But we have an incredible guest, Ed McCaffrey, coach McCaffrey, CMC's father, my very first action figure as a kid. Let's give it up for Ed.
Let's go ahead.
That's a selfless guy, a selfless guy. First question, First question, who's your favorite kid of all of them?
You know, very it varies by the day. My wife and I joke around about it. It's whoever happens to call us back the quickest on that particular really so you're kind of liked, or whoever's got something pretty important coming up. So last week it was Luke my sign. He's played in the senior balls, getting ready for the combine. This week, Christian's got a pretty good game coming up here, right, Who's consistently at the top of the charge? It varies, man,
it varies. You know, obviously you love all your kids the same, but there's some that you're more happy with in any particular point in time. And so right now they're all good. Yeah, they're on the good list right now.
You gotta love that, dude. It's got to be hard juggling those three kids at all times.
You got four, right, you got four brothers. Max is the oldest. Then you got Christian. Well, I was trying to follow your math. Five plus eight is thirteen, and now I thought, maybe there's something to your math. Do you want kids? But do you want to hear that? You know occasion I have forgotten one of my kids in the past, accidentally left him in the car for a couple of seconds forgetting they were falling asleep in the car seat, lost him in a store one time.
So hey, you know all this forgive I appreciate that, yeank, you do. You know why they were talking about the number.
Thirteen because that's how many years I played in the NFL. Of course, it's not about me. Now what thirteen? It's a good reference for it. So you know brock Pritty's number. What are we talking? I'm trying to follow your math.
So the whole conspiracy obviously, you know Taylor Swift, you know she is dating somebody on the opposing team that.
You're so aware of it. I've been yeah, I've heard reports.
The Swifties have like come up with this crazy conspiracy theory that Taylor Swift's favorite number, well they know her favorite number is thirty, right, And obviously super Bowl fifty eight five plus eight is thirteen. Forty nine ers four plus nine US thirteen.
Wow, forty nine Ers are.
The one one seed. Chiefs are the three seed thirteen. Taylor Swift, if she goes to the game, it'll be her thirteenth appearance at a Chiefs game. If she makes it back from Tokyo to Vegas for the Super Bowl, it's roughly a thirteen hour flight, right, so it's kind of right. A lot of things are stacked.
Was there a movie I don't think it was thirteen? Was it twenty three with Jim Carrey? Remember that there was a movie where they started connecting the dots. It's like, well, you know, twelve and then eight one bagel and that's thirteen. And they just started making all these random connections that mean absolutely nothing.
Yeah, but it's fun to talking about nothing. The thirteen killer is wearing a nine ers.
I know a lot of hotels don't have a thirteenth floor.
That's true, right, which is odd too, because really, you know, you know, if you.
Go one know there's a thirteenth floor. Yes, use it for storage or something. It's there.
It's a whole it's a whole thing. Have you what's your thought process? On Taylor Switch right now, you anti Taylor swip.
Because of the week. You know, my wife is like her biggest fan, and she nobody has supported her relationship with Travis Kelsey more than my wife defending defending her and Travis. To people who are the football people that don't want to mix entertainment and football, I'm like, look, football is entertainment, it's live entertainment, it's real. But you know, those two worlds have collided and there's no going back back.
And it looks like they're happy and healthy. Like I'm in Andy Reid's camp when it comes to that they're happy and healthy. More power to them. But Lisa has so many Taylor Swift songs on her playlist when she goes jogging every day, and actually bought this piece of artwork from Steven Wilson, this really cool artist that she likes. There's a whole Taylor Swift piece of art that hangs
in our piano room. But you know, not listening to as much music this week, I'm gonna put it on the kabash for about a week, your wife, and then we'll go right back to listening to it. Look, she's one of the greatest artists in the world. She puts together. She's great for the end of one week bend. Is that too much toask? Is that wrong?
If you're Swift fan, I bet you they say yes.
Is it okay?
Is your wife aware that the government kind of set up their relationship?
She is not aware. She is not. She is not aware of that conspiracy. The guys are into the conspiracy theory. So it's just.
Conspiracy theories like the whole idea behind them, like people who truly buy in, and it's like there's lizard people down in the sewers of Washington, d C. To me, I'm not like subscribing to that. I'm not like buying in buying the T shirts. But I do love the conversation. I love the idea of being JFK big Foot inside Bigfoot, not a level, was an inside job. It's like, oh
my god, let's dive into this a little bit. I love to hear people passionately tell me why this is a real thing and then low key by it towards the end.
I think I saw one of those lizard people in a field trip I took in eighth grade, so there may be truth to that one. Yeah, live in Colorado. You go if you walk through the airport, Oh yeah, through the IA in Colorado. They brack about it. They really little weird sculptures and signs on kind of shaped like a whale. There's talking about underground.
I mean, there's like the conspiracy because they have all that land surrounding the air Yeah, what do they do out there?
Millionaires A bunch of billionaires own real estate out there, and it's said that they have bunkers in that area.
It's pretty bizarre when you start to look at some of the artwork and some of the science, and they kind of have embraced it. We got our evil blue horse with the red eyes outside the airport. Have you seen that thing? It's kind of cool, but you're like, is there something to it or not? Maybe they're like just trying to be so obvious about it, but it really exists. I don't know.
As a as an athlete growing up, you have the thirteen year career that you have, like when you're younger and you talk about, you know, I want to have sons. I want them to be like me. I want to be athletes. And now it's transpired. See them, see we know what he's you just mentioned Luke being at the Senior Bowl getting ready for a combine. You have to be you have to feel good, fully grown, knowing that you're offspring are basically succeeding your journey.
Yeah. You know, as a parent, you know you want your kids to be happy and healthy, whether they play football or do anything else, you want them to be happy and healthy, chase their dreams. It just so happens. All four of our boys ended up playing football, and it's been Christian's dream to play in the NFL and then eventually playing a Super Bowl his whole life. So as a parent, whether you're kid's a musician or an artist, or they're into they're an engineer or whatever they do, right,
you just want them to be happy. And so I'm happy because he's happy.
It seems like that's a very well polished piece answer. Yeah, that you would give to anybody who's having it. Gets Hey, as long as they're happy and healthy, they can do whatever they want. But based on our conversation with Christian, it seemed like it was football or nothing.
Really, you heard the story, so was in football or nothing? No, Look, we always in the jeans story, we always ask them to I don't even have heard this. Whatever they're doing, be the best at that, right. We're big and like, you are what you do, right, and if you do something, you are how you do it. So if you're going to do something, do it to the best of your ability. So we've always emphasized that. But it didn't have to
be football. Could have been anything, Like there was a couple of times where maybe they wanted to take a season off of not playing a sport, and we're like, great, get a job. I don't care what you do. Get a job, Join the chess club. I don't anything you want to do. But you're not just gonna sit around doing nothing. So you know you are what you do. Go do something. When you do it, be the best you can. When you play a team sport, no matter what it is, you got other people that are depending
on you. And I think those are good lessons when you're young.
Yeah, but the approach of which I mean Christian he did bring up you get you get tackled by.
Your jersey ground rounded that's place safety.
He told the stories of you walking on the woods and finding a crushed soda can and coming back and be like, hey, what do we got here.
I'm sure everyone's been embellished. Man, my kids tell stories about me. I don't know how much of it's true or not. I hope most of it is not true. But look, you know it's like, hey, the carbonation while you're playing, and sugary drinks. You know, just limit them during the season before you play a game. Tape in the jersey. Like horse collar used to be a thing, there was no horse collar. That was just a tackle. People used to grab you by your jersey and drop
on the back of your legs. That's a dangerous play. They outlawed it in the NFL. Right, they're even talking about having that drop tackle hip drop right. So for me, it was player safety. I saw a kid in the little league get hurt pretty bad. Someone grabbed the back of his jersey and then body dropped on the back of his legs, broke the kid's leg. And I'm like, I don't know what that happened to my kid. You know what, from now on, you're gonna have your jersey
tape down. You will never get jersey tackle. And if you ever do, you know you're gonna hear about it from me. But I'm the one taping it grounded. Do you ever? Do you ever get your jerseys tape? You got them taped right right, so you know the advantage of having your jersey tape and a linemen. You don't want guys grabbing you and you don't get to get beat But when you're a running back or a ball carrier, you don't want to get grabbed and tackled from behind
him potentially hurt. But if you've ever watched your equipment manager have to tape your pads where I hope you thanked him because it's a thankless job. It is not fun two way tape in a jersey, And I did it for all four of my boys all the time. Did you ever? I think I swear to you seared many more touchdowns because of that, because I countless clips of people trying to grab for the jersey and slipping on. You're the reason for their success, not at all, did
you ever? But I was the reason they didn't get jersey tackled? Yeah? Did they?
Did they ever get grounded for getting jersey tackled?
I think Christian did once? Yeah, or at least seriously reprimanded. And then he reprimanded.
He told me right home, no ac well during the summer and no speaking windows.
It was one of those like once we got in the car, I didn't have to say anything. He already knew, right, there was a couple I didn't even say a word. We just drove home in silence.
Hey, that's such a that's a good dad.
Yeah, you know has a dad too. Like if they played baseball, say, hey, no swimming on game day. Yeah, all those little things you're not allowed to do.
And you so, I mean, obviously you play thirteen years in the n FELL. You were known for being like one of the greatest blocking wide receivers of all time, a tough guy that would lay out over the middle make acrobatic catches. When you start having sons, is there's like a thought process of like do I need to instill this type of toughness in them or they come out of the womb fighting.
Well, Luckily, I think that was just their their mentality. Early on, they were serious competitors. They competed with each other. I think it's good to have four brothers in the same house, so they compete with each other, they compete with their friends, and then in games. Yeah, they were super competitive. Lisa, my wife, super competitive. She was an athlete, and you know it just again, it's just if you're gonna do something, be the best you can at it, right,
Why go through the motions? And so they were always kind of wired that way. It was expected of them. But I really never had to nudge him too much in terms of being competitive.
There was never a moment they like stubbed their tone and you're like, come on, man, you're better than this.
They're crying.
Oh, I have a six year old daughter and she stubs her toe and I have that feeling.
Yeah, look at it's fine.
And I don't say that out loud, but I feel it internally.
I take it. I stubbed my toe in my hotel room on the table, and I thought it broke my toe, and I was giving myself that talk. Yeah, yeah, dude, it's all right. You played them in the NFL. You're tougher than this. Stop winding over your stub toe. But I think I might have broke it for real. Right now, you've a broken could be broken. Yeah, I don't you know. You you walk it off, man, Gotta watch what you do.
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Did you actually go and pick up? Would you go and pick up Christian and your boys like during school to get for them to get an IV?
Yeah? A lot's been made about this whole IV thing. Yeah I did. Yeah, well, but not every game, So I did it for night game. So the first high school game they played at night, right, Can you guys remember back in high school wasn't that long ago? Right? You got to actually go to class, right, Like, you're up at like six in the morning. You're lucky to eat something before you leave the house. You're on your
feet all day, you're eating cafeteria lunch. Then you got another three four hours and then you don't come home after school. You really don't have a proper dinner, and you're on your feet all day, going to class and walking around. Like can you imagine the NFL, Like, hey, put in eight hours and then let's go play the game. Now, we don't do that, right, We're in the NFL. It's all about ball. So at night, a lot of the kids on the team would cramp up like they're playing
under the lights. They've been on their feet all day and they're dehydrated. They didn't eat or drink properly. And so you know, Christian cramped in the first night game he played in. I'm like, all right, you know you're dehydrated. I'd like to think you'd drink enough loos throughout the day but it's hard to do and he's he like, you know, he's in on offense, on defense, on special teams. He didn't come off the field. So he's one of those guys. It's not like you're playing fifty snaps. You
might be playing one hundred and fifteen snaps. And in the beginning of the summer it's hot. I mean in the beginning of the school you're right, in August, it's you know, ninety degrees or eighty some degrees. So yeah, when he cramped up, I'm like, you know, let's get an IV. You won't and he never cramped up ever again. After getting IV's you're welcome. I will say this, we got to love the photosophy.
We did have internally, like sat in the room by himself and like, all.
Right, this is what we gotta se We did have one bad experience where I regretted my decision to get him in IV. It was a before a state championship game, and I'm like, you know, by this time, you know how it is. If you think it works, it works, right, Yeah, But I think ivs do work. But this wasn't a night game. It was like an afternoon game. But probably didn't need the IV. But he's like, are we gonna get an IV? I'm like, yeah, we're get the ivy Like he's going to be locked in, right, he's going
to feel like Superman getting this IV with electrolyts. It's just a basic you know, saline solution, electro lights, whatever, no big deal. But our doctor that we went to was out of town. So I'm like, you know, they got IV places all over the place. We just went to like a strip mall, like outside IV place, and like, this place will do. How hard is it to give an IV? Right, it's not too difficult. So we go in there, no problem, we'll set them up, we'll get them the IV. I'm kind of on my phone text
and he's like, hey, Dad, Dad, I look over. He's got like a softball sized lump in his arm. Went through the vein. Well, they didn't hit the vein at all. They were pumping sailine underneath his skin and it was just swelling up. And I'm like, oh my gosh. So I called the nurse practitioner and she comes in and says, oh, it's okay, it's just solution, starts pressing down on it to get it to go away, and so my heart rate is up a little bit because I'm like, we got a game in a few hours, like this is
the day of the state championship. She's like, I'll not the head. So she's like, I'll try, I'll try. I'll try it again, right, I'll try it again. I'm like, I'm a little nervous because I'm like, I don't know these people, and you know, it's an outdoor strip mall. It shouldn't be that hard. So she tries it again and dude, she hits a vein and blood literally splattered up to the ceiling. There's blood splattering everywhere, and I'm
having a panic attack. Now. I'm like, oh my gosh, like he's gonna be low on blood and forget the IV. Like he's losing blood. It's splattered all the way up to the ceiling. And the look on his eyes was just sheer shock, like what just happened. So I'm like, oh, we're good, We're good. You know, let's let's just go. So you know, you still got this lump that's slowly going down the blood on the ceiling. I'm like, oh my, it's like we have a game in a couple hours.
So we're out of here. So we leave did and get the IV and Christian makes fun of me because he's like a believer in me, right, He's like, Dad, got me the IV's this is gonna help me. And we get in the car and he's like, well, we're gonna go somewhere else for the IV and I'm like, no, dude, it's it's really all in your mind. It's overrated. Just drink a lot of gate.
Hey, everything is drink.
Drink a lot of Gator. He'll be fine. It is incredible. Drink a lot of body arm or actually is what you should be Yeah, this stuff, by the way, zero, No, this stuff is delicious. I love body arm.
Do you you still follow like lot of like health things and you kind of dive into the biohacking world at all.
I wouldn't say bio hacking, but I do get my blood levels tested every year, and I want to make sure that you know, my hormones are balanced and my blood levels are balanced. And also, you know, you get in your fifties, guys, you guys are still so young. Man. I love hanging out with Christian's friends. By the way, this is cool, but is but but you know, you get older. Unfortunately I don't have all my friends with me man some of it. So early detection is important,
Getting yourself tested is important, and feeling good. Man, leave healthy as long as you can. You know, you guys have heard the horror stories about former football players and all the difficult physical challenges they have, and so yeah, man, get tested often and early and do everything you can to feel good.
Was it when you were you talk about like, you know, guys who stopped playing football and they kind of go downhill a little bit, But like when you played, a lot of the rules have changed since then, a lot of like a lot of bigger hits and stuff. Was there ever a point where you started seeing maybe some of your former teammates going downhill? You're like, I got to make sure I can do everything I possibly can can not for this now happened.
To me absolutely, And so obviously you hear all the talk about head trauma. I think a lot of athletes also. You know, the rules are different, they protect players a little bit better, but it's still a collision sport, you know that, right. You know there's drug and alcohol abuse, there's depression, there's all kinds of things that former players go through once they retire. I think today's players are so much better educated. They've heard the stories of players
that came before them. They understand how important is to take care of the body. You're looking in phenomenal shape. Man, how much weight have you lost? I've lost sixty pounds. Sixty pounds, right, And so all the linemen I played with on our team's lost a bunch of weight and gotten not all of them, not all of them are with us, but a lot of them got in shape. They knew that. Look, I got to lose weight and be at a healthy weight and feel good. I want
to feel good moving around. I want to be healthy and I want to live a long time. So you you're proactive about it, right, Not everyone is. Some people, you know, it's drugs, alcohol, it's eating too much food. Getting overweight and just being overweight alone causes a lot of problems. But I think today's athletes understand it. I think they do a better job. Especially linemen are taking care of themselves once they retire.
Yeah, it's unique with offensive linemen. It seems like every offensive lineman kind of goes this way and then like the running backs and receivers and corners keep eating the same way and like it flips a little bit, right.
Yeah, and so so were you a weight gainer a weight loser? I was.
I was a weight gang guy.
Always.
You always had to gain weight.
My first weight at Michigan, I was two hundred fifty four pounds. Like, hey, your red shirting because you had all the weight. And I would do, you know, wake up three am, have like pasta, like a chicken alfredo from like a pizza hutah, and like scarf that down. Then go do a workout at six am. Throw that up. And then they're just like shoveling food in me over and over again. So when I did inevitably stop playing,
it became like, oh that this is easy. I'll just start shdding the weight and it came off relatively fast.
Yeah. We always I have that argument with a lot of different people. My brother was a kid. It was real skinny, and he's a basketball player and he always had to gain weight, and he's like, dude, it's so much harder to gain weight than to lose weight. And I'm like, I think it's harder to lose weight because I was like two thirty eight in high school and had to lose weight to play receiver. Even going into
the NFL. Probably played at two twenty twenty two. So I was constantly trying to lose weight, and so for me, I always thought it was harder to lose weight. But it's a healthy debate in the NFL. To be a lead at your position, you need to be at least within a range. Some guys have to gain, some have to lose. But I think the ones that end up healthier were the lighter ones that had to gain. Even
though it's hard to do. For you, you gain the weight, it's easier to shed it because you see some guys gain one hundred pounds, and you're right, I see, I know dbs and receivers that put on one hundred pounds. They don't even look like the same person. It's just not healthy.
Yeah.
One guy that comes to my mind is you know you remember denaral Robinson.
Yeah, from Michigan. Yeah, yeah, well looking a little thick now, I'll call it. Then. I love my boy, I love the nar but you know he's well, yeah, I feel his pain, man, because I I'm you know, I need to be lighter than I am. But at one point, I was weigh thirty pounds heavier than this, and I'm thinking, uh, you know, I don't feel good moving around. It's harder to work out, and you just know it's not it's
not healthy. You put yourself at risk of so many different illnesses and diseases, and like, I want to be around. I'm watching my kids play ball. I'm watching Yeah, you know my wife isn't great shape and energetic. I mean I got to keep up, keep up around from Yeah. Yeah again, I'm still hanging out with my son's friends. Yeah, went on the most bus I've ever Yeah, sat in over here.
Which way? Which way is? Treyll Davis went.
He's in great shape? Real You seen him lately?
No?
Oh? TD? Yeah, I ran into him in Colorado. Yeah, oddly enough, I was walking across the street and he like sped his car up and hunked the horn. I thought I was gonna get hit, and I was just TD messing with me. Yeah, just saw him in the middle of street, white lightning. Yeah, and uh, and then I said, you know, I cleared some traffic for him, like I took pride in doing when he was playing. But no, he's chiseled dude.
How about his way? He started in the league like they like kickoff right, like special teams.
I was there, man, he was like the sixth string running back, and uh, I felt sorry for him. I didn't really know him, Like there's his back out. He was a late round draft pick out of Georgia and he was six string and they were you know, back then, if you're a scout team running back, that's the worst job in football. Like here's the first string defense. We're going to practice our stuff and let's put the third string line in in training camp and run our six
string running back behind him. On every plane, he was getting tattooed, like just annihilate and if he.
Does well, it's like no come back, run it again.
Yeah, oh no, it's this way. It's all set up for the defense. So I didn't even know him, and I felt sorry for him. And then one by one, kind of like your story, guys started going down and guys start getting hurt. We were in Tokyo, Japan, playing the forty nine ers, and he almost left. If he spoke Japanese he would have left. But he went down to the lobby tried to ask for cab. They weren't understanding what he was trying to say. He's like, Okay,
forget about he's gonna leave. He was literally gonna leave Tokyo. He's like with six string, he's getting killed in practice. He's like, there, I'm not gonna make the team. There's no way. And then he made that play on special teams. I think something clicked. He's like, look, I don't care, man, I'm just gonna hit somebody flew down on the kickoff team, blew somebody up. Next thing, you know, a couple guys go down. He's the starter's Hall of Fame running back,
but he was that close to leaving the team. That close's wild.
Yeah, I've never heard that part of it. Have you seen the play?
No?
He just I mean he just this dude flies and then like if you do, whether it's the NFL films or something out there that like kind of talks about it or history. Maybe it's a football life. I don't know if he has one, but uh, everybody's like, you know, turn their head like, yo, who is that was that? Terrell Davis Like who's that kid?
Yeah?
And then he yeah, freaking.
Goes like the man start of his whole thing.
Yeah, origin story back when you could get like the you know, you could do like big running starts on kickoff right, Oh yeah, like not even now you got to stand there. That was five yards and that one might have been like ten, right, Yeah, you can get more than that.
You could go back as far as you want it, but usually you were ten just to time it up right. Yeah, but that was like a whole training camp worth of just anger and pain and hostility that he took out on that one play, which really changed the court. I think he would have been great no matter what, but for the Broncos, it changed the course of his career.
Wasn't Shannon Sharpe a similar story? Like he had to play special teams a whole bunch.
Shannon was a really good tight end. He was already an all pro tight end when I got to the Broncos, And so I know, was he undrafted late round pick?
He was a late round but I thought he was a core four guys didn't make his hay that way beginning.
He definitely didn't get fat.
Have you seen him. I just saw him today. Man, he got bigger and stronger than he was to play.
Yeah, Yeah, he's in he's in medicine.
Man.
You know, I like to try to make it I'm getting older. I try to make excuses for not being in better shape than I see Shannon. I'm like, oh, you're killing me, dude, Yeah, you're killing me. Yeah. We're at a party.
He's a super Bowl way, we're a seventh round big Yeah, we're a party of last super Bowl. And he was there in obviously Shannon, he's he's a fantastic personality, is crushing life on so many different platforms right now. But he was at that party and he's wearing a shirt that he knows is a size too small for him, and he looked you kind of a stare. I'm like, bro, you look amazing. He's an action figure. Yeah, he literally looks like an action figure. It's it's how fun was he to.
Be around a training camp? You see this stuff with the Ravens. But I'm sure he just has that personality.
It was so fun. It's like you guys, you guys are naturals. On the podcast, like when he's out there talking, that's him. He was that way in the locker room. He was always cracking jokes, making fun of people's clothes and having fun. And you know, I was always more serious guy, but I loved Shannon and we had this guy, Keith Burns, and they play off each other a little bit and crack jokes and it just lightens up the whole mood and makes us makes it a little more fun. Yeah.
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As let's just say hypothetically, the forty nine Ers win the Super Bowl. How long do you wait until you tell your son you have two more than him?
Oh, I will never say that, you know, I never, you know, I'll be so happy. First off, if that happens, I will be the happiest person on the planet. I might be happier Christian for him and for the forty nine Ers. This you know. Obviously I love Christian, He's my son. This has been a dream of his. But also this team feels like family to me. There's connections with the coaches and the general manager that goes back
into my college days. So that would be incredible. But I never you know, having played football in Denver and with my kids playing football, I don't have any Lombardi trophies. My my rings were in safety deposit box. And I never wanted them to have to think that's what I need to be able to do to that's cool to be successful. Yeah, And and it doesn't mean that's the right or wrong answer. I'm just like, whatever they do, it's their experience. It's not about me. It's about them.
I'm here to love them and support them. If they have football questions for me, I'll help them as much as I can get them in the IVS.
Tape up their jersey, you wearing jeans but a school But it's exactly, but it's rue.
But it's really about weigh and you I interjected a little bit. But on the field, you know, it was their experience. So I want them to feel that way. And I didn't want to set these redics less expectations and not that it would have mattered, I think, because I think they have high expectations for themselves. But you know, now I'm older, I'm like, yeah, I hope you do win so I can maybe put up one of those. Be proud to have one of those, Yeah in my office. Yeah one day.
How awesome, like you alluded to it, like the forty nine ers feels like family, a lot of connections, like John Lynch, the Shanahan's, you guys, like it has to be just surreal that it's your son, coach, Mike Shanahan's son, your you know, your former teammate, and John Lynch, Like you guys are all kind of rocking the same team. Like how how sick is that always are back together?
Yeah? Man, No, I just have so much respect for those guys you just mentioned I mean they are the real deal, right. I mean John Lynch was a teammate of mine at Stanford. He was played quarterback. I caught passes from him, and he was the real deal going back that far before he switched to say.
How far off of how different the difference in like.
Maybe two years maybe? Okay, yeah, and he switched the safety after I graduated, But I mean he was the real deal back then, like a true pro already in colle one of those guys like college, this guy already has his tack together. Yeah, not everybody does, but so much respect for him. And then Kyle Shanahan watching him grow up, and you know, future Hall of Fame coach, Mike Shanahan just had such an important impact on my life.
And our families are close. And then you know, Brian Greesie was my quarterback, and Bobby t is a legend and running back, and Anthony Lynn's my teammate. It's incredible running backs coach. And the Kubiak kids are over there, and I mean it. You know, if you could go back and remember high school ball where you knew all he knew all the families, right, it's like, oh, you're
all there. You know, tailgating and you know everybody. That's what it feels like in the NFL, and I think that's rare, like unless you're on the team, like to be a parent and feel like I know everybody, Oh that's what it's one of one feeling. It's such a cool feeling.
It is, dude, like you're a player experiencing that stuff and now you're at this, you're you know, you're a parent now, like coming back to it and you're just like, yo.
I would be embarrassed. Wh my dad would come to the games and meet the coaches and hey, so, well, how's my son doing. I'm like, that's shut up, you get the car, let's just let's go. That's all. You're probably hanging out with them, chopping it up, and they're just like, you know, this is one of us. Because you know a dad, it's like, hey, proud of your son.
He's doing a great job. He kind of hit him with the basics as a coach, but with you, it's like they can probably give you a little more inside ball and talk a little bit more, knowing you understand the craft as well, and they know your personality.
And that he has the connections with GM coaches, head coaches played with them like that is really special.
So with all that all, like this family style of thing with the forty nine ers, when Christian's playing for the Panthers and that trade, you see the trade finally happen from the Panthers of the forty nine ers, Like, what's your reaction?
Yeah, I was a static because I know Kyle Shanahana know what an incredible coach he he is. And then I looked at the roster and I'm like, dude, this team is littered with talent, and I knew about all the guys we just mentioned Anthony Lynn and Bobby t and Brian Greasy and the Koopjacks and all the other guys on the coaching staff, and I'm like, this is a perfect situation for you. Kyle's going to know how to use you. He's a phenomenal coach. You know, you
have a ton of other talent around you. You're going to get to be part of a great organization. I played for the forty nine ers. It's an incredible organization from Jed York on down, and so Lisa and I were static. Plus we went to Stanford. It's in the Bay area. I'm like, this is incredible for us, easy flight from Denver. But Christian, you know, he's a team guy. He's like a loyal guy. Whoever his team is, those are his guys. He's a boys boy. Yeah, so he
was like, you know, hey, these are my guys. And you know, I've lived here for five and a half years, and I know our family is history, but I don't really you know, know Kyle, I was four during Super Bowl thirty three running around in the confetti, and so Lisa and I were super very excited about it. But then one of the first things he did was he had a meeting with Kyle. Those guys got together and talked for like an hour and a half, and Christian asked him a lot of questions. You know, why did
you trade for me? How are you going to use me? He wanted to find out, you know, what his mindset was and how he viewed the game and him as a player and coach Shanahan. Kyle did the same thing. He's like, look, this is why we brought you in. Let me get to know you a little bit. Because even though our families had this history, you know, when
you're four and another kids in high school. You don't know each other, so it was really like their first time getting to know each other, and I thought that was pretty mature both of them. It's like, hey, let's get to know each other and forget all this talk about our families. Man the man, this is you and me. Let's find out what we're all about. And after hour hour and a half meeting, I mean, Christian called me up and said, hey, I'm in the right place. Is
this is It's awesome. This was the place for me.
Did you have any tip off or hint that that was in the works before it happened.
No, Lisa actually did a podcast and with her friend Ashley, and they brought on Peggy Shanahan and they joked around about the trade a few days before it happened. But we didn't know any more than anybody else we're following social media. Could be the rams, could be the forty nine ers. You know, if you're an organization, you're not going to show your hand because you're in a biding war with other teams, so nobody's going to tell anybody anything. So we were very happy when we heard the news.
That is awesome, that should.
We dive into the glory days of the Broncos. Yes, a question before we do get to those two Super Bowls in a row, Like your first one was with the Niners, but you're with the Niners for a year, and do you feel like this is not on trying to This is gonna sound disrespectful, but I know it was your one of your lower statistical years. Did you get injured during that year with the forty nine ers.
Yeah, because I was going to start over Jerry Rice, but then I had an I tweaked my ankle. I think no. Look, I played for the New York Giants and I got there during the time that had a lot of adversity. Bill Parcells was my coach. I love getting the call from him on draft day. Hey, we're drafting the third round. This is when camp starts. We'll
see you there. Oh it wasn't the red carpet treatment you get today, right, And yeah, I had to wait around on a rotary phone to find out if I was drafted because the television coverage didn't coverage every round. I was a third round draft pick, so I didn't
even know we were off the television coverage. And then when I got there, he getting a coach Parcels gave a great speech about how we just won the Super Bowl, so we don't really need any of you guys, but hopefully one or two of you can make the team and contribute. And so it was not a red carpet treatment. It was kind of shocking, like whoa, Like I got drafted, but there's no guarantee. And back then you'd see second and third round picks cut, like you aren't guaranteed to
make team just because you were drafted. Fortunately I made the team, but unfortunately Bill Parcells stepped down and he had some hard issues as it was reported, and stepped down. And then you know, we were one of the oldest teams. We just won a Super Bowl. A lot of guys started retiring, switching teams, new ownership and then new coaches and then new players, and it just all this adversity. So you know, I love that team, like I'm a team guy too, like I love my teammates from the Giants.
And then we had a coaching change and I got cut. And when I got cut, it was a wake up call, like, man, I'm gonna go to business school or law school. I don't know what I'm gonna do like, I think I'll make a team, but I just got cut, so I don't know, And I thought, what do I want? You know, what kind of team do I want to go to? I'm a free agent. I got like four or five teams to choose from, and I'm like, I want to win a Super Bowl. I want to go to a team that has a chance to win a Super Bowl.
So I took the league minimum and went out to San Francisco. I'm like, I'm gonna try out for this team. And there were fourteen receivers and they take four, Like, imagine a team that only takes four receivers this year. But it's Jerry Rice Taylor. They had won Super Bowls already, right, those were the starters, and there's a lot of twenty one person else. They didn't play a ton of three receivers. And then it was me and Nate Singleton. But you
know that those guys feel like brothers to me. I was there seven months, but like Bardoes who started at right tackle, like allowed me to ship all my boxes to his house, took us in like we were family. Steve Young was incredible, incredible to me. Got to learn from Jerry Rice. I see those guys this year. It's like a reunion. Every home game at the forty nine Ers, I'm tapping people up, all my old teammates. I'm like,
and it seems like yesterday. But I was backing up Jerry, So I didn't get on the field a lot in the Super Bowl. I got in for a couple of plays Jerry Dinga's shoulders, one of his shoulders, and I get in the game and I'm thinking, I'm going to Disney World, man, Like I had one quick catch for five yards, and like I'm just getting heated up, like I may be the one going to Disney World. And then of course Jerry comes back and I go back to the sideline. I think I had a special teams
tackle on kickoff, but I was around. I mean, we had fourteen Pro Bowl players. We had the offensive player there, and Steve Young the defensive player there, and Deon sand Or so I went against every day in practice. So I'm backing up Jerry Rice, the greatest receiver of all time, and going against Dion, greatest DV of all time, for
a whole year. And I really think I got way better because of going because of learning behind Jerry and competing against Dion and then that kind of set the tone for the rest of my career with the Broncos.
Is that workout?
Think of Jerry Rice's sickening as it. Yeah, it's portrayed, it absolutely is. He had this hill that he used to run and the thing that was just amazing about him is his conditioning. And you don't always think about like your endurance, Like football's kind of an anaerobic sport. It's sprint stop, sprint stop, sprint stop. But he wouldn't slow down in the fourth quarter and he could run for days. We had this rule in San Francisco, which we continued in Denver, where if you're a receiver you
had to catch it and finish forty yards. And it's like, okay, forty yards, right, So that means catch it and run a little bit and then stop. No, they had forty yards. They had a cone for forty yards. You had to sprint forty yards after every reception. Nobody does that, but he would do it every time. And if we were
across midfield, Jerry would sprint to the end zone. So we literally had to start moving our drill closer to the end zone from the forties so he would get back to the huddle in time for the next play because he would score on every play. He did it all the time, for the whole practice, all year long, and I'm thinking his conditioning level is off the charts. He just doesn't get tired. So that was one of his greatest skill sets. His other greatest skill set was
getting off the ball quickly. Nobody got off the line off the snapcount faster than him. Was like he timed it and it was almost simultaneous. As soon as the ball even twitched, he was already off the line. So if he was a four or five guy and there was a four to three guy, he'd beat him five yards down the field because he was off the line quicker. And then the other thing was after he caught the ball,
he would catch it and turn off field instantly. So like all the angles for defenders, you're trying to time he's going to catch it, and then he's going to like maybe a little hesitation and then try to go upfield. It was seamless, like catching, go, catching, go, So all those shallow crosses and short routes and I'm like, man, I want to be more like that. And then he
would he would make routes his own. Like I was always thinking, run the route exactly the way the coach tells you to run the route, right, And I'd say, well, Jerry didn't run that exactly the way the coach drew it up, right. He he ran a comeback, but he kind of bent it in on a post, and then the next time he kind of bent out and stemmed it up, and like he's getting open every time. But he's like three different ways to run the same route. And so I started copying some of that stuff and
it worked. So yeah, that was a great year for me. It was a fun year. We won a Super Bowl, got lifelong friends from that experience, and it really helped me become a better player.
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Where to Next?
Back to the episode when Jerry's like kind of cutting it up and doing routes a little bit different the first couple of times you try to do it, where the coach is like, listen, you're not Jerry Rice, don't be doing that. Because there was a couple of times where run the road.
H yeah, you're white. You know what you are? Like? Do your thing changed.
Lady Walker was a guy that I played with who would just kind of run his own routes and the coaches were like de Landy Walker, you know, mix a Pro Bowl great wide receiver. He's like our only thread at the time in twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, and then the next tight end would come up and do the same thing, and he would just get chewed out, like you need to run the route correctly.
Did you ever run into anything like that? Well, no, I'm having a flashback now. I actually the first time I stole out from Jerry was I was playing with the Giants and we played them in the playoffs and I got in the game, but I was watching film to get ready for the game with New York, but also watching their offense as well. I was just watching
a lot of film. So I watched Jerry on their team run a comeback route the way I just described, where he kind of took it a little bit, the posting came back out of it, and so I ran it that way against the forty nine ers, and I was going against Merton Hanks, who was an All Pro or at least Pro Bowl cornerback and it worked. I got open and it worked. I'm like loving it. And I actually got yelled at by my coach for running
it that way after the game. We lost the game, but I had a great game and those routes work. So when I got there, and maybe that influenced me to go there, I'm like, I want to learn from this, dude. I think I can up my game. I started copying everything that I could, but not every coach will allow you to do that, right. I mean, some coaches are like, you got to run it a certain way, but I think the best coaches know you to get open against the elite defenders. You have to make the route your own.
If you just run a corner route, you know, you push it ten to twelve and break straight to the corner. Some dudes are just going to run right next to you the whole time if you don't create some kind of separation at the top of the stem or make it look like another route. These dudes are too good, right, And so I really helped. I think it helped me become a grow from a good player to you know, a great player.
You brought up how like, you guys lost a game but you played well. How difficut that this is a player for people like watching, like when your team loses but you play amazing, Like kind of trying to suppress that kind of happy feeling that I went off.
Yeah, no, you guys know the game, right, So I mean for me, you know, some people play because of the thrill of victory, and other people play for the from the fear of failure. It's like, I don't want to disappoint the guys on my team, Like, no matter whether we win or lose, as long as I can leave this game and they know I gave them everything that's gonna have to be enough, Like I gave you everything I had. You guys know that, you watch the film,
I didn't. I gave great effort. I did the best I could, man, Like, no matter what happens, you guys know that that was the most important thing to me. My teammates know that I gave them everything I had. Wind loser draw, there's held nothing back. That's all I got for you. I gave you everything. That's that's the most important thing. You want to win because it's so much more fun to celebrate, but you know, it's the respect to your teammates, man, that means everything.
Yeah, is it true? I would hear that there were old war stories and maybe they're just old tall tales, but Deon Sanders would tie his hands behind his back when trying to cover and trying to work and get better against Jerry Rice.
Is that true or false? I can't say it never happened. I didn't see it happen, but I can't say that it never happened. So that was a great way to answer. That's a great answer.
Yeah, yeah, I bet those battles were just, you know, fun to watch, like knowing Dion Prime Time. The style of is are you surprised with the success as a head coach.
Not at all. Man, He's a competitor. He's incredibly smart football coach, and you know, I really cherish that opportunity to go against him in practice every year. I remember at one point, you know, I actually had sprained my ankle in this charity basketball game. I warned my kids all the time, by the way, you know, don't goof around doing stupid stuff during the season. Yet I learned the hard way because I played in a basketball game spray my ankle. Probably one of the reasons I got
cut by the Giants in hindsight. And then and then I go and you know, I have it all wrapped up like in a cast, and like as a receiver, maybe it's a little easier to get away when you're alignment, but as a receiver you need full ankle flexion to run. And so I'm in this cast and you know, they're doing everything they're putting like EMU a lot, like maybe
the inflammation and whatever they can do. And it was like one hundred and twenty degrees in Rockland, California, at training camp, and I'm walking out there and like just in this cast, there's fourteen receivers. Like, first they put me in a bunk bed with like eight dudes. There's like eight dudes in a room in bunks. Like the size of this. I'm like, I had to go up to George Siefert and say, dude, if you want to
cut me, cut me, but I can't. I'm not going to stay in a room full of bunk beds with a bunch of dudes that I know are going to be here. And I thought he was going to cut me on spot, but he moved me into my own room. It was nice. Yeah, that's a good power play. Yeah, I swear to you. I thought I was gonna get cut, But I'm walking out to practice. I'm like, look, I'm in these bunk beds, I'm in a cast. I got to go into Deon Sanders in this boot that I'm
wearing every day. And I thought, you know what if I beat him on one slant route, I'll tell my kids about it for the rest of my life, you know what I mean, Like just in practice forget the game. Yeah, And so that was kind of the mentality had. So I took pride and going against him. He made me a lot better. I'd like to think that I didn't let him take plays off in practice, and I think that's why we won a super Bowl and had such a great team. And it was the same with Jerry.
Like I remember we would run sprints and I was always fresher because he played a whole game, right, I mean like ten plays in the game. Some special teams. I'm fresh on Monday, and so we do conditioning. I just, you know, sometimes I just go full speed just to piss them off. Then he'd start going full speed. We did that before the Super Bowl one year. You know, It's like end of one of the practice and we're conditioning just to get a little extra running in light.
But I'm like, I'm feeling good, man, Like I don't. I don't play that much. I'm feeling great, So I just take off full speed. And so the next rep we do, Jerry and John Taylor must have winked at each other and all right, you're gonna go full speed. So they start running full speed just in this after practice condition I just hear coach Shannan go stop. I'm panicking. He's like, we don't need Jerry to pull a hammy. Like the week before the Super Bowl, I know it
wasn't because of me. He didn't care if I pulled a hammy, But it was just funny. But I liked pushing him. But Jerry would never shy away from a challenge. That guy was so competitive. It was he's still competitive. He still let the games running around totally dialed into what's going on by five in people like he's just tired that way. Do you ever get that slant route? Yeah, yeah he did. He did won a couple. Well, when you have a whole season of practice, you better win at least one slant rup.
Any good ship talking stories with Dion.
Dion, you know he was the greatest teammate. He didn't he didn't talk smack ever in practice.
What about in the game, like you witness just been on the sideline and seeing Dion work, Well.
I saw Dion. You know they they tested him a couple of times earlier in the season, and once against Atlanta they tested him and you know he had played there, and he high stepped from the fifty yard line all the way to the goal line while looking on the sidelines holding the ball up in the air. I'm like, oh my, like not too many humans can do that. And the fact that he did against his old team. It was just absolutely insane.
That's all time, uh going to uh you know, your next your next super Bowl. But Denver's like John Elwie's first super Bowl. He was like oher and three going into that game against the Packers, correct, and that was his first super Bowl, right, it was Yeah, What's what's funny is I was like looking up. I was looking up this game and the Packers were favored by eleven points going to the super Bowl, going in the super Bowl.
When you got I think it was super Bowl in the beginning of the week it was fourteen and then we stopped paying attention to it. But we had we had an agreement we're not going to talk about it. And you mentioned Shannon earlier in the episode. Shannon's a talker and for him not to talk any smack for two weeks is a minor miracle. I couldn't believe you
didn't say anything. But we were dialed in the year before we lost to Jacksonville at home, and we were the better team, where we were the best team in the NFL right until we weren't. You know, we got upset by Jacksonville at home. They went on an incredible run when like five games in a row they beat us at home. But we were fourteen and two, thought we were the best team in the league. Took one bad game to get knocked out. So that next year we were just totally dialed. You know. We went on
the road every game. We had to go to Kansas City and Pittsburgh when games on the road against really good teams with great coaches, and we found a way to do it. So by the time we got to the Super Bowl, there's no there's nothing to say. Let's just go get it done. Nobody said a word in the beginning of the week. We were fourteen point underdogs,
but we had all the confidence in the world. We thought we should have won the Super Bowl the year before, but because we didn't and got upset by Jackson, well, people kind of forgot about us and they were like Green Bay had won the Super Bowl the year before. They were the favorite, and they were a great team. I mean, they had Hall of famers on their team. But there was no doubt in our mind. I can't you guys have been around teams where you're confident and
it's not false bravado. It's like we're really confident, like we believed we would win and we did against a great team.
Never made the chance to get go to a super Bowl though, which is heartbreaking. Oh we were two quarters away against the Chief, Yeah, twenty nineteen.
That's why great players not all. I mean a lot of great players never get to one or get to one and don't win one.
And it's mahomes, it is forty five running around on a two minute drill.
We would have got it. It's not about me, though. It feels a lot light, but no, you know the feeling like you know exactly how hard it is to get to these games and win them. There's no guarantees, right, and it's hard work. It's determinations having all the right players, it's the coaches making the right cause. Some of it's the way the ball bounces, too.
And it's not just like like you think in high school when you're playing, it's like, oh, we'll get them next year.
We'll get them next year.
And then once you in the NFL for a couple of years and you taste a little bit of like playoff success, you think, all right, next year, we're gonna get over the hump and it's like that's not always the case. Sometimes you guys just might suck. There'll be a lot of turnover on the team, and so you have to like take advantage of those opportunities while they're there. Yeah, we were the one seed in Here I go again.
There.
We were the one seed in twenty one and we got upset by the Bengals, and it was like we really thought like this is the year. Like we just Derek Henry came back all that. We're like, this is really going to be the year that the Titans win the Super Bowl.
I played on a team like that in New York my first year. They just won the Super Bowl. That was the year they beat the Bills. They held on to the ball for like forty nine minutes, right, they beat the They beat the Bills in the Super Bowl, and I'm with all those legends, Lawrence Taylor and Phil Simms and you know, Oj Anderson was the MVP of that game, and they had a lot of the same guys back. And the expectation going into that season is we're going to win the Super Bowl again. We just
want it. We're gonna win it again. Yeah, and we finished eight and eight, where it was do.
You gotta I was just gonna ask if you had an iconic Lawrence Taylor story.
There's so many iconic Lawrence Taylor stories. I'll share one with you. You know. It was frowned upon to hold out during training camp, but I was a third round draft pick and held out for like eight days. So when I finally get there, it's in Fairley Dickinson University, and you know, there's the old wooden lockers and they have like your name and tape with a sharpie written on the top of these wooden locker you know, ad hoc lockers they made at Fairly Dickenson University's you know,
basketball gym, auxiliary gym. And I'm walking through. These guys already been through a week of practice, and it's hot and humid and Fairly Dickinson in New Jersey in August. So I'm walking through. You know, it's the locker room, smells like locker room. Keep walking through. I look up at my locker and my name is spelled wrong, of course on my locker. But I sit down and sure enough I'm between Lawrence Taylor and Carl Banks. I'm like, okay, I'm the receiver from Stanford. How do I get between
two all pro linebackers. And I sit down and they were just finishing their first practice. But back then, like as soon as you sign get out to practice, so they just finished the first practice. I'm like, making sure all my equipment's there. I sit down. Lawrence's lockers just disaster. It was a messy locker. There's stories about, you know, the equipment guy's finding game checks in the bottom of the locker. They didn't even know we're there, things like that.
I found out about that later. But anyway, I sit down and you know, they both come back and I'm like, Lawrence Taylor just sat next to me, Like I already know Lawrence Taylor. He's famous already right for on in off field. And then the other guy you knows, Carl Banks. He's like six six, you know, NFL Pro Bowl linebacker, they just won the Super Bowl. And Lawrence is like, hey man, anyone's seeing my cleat? He was like missing a cleat or something. And Carl's like, no, man, I
think this dude took it. And I've never met them. I don't even you know, haven't formally been introduced. And they both stand up as I'm sitting in my locker and they're just towering over me. They're like, hey, man, you got my cleat and they're not messing around, like it seems like they're just going to beat the crap out of me on day one, and I'm thinking, my first day in the NFL is my last day in the NFL. And then he's like, ah, I'm just messing with you and slaps me on the back super hard,
and I'm like, what your happened? That's my I just got here having met these guys.
Yea in the yeah, the.
Minutes, lord, Yeah, thank the Lord. They were kidding around, but he was smart. He had an incredible sense of humor. He was very funny dude, and he was a great teammate. But in games, I do believe he's the greatest defender of all time. Like I watched him in games and tackles would just quiver, Like You're like you, dude, you got to help me out. Put a tight end over here,
running back something. Don't leave me one on one with his dude, because he's just one of those guys like when he walks in the room, he's the alpha, and nobody questions it. Oh yeah, that's LT. That's the alpha. Yeah, and he's one of those guys in the weight room. He just had like that natural I don't know if you want to call it like Dad's strength, that you
would call it. Where he'd walk in and I never really saw him lift a lot, but when he did, I'm like that dude's pushing like ridiculous weight and this is the first time I've seen him lift. Is he lift at home or something? Like where's he working out? Like right? And uh, you know, he's like six five two fifty something, runs under four or five. You know, they had clips of him as rookie running down as the gunner, just out running DB's to tackle the punt
returner and he's just a specimen. Some guys just have it all, man. He also had also another LT story. He remember one game, not all players are treated the same, you know that, right, So like if this happened to me,
I would have been cutting a second. But yeah, I guess he was, like I don't know what the story was, why he was later what happened to his car, But he comes running out during the national anthem where they're you know, they're playing the national anthem and out of the corner of my eye, I see this guy running onto the field, his jersey halfway on, like trying to get the rest of his jersey on his shoulder pads, runs out during the national anthem, like missed the pre game,
missed everything, and then totally had a sack on the first defensive possession. Like it's like he didn't even need to warm up, Like he just showed up right before the game, gets a sack, like nothing ever happened, Like you missed the whole pregame. Nobody said anything to nobody said a word.
That's like the ultimate nightmare when you're playing sports, is like you have a dream that you're supposed to get to the game, but you can't get to the game, and like the national is going on, and you're like trying to get dressed as fast as possible. But what would happen to most people, Right, Yeah, you're getting chewed out, you're probably getting benched, window or ile. Right, yeah, you're out of here, whereas lt okay tar up Man, get your jersey on and your it's third.
Reuyser helping um keeping the jersey, thank god, thank god.
No, but he was I mean, I was blessed to play with so many great players, and he was one of them. Like to play with somebody who's considered the greatest of his position or what you know, if not the greatest defensive player of all time, And I got to play with that guy. Was pretty cool.
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You're gonna slash yourself.
Dude.
You showed a lot of humility. Obviously when we introduced you, we start clapping for you. You start clapping as well. Here's a team guy, through and through. I was watching a video with the Broncos and there was like one of the reporters, somebody that works with the Broncos, and they're asking you your top three favorite plays as a Bronco. Two of those three plays, you weren't even the one making the catch or anything. One was a victory formation
and when was you watching a teammates score a touchdown? No, you're gonna win the Super Bowl? And then third one obviously it was a great catch by you in the Inzon. But what what are your three favorite plays of all time that you were like the main receiver.
Four? Oh gosh, I don't even know you mentioned the victory formation that was Super Bowl thirty two is the Broncos for Super Bowl And I got to be that point of the v in the back and just watching the clock just slowly picks late down to zero. Man, I think about it almost every day. It was like the greatest experience of all time and just family running onto the field and just John always crying and laughing at the same time as just the first Super Bowl den for ever won and what a blessing to be
part of that. Like, you know, I'd won one super Bowl the Niners was kind of a backup role, but it was such a cool thing to win a Super Bowl with my teammates. But this one was like incredible. I mean to see the look on Broncos fans' faces. So many had like generationally gone to games with their dad or uncles or families, and some of them had passed.
And then finally the Broncos win, and John fought his whole career for that, and we worked so hard and we were such big underdogs, right, I mean, that was that's tough to beat. You're not gonna beat that one, you know. I don't know. I remember some of the plays I made. I don't remember all of them. People sometimes remind me of plays I don't remember making because it was always, you know, make a play, turn the page onto the next. So I don't know. I don't
have favorite plays of myself. I have favorite memories, and usually you know those around the big games Super Bowls. The one you mentioned about Rod Smith called a touchdown against Atlanta that was such a big pivotal play in our game that helped us win. And I get to see that play because I was you know, he was in front of me, and I get to like chase him down the field and watch him score. But so much that happens in those games you don't see, right
you're doing your job. You don't see what everyone else is doing unless you go back and watch the film. And one of the interesting things about Super Bowls is the season's over after that game, So I've probably watched those games less than any other games. That's awesome.
If somebody not answering your question, It's my favorite thing that's ever happened. That's my favorite episode ever.
If you put them all up on it, I pick them. If you put them up, I don't even I don't remember half of them.
Really.
Yeah, I guess there was a good, good one against Green Bay. Anyone that was longer than second touchdown, Yeah, that would be fun. But no, I don't really, I don't put them in order. I loved all of them. Even the blocks, even even blocking in the run game. Like one of my favorite feelings was if TD flew past me and like I knew, I took care of my guy, like I played tackle right, Like we're kindre spirits here. So as a receiver, Hell yeah, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't have got on the field if I didn't block, Like that's how I got on the field. That's how Rod Smith got on the field. So we'd have like these little side bets five ten bucks. Dude, I bet I have more decleaders than you. They saying, hell no, you won't have more decleaders than me. And then we'd like, let's get our team, let's get our head coach Mike Shanahan to stop the tape because he's going to have to because we're going to declete somebody in this game.
And we would just literally go for decleaders, not just not just blocks. Yeah, five or ten bucks. I'm like, uh yeah, he was undrafted, I little light.
He's like in the middle of career going on to a super Bowl. You know.
It's funny though it didn't take more than that. All right, you're on, man, let's do it. It was more of the pride thing right. The money was nothing, but it was so fun. And that was your My first year with the Broncos, I didn't play that much, but competing with Rod to get decleaders and just the feeling you get when you're head coach, when you're not one of the main guys on the team, you're not a starter,
you're backup. When he stops the film in front of the whole team after the game, he said, oh, wait a minute, who's that Orally, let's check this out. Well, yeah, there we go. Right, We just look at each other like all right. It was just such a fun feeling. Man, ball was fun. That's the best I feel like.
I was just gonna say in a team meeting, when you when there's literally a pause and a highlight on you and you get to go watch it through and the pride that just goes to your body, and then on the flip side the low light, you're just like, please God, I had.
One of those two. And you're right, it's the worst feeling in the world. You just feel like you've let everybody down and they don't. You know, Coach Shanahan would never embarrass you. He doesn't call people out to embarrass them, but he like want, he has high expectations. So we think we had a gam against Cleveland where we lost and that happened to me, and you're right, I'm thinking, you know, I played pretty well. I had a pretty
good game. Actually statistically it was one of my better games. And he's like, well, guys, this is what we need to do to get better. And I'm like clipping number three, like diving for a ball in the back of the end zone then went off my fingertips and even to this day, I'm like, I don't know if I could have caught it. But he's like, these are the plays
we have to make. And I'm like, I'm like, you know something about when you do an offense, it's one thing, but when the whole team's in there, like the defenses in there, the other side of the ball, all the coaches, it's like you, I mean, you feel like you let
your team down. You feel sick to your stomach. But it's done in a professional way, and it just make sure that you don't exhale right nobody, Hey, even if you had a good game, you have a play in this game where you could have done better that could have been the difference in the game. We need to make these plays to win, and that was the expectation. But you're right, the feeling you get is just nausea. Yeah, yeah, I feel like it.
I felt like coach Shane and he always he probably is probably obviously throughout his career, but I felt like he always did a good job of calling out, you know, calling out guys in team meetings and hyping them up, and whether it's the low lights, having the teaching moments and everything else, but he would always like spotlight guys basically in all of our team meetings, like every day. Like I remember my first call out. I was just
on practice squad and I played it sucked. I had to full back, tight end, linebacker, and he I got to stand up and he's just talking about, you know, all the different things that I would have to do and everything else, and I just remember it was like the best feeling in the world. Later that day, after practice, he tried talking me into fullback and gave me some run around story about how some linebacker went to fullback
in Denver. And from that moment I intentionally played poorly as a fullback because I did not want to go to the offensive side of the ball.
Yeah, so I think you have a good feel for how Kyle Shanahan coaches because he does it in a very similar way. He speaks to every position on the team. But as you tell me, it's a defensive player. When your head coaches, your offensive coordinator knows your job and your responsibility and talks about it in front of the whole team, does that gain him a little extra respect than a coach that might be a figurehead who isn't sure exactly what you're doing on your side of the ball.
Yeah. I felt like Shanahan because he would float around all the different position meetings as well, and I felt like he had just as good of a grass defensively
as he did offensively. But yeah, when you'd get a call out like that or understanding like okay, he knows all these things that are going on, it was like it was cool because when we were like growing up like Denver, I mean we were like what ten to eleven when all when those team were win those championships, So you guys were like, you know, in front of everybody, like you just remember the Shannon Sharfs of Trell Davis d Ed McCaffrey's and uh, coach Shanahan being that Super
Bowl winning coach, So getting that one year was just super cool because you'd see him on TV all the time. It's like, oh, this dude's you, this dud's your head coach. Yeah, I'm glad you got a feel for that, because that's the Kyle. You know, he made this team his own and like things have changed offensively scheme wise, but he takes the same approach. And then I have to be a football coach. I have to know everybody's assignment. I'm
gonna watch every position meeting. I'm gonna know offense, defense, special teams. I'm gonna have team meetings where I talk about offense, defense and special teams in front of everybody.
M H.
And I think, I think what it does when you have a coach like that, it makes everyone kind of sit up a little straighter. It makes everyone respect him because they know he knows their assignment, you know, on their site the ball and uh and they they believe in them and they trust in them. And I think that's what you're seeing with the forty nine.
Ers earlier when you were talking about your uh that first Bronco Super Bowl. The way you guys felt like should have won the year before, going fourteen to two, you lose one to Jacksonville, and there was just that confidence of like, hey, there's nothing to say, we got to go out win the Super Bowl. Do that matter if you guys were eleven point underdogs. I feel like that's a very similar situation around right now with the Niners.
Like you go in you lost Brock last year against the Eagles, like you were a team that you probably felt like, oh, we're going to do it this year, and then you don't. I feel like that expectation for the forty nine ers this year is like, hey, there's like nothing to say, like we have to take care of.
Business against the Chiefs. Yeah, there's I mean there's no talking doesn't do anything right. And I think you know, the Chiefs have been to a few Super Bowls, right, they're the same way. It's like, hey, they know that nothing you say is going to make a difference. You got to go out and play. And I think the forty nine ers understand that. I do think you know, when you have a young quarterback in different players on
your team, it doesn't mean something. When you know if you lose a championship game, because your quarterback got hurt. And then you play the same team week thirteen, and then you go out and beat them pretty good. I think that builds confidence, right. I think when you're down seventeen in the championship game and you're like, we're facing the biggest comeback in championship history, and then you come back and win the game, it does give you some confidence.
And I think when you get into the big, big game, the Super Bowl, right, you do draw on that. Hey, no matter what the score is, we're never out of this. So no matter how this unfolds, you believe in yourself. We don't need to change what we're doing. We've been here before. You hope everything goes well and you got the lead and everything goes great the whole game. But if it doesn't, you don't blink. You don't have to change what you're doing.
Yeah, and they also haven't put four quarters together yet, like they have not done in the play sixteen minutes of football, coming together a couple of years ago, losing too the same team, like this is just breeding a like a get back year.
Let's hope they do it this this game, right, Let's put it all together this week because defensively. If we can put the second half of Green Bay in the second half Detroit together in that one game defensively, then offensively take the second half and put that together, it would be one heck of a game. But I'm looking forward to it. Man, It's going to be a close game. Two great teams. You know, Kansas City is looking at a dynasty. There's nothing to say. You just got to go and play ball.
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What's the prediction? I never I never predicted anything. I think this one give a prediction. This is my prediction. It's going to be a hell of a game, and it's going to be close, and it's going to be hard fought, and the team that makes the most plays at the end of the day will win it.
But so what's your prediction? I close game, Niners on top.
You know, as as if this was if I didn't have a kid playing in it, I'd feel free making a prediction. But whenever I watch my kids games, it's like, look, I'm a dad. Now, I'm taking off my coach's cap putting on my dad's cap. I love you, I'm here, free no matter what me cheering for you on game day and uh, and you know, hopefully it goes well.
Do we got a dad hat for him? It would have been greaty we just throw on the old Yeah.
Well also, I just got a package at the room that came in. I have a whole bunch of dad hats and bust and Mark.
I just picture him just saying that I take off my coach and then he just all of a sudden, dat Yeah.
Yeah, I love it. Yeah, put your dad hat on. No, but it's it's tough man, because you uh, you know, anything I say, thank you, I love it. Yeah, I am honored I earned a dad hat. Yeah, thank you. But you know, if I say anything, it'll be repeated. So I'm hope. I think it's two great teams. What are you going to do? You guys have played ball. You came so close, right, and you been a lot in a lot of games, won some, loss some and
you know, we've watched a lot of Super Bowls. So I'm hoping the forty nine ers, like you said, put two halves together and get it done. But I played in too many games, one too many, lost too many to make predictions.
Can you talk about the Christian McCaffrey Foundation.
Yeah, he started that a few years ago and it started out helping military families. He is so invested in helping military families and from you know, military men and women that come back and need help after they've served
our country to helping their families. And I know right now there's some specific things he's trying to do to help them recover and take care of their bodies and deal with their physical issues that he's trying to help them with, especially you know, some of the rangers in high level military personnel, and so it started out helping them, and it's kind of expanded to also helping out children
in hospitals across the country. You know, he had this kid, Logan, who's not no longer with us, just incredible kid who was in the hospital and the children's ward, and all he wanted to do was play video games with his friends. But you're sequestered, you're away from your friends, and there's it's really hard to play video games online with everybody,
and maybe the hospitals didn't have those units. So he created the Logan Bowl last year where kids and hospitals around the country could play with their friends on these consoles and so that's a really really cool thing that he did as well. So it means a lot to him to give back. You know, Logan was buried in Christian's jersey in Carolina, and he had he had such like, dude, when that happens, like it's tugging on your heartstrings. It had such an impact on Christian. I mean, he had
more influence on Christian than Christian had on him. But like in his name, he wants to continue to be able to give kids that experience when they're hospitalized, for them, for their families. And so he had a Logan Bowl last year where a bunch of NFL guys competed online in this little playoffs and and it was a lot of fun. But supporting military families and supporting you know, kids in hospitals across the country's always been really important to him. That's awesome.
I know, you guys. You also have some youth football, some youth football camps.
Yeah, I've been doing a camp, gosh since my kids were little. Originally it was just for them and their bodies, just rolled a ball in the park and started getting more and more kids together all down. Yeah, let's play ball and then over the years, I just realized there's so many kids. I never went to a football camp growing up. I played basketball, never even went to a football camp. Started playing a high school, played little league football,
but just signed up for my team. Never went to a camp to learn how to play football, and never learned speed training or sports performance. I'd like to teach some of these kids some of the stuff I learned over the years that might not have access to this type of stuff. So we bring in Lauren Lando and his sports performance staff. He was the sports trainer for the Broncos for a number of years, of strength coach
and now he's at Notre Dame. But we'd bring in him and his crew and they teach him speed training, Like you know, a lot of kids didn't learn that back when I was growing up. I'm like, I want them to learn about speed training. And then we'd bring in celebrity NFL coaches and players to talk to the kids about their experience and about you know, the importance of staying in school and getting good grades, and they'd share their stories. And then a lot of high school
and college and NFL coaches love to coach. Some of these guys are no longer coaching, but they love ball. And so between teaching the kids the game in a very safe way, teaching them speed training, letting them here from motivational speakers, helping the coaches who want to coach, you know, work for four days in the summer. It's just to feel good for me. I just love doing it. Overnight camp, No, it's a four day day camp, and
we have two camps during the same four days. We have an Elite camp, which is for athletes that really want to learn one specific position, so you know, older kids but still under eighth grade, and then an open camp for anybody, and we bring in a lot of kids from the Boys and Girls Club and other organizations, kids from military families, and you don't have to have ever played football before. There's no pads. It's seven on seven and skill training and speed training.
That's cool. If kids were interested in going to one of those, where could they find on.
That sports eddie dot Com. It's sports Eddie, Yeah, sports Eddie, but it's s p R T s E D d Y sports like an eddie, like if you're a fisherman. Okay, sports Eddie dot Com. We've been doing camp for like over twenty years and it's the highlight of my summer. I enjoy it every June seventeenth through the twentieth. This year,
kids flying from out out of state. Some of my old high school buddies bring their kids from Pennsylvania, and a lot of people vacation in Colorado and they'll mark their calendars for that week just so their kids can have some fun playing ball.
Oh yeah, that is really cool, man.
You got anything else?
I do not, JP, Mitch, anybody got anything for mister McCaffrey. The only way for Christian to win the Super Bowl was for you to lose all yours?
Would you do it? So?
JP just asked if.
Here go ahead, JP, if the only way, if the only way for Christian to win a super Bowl would be you lose all of yours.
Yeah, I'm not good. I'm not getting in these hypotheticals. But you got to answer that question. That question. I don't have to answer that question. You don't have to.
Yeah, well, you guys think you can take.
You're right that you care more about your kids than you care about yourself, at least I do, like so, I want I want so badly for him to have success and to win. But I don't you know, you know, I got my friends and my teammates and Christians experience back then in my family. And but I would I would pay, you know, I would give up a lot for him to be able to have that experience, including just not your Super Bowl rings. I will give them all three of the Marty trophies in my office, uh,
for him to win this one. Yeah, let's do it.
I tell you what, I know you do that progudgingly. So thank you for dealing with us. No, no, it is man, it's I'm telling you. It changes your world. You've seen some like gymnastics or ballet or something like that, and you watch your kids run around like what wouldn't you do for your kids?
I know, man, it is. It is really cool. Man, Thanks a lot for coming on. This was this is all the time. I couldn't wait whenever we booked you, we couldn't wait until see him, Like, hey man, we got your old man, it's coming on.
I got my phones right here.
I texted him. I said we got you on, and all I said it was big ed that's it. Yeah, big, not a lot of words anything for me, Like we can get you like cooking going. He's like big ed, it's awesome.
He's focused.
He's he's focused. He's not I'll tell you what he Yeah, because the NFC Championship game, he had that hit towards the end zone where he kind of went off the head a little bit, and I was like, hey man, that like you could see him kind of like looking around, give me one and you only see Christian.
Do they give me one thing? Ever?
So I text him after the game. I was like, hey man, saw the hit. Hope you're all good. Good luck in a couple of weeks. He's like, I'm fine. That was his response. I was like, oh fuck, yeah, dude, that got me fired up.
Yeah no, he was fine. He just he needed one. He you know, he never likes coming out, but yeah, no, he was good to go. He was ready to come back in if they if they needed him too. But that's one of the reasons it's great having two weeks off also, right, remember there was a short period of time there where you only had one week off before the Super Bowl. I'll never forget it. It was Pittsburgh in that particular game, and every one of the receivers missed the game. Had he had two weeks, he would
have been able to play. So I think it's good there's that week in between the game, the championship and the Super Bowl.
I can't imagine the anticipation of having two weeks though, Like obviously the excitement we're going to Super Bowl. Then probably by Tuesday or Wednesday the next week or that week, you're like, I'm still a week and a half away from playing in this game.
Yeah, and not.
Like getting so excited to where like you kind of blow your load on like the following Wednesday.
I'll tell you what. Like by the time kind of Thursday practice ends, it seems like an eternity. By the time you get to the game, you feel like you've been waiting forever. Like these guys. If anything, you got to guard against being too amped up because you're so ready to go and you've been waiting forever and you feel great because you haven't played in a couple of weeks. And so that's one of the big challenges. Also, like early on in the game, don't get too amped up.
And then also it's going to be the longest halftime of your life, so you're gonna have to eat or drink something and stay too ready to go and you know, regroup in the second half. We've seen some games, right second half, a team comes out flat, they've been sitting around for half an hour. So stuff like worm no longer right and stuff like that does matter. But it's
a great experience. Man. I'm so happy for him. He's been waiting for this moment for his whole life and you know, he gets to take the field with his team and see what they can do. And we're happy for you. Thanks guys, thank you man. This is all time. Yeah, great episode. We got to get the