Transcript of The $20M Mistake NFL Teams Make: RB Alex Mattison Reveals All | Alex Mattison DSH #1014

For a franchise, whatever the best move is for a coach, owner, a GM. They look at those things and they make a decision. It's like that. You could be having a loving conversation one day, and then the next week, they're shipping you away.

Damn.

It's like that? Yeah, it's crazy. No heads up? No. I mean, it's wild.

All right, guys. Running back for the Raiders, Alex Madison. Thanks for coming on, man. Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you for having me. First Raiders I've had on the show.

Yeah? Hey. I like that.

Got to represent. Yeah.

I appreciate it.Las Vegas.

How's the season going so far?

It's going. It's one of those seasons that's just a lot of diversity, but a lot of football left. So we're looking forward to the next opportunity. Just got to keep chipping away, keep grinding.

Absolutely. Has been a big change from the Vikings?

Yeah. I mean, the biggest change, of course, is the weather. It's It's like night and day. Super hot out here. I love it. I'm from San Bernardino, California, so being back on the West Coast feels amazing. It feels good. But yeah, it's just a little different, just different way that things are. All the different teams around the league have different ways that they do things, different way that they have their lifts versus their scheduling, where it's like, here we practice earlier in the day than Minnesota was later in the day. So just little things like that that are different.

Right. You had to memorize all the plays, too.

Yeah, that, too. Luckily, the system that we're in now is a system that is a combination of the systems that I've been a part of in Minnesota. So pretty familiar with the different schemes and everything like that.

So that's a good part of it. Oh, nice. So there were some similar plays and stuff. Yeah.

The only difference is some of the verbiage. But there's some that's the same, and you listen to it and you're like, I wonder if that's the same as what it was. And it is. And then there's sometimes where there's like a word, and you think of what it was in Minnesota, right? And no, that word is a different play here. So you just got to learn how to disconnect them.

Have you ever played against a team where they found out your plays and they knew what you were about to do?

I've never known for a fact, but I've lined up and they're like, Okay, yeah, he's doing this. And I'm just like, How do they know that? But It comes down to being a football player, it comes down to prepping all week. They've probably seen when they line up in this formation and it's third and eight, they're either doing this or they're doing that. So you get down to it, and that's what they do. A lot of coin flips when it comes down to formations and things like that.

That awareness, right? Yeah. So do you have to change the place throughout the season, the words, what you call them stuff?

Sometimes, yeah. You get to a point where you either You add in new stuff or you start to switch up your verbiage a little bit. I've seen that a lot with snap counts. If you're lining up and you're like, We're going on this count, they know what that snap count is, so they start to jump the count. They start to get a feel for it, so you have to switch it up all the time.

Yeah. Because I see the guys that get the most sacks. It almost seems like they know it's coming.

Yeah. It's funny because sometimes you'll have guys that line up and they... I don't know how guys do it because I'm in a mode where I'm thinking to myself about all the different things that I have to do, where I'm going, what my alignment is, what my aiming point, what the defense is doing. But there's guys that'll be on the side of the ball, they're lined up, and they're just talking mess and just Yeah, it's funny because I'll be there, and if I do a point, you're not... That's a fake point. I'm like, damn, how are you even- You're locked in.

There's people trying to talk to you, right? Talk smack or whatever, get in your head. You ever let that happen?

It doesn't affect me. It doesn't affect me. There was a time I remember Jamal Adams. He got mad at me because I had, I think, an explosive screen, and he tried to make the tackle, and I broke his tackle, but ended up out of bounds. So when I got up, he was talking mess, and I honestly couldn't understand what he was saying. So I looked at him and asked, I said, What? And he tried to continue to talk mess. And I was just like... And just kept going. And I could tell he was frustrated that I didn't talk back to him. But it's funny to me because it doesn't faz me. Yeah.

Well, some people use it to play better. They like to get riled up, right? Yeah. Like Michael Jordan type stuff.

Yeah, definitely. There's some guy Guys, I mean, there were some guys, Chav Nathan, playing against him when he was in Chicago. He's one of those guys all game long.

Yeah, he's just yapping out there?

Just yapping. It has nothing to do with you, maybe, but he's just yapping all game long.

Well, I hoop a bit, and I actually play better when people start talking.

Yeah, see, and sometimes it does... It's like, okay, you want to talk? All right, let's do it. I get that feeling sometimes. Guys will do It's just stuff after the play where they land on you and give you a little nudge and call you certain words, whatever. It's like, all right, bet. That's what I do. I just tap in a mode.

Just like, all right, bet. I must heard, man, when you're at the bottom of a pile of eight on you? Oh, man.

It's worse when there's a defensive lineman. Those guys are 300 plus pounds, and they will purposely dead weight on top of you because it really just drains you when you get tackled. They might not even hit you hard or anything, but if they feel you under them, they'll just drop their weight for as long as they can.

See, this is the stuff people watch and don't even realize.

Yeah. No, it's horrible. It happened to me twice last game, and they just They got a good grip on you, and they just lean up and just let their dead weight fall until someone comes and pushes them off.

Yeah, because they got to be helped up, right? Yeah. Because then next play, you're probably gassed.

Yeah. But it's one of those things you got to tapping. There's a difference between being in shape and being in football shape, and that's what the difference is. You got to be able to take hits, hit people, and keep going. Next play, next play, next play. Absolutely. You can't just run. People are going to They can run laps all they want to and be in shape, be conditioned and all that. But there's that extra different type of football conditioning when it comes down to taking hits and getting a guy, four people laying on top of you, and then you got to get up and get on the ball and run in. Right.

This is why injuries are so common.

Yeah. That fatigue sets in and your body just does what it does.

Especially your position. I feel like almost every starting running back is dealing with something.

Yeah. It's day in, day out. It's like How does my hip feel? How does my ankle feel? It's just always something that she's week to week, just got to get better, get better, get better.

It's got to be one of the most vulnerable positions, if I had to guess.

Yeah. I feel like Other than the lineman, we get touched every play, really. For the majority of the part, where 97 % of the game, we're getting touched, whether that's picking up a blitz, catching the at the backfield or running the football, we're having to deal with some contact.

Yeah. Damn, you must have a fearless mindset. And that's crazy to think about 97 % of the time you're getting touched up every play. Yeah.

And that's why for me, I always try and fight for it a little bit. I tell people the value of the running back position is a lot higher than it's... As it is, it's a lot higher than it actually is. On paper right now, it's been devalued so much. But you see guys like Saquon and even a great duo over in Detroit, Dave Montgomery and Gibbs, bringing that value back to the running back position because there's more than just running the football. It's running the ball, catching the ball, picking up blitzes, all of those things that we do on every down basis. We're really like workhorses.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I grew up in Jersey. So I was a Giants fan. Losing Saquon was top of mine. That one hurt. He's He's a beast. Yeah.

No, I thought he was going to end up being a lifetime. Same. Just go ahead and retire as a giant. That's rare these days. Yeah, it is. But it worked out for him. He's doing a great job right now.

Yeah, I'm happy for him. But Yeah, the business side of the sports industry is tough. It's ridiculous, right? They'll just trade you if they want to make money or whatever.

Yeah, that's one thing I learned, too. It's a business. It really is. At the end of the day, whatever is the best move for a franchise, whatever the best move is for a coach, owner, a GM. They look at those things and they make a decision. It's like that. You could be having a We're having a living conversation one day, and then the next week, they're shipping you away.

Damn.

It's like that? Yeah, it's crazy. No heads up? No. I mean, it's wild. The way that my career in Minnesota ended It was pretty abrupt.

You had no heads up?

None at all.

Wow. And you were there for four years, right? Five. Five years. So you were one of the vets on that team. Yeah.

And I had another year of my deal, and it just... They decided that they were going to go in a different direction.

Did Can you tell you a reason ever?

Not to the depths of really understanding what the reason was. It left me and my agent up in smokes when it comes down to figuring out what the pinpoint reason was. But it was just one of those things that they just said they feel like they want to go in a different direction, and it was the least expected call that I got.

Damn. Yeah. So did that really hurt you at the time?

Oh, yeah. It was one of those ones. I mean, when it's to the offseason, I remember talking to my wife, I'm grinding for more in Minnesota. I want to grind so that this next season, coming up, we earn more years here so I can play as long as I can in Minnesota. Right. Anyway, I just built a house and everything, and had another year left and got a great workout in that morning. And later that day, got a call from a coach, and we were chopping it up and then bam, dropped a bomb on me.

So the coach is the one that tells you? Yeah.

I mean, it depends. I know a lot of different situations. Sometimes the agent contact you and get a hold of you before. But for For the most part, they do their due diligence and they do their respect, and they talk to you man to man and just let you know what the situation is. Damn.

That's nuts, dude. Yeah. You thought your whole career was going to be there.

Yeah, or at least the majority of it.

I That was your final contract year, you said, right?

Yeah. So I would have ended up... So this would have been the last year on that deal. Then six years in, hopefully get some more time there. And then, hey, maybe at eight years, we figure out if we're going to continue to be able to stay here or go somewhere else, whatever the case may be. But I was thinking it was going to be a beautiful little picture in Minnesota for a little bit longer, at least. Yeah.

Damn. Because the average career is pretty short, right?

Yeah. It's crazy.

It's like three or four years.

So it was. Well, I would probably say that it maybe is around there collectively, but looking at it from a running back standpoint, it's down to two and a half. Whoa. Yeah. Two and a half. And I remember when I was a kid, it was four. The average was four years for a running back. So you're like, okay, I want to go play four plus if I can do it. And now they say the average for a running back is two and a half. That's scary. Yeah, it's wild.

That's scary because you're training your whole life for two and a half years, basically.

Yeah. That's why I was like, my son, he will not play running back. He's going to be a receiver, DB, quarterback, something else if he wants to play football. But yeah, running back position is like, man, right now it's rough.

What do you think caused it to go from four to two and a half? Do you think the competition just got too much?

I think it has something to do with the competition. It has something to do with the way that the league has changed, too, where you see these super mega contracts with quarterbacks and receivers, right? So it's like you have to have a star receiver, have to have a franchise quarterback, and then you plug the pieces in around that. Then the tight ends are starting to... Their value is going up because bigger body, a nightmare for matchups. So you look at these three positions collectively and you start to figure out, okay, what can we do with this? Well, you either get a secondary receiver that's a secondary star receiver. So now you have two star receivers, a star tight in, and a franchise quarterback, and then you plug a piece in at running back, or you maybe invest in a top tier running back. But for the most part, it's a little bit more of a running back by committee now, where back in the day, you had the workhorse back, where it was like, you look at Jerome Betis, you look at even a little further, you got Steven Jackson, Marshawn Lynch, and Adrian Peterson, Jamal Charles.

You look at those type of backs and that type of game, and there's guys that can do it. There's teams that can do it. But when you look at it from a standpoint of where the game's gone, you got the likes of Justin Jefferson and all these receivers that are top tier and people that are following up behind that. You're getting two or three very notable receivers per team now. And the way that where demand is and the quarterback position with the franchise QB and how much you're going to pay it, you have to see the upside in that investment. For me, I think it's just that the way the game has changed, it's devalued the running back position a little bit just because the emphasis in these other position areas. The running back by committee mentality, like you said, the competition has gotten a lot, I would say, more leveled outward. There's a lot of top tier guys, and there's a lot of guys that have to share the room. You go and you get two backs that are phenomenal. It's a win-win. If one back is tired, the next back goes in, and he's also doing great.

When you can do that in a running back room, they can spare because it's like, we got to go spend money somewhere else. You got DNS that are getting paid now, really big. Safety's corners that are also getting those big contracts. So, yeah, just overall, I think it's just the value of other positions jumping up so quickly. You have to suffer somewhere else.

I love how objective you are because you could be taking this personally, but you're like, this is really insightful information.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, for me, it's It's hard to take things personal in such a business network. Once you get to the point where I'm at, where you understand how much of a business it is, it's hard to take things personal. I mean, there's some things that rub you the wrong way. But look at it from the grand scheme of things. Right now, it's not our time. A few years ago, running backs had their stamp in the league, and it's like, okay, pay, pay, pay. We need to invest in this guy. We need this guy. We need that guy healthy. It was one of those things where it was a time where all the backs were, man, you want to have that back. And now it's like, whoa, do we want this back or do we want Stefan dick? Wait, the game's changed that much in a few years? Yeah. I remember my second year was in the backfield with Dalvin Cook, and he resigned an extension with the Vikings, five-year deal. And That was the time. It was him, nick Chubb, Derrick Henry, Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara. All those guys were signing, I think, Zeke.

All those guys were signing extensions around the same time, big extensions. And that was where the running back position, I think, hit that peak, where big contracts, big long term extensions. And then after that, you start to see some of the guys don't make it to the end of the deal. Some of the guys-That's a big deal. Well, not even that, just the way that it plays out. I mean, Dalvin Cook, elite player still to this day. Just unfortunate, the way that the situation played out is he was slotted to make a certain amount of money. They didn't want to pay him that much money because either they couldn't because of the cap or they needed to spend money elsewhere. So we're going to have to part ways. All his guaranteed money was up. It was a lot of different things where you look at the business aspect of it. But he's coming off of four years in a row, a thousand in our season, four Pro Bowl in a row. I mean, since I've been there, I've seen nothing but elite out of him.

Yeah, that's what I heard of.

You shake hands and say, Hey, we're going to have to cut our losses because- So he didn't get the money? No. I Well, he had all his guaranteed money. I think there might have been a little bit of guaranteed money left that they probably took a hit on. But for the most part, all of his guaranteed money was up on the front-end. So they just cut him out of the last two years, and It's one of those things. Wow. Real business. It's real business-like.

It's cut-throw, huh? Yeah. And the game changes so quick. In the NBA, it's all shooting now. Even the bigs have to shoot.

Man, I think who was I looking at that was pulling up? And I was like, why? A cat?

Yeah, he's pulling up eight shots a game.

I was like, yo, is this like... And I was like, I thought he was a big. And I was like, wait, no, he is a big. He's just pulling up from three-point line. It's crazy.

I mean, you got to adapt. You probably had to change your game, right? Over the years?

Yeah. And that's the name of the game, especially in professional sports, is the times change. Every now and then, you'll see a big shift in the game. You'll see just like, oh, whoa, hold on. This is new. This is something that I haven't really seen much of, but now everyone's doing it. Everyone's doing it. So now you have to get good at that. When it came down to, for me, I would say there was a time where the way the tackling was. Really? Back when I was in college, around 2017, 2018, the big thing was the gator roll tackle, where they're grabbing guys, wrapping and rolling. Then it shifted. And now you see guys just trying to lunge and throw their bodies without really wrapping up. So now you have a different type of mentality where it's like, well, now it can break tackles It's a different type of way. For me, giving away, I guess, a little bit of a secret, but the way some of the backers play it, some of the safeties play it, I know that they're going to come down and when they dip their arms, they go back. So a lot of times what I do is I'll initiate contact and spin out of tackles.

Oh, wow. Because they can't get their arms to wrap before that contact breaks. So there's little things like that that I paid attention to that I look at and it helps your game.

That's super smart. So you're analyzing the way people are tackling. Yeah, definitely. Wow. I didn't know you were researching that type of stuff. Yeah.

It's one of those things. You watch enough tape, you look at some guys who likes to tackle low. So like, okay, this game is a hurdle opportunity game. You know some of the guys that they come downhill. So what you can do with that is my momentum, I'm going to use it against them where they think they won. But if I press the break and hit a spin move or press the break and use a stiff arm, they're out of control. So, yeah, it's a bunch of that that I look at. I look at different tendencies, different things, and then even from a broad perspective, what's going on. I noticed No. Before the hip drop rule came in, I was a big advocate for, How is it legal to tackle someone like that?

The hip drop, what's that?

It's when you grab someone up top and you drop your hip to the ground, and that's how a defender would tackle a runner that's trying to run past them. They grab them, drop their hip to the ground, drop all their weight, and that is putting a runner at a position to suffer a lower leg injury. And I was a victim of that in college. Tore all the ligaments in my left ankle in a Championship game. Linebacker grabbed me and just dropped all his weight and got me good. And to all the ligament to my ankle. And so once I saw that happening, and there was a couple of guys last year that were out for the season after it. And so they're looking at, okay, we got to make a rule change because now guys are really just starting to tackle like that. You got a big 300 plus pound D-lineman that just grabs you and drops all his weight. I mean, good luck. Here, you're most likely going to get injured. So for me, I learned how to protect myself against stuff like that. My on pad level with just living to see another day.

That is crazy. People don't even know this is going on in your head.

Yeah, it's great. If I see a big D-lineman free, I'm going to try and do what I can. But if he grabs a hold of me, just let my body weight go and relax and just we'll live to see another down.

Well, there's a lot on the line with you. If you get a major injury, that could end your career. So that's scary, right? Yeah. It's a lot of pressure.

Yeah, Especially at this point, too. I'm six years in. I got to do what I can to stay healthy, make sure I'm out there on the field, make sure I get my best chance to keep going.

Just had a baby last month, right? Yeah. Congrats.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

That's the first one?

Yeah, it's my second.

Oh, second? Nice.

That's huge. Yeah, it's beautiful. He's giving us a run for our money. Everyone asked me, they're like, Are you getting good sleep? And I'm like, Yeah, for the most part. But babies are babies. He's got some nice habits, but it's amazing. He's healthy, and my daughter, she's two. So we just got a nice, perfect mixture right now.

I love him, man. I can't wait to have kids getting married next year. Oh, yeah? Congrats. Yeah. Okay. We're seven years in.

Nice.

It's almost time for kids. Yeah, that's beautiful.

That's beautiful. Were you high school sweethearts?

College. College? Okay. We met in college. I didn't know her in high school. It was a different town in Jersey. Yeah.

Okay. Homes town, though?

I grew up, yeah, pretty much in Jersey.

That's dope. Me and my wife, we went to high school together. Oh, nice.

That's irreplaceable, man. I've learned that with my relationship because I see all my single friends struggling right now. But this girl has been with me from rock bottom. Same with you? Yeah.

My rock. We just hit 10 years a couple of weeks ago.

Congrats. Yeah. I appreciate that. That's rare these days, man.

Yeah, it is. That's why I'm glad that she's here with me by my side through all the journeys she's seen. She was here before the first offer rolled in. Wow.

Yeah. Beautiful. It is. How do you think you've been able to make that work out, being a professional athlete and balancing that?

It really comes down to prioritizing Priorities comes down to how are you going to balance this life with trying to be the best husband, father, best friend, provider. It's hard.

Because you travel a lot.

Yeah. It's hard because the schedule, the way the schedule is, the way that you have to... A lot of people are different. I do a lot of taking care of my body. So I know that part is also hard because in season, even after practice, I might be home, and then I got a recovery session where I got to go get acupuncture, I got to go do this. And so that part I know is hard on a spouse because it's reason, it's just going, going, going, going, and we just really get an off day to be with our family. And even on my off day, I'm doing boxing in the morning. Then I'm doing anything like great opportunity like this to come sit down with you and talk. Then later in the evening, I'm going to do another acupuncture soft tissue massage session. So it's also just one of those things where I just love and appreciate and respect her patience, and especially dealing with the toddler and a newborn right now is definitely hard. I told her, I was like, Yeah, we got to stop with the seasoned babies because it's definitely one of those times of the year where it's just full-fledged.

Chaos, right? Yeah. You're probably working 80 hours a week. Yeah. I got to try out some acupuncture. You're making me want to try it. It's good. I was scared of it, but...

Have you ever done needles? No. It'll change your life. Really?

Yeah. It's that effective.

Yeah. I mean, you got to have the right person. Shout out to Hillary out in Minnesota. She's phenomenal.

Oh, you go all the way there for it?

No. So when I was there, I was there for five years. I was able to just have that relationship, got acupuncture twice a week, maybe more if I was really banged up from the game. But I've been able to... Now we have such great relationship where she can make trips. And in between the Viking schedule and our schedule, she makes it work, where she's not working, she can come out and I can get my body right.

That's cool, man. You got a spiritual side to you.

Yeah. I got to make sure I'm right.

Yeah. Because acupuncture is on the more spiritual side of things, right?

Yeah. She does a good mixture of sports acu. It's a blend of not just the ancient technique of acupuncture, where they just hit trigger points, but really a little bit deeper with the muscle tissue and breaking down your fascia, using the Tens stem unit and fire cupping, and using a little bit of that soft tissue manual therapy as well. So a big mix of just getting in there and making sure that everything's working and flowing great.

Wow. I love them, man. You're going to be playing into your 30s, I think.

Yeah. Look, I'm trying to make it as long as I can. I'm trying to. I feel good now.

Having a great season. Three touch downs already, right? What's the most you've had in an NFL season?

That is a great question.

I'm surprised you don't know.

I think five. Okay.

You might beat that this year, man. Yeah.

Let's go. I think I have, you said three and one receiving. So if I can just continue to just wherever, whether it's in the air, whether it's on the ground, just continue to stack those, put points on the board. That's one of the great feelings is helping your team to a victory, helping your team score. So I I look forward to that every time I touch the ball.

Four already. Wow. Yeah, you're definitely going to beat it.

Yeah, I'm trying to.

You might even hit 10.

Yeah, hopefully. Double digits. Double digits. I need that.

That doesn't happen often for runningbacks, right?

No, it's definitely one of those things that You look at a thousand-yard season and double-digit touch downs.

That's Adrian Peterson status. Yeah, you're living good. That dude was a machine. Yeah. I'm in fantasy. Oh, my God. I was chilling. I knew I would win.

No, he's... Oh, man, he's awesome. He was one of my inspirations growing up. Oh, yeah? Yeah. I feel that. It was pretty crazy because I got to play against him. No way. My rookie year, when he went to... He was in Washington. I remember that. And we played them and I had a good game. It was funny. It was just crazy. I remember it was like a scene in a movie. I'm walking and then the circle opens up and he's standing there and he's like, Hey, man, running out there like beast Mode 2.0. And I was just like, Yo, I'm like, This is Adrian Peterson right now. He just shows so much love and respect. And yeah, man, it was crazy. I have a great picture and I got it framed.

Did you do a jersey swap?

No, I still need to get his jersey, actually. We ended up connecting because he ended up in Detroit. I think it was the next year. And we connected, and he was like, Yeah, man, I'm going to get you a Jersey, so I got to call him. I got to hit him up. He said, He'll give me a jersey. And I saw him actually last year, and he's like, I didn't even forgot about you. So I think it's still on his mind a little bit, make sure I get one of those.

He was still nice on Washington. Yeah. That's the crazy part because he was late 30s that year in age for a running back that's pretty old.

Yeah. No, he's definitely one of a kind. And I think, I don't know what it comes down to when it comes down to, like I said, it's a business. You never know when a back looks good and it's like, well, why isn't still playing. I mean, there's a business to things. There's probably a minimum that you have to pay a guy like that to come be a part of your team and play. And if we can go get a 21-year-old-Pay him a fifth of the price.fourth round, yeah, then they start to juggle those decisions.

Because when you get drafted, that's not guaranteed money, right?

No, you still have to make a team and everything. But you are on a deal. So when you get drafted, you're on a four-year deal.

Oh, four years right off the rip.Yeah. Wow. That's a pretty long contract for a rookie. Yeah.

Which is for us, I look at it from a standpoint of being in it for a while now, and I think that it should be shorter. I think that's where we're going with trying to make that agreement with the NFL and the NFLPA is trying to get those years shorter because, like I said, running back average now is two and a half years. So I'm signing a four-year contract. The average for me to stay in this league is two and a It's not really making sense. And then there's guys that outplay their contracts. There's guys that will come in and the first two years are balling, pro-bowlers, but you're locked into a deal for another two years. Damn.

So it should be one or two years, right?

Yeah, it should be, I mean, at least I would say 2-3. I get the business standpoint from owners, from teams and organizations. It can't be that quick to get to a second contract. But I do think you make it three versus four as giving guys a better chance of doing what they've always wanted to do, set their family up for life and play ball at a high level and also be compensated for it.

Because you also probably see really talented people, but just the wrong team for them.

Yeah, definitely. That happens a lot.

Yeah, which sucks because they know they're good enough, but just the wrong system or the wrong team or the wrong coach.

Yeah. And then you see them go somewhere else and they flourish. And they might have been with another team for three years and end up in another situation. They're doing amazing. So it's one of those things, like I said. It's just, oh.

It's a lot of moving parts. It's a lot of moving parts. Has that ever happened to you, whether it was high school, college or pro, or the coach you didn't agree with?

Luckily, no.

Wow.

I've been blessed. I have never been a part of a situation where it didn't fit me or I disagreed heavily. I mean, there's probably times in a game, of course, where I'm like, Yo, we should have done something else. I feel like everybody experienced that.

Marshawn Lynch experienced that. Yeah, exactly.

But I've never been in a situation where it was like, I need to get out of here.

That's good. Yeah. That's good. Luckily. Yeah, because you can't really control that in the NFL, right?

Yeah.

I feel like the NBA, if you're a star player, you have some control, maybe. Probably. Of where you get traded to. But Yeah.

And I've seen from my perspective how crazy it is that the way that some guys can like, Hey, we want to team up and go to this team, and they'll make it happen. Really? Yeah. I think the whole Katie, Kyrie, and Harden. Oh, yeah. Well, I don't know. From my perspective, it felt like they planned to all go there. Yeah. To the nuts you're saying? Blake Griffin was there at the time, too, right? Yeah.

Like crazy. Stacked.

But it didn't work out. It didn't work out. Too much star power or something. I don't know. It didn't work out. But, yeah, it's crazy to see. I think those guys, really, it's a smaller population. When you're just that guy, of course, you can just make some shots.

Yeah. Does that happen in the NFL, where a team just has so many stars and talent and they don't win?

I think so. I'm trying to think of some teams for sure. But I mean, it definitely happens where they have the right guys, they have all the pieces, but they just don't pan out.

No chemistry yet, right?

I think it's a lot to do with the chemistry. You have to have good play calling as well. So if a coach is not a defensive coach or an offensive coach, whatever the case may be, you can be a great team. You can even dominate. But I always see those teams that don't have everything so much together, just have stars. They don't make it past first-round playoff. Really?

So you need everything. You need coaching, you need good GM.

Yeah. Chemistry, the small things. You need some of those detailed pieces in between to get further because you can have a great season. You can have a lot of star power, a lot of guys that are pro-bowlers and all that. But it comes down... I tell you, playoff football is a different type of football. It comes down to the small things then.

Absolutely. And the Chiefs have crushed that, right?

Yeah. And They do it, really, without a lot of star power.

Yeah, just Travis and Mahomes because they got rid of Tariq, right?

Yeah. They have some good guys, but they don't ever have stacked receiving room, stacked DBs. There's not really ever a situation where they're super stacked. There's a couple of key star pieces, and I think they just do the details really well.

Right. That's a good point. They're like the spurs of the NFL. Yeah, exactly. Wow. That's good to know. Yeah.

But it's one of those things. You see it from afar, you got to respect it, you got to understand what you have to do to beat a team like that. So it's one of those things. If you love the game, you respect stuff like that when you see it.

Absolutely. Have you played against them in the playoffs?

Not in the playoffs. Regular season, though. Yeah.

You could tell they were a well-oiled machine.

Yeah. It's just like, why? Sometimes you're just like, why? Why did they just... How did that happen? Why did that happen?

They blew you out?

No, I've never It's never been a blowout, but tight games or maybe you're up a couple of scores, and then all of a sudden, it's like, Yo, what? They're winning? I could have swore we were up. Yeah, it'll probably come down to the wire. I think they've been in Nailbiter all season this year, too.

A lot of their games are close, though.

Yeah, and look at them. They find a way to come out on top with the little things. You got to try and beat a team like that from the gate, off the jump, you got to just tear them down, tear their... I mean, it starts up top. Tear their mentality down and then execute, minimize all the different penalties and all those things, turnovers, you can have those. So, yes, I'm excited to play them.

Yeah, I can't wait to see that game, man. Yeah. Well, dude, what's next for you and where can people keep up with you?

Yeah, for me, I mean, we're doing a lot of good stuff. We're doing a lot of good stuff in the community with my foundation, I Am Gifted Foundation. So besides football, I have a big passion for using that platform and using everything that I'm blessed to have to help others, serve others, and give back and spread love and positivity in the world. And through everything that we do, we try and just continue to bring home that message and bring about mental health awareness, make sure that everyone knows that they have a gift within. They just have to find it, embrace it, and use it to shed light in the world.

I love that, man. Let me know the next event for the foundation. I'll be there.

Yeah, most definitely. We'll be actually the next event. We will be at the Sunrise Children's Hospital doing a little scavenger hunt with the kids and trying to put some, and we'll link it below if anyone wants to donate.Thanks.

For coming on, man.Yeah.

Most definitely.Yeah, it was fun.I.

Appreciate it.Thanks for watching, guys. Check out the links in the description. See you next time.