The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 097 - Let's Celebrate This.. And Ryan Leaf Stops By For An Inspiring Chat

Episode Date: August 8, 2019

On today's show, Pat and the guys finally chat about their fall plans which include a nationally syndicated radio show on Westwood One and the video version on DAZN. Pat also explains what his fall will be like including the radio show/livestream, the podcast, Thursday Night College Football, and Get Up! in New York. It's going to be a busy fall, but it's going to be a lot of fun. Next, radio host, ESPN College Football Analyst, former Heisman Trophy finalist and #2 overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft, Ryan Leaf joins the show for an incredible conversation. They cover his days through college at Washington State, and his eventual experience in the NFL. He also candidly talks about his time in prison, and what the exact moment was that changed his life, and when he realized he needed to start becoming the person he wanted to be. He also discusses who some of his favorite current athletes are, whether or not he ever got into any Longest Yard type situations while in prison, what some of his fondest memories from his NFL days are, and what other sports he excelled at growing up. It's an inspiring and honest interview you don't want to miss (36:34-1:25:38). It's a great episode, and it's going to be an even better fall. Come and laugh with us. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For streaming, creating, gaming, and more, power your passions for less during Dell's exceptional cyber savings event. Enjoy up to $400 off stunning laptops like the XPS, along with high-performance desktops and next-level Alienware systems, redefining what's possible with 10th Gen Intel Core processors. Shop special prices on top-brand electronics and. Plus, enjoy free shipping on everything. Don't forget to ask for Intel when you call 1-800-BUY-DELL. That's 1-800-BUY-DELL. This show is brought to you by our friends at SeatGeek. SeatGeek is the greatest ticket buying platform on planet Earth and...

The Moon! That's right. If you're going to buy tickets on the Moon or right here on Earth, you better use SeatGeek because SeatGeek scans all the other ticket-buying platforms to make sure you're getting the best value for the tickets that you purchase. And you won't get catfished. The tickets that you buy are the tickets that you get. Not every platform and ticket brokerage place can say that. No.

No. Not at all. They're selling fake tickets everywhere. Fake tickets. You think you bought a great ticket, and then you get there, what happens? Oh, you can't even get in the damn stadium. Despicable. SeatGeek sells tickets to all live events.

We're not talking about just sports, although it is time to get some football tickets and get out there and live a little bit this fall. They also sell tickets to comedians, musicians, plays, everything that is a live event. SeatGeek has the best tickets for. And right now you use promo code Pat, you get $10 off your first order.

Promo code McAfee, $20 off your first order. Let's use a little self-awareness. If we're one of the tech people, more successful people that are listening to this show strictly because of yesterday's announcement, this is the first time you've ever heard me speak into a microphone, go ahead and use Pat, get $10 off because you've already made it. To everybody else that is trying to become rich,

go ahead and use McAfee, get $20 off your first order because we need both promo codes to be cooking because that's good business with our friends at SeatGeek. You're alive, but are you living? Go live a little and experience something live with SeatGeek. Well, team, we did it. Today is August 8th, 2019, the day after a massive announcement for this little small business of ours.

We've been flying all over the country, shaking a lot of hands, talking into a lot of microphones, in an attempt to hopefully find a proper direction for the next steps for this small business. And it all got pieced together within the last month or so by the fine folks at CA. I got to give Michael Klein and David Coonan a lot a lot of respect hey let's give it up for them hey michael klein as you know jewish correspondent for this podcast he came on and broke down the entire religion basically a couple weeks ago it was incredible but uh we are all so thankful and grateful i speak for myself guys will chime in here in a second but i'm'm so thankful for everybody that listens and follows. We're about to really fucking go and have a great fall here.

A lot of opportunity. So thankful for Westwood One and DAZN, ESPN, and WWE for the faith in them. Nothing will change. All we're doing is adding potential opportunities for more magic. The live radio show will not affect the podcast. for more magic. The live radio show will not affect the podcast. The live radio show

will be on 40 stations across this beautiful country of ours. Where the pins that were on the map in our announcement in the proper locations of where the stations actually are, nowhere near. Most of them were potentially

in a different state. That is because our geographic correspondent correspondent zito put that map together and although he potentially got all the words and cities spelled right because he copy and pasted from frank thanks frank he guesstimated on where cities were and we didn't catch it until literally this morning because we had to whip that video together within a few hours because the release date of all this news was going to be Monday, this upcoming Monday. And then the Hollywood Reporter wanted to break the news. Oh.

Hey, excuse me. I've heard of them. Hollywood Reporter. Wow. Leonardo DiCaprio. Jack from Titanic was on the cover of the book. Heard of him. Last week.

He was there. It's a book. Yeah, book, magazine, periodical, you name it. It's hard copy, though. Oh, that one's the hard cover? No, I don't know. I have no idea what it is. You can get it in magazine form, but I'm sure there's a hard cover as well.

It's paperback most of the time. Anyways, that thing, the Hollywood Reporter broke the news. Very nice lady who wrote that article. I got a chance to talk to her. They moved it up to Wednesday. So Foxy in the engine room and myself, we had to piece together the video for the release in a matter of hours. Because we were negotiating all the way up until basically this whole thing got released.

Negotiations were really happening. And it killed me to not be able to talk about it for the last couple of months. My phone would be blowing up with counters and this and this. And could you do this if this were these people? And I wasn't allowed to speak about any of it. I wasn't allowed to speak about it anyway. Mummed. Mummed.

Gagged. That's really not what I was going for. Mum and gag? A gag order. Yeah, a gag order. Yeah. Mum was the word. The attorneys were like, can't speak of this you speak of this potentially ruin everything and also we lose all leverage if you speak about it yes is

what they said so i had to keep my mouth shut for the good of the team here appreciate it good of the team here had to do work but i'll tell you what it was very difficult whenever i had to speak into a microphone for hours at a time not to just be like oh you should have heard boys we got some crazy shit happening it would have been nice to be able to do that but now that we're there this upcoming fall is going to be incredible for us we're very thankful and we can't wait for you to enjoy the ride alongside of us because without you there's literally no chance any of this happens and i very much understand that we very much understand that and uh we're pumped up and i think i think i speak for everybody i want to say that yeah yeah geez it's uh if you look back two years if you had told me

this was going on right now i'd be like that's probably right because pat's pretty awesome no no it's just incredible how fast it has happened that's the whole thing like no doubt eventually you were destined for this but to happen this fast we we i. That's the whole thing. Like, no doubt, eventually you were destined for this, but to happen this fast is pretty mind-blowing. I think it's a big we thing, though, because you've got to remember, like, Heartland Radio is getting a new studio as well. Sure.

Us 10 people here in this building, 12 people in this building, we've got a lot of people from different cities flying in to hopefully invest in us and help us do our thing, and it's 100% because the people that follow and listen to us. It's kind of like when LeBron took his first Cavs team to the finals us it's kind of like when lebron took his first calves team to the finals it's kind of like that

yeah that's how i look at it every now and then you get the ball do something with it no i said it earlier today been here almost three years i put my put my faith and trust in you it's the best decision i've ever made i dig said, because I asked him how his parents felt about it. This is one of the first conversations Diggs and I had after he quit his job that he was doing well at and decided to move to Indianapolis to make content on the internet for Barstool at the time. He said, I told my mom and dad that you don't really fail at anything.

So you'll figure this out however we got to do it. And to be honest, my parents were like, yeah, that's probably accurate. So here we are. Very real thing. But I would like it to be known that I did feel a sense of pride that our group got a chance to get to a spot now

where we're getting a push from companies, like real push. It feels like everybody we're going to work with right now really wants us to succeed they really want it to work and uh i'm pretty excited and thankful for it all i really am well and that's what like just thinking about it is so cool like everything we've done we do it in such like a makeshift kind of put it together at the last second and it's still it always turns out okay and now we actually have like all this nice equipment and all these like resources behind us so i can only imagine where it's gonna be our last thing we threw to threw together that did well was the video yeah announcing this all happening and we had a we had a situation in the middle of that with the map

let's assume let's assume that as we move forward we'll have a little bit more resources to help us make more magic but nothing's changing the podcast will still remain lawless we will have to abide by fcc rules on the radio what does that mean uh there's like the seven words you can't say that type of thing there's there's some rules some rules so just standard lie with your neighbor that would be the commandments i think the 10 commandments are those ones which those do not play by the way so right if you would like to cheat on your wife or whatever zito uh you can do that on radio the fcc does not mind uh but you cannot say the word fuck on there. Nope.

You cannot allude to somebody being... I think you can say words, but you can't use them in a negative fashion. Who's the judge on that? We should probably have a class before. The FCC is. We should have a class on it, because I know from when we did Bob and Tom a lot,

you could say the P word if you were calling someone that is, don't be a P word. But you couldn't say, touch that girl's P word. You know what I mean? Same way with dick. You could call somebody a dick. Don't be a dick. Don't be a dick. But you couldn't say, anyway, I was looking at my dick.

You know, you couldn't say it that way. I think you had those backwards. What he was saying? I think you're allowed to describe it as a physical. Now, this is why we probably need it. But I think you're allowed to do the physical, and you're not allowed to call somebody. No.

Really? No, you have to be anatomically correct. Like you have to say penis if you're referring to a dick. Oh, you can't have the nickname for it. You can't use the slang cuss word form of the word.

Huh. But you can say don't be a dick. That's why you hear all those. Can you say pitch a tent? Yes. Yeah, you can say dumb things from like sixth grade.

You can say it very easily. You can definitely do that. I think the content of us learning what we can and can't is also good. And we assume we're going to run into some hurdles here. We're going to run into some obstacles on track to this winning championship we're about to run through. The schedule is going to be insane. Five days a week we're on DAZN and Westwood insane. Five days a week, we're on DAZN and Westwood One.

Five days a week. 10 to noon, 7 to 9, all the other time zones. I assume you have to do math for everything else. We apologize. I don't know what yours is. Central time, I guess we're what? One hour behind. You get it.

Yep. Mountain time? Two hours behind. Arizona time? Three hours behind. Hawaiian time? Because I'm building up quite a little friend base out there. Six hours behind. Arizona time. Three hours behind. Hawaiian time, because I'm building up quite a little friend base out there. Six hours behind.

Six? What about if somebody wants to listen to us over there in Germany where DAZN has the NFL rights? Seven hours ahead. And Japan. That's about eight hours ahead. Tomorrow. Sixteen hours ahead. I was going to say Japan is much more than... Times two. Eight times two. Japan is in the future. Wow. Australia

is like 23 or 24 the zone is in Japan so we could potentially have a growing fan base in Japan by the way a lot of military in Japan yeah

a lot of military in Germany thank you for your service yeah amen be nice to reach those folks Domo Domo Mirigato

nope just Domo Domo Rogato good song that's thank you very much just Domo. Domo Rogato. Good song. That's Thank You Very Much. Domo is thank you. Yeah, if you don't lay it on thick.

Thank you very much is Domo Rogato. Oh, Mr. Roboto is the song. Yeah, that's the guy that did something good in the song. They're thanking him. Yeah, Mr. Roboto is actually not a Japanese word. No. That's two. That changes a lot of things yeah it doesn't you walking over to japanese people like mr rabato i'll take a sushi uh i'll take one of them uh

sake bombs uh mr rabato you're trying to be so friendly don't do that on the show though i can't on a radio show we're trying to grow fans not lose fans i'll never do that and i think the big thing about us is um we're going to be able to stay fresh because monday tuesday we do the radio show and podcast recording here in indianapolis plus a weekend wrap up of the nfl for the zone strictly out there um podcast stays the same we add one but then we're going to be traveling for the thursday night football games and we're going to be doing the show remote on wednesday and thursday from where the thursday night football games are in a box truck that was just purchased that's about to be decked out into a studio which i can't wait for just doing the show out of the back of a box truck

but it's going to be very i guess put well put together is what i'm being told quite the mobile studio by the powers that be by the way this is what I'm being told. It's going to be quite the mobile studio. By the powers that be, by the way. This is what happens whenever you have a chance to have some real corporations get behind you here. It's like, yeah, we don't want to change you at all, but we would like to help you maybe be a little bit more, you know. Outfit you with the proper tools. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what? Polish.

No more walking into a gunfight with a Swiss Army knife. Yes, yes. Because I couldn't believe how I was expecting some opposition from the other side of the fence on that mobile studio situation. But they were way behind. It was almost like they were admitting, yes, 99% of radio stations are as small as your broom closet. So, yes, we need you.

If you make that, that would. So yes, we need you. If you make that, that would be awesome and we'll help you. Yeah. Pitching it wasn't, I mean, I'm going to be honest. When I was pitching the box truck idea, I expected it to not go well. Yes. And as soon as the words got out of my mouth, there was some detractors on the conference call. And then once I started explaining it, the smarter humans on the call

started really understanding what was going on. Then you saw the tide kind of turn and it was almost like, yeah, we should be making the box truck studio for everybody. It kind of started coming around. And at the end of it, I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I went in there with zero confidence

that that thing was getting backed out. But that's the type of thing that gets to happen. If we want to go do something with the English Premier League, we are able to go do something with the English Premier League. If we want to go do something with the NFL directly through the DAZN Canada relationship, we can do that. If we want to go to Japanese baseball and potentially make a debut in a – I don't know if they'll let me play.

I mean, granted, we've got to do a lot of winning over in japan for what happened in the past but there's like the access is to almost everything and i think this is only going to help us and we're very very grateful man very very very grateful and if we didn't get the pin right on the map like we apologize we shouldn't have had zito sorry colorado i'm so glad you don't do the tornado warning map. And Utah. And South Carolina. And? Buffalo, but I think I got it sort of right.

You didn't. You were 800 miles wrong. It didn't say drawn to scale. It didn't. He's right. If we put drawn to scale, then they could sue us. You're right. We didn't put He's right. He's right. If we put drawn to scale, then they could sue us. You're right. We didn't put it on there.

You know, we should have put approximate. That would have saved us a headache. So Zito didn't think that he could make the pins taller or shorter so that they didn't stack up on top of each other. Because you could make a pin. Basically, you could have three pins go to the same spot. Just make them at three different lengths and they could all stack on top of each other. Because Zito kept saying, oh, you're getting a little snug. East Coast got a little stuffy.

Anyways. But Colorado's well by itself. We're at the point across, and we're very excited to be in your city. And if we're not in your city, go ahead and give a call to the local sports talk station. Request us. I guess that's how it goes. I have no idea.

And the DAZN simulcast, they're redoing this entire studio. So we have the box truck studio. We have this studio. They're really making it as easy as possible for us to make some magic. And just wait until you see these studios. Hey. I mean, they sent the renderings, the artist rendering over. First of all, I didn't even know you could do that and make it look real.

I was like, somebody take a picture of a studio. It was like HGTV. On HGTV, whenever they're like, okay, we're going to take this wall out and they pop up like a 3D illustrator animation of what it's supposed to look like. And I assume that was all done in post and it was something that is impossible.

This dude, in 24 hours, he was in here, looked around, kind of asked us all a couple questions to get to know us, and then boom, 3D rendering of the studio the next day. I'm like, what the fuck? How much money was this? It's awesome. It is beautiful.

Yeah, oh my gosh. People are going to lose their minds. I did. Yeah, me too. I'm pretty excited to be in here. Yeah, really exciting. Then I fly from directly after the Thursday night football game directly to New York City for Get Up with Greeny.

I think for the first hour, 8 to 9, that's going to be an honor to get on that show on a regular basis. Big shout out to Greeny pushing for that hard, I guess. Very thankful for him. He wanted me to be on there and I'm excited and honored to be on there with him. I'm just going to be talking shit, but that's so much different than

a live radio show, which is so much different than the podcast, which is so much different than the live radio show which is so much different than the podcast which is so much different than thursday night football which is so much different than the wwe content we make that's why this particular deal that was negotiated by a lot of different corporations and the caa uh coonan and klein team kind of putting it all together makes so much sense because it's not going to be monotonous because if it was going to be monotonous there's no way i would have done it or survived. Couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. Can't do it. Won't do it.

Won't win with it. Can't win with it. I can win with this team though, right? Let's go. Appreciate that. Hey, we can win with this room. Just not maps. We're not going to win any cryptography jobs.

I won the geography bowl in eighth grade. I have the cup at my house. Brought shame to them. Sorry. You did. A lot of people question. won the geography bowl in eighth grade i have the cup at my house brought shame to them sorry you did a lot of people question i got fucking meteorologists from all these cities we're going to with their little blue check brigade they're friends with probably the 10 to 12 time slot radio show hosts they're always like oh this guy doesn't even know where our city is that's what they're saying that's what that was the initial lead off with the elitists of most cities that we were

dropping into. But you know what's, you know, we did it. Fuck them. Exactly. I don't give a goddamn if that meteorologist is coming after Zito because his friend runs the show from 10 to 12 likes us or not because no,

no offense to them. No offense to meteorologists. A lot of offense to the city probably that we put it in the wrong spot. We apologize for that. Sorry. But, hey, if we're our best show we can be, I'll be excited to see what shows can keep up with us. None.

And that's all we're worried about. I think there's probably some greats out there who offer a very different style of show. But we're just going to try to make it a mental vacation for two hours every single day starting on september 9th all the way through and uh that's the goal we're just gonna have a good time on there take some phone calls tones phones tony diggs is gonna be running the goddamn phones at tone digs by the way with a z good luck getting through oh you're a bouncer at a club i'm the gatekeeper my friend no bad no bad calls no bad calls that

is something we learned with our serious show yeah if you get a string of bad calls it can really ruin the day saboteurs i do feel like there was a potential couple shows sending in terrible callers to our show because they knew we allowed a lot of people on the line tone it's his job to kind of run the gate there yeah start tweeting at tone digs if you're planning on being a regular caller i think you should try to get in his good graces or just deliver magic when you're on the air because digs will be keeping score at home to see who gets through i believe i do accept bribes oh you're italian yeah what are we talking about we interrupt this podcast celebration about a small business doing

big things to let you know that if you're managing an nfl survival pool or nfl pick'em pool this season you are in andrew luck oh minus andrew you're in luck you get it yes here's the site you've been looking for balto ditch the Excel spreadsheet and track entry buy-ins right on the leaderboard. Customize rules, settings, and scorings in 30-plus different ways. And run your pool in the most efficient way yet. I know from experience hosting a pool is a time-consuming and thankless job. Brilliant. I ponded off on Zito.

Zito ponded off on Ty. Ty ponded off on Foxy. But this year, Foxy's going to be using our friends at Balto and it's going to change the game for this entire office. Balto makes it easy. And goddamn, the product is slick. Check it out.

Give it a look. Joe Montana. Heard of him? Ever heard of Joe Montana? Good arm. Great arm. Great hair. Montana? Yes. Heard of him? Oh, legend. Ever heard of Joe Montana? Good arm. Great arm. Mm-hmm.

Great hair. Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. Shoe game, also solid. Great home, Don. Sketchers, I think you were a sketcher. Oh, he does. Yeah, shape-ups. All good for his back.

Yeah, it's good for his back. Joe Montana is hosting an NFL Pick'Em contest for this NFL season. The winner takes home $1,000 American dollars. It's obviously nothing life-changing, but it's free to enter. So everyone listening here is playing for second place. You're crazy if you think I'm not getting in on this. We all know

that Joe Montana crushed it as a QB calling shots on the field. But what happens when he's got to call the shots off of the field? Well, Joe is hosting a pick'em competition on a brand new and shiny site called Balto. Here's the details on the pick'em. It's free to enter competition, and you're competing against Joe and the rest of the pool. The objective is to make five correct picks each week.

Sounds easy, right? Here are the best two parts. It's free to enter, and the winner of the competition gets $1,000. I'll see you guys there. Go to playbalto.com. Five correct picks each week. Free to enter. gets $1,000. I'll see you guys there. Go to PlayBalto.com. Five correct picks each week. Free to enter. Win $1,000 and beat Mr. Joseph Montana.

Why wouldn't you do it? Why wouldn't you do it? Why wouldn't you do it? There's no reason. PlayBalto.com. P-L-A-Y-B-A-L-T-O.com. I'm betting heavily on the winner being somebody in this room or listening to the show. Guaranteed.

Damn right. So take that, Joe. Joe's going to be completely defeated at this thing. More like Joe Montagna. What? More like Joe Montan. No wins for you. Yeah.

See what I did there? I love it. Montagna is the greatest tackler I've ever seen. Good quote. Playbalto.com. We were on the same page. Montaigne is the greatest tackler I've ever seen. Good quote. PlayBolto.com. We were on the same page. Hard Knocks was on the other evening.

See, I can't wait until we have a live show so we can just run live this morning with him as soon as we walked in here. John Gruden doesn't seem to have the respect that he deserves over there. He's telling people things, and they're kind of talking back to him. It's kind of a give and take, but you can tell in Gruden's face all he's telling people things and they're kind of talking back to him. It's kind of a give and take, but you can tell in Gruden's face,

all he's thinking is, you should shut the fuck up. Doesn't it? Yeah, it does. He was talking to that Abram character who, I know a lot of people said it was an awesome display by him, but you could put Zito out there in a t-shirt and in those shorts periods. Oh, I'm making plays. Zito could knock people out to the ground if he wanted to

because nobody's expecting to get hit. So there's a lot of people like, oh, you love that guy who plays hard all the time. It's like, no, no, no. That is a guy that is not football intelligent because we don't need to be taking anybody out on your team, especially if they're not ready to get hit. I mean, I'm never ready to get hit.

Anytime I get hit, I tear something. So you would imagine that these elite athletes who aren't expecting to get speared in the middle of a short stroll are getting speared by people it's like oh yeah okay man i can't believe there wasn't a fight though like i think that abrams guy is going to end up in a pretty big fight at some point i'd assume he probably mature a little bit but i was i was relatively bored with hard knocks the other evening i can't wait for them turn it up a little bit with a little HBO entertainment value. Yeah, it was very, very boring. Interested to see.

The best part, I think, of Hard Knocks is when they get into camp battles and they do the perspective of two players who are battling for positions and the loser is definitely going to get cut. That's my favorite part. But Gruden looked like he was hesitant to fucking chew people out.

Yeah, he did, didn't he? That's not the Chucky I know. No, I want you to be fiery in there. I want you to be like you were in the booth. And I guess back when you were a Super Bowl winning coach. Yeah. What happened? Nobody really had any respect.

He got soft. His booth made him soft. He did have a pretty hard line, though, whenever he was like, hey, if they don't want to be here, get them the fuck off the team. Is Coach Gruden back here? Yeah, yeah, he is. He's been listening to the show. He's waiting to come on.

Hey, Coach Gruden, congratulations on another year collecting $10 million to be a head coach for the Oakland Raiders. Hey, I appreciate that, Pat. Congrats with all your news. Hopefully I'll be able to come back throughout the season, man. Yeah, I don't normally like to bring up money. I mean, but last night on the episode, Jonathan Aber mentioned cars money at a pretty high

frequency there. Normally you don't talk about people's money like yours and his. How are you going to handle the Jonathan Abram character? Because he did talk back to you a little bit too. Yeah, he did and I told him, I mean, the kid's a piss aunt right now. There's really no other way around it. He'll learn. I told him, you know,

he's running his mouth. I said, listen pal, you want to fucking practice or not, you know? I respect the guy out there who, you know, his helmet's flying to the football. But don't be a horse's ass out there. I know you love him, but stay away, you know, when we're in shorts. How about, speaking of horse's ass, did you see him riding on the horse there in Napa Valley and Wine Country, your two first-round draft picks? Yeah, that's what I'm saying, you know.

I mean, who knows, though. Maybe he could use a little sense getting kicked into his brain by one of those horses. We're about two weeks into camp, and I can't fucking stand the guy. Jesus, Coach. I didn't know you were just going to bury me. Coach Gruden. That's all the stuff I wanted to say on the show. Got left on the cutting room floor.

Do you get final edit, Coach say on the show, you know. Got left on the cutting room floor apparently. Do you get final edit, Coach? You know, well, I tell you what. Those pencil pushers come in and I tell them, listen, you know, if I don't like how I look, you better fucking re-edit the thing. Okay. I don't know if you look good or not, to be honest. Your opening speech was great, but we seen it on the internet before. We saw everything on the internet.

Everything was leaked ahead of time. The hot air balloon with AB, the speech with his kids, Gruden's speech ahead of time. All of it, all the exciting stuff was already out there. So do you think maybe if you were going to be in charge of Hard Knocks this year, you would have done it differently? Or do you think HBO is going to make up for it with the second episode? Well, just wait for week two. I don't want to give anything away, but i did swing on mcveigh at the joint

oh we're excited here life is good we can't wait to hopefully have a nice four month run here of making magic we can't thank you all enough we're incredibly grateful and uh we're ready we are ready we're ready for it we are ready to make this run hopefully we'll survive i mean that's goal is me surviving through november but we will be documenting this entire thing we'll have a weekly documentary basically on life over here from the radio to the podcast to the traveling to thursday night football games to the tailgates the student sections to everything the boys will be venturing into while I'm calling the game,

to the trip to New York City for get-up, to the podcast recording after the live show in New York City where DAZN is going to be filtering me and I quote, interesting elite humans, which I have no idea what that means. If that means I'm getting Elon Musk though, I can't fucking believe it. Basically, what the one

producer said for the the podcast recordings on friday in new york city uh basically pat we want you to kind of get vitamined up and then we're just going to bring somebody in the room that you may have heard of or not heard of before and they're going to be an interesting elite human and i was like what does it mean they're like like authors i'm elite human. And I was like, what does that mean? They're like, like authors. I'm like, oh yeah, that's great. I fucking know all about authors. They were like, yeah. And if it's a four minute conversation, if it goes terribly, that's good. And if you really dive in, that's good.

And I was like, yeah, I guess so. They're like, we're thinking about bringing in like preachers and pastors. I'm like, oh my God. They're like, yeah, we kind of want it to be like our gift to you almost. like at the end of the week you just had a really long week you get a chance to sit down we'll make it comfortable and then we just feed you something that is really going to be in your ballpark whenever you're all vitamin up and i was like sounds good to me man so i assume that's going to be good footage behind the scenes when that guy walks in and i go what the fuck is this and i look i look over a foxy or something like does anybody know who this guy is and then I say

Pat this is blah blah blah author of like the some massive book and I'm like okay and then watching me figure out how I'm supposed to act interested I mean that's going to be an interesting moment it's kind of like instead of doing research for the interview your research is asking him questions and then fucking going

along that wherever that takes you I feel that that's whatever I do my best conversations i think is when i know less about somebody because my natural questions are going to pop up that most people probably have but i do look like a jackass to that person's fan base which i have learned like we've done one of those things and somebody be like oh it's obvious the host did no research on you. It was like, ding, ding, ding, ding. That is actually right. But I think every human I've ever talked to on this show, I've come out on the other side being like,

yo, I'm a big fan of what that person does. Absolutely. I like the human behind the whatever it is. And I think this next person you're about to hear, is it going to be the exact same situation? You Google this guy, probably not great things, but after this conversation, you're going to be like, good for him. Yeah, exactly.

And I think you help that person more because it's easier to rally behind someone who's created something great if you are a fan of them as a human being also. It's a little harder to just become a fan of person of a person just because of the product you know what i mean yeah so when you when you do that and you're like oh this guy yeah he wrote some great books but he's also like this really cool fucking dude to sit down and and tap into they it builds their fan base i would way quicker i would assume that at some point we're gonna run into somebody that i hate, huh? Oh, yeah. Probably. Bound to happen.

Somebody that I can't crack. Somebody that while I'm talking to them, I'm like... It'll be very obvious on camera, by the way. And audio if I just can't stand somebody. I mean, it is very obvious. And you probably hear, but I'll start saying things that are very, very, very just sawing them down. And that'll be a good podcast, too. Yeah, but i assume that'll

happen at some point but it hasn't no it really hasn't it feels like people really isn't that what you're really good at though like finally good and like most people like i think what happens is i think when people are talking to me they feel as if that they're being interviewed by somebody who is much dumber than not dumber but like like yeah i don't really give a damn like i'm not gonna judge somebody as a person too well i think that's it i think people know that i'm not gonna judge them because i've been through some i've done some very dumb things as well where with other people you could potentially feel as if that person's looking down upon you i don't think i ever i i try my best to every human i meet not

to do that at all just because you know we're all humans we all shit the same you know everybody takes your pants off they're cam around your ankles and you gotta squat down to poop everybody no matter who you are is in an awkward situation when you poop everybody is the same exact person just some people are better at other things and i think i try to carry that through everybody that i talk to and i think it maybe maybe it shines through i don't know people do tend to open up to me a little bit more though then they should i'd assume yeah and it's not that they should but they just then they would rather than they probably probably quicker than they typically do yeah yeah and it makes for a better listen because just listen to someone do

their shtick for 45 minutes correct that wears out in like fucking five minutes i hope we can do that with the radio show that we don't know all the ins and outs yet of the in literally in to break out a break is what i was referring to i don't think we know all those i think we're allowed to have floating breaks yeah from what we've been told we are so that means i can have a 20 minute conversation with somebody a 20 minute interview while also talking about the topics of the day and taking other phone calls. Like I think the floating break thought really opens you up to a lot more because if it's, if you're going into it, knowing that it's only a 10 minute conversation, plus they have

to plug whatever they're going to plug. It's hard to get the person to open up because all they're doing is just fluff, fluff, fluff, plug break. Yeah. If I have a floating break in there, which i'm not sure most sports talk shows do now serious does that's the only thing we really know i think it's the only reason why i asked i was like can i float breaks if i have to and they're like yeah go ahead so i they said that originally i don't i don't know how it all let's hope because that's that is a huge advantage for someone in

interviews like you know yeah i think so yeah a podcaster right yes it's a huge advantage for a podcaster that comes great way to put it yeah yeah so and i think maybe that'll be the way that sports talk becomes back almost you know what i mean not that sports talk is dying i don't think sports talk is dying hopefully uh i might have brought it back to life a little bit but we definitely had to make it younger i think and as a fan of talk radio and of talk shows on the radio i'm excited to be that person to hopefully trailblaze is a new style or format of a sports talk show where obviously it's sports.

We're going to talk about everything and hopefully the interviews, we can get a more podcast-like without saying penis. Yeah. Yeah. In the right terms. Yes, correct.

Pitching intent though, yes. I mean, by who? The FCC or me? Oh. Yeah, because I just might mute your microphone. No pitching intent, unless we're talking about actual camping. Zito is so dumb. We interrupt this celebration once again to let you know that

with their box of awesome, Bespoke Post sends guys only the best stuff every single month. They test everything in the box of awesome themselves from styling grooming goods to barware, cooking tools, and outdoor gear. Every product gets put through the ringer before it gets put inside a monthly box of awesome. All right. Awesome.

Awesome. All right. Awesome. I would like to say that our lives have been awesome since the box of Awesome has arrived at our

Awesome office. We're all on the same page right now. Pretty proud of us. To get started, take the quiz at boxofawesome.com. Your answers will help them pick the right box of awesome for you.

They release new boxes every month across a ton of different categories. It's free to sign up and you can skip a month or cancel at any time. Each box costs only 45 bucks, but has over $70 worth of gear inside. Already winning 25 bucks right there. Savings. And right now you can get an extra 20% off your first monthly box when you sign up at boxofawesome.com and enter the code heartland at you sign up at boxofawesome.com and enter the code HEARTLAND at checkout. That's boxofawesome.com, code HEARTLAND, for 20% off your first box, which is already saving you $25 per box.

Yeah. It's awesome. The things that show up at our office are just awesome. They really are. That's the way to describe it. That is a hilarious thought that they were trying to figure out. Okay, what do we need? They probably brought in people like with 45 degrees like uh well in the marketing

world we would like to call this an eclectic batch of blah blah blah and then one guy who probably worked at bespoke post probably found bespoke post or a lady who founded bespoke post was like uh this is just a box of awesome shit, right? Can we just call it that? Bang, box of awesome. It is, I mean, it's awesome. We got a decanter out there. Love a good decanter. Great.

Really classes up the joint. We would never ever buy that in a million years, but it's here, and I can't believe that we didn't have it here before. They think of things that you would never think of to make your life awesome box of awesome.com code heartland 20 off your first box you should go and do it make your life a little bit more awesome all right zito's gonna have a lot of opportunity on this show. Just because it's live. So we need, we need, oh my God, we do need a course. We need people to come in.

Not that Zito would learn anything, though. He put Buffalo in Maine. He put Colorado Springs in Utah. I love wings, too. We need a giant laminated rule sheet right on his desk. Like Andy Reid's playbook. Yes. Zito just sitting there.

It's on my wrist. That'd be awesome. Can't read though. This next guy taught people to read. That's a wild moment. Maybe we get him in here for Zito. That'd be great. Ladies and gentlemen, joining me now was a Heisman finalist.

A second overall pick in the NFL draft, a man whose life might have gone off the tracks just a little bit, but has come all the way back. Now he's inspiring a nation, doing great things, renaming his legacy. Ladies and gentlemen, Ryan Leaf. Let's go. an intro what an introduction well you know you should probably get into media i was thinking about it and we'll talk about where i met you at a super media event but i honestly right before we went live there i was going to go into wikipedia to kind of get some stats and facts and you told me not to use that because it's all

bullshit do you hate the Wikipedia page for Ryan Leaf I haven't looked at it that often but I uh I think I looked at it in the past I just it can be randomly just commented on or by anybody so I don't know how truthful it really is uh so you probably should just come right to the source you got that number right well i can respect that a lot let's chat about it whenever i got to the college football seminar uh there was a lot of a lot of names there a lot of figureheads there a lot of people you've known about for a long time and then i walked outside after like the first little segment or whatever it's called and matt hasselbeck introduced me to a man.

He was like, hey, Pat, this is Ryan Leaf. And I was like, holy shit, this is Ryan Leaf right now. And then you got a chance, or I got a chance to sit by you during another segment and kind of chit-chat with you and learn a little bit about you. And I don't think I knew enough about you going into that weekend, but after hearing you speak to the group, your opening sentence was, five years

ago, I was sitting in a jail cell serving 32 months in prison, and here I am today. Let's talk about this. Let's figure this out. That was quite a message you just dropped on my head for somebody that didn't know much about you. I dug into you a little bit. There was a 30 for 30, I believe. You were this incredible prospect of a football player. Your entire life growing up was professional football, the dream, the goal, everything you were supposed to do? Well, being a professional athlete was. I didn't care what sport, right? I wanted to be Ryan Sandberg or actually play shortstop for the Cubbies and be the turn two battery like that.

Or my favorite sport was basketball so i just wanted to be a professional athlete however that that that worked and so i uh i was far and away the best athlete in my hometown which isn't saying much i'm from a small town called great falls montana i'm the only montana never drafted in the first round of the nfl draft there are more first round draft picks only Montanan ever drafted in the first round of the NFL draft. There are more first round draft picks in the Manning family than the whole state of Montana.

I definitely had those ambitions and those goals. I didn't necessarily know that was something that was going to be, I didn't know how difficult it was. And I just kept fighting for that and going to Washington State really helped propel that for

me because I got to be coached by the best in the business when it comes to coaching quarterbacks and and uh and get the opportunity I just I just wasn't ready for what was about to happen or what you would consider the NFL pressure cooker were you a meathead were you arrogant what how would you describe yourself oh yeah yeah I. I mean, I was confident. But knowing more about myself now, what I was, I was an egomaniac with a self-esteem problem. You know, I cared so much about what others thought. But I thought so highly of myself and what I did. I wasn't capable of, like, you know, living life on life's terms.

I was really good at playing sports. But that was about it. you know, living life on life's terms. I was really good at playing sports, but that was about it. I mean, you take me off the football field or the basketball court and try to have me interact with others and be social and do the right thing on the end of the things. I was really bad at that. What, did you have an incredible jumper in basketball?

What were you, a big white guy in the paint? What were you? No, I had a 36-inch vertical. I could fly. I could shoot from distance. I had good handles. Um, yeah, I basketball was my game, but when I got to Washington state and I tried out for the basketball team, I found out pretty quick that, that I was going to be sitting on the bench

and, and, uh, uh, not getting much playing time against the UCLA's of the world. Okay. So you go to Washington state from from being i assume a very large fish in a small pond in montana i would assume you've had attention and spotlight since you were very young i'd assume is that accurate yeah yeah i mean my mom could never really figure out why everybody in our town would and in our state really would be talking about her son right and all eyes were on her son she just never could really fully understand that and so she was really worried about me and how i would be received and interpreted and judged because she she got to see me on a daily basis and she saw how i how i handled life and and how i would i was super emotional and um and all the things that she was afraid that everybody else was going to see that

and uh you know we kept it under wraps for a good portion of it but once you get to the nfl and that spotlight is as bright as it can be it you know it's pretty well exposed well before you get to the nfl you have an incredible collegiate career obviously led you to a heisman finalist being in that conversation is something not a lot of humans have will ever receive by the way so that's an incredible thing then the draft comes up right you you put up remarkable numbers at washington state you're talked about being the next big thing right this guy is the next quarterback it just so happens you were also in the same draft class as a man named peyton manning uh so that a debate automatically starts ensuing on who the Colts will take first and who the Chargers will end up with,

both incredible quarterbacks that will be once-in-a-generation type talent. Did that type of pressure and conversation about to know that you're about to be very rich, you're about to have a lot of pressure put on you, you're being called this next great thing, is that when you really started to experience a change in your life or the way you were, or is it something that's just been evolving all along? Yeah, I didn't.

I thought that was about right, you know, that I was, you know, either the first pick or the second pick in the NFL draft, that I was going to be successful. I had won championships at every level, right? I just assumed that it would play out in the same way. I worked really hard, but also things came to me pretty easy in high school and in college and when I would play out in the same way. I worked really hard, but also things came to me pretty easy in high school and in college and when I would play. So I think I just assumed it was going to be the same when I got to the NFL. It's a different world, right? It's the best athletes in this world. It's the 1% of the 1%. And it's really what you do from Sunday to Sunday. Because everybody who

gets to this level is talented, just super talented. It's what you do. And I battled the media, and I battled my teammates, and I didn't deal with failure well at all. Peyton led the league in interceptions his rookie year. There's no way I could have done that. I would have absolutely imploded if I had led the league in interceptions. He saw it as simply an opportunity to do it better the next time. He just had this mentality moving forward. And he also led the, broke the record for

most touchdown passes as a rookie as well. So, I mean, he, he had the mentality. I had this, uh, failure success, like referendum around everything. Like either you were successful or you were a failure. There was no in between and there was no growing pains for me and how i dealt with those failures is what ultimately ended my career in the nfl yeah somebody just sent me a video of you fucking letting a reporter in the locker room no and like what i did i had never seen somebody just sent to me literally this morning because they heard we were talking and i was like holy hell there's a lot of people that wish they could do that it seemed like you were a person that just kind of let it fly. And that's an interesting – is that the emotional side you're talking about

whenever you're talking about your mom and all this shit? Yeah, I mean, I was just – that's how I reacted is I tried to intimidate people and show them how big and strong and how much better I was than you because I was this big-time football player. And there was this peon of a reporter in my eyes, the beat reporter who, you know, essentially kind of baited me with an article he wrote the day before. And I was going to let him know who was in charge here. And before the camera fully turned around, I picked him up and kind of threw him in the chair. And I told him how it was. I like a just a petulant child and

it's embarrassing junior say I'll rushes in and and pulls me out and puts me in the shower to calm me down and I just also kind of thought that would blow over but viral videos had just started and this was one of the first ones and this would what this would characterize me the rest of my life I was talking to a reporter today doing some radio and they said you know you had a history of yelling at a bunch of reporters and I was like it happened once you know and that carries with you right for sure and it defined me for a long time also i i took no accountability for it i still blame the damn reporter and and everybody else around it it was all everybody else's problem not mine okay so the way you're

speaking it sounds as if you've had like a full coming i don't want to say it's it sounds like a dmt thing but it does it sounds like you've had a wokeness in your life a moment that has really made you reflect upon the human you were in the human you're gonna be what was that was there a rock bottom was it the prison sentence you got like how did that all come to be yeah i was prison and it wasn't initially prison, right? When I got to prison, I was just as miserable, if not more, than I'd ever been. What'd you go to jail for? I'm a drug addict, and I was stealing pills from my community. Really?

Yeah, I got addicted to Vicodin through my orthopedic surgeries and used it to numb and take me away from the life that I was meant to live. Is that while you were in the NFL? No, it happened afterwards. I wish I could blame my poor performance on a terrible drug. That was all natural. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just, when I got out, I was dealing with mental health issues. I was dealing

with clinical depression and then social anxiety disorder. And I chose to self-medicate rather than seek professional help. And because as a big, strong football player, we don't show vulnerability or transparency. We hide it and we deal with it. We back ourselves into a corner and we fight our way out. That's how it's always been. So I chose to deal with it on my own. And that placed me in a prison cell, not only emotionally, but ultimately at the end, literally. And nothing changed. I got worse.

I blamed everybody else. I took no accountability. And lucky for me, my roommate showed up and he was a Afghan Iraqi war veteran who had served in combat over there. And he had done something that a lot of people had done in their lives. And that's drive drunk one night. He just he happened to kill somebody. And he had been in there since he was about 23 years old. And I watched him every day just try to better himself. He made amends for what he did, and he wasn't resolute with being this version of who he was. And I didn't get it.

I thought he was stupid and this wasn't going to help or anything like that. And finally, one day, he was comfortable enough, I guess, to confront me on it and just simply said, I didn't understand the value that I had, not only the men in there, but for when I got out. And he suggested we go down to the prison library and help prisoners learn how to read who didn't know how to. And I've had many of those come to Jesus moments in my life, coaches, mentors, people, and I just pretty much told them all to fuck off the whole time. And I can't tell you why in this moment. I did it. I went down there. I went begrudgingly. I remember walking down the hallway in my red jumpsuit thinking this is stupid.

This isn't going to help. And doesn't he know how important I am? You know, the guy in a red jumpsuit in a prison still thinks that about himself. That's the egomaniac part of what I was still living. himself that's that's the egomaniac part of what I was still living so I went and I walked into a room where there were men in a place where you're not supposed to show any vulnerability be completely vulnerable and say hey I can't read can you help me and I couldn't believe it cuz I think it's probably the first time I'd ever heard a man actually say hey I need help can you help me I don't think

I'd ever heard that before in my life. And so it quickly made me think of things a lot differently. And I continued to go back because it doesn't change if you don't keep it up. Like if you just go once and don't do it again, that's never going to change. It's like practice. So I continued to go. And before I knew it, I come to realize that I was being of service to another human being for the first time in my life. First time. I used to think by playing football and Saturdays and Sundays, I was being of service to another human being for the first time in my life. First time. I used to think by playing football on Saturdays and Sundays, I was being of service to people. That's just stupid. And no one was watching this, right? The media didn't know I was doing this.

It wasn't about branding or marketing or any bullshit like that. This was just two guys that were dealing with a ton of adversity helping one another out. And I continued to do it for months and months and months. And finally, I realized that it was going to have to be the foundation of who I was when I got out. So that's your moment. And I didn't know it was happening as it happened then. Seven years removed from it, I can look back on it and go, okay, oh, yeah.

That's the moment when that selfless nature started to become a reality in my life. First of all, awesome. Just want to let you know, absolutely awesome that that happened and that you had this full wokeness about yourself and how you're much more than just a business proposition for a lot of people, which is probably how you felt whenever everything you did just revolved around business decisions, right? Branding, you mentioned Saturdays and Sundays, it's all business. Everything's business. This is the first time you had a genuine moment with somebody you didn't think they wanted something from you either

other than your help, which is probably a cool thing for you to reach inside. With that being said, what type of teacher were you? Were you a hard-ass teacher? It's hard to teach people. You take it for granted when you were young and learned how to read. So then trying to teach somebody phonically and understand how to say a word or actually read a word when they say it, they understood what it was. If you said the word to them, they know what it is.

But when they're looking at it on a page, it was really difficult. I had to relearn how I taught. I will say I became a very compassionate educator when it came to doing that. And not like a coach in coach speak, where you get on top of people or get, you know, get in their business about not doing something. Because the moment you shame them at all, in an environment like that, it's over, it's over, it's defensive nature, and they won't come back. So that took me, that took me quite a bit of time to learn how to do it or the appropriate way. And I think it really helped me for when I got out and I started working with people in recovery

and, and doing other things outside of that and how I interact with individuals, uh, and, and understand. That's amazing, man. That really is. You said on the stage at the college football seminar, you said on the stage to the room, I was probably a gigantic asshole to most of you, and I apologize for that. Let me hopefully regain your friendship or something like that. Is it crazy to think that you're a massive asshole in your own words to a lot of people and then you teaching somebody an elementary thing being like the most compassionate human on earth is probably what you're going to be remembered for in the end of everything. Well, I hope so. I think that's part of the program, right, is taking some personal accountability for who you were.

That's what accountability is, is taking ownership in what you did, regardless of what anybody else. You know, maybe some of those reporters in that room that I dealt with 20 years ago were dicks to me, too. But what can I do about it? I mean, you know, I just make things worse by being a dick to them in response. So, you know, the only thing I can control is how I react. And that was a perfect opportunity for me to make some amends to individuals that I may have wronged, regardless of how they treated me or talked about me or anything like that. That was my opportunity.

And that was my chance to be part of the solution and do my part in this. And I think that's the coolest thing about all of this, that we can break it down as simply as we can. We, you and I, everybody else, we have the power in any choice we make to deal with something in a positive and healthy way or make it worse, which is what a lot of us usually do.

That's incredible. You're an inspiration, bro. This is a really cool thing. This is a really, really cool thing. Can you still throw the bottle? Can you still throw?

Yeah, I can whip that thing around still. That'll never change. Really? You still got it. How about your jumper? Can you still shoot? Yeah, I can still shoot.

I can't jump, though. Well, I mean, I dunked it the other day still, so I guess, but not like I used to. I used to be able to fly. Do you reminisce? I used to win duck contests, man. It was that good white guy wouldn't dunk that's in montana this was down in florida yeah down with with clyde drexler and those guys watching me and judging me i've still done i still got that stuff

you don't obviously now is a time where you have to have a rear view mirror because you have to reflect on what got you to where you are right now and the human you are. Do you ever think about, like, do you hate Peyton Manning? Like, do you wish you, like, if you had this mindset now whenever you were playing, I would assume it would be a whole different ballgame. And then Peyton Manning is ultimately the person

that is always compared to your story, always. Like, remember when the thought was Ryan Leaf over Peyton Manning is ultimately the person that is always compared to your story. Always. They're like, remember when the thought was Ryan Leaf over Peyton Manning. Do you have any, it sounds like you've come to peace with anything, but for a period of time in your life, did you hate Peyton Manning? You know, he's the guy that I probably could have resented a lot, but I tell you what, Peyton and I have known each other for 22 years. We started talking to each other when we were in college, our final years, because I think we knew where things were headed. And we remained close.

And my career did not go the way I expected it to. I thought I was going to be able to compete against him in the AFC for years and years to come. You know, we were going to play in AFC championships against each other. That's what I was expecting. So I don't have any ill will towards him at all because he did it about as right as you could as a player. And he's been actually very, he's been a pretty special person in my life. He was, a lot of people left my life when things got bad, right? When I went to prison, you figure out who your friends are. And his family not only reached out to mine, but he did personally in the form of writing me a letter while I was in prison. So we stay in contact now. And what's ironic about the

whole situation is no matter how up and down my last 22 years have been and how meteoric his has been and where he's at right now, we're both pretty much at the same places in our lives, where we have a family, we like who we see in the mirror. We're doing the things we want to do. We're both employees of ESPN now, apparently. So I think it's a little ironic, but it will show people no matter how up and down your life is, you can always get up and you can always start over and you can always be in a place of peace and understanding. And i take solace in that that 22 years later regardless of the career he had or the career i had we're both these flawed

human beings trying to be better now moving forward regardless of being a hall of fame quarterback or not and i you know i take solace in that and i and i'm proud of him and i i'm okay with me so that's that that's what makes it all right well i'm proud of you bub i'm proud of him, and I'm okay with me. So that's what makes it all right. Well, I'm proud of you, bub. I'm proud of Peyton as well, by the way. That is such a Peyton Manning move. Well, he got you a ring, didn't he? No, we lost.

Yeah, Drew Brees. Yeah. Yeah. We're teammates, so we had a good time, a good guy. But that is a very Peyton Manning move to be like go above and beyond, to be like, hey, even though I am a robot of an individual when it comes to football I am a complete robot everything has to be exact boom boom boom I I also take a lot of pride in being a good human writing you a letter do you still have that letter uh I probably not I was not in a good place oh fuck I wish you would have been teaching people how to read whenever you got that because that would have been a cool thing to keep around.

It was early on, and my roommate watched me do it every day. Mail would come, and I wouldn't even open it. I would just rip it up and tear it up and throw it in the trash. I was so sick. I was so depressed. I was so self-loathing and angry. I was so depressed. I was so self-loathing and angry.

The worst possible version of myself was what the first 26 months of that 32-month sentence looked like. What is that called whenever you have to come off of withdrawals? Did you have bad withdrawals? I never understood how they put drug addicts in jail. And then whenever you see on the intervention show on A&E, when somebody's going through withdrawals it is a terrible thing and then i think about people who are imprisoned that are going through withdrawal did you have that situation that happened yeah it was it was difficult um it was more psychological for me i was more fearful of the actual anxiety around being in withdrawal i don't really remember it too much it was took a couple days i was in solitary confinement when i first went in because i was just so out of it and saying terrible things like wanting to harm myself.

I was as mentally ill as you can imagine. I was insane. So I don't remember it being as bad as it probably can be. I also didn't graduate to the next level of like heroin and things like that. I was still, you know, taking Vicodin at night just to help me sleep. But it was, it was such an addiction that I had to break into people's houses to get it. So, I mean, it was just the same as somebody who was using heroin. I just hadn't gotten to that point yet. Uh, cause I didn't know a drug dealer. I was using my hometown as a, as a pharmacy of sorts. of sorts. So it wasn't as bad as it probably could

have been, but I also don't know how much I truly remember about that first week in jail. Well, we're all happy that you've come out the other side a much better human. I mean, that's awesome. We all are? You guys are. No, we all are. I think the whole world is happy that you come out the other side i mean maybe not the lady that you stole her vikings you could sleep but yeah i had to probably apologize to her so no but you've become an incredible human uh and listening to you speak at the seminar and you're getting back into the sports world it's like the football world is welcoming you back in that has to be a pretty special come full circle moment for

you as well right i mean you're gonna be calling games and uh now you have a talk show every day i mean this is a pretty cool thing for you no it is i mean it's this is we we put this in motion about you know four years ago my wife and i kind of she asked me what i wanted to do you know like you my foundation is based in recovery and being of service to others. But you also have dreams and goals. A lot of times you get and it's what what sent me sideways before my identity was a football player. Now, my identity didn't need to be a guy who's, you know, in recovery. I can have these goals and dreams also and accomplish those.

So we set out to do that. And we're in a position now where you're right. Who would have thought five years ago as I was sitting in a prison cell that I would now be working for ESPN and the Disney Corporation? Hey, me too, man. Right? Yeah. How did I pass the background check? It's on Wikipedia, man. I was waiting i was just waiting for like i called my agent and was like

hey they know who they're hiring right and he said yes i'm like it's not gonna land on like the eighth person who works for hr and he looks at it and goes whoa no we can't hire this dude so i was waiting for that to all play out and you know just a ton of gratitude um i get to call college football games travel over the all over the country and do that um be with my family um yeah i'm just amazing things happen for me when i do the next right thing that's that's not lost on me and i'm not gonna take this for for granted. Because when I don't, when I make poor decisions and not do the next right thing, my life is a dumpster fire. I go to prison. So it's completely on the opposite end of the spectrum. But when I do the next right thing, amazing things happen

for me. Not just run of the mill, okay, life in general, normal, but amazing things if I'm willing to work hard and do the next right thing. So I don't take any of that for granted. I think you're going to do great too. I'll sit next to you whenever we're sitting through a couple-hour analyst lecture on how to be better analysts. And listening to you say a couple of things, I think you're going to be good because I think what is forgotten is how dominant of a quarterback you were in college football at least, you know?

I think that can kind of get forgotten in the mix. So listening to you say stuff about quarterbacks and a certain play and thing like behind the scenes there nobody else really say i'll sit next to you i think it's going to be fun to listen to you kind of get back into the game a little bit yeah i'm excited because i think i think that's truthful too right um you know when i go speak to uh i'm on my campus tour right now i spoke to toledo monday night i'm speaking spoke to maryland last night i'm at tex Texas A&M tomorrow and Clemson on, on Friday. And I think a lot of people assume when I go into those things, I'm telling them what not to do. Right.

Like if you split my life into success and failure, like to get where I got 85% of my life is like a lot of success. And then there was this failure at the highest level that gets played to the to get where I got. 85% of my life is like a lot of success. And then there was this failure at the highest level that gets played to the point of like, well, that's the story. And that isn't it. And these young men that I'm talking to are exactly where I was 22 years ago,

sitting in a chair. And that's why I think the story is so impactful. And I think it's why the coaches continue to ask me to come out and do it. And I really feel a part of the college football landscape when I get to do stuff like that, and I'm enjoying it. That's awesome. And now a reading by Zeta.

Thank you, Pat. Does your furniture bring you joy, or are you missing a couch or chair that says, this is my home? I just can't. I mean, as soon as he starts reading, it sounds like he's fighting the words. You know what I mean? I have a new approach.

I'm slowing down. Are you? Yeah. Okay. I like what you're doing. Look at this, by the way, because we are trying to get you better at this so that you can read at the wedding. Remember, that was the initial goal.

Somewhere we got lost. Somewhere we got lost. You got worse. But now you're really starting to take a new strategy. I'm happy for you. We're two sentences in. You're not bad. Thank you.

From the top. Come on. I said from the top, probably. Want me to start from the top? Pat? Well, I couldn't remember what the first sentence was, so I don't want the listeners not to remember what the first sentence is. Does your furniture bring you joy?

Or are you missing a couch, a chair? That was so good. It started so good. The first one was so good. But we already knew the second sentence. That's why Diggs did that. There's no way that you could have started that smooth again. That's why Diggs

did that to you. It's unbelievable. That's like whenever you get to a level and you don't save and you have to get back to the level again. That's what brought me down. It's unbelievable. That's like whenever you get to a level and you don't save. And you have to get back to the level again. That's what just happened there. It's all right. It was early. We can get back to sentence three.

We're going sentence three now? No, I think you start from the top. Okay. Does your furniture bring you joy? Or are you missing a couch or chair that says, this is my home? Oh. Nice. That was great.

We all want a haven, a place that feels uniquely to you. Oh, nice. That was great. We all want a Haven, a place that feels uniquely to you. Yeah. Yeah, we do. Joy. Oh, joy.

Bird empowers you to create the furniture and space that brings you joy. Oh, really? I'm going to talk about my home and what it means to me. Please do. My home means a lot to me how much a lot it means lots of me and i have joybird furniture in my house is that why your home means a lot to you because the joybird furniture is it's very homely is it oh yeah homely yeah okay so joybird Homely. Yeah. Okay? So Joybird Furniture makes your home, your house.

Yes. Disgusting house. Yes. The pub. Some would call it a shanty. It makes it a home because the Joybird Furniture is so homely. Exactly. That's incredible.

I'm happy to hear that about the family. I wish I could have said that. With Joybird, you get one-of-a-kind furniture crafted to your unique taste. Turn your ideas into reality with hundreds of styles and options. Do you want a sofa in an aquatic blue or indigo? Wow. Aquatic. That was a hard one.

Hey, those being options, incredible. You getting through that sentence, unbelievable. Thank you. No problem. Love seat in the hottest red, an inviting coral, or even a bubblegum pink? Oh, I thought about it. I'm enticed. Options.

If you could dream it, Joybird can make it a reality. Wow. That's a good line. Joybird offers a range of a kid and pet-friendly upholstery options so that your creations can stand the test of time. Nailed it. Really smooth on that one. Free personal design consultants to help nail down your perfect design.

Oh. Oh, yeah. Quality handcrafted furniture. What was the ho-hum in the middle of the sentence? It was a bullet point. I'm not good at bullet points. You know, they tell the story of rappers where they record one line at a time. Some rappers go in the niche one time at a time.

A minute, a minute. No, I think he goes all the way through. But there's some people that just sing one line at a time, and then they reboot, sing the next line. That's kind of monotonous. Well, that's kind of how Zito reads these. He reads it, and then he looks up at you like a fucking puppy dog. Yeah, he looks to the crowd for approval.

This has been your best one yet. Let's see if you can bring it home for Joybird. Thank you. Take the party outside with their unique outdoor collection. Beautiful selection of outdoor sofas, lounge chairs, tables, and more. Made from durable, rust-proof aluminum, natural wood, and even bamboo. Wow. 365-day home trial. Skip the furniture

store and bring the showroom home. Sit on it, sleep on it, and break it in. If you don't love your Joybird, return for a full refund. Oh, really? I was going to say refried. Have you and Ryan Leaf been working together? We have.

We talked to him for a little bit. It feels like you potentially have been. Proud of you. He's proud of you too. Thank you. 365 day trial is insane. It is. For furniture. Nothing to cough at there. Hassle free in home delivery. They'll even remove all the pack of material.

Free returns within two weeks of delivery. It's insane. Yeah. I'm going to call some action here. Please do. See how Joybird can help you design your dream space. Find your joy today at joybird.com. Backslash, front slash McAfee. Front slash. Forward.

A front slash is in hockey. It's a forward slash. Let me go from the top there. No, no. The top of the action that you're calling. Okay. I'm calling back to the action. Sorry, I have something in my throat.

See how Joybird can help you design your dream space. Find your joy today at joybird.com forward slash McAfee. Now we're talking. I repeat, forward slash McAfee. Create the furniture that brings you the joy today at joybird.com forward slash McAfee. Go to joybird.com forward slash McAfee. Go to joybird.com forward slash McAfee and receive an exclusive offer for 25% off. Oh, sorry. Your first order by using the code McAfee.

That's incredible. 25% off. Great reading by you. That was your best one yet. Honestly, it was your best one yet. You stumbled through a couple. You don't really have the confidence to go from one sentence to the next but it was absolutely incredible just like just like the joybird furniture that we have in this office they have in the pub get a chance to design your magical furniture that makes your house a home

um happy we had this guy in our home earlier rest of the conversation with Mr. Ryan Leaf. The guys here are very intrigued. Whenever I said Ryan Leaf was coming on the show, they all have some questions. Is it all right if we do a little around-the-room question here? Yeah, let's do a little Q&A. Hey, that's what we're talking about. Hey, a little Q&A here.

I can sling it too, by the way. I'm retired. I can still sling it. I can still sling it. Just in case you were wondering, perfect passer rating Thanksgiving Day games. No big deal. Go ahead, boys. Ryan, who's your favorite modern-day athlete to watch?

Who do you enjoy watching? Tiger Woods still just has been the guy. I love golf. But he's a guy that just, if he's on, right, you turn the television on to watch him. Probably football landscape, Aaron Rodgers. He's a guy that, you know, plays the position as good as anybody else. Kind of like how he conducts himself and things like that.

But, you know, Tiger Woods is a modern-day athlete. I just infatuated with him because i love golf so much i know how damn hard it is and to watch him do it and be successful especially this last year has been pretty cool you have a handicap six oh so you're a real good goal you spend a lot of time golfing i i i try but uh i got a 22 month old at home so i don't get out on the golf courses quite as often as I used to. That makes sense. I respect that, by the way.

Six is a hell of a handicap. Ryan, I asked the same thing to Maurice Corret, who also had a hell of a redemption story. Right. When you went to prison, just like the documentary The Longest Shard, did they recruit you to play for the football team? It was like the first week i was there and a guy on the cell block came up and said hey will you come outside uh we play flag football and i was like i don't know what i was thinking or what i was i went out yes i went out uh i was all-time quarterback but it was strange right all of a sudden I could hear the walkie-talkies squawking

and the guards talking about, Leafs out here throwing the football. Guards were coming around to watch. I'm standing there in this red jumpsuit, surrounded by barbed wire on just god-awful dirt, looking at the mountains I used to hunt in as a kid and absolutely just a deep

dive in depression just like you wouldn't believe and after we were done and I went back to the room I was just like I'm not going outside again I went outside twice in 32 months and I didn't realize it at the time

but again I was making it about me. And the guy that asked me to come out came up to my room that evening and said, dude, today was my birthday and it was the coolest fucking present I've ever gotten. I got to play catch with an NFL quarterback. And I still didn't hear it. I still didn't hear it wasn't about me. I still thought I'm a fucking joke. I'm throwing a football in a goddamn prison somewhere in a red jumpsuit. Instead, it was about this guy who is going through a shit experience too, and it was his birthday.

He got to play catch with an NFL quarterback, and that's what made his day. I didn't see it. I completely see it now. It's about somebody else, not myself, but at the time it haunted me so much that I didn't go outside again for the length of my stay in prison. You should go back to that prison and go play catch with that

guy again. Just something to think about. Just something to think about. Yeah, I think he's still there. I was an all-time quarterback growing up, so I can get the pressures in there i understand yep that is crazy the thought of you looking at right when you drive down the street and you see a prison right there's one up by where i live now you drive past you see it i couldn't even imagine the thoughts i would have if i was inside looking out that had to be uh quite a mental warfare there for

you honestly yeah it uh it it was it was sickening for me. Hey, all those things led to today, though, right? Yeah, they did. And that's why I didn't think I'd ever be able to tell a group of people or yourself or anybody that I was grateful for having spent 32 months in prison. I don't recommend it, but I am grateful for having experienced that in my life how'd you throw it to that guy on his birthday pretty good were you slinging it in there or what yeah man i dude it's like it's like a golf swing just learn just replace the left hip with the right hip ball just flies out i was throwing it around yesterday at maryland practice you know come on put it put a jersey on

me i can play i can play four snaps and we'll call it a day. Awesome. Hey, Mr. Leaf, what do you want to be remembered for when it's all over? Not being called Mr. Leaf on a podcast. I know that. Listen, Ryan, the human that just asked you that question was tasked to put pin locations on the radio stations that we are about to broadcast in. And he got a couple states wrong. He put Colorado Springs in Utah, a pin in Utah.

He put Buffalo damn near in Maine. I mean, so the person that is talking, I don't want you to think that this is a voice of any other human other than himself. All right. I want to be remembered as, maybe I don't care to be remembered, I guess, is the best way to look at that. I don't need that. I'm okay with however anybody thinks of me. In fact, what other people think of me is certainly none of my business. I just want to be a good dad. I think that's the best thing that I could ever be remembered is a good father

because mine was the best. My dad's a two-tour Vietnam veteran who built his own business and raised three kids and is my hero. So if I can be anything close to what my dad was and is to me, then I'll be a success. That's awesome. Thank you, Mr. Leaf. Ryan, do you think everything you achieved through football, all the success you had

there, and then everything that caused you to become a mentor to people who do fall off the tracks, don't you think that kind of makes you like the perfect candidate to be a college football coach at some point? Is that something you think about in the future? I mean, I tried it, right? I went down and coached in West Texas, and I did the ultimate thing you can't do, and that's take advantage of those kids, right?

I stole from them. I took their pain pills. And I don't think an athletic director should ever trust somebody like me, too, because that's the most responsibility of any person is to be a head coach to these young men in college because they can influence their lives like nobody else can so I think that the best way I can do it is to continue to go and speak on campuses and let the head coaches be the the head coaches that they are and and just be part of the college football uh landscape and i think that's my best uh way i can contribute and i don't know if i have the patience to be a coach anymore i just i

i couldn't i i walk watch the coaches and i see the late nights and it's great to watch the kids achieve and do the things but i'm just like i man i like the chance to go play golf you know tomorrow i don't want to be on the road recruiting you know i want to i want to be doing some other things i don't know if i have the patience for it but i think everything's worked out exactly the way it's supposed to how about whenever they had that cocktail party with espn are those situations tough for you well not really i mean alcohol was never an issue for me got it um but i i don, I, I, I don't use any mood altering substances at all. I, I did what I was supposed to do that night. I showed up and I mingled with my new colleagues and my bosses

and showed them that I was, um, capable of, of working hard and being a part of the group. But then, you know, at eight 30 or whenever midway through, I was like, okay, now I'm going to bed. And other people went up and shut down the rooftop bar and things like that. I don't need to do that stuff. I did enough of that stuff in my heyday. It's not things that I'm – I'm not in fear of missing out on anything anymore. In fact, I knew I was going to have to speak the next day too, and I wanted to be the best possible version of myself while I was up there

I tell you this, I've spoken all over the country in a ton of places and I was as nervous as you can get walking up to that stage and I can't really remember what the hell I said to be honest You were good Yeah, you were good I respected and appreciated everything you said up there

and I think you really moved some people too I think you got a standing ovation. I think you, yeah, you did. You got a standing ovation. It's awkward. It's awkward. I still have that default setting that I'm less than. I heard it for so long that I was just this piece of shit that I'm still kind of stuck in that.

It still takes time. I got to be better at accepting compliments. When I hear somebody like, Oh, that dude's a piece of shit. I'm like, yeah, that's, that's about right. And when somebody gives me a compliment, I'm like, are you sure? So I'm, I'm doing better with that. It's, it's, you know, if you, if you saw me as I walked off stage and everybody started clapping and standing ovation, my head goes directly down. Yeah. You went straight down. Yeah. I thought about that. I was like, show the face.

It's a muscle memory thing where I'm like, this doesn't seem right. What they should be doing is booing me and flipping me the bird. That's what I'm used to, and it's not true, and I got to get better at that. Well, good. I hope you do get better at it because when I spoke at that same, and it's not true. And I got to get better at that. Well, good. I hope you do get better at, because when I spoke at that same seminar, literally everybody sat down. When you spoke, you asked him to sit down though. Who's next? He stood when you, that's all I'm saying.

Ryan, now that the dust is settled and you have some clarity in hindsight, do you have a, like a favorite moment off the top of your head from your time in the NFL? The NFL draft night, I think my dream just – are you kidding me? This little kid from Montana with his dad being drafted into the NFL, flying on a private jet to the city that you're going to be the franchise quarterback at. I think that's the first day. That's the beginning. What I didn't do is I didn't look at it as the beginning.

I kind of saw it as like accumulation of all the things I'd worked for and I needed to start over. And then there were a couple games. I mean, for whatever reason, against Denver, against Mike Shanahan teams, I balled. There was a game at Mile High, the old Mile High Stadium, where I just let it fly through for like 300 and some yards and three touchdowns on only 13 completions. And all three of my touchdowns were over 60 yards. So that's one of those games I look back at and go, boy, that was a fun, cool day.

I can't wait. NFL Films is sending me my career highlights, and I that was a fun, cool day. I can't wait. NFL Films is sending me my career highlights, and I'm sure it's not that long, but there's going to be some awesome plays on there that I'm going to be able to show my kid one day, I think. I had a lot of Montanamals on my teams, and the Denver game was where they had to get a bunch of tickets for people. I assume you had a lot of family in the stands for that particular night as well. Yeah, it was.

Denver was the closest game. We didn't have a pro team where I'm from, so my first NFL game I ever went to was Denver-Miami and then Denver-Pittsburgh were the two NFL games I'd ever been to before I went to the NFL. Got to feel good. Felt bad in the prison yard. Had to feel good in the Denver Stadium, Mile High Stadium. Yeah, felt good throwing that ball around against John Elweg,

a team that would go on and win the Super Bowl. That was a pretty special day for me. And the guys I got to play with, right? I mean, I got to play with some great players. I played with Junior Sal. I played with Rodney Harrison. I played down in Tampa under Tony Dungy with John Lynch and Derek Brooks and Rondé Barber and Warwick Dunn and Mike Allstott,

all those guys. What a great group of guys. And I was in Dallas, and Wade Wilson was my quarterback coach, and I learned a lot. I was there. Darren Woodson was there. Emmitt Smith was my running back. I mean, pretty special players in this league, and I got an opportunity to play with them. That was great. That is awesome. Last one here, Ryan, Ryan, was there ever a time that

you hated the game of football or it was like tough to watch on TV after everything that happened? Yep. There was a time that, uh, uh, I didn't, I didn't even look at the NFL at all. I mean, I may have college football has always kind of been dear to me, but still it was it was toxic. Right. And it's taken time for me to get over it. And the healthier I've gotten, the less power it holds, because I remember of how much I enjoyed it and how much enjoyment it gave me and what it gave me. It gave me everything. It gave me my dream. I mean, so I get that football was a part of that, but it really wasn't the football of it, right? It was the outside influences that let it affect me because I'm not considered a bust by my peers, by my fellow NFL brotherhood, right?

We get together. They don't look at me as a bust. They know how hard it was to get to where I was getting. The fact that I was the second pick in the draft actually holds more water with guys that played in the NFL than anybody else. The people that call me that are fans and media polls and things like that that are meaningless to me, yet I let it affect me so much for so long. And now I don't. What other people think of me, I don't care about. And it's none of my my business and that's why i think football has become such a special part uh in my life once again that has to be such a freeing feeling for you mentally

that has to be yeah because it's holding you hostage right all that shit's holding you hostage yeah but one of the coolest thing is that the nfl actually hired me about six months ago i'm a coordinator for the nfl legends community so there's only 22,000 of us, right? There's only, there's only 22,000 of us who have ever signed NFL contracts and we're on 53 man rosters. That's unbelievable to think that I asked him a deeper question. How many years did you play in the NFL? Eight. Perfect. That was the question I asked. How many players have played eight or more years in the NFL? Guess how, guess what that number is? question is how many players have played eight or more years in the nfl guess how what guess what that number is well if 22 000 have ever played i'm gonna go down to i'm gonna say 11 000 no 1 000 1 000 players have played eight years or more that's it you're you're one of 1 000 in the world

ever that's uh yeah you're goddamn right yeah goddamn right you are be proud of that brother hey that's an insane stat. Because you did walk up to me immediately and have me sign up for the NFL Legends community. I was like, no, no, Ryan. I'm already an NFL legend, bud. I already get the emails. I already went and did a little. There was a commissioner roundtable thing that I went to.

I didn't say anything. I let the old head say more than I did because I didn't know much. But, yeah, I'm part of the legend community. I like it. Yeah, it's wonderful. It's a way for guys like myself to help guys transition. Because no matter if you've played 18 years and won Super Bowls or played two years, the transition is extremely difficult.

And we need people to help guide us through that. It didn't exist when I left. And I'm so glad the NFL has made something like this, and I'm glad I'm a part of it and I'm a coordinator and I can help these guys. No one's ever as miserable as I was. That's the main goal. And NFL Films is a pretty big part of this whole thing.

I did like three podcasts with NFL Films. They filmed something. One of the head guys who used to be Sable's producer, the original Steve Sable's producer, is pretty was producers yeah big in the nfl right hand man so yeah it's the nfl is full steam ahead with this tracy perlman is uh at the forefront with with uh troy vincent um mandating this process and uh it's it's something really really special to be a part of yeah i i circled all the all the nfl guys in the room when we were in Charlotte and got them all to sign up.

So my boss thinks I'm doing a pretty good job. That a boy, Ryan. Well, you are doing a pretty good job, not only at work but in life. I'm honored to have met you. I'm thankful you came on this show. I think people are going to really enjoy this. And although you don't want to be remembered, I hope you're a man who's remembered for changing his life

and changing other people's as well. I think you're going to kick ass in the booth. Your radio show is beautiful. I'm sure these speaking engagements are going to increase as you continue to go on. Your story is a great one, brother. You can motivate a lot of people. Congrats on everything, and thank you so much.

Ladies and gentlemen, Ryan Leaf. All right. That's it for today. Leaf. Alright, that's it for today. Ryan Leaf was awesome. The announcement was cool. The future is going to be a lot of fun and we're lucky to have all of you. Follow us and hit us up on Twitter at Pat McAfee Show

is me, at Viva Lizzito, at Evan Foxey, at Ty Schmidt at Nick Morado at Todd McComas and and at Tone Diggs

with a Z Tone yeah couple months nobody's even gonna remember this I know that it's true probably a couple weeks please Please tweet us all. Don't. That's at Tone Diggs. Okay.

T-O-N-E-D-I-G-G-Z. It's a new uniform name on social media for our friend Anthony DiGilio. Tone Diggs. Tweet us something that makes us laugh. Win some free merch. It's an easy game. Hashtag fun future hashtag end gang hashtag end game we're giving away 10 shirts make it happen you should be one of them

ty schmidt hit the music yeah you know what this is It's a celebration, bitches Grab a drink, grab a glass After that, I grab your ass Why you whacking all? Shine all Wise y'all

Line phone I never did this before Stop that What you want some Patron? I got that I mean I promise y'all You fine and all And your girlfriend she kinda raw

But she not like you No she not like you Right now I need you To mute all the monologue All that talking is gone Give give me your Tylenol You put a nigga to sleep, I'm tired of y'all Right now the Louis Vuitton diner's signing off But I just thought you should know

We hit the liquor store, got some Chris and some Mo And we about to let it flow Had some problems before, but see we let em go Got an ounce of that dro, and we about to let it blow Yeah, you know what this is It's a celebration, bitches Grab a drink, grab a glass. After that, I grab your ass.

See, you know my style. I'm very wild. And I vow that my child will be well endowed like his daddy. And tell him that your mama had a fatty. He looked up at me, said, Daddy, that's the reason why you had me. Yep, we was practicing. Till one day, your ass bust through the packaging, you know what though, you my favorite accident, so go ahead, pop some Cristal for my newborn

child, cause now, y'all, know what this is, it's a celebration, bitches, grab a drink, grab a glass, after that I grab your your ass But I just thought you should know We hit the liquor store Got some Chris and some Mo And we about to let it flow Had some problems before But see we let em go Got a ounce that I drove

And we about to let it blow Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Ho, ho, looking for some ho Ho, ho Woo! Bye.