Aaron Rodgers Part 1: Life After Football, His Final Season & Mike McCarthy | Not Just Football

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1:04We had our training camp episodes and we didn't get Aaron Rodgers. But I figured, let's just ask the man to come on and he came on. Let's go. Wow. Let's go. This is going to be must-what? This is cash. It would always is because you know, you know, you know, you should. You should. You should. You should. You know, you saw what happened. You saw what happened in McAfee, you know, yeah, nothing's off limits. Nothing's off limits. No. It's not. All scores will be settled. It's all scores. Not all scores. But the ones that need to be settled. We'll get settled. I'm excited about this. We talked about this. I want to preface everybody that he's game for everything. Like you said, you wanted to talk and have some fun and, you know, be able to. Put the bets and rumors have happened and. I don't like podcasts where there's like, okay. I'm going to ask you these 10 questions. You're like, it's just f**king there. You want to say. Can I say f**k? You can say whatever you want.

2:05Good. Be yourself. Good. But we're going to talk football first. Perfect. And then we're going to let you just explore that and then you can jump into. Yeah, whatever. Everything. Let's just go. Okay. All right. We have Aaron Rodgers on four time MVP, Superboy MVP. I'm very happy to have you on. Let's talk about this last rodeo. I think, first of all, I think you owe me a big thanks because we won the Super Bowl. And I believe the next year, weren't you picked by the Steelers? I was. Yeah. So the opposite of you, they're missing something. They're missing something. You would not be here if he didn't beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl. They said, you know, we're missing just a wide, bodied, big headed. You know, anchor the defense. Yeah. I didn't play for a couple years. So it's Casey was there. I didn't play the same position as Casey. Same body type. Wow. Now. Now. He's a little taller.

3:06A little taller. He's getting a little taller. Yeah, we're coming. We're coming. We're coming. I got the end of that. You got the end of that. You got the end of that. All right. Let's talk about the last rodeo. Yeah. You've been saying this is your last year. My last year. I said, maybe you said I will say me in DK. He did ask you if you would come, but you said maybe I said maybe he had a smirk on his face too. He wanted he was coming back. Did you know you were coming back? No, I didn't know. When Mike got hired to change, it changed things. Why? Because I didn't want to learn new offense. Yeah. I've been in the same style of offense. Most of my career, we adjusted a little bit from Mike Sherman and Mike McCarthy, which was my second year, but there's like same principles. And then the floor came in and there was some terminology changes. But I wanted to be in those families at the very minimum. But I just didn't think it was going to come together. Then Mike got hired and we started having conversations and I started opening myself up to the possibility of coming back. When Mike T stepped down after we were lost in the playoffs, did you think that was

4:12the end right then and there? Yeah. Because I came to Pittsburgh, obviously I wanted to play with you and Tige. And I saw DK was signed and Firemuth and some of the guys I knew and Connor Hayward, of course, shout out, kind of touched now. Conor traded. You wanted to help the team. You wanted to help the team. You wanted to help the team. Or Vegas. Did he not get some money because I got mad at him? That was a sweet catch. Yes, it was. But I love Mike T. I mean, everybody that's around him loves Mike T. He's just such a charismatic, gregarious personality. And so when he stepped down, I was saying, it probably means it's probably time for me. And we'll say in that locker room, it was a little when we lost, I went up to you. I was like, are you done? Because I'm trying to figure this out too. But you sounded like you were done at that time and that you were at peace with that decision. Making decisions after the playoffs, it's always tough to deal with.

5:14Like, who did you have to go through in those moments to really come around to deciding that you were coming to that? Well, I mean, I had to go through the process, see how my body felt, you know, because it's a grind. Yes. Even for us quarterbacks, we don't do a lot. You know, it's a grind physically and just spending over behind the center. I'm glad we've watched it. Kids watching this. Oh, that's not what she meant. Bending over, bending down maybe. It was just the word you said. Yeah. But no, I mean, I leaned on my wife, obviously. And it's a, you know, like with your wife, like, it's what you're married and you have family, like, it's not just, I think I'm going to play this year. It's like, you wife is going to go through or your kids got to go through. You got to be away from your family. And so I want to make sure that, you know, she was on board with it. I want to make sure my body felt good. And then I want to see where Mike was at. I didn't just automatically assume, oh, Mike got hired.

6:15I'm coming back. Yeah. Do they even want me back? You know, do they want to move forward and go with the young guys and draft a guy and do that? Which again, I had no ego about it. You want to do that? That's fine. You know, like I was in a good place mentally. But the conversation progressed from there in ultimately, you know, the side of coming back. And that's your family. Well, yeah. Didn't he say that? Yeah. That's a hit thing. Well, you had to, you had to play the game. You were holding out too, right? Yeah. Yeah. At least he waited before trading kept it to do it though. I've never had a hold in. That was pretty cool by you. Aaron, I'm curious. This is obviously the last year you've said that, are you doing anything different this year to really appreciate it? I know we talked to Jerome Betis before and he was going to keep every jersey and make sure that was the jersey war. You're driving a little longer to the stadium. What are you doing to really appreciate this last year? I mean, honestly, I thought last year was my last year. So I thought, you know, savor this bus ride on the road a little more.

7:16Saver this, you know, this is my last first training camp practice. I didn't have any of that this year. I really didn't have any. I was just more like, yeah, I'm thankful for the run and for the journey. But, you know, it's just, this is just a part of your life. You know, I think when it becomes your identity, which does for so many guys. And again, there's no judgment with that. Like this is what we do. It's hard for it not to be your full identity. But when it comes to your total identity, I think that's what when guys have problems outside of it because now it's like, what would I do if I'm not playing anymore and no one cares if I'm not, you know, if they're not, if they're not playing, they're not talking about me. If they're not talking about me, my life doesn't matter. And I think that's where you see, you know, the stat that I remember from when I was at the symposium, the rookie symposium or the rookie, what was the rookie symposium? Yeah, symposium. Yeah. They said, you know, three quarters of the guys within three years are divorced, broker unemployed. I think a lot of that goes to like, you're living this life. You're somebody maybe in your own mind and you're, you're competing and you talked about

8:18and you're in the pros, then you're out. It's like, what do I do? Who am I? I think that's where you, if you're tight too much your identity, when it gets taken away, then you kind of, you're scrambling. And so for me as a young player, I was always working on like what the next transition would be and job shadowing, you know, people in my life and learning skills and learning about finance and learning about real estate and learning about business. And so that if a transition came and I needed to get into something that I could do that. Now, you know, with the financial license, I've had a plan 22 years. Obviously, I don't need to do anything. You want to talk about those financial blesses. Oh, yeah, sure. Whatever. Yeah, great. It's been great. I feel like I've made a lot of people money too. Yeah. I mean, a lot of people associated with me have made money. So I think everybody's, everybody's one. I can't believe this that you played 13 years with Mike Greenback. But sometimes a career for a lot of people. Now you get to have him back as your quarterback.

9:20Just fill in everybody what it's like to have him as your head coach and what should everybody expect going for. It's cool because been a full circle moment for both of us. He was hired, I believe, when he was hired in Greenback in 2006. He was the same age that I am now. Back then he had just one daughter who was closer in age to me than I was to him. I was 22. Alex was, I think, 14 at the time. And Mike was 42. So that was kind of an interesting relationship. And now to see each other 20 years later in 2026 has been really cool. Now Alex has grown up and just moved back to town. And the boys from his marriage to Jess, they're grown up and out of college. I watched them grow up through my time in Greenback. And then Izzy and Gabby is two young daughters. Now they're in high school and moving on. It's just really wild to see just the time pass and to meet each other back here in this

10:24place in their lives. But you know, Mike said, you know, he's an old school west coast guy. He's adapted and evolved along the way. Obviously his offense has been very successful over the years. You saw what happened in Dallas with, I feel like DAC was playing some damn good football. And I don't want to say that. That's all because of Mike because I am actually, I don't know how people rip on DAC all the time. But I'm a big DAC fan. I like the way he plays. I mean, he had a year. I think it was a 22, I believe. I'm a 22 and I watched, I think we had some common opponents and I watched a lot as film and I said, damn, he's playing really, really good football. And we had a couple of battles in the playoffs over the years, but I've always been a fan of his, but I just thought, you know, under Mike, he was playing on time and controlling the line of scrimmage and making all the throws all over the field. And, you know, that's what we did in our heyday back in Greenback. You know, we attacked defenses. We got aggressive. We got after you with good concepts and stuff from, you know, the 80s and 90s and stuff

11:26that was up to date. And if you looked around the league, especially in the 2010s, I think, you know, it's always who's the hot offense because you see it copycat across the league. And I think we were getting copied more than anybody during those times because we had just concepts that were kind of ahead of our time. What's Charles relationship like on the field though? Like how do you guys communicate going into games? I know that's a long time ago, but how have you guys addressed it like even in practice? Well, I think that the best part is that we speak the same language. And that might not seem like much, but when you have the training and you learn like offense a certain way and protection a certain way and defense alignment and identification a certain way, you can really speak the language really well. So a lot of times when the first year coach, you're trying to get on same page like, well, this is what this means. This is what we call an over defense is what we call an even defense is what we call a quarter half is what we call this concept and we don't have any of that like loss and translation. So we already kind of speak the same language. And then it's the recall. So we can go, Hey, remember we did this in, you know, 2009 and Arizona into playoffs.

12:28We ran this play for like, Hey, maybe we'll bring back this type of concept or hey, remember in 16 when we were on that run late in the season, you know, we were doing this a lot and, you know, what do you think about this concept or, you know, he put to play and he goes, Hey, this is like that play we ran in, you know, in 14 or whatever. And just like him and I just have so many years of like film that we remember in plays and success that it's really cool to be able to have that in the role of decks. Is there anything different from 2026 Mike McCartney? Yeah. There's a lot, there's a lot different. You know, Mike is in a, he's in a different place. And so am I, you know, I think the thing I always loved about Mike is we, we, we, we, we, could have some really tough conversations back in the day and, you know, Mike's picksburg through and through, you know, he's from Greenfield Avenue and they don't back down from a fight from Greenfield that I learned. And we had some battles, you know, about, you know, ideas or philosophy, whatever might

13:28be over the years. But I think I always loved it. It was never contentious like ending. It's like the whole adage about not going to sleep mad, you know, with your, with your wife, which is true. Yes, definitely true. Like it was always, you know, he would be firm about some, might be firm about something and, but not firm that we wouldn't be able to like have a conversation when we got to it. I think that was the beauty in any great play collar quarterback relationship is being able to like have tough conversations about concepts you like or don't like or progression to read or whatever. And at the end of the day, just like, you know, he is the final say. He's allowed me so much latitude over the years that I think has made him a better coach and has made me a better player because there's a responsibility that comes with that, that latitude and never, never going, ever I go out a little bit too far, he always pulled me back. Or if ever he's, you know, I'm pushing him to be a little more aggressive and he's trusting me that, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to make it right.

14:31So it's been a, you know, we had a lot of success together. He was good and it's fun to see him at this stage of his life with now, you know, all his kids just about to be out of the house and he's back full circle moment for him. He's been living with his parents up until recently or, you know, they're late 80s. You know, over in Greenfield, you know, I think the bars closed down, but we probably reopened it. Yeah. You talk about the clashing a little bit. Do you have anything in particular that you remember like a specific game where you two maybe were disagreeing on something and maybe you were right and he was wrong? Well, I mean, I think back then I always thought I was right. And he always thought he was right too, but we had a fun when we were playing Cincinnati and, you know, it must have been 2013. It was a weird game like it was like a weird back and forth game where a lot of crazy stuff happened. We had a back named Franklin from UCLA who like bust off as long as one of his career I remember. You know, I think you've like one series called like Run Run Pass.

15:32That's why I was like, you know, like, you know, and he was like, Run Run Pass, third and ten and complete. And I could tell he was mad about something. And back then, again, I've grown up a lot. I've learned from my mistakes, but, you know, I was much more like bitter I think at times about certain things. So I'm walking off sideways in the field and I can see him out of peripheral and he's trying to like meet me where I'm at. He's thinking I'm going to come like right to him, you know, and I kind of went like here, but then he, so then he says something to me about like, I don't know, you know, something I did or read or something. And I said something like, quick call somebody fucking runs. What'd you say? But again, like that next Monday, this is what would always happen. If anything ever happened, they haven't like once or twice, you know, like two or three times maybe probably realistically. Then Monday I'd go in there and we, you know, we talk about it.

16:33We'd hug it out and it'd be kind of like, like, I love you, man. I'm like, I love you too, man. I'm just a competitor. I'm just a man in the moment. Sorry. I couldn't at the time realize I'm just projecting a frustration on him, you know, but I think those days are long gone. I hope for both of us. I want to say I'm, I want to see you guys both. I don't think it's going to happen. But this is some ways of love there and respect, you know, wow, you're nice. Moving on to Coach T, you got one year with him. What was it like having him as a coach for one year? Oh, man. It was better than I expected, you know, which I think is a credit and a compliment to him. First and foremost, I just love the way that he talked to me from the first phone call that we had when I was in Malibu on the phone with him. He made me feel like a friend from the start. And I say that because I was going through a lot of off the field stuff with some really important people in my life are going through some health issues. And I opened up to him in confidence, you know, some of the stuff that was going on.

17:37And every call, which was probably like once a week or once every five days, he always, he remembered names. He asked about the people I were doing. And I was just really touched by that, just like the level of attention, you know. And then it carried over where I remember he would, when he talked about the guys, he knew everybody. Not just a new one, like by their name, you might think, well, there's 90 guys in the roster, but he knew them by name. We don't have names on the back of our jerseys, which is also weird at practice. Because sometimes I go, what's his last name again? You know somebody's nickname? We're going to play the game. We're going to play the game. Yeah, we're going to do very good. Oh, that's a buddy. That's a, you know, a Mississippi guy. But he knew everybody's story. Oh, yeah, I went to the combine and did this. Oh, I saw him at senior role, took him out to dinner, just like with every player on the team, he just had it like a personal thing with him. I said that was such an awesome thing that's just not replicated around the league. And I'm sure none of other sports were just such an intimate knowledge of the guys and

18:39what made him tick. And I think that's why I really wanted to play for him is because they knew that Mike T cared about us and they knew, you know, intimate details. And he could have called them and he gave it to remember that stuff. And I think there's a lot to be said for that. And he also is super charismatic. And I've been around a few charismatic people in my life and I would put them on the same level as meeting like a Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, where when they enter the room, there's just something different about a highly charismatic person where the energy in the room shifts. And I just feel like that's what Mike T is. And the way, you know, being around the game for a long time, being in front of the room, with the offense for so many years, like there's a way of leading from the front that he understood where he could call people out in the meeting. You always kind of had to be on your toes. Not from a weird like hierarchy, you know, like I'm the coach and you're the player and I'm going to make sure that your son lock all the time was just like he would involve

19:39people in the meetings that he was in in a way that always made the meetings more stimulating. Everybody's been in a meeting where, you know, it could be any type of meeting. It could be at a conference and, you know, someone's speaking and just reading off the, you know, PowerPoint. Reading a schedule. You know, it's like, but Mike T was always like entertaining meetings. And yeah, I just enjoyed his presence. He's like, I'm like him in this way that he's very observant. Like he doesn't miss a lot. You know, I'd see him and he'd catch me too because we both do it. Like in the pregame before the game, I'd catch his eye and he'd just like smile and laugh about something, you know, then we kind of had this ability to understand what we're thinking. So I appreciate that time with him. He's a good man. I loved in team meetings when he would build a storyline because like when he's telling you what they do, playing and play out and he's just running through it. It's your man, family. It's 20. 20. 20. It's a third date.

20:39But it's, you started you're like, damn, this is my f***ing watching film. And like he's just getting everybody to buy in just of like his energy and like how he's presenting it. I think that's a beauty in being leaders. You have to, how do you get the guys to buy into the message? Yeah. And he would just, it would be all the time. He's talking about the same stuff. And, and as a head coach and as a leader, you are setting the messaging for the rest of the team. So whatever you say in that meeting on Wednesday morning is going to be the message the team says in the media is going to be on when you talk. You talking Thursday to it. To the media? Yeah. Thursday. Thursday. So like I talk Wednesday. So I'm listening to what the messaging is on Wednesdays. Yeah. And in the morning, the first meeting and then that's part of the messaging that I take with me in my media. And that's just, there's, there's an art form to it that I think you really understood. It was the longest team meetings that everyone were part of. Sure. But they were always entertaining. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. Your favorite fall flavors are back at Starbucks.

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22:49So he never played with another coach. So I'd love to hear from you. You've played with a couple other guys. How different is Mike Tom on addressing the team compared to other guys? Because Cam talks about it just like it's crazy. How did you experience that? I was blown away. First team meeting. Well, first team meeting, you apologized. We were all kind of thrown off by that. Because we were like, you don't have to apologize. Yeah, I mean, I'm glad that's what you got. But my main point I was trying to make was give me a clean slate. Yeah, we gave you a clean slate, but I really like this dude standing up in front of us, apologizing for being the striker. And then Cam became the distraction. You were saying shit out there. I wasn't saying anything. I really wasn't saying shit. No, you know what I was saying. The pitch is if you want to be a stealing, you want to be a steal. That's all I said. It was a pitch. It was like, what are you going to say to Aaron? But you know what was going on in my life. But I'm saying I'm not saying anything. All I'm saying is there's no pitch to make you magically become a Pittsburgh stealer. I totally agree with that. I didn't take offense. So I just love giving you shit about my god. Everybody ran with that. Every combat section from that episode till you signed was he's not going to sign because

23:53Cam said that. So the fans gave him for it too. Don't worry. That had nothing to do with my decision making at all. Mike T. call batteries like what the fuck are you doing? I'm like, I'm not even saying anything. Honestly, the biggest sell was Mike T. 100%. Every conversation I had, I kept on my wife. I said, I like this guy even more every conversation because he just like truly gave his shit. His team meetings, like they're the longest I've ever been in for sure. You said it twice. But they were he's the best in front of the room. I've been around this best way I can put it. No, I texted you and it took you like months to respond. You could have lost in the shuffle. Oh, I deprioritized the response. Yeah. Like, and then like, you were apologizing. You were apologizing. No, I was just like, hey, let's talk and like, let's get to know it. I don't know who you, but like, let me reach out. That actually brings a great question for both of you.

24:55What was your first impression of him and what was your first impression of him? Because we hear a lot, obviously, there's a lot out there about you, but what were the first impressions? Like meeting each other? Yeah. Um, I think we talked on the phone and like Mike T. told me you were going to sign and then I came over to the house. Yeah. Like he came over to the house like days later and I was like, you don't have to, but like, we, we always the barbecue every year. And I, well, the, was that before, after the golf? That was before the day before the day before the golf was the day before. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I appreciate you want to come out like that meant a lot to me. And, you know, you wanted to take part in team activities, just getting to know the team I appreciated. Um, but like, you reaching out to saying like, hey, can I attend? I was like, hell yeah, I'm like everybody. I'm not trying to hold anybody back, but that just meant a lot for me. Oh, it didn't want to steal your thunder. You're not stealing my thunder. There is no thunder to steal. Like, you know, you just taken a heart.

25:56No, I, I wanted to be a part of it. I did, I did. And I think first impressions like it's playing, like we're playing against each other a few times and I always had a ton of respect for Cam and the way you played. Um, but I think for me, it was. It's one thing to, to see it older guy and expect them to have like some sort of cloud on the team, but there's another to see the way people respond to them. You know, the best leaders, um, you know, are like magnets, you know, they attract people to them and guys respond to their energy. And I was impressed by how many guys showed up to both the events. And it just said, oh, this guy must have a serious magnetism that all great leaders have. And I think there's something to be, to be said for that. It's, it starts of being authentic, you know, because guys are incredible judges of character, especially over time and NFL, as you're exposed to so many people that change around you. Because that's one of the biggest misnomer's that when you get a leg, you don't really

26:56change. Oh, right. I think you're, if you're always a, so you just, now you have the money and you get to be in a, it changes the people around you, I believe. And they start to treat you different a lot of times as an object or an opportunity or the fun guy, the experience guy or whatever it is. And so like, one of the things that Mike has always talked about is, is dealing with success. Like a success is a big amplifier, you know, a highlighter and a personality and cams got, you know, a lot of, a lot of contracts. It's been leaked for a long time. But I just, I saw the magnetism that he had. That was probably most impressive. I will say like the thing I appreciate about him the most and it's not a stunt. You know, we had our cook out this year. He took time to spend time with my grandma and like that made her freaking die. Like she was all curled up in them. I don't know how you feel about grandma's, but like it was like, I was like, a chill out. Like this is getting a little bit weird because like they were just talking about teachers. My grandma's a old teacher and he just spent time saying like teachers meant a lot to

27:59him and like, that just meant a lot to me because like, he didn't have to, you didn't have to do that. You didn't have to spend extra time. And I know like people coming to you left and right. So like for me, even you spending, you know, not the first year, but the second year, getting to know people in my life meant a lot to me. I appreciate it. I think too the cool thing. I was at the barbecue. The first year you came there and you had just joined the team. I mean, you sat there. You guys played cards. It felt like for three to five hours. I mean, it was talking to you, which doesn't seem like that's changed very much. No, that hasn't changed a lot. You got very embedded in that team very quickly. And I think like I said, there's a perception of you out there, but just hearing from Cam, it's like, it's whatever the perception is, not reality. And I think he learned that very quickly too. So it was really cool to see you guys relationship. Are you and her mix still mad at each other? Or I think we're in a better spot. He I didn't push him into face. You did this year because he was. Oh, he was acting as an actor. He was acting. Yeah. I was like his first day. Yeah. He was. He was being one of the kids say the extra. I think he was going to look extra.

29:00Kids. Well, I said up. Her, her was just, I don't know, he was all excited getting this contract done and wanted to show off. And so he's going after the quarterback like full tilt and OTA. And when everyone's like, what are you doing? But then you got in the pushing match with no key like he wouldn't move out of the way. I'm like, let me just finish the play. Okay. Like, yeah, it's a sad good. TJ always yell, sacks. Like, I just let me finish the play and move around. Let's get a scramble drill. Yeah. I'm just going to get in my way and just like put his helmet in my face. I see it's like doing push them in the face. Holy herb. Holy herb. But like there's no animosity. It's just like, her being, her being her. Her being her. Yeah. I think the weird thing is he's still so young. He's only like 25 years old. Oh, these kids are old, right? Yeah. Like, you know, you're calling your teammates kids. They're our kids. Oh, he's only 24. Oh, what are you? You're 42. Yeah. I mean, you're 37. 42 is crazy. I mean, 37. Fort in your 40s is world. 37 at D lines.

30:02Pretty great. Did you think you were ever going to play in the 40s? No, I thought 35 would be great. I used to say when I was a young player, like if I get to five, that'd be cool. Then eight, that'd be cool. And then anything after 10 would be amazing. Yeah. And then there was a time where I was like, man, if I could be a starter at 40, that'd be really cool. Yeah. And I tore my Achilles. What? You saw Brady and Peyton do that. So you wanted to do it too. A breeze played his 40s. Peyton didn't. Peyton then played his 40s. Yeah, I don't think you did that. Tom did, Drew did. Finney Testiverty did. Warren Mone did. Steve DeBurg. Is Flacco 40? Is Joe? Yes. Yeah. You remember they were playing against each other the oldest. All this quarter of a half. I was like, I see how ball. Yeah. Oh, that's a real party. That's a real party. I love Joe. Joe is an easy great. Joe Ballock versus us. I was kind of this. He's balled most of his career. Yeah. Just he doesn't need a ball versus us though. No, no, that was a tough one that Thursday night.

31:04You guys didn't do your part. You played great, but you didn't. All right, let's talk about this team for 2026. What do you think about this team approaching the season? You know, I know it's a little crazy right now. I know I'm jumping all over the place, but I think just with this team, what do we need to be looking forward a week one? Well, we haven't really all played together yet. That's the biggest thing. You know, we haven't played together with Joey. And Jaylin's been out for a lot of camp. And Pitman's been out for a lot of camp. And who else has been hurt? Let's come him back. I mean, DK was hurt. We got DK back. We got Equals who has hurt a lot of camp came back. Briskers have been hurt. Look at the guys who are expecting to play. How many snaps? I'll tell you it's zero. Brisker, Jaylin and Joey played together. They're on too right. Sean, Iarp.

32:04And then we've only had a few with Pitman and DK playing together. So I think we're going to be a work of progress to some extent. But I think the talent is there. I think schematically we're good on both sides of the ball. We'll see what happens with special teams. Just make it even on special teams. Don't lose the game. The whole mascon. We got a damn good kicker though. Yeah, damn good kicker. We do. I mean, I always stop. Long snapper. He's tough as they come. He's like the Pittsburgh kid, you know? The TJ Watt of McCain, right? The Billy Jack of Pittsburgh. And in Cam is a damn good punter. Yeah. Our specialists are really good. They're top nuts. That's good as I've seen. I mean, I always thought that Mason Crosby and Robbie Gould were the best kickers in the league because they kicked in Green Bay and Chicago respectively. And the weather was always the thing. And then, you know, then I, over the years, I branched out to Tucker and Boswell because

33:05I just thought they play any kicker that plays in the elements because the elements are a factor in Pittsburgh. Yes. Less of a factor in Green Bay now because the stadium that was built. But Acresure Stadium has some really tricky wind. You know, up until maybe this year, it's been the worst playing service in the NFL. It was nice to see it was nice. Like, preseason games were nice. But will it last? I don't know. The problem I have with it is when pit plays, then the high school teams come and you guys are playing eight games or nine games there. It just to get very difficult. Yeah. You know, for the field. I mean, Bos is foot went through the turf last year. Yeah. You know, but Bos is a **** stud. I mean, he is a damn good kicker and Cam can punt the hell out of it. And I was texting with Coons after the game because he made a tackle for the season game. But I think we're going to be working progress. You know, we got a new offense scheme. We have none of all of our guys. I'm excited to see the one, two punch of Jalen Enrico and how that shakes out because they're both super dynamic players.

34:06I'm excited to see, you know, look at the guys that have the best camps on offense. Pat for our move. I think he's one that really stands out. I think he said fantastic camp. I think DK was unbelievable as camp. And I think Roman Wilson had a really good camp. Now he took some flack for a couple of poor routes in the second preseason game, but Roman had a hell of a camp. And last week's practices, he was super dynamic and was making a bunch of plays. So I'm excited about those guys excited to the line. You know, with the shakeups we had a left guard and left tackle moving those guys over. Super reliable center and Zach. I think Spencer's a nice job of right guard and we'll see what happens in right tackle. But I like the way the offense is looking and defensively going against him every day. His schematics are really, really good. I love what PG is doing. I love, you know, just the conversation to him and I have had, you know, up to the side. I'm always in his ear talking about stuff or finding him have to practice in the meanie Roman talking about stuff that worked and why it worked. And I'm constantly, you know, I think as much as anything this year, there's really

35:08talking to the defensive guys about stuff that I'm seeing pre snap. And we're going to do some of these meetings here coming up where the defense and offense talks about schematic stuff and and tells and stuff they picked up from camp. But I love the conversation with like Asante because Asante is really interested in having those like, Hey, why'd you throw this or hey, wait, think here and brisk or as well. And Jalen and I have always, you know, last year had a bunch of great conversations. But I think those are really important ones and also Peyton and PQ. There are a couple of times some of their drops early in camp, Rosanne. Hey, you're dropping way too fast to a spot that we're not even threatening at this point. I said, let me just tell you what that does for me when you do this movement and when you do that, when you land up like this and when you give away this pressure and what I'm looking at. So I think that's really invaluable stuff from both sides. Support for the show comes from engine. Running a small business means every dollar has to work hard. But if your team is still booking travel the old way, it's costing you more than you think. Engine is the fastest growing travel and spend platform in the country built specifically

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37:14Harvey AI tailored for law. Learn more at Harvey.ai You're always going to find something. The older players has been less and less respected as the years go on. Part of that is because when you raise the minimum wage, some of the people in the middle get kind of weaned out. I do like it that the P squad unlike when I first started, you can have older guys on it, bringing that to the roster. The NFL is not a meritocracy. Not purely a meritocracy. There's weird things around the contracts where veteran contracts, if you're on the 53, the first day of the season, your contracts guaranteed. A lot of teams now will cut veteran players and then bring them back after the first

38:15day of the league year begins, which I think is a really weird part of it. Obviously, draft picks are valued more than others in certain places. There's certain guys on the team that didn't actually earn it. Their draft spot earned it. There's certain guys that got cut that actually earned it. Maybe P squad guys, but I was telling the receivers this last week, I said, the P squad now that 16 is a very important part of this and look at every year what happens. Healthy scratches from 53 active players and P squad guys get elevated every single week. So you're basically saying this guy is only on the roster because he's on a rookie contract or we don't want to lose him because we draft him and fill in the blank round. But this guy is on the P squad as a better player. That's why he's going to play in the game this week, even though he's on the P squad. That's always been backwards to me, but that's the reality of our league. So it doesn't matter if you're Lew Nichols and you're on the P squad, but we need you to

39:18be up and play special teams and be a third back. That might happen or a D Laman, you know, who had a good camp or a, they didn't have an offense and I were a receiver sometimes. It's like, well, you're the third best receiver, but you're on the P squad. We're going to raise you up to play offense this week. That happens all the time and not to mention there's injuries where you might be on the P squad in week one, but in week 10, guess what? You're one of our most reliable players on offense defensive special teams. So it's, it's not a death sentence to be on the P squad and those guys always play an important role in the season. How do you change that though? How do you value the 53 that need to be the 53? No, it's a philosophical thing. Like, this place is much like Green Bay where it's trapped and developed. And so they really, really value traffic. And in my opinion, first, second, third round should be guaranteed on the roster because of the money that's being put into them. And for that, you shouldn't have to earn it.

40:18And I think the fear is always, if I cut a guy, is he going to get claimed? But actuality, if you look around the league, and that's the thing that I think is hard with social media is like, you had, you just had over a thousand guys, right? So we had 37, 37 on every roster times 32 yet over a thousand guys lose their job in the last 24 hours. And social media warriors who are cheering on certain cuts. And it's like, first of all, there's a **** people. But of those thousand guys, how many guys actually get claimed? That's interesting to look at. I would tell you, it's very, very few. Very few guys get cut from a team and claim by another. Now there are guys get traded. Like we had two of our guys get traded. Rod and KJ got traded. That happens way more likely. But outright cuts to getting claimed super rare.

41:19But the GM's like, what if it's that one time and it's this player I liked and he just hasn't had a good can, but we think he's going to be good in a couple of years. So that's the way the league goes. After 21 years does cut down week, ever get easier for you? Ever get easier? Yeah. It's nice when I stopped thinking I might get cut. You never thought that was happening. Yeah, like I'm not looking at for you specifically, but teammates around you are. I've never liked it. I mean, I've always said it's the second worst day of the year. The worst day of the year is the last day of season. And the second worst is the cut down day just because you know how much guys put into it. And there's the different tiers of guys, the guys that are great dudes. You'd love to have them around, but they're not really NFL players. And there's a guy who deserve to make it and get cut. And then there's the like chemistry guys who at least want to see back on the practice

42:21squad. And they don't come back. And that sucks because I've said this many times. If you just get out of this, the money and accolades and whatever you miss, the main point of this whole thing and that's the relationships. There's a lot longer than showing you off your trophy case in 40 years to who the hell gives a **** about that. Instead of like, well, who's, you know, who's carrying your caskies, you know, to get morbid? Who's at your olive fame speech? Who's, you know, who's coming back when you get the Steelers Ring of Moners? I would call it what they call it. The hull of honor. All of honor. Yeah. Like, you know, it's those, those relationships are what last and that's why, you know, it's always a tough day. Do you say anything to a young guy before cut that happens? I said it, it thinks to a couple guys. Over the years, you know, like a great example is Alan Nazard got cut like in 2019. It's crazy. I mean, like, first of all, he's like our third best receiver.

43:23He gets cut and then he gets raised up on the active like in week one because he's going to play because the guy they kept over him can't even play a special team. He ends up that going into, you know, becoming super reliable, becoming our three and three into the two and then getting paid and, you know, he's a great example for it. But, you know, there's, there's always been like big surprises and cut down day. Just some really terrible decisions over the years that I was a part of. But I don't feel like there was a ton of surprises this year because you just know how, there was a couple. How they look at the, I'm surprised, the roster, I mean, I was surprised. I was surprised by E-Round for sure. Yes. I, I'm curious. I want to talk about two newcomers. One guy you actually played against his father and Michael Pittman and he told us that. And then Jeremy Bernard too. How will they fit in Mike McCarthy's offense this year? Well, I think anytime you bring in any young player unless they're Calvin Johnson, you have

44:26to temper your expectations. Justin Jefferson as well, Randy Moss. But there's like a handful of guys who've been like dominant receivers. It's one of the most difficult positions I think to transfer from college to the NFL. And it usually takes guys a year to the best guys I had in Green Bay if you think about all of them from Greg Jennings to James Jones, Jordy Nelson, Devonthe Adams, Randall Cobb. Their rookie years were not explosive years. They never won rookie deer. The only rookie that we had during my time was Eddie Lacey running back from Alabama. Coming back easier to transfer over and to be as dominant as you were in college. Offence of line is easier. I think both lines is easier. I think secondary off the edge, the corners and the receivers is the most difficult position to come in and really be a crazy impact player in year one because the game is just different. It's more physical. There's more demanding the difference in hashes. I think makes a difference the way the middle of field is patrolled less than it used to be.

45:28So I think you need temper expectations for sure with Jeremy, but he's a great kid. He's done everything right. He's gotten better, I think, throughout training camp. Pitman, we expect him to come in and be a reliable veteran. Z receiver is an important position in this offense. You got to do all the dirty work. You got to block. You got to run those intermediate routes. And he is going to get some singles because I'm sure DK will get some rolled coverage his way. So we're going to need him to make a lot of place for us. So you're going to run your QB room, get Mason, you got Will, you got Drew, a lot as you like to call them. I've never called them that. No, but inside joke. But what's that? Never call them that. Yes, you have. You call them that. But what does that room look like? And did you expect four quarterbacks to be on the roster? I did not expect four quarterbacks in the roster. I've never been a part of four quarterbacks. I was a part of many years, which is too unactive and one on the P squad.

46:29I knew when Drew was picked that that would definitely shake things up in that room. You know, Mason's one of my closest buddies on the team. Awesome in the room. And I will say, and I told him this, you know, so I'm not speaking at a turn here, but I thought he's really gotten better this year, which is rare for like a nine, eight, nine year veteran because this was the first time I think he really dug into his fundamentals in this way. And it's stressed. That's kind of always been Mike McCarthy quarterback school of stress and fundamentals carried out by Tom Clements over the years with me and Tom Arthur in Pittsburgh. I think he's really gotten better with his fundamentals, which allowed him to play on time more. And ESO and his only action. He was 10 for 11 against Green Bay. And I think he kind of just closed the door on that who's going to be the backup conversation. Now there was, you know, obviously Drew and Will played really well, especially in the first game. But I was proud of both those guys.

47:30I love Will. You know, he's been in my hit pocket for a year now, learning and this fun to see him go out there because he basically a rookie didn't play last year in the preseason and performed the way he did and Drew, you know, Drew's been a sponge as well, quiet as most rookies are. But it's one of my all time favorite rooms for sure. The driver is Mason though who has his daily checklist of jokes he's got to get out of my expense. You can kind of guess what they're going to be. Something about my past. Something about my age and something about, you know, some pop culture thing that related to me somehow. So every day, it's like one of those three jokes is going to come in. What do you bring up his riot account? Because we interviewed Mason a couple of weeks ago and can't bring up brought it up like 15. I didn't know. I haven't. So he's very sensitive about all his explanations. When was the girl he was DMing at halftime allegedly to? He wasn't actually doing it. Didn't you call him out on that? I don't know. He wasn't doing it at halftime, but she made it seem like he was DM'd at halftime.

48:31Yes. That's nice. I mean, the thing is could have been. Could have been. You know, one thing is really funny. Like for those pop culture enthusiasts, there's a DM threat. About Drew. There. Oh, yeah, there is. Oh, my God. It is, he definitely wanted me to come on here and say it's not true and that it was, it was made up. But it's out there. It's it's a little racie. It's a little racie. Yeah. Racie or racist? No, it will be racist. Racie is not racist. Okay. Racie is. He's guessing young lady to come on over. What do you just do? Oh, God. Yeah. he's been in a committed relationship for a long time. Yes. And he's very happy. And it's none of that was ever true. Thank you for clearing that up. Look at you being a great teammate. I'm just gonna be able to remember that I see my thing is,

49:32when I heard Jurella, first thing I thought was, oh, that DM thing. That's what I thought. Yeah. Because I remember seeing that it went around like the quarterback rooms. Because quarterback rooms are like that. Like, hey, do you see this kid in college? You know what these days? Oh, gosh. I was like, oh, shit. I don't want to go down that red hole. Yeah. No, it's good. It's body. The message is body. That's what the first thing I said to him was like, hey, yeah. DM thing ever gets you in trouble, you know? Especially when he was like, yeah, I've been with my girlfriend for a long time. I was like, you got through that DM scandal, then. And he was like, surely thereafter, he was like, I think Mason, I didn't even think they knew about it. But oh, gosh, Mason would have had a problem there. Did you see that DM thing with Drew? I'm showing you a second we get off camera. I don't want to see that. I don't want to see that. Speaking of being the teammate, the Idaho team bonding trip, I know you organized it. Last year, you had everybody come with the Malibu, but this year Idaho, why Idaho? And who was all invited?

50:34Well, I was told I could have eight spots. So I went to the eight senior guys on the skill group, minus the running backs because you just can't count on them to fall through the commitment. So I invited Darnell and Pat. And Bobby was a late addition. Otherwise, I would invite Bobby Tanya. He came to us like, yeah, he was like in a triad or something. Yeah. And then I invited DK and Pittman and Ben and Roman and Mason. And everybody said yes, the first day. Now Darnell had something come up, he couldn't go on the end, but the seven of us went. But I asked him like in April, like coming April, I had anyone I came back so, Bay, I said, hey, do you guys want to do a trip this year and what do you want to do? And they all said, we want to do an experience. I was like, what does that mean? Like you mean like dude ranch type things? Or like, yeah, we just want to go to the mountains. We don't want to go to the beach. And I was like, do you want to do any workouts?

51:34Because Mason was like, is he going to be a gym there? We will throw my Mason chill out. He's always like, you don't even throw in the offseason. You're armed. Yeah, you don't even take care of yourself. Like shut up. Yeah. Go all the way. Chelsea. But, yeah. So we went out there, we rode horses, we did fly fish and it's a standard paddle board and kayak and underwater. We played golf one day when a couple of other guys went out to Jackson, but it was a great time. The cool thing was I like to do on trips, whether you're like, you know, family trips or friend trips or whatever, like have some sort of last night, like highs and lows. This thing is like a cool thing to do around the dinner table. Hey, what's your highs and lows? Well, we did this around the campfire. Shout out to cowboy cauldrons, by the way. Cowboy cauldron. I'm not paid by them. I'm actually just ordered one, but they have these amazing like fire pit. It's like a cauldron fire pit like held by these like beams. It's pretty awesome. Everybody check out cowboycauldron.com.

52:36There you go. I'm at zero anything associated with it. I think it's like, do a cowboy cauldron fire. I would, but no, they, but we would sit around the campfire. And one night the guy who was there helping us with the shooting guns and stuff, he was a former Greenbray. He was telling stories. It was awesome. First night, we just like talked about our life story. I mean, I felt like I learned more about these guys in four days than they had the entire season. You learn about their past and their history and the struggle and adversity and everybody opened up. But we were talking to highs and lows in the end and and the majority of them, the highs were not the experiences. It was the conversation that we had around the fire the first night or the second night or or the bonding that happened. So I really, really appreciate that time. And I felt like, you know, the seven of us really, really big game closer. What was the theme? Theme outfits were interesting. That was that was all the way. That was DK and Ben and and Pitman's idea.

53:36I mean, Pitman, he's weird. And Ben, you know, Ben's a weirdo. Yes. Yeah. And the two of them get together. It's just like, it's weird explosion. And then you got and then you have Roman. Yeah. Romans like a, you know, it's like three peas in a pod there. And DK's like, what the hell's wrong with my room? Yeah. But yeah, they wanted to do a little cowboy something. But so Ben, Ben brought some cowboy hats and boots. But it wasn't like he brought them. He had like, got his agent to get some deal with boot barn. So he actually didn't pay for him. I don't think somebody did. He did bring it, you know. And then the guys went to DK and Mason. I think went to some like a second hand store. And found some outfits at the end of wearing for that. And Dave was the other guy who's one of the fishing guides.

54:37I thought the thing was broke back. I'm going to be honest. It looked wild. It looked wild. Beating that joke into the ground. Yeah, you were. Have you seen that movie? No, I have. Yeah. I have. I've actually said if you'd like it. I've seen it. You think I like it? It's just a storyline. Yeah. Just two cowboys. It's all this. Who surprised you most on the trip? I mean, I would say I was a DK. Yeah. DK is in a way better spot. He really is. Whatever was going on last year. I was joking. The spring was like happy DK was back. But obviously he went through, you know, the stuff with the fan and lions and. And I just love DK. I think he's just a really interesting guy. His story is amazing like his growing up and.

55:40The way that his, his stepdad. It was a former player because I didn't realize like I thought that his stepdad was his real dad. But his stepdad in the way that he showed up for DK and DK's mom and that family is just. So admirable. I got to meet him in camp. He was at La Trobe. It was super cool. But just hearing his story just opened my eyes to like who DK is. DK moved back to Mississippi this off season and. He's been a different. Different person. And as we see so often this business, both positively and negatively. The personal can really affect the professional. And I think he's just played so damn good. And he's just happy. And I just love it for DK because I care about him so much. But hearing his story then here in Roman stories really wild to just like we all go through a diversity in our own ways. But I really enjoyed learning more about those two guys, especially. I love that.

56:40I'm the Swift gears though. I'm in lane. We're in an hour into this. Well, yeah, this probably got to be a two-parter because this last part's going to be fun. If you liked part one, part two is way better. Very true. His words not mine, but I do agree. Ball is here. And that means the pumpkin spice latte is back at Starbucks. It's the one we've been waiting for. So whether you're a fan of the original pumpkin spice latte or ready to mix it up with an iced pumpkin cream chai, the new ice pumpkin cream matcha or the new ice pumpkin cream shaken espresso, you can find your favorite taste of all. Only at Starbucks. Running a business shouldn't feel like surviving a software group project. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow, none of them talk to each other. That's where Ode to comes in. And all in one business management software that brings every part of your business together. From sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, all in one powerful platform. No messy integrations, no bouncing between tabs and best of all, no spreadsheets.

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