Azeez Al-Shaair opens up on the Trevor Lawrence hit that changed everything, being misjudged, his Muslim faith, nearly losing football, adversity, Will Anderson, DeMeco Ryans, and the identity of Texans Defense.

As our NFL Training Camp tour continues, we stop in H Town to sit with a big part of the league's top tier defense with one of the leaders, Linebacker, Azeez Al-Shaair, who sits with us for an honest conversation about the journey that shaped him—his upbringing, family, faith, and the adversity he had to overcome to reach the NFL and stay in the league. Azeez opens up about his path to football, the obstacles he faced along the way, being one of eight children raised by a single mother, and the mindset that helped him turn challenges into motivation. He gets candid about his NFL career, his identity and religion, the intensity of playing defense, and the moments that tested him both on and off the field. The conversation also dives into the controversial hit on Trevor Lawrence, the aftermath and lessons that came from it...he doesn't hold back on the realization of how he quickly became judged by the world for that one moment and how it affected him mentally and on the field. With head coach DeMeco Ryans being one of his early supporters from their time in San Francisco, he shares how Coach was one of the people who helped him through his darkest time and bring him full circle picking him as one of the leaders on the Texans defense, demonstrating what it takes to play with emotion while maintaining discipline and perspective. This is a conversation about more than football—it’s about faith, resilience, identity, adversity, and the relentless pursuit of becoming the person you’re meant to be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Before this,

• 0:05Speaker 00

  there's this.

• 0:08Speaker 00

  As you celebrate the game, take a deeper look at its roots. The people grow in the grass, paving the lots, welding the goalposts, inspecting every football. The hardworking people that make every Sunday possible. Carhartt is proud to outfit the crews behind the game. Visit carhartt.com/jointhetrades to learn more.

• 0:30Ryan Clark?

  The Pivot Training Camp Tour makes us stop in H-Town to sit with linebacker Aziz El Shire. He's the Houston Texans enforcer, a captain, a Walter Payton Man of the Year, and a player that went from undrafted free agent to Pro Bowl. But his story is so much bigger than ball. It's a story that oddly starts with poetry, but there's also homelessness that he was only able to get through because of his faith and his family. There were nine people, one mother, eight kids, and all they had was one another. His football journey almost ended as soon as it started, right after his first Little League practice. But thank God for his grandfather, because that was the first person to ever believe in him.

• 1:13Ryan Clark?

  He walks us through the first time he ever saw his mother cry and when he learned that she wasn't superhuman. He also tells us the most meaningful lie she ever told. We dive into the hit on Trevor Lawrence that nearly cost him everything, how he wanted to crash out at people's reactions, and also how he eventually powered through. He now leads this Texans defense alongside Will Anderson, who has become one of the closest friends on the team. First through faith and then through football. He talks about this dominant Texans defense and a Houston Texans team that has to play with a sense of urgency, knowing that this year could be their year.

• 1:57Ryan Clark?

  It's Aziz El Shire, as you've never heard him, as he joins me, Chan, and Freddie T. on the Pivot Training Camp Tour.

• 2:26Ryan Clark?

  What up, dawg?

• 2:31Channing Crowder?

  Oh, boy, I got the skin tight over. Whatever, dawg. I'm at work, man. I'm at work. Yes, sir.

• 2:36Ryan Clark?

  What's up, Aziz? Good. Good, sir. Aziz, man, welcome to the show. Excited, man.

• 2:42Speaker 03

  You say so, man.

• 2:42Ryan Clark?

  Been trying to do this for a while. Channing Crowder, Fred Taylor, Ryan Clark. Pivot fam, thank you for pivoting with us. All right, man. So we were told, because we told some teammates who we were talking to today. And they said, how much time you got? Apparently, they call you podcast now. They say you long-winded, Aziz.

• 3:00Speaker 03

  Listen, dawg, it's so funny. Anywhere I've ever been, whether it was in San Francisco, Tennessee, I mean, even all the way back to high school, like, they always called me like the OG that would talk to everybody. I'm always giving the wisdom. And they called me like the team therapist when I was in San Francisco. So it's funny. I mean, I've just been blessed with the ability to be able to connect with people and talk to people. And, you know, I always just try to show love to whoever.

• 3:27Ryan Clark?

  Now, I love that. Tell me what these words mean to you. So when I learned this, I learned it different than you did, right? And it finishes, you know, and it says, "No matter how straight the gate, I charge with punishment the scroll. I'm the master of my faith and the captain of my soul." When you hear those lines, what does that mean to you? Where does that take you?

• 3:49Speaker 03

  Takes me to being eight years old, sitting on my grandfather's lap. We used to play like "Dumb and More" all the time. And he would tell me that poem all the time and would try to get us to memorize it. He told me, "Give me $5 if I can remember this poem." I swear to you, like, my whole life, I could never remember that poem until probably I got my rookie year in the league. Actually, it's probably the one year where I could fully remember the poem. But those last two lines, man, "I'm the master of my faith, I'm the captain of my soul," to me, it just means that no matter what the circumstance is, you can't always control. Like, everybody's sitting here right now. You know, you have your own journey to how you got to where you are, like, everybody. And you can't control, you know, who your parents were.

• 4:34Speaker 03

  Like, you just, that was just what God gave you. You can't control how tall you're gonna be, you know, certain things like that. But you can control which direction you take your life. So when I talk to kids, I use that same last two lines. And I use an analogy that's like, you know, it's like we're all in the ocean and we're all swimming. Some people got yachts, some people got boats, some people ain't even got nothing. They just swimming, paddling. And you don't know where your journey's gonna take you. You can't control how fast you maybe get there because your circumstance, you ain't got nothing. Like, some people, like I said, they born into the yacht. Some people born into the boat. Like, some people born with nothing. But it's up to you what you do or whatever you're given. And you never know what's gonna happen along the way. So the person you watching, that guy's a yacht.

• 5:17Speaker 03

  You're like, "Man, it looked good over there. I wish." You could, he could be going full head of steam like Titanic and about to crash and sink. And now he's swimming for dear life. You don't know. And vice versa. You could be swimming, trying to find where you're supposed to go. And next thing you know, you find a private island with, you know, a big mansion or something like. So I think for me, those last two lines just let me know that, again, regardless of the circumstance or situation I might have not been able to control, I control which direction I choose to take my life from wherever situation I started in.

• 5:47Ryan Clark?

  I love that.

• 5:49Channing Crowder?

  Anything you read or doing research on you, like, you had a tough upbringing.

• 5:52Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 5:53Channing Crowder?

  Was it as bad as articulated online? Because it sounds crazy what was going on when you was a kid.

• 6:00Speaker 03

  Honestly, sometimes some of it is not bad enough or it's not articulated enough. And that's on purpose. You know, some things I think is just probably better to keep left unsaid. You know, there's a lot of things that happened in my life that I never spoke about. And I don't speak about publicly. It was more of those conversations one-on-one than I have with people, having with the youth, you know, to let them know, I know exactly what you're going through and a lot of situations that you wouldn't even know or think about. But my life was tough, you know? Growing up for me and my family was tough. You know, you grow up with seven siblings. And I'm the fifth child of eight. You know, my father left when I was 10 years old. My mom raising eight kids, you know, living in Section 8 housing, bouncing around from place to place.

• 6:43Speaker 03

  You know, my house burning down when I'm 12 years old, having to save my family. My two little brothers and my newborn niece at the time, you know, from a house fire. I'm 12 years old, running in and out of this house. Like, literally to this day, I'm still afraid of fire because of what happened back then. And then from that point, being literally homeless and having to live with people, sleeping on their floors, living in motels, sleeping in the car. It was tough, for real, you know? And definitely was grateful that God put certain people in my life, you know, to help me get to where I am now. It definitely was as advertised, I guess I would say.

• 7:23Fred Taylor?

  Aziz, you, well, we do this thing on this show where we cut the room, right? And I'll take a moment to cut the room because I got two guys that were undrafted, two played for great defenses. One, however, was voted by his peers as top 100 player, Walter Payman of the Year candidate. And just read up here in Houston. So they committed for long term. After everything you just mentioned about your upbringing, when you look back, which part of your life now would young Aziz have a hard time believing?

• 7:57Speaker 03

  I mean, to be honest, I think all of it. It's so funny because like, when you grow up and you experience the things that I did, and there's a lot of people who've experienced, I mean, we're all humans. So all of us sitting here, regardless of whether it's homelessness, whatever the case may be, we all experience something. But for me, and my experience isn't just where I was at, like, I just would have never thought I could actually do it. I didn't know anybody that made it that far. I didn't even know nobody that made it to college. So to sit here and, you know, I took that time multiple times to reflect. You know, I try to do that as often as I can, especially just me being Muslim. It's a big concept, is gratitude. Only way you could truly be grateful for what you have is by being able to reflect and kind of soak it up.

• 8:41Speaker 03

  And so that's what I've done multiple times. And, man, I just constantly am just so like blown away. Like, man, like, the work, the work that you put in, trusting in God, doing your part. And then just, like I said, the people that he's put into my life to allow me to be here. Like, I mean, all of it, honestly, is just like truly a blessing. It's something that every single day, I try to make sure that, you know, God, he gave me this blessing and he's gonna ask me about what I did with it. And so for me, every single day, I'm trying to chase the best version of myself because I know I have to answer for everything that he gave me. Because he chose me. Why? Why me? You know, I went to Jordan over the summertime, probably two weeks before camp started. And I'm in the middle of the desert

• 9:24Speaker 03

  helping these Syrian and Gaza refugees, you know, families who, they're orphaned families, you know? Like I said, they're staying in the middle of the desert. They don't have anything. They're living in tents. And I was able to go there with this organization I work with, HDF, and like give them trailers to live in. Some of them didn't even have bathrooms. There was an orphan, a mother with seven kids. Five of them were girls. The oldest girl was 16, had a third grade education. Because she, the school was so far, it's two hours away. And, you know, all type of crazy things can happen to them, especially as women, you're finna for yourself in the desert. So I sit there and ask myself like,

• 10:00Speaker 03

  What's the difference between them and me?

• 10:03Speaker 03

  It's God's mercy that I wasn't the one born into that. So it's just like, I'm constantly trying to chase, you know, making sure that I didn't leave no stone unturned when it comes to just the blessings that God gave me, make sure I make the most of them. So I think just all of it for real.

• 10:21Ryan Clark?

  Okay, that's been fun. When does the switch flip though, right? We've sat with you now, it's probably been like 10 minutes. It's been extremely introspective. It's been, it's been deep, it's been empathetic. You're compassionate, you're, you're, you're smart. And then every time I cut the film on, all I say to myself is I wish I would have played with him. Right, and I remember sitting, sitting at desk and having people say things about you and me just being like, but that's football, right? Like some, like sometimes people get hurt. Sometimes they don't, they don't hit them exactly where it's supposed to be, but that's the way the game is played.

• 11:02Ryan Clark?

  For you, after sharing this wisdom and sharing your faith and, and saying your prayers, at what point do you turn into the Aziz Al Shaair that we see on game day?

• 11:15Speaker 03

  It's crazy because it's like, I'm, I'm still that person, even in this moment. It's just, it was one thing that my father told me. You know, my father was in my life, tell us about 10 years old, like I said. But one thing I will never forget that he told me is there's a time and place for everything. So I think it was so crazy for regular people. You know, we played the game of football, you know, everybody's sitting here so you understand the time and place, the split personalities you almost have to have. But for a regular person, it's hard to grasp that. There's no way that you can go out there and try to hit somebody as hard as you can, and then in your regular world, just be a regular person. Like, bro, literally, that's what, when I tell you I'm out there playing, playing the game of football, the reason why I love it is because it's the ultimate equalizer.

• 11:58Speaker 03

  It doesn't matter what cleats you got on, like, yeah, we all try to look fly. Everybody want to look good, feel good, play good, all that stuff. But back to Pop Warner, it's about what you do when you on that field. I don't care what I done talked about all week, who you done told you was this and that, like how fast, even, even the fast guys, like you see the 40 times and all this crap that we try to measure, what a great football player is supposed to look like. But when you get on the field, what are you doing on that field? And that's the one place, you know, I always revert back to my faith. Being Muslim, one of the huge fundamentals of that is your intention. God is the only, God in yourself is the only one that knows your intention. So it's like, all the superficial stuff doesn't matter. And that's how I see football. It's like, all the superficial things, even the muscle, I done seen big boys get folded up.

• 12:43Speaker 03

  And I done seen small boys drop.

• 12:46Ryan Clark?

  Yes, sir.

• 12:46Speaker 03

  So it doesn't even matter, like, and I think that's what, like, when I think of football, I just go back to, like I said, for me, growing up homeless, people made fun of me for all type of stuff I couldn't control. The clothes I was wearing, you know, where I was staying, all this stuff that I had no control over. Again, that's circumstances I hadn't, you know, I couldn't control, going back to that quote. But it was just like, that was the one time where like, nobody judged me for whether it was me being Muslim, me being black, me being poor. It's like, man, you just a baller because of what you do. So it's like, truly being judged for what you do. So I guess every time I step on the field, I just revert back to that. Like, remembering that kid that I needed football so bad because I had no other place where I could just be myself and not be judged for anything

• 13:31Speaker 03

  other than, you know, what I did on the field.

• 13:33Ryan Clark?

  I love that, man.

• 13:34Fred Taylor?

  Please, please don't tell me you the dude that knocked somebody out and say, God bless you and all that stuff.

• 13:39Speaker 03

  That's it, bro.

• 13:40Fred Taylor?

  Are you that guy?

• 13:41Speaker 03

  I'm gonna keep it a hundred with you. This is like a fact. Like, when I'm out there playing, like I said, and I know it sounds cra- again, to a regular person, it sounds crazy. Y'all played the game, you understand. I'm trying to hit you as hard as I could possibly hit you. The same way you, whoever is at running back or receiver, like, you trying to get me too. But at the end of the day, you have a family, I got a family too. Do I want to see you get put out on a stretcher? Of course not. And obviously, again, that sounds crazy to think, I want to hit you as hard as I can, but I want you to get up. Like, yeah, because, I mean, that's what, you, you want to make the play.

• 14:14Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 14:15Speaker 03

  Just like he want to make the play. Exactly, at the end of the day, like, bro, this, our life is bigger than the game of football. And football is a platform. It's a game that we love, that we love to play and all this stuff, but it gives you a platform. And I, like I said, I try to utilize it and use all the blessings that God gave me to the maximum potential. So it's my right and my duty, you know, as a man, and the blessing that God gave me, I gotta go as hard as I possibly can when I get on this field. The same way how when I'm off the field, I gotta go as hard as I possibly can in the community. I gotta go as hard as I possibly can with my family. I gotta go in every aspect of my life. And it's like, that's tough to do. Like, of que- like, all of us as men, like, we sitting here as men. You can say, man, I was a great football player.

• 15:00Speaker 03

  Everybody sitting there saying, man, I was really good at what I did. But you have to be that in every aspect of your life, that's the challenge, as a man. As a man, as a husband, as a father, like, these are the other aspects that come with being a man that, that's not easy. Like, of course, that's not easy, but that's the challenge. And if you're a man of God, you understand that that's a part of it. It's, it's not going to be easy for you, but you have to make the efforts to do that. So, yeah, I just think, when it, when it comes to the, the side of football and you, you know, you asking that specifically of like, am I the person saying, oh, man, bless you after you hit them hard? Like, no, I'm not like that.

• 15:36Speaker 03

  Like, as I said, I'm just trying to hit you and I hope you get up, but like, at the end of the day, it's all love. Like, I don't take it personal. If you the guy with the football, I'm not looking at you sideways because of who you are, what you, you just the guy with the football, bro, I gotta do my job, just like he trying to do yours.

• 15:49Ryan Clark?

  Right. Yeah, Troy made the sign of the cross after every single play. Every play, no matter what. And it's a lot of plays where I put people to sleep and then Troy walk in.

• 16:02Ryan Clark?

  And people would always think he was doing it on that particular play, but he just did it every snap though. Yeah, he did it every snap.

• 16:09Fred Taylor?

  Best to be able to get to the next play. You're a Florida boy though, Tampa, so I know you familiar with Jacksonville, not too far away. You know they ready to send them hitters over here?

• 16:18Speaker 03

  Listen, bro, one thing you gotta understand, one thing you should know about me or my family. Bro, I, y'all think I'm crazy. Y'all see two different per- boy, let you meet my mama. My mama is the sweetest woman in the world. The nicest woman in the world. She, she's a strong woman. She'd raise their kids by herself now. So I say that to say like, man, when all that stuff went down, bro, and my, I, the best thing that could happen is none of my family was there. Because if my family was there, I probably, I probably would have been in the stands fighting half of the people. My mama would have probably been in there fighting my sisters, my butt. So, I mean, yeah, it, it was, it was definitely crazy.

• 16:55Fred Taylor?

  You know, I, I jokingly say that, obviously, but what I admire the most, because even in that moment, I was kind of like, I don't know, it was so close and the game is so fast. Like, you, you, you know, you, you, you blink and somebody's hitting, you just never know. But what you did after, you know, the professionalism, like, the sincerity in your apology afterwards, I thought you showed extreme, you know, accountability in that moment. And just to hear you speak now, made me understand why you would have apologized in that fashion.

• 17:31Fred Taylor?

  And then even to hear D'Amico, a guy who I played against, to be able to come to your defense and say, nah, you know, I know who he is as a person, so I, I stand by him.

• 17:41Speaker 00

  Before this,

• 17:46Speaker 00

  there's this.

• 17:49Speaker 00

  As you celebrate the game, take a deeper look at its roots. The people grow in the grass, paving the lots, welding the goalposts, inspecting every football. The hardworking people that make every Sunday possible. Carhartt is proud to outfit the crews behind the game. Visit carhartt.com/jointhetrades to learn more.

• 18:11Fred Taylor?

  So with that though, you were able to follow D'Amico from San Fran to here. What has he helped you with in your development into the player that you are today?

• 18:22Speaker 03

  Man, he's helped me so much, just with understanding, you know, I think, first thing first, just with everything. I remember going into San Francisco, me and Dre Greenlaw, where the, where the rookies coming in the room. And Fred was in year two, this is year two for it. And then you got Quan Alexander, Malcolm Smith, you know, these are guys, Malcolm Smith, Super Bowl MVP, Quan Alexander tore it up with the Bucks for years, comes over there as a big ticket free agent. You know, that's like my big brother, he looked out for all of us. And I'm sitting there like, and the media, coming from college, you know, you, you was the guy and, you know, you were team captain, and I did everything right. Ask anybody about me, Coach Lane Kiffin was my coach, you know. And I'd be in the building all night studying tape.

• 19:07Speaker 03

  They had no iPads back then in college or whatever, so I'm in, I'm doing everything I, I'm think I'm supposed to be doing. And then you get to the league and you like, okay, I'm gonna keep up that same process, but you don't know what you don't know. And I think the biggest thing that he showed me was a sense of urgency you truly have to have in the NFL, especially at the linebacker position, just overall the communication, just understanding the formation, seeing, seeing the game of football through the lens of a linebacker, you know, at the highest level. Like, I, he made me feel like I ain't never did nothing right. I remember that first, like, that first couple of months, I remember me and Dre Greenlaw, this was the last year where they had like roommates in the, in the, in the hotels. And me and him are roommates, and every night, like Dre grew up in, in the foster system, you know, I grew up homeless.

• 19:51Speaker 03

  So me and him connected like instantly because it was like, that's my brother. And we'd be talking every night, and they'd be like, man, we probably gonna get cut.

• 20:00Speaker 03

  Every, every night, we like, man, because again, D'Amico was so adamant, like so tough on us because he, I mean, he saw, you know, who we could be, but he was never telling us that. It was just like, hey, like, if you don't do this, you're not gonna be able to play linebacker. If you don't do this, you're not, so you just thinking, I can't do nothing right. And I think as you started to, as we started to go on and the plays started to come, because the urgency picked up, and then you take a step back, especially after that first year was over, I'm just like, dang. Like, now I understand, and even I fast forward now, when I see new rookies come in, especially at linebacker, and you just see like, it's not, they could be great players. But again, the NFL is so different because it's like, everybody's always in their senior year at college. What, what does that mean?

• 20:43Speaker 03

  Is that any moment, the team that you see right now is never going to be the same team. I done been to, my rookie year, we go to the Super Bowl. And everybody's crying after the game because we lose, and I'm crying too. But I'm like, you know, I will be back, like, bro, we got everybody, look at the team. I was there for three more years. We never went back. We went to two NFC championships and lost both of them. And the, excuse, the next year after, after that year, we ended up losing Jimmy G in 2020 and we ended up going like 5 and 10 or whatever it was, 5 and 11. So just that urgency piece, I think when it comes to D'Amico, that was the first thing that he really just taught me, you know, how to, how to be a linebacker and run the show for real, for real.

• 21:26Speaker 03

  Um, and I think it's just like ever since then, even when I left to go to Tennessee for that one year, it's like I can still hear him in the back of my head like, you gotta get lined up. You gotta make sure you're making the calls, making the checks. Um, so I think just that piece more than anything is something that, you know, I'm grateful for because the techniques and all that stuff. Of course he helped teach me those things as well, but I think the biggest part is just, you know, how to be a pro in the truest sense. Cause I, I was always a person that was gonna try to do everything, right? But you don't know what you don't know. And I think he's one of the best at teaching that linebacker position and how it's supposed to look.

• 21:59Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, the, the process is, is part of it. The, you know, the same way you spoke about intention early on, you gotta have intention in the way you prepare as well. When I'm watching film, what am I watching? Why am I watching it? How do I apply it? Right? All the same things, my treatment, all of those things. And that's how you build the type of career you're building. You mentioned how you and Dre Greenlaw, you know, just were able to become friends and that was your brother because of some of the shared sort of commonalities between you two. You and Will Anderson have developed a great relationship here. Both men of faith, but different faiths, right? And obviously both absolute terrors on the football field.

• 22:41Ryan Clark?

  Talk a little bit about how that relationship has grown and helped you, you guys as a team, but also just how great of a player and important Will Anderson is to this football team.

• 22:53Speaker 03

  Man, can't say enough great things about Will. You know, Will is like the little big brother to me. You know, I actually, I have a brother who's a year older than me and he's smaller than me. So it's so funny. I find this guy like humbling me in a way cause I was always the little big brother to my real brother. So Will and me, like the relationship we have is the same thing, but obviously bigger than me. So I'll be having like, watch yourself. Be cool. But nah, man, I think just seeing when I first got here and you know, how he was, you know, from the first day that we were in OTAs and the way he carried himself, like it was already written that he was gonna be great. Just the way that he carried himself, how he acted. Um, and then the, the relationship we started to build really just from a faith perspective.

• 23:38Speaker 03

  Um, you know, I think there's a lot of Muslims who know a lot more about Christianity than there's a lot of Christians who know anything about Islam. I think it's so much like, there's so much like misconceptions and like, you know, whatever you wanna say about, or stereotypes about Muslims. And I feel like it's so funny cause even for Will, when man started connecting, he was like, bro, I ain't gonna lie, you might, you might be one of the only first Muslims I ever actually met and talked to and like connected with.

• 24:02Ryan Clark?

  Especially you're a Southern Baptist.

• 24:03Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 24:04Ryan Clark?

  You know what I mean?

• 24:04Speaker 03

  So, I mean, I remember we started talking. I don't even remember what kinda triggered that, but we was just talking on these beanbag chairs we got in the recovery room one time. And then it turned into our weekly thing that every, every week we gotta sit here and have these talks and whether it was about God or our different faiths, you know, football, whatever, we would go through all of it, almost being like the, the therapist for each other, depending on how we were feeling and what was going on. But just again, now to go back to him as, as the player, you know, it speaks for itself. Like you don't, you ain't handing out money to nobody, especially in this business. If you don't earn it, and he's earned it, you know, a thousand times over. You know, just the way he carries himself, what he's, what he's about, you know, the type of man that he is. Uh, so I mean, bro, he's, he's heartbeat.

• 24:49Ryan Clark?

  I was an undrafted free agent on a very good defense, right? And the, the beauty about playing with great players is it allows you to do the thing you do well and fit in, right? You don't have to go outside of who you are. You don't have to try to be in places you aren't supposed to be because everybody else is doing their job. I'm talking about man from the, the front end to the linebackers, to the secondary. There's stars everywhere and playmakers. I always joke with them. There were times we would walk into the stadium, Aziz, and like we'd really be having a conversation. Like they might not score, you know what I'm saying? Like telling the offense, hey, y'all get a field goal? Hell, if y'all don't turn it over, we're gonna win.

• 25:30Ryan Clark?

  How often do you, you guys walk into the stadium thinking about dominance based on the people you have in that defensive room?

• 25:38Speaker 03

  Man, I think, I mean, obviously you just talked about it with yourself and, and the team that you played on. I think for us, it's, it was the same mentality. Like when you look around, like I feel like I'm a kid playing like high school football, like little league when I was playing with all my boys. And you just know you about to test something up. Like it just, it's just like you, you have the ultimate confidence because I have confidence in myself. Like I, I believe in myself as a player, all that stuff. But then you got 10 other dudes with the same type of energy, same mentality that are just ballers. I mean, even y'all were at practice today and like, bro, like sting that interception. I'm like, bro, like that's, that's a regular like sting moment.

• 26:19Speaker 03

  Like he does that every practice. Like, so I just think like from top to bottom, you know, even the guys that people don't even talk about on our defense, you know, like Tommy Togi, like he's one of those guys that, bro, I, I trust him just as much as I trust Will Anderson. Like, but again, you have the ultimate confidence when you step into the, into the stadium, you stepping on the field, when you have all these type of guys with you. And so a hundred percent, we going into the game, it's like we're trying to dominate. And if you're not, you know, I think Will says it all the time. Like if you're not trying to dominate, like what are we doing? Like what's the point of playing the game is, you know, you wanna be the best at what you do or you should aspire for that. And if you don't, you probably won't play on this defense. Cause that's the mentality. Everybody wants to be the, be the best.

• 27:01Channing Crowder?

  Is the clock the fastest clock that you've ever had in your career with Will and Hunt coming? Cause you, you know, you ain't got a cover, but two and a half max. Let me jump this out real quick, cause this out enough ain't gonna be there.

• 27:15Speaker 03

  Bro, it's so funny because like when we're in practice sometimes, there's plays and I mean, it, it rarely happens in the game that the quarterbacks get that much time. But in practice where it's like, man, they done ran a triple move or the back done ran a will right out the backfield. And you like, bro, ain't no way y'all getting that ball. Then you watch it on the tape and show enough Will or Daniel, somebody drank. And somebody done made a move and uh, they put their hand up and they gotta let the quarterback throw the ball. So it's just funny because you do, you know, especially the more you play the game, especially in our scheme, it's, it's all, you know, the passing game, the rushing, the coverage, it goes hand to hand. And, and D'Amico talks about that all the time. You know, Coach Burke talks about it all the time. And playing defense, you understand that. Like it's the timing that the quarterback has to have.

• 28:00Speaker 03

  You don't get this ball out, you gonna get hit upside your head. So a hundred percent, like when we're playing, there's times where you might, more so in practice than the game, because in practice, like I said, you gotta let the quarterback finish the throws. So we might be arguing with CJ like, nah, man, you wasn't gonna get that off. It was a sack or whatever. So I mean, that happens all the time for sure. But you definitely have the utmost confidence when you are covering that, okay, I'm covering, I ain't gotta cover for 15 seconds. Like this, this guy gotta get the ball out now. So it does, it does change the way that you approach the game where it might not be like that everywhere else.

• 28:32Fred Taylor?

  Take us, take us through your, through your day. It seems like you do a lot or have a lot to get done throughout the day, like training camp, for example. Could you just kinda give us what your routine look like?

• 28:44Speaker 03

  Uh, man, it really depends on the day. Say an average day, like even like today, what I did. You know, I'll get up 6 o'clock in the morning, I'll pray. Uh, I pray five times a day, be a Muslim, that's just a part of it. Pray before the sun comes up. Then I'll read, you know, some of my Quran, uh, probably like two pages or so. Uh, then I'll kinda take all my vitamins, do whatever I need to do from that aspect before I drive into work. Once I get into the building, just go through all my pre-practice stuff, recovery, um, getting in the red light, the pool, cold tub, hot tub, kinda getting ready for practice. Uh, then we go to our meetings, kinda do all that. Um, after we get done with that, we probably have like an hour or so.

• 29:26Speaker 03

  Uh, so in that timeframe, I'll go study a little bit for what we're about to go out there and do at practice. Uh, then I kinda just go through my little pre-practice routine of everything, go out there to practice. After we get done with practice, we have like the, the post-practice meetings. Once we get done with that, I'll go in, do some more recovery stuff. Uh, cause they have pretty much everything here for us. You really don't have to go anywhere else. And that's one of the few places that I've been, you know, San Francisco being the other one where like they have every possible recovery tool for you. So just from ownership all the way down, they really try to make it to where we have the best shot to be our best self, you know, on Sunday, which as players, you guys can like, you know, appreciate that cause it definitely makes your life easier. You know, you, man, I gotta go halfway across the city to go get this treatment.

• 30:11Speaker 03

  So, um, I mean, really by the time I leave the building, I'll be probably walking out with one of the coaches or something. Because I just try to do, again, like I talked to you earlier, every single thing I possibly can to make sure that I'm taking advantage of the blessing that God gave me, which is, you know, being in the NFL, playing at the, at the high level that I'm able to play at now.

• 30:30Ryan Clark?

  Aziz, is the clock ticking, bro? Like, you know, people always talk about windows, right? The early window here was like, wait, we have a Pro Bowl rookie quarterback.

• 30:44Ryan Clark?

  And we're going to be able to pay these people and have all the and build these people around them. And every season CJ's been here, D'Amico's been here. It's been a playoff game one, right? And everybody's waiting for that next step. The thing that Nick has done well is he's drafted well. He's brought over really good free agents. Guess what has to start happening? These folks gotta get paid.

• 31:06Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 31:07Ryan Clark?

  Right? There's the Kalen Bullocks of the world. He gotta get his money somewhere. Kamari Lassiter gotta get his money somewhere, right? It's all these players on the team. And so it's like, we gotta go win. Do you guys, I know you talked about D'Amico not like talking sense of urgency, but are y'all really feeling that urgency like, hey, man, we have the people in the building? And like you said, teams change.

• 31:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:31Ryan Clark?

  Is there a level of urgency this year here in Houston like, hey, let's go take it week by week and be the best we could possibly be because we can win it all?

• 31:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, it's, I said, it's the NFL. And like I just said earlier, every single year, it's going to be a different team, even if you've got all these pieces that you're used to having like, I mean, look at our roster now, look at the same roster a year ago, and when we suited up for that game against the Patriots, the last time we played, that's a different team. So a hundred percent like, that's always the, the understanding is that, bro, you don't have time. Like, what is time? I don't know what the hell is about to happen five minutes from now after I get done with this interview, let alone, you know, by the time February comes. So I think when you understand that, and again, like, I think our team specifically, you know, it's, it's a lot of guys who are very open about their faith, you know, and are men, I feel like I'm in a God.

• 32:22Speaker 03

  And when you have that, you know, I always try to challenge you, it's like, bro, like, don't forget what that means, you know, like how you should be living your life, how you should be approaching things in life. Like, you don't have time. Like, what time do I have? I don't know what's gonna happen. Like I said, you can't say, if you could tell me what's gonna happen five minutes from now, I'll get everything I got in my account. So you can go put it on the stock market or something.

• 32:41Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 32:42Speaker 03

  But, you know, nobody knows the future. So you have to own the moment right now. And I think, like I said, you know, Nick, the people that he's brought in, the people that he's drafted, you know, the way that our team is, is structured with him and D'Amico, it's like, they got like some mastermind genius that they doing, you know, up there upstairs and, you know, all the pieces that we have are here. And like I said, being, you know, there's multiple guys who've been to the Super Bowl, you know, Reed, like I said, he's won the Super Bowl. And so you see like, hey, we got what it takes. But, you know, it's, everybody feels like they got what it take right now in August. Like, you gotta put it on tape every single week, and that's the challenge. Like, that's the challenge of it. But a hundred percent, the urgency and that mindset is there.

• 33:24Channing Crowder?

  Is the Quran written in English?

• 33:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, it is. It's, it's written in Arabic, but they have the translation in English.

• 33:30Channing Crowder?

  Okay, you said you read it, I thought it was a little funny.

• 33:32Ryan Clark?

  Hey, you also know the Bible was not written in English initially.

• 33:36Channing Crowder?

  I just didn't know if he knew hieroglyphics.

• 33:38Speaker 03

  You know, he's, you know, he's like, what mama say, that's a special baby.

• 33:41Ryan Clark?

  Yeah. That's a special baby. No, that's it. That's mama special baby.

• 33:45Speaker 03

  That's all it means.

• 33:48Channing Crowder?

  Being in 2026, having a defensive led team, that's, it's not, that's old school football. We were talking about the 2000 Ravens and the 02 Bucks and 85 Bears. It's, it seems outdated, but do y'all just, y'all take that in like, you're the better side of the ball? And everybody knows that. How does that, how do you, how do you continue to be that, but also encourage everybody else? Because they're looking up to you, they're looking up to Will, they're looking up to the guys that are making all the plays on Sunday.

• 34:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think when you see just the structure of the team and how it's built, like, obviously you understand like, okay, we got all these guys, defense, okay, stacked, all this stuff. But even offensively, like when we go out there and we practicing, you understand that it's the iron shopping irons. D'Amico says that all the time, you know, and that's how you actually get better, is by being challenged by the other side of the ball and vice versa. Cause there's times, like I said, even if you watch, like y'all watched out there in practice, some of the plays that the offense was hitting on us, that didn't look like, oh, that top undeniable defense, like, bro, we all human. So I think it's a, it's a great thing for our offense because they, bro, they're not backing down from nobody. You gotta put it on tape.

• 35:00Speaker 03

  And it's a mentality check for us, cause it's like, nobody is just saying, oh, the Texans defense is so good. Like, bro, this is the best of the best in the entire world. Ain't nobody, if you are, as an NFL player, are walking in there saying, man, we gotta play the Texans, you probably should be sitting at the crib.

• 35:17Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, you're in the wrong career.

• 35:18Speaker 03

  They coming to find you and they getting you up out of there as soon as they figure that out. Like, that's not the NFL, that's not the NFL. Like, that's, wow, that's something else. So my point is, is that it doesn't matter, just like, like I said, while I love the game of football, is it doesn't matter who you said you've been, what you said you've done, who are you today? And that's, that's where, even for me as a player and being where I'm at, that's why I got to where I'm at, because I wasn't willing to listen to somebody else telling me, hey, you're an undrafted player, hey, you coming off a torn ACL, you'll just be a good backup one day, maybe you might get lucky to do that. I remember as a, a vet, and I ain't gonna put him on blast, it's my dog. And he genuinely is a great guy, great guy. He was trying to help me as a young player.

• 36:03Speaker 03

  He's like, listen, Zee, it's like, I know you want to play linebacker, but you gotta play these special teams right now. Like, you got, and I was doing good on special teams. Only thing I hated was punt. I just could not block. That's why I don't play offense now, man. But, and I was doing good, but I'm telling him like, nah, man, I'm gonna play linebacker, man, I'm gonna play linebacker. And he's like, man, you's just stupid, man, you just a stupid rookie, you gotta lock in, man. You know, he's, he's genuine, he's played in the league, he was in the league for six years, and he, he signed a, a big special teams contract when I was in San Francisco. So he's telling me his experiences, similar to our parent, what you do to your kid, you try to shelter him in a way, hey, just trust me, trust me, I know. But like, for me, I'm like, man, to hell with that, man, I'm trying to go make it. I, I believe I could do it.

• 36:44Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 36:45Speaker 03

  And, you know, sure enough, like, just that mentality. So it's like, you have to put the work in and all that, but that's like, that's why I love the game is because, yeah, people gonna sit there and nobody saying, is he so sharp, he's gonna be the face of a defense. Like, nobody was saying that six years ago, whatever. But just the work that you're willing to put in and trusting in God, and who knows what can happen? Like I said, I don't know what's gonna happen five minutes from now, let alone years from now. So I just always think of things in a positive way because why, like, why not me? Like, why can't it happen for me?

• 37:16Fred Taylor?

  With, with the, the amount of elite talent on that side of the ball, on your side of the ball, in the face of adversity, who's gonna be that guy to, you know, rally the troops and, and, and call the huddle up first?

• 37:28Speaker 03

  I mean, honestly, you could pick from the group, whether it's me or whether it's Will, not probably me or him mostly. But I think that's the, the cool thing is, is there's so much like leadership on each level of our defense, that there's times where literally, we ain't even said a word to each other, and we just look at each other like, you know what time it is, like, hey, like tighten up. And so it's like, there's times where a team might be driving or whatever, even from last year, and ain't nobody said nothing. I'm just looking at you like, I'm about to punch you in your face if you don't tighten up. And they looking at me the same way, like, all right, let's go. Cause the thing is, is like, when you have all these great players and on this team

• 38:10Speaker 03

  and you, you know, you look around, like I said, the same confidence that you have, when you see the other guys you're on the field with, is the same way you have this like, almost fear of like, I don't want to be the one that lets these guys down.

• 38:22Ryan Clark?

  Can't be the one.

• 38:23Speaker 03

  Like, I ain't gonna be the one.

• 38:24Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 38:25Speaker 03

  So my whole mentality, like, of course, you going out there to practice, even for me, like, oh, man, you wanna take some reps off? I'm like, hell no, I ain't taking no reps off. Cause I don't know what play is gonna be when the season comes up, that it might be the play that wins or loses us this game. You know, my coach, Billy Davis, he says that every time. He's like, every play is the play that can win or lose you a game, cause you don't know which one is gonna be. So it's, it's like, everybody's on the field like, man, look, you gotta be on your best because you don't want to be the one that gives up that play.

• 38:52Ryan Clark?

  I know you're not trying to tell me it might be Danilo or Sting, cause neither one of them talk.

• 38:55Speaker 03

  That's why I said to give you that look.

• 38:57Channing Crowder?

  Sting, Sting, you're gonna say a word.

• 39:01Speaker 03

  Sting do not say nothing. He gonna look at me, be like. And, and D. Hunt, it's so funny, like, bro, D. Hunt is my locker man. So he talked, I talked to D. Hunt probably more than most of the people talk to him. He, he talks to people. I just think he's a very, he's very humble in the way that he goes about his business because he don't want none of the like, like, he doesn't want no limelight for nothing. He just wants to, and he tells me all the time, he's like, bro, I just wanna win a Super Bowl, play ball, win, like, that's all he's focused on. He's focused on being the best that he can be as a player, as a teammate, and getting a, getting a, a Super Bowl. And like, I have so much respect for him because, like I said, on the outside, you

• 39:45Speaker 03

  guys who might not know him, you just like, bro, this dude don't say nothing, like, what the hell? Like, you don't even know what's going through his brain. But the conversations that we've had, you know, just, you know, on a personal level and just, you know, who he is, you know, he's a great man. And again, his, his humility, or, or, or his quietness comes from his humility more than anything, because, you know, me and him have those, you know, life conversations all the time. He's like, bro, none of this stuff gonna mean nothing anyway. And he goes on that, right? He's like, man, the only thing that can help you is that legacy. So he wants, you know, he wants that, you know, he wants that for himself and for the guys around him to be able to go and win a, a, a Super Bowl. And, and that's, that's why his focus is so like, just steely eyed, like, nothing can get in the way of that, you know? So those are two guys that, they, no, they don't say a lot, but man, they, they play is as loud as it gets.

• 40:35Speaker 00

  There's this.

• 40:39Speaker 00

  As you celebrate the game, take a deeper look at its roots. The people grow in the grass, paving the lots, welding the goalposts, inspecting every football. The hardworking people that make every Sunday possible. Carhartt is proud to outfit the crews behind the game. Visit carhartt.com/jointhetrades to learn more.

• 41:00Ryan Clark?

  Danil always like make fun of him when I see him because he looked like that when he got to LSU. Like he was swole up, he was ripped up and he never talked then. But you mentioned him not wanting the light. Danil Hunter has Hall of Fame numbers. Like the level of consistency that that man has played at since getting drafted is as high a level as any Pro Bowler, any All-Pro. And that just talks about though, how good your team is. He's one of those players that really it goes understated what he means to the team. So it's cool to hear you say that. So there was a quote, I think, and you might have to help me because I'll probably be paraphrasing it.

• 41:45Ryan Clark?

  Something about if it passes you by, it's not yours. Or can you tell me the quote and tell me like where it came from and why that's been something that's helped you throughout your life?

• 41:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, so it's a, it's a quote and it's, um, my mother told me when I was 12 years old, when I first started playing football. The quote is, "That which is for you should not pass you by, and that which passes you by is not for you." And so it came up, um, first time I ever heard it. Like I said, my mother told me, I remember my grandfather, he signed me up for football. And you know, I begged my mom to let me play and she finally let me play because you know, we, we ain't got nowhere to stay. She gotta work two, three jobs. She can't look after all these kids. She's like, look, you can play, but I can't pay for you to play. And then I remember she told the coach, she's like, look, if you're gonna take him, you gotta take his two little brothers too, because I can't. So it's me and my two little brothers playing, but my grandfather signs me up and tells the coach,

• 42:38Speaker 03

  I'm super fast, got hands like Jerry Rice, like just going, I swear to you, like my grandfather got dementia right now. If I call him right now and talk about this, he gonna remember that story. Cause I'm sitting there in his office as he's on the phone with the coach. And I slapped him, he got a big old bald head. I slapped him on the side of the head when he got off the phone. Like, man, why did you say that? Like he's telling coach crazy stuff and he's, and my grandfather, he was probably the first person to ever believe in me as a football player. And he told me, he's like, man, you gotta believe in yourself. I believe in you. And so I go out there, I remember I had to take the city bus to practice and I'm 12 years old. And I get to practice, coach is like, man, what your grandpa was talking about? We about to see what that's all about. So that's why they still could do Oklahoma drills.

• 43:21Speaker 03

  And so I go up there and there's this white boy with this big old mohawk and they put me at running back. And it's like I told y'all this morning where y'all was like, man, you look like a running back. Nah, I don't do that. Dude, this, this man hit me so hard. And I just remember like sitting there like, oh hell, now football is not for me. Bro, literally, I remember I, I act like I was hurt the rest of the day. And I took the city bus back home and I was crying the entire time on the bus. Because I begged my mother to play. My, I swear to you, I told my mother, I said, if you let me play football, I'm gonna make it to the NFL, I'm gonna take care of my family. I tell you, it's at 12 years old, I had no clue what it required, what it took. I played Madden and I'm like, I'm nice at Madden, this ain't that hard.

• 44:03Speaker 03

  And so when I get to the motel and I, I get to the, to, um, through the front door, you know, I stopped myself from crying, I tried to act like everything was cool. Uh, my mom, she's my best friend, so it was, it was hard for me to hold in the emotion. And then when she looked at me, she asked me, how was practice? I just started bawling and I'm just bawling crying and I'm just telling like, you know, I don't even know half the stuff I said, I just remember, but I suck. And then she's like, man, like slow down, slow down. And I'm telling like, like I went out there and I was terrible, like I suck. What do I do? And I remember she was telling me, like all you can do is work hard and trust in God. And like, you know, when your parents give you advice, you know, you guys could probably go back to times where they're telling you something and you're just like, oh my gosh, I don't know.

• 44:46Speaker 03

  Like you hearing it, but you're like, man, all right, but okay, but what if I do all that? And then what? And I remember saying that like, okay, what if I trust in God and it still don't work? Then what? And so that's when she told me that quote. She was like, "That which is for you should not pass you by, and that which passes you by is not for you." She said, "All you can do is trust in God and then do the work." And a lot of people who aren't successful in whatever they want to do, weren't willing to sacrifice what it took. And so, and that whole thing, what I took from that, and I was, like I said, I was grateful because you know, God blesses people with different talents and different abilities and different things. And I just think the, the presence to be able to even grasp these things at 12 years old, you know, I was way ahead of myself in that regard. But I learned the confidence piece from my grandfather is that you have to believe in

• 45:30Speaker 03

  yourself, because ain't nobody else in the world gonna believe in you, but the probably the people that love you, and even the people that love you.

• 45:35Ryan Clark?

  Sometimes don't.

• 45:36Speaker 03

  Sometimes don't. And even my mother tell you, she told me this whole thing and she said, she believes I can make it. And she'll tell you now that she did not think for a second I could make it. I swear to God. Like I remember the first time when I'm sitting down doing an interview with my mom and we're telling this story in person. And she's like, I'm not even gonna lie to you, I did not believe I actually could make it. Cause I, she never saw nobody make it either.

• 45:58Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 45:59Speaker 03

  You know, my mom, and that, and it's crazy, because I, I, like I said, I learned that and I learned, you know, from my mother, if you, you, you can't be afraid of failure. You have to do the work and then trust in God. But I remember the first time I ever seen my mother cry, I was 15 years old. And I'm sitting there, we're standing in this motel and I'm looking for my mom. I don't remember where I was going to ask her for. And I remember she, I heard the bathroom on, but I, like the, the shower running, but I didn't see her in the bathroom. And so I turned back and I look and I just hear like whimpering. And then she was in the closet and I opened the closet, like it's cracked open and my mom was just sitting there just boo boo crying. And I'm sitting there and I, I felt like I was frozen for 35 minutes. I got, I felt like I was there forever.

• 46:45Speaker 03

  Um, in real time, maybe it's a couple of minutes, whatever. But I just remember the first thing that went through my mind was, oh, like my mom is human. And what does that mean to me? Like, you know, when you're, your parents, you don't see them as people. You see them as like some superhero person, like they're not real people. But when I'm looking at my mom, that was the first time where I saw, damn, like my mom is a single mother with eight kids. She had aspirations. She had dreams as a kid, you know, my mom, she'd tell you, she had dreams, she wanted to be a dancer. And like, I'm just sitting there, I'm thinking like, that's the first time I ever saw like, damn, like my mom is human.

• 47:27Speaker 03

  So she, she had dreams and goals that clearly that's not what she thought was gonna be her life. Um, and so when I talk about my mom not actually believing it was possible, well, that's what happens is, you know, people go through things and their experiences and their failures and the things that go, that happened to them, their traumas, you know, that hurts and you feel it. And especially when you start to have kids, like I think the best thing that she ever did for me was not pour that on to me. So even though if she didn't believe it, she didn't want to tell me I couldn't do it. And I think there's anything that I am so grateful for was that. Because in my mind, I thought she actually believed it. So because she believed it, I said, well, maybe I should believe it.

• 48:09Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 48:09Speaker 03

  Cause it's my mother. Like I said, my mother is my best friend. So because of my grandfather saying, you gotta have confidence and believe in yourself. And my mother telling me this quote and really making me just not afraid of the failure, it allowed me to pursue something that, like I said, when you asked me earlier, man, like what part of this, bro, all of it, all of it, all of it. Because man, to know that I made it from all of that. Like, bro, there's people that have a lot less going on that don't get nearly as far. So it's a whole lot of blessings and grace from God, but a whole lot of work that I had to put into.

• 48:44Fred Taylor?

  With all of that, what part has been your biggest pivot? That's the moment in your life you can look back on and say, because this happened to me and for me, I am who I am today.

• 48:55Speaker 03

  Hmm. I don't know, man. Cause if I'm being honest, I feel like if I'm sitting there reflecting on my life and I'm writing a story about myself, you know, I feel like I have to write, you know, five different books. Because I can talk about being in college and being the legal guardian of my two little brothers while I'm in college. I'm taking them to school on a moped and taking them to school and then going to practice and having to leave class to pick them up and, and then going to, you know, my senior year, staying for my senior year and blowing my knee out thinking the world about to end. Like, and then I could transfer or, or, or fast forward to just being in the NFL and just my journey through that as well.

• 49:38Speaker 03

  Um, and how I got to where I'm at right now. I could talk about what happened a couple of years ago. Like truthfully, if I could say as an adult, the hardest thing or the thing that I feel like, you know, the pivot that I made as an adult was really what happened a couple of years ago, you know, in Jacksonville. Cause you know, even honest, like I, I've talked to you, you know, I sent you that message a couple of years ago about everything when I seen what you guys were talking about on the show. And bro, the noise was so loud. It was so many people, you know, all over the world attacking me as a human being, attacking me even as a football player, um, you know, from top to bottom. And I had my gun drawn on everybody. I don't know who did what, but I'm just like, man, all y'all can get the hell out my face.

• 50:20Speaker 03

  Like, that's how I felt because you know, you feel like everybody's attacking you and you like, bro, this is not even, this hasn't, this is not even who I am. Prior to that play, either A, you might not even know who the hell I was. And if you did know who I was, that was never dirty player or piece of crap attached to my name ever. But now off of this one moment, this one play that happened this fast, everything that I've worked for is like now up in, up in arms. And I think the anxiety that I had to get over and the things I had to like kind of live with past that.

• 50:56Speaker 03

  It was extremely challenging, but I truly believe if it was not for that situation and how everything transpired and the way I had to lean on my faith and lean on the people that I love, you know, I wouldn't be able to even be sitting here where I'm a whatever, a year and a half, two years removed from that. And I'm one of the highest paid linebackers, I'm a first time Pro Bowler, Walter Payman of the Year nominee, all this stuff. Like, and a year and a half ago, they talking about not playing football. They trying to ban me from playing football. Like, what are we talking about? Like, I mean, this dude's literally, I got suspended for four games. They moved it down to three because I was ejected in the first quarter of that game. So they said, we'll count that as a game.

• 51:36Speaker 03

  And this guy is doing a lot worse, a lot worse than tackling somebody and getting the, you good, man.

• 51:47Speaker 03

  But I'm getting attacked as a human being for a play that literally is happening in a split second. So if I could say my biggest pivot, you know, as an adult, it was probably that because I could have easily, and I was this close, like, bro. And this is just being real, like, I was this close, bro, from like, anybody that got any problem with me, you could, like, bro, as far as you think I wanted to take it, it's how I felt. Because again, I felt like people are saying these things about you. And the reason why I loved football.

• 52:15Ryan Clark?

  It was personal.

• 52:16Speaker 03

  You feel me? I loved the game because it was the ultimate equalizer. But now the game that I loved is persecuting me for doing something. Like, so it was just crazy because now the thing I leaned on, I couldn't lean on anymore. And so it challenged me in a different way. And in that time, like I said, I had a choice to make. And the pivot that I chose to make is what got me to where I am right now because it easily could have went the other way. So as an adult, I would say that.

• 52:41Ryan Clark?

  What was the hardest part? The fact that you loved football because you weren't judged? And then all of a sudden, now people were judging you about football?

• 52:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think because, again, it's like, you're talking about me as a human being. That 99% of people have no clue, you know, anything about, you can look at a football play and think whatever you want.

• 53:10Speaker 03

  But off, outside of that, like, as a human being, if you don't know me personally, if you've never had the conversation with me, how can you judge someone in a manner or speak on someone without having any conversation or any real context to that? You don't know me, and I don't know you. So it's not like, I mean, I think there's very clear things. If you spit on a man, that's, that's clear. There's nothing, there's nothing to talk about. There is nothing to talk about. Even the stuff where they talking about me and the back and forth with the fighting after, like, yeah, because after somebody put their hands on me and now we're not playing football, like, of course, I hit Trevor and the play, it happened so fast, whatever, obviously, people tell me all the time.

• 53:51Speaker 03

  If I knew that, not even the flag, all the stuff that, if I knew he was gonna get knocked out cold, I still would have, you got a first down. It's not, I know we talked about that earlier. I ain't trying to have nobody hurt and put on no stretcher about a yard. That's just not me. So even when it came to that, you know, people, yeah, you know how it is. I don't know how that is at all. I play the game hard as hell, but I don't know how that is. That ain't got nothing to do with me. That's not my integrity. That's not who I am as a person. And it's just not worth that to see somebody like that. I mean, even to see Chris Johnson and where he is right now. Like, bro, and how fast it happened, you know, he's in Tampa a lot, and I'm in Tampa a lot. And the last time I seen him, that was not the Chris Johnson I seen.

• 54:35Speaker 03

  So to see that, I'm like, whoa, like, bro, life is so precious. So even for something like that, you know, to talk, to go back to the point of what you're asking, you know, 100% it was tough because, again, you know, the game is what you love, but now you're being judged off of this play. But you're being judged as a person. And those things don't coincide. And even in that moment, it was something that, again, I had a split second to decide. There's people that get in car accidents in the damn grocery store because somebody backing out and they texting on their phone. Like, are you telling me running full speed and he running full speed? My dude Trevor is 6'4", 6'5", whatever he is.

• 55:16Ryan Clark?

  Big boy.

• 55:16Speaker 03

  He way more than me. That boy like 240. He just as fast. He's not faster. He probably, he probably run 4'4" with all I know. Like, bro, it's a big, it's a grown man. Like, the quarterbacks that we talking about back in the day where they just sitting back there and they can just, like, statues, and if you hit them, they just gonna drop to the ground. Like, that's not, that's not what we talking about now. Now, even the quarterback who's a pocket passer can run 4'4" and is, you know, 250 pounds. So, you know, I just think with that, it was just like, that was tough for me, for sure.

• 55:47Channing Crowder?

  I got a quick comment. Do you still have an underdog mentality? Because you talk like that, but you said it. You're a Pro Bowler, one of the highest paid linebackers. You're the mainstay on one of the best defenses in the world. Do you still think like an underdog? Because you're not an underdog. You have made it.

• 56:01Speaker 03

  I mean, I think it's just the humility that you have to have because the game will pass everybody by. Like, that's the reality. So I think the second you start to let up and get your foot off the gas, like, man, it's over with. So I feel like for me, again, going back to my faith, going back to the blessings that I've been given, I have no choice. Like, well, I gotta keep my foot on the gas whether I like it or not. And if I'm not gonna do that, like, but these people not paying me for nothing, like, they're not saying, okay, we like what you did, so here's the money, you can go home. Like, and I tell this to the guys all the time. And I said this to the team a couple of years ago.

• 56:43Speaker 03

  After one of the games, we played the Ravens at that Christmas game, obviously, like, was not the best outing at all. And I remember going to team meeting, I talked to D'Amico first about it because I was, I was mad. I was suspended, but when I came back, I was so mad. And, you know, I'm like, I want to say this stuff, but I didn't, you know, I didn't, I didn't know if it was right or not. He's like, man, like, I think you should say how you feel, whatever. And so I was talking to the guys and I'm just explaining to them is like, if you hire somebody to fix your toilet,

• 57:15Speaker 03

  and, okay, you pay them the money, whatever, they go in there, they're supposed to fix the toilet. And you come back there to use the bathroom and the toilet ain't fixed, like, how you gonna feel? Like, bro, like, I just paid this man $150 to come unclog the toilet. The toilet still clogged. Like, what we doing? So I know, I think for us in the game of football, we kind of have this skewed mentality, like, somebody owe you something. Like, bro, again, nobody owes you anything. This game is heartless. Like, this is a game that will never love you. Like, that's just the reality. No matter how good you do, and whatever filled you in, whether it's football, this is life. And you gonna get knocked down a million different ways, even stuff with you.

• 58:00Speaker 03

  Like, everybody has an opinion on what happened with you and if it was right, if it was wrong. But that's real life. That's real life. And so it's like, I told him, I'm like, bro, like, you have an obligation, a duty that, bro, if somebody is paying you for a service, you do the best that you can to get it done. And if you can't, you can't unclog the toilet, but I gotta get somebody else that can.

• 58:21Ryan Clark?

  I gotta get a new plumber.

• 58:23Speaker 03

  You feel me? Like, so it's not personal. It's just, bro, I paid you for a job. Did you do the job? Yes or no? And so when I'm at work every day, I swear to you, that's the mentality that I have. Like, they're paying me to do a job. They're not paying me to miss tackles. They're not paying me to sit there and just do whatever I want to do. Like, bro, I have a job I have to do. And then anybody, like, anybody else's job, if you don't do what you're paid to do, you probably not gonna have that job for much longer. But I think for us as football players, sometimes, and athletes in general, we kind of have this entitlement, like, man, no people, oh, man, they got all that money. That's how somebody else is looking at you too. That's why us as athletes, it's hard to go back home because everybody looking at you the same way you looking at the owners or whoever else, like.

• 59:05Speaker 03

  And in the reality, God knows what they did to get where they at. Just like God knows what you did to get where you at. I don't know. But what I do know is if you giving me a dollar for something and I accepted the dollar that you gave me to do whatever you asked me to do, I'm gonna do everything in my power to get it done. And then if I can't do it, I gotta go.

• 59:24Ryan Clark?

  Bro, this was, this was amazing, man. It was everything I thought it'd be. It was insightful. It was educational. It was inspirational. But more than anything, what I love about our platform is we try to correct or give people an opportunity to correct some of that misinformation about who people truly are as humans outside of football or basketball or entertainment or whatever they do for a living, you know? Coach Tomlin always said it, you know, football is what we did. It's not who we are. And I think you showcased that in a major way, man. Best of luck this season. We look forward to watching.

• 1:00:03Ryan Clark?

  As long as you don't hold people under 13.8, because that was what we did in 2008, I like to keep our rank where it is.

• 1:00:13Ryan Clark?

  Appreciate it, dawg. Yes, sir. That was awesome, dawg.

• 1:00:15Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, that was.

• 1:00:16Ryan Clark?

  No doubt. Yes, sir.

• 1:00:41Speaker 00

  Before this,

• 1:00:45Speaker 00

  there's this.

• 1:00:49Speaker 00

  As you celebrate the game, take a deeper look at its roots. The people grow in the grass, pave in the lots, weld in the goalposts, inspecting every football. The hardworking people that make every Sunday possible. Carhartt is proud to outfit the crews behind the game. Visit carhartt.com/jointhetrades to learn more.