Drive Time: Zach Thomas Fish Tank Crossover

pad out of the tea. Drivetime with Travis Wingfield begins. Now let me check your pulse. If not fart of what is up? Dolphins And welcome to the Drivetime podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going? Everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield And on today's episode, the entire Dolphins podcast Network, at least the originals are here, myself, Seth Levitt, o

J mcduffey. We're welcoming and the boys from the Fish Tank Podcast to talk about their episode dropping tomorrow with Hall of Fame linebacker Zach Thomas. We're gonna talk to the guys about their episode about mister Canton himself number fifty four stories of their time together here in the organization. What makes Zach a Hall of Famer in our eyes? And a heck of a lot more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is

the Drivetime Podcast, May Gaffe Fish. Let's not waste any more time and go ahead and play my interview with Seth Levitt, Oh Jim mcduffe from The Fish Tank talking about their episode tomorrow with Zach Thomas. And for the first time in a long time, it seems like the dynamic is back, the Tripod, the Trio, the Truth, the Consigliari, Seth Levitt from the Fish Tank, my man O, j Juice McDuffie. They're back in here, diving in to Drive Time,

and I'm kind of telling them free podcast recording. This is like an episode of the Fish Tank takes over Drive Time. They take the wheel if you will. And so the reason we have you guys on today, Seth and oj welcome in, by the way, is to talk about your episode dropping tomorrow here on the Fish Tank with the great Hall of Fame linebackers. It just feels great to say that it has such a ring to

it doesn't. And that's it really does the gold jacket swapping out the aqua jacket for the gold jacket, at least for you wold WOA. There's no swapping bro topic topic. Yeah, well sure if you want to. But it's in the

distion too. So Zach will now have maybe he'll be like the parent that comes to watch, like you know, like read Ferguson's parents when they go to a Bills and Dolphins game and they were like the half read half uh Blake Ferguson jersey, and maybe him do the same thing with the golden It's interesting that that he said they're read Ferguson's parents and not Blake Ferguson. Correctly, there's something there, juice. We got to figure out what's going on with that. We gotta dig in, dive in.

There's something going on. But yes, absolutely he has access to both. Now we're starting off at cruising altitude here on this. You handed us the keys saying, hey, put on whatever song about the radio right and like it right, Yeah, I got it. The entire reason we have the fish tank here today is talking about this upcoming episode. Was Zach Thomas you guys killed the Rashaw Jones episode last week two weeks ago, was it? Yeah? Being about two weeks now, great episode with him, and you guys are

just kind of killing it right now. So I wanted to get you on here to talk about this episode, and um, I guess I want to go here first, and I'll throw it to you first because you played with him, Juice, And then I want to get Zach.

I want to get sets perspective after that, because the whole idea behind this is the three of us offer unique perspectives and the way we cover the team always, but with this player in particular, with Zach Thomas in particular, I think the perspectives could not be more different but also better when they come together. So the players perspective a teammate's perspective, Juice, when you think about Zach Thomas, what comes to mind for you? I'll tell you what. Man.

Zach and My relationship goes way back before he became a dolphin. You know. I saw Zach dominate my Penn State Nitney Lions and you know, and a close lost you know, up in Happy Valley. But then of course I got a chance to meet him personally when he made Walter Camp All American and um, you know, and

that was that was special. I think the fact that this humble linebacker, you know, who's always been considered undersized and didn't have the speed as maybe Walter Camp All American, which is you know, the top eschelon of college All American, you know, honors, and he still was at the humility that he still came in that room with. When you considering all the guys that were there, it's only like like one and eath each position. He was one of

those guys. And so that that relationship right there, that's when it really started. Man. He and me and KEJOHNA. Carter, we spent a whole weekend together. We had a really you had a really good time. And sure enough, man, it was just amazing. When he was drafted by the Miami Dolphins, he was coming to South Florida and being one of my teammates, I knew what kind of player

he was. And I'm gonna tell you what, how else, So I knew what type of player was when I talked about Zack a couple of weeks ago when he made the Hall of probably months ago. Now I think it is when he made the Hall of Fame. I had some teammates or guys that played at Penn State like hit me up on the side, and they were like, oh, man, I remember Zack like it was yesterday. You know. He beat up on a couple of guards of ours that

were first round draft picks. You know, he had twenty some tackles and they were like, yo, man, about time they got him in. You know, so I already knew what type of player he was. Then I got a chance to know what type of person he was. And those a couple of other encounters, you know, when we got a chance to go out and hang out. Man. So what really sticks out to me is now how good he was, but how home we was and being

so great. That's That's one of the things that is consistent that you hear about Zach is the way that the people that played with him or worked around him spoke about him in the way you just did. Oj who was the guy you had on the fish tank. Recently, seth who talked about the process of voting him in and Patrick Willis's comments that really pushed that over the goal line. What episode was? Jason Cole shared that story Jason, you know, who covered Zach both from Miami Harold perspective

and the Sun Sentinel perspective. But he's one of the selectors that is part of that process and certainly advocated for Zach, and he shared that story. Joe Horrigan was also on from the Hall of Fame recently, but he didn't want to share any details from the room, but did feel that his time was coming as well. It's

I mean the Kevin Mawi speech, the Peyton Manning. I wrote an article about, you know, Zach Thomas makes the Hall of Fame like five years ago that I wound up repurposing over the years because I thought he would be getting in each year. It just kind of just happened. But you get those testimonies that are they're just like uniform across the board. Everyone has the exact same thing to say about him in different ways, but the ultimate goal or the ultimate I guess arriving point is is

all the same. So the same question to you, Big Seth is someone that worked closely with Zach and you know the PR department and obviously you know coach him through media and just was were around him so often. What do you think about when when you think about Zach Thomas, oh Man, there's so much to think about.

I'm juice is right. The humility for sure, um and all the on field stuff that I imagine we'll talk about here in this podcast, but just you know Zach's character, he was he was such a unique individual because it's like he the more you dug into it, he actually came from a family that that was successful. You know, mister Thomas is very successful, but Zach never carried himself as someone that was a loofer, came from you know,

the country club living or what have you. Um. So he really did seem like someone that was from humble beginnings, even though in a lot of ways that wasn't the case. Certainly that he is Texas through and through, you know, there's no two ways about that. Um. But the thing that stands out the most to me was, you know, you'll you'll hear throughout the episode Tomorrow preparation. He talks about his prep, his prep, and that extends far beyond the football field. It didn't matter what he was doing

in life. He never wanted to be unprepared. He never

wanted to be embarrassed. You know, it was important to him that he was, that he gave respect, that he that he got respect, and he wanted to make sure that no matter what he's doing in life, whether he's sitting down with the fish tank, whether he's, uh, you know, gonna well there's a lot of fun stories, whether he's gonna show up for a charity event, or certainly whether he was on Sundays in front of the whole world and doing the thing that he loved to do the most.

He wanted to make sure that he was prepared and that you got the best version of Zach Thomas you could possibly get. And I think that stands out to me more than anything else. I that's why fans appreciate him so much, and again to provide that fans perspective and you guys were too as well, but just you know, from someone that didn't know him and just only knew him as the player. Like, you can't control your talent level, right, but you can't control the way you prepare and the

way you get yourself ready for games. And that's I appreciate that because you maximize what you can control. What more can you do? That's literally putting your best foot forward and juice, you know, I keep hearing that again. I talked about my why I talked about Peyton Manning.

You guys both mentioned the preparation, also the humility. But I'm curious, Juice, if you can like remember back to practicing against this dude, because you know, we just signed David Long and I'm watching clips of David Long call out plays like that. That's like, that's what Zach did. That was that's what made great middle linebacker play for Zach for so long. I'm curious how tough it was to practice against this dude because I have to imagine

he's doing the same stuff in the practice field. Yeah, you know what, He'll tell you a story. Man. I turnt him up a little bit at the beginning, you know, I mean, because it's easy at the beginning to get these aggressive young linebacker that want to make a play every time, you know what I mean. So when I'm running a little sluggo or you know, a stutter crosser, things like that, I can get him at the beginning, but you can you're not gonna full him more than twice,

you know what I mean? You know fully one thing about him fully twice, you know. So it's like, you know, how it is man, So I got him a couple of times. He actually talked about that a little bit, But after that it was impossible because honestly, once you beat him like that, once he sees somebody else get beat like that, that's when he goes back into the lab and figure out, okay, when when he did this, it's about alignment and assignment and then how you know,

how he aligns. He knows what's coming a lot of time, you know. And that's one thing about Zach that I learned right away. So being the guy that I was at that position, you know, a little higher on the food chain when it came to Miami Dolphins at that point, he wasn't gonna knock my head off, but he'll let me know that. Oh I got him here, juice, you know what I mean. And you started seeing that come around or as you know, no matter what we ran and a lot of times as harder as an offense

going against your own defense too to be successful. He started to realize what we were running and he knew that, you know, I have a way of stopping this guy. But you also saw that, you know, every single time his will's returning, he was learning and then you weren't going to beat him on the same thing again because that's how they that's the adjustments that Zach made, and that's where you know, you look at now. You talk about where he's at now, and Stef talked about being prepared,

I mean his film prep. I mean that was part of it in practice way back then as a rookie, and then you can continued on through his whole illustrious career. That's I mean, that's the number one thing to teach rookie.

He's right, don't make the same mistake twice. And for a guy that was drafted in the fifth round, like it's it's tough to win Rookie of the Year in general, but to do it as a fifth round draft picks, it's almost seems impossible because you have the fanfare for those early round draft picks and you mentioned, you know, the preparation and kind of being a guy that would you know, juice, you ran some many routes over the middle, and you had to contend with the Ray Lewis's and

the Brian Urlockers, and luckily not Zach Thomas because you were on his team. But we saw him have that impact earlier. Was it was his first career game against the Patriots when he had a big knockout shot to force a fumble. Was it was that game one of his career. He gets what I'm talking about. Absolutely, Yeah, we did. We talk about that in the podcast, and it's, uh, yeah,

it was definitely that. It was, you know, welcome to the NFL moment for Zach, but also like, damn, I'm in the NFL for the Sun Jefferson, you know what I mean. Yeah. So, but you know that's the thing about it, man. I mean, you talked about Zach being a fifth round pick, but he was a first round talent in my opinion. You know, his fifth round status was only because you know, they were talking about the size and his speed and things like that, but his

talent was definitely first round talent. It's it's funny because one of the debates I find myself and on Twitter, maybe even in my own head, because I don't really put it much on Twitter anymore, at least in terms of arguing, is about like this modern idea of like the only way you can be great at football is to be huge, fast and strong, But like being good at football goes a long way to being good at football as well. And I think Zach really exemple as that.

You know, I'd love to hear more about. You guys talked about this, uh that big hit on the podcast here seth Well, we did so we Uh. One of the things we wanted to talk to Zach about was moments on field, moments that stood out to us like our quintessential defining Zach Thomas moments. And one of the two of us identified that, which is it's fascinating in a lot of ways because it is one of the first memories people have of Zach Thomas, at least once

the regular season started. It was his birthday, you know, September first, that game took place. That was his birthday. It was his first NFL start, his first NFL game, and uh, and it really kind of set the tone for what the next thirteen fourteen years of his career would be an ultimately a Hall of Fame career. Absolutely, you got me thinking about the moments that I did s down at the most in my mind. So one of you guys picked that one. You're not going to

reveal it right now. We got to leave something for that. That's what, right right. The two came to mind right away. Number one, I've talked about it before is that two thousand and five season opened against the Broncos, he made like three out of four plays in a row on the goal line to get a goal line stand, and JT actually had the other one. So it's like that was you know, I told we talked about all the time, Seth.

You mentioned Rashad Jones episode of my Golden Era of watching Dolphins football, Like, those two guys making an entire goal line stop was awesome for me. But they also had a game the following year in two thousand and six against the Jets on Christmas, and he had another big hit on Lavernius Coals that got the defense off the field too, So it's those would be it because he had big hits in both of those And again for a guy that was what did he play at?

Like like five ten, like two twenty what do you know what he said? I think he would want five eleven. I think Zach were here, disrespectful, but yeah, he would probably want five eleven. Yeah, probably two twenty five, two thirty right, Shoosh sent you. If you go back and look at pictures of Zach from when he arrived here as a rookie to by the end of his career, just the way his body changed and you know, he

leaned out. And I think what the expectation and was of a linebacker playing at Texas Tech, you know, in nineteen ninety five, was compared to someone who learned how to take care of himself, which is also something he talked about that his prep wasn't just film prep, but it was what could he do to make his body um, you know, you know, to last longer, to heal quicker, to be as efficient as he possibly could be. We

love to joke with him about his flexibility. We didn't talk about his flexibility, but yeah, he like he couldn't touch his toes when he got Now I'm saying that I can't. Yeah, God, I wish jokes aren't his fun when he isn't here. But we're gonna have to make sure we send this to him. I wouldn't say that in space, Oh I would. I would definitely, But that's the relationship. So that's another side of the act that I think people don't know unless you know him, right.

If you know, you know, as they say, But he is the ultimate jokester man. He he loves cracking on people and being cracked on, and he you know everything about him, which I think is part of why he

was so popular within the low room. You know, if you if you say, okay, here's a guy who comes from a successful family, and you know, and and and became an immediate starter and a venteran got cut and if he was kind of aloof and just thought about himself and he just disappears after practice and goes and hides in his hyperbarick chamber, and he wouldn't have been the team leader. He would have been a great player regardless,

but he wouldn't have been the team leader. But I think the reason part of the reason why he was so beloved by his teammates above and beyond his talent, because all the guys love people who could play, because you're you know, everybody's in it. You know, you want to win, and you're helping everybody win and make money

and achieve their goals. But as as Juice has set off on the fish tank, he loved to be able to hang out with the defensive guys and fit in with the defensive guys just as much as he could with the quarterbacks and receivers, and Zach was that guy. Everybody loves Zach no matter where you were in that locker room, from special teams to the linebacker sitting next to him and everything in between. And he's just constant jokes,

good times, loves a good party. I can only imagine what his post in Shriman's speech celebration is going to be, Like Juice us, he's warned us a little bit because the crypt walk will come out. Yeah, So he he is just a fun loving guy in addition to somebody that took his craft very, very seriously. That's the best

of both worlds. I mean, it reminds me of like Coach McDaniel in the way that he has this persona that's so, you know, so approachable, but when you get down to it, the dude's a xes and no savant. It's it's a good company to be in. I'm curious because the way you talk about it sounds like it was immediate in terms of him kind of making the defense his and so I guess I would pose the question to Juice, how long did it take for the team to kind of realize this is the captain of

the defense. Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I'm gonna tell you it started early. You know, it really started around that. You know, training camp was part of it,

first preseason game with another part of it. But you know, if you look back at what we talked about with like Sean Wood and those guys when we did a little tribute, they knew it pretty pretty much right away, you know, and they started hearing him making signal calls and sharl was making them in the secondary, and at that point they realized this guy is a great leader. You know, he leads by example, but he also leads

by his work ethic and everything else. Man. But I think you know, for us, especially on the offensive side, man, we just saw this guy making plays and we knew the rest of the guys around him were pretty damn special as well. You know. So if you got a guy in the middle making the calls and making the plays, you know, the rest was history with him. So I mean right away, Zach's work ethic is humility that we

talked about before. You know, you you you buy in with him, then you go out and you make plays. On top of that, some guys work hard as hell. Travis and they're not playmakers. And some guys that you know, they can run well, they can live well, they can do all this stuff stuff well, and they're great workers.

They don't make plays that did all that, you know, I mean when you see all that, as well as the ability to lead grown in because you're dealing with guy had been in league for eight nineteen years as a rookie, so you got to get them to buy him before you get anybody to buy in, you know. And once they did, which is almost immediately, that's why you know, it became special with Zach right away. So immediate in terms of his impact in the locker room.

But Seth, I'm curious about the other side of the business in the building and his interactions with you and people in PR and media. Was it similar on that side of the football world for him, you know? Now, I this was, as I like to tell Juice all the time, class in ninety six, this was my rookie

year as well. I was just an intern and just really kind of learning all about it, you know, and so I didn't know what I didn't know at that point in time, and he was just a guy who was my age and we were kind of going through this thing together, except that you know, his job was a lot cooler and h and he added a lot more to what the overall goals of the team were. But what I can tell you was one of the

first things that I was asked to do. I've told the story over and over again, but you know, when I first started there, my first day as an intern, it's when Harvey Green said, Hey, I'm the PR guy for Dan Marino and Jimmy Johnson and Mike Hanson. That he rest in peace. He said, Mike is the PR guy for the rest of the starters, and whatever else is left is you. And so a fifth round draft choice, a five eleven linebacker, fifth round draft choice out of

Texas Tech. That was what was left, right, you know, those are the type of players for about two weeks, and then as soon as he became a starter, he was elevated. You know enough on our podcast, your star player pulled up to varsity. That's exactly right. Now. What was cool Chruice in the podcast was when he said, hey, Seth, you were assigned to me from the day I got

there until the day I left. And the truth of the matter was that I guess that connection stayed, but he certainly got a lot more attention from from Mike and ultimately Meo Golkis and certainly Harvey at that point.

But one of my first assignments was Harvey Green. You know, he used to write on his doctor like handwriting on these little note pad Do you ever go to a do you ever go to a flea market or outside a garage out somebody side of somebody's house and to give you a handwritten receipt on one of those little

carbon you know, those little receipt books. You can buy it off his depot, and he had those for messages and he would take him up and we would take those up in guy's lockers, remember juice, you know, Okay, so and so and uh. And he handed me something. He said, Hey, this is so and so and he's from Lubbock, Texas and I guess he's been covering Texas Tech for the last thirty years. And he wants to talk to Zach Thomas. And he looks at me and

he goes, say, I think he's the white linebacker. You know, Harvey wasn't even sure who he was. And he said, but I guess he's a big deal back there can you handle this? And so I walk back in. He

was coming out of the cold tub juice. He was still wearing his grayes, didn't even put a shirt on, and he would just kind of lumbered his way, and he did this, you know, this interview, and then it became the first of many because he went from being Wow, this is cool, hometown hero gets to be in the NFL, gets his shot, to wow, Jack del Rio was just cut. One of Jimmy John's and his favorites was just cut because they can't keep this guy off the field. To wow,

the Dolphins just got to steal. And so he was. I went back and looked at it. Recently, he did this huge spread in Sports Illustrated that Rick Riley came down and did a great story on him. Peter King is there and the next day and all of a sudden, all these national writers, there's a lot of attention. Was Jimmy Johnson's first year back in the NFL, after you know, walking away from two super Bowl championships or I guess one right in Dallas and then three rings was at

two in um and one I loo's count. But he built a hell of a team in Dallas and so now, so Jimmy was a big story. Here's another Jimmy Johnson stole the draft type story. So there was a lot of attention placed upon Zach and he was just always happy to do things. He'd give us a hard time in the background, as players sometimes like to do, and I think more so because he enjoyed giving us a

hard time, but he was always respectful. He you know, ultimately wouldn't turn anything down if he felt that the request was also one by someone who respected what he was doing. Because if you said something, you know, all these guys say they don't read it, they don't pay attention to the media, they don't look at the internet, they're not on social media, Travis. They know, they know

what's going on. And so if somebody, you know, Jos, we've had those conversations where there are some pretty big names that have been around this league and word got back to you if they said something you didn't like either, So he knew if that was going to be the case.

But overall, for you get a guy who becomes a star on your team and you know, gets a tremendous amount of requests, always doing the production meetings, always having to do the weekly conference calls with the other team, and especially after Dan Marino retires, where we don't have that quarterback that is the guaranteed ask every year. Zach and JT got a lot of those requests, and he always did what was asked of him, never skipped out of the back of a locker room, even after difficult losses,

always gave time to the media. I think every media member that covered him would tell you how respectful he was, and that really did start from day one. Probably plays a little bit into his Hall of Fame candidacy, don't you think in terms of like I mean, I don't know.

I think your play ultimately decides whether or not you get in, But I do think that kind of being that type of person probably helps too, Don't you think I would say that if you're an out and out jerk, it becomes more difficult to get in, but ultimately your talent will supersede. You know, we've seen some players where you scratch your head and said, what took so long? Like I'm talking Dolphin fans will be like, yeah, Zach Thomas,

he's that guy. But so we've seen some of that where certain guys that you thought would be SUREFI or first team guys. Maybe you know, the group is the group that are selectors. I don't think anybody. I think they take that job too seriously to intentionally allow bias to prevent people from getting to the Hall of Fame. I really do. But I think that they may not look as hard or might look harder at the things that could be potentially negatives. And you gotta way your turn.

I think with Zach it certainly didn't hurt that he was beloved, but at the same time, he had to wait his turn, man. I mean, you know, he his last game was what two thousand and eight, you know, two thousand and nine, maybe he went to camp with Kansas City. I think so he certainly waited his turn. Him being a nice guy, didn't you know, It didn't thrust him in there. So he got in there on his merit being a nice guy. I think was just a nice thing that happened along the way. Yeah, step

along that. I think Joe Horgan really touched on that a little bit too, you know, and we had him on about talking about certain guys and you know that had to kind of waked their turn, and Zach was kind of one of those guys, but how he felt about the fact that you know, his time was definitely coming, you know, and that was you know, that was that

was pretty pretty pretty obvious too. And uh, you know, and then Zaco Jack talks a lot about in the podcast, you know about um, you know, some of the things that you know led to his probably delayed entry into the Hall of Fame. So that's going to be that

was interesting here from him. Well, because yeah, no doubt, we call that a teaser, and of course it keeps some meat on the bone for the folks, as as I like to say on my show here, but this is this will be Zach's second time in the tank, right, So you guys had him a while back, and he told so many great stories and what you guys talk about in terms of the person, the character, how humble, how accepting he is of everybody he encounters, that comes

across in that episode. I'm curious, you know, with the new episode coming out tomorrow, if you guys felt a different I don't want to say vibe, but like, did anything change for you or just like how the two episodes compare from pre Hall of Fame Zach Thomas to now Gold Jacket Hall of Famer. How do those two episodes kind of stuck up in that way? Yeah, bigheaded, arrogant. I mean now that he's got to know he was

already big headed, but for different reasons. But I du you are just you know what, it kind of is a layout here for you because you were just saying this on our call the other day about Zach. How mean, Yeah, he's way more He's definitely way more relaxed. He's definitely way more relaxed. But he's also a little more he's a little more cocky. He really is. Man, he's a badass. He's always been a if you want to call that cocky, he's he's a little bit of But you know what, though, man,

it's it's it's also you can tell the relief. You can tell that, you know what I mean that you know, not that it was I think he knew he was gonna get in, but it's still that it's still off his shoulders because you know, we held you met Travis nick Saith. You know, we've been fighting to fight for him, you know what I mean, And he's he's hurt it,

he's hurt everybody else fighting the fight for him. And he, like he said himself, you know, everybody can relax, you know, and I think he's the one also who has relaxed a lot because of that. He's just a different he was. He was just so chill, you know. Yeah, I think that was the That was the thing about it, man, even though we knew and he knew, and a lot of people told us that he's gonna get in. But hell, until it happens, you know, you don't know. But yeah,

big Steff, So yeah, you're right, man. He's definitely a different guy in terms of that. But he's that same dude that gives me and Seff a lot of hell, you know, whenever he gets an opportunity. I don't know how much he gives you, but he's sure as hell gave me funny of it, that's for sure. Now, that was pretty cool to see it on. I mean, look, life doesn't suck for Zach Thomas. It didn't before the

NFL Honors announcement, and it certainly doesn't now. But in twenty eighteen, we were at that as beautiful homes, got a beautiful family, everybody's healthy, knock on wood, and he's you know, he's living a good life that he's earned and all of those things. And I think he's very happy doing all the things that he does, really in the shadows in a lot of ways, right from from

the public. He's very present with his kids. I like to call him a soccer dad and we joke around with that and say he's driving around and a big Toyota ciena or something. But he's still He was always a guy that liked to put pressure on himself and liked to stress about things and liked to you know, it was kind of a motivator for him. He would create all of these scenarios so that he could outwork his situation because you know, as a player, he did that and I think in life in a lot of ways.

And as Jews said, you didn't sense any of that. He just looked like he was kind of walking on air when he walked in there, and he was so gracious with his time, and you're right, Juice, you know, I don't know if I could quite call him cocky. I don't know if he knows how to do that yet, but he he doesn't like to talk about himself a lot publicly. You know, he'll tell us he's a bad dude, you know privately and likes to do that, but publicly

he is always so humble and so gracious. And I know that some of his former teammates, as you heard on the on the tribute episode that we did, you know, they don't want him to awe shucks himself out of being a Hall of Famer, you know, they want him to take a little credit for what type of a player he was. And I think he was more open

to talking about those things on in this episode. You know, he talked about his prep, He talked about the things that he felt allowed him to be at his best, to win where he won, where he had an edge on his opponents. Um, you know, he wasn't you know, he didn't come on the show and pound his chest. But I think that he was really open about that stuff and and comfortable in doing so. Yeah, that's a that's a really good prelude to my penultimate question here.

Those are big words like mayonnaise, they're juice a whole lot manaise right there. Penultimates by new One. I've been using it a lot. You'll hear on the podcast a lot. I'm sure if you listen to us it too much and everyone just thinks that someone tweeted you, Hey, here's a new sat word. Yeah, exactly, give me, give me

the book. I'll go back over that thing again. But no, it was I was curious because, again as someone that doesn't know Zac personally, I actually met him for the first time at the DCC and just as nice as can be, you know, introduced himself. Hey, Travis, nice to meet you. And by the way, it looks like he can still play linebacker. Looks incredible, in great shape. Maybe safety now, Travis. Yeah, no, Well, you know, it's funny about that juice. There you go, there, you go, count out?

Does disrespectful man? You count him out. There was a message boards back in the early two thousands and there was actually like this legendary threat about moving Zack to safety and the guy just got crushed for it. So it's really funny that you brought that up here because it was a bad idea then, and I think Zach was say, it's a bad idea now, but I understand what you're saying. Their juice. But as someone that didn't know him, you know, I had this perception of, you know,

tough guy. You know, obviously probably a little bit of a meathead because he's a linebacker player in the National Football League. But then you see the the interaction with him and Jimmy Johnson and his family when he goes back home. The NFL network had the great video they showed of him learning that he was being you know, elected into the Hall of Fame, and the emotions that

you saw overcome him. Just to me, what you guys just described is visually present in those videos, and so I wanted to get your guy, both your guys's perspective on seeing that video and because like talking about it right now, as someone who doesn't even know the guy, it makes me a little emotional, like it kind of can feel the emotions bubbling up. Did you guys feel that when you watch to that video? Yeah, I mean,

no doubt about it. Man. It was like, um, you know, we talked a little bit about that that weight, you know, I mean that the weight and the weights you know what I mean, you know, both weights, you know what I mean, the waiting to get in there and the weight off his shoulder of getting a couple of poets here. Today you look at you guys and uh, you do see that, you know, and we actually we touched on this little soft ass and in our in our podcast being soft now, I just playing man, of course, Man,

I mean this dude. You know, he's always wore his emotions on his sleeve, you know, in private more than anything. Man. You know he's a tough dude. But hell, man, he you you hear the emotion, you know when you know we have a tough loss, and you see him in the locker room, like Seth said, he steps up to the podium no matter what. But you know, behind the scene, he's pissed for another week until he gets another checks you get back out there. Even when we win, he's

still back in the lab working, you know. So you always see him in work mode all the time. But then we get him in private. You know, hell, Zach was dak and Seth was that my way? We couldn't get Zack all the dance floor. That's Zack right there. You talk about rip walking, he was doing it all man. You know, a good friend of mine said, Zach goes him a pair of pants, and he tried to compete with him, and he ripped his pants. You know what, You know that he was Pampa High Schools, mister dance

his senior year. I don't know how many people you competed with. I don't know if it's a class of like eighteen people. But still, you guys, consider where you're at in the in the country. But that's okay though, we get it, you know what I mean. But yeah's

on your schedule. Yeah, but yeah, man, I tell you, man, just like you know, to see him that emotional, don't You don't see that very often from from anybody that's played football, you know, But then you see that from a guy like Zach Thomas, who's a hard ass football players us his nails, you know. And like I said, I think a lot of things came out at that

one point. And I think for Seth and I I know for myself, I was held emotional about it too, man, just seeing how you know, just how how how appreciative he was. But how that weight you know, finally the weight and the weight were over, you know what I mean. It was great. It was really great. It was a look one that the smile that came across his face when he realized ash like what was happening. It was

so cool, man, it was, it was really cool. I think it worked out great and you know, everybody who was involved in that process did a hell of a job. How they kept out a secret is beyond me, but it was you could tell that was legitimate. There was no poker face there that that was legitimate as he walked up there. And I think Juice was right. I mean, emotion is the key words. Zach played with emotion and passion. He had fun with emotion and passion. You know, post

game he was in the locker room. He and JT were notoriously the last two. That was and they never kept out of an interview postgame locker room, but they were always last, the last two. And there's a lot of different reasons why that was the case. Actually, JT was always the last to go, and he liked to

wait and hear what Zach would say. Because for Zach, he'd get up there and especially after a loss, and especially after a loss to the Jets, it would just pour out of him and he was furious and he would say all kinds of things that he normally wouldn't say. And I remember one time we were in the Jets locker room after another lousy loss and he was just going on and on, and the Levatard turns to me and he says, this is like a therapy session for him, isn't it. I go, he might need one after this,

the way he feels about it. But so, you know everything he did, and I think that's part of why people have connected with him, so you know so much. I think that's why fans absolutely love the guy is because you know when when you're a fan and you show up and you've painted your face, and you've paid that good money and you've been out there at the stadium eight hours before kickoff and all those things, and you're screaming your head off and truly your your investment, right.

So if you're this, like like my co host here, you want to feel like the players care as much as you do, if not more. And the children, the matter is, they do and sometimes the way they handle that is perceived differently because you just Travis, you and I will never know what it feels like to go through that, but there's this perception. And with Zach, because he wore it on his sleeves, there was no hiding

the emotion of the passion. Uh. You know. I think that's a big part of the reason why fans had connected with him. And so when he went in, I had a friend text to me that he and his wife were jumping up and down in tears when he came out on the stage for NFL Honors. And why is that? Why do you have that visceral connection with a guy that you've never met, And it's because of all of those things. It's because of the emotion that

he exuded each and every time he put on orange aqua. Yeah, it's it's basically roll in this together at the end of the day. And that's that's what Zach definitely embodies a member of the Miami Dolphins and the South Florida community. And so we've arrived at the final question here. It's not a question what I'm going to ask you guys to do. And it's not like it needs this because obviously everyone that hears this is going to listen to to the podcast because we all love Zach Thomas for

the reasons we I hope. So, I mean, tryve time's awesome, but damn it, come over and check out the fish tank juice. I'll go to you first is sell us, tell us, tell us about this podcast, Why it was awesome, why it's great, why Dolphins fans have to hear this episode of the Fish Tank. Well, I tell you man um for one, is Zach Thomas done? You can start off right there, all right, it's five four, do you meantime?

That'll be my time here you go. Yeah. And and also you know, Zach Zak is, like Seth said, he's really his time is like really like really presses with more of his family and to even get him one on extended. I mean we were probably on there for a close forty five minutes to an hour talking to him. He's so he's so like quiet, like we talked about humble, but he's also a family guy that really doesn't you know,

get out you know and do a lot um. I think the fact that you know he took the time out as a step kind of talked to him about getting out there and seeing us. As you know the podcast we'll tell you that Step was on Zach about getting his ass out there and getting him in the tank. And Zach, as promised, you know, came into the tank. But I'm gonna tell you some of the things he says. And this episode, like I talked about every podcast that week, Steps and I do you know even the one we

did with Rashad Jones a couple of weeks ago. We learned something new, you know what I mean. And you're talking two guys that know Zach Thomas pretty well, and we learned something new again, a few things new, you know.

And I think that's why it's really a must must listen because the Zach Thomas that we know, we know ninety percent of Zach Thomas, but there are a couple of things that will there's a couple of nuggets in there that he's going to drop that are super important to the reason why he's so damn good, you know what I mean. And uh, I think that was that was that was that was super impressive to me because I mean, hell, we laugh, you know, we we we

got it was serious. We you know, we joked a little bit, but over and all overall, man, it was Zach Thomas at his best and it was so much fun just having him in there. And man, when you hear a couple of those little chidbits, Travis, you're gonna you're gonna love it. Man. Well, we might talk to you, you know, tonight after we after you post, you know, we might talk to a little bit about some of the stuff, but you'd rather want to hear it firsthand.

Elive tweets juicy be you gotta you gotta hear it. You gotta hear it that way first. And I don't know you can talk that set that was pretty good. I can. I don't know that any It almost feels like, you know, hey, look at me for me to just feel like I have to see something because Juice is painted a great picture. But but yeah, absolutely no, I mean, look, he's right, It's what else do you need to say? It's Zach Thomas. Hall of Famers don't grow on trees.

This team that we all love and have cheered for. Some people who are listening to this have cheered for them since the beginning of the organization in nineteen sixty six. Zach only becomes the eleventh, the eleventh Hall of Famer and the history of this team, there are some guys that are deserving. I don't know when the next one will. You know when we'll put another gold jacket on another

Miami Dolphin, hopefully sooner than later. But the point is that one of eleven dove in the tank and told some really wonderful stories and hopefully some things that hadn't been told before, as Juice is saying, and you know, when a guy like that takes you essentially inside, right, you know inside, you get to look through his eyes almost, and how he's diagnosing a Peyton Manning led offense. Like that's really cool stuff, you know, And I thought that

that was special. It's just it's Zach. I think that we probably could have just stopped there. It's It's a great episode, hopefully. It feels like three guys that have each other for a long time talking about something that everybody wanted, but one guy really deserved. And that's what we tried to bring across in this episode. Well, as I've told you guys many many times that the Fish Tank is so special because you get your favorite athletes as a Miami Dolphins fan in a way that you

would not get them otherwise. Like the fish Tank exists in its own universe that just you just have these stories and the versions of these people that are comfortable to open up to you, guys that I just don't think is possible on another platform. That's why we love the podcast so much. So if you're a big Zach Thomas fan and if you listen to this podcast. That means that you are go check out the FishTank episode tomorrow. It drops Seth Juice and Hall of Famer Zach Thomas.

You guys do not want to miss that. So, guys, thank you so much for your time today. I'm very stoked about this long episode of Drift Time Promoting your podcast. You can follow Seth at Team Levett. You can follow Oj at oj McDuffie, and of course the fish Tank at the Fish Tank eighty one on Twitter. Guys, anything else you want to promote here, fish Tank wise, Zach Thomas wise, whatever, you guys, go ahead and do that well, Travels. I just want to thank you for letting us dive in. Bro.

You know what I mean? How you do it? Man?

You gotta do it more offense? Been too long? Yeah yeah, yeah, I mean, like I said, if you want to you want to get I think tonight though, I mean, if you want to check out before you get to the Zach Thomas episode, check out the Joe Horrigan and then also check out you know, the Tribute one, and then that'll lead right into what we did you know tomorrow one from back in Yeah, that was twenty eighteen, Travils that was the first one of our first interviews we

ever did. It was before we were part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network with you, which has been awesome. Um, and we really just I don't want to say we didn't know what we were doing, juice, but we kind of didn't know what we were No, we were figuring

it out. And Zach was like the second or third person that we interviewed, and he was kind enough to let us come up to his house and do that and tell some fun stories and if you go back and listen to them now, which I did before this interview because we didn't want to do the same thing twice, it was. It was a lot of fun. This is a very different interviews it as it deserved to be. But yeah, it was. It's pretty wild to think that that was five years ago. Yeah, five years ago. It

goes by flash, I have a fun boys. Well, hey, thanksl today. You know, I don't want to say diving in because that's your guys, this thing, but you took the wheel and you gut us home to a great episode. So thank you so much to you. Guys. Appreciate it, thanks for having us. Travis appreciate it. Boss and There you have it. There they go. Fun episode there, It's

always fun talking to those guys. I just feel like the chemistry we've developed over a couple of years here we've been working together has really kind of just made for fun episodes no matter what we talk about, especially once about a player we all admire so much and Zach Thomas. Again. That episode of the Fish Tank drops on Tuesday. Do not miss it. It's going to be great. These guys do such good work and Zach's obviously a massive figure down here with the Miami Dolphins in the

South Florida community. In the meantime, that's going to be my time. You all, please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at wing for the NFL, Follow Seth and Juice follow the Miami Dolphins as well. Check out their podcast on the Fish Tank, not just Zach, but all the episodes, the entire catalog. It's largely evergreen, so you can listen to

the episodes whenever wherever. Shakira also the team YouTube channel for Dolphins Today, Media Availabilities, and much more, and last but not least, Miami dolphins dot Com until next time finds up Caroline Daddy's coming home.