Former Pro Bowl LB Brian Cushing Joins Shawne Merriman To Talk Texans, An Extra Game And Jujutsu

I'll ask him coming up. I've seen him do the Lights out dance man, and that's my first time really and I watched me in college, but that's my first time where I was glued to this guy because he played the game away it's supposed to play. So I'm gonna ask him about the seventeen game season, how he feels about that his career and with also what he's looking at doing. I know he was a strength conditioning coach for some time down at the Hughes In Texas organization.

Then is he looking at coach and do things? More things after that? So Brian Cushing, what I'm doing? What's going on man, not much. Man, are you doing? I'm good man, busy but good, busy but good. Yeah, I can't complain. So you you out there in Texas steal right now, right that's where that's where you look at it. Yeah, we're in We're in Houston, man, We're we're here for

a little bit foreseeable future. You know, we got the two boys in school, the young baby, So kind of tough to move right now unless unless, uh, an opportunity came up. But I'm I'm in no rush to find anything right now. Yeah, what's what's that opportunity make? Make maybe? Um, you know I was with the team last two years. Um, I would go back on the on the strength of conditioning side, and I was helping linebackers a good amount too. Good deal, you know, good experience you back in the NFL,

especially with the team I played for. But you know, it'd also be cool to get an experience with with a different organization or just a different league altogether, college, high school, whatever. Um, you know. But the main thing that was just boys are getting bigger again older. I'm coaching the baseball and coaching their football, so right now

that's just just the priority. Yeah, just can you do you see yourself getting back in because you know how those coach and I was are crazy and you know we go there and normally our Wednesdays and Thursdays are crazy long. But think of how long the coaches Wednesdays and Thursday you get back into that. I don't know, honestly, can't answer that. But I tell you what one thing is is the I always had respect. I always had respect for the coach. I always had respect for the

time they put in. But there was a new found

respect for all staff members going back. Cafeteria workers, equipment guys, I mean strength, strength, conditioning, sports medicine, that they are there all day just trying to ask the best team possible, you know, and a lot of thankless jobs of of people that you know, you kind of take for granted while you're playing, because the only thing you see is the time you're there, right, So is that short that short span, that short window of the hours that you're

there during the day and then you go live your normal life. But there's another six eight hours that you know, all those people are still at the stadium, grinding to put a great game plan, a great child light tannery together for you. Um So, there's just there's so much

work that goes into it. Um it was. It was a real good opportunity to go back and kind of see all that in a different light, dude, because people ask me all the time when I get back in the coach and I said, you know what my son's tend Yeah, maybe I would coach one of his teams. I'll go back and coach high school because the hours, you know, isn't the same. But going to that college level or going to that pro level, and probably more so pro than college, because pro it's it's that's your job.

You're doing it all day. You don't you're not You're not in the facility and stuff like that. You're there all damn day. I said, that's that's the only thing that's stopping me from getting back into two coaches. I can't do it now. The hours are crazy. The hours are crazy. It's a full commandment, and it's it's all

year round. You know. There there is no off season for coaches, man Like they get a couple a couple of weeks off broken up here and there, and uh, you know you that's the one thing about the NFL and especially coaching like you truly have to love it. You have to be all about it all the time because if you're not, it'll expose you, man, and you'll you'll be miserable. And another thing is I said, I

gotta go back and coaching me. If I come across another me that's talking shit, talking ship, and it will happen, not not not standing in your gap. If I see a play, I'm going to make it. I'm going under the block for the damn and I'm going to make the play. I said, I would go crazy if I got to deal with that, no doubt, no doubt. As long as he makes the play, that's that's my rule, right,

That's it. So so what else makes I know you don't post this, but I know we talked about it, um and your you know, your jiu jitsu and how long that How how did that happen for you? Man? Because not when I started. I started with Jay Glazer, like back in two thousand five, two thousand and six, and they were just telling me, say, you know what, just go get better with your hand dot coordination you have being able to open up and and and do that and get better with your hands. I said, Okay, cool,

I'll try it out. Yeah, I'll walk in the gym one day and let's say, I know Jay Glazers right there, and then Randy Gators there, and so I'm like, yo and I and me. I'm thinking that he's bringing me in there to spa with Randy cot And I said, this is the guys. Look, this ain't going down today, right, So how did you what? What made you get into it? So I actually had a real similar experience to UM.

After my first year in the NFL, went back to school at USC and I finished up my degree and while I was there, Ja invited me out to come train. So we we had trained that offseason just a little bit. It was a bunch of sparring and at a bunch of grappling takedowns. Um Chuck Chuck was there, chuckle dell. You know, I had an opportunity to roll with him. It was a miserable experience, but it was a learning experience. It was it was humbling, but it was awesome at

the same time. And then around two thousand and fifteen, my son, my oldest son was about three years old at the time. UM, and I've been talking to my father in law who wrestled all throughout college. I was a national champion at b y u. My wife's dad and uh, he had mentioned jiu jitsu as far as getting my kids into it. Um. My my three year old was hyperactive, um, all over the house, very aggressive, you know. So we had looked up some places in Houston.

My wife found a Gracie Baja out here, um, and we took him over there. I had no idea what to expect. I had no idea what to expect, but you know, just see the transformation, his attention, his discipline, and just this kind of overall body control. It was the perfect combination. Um. So I watched it for a couple of years with both my boys. Then my younger one got into it. He was about two and a half.

They led him on the match a little bit earlier, but he was more than ready with having their older brother. So he was excited to get out there. And it wasn't until I was officially done playing about six months after the head professor over there, Opiana Mala. She has asked me, you know, why don't you come out and try this like I I see he could see there

was something missing from my life. Um. It was that kind of that awkward gap after done, you're done playing, and there there's there's just a void right that you have to feel that you have to you have to fulfill again. And it was it was the perfect transition for me. Um. It was so much more technical than I had ever realized. I just thought, you know, the

bigger guy, strong guy would always win. Um, more athletic guy would always win, or tough UM until I It wasn't until I got out into the mats and realized just how every single detail was so important. UM. Losing to a hundred eighty five pound hundred ninety pound guys and and and being a little annoyed but mostly humble. Um. And it kept me coming back. It kept me one to me to learn more, to to get better, to get more technical, to to get on the level of these guys. So UM. In a crazy way, it was

almost also a therapeutic for me. You know, I know a lot of guys at football like to go play golf and relax. It just wasn't me. I tried a little bit. It's fun, but it didn't give me that same sensation ful film that I got from playing football. UM. And I think as linebackers. You know exactly what I'm talking about right now. Um. So it was just one of those things that once I gotten to jitsu, I

just went full speed into it. Um. I'm about two and a half almost three years in blue belt, working on a purple belt, maybe eventually start competing, but um, I would like to continue to get better before I really go out there and you know, going at guys that it is their professional. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app search f s R to

listen live. So you're talking about compete more of the kind of the flow grappling or jiu jitsu tournaments on nets on that part of it, right, not full limment, correct, No, I don't think so, um, And I'm not completely ruling out out ever. I just have no experience doing it. Um. You know, so that's kind of the last sport you just want to jump into and think that you know,

you can just roll it out there. Um. You know, as a guy who's taking enough hits to the head, that's uh, I probably need some more preparation before I step out there. But that's the thing I like about grappling too. Um. It's a lot safer than people kind of make it out to be. UM. In jiu jitsu, obviously, you need to know when to tap um. You know, an ankle and knee or anything can go at the wrong time, and have to know when you're in real vulnerable situations and where you are in truth danger um.

So that just comes as more experience as well. But as of right now, I would probably tailor it more towards grappling slash jiu jitsu. I tell everybody is especially when you get done playing that it's good to maybe even why are you playing? Pick up that discipline right what this jiu jitsu was, there's some kind of grappling. I mean I remember the first day we went and I was just pumbling, right, and I was just I was tired of hell. Just the first day I was

in there and I was exhausted. We didn't get on the ground, we didn't do anything. We were just pumbling and kind of moving around, and I was exhausted. So I try to tell those guys, especially you know, when you're done and you got that free space, pick up some kind of combat sport, if it's boxing, if it's you know, light sparring, rolling, grapp whatever that that other

discipline is. Because that's to me, and you just spoke on it, it starts to fill a void of having that three d and thirty pound offensive linement of right across from you and he's trying to compete and get you on the ground or throw you around or whatever that is. Like that to me, it it started to to wake me up again in the morning. I had a reason to get up when I was going to spar and I was training, and I just felt better

about everything else. Absolutely absolutely. I mean it's it's just you know why we well in in in the first night. It did something to us. Um it was a physical additive for and as you know, Chris doesn't like us saying and you're preaching the guys and I've tried to pull more guys and even though they are currently playing, because it's one thing that I wish I did while

I was still playing. So you said that you wish that you were playing, like doing it what you were trying to jiu jitsu or doing some kind of combat for while you were playing. I do I do, you know? And I thought more about it um as I've started training.

I think that there's so many relatable things that transition so well, especially from a linebacker position, from from resting in jiu jitsu, body control, double ag takedowns that translate directly into tackles, UM, just separation of getting people off you, understanding hand and risk control, understanding momentum, and um you know whether you're still playing or done playing. I really truly believe it is. It is the if your transition

from one sport or another. And on top of it, obviously that the cardiovascular load that you just take on. I mean, there is nothing, there is nothing to me harder than graphic when you're going as hard as you can in an individual sport verse another person for time, and you know that everything depends on you or you'll be on the bottom getting choked out. That's a brutal workout right there. You know it's crazy you said that,

So I had when I first started. I had a hundred and eighty five pound guy that I could not get off the ground. He had me on to go help you about a one nine. He had me on the ground and I could not get up. Every time I try to get up. People take me right back now. And so when I tell people, I was like, it's the most humbling ship did you ever dealt with? Like you're looking at this, do you see me? Like man crushes,

I'm a crushing and he's taking you down. He's doing whatever he wants with you because he just has that discipline he does he does. It's it's super frustrating, um, but it's it's awesome motivating at the same time because that that's ind of stuff that got me keep to keep coming back, Like how does you know exactly what they're do in that situation? Hey, so you don't. One thing I wanted to bring up. So when you were

in college, man, and this was this was crazy. I was at my locker and we that you guys game was on and you hit the lights out there, and so Vincent job I was in front of my locker. Vincent Jackson came running over to me and said, Yo, lights look a little Uh. This linebacker Brian Cushi just did the lights out dance. I said, get the hell out of here. And I've run over to the TV and I'm watching they replayed it and I think you

got a flag on that play. And so yo. I mean we went everybody Darren's, Darrin's, we all went crazy in the locker room. We've seen that. Man, what what happened at that? Like did you did you planned at what you watch and saying I'm gonna get a cycle, get a big head and do it, or just happened absolutely man, Me, Clay Matthews, all the guys were huge fans. Man. I mean obviously we were right in Los Angeles. You guys are in San Diego at the time. Um, you

guys were just steamrolling people on defense. And it was one of those things that I think it was. It was my third sack in the rose ball and it was like, I gotta do it now and we were winning in the game, We're going to win, and uh, I just had had a letter loose. I had a letter loose and show the celebration and I was I was a big fan, and uh it was one of those moments I knew it was a national spotlight and how to do it? Dude? It was it was next level.

We were crazing the locker room watching the game and uh yeah, no, that that was. Who were some of your other guys that you watched because you played the game man like it. I look at it like a handful of guys, and obviously people saw you on Sunday, but I think for me personally it would kind of change everything. Watching you play was the hard knocks you guys had and we got I got a chance with everybody seeing you in practice. We saw this intensively every day.

So who did you kind of mold your game? Who's some of the guys that you watched growing up? Yeah? Yeah, you know, I think growing up, I was a huge Lawrence Taylor fan. Um, growing up right in New Jersey. Uh was was a I guess you can say, a Giants fan of time, more of a fan of football. UM. And then I slowly trans transitioned over to Ken Norton Jr. Who then was my linebacker coach at USC. Just the surreal opportunity to get kind of be able to play with him, be coached by him, be with him every

single day. And then as I got older, it was you know, it was you, Patrick will As, Bryan R. Lacker, Lance Briggs, just guys that played hard man guys that that that demanded respect. That was the thing as a linebacker was just in position it was. It was about an attitude as well, like you had to be felt

like you had to be feared. There was nothing like hitting someone and and and seeing the whole other team just staring at you like, thank God that was him and not me, right, because it's one of those positions like you have to you have to from the start of the game the instill yourself and um, I love playing the position. I love playing it aggressively. But it was the one thing which was I think I'm most proud of. It was also my downfall in my career was how hard I went every day because I think

eventually just wore me down mentally and physically. But I could not stomach someone getting the better of me, even in practice. So and I knew, you know, as a linebacker and one of the alphae and the defense, we're gonna be tested every single day. You're gonna be every best running back, You're gonna every best tight end every single I want to take you out when he was pulling, but I could not be okay with taking a playoff

and landing get the best of me. So you know, whether it was practice, and you can ask coaches, players in the team, anyone I would knock myself out in practice because it was that important to me, where probably I should have you know, tailored it a little bit. Taking it down saved for the games. But I just felt every time I went on the field that was my name, now is my reputation. There was no more important people to impress in my teammates. And I feel

the same thing. I played through stuff that I probably shouldn't have played through. Maybe I should know something was gonna take two or three weeks to heal. I should have took all two or three weeks and came back and got better instead of you know, having them mentality to go, go, go go, And I'm not sitting down and I'm playing for everything You've become, this war you and sometimes they come back and bite you an ass.

And it did. And while I stopped playing earlier, do you think now and today's game and I'm going to that seventeen game season, do you think you're going to play a whole entire the whole entire year. Possibly I think it would be hit or miss, you know, I mean, obviously it is. It is just one more game. But I think you know you and I can personally attest to how how hard every single game is, especially later

in the year. Um and and then and my my biggest thing in my concern is what is does it take away from the importance of the in conference rivalry games? You know, if a team is twelveone or they're gonna sit there guys last three games. I don't know. Um, But as physical as a game as it is already, I'm not not a big fan at all about adding another one. Especially we're talking about the same pay for these guys, right, you want to add a game, add

another paycheck, And I'm not really shure. I can't personally say how many guys I've talked to that are still playing, that even agreed to this in the first place. So lives, senses, and decisions are made, and it seems like no one ever had to say about it how to percent and and I say this, man, like we all know, especially when you get down in the game, you're gonna have a shoulder, You're gonna have a knee, finger, risk, lower back, ankle, something,

something is gonna be disfigured on you for life. That's just a part of it. But as long as I'm compensated appropriately for it, when I can take care of my family, I can take care of things, and I'm putting my body in the line. I don't have a problem with it. So when I sat back and saw that, I had to go back and look at and see the pay structure. It's something different, And I saw that there really was no different, And I said, hold on,

who voted for this? Who who had their ind and this because anybody that played the game like we playing the game, isn't agree it's gonna be on board with this, right, That's the thing? You know, Uh, you talk with guys that are still playing all the time. I talked with guys are still playing all time and former guys unless you are, you know, head of the NFL p A. I'm not sure who really has to say. I'm just

you know, I'm not really sure. At the end of day, I'm not sure how many guys actually have a staying if they're vote really really matters. I feel like lives decisions already pree made. So what's next? Made you get the right opportunity, whether it's a college pro the right opportunity to come and coach. Yeah, that that's something you direction you're looking at going in. I think I can

see myself getting back to the coaching eventually. Um, I think a lot is going to be determined on the future of my boys at home, what they want to do, how involved they want to be, and how many different sports. You know, a lot of these schools down here again real selective with these one sport athletes, where I'm pushing multi sports. So that's that's making it tough run us as we're busy year round. But you know, there's nothing I'd rather do. But I'm not rolling out coaching somewhere else.

If if the write opportunit, he was to come up, cool, cool, cool thing, man, Wall, Hey, I appreciate you coming on, and then I'll be down there. Man, I'm gonna come and get some work. That's one thing. I just started getting on the ground this year. I've been standing up, you know, most of my time in training m Mayo, training combat sports in general, and during the pandemic was the first time when the gym, the private gym's open

back up that I started getting onto the ground. And like you said before, it's fun as hell for me because every day I'm learning something. Um, it gets me out of the bed as soon as I get off right now. I'm gonna go roll and get me some work there. So I'm coming down there, man, getting some work for sure. Let me know, man, I'm excited. I'll be looking forward to it. Okay, my dude, due appreciate it. Man.

All right, thanks guys for listening in to another lightsop podcast of me saw Merriman and uh, Man, I didn't know that, uh that Kush was and that into jiu jitsu. I know we talked about it at some point in time. I'm in a little bit, but I didn't know that he was doing on a daily basis. But he agrees. The one thing that I said, I believe that all athletes, I don't care what sport, football, basketball, baseball, rugby's track, whatever it is, soccer, that when you're done, you should

pick up some kind of combat sport. Um. You know, most people are just kind of look at it as going to get punched in the face, and it's not like that at all. You have many forums, many disciplines with combat sports, um, and it's something that you can compete in when you're done playing lights out extreame fighting. But um, I had to drop that nugget. But anyway, thank you guys for listening to another lights Out podcast Me swan Man, don't forget to subscribe. Uh leave those

great reviews. I read all of them, and uh, I think we went over a few hundred thousands now downloads of subscriptions. So I'm losing count. Man, we're going. It's all because you guys, so I appreciate that. Keep subscribing, leaving those great reviews. Talk to you guys next week.