Engagement Advice, Eagles Banner Night, Chiefs in Brazil & NFL Season Preview with Alex Smith | EP 152

92%ers, welcome to another episode of New Heights brought to you by Reese’s Oreo Cups! On today’s episode, we get right to the announcement that took over the internet last week, Travis shares his advice for other 92%ers thinking of popping the question, Jason clarifies who brought jorts for Jason at the Bearcats game, we also break down the Chiefs week 1 trip to Brazil, and the Eagles hanging a banner in front of the Cowboys. Later Chiefs legend Alex Smith joins us to help break down everything about the upcoming NFL season. We get into his favorite stories about rookie Travis, what life is like as a #1 pick, the QBs he can’t wait to watch this season, his thoughts on the Ben Johnson hire in Chicago, why he thinks the Jags might be a sleeper playoff team, and we take a few calls from the Heights Hotline. You can also listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. . . . Download the full podcast here: Wondery: https://wondery.app.link/s9hHTgtXpMb Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-heights/id1643745036 Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1y3SUbFMUSESC1N43tBleK?si=LsuQ4a5MRN6wGMcfVcuynw Follow New Heights on Social Media for all the best moments from the show: https://lnk.to/newheightshow Check out all the New Heights merch at https://homage.com/newheights Support the show: REESE’S: Grab REESE’S OREO Cups today, wherever candy is sold! GILLETTE: Visit https://Gillette.com/NFL https://gillette.com/NFL for more information! YOUTUBE: Set a reminder now at https://youtube.com/nfl and don’t forget to TUNE IN on this Friday, September 5th SEAT GEEK: Use our code for 10% off your SeatGeek order*. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/NEWHEIGHTS ($25 max discount) *Restrictions Apply ALLSTATE: Checking first is smart. So, check https://Allstate.comfirst for a quote that could save you hundreds. LIQUIDIV: Tear. Pour. Live More. Go to https://liquidiv.com and get 20% off your first order with code NEWHEIGHTS at checkout. DRAFTKINGS: Don’t miss out on all the action this week at DraftKings! Download the DraftKings app today! Sign-up using dkng.co/newheights or through my promo code NEWHEIGHTS. GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, (800) 327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/textHOPENY (467369) (NY). Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT/OR/NH. Eligibility restrictions apply. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS).1 per new customer. $5+ first-time bet req. Max. $200 issued as non-withdrawable Bonus Bets that expire in 7 days (168 hours). Stake removed from payout. Terms: dkng.co/dk-offer-terms. Ends 2/9/25 at 11:59 PM ET. Sponsored by DK. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

• 0:01Speaker 00

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• 0:43Speaker 00

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• 0:59Speaker 01

  The wrongs we must right. The fights we must win. The future we must secure together for our nation. This is what's in front of us. This determines what's next for all of us. We are Marines. We were made for this.

• 1:19Speaker 02

  Thank you to our partner, Royal Caribbean. Dude, have you seen this? Royal Caribbean just dropped the Legend of the Seas. It's the biggest cruise ship on the planet. Like, nothing's even close to being this big. And it's sailing out of Fort Lauderdale, starting this November. That's right, this thing is stacked. Seven pools, more places to eat than you can even count. I mean, they have something for everybody. Like, bring the kids, bring mom and dad, shoot, bring the whole crew. Everybody's got a spot, that's what makes it special. And the entertainment, Latin music, ice skating, full-on Broadway shows. It's pretty amazing. Pretty much everything you want in one place. Oh, and did I mention there's a water park?

• 2:03Speaker 02

  You didn't, and that's, that'd be the kicker for me. I love a water park. But the crazy one? Crown's Edge, a ropes course off the side of the ship. Not for the faint of heart, brother. They've also got Playmaker, sports bar, and arcade. So that means games on every screen. I love a good arcade sports place.

• 2:24Speaker 02

  Combination.

• 2:24Travis Kelce?

  All right, Captain, and get the family on the new Legend of the Seas sailing November 2026 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

• 2:32Speaker 02

  Visit RoyalCaribbean.com to learn more. In 2014, when you were a rookie with Travis, when he first arrived with the Chiefs, let's start there.

• 2:40Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 2:42Speaker 02

  Did you expect that we'd end up where we are right now? What were your expectations for a young Travis Kelce?

• 2:47Travis Kelce?

  Did I expect him to be what, like a Hall of Fame career?

• 2:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, that's the question.

• 2:52Travis Kelce?

  Crazy question. Hell, no.

• 2:56Travis Kelce?

  Hell, no.

• 2:59Travis Kelce?

  What, what threw you off?

• 3:04Travis Kelce?

  Welcome back to New Heights 92 percenters. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, a Wondery show brought to you by Reese's Oreo cups and, oh God, those things are tasty.

• 3:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, baby.

• 3:18Travis Kelce?

  Two of my favorites combined into one. We're your hosts, I'm Travis Kelce, my big brother Jason Kelce out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, University of Cincinnati grads. I'll tell you what, Bearcats, man, didn't end the way that that we wanted to, but I'll tell you what.

• 3:32Speaker 02

  They fought, we fought.

• 3:33Travis Kelce?

  It's only, that's all I wanted to see some fucking heart. And that's what I fucking saw. And we got a hell of a team, man.

• 3:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:38Travis Kelce?

  Let's go, baby. Take over the Big 12. Subscribe on YouTube, Wondery Plus, wherever you get your podcasts, and follow the show on social media at New Heights Show with one S. Jason, I think this is where you tell everybody what we have coming up next.

• 3:53Speaker 02

  92 percenters. Football is back. Yeah.

• 3:58Speaker 02

  We're going to talk about all the biggest news from last week, including the preview, the Chiefs heading down into Brazil. We're also going to get into the fallout from the Parsons trade and dive into the rest of the NFL season with three time Pro Bowler and Chiefs legend, Alex Smith.

• 4:14Travis Kelce?

  Smitty.

• 4:17Speaker 02

  But before we get to all of that, we're going to get into a little bit of that, uh, new news. Travis, we gotta talk about it.

• 4:27Travis Kelce?

  I don't think we have to, but go ahead.

• 4:28Speaker 02

  Okay, well, in case you missed the Instagram post heard around the world, Travis and Taylor are engaged. Yay.

• 4:38Travis Kelce?

  Well, and thank you guys for the congratulations that you sent out last week.

• 4:42Speaker 02

  You saw it?

• 4:43Travis Kelce?

  Um, yes, I did. It was very nice of you, Jason.

• 4:46Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 4:46Travis Kelce?

  It was very nice of you, although you had already congratulated me.

• 4:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:49Travis Kelce?

  You had to do it on behalf of New Heights and.

• 4:51Speaker 02

  It felt like you would have been weird if we didn't do it and we wanted to send that message.

• 4:56Travis Kelce?

  What? No, thank you, guys.

• 4:57Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 4:58Travis Kelce?

  And I appreciate everybody that reached out and sent something and all the posts and all the excitement that's been going on. It's been really fun, uh, telling everybody who I'm going to be spending the rest of my life with. So.

• 5:09Speaker 02

  Well, uh, yeah. How was the last week been?

• 5:13Travis Kelce?

  Exciting. It's been awesome. Yeah.

• 5:15Speaker 02

  Isn't it? There's something different about calling somebody your fiance.

• 5:20Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 5:20Speaker 02

  I don't, there's a comedian that has a whole bit about it, but I think they nailed it of talking about like my girl, it was John Mulaney, I think, is talking about girlfriend versus all of a sudden you're like, this is my fiance.

• 5:33Speaker 02

  Or my wife. There's something more way, way more official to it.

• 5:37Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 5:37Speaker 02

  And it's just.

• 5:38Travis Kelce?

  100%. I felt that at the game, actually. It was my first time introducing Taylor as my fiance to a few of my teammates.

• 5:44Speaker 02

  There we go.

• 5:44Travis Kelce?

  So, yeah, it was pretty cool.

• 5:46Speaker 02

  Isn't, don't you get giddy saying it?

• 5:48Travis Kelce?

  I did. Yeah, I still get giddy.

• 5:50Speaker 02

  I love it.

• 5:50Travis Kelce?

  It's exciting times.

• 5:51Speaker 02

  Um, still fresh. Do we have any, uh, advice to other 92 percenters that might be popping the question?

• 5:59Travis Kelce?

  Man, just, you gotta know your gal. You gotta know your gal or your significant other. You gotta know them.

• 6:06Speaker 02

  You can't.

• 6:07Travis Kelce?

  And it's gotta, you can't let how somebody else does it make you feel like you need to do it that way.

• 6:13Speaker 02

  You can't read about it in a Cosmopolitan magazine, expect that they're gonna know your person. You gotta know your person.

• 6:21Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, you maybe, you might be able to get some ideas from how other people did it.

• 6:24Speaker 02

  No, fuck that. Fuck those other people.

• 6:27Travis Kelce?

  I hear you. They might get the creative juices going.

• 6:31Speaker 02

  There you go. That's okay. I got you.

• 6:32Travis Kelce?

  I would just say, know your, know your partner, know, uh, know who you're doing it for and, uh, do it for the right reasons, baby. Everything else would be, be beautiful.

• 6:41Speaker 02

  I cannot wait to hear more of. The planning and everything that will take place, Travis, you are gonna

• 6:46Travis Kelce?

  It's gonna go crazy.

• 6:47Speaker 02

  About to embark on the wedding planning phase of a relationship.

• 6:54Travis Kelce?

  Step. Yep, I've heard about that.

• 6:56Speaker 02

  Get ready. It is a lot of fun. Have you ever heard Mike Leach talk about planning wedding?

• 7:02Travis Kelce?

  No, but that is a, that's a wild, go ahead.

• 7:05Speaker 02

  I'm not gonna, I can't even do it justice. You're gonna have to watch that clip yourself, but Mike Leach is pretty, he's a funny man, funny man.

• 7:12Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 7:14Speaker 02

  No, it's a very exciting time trying to figure out where, dates, all of these things. There is a very important question that Jake and Brandon required me to ask on this show, which is, are they invited to the bachelor party?

• 7:27Travis Kelce?

  Bachelor party, man. How do you even know there's a bachelor party coming? You know?

• 7:31Speaker 02

  I don't. I'm just asking this question on behalf of Jake and Brandon.

• 7:34Travis Kelce?

  I haven't thought about it one second.

• 7:37Speaker 02

  Yeah. So this is a good way to defer.

• 7:42Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 7:42Speaker 02

  Well done.

• 7:42Travis Kelce?

  So, but I invite you guys everywhere.

• 7:45Speaker 02

  Yes. Are they invited to the wedding at least?

• 7:48Travis Kelce?

  Um, what, you know, we're gonna see.

• 7:52Travis Kelce?

  We're gonna see how, we're gonna see how it all shakes out because I don't want to put them at a table that, that they wouldn't mesh with.

• 7:59Speaker 02

  Well, let's, I would just. Let's segue here.

• 8:02Travis Kelce?

  Invite them at all.

• 8:02Speaker 02

  Let's say, let's segue here. Let's segue here. Uh, 92% is for those of you that are unaware, Travis was not the only member of New Heights that has recently been engaged. So, Brandon has gone and.

• 8:18Speaker 02

  So, Intern Brandon, I now flip the question on you. Are Travis and I invited to your bachelor party?

• 8:24Speaker 04

  Of course.

• 8:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:25Speaker 04

  Of course you are. I don't know. I don't know what I'm gonna do.

• 8:28Speaker 02

  Invited to the wedding?

• 8:29Travis Kelce?

  This is news to me.

• 8:30Speaker 04

  Of course.

• 8:30Travis Kelce?

  We just, I think we just strong-armed our way into this.

• 8:33Speaker 04

  You're in. No.

• 8:35Speaker 02

  I have no shame. I am perfectly fine strong-arming my way into this.

• 8:38Speaker 04

  A few of my friends texted me like, hey, man. So congratulations. I'm happy for you. Are we gonna get to hang out with Jason and Travis? And I was like, oh, cool. That's what your second question is. Are Jason Travis like gonna fucking hang out with us? And I'm like, no, not now. But no, you guys are invited. We'll figure out what we're doing.

• 8:53Speaker 02

  Brandon, Intern Brandon got engaged in an ocean.

• 8:58Speaker 04

  I did.

• 8:58Speaker 02

  Truly fantastic. Can we put that photo up?

• 9:00Speaker 04

  My little head bobbing in the water like this and the ring is floating in the air.

• 9:04Speaker 02

  It's a great photo.

• 9:04Speaker 04

  Travis did it on land, which is much safer.

• 9:06Speaker 02

  Land mammal.

• 9:07Travis Kelce?

  I got one.

• 9:08Speaker 02

  I got one. Brandon went aquatic.

• 9:10Speaker 04

  I went aquatic in.

• 9:12Travis Kelce?

  I once thought I would do it on water, but you, you, you did it.

• 9:16Speaker 02

  He didn't do it on water. He did it in water.

• 9:20Speaker 04

  Holding the ring while kicking your little feet, trying to fight the current terrible idea. Don't recommend it. That's my advice.

• 9:25Travis Kelce?

  Heart. You showed heart.

• 9:27Speaker 04

  It, listen, that's the most athletic thing I've ever done in my life.

• 9:29Speaker 02

  Uh, Brandon, I'm sure you have had a lot of people reach out, uh, and say congratulations. Travis has had so many that I've had people reach out and that's been one of the more fun things is hearing from coaches and former friends of ours like, hey, can you tell Travis congratulations?

• 9:44Travis Kelce?

  Nice, man.

• 9:45Speaker 02

  Absolutely. Will do.

• 9:47Travis Kelce?

  It's been, it's been so much fun hearing from everybody, seeing the internet go crazy.

• 9:52Travis Kelce?

  Cleveland, Cleveland Twitter page, the city of Cleveland at city of Cleveland put up their local man and his new fiancee stun and engagement picture. I thought that was absolutely hilarious.

• 10:05Speaker 02

  Local man is a great way to go. That's so good. Uh, we also got a great tweet from awful announcing, uh, NFL podcast host announces engagement to recent guest. Very is accurate, accurate. Um, speaking of announcements.

• 10:24Travis Kelce?

  Was pretty good.

• 10:24Speaker 02

  Speaking of announcements, congratulations again, Trav. Very happy for you, Ante, and can't wait to see what the future holds for both of you. Now we can transition to announcing another thing, which is the New Heights tailgate in KC.

• 10:39Travis Kelce?

  Ooh.

• 10:40Speaker 02

  That's right. September 14th, starting at 11 a.m. The New Heights tailgate sponsored by Audible is coming to KC live in the power and light district.

• 10:48Travis Kelce?

  KC P and L, baby.

• 10:49Speaker 02

  Ultimate New Heights fan experience with food, of course, barbecue, uh, tons of contests and New Heights merch giveaways, a photo booth to take your game day photos, DJ to keep the vibe going, cornhole. Who doesn't like putting, putting a sack in some cornholes, uh, cornhole game to compete with your friends, a giant TV to watch NFL games live and plenty of places to hang out for you and your friends and. It's completely free, free for all fans because we appreciate you guys so much and we want to have a kick ass time and typically that more the merrier. So you don't need to sign up, you just show up. Capacity will be limited to first come, first served basis. Let's go, baby. Walnut Street between 13th and 14th, just outside of KC live at the Power and Light

• 11:32Speaker 02

  District of Kansas City next week for the Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles game. It's gonna be a barn burner.

• 11:39Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 11:39Speaker 02

  Little Super Bowl rematch.

• 11:41Travis Kelce?

  Come on, baby.

• 11:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:42Travis Kelce?

  Come on, baby. We won't get too far ahead. We won't get too far ahead. Just want to let you guys know.

• 11:46Speaker 02

  We're on this week.

• 11:46Travis Kelce?

  Just want to let you guys know that's what we got coming up and make sure you show up and show out, baby. KC always shows up. KC P and L is always a good ass time, man. I've never had a bad time there and sure enough, New Heights is bringing it.

• 11:58Speaker 02

  That wraps up new news. Let's get to out of the house, Travis.

• 12:02Travis Kelce?

  Out of the house is brought to you by Gillette, the best a man can get.

• 12:10Travis Kelce?

  I see you. I see you stroking the beard. You feeling feeling them grays coming back in?

• 12:14Speaker 02

  It's coming. Thank God.

• 12:16Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, I see him.

• 12:17Speaker 02

  My wisdom is coming back by the day.

• 12:20Travis Kelce?

  You lost it for a second. Out of the house, the the Kelseys hit up Arrowhead for the Cincinnati Nebraska games. Shout out to Nebraska, but shout out to UC, man.

• 12:30Speaker 02

  No doubt.

• 12:30Travis Kelce?

  Nebraska played a hell of a game, went down to the wire. Cincy showed all the heart in the world, baby, and showed that that we got some ball players, man. We got some ball players and we can make some plays with the game on the line. And yeah, we got one play that we can learn from and it's early on in the season. Can't let that game or that play define us. We got a lot to be proud of about that game and a lot to learn from as well.

• 12:54Speaker 02

  It felt like a first game. It felt like a lot of just, you know, not like catastrophic mistakes, just kind of like sloppiness, you know, drop ball here, false start here. Like we had 35 yards passing, I think, up into the fourth quarter, but it didn't feel like Sorsby was playing that bad. Like he threw some really good fade balls and I don't know, it just was one of those and hats off to Nebraska. Nebraska played a great game. They controlled the ball. I think they had like 35 minutes or something like that, close to 40 minutes of time of possession. You know, we just didn't stay on the field as an offense. We kind of got behind the sticks. We'd run the ball really well, then all of a sudden getting like a third and long and you know, we had the turnover before half and then obviously the turnover at the end of the game when we were going down to tie or win it, but.

• 13:40Speaker 02

  I I'm with you. I came away like Cincinnati has some something to them this year. Soresby, I like him. Yeah, I know it didn't. It wasn't his probably he'd take back that last throw and maybe some other ones, but I liked him as a player in the game. I think they got some the the running game were great. Walker, number three, he was, come on. He's giving this little putting that foot in the ground, making some guys miss.

• 14:03Travis Kelce?

  Soresby doing it with his legs, man. Show that he's a gamer. He's like, listen, I'm gonna find a way.

• 14:08Speaker 02

  I'm excited about Cincinnati the rest of the way. I think they'll clean up a lot of these mistakes they had in this this game. I also think Nebraska is probably a good team this year. So I think uh I think Cincy is gonna do well in the Big 12. I'm looking forward to watching them the rest of the way.

• 14:23Travis Kelce?

  You know it, baby. You know, and I I have, I gotta give this shout out. My guy Terry Braden, man, he's defensive line coach over there in Nebraska. He had been in Kansas City just about my whole career, man. One of my favorite guys of all time.

• 14:35Speaker 02

  That's awesome.

• 14:36Travis Kelce?

  In in the building, man, and he's he's he's one hell of a coach. And sure enough, man, he's uh he's got them Kern Haskers rocking and rolling on the D line.

• 14:43Speaker 02

  Them Cornhuskers had Arrowhead rocking and rolling. It was, it was.

• 14:47Travis Kelce?

  Nebraska showed up and showed out. You see what UC was there. UC was there. We had a but when Nebraska is right down the street, man.

• 14:55Speaker 02

  UC was there. What are you talking about? It was filled like it was like 90% Nebraska.

• 14:59Travis Kelce?

  But you you felt that because both teams wear red.

• 15:02Speaker 02

  I felt that because it was 90% Nebraska. Like I I mean, UC travels well, but let's be honest, that thing was. There was, I mean, they could have been shucking. They could have.

• 15:12Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 15:12Speaker 02

  There was a lot of corn going on.

• 15:14Travis Kelce?

  Nah, you got me.

• 15:15Speaker 02

  All right. We also have a little thing that they have written in. Jason brought jorts for Jason with this.

• 15:21Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, he did.

• 15:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, except I did it. These are Travis's jorts. I stole them from his closet.

• 15:29Travis Kelce?

  But everyone liked them.

• 15:30Speaker 02

  They did.

• 15:31Travis Kelce?

  On Jason. So that's all that matters right there.

• 15:36Speaker 02

  But that was. Did go on bus in afterwards with Will and Taylor.

• 15:40Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah. We love those dudes pissed. I didn't get a beer with them at the game, but.

• 15:44Speaker 02

  Trav had already been on and it's I had never been on there. They I also told a story of us drinking non alcoholic beers, which I don't think we I mean, listen, if you're in the now non alcoholic. It's just so weird when you think you've been doing something for the last hour and a half, two hours, and then all of a sudden you realize that it hasn't been happening and you just feel deceived. How how could I be so naive to not even check what that's what that was? But yeah, I think.

• 16:16Travis Kelce?

  It was a crazy realization because I was the first one they got it. And I'm sitting there. I had poured a real beer and I had poured the non alcoholic beer and I found the taste difference.

• 16:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:30Travis Kelce?

  And I was like, mm, this one's like a little sweeter. That's crazy. It's actually a really like delightful taste. And I looked at the can. I'm like, oh, let's see what kind with zero because all I read at first was zero something.

• 16:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:42Travis Kelce?

  Like at zero in bold letters.

• 16:44Speaker 02

  I just saw a beer and I just assumed it was beer, but.

• 16:48Travis Kelce?

  I saw zero and I'm like, zero. What kind of this is like zero calorie, zero sugar? I'm like in my head. I'm like, that's be the first zero calorie beer I've ever.

• 16:59Speaker 02

  I just I saw a bunch of people comment like, how did you not know? Like you weren't buzzing. I was drinking before I got in the suite. Like it wasn't like I showed up sober.

• 17:07Travis Kelce?

  I did. I showed up sober and I was sober going into the second half. And I was just like, what the fuck is?

• 17:14Speaker 02

  I was drinking all morning to the golf course.

• 17:16Travis Kelce?

  Let me drink two and get to where I need to be right now.

• 17:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:20Travis Kelce?

  Um, knowing how that first half just ended.

• 17:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:23Travis Kelce?

  Either way, absolutely hilarious. I told her we started dying laughing and she made sure to tell you.

• 17:29Speaker 02

  And I'm back there. I had just gotten another one out of the fridge like.

• 17:34Travis Kelce?

  Delicious.

• 17:36Speaker 02

  What? What?

• 17:38Travis Kelce?

  Zero alcohol.

• 17:39Speaker 02

  It was an electric experience. Arrowhead fantastic job, uh, creating that environment. Nebraska fantastic job. Good luck the rest of the way.

• 17:47Travis Kelce?

  And I gotta, I gotta give a shout out to UC one more time because they knew that they were going into Nebraska territory with that home game.

• 17:55Speaker 02

  They did.

• 17:56Travis Kelce?

  They knew that that that stadium was going to be mostly Nebraska. So they took a home game, went to their territory, put up a fight, baby. I love them for it. I thought it was a ballsy move.

• 18:08Speaker 02

  They got paid like $2 million for it.

• 18:10Travis Kelce?

  Oh, that's it?

• 18:14Travis Kelce?

  All right.

• 18:15Speaker 02

  Did you watch any other college football this weekend?

• 18:17Travis Kelce?

  I watched a whole lot of college football and one of the most touching moments of this, this past weekend was seeing Lee Corso.

• 18:26Speaker 02

  No doubt. Yeah.

• 18:27Travis Kelce?

  Hanging up, man. Just give it one time, one time for Lee, man. I can't tell you how much of me is like, I fucking love that guy. Never met him once, but I fucking love that guy. How he drove the love for college football, for football in general.

• 18:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:46Travis Kelce?

  Man, I can't thank him enough for his efforts, for wanting to make it fun, for making it seem so effortless to enjoy this game. And man, what a, what a remarkable career and went out on his terms, man. It was awesome.

• 19:02Speaker 02

  I'm with you. I mean, an icon, an icon of our childhood, an icon of college football and the entire landscape. We're going to miss you, Lee. Congratulations on an incredible career. Went out swinging.

• 19:13Travis Kelce?

  I mean,

• 19:13Speaker 02

  Come on, baby. Calls the Florida State upset over Alabama.

• 19:17Travis Kelce?

  Come on, baby.

• 19:18Speaker 02

  I know he did it. I know he did it with zero expectation that was going to happen, but I mean, come on now. What a, what a beast. What a freaking beast. Um, all right. Once again, that was out of the house brought to you by Gillette.

• 19:33Travis Kelce?

  The best a man can get.

• 19:35Speaker 02

  Real quick, before we get to the Alex Smith interview and some of the other things going on across the league, we're going to start with bold topics. That's right. Bold topics is brought to you by YouTube. Because we've got some absolutely fantastically massive news. This Friday's Chiefs Chargers game is making history. It's being offered completely free around the world for everyone. That's fucking crazy.

• 20:03Speaker 02

  For the first time ever, there are no subscriptions, no paywalls and no requirements. YouTube is bringing the NFL directly to you so you can watch on the big screen without any hassles, no matter where you are. So here's our suggestion. Cancel your Friday plans, gather your friends and family and celebrate NFL kickoff weekend the right way. And let's watch some, I mean, what else are you gonna be doing Friday night? You might as well watch the friggin Chiefs and Chargers.

• 20:26Travis Kelce?

  High school football is back in action, but you could just watch, you can watch it on your phone, YouTube.

• 20:31Speaker 02

  That's a good point. You go to the high school game and then just stream the game live.

• 20:35Travis Kelce?

  Stream the game live.

• 20:35Speaker 02

  We're doing the both. This is why YouTube.

• 20:38Travis Kelce?

  Dude.

• 20:39Speaker 02

  All right. Chiefs Chargers in Brazil. Trav, how is this week different? Eagles traveled to Brazil last year. I remember a little bit of the talk, but what are you guys getting ready for?

• 20:49Travis Kelce?

  This is the most unique, I think it's been.

• 20:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:53Travis Kelce?

  In terms of traveling to a game. It's not like you're going to the other side of the world in terms of like time zones and stuff. We're only going two time zones away, but we're traveling half a day. So it's, it's an interesting, typically you would go to London and time it up to where you get in London or you get overseas in Europe and you have a whole day in front of you. So you can sleep on the plane. You can at least try and get some sleep on the plane to like, take up the time of the flight.

• 21:22Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 21:22Travis Kelce?

  It's, it's a whole thing right now of like trying to get there and get acclimated without losing the sleep schedule, keeping you in tune with, you know, just the times you're waking up and the times you'll be at your peak and athleticism, you know, throughout the day. So it's a bit of juggling that. I know the, the stadium's two hours away from the hotel. That'll be a unique experience, driving to the game for two hours, the old college football way that we used to drive Miami, even though that wasn't that far away. But we were a delta hand and, and you know, we gotta play it. And it is what it is. I think it'll be, it'll be rewarding if, if we go down there and,

• 22:07Travis Kelce?

  and find a way to win, knowing that this is such a unique schedule and unique experience. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to go down to Brazil, man.

• 22:16Speaker 02

  It's gonna be electric.

• 22:17Travis Kelce?

  It is going to be so much fun, man. And the international games are always a fucking blast getting to see new fans and how they react to big plays and just how they show up to the game. How they, how they act during the game, whether I'm gonna hear chants and stuff, I'm, I'm, I'm excited for all of this.

• 22:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:37Travis Kelce?

  And it's gonna be, I already know that the Brazil fans are gonna go fucking nuts and it's gonna be a blast, man.

• 22:43Speaker 02

  Yep. And I think what you're kind of alluding to is like, there's no time zone changes. So you can't like save time overnight and whatnot. Like you guys are gonna lose a whole day Wednesday and just travel. Cause it's 12 hour flight and you're not gaining or losing. There's no way to manipulate it.

• 23:00Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 23:00Speaker 02

  So you're just gonna be, get up in the morning, fly down to Brazil and get nothing in that day, other than maybe some film on the plane or film when you land, right?

• 23:09Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 23:09Speaker 02

  Yeah. So.

• 23:10Travis Kelce?

  You gotta be smart with your time, a little bit more strategic with your, uh.

• 23:14Speaker 02

  Get your Russell Wilson on, get your, start doing high knees in the aisle, you know, make sure you're, you're moving around.

• 23:20Travis Kelce?

  I don't, I don't know if I'll be doing that, but I, um, I got my Nintendo Switch two.

• 23:27Speaker 02

  Nice.

• 23:28Travis Kelce?

  I'm gonna be Mario golfing and, and.

• 23:31Speaker 02

  They got Mario Golf?

• 23:32Travis Kelce?

  Oh yeah.

• 23:33Speaker 02

  Gosh.

• 23:34Travis Kelce?

  Get hip, cuz.

• 23:35Speaker 02

  I can't do it. I'll be on it all day. I, I just know it. I gotta stay out of it. I gotta stay out of it. All right, let's move on. It went, uh, to have on a international division game. Is it weird to have an international division?

• 23:48Travis Kelce?

  I mean, this would be my second one. We played the Chargers in Mexico City.

• 23:52Speaker 02

  That's right. We only had one game international. It was London. I wish we would have been able to play more when I was there. I like the international games personally.

• 24:00Travis Kelce?

  It's a blast. This would be my fifth country I've played in.

• 24:02Speaker 02

  Fifth country. It'll be your second continent, right? Europe and South America. Well, third continent. If you, I guess, North America, Europe, South America, you're just missing Africa, Asia, Australia and Antarctica.

• 24:18Travis Kelce?

  Yep. So NFL, we gotta keep expanding.

• 24:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, we gotta keep going. We gotta keep going, boys. Um, Australia's coming. That one is not far off.

• 24:27Travis Kelce?

  No, the, the Aussies definitely love some, love some football. They love some competition, baby.

• 24:33Speaker 02

  Does, uh, this counts as a home game for the Chargers? Sucks to suck. Uh, do you expect, uh, do you expect more Chiefs or Chargers fans?

• 24:40Travis Kelce?

  I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I, um, I was, I don't want to say I was caught off guard, but there were more Chargers fans, I felt like in Mexico City than there were at, at the game in Los Angeles. So I'm not sure if, because.

• 24:53Speaker 02

  Closer to the border.

• 24:54Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, their original team, San Diego, was so close to the border that they had a bunch of like, uh, fans built up from that, but.

• 25:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:03Travis Kelce?

  Um, I don't know how far down south, like into South America, their, their fan base goes, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have scheduled this if like, there wasn't a lot of fans for both teams, you know?

• 25:15Speaker 02

  We'll find out. Um, other Chiefs have been weighing in on the topic in the trip to Brazil. Mackenzie Nelson, everything Xavier Worthy knows about Brazil, he says, comes from the Fast and Furious movie.

• 25:30Speaker 02

  One way to do your research, Xavier. One way.

• 25:33Travis Kelce?

  Nice. I have to watch that on the plane.

• 25:35Speaker 02

  Pat let us know he had to explain to Travis how a globe works.

• 25:38Travis Kelce?

  First of all, uncalled for, Pat.

• 25:41Speaker 05

  I think more than anything, it was just explaining to some guys how far the trip was. Um, uh, some guys didn't understand how far the travel was Travis, even though he just was down there like last year. Uh, so I was just explaining to him how, how the globe works.

• 25:56Travis Kelce?

  Very uncalled for. Had no idea that Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo were that close.

• 26:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:02Travis Kelce?

  Um, I knew Brazil was down there. I didn't realize it was that far down there.

• 26:06Speaker 02

  Argentina and Brazil are heated rivals, just so you know.

• 26:10Travis Kelce?

  Yes. Yes.

• 26:12Travis Kelce?

  Just hadn't put those two together.

• 26:14Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, actual football preview, the Chargers are in year two of the Jim Harbaugh experience in Los Angeles. Yeah. What are the staples of a Jim Harbaugh coached team? I mean, frigging, they're gonna, yeah.

• 26:26Travis Kelce?

  Tough as nails. They got heart. They're gonna, they're gonna play all four quarters and every single phase. You know, you're gonna get a well disciplined football team.

• 26:34Speaker 02

  It's like your NFL, it's like your football's football team. It's gonna be a lot of 12, 21 personnel. They're gonna establish a run game, lineup play actions off of it. It's a, they're always physical teams on offense and defense. It's, it's an old school mentality that Jim Harbaugh's teams bring to the, to the game and it's refreshing in a lot of regards. And I can't wait to see what year two looks like for the Chargers. I really can't. I mean, I hope they lose this first game, obviously, but I, I'm optimistic about how they do from here on out. I like that the NFL is doing this with week one, opening games with divisional matchups. You got the Eagles versus Cowboys. We're gonna get to that one in a second to start the season off. You guys and the Chargers, I'm going and doing the Monday night countdown with Bears, Vikings.

• 27:19Speaker 02

  There's just a lot of good games in this week one that I think, I can't wait to watch the games this weekend. It's gonna be so much fun. We got some key matchups potentially. We got Josh Simmons, hell of a rookie debut. He's got Khalil Mack, one of the best pass rushers over the last decade in the NFL. It's a definitely a hell of a welcome to the NFL moment for the young buck. Chargers have added Najee Harris and Mackay-Beckton. Although I don't know if Mackay has practiced yet. I think he's been.

• 27:50Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, I think both of them have kind of been up in question, but maybe Najee has got the thumbs up as of, as of late, but either way, if they don't play this game, they'll, they'll definitely contribute to that team. Both great players. And actually, it looks like that Harris will split reps with rookie Omarion Hampton. So yeah, getting him kind of slowly back incorporated into the, into the offense, I guess. Chargers left tackle Rashan Slater unfortunately is out for the season, man. Best kind of news you ever want to come across such a great player, man. And I mean, as much as you know, that team is going to run the ball this year.

• 28:32Travis Kelce?

  Having a healthy old line is is a huge component, especially early, man. You just hate to hate to see that for such a great, great player, man.

• 28:39Speaker 02

  Absolutely. It's been, I mean, even from his rookie year, it's been one of the better tackles in the league. He's a blast to watch and hopefully the big guy can come back even stronger. We got, they they aren't the only ones missing a star player, though. Rashid Rice will officially start his suspension this week. He will be out for the first six games. And, you know, I think everybody in KC is looking forward to seeing him back out on the field. Opens up a lot, but you know, listen, this is what you're gonna have to deal with, right, Trav?

• 29:08Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, and I think the the biggest thing is that, you know, I want to say we saw it coming, but we had, we've had to prepare for this, you know, knowing that there's going to be some amount of games that he's going to end up missing. And Rashid knows that and, you know, he's going to attack these weeks and make sure that he's ready for when he's allowed back in the building. And and you know what? I think I think it's going to create, you know, that much more love and that much more fight out of him. I think he's got a lot to prove still in this league. And I think I saw a certain type of work ethic and attention to detail that, you know, he's taking it up a notch when he when he's out there in practice. So I can't wait to get that guy back in the building, but we're going to have to hold it down without him down in Brazil, man.

• 29:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, Trav, have you guys brought up any keys to the game? What do you think?

• 29:55Travis Kelce?

  Of course we have. There's a fucking, there's a bunch of them.

• 29:58Speaker 02

  Let me guess, let me guess, let me guess, let me guess.

• 30:01Travis Kelce?

  I'm not telling you guys any of our keys.

• 30:03Speaker 02

  Don't turn the ball over.

• 30:05Travis Kelce?

  That's a huge one.

• 30:06Speaker 02

  Which, I love the keys. I always love going in the keys of the game. All right, take care of the football.

• 30:12Travis Kelce?

  I mean, stats are stats, dude. They're over the, over the like last like four years. The the amount of fumbles in the first week.

• 30:21Speaker 02

  Especially the first week.

• 30:22Travis Kelce?

  It's insane.

• 30:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:24Travis Kelce?

  Amount of fumbles and amount of missed tackles, it's through the fucking roof.

• 30:28Speaker 02

  I just, it's always, it's always the same. Hey, take care of the football.

• 30:32Travis Kelce?

  Where you are.

• 30:33Speaker 02

  Take care of the football. Create turnovers on defense, take care of the football on offense. Uh, stop the run, eliminate penalties and mistakes.

• 30:42Travis Kelce?

  Penalties, eliminate penalties. We gotta be going forwards, guys. We can't be going backwards. Eliminate those. Stop killing ourselves. We need to be playing the other team, not ourselves.

• 30:50Speaker 02

  That's right. That's right. If we beat the Kansas City Chiefs, we'll beat them.

• 30:56Travis Kelce?

  No, we can't beat ourselves.

• 30:57Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. If we be, if we, if we don't beat ourselves, yeah.

• 31:01Travis Kelce?

  There we go. All right. Let's, let's keep this thing moving. We'll see you guys down in Brazil, baby. Sao Paulo, baby. Get ready to get this thing rocking.

• 31:09Speaker 02

  Do you have any, do you know any words in?

• 31:11Travis Kelce?

  No, no, but if, if, if I, I'll, I'll make sure I learn some down.

• 31:16Speaker 02

  Bring some back with you.

• 31:17Travis Kelce?

  I'll bring some good ones back.

• 31:18Speaker 02

  The only two I remember are obligado and uh, servasia.

• 31:22Travis Kelce?

  Nice. Let's talk a little Eagles Cowboys, baby.

• 31:25Speaker 02

  Come on now.

• 31:26Travis Kelce?

  First game of the, of the season uh, for both these teams. And man, what a matchup to get this thing going. A lot going on in the Cowboys world and the, the defending champs.

• 31:36Speaker 02

  I mean, could you think of a better way for the Philadelphia Eagles to start the NFL season coming off of the Super Bowl? And playing the Dallas Cowboys to start the NFL season and dropping a banner? Like, I mean, the

• 31:48Travis Kelce?

  In front of the boys.

• 31:49Speaker 02

  Dude, the NFL is so good at these schedule of things. The, the environment this Thursday, I cannot wait. I cannot wait to experience this. It is going to be so fucking electric. It's gonna be, it's gonna be insane. It is going to be absolutely bedlam. It's gonna be nuts. So it's

• 32:08Travis Kelce?

  I am, I am kinda pissed that I never got to go to you playing against the Cowboys.

• 32:13Speaker 02

  Fuck me.

• 32:14Travis Kelce?

  Like, I never got, I only got to experience those on like Monday night, Sunday night.

• 32:18Speaker 02

  We got plenty to go to. I don't need to be playing.

• 32:21Travis Kelce?

  I wanted to go, I wanted to be in the stands as an Eagles fan

• 32:26Speaker 02

  Watching it.

• 32:26Travis Kelce?

  With Cowboys fans around and feel that. You know what I mean?

• 32:30Speaker 02

  It's, it's, it's, it's a great time when you're in Philly. It's not as much fun when you're in Dallas, but it's a great time.

• 32:35Travis Kelce?

  You don't know that.

• 32:36Speaker 02

  No, I do. We lost a lot of games in Dallas, unfortunately.

• 32:39Travis Kelce?

  Oh, okay.

• 32:40Speaker 02

  Anyways, um, no, I, this is gonna be, I'm looking forward to so many things. There's a lot of guys that I think, dude, they've been putting in so much work and they've been doing it now for all the training camp and they're trying to stay focused at the task at hand to, to repeat and have another great season. And um, I think the mentality has just been so good across the board from the coaches to the players. They're returning so many pieces offensively. Um, I mean, really, the only new pieces are their right guard Tyler Steen, who's been there. He's just now he's going to be starting. Um, and that's it. I mean, the offensive coordinator is the other new one on offense. And, um, the other one I'm really looking forward to is defense.

• 33:22Speaker 02

  I think Moro Jomo, keep that name in the back of your head. This is a guy that, and, and I know Brandon, interim Brandon, shout out to interim Brandon. He knows who I'm talking about because he went to UT and Brandon knows everybody from fucking Texas. But dude, this guy, you know, when you can't tell when there's a guy balling out on scout team, if it's just like he's given great effort. So is he catching guys when they're tired, a little bit fatigued on like a Wednesday and Thursday? So you're like, all right, he's got some juice, but I'm going to wait to see how this goes. Then he just keeps getting better and he has this great disposition to him that he, from the moment he's got there, he's been inquisitive and asked questions and is always trying to get better.

• 34:04Speaker 02

  And I'll, it brings me back to, we had Kobe Bryant talk to the team in 2017. And one of the guys asked him, would you, do you have any advice to young players trying to make it in the NFL? And this is my favorite thing Kobe said all speech. It was other guys referenced some of the other stuff, but I really love this. He said, be curious, right? Ask questions. Try and learn as much as you can. And Stout always says it in a different way. Knowledge is our greatest resource. He's always been asking questions to some extent, like annoyingly, like guys like goddamn moral just keeps on talking to me and asking me questions. He has had a relentless effort when he's on the field. He's had a relentless effort off the field.

• 34:46Speaker 02

  He wants to be great at football. I think he's going to have a really good year for Philadelphia. I'm putting it out there. He's playing alongside Jalen Carter, who's going to get a lot of attention because he's one of the best defensive tackles, if not the best in the NFL. And I think it's going to be, I, I'm looking forward to seeing him play and I'm looking forward to seeing, um, yeah, I'm just looking forward to being back at the link and watching the Eagles lining up again. A lot of guys going into their second year, especially on defense or, uh, second or third year, let's, and we're seeing like, are they going to be able to keep up? Are they going to be able to do it again? Vic Fangio. Um, yeah, I don't know, man. I'm just really excited to watch this first game.

• 35:26Travis Kelce?

  I mean, it's gonna be fucking absolutely insane of a, of a, of an atmosphere. Um, hopefully the game resembles that knowing everything that the Cowboys have going on with the first year coach and um, yeah, getting their star defensive player traded a week before the season starts.

• 35:44Speaker 02

  They got a lot of noise.

• 35:45Travis Kelce?

  But the banner, I want to talk a little bit about the banner, the banner games, man. I've been a part of them where somebody else was raising a banner and I've been a part of them when I've been raising a banner. You've been a part of them, definitely when you've raised a banner. Have you ever been the team going into?

• 36:01Speaker 02

  I don't think so.

• 36:02Travis Kelce?

  The stadium?

• 36:03Speaker 02

  No. Well, I was in a banner game for, not for winning a shirt bowl, but I was, we played in New England, in New England when they retired Tom Brady's jersey.

• 36:12Travis Kelce?

  Oh, which was arguably bigger than a banner game.

• 36:16Speaker 02

  Big time. It was a big time environment. They almost won the game too.

• 36:20Travis Kelce?

  That's what I'm saying, man. It can go both ways. Uh, but at the, at the same time, Coach Sirianni said that the Eagles will not be on the field for the banner drop.

• 36:29Speaker 02

  You beat me to it too. They've been, they've been, I think they're handling it the right way and I think.

• 36:33Travis Kelce?

  100%. You can't be out there. You got a game. That's last year.

• 36:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:37Travis Kelce?

  It's last year.

• 36:38Speaker 02

  They've all turned the page and you have to focus on this year, but the banner isn't for them. It's for the motherfucking fans and they're going to be going absolutely crazy. And that's why I'm excited about it because I don't, I'm not playing anymore. I could be excited about a fucking banner, uh, watching the Cowboys. Like I, I don't have to worry about being in the moment in this season, but they're handling it the right way. I think Cam Jergens said something similarly this week about, you know, not giving a damn about a banner. They're all focused on this season and moving on from last year.

• 37:11Travis Kelce?

  Give a damn about the next banner, you know what I'm saying?

• 37:13Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 37:13Travis Kelce?

  Dude, I went, this reminds me, talking about banner games. I went to one of the most legendary days in Cleveland sports history. I got to literally be the biggest kid in the entire world.

• 37:27Speaker 02

  What's that?

• 37:27Travis Kelce?

  I went to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

• 37:32Travis Kelce?

  Banner game after they won.

• 37:36Speaker 02

  They won.

• 37:36Travis Kelce?

  The NBA championship.

• 37:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 37:38Travis Kelce?

  And that same day, go to a Cleveland World Series game.

• 37:45Speaker 02

  Holy cow. It's a hell of a day.

• 37:47Travis Kelce?

  And I took dad and it was fucking electric.

• 37:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 37:52Travis Kelce?

  And I, as a, as a little kid standing in Gund Arena,

• 37:59Travis Kelce?

  knowing that I'm about to go and take my dad to the World Series after this, dude, it was insane. I don't have, that's all I have for you. I just wanted to make sure you, you knew that I did that.

• 38:11Speaker 02

  All right. Well, I'm happy that you did it and didn't invite me, you fucking asshole. That sounds like a great time.

• 38:15Travis Kelce?

  That was another thing. It was during the season. So you were probably playing football and I was on my bye week.

• 38:21Speaker 02

  Interesting.

• 38:22Travis Kelce?

  All right. So what are your keys to the game?

• 38:24Speaker 02

  Take care of the football. Don't eliminate mistakes. No penalties.

• 38:32Travis Kelce?

  We can't beat, we can't beat ourselves.

• 38:34Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 38:36Travis Kelce?

  But seriously, hold on to the football. All right. Here we go, boys. That wraps up Bold Topics. Brought to you by YouTube.

• 38:43Speaker 02

  Hey.

• 38:45Travis Kelce?

  Thank you to our sponsor, Colgate Total.

• 38:48Speaker 02

  On offense, it's important to prevent problems from the moment the ball is snapped.

• 38:52Travis Kelce?

  That's true. Otherwise you're just out there running cardio. Can't get open for a big play.

• 38:59Speaker 02

  But it's not just football. There's a lot of things you need to prevent before they start.

• 39:03Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. Like in your mouth.

• 39:05Speaker 02

  My mouth specifically?

• 39:07Travis Kelce?

  I mean, probably yours too, but I'm talking everybody's mouth. There's bacteria in there that can lead to oral health problems like cavities, gingivitis.

• 39:18Speaker 02

  Right. Yeah. All the nasty stuff. But the good news is you can prevent these problems before they start with Colgate Total Active Prevention. It's like having a good offensive line for your mouth.

• 39:29Travis Kelce?

  Ooh, exactly. With twice daily brushing, Colgate Total prevents oral health problems like cavities and gingivitis.

• 39:37Speaker 02

  And it's not just one contributing player either. It's a whole system. Toothpaste, mouthwash, and a special toothbrush.

• 39:44Travis Kelce?

  Now that's the squad you want fighting for your mouth.

• 39:47Speaker 02

  Colgate Total is like having a full playbook in your bathroom, working to help prevent oral health problems before they start.

• 39:55Travis Kelce?

  Get Colgate Total on Amazon today.

• 39:58Speaker 02

  Thanks to our partner, Planet Fitness.

• 40:01Travis Kelce?

  Not every gym needs to feel like a tryout. Planet Fitness is judgment free.

• 40:06Speaker 02

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• 40:12Travis Kelce?

  Enjoy best in class equipment, free fitness training included with your membership and friendly team that's actually there to help.

• 40:20Speaker 02

  Plus tons of locations are open 24 hours, so you can get fit whenever it fits into your schedule.

• 40:25Travis Kelce?

  And if you get the black card, unlock recovery amenities. Uh, plus bring a friend with you every single visit.

• 40:31Speaker 02

  Get started today at Planet Fitness or learn more at planetfitness.com.

• 40:37Speaker 06

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• 41:08Travis Kelce?

  Let's do it. Jason, do the honors, please.

• 41:12Speaker 02

  Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome three time Pro Bowler from Helix High School. He was the first pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, the 2020 NFL Comeback Player of the Year, the quarterback who threw Travis his first ever NFL touchdown. Please welcome Mr. Alex Smith, baby.

• 41:33Travis Kelce?

  Smitty. Thank you, Jason. Thank you. Let's go, man.

• 41:37Speaker 02

  A little wide shallow cross down in Miami? You kidding me?

• 41:41Travis Kelce?

  I've actually never been intro'd with that accolade before as the first person to throw you a touchdown. And it actually is not a bad accolade, man. That's, I'll take it. I'll take it. I've been called worse.

• 41:55Travis Kelce?

  For sure.

• 41:57Speaker 02

  All right, well, let's get into it. Uh, in 2014, when you were a rookie with Travis, when he first arrived with the Chiefs, let's start there.

• 42:03Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 42:05Speaker 02

  Did you expect that we'd end up where we are right now? What did you, what were your expectations for a young Travis Kelce?

• 42:11Travis Kelce?

  Did, did I expect him to be what? Like a Hall of Fame career?

• 42:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's the question.

• 42:17Travis Kelce?

  Fuck, no. Crazy question. Hell, no. Hell, no. What drew you off?

• 42:29Speaker 04

  Well, I mean, obviously, like, there's not many guys you come in and you have that expectation.

• 42:32Travis Kelce?

  That you think that right away.

• 42:33Speaker 04

  Well, especially as a, I mean, what, third round pick, right?

• 42:36Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 42:37Speaker 04

  And so, no, I mean, there's no third round picks that come in, you know, like, this guy's gonna be the greatest pass, you know, the greatest tight end ever. No, it just, and there were, there were some, there were some question marks about Trav and his professionalism, um, you know, coming in that were understood in the building.

• 42:55Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 42:56Speaker 04

  Dude, but no, I mean, like, this is the crazy thing. When you think about, I'm sure everybody looks at Trav's career and is like, oh, look, it was just like so great and destined. I mean, he didn't even play his rookie year. You know, like, dude, I remember you out there trying to run through like routes that summer. Hobbling around, bro. I remember you like hobbling around on that knee, just like trying to get through it. And I felt so bad. I'm like, this is a young guy and he's like, dealing with knee issues already. No, there were like hu- huge question marks, Jason. You know, I think, I think there was a ton of positivity in the building, like, from the moment we drafted him, though, like Andy, Doris at the time, John Dorsey, the GM, like, there was a ton, like, they were like, we got a guy.

• 43:37Speaker 04

  Like, that was the belief, like, listen, we got a guy in the third round. We were super, you know, we, we feel like he can be a player. But he didn't play for a whole year, you know, like, it was, that's crazy to think back about, right? I mean, and then, you know, a big, a big.

• 43:54Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, huge knee, huge knees, surgery and microfracture at that point in my career. I was lucky I was young enough to where it paid off. And yeah, there was still, and in terms of the professionalism, it, it kind of worked out in my favor because I got to see everything from like, I just got to sit back and watch guys like you, guys like Fasano, um, then, then guys like Jeremy Macklin come in and, and like be pros and, and, and show me how it's done at the professional level. And it's, uh, I ended up catching on, uh, not the second year, the third year, but eventually it clicked for me.

• 44:33Speaker 04

  Kind of say it in jest, right? Like a half joking, obviously, about the professionalism, but I also.

• 44:37Speaker 02

  Think the cool thing is that I think in the same time that, you know, when you got drafted, I'll never forget. It was like, hey, they, again, they think you're, you know, a hell of a player. This is gonna be great. They also immediately understood like, like, who is fresh out of college, this guy's got some, you know, he's got to learn a little bit. It's gonna be a process. He's gonna grow. He's gonna mature. Yeah. And I mean that, like, but that, that doesn't happen everywhere. You know, I think that was the cool thing about, especially about Andy, right? Like Andy doesn't, you know what I'm saying? There's no judgment, right? Like he, he remembers what it's like to be a 21 year old kid, you know, and like, hey, like, if you're late to some meetings, it wasn't the end of the world, you know? And Trav happened, you know, Trav got called to the principal's office a time or two, those first few years.

• 45:20Travis Kelce?

  Just a tap on the shoulder. Hey, Andy wants to see you. I wonder why?

• 45:24Speaker 02

  I tell people this all the time. I feel like Andy just has this aura about him that there's like this presence that is downright like, you're afraid of him in certain instances. Like he has like that kind of like feeling. But at the same time, you always feel like he like loves you and just wants the best for you. Like he has, he toes that line of being a disciplinarian and like a player's coach, better than anybody I've been around. Like, he's not gonna accept anything from you that isn't your best. But at the same time, he's like forgiving to like a fault. Like it's, I don't even know how he's mastered both of those avenues, but it's, it's hard to explain, but that's kind of the vibe I always got from. No idea. I think you hit it on the head. Like he's, I mean, I, and that's what coaching is, right? Like tough love, right?

• 46:09Speaker 02

  You gotta be both, you know, you gotta have like high standards and hold people to them. But at the same time, I think the best thing about Andy is again, like the no judgment, right? Like if you, if you mess up, if you air, whether it be on the field or like in your personal life or something professionally, like he, it's not the end of the world, right? Like, you know? And so he will welcome you back in. And I think, you know, and I think you appreciate that as a player for sure.

• 46:31Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 46:32Speaker 02

  Do you have a favorite story from Travis rookie year? I mean, I know we just said a couple, but like, favorite story, even if it's not rookie year, let's say second year. What's a favorite story from a young Travis Kelce?

• 46:42Travis Kelce?

  God, let's try to think like, you know, for me, I can't get out of my head. I know maybe some tight ends had like broken out into dance occasionally, but like the first touchdown pass, the first touchdown pass, no, like I remember all of a sudden, I mean, he breaks into choreographed dance.

• 47:02Speaker 02

  It was planned, it was pre-planned. There's no way you just do that.

• 47:05Travis Kelce?

  No, I remember distinctly being caught off guard, right? Like I just didn't see it coming. I knew he was talented, but not like that. Like, no. And then every week it was like a new one, right? Just from there on out.

• 47:22Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. I don't know if Trav, if you ever remember this play, I actually broke this down on, on Sunday Countdown at ESPN, but we were playing, it had to be your second or third year, and we were playing the Denver Broncos. And we called like early in the, uh, early in the game, you started out wide and we motioned you down and we ran strike, which Jason's just like a fake, a little fake in and then come back out, right? Like on the third and three. And, and we converted it, right? He killed the guy, the DB, it was man, the guy came running down with him in the motion.

• 47:51Speaker 02

  Pivot thing where you can.

• 47:52Travis Kelce?

  So he kind of takes down, he comes out. Well, we like save it and we come back to it in the second half, like in the fourth quarter, in like the biggest moment of the game. And I think we thought like we were going to get him again. And the DB was like pretty veteran. And we had the same look, it's man, and this guy just sits hard on the outside, right? Like he's not taking the cheese. Well, Trav just kind of like feels it, so he just keeps fucking running. Just runs all the way across the field, right? Like, this is the NFL. You're supposed to go in and come back out and he just kind of like saw the guy outside, he's like, oh, and just kept running across the field. And I threw him the ball for some reason. And it turned into like a 30 yard game.

• 48:36Travis Kelce?

  And I think, and I think everybody on the field, like including Big Red, it was like, what just happened, right? And it was kind of the early dawn of Trav doing. Some of these things, right?

• 48:48Speaker 02

  Trav, full disclosure, did you know it was strike? Or were you running the wrong route?

• 48:52Travis Kelce?

  No, of course, I knew exactly what it was, but the thing is, is I'm, I get the first down and I like get pumped up. I do a first down and then I start to slowly look at Coach Reed on the sideline.

• 49:06Travis Kelce?

  Like, is he gonna fucking come here?

• 49:07Speaker 02

  This is the beginning of the moment.

• 49:09Travis Kelce?

  Don't ever do that again.

• 49:11Speaker 02

  This is the beginning of the moment where he started to get some leeway into doing these things? Is that what I'm hearing?

• 49:16Travis Kelce?

  Yes. Yeah.

• 49:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:17Travis Kelce?

  The early dawn of the, the Trav improvisation, which by the way, there's like in every little route, there's little things you can do. I mean, this is a full, like you're supposed to, you're supposed to break right and you broke left.

• 49:29Speaker 02

  You're supposed to be in the flat over here and you're all the way on the other side of the field. Yeah. Yeah. Big difference.

• 49:35Travis Kelce?

  Just doing, I, I knew Alex wanted me to do that.

• 49:39Speaker 02

  Cause you think about the game as like a quarterback. Did you like that he did it, Alex?

• 49:42Travis Kelce?

  Oh, heavy outside leverage. Don't love strike against heavy outside leverage. Just keep going. Who, who am I hurting going across field? Nobody. And it works.

• 49:52Speaker 02

  Nobody over there.

• 49:53Travis Kelce?

  That's what you gotta do. You can't be selfish enough to ruin somebody else from getting a catch, which I've done that and I've had to reel it back.

• 49:59Speaker 02

  Alex, we've talked about, I think we talked about it when I was with you guys, uh, before the Superbowl. But what do you think of Travis's ability to audible? You just talked about the first time he ever did it. From a quarterback's perspective, how do you feel about somebody doing something that is not pre-planned?

• 50:16Travis Kelce?

  Yep. Yeah. It's funny because I was young, as a young QB, you're like, no, I need to know you're gonna run the line on the paper. Right? Like I need to trust that you're gonna be in the right place at the right time. And it's so funny.

• 50:30Travis Kelce?

  Like as, as you, as you move on and you play longer, I, I want a guy that can separate. The number one attribute I want in somebody that's running routes is separation.

• 50:38Speaker 02

  Somebody open.

• 50:39Travis Kelce?

  Be able to separate and Trav, and the crazy thing about a tight end is you gotta know. And I actually think it's the second hardest position to play as a young guy on offense behind QB. Just cause like you're involved, you're, you're in all the shifts and motions, right? You got to know all these formations, you're involved in the run game blocking, you're involved obviously in pass protection sometimes. And then you gotta run routes, but I mean, you're running routes against linebackers, you're running routes against safeties, you're running routes against corners. And like to his point, you do have to realize what your advantage is versus all these different guys. Thank you. Dude, but I, you know, there are all these like, listen, half the time you're running like a stick route, right? Like for everybody out there, like the stick route is like the most basic tight end route. It's this little five yard out. If you run the line on the paper in the NFL, you will never be open, right? Like you just won't.

• 51:23Travis Kelce?

  And it got pretty quick. And I think the cool thing, I don't know about you, Travis, like we were in the same division, obviously with Antonio Gates, who also kind of played with some of this. 100%, yeah. You could tell like you would watch. Be on the same page? Yeah. Yeah. But you know, the routes you would watch it on film, you're like, that's definitely not what that looks like in the playbook, right? Like he put a little toss on it. He put a little wiggle on it. He ran it at like one yard, not five yards. You know? And so I think pretty quick, you got to the point with Trav that it was like, it's working, right? And dude, and I will never forget, I don't know if I told you this, this was later, this is probably like your fourth year. We were struggling on offense. Maybe it was when we started one and five, to be honest. Do you remember when we started one and five? And we were, I mean, we were not playing good on offense.

• 52:06Travis Kelce?

  And I'll never forget, Nagy called me in Monday after the game. We had just lost, I think, the fifth game. Uh, everything's looking bleak and we watched every pass play on offense. And I'll never forget, like, kind of like looking for some tendencies, like what can we do better? What are we missing? And the number one takeaway from the meeting was Travis doesn't always run like the route like it's supposed to be. But he's always open, right? And like the number one takeaway from this offensive meeting was like, hey, when in doubt, we should probably just find this guy.

• 52:41Travis Kelce?

  Cause he'd be like running a corner route and you'd be like, it's not supposed to be open versus this look, but he would like, he would run like a seven yard out route instead. And it was like, well, he was open, right? Like everything kind of had a twist. He could just like, he wasn't just going to run and get covered, you know? It was, it was, it was nice. No. And so to that point, like, once you trusted that and you developed that relationship, it was like, no, Travis is going to get open for me. Travis is going to work, right? Like in.

• 53:05Speaker 04

  Again, like there's a maturity and there's a lot of guts in some of that like as a route runner to do all, you know, do some of that, but.

• 53:11Speaker 02

  Well, we, we were talking, we're kind of throwing a little bit of like, uh, not shade, but kind of make poking fun at Travis a little bit for being a little bit immature and kind of being a happy-go-lucky free spirit.

• 53:21Speaker 04

  Who me?

• 53:22Speaker 02

  But I think that that directly plays into like, you gotta be a free spirit to just all of a sudden whip this out in the middle of a game like, and anybody that's analytical, reading the playbook and showing up on time to meetings is not doing this, they're not taking a strike route and going all the way across the field.

• 53:37Speaker 04

  No, no way. You totally, you totally right.

• 53:39Travis Kelce?

  You know what it is though, is that the strike route actually comes off of another route. It's like the complimentary route to flank or drive. So it's like, in my mind, it's like, that's the, yeah, those two go hand in hand with each other. It has evolved since then to understand what else is around you and like to understand like, I don't know that what the quarterback's seeing versus certain coverages where the coverages are weak, um, and, and where the holes are in the defense and things like that. But it 100% was the luckiest instinctual decision I made that really paid off because it, like Alex said, it started to like, kind of unravel into, oh, in practice, I'll just try it in practice. And if it doesn't work in practice, then I won't put that on the quarterback in the game.

• 54:24Travis Kelce?

  You know, I'll, I'll try my hardest not to like, I don't know, catch him off guard. And it's just, it, it just turned into like, well, we'll just be definitive.

• 54:33Speaker 04

  Professor Trav here dropping knowledge. Dude, the other thing, I don't know if you remember this, to that same point, like if you were running a shallow cross, right? Like it was for everybody out there again, you're just running across the field as fast as you can.

• 54:42Speaker 02

  Right.

• 54:42Speaker 04

  But like, if there was a corner running on you, you constantly would like, you would do what you did in that tape, you would like dead leg him and try to like.

• 54:49Travis Kelce?

  Oh yeah, no, I'm fucking with him until.

• 54:52Speaker 04

  Again, none of that was on a like the route, like none of that was installed. And again, it was like your way of like, listen, I gotta win some way, right? Like I gotta separate and get open.

• 55:00Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. 100% man.

• 55:02Speaker 02

  Well.

• 55:02Travis Kelce?

  Seven step timing, getting to understand the quarterback's progression and footwork. It's like, just like, it's like a, it's like a timer going off in your head. You know what I mean? And don't let it get to that third, that third second, like if he, if, if I can feel that the quarterback's at the top of his drop and gets two hitches, I'm botching the route anyways, because the, what we called isn't working and he needs to get that fucking ball out. So I'm doing something else anyways.

• 55:30Speaker 04

  Oh shit.

• 55:33Speaker 02

  It's said everything happens for a reason, but maybe everything happens for a recess. Take noise cancelling headphones. Do they block hearing to heighten taste? Hmm. That sound seems to show everything happens for a recess. With the Venture X Business Card from Capital One, you earn unlimited double miles on every purchase. Plus, big purchasing power means you can spend more and earn more. The Capital One Venture X Business Card. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com for details. PrizePix packs are here. Rip digital packs and get real basketball, football and Pokemon cards on PrizePix packs. Available now nationwide. Once you see your pool, you have a choice to

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  sell back instantly for real cash or ship at home. Cash from your sale will immediately be added to your PrizePix balance. It's just another way to run your game. New users, download the PrizePix app today and use code WONDERY to get $25 instantly in bonus packs when you buy your first $5 pack. PrizePix, run your game. 18 plus eligible areas. Terms apply. Collect responsibly. Let's rewind. We're all in Alex Smith, Kansas City era, Travis Kelce. Let's talk about Alex Smith, San Francisco era. Was there anybody else that operated like this in San Fran? What was your time in San Fran like? It took me a long time, Jason. Like I battled, you know, being the number one pick and signing, like this was before the rookie wage scale. So I signed a massive contract,

• 56:56Speaker 02

  right? Like, you know, and being a first time professional and the number one pick and going to the San Francisco 49ers, right? I mean, it was like, I mean, I felt like I had to be like Joe Montana, Steve Young. I'm also the number one pick. So I got to be Peyton Manning and John Elway. And I got to be all those things right now. Right? Like right now. And it just, it was like I carried around so much weight as a young professional. Like I felt like I had to be perfect. And also, I, this is real, like.

• 57:26Travis Kelce?

  It was real imposter syndrome, right? Like it was like, how, how long, how long, Jason, until they find out that they made a mistake? You know, like, especially playing right away. And this was the crazy thing, Travis. Like, I didn't, I mean, I played week three, my rookie year, and like, I never, there weren't a ton of, it wasn't until like a few years later, like, I actually got to be around some veteran quarterbacks and actually see what it was like to be a NFL QB, you know, like preparing Monday through Saturday, what it takes, you know, just had no idea. So it was, it was rough. It was rough, dude. Lot of late nights by myself, just watching film and having no idea what I was doing.

• 58:07Speaker 02

  Trying to figure it out.

• 58:08Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, no clue. That's tough.

• 58:11Speaker 02

  So you go to Andy Reid.

• 58:14Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 58:14Speaker 02

  Why was it so much more successful? Like, the Chiefs, before you got there, we were just talking about this. I mean, they had a great defense, but they had not been successful really at all. So what is it about Andy Reid and going there that all of a sudden you enjoyed, probably, I think, safe to say the best

• 58:32Travis Kelce?

  Oh, for sure.

• 58:32Speaker 02

  years of your career.

• 58:33Travis Kelce?

  Yes, yeah.

• 58:34Speaker 02

  And then also as a team at Forest. Like, what is it about the system, the coach, all of it?

• 58:39Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, I mean, I think a couple of things. One, the fact that it's not a system. Like, again, like, think about all the QBs that Andy Reid's had over the years, you know, from Donovan, Brett Brad before that, obviously, Michael, you know, me, Pat, like, and there's a bunch of guys in between, too, that he had for little stints, and guys that all have different strengths, you know, very different strengths. And I think that's the beauty. Like, Andy doesn't run some, like, cookie cutter playbook, right? Like, we're not running the stuff that they, you guys were running in Philly, right? Like, we're not running the stuff that they were running in Green Bay before that. Patrick's not running the stuff that I was running, right? Like, that just, he's gonna tailor it to your strengths. He's gonna put you in a position to succeed. And then I think there's like, again, like, I just talked, obviously, about, you know, for me, my mentality

• 59:23Travis Kelce?

  at that point, again, it was like, it was, it was heavy when I was young. And then you get to Kansas City, and there's like a lightness to Andy, right? Like, I mean, he, again, like, I didn't, I didn't feel like if I messed up, it was the end of the world, right? Like, and he constantly was like, let your personality show, be you, right? Like, he constantly in the QB room, and his favorite saying would be like, hey, when in doubt, go deep, right? Like, I mean, he, you know, and, and I'm sure some of that he felt in me. But again, that's kind of the beauty of his coaching, right? Like, it's not the same for every

• 59:51Speaker 04

  Buddy, right? Like he he morphs it and changes and adapts to to who he's got in front of him and what they need.

• 59:57Travis Kelce?

  Let's uh, let's talk about a little Jim Harbaugh.

• 59:59Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 59:59Travis Kelce?

  Harbaugh, man, I'm going down to.

• 1:00:01Speaker 04

  You guys are playing.

• 1:00:02Travis Kelce?

  Yes, I'm going down to Sao Paulo to see him for uh, the second time as a Charger. Obviously, we saw him a little bit as uh, when he was in San Fran still before he went to Michigan, but I remember meeting Jim in San Fran when I was getting drafted. And the guy is just wired different, man. He is, he eat, breathe and sleeps football all day, every day. And you know, that's what you want out of your, your head coach, but how are, how are some of his uh, like coaching methods different than uh, Coach Reed's?

• 1:00:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, I again, uh, dude, both, both these guys, I mean, Jim definitely changed, had a huge impact on my career. Huge impact, like before he arrived here in San Fran, honestly, like I'm, I'm probably walking around with a bus label, you know, at this point. And he has me back, uh, signs me back, you know, he's coming from Stanford, but I mean, this is a guy that played 15 years at quarterback in the NFL. I mean, he definitely understands. Crazy part is he played for the Chargers and I grew up in San Diego, so I remember watching him play. Uh, as a kid, but you're dead on, Jim's different, like different, like he's like a real life Ted Lasso a little bit, right?

• 1:01:11Speaker 04

  Like he's like off the wall saying, right? Like he'll quote you Shakespeare, um, you know, like he just has so much gratitude to, for football, to your point, like this guy loves football, like and like, I'm not just saying that, like I, I remember at times he told me his life aspirations were to play football as long as he could, then coach football as long as he could, and then die, right? Like that, like life goal, like.

• 1:01:41Speaker 02

  He's gotta figure it out, baby. That's a very simple man right there. Let's not overcomplicate this.

• 1:01:47Speaker 04

  And I'm like, I'll never forget my first game again, you know, it's like here I am getting ready to play.

• 1:01:54Speaker 02

  I think you're being a bit dramatic, coach.

• 1:01:56Speaker 04

  Have you seen what he does before the game to the quarterbacks?

• 1:01:59Speaker 02

  He's got the gloves and he's playing catch.

• 1:02:01Speaker 04

  Right before kickoff dude, he comes over and I'll never like, I'll never forget the first game we're playing. And he comes over and he's got this like look in his eyes. And again, he's like, he's so like happy for you that you're gonna get a chance to play football. And he starts smacking you around in the helmet and he like starts jacking you up in the chest. And like, I remember I could like just feel, I could feel how much, it was funny for me at this time, cause I, I think I, in some ways had taken it for granted. But like, it wasn't gonna last forever. And I remember like seeing that in his eyes, like how much he would give to play one more time, right?

• 1:02:35Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:02:36Speaker 04

  And it wasn't like a glory days type of thing, but like, again, like it was real. It was like, oh man, this, you know, like, it was infectious that like when the head guy just loves ball that much. And then for me, he just like, again, he took so much pressure off of playing quarterback, right? Like prior to that, I'd always felt like I had to stretch or do something special or like make a play. And with Jim, it was like, no, man, just run the offense.

• 1:02:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:59Speaker 04

  If, if the, if it says to throw the flat, like if the read is to throw the flat, just throw the flat, right? Like, I never felt like, it was the first time in my career that I felt like I could just kind of be me, right? Like I didn't, again, I didn't have to like do anything remarkable.

• 1:03:13Speaker 02

  Well, who are you taking? Chiefs, Chargers, Brazil, week one? Chargers have made immediate impact with Jim. I mean, immediate. This is gonna be a big one.

• 1:03:24Speaker 04

  Dude, he, I'll tell you what, like he'll always have a tough football team, right? They're always gonna be well coached.

• 1:03:28Travis Kelce?

  The culture of how he coaches, you already know.

• 1:03:30Speaker 04

  Physical. And it's funny, these two coaches, two of my favorite like things about them are actually like pieces of attire that they wear. So I don't know if you guys have seen this, one of my, again, it was one of my favorite things when Jim came to, to San Fran, because he gifted every guy on the team, these blue collar shirts. And so you would get your own blue collar shirt and it has your name on it. And he told this whole story of like, what is a blue collar shirt and like somebody in our life and our, someone in our family paved the way for us and worked one of these jobs. Right. And kind of again, going back to this like gratitude of playing.

• 1:04:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:04:02Speaker 04

  And then the night before every game, Big Red's wearing an aloha shirt. Right. And it kind of just like sets the tone. It's kind of, you know, night before the game, he's got the aloha shirt on. It kind of just like calms everything down a little bit. So we got the, we got the blue collar shirts versus the aloha shirts. Going at it in Sao Paulo.

• 1:04:22Speaker 02

  I love that blue collar shirt. I don't, dude, I would get so fired up for a blue collar shirt with my name on it. And that whole, I can envision him giving this speech. I'm getting goosebumps thinking about this right now. We used to be wearing blue collar shirts and not suits. Suits to away games. We're working men. I'm not a businessman.

• 1:04:39Speaker 04

  Yes. Yes. Thank you. I, dude, I hated wearing suits to games. I felt so like, you know, again, it was like almost, it like personified the weight of like the professionalism, right? Again, like, again, like I, when I was struggling with it. And I, dude, I could just put on my blue collar shirt and a hat, go to work, man. That's all I needed.

• 1:04:56Travis Kelce?

  Let's go.

• 1:04:57Speaker 02

  Bring the lunch pail.

• 1:04:58Speaker 04

  Well, you actually want a prediction for this game?

• 1:05:01Speaker 02

  No, you're good. Yeah. I don't even know why I said that. That's fine. We're not going to put you on the spotlight. I'm just excited to watch it. Well, we talk about coaches and your time in KC. Let's talk about the introduction of Pat Mahomes. He credits you very often with welcoming him to the NFL and kind of being that mentor. What was that relationship like for you right away?

• 1:05:25Speaker 04

  Yeah. I mean, I'll never forget when I first talked to him.

• 1:05:30Travis Kelce?

  It's the frequency, dude. It just.

• 1:05:34Speaker 04

  It's different. I mean, like, we were a good football team, right? I mean, we'd won a bunch of divisions. I was gone to Pro Bowls. Like we'd gone, you know, obviously won a playoff game, I think the year before. So you're part of you was wondering, I mean, yeah, who are we taking in the first round? Right? Like to go help us.

• 1:05:51Speaker 04

  And you're never expecting, obviously, to trade up, right? Like we, oh, here we trade in next year's first round two. To go up and get a quarterback. I mean, you're dead. Like it's not, it's not what anybody wants to hear, right? Like, I mean, that's not.

• 1:06:02Speaker 02

  For sure.

• 1:06:03Speaker 04

  But I think the crazy part is, again, going back to my experience of having been like the number one pick, an early pick, like you just have such, you have no control, right? Like you're thrust into this process. And you're like a completely, you're a cog in the machine. All expectations. Right? Like you go where they tell you to go, pick number, whatever, you know, even now you signed the contract that slotted for that, you know, deal. I mean, obviously there was some empathy, you know, still from me as being an early pick, like obviously Pat didn't pick this. I didn't pick this, right? Like the powers that be, again, I, I'd spent so many years alone, my first few years in the league, right? Like again, watching film on my own and just like had no idea what I was doing and remembered how much that sucked, right? I guess sucked. Uh, and so to fast forward

• 1:06:48Speaker 04

  to when we drafted him, also within that too, right? Like I, I had spent early part of my year, kind of distracted myself, right? Like I mentioned, like the imposter syndrome and like the self doubt and like, was I good enough? And dude, I would, I would be ready. I'd be going out there to play and my mind would be like, oh, what are they gonna, what if I throw a pick? What, what are they gonna write about me in the paper tomorrow? Like, God, what if they start booing me? Right? Like I, I had distracted myself with like my own internal dialogue and like doubt and like I was determined when I got to Kansas City, like I will never be, I'm not going to be distracted anymore. Right? And so even once we drafted Pat too, there was almost like this great challenge. Like am I, again, everybody pitting us against each other. Am I going to look over

• 1:07:30Speaker 04

  my shoulder and be distracted, right? Like Andy still had told me like, listen, I got the keys to the car that year. I don't know. So there were all these conflicting things, right? And going on emotionally. And I think the other thing that just comes down with Pat, and I try to tell people this, like you give respect, you get respect, right? And like from day one, Pat came in and like there was never, there was never like a prima donna ego. There was never like a, you know, he's the man. He came in humble, ready to work. Uh, just like a, like a good kid. And it was pretty quick.

• 1:08:07Speaker 04

  It was like no big deal, honestly.

• 1:08:08Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:09Speaker 04

  No, no big deal.

• 1:08:09Travis Kelce?

  That's what I do. That's what I give. I give Pat so much credit for that, that year of just being a great teammate. Like,

• 1:08:18Speaker 04

  Yep, totally.

• 1:08:19Travis Kelce?

  He didn't get, he didn't, yeah, he, he came in with, like you said, that, that ability to just like, you know what, I'm just gonna make sure everybody's like having a good time today.

• 1:08:28Speaker 04

  Yeah, totally.

• 1:08:29Travis Kelce?

  And we're gonna find a way to get better at football. But he was, I think, I think seeing you as the, as the, the leader of that football team, as the leader of that offense, how you, how the offense had started to like really change into, you know, this air raid, this down the field offense with Tyreek and,

• 1:08:46Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:08:47Travis Kelce?

  and all the weapons that we had with D-Rod, with, with Chris Conley, like it was, it was starting to play more downfield and, and it was just, it was fun to kind of see you take that offense to the next level and then kind of just hand it off to, to Pat after that year was over with.

• 1:09:04Speaker 04

  Let's be very clear. Like I, first off, I get way too much credit in like the, the Pat, the development story. Like way too, way too much credit.

• 1:09:12Speaker 02

  We need more credit. We need more credit here.

• 1:09:15Speaker 04

  You know, could Pat have played that year? Like clearly, you know, but again, to the point,

• 1:09:22Speaker 04

  to the point, like, I don't, the beauty of like what Andy set up and like the QB structure, and this is kind of the beauty of the QB room, and it's not like this everywhere, right? Like you do everything together, everything together. You eat together, you live together, you rehab together, you watch film together, you obviously practice together. And like come season, I mean, I, you know, I'm spending more time with the QBs than I am with my family, right? You know, given weeks. And so it was a cool way, like Pat, like I was in year 13 at that point, right? Like I had, I had become, I had three kids, like I, I had the week down to the minute of what I needed to get done on a given day to prepare to play well on Sunday. And so the cool thing is like Pat for a year got an up close look, right? Like how I did it.

• 1:10:05Speaker 04

  And again, when he finally got his opportunity, obviously to roll, I mean, he could take what he liked, right? He, he could build off it. He could, you know, it obviously not all for him, but, um, and that when he did start playing, right? And this is the beauty of like taking a quarterback early. They did everything in their power that like when Pat stepped foot on the field for the first time, like he was going to be successful, right? There was no like rolling the dice. Let's hope this goes well, right? Cross our fingers kind of thing. And I mean, obviously it's rare. It's rare in the NFL. There's only a couple of organizations that that have done it like this. And, you know,

• 1:10:40Speaker 02

  Dude, I it drives me crazy. And I watch it, watch it high draft value. And then I see like a defensive head coach being selected. Like, are we not trying to put this guy like in the best position to be successful? Like, I get a veteran quarterback that's been around like, yeah, let's get a defensive guy. Let's get this guy a defense. But like a young player, like, we just put so much stock and value into this position. Why are we not allocating everything we can to make this guy successful? It blows my mind when I see that across

• 1:11:09Speaker 04

  No doubt. Yep. Just fucking rolling the dice.

• 1:11:11Speaker 02

  I do want to touch on this because you you brought up for the second time now imposter syndrome, self doubt. And like, one of the things, one of the most important things I think some a person could give to another person is belief, right? And mainly like a belief in yourself. And like, you ever, all of us remember those individuals that were around. You mentioned Jim Harbaugh and how he made you feel gratitude towards the game. And like, I think I remember the coaches, Jeff Stoutland, Howard Mudd, like Paul Longo, all these guys where when I had self doubt in my career, these guys were there to reaffirm me and like, make sure that I was knew how good I could be and how good I had the potential to become. So I had to mention that because I always get fired up hearing about like, every player goes through that. Any player that says they don't go through it is full of crap.

• 1:11:55Speaker 02

  And it's because you're surrounded with great people, great teammates, great coaches, that you end up coming out of that. So I'm going to transition to this. There's a lot of rookie quarterbacks from last year that are coming up on their second year this season. Who does Alex Smith have belief is going to take that next step forward? Who's going to be the best of the bunch to kind of have breakout seasons?

• 1:12:16Speaker 04

  Yeah, dude, I think this rookie, the rookie class from last year, to be clear, that's the second year group, the second year group going in this year, I think is going to go down as one of the greatest QB classes of all time.

• 1:12:29Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 1:12:29Speaker 04

  Maybe the best of all time. I think it has a chance. I mean, we just saw literally Jaden Daniels. It is the greatest rookie season, I think, in all of American sports.

• 1:12:38Speaker 02

  It was electric. It was very electric.

• 1:12:40Speaker 04

  I mean, unbelievable. Bo Nix, I mean, you saw it live.

• 1:12:44Travis Kelce?

  Dude, Bo Nix is a baller, man.

• 1:12:46Speaker 04

  A baller, right? He's the sixth guy taken. I mean, to think about that.

• 1:12:51Travis Kelce?

  It's crazy.

• 1:12:52Speaker 04

  There's, there's a few guys on that note that I'm, I'm really excited about. I'm, I'm excited for Caleb. Again, another number one pick, like getting Ben Johnson. I love the Ben Johnson hire. Like, I, I think, I think you're gonna, yep, a C S side of Caleb this year. I think he's gonna flourish in it. I think they needed, you know, again, the next several years, he'll get to play in this system that is so good. Um, and I think he's really gonna take off. They got a bunch of weapons. That division's a monster. That division is a monster, though.

• 1:13:19Speaker 02

  It is. That's the problem.

• 1:13:20Speaker 04

  By the way, so is yours, Trav.

• 1:13:22Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, no, we're, I'm very aware, very aware. You get a bunch of legendary coaches and throw them in a division. You're gonna get some, some competition in there, man.

• 1:13:31Speaker 04

  Did I, I don't know if I told you this. Do you know it's the winningest division in NFL history when it comes to head coaches' records? Dude, the AFC West.

• 1:13:39Speaker 02

  I've not heard that. That's a crazy stat.

• 1:13:41Speaker 04

  History.

• 1:13:42Speaker 02

  That is crazy.

• 1:13:43Speaker 04

  Uh, anyway.

• 1:13:43Travis Kelce?

  Here we go, boys. Buckle up.

• 1:13:45Speaker 04

  Dude, but I, I think Caleb's gonna have a great year. Dude, I mean, the guy we haven't seen is J.J. McCarthy, right? Like, I, I mean, playing for Kevin O'Connell, who I was lucky enough to, you know, another San Diego guy, I go way back to high school with. I played for him. He's one of the best QB minds, I think, in the game. And then think about who he's throwing to, right? You got, you know, you got Jada, you got Jordan Addison, T.J. Hawkinson. I mean, they got a lot of weapons there. Um, I think he's gonna have a big year. And then Drake May. I, I like Drake May a lot. Like, I think, I, I'm basically naming all of them. So, I get that. But Drake, I think, I think New England, I love Vrabel getting hired. Josh McDaniels coming back as the O.C. I think he's also unbelievable offensive mind. Like, I really do. I, I love all these guys.

• 1:14:26Speaker 04

  I didn't even mention Penix, who might have the best supporting cast from weapons, you know, standpoint.

• 1:14:32Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, guys everywhere.

• 1:14:33Speaker 04

  I, I do. I, I love it. I think they're all, I think all these guys are gonna take steps this year.

• 1:14:37Speaker 02

  Awesome. All right. Well, what about?

• 1:14:40Speaker 04

  Is that just the worst answer ever? I just named all of them?

• 1:14:42Speaker 02

  No, I mean, I'm, first of all, just got me fired up for football. I'm going to the Chicago Bears game for Monday night. I can't wait to watch Caleb Williams and freaking J.J. McCarthy go at each other. I mean, that's gonna be a blast. So. All right, what do we got? Uh, what about the rookies this year?

• 1:14:57Speaker 04

  I mean, it's just, it's like, it's funny, it's slim pickings and this always happens, right? Like after a big year, the next year, of course, I mean, you got, all eyes are going to be on Cam, right? Number one pick. Um, I think he, you know, by all accounts was the consensus guy there, right? Like that was the most ready. The thing I like about him so much is like the, he's a gamer, man, like the craftiness, like he's so, he's like the opposite of what I looked like as a rookie. Like I was so stiff and, you know, like this guy's played a lot of football, right? He's played at three colleges. He's played in multiple systems. He knows what he does well. You know, he's got a great skill set, does a little bit of everything. I think he's going to play good. And then I don't, you know, we'll see if any of these other young guys even play. Jackson Dart may not play. So I like again, Cam, Cam's the guy we're all going to be watching, in my opinion.

• 1:15:43Travis Kelce?

  All right. Fair enough. We had a, we had some crazy news break last week in the NFL. Micah Parsons finally got traded.

• 1:15:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:15:53Travis Kelce?

  There was a lot of debate on whether they were going to get a contract done and then it just became war between him and the owner. Yeah, Jerry Jones and Micah Parsons is officially a Packer. What was the first reaction when you saw the news?

• 1:16:08Speaker 04

  Couldn't believe it. Yeah, I just like could not believe they actually traded him. You know, I felt like it was like deja vu, right? Like they, they had, he had a contract dispute with Dak and it got done in the last minute. He had the contract dispute with CD, it got done last minute. And it kind of just seemed like, well, here we go. They're definitely not letting Micah Parsons out of the building, right? And I could not believe it when it happened.

• 1:16:30Travis Kelce?

  I still can't believe it, man.

• 1:16:32Speaker 04

  And now that I've had like a little time to digest this thing, I like, I don't think it's insane to if you wanted to like move him, right? Like he, listen, this is a generational pass rusher. He's 26 years old. Like the next five years for him are going to be ridiculous. Um, probably the best five years of his career, like coming up. And if you wanted to move him and you were going to get a Herschel Walker type trade, like if you were going to get just somebody offering So much that you couldn't turn it down because you wanted to press reset. I could understand it, but to just to get what is going to be two late first round picks. And I love nothing against Kenny Clark, but like

• 1:17:16Speaker 02

  Kenny's a good player.

• 1:17:17Speaker 04

  To put this in perspective, the Niners traded three first round picks for Trey Lance. Three for a guy that had never played a snap in the NFL. And you're telling me that again, they're talking about him like Reggie White, like he's had 12 sacks. He's the only guy since Reggie White to have 12 sacks to start a career this many years. Right? Like again, he's a monster, even when he doesn't even does it even when he and you guys know this, right? Like even if he doesn't get the sacks, the pain he is to game plan for, like when you come in on, you know, Wednesday morning, the giant circle that's around Micah Parsons is like, we cannot let this guy cost us the game. We are gonna do the run game's going to revolve around where he is. The pass game's going to revolve around where he is. We're going to chip him in double time, double team.

• 1:18:02Speaker 04

  Hey, Trav, you're always going to be lining up where he is to try to give an extra gap for the tackle. Like you just do, you bend over backwards for this guy just to like, try to take him away, you know?

• 1:18:13Speaker 02

  Yep, it's crazy.

• 1:18:15Speaker 04

  I think it is a horrible trade. To be very clear, very clear how I feel about this.

• 1:18:20Speaker 02

  There is a, there is a chance that it can work out if one of, if one of these first or both of these first round picks go in and are successful. But like statistically, the chances of that happening are like so low that you're going to find somebody that affects the game like this. Like that's what I think recently has been things coming out like he's not great against the run. And I'm not normally a guy that like cares that much about like sacks. I think that number sometimes gets blow overblown somewhat. This guy affects the game on a level that maybe only two or three other guys in the NFL do across the league on defense. Like he is that big of a difference maker, your entire game plan. We played the Cowboys without him. It is so different, so different.

• 1:19:01Speaker 02

  And I love Kenny Clark. Kenny Clark is a great player and I kind of feel bad that he's a part of this and being compared to Micah Parsons. Cause as a D tackle, he's really good, but it's just, he's not affecting the game the way that Micah Parsons is and. The way they're trying to sell this, I think is funny because they have to at this point, but the real reason this isn't happening is flat out egos and it sucks that that is the reason why this whole thing is happening.

• 1:19:28Speaker 04

  You're spot on. The only way this ever, you know, 10 years from now, this looks good is if they draft two Hall of Famers with these two picks. The odds of that happening when you're going to be picking probably like pick 24 or higher, it's, it's not, you know, again, not looking good for them. I couldn't agree with you more. This is all about, this is all about hurt feelings and egos. And on this note, this whole idea of Jerry negotiating directly with this guy, he's 25, 25 years old. He's never negotiated a contract in his life. He has professional representation that everybody knows he has to have hired to do this for him. And you're the, how old are you Jerry? And you own the

• 1:20:13Speaker 04

  most valuable sports franchise in the world. You're the GM and you're going to go like the power dynamic of this, that you're going to go negotiate directly with this guy. It makes me like, I feel dirty. Like, you know, it makes me feel, it makes me feel icky that like, come on, man. That's like, that's so wrong.

• 1:20:33Speaker 02

  I'm not, I can't disagree with anything you're saying right now. I mean, it's, we, it happened. I feel like it's never happened in Philadelphia. Apparently this has been known to happen in other places. I'm talking about like a GM negotia. I mean, you'll.

• 1:20:48Travis Kelce?

  Oh, I was gonna say, I thought you were gonna say somebody traded away like your star player. Cause it definitely happened.

• 1:20:55Speaker 02

  Oh no, that's happened everywhere, buddy. That's not, this, this one feels different though. It's not like a monetary thing.

• 1:21:01Speaker 04

  Kansas City traded away their star player in 2018, just to be clear.

• 1:21:05Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, they did. Yeah, they did.

• 1:21:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's, it just feels.

• 1:21:10Travis Kelce?

  Everybody can throw it downfield. Touchdown. That guy fired me up.

• 1:21:14Speaker 02

  All right. We'll move on. Let's move on. No, no, no, you're good. You're good. Because it segues in nice with what Travis was saying. Has there ever been a trade like this before? We have some name, we, we've definitely got some in front of us, which are

• 1:21:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, sure. In history, I mean, what the, I mean, the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth, right? I mean, like it's, there's been, there's been trades, big trades. I mean, Dallas obviously knows it well here recently. Luca on the move.

• 1:21:41Travis Kelce?

  Luca.

• 1:21:42Speaker 04

  I'm trying to think it's football. I mean, obviously Khalil Mack's probably the closest thing, you know, to like a, a, a difference making, you know, edge rusher, getting traded for a bunch of picks. Um, I still, I, I don't know. I mean, this guy, Mike is different, man.

• 1:21:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:22:00Speaker 04

  He's, he's so talented.

• 1:22:02Speaker 02

  There's a name on here, but it's not a trade, which I would assimilate this too. And this is like how bad it can look if this doesn't work out for Dallas, which is the Saquon going to Philadelphia last year. And that was a free agent, like they let him go and he got signed. So not at all applicable, but like if Micah goes out and balls out this year in Green Bay, which it probably will happen and Green Bay gets substantially better. I just, the optics of it are just going to be so, so, so bad.

• 1:22:27Travis Kelce?

  Well, that's if, that's if they don't go out and they, they don't perform, you know, they, if, if

• 1:22:32Speaker 02

  Come on Dallas?

• 1:22:33Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. If Dallas goes out and plays football.

• 1:22:36Speaker 02

  Yeah. They got, they got some good receivers and Dak is a good quarterback. And I just, I just think defensively there, and I like Matt Eberflus, he's a great D coordinator. That's a, that was the, the guy on the defense that was creating all of the issues.

• 1:22:50Speaker 04

  To be clear, if you're gonna do this again, like I don't mind the idea of like we're a full reset, but you do this in the off season and you don't do this in the quiet, right? Like this is like, you, you, you, you announced this to the world that this guy's available. You create a bidding war, right? Like there's 30 teams that would have, I think, given up a similar bounty as this. I think there's plenty more that would have gone overboard, right? Like I just think this did, it was so rushed. It seemed so quiet and last minute. Like, I don't know. They just didn't, they didn't maximize what they could have got for this. I mean, in my opinion.

• 1:23:24Speaker 02

  I'm, it honestly feels a little bit like Jerry was like, what's the coldest, most miserable place I can send Micah Parsons to?

• 1:23:32Speaker 02

  Green Bay's willing to give us this. He's like, perfect.

• 1:23:35Speaker 04

  But you sent him to now, like, some people think they're like, I mean, huge expectations in Green Bay now, right? And like, they may, and some people already, like, they may be Super Bowl favorites in the NFC, right? Like, some people already, you know, are they now one of the two, three best teams in the NFC with this? To that point.

• 1:23:50Speaker 02

  Move for him.

• 1:23:51Speaker 04

  Like, trade him to New Orleans. Maybe you get a top five pick. Maybe you get a top five pick. You trade him to Green Bay. You might be getting pick 32.

• 1:24:01Speaker 02

  You might be watching him all playoffs long. Yeah.

• 1:24:04Speaker 04

  Sorry, New Orleans fans. I didn't mean to.

• 1:24:07Speaker 02

  Didn't mean to throw shade.

• 1:24:08Travis Kelce?

  All right, here we go. So, uh, you were just talking about, uh, the Cowboys, maybe just pressing the reset button. New coach. A lot of first year coaches, there's always that turnover in the NFL. Um, but Dallas is one of them with Schottenheimer. We got Ben Johnson in the, with the Bears that we already talked about, Vrabels as well, back over there, obviously not first time head coach, but first time, first year, uh, over there in New England, Aaron Glenn over with the Jets. Um, Liam Cohen, Kellen Moore with the Saints. Who are you taking for the most successful, uh, year one coach?

• 1:24:42Speaker 04

  There's seven of these guys, right? Seven, I think.

• 1:24:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:24:46Speaker 04

  Dude, uh, this is, uh, tough. I think, again, like, I want to be clear, I love the Ben Johnson hire, but I don't, I mean, that division, again, is, is stacked. So I, I, I think it's great. I don't know how many wins it's going to directly, you know, go to this next year. I, the Mike Vrabel, you know, so much of this is your division and what your division looks like. The Mike Vrabel hire in New England, I know, you know, obviously Buffalo's awesome, but the rest of that division's kind of wide open, in my opinion. And I think that, that, you know, again, Drake May's a guy, like, they're, they're gonna, by the end of the year, I think they're gonna be, uh, promising. The sneaky one, I kind of think, as I wonder about his first time head coach is Liam Cohen.

• 1:25:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:25:25Speaker 04

  Right? Like, I think Jacksonville, from a roster standpoint, is closer. Like to winning a lot of games. And again, this, this AFC South, like you got Houston, it, it's a little wide open after that. I could see, you know, I like Trevor Lawrence. I think he's super talented. They got two great edge rushers down there, young edge rushers. They got Brian Thomas Jr. Is a baller outside like I, I could see them getting good fast.

• 1:25:51Speaker 02

  And they're doing something right now that I think between what Canalis then did over in Carolina, like Baker goes down there. He has a rejuvenation of career combined with other great talented players and he's a great talent. Then all of a sudden Bryce Young is playing well in Carolina. I like some of the schematic things they're doing. They like flood different zones or utilizing like fly motions into the flat to stress flat defenders. They're doing some really cool things. I'm excited to watch William Cohen in Jacksonville as well. And I'll say this too, with Ben Johnson with the Bears, the other one is, uh, I think Dennis Allen's a really good defensive coordinator. He always like gave me fits down in New Orleans. He can scheme things so well, especially he can stop the run in a shell by moving the D lineman and having the linebackers

• 1:26:35Speaker 02

  play a certain way that it was always kind of like an issue and I respected the heck out of it.

• 1:26:41Speaker 04

  Totally agree. I know Dennis Allen hasn't had a ton of success as a head coach, but as a D coordinator, to your point, and it's unorthodox. Like how he gets to things is unorthodox. And for me as a quarterback, I hated going against that. Like I, I love textbook defenses, right? And like it was a hundred percent always a pain in the ass to go against these weird ones. So.

• 1:26:58Speaker 02

  Yep. And then obviously I gotta give my man Chip Kelly some love. Back in the NFL, offensive coordinator for the Raiders. I cannot wait to see Chip Kelly back in the NFL.

• 1:27:09Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, we forgot to, yeah, we forgot to mention Pete Carroll with the Raiders. Yeah.

• 1:27:13Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yeah. He's one of those seven. How about that? Well, how old is he? I mean, that's crazy.

• 1:27:19Speaker 02

  He's in his seventies. You want to talk about a positive mindset? Have you ever been around Pete?

• 1:27:23Speaker 04

  I just like, I mean, he's one of the guys like his, his, one of his core like fundamentals is like joy, just like bringing joy. I mean, it's amazing. Just still chewing on gum.

• 1:27:34Speaker 02

  Still chewing on gum. Do you have a, uh, do you have a sleeper pick? Who's your, who's your sleeper? Team to compete for a Super Bowl title.

• 1:27:41Speaker 04

  Wait sleeper for the Super Bowl?

• 1:27:43Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:44Speaker 02

  Well, I guess just sleeper team to overachieve. Let's say that.

• 1:27:47Speaker 04

  All right. I'll give me, I'll give you a little bit of both. I think like the, like when I think about who's, who's poised to have like a big turnaround.

• 1:27:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:27:54Speaker 04

  I, I think the New York Giants could definitely have a big turnaround. I mean, I would. Three games Dexter Lawrence. I maybe.

• 1:28:01Speaker 02

  You're gonna tell me.

• 1:28:02Speaker 04

  Best player nobody knows about. I mean, he's unbelievable and they've got, how many edge rushers do they have at this point?

• 1:28:09Speaker 02

  I mean, they've got the Abdul Carter kid. They got, um.

• 1:28:11Speaker 04

  Obviously, uh, they still have Brian Burns. I mean.

• 1:28:14Speaker 02

  Burn Burns. Yeah. From Carolina.

• 1:28:16Speaker 04

  They got a bunch of guys. I, I think they got a chance for a big turnaround. To me, again, I, it's some of these where I go to these divisions and it's like the NFC South, right? Like I, I, I think the Bucks, I think the Tampa Bay Bucks are so good.

• 1:28:28Speaker 02

  That's my sleeper team.

• 1:28:29Speaker 04

  I think they, I think they can make a real run.

• 1:28:31Travis Kelce?

  One of those stacked rosters when you really look at it.

• 1:28:34Speaker 02

  Dude, before Mike Evans got hurt and Godwin got hurt, they were competing with anybody. They were right up there with the top of the NFC and then they kind of took a nosedive a little bit during that little downturn.

• 1:28:45Travis Kelce?

  But then they found that run game, that two-headed like running back rule that they had. They found that more once the.

• 1:28:51Speaker 04

  That running back, Bucky.

• 1:28:53Travis Kelce?

  Ball player, man.

• 1:28:54Speaker 04

  Man.

• 1:28:55Travis Kelce?

  You get them with a one-on-one matchup, man.

• 1:28:57Speaker 04

  They barely lost to the commanders in the playoffs. What they were, they beat the Eagles last year. I mean, in the regular.

• 1:29:03Speaker 02

  Pretty handily too. And.

• 1:29:05Speaker 04

  You know?

• 1:29:05Speaker 02

  It was early. The Eagles got a lot better throughout the season, but.

• 1:29:08Speaker 04

  The other, the other division, I think that some, some teams are going to come out of is the NFC West, right? Like the Rams. I love the Rams. I love Stafford, like Jared, Jared verse.

• 1:29:18Speaker 02

  Come on.

• 1:29:18Speaker 04

  Jared verse is a problem.

• 1:29:21Travis Kelce?

  Dude.

• 1:29:22Speaker 04

  A problem. Man child.

• 1:29:24Speaker 02

  They came up to Philadelphia. There's a lot of noise about Jared verse and really the whole D line and they run games really well and they do all these things. And I'm like, man, they're playing Philly's O line. This isn't going to be like, they're not going to even affect the game. They got after us in the snow.

• 1:29:38Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:29:38Speaker 02

  Which to everybody knows, like snow is usually to the offensive line's advantage.

• 1:29:42Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:29:43Speaker 02

  Like, and I'm like, dude, these guys, I got a lot of respect for these, these guys are run, they're coming and, um, Jared verse was. Talking on some trash before the game, backed it up during his play and whenever that happens, I'm like, dude, respect.

• 1:29:54Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:29:55Speaker 02

  You start yapping off, coming into Philly and then come and play your ass off like, all right, I'm taking notice.

• 1:30:01Speaker 04

  There were a couple of clips where him and my lot of going at it and those are two, those are two big cats. And he

• 1:30:07Speaker 02

  For sure.

• 1:30:07Speaker 04

  He won a few of them and I was like, I mean, super impressive, but then I think again, in the same, like the Cardinal, the Cardinals got a chance to be good. If the Niners stay healthy, I think they got a chance. So that's, they're not really under the radar. They're not a sleeper, but.

• 1:30:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I do think the Niners are a little bit less talked about this year because of the way the season went last year. And you forget that they have one of the best coaches in the NFL, George Kittle, McCaffrey, they have all these pieces in place. The defense took a downturn last year, but they've been one of the best defenses in the NFL.

• 1:30:36Speaker 04

  They got, they got Robert Sala back. Like I, I think a big get for them.

• 1:30:40Speaker 02

  Come on, Matthew, let's get some Bengay on that back. I want to see the Rams doing something this year. Let's go.

• 1:30:44Speaker 04

  Ah, I think he will. I think he will. I think he's gonna be alright.

• 1:30:49Travis Kelce?

  No, he's definitely, he's a Bengay guy.

• 1:30:51Speaker 04

  He's a gamer.

• 1:30:51Travis Kelce?

  He's not, he's not a, he's not a icy hot guy.

• 1:30:54Speaker 02

  He's not icy hot.

• 1:30:57Travis Kelce?

  Uh, let's get to some no dumb questions. Smitty, we asked 92% of our fan base here, uh, to send their preseason questions. So, uh, let's check out this preseason edition of no dumb questions, cause there's no such thing as dumb questions, Alex. Just dumb ass people. That's it, man.

• 1:31:15Speaker 02

  Two of us.

• 1:31:17Speaker 02

  We got a list here. Which rookie will shock everyone? We kind of already did that a little bit. NFL soft. Well, I don't know what, who knows what that means?

• 1:31:23Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, let's do that one. Let's do that one. I like that one. NFL soft. Alex was a part of the years where you could really take someone's head off.

• 1:31:30Speaker 05

  Hey Jason, read the news. NFL got rid of, this league's gone soft, soft, man. What happened to the wing T? What happened to the Patrick Willis personality? Jack Lambert, all the big hard hitters. LT, you can't forget that LT. Now we got all these prima donnas, don't want to be a team player and we got fricking rivalries don't mean anything anymore. Cause everyone wanted jersey swapping everything. What happened to smash mouth football? Smash mouth football. You know, just run through a motherfucker's face. Now we, we just spread it out, spread it out. All of a sudden nowadays, I just can't stand it. NFL doesn't mean anything.

• 1:32:16Speaker 02

  Dude.

• 1:32:16Speaker 05

  I don't know, man. I just want to get that off my chest. Thank you, Jason.

• 1:32:22Travis Kelce?

  Thank you, Jay. Why was that only, why was that only?

• 1:32:26Speaker 02

  Excuse me, he was addressing me. Let me answer the man. I cannot tell you how much I love that that rant started from the NFL banning smelling salts.

• 1:32:37Speaker 02

  We went from smelling salts to just a nonstop rant about the game has changed over the last two decades.

• 1:32:44Speaker 04

  Did he drop Patrick Willis's name in there?

• 1:32:46Speaker 02

  He did.

• 1:32:47Speaker 04

  Okay, let's go. Just in the mystery, these old timers, just like Lawrence Taylor, Patrick Willis only retired like six years ago.

• 1:32:55Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, no, but he was, he was a part of that.

• 1:32:58Speaker 04

  All favorite. I'll tell you, I, I think he is spot on on one of these things and it does, it does not sit right with me sometimes is the, the post-game public jersey swap.

• 1:33:09Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:10Speaker 04

  I think if you're gonna do the jersey swap, it was so often was like, if you saw a guy after the game, you could talk to him and then you would go to the locker room and you would send it over, right? You would sign it and the equipment guys would take it over. I do think sometimes in big game, it is weird to like see these guys like taking pictures with their jerseys post-game on the field. Like, one of you just got your ass kicked and like, I don't know, there's part of that. Like, I think the optics, the optics of it, it should be more old school, like the clubhouse, just send it over. No one needs to know.

• 1:33:41Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:42Speaker 04

  I don't know. You don't have to do it for the gram or anything, you know?

• 1:33:44Speaker 02

  Even just for the optics of it.

• 1:33:46Travis Kelce?

  I was with him on smelling salts. I was with him. As soon as he said, as soon as he said that, I was in on it.

• 1:33:51Speaker 04

  But I don't get the story behind that, by the way. I mean, it's like universally loved. I don't know anybody that like, doesn't like smelling, you know? Like, was there somebody that like put in a complaint?

• 1:34:02Speaker 02

  Well, I think the only reason they banned him is because there's probably an argument. I mean, the reason they were on the sideline initially was for guys that got their bell rung to do a little smelling and then go back out on the field.

• 1:34:13Speaker 04

  Travis, Travis in the tight playoff game.

• 1:34:16Speaker 02

  Well, I would do them before every before every first play it first series of the game and the first series of every half, I would do one just to kind of get the system going again.

• 1:34:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, dude, when you play, when you play on the West Coast and you play the one o'clock kickoff on the East Coast, it is early, man, it is my first eight years of my career. You go there, bro, you're waking up at like 5 a.m. your time, you're eating pregame meals so early. So like the smelling salts pregame, I mean, you like had to have them, get yourself going.

• 1:34:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:34:48Travis Kelce?

  And now you got it on the sideline where it's like a fucking drug deal. Guys are pulling them out of their pockets and shit.

• 1:34:53Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:34:54Travis Kelce?

  What are we fucking doing? What are we doing?

• 1:34:57Speaker 02

  The team stopped providing them and they acted like there was like a shortage on smelling salts. And it's like, I don't think there's a shortage on smelling salts. I'm pretty sure you guys are just trying to.

• 1:35:05Travis Kelce?

  They put a tariff on the smelling salts.

• 1:35:07Speaker 02

  I think the NFL has been trying to move away from anything associated with concussions for a long time now.

• 1:35:15Speaker 04

  The real veteran move. Did you guys ever like stuff like 80 of them in a water bottle?

• 1:35:20Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure.

• 1:35:22Speaker 04

  Bottle and you shake it up and then you could like.

• 1:35:23Travis Kelce?

  The only way to do it?

• 1:35:25Speaker 04

  Little squeeze.

• 1:35:26Speaker 02

  You could feel it just like burning.

• 1:35:28Speaker 04

  Light you up.

• 1:35:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:35:29Speaker 04

  Just.

• 1:35:31Speaker 02

  Turn into Macho Man Randy Savage for a second. No, it was, uh, man, I don't know, man. I, I think we all agree on a certain extent that the, the game is changing and sometimes you're not always happy with how it's changing and you miss the barbaricness of it. Like I miss the wedge unit locking arms and running down like a human wall. But I also acknowledge that we probably shouldn't do that anymore. Like it was just absolutely terrible for those individuals. And I mean, I, I miss the hits going over the middle. I'll be honest. Like I think about these, I loved watching somebody get a completely obliterated going across the middle as a fan. But I think we can all acknowledge that it's probably best that we've moved on from this as part of the.

• 1:36:14Speaker 04

  As somebody who, who's, as somebody whose leg was, was broken on, you know, national TV, it's still fairly physical game.

• 1:36:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:36:25Speaker 04

  No, the guy named J.J. Watt, just pretty big dude.

• 1:36:29Speaker 02

  All right. Um, let's do another one. Let's do another one. NFL running back plus average fan O line game one yard. But we've done that one a thousand times. Um, oh, wait, no, that's a different one.

• 1:36:42Travis Kelce?

  That's a different, let's do that one.

• 1:36:44Speaker 02

  Well, I kinda, yeah, go ahead.

• 1:36:46Speaker 05

  Hey, boys, it's, uh, it's gravy from Wisconsin is calling in, uh. You guys talk a lot about doing a average person getting a one yard in the NFL. I want to know how many of the NFL running backs could get yard with the average people playing their offensive line from center, guard, tackle.

• 1:37:12Travis Kelce?

  It's actually pretty good.

• 1:37:13Speaker 05

  Do you think?

• 1:37:14Speaker 02

  It's a terrible.

• 1:37:15Speaker 05

  The majority of the NFL running back could get a yard with average people playing their offensive line.

• 1:37:23Speaker 02

  Is this assuming that there's NFL defensive line?

• 1:37:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think, yes, yes.

• 1:37:27Speaker 02

  If that's the case, there is precisely a zero percent chance this is gonna get a yard.

• 1:37:32Travis Kelce?

  Doesn't matter who you give the ball to.

• 1:37:34Speaker 02

  I mean, you can run the tush push, you're not getting a yard out and there's nothing you're gonna run that's gonna get a yard with average guys playing O line. Unless you maybe, if you run like some gadget play or like a toss crack with like an actual legitimate players blocking on the perimeter, but outside, I just not a chance in hell that's getting a yard.

• 1:37:55Speaker 04

  No, I agree with you. There's no, there's not a single running back. I mean, King Henry, nobody's getting a yard. They're gonna get hit, they're gonna get hit, they're gonna get hit five yards deep. Like, they're not even.

• 1:38:07Speaker 02

  By the offensive lineman, who's gonna get dwarf thrown into him from?

• 1:38:13Travis Kelce?

  Well, then what, answer, answer this question then, what is the most exciting position to make an average person play?

• 1:38:19Speaker 02

  What would I want to watch?

• 1:38:20Travis Kelce?

  Yes.

• 1:38:21Speaker 02

  I'd like to watch an average person play D line, a defensive tackle. Watch it, put an average guy a nose guard and let's see how that goes.

• 1:38:29Speaker 04

  Team had to play with one average guy, where would you put him?

• 1:38:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:38:33Travis Kelce?

  Where are you throwing them?

• 1:38:34Speaker 02

  What's the most?

• 1:38:35Travis Kelce?

  For the most exciting, like when you turn on that film the next day, you're like, I gotta see this.

• 1:38:40Speaker 04

  If you put him, if you put like a middle linebacker, if you put average Joe, Mike linebacker.

• 1:38:48Speaker 02

  Watching that?

• 1:38:49Speaker 04

  I mean.

• 1:38:50Speaker 02

  Just completely lost getting.

• 1:38:52Speaker 04

  Put the GoPro on him and let, you know, it'd be good TV.

• 1:38:56Travis Kelce?

  Oh my gosh, it'd be fucking beautiful.

• 1:39:00Speaker 02

  I'm just picturing a guy just lost. That, oh shit, that is so good.

• 1:39:05Travis Kelce?

  Just getting launched.

• 1:39:06Speaker 02

  In the middle of the field.

• 1:39:07Speaker 04

  Have your head on a swivel, just getting crack blocked.

• 1:39:10Speaker 02

  Boom. Let's do one more, one more.

• 1:39:12Travis Kelce?

  All right, let's do it.

• 1:39:13Speaker 02

  Let's do this Twitter question from Aaron Clinton. Who taught you how to watch film and how long did it take to recognize coverage live in game? Alex, you want to take that first?

• 1:39:24Speaker 04

  Oh, sure. Well, I mean, I've obviously talked about like, I watched a lot of film by myself.

• 1:39:29Speaker 02

  Taught yourself?

• 1:39:30Speaker 04

  Lot of early on. The crazy thing is back in the day, and you probably saw this too, you used to get these like textbook coverages. Maybe like, teams either played like cover two and it looked like this is how every team plays cover two and they played cover three and then they played man. And there were all these very identifiable, like they fit in a bucket kind of thing. And then it was probably like halfway through my career that that all went out the window and everything were these kind of like hybrid coverages and you couldn't even really tell. You're like, is that covered three or quarters with like, is that rotation? I don't know. Like what, you know, all these kinds of combination coverages, weird fronts.

• 1:40:05Speaker 02

  And it can change on the fly, like a motion to like a three by one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:40:09Speaker 04

  You know, and so it was way harder to identify like what the hell is going on pre-snap from a quarterback's perspective in that regard. I mean, you still can to a certain extent, but not, not as easy. Who taught you guys how to watch film?

• 1:40:23Travis Kelce?

  I was gonna say, what about you, Jay?

• 1:40:24Speaker 02

  I, I feel like I talked to Jeff Saturday early in my career because Howard Mudd coached him and he thought it'd be good after my first year to go meet with Jeff in the off season. And I definitely learned a lot of things about how to study defensive lineman technique, their feet, foot back in particular, like a head up guy. You know, you think he can go either way, but a lot of the times his stance dictates what his foot is going to step with first. And if you really watch and tape, how guys get in their stances, what techniques they're in, what the coverage is behind it, a lot of times that can dictate where these guys all end up and everything. And I think that. Talked to him a lot about, you know, you watch first and second down Wednesday, which you do as

• 1:41:07Speaker 02

  a team anyways, right? Like my thing was, I always wanted to maximize my time and I didn't like going back and watching stuff that I was just gonna watch with stout anyways. So like first, second down tape, I knew I was going into a stout in the meeting room. I always knew that we were gonna struggle getting to like two minute scenarios. What are the games that they like to run? And like, what are the down and distances that they like to do that stuff? Um, are there any tells that the D lineman giveaway on third and long as to like what games are running or like if they're doing a three man game or a two man game? Coverages, all I cared about with coverage was what the box look was gonna be like, or if the, they were tipping away pressures from like a safety standpoint,

• 1:41:49Speaker 02

  right? So like if the linebackers were stacked, there's a good chance it was either gonna stay some type of shell quarters, too high look, or the nickel was gonna pressure. If the backers were bowed or bossed, somebody's coming into that space. So I love, I don't.

• 1:42:06Speaker 04

  I love that we're like watching film and it's like all these coverages and you're like trying to break them down from a quarterback's perspective. I mean, like Jason, how about you? And you're like, well, if his right foot was a little further back, I knew he was going left. You know, like the full, like the game is so simple at the line, you know, like the only lineman like, well, his knuckles were white. So I knew he was really, you know, he was really gonna come off the ball.

• 1:42:29Speaker 02

  I asked this, we have like, we would have like an alert call from like the tight, the tackle, right? And the tackle would be like, all right. And there'd be nothing telling me that the nickel was pressuring. And JP was the best at this. He would just be like, hey, and give me the alert that they're gonna blitz over there. And I'm like, dude, there's no way they're blitzing. And sure enough, it'd be a blitz. And I'm like, JP, how the hell did you know he's blitzing? Oh, the end was tighter. The end was a snuggier alignment. And that was all he was operating on. I'm like, dude, keep letting me know that information because I'm not gonna see that.

• 1:43:00Travis Kelce?

  For me, it was a, it was like an eye opening experience. And don't get me wrong. I've like, kind of like, over the course of my career, understood off like defenses just from being in the QB room and then hearing a guy like Doug Peterson talk about it. Hear a guy, hearing guys like Matt Nagy. And then when, when you're out there running these plays, you hear like the conversations I had with you and with, with Pat. And then you start to identify like why we're calling these things and like how I can run my routes differently and how I can kind of manipulate guys, keep guys like froze so I can open up windows and things like that. But early on in my career, I was like, I think this is like my second or third year in the league and I like had just started to like, I think I'm a starter and I'm, I'm having success and I'm like, kind of like feeling like,

• 1:43:43Travis Kelce?

  yeah, I got the hang of this now. You know what I mean? I'm rolling and everything. Then I walk into the training room on like a Tuesday after a game and my, my guy, Mike DeVito, big Mike DeVito, D lineman, he's sitting there like, just like getting his ankle worked on and one of the, one of the guys from the defensive side come in with a spreadsheet and he hands him a spreadsheet and it's like every, everything the team that we're playing that week does out of every formation and he had it like categorized and I'm over here like playing at such a basic level compared to like getting a spreadsheet every Tuesday that I would looked at that. I was like, I got a fucking long

• 1:44:23Travis Kelce?

  way to go. Like I'm not even thinking about their percentages of like the, the, the coverages that they're running. I'm just like trusting Coach Reed that when he dials up shallow cross, it's man. You know what I mean? Like, you know, like I'm just looking at the pictures on the install of like the concept we're running. And it was, it had shout out to Mike DeVito, man. He was always like one of the most prepared and like, ready to go guys and his like how he, how he attacked every single week. I like, I just grabbed that one, like day in the training room, I just grabbed it. I'm like, man, that's what make that, that guy like accountable. Like he understands this to like the point of like, yeah, it's like a scheme that he understands. And, and I was just like, man, I didn't take it to the point of getting an Excel sheet, but every single time I looked at

• 1:45:08Travis Kelce?

  the install now, I look at all the percentages and all the numbers and everything they got for you.

• 1:45:12Speaker 02

  Well, good deal.

• 1:45:14Speaker 04

  Mike, Mike DeVito is a defensive tackle.

• 1:45:16Travis Kelce?

  Dude.

• 1:45:17Speaker 04

  By the way, what are the chances he's from, what are the chances, Mike was, I'm almost positive. He's from Jersey?

• 1:45:23Travis Kelce?

  I think he's from New Jersey.

• 1:45:24Speaker 02

  I mean, I don't even.

• 1:45:25Travis Kelce?

  Fairly positive he's from New Jersey.

• 1:45:29Speaker 02

  Alrighty, that wraps up our discussion with Alex Smith. Round of applause, Alex Smith, everybody.

• 1:45:38Speaker 02

  Alex, you're the man.

• 1:45:39Travis Kelce?

  Appreciate it, fella. Thanks for having me on.

• 1:45:40Speaker 02

  Thank you for coming on. This is awesome.

• 1:45:42Travis Kelce?

  Thank you. Always, always fun to catch up with you, brother. I appreciate it. Best of luck down in Brazil, bro. Go get them. Appreciate it. Heck, yeah. Let's go.

• 1:45:51Speaker 02

  And that wraps up another episode of New Heights. That's right. Next week, we will be bringing back Stamp of the Week. So hit us up on social with your nominees. Make sure you subscribe to the New Heights channel on YouTube and follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of New Heights early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

• 1:46:13Travis Kelce?

  Once again, New Heights is a Wondery show brought to you by Reese's Oreo Cups. Thank you, guys, for always tuning in 92%ers. And thanks you to our production for making us look way better than what we are. We'll see you, guys, next week after the first week of the NFL, baby.