yeah.

They've fished there before and they've enjoyed it, but sometimes they get bored with it. I mean, they catch bluegill like that. Here's the problem. You're they'll eat on the surface. Oh, yeah, no, they've fished there before and they've enjoyed it, but sometimes they get bored with, I mean, they catch bluegills like that. Because you get a bass, here's the problem, you're going to get bass in there, then it's going to be like,

oh, there's that one bass and there's that other bass. And then you're going to start naming them like deer. It's going to be like, then the next thing you know, you got a koi pond. Don't put no bass in there.

Put a shitload of bluegills in there. Someone who grew up on a farm that had a farm pond full of bass and bluegills and trappies. It's not a position to comment on this. Put the freaking bass in there.

Yeah. I'm going with the bass. Your kids will thank you. I'm going with the bass. You got to do bass. Bass, bluegill, and catfish. All right. That's what I'm going to do.

There you go. How deep is that? It's about 12 feet at its deepest. Oh, man. Put some walleyes in. Put some gills in there, dude. I don't think walleyes would survive. No,

probably not. Blue gills, man. Big old freaking blue gills. You know what? You want something big? Put those sterilized blue gills in there.

I don't know. They can't make love. They just get big. Okay. Well, give it a shot. And put some regular gills in there.

I don't know enough about fish yet, so you'll find out once you start raising all these different blue gills. This Florida hybrid enough about fish yet, so. Well, you'll find out once you start raising all these different bluegills. This Florida hybrid thing sounds real interesting though. Like if it's one of those big, they, you know,

they call them like the shell crackers or whatever, that'd be cool. They're called that. In the freshwater, there's a couple of fish that people will say this about. In freshwater, they'll say pound for pound, nothing can outfight a smallmouth. Pound for pound, nothing can outfight a bluegill.

A five pound bluegill is going to out-tussle. There's no such thing. But a five-pound bluegill is going to out-tussle a five-pound smallmouth bass. But do your kids ever get bored of just catching bluegill? Like, if you had your... I live in the Intermountain West, dude. There's no bluegill. You got to look high and low for a bluegill.

Not that we... They have found them. If Jimmy was fishing a pond that had a bunch of big bucket mouths in it, he'd ask me if he could spear them. He would have a blast catching them. I know he would. Him and his buddies catch large mouths.

Dinkers. Not bucket mouths. This is such a Minnesota goodbye. Okay, quick show of hands. Bluegills? Yeah, bluegills. So there's show of hands. Bluegills? Yeah, bluegills. Okay, so there's five people think the bluegills should go in there.

Let's go to catfish. Two think catfish. Crappies? Yeah, sure. Why not? Two on crappies. Foul mouth bass? Largemouth? Largemouth, yeah. I'll vote twice. Ask this guy if it would be possible to put a

bowfin in there. Bowfin, okay. Yeah. I'll ask him. Yeah, snakeheads. I don't think you're going to want to do that. You definitely don't want to do that. You can get yourself arrested, you put

snakeheads in there. Well, if, I mean, bowfin would be the right one. But if, you know, part of this pond gets so hot and denuded of oxygen, that fish can live in there and it'll eat frogs and turtles and stuff like that. And they taste awesome. Don't, don't put bullfins in there.

Okay. Well, I'm glad we brought this up because there's actually more uncertainty to this decision than ever before. But now we got y'all straightened out here. Bluegills will be just fine. All right, we'll start with that and work our way up. You're a researcher.

You'll get to find out. I'll figure it out. Yeah. Any other questions you need solved? Do you and your wife want to know how you guys should decorate or anything? We can handle that right here. My wife's got that figured out, but I did ask you

for a duck recipe. We can take a vote on that. Cal told me how to do it. The duck recipe. The. Did you memorize it? Capital T. Oh, yeah.

You got to, if the fat, you got to score the skin just ever so slightly. Cal told me The duck recipe The Did you memorize it? Capital T Oh yeah You gotta If the fat You gotta score the skin Just ever so slightly But also Don't ask these two Cause he'll give you Kind of a little bit

Different answer than Cal Like with man's eyes Well this was a no Crowd situation I gave You did it on your own Yes Shot him straight

Yeah So that's the right way. He's like, hey, Clay, can I get a word with you? Room temperature pan. This is what's going to happen when we get to the office. Listen, you're going to hear a lot of, when it comes to cooking a duck, just hear me out here. Yeah. Room temperature pan, skin side down.

Let that fat or whatnot render. Yep. Flip it over. Medium rare. Pull it off. Yeah. Beauty. Simple. Got it. Thanks, buddy. Thanks for coming on, man. Yeah, I appreciate it. Appreciate hanging out. That was a lot of fun. Thank you. flip it over medium rare pull it off beauty simple

thanks for coming on man appreciate hanging out that was a lot of fun thanks for joining where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them, where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them duckies, I've been looking for a while. Probably in the sky, how high? Probably a mile.

Probably chilling in some willows or some cattails. Probably munching on a guppy or a bat. Still my favorite duck, if you had to ask then I'd have to say a ruddy. That little blue billet made me miss play, make me feel like my buddy. But I don't hunt them buddies, they just do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do cupid or fat. Still, my favorite duck, if you had to ask, then I'd have to say a ruddy. That little blue billet made in this play make it feel like my buddy. But I don't hunt

them, buddies. They just do cute. If I see a coot, then I just won't shoot. There's certain ducks that I like to view, and certain ducks where I go pew-pew. What kind of duckies do you hunt? Mostly dabblers. I dabble with the dabblers, but I really like the mallards, the redheads, and the pintails and the britches and the teals If you cook a campus pack, that's gonna make a tasty meal Mashed potatoes with some gravy, brussel sprouts, and my plate's good The answer is my ganza if the question's what don't taste good Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at?

Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Foie gras? That's some creepy stuff. I don't like the way them French people treat them ducks. They put them in a cage and force feed them ducks.

Might as well tie them up and just beat them ducks. Free them ducks, I'm speaking of. Save them wetlands creeks and stuff. They dry enough, ain't deep enough. them ducks, free them ducks I'm speakin' up, save them wetlands, creeks and stuff They dryin' up, ain't deep enough, them ducks they need charity from us And abide by the regulations, I do all that for conservation You break the rules, it's no conversation, you shot three scops, that's a violation Woo, I fly and bee on your ass, stomped with feet on your ass Woo, I might just preen on your ass, stomping feet on your ass

They let limit of, seven ducks in the bag One pigtail, two redheads, two canvas bags If you're hunting for mileage, your two can be hens Two Scots, twenty bikies, five Canadians They're fairies by fly-way Don't shoot from the highway Steel shot is the right way Poppin' off with my 12 gauge

Where them duckies at? Where them, where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them, where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them, where them duckies at? What you do with them duckies? Probably smoke them. I smoke them with my shotty then I smoke them with my smoker.

I put them in a brine, yeah I use the salt that's kosher. Some garlic and brown sugar, now I got a tasty potion. What kind of wood do you use? Maple wood How them duckies tasting, boy? They tasting good I eat them up and then I grab my gun Hop in the truck and then I'm off to hunt

Put on my weight as I crack with my lungs These duckies are smart and these duckies are hung Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Where them duckies at? Last week I made a duck stuffed mushroom mixed with some cream cheese, I had like a mallard, a teal, a golden eye, and a buffalo head up in that. Put some sage in it, some breadcrumbs, stuffed it in a mushroom, baked it in the oven, and I had some leftover fillings, so I wrapped that up in a crescent roll

and a bunch of crescent rolls I've been eating those quite a bit lately Hey folks exciting news for those who live or hunt in Canada you might not be able to join our raffles and sweepstakes and all that

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