Brandon Fields: Flip the Field

00:00:00 Speaker 1: You're now diving been who sitting down with Seth Living Oh Jay Who? And this is strictly for the true Dolphins number one one of course, y'all this in order neary sports talk that might have been that time. Welcome back to the fish tech right here on the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, Seth Lovitt and the man with the best hands in the podcast business, O J. McDuffie. Juice. We're on a specialist run right now. Man, how are you feeling about this? You you're a guy who loves to tell us how you came into this league on specialty. You're right at home last, damn right, big sept. We don't get the love and credit we deserve as specialists, man, you know, as a return guy. Only when I first came in the league, you know I got a couple of snaps of wide receiver because we have some veterans ahead of me. Man, But we all know that the game is in thirds, big Seth offense, defense, and for sure special team. So I hear it all the time from our coach and our quarterback. Damn Ray, what's up with that? Brandon Fields dives into the fish tank for the first time. Brandon how you feeling, man? Good, I'm good. Good morning, gentlemen. Now you're you were just telling me. So, he's not in a dungeon there, he's not in the basement there at the field. He's not in trouble, trouble, he's not in any trouble. He's actually kind of got excited news. Now I'm borrowing my wife's office in our new production facility for a brewery because mine more in shambles than her. This. But did you have to like make a decisions like, Wow, I can't do it here, I gotta go. I need your I need your office space. Is that what you have to tell the wife? She's not here now, so she doesn't know yet. I love it and tell her anything. I'm sure she'll find out soon enough. So that's great stuff, great stuff. Well, like I was saying, we have been on this amazing special team's run the last few weeks, Jay Feely was in the tank. J released the John Denny episode, and nobody Juice was more helpful in preparation than Brandon Fields. So you know, Brandon, I called you, like I said, it felt like we were doing podcast episodes. You gave me so many good stories. I was like, you need to come on the show as well, man, So I really am excited about that and Juice, I'm gonna go a little off script from our normal procedure here, but I'm getting right into this thing because we've talked about this story now and we talked about it with John. It's the snap to the face story, and it was great because we brought it up and John was like he just was He knew it was coming. He didn't want it. I think he was holding his breath the whole time, but he knew it was coming. He said, you know, when you called me to get a good story on Jay, I just had a feeling you were gonna call Brandon and talk about this. And he's got his perspective and I respect it, but you know, I see things what you know John, He's diplomatic and he's the nicest guy, and I see things kind of the way I remember them. Brandon, tell us what the real story was to set the record straight. So it was it was December fifteenth, twenty thirteen against New England Patriots at home, and it was a fake field goal. So with it the fake field goal was I was going to flip the ball over my shoulder to Caleb Surgis, who's going to run behind and try to get the corner, get the edge. It was one that we were working on for about four or five weeks, but with the Patriots were kind of in mind. That was the team that consistently showed us the look that we needed for that one. Our typical field goal kind of operation was as we ran onto the field, linemen, we're starting to get set, we get the spot for the kicker. Caleb and I I yelled set call. Set calls basically tell the big boys get down because we're going to be snapping it soon. From there, I have my hand up and I look back at Caleb make sure he's ready. He gives me the nod. Then I turned my head back to John and I open up my hand, so it's really just that one audible and then John's waiting for the next queue to snap it. Well. On any fakes that we did, I would first give the set call, and then as everybody would get down and get set, I would check to make sure we got the linement we needed and give a red red or a green green. Red red means you know, lineman, we're kicking it. Don't don't block the fake green green is on. So on that gave a set call kind of pause for you know, a few seconds. Everybody got down. We saw a look, gave a green green, checked back with Kaleb to make sure he knew it was a fake. So I'm not pitching it to nobody. Well John saw that or had that kind of that second audible or kind of command, and he was go. He was locked in and just having to time it up where my head was turning back around as the ball hit. You s wearing the face mac, So it's if you actually look up ball to the face or snap the face on your iPhone, I'll pop up as a gift. So my wife every December fifteenth sends it to all our staff and we actually made a beer out of it called Snap in the Face. I love it. It's the Jalapeno Live cilantro Ipa juice. You got to see the label. The label looks great. I have to texting a picture of it. The label's fantastic. Whoever did the artwork, they captured it beautifully. I love that your wife celebrates it almost like an anniversary. You know that she announces it to the entire entire team. It was two days after our first daughter was born. So she was in the hospital watching the game and all of a sudden that the chaos happened. Nurses are coming in. She's yelling them to get out that she doesn't know what's going on. She is like, she is kind of a bewilderment of like, what the heck just happened? And this is twenty thirteen, you said, right, yep? So so you I mean you come in the league at two thousand and seven. So I mean, you guys have been playing together and we'll get into this, but neither of you have missed a game in your entirety of playing together. So it wasn't like, you know, this was a new Operation Juice, right do it is? Oh? Man? So John was so fun I don't you heard the episode yet, Brandon, But John was so funny because he, you know, he started off by saying, Hey, he's got his perspective and I got mine. And then he got into it and then he kind of was told on himself a little bit, didn't he, Juice. He was like, you know, well, I guess I just you know, thousand balls with him. I'm just so instinctive, and I hear that second sound and I just went and the ju just goes kind of sounds like you shouldn't have done that. This is the This is the first time publicly that I told the full the full story after that or before this, I always took the blame on everything that I screwed up. I wasn't ready. I made the you know, made the wrong call. You one thing I never I would never throw John R at the buff. So so I was going to ask you that, Like, you know, we get now, we get to see every press conference, all the transcripts, everything, and I don't remember back then if they were doing that as as much as they do it now. But I was like, I'm sure that you were asked about it after the game, you know, But so you guys, Yeah, I mean it's I mean, it's I'm a team player. I mean, anytime one of my guys, it's I mean people, but somebody like that that we went through so much together, stuff like that. It's especially we won the game, so as you know, you know, winning kind of uh covers up a lot of mistakes. It does, then you can laugh about it. Yeah, So it was a lot better with that aspect versus if that was like the game winning play and you know these buffoons are out there hitting each other with the ball, that would be something different. But right, I love it. And so here's what's great though, Juice like John kind of indicati. Well, wait a minute, he's making money off of this thing now at brewery, you know, the snap to the face beer, And I'm not seeing any of the proceeds of that. But I think maybe you you paid him in taking the blame, is what it sounds like, paying it forward. That's it. That's it. Oh, too good, too good, you know, and you know it's so it's so funny. We talked a little bit about you know, special team soon and play a big role in the game unless you're kicking that game winner, you know, like we talked about last night. So yeah, man, it's it when it happens early and you still win. Brandon, you were right. It's not as glaring as it would have been if it had been happening, you know, with the game winning kick on the line, or play not even kick because of the play that you called what was it? Did you go red red or green green? I'm not sure we're running you have a look you want it? Yeah, I was. I was half excited to see just get the first down. I was also half excited. See they're just getting lit up. Both could both things could happen, right, Yeah, that says the classical story man. But I see we're trying to do here. Here's the thing about it. Now, you know we finally got another Ohio guy in here, big seth. You just say anything about that, you know, you sue when we're talking to get right to the good season. You know, I know he was born in Michigan, you know, but he grew up in toled Ohio, and that makes you an Ohio win in my eyes, you know, Brandon in a while, that's right, See, big safety, So you only talk about the Florida guys and things like that, but when it comes Ohio, you just gloss over that all the time. Do what you know? Jus, That's kind of what I've been talking all right? All right? Well at Saint John's jess With High School in Toledo, you played multiple positions, including punter obviously. But you're a big ass dude, Brandon man at six ' five, What do you say? Two? I don't want to get your weight, because weight always kind of what do you say weight wise? No, I'm good, I'm I'm right now. I'm about two thirty three. See two thirty three. I was gonna say two fifty, but I'm glad I didn't say that, man, because I know how to big people. I played. Yeah, that's uh so, I was a solid. Let's say I played football at two ten and basketball two of five. Looking back in that looking at pictures, I was a lot tougher than or I thought I was a lot tougher than actually was. Well, yeah, but college, I I think I got in at two fifteen, graduated about two thirty, and then Donald Miami finished my uh way, and wait was forty nine when I finished. But I played about two forty five, right, no doubt bout. That's why I mean. At that at six ' five, you could be fucking two eighty. And I think that you look great like you always did. Man. But I'm you know, I'm surprised though that you know, someone didn't try you at that, at that size in that way. I'm surprised you didn't get you know, somebody didn't try it tight end or d Lineman or something like that. At what point did you decide that punter was going to be your You're pretty much your go to position and your money maker. Probably not until my junior year of high school. Growing up, I was wanting to play basketball. I want to play basketball for Kentucky. My dad played basketball for Northwestern and did kind of some semi pro and some year ball. So basketball that's what I played growing up. Football didn't start until eighth grade, and I actually loved playing the field. I was a tight end defensive end. I mean I loved catching ball in the flat, turning up and seeing some little dB, you know, try try to tackle me. I was just slow, I mean quite honestly. I had a great hand, I could catch the ball, decent blocker. I was good pass blocking more than run blocking, just because of having long arms. But yeah, I knew I wasn't fast enough. There was a couple of smaller schools that were recruiting me for playing tight ends, but I always want to play big ten and I knew funning was kind of my route to do that. Funny thing. Enough, when I was a red shirt at Michigan State, I did some practice squad stuff at tight ends, but it wasn't until would be my red shirt freshman year. So my second year when I won the kicking job, that's when they gave me the bag of ball, told me to go in the corner and don't get hurt. So that's one of those It quickly changed and I owned it. It was my craft, So, I mean, I worked hard on it, knowing that, yeah, that would be fun, fun and all play on the field, but that wasn't my job. That wasn't what I was there to do. So I just kind of buckled down and worked hard at it and kind of did what I had to do, the contribute for the team and big stuff. You know this, man, all those football players, you know, basketball is our favorite sport, right if you if you did a poll of most football players, basketball is our favorite sport. Now for me, Brandon, I wasn't six five, so I had no choice but to play football or two. Yeah, well I was. I was close to two hundred times. But that's a different story, big set. That's a different story, man. But that's that's that's good stuff though. Man. I love it. I love that the athletes are and I say this all the time, Brandon, the best athletes play football. I did get uh, the Michigan State coach South Sunray at the time, especially in quarter he didn't offer me scholarship until he saw me play basketball. Obviously I had my my football tape. Season is over. He came down to one of our basketball games and then afterwards, that's when he offered me scholarship. Especially up there, a big seth. I mean up there, we we play a football season and then the next we got to go indoors, right, Brandon, we have to go indoors, and that's when they come and see how great athletes we are, you know, up in Ohio, big seth in Ohio. Yeah, I get it, I get it for sure. Well, well, listen, that special teams coach made a good decision whatever he saw in your basketball film, because you go from being a Saint John's Titan to a Michigan State Spartan, and you're not just in the corner not getting hurt. You become a rock star punter. You're an All American as a sophomore. You're rewriting the record books there and by the time you're done. Look, your position is one that what I think an average of like two or three punters get drafted a year it's not like there's a run. And fortunately you positioned yourself to where you did get drafted seventh round of the two thousand and seven NFL Draft, Miami Dolphins select you. So you joined Camp Cameron's draft class that included Ted another Ohio and Juice right Ted game Fan with the first round pick. And then and we had another Paul SOLEI I was on recently. You know, we had Paul, you had you had a great draft class there. But I guess what I'm wondering is, did you think that you would get drafted? Do you think you had positioned yourself into a place where you would get drafted? And then the other side of that is, hey, I'm I'm gonna get a chance to live my dream. I get drafted by the Miami Dolphins. I just said two thousand and seven. I just said, Cam Cameron's The Dolphin fans right now we're sweating as they're thinking about that one. In fifteen season, you break into the league and it's literally the absolute bottom of the barrel season for a team that had this storied history. You know, but when you and I talked about it, you said that despite the fact that it was absolutely a trying season that camp. Cameron was kind of the right coach for you that first year. Yeah, I mean, looking at it now, I think I was a bit of a project. I was a little raw coming out of college. I mean I had a huge leg, hadn't quite developed a lot of that kind of short, short range touch. Yeah. Steve Hoffin was assistant special teams coach. He's one of the few coaches actually knows how to coach punning and kicking. Prisingly, most special teams coordinators know nothing about kicking and the technique about it. Now, I've had some great ones Stay Fit, who's in Detroit now, Darren Rizzy Bottomego Armstrong where they're good enough coaches to observe, like, hey, you know this was a good punt. You did X, Y and Z right, Okay, this one was a bad one, and this is what I saw that was different, more of that feedback. Steve Hoffman, on the other hand, was more into the technical side of things. So being drafted was phenomenal, ecstatic. As you said, not many punters or kickers are drafted, if if at all, So knowing that a team wants to spend that draft pick they want you to come in means a lot, and my whole entire spring going into summer, Steve Hoffin kind of broke me down and kind of was trying to mold me into his technique. From there, I kind of took it and made it my own. I never truly did the full you know, one eighty that he wanted me to, but I kind of took what I could use and made it my own. I tell what I teach young kids, it's a lot like golf, where if you look at the PGA, all the golfers kind of have their own unique swing, but they're all doing a few things the same. Punting and kicking is like that. You know, you look at NFL punters and kickers. You know they're all kind of unique in their own style, but they're all doing a few fundamentals that are correct. So with that, I mean, I know, I'm not really talking about the two thousand and seventh season. So part of it was I didn't know any better. I was a rookie, so I didn't know how it's supposed to be. I didn't know how team meetings are supposed to go. I didn't know how coaches are supposed to conduct themselves. I mean, obviously I was used to college and college no matter what, is always different how coaches speak and conduct themselves with players than it is with pros. But Cam was not a doom in the gloom type of guy. So knowing that one I'm trying, I'm doing all new technique that I mean, the preseason was the first time that I was really getting live reps at this new stuff. So it's thinking of like, you know, I'm thinking too much as opposed to reacting versus later on my career. It's just it's automatic. I'm just reactive to it. My body knows what it's doing. I don't have to think if I think I'm probably gonna screw myself up. So my rookie year, if I had a bad punt, if I if I didn't do something I was supposed to, instead of him for rating getting down on me, it's you know, Heyfield, you can do it. I saw you do a practice. You know, go in the net, get your mind right, get out there. We're going to need you. And that was better in terms of, you know, the cuffing and the cursing and kind of I mean, guys know when they screw up. They know when they make a good play, they know, and to make a mistake, they don't need somebody in their ear telling them how bad they did when they know. I mean it's their job. They're professional, whether you're a rookie or you know, a fifteen year vet. So with him just having that helped me out a lot. But again one in fifteen obviously not everything to do, so you know, I was open. There was a few interesting team meetings that year, to say the least. We have heard that players, yeah, and probably something that should have been that were not. But yeah, it's I mean that was nice. Everything. So everything was new to me. So then realized like, huh, that's that's not how that's supposed to be later on. So right, so it was good. I mean I ended up working out surprisingly if you look at my stats career, I think all years but one, I had about eighty punts every single year yep. So even the teams that we were horrible because we're getting beat so bad in the second half, we're going for it or were turning the ball over, I was punning it. So it was just kind of funny with that of you know, the one fifteen and then the eleven of fifteen or eleven of five season. Next year, I think I had just about the same amount of punts. I was looking at that, I was going to say, you know, I kind of wanted to say, oh, well, you certainly got a lot of practice that first year, but it wasn't much different from you know, it was kind of at the mean, it wasn't on the high end. You know, you seventy something punts almost every year year and I think you had eight maybe the year you went to the Pro Bowl. You had eighty something punts one of those years. But uh, yeah, that is interesting you brought that up. That's a lot of work in the first half and then after that just kind of sitting watching the game. You know what's so crazy to me, though, brand is like you were an All American punter and they were honestly trying to change the mechanics. I mean, that makes no sense to me. Why why would they want to do that? Is it was it more beneficial in the pro game and what you were doing in the college game. Why would they want to change mechanics? It was it was a cleanup. I was long, I mean being being long. Yea, we love that though we loved that bro, you know returners big seth. I mean, go ahead, seventy yards you got to we'll talk about that. Yeah, but that's how we So I got more long in my stride of not getting closer. Okay, I got you, I got you. Got he was both, I guess yeah. I mean that's our team. Our punt team new they took pride that I was going to send it and they were going to run. But they loved I mean, our our gunners, our team. I was friends with pretty much all of our defensive coordinators every single year because I knew that we were there. They knew I was going to put them in good position. Our a team was I mean, I honestly, I can kick the ball mile, but if my team's not going to cover, it's not going to be anything. But our guys knew that that. Yeah, I might put some that are seventy yards, but heck, I'll give you a twenty yard return. Well, I'll take the seventy fifty any day. Coaches may not like that of that potential for that big return, but me, I mean that's the same. If the ball is on our you know, thirty forty yard line, I'm going for them I'm going for that pylon. Yeah, I'll put that sucker in the n zone and take the return all day long, or take the touchback all day long. You know. You know what I've been seeing brand there's a lot of the rugby style now man, and it's like it kind of it kind of drives me crazy. But some guys can do rugby to pen it. Some guys do rugby to boom it as well. What do you think about the rugby style that's come around? You know, and of course with punting in the NFL, only the flyers can go before the ball's punt. I see a lot more in college because you can run, run, run, and everybody's already halfway down the field in colleagues before the balls even punt. It seems like, what do you think about some of these rugby style guys that have been coming out. I'm a purist, so I don't like it at all. I mean, college is completely different now where it's it's more on the coverage team than the actual punter. But the pros there's some guys that have been doing that, not quite the full rollout, but yeah, for me, it's I'm furious. I want that sucker. The spiral turnover, you know, go fifty five sixty seventy yards down the field on the sideline. So yeah, we'll just leave it. That's not my thing, Yeah, Big stef. I always talk about how catching the pun is the hardest thing in football. It really is. Quarterbacks is a tough position, obviously, but catching the punt he just talked about it. When that spiral turns over, that thing is going to go a long way. But when it doesn't, it falls off a cliff. So you go into certain environments, you know, you're you're in windy meadowlands or Europe in Buffalo, and you see that thing fall off a cliff, it might start going the other way sometimes and that oh Joe me crazy as a return guy. Yeah, I'd have it where my ball Paul damon straight and it turned over to the right, it would it would actually fit about six seven yards to the right. Now if it didn't turn over and and slashed, it would be a good twenty yards to the left. Hard talking. Oh yeah, yeah, dude, one of those duck hooks and off the tea box where you don't know where it's going, but it's not going the right way. So I know punters big sad. I know punter's are good golfers most of the time. So that was your golf game might have come Sometimes it mirrors what your punt game could be like sometimes a little bit. I'm not I'm not as good as Pheely and and Denny, that's for sure. I'd say out of the three of us, Pheely was was the best. John hit the lung ball. But yeah, I didn't really start playing until senior year in college, so I got a quick education on the on the T box from numerous veterans. Put it that way. JT included on that I bet, I bet well. Phelly made sure to tell us that he was the best of the three guys if you could ask you. Probably a little bit too, though you never know. Oh that's too good about Phoebe. I guess that's something that is for sure. No, no, nothing's been confirmed, absolutely not. But he just gave a good little smile and wake though when we asked him. So. So here's something I find interesting is that when you win the job as a rookie, as a punter, you're you're instantly thrown into the fire, right, So it's not like making the team at another position. In some cases, I don't know why they don't count punters and kickers don't get starts even though you're the guy, you're the only guy. You're the punter for every game, sixteen games a year for for eight years. You have zero starts in your career, which is interesting to me. Why they why they don't consider that a starting position, regardless you're the guy, right and so so Juice, when you were a rookie, you had Irving Fryar there. You had Mark Ingram, you had other guys, Mark Duper when you first got there, you had guys that you could kind of watch and model and or who not to model after, and a guy to put his arm around you and to learn from. Right, you have those veteran guys. The defensive linemen havebit, the defensive backs have it. But for you, basically, the vets in your room are John Denny and j Feeley, and neither of them play your position. But it's just, you know, it's kind of just you guys and on and off the field, right, people that are going to teach you how to be a pro. And I think that that's really interesting. I think it's unique in nature for the sport. Can you talk about the uniqueness of that, and then what those two guys meant for you in that first year that, as we just discussed, was a challenging year on the field. What did it mean to have those two guys as kind of your vets that were looking after you. I mean with those two and meant a lot. I think John was going into this third year, so still young, but I mean he's been through, you know a little bit, so could kind of rely on him on some stuff we feel. I think it was a sixth or seventh year when he was down there, but I mean he conducted himself like a ten year vet on that and I think being the oldest of the three of us, he definitely kind of took charge of our group in terms of just how to conduct yourself with a lot of stuff. In terms of meetings time off, that's one thing that we have a lot of time off. We don't meet as much as everybody else does. A lot of it's on Brandon. We're still on the state of the facility that kind of got changed a couple of years before us, where I to hear stories of different vets where during camp they'd come kick in the morning and then go hit eighteen while what else to do and stuff. But that wasn't the case for me unfortunately. But just that just how to how to be appro You rely on them in terms of technique and stuff, some just relying on their eyes of that of okay, I'm gonna, like I said, with coaches not necessarily knowing the specialists kind of do even though they don't. Like myself, I know how to kick. I can't kick, not as good as any NFL kicker. However, the same thing, I kind of know the general mechanics. So if somebody is having problems and it says, hey, just watch me take a few reps, the same thing of like your foot this way or foots that way, like that sort of thing. Outside of that, it's kind of our own. In terms of I worked with Ray guy in college. I would work his kicking camps and stuff, so on the side during lunch break afterwards, I'd punt with him. Even when he was fifty some years old, he can still hit it, which was crazy cool. Jeff Fiegels was another older punter that kind of look up to. Got to know him at a few kind of business events in the off season. This wasn't my rookie year, but afterwards, one of the things he told me and kind of stuck with me, was, you know, every year there's guys coming out. Every year, there's somebody who's been kicked higher farther than I can. But the one thing I have over everybody else is my mental game, making sure I'm mentally sharp. So with that, a couple of years into my career, I started doing kind of that mental training work with a professional that worked that stuff primarily with golfers. I was his first punter, But I mean I would take a whole bunch of mental reps, you know, before I went to bed during the week, in the hotel room, before games out on the field. If you ever saw me with my headphones on going to different parts of the field, I was doing that, Like, all right, if you know fourth and six, the balls on your own twenty six yard line, the winds, you know, ten miles par you know right the left, you know, here's the call, go out, you know, visualize to kick. So I took a whole bunch of mental reps before I actually took any physical ones. So this was something I learned later on, but through better kicking their brain talking to them. The NFL in general is like a fraternity, I think, more so than it was when I was playing. But like the other kickers and punters, we weren't competing against them. Sure I wanted the punter to shank of ball when we're playing against them, but I had no ill will towards them. So you know, before the game, after the game, you know, talking to him, picking the rein the guys you know Mormon up in Buffalo. It's we're playing them twice a year. You know, you get to know the guys that you're competing against and how they're doing and any tips, and then an off season you run into them and stuff like that where it's you know, picking up tips, stuff that stuff got certain people do, certain people don't. What can you use? What can he not? Yeah, it's that's interesting stuff. And it's also interesting to me. It's like you're finding some of that veteran leadership outside of your own locker room, right because again just the limiting nature of the position. The flip side of that, what I what I was wondering juice, because we always hear the great hazing stories here, there's a whole lot less guys than Hazy as a rookie, i'd imagine. And so I spoke with Caleb Surgis last night, was able to track him down. Talk to Caleb, he sends his best and he said that like his rookie dinner juice. You know, you remember going over, Trent Gamble was here, and you know, you show up and there's twelve deep and he and Artural Freeman are shaking in their boots that they're gonna have to you know, everybody's ordering steak and lobster on dB night out. So Caleb's rookie hazing juice. He had to take John and Brandon and their wives to dinner. Really started that with me. So he snuck that one on me. So I didn't know about that. Yeah, yeah, So he started tradition down in Miami with that. I don't know if they still do it, but yeah, so my rookie year, Oh yeah, Jay tell me, He's like, oh yeah, wife's gonna come too. I didn't know when I was being a being a dub rookie, I was like sure, yeah, and then then John are went through it. So he's John being respectful, you know, ordering what he wants and not going crazy. Jay and his wife's looking at the wine list all this stuff, and I took it. I didn't complain. I just took. I had a great meal and everything. And so then after that we started having the wives come. Yeah, so that's uh so yeah with that, did Caleb tell you whine? He wanted to? Cried about it? So John, the nice guy, he has kicked him some on our table. I was yelling at John afterwards. He left that part out. Oh yeah, he complained about it. So John threw him a couple couple of hundreds. It wasn't I mean, obviously it's it's an all those meals are ridiculous and their own mind, but they're not like the stories you hear. You know. It's it's that everyone you know getting a nice meal and maybe a nice you know, drink or wine. But it's not something you know, thousands of dollars complain. John left. That's nice of a guy. He did say, what's happened to me a couple of years ago? You got Yeah, he did say. He was like, you know, twenty one years old or something, and and your wife's pregnant. John's wife is pregnant. I think I don't know if Dan Carpenter went to camp with him and his wife, you know, before like he said, was more well, he just felt so out of place, like he just you know, so he said all that, but I didn't hear the fact that he sat there and wind about the the bill. That's yeah, amazing special. Yeah, so we knew. I mean, obviously everybody knows kind of riding on the wall when when somebody gets drafted. So unfortunately Dan, who was with us I think five years, uh, he was kind of on his way out. So we made sure to get the rookie dinner in before camp ended so he could partake in it too, for sure. So I love it. Brandon. Let's talk about your flip the field mentality you had as a punter man. It's funny because, as you know, we talked a little bit. As a punt returner, I have my own flip the field mentality, but it's more on the offensive side of my of mine. You know, I want to I want to take any punt and I want to you know, get as at least inside you know, pass the thirty fives of my goal a lot of times. So if I can give my team a sixty five yard field. I think I'm in good shape. Uh, but you you know, for for a guy with the big booming leg, I mean kicking a mile high and a mile deep. Man, talk about you know, the pride you took in the sixty plus seventy plus yard punts, putting the ball inside twenty sometimes inside the five. You know, as we know, inside the five is the brewery name, which is amazing. That's that's well done. Man. Talk about what kind of pride it took in in that and how that permeated. And big said, permeate is a big word like mayonnaise, all right, for sure, you know throughout the entire punk, how that permeate, you know, throughout the whole fund. Yeah, I will ride that one today. The cover team that have loved that. I loved it. I mean that's uh. I took pride in our team did. What I love the most about football is your one on one battle. It sounds silly a putter saying that, but kind of learned early on that my one on one on one battles was between me and the returner and me and opposing special team coach, you know, trying to scheme up a block scheme of return to try to shut me down. So I took pride in that kind of that battle. How was I going to win that that game? And knowing that I could make a difference with our team, obviously we didn't have always the best offenses, and even the best offenses sometimes they struggle, as you see this year with with different teams and in the past. So knowing that I can see that kind of that rock, that consistency that hey, it's all right, you know, we'll get you out of this. It fueled the defense. Said earlier how a lot of the special teams cornators loved me just because of that. They knew that it's okay, you know, okay the touchback, we offense goes three, three and out instead of the team getting the ball at midfield, where now the opposing offense can do whatever they want. Well, ship, now they're on their own twenty yard line. Now what are they going to do? Now? The game plans a little bit different. You know, the defense can you know, pin the ears back and go after them like that, and even you know a lot of the different defenders. There's a lot of defensive guys on the punt team. So knowing that, yes, they they want to be the pro they want to make a great play regardless. But unfortunately a lot of especially starters, they see special teams as I just gotta do it. Coach is making me do it. Not on the punting. They saw that as as a direct reflection of I'm gonna go down field's gonna you know, boom the ball down the field over my head. I'm gonna run down and make a tackle to set myself up, set my defense up, you know, in great field position, you know, to get our offense back on the field that midfield. So with that, it was just it was great knowing that those teams were that first couple of punts where you you know, you flip the field on them. They don't know how to handle it, they don't know what to do. And just seeing that, uh, that will just kind of you know, it's yours that leaves them. They're kind of they're down, they don't know how to answer to it, and like, you got it right where you want them. Yeah, Brenni, you know what it's so it's so crazy you say that when you boom one like that, and we talk about it. Sometimes they call that not not all time. Mean, but sometimes it's all kicking your coverage. But man, I always did the match. Here's what yes cover better. That's right, that's right. I always talked about like if I see a punter, they're punt from their own twenty. He's an average fifty. I gotta put my heels on the thirty. And then you're a guy that had me back up another hell ten to fifteen yards sometimes to catch the punt, and I gotta make a decision on hang time distance, you know, the win all this stuff. Well, I'm gonna call fair catcher. I'm gonna try to return the damn thing. Man. It was always you talk about the one on one. I had one on one with punters all the time as well. Like that. I love this. It's like a heavyweight title fight right here. I love going against rookies. Or there's a few returners who were too aggressive. Like I was scouted to see how far, how deep they played guys, and that of even you know, I'd kind of peek on the field of you know, how far are they playing me? Are they at forty five? Good luck on? All right, Well, you guys have your flip the field mentality. I'm gonna flip the field here fish tank style, and we're gonna talk about another aspect of your game, all right, and it's what we started the show with, and that's holding. We know you got that big old leg, not holding, Dick, say, have you talking about no, no, not holding, but being the holder for Oh, thank you for clarification, especially here. I haven't seen Brandon have any penalty in an audio format. Yeah, I appreciate the clarification here, right right, So Brandon, we have one of our most loyal listeners. He's become a dear friend here on the show. Guy by the name of Jason Sarney, he might be the nation's biggest fan of the holding art form. He went we went through three seasons where he compared one holder of the next. And why this kicker struggled, you know, from one year to the next and he was drawing things on the right on Twitter and all the I don't know, I don't know what type of an expertise there was. We love you, Sorny, But now we got a guy who will be able to kind of give us some information on this. And like, when I talked to you about Jay Feely, you were like, oh, yeah, I remember you he liked it tilted about two o'clock and this, and tilted a little bit forward. And when we went to Jay, he was like, Brandon's exactly right. And that's remarkable to me that that was your rookie year, that was two thousand and seven, and you remember exactly how he wanted to have the ball, and you only you know, only played with him for one season. So I have some questions for you, and bear with me because I'm gonna fire off a few questions and then the floor will be yours. But number one, were you the holder in college or did you have to learn that quickly when you got to the NFL. So that's the first question. The second question is, so often anymore we see that the holder is the punter. We've seen the backup quarterback sometimes, but you see it as the punter so much now. And look what guarantees that the punter is gonna have great hands? Okay, you played some tight end. He said you had really good hands. I know O. J. McDuffie would catch the he would never drop a hold. He'd catch it a thousand times out of a thousand times. You were elite as well. But I imagine that just because a guy has a big leg doesn't necessarily mean that he can catch and be a great holder. So I find that interesting. And then finally, what makes well not finally sorry? Four questions? What makes a great holder in your estimation? And then was there any particular kicker that was a pain in the ass and which kicker was the easiest to hold with? Good luck with all of that. Those are all my holding questions. Floor is yours? Learned how to hold in college? Yeah, that's that's the first time I did it. So I had numerous years. We had both right and left kickers in college learn how to hold for a lefty. So, like combine, I was the only one there, there's one left foot kicker. I was the only one there whoever had experience holding for so held for the lefty for that too many you there? Okay? So? Like why is the holder always the punter? Like what happens if the punter just can't catch? I mean, you know, you can catch this snap to feel the punt, but what if he can't catch that snap? So some of it is coaches philosophy. There are some coaches, not as much anymore, but more old school that want the quarterback, for the backup quarterback to be the holder for fakes. I mean it's strictly for fakes. I'll admit I can throw the ball, but I am not a quarterback, so there is something with that. But again, you're you're having somebody do something they're probably not comfortable with or don't get very many reps for maybe one or two plays a year. So typically it's a punter because everybody else when they're doing other position, you know, individual drills, everything else, the punter, kicker, holder or long stapp are all together so you can get all of those practice reps. You know, getting the five six reps during the week with the fugal team makes sense. So all those all the nuances of that of you know, the kicker wants it, you know, tilted this way versus tilted that way, you know, till the forward back, all that stuff. So that's why turns the hands. I was on the hands team of COU. I had one of the best sets of hands. Again, you didn't have to move very far there right coming right at you. Yeah, I like that, and it makes sense to that big body, right, you're not going to pop that that on side kick over my head at six foot five, that makes sense. And then the most paint ass uh, probably Jay just because he was very particular, which is which is great. I mean, that's that's what I want. I don't want some of the whatever you want, know you tell you tell me and I'll get it done. So with that, knowing the particulars polers in general, I mean, they can hurt or help the kicker depending So for instance, if you ever see like the laces, uh, if the laces are to the side, the ball will be influenced to go that side. And usually you know, if the laces are turned in, you'll see that hook go in. Yeah, we know fans and damn Marino fans. We know laces out for sure. We know anything Brandon fields it is laces out. But the laces back, it's that just hurts distance. Other than that doesn't influence the rotation. It may strip the kicker's mind because all of a sudden he's seen the Lakers right now where I did give Dan on accident game winning kicking on screen Bay at Green Bay the laces. So that's that's the one time I remember did he tell you about it afterwards? You know? The later on the especially coach Rizzy at the time. Saw it later on in game tape, but again we won the game. Maybe you should do the damn time. I love it, That's what it's just just kicked the ball kicker. That's not only a great holder juice, but he fielded four questions in a row there. So there he killed it, and I've got a couple more for him. John hit me in the face, you know, Brandon. The thing about it, I always say this all the time when it comes to that battery snapper, holder kicker, the holder has the hardest job. And I've always said this because you know, the snapper only has a snap. You have to receive it, place it, spin it. Sometimes killed it at two o'clock for Jay Feeley a little bit forward as well, you know what I mean. And and the thing about it is these kicking balls suck. Yes, they're the worst balls out there, right. So, man, that's the toughest job when it comes to that, especially in pressure cooker situations. Uh yeah. But so it's it's a unit in terms of and it's more of the snapper and the holder. So John made my job easy where you know, nine times out of ten he had the laces forward and if he missed, usually I knew exactly where he was missing. So again it's that repetition. Yeah, you know that that permeates. There we go. I love Brandon. I see what you did podcast all those reps where I know exactly Like it's muscle memory, so it's not thinking about it. So yeah, in terms of that, especially with bad weather and stuff like that, I never got nervous holding that holding is actually I would kind of like take it in in terms of you know those times where you're running out you know, time out, the game winner, something like that, you know, taking knee before checking the kicker, kind of looking around the stands like damn, this is cool, all right, let's make this kick that. So it's one of those I don't know why, but I never felt any pressure at all. I held the ball, no doubt about it. Man it bixcept. But think we got I mean we got everything we wanted out of the holder. That was outstanding stuff. I think we milt it. You know, and people don't even think about these things. You know, people just sit out there and they watch the games. They don't realize all that goes into you know, not just punny, you know, but the holding situation. But I think we got everything out of that important part of the game in my opinion, big seth. Yeah, I mean it's critically important. Like I said, Jason Sarny will be the first one to tell you how important it is. But but it is. I always wonder that when they make a change at the position for multitude of reasons, and we'll talk about that here. It's you know, before this podcast is over, but that change isn't just impacting one person. I mean it is the ultimate team sport, So no change just impacts one person. But that holder and kicker dynamic and as you said, the snapper as well. It's it's a critically important one. And for for damn near one hundred and thirty games, we had that that holder and staffer to get automatic. Yeah automatic, yeah, automatic, except for a right. Let's get back to Brandon. We've had enough about it. And I love that part too. I'm always a big advocate of the holder and everything they have to do. Max. I think it's an important position. But you know, but while you were the great holder, Brandon, you're also a prolific punter for the Miami Dolphins. I mean, the highest career gross punting average in team history, the three best seasons in team history as far as gross punting is concerned, third all time in net punting, with the top three single season net punting averages in Dolphin history. I mean when it comes to record books, I mean, look my favorite record I have for the Miami Dolphins. I think I owned the record for the most fair catches in the career. You know what I mean? All right? I mean, and I take pride in it, Brandon, I take pride in it, bro. But there's another record that I want to discuss now. Now we need to confer, you know, with Brett, who works with the Dolphins and the communication staff on this. But you appeared on ESPN's Come on Man segment a team record three times in your career. Tell the record yet here we're gonna talk to my appus is wrong. That's a team record, all right? All right? So so tell us about that honor and break down these these three special moments for us. So we had one that we talked about our the snap to the face. Let me come on man, you're right, you're right, yeah, that was on there. Another one was another fake field goal. It was against the Jaguars. I was actually talking to my wife about this. I think it was twenty twelve. Well, I'm not positive. It was a home game against Jacksonville. It was actually in the deep end end zone. Shout out to the deep end. The ball I think was on like the two or three yard line, so it wasn't an extra point, but it was. It was a field goal. The play was called the Giant as sleeping Giant, so it was one of those where offense runs the play and then Fasano, who's the wing on the field goal team, he runs off the field and kind of you know, with the group, but doesn't actually get off the field, stays outside the numbers and lines up, you know, a couple of yards from the sideline. And with this, uh, for whatever reason, coach at the time didn't like running a lot of fakes in terms of in practice, so we never We only ran a handful of times, and every single time we did it, if the defense caught onto it, he would stop tell the defense to just pretend you don't see him. So there was no like, yeah, in practice he would say, just pretend you don't see him. But but are they gonna pretend when you get the game day, are they gonna pretend that they don't see you? So we call it we have the look. But whatever reason, the the umpire is standing over the ball and won't get off the ball. For John myself, I think Dan was a kicker at the time. It might have been Sturt were like, we see him, He's sitting out there having a picnic by himself. We're like, you know, like you know, like get away. Like the last second, right as the ref gets off the ball, the corner kind of just peeks outside does a double take. That's one of those like oh ship moments. He starts sprinting out there as John snaps it. In my mind, I'm thinking, just beat him, beat beat him. I chucked that thing ten yards or ten rows up. You beat him, You beat Fasano, you beat everybody on that one. Out was like putting his with his hands up, like really feel try to catch it, nothing like that, And It's like yeah, so yeah, So that was That's Whatsano was saying, was come on man, right. The last one was my own come on man. It was in San Francisco at San fran at Old Campstate Park. I think we ended up losing the game, but it was a it was a pousch punk, so it was going. But hit a great ball. I think bounce on hitting like the five yard line, bounce straight up Johnan the free It was a linebacker at the time, great specs teams. Guy made heck of plays his whole entire career. Made the bonehead play of catching the ball and celebrating and walking into the putting the ball from the five yard line back out to the twenty. I did one of those, and like you know, it was a group of us, but I kind of had my hands that get one of those like come on, man, kind of like you know better, pushes right, and apparently Twitter at the time, my agent everything was blown up of how dare a hunter push a linebacker? Granted right, damn it, right right, come get So it was not it was not ill intended. It was just kind of one of those like come on, you know better. But then the funny thing about that was the next home game, Jonathan Freeney's mom and his his brother came up to me in the family tent and his mom funded, like with a smile on her face, let me have it full time. His brother is just cracking up in the background, apologized to you know, Mama Freey. So that was my third come on. She was waiting to get at you, man, She was waiting to get at you. Yeah. She circled that next home game for sure. So you know, Juice used another mayonnaise word and talked about prolific. And speaking of prolific, in twenty thirteen, you're selected to the Pro Bowl. And I didn't realize this, Juice, but you start thinking about it. Only two punters in the history of this team have been Pro Bowl punters, and you know, one was the great Reggie Robi he did it twice, and then you, Brandon. So again, I think that that's, you know, that's high praise there and a reflection upon your commitment to this team and your excellence on the field. You then play the twenty fourteen season, and then you go into camp expecting to play your ninth year, you know, for twenty fifteen, and yet you're released, right, And so I talked to John and he said that that was a gut punch to him too, like you guys had really become this operation and become close friends. And he's like, I can't, you know, I don't want to say it hurt me the way it hurt Brandon, but it definitely it was hurtful to him. And so look, we understand nothing's guaranteed to anybody in this league, but I can only imagine what that was like for you, you know, And so you go on that season. Coincidentally, Juice, who was Thomas Morstead? Who in New Orleans? Who gets hurt? So Brandon, you go in there for three four games, I think, and you fill in for him. But what I've always wondered, and we have not spoken really since this moment, but what I've always wondered, is why did that become the end of your career? You know, from an outsider's perspective, you were healthy. You had never missed a game in eight seasons. As we talked about, one hundred and twenty eight consecutive games played. That was good. That's tied for third all time in team history. You know, John had the record of two twenty fours we just talked about in the last episode. J T was right behind him. Yeah, one hundred and twenty eight consecutive games played. You never missed a game. You're a big guy. It wasn't like you were a small guy who had taken a beating. And then when I go look at I went and looked at, you know, top twenty punters in the history of this league in terms of number of punts, they're averaging almost seventeen seasons for their career. Now they also are averaging like more than four teams, you know, per guy. So I just, you know, I wanted to have this opportunity to you know, and hopefully I'm not going somewhere you don't want to go, but I want to have this opportunity to talk to about it because I was really surprised how that all went down. No, I mean, obviously it's been a while football feels like a different life. So in general, with that one, and I don't want to speak bad about anybody else, there was a particular person who wasn't a GM but acted like a GM at the time, So it's so, I mean, but there were a few guys had gotten contract extensions, so they're looking to cut money at other places, and I had actually signed a new contract and took a pay cut going into that year. But like with me, the year's going up, so each year I was doing better and better and better until I made the Pro Bow, which was fantastic. I actually took John and his wife out there. I told him years before that if I made it, I was going to take them, just because I kept finishing second. As you said, there's only one punter taken, and it's never the Super Bowl punter the team going to the Bowl, so there's really unless they get hurt or something comes up that they can't go, they're always going to be the one going, versus quarterbacks other positions where you may have multiple like thirteen different quarterbacks or fourteen different quarterbacks who were selected to the Pro Bowl that played in my Probo War. In terms of guys going to the Super Bowl, guys that were hurt opted out, but punters kickers, there's only one, so it meant a lot, especially since I had fallen short every year. Not that that was my career goal by any means, but it's it's nice to be recognized by other people that like, hey, you're one of the best. So then the next year where they were saying I had a down year, it was probably like the third best that I've had in my career. I mean, at some point looking at my stats, I had I had the go down just because it was averaged over fifty yards when I went to the Pro Bowl, so and at that time I was one of nine punters to do it in NFL history. So even even in camp, I had better stats than the other kicker or the other punter. But just knowing, I mean, unfortunately, the train moves on and whether they want you on board or not, it's still moving. So it definitely, like you said, I kind of a cut punch in terms of John and I were the fourth to the two consistent things where we always kind of were there together and had each other. Definitely, it feels like failure unfortunately, But I mean it's you know, there's only a sect few people that play that can stop when they want to. Now you said I was healthy. I actually played my last two years with a torn labor in my head. Wow, oh man. Yeah, it's a punter that had to be hell difficult. Yeah. I had surgery as soon as I was done playing to fix everything. Unfortunately, I was just told it was just wear and tear and just overuse. Found out that wasn't the case. But it is what it is. So I was every game I was in my last couple of years I was playing Page, I was very much a rhythm punter, and by that is I wanted the feeling. Yes, I took all those mental reps, but I probably kicked the ball over one hundred times every game. You know, it's the it's the warm ups without pads with the coach, it's the warm ups with pads. It's you know, right before the game starts, it's you know, every time we would have the ball on offense, I'd be hitting three or four balls in the net. It's one of those of you know, we get the ball backed up, we're deep, I'm hitting a few third down, we get a first down. You know, it's been five ten minutes since the last time I hit the ball in net, and we're still driving. I'm still warming up in the net because I'm feeling that rhythm doing it. So it did take a lot from a physicality standpoint, from a body point, yes, I wasn't necessarily getting hit. I would have probably two to four cackles every year. I took pride in that my pads were just good enough to not get me killed in a game. I mean my shoulder pads, I mean they didn't even cover my here, my helmet I had. I mean other than my shoulder pads, I had nothing down below. So if I got hit, you're hitting bone, You're hitting muscle. So stuff like that. So it does take a toll in terms of me me stopping or retiring. See, at the time, I had one kid, I had daughter, and then found out my wife was pregnant with our second. And that first twenty fourteen season, every single weekend, every single Sunday, I was on a plane at an airport, flying to a new city, trying out for a new team. Until I filled in for a few games in New Orleans. I just didn't want it. I mean, it's it was no longer worth it, some of the fun. Uh, in my my own mental anguish. I'm a perfectionist, so my wife would always get get on of me to enjoy it more, even games I had great games. It's hey, if I would have done this this differently, the ball would have went out of mounds at the five instead of the ten, or you know, I could have done this differently to get this you know better and whatnot. So I think at that time I didn't And I knew some some vets that either were single or their family was in a different city, and at that time it was it was time. I mean, my body was telling me, you know, I didn't have to take a lot of painkillers and stuff, but at the same time, I had to do a lot from from a weekly and a game time, standpoint, load management, pain management to be ready to perform how I wanted to. If I'm hearing what you're saying, you know, because I mean there's a lot of factors there, and the family dynamic was changing, and when you said things weren't and is fun and you were a perfectionist. But if you had won the job in twenty fifteen again and you were you know, you were going to be in Miami again, do you think, crystal Ball what have you? And I guess we shouldn't be talking about hypotheticals. But if you had had the chance to stay here and continue to play, do you think that your career would have been extended long or that you would have chosen to play longer because you were in this environment that was meaningful to you. Yeah, I mean at that time, I was still I was still able to play. I was still able to perform at the level that I wanted to. I was able to manage everything in terms of body and mind and stuff like that. So yeah, I would have played as long as I could, as soon as I got to that where every weekend I'm going somewhere getting that separation. Now it's the self reflection looking at it, is this what I want? This is what I want for my family. My wife has sacrificed a lot, and all wives and significant others do for us to play. I mean a lot of times. I mean I have more free time than other guys, but we're gone mentally or physically for half the year longer. So with that, I mean it was time to kind of, you know, step back and look at it and just move on. I never wanted to be one of those to hold on to something, and knowing that at that time kind of mentally going into the beer making, the brewing world that was becoming, we're thinking more and more about that, so we already had kind of our mental flip, if you will. I still remember, you know, I'd run into old teammates or whatnot, and they they were lost, they didn't know what they're gonna do. They didn't have that passion, they didn't have that drive to something else. And I think mentally, I kind of moved on and found that. Well, Brandon, I know you you made the most out of everything since retirement, man so and in that you talked a lot about your wife, Katie. You know in twenty eighteen, you know, along with your former Michigan State teammate Chris Morris, you guys open up inside the five Brewing Company. Man tell us about you know, you talked about White Side not to play, But how do you how do you go from a pro Bowl punter to a craft beer enthusiast and an entrepreneur man? And how can I get some of that? That's my next question. It's all Katie do. Is all my wife's doing. When it was down on Miammi for a birthday gift, she got me that basic home brewing kit, you know, a couple buckets and whatnot. Quickly fell in love with taking kind of seemingly random ingredients, making something and sharing with friends and teammates. From there, met the brothers Ryan Casey sense at Funky Boodh Brewery down to Open Park and kind of loitered around their brewery. I saw them grow. They are my mentors. In the off season, I would work there or they want to pay me. But yeah, it was one of those. In turn, that's what it is, one of those of I asked. I asked him like, you know, kind of help out, and they kind of half jokingly he said, yeah, I think I wasn't serious. I'm like, okay, what time do you get there? Well, playing a frank on me, they said eight o'clock. My ass was there at seven forty five. They didn't come until ninth thirty. That is awesome. This worked. This worked with me. I like, this work works with me. Right, we are so right now mentioned them. So we're in our new brewing facility twenty five thousand square feet on five acres, trying to get our tap from open. This will be our third location. We have two full service brow pubs in the Too area, so we have a lot of fun with you know, obviously we have snapped to the face. Other beers we have is Pooch Punt, which is a nice smooth pilsner, you know, no frills. See, we have a go in the Canton cream Ail. Well, we got some there name after my kids. My dogs. Have a lot of fun. We have a brown ale called Stained Khakis. Don't you guys get that reference. Yeah, but we're making beer. We're having fun. So it's that's the fun part is creating something, kind of getting it out there. You're opening your third brewery. You're sitting there. That's what you told me that you're in that room because this is your third brewery. You're doing more than just having fun. You don't open three if they all are disaster. But it's good. I mean, it's yeah. It's the problem is myself, White, Katie, and partner Chris, we all have that drive. We can't settle. It's we're not here just to do it. We're here to conquer it. It doesn't sound like a problem. That sounds like a recipe for success, my friend. Yeah, that's fun stuff, all right. So Brandon, the one guy we never ever ever want to see juice, right, and the two minute drill is the punter. I don't want to see the punter if we're running to ever see him. Do you ever see him in a two minute I mean if you do, then that coach is looking for a new job at the end of it as well. I don't want our two minute drill to end the punt. However, you are now in the fish tank. We close every episode out with our two minute drill. So we're calling, for the first time ever in a two minute drill. We're calling the punter onto the field. Buckle up your chin strap. I'm putting two minutes up on the clock, and we're just gonna fire off some questions at you. You can you know, answer him as quickly or as thoroughly or if you need to call time out. You know, I know you don't have a lot of familiarity with the two minute process, but that is a good point. That's a good point. All right, jus, let's do this thing. Here we go. Brandon all right, the top punter in the Big and is annually rewarded awarded with the Edelman Fields Punder the Year Award, the fifth Tanks own Brandon Field is the field. Who's Edelman? Edelman is? I think back in the fifties he played, I believe for Illinois. Unfortunately he's passed away. My wife met his wife at the time. I was not able to give the award out the first year they did it, so I have not been able to meet the gentleman. Thomas Dikes. Thomas, Yeah, it turns out he played football, basketball and ran track for Illinois. He's known as the greatest athlete in Illinois history. So he shares the naming of that award with Brandon. That's pretty cool. Okay, so that's a big ten. I know, I'm interrupting your team right all the time out the fan zone. So in the fan zone, all of the various players have an award named after him. They have a big, like life size mural and it's it's school specific, so like Michigan State. It has a picture of me punning, gives some stats about the school, and it has you know, the player's name, but it's all of the pis kind of in the current age, if you will. It's like Drew Brees and stuff is on there while the years went there with wife and friends. We want to check it out and standing next to it. Also this this little boy with his dad walking through this. Why is Michigan have a punter It's a punter award? Dang it? You and I'm that guy. Pleasure Okay, all right, we'll keep this thing rolling. So your first three years in the league is a Miami Dolphin. You were teammates with Joey Porter now, the actress who played the character Joey Potter on a popular late nineties early twenty teen television drama, actually got her theatrical start at your high school. And I know you're really curious now because I know it was an all male school at Saint John's Jesuit, but I guess they would get female performers from the neighboring all girls Notre Dame Academy. Do you know who that actress is went on to have a pretty decent career, Adie Holmes. Yes, sir, he knows his history there. That's good there, right, we'll keep it on all right. As Seth said, we spoke with former Dolphins kicker taylob sturge Is yesterday and he said, not only were you a great punter and veteran men or mentor, but you may have had been the best team leader in terms of playing the game Clash of the Clans. How many hours would you estimate you poured into Clash of the Clans, Oh, Randy, probably four to five. I mean claravas during meeting. That's what I'd either read, wait, four to five a day. Yeah, we gotta do. I love it. Practice Damn fakes is what it sounds like. We need to do all right. Final questions, Final question. We just talked about your premier full service brewpub inside the Five. Brewing is known for its unique beers and even more unique titles. As you just showed us, if you had to name the next beer, the next beer that you create after a former Dolphins teammate, who would it be? What would you name it? I mean this, as you mentioned on the I probably want to do it, but obviously wanted to be something like Joey Porter. A that makes sense. Yeah, that requires some thought and usually about two am with a glass of whiskey or well, there it is. We'll have to stay tuned. We'll stay tuned to see what that next beer is. I'm gonna put it on. We want royalties, Brandon, we want royalties on the Joey Porter. When if he comes up and I talk to him, you know, because you know we we're the one that thought about this, right, I'm sure he'll contact me. Yeah, there's no doubt. I'm putting the vote in for my guy oj. Even though you guys didn't play together, you felt like teammates, man, and this was great. You were beyond generous with your time. I apologize that we've taken Katie's office away from her for so long, uh, but continued success with everything and now that we know how to find it, don't be alarmed if I call you again for a good story about somebody else. Sound good. Thanks for having me so good, Brandon Man, Thanks for diving in. You're now diving just like Jew said. 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