3x Super Bowl Champ Mecole Hardman on game-winning catch from Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce leadership, Taylor Swift & why he really left the Jets mid season!

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast When the Kansas City Chiefs scored the winning touchdown in Super Bowl 58, all eyes were on one player who hauled in the catch for the championship. That player was Mecole Hardman, but he has no recollection of the minutes after. The three-time Super Bowl champ sat down with Ryan, Channing and Fred to talk about the game and his career leading up to it. Only 25 years old, Mecole has already faced his fair share of adversity while in the NFL. Whether it was a short stint with the Jets that didn’t end on the best terms or five days spent stuck in bed when he was diagnosed with osteitis pubis, Hardman has had to beat several odds. Yet his big plays in the big games seem to make it all worth it. The Chiefs were a team surrounded by noise all season, yet Hardman talks about how Travis Kelce and Pat Mahomes were able to help pull everyone together in crucial moments. He may be a free agent this offseason, but Hardman has already found more success since being drafted in 2019 than many players get in their careers. With a son in his family and an empathetic perspective on life having worked with special needs children, Mecole expressed with the guys his gratitude for the positions he has been placed in. A fumble or a drop hasn’t defined his career thus far, winning has, and Mecole Hardman has proven that he will always find a way to bounce back. New episodes drop on Tuesdays at 12 p.m. ET and Fridays at 3:30 p.m ET on YouTube, with audio available on all streaming platforms including Apple, Spotify and Amazon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Having uncontrolled eosinophilic esophagitis, or E O E, can mean you're stuck in many ways. Like cutting your food into tiny pieces.

• 0:11Speaker 00

  Or stuck, chewing food for a long time.

• 0:15Speaker 00

  Dupixent, Dupilumab, a prescription medicine for patients one year and older weighing at least 33 pounds, can help with that. It's a breakthrough treatment that can reduce inflammation in the esophagus and improve swallowing.

• 0:28Speaker 00

  How about this? Dupixent is not a steroid. It proactively treats E O E, so you can get ahead of it.

• 0:34Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing, or wheezing, or swelling of your face, mouth, tongue, or throat. Tell your doctor of new or worsening joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection, or asthma. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 0:49Speaker 00

  Feeling stuck with E O E? Start treating with Dupixent. Talk to your gastroenterologist or allergist today about Dupixent. Learn more at dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 1:00Channing Crowder?

  Me and Kevin from the office sit and play roulette with D-Lo. And D-Lo was playing with hundreds, I would play with 25. Bet, bet, bet.

• 1:07Fred Taylor?

  What up?

• 1:09Channing Crowder?

  Hold on. You know how I get around kids.

• 1:11Fred Taylor?

  Whenever, we can line that up. Whenever, whenever she's ready. Man.

• 1:16Fred Taylor?

  I am, kid love me. Yeah, he love babies.

• 1:22Channing Crowder?

  And who'd he go to?

• 1:23Fred Taylor?

  Hey, man, big homie. All right, he definitely ready to move. What up, buddy?

• 1:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:30Fred Taylor?

  What up, buddy?

• 1:32Speaker 04

  Look at him. Yeah, I gotta see what he's got, see what picture he's got. I gotta see what string he on.

• 1:36Channing Crowder?

  He a big joker.

• 1:37Fred Taylor?

  Spider-Man, he won?

• 1:39Speaker 04

  Won. He just turned 1.

• 1:40Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, he a big joker.

• 1:41Fred Taylor?

  He a big old kid.

• 1:42Speaker 04

  He the third.

• 1:43Fred Taylor?

  Big man.

• 1:44Channing Crowder?

  He a big joker. Yeah, he a big joker. He gonna be, he gonna be ready. Act like y'all got fast, doing something special.

• 1:52Speaker 04

  No, we didn't.

• 1:53Channing Crowder?

  Right, he just fast.

• 1:54Speaker 04

  He's fast.

• 1:59Ryan Clark?

  Uncle Channing? Uncle Channing?

• 2:00Channing Crowder?

  We gotta work.

• 2:01Ryan Clark?

  You can't do the show with the baby. That would tell you babies don't know when they in danger.

• 2:07Channing Crowder?

  33.

• 2:08Ryan Clark?

  Babies don't know when they in danger.

• 2:10Speaker 04

  Danger, danger.

• 2:10Ryan Clark?

  They don't know when they in danger.

• 2:12Speaker 04

  Yeah, you know mommy.

• 2:14Ryan Clark?

  You like, you like it like that?

• 2:16Channing Crowder?

  I love babies. Yeah, I love, yeah.

• 2:18Speaker 04

  Look at you, you know the way you are.

• 2:20Channing Crowder?

  I done got my, I done got my tubes tied. I can't make no more babies.

• 2:25Speaker 04

  Big man.

• 2:26Ryan Clark?

  My little man.

• 2:27Speaker 04

  Buddy, man.

• 2:27Channing Crowder?

  OG.

• 2:30Ryan Clark?

  Man, he gonna be up all night 'cause he think he gonna miss something. He got FOMO, nah?

• 2:35Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 3:00Ryan Clark?

  Welcome to the Pivot. Chan, I'm RC, this is Freddie T. Super Bowl champion, three time.

• 3:07Speaker 04

  Three time?

• 3:07Ryan Clark?

  Super Bowl champ, golly, three time. Super Bowl champion, McCall Hardman, he has a special gift with him. That, I thought you lost the ball, bro. Like you said after the game, you didn't have it.

• 3:18Speaker 04

  I didn't. I didn't have it.

• 3:20Ryan Clark?

  So what happened? How'd you get it?

• 3:21Speaker 04

  Man, literally, we went to the, uh, our exit meetings. And like, we, I'm meeting with Coach and OC, whatever, and literally, I'm on my way to my car and dude like, "Hey, hey, we got the game ball." I'm like, "What? Where is it?" Somebody grabbed it off the field when I'm by media guy, they put it in their bag. And behold, they had the game ball.

• 3:40Ryan Clark?

  So, you also lied, right?

• 3:42Speaker 04

  I didn't lie.

• 3:42Ryan Clark?

  Cause you said, you said someone took the ball. When actually, you just dropped it.

• 3:49Speaker 04

  Okay, let me hear me out. I didn't lie, I just go off what I thought I knew. You feel me? I didn't have, I had no recollection of what I did after I scored.

• 4:01Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 4:02Speaker 04

  And I say I blacked out, I really blacked out. I, I don't, I thought somebody hit it on my hand. So I'm just thinking like, somebody had it on my hand, cause ain't no way I'm gonna score the winner touchdown and throw the ball. It makes no sense. You feel me? Like, it makes no sense to me, but when I watched the video, I'm like, dang, I really threw that ball.

• 4:17Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 4:17Speaker 04

  And I'm just thinking about it, I'm never gonna get it back.

• 4:19Ryan Clark?

  And he dropped it and jumped in Pat arms.

• 4:21Speaker 04

  But that's when I came out of life. When, when me and Pat jumped, that's when I got back to reality that we just won the game.

• 4:25Ryan Clark?

  Did you know? Cause there's a lot of shit about like, knowing the rules of overtime and all that stuff that was it. Did you know like?

• 4:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 4:32Ryan Clark?

  When that bitch hit your hands and you got two feet in there, so you knew the game.

• 4:35Speaker 04

  We go over, we went over like, three times that week. Like, that's like, even like, every playoff game, we have like, a specific meetings, like, or in our team meeting, like, two or three times throughout the week of telling us overtime rules. Like, we go over specifically, like, like, time is not a factor in overtime with the new rules. Because even if the time, cause people were saying like, cause it was like, six seconds left in overtime, it was like, oh, it's six seconds left. Finish or drive. We gotta, we gotta be able to finish, it don't matter, they'll just reset the clock.

• 5:00Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 5:00Speaker 04

  So we know, we, we, we were very all the rules. They changed the rules because of us. You know what I'm saying? So we, we know the rules, you get everybody get a chance to score, and when they kick that field goal, I don't know why they took the ball. First of all, that's a crazy thing, but when they kicked the field goal, Pat was like, oh yeah, it's over with.

• 5:16Ryan Clark?

  Curry.

• 5:16Speaker 04

  Yeah, you might as well go in, yeah, y'all would pack up, it's over with. You get Pat the ball, and, and, oh, you finna score. Yeah, we finna score. Like, what?

• 5:25Ryan Clark?

  When, when Pat's running to the sideline, you can see the, the sound on Inside the NFL and NFL Films, right? He's running, and he's like, they want the ball. They want the ball. And then even Travis Kelce is like, they want the ball, we want him to take the ball.

• 5:40Speaker 04

  Yeah, take it.

• 5:40Ryan Clark?

  How surprised were y'all as a team, though, when y'all practiced and y'all worked throughout the entire playoffs? Okay, if we get into this position, this is what we want to do, this is what we think is the best way. And then having the opposing team, the San Francisco 49ers, say, no, we want the ball. Were y'all shocked about that?

• 5:58Speaker 04

  Oh, we were shocked, cause we feel like the, the best, you know, thing to do is give, you know, give, um, give them the ball. You know what I'm saying? Cause you get an extra possession, cause as an offense, you wanna know what you need to do to win the game.

• 6:09Ryan Clark?

  Extra down, too, the fourth down, stuff like that.

• 6:11Speaker 04

  You get a fourth down, yeah.

• 6:11Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 6:12Speaker 04

  I mean, obviously with the regular overtime rules, you want the ball because the first team score wins.

• 6:15Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 6:16Speaker 04

  But in this case, it's like, we, we, we go through like, If they get the ball, you know what I'm saying? What do we do? Like, we get the ball second they score, do we go for two? We so far ahead of like, if they score, are we going for two? Like, are we trying to win the game? Are we kicking the field goal to tie? Like, what are we doing? So like, we go through every scenario every time, like, what we would do. And if they took the ball, we like, they, they must don't know the rules there. And y'all must don't know we got Pat over here either. So like, some, some, something ain't going wrong. You heard in, in Inside NFL when, uh, the, the, uh, was the fullback was like, "Did you know they get a chance to score?" I didn't know that. We like, y'all, how y'all not know that, though? Like, that's the, the biggest thing, with, with the biggest rule changes coming to the year, was the new overtime rules in playoffs. So, I guess they wasn't really prepared for that.

• 6:59Fred Taylor?

  What, what type of factor, um, is experience? You guys have been there three and four times for some of the guys. I, I guess my question is, uh, versus what San Fran did, like, their nerves probably all over the place, but you guys were calm the entire time. And I think you mentioned something where you said, uh, Travis's halftime speech kinda got you guys back into the groove. Were there ever a moment where you guys were in panic mode when you were down? You know, cause it's the biggest game of your lives, but experience, speak to that.

• 7:32Speaker 04

  Now, well, we do a good job of like, well, obviously, Coach Reed and like the staff, we do a good job of when, when we're down or when, you know, say adversity hit, we do a good job of handling it. You know what I mean? We, just the stuff that we go through, the practice and stuff like that. But when you got guys like Trav, like I said, we, I've been, I've been to four Super Bowls. So it's like, we know what we capable of doing when we down. Like, we, when we go down like 10 points, it's never a point we like, dang, like. It's like, we know we can score at any given moment. And then now our defense was crazy this year. So it's like, we know they gonna give us a stop. We just gotta score as an offense, you know? But when we going down and we got to halftime and Trav was just like, I mean, he flipped over a few things and was just like, bro, what are we doing?

• 8:16Speaker 04

  We got to get right. And then I think he was so more mad at like some of the play calls and situations, like why are we so conservative? Or like to give us some plays, we'll go out there and play. And after he said all that, man, like you could tell the whole locker room, like, yeah, let's go, let's go ahead and win this thing. We playing, we playing around too much. And, uh, but I just feel like as a team, as a unit, when we get to those crap situations, and you got those playmakers like Trav and Pat, then on the other side with like Sneed and Chris Jones, it's just like the element of experience of like, we been here before, we know what we gotta do, we know that the little things matter, rather than it's like a mistake or a pill, whatever, we know we can't have that. And that come into factor throughout the whole game, honestly.

• 8:56Fred Taylor?

  Go back to October, your return back to Kansas City. You and Pat, you're on film, you're doing your handshake. Then he said, I got my dog, my dog back. How does that make you feel, you know, being welcomed back with open arms, you know, just back where it all started? What was that moment like, your return back to KC?

• 9:15Speaker 04

  Well, I mean, everything because like, I don't know if everybody really know the, my situation, but when I had my injury in KC, like, I mean, I ain't probably played football in so long because I was, I was hurt. It took me a long time to get back. Then I got to the Jets. I don't know if they just already had their guys that they wanted to play and like, in a sense or whatever. And then it just really wasn't working out. But once I got the feeling that KC wanted me back, and them actually trading for me back meant a lot because I felt like they really valued me in a sense. And then obviously, Pat telling me, like, man, I learned how you back. And Trav and, you know, all those guys that I've been with there for the last past four or five years, it's like, those guys, you know, they welcomed me back with open arms. So it meant a lot to me, especially

• 9:58Speaker 04

  I ain't been in a play. And then going back to the team that it started with, that actually gave me some more opportunities to go out there and make some plays and help the team win. It means a lot. So glad they could just help me come back. And then I was winning the Super Bowl. So that's top of the list.

• 10:11Fred Taylor?

  We'll wrap back around, but to Fred's point.

• 10:15Channing Crowder?

  What went wrong with the Jets? Like, I was surprised when you went back, I was surprised.

• 10:20Speaker 04

  Right.

• 10:20Channing Crowder?

  Because I'm like, we saw you ball, like, we saw you go to Super Bowls, you know what I'm saying? And then you go to the Jets, and then they trade you. What went wrong there?

• 10:29Speaker 04

  I just feel like it wasn't, we're on the same page. Like, and I ain't trying to bash nobody like that, but it's like, y'all treat certain guys that shouldn't be treated like they should be treated. And it's like, I don't understand where y'all feel like that I don't compare or I can't compete with any of these guys that y'all playing in front of me. You know what I mean? And I just feel like it's not an established coaching staff there as well. Like, you just got a new coaching staff that came in, you know, and like, there's no standard there. It's like, everybody do what they want to do, and it's like, whatever. Now, granted, the defense have a more of a stabilized standard with that, with the coaching staff on that side. So you could tell the defense got a, they got a standard, but the offense is just like, all right, we'll just figure it out, it's Aaron's show. Let Aaron do what Aaron do, you know what I mean?

• 11:14Speaker 04

  But then when Aaron go down, it's like, we don't know what to do. But it's that same coaching staff that just was out of a job the previous year, then obviously get a new job. So I just feel like it, it follows, see what's going on. Like, meetings, because this, this my thing was, y'all can't tell me about winning. I'm, I'm, I'm, I've been to four Super Bowls in five years, you know what I'm saying? Now, you feel me? But beforehand, I told, I've been to four AFC championships, I've been to three Super Bowls, I've won two of them. Like, I know what winning looks like. I know what winning is. So y'all keep telling me certain things, it's like, I'm not going for that. Like, because y'all not doing it right. Like, we got hammers on the ground, we don't got no discipline, people feel like, it's too many individual egos in this locker room or whatever.

• 11:58Speaker 04

  And I'm telling them, I'm like, that's not going to get y'all to win, it's not going to happen. Because you stay in the KC locker room, it's Pat, it's me, it's Trav, it's, it's Nick Allagretti, it's Noah Grant, we all on the same level, nobody's treated differently. If, if Coach say- If Coach Reed say we don't wear yellow cleats in practice, if Pat go out there and wear yellow cleats, Pat go back and sign and change his cleats. Everybody treated the same. So it was like, when we was out there, there was no really structure was going on. And obviously it's new, new coaches and stuff like that, but I'm trying to help y'all out. But y'all like, oh, whatever, and like, and then y'all telling me certain things like, I meet with you and you like, yeah, I'm gonna get you some plays, you know what I'm saying? Make sure you get into ball and game plan, but I play two plays. That's not, you can't tell me that. Everybody you tell me, I feel like these guys better than you and will figure you out

• 12:43Speaker 04

  later. I bet, I can take that, I'm a grown ass man, I can, I understand that. But when you keep telling me and feeding me lies and saying certain stuff, then that's what don't sit right with me because like, I know for a fact I'm better than him for sure. Like, I ain't trying to, you know, I know I'm better than him, better than him too. Garrett Wilson, the only person y'all should just be like, hey, he can go. He's one of them guys. So I have no problem with y'all putting it around Garrett Wilson for sure, I don't, I don't care. Like, that's fine, but when it comes to certain other things, like, come on, like, I don't understand why I'm not in the rotation with that. And y'all never gave me a reason as to why either. You know what I mean?

• 13:16Ryan Clark?

  A lot of times when you spend, for you, it was your entire career with a great organization.

• 13:24Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 13:24Ryan Clark?

  With a Hall of Fame head coach, with a Hall of Fame quarterback, with a standard that has been set of excellence, you get spoiled.

• 13:32Speaker 04

  Oh, for sure.

• 13:33Ryan Clark?

  Like, we talk, we talk a lot of times about being in Pittsburgh and always being in contention for championships and always being in contention to win the division. You almost start to take it for granted, right, that this is how NFL football works. And you got an opportunity to realize that's not how it works in all 32 buildings. Take me back to the decision to become a New York Jet though.

• 13:57Speaker 04

  Right.

• 13:57Ryan Clark?

  Right? You're coming off of a Super Bowl win. You've had opportunities to show some flashes of what you could do, but never got an opportunity to be the man or be the actual number two because of some of the players you guys had. What was it about New York that made that the place, or at least the place you thought you could continue your career?

• 14:16Speaker 04

  Right, so piggyback, you said by like, never having opportunities, because like, obviously when I came in was Tyree Kill, Travis Kelsey Samuel Watkins, DeMarcus Roberts, like I had some dogs in front of me. You feel what I'm saying? Like I never got a chance to go to a situation where they like, hey, we gonna see what you can do. Basically, we already had Tyreek and Trav, they getting 140, 150 targets a piece. Right. What do you want me to do? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, people trying to tell me, oh, you have a breakout year, but you not see who's in front of me, bro? Like, these men, they getting 14, 1500 yards a piece. Like, that's 3000 yards between two people. And I admit you got this, this horse in Samuel Watkins who still got some juice left. Right.

• 14:54Speaker 04

  Like, ain't nobody playing over them three, bro. Oh, DK Metcalf, Hollywood Brown, Akil Harry that I drafted, uh, Debo. I don't care who got drafted in my class. If y'all went to the Chiefs, y'all would have been on the back burner as well. You know what I mean? Like, if I went to the Colts or for now, they like, yeah, we gonna use you. Of course, I'mma, I'mma do my thing, you know what I'm saying? So, after my third year, I got to my fourth year, and Tyreek ended up leaving. He go to the Dolphins. I'm like, oh, yeah, like, this is my chance to be the number one. Never got opportunity because obviously I've been playing that role so long that they just feel like that's the role for me. That's what they saw me. And that's no disrespect, no disrespect or whatever, but that's what they saw me. Then we get Juju, Marquess come in, so it's kind of like one of them things that they just like, hey, we just gonna, Juju's number one now, you know what I'm saying?

• 15:39Speaker 04

  And I was like, okay, cool. Now, obviously, I'm having a great year. I had like four, five touchdowns coming in like week five, I mean, what, week eight? I'm like, yeah, I'm finna, good year. And I get hurt with my injury. So, coming back from my injury, this is when the Jets came in, and obviously it was more of like, okay, I'm gonna get paid whatever circumstances. But then I was looking at the Jets like, dang, like, the defense crazy. And then, like, the receiver corps, you know, Corey Davis there, Garrett Wilson is there. I'm like, I know I can go in there and definitely play with those guys. And then, then the rumors of Aaron supposed to be coming there. So, I'm like, okay. Like, this is, this might be a great situation, especially a guy of Aaron, you know, I don't want to go to, from Pat to somebody that's not as good. Somebody that's talented.

• 16:19Speaker 04

  Right, I need somebody that's talented. So, that, that hit, that conversation of him actually going to the Jets actually made it better. They came with a good offer, a one-year deal. I'm like, yeah, perfect. Why not? It makes a lot of sense. Great defense. The system coming in that uses, like, I knew Marquess was in that system. They used him great with the deep ball threats and stuff like that. I'm like, I could definitely be in that role, you know, and talking to the coaches, I was familiar with the receiver coach. He recruited me in, in high school. He was at Tennessee. So, I, I got some ties there, you know. I'm like, okay, cool. That's, that's dope. So, I ended up, you know, signing or whatever, then. The grass just ain't green on the other side. Basically, I'm trying to say. They definitely rehabbed me to where I need to be. I got where I need to be and then finally when the season stuff got there, it just, it just really wasn't working out.

• 17:03Ryan Clark?

  Take me back to the fourth play of offense though. Right? You said it was Aaron, Aaron, Aaron, Aaron. I was there, bro. As soon as he ran out with that flag in the dark, four plays later, that was a different stadium.

• 17:19Speaker 04

  It was over there.

• 17:20Ryan Clark?

  What's the, well, you're sitting on the sideline and you see it happen. What was your reaction to that?

• 17:26Speaker 04

  Oh shit.

• 17:28Speaker 04

  It gonna be a whole day, boy. Cause you gotta understand, people understand, Aaron is the offense, bro. Like, his thought process and his ability to get to anything that he wants to is scary. There's no bad play with Aaron. Like, I'm telling you, like, run deep, you run down the middle, you stop right here and you run this slant. He has the ability to matter. Hot routes, he has that ability. Like, he has that ability. It's like, and he's so smart with defenses. Like, I, like, in practice, the man be like, yeah, he's blitzing. Hey, you back up, you not coming. It's like, how do you know he's not blitzing, bro? Like, you don't know that. You know what I'm saying?

• 18:13Speaker 04

  And, like, his mind is, is, like, fantastic. And then, you know, people trying to compare him and Pat. But I'm like, man, listen, far as, like, the experience wise, like, kinda like, I guess like Tom Brady, like, he just, he can read defenses. And like, Aaron to the point, he read them and he know like, hey, he's blitzing, I want you to run a slant right here. I'm gonna, like, I'm gonna throw the ball to you. You know what I mean? So like, that in itself makes the offense so dangerous. But when a guy like that leaves that offense and it's like more so, it's conceptual, like, okay, now just make the throw, it get harder for the offense. And then you put a lot of pressure on Zach Wilson to try to carry, to put into that role, rather than making the offense where he's at his best. They didn't do that, you know what I mean?

• 18:58Speaker 04

  Because I've been situated with Pat getting hurt. And we had Chad Hiddie in there, or what was it? More? Yeah. And Coach Reek just made the offense where it solidified them, and we won games. We were 4-1 when Pat was out, you know what I mean? And with Chad, then we won a playoff game. Yeah, finished the playoff game with Cleveland, right?

• 19:18Fred Taylor?

  Beat the fuck out of my team.

• 19:20Speaker 04

  Browns? Yeah.

• 19:21Fred Taylor?

  No, the Jags.

• 19:22Speaker 04

  That was the Browns who beat them.

• 19:23Fred Taylor?

  You beat the Jags, well, not in the playoffs.

• 19:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, he got hurt last year against the Jags going into halftime.

• 19:28Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, before you guys went in the playoffs.

• 19:29Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, we did, yeah, exactly, yeah.

• 19:31Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, and Chad came in and led a 96-yard drive.

• 19:34Speaker 04

  96-yard drive.

• 19:34Fred Taylor?

  And winning the game.

• 19:35Speaker 04

  But the way we changed the offense, well, when Chad went in, we didn't call the same plays. It was like, we know where to get him out. You know what? Simple passes, boom, here he goes, slant, hit, run the ball here. It was simple, so you don't got to think. I think Zach was doing so much thinking, it's like, damn, I can hot rock this, but it's like, but is this the defense that I hot rock this against? Because you go to the line with two plays every time in that offense, you know what I mean? So it's like, what was you doing? So I figured when he went out, it was like, yeah, it's gonna be a long, it's gonna be a long season.

• 20:03Fred Taylor?

  Players have to make adjustments. Coaches have to make adjustments. And you alluded to that a few minutes ago. You talked about getting there, the staff, you know, not necessarily having, you didn't use the word experience, but you alluded to it because the defense was set. The offense just couldn't make those adjustments to get you guys

• 20:22Speaker 04

  Right.

• 20:22Fred Taylor?

  to where you wanted to go. You mentioned your injury a few times.

• 20:27Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 20:27Fred Taylor?

  You had, I think you developed something called osteitis pubis.

• 20:32Speaker 04

  Osteitis pubis, yeah.

• 20:33Fred Taylor?

  Where you couldn't walk for four or five days. You were in the hospital for a while. You had to watch your team from the sideline win Super Bowl 57.

• 20:42Speaker 04

  Right.

• 20:43Fred Taylor?

  What was that moment like?

• 20:45Speaker 04

  You know what? It was really an emotional moment because I was in my fourth year, man. Like, I feel like it was my time to really go shine, and I really was having a good year. Like, I was scoring every game, I was in the game plan, I was having a good year. And I also look at it as too, I was like, kind of like, over my head a little bit. I feel like it was kind of like God, like, just like, nah, calm down. I'm a big believer in faith, I don't think things happen, I think everything happened for a reason. So when that injury happened, you know, and remind you, the injury was

• 21:18Speaker 04

  Out of nowhere, my angel was out of nowhere. Like, I finished the game, perfectly fine. Got home that night, my family, perfectly fine. I'm running around, having fun, doing whatever. And literally the next day, the next day, my folks leaving. We chilling, I wake up normal, like, normal day. Thought we doing that, just chilling. And I catch a cramp, like, in my stomach. I'm like, damn, what on? Like, cramp, okay, it's cool, whatever. I'm walking it off. Every ten minutes it get worse. Like, like, worse, like, you keep cramping, keep cramping. Like, freak. Then, ten minutes go by, you get to the point where, like, I'm limping. Like, I'm limping, like, damn, I can't even walk. So I'm holding the walls to walk.

• 22:03Speaker 04

  I'm like, what the, what's going on? So I'm like, all right, I'm like, okay. I go lay down. My girl is outside, she's getting, she's getting some food. So I call her, like, can you bring me some food? But I said, I'm hurting right now. I'm like, I don't know what's going on, but she's like, okay, cool, whatever. She get back, I try to get out of bed, I really can't move for real. I'm like, Rick, eh, man, I'm hurting right now, bro. Like, I'm ready to go to the hospital. He said, well, if it get worse, let me know. I call him back in two minutes. I said, no, this shit work. Like, I, I need help. He like, okay, let me get right. So I get the emergency room, whatever. He said, can you make it to the, to the emergency room? I'm like, yeah, I can. Like, so my girl literally carries me to the car. I get in the car, emergency room, the doctor's still waiting for me out there.

• 22:48Speaker 04

  I literally get out the car, I take two steps and sit in the wheelchair. And I ain't walking for the next five days. Wow. Now, I'm talking about, literally, I didn't walk. So like, when I get to the, so you know, first you got a emergency room, they, they transfer you to like the regular room. So I'm in the, in the, in the emergency room, whatever. I'll never forget, this the worst pain I've ever experienced in my life. Like, I'm talking about, I'd rather get shot. I'd rather, like, you hit me with a baseball bat. Like, I'd rather any of that than this pain I felt. So I'm in a wheelchair, and they stand me up, and they try to put me in the bed. Like, sit me down in the bed.

• 23:29Speaker 04

  So I'm sitting on the edge of the bed, and the doctor picking my legs up and trying to move me. And he moved me, bro. I swear to God, I thought, I can't even describe the pain. Like, I cried, like, a lot. Like, I cried so hard. Like, they like, "What's wrong with you?" I'm like, "Bro, this hurt." Like, I'm crying, talking. So, finally, we get in the bed. So, the bed they put me in, the emergency room, is the same bed they transported me to the hospital. I stayed in that bed for five days. I could, like, move my feet a little bit, but, like, far as, like, lifting my legs, couldn't lift my legs. I stayed there. I had a bruise on my back for how long I sat in the bed.

• 24:11Speaker 04

  Like, a white bruise on my back. And, like, the whole time, I'm thinking, it's like, is this it? Like, now I'm with grand certain shit. Like, damn, I wish I would've just gave it a little bit more, like, you know, this and that. And then, finally, like, the fourth, fifth day, I'm like, just moving my leg a little bit. I can start going like this. I'm like, "Okay, it's coming back. My feeling coming back." And they had specialists come out of, like, I don't know where from. Cali came out, New York, Miami specialist came out, drawing blood. Like, I drew so much blood that I ain't know my body had that much blood. Like, for real. Like, I'm like, "How much blood that gonna draw me? You know what I'm saying?" They trying to figure out what's wrong with me because I couldn't have no finger in my legs. They kept saying, "I see out this pubis." But two specialists, like, "Ain't no way it's I see out this pubis."

• 24:55Speaker 04

  Can't be, because look at his, you know, his symptoms. It can't be that. So, finally, they like, "Yeah, like, you know, you gonna get better over time." So, the 10th day, I ended up getting discharged from the hospital. I'm on a walker. A walker, bro. An old walker. Yes. I'm on a walker, right? So, I'm like, "Ain't no fucking way I'm on this damn walker, bro. No way." So, I'd say, you know what? I told my guy, "I'm walking out of this." So, I'm walking. And every day, I get better and better. Better and better, better and better. To the point where coach was like, "Hey, you think you can come back?" My goal is to come back, like, two games before the playoffs. I want to get some games in, then, you know, get ready for the playoffs. Then I, "Okay, bet." So they activate me off IR. I'm running routes full speed. Oh, I'm good, I'm feeling fast, whatever. We get to practice, I'm practicing.

• 25:39Speaker 04

  I can't turn. So I catch it like a straight, like a flat route, boom, and try to turn up field. My, like, my pelvis will lock up. And I have to, like, stop. Right? Then I start getting massage on my pelvis doing this. Then my drawers will go out. Like, I can feel my drawer pulling. Like, "What's going on?" So I have no idea what's going on. I'm thinking, they tell me that you, you, you normally gonna get better. Like, every day is gonna get better, basically. I didn't require surgery. I didn't know nothing. So I'm like, "All right." So finally, we practicing. I then played the first game. And then AFC Championship come in. I'm like, "Man, I'm trying to play." So I, I get shot up for practice. Like, I get two shots in practice, like, the shots, and I get shot up in practice, right?

• 26:25Speaker 04

  Go out there, I say, "I can deal with this." "Yeah, for sure, I can deal with this, I can do whatever." It still hurt, but I can deal with it, though. And we get to AFC Championship game. Let me tell you how God worked. So God really worked in mysterious ways because the AFC Championship game, I catch that pass. I get hit, regular, normal hit. And I pulled my drawer off the bone. And I pulled this one as well. So now I require surgery, right? I get with Dr. Myers in Philly. He opened me up. And then I was, I was a surgeon, he, he repaired everything. And he talked to me, he said, "You know, it's the best thing you could've did was have surgery?" I'm like, "Yeah, my, my drawer tore." You know what I'm saying? Why would I not have surgery? He said, "No." He's like, "Your pelvis." He was like, "You had so much infected tissue

• 27:11Speaker 04

  and scar tissue over your pelvis that I couldn't ignore it." He was like, "It was a lot." So he ended up cleaning all of that up. Attaching both of my drawers back. He had pulled something out of my rib and like on my drawer or whatever. And literally was like, yo, like, I don't tell him what would have happened if you never would have pulled your drawer. You would have kept having problems because they never told me I required surgery.

• 27:36Ryan Clark?

  We talked to Dion in the offseason and he showed us his foot and his leg from having to have surgeries. Coach Prime.

• 27:46Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 27:46Ryan Clark?

  And we were just trying to figure out, you know, this is one of the fastest humans that's ever played football.

• 27:53Speaker 04

  If not be fast.

• 27:54Ryan Clark?

  And then now to be in a position where he couldn't jog. For you, being a track guy, being a 4.2, 4.3 guy, and you can't walk.

• 28:04Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 28:04Ryan Clark?

  The, how difficult was that for you to deal with when being fast and speed and running is part of your identity? And now you can't even generate enough power to pick your legs up.

• 28:19Speaker 04

  On a walker.

• 28:21Ryan Clark?

  On a walker.

• 28:22Speaker 04

  Ain't no fuck.

• 28:23Ryan Clark?

  Bro, I'm so mad though. But to me though, it's not that you on a walker, bro. You said for five days you sat in a bed.

• 28:28Speaker 04

  I sat, I laid in the bed, yeah, and couldn't move.

• 28:30Ryan Clark?

  You had, you had no way to utilize your legs. How difficult is that to go from who you were and always have been to bedridden as a very young man?

• 28:41Speaker 04

  Oh, I thought it was over. I just feel like, like, I just feel like then in that moment, that's what like, you think about everything. It's like, damn, like, we really take this shit for granted because like, this shit, it can end any day. You know what I'm saying? So like, now I'm so much more grateful of these opportunities and playing the game, practicing. Because like, there right there, I couldn't run, walk. So the what make me be able to provide for my family is not, no longer something I can do to provide for them. So what do I do from here? You know what I'm saying? What do I do now? Like, if I don't get my feeling back in my leg, what do I do? Have I did enough to make sure we're good? Like now, like, I can't use my leg, so what can I do?

• 29:23Speaker 04

  So they're all this, you thinking about all of this and whatever, it's like, dang, like. This really give you another perspective into a whole other realm of like, kind of like a outer body experience, like looking at yourself like, what you gonna do? Like, you know what I'm saying? What you do now? Like, and I just, like I said, I'm a bit believing in God, so I just feel like that was his moment of sitting me down and you gotta get right, bro, like whatever demons you going through, you gotta get right, you know what I'm saying? So like, I just feel like that, and like you said, but not feeling them last, bro, like, I'm like, damn, man, this shit is crazy. They're finally getting the pack, the run again like that, and you just gotta be grateful for that.

• 29:59Channing Crowder?

  It's funny, I was gonna ask you, did that change you as a man? Like a football player, obviously, like you say, and the work ethic and all that, but like as a man, as a spouse, as a father, we're just playing with your little baby.

• 30:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 30:12Channing Crowder?

  Like, did that change, did that change you big picture?

• 30:15Speaker 04

  Yeah, definitely, cuz like, I always had a different perspective on life, cuz I work with special need kids, so like, that's my, that's my, my passion with special need kids. But actually being on that side of like, that challenge, like you, I have no control over this. So it's like, as a man, it's like, damn, like, if this for real, like, how do I, how do I manage this? Like, how do I go from this? Like, it makes you just look at life a little bit differently, like, you know what? Like, we gotta take these moments, you know, we gotta cherish these moments. Like, I'm sitting here with y'all, like, you know what I'm saying? God, I've watched, you know what I'm saying? Like, you gotta cherish these moments, cuz...

• 30:54Speaker 00

  Having uncontrolled eosinophilic esophagitis, or E O E, can mean you're stuck in many ways, like cutting your food into tiny pieces,

• 31:04Speaker 00

  or stuck, chewing food for a long time.

• 31:09Speaker 00

  Dupixentipilumab, a prescription medicine for patients one year and older weighing at least 33 pounds, can help with that. It's a breakthrough treatment that can reduce inflammation in the esophagus and improve swallowing.

• 31:22Speaker 00

  How about this? Dupixent is not a steroid. It proactively treats EOE so you can get ahead of it.

• 31:27Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing, or wheezing, or swelling of your face, mouth, tongue, or throat. Tell your doctor of newer worsening joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection, or asthma. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 31:42Speaker 00

  Feeling stuck with EOE? Start treating with Dupixent. Talk to your gastroenterologist or allergist today about Dupixent. Learn more at dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 31:53Speaker 04

  If that never happened, if that never would've came from, I'd never be here doing this with y'all, you know what I'm saying? So like, just the moments you get in life, it means a little bit more, you know what I mean?

• 32:03Ryan Clark?

  You know, speaking of those moments, I love that Freddie T brought it back to Pat being like, "Okay, I got my guy back," right? And them wanting you to be back. I want to talk about two moments before the Super Bowl, and before we get back to that. There's what, October 29th? You're back for a punt in Denver, right? It's a game that you guys didn't play well, and it wasn't just you. Because offensively, you didn't play well. Defensively, they made a ton of plays. Offensively, for them, they found ways to score, but you mustered punt in that game. And you said, you took, you're just getting back into the groove of it. You took in that game and said, "You can blame this game on me."

• 32:45Speaker 04

  Right.

• 32:46Ryan Clark?

  Now, at the time, Denver wasn't very good, but Kansas City wasn't the same old Kansas City we knew. And you accepted accountability for that entire loss. What was it about that game, or that play, or you even in that moment, where you felt like you had to put that on your shoulders, actually just getting back from the Jets?

• 33:07Speaker 04

  Because I feel like at that moment, you know what I'm saying? Like, if I don't muff that punt right there, or if I let it go or I forget, we could score on that drive. I think that was only up by what?

• 33:17Ryan Clark?

  15-9 or something like that.

• 33:19Speaker 04

  Yeah, we could go tie the game, or we could take the lead, whatever. So it's like... I muffed that punt right there on the 5 yard line. But in my head, it's like I was trying to make a play. It's like, man, ain't nobody in front of me to make this play. And it's cold out there, you know, whatever it may be. And just didn't make the play. So it's like, I feel like in that moment, right there, if I would have fair called it or let it go, no telling we could have went down there and scored and won the game. So I just feel like in that moment.

• 33:46Ryan Clark?

  Was that, was that one of those moments? She was like, I was trying to do too much?

• 33:49Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 33:49Ryan Clark?

  Were you, but how difficult is it though? You go to the Jets, you don't get to do what you want to do. You're now back in Kansas City. How hard is it to stop yourself from trying to make a play to be like, man, I'm back? Like, I'm here to make an impact on a team that I know can be better because we've been better than this.

• 34:08Speaker 04

  I don't think I really came back to be on though. I want to be like a make plays. I think I accepted the role of like, whenever y'all need me, I'm here, basically. Cause I knew they had everybody established. Quig is already there, he's coming to his own, you know, J-Watt there. So I'm like, shoot, listen. Whenever y'all want me to play, whatever I need to do, like I'm here for you. I'll do a punt return, stuff like that. So I'm like, just whenever y'all want me to be on the field, whenever y'all want me to play, just let me know. Like, I don't want to try to come back and be a starter and like that. I'm just happy to be back somewhere where I know, you know, the right things are going to happen. You know what I'm saying? Cause I hate talking about the Jets. Cause they, I'm telling you, they made me so mad, bro. Like, I hate talking about it, even the special teams.

• 34:51Speaker 04

  Like, cause like I came to be the star returner for sure.

• 34:55Ryan Clark?

  And you were not.

• 34:56Speaker 04

  I was not. And that's no good, Zay, Zay my dog. I still talk to Zay. And like, so about that was, I'm there, I'm like, and you know, in preseason, nobody really want to play preseason like that. I mean, it's cool to get, you know, get the, you know, the players going or whatever type of stuff, you know? So we get the preseason. Zay back there, and mind you, we weren't even going to play the preseason. Nobody was until like they felt like the offense wasn't doing whatever type of thing. So that's why, you know, Ayrton played like the, one of the games, I guess against the Giants or whatever. Played like a few plays or whatever. And so we get to the regular season. So now, you know, regular season, you get into a different mold. I'm like, let me go back and return a punt. I'm back there, you know, whatever.

• 35:37Speaker 04

  And they come to me like, yeah, we gonna, we gonna let Zay be the star returner.

• 35:46Speaker 04

  To me, starting a returner? Y'all tripping. What do you mean? What we talking about right now? So, I go to the office, I'm telling the coach, like, "What's up with this thing?" You know what I'm saying? Like, and as a coach, that's something you relate to somebody, especially like, you know, I'm just like a veteran now, like, "You gotta like, look, man, this young kid right here doing good, we need you to go back there in preseason Right. to return a couple, just to, you know, get your feet wet." And nevermind, they asked me that I want to do a preseason, I'm like, "Well, I'm doing a preseason for like, if y'all want me to do it, like, I will, but I mean, I don't think it's necessary." Like, I ain't no rookie, you know what I'm saying? That's how I put it to them. So, I guess they took that as like, "Yeah, we don't want you to, You don't want to compete. You don't want to do it back there, you don't love it back there no more." It's like, "Okay, whatever," you know what I'm saying?

• 36:30Speaker 04

  So, we get to the regular season, they're like, "Yeah, Zay going back there to start." I'm like, so I've been teaching him this whole time, how to be a great returner, do a certain thing. And he cribbs one to win the game. Exactly, he do, right? I love that, right? Right. So, I'm like, "Yeah, he doing all this and stuff," and we get, I gotta tell you the interaction we had, the Chiefs game. Aw, man, I went, I got, listen, that was hilarious. Interaction with who? The special team coordinator. What happened? What happened? Eh, listen, so then, so, so, Ryan, so we going back, we go back to the, like, he was not letting me know, he wasn't communicating with me about the returning thing. Like, what are we talking, you gotta let me know, like, y'all thinking about starting somebody else over me, you know what I'm saying? So, there was no communication, so they basically give him the job, whatever, so that's fine, whatever, y'all do what you need.

• 37:15Speaker 04

  Fast forward to the Chiefs game. Zay get hurt, or he hurt, like, he hurt his ankle, like, on a Wednesday or something. So, as a coach, if your strong returner get hurt, you like, "Hey, listen, hey, Ron, I need you, I might need you this game," you know what I'm saying, because, you know, Zay hurt or whatever, so, just in case he can't go, would you, you know, I need you to start back there for me, right? That's something you relate to your next person, you gotta let him know. That's like, if your QB hurt, you need to have a backup, "Hey, I need you to take in more extra reps this week, because you might have to play this game." Right. That's what a coach does. Like, if you a coach, that's what you do. You in the, you the fucking National Football League, bro, you not in Pop Warner, you a coach. Right. You supposed to, you supposed to let people know that, because if I'm not a strong returner,

• 37:59Speaker 04

  my mindset ain't on returning in the game. It's not, unless I actually have to really do it, you know what I'm saying? So, we get to the thing, mind you, he got hurt on Wednesday, I didn't get to talk to him Thursday. Friday or Saturday, I have not one word to this man. Sunday on the field, we out there catching putts. I got pads on, we finna play. I'm catching, out there catching putts. I'm on the knee, the team finna come out, special team coordinator come to me. Like, "Hey, I need you to be the star returner to this game." I said, "No, I'm not gonna return a putt for you, bro." He told me, "Oh, you don't wanna do it?" "No, why would I want to return a putt for you?" You know what I'm saying? Why would I want to return a putt for you?

• 38:43Speaker 04

  First of all, the reason I said it because not too long ago, you telling the head coach that you don't trust me back there. Right. And I wouldn't meet with you and tell you like, "Hey, why you don't trust me?" So, just to fast backtrack a little bit, it was one practice, I got hurt. I got hurt in the preseason game, I dislocated my pinky, hyperextension or whatever. So, the next, like, the couple days that we catching putts in practice, I dropped like six or seven in a row because I can't cradle it. You know what I'm saying? So, instead of the coach, mind you, I don't drop putts in practice. Like, I might drop it here and there, but like, I'm not consistently dropping putts, right? So, as a coach, if you see your star player, that's like, I'm getting you carries, you fumble three, four times in a row. As a coach, I'm like, "Hey, what's wrong with you?

• 39:27Speaker 04

  Something going on because you just not you, basically, right?" So, in that practice, he never asked me what's wrong with me. He trying to expose me in front of the whole, you know, special team, like, "Look at this bullshit right here." And like, showing my drops on putts or whatever. I said, "Well, if you ask me, I told you my pinky was the hyperextension, I couldn't catch the ball." He said, "Well, just don't catch the ball then." I said, "Why would I not go try it?" Like, I'm confused. It's a practice that we don't have no pads on or nothing. Like, I'm just trying to see what's going on, you know what I'm saying? They talking to me about that, none of that stuff. And then you want me to come to the game and want me to return putts for you? Like, "No," tell me, "I'm gonna remember it." "What you gonna do, bro? I'm not starting. I'm finna leave. So, what the worst can you do to me?" Like, "You gonna remember that?" "Like, fuck you gonna remember?"

• 40:11Speaker 04

  You gonna go back and go find somebody else to catch these pucks? I'm not going out there. Then you go to the head coach like, "Hey, man, just do it for us." I'm like, "No, I'm not catching for that man, bro. I'm not playing for him, like, at all. I wouldn't do it." "Well, do it for the team." I said, "I'm gonna be hurting the team if I go back there, because I'm not gonna catch the ball." Like, I'm telling you right now, I was so checked out, like, it's over. I already talked to VJ, Pat, like, "Hey, bro, come get me, bro. Like, what y'all doing? What we talking about? Like, man, come get me."

• 40:38Ryan Clark?

  Bro, but they do come get you, though. Take me to, uh, we had Antonio Pierce on the show.

• 40:44Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 40:46Ryan Clark?

  And so AP was talking about that Christmas Day game, right? You, you get back to Kansas City. Kansas City wasn't the old Kansas City, though.

• 40:54Speaker 04

  Nah.

• 40:54Channing Crowder?

  Defensive team.

• 40:55Ryan Clark?

  Their, their defensive team.

• 40:57Speaker 04

  That's a different, different team, yep.

• 40:58Ryan Clark?

  Their defensive team, but part of being a defensive team wasn't that it was one of those teams where the defense was great and the offense was great too, like it always was.

• 41:06Speaker 04

  Right.

• 41:07Ryan Clark?

  It was, y'all were struggling on offense. Pat throws, pick six. Jack Jones running the end zone, staring at him. And you lose that game. How did y'all get from that day? Or what changed that day that got y'all to the Super Bowl? Because that team, from Christmas Day, wasn't supposed to win a Super Bowl.

• 41:25Speaker 04

  I just feel like, after that game, I feel like it literally was like, "What y'all want to do?" Like, y'all want to just keep riding his wave and get beat? Because at the time, we was in control of our own destiny. We still got like the number one seed or the number two seed or whatever. And it was like, "What are we doing? We could try our own destiny. Like, what y'all want to do? Either we gonna suck this shit up, we gonna, Paul, we gonna, we gonna get right, or we just gonna, we gonna lose." You know what I'm saying? So what we gonna do? And then that was guys, you got like, the veteran guys step up, me, Trav, like, you know, quit, like, "Let's work hard. We gonna, and practice. We ain't taking none of that shit." Like, the little, the little things. We just had to figure out what we wanted to do. Like, we want to go back and try to repeat, or we not, we just gonna lose?

• 42:10Speaker 04

  Because literally, what we doing ain't working, basically. And, you know, and those next practices, you know, we... Really locked in and you know it still wasn't a person but we was doing the necessary little things that we need to do to get those wins and once we started getting that that energy of winning like it just kinda contagious that energy was contagious.

• 42:29Channing Crowder?

  You bring up the vets, you bring up yourself, you bring up Trav, you bring up Pat, you bring up all them vets, but I remember Andy when we were playing, we old, we old as fuck, but he was with the Eagles when we was playing and I just always remember like watching the film going to play in Philly against him and just knowing there's always another wrinkle. You almost try to anticipate what Andy's gonna do, like he's that genius. You talk about the players being there, but Coach Reed, man, and I respect the hell out of him. Like what part does he play in it, cause you talk about like Travis's halftime speech and Coach Reed seemed so even keel and just nonchalant, but what part does he play in that turnaround that RC was talking about?

• 43:10Speaker 04

  He made it simple. So when I got back there, it was, we had so many personnels and formations and motions, it was so much going on to where we, nobody really wasn't going out there to play, you know what I mean? Cause when we first got there, we like, I got, I said, bro, why we got so many personnels? Like usually you got like, you know, 10 maybe, but like we gotta work and literally after that, the game we lost, like we cut everything in half. It got real simple. That why Rashid Rice started going crazy, he can go out there and play, like he ain't gotta worry about this and that, he just go play, you know what I mean? Quay, just go play, man, J Y, go play, Cole, you in there, just go play.

• 43:54Speaker 04

  And that's when things got real simple and they, they made it simple for everybody. They, the play calling got simple, the formations got simple and we just wanted to start playing ball. I should've mentioned that when you asked whether to change, but I'm glad you said that, like he made it all simple and once that got simple, it wasn't no more thinking a lot no more either, it was just more so let's go out here and get this done, let's go win. And nobody, nobody just knew, when they caught up, they knew what was going on.

• 44:18Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, also became America's pop culture team, Mecole. And you was part of it, you was around here taking pictures. It's homo. Dancing in the videos. You was all in the videos, all on social media, you was a Swifty.

• 44:37Channing Crowder?

  Mecole a Swifty?

• 44:39Ryan Clark?

  He was a Swifty. He became a Swifty.

• 44:41Speaker 04

  I was, I got invited into that.

• 44:45Ryan Clark?

  That's alright, bruh.

• 44:47Speaker 04

  That's cool. Hey, listen, that's probably, you know, she probably the favorite person in the world right now. Yeah, I'm cool with that, you know what I'm saying? Like, but nah, that was, that's crazy too. You know what I'm saying? Like, the money she brought to the NFL and the attention that she brought to the team is ridiculous. You know, but I mean, I just feel like, hey, man.

• 45:08Ryan Clark?

  How much, how much did that have to change things though? When, like, the games were different. You know what I mean? Like, for, for you guys, it is, okay, let's just focus on our job. But it was every televised biased game. If Travis make a play, miss a play, they're, they got a shot of the booth. The security was different, right? There are the normal pictures you take with friends and family now do different things socially. Right? You used to take a picture in the, you know, post game or something like that. And it was just us sharing. And for y'all, it's still the same thing, right? Because I know how it is. This is my teammate, this is my teammate's significant other, this is what we do.

• 45:52Ryan Clark?

  But it changes when it's Taylor Swift. How much of the difference did y'all actually feel as a team?

• 45:58Speaker 04

  I don't think really, to us, it really wasn't nothing because it's Travis, bro. Like, if anybody's gonna do that, it's Travis that's gonna get that right there, you know what I'm saying? It's Travis that's gonna do it. But like, Travis is just such a cool dude and Taylor's so cool, bro. Like, even like going to the crib and like meaner and whatever type thing, you know, he had to get together, whatever. Or even after the game, like, she's so cool, like, where she just, oh, hey, how you doing? And whatever, and she just vibe. It's just like who she is is like the magnitude where everybody else around and make it seem like. But to everybody else, it's alright, cool, it's Taylor. Like, what's up? How you doing? And we keep it at that. It is that, oh, this is my significant other.

• 46:38Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 46:39Speaker 04

  Oh, how you doing? Because to us, we not looking at that. But I was, when we leave, like, man, damn, that's Taylor Swift. Shit, you know what I'm saying? Now that's what you thinking, but in the moment, you like, okay, what's all you doing? You keeping cool, keeping play, you know what I'm saying? But when you get back home, like, hey, that's fucking Taylor Swift, boy. You know what that is? Like, hey, like, that is crazy. Like, even my girl, like...

• 46:58Fred Taylor?

  You caught a game-winning touchdown.

• 47:00Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 47:00Fred Taylor?

  You blacked out.

• 47:01Speaker 04

  Blacked out.

• 47:02Fred Taylor?

  You came back.

• 47:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 47:03Fred Taylor?

  You got your ball.

• 47:04Speaker 04

  Right.

• 47:04Fred Taylor?

  Then she came and she hugged you and she told you something. Were you backed all the way to even comprehend what she told you after the game?

• 47:11Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, I was good, yeah.

• 47:11Fred Taylor?

  What'd she say?

• 47:12Speaker 04

  Yeah, she was just like, uh, I think she was like, uh, good job, proud of you, good game, like, man, it was crazy. Then she said something about those magic, they said you on these magic tricks, because when I first met her, like, I was doing magic tricks with the cards. I got, I got a few tricks I can do with the cards. And she was just like, this is crazy, like, you know, whatever. And every time she see me, she talk about it. So then she was like, man, you on these cards, you just got some, it just, your hands are magical. So she was saying like that, like, you catching a game-winning touchdown? And she was saying that, so I was kind of cool saying that. But I was, I was back by then, though.

• 47:43Channing Crowder?

  And, and, bro, when that, when that play came in, I gotta, because what was it?

• 47:47Speaker 04

  Corn dog.

• 47:48Channing Crowder?

  Corn, but it, Tom and Jerry.

• 47:49Speaker 04

  Tom and Jerry, right.

• 47:50Channing Crowder?

  Yeah. When it came in, and you hear it, and you know you that guy, because you, y'all, uh, the Eagles.

• 47:57Speaker 04

  Scored twice on that play.

• 47:58Channing Crowder?

  On the same play?

• 48:00Speaker 04

  Well, it's a different play, it's two different plays, but, yeah.

• 48:02Channing Crowder?

  It is? Oh, okay, because that's the thing, that little motion and, yeah, the little motion.

• 48:05Speaker 04

  It's the same motion, but a different play that's, that's consecutive, yeah.

• 48:08Channing Crowder?

  And, and, like I said, I praised him earlier, because Andy Reid with that shit, so he wa, he watched them try to rock and roll the safeties, a run, and he watches it, and I, like, I like to actually know a football.

• 48:19Speaker 04

  Right.

• 48:19Channing Crowder?

  So he sees what's going on, and that's how he can call that shit, year after year, and when, when that shit comes in, do you, do you know I'm gonna be wide the fuck open?

• 48:29Speaker 04

  Nah, you, well, it's for man, though. Now, the play is designed for man-to-man coverage. The 49ers didn't play man right there. They was in zone, actually, so, so when that play, when that play come in... Theoretically, you want to see who's, if they're like, you know, if they're on you, if they pressed on you, whatever. Because obviously, they got to run around. But when I went in motion, nobody came with me. At all. So I'm like, okay, it's going to the running back. But thank you, Nick Bosa, for blowing up the backfield. It was going to the running back. If y'all ever see the play, the running back fakes the handoff and come back around. And you just toss it to him, and it's like a touchdown. We ran it a few times before. It's like a touchdown.

• 49:13Speaker 04

  But when I did the shuttle, and I came, I came back out, Mooney, the corner seven, he didn't go to the flat. I'm like, I know, I'm finna be open, for sure. And then, literally, I just looked and Pat looked at me dead in my eye, like, yeah. Like, yeah, I'm finna throw this bitch, you know what I'm saying? So he threw it, I catch it. So I catch the ball. So I catch the ball, I do the game over. And then, literally, once I like turn this way and go like this, I have no recollection of what happened. At two, we jump in the air. And he like, "You're a champion, you're a world champ." I'm like, "Oh, yeah, like, let's go." Yeah.

• 49:57Fred Taylor?

  That's a huge moment for you, right? And you get the game winner. 57, though. Earlier, we talked about Super Bowl 57. You being injured, been on the sideline, and not being able to play and enjoy everything with your teammates. The very next day after the Super Bowl, you had the birth of your son.

• 50:16Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 50:17Fred Taylor?

  What's the, what was the biggest moment? It's a stupid question.

• 50:21Speaker 04

  Not my son. Not my son, for sure. Because like, I always wanted to be a father. I always wanted to have some of my own, and have my family now, and have another on the way. Like, man, because it was like a, it was like a dog in the dark. Like, the game, we won a game, and like, five hours later, six hours later, they hear you call. You know what I'm saying? So I'm like, "Yeah, like, my son." Like, it's crazy, like. And then, just on top of that, but my son, that's the, that's the best gift I ain't got, man. Like, you know, that life is precious. And seeing him every day, just kind of give you that another why, like, why you do, why we doing what we doing.

• 50:55Channing Crowder?

  Was that, was that number, was it number two? Was it the second nut? That's what makes you.

• 51:01Speaker 04

  Nah, it was the first one, actually.

• 51:03Channing Crowder?

  So it was the first?

• 51:03Speaker 04

  It was the first one. But it was a good one though.

• 51:06Channing Crowder?

  Really?

• 51:06Speaker 04

  Oh yeah, I got it there.

• 51:07Channing Crowder?

  Oh, okay. Cause my kid was made on the second one.

• 51:10Speaker 04

  Nah.

• 51:10Channing Crowder?

  Round two makes babies.

• 51:11Speaker 04

  See nah, round one made it, cause I ain't go round two.

• 51:14Channing Crowder?

  You won't go round two?

• 51:15Speaker 04

  After that first one, we might hang it up.

• 51:17Channing Crowder?

  You gotta go to bed?

• 51:18Speaker 04

  I ain't gotta go to bed, just like, I already put the work in, ain't no more of them too.

• 51:22Channing Crowder?

  Then you still gotta reach over and...

• 51:24Speaker 04

  Maybe.

• 51:25Channing Crowder?

  Now it's already glazed up.

• 51:27Speaker 04

  It is, but maybe in the morning.

• 51:35Channing Crowder?

  I'm just trying to ask him about the moment, brother. What's that? Did it make you forget about all the stuff you had gone through?

• 51:44Speaker 04

  It just made me appreciative of everything. I don't say I forgot it, I just feel like it came full circle. I feel like that's the moment like, you know what I'm saying, this is what it's for, you know what I'm saying? Like, this is what we do this for, like, you know? Cause when you got a son, you got kids, it's like, what are we doing this for? You know what I'm saying? Like, something, we gotta leave something, you know what I'm saying? I think just that right there, that made me forget it, it just made me more appreciative of everything that did happen.

• 52:08Ryan Clark?

  You had all those moments, you know? You mentioned not being able to walk, walking out of the hospital with a walker, watching the Super Bowl, and then, you know, having your son. And so you have all of these moments that give you gratitude for the game. And you go to a place like New York, because I've been in places that tell you, that make you feel like, I don't even know if I want to do this.

• 52:30Speaker 04

  I don't even want to play this no more.

• 52:30Ryan Clark?

  Anymore, right? So you were in that moment, and then now it's corn dog, and it's Tom and Jerry, and it's all kind of other things, but you guys, it felt like y'all knew what was going to happen.

• 52:42Speaker 04

  Right.

• 52:43Ryan Clark?

  And you get to that moment, man, and you get to blackout, and y'all having the celebration. What was it like to come full circle after truly what you've been through the last two years? To get to that moment, that catch, not to mention the 52 yarder in the first half?

• 52:59Speaker 04

  That was crazy.

• 53:00Ryan Clark?

  Right? Just to have all of those things sort of happen, man, and now be back in that place, being a champion for the third time. What was that full circle moment like?

• 53:12Speaker 00

  Having uncontrolled eosinophilic esophagitis, or E O E, can mean you're stuck in many ways. Like cutting your food into tiny pieces.

• 53:22Speaker 00

  Or stuck chewing food for a long time.

• 53:27Speaker 00

  Dupixent dupilumab, a prescription medicine for patients one year and older weighing at least 33 pounds, can help with that. It's a breakthrough treatment that can reduce inflammation in the esophagus and improve swallowing.

• 53:40Speaker 00

  How about this? Dupixent is not a steroid. It proactively treats E O E so you can get ahead of it.

• 53:45Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing, or wheezing, or swelling of your face, mouth, tongue, or throat. Tell your doctor of newer worsening joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection, or asthma. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 54:00Speaker 00

  Feeling stuck with E O E? Start treating with Dupixent. Talk to your gastroenterologist or allergist today about Dupixent. Learn more at dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 54:12Speaker 04

  Emotional, you know? And then having my girl, like, just, she always tell me, like, man, you know, God don't make mistakes. He's gonna, you know, he's gonna do everything you deserve. You just keep working, you know? Just having that in your ear and just hearing that and that support. And everybody's been supporting you because, like, there's so much fake stuff out there, bro, like, people just, whatever, especially, like, fumbling in Buffalo. Them two fumbles, like, man, like, just everybody just, you just feel like the world is against you. You know what I'm saying? And like, you don't pay their attention, but then you got the ones, the loved ones and stuff, that really know what's going on. Like, man, you good, like, you know, your time will come, you gonna get that chance, it gonna happen. And, you know, get to the Ravens game and, um, really don't play that much. You know what I mean?

• 54:56Speaker 04

  Play like two plays, three plays, and it's like, dang, like, maybe they gave up on me. You know what I'm saying? Then you go to the Super Bowl and you go catch one, catch a deep ball 52 yards, and then you win a game, win a touchdown. It's like, it's coming full circle. It's just, it's like, damn, this shit, like, it hits different, you know what I'm saying? Like, damn, like, all right. This shit feel good. I'm just messing it up right here.

• 55:19Ryan Clark?

  Are y'all like us, though? Right. So... When you're on the team with Patrick Mahomes, do you feel like the people watching the game? Because when I watch Kansas City Chiefs games, especially the Super Bowl, here was my thought. Oh, Christian McCaffrey fumble. Can't do that with Patrick Mahomes on the other side.

• 55:36Channing Crowder?

  Gave him another chance.

• 55:37Ryan Clark?

  Oh, they let him block the extra point. Can't do that with Patrick Mahomes on the other side. Oh, Brock Purdy threw the football out the end zone on third and four with the pressure. Patrick Mahomes gonna score a touchdown. Do y'all feel the exact same way when you have Patrick Mahomes on your team? It's like, any chance we got, anything that there is that needs to be accomplished, this dude gonna do it.

• 55:58Speaker 04

  I think we feel like that when it gets to like, like that overtime stuff. Like, I think that's when we get like, but during the game, it's like, we. You can't give us no chance like that. We gonna make this happen. Like, it's more like, we collectively. But then when it get like overtime, you take the ball, like, y'all gonna get packed the ball ass? Like, that's when they come in like, you all gonna get packed the ball and trapped? Like, how many times they gotta show y'all that they are made for these moments? Like, Buffalo, 13 seconds, they get down the field. Like, did that not show y'all enough of this? Like, for y'all to get these man the last chance? Like, that's what I'm saying. What ass more they gotta do to show y'all? Like, especially Pat himself. Like, bro, he hasn't failed in this. Not saying he can't, but like, these pressure moments, bro, he live for these.

• 56:42Speaker 04

  He did in the Super Bowl, down 10, 7 minutes left to go, for his first win, he come back and win. He scored like 17 unanswered points. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, he done this, you know what I'm saying? So like, Buffalo, he done this countless times. Even the Ravens, like, he done this countless of times. It's like, y'all just don't understand. Like, don't give this man the back the ball when it's time to actually have to score and get a field goal. He's gonna get down the field. Like, matter he's running the ball, he making some crazy throw or scramble, whatever, he's gonna get down there. But we definitely think like that.

• 57:13Channing Crowder?

  All the post game, Chris Jones and Pacheco was up there. I watched your post game and everybody. And all y'all was like, shit, it's 1-5 over there.

• 57:21Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 57:21Channing Crowder?

  It's 1-5 there. But with him and Reece, because I always tell people, like, if Pat, and not badmouthing the other team, but if Pat was a Panther, you know, if Pat was somewhere else, I don't think, like, I think that alignment, like Brady Belichick, that alignment there with Andy and Pat, like, that relationship. Do y'all know, do you see it? When that shit comes in the huddle? Like, you know Pat gonna make the throw, but you like... God damn, that's a hell of a call. And you know it's gonna get it like that, that, that whole, that whole OC. Or he's the head coach, but he called the damn plays. Everybody know he, see that big shit across his chest, that goofy ass shit he wears. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, do y'all, do y'all recognize, like, speak on kind of that, that relationship between them?

• 58:06Channing Crowder?

  Cause I think that's, honestly, I think that's what makes it special. Pat is an amazing talent. I said earlier, he's the best, I think he's the most talented quarterback I've ever watched in my life. Live.

• 58:17Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 58:18Channing Crowder?

  But I think him and Andy together is what makes the Chief Dynasty special.

• 58:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think, I think in a sense, you know, but then again, like you say, the play calling. Yeah, you're right, yeah, Coach Reed got some plays, boy. He got some shit, boy.

• 58:37Speaker 04

  But his plays that like, coaches would be scared to call. You know what I'm saying? But, but you got one or five that can make this play work. You know what I mean? So I think, I think having one or five is just, you got more of a, of freedom to actually call these plays. Like even when we had like Vic and the son, like, he got that freedom to call it because he got the personnel to do it. You know what I mean? So it's like, they definitely a one-two combo, but then again, it's like, even Pat would sound like, hey, now I called this. Coach, you like that? I bet. Let's call it, it's score, it's first down, you know what I mean? So they definitely got that. Like you know, like, cause if a play get called, it's like, yeah, okay. Coach Reed know what he doing. Yeah.

• 59:21Ryan Clark?

  You talk about players though, and I love the fact that when I asked about Patrick, you mentioned Trav.

• 59:27Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 59:27Ryan Clark?

  And I wanted to ask a pa, a question about Travis Kelce was like, this wasn't like the vintage Travis Kelce regular season. Like it just wasn't, it wasn't, he wasn't as dominant this regular season as we've seen him. But he was turned up a different way in the playoffs. From an attitude standpoint, but also he went crazy early in the game against Buffalo. Baltimore, double-digit catches. But in the Super Bowl, there was obviously what happened on the sideline. But that, to me, that wasn't one of those, like, let me show the coach up. That was like, that dude wanted to win this game. Travis Kelce wanted to win the Super Bowl. He wanted to be a part of it. And then obviously, he has the second half that he has.

• 1:00:09Ryan Clark?

  What did him stepping up, whether it was his level of leadership, level of play in the playoffs? How much did that help y'all finish the deal?

• 1:00:18Speaker 04

  Leadership. When you said he had that vicious season he had, but when I got back, the leader he was, was three, four times more powerful than he's been since I've been there. Off the charts, bro. Like, I mean, the way he was leading, he was practicing, the way he was... His... But his speech before the game, bro. Saturday.

• 1:00:43Ryan Clark?

  What was that like?

• 1:00:43Speaker 04

  Bro, like, let's go run through a wall. Like, this shit is crazy. Like, you ever hear a Ray Lewis speech? It's like, fuck it, go, bro. Like, yeah, let's do this. You know what I'm saying? Like, the speech he had, bro, you like, oh, this man want to win. Like, okay, he on our team, I'm gonna do everything I got to make sure we get this win for you. Like, not even for the team, for you, because the way you dressed, like, man in tears, bro, he yelling. Like, you like, damn, that man really in top. You know what I'm saying? Like, his leadership and his will to want to win was just off the charts. And then you get to the Super Bowl, and he get in the locker room. Like, even when the people, the interaction that Coach Reed have, it wasn't no whatever.

• 1:01:28Speaker 04

  He like, man, call some fucking plays. Let us go work. Like, we ain't calling the plays we should be calling. Then we get to the locker room, he flipped the table, the fucking training bike over, like, this is what y'all want to leave out here? Like, you know, like, shit like this. Like, yeah, like, nah, let's go get this. Like, his leadership was top-notch. Like, the way he led, like, it was off the charts. And you could see the difference in, even in the second half, like, the catches he making, how he getting open. Like, you know what I'm saying? It's just like, you could feel that energy. That energy is contagious. And he got, the energy he has is contagious, bro. Like, it goes from the head coach always down to the people that ain't even playing. It's like, everybody up there, we good.

• 1:02:13Speaker 04

  Like, just him alone, bro, like, is... And he the spark, like he's that glue that held everybody together.

• 1:02:21Channing Crowder?

  It's because he got a black haircut.

• 1:02:23Speaker 04

  Maybe. He's black, bro. He's black, bro. Like, he's not white. It's like Travis is black. Like, I don't think I've seen Travis hang around anybody white.

• 1:02:34Speaker 04

  Like, Taylor Swift might be the only white person he hang around, bro. Like, I swear to God.

• 1:02:38Channing Crowder?

  I joke with him. I'm like, "Bro, you a black dude, bro."

• 1:02:41Speaker 04

  He from Cleveland. Like, all his best friends is black. Like, you go to Travis' house, it's like, there ain't no white person there. It's like Taylor and Jason. That's it.

• 1:02:54Channing Crowder?

  And I think Jason on outside, too. You was at the party?

• 1:02:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, I was.

• 1:03:00Channing Crowder?

  Was that party wild, though?

• 1:03:00Speaker 04

  Oh, we was lit at that party. It was lit.

• 1:03:03Channing Crowder?

  Jason was wild.

• 1:03:05Speaker 04

  He was wild.

• 1:03:05Ryan Clark?

  Was Vegas the best place to win one?

• 1:03:09Ryan Clark?

  From a party standpoint?

• 1:03:10Speaker 04

  It might have topped that first one in Miami.

• 1:03:13Ryan Clark?

  Oh, I forgot y'all had one.

• 1:03:14Speaker 04

  Boy.

• 1:03:14Channing Crowder?

  Miami wild.

• 1:03:15Speaker 04

  Miami. I was single there, too, so it might have been a little, like, "Boy, Miami?" People didn't even catch the flight back home. Like, I was talking about, we missed about 10 people. Like, "Bro, you talking about getting a flight at 10 a.m.?" Like, we sitting in a booty truck. What are you talking about?

• 1:03:34Fred Taylor?

  So, I hear it in your voice. I hear all the excitement. I hear the passion. You talking about Travis.

• 1:03:40Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:03:40Fred Taylor?

  You're talking about Big Red. You're talking about Pat. Just this team, coming back from New York, coming back to Kansas City. You had a hell of a journey. You about to get your third piece of medal, whatever you call it, whatever you want to call it. Can they get any bigger?

• 1:03:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, they gonna be, yeah, they gonna win a picket ring, too, so they gonna make shit look.

• 1:03:59Fred Taylor?

  But you personally, you're back in free agent mode. An opportunity to make a decision, go somewhere else, or either potentially stay here and continue to have these moments. What you gonna do?

• 1:04:13Speaker 04

  I don't know, man. Now that I've actually been on that other side, I think I know what to look for. You know, like, even if it's not here, if it's somewhere else, I, like, it's not really about that biggest payday. It is more about...

• 1:04:29Speaker 04

  Somewhere that's gonna let me spin, that's gonna like, I'm not looking to be the number one. I'm not even number two, but just somewhere I consistently can be on the field and

• 1:04:36Ryan Clark?

  Work.

• 1:04:37Speaker 04

  And work and show that work, you know what I mean? So like, I think going to the Jets, I seen that other side of where it's not where you want to be at. Like, don't look for that money, you know what I'm saying? Like, don't look for this and go somewhere that's established, you know? Wherever it may be, like, that got established coach that is gonna be there, that you know for a fact, you know what I'm saying? Like, know that they got a system in place already, that already have a standard. Man, it'd be a playoff team, like, they already got a goal in mind that's already set, you know what I mean? Can't go nowhere that's trying to get somewhere. I need somebody that's already know they can get there, you know what I mean? Whether they be here or whether, you know, it's somewhere else, but I think I got a idea, a vision, or what to look for, or how to look for it, and what I need to look for, you know what I mean?

• 1:05:19Speaker 04

  So I think, I'm glad I went to the Jets and figured out, like, this not it. You know, I'm glad I seen the other side, because like you said, I've been spoiled. You know what I'm saying? Five AFC championships in five years, four Super Bowls, like

• 1:05:29Ryan Clark?

  That's crazy.

• 1:05:30Speaker 04

  That's crazy, like, it's hard to come by, you know what I mean?

• 1:05:32Ryan Clark?

  It's, bro, no, it's impossible.

• 1:05:34Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:05:35Ryan Clark?

  Two of y'all, it's the Patriots and it's the Chiefs. Like, that's it, dawg.

• 1:05:38Speaker 04

  So like, what?

• 1:05:39Channing Crowder?

  One playoff game, goddammit, fuck you.

• 1:05:44Channing Crowder?

  Seven years, one playoff game.

• 1:05:45Speaker 04

  That's crazy, like, I ain't listen, bro, I'm saying, like, I was like, I don't even know what it feel like to have an offseason, like

• 1:05:50Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:51Speaker 04

  I've been done in February in five years, bro, like, I don't know.

• 1:05:55Fred Taylor?

  You mentioned the checkout exam, I wanted to ask you that, whether it is going or not. But I wanted to ask you, like, I only know what it feels like to check out, you know, after not making the Super Bowl.

• 1:06:07Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:06:07Fred Taylor?

  How does it feel to check out after you make the Super Bowl?

• 1:06:12Speaker 04

  Man, it really is, because the LCA start next month. Like, the time really don't, it don't translate, because you play until February, you want to take some time off. You want to take like two, three weeks off, just get away from football completely. But then you have, what, a month and a half to train?

• 1:06:32Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:32Speaker 04

  You know, so it's hard to check out, because it's like, and what I'm checking out to, like, people that went to vacation, they came back already.

• 1:06:38Fred Taylor?

  Wow.

• 1:06:38Speaker 04

  You know what I'm saying? So it's like, y'all ain't did that, and you getting on the Super Bowl, you see people in the lab training, like, you're like, y'all boys out there lifting weights already, like? Damn, like, how do I check out? Because it's like, you don't want nobody to get the upper hand on you.

• 1:06:51Ryan Clark?

  Boy's already working.

• 1:06:51Speaker 04

  They working. So it's like, damn, you don't want nobody to get the upper hand to you, you know what I'm saying? So I don't really think you really don't check out for real. You just more of a sense like, take a break and then, but I need to get back on this grind because the season's gonna start again, like, OTA is in April, so, you know, you don't get that offseason for real.

• 1:07:08Channing Crowder?

  Bro, I gotta ask, and it's crazy, I just thought about it. Are you a third-time Super Bowl champion if Aaron Rodgers doesn't get hurt?

• 1:07:21Speaker 04

  That's hard to say, man, because that defense and jet guy is crazy.

• 1:07:25Channing Crowder?

  And he's gonna get, that offense is gonna be special with him.

• 1:07:28Speaker 04

  Oh, it's gonna be, it was gonna be special for sure, because of what he, what he's, what he bring to the offense.

• 1:07:33Channing Crowder?

  But would you, would, would, if that, if that team was going on the trajectory of what they did, because I'm a Miami, I'm a Miami guy, I live in Miami, I cover the Dolphins and all that, and the Jets were supposed to win that division until play four, like R.C. talked about. Play four? Freaking four.

• 1:07:50Speaker 04

  Play four.

• 1:07:51Channing Crowder?

  Play four, and we saw that damn calf roll up in the back of his motherfucking knee. Are, are you a champion if Aaron Rodgers does not get hurt?

• 1:08:00Speaker 04

  No. And I'll be honest, because I just feel like it's more than just the players. It take that coaching staff too, to actually be there, to, to have that experience and know really how to win that thing. You know what I mean? Because even like 49, they didn't, they didn't take the ball, like, they took the ball. That right there lost.

• 1:08:20Channing Crowder?

  Takes everything.

• 1:08:21Speaker 04

  They, that, that, it takes, it takes everybody. And I feel like that, that, there is no knock on the coaching staff, I feel like, like, they're, they, they can do with their job. But it's not a knock on them, it's just like, if you ain't been there before, if you ain't got over that hump before, like, as a coaching staff to know what it takes to get to that Super Bowl, it takes a lot. Like, rather you, the planning, the, the, you know what I'm saying, like, the, the play calling, the, the extra films that like are. I don't think that they would have had that. Aaron would only got you so far. Remind you, Aaron what, won one Super Bowl? He only been to one, right? I think, right? So.

• 1:08:57Ryan Clark?

  I was in that Super Bowl. He beat us.

• 1:08:59Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:08:59Ryan Clark?

  Beat us.

• 1:09:00Speaker 04

  I ain't bringing that up.

• 1:09:01Ryan Clark?

  It's all good.

• 1:09:01Speaker 04

  But, yeah. But he been to how many NFC championships, though?

• 1:09:05Ryan Clark?

  He been to, you would think he went to five NFC championships.

• 1:09:07Speaker 04

  My point exactly. So Aaron gonna get you so far. You know what I mean? It gonna take that coaching staff to get you over that hump. The, the, the rest of it, it's a collective group. And like, I know when I get the championship, I got Coach Reed, Coach Andy Reid. Oh, I know for a fact, he know what to do. When he talking about practice, we gonna do this and practice, we gonna do this. Okay, for sure. Cause I know you know what it takes to get there.

• 1:09:28Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:29Speaker 04

  You know what I'm saying? You, somebody else telling me something I don't know about winning, I'm like, bro. Like, we need to be doing this. Like, even the first year in the, my rookie year, we won, like, the 49ers. They was bringing cards, they had a limbo, they going out, they don't got no curfew. We like, we finna beat y'all. Yeah, we, we finna win this game.

• 1:09:46Ryan Clark?

  Bobby said.

• 1:09:47Speaker 04

  We, we finna win this game. Like, y'all, y'all bringing cards, y'all in the club. I, people calling me like, boy, you ain't in the club? Bro, I'm asleep. We got practice in the morning. They like, what? These boys out? Yeah, we, we gonna win this game, for sure. Like, we ain't no worries in our, in our mind. They start too hot, start, yeah, whatever, but we win this game. We gonna win because it's just, it's little stuff like that. You know what I mean? Like, you know, even like in training camp, like. In KC, there's the hardest training camp in the league. Like, you gonna regret playing football when you leave there. Like, all right, I'm, ask Quer. No, Quer Stein, right? I told Quer, hey, look, bro. This training camp ain't no whole, boy. Like, hey, get, get your mind right. It's football, bro. It's football. We, we good. Yeah, I can play football. I go, all right, okay, yeah, you say that.

• 1:10:32Speaker 04

  Six, seven day in, what? Man, this the hardest shit I ever did, boy. I told you. This shit real. This is real, bro. It's hard. Then the next year, right? You know, the ringers come in, get what he telling them? Hey, bro, this is a hard training camp y'all gonna have, boy. Hey, make sure y'all boy got your mind right. I'm, I'm telling y'all, this shit hard, bro. You feel me? Like, this, this training camp ain't for the weak. You feel me? You got 15 half gasses, like.

• 1:10:55Ryan Clark?

  Half the practice?

• 1:10:56Speaker 04

  For the conditioning test. This is for four. This ain't for the week now. You know what I'm saying? So like even that stuff like that, bro. Even like our training camp was cake like up there. And I ain't no knocking on the jet. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't want to ever go back there. But just, you know, knock on them, it was just like.

• 1:11:12Ryan Clark?

  Guess what? After this, you ain't.

• 1:11:14Speaker 04

  Oh, no.

• 1:11:14Ryan Clark?

  No trip.

• 1:11:15Speaker 04

  No, at all. I don't want to go back up there.

• 1:11:17Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, they, they, you cool.

• 1:11:18Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:11:19Ryan Clark?

  You might not be at a party in New York.

• 1:11:20Speaker 04

  No, I don't want to go to New York. I want to be careful. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't, bro. Like, it's just like, like, there's stuff. Because it's not that the playing with the Jets. It's just like the lies and the way they handled me. Paul, like, I didn't like it at all. You know what I'm saying? Like, you can't do that to a player, bro. Like, a player that you paid at that. You know what I'm saying? Like, you talking about, oh, we gonna get you players, this and that. And I play, want to play? Oh, no. Come on, we got something got to shake, bro. Like, what we talking about, bro?

• 1:11:48Ryan Clark?

  You, you know, that is a part of the journey, right? Like, we all have them. Like, Fred's gonna tell the story about his life. There's gonna have the ups and downs. Same with Chan, same with myself. You're young and you already have those ups and downs. And it just kind of shows you, man, like, how life, how life is, right? You can't, you can't always guarantee yourself you're gonna be in a certain place. You guys win, it's your third Super Bowl, which also means it's your third Super Bowl parade.

• 1:12:16Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:12:18Ryan Clark?

  A triumphant celebration turns to tragedy in Kansas City.

• 1:12:22Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:12:23Ryan Clark?

  With those shootings. Where were you when all of those things happened?

• 1:12:28Speaker 04

  Talking to Nick Wright. I'm on set and I didn't know that it was, that was going on. Because I've got the headsets on. And as I'm finna go, actually going with James Palmer right beside him. And literally like my friend like, hey, come on. Hey, what you talking about, bro? Look at that, bro, they're shooting. I'm like, who? I ain't hearing nothing, you know what I'm saying? And, and that right there, as long as like, dang, I'm in the middle. Like, mind you, I'm in the middle of the crowd. And I don't know exactly where the shooting happened at, but as we're going to the building, the shooting happened again. And it's like, oh, this is, oh, they really shooting out here for real. But my thing is like that, bro, like that right there, bro, there's so many kids out there. I heard it was sixteen, seventeen year old over a dispute.

• 1:13:12Speaker 04

  But my thing is too, those like, bro, it's children out here, bro. Like, it's women out here, like it's-

• 1:13:17Ryan Clark?

  Elderly people.

• 1:13:18Speaker 04

  Elderly, it's people out here that's coming to celebrate something for the city. And for y'all to have that on your mind is like, is crazy. Like, what are we doing? Like, you know what I'm saying? That, that just messed up, like, our celebration is ruined because of that. Now, we can't celebrate that. We can't post up from that celebration because of-

• 1:13:36Ryan Clark?

  Insensitive to people.

• 1:13:37Speaker 04

  Exactly. What's happening, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, it's just like, it's crazy. And like, what are we doing? You know what I'm saying? Like, that right there is a, they tell you right there, nobody, y'all didn't, y'all didn't come to celebrate. Y'all, if y'all see somebody, like, oh, yeah, bet. Y'all have, like, automatic guns out there, bro. Like, that's, that, that just, it's sad.

• 1:13:56Ryan Clark?

  How, how much did that take away from the celebration?

• 1:13:58Speaker 04

  Took everything.

• 1:13:59Ryan Clark?

  Because in the end, you guys are just human.

• 1:14:01Speaker 04

  Oh, it took everything.

• 1:14:02Ryan Clark?

  Really?

• 1:14:02Speaker 04

  There is no, there was no more celebration. Like, we were so happy. Like, I got sober fast. Like, it's like, what are we celebrating now? Now, we, we more than that, we trying to figure out that these people are okay. And not to mention one lost their life. You know what I mean? So, it's like, that is, come on, that is like, what, I had like twenty something people got injured, like, from the stampede. Like, you know what I mean? Like, that is, that's sad. So, now that celebration that we were trying to celebrate is no more a celebration. So, that, that just took everything from us. Now, do we have another parade? If we win another one, will they do another parade? Like, you take, this is, the city, like, you know what I'm saying? That, that, that's just sad.

• 1:14:39Fred Taylor?

  Speak to the resolve of the, the people of Kansas City, though, you know, bouncing back. You've seen them come to the stadium, come to the game, kind of just come together for you guys. But how about coming together for each other to say, look, we're not afraid of, of these foolish acts? Speak to the resolve of the community.

• 1:15:00Speaker 04

  I just, like you just said, we gotta come together as one. That we get, it's hard to go have to tell you, we gotta come together as one and look out for each other, especially in events like that. Like, I feel like that's the time that everybody actually do come together and make it right for whatever we wanna be. We there for one common goal, and we were here for one thing, that's to celebrate the city we celebrate, you know, whatever we're celebrating, and leave it at that. Now, all the other stuff can happen afterwards, you know what I mean? But when it's stuff involving kids, children, women, you know, stuff like that, that's when, that's when we gotta have one piece of mind of like, you know, this is all for us, and celebrate as one, whether it's a Super Bowl, whether, whatever it may be. You know, it just gotta, it's gotta come together as one. And I think that's really the only, you know, answer for that. We gotta be, be together as one.

• 1:15:43Channing Crowder?

  And, bro, on the way out, we in your big ass house. I play with your baby, love you, son, you got another one on the way. You got all this goddamn jury on, you got more jail, you can buy my house with all that jury.

• 1:15:54Speaker 04

  Man, you rich though.

• 1:15:55Channing Crowder?

  What, I'm rich.

• 1:15:58Channing Crowder?

  What, what's, what's that, the pivot? So, we ask everybody, that moment in your life? Cause I went back, I was looking, you know, saying there's very little things about your past, coming forward, going to the Jets, coming back and all. What's that moment, that pivotal moment in your life that made Mecole Hardman who he is today?

• 1:16:18Speaker 04

  Pivotal moment, ooh, that's tough, man.

• 1:16:23Speaker 04

  You know what, man? I think the pivotal moment, and it's gonna go back to make me who I really am, is, like I told you earlier, I work with special need kids. And I believe just working with them and getting a different perspective on life, cause y'all, y'all be around me, I'm very cool, but I'm outgoing, I love everybody, you know, I treat everybody the same, like, you know, and working with special need kids, it gave me that insight of another world of like, cause you wake up in the morning, right? You get out of bed just fine, you brush your teeth just fine, you put your clothes on just fine, you get in your car, you drive just fine, you don't worry about those things, right? And those little things that we don't. Thank God enough for just those little things, you know what I'm saying?

• 1:17:08Speaker 04

  So those kids that I have, I had kids that been in the fifth grade, I taught how to write their name. You know what I mean? Like, and to this day, they seem like, I remember you taught me how to write my name. That right there does so much to them because like, dang. But also that same person can't get out of bed by themselves. They can't put their clothes on by themselves. You know what I mean? They can't get to school by themselves, they can't be by themselves. You know what I'm saying? They can't do that. You know what I'm saying? They can't even hold a pencil to write by themselves without having assistance. You know what I mean? It's those little things that we don't understand that we, we get mad at. You know what I'm saying? Or we having a bad day. You know, when I have a bad day, I think about, damn, I wonder if I really couldn't get up by myself. Like, I wonder how bad that day is. But when you around them, guess what they go off of?

• 1:17:53Speaker 04

  Energy and how you treat them. You know what I mean? They don't care that I'm a cold, they don't care that I'm a Super Bowl champ. You know what I'm saying? They don't care who we are, but you came and gave me a hug and you spoke to me. That means the world to them. So I think that's like, kind of what propelled me to make who I am today. And then going through that, then my mama getting a tumor on her brain.

• 1:18:13Ryan Clark?

  That was 2013?

• 1:18:14Speaker 04

  Like 13, somewhere around there. She have a tumor on her brain. And that's a pivotal part that changed me too, because it's like, dang, what if my mama not here? You know what I mean? Like, we don't know if this cancer is, we don't know whatever. To the point, my mama couldn't even bend over. Like, they say this ball right here, like, she couldn't pick it up because she had to sit down. And somebody had to pick up just so they get up. That's how big the tumor was. Size of an apple. Can you believe that? Size of an apple, bro. Like, that's crazy. Like, you know what I'm saying? You coming home with no front score. Her brain was so swollen that they took her front score off. And they sewed her, you know, sewed it back up. And she, and like, her, her head, her brain was so swollen, you thought she had like a score. But it was just her brain, how swollen it was.

• 1:18:57Speaker 04

  So like, that moment and being with especially these kids, probably the pivotal moment in my life that made me who I am today.

• 1:19:03Ryan Clark?

  So what was it like when you got to buy your mama a house then? Right? Because you go from thinking you're gonna lose her to getting drafted and having an opportunity to give.

• 1:19:14Speaker 04

  First thing I did. I know. Without hesitation. I ain't give me nothing. I ain't nothing. And I know it's saying like my mama, but my parents. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. But I say my mama because of what she been through so much, you know what I'm saying? But like, without my pops too, like they still together, you know, been together like 21 years now, 22 years. So like, my pops was one that, you know, he was the sports side of it, the football, like, you a dog, like you gonna be something, like you, you can't come home after school. Right. Like, where you gonna, you better be doing something, you know what I'm saying? So him in general, because I, I hate him like, I leave him out a lot. You know what I'm saying? He, he know, he know it's love. You don't worry, you got kids, you'll figure out, you gonna be left out a lot. I know, right? He, he know what it is. So he, he tell me, I tell him, I know it's good, whatever. But yeah.

• 1:19:55Speaker 04

  But getting that house though, like literally that was the first thing I did. I didn't care about nothing else. I didn't have a car. Bought your mom and daddy a house. Come on. Yeah, we needed whatever. And she picked their own house out. She didn't even know it. So I, I ended up telling her, go pick a house out. Boom. I said, nah, I'm gonna wait the next year. I gotta get my money right, whatever. And that was a positive, having people come over, you know, I know everybody probably seen the video, but get her a house. And that right there, probably the best thing I ever did. Yeah. Congrats, man. Appreciate it. Congrats on three, brother. Man, thank you for having me, man. I've been wanting to get in this show for so long. Hey, it took me to get a game with a Super Bowl. Hell, yeah. You know what I'm saying? You feel me? Hey, you sure what gonna be in here? You stay with the Jets? Definitely gonna be here for sure. You feel me? Damn, fell out, man. Appreciate that, man.

• 1:20:39Speaker 04

  Appreciate you, man. That was great, dawg. Thank you, man.

• 1:20:42Fred Taylor?

  Albert County High School.

• 1:20:44Speaker 04

  Albert County High School, yes.

• 1:20:45Fred Taylor?

  Yeah. Do you know who Clark Gaines is?

• 1:20:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. He played in the.

• 1:20:49Channing Crowder?

  We went 1 and 9, 2 and 8. We went 4 and 6 my senior year. And I was, you know, it was, uh, super 11. They, they, I was super 11 and all that shit. We were 4 and 6.

• 1:20:59Speaker 04

  Sorry.

• 1:21:00Channing Crowder?

  And had a, nigga, I was 6'2". There was nobody on the team over 6 feet.

• 1:21:04Speaker 04

  So you was the biggest on the team?

• 1:21:05Channing Crowder?

  I was the biggest motherfucker standing in the huddle. We, I got a picture at home where I'm standing in the huddle. My linemen all smaller than me. Nigga, we ran the V.I.O. and I was the fullback. Nigga led, led the county in receiving touchdowns, led the county in rushing yards.

• 1:21:18Ryan Clark?

  We gotta take a picture quick though.

• 1:21:19Channing Crowder?

  Led Ford County and all that shit, and we was sorry as hell.

• 1:21:46Speaker 00

  Having uncontrolled eosinophilic esophagitis, or E O E, can mean you're stuck in many ways, like cutting your food into tiny pieces.

• 1:21:56Speaker 00

  Or stuck chewing food for a long time.

• 1:22:01Speaker 00

  Dupixent, Dupilumab, a prescription medicine for patients one year and older weighing at least thirty-three pounds can help with that. It's a breakthrough treatment that can reduce inflammation in the esophagus and improve swallowing.

• 1:22:14Speaker 00

  How about this? Dupixent is not a steroid. It proactively treats E O E, so you can get ahead of it.

• 1:22:19Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing, or wheezing, or swelling of your face, mouth, tongue, or throat. Tell your doctor of new or worsening joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection, or asthma. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 1:22:34Speaker 00

  Feeling stuck with E O E? Start treating with Dupixent. Talk to your gastroenterologist or allergist today about Dupixent. Learn more at dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.