Training Camp Myths and Facts with J.J. Jansen

00:00:05
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily.

00:00:06
Speaker 2: We're only one person on today's show is preparing for his eighteenth NFL training camp.

00:00:14
Speaker 1: I'm your host today, I'm in the powerchair.

00:00:17
Speaker 2: I am Jordan Rodrigue, also of the Athletic and Greg Rosenthal, who normally hosts the show, who's dulcet tones you're so accustomed to hearing, is in Japan, and we would like Greg to have as much as time off as possible because it keeps him sane, and it keeps him functional and healthy and running the show which we love so. Eric Roberts is behind the glass today Chris Bobona, and we have a very special guest co host, someone who I have spent a lot of time having the most absurd conversations about every topic possible in the locker room. Somebody who's been in the league for going on eighteen seasons. Carolina Panthers long snapper NFL iron man JJ Jansen, JJ, thank you so much much for being my guest co host today on NFL Daily.

00:01:03
Speaker 3: This is an absolute blast. I don't know if ironman is a fair term. You only play seven or eight plays a game. I don't think you get full credit the way some of the greats are, but I'll gladly take the compliment for sure.

00:01:16
Speaker 2: One of the things that we loved doing before today's show is going over your ample amount of highlights. I mean it is literally like watching the same clip over and over. I mean that in the most complimentary way, because you don't mess up. You just do snapball, you know, tackle, snapball, tackle, snapball, a long way tackle, sometimes run down the field, mostly not. I mean, it's incredible. You're just mister consistent over time.

00:01:42
Speaker 3: My whole job is wash rents repeat, so's I'm not the same routine. My aunt, who lives in Atlanta, would come to one game a year, usually in Mercedes Benz Stadium, and she always has the same comment for me, which is, I feel like I've watched that game by you seventeen times. It's the I mean, just this creature of habit, like in this endless loop of sip a glass of water, sit on the bench, snap two balls, run on the.

00:02:09
Speaker 4: Field, just round and round.

00:02:11
Speaker 3: I go for four and a half hours, and I've been doing that for a long time, so I've got that thing down pretty well.

00:02:17
Speaker 2: Have you ever considered that you are in severance? You're in the like the loop.

00:02:21
Speaker 3: Right, I'm definitely in the loop, There's no doubt about it. The people around me have changed from time to time, the stadiums have changed a little bit. Although being in the NFC South for as long as I've been, I'm pretty well I know some of the security guards at other stadiums used to seeing me come through the Carolina They know me.

00:02:43
Speaker 4: I've played in Mercedes.

00:02:44
Speaker 3: I've played in the Caesar Superdome like eighteen times dating back to college, so I know that place as well as anybody. So there's definitely an endless loop going on with my football career.

00:02:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I wasn't going to say this, but I think I just might say this. I was eleven when you first got into the league, so you know, I'm so grateful that I got to know you in the Carolina Panthers locker room. We had some great talks there. You usually made Joe Person miss his deadline. I do just want to point that out, because you know, he loves to talk Little League baseball and you love to talk Little League baseball, and so he would often come like rolling, you know, ambling the way Joe Person, who for listeners is the fantastic beat writer for the Athletic who covers the Carolina Panthers is an OG legend out there, and he would often stop by your locker and my god, would you guys get to talking and then lose all track of space and time, And then he'd come in and to be like, wow, miss my deadline again talking to JJ at his locker, and I think I nailed the voice.

00:03:44
Speaker 1: Also, JJ, that's pretty.

00:03:49
Speaker 4: Well.

00:03:49
Speaker 2: I love that you're joining me today. I'm stoked to have you. You look like you're in a palace right now. I know that logistically, what you're doing in your life right now, it's not very palatial.

00:04:00
Speaker 1: We talked about this a little bit.

00:04:02
Speaker 2: Can you explain to the listeners and also go watch JJ on YouTube so we can explain this palace of versy background situation here, JJ, what the hell are you doing right now before your training show?

00:04:14
Speaker 3: I do look like I'm on the coast in France somewhere. I'm actually in Cooperstown, New York. I am a five minute walk from the Baseball Hall of Fame. My our head coach, I'm the assistant coach. Our head coach is Greg Olsen Hey, and I've been coaching a group of now twelve year old boys since they were nine. And we are in the Cooperstown Dream Park tournaments. So there's one hundred and five teams. We are down to the final thirty two. We'll play tonight at seven pm. But as so, all of Cooper'stown is sort of like a relic to the Pass. You've got the Baseball Hall of Fame and all the legendary stuff. The baseball tournament is equally relicy. We are in bunkers, staying on campus, so Greg and I and our assistant coach Tom and the thirteen boys are all staying in barracks like dorms style. There is no Wi Fi in there, so he us service but there is no Wi Fi. So when you asked me to join you, I was thrilled. But I have four kids. My wife is home with the other three. We didn't ever plan on leaving the barracks, so I asked Greg's wife, Kara, to book me a hotel room. I'm now in said hotel room with Wi Fi also air conditioning, which is fantastic and I haven't had that in four days, and getting to talk some football and getting a little bit of reprieve before we make this final run in our twelve you baseball tournament.

00:05:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so, and you guys are undefeated, correct, I've been sort of following along. Yes, they're undefeated so far. Just to go back and paint a picture for the listener here and JJ, we've talked about this before, but like two NFL players, one former NFL absolute elite tight end in Greg Wilson, now one of our favorite commenters color analysts.

00:06:07
Speaker 1: We have had him on the show.

00:06:09
Speaker 2: He's a friend of the show and we are huge fans of him. We think he's the best there is. And he and JJ coach a little league baseball highly competitive by the way, extremely competitive, very very talented youth baseball team. So it's like all the regular parents right out there and all the regular coaches, who, yes, are great at their craft, I'm sure, But and then these two NFL players come walking up. And also, by the way, you sometimes have friends in toe also former or current NFL players. I mean, it's the scene that in my mind of you slow motion walking, maybe there's a fire explosion behind you, you know, onto the field to go coach every day, it's just a delight in my brain yeah, we're.

00:06:53
Speaker 4: Gonna talk about him a little bit later.

00:06:54
Speaker 3: But our good friend Luke Keithley, he'll often show up kind of in disguise to some games to watch the boys. He's not marry, doesn't have any kids. He just shows up to watch other people's kids, which is of course the most looke Keikley.

00:07:08
Speaker 2: Thing, right, you know, Luke. Yeah, he's obsessed with all things sport.

00:07:11
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, and so yeah, we are a site to be seen. I am feeling my ego is a little bit inflated. Ninety eight percent of the conversation is, oh, there's Greg.

00:07:22
Speaker 4: There's Greg.

00:07:23
Speaker 3: The last like two days, we've been here for five. The last two days I've been getting aren't you JJ Jansen the long snapper? So I'm getting a little bit more of that. Clearly the cell phone services is working that they're kind of figuring out what's going on. See from Charlotte that's up here in Cooperstown, New York. They're figuring it out slowly, but surely. They do trading pins, so every team brings like three or four pins, and then all the kids are trading like old like baseball trading cards, and you know there's a Saquon Barkley one. There's a Ladanian Tomlinson one. There's a Patrick Mahomes one amongst the ball. But our team pen one of our parents put both Greg and ies like Jersey on it. So I think people are trying to figure out who's going. So that's I'm getting a little bit of help there.

00:08:13
Speaker 2: So forty four I remember, right, am I right? Still forty four? Yeah, after all this time, it's been forty four.

00:08:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, JJ, It's cool.

00:08:22
Speaker 2: I we're going to talk about another Greg here, who very auspiciously left a certain position group off of his list of twenty five players of the last twenty five years. And I had to talk to you about this, but before we get into it, because I know you got takes. Man, I know you, and I know you got takes, but I need your best Greg Olsen JJ Janssen co coaching story like you did you guys? When have you guys gotten full baseball?

00:08:52
Speaker 3: Bad?

00:08:53
Speaker 2: Have you yelled at umps? Has anyone been ejected? For example?

00:08:56
Speaker 3: Got a great story? So two quick stories. The first game we ever played, it was nine to you. We didn't really know what was going on, and we go out to a tournament in kind of like eastern North Carolina. And I get a text from my wife three minutes into the game and she goes, Greg's already been ejected. I said, how did that happen? She goes, I have to do with your son. I said, what on earth has happened?

00:09:20
Speaker 4: So in nine you.

00:09:21
Speaker 3: Baseball, they drew a line in the dirt for that's how far you could lead.

00:09:28
Speaker 4: Well, my son led past that. He didn't know where he was going.

00:09:30
Speaker 3: He was nine and he's never done this before, and the umpire called him out. So Greg defended my son and said to a chalk line, which was one hundred percent the rule. Three minutes later, this happened like the first pitch of the game. Three minutes later, they bring out a chalk thing and they're lining the field again with these ten foot lines. And Greg goes, that would have been helpful three minutes ago, and the umpire ejected him back from the last preseason game. Before I got out there, I was gonna get that. About an hour later, Greg had already been ejected. Now before you think, oh, Greg gets ejected from every game. Greg has never since been ejected in any game. But I have three weeks ago, we were having a game. There was not a single issue on the baseball field for an hour and fifty minutes. We were in the top of the sixth inning on some other field, a coach was running up and down down the third baseline trying to distract a pitcher.

00:10:30
Speaker 4: There are some crazy coaches in baseball.

00:10:33
Speaker 3: So the tournament sent out a rule that the umpires are to enforce every coach staying in the first base box. So the guy kind of threatens me to be like in the box, which is not really a rule.

00:10:48
Speaker 4: Of course, as you know, Jordan, I know all the rules rule.

00:10:52
Speaker 3: He's yelling at me, and I said, you can't speak to me. You have the rule wrong, and you're yelling at me, which is totally inappropriate. Who minutes later, one of our kids gets a single. Now, if you've seen youth baseball at all, they've got all their elbow pads and gloves and sliding mits, and so they got all this equipment. And at the last second, he like one of the kids sticks the equipment out. I guess you can't like just like quickly sticks it out in front of me, and I walk over to first and grab it, and the umpire ejects me from the game because I'm out.

00:11:24
Speaker 4: Of the box.

00:11:25
Speaker 3: Oh the umpire throws me out of the game, and our fans starts saying he's going to get the gloves, basically like tell him he's wrong. Immediate reinstatement. I've never seen someone reinstated back.

00:11:39
Speaker 4: Into a baseball game.

00:11:40
Speaker 3: I was reinstated as quickly as I was ejected, So Greg and I each have one ejection, but I was the only one that got reinstated, so I have that on him.

00:11:48
Speaker 1: Oh my god.

00:11:48
Speaker 2: You know, statistics in your field are hard to come by, JJ, and I am very proud of you that you've got this like unprecedented stat line now you know, and honestly, for nothing surprises me about any of this. First of all, the comment Greg Olsen has to have that last comment, got.

00:12:10
Speaker 1: To get the last word.

00:12:10
Speaker 2: And you know what when I was covering him as a writer, that's fantastic.

00:12:15
Speaker 1: Yes, Greg cook right, I want all of it right.

00:12:18
Speaker 2: And then you, first of all, knowing the rule to the tea, probably know where all the commas are in the rule book.

00:12:25
Speaker 1: Also, but the.

00:12:27
Speaker 2: Crowd galvanized getting behind you. I just love this for you, justice for JJ, I love it.

00:12:32
Speaker 1: It's so great.

00:12:34
Speaker 3: We have found Greg and I have been coaching sports, but we've been doing this stuff since we became teammates in twenty eleven. And we love debating, we love strategizing. We're putting a lot of energy into baseball right now as Jordan, as you know, like I've helped him a tomeh for his broadcast. We have a lot of fun chopping up the new strategies in the game, how analytics is coming into the game. Whether we're doing this in baseball or football or life like, this is all we do. So it's a it's fun to have these different outlets and and baseball has been ones that we get to do with our kids. And that's that's been that's been a blast. TJ who you know, who had.

00:13:15
Speaker 4: Open heart surgery, heart replacement surgery. He's on the team.

00:13:18
Speaker 3: He's one of our best pitchers, big strong kid, my son Luke and all their buddies and we get to be dads and coaches at the same time.

00:13:26
Speaker 4: It's what sports is all about. It's a fun it's a fun time.

00:13:29
Speaker 1: I love that.

00:13:29
Speaker 2: That's elite dadding right there, and I it just whenever I think about you guys getting to still spend that time together, but also your.

00:13:36
Speaker 1: Son's watching you.

00:13:37
Speaker 2: I mean, I remember when those kids were coming in postgame to the locker room, and one of Greg's kids went and asked several of his teammates if they would dare to punch their his dad in the stomach. By the way, that was a hilarious little moment.

00:13:50
Speaker 4: It feels like a tj Olsen move, but be honest.

00:13:54
Speaker 2: And everyone goes, oh my god, no, It's like, no, I would not do that.

00:13:59
Speaker 1: Okay, we speaking of.

00:14:01
Speaker 2: People you've played with JJ first and foremost, I know you've been following your friend of the show. I know you've been following kind of what Greg Rosenthal's been doing with the twenty five players of the last twenty five years. I personally noticed a lack of special Teams players. Especially with you coming on the show and Greg not being here, I felt like it was a perfect time to critique his work, right, and so, first, first and foremost, who would you have on here? That position wasn't necessarily a part of the qualifiers? Beside yourself, who would you have on here? And what did you think about some of these names?

00:14:38
Speaker 1: Overall?

00:14:38
Speaker 2: You've gotten to play with a lot of these guys, you've lined up across from them, you've been on opposite sidelines, you know them personally. Share your thoughts with me about this list.

00:14:49
Speaker 1: JJ.

00:14:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, My first notice is that Adam venit Teri is not on this list.

00:14:55
Speaker 3: So we're Super Bowl winner with two different teams, three time All Pro legendary kicks in the playoffs and in the Super Bowl legend you know, legendary kicks in the regular season. If Tom Brady's going to be one somewhere on this and obviously Peyton Manning at three, Adam Vanentaria, their kicker has got to be somewhere on this list. Now, usually you get the kicker at twenty five. So I don't know if I'm bouncing Travis Kelcey off the list, but I feel like Venitary needs to be at least somewhere there in the bottom five or six and give him his just due. The playoff and Super Bowl kicks are That's why part of the reason why Tom's got seven championships and Peyton's got two, one in Indianapolis, So it's such a big part of the game. And I certainly think Venatari is on there. I have had the great pleasure of playing with a lot of these guys and against these guys. Played with played with Luke for a long time. I played with Julius two different times.

00:15:50
Speaker 1: Yes, amazing.

00:15:52
Speaker 3: Yes, I remember I was a rookie when Julius his last year with Carolina the first time, and I remember sitting next to him. He was on the franchise tag, which I was still learning all about, and I did the quick math in my locker and I said, oh my gosh, this guy is making fifty times what I'm making. And that's the day I figured out that third down pays a lot better.

00:16:15
Speaker 4: Than fourth down.

00:16:16
Speaker 3: Is if you can rush the passer and you can affect the passing game, they will give you all the money in the world. And the Panthers did, then the Bears did, then the Packers did, then the Panthers did it again. Julius had an uncanny ability to be both long and powerful and athletic. And I asked him one time. I said, Julius, you're never really hurt, Like, how do you do that? And he just kind of this big grin, He goes, I don't have to put my head in there, because I'm so long, like he just knew, like it's such an athletic advantage. Played basketball at North Carolina would kill any of us in a basketball game a football game.

00:16:52
Speaker 4: I mean, he's an all time great the one area I kind of looked at it.

00:16:56
Speaker 3: When you look at the top five there, I think JJ Watson one of the most impressive defensive players of all time. But I don't know how you put him up there ahead of like ray Lewis. Like ray Lewis at middle linebacker is probably the greatest middle linebacker of all time. I'm certainly gonna put Luke up there in my top five, maybe my top two, but ray Lewis. With the Super Bowls, I did think it was very kind of Greg to put ray Lewis and.

00:17:21
Speaker 4: Ed Reid right next to each other time I ever, I.

00:17:26
Speaker 3: Thought that was I mean, that's fair, right, So if it's if ray is going to be five, then maybe Ed needs to be five, you know, like their cluster there.

00:17:34
Speaker 4: Again, I probably put ray ahead of Ed just.

00:17:36
Speaker 3: Just because I feel like when you think Baltimore Ravens, you think ray Lewis first and Ed Reid almost first, like they're two special guys. I remember we played them in Carolina in twenty ten and Ray intercepted a pass ran about five yards and he was getting to be a little bit older, so he was still athletic, but not top speed. He immediately looked and found Ed Reid, who, of course he pitches it to Edreid who runs in which we saw that highlight. What feels like a hundred times in the Ravens big runs as defenders is latterly scoring touchdowns.

00:18:09
Speaker 4: No argument for me on the top three.

00:18:11
Speaker 3: Tom's the best, Patrick's been fantastic, Peyton, those three are and all their accolades, but those were kind of my three little spots I would have. I think you got to have a couple of Super Bowls to be in the top five of the last twenty five years.

00:18:28
Speaker 4: But it's a good list and no real arguments for me.

00:18:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, Greg and I talked a little bit previously. One of the pushbacks that he got was no Troy Palomalu on the list. Dealers fans certainly let him know about that, and then I was asking him a little bit just curious out of a curiosity standpoint, because I really liked this list too. Where did Bobby Wagner fall? Because I remember being in those Carolina locker rooms, and the first person Luke would always talk about is Bobby Wagner and those two talking about each other and how they studied quarterbacks and how they went back and forth with quarterbacks. I don't think it's very strange. JJ, I have to tell you, you know, I was so I was such a young reporter that back then covering you guys, and it never really struck me that Luke was this. It's basically a kid, you know, in his early twenties playing at this level, because he always seemed larger than life. Like when Pep came back, it was like, yes, Julius M f ing Peppers is back right, and he is like a deity at this point, and he's the largest human you've ever seen in your life, maybe outside of Cam Newton, and like people are not supposed to move like that at that size. But Luke I always forgot how young he was when he was playing at such an elite level, and I sort of had this moment. Old people must have this all the time, but I had this moment where I was like, holy crap, Like I got to watch Luke Keigley grow up kind of, you know, and he's doing that again now, finding himself again in this retirement, although I think he still got it. But it's just crazy to me because you also you were in You were not old, but you were an elder statesman, a veteran in that locker room when he came in, and I guess I just wonder what that was like watching this young guy just be so obsessed and so focused and talented and able to tell his body to do these things that aren't supposed to be possible.

00:20:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, Cam Newton was Superman, but Luke was really Clark Kent. The look for sure, Yeah, the personality and demeanor always I always giggle, Like at his introductory press conference, he's got kind of this like fro thing going on. He's got these glasses on, and he looks straight out.

00:20:48
Speaker 4: Of the comic books.

00:20:50
Speaker 3: And you meet him and he's the kindest person of all time, and he's going above and beyond to just be a nice human being. And then you would watch that the first time I ever really noticed it, they'd done like a miked up segment and the amount of trash talk and getting under the other team's skin, and just he became Superman on the field, and then he come back to the sideline and he's like, hey, how's everyone doing, Like are we doing?

00:21:17
Speaker 4: Get over here. I've never seen anyone be able to turn it on and off that way.

00:21:22
Speaker 3: Like there's some guys, A lot of guys in the NFL are really really nice, but on game day they're jerks.

00:21:28
Speaker 4: You don't want to be around him.

00:21:30
Speaker 3: Luke could turn it on and off like inside the series, come off the field, be totally kind, and then go back on the field and it was just the meanest stuff you'd ever heard. And it wasn't like a lot of like swearing or anything. He was just he knew everything about the opponent and he knew what you were doing strategically. That was the toughest part. He wasn't just he just wasn't a trash talker. He knew the game inside out. And I remember like we were eight games into his rookie year and Brad Nortman was our punter. They were in the same draft class, and we're kind of ohing and on over how good he was again half a season in and I said, I said, Brad, like you ever talked to Luke about Like I didn't know him that well, yet he was still a rookie.

00:22:12
Speaker 4: I said, he ever talked to him about like how he's so good tackling. He goes, yeah, I actually did. We were talking about it a week ago. He goes.

00:22:19
Speaker 3: All he does is he just looks for the guy's belt and just hangs on for dear life.

00:22:23
Speaker 4: I go back and I watch. I was like he did. Now he did that violently, like when I am really hanging on. He did it violently.

00:22:31
Speaker 3: But he was an expert in the simplicities of the game, and he loved violence and he loved the intelligence. Like if he had played any other position, he'd been great because he he was the best athlete on defense that we had and he was the smartest guy. But making him the middle linebacker like the quarterback and be able to he elevated every other player. You remember Charles Johnson, who was a defensive end. We were in a We're in a training ca and practice and the defensive line coach was getting on Charles for not reading his keys. And in the middle of like they're breaking the huddle, the coach was still yelling at him to just.

00:23:09
Speaker 4: Read his keys. He stood.

00:23:10
Speaker 3: Charles stood up out of his stance and says, coach, I don't care what you say to me.

00:23:15
Speaker 4: I'm going exactly where Luke tells me to go.

00:23:17
Speaker 1: Oh my god.

00:23:18
Speaker 4: How so the players were.

00:23:21
Speaker 3: Ignoring the coaches just to listen to Luke because that's how that's how intelligent Luke was on the field.

00:23:27
Speaker 4: He elevated everyone he played with.

00:23:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's incredible, Thank you for sharing that. JJ.

00:23:31
Speaker 2: And obviously you know him now too in his retired life, and I hope he's getting a lot of phishing in. We'll ask him about this. He's going to be on the show with us here coming up soon. And I won't say who told me this? An opponent one time, you know, we always did the deep dives on like what makes him so good and all this stuff, and an opponent was like, well, when he talks to you on the field, it's not like normal trash talk, like you said, it's like he could tell you. He'll roast you about the time you like peede your pants in school and third grade, and then he'll tell you that you were wrong about the play.

00:24:03
Speaker 1: Like it's just the most defeating time of trash. Doc.

00:24:09
Speaker 2: It's incredible. The people that you've been around you've seen it all. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back with more. JJ Jansen. Welcome back NFL Daily. JJ Jansen's on the show. You're going into your eighteenth training camp, and first of all, holy cow right, and you have seen every training camp unwritten rule, myth, legend, fact, fiction that there is. So for that reason and because we're kicking off our fantastic training camp episodes, We're kicking off season two of NFL Daily next week when Greg is back for Japan, I wanted to talk to you about training camp myths and facts. So if you don't mind, I'd love for you to get us started. You know, you've been going to them for a lot longer than I got ten years. Hey, I got ten years. But I will not catch you.

00:25:14
Speaker 1: I know that.

00:25:15
Speaker 2: So what is a little known fact, a myth, a training camp, unwritten rule, and experience that tells the people, the listeners who are not in one, what training camp is like.

00:25:30
Speaker 4: You know, this is with all.

00:25:31
Speaker 3: Of the advancements in the sports science and analytics as it pertains to like body and maintenance, this is something that unfortunately is going.

00:25:39
Speaker 4: To go away from modern training camp.

00:25:42
Speaker 3: But if you talk to any of us that maybe went to camps in the early two thousands, I kind of I missed, like going away to colleges, like we went to Walford College forever. And don't get me wrong, we're gonna be in Charlotte. I'm gonna be able to stay in my own bed and see my kids. Like I love all that. But the best part of training camp because it's hard, it's long. You are building up, you know, Ron Rivera, you say like you're building like a callousness for the season, like you're you really are putting in the work to prepare for the year. But what I miss about training camp was in the middle of the day we'd get like these three hour naps.

00:26:19
Speaker 4: You had finish the morning work. You'd be exhausted. You left it all on the field.

00:26:23
Speaker 3: We used to go to training camp, as you remember in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and these fields like.

00:26:29
Speaker 1: Sit down, I'm traumatized.

00:26:31
Speaker 3: Yes they are human, and you are just you are sweating through socks and shoes and all this stuff. So you finally get a shower and you go back to the dormitories and it's not all that different than the Cooperstown Barracks, but you at least had your own room and you can sit there and just put your life back together for two to three hours before you did it again in the evening. And So while I think all the science is probably saying stay at home, be in your own bed, have all of the modern benefits of cold tubs and hot tubs and all this stuff, I always liked the guys would come back together, play cards, you know, play NERF basketball, take naps, and there was a lot of camaraderie building in training camp, and I think that'll be kind of missed as teams certainly focus on the health of the players, but there'ld just so much time together because every year is different, right. Good teams turnover half the roster, Bad teams turn over three quarters of the roster, and you need time to get to know your teammates if you're gonna have a long run, because there are highs and lows in the season. And the best teams I've been a part of, they had a bond in the unity and those usually date back to training camp. So that's my favorite part of training camp. It is it is not a popular take. I'm just going to colleges.

00:27:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, we actually have a picture of you.

00:27:52
Speaker 2: You had to become prepared, right, you had to bring all your fan a mattress, pad, supplies.

00:27:57
Speaker 1: Like all this stuff. We actually have a photo of you here.

00:27:59
Speaker 2: I see you with that Notre Dame t shirt on, and Johnny Hecker in the back breaking in at that time is his new jersey. You guys are check in and I think that's at Wafford if I recognize that brick building in the back, and I would say nothing. Trauma Bond's people like Spartanburg humidity, So that's great, but also staying in the dorms.

00:28:18
Speaker 1: I mean, he's got to tell us what's going on here. He brought a rug.

00:28:21
Speaker 4: Okay, that's great. I like that word. I'm gonna use that Trauma Bond.

00:28:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, ta.

00:28:26
Speaker 4: Is all about.

00:28:26
Speaker 3: So I'm actually wearing one of our our Revolution hats. So that's our that's our team. You've baseball hat, got it. I'm actually holding Johnny's golf club. So we found in the second to last year we're in Wafford, the men's and women's golf team had a room in our dorm that we we talked to the women's golf coach, and we got the code to so when everyone else was doing ten hour meetings, we were working on our golf game. So you see Johnny's clubs in my left hand.

00:28:54
Speaker 1: Freaking special teams man.

00:28:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, we didn't have a whole lot else to do. We broke it in so like guys like Adam Thielen wanted to show up, we.

00:29:02
Speaker 4: Could share from everything was going.

00:29:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, it's sort of this is always like the beginning of summer camp, right. I at this point I probably hadn't seen Johnny in six weeks, and and he was coming.

00:29:13
Speaker 4: Back from Washington. He's actually that's not his jersey.

00:29:16
Speaker 3: That is a nineteen ninety five Frank Wright jersey.

00:29:21
Speaker 4: But he had and wanted to get it signed.

00:29:24
Speaker 3: So he showed up as any good new student, will you want to you want to butter up the teacher, and Johnny went straight ahead and got the uh the original fourteen from the ninety five Carolina Panthers.

00:29:37
Speaker 4: So we got our beds.

00:29:39
Speaker 3: We've got a bunch of you know, it's so funny, like Johnny in his left arm is actually holding like a carpet because on.

00:29:46
Speaker 4: The dorm floors they were like tile. Ah, with the tile.

00:29:49
Speaker 3: You wake up and it's cold under your feet, and that doesn't feel very good when you're waking up first thing in the morning. So he and I both did the same thing where you would put that ru right at the foot of your bed so when your feet hit the floor is a little cozier under your toes than a cold tile floor to start your day. So those are just like the little things. The trauma bonding not so terrible.

00:30:14
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:30:14
Speaker 2: Wow, going from cold floors to moist, humid fields and Spartanburg where got to change cleats three times, you are quite the range of emotions through that Wofford College.

00:30:24
Speaker 1: Okay.

00:30:25
Speaker 2: One of my recently developed training camp factoids is that joint practices are the new preseason and you know, so many teams half the league and growing are holding backstarters in the preseason all if not at least one or two of the games, especially as the seasons get longer, and these joint practices are increasing as coaches schedule with each other so that they can actually get contact play. They can in a safe environment away from audiences, away from people filming their plays. Very secretive, very paranoidly league, as you know, away from visiting scouts that you know, accidentally show up to the open training camp practice.

00:31:06
Speaker 1: You know it's in the stands, why not?

00:31:08
Speaker 2: Are on the hill at Watford College, why not? And you know see what's going on. They like to work on things in the seclusion and quietness of a closed joint training camp practice. But here's what really matters about the joint practices in this day and age, coaches want to steal from each other, and they are doing it. The Los Angeles Rams scheduled joint training camp practices with the Chargers and Jesse Minter's defense because they wanted to know some of the pressure packages that he was planning on using, and they wanted to also use them, which Chris Shula started doing late in the late last season. Ron Rivera invited graciously Sean McDermott and the Buffalo Bills into town into Spartanburg, South Carolina, because only insane people go there for training camp and had joint practice is I believe it was before that twenty eighteen season, twenty nineteen season, so that they could understand a little bit better some of the extra personnel packages that Sean McDermott was starting to deploy. With that defense, and Ron wanted to use some of those different things that Sean, his former protege, was using. Coaches love to steal from each other. There is no safer way to do it than at a joint practice.

00:32:26
Speaker 4: And coaches love to coach.

00:32:28
Speaker 3: So you get the opportunity to watch live games and get two things done at once. Your first team offense is on one field, your first team defense is on the other field, so you get double the tape in the same amount of time. So the coaches love it, and as you as you know, well, the front offices love it because they get to go scout other teams players.

00:32:48
Speaker 1: So the league players legally.

00:32:50
Speaker 4: Scouting other players.

00:32:52
Speaker 3: So the player I always joke like with our front office, like the players down on the field in just the most grueling conditions, and the coaches and office are just loving it because it's information gathering. Yes, you know, And obviously it started in twenty sixteen or twenty seventeen with Sean McVay in LA. You start, you start holding people back, and then you start the season whatever that was, eight, nine, ten, and oh, and coaches go, maybe I don't need the preseason and now I can protect players and you get all these other advantages, so you're one hundred percent right. The joint practices are the new preseason games, and you can protect your quarterbacks, you can pull guys out more easily and practice what you want and what we are getting to And I think you've probably seen this in the last two years when I was first in the league and you had joint practices, which were rare. There were always two days, and inevitably day one was a good practice and some team won and some team lost. Well, if you lost day one, you were fighting on days that those are the rules of engagement. You weren't going to lose the second day, and if you were going to lose day you were going to come out swinging literally and figuratively. And so a lot of the coaches that we've seen they're going to one day yeah, and they're kind of trying to make it a little bit more game like because at the end of the day, there aren't fifteen yard penalties for fights.

00:34:16
Speaker 4: And as much as the.

00:34:18
Speaker 3: PA would love for there to be finds and things that happen on a field, it's not police the same way. And understandably, so, the joint practice is getting shrunk down and having one day of it's probably for the best for everybody. But I know we've talked about this in the past, like training camp fights.

00:34:40
Speaker 4: Some are real, some aren't. Explained camp fights are.

00:34:45
Speaker 1: Real, yes, So okay, JJ, when are they real?

00:34:49
Speaker 2: And when are they not real? Because I think we all have seen it before. If we're at these training camps. Sometimes it's a second day of a joint practice and it was a pretty neutral first day and it's just really hot the second day, right, and so it's like, Okay, I don't mind getting ejected today from the practice. I'm going to end my week early. But sometimes it is it's bad blood. Sometimes there's a lot of trash talk. It's really competitive. You have to go and make a statement if you lost the practice the day before. So when our training camps fights real and when are they myths?

00:35:26
Speaker 4: I think in today's day and age, they're real.

00:35:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, most of them are joint practices. A good amount of times they're younger players that are really scratching and cloning to make a roster and they're going to win by any means necessary. I think you used to see more of the fake training camp fights. You know, maybe when I was first in the league amongst two veterans that just were done with the day.

00:35:49
Speaker 4: Yeah right, I want to be out there anymore. And they kind of knew the rules of engagement.

00:35:53
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah.

00:35:54
Speaker 3: In today's day, our practices are not the same length that they used to be. They are they are still super intense, and when you get those hot conditions, I think people are They're not even really wanting to fight. They're just so frustrated and they got hit late, or they got hitting the way they didn't want, and they're just they snap. And it usually happens about two days before a joint practice or a game. You kind of know the end of playing against one another is coming to an end, but you can't quite take it anymore. And so now I think most of the fights are pretty real teams nobody, nobody really wants to fight, in my opinion. But I tell you what if someone else squares up on it. Now, again, this is not happening to me. So I'm watching this all.

00:36:40
Speaker 4: From distant but I've had in my career.

00:36:45
Speaker 3: I've had two injuries in joint practices on a putt rush because it does get physical and it gets it gets a little different because now I'm being rushed by someone that's trying to make the team, and even if their coach has told them don't run any players over. We don't want ankles and people landing on their head. If they get a chance to go block a punt in practice, they want to do it, so but there's no like I always think punt rushes like in practice are always the hardest because there's no return based off of it. Like in a game, you don't get home, you're circling back and trying to get someone to block. Well, in practice, you're just rushing. So it is an absolute mosh pit. And I've actually I've actually sprained and broke I've sprained a finger and broke my hand in joint practices just because you're like in you're in a tussle, so it's real. They're not they're not completely safe, but you know, the quarterbacks are in the red jerseys, and if you're if your center has a he has a sprained hand, he's not in there, whereas in preseason games or regular season games, you're in there. So it's been a good benefit and it doesn't hurt to see some guys from other teams.

00:37:52
Speaker 4: And again help the trauma bonding with other teams, and.

00:37:57
Speaker 2: Of course, if you were to get ejected JJ, you'd probably get reinstated based on your past precedent of.

00:38:02
Speaker 3: I could probably talk my way back way back it. Nobody nobody else is trying to talk their way back on the field. So usually when guys are getting ejected from practice, they're.

00:38:12
Speaker 4: Happy to leave.

00:38:13
Speaker 1: Amazing.

00:38:14
Speaker 2: Okay, before we get you out of here and back to coaching a completely dominant Little league team that's sweeping currently, by the way, that you left Greg Olsen in charge of, by the way, all thirteen twelve thirteen kids while you come to our show.

00:38:29
Speaker 1: So thank you very much for that, and thank you moms.

00:38:31
Speaker 3: The moms are helping out. Trust me moms around helping keep everything on.

00:38:35
Speaker 4: The on the track.

00:38:36
Speaker 1: Okay, good.

00:38:36
Speaker 2: I could just hear Greg's voice in my head organizing everybody. So it's that maybe that, maybe that's my trauma bonding moment.

00:38:42
Speaker 3: There two things I've learned. He is obsessed with floor cleanliness, so there's been rooming in there. And he is he is all in on medical emergencies. Our kids hurt, their kids get hurt. He is flying off the buck, hit on the side, we're wrapping our kids' legs when they get bruises, we are icing other people's teams, and he loves a good medical emergency.

00:39:08
Speaker 1: So coming soon to the show the pit Greg als.

00:39:13
Speaker 3: Both his parents were teachers. Is that as a football coach, so it kind of comes with the territory.

00:39:18
Speaker 4: He's all in on it. So we don't need a training staff.

00:39:20
Speaker 2: We got Greg shirts, we got Greg Okay, So before we get you out here, one more training camp myth tidbit factoid. Something you want to share about the real side of training camp with our listeners today.

00:39:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think on the football side, you know, most of the roster spots are pretty taken. Yeah, I think there isn't this belief that there's ninety guys fighting for fifty three spots. There's there's fifty five guys, or there's let's call it sixty five guys fighting for fifty three spots.

00:39:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe not even that much.

00:39:56
Speaker 3: Now with the post COVID rules, the expanded practice squad eligibility and the standard elevations and all that stuff.

00:40:07
Speaker 4: If you if you.

00:40:08
Speaker 3: Play really well on the ninety man roster in training camp, you'll get on your own practice squad, and that's a really good place to start. You know, the roster isn't fifty three anymore, it's seventy. And there's a huge advantage to playing really well at training camp. But there's not as many camp battles as I think everyone would like to see everyone. You know, probably once a year someone that really wasn't expected to make the roster does. Sometimes you're not even keeping the best fifty three, you're keeping the fifty three that you think someone else will claim.

00:40:43
Speaker 4: And how do I navigate the rules just a little bit?

00:40:46
Speaker 3: Not not the rules, but hey, we don't think this s guy will get claimed. We can start him on practice squad, and this other guy he might not be a starter or even our backup, but we see some developmental opportunities for him and we're going to protect them on the roster. So, you know, there's a lot of roster maintenance in those first few weeks that are happening. But there's just not as many camp battles as everybody thinks because a lot of those decisions are made in March, yeah, with money and contracts and draft picks.

00:41:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, But as the season.

00:41:15
Speaker 3: Goes along, the roster building Marty Hernie our OLGM said roster buildings three sixty five, and I'm sure every GM in the NFL feels the same way.

00:41:23
Speaker 4: So we have these deadlines.

00:41:25
Speaker 3: And one of them is the fifty three man cut, but the roster is always churning. It's just not as fluid as I think maybe the fans might think it is.

00:41:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, teams will cut players and then sign them back to save four hundred thousand dollars on their contract. Teams will, like you said, protect certain players that they want to develop, or who are key depth places or play on special teams and need to play multiple like a core four player on special teams. They will keep them and then try to We call it sending a guy through the wash, basically sneak a guy through this massive flood of cuts all across the league. It's easier than you think for these front offices to lose track of players that they want. It's it's a very interesting time of year.

00:42:09
Speaker 4: Jordan.

00:42:09
Speaker 3: I was going to ask you, Yeah, the front office always talks about sneaking guys through. It's not it's not like sneaking in the back door. There is a there, there's a list. Yeah, how on earth does anyone get like snuck through.

00:42:23
Speaker 4: I don't understand this, JJ.

00:42:24
Speaker 2: You would be absolutely gobsmacked at some of the people in these front offices.

00:42:30
Speaker 1: That's all I'm gonna say. Yeah, And also that.

00:42:34
Speaker 2: The role is the control f the role of control effings trying to find your guy. Uh, you know, sometimes it's delegated to someone very low on the food chain who has is doing a million different jobs.

00:42:47
Speaker 1: Also, sometimes they're.

00:42:49
Speaker 4: Not Google alerts for these guys' names. That's got There's gotta be some.

00:42:54
Speaker 1: Okay, So it's funny.

00:42:55
Speaker 2: There should be like you know, it would get into like really tricky territory in terms of the union what the union says is allowed and not allowed. But conversation. Just talk to each other, you know, your adults just talk to each other. Although that's not really allowed, so we won't really do that. But I'm just saying, like you can't. Some of these guys are hard to miss, and yet they still go through the wash or it's a cost cutting move. Also, my last one too is if you are somebody who is interested in position battles, and they're like rosters are pretty set, as you said, going into training camp. But if you are somebody interested in running backs by committee or competitions for receiving reps and targets. Then look at watch where people line up in drills. You might not think it matters, but the videos, the boring videos of players lining up for drills, tells you so much more than the gorgeous, sweeping, well produced shot of the ball sailing through the air for the highlight reel catch for the new receiver. The boring stuff tells you so much more about training camp and about the team than the exciting stuff. And I think that also if I can bridge the gap JJ, if I can do it, I don't know.

00:44:11
Speaker 1: If I can do it.

00:44:12
Speaker 2: That also tells you so much about what is important about your craft. Your craft that you've been doing for now eighteen going to be eighteen seasons. You just repeat and habits and what some on the outside might call the boring. See, I'm nailing this, you know the segue, I'm getting it. I'm nailing it landing the plane. This is exactly why you've been so successful for so long, because you have studied your craft. You understand it, every granular layer to it that the outside world does not see. And it's reps and its consistency, and it is never missing time and never missing a start to training camp somehow, even though you very much would be within your rights to do that. At this point, it's just an honor talking to you today. Thank you so much for co hosting with me. I never thought little Joe, you know, running around like a chicken with her head cut off, scared just in the Panthers' locker room. I never thought that I would get an opportunity to actually co host an NFL Network show with you, and we got to do that today and I am freaking stoked, so thank you so much.

00:45:15
Speaker 4: And this was a blast. This absolutely flew by. I just took a peek.

00:45:19
Speaker 2: I was like, I know, I was like, I suddenly became very aware of how long.

00:45:23
Speaker 4: This is exactly a lot of ground fast.

00:45:25
Speaker 1: This is how Joe person always missed his deadline. JJ. You just get to talking to you. It's you. You're like you're the void.

00:45:31
Speaker 2: Like you just start talking to you and you lose complete track of time in the best way. And I really appreciate that.

00:45:38
Speaker 3: This has been so much fun, and I really appreciate the time and having me on. This is a blast. I gotta keep I gotta keep working my craft because I needed I get more fun out of asking you the follow up questions than just just answering the questions. Again, I wasn't totally sure. The thing I was going to bring up about the front offices was simply the idea that every front office I've ever been a part of tells me they sneak guys through three days early, like they all do it.

00:46:06
Speaker 4: So and you cleared it up.

00:46:08
Speaker 3: I didn't have any idea, so I'll be more prepared next time to ask you a bunch of questions the things I had.

00:46:13
Speaker 4: No idea about.

00:46:15
Speaker 1: I love it well, JJ. We appreciate you.

00:46:18
Speaker 2: Eric behind the glass, you did a great job. Chris Pabona on the keys back there with the video when we're talking to the eighteen season long snapper for the Carolina Panthers, JJ Jansen, wait for it, wait for it, Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it.

00:46:35
Speaker 1: You know football is back