Dedric Ward: All Go

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Speaker 1: You're now diving. I'm gonna have been that straight who then sitting down with Seth Living.

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Speaker 2: Oh, Jay Je Juice.

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Speaker 1: Well, and this is strictly.

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Speaker 3: For them true number one of.

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Speaker 1: Course, y'all. This ain't the other nearest boys talk that might have been that Pitch Tank.

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Speaker 4: Welcome back to the Fish Tank presented by iHeartRadio right here in the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network, Seth Levitt and the man with the best hands in the podcast business, Oj McDuffie.

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Speaker 3: Juice. You have to be fired up. All the stars are aligning for you.

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Speaker 2: Right now, Seth. That goes without saying, Man, you know this, bro, You know somebody that rocked the Awkward Orange was in the same meeting room as me, playing the same position I play. Man, this is gonna be a pleasurement. I'm really looking forward to this for sure.

00:00:51
Speaker 3: It's almost like you booked this guest.

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Speaker 4: If we have a wide out in the fish Tank, it's almost like you booked the guest.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, the white out of the coolest cast on the football field anyways.

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Speaker 3: Man, that's what I've heard.

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Speaker 2: As many white as we get, the better our production and everything we're going to do on the show, is about. So yeah, getting wide outs always important. You know, I'll let our guests know that I feel that eleven wide outs on the field at one time is your best opportunity.

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Speaker 3: To I don't think he would argue with you.

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Speaker 1: He is, I'm hard to argue that.

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Speaker 5: Now only are they the best players, they're the best looking players and got the most sweat.

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Speaker 2: Look at it there is you know, fifty five fifty you know, look at us. Man. Hell, they can't they can't argue that.

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Speaker 1: They can't argue that one man for sure.

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Speaker 3: Oh it's too good. Digit Ward dives into the tank. So how great was this?

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Speaker 4: Not only did we get to celebrate the man, Tim Bowen's being inducted into the Miami Dolphins Ring of Honor, but we got to catch up with so many people. I was like, oh, snap, I haven't seen him in a minute. And then as I'm leaving, as I'm getting ready to leave, my wife's like it's time to go. I turn around and there he is d Ward stand up by the stage And it was so cool to catch up with you man. How great was it for you Dedrich to just be back in South Florida and see some man?

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Speaker 1: It was It was awesome.

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Speaker 5: It was really amazing, especially like I said, I hadn't been back to a Dolphin game or Dolphin event since I left, And like I said, I've been trying to get a hold of somebody down there to get on the alumni board, and I.

00:02:12
Speaker 1: Never was able to reach out to anybody.

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Speaker 5: I didn't really press it too hard, but it was it was awesome when I finally got the call and got some of the emails that you know, they're doing some stuff, and I was like, the first opportunity I had to calm down.

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Speaker 1: It was.

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Speaker 5: It was really special to see guys who I haven't seen in twenty plus years, and and uh, just to be able to fellowship and catch up and tell stories and see how everybody's family and individually guys that we're doing.

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Speaker 1: So it's pretty special for me.

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Speaker 2: Except you should have seen how much I lit up when I saw the war man, you know what I mean. It was like, like you said, it's been hell two decades since he's been down this way. Man for for the most part, bro, And it was it was great seeing dedrich Man. And you know, of course we're gonna we're gonna talk a lot about your Dolphin tenure here. But you know, before we get into it too much, I want all the listeners to know that you were getting done in college.

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Speaker 4: Man.

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Speaker 2: I mean you you're an Iowa native Seedar Rapids to be exact, and you go to Northern Iowa to play college ball, right but as a true freshman, the starting quarterback was a guy named Kurt Warner right now. Now, I mean that was long before he was Super Bowl MVP and of course the future Hall of Famer and everything. But still, what was that like as a freshman to have that guy throwing you the rock?

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Speaker 5: It was you know, he has a pretty amazing story. I don't know if you've seen the you know, his the documentary that they did on him, but he has a pretty amazing story. We actually played each other in high schools where he's actually from Cedar Rapids as well, so we grew up playing against each other.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 5: Obviously, you know he was a good player, you know, never never expecting to to do.

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Speaker 1: What he did.

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Speaker 5: But you know, going to Northern iowall he was actually a fifth year senior. My true freshman year. He came in with another freshman quarterback at the time, and and the other guy won the job, so he sat on the bench for four years, which is probably unheard of, especially in today's world. Wow, with the nil and the transfer portal. I mean, guys would have never sat behind. And from everybody who I spoke to at the time, you know, they said that he was probably the better quarterback and he probably should have won, but the other guy had an end for whatever reason, and uh so he went on and started. The true freshman played four years, and Kurt sat there behind this guy for four years finally get an opportunity of his fifth year senior. When I came in as a freshman, you know, Kurt was obviously very seasoned, uh you know, even though he hadn't played a lot, but had been around the program, and I didn't know what to expect. I was, you know, straight out of high school. So I was just excited to get on the field in any capacity that could. And he's obviously went on to do some great things. Uh you know, he's a great player, a great person. You know, the you know, backing story, backing groceries at the at the local grocery store. I mean, he's went over to Europe, you know, he's he's seen it all done, it all, played arena for several years. Uh So, just a good guy, you know, good all around guy. You know, his family has strong history and ties obviously in the Cedar Rapids era. You know, when I get back to the hometown, my mom and his dad, I think worked together, so there was a connection, you know with that.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, this, Curt, I mean, it was it was it was just fun.

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Speaker 5: You know, I was, like I said, you know, obviously you always like to say, you know, I want to go to a big school of Penn State for instance, or or something like that. You know, I got recruited by you know, Iowa, you know, even though they don't throw the ball around as much, but you know, Wisconsin, same thing. And it was just nice to be able to go somewhere, get on the field, play and just have some excitement and fun and and kind of live out, you know, your childhood dreams.

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Speaker 1: You know, obviously being a smaller.

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Speaker 5: Player, never never really expecting to make it to the highest level of the pinnacle of NFL professional sports. But you know, just going there, being able to play and as I you know, as I grew and kind of mature throughout my my four years there, you know, kind of starting to see the scouts and you know, people talking and things like that, and it was it was a real neat experience, like I said, very humbling experience, and just excited that I was having had an opportunity to do some of the things that I was able to do.

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Speaker 2: No big Seth, you know, I mean he did more to just get on the field, Big Seth.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, he's talking like you know, he just kind of had a pedestrian career.

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Speaker 2: Let's let's talk a little bit about that, because I know as a sophomore, you're a full time starter. As a junior, I mean you're leading the nation and you know in reception with over one hundred and sixteen yards per game receiving and by the time you finish your senior year, your second all time in Division one double A history with thirty eight hundred and seventy six receiving yards, second to only who in history djit that'll be the.

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Speaker 5: Man himself, Jerry Rice. That's right, right, it's pretty you know, it's pretty amazing, like I said, to be in to be in the conversation with with the go to himself Jerry and pretty neat experience, like I said, I just I never thought of it or looked at it like that. I just got out there and did what I could do and try to help my team obviously win as many games as we could do. And to finish a career and be looked at it and talked about in the same conversation with Jerry, Rice's pretty special. So whether you know whether you wanted or thought about it like that or not, but yeah, I was very excited and like I said, just grateful for the opportunity to be able to go there and have a successful career.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you talked about not going to Iowa. We know Ioways. I mean, they're tight ends, they want to run the ball. They got big line made up front. But you go, you know obviously Northern I When you talk about throwing the rock around, My god, how much did you enjoyed. I mean, honestly getting the rock thrown around. I went depends that we had one game. I think we threw the ball eight times. You know, it's kind of the Iowa situation. Man, You guys through the rock around the yard like nobody's business. Yeah, it was it was neat, like.

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Speaker 1: I said, it was.

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Speaker 5: You know, by the time I got to my second and third year, the coach was, you know, during the sideline time out or you know, on the side on the sideline, like, hey, you know, what do you think you can win at?

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Speaker 1: And I said, just throw me the ball.

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Speaker 5: Everywhere there is no you know, no route that you know, especially anything thing that was going deep. You know, I was like, just you know, we used to call it nine ninety nine, which is you know, all go, so it's like, just throw the tol me to nine. And you know, so I had I had a pretty good combination of routes. I ran a pretty good nine route and I ran a pretty good comeback route.

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Speaker 1: So they marry each other almost perfectly.

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Speaker 5: So you know, if I felt like the guy was playing deep, I would you know, I would have run him like a nine and break it back off and breaking It's it's hard to cover that that combination of two routes. So pretty much pretty much what I ran. Once you flip his hip this over right, that's it.

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Speaker 2: The way it is.

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Speaker 3: I love that nine ninety nine.

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Speaker 2: That's pretty good.

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Speaker 3: The nine to ninety nine offense, that's that's good stuff.

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Speaker 4: So so d there's nothing that I would like to do more than just completely skip over anything that has to do with the New York Jets and especially Bill Parcells. Not my cup of tea. But unfortunately that's hard to do if we're going to tell your story today, right, because so the Jets. The Jets look past any small school pedigree based on your success, that's what they focused on, and they select you in the third round of the nineteen ninety seven and you spend four years of your career there. How does a kid from Iowa adjust, No disrespect to Iowa, just a different lifestyle I have to imagine than going to the Big Apple, Like, how do you adjust from living in Iowa to your entire life to that city.

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Speaker 5: It was an amazing experience. I tell this story quite a bit. My first time driving in there. They obviously the first you know, when you go in after the draft for the first mini camp, they pick you up and shuttle you around.

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Speaker 1: You know, you have rides and stuff everywhere you go. You don't worry about that.

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Speaker 5: But the first time I ever drove into New York was after the season was over, and so I drive in and if you know New York, you know all the different bridges and the tolls and everything that goes along with that in the traffic. So I'm driving in I get into New York the next morning or whatever, and I go across the bridge.

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Speaker 1: I'm trying, you know, I'm trying to remember.

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Speaker 5: You know, back then it wasn't GPS, and you didn't you know, you had to deal with a hard copy map, and you're going, you know, you didn't want no GPS, you know, phone service.

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Speaker 1: It kind of gets you to where you were going, as these young people know out.

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Speaker 5: And so I go across the bridge, and you know, I'm kind of heading towards where I think I'm supposed to be heading to, and somehow I get turned around and next thing I know, I end up at the same bridge going the other way.

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Speaker 1: The heck is going on. So I go back down. I spent around.

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Speaker 5: I was like, I know, I was supposed to go across this bridge, the DW Bridge, and you know, I paid my four to fifty I think at the time it was four fifty. I was just in New York a couple of weeks ago. I think it's up to seventeen or eighteen dollars. Now that's definitely changed. But so I go across the bridge and I go swing around again and make another U turn, and I come across there, and I end up across go across, paying another four to fifty. By this time I'm in for fifteen twenty dollars, and I started driving again where I think I'm headed. Next thing I know, I take across island and swing around, and next thing, I'm back at the George.

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Speaker 1: Washington Ridge, and I'm like, what the hell is going on?

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Speaker 5: So I ended up pulling up to the toe lady, this is actually you know now, it's it's almost almost all all.

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Speaker 3: I made it right, pull up.

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Speaker 5: And I asked the lady and told I said, man, I'm just trying to get the Harford University. Can you just point me in the right direction. I didn't hit this bridge four times. I didn't paid three or four times by itself. I said, can you just tell me what's the directions to it? So she gave me directions. She was like, if you just make a U turn here, we won't charge you again. I said, well, thank god, because at this point I hadn't had my signing bonus, so you know, I'm living.

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Speaker 1: On college salary. So I ended up making it out there.

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Speaker 5: Eventually, but it ended up taking about an hour or two, you know, driving across and seeing the different bridges, and I quickly learned that I need to make sure I know where I'm going before I take off. Because of New York, with the amount of people and the amount of bridges and the different highways and freeways that you have to get to a certain place, it can definitely be hectic.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: The funny, other.

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Speaker 5: Funny story about my draft status with the Jets. I'm at you and I at the time, and they send this heavy set guy in. He was a three hundred pounds three I'll be generous by saying three hundred probably closer to three hundred and fifty pounds. That he introduced me hisself to me as Charlie Weiss. I'm like, oh, Charlie, I said, hey, you know, how you doing, Charlie? I said, you know, by this time, I had, you know, deal with a different a few different coaches that come in to work me out.

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Speaker 1: So I was so, you know, I'm kind of now kind of a little more comfortable with that.

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Speaker 5: If it was my first one, I probably want to have said what I said, But I was like, they sent the offensive line to come in and work me.

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Speaker 1: On as a.

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Speaker 5: He was like, you know, Charlie with his kind of funny personality and in quirky situation, he's He's like, that's pretty funny.

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Speaker 1: I'm actually the receiver coach.

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Speaker 5: And I was like, I've never seen a three four hundred pounds receiver coach.

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Speaker 3: You said that to him?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I didn't, you know, I said, I didn't know it was I thought he was an office line coach. I mean, that's kind of what I you know, kind of what I expected. Oh my god, obviously I was. I was grateful that they went under draft me. And you know, we ended up having a pretty good relationship with Charlie and so when I, you know, first day, he made sure he let me know that, you know, he was the receiver coach offensive coordinator at the time. So pretty pretty funny stuff we had. We had a great time with that, pretty good laugh about that. After after I got into New York.

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Speaker 3: I can only imagine you better ball out if that's what if that's your introduction to your OC. Yeah, man, that is crazy.

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Speaker 4: And then you know, talking about just kind of a change in lifestyle dynamic going from Iowa to New York, then four years in New York and you're now in the free agency market and you end up choosing your bitter rival to come down here to Miami, as you know, the play for the Miami Dolphins as your next team. Another major lifestyle change coming down to South Florida. How did you choose the Dolphins? Talk about what it was that you know, what was the day wants that pitch to get you to come down here and play for the Dolphins.

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Speaker 5: I don't know how much I should say. I can't say about the Day wants that pitch by myself. I don't know that Dave made a pitch. I think anybody who's been to Miami has made its own pitch. You don't, You don't, There ain't There ain't much else to talk about. If you've ever been to Miami, you know what the pitch is and what the fishing, the experiences like being in sunny South Florida.

00:14:03
Speaker 1: Not only the weather.

00:14:04
Speaker 5: The football obviously was was the driving force, but the weather and the extracurriculars that take place in the in the southeast area.

00:14:12
Speaker 1: Uh, it's kind of hard to pass up on.

00:14:14
Speaker 5: The time as a as a young twenty five twenty six year old, you know, single professional athlete. It's kind of hard to pass up on the amount of activities that took place in the South, each area that you know, they was making an offer. It was kind of gonna be hard for anybody to beat that offer. Obviously I took a good clo it's uh actually, and I had such a great time in the four years I was in New York playing in Miami. You know, the the you know, the field was was always in top shape, you know, always something that you know, as a as a receiver with what's a decent amount of speed, was always fun to play on the fast turf. And back then they had the baseball team going, so you know, the infield, you know, kind of was an interesting situation at the time. But the other the other parts of Miami made it pretty easy. You know, if everything else was equal, it was going to be hard to turn away an opportunity to play. And MINDI in that situation.

00:15:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, the all all are tols like fifty cents back yeah, yeah, right right, yeah.

00:15:10
Speaker 1: I didn't have that. Actually.

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Speaker 5: It was the other interesting thing when I came into my uh, you know, being in New York, you know for four years. You know, I could walk around, you know, I wasn't Keyshawn Johnson and Wayne Corbett. I could walk around, you know, in the mall or the streets, and very few people, you know, because I wasn't you know, a huge guy. A lot of people didn't recognize me, you know, if I didn't have my jersey or uniform on.

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Speaker 1: So when I came to Miami.

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Speaker 5: The first time I landed in Miami, I was walking through the airport and I had like three or four people come up to me that were working in the airport, and there's like, Dietrich, We're so excited to see We're glad that you're here, that you know, we're really glad that you And I was like, oh, you know. So it was definitely a different atmosphere, you know, not that I was all about me or or getting the not rioting, but it was kind of weird that I had fans, you know, I had fans in the airport that recognized me, and I could walk through you know, I walked through New York for four years and I think I had zero people would recognize me, uh to touch down for in the first day I was there. You know, people that you know, recognized me in the in the airport, walking through the airport, and.

00:16:08
Speaker 1: You know, that was kind of a neat experience.

00:16:09
Speaker 5: And I know that, you know, with with New York being such a snowbird society, there's a lot of New York So I don't know if they were New York people that you know, had recognized you, but it was a pretty humbling experience to know that after four years in New York and being in Miami for one day, I was getting people that recognized me.

00:16:24
Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you this, DJ, we we're tired of kicking our ass in New York. Man. That's that's we got to get his ass out of that that green man, get him awkward on.

00:16:35
Speaker 5: I was telling some guys the other day when I was there, I never forget we were playing down in Miami. I don't know if it was ninety nine or two thousand, but I remember, you know, how great your defense was, how great you know, that was the That was the one thing that we always said, it was, you know, it's gonna be a dogfight playing against this defense. To the amount of guys that they had on defense that were active, you know, obviously Zach running sideline, the sideline JT coming off the edge, Timbo holding it down the middle. Then you have the you know, the secondary that was you know, obviously you know, one of the best ever with the with the four guys that they had, it was always a challenge like, hey, you know, we really got to make sure we have you know, everything and all our p's and crew q's cross. All I remember is we're at midfield during a time out. I think they I don't know what the song was at the time, but they played a song and all I remember we're looking over in the huddle and the entire defense is over there dancing, and we're like this, this can't be good. This is you know, this ain't in our favor that you know, their juice up. So I don't know if the coaches saw that and decided to change the play or the play was already cold, but I know I looked over I.

00:17:38
Speaker 1: Was like, man, this this don't seem like a very good situation.

00:17:41
Speaker 5: And next thing I know, the play runs and next thing I know, I don't know if it was I don't know who it was, if it was Wayne, but I know we end up throwing a bomb for fifty yard touchdown, and I remember the silence, the silence of the defense in the crowd.

00:17:54
Speaker 1: It was definitely but it was a pretty cool experience.

00:17:57
Speaker 5: Like I said that, you know, and I always like, man, this is you know, this is a fun place to play.

00:18:01
Speaker 1: It was a fun place to be. The atmosphere was electric.

00:18:04
Speaker 5: I wish they allowed the offense to have the same electricity at times that they allowed the defense to have, you know, to pump up now, you know, now on the crowd, but you know, have some place where, you know, we could show our personality as much as the defense was allowed to. And but I that's one vivid remember that I have about being there and having that experience, and I always wanted and I was hoping that, you know, when I got there, the offense would have the same type of electricity that they allowed the defense.

00:18:31
Speaker 3: You guys weren't bouncing to trick Daddy right before that.

00:18:34
Speaker 1: We need to bounce. It was some sad days on the offensive side. I'll tell you that. As a receiver, especially, you know, let's talk about these receivers.

00:18:42
Speaker 2: Man, Let's talk about those receiver because it's amazing because I look at our list of receivers that were there, you know when you're there now. I mean technically I was on the squad at that point, but we never got a chance to play.

00:18:51
Speaker 1: I was.

00:18:52
Speaker 2: I was done done right there, you know, three surges later on my foot, and so we never got a chance to take the field together. But you know, talk about the that the guys in our room. We have to start with the position coach Robert Ford, our man, Robert Ford, you know what I mean. Then you know you talk about Ronde Gaston and James McKnight, and then of course we draft Chris Chambers. That year we have Jeff Ogden and the following your Chris Carter passes through, you know, a loan with Robert Baker, give us a scatter report. And all these dudes that you you encountered, that really talented dudes that didn't get the opportunities or didn't have as much fun as they should have as an offense.

00:19:27
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what.

00:19:28
Speaker 5: Uh, the electricity I talked about the defense avenue on the field is the electricity that we had in the meeting rooms with Coach Ford.

00:19:34
Speaker 1: Uh.

00:19:35
Speaker 5: He was a he was a character. He should be a stand up comedian for sure. He told one liners like no other. I remember, you know, just listening to him, and after the you know, the first couple of meetings, we were all kind of looking around, like, you know, should we laugh or should you know, how should we handle this in the meeting, because you know, he was so serious and so and so definitive on what he wanted to say and how he wanted.

00:19:56
Speaker 1: To portray everything.

00:19:57
Speaker 5: And after the first couple of meetings, everybody to start bringing notebooks, you know, and writing down the lines that he was saying in our notebooks so we can remember him because they were just incredibly funny at the time, and he kept the excitement that we lacked from the on the field in our meetings. It made it fun every day to come. You look forward, you know, you didn't look forward to practice, and you didn't look forward to the games all the time because of you know, the lack of offensive fire not that we didn't have the firepower, but the lack of offensive firepower.

00:20:26
Speaker 1: That we showed on the field, you know, from week to week.

00:20:28
Speaker 5: But in the meetings, we look forward to going to the meetings just to listen to Coach Ford and his speeches, his little one liners. And I remember one time Biblie was one of the guys said, you know, coach, you know this ran two gorofs, I'm tired. He was like, there ain't no such thing as tired coach. He's like, man, if you're tired, and if you feel like your tank is on empty, you need to start suckling on the tank on the cast than where they do that there. So he just you just told one liners, uh, every every day, and it was something that it was just you know, he would he was just an entertaining and pleasant guy to be around, you know, different from all the coaches. You know, he wasn't a guy who would uh, you know, m few at times or you know, coming from New York or that was kind of their mo is. If you're doing something, they're gonna get in your face and try to m few. Robert Ford, you didn't have to worry about them. He had a different kind of approach to how he handled the coaching or the coaching of those in each individual player.

00:21:26
Speaker 1: So that was a pretty neat experience.

00:21:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt. Always always say this too on this podcast. Did you gazat? You know, I became the best receiver when I got coached Ford as my wide receiver coach.

00:21:36
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think he definitely, He definitely gave you a spend and he and he you know, he talked to you on a perspective where you could really learn from what he was saying, and he gave you the you know, the the tools necessary even though that you weren't allowed to put him in the use on game days. We had the tools that we used in practice and we work on certain things in practice and hope that we could take him to the games. But very rarely did we ever get the experience to that transition from the practice field to the game because we felt like we was glorified blockers.

00:22:07
Speaker 1: A lot of times.

00:22:07
Speaker 5: And it kind of made it, you know, it kind of made it the humbling experience to go from, like I said, catching passes on a consistent basis to now having the block as much as we did. But you know that's clappies, clappy yeah, clap doctors.

00:22:23
Speaker 2: Coach. Yeah, you know, that's funny. You think about some of the things you talk about with coach. For the heavy balls, man, I never caught heavy balls before and that was so mean. You know, it's like warming up a baseball bat, big set with the with the doughnut on it and then you go out there in the bat feels like a feather. Same thing we did. We caught heavy balls, the heavy ball, the heavy ball, and by the time you got to the real one, it was like nothing out there. You know.

00:22:48
Speaker 5: That was something I always wanted to take with me and I don't know how he got uh and what they were injected with, but that was that was an amazing experience of having, like I said, having the heavy balls and knowing how you know how to catch that ball, and then like I said, when you when you did get to a real football, it felt like you know, you know, it felt almost like what Tom Brady maybe did with the Inflators play footballs or deflay of the Boss.

00:23:11
Speaker 6: Like I said, maybe allegedly allegedly, I guess, And I said, whatever works, however however you get it, let's make sure that it works and uh, you know, having success.

00:23:20
Speaker 5: But I really did enjoy the heavy ball situation with Coach Ford. That was an interesting thing that I had never done, and I try to always implement something like that when I was when I've taken myself into other earms up the game.

00:23:33
Speaker 2: And real quick, you know, you were there for Chris Chambers rookie season and then eight years later you become his position coach in Kansas City. Now, how wild was that?

00:23:41
Speaker 1: Chris was such a dynamic guy.

00:23:43
Speaker 5: He you know, he had all the natural skills, and like I said, he was one of those classic cases of going into a you know, college career where you know, he was not featured as much as he probably would have liked to. And you know, you didn't see all those things that he brought you in as a rookie and into a second year that he that he was able to show in Wisconsin. So it was probably a reason why he wasn't a first round pick because he definitely was the first round talent. Chris was was so dynamic with his ability to run and catch the ball. He has his catch radius between him and O. G is some of the best that I that I had that I have been part of in my in my experiences. And uh, the kid could run and jump and and and contort his body in so many different ways that it was it was amazing to see and just to be witnessing and to be on the sideline and be in the meeting rooms and see some of the amazing catches that he would make now in the practice field, but in the games, and you know, he ended up having a very successful career.

00:24:36
Speaker 1: I think, you know it ended up.

00:24:37
Speaker 5: I hadn't I haven't seen christ in years, but to just to see, you know, the transformation that he made from a rookie to the second year and how how how he expanded his his route catching and his route running ability was was was pretty special.

00:24:52
Speaker 2: And how and how coachable was he though in Kansas City though at that point.

00:24:55
Speaker 5: You know what he had by that time, he really got you know, got to his point where he was he had felt like he had made it.

00:25:02
Speaker 1: And you know, I know, you know a lot of us at that point.

00:25:04
Speaker 5: You know, once you become a little bit of a knucklehead that towards the end of your career, you know that you know, you.

00:25:09
Speaker 1: See him out.

00:25:10
Speaker 2: You not a lot you don't have.

00:25:12
Speaker 5: You don't have the same coaches coaching, uh coachability as you you would like, you know, as a as a young player where you're really just trying to get in there and fit in and and try to be one of the guys. Now you you know, you want you know, you have a little bit more of a voice or Chris and Miami was was pretty quiet. You know, you really really heard him say anything until things kind of hit the fan. But yeah, he obviously transitioned to a more vocal, more you know, demanding of the football type guy than what he was in Miami with us, so.

00:25:39
Speaker 2: You know, real quick, unlike Charlie Wise, you look like a receiver coach when you were around you have the street credit right away with man, he had some street cred that that that kid was.

00:25:52
Speaker 1: He was yoked up, like I said he was.

00:25:54
Speaker 5: You know, he was the prototypical size and speed of a receiver that that most NFL executive are looking for. And it'd be hard to press to say that, you know, had he shown some of the stuff he showed in his first two years, he wanted to have been a very high first round draft pick coming out of his rookie year.

00:26:10
Speaker 4: Well, it's also interesting to hear you talk about his personality because he actually on this show told us how he wasn't a you know, the reputation of what the star receiver is or help the guy that you you know, the year before you get drafted. Keishaan Johnson's number one overall pick just throw me the damn ball. There's you know, certainly the definition of the the personality of the loud, you know, receiver that takes over the room kind of thing, and and Chris was exactly the opposite of that. And he talked about how when Saban was here in five oh six, he was brought into the leadership council and he would sit in those meetings and every time he wanted to say something like Zach would step up or j T would step up, and those guys were such dominant, press had such a dominant presence in the room that he never felt like he had his voice, and and Saban finally pulled him aside and said, look, if you don't play well, we can't win. Like we need you to step up and be this. So the guy that you got you can thank Nick Saban for that. The more vocal guy that you got, you can go ahead and thank Nick Saban for it. It was pretty cool for him to say that that was this moment that that somebody, you know, kind of empowered him to say, look, you need to be this dude. And he feels that if he had been that guy earlier on that, if he had that mentality earlier on that maybe his career and he had he had a good career, but maybe he would have been seen in a different light. So it's it's kind of interesting to hear your perspective on that.

00:27:40
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's uh, that's very true. And I said, I have to call Nick and tell him thank you for that. Yeah, I know, I know that Chris was like I said, I know, you know, any any young player coming in comes in with, you know, with the sense of hey, or I shouldn't say anybody, but most of them will come in with the sense of hey, let me try to fit in. Let me not come in and try and try to take over something that's been established already. And I know Chris's personality is probably such as that. And I think in order to transition to be that leader that you need to be in a dominant player like he was. I think you obviously have to take those steps forward. But I think it's usually you know, year three, year four, year five, where you kind of transition now to you know, I've proven that I you know, I can I'm capable of carrying this team and you know, showing what I can do on the field. Now, you know, now I can vocally be that person as well, you know going.

00:28:30
Speaker 3: Forward, Yeah, no doubt.

00:28:32
Speaker 4: So listen, when you got here, you didn't show up alone. You showed up with your running mate, right, you know. Let's let's talk about we were talked about a little bit before we before we started recording here. Let's talk about our guy, Luky Luke, you and Ray Lucas's kind of remarkable. You don't see this often. Where you guys arrive in New York together in ninety seven, your teammates throughout your entire journey with the Jets, you both get to Miami at the same time, and actually even after you left here, you were in Baltimore together. So seven years, you guys across three teams were teammates, and and that bond that you guys had was undeniable. Everybody who was in the locker room knew right away you guys were thick as thieves. Talk about your friendship with Ray Luke and how helpful was it for you guys to kind of go through this thing together so long.

00:29:22
Speaker 5: Anybody that knows Ray Lucas knows the Jersey Boy himself, he is one of the kind uh, he is always I don't like I said, I spent so much time with Rays. I don't think I've ever seen him, you know, with the with not a smiling face or not, you know, not his burbly, bubbly personality that he portrays. Uh that isn't just for the show. He is that guy. He needs his own reality shows. He is that kind of guy. It was fortunate that I was able to come in with Ray, like I said, having the chance to play with Ray in New York and build the bond. You know, Ray was kind of an underdog story as well, you know, and Parceles took a chance on Ray. Uh, you know, and always, you know, always say that, you know, Ray started off, you know, he actually started off in the receiver room with us because he was he was really a special teams guy. And you know, Parcells said, you know, the way that he told Ray that the way he's gonna make the team is be a beast on special teams and be a.

00:30:15
Speaker 2: Dog on special team.

00:30:16
Speaker 1: And Ray was a dog on special teams.

00:30:19
Speaker 5: That's how I got to know Ray, because he was in the receiver room with us, you know, in the beginning, or he was running down on special teams like a bat out of hell. He was just he was a crazy dog, as guys would say, you know, being a specialist and not necessarily being you know, not covering kicks and having the Ray run down there.

00:30:34
Speaker 1: Everything he does is just funny.

00:30:36
Speaker 5: It's just he don't have a serious bone in his body's you know, he has all these one liners and he always has some kind of saying about berry jersey and this that and the other and jersey this. You know, I'm this, you know, be a dog, you know, be this like Ray, just play football and we'll have fun.

00:30:53
Speaker 1: And uh he ended up transitioning to uh in back to the quarterback room.

00:30:57
Speaker 5: I think we had a couple quarterbacks that go down and he ends up trying and transition back into the quarterback room and then end up getting you know, I think when Vinnie went down that year, Ray end up taking over and having a really nice finish of the season. And I think that's kind of what motivated you know, Miami and Baltimore and the team's actually have to have a chance to know that, you know, if things go bad, you know, raise a guy that you can put in that's you know, athletic. He don't always make the right play because he'll see it his own way.

00:31:25
Speaker 1: He'll see it the dirty Jersey way.

00:31:26
Speaker 5: But he will get in there and he'll do and he'll make things happen, whether it's scheduled or off schedule. And that's the funny thing about Ray. It's like I remember one play in Miami. I was running across the field and I was covered, but he decided to throw me the ball anyways, and I get the shit slapped out of me and and I get up when I come back to the huddle and I'm like, Ray, what the hell you doing? Like you didn't see the guy cover me. He's like, yeah, I saw him, but I just feel like I had to get rid of it, so I'll let you take the hit instead of me taking a hit. And I was like, oh, great friendship we got here, Ray and Ray Luke is just he was a special character.

00:31:59
Speaker 1: Man.

00:32:00
Speaker 5: I don't have enough good things to say about right. I know, he'll give anybody the shirt off his back. You know, he got a beautiful family and the things that he has with his own family, And there's so many stories and a lot of them I can't tell on uh this podcast, even on this podcast, yeah, because it probably is not conducive to anybody's well being going forward. So we had so many we have so many good memories and so much good so many good times. I can't even begin to think about if I was here with him right now, how we'd be laughing and telling stories about some stuff that's happened throughout throughout our journey. So raise an amazing dude.

00:32:36
Speaker 4: He is, and I wasna say it was, but he is continues to be an amazing dude. But that time period and you two guys in the locker room and like your own language, and even you're saying, replacing Vinnie testa verity. I know he used to call him Vinnie Testimony. Like he had nicknames for everybody.

00:32:52
Speaker 3: It was. I don't know how. I don't know how he did it, man, I don't know.

00:32:56
Speaker 5: How he came about all these acronyms and names and gave everybody.

00:33:00
Speaker 1: But if you got a nickname from Red, you knew that you had made it.

00:33:03
Speaker 5: And he was that kind of guy, you know that, you know, like I said, never the superstar, but always a one that you knew you could count on, because he was that sold of a dude, not only in the locker room, but on the football field as well.

00:33:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, like if you if you got a handshake with Lebron, you know you you're cool off everybody.

00:33:21
Speaker 3: Let's having the nickname too good.

00:33:24
Speaker 2: Okay, well the old one season's been talking about. It was a good season to go eleven and five. Unfortunately things didn't work out against Baltimore in the playoffs, but overall, I have to believe that the feeling was that, hey, we got a we got a pretty good football team here. But then the following year, Tam Gaty leaves his post as offensive coordinated to become the head coach at Georgia Tech and North Turner comes in and takes over the offense. And while that was a sign of change, the biggest teams of the off season was bringing in Ricky Williams. The trade for Ricky. Talk about how those two moves and I know how that's wide receivers, how you feel about it. Talk about those two moves specifically how they impacted the offense and the team as a whole, and then how they impacted you individually.

00:34:05
Speaker 5: You know, like like you said, going eleven and five and having a very successful year, Like I said, even though we didn't it didn't end the way that we wanted to against Baltimore, which I feel like we had a chance to win that game. I thought we you know, in the off stage and I thought, we you know, we were you know, excited about coming back and now building building off of that momentum.

00:34:24
Speaker 1: And you know, you know, even though like I said, things that changed, there were some changes.

00:34:29
Speaker 5: I think we you know, we were It kind of put us a little bit more like, you know, now we have to you know, even though it wasn't great with what we had.

00:34:39
Speaker 1: From an offensive standpoint, we felt like, you.

00:34:41
Speaker 5: Know, what we had jail, we had kind of started to develop some rapport.

00:34:45
Speaker 1: We kind of knew you know, who did what.

00:34:48
Speaker 5: You kind of developed some some chemistry in terms of, you know, guys now know kind of what position, you know who you know, who runs these routes better, you know, how we can interchange ourselves and you know, not only within the player, but within you know, within the game. And it kind of, you know, gave us a lot more uncertainty when nor when North came in, you know, and it obviously when Ricky came in, it was you know, we were kind of as a receiving corps thinking, hey, we're gonna be you know, we are going to now be the focal point of what we're going to be doing to knowing that it's gonna be Ricky right, and Ricky left quite a Ricky wrong. But we had anticipated even though Lamar ran the ball quite a bit, you know, the year before. But we we felt like we now had kind of started to see and developed some something like I said, some some chemistry offensively with what we wanted to do, and we could you know, we started to see, you know, how we can move the ball, how we could interchange some different parts. And when Rookie came in, and even though Ricky ended up being a wonderful teammate, you know, with his own quirky itself, and you know he has some he has some quirky things about him, but when he came in, we were thinking, you know, this is gonna be a situation where it's gonna be and you know, and knowing coach wants that we were gonna run the ball and play good.

00:36:02
Speaker 1: Defense, that was that was gonna be our mo o. And we kind of, you know, it was like, I guess back to the back to the back, back door.

00:36:10
Speaker 5: I guess we'll be coming in the back door again trying to win the game by a field goal in the fourth quarter.

00:36:14
Speaker 1: So I guess that was kind of our mentality as receivers.

00:36:17
Speaker 5: You know, you wanted to just get out there, you know you, I know, every day and meeting room when we had free time. I remember what we always did was we watched the Saint Louis Rams, the greatest show on turf, and we and we sat there and watched them and watched their offense and watched out all.

00:36:33
Speaker 1: Those guys got to eat. And we're like, that could be us.

00:36:36
Speaker 5: Like we're watching, we're we're diagramming their plays to let's see what play they're running, and we dire gram four or five of their plays and we're like, damn, these are the same players were running.

00:36:47
Speaker 1: How they eating like this and week and we can't get them eating?

00:36:49
Speaker 3: Like I played with him in Northern I on over here, we over.

00:36:53
Speaker 5: Here looking for us, Yeah, and I'm seeing my boy Kurt, you know, throwing the ball to everybody and we struggling, we looking skinny. I'm like, man, we ain't no meat on the table, we ain't got nothing. We got number bones.

00:37:03
Speaker 1: So I remember watching I remember watching quite a bit of the Dolphins in O one, and like, man, you know, we're evaluating and I said, I remember diagramming four or five or six of their plays, and like, that's exact play that we run. Why why are they getting these.

00:37:18
Speaker 5: Throws and these plays but we're not getting these same kind of results, even though I feel like our talent, you know, was right there in line, you know, in line step with what they had. So you know, it wasn't durraaddic at the time, you know, looking back on it, you know, but it was like, you know, we knew by the time when the Ricky came in and the offense changed, it was gonna be some growing pain, some things that we're gonna have to learn that was different than what we had, you know, established in the whole season with or with with Chan and uh, it kind of you know, now you go back to just going out there and playing, and now you have to.

00:37:52
Speaker 1: Think about what you're doing.

00:37:53
Speaker 5: You know, you had to think about you know, you weren't able to play fast, you know, as fast as you would like to, just because now you're trying to learn an entire new offense and all new terminologies. So it kind of it kind of definitely put a damper on what we you know, what we were looking for to coming back in.

00:38:08
Speaker 4: That second year for me, and we did exactly what you said, you know, ran the ball. Ricky had eighteen hundred something yards and all those touchdowns and was all.

00:38:17
Speaker 3: World and played good defense.

00:38:19
Speaker 4: JT had eighteen and a half sacks, led the league in sacks in it, and somehow didn't make the damn playoffs. But that's a whole other conversation before we start feeling too badly about all of that. Man, this has been This has been so much fun, even more fun than I thought it would be when I saw you there at the hard Rock.

00:38:36
Speaker 3: But I should have known this was gonna be great.

00:38:40
Speaker 2: But you're talking to a whiteout man.

00:38:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm talking to Toot. I get it.

00:38:45
Speaker 2: Personalities of all football. You know, sometime the d line takes over. They think they got personality wide out, baby.

00:38:52
Speaker 4: So so got the personalities. The ward said, you guys have the looks. I just heard Odell Beckham say that you guys are the most helpless players on the field.

00:39:01
Speaker 2: I mean, my god, half half of us are.

00:39:07
Speaker 3: I thought it was interesting. I did think it was interesting. So We're gonna let you get out of here because you've been more than gracious with your time.

00:39:12
Speaker 4: But we end our podcast the same way every episode now, and I don't think we You know you listen to the Ray Luke episode.

00:39:19
Speaker 3: We didn't do this at that time.

00:39:21
Speaker 4: But this should be easy for you because we end every episode with a fish tank two minute drill. I have no doubt you're going to crush this. Got a few fast paced questions for you. Then we'll let you go back to you know, living life.

00:39:32
Speaker 1: Okay, ready, yeah, I'm ready.

00:39:34
Speaker 2: All right, we got no time.

00:39:36
Speaker 4: We'll give you. You know what, you had no timeouts against the Raiders. We'll make this a little bit easier. You got one time out if you need it.

00:39:43
Speaker 2: All there we go, all right. You've played for three different head coaches in the AFC East, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, and of course our own, very own Dave Wanstead. You also played three sports in high school football, track, and basketball. If you had to draft one of those coaches to play each of those sports, which coach would you have for each sport?

00:40:02
Speaker 5: I think Whilston would be a basketball player. Belichick would probably be my track guy in par sales gonna have to be the football guy because I don't think big part. I don't think Big Bild can run no more.

00:40:15
Speaker 2: But what what about shot in?

00:40:16
Speaker 3: Belichick?

00:40:17
Speaker 2: Run about shotting this?

00:40:18
Speaker 1: Uh?

00:40:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know what, I ain't think about that. I think I think Big Bill could probably throw the shot pull it. That's pretty good. I ain't think of I didn't think about the field events.

00:40:26
Speaker 4: All right, So we're moving him to the field and then you're gonna put Belichick in the football team.

00:40:31
Speaker 3: All right, I like it. I like it. Okay, all right.

00:40:33
Speaker 4: We mentioned earlier You're drafted the third round of the nineteen ninety seven NFL Draft, eighty eighth overall. The Miami Dolphins actually had four selections in that round. One guy was drafted before you in that round, the other three were after you, and three of them were your teammates when you came here to Miami, all drafted in that same round in ninety seven. How many of those Dolphins that were drafted in that third round can you name?

00:40:57
Speaker 2: Zero?

00:40:59
Speaker 3: Well, I'll give you a one of them.

00:41:01
Speaker 1: I think JT was on my draft.

00:41:03
Speaker 3: There you go, JT was? It was.

00:41:06
Speaker 5: I don't remember, man, that's good. I remember JT. Going early in my round in my draft.

00:41:10
Speaker 3: Yep, he was drafted seventy third. You were drafted a dy eighth.

00:41:14
Speaker 4: The ninety second and ninety third pick were both Dolphins linebackers.

00:41:19
Speaker 1: Defense guys. I can't remember Derrick Rodgers Derek okay, yeah, and you played.

00:41:23
Speaker 4: With Derek and right correct? Yep, yep, he went to a su Ronnie Ward was out of Kansas and then Brent Smith was an offensive lineman.

00:41:33
Speaker 3: Yep. Played with us and then he went to the Jets.

00:41:36
Speaker 1: After the Yeah, he left him. I think him and AJ went to Jet together. Yeah, there it is.

00:41:42
Speaker 2: Wow, damn all right?

00:41:43
Speaker 1: Who was the third one?

00:41:45
Speaker 3: So Ronnie Ward? Ronnie Ward didn't he didn't, Yeah, he didn't. He didn't play long. He didn't play long. But he was also drafted.

00:41:53
Speaker 5: I remember Rogers, I thought it was a defensive guy. And JT yep, But I didn't remember our offense line. I don't know too many offense line.

00:42:02
Speaker 3: All those guys in the same round. Pretty crazy.

00:42:04
Speaker 2: We got to stay away from that. That room, that roommate don't smell as good as a wide receiver room. Anyhow, You are a Northern Iowa and Gateway Football Conference legend. Not just for your exploits on the football field, but you were a track and field prowess. We talked a little bit about this. What was your favorite event in track and field? The two hundred meter? Would you run?

00:42:25
Speaker 1: I ran a twenty point eight.

00:42:27
Speaker 5: Damn I left when I left you and I had the school record in the two hundred.

00:42:32
Speaker 2: Surprisingly, it was yards when I I ran it was yards. I'm my old ass. It was yards. It was meters by the time you got there, right, No, I think it was still yards. It might have still been yards, but yeah, it was. I ran the corner pretty good, you know, because my stature. I wasn't real tall and I had short legs.

00:42:50
Speaker 5: I ran the corner better than a lot of the bigger guys, so I can make up a little bit of distance on running the corner.

00:42:56
Speaker 1: And then I was decent on the straight away as well.

00:42:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was moving. He was definitely moving. All right.

00:43:01
Speaker 4: There's only one way to end this thing. Final play of this two minute drill. We've talked a lot about your friendship with Ray Lucas, who on this show we discussed his unique luky Luke language.

00:43:12
Speaker 3: What is your favorite Ray Lucas saying or phrase.

00:43:16
Speaker 1: Probably if you're gonna be a bear, be a grizzly daddy.

00:43:20
Speaker 2: There it is.

00:43:21
Speaker 3: That's a two minute.

00:43:23
Speaker 1: Drill a grizzly Daddy.

00:43:28
Speaker 3: That is classic Ray Lucas. I love it. He is ddrech Ward Man.

00:43:32
Speaker 4: I'm so glad you're back now on the the alumni database.

00:43:36
Speaker 3: I hope we get to see you more often.

00:43:38
Speaker 4: I don't get to see on game day because I don't have access to the alumni lounge like you and Juice big Time. I am far from big time, but I am working on game days as well, so I'm in the past.

00:43:48
Speaker 1: How came you didn't bring up Remember we did Smooth Grooves with de Ward.

00:43:52
Speaker 3: Yes, smooth Grooves, Oh my god. Oh that's my tell Juice about smooth Girl. I totally forgot about smooth Grooves. Oh my god. And he was ready to talk about it.

00:44:03
Speaker 5: We had a situation and I don't know if you came to me or I came to you.

00:44:06
Speaker 1: We were talking about music one day and I was like, yeah.

00:44:09
Speaker 5: I said, I'd like to, you know, have a segment on the on the website where I do music reviews. Yes, so I'll buy a CD. I'll listen to it and then I'll review it on the on the website. It was called Smooth Grouls with de Ward that I remember doing the Dixie Chicks just timerlate.

00:44:28
Speaker 1: I think Donald Jones I did. I did. That was kind of more my Dixie You like, you got to do a couple of things are outside.

00:44:33
Speaker 3: Your Yeah, they wanted variety. The guys wanted variety.

00:44:37
Speaker 5: Yeah, I did the Dixie Chicks. It was it never really listened to that much music like that before. But that was before they and that was before they kind of got in trouble with the whatever they did, I don't remember what they did.

00:44:49
Speaker 4: But yeah, we're gonna stay away from that. But so I'm glad you brought that. I can't believe I forgot that. So just that was the early stages. I try to tell Travis Wingfield, who we do the postgame show with, is he's in his thirties. You know, we talk about these millennials and and he's an amazing podcaster. But we tried to give some perspective as to what it was like when Juice and I were working with the team, and I was like, I didn't have an email address. I think my second year in the League is when email got introduced to the NFL, and then we didn't have a website Tire three or four, and it was really just a marketing tool. But by the time you were there, we started to introduce you know, it was content creation.

00:45:26
Speaker 3: So Larry Izzo was doing movie reviews.

00:45:28
Speaker 4: It would go and he would do his gram you know, his favorites for the Oscars and do movie reviews, and then that's what we started doing.

00:45:35
Speaker 3: Music reviews, and it was smooth Cruise.

00:45:37
Speaker 4: I totally forgot about that, man, I'm so glad you remember that was funny.

00:45:41
Speaker 1: I was just I was thinking about it, like damn thing I asked you about smooth Grus.

00:45:44
Speaker 3: I don't know, man, I'm glad you brought it up. I kick myself if I just let it go like that. So good. Still, well, I'm going to reach out to Scott Stone.

00:45:52
Speaker 4: He's not working with the organization anymore, but I let's see if we can track some of that stuff down.

00:45:56
Speaker 5: All right, Yeah, I'd like to see what I was talking about, probably thing about no CD.

00:46:00
Speaker 3: Want to see your Dixie Chicks reviews?

00:46:04
Speaker 1: Now?

00:46:04
Speaker 2: Ain't that talking about CDs? Now?

00:46:06
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?

00:46:08
Speaker 2: Right?

00:46:09
Speaker 1: Everything streaming now for sure. Well, I appreciate you fellows.

00:46:13
Speaker 2: Man.

00:46:13
Speaker 1: I'm glad I got the chance to get down there and reconnect.

00:46:16
Speaker 2: Man.

00:46:16
Speaker 5: Hopefully it won't be as long this time. I'm trying to get down there every year if I can.

00:46:20
Speaker 1: So. I appreciate y'all having me on. Man. Let me know if I can get used any other way.

00:46:24
Speaker 2: Man, Hey ddre Man, thanks for diving in.

00:46:27
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Brothers, fish Tank, that's where it's at. You're now diving just like Jew said.

00:46:35
Speaker 4: Thanks for diving into the fish Tank presented by iHeartRadio. Be sure to follow us on whatever streaming platform you're using, and don't be afraid to rate the show or leave us a comment. We love your feedback, and remember you can find us as well as Drive Time with Travis Wingfield and all of our international partners on Miami Dolphins dot com.

00:46:54
Speaker 5: Tank