The Dave Pasch Podcast - Greg Olsen

Farm Stadium. We'll talk about the Panthers and his thoughts on Baker Mayfield. We'll also talk about his time as a member of the Panthers, playing with Cam Newton on a team that went to the Super Bowl in twenty fifteen. Also Greg's thoughts on calling the Super Bowl, how he'll treat that week as a broadcaster. My approach this year is really get a good routine every week on how I prepare and how I go in with the mindset and how I want my style to be by the

time I get to the playoffs. By the time you get to the super Bowl, you can just like as a player, you can really rely on that routine. We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Resorts and Casinos. Get ready for a football season like never before with bet MGM, then official partner of the Arizona Cardinals. Sign up today using code cards one thousand and get your

first bet risk free up to one thousand dollars. Visit betmgm dot Comference terms and conditions twenty one and over Arizona only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next step, All right, let's hear now from our guest, Former NFL tight end and current Fox broadcaster Greg Olson. Fires ends on and it's caught touchdown at the back

of the end zone. Greg Olson, So Greg. The producer of this podcast is Jim Omohundro, but the executive producer for this particular episode is former Cardinal quarterback Drew Stanton. Who got you to do this? I really appreciate you doing this. I used to favor from Drew to get young because I know you don't do a ton of these. First of all, tell me how you and dreukes I know you guys are tight. How far you go back and just about your relationship. Yeah, Drew is one of

my closest buddies. We So we first met so back in two thousand and seven, we both declared for the draft and we were preparing for the combine and we had the same agent, Drew Rosenhouse and Drew we all trained at a facility down in South Florida, um with a guy named Pete Bamrito, and Drew put all of us, all of his clients up in that year's class in the same um like condo building. So Drew and I lived across the hall, and just that was the first

time we had ever met. And you know, for the next three months, we drove to training together, we ate together, We you know, became really good friends. Our our wives became really good friends. And to this day, he's a guy that, you know, I consider one of my closest friends, you know, in the uh you know, in the world. And he's just a great guy. His family, Christen, the kids,

they're just they're just great people. And uh So, when Drew reaches out a friend of Drew as a friend of mine, fair enough, And are you as into wine as Drew as because the guy's out of control. I'm not. I should say I've learned a lot about wine through him. We love going to dinner, we love traveling with them because that's one thing that'll always be taken care of. But uh, yeah, Drew, Drew's love of wine. We went

to a for a buddy's fortieth birthday years back. We all went out to NAPA and so the experiencing NAPA with the Stantons is h is quite the experience. So I don't pretend to know as much, but I've learned a lot from Drew, and anytime I have a question, he's my first call. Well, he's gotten really good at this. I think he, you know, enjoys broadcasting. I don't know if it's going to be something that, uh, you know, he's going to want to pursue all in like you have.

But I think he's really good. I think he could do really well in the business as you have. It's really interesting kind of watching your ascension, and I want to get into that. It's funny because I've had conversation with Drew about doing his games, even when he was at Michigan State. Because I've been at ESPN now doing college football for almost twenty years. I did your games at Miami and then obviously did your games with the Cardinals when you've been in the NFL, and I know

you live in Charlotte. You had a great run as a player, spent nine years with the Panthers, three Pro Bowls, three straight one thousand yards seasons, which had never been done by its height end, and then you beat the Cardinals in the NFC Championship Game in twenty fifteen. I'm assuming that is up there with your fondest memories of being a Panther. What else would be at the top

of the list of your memories with Carolina? Yeah, you know, I was fortunate for nine years, you know, I was able to join to join a team that prior, you know, the two ten season was a little bit of a struggle, and it was really cool that in twenty eleven it was kind of the start of something pretty special. They had a really good nucleus of players, um, you know, Steve Smith and Ryan Khalil and Jordan Gross and Jonathan Stewart.

I mean just a really good you know, Tom and Thomas David is just a good core group of guys that were there but you know, they just struggled. They had a tough season the year before for a lot of reasons. So that next year, um, you know, hired Ron Rivera and drafted Cam and they traded for me from Chicago. So it was cool. We all kind of started that chapter of our careers together. And you know, as you said, you know, the pinnacle was twenty and fifteen.

You know, we made the playoffs year three and two thirteen U and kind of put ourselves on the map and made it again in fourteen and then you know kind of really you know, hit our peak in fifteen. But you know, we went fifteen to one, and like you said, we played Arizona in the NFC Championship. We had the best record in the league, and I believe they had the second best record in the league. I think they won like thirteen games that year. So it was it was a huge matchup. And the reality is

we just played really well that night. Um. It was kind of a magical back in you know, back in back in Charlotte, and you know, I just remember standing on the field and you know realizing, you know, at the trophy presentation that we were in two weeks we were going to play in the Super Bowl, and just we had beat in Seattle in the divisional round and

then to beat Arizona in the conference round. We had we had really gone through a pretty you know, a gauntlet of really really good teams just to make the super Bowl and then you know, we ended up just kind of laying an egg. But I have so many fond memories at that time there. I think the best thing was just building, you know, building that group of guys and building that team from the ground floor up.

You know, they were they had the number one pick in two thousand and eleven, and we were back in the playoffs by thirteen and uh making a run in fifteen. So that that was probably the most special part, was just seeing how we can turn a franchise around when you had the right group of guys. And you mentioned that twenty eleven draft that that will go down as one of the greatest first rounds in NFL history. JJ Watt, Patrick Peterson, AJ Green, Von Miller, Cam Newton number one overall.

What was it like to play with Camp because that year he was the best player in football. Oh yeah, it wasn't even close. In his MVP year, what he was able to do. But but even years prior, you know, and after, you know, it wasn't really until the injuries kind of set in in two thousand and seventeen that things kind of started to fade away for us, you know, not not just him and dealing in and out with the shoulder injury and then the foot, but you know, that was kind of the start of kind of the

end of, you know, our run. We know, we made the playoffs in twenty and seventeen again UM ended up losing to New Orleans and then that was really the end of it. And after the nineteen season we were all gone. So UM. You know, camp Cam was a special guy. We saw that pretty quickly. You know, I got to train at Camp there in two thousand and eleven, after after I got traded to Carolina, and not really

knowing what to expect. Of course, we had all seen him play at Auburn and we knew how special he was. But you gotta get you meet him, and at first you're just you're just blown away by his physical presence, just the way the guy looked, his size, his his just his physique. He was he was just there was not a lot of guys built like Cam Newton, and then you know his ability to run, both his speed and his you know, his physical nature that he'd run with.

He just was unlike any quarterback really at the time. And you know, he just grew so much as a passer, he grew so much as just an all round player. He was awesome. He was so good for my career. We were able to accomplish a lot of really good things together. And you know, I'm the first to admit that, you know, a lot of my success was a product of the two of us playing so long together and having so many games together, and you know, just really saw things the same way. So Cam Cam was a

unique talent. There's there's not a lot of guys like him, and he's about as competitive a guy as I ever played with. And I think that carried him so long, and unfortunately some of those injuries kind of you know, got the best from there at the end. But man, for when when he was at his best, he was as good as anybody. I know. You're doing national games

every week, and I totally get what that's like. You're honing in on the two teams you're prepared ring for, but you're still keeping abreast of what's going on around the NFL, and certainly when you live in Charlotte, you're paying close attention to the Panthers. And given that you played most of your career there, what are your thoughts on the Panthers and where they are? They had lost nine in a row. Their last win prior to this past weekend was against the Cardinals here, which really started

the Cardinal's downfall last year. Yeah, and I think, if I remember it right, that was Cam's first game back. I think Cam ran for a touchdown and threw for

a touchdown real early in that game. They kind of used them in and out of the lineup, So yeah, you know, I think, you know, just this year, tough game in the opener they had, it had a tough kind of ending there at the end of the Browns game with a weird roughing the passer call and a weird grounding call that you know, gave Cleveland a chance to kick a field goal, and then you know, never expected they were going to lose, and the schedule came out,

they thought the Giants game would be a win, but the Giants have proven to be a lot better than people thought. And you know, it's I think there's season started worse than they are. I think this past week getting a good win against UM, against New Orleans was big for them, just to kind of get that off their back. You know, anytime you lose for that long, you know what, you just need to win, and it doesn't matter how it comes, it doesn't matter the form

or fashion. But sometimes it just allows everybody for one week to just take a collective deep breath and say, all right, we're good, broke the losing streak. Now we can just focus on, you know, honing into play. So I think they're a more talented team than their record shows. They're you know, not only this year's record, but just the record into into last year as you reference, they're losing streets. So I think they're talented. I think they

have a lot of good young pieces. Um. Obviously Baker is still kind of getting you know, getting his legs under them here in Carolina as the starting quarterback. And I think as the year goes on, I really do believe that they'll continue to improve and that you know, defensively, they're pretty they're pretty stout. They got some really dynamic young players there. And then I think as the offense continues to find its way. They're not short on talent,

they're not short on playmakers. I think it's just a matter of how they continue to gel and come together. But I think they're a talented group that's just trying to learn to win. Right now, tell me more about why you think Baker is the answer. And I've been told by several people that even though you're a tight end, you see the game the way a quarterback sees it, so you're certainly qualified to talk about Baker and his strengths.

I think we all know about Baker's weaknesses. But tell me why you think Baker is the answer there for the Panthers. You know, I you know, is he the long term answer for the next ten years? I don't. I don't know. I can't pretend to have that sort of insight and whatnot. But in my limited time studying them and and just you know, watching the games on replay and whatnot, you know, I think what he brings is is just stability. He brings he brings that competitive fire,

but he brings a guy who's really played. He's played well, and I think he's played better than his reputation. I think if you looked just at last year, you know, last year in Cleveland, you know, he really he was out there kind of banged up, playing hurt. You know, could have easily said, hey, I'm not help, I'm gonna sit this out, but he didn't. He continued the battle, played with that shoulder, played with a litany of things,

and didn't play well. But you know, I think he's a better player than what our most recent memory of him. So I think when you know, they went out and brought into Shawn and made him a bail. But I think there was there was talking Carolina for for a long time that Baker was going to eventually end up here, and then you know, it kind of happened a little later in training camp that people you know, going into

training camp that people thought. But you know, I just think with the weapons that he has, Christian McCaffrey and DJ Moore and m you know, Robbie Anderson and you know, they got some they have some weapons. Offensively, they've improved their offensive line drastically from last year, drafted what they think is the next you know, ten plus year left tackle in Ikey. So I think as far as the core group of guys to work around. They have them, and now it's up to the quarterback. It's up to

Baker to run the show. And he hasn't played great this year. I think he's played better as the year has gone on, but as he continues to get more comfortable in Ben mcadu's system. He's not short on playmakers. He's not short on guys to spread the ball too, and that's going to be the key to this growth of the offense is how does Baker run the show? How does Baker operate in this offense? We know he can be special, We know he can make the splash,

flash play. Can he just make the easy play? Can he just make the easy read and get the ball into some of these dynamic players that they have offensively? And I think if he can find that balance between playmaker and just game manager at times, he needs to be both. And I think that's the recipe that I think they're looking for, because I think they had the players around him to do it. Graig, what are your

thoughts on the Cardinals. You are out here for Fox doing the Baltimore game, and I get that in that game, nobody really played for the Cardinals, so it may be hard to fully give an evaluation properly on where the Cardinals are. But I think he did some Cardinals games last year, and as you know, the first half of last season and into the second half, they were the best offensive team in the NFL. Right now, they're struggling. No first quarter points. They have led in regulation at

any point in three games this season. What do you make of what's going on out here? Yeah, you know, I didn't I actually didn't end up getting any of their games um last year in the regular season. As you mentioned, I called their preseason game against Baltimore, zero of the starters played, but had a chance to visit with with Kingsbury and and some of the coaches and advanced Joseph. It just kind of get a vibe and a field and they felt really optimistic going into the year.

They felt that as they got healthy. Of course, missing DeAndre Hopkins to start the year as a big blow, and you know they think a big reason for that, you know, late season kind of collapse that you mentioned, a lot of it was injury related. You know, they lost you know, Hopkins, they lost Um. You know, obviously Cayler Murray got banged up there and kind of played

through some injuries. They lost JJ Watt. They you know, they were a veteran laden team, maybe a little bit older, and a lot of those key veterans that they were relying on, you know, they didn't have down the stretch. You know, JJ came back and attempted the play i think in the playoffs, but it didn't end up, you know, being too much in that Rams game. So I think they're going to be very dependent on staying healthy. I think they're gonna need some of these top you know,

especially some of these older guys to stay healthy. They're gonna need some of these weapons, you know, Hollywood Brown and these guys to still in because DeAndre Hopkins is arguably one of the best receivers in the league, and you know, to expect just one guy to replace him as difficult. So they're gonna need collectively as a group. They're gonna need Kyler to play really well. They're gonna need their skill players to step up. They're gonna need

to stay healthy. And from what I've seen this year, you know, the magical comeback win that they had two weeks ago was insane. I mean, the way that game ended was wild against the Raiders and really outside of that late flurry, as you mentioned, offensively, they've just been kind of blah. So they've got to figure out what their identity is. They've got to figure out, you know, what scheme they want to run, a little hybrid of what Kingsbury started running when first got there and you know,

kind of what they've evolved to now. So I think they're still trying to figure that out. Obviously, they've hitched their wagon to Kyler Murray and you know, they're only going to go as far as he takes them. But I think they're still trying to figure out, you know, what that identity is, what's that balance of him as a runner as a passer. Yeah, they have too many good players to not be better offensively, and I think that right now that's the obvious thing that they're trying

to figure out. So your last year playing was twenty twenty, and you were kind of the broadcaster in waiting. You have the coach in waiting, you were like the top broadcast, your top analyst in waiting. Everybody knew that when you were done, you were going to a high level booth at one of the networks. You're at Fox. Last year on the number two crew with Kevin Burkhardt, Joe Buck and Troykman come over to ESPN. So now you're on the League crew, You're doing the Super Bowl this year.

I'm curious, Greg, when did you start to realize that you wanted to do this post football? And was it always I want to do games? Did you think you wanted to do studio or were you not really sure? Yeah, it's a good question, to be honest. It wasn't something that I ever early in my career. It was not something that I ever really thought about or dreamed about. You know. I was always so focused on just being

a player. And then you know, kind of in you know, the later stage of my career, you know, fourteen fifteen, you know, through some context that I had, I was doing some local TV stuff in Charlotte's, some local regional network college football shows, some professional stuff, you know, Fox asked me to come out one summer, I think it was the summer going into the twenty fifteen season, and said, hey,

why don't you come out. I was I was in LA visiting a friend, a former teammate of mine, and so why don't you come over to the studio and just call an audition game. And you know, for anyone who doesn't know an audition game, you just it's a game that already happened in the past. It was from the previous season. It's prerecorded, and you sit in a studio with a play by play guy and you just talk over the game and it's just a simulation to

see how comfortable you are and whatnot. So from that, which was actually with Kevin Burkhart, who's my partner now, which is kind of a crazy um full circle moment that he called my audition. So now fast forward twenty seventeen. They that summer, they reached out to us and said, hey, we'd love to put you in a three man booth on your bye week. We think it'd be really cool to have a current player and add him for for a one week kind of special thing. So I joined

Kevin Burkhardt and Charles Davis. I became their third third member of the crew on my bye week. That was twenty seventeen. It went well. Twenty nineteen, they said, hey, we'd love to see you do a game on your bye week again, but this time we'll put you as a two man crew. So I did it with Kenny Albert, and then that that next offseason, you know, right before COVID hit, they launched the XSL and me and Kevin Burkhart did the first five weeks of the XFL together.

So it really was just a gradual process that just different opportunities came and to the point about calling games or studio. Did the pregame Super Bowl show, NFL Countdown, you know, on the field and before the Super Bowl, So I did some studio stuff with them, did some studio stuff with Fox, CBS, really all the networks, and then just realized that my best opportunity to climb, my

best opportunity to separate myself would be calling games. You know, those studios slots are really held for guys with really really long resumes and Hall of Fame jackets and quarterbacks, and you know, it just it was a little bit of a different climb, but calling the games wasn't quite as dependent on that. You know, it was really about who's good, and we want to find guys who were good, and we're not so much wrapped up in name and in resume and playing career. So that was an opportunity

that I was able to take advantage of. And fortunately after one year of twenty twenty one calling a full slated games as the B Crew, craziness happened and Joe and Troy ended up leaving from Monday Night Football and opened up the door for me and Kevin to slide up to the A Crew. So it was it was kind of a wild process, but it wasn't anything that was like this long plan of attack. It just all started, happened organ and try to take advantage of opportunities that

I was given. I've been doing games for two decades and there are still certain games that you know are bigger than others. So during the week the butterflies are there, or in pregame you're thinking more about, man, I got to really nail this open. There are more eyeballs on this game than maybe the game you have last weekend. And you know you're supposed to say the right things that every game's the same, but it's not. Now you're

going to be doing the Super Bowl. What do you think your mindset will be like Because you've played in the Super Bowl, but broadcasting it obviously is different. It's not as natural to you as playing was, but you become very good at it. What do you think that week will be like for you and Kevin? Yeah, I think, you know, it's hard to It's hard to say. You know, if you would have asked me as a player what playing in the Super Bowl was like, I wouldn't have

been able to answer it either. And I think my experience playing in it was very different from what I thought it would be like. So I'm sure it's going to be very similar now as the announcer. You know, my approach this year is really like, really get a good routine every week on how I prepare and how I go in with the mindset and how I want my style to be, how I want people listening to my broadcast to come away with it like what I want them to come away with, and really try to

do that consistently all year long. And I think if I can build that shorter routine and build that mindset over the course of the year, by the time I get to the playoffs, by the time you get to the Super Bowl, you can just like as a player, you can really rely on that routine. You can rely on those habits you've built throughout the course of the year.

I think that all of a sudden you get to those playoff games, and you get to a Super Bowl and you watch more tape, and you have a different board, and you make more storylines and you do more prep all of a sudden you've made the game bigger. That'd be like, you know, the week of the Super Bowl, changing your practice plan from what had gotten you there.

So that's really what I'm trying to just constantly remind myself of is at the end of the day, just like when you played, whether you're playing in front of ten thousand people, one hundred thousand people, earned on TV in front one hundred million people, the second you took your mind and eyes off of what you needed to do to not only prepare, but get yourself ready to

go out and perform at a high level. Whether it's as a player, as a broadcaster, there's a lot of really similar you know, a lot of blot as that is and asja as that is. That's really the only approach I can rely on because I don't have experience. I don't have I don't know what it's like to sit in that chair with one hundred million people watching the game and be the voice of it. I have

nothing to base it on. Other building a great routine throughout the course of this season, and hopefully all of that prepares me that that game, once it kicks off, feels normal. It feels it feels like every other you know, it feels like the game I just did this past week in front of twenty million people with the with you know, Green Bay and Tampa, right Like, I got to use all those games as prep to keep it, you know, keep it as regular and routine as I can.

I've taught to a lot of former coaches and players and work with a lot that you say they enjoy the games because a lot of guys enjoy studio because of FaceTime. A lot of guys enjoy games because they're still that rush because you're there, you're present, you notice the crowd. There's still that palpable intensity. There is that rush there for you when you do a game. You know, I think that's why I've really gravitated towards the games.

There's something about being medium. There's something about the unpredictability of a game that I really enjoy. And you know, I've had my opportunities to do different studio shows and I like it. But studio shows are very scripted, you know, you talk in sound bites, it's all rehearsed. It's all you know. Block A you're going to talk about the Chiefs secondary, and Block B you're gonna talk about you know, Lamar Jackson. And in block C you're going to talk

about you know, Brian Dable and the Giants. Right, it's and you just you have your minute sound bite that you've rehearsed and you've kind of thought about, and you just spit it out and then you're done. The game. You can prepare all week, you can study, you can come up with really interesting storylines and really interesting just like as a player, you come up with a game plan. You're like, all right, here's how I'm going to attack

this player, here's how I'm gonna run this route. And all week you practice and then on game day the balls kicked off and sometimes it works out as you planned, but more often than not, it's completely different than what you practice for and you have to adjust and act, you know, think on your feet and then and that's similar to calling a game. Right. We can study all we want and predict what's going to happen, but we really don't know what we're gonna see and what we're

gonna have to talk about until the moment comes. And I think that's what's fun about the games, That's what keeps you on your toes, that's what keeps you stimulated and really engaged, because it's a challenge. You know, it's hard to talk to you know this, it's hard to talk for three hours in real time and react to what you see and come across as informed, come across

as fun, come across as likable. You know, it's just hard to do when you don't know exactly what you're going to see and what you're going to have to talk about. So I've enjoyed that. There's a lot again, there's a lot of crossover between that and being a player. It's the original reality TV. It's totally unscripted. You never

know what's going to happen. You come in prepared and you have things you want to talk about, and all of a sudden, something crazy happens in the first minute of a game and it totally changes perhaps the direction you guys were going to go. Were there some analysts that you really enjoyed watching growing up or when you're playing that you enjoyed meeting with that you studied or looked up to, or anybody in particular that's really offered help to you in terms of you coming along as

a broadcaster. Yeah, it's funny. Until I started doing it, I don't even really know if I ever paid attention to broadcasters. I'll be honest, I've heard that before the game. As a kid, you know, I knew, you know, I knew who Monday Night football announcers were as a kid, you know, and deeered Off and Frank Gifford and Al Michael's and you always, you know, you remember listening to games with John Madden, like I mean, I remember them. I can't say I ever tuned into a game. I

wonder who's quality game? Right? It was always kind of secondary to me. But it really wasn't until you know, later into my career and I had been on that other side of the camera and sat in those boots and called it where I would watch games and I would almost watch it more to hear what they were saying and more to see the replay sequence, more to see how the analysts used the telestrator and what points he made and what I found interesting, what I found boring,

you know. So it really was was a later in the road process, but you know, when I was getting ready to do my auditionum, you know, Troy Aikman was was really cool. I was able to connect with him and he gave me some really good pointers. And then through the years both being at Fox and then you know, this past year with all this kind of you know, musical chairs and guys moving and shaking, he was really cool. He reached out to me, he really you know, he

gave me great advice. He helped me kind of navigate the uncertainty of what was going on. So he was really cool. Years back when I was really making a decision, even prior to retiring two years ago, I had some opportunities to go to TV and was weighing it. I was able to chat with Romo about just what that transition was like, what it was like, you know, did

you miss the game? Did it Phil? You know, and he gave me some really cool insight to how he dealt with retiring relatively soon to go full throttle into into TV. So I've been fortunate to, um, you know, have some good guidance and have some cool conversations. But as far as style, I don't try to be anyone there's not anyone where I say, oh, I want to sound like him, or I want to talk like him. I just kind of talk like me and I say things that I think are interesting and try to point

out elements of the game that I find fun. And it might not be for everyone. Some people might not like my style. They might not like, you know, the the way I describe things or the way I coach it. But I think it's fun. I think it's interesting. I think our broadcast you come away learning the game of football, and I like that. I want that to kind of be what people tune in for. And some people don't

want to learn. Some people just want to be, you know, talk down to and just you know, and it's just not my style. And I think the game is so fun and so interesting and complex, and the better we can do as analysts of portraying that. I think it's fun for the viewer to come away and learn a few things throughout the course of the game. I want to end with all the great charity work that you're doing in Charlotte, and I want to ask you about your son TJ and how he's doing and everything. But

one more question related to broadcasting. What is the term I see but classy and is that something that you use in game broadcast? So if you Drew Stanton that that is something that the two of us have a deep history with and I think you're gonna have So it's actually a really good story and I'll share it. So there was this jeweler down in Miami who made like really flashy jewelry and a lot of guys would

buy them. So one year we were training down there, like we have to go see this guy, Like we have to go down and like see what this all about. And I think me and Drew ended up buying something for the girls. And at the time I looked back and it was really had a lot of it was just a lot. I look back and I kind of laugh because I would never buy it today. But the guy.

The way it was described to us is that it was icy but classy, meaning like it was really like blingy and gaudy and diamonds and whatnot, but like it's and it's just always been something that Drew and I have have always kind of shared a laugh over and we referred to a lot of things from inappropriate um that I won't go into, but but some things that we describe as I see but classy. So I'm glad Drew put you up for that that question because that is a that is an all time class Yeah, he did.

The executive producer of this episode asked me to ask you that question. We need to find a way to work that into a broadcast that needs to become like a signature Greg Olson line seas and if I could pull that off, that would be legendary. We'll ask Rinaldi because you work with the greatest words smith in the history of broadcasting, Tom Rinaldi, So maybe he's got a way to work it in for you. Sometimes he used his words and I'm like, Tom, I don't know what

that means. You have, you know, he has such as his vocabulary, his way with words, the way he can describe, and he is very very he is as intelligent and as smart and creative, and he's really and improved. I've really enjoyed I didn't know him much until the last you know, months or so, and God, is he impressive to be around. I've really enjoyed Tom. He is one of my favorite people in this business. I got to note Tom from working with him at the ESPN and

going back to I think the worst. The first time I had worked with Tom was on the first Penn State game after Joe Paterno was fired, and having Tom there was such a security blanket for a play by play guy given all that was going on around the program at that time, and he and I he was very helpful then and had been helpful over the next decade until he left to go to Fox. I always joke with Tom that when he walks into a stadium, people start crying, because every time the guy talks, you

want to tear up. I got a text with somebody this weekend. I guess I didn't see the feature on their pregame show College Football Saturday, but I guess it was a It was a tear jerker. Tom. If you need someone to tell your life story you hope one day? Yes, all right, so tell me about all the charity work you're doing in Charlotte. And also I'd love to know how your son, TJ is doing. TJ is doing great. You know. TJ is really a really special young Boy's um.

He's about to be nine in a couple of weeks. I'm sorry, he's nine, He's about to be ten. Here in a couple of weeks, and yeah, TJ's had a tough road. He underwent you know, his first open heart surgery at two days old and had three subsequent surgeries and his most recent open heart you know, major surgery was last summer. He had a he had a full

heart transplant. UM he was he went in the heart failure after years with living with a modified heart, UM with with a heart condition that he was born with, and UM had a heart transplant last summer and since then he's just flourished. He's he's a good kid. He's smart,

he's getting big and strong, he's active, he's um. It's just he's an absolute miracle what he's gone through as a young kid, and the inspiration to start The Hardest Yard, which is our nonprofit program that we run here in Charlotte, and you just actually expanded into the Charleston region. So we we provide you know, we've provided about well over six million dollars and we provide you know, outpatient care for cardiac families. We built a brand new inpatient clinic.

We do we do in home medical treatments for doctors and nurses and therapists for kids following discharge. From the hospital. So we offer our program offers a wide range of services for families, you know, not only in the Charlotte region, but now throughout the Carolinas, North and South Carolina. So it's something we spent a lot of time. It's something we're very passionate about, you know, the world of you know, congenital heart disease. It's the number one you know killer

of young kids in America is general heart. So it's something that affects a lot of people at various degrees and we saw it at the most extreme with our son. And our goal is hopefully people that have a similar road behind this have it a little better, you know, a little bit of a better road, a little bit better access to care, a little bit better quality of care, both free and postoperatively as a result of the hardest yard.

And that's our goal. And we're just we're really proud of our efforts and really proud of the impact we've been able to make, and just it's our way of giving back to a community that has really served us and giving us a second chance with our son, and we're just thankful now that we can give back a little bit to them. Well, it's incredibly, incredibly inspiring, and also what a blessing to hear that TJ is doing well.

I know that that was a very public story about a year and a half ago, and I appreciate you sharing and giving us the great update on how he's doing. Really appreciate you spending some time talking about a lot of different things. Greg, You do a great job. I really enjoy you and Kevin together the times that actually get to see you, guys, because usually I'm working on Sundays. But the broadcast I've seen an excellent and I'm happy for you to get a chance to do the Super Bowl. Man.

Enjoy the rest of the season. Hopefully we'll see at a Cardinal game. Glad we were put together through Drew. This is fun, all right, Thanks Greig, appreciate it all right, you guy it thanks indeed. It's great to hear how well Greg's son, TJ, is doing, and also how incredibly inspiring Greg and his family are in terms of what they're doing in the community to help young people. It

really makes Greg even more likable. He's very relatable as a broadcaster, and have heard nothing but great stories about Greg as a person, and I think that really came through on the podcast terrific player, mainly with the Panthers. His best years in the NFL. We're with the Carolina Panthers, including the time to beat the Cardinals in the twenty

fifteen NFC Championship Game. Is great to reminisce about that, his playing days with Cam Newton and what he's doing here in his second life as a broadcaster, working with Kevin Burkhart, Aaron Andrews, and Tom Rinaldi on the lead crew at fuck. We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Resorts and Casinos. Follow us on Twitter at Pash pod, and we'd also love to hear from you.

Get your thoughts on the Dave Pash Podcast. You can tell us what you think by going to your podcast platform. Thanks again to Greg Olson of Fox, and thanks to you for listening to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast