Bussin’ w/ the Boys: Walking away from football, silver linings, turn plan B into plan A

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find Don’t miss out on all the action this week at DraftKings! Download the DraftKings app today! Sign-up using https://dkng.co/pivot or through my promo code PIVOT As one of the first duos to take locker room talk to sports podcasting, NFL free agent Taylor Lewan and former teammate, Will Compton created Bussin’ With The Boys, a platform promoting open conversation, vulnerability and a place to share the good, the bad and ugly about life on and off the field. With the podcast space becoming crowded and everyone starting one, talking to Taylor and Will on how they were one of the originals, how they adjust to changing times, competition and constant evolving. Last year we had the chance to sit with Taylor during Titans playoff push and we came back to Tennessee this summer to chop it up with The Boys as both our platforms have evolved and we as men, continue to adapt to changing times professionally and personally. This conversation is full of laughs, tough moments, misconceptions, clearing the air and sharing our own experiences that have shaped some of the choices we made on the field, with our families and our football careers. In the midst of retiring and still playing the game we love, Taylor still wrestles with what life looks like to walk away from the game we love and how injury last year mentally affected him and the way he pulled himself through dark times to get to the other side while Will knew that it was his time to focus on making plan B plan A when he realized he was thinking more about this next phase of his life and the media opportunities fueling his passion. Ryan shares his own journey and adjustments of dealing with pressures from others expectations and learning to focus on where his feet are before getting ahead of himself as Fred adds in some of the takeaways having this platform has helped him deal with some of the changes of routine and playing football. Channing also opens up on how he wished he approached his career a little different now as he looks back with some regrets. 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

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• 0:30Speaker 02

  What up? They call the Trump. What's up, my boy? You? How did your living go? It was awesome.

• 0:37Ryan Clark?

  Bro, y'all crazy, dawg.

• 0:40Speaker 02

  Y'all trying to come next year? I'm down. I feel like you get down. I got you.

• 0:45Speaker 04

  I'm good this year, babe. They miked up like a barely for like.

• 0:49Channing Crowder?

  I teach you, I'm here.

• 0:51Speaker 02

  I believe so. Yep.

• 0:53Speaker 04

  My mic's on, yeah.

• 0:54Ryan Clark?

  Bro, why do you take all your pictures like that, dawg? Like what?

• 0:59Speaker 04

  Bro, you see how muscular he is?

• 1:01Speaker 02

  There's so many times, you know, you just like, do all the kinds of poses wherever you're smiling or trying to like, you know, be a little tough. I just feel like this just breaks the... Just trying to be funny.

• 1:11Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:12Speaker 02

  Just get out there and be beefy for everybody.

• 1:13Ryan Clark?

  Your body is such a, such a social media phenomenon now. Like, people are so concerned with what shape you're in.

• 1:21Speaker 04

  Will's like the Jonah Hill of podcast world. He just, he fluctuates. He fluctuates quite a bit. He's getting fit, though, now.

• 1:28Speaker 02

  Losing weight means five, two different things. At any moment, you just gotta throw a pun set on the, on the, on the bird app. And you put everybody else in silence.

• 1:37Ryan Clark?

  Hey, the best are the videos, though. When you go out, you get a couple of sets. You run like 15 yards. It's like, hey, I'm ready whenever. I'm ready, I'm ready whenever.

• 1:46Speaker 02

  They gonna call, Will, they gonna call. They on the way. Arthur Smith, he, he messes with me about it. The, the clip we were just talking about with Billy Football?

• 1:54Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:55Speaker 02

  He said it to me, he's like, your 10.2 is ready. I was like, just make sure all the scouts and coaches see it, dawg.

• 2:00Ryan Clark?

  Just make sure everybody knows.

• 2:01Speaker 02

  Just give me the call, man.

• 2:02Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, you gonna pull your whole hamstring off the bone, Will.

• 2:04Speaker 02

  You know when somebody's about to open up about something, you're like, okay.

• 2:07Ryan Clark?

  Yeah. Will, who was that that just said Eminem tried to holler at him? And like, they make...

• 2:12Speaker 02

  That was Bunny, Jelly's wife.

• 2:14Ryan Clark?

  That's Jelly's wife, right?

• 2:15Speaker 02

  Yeah. When she was a high-end escort. She was out at, there was like a Vegas party going on.

• 2:20Ryan Clark?

  And um, yeah, they made out. Him and him tried hollering at her to get her upstairs. She was like, I was off that day, so. She's like, and I wasn't interested in doing that.

• 2:28Channing Crowder?

  That, that phrase, "made out," is a white boy thing.

• 2:31Speaker 04

  You don't make out? What do you, what do y'all say?

• 2:33Channing Crowder?

  Like, I went out, because I transferred to a white school in high school.

• 2:37Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:37Channing Crowder?

  And they were like, "Hey, seven minutes in heaven when you go in the closet." Y'all know that. Y'all love that shit.

• 2:41Ryan Clark?

  Hell, yeah.

• 2:42Channing Crowder?

  So I'm thinking, I'm like, "Oh, we gotta go do some fucking."

• 2:45Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:45Channing Crowder?

  And then everybody just kissing in the mouth, and I was like, "This isn't fun."

• 2:50Speaker 04

  Did a good make out, a good high school make out? You're just rock hard tearing up your denim? There is nothing better than that. Are you kidding me?

• 2:57Channing Crowder?

  Y'all like to roll.

• 2:58Speaker 04

  Back behind the bleachers for a second? Come on, dude.

• 3:01Ryan Clark?

  You want a dry humper?

• 3:02Channing Crowder?

  I'm gonna say a nice, cool dry.

• 3:04Speaker 04

  You're a dry humper, dude.

• 3:05Channing Crowder?

  Oh, no.

• 3:06Speaker 04

  No question. You're, before Netflix and Chill was a thing. You're sitting on that couch, putting on a movie, scrolling, you with the Blockbuster.

• 3:12Channing Crowder?

  And you in a little booty.

• 3:13Ryan Clark?

  So just think about it, you would let me come in your, if you have your dog. You'd let me come in your house?

• 3:19Channing Crowder?

  He doesn't want you to come anywhere around.

• 3:21Speaker 04

  You let me come in your, you let me.

• 3:23Channing Crowder?

  You're not letting me come in your house? You think my mom's letting some girl come sit and watch a movie with me? No, she no. She used to find the naked pictures under the, um, the, the, the, the bath mat in the bathroom.

• 3:34Speaker 04

  Soggy pictures.

• 3:35Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, why'd you put them there? Yeah, she's not.

• 3:38Ryan Clark?

  When did you lose your virginity?

• 3:40Channing Crowder?

  Real sex.

• 3:41Speaker 04

  You're lying. You're already lying.

• 3:43Channing Crowder?

  No, no, no, because, I, let me tell the, the first story. I was 10.

• 3:47Ryan Clark?

  Before you start.

• 4:13Ryan Clark?

  No way. Welcome to the Pivot. We are here, back again. This is the site of a legendary show where we learned too much about Taylor Luan.

• 4:23Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 4:23Ryan Clark?

  And Channing was just starting to let y'all know exactly who he is. But we have both of the Bussin' with the Boys hosts. We got Will Compton in the house as well. I'm RC. This is Freddie T. Chan is, I guess, about to tell us the story of when Big Chan was born.

• 4:42Channing Crowder?

  When he became a man. Yeah. He became a man. Ten years old. Ten years old, and this really, it was technically sex. We had a family moving to town. They moving our neighborhood down the street. I should say her real name. Call her Sherry. Okay. So Sherry was my age, and they used to do the Sherry and Channing, Sitting in the Tree, KISS, and they used to do all that. So now, we're so young, we don't know what's going on, but we're supposed to be, we're supposed to like each other. Hmm. So it was in the summer, it's back in when people just leave their kids at home in the summer. Like all this camping shit people doing nowadays, you just be home or you're at grandma's house. That was summer, back when I was a kid. So Sherry and me ended up being in the room, and this was, this was, uh, very hurtful to me. And it changed my life. We're kissing, rolling around, I don't know, I'm ten, don't know what's going on.

• 5:27Channing Crowder?

  So we're just rolling around on the bed, we're kissing and all this stuff. And then now I know it's time to take the clothes off. She's ten, just remember, we're ten. So I go to take her I've heard this. Her pants off, and when I take her drawers off, a bunch of dirt and sand fall out. Yeah.

• 5:45Speaker 04

  Cause they were playing.

• 5:45Channing Crowder?

  We were playing, like, we were playing outside. The stuff I saw on TV, no dirt and sand was involved when, like, in her drawers. And it fell, it falls out. I'm like, well, I don't know what to do, and I had a water bed, so I'm like, fuck it, I'm about, we're, we're here now. Yeah. So, I got a little boop of penetration. But then it ended. Like, everybody started laughing and big banging on the door and stuff, so it stopped. So I don't know if that was losing your virginity though, cause it was, it actually was literally So, I thought, what about, what?

• 6:15Speaker 04

  You did soaking for like a hot second, and then you moved on.

• 6:18Channing Crowder?

  It's like poking.

• 6:19Speaker 04

  What is that? You know what soaking is?

• 6:20Channing Crowder?

  Soaking?

• 6:21Speaker 04

  It's like a Mormon thing.

• 6:22Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 6:22Speaker 04

  Where you're like, can have penetration, but you can't do movement. In soaking, you just put it in there.

• 6:26Channing Crowder?

  Wasn't that And let it just, let it

• 6:27Speaker 04

  Just let it sit.

• 6:28Channing Crowder?

  It soaks. Let it

• 6:29Speaker 04

  No, no, no, don't do that, you just gotta do that.

• 6:31Channing Crowder?

  Just lay it in there. Yeah. And then what do y'all talk about, politics?

• 6:35Speaker 04

  No, that's religion.

• 6:39Ryan Clark?

  This is a thing soaking?

• 6:41Speaker 02

  It's a thing, you can Google it. Soaking.

• 6:43Ryan Clark?

  But then you said the real one was Mormon though?

• 6:46Channing Crowder?

  Yes.

• 6:46Ryan Clark?

  He said the time he really got it, the young lady was Mormon.

• 6:51Speaker 02

  A Mormon.

• 6:52Channing Crowder?

  Took advantage of me in a Buick Riviera. With a CD player that you plug into the tape deck and had the CD player on the ground and all. Yep, my big ass, I was already 6'1" in a Buick Riviera. And yep, and her brother found out, didn't like me, but he going big enough to really fuck with me. So it was curtains for him. But yeah, the whole family, like it ruined her Mormonity, I think.

• 7:15Ryan Clark?

  Well, fellas, bro, like pivot. We're not, we're gonna pivot, bro. We were driving over and you know, so many times and going into these things, it's like, okay, you study, you study and you want to interview people. But for us, man, like I just want to have a conversation. I think, uh, just respect what y'all do. Um, I had an opportunity to come on the show by myself. I don't remember the last time we were on the show, so this is a good, a good.

• 7:40Speaker 02

  It's a fun editing episode.

• 7:42Ryan Clark?

  I mean, you take out the last 30 minutes.

• 7:44Fred Taylor?

  Will was slightly pissed too.

• 7:46Speaker 02

  There was, there was several times where I was chiming in from the back and I was just thinking, cause since we played together, I'm thinking to myself, I can kind of be mad about this because it's, it's RC.

• 7:55Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, it should be.

• 7:56Speaker 02

  And he would keep chiming in, especially on the Derrick Henry stuff.

• 7:59Ryan Clark?

  My bad. I was, I was, I was out of there. Uh, there's a reason why.

• 8:03Speaker 02

  But you were super complimentary towards Will. Like it was, yeah. And you, I was very, it was very clear.

• 8:08Fred Taylor?

  So we left here and we went downtown to eat dinner that same night. Celebrate my birthday a little bit, a few more shots. This was the early days of the pivot. We shut down the restaurant probably an hour after they closed. And all I remember is Channing walking out, Ryan! Ryan, loud to the top of his lungs.

• 8:27Ryan Clark?

  Remind ourselves though.

• 8:28Fred Taylor?

  It was just us. Loud, fucked up, wasted, thanks to you guys.

• 8:33Speaker 02

  Thanks to us.

• 8:34Fred Taylor?

  Yes.

• 8:34Speaker 02

  Wasn't that happy, dad?

• 8:35Ryan Clark?

  It was a long day, bro.

• 8:37Fred Taylor?

  It was the buildup.

• 8:38Ryan Clark?

  It was a long day.

• 8:38Speaker 02

  It was a long day, cause we were drinking before that.

• 8:40Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, it's a long day.

• 8:41Speaker 02

  What you were saying by the end of it, it was like, it, it, it got so.

• 8:45Ryan Clark?

  It was beer Olympics.

• 8:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, he got, yeah, he got so sauced, he's like, hey, Will, like. You know, when you start just getting like emotion with your boys.

• 8:51Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 8:52Speaker 02

  We were there 48 hours ago.

• 8:53Ryan Clark?

  I loved everybody.

• 8:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, you loved everybody.

• 8:55Ryan Clark?

  But I say all that to say, man, like I just, one, I appreciate you. I saw you, I saw the rankings, the sports podcast rankings and you had to pivot up there, so. We appreciate that. You're definitely in our top five as well, but I want to just talk about the game. I think what both of you are doing from the perspectives that you guys come from, from the places you come from, you know, a first-rounder, an undrafted guy, different careers, but being able to be a part of the media in this way and do it your own way, which is very different from us, but so much respect in between. I don't know how safe we are to have you guys on. Is Baby Gronk's dad gonna come after me?

• 9:33Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:34Ryan Clark?

  Like, what's the deal? But for y'all, man, that something like that gets so much publicity. And then you guys understand how to play into it and make it a thing that sheds a light on your podcast. What are those conversations like between y'all two before y'all even start to say, okay, this is something we're gonna run with?

• 9:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, the Baby Gronk thing was a funny conversation because like when I saw it, I was looking at it from a dad's perspective. And I was like, I can't believe this dude's trying to monetize his kid. I thought, I was like, this is ridiculous. Why even giving this guy a space to say anything? It was hilarious the way it all like, especially this past year, it just seems like things are falling into our lap that we're able to play into. A couple of months ago, we were talking about Baby Gronk, how like he

• 10:18Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, we were out at the movie premiere.

• 10:19Speaker 04

  Yeah. We were at Chris Crasher's movie premiere and like it was like Baby Gronk wants to come on. It's just like, we just laughed about it. We're like, I can't believe this dude's dad, whatever. And Will politely responded and said, hey, man, respectfully, we're gonna have to decline at this time. And then for whatever reason, I guess the kid was trending or whatever. And he reached back out to Will and Will was like, listen, basically like, hey, fuck off, dude. We're not, we're not gonna do this podcast.

• 10:41Ryan Clark?

  He said, hey, let's get on the bus. We'll be in Nashville. Like, I think it'll do numbers. We've been viral now for a few days in a row.

• 10:47Speaker 04

  It's just a nutty thing to say in general. It's just, it's a nutty fucking thing. We've been, like, bro, no one knows who you are. No one, people know who your kid, your kid is. But like, that kid hasn't even gone through puberty yet. He's 10.

• 10:58Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 10:59Speaker 04

  You know? He's 10 years old. Like, the poor kid might hit puberty and then be like the same height.

• 11:05Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 11:05Speaker 04

  You remember the kids in middle school that were like low-key, like had forearm hair?

• 11:08Ryan Clark?

  What was the kid that was like viral back in the day? Maybe like Cody Paul or something like that? He was a running back.

• 11:14Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 11:15Ryan Clark?

  You know what I mean? They called him like the next Reggie Bush, all of those things. And then he got to be a senior and he was 5'8". You know, like, he was like a good high school player wherever he was from, but it never materialized into what they thought. But for the, the way you guys played into it, Will, do you? When you are getting the backlash, or you're getting people to get involved in it, is your thought process, "Hey man, I'm gonna keep this going until it runs out?" Or do you ever sit back and say, "Okay, I've done enough with these folks, I'm gonna let them be?"

• 11:46Speaker 02

  I think there's like a balance in it, right? Because when the Gronk thing happened, the Baby Gronk thing, and then his dad came back the second time and said like, "Hey, we've been viral for a few days, like, I think, let's get on the bus, I think we'll do numbers." That's when I responded, "We need to take a walk."

• 12:00Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 12:00Speaker 02

  And since I've done the whole walk thing before, and people are familiar with it, like, there's a lot of times where I'm like, "I'm gonna speak out on this in a fun way." You know, humorous, add some real element to it and everything else, because I feel like sometimes I want to get out what I know everybody's thinking. I'm thinking to myself, if I have these DMs, this DM history, I can only imagine what everybody else is, but nobody's really gonna say nothing. Because it feels awkward to turn down somebody who you don't even know, you realize it is his dad, then you realize over time, over and over, it's like, "This is horny."

• 12:30Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 12:31Speaker 02

  So, when I took advantage and did the whole walk thing, and started like playing into that and seeing what it was doing, and then, after that, Taylor drops his DM, everybody starts dropping their DMs, you kind of get to expose that side of the Baby Gronk example. And then I remember the next week, Taylor's like, "Why do we keep..."

• 12:47Ryan Clark?

  It's the next day.

• 12:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, the next day, and he's like, "Why do we keep giving this guy, you know, a platform or time and stuff like that?"

• 12:54Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 12:54Speaker 02

  And my thought, because we are in the game of social media, whether or not everybody understands, everybody's like, "Oh, you keep giving them five minutes." We're literally all on these apps to grab attention, eyes and ears as much as possible. Yeah, there's good, there's positive from, there's negative from it. But to me, my analogy I used with Taylor, like, you know, he's still a bum on the side of the road. Like, you give him 20 bucks, he thinks he's gonna win for a day, but he'll still be back on the side of the road tomorrow. We know we're still going to grow and still do, like, we know where we're headed with like bussing and everything else, and we know we have this platform to utilize, you know, that type of stuff, that type of content. So those are like the fun content things that I love fucking messing with. That I've just enjoyed over time, like, playing the game out there.

• 13:38Ryan Clark?

  That's the part of the game, though, because I don't think, I know for sure I don't play the game.

• 13:43Channing Crowder?

  Like, I don't even tweet enough or DM and what that shit. He's the worst. I'm terrible. And you're missing out. I know, business-wise, it doesn't help us, but I can't play the game. Like, does it ever get, does it ever get to you that this really isn't me? Like, when people meet me, they're like, "Oh, you're the same motherfucker that I see on the show." And they're surprised by it because I don't think I play the game enough. Do you ever, do y'all ever look at that like, "This isn't really me."

• 14:07Speaker 04

  When we first started this podcast, I just signed my contract with the Titans, like, my second contract. And I was very worried about exposing myself too much to this. And as you're able to zoom out more, when people come and watch our show, or they've watched this, like, they're gonna see, like, this is who Will and I are. And, like, the whole Twitter thing, like, we talk shit. Like, that's just part, that's part of it also. But it's not like, I would never say you would ever go to Will and I's Twitter accounts or Instagram accounts and be like, "Oh, these guys are malicious individuals." Like, we are the same people, I would, pretty consistently, you know? Unless you're at Beer Olympics 48 hours ago and we're just hammered drunk, that's not us.

• 14:42Speaker 04

  That's Hammer Drunk and Will and Taylor. But I don't ever get worried about people viewing me the wrong way anymore. I think at one point, for sure, when I was really in it with football, I was like, "Man, I hope people think I'm still focused on football and they know it's the main thing, but I'm also doing this." And there was a lot of those conversations too in the beginning. But for me, like, I think this is even better space for people to see our personalities. I enjoy that people are noticing, just from an individual standpoint, me from a podcast standpoint, than a football standpoint, because people are liking me for my personality. And that's like, I mean, what better compliment is that? And so I'm being like, "I like you because I've seen you and I enjoy what you do, and like, how you act and stuff like that." So, I love it.

• 15:23Fred Taylor?

  Did you worry about the team as much as you worried about people, the fans, questioning your?

• 15:29Speaker 04

  I worried about the team at first, and then Vrabel came on and said he'd cut off his dick for a Super Bowl. And I thought at that point, "Shh, we're solid."

• 15:38Speaker 04

  There's not gonna be any more of that. But Vrabel has very specific rules about how, you know, you don't talk about, he's very patriarchal. You don't talk about scheme, you don't talk about injuries. So, like, in the back of your head, when you're talking ball, there are those things, like, you don't wanna, you know, step on toes of the Titans and stuff like that. And I think there probably was some negative that happened starting in 2018. Like, you know, the Titans stopped posting me as much because I think in their mind that he has a social media presence in another place. We don't need to publicize him at all here. But I wouldn't change, I loved the way it's gone. I mean, I think it's been awesome. Like especially this year, it's been crazy.

• 16:14Ryan Clark?

  Once you start to build a brand, and I think it's interesting to watch your guys' ascension, because it's not like it's a new show, right? But it's going through these different phases, and I think it's going through these different phases because y'all have been in different places in life, right? Will was still playing, then he wasn't, obviously you were playing, then you get hurt, and so now you can pour into it more. The offseason comes, you guys go on tours to different colleges. Jordan loved it, by the way. It's like the most fun he's had in college other than Mill Street. You know what I mean? Watching you guys, you have built this brand, but once you build that brand and that perception, which is authentically you, there's a pressure to uphold that at all times.

• 16:58Ryan Clark?

  You know, like Will is expected to cut the sleeves off of his shirt, right? You're expected to have your joint tucked in with the 32 inseam and the 34 with your pants tight at the game. You know, give out your watch, like all of those things are expected.

• 17:12Channing Crowder?

  And the fat girl shoes on.

• 17:13Speaker 04

  Who's fat girl shoes?

• 17:15Channing Crowder?

  Only fat girls wear them shoes.

• 17:16Speaker 04

  These shoes?

• 17:16Channing Crowder?

  You and fat girls wear those shoes. Obviously, I'm with a lot of fat girls.

• 17:23Speaker 04

  These right here, the most reliable shoes you can probably wear.

• 17:26Ryan Clark?

  I know, that's why fat girls wear them.

• 17:27Speaker 04

  For the best price.

• 17:28Ryan Clark?

  Because they're reliable, and they need good grip because they fall a lot.

• 17:31Speaker 04

  It's just fabric and a little bit of rubber.

• 17:33Ryan Clark?

  I know.

• 17:34Speaker 04

  These shoes can't be beaten. These shoes cannot be beaten.

• 17:37Ryan Clark?

  Those shoes are terrible.

• 17:39Speaker 04

  Your shoes are way too clean to wear anywhere.

• 17:42Ryan Clark?

  They can't be beaten, nor can they win.

• 17:44Speaker 04

  Dude, if I can, hey, good to see you, Jay, how you doing? Scuffed your shoe, there's a piece of you that's low-key hot.

• 17:49Ryan Clark?

  Yes, for sure.

• 17:50Speaker 04

  If you come up, you step on my shoe, hey, I'm so sorry, don't worry, we're gonna be alright. We're gonna be just fine over here, yeah. Now I'm not angry and you're a little bit mad and the same situation happened, so what are we talking about, you know what I'm saying?

• 18:01Ryan Clark?

  Very efficient.

• 18:02Speaker 04

  This is fire.

• 18:02Ryan Clark?

  Those are efficient shoes.

• 18:04Speaker 04

  I appreciate you, I rest my case. So what was the question?

• 18:07Ryan Clark?

  I can't even remember now because you talked about your fat girl shoes. The decisions you guys, you know, you talked about the last year, the decision-making process that is going into being. Being at Power Slap, the different things y'all have done in Vegas with Dana, the UFC, the college tour, you know, tight end U, the Beer Olympics. You're creating, y'all are almost creating this, I watched Spider-Man to the Spider-verse the other day. Y'all are almost creating this alternate universe of where Bussin' lives. Right? Like there is this space, I felt like that y'all created where everybody knew what happened here. And then outside, y'all have been all over the place and successful and very accepted in those spaces. I mean, hell, y'all was in like Tigerland, LSU, you know what I mean? For you, Will.

• 18:50Speaker 02

  This is terrifying.

• 18:51Ryan Clark?

  You know, you kind of, it's very terrifying. For you, kind of having that same sort of career path as me. You go from undrafted to starter, you never really feel accepted or like you have it. What's it been like to start to become a media starter?

• 19:05Speaker 02

  That's a good question. You know, I think like as we've like gone on this journey and the whole process of it all. Like you were talking earlier about, do you feel like an expectation, like sleeves cut off, like being this type of dude? I think it's always been important for me to try and figure out all that balance because you've been around me in the locker room. I like to be very prepared. I like to also be very serious. I like to listen to a lot of things, whether it's like the secret or any of that stuff out there that goes on in your mind, right? But I also like to have a lot of fun. So knowing that like my niche in the locker room was being like a locker room guy, being like a camaraderie guy, being like whether it's the most dependable backup in the game, being a starter, being a captain, being a special teams player, all the different roles, right?

• 19:50Speaker 02

  I've always thought, how can I essentially do the same thing in this world with podcasting? So anytime we're going anywhere, anything like that, it's trying to bring that authenticity to it. And I think anytime we've gotten to go to, you know, we started off at our schools, Nebraska, Michigan. Once you have that product and you can show it to other schools and show like what you can do, that you're not trying to get out of here and get anybody. You're trying to have a good time and show off what these schools have to offer in a way that we do it versus like corporate media or anything else that want to come through all the time. We're able to pitch that stuff and go to different places and fortunately it's been like successful. But the whole idea of like feeling accepted. Being seen in this light, it's awesome. You know, I do think I, I, I try to have perspective and gratitude with it all the time just because it's been,

• 20:34Speaker 02

  it's been a hell of a ride with the whole undrafted route, practice squad, all that stuff and to be able to put my personality out there because you do battle a lot of insecurities. Especially on my back, my back nine, so year seven, like my last three, when I was balancing both. There was a part of me that was afraid that I was gonna play myself out of the league by being too out there because I can be noisy, even though it could be taken, all that stuff can be taken out of context, right? Some, sometimes you just don't want to deal with the distraction. I'm a bottom half of the roster type guy. I'm a minimum contract guy. There's no upside here with like, you know, somebody else like Taylor or somebody who'd have a lot of money where they're, they can afford to say a lot more things. Um, I was always, you know, insecure about that and always kind of like stepping on eggshells, but as I've gotten more comfortable

• 21:18Speaker 02

  over the years doing this stuff and coaches text me like, once I've kind of gotten that acceptance, it's made me feel like, okay, you were making the right moves the whole time. Now it's just, now it's just fun, man.

• 21:30Fred Taylor?

  I get like a little bit of a, more of a frat boy type, you know, vibe. But how do you balance those lighthearted, you know, fun situations with, you know, bit more serious stuff? Like who, who decides which way you guys are gonna go is just in those moments?

• 21:46Speaker 02

  I think it's, it's in the moment. We have ours type of pre-production meeting, um, which isn't a whole lot. And, uh, we just kind of let it go, man. And there, there, there might be things that, you know, when you guys came on, perfect example. Taylor wasn't as familiar as everything going on. I was. I was a big fan of you guys. And, uh, when you guys created your thing, like I've been, I've been a day one pivot guy. I've always been in the podcasting space. I love it. I think what you guys do crush it. But when you guys came on, you know, there's a lot of good back, you guys have phenomenal banter. You guys are like the, the fun of it all, right? And knowing that I kind of knew some of that background and context of it all, I'm trying to think of ways we can ultimately get there after we have all the fun, lighthearted stuff.

• 22:30Speaker 02

  So that's just like one example. Taylor might know something that I don't know and he finds a way as the conversation's moving, he might see me.

• 22:37Channing Crowder?

  Trying to get in on that conversation, but maybe not finding the right wording. And then he comes in and finds the right way to ask deep questions. But it just kinda, it just kinda goes there.

• 22:46Speaker 04

  I think if you look at the core values of what Busting the Boys is, this podcast was created because we wanted to keep a locker room vibe alive. Like, how many times when you guys were playing, people left, they retired, they came back. It's like, what do you miss? It's obvious you miss winning, but more than anything, you miss the locker room. Guys in the back playing cards, guys are getting loud and yelling. But even in those locker room situations, you're having, you're joking around, having a good time, and there's always a serious conversation going on somewhere. So for us, the reason why there's not an overwhelming amount of preparation and stuff like that is because like, that is, like, I think that is a value that we bring to the bus. It's like, we're hanging out, we're having a good time. We're allowing other athletes, whether they played high school, college, NFL, or any other sport, to come back and kind of feel that again and be a part of that.

• 23:29Speaker 04

  And so, the fluidity of emotions and how shallow or how deep the conversation goes is just a natural, organic thing that we just allow to happen. Like, Jelly Roll, who came on, him and his wife, I mean, first 20, 30 minutes was laughing, good time, chirps, all that stuff. And then they start talking about their relationship and what his wife did for his kid, and I'm tearing up. Like, I have tears going down my cheeks, he's crying. And like, that to me is, you can see this, and I would say for the most part, yeah, we're like, we're a fun time, fratty, if that's just how you want to categorize a podcast. But at the same time, like, there's so many levels to every human being. And it's just, it's just getting into all those levels as you're sitting on the bus. And that's like, the most fun part.

• 24:12Channing Crowder?

  Me and Will are closer with this concept, because you're a first-rounder, you're a Pro Bowl, you can play fucking football, Fred's a Hall of Famer, Ryan's a Super Bowl winner, Pittsburgh Steelers stuff. Like, me and Will were, you were undrafted, I told the Rockets, I was better than you, bro. Like, god damn.

• 24:28Speaker 04

  I love that, by the way. I love that. He had to let his ass know.

• 24:31Channing Crowder?

  But, but, I think... The fame now, I would say for me is bigger. The, the, the podcasting platform, my demographic of people that know me is bigger. And it's a different type of fame. And do you, do y'all feel that, even with you Taylor, you being as famous you are from football, this podcasting, this media, this social media shit is way different and it's, it's bigger, but it's so much different than being a football player. It reaches so many more people. How, how is the, the, the difference in it? Do you like it, you know, is, is it better, is it worse? Like, how do you like the new thing?

• 25:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think as we get bigger and you start to realize you influence a lot of people, like, once people started identifying me as a podcaster, not a football player, like, in real time, like, "Oh, you're from Busting with the Boys." That's when I say, "Okay, you know, you carry a little bit more weight and responsibility." But also, that's why it's, it is as much important that I keep that fun, all that stuff going, so people understand that, you know, I have all of that, I can lead with all of that stuff. So that way, I never, I never, uh, like, trap myself or box myself in to feel like, "I gotta start taking myself too serious now." Because we do carry a lot more weight with having influence and everything else. I think it ultimately is important that we, you know, I know for myself that I, you know, continue to, like, be the dude, I like, I, it's like, I wanna be the guy that doesn't take himself too serious.

• 25:50Speaker 02

  Sometimes you can overthink that and overdo it. Uh, but yeah, man, I would say, like, knowing that this level of influence is real and it happens, like, you guys know, it's crazy. It's nuts, like, you start, you start getting identified more now as Busting with the Boys than you did playing football. And honestly, like, I think it's fucking awesome.

• 26:12Speaker 02

  You know what I mean? Like, it is, I love that I had my career, I know we all did. But everybody wants to find their transition, everybody wants to find their pivot. Everybody wants to have something else that goes on after. I know for a football player, you always wanna find that next roller coaster. Cause we got to live a kid's dream. We got to be at the highest of highs, man. We got, we, we fucking did it. And then when it's over with, or you know it's coming to an end, it is scary for a lot of players. So I think us finding our, our, our swing in all this thing, um, I know I'm kinda speaking for all of us, but it's, it's awesome. It's awesome.

• 26:44Ryan Clark?

  The difference for me is, nothing is football.

• 26:48Speaker 07

  Here's your report.

• 26:49Speaker 08

  Oh, thanks, Jane. I wish I could hire someone just like you.

• 26:52Speaker 07

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• 27:09Speaker 08

  Let's do it. You're irreplaceable, Jane, but another you would be great.

• 27:13Speaker 07

  Hire right the first time. Post your job for free on LinkedIn today at LinkedIn.com/quality.

• 27:18Ryan Clark?

  Like, and I have not struggled without football. Like, I've never, I've never missed it. I don't, I don't think about it. I'm not one of those dudes that like, thought he could still do it. Like, I knew, you know what I mean? Like, I had given the game everything I ever could. And, you know, like, this has been a great year for me. We start this podcast, you know? TV goes well, and you do all this stuff. And I just remember, you know, even at the Emmys, like, when they called my name, it was like, it was dope. You know what I mean? And I felt, I felt blessed and I was grateful. But like, it's still, it wasn't even cover four, I got the cut back in the A-gap, and it's just me and him. Like, it just wasn't that. And so, I think it's made me, it's made me shyer.

• 28:00Ryan Clark?

  Like, as, as we've gotten opportunities to, like, we go to places, man, that like, like, even now, we're in places today that we couldn't go a year ago. You know what I'm saying? That people wouldn't have invited us to. You know, we're in a spot now where we're asked to do things for certain organizations and with certain people, and we're like, no, that's not right. You know what I mean? Like, and I can be honest, for even, even when we decided to do Taylor last year, that was very hard for me. Because it was hard for me to ask for him to do it and not ask you to do it, because you're my friend. You know what I'm saying? Like, I genuinely, genuinely care about you. Like, that's the only reason I ever came on the bus in the first place, was because of our relationship.

• 28:43Ryan Clark?

  But at that point, I didn't feel our show or me as a person could justify to the subscribers we were trying to get or to the platform we were. The platform, the one we were competing against, truth be told. To say, yeah, we gonna have Will on too. Let's get the active player now, cuz Taylor is playing. Like, just to even be in that space. And then now we're in that space, bro, and everywhere we go, people are saying that, though. They don't just come up to us and like, hey, man. Especially in our, in our realm. Folks don't just walk up to us, bro, and go, hey, man, I love your show. Hey, man, I love your show. It got me through this time. Hey, man, I was dealing with depression and I watched Michael Beasley in this. Or the stuff y'all do for the community. Like, that pressure and now being in the rooms that we're in. It's made me a wallflower, which I'm not. You know that.

• 29:29Ryan Clark?

  You know what I mean? Like, we go to events, bro. I put my back on the wall and watch people. Cuz I feel like when we played football, nobody, it wasn't about what we said. Right? It wasn't about how we conducted ourselves. Because they see us like this. When they talk to us, that conversation means something to them. Everything's an interview. It's F'd me up, you know what I mean? To an extent, because now, like, everything I say, people think they supposed to get motivated by it. Nah, bro, like, I'm just talking about pooping.

• 29:58Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 29:58Ryan Clark?

  You know what I mean? Like, I'm going, you know, and so like, I think that's been, that's been hard. And watching y'all, bro. You know, like, even just watching the clips, like, I laugh and I smile, cuz I get it. Right? Like, I'm like, I get that they can do this and that they can have these conversations. And now people are picking up on who y'all really are. Taylor, man, like, you're transitioning to a place and, you know, y'all had a clip, you was just talking about, yeah, I'ma play, the boys alright. Bro, we was talking about, you're too skinny to block me right now.

• 30:28Speaker 04

  Brother, we can line it up right now if you want to.

• 30:31Ryan Clark?

  Hey, show them, show them, hey, show them your stance.

• 30:33Speaker 04

  I mean, I could show.

• 30:35Ryan Clark?

  You don't show me your stance, kid.

• 30:38Speaker 04

  If you just wanna see that.

• 30:39Ryan Clark?

  What's you, 204?

• 30:40Speaker 04

  What'd you say?

• 30:40Ryan Clark?

  What's you about 204?

• 30:41Speaker 04

  I heard you the first time. I, uh, I'm like, I'm like, I don't wanna say what number I am. Listen, I could put weight on quick. And I, and there, we've had some calls. But for me right now, it's like, I'm, I'm enjoying life so much. And so, I'll have to make that decision, and then obviously, there's a whole other side of the politic part of the NFL that you have to go through in transition periods and stuff like that. So for me, it's like,

• 31:06Fred Taylor?

  Were you comfortable at tight end U? Because you're starting to look like that.

• 31:10Speaker 04

  I'll tell you what dude, I'll tell you the biggest difference between the tight ends and me is their calves are so big. They're so sturdy down below. I got these little biscuits down here dude with my fat girl shoes on.

• 31:22Channing Crowder?

  You don't have enough calves? You lack calf of a tight end?

• 31:26Speaker 04

  I lack calf of a tight end, there's no question, but I'll show you one thing right there, you see how long that Achilles tendon is? That's speed brother. That's all that is. That's a fast switch athlete.

• 31:34Channing Crowder?

  Right in the stands though, we were at E, she was like, "Yeah, it's telling us the one icy hot guy."

• 31:41Speaker 04

  I haven't made that mistake since and I'm glad, I'm glad I can get that out there for the world and motivate these people. No.

• 31:47Channing Crowder?

  You gotta learn, learn from your mistakes.

• 31:49Speaker 04

  No question.

• 31:49Channing Crowder?

  With the retirement thing though, because all of, all of us, well, a majority of us are retired.

• 31:55Speaker 04

  We're both active, both of, me and Will are both.

• 31:56Channing Crowder?

  Will is not playing another fucking snap.

• 31:58Speaker 04

  He hasn't signed the papers, he has not signed the papers.

• 32:00Channing Crowder?

  Why don't you get your severance? There's money sitting there that's gonna send you, Will, you don't have 10.3 shit, you're not playing anymore.

• 32:09Speaker 04

  This is the exact bulletin board material we need.

• 32:11Speaker 02

  The Raiders, since the Raiders were the last team I was on, they tried sending me a severance check, I sent it back.

• 32:18Speaker 02

  I sent it back, brother.

• 32:19Channing Crowder?

  Send it to me, I'll invest it for you and I'll put it back, but what, like what is that? What was ever, because I, I end up retired, I played six and the Dolphins cut me and I was out there, I was gonna take a year off, I was already getting paid and shit, but then I just sat back one day and it was like a Tuesday and I'm sitting on my, my couch and I told my wife, I was like, "I'm not doing that shit no more." And she thought I was just, you know, I was one of them times.

• 32:39Speaker 04

  Right.

• 32:39Channing Crowder?

  And I really like, I saw the other side of it, I saw all that pressure off my back, I saw trying to learn every damn guard's hand movement and the gap, the A gap, B gap differences and all the studying you had to do to be great as a linebacker and I didn't have to worry about that shit no more and I loved it. What was the, the decision of y'all and these, these bullshits over here?

• 33:00Ryan Clark?

  They still playing, both of them are still active.

• 33:02Channing Crowder?

  Will's not playing!

• 33:03Ryan Clark?

  They're active NFL players.

• 33:05Channing Crowder?

  Okay, I'll change the question, why can't you come to the realization that your ass is not gonna tackle another human being for money?

• 33:12Speaker 04

  Well, that's 48 hours ago, Will was punishing people in the pool at my house.

• 33:16Channing Crowder?

  For money?

• 33:17Speaker 02

  For the beer.

• 33:18Speaker 04

  You know Mark Weischeck is from Midland, basically drowned the poor man. So, he's still got it, James Neal, forward for the Predators, body and his ass too, so I'm just saying.

• 33:30Speaker 04

  That man's choosing to not be on a field right now. Is that true?

• 33:33Speaker 02

  I will, I will say like when you were saying all that stuff, there is no question. The times that I have been back in the locker room and studying and trying to prepare and be ready for a game. When I caught myself thinking more about what we're trying to do with bussin', or a vlog, or a tweet I can get off, or anything outside of the facility, that's when in my mind, I've kind of known like y'all, I'm pretty much all the way out of this thing. Even, any of the years I've been there, from when I did my second stint with the Titans, second stint with the Raiders, and so on, but uh, yeah, bro, that stress, it is a different life. And it's a free, it's a freer life because you like live in this bubble to where, I mean,

• 34:15Speaker 02

  we're in a performance-based job every day, every day of our lives, bro. And you want it so badly, you want to be the best. Like, it doesn't matter, like, yes, I'm very much aware that I was never Luke Keakley, but that doesn't mean I'd never, I didn't work my ass off to try to be like him every time. When I got my opportunity to start, when you were there, it was like, okay, now I'm about to put the world on notice. Whether or not that was ever gonna be true, it never mattered because you're just so brainwashed and focused, not brainwashed in a bad way, but now that you're out of it, you see like, you are tunnel vision obsessed with like being something. And whenever that stress does start to come off your back and you start to realize you have a transition out there, you're kind of like, man, I can do this now, make the same amount of money, more,

• 35:00Speaker 02

  and not run down on kickoff and bang my head? When I am finishing out with the Raiders, I'm working double teams and trying not to put my face in the fan because it's like, man, I probably got a few weeks here. You know what I mean? And you kind of just know what your role is, but yes, there's a, there's a big stress reliever, knowing that, you know, you don't have to really, you don't, that's not, that's not the only plan, that's not playing anymore.

• 35:21Ryan Clark?

  Go wrestle this big bitch.

• 35:23Speaker 04

  We've wrestled.

• 35:24Ryan Clark?

  You don't have to really, like, no, but to that point, I, I like the fact that I don't have to go run into his chest.

• 35:30Speaker 02

  Why though?

• 35:31Ryan Clark?

  Because it was just, it's a relief.

• 35:33Speaker 02

  You wish you could have it back.

• 35:34Ryan Clark?

  It's hard.

• 35:35Speaker 02

  That stuff is hard.

• 35:36Ryan Clark?

  Here's the thing, I don't wish, I don't wish I could have that back. I had it. I wish I had something that made me feel that way. I wish I had, I wish I had something that scared me.

• 35:47Speaker 04

  Oh, I got, I got something for you. You go to Las Vegas, Nevada. Go sit down with Dana White at the table for a little bit, brother. You will be sweating bullets. That is the scariest shit I've ever done in my life. That is, but I'm in all seriousness, like, there is, there is a level of like, that is something that cannot be replicated. The, the national anthem's going on. The flyover happens on a Sunday and you're sitting there and you're like, dude, like, there's all the demons in the back of your head telling you about, hey, you're, you're gonna get exposed today, you're gonna get this. And then after that first snap, it's like, oh, I can go be whoever I want for these next 60 minutes. And that is something that you can never, never regain once it's over. You can go play pickup basketball. You can go do softball league and hit dingers.

• 36:30Speaker 04

  You can literally pick up men's hockey and go do whatever. Football is not a sport you can go back to and get that same rush. That will never happen again. Once it's over, it's over. And it's wild to think at every single level, like, high school, being a senior and like, some kids don't have scholarships. And literally the head coach sits in front of the team and goes, some of you will never put a helmet on again. And you're thinking, having a scholarship, you're thinking, that's fucking wild, dude. They're gonna have, like, they're not gonna be able to play this game anymore.

• 36:57Ryan Clark?

  They're not even regular. Yeah. That was my thought. Like, if you're not able to do this anymore.

• 37:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:02Ryan Clark?

  You're just, like, you're just a civilian.

• 37:04Speaker 04

  You're Gen Pop.

• 37:05Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, like, yeah, you know what I mean? Like, you're not in VIP. Like, that, and I think it was, it wasn't that I got to do it, right? It wasn't that I was good enough to do it. It wasn't like, oh, I get to do this. It was just like, man, I love putting in the work to earn it. I love putting in the work to have somebody feel like I deserved it. Right? And I just, I like keeping score. You know what I mean? Like, my last year, bro, it might be a game, I give you 18 tackles. It might be a game where I'm telling Will, Will, I'm gonna miss him. I'm gonna miss him fast. Just be right there. Like, I'm telling you what's gonna happen. I'm gonna shoot on this side, I'm gonna miss him. He's gonna come back to you, you'll lead the team in tackles. But like, I understood it, you know what I mean? The second to last week, we played Philly. I think I had like 22 tackles.

• 37:49Ryan Clark?

  And I knew, we played on Saturday the next week, that was the style. I was like, I'm not gonna be ready for Dallas at the end. And I fought to try to get ready and I wasn't. So I knew it was over. But it's like, that fear, right? Like, that rush, what I've been trying to transition to, because I've realized for me, it was preparation. Like, I loved it, right? I realized for me, it was a fear of not giving what it took, or feeling like I shortchanged my dream. And so I've had to like, switch my brain into making this, that. You know what I mean? Because different from y'all, like, y'all did this whole thing and created y'all own space. Like, I had to go work at ESPN for two years.

• 38:32Ryan Clark?

  You know, so I, so I, it was even in Pittsburgh? You're gonna get a TV contract? You know what I mean? So you're thinking about your next career now? And I was like, nah, man, I'm still here at five. I'm still going to sleep at 12, watching film. I'm just, I know it's almost over. And so it was like, no, man. When it came to like, get up, I was like, okay, I gotta study the right way. I gotta be up at, I gotta watch film till 3:00 in the morning. And I had to switch like this. I wanna know more about everybody that sits down with us than they know about themselves. Like, the best feeling for me on this show is when I tell somebody something and they don't know it about themselves. And they're like, oh, damn. You know? And so when you're in your position, OT, and you can actually say that to yourself,

• 39:13Ryan Clark?

  there is no rush, like the rush I get with the National Anthem or that first snap. You're in the middle of making that decision, bro? Fully having a Plan A. This is a Plan A, it's not a Plan B.

• 39:26Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:26Ryan Clark?

  Fully having a Plan, how much does that weigh in to whether or not you put the pads on again?

• 39:31Speaker 04

  I told Will this a couple of weeks ago, like, if I was in the position I am right now, like, the career's been great. Like, let's say it's over. Like, my career, I'm so proud of it, and my younger self, if, if I were to, if he were to meet me, he'd be, like, there's no fucking way I'm gonna be able to achieve that. But having something that fulfills you in the way that, like, doing this with your best friend is, like, I'd be lying if I said it didn't have any, you know, weight in a decision. But it's, it's such a, a great safety net to know that, hey, I'm gonna be okay no matter what. Like, we talked about people noticing you and the level of, the level of fame. The level of fame of having a podcast is way different than being in Nashville, Tennessee. Because Nashville, Tennessee, it's a small media market.

• 40:14Speaker 04

  I go around Broadway, or Losers, or I'm out in town, like, yeah, people know who I am, and that's a phenomenal feeling. I love it. I, I have a, a different opinion than you do about it. Because to me, I think to myself, like, someday, I'm gonna walk somewhere in this world, and no one's gonna know who the fuck I am. It's gonna be over. And so right now for me, I'm like, every person I meet that is a fan, I try my best to spend as much time with them as possible. Take the picture, do whatever, because that also gives me a feeling of like, man, this is awesome. That I've done something enough that people like, respect me to even want a picture from me. Or like, we were talking like, people like, putting their hands up for like a selfie. And their hand is shaking because they're so nervous asking you for a photo. Like, and you're thinking to yourself, man, I don't know why you're so nervous around me.

• 40:56Speaker 04

  But to me, that's like, I love it. I, I, I fully love it. So when it comes into a decision like that, this does have some weight to it, for sure.

• 41:05Speaker 02

  Ryan, to, to your point, like what you guys were both talking about, like the, the, the fame, the respect, like having the respect on the field. And then having the respect in the stuff that we do now. You guys can attest to this, it, it's like, when someone comes up to me at our, our spring tour, and we're doing that stuff. And dudes who've lost their parent hug me and say, when you did that episode after your mom passed away, that helped change me. When people come over and hug you and say that Michael Biese, that question you asked, like, people get to see Fred Taylor in a completely different light.

• 41:34Speaker 08

  Correct.

• 41:35Speaker 02

  Because you're like, you're unk. You're like, you're like the wise man that sits on the show. And people get to learn a different aspect, and they appreciate that about you. Everybody respects your game. Everybody respects you being a heat-seeking miss on the field. But as you've been able to articulate all of your, your entire bag over the years. People have appreciated you for that because it's helped them differently. To me, I feel like, you, that's when you start to realize the type of influence and the impact that you have. That ultimately fills, fills me up differently than, you know, when you were making a difference to people just being a fan of you on, on the field.

• 42:06Ryan Clark?

  Like what Taylor was talking about, I like that part. Right? Like, I, I like when the, the guy comes up to us and we have the conversations. Or like all of the, the pictures, like all of that is cool. What I'm not good at right now is being in rooms, like we went to, you know, a few weeks back. We went to Jason Lee, he runs Hollywood Unlocked, we went to his Impact Awards. And- That's a place we wouldn't have been last year, right? We wouldn't have been invited there. And if we were, if we went there, we probably would have been working and trying to interview people. But now, we're on the red carpet and we're being interviewed. It's almost like, man, I know I belong here, but I still feel really awkward here.

• 42:48Ryan Clark?

  And I think it was because, bro, I convinced myself in being an undrafted free agent, I convinced myself in all those things that like, that that was my way. You know what I'm saying? Like, that was my lane, you know? I wouldn't go to Super Bowls if we weren't playing it. I wouldn't try to go to the ESPYS. I wouldn't try to go to ESPN parties. Because I was like, you know, you know, those are for people that have made it. Those are for people who are recognized. They want to, like, that's a, that's a dick-measuring contest, right? You want to see that you can walk up to the front door and say, "My name is so-and-so," and I get in. They only care about, and so like, those environments are weird for me. Like, I like to go to a spot, sit in the corner, us kick it, and the only people that know us is like, the waitress that comes up or the waiter that comes up, and they're having conversations about what we're doing.

• 43:30Ryan Clark?

  And like, things are growing now, both whether it's ESPN and this show, and like, it's just getting freaking weird. Like, like, it just, it just is, and I want to...

• 43:39Channing Crowder?

  I can't stand it.

• 43:40Ryan Clark?

  He gets mad, like...

• 43:41Channing Crowder?

  I get so pissed at him.

• 43:43Speaker 02

  And Ryan, he needs, right now, it tells me he's got to be at Beer Olympics next year. You gotta basically get drunk on camera and let it be out there and have fun with it.

• 43:51Ryan Clark?

  I have been drunk.

• 43:53Speaker 02

  Yo, just editing it.

• 43:54Channing Crowder?

  The dude has an Emmy.

• 43:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 43:57Channing Crowder?

  And he's looking around and trying to like, hold his face down and sit on the wall. I'm like, "Bro, run the fuck around and be Ryan Clark." And that's the thing that...

• 44:06Speaker 02

  You take it seriously.

• 44:07Speaker 04

  You take it seriously and...

• 44:08Speaker 02

  The work?

• 44:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 44:10Speaker 02

  All of it.

• 44:10Channing Crowder?

  But the work, but take the success with the work.

• 44:12Speaker 02

  I've seen the way you reply to people on Twitter.

• 44:14Channing Crowder?

  Accept the success with the work.

• 44:15Speaker 02

  You take it seriously. Like, y'all have really got to address this.

• 44:18Speaker 04

  Yeah, but true gratitude is embracing everything that's happening to you. And there's a way to do it without seeming talky. Like, winning an Emmy is incredible. Like, that is a feat that is mind-blowing. It's amazing.

• 44:30Ryan Clark?

  Yes, blessing.

• 44:31Speaker 04

  And so for you to sit there and, I mean, it's, it is, I'm sure it takes some getting used to, but if you just, Jody Roll said, "Walk with love and gratitude." If you're able to do that... Then however everybody else perceives you, it's like, oh, he's being cocky about winning. It's like, fuck them, dude. They don't, they don't really know you then.

• 44:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 44:46Speaker 04

  You know what I'm saying?

• 44:47Speaker 02

  You're the man, dude.

• 44:48Speaker 04

  You're the fucking man.

• 44:49Speaker 02

  I appreciate it.

• 44:49Speaker 04

  That's sick.

• 44:50Speaker 02

  We're trying to get him to understand.

• 44:52Speaker 04

  All the stuff about saying, like, saying stuff, like, we get on, like, we say it on our podcast all the time. I will literally give an opinion about something and be like, it could change tomorrow. I have no, there's the insurance policy. And so now, it doesn't matter. I could say whatever I want now. I could say whatever, and it's not, doesn't matter, because just like if you do something dumb, like Beer Olympics, like...

• 45:09Speaker 02

  I thought it was...

• 45:09Speaker 04

  In the wave of media, it'll just go, in 48 hours, no one will be talking about it again. Like, it's just...

• 45:15Speaker 02

  Once you have the, yeah, when I woke up and saw me doing that confession corner, standing up...

• 45:18Speaker 04

  That shit was so funny.

• 45:19Speaker 02

  I'm sitting there at first, kinda like, oh, but then you're just like, man, fuck it, like...

• 45:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, who cares, dude?

• 45:25Speaker 02

  Like, people get drunk. But, I like everybody, because I feel like a lot of stuff you're speaking to too, because we talk to each other about it all the time. Uh, is that imposter syndrome starts, like, creeping in. Because you feel like you're not worthy to be in these certain spots and everything else, or when we go out to Vegas, or we're in these new kind of groups and stuff like that, and that's when it's almost like, it's almost just as important for me to, like, wear Air Monarchs and just seem like the locker room guy. So that way, I'm like, you know, you don't try to feel, like, you gotta, like, fit into some, some type of, type of box, I guess. But yeah, bro, that imposter syndrome is a motherfucker, what people say.

• 45:57Fred Taylor?

  And that box, that structure, like, all of us are former athletes, and, and I think the NFL dictated, you know, what we were gonna do, that routine, that daily routine, everything we had to do. But in this space, it's kinda free, and you do what you want. With that, like, what has been some of the biggest challenges? You know, in, in building your brand and, and making sure you, you make this thing your baby and how it, it comes out how you want it to come out?

• 46:21Speaker 02

  I think scaling. I think, uh, we just brought in a new executive producer recently, but I think what I've learned, and I was talking with some of the fellas, JP, Hovey, and Mitch, shout out to the boys. Um, but when I was talking to them recently, they're like, what would you have done differently, like, back then? It's like, go all in sooner, but there's such a fear with it, but there's this quote that always resonated with me, and it's like, jump when you can afford to drown. And I think like if I look back on all the stuff that we've done with growing Buss and everything else, it's like going, going all in sooner. Like betting on people, not trying to cut corners, whether it's contractors, because you don't know how guys are gonna work out. We don't know how we're gonna jive with everybody that comes through here. Me being, you know, we're both new like entrepreneurs in our own right,

• 47:06Speaker 02

  trying to like grow this business. Like, we're learning on the fly too. So I would say those have been the biggest challenges is like trusting the right people. And like, again, diving, diving in, like going all in sooner. Because we started to learn fairly early that this thing could be sick. Uh, but it was a lot of things, the stuff that like I know held me back personally, was just feeling like whether I belonged or if like, hey, should I keep doing this? Cause I'm still trying to play. But uh, yeah, that would be, that would be what I think the challenge has been as far as like on the business side.

• 47:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, the hardest thing for me was just getting out of my own head in the beginning. And wondering, hey, what are people gonna say? What are they, what are the coaches gonna say? What are these other players that I'm playing against gonna say? Like, you just don't really know. So when you're able, like getting injured was one of the better things to happen to me. Cause it, it gave me the ability to like work through the hard times and then be able to zoom out. And be like, okay, everything you're doing like, we're gonna have this conversation, this can be great. But then after this is all over, you guys are gonna go back to your worlds and focus on your own problems. I'm gonna focus on my own problems. So it's not like if I am worried about something I said or did on a podcast, people are gonna be like, that's pretty ridiculous, he said that. And then they're gonna literally go back and do their own thing.

• 48:18Speaker 04

  It's, it's learning that like, people really don't think about you as much as you, you think you think about you.

• 48:24Speaker 02

  Right.

• 48:24Speaker 04

  That, that was like a really difficult thing for me, especially in the beginning. And because of the injuries and because of getting cut and all that has allowed me to be like, like this year has been the easiest year, not, not taking myself serious at all. Like it's been the most, it's been a free year. And I think like, it's also been our best year for Bussin. Like it's just kinda doing this. I'm not saying that's the main reason, but it is, it does help. Cause you're not overthinking everything and stuff like that. And things just happen to fall in your lap. It's just wild.

• 48:52Speaker 02

  But also man, talk about, talk about how hard it was when you get injured.

• 48:56Speaker 04

  Oh dude, when you get injured, it's like-

• 48:57Speaker 02

  Cause you say like injury, getting injured was the best thing that happened to you.

• 49:00Speaker 04

  Yeah, but that is also like, it's also, that's such a cliche thing people say too. It's like, it's the best thing that ever happened to me. I don't regret this. I don't regret that. Like dude, I got plenty of regrets, like, but not like enough to mention, you know? And like the injuries, like, dude, when I tore my ACL in 2020, I was as depressed as depression can get. I had a daughter that was born and I had a three-year-old. My youngest daughter didn't even see me for the first year. I would literally train, come home, do rehab, go train again and rehab over and over and over again. And then swelling and then all this, you take two steps forward and then three steps back and then two steps forward, one step back. And it's like this, this never-ending feeling of like, is it ever just gonna get better? And then you go to 2021, you get into week one and Chandler Jones treats me like a five-star kid

• 49:44Speaker 04

  versus a 160-pound offensive lineman, white kid. And I was truly, I was getting bodied left and right. And you literally just sit there, I remember going up and sitting with my wife in the suite after, and I just looked out in the field, at the Titans field, and I was like, that was the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to me. And my wife goes, "That was the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to me." Like, she was like, "That was fucking tough, brother." It was a hard thing to watch.

• 50:07Speaker 02

  I was booing him from the seat.

• 50:09Speaker 04

  Fuck you.

• 50:09Speaker 02

  Long back in the game, boo, yeah, boo.

• 50:11Speaker 04

  And you just, you, you like, I mean, when you're in like the worst situations, like those types of situations where you're like, I don't know if I'm ever gonna get out of it. The easy, the hardest thing to do is look towards the end. It's like you literally have to look at one step at a time. Like, let me just get to this point, look up, then go to the next stop. And just keep going step by step until things get better. But that was the first time in my life I had an injury. Like I have, I have like broken bones, dislocated elbows, shoulder separation, stuff like that. But nothing, I never needed surgery. That was hurt. That wasn't injury. That was the first time it was like, I can, I wanna play football. I literally cannot play football for this amount of time. And that is, talk about demons, bro. Like there, there was times where, like Will and I will probably talk every single day, whether it's a text or a call.

• 50:55Speaker 04

  I think what, it was easily a month, I just wasn't responding. And I literally would not, I wouldn't talk to anybody. And I would just be like, this is the only thing that's important. The only thing important is just getting better. And it bites you, dude. If you hold on to something too hard, it ends up slipping out of your hands. So, that sucked. But then, you know, there's always this like narrative you play in your head and you kinda like- I look back at it now and it's like, alright, well, the reason why I was having so many issues is, you know, the first surgery and now, like you, I've already announced, I'm in like a lawsuit because of it and all that stuff and then you get it fixed and then your knee is like, okay, well, this is how, this is how a recovery is supposed to go and you start to like, figure out those things and then, but the ability, the ability to get through depression is finding the silver lining.

• 51:39Speaker 04

  And understanding like, hey, this is, this is all like, this is the reason why these things happen. The reason I got hurt and all that, the reason why is it allowed me to zoom out, not take myself so seriously and put a hundred percent into this and it's, it's been amazing. It's been incredibly rewarding.

• 51:56Ryan Clark?

  A lot of times too, man, like those trials aren't for you.

• 52:00Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 52:00Ryan Clark?

  Right? You know, the, the sort of wisdom you can speak with, the perceptions that you have of what was going on with you is different now. You can see it from the outside and somebody else is gonna hear this, which is the, is the beauty of this platform, of being vulnerable enough to be open. Somebody else will hear that and be going through the same thing or always see happy Taylor, fun Taylor, the, the guy that doesn't seem to have a bad day and be like, hell, he had, he had a lot of them. He had a month full where he didn't respond to his best friend and I think we all go through those things, but I do believe the, those of us who get through them, you get through them because of what you were in that moment and in that moment, that was what you needed.

• 52:44Ryan Clark?

  Even though like depression and, and the sadness and those dark moments are tough during that time, that was something you needed for now. You know, and I was having, my kids, my kids always mess with me. They say I'm not in touch with my feelings. Which I'm probably not.

• 52:59Speaker 04

  We can always do better.

• 53:00Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm definitely working on that and that's why I ask so many questions about mental health and depression and those things. Because I'm trying to understand whether there ever periods or phases in my life that I was a certain thing, but I've told them. I truly believe the only reason I am who I am today is because I didn't think like that. Right? Because when it was dark, or when there was sadness, or there was failure, or there was adversity, I just said, "This is what it's supposed to be right now." And I just gotta look at, I just gotta be great where my feet are, and then I'll take the next step when I'm supposed to. And I think what you have done, man, like you said, being able to step outside of that and put that work into what you guys are doing, man, is a testament, though, to perseverance.

• 53:44Ryan Clark?

  Beating the ACL, that ain't your job, right? You just gotta win in life. And I think, man, what y'all are doing, bro, is just so impressive, and it's great to have you both on this time, because I think I want people to see you in the way that I knew you were, right? And, one, your shows are so effin' long, right? That the pieces you get, you may not get this will, sometimes, you know? But that's the will I know. Like, the dude that cut off his shirt, I know him too. The dude that ate all my orange chicken before he left and took doggy bags at the Bible study, I know him too. But it's like, like, that's the other piece of it, bro. Like, when you know you're such layered individuals,

• 54:26Ryan Clark?

  are there ever times y'all look back at shows or think about moments and you go, "Man, in this moment, I should've said this." Or, "In this moment, I wish I replied this way." Because I'll hear our shows back or watch them, and I'll be like, "I missed an opportunity there."

• 54:39Speaker 02

  Sometimes, yeah, but it's like, what do you do? You know what I mean? It's fun to hear you talk about me being on the show now, because, you know, when y'all had Taylor on, I was thinking about it.

• 54:49Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 54:50Speaker 02

  But no.

• 54:50Ryan Clark?

  And I respect that, though.

• 54:52Speaker 02

  Like, jokes aside, like, yeah, of course, I was thinking about it, but, you know, with all this stuff, you gotta have a level of awareness that's like, "The time is not right yet." And now you guys are even big, you guys are way bigger than you were then. So this is even... This is even better now, but I, you know, that's part of the game.

• 55:10Ryan Clark?

  But you know what?

• 55:10Speaker 02

  I mean, I know, I know Alicia, she might be, I don't know, not yet.

• 55:14Ryan Clark?

  Hey, but no, you know what? Will, Will, honestly, honestly, you know what's crazy? That wasn't, you know, so many times, bro, like so many times, you know, like one of the four agreements is don't take things personally.

• 55:25Speaker 02

  Right.

• 55:25Ryan Clark?

  Right, and it's, and it's don't take them personally in the positive, don't take them personally in the negative. That a lot of times when people are saying something about you that attacks you, it's a personal assault on themselves. It wasn't about you. I know you. I believe you can give us a great show, what you're doing now. It was about us, right? It was about being in a place, bro, where we're literally, you know, and this is something that I don't, we've probably never talked about. And they may be mad at me because I don't speak on their previous situation often. I just don't. Like, it wasn't my situation. Like, it wasn't my life. A big issue we had that I had to accept and understand them through was, it's like anything else, man.

• 56:08Ryan Clark?

  You leave your old girl, you want to do better. You know what I'm saying? Like, you just do. And if, if they are in a place, which they are when, when they left, because of him, because of him, because of her, they were in a place where they could get the guest that they wanted, or they could do the shows that they wanted, even if it wasn't as good of a show as ours. Right? And so, it's when they drop and we drop the next day, it's comparing that guest to our guest. And it wasn't to me, and it wasn't to me that, oh, I don't think Will will be a great show. It was, can we even afford? Are we in a place in what we're trying to do and who I know they're competing with to do that? You see what I'm saying?

• 56:47Ryan Clark?

  And it's like, that's what, like, they always, I always find, and I think it's part of being a free agent, a free agent, my goal list is different. You know what I'm saying? Like, the most important moment to me throughout my career was being named captain.

• 57:00Speaker 00

  Blowing ad budget on metrics that look great till the CFO sees them? That's bull spend. And marketers are calling it out in Dashboard Confessions.

• 57:10Speaker 01

  I remember telling my boss, "It'll be good for the brand," when leads were slow. Yeah, it, it wasn't.

• 57:18Speaker 00

  Cut the bull spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title, and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 57:31Ryan Clark?

  Right, because that meant as an undrafted free agent, I had done enough. Whether it was through my play, through my leadership, through who I was as a man, that all of these men, the millionaires, the future Hall of Famers, you know, Troy Palamalu, who's one of my best friends, said, "I want you to be my captain." Right, before the game starts, I want you to walk out and represent us in the middle of the field. Where it could have been other things for other people, but for me, that was like the moment that everybody accepted me. Like, that's why I love where we are now, because it's like, "F it, we gonna do a show with who we wanna do a show with. We're gonna turn down who we wanna turn down. We're gonna show up where we wanna show up." And like, that's a, like, that's a freedom I always wanted to work to,

• 58:15Ryan Clark?

  because you can ask them, "Man, we have business meetings, bro. We have meetings about everything. The meeting I talk the most in is when we talk about content. I wanna do great shows." You know what I'm saying? Like, "This is a great show." And I knew it, and I dealt, I fought with it, because I thought it was a great show then. I didn't know if we could afford it, you know what I mean? Oh, hell, yeah.

• 58:35Channing Crowder?

  We stopped, because we used to look at y'all's numbers. We used to look at everybody's numbers, because we're competing with them with our natural nature. We riding in the car together all the time now. Y'all know this, I don't know if y'all notice, I know this. We never talk about anything else. We're not looking to anybody to give us validation. We're putting out good content, we know we are, we got fans, we got people that come up that show us that love. We're not competing with anybody anymore. Do y'all, are y'all at that point yet mentally? Are y'all there where you don't, do you compete with people? You're just doing busting, let's go do busting, fuck, fuck these numbers.

• 59:07Speaker 04

  Yeah, I, I, I don't know, Will could speak for himself, but I have a strong belief that there, in this landscape, there's enough ears for everybody. It's not, there's not like, you have your team and that's what it is. Like, people consume so many different podcasts and so many different shows now on so many different platforms. Like, to me, it's like, oh, you know, the only time with you guys was like, "Damn, you guys got The Rock." That, that, I was like, I didn't look at numbers, I was like, "Fuck, that's cool."

• 59:30Ryan Clark?

  Hey, bro.

• 59:31Speaker 04

  That shit is dope, dude.

• 59:32Ryan Clark?

  We were like that too, dawg.

• 59:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, hell, no.

• 59:34Ryan Clark?

  Hey, like, in the car, bro, like, dawg. We just did The Rock.

• 59:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 59:38Channing Crowder?

  Well, honestly, we gotta tell the other part of that story too.

• 59:40Ryan Clark?

  What's that?

• 59:41Channing Crowder?

  When we at the restaurant. And uh.

• 59:44Speaker 02

  Oh, with Kevin Don?

• 59:45Channing Crowder?

  Kevin Don, you know, just, we're at the restaurant in L.A. We're out there to do.

• 59:50Speaker 02

  The Rock the next day.

• 59:51Channing Crowder?

  The next day. We're at a restaurant, chilling. Nobody knows who I am. We're underdressed. I'm always underdressed. It's my fucking middle name. I'm underdressed. People don't know why these, these big crazy black dudes are sitting in this nice restaurant. Kevin Hart walks up with Don Cheadle, and Kevin was already on the show. We, we know him, you know, we, we're, we're recognizing him now when we see him. We dap him up and stuff. And he walks up and introduces Don Cheadle. And me and RC, Freddie wasn't there. He had something, he was something to do. And me, Steve, he was something. I don't know why the fuck he wasn't there. We're, we're always together. But me and RC were little kids. Like, he left and we were like. Like, people are coming up and asking us who we are because they talk to us.

• 1:00:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:00:32Channing Crowder?

  And that's the day before doing The Rock. So, I see what you're saying. The competition's not there, but you be seeing some people like.

• 1:00:38Speaker 04

  No, I think, but the thing is, is like, instead of being like, they, like, I mean, like, obviously, we would love to have The Rock on. You're like, damn, they got The Rock. That's, but like, to me, it's like, that's sick. Like, I'm stoked for you guys. That's fucking awesome. With numbers, I mean, we just keep doing what we're doing. We're gonna, we're gonna do numbers. We have our, we've done a, I think, we've done a good job of like stacking bricks one at a time and having just a, amazing core fanbase that rides with us no matter what. And I, and I love that.

• 1:01:05Channing Crowder?

  That's important.

• 1:01:06Speaker 04

  But when you get stuff like this, go on a show like this with like a, a rabid fanbase, they're gonna see us and hopefully a couple linger, linger over and they can become part of ours. But to me, like, there's not a whole lot of competition. It's just, everyone's kinda doing their things and how can you get into situations like this as much as possible to dip your toe into other people's platforms as well, so we can all just crush it.

• 1:01:27Speaker 02

  I check.

• 1:01:30Speaker 02

  I'll keep it, I'll keep it a buck. I, I still like, I check, not, not in such a way like to attach yourself to, to where it like crushes your day, but it's like, you know, that healthy competition. I check on y'all. I've always been a fan of The Pivot. Always been a fan of The Pivot. And when that day happened, like, you explained that very well. Like, obviously, it's the week of a, a Titans playoff game and everything else. But it was an awesome opportunity and you know, as an undrafted guy, low round guy, it's like, uh, it's this weird, fun, challenge of like, man, hopefully, I can be good enough one day and be on that show. It's like, there's some shows we would all love to be on. But, uh, yeah, I, I, I check. I check in a fun way. When you guys got The Rock. Either somebody sent it to me, I forget, and I just said, "Fuck."

• 1:02:16Speaker 02

  "Hey, 'cause I love The Rock." You know what I mean? Who doesn't love The Rock? Everyone loves The Rock. They get to walk into every room. You know, you guys get to walk into every room. And I don't think she gets enough credit, but Alicia puts you guys in such insane positions. Obviously, you guys are great too, but Alicia to give you your flowers, like, you guys do an incredible job, especially after, you know, the breakup and everything that happened. Like, you guys did a great job fucking pivoting. And it's something else, and building a team that understood who's gonna be operating the right seat and how you guys can optimize yourself, and you guys took off.

• 1:02:46Fred Taylor?

  Like RC said, we used to check, but then, I think after, um, we did a mental health show with, um...

• 1:02:53Speaker 02

  Talking about Ryan Monday?

• 1:02:54Fred Taylor?

  With Ryan Monday, right? And, and after that show, it was like, "Fuck, he's not a big name." It's like a concert, right? You have the headliner, and then you have all the pre-acts or whatever. People are gonna show up for the headliner. The pre-acts could be just as good, up and coming, you know, superstars, but people don't, they don't really check for that. So, when, when we did Monday, we were like, "Fuck, this conversation was amazing." Then the next day, or three days later, you look at the numbers, and the numbers aren't there because of the name didn't have a draw, instant draw, then you go, "Okay, we understood it." And then down the road, you get other guests, beautiful content, like, the conversations are amazing, and then the numbers don't necessarily add up. Then you have some that are surprising. Then eventually, you say, "You know what? We got our own lane. We're gonna do what we do.

• 1:03:39Fred Taylor?

  If you show up, you check it out, fine. We know one thing is gonna live there forever until we decide to take 'em down and license and play that game, it's gonna be there." So, for whoever wants it or needs it, it's there. If not, then so be it. We're gonna keep on, we're always on to the next one. Right now, we're planning training camp tour and everything else.

• 1:04:00Speaker 02

  I agree.

• 1:04:00Fred Taylor?

  Getting ready for the next shit.

• 1:04:02Speaker 02

  So are we.

• 1:04:02Fred Taylor?

  See what I'm saying?

• 1:04:03Speaker 02

  No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. That's part of the game, right? I wanted to ask that, no, bro. Do y'all have, do y'all have those conversations about, like, building? Like, okay, we've, we've done this, we've, we've got to this point, we've stacked these chips. Okay, this is the next thing that gets us the newer, the newer audience, or it's the next thing that brings us to a different stratosphere based on where we've been. Do y'all have those conversations about how y'all see those things going in the future?

• 1:04:33Ryan Clark?

  Or y'all just kinda like, this is what we wanna do.

• 1:04:35Speaker 02

  Spring tour is a great example. We knew how the spring tour went last year. Spring tour was solid. We knew coming into this year, it's like, man, we gotta get in different schools, colleges, or whatever. And so we'd sit down and do interviews. And we all know in this game, like, obviously, names will drive views and the view count and all that type of stuff. Click through rate, retention, all that kinda stuff. And we were even talking about ASU. It's like, you know, is ASU one worth going to? And it's like, on the surface, no, probably not. It's not like we have a, we have a big base there. But you have the opportunity to go and coach at a spring game, which that wasn't happening. Like, Coach D hits us up and say, I want you guys to coach a spring game. So it's like, you understand that content can be made there?

• 1:05:19Speaker 02

  And whether or not the views rise or not, we're getting to do something to create content off of and have it live there. So, and to your point too, like, there are times where it's like, man, that was an incredible conversation. You know, I know like with John Crist, the comedian, he came on and that was a great conversation. And the numbers might not have done what we thought they were gonna do. But it's like, you know, to your point, it's like, the substance is there, the depth is there. Like, if people wanna hear it, they're gonna, they're gonna be able to hear it. If that name gets massive one day, they'll be able to go find this archived interview that happened, that people get to enjoy. So it is important to not be like too attached to it. But I, I do have fun having that little healthy. I've always, I've always remembered you saying, hey, the pivot's coming when you were on the bus. I've always remembered that.

• 1:06:01Speaker 04

  Well, I wanna go back to the Washington thing. I check the shit out of our numbers. I will look and refresh over and over again, but checking other people's numbers. That's kinda where I like, I've gone away.

• 1:06:10Speaker 02

  And you get, and you get new ideas.

• 1:06:12Speaker 04

  Comparison is the thief of joy. So I don't wanna, I don't wanna go in there and look at all these other people. I'd rather just be happy for them. But for us, yeah, John Crist is a perfect example.

• 1:06:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:06:20Speaker 04

  He came on the bus, he was amazing. I was like, this dude's funny, we had a great conversation. It was just me and him too. You were, what were you doing? You were doing something.

• 1:06:26Speaker 02

  I forget.

• 1:06:27Speaker 04

  And I got off, I was like, man, that was a fucking awesome podcast. And then the numbers came out, I was like, this ain't really doing, what's the deal with this? But you still appreciate it, cause it's like, fuck, it was, it was awesome to have him on. And I hope now he's as successful as he can possibly be.

• 1:06:41Ryan Clark?

  We went through, we went through a phase, man, during the season. And during the season is difficult for us, cause I work so much. And Chan has a radio show every day, so we were kind of confined to a certain area of the country. And like, we, every week, bro, we were hustling, dawg, just trying to get guests, trying to get people to come on. And we fight all of these different fights, and we have all of these different ideas. And my thing was always, which I love about you guys, and y'all do it really well, social media wise, as, as, as well. I was like, bro, we gotta get people to watch the show for us. You know, like, don't get me wrong, if The Rock's on the show, of course.

• 1:07:16Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:07:17Ryan Clark?

  Like, we could've just pissed and whistled for an hour, and people would've watched. It's like, at some point, he's gonna raise his eyebrow, like, that would've been different, you know, so, but. My thing was like, man, we were having a time, we were having conversations about numbers kinda, cause we were like, man, this should've been a good show, it should've done this. I was like, look, y'all, I was like, we just gonna keep putting out the best shows we possibly can. And I was like, and if the numbers swing around again, and they will, I said, but if we keep being consistent and doing what we do. I was like, we'll find our way, right, we'll find the path, and everything swung back around, and so it's about really just authenticity. You know what I'm saying? Like, how often can we just be us and like, get accepted and like, being us work? Like, that's what I love about y'all, like, I'm looking at it, and I'm like, this is so on-brand, you know, and I was like, that's really them two.

• 1:08:02Ryan Clark?

  You know, like, that's those two dudes. And then you guys will say something or do something that does have a lot of depth, that does show the sum of your experiences. And I'm like, well, shoot, that's them two, you know what I mean? And that's what this space is about.

• 1:08:15Channing Crowder?

  That's like what Taylor was saying, though, somebody to fall in love with you.

• 1:08:20Speaker 02

  is different than falling in love with me being fast and strong.

• 1:08:23Speaker 04

  Bro, what a feeling. What, because at the end of the day, like, human nature, we always want to be liked. Like, you just want to be liked. You go to high school, you show up as a freshman, like, man, I hope I can make a couple of friends today. That people want to call me and hang out on the weekend. And now it's like, yo, you just want to be around me because you've seen me on the show and like, you enjoy what I say?

• 1:08:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:08:42Speaker 04

  That shit is so fucking dope to me. You know what I'm saying? We, uh, we were with Burt Kreischer and Shane Gillis. And Shane is hilarious because Shane like pretends like he hates the camera, but he absolutely loves the camera. And he's like, I hate it, I hate it. And then Burt, the way he articulates, the way he talks about it, he's like, I love it. I love everything about it. I love what people come up to you and they're so excited. They talk to you about this, this show you did or that podcast you did. It's amazing. And to me, that was like the freeing moment to be like, yeah, I love it too. And I'm all about this, dude. And this, this, it fires me up to get, go to the airport at a, for a 6 a.m. flight for the spring tour. Then as you're walking down the hall, someone goes, the boys? And you're just like, fuck yeah, dude, we're riding everywhere.

• 1:09:22Speaker 04

  We're going, dude. We like, I'll, I'll go to Colorado. I'm in Denver, Colorado. And somebody's like, the boys? He's like turning a corner, almost getting hit by a car. Because he just wants to get out the boy out of his mouth. And I'm like, that dude risked his life to say hello to me, basically. That shit is, that shit fires me the fuck up. It's awesome. Because we all just want to be liked, dude. We all, at the end of the day, when we lay our head on the pillow, we just want more people to like us than, than, that don't like us. And that is like, the best feeling in the world.

• 1:09:47Speaker 02

  And I also, I think people appreciate, uh, being able to see how we all handle failure, being made fun of. You know, there was something I heard once. It's like the ability to be shamelessly prolific when creating has a lot of correlation to success because you're able to continue to create amidst embarrassment, insecurities and everything else. And I think people appreciate like watching from afar, seeing all of us, especially at a level like everybody would dream to be about. Oh, man, they're, you know, these football players, they're a lot like us. And so, um, that's why too on social media, living, living on it the way that we do, I think is so important because people, people get out of it like, oh, man, they kind of deal with the same thing. Like, look how Will's handling being made fun of right here or something.

• 1:10:32Speaker 04

  Dude, if people only knew how, uh, Worried athletes are about how people perceive them. If they even understood that for a second, it'd be life-changing for them. Because people look at us on a football field and literally little kids are like, these dudes are gods. Like, they are, they literally are superheroes running around there. And everybody after a game is checking their phone, seeing what people said to them, going on that search bar on Twitter and seeing like, who the fuck said this? Yeah. Damn it, I thought I played good! Yo, for real! And you let that eat you up and you're like, man, I thought, like, why don't these people think I'm good at football, or whatever, for whatever reason.

• 1:11:04Ryan Clark?

  And it's a dude that you know can't do it too.

• 1:11:07Speaker 04

  Yeah, you can't do it. And that's how you justify it in your head, you're like, well, he can't fucking do what I'm doing here. You give up a sack way faster than I did. But like, low-key, it's like, if people just knew, like, even in locker rooms, dude, like, in camp, you get, like, everybody, if you have a bad practice, if you have a bad practice in camp, you're literally thinking about that till the next fucking day. You could, I get beaten in a one-on-one, I'm like, the only thing that matters tomorrow is that I dummy one-on-ones. I could do shit in team, I need to win these one-on-ones. And it eats me up until I go to sleep and I wake up in the morning and be like, one-on-ones today, we're going, we're fucking getting after it. Because you're just so insecure of like, I don't want to be exposed. Like, you're just, you live in that light so much.

• 1:11:46Ryan Clark?

  The least insecure person that I thought was on this show was him. And, you know, he just had a conversation, we had a conversation one day about his career. And he was like, you know, he's like, some of it's probably the insecurity of not believing I did enough. And he's like, you know, so, I do make fun and I could blame any, and you know, he said, we did the show right after the Emmys, and he said, man, sometimes the funny guy is just covering up his insecurities with comedy. You know, and it touched me because I, I still think he doesn't really necessarily care about everything people say or much, but it did touch me because sometimes I dealt with him like I could tell him anything.

• 1:12:28Ryan Clark?

  And it hasn't changed that, but it's made me more conscious of when I am speaking to him. Cause you almost felt like, oh shoot, man, like I could really just dog cuss him and tell him whatever he want. He's just gonna move on and his outward behavior and actions were that. Cause he just is tough and he's funny and he's resilient and he really has like a don't give a care attitude. But it, it made me really just think about people in general and especially him like, man, you gotta watch. How you speak to people, you have to watch how you relate to them, how you communicate with them. Because like, shoot, it's a good point, bro. Like in the end, like you just want people to think you're cool.

• 1:13:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, you can't want them to like you, right? Like at the ba- the basic form of it, dude. It's wild like when you're in the locker room and when you become a player, like a dude that people look up to. And you don't have the best day of practice and then guys are coming up to you and telling you about their insecurities. And low key, like you're so zoomed in to what you're going through in your life, especially in football. That you're like trying to help them out, but at the same time you're like, bro, I got so much shit to deal with up here. Like it's just, it's crazy the, uh, how easy it is a spiral in playing sports. How easy it is to get away from yourself and who you truly are and become ugly or mean or use comedy as a, a deflection of how you're truly feeling about yourself. Cause I mean, you get in that locker room, especially that first day of training camp.

• 1:13:47Speaker 04

  Like before you go to practice, you get to that team meeting, right before that team meeting, everyone's kind of posturing. Hey, how much did this guy really work out this offseason?

• 1:13:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, everyone's doing the body comms, some dudes bragging. That's 10% out there, dog. And you're like, that was not, you know, dudes are just fucking saying whatever.

• 1:14:05Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 1:14:05Speaker 04

  It's wild, man. It is, it's a wild feeling to look back on it and be like, damn, it's really crazy how zoomed in you were to everything.

• 1:14:12Ryan Clark?

  One thing, one thing I laugh at is the wanting, wanting people to be scared of me when I played.

• 1:14:18Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:14:19Ryan Clark?

  Like I really, I joke about like, I used to walk in the restaurants and size up everybody in there. Like what's the thought of, oh, if we get in the Royal Roma right now, I can, I can whip everybody's motherfucker with them two.

• 1:14:29Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:14:29Ryan Clark?

  You're at Chili's.

• 1:14:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:14:32Channing Crowder?

  Why do you care what these dudes are doing?

• 1:14:34Speaker 04

  You're some shady folks in Chili's now. You gotta watch yourself there, alright?

• 1:14:37Channing Crowder?

  Like, but it was, it's that, you know, it could be, it's like, it's funny when, like, we're talking. It's funny how y'all look at each other before your answers like cute as shit. Y'all really like reference each other like, is he okay with this? Okay.

• 1:14:51Speaker 04

  I don't like the way, oh, I don't like the way you said it. Hold on, Will, I don't like the way you said it.

• 1:14:57Channing Crowder?

  Hey, why, hey, that's how they legs go when they do it. I got a little handshake.

• 1:15:01Speaker 04

  Also, we're trying to be respectful. Don't do that. I'm trying to be respectful because you guys are asking us both questions.

• 1:15:07Channing Crowder?

  Oh, no, but we're the same, we're the same way with it and as we, you know, you just get to, you know, your boys. You know, you got all the boys, you know your boys, you get to know your boys and all that, but it's as we mature and grow. And as we grow together as friends too, and this is something that just happened on the show where everybody like y'all, you know, y'all talking, y'all alpha males talking about this, people love it. But they've brought things out of me that I haven't told anybody else, even my wife of, you know, 12 years. But it's the boys and you know what they've done and you've seen, you've seen the admiration you have for each other. And it's riding in a, in a car at 6 a.m. to a 7 a.m. flight. You didn't sleep for two hours and you just see him in a different place. RC, you good? And at that moment, might be that moment where he, I'm not gonna say break down, but when he, nah, man, it's,

• 1:15:50Channing Crowder?

  and he'll just tell you something and it's like, damn, and that triggers me to say, it triggers me to tell him back, no, bro, well, this happened a year ago to me too. And it's, it's, it's very healthy. So I'm joking with y'all, but I love, I really love y'all's connection, how y'all, like, how y'all interacting, that you have somebody, like you said, that you could talk to every damn day.

• 1:16:09Fred Taylor?

  But even that, Chan, like, and I know this is probably an hour fucking late, right? But the concept though, and why you two, did you have a relationship before you got to Tennessee? Like, where did the concept come from?

• 1:16:22Speaker 04

  It was fast, Taylor, Taylor's quick now. He got married in five weeks with his wife and it was about the same for our friendship.

• 1:16:28Channing Crowder?

  Well, you got married in five weeks?

• 1:16:30Speaker 04

  I got, I got engaged in five weeks, he got married in two months.

• 1:16:33Channing Crowder?

  It was sprung.

• 1:16:34Speaker 04

  Huh?

• 1:16:34Channing Crowder?

  You got sprung.

• 1:16:35Fred Taylor?

  That was that making out. Was it seven years?

• 1:16:37Channing Crowder?

  Yo, we kissing a lot?

• 1:16:38Speaker 04

  Some passionate makeouts now. We've been married for seven years and I'll be like, hey, you want to make out like high schoolers or what? She's like, no, go away. I'm like, no, come on, get in here.

• 1:16:47Speaker 02

  You know how you got me.

• 1:16:48Speaker 04

  I will make her make out with me. I love a good make out, dude, it's solid.

• 1:16:52Fred Taylor?

  But that whole concept, I think it's a dope fucking concept. Like, how, how did, who, whose idea was it?

• 1:16:57Speaker 04

  Will wanted to do the podcast, uh, but our friendship, I thought I was getting a marriage arranged for myself. Cause when Will got signed by the Titans, there was an article that came out that said Taylor Luan and Will Compton are gonna be best friends.

• 1:17:10Speaker 02

  Wait, really?

• 1:17:11Speaker 04

  Swear to God.

• 1:17:11Speaker 02

  Somebody tweeted, somebody tweeted like, yo, uh, Taylor and Will are gonna be best friends or something like that.

• 1:17:16Speaker 04

  They had the blue check when the blue check meant something. And, uh, so I was like, oh shit, that's cool. And then he came in and literally, I think, three, four days went by and we were like, boys immediately. We did like, Titans had a podcast, we did that podcast, and then we'd sit in the, the kitchen before practice and just talk about podcasts. Joe Rogan, you know, Chris Delius, congratulations, uh, Two Bears One Cave, like.

• 1:17:37Speaker 02

  Ben Greenfield, all the recovery stuff.

• 1:17:39Speaker 04

  Biohacking stuff.

• 1:17:40Speaker 02

  We were, uh, accountability buddies.

• 1:17:42Speaker 04

  Yeah, that was our thing.

• 1:17:43Speaker 02

  So we did all the song, like, all the stuff that helps you recover, all the recovery stuff. So, and then I was staying at a hotel at the time, so I was over at Taylor's daily, pretty much. And then when, uh, we trained in the summer together, because my strength coach at Nebraska was now the strength coach at Vanderbilt. So we just used the Vanderbilt's facility and we'd work out every day together and send each other like, anything motivating or inspirational, but yeah.

• 1:18:06Speaker 04

  Hit the cold tough, dude. Literally, we did it all. And then after that 2018 season, uh, Will was like, I want to do a podcast. I was like, yeah, I'm down. And then I dipped to California for three months to go train. Cause that's, it's too cold, too cold.

• 1:18:19Speaker 02

  I was thinking about, and I would love to ask, I would love to ask you, cause I feel like you were really close to, you were kind of like, you were, you were one of the pioneers. Cause I know there are several out there, I'm not disrespecting anybody, but you were somebody who went from athlete to media. And I saw you, I would witness you doing it while you were on the, on Washington at the time, like going to ESPN and stuff like that. And, uh, that 2018 year, like, you know, I didn't, I didn't get the opportunity that I had in Washington. Usually in my situation, if you're a backup or you have that pedigree, um, somebody got drafted in the first round on my position, Rashawn Evans. And in my spot, you need somebody to go down to get an opportunity. That never happened. Not that you're rooting for that, but when you're in my role, you need that to happen to get a shot. And when it didn't happen and I was just a special teams and backup player,

• 1:19:04Speaker 02

  I kinda knew like, man, I'm gonna be on a 90-man roster. I'm gonna be a minimum guy, no signing bonus. And I was kinda like, man, I am over this 90-man roster, recreate myself, try to make it 53, because I felt like I had that resume with Washington. I'm like, if anybody's gonna sign me, you know, they'll kinda know what my background is. So that's when I really started to think, November, December, I was like, man, I gotta figure out what I'm really into. Because when you're in the league, and I'm sure you guys have so many young athletes who watch this. But when you're, when you are in the opportunity and the fire is hot, your jokes are funnier, you're better looking, and you can shake more hands. So I knew in my situation, that whatever I wanna do, if it was podcasting,

• 1:19:46Speaker 02

  because I did have aspirations of doing a podcast, I needed to do it now, while I still have the opportunity of being an NFL player. Because when you're on the other side of it, it just comes off differently. Because everybody's looking for the next transition. And so when I approached Taylor about it, first he was kinda like on the fence about it, and I remember driving, it was raining. I was going to do this Titans radio show. We were about to play in our win and end game, or something like that late in the season, because Taylor, my wife, I had a couple teammates in the locker room, telling me like, yeah, well, you should do it. And that's kinda the validation I needed, because you want your peers to, you know, when you come in and somebody's doing something off the field, you kinda wanna be accepted and not made fun of about it. But then, I remember asking Taylor, he was like, hey, so you really gonna do this thing? He's like, I'll do it with you.

• 1:20:30Speaker 02

  And I was like, bro, that would be awesome, because you got your best friend doing it with you. It takes a lot of stress off your plate. It was gonna be called the Den Podcast, because of my fascination with Wolves. Taylor always said, working title. And we found, we found the bus. We found the bus in a gravel lot. And this production company we were working with, Cardboard Films, no free shoutouts, boys. They're like, hey, what do you think of this bus? We turned it into a studio. There's, this bus is out back, just sitting there. $2,000. And I was like, nah, I hate it, but I already knew the way Taylor is. I was like, he's gonna love it when he sees this. Fucking loved it. I loved it the minute I saw it. When he came, when he got back from training, because he did leave for like four months, and I was like, fuck, bro, like, I wanna get this thing going. And he, I was like, you're 100% in? He was like, yes. So I was like, I'll wait for you. And

• 1:21:15Speaker 02

  That's cute. Oh, yeah, man, hello. Yeah, yeah, Titanic, forever.

• 1:21:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, Taylor saw the bus. He's like, "Man, I'll throw 10 grand into it." He's like, "I think the bus is dope. I'll throw 10 grand into it. If it doesn't work, I'll just sit in my backyard because I think it's sick." And he's like, "If it works out." I think it's awesome. He's like, "If it works out, how sick would it be? Like, we're just on a bus." I'm just like, you know, I'm like a guy who always starts at no and finds my way to yes. But I was like, "All right." And then sure as shit, dude, like, we ran a few pods. Mm-hmm. And now we're wrapped in Twisted Tea. Dude, Twisted Kings. But my question to you was gonna be, do you wish you would have started earlier while you were playing?

• 1:21:53Ryan Clark?

  No. Um, you know, you said, what'd you say? Something about drowning when you can afford it?

• 1:22:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:22:00Ryan Clark?

  Like, I'm...

• 1:22:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:22:01Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, so, so my, my thing always was, my thing always is, and I still say it now, it's like, I gotta make Plan A work before I start on something else. Right? And for me, it was, working so diligently on football is what got me that opportunity. You know, like, at that time, they would only bring you on TV because it was, you couldn't start a podcast. They would only bring you on TV if you were of some value. Right? The value to me at that time was, I had won a Super Bowl. And I eventually played in the Pro Bowl, but I had won a Super Bowl and I played for Pittsburgh. And we were always good. And so then it was, okay, now I can go on TV and do something. I can add value to it. And then it was just be good at it.

• 1:22:43Ryan Clark?

  And, um, I talked to the guy at ESPN, I went through the story, I interned and I got the job. But that was still, it was still taboo at that time. Now, everybody wants to start a podcast, right? It's gonna, it's gonna start being hard to get guests because they already have their own podcasts, you know?

• 1:22:57Speaker 02

  But if they're smart, they'll collab.

• 1:22:59Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, you know, and so like...

• 1:22:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, if you're smart, you'll get, you'll get, yeah, you'll jump in there.

• 1:23:01Ryan Clark?

  You know, but, and so like, that was, you know, it was, it was so, it was so different then. And now, man, when you look at the, when you look at the entire space, I feel so much better about where we are now because everybody does have a podcast. Because everybody is trying to get into this space. And in truth, they're trying to get into the space because of y'all. They're trying to get into the space because of us. And here is why I say that. If I'm sitting around and I'm a... Multi-time Pro Bowler. I'm an All-Pro. I'm a dude with a million followers on Instagram and Twitter. And I see this popping podcast with Taylor Luan and Will Compton. No offense to anything you've ever done.

• 1:23:45Ryan Clark?

  My first thought is gonna be hell. If people watch them, I know they'll watch me. They ain't do what I did at football. Right? They don't have gold jackets. And I love, I love the competition in that. Because it's like, nah, man, on this side, you gotta be different than what you think. You gotta grind differently than what you think. And that's why what you have accomplished, man, like, I'm just, I'm gonna be honest, I'm so damn proud of you, bro. Like, to, to watch you do this, man, and believe in it. You know, from when I came out and said I think Taylor was practicing or doing something, and I just sat with you. And just to see the progression of it, man, the passion you guys put into it. But the joint, the, the, the vision has a direction.

• 1:24:30Ryan Clark?

  And you guys are executing at such a high level, man. I'm just proud of what y'all have been doing. And like, we ain't gonna sit down with like, every podcast just because they got a podcast. Right? If, if you say Bussin' and The Pivot, they're two different platforms. They kinda service two different groups of individuals at sometimes. But the synergy between good people, folks that work hard, and people that don't hate, you can't, like, you can't create that. That has to be there, man. So, we appreciate y'all, boys. This is probably the longest podcast we've ever done. This is, so this is, this is like a Bussin' episode for us? Yeah. Good, good. But we appreciate that. Hey, hey, she been, hey, she been ready. I know. I see her moving around, too. Looking at our boy, it's all her.

• 1:25:51Speaker 09

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