# Rondé Barber on Leadership, Championship Culture & the Hall of Fame | On the Line with Jim Pyne

An episode of [On The Line with Jim Pyne](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6794668286), 6 Aug 2026, 50 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2632213/episodes/19608485-ronde-barber-on-leadership-championship-culture-the-hall-of-fame-on-the-line-with-jim-pyne.mp3

What does it take to build a Hall of Fame career? In this episode of On the Line with Jim Pyne, Jim sits down with Pro Football Hall of Famer, Super Bowl Champion, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers legend Rondé Barber for an in-depth conversation about leadership, preparation, resilience, and what it takes to sustain excellence over an extraordinary NFL career. One of the greatest defensive players in NFL history, Rondé spent all 16 seasons of his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, helping lead the franchise to its first Super Bowl championship while becoming one of the most respected leaders in the game. In this episode, Rondé shares: • His journey from Virginia to the NFL • The mindset behind a Hall of Fame career • Lessons learned from Tony Dungy, Jon Gruden, and Monte Kiffin • Building a championship culture • The importance of preparation and consistency • Leadership inside an NFL locker room • Life after football and finding new purpose • His Pro Football Hall of Fame experience Whether you're a coach, executive, entrepreneur, athlete, or someone striving to become a better leader, this conversation is filled with practical wisdom and inspiring stories that extend far beyond football. If you enjoyed this episode, please Like, Subscribe, and Share to help us continue bringing conversations with some of the world's top leaders in sports, business, and life. Watch and listen to more episodes: 🎙️ Buzzsprout: https://onthelinewithjimpyne.buzzsprout.com 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@OnTheLineWithJimPyne Follow Jim Pyne: 📱 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-pyne-203a9aa #RondeBarber #JimPyne #OnTheLine #NFL #HallOfFame #TampaBayBuccaneers #Leadership #SuperBowl #Football #Podcast #Culture #Winning Support the show Connect with Jim Pyne Thanks for listening to On the Line with Jim Pyne. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the show, leave a rating and review, and share it with a friend. Your support helps us bring you more conversations with the leaders, innovators, and game changers shaping sports, business, and entertainment. Follow Jim on LinkedIn and social media for updates on future episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive clips. New episodes released often!

## Transcript

[0:04] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to On the Line with Jim Pine.
[0:06] SPEAKER_01: I'm Jim Pine.
[0:07] SPEAKER_01: This episode is brought to you by PLS Aviation.
[0:10] SPEAKER_01: Private aviation perfectly executed.
[0:13] SPEAKER_01: Now let's get on the line.
[0:14] SPEAKER_01: Today I wanted to welcome a legendary player from his playing days in Tampa, 16 years as a buccaneer, an Iron Man.
[0:20] SPEAKER_01: When you look at the fact that he full-time starter for 14 years straight for one franchise, capped off at a Hall of Fame induction.
[0:27] SPEAKER_01: You gotta say, but he's a true Hall of Fame guy.
[0:29] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to On the Line with Jim Pine Ronde Barber.
[0:32] SPEAKER_04: What's up, Jimmy?
[0:32] SPEAKER_04: How are you, man?
[0:34] SPEAKER_01: Doing good, man.
[0:36] SPEAKER_04: You're lucky that I don't hold your being a hokey against me after all these years.
[0:40] SPEAKER_04: It's been 29 years.
[0:43] SPEAKER_04: I still don't hold it against you.
[0:44] SPEAKER_04: I'll do your show whenever you want.
[0:46] SPEAKER_01: I put the helmet down over there.
[0:48] SPEAKER_01: I hit the helmet.
[0:50] SPEAKER_01: I hit the helmet.
[0:51] SPEAKER_01: But absolutely, you know, it's funny.
[0:53] SPEAKER_01: You bring up the obviously Ronday, a Virginia cavalier.
[0:56] SPEAKER_01: And I you know a lot of my great friends that I played in the league with were Virginia guys.
[1:00] SPEAKER_01: You know, it was big rivalry on the field.
[1:02] SPEAKER_01: We all but same similar guys from the same areas a lot of times, and but good guys, and always had fun with you.
[1:08] SPEAKER_01: Especially you're a great guy through the years.
[1:11] SPEAKER_04: Well, I uh I have the distinction of having two parents that graduated from tech, and uh rivalry still goes with my mom, even though we we finally had a year that I could like be proud of, uh, and we finally beat the hookies, which I think is it the Commonwealth Cup resides up in uh Charlottesville, right?
[1:33] SPEAKER_04: Finally got it in Charlottesville, so yeah.
[1:35] SPEAKER_04: But I uh just just because we're um on other sides of the state doesn't mean we're not we're not buddies.
[1:40] SPEAKER_04: I I reflect back a lot on my playing career um in Tampa, and there was a good number of tech guys that came through there.
[1:47] SPEAKER_04: Uh good well, a good number of Virginia guys too, but a good like more tech guys that came through there.
[1:52] SPEAKER_04: And it's funny how um like you like you said, that uh you know we we that that rivalry didn't translate to anything other than friendship once once you got away from the rivalry.
[2:03] SPEAKER_01: So 100%.
[2:04] SPEAKER_01: I played a lot of Virginia guys.
[2:06] SPEAKER_01: I went up, you know, I went up to after Tampa, I went up to Detroit, uh, Ray Roberts, Herman Moore, Tony Covington, all good guys, man.
[2:13] SPEAKER_01: We loved, you know, the one week a year.
[2:14] SPEAKER_01: Well, ah, we're gonna beat you guys.
[2:16] SPEAKER_01: But everyone, they're all cool guys.
[2:18] SPEAKER_01: We all respected each other.
[2:19] SPEAKER_04: So I still have I still have to this day, whether it's football or basketball, a friendly hundred dollar bet with Bruce Arians.
[2:26] SPEAKER_01: Every single coach Bruce, yeah, great hokey, great.
[2:31] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's uh and I know he long history with him, so uh yeah, great, great guy, great, great rivalry.
[2:37] SPEAKER_01: Again, you grew up in Roanoke, right?
[2:38] SPEAKER_01: I mean, did you went to high school in Roanoke, right?
[2:41] SPEAKER_04: High school in Roanoke, went to K-Spring High School, went to Hidden Valley Junior High, and then went to K-spring high school.
[2:45] SPEAKER_04: Now there's if you look at talk about it now, there's actually a Hidden Valley High School.
[2:49] SPEAKER_04: Uh, but no, all of us uh went to the same county school uh county high school in Roanoke.
[2:55] SPEAKER_04: Um, and it was uh, I mean, small town, but felt huge until you get out of there and you're like, okay, it's not so big of a town.
[3:04] SPEAKER_04: Uh, but great place to grow up, man.
[3:06] SPEAKER_04: I uh it's where I I don't want to say I cut my chops there because Tiki and I pretty much dominated sports there.
[3:12] SPEAKER_04: Uh but it gave but it gave us our stepping stone in into into college at Virginia, and then from there on.
[3:18] SPEAKER_04: But um I I try to like give a lot of credit to Roanoke and mostly because it was so small, uh, it helped me it kept me humble and hungry for a lot, a lot of years.
[3:30] SPEAKER_04: Just having that small town feel and remembering the people that helped get me to where I was.
[3:35] SPEAKER_04: Like it like I I never got outside of um, I guess my if you could say my britches, would you say, uh uh of like trying to feel like I was big time.
[3:44] SPEAKER_04: I never felt big time because I was from such a small hometown.
[3:47] SPEAKER_04: Um and uh I I know that uh T and I we talk about it pretty pretty often.
[3:52] SPEAKER_04: You know, that humble upbringing and having a single parent and but also having a bunch of friends that kind of were looking up to us through all those years helped us get to where we were.
[4:01] SPEAKER_04: So I I give a lot of credit to Roanoke, man.
[4:03] SPEAKER_04: It's a it's a great town.
[4:05] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's awesome.
[4:06] SPEAKER_04: What do we call it?
[4:06] SPEAKER_04: Uh the big lick, Star City of the South.
[4:09] SPEAKER_04: That's what we are.
[4:09] SPEAKER_01: That's right.
[4:10] SPEAKER_01: Well, and a lot of people don't know.
[4:11] SPEAKER_01: Roanoke is I I know Roanoke because I went to Virginia Tech.
[4:14] SPEAKER_01: I grew up in Massachusetts, and the place you'd have to fly into is Roanoke to get the Blacksburg.
[4:19] SPEAKER_01: So I I here's a question for you.
[4:21] SPEAKER_01: Who was recruiting you for you guys from Virginia Tech?
[4:24] SPEAKER_01: What coach?
[4:24] SPEAKER_01: Who had you guys?
[4:25] SPEAKER_01: Because I don't think you did a good job.
[4:28] SPEAKER_01: Maybe you didn't have a chance either, though.
[4:30] SPEAKER_04: Jim, this is funny.
[4:31] SPEAKER_04: This is a funny question because if it was a really big push, I would I remember who it is.
[4:38] SPEAKER_04: I don't remember who it is.
[4:39] SPEAKER_04: I have no idea.
[4:40] SPEAKER_04: Like, I don't remember.
[4:41] SPEAKER_01: They didn't recruit you well enough then, Harley.
[4:43] SPEAKER_04: Of course they recruited us.
[4:44] SPEAKER_04: I just don't remember who it was.
[4:45] SPEAKER_04: So it must not have been like a full blown push, or maybe there was uh, you know, a sense that because my dad played there and we the proximity, like you said, to Roanoke, and a lot of my friends and you know, uh high school uh friends went to Virginia Tech that maybe it was foregone that we were considering it.
[5:02] SPEAKER_04: But I mean, if I'm being blunt and honest, we never even thought about it.
[5:07] SPEAKER_04: We were going to Virginia the whole way.
[5:09] SPEAKER_04: Uh and mostly yeah, mostly there were two reasons.
[5:12] SPEAKER_04: Uh obviously the football team uh in George Wells was legendary at that time.
[5:17] SPEAKER_04: And and when I went to school, probably not as much so when you went to school, but when I went to school, Virginia was by by far the better program.
[5:26] SPEAKER_04: And then during my years is when tech and beamer balls started to to rise up.
[5:31] SPEAKER_04: But also my brother was valid, Tiki was valid to remember high school, and it was just this sense that Virginia was a better fit for him because of the academics.
[5:39] SPEAKER_04: Um and and I don't know if that you know ultimately is true or not.
[5:44] SPEAKER_04: Academics was what it was.
[5:45] SPEAKER_04: We both did well in school, but uh it was mostly because, yeah, the George Welsh and the Cavaliers, when I was a freshman in high school, were ranked number one in the country for for a couple of weeks, you know.
[5:57] SPEAKER_04: And then all of a sudden, uh Herman Moore, Sean Moore, you know, Chris Slade, Terry Kirby, I just had these this list of names of people that ended up playing in NFL.
[6:07] SPEAKER_04: And that there was a draw there.
[6:09] SPEAKER_04: Uh, and that's what uh that's what ultimately took us to Charlottesville.
[6:12] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely.
[6:13] SPEAKER_01: To your point, I'm so I was a few years older than you.
[6:16] SPEAKER_01: The um, you know, George Welsh was a great coach.
[6:19] SPEAKER_01: And my years at tech, I went two and two against Virginia.
[6:22] SPEAKER_01: My freshman year, you guys, they were number one in the country.
[6:25] SPEAKER_01: We beat them at the end of the year.
[6:26] SPEAKER_01: They lost a game or two, great win.
[6:28] SPEAKER_01: Then then my two middle years we lost.
[6:30] SPEAKER_01: My senior we won, and that started Beamer.
[6:33] SPEAKER_01: Beamer almost got fired my junior year.
[6:35] SPEAKER_01: Senior year they we won.
[6:36] SPEAKER_01: We went nine and three, and he went to a bowl game, and he went to like 28 straight.
[6:40] SPEAKER_01: So that started the whole beamer ball thing and stuff.
[6:43] SPEAKER_01: But to your point, yeah, Virginia was it was the top, one of the top in the country at the time for sure.
[6:47] SPEAKER_01: So I it's beamer did his thing.
[6:49] SPEAKER_04: You were two and two?
[6:50] SPEAKER_04: I was one and three.
[6:52] SPEAKER_04: We lost three times in tech.
[6:55] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[6:57] SPEAKER_04: We're supposed to be better.
[6:58] SPEAKER_04: Come on, man.
[6:59] SPEAKER_04: But um, it was fun.
[7:00] SPEAKER_04: Great robberies, a lot of memories from those games, man.
[7:03] SPEAKER_04: Uh like I could uh I could probably regurgitate them all, but uh because we lost, I've selectively forgotten them.
[7:10] SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
[7:11] SPEAKER_01: Now you black them out, right?
[7:13] SPEAKER_01: I don't remember those.
[7:14] SPEAKER_01: But a great time, great robbery.
[7:16] SPEAKER_01: So then, you know, interesting too.
[7:17] SPEAKER_01: Well, you and I, it's interesting.
[7:18] SPEAKER_01: I look back as I was getting ready for the the show here.
[7:20] SPEAKER_01: You know, so 97, you're a rookie.
[7:23] SPEAKER_01: I'm in my fourth year in Tampa Bay.
[7:25] SPEAKER_01: You come into the team, and then I'll get we'll cover some of the stuff.
[7:28] SPEAKER_01: But then years later, I came back as a coach.
[7:30] SPEAKER_01: I was on John Gruden's staff for two years.
[7:32] SPEAKER_01: Yep.
[7:33] SPEAKER_01: So I I guess I coached you for uh I didn't coach you, you know, I taught you everything you know, right?
[7:37] SPEAKER_01: Push you in the hall of fame.
[7:38] SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Ronda.
[7:39] SPEAKER_01: No, but I was there, you know, Mike Tomlin, Raheem Morris, you know, Herm Edwards were your guys.
[7:43] SPEAKER_01: So I was around all those guys.
[7:44] SPEAKER_01: And then years later, at the end, end of your career, last year, I was there, Greg Sciano.
[7:48] SPEAKER_01: I was uh I was in the sales department, I was the chief partnership officer.
[7:52] SPEAKER_01: So I got to see a lot of your career, and you know, I was proud of you and happy for you.
[7:55] SPEAKER_01: All the the amazing to again, as a guy that played, you know, to go as long as you did at one place and be able to play all those games in a violent game.
[8:04] SPEAKER_01: That's hats off to you on that.
[8:05] SPEAKER_01: And I mean, how did you do that?
[8:07] SPEAKER_01: How did what was your secret to staying healthy so long?
[8:10] SPEAKER_04: Before I go into that, I gotta like I gotta ask you a question.
[8:13] SPEAKER_04: Are you the only person to ever hold player, coach, and and like not even front office?
[8:21] SPEAKER_04: That's like on the other side of the building.
[8:24] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, it's funny.
[8:26] SPEAKER_01: When I left the when I left the bucks, I told Brian Glazer, he said, what are we gonna do to keep you?
[8:29] SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, I see I want to own part of the team.
[8:31] SPEAKER_01: I said, uh I've done everything else.
[8:32] SPEAKER_01: Can I own part of it?
[8:33] SPEAKER_01: He's like, Yeah, you can own the bathroom over there.
[8:35] SPEAKER_01: I said, Nah, okay.
[8:36] SPEAKER_01: I'll be back, I'll be back to own the team someday.
[8:38] SPEAKER_01: But yeah, no, I I did a bunch of things and I keep keep going, right?
[8:42] SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
[8:43] SPEAKER_04: Taking the next opportunity, which is really, if you're describing uh you know how I played so long, it was it's that I took took advantage of a lot of opportunities.
[8:53] SPEAKER_04: First off, like you mentioned at the top, um, played four started 14 straight years.
[8:59] SPEAKER_04: Never I didn't miss a game for 15 years uh in a box uniform.
[9:03] SPEAKER_04: And it would have been 16, but as you know, I didn't play at all.
[9:06] SPEAKER_04: My rookie year, I was uh I had a red shirt year, my my first year in the NFL.
[9:12] SPEAKER_04: Um, but I I realized uh from early like uh like age in the NFL that the opportunities come, but they go away away really quickly.
[9:25] SPEAKER_04: And so um when Anthony Parker, you'll remember Anthony Parker, he was a corner that started ahead of me in 1998, which was my second year, he got hurt and I got to play a couple games, and you get that itch, you know, like oh, I can do this, you know?
[9:40] SPEAKER_04: It's not that much different, and six finding success is not that much different than it's always been.
[9:44] SPEAKER_04: But then I put the work in, and Anthony never really saw his job again because what I was doing was as good as Anthony's doing.
[9:52] SPEAKER_04: Obviously, I was cheaper than Anthony, I was a little bit more dynamic than Anthony, but Anthony taught me a lot in a year and a half, and so in my in my mind, I had that uh uh like kind of that path that guy came in, I came in behind a guy, he got hurt, I took his job, he never saw his job again.
[10:11] SPEAKER_04: The same thing, Jim, is funny, happened to me in high school and college.
[10:16] SPEAKER_04: So I took high school is uh 10th grade was our our first year able to play on the varsity team in high school.
[10:23] SPEAKER_04: Well, I went in, uh I wasn't starting, I wasn't playing.
[10:26] SPEAKER_04: Uh there's a guy, Todd Dowdy, who was starting at safety, who I was behind.
[10:30] SPEAKER_04: Tiki was of course starting because he's he's Tiki, right?
[10:34] SPEAKER_01: That's right.
[10:35] SPEAKER_04: Todd Dowdy, about halfway through that that 10th grade year, my 10th grade year, he got hurt and I got a chance to play and went with it, ran with it.
[10:44] SPEAKER_04: That was my my opportunity.
[10:45] SPEAKER_04: College, I get there.
[10:47] SPEAKER_04: First year, I get redshirted, which not a lot of people know because I only played four years there, but I got redshirted.
[10:53] SPEAKER_04: Uh, and then my redshirt freshman year, I took the opportunity and just ran with it, man.
[10:58] SPEAKER_04: It was ACC player of the year or rookie of the year, first all AC team.
[11:02] SPEAKER_04: I was all first year being an all-American.
[11:05] SPEAKER_04: And so I kind of had the blueprint of how I wanted to play uh and and succeed in the NFL.
[11:12] SPEAKER_04: And it happened again.
[11:13] SPEAKER_04: Like I got I got redshirted basically, got a chance to play, and then took off.
[11:18] SPEAKER_04: And so back of my mind, Jim, I never wanted to not play, never wanted to may have an injury or an excuse or anything to kept me off the field.
[11:28] SPEAKER_04: And so I did whatever it took.
[11:30] SPEAKER_04: And that included playing through stuff I shouldn't have played through, right?
[11:34] SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
[11:35] SPEAKER_04: My first interception for a touchdown, you can go back and watch this.
[11:38] SPEAKER_04: It was against the Jets.
[11:39] SPEAKER_04: I think it was 99.
[11:40] SPEAKER_04: Uh Vinny Tester Burton, I give him crap about this all the time because he was my first one.
[11:45] SPEAKER_04: But he's trying to throw a little swing pass to Wayne Krebett, kind of step in front of it, scored.
[11:50] SPEAKER_04: If you go and watch that tape, I'm limping to the end zone because I had a pulled quad that I refused to not play with.
[11:56] SPEAKER_04: There's no way I should have played in that game, right?
[11:58] SPEAKER_04: I had a pulled quad.
[12:00] SPEAKER_04: I was like, I'm playing, I'm playing, I wrapped it up, you know, took a turtle shot, whatever type, uh, and uh and went and played.
[12:06] SPEAKER_04: And that like that mentality persisted for the next you know, 12 years, 13 years in my NFL career.
[12:13] SPEAKER_04: Uh, and I never wanted to not do my job because I did not, I would rather not have to watch somebody else do my job and maybe get the opportunity to take it from me.
[12:24] SPEAKER_04: Um, so uh you can call it scars if you want, but the reality is I was I was persistent, man.
[12:31] SPEAKER_04: I was I wasn't gonna let anything keep me from going.
[12:33] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's impressive though.
[12:35] SPEAKER_01: Like you said, you it's happened to you three times.
[12:37] SPEAKER_01: I have things in my life that's the same thing.
[12:38] SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, you went, you kind of you're a very smart guy, too.
[12:41] SPEAKER_01: I played with you, I know you've been around you.
[12:43] SPEAKER_01: Sharp guy.
[12:44] SPEAKER_01: You know, some of the other guys in the league we play with, right?
[12:46] SPEAKER_01: Aren't that isn't their strength, right?
[12:47] SPEAKER_01: But you're a very smart guy.
[12:48] SPEAKER_01: So I know you went in, you studied it, you learned, you look watched what the other guys do, what I got to do, and then you got your opportunity, you went in, and the rest is literally history.
[12:56] SPEAKER_01: Here we are.
[12:57] SPEAKER_01: So I mean it's the other big part too, which is amazing, you know, again, as an offensive lineman, right?
[13:02] SPEAKER_01: Sacks and this and that.
[13:03] SPEAKER_01: You're the all-time interception sack leader, which is great.
[13:06] SPEAKER_01: I know Monty used to draw him up to the blitzes and stuff, but bringing the corner or the slot blitz, right?
[13:13] SPEAKER_01: That was what your specialty.
[13:14] SPEAKER_01: And it's not just a gimmick, too.
[13:16] SPEAKER_01: I I know you guys played against you too at other teams in Detroit, Cleveland places.
[13:20] SPEAKER_01: I know we had to watch out for you because you were very crafty, sneaky, you're coming off the edge and stuff.
[13:25] SPEAKER_01: That you were a guy that hey, most of the time is an offensive tackle or a line, but you know you know, the DB is gonna run from you, but you knew how to take even rush to go get the sack, which was very, very impressive.
[13:34] SPEAKER_01: So, how did you learn to do that?
[13:36] SPEAKER_01: Where'd that come from?
[13:37] SPEAKER_01: The pass rush ability.
[13:38] SPEAKER_04: That's funny.
[13:39] SPEAKER_04: Well, I happened to play again with, as you played with him too, with one of the greatest sack artists ever, Warren Sapp.
[13:45] SPEAKER_04: And Warren told me something very early in my career, and I and I never forgot it.
[13:50] SPEAKER_04: He goes, in order to get to the, there's a direct line to the quarterback, wherever he's gonna drop to, and when you figure that out on a run when you're when you're blitzing, it's easier from my position than from Warren's.
[14:02] SPEAKER_04: But there's a straight line wherever you're coming from from the quarterback to the quarterback.
[14:06] SPEAKER_04: And he's like, however far you get deviated off that line, he forgot how he said it, but this is how I took it.
[14:12] SPEAKER_04: However far you get deviated off that line, the harder it is for you to get sacks.
[14:17] SPEAKER_04: And so in my mind, when I was blitzing, I was always trying to get whoever was trying to block me to deviate.
[14:24] SPEAKER_04: Like, so I knew or I knew I wanted to be on this line, but I was trying to make this guy go that way so I could get back on my line.
[14:32] SPEAKER_04: And I've never told a lot of people this, but like essentially all it is.
[14:37] SPEAKER_04: Like, find a straight line and get people off your straight line.
[14:40] SPEAKER_04: Now, a lot of that means you know, dinking and dunking and you know, kind of weaving and trying to get them to move their feet so you can get back to your line.
[14:48] SPEAKER_04: But in the back of my head, I just knew I had a straight line.
[14:50] SPEAKER_04: That's all that's all I wanted to do.
[14:52] SPEAKER_04: Get them off my straight line and get to the quarterback.
[14:54] SPEAKER_04: Uh, a lot of times I could do that with speed, you know, but more often than not, it was just fainting, you know, making, you know, head, head movement, you know, if you if they if they did bend me, get right back online and get and get to the quarterback.
[15:09] SPEAKER_04: So um he drew up some blitzes, but they weren't complicated.
[15:15] SPEAKER_04: They were just they gave me a chance to beat one guy.
[15:18] SPEAKER_04: And if I always said, if one guy can block me, then I don't deserve that sack.
[15:21] SPEAKER_04: Uh so I I was fortunate, man.
[15:24] SPEAKER_04: Because he and he called him all the time.
[15:25] SPEAKER_04: You know that.
[15:26] SPEAKER_04: I mean, it was like Yeah, yeah.
[15:27] SPEAKER_04: He Monty would get pissed, like they'd be moving down.
[15:30] SPEAKER_04: I'd say I tell this all the time, but Monty would be get pissed because they'd be moving the ball down the field.
[15:34] SPEAKER_04: Maybe they'd get a third down and be like, oh, you know, and you could just see it in the back of his head.
[15:38] SPEAKER_04: There comes a blitz.
[15:39] SPEAKER_04: He's gonna blitz the next three times.
[15:40] SPEAKER_04: Like the next three snaps are gonna be blitzes.
[15:42] SPEAKER_04: And so I just sit there waiting for my opportunity to go get one.
[15:46] SPEAKER_04: Um, but we had we had a good system, man.
[15:49] SPEAKER_04: It wasn't just me.
[15:50] SPEAKER_04: I obviously I produced a lot out of it, but our system allowed our players to kind of be individuals uh within the system because it wasn't complicated.
[15:59] SPEAKER_04: They weren't asking us to do a thousand different things, right?
[16:03] SPEAKER_04: Hey, you got to do this on this play.
[16:04] SPEAKER_04: On this play, you got to do that.
[16:05] SPEAKER_04: On this snap, you got to do that.
[16:06] SPEAKER_04: And if this formation changed, then you're doing it.
[16:09] SPEAKER_04: Well, we weren't like that.
[16:10] SPEAKER_04: We were like, put us in a position where one guy can win, and if one guy wins, the team wins.
[16:15] SPEAKER_04: And that's why we have so many great individual players on our defense during those years.
[16:20] SPEAKER_04: I mean, four of them are in the hall of fame for a reason, uh, because it allowed us to shine.
[16:25] SPEAKER_04: Uh, it wasn't we didn't d dumb ourselves down by over uh um you know, over uh over like stimulating our our assignments or anything.
[16:35] SPEAKER_04: They were simple and direct and let your athlete athlete and athleticism take over and win.
[16:40] SPEAKER_01: And you bring up that point, and I can remember playing against the Bucs.
[16:44] SPEAKER_01: Obviously, I played with you guys and played against you with different teams, but coming down, that was always the thing, you guys, very talented up front, speed, speed, speed.
[16:52] SPEAKER_01: You know, sap was sap.
[16:53] SPEAKER_01: He's inside, you had to you had to know where he was.
[16:55] SPEAKER_01: Brooks was fast behind him, Lynch was coming up to knock your head off, and you had you in the corner.
[16:59] SPEAKER_01: The thing was, is like as an offense, you try yeah, the key to try to move the ball, and you guys is be patient, take what they give you, take the but nobody could do it.
[17:07] SPEAKER_01: They're the guy calling the play is like, oh no, hey man, let's take our shot.
[17:11] SPEAKER_01: Let's let's stand back there.
[17:12] SPEAKER_01: An extra second.
[17:13] SPEAKER_01: Here comes Tapas, someone off the end.
[17:15] SPEAKER_02: Simeon, right?
[17:16] SPEAKER_01: Simeon, right?
[17:17] SPEAKER_01: And then or then, hey, we can throw it over here.
[17:19] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, these guys are open and cover two, and and if ball's getting tipped, picked off in the turnover, and that that's we get out of get out of sequence, and that's how you lose the game.
[17:27] SPEAKER_04: You just triggered something that I know that Monty said every single day, if not every hour of practice and game, but teams are not gonna be patient enough to go the length of the field.
[17:38] SPEAKER_04: That's a he said that so many times.
[17:41] SPEAKER_04: And when you're young, it's funny, when you're young, you're like, what are you talking about being patient?
[17:45] SPEAKER_04: Like, patient, like football's not patient.
[17:48] SPEAKER_04: He's like, no, but what he was saying was teams are gonna get anxious.
[17:51] SPEAKER_04: They want the big play, they want to try the you know, the the seven-step drop back and try to beat somebody up.
[17:58] SPEAKER_04: You know, take what you're giving.
[18:00] SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
[18:01] SPEAKER_01: Take what you give, move the ball methodically, and then if you can run the ball, run the ball.
[18:04] SPEAKER_01: But you know, they dig to your point, these coordinators who see it from a quarterback lens, just receiver, hey, you're line, just block them up, and we'll we got it.
[18:12] SPEAKER_01: We're gonna this guy's open deep.
[18:13] SPEAKER_01: I used to love that one.
[18:14] SPEAKER_01: Like a guy's oh, look at what we have real deep.
[18:16] SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, look what I got in front of me, guys running me over and trying to kill me, right?
[18:21] SPEAKER_01: Which is funny.
[18:23] SPEAKER_01: I guess now ask it too.
[18:24] SPEAKER_01: That's just great stuff.
[18:25] SPEAKER_01: I guess you get there your rookie year.
[18:28] SPEAKER_01: You what what did you think when you walk in the locker room as a rookie?
[18:31] SPEAKER_01: I know you you said you're red shirted basically.
[18:33] unknown: Right.
[18:33] SPEAKER_01: You know, you get to the pros, you're there, you're third round pick.
[18:36] SPEAKER_01: Did you did you when did you say, hey, I I can do this, I can I I fit in, I belong.
[18:40] SPEAKER_01: When did it all click to you?
[18:42] SPEAKER_04: So the first thing I said when I walked in the building is, Are you serious?
[18:45] SPEAKER_04: This is our building.
[18:48] SPEAKER_01: That's right.
[18:49] SPEAKER_01: The old one buck.
[18:51] SPEAKER_04: Next to the next to the air air strip.
[18:53] SPEAKER_04: I mean, we got fumes all day, every day.
[18:55] SPEAKER_04: We didn't need crowd noise like they simulate now.
[18:57] SPEAKER_04: We just listened, we just waited for the jet to take off.
[19:00] SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, outdoor weight room.
[19:02] SPEAKER_04: You know, it's the strip.
[19:03] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, muscle beach, right?
[19:04] SPEAKER_00: No, there's no beach, it was just the runway, like you said.
[19:07] SPEAKER_04: I think the gym in anybody's house right now is bigger than the one we had to we had to work out in.
[19:13] SPEAKER_04: Um but yeah, the first thing I thought was um this was a talented football team.
[19:19] SPEAKER_04: I knew that.
[19:20] SPEAKER_04: And I knew from the beginning that it was going to be hard to crack into the into that team because you could feel like the excellence that was there, or at least the attitude, the the pursuit of the excellent that was there.
[19:32] SPEAKER_04: Started with Hardy when I was there, on my side of the ball.
[19:35] SPEAKER_04: I started with Hardy Nickerson, who was you know our unquestioned leader at that time, you know, then passing the buck to Derek and to the degree Warren and John.
[19:44] SPEAKER_04: But you know, Hardy's attitude uh was so intense that more so than I had ever seen.
[19:52] SPEAKER_04: Play with some really good players in college, but I had never been around a guy that was just full-on, you know, this is what we do, this is our livelihood, this is our life, and we're doing 100 miles an hour every single day, type of attitude.
[20:06] SPEAKER_04: And so when I first got there, I I I didn't have that.
[20:10] SPEAKER_04: And if you asked some of the coaches that were around me then, uh especially Herm Edwards, and he Herm told me this to my face early uh in my in my years in Tampa.
[20:19] SPEAKER_04: He's like, you gotta learn how to be a pro.
[20:21] SPEAKER_04: And I had no idea what he's talking about.
[20:23] SPEAKER_04: Like, be a pro, what do you mean?
[20:24] SPEAKER_04: I'm just here to like try to make the team and try to earn a spot.
[20:28] SPEAKER_04: Like, no, you do that by learning to be a pro.
[20:30] SPEAKER_04: And being a pro is like doing all little things, right?
[20:33] SPEAKER_04: Showing up on time, obviously, uh, but you know, doing the extra work, you know, taking the extra reps, you know, finding a way to you know perfect your craft.
[20:41] SPEAKER_04: And so that retro year actually call it retro year, but that first year actually helped me learn how to do that because I I didn't have the pressure of having to play.
[20:50] SPEAKER_04: Um I don't know how often or how how uh prevalent it is these days to allow young players to do that.
[20:58] SPEAKER_04: Or like I dressed one time, like I put on a one time that year, um, but they didn't give up on me and they let me like develop over the year.
[21:08] SPEAKER_04: And I think it was rare, to be honest with you.
[21:10] SPEAKER_04: I know a lot of guys that I played with were like, oh, you're gonna get your opportunity, you're gonna get your opportunity.
[21:14] SPEAKER_04: I never I didn't feel like I was gonna get my opportunity.
[21:16] SPEAKER_04: So all I was doing was going to practice every week.
[21:19] SPEAKER_04: I like I practiced so hard that year, and by the end of the year, like I felt myself as a better player, and I kind of started to understand what it meant to be a pro.
[21:29] SPEAKER_04: And then I don't know if you'll remember this, but we made we made the playoffs that year.
[21:33] SPEAKER_04: We beat Detroit at home.
[21:35] SPEAKER_04: Our second playoff game that year was at Green Bay.
[21:39] SPEAKER_04: And yeah, I was treating him like a regular week.
[21:42] SPEAKER_04: I was just gonna go practice or whatever.
[21:44] SPEAKER_04: And Herm came up to me like on Monday of that week.
[21:47] SPEAKER_04: He's like, You're gonna be happy this week.
[21:49] SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, I'm happy every week, Herm.
[21:51] SPEAKER_04: I'm not here to get better.
[21:52] SPEAKER_04: He goes, No, you're playing.
[21:54] SPEAKER_04: And I was like, What?
[21:55] SPEAKER_04: And it wasn't just like getting a jersey to go play special teams.
[21:59] SPEAKER_04: Like I Was the start nickel that game, the second playoff game of the year, after having played one game my entire rookie year.
[22:07] SPEAKER_04: And that kind of was the, you know, that was it wasn't a launching pad, but that was like me stepping onto the launching pad to what happened that the following years.
[22:16] SPEAKER_04: So it was um it was a it was a learning curve, you know, and a lot of young players, everybody's on that learning curve.
[22:23] SPEAKER_04: It's just a matter of how fast you climb up that curve.
[22:25] SPEAKER_04: Um, mine was was pretty steep, and then I and I took off pretty fast after I got my opportunity.
[22:31] SPEAKER_04: But it's all because of what I did my first year.
[22:34] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's great.
[22:35] SPEAKER_01: You bring up some names.
[22:36] SPEAKER_01: I mean, Hardy Nickerson to your point.
[22:37] SPEAKER_01: I played four years in Tampa with Hardy, and he he was, I always say, he was the guy.
[22:41] SPEAKER_01: I mean, he came in here, I mean, I could literally head to head, I mean, smashing you every day.
[22:45] SPEAKER_01: He was downhill every play.
[22:46] SPEAKER_01: I and listen, Brooks is a Hall of Famer, had a great career, but I I'll tell you right here, I'll take Derek Brooks all day long to go up and block him versus Hardy Nickerson.
[22:55] SPEAKER_01: Hardy would come down and he he would knock your head off.
[22:58] SPEAKER_01: Brooks, he wanted to run around you, and he's a great player, but man, Hardy Nickerson, but he brought it and he he just wanted her, he he's he was a man, so yeah, he's one of my favorite teammates.
[23:08] SPEAKER_04: Uh, I remember when I retired, um uh and uh he probably didn't know because I played he he left here in '99 or 2000, I think 2000.
[23:17] SPEAKER_04: And so I played 12 more years without Hardy.
[23:21] SPEAKER_04: But when I retired, the first name that I brought up in my retirement speech was Hardy Neckerson.
[23:28] SPEAKER_04: Like it was a standard that he set.
[23:31] SPEAKER_04: Like he was the standard.
[23:33] SPEAKER_04: You know, we like it's funny because the now the the Bucks have uh I am that man um motto, and it's it's based off Levante David.
[23:40] SPEAKER_04: So I'm sure any young player that's coming through now is saying, Man, that guy did it the right way.
[23:45] SPEAKER_04: His attitude, how he approached leadership is Levante.
[23:49] SPEAKER_04: But for me, like everybody's like, oh, it's Derek.
[23:51] SPEAKER_03: It's like it is Derek.
[23:53] SPEAKER_03: But the person who it was before Derek was Hardy Nickerson for three years, and you're just like, this dude is what football is all about.
[24:02] SPEAKER_03: So I respect it.
[24:04] SPEAKER_01: He started with in Pittsburgh with the Steelers.
[24:06] SPEAKER_01: I guess so.
[24:06] SPEAKER_01: Break it up too.
[24:07] SPEAKER_01: Let's talk.
[24:08] SPEAKER_01: Tony Dungey was the head coach.
[24:09] SPEAKER_01: Tell me about Tony, what made him special?
[24:11] SPEAKER_01: I I got my opinion.
[24:12] SPEAKER_01: I know he was he was a great guy, but what did you think?
[24:15] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Tony's um his see, I don't, it's funny you say this because I don't know that Tony believed in me at first.
[24:21] SPEAKER_04: Not that he would ever give up on somebody, but I I just I hadn't earned that right yet.
[24:26] SPEAKER_04: Uh, but he was so patient with me and so um, you know, you you got a chance to be good, you know.
[24:33] SPEAKER_04: Like without like telling, like blowing up my head and telling me, oh, you're gonna be fine.
[24:37] SPEAKER_04: You're gonna be like, you got a chance to be good, but you gotta work at it.
[24:41] SPEAKER_04: And it was just it was like how your father would talk.
[24:43] SPEAKER_04: Would you want your father to talk to you?
[24:44] SPEAKER_04: And I know a lot of people describe him as as that, as a father figure and somebody you don't want to disappoint.
[24:50] SPEAKER_04: He's not like a coach, he's not like uh a coach that's a rah-rah coach and is in your face or whatever.
[24:55] SPEAKER_04: It's like he he gave you this look that let you know that there was a better part of you that he saw without like yelling at you to be that guy.
[25:04] SPEAKER_04: And uh I I give him a lot of credit for it.
[25:06] SPEAKER_04: He was patient with me.
[25:07] SPEAKER_04: Uh, and then when he finally, and then when I finally started to reward him as a as a coach, reward him with some play, and then he then he, you know, that's when I felt like Tony was my guy then.
[25:20] SPEAKER_04: Um, but he he didn't he he he didn't ever disappoint um in the way that he that he led.
[25:27] SPEAKER_04: Um the most humble human being I've ever met in my life.
[25:31] SPEAKER_04: Um and I think that worked well for me uh because of what I said at the beginning of the show.
[25:36] SPEAKER_04: I approached things with a lot of humility and like you have to earn it.
[25:41] SPEAKER_04: Um and and Tony was was was perfect for me in that regard because he let me take my time to get to where I wanted to be.
[25:48] SPEAKER_04: He saw something, but he wasn't gonna push it when it was when I wasn't ready.
[25:51] SPEAKER_04: Um and then just how he dealt dealt with everything with grace.
[25:55] SPEAKER_04: I mean, that that man is unbelievable.
[25:57] SPEAKER_04: There's there's nothing that I can say bad about him, uh uh other than that I hate that he won a Super Bowl with another team because I would have won 1-1 with the team that he built and the men that he cultivated into being a championship you know franchise.
[26:14] SPEAKER_04: But yeah, he's uh he was amazing, man.
[26:17] SPEAKER_04: Um I and I I'll say it to this day.
[26:20] SPEAKER_04: Um the greatest man that I've ever been around in terms of sport, life, his faith, uh, his family.
[26:29] SPEAKER_04: Uh it's he he's he's you you feel in awe and truly like below a different level when you're around him because of how just gracious he is.
[26:40] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, to your point, I had the opportunity to play for him too, and he's great.
[26:43] SPEAKER_01: I was here the first year he got here.
[26:45] SPEAKER_01: I I was told one story I have is we were 0-8 his first year, right?
[26:49] SPEAKER_01: And then we went we won like five or the six last games.
[26:51] SPEAKER_01: The next year we started off five and oh, and the biggest thing I'd say about Coach Dungey, he was the same guy.
[26:56] SPEAKER_01: There was no highs and lows with the man.
[26:58] SPEAKER_01: He was just calm.
[26:59] SPEAKER_01: He knew the plan, he believed in it.
[27:01] SPEAKER_01: And what it what I heard you talking about him, uh he had belief in you, he believed in you, right?
[27:05] SPEAKER_01: So when a coach and a man believes in someone, I think that's everything.
[27:08] SPEAKER_01: That's all we're looking for is someone to believe, and then he saw in you the opportunity.
[27:12] SPEAKER_01: You know, you're a similar guy, good great guy, great, you know, steady guy.
[27:16] SPEAKER_01: That's the thing.
[27:17] SPEAKER_01: So he is a special guy, and it's it's it's amazing to hear all that stuff.
[27:21] SPEAKER_04: You you've been around plenty of coaches that ride that emotional, probably people that you work with too, that ride the emotional roller coaster.
[27:30] SPEAKER_04: That this guy.
[27:31] SPEAKER_01: The up and down, yeah, the up and down.
[27:33] SPEAKER_01: People can't handle the ups and downs.
[27:35] SPEAKER_01: There's so much up and down with them.
[27:36] SPEAKER_01: The consistency and having a vision, what you where you're going and beliefs, like you said, whether it be religious and all this stuff, you yeah, you're on a path.
[27:43] SPEAKER_01: And you know, just to staying calm and up calm in the pocket, believing in what you're doing.
[27:47] SPEAKER_01: That's and then so let's go from Coach Dungey, which again we're both wrong, and then Coach Gruden, you got and I I believe well, I agree with you.
[27:54] SPEAKER_01: Uh Coach Dunny deserved a Super Bowl in Tampa, but I'm glad he got one in Indianapolis.
[28:00] SPEAKER_01: So Coach Gruden comes in, John Gruden comes in.
[28:02] SPEAKER_01: I and I worked for Coach a couple years after the Super Bowl, but he takes the team to the Super Bowl.
[28:07] SPEAKER_01: Famous player, I remember you.
[28:08] SPEAKER_01: I wasn't playing with you guys.
[28:10] SPEAKER_01: When you won an NFC championship, you DSF she appointed at the name in the back.
[28:14] SPEAKER_01: That was awesome, man.
[28:15] SPEAKER_01: I mean, tell me about all that.
[28:16] SPEAKER_01: Tell him just go ahead.
[28:17] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the uh Gruden came in and demanded a different standard, totally different leadership style, completely different.
[28:25] SPEAKER_04: Um, and I want to say it galvanized us, but it was different.
[28:30] SPEAKER_04: Like I think that team, that that 2002 team, I mean, after having been to the NFC Championship in 99, probably should have been to a Super Bowl that year, and then not getting there two years in a row in 2000, or actually three years in a row, 2000, 2001, and then 2002 getting another chance.
[28:49] SPEAKER_04: I think anybody that was coaching us that year was gonna see a team that was gonna be championship worthy.
[28:55] SPEAKER_04: It happened to be John Gruden, and it was the guy that our ownership wanted.
[28:59] SPEAKER_04: Um, there was a lot of reasons to to love the guy just because of that fiery energy and that bring you know, raising that level of expectation on both sides of the ball.
[29:09] SPEAKER_04: I think that did a lot for for us as a team.
[29:12] SPEAKER_04: I mean, we can say we won on defense that year.
[29:15] SPEAKER_04: We did.
[29:16] SPEAKER_04: We, I mean, we I think we had 31 touch 31 interceptions or something that year.
[29:21] SPEAKER_04: We had uh nine defensive touchdowns in total that year.
[29:24] SPEAKER_04: Like we did a lot on defense, number one across the board, I think, on just about anything, one of the greatest defenses ever to play.
[29:32] SPEAKER_04: But importantly, the offense produced that year.
[29:35] SPEAKER_04: I think Brad Johnson was the leading passer in the NFC that year.
[29:39] SPEAKER_04: You know, you had a bunch of other you know stalwarts like that that that that Bucs fans know is like key components to a Super Bowl win.
[29:49] SPEAKER_04: Mike Allstott, Jarvisus, you know, um uh Michael Pittman.
[29:54] SPEAKER_04: Like there's so many guys that whose careers were like career years that year on the other side of the ball.
[30:00] SPEAKER_04: And I think that is what the what the difference was, is what ultimately got us to Super Bowl.
[30:04] SPEAKER_04: And John cultivated that.
[30:06] SPEAKER_04: He he had the same expectations on offense that we then had on defense, and I think that that made us that that that team that year.
[30:14] SPEAKER_04: But John was John's great, man.
[30:16] SPEAKER_04: I I remember not having to deal with him often, which is probably a good thing.
[30:20] SPEAKER_04: You know, it was like it was it was the division of church and state in our locker room.
[30:24] SPEAKER_04: It was you were either on offense or you were on defense, and you had a head coach on offense, or John, a head coach on defense, it was Monty, and like you we didn't really we didn't really interact unless we were competing in practice.
[30:35] SPEAKER_04: But the one time that we did every every single week was his night before the game uh team talk and then the day of game, you know, rah-rah speech or whatever.
[30:47] SPEAKER_04: And I remember wanting to like run through a wall every single time I heard one.
[30:51] SPEAKER_04: Like the guy is a master, like motivator, his energy is real.
[30:57] SPEAKER_04: I mean, I'm I still do stuff with John now.
[30:59] SPEAKER_04: I'm around him a lot here in Tampa, and that energy is the same, like it hasn't changed, it's not phony, it's like it's real energy, man.
[31:07] SPEAKER_04: And um, I think that that that spell of you know that juice, if you will, is what he called it, right?
[31:15] SPEAKER_04: Juice.
[31:16] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, juice, yeah.
[31:17] SPEAKER_04: Dude, it it lifted everybody, and it still does.
[31:20] SPEAKER_04: That's just who he is as a player.
[31:21] SPEAKER_04: And I I know he did TV for a long time and doing all this Barstell Gruden stuff.
[31:26] SPEAKER_04: But I encourage people to like believe that like that's not fake.
[31:29] SPEAKER_04: Like, he's not turning it on for that.
[31:31] SPEAKER_04: It's just how he is all the time.
[31:33] SPEAKER_04: Uh, and and I I think that resonated with our team when uh the year we won.
[31:38] SPEAKER_01: Definitely, you know, and I can uh attest to that too.
[31:40] SPEAKER_01: Having worked for him for two years, he was the way he was a maniac.
[31:43] SPEAKER_01: He's you know intense offensive coach, great.
[31:46] SPEAKER_01: And today, you know, he helps my son as a quarterback.
[31:49] SPEAKER_01: He came to practice.
[31:50] SPEAKER_01: He just he loves football, he's intense about offensive football and all football.
[31:54] SPEAKER_01: And he he cares about it.
[31:55] SPEAKER_01: You know, he came from a football family.
[31:57] SPEAKER_01: Like his dad, his brother were big in football, and so he but you're too right, it's not fake, it's who he is.
[32:02] SPEAKER_01: He lives and breathes it.
[32:02] SPEAKER_01: I I live near him, actually see him a bunch.
[32:04] SPEAKER_01: So he's great guy, and I'm you know, happy he's doing well at Barstool, but you know, hopefully I think there's something more he might want to do, but take another run at something, but uh we'll see what happens.
[32:13] SPEAKER_01: But yeah, great guy.
[32:14] SPEAKER_04: He's getting to that age where he's like, he better make a decision when he's gonna take a run on.
[32:20] SPEAKER_04: Oh, he's great.
[32:21] SPEAKER_04: I love being around that guy, and he's a golfer, so I like it.
[32:24] SPEAKER_04: It's even better.
[32:24] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, he's golfer.
[32:26] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we have to well play sometime.
[32:27] SPEAKER_01: But he so talking to that staff, because I was part of that staff too.
[32:31] SPEAKER_01: You had Raheem and you had Mike Tom on, of course.
[32:33] SPEAKER_01: Mike's legendary head coach, went on from Tampa, you know, went up to Minnesota, they went to to the Steelers and a great run.
[32:40] SPEAKER_01: And then now he's gonna do TV, which is great.
[32:42] SPEAKER_01: He's he's a great orator too, can talk and as all of I used to sit, I used to love sitting because my office, I don't know if you remember, was in that hallway there at the old palatial one box.
[32:52] SPEAKER_01: It was a hallway.
[32:53] SPEAKER_01: We had mice and rats going through it.
[32:55] SPEAKER_01: But the uh I used to sit in the back of the defense room, I can hear Mike talk and Raheem, and I was like, these guys are good talkers, good speeches, and you know, they know they know football and they know that they're going places.
[33:05] SPEAKER_01: And what did you see and feel?
[33:07] SPEAKER_01: And did you know?
[33:08] SPEAKER_01: First, we'll start with Mike Tom, well, then we'll go to Raheem.
[33:11] SPEAKER_01: What when did you know Mike was uh headed for good things?
[33:13] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Mike was special, man.
[33:15] SPEAKER_04: Um, Mike, so the I remember this.
[33:18] SPEAKER_04: This is a great story.
[33:18] SPEAKER_04: So the first week that Mike gets hired, you know, after we get to see him, it's like OTAs or whatever, and we're getting we're doing some work, and we get on the field.
[33:30] SPEAKER_04: Uh, you know, this is back when they let you actually get on the field in offseason, and like I'm like now, we're just like, ah, y'all can do it later.
[33:38] SPEAKER_04: Um, we get on the field and he sets up these drills, and you're like, what the hell is he doing?
[33:46] SPEAKER_04: You know, it's like it's like backpedaling drills and all these movement drills, and we're just like, we're just like at the time we were like, why are we doing these like elementary level drills, right?
[34:00] SPEAKER_04: Like pedaling down this red line on the field and like all this movement drill.
[34:05] SPEAKER_04: And I remember John Lynch came up to me and he goes, Hey, we gotta say something to Mike.
[34:10] SPEAKER_04: Like, why are we doing this stuff?
[34:13] SPEAKER_04: We don't need to do this stuff.
[34:15] SPEAKER_04: And and I was like, Hey, John, you're four years older than me.
[34:20] SPEAKER_04: You go right ahead.
[34:22] SPEAKER_04: And he never did, right?
[34:24] SPEAKER_04: But then once camp came around, because we've been doing these drills for so long, you realize there was a method to his to his madness, really.
[34:33] SPEAKER_04: He was giving us um like technique and you know little um nuances to the position, perfecting them without us really thinking that we were perfecting them.
[34:45] SPEAKER_04: We're just doing drills, right?
[34:47] SPEAKER_04: And so he ended up calling them EDDs, everyday drills.
[34:51] SPEAKER_04: And we would do them every single day.
[34:52] SPEAKER_04: And you're when you've been in the league for a couple of years, you're like, we don't do that in the NFL.
[34:58] SPEAKER_04: But you know what?
[34:59] SPEAKER_04: We did them in the NFL, and we got better doing it.
[35:02] SPEAKER_04: Like all of our movements and all of our techniques got much more um clarified and specific after doing these drills.
[35:10] SPEAKER_04: And all of a sudden we're like, all right, go off to practice, let's do our EDDs, right?
[35:14] SPEAKER_04: And so that's how Mike was.
[35:16] SPEAKER_04: Mike was is very calculated, very specific with how he's trying to train up his his whoever he's in charge of.
[35:24] SPEAKER_04: And so for us, that that year was uh uh 2001, was the first year he came in.
[35:29] SPEAKER_04: I was a nice player at that point.
[35:31] SPEAKER_04: You know, I'd had some success, uh, made a lot of um um splash plays, if you will.
[35:37] SPEAKER_04: Well, he came in and challenged, he ch challenged all of us, but he challenged me specifically, and he's like, Nobody does what you do in terms of playing outside, playing inside.
[35:46] SPEAKER_04: The impact you have on the game, it's unprecedented.
[35:48] SPEAKER_04: And he tells he's telling me this to my face.
[35:51] SPEAKER_04: People don't realize how good of a player you are.
[35:54] SPEAKER_04: And he goes, It's our job to make them understand.
[35:56] SPEAKER_04: Like it's our job to force our collective will, his and I, specifically mine when I'm playing, force our will on the people we're playing against.
[36:04] SPEAKER_04: And we're gonna do that this year.
[36:06] SPEAKER_04: Well, that year was my first all-pro year, led the league in interceptions.
[36:11] SPEAKER_04: Uh, it was unquestioned how good of a player I was, which, you know, two years before that, nobody would have been said that guy should have been on a roster, right?
[36:19] SPEAKER_04: Like, oh, who's Ronde Barber?
[36:21] SPEAKER_04: Like, he's he's he's got he's got a famous twin brother that plays running back in in Tampa or in New York, right?
[36:26] SPEAKER_04: Who's who's this other guy in Tampa?
[36:28] SPEAKER_04: Well, after that year, everybody knew.
[36:31] SPEAKER_04: Uh, and it was because of all this the specific things that he was doing to make me the best version of myself.
[36:37] SPEAKER_04: And I I I always gave him credit for it.
[36:40] SPEAKER_04: Um I got into the Hall of Fame 23, and they don't usually do this, and it and now they don't let you do this.
[36:46] SPEAKER_04: They want Hall of Famers to put gold jackets on the incoming class of uh Hall of Famers.
[36:52] SPEAKER_04: I had Mike Tomlin put my jacket on me for a reason.
[36:54] SPEAKER_04: Like he is the reason that I that I'm a Hall of Famer.
[36:58] SPEAKER_04: And I don't mince words when I say it.
[37:01] SPEAKER_04: I don't try to give credit to anybody else.
[37:03] SPEAKER_04: Yes, I had a lot of the people that helped me along the way, but specifically, the guy that put me on my path was Mike Tomlin.
[37:10] SPEAKER_04: And uh I I'll give him all the credit, and we're I love him to death.
[37:13] SPEAKER_04: We're still friends.
[37:13] SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna I'm visiting with him this week this week and uh uh up north, and I can't like I when I get around him, I get in his presence, I I there's a different aura, and it's been that way since the first first time I met him.
[37:26] SPEAKER_04: So when he then ultimately left Tampa and went to um Minnesota for that one year and then Pittsburgh, I had no doubt in my mind he was gonna succeed.
[37:34] SPEAKER_04: He is he might be the best, and I know they use this term a lot in soccer in Europe, but he might be the best man, manager, type of coach I've ever been around.
[37:42] SPEAKER_04: Like he can look any one person in the eye and tell them exactly what they need to do.
[37:48] SPEAKER_04: And you don't believe him, you're probably not gonna be on his team long because you you're probably failing yourself.
[37:52] SPEAKER_04: That that's how I that's how I think about Mike.
[37:55] SPEAKER_04: He's he's special, man.
[37:56] SPEAKER_04: He's just different.
[37:57] SPEAKER_04: There's a reason why he always succeeds.
[37:59] SPEAKER_01: No, you're right.
[38:00] SPEAKER_01: In my interaction with him, a William and Mary guy, right?
[38:02] SPEAKER_01: Wide receiver, very smart guy, highly educated.
[38:06] SPEAKER_01: I I always came away with him.
[38:07] SPEAKER_01: I didn't play the position for him or anything, but his orator, he's a great orator, could dial something up quickly, speak, talk, get the message across.
[38:14] SPEAKER_01: He'll be great at TV if he he'd be great at anything he wants to do, but TV is gonna be great because he's gonna be funning, entertaining.
[38:20] SPEAKER_01: He can he can really put it together and talk.
[38:22] SPEAKER_01: And just a great guy.
[38:24] SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not surprised by his success at all.
[38:26] SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's fun to see.
[38:27] SPEAKER_01: So and then moving over to I guess you get Raheem.
[38:30] SPEAKER_01: Raheem was kind of his assistant.
[38:32] SPEAKER_01: And Raheem, I know you guys were close.
[38:33] SPEAKER_01: And I remember I was coaching with the Bucks up in the box, and Raheem would be up there, he's high energy.
[38:39] SPEAKER_01: He's you know, Raheem's smooth too.
[38:40] SPEAKER_01: He can talk.
[38:40] SPEAKER_01: He's I remember he's a Ramade, Ramade, run the run the Rama forum, Ronda, run the Rhumande.
[38:45] SPEAKER_01: We're like coaching up in the box.
[38:46] SPEAKER_01: Gruden's yelling at us.
[38:47] SPEAKER_01: We're like, what do you see, Pond?
[38:49] SPEAKER_01: What's the play?
[38:50] SPEAKER_01: Well, do you like this or love it?
[38:51] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[38:51] SPEAKER_01: And Raheem's over there, run the rabbit form, run that.
[38:54] SPEAKER_01: He's screaming, yeah, that's great.
[38:55] SPEAKER_01: So I knew there was a great connection there.
[38:56] SPEAKER_01: He'd be running around still picking the ball off and stuff.
[38:59] SPEAKER_01: And uh, but you know, he was a young, young guy, young, hungry guy who got an opportunity, a couple head coaching jobs, he's done well, and he's now a DC in San Francisco, so he's he's got a bright future still, whatever he wants to do.
[39:11] SPEAKER_04: He's got that the you said it already.
[39:14] SPEAKER_04: He's got genuine energy.
[39:17] SPEAKER_04: Like you said it young and hungry.
[39:19] SPEAKER_04: Remember when he was a head coach?
[39:20] SPEAKER_04: He was like, We're gonna be young and hungry, we're younger.
[39:23] SPEAKER_04: Like who makes up that word?
[39:25] SPEAKER_04: Like the word, right?
[39:28] SPEAKER_04: Youngry.
[39:29] SPEAKER_04: Okay, hurrah.
[39:30] SPEAKER_04: Right?
[39:30] SPEAKER_04: Uh Hofster educated, uh, from Newark, New Jersey.
[39:34] SPEAKER_04: I guess you're allowed to make up a word named younger.
[39:37] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[39:38] SPEAKER_02: That's true.
[39:39] SPEAKER_04: And yes, he is one of my great friends.
[39:42] SPEAKER_04: Ironically, the the probably the worst, not the worst, but like one of the like most befundling things about my career was the year that he left.
[39:53] SPEAKER_04: So he left Tampa before he became head coach.
[39:56] SPEAKER_04: And probably people don't remember this, but he left the same year.
[40:01] SPEAKER_04: The same year that Mike went to go be the DC in Minnesota, Raheem, who was probably in line to take his job, I presume, decides to go be the defensive coordinator of Kansas State for a year.
[40:13] SPEAKER_04: And so, like, for me, that was like this nebulous year of who the hell is this DB coach tonight?
[40:22] SPEAKER_04: We brought in some dude from USC.
[40:24] SPEAKER_04: He was not good at all.
[40:25] SPEAKER_04: Like, had no idea what was going on.
[40:27] SPEAKER_04: No, no disrespect to him if he's ever hears this or listen to him.
[40:30] SPEAKER_04: It just he just didn't resonate with our room.
[40:32] SPEAKER_04: He didn't have the same standard that those two guys had.
[40:34] SPEAKER_04: But then the next year Raheem came back, Monty brought him back, and then two years later he ended up ended up taking John's job as our as our head coach.
[40:41] SPEAKER_04: But what Raheem brings to the table is that that passionate energy.
[40:45] SPEAKER_04: And he's he's 48.
[40:49] SPEAKER_04: No, no, no, no, no.
[40:50] SPEAKER_04: 48 or 49 years old now.
[40:52] SPEAKER_04: And you could you could mistake him for being a 25-year-old first-year head coach, or first time head coach, or first-time uh NFL coach.
[41:00] SPEAKER_04: He just has that kind of like um spryness, if you will.
[41:05] SPEAKER_04: Like that, that, that, that youthful exuberance.
[41:08] SPEAKER_04: And his ability to relate to players is unlike anything I've ever seen.
[41:12] SPEAKER_04: Um now, I don't sometimes that's not good, right?
[41:15] SPEAKER_04: If you're a head coach and you have too you have too too much close of a connection to guys that are that that you shouldn't, but uh how players respect him because of how he's able to communicate with them is uh is unlike anything I've ever seen.
[41:29] SPEAKER_04: I'm sure there's other guys like that around the league.
[41:32] SPEAKER_04: Um, but in my experience, he's one of one.
[41:35] SPEAKER_04: Just the the the way that he approaches how he deals with players is is pretty special.
[41:40] SPEAKER_04: And I think that's why he continues to get jobs, uh, because people that are around them know what he brings to the table.
[41:47] SPEAKER_04: He's smart, he has he has a genuine appreciation for the guys that he's coaching.
[41:53] SPEAKER_04: Uh even if he knows they're not the guys, he's still gonna try to make them the guy.
[41:57] SPEAKER_04: Uh, and then his ability to relate, um, you know, he's he's he's he's like a coach that could have coached in any generation.
[42:05] SPEAKER_04: Uh and I think that's uh that that speaks a lot to him.
[42:08] SPEAKER_04: It's pretty impressive.
[42:09] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, he's a he's a great guy.
[42:11] SPEAKER_01: Again, coach with him and a young coach.
[42:13] SPEAKER_01: He was a qual quality control back in the day.
[42:15] SPEAKER_01: And you know, to your point, he'd be we'd be out working, grinding all day, and then some everyone people go out and the next day I'm like exhausted, he'd be up full energy.
[42:23] SPEAKER_01: I'm like, man, what did you sleep?
[42:25] SPEAKER_01: What did you do?
[42:26] SPEAKER_04: It just it didn't know he didn't, he just doesn't stop.
[42:29] SPEAKER_04: By himself, he's dispelling the myth that you need eight hours of sleep.
[42:34] SPEAKER_04: No question.
[42:34] SPEAKER_04: All you gotta do is look at him.
[42:36] SPEAKER_04: That's a that's a lie.
[42:38] SPEAKER_01: No question.
[42:39] SPEAKER_01: No, let's because we're running down here, so one don't want to take too much time.
[42:43] SPEAKER_01: But the um Warren Sapp, you mentioned Sapp earlier.
[42:46] SPEAKER_01: Of course, I I came in, I was a year older than Sapp, so I I played against him literally every day in practice, and I saw his development become what he became, right?
[42:54] SPEAKER_01: I mean, tell me a story about Warren Sapp or something about Sapp.
[42:57] SPEAKER_01: You told us one about the straight line, which is great.
[42:59] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what's um you know what are you thinking when you think when I say Warren Sapp?
[43:02] SPEAKER_04: Well, I think Warren, I think literally the most uh uh talented he he was so talented that I don't think he ever had I mean he worked, I'm not saying he didn't work, but he was so talented that like his work ethic was just natural.
[43:21] SPEAKER_04: Like he was one of these guys that um you know you you put him on a bench and he would throw up you know 315 pounds.
[43:30] SPEAKER_04: And then you were like, when did you ever train to be able to throw up 350 pounds?
[43:35] SPEAKER_04: You're like you never saw him do it.
[43:36] SPEAKER_04: He was just like, oh, I can do that.
[43:39] SPEAKER_04: Put him in a three tech or a five technique that I go rush the rush against a tackle instead of a guard to beat him.
[43:46] SPEAKER_04: Like, when did you ever did you ever work on that?
[43:48] SPEAKER_04: Like he's just so naturally gifted.
[43:51] SPEAKER_04: Um obviously, if you know his his path, like but I didn't know this till obviously I got to know him a little bit.
[43:58] SPEAKER_04: Like he went to college as a tight end.
[44:00] SPEAKER_04: Or something like a much smaller guy.
[44:03] SPEAKER_04: And I remember when I first met him, he has these huge calves, he's got you know lower body that looks like a really stout athlete.
[44:13] SPEAKER_04: And then he's got the big belly and he's bigger on top.
[44:17] SPEAKER_04: But you look at him, you're like, if that dude lost 80 pounds, he could probably play safety in the league, type type of thing.
[44:24] SPEAKER_04: You know, he's that kind of athlete.
[44:26] SPEAKER_04: Uh and so to me, I was I was I was always in awe porn, still kind of an awe-born.
[44:31] SPEAKER_04: He's just a unique character.
[44:32] SPEAKER_04: Um but all that athleticism aside, um, he's one of those guys that you had to make love you.
[44:41] SPEAKER_04: And I say that in because this is a story.
[44:45] SPEAKER_04: When I when I was young in the NFL and wasn't playing, wasn't making any plays, he could have cared less about me.
[44:53] SPEAKER_04: He probably knew my name, but he knew it as like an offshore.
[44:56] SPEAKER_04: Like, yeah, who's that, who's uh Ronda guy, whatever.
[45:00] SPEAKER_04: But I remember when I started making plays, right?
[45:02] SPEAKER_04: Like I got my chance to play, started making tackles, sacks, interceptions, whatever, tackles for loss.
[45:10] SPEAKER_04: And when Warren starts talking about how good you're playing, you know you've made them love you.
[45:16] SPEAKER_04: And so it's probably like my third or fourth year, maybe third year, when every time I made a play, it's you hear Warren yelling in the back of the room, I told you about Randy, I told you about it.
[45:27] SPEAKER_04: You know, like I'm like, I think Warren loves me now.
[45:31] SPEAKER_04: I'm good.
[45:34] SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
[45:35] SPEAKER_04: He has such a like an like an expectation for greatness.
[45:38] SPEAKER_04: Like he couldn't deal with guys that weren't always going to be their best self.
[45:43] SPEAKER_04: And like he could see my development and then he started to love me, and he's like, Oh, this guy, he's better than you think he is.
[45:48] SPEAKER_04: Like yelling across to everybody.
[45:50] SPEAKER_04: And it's it's pretty awesome when you have that kind of uh backing by your teammate.
[45:55] SPEAKER_04: Now, he could also be very abrasive, as you know.
[45:58] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sure.
[45:59] SPEAKER_04: But uh for the guys that that they're in his circle, uh, and the guys that you that love him, dude, he's the best dude in the world.
[46:07] SPEAKER_04: He he's so fun to play with.
[46:09] SPEAKER_04: Um, and you knew what he was bringing every single week, which made it even even better.
[46:14] SPEAKER_01: I remember my fun many stories with him.
[46:16] SPEAKER_01: I went against him a bunch.
[46:18] SPEAKER_01: I remember playing with him was great.
[46:20] SPEAKER_01: We he'd go out for warm-ups and he'd be skipping through the other team's warm-up, right?
[46:24] SPEAKER_01: We play in the Vikings.
[46:26] SPEAKER_01: I remember that.
[46:26] SPEAKER_01: Like, and you know, John Randall's over there, he's a different guy.
[46:28] SPEAKER_01: I gotta block John Randall.
[46:29] SPEAKER_01: Sap's over there skipping through getting him fired up.
[46:32] SPEAKER_01: I'm like, Saps, calm down, man.
[46:33] SPEAKER_01: I don't want that guy fired up anymore than he needs to be.
[46:36] SPEAKER_01: But that that was his swag.
[46:37] SPEAKER_01: He had the swagger, right?
[46:38] SPEAKER_01: That's what he did, and we all fed off it too.
[46:40] SPEAKER_01: It was great.
[46:41] SPEAKER_01: And he be he he became great too.
[46:43] SPEAKER_01: And uh, so it was yeah, he's funny.
[46:45] SPEAKER_04: Make Warren love you.
[46:46] SPEAKER_04: That's all that's all I remember.
[46:48] SPEAKER_04: And then and then it's funny, it's funny because I always we also just say that about him, but then later in my career, there was guys um on the team that would always say the same about me, and I know I got it from Warren.
[47:01] SPEAKER_04: I was like, I'm not paying attention to that dude unless he's like showing showing me that he can be you know the best version of himself.
[47:08] SPEAKER_04: And so like at the end of my career, they said the same thing about me.
[47:11] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that's good.
[47:12] SPEAKER_01: You learn you you're you're a study, a study.
[47:15] SPEAKER_01: So I guess it's flipping too.
[47:17] SPEAKER_01: Last thing, so you one of the great another great thing about you, our connection too, and we're gonna do this again sometime, is um your daughter, my daughter played lacrosse.
[47:26] SPEAKER_01: You were you were you were a coach.
[47:28] SPEAKER_01: I said something I got to see you.
[47:29] SPEAKER_01: So I played with you, coached on a staff with you.
[47:32] SPEAKER_01: So then I was on the business side.
[47:33] SPEAKER_01: Then another version was uh both our daughters played lacrosse together.
[47:37] SPEAKER_01: Your daughter went to William Mary, did a great job.
[47:39] SPEAKER_01: She's now in New York City.
[47:40] SPEAKER_01: My daughter went to Holy Cross, she's now in New York City too, working so small world stuff.
[47:44] SPEAKER_01: And you know, you came when my daughter signed with her scholarship to Holy Cross, you came, and I was very thankful for that.
[47:50] SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I guess you know, it's amazing.
[47:53] SPEAKER_01: So you you're a great, great guy, great dad, great husband, and uh you know, really a lot to be commended for that, and a Hall of Fame guy on the field and off, which is which is great.
[48:02] SPEAKER_04: The uh the the no matter what you've done professionally, the if it's not reflected in your kids, then you know you're not you're not doing things right.
[48:10] SPEAKER_04: And I I hope that it's reflected in both of my kids.
[48:13] SPEAKER_04: I I I like when I hear other people compliment my kids for how good they are living their life or how they treat people or how how what they're accomplishing.
[48:24] SPEAKER_04: It makes you feel like you've done something correct.
[48:27] SPEAKER_04: Um and I know you feel the same way.
[48:29] SPEAKER_04: And the reason I went to to your daughter's uh uh deciding is because I respect first of all, I respect you, but secondly, all second secondly, because she's younger than my daughter, I respected her.
[48:41] SPEAKER_04: I respected the way that she represented herself uh playing against younger, playing with older girls when she was younger, but you know, holding her own.
[48:49] SPEAKER_04: And like you you get you get the sense, like what I was saying earlier, make somebody love you.
[48:55] SPEAKER_04: Like it was easy for me to love Sophia because of the way that she went about her job and went about way getting prepared and seeing it rewarded with her scholarship, the Holy Cross.
[49:05] SPEAKER_04: You're like, man, that's it's the way it's supposed to be, right?
[49:09] SPEAKER_04: And it's nice to have the support from the people that she's been around for you know a lot of her life.
[49:13] SPEAKER_04: So of course I was gonna be there for her.
[49:15] SPEAKER_04: And you mentioned I I forgot that she was going to New York.
[49:19] SPEAKER_04: There's no way we can't have them hook up now.
[49:21] SPEAKER_04: That's uh that's that's right.
[49:23] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're up.
[49:24] SPEAKER_04: We used to go up and have like a dinner and then leave them to their devices, and we go to our devices in New York City.
[49:30] SPEAKER_01: Let's do it.
[49:31] SPEAKER_01: Let's do it.
[49:32] SPEAKER_01: I I love it.
[49:33] SPEAKER_01: You got it, we'll do it sometime.
[49:34] SPEAKER_01: That'll be great.
[49:35] SPEAKER_01: Really appreciate the time, Rhonda, and we'll do it again.

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