The Best of the Week on The Dan Patrick Show

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Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.

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Speaker 2: Bill Belichick not a Hall of Famer at least this year. And got a call yesterday afternoon. Somebody gave me a heads up and he said, hey, I don't know if it's official yet, but Bill's not going to get in, and I you know, it's one of those where you go, oh, that's right for the Hall of Fame. Coaches don't have to wait five years, it's one year. Mike Tomlin's eligible next year for the Hall of Fame. Didn't even think anything of it, and then all of a sudden it came out that it was true. Bill Belichick didn't get eighty percent of the votes. Now there's fifty voters have to have at least forty who say yay or nay, And apparently you had at least eleven voters who decided that Bill Belichick was going to have to wait. Now, they factored in Spygate, they factored into Flategate, even though Bill wasn't involved into flate Gate except for defending Tom Brady Bygate. We've talked about that ad nauseum about what they did. You know, Belichick and the Patriots have been on the receiving end of two of the highest punishments in NFL history as far as draft picks and fines. But for Bill Belichick six super Bowls as a coach, two as a defensive coordinator, eight and he's on the outside looking in. Now we can talk about how egregious this is in voters and what they factor in. And you are supposed to factor in football stuff, not ancillary stuff like off the field. You know, they probably did that with Michael Irvin. They probably did that with Tarrell Owens to a certain degree. I don't know if they factored in that with Lawrence Taylor. But this also pushes back the other coaches who were up for Hall of Fame consideration. Does Belichick get in next year? These are the other coaches who were semi finalists, Tom Kaflin, Mike Homegrin, Chuck Knox, Buddy Parker, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, George Seaffert, Mike Shanahan, Which means they go into the pool next year because Belichick did not get in. Talking to a voter yesterday who did talk about the whole process at ten am until six pm, zoom call, you kind of speak up for somebody there were a couple people who spoke up against people I've been lobbying for transparency, like make this c SPAN, make it, you know, PBS, let us see what goes on like one day. Let us understand the importance of this. It's the Hall of Fame, the importance for these other players. But if you get five finalists and you have to vote for three of the five to get into the Hall of Fame, and it's got to be eighty percent, well, as I was told by one of the voters, you end up splitting your votes and then nobody gets in. So Ken Anderson doesn't get in, or Roger Craig or Else Greenwood. These are all Hall of Famers, but it should just be five. If you get it to five, celebrate five instead of not celebrating anybody. And there's such a backlog. This is a big problem for the Hall of Fame moving forward, because like Luke Keikley's a Hall of Famer, he should be in the Hall of Fame. Adam Vinnit Terry should be in the Hall of Fame. You get this backlog and then you get more players who are going to come in. Larry Fitzgerald will probably get in this year, Drew Brees getting in this year. But this is separate from this. You know, the Senior Committee voting on these players. You know it's their last go round. Many of you didn't see else Greenwood or Kenny Anderson I did. I have no problem with them being Hall of famers. Roger Craig was that first back that could run and catch. I have no probably played for great teams. Hall of Famer, but we get nothing out of it except for, hey, we showed Bill Belichick, because that's what it felt like. You use this referendum, this platform to say, hey, Bill, you're not bigger than the game. Bill Pollian in the Hall of Fame said he's not even sure if he voted for Bill Belichick. He thought he did. Wait a minute, former Colts GM, and you don't remember if you voted for Bill Belichick. I mean, it wasn't that long ago, Bill. And then there are reports that maybe you had some subterfuge, something was orchestrated behind the scenes, people trying to gather enough votes. We need eleven votes. Bill won't get in. We'll teach him now. Whether that happened or not, there's certainly been speculation reporting on that but when Bill Pollion said that Belichick should be in, but he's not sure, if he's not one hundred percent sure if he voted for Bill Belichick, there weren't that many candidates to remember if you voted yay or nay. So that's part of it as well. You're going to get you know, people probably have a grudge against Bill, people who lost to Bill, people who thought Bill cheated. I mean, Robert Kraft should be in the Hall of Fame when you think about what he's done. He's not in. Now he might get in this year. We don't know what the results are. All we're hearing is that Bill Belichick's not getting in. But it just makes a Hall of Fame look bad, that's all because this is it's obvious, even you know, with his foibles, even with every you know, all the blemishes here, he's still.

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Speaker 3: First ballot Hall of Famer.

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Speaker 2: And if you don't think he's the greatest coach in NFL history, it doesn't take long to take role to find out where is on that list.

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Speaker 3: He did it. He did it at a very high level.

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Speaker 2: Now does first thing I thought of when I was told this and even said this back to the voter. I go, well, what's this mean for Tom Brady? And he goes, I didn't even think of that. I said, well, be consistent that if this is what you're going to do, now, are you going to vote for Belichick next year if you didn't vote for him this year? So you're going to say, yes, I did this, Yes I'm holding him accountable. Don't vote vote for him ever again. If that's how you feel.

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Speaker 3: Did he cheat?

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Speaker 2: He kind of cheated, so you're not going to vote for him. Tom Brady he was part of I mean, he benefited from Spygate. Deflategate was silly to begin with, but still, you lie to the commissioner, you get suspended, your team, you know, gets punished. Then don't put Tom Brady in next year, you know, or when he's eligible if you're not. If you're going to hold Belichick to a higher standard, then hold Brady to a higher standard as well. Brady, though I know, had a letter that was read that he spoke up on Bill Belichick's behalf. He wasn't involved in the zoom call from what I'm told, but it just felt like there was an agenda here with Bill Belichick. I just hate the fact that these other players, former players aren't going to get their day because it's going to be all about Bill Belichick. And that's unfortunate because the Hall of Fame, it's a museum. Do you qualify, Yes, you qualify. Did you do something incredible? Yes, then we should celebrate that. Did Belichick cheat? Yes, in accordance to the commissioner, he cheated, Okay.

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Speaker 3: He paid a price.

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Speaker 2: Julius Peppers got popped, I think his rookie year, second year in the league for Peds. Now, granted it might have been a fedrian. He's first ballot Hall of Famer. Do you hold him accountable? He gets a whole passed. I just hate when we pick and choose justice here when it comes to sports Now, did the Astros cheat? They did cheat? Or Barry Bonds?

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Speaker 3: Did he cheat? Yes, he cheated? Okay?

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Speaker 2: Should you have put an asterisk by Bill Belichick's name like they did Pete Rose? If he did something and you're going to hold him accountable, then just let us know. We're not going to let you win. We're not going to let you know first year, whatever it is. But to come out and be the morality police here, and it feels like those who might have been on the receiving end of a Patriot win had a problem with Bill Belichick, including those with the Colts.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, PAULI.

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Speaker 4: The initial report by Don Vannett and ESPN accused Bill Polling of telling his fellow voters that Belichick should serve a one year penance for Spygate. I really agree with what you said earlier. If you're not going to vote him in this year, be consistent. Don't vote him in next year if you're one of the eleven voters who didn't stick with whatever you thought.

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Speaker 2: And I don't know if you know Robert Kraft is going to be held accountable as the owner of the Patriots. Robert Craft's eighty four years of age, and he was a Hall of Fame finalist after fourteen years, and it's unknown if he or any other finalist received the necessary votes for induction. So you're punishing Robert Kraft. You put Jerry Jones in, but you're going to punish Robert Kraft. Okay, it's just picking and choosing, and it kind of puts yourself in a really delicate predicament here when it comes to who cheated, didn't cheat, kind of cheated? You know all of this, your your voters. Celebrate the game. If you want to say, hey, you know, I've voted for Bill. I have a problem with what happened with Spygate, but I voted for Bill. His resume is too good, an incredible coach, greatest coach ever, one of the greatest coaches ever.

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Speaker 3: It's just it's unfortunate. It's unfortunate.

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Speaker 2: But oh, by the way, a couple of coaching hires yesterday, and should Or Sanders is going to be a Pro Bowl quarterback. That's what I thought the day was going to be. Then all of a sudden, it's like, wait a minute, wow. And then even hearing from a source this morning who followed up with me and gave me a little bit more background information on it. And also, you know, they they're going to change They're going to change the format next year from what I'm told. And maybe you have five. I mean, you're narrowing it down to five. Shouldn't that be good enough? Because I don't want this backlog, and I don't want this to affect other players coaches who may not be alive when they get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Celebrate, you know, Elsie Greenwood passed away, his widow still alive, not going to get that moment to celebrate, or Kenny Anderson, the former Bengal quarterback, or Roger Craig. You can't say, well next year. Next year it's like Larry Fitzgerald will get in probably first battle of the Hall of Famer, which means Reggie Wayne and Tory Holt they won't get in, or they're going to get pushed back because every year it's somebody and where you go, well, hall of Famer, and that's the way it's going to be. But this backlog here, they got to change that because you've got so many people. Then they're waiting for that knock on the door. They're waiting for that phone call, and they deserve that. But the way it is now, if you pair it down to five and then you have to vote for three, and not everybody is going to be voting eighty percent for somebody, and that's a shame. You'll get to the final five, you should get in, you shure, all right, Well, come up with a poll question. We will play the Mike McCarthy cliche.

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Speaker 5: Gang.

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Speaker 2: What was going to be the first cliche that he would say at his press conference. Man, he looked like me when he got up in front of the media crying. I'm like, Mike, keep it together. Maybe immediately I thought, I'm gonna be like at my daughter's wedding later this summer, just gonna get up there and be like Mike McCarthy. Joe Brady got promoted. He was the offensive coordinator in Buffalo. So the Browns might be zeroing in on a head coach. Might be Arizona and Vegas. I still think Vegas is holding out for somebody who is coaching in the Super Bowl. At least that's my gut feeling. I don't know what Arizona's doing. And Cleveland might just hire Jim Schwartz or promote Jim Schwartz.

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Speaker 3: Somebody's got to want it. Take that job, right someone.

00:13:03
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

00:13:12
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00:13:42
Speaker 2: Kevin Stefanski, the Falcons head coach, two time Coach of the Year, joining us on the program Coach Congratulations.

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Speaker 3: Where are your Coach of the Year Awards?

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Speaker 5: You know?

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Speaker 7: One was on my daughter's bedstand for a minute. She liked it, and that one I think is some Aaron storage. And then the other one I gave to my cousin Steve because the night of that award, I don't know if you remember this, but I wasn't there, but the person that announced the award said Steve Stefancy. So my cousin Steve, who I'm very close with, he has that somewhere in his home office.

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Speaker 3: Does it say Steve Stefanski on it?

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Speaker 5: Now?

00:14:23
Speaker 7: The award itself has my own care. But never miss an opportunity to have a joke like that.

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Speaker 3: What do those awards mean to you?

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Speaker 7: You know, it means a lot to me because that's such those individual awards are such a reflection of the collective.

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Speaker 5: And I think about those.

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Speaker 7: You know, one of them was from year one for us in Cleveland in twenty twenty, when I went to the playoffs, won a playoff game, and just the that team and those coaches and how we battled. That was the COVID year and everybody knows how unique all of that was. And then the one from twenty three was a great reflection on an amazing group of guys that fought and scratched and clawed our way to the playoffs behind unbelievable defense, behind multiple quarterbacks. And that's a credit to the coaching staff. I know the award says my name, but man, that's an award that goes to the coaching staff.

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Speaker 3: How do you know you're wired to be a head coach?

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Speaker 5: Great? I don't know, good question, I don't. It's funny.

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Speaker 7: I didn't set out to have this job. This was not a grand plan. I think fourth grade. I wanted to be an architect, if I remember correctly. But yeah, these type of things, they just what I try to do is keep my head down, do the job I have that's currently in front of me. I was so blessed along the way to be put in positions that where I could grow. And I can't tell you how lucky I was to be at the Vikings, for instance, for fifteen seasons and to move my way around that coaching staff. I didn't set out for that. That wasn't the roadmap, but I found myself in this position.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, because I've said before there are certain guys who were just meant to be coordinators. When you become a head coach, I mean you got to be your answering to everybody about everything. You got to be a CEO, and you get further away from what you really love doing and being a coordinator.

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Speaker 5: It's very interesting.

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Speaker 7: You're right, and I loved my time as a position coach. I love my time as a coordinator. I remember when I was named a coordinator for the first time. I'm at practice and I'm walking around during individual periods as the quarterbacks are working and the tight ends are working.

00:16:25
Speaker 5: Over here, and where do I go? Where do I fit in here?

00:16:28
Speaker 7: And then as a head coach, now I'm helping out the defense or I'm watching special teams. So you're always trying to navigate where you can help. And certainly as you get farther, as you get to the coordinator role or you get to the head coach role, it is easy to get.

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Speaker 5: Farther away from that.

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Speaker 7: So you have to work very hard to get involved in drills, get involved in meetings, be intentional about that is important.

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Speaker 2: When you interview with the Falcons, how much is you're interviewing them or them interviewing you.

00:16:57
Speaker 5: It's absolutely both, you know.

00:16:59
Speaker 7: I was very fortunate it over the last few weeks to go on some visits to have some zooms with different teams, and those were fact finding missions for me. I've been doing this now. I've been in the league for twenty years, so I know a lot of people. I know a lot of people I'm talking to. We have mutual friends. But I'm trying to find out about these buildings and find out who these people are and what they're about. Obviously, you make your phone calls and you certainly know who they are from other people. But then you sit across from somebody, I think you get a feel for somebody and you talk about what your values are, what they believe and see if there's a mesh there.

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Speaker 3: If you will, how do you use Matt ryan.

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Speaker 5: Man in a lot of ways?

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Speaker 7: And Matt being here in this role was a huge draw for me that pulled me to this building. Matt's somebody that I've known about for a long time. We both grew up in the Philadelphia area. I've known who Matt is about what he's about. I know exactly where he is in terms of how he feels and sees this game. And that's important to me because Matt's somebody that I'm going to rely heavily on on a day to day basis, on a big picture basis as a thought partner. You know, we hired Ian Cunningham last night as our general manager, so within with myself with Matt, we're gonna put our heads together as we move forward here. But having a person like Matt that knows this city, that knows what winning is about, that's such a huge.

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Speaker 5: Deal for me.

00:18:25
Speaker 2: Kevin Stefanski the Falcons head coach Kirk Cousins situation, trying to understand what happened either yesterday or day before. His future with Atlanta is what we'll see.

00:18:40
Speaker 7: That's why we hired Ian Cunningham, you know, just got in last night. So we'll see on all those type of decisions. Obviously, it's no secret Kirk and I have a relationship. I think very very highly of the person. I think very highly of the player. All those type of decisions are something that Ian. We'll get in here and again we'll put our heads together on all those type of things. But no secret that, you know, Kirk, somebody I have a tremendous amount of respect for.

00:19:05
Speaker 3: Do you have uniform approval?

00:19:08
Speaker 5: That's not my not my contract?

00:19:11
Speaker 7: And I'm I'm one of those guys Dan like whatever is in the locker I'm wearing.

00:19:15
Speaker 5: So let's go.

00:19:16
Speaker 2: Oh man, those eighty throwbacks public public sentiment here, coach.

00:19:22
Speaker 7: Yeah, I love as you can as you can see, I love these colors. I love this logo. But I'll stay in my lane. I'll let those the smart people make those decisions.

00:19:31
Speaker 3: Can we have your old Browns gear?

00:19:35
Speaker 5: You could have.

00:19:36
Speaker 7: It's given away already though, so you're gonna have to go find it, fight it from some other people.

00:19:39
Speaker 6: You know.

00:19:40
Speaker 5: The hardest thing is what these teams do.

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Speaker 7: An amazing job of the equipment staff in Cleveland unbelievable. The equipment staff here unbelievable. But what they do is they put your name in every article of clothing. Yeah, so you gotta be careful. You don't want that to show up at Goodwill and someone's pulling out, you know, Kevin Spansky's sweatshirt. So I try to give those away to friends and family in the Cleveland area, but sure enough they'll pull the tag and show you that was my sweatshirt.

00:20:05
Speaker 2: I watch your press conference, your introductory press conference. I know you didn't want to talk about the Cleveland Browns. So you want to swat this way you can. But was it fair to Shador and Dylan to be put in a situation like that as rookies.

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Speaker 7: Well, first of all, that I would tell you I have zero ill will towards anyone in that building. Dean Jimmy Haslam treated me unbelievably, treated my family unbelievably.

00:20:32
Speaker 5: So I have no ill will towards all those type of things.

00:20:34
Speaker 7: As it relates to decisions like that, it's not fair for me to comment those two young players. I love those guys. I loved coaching them. I love their development as a coach. Why we do this is you take a player and you try to get a little bit more out of them, and you try to develop them, and I want to get this guy better at that. And I think both those guys you can point to their rookie seasons and say, man, they got better in these areas. Ultimately, we want to continue to imp even those guys, both of them will.

00:21:01
Speaker 5: And but I think very highly of those two young mens.

00:21:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just tough, you know, no matter how old you are to play that position in the NFL, let alone, to go in there and get you know, thrown into that. And I just wondered, you know, you're the head coach, and you know you're an offensive minded guy, and trying to put them in a position to succeed as rookies had to be, you know, one of the more challenging things you probably have gone through.

00:21:29
Speaker 5: I'm happy to have gone through it. You know.

00:21:31
Speaker 7: It was one of those unique things trying to find out ways to structure the offseason, find out ways to make sure you're bringing them along. You know, developing young quarterbacks is something that we want to be, you know, want to be at the forefront of. So again, love those two young guys and they'll continue to improve.

00:21:48
Speaker 2: Once again, He's Steve Stefanski. He is the new head coach. Yeah, hey, I'll answer to anything.

00:21:56
Speaker 3: Thank you, coach, and appreciate your time.

00:21:59
Speaker 5: Yeah, appreciate you guys.

00:22:01
Speaker 3: That's Kevin STEFANZK.

00:22:04
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live.

00:22:15
Speaker 2: We make way for the Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold in his eight seed season in the NFL and taking his team to the Super Bowl. Let me start there. First recollection of a Super Bowl growing up was which one.

00:22:31
Speaker 8: Oh man, I think one of the first ones that comes in mind. You know, it's got to be Colts Bears, that one with Peyton Manning, Rex Grossman, you know that. I'm sure there was one that happened before that that you know, I could vaguely remember, but that was that was really the one that was edged into my memory just because we had a party, a Super Bowl party with like all my Pop Warner football team and it was really fun. I think they're might have been a bounce house or something right outside the house and I just remember having a ton of fun. You know, it was uh, it was a good time, and uh, you know, I'm sure all the adults we were having a great time as well. So, uh, now that that was one that was kind of etched into my memory just because of you know, how fun that experience was. Just being able to celebrate, you know, having a good Pop Warner season with my teammates and then uh, you know, being able to be able to watch the game and and all the the fun things that come with the Super Bowl, you know, the halftime show and all that.

00:23:31
Speaker 2: What. Uh, how does it feel to be the first USC quarterback to play in the Super Bowl?

00:23:36
Speaker 5: Yeah?

00:23:36
Speaker 9: I saw that.

00:23:38
Speaker 8: I saw that after the game going around social media, and uh didn't didn't realize that obviously, But yeah, it's great to be able to represent the university and you know, hopefully just represent them proudly at the game.

00:23:51
Speaker 3: How do you make this a regular week?

00:23:53
Speaker 2: I know it's the biggest week of your life, but you find coaches will say or quarterbacks will say, we just to make it normal.

00:24:01
Speaker 3: How do you go about to win that?

00:24:03
Speaker 5: Yeah?

00:24:04
Speaker 8: I think, you know, trying to keep the routine the same throughout the week. Throughout the week leading up to the super Bowl and then getting getting a lot of game plans stuff in this week, you know, because understanding that, you know, there's gonna be a lot of media going to be some media responsibilities the week of the super Bowl. That'll take most of some of the time that I spend studying. So I think doing some of the game plan stuff this week, and and really studying, doubling down on kind of what the Pats do, what they like to do defensively in certain situations, and kind of get ready as if the game were to be this this upcoming Sunday.

00:24:39
Speaker 2: You know, But are you going to learn more from watching Denver against New England or what you guys did against the Rams?

00:24:49
Speaker 5: Yeah?

00:24:50
Speaker 8: I think you know, it's it's interesting, right because that game was it was a blizzard, right, you know, it's it's and sometimes it's kind of even tough to see what they're doing on tape just because of you know, how windy it was and how snowy it was at times. But no, I think you know, you learned a time just by watching the other team. Obviously, there's there's times where you can go back and learn a ton by watching yourself watching some tendencies that maybe you've shown throughout the year, and you notice some things watching for sure of yourself, but I think you know, being able to understand kind of what they're doing, especially being you know, in a different conference and not being able to watch any New England tape throughout this entire season. Like we just came off of stretch these last two games. We've played these teams three times throughout the season, so we had a really good idea of kind of what these defenses looked like. And you know, I think that goes for a whole team obviously, So we just got to do a really good job of understanding what New England presents on defense and and you know what they're kind of what their core is, what they like to do, and then kind of what their wrinkles are in certain situations.

00:25:52
Speaker 3: Who reached out to you after the win that might surprise.

00:25:54
Speaker 9: Us, Oh, shoot a cool and was?

00:26:00
Speaker 5: Uh?

00:26:01
Speaker 9: Was Luke Combs.

00:26:02
Speaker 8: I had a couple of country country singers reach out, Luke Combs, Kenny Chesney.

00:26:06
Speaker 9: Those are some cool ones. Obviously. You have former quarterbacks that reach out there.

00:26:10
Speaker 8: That is always really cool to to be able to hear from guys like that.

00:26:14
Speaker 9: But yeah, I think the.

00:26:16
Speaker 8: Celebrities and the country music singers and and different celebrities that kind of reach out to you throughout that whole process that maybe I talked to at you know, a Super Bowl a couple of years ago when I wasn't playing in it, or uh, you know how a you know, going to the Masters in augusta like I might have bumped into to a certain person and forgot that I gave them my number.

00:26:36
Speaker 9: You know, like just guys that guys that reach out like that. It's uh, it's.

00:26:40
Speaker 8: So cool to be able to you know, just continue to get people to reach out because you know, I think that kind of makes me understand too, like how how important that game was, how important winning the NFC Championship was, and and going to the Super Bowl, how big of a deal it is. And you know, I think there is there's a balance there, right because you want to understand, ok, like it's just the next game and it's a process.

00:27:02
Speaker 9: But at the same time, like I want to enjoy this.

00:27:04
Speaker 8: I want to enjoy every single moment with my teammates and and these coaches and even the media, like doing all the media, you know, leading up to the game, like I want to be able to enjoy it because you never know when you're gonna get back here. So you know, there is there is that double edged sort of kind of understanding to enjoy it, enjoying every single moment, but also kind of preparing and understanding that is it is a process and we're going to treat it like the next game.

00:27:28
Speaker 2: Talking to Sam Darnold, the Seahawks quarterback, have you played with a chip on your shoulder at any point in your NFL career?

00:27:37
Speaker 8: You know, dan uh being honest with you, like, I don't. I don't ever felt like I had a chip on my shoulder. I just don't think that's really my personality. I've never been like that, you know, at any point in my life. You know, I've always just I've always just worked hard and treated every single day as its own day. You know, I've never you know, cause I feel like just with me personally, like if I got too high or if I got too low, that affected me, that affected performance. So I feel like I was always just better if I just stayed right here, just even keeled, And you know, that's that's just kind of who I am. So I think, and that's what you learn throughout your career, right, you learn who you are as a person, and and you know what works best for you and preparation and all those things. So for me, it was it's really important for me to just stay even keeled. And and you know, I see and I understand what people say throughout the years, and you know, I understand that. You know, there's some things that have been said about me, and people are saying, oh, you've proved the doubters wrong. But that's that's not for me to say or for me to even really pay attention to, because that at the end of the day, like that doesn't matter and it doesn't affect my performance at all. Like I just got to go out there and do my job every single day. And because if I do anything other than that, if I think about the doubters or proving anyone wrong, like I feel like I'm doing my team a disservice because I'm thinking about the wrong things.

00:29:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I everybody wants to talk about your journey, and you know, right after the game, you're asked about your journey, and you're like, you know, my journey continues. I don't know how many people sit there and go, I just want something. Now. I got to look back on what happened prior to this, and I thought your answers were mature.

00:29:19
Speaker 3: But I don't know how you you know, you take.

00:29:22
Speaker 2: Those questions of let's talk about the Jets, or let's talk about Carolina, let's talk about all of these you know, rough moments there when you're trying to focus on the game at hand, the you know, the job at hand.

00:29:36
Speaker 9: Yeah, for sure.

00:29:37
Speaker 8: It's uh, you know, I think just being able to handle it at this point in my career too, it's I feel like even mentally, like I feel like I handle it a little bit differently internally than I used to, you know, because I realized, like it is a part of the journey and it is a part of who I am well before.

00:29:56
Speaker 3: Internally, Yeah, I.

00:29:59
Speaker 8: Think like I gave it a little more thought than I had to, Like, I paid a little bit more attention to it, and I guess, you know, I invested a little more thought into kind of what happened in the past, and I tried to you know, okay, like I threw this pick against this coverage, you know, back in twenty nineteen, Like I'm.

00:30:19
Speaker 9: Not going to do that again.

00:30:20
Speaker 8: It's like, no, sometimes mistakes happen, and you know, you learn from it, and you know it's you don't want to make the same mistakes again. But sometimes throughout your career, especially if it's a long career, like those things are going to happen, but just being able to move on and to learn from those experiences, but move on. And you know, the the days in New York, the days in Carolina, like those were those are part of my journey and they're part of my experience and I loved it, every single part of it.

00:30:48
Speaker 9: Like, yeah, there were some loaves that sucked.

00:30:50
Speaker 8: I'm not going to lie to you, you know, and that's part of it though, Like I learned so much from that, and you know, I'm able to move on. And it's it's funny like after every single you know, after every single game we lost or things that didn't go well, like I was able to wake up that next day and see the sunrise and go into the building and see my teammates and have full with my coaches, like you know that that's that's a part of life. And you know, I think being able to realize that at this point in my career, Like it allows you to to kind of take it one day at a time and enjoy every single little moment that you get with with your teammates, because as we all say, like, we're never with the same team, you know, year and year out. Yeah, you might be with some of the similar guys, especially if you stick with the same team, but you know, there's there's never all seventy that are the same throughout a season, So you just try to enjoy it as much as you can.

00:31:39
Speaker 3: Did you keep all those jerseys?

00:31:42
Speaker 5: Yeah?

00:31:43
Speaker 9: I have all all my jerseys framed.

00:31:47
Speaker 8: I don't know if they're framed, they're they're definitely not all of them are are framed, but yeah, I got them somewhere.

00:31:54
Speaker 2: They're up in the attic somewhere. Explain the luxury of throwing to jsn.

00:32:01
Speaker 9: Oh Man.

00:32:02
Speaker 8: Uh, Yeah, he's just a special talent. He's he's someone that you know, is very quarterback friendly.

00:32:07
Speaker 9: Uh.

00:32:08
Speaker 8: You know, he he allows you know, with his body language and the way that he runs routes, he's very friendly to throw to, but he doesn't it doesn't make it easier to cover him, if that makes sense. Like it's easy for me to kind of feel what he's thinking and what he's doing on the field, and to read his body language whether he's going to come out of a route at full speed or if he's going to come out of a route and maybe wrap the corner and show me his you know, numbers and maybe slow down a little bit. But you know, that doesn't, like I said, that doesn't make it any easier on the defense. Like he makes everything look the same with all the different routes and the different stems that come off those routes. So he does a really good job of that. He's really like, he's really smart. He's really cognizant of how he wants to run routes. We're always talking and you know, the dialogue that we share to be able to, you know, just talk about the little intrinsic intrinsics that you know, come with running routes and with me like sometimes I'm like, hey, dude, like that route might be sweet, but that's gonna take too long and I'm not gonna be able to hold onto the ball that long. So I think those little conversations that we have, you know, are are very important obviously to to our success. But he's a he's a special, special player to throw to. But you know, I think the secret sauce that makes it work is the other guys in that receiver room as well. You know, the guys that are able to step up, whether they're you know, playing special teams or whether they're going to you know, have a special role for us, you know, catching touchdowns. So you know, that's a it's a really special group. Js N obviously is a huge part of it, but it definitely is a is a special receiver group.

00:33:35
Speaker 3: What about that one headed catch that he made unbelievable.

00:33:39
Speaker 8: I don't know if I don't know if the camera has caught my reaction on that, but I was kind of looking at our sideline like.

00:33:46
Speaker 9: That really just happened. But I don't know, it should never surprise us anymore.

00:33:51
Speaker 8: You know, he makes so many of these special catches, and especially one handed catches. I always, you know, if he reaches out with one hand and he drops it, I usually blame my self for not throwing a spiral so he could judge kind of where to put his hand on the football. So he's he's a special he's a special player.

00:34:07
Speaker 2: Man who's taking care of the tickets.

00:34:12
Speaker 9: Beyonce, Oh, Yeah, Katie my my fiance.

00:34:15
Speaker 8: So she's she's got a big I probably shouldn't have said that just now, So she's probably gonna get bombarded.

00:34:21
Speaker 9: Uh but uh, she's uh yeah.

00:34:26
Speaker 3: How many tickets are we gonna account for?

00:34:31
Speaker 5: I don't know.

00:34:31
Speaker 8: We'll see, we'll see what happens. I might, you know, may be able to get some people in a suite hopefully. But you know, it's money. I think it's I think it's upwards of twenty So.

00:34:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't want you to lose money playing in the super Bowl.

00:34:47
Speaker 5: You know as well.

00:34:48
Speaker 8: I don't think I got you. We don't have to worry about that. We don't have to worry about that. Dan, that'll be that'll be all right.

00:34:53
Speaker 5: All right.

00:34:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, poor fiance, she's got a tougher week leading up to the game than you do. Put it that way, you gonna out a lot of friends, a lot of a lot of people.

00:35:02
Speaker 3: It is who we're saying, they're your friends.

00:35:05
Speaker 9: Yeah, exactly. It is an underrated responsibility.

00:35:08
Speaker 8: But that was the biggest That was the biggest you know, part of kind of this whole super Bowl thing is being able to figure that stuff out earlyly this week.

00:35:14
Speaker 9: So I don't have to worry about it next week.

00:35:17
Speaker 8: But I also you know, all the people that are coming to the game are loved ones that have known for a long time, and they're not there for the wrong reasons.

00:35:24
Speaker 9: So that's that was also a very important part of that.

00:35:27
Speaker 2: Well, congrats, you're taking the right approach. Enjoy it, you don't know when you'll be back, if you'll be back, and absorb it all you can because it's going to go by so quickly on Sunday and win or lose. You know, you had a marvelous year, and my best.

00:35:43
Speaker 3: To your parents.

00:35:45
Speaker 9: All right, Thanks Dan, I appreciate you.

00:35:47
Speaker 3: Sam Darnell