Chris Long

But I can remember being at halftime, being down twenty eight three to that team and thinking I made the wrong choice.

Like every other turn in my life, I screwed it up. You know. Hi. My name is Chris Long, and I have a football podcast. I used to play football for a living.

Happy New Year. Everybody New Year knew me?

No, not really.

It's still off the beat and I'm still your same old boring host Ryan Bomgartner. My guest today, Well is true NFL royalty Chris Long. He is, of course, former professional defensive end with eleven years in the NFL on the Rams, the Patriots, and the Eagles. He has two Super Bowl rings and the prestigious Man of the Year Award to show for it. But when I say royalty, I mean football. Well it runs in his blood. He comes from a long line of NFL greats Long get

I know.

He also hosts his own podcast, green Light, where he talks about sports and culture and all kinds of fun stuff with really great guests. Not me yet. But in addition, he's currently a host on the long running Inside the NFL. But first, he's going to be my really fun guest on my podcast. I know he is honored here. He is the hard hitting and very funny Chris Long.

Bubble and Squeak. I love it Bubble and Squeak. I know, Bubble and Squeak. I cook it every mole over from the ninety before.

What's up, Chris Brian? How you doing?

I'm great? How are you?

I'm great. It's good to meet you. I'm a big fan. I've enjoyed watching Talk Football too.

So oh really do I hold up? Okay?

Yeah, dude, you know what you're talking about. You're in your team, and I know you know Rich a little bit.

So yeah.

I go on his show every Monday. It's been He's treated me really well in this space.

So great guy, You've made it work for you, that's for sure. Yeah. I think he's a great guy Dan Patrick as well, and he's awesome, you know. I'll tell you this. They've had me on to host some on the the Good Morning Football there on the NFL network. Yeah, and I'm serious. If it wasn't for that lifestyle change, Like I love where I live now here in southern California, If it wasn't for the New York and the like four thirty am wake up calls on the East Coast time,

But you know, I don't know if I know what I'm talking about week to week, and I'm watching a million games, so it's like the great equalizer you're watching football.

It's hard to figure out. And I'm with you, dude.

That's the reason I do my operation out of my hometown so I don't have to be on one of these shows that my alarm clock goes off at five in the morning.

Not for me. Yeah, Like I couldn't live in New York. It'd be hard.

It's where So where are you I'm in I'm in Virginia. I'm right outside Charlottesville. I don't know if you've ever been to UVA. I have, Yeah, it's it's I've grew up here mostly so.

Well, I know that we're going to talk about that, but I will tell you I'm just slightly older than you. My best friend from high school went to uh UVA and I saw Dave Matthews there.

Did you really? Yeah?

Yeah, well he's still I saw Dave Matthews two weeks ago running through the friggin' park like he just like, he's like actually one of my producers. His sister works with Red Light, their management company. Okay, and you know he's like, he's still around. He kind of does regular guys shit, which I love, and they show their shows.

Their live shows are great.

Yeah, he's he's awesome. Well, look, I want to talk about your new found job and success, but I do want to start back a little bit to your beginning there where you still are Charlottesville, Virginia. Now, when you were growing up, your dad spoiler alert, that's how we long was playing in the NFL for the Raiders. Were you traveling a lot with him or not so much so?

Really, we moved to Virginia as soon as he retired, and I spent the first seven almost eight years of my life living in southern California. I lived, we lived in Redondo, and then we moved up in the world as dad got bigger paychecks and we moved to PV and we moved out of that haunted house in Redondo legit haunted house.

Haunted house. Yeah, it was crazy.

I had like an imaginary friend that my mom claims is actually a ghost. Name of the ghost was Nicy. So Dad couldn't wait to get out of that house. We had the paycheck got bigger, we moved to PV and then he retired and we moved across the country. Because my dad's from South Boston, Like you've seen the town, and that's kind of like what he grew up in Charlestown. So he didn't have like a super easy upbringing. He didn't have a place to like just go back to.

Here are my co workers. Yeah, they're my co workers. Bo Jackson is in the kitchen. It's just Bo Jackson. And like he never really overemphasized it.

So I had a lot of cool experiences while my dad played that. Not only it was cool as a kid, but it shaped the way I thought about having kids during my career and when I wanted to do that, you know, seeing him come home beat up, stressed. And now I'm sitting there in my eighth year in the league, and I'm saying I'm glad I waited, because it is hard. We waited to have our first first son, Whale, until I was like thirty one years old, right, And I think part of that would shape that as being a

Well, I mean I have to ask the obvious question, did you ever try to introduce Nicey to bo Jackson? I mean, did you ever did you try? Did you try to, you know, introduce nicy around or No? I just want a private thing. This is a private thing. It was made.

It's spent a lot of time in the house with me, my mom, you know, Mama's boy that my mom was practicing corporate law until the third kid came along. And you know, back in the day, it was me mom and dad was at work twelve hours a day plus. And you know, I think I think I needed a friend, and I found one in this house. Now I know where the house is, I kind of feel like going back with one of these.

I want to ghost you, I know.

I want to go with you and find.

Out she swears it was a ghost. Dude.

She was like, it wasn't an imaginary friend. Man, I was pointing to people in the room. It's bad.

Do you think it was a ghost?

Yeah? Absolutely, I believed in that stuff. Do you believe in that stuff?

I don't know. I suppose so why not? I don't know. Yeah, A lot of people certainly believe it, so they're likely not wrong. I mean, look, no one who has seen it doesn't believe it exactly, imactly exactly.

And that's the thing. You need a friend that you trust to see it to believe it, you know, Like I'll hear some celebrity that's like I got pinned down in my bed. I'm like, yeah, well, do you have book tour coming up or what's going on? Like, if it's a friend, I'm more apt to believe that friend. And I think my parents to be honest, we moved to Virginia. We moved to this house. It was from the eighteen sixties. You know, there's a lot of these old brick houses that one's haunted too. Man, I don't

Here's the thing. I'm gonna say so, and I'm not going to mention any show names because I don't want to get in trouble. God am I going to get in trouble? I needed the nicy story. So I got asked, I have never told this, this is probably not good tell it. I was asked to be one on one of those shows, like a haunted experience show. That's all I'll say. And I was like, has anything weird ever happened? So I told a story that it wasn't. There was no definitiveness for me, like, am I sure what this

Ghost Can we make a little bit Can there be a ghost pussy?

Yeah? Can we make a little more Yeah, a little more ghosty or a little more hauntedy. And I'm like, you know what, just like I'm out. I wasn't sure I wanted to do this to begin with, but I'm I can't.

I know, I feel like you're exposing an entire industry. Well that's why I'm vacation here.

I know, That's that's why I'm dreading very lightly because I don't want to get in trouble or get on someone's naughty list this time of year. But that did happen.

Well, Honestly, we're talking about doing some content around here where I take like some of my old teammates places and we do some crazy stuff. And you know, like one of the ideas we were kicking around was like spending a night in various of the most haunted places in the United States and seeing if these big tough guys we turn the lights off at night, who's gonna leave the house first. So if we if we do one of those, you know, this is a no frills, no bs ghost show.

We'll have you on you if you ever want to take me.

All right, I'm in. I will say this the New Orleans thing. You can feel it, you can yeah. And you hear the stories and you're like, whether they were embellished, whether they're embellished or not, whether there was a producer many many years ago that told them to beef it up a little bit. But when you you're like, well, if twenty five percent of this is true, like there are things walking.

If ten percent is true, all it takes is one ghost for me to believe. So if it's one percent, I thick I've got there.

I wonder about that now too, you know with kids, like you know, at what point you know, you're young at this point, but like you're talking about like, oh, there's Bo Jackson in the kitchen and it's like, let's go visit dad on set and there's Robin Williams or whatever, and you're like, yeah, you know how that shapes a person, shapes you for you and you know, we'll talk about your career. But like, is it early on that you're like, I'm going to do what dad does.

It's it's an interesting question because I think it does shape who you are. I think in a lot of ways, especially if you go into this vocation like I have, because immediately, whether you know it or not, you're being served humble pie. I mean, yeah, your dad, My dad's got a gold jacket. You know, Like I go to league. You know, I have a really good career, one that I'm proud of. But you're never gonna you know, the

Are you going to live up to that? Are you going to be that? Are you gonna you know?

And then being drafted high it's the same thing. And so I think it's always been a challenge. But for some kid that grew up with no resources and didn't get looks coming out or whatever, like, I'm sure he's not. I'm sure although they could empathize with my plight, they have their own plight which is way different. And so I think no matter how you get to the NFL, it's kind of a miracle. I mean, there's so many

I grew up in it, and it's more normalized for me.

Well, it's interesting. You know you have three brothers and Kyles, yeah, two brothers or two brothers, three of yeah, yeah, three total. And you know Kyle playing on the offensive line guard for so long, you are playing essentially the same position that your dad played, who's a Hall of Famer. But there's something else interesting about your dad, which I mean, maybe this is obvious, Maybe this is so dumb, maybe it's obvious. Well, it doesn't take anything away from his

But no, he's not the one that's gonna get pissed out.

He's pretty secure, and I mean, you get that mustard jacket your no.

But what I'm saying is is that he now is elevated because he's also still every Sunday on television.

And because he looks like he's thirty one, Well what's going on with that?

But you see him, you see him every week, and you're like, yeah, he could still play. Yeah, it's weird in that. I mean, he's an amazing player, he's got the mustard coat, Hall of Famer. But also he's just still in our consciousness. And it's like, even though you know, I was very young when he was playing and I don't have specific memories of his dominance, I also grew

It's funny, funny story, like the order I got in the league.

When I got in, it's like, yeah, you're how He Longs And when you know, when I played high school football, is how He long Son. If I had an accolade that I accomplished, it was, Hey, it's because you're how He long Son, or you had a scholarship, It's because you're how He long Son or whatever it is. When I got in the league, I could feel that pressure and it followed me intrinsically, like that's just who I am I feel pressure. I tried to convert it into output.

Wow.

And you know, that's the way my dad was.

He's looking over his shoulder at somebody trying to take his job or you know, he was that poor kid from South Boston and I didn't.

Grow up that way. But he passed.

He passed that.

He passed that paranoi on to me and I'm the oldest son and that sort of thing. So he's helped me a lot after football too, because he's stuck the landing on that thing, which is hard. And I think retirement's hard for athletes in general. I mean we've seen evidence of that at every turn. But for him to make that transition and get in on it before the space was too crowded, and he's a fixture, and as these guys age, I mean, at some point there'll be other guys at that desk and same thing with CBS

Well.

We might get yelled at on Monday, but that guy knows everything about how I'm evaluating my situation and give me that one piece of advice, encouragement, or that hey swift kick in the ass. So like, dude, you need to be better set in the edge this week. I know people are patting your on the back about this, but I see it, and so I appreciated that at

He obviously was, as you just mentioned, giving you some specific advice. Yeah, talk to me a little bit though, you know you mentioned the diverse activities that you were doing. I mean baseball, basketball, lacrosse, obviously football. Talk to me a little bit about the influence and impact your high school coach, John Blake, Oh yeah, had on you.

He's the man. I just texted him the other day and I said something similar. I mean, like, you know, I got an honor for something here and he was congratulating, and I was like, well, helps, I had a pretty good high school coach. And you know, in typical John Blake fashion, he's like, well, when you have good players, you know, He's just not the type you know, when you think about like the prototypical, you know, the dramatized version of a high school coaches. He's the legend in

And you know, John.

Was amazing and I'm still friends with him and Mary and his kids, and it's pretty awesome. I mean, having guys like that in your corner.

Well, he was obviously doing a lot right. This, of course, was at Saint Anne's Bellfield School there in Charlottesville, two thousand and three. Your senior year squad goes undefeated, you play your last high school game in the state championship, you win the state championship. You walk off the field. No better feeling as a young athlete than that, Yeah, no better feeling.

And Brian like I I've always been somebody that tries to overappreciate the moment because I just see it kind of slipping. I just do it like I'm times precious and being where you are is precious, and no matter how much you try to slow it down, it's not stopping. And I think that's where you just stop and smell the roses. But I remember sitting on the stairs and being.

Like, this is really it.

I can remember a couple of those those things throughout my football career where you're like, I cannot believe whether it's walking out of the Superdome a couple of years ago, and I hadn't decided that I was going to retire yet, but I had a feeling when I took my helmet off, this could be the last time I put on a helmet.

I haven't had a football.

Helmet on, something I did every day my whole life since I was fourteen, like most kids.

But then I get to play.

To thirty three, thirty four years old, right, like that's your life, and you know, every chapter, as the page turns, you got to stop and think, you know, and I think for me, all I remember was the bittersweet feeling of, man, this was like stuck the landing on this thing, and I'm committed to Virginia. I get to go down the street to school and all this stuff, and man, what a cool run it was. But there was a guy with Shaan Jennings. He played ten years in the league.

You know.

Now they're doing Monster Truck rallies there, and I just remember thinking like this is it, you know, And sometimes it's ceremonious, like your high school state championship, and sometimes it's like unceremoniy in a big way, and you don't know how to feel about it. And I just think as a football player, you have a bunch of those moments and you just try to soak in the moment, be present.

Why did you go to Charlottesville? I mean, look, you end up playing in the US Army All American bull out of high school. You're you know, kicking ass, your team is great. You likely, whether you'd say it or not, you could have gone anywhere you wanted to go. Not only do you decide to go to Virginia and be called a wahoo, which is still.

Yeah, I can try to.

Explain, but yeah, it's fine.

Supposedly a fish that can drink its weight and water some multiple like three three tons waiting water or something. We took a lot of pride in being huge drunks. I guess, so I don't know.

So not only do you go there, but you decide your junior year was it just a hometown thing?

Honestly, this is cathartic because it kind of feels like there's a theme here. But it was because of my lack of confidence. I just thought I took my first offer. I went down to Virginia and al grow had a big Super Bowl trophy on his desk from when I was with the Giants. And you know, this is this guy that my dad speaks highly of, and my high school coach speaks highly of. He's a pro coach. And I didn't know what I wanted at that point. I don't know if I want to play pro ball. I

Going to be a problem. And uh, I think that.

I think the weights ended up being a problem there, and so I ended up I ended up just committing to Virginia.

It was the first offer I got.

I remember watching Florida State play at night and thinking like, oh, that'd be cool. This is back when they had so many great players and they do again now. But I thought, honestly, I don't know if I could play there. And when you have a dad who's so honest with you, I'll never forget this story and he and he always says, I never said that, or you're misrepresenting it. So sorry, dad.

I'm a safe back guy.

Uh yeah, in case you see Nicey again.

Yeah, no, no, nice he's in Cali. That's why I didn't go to USC.

Well, no, rules the case mom's there, she'll she'll help you out. Yeah. I saw an interview with you when you're in college. You mentioned going up against not just a man, the man the brickshaw Ferguson there in practice he make you better.

Yeah, but sometimes you go against somebody that good, you can't work your stuff like you got to just you got to survive, right, Like his arms were so long you reach out and touch me from five feet away, and you know, we ran like a three four, which means, you know, I'm an inside shade of the tackle, as you know, and in a four eye and I'm trying to get a pass rush from that position. It was just like having a dance partner for six seconds of

You need to rep different movies to practice. Yeah, I get practice. You're too good. So yeah, it was tough sometimes.

I mean you bring that up. Defensive linement get a lot, they get a lot of money, they get a lot of talk. Secondary guys corners the same. Obviously you got quarterback, wide receiver. But you look at you know what happened in San Francisco when Trenton was down. Yeah, and when Lane is maybe not quite healthy or whatever, like the impact that those guys have.

Yep.

Obviously Bactiari for a long time at Green Bay player, same deal. And as much as they talk about them, people like your dad on on television, it's still no one thinks about. No one goes there. And you're right, and you're right with the Jets this year or two and it's like, well they're not scoring because of this or that, but also like they got to.

Protect no question. You know, like when San Francisco had that dip, people were looking at, Hey, Debo's not out here. You know, you're missing I forget who else that we're missing.

But the most important thing I think, I think ayuk ayuk, But the most important thing in that whole offense, because of the way that offense runs, is the tackle that can allow you to do so many things in the run game.

Not just he can cave a three technique on a double team.

He can get out in space and you can watch a ten minute highlight tape of him running a DBS like cones in a parking lot, like like just it, bounce it, I mean, and then these guys can't even cut these guys anymore. And so it's like, how do you want me to play Trent Williams In's base, I'm giving up one hundred and fifty pounds. And it's we make a big deal about the pass pro right, because when a guy's missing, you can see, hey, the Eagles don't feel as good Jalen Immediately in that.

Bills game, Lane's down with a groin.

Immediately, I'm seeing Jalen check that side a lot, which is taking his eyes off his progression. You know, like you might not be getting pressure, but it is affecting the ebb and flow of that quarterback's process, right. And I think the same way in the run game. On a team like San Francisco, they're so dynamic because they stress every level of defense.

You have to respect every key.

Not only that, but they have personnel groupings that all look the same, you know, like you can run little guy sets with big guys, and you can run big guy sets with little guys because you have interchangeable pieces. And the whole thing really, when you think about it's from that hard run action to the perimeter and the way that they live there is because they got that big sob out there who might be the best at

Yeah, at what point when you're at Virginia do you go, I'm going to the next level? When do you know?

Honestly, I think it was a spring game. Maybe my second year, like my first year, I struggled, you know, being so far away from home ten minutes. That was hard for me.

And then on top of that, I think it was just the scheme.

I was in a three to four, you know, like when I was eighteen, I wasn't thinking about that stuff. You know, I think kids now are so much more educated because of these camps and because of the process. I just kind of took things as they came, and you know, the scheme wasn't perfect for me, but and coach grow was tough, like it was like a shock, but I liked him, and I came close to transferring

I'm going to stick it out.

And you know, I don't want to be that guy now in today's day and age, maybe out of bounce because it's just so much more normalized. But I stuck around. And then my second spring game, we come out there and I think I had like three sacks and I just felt like things were coming together for me and I said I might be able to play. And then my junior year, I had a really nice year. I can remember distinctly huddling around the kitchen table with my dad and his like business advisor who was kind of

My dad was like, take the money, man.

You know.

I had Anthony Poindexter on my staff, who was one of the greatest football players I had ever seen and would have been like Ed Reid had he not torn his knee to pieces. And he's actually the DC at Penn State now doing a great job. But he was

Yeah, I mean that's a really mature and astute observation there. You know, it's tough. You have to look at the at the totality of the situation, and if you don't have a safety net and you're in exactly the same position, you're like, I could be drafted thirtieth, Like that's incredible, Like that's incredible.

Better team too, could have been a packer or something.

Yeah, well, yeah, I know.

Eight years in Saint Louis.

I would have liked that. It worked out well for you. Dudley Award winner Near to the top NCAA football player in the Commonwealth of Virginia two thousand and seven, ACC Defensive Player in the Year won the Hendricks Award, which is the top award given to a DEE and the nation unanimous All American. You received a first place vote. Here's a question your for the Heisman. Does your dad have a hes vote?

Now, there's a couple of things he doesn't have. Now he might have he doesn't have that. He might have a gold jacket. He might be getting royalties for Firestorm in three thousand Miles to Graceland. Or he might have been in a movie with Tom Hanks, which I forget the name of that one, but it's pretty funny. Actually, in one of the deleted scenes. He's supposed to be Tom Hanks's boyfriend. And that's a possible movie. What's it that thing you do? It's a movie?

Exactly what movie is this? No, he might have he might have all these things, but he doesn't have a first place Heisman vote.

Yeah, have you been told who voted for you first? No?

But I like to drug test that person.

I really would you like to go back and see how much drugs that writer was on because I appreciate it. But yeah, no, And it was cool because we had a lot of story dudes that I went to all those banquets with Glenn Dorsey and Matt Ryan and and you know Vernon Goldston if you remember him, Like, there were some some really good players.

You get drafted second overall, and weirdly, the second long to be drafted, you go to Saint Louis. Do you think you're gonna be in Saint Louis forever? Like? Is that your mindset? Just like Charlotte's filt? Like are you like here I am, I'm a lifer. I'm gonna Derek Jeter this or whatever?

Like I think I think I really did take things.

And it sounds cliche, but when you're a kid and you get dropped into a situation like that with all that pressure, and you know, if you get picked that high, your team's gonna suck.

You just know that.

I mean like, yeah, I remember, yeah, you know, yeah. I just thought of things as like what everybody's like, what an accomplishment? And I just knew as soon as I walked onto that podium, like I got my work cut out for me, because for you to justify being picked out high as hard, and then to do it on a team where things aren't good, it's even harder, Like it's just not going to be an easy road.

I think one was like Leroy Glover.

And these guys ended up being my best buddies because they were like my big brothers. But at the time, they just glared at me and they were like, get ready to get to work, and you know, like I'll never forget that elevator ride because I already knew I had to get to work, but seeing the grown men that I was going to be either cutting into their snaps rightfully or wrongfully, or being depended upon. Like it

Guys today I hate selling an old guy. They don't deal with that.

And then on top of that, there were a lot of older guys in the league because now in today's game, they're too expensive, you know. And I thought this was just the way it was always going to be. But I learned so much even through the one in fifteen, two and fourteen seasons, and I saw so many people come and go. So I don't know if it was the fact that, like at times, it felt like I was there one hundred years because nobody else was there

It turned out to be true, because you know, like we were so bad and we cycled through so many people, and then Jeff Fisher came and we were close. But by my eighth year in Saint Louis, my seventh year I had the closest parking spot to the building, which means that like I'm the oldest guy. I'm twenty nine, twenty eight, thirty years old. And so the NFL changed a lot, and I did love Saint Louis. In fact, my wife coach did John Burrows, where Jenna Fisher from

Man, do you know John Ham taught there too, I.

Guess, so, I guess I found out afterwards.

But I've seen him at Bonnorou and then like in Vegas just randomly at the wind like checking in, and every time he's super cool and he remembers me, and he's a great guy. It's unfair for be that good looking and be a nice guy. Why can't you be an asshole. Yeah, but like we really made roots there, Like I love the Blues, Like we went to the sporting events.

I had my favorite bars. I'd go to the same places.

I'd kill to go back to to one of these places in University City or a bar in the Loop. Like I love Brad Hall. I used to drink with him at the cigar bar at the Ritz. Have you hung out with him?

Oh yeah, he's a good punny of mine. He's awesome. He's a good penny of mine. He's awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I.

Mean it was great. I loved everything about it, but we just couldn't win.

And I hated it for those fans because I lived in a hotel.

My eighth year, I knew, I you know, yeah, I.

Was captain of the team my sixth, you know year, my seventh year, I think, and you know, like I was one of the guys, like I was. I was playing really well, and my career was doing this and and I got hurt two years in a row, and you know, tried to play hurt and that never ends well. And and my eighth year, by the time I came back from the second injury, we checked into a hotel because I knew I'm getting cut or the team's moving,

It was eerie.

You know, It's like I did feel like I'd been there for a lifetime, and it feels like a lifetime ago now.

It's interesting. There's a show I don't know if you ever went and watched it, All or Nothing, where they do this series, and there was an all or Nothing about the Rams their first year in Los Angeles, and Fisher ends up getting fired and things are not going well there at all, and I ended up working on it. That's a long story for another day. But you know, one of the things that was very clear was how difficult it was just the move, just operationally, and everything

It was tough, and I think part of the reason conspiracy theorists will tell you that part of the reason Jeff was hired was to orchestrate a move because he had gone through that with Houston, Tennessee and Saint Louis fans to tell you that that team was kind of stolen from out from under them, And I would agree, like I would agree in a lot of ways, but I don't think Jeff was necessarily complicit. I think Jeff was just doing his job as a coach, and Stan wanted,

You know. It's a chart that tells you decision A or B.

It's like follow the money for these guys, and so Saint Louis never really had a shot and now they actually have Super Bowl parties in Saint Louis without the game on, which I think is that's how spiteful they are. And I totally appreciate that. And it's also put me in a weird spot, Brian, because I played two years in Philly.

I loved everything about it.

I really clicked in that city and we won, and so of course I'm passionate about the Eagles. My kids love the Eagles like it's a family thing. My wife's from South Jersey. My parents went to Villanova. But when I don't give that same love to the la Rams, people get kind of.

Butt hurt about it.

Yeah, and it has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that, like, hey, I played for eight years in Saint Louis, it is a fundamentally different thing. As much as I'd love to follow the team, and I still have some friends. I talked to Aaron Donald this morning. Actually, I love some of those people, the Trainers, the less Snead, the guy cut me. I had him over for dinner. Less Sneed the next summer. I have

He talks to Nicey.

He definitely talks to Nicy, but still he still figure out of it. He's still talking to us.

Yeah, before we talk about Philly.

You go to the Patriots for one year. Shocker, you win the whole thing after years of losing. Now it's got to be fun to be on the other side of it. Not only that you went in overtime, the biggest comeback in the game's history. By the way, I'm from Atlanta.

Yeah, I saw that. Do you care? Are you like a Falcons fan? I thought you're a Packers fan. Well, I complicated.

Here's the thing, it's got to be kind of like for you too, maybe in a way, not exactly. I'm not comparing myself to you. I do root for my friends, so I mean, I start as a kid, I was a Falcons fan, of course, and I have gotten to know oh, you know Matt Ryan quite a bit. Great guy and great guy, I really And it's weird because I think for like, I wasn't going to every Packers you know, I would go once or twice a year and hopefully the playoffs or whatever. But it was weird,

No, And that's okay.

I mean, like I was not you won, So course I totally understand because like I wouldn't have been rooting for me my like I can remember being a I've been a big Patriots defender at times because I think, like their franchise is amazing.

I think Tom's amazing.

But I also used to hate him because in college coach grow he's like from the Belichick tree. He used to make us where the stupid striped socks and we had all the same sayings on the wall and shit. So I remember being at the bar like boo, like when David Tyree caught that ball and then it's yes, boo, and then and then we get to the super Bowl, and it came down to for me in free agency, and I almost retired before I went up there, but I gave it some time.

I was like, okay, I want to keep playing.

I've never gotten to win, you know, I've never been to the playoffs, never sniffed it. I got to feel like cash in on some of his individual's success, enjoy what it's like to.

Be on a team. And it came down to Atlanta in New England, and my dad used to say, well, I steered him away from Atlanta, but it was a traffic in Atlanta. Honestly for me, it's terrible traffic in that city. I mean Flowery Branch to Atlanta's like it's it's a nightmare.

Before I got to the meeting with Dan Quinn, I was like, dude, I can't sit in the car like this. But and he wanted to play me inside, So I was like, I don't know if I want to play inside. Because he wanted me to be as Michael Bennett from Seattle, like he wanted me to be the inside, outside guy. And ironically, when I got up to New England, that's what I ended up doing. In New England is playing out like not in where I wanted to play anything

People were like, yo, you're crazy, Like why would you leave New England? You were a loser your whole career and now you want to be a loser again.

I just wanted to finish my career playing in a scheme that was more suited for what I do. And I can remember being in the prepping for the Super Bowl, watching tape late at night in the hotel, and I vividly remember this. I'm watching Atlanta because we watched that team and everybody was played, and watching Atlanta play Philly in a game at Philly earlier in the season, and I looked at that d line and I was like, man, that looks like what I used to do. And at

I love that place. I love the guys.

I wasn't crazy about the sun going down at four o'clock in the afternoon, but you know, as a southern Cali guy, now you know what I'm saying, but I do.

But I just needed to make the move.

But I can remember being at halftime, being down twenty eight three to that team and thinking I made the wrong choice.

Like every other turn in my life, I screwed it up.

You know, why did you come back?

Come back to where?

Why did you win that game?

Oh? Why do we come back? Yeah?

Oh just tell me, just give me the right ants, Just tell me.

No, I'll tell you why, because I think that sometimes when teams get up on a team and they know the other teams better, and you start like that protection mess up they had with Davante. I can't remember the running backs Freeman, but Freeman, nice Devonte Freeman, and he let high run free. When they made mistakes like that,

Bill, you know, could be just a guy. I don't think so, but without Tom Brady and Shanahan as great as a coach as he is, not running the football up eight in that football game and kicking a field goal. We knocked him out of field goal range twice with a sack and a holding call. That's the game, you know.

And so I think it's a combination of not doing the right things in the right situations, but also just the feeling like once that game turned, you could tell they knew and we knew. When we won the toss in overtime, me Dante high Tower, Alan Branch and Rob Nikovich, I said, we taking our helmets off, and they're like, yep, take them off. Let's go sit and watch the show because we're not going back on the field.

And we knew it. And that's how it ended with James White in the end zone.

Incredible, It was wild.

I didn't believe it, but I'm not gonna act like I believe we were gonna win. Brian, Right, I'm in the fucking locker room at the half, and why did I make this call? I'm first off, I'm in Rob Ninko because Nikovitch before the game, he is like my best buddy there. He's like, just trust me, bro, you were not going to want to lose a Super Bowl.

You're gonna wish you went one in fifteen. You're gonna wish you were in Saint Louis.

We lose this game, and it was just echoing in my head and we go in to the locker room and guys are yelling, and I remember Julian being like, we're.

Gonna win this game, and I'm like, can we get a stop? Like what do you know that? I don't know?

And maybe it's the loser mentality of being in St. Louis for eight years, but those guys knew. You talked about it already. You go to Philly, you win back to back with two different teams. That hasn't happened a lot, and now you beat.

The team that you just won with. I mean, it's all weird, right, weird, Yeah, it's weird.

It was like, I don't believe in karma in the NFL because I've seen too many guys that I loved and respected that didn't get the you know, the happy ending at the end of their career, Like where James Laronidis, he was right there with me on that turf, wasting his prime. He ends up in New Orleans, his legs fall out from under him, you know, in camp he

There are better teams than us.

But I don't know on that night who was beating us because we just had this this thing, and you can't manufacture a thing. It either exists or it doesn't. And it was the perfect storm. So you're an Eagle yeah in my mind, Yeah, or a Saint Louis Ram. You know, they don't exist. They don't exist.

So how often do you say to Kyle three and zero?

I like to rhy him a little bit.

We just broke down the double Joint game the other day on the pod, which he's become increasingly more level headed about. Okay, but you know, for a guy that I had to pull out of a fight with my best friend William, like he was beating my friend up. The only time he came to Saint Louis, he almost got ejected after that game. I kind of didn't want to see him in the tunnel because I thought he'd be just dejected.

I felt for him but three and oh, do you just walk up to him and say three and oh? That's what me and my buddy like. I I you know, it's just played golf with a friend of mine. I mean if I I just pounded him. We were playing this little tournament and I pounded him six and five. I beat him six and five, which means I beat him up six with five holes left. I said to him the rest of the day, probably eight hundred and seventy three times six and five.

Ye you know it's funny because I would rib him, but I'll so no. He's a little sensitive. He doesn't like that shit.

And he's also six six, three hundred pounds and he could crush me. So Like sometimes we're sitting here doing the podcast and I touch a little button, I'm like, let me, let me take my hand off the button. But I also know which buttons to push. And when we were on the field, I was trying to drive him crazy. He was talking about this the other day, like, I'm a really nice guy, but when I get on the field, I'm going to try to drive you nuts.

So we just we target him.

We just I chirp him and chirp him, and then he beat up my friend and almost get ejected or but then when you get into tunnel, you're like, hey, there's no referees here to stop him from mauling me.

From killing somebody. I gotta relax. Yeah, I know, I don't have much more time. I gotta mention. You're just I mean, one, you really make me laugh, but two, you're a generous as hell guy. You win and what many on the inside consider the most prestigious award that you can win in the NFL, including MVP, the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, you win it following the twenty eighteen season. In the twenty seventeen season, you played for free.

Yeah.

I wasn't making that much now, Brian, But yeah, oh I never thought about that. Yeah, think about it. You know, at this point in my career, they're not paying me as much. But yeah, I played for free. You know, honestly it started for me. I remember being so on the fence about playing, like every year as you get older the more bs, especially if you win a Super Bowl, You're like, you ask yourself because I got kids and I'm at that point in my life, like why am

You know, you're on a treadmill. That never ends.

And it's the same thing with being a father or you know, heading an organization or being responsible for the people that work here at Greenlight, like you should do something that's bigger than you. And for me, at that point, I wanted to make the world a better place and I still do. But I had a really big platform, and I thought really hard about just not saying anything about it and just give the money, because there's plenty of people that had given that amount of money before

And they did.

You know.

They they doubled my investment in at equity and in the scholarships we were doing, and it was like a springboard for everything we've continued to do. So I mean, like those two years, we raised a lot of money, the whole thing. We gave a lot of effort in that city and I fell in love with the city.

You already won. You know, you did the work. You know, the work is why you do it, and then you're.

Getting attention for the charity that you're trying to help us well, which is is that's the reason that's it.

If it's pragmatically going to help us awesome. You try to do things for altruistic reasons, you know, you're not trying to do it to get And that was the one thing that made me kind of uncomfortable was, you know, people looking at it and then also stand up on stage with a bunch of guys who aren't gonna win.

Why am I better than Kyle Rudolph, Why am I better in this guy? Why?

So the way I look at it, everybody that gets nominated. Every year wins, you know, you do win because people care about your stuff more. But the reason I really won was getting a relationship that started with the Walter Payton family. Like super cool to me to get to know his family and his family's evidence of his greatness, everything they've done to continue his legacy. And Jarrett, like his son, been through the same things I've been through

Now.

This summer, he came to visit me in Montana because I spend summer in Montana, up there near Clay and he was like, we got to get together. I'm doing this thing for Walter Payton Man of the Year. We'll do some footage. What do you like to do outside. I'm like, well, I like to hike, So we're going to go on a hike. I forgot to tell him how the altitude was there, but he made it halfway up the mountain, but he came all the way up

No matter if you want or loss. You're a winner, and so for Lane, for any of these guys, it's just great to be discussed. One, You're an incredible guy and I really admire you. I've always admired you as a football player.

Now I can add making me laugh to the list, which is I don't know, and you know to me that it doesn't get much better than that as well. And you're a good dude. You're crushing it in the media that you're doing now, the iconic television show Inside the NFL, you're now a part of that. You've got the green Light podcast. Is it hard for you to talk about you know, you're you're not you haven't been gone that long, so you still have friends that are

Yeah? Totally.

Every time I get on the mic, I imagine I'm pissing somebody off, and that's the reality of it. And I've gotten better at just be you know, okay with it. You know, I care what people think. So does anybody that has one of these, right Like, it's so easy to be like, I don't care what anybody thinks, right Like, that's the pursuit, but like you have to have some you know, otherwise you wouldn't be doing it. Otherwise I wouldn't be trying to do the best I very can

You know, Yeah, you're doing a fantastic job.

Thanks truly.

On the podcast integrating sports and culture and entertainment, it's a lot of fun to listen to, Truly, I wish you all the best in that.

Thanks Brian.

And on inside the NFL. And I know you've got yate House Media that you've started new production company and studio. I can't wait to see what's coming out for you.

See, we've got some stuff cooking. But we'll see. Man. I was trying to just trying to trying to make sure the show's fun and I'm enjoying it.

So yeah, well listen, what I hope is our paths crossed here very soon. You'll be in Vegas here in February.

You're gonna go to the game.

I will be there. All right, let's get together, Yeah, let's do. Maybe the Packers are in it. We'll find a time. You think you think the way they look the other night, but look that's all they did look really, especially with the injuries they've had. Look, I know, I we could do, we could talk forever.

You gotta come up I'm gonna get you online one of these days. I'll give you plenty of notice.

Well, now that you talked about how I know what I'm talking about, that's exactly that's gonna be on my bio from here on out. Thanks Chris, Chris, thank you so much for being here. I will see you in Las Vegas in just a few weeks for the Super Bowl. Great to have you on here. Guess what He'll always be my first long listeners check out green Light on the podcast app of your choice. Also, be sure to watch Inside the NFL on the CW. I'm going to be back next time with a wish, a real wish