On February 12, Elder held their annual Sports Stag and hosted several Bengal greats in our ENN studio before their main speeches that evening. Each year a couple of lucky senior students who are potentially interested in broadcasting or journalism get the opportunity to interview these celebrities. This year, seniors Toby Brubaker and Sam Tucker assembled their questions and fired away and were video recorded by Mr. Duwel and Mr. Rogers. Through the technical wizardry of Ad0be Premiere Pro and some editing, we were able to assemble a transcript of the three interviews.

We have published most of the Willie Anderson interview in our March issue of The Purple Quill and present the rest here for all to enjoy:

Sam Tucker:
You spent most of your time in Cincinnati but your final year you spent in Baltimore. How was that last year compared to the time spent in Cincinnati? Well, it kind of reminds me of Elder with all the purple going on. We got a lot more purple in Baltimore than here.

Willie Anderson:
It was different because I hadn’t had a chance to play with guys that I competed against for 12 years. So, you know, walking through the locker room the first day, my visit, I was kind of nervous because the locker room was like a castle. It was like a big castle. The Raven Castle, they called it. So I walked in there all the new guys and talked to Ozzie, the staff, and I was hesitant to go downstairs, to the locker room. Our former coach here, Hue Jackson, who was the quarterback coach that year, came to get me from upstairs and brought me downstairs. And the entire locker room just called out my name. Yelled my name, “Big Willie.” There was Ray Lewis, Terrell Suggs, all those guys. So I felt at home then, but I was kind of hesitant at first because like I say, I fought those guys for 12 years and to go play with them the last year, it was kind of a unreal year. But I had the most fun I had in a long time. We won a bunch of football games, made it to the championship game. But, it was hard because my heart was still here in Cincinnati and playing for what we thought was the enemy for a long time. You know, I mean, I finally made those guys my brothers. But it was kind of a surreal feeling.

Toby Brubaker:
So playing at Auburn for college, you were two-time first team all SEC. What would you say was the biggest transition from college to the NFL?

Willie:
The food. But, no, it was just more time spent with football. Football in the NFL is an all day business. Where in college you have classes, and it’s kind of just a part of your day. In the NFL it’s your full day, you know, all week. Only one day off on Tuesdays. It’s a full day job. Come in the morning. Putting in work at 9 a.m.; there’s no classes to go to. Your classes, your classes in the NFL and football are your meeting times. We spend more time in meeting rooms than practice time. So, just learning the pace of that, you know? My God, Joe Walter is here now, learning how to take notes from Joe Walters and being a young guy. Watching film and playing, playing teams two times a year. Where at Auburn, I played ‘Bama once a year. But here I play the Ravens and and the Steelers twice a year. So learning how to keep a notebook of notes on guys you play against and just keep just keep studying their tendencies. You learn real fast that football’s a business.

Sam:
Once you get into the NFL, you recently started the Willie Anderson Lineman Academy. What inspired you to start that?

Willie:
My son was a receiver at high school, he was in an apprenticeship for Georgia Tech several years ago. So I spent about from 2011 to 2015, you know, helping receiver training with him and quarterback training.

And during that period of time, parents would ask me to help their kids out. I was like, I can’t because my son is so far behind. I have to help my own son out. So once I got him graduated and and off to Georgia Tech, I started my academy and I wanted to start it at the high school level to help high school linemen out, because I felt like the high school lineman was the top position of all the football. I think is still the most important position.

The hardest thing to learn to me, in all of football is how to block. I think playing quarterback is the most mentally the toughest thing. But the toughest, most physical thing to do is to be an offensive lineman. So at the younger levels, the kids weren’t getting the training I thought they should be getting. And it’s kind of like, providing and being a math tutor for a kid, you know, with their parents, they got to go to the school, but come to us for extra training, extra help.

So I just thought the young kids needed help at that position. And we started doing that. And since then we’ve been averaging about 13 or 15 kids every year getting scholarships out of our academy. And we had, one of my biggest pupils is my guy Parris Johnson from here in Cincinnati, who was the sixth pick in the draft two years ago to the Cardinals.

Toby:
You’ve been playing football your whole life. What would you say is your most memorable game? Because we were talking before either like Alabama vs. Auburn, Or playing for the Ravens coming back to Cincinnati. What would you say is your favorite?

Willie:
The most emotional game was coming back to Cincinnati. I actually cried in the in the locker room.
But the most memorable had to be my first time playing against Alabama as a kid. I grew up in Mobile, Alabama, where everyone in the city of Mobile are diehard ‘Bama fans. So for me to pick Auburn was a big deal. For me to pick Auburn out of high school, I was the number one player in the country.

And I picked Auburn at the time. They were a bad team and ‘Bama had just won the ’92 National Championship in my senior year of high school. So picking Auburn was a big deal for me. So the first time I got a chance to see the Crimson jersey as an opponent, I grew up as a kid loving Alabama.

The first time I saw it I was 18 years old my freshman year in ’93. We beat them, to go 11-0. But we were we were on probation my freshman year, so we couldn’t go to a championship game or to a bowl game. So but beating them and going 11-0 was a surreal feeling.

I’ll never forget itbecause it meant so much to me to beat Alabama because everybody in my hometown were diehard ‘Bama fans, and they all hated me.

Sam:
Since you retired, the game has changed. What do you think about the current offensive line play the style and tempo

Willie:
It’s definitely different. You know I came to the league in ’96. The league was a running football league; your running backs were your stars. I mean the way you guys see the QBs now, back then we had our running backs like in our division along there was Corey Dillon, Jerome Bettis, Eddie George, Jamal Lewis.

These guys were some superstars in the running game. So and in order to win football games you had to run the ball. Well, now they run the ball to give a quarterback a break. I mean it’s not really trying to establish a running game because the passing game is so dominant. So that kind of started my last several years in the league.

Because here we had Corey Dillon early on. And then once Carson Palmer got here, the mindset of the whole organization kind of changed. It became, let’s protect Carson at all costs, give him a good offensive line and make the running game help Carson out. Instead of the running game being the reason why we win football games.

So it turned to a passing game. And, the fans like it. But, I think as for the linemen’s development, that changed. Today’s linemen are not really built to be dominant run blockers. And when you do see teams that do that, they destroy teams, like Philly just did.

Philly is built to be a running football team. I think the rest of the league is not built to stop them, because it’s been built to be passing and to defend the pass. So once you find a running football team who can dominate running the football similar to the Ravens and the Bills, they will win consistently every year with a running game.

Toby:
So 13 years in the NFL and you play against a lot of defenders. Who’d you say is the best one you played against? And was there one individual player that you looked forward to playing against?

Willie:
I played against a lot of guys, some great players.
There were really two hard guys. One didn’t beat me, but he beat me up. That was Reggie White. Know? I mean, I grew up a big fan of Reggie White. You know, I became a Christian guy because of him.
Reggie was a big guy and he’s probably the only guy I played against who was stronger than I was. He could really physically manhandle you and just do what he wanted to do with you. But I was a big guy, and, I shut him down. But I tell you after the game, I felt as if my skeleton was hurting, that he would run into me so much. And he was such a big dude. He was running right into me. But the toughest guy I had problems with was probably the smallest guy. Robert Mathis; he played for the Colts. He was opposite Dwight Freeney. Mathis was about six feet tall at the time. I was an older man, the old man in the league, and we had never faced six foot tall defensive ends.

Now they’re common in the league now, but when I came to the league, I was six-four, six-five, 289. But at the end of my career, once the league turned to a passing league, you start seeing these smaller guys come in as rushers and Robert Mathis was a guy who was six feet tall, maybe six-one, and 240. And he could do outside, spin, move inside spin, move.

You go to punch him. He can dunk on your hands, you know? He gave guys problems who were bigger, taller guys. I knew then that it was time for me to retire.

Sam:
But you said when growing up, you looked up to Reggie White, how was that playing against them once you got to the NFL?

Willie:
It was surreal because some guys never got a chance to play against their idols. You know, as a kid, I saw during his dominant years. He played in the 80s. I was a ten, 12, 13 year old kid. I played him during his last year in Green Bay. He was 36, but he led the league in sacks with 16, 17 sacks that year.

So playing against him, it’s like if a basketball kid grew up, you guys watch LeBron all year, all your life. And all of a sudden at 40 you’re playing against him. You know what I mean. It’s kind of weird because you heard about all his moves. You study all these moves, but now he’s doing against you.
I had watched him on TV, so there I was, I was scared for my life. I was 23. He was 36. Like I said, I shut him down. But physically after the game, I thought my lungs were collapsed. I thought my skeleton was hurting and I knew I had been in a dogfight.

He was one of the greatest rushers ever. To me, his numbers were cut short because he played, I think, 3 or 4 years in the USFL. If he played the entire time in the NFL, he’d be the all-time leading sacker by far. Unbelievable guy. Unbelievable. A great man, too.

Toby:
Why do you think there is a common misconception that the Bengals line is not playing well?

Willie:
First, it’s hard playing offensive line here in Cincinnati. Yes. When we have a quarterback back there who’s the “golden boy” it’s hard because people just only see him. They only care about him, which is rightfully so, because, you know, whether it be Joe Burrow, whether it be Carson Palmer, whether it’s Boomer Esiason, these guys kind of run your organization.

But like I said earlier, playing offensive line is the toughest position in all of football to play and coach. I think as little kids, when you put little kids in a sixth, seventh, grade football, no one wants to play offensive line. They all think it’s punishment. You put them on the offensive line and kids don’t learn.

Then they get to about 10th or 11th grade. Hey, I can go to college and a scholarship playing offensive line. But as a young guy, he’s not celebrated as much because, you know, when the kid is in the fifth grade, his mom is driving to practice or dad. During the games his dad and his mom hear a name called on the airwaves and it’s his teammate John, who was playing running back, his name gets called.

So I think early on kids have to understand how valuable it is. But the media has to portray it differently, too. I think kids and fans, it starts with them because it’s one of the most unknown things in football. It’s complicated like calculus sometimes with the verbiage and the vocabulary guys are using, and the techniques are so strange, people don’t know enough about it to report about it accurately.

So it’s more fun to talk about the quarterback throwing the ball because no one goes outside with their son and practices blocking. You just let someone throw it, throw the ball, it’s all passing and catching. No one goes outside to block. So I think once more people are educated about the fundamentals of it, it’s really a science.

It is very interesting to learn. And once you learn, it’s kind of fun. Once you learn how to defend yourself against a guy who’s bringing a pass rush; which move is he using against you? Or you learn how to move a guy against his will in the run game, it is really a fun thing once you learn it.

Sam:
So as a college and professional athlete, you travel to a lot of new stadiums. What would say was the loudest stadium you’ve ever played in?

Willie:
Oh, in college, definitely Florida, Florida, Florida.

The swamp scared us. Like I said, we beat them my freshman year, we started off 9-0. My sophomore year we end up beating them. They were the number one team in the country. We beat them at Florida for the first time. Nobody had beat them in like two years. And I remember being in warm-ups.

My coach, Coach Trickett, was doing offensive linemen warmup drills. We were down in the end zone on warming up, he’s behind us. So I’m going first. In my stance, he’s standing right there shouting the cadence. I look behind me and he’s screaming go, go, go. I couldn’t hear him. He’s standing right here. And so we all stare at each other like, oh, we’re in trouble if we can’t hear him standing right here. It’s gonna be trouble because we are going against Kevin Carter and three other first-round picks on the D-line. There are monsters over there. So he got us all huddled up together and he said, “Look, when you start running the football, the crowd will be quiet.” The worst thing is panic as a linemen. The worst thing for linemen is to not be able to hear.

As for of pros. I want to say. Oh, the Colts, because they cheated. We found out years later, the Colts pumped sound down to the field through the freaking airways. Like it was definitely loud. But imagine being down 14 points, Peyton Manning is quarterback and you got Dwight Freeney and Mathis pass rushing you and you can’t hear. And they’re all this tall. (indicates small)

And on your first movement, they’re gone. So the Colts definitely, because they were cheating. We found out of years later that they were pumping sound through the speakers. Those dome stadiums are not fair.

Toby:
So obviously with your incredible amount of time spent in Cincinnati, what do you think of Skyline Chili?
Do you eat it every time you come back? If not, what would your go to meal be?

Willie:
You guys are going to get mad at me. I’m not a Skyline chili guy. I had it like once. I said on Twitter, every year people get mad becuase they remember that, no, I’m not a Skyline chili guy. But my go to? My brother Floyd Walker, bought the only Happy’s Pizza here in town. So I love Happy’s pizza.
Before that pizza got started, I was a big fan of, Is it LaRosa’s? But I can’t say that because my guys have Happy’s pizza now. But before then, on Fridays, I was getting my LaRosa’s pizza pretty much every Friday. Yeah. I mean, I love the food in Cincinnati, just not the big chili fan of, Skyline Chili. I’m sorry, guys, I’m from the south.

Sam
As a professional athlete, a bunch of kids look up to you.
So, what advice would you give? Like if they are trying to get to the NFL. You had 13 seasons, giving up 16 sacks your whole career. What advice would you give them?

Willie:
First of all, if you’re going to do anything, you gotta love, you gotta love doing it.

And, I mentioned Paris Johnson earlier. Paris is one of the first kids I gave advice to, but I’ve met kids since then. But I met Paris at 15 years old and he stayed. He came to Atlanta to live with me for two weeks, and we trained for two weeks in my house.

And he was one of the most obsessed kids I had ever seen about being an offensive lineman. I thought he was the first kid I was seeing that was obsessed about being a lineman, like I was as a kid. I was super obsessed with sports. I loved it so much. I watched everything, so I when I say I watched Reggie White as a kid, I wanted to be a defensive lineman, like all kids, and I wanted to sack the quarterback.

But once I once I became a lineman, I wanted to be really great at the line. I didn’t want to be good. I wanted to be great. So I studied everything. We didn’t have YouTube back then. We didn’t have professional athletes putting out videos that we can go watch and study and learn your craft, and we didn’t have that.

But I believe God blesses you. If you’re a fan, if you’re obsessed with it so much, then things start to flow towards you. You get blessings from it. But, a lot of times young kids don’t. They kind of half go at it. 00;17;54;17 – 00;18;08;37

I mean, so whatever it is, if it is being a reporter, whatever it may be, be a fan of it, be a fan of it and study it and go look at it and be obsessed with being great at it. I mean, and that’s one of the things I do here. I look at that sports so much that I emulated guys I saw.

I wanted to be like guys and even try to talk like what I saw. People laughed at Kobe Bryant trying to be Jordan, but he did exactly what Jordan did. He told us I’m going to do exactly what he does, and he practiced and trained and studied film til he got it down pat, but he became great himself.

So to become great, you got to love something and be obsessed with it. And whatever it is, if it’s offensive line play, you get better at it. But you got to love it to put your passion into it. You got to watch it, study it and be involved in it. That’s my advice. All right? All right. Good job guys.

Elder boys:
No problem.

As a special treat to those who have visited the site and read this far. If you want to watch the actual interview, Adam Duwell taped and edited it and has uploaded it to you tube.

JOE WALTER INTERVIEW
Sam:
Obviously, it’s been a long time since you’ve been out of the game. In what way do you think the game has evolved since you retired?

Joe Walter:
Oh, wow. That’s a great question. What made you think I’ve been out of the game for a long time? Was it the gray hair? What is the way the the game has changed? The guys are bigger. Right? When I played I was 305. And then when Big Willie came in, he was kind of the beginning of the big lineman coming in.

A big giant, 340-pound guys that are playing football and got great feet, great hands. And, I honestly believe the defensive side of the ball has gotten bigger as far as the lineman and the edge rushers. Much faster. So the game has changed a lot, right, in that respect. But it’s all the same type of game.

You know, you still do the things, you still block the same way, different techniques. But it’s all the same.

Toby:
Me personally, I think you could go out and play tomorrow.

Joe:
Well, I appreciate that. That’s awfully nice of you, Toby. Thank you very much for that.

Toby:
But during your time in the NFL, we have an idea of what we think it might be.
But what is one game you’ll never forget and why?

Joe:
Oh, you know what it was. This is going to sound kind of crazy, but I’m from Dallas, Texas, right? And so the one game I remember was the first time I got to play in Texas Stadium and I blocked Ed “Too Tall” Jones and Randy White was the interior defensive lineman.

And, first play of the game, I got to go in and hit Randy, and he was in his frog stance. You guys would probably never know what that is, but he was in his frog stance, and he had a heck of a forearm shot he would give you. And he hit me with that forearm shot and I started laughing.

I thought, that’s the greatest thing ever was getting that hit right? Then he looked at me and he said, what are you laughing at? I said, I just got hit by Randy White. It’s been my all time goal. So that’s probably the one game I remember the most, just because I was back home playing against some idols of mine when I was growing up.

Sam:
What really inspired you to start working with Ohio Valley producers?

Joe:
Well, I have two golf outings. Right. So I started out working with Special Olympians. Special Olympics in Northern Kentucky. And, just the passion I’ve got, you know, my kids are all healthy, and I just love working and being around the folks that have disabilities.
And so it was just fun for me to help them raise awareness and raise money. And, the folks from Goodwill. They were at the first outing that I had, and they asked me to come on board. And so for me, it was great because Special Olympics was the sports and the athletics part of it. For folks with disabilities and Goodwill, what they do is they train folks with disabilities for jobs and then help them find work.

So they kind of meshed really well together. And, and just had a blast doing both of them.

Toby:
As a young athlete, your dream is to get to the biggest stage of that particular sport you’re playing, right? When you’re in the NFL, you got the chance to play in the biggest game, Super Bowl 23, which is the biggest game of the football season.
What was that like?

Joe:
It was crazy. It was crazy crowded it was. How many people were there the week leading up to it. I didn’t get to play in the game. I blew my knee out in the last regular season game. But just being a part of that atmosphere and seeing it. I hated not being able to be out there because, you know, you work all year to get there and then you get hurt last game.

But, just that atmosphere, you know, John Candy was there, you know, you see all these celebs and and it’s just a spectacle, right? But, and we were 30 seconds away from winning that thing, too. That’s the worst part of it. But it was amazing. It was a great run. Yeah.

Sam:
Toby, a little bit ago mentioned you look like he could go out and play or play tomorrow. If you could go out and play one more game. Who would you want to play with? Do you want to play against?

Joe:
Oh man, that’s a great question. If I could go out and play with somebody, I’m going to go back to the day and it’d be Max Montoya, the right guard.
We played next to each other. And somebody I’d like to play against today. I think I’d like to play against T.J. Watt. I’d like to see if I can stop that guy. I think that would be the big challenge for me. And he’d be the one guy I’d want to want to go after. Yeah. Kind of going back in time.

Toby:
Looking back, what advice would you give your younger self if you knew your NFL career would be written out the way it is?

Joe:
I would have probably early on in my career. I wasn’t doing the things the first couple of years. I wasn’t doing the things in the offseason I should have done. I was just doing enough to get by. And I think that hurt me early on. My third year, I started figuring things out. But those first two years were kind of the developmental years. And especially in the offseason, getting your strength, getting in shape and all that. And, you know, kind of working with Anthony and watching what Anthony Munoz did. I realized that I screwed up and should have started earlier.

But, you know, we all learn, right? And so I had a good career, finished off strong. But those first two years, I wish I’d have been more into it.

So that’s it. So you ask young questions and you ask the older questions. Is that how this worked? Did y’all figure that out when you were doing this?
I mean, you guys are really great. Tandem. Yeah. And this was your first time five minutes ago. You guys are pretty impressive. That’s impressive. Thank you very much. You guys commentate? Your own sports? Yeah. Basketball. Okay.

TAKEO SPIKES INTERVIEW

Takeo:
I have this saying: You know, what you do in private will be displayed in public.

With my 15 years that was on display. Hard offseason workouts. And you have to be disciplined. You know it is. When you wake up and you don’t feel like working out. Some guys did that. But those same guys who did it didn’t have 15 years at the end of their resume. So, you know, for me, I treated the same attention I gave to a hamstring is the same attention I gave to a hangnail.

I didn’t want anything to linger if I felt like anything was off. I was very proactive versus reactive in trying to figure out how can I get it to calm down. And then have to give really the true honor to God, because, you know, like you even said it, man, I when I retired, I was one of only five linebackers in the history of the game to start in over 215 games.

And so, that’s a big accomplishment. And I didn’t realize it up until I actually did it during my 15th year. So, big Testament man, just putting in the work putting in the time and understanding and having faith and believing that if I do this, then this should yield that. So as time goes on, sports changed dramatically with how they started off playing in the how they play now.

Sam:
So would you say is there a difference for linebacker when you played?

Takeo:
Yeah, I think when I came into the league, you saw a lot of linebackers that were downhill first, second down linebackers, guys typically who couldn’t play or, you know, probably couldn’t be playing on third down. And I thought that’s what made our group, meaning the year ’98 linebackers that came and out of the league myself, Brian Simmons, another Cincinnati Bengals.

We were like three down linebackers. Not only could we play the run, but we could cover. We could run.

After we played, that started a different mold of linebackers playing the game. Now at this point, you’re not going to see true downhill thumpers.

But when you do see one today, you probably doesn’t have the build in the stature; 6-6,240 pounds, you got to notice him. That guy is going to be six-two maybe 225-230. But those are the special ones. And some of those guys that come to my mind, Lavonte David, you know, even though he’s older now, I think about Fred Warner, a guy who typically was a safety in college and just kind of worked his way down inside of the box to the position of a linebacker.

Toby:
Recently, the Bengals, although having productive seasons and being strong on defense. What would you say are some of the problems? What would you do if you were trying to be perfect?

Takeo:
I mean everything starts with players. But if you don’t have the players, you’re not going to get the results that you want.

And I think when you look at this Cincinnati Bengals defense, you have to take a long look at it personnel-wise. It starts with the defensive line. I personally believe everything starts up front. If you want to build a championship team, you gotta have those guys up front and I thought they’ve done a good job. Cincinnati has always done a marvelous job as far as getting guys initially out of college, you know, and letting them come up through the ranks, and develop but the retention is always a problem.

We all know what comes with free agency. You know, more money, but, ultimately you gotta look at every position group, D-line, linebackers, secondary, and you gotta have some blue chip players. And when I talk about blue chip players, meaning solid players who literally contests to be a Pro Bowler at the end of every year. Also, you know, a few All-Pros.

And I think once you can do that, you will get the results that you want. And for me, when I look at them defensively, they have some good players on the defensive line. I love Trey. You know, Trey speaks for himself, but, I truly believe they got to get another. You got to get another pass rush outside of Trey.

This year there was just no threat. And that’s the problem because regardless of whatever how good your secondary may be on the back end, they are only as good as what your defensive line allows them to be. And that’s the reality you have. So younger athletes getting the league you’ve been there, done that, played SEC ball for years.

Sam:
So what advice would you give younger athletes?

Takeo:
Just put in the time. People ask me, man, what’s the secret in to playing 15 years? You got to put the time in. What you do in private will be displayed in public. What everybody has to understand is no different than walking into a classroom. The professor gives you an assignment. Okay, I need for you to answer this, this and that. But the only way you’re going to get these answers, you got to read this passage. Now, I can skim through it. And pull out some answers that’ll fit the bill. For what? But is that really your best body of work?

Or you can read it several times. Sit back and look at it. Let me apply some critical thinking to this and then add this into what I’m doing. And so that’s the same thing to me when it comes to developing players. The amount of time that you put into it, outside of what’s asked of you, that’s how you separate yourself and understand God is going to bless everybody individually, different individual, and bless different individuals differently.

He is all-knowing. I always felt like, man, God gave me this athletic gift, this talent to display for everybody to see. I just couldn’t cheat on it. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t live with the regret of knowing I got extra film that I know I should have watched on first and second down, but I’ll just wait to watch it with everybody else tomorrow.

I couldn’t sleep, but that’s me. I always wanted to be ahead of the next day in order to have an edge going into that week versus my opponent.

Toby:
Yeah. We were talking a couple minutes ago. How you work with the media now.
You do a lot of stuff. Tell me what really inspired you to start working year after year? And after your football career?

Takeo:
That is a great question. I think it’s fitting because it’s asked here in Cincinnati and it started here. Rough season there. They asked me to do a radio show and I was like, man, I’m not doing no radio show, man.

We just went forward. I got it going in on here and these people, they’re going to roast me. This is like my first second year. So they asked me again and I feel like okay, we got a better roster. Let me go and do it. And what happened? I didn’t want to do it. I was reluctant to do it.

But this is what happened that started my media career. I made a commitment and I was always told, if you commit to something, do it, finish it, re-evaluate it at the end. When you’re done. I decided to go. I went with my limo driver. Shout out to Kandi Bolden. She’s a native here.

Cincinnati; I love it to death. She’s extended family, I got I had to give a shout out. But she used to talk to me about it and I used to confide in her. Like how much I hated talking at this radio show because I felt like they, the fans, were going to look at me and just go at me.

But what happened was she actually talked me through it. So it was like I had a chance to vent to her. And then when I got out of the car, I got on the radio. I was perceived in a manner to where they knew. The people were smart. They knew who were the ballers, they knew the guys who make the impact plays.

And so I got a chance just to talk about football from 3-6 to enlighten them. And when I got back in the car, I felt better. And so the next day started off my week. Even if we lost, I felt like the weight of the world was off my shoulders. And so for me, it was from that moment I learned. I am the author of my own autobiography. Even if his team wasn’t successful, I get a chance to share the narrative not only the way that I saw it, but how I lived it.

So nobody else can tell my story when I lived it. And so from that point, that’s what got me into broadcasting. That’s what made me want to share my stories and even just elaborate and just to expand. Because a lot of this, a lot of things goes on on the field. As you can see, it’s match ups.

So that is one of the things that I feel like I do a very good job of working with TNT. And they just we just came back into football after 25 years. Myself, Champ Bailey, Victor Cruz, Adam Lefkowitz will be back to host college football. So make sure you check it out this upcoming fall. It’s going to be a great season. And we’re going to be talking all of college football.