Mile High Spirits

So that's right. If you did tune in for Big Ben Mallory, he will be here shortly, but not right now, in place of him. As a former offensive lignment of the National Football he actually played ball at Notre Dame that got his way to the Denver Broncos, played on the great Super Bowl fifty championship team that one of the best defenses in all the land. Ryan Harrison were in the house. What's up, man? How you doing? David good to join you, my friend. Yeah, it's good to

have you in here. There's a lot of chatter obviously with the NFL off season's It's never a dull moment, and we're gonna get to some of your background in a few moments, but I have to jump into this because you're knee deep in all of it. With the National Football League. What's the sentiment out there right now with with training camps right around the corner. A lot of eyeballs on Drew Lock. But of course there's still those rumblings about one Deshaun Watson in Houston, well DeShawn Watson,

but also Aaron Rodgers. I mean, half of this town still believes Aaron Rodgers is going to be the quarterback, and I'm kind of with them. I mean, I don't know how the Packers saga ends, um, with the way that everyone's behaved. Now, Aaron's gonna have to fork up thirty million if he doesn't play this year, which at the end of the day, David, I don't know. I don't know what you can do to get me thirty million dollars. Manage you, right, So I think eventually something

will come of it. But yeah, Drew Lock just did not show progression last season, especially um and in a big game for his career, the second game against the Chiefs last year, through two interceptions that cost him the game, and those are the kinds of mistakes that um that coaches and fans are tired of seeing. And there's already been some of the same. Yeah, it's it's frustrating to look at when you have a quarterback in that kind of situation. It's not like you're in a spot where

you have minimal talent around you. This isn't Sam Donald in New York with the Jets. This is a guy with potential Pro bowlers on the outside and a pretty darn good defense, in particular at home. So when you look at the situation in Denver right now, Ryan, and you're calling the shots there, I mean, obviously you love

to have a guy like Aaron Rodgers. But if this all plays out, and let's just say for argument's sake, nothing serious happens to Deshaun Watson, would you more look closer towards Aaron Rodgers or would you look immediate and down the road with a guy like Deshaun Watson. What

would you rather have? Well, the Shawn Watson's fascinating from a longevity perspective, right even with Aaron Rodgers, you're thinking, listen, Tom Brady at forty three says hello, but you're thinking maybe two to three more years for Aaron Rodgers, But with Deshaun Watson, you've got ten to fifteen years, right, And that's a different element if you're a team looking at it. I don't believe anybody's gonna touch DeShawn Watson

with what's currently going on. Um and And but at the same time, you still have an opportunity next year for both quarterbacks. I mean, after this season, the guaranteed money for Aaron Rodgers goes away. Um and and next year you'll still have an opportunity to play for Deshaun Watson, who doesn't want to be a part of the Texans this year or next. So, um, those whether you could take your shot now is one question depends on you know,

how do you and your fan base field. I don't think any fan base is willing to accept the player who has the kind of allegations that the shan has at this time. Um and Aaron Rodgers, how does that end? And and so in that case, Deshaun has far more upside um. But Aaron Rodgers is the man right now who hurt your locker room more. You know, just just from the stories that I've heard, Uh, you know, uh, it's Aaron Rodgers has been operating on a different level

than his teammates for a long time. And I understand two as a champion myself. When when you are a champion, you have a different dedication to how you know, to the details, and you have a zero patience for people who don't pay attention to those details. So I understand how those things could be mistrewed. But you know, it's always tough to bring an older guy into a locker room.

I mean, hey, I was a league dad, and when you come into the NFL, you have guys who who say, hey, you know, we uh, you know, we want to go spend Friday night, Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night out. And as a dad, you're in the NFL saying, well, hey man, I want to make sure that you know, I get nine hours of sleep and my latte is ready in the morning. You know, it's a different life.

So it's always tough to bring older players into a locker room and professional sports well, but being a former offensive lineman, if you were in that situation with a signal color of either Aaron Rodgers or Deshaun Watson's talents, who would you be more inclined to block harder for I'm not to say that you're gonna be bailing on a play, but I would imagine that there's an extra sense of urgency when you're blocking for Peyton Manning as

opposed to somebody else. Well, the urgency comes from the the opportunity, right, It doesn't matter, um what what what the quarterbacks doing do? You have an opportunity to win a championship. And that's what made us so successful Super fifties season. Who was the best team that I've ever been a part of. We had guys who were ready to play, who showing guys who were goofballs, who were showing up at six five in the morning, you know.

And so at that point, you know, Peyton created a lot of urgency at the line of scrimmage with his dummy calls and his omas um. But you want to win, and if you're with the team that wants to win, that urgency comes out no matter who the quarterback is. So going to that team than ryany He mentions the greatest team were played on. Leading up to that season, was there any thought that you guys can do what you did? There was a hud percent belief that we

would do what we did. You know, Uh, Shannons Sharpe came and spoke to us to start the to start the season during training camp and he said, Hey, if you're not here to win a championship, get the brief out of here. And that was pretty much the tone that we had from from day two of being together in training camp. We knew it was possible. We knew that this was probably Peyton's last year. Um, and a lot of the team, you know, I I had come

from the Chiefs to come come back to Broncos. The Broncos, A lot of the team had lost in Super Bowl forty eight, which saved a lot of money, right, because a lot of guys are like, hey, don't buy everybody hotel room because if you lose, you're gonna be looking at those people saying I got ten grand hotel rooms sitting here looking at me at the face. Right. So, Um, you had a lot of benefit and experience and a ton of willingness. And that's what made us so successful.

Was that More on the offense, though, was it? The defense is and the guys on the defensive side brought the wood every single week. So when you have a guy like DeMarcus where that puts a little bit more pressure on other guys around him to actually perform up to his level. Well, DeMarcus Ware also showed us the way right how to behave I still drink plant based protein shakes because De Marcus Ware told me to, so,

you know. And he would have dinners and events and things that gave guys opportunities to get out of the house, but also kept you in the nucleus and in the in the world of hey, let's be successful, let's not be stupid. All right, let's have some fun, but you're asked better be in practice tomorrow morning. And having a leader like DeMarcus Ware and the influence he had on von Miller and then von Miller's performance that entire season,

not just that year. You know, Malik Jackson, Danny Trevathan, Chris Harris, ju and you'r a keep to leave and we had some real players, real players, and it was a big difference. No flies on the best secondary ever played for Oh, no question, no question at all. It's uh, it's interesting just the way that the game has changed so much, not only from the last five to ten years, but from the last twenty or twenty five years. Do you think we'll ever get that kind of similarity of

what we had. I mean, you could go back to the earlier Bronco Championship teams. Those are play action, run balanced teams. Do you think the game will ever morph into something like that again, or do you feel like it is going to be three and four and five wide personnel with a lot of this read option stuff. Well, you know, it's interesting. Not everybody can do with Patrick

Mahomes is doing. Kansas City Chiefs and I covered their their Sunday night game against the Broncos, and I talked to some of my former coach and I said, hey, you guys are running two plays at the same time, and they kind of laughed and they were like, well, we haven't been called on it yet. You know, so as much as everybody thinks they can do the run pass option, not a lot of teams are gonna have a called run play and a quarterback where you give the green light to and say, hey, if you see

a matchup you like, let that ball rip. You know, by the way, that quarterback has to get it down field before that lineman gets on his third step. So you're always gonna have play action pass. A lot of football is you know, human nature when you when you show a linebacker football and you give the right shoulder read as a quarterback, and that running back comes over and quickly the offensive lineman shows to the backer. He has to think run and that's how you create plays.

So we're always gonna see an evolution and evan flow. But the play action passed, the downhill run, the third and one, the fourth thing goal, those are gonna be staples of every championship team for now and forever. What's the longevity look like for a guy like Lamar Jackson. Well, Lamar Jackson has the decision to make. He has to decide whether he's gonna be the best player he can be or if he's gonna spend his time trying to

be a player that he's not. And and I've talked to player, I've talked to players and coaches who are on on the Ravens and one of the things that last year and they're stretched. Uh. You know when the coaches told me Lamar wanted Lamar Will wanted to be a passer. He just wanted to be a passer, and we lost games because of that, and if you look at roster's not really build for it. And so Lamar Jackson has to make that decision and say, hey, I am Lamar Jackson. I can be a great passer, but

I'm not gonna be a Peyton Manning. I'm not gonna be a Tom Brady. Same way Tom Brady is not trying to be Lamar Jackson, right, And so if he can just work within his skill set and maximize his potential, the nuances on play action passes when he decides to run, getting out of bounds, I mean, these are things that are really going to allow him to win a championship if he can commit to being different, and that's what

every champion is. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. If you had a quarterback for the next five years, would you rather have Russell Wilson or Justin Herbert? Russell Wilson, Uh, Justin Herbert's got an unbelievable, arm I mean, where sweatpants

when he throws the deep ball. It's unbelievable. But Russell Wilson has won, and so he knows that, you know, a seemingly insignificant game in week seven is the difference between home field advantage and not. Right. He also knows what matters and what doesn't matter when you're going to the Super Bowl. I mean, David, I had over two ticket requests the week that we the week before we

went left for the Super Bowl. None of those people were my friends, right, And so you have to do a lot of success, as you know, is understanding, recognizing distractions, and having total belief in yourself. And that's something that Russell Wilson has perfected over his career. Can you take me through that then? To Ryan? I mean, because you played ball at the collegiate level in Notre Dame and then you go to Denver and you bounce around the league.

What has that been like for you when when you went from high school to college and started receiving a ton of accolades and then you have the spotlight on you and then you get to the show, you get to the National Football League, how did you actually process that, and did you have anyone help you along the way, like hold your hand and say, hey, Ryan, this is how you act like a professional? Eat, drink, sleep, the whole smash. Well, a lot of it started with I

never played football for you, right. I played football because it gave me an opportunity to maximize my skill set. I mean, David, I've been taking people's lunch money since high school. Has come faster than that, you know what I'm saying, Like, let's go um. And so the big thing for me is I never did it for anybody else, and it never did it for external validation. But to your point, there were dozens of veterans who who showed me the ropes. You know. Um, I think about Wade Smith.

When I went to the Texas, they used to call me the wandering because I didn't know where I was going, and he literally showed me with the bathroom of the meetings rooms where you know, you need people like that. I also had a mental performance coach all ten years I was in the NFL, and to really understand, um,

the process behind success. You know, you make the game winning catch, the game winning block, the game winning kick the same way you make any block, kick or pass or cats right, if you're catching the ball, you look the ball into your hands and you squeeze it when it hits your fingers. I mean, when you focus on the process, you reduce anxiety over So I add people that would talk to me in that athletic realm, people that you know taught me that not every coach is

a good coach. And the year we won Super A fifty, we had a mental performance coach on on our staff that really helped, you know, helped us identify external versus internal validation. Am I playing football to make David happy? Am I playing football because I want to have fun? To rip someone's face off? Because now it really doesn't matter whether David wants tickets or if David wants to come to the after party. Those are things that will

figure themselves out. That's not why I'm here. And that's a very different player to play against. And so I absolutely needed great coaches that the great coaches that I did have, the veterans I have, And I also needed to make sure that I remembered why I love the football and had nothing to do with other people's opinions.

On that note, because you had that kind of help and you had that kind of support, did other players seek you out for that kind of inspiration, that kind of comfort, and that kind of I guess advice along the way, of course, you know. I mean one of the things you know that I wrote about in my in my book Mindset for Mastery, is that when you choose your mindset, when you decide that you're there for yourself and not other people, you're going to scare the

crap out of people. Right, There's a lot of players in the NFL are getting paid to lose. They didn't win a championship, they didn't go to the playoffs, and they still got paid. What do you do? And so you start to notice the people who don't get affected. Hey, if a coach is ripping my ass, Hey if I did something wrong, great, But I'm not always I'm not gonna take everything that coach is saying as as improvement. Right, There's gonna be some personal attacks. There might be some

some attacks on you know, your physical capabilities. That has nothing to do with the fact that I'm gonna go out here the next play correct my mistake and help us win a game. And when you start being around people who are not thrown off by someone's anger or by someone's angs. Do you gravitate towards those people. You

gravitate towards people who move when things go wrong. And so, whether it was in the game that we were losing, after a loss, making sure you still are having fun and appreciating the ride, I was very lucky to be a leader in the in the last three offensive line rooms that I was in. It's the old thing, right, showing me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser, exactly right, you know. But but you also have to

you also have to understand. When I was at the Steelers that we won the Super Bowl, I believe we lost four straight games at one point, and everybody's head was down, like, hey, listen, you're gonna lose some games. That cannot stop you from believing that you're gonna win a championship. And you gotta have fun, you gotta smile, you gotta stay loose and UH and those things make a difference. You. You brought the book, and I want to talk about that at at some decent length real quick.

What inspired you to you to actually write it? Mindset for Mastery UH to available on Amazon and you know, when I look at my tenure NFL career, the difference between people who are successful and who are not are people who choose their mindset. And when you win the Super Bowl, everything you believe about yourself comes true for

other people, but you have to believe that first. So from getting knocked out of my cleats in college to you know, learning the lessons that I learned in the NFL, I wanted to share that with people because, David, we talk about failure less than we talk about sex, and I want to tell you the failure is the most common thread to every success story. Here's how I failed, Here's how I built my way out of it. Each of us choose our mindset every day, choose yours with

the words I am, I can, I will. When you've had those situations of doubt, what do you do? I mean best practices? Because the rounity is we've you know, in the sports talk world, and you are like you were in the show with us. You know, for last year year and a half, we've been through the coronavirus

as pandemic. There's no sports going on. People are losing jobs, they're losing loved ones, they're isolated, um, take me through that for you, not only as a professional in the media world, but even just as as an individual that has an impact on the local community. What have you done during that time? Well, you know, one, I am alive, right, Like, hey,

you know, to have an opinion means you're alive. Good for you, right, and for a lot of us, for six hundred thousand of us, that that's not the case, right, So I would say I would literally say things like, I am alive. I'm grateful, I have a job, I am employed. You know, I am responsible for myself and my family. I'm gonna make choices that are what's best for them, not what anybody else thinks about. I can,

you know, I can attack every day with opportunity. I can read, I can learn, I can you know, mitigate my risk to to get COVID. I can tell stories, um that are similar to what you'll see in in the last dance, or I can relate, you know, a sports topic to something people are talking about in their real life. I will have fun doing it. I will

make sure I make people laugh doing it. So that's how I choose my mindset, That's how I walk into any everything from parenting to living, to being a professional. And once you set a framework, I mean, there's study after study that shows our brain believes in the words we say out loud, right, and when you envision and

visualize your success, it usually happens. So I'm I'm a big believer in Hey, you know you could when you go against von Miller, David, because you're no doubt gonna put on the pads this year now that coronavirus as you football ready, when you when you're facing von Miller on third and nine, you better believe you're gonna block his ass, right, what's your choice? And and so I just take that to my life often of Hey, I could choose to be upset, I could choose to wallow

and anger or frustration, but that's not productive. What can I do? How can I move forward? What way will I decide? Here we go? You brought up the last Dad, So that was something I think most of the sports

world watched during the summer of last year. If there's a guy on that championship team with the Broncos in Super Bowl fifty, that you could say, I don't want to say exactly, but you can kind of put in that same picture as a Dennis Robins saying, hey, he'll probably leave for a series, go to Vegas, party his ass off with some strippers, and then come back and do his thing. Who would that have been on that Bronco team. Thankfully we didn't have a guy like that.

I will tell you after we won the Super Bowl. I mean I was in Vegas when Darth Vader came from the club at the at the win and had a fifteen thousand dollar bottle of champagne and afro Jack started playing on the DJ boot and that was crazy, right, Um, But we didn't have guys like that. And I mean we had guys that got it in, don't get me wrong, but it was time to play. It was time to play. And and also you know, um yeah, I think it's part of the interesting thing about the Last Dance and

that senior you're talking about. You know, Coach Jackson was talking to Michael and robmin Of like, hey, Robin needs a break. Coach Kobayak was not gonna do that. You know, Coach Kobyak is not gonna go to Peyton and say, hey, Peyton, you know Ryan Harris needs a break. He's gonna go to Vegas for a couple of days of practice, like, you know, we'll see him soon. Like that's not happening on that team that we were on. But I mean there's a Dennis Rodman on every team and every family,

isn't there. Yeah, no doubt about it. Ryan, It's been a lot of fun having you on UM. Since you are in the media scope right now, what do you actually do? I mean you're on radio, but do you do public speaking or you're outside of that. Are you on anything else with the with the Broncos or what do you do? What? Yeah, I got a sports talk show weekdays here in Denver, and uh I do all

the Nor Dame football radio broadcast. I do some West with One radio broadcasts, and uh I might do some might do some TV work for Telemundo this year on their NFL package because uh I speak into Spanish. So it's all fun, man, and more than anything, you know, I'm a husband, I'm a father, and uh and being financially literate and doing the right things with my money really set me up to do the things I enjoy

now in retirement. Speaking of retirement, and many people might not know this, but I had a little bit of a hint on it. I don't know what your playing weight was exactly. I don't know if your weight is now. But being six five and amongst all those other things, you're also a surfer. So what the hell is it like you getting out a board right now? Especially when you come down to southern California. Oh? Man, I love it. I was just in Huntington Beach. Man. Uh, I need

a nine foot board first of all. Okay, so be honest here, I need one of those storm breakers or whatever they're called. Um, but I love it, man. I love getting out in the water. I love hitting the wave, and if anybody serves, they know it's. Uh it's a feeling unlike any other, and it's something that I think about every day. I was gonna say, were you watching some old school point break, like looking at some Johnny Utah instructional videos to get up on the board or what?

I still remember watched point Break? I don't think I wanted kidding movie. Yeah, but you know, one of the off seasons in the NFL, I went to Maui and uh, I got on, I got surfed my first wave, and it just felt like God's hand was throwing me towards the shore and saying have fun. It was just an incredible feeling. And then later on dropping into my first wave, it was just such a such an awesome experience, and uh something, I just I literally, David, I was, I was.

I was in l a surfing and I surfed through lunch down in uh down in um uh southern California, Orange County over there. So I just I'm crazy about it. I love it, and I love the and I love the looks too. And people see one a black surfer, a huge black surfer. You know, you get some of those what the hell is this guy doing here? But uh, I love the looks, but I love the waves even better.

So does that mean that you have the bug that you'll start traveling, maybe to Australia or New Zealand or somewhere in Europe to try to catch some waves one day? The minute, the minute these kids are at college. You know, I'm out of here, David. Let's go man, let's let's serve the world. Brother, Why the hell not? Well, listen, if if you do do that, and when you do do that, I need you at least promised me this, because it's it's it's it's culture. When you when you

grew up in the nineties. Is that you just need to pop in or find an old school VHS tape and just look Patrick Swayzy Kiano reeves Gary Busey point Break, not the remixed version of it, the original version of point Break. I can promise you ride you won't be disappointed, and you might be feeling on nostalgic too, because uh, this is back of the day when Gary Busey was. It was actually pretty decent, and of course Patrick Swayzy was was alive and well yeah before you started ripping

out and yourkin systems and stuff like that. Why you gotta threatened me with a good time, David. I'll check it out for sure. And uh hey, and anybody who's listening who has a surf yet get yourself a lesson. Check it out, no doubt about it. Ryan, One last time before we let you go, a mindset of Mastery ore again. Can everyone find that for you? Yeah, you can check it out on Amazon dot com Mindset for Mastery, or visit my website Ryan here at sixty dot com.

And and if I can be of service or resource, please reach out for sure. For sure, Ryan appreciate the time today. Have a good weekend, man, and I'm sure we'll catch up against some time before the NFL regular season gets underway. Thanks David serves up. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.