Kliff Kingsbury: Work Ethic Is Everything | E02

Welcome to my podcast In Search of Excellence. It's about our quest for greatness to be the very best that we can be to learn, educate and motivate ourselves to live up to our highest potential. It's about planning for excellence which requires hard work, dedication and perseverance. Achieving Excellence is our goal, and it's never easy to do. We all have different backgrounds, personalities and surroundings. And we all have different routes on how we hope and how we want

Thanks for having me, Randy. I appreciate it.

All right. I always start my podcasts with family from the moment we're born, our family helped shape our personality, our values and the preparation for our future. And I want to begin with your parents. Your mom grew up on a farm and your dad received the Purple Heart in Vietnam after a bullet shattered his jaw and he was injured in a gunfight. Both were high school teachers. Tell us more about them what they were like and what kind of values they instilled in you.

Yeah, both both incredible human beings. There was no that I was very fortunate to have my parents, both in the house growing up. You said it both educators. Both came from very different backgrounds. My mom was raised on a farm my dad was born in the city and kind of had a rough upbringing. My dad decided to volunteer to go to Vietnam. And when he was actually underage, lied about his age just to go so we could get away from that, that

They taught you about work ethic. Let's talk about that.

Yeah, first and foremost, that was what it was about, I think my dad was my high school football coach, as well. And so I would see him wake up, be the first one in the office, the last one to leave every day, you know, no matter what his contemporaries was were doing, he was always putting in the time. You know, in that regard, and then my mom was the

One of the values they instilled in you was do what's right. What does that mean? Exactly? And how did that influence the rest of everything you've done since then?

I think more than anything, they would they would harp on, you know, do what's right, when nobody's watching, it's easy to put it out there. Do the extra things the practice when you think the coach is watching or do the extra studying when you think the teacher is watching, but what are you doing when when it's just you and you? And that

It's amazing. I think it's important to note also, it's easy to do what's right when people are watching you, but it's really better if it's an eight to in part of your personality to do what's right when no one's watching.

Yeah, there's no doubt and that was that was a big line in our house. Like I said, Who are you and when nobody's around. And so that's always stuck with me even to this day. It's, you know, it's easy to like you said to put it out there and do charitable endeavors. So people We'll see and you get the accolades. But, you know, who are you every day? And who are you to people who truly can't help you in any way?

They tell you about punctuation and punctuality. What? What about punctuality? And do practice punctuality today?

I do I do. I mean, my dad was was a Marine. So it was, if you're on time, you're late, you know, if you're early, you're on time. And that's always how we lived our lives. And I've always found that, you know, the biggest, greatest commodity anybody can have is their time. And if you're disrespectful, that and you show up late or, you know, you're you're not being respectful of that, then that, to me is kind of the ultimate

And what do you do now? Do any of your players come late? And if they do, what happens to those guys?

Yeah, I mean, we hold guys accountable. I'm not as traditional in the Fine. Since like, a lot of people in the NFL, I mean, we'll find guys multiple offenses. But more than anything, I kind of make them explain to me and explain to the general manager why they were late. And they tend to hate that a lot more than just paying a fine and, and moving forward.

So work ethic was something that you saw, did they actually tell you, you got to work hard to be the best at whatever you're doing? Or were you just observing it? Kind of and you're living it? I mean, you woke up early, you said, your dad was a Marine? Did he talk to you about work ethic? Did he say those words, you have to have a great work ethic to be successful? And do you think that's necessary? If you're young and impressionable for a parent to tell you that you got

I think a healthy dose of both I know it started just watching them waking up early. You know, they were begin to exercise as well. My mom would go for a jog to have her workout in the gym. You know, they'd always be busy always have something going on. So you see it at a young age. And then they decide examples.

I think as a kid, you want your parents to be supportive. You get positive reinforcement from them, it really affects the outcome, your confidence, the way you carry yourself, your personality. Your parents were very supportive. You Your dad started coaching football, not because he liked it, but because he wanted to spend more time with you and your brother, Clint, could you feel the love?

There's no doubt, no doubt. And it was always wanting us to strive to be our best, but it was never. Because they wanted us to do it. If we didn't want to play anything, they would have been fine with that, you know, they wanted us to pick what we had in our heart and whatever passion that was, and choose that and try to do the best we could at it. But it was never a deal where hey, you're gonna play this, you're going to do that.

So you're talking about your brother Clint. He's two years older than you. You guys as young kids, you're he played football as well. Well, you guys competitive at one point, or what was the rivalry? Like if there was one was he looking out for you? And he said, Hey, you're my younger bro. Here's what you got to do learn from my mistakes. Were you modeling him.

He's like the best human I've ever met. You know, one of the nicest people has always treated people incredible. He's one of the smartest people I know. So I've always looked up to him. He wasn't as sports crazy as I was. But he played. He's a big outdoorsman. And he's a mechanical engineer. So he kind of has that likes to make things and build things. mentality. But yeah, I think just his humanity the way he's always treated people his entire life. It was something I've always aspired to. Do.

You guys go hunting together at times. And I heard when you were younger, you killed an alligator together.

We probably killed just about every living creature in North America at some point early on. I don't hunt anymore. I got away from that. I like to fish. He's still an avid hunter. But nothing nothing crazy since then.

Where do you fish? What is there somewhere?

I love Yeah, I love to go to Well, actually I love to go to Key West. That's like my getaway recharge reset place. It just feels like it's kind of been trapped in a time time warp and you can get down there and unwind and get away and I'm a big fan of that spot.

You get a boat you get a big reel on the boat. You just cast away hoping what do you catch out there?

I get a guy I tried to catch tarp and Barracuda and permit is what we kind of go after the same guy. He's awesome. He doesn't Yeah, when you miss the fish or you make a bad cast, so it's just pure pure enjoyment.

So let's talk about what you were like as a kid. What do you do for fun? What were you interested in? And when did you become interested in football?

I was forced crazy from a young age probably having my my dad be a coach. I was always around it grew up playing soccer, basketball, baseball, football, flag football. And so I just loved the game. And then being in Texas as you get older, you see the importance of Texas high school football, how big of a deal it is the entire towns coming out. And so I was really captivated by that I was captivated by the scheme of football, the X's and O's the strategy involved. And so just

Sounds like you had a busy childhood. Did you have any odd jobs? And if so, what would you do?

Yeah, I limited limited jobs. I think I went I mowed lawns one summer with like a yard crew, which was fun. I was a trash pickup, we have a huge water park in our hometown, like the one of the biggest cities in North America. So I was the trash pickup kid, where you just pick up trash, because lifeguard you had to sit in a stand. And you couldn't really talk to the girls because they would just go by on the riots and trash pickup, you could go around and still be mobile and

How old were you when you played your first football game? And when When did you really become interested in the game?

I'd say I really knew what was going on probably around six or seven. I think that's when we were playing flag football. My dad was big, he was the coach. So he wanted us to wait till like middle school to play tackle football and be coached by coaches in the middle school. And so we played flag football growing up and I'd say six or seven. I always played quarterback always kind of admired. Like I said, Joe Montana. And it just I like to be in that position like having

Your dad set up a tire in a trash can in the backyard for you to practice throwing. Tell us about that? Where was the tire? How far away was it how high was hanging, and if Did you know the size of the opening of that tire?

I did not. But that's another there's another Joe Montana references like my third one already, you can see my affinity for the man. But I remember reading a book that had a picture of the tire or whatever that he used to throw through. And so I had my dad put one up on the back of the backyard, it was probably I don't know, five feet off the ground. The hole wasn't wasn't too big, but lots of throws at that. And then for the touchdown passes that we'll see if he could throw it in the trash can.

So the average tire is 18 inches hole diameter, the diameter of a football is 8.66 inches, that's about five inches on either side of that ball to get it through the hole. What how far are we talking here? I mean, and how many throws would you do per day.

I mean, I'd stay out there for quite a while and it was kind of like conditioning to because you jog, go get the ball and then come back. But I'd say probably close to 50 to 100 throws, and you'd start close work your three step drop them back up, work your five step drop and then back out where your seven step drop, and just throw and throw and throw and you could do it by yourself which I always liked.

So give us a sense of you said you worked on it a lot. Is this two hours a day? Was it four days a week? Was it five days a week?

Yeah, I'd say close to play two hours a day all in and it was five, six days a week whenever I could get out there and I became pretty crazy about it. Once I got to high school I just saw what Texas high school football meant to people and everything that came with it and was just super inspired and so from high school and I just was back there trying to perfect it.

And you mentioned your dad was a coach. So when you were nine years old, he was taking a football practice he was doing too Do a day as you're going with them. And you're bringing your buddy there, you guys are mapping out the plays, you're doing Exynos at that point, wanting to know how it all works, how many other

Yeah, I think you nailed it. I think more than anything was just situational. And that's why I've always kind of felt blessed on my path is that I was able to be around that at that age and understand it and be embraced by football and the culture of it at such a young age. So I was around it. I always saw the X's and O's was always fascinated by him and just kind of put in a position to to succeed really in that game.

So you talk about Joe Montana, who wins four Super Bowls, three MVP, Super Bowls. He's the MVP, and three is three Super Bowls. He's the MVP. He is the highest passer rating in NFL history. 120 7.8. He's nicknamed The Comeback Kid for his history of rallying late from late game deficits. And if you're a sports fan, you remember the catch, he throws a pass to tight end Dwight Clark and the 1981 NFC Championship game to win the game. You were two years old when that

Yeah, I mean, obviously I was young, but seeing the replays it. It feels that that moment like mastery of the position, mastery of the sport and playing quarterback such a unperfect game. I think you strive for perfection and settle for greatness because you're never going to never going to be part of this mystery to miss throw something you could have done better. But moments like that, when you see Joe Montana make a throw that he probably couldn't make, you

So back then, when someone asks you, What do you want to do? And you're when you're older, when you grow up? I'm assuming you said you want to be a pro quarterback and for 99.99999% of young kids, it's not going to happen. So at what point did you realize you were pretty good and think you can actually get there one day that you can play college ball and then exceed their and even achieve your dream to make it to the NFL.

Yeah, that's that's all I ever want to do growing up. But I think I came from a small town. There weren't a lot of guys going to division one colleges. And so I grew up thinking that that was just this incredible feat to get there. And not many people have done it. And so it's like you would just have to be out of this world to reach that goal. And so I always wanted to be a pro

is Texas Friday Night Lights. Like it was the TV show. There's a stadium there, there could be five or 10,000 people the entire town comes out here under the bright lights is that really Texas football, high school football?

It was it was I'm not sure. I mean, there's so much else going on in the world these days with social media and all those things to do. But it definitely was back then. I mean, it would be I mean, we had a town of like 30 35,000 people back then we have 12 to 15,000 at some games packed out everybody you knew was there.

at that point. You must be a rockstar and you're a teenager and you're the quarterback and you're a good looking guy. There's a lot of attention coming to you when you're 16 You're 17 years old? How are you handling all that I'm sure you're the most popular kid in school or one of them. Tell us about what that was like, and then how you dealt with that and how you didn't let it go to your head.

Yeah, I think I was kind of a late bloomer, I never saw myself in that way. And I was just always focused on getting better. I'm a guy who is really hard on myself. So I always thought there was a lot left out there, and I could do better, and I could be better. And then my dad, when your dad is a Marine, and your head, high school football coach, there's a lot of humbling moments. And he made sure this was kind of his thing to make sure he was always harder on myself and my brother

You mentioned playing on good teams. And when we're all trying to improve at our companies, when we're trying to get better and do better and have better results. It's about team and hiring people better than you who know things that are different than you. And one way to improve is to play with people better than you are we watch them, we learn from them, we get coaching from them. Was that something that was important to you? Did you seek that out?

Yes, as a young person, I think I was still trying to find my way. So I don't know if I really knew that. That's how to really, you know, take the next step is to get around people that help elevate you, because they're better than you faster than you showing you. I think I was still just trying to try to find my way. And as I got older, I understood. You know, the best way to bring out the best in yourself is to be against great competition and be around great players and people that that

Yeah. And then once you catch them, they're pretty much gone unless they get injured. And then once you're the quarterback, people are trying to catch you nipping at your heels. There's pressure there. Once you know that,

no doubt, it comes with the territory. And it's, it's like people say it's harder to stay on top than it is to get there. And there's no doubt at that position, particularly, I mean, one bad game, and they're calling for the backup, as you know. So it's it's week to week. And I do think that level of pressure is obviously helping my career as a coach and be able to handle certain things.

There's a lot of people listening and watching who have young kids, teenagers, young adults, what's your best advice to parents on how to motivate their kids to be the best they can be and live up to their potential? And in your view? Is there any particular age that parents should make a conscious effort to focus on this? There's a fine line between supporting your kids and pushing them too hard?

Yeah, there's no doubt like I mentioned earlier in our talk, my parents, they, they offered a lot of things that we could get into, they never forced it upon us. But they kind of made sure hey, this is tennis, or this is golf, and this is fishing. And this is. And if we took to it, I want to do it. We did it. And if we weren't going to be a part of it, then yeah, they wanted to see us work hard at it. Show up early to practice, stay late, do the extra finish the season,

Yeah, I have five kids. As you know, I have one son, Charlie, and he was an okay baseball player. And as he was progressing through the little leagues, he had a couple of big hits, he and the World Series hit a game winning symbol, the single to win the World Series. And he was starting to improve a lot and I thought he should keep playing. And he said that I'm just you don't want to do it. And I really pushed him a little bit. But he said that I don't want to do this. I want to be a

I agree, I think allow them to chase their passions. And that's where they learn the work ethic. That's where he learns, going and, you know, attempting that jump until he gets it. I mean, because if you're not passionate about it, you're not breaking the risk four times and coming back, you know, you learn one time and you're done with it.

Yeah, I mean, just to look at his body sometime it is bruised. It's like he he's getting a pounding on there. You fall on your side. It's, it's, it's interesting, but I, you know, he keeps coming back at it. And I love it. I'm very proud of him for doing that. And it's cool for his bar mitzvah video, which was super cool. I'll show this to you. Sometimes I got a bunch of clips for people say, Hey, Charlie, I'm happy Bar Mitzvah. And we had guys like, we had everybody.

That's that's big, allowing him to do what he wants to do.

Yeah. It's funny, because because we have like a frequent flyer plan now at you the earth, or the fetus. Have a cell number, which is, which is funny. So you're playing high school football, baseball, basketball, you also ran track. So that's, I know, most great athletes play three. Were you playing for the same time? And how do you do that? If they're overlapping? I mean, that's taking on quite a bit there. Yeah, usually

it was football, and then kind of basketball baseball track would overlap a little bit, but you just didn't know any better. I mean, it was a small town. Like I said, we grew up playing everything my dad was was a coach at the high school mom was a teacher. So it was just part of it. And I really think that was doing that day in day out was where I learned real work ethic and real consistency.

So your sophomore year, you're a good football player, your dad's the coach of Varsity put you on the JV team even though you're good enough to play varsity and he didn't think the reason why you should play varsity is because he's the coach and a pissed you off. In fact, I read somewhere is still pisses you off. Can you talk about that? Did that motivate you to work harder?

It definitely did. And I looking back, like I mentioned earlier, having my dad as my high school coach was like the most beautiful thing that's ever happened to me. But at the time, you don't understand why you're like I you want to be up there with the varsity the cool kids, the girls, the whole thing, Texas high school, you know, Friday Night Lights, but he knew that it would be better for me to kind of develop, get bigger, faster, stronger and not be in that type of spotlight

So junior year on varsity senior year, things really lit up for you. You lead your team at 13 to record you through for over 3000 yards 34 touchdowns. You're the MVP of the Texas coaches all star game not too shabby there. And our quest to be the best that we could be one of our goals is to make sure we're constantly improving. So what led to a huge improvement from sophomore to junior to senior year.

I'd say more than anything just consistency. You know, we you go from the JV your sophomore year, you're undefeated. We think he's gonna get and then you know, I think we went four and six my junior year we got moved into higher classification playing really good teams got beat up, but just not letting the disappointment affect the work ethic, the consistency and approach and and just continuing to work on my craft and that led to the nature

So you have a great senior year, you're not getting any scholarship offers at the one schools and at the last minute, you get one from a coach named spike dykes at Texas Tech. First of all, I love the name, it's a hall of fame name. Spike dykes comes in with a scholarship offers the only one you get at a D one program. And here you are, you've trained your entire childhood to pursue your lifelong dream of making it

You know, I think I was probably feeling sorry for myself. I remember having to talk to my mom, like, maybe I'll just go to school then like I thought I did great. And I've seen other guys and I know I can do it, you know, but you're trying to handle the disappointment but I never gave up I just I think he I had that small moment where I'm like

I want to go back to your parents, again, both high school teachers, stressing the importance of an education for your future, and you did not disappoint on that front. You're a great student. You graduated three out of 450 in your high school class, academic all state played football in college, you'll have to tell us how many hours a day that is six hours a day. And then you have games and you have to study. It's like having full time jobs. You're an academic honors every year in college.

It was it was a lot it. But I was so blessed to have started that at a young age, it was always academics first in sports, if you weren't handling that part of it, then sports weren't gonna be in the picture. And so I didn't really know any better. At that point. It was actually in college, when I kind of felt like, hey, some of these guys aren't taking this as serious as I am when it comes

You must have been sacrificing some things social life. You mentioned. Girls and the podcast a little bit before. Did you have a social life? Were you able to make friends outside of football? Were you able to date?

Yeah, not not much in high school, I was pretty one track minded. And then college really the same until I got a little bit older and kinda figured out how to be efficient in the process in football and academics, and then the social life came along a little bit more. But I think when you want something that bad, you know, you're gonna have

So you're at Texas Tech. The first two years you're playing for Coach dikes, you're redshirted your freshman year you make the honor roll 1999 You're the backup. As a freshman you're playing in six games. Nothing great. There. You made the honor roll again. And a 2000. Coach dice retires and Texas Tech hires this guy named Mike leach would have been the offensive coordinator Oklahoma. Never been a head coach before. So tell us about Mike Leach and who he was at that particular

Yeah, Mike Mike leach is He's extraordinary. And what he's been able to do in his approach the way he you know, approaches offense approaches, football approaches, meetings, everything he does, it was so foreign. When he got there, we're all looking at each other like this. There's no way that shits gonna work, like, what is going on? What is he doing? How's he coaching, and then he

You mentioned thinking outside of the box. So how important is that, to our success being different doing something that people haven't done before? It's risky, because if you fail, especially in a highly public job, like you were everyone watching you, man's, you know, you do something unique, it doesn't work. It's embarrassing.

Yeah, it's easy to just do it like the other guy, you know. And if you do, there's people that can and they, they're substantially better than you can keep going. But I think take the risk to do it a different way. And believe in yourself that that's where you can make these incredible leaps and really reach some uncharted territory. And I think that's what Mike was able to do in places that previously weren't able to accomplish it.

Okay, so let's talk about exactly what he did the air raid offense, what is the air raid offense and you can go deep talking about four wideouts and all that, but we'll try to keep it pretty simple. So what what was it before? And then what what was it when he put this new scheme in place?

Yeah, we were more traditional football tight ends fullbacks. You know, huddles, and when he got there, it was all wide splits, the linemen were kind of spread out, you wanted to spread the entire defense. And it's just all about really getting the ball in space, finding leverage to defeat defenders and letting your guys run with it. And the you know, we throw 56 times a game which was very rare. In those days, it's more common

And it's new for you as well. I mean, you got to be thinking like you said you were thinking what is this will it will it work but at the end of the day it really helped you. Sophomore year you threw for 3400 yards 21 touchdowns, and he went to this my favorite ball of all time the gallery furniture.com bowl. You guys didn't didn't win. But you did have a 4.0 that year in college as well. Then junior year, you threw for 3500 yards 25 touchdowns, you had a couple of four touchdown games, which is

It wasn't it was more I'm one of those guys the more success that comes the more I want it. It doesn't it doesn't feel like pressure to me. I just want want more of that. And so that was kind of it's like you have this thing being mentioned with your name.

So did you know after that bad game, when you got your ass kicked that it really was over? We were hoping well, maybe they're gonna say

that it was that bad. It was as bad as you could possibly play as an offense and I was not long night.

They're all looking at you saying can you perform under pressure? Can you win the big game? And then at that point, if you can't even come close to winning the big game, then it's just like that black and white. You have four years of performance and one one night. It Yeah, it's over.

It's all over. But that's the beauty of sports. And that's the beauty of really striving for for greatness. I mean, you're gonna have those pressure packed moments and they either work out or they don't.

So you finished ninth in the Heisman, you didn't win. So you dropped down a bunch of places, but you did win the Stanley BOD trophy. nacin best passer, you graduated 39 Texas Tech records 13 Big 12 record seven NCAA records. Were you satisfied at that point?

I was being a Texas kid. And that being my only scholarship offer I was I was proud of what we're able to do out there because Texas Tech traditionally, you know, not not the Top program in the state. And I felt like with what Mike had brought, there was a lot of hype. There was a lot of promise moving forward. And so I always felt very close to Texas Tech, like I owed it a lot and sort of be able to give back in that way meant a lot to me.

Here comes the draft. All the hours the footballs through the tires and the trash can the 1000s of hours of work, the sacrifices, the hundreds of games. It's all about the payoff dream come true. Hello, NFL. And here comes Draft Day, April 25 2013. You're sitting I'm sure with your family and friends on the TV watching ESPN, waiting for your name to get called. Figure out where you're going, where you're

I thought I'd go before. And so I actually sat around and I think we get through the fifth about middle of the fifth and I told my roommate in college they're like we're going let's go eat so we

Tom Brady's a quarterback and he's a sixth round pick as well. So you gotta be thinking alright, I'm playing behind. Oh, yeah. But here

we go. Lightning Strikes Twice baby Alright, let's let's go do it.

You don't want him to get hurt but here replace Drew Brees he was one of the best passes of his days and he never looked back and you know you always wonder Hey, what's gonna happen to me? No doubt. So your rookie season didn't go that well you you spent the entire year on injured reserve you hurt your arm. What happened to the arm?

Just tendinitis. Yeah, one of those deals is just too much wear and tear and so didn't didn't play that year. But I learned a lot. I learned a lot that first year. They had me doing some some things off the field since I wasn't able to really participate behind the scenes with the coaches X Isn't knows and things of that nature. And so I probably learned more football than I'd ever known before just being around those

It wasn't a loss. You guys want a Super Bowl, you got a ring on an event A Terry 41 yard field goal that years time was expiring. Brady, of course, is a Super Bowl MVP for the second time in his career. And then after that, you're waived one and done. What do you think at that point? Why did they give up on you after only a year?

Yeah, I think when I had my opportunities, I didn't make the most of them, you know, I think should have would have should have and looking back I obviously wish I would have worked harder and done different things. But I think when you get there you see Tom Brady, you see this guy who's at this level, I think I did get discouraged. Because I'm like, I don't know if I can ever

Did you know you're gonna get caught at the at the end of the season?

Yeah, I I kind of knew that I hadn't played as well as I should have or could have and probably needed to be somewhere else. And so it was definitely the right move by them. I hadn't done the job I needed to do.

You signed with the Patriots are the saints, your second season to the practice squad, which is not where you want to be either you didn't play. It didn't work out there. Then you move to the Denver Broncos practice squad again. You're only there three weeks, you're released. And then you go to the New York Jets. And you finally get in your first game. I think Chad Pennington was a quarterback then and you came in against the Broncos late, late in the game won one

think looking back now, I mean, obviously, like I said earlier, I think there's a point where you feel sorry for yourself, Oh, I didn't get my opportunity, I should have had a better chance. Why does this guy get a chance. But looking back, I wish I would have just been more dedicated to the process. I always thought I worked hard. But when you can step back and you see it from from my chair, now I you only have a limited time to try and make your run as a professional

I've heard before from some athlete friends of mine professional athlete friends that they said there are these players who don't make it. But who would have made it on a different team having the opportunity to play with different people and teammates. Is that something that you've thought about? You think it may have worked out differently? And is that true?

situationally can matter? You know, I think especially being a coach, now in this league, you see how certain situations play out for certain guys, and some guys go places it just especially at the quarterback position to get beat up, lose their confidence, don't have a lot of talent around him. And that's a tough, tough situation. But that, you know, my dad told me a long time ago, the cream always rises to the top. And if you're good enough, they're gonna find you. And so I

See, you lived your dream, you achieved your dream, you played quarterback at a very competitive level. That was plan A and then what what was plan B? And are you thinking what am I going to do now?

Yeah, that was the problem. There wasn't a Plan B I had subscribed to if you had a plan B plan a would never work. You know, I get that advice at a young age. And so it was just like blinders on. I'm gonna be this quarterback. I'm gonna be Joe Montana, Tom Brady. And so when that hits you and you're like, Oh, what do we do now? I was pretty much lost.

What is an offensive quality control? Coach?

That's a great question. I think it it can wear a lot of hats. When I was there, I would really try to help the quarterbacks in preparation, help game planning in any way I can. And you're really going to do whatever they asked you to do from the lowest task on up. But it allowed me to just get around

tell us about Coach Belichick. You mentioned your first year with the Patriots. This is a guy that's won six Super Bowls. as a head coach, you think he's considered one of the three best coaches in history? I'd say the, I'd say, okay, okay, number one, let's

put them in the top.

You think about Don Landry and George halus. But I think he's number one as well, although I'm too young to know about Don or George. And you also worked under Charlie Weis who was a great coach there as well. You got to assume it's kind of like a PhD in football. What? What is he doing different than everybody else in football? What's up with his success? How does he do it? And living and breathing it? I assume watching his learning.

Yeah, no doubt just being around it. I just think his attention to detail is something that probably has never been reciprocated in the game ever. He sees every angle you could possibly imagine he covers every angle. He has these thoughts that you'd never even think would come up in a game. And so he makes you walk it through and you're rolling your eyes like this would never happen. And then week seven, it happens and you're prepared for and your team executes at a high

And the challenges today are going to be a lot harder. I don't know if he's going to have the success for quite a while or, you know, they did

say they beat they beat us this year. That was That one hurt my soul. I saw that I want to hurt my soul. I was looking forward to that handshake after the win. It's hard to beat him. He's got some mind control.

You should have won that game, another missed field goal. And in that game, we

had a tough a tough ending, but it's just a credit to him in the way they were able to adjust different things to do offensively defensively, special teams to adapt to personnel and still in a down year where they saved all that cap room didn't spend all that money. had all these guys sit out they still go seven and nine. And it's just incredible.

Yep, it's for me, I love the Patriots, because as you know, I went to Michigan, huge Tom Brady fan. And I think I shared this with you. I took my kids to Puerto Rico. They were girls were eight and 10. I have twin girls. And my son, Charlie that we've talked about, we're staying at this small resort called a Dorado beach it had just open. And on Sundays we were uniforms. Were all in our lions jerseys. As you know, I'm a big lions fan. And this guy

No doubt, no doubt, and he just been around him. My time there. I mean, he's about excellence and he won't accept anything less and I actually saw him probably 2000 So I was there 2003 Assam 2018 Probably in LA just randomly at at a spot and he I saw Hey, Mr. CRAF Kliff, Kingsbury is there remember you sixth round Texas Tech, I mean, just you know, and that's 18 years later, 15 years later, and so he, he's definitely dialed in.

So we're going to blow through a lot of your coaching career. I'm going to stop at moments because there's so much else I want to talk about, but you're in Houston for two years. You're promoted to quarterbacks coach, I mean, you're starting at the bottom bottom. Right. It's hard to get a job in coaching. So by the way, what were you making is the quality control coach?

It was $400 a month, and I just wouldn't even pick up my checks. I just left him over there. But there wasn't a big, big stipend at that time for that for that position that you have. Ah,

all right. So you're two years at 400 bucks a month. You get promoted a quarterbacks coach two years later. You're there four years you get promoted the CO offensive coordinator and as luck would have it, your quarterback has case Keenum who says the all time division one passing touchdown record. I think he threw nine touchdowns

Yeah, well with Patrick it was he had grown up being a baseball guy. His dad was a baseball player. Everybody thought he's gonna play baseball. You know, hands down. You messed around with football in high school, but that wasn't going to be his path. And so I remember watching his tape and he was unorthodox, you know, made a bunch of plays, but just didn't look like a traditional quarterback. In his senior year,

Do you know what round he was drafted in?

Say, like, like 3737.

So I had to look this up. I didn't know there was such thing as 37 rounds in a professional sport and baseball. There's actually 40 And if you do the math, he's around the 1200s pic of the of the MLB Lakers. Yeah, so so you get them. And he plays behind Webb, who gets her but a sophomore season. Here we go. 4600 yards passing 36 touchdowns. Junior year leads the nation passing yards a game for 21. He throws for 5000 yards, 53 touchdowns, and so he's there three years.

What added to that was that was my school, right? That was Texas Tech, that was my pride and joy, I had all these visions of grandeur of being the prodigal son goes back and leads them to the promised land and for it to, you know, fail and not get there and, you know, deal with the scrutiny and getting fired and all that it was tough. I mean, I think it's hard to kind of keep your confidence and handle all those

It's interesting you say that I'm I'm a venture capitalist, as you know, an entrepreneur and as a venture capitalist, seven, eight out of 10 companies fail, you think you're making a great investment the first time you look for a billion dollar opportunities. You look really stupid when seven or eight of them or even nine of them have 10 sometimes fail. And I tell all my interns and my mentees, you learn a lot more from the failures than the successes. And there are some

Yeah, no doubt. I think that's the biggest thing is kind of the after action review if you will, of okay, this is what we liked. This is what we didn't like this what we weren't Got that is what we're bad at and how do we get better? And how do we make sure that you said that the next time we had this opportunity, we were better at what we do.

So you had a lot of opportunities. You and I have talked about this before you go to USC for online, basically, and I think I sent you a Tex. Cool, happy, you're gonna be in LA. We can hang out maybe when you're here. You had kindly invited me down to Lubbock. I didn't make that trip. I know, for me, it's fun. I'm sure you know, you would have said, you know, hanging out on the field, your game passes during the day,

that would have got the red carpet, that's for sure. That would have been

super fun for me. I still hope it happens with the Cardinals. But we can talk about that later.

Lions. We play the lions again next year, third row. So we're like, division opponents at this point.

When you played the lions, your first game, as you know, Madison, I came out to watch you and I said to Madison, you know, who am I going to root for? We went out and we got the we bought all the Cardinals stuff. I got the hat. I got the jersey and I said, you know, I was so happy for you. And you know how much I love the lions. And I think the game went into overtime. I think it ended in a tie. I mean, Kyler did not play very well. I mean, we should

I hope so. I hope so.

So, so you you leave USC after a month, you're 41 years old. You go to the Arizona Cardinals, you're one of the youngest coaches in the NFL, you're taking over a team that goes three and 13, the year before, a team that had taken that 10th pick of the draft in the first round on a guy named Josh Rosen, a quarterback was a rookie had the worst passer rating in the league. A team whose offensive line finished last and pass blocking efficiency and finished next to last and rush defense. So it

Yeah, so going back to the USC deal. So took the job wanted to be there love LA love the opportunity that that we were going to have their thought with our offense the players they have, we could light it on fire. And the Arizona Cardinals job came open. And you know, I remember sitting there thinking like, Am I ready

He's the backup to Maker, Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma, and of course, he throws her 4000 yards, 40 touchdowns, and he's the number one pick and he was the Heisman as well. But let's go back for a minute. Where did you guys meet and he was a junior in high school.

Yeah, he was probably 1615 years old. I knew him. His dad played played quarterback at Texas a&m was a very good player, well known player in the state of Texas. I knew him through his dad, I'd followed him and then recruited him hard at Texas Tech. We obviously didn't didn't get him there. But had built a good relationship with him. I just loved his kind of swagger, his Moxie, I thought he was one of the greatest kind of athletes at

It's good. It's good Carmine, it's interesting. These relationships go way back in time and it's a small world that The end of the day, I feel like at some level people know each other and you can identify talent at a very junior age, you never know how things are going to end up. It's a very round world. So you take over three and 13 team, you go five and 10 and one curse against the lions. You go eight and eight last year, you missed the playoffs by a field goal, number of field

No, it's, you know, like I said, I learned a lot out there in Lubbock and being at your alma mater, not having to say she wanted. I mean, every year out there, it was the maker break here. And you heard the scrutiny from fans and used to be beloved by this plays, and now they're on you, and you can't coach and you're not this. And you're not that. And so when you've gone through fire like that, I mean, I don't blink at anything anymore. I mean, it's just blinders on.

Have you devised a play that no one else has done before you look at I think the Super Bowl, I forget what team maybe it was the saints in the playoffs where the quarterback runs left. It's a fake handoff and the quarterback ends up in the endzone by himself to the right. I think no one had seen that play before maybe it had been run. I think I read a couple of times in college. Now a lot of teams will save that play. But I think that was the first time you someone ran that

I like to think there's some that I've put out there that have been copied in you have to understand in football, play design, play calling mean imitation is the finest form of flattery. And there's a lot of that that goes on. But every now and then you'll you'll get a play up there. And you're like, I bet nobody's ever run that before. Which is who knows if it's true or not. But it's fun, fun doing that. And I think the NFL was going more and more to that there's a lot of creativity in

Let's switch topics again and come back to struggles challenges, disappointments, your life and career we've couple we've we've covered a couple of them, we all have them. One of our hallmarks to success and excellence is our ability to overcome them. Can you talk about a few and I want to start with your mom. And then we can talk about we've talked about the firings from from or the firing of your job. If there's one or two more you can touch upon and how you overcame

Yeah, I think football when I was done playing football coincided pretty closely, at least in the NFL with when my mom passed in 2005. And so that was a tough period for me just because my mom was my dad was the coach. You know, the the Marine, the disciplinarian, and my mom was the love and the positivity and you know, I was a mama's boy and so you can lean on her for everything. So losing her, you know, kind of fading out of pro football fading out of the NFL

Are there any more challenges you want to talk about and how you may have, or how you did overcome those besides losing your job at Texas Tech?

I mean, really, that that those are the two that stand out in career didn't make it. Like I wanted to, as a pro quarterback. worked really hard had really good success early, was fortunate, like you said to be around great players kind of thought coaching was easy. I'll do this, you know, with my eyes closed, you have case Keenum Johnny Football back to back, then Baker Mayfield and, you know we had talent, we you know, we should have won a lot more games that we obviously didn't.

I want to talk about career goals. I've had the pleasure of mentoring a lot of people, one of the questions that always comes up is figuring out what people want to do, whether it's after they graduate, or later on when they're thinking about moving to a new company or choosing a new career. And what I tell him to do is rank the five most important things that are most important to them in order of importance from top to bottom. Is it money? Is it the experience? Is it the location?

That's a great question. And I think mine's a bit unique because it was always to play NFL quarterback, you know, as a young person, finish college still had that mindset. Three years out, still had that mindset. And so I had to reset completely and be like, alright, well, what's next? Now? How am I going to go about doing that.

Let's talk about the intangibles of success, which I think are often as important or more important than the tangibles tell us about the cellphone breaks and the ice cream chocolate bottle service that you brought practice one day

the cellphone breaks is more you know you can bang your head against the wall or you can kind of go with a what what these young people are used to and can handle and so that I tried to have our coaches be really efficient in the meetings try to make sure that that we're keeping the guys attentions upbeat, high energy and then get them in and out and we'll give them to the grass. We're a lot of guys learn better walking through these days anyways, and are more visual

I want to talk about the importance of being humble. I think it's important to me, I know it's important to you. I want to go back to when you and I met for the first time we were at a wedding and Baker's bay in the Bahamas back in 2015. Very cool wedding at least I'm sure it was very cool for you. It was very cool. For me the group that worked for the Patriots a while back. There were a lot of players there including Tom Brady. So for me I was I was super pumped to be

Yeah, remember that? That was the connection. Yep. And

so one day, my wife and I, Madison rented a boat. A lot of the beaches there had pigs on the beach. And so there were no pigs on the beach where we were on the island called Baker's bass. So we thought it'd be fun to go out and see them and spend a day on the water. And my wife and I, my wife invited two of her friends and one of them said, Hey, there's this guy who's really cute. Can I invite him on the boat? And I said, of course, you

Yeah, I'm, I was raised just to be about humility. And it was one of those things, let others do the talking for you. And that was like my parents biggest lesson like you, you don't ever brag on yourself, you don't ever talk about it, if you're good enough that people will talk about you. And you know, when I meet other people, I want to get to know the person and I want them to know me as the person and none

One of the fun things for me is when I meet new people, and it doesn't matter if they've had huge success or not, I love learning about new things and what people do. And I always like to know what motivates other people. And I asked you is that your dream job? And you said, No, I want to be an NFL Coach one day, and I'm thinking to myself, all right, you know, so do we all 32 I think it's

Yeah, it worked out and I think a good point to kind of how my ascent to here has gone because obviously I didn't win at Texas Tech, like most people do to get that job but I think there was a point that we made here that I was at a level offensively and with quarterback coaching that just couldn't be ignored. And I think that like there's there's things you can do even if it doesn't work out at the top top if you keep pushing and you keep

I think the Rams coach big face that an example that allowed you and some other people to get job opportunities that you otherwise would not have had

yep no question a young guy like that high energy you know great offensive mind and come in relate to players and really lifted that up and and took them to incredible heights and now you know, we become friends and we got to play on every year which which sucks and we got to beat them soon.

Tell us about how he fucked with you one day when you guys are at dinner with Patrick

Yeah, he had a, we were this was I was had just got the job, actually. And we were at dinner with Patrick and Sean was there and a couple other people and he had done something with his phone, like change the name or something. And I had our buddy text him where it looked like Roger Goodell. So I'm sitting next to him. He's like, Oh, dude, this is not good. And he's like, shows me the text. He's like, Please tell me you're not at dinner with Roger Goodell, please tell me about a dinner

All right. How did you become the world's greatest snorkeler?

We talked about humility. That was a humbling moment for both of us. I still, like won't get near a snorkel or any sort of wavy undertow. I stay away from it. And literally, you and I on that whole boat ride deck hung our heads in shame, because Madison was swimming like a mermaid and the other girls and you and I were near death, like battling to get back on the boat. That was that was a humbling moment, there's no doubt

they went. So just to put a little more detail on this. Madison, her two friends went one way. And we're in a bunch of coral. I mean, it's aqua, blue zerowater. We're in coral, there's a shitload of fish everywhere. But you really do have to navigate around the coral. And there is a current in the water. And we go the other way. And there's a captain on the boat skies like five, eight, he's in great shape. And we go the other way. And I think what are we 400 yards away from the

And meanwhile, the girls are still just swimming, just having the time of their lives. And we're sitting there in shame for like an hour until they are the closest I've come to death. Since I mean, I can't imagine a time where I'm literally like, this is not good like this, this could end really badly at this point that this guy doesn't come over there. So yeah, we bonded over that moment. For sure.

We, you and I joke, I send you texts of all the warm weather vacations that I take. Hey, not not 10th So one of the really fun things for me too is, for me, one of the most fun things I like to do. And one of the few things that I'm good at is throwing the football around and I said hey, when you go back, lets you toss the ball around. And so and so we did. And you gave me the second best athletic compliment I've ever

Where do you play ball and where where'd I play

my college ball? I was

everything No, I remember I remember because you were in good shape. You could sling it you could run and catch like fast and you love like throwing like you would have stayed out there all day. And I remember thinking like this guy's he's a good athlete. And so that, but I can tell like that. The way you are as dogged as you are in that and like wanting to throw and run routes.

Thank you. I appreciate that, you know, I was trying to really zing it that day and you know, you're warming up and you know, your, your passes, I think you probably thought, okay, you know, I'm gonna lob these in a couple of times. Just see if he can catch the ball. And I think once I could catch, I mean, these ball started coming in on a dime. I'm like, Oh, shit, like, don't let it hit you in the chest too hard to get the hands out in front of it. And then I started, you

I get it. I got a college ball. We're gonna keep this going.

That that bad trip, I got my first best compliment that'll go down to the highlight of my athletic career. And I don't think I shared this with you. But I mentioned this that Tom Brady was at the wedding. That's where I got the bar mitzvah video, I was thinking this was two years before Charlie's Bar Mitzvah. I knew what I wanted to do. And I said, I'm gonna take advantage. I did two things. I brought a jersey. Massive Begley, you're not doing that. There's no way

only been married for how long been

married and no, we were brand new. So I think we got we got married in 2014. This is 2015.

So yeah, that was risky. Challenge. Yeah. I

mean, I had a lot of goodwill. It's not like our marriage was gonna end I was gonna, but you know, her friends were there. And you don't want to be that guy. But I I am that guy. I've made a career.

Yes. Asking for where you're at? No, I mean, you have no fear. You just go for it.

I thought the odds of him saying no, we're very low. So I went up for the jersey. He was annoyed, by the way. And he did it. reluctantly. He was a little bit. You just, he was practiced a

roll of the eyes, or you were just like,

he paused. I mean, Tom, you know, I had a chance to talk to him later, that that trip, Madison had met him a few times. I mean, the guy could not be any nicer. You know, this. You guys are buzz I? Yeah, I mean, just couldn't have been nicer. I think it was the time it was like right after breakfast. You know, I mean, he had his coach there. They were throwing the whole day. And then I said, Hey, do you mind? Take a little video clip saying happy?

It should it should greatest greatest QB greatest football player of all time, I'll take it.

So let's talk about the charity work you've done. It's so important for me to give back. I think it's in our search for excellence to be the best that we can be this is really important. You're involved in something called the 20 to kill Foundation. And then I want to know about the Kingsbury foundation what what that's all about.

Yeah, the 20 to kill was something that I was a part of when I was in Lubbock, at Texas Tech, having a dad who served in the military and received a Purple Heart and you know, lost friends. And you know, who's still pretty reluctant to talk about his service, because it was that, you know, I don't want to say horrific, but it's the only word that comes to mind. I wanted to

And what are you doing with your foundation?

Yeah, right now, we're still transitioning from from kind of Lubbock out here trying to get it set up. And so we're this last year where the pandemic it kind of got pushed back a year, unfortunately, but but this spring, I'm hoping to, to get that roll and still trying to figure out exactly how we're going to set it up and what calls but we'll get that thing going as soon as we can operate after COVID is finally eradicated.

I think it's really says a lot about people who do charity behind the scenes, they don't want the attention or need the notoriety. With your Texas Tech, you paid medical expenses of an admin while she was battling a brain tumor. Tell us about that. Yeah, that

was her name was Jenny Bailey. And she was as players. They're kind of a second mom when you went to Texas Tech. And then she was still there and working when I was named head coach and just very close to me and my heart and just wanted to help her in any way way I could. And so I was able to do that, you know, financially in any other way. I could but tremendous lady, and then a lot to techstack and all of us as

players. And was she able to get healthy. She was not she was not

but she No, she lived a tremendous, tremendous life touch so many people and she was really at peace. With everything.

We're going to talk about something a little more cheery, which is your style. In your Texas Tech and cardinals contract you want to create a control over the team's uniforms. What's that about?

It was just a Texas Tech, the NFL controls all of the Cardinals stuff. But at Texas Tech. I really knew I didn't know but I wanted to be able to differentiate ourselves. In recruits mindset, how can we have something that maybe other schools don't have flashy uniforms, different styles, different looks? I thought it could help us recruit guys that maybe wouldn't be out in Lubbock or want to come all the way out

People emulate your style. You're sporting the wayfarer Ray Bans and the all black Oakley Frogskins sunglasses. You met Kevin before it became a whole thing on campus. Everyone's following you guys are all following you. And most coaches have this coaching uniform. You got the pleated khakis, the shiny white jogging shoes, think of Jim Harbaugh who used to get the Walmart khakis and now he's upgraded to the blue Lululemon pants but you

just really more than anything. When I got into coaching, I just thought I told my friends like my close friends and said, I'm gonna be myself. I know, you know, coaching is sometimes guys get in a box and you're gonna do this way and I just said, I'm gonna be myself that that, that has no effect on the type of coach I'm gonna be the type of person I'm gonna be. So I'm gonna be myself, I'm gonna dress, how I dress. And that was

You're an NFL coach, you're handsome, you look like Ryan Gosling with no disrespect to Bill Bella check, or Andy Reid. No disrespect to them, you have a huge fan base of women who thinks you're a sex symbol. When you are at Texas Tech, a local business create a t shirt that says our coach is hotter than your coach, and the T shirts sold out it went viral. What do you think about all that? And you're also single, what do you think about all that?

Yeah, I mean, it's, it comes with the territory, I guess. I think it's more just the fact that I maybe don't dress like a traditional coach may not look, had the same coach type look that that gets played up a lot. But it's, it's part of it. I'll take it. I'd like to be known for more of like the great coach than the hot coach at some point. So we're working towards that.

There's no doubt you are. But if you're reading all this stuff online, it's

yeah, we're a lot more than that way. Right. Now, we need to bring more back to that the X's and O's at some point.

So you're you're very eligible bachelor, you work your tail off, you're 38 years old, you make a very good living. You have time to date, and how do you meet women? Who are the kind of women that you want to meet, not necessarily the kind of women who hang around after the game, because they want to date? Players. I know, that's not the kind of woman that you want to meet, but you're very private as well. So we're not going to name names. But so how do you go about that and find somebody great,

that I think that brings up a good point, because I do think we talked about it a little bit, but yet you there are sacrifices you make in everything to try and reach a certain level. And that's something that I have, you know, sacrificed to an extent, I would say would be the personal side of things. You know, living in university, Houston, when I first took that job, I slept on Dana Holgorsen couch, because I was making $400

Okay. There will be women listening to this podcast, it's important to me to be to have half of my podcast guests be men and women. So just for the record, you do want to get married and you do want to have kids, you do want to have a family and that's important to you. Just for the record, I'm just laying it out there. Right. And

I go back and forth. I go back and forth on it. But yeah, I do. I think that would be I think COVID This whole pandemic has really opened my eyes to that like that that's important to me.

I'm sure you've heard this from your friends at what one of my friends named Rick Rivera told us to me he had four kids very young and I, I had known at the time and he said You are you find out the meaning of life once you have kids and for me and and most of my friends, I think that's true. So I hope you get to experience that and I know you will at some point one day now I

appreciate it, planning on it.

Let's talk about sense of enjoyment and be good to yourself. You work your ass off. you're excellent at what you do. You're making millions of dollars a year as a coach and it's public. So it's not your humble guy. Unfortunately, people know what you make. It's time to treat yourself. Well. And let's talk about Draft Day this year. The coaches are at home you got this beautiful modern house big windows on a golf course. Picture this go viral and you got Patrick

And that was really it. Probably because I spent way too much money on that and still still on it. But no, I got out here. And it's beautiful. Obviously living out here and just wanted to to have a good place. You said when I was done working hard, I could separate and go home and have a relaxing atmosphere and was fortunate enough to be able to buy a place like that. But other than that, I don't spend I'm not a big like watch guy a car guy or anything like that. That's

Give us your daily schedule, start to finish. What time do you wake up? What's the routine? And what time do you go to bed?

Yeah, right now. It's pretty consistent. But I'll try to go to sleep by 830. Try to wake up by 330. I try to get to work by four working out by 415 be done working out by five 515. And then then get to work and work can vary day to day. What we have going whether it's offensive install, whether it's draft preparation, whether it's free agency evaluation, I mean, there's a lot that can change. So the hours are

What are you watching right now?

I just watched this documentary on Scott Meiji look, I believe about the fake art. This guy there done a bunch of these counterfeit paintings. And it's an insane documentary. But I saw it. Did you see it? Yeah,

I thought I love Arthur.

Do you think she conspired in that? Or do you think she was really? I don't know. I couldn't tell either. I couldn't tell. I couldn't tell. Because she would go through like six different experts that will check the box and know it's real. So how was that on her? I don't I don't know. But if you were mad,

yeah. What What's your daily motivation? You wake up? And what what's what motivates you every single day?

I'm big on on improvement, you know, self improvement. And I'm a short term guy when it comes to that. So it's kind of like, how can I get better today? How can I get better this week? How can I get better this year and this season? And so I just tried to be more efficient. Every day I try to, you know, not be on my phone as much or I try to watch more film or I try to come up with more ideas. And so that that's something that is highly motivating to me is like Alright, let's get better today.

You're 43 years old, you have a long life ahead of you. What are your top three things you want to accomplish in your lifetime?

Not in any order. But when a Super Bowl professionally, I want to have a profound impact. Somehow through philanthropy. I don't know exactly what that will look like. But I want I want to give back a lot spend a lot of time doing that. And then the third thing Yeah, I think, you know, family, I think at this point, let's have a family and be a be a good dad.

Do you have any regrets about anything you've done in your life or things that looking back you do a little differently today?

I think the biggest one would be you mean, you've talked about Tom a bunch. His maniacal approach to the game and where every single aspect of every single day is about him being the best player ever. That I wish I would have had a similar approach. I worked hard, but I still want to have fun still wanted to go out and I could have I could have given myself a better chance to have a successful NFL career. And so I

We're coming to the end. And before I ask my last question, I want to know what impact you want to have on the world.

Yeah, I want you know, I guess from from a coaching point of view, just because that's pigeon holed in that career, I want young coaches to be able to look at me and just say, Hey, you can do it your way you can. You don't have to be put in a box. You don't have to you can do it your way you can treat people good, and still have success if you work

One of the messages about in search of excellent podcast is doing things we're passionate about doing and pursuing our dreams. Your favorite book is The Alchemist by the Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. And the main idea of the book that individuals should live in the singular pursuit of their individual dreams. Is that your main message to our listeners and viewers today? And what other advice do you have for us in our In Search of Excellence, to live up to our potential and to achieve greatness?

It's funny, you mentioned that book because that I read that when I was kind of my dark period, my mom passed away, I was partying a lot, I wasn't focused, I didn't know what I want to do with my wife. And I read that and it just kind

I love it. I'm gonna put you on the spot. For a second before we go. I have a lot of things on my bucket list. And I said, okay, my buddy cliff is now the head coach of the Cardinals. I like to come to a practice one day when it's open to the public. I'd love to throw a couple of passes to DeAndre Hopkins, or Larry Fitzgerald. So if you can make that happen. We got AJ green now to set