Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 559 - NY Jets Connor McGovern
Episode Date: July 27, 2021Conner McGovern is an American professional football player for the New York Jets. He formerly played college football at the University of Missouri, and was drafted out of college to play for the Den...ver Broncos. Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Special perks for our listeners below! ➢Marek Health: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off the Power Project Panel! ➢Eat Rite Foods: http://eatritefoods.com/ Use code "POWERPROJECT25" for 25% off your first order, then code "POWERPROJECT" for 10% off every order after! ➢LMNT Electrolytes: http://drinklmnt.com/powerproject ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 Subscribe to the Power Project Newsletter! ➢ https://bit.ly/2JvmXMb Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell
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What up Power Project crew, this is Josh Settledge, aka SettleGate, here to introduce you to our next guest, Connor McGovern.
Connor McGovern is an American professional football player for the New York Jets, and formerly played college football at the University of Missouri, and was drafted straight out of college to play for the Denver Broncos.
In 2020, Connor suffered a pretty serious hamstring injury, which affected the rest of his playing during the
season. However he is now back to training and lifting and Conor is no stranger to the iron.
He is a big proponent of the Olympic lifts and strongman training for offensive linemen.
On a side note Conor is also very involved in fundraising and charity work for the special
needs community in his hometown of Fargo, North Dakota. Connor was also heavily involved in the Fargo Able Games, which is one of the first all-inclusive
tests of functional fitness for the special needs community.
Recently, in May of 2021, the Fargo Able Games was able to raise over a million dollars for
the special needs community.
But that is a different story.
Hopefully one we'll be able to learn more about in today's conversation with our guest, Connor McGovern.
Yeah, I didn't have anything to mix mine.
I just gave it a swirl and it worked pretty good.
Okay, you know what?
Let me just do that so I don't cause a freaking mess.
So in mine, I'm going to get to the bottom.
It's just going to be all chocolate salt.
That's the best.
You get just a little bit here and there and then all of a sudden, wham, element chocolate salt to the face.
You know, sometimes I'm following like a pretty religious carnivore diet, but then I recognize like I drink a lot of coffee.
And then I also recognize I eat a lot of stuff that has chocolate in it, like this chocolate salt.
So I got more plants than I know what to do with.
Yeah.
Pause.
Wait.
This is like, is coffee...
It's a plant.
Oh, wow.
I've forgotten about that.
Wow.
Let's just consider it a vegetable, eh?
Yeah.
Did you eat your veggies today?
Yeah, I had coffee.
That's a good one.
I'm going to use that from now on.
What is a bean? A legumeume so what's a legume no is it legume no isn't a legume a legume legume it's a bean coffee bean is a bean that's not a legume yeah i don't know shit roasted
legumes well aren't beans legumes yes they are but it's a coffee being a legume i just like saying legume i do like it too
fun word yeah rides off the tongue yeah legumes you can't say it with a dry mouth though andrew
i'd love to give you a cheers but you're all the way over there so our kevin cheers
all righty yeah so bottoms up.
We threw some chocolate salt in here today to impact the flavor and then also to get some of our electrolytes in there.
Electrolytes.
I've actually skipped doing caffeine first thing in the morning like I used to.
Yeah.
I started doing just element first thing when I wake up.
So far, it's been a transition, but it's actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
So I was pretty stoked about that.
But yeah, I'll start my day with just whatever flavor element.
And I'm not going to lie.
I was getting like the caffeine headaches, but I'm no longer getting those.
And I think the elements actually helping.
Dude, I think like starting your morning with electrolytes because
you haven't drinking water during the night and you probably sweat a little bit probably a little
bit electrolyte deficient is a great idea and i think i like that because i have a lot of friends
that um they drink quite a bit let's say on the weekends they drink quite a bit so i have given
them a box of album and said hey try this And every single one of them reports back, bro, you saved me.
I don't have a hangover anymore.
Like, it's a real thing.
You know what I mean?
So it's a tool, man.
Getting that hydration in there.
And I think a lot of people, and I didn't know much about this years and years ago, but I used to just drink tons and tons of water because I was like, you know, I'm working out.
You see the people with the gallon jug.
And I didn't really even know. But at the time, I was like, you know, I'm working out. You see the people with the gallon jug. And I didn't really even know.
But at the time, I was actually depleting myself further because there was no electrolytes
in there.
There was no salt.
You just keep peeing and peeing and peeing forever.
And so now with introducing this, introducing some electrolytes, introducing some element,
it's been really, really helpful.
Absolutely.
So super beneficial and tastes amazing.
Head over to drinklmnt.com slash powerproject.
At the time of this recording, they still are offering the free element recharge pack.
It kind of comes and goes.
So if you guys haven't taken advantage of that, head over there right now because we don't know how long that's going to last. But in case it's not still there, check out
the value bundle. That's paying for three boxes and getting four. You get any four flavors
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drinklmnt.com slash powerproject. No code code needed just load that into your cart and uh enjoy your
element electrolyte sorry i was reading an email because i shouldn't be reading while i'm trying to
speak you know it's funny though it's like every single time these people is just like
man maybe you shouldn't be drinking so heavily every single weekend
but since you do oh yeah you're like enabling. I'm making it easier for them to drink more.
Yeah.
Yeah.
People kind of start that train going on like Thursday.
Like Thursday somehow becomes a weekend.
Thirsty Thursday.
And then Friday, Saturday.
And it just kind of keeps rolling over into the next day.
Keeps going.
And the only thing that makes you feel good is to drink more oh then you're in trouble yeah uh that happens with coffee you know like the next day
like the reason why you get the reason why you get up and think about coffee is because
you're you're starting to have coffee completely come out of your system and you're like i can't
live like this you want that caffeine again yeah so
there you are waiting in line i've been relying on energy drinks a little bit too much you know
like i went from having a little bit of coffee here and there to kind of a lot of coffee to like
you know i just need to get this in my system right away so let me crack open you know a cold
you know energy drink and then almost like wow dude i had like two today
and it went from just like regular ones to the ones that have like 300 milligrams
and then i'd get home and i'm just like i'm shot like i'm so tired i'm like what like what's
happening so i'm just trying to wean myself off of like energy drinks right now and so like coffee and like a coke zero like those
are kind of in they're okay right now but i went probably three days with nothing and dude my head
was killing me so again i had to i just kept sleeping element that was the only thing that
could like kind of mellow out that that weird headache a lot of coffee um doesn't even tell
you how much caffeine's in it like
sometimes you got it would have to like go and like look it up i've even had uh some cold brew
cans and stuff it doesn't really say on it and now that i'm making supplements i understand why
i have to like test test every single batch in order for you to be able to make specific claims
like that on your label and so that could be very expensive and just a giant
pain in the ass wow um but it would be great to make like a cold brew coffee that just didn't
have that much caffeine in it i think most of the companies are thinking the other direction
like when someone drinks this they're going to get like a huge jolt and it probably makes a lot
of sense since we're addicted to caffeine that you think about that cold brew again. You're like,
I need to go get that one.
You know,
that one,
that one lit my face on fire,
but it would be interesting to like,
you would probably have people drink more if it had,
if it had less caffeine in it.
That.
And I think that it would just be people that would are a little bit more
conscious about it.
It would be healthy for them.
Because for me,
like not, I like not i like i like
the feeling of caffeine everyone loves the feeling of caffeine after you get it 45 minutes later
you're like i can fucking take on the whole world but you know um when i start to get aware i'm like
i do like the taste too like i really actually like the sensation of coffee so i could have
something ritual of it and ritual i don't i can have something that doesn't happen in St.
Amanda caffeine.
Let's say 50,
75 milligrams.
I can get by with that just because I got the coffee in.
Yeah.
And then,
and we talk about sleep all the time.
So imagine being able to have like a cup of coffee toward,
you know,
closer to the end of the,
not I'll say the afternoon and not have to worry too much about it.
Keeping you up.
Decaf kind of makes it seem like you're giving up on life, doesn't it?
Doesn't it make you feel like, I mean, it just, for some reason, like, I used to have decaf coffee here and there at my house, but I don't know.
It just doesn't feel right.
What do you know?
Like, what am I doing?
I think if you don't know it's decaf.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.
That's what I'm saying.
If you had lower-dosed caffeine products, you probably wouldn't even barely notice.
You wouldn't.
Maybe.
You wouldn't.
I kind of want to mix half and half.
Holy cow.
Oh, we got a big boy on today.
Jesus.
That's a sick tat.
It's not just the angle, I don't think.
Is that better?
Yeah.
That's great.
That's fantastic.
Perfect.
So what's the word on the street in the NFL?
What's going on out there?
Are you starting camp yet or anything like that?
What's going on?
We're in off-season right now.
So we start camp July 27th.
A little bit later start this year.
Enjoy a little bit more summer.
But, yeah, kind of the quiet time up in Minnesota.
My parents' lake cabin. more summer but uh yeah kind of the quiet time uh up in minnesota my parents late cabin so just hanging out uh training and relaxing getting ready what was uh last year like for you guys um
you know with uh with what was going on was it uh was it just weird and different and strange like
maybe not having as many people in the in the stands and all those kinds of things?
Yeah, that shit was really weird.
You know, you went from having this crazy external motivation, easy way to stay up, and then all of a sudden it's gone.
So, you know, you really had to find that internal motivation.
You know, you really had to really had to find that internal motivation.
And, you know, it went from that first week, you know, the stadiums are figuring out, like, how much music they can play, when they can put the fake crowd noise in, what volume they can put it in.
So that first week in Buffalo, man, that that was tough. figured it out and you know they once they got the music playing and the crowd going uh when there's some sort of noise it was much easier and didn't feel quite like a intramural scrimmage
felt more like an nfl football game i'm from new york and uh unfortunately i have been a jets fan
for a long long time and i texted my uncles last night both of them are coaches one's a basketball
coach the other one's a high school football coach.
And they said, please let Connor know the 45 years of pain that we've been suffering.
So what's going on there with the Jets organization?
Are things maybe going to pick up this year?
Are things going to maybe turn around?
Oh, yeah.
I think so.
You know, the last couple of coaches the Jets have had have been more like those X's and O's gurus so you know the last couple coaches um the jets have had have been more
like those x's and o's gurus you know um and uh sol is that you know leader of men that guy that
can come in and turn something around and um he's gonna build a culture more um you know he's more
focused on building the culture than he is on uh you know having the
sweetest play and he's gonna dial you know he's gonna dial up the coolest thing he's more about
you know we're gonna play harder faster um and longer than our opponent and and keep the scheme
relatively simple so we know what we're doing 100 time every play um and go from there so
you know i'm actually really curious, man.
I'm curious about a pro athlete's perspective
as far as maybe NFL versus playing in college
or playing in high school as far as football is concerned.
Same thing with basketball.
When you play in college or high school,
you kind of have a close relationship with your teammates
because you're all the same age, it's school,
it's camaraderie, blah, blah, blah, right but like when you get to the nfl and now you know you're older
you have a family right there's there's life etc do you do do teammates actually have strong bonds
or is it more of a professional thing where you get on the field you go do your thing
all right everyone's cool and then you're out. You get a little bit of both.
You know, there was a little bit of that in college.
Like, you kind of hung with your crew or whatever.
The NFL is a little bit the same way.
Like, you know, obviously the closer a team is, normally the better they are.
And, you know, this offseason, especially as an offensive line,
we've been really trying to, you know, build that camaraderie.
Like we've been – social media stuff, we've been going to a lot of,
like, Islander games.
We've been going to dinners.
We've been going – just doing whatever we can to, you know,
get close to each other.
And especially as an offensive line, man, like there's five guys,
but you're working as a unit.
It's not – it's, you know, one – you can't –
if you have one all-star offense lineman, it doesn't matter.
You know, that guy's going to get picked on games if his guard –
like, let's say you got this all-world left tackle.
If his guard's trash, you know, he's getting picked on games.
He's going to – like, he's not going to be able to do what he does.
No team's just going to let him go one-on-one with the DN
when they know he's the best cat on the O-line.
So it takes all five.
So you really do got to build that.
And then you get tight with other guys on the team.
You know, a couple of us went golfing.
You know, there's wide receivers.
The quarterbacks are always really tight with the O-line,
which is funny, the age thing.
the quarterbacks are always really tight with the o-line um which is funny the age thing um we were we all live or a lot of us live in like an apartment complex like really close to facility
so there's like a pool and stuff so you know the wives went to dinner whatever we're all chilling
by the pool having a beer and uh zach walks down we're like what up zag we're talking to him um
he doesn't really drink or nothing so we're just chatting it up and he was i was like what were you doing he's like i was just upstairs playing vr and we're all like
who plays vr we're like stuck on the xbox stuff and we're like yeah we're like we're playing like
call of duty and stuff like we just got off the sticks playing uh war zone and then he's talking
about vr so he brings it down and most of us hadn't even played it.
And so we're all like, it was funny.
So you do get the age group, you know, and, and, you know, I'm 28,
which is young in a lot of worlds, but the NFL,
it's starting to get up there going into year six.
So definitely on the, the upper spectrum, when a young cat's like, how many,
how many years you've been playing?
And I'm like, ah, going into year six, like, man, that man that's crazy it's only like it's not that long to be doing something
but nfl it's kind of a long time so um yeah but so there is a little bit but you definitely you
know the better your team is the closer you are as a team to get long long-winded answer for your
question there what's the uh what does the off season look like for you? What have you been working on this year?
So summer,
summer's a little different.
You know,
we just came out of OTAs and stuff.
So you've been,
you know,
it's an interesting thing.
Cause it's,
it's definitely a lots on the strength conditioning,
but you also have plenty of football stuff.
So summer's kind of maintaining that,
you know,
I like lifting head. Well, relatively heavy, not like what I used. You know, I like lifting, well, relatively heavy,
not like what I used to do.
So I'm still, you know, squatting, benching, deadlifting, snatch clean,
all that kind of stuff.
But a lot of running, a lot of moving, just keeping your movement up.
You know, we just spent, what was like, uh, eight, nine, 10,
12 weeks, whatever OTAs was, um, getting back in that football shape after, um, you know,
three months off. So, um, it's really, it is these, um, 40 days are really trying to maintain,
um, what you did and stay healthy and get ready for the season.
Have you been a guy that has traditionally needed, uh,
like strength training and conditioning work? Uh, or when you were a kid, you just like mop
everybody up regardless of how focused you were in the gym. That's a, so I got a pretty long answer
for this one. Um, so high school, I'm from North Dakota. So the overall talent and depth just ain't there compared to Cali or Texas or Florida,
Bama, Mississippi.
So I was just, you know, I was bigger than everybody.
I was still fast.
I was strong.
You know, I competed in North Dakota weightlifting.
So squat bench and power or cleans, Cause the, all the strength coaches came together
and were like, deadlift's how you get hurt. So we didn't deadlift. Um, but so I just show up to the
meet and I was, you know, bigger than everybody, stronger than everybody. I loved it. I love,
I've been, you know, weight training since I was a little kid. Um, but I definitely,
definitely caught up to me. Sometimes I'd be there and, you know, I wouldn't really want to do my box jumps
after a squat or something.
And my high school coach, fantastic guy,
wouldn't be where I am today without Steve Laqua.
He comes up to me and he goes, he was like, what are you doing?
I'm like, oh, I'm working out.
He goes, you've been sitting on that bench for five minutes now.
I've been watching you.
I was like, yeah, I'm just, you know, getting my workout in. workout in and he was like you know if you don't go d1 you're gonna
be ashamed of yourself i was like yeah you know i talked to ndsu my offers coming in he's like no
like i'm talking power five he's like you're a power five talent so that kind of like
you know as as embarrassed as i am to say it you know that was i would little dog running a little
bit i would take the easy way just because I was bigger, stronger and faster than everybody. But then I got to college and I was smaller, slower and weaker than everybody. Well, I actually, I had the weight room. That's the only thing I had was like, I had good strength. And so then I like, I just, I dove in, you know, I was all in on, I was like, well, you know,
I haven't had the experience because I haven't been playing the same talent.
You know, I gotta, I gotta make up ground somewhere. So, you know, I started, I was in the weight room so much,
they're kicking me out of the weight room. Like they would,
then I'd go to the rec center.
They sent an intern to the rec center to get me out of the rec center.
So like, I just, I dove in, I was like, well, you know, strength is my strength. I'm just going to get stronger out of the rec center um so like i i just i dove in i was like
well you know strength is my strength i'm just gonna get stronger um like i'm you know i can
win all the cardio rep or all the sprinting reps so i was like my goal is to win every sprint i was
that dickhead that would just take off running and they're like oh run as a group i was like
fuck these guys i'm out of here i'm gonna be like i gotta be the best uh so i mean guys would always
get mad like i mean they're my friends but they'd be like, can't you slow down? I'm like, dude,
like you guys are better than me when we go to practice.
Like I got to win somewhere. Um, and then I'd like just hound my coaches.
Like, what can I do to get better? So I had a, like a desk chair in my room.
And I would just like take steps, um, before bed every night in college. Um,
cause I was, I was behind the eight ball. I remember my senior year,
I was one of the top like garters centers projected in the draft.
And he was like, man, you know, when we recruited you out of North Dakota,
we thought you'd be like a 290 pound center that maybe plays your fifth year.
And I ended up, you know, not that i was a little bit better than
that so uh you know it did uh again long-winded answer to answer your question high school i was
like i enjoyed it so i trained a lot i've been you know i've been training since like fourth or
fifth grade i've been competing in powerlifting or powerlifting competitions since seventh grade
eighth grade maybe.
I had a great strength and conditioning coach.
He was actually a geared powerlifter.
And, you know, he was in a couple times.
He was in one of the powerlifting magazines.
So I had great coaches all around me all the time.
So I definitely got lucky that way and blessed that way.
So definitely that was there.
How much bigger were you?
Cause like,
you know,
you're in Fargo,
North Dakota,
you know,
is the kid across from you,
you know,
five,
eight,
one 80.
And,
and how big were you in high school?
Yeah.
So North Dakota,
North Dakota is definitely different.
So I'd get like, there'd be like one or two guys on every team
that was about my size.
Now, were they as athletic and strong as me?
No, but they were, you know, a couple of them were my size.
But then the rest of them were, you know, 5'10", 5'11",
180 to 200 pounds.
Like we had, for our division,
we had one of the bigger offensive lines in the state.
And we did a different because of the scheme we ran.
So our tackles were small and quick, and then you just got bigger.
So like our left tackle was like 6'1", 190.
Left guard was, well, I just, the other guard,
I guess it wasn't really left and right.
You kind of just
rotated to where the play was going um the other guard um matt martino he's he's actually a power
lifter um now and he was at west point and he was on the west point power lifting team um but
anyway so he was the other guard and i think he was like you know 6'2 220 230 in high school um the center went on to play college
ball he was about 6'3 250 uh then it was me and i was 6'4 275 but i could have been i could have
been uh i could have easily been 300 pounds but i got weighed like every day because i had to play
both ways um so my coach was like hey hey, you're not coming off the field.
So you're going to weigh 275 so you can be on the field.
So I came off the field for kickoff and kick return.
Also, I was on the field.
So I could have easily, which is kind of funny.
So I got a call from Wisconsin, who was like my school growing up.
It was like Wisconsin and Notre Dame were who I grew up loving.
And a call from Wisconsin. It was when Brett Bielma was the head coach. growing up it was like wisconsin and notre dame or who i grew up loving and uh called from wisconsin
it was when brett bielma was the head coach and he just loved monster offense alignment when he
was at wisconsin or arkansas his offense i was like 350 and he calls me or the assistant line
coach called me he's like hey how much do you weigh he's like i'm 275 he's like any way you
could weigh 300 pounds i'm like yeah but i'd have to go run my ass off at practice.
Like I can easily get there.
And he's like, ah, you know, Brett,
Bielmo only let us offer a guy that's 300 pounds.
And I was like, I can, like, I wasn't fat at 275.
Like I was in shape.
And so anyways, so yeah, it's 275, six, four, 275.
I think I got there my sophomore year. Freshman year, I was, six, four, two 75. Bye. I think I got there my sophomore year.
Um, freshman year, I was like six, three, two 30.
And then sophomore year, I hit a big, big spurt and was yeah.
Six, four, big boy.
Two, seven, two.
Yeah.
Always been big.
My whole life.
I've been big.
You know, I had to fourth grades the first year that they, you know, you can wear a pad
or you have padded football in North Dakota.
And I had to cut weight. I remember I'll, I'll never forget this. I was
been cutting weight for months. I was going into the weigh-in and I hadn't eaten in like two days.
I was crying. My dad's like, you got to make this weight or you got to play it. And so it goes
fourth grade. And then it goes fifth and sixth graders are the next age group. Cause I think
there's a big fall off between fourth and anyways, so didn't have to play up two years if i didn't make this weight so i'm like
crying i'm like naked in front of all these like moms bringing their kids in and um i'm like and
i made it by like you know barely like a quarter of a pound
my dad's like all right we'll go get your get you a cheeseburger. Just put your pants on. Let's roll. So, um, yeah, I've always been, uh,
always been a big kid.
Oh man. So, uh, when you, so in high school you,
you played offensive line and then when you got to college,
was that just the plan or did they have to move you around?
And the reason why I ask is because it seems like, um, young athletes,
especially their parents, uh, want them to focus on like no you're you know you're
the quarterback like that's all you do and you're going you're going to quarterback camp or whatever
it may be and then they get to college and someone's like uh actually no you're you're
gonna have to be on special teams or something so i'm curious was that the same um situation for you
or are you just a big dude and they're like no we know exactly where to put you
so i actually i love d-line so high school like growing up high school i loved playing d-line
like i love getting after the quarterback making the big tackle you know making the goal line stand
um and so i played both ways so um i i always wanted to go and be a D-line in college.
And I would go to college camp.
And to get recruited out in North Dakota, you have to go to camps, right?
So like June, July, I was grinding to like college camps to get noticed.
And I'd like go to the D-line Indy and then the O-line coach,
and I'd be headed to the O-line Indy and the O-line coach would be like,
you're going to, you know, you're an O-line man.
Like when we go to one-on-ones, like you play O-line,
I was like, yeah, coach, like, I really like D-line.
And every single camp I went to, every single coach was like,
you're an offense line.
I was like, yeah, but, nah, you're an offense line.
I was like, all right, all right, I'll play a line.
So, I learned to love it in college. You know, high school, the line I thought was, like, kind of boring
just because I was bigger and faster and stronger.
So, I just grabbed dudes, threw them out of the way.
I was like, this isn't fun.
Like, this wasn't all that challenging. I loved, dudes, throw them out of the way. I was like, this isn't fun. Like this isn't, wasn't all that challenging.
I loved like chasing down a running back, getting after the quarterback,
defeating a double team.
So once I got to college and it was actually like incredibly hard and
challenging for me, then I learned to love the position.
But yeah, I mean, you know,
I think it's that's such a bad thing that parents do to their kids these
days is force them into one thing.
If you ask any athlete, especially the good ones,
they'll tell you to play every sport.
When you see an offensive lineman, you can tell if that kid grew up as a wrestler.
You can tell if that kid grew up playing basketball.
You can always tell what a guy did before.
We have a guy in our – he's a tackle.
He's from Georgia. Chuma is his name and uh he he grew up playing soccer and he has the fastest feet
you've ever seen like he's just he has the like when he does a pass set or run like his feet are
so fast and so quick um and you don't get that if you just have practice offensive line you weren't
getting that same stimulus to have faster feet than everybody.
So, um, you know, I, you know, when I started having kids and like, they'll, they'll play
as many sports that I can get them into.
Um, cause it just, you have to develop your entire, like your whole athletic ability has
to be developed for when you're young to be a, to be a good athlete in whatever profession
you want to be a professional athlete in.
What I was curious about, man, is like how you went about the mindset of dealing with your weaknesses because you came from a place where you were the biggest guy where you were
the best guy and then you get thrown into situations uh not like in college especially
but then the pros were like like you are now like yeah you are bigger and strength is still
your strength but now there's a lot of more glaring weaknesses because there's so many people that have your
same skill set.
There's a lot of people that have better, better skill set than you in certain areas.
So what, like, how did you switch gears to be like, huh, I'm not the biggest fish of
the pond anymore now.
How, like, what, what did you do to get better?
Like, how did you turn that on if it wasn't
on already um i just the coaches i had um so mizzou um and and pat ivy who in my opinion is
one of the best strength coaches um to ever do it you know um he you know his crew would go up to
west side at least once a year um back in like the early 2000s to 2010 so like the first decade of
the 2000s um either him or someone from his tree uh one like head strength coach and so he kind of
they do this huge mental side or they did um of like you know um like being positive and
and how to and i guess i i, I was just born with that drive
that I wanted to be the best at, um, something. Um, and I, you know, it still drives me, you know,
I haven't, I haven't been all pro or pro bowl. I haven't won a super bowl, which is the biggest
one. And, um, you know, you get into year six and people ask me like, you know, do you still
love it? And I'm like, yeah, I think about it every day I wake up, you know, there's,
I, it drives my wife nuts cause it's off season and i want to get stuff done in the afternoon um but i set my alarm for six i can get my workout in like i just um i think i got lucky
and i was born with it um and i just have this drive inside to be the best um another thing
though is like the coaches i've had, the positive psychology stuff.
And just, you know, I, like my head coach in high school, he was big on that positive mindset. So
he'd always like make us read books and stuff. So I, I really got, you know, I had a head start on
the mental strength side. And I think besides my natural drive to be the best,
which I get from my grandpa,
who's a very incredibly successful businessman.
He actually,
he was a college football player and wrestler,
the big fish in a little pond saying it's one of my favorites.
Cause he sat me down before I was going to leave.
He's like one of the biggest boosters of,
um,
a college here,
um,
you know,
all American forum.
And he was like,
Hey,
and they're NAIs. He's like, Connor, like, you know, you'reican forum and he was like hey and their nais he's like connor
like you know you're gonna head out you're gonna go from a big fish and a little pond here
to a very little fish in a very big pond he was like there's a chance you're gonna get
swallowed up and never play a snap in the zoo he's like i don't know why you just don't stay
home play four years here you know set a bunch of records and come work on the farm and come work for the family i was like grandpa i
just i can't like i've been working for the scholarship for the last four years i got it
i'm gonna go make the most of it so um you know i between the coaches my parents just instilling
that like my dad you know always had to be the best at everything, whether it was dirt biking or wakeboarding, snowboarding, skiing, like my dad's always
has to be the best at it. Um, so I just had a, been blessed with having a lot of people that,
you know, are addicted to being the best around me. And, um, so yeah, I just, um,
but I always like tell kids if I'm like talking to a camp or whatever is, you know,
it's who you have around you is how successful you're going to be. And then definitely don't
let anybody, uh, tell you what you like control, what you're going to be. Um, cause you know,
my grandpa's one of the best guys ever incredibly successful. Um, and you know, he was telling me
like, Hey, you know, I don't know if you can go hack it with the big boys. Like you're from far North Dakota. And, you know, I put that aside
and I was like, grandpa, like I can do this, you know, and, um, he wasn't being mean about it.
He was being realistic. He didn't want me to go and burn five years of riding the bench and
hating my life. And, you know, he wanted me to, he wanted me to be successful and he wanted me
to play a lot of football and have fun doing it. I saw that.
I didn't take that. I took that as motivation. I was like,
well, everybody's thinking I'm going to go and ride the pine
for five years. I'm going to go out and do what I can. I'd be in
coach's office at 6 a.m. I'd be the first one into the weight room, last one out.
It's a huge combination of things that led to
where I am today. I think sometimes in being a parent, or
I would imagine being a grandparent, that you sometimes
view your child as when they were little.
And so grandpa's probably thinking like,
I've been around when this kid's pooping his pants and he's seen you try and get upset and get frustrated with different things.
And so he's probably just like out of just pure love, probably just like, man, I just want to protect you and try to give you this advice.
He's just trying to give you the best advice possible that he thought was, you know, going to be something that would help you a lot.
that he thought was going to be something that would help you a lot.
I'm wondering, have you ever had a welcome to the NFL moment where someone just whooped your ass and you're like,
what the fuck was that?
Where it was too fast or too strong,
or you maybe just didn't understand what the other team was doing play-wise
and you just got overwhelmed or something like that.
Oh, yeah, that happens like once a game, the NFL is like, the NFL is such a crazy,
like the people that you see in the NFL are just absolutely unbelievable. Like I wish people could,
you just only see it on game day and you see them going against the best. Like,
I just wish people could like, see what these guys can do so i got a couple good stories so like the biggest hit i've ever received and it was my third
game starting we're playing uh the redskins and kerrigan i was guard i was right guard i set on
my d tackle the d tackle kind of like gives me like a shiver and stops i was like oh shit there's
a twist coming and i open up
and before i could get there the tackle didn't even touch kerrigan he earholed me so hard i flew
across the line of scrimmage and i landed and i look up and i'm staring at the other tackle
so he knocked me all the way across the line of scrimmage i was like holy shit like that's wild so
um but then my rookie year before i
started just the craziest thing i mean they i was kind of playing scout team so they had me at tackle
which is not what i'm built for um but i was kind of like filling in for this one practice and i was
going against von and von and i you know pretty good buddies um and we always sit and talk about
hunting or whatever and so we get on
the line of scrimmage and while they're you know they're going through the canes bond's like hey
i'm gonna do this move to you try to stop it be like all right cool i got this like i know exactly
what bond's gonna do he would do it and i couldn't even touch him i'm like this dude is so insane
i knew exactly what he was gonna do i planned on how i was gonna stop it still couldn't stop it so
like you just get such freak of natures that there's not a lot you can do sometimes and i'm like another thing on bond
i remember it was like late in the game it's like third down we needed to stop and the old
line's kind of standing there watching uh and we're all looking we all like each other like
oh you see von right there von's like doing that thing. I was like, this tackles is going to get broke off.
And all of a sudden Vaughn did some shit.
We've never seen before.
Disgustingly freak of nature ability and goes to the sacks quarterback.
We win the game.
So it's like, you could just like sometimes look at a guy and be like,
yo, yeah, he's about to wreck somebody's day right here.
Just cause it's the NFL.
It's yeah.
It happens every game.
It's insane.
That's insane.
So, I mean, it's, it's, uh, it's kind of it happens every game. It's insane. That's insane. So,
I mean,
it's,
it's,
it's kind of cheesy to say it now,
but you know,
NFL stands for not for long.
You're six years in,
um,
we,
we hear about like the,
uh,
the old linemen and the D linemen,
how every time they clash,
it's like a car accident.
Um,
you know,
then the CTE and all that stuff.
Um, how the heckTE and all that stuff.
How the heck have you been able to stay in the game so long at this elite level?
Do you accredit it to the, you know, the lifting, the training, or just do you do something better for recovery?
I think a lot of it, well, there's a lot of factors.
Been lucky, you know, knock on wood, haven't had many major injuries.
I'm all injuries I could come back from.
I think a lot of it for myself is the lifting.
And I think Olympic lifting has been huge for me.
Really handling that, you know, heavy load under like, you know, max flexibility.
I think it's been huge for me.
So, you know, that snatch and in the bottom
like a very deep snatch with my arms overhead you know it's it's a lot of stress on your shoulders
but when your shoulders learn how to take um you know a lot of weight you know a little bit of an
awkward like it obviously it's safe like my trap you know my scapula my the muscles are taking most
of the load but it's your hips when you're catching that like you know ass to ankles type of catch and i i mean my best snatch
was like 350 i think um so like and i snatch up to at least 275 every time i snatch so it's a lot
of load in a big flexible position so i think my joints are used to getting into that flexion under heavy load um
and then also i do a lot of olympic lifting so like my for the head injuries the ct and that
kind of stuff i've actually another knock on what haven't had a concussion so um i think a lot of
that is i do a lot my traps are um i really do a lot of work on them with the cleans and the
pulls and the deadlifts and the snatches so i do have a
little bit bigger traps but that definitely helps with the because like for us you know it's all
like you know i get this big like neanderthal rim on my forehead from like my helmet pushing down
during season um but it's like most of ours is like front head impact so you know the muscles
here and your traps are helping control that um you know i think if so if i do get ear hold or something i get hit in the side of the
head it's it's a totally different feeling and i don't feel so good after those um where like a
wide receiver and running back they take a lot more of those shots than we do um so um it is a
big um big difference there but yeah you know know, between the way I train, recover, obviously, it's funny when people
really don't know about like recovery, they go like, you know, in season, like, what are
you like?
Oh, yeah, you know, I get two massages.
I get needles.
I do all this like, oh, that must be nice.
I'm like, oh, no, you don't understand.
These massages are painful.
Like, this is not a foo-foo hot rock.
I want to make you feel good about yourself. Massage.
Like the masseuse is like laughing if they make you cry,
like this is not a nice thing, but so yeah, you know,
we definitely do all that kind of stuff. And the older I get, uh,
the more time I seem to spend in the training room,
just making myself feel better, um, or my body feel better. So yeah, it's,
it's everything at this point in my career. It's, um, or my body feel better. So yeah, it's, it's everything at this point in my career. It's,
um, yeah, gotta, I like to move a lot of weight and I've definitely had to humble myself a lot
and, you know, keep telling myself I'm not a power lifter. I'm a football player. So,
um, yeah, definitely been a learning, learning experience these last couple of seasons.
No, it's funny. Uh, I guess guess i guess when you look at some people in
the fitness industry when they talk about like athletes or professional athletes especially in
the nfl um first i don't think they realize how freakish these athletes are or the way they can
move or how big and strong they are but a lot of people just have the this idea that oh a majority
of the athletes on the nfl are on some type of drugs or PEDs or whatever. And it's just like, do you not realize that the caliber of human that reaches that level,
like they don't need that shit.
They're just like all freaks.
Like when you were talking about your freshman weight, but six to two 30, like that makes
no sense.
Right?
Yeah.
I mean, like you like look at a von miller he's just like you look at like von's
quads and he is like bodybuilder or like the physique category like his quads look like that
but he doesn't really squat he like he does some squats every once in a while he does a lot more
mobility stuff he's just built like that like um everybody always says he's kind of like Gumby. So if you put like a folding table up,
right?
Like,
you know,
like a card table,
Vaughn can damn near run full speed,
get to the table,
duck underneath it and stand back up and not lose a mile per hour.
Like he's that flexible and he can move that fast under flexibility.
Like no drugs going to let you do that.
Like there's nothing,
there's nothing you can put into your body.
That's going to allow you to do that.
And that's just who he is.
Or like,
um,
just,
there's just guys that can like walk into a weight room and like,
you know,
they're,
you know,
they got a bad shoulder or whatever,
so they don't really bench very much and they're not taking anything,
but they get onto the party.
There's like,
yeah,
throw three 15 on.
I'm like,
dude,
you haven't benched in like three months. Like, think i can do it knock out 10 reps like all right
we'll see you later and they walk out of the weight room you're like you're just they're just
gifted like there's a lot of somebody just asked me like how many guys in the nfl are like gifted
athletes and how many of them work hard it's a depending on what you recruit like a team brings
in but there's a lot of you got to have both like. Like you're, it's, you're going to get to the end.
You can get to the NFL and God given talent,
but then you got to work hard to maintain it. And then,
but it's really hard to get there without any God given something.
Whether it's God given speed or size or arm length or what it like,
you got to have something God had to give you something. And so, yeah, like, and I mean, we get drug tests all the time.
I, I got to type into a website wherever I travel so they can drug test me wherever I
go.
So yeah, like the NFL knows I'm in Parker Rapids, Minnesota at my parents' like place.
Cause if they wanted to, they could send somebody from Minneapolis over to drug test me at any
time.
if they wanted to, they could send somebody from Minneapolis over to drug test me at any time.
So Vaughn Miller is a ridiculous, completely ridiculous athlete.
But it's no coincidence that he uses a slingshot.
Have you ever used, have you ever used a slingshot yourself?
Oh yeah.
So I actually have DM slingshot a bunch on Instagram, especially when I was a poor college kid.
And you guys were awesome and sent me a whole bunch of care packages. We actually used them in college. So you guys sent me knee sleeves and I always seem to have hamstring problems.
So I use a lot of the hammy bands. We actually, I mean, and you, as you know,
I've been friends with justice. We use a ton in the Jets, hip circles every day.
I love the slingshot I've had.
I had a shoulder surgery and tore my pec in college,
so I use the slingshot a ton, recovering from those two injuries.
I use the gangster apps every time I bench.
Yeah, no, definitely.
Big, big, big fan of Slingshot.
Use it a ton.
I have a jacked and tan tank.
I wish I would have known where it is.
I would have put it on.
So, no, I've been a big fan of you guys for a long time.
What do you think about Vaughn Miller giving you a makeover,
having him dress you?
Because he wears some really amazing outfits.
I don't think I could pull that off.
I have my own type of swag. some really amazing outfits. I don't think I could pull that off.
I have my own type of,
I have my own type of swag,
not,
I don't have on swag.
So yeah, he's a pretty,
pretty remarkable dresser.
That's for sure.
Outside of like,
cause like right now,
I guess you're not in season,
but what do you do or what,
where do you spend your time outside of training and outside of focusing on
stuff when it comes to sport?
Do you have other things that you are really interested in, other things that you plan on doing, going into more after you get out of the NFL?
Yeah.
So besides the football and the training aspect, my favorite hobby is cars.
I'm a huge car guy.
I love buying, selling, selling, modifying,
racing, cruising, anything to do with cars. I love. Um, and, and then, you know, my family,
uh, farms potatoes and sells John Deere tractors. So, um, in the, in the early spring when we're
not doing anything, I come back here and, um, you know, help out and try to learn a thing or two.
That probably doesn't surprise your
teammates that you're a farm boy no not at all not at all so um yeah so that's what i kind of do
you know because i want to come back and farm and stuff so i you know got to learn that trade too
and um but then besides you know my favorite hobby of cars and learning my you know next
adventure after football is just
hanging out with friends family my wife um our two dogs i'm just kind of doing everyday stuff and
um you know i i don't worry too much about like um because some you know some people like act like
oh you should like they're like they'll see me like, you know, riding a bike or a wake surf or, you know, ride a go-kart or something.
And they're like, don't you have to like, if you get hurt, won't you like, I'm like, I mean, they could like the way it's written in our contract is if you get hurt doing anything, not everyday activities.
So like, if you got in a car accident, you know, you're covered.
accident you know you're covered but if you go out and you know you're hooping and you tear your acl that the team doesn't legally have to cover you um so like if i was you know wakes or i don't know
anybody's wake server it's one of like the safest activities to do on the water you're going like
eight miles an hour you're behind a boat like it's super safe but you know let's say some jet
skier comes and hits me well because they
weren't paying attention or loss control you'd see those videos all the time on youtube they
run into boats and shit but um then technically they wouldn't have to cover like i could lose my
um uh my contract and i could lose health insurance so it's like you know you can't but
i'm not gonna live my life as a hermit just because something might happen.
And for the most part of the teams, like, unless you're being super ridiculous, they're not going to cut you off of that kind of stuff.
But like, if you've had problems of like, you're constantly playing basketball and you're constantly getting hurt playing basketball, you know, they might have a problem with that.
But so, yeah, you know, when i'm not training and doing football just
you know doing what everybody else does and um i love you know being at the lake being
hanging out with friends family wife and doing a lot of uh a little bit more probably on the
extreme end of sports with like the go-karts wake surfing and all that kind of stuff that's what i
grew up doing grew up being a dirt bike racer so oh shoot dude
uh you have you got to tell us about the r34 your gtr i just saw it on your instagram that
shit looks sick yeah so my r34 gtrs uh um it's my like car that i go to the track so i don't like race cars um but i go to the track every
once in a while um i will like they have like a racetrack has like they call it de days or open
track days so i go and you know go out race around there'll be like porsches out there corvettes
whatever um so yeah i mean it's a fully built um r, RV was, you know, stroked out to RB 28, um, has like 750 horsepower, all four wheels.
It's, it's pretty fun.
It's my, it's, it's my, one of my babies for sure.
It's, it's my baby.
Yeah.
I mean, I, I like the, uh, the, the new one that you have, but I'm just always a fan of the old school JDM stuff. Um, I used to, I used to drift two forties back in the day, but I don't
know, man, if you ever have a chance, uh, Thunderhill raceway up here in Northern California
is pretty sick. We definitely, we still have Infineon, which is an amazing track, but, um,
I'm always partial to Thunderhill cause that's where I, that's where I blew one of my engines.
And then, you know, I had a lot of memories on that track. Yeah'm a big uh big jdm guy so i got uh
you know one of my big things in the uh that i do in my spare time is invest in a jdm
imported dealership so i mean i got i got the various demo car supra coming in um from japan
in like a week um so that'll um be up for sale because i'm a dtr guy so i got like the
r32 r33 r34 35 um all for different things got yeah i got big car guy it's so sick dude i'm
looking at the uh the super right now that shit's incredible yeah it'll be it'll be sick and it'll
be but you know it's i'm not a huge super guy so i kind of
got it at a you know good price and i was importing it so yeah it'll be be up for sale
here soon and somebody that loves supers will you know have a lot better time with it than i will
got to check out provost motorsports ever seen those guys yeah yeah that's that's my buddy sean
uh provost he's got he's way into a lot of that stuff he races cars and he's got like the i think
he has one of the fastest cars in the world he's got like uh he bought a brand new porsche not too
long ago yeah yeah there's my dad's a big porsche racer races PCA. We grew up racing dirt bikes.
My dad's broken his neck twice on two wheels.
So he's moved to four wheels, which seems to be a little safer.
So yeah, the family's big time racers, gearheads, extreme sports.
Growing up, the X Games was like our Super Bowl.
We loved the X Games. It's all we, all we would watch. So, yeah.
I'm just curious if I was a young athlete listening in and I was like listening to what
you were talking about, I'd be wondering what are like some of the big skills that I need to focus
on really trying to build like in, in, you know, being a teenager, right? So like weightlifting,
et cetera. What, what do you think are some big pillars that a young football player
should try to go into college having a good amount of experience with? I know positions
are different and stuff, but there should be some common through lines where you don't want
to be in college and like, I don't know shit about this. Yeah. You know, I think, um, you know,
there's, uh, there's some obvious ones. Like you, you, you need to have some understanding of the
weight room. Um, you don't want to be that kid that you know you get a deal on scholarship being on the weight room and you got
everybody's like hitting i mean i can't say a perfect form squat but like everybody's hitting
you know at least parallel depth and you're doing quarter squats because you thought like um squats
are bad for your knees or you go to bench and you don't you do have to find that full range of motion you do
have to just have basic understanding of strength and um and i think the biggest thing is um you
you gotta like you need to find a good coach to just get the base down um like i think a great
story is uh uh pretty travis mash he's the uh he had that, that high school kid that did that awful clean.
And everybody was just ragging on this kid on social media.
And you're like, well, clearly the kid has never been coached.
The dude was 15, 16, 17.
So Travis grabbed him and started coaching him virtually and got the kid going right.
And so I think that from a strength standpoint is super important.
And I think most high schools nowadays, you know,
high schools have caught up to college, which caught up to the NFL.
You got to have a good strength coach.
Most of them have like weightlifting courses.
I know I went to a small Catholic school in far North Dakota
and we had weightlifting classes.
We have a great training and conditioning program.
And then obviously base of conditioning and base running form but the one that i like to get to that people don't focus on
and lose so much is flexibility there's a ton of cats in the nfl that are you know you watch from
the weight room you're like this cat's a professional offense lineman like you think of
offense lineman you think of bench press and 500-pound squatting,
but this kid can rep 225 for 10 or 12.
This kid can barely squat 405, but you put him on the football field,
and he's so flexible, and he has power in odd positions,
and he never loses a rep because he can get into any odd position he can, but he's so fluid, and he's so flexible, and he never loses a rep because you just like he can get into any odd position he can
but he's so fluid and he's so flexible and he's so smooth that he's just going to get back in the
right spot where you get some cat you go into a weight room and the dude like has no arch in his
back and he's just flat back legs up benching 515 for 10 but he goes out on the field and he's stiff
as a board and he has no flexibility and he can't block shit.
Like, you know, one out of 10 reps,
he's going to throw his hands and hit a dude in the chest.
And the dude's going to fall over and be like, wow, that was,
that was fucking superhuman.
But the other nine reps,
the guy's going to give him something quick and he's going to look like an
idiot. So I think the most important it's with any position,
like you need the strength, you need the speed,
but people get so focused on that that they lose the flexibility and the fluidness of being a professional athlete.
Because you look at any sport and you're like, damn, that was smooth,
or damn, that was cool, and whatever is cool is normal
because it was smooth and fluid and it looked sick.
And that's just most sports.
People, if you're the really good ones
which is also a god-given talent like i was talking with von or whoever like you're really
or good offense line for a guy to look at that's super flexible is uh zach martin with the cowboys
um they also call him gumby because he'll be like one foot in the air like a hand in an awkward spot
and he's like bent in half but he's still blocking the guy because he's so flexible.
And his movement is so good.
So, you know, I think a lot of high school kids get caught up in being the fastest or the quickest or the strongest.
And they lose the flexibility that it takes to be a professional athlete.
What has giving back to your community done for you?
I know that you're involved in some charities and stuff like that.
What has that done for you over the years?
It's been huge.
I've really gotten into it the last two years.
Coronavirus kind of killed it
the first year we were going to do it, but it's
called the Able Games.
Clearly, I'm a huge competitive guy.
I've made my living off of
love and competition.
I wanted to give back and like, and something that I love, you know,
like so that we, the TNT,
which is a kid's gymnastics gym prep was what it started out to be.
So the last, over the last, you know, 20 years,
they've figured out that a gymnastics gym has the right equipment to help
people with special needs get physical activity.
Because people with special needs are the biggest of the biggest problems, just like in everyday life or, you know, an able-bodied person is obesity.
They just don't have the ability to go out and move because, you know, a gym could be dangerous for them.
They don't know, like, the sensory stuff.
So TNT started with the gymnastics gyms. Well, then they kind of moved in and realized like a CrossFit gym where you can
scale something to no matter if you're a crop, like a games athlete,
or you're, you know, have a bound to a wheelchair,
you can compete in some sort of way.
So the able games,
the fitness competition that has people with special needs and,
you know, to games, athletes competing on the same floor. And it's to raise money for TNT so they can, you know, to games athletes competing on the same floor.
And it's to raise money for TNT so they can, you know, reach out to more schools, to more,
you know, group homes, get more people in and also to raise money so we can go out and
we can make a program to, you know, implement it where, you know, like your gym could get
a trainer certified or like, look, like get our certification and get our training. And then you can have like, you know,
you know, that like weird, like, well, you have a bunch of polyps, you guys are like busy all day,
but you know, like a lot of gyms have that low hour where like not professional fitness people
are not working out so they can fill their gym with, you know, a group of people with special
needs to come in and you can coach them and get them moving once or twice a week um it's been really it's been awesome
so we've had our first competition we um raised over a million dollars we had 150 athletes
competing um and to see somebody doing like a 225 shoulders to overhead and then a young man in a
wheelchair doing um shoulders to overhead with a pvc pipe right
next to each other going rep for rep was it was sweet like it was it was way sicker than we could
have imagined we knew it was going to be a cool event help a lot of people and it's going to be
great but the act to actually witness that at the same time going on was um way more
special than we could have ever imagined so it's been a great experience um it's been something
that my wife and i like to do in our free time to,
you know, it's turning it, it's, it's, you know,
really kind of taken off and growing and a lot of people are getting involved
and want to help. So, you know, we're going to try to take it to the moon.
So we're excited.
I kind of want to revisit that conversation you had with your,
your grandfather.
I feel like there's hundreds of
thousands of stories similar to yours where you're the big kid in high school and somebody tells you
like, hey, college is a whole nother animal. And that same kid's like, no, I'm going to show you
that small fish goes to the big pond and they don't end up playing for the New York Jets.
You had mentioned working hard. You had mentioned, you know, working hard.
You had mentioned God-given talent.
But is there something different about you that was able to, you know, not be the strongest
guy or I guess you were the strongest guy, but not be the best guy on the team anymore
and still kind of overcome all these adversities where other athletes they they have them they
think they're going to do that but it just seems like you had something extra can you and then
maybe mark and see we can help me form like this question better but like is there something else
about you and is there something else about pro athletes that take all this adversity and just
flip it around and just overcome everything that is,
that just comes their way. Yeah. The, the perseverance aspect of being a professional
athlete. I don't know how to, I've thought about this actually a lot. I don't know how to,
you know, train somebody to persevere.
You know, I have seen that guys that come from, um, and actually it's kind of funny.
So, um, told you my grandpa was a successful business man.
So like I, you know, my family has, um, you know, we're not hurting for our next meal
on our plate.
And that was actually my biggest knock coming into the NFL.
So my rookie year in the NFL, it's like week two.
I was kind of like, I made the 53, but like I wasn't getting like any reps
as like with the, you know, first team.
And I thought I had a pretty good camp.
So I was like, hey, are you texting my coach?
Like, hey, coach, could I come talk to you?
It was like a Wednesday, like before practice or before meetings um and just see where i can improve he was like yeah be at my office at
seven i was like perfect so i did i get there you know 6 55 i walk in i'm like hey coach how's it
going he's like good how are you doing i was like good he's like so what's up i was like you know
um you know i you know we got a couple injuries I'm wondering what I got to do to kind of get my foot in the door so I
can maybe get a rep with the ones here there and maybe, you know,
start playing. And he was like, well, I don't,
I don't think you'll ever play for me. And I was like, why is that?
He was like, well, you come from money. money so i think you're gonna quit on me in the
fourth quarter and i was like uh did i quit in college did you ever see that on my phone i was
like no your college film is pretty good you always worked hard didn't matter the score of
the game you know you fought through it i was like okay i was like did i quit in camp he's like
no you had a really good camp i thought you know you're a better player than I thought you were. I was like, okay. So like, how can I get on? He's like, well, I don't, I just, I don't know. I don't trust somebody that, that comes from money. He was like, here, look, I literally wrote it in my draft book. So he pulls out this big binder of all the offensive linemen in my draft, flips the page to connor mcgovern he starts reading he's like i don't believe he'll play
he'll make it in the nfl i think he comes from money he doesn't know how to work hard he doesn't
know how to persevere and um i don't you know i don't want i don't think we should pick up but
they drafted me anyways and i was like so there's nothing i can do he's like nope i was like all
right i will see you later when i walked out of his office i
called my agent i was like uh we might need to try to find a new team and he was like you're stuck
he's like you're there for the next four years until they cut you um so i was like well and i
want and actually i i was like you know sir uh we're farmers like we got lucky with some really
good years we have some really bad years.
Like nothing was just given to me, you know, didn't matter how much money was in the bank
account. We're still blue collared farmers. Like we're not gonna, my parents didn't spoon feed me
shit. Like, you know, we're farmers. And, um, so yeah, so back to your, like, I, I guess I grew up
with that. Like, you know, we had some really tough years in the farming growing up. I don't know how to coach perseverance, but when my coach said that, I was the type of person where that just made me work harder.
first guy in the building you know sit in the hot tub when like i was in the hot tub before the like right as the first athletic trainer was walking in you know my car was one of the first cars to
park you out so instead of that you know bringing me down and putting me in a slump and i started
playing poorly or i i just didn't i lost belief in myself or what have you, you know, it made me work harder. So I, I don't know how to,
I've definitely thought of it before.
Cause I wish I could say something to like a group of kids and be like,
Hey, you know, when it gets tough,
you just got to get here and get in this mindset to do this.
So you could, I, I don't know. I, you know, I think I could,
if I could harness that, I think i could be a really rich man and sell a lot of books um but uh yeah it's a great question and it's
something that um i don't know if you guys have any insight on how you know to word that better
yeah i'm not i'm not sure but it's just a perseverance aspect that a lot of professional athletes have.
And I just saw the trailer for the new Kurt Warner movie.
And I mean, he's his story.
He's persevered through more shit than anybody I've ever seen to get to the NFL. So, yeah, I wish I had a better answer for you.
I think it's just perseverance.
I think your interpretation of being discriminated against was
to just work harder and prove yourself. Oh, you think this of me, maybe because of the color of
your skin and maybe because of your background, potentially, you know, it's these are all things
that somebody thought of you. They were preconceived notions that the guy had a hard time letting go of. And
you're like, well, I guess the only way to, there's nothing else you can do about it. I mean,
what are you going to do? Are you going to quit? Because if you quit,
you know, he's like, all right, well, there's, there's the proof. But if you show him, you show
your, your, your fellow teammates and stuff like that.
What a team, what a great teammate you are. I mean, after a while, it just becomes undeniable.
Um, did you eventually end up playing for that coach or did you end up, uh, going to a different
team? No, I didn't end up playing for him. He, um, the head coach, Gary Kubiak ended up kind of
getting sick that year and he retired as
the head coach and a new head coach came in and they brought in a new offensive line coach.
Um, yeah.
So I actually had, after that, I had coaches, um, that were on the previous staff on that
staff came up to, uh, came up to me and was like, Hey, like, you know, I apologize for
how that guy treated you.
Like, you know, what he would say in the meetings meetings really like so you'd go up to like the meetings so like in the nfl i gave a practice all the coaches sit around
a table with like the gm and the head scout or whatever the head coach and i go through practice
they talk about each guy and i guess like he would just dog on me and so even if i had a good play he
would like kind of cover it up um so yeah it's kind of crazy, but and just with what you were saying,
made me think of it a little bit is, yeah, you know, I wanted to, it was like a chip on my
shoulder, whether it was, you know, my grandpa saying it out of love or this coach saying it
out of a preconceived notion, I just took, oh, you, you know, you might not make it,
put that chip on my shoulder and carried it and just worked harder because i wanted to prove everybody wrong um so i yeah it's an interesting um thing about how your brain works and how different
people you know take information in and then make it how it how they you know interpret it makes
them do something so um but yeah you know everybody in the nfl you know if they haven't
had adversity they find it their freshman year and it makes or breaks them.
And actually the Seahawks have like this weird algorithm that they use to see if someone's had enough adversity to make it in the NFL.
So it is something that scouts and teams look at is, you know, if this guy's kind of just been pushed his whole career,
they probably some teams won't draft them no matter how talented he is.
Cause they're going to, if you haven't gotten it yet,
you're going to find it in the NFL and it'll either make you or break you.
So, yeah, I mean, a lot of athletes like to make it this, in this profession,
you got to let those hard times make you instead of break you,
which I think to be successful in anything, you know, you got to take the hard times and they got to make you or instead of break you
what i i love about what you just told us was there's so many people that you know uh i would
have made it to that d1 school but my damn high school coach he just he just had it out for me
and here you are in the nfl the NFL and who knows what that coach
actually, what he was thinking, but it appeared that he just had it out for you. But you just,
I guess you took ownership of the whole situation. You're just like, no, I'm just going to get
better. I'm going to be undeniable. And unfortunately, it took a whole new coaching
staff to get you on the field.
But that's just, that's incredible that you didn't blame anybody else. At least it appears
that you didn't blame anybody else. You just, you just kept grinding. Yeah. You know, I tried to,
I tried to do everything I could to, uh, um, you know, I, I going back to like having good coaches,
you know, my high school coach,
his whole thing was, you know, control what you can control.
I couldn't control that.
You know, the coach thought that, you know, I would quit in the fourth quarter.
Like I did whatever I could do to prove it.
I was just going to keep doing whatever I could do to prove that I wouldn't do it. So, yeah, you know, it kind of goes back to all the basic sayings
and all the, you know, a self-help book or whatever.
It's just control what you can control, you know, persevering and not letting those things bring you down and get you negative.
Because, you know, I'm a big believer in, you know, the way you think or what you believe is what's going to happen or what you believe is what you're going to achieve.
I think it's probably on a million t-shirts.
believe is what's going to happen or what you believe is what you're going to achieve i think is probably on a million t-shirts um so um but as corny as it sounds i definitely think that that is
a huge huge part of success and how to get there it's an interesting thing because uh i would
imagine every single player in the nfl uh once you do make the team uh starts to develop some
pretty good financial stability so uh with his logic i I mean, Le'Veon Bell and all the other players
that were on the Jets at the time or whatever,
they would also quit in the fourth quarter.
Yeah, this was actually on the Broncos.
I was four years on the Broncos before the Jets,
but this is my first year on the Broncos.
They're coming off a Super Bowl.
So yeah, that whole team was very financially stable um so yeah it is interesting it is interesting logic um but yeah it's just it's weird man they find out when you before you
get drafted they find out every bit of information about you you've never no one's had their
background checked harder than a kid trying to get drafted in the nfl so um yeah it is it is people's logic's funny sometimes it really is
yeah i know you never had anything i'll be like so obviously your family's done well
but hearing that uh and obviously you did already work very hard did you ever in your youth or
going through high school did you ever seek out things to be harder i know they weren't
necessarily easy for you either because you guys your farmers you guys work but did you ever need
to seek out difficulty because maybe there was was a lack of difficulty in certain areas
because maybe there was a lack of difficulty in certain areas.
Do you get what I'm saying?
Yeah, I get what you're saying.
I don't know.
I think I always did difficult things growing up.
So my brother is like 6'2", 180 pounds,
and this dude hops on anything with a motorcycle or a board,
and he's a freak.
My cousin, who's a month older than me, is the same way. It doesn't matter if it's a video game or like they just hop on it they're so naturally good at it
um and i and i wasn't you know i was huge like i was i was racing i was like 12 racing 28 year
olds because i had to like a the bike for my age group couldn't hold my fat ass you know what i'm
saying so like i didn't grow up like everything i tried like you know i was doing what my dad did my dad's 5 11 190 pounds so like our bodies were super different but i wanted to be like my dad so
like me snowboarding or surf wake surfing or or wakeboarding or it just wasn't easy for me growing
up and so i and i guess that's another thing that goes back to you know where i get my mindset from
is kind of built like i just been doing it my whole life. Like, well,
I want to be like my dad or I want to be better than my little brother.
So I'm going to just, you know, I'm not built for it,
but I'm sure as hell going to try to be really good at it.
And so it's an interesting thing, you know,
like my friends and everybody are starting to have kids and it is interesting
to look back and see what forms a kid, you know,
like if my family was only into football and I was actually good at that my whole life, you know, would I be able to persevere the way I do?
But I don't know.
So it's, it's interesting.
So, um, yeah.
Uh, so I don't know if I like outwardly seeked it.
Um, but I did want to be, uh, uh, I do enjoy being a small fish in a big pond and growing into that pond.
I do really enjoy that.
Growing up in the area, family done well.
I had this drive to not be introduced all the time as like,
oh, this is Ron Offit or Keith McGovern's son.
I want to be introduced as, this is Connor McGovern. He played in the NFL. Or, hey, this is Connor McGovern. son. Like I want to be, Hey, you know, introduced as this is Connor McGovern.
He played in the NFL or, Hey, this is Connor McGovern. He did this, not he's the son of,
or the grandson of, you know what I'm saying? So I guess that was a big driver for me too.
Um, and yeah, it's, it is interesting how everything kind of your whole, every experience
in your life kind of builds to, to who you are once you're 30 years old.
A cool thing about like a snowboarding, wakeboarding, any of a lot of the things you mentioned, the only way to have fun at those things and even racing and some of the other things you're interested in now, the only way to have fun at those things is to be skilled at them.
You know, you have to, um, you know, you have to fall down a bunch.
You have to like mess up a bunch and then you have to.
And if you're young and you're trying these things, it could be like super upsetting.
Sit there in snow crying to yourself.
But the other option, you're like there you look around and you're like everyone else is enjoying themselves.
I should probably just stop being a bitch and I should get up and I should just learn how to do this.
And I could have fun like the other kids are.
And so it's a,
it's an interesting and fun kind of training tool.
But the challenge that it,
that it,
that it gives you,
I think is great because it shows you right away.
Like you want to be,
if you want to have fun and if you want to have fun at just about anything,
one of the best ways to have fun is to kick everybody else's ass in it or to at least be good at it enough so you can enjoy yourself doing it.
Yeah, exactly.
No, that's, that's great point.
Definitely had a lot of moments of, you know, my, my, my family is way into it.
So my wife didn't grow up skiing or anything.
family was way into it so my wife didn't grow up skiing or anything and so like see but she's a very she has a like a really good worth ethic and huge drive so like she calls it like ski boot
camp so like we go out and like she would ski all day like her toenails would turn black from like
pushing into her boots so hard learning to ski um so yeah i mean it's it's a girl like you said
um growing up you know i think growing up, you know, I think
it did help, you know, shape a lot of my work ethic and who I am and, and yeah, it is really
interesting.
Yeah.
It also helps with balance.
So another thing high school athletes could, could work on is balance, balance and flexibility
are, are, you know, I call them like the big five, you have like speed, strength, quickness,
balance, and flexibility.
And I feel like the, the two latter ones aren't trained enough,
especially in young athletes.
Then you get to the NFL.
Most of us have good enough speed, strength, and quickness.
All everybody trains now is flexibility and balance.
We have a great base in the other three.
Get to the NFL. Those are the two things you end up training the most because that's where
you're lacking the most. Um, once you get to this, this, uh, this stage.
Being in the league for six years and starting to get, uh,
maybe a little bit older or somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of,
uh, where you are with your teammates.
What do you think of someone like Tom Brady? Who's in like his mid now,
like in his mid forties and still playing.
It's,
I don't even have a word to describe what he's doing now.
Like it is remarkable.
And you know,
no guy in the NFL wants to play Tom Brady.
Like,
it doesn't matter.
He could be on any team in the entire country.
You don't want to play Tom Brady.
You're like,
that is,
there is going to be no easy moment. There's're it's going to be a you know a 60 minute fist fight like he's it is my it is mind-blowing to me how he can still do it and
be that competitive and um because people you know like when someone's really good at something like
you there's a lot of people in the world that like don't like them you know, like when someone's really good at something, like there's a lot
of people in the world that like, don't like them, you know, like people hate LeBron James,
even though he's a freak or, you know, like the Lakers when they were dominant or so everyone's
like, Oh, Tom Brady.
And you're like asking NFL guy, they're like, Oh no, he's a freak.
Like I, I love watching Tom Brady play.
Like the dude's an animal, you know what I'm saying?
So it's, um, every guy in the NFL has an incredible amount of respect for Tom Brady. It's mind-blowing what he
can do. When does the season start?
July 27th is our first day of camp.
Go in, get a bunch of physicals, strap up, and
get after it on the 28th. Awesome, man. Well, good luck with
this season. I hope it's a season
that the Jets fans can be
proud of.
Trust me,
last year, man, I
never experienced something like that in my life.
I think
everybody's...
I've never been around a team more determined
and more fired up to get going.
And it was one of the best OTAs I've been a part of just from no complaining, hardworking, getting after it standpoint.
So we're definitely laying the base.
So I think we'll, you know, you'll see some turnaround this year and in the next three to five years, it's going to be pretty special over there for sure.
What's your Instagram so some people can follow along with some of the stuff we talked about today?
McGovernator60.
I could probably smell it.
Yeah, I was a huge Arnold fan.
I went to the Arnold Classic.
I actually got to shake your hand there one year, and I got to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger in that same year.
So it was a big year for me.
I actually got an Arnold tank tank top on it i just
got done with my workout before this oh there you go hey big arnold fan so i kind of stole his name
from my instagram man awesome great having you on high school or whatever it was great having you
on the show today appreciate it have a great rest of your day thank you thanks guys we learned a lot
today that was great that coach was a dick man that was weird
wow yeah like oh you you come from money you're not gonna work i guess at least he was honest
about it brutally honest like i mean usually somebody would hide something like there's this
or there's but he's just like nah you came from money yeah you just say like oh you don't have
what we're looking for at the moment you figure figure, right? But then it's like, why did you draft him?
Yeah, right.
If you knew.
I think he got drafted.
Maybe, you know, maybe that guy's just going off of previous experience.
Could be.
Like that he had or maybe he didn't grow up with money.
Maybe he grew up, you know, with circumstances that weren't great.
And maybe he takes it out on other people. But you figure somewhere in the chain of coaching and administration,
they would be like, you can't
act that way. Like, that's not, that doesn't make any sense. I mean, to me
it's discrimination, right? I mean, it wouldn't be any different if you discriminated
against anyone
else for any other reason it just doesn't make sense you you should be able to play you should
have access to the field if you're able to play a little bit better than some of the other people
and if you're on the team you should certainly have access to being able to play at some point
like ah you're too slow you know oh okay he shit. Okay. He's kind of right. Like I need to
be faster. You know, you, uh, you weigh too much. You weigh too little. You, you could point out
many, many things, but if you start to meet some of those requirements, it's like, okay, well now
why am, why am I not on the field? I hate gatekeepers. Like gatekeepers annoy me. And
gatekeepers are the people that like, they have something and they have some type of position of power but they choose like they they choose to knock on certain people not because of
maybe their lack of skill or their lack of ability but plainly because of maybe who they are where
they come from or something like that and they just make things unnecessarily difficult for those
people and it's amazing when you meet people that share and they don't,
and they don't care that much.
Yeah.
You know,
you meet someone like Ron Penna and he'll sit there and explain to you how
to make protein bars.
Cause he just doesn't give a fuck.
You when,
usually when you meet people that are on a high,
high level,
they normally don't care that much.
They're normally like,
I'm going to show you,
you know,
or if you want to know,
I'll explain to you how I did this almost exactly because I'm not fearful that you're going to do a better job than me.
I actually, a lot of times when I share stuff with people, I'm kind of hoping that they do a better job than me.
Even just in starting super training, I've always wanted people to be stronger than me.
And if you look at a lot of the numbers on the board from my competitive powerlifting years,
I don't have the biggest bench.
I don't have the biggest squat.
I do have the biggest total.
But I don't have the biggest deadlift.
So there was other people that came through
that were stronger,
at least those individual lifts.
Yeah.
The hard thing about Kubiak, though, so the coach at that time, they had just come off a Super Bowl win.
So he had a lot of pull, but still, that's gross.
That sucks.
Dude, you got to bring up some pictures of Von Miller.
Yes.
Yeah, I've seen Von Miller before.
He trained at Cal Strength for a bit.
Really?
I found an amazing picture of him right here.
Oh. Wow, that is
the...
You might have to give
Russell Westbrook as far as his style. He's all
naked. But I'm curious about his body
now, because I didn't know Von Miller was built
like that.
So he's just wearing all kinds of different weird stuff.
Yeah. So, yeah,
could you pull up some Bob Miller bod pics?
I'm working on it.
Check these out.
Oh, why is he naked?
I don't know.
Wow.
But he's naked.
All right, pull up the one with the guitar.
I need to see those quads.
I know.
It's such a small...
Dude, did he grow out his hair like that?
Nah.
Or is that somebody else?
Nah, he's wearing something.
Or maybe it's...
I was like, that's sick if he did that.
Yeah. How tall is he? Why is it... He's got to be 6'3". Why is it somebody else? Nah, he's wearing something, or maybe it's a jacket. I was like, that's sick if he did that. Yeah.
How tall is he?
He's got to be 6'3".
Why is it so small?
That's not what I mean.
It's a picture.
He's got to be 6'3", 6'4".
Let's see.
Maybe if I go...
But I think he was the Super Bowl MVP one year, which is really rare for a defensive player.
He was completely unstoppable that year, and in that Super Bowl, he just...
The greatest show on turf.
Yeah, he was...
He said he was...
Oh, snap.
He does have some mean quads.
Especially for being a taller guy.
He's not going to have a crazy amount of mass, but he is built.
Mm-hmm.
That's crazy, man.
That's wild. Freak of all freaks.
Now I'm curious. I'm going to go
watch some Von Miller clips to see how this guy moved.
No, it's nasty.
It is nasty. It really is.
That's the thing, man.
I think that's
one interesting thing.
A lot of athletes,
pro-athletes
usually try to go towards pro sports and they end
up there they're not going to be doing like when an athlete that like for example i think a great
example this is like russell so like he played football he got injured but he was football built
and then he just chose to go towards power lifting and he's demolishing the 83s i feel like i'm not even i
feel like i know that if any of these athletes in the nfl were just like i just i feel like
powerlifting they'd come in and wreck house it would be yeah it would be ugly yeah you know
or even bodybuilding a friend of mine wreck house friend of mine from years ago uh al caslow he uh just smashed all
like the 181 records um he was a smaller athlete so he used to tell me he played football and i was
like oh cool i but i didn't know he played for like the fucking philadelphia eagles he was like a
kickoff and punt returner i was like what the fuck yeah he was like he was ridiculous he was a little heavier
when he played um but yeah he came into powerlifting and just you know he broke all-time
world records and i think he squatted 900 pounds i mean he was just this unreal uh athlete all
around it never hurts to be a better athlete never i mean it it can only it can only be helpful
to be a better athlete and you've seen you can see it across the board
um and actually you kind of notice a common theme i don't know if it's because i recognize it
because of you because of your soccer background but we keep hearing like time and time again
people keep mentioning soccer and uh being somebody that has been to many uh kind of youth
uh sports events.
Like, not much happens unless you're playing something like soccer
because volleyball takes like a certain skill level
to be able to knock the ball around enough
to where you're moving around a lot to develop other skills.
So if you play volleyball for a long time,
well, then, of course, you know, you can develop some skills.
But you need to be like, you got to be like 12 years old or something to have a halfway decent game of volleyball, you know.
And I know some, you know, someone listening might be like my eight year old, you know, whatever.
I get it.
There are younger kids that develop faster.
Kids of phenom.
Yeah.
Well, and there's kids that go to camp and they take it real serious from the time they're five.
And I understand all that but like i actually think that baseball i think youth baseball
is and even youth football to a certain extent unless you're unless you're playing like flag
football or something like that i think a lot of these sports are kind of useless it's it's uh
i don't know it's it's almost like going to like a pageant it reminds me of that
because you're like i don't really know is this a choice for these kids especially t-ball yeah
it's just and but the kid could honestly legitimately be interested in the sport by
himself but i don't i think that sports are great activities for children for many, many different reasons, being on a team and all that stuff.
But if you're trying to get your kid more activity, I would not recommend that you put them into baseball.
I would not recommend that you put them into volleyball.
A flag football thing might be a good place to start.
Soccer might be a good place to start.
Gymnastics.
Gymnastics is a great place to start. Gymnastics. Gymnastics is a great place to start.
Gymnastics is a great,
gymnastics is really awesome
because it's a way to,
it's a way to almost auto-regulate body weight control
without getting nuts about it.
Now, you can get nuts about it
because you can,
someone can go deep into gymnastics
and things can get weird with young kids dieting but like you'll move better in gymnastics in gymnastics if you're not
heavy yeah so if you have a child doing it at two or three years old uh before you know before they
eat a lot of processed foods and things like that they might be able to kind of hold on to some of
that flexibility mobility strength uh as they get older and older.
Yeah.
And like, I remember when I was in like elementary school and I was pretty tall for my age.
I was definitely one of like the taller kids in school or not in school, but just like,
like I said, for my age. And I just remember the guys that were like my height were like super goofy.
Like they could not dribble a basketball.
They couldn't even like run straight.
And I grew up playing soccer and I think that has a lot to do with it now eventually everyone you know finally got their their bearings in line and all that basketball is pretty good youth sport
so that's what i was going to say is basketball is kind of a similar thing where it teaches a lot
of hand eye coordination the problem with the really young kids is you just get this like mosh
pit of kids going all around the court
trying to shoot the ball and nobody just air balls all day long and soccer is kind of the same thing
it's a mosh pit of kids just just kicking the ball back and forth but at least you know everyone's
looking down and they're trying to kick something and then with basketball they're looking down
trying to dribble something so i think both of those sports are actually really good because
you're right mark um in in baseball it's a lot of sit and wait for the ball to never show up
and then in basketball and soccer it's just
let them go to town. I'd also maybe just wait, put your kid into something
I mean sometimes your kid really wants to do something
so I would never want to discourage that but just have your kid
play for a while
yeah you know do all kinds of things where they play stuff and they mess around with stuff in the
backyard they don't have to necessarily be an organized sport i think personally i think that
they would be better off if they waited till they're about eight or ten years old where they
can really understand some good fundamentals of stuff they can they can follow direction
um they they just kind of i don't know're just like, they're not babies anymore.
You know, you don't have to worry about them really.
They still might whine and stuff like that, but, like, they can actually focus and concentrate on something.
And they can actually get, they can participate in the sport in a lot better way than if they were, like, six or seven.
Yeah.
As long as there's a way to keep them, well, well for sure active, but like educated on the sport.
Cause like,
again,
I would remember like being young,
playing a sport and like kids didn't know where first base was.
And it's like,
Whoa,
you have no idea what you're doing.
Like that's strange.
So if it,
if you are gonna,
I think in my opinion,
if you are going to kind of push your kids towards the boobs,
right?
Exactly.
Yeah. You don't go straight for what would so diving in the home plate yeah yeah why not but in the park home run well i guess okay so i'll end it here but keeping them
interested in the actual sport i think is important so whether it's uh not an organized thing but like
yeah organizing stuff yourself amongst their friends or no that'd be a pain in the ass like
nephews and nieces and stuff I think that'd be fun yeah that's something I think that will do
because yeah some of the young stuff is like yeah it's pretty pretty lame I was like my mom had me
taste everything so she was like you know played some soccer played some baseball played some basketball um and then finally when high school came she's like all right
pick one big soccer yeah so so we stuck with yeah it's gonna let them vary and let them feel what
they like yeah and soccer is great because i mean it's so baseball kind of but when they're kids
like they start kicking like right away as they're kids, like they start kicking shit like right away.
As soon as they can walk, they start kicking stuff.
So like you can kick.
All right, cool.
You can play soccer.
I know it gets way more complex than that.
Trust me.
I know my whole family played soccer, but like it's a low barrier of entry and they could start wrecking kids right away.
Yeah.
wrecking kids right away yeah some of the coaches and or uh people that have you know athletes in the family or if you're a younger person i mean recognize that connor uh was 6 4 275 in high
school um he started lifting at a very young age i think he said he started in like fifth grade
fourth grade started lifting at a very young age but he would would not have been able to make it in the NFL if he didn't train for it.
So, I mean, a guy that's, that's, you know, just, I think it's a great story.
You know, a guy that's 6'4", 275 in high school, you would think he would just be
like grandfathered into the, to the NFL, but it doesn't work that way.
And also he talked about injuries and I actually think, I think there's a lot of things that can be done with head injuries.
I think shortening the game up a little bit would help.
Like, for example, if the entire game took as long as getting through three quarters, I think that would solve a lot of problems.
Because I believe that a lot of the head injuries aren't, I mean, obviously they're from the sport.
You know, you're smashing each other head to head and the equipment kind of allows for that.
The equipment allows for you just to use your body as a weapon and use your head, your own head as a weapon, which is probably the most common form of like head injury is when somebody decides to use their own head as a weapon and they either a hurt themselves or be hurt the opponent or see all the above. They hurt themselves and the opponent. We've seen that before where both guys kind of get knocked out.
obvious of just like head hunting and going after someone's head or leading with your own head i think a solution to some of this is to uh a have better conditioning and b see if there's
some things that we can do in the sport so the guys aren't as fatigued because if you're if
anyone that's done any sort of like boxing or any sort of physical sport where you're against another person, MMA, jujitsu, even like wrestling, you're way more vulnerable to get hurt when you are exhausted.
And if you're kind of getting your ass kicked, it's like, well, now you're exhausted and you're mentally broke.
getting your ass kicked it's like well now you're exhausted and you're mentally broke and when you're broke you're you're less likely to um take more you take more risks yeah you take yeah you take
yeah you don't like you you're not making good decisions when you're fatigued you know they say
fatigue makes cowards of us all and i think that that's what's happening a lot of times in the nfl
and i i think that the conditioning side of things is like way undersold.
I just know from, I didn't play nearly at that level,
but from the amount of football that I played,
I could say that pretty much everyone on the field was always a little bit out
of shape. They weren't in the shape that you really need.
Maybe aside from like the, maybe aside from some of like the wide receivers,
you know, they're running down the field the whole entire game.
But everyone on the field could utilize that same level of conditioning,
and it's really rare for people to have that.
So people might kind of claim, like, oh, fourth quarter, I'm not tired.
But they definitely don't feel like they did in the first and second quarter.
Right.
Yeah.
Anyway, want to take us on home, Andrew?
Absolutely. Thank you, everybody, take us on home, Andrew. Absolutely.
Thank you everybody for checking out today's episode.
How freaking cool was it?
A professional Jets player talking about how much he uses a slingshot.
That's great.
Fucking sick.
I love that.
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Seahawks algorithm.
Yeah, fuck them.
Yeah, I saw that.
I'm not letting that slide.
I'm going to research that.
I saw you write it down
once you said it.
I want to see
what's going on with that. Imagine we that for like hiring people yeah right that'd be
sick that was amazing that was super interesting i was like oh they had a what was it algorithm to
see like adversity advert yeah what adversity they faced and adversity algorithm perseverance
which is another word i can't pronounce like your your adversity algorithm on a scale of 1 to 10 is a.12.
Like, oh, shit.
You've been handed everything.
God damn it.
Anyway, I'm at Mark Smelly Bell.
Strength is never weakness.
Weakness is never strength.
Catch you guys later.