0:07

The Season with Peter Scheger is a production

0:09

of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio.

0:23

What's up, everybody, this is Peter Schreger. You're

0:25

listening to the Season with Peter Schreger.

0:28

We are officially in the

0:30

off season. Mandatory mini camps

0:32

ended last week and we now have a nice

0:34

four week break before training

0:37

camp starts. This is when I'm hoping teams

0:40

can kind of collect their thoughts, coaches

0:42

can get away, gms can maybe look

0:44

at their rosters, make some little tweaks, and then

0:46

we hit the ground running in July. One

0:50

thing about those mandatory mini camps that kept on coming

0:52

up when I was talking to a lot of coaches was

0:55

that these new kickoff rules are going to be really

0:57

interesting. And I'm joined by Aaron

0:59

Wong Kaufman. Aaron, I hate to put you out on the spot.

1:03

Do you know that there's a change, a major change

1:05

in the NFL kickoff rules?

1:07

I know that there is a major change. I

1:10

could not tell you. I'm gonna begin to

1:12

tell you what it is other than I keep hearing words

1:14

about like certain

1:17

players, like the returner

1:20

is going to have more work and what

1:22

that means. I figured I would just wait a couple of weeks

1:24

in the season and see how it looks after a week

1:27

one or two.

1:28

No doubt, And I think that's that's

1:30

a fair assessment for a lot of people, including

1:32

me. I've got I've been sent diagrams,

1:35

PowerPoint documents. I've spoken

1:37

to special teams coaches and I

1:39

I'm still not sure if I had visualized it. They're like, well,

1:41

look at the look at the old XFL

1:43

rule and then just tinker this one piece of like, I'm

1:45

not looking at old XFL footage. That's

1:47

not a league anymore. That league

1:49

is no longer. I cannot find XFL

1:51

footage to to to to deal

1:54

with all that, so I'm not going to go there. That

1:57

was one takeaway. Then the other thing was, you

2:00

know, the Rogers missing

2:03

Mini camp and Robert Sala

2:05

coming out and saying it was unexcused,

2:08

so he'll be fine, but it's not unexcused

2:10

in the way that he wasn't aware of it,

2:13

and the CBA means he has to find it

2:15

was very, very convoluted and all that stuff.

2:18

The thought from within the Jets

2:20

world, and I've spoken to some of those guys. Sala

2:22

not included is that like it's no big deal, Like

2:25

this is not a big deal. It's three days.

2:28

He was there every day. It

2:30

was not a big deal. But

2:33

in the New York market, when you have

2:35

the coach say unexcused and he will be

2:37

fined. And then you also have a son Reddick, which

2:39

the two things don't really have anything to do with each

2:41

other, but two major players

2:44

not at the three day mini camp, Like why can't you just

2:46

be at the three day mini camp? And

2:48

yet Lamar Jackson was

2:50

in South Florida, Like there's a million

2:53

ways you could tear this thing about. I'm gonna say this,

2:55

Rogers will be there for training camp.

2:58

We won't even think about these three days.

3:00

We won't even go back to these three days. I'm

3:03

gonna lean on the side of no big

3:05

deal, Aaron,

3:07

it would look like it was a dead time in football.

3:10

The NBA playoffs had like a solid week

3:12

in between finals games. No

3:14

big deal? Okay to say? Or am I being like a homer

3:17

and protecting my guys by saying no big deal here

3:19

with me being in the New York market? Oh

3:21

man uh Kaufman.

3:26

I think, for better or worse, anytime

3:29

Rogers does anything, it's news and say

3:31

this were I don't know if

3:34

Anthony Richardson was missing

3:37

three days, it'd be different. But because

3:39

it's Rogers, and I

3:41

think the SoundBite of Sala saying we

3:44

knew about it, but it's unexcused,

3:47

it maybe compounded it and made it worse.

3:50

But I agree with you. If he shows up in

3:52

training camp and they're humming

3:54

along and Mike Williams is healthy and

3:57

the offense looks great and Malcat Coraley

3:59

is catching Rogers highlight there boom,

4:01

then like, no one's going to talk about this again.

4:04

Let me let me give you a

4:07

You know, in sports media, there's take,

4:09

there's the other take, and then there's like the turn

4:12

it on its head flip side take that

4:14

usually is what breaks through. Here's

4:16

my turn it on its head flip side

4:18

take. So the first take

4:20

is the hot take, which is Rogers,

4:23

all I have to do is be there for three days. It matters,

4:26

it's mandatory, and it seems

4:28

weird that he's not there. The other

4:30

take is the moderate

4:32

conservative take, which is mine, which is a snow

4:35

big deal. The flip it

4:37

on its head take is that the

4:39

fact that no one knows where Rogers

4:42

is tells

4:45

me that the Jets have tightened things up in their building

4:47

a little bit. That last year

4:49

after Diana Russini had an athletic article

4:52

where it seemed like there was thirty sore season,

4:54

there was I'm

4:57

being honest, Eron, I

4:59

don't know where Rogers was and

5:02

I have no idea and I've asked everyone

5:04

and they won't give it to me. So if I don't

5:06

know, and Chef The's not reporting it, Glazers

5:08

not reporting it, like, is that not

5:10

a sign of things changing with the Jets.

5:13

And maybe a this is a real long hot,

5:15

real aunt would say, asymmetric

5:18

take, but maybe a good thing that

5:20

the Jets that their team knows and no

5:22

one in the building has leaked where Rogers was.

5:25

Maybe Rogers actually was there

5:28

and they're just saying he wasn't there

5:30

to prove how how tight the ship

5:33

is now. Yeah, I

5:35

mean that is good that stuff's not getting out

5:37

sure ish

5:40

ish yeah good fine, yeah, positive

5:43

spin, positive sign.

5:45

Lastly, the Chiefs they get their rings. It is

5:47

crazy that some of those guys, you know,

5:49

Mames, Kelsey, Chris Jones,

5:52

they have three rings and they're all under

5:54

the age of thirty. Like crazy. It was a pretty

5:56

cool presentation that they did. I

6:00

love the fact that, like Kelsey,

6:02

as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago with Greg Olsen,

6:04

like is at that ring ceremony

6:07

is at tight End University is like active

6:09

there. Chiefs seemed to.

6:11

Be rolling to me.

6:12

And I know we made a big deal about Rashi Rice

6:14

and Harrison Bucker's comments, and I

6:17

don't know once we get to training camp and those guys are

6:19

on the field and they're playing like, I'm not sure even that

6:21

stuff is going to be like a quote unquote

6:23

distraction that a lot of us were trying to

6:25

make to poke holes in this, you

6:27

know, repeat, But they seem pretty dialed in.

6:29

That was their ring ceremony. But I

6:32

want to rap before we get to our guest, Aaron.

6:35

The Boston Celtics won their eighteenth

6:38

NBA title last night. I

6:40

don't really want to go into NBA and

6:43

talk about that because the night before was

6:46

the Tony Awards. In a ninety

6:48

second conversation, if anyone listening to this podcast

6:51

is new to it, I must tell you that Aaron

6:54

and I are Broadway enthusiasts. We live in New

6:56

York. We enjoy the Arts Hour. Buddy

6:58

Jason English who is on here as well. His

7:00

daughter is a thespian. He's into the

7:03

Broadway shows. There is nothing wrong with loving

7:05

Broadway. And when I saw Alam and Thomas in

7:07

my old colleague Nate Burlison presenting

7:09

Best Play to Stereophonic, I had a sense of

7:11

pride the NFL has being represented,

7:15

Aaron your thirty second

7:17

takeaway from Tony Knight.

7:21

Some big names. I

7:23

think people love the Daniel

7:26

Radcliffe when his first Tony

7:28

his acceptance speech was great. I

7:30

love seeing him basically say like

7:32

I will never have it this easy ever again.

7:35

Like my co stars on this were incredible.

7:37

I mean you're talking about you know, Lindsay

7:39

Mendez and Jonathan to a great act.

7:43

Yes, that's pretty good.

7:44

Also love seeing a show that originally

7:46

bombed and has then has

7:49

since come back because Merrily We roll along as

7:51

a revival. The first run did not do

7:53

well And.

7:53

Is that right? I don't know the history of it, so when how many

7:56

years ago? Like eighties nineties are like.

7:57

Ten years and not no longer than that I

7:59

believe.

8:00

But the story is it was a flop.

8:02

Yeah.

8:03

Eight nineteen eighty one musical Wow

8:05

on time and based

8:07

off of a nineteen thirty four play

8:10

from George Kaufman. But

8:12

yeah, great last name love that.

8:15

Yes, great last name President quite

8:17

a bit of theater. Liked that.

8:19

And then also my favorite show

8:21

of the entire year one

8:24

for best Choreography Illinois, which

8:26

is the Soufkion Stevens musical.

8:28

I didn't see it. My wife wanted to see

8:30

it. She didn't see it, but the performance they had was

8:32

pretty moving. What's the story there?

8:34

Souf Kihn Stevens, who's an

8:36

indie singer, songwriter, indie

8:39

music darling. He was one

8:41

of the most important musicians to me and my

8:43

generation, I would say during college. This

8:46

album in particular is very, very

8:48

important. And this album features Chicago,

8:50

the song that's in a Little

8:52

Miss Sunshine, like the swelling strings,

8:54

all things go oh like when they're driving

8:56

in the car. And the

8:59

show is choreographed by Justin Peck,

9:01

who's one of the most visionary

9:03

young choreographers dancers

9:06

in theater today, I think. And

9:09

the show is like using

9:12

the music from that album.

9:14

There's no dialogue, right, it's no dialogue.

9:16

It's just all done dude.

9:17

Yeah, And it's an album from the

9:19

two thousands, and it's.

9:21

Yeah, it's all late two thousands.

9:23

So they just have the album and they

9:25

just sing, they dance and sing to it, and

9:27

they tell a story through that.

9:29

And it's very similar to Sufion had these

9:31

elaborate tours at that time. So he's

9:33

got this huge band and he's got

9:35

three vocalists who do all the

9:38

pieces. And he's not in it. Soufion's not in

9:40

it, but he is a he's a Brooklyn guy

9:42

like us. But yeah,

9:44

and it's it tells the story of this

9:46

character who is

9:50

kind of a stand in for him and his journey

9:52

from like small town moving

9:54

to New York City. Yeah,

9:57

it's beautiful. It's yeah, one

9:59

hundred percent. I would We saw it at

10:02

the Armory. Yeah, we saw it

10:04

at the Armory. We have not seen it on Broadway yet, but.

10:06

It's only a limited run. It's like ten weeks.

10:08

Yeah, I think it's got a couple more weeks left, so

10:12

recommend that.

10:13

My real quick takes. I didn't see The Outsiders. That

10:15

one the best musical. Did you you see it?

10:17

I have?

10:17

I've not seen that yet.

10:18

Yeah, I was in it, but I loved Enemy

10:21

of the People and Jeremy Strong winning was really cool.

10:23

I thought it was amazing. So he

10:25

had a cool speech too, and they tried putting

10:27

the music on like and like, no, you let

10:29

Kendall Roy give his speech if he wants to give

10:31

his speech. It was great. And now he's

10:34

in a very controversial,

10:36

slash interesting movie that got a standing ovation

10:38

at Gon called The Apprentice and it's

10:41

about you know, Donald Trump and Donald Trump's

10:43

father and Roy Cone and he plays

10:46

Roy Cohne, who is kind of the

10:48

man behind the Trump Empire. Very

10:51

interesting if that movie comes out, especially

10:53

around election time. That's how we start our football

10:55

prodcast, folks, And with no

10:58

further ado, we were talking to start

11:00

this thing about the special teams. I

11:03

love talking to special teams coordinators. If there's like

11:05

one thing that I'd say

11:07

that I've seen as like a way to learn the

11:09

game and talk the game and to guys who are

11:11

usually willing to talk and teach and not you

11:14

know, move on. It's special teams

11:16

guys. And one of them that I've grown pretty friendly

11:18

with over the years is Bubba Ventrone. I think he's

11:20

great. I got to know when he was with the Colts. He

11:23

is now the special teams coach of the

11:25

Browns, and I thought let's bring Bubble

11:27

on to start these offseason podcasts, and

11:29

let's really have him explain these kickoff.

11:31

Roles and go from there.

11:32

So, with no further ado, my guy, Raymond

11:34

Bubba than Trump. All

11:42

right, my guests this week is someone I've been wanting

11:44

to have on for quite some time. I think he's one of the best

11:46

special teams coaches in the league. And with

11:48

a lot of the changes going on with the rules

11:51

and special teams, which I think

11:53

a lot of football fans haven't been paying much attention

11:55

to it are going to be shocked when the season starts to

11:57

say, wait a second, what's going on? I wanted

11:59

to bring on special teams guru and a

12:01

guy who I think is going to be a head coach in the NFL, Raymond

12:05

Bubba Ventro. He is the

12:08

assistant head coach and special teams coordinator

12:10

of the Cleveland Browns, and we're gonna go through his

12:13

career. But Bubba, what's up, my man?

12:15

What's going on? My man? Thank you so much

12:17

for that intro. That's

12:19

a heck of an introduction that I appreciate

12:22

it.

12:22

All right, so, special teams coordinator. But for those at

12:24

home who are like all right, But what's his story. We'll

12:26

go through it here. Undrafted as a Patriots

12:29

player five oh six, then the Jets

12:31

for seven, then you jump back to the Patriots

12:34

for seven eight, Then you spent four years

12:36

with the Browns, two years with the Niners,

12:39

and then almost immediately after ending

12:42

a career as a player, you end up coaching

12:44

with the Patriots and their special teams room, then

12:47

being the Colt special teams coordinator, which

12:49

I was. That's where we got to know each other,

12:51

and I was blown away by your work during the hard knocks

12:54

in season with the Colts, where you were I think

12:56

the MVP, and then for the last couple

12:58

of years the Browns special teams coordinator.

13:01

You're a super Bowl champion and you're an undrafted

13:03

guy out of Villanova. Do you do

13:05

you look at yourself as former

13:08

player or do you look at yourself now as

13:10

current coach? Like what's the dichotomy in

13:12

your brain?

13:14

I think I take a little bit from both, I

13:16

do. I think I take a little bit from both. And I

13:19

had to work for all my opportunities,

13:21

and I'm very thankful for all those opportunities I

13:23

was given, and in both as a player

13:25

and as a coach by Bill Belichick.

13:28

So that's pretty cool to say. But

13:30

no, I feel like I wor I just I worked for every opportunity

13:33

I got, and I put myself in a good

13:35

position moving into this twenty

13:38

twenty four season.

13:39

Undrafted guy out of Villanova, And

13:41

as the story goes, I'm doing my research, there

13:44

was a chance they were going to draft you as mister irrelevant.

13:47

The year you got drafted, they don't you sign

13:49

as an undrafted free agent. I

13:51

could see the way you play, and you were a fearless

13:53

player, and you're a special teams guru. I

13:56

can imagine you were one of Belichick's favorites.

13:58

What was the dynamic there between you and coach Bill

14:00

Belichick?

14:01

No, he was He was awesome, and he knew that

14:03

I was going to play as hard as I could every

14:05

single play. That's really that's ultimately

14:07

how I made it. I was a practice squad

14:10

player for my first year in the league

14:12

and then they actually sent me to and I was

14:14

playing. I was playing running back, receiver,

14:16

corner, safety, and practice taking every special

14:19

teams rep. So I was playing both ways,

14:21

doing the taking every rep. They actually sent

14:23

me to NFL Europe right after the season.

14:25

I played over there for ten weeks. I

14:28

injured my shoulder and they put me on into a reserve

14:30

for that O six season, so

14:32

I didn't really play until two

14:35

thousand and seven. The Jets signed

14:37

me and then they cut me after

14:39

training camp, and then I signed back to New England,

14:41

so you know when I go.

14:43

And then when I signed back to New England, Bill moved

14:45

me to receiver. So I actually

14:47

played receiver for two years and backed up

14:50

Welker in the slot. So

14:52

and his his the reason he

14:54

did that was he was like, okay, you understand

14:56

the defense. You know the defense. We

14:58

could put you in on defense if we had to at the end

15:01

of the y. He knew that ultimately I was a special teams

15:03

player, So I played a lot of I played

15:05

running back in school and I had some

15:07

offers to the smaller schools to play running

15:10

back. So I was playing running back and receiver

15:12

and he's like, listen, we're gonna to

15:14

give you more value. We're gonna have you learn the

15:16

receiver position. So I played receiver for

15:18

the whole offseason, ended up making the

15:21

roster and it

15:23

really didn't put me gave me more more more

15:25

value to the roster, and honestly, I learned

15:27

a lot from him about roster

15:30

management because the

15:32

value of having a guy that can

15:34

no offense, defense, but ultimately as

15:36

a teamer, that gives you a guy it's really

15:38

like your sixth wide out at

15:40

the game or your fifth wide out at the game, and

15:43

also your fourth or fifth safety having

15:45

that same role. And that's why Bill

15:48

was so good. I mean guys like Edelman,

15:51

Troy Brown, those guys could do play

15:53

off everything and defense. That way,

15:55

you wouldn't have to play or

15:58

carry an extra body. Like one more

16:00

example I'll give you like Patrick

16:03

Chung, Like for us Pat

16:05

Chung when I was coaching there, Pad could play

16:07

nickel, he could play safety, so you

16:09

didn't have to carry an extra BB. We could

16:11

carry an extra special teamer to

16:13

those games. So that that really helped our roster

16:16

out a lot.

16:17

The Niners era of your career is cool

16:19

too, because you were in those hardball teams that made

16:22

a run in the playoffs couple of years. Uh.

16:24

Your thoughts on on that team and that

16:26

identity and when you were on those forty nine ers squads

16:29

that were led by Alex Smith and of course Kaepernick

16:31

gets the nod uh in that second

16:33

season of his.

16:34

Yeah, Coach Harbaugh. I mean the one thing he instilled

16:37

was just toughness. I mean those

16:40

guys and I understand that those guys

16:42

in LA. I mean, he will make those

16:44

guys work, work, work. I mean we practiced

16:46

long, we practiced hard. We would two spot

16:49

pretty much every team drill, so we were like getting

16:51

double reps. You know. He was

16:53

big on conditioning and ultimately

16:56

just that guy's he

16:59

is a work work, workman. Yeah,

17:01

he's a great He's grateful.

17:04

That Niners roster bub because I feel like

17:06

it's one of those teams that didn't win the CHIP. So everyone's like,

17:08

all right, we think of that era, we think of Patriots,

17:11

you think of the Colts of those era, like that

17:13

Niners team that went to the Super Bowl and

17:15

those in the year before the NFC Championship

17:18

game, and like tucking Justin

17:20

Smith, Yeah, Alden Smith, like go through some

17:22

of those names that you would just see like these are just beasts.

17:25

So I came in, and I came in in thirteen,

17:27

was my first year there, So it was a year after they lost

17:29

the Super Bowl, but it was still a lot of a lot of carryover

17:32

the only guy that the only guy that really wasn't there was Deshaun

17:34

Goldson, the safety. But up

17:36

front we had Justin

17:38

Smith, Alden Smith, Ray McDonald, Ahmad

17:42

Brooks as a freak. Inside you

17:44

had Pat Willis Navarro, Bowman

17:47

as your as your as your backers. Navarro

17:49

was like runner off for defensive Player of the

17:51

Year. Yeah, in twenty thirteen. Then on the

17:53

perimeter you had Carlos

17:55

Rogers, Terrell Brown, Dante

17:58

Whitner. We drafted Eric Reid in the first round

18:00

that year.

18:01

Yeah. Great.

18:02

Our defense was really really good. And

18:04

then offensively, obviously we had cap Frank

18:06

Gore, you know, and Kwon

18:09

Bolton's probably one of the most underrated receivers,

18:12

you know how history. That dude was a playmaker.

18:14

We had Vernon Davis who could stretch the field. We

18:17

had a really good we had a really really good team,

18:19

and we ended up playing and losing to

18:23

Seattle in the NFC Championship.

18:25

One of the most physical games of all time.

18:28

And in the next year,

18:30

right, so the next year was my last

18:32

year playing. I had some injuries and so

18:35

was going to be done playing in twenty fourteen, and

18:37

that's really how I got my coaching opportunity

18:39

was because the

18:41

Sea the Seahawks were about to play the

18:43

Patriots in the Super Bowl. So

18:45

Bill Bill reaches out to me because

18:48

we had gone against Seattle a number

18:50

of times and because

18:53

I knew there were special teams. He was asking

18:55

me questions about their their

18:57

kicking game there, right, So.

18:58

You weren't you weren't on staff for the Patriots,

19:00

and you weren't in the league. You were kind of in limbo, and

19:03

he calls you to start picking your brain the week of the Super

19:05

Bowl. I love this Bubba We.

19:07

Yeah, I mean he's a coach, is a good

19:09

friend of mine. We I mean we text throughout the year

19:12

and we always had a good relationship.

19:15

So at the end of the conversation, he's

19:17

like, Hey, not sure what your plans

19:19

are, but Scottie O'Brien is going to

19:21

retire, Joe Judge is going to be the coordinator.

19:24

Would you want to interview for the

19:26

assistant job? And I had already

19:28

had a house in Boston. My wife was from

19:30

Boston, and that was kind of like our place to

19:32

go back to regardless of where I was playing and

19:36

the season ended. I think I interviewed

19:38

that Thursday and that interview process

19:41

was intense. I mean I was there at

19:43

like six six am. I

19:45

didn't leave until like seven pm.

19:47

And then he

19:50

ended up offering me the position. And

19:52

then he's like, yeah, if

19:54

you want to come, if you want to come back tomorrow,

19:57

you know, and be ready to roll, that'd be great.

19:59

And I was like, it was like Friday or.

20:01

Something like tomorrow.

20:02

Yeah, but now he's he's awesome,

20:06

Gig.

20:06

You finally get the special teams coordinator, Gig,

20:09

and you're now one of the thirty two in

20:11

that role. How did that come about?

20:14

Yeah? So I get a call after

20:18

the Super Bowl when we lost to Philly

20:20

and I was still the assistant in New England, and

20:23

Frank Raich said, hey, there's a chance I

20:25

might be getting this this job in Indy.

20:28

Sure enough, he gets the job. He calls me

20:30

on Sunday night, We did a

20:32

we did a zoom interview, and

20:35

then I found out shortly after

20:37

that I had earned the position, and

20:40

it was crazy. Things happened so fast. So

20:43

loved my time in Indy. I

20:46

really took everything I learned in New England

20:48

and throughout my career and applied

20:50

it to my own schemes. And my own

20:53

really beliefs and thoughts, I guess you would say,

20:55

and had a lot of really good units.

20:58

Had pushed I

21:00

think three three year All pros

21:02

down there, Luke Rhose, Ashton Dolan,

21:05

and George Odoin. So

21:08

I'm proud of that. We had really good units. We're in

21:10

the top five mostly every year. So

21:13

it was, uh, it was. It was a really good experience.

21:15

We had some we had some good teams and probably

21:17

would have had even more success if we would have more consistency

21:20

at the quarterback position. We just you

21:22

know, Andrew Tires and then

21:24

you have really a different starter each

21:27

year for the next four years. So that

21:29

was that was probably the most challenging part was

21:32

that that finding that position, and.

21:34

Then you get the Browns job and you're with Stefanski

21:37

and you're with Jim Schwartz. Do you guys

21:39

have this miracle run this year after

21:41

Watson goes down with the injury? What was it like

21:44

second half of the season watching Joe Flacco

21:46

throw this offense on its back and then the

21:49

defense kind of do their job, and then of course on special

21:51

teams, you guys carry the load as well.

21:53

Yeah, I mean tons of credit, tons

21:55

of credit to First off, our general manager

21:58

Andrew Barry does an excellent

22:00

job both putting together

22:03

a roster which sets you up

22:05

for success. Obviously, our personnel

22:07

is really good. I feel like we have one

22:09

of, if not the most balanced roster in

22:12

the NFL. If you look at our offensive and defensive

22:14

personnel paired with our specialists

22:16

and returners, I think that we have one

22:18

of, if not the best roster in

22:21

the league. And then our head coach does a tremendous

22:23

job just managing everything. And

22:25

then and then with the staff, like last year,

22:28

we had a lot of injuries. We were kind of decimated

22:30

to a degree. Yeah, and towards

22:33

me and you know, a VP

22:35

Kevin, like those guys, we all just found

22:37

a way to make it work.

22:40

Bill Callahan's on that staff. He's an

22:43

incredible coach. I know they had a number of injuries

22:45

on the offensive line. I really

22:47

look up to him. He's a big mentor of mind. I

22:49

texted with him a couple of weeks ago. But I love

22:51

that, really love that guy man. But

22:54

no, I think the in tons

22:56

of credit to the players, you know, I think when

22:59

you get in a position you have injuries throughout the season,

23:01

you're you know, and you and you had and

23:04

you are kind of decimating and you're looking for the next guys.

23:06

How well can you prepare and train

23:09

the players that aren't on the roster, right,

23:12

that aren't on the fifty three man the guys that are on this

23:14

practice squad, because really the practice squad is an

23:16

extension of the roster. When you're looking to sign a

23:18

guy, when a guy gets injured,

23:20

you really want to be able to pull from that

23:23

that sixteen man practice squad because those

23:25

guys know your terminology, they know

23:27

your scheme, they know what is expected,

23:29

they know what the expectations are, rather

23:32

than signing a guy off the street. So

23:35

a lot goes into the development of those players.

23:37

And that really goes back to like offseason

23:39

program, training camp.

23:41

Preseason, preseason, and then like

23:43

you know, we always say like preseason doesn't matter, just cut

23:45

of the two games, but you better believe that third

23:47

preseason game that's where you find those guys.

23:50

No doubt, no doubt. And you

23:52

know, I think that our coaching staff, offense,

23:54

defense, special teams, we did a good job of that

23:56

last year because we did have to play a lot of those

23:59

guys that weren't on the active roster.

24:02

Let me ask you about Flacco, because now he's

24:05

with the Colts. He's at your old But like I

24:07

thought he was done. I saw

24:10

him as a Jets quarter. It's

24:12

gonna be forgotten in like the history of NFL. We're

24:14

not going to talk about Joe Flacco's twenty twenty four

24:16

seed the twenty twenty three season because you guys lost

24:18

in the first round and it was whatever. I

24:20

thought that was miraculous what he did off off the street,

24:22

it was incredible.

24:24

I got I kind of got chills a little bit right

24:26

now, Peter, you know,

24:28

just thinking about how he came into

24:30

that situation. First off, the first day he

24:32

comes in, he runs a seven up red zone,

24:35

seven on seven period and a ball

24:37

doesn't touch the ground. He just right. He

24:39

shreds our defense like shreds

24:41

our defense, and it was consistent when

24:43

Joe was out there. He's accurate,

24:46

he's got a big arm. I really

24:48

like the guy. I think he's he's a locker room

24:50

guy, and I think a lot of our guys

24:52

gravitated towards him.

24:54

But not a run ra guy like Iron him

24:56

a whole career. He won't say a word until

24:58

you come up to him and engage, like.

25:00

Not at all. But I will say this though, like there's

25:02

times where you can see the interactions

25:05

between him and and some of

25:07

the receivers, like if they ran the wrong

25:09

route or that he expected them to be in a different spot.

25:12

He would get after those guys and

25:14

they understood that, and

25:16

those guys played hard for him, and our team

25:19

kind of rallied around him and found

25:21

a way to get into the playoffs.

25:23

Yeah, last question on the roster

25:26

Deshaun Watson, if he had you know, obviously you're around

25:28

the team now, like is there hope, is their optimism?

25:30

What's the feeling on Watson as the quarterback from

25:32

your vantage point as one of the coaches. I'm sure everyone in

25:34

the building is ju said he's going to be back on the

25:36

field and then it's all right, we're going to get to the

25:38

Shawn that we knew when you were in Indie and he

25:40

was in Houston Or are we getting just this question mark

25:42

that we're not sure what he is right now?

25:44

First off, when when that guy's when he's

25:46

going, he's he is really tough to

25:48

stop. I know the first hand. Whenever I was coaching

25:51

in Indy was he

25:53

was a headache to prepare for. He was a headache

25:55

to prepare for. I feel like he is definitely

25:58

trending to be back to that, to

26:01

be back to that level. I think he looked really good.

26:03

He threw a ball at the end of the

26:06

last day mini camp to Elijah.

26:09

They almost connected on it, but he had

26:12

to buy a time, scramble to his left, set his

26:14

feet and throw this ball. He probably

26:16

threw the ball sixty yards I mean on

26:19

a dome too, I mean, and it's

26:22

it is exciting to be able to see him get back

26:24

and work hard to get back to that level. And

26:26

I think our whole organization is

26:29

excited for him to be back.

26:31

Fired enough to see him. Okay, so there's these new

26:34

special teams rules. Let's stick on the kickoffs

26:36

here. But but the when the rules

26:38

came out, it didn't even like lead

26:40

Sports Center, it didn't lead Good Morning

26:43

Football. It's kind of a blurb like, oh, yeah, there's been a rule

26:45

that's been passed, and there's all these diagrams and I

26:47

kind of checked it out and I was like, I guess everyone

26:51

in the league has been texting me during OTAs

26:53

and Manfreid mini camps being like, why are you

26:55

guys not talking about the special teams rule

26:57

changes? Enough? It is going

26:59

to be revolutionary and it's also going

27:02

to separate the great special teams

27:04

units from the mediocre units. Take

27:06

us through your knowledge of the rules, when

27:08

you got the news and what you've been doing in the

27:10

lab. Not giving away any secrets, but what

27:12

are some of the possibilities that could be done? Because I think a

27:14

lot of listeners might not even know what

27:17

the changes are.

27:18

Sure, So I would say first,

27:21

I think everyone needs to understand,

27:23

like the returner value is going

27:25

to go up tremendously because now I think

27:27

that with the amount of balls that are going to be returned,

27:30

that's just another opportunity for it's

27:34

somewhat of an offensive play. So

27:37

you need to have multiple returners as

27:39

well. So, how the kickoff play

27:41

goes right now is the ball is still

27:43

kicked from the minus thirty five. However,

27:45

the kickoff team is aligned on a plus

27:48

forty. You need to align with and

27:50

its similar alignments to what they were in the past. You

27:52

need to have two guys outside the numbers on

27:54

each side, two guys in between the

27:57

numbers in the in the hash, and then you had the

27:59

fifth guy to the L five and R

28:02

five need to be in between the hashes.

28:04

They can be anywhere in between the hashes. So

28:07

they're already on the plus forty. The return

28:09

unit, okay, the return unit. There's a

28:11

setup zone that's from the

28:13

minus thirty five to the minus thirty.

28:15

There's nine guys.

28:16

In that area in a five yard span and

28:19

a five yard span.

28:20

I won't get in all the alignment, no, no,

28:22

no, but I said there's nine guys

28:24

there. Seven of those guys have to be on the thirty

28:26

five yard line. Two of those guys have

28:28

to be in that right,

28:31

they can't. Once the ball is kicked, nobody

28:33

can move. So there's like a

28:35

grace period of like them to get set.

28:38

They're going to give you quote ample time to be

28:40

aligned and be able to react to the

28:42

kickoff unit. So you have nine guys in

28:44

that area. There's a So that's

28:46

the setup zone. The landing zone

28:48

is from the minus twenty right,

28:51

I'm sorry, from the plus twenty to the goal to

28:54

the goal line. The ball. If

28:56

the ball is kicked kicked off and the ball

28:59

is kicked into the end zone in the air, and the

29:01

returner catches it and takes a knee,

29:04

it's a touchback, but the ball goes to the

29:06

thirty yard line. Okay, so touchback

29:08

goes to the thirty. If a ball is

29:10

kicked in the air, say the ball

29:13

hits in the landing zone on the ground,

29:15

hits the fifteen and rolls into the end zone

29:18

and you take a knee, it's a touchback,

29:20

but the ball goes to the twenty yard line.

29:22

Oh okay, all right, right.

29:24

If the ball falls short of the

29:27

twenty yard line. If the ball's kicked and hits at

29:29

the twenty two yard line and

29:32

goes into the setup or to the landing zone,

29:34

it's a touch back. Or I'm sorry,

29:37

it's like the ball was kicked out of bounds. The ball

29:39

goes to the forty yard line.

29:40

Interesting, so you have to kick it to at least

29:43

the twenty if you're.

29:45

So the thought processes, and it feels

29:47

like they're trying to trying to incentivize

29:49

returns.

29:50

Yep.

29:50

So there's a lot of people that feel

29:53

that they're that some teams are going to try to be

29:56

trying to get the ball on the ground because the

29:58

kickoff unit and the kickoff

30:00

returning unit can't move until the ball hits

30:02

the ground or the ball was touched.

30:05

You're frozen. You're not not allowed to move. It's like a penalty.

30:07

It's like, you know, whatever, it's the whole thing, whatever

30:09

it is, whatever the call will be, you cannot move. You have

30:11

to be frozen until that ball hits the ground.

30:14

Or as touched or none.

30:15

Yeah.

30:15

Also, every ball needs to be

30:18

down. So like in the past, you see guys

30:20

do like the iron cross, they stand up and

30:22

do the iron cross. You

30:24

have to every ball has to be possessed

30:27

and taking a knee of if you want to have a touchback.

30:30

Okay, so a lot of people think that,

30:33

and I think there's some concern that the ball may

30:35

like teams are going to try to get the ball on the ground

30:38

now. Look, so to kick a line

30:40

like to kick a line drive or a soccer type

30:42

style of kick, there's definitely

30:44

definitely some risk with that, like we call

30:46

like a mishit ball, yeah, because if

30:48

you don't hit the ball clean or hit the ball flush, or

30:51

aren't as accurate with the ball and it falls short

30:53

into the forty yard line to the forty

30:55

But now you have like and we're preparing

30:57

for a soccer style kicker for week one, and Brandon

31:00

Aubrey in Dallas soccer

31:02

player, you know, good control

31:04

of the ball. I already read that he's

31:06

working on the I'm.

31:08

Sure, okay, this is going to be the scouting reports. This

31:10

guy's been working for seventeen hours. Run

31:12

now the perfect kick.

31:13

You have to prepare your returners to

31:15

field some type of ball like that, and

31:17

now you're now the ball handling really

31:20

is important in the back end because if

31:22

you can't cover until the ball is tous

31:24

or hits the ground, It's

31:26

like now that there's a lot of space

31:28

between the kickoffs and the returner.

31:31

So the ball hits the ground,

31:34

now the kickoff team can go and now

31:36

the ball is still not possessed. Like you got

31:38

to do a good job of being able to field that thing.

31:40

Okay, So is there an advantage to having like your

31:42

number one, the number two, number

31:44

three wide receivers as your returners

31:46

because they have the best hands, Because isn't that now

31:49

going to be more important? I think if especially there's these squid kicks

31:51

and these soccer.

31:51

Balls, I think that there's a chance

31:53

that you're going to see that I think that there's definitely

31:56

going to be some element of you're

31:58

going to see punt return skime, punt return

32:01

type schemes. You're also going to see some kick

32:03

return type schemes. You're going to

32:05

see different types of blocking, and you're going to see

32:07

you're allowed to like right away, like when the

32:09

bass touster hits a ground, you can go right at the

32:11

kick, you can go right at the kickoff teams. You don't have

32:13

to wait. You're gonna see like

32:16

you're gonna

32:18

see attack blocks, You're gonna see some guys

32:20

take a few yard drops. You're gonna see a lot

32:23

of different schemes like that. But I think also,

32:25

I think there's really gonna be a lot of value on

32:27

the guys in the back end as a returner

32:30

because I think that there's definitely opportunity

32:32

for those guys. I think you're also going to see

32:35

on the kickoff side of it, you're gonna see some different

32:37

body types. You're going to see some

32:39

different types of body types.

32:41

Let's talk about that. Because we had justin Reid

32:43

on two weeks ago from the chiefs Uh.

32:45

It was because he won a chess championship amongst

32:47

all the players in the NFL. He was the NFL's

32:50

chess champion. I thought that was pretty interesting. So we're talking about

32:52

it. A day later, Dave Talb, their special

32:55

teams coach, comes out and says, we

32:58

might have Justin do kickoffs because of the

33:00

way it is, like you're going to need a tackler

33:02

from the kicking spot, Like your kicker has

33:04

to be able to tackle. There's gonna be all these returns, and

33:06

if Justin can kick the ball forty yards,

33:09

we'd almost rather have him than Bucker, who's our

33:11

field goal kicker. But we might

33:13

as well have eleven guys who can tackle. Have

33:16

you guys thinker of with that idea that maybe there's

33:18

a player on the team that can kick the ball and do

33:20

a kickoff just fine, good enough in

33:22

these new rules, and that maybe we want a non

33:25

kicker to be our kickoff

33:27

specialist.

33:28

So two years ago, Bucker got hurt

33:30

at Arizona in

33:33

in game, mid game, he got hurt, and Justin Reid

33:35

came on, he kicked off, and

33:37

he kicked field goals and extra points

33:39

for the rest of the game. I will say

33:41

this, he's he's an excellent

33:44

kicker. He has a soccer background. And the reason I

33:46

know this because I know his younger or his older brother

33:48

Eric I played with San Fran and

33:51

he also played soccer, so those guys have a soccer

33:53

background. I will say this though, like

33:55

there and you may see kickers make

33:58

a few more tackles because if

34:01

the ball is short and the returners up on, the

34:03

returner can get up on that kickoff team quick,

34:05

things can get loose like and

34:08

I don't want to get too much into like scheme and things

34:10

like that, but you're also

34:12

putting a non professional kicker

34:14

at that position. Yep, So like

34:17

to me, there there's definitely a risk to putting

34:19

a player, a position player at

34:21

that spot. And yeah, you could say it's easy

34:23

to kick it to get the ball into the twenty yard

34:26

line or to the twenty yard

34:28

line, but there's always chance for

34:30

a miss hit. There's weather conditions

34:32

that play into into effect. And

34:34

then also like as a kicker,

34:37

you're using you use different

34:40

muscles than you do as a position player, Like

34:43

you're going to really have to train and

34:45

kick off a lot of balls. I think that you're risking

34:47

like injuries. Yeah,

34:49

with those putting a position player, especially

34:52

in guy, I mean just in reads like a like

34:54

a Pro Bowl Cali.

34:56

And like a captain on the team. Yeah.

34:58

I mean, I think there's definitely some

35:01

validity to it. And I think that there's,

35:03

you know, some advantage to having a position

35:05

player at the kicker if he's that good.

35:08

And maybe and maybe look maybe justin Reeda is

35:10

that good. I just I haven't seen it in person

35:13

enough.

35:13

Yeah, let

35:16

me because I gotta think this is

35:18

like as much of a burden

35:20

as it is to learn new rules like this has to be

35:22

thirty two kids in a candy store, all your special

35:24

teams coaches about all the new creative in

35:27

different ways. And you're watching UFL, I'm sure,

35:29

and you're watching old XFL and Canadian

35:31

Football League. Are you having a blast like

35:33

scheming up all possibilities of all new things with these

35:35

new rules.

35:36

Yeah.

35:37

And I think you know, as we get into

35:39

as we get into training camp, you're gonna see

35:42

just a lot of and I've been saying this throughout the

35:44

whole spring, it's gonna be a lot of trial and error

35:46

because once we get pads on, you're

35:48

really gonna see what you like as far as

35:50

the concepts and the techniques,

35:53

the schemes, everything that comes with it once

35:55

you have pads on. You can only do so much when you don't

35:57

have pads on, but we can kind of we can

36:00

gauge to this point right now, the

36:02

spacing, the timing, but

36:04

I think the actual the blocking toechniques

36:07

in those things you're going to see more, especially

36:09

in the early part of training camp, once you have pads

36:11

on.

36:12

Is there a thought process of, you know what, this

36:14

seems like this really is an advantage for the

36:17

return team. Let's just boot the hell of

36:19

the ball and just give them a touch back every single time.

36:21

Is there a philosophy in that now as well, where

36:23

let's not even mess with this, let's just kick the ball through the uprights

36:26

every single time, and we'll start at the thirty and we'll call it a day.

36:29

I think, honestly, everything depends on how

36:31

confident and as the play evolves

36:33

and as it goes on, how confident

36:35

you feel in number one, your

36:38

personnel, like the guys you're actually

36:40

putting out there to tackle the return team. So

36:42

how confident are you in the personnel that's

36:45

really going to dictate the play

36:47

to me? And how confident you are

36:49

to put your players in a position to make a play

36:51

both on both sides of the ball. But

36:54

I think that I think you'll see all more

36:56

balls returned that are even kicked into

36:58

the end zone. Now,

37:01

just because the ball is kicked in the air into the end zone

37:03

doesn't mean that it's going to be a touchback totally.

37:06

Yeah, Okay, I'm trying to put it all together, and

37:08

then I'm like, all right, here's

37:10

what I envision it. Tell me if I'm wrong. There's

37:13

a Thursday night game to start the season Chiefs

37:15

Ravens. There's going to be a couple of people be like whoa

37:17

new kickoff rules. Then there's the Friday

37:19

game Packers Eagles. Well, I

37:21

think that Sunday there's going

37:24

to be a slew of either mistakes or

37:26

crazy like trick play

37:29

roll out the back. We've been practicing this all summer. Let's

37:31

keep it. Like, am I wrong that the story

37:33

of Week one Sunday is going to be the

37:35

kickoff returns and there's going to be there a couple of touchdowns

37:38

or a couple of giant gaffs and mistakes

37:40

that we're looking at because teams have been trying to do something

37:42

and they might not be able to execute it.

37:44

I think that I think you're right on bar with it.

37:46

I do. I agree with you, and I think that in

37:48

the early part of the season, you're going to see a lot of

37:51

a lot of copycat. You know, you're going to

37:53

see a lot of copycat, especially and even in preseason.

37:55

I think you're going to teams are going to show more than

37:58

they normally would show in the past because everybody's

38:00

still trying to come along and

38:02

and understand it and want to have the

38:04

best the best way to to

38:06

be able to make plays. And I think that there's

38:09

going to be a lot of that in the preseason.

38:12

Would you argue that this is the

38:14

biggest window for special teams coordinators and

38:16

special teams units to kind of stand out and

38:18

say, hey, this is what we bring. Obviously, we

38:20

see long field goals and we're like, oh, that kicker

38:22

is great, or we see a punter just

38:25

you know, nail a bunch in the you know, within

38:27

the ten yard line, we're like, oh, that punters great.

38:30

But now the unit and the kickoff

38:32

return unit, the kickoff coverage, you have special

38:34

teams coordinators who can kind of butt up. Do

38:37

you feel like this is your opportunity to

38:39

kind of flex and showcase.

38:43

Yeah, I mean, I feel like I'm I'm excited

38:45

for the opportunity. I really am for the play. I

38:47

think, I think for the game. I feel

38:49

like, you know, when I played and

38:52

guys that played before me, the kickoff

38:54

has always been an exciting play and

38:57

to be able to bring it back in some capacity,

38:59

even if it is a little bit different than we've

39:01

done in the past, it just first

39:03

off, it it gives more value

39:06

to It gives more value to

39:08

the returner, It gives more value to the back

39:10

end roster players that are

39:12

special teamers. I mean, that's how I made my living

39:15

as a as a as a teamer, and

39:18

I'm excited to be able to try to give

39:20

back to those guys and hopefully make

39:23

some big plays in the process. I

39:25

really am excited for the

39:27

opportunity to to be you

39:30

know, I guess what

39:32

would you say, the servant like

39:34

the first the first group to be

39:36

able to do with all the guys that were.

39:38

Taking inaugural the inaugural inaugural.

39:40

Yeah, the inaugural class.

39:42

So the NFL changes the rules in twelve

39:44

months and say that I would go back to the old rules we'll

39:46

see. Well it didn't work, all

39:48

right. My last couple for you, Uh, I've

39:51

long said and put your name out there for head coaching

39:53

opportunities, and I think you know, you know

39:55

my respect for you and your units, but also the way you

39:57

connect with the guys.

39:59

Uh.

39:59

If you've got other owners and gms listening

40:01

right now, like what would be you think? Not

40:04

to promote yourself, but the value of a special

40:06

teams coordinator And we've seen Harbaugh obviously

40:09

have great success as a head coach, but having

40:11

a special teams coordinator be

40:14

a head coach of an NFL team.

40:16

No, I mean, and let me just

40:19

say this first too, because like I'm

40:21

focused on doing my job, which is

40:23

being the special teams

40:25

coordinator for the Browns totally.

40:27

You know.

40:28

Fortunately they gave me the assistant head

40:31

coach title and I and Kevin gives

40:33

me time to be able to speak in

40:35

front of the team, which is great. But

40:38

you know, for me, the

40:41

special teams coordinator, he

40:44

has a relationship and he coaches everyone on the

40:47

roster at some point in some

40:49

way, shape or form. Like I like

40:51

being able to be a part of that because you

40:54

have you have input in ros

40:57

roster management. You have input in the in

40:59

game situations, you have input in

41:01

guys we sign. There's

41:04

a lot of things that there's a lot of things that factor

41:07

into it. I was talking with my brother the other day, I'm

41:09

like, it is surprising to me that you don't

41:11

see special teams coordinators be or

41:14

get opportunities to be head coaches because at

41:16

the end of the day, there's not a lot of head coaches

41:19

call the plays. So you

41:21

know, I have a I

41:23

have played defense in my history,

41:26

I played safety, I played receiver,

41:29

right, I know both sides of the ball. Well, I can

41:31

manage. I can manage a game. And

41:34

in the same breath, it's like, you know,

41:37

as as the head coach, you're

41:39

really you're managing the game,

41:41

right, do you understand the game. You're managing the game.

41:43

You're in games maning

41:48

that flag.

41:49

Yeah, And I think like that,

41:52

And I know for us, Kevin calls the

41:54

plays. But Kevin also does

41:56

a really good job of like if he didn't call the

41:58

plays, he does a really good job of you

42:01

know, I would say relaying

42:03

a message to the team leading

42:06

managing. You know, me and Schwartz

42:09

also you know now with Ken,

42:11

you know I see Ken doing quite a bit on the offense

42:14

now, but Kevin does a

42:16

great job of building relationships with the

42:18

players and creating an environment, a

42:20

winning environment that everybody likes

42:22

to come to work to be able to

42:24

win. I think that's important. I think the

42:26

relationship piece of it is huge. I

42:29

think that that's definitely one of my strong suits

42:32

and why I've had success. I'm going into my twentieth

42:34

season, so ten

42:36

as a player, going into my tenth as a coach.

42:39

I'm really excited for the opportunity

42:41

to be the special team's coordinator for the Browns, and

42:44

you know, hopefully we can make

42:46

a lot of noise this season.

42:48

Yeah, last couple

42:50

here, the roast of Brady made a lot of

42:52

news. Then Brady gets his jersey retired

42:55

and his number retired and retirement ceremony

42:57

in grand fashion this past week. Your

42:59

best Tom Brady story. If you're in an elevator

43:01

and someone says, you play with Brady for all those years,

43:04

what personifies him the most? You have a personal story

43:06

that you share that you could share.

43:09

I have a lot of I have a lot of Brady stories, but

43:11

one, so there's two that I

43:13

look, there's two that I like so the

43:15

one I was playing receiver. I

43:18

was playing receiver and

43:20

we're in it was in like OTAs

43:23

and he gave me like a signal. He gave

43:25

me a signal and he like, it's like you're like throwing

43:27

a rock. Like you're throwing a rock. So

43:29

it was like two minutes. So I was supposed to run

43:31

this like twelve to fifteen yard out.

43:34

It's called we used to call it like a rock out, and

43:37

it was like a cover five eater, which is like two man.

43:39

So we were he wanted me

43:41

to run the rock and I ran the wrong route

43:43

and he just like dog cussed me. Yeah,

43:46

but what are you doing?

43:49

So after practice I'm like, so I see

43:51

him, like, you know, after he showered

43:53

in the locker room. I'm like, dude, I'm sorry. And

43:55

it was like he like completely forgot about

43:57

He's like about what I was like, I ran

44:00

the wrong route two minutes. He's like he's like, oh

44:02

I don't care about Like that's my yeah. Yeah.

44:05

So so ability to turn

44:08

it on the field and then turn.

44:09

It off, I mean yeah, and he's just he I

44:12

really yeah, Tom's

44:14

Tom's the best, you know, he said. Obviously

44:16

a ton of success and all those Super

44:18

Bowls and just a great dude.

44:21

Do you think he'll be a good broadcaster?

44:23

Are you thinking that maybe it's

44:26

not his fit? What do you think?

44:28

Did you? Did you watch the UFL game the

44:30

other night?

44:30

I did. I saw clips that I thought he

44:32

was amazing. He's breaking down plays on UFL.

44:35

He had he was out there for like I watched,

44:38

he was probably out there for like five minutes in total.

44:40

I thought he did a solid job. It was great,

44:42

and I think he's Look, the

44:45

thing about him is he's not going to get

44:47

like we actually were fortunate enough. He's doing our game,

44:49

I know to start. The thing

44:51

about Tom is like he'll go back,

44:54

He'll go back and watch himself and that just

44:56

that little, that little blurb, and

44:58

going into that opening week, he'll be so prepared

45:01

to talk about every player on e on

45:03

both teams.

45:04

But that scares me. I don't want him to

45:06

be so prepared on every player.

45:08

Just just see the game, talk the game. My

45:11

biggest fear is that he comes in with a playbook

45:13

of six hundred things and this is my sports

45:15

media day and he's like got to hit everything, and that's

45:17

never good. Like I want you just to watch the game and

45:19

tell me what you're seeing.

45:20

Yeah, I don't think he's gonna I don't think it's gonna be so

45:23

like. I don't think he'll be too

45:25

crazy with that stuff. But I think he'll do a really

45:27

good job of, you know, understanding

45:29

what we do offensively and defensively,

45:32

what they do offensively and defensively and in the kicking

45:34

game, and he'll be able to like hit

45:36

on it. Yeah, and he'll yeah,

45:38

and he'll he may even like call out like, hey, they like

45:41

to do a lot of this on on these downs,

45:43

and you'll see what come off, like, you

45:46

know, similar to how like I know Ramo did a good

45:48

job of that when he first started too.

45:49

Yeah.

45:50

Yeah, but no, Tom's great, you

45:52

know he geez. I mean, he gave

45:55

he gave me a lot of opportunity. So

45:58

I'm thankful to him for sure.

46:00

All Right, we're wrapping here, but real quick, show your shirt

46:02

if you can. I love this. This is

46:04

a Beavis and butt headshirt that says, welcome to the

46:06

Dog Pats. You are

46:08

officially in off season mode.

46:11

Tell us what a special teams coordinator

46:13

does on a random Tuesday in

46:16

June after Mini camp and before training

46:18

camp.

46:19

Okay, so I'm

46:21

originally from Pittsburgh, sot

46:26

him. Look, I

46:28

love Pittsburgh, grew up in Pittsburgh. However,

46:31

I'm not a Steelers fan currently obviously,

46:33

I'm a I'm a diehard Browns

46:35

fan. I love the Browns, you know, and

46:38

when I played here, the rivalry, I

46:41

just I love it.

46:42

I do.

46:42

I love it, and and I love Cleveland. I

46:44

love the city of Cleveland. Cleveland's got better food

46:46

than Pittsburgh. That's that's a real

46:48

thing. And I love I love

46:50

the city of Cleveland. But

46:53

today, so my wife and kids

46:55

are still living in Indianapolis.

46:58

So we drove up from Indianapolis to Pittsburgh

47:01

and to see my to see my immediate

47:04

family, my mom and dad, my brother and sisters

47:06

and their families are here. I'm actually at my

47:08

my boys here, my boy's house. Andrew

47:11

Fiorelli, how about that last name?

47:13

What's up my Jersey palace?

47:15

We called it the hom fig And ok

47:17

So we're going to Kennywood

47:20

Park. So Kennywood Park is an amusing park.

47:22

Its outside of Pittsburgh. It's it's

47:24

in West s miflind It's like right outside the city.

47:27

We're talking roller coasters.

47:29

It's like the Dish six

47:32

Flags Ish, but it's like the best amusement

47:34

park in the world. It's unbelievable.

47:38

The listen. There's classic

47:41

roller coasters, there's rides, there's

47:43

great games. The food is

47:45

excellent.

47:46

Mike funnel cakes, funnal cake for days.

47:48

Funnel cakes for days. They got the potato

47:50

patch friese. Just

47:53

just so many things for the kids to do. My kids, my

47:56

son Major, my daughter Ella,

47:58

my other You're gonna love this one

48:00

more thing. So, my my oldest daughter,

48:03

Ava is going to a

48:05

holy Cross women's

48:08

lacrosse camp.

48:09

Guess Belichick. Belichick, Let's

48:11

go. Belichick's daughter is the head coach

48:13

at holy Crosscross.

48:14

So I'm trying to make that. I'm trying

48:16

to get that connection there. My daughter's a really

48:18

good look. She was a freshman to start on the

48:21

varsity in Zionsville. They

48:23

took third in the state. But anyway, hell yeah,

48:25

shout out to my daughter Ava, who's actually

48:28

playing in the tournament this weekend. Also

48:30

in no days of jersey, no days

48:32

off, no.

48:32

No days off. All right, So Kenny Wood today

48:34

you're with your boy. You're with your boys from high school? Is

48:36

that who you're going with I'm going

48:38

with.

48:39

My family, and then a couple of my

48:41

buddies from from around here are going.

48:43

Yeah, dude, that's the life. That's it.

48:45

Joy every single moment. Bubba,

48:47

I appreciate you. You didn't have to do this. Took

48:49

some time out of your vacation to jump on the podcast.

48:52

I'm excited to see this Brown special teams out

48:54

of the gates, running some tricks and all

48:56

sorts of wild plays out of the gates. Let's

48:58

go. I so appreciate

49:00

You've been a guy I've long

49:03

been a fan of and I appreciate you coming on the podcast.

49:06

Thanks, Peter, I appreciate, appreciate

49:09

you have a good summer. Man.

49:10

All right, have an awesome off season. All right, guys, Bubba

49:12

Ventro and Cleveland Brown's assistant head coach

49:14

and special teams coordinator, thanks for joining the

49:16

season.

49:17

Thank you.

49:25

Very cool to talk to, Bubba. Aaron Kenny

49:28

Wood So are

49:31

you aware of it?

49:31

No?

49:32

And actually when he was saying he's going to an amusement

49:34

park, I thought it was Hershey, but because

49:36

that's a.

49:37

Yeah sort of but not

49:39

really Pittsburgh. It's more outside.

49:42

That's a good point.

49:45

I do not I do not like amusement.

49:47

Parks and the same way,

49:49

dude, like it is my hell.

49:52

And I'll tell you something. So my son finished

49:54

first grade, Well that the

49:56

trip, the first grade end of your class trip

49:59

was to Coney Island. And

50:02

I don't have the show right now, Good Morning Football,

50:05

So I'm free, and I'm like, all right, how often

50:07

might maybe a chaperone. I'll be a chaperone to his

50:09

trip. I had anxiety

50:11

for five these kids going on roller

50:13

coasters, as first grade is barely tall enough,

50:15

and I'm watching all these kids running

50:17

around like it just is. Maybe I'm

50:19

a grump. Maybe I'm a grinch. But like when

50:22

he's talking about games and roller

50:24

coasters and water park stuff, like can't

50:26

we read a book? Can't we just put on an old

50:28

like can't we put on like an

50:30

old giants like Cowboys game and just

50:33

sit inside?

50:33

And maybe elementary schoolers

50:35

just watch a game from the seventies.

50:38

Like don't they understand that like Tony

50:40

Dorsett once had a ninety nine yard run on

50:42

Monday night football, Like can't we just want I don't

50:44

know. So Cony Island, I will

50:46

say this surprisingly

50:48

very clean, kid

50:51

friendly and now look, a lot of the schools

50:53

still were in session, so we had like the park

50:55

to ourselves. But some

50:57

of these rides like the cyclone dude

51:00

scary. And there's another one with like the

51:03

sling shot where they like they fling people like helm.

51:06

I don't get it. I'm not a thrill seeker. The

51:08

biggest thrill I have is

51:10

going on live television and you know, trying

51:12

not to trip up my words, that's that's

51:14

my throw.

51:15

I do it.

51:15

I love you know, on this podcast, and trying

51:18

to walk that tight rope every day.

51:20

Yeah.

51:20

I also I can't do rides.

51:23

I as a kid would go on

51:25

like class trips like what your son went on, and I

51:27

would be the one who would stay at thet

51:29

like and hold everybody's bags.

51:31

Well, would you.

51:31

Get teased or were you just like no, I

51:33

mean it was just like I think at

51:35

some point they're so excited to go on the roller coaster

51:38

they didn't care who didn't go.

51:39

So totally totally so Kenny

51:42

Wood, neither one of us can wagh in on it. I

51:45

grew up literally five minutes from six

51:48

Flags Great Adventure in Jersey,

51:50

like five minutes, and my friends would

51:52

buy seasoned passes and go. Then

51:54

I would go, and then I would go with them and like

51:57

shoot baskets at like the carnival

51:59

game where like you do not make the shot and just

52:01

like give away fifty dollars every time,

52:03

and now the Scream Machine and Rolling Thunder

52:06

and all these things.

52:07

I hate waiting in line and the thought of like,

52:09

hey, let's go spend the summer day in

52:12

the heat, waiting in line heat for

52:14

a ride that's forty five.

52:16

And that food is not good, Like,

52:18

yeah, Coney Island has Nathan's and that's cool.

52:20

By the way, we could do a whole podcast on

52:22

the Joey Chestnut situation. Oh yeah,

52:25

me going to Coney Island and buying Nathan's.

52:27

Like, I hope no one saw me in the media. I

52:29

was not. I'm not aligned with Nathan's on this.

52:31

I am team Chestnut. If he wants to make some money

52:33

off the off the side from the Impossible Burger people,

52:36

he should feel the freedom

52:38

to do so. But I felt like I was like a

52:42

like, what's it like when the writer's strike

52:44

was like a line?

52:47

Yeah, like going and supporting Nathan's. No,

52:49

no, no, no, I'm team Chestnut.

52:51

Yeah, I got some I got some hot dog eating contest

52:53

dirt for you after.

52:54

Do you have any takes? Can you do it on here? I would like to

52:56

hear.

52:57

Yeah, So, I mean there

52:59

is we could we.

53:00

Could do a podcast about competitive eating if you want

53:02

to. There's more going on there than football right now.

53:04

Yeah, there's a there's a great

53:07

Instagram guy that I follow who does like

53:09

really wild competitive eating things. That's

53:11

a whole other world. Yeah, it's wild

53:14

how into that people are. But

53:17

I mean also part of the big deal was

53:20

Chestnut's big rival, Kobyashi, like

53:23

being he's been sort of

53:25

discriminated against by hot

53:27

dog eating contests for years and he retired

53:30

because of it. But

53:32

yeah, I think they're

53:35

not by any means the most. Do

53:38

you think orization July

53:40

fourth? Do you think we see Chestnut

53:42

at Nathan We're a couple of weeks out. Do

53:44

you think Joey Chestnut is at the Nathan side? Do they

53:47

do they resolve this somehow somewhere? Yeah, because I

53:49

think at the end of the day, he's not going to have a bigger July

53:51

fourth platform like he's got there

53:54

unless impossible he bends.

53:56

Do you think he bends? I figured they would bend to be like, what

53:58

are we without him?

53:59

Yeah? Yeah, I guess both of them

54:01

kind of compromise and meet in the middle. Unless,

54:04

unless, if I'm the mediates an

54:06

impossible burger, I'm desperately trying to set

54:08

up an yeah, a rival

54:11

competition at you know, I don't

54:13

know, Cape cod or whatever, like totally

54:15

something else, and that could work.

54:17

That'd be fun.

54:18

It'll be good. On that note, Let's

54:20

do this again next week. Aaron Wan Kaufman,

54:22

Jason English, the entire

54:25

iHeart An NFL podcast

54:28

team. This is the Season

54:30

with Peter Schrager. Enjoy your new kickoff, Real Spokes.

54:39

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54:42

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54:45

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