The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Backup QB Stories, Part 2: Danny Kanell | Dual Threat With Ryen Russillo

Episode Date: March 14, 2019

In Part 2 of a four-part series, Russillo talks to Danny Kanell about his story as a former NFL QB, from reluctantly playing football at a small Florida high school, to winning the Orange Bowl with Florida State, to a playoff run with the New York Giants, arena football, and more. They also discuss why Kanell's football career ultimately didn't work out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome in to another special edition of Dual Threat, the backup quarterback stories, part two. And this edition is my former co-host and good friend, Danny Cannell. Before we get to all the Danny stuff, though, we know we've got to tell you about Yahoo Daily Fantasy. Yahoo Daily Fantasy is coming out of All-Star Weekend. Hot every day. They're running a zero-management-fee fantasy basketball contest. That means Yahoo is making nothing on this contest. It equals better odds for you to win.

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Recognized for quality, Belvedere was named the ISC World Vodka Producer of the Year in 2015, 2017. Hey, rye, didn't it also win in 2017? 2017. Hey, Rye, did it also win in 2017? Yes. Yes, it did. Was out in Chicago. Great charity event this weekend.

Rolled up to the bar. Couple friends. Everybody's looking around. One guy goes, you know what? It's sounding good right now. Couple Belvedere and sodas. Place said, we don't have it. You know what happened?

Guy said, we're out of here. They're like, we have others. Nope. I'd rather not drink and listen to strangers sober than try any other product, try any other brand. So we went back to the Thompson Hotel and the bountiful supply of Ye Belvedere. I don't know if Belvedere wants to be referenced as Ye Belvedere, so we're not going to go ahead and do that. But anyway, it was a story.

Enjoy a delicious cocktail with Belvedere vodka today, and remember to always drink responsibly. How does a kid in South Florida who doesn't even want to play high school football end up winning a state title, being one of the top recruits in the country, goes to Tallahassee, plays for Florida State, ends up on the Heisman watch list, and then drafted into the NFL. And after three turbulent stops in New York, Atlanta, and Denver, ends up out of the league. And an honest answer to the question, did you really love football?

Part two of our backup QB stories from the dual threat with Danny Cannell. Let's start at the beginning, which is always the best way to tell the story. I think a lot of people are surprised about this, but what was your high school career like? How did that get started? So my high school football career got started through peer pressure. It really did. Like I grew up, I did not play flag football. I didn't play peewee football, nothing. I was always baseball and basketball. Like those were my sports. But when I got to high school, my freshman year, like a lot of the cool kids, like cool dudes were playing football and they would always say, Hey, do you want to come

out and play? And my dad was kind of my out because he was a doctor and he'd say, no, you know, I think you have pretty good career possibly to go to college and play college baseball. Uh, you know, you're good at basketball. Why risk injury? So I always had that out. I was like, ah, my dad won't let me play. Well, then my high school football team was starting to get pretty good, and the quarterback graduated and left. And this was my sophomore year, the end of my sophomore year.

So coming into my junior year, my friends really, like, got after me. They're like, Hey, we know you have a good arm come out. You know, it's not that bad. You'll be safe. And my dad like finally caved. He's like, all right, you can do it. So I was like, all right. You know, I, I had run my cross country. So the options were like run cross country again to save, you know, in shape or play football, like which one would you choose? again to stay in shape or play football. Like which one would you choose? And it was football. So I finally got to go ahead. And then that really was like that decision kind of changed the career path of my life, like in the big picture of things, because we ended up winning the state championship. Cause as I mentioned, we had a pretty good team. They just needed like a quarterback. It was pretty good. So they plugged me in and we won the state championship my junior year, my first year playing.

And I played at a really small high school. We probably had 25 guys on our team. I was probably one of the bigger dudes on the team, just total height and weight. Like, you know, it was a small division. You know, it was a single-A school, which is as small as you can get in South Florida. And I don't think i would have gotten discovered had we not won the state championship but because we won a lot of coaches would watch the film from the state championship game they watched me on film saw some

potential and then it was really a whirlwind because all of a sudden you know the spring of my junior year after we had won the state championship i remember seeing all these college coaches come around and you know i thought it was normal i was like oh they must be just scouting south florida and my my high school football coach bill martin called me into his office and he said do you realize why these coaches are here and i was like yeah they're scouting guys they're checking out he's like he's like, they've never been here before. They're here to see you, to watch you practice. And I was like, oh, really? I had no idea, like the scope of how good I could be. And that was really an eye opener for me.

So I was like, oh, maybe this football thing is going to take off. And sure enough, it did. You know, I started getting offers and started getting recruited pretty heavily. And it was really all based on one year of high school football, which is kind of nuts when you think about it. So just to back up a little bit, though, your dad, Dr. Connell, who I think is the best, he's the Dolphins team doctor, and he's huge.

You're a big kid in high school, and he's the team doctor of an NFL team, and he doesn't want you playing football, right? Yeah. Cause he's, so my dad is six, eight, you know, he's a big man. He played high school football and he actually broke his femur and he had a chance to go play college basketball and he had some pretty big offers at the time to go play college basketball, but they got ruined because he got hurt playing football. And he thought,

cause I was a really good, I was growing up. I was always a really good baseball player, like the best of my little league team, the best of my, you know, uh, Legion American Legion team,

you know, like I was always projected to be this baseball player could potentially turned into a career. So that was my dad's fear was from his time playing football, that he got hurt, that he didn't want me to experience the same fate and potentially wreck my, you know, potentially be a baseball player. But then it kind of turned out like my dad put some restrictions on it. He was like, Hey, you can only play quarterback. I don't want like, cause everybody

on our team, as I mentioned, 25 guys, most of the team played both ways. Like there were guys, you know, to be the offensive and defensive lineman, our fullback was our middle linebacker. You know, the corners all played wide receiver. Like everybody played both ways. But I was like, I don't want you playing both ways. He did. He did fudge a little bit and let down his guard and let me punt and kick. He figured that would be safe enough. So I was punter and kicker as well. But then I had a really good coach. And I think that was really the deciding factor for my dad was that he trusted my quarterback coach was Mike Phipps, who actually played, you know, had a long, successful career in the NFL with the Browns and the Bears.

And his sons were on the team with me. But my dad trusted him that I would be well coached and kind of protected from that standpoint, that it wouldn't be just some knucklehead out there was going to let me get hit a ton and just not have a clue what he was doing. So that's why my dad really kind of let down his guard. But it was, I mean, I'm telling you, Ryan, it was such a shock to me and my family that all of a sudden I was getting recruited by, you know, Steve Spurrier was coming out to our practice.

Bobby Bowden was at our practice, you know, and then not only just schools from the state of Florida and like, it was like this total shock to our system. Like I always thought I was gonna be a baseball player. And then all of a sudden these football coaches are telling me I'm possibly the number one rated pocket passer coming out of high school. And I really didn't have a choice. I was like, well, I'm going to go take a full scholarship. If I have the opportunity, I'm going to do it. I'd be crazy not to. And I did like playing, but deep down inside, I always was like, well, I'm going to go take a full scholarship. If I have the opportunity, I'm going to do it. I'd be crazy not to. And I did like playing, but deep down inside, I always

was like, man, I love baseball. And that was really why one of the deciding factors when I was choosing colleges was I wanted to be able to play both sports. I wanted to still play baseball and not give up on it. And yet, you know, go play football if I could. So that was a big factor. And we decided to. Okay. So you go to Florida state, you show up to Tallahassee. That's not exactly a single a South Florida high school atmosphere. How scared were you when you first showed up to practice? Oh, I was so in over my head because I mean, let's just paint the picture for you. I went through a single a Christian private school, private education, where we probably had three African-American students in our school. Now, they all played basketball and football.

Like, they were all good athletes. But there wasn't much diversity in my school. And it wasn't, you know, it was just the way it was at our school. It wasn't anything wrong with it. It was purposeful. It was just the way it was. So when I went to Florida State, you know, it was probably 70% African-American. It was, again, I mentioned earlier, I was the biggest dude on the team. Now I go to play with these dudes who are grown men.

And there were a few of them that really stood out to me as far as just being like, what did I get myself into? And it was Marvin Jones, who was the middle linebacker who was, you know, had a long career with the jets was stud stud he was from Miami and he was just a badass like the dude was terrifying to be on the other side of the ball it was a guy named Dan Footman who was a defensive lineman and you know how like in high school they're always dudes that kind of had facial hair first and they just looked older the all these guys looked that and that they really were older too. So you combine all of that. These are like grown men

and I'm over there, you know, going against them because I was immediately with second string because there was some injuries, a depth chart. I thought I was going to redshirt and be able to chill

and I'm going against these guys. There's another guy named Sterling Palmer and these dudes were all probably, I think they all got drafted for sure. And they might've all been first rounders, definitely like first and second round graphics in the NFL. And yet they were like juniors on the team at Florida state. And they would like,

thank goodness that I had a green Jersey because there was such a lack of depth at the quarterback position. Cause some of those injuries, they would put a green Jersey on the quarterback, meaning you couldn't touch them in practice. I remember calling my dad and my parents being like, thank goodness I have the green Jersey because I would have gotten killed today. And it used to drive Mark Rick crazy because he felt like I needed, and I did need to get hit because playing at Westminster small school, I didn't get hit that much. It wasn't that file, You know, it wasn't that physical. I needed, he needed to see if I could take

it or if I could play under those conditions. So it used to drive him nuts. But I remember thinking, Holy cow, thank goodness I'm not getting hit live. But then it just kind of, I just like threw myself into the prep. I had so much catching up to do because I hadn't played much football. So I was like studying the playbook. But I remember vividly thinking like Charlie Ward is the starter. And if he gets hurt, I am not ready. Like I would sit there on the sideline and be like, Charlie, please don't get hurt. Like anytime he would get tackled, my heart would like leap in my, my chest. I'd be like, Oh no, am I going to have to go in? And what's crazy is that he started off and now, you know, he won a national championship,

won the Heisman trophy, but my freshman year, which was his first year starting my true freshman year, I'm backing him up. So I'm one play away from playing. And he was playing awful. Like I'm talking four interceptions a game for multiple games. And it was bad. Like fans were booing and Bobby Bowden was debating on putting in. And I was like, I'm not ready. And he would, I actually got the place on my true freshman year because they didn't have a choice. Like Charlie was playing so bad and I'm convinced had I been like ready or one of these, you know, now like freshmen come in and they're ready to play, they're ready to take over a job. It's really commonplace that I probably would have been able to legitimately take the job from Charlie Ward,

but I wasn't ready. And so they would keep going back to Charlie and he actually just played himself out of this slump that he was in. And then the rest was history. But I remember like being terrified of the sideline being like, I am not ready for this game, for this speed, for these types of players. But playing in practice against those dudes was way more scary than playing against Wake Forest or Carolina or NC State or any of those. It was always practice that had me the most scared. First and ten. The pass to Cleaver is tight end. That's Lonnie Johnson. Johnson is off to the races with Terrence Dixon left to beat. Changes direction and gets into the end zone. Touchdown, Florida State.

You win the title, what, the next year? Yep. That's when Charlie won the Heisman Trophy. Right. So you don't have to play. Yep. And then it's your team. And I have the benefit of knowing you and sitting next to you. Yep. And then it's your team.

And I have the benefit of knowing you and sitting next to you for a couple years every day. But for all this self-doubt, you played really well that junior year. Like, how did you get to this point where you were actually a guy that was like all ACC and even on the Heisman watch list? So, you know, I do feel like, you know, I do use a lot of self-deprecation in broadcasting because I do feel like I'm looking back on it now. I'm like, man, you know, I wasn't

very good or I didn't work as hard as I could have. But at the time I was almost naive. Like I was pretty cocky. You know, I was probably pretty much a punk, you know, like I thought I was good. And, but I, yet I knew I wouldn't be Charlie Ward. Like I, that was the thing that was the hardest for me to overcome was Charlie was a different skillset, but I had thrown behind him at practice and I had been getting the second team reps. And I actually did get to start one game my sophomore year when Charlie was hurt against Maryland. And I came in and, you know, had a big game through for like 350 yards, had five touchdowns, I believe. And it was a great first game. And so that like had built my confidence, like, Hey, this isn't so bad. And then like,

it was going to be my team and I had to compete. I had to earn that starting spot, but I always, I was always had that little bit of doubt, like, man, I can't be Charlie. And it was actually funny. I think it was my second game starting of being the starter and Charlie Ward had actually come back to a game. He was in Tallahassee after, you know, going off and he spent his rookie year in the NBA. He was back in Tallahassee. He was on the sideline and he was talking to me and he, and I tried to make a couple of throws. I might've been like, you know, probably over three or one for four and start tried to make a couple throws i might have been like you know probably oh for three or one for four and start i had a couple overthrows and i remember charlie gave me

some really good advice he was like hey he's like why do you keep trying to throw this ball down you know why are you trying to take these shots i was like i'm just trying to read it out he's like take the easy throw he's like what let these athletes you got all these guys around you or the you know four and five star recruits just take the easy throw and let them do all the work. And I was like, Oh, all right. So then I really like separated myself. Did you know what? I don't have to be Charlie. I'm not gonna be able to run around the way he could, but I can just distribute the ball the way he did. And that was one thing that I think Charlie Ward was really underrated, underappreciated, really good passer. So that was my mindset then was I'm not going to be as athletic as everybody else out in the field,

but I can outsmart them and I can make good decisions and I can have all this talent around me, but I just have to get it in these guys' hands the proper way. And once I kind of took ownership of that, it did like settle down. Now, it wasn't all, you know, just roses and perfect because I almost got benched later. My first real start came in Miami at the orange bowl. And that was against Warren staff, the gray Lewis and company. And, you know, I think I've told you this story before, but I was down and I remember the week of practice, we were undefeated. Both us in Miami were in the top 10 as we usually were at the time in the rankings. It was a big matchup.

And Mark Rick, who was my quarterback coach, called me into his office. And he sat me down. He's like, at the beginning of the week, like before we'd even start, it was like Monday or Sunday. It might have been Sunday afternoon. Called me into his office. He kind of warned me. He's like, hey, I want you to know this week is going to be different. It's like it's a different intensity.

It's a different pressure. It's a different media coverage. He's like, it's kind of like the Superbowl. And I was like, all right, sounds good. You know, I'll go to work. Like, all right, here we go. Let's have a good week of practice. You know, I thought he was kind of rolled my eyes a little bit. Again, I was a little bit of a punk. So I was like, whatever, we'll be fine. So we go to Miami, the opening drive, we marched down the field. Like I'm talking like six or seven plays, like five or six yards, a clip.

We're running the football, a couple of play action passes. We're marching down the field. We get down to like the red zone, probably about 16 or 17 yard line. Now I remember thinking, this isn't so bad. Like it's loud, but this is fun. This is great. Tried it. Like we tried a little play

action and i tried to squeeze one in the end zone and i threw a pick and from then it was like all downhill like it could not have gone worse so then i threw two more picks was getting chased the entire night got benched in the third quarter for john stark my backup and like then it was like uh-oh like now i knew what he meant but there was also some rumblings like hey is canel ready like he played at a small school can he handle this and that you know that was legitimate like i think bobby bowden and mark rick thought about benching me and making a change fortunately they didn't and i played my way out of it but it really was like this uncertainty throughout my junior year until the the florida, which was our last game of the regular season.

And it started off awful again. This was the choke at Doak, which is kind of like my most famous moment at Florida State. 31-3 on the board, and Cannell firing to the five-yard line of McCorvey. That would be a first down. It'll be first and goal for the Noles. Oh, do they wrap.

Cannell, who gets it off anyway to Omar Ellison. Cannell. A diving reception inside the 45-yard line. The field for the Noles. And Cannell banging one on the wall to the right to Cooper. There are the numbers and the half that Danny Connell is putting up against the Gators. Swing and his tailbacks have been lethal

coming out of the backfield. Six and a half minutes to go, a furious rally here in Tallahassee. Hitting the underneath man again to the 15 yard line. The pressure mounting on Spurrier over there. If the Noles can score here at 5-1⁄2. Off the penalty, half the distance. First and goal to fake at the inside.

Hand off. Cannell's going to run for the touchdown. Touchdown, Florida State! 17 seconds. Cannell steps up against the pressure. Cannell got to get the first down to stop the clock. And he didn't get it. The clock is going to continue to run with 10 seconds.

He's got to stop this baby. Line up and down it. He's got it down. It's going to run out on him. Down, up, down. Didn't do it. This game is over. A 31-31 tie. this game is over a 31 31 time we were down 31 three again i almost got benched at halftime and they were like let's give them one more series let's let them ride it out and i was able to kind

of play my way out of it got hot and led us back to a tie so we came back we scored 28 in the fourth quarter with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. We scored 28 points, tied it up. And then we went on and we got the rematch in the Sugar Bowl and we beat them. And then from that game, that choke-a-doke was really like my confidence booster. It was like, I can do this.

And I think the coaches looked at me differently too. Like, hey, we've got to trust them. We've got to put our confidence in them and just believe in them. And then I started believing in myself to where my senior year, it was pretty smooth. We put up a huge year. We actually put up better numbers than Charlie and that offense did in 93. We had one of those prolific offenses in Florida State history in 95.

So it was like, but I felt like that game, the Florida game, being able to come back to prove all the doubters wrong was big for me personally because I was able to finally just get some confidence in myself. More from the Danny Cannell backup quarterback story, but first, this from First Leaf. When weather gets colder and the fun moves indoors, is there anything better than curling up on the couch with some great

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If you experience your dress shirt looking great for longer than four hours, good job. You're wearing Mizzen and Main. Mizzen and Main look great longer. So you get drafted in the fourth round, and I know there was a couple things, I'm sure, with everybody, especially quarterbacks, like, oh, this could happen. That could happen.

What was your hope for what would happen to you on draft weekend? Obviously you want to get drafted as high as possible, right? Like I wanted to get the most money. I want to get the most security, but there were two spots that I really, really wanted to go to because again, I still hadn't played that much football and kind of like when I went to college, I didn't feel ready to play as a freshman. I didn't feel ready to play as a rookie. So I wanted somewhere where I could go catch my breath, learn behind somebody. And there were two teams that I had pegged that I really wanted to go to.

One was the Denver Broncos because John Elway was getting up there in age. And I was like, oh, that'd be perfect. Like, you know, we had the same agent. It was like Denver would be a good organization, good franchise. They have success. And John Elway would be perfect to learn behind. The other one, which really was like my dream,

was to play for the Miami Dolphins. They had Dan Marino. Again, same era as Dan Marino, as John Elway was getting older. My dad worked there. I could stay at home. I wouldn't have to move. And I was like, oh, that would be the dream scenario.

Those were my two teams. So through the draft process, I had met with a bunch of different agents that I was meeting with that were going to represent me. A lot of them tried to sell me on how they could boost up my draft stock. I had heard anywhere potentially from late first round to probably fourth or fifth round, like realistically, but most of the agents kind of agreed on what my expectation was, was probably second or third round was the worst case scenario. That was what I was told from agents kind of had the perception of myself. Like realistically, I was like second or third round, I'd be happy. You know, like that's probably where I'm going to go. And at the time the draft was rounds one through three were on the first day of the draft. So, you know, I get there,

go out, play golf in the morning. And then I didn't have a huge party, but I did have like our families pretty tight. I have a pretty big family, my three sisters, the husband, and maybe a couple of friends. We did have like a little get together at my house. We were going to watch the draft and we were going to be like, all right, let's see where I go. And let's, you know, see what happens. So I got out and play golf and I knew I was going to miss like the first hour of the draft. So like the first half, the first round,

I remember like kind of thinking like that optimistic side of me. It's like, wouldn't it be crazy? Wouldn't it be crazy if I got drafted and I got home and I was the first round pick. I legitimately had that thought in the back of my mind. Right. Well, I get home, like, did anybody call? And they're like, Nope, no calls yet. So I was like, all right, not a huge surprise. But I was like, yeah, it would have been cool. First round goes by, not a big deal. Second round. And this was a year that no quarterback's taken the first round. So I like at least nobody else got taken second round goes by and uh tony banks gets taken off the board he gets drafted by the st louis ramps like all right i didn't want to go there anyway like no

big deal but then other quarterbacks start getting taken and i'm starting to think like man i you know i think i'm better than these guys like why are they getting opportunities over me and the biggest knock against me which which was probably really, really accurate. And you and I had some fun on the radio show. He has the end. We played back. No Kuyper's, you know, draft day analysis of me, you know, because he rattles through it as only Mel can.

He's like, you know, good arm, good character, leadership, you know, good guy, you know, probably a career backup leadership. Leadership. What? Yes, I was a good leader come on i think you did say good leadership come on you know me better than that at least i fooled him enough to thinking that was the case right but like but my biggest knock was that i was the product of the system at florida state and it was like if i was in a system where I was surrounded by guys that were awesome and I was playing against teams that weren't as awesome, I could be really good. That was a pretty fair evaluation of me. And it drove me nuts

because I was like, Oh, I can be good. But like looking back on it, like that is how I could succeed. Like I could have had a good NFL career. If you would have put me on the best team in the NFL, we would have dominated, like had dominant team in the NFL. We would have had dominant players on the outside who were just going to work over whoever they're going on the other side of the ball. I can do that. But that was a very fair assessment on me, like looking back on it. So I think that was a fair knock. So then Bobby Hoyne gets taken off the board by the Eagles out of Ohio State. He gets taken before me.

A guy named Jeff Lewis got selected got selected i believe in the third round by the broncos and that one hurt i was like i hadn't even heard of him he was from northern arizona and i was like who the heck is this guy and why is he going above me and so that's the third round and the third round's going and i'm sitting there thinking what's going on my phone by my agent he's like well you know team know, team called, but no, nothing in concrete. And the third round end. And that was like painful. You talk about bloated,

the ego, you know, my family's there. We're all like, what's going on? I thought you were going to get drafted first three rounds. And I don't, and it was tough.

And that was a really, really long night for me because, you know, if you know the way the NFL works, if you're drafted in the first three rounds probably going to make the team like they're not going to give up on a third rounder but once you start getting in the fourth fifth sixth round your chances of making the team drastically reduced because they don't have as much invested in you so like all these thoughts

are going through my mind like man am i going to be able to make it in the nfl am i even gonna get drafted what happens if i go sixth seventh round you know what happens like if my career is like going up in smoke before my eyes i'm like what the heck so then this so it's a long really long night the next day kicked off thankfully i got taken pretty early the fourth round and what's crazy is i was sitting there with my family again not everybody was back i didn't have everybody back over because i don't want everybody with my dad and my mom and I think my girlfriend at the time we were hanging out just kind of watching the draft on tv and just kind of was kind of depressing like every team that goes by so I go there goes another one but I got a call and I remember my my mom I think took the call and because we didn't like I had a

cell phone but I don't think they had a cell phone number. They had our home phone. And my mom's like, the New York Giants are on the phone. And I remember thinking, like, what? I hadn't even talked to the Giants. I hadn't talked to their coaches. They had a younger quarterback in Dave Brown, so it wasn't like, it didn't make a lot of sense. But I was

just like, all right, like, let's go. So I picked up the phone, and there was a secretary, and she said, hold on, she said, Dan Reeves will be on the phone in a So I, I picked up the phone and there was a secretary. She said, hold on. She said, Dan reads me on the phone in a minute. So he picked up the phone and it was Dan. He was like, Hey, congratulations. We selected you. We had a few common friends. It was kind of weird. Like, like a friend of ours, it was a pastor at a church. Like it was, he's like, I knew I got, I know a friend of yours. He's like really excited to get you. And so then I got selected the fourth round by the giants. And that was the weirdest thing to me because all these teams that you

think you're going to go to because they expressed interest in you just totally flop. You know, like the, the dolphins actually were one of the few teams that brought me to their facility. Like for one of the, like, you know, when you say they want to bring you in for a visit, they brought me in for a visit, like with 10 other potential, you know, draftees that they brought in, put us up at a really nice hotel. Jimmy Johnson spoke with us. We did medical, like extra medical stuff. They had us talk, meet with a position coaches. So like, I thought that was a really good chance. I was going to pick by the dolphin and no one from the giants had ever done it. Not even a phone call of anybody. So it was such a complete shock to me. I was going to pick by the Dolphins. And no one from the Giants had ever done it,

not even a phone call of anybody. So it was such a complete shock to me. I was like, whoa. And I was like, all right, let's go. Didn't know much about them, but I was like, let's do it. We get an opportunity. And that's how I ended up with the Giants. You don't start any games your rookie year.

It's Dave Brown. And then you come back, Dave Brown's still on the team, but it feels like your team. So take me through that rookie year, whether or not you felt like it was your team or you felt like this was a job that you could do for 10 years. So my rookie year, when I got there, I was a little bit overwhelmed. You know, again, just the overwhelm of information. Like mentally, to get an NFL playbook is probably the bigger challenge than physically.

Because I played at Florida State, you know, played against all those guys in the NFL, Miami, Florida, played against NFL talent. So I didn't think the speed was that much of a transition. For me, it was the mental aspect. So that was kind of overwhelming. I was a little bit lost in the playbook, trying to, you know, get it all, verbiage, spit it out, execute the playbook.

But the one thing I had, and it's not a knock against Dave Brown, because I like Dave Brown a lot. He was a good, you know out, execute the playbook. But the one thing I had, and it's not a knock against Dave Brown, because I like Dave Brown a lot. He was a good guy, good teammate. But when I would watch him play, I felt like I could do the job better, or just as good or better. So I was like, you know, I can picture myself doing what he was. And he was the two- or three-year starter at the time. So I was like, man, I can do what this guy's doing.

So my rookie year, we play really bad. I come in, I play sparingly, whether it was blowout, whether Dave would get knocked out of the game. And I would play a little bit, but it's not enough to unseat him. And I wasn't ready to play then. So then Dan Reeves gets fired. We have Jim fossil comes in and takes over. And he comes in with a new system where before I was playing catch up to Dave

Brown. Now we're on equal footing. We're both trying to with a new system where before i was playing catch-up to dave brown now we're on equal footing we're both trying to learn a new system it was my second system in that two years but because we had started on even ground i felt like man i was grasping the system faster than he was and i was executing the plays in practice better than he was but still like he was playing pretty decent. And through five games of the season, we were doing okay. And he gets hurt. And it was against Dallas Cowboys, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, the Cowboys. This is 97. So it was after their Super Bowl run, but they were still a really good team with those studs in place.

Troy Aikman, I go in, and we actually end up winning the game. And Dave Brown had suffered like a chest injury. And so he was going to miss probably two or three weeks. So I come in, we beat the Cowboys. Then we go on a little run and I'm starting to play and I'm playing okay. I'm playing decent. And we actually get on a run where we start winning. And then it's like that whole discussion of, and it was played out,

I'm sure in the radio station, the newspaper was, does Dave Brown get his job when he comes back? And Jim Fossil was the firm believer in, no, like, if we're playing well and Danny's playing well, we're going to stick with him. The Giants' second-year quarterback, Danny Kinnell, won headlines by leading his team to the top of the division. But in the past three weeks, the lead has virtually slipped away, allowing the Eagles to climb back into the race so i got

to start we continued to win i think we went eight two and one with me as starter we won the nfc east we got a wild card playoff game at home at giant stadium and i remember like i didn't work that hard it was kind of like at florida state like i i was a good pro like i was never late for meetings but like if practice said it started at 9 o'clock, I was there at 8.50. I made sure I wasn't late, and then I would go into meetings, and then when practice was done at 4.30 or 5,

I'd be out the door at 4.30 or 5. Didn't you tell me that the second year, they put thousands of dollars worth of video equipment in your basement, and everybody was talking about how you're a student of the game, and you were taking it really seriously, and you actually used to just fall asleep down there oh so that was my third year so so so that year goes by and we go to the playoffs and dave brown you know never gets to play again he actually gets cut and they give me a new contract and so they give me a new contract

and this is going into my third season how much we had just come off the playoffs. It was signing bonus was two and a half. And the deal itself was for 12. But I remember my agent saying, in reality, it's closer to a two-year deal worth eight than a three-year deal worth of 12. So I was thinking, hey, most likely I'm going to see two years, eight million. Well, I only saw one year and three million after it was all said and done because they cut ties with me, probably because they put that equipment in my house and I wasn't watching it. But to your story, so they were doing everything they could. They gave

me the new contract. They pretty much handed me over the reins. It's your team. But I was the franchise quarterback of the New York Giants. Were they spinning it in the media too a little bit? Were they dropping all the coaching staff or just raving? They were just going to build you up no matter what. Absolutely they did. Then they were like, hey, he's young young he's got all this potential and i was like i was smart

like i knew the plays but where i didn't do it was the extra and that's what that's what drives me nuts that's what bothers me now that i didn't do the extra stuff so they put like i would tell them like hey i will you know i'll watch film at home I don't like, I like to get out of here. I like to have my space. So they gave me like this thousand dollars, you know, it was probably like two or three grand. I didn't get more, it's more than that. Like a nice projection screen was like the tape at the time was not just a VHS or a VCR tape. It was like nice tape with a remote control.

They had the video equipment come and set it up in my, my house, my townhouse at the time. They were like, you go and it did like the reporters ate it up they're like oh can i love study film so much but he sets it up in his house and i'm telling you i had it set up in like this little area of my townhouse it was kind of separate like dust was starting to collect on the tape like i just i was so not motivated and i figured figured my, my stupid like thinking was, Hey, we went to the playoffs. I didn't do like,

why would I do anything differently? Like I'm fine. We'll be okay. But that's why I don't think it worked is because I didn't realize, Hey, you got to get there a couple hours early, watch extra film, put an extra work,

extra passes after practice, stay late. Like the old saying, you know, you want to be the first one in last one out I was the last one in the first one out which is exactly the opposite of what you want your franchise quarterback that's that's why I don't think it worked out so you get cut you've been through two coaches you end up in Atlanta and then you end up in Denver and along the way are you

thinking I've been done wrong or are you and you're you're really self-aware and you've always been so honest about this. Are you thinking, I'm actually probably not good enough to be a starter. Like, where are you at that point? Cause at 20, that's a really hard in your twenties. That's a really hard thing to say to yourself. So when I got, I wasn't that self-aware when I got cut from the Giants, the Giants, I felt like I got a raw deal because, and I do, some of it, I wonder if I would have grown out of that. I was extremely immature. I wasn't ready for the success. And I felt like I only got one year, I got 20 starts, which isn't even a full year and a half. And if you talk to anybody, really you need two, probably three years to get

your feet underneath you to really get comfortable. So I did feel like they gave up on me too soon, but I gave them every right to give up on me. Like I didn't make it hard for them to cut me. I made it easy for them. Like when they looked at me, they're probably like, who's this kid? He's leaving the stadium. He was leaving practice right after he's not, he doesn't show the work ethic. So I get why they did it, but I do think they gave up on me a year too soon.

But looking back on it in retrospect, I'm like, yeah, well, I was an idiot. I was a punk kid who thought it would come easy and wasn't willing to do the work. So I get why they did it. Then I go to Atlanta and Atlanta. I would, I would say it was just a rough spot. Like that was a bleak time in my career. Like it was Atlanta was bad. They were coming off the Super Bowl. Chris Chandler, good dude. I liked him a lot, but it was funny because I was backing him up and he would only get hurt against the best

defenses in the NFL. Again, there were always injuries that were like a stress. He missed the game for the flu. He missed games for like a pulled hammy. It was never like torn ACL, you know, he, he missed the game for the flu. He missed games for, uh, like a pulled hammy. It was never like torn ACL, you know,

or separated shoulder. They were always like obscure injuries and I'm not accusing him of faking them, but I always found it was ironic that he would always get hurt again. You know, the Tampa two Tampa Bay buck. Like I played against them. I had to play against St.

Louis Ram when they went to the Superbowl. That was the year they won the Superbowl. I ended up playing against them. Like always the better defenses were the ones that Chandler would get hurt in. So I just got wrecked in those two years. Like every time I would go in, I would get blasted. I would just, it was not good.

It was not healthy. And then I was out. Like after that, that was five years I was in the NFL. And I really was at a crossroads. I'm like, what am I going to do? There wasn't much interest in me free agent wise at the starter for sure. There was some as a backup, but it was really lukewarm. And so I'm thinking, man, is my career done after five years? And I was a little bit

bitter about it all the way that unfolded was kind of beat up physically. I had knee surgery from a knee that was messed up from all the hits that I had taken. So I was kind of like, just whatever, like I'm done with it. And from all the hits that I had taken. So I was kind of like, just whatever. Like, I'm done with this. And that's when I played minor league baseball. Like, you know the story. Like, I started training with my nephews who were like 13 and 14 in baseball. And it kind of gave me the bug.

And I wasn't getting signed. So I was like, I want to do something competitive. Baseball was always in my blood. So I was like, let me give it a shot. But then, you know, making $1,200 a month wasn't quite the same as making a million bucks as a backup. So I was like, let me get back shot. But then, you know, making 1200 bucks a month wasn't quite the same as making a million bucks to the backup. So I was like, let me get back to the NFL, which was not easy either. And so then I ended up getting back to arena football to kind of prove my, like to prove

to the NFL that I wanted it. And then was able to like, that was the thing, Brian, I'm probably most proud of is that I fought my way back after being out two years in the NFL, started in Denver Broncos with an opportunity of, hey, we have five quarterbacks in camp. You're going to be one of them. You're going to be fifth on the depth chart. You're going to have to prove yourself every bit of it. I was able to do that and prove myself back up and get in, get the opportunity where I

got all the way up to number two behind Jake Plummer. And that was where at that point in my career, I was 29, 30 years old. And I was like, you know what? This backup thing, I could do this for a long time. Like, I would be happy with it. Like, if I get to play, great. But I'm pretty content making a good living, not getting pounded, and being a good teammate.

And at that time, I was going in early, studying with Jake Plummer, who was my buddy, staying late to work out with him after. And that was why the last time I got cut in the NFL was the most painful because I'm a firm believer that when the Giants backed up the truck and gave me a nice contract, I wasn't anywhere near as good or as good of a professional athlete or as good of a quarterback as I was when the Broncos cut me. That one stung a lot when I got cut late in my career.

So at the very end, you kind of fall back and like, I don't know if it's ever love with you in football, but you appreciate it more and Jake's awesome. I've got to meet him through you. You're in this great city and you're there with Shanahan's offense. And now he's telling you it's kind of over. And I know that his position, as you've told me, is that, look, we just don't keep third quarterbacks

because they almost never play. How long was it for you after that until you accepted that this whole thing was over and that, you know, I know you were checking the waiver wire. Like, tell me about the very end. So it came to an end. So the reason, like i love denver denver's a great city jake is a great dude i've been like i didn't mind backing him up we were winning we went to the playoffs both years that i was there i just felt really comfortable in the system and i like i was

enjoying it again it was like again if you love the game of football i think you want to play and that's where i think i was a little too comfortable. Just, hey, I'll be the backup. I don't need to play. And I think the coaches sense that as well. They want somebody hungry to play. So Shanahan calls me in and they had drafted Bradley Van Telt seventh round out of Colorado State.

He was local. Pat Bowen, the family of the owner at the time, loved him because he was local. I knew Kubiak loved him at the time because he was a little athletic and he was hungry he wanted to prove to everybody he was there and yet he wasn't very good like i'm not a knock against bradley again another dude like i really liked a lot of my wedding great kid but he just wasn't a natural quarterback he was great athlete they actually were running kind of some wildcat stuff with him at the time and i remember thinking like they're probably gonna screw me over in all this again. And I told my wife and my wife, we had just gotten married, Courtney and

I about five months. And they were kind of looking, looking for an opportunity. And I had a bad practice and Kubiak said, we're going to make a change. And so we put Bradley Van Pelt in there at second string, had me third string. And I'll never forget. It was the morning practice of the two a day. And I called my wife at the lunchtime. So in the middle of the practices, I wanted to quit. I was like, there's, I can see the tea. I can read the tea leaves. I am done in Denver. They're going to go with Bradley, even though he's not that good cheaper. He cost a third of what I did. I was like, I want to quit. I want to go out and try to get on another team and just say, screw it. My wife was like, don't do that. You're not a quitter. Suck it up. Maybe something will happen. So I didn't, I didn't quit, went back

out to practice, sucked it up. And then I didn't play in that preseason. And that's always a bad sign. If you're a player in the NFL, if you're not playing in the preseason, it's because they don't want to get hurt because they don't want to have to pay you. And they don't, they don't really, you know, they just, they're not, there's no purpose then. And so when I didn't play, I was like, Oh, this is it. And then, of course, the last cut come around, and I kind of knew it was coming, and I was sitting around with my wife, and I got the phone call. I was like, bring your playbook to see Coach Shanahan.

And he sat me down, and Coach Shanahan was like, look, if something happens to Jake, we need you. You'll be our backup. You know, Bradley's young. He can be a good serviceable backup in the short term, but I don't think he can win games for us. So just be ready. Stay in shape. So I was like, oh, great, this again.

Well, sure enough, the next year, like Jake Plummer played every snap, didn't have anything go wrong with him. And I told my wife, when I came home from that cut, I said, babe, I said, I don't think I'm going to play football again. I just have a bad vibe about this. And so I went home back to Florida, started watching games. I watched the Broncos games, obviously to see if anything after Jake, but I was watching the waiver wire. I had a bunch of workouts, probably six or seven workouts that

year on Tuesdays when they bring guys in, I go to work out, throw, and I feel pretty good, get my hopes up. And then they would either sign somebody else or not sign anybody else. But you talk about a rough period of my life. Like I was, that was the first year I was out. And then the second year I was still trying to get signed in a camp would have some workouts. And with literally that still two years removed the league because I had done it before, been out two years and gotten back in. I had this wild, crazy hope that I would get back in.

And it really did not fully sink in. I've told you this story until I got my retirement papers mailed to me from the NFL. Cause once you're out three years, they give you a severance check and it says, thanks for your participation. But you know, you are done in the NFL. And it was like, Oh, all right, I guess we got to figure out something to do. So that was the harsh reality for me that I. I didn't retire on my own. The NFL retired me, and that was it. And then you got to become my co-host. Exactly. The career highlight

of my life, for sure. Thanks for listening to part two of our Ringer series from The Dual Threat, the backup QB stories with Danny Cannell. Please make sure you subscribe, rate, and review when we've got a couple more coming. Thanks for listening.