Throwbacks with Matt Leinart & Jerry Ferrara - Greg Olsen Talks Youth Sports, Miami, Cam Newton, what he misses most about football and evolution of the TE

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

Matt and Jerry begin the show with a debate about Jerry’s take on sitting Jaxson Dart as well as picking the athletes they most want to coach their kids.  Greg Olsen then joins the show and looks back at his time at Miami and playing with Cam Newton on a 15-1 Panthers team that made the Super Bowl. The 14-year NFL vet and Fox play by play man also shares what he’s learned from coaching alongside Luke Kuechly and Jonathan Stewart on the most accomplished middle school football coaching staff ever. Finally, Greg shares his thoughts on TEU and the evolution of the tight end position and his own podcast Youth Inc.  Finally, Annie Agar stops by for a Hollywood edition of Twisted Tea Trivia and some NFL talk.  New episodes of Throwbacks drop every Thursday. Make sure you’re subscribed on YouTube and following on all podcast platforms. Also, make sure you’re locked in on social @ThrowbacksShow on all platforms for highlight moments, bonus content, and to engage with the guys & the Throwbacks community. (http://throwbacksshow.com/)      Chapters  -00:00 Intro  -02:54 Jerry and Matt on Jaxson Dart’s injury  -14:26 Greg Olsen Joins  -29:00 Greg on coaching a middle school team  -36:57 Greg on playing at Miami with legends  -51:30 The tight end revolution   -59:30 Cam Newton’s greatness   -1:09:00 Tight End University   -1:16:54 Twisted Tea Trivia with Annie Agar  A big thank you to our sponsors:    Wendy’s  Wendy’s Chicken Tendys. Now at participating U.S. Wendy’s. http://www.tendys.com   Twisted Tea Grab a Refreshing Twisted Tea Today.  https://www.twistedtea.com/locations  DoorDash Win weekly with DoorDash Streaks! Order every Saturday, save up to $250 during College Football Season. Terms Apply.  DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook App and use code TB. Bet five bucks and get 3 months of League Pass plus get $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins. In partnership with DraftKings - The Crown Is Yours.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The tight end position for the longest time was the position you kind of ended up playing. Right. I think what we're seeing now is kids are playing tight end their entire lives. You got Kelsey and Kittle and Gronk. And now you can make an argument outside of quarterback. Some of the biggest stars in the game are tight ends. it's throwbacks everyone yes and we're not throwing anything back we're talking about the now the actual present with my guy mattie liner matt we just got a little fired up on the call

we were getting fired up off the air i mean it's just like i love you do but sometimes it's just it's unbelievable the thought the your thought process on stuff but go ahead well you did the thing that you did the thing that us fans don't like you called me a non-athlethal and us fans who pay your athletic salaries, essentially, us non-athletes don't like when high-end athletes call us that. So I'm offended already, but I love you. We got a good show for you today. We are joined by another athlete later on in the show,

Greg Olson, one of my favorite tight ends of all time, took them every year in fantasy. We did a little home and home with Greg, his podcast, Youth Inc., which is awesome. all about youth sports. Matt and I went there on his and talked in depth about his coaching and Matt's coaching and all the stuff we do with our kids. And then Greg joined us. And we had when we talked tight ends now, Cam Newton, some sick plays that he made with the Panthers. His days in Miami as a hurricane. Yeah. Greg is awesome. And just the youth sports thing, it's such a hot topic. And I'm living

it. You're going to live it here in the next couple years. He has just tremendous insight on coaching you sports. I really admire, I really respect what he's been doing that, especially with you think. And I actually got a lot of great advice from him too,

which is, it's a must listen. We talk about Tide NU and what it takes to get an invite to Tide NU, so you have to stick around and see what he says because I'm trying,

I'm trying to be a camp arm on that, you know what I mean? Summer in Nashville would be amazing. I'll come be a non-athlet with a microphone and just do some podcasts out there. Exactly. Their Super Bowl run,

some great stories from their Super Bowl run. And Greg was awesome, man. It's a fun listen. Yeah. And later on, as always, Annie Agar, joining us for some twisted tea trivia. I think we're going to stick with the Hollywood stuff, a very impressive performance by you last week in my own category. You kind of defeated me. I told you, I mean, I'm a man of many talents and versus time.

So let's talk for two minutes about what we just argued about again off the year. I said something a few weeks ago where I was just saying, by in another few weeks this was in the in the past i said if this is still going this way for the giants they they need to bench dart and what i was really saying was protect this guy from himself he it's the way he only knows how to play right now he clearly hasn't been taught how to slide and he looks for the contact doesn't help that since i said that matt he's led the league in design quarterback runs intentional like hey we're down 14 to the Eagles in Philly, let's go dart on an off tackle right and see what he's got and he just

gets bludgeon for concussion protocols before the actual concussion. And you called me a non-athletes. That's the worst take you've ever heard. So, but you, okay, so let's, let's break this down. Your take was Jackson Dart should sit the rest of the year. I don't want him to get her. That's what you said. That's what you said. And my take was you don't, you don't sit your star quarterback, your rookie quarterback the rest of the year and hopes and protect him so he doesn't get hurt. You don't, you like, these guys are making millions of dollars. It is their job.

It is their profession. So the way that you said that, I was like, no, that's stupid. Like, yeah, he's going to risk it. He's the future. He's the future. Yeah, but he needs to play. Like, what are you going to do? Just say, hey, by the way, the next eight weeks, we're going to sit you.

Hey, well, let's have a full off season together. Let's get ready for year two and, like, start, no, like, like, experience and reps are the greatest thing for a young quarterback, period. To your point about the quarterback design runs, I get that. He is not ready to take on that because he doesn't know how to play at that level in that regard.

Safely, Lamar Jackson is a great example. Lamar Jackson runs a lot, but he has learned to absorb hits. You learn how to get under hits. You do. There is a skill to learn how to take hits and kind of get under. There's something you can't control.

Someone talked to Drake May in the offseason because he really is the one. that's figured it out. It's one, we used to practice being in the, uh, being in the pocket when you had somebody, we used to practice like, hey, get down, get your head down. So when you don't take, that's how I broke my collarbone. When you stand straight up, they're going to crush you. You were standing straight up. Is that that, that if you would have got down, maybe we would say it happened so fast. But so my point is, is yeah, like you learn that in real time. And that comes with coaching. That comes with, hey, like, Jackson, we need to learn how to get

down. Like, we need to learn how to do this. Um, there's a reason why Daveo got fired. There's probably a lot of reasons why I take about fire. There's a lot. There's quite a few. So I agree with you in the sense of what are they doing with the play calling. But to sit here and say, we should just bench, we should not play this kid so he doesn't get hurt. It's dumb. It's the dumbest take I've ever heard from me. I guess what I was saying is because I didn't believe they would fire Dable during the season.

So my hope would be this kid's shown enough to show us like, all right, he's got it, full off season. You lose neighbors. You lose Scataboo. You're losing guys on the O line. There's a ready weakness at the sky. skill positions they're out of it mad they blew fourth quarter they're out they have two wins they're done but they also but that's the thing in the last couple weeks they've also been in damn near every game so like you want to play your best player and you taught you had this take

four weeks ago when they're still they were right they they lost four in a row and he got yeah but you had this take before they went on this losing streak of all these close games like what if they win those three games you guys are sitting there at 500 and literally have a chance to make a playoff that's what i'm saying you're at the point if we're in week 15 and this kid has just been in and out of the lineup and like you're like dude we got two more weeks left like let's just get his head healthy let's like whatever but you're in week you're week seven dude so i guess what we both really said was the coach needs to go and that really was the remedy for all of this well day we got james winston day ball's come out and said or he

basically said like hey he's aggressive this is the type of player he is i'm going to utilize his strengths i get that day ball know he was coaching for his job anyway so selfish yeah but he's going to try and put his team in a best position to win games and honestly it's jackson dart running the football is a big part of that he's a really good he's a good football player he's a he's a great athlete he can make those plays that's what he did it all miss i just don't know how a coach goes from three years ago with danny dimes in week one versus the titans they went for two down one for the wind with no time left and got it and the giants went one and oh and propelled him to a coach who fourth down on the half

yard line. Bring in Graham Ganoe. Let's get the three here because we're two and eight. Let's get the three and put the defense back on the field. I don't know how that happens in three years, but it did. And James, we trust. Now we got James. This dude is going to go out and throw for 500 yards, four touchdowns and four picks every week. Shout out to my boy, James. Yes. Throwbacks guest at the Super Bowl last year. He's a legend. All right. We're going to bring on Greg in a second, but I have a very, I think a very appropriate. Wendy's fresh take of the week for in thinking about it and we talked so much about coaching and our kids and stuff like that. So for the Wendy's Fresh Take of the Week, I propose a

question to everyone out there and to us on the show. Which athlete could be former, could be current. Would you want to coach your kid in whatever sport, you know, we're not just trying to specialize, whatever sport, which athlete to you feels like would be the best youth sports coach. I have a few names. Do you want to take a swing first, or would you like me to swing first? Are we just doing one?

We can do one. I have like one honorable mention because I have to sneak that in and then I have my number one pick and then I have another selfish one. Go for you, you can go, yeah. Well, my selfish one is I'm going to go with...

Let me guess, Jalen Brunson. No, he would have made. He's on my five list, but my selfish pick and hear me out. I'm going a... I'm going T.J. McConnell. Hear me out. Okay. Listen up.

There's not my number one pick. Because he's a short white guy. He's got a shot. He's undersized. Are we just going white dudes? That's what we want to do? No. My true number one pick is not a white dude. He's undersized.

He's had to fight for everything. He plays as hard as he can possibly play. Doesn't cheat the game. And I feel like because I'm going to have short white kids that he would be a good coach. That's my selfish choice. not my number one. Yeah, no, that's a good one. That's a good one.

But my number one pick, I hope it doesn't step on yours. I just feel like this guy would be, Steph Curry would be my number one pick. Yeah. I just feel like, uh, relatability. Kids already love him,

uh, what he's done with the three point shot, basically equalizing it for guys who don't have the full athleticism to dunk on you down the lane. I just feel like Steph Curry and he's probably really good in other sports as well. He's great in golf. Yeah. I mean,

he's teaching. I don't know if you saw, he did this, Bryson D. Chambot does this break, uh, break 50 challenge, right? When they play from the red T's with, and he paired up with Steph Curry and a scramble to do. And Steph Curry was out driving Bryce and D. Shambo.

I saw that. And outplay, like they were on the same team, but he was just electric. Gets me excited for golf in the off season. Um, what do you guys? So, yeah, so I, well, I'll go two. I'll go.

So Mahomes is one for me. And not because he's, the goat, but because he was, he was great in basketball. You've seen those highlights. He was a great baseball player. His dad obviously played in the majors, and he's obviously a great football player. So we talk about this with Greg a lot. The whole multi-sport athlete, I played it, my oldest played it, my younger kids are going to play every sport until they possibly can. Mahomes probably, probably could have went pro in baseball, I'm assuming at some point, throwing 96, 97. He has the great basketball. So the greatest of all, I would love. I would

love Mahomes to kind of teach my kids at least the skill set and the work and all that so my number one though and this is shout out to our producer Eddie because he mentioned

the UFC fighter so I'm just I'm gonna I'm gonna go Daniel Cormier and look I could have picked anybody because I'm not raising a bunch of softies I'm raising my kids I'm raising my kids

to be able to defend themselves and our rule in the house is obviously respect everyone, you be kind to everybody. The minute someone touches you, you have full reign to kick their ass. Defend yourself. Defend yourself. So who

not better than one of the best to ever do it to come over and teach some hold and teach some and just say, hey, if that little kid comes up to you on the playground and he pushes you down, this is what we're going to do in response. We're going to treat everybody nicely. You know, we're going to do that. We're going to

respect. But the minute someone lays hands on my kids and my daughter, they're going to know how to defend themselves. It might be an arm bar. They might break a wrist. They might just straight up cold clocked them right in the face. So, yeah, I'm going, I'm going on. I think it would be really, your kids are super athletic, obviously. I think it would be really interesting to watch you as a dad of a fighter. Like if one of your little boys grew up and loved the UFC, you know they're going to be big, strong dudes, like, but you as the sports that, because that's, it's different than football. ball. I know you're a tough dude too, but like, you know, you're not a wrestler. You're not a

jujitsu guy. So I'd love to see you as the sports dad of a kid who's fighting. It's so funny. My case in my five, almost six year old is probably the one that's going to be a linebacker. He's tough, isn't he? He feels no pain, dude. He's got screws loose up in the head. We don't know where he came from. But the kid is, kid is awesome. But he just, he just wants to ram his head into everything, right? But we got him into jujitsu and he hated it he was he was he was he's the kid that's gonna like if he gets hit in the face he's just gonna take it probably not cry but then he's gonna go tell the teacher instead of being like hey if he hits you in the face punch him right back so but but he's tougher than the other one it's so interesting he did jujitsu and he hated it because he didn't he

these poor kids try to get him down he just stood there like uh like you guys can't but he wouldn't but he wouldn't punch back so he's the interesting one now the little one cannon will literally punch you right in the face after he gets hit, but he's going to cry his little ass off. You know what I mean? It's just so different. But I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, dude, I got nervous watching any of my kids play sports. It was interesting watching our four kids on the beach. It literally was three against one. Yeah, Kaysen. And you're right. Kaysen just, like Andre the Giant just stood there and was like, all right, what do you? Go ahead. Do what you want. I feel nothing. We weighed him. Dude, he's 60 pounds. 60 pounds. And he's not even six yet, right?

dense like he's skinny like he's not but he's just built like his legs his butt his like he's like cannon's 38 pounds poor kid is just like Daniel cormier if you're listening call call matt liner and get to coaching uh shoutouts to wendies that's our fresh take of the week and the person we didn't mention because i didn't think it would be fair but i would want gregg olson to coach my kids yeah Greg olson and you'll hear why on the episode we did with him on his on you think and what we got coming up for you right now Let's bring on Greg Olson. All right, this week on throwbacks,

we're joined by the head coach of the undefeated Charlotte Christian middle school team, the son of a state championship-winning high school coach. Our guests committed to Norderdane, but ultimately became a star-tied-end. And first round pick by the Bears out of the University of Miami, assisted the Panthers in a 15-1 Super Bowl run, and he helped Cam Newton to an MVP,

and one of the great single seasons by a QB and not to mention you see him on Fox the play-by-play Mastro himself. Greg Olson, how'd you like that intro, buddy? A lot of things in there. You're a professional, dude. We got to get you on air. That was very good.

Really quick, we were talking off air. Matt was talking about he still remembers plays and obviously we're going to talk about you think for a little while and then you just sent the, you showed us a picture of like all the plays and stuff and things you have drawn up on your desk, right? It looks like the desk

a head coach. Here's an idea for you. Just a book, a playbook for beginner coaches who are coaching their kids who don't really know, like no football, but like I know a lot about football. I couldn't coach football. But I may want to coach like nine year old, but maybe even flag football. Give me like a basic football, not football coach for dummies. Football coach for smart people who are dummies. That's my book idea for you. I like it. I mean, it's amazing how many questions we get from people saying like I played college football I played high school basketball college whatever the sport but like I'm coaching my kids team I don't know how to organize a practice I don't know what should we prioritize and and honestly

like years ago when we first started coaching the young kids like we didn't always know like had a best coach a fifth grader in football I never coached a fifth I was a fifth grader at one point but I've never coached one and like how we wanted to coach them like it was the NFL and then you realize very quickly that practice format doesn't work those drills don't carry over

so there is kind of an art and a science to how to coach age appropriate sport so I like the idea man I got lots of ideas lots of play schedules I got it all saved I got like big folders in my computer

I'm like a psychotic how do you how i'm actually curious because you coach with lukekely right you coach with your former teammate and jonathan stewart what is it what is a greg olson led team practice look like and and preparation because we joke about like all the preparation and obviously if you dive into this for your kids or coaching you want to give it you're all right like you're not going to do them a disservice if you said what what is what does a practice look like for one of your teams like it All right, so I'll do this, ready? I'll, while I'm talking, I'll pull it up.

I have every single practice. I have a file. I have an entire, so it goes all the way back. So I'm going to pull this file up. It goes all the way back to Tuesday, June 4th. It was an offensive emphasis. We started at 8 a.m. 8.10 to 8.30 individual O-line grid, stance, QB, footwork,

quarterback, center, exchange, wide receivers, back, starts and stance, and starts, 8.30 individual period, jet and toss. I have every single practice schedule, Wednesday, June 5th, and then our last practice was, let's see, we're going to scroll away down to the bottom. It's on this big-ass document. Our last practice was a Wednesday or Tuesday practice on October 14th, 315 warm-up stretch. I mean, I could literally tell you every period, every minute from June 4th to October 14th. Every minute, every period, every play we ran, every drill, I have that for the last three years. Maybe that's the book.

That's what I'm saying. I'm buying that book. We just did your pod, you think? And obviously, like, you know, Matt and I have kids, and I encourage everyone to go listen to that because we went pretty deep in all of it. But there is one question I had for you that I didn't get a chance to ask you on there that I want to ask you now. It hit me when we were, like, logging off your show. How often, if at all, whether it's with your own kids or some of the kids you coach, does, like, social media come up within teams? I know they're still young and every parent's different with how they handle that.

Because I was just thinking we were talking about, like, me playing basketball as a kid and Matt's, you know, youth sports. And that's something we all never had to deal with at all. Like, oh, it's huge. And we, and we're now at seventh and eighth grade, we're in the thick of it, right? Like, I got three teenage kids. I got, so I got 13-year-old twins that are in seventh grade, boy and a girl, and then I have a 14-year-old eighth-grade son. So, like, we're in the thick of it.

Social media, they all have phones. They all have Snap and Instagram and TikTok. They got it all, right? So part of it is learning that it's a reality to life and that if you just ban it at some point they're going to get it and just not be ill-prepared to use it. Our message to not only our own children, but like the kids that we coach and stuff is like with that comes great responsibility right like one wrong post one wrong message one thing that you think is a joke and maybe it is a joke amongst you and your friends it is not a

joke in the real world and and listen like we all have said things in the locker room or on the set or with our buddies that we probably wouldn't say outside of our like very tight knit circle like i think that's fairly common but those days are over like there is no such thing as a secret there is no such thing as just the joke like things are serious so we we try to tackle a lot of that head on um you know and and then just from the social component of relationships and girls and it gets very complicated quickly and then from the sports side of it it's also very dangerous and the message we try to tell them is yeah like your buddy across the street he posted his game winning home run or the mom posted you know the game winning three pointer but

But, like, no one ever posts when you struck out in the bottom of the seventh. No one ever posts when you miss the game winning layup on a fast break. Or, you know, so, like, don't get wrapped up in thinking that sports and the real world is all just the positives, right? Like, you are going to fail. Everyone's going to have bad days. There's going to be where you're the reason we lost, like, in your mind at least. Like, those are all very real coping skills that you better understand and start getting out of the way now. because if you're going to continue to play sports

I want my kids to experience failure and embarrassment and setback at 12 years old when they still come home to mom and dad and cry on the couch I don't want you to experience it for the first time as an 18 year old kid and you give up the bases loaded triple to lose the state championship and you're standing on the mound and you've never failed before right you've never felt the real world hit you over the head

so social media has created this idea that everyone is good and they're only ever good and that no one has ever had a bad game, a bad play, or ever been the reason they lost the game. And I think that's super dangerous. So sports-related, socially, relationships, girls and boys, and dynamic, like, social media is here to stay.

Whether you like it, don't like it, the reality of the world, your kids are going to be exposed to it at some point. And learning how to deal with that is something that we harp on in our house and on our teams daily because it's real. Excuse me. I love what you're doing with you think

because of just kind of just creating more conversations about youth sports and parenting and coaching and how you handle that with your kids. I get asked this a lot. And I'm curious of your thought of like, for me, it's hard sometimes the balance of, especially having a son who's essentially kind of following in my footsteps.

Like Matt Liner at the football player, coach, and then Matt Liner, the dad, right? Like how to like the balance between the two. And then, you know, having those tough conversations with their kids on maybe they went 0 for three at the plate or they threw an interception and all those things and trying to get them to understand like, hey, this is, this is part of the journey. How do you approach those conversations with your kids on whether it's those challenges, whether it is social media, because you, you had an illustrious career. You're still very, I mean, you're one of the biggest voices in the NFL. How do you balance that

when you're dealing with your kids. Yeah, I mean, I don't always get it right. I mean, there's a lot of conversations that I look back on that I'm not proud of or that I probably didn't handle that the way I should have in the moment. The approach that I've tried to settle on now is bring everything back to the work. Right? Like, I'm finally being on your phone, but are you on your phone for two and a half hours and you haven't done, your schoolwork's not done, you haven't gone hit in the basement

in the batting cage that we built, you haven't gone and done any of your mobility arm exercises, and then you're going to go out to pitch this weekend and you're going to be sore. Like, there's an order of operations to things. So, like, we don't put them, you know, we don't lock them in the basement. We don't say all you can do is sports.

Like, we want our kids to be well-rounded. We want them to be social. We want them to have phones and access. Like, we want them to experience all those things, but they need to understand if you say these things are valuable and important to you, show me. Like, show me that that's what. you wake up and you say,

before I get into anything else, I'm going to take care of the priorities, my schoolwork, my training, my sport, whatever it is. And then I'm going to go play video games, and then I'm going to go be a kid and do all the things that kids should do. So that's A. And then B, not number two, so A and B,

like we try to not dive into the end result. You go O for three. And Monday through Friday, you bet you battled your ass off and you were in the basement, you were grinding, and you were hitting, and you were doing all your drills, and it just wasn't your day, fine. Yeah.

But you can't do nothing Monday through Friday and you didn't do your work and you skipped out on going to a practice and then you go for three and you want to be sad on the car ride home. Like, I have zero patience for that. Right. Like, don't think you're going to have great results

if you're not going to put in all the work that goes with it because you might have moments of success. We're not looking for moments, right? We're looking for, like, sustain the ability to sustain excellence grow and whatnot. So like we try to dial everything back. Well, did you struggle? Let's connect it to the work or lack thereof. Did you have a ton of success? Well, let's go back. Like, think how hard you worked after school on Monday and you came home from basketball and you were tired, but you still

went in the basement and got your swings. Like, connect the dots. There's a cause and effect. Our job as parents and as coaches is to connect the two, both when it's good and when it's bad and develop those habits over time that hopefully they then just consciously go, okay, my success is tied to my process. We're not hoping to have a good game. Like, I'm going to have a good game because I did X, Y, and Z. They're young. They don't get all of that at all times. I try to remind them. They probably are tired of me reminding them. But like, it's just the only way it works. There is no other path. And that's our message. to them as far as just connecting results to the process and not getting so wrapped up in

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com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans. Conditions and exclusions apply. So I'm very curious now. So say I read the Greg Olson, how to be a coach book, and then I show up to coach my team and I look across the field and the coaches are Greg Olson, Luke Ely, and John. What has been some of your interactions with other coaches you have faced who have definitely watched you guys play in Super Bowls and stuff, I imagine like they've got to be either A, intimidated or be showing that they're not intimidated because they know that that's just food for you. So I want to make sure I'm very clear because I say this anytime I get a chance.

This is the secret to youth coaching. The secret to youth coaching is not thinking you have all the answers. Right. And it's not thinking that how much, this is not a competition between how much I'm know about football and the guy across the field. Some of the best youth sports coaches, basketball, baseball, it doesn't matter to sport. Did not play professional sports.

Did not play past high school. Like, so many people focus on the knowledge of the game, your resume as a player, and they just automatically say, oh, I want them to coach my team. Like, I've been around professional football players that are not great coaches. And I've been around guys that never played past JV,

and I'd go, man, They do a great job. Like, their messaging, their clarity, they're very, they just get how to run it. So I don't think our successes or failures as coaches, do we have a lot of football experience? Yes. Have we played a lot of football? Yes. I think I pull back on like my youth days and playing for my dad and understanding that NFL

football sometimes does not connect the seventh and eighth grade football. What we did is not apples to. apples for what these kids can do. So I think it's having like a little bit of an understanding and a self-awareness of like, what can we get the kids to know? That's the only thing that affects the game. I'm standing on the sideline. So whatever we can get through to the kids and then have them be able to actually execute

and make happen, anything else that I know, anything else that I could drop on a chalkboard or anything else I could talk about over a game has no benefit. to any of our children if I can't get them to do it. So listen, do teams want to beat us? Yeah, they tired of seeing our Instagram videos. Yeah. But like, that's okay. And we are going to lose.

Like, we're not going to win every game. Like, sometime you're going to beat us. And we're going to try to next game beats your breaks off. Like, that's just the only way that we know we take it serious. We coach the hell out of the kids. We ask a lot out of the kids. And in return, the last four years of doing, this we've seen a lot of these boys who we've coached all four years their growth their confidence

the way they stand the way they communicate their ability to be criticized their ability to be praised it's amazing the lessons that have come and the lessons that we've learned like i'm a better coach now than i was four years ago and there's still stupid shit that i do that i'm like god that was such a bad idea it did not have any impact on the game that was a waste of time like we're always learning and we don't shy away from we're going to try to be as competitive as humanly possible and if we're going to play against you we're going to try to beat you and that's just the way it goes it's not personal but these kids need to learn how to compete i got i got one real quick jerry yep do you do you believe in participation trophies

for your kids are a little bit older but like you know i'm dealing with this with my four four-year-old son, my five-and-a-half-year-old son, and all they, they, yeah, no, but I'm just saying, they like trophies. All they care about is the trophy at the end. And I'm like, and I get they're four and five. And I'm not, I'm not the intense coach or dad by any means, but I'm just curious of like, like, you know, like at what point does that be like, all right, we're not in this to just participate. Yeah, it's, it's age appropriate. I think it's kid dependent. Right. Right. Like, I even just think in my house, I had three kids, two boys and a girl. And at different stages of their development and at different ages, their competitive spirit

was vastly different. And my daughter, who, when she was a little girl, was in high heels and pink skirts and princess dresses running around the house, now she's playing competitive basketball and she's learning to do like the pentathlon, which is like a multi-sport. At the older ages, it's the heptathlon for girls. She's doing five as a younger girl. But, like, she's super competitive and she's big and she's strong and she competes hard.

And, like, if you would have told me this was going to be her five years ago, I would have said, no Gantz. She would never want to go in the backyard with the boys, never wanted to go to their basketball. But it flipped. And, like, I have two boys. My one son has every single baseball ring

from winning, runner-up, thanks for coming every and in between he's got him on a shelf in his room and i have another son that has like a couple of his plates when you're like the MVP or you're the champ and every one of those other rings is probably in the garbage somewhere so like i love that they're all different and that's how we were as kids like we have famous stories of my dad like there was that we had this rival school in new jersey um it was called ramapo high school like chris sims went there Yeah, I know, Ramapo. It's Wycough, Franklin Lakes.

Very good athletics, very good at everything they do. They were like the neighboring town. So they were our big rival. So growing up, if you played Wycoff, Franklin Lakes, those were the kids we were going to play one day in high school at Ramapo and our school. There was this turn going back into Wayne that you had to take from those areas. And the joke as we got older, it was like, my mom would say, do you know how many trophies are in the woods right there,

smashed on the ground that your dad throughout the window. And like, I look back on it now and I laugh, but like it's real. So I think to answer your question, there's an age element to it. And then I think you've got to meet your kids where they are. Like if your kids are super competitive and

they want to be excellent and they want to win and they want to chase it, like let them. Let them go. You can always reel them back in. And then if you have a kid who is just happy to be on the team and he's a great teammate and he doesn't have to be the star quarterback and he doesn't have to be the shortstop. Like, if that's their personality, let them keep that ring. Let them keep that

trophy. Great. Like, who cares? Right. So, like, I do think there is a nuance to it. But, like, come high school, like, we have a joke in our family. Like, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly, like, those days are probably over. Like, if we're going to spend the amount of time by high school, we're going to spend the amount of time that this takes as a family, the sacrifice, the summers, the workouts. If we're going to do it, man, let's do it. Or else we're wasting our time. But like at four and Jerry, your old is what six?

Six, yeah. Being there is more than half the battle. So I want to segue for a second because we talked about like the social media with young kids and then now I know you're a Jersey guy. By the way, Ramipo, I think hockey was like some of the greatest hockey players. They got good at everything.

Yeah. They're good at everything. So, you know, you go for a new coach high school by your dad, right? So you go from there, no social media, stuff like that. And then you and Matt are uniquely positioned to talk about this. Then you get put on a college football team that is overcovered, highly scrutinized. It's not just like, oh, I'm playing college football people are looking at me. USC, Miami, those two teams, everybody's looking at all the time. So what is that like for you going from Jersey to then now, like, all right, I'm a hurricane

right now. And there's a hurricane that comes with this team just from the history. That was an era. It's so true. And I came on like the heel. I came on the back end of that. So my junior year in high school, before I went to Notre Dame, my junior year in high school, Miami won

the national title. They beat Nebraska. My senior year, they lost Ohio state in overtime. But even more so than like just going to one of the premier programs in the country, a lot of eyeballs, a lot of draft picks, back-to-back national title games, you know, similar to, you know, very similar to Matt's time at USC, what even made matters

more different back then is before I went to like the U.S. Army All-American game as a senior in high school, I never saw a football player outside of North Jersey. We didn't play teams from South Jersey, let alone California, Texas, Florida, New York. So going down to Miami in those days where there was no travel seven on seven, I was only playing local. suburban football. It was a big eye-opener to like, oh, my God, these guys out here are a little bit different. Like, this is a little bit different than what I was used to, but it was really good for me. Like, get out of your comfort zone.

You're back to the low man on the totem pole. I didn't know if I was ever going to be good enough to play there. So I think those struggles, those being very honest with yourself in those moments and saying, if you're not willing to do some things, maybe the other kids aren't willing to do, you know, skip on on that party because you got a 6 a.m. workout. I was going to have to find ways to beat kids that were better than me and more athletic than me and more physically talented than me. And then to do all of that under a microscope and in a fish bowl where every game we had was now. My first ever game I started was Labor Day Night on ESPN against Florida State. We were both top five in the country. And the first two passes in the game, I dropped the ball. two critical third downs, I dropped it. And then I ended up having 130 yards and nine catches and had the best game of my career.

And it was my first ever start. So, like, that was the reality of our world. Thankfully, we didn't have Twitter. We didn't have social media for those moments to last much longer than the game itself. But, man, you talk about a great learning experience as a young kid of what the real world looked like. That was my time at Miami. What's the story behind you leaving Notre Dame? I know you're there briefly, but why did you leave?

Yeah, so my story was always with Miami. So my dad, so at the time I was going into my sophomore year, the first ever camp I went to. So we grew up going to football camps with my dad. We'd go to Rutgers and Penn State. And whenever my dad would work in the summer as a high school guy, he would go make extra money and work these summer camps and bring me and my older brother with me.

And we'd sleep on the floor and just be like the young kids at camp. my first time ever go into like a real camp as like a true player myself the summer going into my sophomore year my brother was going into his junior year um my dad knew greg shiano who at the time was the defensive coordinator at miami under butch davis so gregg went to ramapo again all full circle so gregg played at ramipo against my dad um had me and my brother come down the camp and that was the first time we had ever like gotten out of our little bubble of new jersey and went down and experienced, but again, no pads, sleeping in the dorms, but, you know, it was a very casual compared to, like, real football. And so I loved Miami. They were the team of the country,

like, they were on TV every night. Tight end was a big thing. You know, they had Shockey and Winslow and Bubba Franks, and they were kind of at the cutting edge of, like, using their tight end in the passing game and stuff. So, long story short, my final couple schools were were Miami, Notre Dame, because my older brother, Chris, was a quarterback. He went to Notre Dame, the class ahead of me. So he went there with all of his buddies that I got to know as a high school kid after my games.

We'd jump in the car and drive to South Bend to watch my brother and be around the team and be around the school. And, you know, it was one of those things where I was like, if it's a tie, I'll probably just go play with my brother. They had a great year. That year, Tyrone Willingham took the job

and they really caught it. I was like, you know what, I'll go play with my brother. That'll be fun for my parents, two of us back playing together, went through training camp. Shortly thereafter, they signed Brady Quinn in my class. So I was with Brady and became pretty clear that Tyrone, like, he was going to be the quarterback of the future for Notre Dame. That was his first ever recruit. And my brother's like, hey, I'm going to go to Virginia and start fresh and go somewhere new. And I was like, well, I'm not, I wouldn't even be in South Bend if it wasn't for you.

So I'm going to go down to Miami because that's really where I want to be anyway. And I left the day after freshman orientation. I never enrolled in class. Got in the car, drove back to New Jersey with my mom, waited for the NCAA clearinghouse. Back then, you couldn't just like bounce around. My dad called Larry Coker and was like, hey, do you have a spot for Greg? He's like, yep, I went down Friday of that week. I was late, like a week or so into the semester I'd started and hit the ground running

and talk about walking into a different point. planet. I went from South Bend to Miami. We were like two in the country. And I was like, oh my God, I'm never going to see the field here, but this place is awesome. And the rest is history. Gosh, what a time to be a hurricane back then, man. I mean, gosh, Antrell Roll and I were teammates in Arizona. And he used to tell me stories all the time. He was actually another giant. Oh, Antrell was great. Yeah. Yeah. So my first ever practice, right? So I leave Notre Dame. I'm like a Monday. I drive back to Jersey, waiting for the clearinghouse to approve my transfer. Thursday night, Miami opens up this season on like a Thursday night kickoff game against,

I don't know, like Louisiana Tech or Louisiana Monroe or like something like that. And they win by 200. And I'm sitting in my living room and I'm watching, you know, at the time, you know, so I'll get to this part. So I go there on Friday morning. I fly to Miami. I'm sitting in this team meeting you know everyone's looking like who's this random ass kid that didn't go through two a day's he didn't we don't even know he is and i'm sitting like in the front and like they introduce you and you're just like mortified right like it's so embarrassing and um we had practice that afternoon and it's at the orange bowl so my first ever practice i break the huddle it's at the orange bowl we break the huddle and the defense is antirel roll first round

pick. Vince Wilfork, first round pick. DJ Williams, first round pick. Jonathan Vilma, first round pick. Rocky McIntosh, second round pick. Kelly Jennings, first round pick. It was banas. I'm like, Will, I will never, I'm lucky they let me play on the scout team. And that year, that next draft, we set the record. We had six first round picks in that one draft in 2004. And fortunately, I was able to play as like the backup tight end. reserve guy in 2004 and then I was able to start five and six and uh it all worked out was there was there we always talk about like welcome to the NFL moment was there a moment in college where you sort of like because I mean we I've been in those types I've been in locker rooms and

you go in there you're kind of a fish out of water you like who's this kid there had to been a moment at the you where your teammates were like holy shit all right we like we got one or was it just a grind over time where you earn their respect you know I think what was so weird about my journey is like what everyone goes through that as a freshman you know like you're the new guys you got to earn your stripes maybe the guys bust your balls in the locker room a little bit more and you know there's always the the rookie kind of initiation stuff to any team but what was so weird for me is I came by myself so like by the time I got there as a freshman the other kids in the freshman class had been there for three

months right they got there in june they went through all the june workouts all of july all of august training camp so they had kind of earned their stripes a little bit and were a little bit more ingrained into the older guys and into the locker room they knew where to go they knew where the meeting room was so i was literally the only kid who had no idea what was going on so that was that was a challenge i think it probably took like halfway through the year you know you're on the scout team and you start catching some passes and right you know the coaches start talking to you a little bit different and all of a sudden you're in the wait room and vilma comes up to you and he's like hey man you're doing a good job and you're like yeah i am doing a good job you know like it just took one

of those guys to like recognize all right like maybe i do belong here like maybe maybe i can do this in due time and uh you know again it was in the day where if you didn't start as an 18 year old freshman it was okay right like it was there was the journey to it all that you had the ability to grow and develop and get better and eventually play i think a lot of that has been lost in today's world like there is no development if i don't play year one i just go somewhere else right i'm thankful for those hard times i'm thankful that i was the scout team quarter tight end and then the backup tight end and like it wasn't until year three that i was like a dude like i was a real big player for the team, but it took me three seasons. Dude, we played, I don't even remember, so DJ Williams went to

De La Salle. Oh, yeah. And so when I was at modern day, we had a guy named Matt Grudigood. Do you remember Matt Gritty Good? I know the name. So he was, so he, so Matt was a senior and I was a junior. And so DJ Matt were the same class. They were one and two recruits in the country. So DJ went to Miami. Matt was either going to USC or Notre Dame. Those are the two. He ended up going to USC. He was an All-American running back, all-American safety. And I'll never forget, my first year starting as a junior, we go up. And this was in the middle of Dayless Al's run, right? They went like 150 games. We lost him three years in a row. We go up there and we played at Pacific UOP. And I'm thinking like, I'll never forget that I was so nervous, but we got Groots.

Like, Groot's is the best, DJ's the best. And I go up to line of scrimmage. This was like kind of my welcome to high school football. And I see DJ Williams, who you know very well, play. played with a grow like everyone asked like who are the guys from high school to the NFL that have maybe he made it adrian peterson was one and like dj williams is one and he's playing a middle linebacker and i'm just and he had a visor and all the stuff i'm like holy shit dude like this dude and by the way he and grutes were like it was like the whole game just going back and forth they beat us 42 to nothing dude it was it was the greatest high school performance i had seen from dj williams your former teammate man but he was an absolute and then he didn't play in linebacker

He played linebacker. Yeah, they moved him. He played linebacker. God, he was a fullback. His freshman year, he played some offense at Miami. He was a great running back. Yeah, he was a great running back. I mean, gosh, he was, there are some kids that like just, wow, they're really good.

And then there's other kids. You're like, okay, that kid just looks like he's on another planet. Yeah. That was DJ Williams. That was Sean Taylor. Like some of those kids, some of those guys that we had at Miami then, you know, Sean Taylor worked out for the first practice. and you're like, who the hell is that guy?

He's 6'4, he's 2.35, he's running all over the place, he's returning puns, he's blocking. I mean, just some of those guys, you just, you quickly realize you go, okay, we're not all playing from the same set of rules. We better, you better figure out something real quick to even the playing field or you're going to be in trouble. That's what an athlete looks like. Okay, so that's what it looks like. Got it. You got me all fired up because I guess I'm a Giants fan

and you mentioned Jeremy Shockey and some other tight ends and obviously you come into the league and really you start to see tight ends just become such a weapon. You know, from like Gonzales to Gates and then it kind of ushers in, Gronk and you.

And so when you look at the tight ends now because like when you even look at the playoff teams, right, and even like Super Bowl appearances is going back to when the Panthers went to the Super Bowl. It always seems like you got to have that tight end. Like rarely do you see a team that's kind of just fill in the gap with whoever they could, and this guy kind of passes, catches a little bit more, and this guy, but like, you got to have the guy.

So I guess what I'm asking is, like, where do you see the tight end position now, even from when you played, and where is it going? Because, like, where I'm going is as a Giants fan. They don't have one tight end. catch a ball for five games, then Jackson D'R comes in, and Bellinger is catching 50-yard touchdowns. Theo Johnson's now a beast. How does that just miraculously happen out of nowhere? Well, no, the first part of your question, I'll get to both aspects, but the first part of your

question, you're spot on. I mean, that is just the reality of it. I think there's a few different reasons. I think the position has really changed in like the way it's perceived. I think for the longest time, you know, you go back to even when I first came into the lead, you know, so 2007, there was a handful of really top, right? You had Gonzalez, you had Gates, you had Jason Witten, it was on the heels of Shannon Sharp. Like, there was some real dudes, but like, the tight end position for the longest time was the position you kind of ended up playing. Right. I was a quarterback as a kid, and then I became a tight end. I was a wide receiver, but I'm not that fast, I became a tight end. Or I was an offensive lineman, but I didn't really get that big.

It seemed to be the position that everyone fell back to and said, okay, I'm not a running back anymore. I'm not a wide receiver. I'm not going to play tight end and I'm just going to learn it. I think what we're seeing now is even down to like the grassroots level is kids are playing tight end their entire lives. There's a prestige now that star players are tight ends, right? you got Kelsey and Kittle and Gronk. And it's now a big deal to be a tight end, which is very different than what it was when I came out. Like the stars of the league were quarterbacks,

wide receivers, running backs, and then the top handful of defensive players, Brian Erlacker and the guys that when I came into lead. That was pretty much the hierarchy of like stardom. Now you can make an argument outside of quarterback. Some of the biggest stars in the game are tight ends. Some of the most recognizable figures, figures and faces in the league are tight ends. And then the second element is teams have really

realized the impact that that position can make on the field, right? The ability to not have to substitute, the ability of what it does for matchups on defense, especially the guys that are on the field for every snap and their ability to affect the run game and the passing game and matchups. And so I just think it's a combination of so many different factors that have all kind of aligned that I think we're really seeing like the best era of tight ends over the last five years or so in the history of the league. And I mean, you go back to Mike Dicca in the 60s and John Mackey and Shannon Sharp. I mean, you go back through the eras of football. There's always been predominant star players. But it seems to your point now, like every legitimate

team has a star player at that position. I don't think, I think there's more of them. And then I also think there's a higher value placed on the position from these teams because they realize if you get the right guy, his ability to move the needle, his ability to play in today's game is maybe greater than it's ever been. I mean, Brock Bowers is the guy right to think of is like kind of the next pass in the who, who, I want to ask you about, you know, Cam and your time in Carolina, but who do you you get to call these games. You see these guys. You guys do tight end you, which I think is great. So you get a chance to work with the young guys. Is there one or two guys that you're like, holy crap, like this is the future of the position? Maybe outside of Brock Bowers, because we already know how talented he is. Yeah. So Bowers, I think you could look at Bowers when he was a freshman in sophomore, Georgia. And if he was allowed to come out after his second year, I think he would have been a top 10 pick. Like he was that good. Now, for him to have the production in the year he had, a

I think he had 1,000 yards last year as a rookie is unheard of. And again, there's a lot of factors with the Raiders of why. But he's unbelievable. I think we're seeing it right now with Tyler Warren in Indianapolis at a Penn State. Jerry's still pissed. The Giants didn't draft them. Yeah. I think there's a lot of teams pissed they didn't draft them, right?

I mean, the Bears took Colston Loveland, who I think is a really good player out of Michigan. Explain that. I mean, like, explain from. I think teams overthink it. I think they get so wrapped up in like, I don't think Tyler. Warren, and again, I haven't studied his combine results, so I might be speaking out of my ass here, but like, I think

Tyler Warren's one of those kids that when you watch them play, you're like, that kid's incredible. And you hear about his background as a quarterback, and at Penn State they were doing a lot of really cool things with them that were very creative. But then I think you go run a 40-yard dash. You go put on your t-shirt

and shorts and just run around, and you're like, okay, is he as good as I thought he was on tape? Like, I don't know if he's that freak. When Brock Bowers runs the 40-yard dash, it's freakish. He's 6-5, and you're like, oh, my God, he's a gazelle. He's running away from SEC linebackers at 6-5. Yeah, he's like, SEC defensive backs, I mean.

So, like, I think sometimes these guys overthink it, and they get so enamored by, like, the times and the size and the wingspan and the hand. And at the end of day, Tyler Warren's just a flat-out football player. And is he a Y? Is he an H? Is he an F? Who cares?

It doesn't matter. He's good. He's open. He's tough. He catches the ball. He can run after contact. So I think the young, you know, and then again, the OGs of the world, you know, the Kelsey's and the kiddles, you know, we're on the heels of Grong, obviously.

But like, you look around the league, there are a lot of really, really talented. versatile guys playing the position and it's a really fun era to invest and and dive into the tight end position. I think it's like, it's like the way I would describe it is like it's just like it's cool to be a tight end now.

Like it's like people want to do it. Like my oldest son, like he wanted to be a tight end. And it was like, why? He's like, I don't know. Like they're awesome. Like like Greg and Travis and all this. Shockey probably started it.

Shockey, yeah. So I was a junior. he got drafted to the Giants. I was like a junior or senior in high school. So obviously in that shadow of the Mennelands or down the street in Jersey, like went to Miami. Shockey was probably the first guy I remember.

That was like a star, right? He's dating Paris Hilton and showing up to Grammy parties and he's on the red carpet in New York City and he's got the long hair and tattooed. Like he was a larger than life personality at the tight end position. and was a pro-bowler, his rookie year. He was a stud.

He was good and a big personality, which I think led to kind of his fame. But I always think Shockey brought it into like mainstream media, mainstream attention. I agree. You know, now the guys today, obviously, Kelsey's arguably the most famous person in the league, Kittle, you know, Gronk when he played.

So, I mean, you can name guys that have kind of crossed over from just being really good type. ends to being star NFL personalities that you would recognize walking down the street. So I want to go back to Carolina and you played with Cam, who I love, got to know him pretty well throughout the years. And we have a former mutual teammate Ryan Khalil. So Ryan Khalil is my center at USC. He was obviously your center in Carolina. And I talked to him this week. I was like, dude, like you got any good Greg stories, like just the time. And he, he, he, And you were obviously a talented player and had a hell of a career,

Hall of Fame career, but also very cerebral. And he would tell me this. And I want to see if there's truth to this, that Cam's rookie year. And I know this because I know how hard verbiage is for quarterbacks. I remember my fifth year in the NFL, my fifth year going to Kubiak system, which is Shanahan and all these guys now. And like, I'm getting taught this. I'm like, holy shit.

Like, I can't even remember a play. Like, there was 20 words to a play, like in the system. but I loved it once I got it. And he told me that Cam had struggled sometimes in the huddle with the first year and all that. And he said he's like, dude, Greg would literally recite, Greg would call the plays in the huddle for sometimes throughout Cam's year when he struggled calling the plays.

Is there a, is that truthful? Is there a story that you remember? I would finish, the guys would bust my balls. I don't know if I called the plays as much as sometimes would like finish the play. He said like, what does it start with, Cam? What does it start with? Yeah, that was the line everyone's, used to bust my balls about because, you know, we'd be in there and Cam would get it

going. And, and again, in fairness, do you quarterbacks? No, I get it. Yeah, it's hard. Guys yapping in your ear, right? He tells you it's trips, right, key left for scene 678 F-flat sneak. And then he doesn't stop talking. Hey, tell Olson that he's got to make sure he adjust first cover two and tell the backside tackle and don't be afraid at the free safety and it's like, shut up. I got to call the play. So like, I think that is an issue that makes it more challenging than maybe people care to admit in fairness to you quarterbacks. But I used to have this joke, I'd be like, what's it sound like? Tell me, it was like charades, you know, like, that's what he said.

I had a pretty good understanding of like, based off the formation and how it started, I could finish it. So, like, if I knew it was Trips Rite, Keelech, 6th, 78 F-flat sneak, like, I knew what was next. I don't know. It was just, I don't know where my shoes are, but like, I always could remember football. I could remember plays. I spent a lot of time like studying the game plan and whatnot. So yeah, I mean, listen, everybody's got a role, man. Everybody's got a job. And Cam was so damn good. And he, when people asked me, like, what made Cam so good? And I don't, and I don't know if you can teach this. Was he perfect reciting the plays? if you put them up on a chalkboard, who knows? But I'll tell you what, in the game, you talk about seeing things in real time clearly and it being right and seeing safeties while also seeing the front side corner

and seeing them rotate shells and knowing the big digs coming open. Like his real time feel and vision of, now he was seven feet tall. He's one of the biggest human beings of all time. He's gigantic of human. But, like, his real-time feel and ability to see coverage and movement and disguise in real time and react accordingly was his secret, was his secret sauce. Like, he'd come to the sideline and he'd be like, hey, did you see that backside safety?

And I was like, I think I did. Like, what did you see? And he would tell me, and sure is not, we'd pull up the iPad and we'd pull it and be like, yeah, that's exactly what the safety did. So, like, everyone has their strengths. Everyone has their, you know, their things that they hang their hat on. Like, some guys are really good in the huddle. Like, I remember Brian Greasy, my rookie year, I'm in Chicago, and Brian's a vet. And, man, he walked in the huddle and the way he called the play, he would, like, look at you with this voice and clarity and tell you, like, wise, drag, h-check.

and it was just like, I know exactly. And then other guys are like, and they're just spitting it out. So like everybody's got their thing, but man, in real moments in the game, once that play was snapped, Cam's ability to see and process was so good.

Sometimes we had to fix a couple things in the huddle, and that's okay. How great, I think people always ask, like, the locker room to me is what I miss, right? Like, you just miss the locker room. You just the guys. You look the bullshit and all that.

how great was a huddle though dude like the huddle like because college is gone like these teams i loved it was it was for that reason it's the stories like so much jerry so much goes on in in a huddle during timeouts and all this it's like it was the greatest thing to be and it's gone now it's like because now it's just a best oh it's the greatest thing ever like the amount of shit going on like you're trying to get the play in your center you know Ryan's arguing with the guard because he didn't because he didn't slide the right way and guys are like shut the fuck up dude like we're trying hey play clock's running down like there's so much going on and but man that's the beauty of it all it's it's intense it's emotional there's a lot

of really strong-minded people but like at the end of the day and this was the beauty of our good teams in carolina and when we had it it was great and it's just hard to keep it but like those dudes in the huddle man at the end of the day everybody wanted their success And, of course, everybody wanted, you know, but, man, the beauty of our team, we had a lot of really good players. When it came to that huddle of just figuring shit out, it didn't matter who called the play, who threw the touchdown, who caught the touchdown. Like, everybody was so in it and connected and just living and dying for the success of everybody else. And that's not been every huddle that I've ever been in. And I'm sure it's not been every huddle that you've been in.

But, man, when that huddle is the right guys, those critical moments. those two-minute drives, the chaos of the play being called or fixing shit and the coach call, and you're figuring, like, man, there's nothing better than that.

Like, I miss that. God, I miss that, too. I miss that too. I just got to imagine, too, at some point, like, you get the plane, but in those crazy moments, has there ever been just like the,

fuck a dude, let's just go. Like, oh, we got, we got to go. We got to go. You're just flying

by the seat of your pants. So one of our most icon, And this is Khalil's favorite story. So we're in Seattle, 2015. We haven't beat Seattle. This is like the meat of the Legion of Boom. They've beat us every time. Close games, but like just couldn't beat them at the end.

They beat us in the playoffs the year before at their place. We just couldn't beat them. This is Sherman and Cam Chancellor and Earl Thomas and Michael Bennett. I mean, they're loaded. So we're undefeated. early in our Super Bowl year, we're undefeated, we go to Seattle. It's back and forth, they're up, we come from behind, we have the ball down four in a two-minute drive.

So the irony of the story is I end up catching the touchdown that take, that's the eventual go-ahead touchdown with like a little under a minute. That the play before, that play before ends, and I'm arguing, I'm like sort of arguing with the Seattle sideline about something. even remember what happened. They're accusing us of maybe being off sides or sub. I can't remember exactly, but I'm out of the huddle. So I'm actually

the one slowing us down. So they're screaming, get in the huddle. We call the play late. We get up and there's a little confusion getting guys lined up. Well, I just glance up at the play clock. And it's like, three, two. And I

start screaming at Khalil. Snap the ball. Snap the ball. And Khalil tells it. He goes, I'm usually waiting for like a tap or a foot or he goes all I remember is looking right Olson is screaming at me to snap the ball nobody is aligned up nobody knows what the play is he goes I said fuck it I'm just going to snap it he snaps it I was like the only one to run a route everyone else kind of like did you run the right line run the right route yeah we caught a 40-yard touchdown to win the game but like it's Khalil's favorite story because

Because in the chaos, nothing about that was the way you teach it. I'm late in the huddle. I'm the reason we're breaking the line late. No one's aligned. No one really knows what the play is. We're snapping the ball before anybody's even ready to block. And we got to block the best defense in football. And somehow magically, they busted a coverage and left me wide open for a touchdown.

And we ended up, you know, winning the first 14 games of the year and going to the Super Bowl. But like. those are the moments that you remember. Like, it's never perfect. It's never the way you draw it up, but there's something about the beauty of the chaos that is like addicting. There, but there's,

I remember last way, I have one more question, Greg, we'll let you go, man, I appreciate time. I remember a couple times and Larry would tell you this, Fitzgerald, I'd play with them. And Larry was great. Larry was smart.

He was so good, one of the best. But there was so many times in the huddle, we're in there, my rookie year, and he's like, Matt, what I got on the backside of that? Matt, tell me, hey, Matt, just throw, like, like, throw, like,

I'm like, we played so much backyard basketball that year because I had this guy that was like six, five. So it's like, some of the shit you say in the huddle, man, you're just like, I'm like, Larry, just go, go deep, dude. It literally is more, it's like street football we played as kids. Real quick, dude, I have one last question for you. Tideon, you has blown up. It's been amazing. I think it's talk about the shift of tight ends. And you've got you and Trav and George have really done that.

What are the credentials that you need as a quarterback to get invited to that? to be able to throw the ball. You're too old, Matt. You're too old Matt. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, I still can throw it. You're in. Thank you. No, you're in. Fitzpatrick's been there the last couple years. Like, we got guys that are retired.

We got old guys, young guys, rookies. We love the beauty of TEU is this is not just a collection of like, we're going to get all the star players to sit around and tell each other how good they are. The beauty of the event is we invite everybody. So we have Travis Kelsey and George, Kittle. And we've got guys that are just hoping to God to make the practice squad as a rookie. And have never logged an NFL snap. And everybody in between. And from a quarterback perspective, like, we've had Josh Allen. We still have Fitzpatrick, who's however many years retired and just

out there ripping it. Like, we want everyone to be a part of it. It's a really special event. The camaraderie. It's just enough mix of football. ball but also like hanging with the guys and going out for a beer and like shooting the shit at the bar in Nashville like that's the beauty of the event is like it has such a cool like being with the guys being with the families hey when it's time to work let's work but like let's also kick back and enjoy each other and enjoy a summer night at you know Luke Holmes bar in Nashville and like let's hang out you know like it's a cool event um but yeah just the idea that the way we try to summarize it to the guys our first message that

we give them is like whatever you've accomplished our goal is we play a very small part in you reaching whatever the next level is if you've been on a practice squad hopefully this year you make the active roster if you've made a pro bowl hopefully you make another one if whatever it is like there's always another level of your game based on where you currently are and whatever that next step is and like we really try to hammer into that we're not going to make everyone Kelsey we're not going to make everyone kiddle but if a guy that's been two years on a practice squad can come there and something sparks that he makes the 53 then all of a sudden he's active due to injury he catches a couple balls and next thing you know he plays eight nine years in the league

like not everyone has to be a hall famer yeah not everybody has to be a pro bowler like we're just trying to help guys make careers make have a just and we love it man it's a great event it's fun it's football the same guys come back year in and year out we get to meet their families they're now married they've got kids it's a it's a really special event that we think is just going to continue to grow well if you need a camp arm i got you buddy that'd be great don't you're in and jerry if you're not there running routes next year in a headband i don't even know i was going to say we could We could do, as a gag, we could do the disprove or prove the myth. Can a very average to below average scrub get one yard?

We could get some guys. We'll coach you up. You'll be depressed, dude. We can get you to be depressed. I'll go full scataboo, maybe. No, we'll use you in motion. We'll get you a free release into a soft zone. We'll body you up.

Get down. You'll be fine. By the way, too, as we let you go and love you in the booth calling games, I'm with you on the Philly fan thing. I know they kind of, you said, when you were calling games that they had some words for you, right? Did you say that somewhere?

Yeah, last year they were mad at me. I can't deal with the Philly fans. Philly fans are the only fans that have ever hurt my feelings, like, for real. I don't care about, like, sports trash talk. They genuinely almost made me quit Twitter over the Nix 76er series. Listen, I love fans.

It's awesome. I love it. Like, listen, you watch our broadcast, Like if your team does well, it probably looks like we're cheering for you. And if your team doesn't have their best game or the other kid, the other quarterback is playing his ass off. Like, yeah, we're going to be complimentary and we're going to be critical and we're going to be a mix of both.

I've called a million Philly games over the last four years because obviously they've been really good. I called their Super Bowl game. Super Bowl lost a couple years ago. I just called their game three days ago. Like, I love Siriani. He's my kind of, he's like my spirit animal. Like, I love his intensity.

I love that he doesn't give a shit. Like, I love so much about Philly. I love so much about the Eagles, the roster. I think Harry Roseman's sick. But, like, last year, they played Jaden Daniels. They were the best defense in the league. Jaden Daniels threw four or five touchdowns. They came back in a wildly entertaining game.

And Jane Daniels was really good. And Jalen Hertz had gotten hurt. So they played with the backup. So it was like this whole thing. But like, Jaden Daniels was a really good. good player all year and that game he won the rookie of the year in essence like he beat the best team in football which was philly and he played great that doesn't mean i don't think philly is great i said all year they were the best team in the league so i like fans it i try not to let it get personal

i try not to let it bother me but i i get it like at times you're like oh my god they truly hate me and i don't want them to hate me they brought philly fans on twitter brought up movies that i've done that I hope nobody had ever seen and they somehow knew about it and brought up, hey, your performance and battleship. I'm like, why are we bringing that up

in a next 76ers debate, man? No, you're awesome. I got to imagine calling Panther games is a lot of fun, also probably not to travel. Is there a team right now that if you saw on the schedule would be like,

oh, I'd like to call. I'm excited to call the bills. Yeah. We don't get, so like being on the crew that I'm on, it's not as much anymore, CBS had always gotten a lot of the AFC games traditionally.

It's a little bit different now. There's a little bit more like teams blending over to different conferences and different networks. Typically, when the Bills are on Fox, the couple times that they are, it typically goes to the A crew just because of Josh Allen and whatnot. So for us, I've called

Bills games with the A crew in the past. For us to be able to call Bill's games in our 1 o'clock regional window with the B crew is a unique. opportunity to call the best player in the league and a Super Bowl contender. So that's super cool. I think it's fun. You know, we call the Eagles a ton, the Cowboys a ton, the Giants. Like, we call those like NFC big market teams a lot, which is kind of the nature of our network. But I think it's fun to get the crossovers. You get the Kansas cities. You get, you know, the bills, maybe teams that

you watch a lot, but you don't actually get to call them. And so I'm excited for this week to get Buffalo. Know a lot of those coaches. Josh, you know, McDermott was our de-coordinator for a lot of our success and been there a long time. Their GM is the first guy who ever called me when they traded for me from the Panthers. He was on our personnel staff. So a lot of good memories with those guys. And, you know, anytime you get to call Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes or Lamar, you know, whoever, those are fun games to call. Well, dude, cannot thank you enough. We encourage everybody. Dude, let me tell you what. I follow it. see all your guys stuff. I watch it predominantly on social, like all of us.

Right. You guys do a great job, dude. Like, this show is fun. And they mentioned that we were going to do like a home and home. I was like, home and home. I'll go on their show. But like, do they really want to come on my show? Hell yeah, we do. You talk about youth sports. But, no, man, I appreciate you guys coming on. I appreciate you guys having me on. You guys are fun. You guys do a great job. These are like my favorite pods to just like shoot the shit with the guys and just hang and bring up fun stories. So appreciate you guys having me. This was a blast today.

You think on YouTube, on all available podcast networks, you catch our episode on there. And I really like the Big Cat one. That one was pretty damn fun. Yeah, he's fun. He's a good big. Go check it out. Good luck in the booth. Greg.

Thank you again. All right. See you, brother. Yeah. Appreciate you guys. Talk to soon. All right. Joining us as she does each and every week, Annie Agar, courtesy of twisted tea.

Grab a refreshing twisted tea today. Hopefully, I might need a few twisted teas if I don't win this week's trivia because I'm hearing that they're rolling out the tea for the kid who can't handle coach pitch just yet. Everybody feels sorry for you, Jerry. You're like the last kid picked on the playground. Exactly. Yeah, we're doing all Hollywood-based, movie-based questions this week.

So even Jerry, Jerry's got a fighting chance, Matt, now. That's fine. Honestly, I hope he wins one. I really do. I might not even just say anything, just so he automatically gets the dub. It's like the Kevin meme from the office just feels good to win one.

It's kind of you, Matt. Questions for you guys. A little trivia for the two of you. Who on most gambling sites? Shout out to Matt's hoodie. Who on most gambling sites? What's the favorite matchup, odds-wise, for the Super Bowl

off the top of your heads without looking, unless you've looked? Who's favored to make it to the Super Bowl? Not when it make it to NFC, AFC representatives. You know what? I just looked this up. the other day, unfortunately, because I was looking at the Packers' odds, just random way. It's not the Packers, Matt.

Let me take a guess before you know, because you know it then, right, Annie? Well, I would say Lions Chiefs. Okay, you're 50% right. You got the Chiefs are correct. Oh, Chiefs. Chiefs. Chiefs. Eagles, isn't it? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Rams. It's Rams. At least maybe we looked at different sites or maybe the odds have changed since you last looked.

On the ones I just looked at at, it should be the Rams. Well, it probably changed after the Packers game, honestly. Because I looked before the Packers game with the Eagles. Yeah, I would definitely say. Are the Chiefs going to do it again? I mean, are they going to do it again? Over Seattle, you think? Do you think Seattle's got to?

I mean, Seattle's up there. NFC's kind of loaded. Do we think it's like built, like, is it just going to be the storyline of can Josh Allen defeat Mahomes? Because they looked horrible in Miami. Matt, is it rough going to Miami? because, like, I can't imagine Josh Allen was out partying. That feels like a great place to go play a football game in November.

Those guys look like they were still at crime 112. It's like the opposite of Miami. Like, they can't play in the heat because they're not used to it. Just like to a can't play in the cold. Have you ever played in Miami or no? You guys, come on. Have you ever played in Miami? Buffalo can't play in the heat.

Yes, I've played in Miami. And to answer your question, this isn't baseball or basketball, Jerry. There's a curfew in football. No one's going out before the game. I'll put it right there. And if they do, they'll be benched the next day. And Jordan Love, okay? Maybe Josh Allen should be benched anyway.

Grown men getting bed checked at 10.30 at night. Do they really do it? Like, it's that... Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's wild. Yep. And you... I mean, depending on who you play for, some share a room. If you're a veteran, you usually get your own room.

But it's like you're, like, rooming with guys. That's wild. And he's just the most frustrated you've been with the Packers all year. Yes. Yes, Jerry. And guess who we play next Sunday? And guess who's starting if Jackson Darts not good to go? Your boy, James Winston. And he's going to throw all over you. I saw that tweet today. And I was like, oh, cinema. I get to watch James. It's going to be great. And I was like, wait a second. I'm pretty sure we play them this Sunday. Yep, we do.

Well, that brings up a good point that I wanted to, before we get to the trivia really quick. Okay, obviously, Dable's gone. And we'll throw a few coaching names at you. But Matt and Annie, explain this to me on the GM side. Mr. Joe Shane kept his job. they signed Jamo first, James and then for a very reasonable contract, I think only like $5.5 million guaranteed over two years with incentives. And then they go give Russ $10.5 million. James, by all accounts, is the better current quarterback, and we've known this going in for what he's got left.

Isn't there something better you could have did with the $10.5 million and give it to Russell Wilson to play three games and then be a backup? Russell Wilson didn't play that bad last year, though. That's what I think they're banking on is that he was going to kind of lead the quarterback. It limped to the finish line in Pittsburgh. Yeah, but he was five and three or something like that as a starter. Look, I think they played it right. They had three quarterbacks.

Half the team carries three. Half the teams carry two. You carry three and you get a guy like James who now can come in and probably win a couple games or at least keep them afloat. I think it was a good decision by them. What I'm wondering is maybe they just didn't know. with Dart, like what, I mean, a rookie quarterback. Maybe he wasn't even going to see the field this year.

Well, here's a perfect question. This is how I would have went into the season with which quarterback I was going to start with. Annie, which quarterback would you rather face this weekend? Russell Wilson or James Winston? Russell Wilson. A hundred percent. I'm pretty sure through a pass backwards one game. Like, I'm all in on playing.

I would love to play against Russ. James is going to put up 500 yards, probably 10 interceptions, but still it's going to be insane. Would you say that week one with a healthy Malik neighbors and all that? If it's week one Giants Packers, you'd rather still rather see James Winston? I think so. Because when James first signed, everybody, like, he would feed neighbors. I mean, that would have been the most electric games to watch would be him just launching the ball up every other down. The Giants haven't scored a week one touchdown in three years, bro. Three years. I don't think James would have. I think James would have found the end zone.

It's a bigger problem, Jerry. It's a bigger problem over there for your New York football giants. I'm going to throw you guys like three coaching names. Okay. Just tell me what you'd think if you were in the Giants position. Number one, John Gruden. Can you even get back to the NFL? Everybody's saying he wants to coach and they're thrown him into the...

I doubt he's ever in the NFL again. I think he'll be a college coach. Yeah. All right, Matt. You were coached by this guy's dad. I don't know if you ever met a young Clint Kuby. when you were coached by Gary Kubiak. Did you ever meet a young Clint Kubiak

and did he make any impression on you whatsoever? I gotta be honest, Jerry. I don't remember. I'm pretty sure he was around. I'm sure he came. Seattle OC, darned elite, like on a record pace for first and second down, over 20-yard completions. Young, high risk, high reward, I think.

Never been a head coach. Doesn't necessarily matter. But what he's done in Seattle's great. I think that's definitely someone like him. I don't know if Joe Brady is obviously another one, someone like that who's a great play caller and can mold your quarterback. I think that's the key

for this one. That's what they need a quarterback guy, because that's what Daiple was. You would think, but then, you know, you have a lot of pieces on the defense. I look at Brian Flores. Have we given up on is it Kafka, your O-C-2? Well, Kafka's got a real shot. But he's also not coaching Dart.

I mean, how long is Dark going to be out, you know, from the rest of the year? They're going to probably take their time. And then the last thing that's all over Giants' Twitter, and they definitely made this up, but it has happened most recently with Sean Peyton trading for coaches

who already have jobs. The names that keep coming up as Sean Peyton is one of them, like two first round picks for Sean Peyton or a first and a second from Mike Tomlin. That hasn't, it happened with Peyton. You saw that too? Yeah, the Tomlin one was crazy.

Someone's just making that up. That's based on... There's zero chance either two of those coaches. There's no way Pittsburgh is... They're going to have another 9-8 season Why? Why would you, the Broncos are like in eight and two? What are the Broncos? Yeah. Worst eight and two teams like ever. Dumpster fire, Jerry. But it is an attractive job, I would say.

It is in terms of the talent on the roster, like a healthy scataboo and neighbors back. Like, that's an insane roster. And you're going to have a top five pick this year. Right. But the front office, I mean, that, I don't know if that would be, that would make it nice. You got Abdul Carter, Brian Burns, Dexter Lawrence, Kavon, Tibado. You need linebackers in corners in the worst way. They could draft like a Carnell Tate or somebody out of. You have a top five pick. You got neighbors, Scataboo, and Dart, hopefully back, healthy.

Yeah. I don't know. All right. Well, let's just get to. You're just trying to chalk yourself into some positivity here, Jerry. Let's get to me, I guess I'm a minus 200 favorite in the Hollywood Twisted Tea trivia. So let's see how this goes. Matt, give me all you got.

Don't sit this one out. Don't take a knee. Give me all you got. I'm excited for this one. All right. This is an all-Hollywood, all-movie-based trivia. Gentleman for you. So are we, are these people or movies?

One's, it's a, it's a variation of, mostly people. It's already asking for hints. Mostly people, but it's varied. Okay. Question number one. What is the highest domestic grossing film of 2025? I mean, I haven't been to a movie in 10 years. Lilo and Stitch?

No. Highest of 2025. What are you talking about? You made a billion dollars, Matt. So this is terrible. This is what you do. You blurt it out and now I'm going to get a hint from Annie because that's how this game works. Go ahead.

So wait, I can't guess anymore. No. I think if after Matt guesses, you get another. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, you want a clue? Yeah.

It's a half animated half not. And this is in the movie theaters or is this streaming? Because there's a difference there. We didn't, you didn't. Pretty sure it was in the theaters. Box office, baby. Box office. Okay.

Yeah, it was in the theaters. I mean, dude, I have no clue. I could care less what movies are out right now. I will tell you, I have not seen it. And I... Oh, I know it. What is it? How to train your dragon.

No. No. Okay, now I get another hand. I saw that one. All right. I forgot about that one. It's, okay, I'll give another clue. It is something to do with a...

game or like a video game. Oh, it's Minecraft. Yeah. Well, I won't take that one, but that was... I know. I was not expecting that. Matt, by the way, though, you... Like, I bet you Lilo and Stitch is number two for the year.

It's got to be okay. I saw Minecraft. I took the boys to see Minecraft. I just feel like I took it in like nine months ago. Yeah. That was a good question. All right. Keep more of those.

We like those. Question number two. Who was the winner for Outstanding Drama Series at this year's primetime Emmys. Adolescence? Nope. Oh, that's a limited.

Oh, damn. You're so bad at this game. You have no patience. I heard really good things about this series. I know it. I'll wait for Matt to guess. I get a hint.

I get a hint. Man, what I know? It's a drama suspense show. I don't know who. Oh, well, it's an outstanding drama series. That's not a very good hint.

I think. I don't know it. I can give him the hands. I don't know who the actor. I could look it up. I don't know who the lead. No, give me a hand, Jared. If I, if I, if I don't even know if I'm right, uh, okay, one of the, if I'm right, one of the actors had a hilarious part in stepbrothers. If I'm right. I'm pretty sure that's, yep. I don't, I don't know. I don't watch TV, guys. It's, it's severance, correct? No. No. God, you're so bad. Oh my God. Oh my God. I know it. I know it. Oh, God. I'll tell you, here's my hit. People in the industry say this is the most realistic show that represents their industry. Yeah, I was about to say Succession.

No, it's the pit. It's the pit. Yes, the pit. Who is the lead actor and actress in that? I don't even know. That's Noah Wiley. I thought it was Severance, so I gave you Adam Scott as a hint.

Yeah, I tried watching Severance. I couldn't understand why people like that show. All right. This is a real barn burner right now. This is bad. We got to come up with this. Yeah, this is. Now we're on to actors.

and actresses. Who woke up the award for best actress at this year's Academy Awards? Who won it? Best actress? Yes. Sydney Sweeney. I'm not going to know.

I didn't watch the Oscars this year. This is, these are terrible. No, I gave you a hint of what. Yeah, go ahead. I think it's either a show or movie, Better Things she was in. Well, that's cheating. And once upon a time in Hollywood, she was in too.

I did not. Not know this person. Full disclosure. I had to look her up. Oh, Mikey Madison. Yes, Mikey Madison. Woo! Does that actually count? Sure it does. Well, I got it. I didn't guess and I got a hint. She just said she was in this show and that show, the leading actress. That's pretty

easy. I didn't see either of those two shows. The hit I got was, oh, it's a drama suspense. For the Outstanding Drama Series 4. One nothing for our up. We'll take what we could get. My hints for Matt just sucked this year. Okay. We now have pictures. Are you ready? good let's go all right picture question who is this oscar nominated director and producer taylor sheridan yep wow that's too oh too very very like if i saw him i would know who that is

just signed a massive deal left that's a good one i knew i knew his face i couldn't it was quick yeah yeah by the way that this round the biggest asterisk of all time for your win just letting you know I didn't know any of those answers so you can take the 1-0 win if you want. I'm taking it, Matt. No, that's fine. I'll take it. We did do this for Jerry, so. It was a

It was a pillow fight, but I'm competitive. I was going to say, we did this for you and you couldn't, I mean, those questions are impossible. Yeah, but I was buzzing the tower with the box office one. I was buzzing the tower. I, I, Minecraft I could have got, dang it. I just, yeah.

Annie, how do you, uh, so you'll be watching Giants, Packers, Chicago freezing. It's an early Slate game, right? It's a game 1 o'clock. You got the snowy gate? Like, is it going to be snowing? Are you ready for all the snowy stuff? I am. Yeah.

It's very, I've got my tree up already. I don't know. I saw that. Yeah. It goes up November 1st. Was that for the video? Or is that a thing you do for your life? I love Christmas so much. I think it's because the sun sets out here at 4.30

and we have nothing. So all we have is football and Christmas and I absorb it like injected into my veins because otherwise we get seasonal depression so I mean I get seasonal depression anyway because the pack you haven't started the music yet right there may or may not be Christmas music playing

I'm with you dude I'm Mariah has started already and all right this is Annie's last week on the show everybody and cutting her because of the Christmas music all right Annie that was a that was a fun little pillow fight we had I got on the board that's that's an embarrassing win for you it was okay

You know, it's a win's a win. As a Packers fan, I know that all too well. We're on to Cincinnati, like Belichick said. We're on to Cincinnati. Thank you, as always, Twisted Tea. Thank you, Annie. Matt, we're out of here too till next week. Big shout-outs to Greg Olson.

And I'm sure we'll find a few things to talk about next week because this slate is pretty ridiculous. And more to come. Peace.