Joe Thomas on Skipping The Draft, Being The NFL's Iron Man & Reviewing Real Life “Quidditch” | EP 136

92%ers welcome back to another episode of New Heights brought to you by our friends at Suave Men. Check out their no-nonsense self-care today! On today’s episode, we’re joined by Cleveland Browns legend and NFL Hall of Famer, Joe Thomas! Before we get to Joe, Jason and Travis catch up by breaking down the greatest Easter tweet of all time and announcing the movies we need you to vote on for the next edition of the New Heights Film Club. Joe Thomas joins us to share his hysterical reason he skipped the NFL Draft, the wild story about meeting his starting QB for the first time while in the huddle, and how he really feels about all those Browns losing records. We also get into how he mentored a young Myles Garrett, we answer a not-dumb question about finger liquid, and why he might be headed to a “Beef Off” with Jason. We will be back next week with reactions to the NFL draft and another incredible guest. To learn more about Joe’s Hall-of-Fame beef, visit: http://sixspringsfarms.com/ For even more New Heights, check out our New Heights YouTube Membership! As a member, you'll get access to full episodes, bonus videos, badges, and other stuff that will make you stand out. 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 of our new merch’ at https://homage.com/newheights Support the Show: SUAVE: Suave Men: No Nonsense Self-Care for Men. Find NEW deodorants in stores. https://bit.ly/SuaveNewHeights REESE’S: Reese’s new PB&J cups. What’s your jam? Found wherever candy is sold! AMERICAN EXPRESS: For full terms and to learn more about the powerful backing of American Express, visit https://americanexpress.com/withAmex KINGSFORD: Grill with Kingsford https://www.kingsford.com/ BOAR’S HEAD: Head to your local Boar’s Head deli counter to discover the craftsmanship behind every bite. DRAFT KINGS: Don’t miss out on all the action this week at DraftKings! Download the DraftKings app today! Sign-up using dkng.co/newheights http://dkng.co/newheights or through my promo code NEWHEIGHTS. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Help is available for problem gambling. Call (888) 789-7777 or visit ccpg.org (CT).18+ in most eligible jurisdictions, but other age and eligibility restrictions may apply. Valid only in jurisdictions where DraftKings Pick6 operates. Pick6 not available everywhere, including, but not limited to NY, and CA-ONT (for up-to-date list of jurisdictions please visit pick6.draftkings.com/where-is-pick6-available). Void where prohibited. 1 per new Pick6 customer. $5+ first Pick Set to receive $50 issued as non-withdrawable Pick6 Credits that expire in 14 days (336 hours). Ends 5/4/25 at 11:59 PM ET. Terms:pick6.draftkings.com/promos Sponsored by DraftKings 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.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 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.

• 0:52Speaker 02

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• 1:34Speaker 02

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• 1:50Speaker 03

  Brunch is really the best meal. There's nothing better than a good brunch. I'm a basic bitch. I like brunch.

• 1:56Travis Kelce?

  You getting a...

• 1:57Speaker 03

  Mimosa?

• 1:58Travis Kelce?

  Mimosa, yeah.

• 1:59Speaker 03

  More of a Bloody Mary, god.

• 2:00Travis Kelce?

  You look like you just fucking house those things. It represents you very well. If you were a drink, you'd probably be a Bloody Mary. Thick, little too much spice sometimes.

• 2:09Speaker 03

  Salty.

• 2:12Travis Kelce?

  Very salty.

• 2:13Speaker 03

  You have the right amount of me. It's good, and you're happy about it. You have too much of me, you're like, I gotta get the way of these fucking Bloody Marys.

• 2:25Travis Kelce?

  Welcome back to New Heights, a Wondery show produced by Wave Sports Entertainment and brought to you by Suave Men. No nonsense, self-care for men. That's what Suave says. That's what they're selling to you people.

• 2:40Speaker 03

  It's good.

• 2:40Travis Kelce?

  We're your hosts. I'm Travis Kelce. My big brother, Jason Kelce, out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Cincinnati Bearcat alum. Subscribe on YouTube, Wondery Plus, wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with one S. Jason. Did you eat breakfast today?

• 2:56Speaker 03

  I did. I did.

• 2:57Travis Kelce?

  Nice. He's in a good mood. Let the people know what we got coming up.

• 3:02Speaker 03

  We got another great episode for you guys coming up right now. We're first going to get to the regular episode that we always give you guys, a little bit of new news, bringing back New Heights Film Club. Little NFL draft that's happening tomorrow.

• 3:16Travis Kelce?

  Oh shit, the draft is happening.

• 3:18Speaker 03

  Well, unless some type of hurricane or natural disaster starts to strike Green Bay.

• 3:27Speaker 03

  They'll probably just pivot to New York City. But yeah, anyways, yes, the draft is happening tomorrow and we're going to get into it with an incredible guest, Mr. Joe Thomas.

• 3:37Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 3:39Speaker 03

  Two Cleveland professional sports guys, back to back.

• 3:43Travis Kelce?

  Right there. Son of a buck, I know.

• 3:46Speaker 03

  Before we jump into it, we are going to talk a little bit about Easter weekend. That's right. We have potentially the greatest tweet ever tweeted on Easter Day.

• 3:59Speaker 03

  This is the best thing ever.

• 4:00Travis Kelce?

  This is so fucking dumb.

• 4:01Speaker 03

  Listen, we don't give Jesus enough shout outs for taking one for the team, if we're all being honest.

• 4:07Travis Kelce?

  He's a team player.

• 4:08Speaker 03

  He's the epitome of taking one for the team. He died for our sins.

• 4:13Travis Kelce?

  Best leader out there, yeah.

• 4:15Speaker 03

  He did. And then he rose three days later with a giant double bird as he ascended.

• 4:23Speaker 03

  There's no other way he didn't come out like that, right?

• 4:29Speaker 03

  He's straight out of that freaking tomb.

• 4:33Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 4:34Speaker 03

  Like he had to, there had to be like some Ray Lewis or WWE. Like he didn't just walk out there with his sandals with no swag. Like you rise after three days, you're coming out there with the greatest freaking entrance of all time.

• 4:48Travis Kelce?

  Somebody broke some glass and he just rose out of the ground. Out of nowhere, they had a guitar back then. They just.

• 4:56Speaker 03

  They slammed a bottle of wine down.

• 5:02Speaker 03

  He, he's got a table.

• 5:07Speaker 03

  Here comes Jesus with the table. I don't believe what I just saw.

• 5:13Speaker 03

  This is epic. Yeah, this shot, this, uh, old tweet, famously old tweet from Travis Kelce, happy Easter to all. Shout out to Jesus for taking one for the team.

• 5:24Speaker 03

  My favorite part of it is the ha at the end.

• 5:27Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, well, I didn't, I wanted to make sure everybody knew I was having a good time joking about this, but I couldn't take it too serious.

• 5:35Speaker 03

  He died for our sins so that we can sin without having any type of ramifications for it.

• 5:43Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, and we get school off. It's a holiday. It's no school.

• 5:48Speaker 03

  Was that why this was tweeted?

• 5:50Travis Kelce?

  Of course.

• 5:51Speaker 03

  I thought it was like a realization that this guy died for our sins.

• 5:56Travis Kelce?

  It's a free day.

• 5:57Speaker 03

  It was just about the free day.

• 6:02Speaker 03

  That's so good. That's great.

• 6:04Travis Kelce?

  Wait, no, Easter's on Sunday, so.

• 6:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, but usually you'll get an Easter Monday sometimes. Our, our girls are off Easter Monday.

• 6:10Travis Kelce?

  Oh, Good Friday. That's what it was. Yeah.

• 6:11Speaker 03

  Alrighty, and now it's time for new news.

• 6:16Travis Kelce?

  New news.

• 6:17Speaker 03

  New news. We're bringing it back. That's right. New Heights Film Club brought to you by Reese's and their new peanut butter and jelly cups. Holy shit.

• 6:27Travis Kelce?

  PB and J cups.

• 6:28Speaker 03

  Jelly cups?

• 6:29Travis Kelce?

  What color, what flavor jelly?

• 6:31Speaker 03

  Did I, guys, did you guys give me some of these?

• 6:34Travis Kelce?

  Why don't we have these?

• 6:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, I want to be able to try these.

• 6:37Travis Kelce?

  I want to, you gave us all the other Reese's. Have they came out yet?

• 6:41Speaker 03

  Could somebody answer me who's in charge of our brand placement stuff?

• 6:44Speaker 05

  I I'm trying. I'm sure they're on their way. I'm sure the good people at Reese's are shipping them as we speak. It's grape jelly, by the way.

• 6:52Speaker 03

  It's grape jelly. Well, I'm a grape jelly guy. There we go. Are you a grape jelly? Are you a strawberry jelly guy, Brandon?

• 6:59Speaker 05

  Grape.

• 6:59Speaker 03

  So this is where I do think there's better than grape. Blackberry is very good. You know what's very underrated is raspberry.

• 7:08Travis Kelce?

  Boys and Berry.

• 7:08Speaker 03

  Raspberry jam. Raspberry has like a nice tartness to it. I don't even like raspberries, don't like raspberry juice, cranberry, or whatever the fuck that shit is. But raspberry jam, goddamn, it's got just a really nice tartness to it. It's very good. Do you have a grandfather clock?

• 7:27Travis Kelce?

  No.

• 7:29Travis Kelce?

  But I do want to get one.

• 7:30Speaker 03

  That noise was a grandfather clock. I mean, it's true. We had one growing up. I know what a grandfather clock sounds like. That was a grandfather.

• 7:36Travis Kelce?

  We never wound it, though, so it never went off.

• 7:38Speaker 03

  Oh, it did for a little bit. It worked for a while until we stopped bumping into it.

• 7:41Travis Kelce?

  It still works.

• 7:42Speaker 03

  Does it?

• 7:43Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 7:45Speaker 03

  Is that the original grandfather clock that I just heard?

• 7:48Travis Kelce?

  No, Jason, I'm not.

• 7:50Speaker 03

  All right, we are way off topic. New Heights Film Club, we're back. Ninety-two percenters, we do need some help picking movies as always. Listen, it's the off season.

• 7:59Travis Kelce?

  It is the off season.

• 8:00Speaker 03

  We got to find ways, we got to find ways to keep busy. You know what I mean? Football, there's a draft coming up this week. Thank God, there's something to fucking talk about. So we got the draft. After that, you know, I think we're in the middle of baseball season.

• 8:13Travis Kelce?

  Baseball season.

• 8:14Speaker 03

  There's great playoffs happening right now. NBA, NHL.

• 8:17Travis Kelce?

  NHL, yeah.

• 8:18Speaker 03

  Shout out to Cleveland. There we go.

• 8:20Travis Kelce?

  Let's go Cavs, baby. One and O. Hopefully get two and O tonight.

• 8:23Speaker 03

  Yep, that'd be big. So I thought we were going to choose between baseball movies or sports movies in general. I kind of like limiting it to baseball movies to start, then maybe go in sports movies.

• 8:34Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 8:34Speaker 03

  Let's go baseball first. Does that sound good?

• 8:36Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, let's go baseball. Let's give them, let's, let's do our top four.

• 8:39Speaker 03

  It's baseball season. Spring is here. It suns out. Feels like baseball time. What are, we got to narrow it down to four. Do we go with iconic movies or do we go with movies that would be fun to re-watch? Ones that we might not have seen. Since you've been older, because I mean, like, Sandlot's the greatest baseball movie of all time.

• 8:57Travis Kelce?

  That and Major League to me are the top two.

• 9:00Speaker 03

  Major League, goddamn, Major League is so good. Fuck, Major League is good.

• 9:04Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, it is.

• 9:05Speaker 03

  Completely different films, but both very good. Another movie that was really awesome, and I'd be curious to watch it now that I'm older, is Bull Durham, because I feel like I was too young to really comprehend it. And it'd be fun, it'd be fun to re-watch it.

• 9:22Travis Kelce?

  I fucking love that one from the get-go.

• 9:24Speaker 03

  Oh, I loved it. I'm not saying I didn't love it, but I think it's one of those movies you're gonna watch now as an adult, then you're gonna think it's like 10 times funnier, or like better, because you're gonna be able to relate more to the characters and what they're going through. Field of Dreams, I mean, I don't know, there's a better feel-good movie than Field of Dreams.

• 9:40Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, League of Their Own, oh, man.

• 9:43Speaker 03

  League of Their Own, sneaky.

• 9:45Travis Kelce?

  Tom Hanks.

• 9:46Speaker 03

  As two siblings, as two siblings, I think, um,

• 9:52Speaker 03

  you know, Dottie prevails for most of the movie and then loses it at the end to the younger sister whose name escapes me now. But if we're being honest, Dottie dropped the ball on purpose, right?

• 10:03Travis Kelce?

  I guess, yeah.

• 10:04Speaker 03

  Do you think that happened?

• 10:05Travis Kelce?

  No, it couldn't have.

• 10:07Speaker 03

  You think she did? They don't really tell you. I like movies that don't leave it up for interpretation.

• 10:12Travis Kelce?

  Well, I mean, yeah, she literally like let the ball go out of her hand.

• 10:15Speaker 03

  I mean, catchers, people drop balls all the time.

• 10:18Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, well, that play is actually illegal now. You can't do that.

• 10:22Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, well, it wasn't then, just like Brian Dawkins taking off people's heads over the middle. That was legal then. No crying in baseball. There is crying. There is crying in New Heights. No crying in baseball is crying in New Heights.

• 10:36Travis Kelce?

  Bad News Bears is another one we might throw up there.

• 10:40Speaker 03

  Which one? Which one you going? You going Billy Bob or you going original?

• 10:44Travis Kelce?

  Probably Billy Bob.

• 10:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, the Billy Bob one is electric.

• 10:47Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 10:48Speaker 03

  So which four are we going with?

• 10:49Travis Kelce?

  You said Bull Durham, so we'll do Bull Durham.

• 10:52Speaker 03

  Field of Dreams.

• 10:53Travis Kelce?

  Probably throw that one in there. No.

• 10:54Speaker 03

  League of Their Own?

• 10:56Travis Kelce?

  League of Their Own, Bull Durham, League of Their Own.

• 10:58Speaker 03

  Okay, two very similar movies. Cool. Do we go Major League?

• 11:01Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, throw Major League in there for the fun shit.

• 11:04Speaker 03

  The Rookies are a great one, but again, it's, you know, it's another one that's like real. Rookie of the year is hilarious.

• 11:13Travis Kelce?

  Haven't seen that one in a long time.

• 11:15Speaker 03

  So Rookie of the Year is the one where he actually pitches. What's the one where he just takes over the team as like a GM? But doesn't actually play. Do you remember that one? There's another one that was just like fucking so stupid.

• 11:30Speaker 03

  But it was great.

• 11:31Travis Kelce?

  I say either Sandlot or Rookie of the Year. Which one?

• 11:34Speaker 03

  Little Big League was the one I was thinking. Um, Sandlot or Rookie of the Year? If it's between those two, it's Sandlot. I mean, as much as I think Rookie of the Year is great, Sandlot's the iconic movie of baseball. And they tried to recreate it, which I mean, big mistake. You can't recreate a movie like that. Like who's playing Chuck? Like, or who's playing a, uh, god damn it. Yeah, no, wrong movie, Jason. Yeah, you can't recreate that movie. I think that's it. I think it's Sandlot, Bull Durham, League of Their Own, Major League. That's a good four to choose from.

• 12:05Travis Kelce?

  I love it. I'm excited to watch any of these. I haven't seen them in a while. Let's, let's hear it. 92 percenters.

• 12:11Speaker 03

  We're gonna drop this poll on Soulja for you guys to vote and we'll let you know when that review is coming. Once again, New Heights Film Club is brought to you by Reese's and their new peanut butter and jelly cups. Can't wait to try those out.

• 12:25Travis Kelce?

  All right now, we got some more new news. Jason discovered televised Quidditch. That's right. Jason's a big Harry Potter guy. He read every book.

• 12:36Travis Kelce?

  When he was little, um, and.

• 12:38Speaker 03

  Well, they weren't all out when I was little. I started reading when I was little, progressed to being a full grown adult, reading children's books. Yes.

• 12:48Travis Kelce?

  Well, you were tweeting that ESPN News had Quidditch games on TV.

• 12:55Speaker 03

  This is correct. They did have, so they were calling it Quad Ball. I firmly against it being called Quad Ball. That's fucking Quidditch. What's happening was they had a stick between their legs. Do you know what Quidditch is?

• 13:09Travis Kelce?

  No, but it sounds like hobby horsing.

• 13:11Speaker 03

  It was the exact same thing as hobby horsing. Just now they're playing a game with a ball. And instead of pretending like they're riding horses, they're pretending like they're riding brooms. So Quidditch, you play it on brooms in the wizarding world and then there's three rings. You try and throw the quaffle through one of the rings and that gets you points.

• 13:28Travis Kelce?

  Okay.

• 13:29Speaker 03

  There are. Two balls that are like, they try and attack you and there's guys called beaters with bats that hit the balls at you. Trying to remember what those balls were called. Beaters? Bruisers? Anyways, those balls are kind of like, you're hitting them at them with baseball bats. Bold bludgers, bludgers. Alright, the last bit of Quidditch is really, there's also goaltenders protecting these rings. There is a little thing called a snitch, which is a golden ball with wings and it flies around. It's really hard to catch and there is a seeker for each team that tries to catch the snitch. If you catch the snitch, I forget, it's like 100 points or something like

• 14:10Speaker 03

  that. So basically, in the real Quidditch, whoever catches the snitch wins the game most frequently.

• 14:18Travis Kelce?

  So it has nothing to do, so why do people even try and throw in the rings?

• 14:22Speaker 03

  Well, there is like a little bit of, if you're over 100 points, you would be in a conundrum of, if you're losing, you wouldn't want to catch the snitch because the game's over if the snitch is caught. So if you catch the snitch, you'll get 100 points, but you'll still be losing points-wise. It's just, usually that wasn't the case in the books. Usually Harry just caught the snitch and he won the game. The real life version of this has men and women, it is a, what's that called? When men and women play the same sport?

• 14:49Travis Kelce?

  Co-ed?

• 14:50Speaker 03

  It's a co-ed sport. They have a stick between their legs. Big problem I had was that it was not an actual broom. If we're gonna do this make-believe stuff and bring it to life, I want a real broom, wizard clothes. I don't want regular jerseys and a make-believe stick.

• 15:03Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, if we're gonna LARP, you gotta go full go.

• 15:05Speaker 03

  Exactly. Somebody responded and said that the bristles were causing like chafing or irritation. Don't give a fuck. You gotta, that's something you gotta deal with. Wear some fucking compression shorts. I don't want to hear that nonsense. Put a goddamn broom between your legs. Otherwise, what are we even doing? Right? They still had the quaffle. People were throwing that through, goaltender. Instead of the beaters beating with bats, they had the balls. They were playing dodgeball, right? So they could just hit people with the ball whenever they wanted to, which was pretty fun. The funniest goddamn part of this whole thing, the snitch was just a person with a yellow shirt on and the word snitch written down his clothes and he had a towel in the back and in order to catch the snitch, you had to get the towel off of the guy's back, the flag.

• 15:49Travis Kelce?

  You get 100 points for grabbing somebody's towel?

• 15:51Speaker 03

  Well, it was different in quad ball or real life quidditch, made up word. The, you only get 30 points. So the snitch is worth way less. So not as, not as fun. I think if I played, I'd get that snitch in a heartbeat. That guy was struggling. He was getting like passed off. The guy, the seeker that was trying to get it was just getting pass blocked and he like had no moves. Like dude, fucking you gotta get a little swim and a fucking get his hands off of you. It was embarrassing. He was getting, it took him a long time to get that snitch.

• 16:23Travis Kelce?

  You sat here and watched this?

• 16:26Speaker 03

  Honestly, it was the most fun I've had watching a sport in a long time. It was fantastic and I want to participate.

• 16:32Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. All right.

• 16:33Speaker 03

  But we're going real broom. I'm going Nimbus 2000. I think it's Nimbus 2000.

• 16:38Travis Kelce?

  What is that?

• 16:39Speaker 03

  Don't worry. It's a really good broom. It's, it's a, it's the best.

• 16:42Travis Kelce?

  Oh, nice. Yeah.

• 16:43Speaker 03

  Yeah. So anyways, that's what I did this weekend while I was watching ESPN.

• 16:49Travis Kelce?

  Jason, not a joke. You have been invited to Quad Ball Nationals happening, happening in Richmond, Virginia.

• 16:55Speaker 03

  I mean, listen, I don't know when it is, but if I can make it, that's not that far. I would love to potentially play. Is there like an exhibition before the Nationals game that I can partake in? I would love to try and get out there on a broom and see what I can do. I've always wanted to play.

• 17:11Travis Kelce?

  Sweet nerd. Um, all right. Here we go. Uh, April 26th, 27th. So, uh, get ready. It's like two weeks. Yeah.

• 17:21Speaker 03

  It's pretty soon. It's coming. That's this weekend.

• 17:24Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. And the last bit of new news would be.

• 17:27Speaker 03

  Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it, but.

• 17:29Travis Kelce?

  Thank you to everyone who voted, uh, for the 2025 Webby Awards, New Heights to Co. The award for best video series and was honored for, uh, best co-host. So.

• 17:40Speaker 03

  There we go.

• 17:41Travis Kelce?

  Nice. So we aren't really the talent here. Our. Editing team is the talent here. So thank you guys for um voting and um shout out to our uh our team that edits all the video stuff because you guys uh just won a Webby. And that does it for new news.

• 17:57Speaker 03

  Heyo.

• 17:59Travis Kelce?

  Let's get to this. Joe Thomas interview. Cleveland's finest. He's not from Cleveland, but he is Cleveland's finest.

• 18:08Speaker 03

  I mean, he was there for long enough. He counts.

• 18:10Travis Kelce?

  Wisconsin's finest.

• 18:12Speaker 03

  Thanks to our partner, Planet Fitness.

• 18:15Travis Kelce?

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

• 18:20Speaker 03

  Whether you're just getting started or getting back into it after some time off, it's just about showing up and doing your thing.

• 18:26Travis Kelce?

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

• 18:34Speaker 03

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

• 18:39Travis Kelce?

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

• 18:45Speaker 03

  Get started today at Planet Fitness or learn more at planetfitness.com. Thank you to our partner, Royal Caribbean.

• 18:54Travis Kelce?

  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.

• 19:09Speaker 03

  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.

• 19:18Travis Kelce?

  Like, bring the kids, bring mom and dad, shoot, bring the whole crew. Everybody's got a spot. That's what makes it special.

• 19:25Speaker 03

  And the entertainment, Latin music, ice skating, full on Broadway shows. It's pretty amazing. Pretty much everything you want in one place. Uh, oh, and did I mention there's a water park?

• 19:35Travis Kelce?

  You didn't, and that's, that'd be the kicker for me.

• 19:37Speaker 03

  I love a water park.

• 19:38Travis Kelce?

  But the crazy one? Crown's Edge, a ropes course off the side of this ship. Not for the faint of heart, brother.

• 19:47Speaker 03

  They've also got Playmaker Sports Bar and Arcade, so that means games on every screen. I love a good arcade sports place combination.

• 19:56Travis Kelce?

  All right, count me in. Get the family on the new Legend of the Seas sailing November 2026 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

• 20:04Speaker 03

  Visit royalcaribbean.com to learn more.

• 20:07Travis Kelce?

  Thank you to our sponsor, Colgate Total.

• 20:11Speaker 03

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

• 20:15Travis Kelce?

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

• 20:22Speaker 03

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

• 20:26Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, like in your mouth.

• 20:28Speaker 03

  My mouth specifically?

• 20:30Travis 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.

• 20:41Speaker 03

  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.

• 20:52Travis Kelce?

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

• 21:00Speaker 03

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

• 21:07Travis Kelce?

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

• 21:10Speaker 03

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

• 21:17Travis Kelce?

  Get Colgate Total on Amazon today.

• 21:32Travis Kelce?

  Joe T.

• 21:32Speaker 06

  What a warm welcome, my friends.

• 21:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, looking good.

• 21:35Travis Kelce?

  What's up, dude?

• 21:37Speaker 06

  What's up, guys? How we doing today?

• 21:39Travis Kelce?

  Jason's trying his hardest to, uh, to pull off the Joe Thomas. Have a Hall of Fame career and then just turn into an action figure afterwards, dude.

• 21:49Speaker 06

  Dude, look at that guy. You've made me extraordinarily jealous with them guns showing up on my screen. I'm gonna call the cops here in a second.

• 21:57Speaker 06

  Holy shit.

• 22:00Travis Kelce?

  So good.

• 22:01Speaker 03

  What you got going on?

• 22:02Speaker 06

  Not much, just out at the farm today, you know, doing the cattle thing, hanging out and enjoying some beautiful weather, getting ready for heading up to Green Bay for the draft. So, nice busy week.

• 22:12Travis Kelce?

  Nice.

• 22:13Speaker 06

  Yeah, baby.

• 22:14Speaker 03

  Let's talk about it. Love that.

• 22:16Speaker 06

  Let's do it. Let's talk.

• 22:17Travis Kelce?

  All right, here we go. Jason.

• 22:19Speaker 03

  All righty, our guest today is NFL Hall of Famer from Brookfield, Wisconsin. Ten-time Pro Bowler, six-time First Team All-Pro, NFL 2010's All-Decade Team, a member of the Cleveland Browns Ring of Honor, and the record holder for most consecutive snaps played with 10,363. Goddamn! 92% of us. Please welcome NFL legend, Mr. Joe Thomas.

• 22:52Speaker 06

  What's up, guys? Hey, hey, hey, hey. Thank you for having me on. It's a true pleasure to be here with Cleveland's two finest gentlemen of all time. I'm so happy to be here and have a chance to chat it up with my boys. We have got a little bit of a long history together, so this is great that we get a chance to chill and hopefully those guns that you're showing me here on the screen, Jason, don't jump through and shoot me. I'd like to make it to the draft this weekend.

• 23:20Speaker 03

  So I know, I know you're being funny here, but you're covering yours up. You've got some guns under there. I know you do.

• 23:26Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 23:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, baby. How much, how much weight did you lose right away when you retired?

• 23:31Speaker 06

  Yeah, so watching a bunch of guys that had done it before me, I knew like, hey, I'm either gonna lose this weight right now, or I'm gonna go the other way and be like 400 pounds. So I lost like 60 pounds, I think, in the first six months after I retired.

• 23:44Speaker 03

  60 pounds. Geez. And you did that keto, right? I think I remember talking to you before.

• 23:50Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, we chatted a little bit after you retired and I was like, hey, what's the fastest way to do it? You know, I talked to our nutritionists a bunch in Cleveland and, you know, reading online, trying to figure out, okay, you know, how do I do this quickly? Because I would like to feel better. A big reason why I retired, even though I tore my tricep my last season, it was really because I had a real bad knee. And the doctor was like, hey, man, you need to lose some weight. And for every pound you lose, it's basically three less pounds that goes through that knee. So the faster you can get it off, the better that knee is gonna feel. And I felt horrible, like walking down the stairs on my butt, like going backwards. Like I was, I was hurting a lot. I think I only practiced like three times my last season in the NFL because I just couldn't

• 24:33Speaker 06

  do it, right? So I wanted that knee to feel better. So it was easy to get that weight off quick.

• 24:38Speaker 03

  Well, that's what 10,000 snaps in the NFL consecutive will do to you. I mean, it's going to be hard on the joint.

• 24:42Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 24:43Speaker 03

  What is, so how, does the knee feel good now?

• 24:46Speaker 06

  It's great. Yeah, it was weird because you know, just playing left tackle, you get like very specific joint issues playing for sure of offset, you know, one leg forward. Yeah, exactly. Always turning like that. So I have like bulging discs all on the right side of my back. I've got, I just had my right hip replaced and my left knee, the outside of my left knee was really like shredded cheese. So that was really the issue that was causing all sorts of pain was just being in that stance, that stance that I always kind of had with my left leg really tucked up under it. And so now that I don't do those left tackle things anymore, like I can function very normally and my knee feels great.

• 25:23Speaker 03

  Fuck yeah. Did you just say you had your right hip replaced?

• 25:26Speaker 06

  Yeah, like three weeks ago.

• 25:28Speaker 03

  What? Why? What happened?

• 25:30Travis Kelce?

  Already back working on the farm, man. This guy is fucking.

• 25:32Speaker 06

  Yeah, football. The cattle ain't waiting for anybody, man.

• 25:37Speaker 03

  How does it feel?

• 25:38Speaker 06

  It's feeling great. Actually, like I did a couple of posts on my Instagram because you know, a lot of people have hip problems and they're kind of putting off the hip replacement. But all the players that I talked to that had gotten hip replacements early in their 40s were like, dude, do it right now because it's like three, four weeks, you'll be back on your feet, you'll be doing most of the normal stuff, six weeks about perfect health and you will never look back because really basically the rest of your life, you'll never have to deal with those hip problems that you had. So it's been even better than I kind of anticipated. Day one, walking around and now I'm three weeks out and chasing after cattle a little bit and chasing the kids at home. So it's been awesome.

• 26:15Travis Kelce?

  Hell yeah.

• 26:15Speaker 06

  Let's go, baby.

• 26:16Travis Kelce?

  Let's go back to where it started. Well, I guess where the NFL started. You mentioned you were going to the draft in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Wisconsin Badger himself, since the draft is tomorrow. What was your draft day like? We know you, you jumped on the water, you went fishing with the family, right? I remember, I remember that day in 2007, Wash because Cleveland was our, like back in 07 was our team. You know what I mean?

• 26:42Speaker 06

  Yeah, baby.

• 26:43Travis Kelce?

  That's our, that's our pride and joy right there. So we knew the, the story and everything, but tell us a little bit about why you did the, the boat and instead of going to New York City and how, how fun it was to be on the water.

• 26:56Speaker 06

  You guys were in short pants there back in Cleveland with your full bronze gear on.

• 27:02Travis Kelce?

  Hell, yeah.

• 27:03Speaker 06

  Yeah, it was awesome. So I really never had grown up watching the draft because you know, when I was a kid, like the draft, maybe it was on TV, but I couldn't find it. I mean, I didn't have cable. So I never watched the draft and dreamed of that moment. Of course, as a kid, I wanted to play in the NFL, but to me, the draft was just like getting the answer, you know, the, the results of your test in science class where it's like, hey, you either did a good job or you didn't do a good job. And then, you know, this is where your life's going to go from there. And so I always had a tradition on Saturdays as a kid growing up that I would go fishing with my dad. Like that was our thing. That was our time together.

• 27:36Travis Kelce?

  So cool, man.

• 27:37Speaker 06

  And you go through the whole pre-draft process, right? So you got the combine and the workouts and you do all these things. You don't have a whole lot of time for regular life. And then the draft comes and you have a very, very small window before they whisk you away to wherever team drafts you. And you got OTAs and mini camp. You go right into training camp. So this is like your only little window to reconnect with family and friends before you're pretty much disconnected for like a year.

• 28:01Travis Kelce?

  Right.

• 28:02Speaker 06

  And so I always had in my mind like, hey, I got a little time. I'm gonna go fishing. Like, I don't have to be anywhere right now. Days in the barn as far as training and stuff. So I was gonna go fishing. And then, at that time, they invited five players to the draft. So they would kind of pick the top five guys that they thought.

• 28:19Travis Kelce?

  It was only five?

• 28:20Speaker 06

  Only five, right?

• 28:21Travis Kelce?

  Wow. Very interesting.

• 28:23Speaker 06

  And so I didn't even really think about like, hey, they might have asked me to come. I knew I was going to be a high draft pick, but Gil Brandt, the Hall of Fame scout from the Dallas Cowboys, he was in charge at that time of being able to decide, all right, you know, who's gonna go to the draft, who's coming, right? So he calls me up and he's like, hey, Joe, congratulations. I want to let you know that you're going to be going to New York for the draft, you know, we'll get somebody in touch that can do the logistics, but we want you to fly out there like on Wednesday and then you got this thing to do and that thing to do. Make sure you get a couple pairs of suits. And, and then like Saturday is the big day and you can be, you know, bring a couple of your family members and get to go on stage with Roger Goodell and all this stuff. And he was hyping it up like I was gonna be all excited. And there was a big pause on the phone and I was just like.

• 29:09Speaker 06

  Hey, bad news Gil, but I already got plans on Saturday. Fishing with my dad. He was like, wait, wait a minute. Nobody's ever said no to the draft. He didn't even comprehend it, just the way I didn't comprehend ever going to the draft. Right. And I think he was like, all right, just a minute. I'll be right back to you, you know? And I think he probably like called up the people in the draft and, you know, at that time they were trying to make a big show out of it. Right? So they needed the actors to show up for the show.

• 29:32Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 29:33Speaker 06

  And so he calls back the next time and he's like, hey, Joe, um, I know you said you have plans, but we really need you there, you know? We got the TV there. You got an opportunity to market yourself, get your face out there to NFL fans and corporations where you can, you know, do some stuff and start making some money. And I go, hey, Gil, I'm an offensive lineman. I don't exactly think that I'm going to make any money marketing or endorsements. Have you looked at me? I'm like, if I make money in the NFL, it's for how I play. So thank you for the offer, but I'm really not interested. So he was again, taken aback. So then he calls back like a day later and he's like, hey, you know, we really need you there. Like some scouts have been talking that you're pre Madonna, that you don't want to go to the draft.

• 30:14Speaker 06

  And at that point.

• 30:15Travis Kelce?

  The pre Madonna from Wisconsin. Yeah.

• 30:19Speaker 06

  The pre Madonna going fishing with his dad.

• 30:26Travis Kelce?

  That's such a joke.

• 30:27Speaker 06

  So he's like trying to play that and you guys know how it is, like us as athletes. I think generally like we try to be kind people because we were always the biggest kid in the class. You know, we didn't want to like beat anybody up, get in trouble, you know, unless we had to. But when we had to, like, we were going to throw some shit down and that was going to happen. And now all of a sudden it's like, fuck, fuck me, fuck you.

• 30:47Speaker 06

  All right. I'm definitely not fucking going because you're trying to pull this pre Madonna shit. And so like, don't even call me back. I'm not interested. Like, don't waste my time anymore. I don't want to waste your time. So I called my agent and I'm like, look, I'm not going. And he's like, well, I totally get it. It's no problem. But we just need to make sure whatever you do that day, you need to have cell service because we need to be able to call you. It's important. As you guys remember, maybe on your draft day, I think you probably did, like, they want to call you and talk and just make sure, have you been arrested? Make sure you haven't gotten hurt and nothing's happened last second. Yeah. Exactly. Like everybody, not everybody, a lot of people party a little bit, you know, the night before their draft, they got family, friends or whatever. They want to make sure everything is the same. You know, you're not in handcuffs, you know, nothing's happened. And so I was like, all right, I can make that concession. I'll fish close enough to the cell phone towers that I

• 31:35Speaker 06

  And I can talk to the whoever drafts me. And so he's like, okay, great. I'll handle it from here. Like you don't need to stress about this anymore. And so like, I didn't hear from him for a while, like few weeks and my agent, he handled a Peter Schaefer did a great job. And then like finally, I think Gil came around and understood like he ain't coming to the draft. So I finally got a call like, hey, I'm sorry about that, you know? Don't worry. You don't have to come to the draft. It's okay. You can go fishing with your dad. And it was kind of like, he was trying to smooth things over again. So that's the story. I ended up going fishing with my dad, got drafted third overall by the Browns. And the ironic thing about it all was I was doing it just to spend time with my dad, get away from the cameras and stuff and like, didn't want to make a

• 32:16Speaker 06

  deal about it or a big story. But now it's like, every time the draft comes up, that's what people want to talk about.

• 32:21Speaker 03

  The funny thing is, is that this made so much more headlines for the NFL doing this than going to that. Like how, how relatable is, and first of all, like, do you know how much this entrenched you right away in Cleveland?

• 32:36Speaker 03

  And it's like, this dude's going fishing with his dad and telling New York to fuck off. Yeah. Sign us up for this guy right now. There's so, there's so relatable for so many people out there, right? Like this guy's having the, the pinnacle of his entire athletic career is about to happen. He's about to realize his dream of playing the NFL. And how's he going to do it? He's going to do, he's going to have a moment with his dad fishing and doing something that he's loved his whole life and stay true to his roots. So good on you. How was the day though? What'd we catch?

• 33:04Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. What'd we catch?

• 33:05Speaker 03

  Was the water good by the cell towers or were we?

• 33:08Speaker 06

  You know, we made it work and you know.

• 33:13Speaker 06

  The humble brag in me says, you know, I didn't have to wait too long. So the fishing trip was not

• 33:20Speaker 06

  for some other people because I got drafted third overall. So we ended up catching a couple of brown trout, which I thought was kind of cool.

• 33:27Speaker 06

  Nice brownies. And then the Browns draft you. And the only downside of being drafted early was they cut the fishing trip short. And then my agent did step in. He's like, hey, look, you got to go to Cleveland now. And like, they're going to bring their jet, like Randy Lerner was the owner at the time. He's like, they're going to fly to you like Waukesha, Wisconsin, tiny little airport. They're going to pick you up. They're going to turn around, take you to Cleveland because you do need to finally get a suit, put your suit on, go to Cleveland. They need to have this introductory press conference. It'll be great. You'll love it. And so I brought my, I think my fiance at the time, Annie, and then my parents and stuff. And we flew out and did all like the dog and pony show and stuff. And in the end, it turned out it worked out a lot better for me and the NFL, like you mentioned, because you know,

• 34:09Speaker 06

  what's better for the NFL than like, hey, there's some down home guys that are shunning the spotlight that just want to be all about football and family.

• 34:16Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 34:16Speaker 06

  Hell, yeah.

• 34:17Speaker 03

  Bait and tackle. You a fly fisherman. What's your, what's your preferred fishing style?

• 34:20Speaker 06

  Yeah. So I love all fishing. My favorite type of fishing is like bobber fishing, honestly, or like little jigging. You know, I grew up pan fishing and going on Lake Erie when I was playing for the Browns, like I would go out every chance I got. And if I could cast for walleyes, like drifting cast or like throwing, yeah, like the old Erie dearies and stuff like that. Like anytime I can be connected to my bait, where I'm feeling that hit, that strike. To me, that's fishing. Like I do a bunch of trolling and that's how you, you collect meat. If you're out on Lake Erie, you troll for walleye, you troll for steel. It's not as much fun just really.

• 34:52Speaker 03

  You go for trophy fish, big fish, you got to troll. But yeah, it's definitely, I hate trolling if I'm being honest. I've only done it one time. It's not my style. I like feeling it. So I remember watching your draft day highlights because I, obviously we were both Cleveland fans. We had the third pick. We're all geared up. Like who are we going to take? And everybody kind of knew we were going to go after you. There was all these highlights of like, not only is he strong, but he's out here on a receiver screen kicking out a core. Like there was athleticism showed.

• 35:20Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 35:21Speaker 03

  What is your pro? Prototypical lineman that you think of like if you're evaluating guys coming out of college, what is the like the tackle? What are the traits that you think every like a premier tackle should have?

• 35:33Speaker 06

  Well, it was interesting because like the late 90s to me was like the golden era of offensive tackles like Jonathan Ogden, Walter Jones, like there was Willie Ruff, there was such a big group of enormous human beings that were 350, 360, and they were great athletes. They were ballerina on their feet. And nobody got through them and they were great run blockers. I always kind of saw myself as an undersized tackle. Great athlete, I could move, but the thing that I had to learn the most when I got to the NFL was how to stop the bull rush, right? Because you've got guys like DeMarcus Ware screaming off the edge, Terrell Suggs screaming off the edge, James Harrison. They're trying to run you over, right? Especially as a rookie, like they want to see if you can have any lead in your ass and you can

• 36:19Speaker 06

  stop the bull rush, right? And so I got a lot of that early on in my career and it took a little while to figure out how to react, see the bull rush to sit quick, but also to be light enough where you could react to that second move. But to me, if I'm looking at like today's NFL, I'm like Trent Williams is like the prototypical, like the best. If I could look and have the athleticism and the strength and power of Trent Williams, that'd be perfect. Like 325, but still running that 48, still running that 43 pro agility like

• 36:49Speaker 03

  Oh my gosh.

• 36:50Speaker 06

  To me, that is exactly what you want in a tackle, but you're seeing a lot smaller tackles nowadays. Then when I first got in the NFL, I think because it's much more of an open game, right? There's, there's not as much of a focus on can you grind people out in the run game?

• 37:04Travis Kelce?

  Let's talk about a little bit of what you're doing in, in Green Bay for the, for the Browns. You're, you're announcing the Browns' second round pick.

• 37:11Speaker 06

  That's right. I'm pumped, you know?

• 37:12Travis Kelce?

  Have you, have you kind of stayed around the organization? You mentioned you were in Germany last year, but have you kind of stayed around the organization in terms of, I don't know, just kind of keeping the, keeping the relationships and, and getting around Cleveland when you can?

• 37:26Speaker 06

  Yeah. So even though Kevin Stefanski is a coach that I never played for, I have a really good relationship. With a lot of the coaching staff, Andrew Berry, the GM, he was actually an assistant GM when I was there. So a little relationship there and obviously the relationship with the Hazms and a lot of the people that are still there in the organization. And when I retired, I was like, you know what, it's, it would be really hard to transition to a post-career without having football in my life, without having the Cleveland Browns in my life. And so I, they were really lucky. Sorry, I was really lucky. They were willing to open up a space on the media side for me. So I do their preseason games. I do a radio show during the week with them after their, after their games.

• 38:08Speaker 06

  And then throughout the season, I just do like fun content with them, right? Which is fun more than anything, just staying plugged in and going out there for a week in training camp every year, which gives me the opportunity to be able to do a little bit of that media stuff, but also get in there, watch practice, meet the guys, maybe give some coaching points to a few of the players. And, you know, try to just give some of that wisdom that I've learned all throughout those years to the guys that, you know, I really want to have that success throughout their career.

• 38:36Travis Kelce?

  You gotta pass it along, man. Was there anybody, uh, when you came into the league that was like the one giving that wisdom, whether they were on the team or just, uh, kind of a phone a friend type deal?

• 38:47Speaker 06

  I was really lucky because when I was a rookie in Cleveland, a lot of the linemen were older guys. And, uh, you know, one of the guys that really, really helped me was Hank Fraley. He was our center. Yeah. Donuts, if you're an old honey buns, donuts winners from the honey buns. That was him. Um, and he was so helpful, right? Because center, he was really, really smart. He understood technique. He played with Trey Thomas and John Runyon in Philly. And, uh, those guys are two all pro pro bowl tackles that, um, he learned a lot from, but he was also super smart, like super cerebral. And so he helped me see the big picture because that's what you have to do as a center. And when you come in as a tackle, especially a rookie, like I'm just trying to figure out who the fuck I'm supposed to block.

• 39:31Speaker 06

  I'm not worried about everybody else, but understanding through his eyes, when you see the big picture, it makes you the, the puzzle that you're trying to, uh, put together on every play, it makes it so much easier. So even though I don't Know exactly what I'm supposed to do like I can use deductive reasoning if I see the big picture to be able to figure out okay how does this work together right and it just makes your brain work faster when you're reacting on the field.

• 39:52Travis Kelce?

  Context clues. Yep.

• 39:53Speaker 03

  I remember when Hank went in there when he was in Cleveland. Who was the center? So he came in, the starter guy, was it Fane? Was it?

• 40:00Speaker 06

  La Charles Bentley. I think.

• 40:01Speaker 03

  Charles.

• 40:02Speaker 06

  But La Charles was a huge free agent signing, right? All pro best center in the league and he comes into Cleveland.

• 40:08Speaker 03

  First walk through.

• 40:09Speaker 06

  The first like first thing of training camp and he blows out his patellar tendon and never played another down of football again. Just a terrible story.

• 40:18Travis Kelce?

  Damn.

• 40:20Speaker 03

  And he was a hometown hero because he went to St. Ignatius, like he was from the Cleveland area, had come back. It was, but yeah, Hank played pretty dang good. I thought like he was a, as somebody who didn't really know much about the game at the time, I, he stood out to me.

• 40:32Travis Kelce?

  What was it like getting drafted to the Cleveland Browns, man? Did you know anything about the city? Um, did you like, what were, what were your like, uh, like, where are the first places you went in the city? I'm, I'm so curious on everybody's like first introduction to Cleveland. Um, tell us about it.

• 40:51Speaker 06

  Yeah. So with three Cleveland guys here, this is easy to, uh, pump the tires of the Cleveland area, but man, I was so happy, dude.

• 41:01Travis Kelce?

  Let's go.

• 41:03Speaker 06

  Because one, my dad's side is all from the Toledo area. So I used to come to Toledo every summer and we'd go out there for the family reunion. We'd see all my dad's side of the family and we'd go fishing on Lake Erie and you know, obviously fishing, big part of my life. So being drafted and being able to live right on Lake Erie and go fishing in my free time. I was so pumped. And then I think also for me, at that time, it was really important for me to stay in the Midwest. I was really interested because I think that, you know, East Coast fans are incredible. There's a lot of them, right? They're super passionate. Um, but I think there's something about like throughout the rust belt in the Midwest, like

• 41:38Speaker 06

  that's all they got, right? Is their team and they just love it and they just absorb, uh, every single little thing, little detail that comes out of there and they're a ride or die, no matter what happens. And I knew that's how the Browns fans were. And I had known a little bit about their history. History, um, because we had a guy on the, the Badgers with me, Dante Sanders, who's a, he's a Cleveland guy. Oh, yeah. He's a Bedford guy. Yeah.

• 42:01Speaker 03

  Bedford, wow.

• 42:02Speaker 06

  Back there, uh, coaching now somewhere, but, um, he was a huge Browns fan. So he'd always turn the Browns games on in the locker room. College. And so I knew that, you know, they had this incredibly, uh, robust, proud history of championships with Jim Brown and Otto Graham and all these guys. And since the Super Bowl era, they haven't won a Super Bowl. I haven't even been there. And then since they came back in 99, they've been kind of poopy. And, uh, so for me, it was.

• 42:27Speaker 03

  Understatement.

• 42:28Speaker 06

  Yeah. I've always, you know, enjoyed like building something from nothing, right? That take a lot of pride and, and really just sinking my teeth into something and being part of like, let's build this from, from nothing, from the ashes and make these champions. Um, and we didn't do that.

• 42:46Speaker 06

  But when I got drafted, I was just full bore ahead thinking, man, this is great. This is exactly where I want to be. It's in front of the fans that appreciate offensive line play. You know, they're not booing me because you drafted a tackle number three overall. And, uh, just being able to live in Cleveland amongst people that I understood, like, it was just a perfect fit for me.

• 43:08Speaker 03

  Why didn't they do that? What do you think when has been going wrong in Cleveland? Not as of late, I guess. Let's just talk about your career. Like, you guys are close. You guys had some great offensive lines during your time in Cleveland.

• 43:19Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 43:19Speaker 03

  Never played in a postseason game. Like what, what was that process like playing? I mean, you played on a winless team in Cleveland. I can't even imagine that. Travis hasn't had one losing season. Like you're talking to the most like just lucky fucking guy on the planet. One head coach. I mean, anyway, so. Yeah, I don't know. What was that like?

• 43:42Speaker 06

  We're very jealous here, Justin. Trust me, talking to guys, guys with multiple Super Bowl rings on the other side. I'm very jealous. Um, but you know, it was tough. It, I mean, there's no easy way to put it. Losing in the NFL is so hard. And I think.

• 43:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:57Speaker 06

  The Haslums took over in, I don't know, 2014, 2013, somewhere in there. And, um, you know, in 2016, 17, that was the two years we went one and 15 and oh and 16. And I think their, their philosophy at that point was like, hey, guys, we don't have a team that's good enough to win right now. So we're gonna trade back, we're gonna collect draft capital, we're gonna collect salary cap space. And then we're gonna get a bunch of young talent. We're gonna let them play together and kind of go through the, the, the, the challenges and the difficulties that when you have a young team you deal with, but then year three, we're gonna be a lot better and we're gonna have all this salary cap space to spend on free agents. We're gonna have these draft picks.

• 44:40Speaker 06

  And I don't think they fully understand, or at the time understood how painful it is to lose in the NFL. Right. You only get one, one chance every week. And how you feel that whole week is a hundred percent related to whether you won or lost. And when you lose, you feel sick the whole week. And in Cleveland, you guys know it. Everybody in town feels sick. That whole week when you lose, it is so painful. It is so miserable. And to go one and 15 and then go oh and 16. Well, you can imagine it was not a lot of, uh, sunshines and rainbows in northeast Ohio and certainly not in my house there in Westlake. It just sucked. Like you hated going to work every fucking day. The fans booed you. They, you know, they still showed up because it's Cleveland, but they were there to boo you, not to cheer you.

• 45:26Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 45:26Travis Kelce?

  Damn, man. One of the hardest things to, to kind of weather is, is how many quarterbacks you guys went through. And obviously the notorious, uh, jersey of like long listed names that's

• 45:41Travis Kelce?

  could, how many of them could you name, do you think?

• 45:43Speaker 06

  Very few. I'm trying to remember very few of them. Uh, not exactly the greatest memory ever. Uh, is all the different quarterbacks. I think I played for like 20 and 11 years. So.

• 45:54Travis Kelce?

  Well, who are your, uh, who would give us, give us your, uh, your top five? Who, who you play?

• 45:58Speaker 06

  Yeah. So, um, my rookie season, we were actually 10 and six. It was my only winning season. So Travis, let that sink in.

• 46:05Travis Kelce?

  Oh, I love it. Hell yeah.

• 46:06Speaker 06

  In 11 years, uh, Derek Anderson was our quarterback.

• 46:10Travis Kelce?

  D A.

• 46:10Speaker 06

  He didn't even start the season. We had Charlie. Fry was the starter week one.

• 46:14Travis Kelce?

  Yes.

• 46:15Speaker 06

  I should have just retired after week one because going into that game. Charlie Fry was our starter. He was also the captain and he was the hometown hero. We played the Steelers at home, my first NFL game going against James Harrison, who will be in the Hall of Fame soon. And that was tough enough, but we were getting our ass kicked. He got sacked. Charlie did like six times in the first half. At halftime, they benched him. Okay. Derek Anderson comes in, doesn't do much better. Monday after the game, mind you, this was our starting quarterback and our captain, and I came from Wisconsin where we had a lot of success. And you know, if, if you have a quarterback and he's your captain, like he's your dude, like.

• 46:51Travis Kelce?

  That's a ride or die. Yeah.

• 46:53Speaker 06

  He's a ride or die. Like you, you would do anything for that guy and you're spending all off season trying to build camaraderie and relationships and see the same things that he does. And on Monday, they traded him to the Seattle Seahawks for like a six round pick. So I was like, what the fuck is this NFL stuff? Like our starting quarterback, who was our captain, just got traded and benched in the first two days.

• 47:21Speaker 03

  It's aggressive.

• 47:21Speaker 06

  It's a pretty aggressive.

• 47:23Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:23Travis Kelce?

  You guys ended up going to get another quarterback that, that following year and Brady Quinn though, right?

• 47:28Speaker 06

  Brady was actually in my draft class. So, um, I got drafted third by Cleveland and, um, a lot of people in Cleveland because he was a Columbus guy. He went to Notre Dame, but the other hometown ish guy grew up in Brown sand, love Bernie Cozer. So a lot of people thought they would draft Brady third. Well, he slid in the draft. Um, and then they traded back up, I think with the Cowboys to draft him like in the 20s. So we came in together and he had a couple of years as a starter, like year twos, two and three of my.

• 47:56Travis Kelce?

  He was the most jacked quarterback I had ever seen.

• 47:58Speaker 06

  That was probably what held him back. Like his arms were bigger than, uh, Jason's over there. I'm not sure if that's even possible, but kind of hard to throw when you got pipes like that, bro.

• 48:08Travis Kelce?

  Man, it's fun to watch. That was, uh, that was, I remember that was the first, uh, like college game I ever saw was Brady Quinn versus, uh, oh, it was Pittsburgh. It was Notre Dame, Pittsburgh. Um, I forget the, uh, Palco.

• 48:22Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah.

• 48:22Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, Tyler Palco.

• 48:23Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 48:24Travis Kelce?

  Shout out to Casey. Either way, man, Brady was a Brady was a stud. You played, fuck, man, you played with a lot of fucking QBs, man.

• 48:31Speaker 06

  Remarkable, to be honest with you.

• 48:32Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. And still had the Hall of Fame career you did. How did you did? Did it ever get to the point where you just stopped introducing yourself to quarterbacks when they walked in?

• 48:41Speaker 06

  Uh, well, I did have one time in my career. It was like, I don't know, year five or six. Uh, another spoiler alert, we weren't very good. Uh, I think we were four and 12 that year, but we were playing the Steelers, the very last game of the season. It's in Pittsburgh, right? And of course you hate Pittsburgh. You want to fuck them up, even though, you know, we're not going to the playoffs and they are. Uh, and so it was actually kind of a close game down the stretch at the time. Thad Lewis was our starting quarterback. So there's another one I remember. Um, the great, I should say, proper introduction, the great Thad Lewis was our quarterback.

• 49:13Speaker 03

  The great.

• 49:14Speaker 06

  And, uh, it was like a six to 10, six to 14 game. Either way, it was like a one score game.

• 49:19Speaker 03

  AFC North game.

• 49:20Speaker 06

  Yeah, slugfest, you know, December 31st, full of shit. You know, I got my long underwear on and my the fur in my helmet. And I'm like, holy cow, we may actually win this game. Like we're, we're driving down the field. It's in the fourth quarter and, uh, we're just getting into the Heinz red zone. You know, we're going towards the river there and, uh, the old Heinz field. Um, I don't know what the fuck they call it now, but it's not Heinz field.

• 49:44Speaker 03

  It's called Accra sure. It's still Heinz field to me.

• 49:46Speaker 06

  Something I can't say, but it's Heinz field for me. Uh, so we're going there, going in the river. And I'm like, damn, we can fucking win this thing. And, um, my left guard, who is a backup, he, uh, as you'll give some appreciation, it was his first like couple of games as a starter. And we have just a two jet protection, just super basic. Like we're sliding left. Like this is the first protection you install in your playbook.

• 50:07Speaker 03

  No doubt.

• 50:08Speaker 06

  And Alex Max, my center, he says lion, which our call then was like, hey dipshit, even if you didn't hear lion, like two jet, we're going that way, bro. Find the mic.

• 50:16Speaker 03

  Send us a company.

• 50:16Speaker 06

  Right, right, right, right. So what does he do? He goes to the right. And so they're playing a three, four at the time. So.

• 50:23Speaker 03

  Opposite of a lion. Okay.

• 50:25Speaker 06

  Opposite of a lion, opposite of a two jet. Like this is not possible. So he goes to the right and, uh, James Harrison's. Outside linebacker. So I'm sliding out to him and I think it was maybe Brett Kiesel was playing the end or four technique. I can't remember for sure, but he's on block now, right? Cause left guard, that's your dude. You're kicking out. Left guard goes the wrong way. Yep. Goes the wrong way. So he steamrolls Thad and you know, detaches his head from his body. So Thad's laying there. That's already our third string quarterback. All of a sudden in the huddle, we're like, damn, this is not good because we actually don't know who the next guy in is, right? Like I had heard that week that we had signed a guy to be the backup emergency quarterback, but I didn't know who he was. Right.

• 51:08Speaker 06

  So we looked at the sideline and of course this guy's like panicking. He's like, you know, trying to warm his shoulder up, get a couple of throws in and the trainers are taking their time on the field, you know, because the quarterback's down, but they don't want to hurry up because we got to get this other guy like up to speed and warmed up a little bit. It's a cold day in Pittsburgh. So he trots out on the field after they get Thad Lewis's lifeless body off the field. He comes into the huddle and it's still a TV timeout and I look around the huddle. I could see in everybody's eyes like nobody knows who this fucking guy is.

• 51:37Speaker 06

  And I can feel the tension. Can't wait to hear this cadence for the first time. Yeah, this is gonna be exciting. I guarantee this will be a sack. Fucking blaming me. The guys watching in Japan are thinking that the bozo left tackle doesn't know staff code.

• 51:51Speaker 06

  Meanwhile, as a fucking quarterback, but I can't say that as a captain, I'm like, okay, I gotta do something here, right? There's a lot of tension being built here and it's just rising as this timeout keeps going on. And so I like, I was like, all right, I gotta say something funny. So I'm like, hey, nice to meet you. I'm Joe Thomas. I'm your left tackle. Let's go down the field and get a fucking score and win this game, you know? And everybody laughed and I learned in that moment, his name was Josh Johnson. He ended up playing like a long time. He's still playing. Still probably playing somewhere. I think he played for like 14 teams. But anyways, next play, it was third down and I think he threw an incompletion and we lost the game. But in my mind, that speech led us to victory. Nothing else.

• 52:34Speaker 06

  In a parallel universe, that worked out perfectly. Absolutely. When I write my biography and they do the movie, like we go down and Scored win the game and like somehow like maybe we have a parade because we beat Pittsburgh for the first time. But uh, but that didn't happen. But either way, I got a fun story out of it and I learned uh, who Josh Johnson was.

• 52:52Travis Kelce?

  Shout out to Josh Johnson.

• 52:53Speaker 06

  Shout out to Josh. Thank you for coming in for one play.

• 52:56Speaker 03

  You played against some absolute monsters on defense in your time in the AFC North. Who are the guys that were either like, you're welcome to the NFL moment or like, just like you're playing them in their prime and you think of as some of the best defensive players in the NFL from that time?

• 53:13Speaker 06

  Yeah. So when I was a rookie, the other three teams in the AFC North.

• 53:19Speaker 06

  It was, I was going against Justin Smith, who I think was like one of the first dudes ever to be named first team all pro at two positions in the same season because he was playing in the three, four in San Francisco at the time. And he got named as an all pro defensive tackle and DN, you know, because he played that four, four I so you know, he got votes from everybody.

• 53:39Speaker 03

  Tackle and base, he's a DN. Yeah, yeah.

• 53:40Speaker 06

  Yeah. So I was going against him. So that was um, the second game of my career. The first game of my career was James Harrison. I was like, okay, right. And then the third guy will be future Hall of Famer, Terrell Suggs. So like within the division, I was playing against like three Hall of Famers potentially. I don't know if Justin will make it, but like the other two guys for sure. And uh, it was not, it was not pretty, but you know, you better buckle up your chin strap like and get your shit right rookie because there's no easy days here in the AFC North.

• 54:10Speaker 03

  Yeah. Glad you run up Justin because that was one of the first games I played my rookie year, but he was in San Fran. And I had never really heard, like, I was like high pick for Cincinnati and for some reason he didn't have like a big name around him. And we're getting ready to play the 49ers when they had that front where it was like, they had him, they had Ray McDonald, they had Navarro Bowman, Patrick Willis.

• 54:30Speaker 06

  Alden Smith on the edge was a monster.

• 54:33Speaker 03

  They were unreal and this dude is bull rushing every snap. Like you know, how do you even have the endurance to do that? Cause typically like a bull rush, you're like, all right, I'll stop it. I'll get that like once or twice. I'll get like a real good one from this guy. The rest of the game, we're going to be playing a different type of game. It was every, I'm like, this dude is amazing. This guy's the best player I've ever seen in my life. I don't know how we're gonna block this guy.

• 54:56Speaker 06

  He, he played.

• 54:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 54:57Speaker 06

  Yeah. He played every snap as a D tackle, D end. Like, he never came off the field. Like, he's as much of an iron man as anybody in the NFL. And we always said, like, if there was a train wreck and 200 people were involved, like, 199 would die and Justin Smith is gonna dust himself off.

• 55:18Speaker 06

  A Budweiser at the bar down the street. He was just old school. Like, he had an Anheuser-Busch tattoo on his arm. He was just an old school country boy. Like, all he knew was just playing ball.

• 55:28Speaker 03

  Gosh, he was good.

• 55:29Speaker 06

  That's good shit.

• 55:30Speaker 03

  I know, I mean, obviously, Trill Suggs, I mean, the biggest head I've ever seen, I think, on a defensive end. I mean.

• 55:35Speaker 06

  Came through Kansas City and catapulted us into the, into the Super Bowl, man.

• 55:40Speaker 03

  There you go.

• 55:41Speaker 06

  Sizzle was, I was not trying to fucking be in, uh, fast protection against him. There were some of those old school dudes like Harrison and Suggs. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's not like they were ever out of their prime. They were good until they stopped playing. But, man, some of those dudes could just literally pick me up and move me over. Just like, excuse me, little guy.

• 56:04Speaker 03

  What was your strategy to stop James Harrison's dip and rip? It was like the most unstoppable move I think I've ever seen anybody have, where he would just bend real low and then he had the biggest biceps in the world that he'd just like lift up on. How do you stop that move?

• 56:18Speaker 06

  What, what's the? You were doing that just to show off them guns, baby.

• 56:21Speaker 03

  This is, you get an O lineman on, he's gonna humble you real quick. We keep each other honest.

• 56:26Speaker 06

  Awesome. I loved it. I think that one of the things that really helped me as an lineman, like, I wasn't as big as a lot of guys, but like, I took a different game plan and strategy on how I block every single person I went against. And even the same guys from like, year to year, I would maybe attack them differently, right? Because I knew that in order for me to maintain the upper hand, I had to be different than what they saw on film, different than what they practiced for. So with James, the big key on that dip and rip was like, you had to keep space, right? Because the only thing that James really didn't have, right? He was super powerful. He was very short and squatty, which allowed him to get under your pads if you let. Get into your body. Um, and he was really quick too, but

• 57:05Speaker 03

  He didn't have length.

• 57:06Speaker 06

  Didn't have that length. So I knew that that was my advantage. So I just was really, really super conscious of picking my spot on his shoulder pads or on his bicep to be able to hit that spot and extend and keep him away from my body because the rip only works as if he's in your body and he's able to get that arm kind of under your armpit. Exactly.

• 57:26Speaker 03

  I mean, it makes so much sense. And I've always thought about it similar. It's almost like you're a boxer, like when you're a shorter boxer, you want to get into the body. When you have the length advantage, use that advantage and keep that guy away from you. And I've always drawn that comparison. I was always the undersized guy. So I'm was, let me get in this body. All I wanted is get in the body and grab these tits. Um, nothing changed from your career for me. Yeah. A lot easier to do that inside than on the edge. But anyways, when you were blocking a defensive end or an edge rusher, what were the things that you struggled with most? What was like the combinations that gave you the most difficulty in trying to defend? If that is a

• 58:07Speaker 06

  Yeah. So

• 58:08Speaker 03

  Sensible question.

• 58:09Speaker 06

  Yeah. Yeah. I think we'll go with it. Um, I'll try to make some sense out of that.

• 58:13Speaker 03

  Please, please.

• 58:14Speaker 06

  Making chicken salad here. Um, so what I found really hard was is if a guy tried to break down your feet and then tried to beat you with power. So for instance, if you get a guy who's wide, right? Cause everything's about angles. When you get on the outside, so you got a wide rusher, right?

• 58:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 58:31Speaker 06

  If they just try to beat you around the edge with speed, like I'll be able to keep up with them and pushing past the quarterback. No problem. That's what I wanted them to do, right? Cause you're already further away and now they're just trying to outrun me. And in a foot race, I can go backwards pretty fucking fast. What I struggled with those, if they were wide, but they rushed from that wide rush position, straight at my inside shoulder. Because now what that does, it doesn't allow me to kick back because my advantage was like, I know the snap count and my first two kicks are going to be really fast and long. So I can get depth. And then now, when I get to that spot, now the quarterback eventually is going to get to his spot. And then now they got to beat me and they've already wasted a second and a half to get to this spot. Yep. But if they

• 59:11Speaker 06

  Rush right at my inside shoulder. I can't kick deep because otherwise he just keeps running on a straight line and beats me to the inside. So it made me stop my feet. So I'd take, I basically would only get one kick, stop my feet. And as he's getting closer to me, give the head and shoulders.

• 59:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 59:27Speaker 06

  That kind of usually would break your hands down and makes you drop your feet, drop your hips, your center of gravity. And then when that happened, now he can, now he's basically on my same level. And now if he decides to run around me to the outside, he's faster than me.

• 59:40Speaker 03

  He's short in the edge.

• 59:41Speaker 06

  He's short in the edge. He's got a better angle to beat you around to the outside. And it's really hard for a lineman to go from basically being in a static position in a static spot to all of a sudden accelerating really quickly and trying to pick up to a guy that's running already full speed. Cause if you imagine a defensive end, he's running full speed. Now he's just got to change the angle that he's running full speed on where my feet are stopped. I am in one position and now I got to rapidly accelerate to get to the speed that he's going. As he's already running forward and I'm running backwards. And so it was really, really hard when guys would do that. Because also if they try to give you the head and shoulders, and then now they think like they're going to go outside. You're trying to accelerate backwards and now they can go beat you back to the inside.

• 1:00:24Speaker 06

  Or if you get on your heels, they can just run you over by just steamrolling you. And they've got a lot of momentum built up from being wide and starting to run really fast and really powerfully right at you.

• 1:00:33Travis Kelce?

  You're fu, you're such a technician, man. God, just to be able to hear you talk about these kinds of things.

• 1:00:38Speaker 03

  It's awesome.

• 1:00:39Travis Kelce?

  And the fact that you approached each game, each player differently, man, it's fascinating stuff, dog.

• 1:00:45Speaker 06

  Appreciate it, man.

• 1:00:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, I love it. Cause I feel like a lot of.

• 1:00:47Speaker 06

  Took it serious.

• 1:00:50Speaker 03

  A lot of, a lot of, I feel like it's like Kevin Green, speed to power, get the tackle moving back and then go through them. Get them off his, like, get them moving backwards and retreating. This is like the tilted guy who's running right at you where you can't go back, shortens that edge. The shush, shush, I hate to like, I don't want to see this. I don't want to see all that. I don't want to see all that.

• 1:01:10Travis Kelce?

  You love it.

• 1:01:13Travis Kelce?

  Dude, we already talked about the 10,363 consecutive snaps. We got to talk about the, the first time you weren't out. There on the field, man. How how hard was that? Because you're you're the Ironman. You you played through so much. You you did so much for your team. Those teams up front for the Browns, that the whole line was never the issue. You guys, you always had those guys. Rocked and ready to play. Um. How was it just not being able to be out there with the guys for that first time?

• 1:01:41Speaker 06

  It was really tough. My best friends were my linemen, right? John Greco, Alex Mack, Joel Betonio, Mitchell Schwartz, your boy.

• 1:01:48Travis Kelce?

  Schwartzy, baby.

• 1:01:49Speaker 06

  City like those are my dudes and we played a lot of seasons together and we had really good offensive lines, never really got probably the credit we deserved because we just weren't on very good teams. Never ran for like a ton of yards because we never had that that dude as a running back. At one point in my career, it was me and Joel. I don't know how many Pro Bowls we got between the two of us. Alex Mack, I think he made six or seven. Greco should have made a Pro Bowl and then you got Mitchell Schwartz who made like four or five All Pros. So like.

• 1:02:14Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:14Speaker 06

  We had a lot of hardware there between all of us and so.

• 1:02:18Travis Kelce?

  Studs, yeah.

• 1:02:19Speaker 06

  The hardest thing like line linemen, they're so close and tight ends are sort of an extension of the offensive line. And you know, those are usually the closest rooms. On a football team. And so I almost you have this like feeling inside of you, not that you betrayed him or you let him down, but. Like that was almost the feeling and the emotion that was coming out of me when I couldn't be out there anymore because. It was just such a thing that I took for granted. Didn't even think about like, hey, do I go and strap it back up and play this week? I'm I don't know. I'm kind of banged up. We got an MCL sprain like that never crossed my mind. It was just like. I got a job to do. I'm going to show up and do my job and I can use all of my brain space now to think about how I'm going to beat this guy. Rather than wondering like, oh, am I healthy enough to play? Can I go out there? I don't know. Should I sit down? Like that never crossed my mind.

• 1:03:04Speaker 06

  And I think it helped me, but then that moment it's gone. There was like some mental health issues that I had to deal with of feeling like I let. Those guys around me down and you know, even though the team sucked, like I still had that really strong connection with the fan base. And I had that same feeling with them like, you know, I felt like I always owed it to them to go out and. Give my best and do whatever I can to try to turn this thing into a winner because they're so loyal, so passionate. And I wanted to give them that gratitude by going out and playing great ball. So. It was, it was really, really hard dealing with that. And I did whatever I could with the team, trying to help the other linemen, you know, prepare for games, watching film for them, taking notes. And the one benefit I would say for me is it was Myles Garrett's rookie year. So I was

• 1:03:46Speaker 06

  able to really spend a lot of time with Miles and help him see the game from an offensive tackles perspective, right? So

• 1:03:53Speaker 03

  Damn you, Joe. Damn you, Joe.

• 1:03:57Speaker 06

  I wasn't gonna do that till I was definitely out of the league.

• 1:04:03Speaker 06

  But I would write him scouting reports and I would give him like, hey, okay, this is what this guy's good at. This is what he's not good at. This is the rush. I think you should feature, but don't do it at the beginning of the game. Set them up first two quarters. And then in the second half, when the game's on the line, now you pull out your best stuff. And then you give them what you've been giving them. And then you'll probably beat them. And then, you know, it turns out he's also a really ridiculously fucking good athlete.

• 1:04:25Travis Kelce?

  Fucking ridiculous.

• 1:04:26Speaker 06

  Ask him to do what

• 1:04:26Travis Kelce?

  You can just do whatever you want. Just go out there and have fun, Miles.

• 1:04:32Speaker 03

  Fricking, he's like a scorpion, a girl like I

• 1:04:35Travis Kelce?

  To that point, though, it is, it's fascinating how much guys come into the league and they don't necessarily understand what guys on the other side of the ball are being taught. It's one thing to understand what covers they're in, what front they're in, but it's a whole nother like level of preparation to understand how you're being defended in routes, how this guy is going to use his hands or use his, use his moves throughout the day in terms of pass rush. And that really, that, that 100% took my game to the next level. Asking guys like Eric Berry about coverages, about his leverages, asking DBs, you know, where, what are you thinking in this sort of coverage, you know, going up to a guy like Spags, defensive coordinator at KC

• 1:05:19Travis Kelce?

  and asking him, you know, later in the game, what are you thinking in big time situations? It's just, you, you, you ask the right questions to the right guys and you're gonna, you're gonna see yourself progress down the line. And Miles had a fucking Hall of Famer sitting right there telling them what they, I mean, that's a fucking cheat code in itself, let alone how athletic that dude is, man.

• 1:05:39Speaker 06

  Yeah, man. I tried to be a psychologist. Right. I wanted to know what that dude was thinking. I want to know who his girlfriend was. I wanted to know what he ate for breakfast like. Cause I felt like that's how you slow the game down. And as you get older, you get to be a shittier athlete, but like if your brain speeding up, you can play faster. And that's how guys are able to stick around, especially on the old line, a lot longer than their athletic ability should allow them is because the game's just moving so slow for them because they know everything that's going on and they can see things before they happen.

• 1:06:07Speaker 03

  Absolutely. Let's talk a little bit international football.

• 1:06:10Speaker 06

  Fuck yeah.

• 1:06:10Speaker 03

  Germany for, we were there for almost a full year, right?

• 1:06:14Speaker 06

  Yep. Yep.

• 1:06:15Speaker 03

  Where?

• 1:06:15Speaker 06

  Munich Ravens, baby.

• 1:06:17Speaker 03

  There we go.

• 1:06:17Speaker 06

  Baby.

• 1:06:18Speaker 03

  How was the experience?

• 1:06:21Speaker 06

  Amazing.

• 1:06:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:06:22Speaker 06

  Amazing. Yeah.

• 1:06:23Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:06:24Speaker 06

  I was trying to twist your arm to come over and hang out.

• 1:06:27Speaker 03

  I wanted to so bad.

• 1:06:28Speaker 06

  Lots of stuff going on, but a great time. And Munich is just incredible city. It's in Southern Germany and Bavaria. It's right on the edge of the Alps. So like, when I wanted to go over and coach American football in Europe, obviously I wanted to scratch the itch of coaching. I wanted to, allow my kids to experience living abroad, living international, like challenge them, put them in uncomfortable situations. Like my kids, made them play rugby, went over there with my daughter, my 10 year old daughter playing rugby with the boys and.

• 1:06:52Travis Kelce?

  So cool.

• 1:06:53Speaker 03

  Awesome.

• 1:06:53Speaker 06

  Like I wanted to do all those things because I thought it would make them better people. We'd have a great experience to be able to travel. But I really wanted to have an opportunity to go and coach professionals, coach adults without having the time commitment that it takes to be like an NFL coach. I really wanted to impact players that love the game. And it was really, really fun because these guys are basically playing for peanuts, you know, they're not getting paid, but a few hundred euros every month to go out there and they're working regular jobs. And so it was so joyful because these dudes had talent. They just didn't have the coaching. They didn't have the resources growing up. So you could take a guy that was here and throughout the course of the season, you're seeing significant improvement every single week.

• 1:07:37Speaker 06

  And not a single time you ever have to ask them for more effort. You never have to ask them to focus, right? Because they're signing up to do this for nothing. They wouldn't be there if they weren't obsessed with the game of football.

• 1:07:46Travis Kelce?

  Awesome, man.

• 1:07:47Speaker 03

  So were all of these guys like German football players or were there any like international, like US players playing over there?

• 1:07:55Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 1:07:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, so good. Sorry. I'm sorry. Cut you off. Poor guesting right there on my part.

• 1:08:03Travis Kelce?

  Cut his ass off. Fuck that guy.

• 1:08:05Speaker 03

  I'm an idiot. Don't worry about it.

• 1:08:08Speaker 06

  In the E L F, European League of Football, so every team is allowed four Americans. Typically, it's a quarterback, receiver, and then two D B's, right? Because those are the positions that are harder to find in Europe.

• 1:08:19Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 1:08:19Speaker 06

  But all my offensive linemen were German guys. You're allowed a certain number of players outside of the country that your team is based in. But lineman is what Germany does best. That was the reason I wanted to go there, right?

• 1:08:31Speaker 03

  So, yeah, baby.

• 1:08:32Speaker 06

  Uh, yeah, all German guys, which is cool because you got to get a little flavor of the German culture. A little bit of like the slang, the language, and started to understand them a little bit more and.

• 1:08:42Travis Kelce?

  You filling up on those schnitzels or what?

• 1:08:44Speaker 06

  Lots of schnitzel mit pommes, lots of hellish beer, like. You're living in that country, which is such a different experience. Yeah, then if you're just vacationing or just traveling as a tourist.

• 1:08:54Travis Kelce?

  I love it.

• 1:08:55Speaker 03

  Is Europe ready for the NFL? What was your, what was your takeaway from Germany? Do they love football?

• 1:09:00Speaker 06

  Oh, man, they are obsessed with football.

• 1:09:02Speaker 03

  Really?

• 1:09:03Speaker 06

  With the NFL, dude, like.

• 1:09:05Travis Kelce?

  Well, we played over there. It was fucking, it was pretty, it was through the roof and that was Frankfurt. So I can only imagine what a big city like Munich is.

• 1:09:11Speaker 06

  Yeah, man, like you guys are freaking heroes. Like, I didn't get noticed much over there, but like you two guys are fucking kings over there. It is so cool. Just seeing how popular the game is, right? They love it. They're obsessed. Um, and the NFL has done a great job putting games over there, giving them a feel of what an NFL game looks like from a fan experience, but also like on the field. What we do every day, the gladiators that we are, or I, I used to be going out there, putting your body on the line for your team. Like, they totally get it. Like, it really resonates with the German mindset, the German culture, the teamwork aspect, the sacrifice, the toughness, the way that the game is violent.

• 1:09:49Speaker 06

  Like, it's just perfect for them. And I think, uh, that was really what sparked my interest in going to Munich because I worked the Munich game for the NFL Network. And I got to be in that stadium, Allianz Arena. And I was like, holy shit, these dudes love this thing. Like, I gotta get over here and be part of it.

• 1:10:06Travis Kelce?

  That's awesome.

• 1:10:07Speaker 03

  Did you do Oktoberfest while you were over there? I just gotta ask. I've always wanted to go.

• 1:10:09Travis Kelce?

  We gotta ask. We gotta ask. Oh, yeah.

• 1:10:17Speaker 06

  It's a great party. Oktoberfest is so fun. It was cool. So you gotta buy tables. Like, it's really hard to get. Like, you gotta know somebody. And thankfully, our special teams coach over there, Tom, he was head of security.

• 1:10:29Travis Kelce?

  It's always the teamers, isn't it?

• 1:10:30Speaker 06

  That's right.

• 1:10:31Travis Kelce?

  It's always the teamers.

• 1:10:33Speaker 06

  Head of security for one of the big beer companies. And so he had a couple of tables. So we, it was right after a season. So actually, I, I was there and had all of our team, got them all together, you know, bought them all the beers and stuff, because these guys are basically poor college kids. So we, we did the whole deal. We had like 20 or 30 of the guys from the team there and we celebrated the end of the season, the way you're supposed to with good, good German Helles beer, polka and some Schweinachsel and Schnitzel mit Brot. We, we blew it up. It was, it was a tremendous time. And when you get that experience with the locals, like you're getting the, the proper experience.

• 1:11:07Speaker 03

  Hell, yeah.

• 1:11:08Travis Kelce?

  That's fucking awesome. Dude, you're, you're our only connect to Oktoberfest. So we might be hitting you up here in a few years.

• 1:11:13Speaker 06

  You guys. Yeah, let's go. We might be more back in the fall.

• 1:11:18Speaker 07

  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.

• 1:11:34Speaker 03

  All right. We're gonna get to a section we call we gotta ask. During this section, you don't have to answer. You can tell us to fuck off. We're just gonna do like a rapid fire list of questions. Ready?

• 1:11:42Travis Kelce?

  Nice.

• 1:11:42Speaker 03

  Were you ever going to play a position other than offensive line?

• 1:11:46Speaker 06

  So in college, I played some defensive end and I played tight end, but they saw how fast I was. So they moved me to offensive line.

• 1:11:53Speaker 03

  That's how it always works.

• 1:11:57Speaker 03

  Was it always gonna be football?

• 1:11:58Speaker 06

  Uh, I was actually more of a basketball guy until I stopped growing up and started growing out. So when I was 14, I was six, seven, and then I never grew another inch. So I realized.

• 1:12:07Travis Kelce?

  Damn. Were you, I was about to say, were you getting looks through high school or?

• 1:12:12Speaker 06

  So I had like some small offers, like walking on Wisconsin Marquette, like some small offer scholarship, like Holy Cross and some other.

• 1:12:20Travis Kelce?

  Holy Cross.

• 1:12:21Speaker 06

  Yeah. You're like, okay, I could go play hoops at Holy Cross. So I could play football at Notre Dame or Wisconsin or Miami. You're like, USC. I'm like, okay, I get it. You're, you're telling me without telling me that it's gonna be football.

• 1:12:31Speaker 03

  But do you think you could have played in the NBA?

• 1:12:34Speaker 06

  Hell no. I was not that good. I was just a hustle guy. I could get some rebounds. Solid six man.

• 1:12:41Travis Kelce?

  On the block or what?

• 1:12:42Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 1:12:43Travis Kelce?

  Coach who had the biggest impact on your game?

• 1:12:46Speaker 06

  Probably George Warhop. He was the offensive line coach I had the longest during my career. He was tough. He was very technically sound. He forced you to just do an unbelievable amount of homework and notes and extra individual like, you know, probably like Stoutland, like all those things, right? But at the end of the day, you respect him. You love him like a father and he can be, safely say like he had an outsized impact and you wouldn't be where you were when your career was over without him touching your life.

• 1:13:15Speaker 03

  You're inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2023. Uh, how did you find out you got in?

• 1:13:20Speaker 06

  It was a very special day. So Walter Jones, who was my idol growing up, um, came to the door, knocked on the door, had no idea that I was going to have the messenger man show up at the door at that time because up until that moment, they used to bring you down to the Super Bowl in a hotel room and then they would knock and like say congratulations. So they call you and say, sorry, you didn't make it, which sucked because your family's there and everything. Then you got to fly home. So they changed it my year where they actually called your wife, talked to her, like set it up, make sure you're at home so they could surprise you at home. Um, and so I was, um, actually we were, she told me we're going to go to dinner. It was Friday night. So we're going to go to a fish fry with the neighbors, you know? So I was kind of like

• 1:14:02Speaker 03

  Always got fish involved.

• 1:14:05Speaker 06

  So, so I was out at the farm, uh, doing my cattle stuff for Hall of Fame beef during the day and I got home and I was kind of dirty. So I, I was just in my underwear and she's like, hey, we gotta go to dinner. You gotta get changed really quick. I'm like, don't worry about it. Like she's like coming, coming to the, uh, the kitchen. We got to talk about something, scheduleize. And she's like, but put your clothes on. I'm like, why? Like I'll do that after we have our little meeting. She's like, no, you can't come in here unless you have your, your pants on. I'm like, all right, whatever. Like it's always got to be your way. Those are the jeans.

• 1:14:37Speaker 06

  And she was just trying to get me away from the door because she didn't want me to see like all the cameras show up and she wanted. That surprise factor and it was so cool because my kids were in the kitchen with us. We were having a family meeting. And so the kids run around the the hall and they see everybody through the door. So they see Walter Jones. He's wearing his gold jacket. They see the film crew. And they just burned back to me and started screaming, Daddy, you made the whole thing.

• 1:15:05Speaker 06

  The waterworks. It was just so special.

• 1:15:07Speaker 03

  That's awesome.

• 1:15:08Travis Kelce?

  Yeah, man.

• 1:15:08Speaker 03

  Man, that's.

• 1:15:09Travis Kelce?

  Damn, that's a good story.

• 1:15:10Speaker 03

  What is the best Great Lake?

• 1:15:12Speaker 06

  Like, best fishing, man.

• 1:15:14Speaker 03

  There we go.

• 1:15:15Speaker 06

  Fish factory.

• 1:15:16Speaker 03

  It is.

• 1:15:17Speaker 06

  I love it.

• 1:15:18Travis Kelce?

  I love it.

• 1:15:19Speaker 03

  Those perch fry. Oh, come on, let's go.

• 1:15:24Travis Kelce?

  The University of Wisconsin Madison was named one of the nation's top party schools. Something that a lot of people wouldn't necessarily assume, earning the number six spot on the Wall Street Journal's list of best party schools in the U.S. for 2025. Does it live up to the reputation?

• 1:15:42Speaker 06

  It does. I'm disappointed that it slipped because when I was there, we were number one every year. I had an outsized influence on that rating.

• 1:15:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:15:51Speaker 06

  The man, the people there, they just want to have a good time and they're not afraid to drink some beer.

• 1:15:56Speaker 03

  Hell, yeah. You got shit for playing with baggy pants. Are you aware of this, Joe?

• 1:16:00Speaker 06

  Yes, I loved it.

• 1:16:02Speaker 03

  Can you explain why you chose to wear baggy pants?

• 1:16:06Travis Kelce?

  It's that I loved it.

• 1:16:07Speaker 06

  I wore baggy pants because I'm all about function, not fashion. As you can see, I am all about, all right, how do I get this fat dude to go as quickly as that skinny fast dude?

• 1:16:19Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:16:19Speaker 06

  And if you're wearing those tight pants that show off these these great legs and great ass that I never had, I had been asked it all. Like, there was, there was no ass in those pants. Like, it's kind of hard to move, especially if you throw like the knee sleeves and the knee braces and all the gear and the kit you're wearing underneath.

• 1:16:35Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:16:36Speaker 06

  Uh, it slows you down a lot. So I always thought, you know, what's the quickest, most nimble thing on on planet Earth? It's the ninja, right?

• 1:16:43Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:16:45Speaker 06

  And X pants?

• 1:16:46Travis Kelce?

  No.

• 1:16:46Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:16:47Speaker 06

  They wear those nice comfy baggy joggers, right? So I was like.

• 1:16:53Speaker 06

  I go to the. Room, give me the largest pants you have. And we had a guy named Ishmael Kitchen, who was like a nose guard, maybe five, 11, six foot, 350 ish.

• 1:17:04Speaker 03

  Big boy.

• 1:17:05Speaker 06

  I wore a pant size that was too bigger than him. So you know that I was really, really stretching it. And I actually had to have him put like elastic sticky, like

• 1:17:16Speaker 03

  I know what you mean.

• 1:17:17Speaker 06

  So on on the inside of my pants. So they wouldn't fall down.

• 1:17:21Travis Kelce?

  That's fucking money. Shout out to all the equipment guys making it work, man. I was doing the same thing. Right now they don't make pants big enough.

• 1:17:28Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:17:29Travis Kelce?

  Even if you go like a, like a size 40 or 42 waist, they still ride up over your knees. And I'm a big, my fucking knees have to be covered. All dudes are doing like guys are fucking putting their helmet right on my fucking kneecaps. I need that. I need those fucking things covered.

• 1:17:45Speaker 06

  That's right.

• 1:17:46Travis Kelce?

  And I still wear those old school pads that look like thigh pads in the knees. But no, they were, they were like extending them like an extra like three or four inches because they weren't fucking making them long enough, man. Shout out to all the equipment guys.

• 1:17:57Speaker 06

  Yeah, by all these young Gen Xers, Gen Z's, whoever they are, like, are they teasing you for your pants?

• 1:18:02Travis Kelce?

  They more so tease me for fucking throwing a fit when they shrink.

• 1:18:08Travis Kelce?

  The fucking old guy getting all pissed off because his pants don't fit. I'm just like.

• 1:18:13Speaker 03

  Oh, so good. All right. You've said it took you four hours to play for a game. What was your pregame process?

• 1:18:19Speaker 06

  Well, I won't waste all four hours telling you what it was, but it was very long because I was always one of the first guys that got there. And I would always make sure I go on the field first because I wanted a little moment of serenity before anybody was in the stadium to go on the field and just absorb it and just appreciate the fact that I get to go play in an NFL stadium.

• 1:18:36Travis Kelce?

  Fuck yeah, man.

• 1:18:37Speaker 06

  So few people in the world that get to do this and they're going to pay me to do this today. You know, that was sort of me like telling myself this is worth it to go out and like. Shred your body for

• 1:18:47Travis Kelce?

  Destroy myself.

• 1:18:48Speaker 06

  Yeah. Go out there where there's absolutely no upside whatsoever. If I played the world's greatest game as a left tackle, nobody knows.

• 1:18:55Travis Kelce?

  No, we're 0 and 15, but it's worth it.

• 1:19:00Speaker 06

  We've been talking about it for three fucking years.

• 1:19:02Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:03Speaker 06

  So it was that one moment at the beginning where I'd be like, all right, this is really cool. And I would just kind of walk around, didn't have any of my stuff on yet and just take it in, check the field too. That was important, like trying to figure out exactly, you know, how my cleats were, like, was everything proper? You know, how cold is it? Where's the wind? Stuff like that. Then went back inside, took a shower. Then it was a long time in the training room, you know, hot tub if they had it. And then putting all the equipment on just took forever because I was wearing two knee sleeves, elbow sleeves or elbow braces, you know, all the other stuff that you normally put on, taping the ankles, the whole deal. And then I even took it a step further. The only other thing I'll mention out of all the stuff that I usually did was, you know, the QDA, the quick drying adhesive that they spray on your ankles before they tape it?

• 1:19:48Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:48Speaker 06

  So I took a bottle of that and I would spray the bottom of my feet. And then I would spray my legs so that when I put my knee sleeves on, they wouldn't slide. And then my socks wouldn't slide down, right? Because there's nothing more annoying than your socks sliding down and have to deal with it.

• 1:20:03Travis Kelce?

  So worse.

• 1:20:03Speaker 06

  They find you for one. I don't want to give up my money to Roger Goodell. But then I also sprayed the bottom of my socks because inside my shoe, one thing that happened early on in my career that I fucking hated was like, it gets hot, you're sweaty and your feet start sliding.

• 1:20:17Travis Kelce?

  It's the worst.

• 1:20:18Speaker 06

  They slide and then you can't feel the ground the way you need to. Like I always thought of myself like an eagle, like my feet were the talons and I was gripping the ground. And that gave me the balance and the agility that I needed. And so when I figured out how to like spray basically my whole body and sticky stuff. So I wouldn't slide at all. That was, that was the next level. And then on top of that, I would, I would do like a bunch of tape on my hands. So that I was like a boxer, you know, I was like a ninja turtle, taping the fingers together. And then taping the thumbs so your thumbs don't get screwed up. Um, so it took a long time just putting all that stuff on.

• 1:20:46Travis Kelce?

  Just spraying the sticky shit on you like it's sunscreen or something? Just shhh.

• 1:20:54Speaker 06

  That's stunk, that stunk too, like. There's definitely some cancer warnings in that shit.

• 1:20:57Travis Kelce?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:21:00Speaker 03

  We've done horse, right? I used to do some, I would also set like little alarms. I would have my phone. I would set alarms at every 15 minutes to like, all right, now I'm gonna get my ankle taped. Now I'm gonna take my pre-workout. Now I'm gonna tape my fingers. Now I'm gonna like, warm up. Now I'm gonna do this and uh, and speak, I used to hate that foot thing. Under Armour made a cleat insole that was like rubber for like a couple of years.

• 1:21:22Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:21:22Speaker 03

  And I just like scoured all of these cleats just so I could get this like, I hate the cloth that's on top.

• 1:21:28Speaker 06

  Oh.

• 1:21:28Speaker 03

  Your foot slides on it. It makes no sense. Exactly.

• 1:21:31Speaker 06

  Stupid.

• 1:21:32Speaker 03

  Yep, dumb. All right, well, we agree on that. Speaking of dumb, we're gonna get to our next segment, No Dumb Questions.

• 1:21:41Speaker 03

  Pick your favorites. We can either do Liquid Out of Fingers. What the fuck does this mean, Brandon?

• 1:21:47Travis Kelce?

  None of it means. Nobody knows anything.

• 1:21:50Speaker 03

  All right.

• 1:21:50Travis Kelce?

  Let's do Kentucky Derby.

• 1:21:51Speaker 05

  First off, tell Joe what this is. Tell Joe what the segment is. It's, these are questions for fans.

• 1:21:56Speaker 03

  Thank you, Brandon. You're the best, as always.

• 1:21:59Speaker 05

  You're, oh, because your friends are here, you're gonna be nice to me.

• 1:22:02Speaker 03

  Shirt. I'm always nice. You're my best friend. What is that steel, still rocking?

• 1:22:06Speaker 05

  Still kicking.

• 1:22:07Speaker 03

  All right, there it is.

• 1:22:08Speaker 05

  From my local liquor store.

• 1:22:11Speaker 03

  Love that.

• 1:22:11Speaker 06

  How many bottles of booze you gotta buy to get a free T-shirt from the local liquor store, bro?

• 1:22:17Speaker 05

  My parents watch this show, so we're not gonna answer that one.

• 1:22:21Speaker 05

  Don't worry about it. They have a wonderful wine club.

• 1:22:25Speaker 03

  All right, so No Dumb Questions is fan submitted questions that are usually really stupid, but we call them not dumb to encourage people to feel comfortable enough to submit really stupid questions. We have one question that's gonna be related to Liquid Out of Fingers. We have another question that's gonna be related to Kentucky Derby horse name. We have another one related to NFL team of other pro athletes. I don't know what, okay, or Scottish sports. Which one of those is speaking to you most, Joe?

• 1:22:56Speaker 06

  Let's go Scottish sports, you know?

• 1:23:01Speaker 03

  That's why we need more linemen on this show. All right, Scottish sports. Hit us, Brandon. Hi, Jason and Travis calling from Glasgow, Scotland here. Just a dumb question. Is what would you do if you would come to Scotland? What sports event would you undertake? Cheers. All the best. Wow. First of all, love the accent. I mean, I've, if we have Scottish people calling in Brandon, they get first right of any of the questions. I don't care what they ask, just so I can hear that. All right, Joe, it is, you're the guest. You have the honors. How do you want to answer that?

• 1:23:35Travis Kelce?

  Yeah. If you're going to Scot- Scotland, what sport are you playing?

• 1:23:38Speaker 06

  Yeah. I mean, golf is the easy one, but I was over in Ireland for Alex Mack's wedding a few years ago, and they play this game called like hurling. It's kind of like rugby.

• 1:23:48Travis Kelce?

  Dude, lacrosse. Yeah, dude, that game is fucking lit. I was trying.

• 1:23:55Speaker 03

  Go ahead, please.

• 1:23:56Travis Kelce?

  Dude, we were, we were talking about, uh, we were talking about like bucket list items. One of my bucket list items is to go to like, I was thinking about it afterwards, didn't say it in the show, but to go to one of these games, but like the Olympics version of this, like the, like the World Cup version of this. Like I want to see the best of the best go at it with this shit because it is absolutely electric. Jason, do you know what he's talking about?

• 1:24:19Speaker 03

  I actually, so where I live in Philadelphia is one of the biggest Irish like collections of like a population, like direct descendants. So they have like leagues of hurling and actually another sport in Ireland that's really popular called Gaelic football. Yeah. So you play it with like a ball. You kind of have to kick it every two steps. That's a version of dribbling, but then you, I don't know. I don't really understand all the rules behind it. I watched it once. Pretty cool. Uh, but hurling is very interesting. Seems really hard. I played lacrosse. Seems like much easier to put that ball in a net than like balancing it on a wooden stick. I don't really understand how that's possible.

• 1:24:54Speaker 06

  Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and it's probably incredibly derogatory and offensive that we've just taken Scottish sports.

• 1:25:03Travis Kelce?

  Dude, in Scotland.

• 1:25:04Speaker 03

  I wasn't gonna say it, but I'm like, I'm pretty sure this is not the same area. The only Scottish, the only Scottish sports I know are golf and um, the Scottish strongman games. I forget.

• 1:25:17Speaker 06

  Highland games.

• 1:25:17Speaker 03

  Highland games. Thank you.

• 1:25:18Speaker 06

  Yeah, that would be sick. I would love to see that.

• 1:25:20Speaker 03

  They like throw the pole in the kilts and they're like throwing it over their heads and they gotta get it to like flip. I'd be into that for sure. Trav, what do you got?

• 1:25:27Travis Kelce?

  That sounds like a Renaissance fair. I'm just gonna go golf since you guys didn't go golf.

• 1:25:33Travis Kelce?

  I'll go over there and play some fucking golf, man.

• 1:25:35Speaker 03

  All right. So Liquid Out of Fingers, Kentucky Derby horse name or NFL team of other pro athletes, which.

• 1:25:41Speaker 06

  Liquid Out of Fingers, because I'm very curious what the hell it means.

• 1:25:45Travis Kelce?

  Hit it, Brandon. Hi, Jason and Travis. I just have one question for you. If your five fingers could dispense infinite liquid, what would your five liquids be? So for example, might I press gasoline to put gas in your car? Water, coffee and teeters. Yeah. What would your guys five liquids be? Thank you. Love the show.

• 1:26:12Speaker 03

  I love it. Awesome. Good question. I like this out of the box question.

• 1:26:17Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:17Speaker 03

  All right, Joe, again, you are the guest. You do the honor, sir, unless you would prefer to go last.

• 1:26:22Speaker 06

  No, I'll do it. So I'm gonna try to count to five. Um, hell, it's beer.

• 1:26:29Speaker 03

  Hell, it's beer.

• 1:26:30Speaker 06

  Being in Germany, fell in love with that beer. Coffee, that's non-negotiable. I'm gonna go diesel fuel because I spend a hell of a lot of money on diesel fuel out at the farm. Like, that's a big check every month.

• 1:26:42Speaker 03

  Smart. Just put your finger in the, I'm filling up again. Tractor, another 300 gallons for nothing. See there, kids?

• 1:26:54Speaker 03

  Free diesel for life.

• 1:26:57Speaker 06

  Let's see, water, is that four or five? We need Brandon to count.

• 1:27:00Travis Kelce?

  That's four.

• 1:27:01Speaker 06

  And then the last one, milk, because whole milk, my kids drink an insane amount of whole milk. I got four kids. And so I think we go through like a gallon a day right now. My oldest is only 12. And when I was in high school, I think I drank a gallon. Every day by myself. So that would save also a lot of money.

• 1:27:20Travis Kelce?

  We would go through about two gallons a week, but not a gallon a day. That's pretty intense.

• 1:27:24Speaker 03

  What time out? You've brought up Hellas beer. The only reason I know what Hellas beer is, is because I had this like brew game on my phone and you had to like brew different beers and Hellas was one of the beers. What kind of beer is a Hellas beer?

• 1:27:36Speaker 06

  Do you play a brew game on your phone instead of like?

• 1:27:41Speaker 06

  Most people, that's amazing. I love it. I need to check out that app, but.

• 1:27:44Speaker 03

  I'll send it to you.

• 1:27:46Speaker 06

  Yeah, that sounds awesome. Yeah. So the Hellas beer is like the beer of at least Southern Germany, but down in Bavaria where I was coaching in Munich. And it's fantastic. It's like the most clean, clear, crisp, refreshing. Yeah. It's like just amazingly refreshing, like a blonde lager. That's just fantastic. They have the German purity laws, so they're only allowed to use a few ingredients. So it's like very consistently awesome. No matter where you go, there's like no preservatives. So it's not something that you can get in a lot of places. Like it's usually out of the keg and it's fresh from the brewery. And it's basically kind of, it was my water that I drank every day when I was.

• 1:28:23Speaker 03

  All right. I guess I'll go, I'll go water. I'm not going to steal diesel gasoline. That's a freaking great answer. I want to steal it so bad.

• 1:28:30Speaker 06

  Yeah, that was good. I didn't go that far.

• 1:28:32Speaker 03

  Gosh, all right. So I'll go water, beer. Um, I'll go drink garage beer because that's our beer. Travis and I own a beer company. So we gotta go drink.

• 1:28:39Speaker 06

  Yeah, you guys should brew a Hellas, man. I love that.

• 1:28:43Speaker 03

  Talking us into it. I love it. Got to, all right. The Joe Thomas Hellas brought to you by Garage Beer. Get on it, guys. So we got beer. We got water. What other liquids do I consume on a regular basis?

• 1:29:00Speaker 03

  I'll go gasoline was a great one, too. Coffee. Why did that take me so long? Coffee?

• 1:29:09Speaker 03

  That's because I didn't have any coffee. I need some coffee. I'll go whey protein because I spent a bunch of money on whey, on whey protein.

• 1:29:16Speaker 06

  It's not a, all right.

• 1:29:18Speaker 03

  Once you mix it up, it's still liquid, right?

• 1:29:22Travis Kelce?

  That's

• 1:29:22Speaker 03

  So I go with the pre-made drink, whatever that is.

• 1:29:26Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:27Speaker 03

  There you go. Fairlife, Fairlife Protein Rich Protein or whatever. Shout out to Fairlife. There's your free advertising for the day.

• 1:29:38Speaker 03

  And then I'll go milk, but I'm going to go cereal milk. I'm going to go Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs Milk.

• 1:29:45Speaker 03

  Chocolatey delicious.

• 1:29:48Travis Kelce?

  That's pretty good. That was pretty good.

• 1:29:51Speaker 03

  Go ahead, Trey.

• 1:29:52Travis Kelce?

  All right, I'm going to the, the drinks that I drink every single fucking day. So I'm going accelerator.

• 1:29:58Speaker 03

  Active energy.

• 1:29:59Travis Kelce?

  Active energy drink. I'm going Recover 180, which is my favorite sports hydration drink. I'm going Zen Water because Zen Water's it's got really good HP levels. And what else am I going? Oh, I'm going Casa Azul Tequila. My favorite tequila. It's the most purest blue gave, no fucking added bullshit. And my last one, Garage Beer. I'm going Lime Garage Beer.

• 1:30:25Speaker 03

  All right. Travis is a walking billboard for all the

• 1:30:30Travis Kelce?

  all the money in the family on marketing.

• 1:30:34Speaker 03

  All right, before, first of all, that was no dumb questions. You could submit your no dumb questions in the comments on social or give us a call at nine two nine three nine nine seven two six zero. Joe, this is all we got for you, but I do have one more question. You're wearing the shirt. We haven't talked about it yet. How's Hall of Fame beef going? How do you like being a cattle rancher?

• 1:30:55Travis Kelce?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:57Speaker 03

  Or a farmer, which?

• 1:30:59Speaker 06

  So, so typically ranchers are people that raise cattle, but in Wisconsin, where my farm is where I grew up, like they call any land, any egg land is a farm, right? So I am conflicted. I don't know if I'm a rancher or a farmer, but I just generally call myself a farmer, but it's been going great. Like 2007, my kids told me they wanted some pet cows for the farm and I was like, okay, but we're going to have to eat them because I love eating beef. And like, if we're going to raise these things, we might as well enjoy it.

• 1:31:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:31:26Speaker 06

  So I started with five and then The first year we raised, we ate it. Turns out it was fantastic. Whatever we did, we like nailed it. Found lightning in a bottle right off the bat. I gave it to a buddy who's a James Beard chef in Madison and it was just like, hey, what do you think? He cooked it up, thought it was fantastic. Said it was better than any of the stuff that he gets in the restaurant supply.

• 1:31:46Speaker 03

  Oh, that's awesome.

• 1:31:47Speaker 06

  Fancy cattle ranches. And so then that's when like the, the brain started working overtime. Like, hey, man, maybe I could make this like a business. This is too good to just keep to myself. And so we've been just kind of going full bore since then. We're raising Wagyu beef, which is like

• 1:32:02Speaker 03

  You do Wagyu?

• 1:32:03Speaker 06

  A5 Japanese, beautiful stuff. We're raising Angus beef right now and we're selling direct consumer. We got like these amazing beef sticks for the kids. So like, I'm getting a lot out of it.

• 1:32:12Speaker 03

  That was my question. Yeah. I wanted to know, is it Angus? Is it Angus? Hereford crosses? Like, what are we working with? We're Black Angus?

• 1:32:20Speaker 06

  Yeah. So we have Black Angus Simontals right now. And like, we're kind of shifting the herd as we're like improving genetics. I'm, I'm trying to treat these things like pro athletes. I'm trying to think of like, I know what it takes to have high performance, what it takes to be at your best, to grow the most muscle and strength and power and all those outputs. And so we're like, hey, these are our pro athletes. So we need to reduce the stress. We need to figure out from a nutritionist, what's all the nutrition that they possibly can have so that they're the healthiest beef for us and for themselves. They have the most marbling. So the best buttery mouth feel possible. We raise them on the banks of the Blue River. We got this amazing pasture on our farm. We keep really, really low density. So their stress is really low.

• 1:33:03Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 1:33:04Speaker 06

  Everything we feed them is raised on our farm and they're born on our farm. And from the day they go to heaven, they live in our place. So we think that we're raising some really great stuff. And it's kind of been a passion project. When you retire, you gotta have some purpose somewhere, you know, like

• 1:33:18Speaker 03

  Hell yeah.

• 1:33:18Speaker 06

  So many guys, they just wander in the wilderness. They don't have that purpose. And for me, it's like, all right, I want to see if I can raise the best beef on planet earth. And so being a Hall of Famer, I was like, hey, man, let's name this Hall of Fame beef and see if we can find a way to raise the best beef on planet earth. So it's been a lot of fun. And I was chatting up with Emily Reese. The great Emily Reese, who I was working with her at Under Armour way back in the day. And she said that you got a beef company too. So maybe we need a good old fashioned like beef measuring contest.

• 1:33:48Speaker 03

  Well.

• 1:33:49Speaker 06

  Like Travis, you know, we both give them steaks and then he cooks them up and then we get a rating here.

• 1:33:54Speaker 03

  I have a feeling you're gonna kick my ass, but I would love to learn a lot of tricks of the trade. We're just getting started with it. Like you said, you need hobbies and I love beef. You just explaining this, I want to stay so bad right now. I can't even explain it. So yeah, I'm all in on that. I would love to learn something from you and Hall of Fame Beef and get together on that.

• 1:34:15Travis Kelce?

  Since you haven't decided on your breed, like we've, we're gone down that genetic rabbit hole already. So maybe I send you some embryos and some semen of the old Hall of Fame Beef. Wag you and then you can kind of like take that and explode it. That'd be fun. That would give me great joy. So if I could send you some of my semen.

• 1:34:30Speaker 03

  Dude, I'm in the moment you said semen. Absolutely.

• 1:34:37Travis Kelce?

  Travis is like, I'm not laughing at that.

• 1:34:40Travis Kelce?

  You guys are having an old beef off right now.

• 1:34:44Travis Kelce?

  Dude, Joe, Hall of Fame player to Hall of Fame Beef to Hall of Fame Dude, man. I remember coming on your show back in, I can't even tell you when we're going on Radio Row and hanging out with you and Andrew Hawkins on Tomahawk, dude. You've paved the way for so many guys on the field, off the field. Keep being you, brother. And thank you for, for joining us. And thank you for everything you did for Cleveland, man. From one Clevelander to somebody who lit up the city, brother. Thank you.

• 1:35:10Speaker 06

  Hell, yeah. Thank you guys so much, man. It was, it was truly a pleasure being on here today. It was the best part of my week, you know? When you get a chance, that's what I loved about doing a podcast. You go on with some buddies and you just have a great chat. That's uninterrupted by phones because you got to turn that shit off and all the distractions of daily life and you get to just chop it up with some good friends. So truly thank you guys so much for having me on. It was a blast.

• 1:35:30Speaker 03

  My man. Hell, yeah. Awesome.

• 1:35:33Travis Kelce?

  Enjoy, enjoy this weekend out in old Green Bay, brother. I'm sure it'll be a fucking blast getting back around the game, man.

• 1:35:41Speaker 03

  All right, that wraps up another episode of New Heights. Make sure you subscribe on YouTube to New Heights. So you know when all the new episodes are coming out and make sure on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts to keep on listening. We will be back next week with draft reactions and a huge guest.

• 1:36:01Travis Kelce?

  Gotta love a huge yes. You know it, baby.

• 1:36:03Speaker 03

  Draft reactions like the draft is just a slot machine for the NFL. It's cha-ching, cha-ching. It's just everybody's playing, you know.

• 1:36:11Travis Kelce?

  Slots.

• 1:36:12Speaker 03

  Yeah. Like it's like slots, slots. 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.

• 1:36:22Travis Kelce?

  Once again, New Heights, a Wondery show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment and brought to you by Suave Men. No nonsense, motherfuckers. Follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with one S for fun clips throughout the week. Thanks to our production and crew for those clips and for making this edit so much better than what it really was. And thank you to the 92%ers always for listening in. Hope you love Joe Thomas. Appreciate you. Big Tom, Big Joey Tom. Shout out to Cleveland.