The OTP | Titans Great Brett Kern

Welcome to the OTP, presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Go to FBHP dot com to learn more about Farm Bureau Health plans seventy seven year history in Tennessee and to get a quote today. That's FBHP dot com for Farm Bureau Health Plans. Happy New Year everyone. Glad to have you with us on the OTP and going to share a really special conversation that I had with one of the Titans greats in recent years. That's punter Brett Kern.

It's going great? You know.

I kind of had in my mind, you know, up in Philly, just experiencing being away from family, and yeah, I'm a man of rhythm and routine, and you know, you could probably call my wife on a Wednesday at eleven o'clock and say, hey, what's Brett doing right now? What she'd be able to tell you.

Right.

So, going up to Philly, great spot, great, great organization, but everything was just it was different. You had a new rhythm, new routine, things that I've been used to for so long, for you know, thirteen years at Tennessee. Right, it was just totally kind of flipped upside down. And so I knew that if I wanted to keep playing football, you know, I'd be in a different city. It wasn't

And if people know me for the.

Type of punts that I had and you know, the consistency, if I'm not there, then you know it's time. It's time to move on. So I think another big decision for that was, you know, family. My kids are older, you know, thirteen eleven seven, right, so they're the sports all that kind of stuff, right, and I want to be there for all of it. I want to start, you know, coaching and helping out and you know, as you know football, your weekends are kind of tied up for half the year or so.

It's funny because people always said to me, they say, do you do you hunt or fish? And I tell them, no, I don't do either, and oh, you don't like that or you against that, It's like, no, no, no, it doesn't have anything to do with that. It's right at work weekends, right, I mean, you don't generally go out Tuesday afternoon, you know, right, And so that's yeah, it it is a life change because the commitment to anything

And so yeah, you get to the point where it's just I mean, if you were to ask me in college, hey, you're going to play in the NFL for fifteen years, I would have I mean I would have laughed and I said, I mean, that will be unbelievable what that happens. But you know, I mean the chances, the percentages of

You know.

So your son Bryce is thirteen, what sports is he involved with?

H he's he's doing flag football.

I got him into golf and so we're we're trying to play golf a little bit more.

And honestly, you.

Know, we go we go over to the little course there in Franklin, right right there by Legends, and I love it because it's not a difficult course like it's It always keeps him engaged, right and it's working on, you know, parts of his game that he you know, needs to work on, but just to be able to walk and talk, you know, from hole to hole. It's

Any interest in punting or kicking.

Yeah, we fool around in the front yard. So he's he's he's natural. He's got longer legs, so I think that'll cater more towards punning. And I think he's a little bit more interested in punning. But his thing is he's growing so fast that his foot his foot size is growing as well, and for the size football that they would kick, it's just kind of it's it's difficult for him, but but it works out well for punting.

So yeah, I mean I give him.

I give him pointers here and there, and sometimes they're taking well and other times it's the dad, come on, like I got a dad.

I'm like, okay, welcome to being a dead right. Yeah.

I just hope I don't have to send him to a camp to learn punting when you know, you know, he's got a pretty good resource in his home. So but we'll see how that goes.

So my neighborhood, I had my son out one day and we were working on punting and at the time, Craig hentricklifted in the back of my neighborhood.

That's good, that's good.

It was well, it was it was really great. So so Craig comes by one day. Matthew's probably ten or eleven, and Craig just pulls over. He says, show me one and so he hits one. He's like, Okay, try this, and it was something that I had just shown Matthew not five minutes before, which he of course had not listened to at all. And Matthew did exactly what Craig told him and then hit a spyroll that went you know, twenty five or thirty yards, which was a really good kick.

Like that, right, Yeah, well, I mean that's you know, when you know, for Bryce to be able to go on the field after games or in the locker room.

Pro Bowl.

Yeah, I mean he's you know in the Pro Bowl, you know, playing catch with Lamar Jackson and it's you know, mark Ingram's trying to trying to teach him a dance, and you know, it's you know, being being able to hang out with Mahomes and some of those guys and just play catch with.

Them, and uh yeah, I mean it's it's been. It's been a huge blessing.

I mean, you got, you know, kids that obviously look up to Derrick Henry and you know, Kevin Buyer, some of the you know, Jeffrey, the guys on the team that are just phenomenal role models.

Right.

And I always tell people, you know, don't buy a jersey unless of somebody, unless you know they're somebody that you want to you know, have their last name that you're representing. And uh, you know, thankfully the Titians have a lot of those guys, right. But you know, but Bryce and Derek are you know, buddies rights and so it's sometimes sometimes you got.

To pinch yourself, you know.

Sometimes even through my whole career, I've just been you know, to go in when I was in Denver and John Lynch was the locker across her mind, right, And I just remember thinking, this is this is John Lynch, right, and Brian Dawkins was, you know, two lockers down to.

The left Kriton.

Yeah, it's all throughout the years that the guys have been able to play with and you know, to be in a locker room with Randy Moss and you know, that's it's been a huge blessing.

Who was the most excited guy? Who was the guy you were most excited to me? Excited to me or that floored you the most?

Well, probably Randy, Yeah, because I had a Randy Moss Vikings Jersey growing up, right and so and and I remember I was on the verge of my agent and the Titans were talking about an extension because I was right on that that cusp of hey, we can get him locked up.

For four years, three four years, maybe five whatever.

It was that that that my agent the Titans were talking to and uh, you know, it didn't happen for two three weeks, and which is not the easiest thing to do during the season. I definitely wouldn't recommend that to any youngster out there, but uh, but the Titans called my agent and said, hey, we're gonna have to put this this deal on hold till after the season

And now I'm gonna be a teammate with Randy Moss.

Uh.

And so I was okay with that, and it ended up being as advertised and.

Heck of a teammate. And there's always always like story.

Time by Randy's locker, you know, before practice, after practice, you just tell stories. So it's uh, Randy Moss is definitely that's definitely a tough one.

I got a call during a funeral that we were signing in. I'm sitting in a funeral. Wow. And I don't usually bring my phone into things like that, Right, You're always afraid your.

Phone as much as you try to how many times you check too, right?

Yeah, Yeah, I don't bring it into church, and I try not to bring it into like weddings or funerals or anything, right, cool performance or anything important. Right, So I had it in my coat and I didn't realize it, and then it was just like buzzing. And this was twenty ten, right, and so the buzz wasn't terribly subtle at that time. It's like, you know, and so it wasn't ringing, but it just kept going off. And so I'm sitting there and and of course I'm not answering it,

Now was that still?

Now?

That wasn't When did it switch? Where your text messaging? Because I remember you had to pay like five.

To you did you did?

No?

This is twenty ten, So but we're in that spot where later we're so I walk outside, I tell my wife, I said, I got to go outside and to see what this is. And so I listened to the voicemail We're signing Randy Moss, and we had to do a live hit. I'm standing in the parking lot under an underhang, it's pouring rain, and I'm doing an interview because this is a huge deal. It's Randy Moss. And you know, at that point in the twenty ten season, we're still

He's great on TV.

Yeah, and we still I mean, you know, I took Bryce down to the Super Bowl when Ryan Sucker was playing in it, and we drove out you know because Matt hasseback is on that the countdown as well. Yeah, so we I was texting Matt he said, hey, come out to the to the beach, that's where we're at. And so we drove out there and got to see the set and uh, you know, anytime I see Randy he's always been uh so nice and friendly and smart man. Smart guy, Yeah, very smart and yeah, he's it was

You ever counted up how many different teammates you had? You know?

My wife thought, uh, you know, playing with with FITZI you know what he did, Remember how he listed every teammate that he played with, and and I thought about doing that.

I just didn't. I just didn't know where to start. I didn't know where to start.

But it's a lot, it's a lot of really good guys that I've been able to play with, a lot of guys I've been able to get close with.

Where does Ryan Fitzpatrick rank on your list of characters that.

You Yeah, he's in that. Uh, Matt Castle Ryan Fitzpatrick. It's like this this category of guys that are just they're smart, uh, very witty and.

Extremely funny and quick like Ryan was. His humor is it's quick. Uh.

And so you felt like if you got into some type of I don't want to say argument, but you know the jabs right that happened in the locker room, you were gonna win because he was so quick and witty with it. That had just left you kind of and I don't I really don't know.

How to respond to that.

I don't know what to say while you're while you're laughing hysterically as he made fun of you.

Right, But you rank Matt Castle in there too, Yeah, Matt's up there.

I wouldn't have thought of that.

Yeah, yep.

Well he's certainly a bright guy who had a really good career too.

He played for a really long time too. Yeah.

I've I've been I've been really fortunate, blessed with that row, you know, that kind of that quarterback row that I've been a part of, uh, you know, with with Marcus and uh, you know, Marcus is.

You know, one of my favorite teammates I've ever played with.

But that some of those quarterbacks that have come through have been I shoot, I remember being next to Carrie Collins and how awesome he was to be around. And you know, I had Craig on one side and Carrie on the other side. And and you know, after I got cut in Denver, to be able to come here and to have those two guys Craig to your left and and Carrie on your right, was I mean that alone right there helped me kind of recover and bounce back from you know, from getting cut and those two guys.

It was just so on the point.

But he never wanted anything, No, he didn't.

He just wanted to give his opinion and what he thought and he.

Was right and off he went.

He you know, he didn't need the attention, he didn't need they thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

I mean he would he would stop you before he even got started to compliment him.

How lucky was Rob Baroni's that he had Craig Hendrick when he made the Titans, when he became an NFL kicker.

Yeah, I you know, I've had a lot of conversations with guys over over the years that I played, and you know, with kickers, and just how important holding is and how important you know your your holder is as a person because the things, the things that you say, you're kind of like, you know, suck up. And I always used to talk about like, I mean, he's the golfer, right and right, and the holder is the caddy.

Right, the golfer is the one that's going to get all the attention. Look at that.

Shot, Look what you did, But the work kind of leading up to it you know the caddy is just as important, right, sure, So.

It's great in golf. Now they are giving us those conversations more on TV. Yeah, it's fascinating.

It is fascinating and just to see really how much detail goes into every shot.

More of our conversation with Brett Kern coming up. But we remind you that Titans fans, it's always game on with Duncan, so grab a coffee kick off the action. Whether that's drinking a cup of coffee on your way to the game or grabbing one to go before watching the game at home. Duncan is always there to help

Because there's I mean, there's so much. It's such a finite, you know, a shot here or there. I mean it's just like a football game, right to play here and play there. Can cast you a ballgame, well, you know, a shot here, shot there, throughout a.

Tournament, and you know, you go from.

Winning a tournament to you know, now you're now you're not even top ten and and all that kind of stuff that goes along with it. But yeah, I mean for for Rob to have Craig not only as a person, right for Rob coming in the league. Anytime you can get just a veteran leader, and I know there's a couple of times here, you know in Tennessee where we had some young guys in that would you know, they're gonna battle it out. They're gonna let them, you know,

Well, then that's something else that the kicker now has to think about, right on top of everything else that's going on.

And if you can just go out there and just know just hey, all I have to worry about is just kicking it through these yellow things, right and getting three points or an extra point, it makes their job a lot easier.

So when you were suck ups Caddy at Kansas City at twenty sixteen, when he hit the kick at the end of the ball game, So what are you telling him leading up to that? I've always wanted to know that.

Yeah, I mean it's the hard part. Was is that in warm ups, I don't know if Ryan got past forty two?

He did, right, Yeah, So I thought I had him because I watch to get engage. I thought I had him at like forty seven, maybe barely kind of sort of. I mean he went anywhere near.

Fifty, right, because Dustin and I I remember Dustin Colquitt and I talked to warm ups and punting that I don't think I got a ball over forty five rude, right, And he hit one that was fifty, but it was I mean, nothing looked like an Aaron Rodgers Kilbarry. It didn't even you know, barely got off the ground. And so so I remember Ryan and the warm ups and he was just he's like he's like, Bret, I think an extra points even gonna be, you know, a call.

Task in this game. And because the ball, I mean it was so cold and that ball was so hard that the sweet spot just shrunk and you had to hit it perfectly on top of your body.

Just you know, you can only be by the heater so much because if you're by the heater then all of a sudden, your muscles are staying really really lose, and then when you go to the cold, it's.

Just it's not it's not great.

But I just remember us talking, and you know the thing is is, you know, you get that far back, you know, to get a little extra distance, sometimes you can lean the ball forward, right, but in doing that, it lowers your trajectory, and so there's kind of a finite the detail of what's too much, what's not enough.

I'll tell you this. It was apparent when he hit it wasn't gonna.

Have enough, Okay.

I mean you could sometimes you can see from where we are right and where our booth was a great angle. We were closer to that yard line than the other side of the field, right. And so when it came off his foot and Andy Reid had called the time out, You're like, well, did he not hit it as hard as he could because of the time out? Or I think he took a full swing though, didn't he?

I think he did too. But I also know I know with Ryan that he really really goes after it. He tends to hook it and he'll miss it left. And so I think there was in his mind, Okay, I know, I have to go after this really hard.

But if I do, you know what, I at least want to.

Give it a chance, right, And so I mean he he gave it all he had and it was straight as an arrow, and then they called the time out and I just remember him bending over and retying his kicking chew and he's like, well, he's well, I better get this all I got. I said, Ryan, you better, you better get this all you got, buddy. And then the next one he just he smoked it and it went in and he went right to the chief's bench to celebrate.

And I'm not sure if that was kind of a hey, you know, I played here for a long time. This is you know, he's had some.

Game winners before in chief uniforms, right, But or if it was more or less like you know, we called him the Chief Killer.

He did it because that's what he that's what he does.

I remember his first game as a Titan, opened up an arrowhead and he went like four four, five for five, right, and you know we won the game.

The rest of that season is something not to talk about.

But you know when he started one, started one and oh he's Chief Killer and he did it in the Super Bowl. He did it in twenty sixteen, and that's that's something I'll never.

Never, ever forget.

One of my favorite guys I ever covered, Bryan Suckham. Yeah, quality human being, one of the nicest guys you'll meet, I mean, but a true professional. Talk to you after he hit him, talk to you after he missed him. Understood everybody had a job to do. One of my big thrills was getting to see him when we practiced against Tampa in twenty twenty one down there and to just congratulate him on being a Super Bowl champion. You

And that's h.

I think that's why you know, Bryce and I drove down there is I just didn't want to miss that.

You know, he's.

We were brought together through football, but obviously we're brothers, you know, for life outside of that. That's something that you want to be there for.

So I was.

Excited for him to win a super Bowl.

And I remember the conversation that we had his training camp and he was like he was down in Tampa.

He's like, man, I got this workout down here.

I just don't know. I just don't know if I should do it. I don't know if you should sign here. And it's like, dude, you're with Tom Brady, Like you got a chance. I mean, what do you what do you have to lose?

Right?

So, and so that's worked out worked.

Out well for him.

Yeah he did Okay, Yeah, he.

Did heck of her career because one of the most accurate guys that I've seen. He'd be one of those guys where you tell him forty yards you know, I want you to aim and hit this crossbar or this field goal post.

Every time.

He's gonna he's gonna hit it. So sometimes it almost became boring. It was just so straight and just down the middle. And he's like, why why are we even ran Like you're gonna put it right down the middle every time?

Can we just can we just move on and do something else?

But were you surprised he came to your retirement announcement?

Yeah, I mean, we're I was just thankful that he was able to come. I knew he was I knew if he could come that he was gonna be there, you know, for Bo to fly in obviously Morgan to come. You know, they've met a lot because those those three guys right there are you know, my my favorite teammates really have altership and guys that I've gotten they're they're guys that are they're just more than teammates, you know, hang out his families and we're just we're just close.

What you probably by the way that they couldn't have gone any better.

Yeah, you I see, you're not the sling anymore either, which is healthy. You're healthy, healthy, training staff got you, got it going, got.

You through, good rehair, gotta be ready for Hey. Availability, availability, that's what they say. That's that's what the you know, you walk into the training room and that's the best the best availability is Hey, we we lived that too. I mean, when you get the opportunity to work for an NFL team, you know, there aren't a lot of people that are lucky enough to get to do that, So yeah, you don't miss stuff.

Availability is the best, the ability, I.

Think that's what it says.

Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of scenes up in the building.

I haven't written down in a notebook I do because you never you never know, or you never knew when Frabel was gonna either show a teammate on the board and ask, hey, who's who's this teammate?

Right?

And of course it was great because it was like a high school throwback or a college throwback, and it was it was pretty use. Yeah, you know, Stretch would find these pictures that were just gold. Right, But you never knew when he was gonna ask a question of what does it say in the training room or what does it say outside the locker room? Line for right? And there might be five lines, and you have what's

Yes, So I just remember.

When he came.

When he came in twenty eighteen, he started doing that and I just thought to myself, I better go around the building and write this stuff. Now.

I don't know if he'll ever call me right. I went through Rotadel down and I think I still have the notebook in my office at the house.

And that's so Greaty.

Nerves, you got nervous during team meetings. Yeah, Like I started special teams meetings totally fine.

I was obviously.

I knew all the calls, I knew all the returns, all that kind of stuff, right, But you know team meetings is when you started, you know, hands got a little cold, started to sweat a little bit because I mean you just did not know what he was gonna ask.

So, I mean you played for all of the Titans head coaches. Fisher, I did, mind check, yeah, to wizen Hunt, to Malarkey and out.

Of right, yeah I did. And it was each one was you know, I kind of learned from from each one kind of you know, the how they're how they taught, how they their expectations, you know, kind of for each coach you played for, you knew like when the next one came up, kind of what to expect and different situations styles that they liked. Uh.

And it was hard.

I mean every time you got a new coach, you know, you feel you have to you have to prove yourself to somebody that you don't know.

Right.

My check was was a little bit easier because he was under coach phisial staff, right, and so he'd seen you, you know, he'd seen a lot of the guys that were there. He saw me play before all that. But you still have to still have to prove yourself, right, You have to prove yourself every year, regardless if you make a Pro Bowl or you know, obviously you maybe maybe you don't have a great year.

And so.

Because I remember twenty sixteen year was I mean, I didn't have a great year. It wasn't wasn't hit the ball great, wasn't as consistent as consistent as I wanted to. And I knew twenty seventeen had to be a really, really good year, and thankfully it was, you know, the first Pro Bowl.

I went to.

But wut it's good.

It was a good bounce back.

Yere right, But yeah, every time you get a new coach, new GM, there's just that extra pressure to perform for somebody that you don't I don't I don't know who Ken Wizen it was.

I knew that he'd coached, but you know, he doesn't know me. I don't know him.

You have to go out there and improve yourself and that could take that could take a lot out of you mentally and physically. And uh, you know, I remember us chatting on the on the podcast you know, kind of about the biggest accomplishment, and I think to be able to play for all the gms, all the coaches that the types have had, Yeah, that's probably been my biggest Yeah, that's probably the thing I'm probably most proud of.

Get that. What do you remember about when they let wizend Hunt go at Malarkey but he came the head coach. What do you remember about that week?

I'm trying to remember what game he got? Was it after the Texans?

Yeah?

Because I give it set up on that So Jimmy Stanton is our director of mediate res or is over all of our communications at the time, right, and we had wondered if if we lose this game, do they make a change because it was in Houston's.

It's there's something about, well, well something about going to Houston though, Like I remember Coach Fisher and Coach Munch really preaching about and we're going to Houston.

Do you know what this means?

Yeah, dark, I don't know. Every player needs to understand that. To our ownership, the Houston game is significant. We played particularly poorly in that game. Marcus took a beating.

YEP.

So Jimmy gets on the plane and since his seat is next to mine, and I said, so, what do you think He goes, he gayes, I don't think any decisions been made. So normally, if you're going to fire a coach in season, you fire the coach on Monday, right and they you know, we get to Monday and I walked by Jimmy's office Monday morning. He goes, I'm not hearing anything. And the reason we're talking about it is we have TV shows to do.

It's the radio show.

Oh yeah, yeah, you got a lot, but the Monday night radio shows one thing. But we have to put out TV shows for later in the week, and we have to shoot them early in the week because if we're in a situation where somebody's going to get fired, you don't want to send out a show with somebody in the show who's not there by the time the show airs. So we're going to film Titans All Access Monday afternoon. And I looked at Jimmy again. He goes, he said, I think there's some talk, but he goes,

Right.

And so Tuesday morning comes down and they call wizen Hunt in at eight o'clock and he's fired then, and we think it's gonna be malarkey as the interim coach, but quite frankly, if you don't know if he's gonna take it.

Yeah, I remember that.

So then you pick up the story from there from the players perspective.

Yeah, I just.

You know, like I said earlier about the Houston, like, you know, obviously, you know you have to perform every Sunday that that's just part of your job.

But there's something extra when you go down to Houston.

This and I really didn't understand it the first year or two, and then it finally you know, it's like, yeah, this is this is a very very important game. It's a thing regardless of what your record is, like, this is important. And so and we lost bad, really bad, and so guys were kind of talking like.

Do is there gonna be a change? Do we need to make a change?

Oh? You thought that was possible at that point?

Yeah, okay, yeah, Because I mean I remember coach Fisher and Coach Munchek. They would always talk about, hey, if we don't if we don't perform down here in Houston, there's gonna be a change made in some way, shape or form, right right, So you didn't know, probably not coaching maybe, but whoever maybe didn't play well, whoever to perform like, you're probably gonna get cut, right, And so the guys that have been there, that had been through the transition, they understood that.

And so guys thought, well, it could be some play.

You know, things with with coach Whiz aren't really going how we thought they would or how how they probably should. That's pretty crazy to make a change right now. There's just all kinds of thoughts. And then nothing happened Monday, and then we just.

Okay, well let's let's just keep plugging along.

Because you're in the building Monday, you're working out, you're doing all kinds of things for post game recovery and all that, and you don't really hear anything. And so for it to go down Tuesday, it was it's like, wow, okay, so who on the staff can take over? And I remember texting some guys and they were like, man.

I hope it's coach Blarkie. Who's coach ble ARKI I think he would.

He's got experience, you know, I like I kind of like the way he conducts things, and you know, talk to the tight ends and they were all likely.

I really hope it's him, right, So, uh found out it was him, and.

You know, to come back the following week, you know, and win how we did in overtime in New Orleans?

Right? Uh was it Fasano anthy? That was that?

I remember celebrating and uh, I remember going down to the end zone celebrating and it got a little too crowded for me because I remember thinking, if someone steps on my foot, I'm in trouble. So I did a couple of helmet taps and I remember just getting.

Out of there quickly.

So, but yeah, that's that's not an easy thing to go through coaching changes like that.

So, uh, it just.

Puts there's already enough pressure to perform and to do your job. Uh, you know every Sunday and when you throw on a coaching change, and you know that there's a little instab instability kind of going on, and and if you're willing to make a change with a head coach, right, you know, what does that tell you for the players, And so yeah, that was that. That was a tough here. That was that was a tough, tough season.

Thanks so much to Brett Kerr for taking time with me to go to Jiffy Berger in Manchester and to share some good stories in the truck as he followed me through Tennessee. Remind you that seat geek is now the official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans. Whether you're buying or selling tickets to Titans games or any other live event in Nashville, seat geek is the place to do it. Seat Geek the new official ticketing partner of