Aug. 20, 2024

Gus Frerotte: I Love Miami

Gus Frerotte: I Love Miami

Gus Frerotte played just one of his 15 NFL seasons in Miami, but delivered one of the most productive years of his career in 2005, providing a veteran offensive presence for Nick Saban’s Dolphins. Contributors to this episode include Sevach Melton and Dolphins Productions. Theme song created and performed by The Honorable SoLo D.

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00:00:00
Speaker 1: You're now diving, I'm gonna have been that.

00:00:10
Speaker 2: Who then set hitting down with Seth living Oh Jaye. Well, and this is strictly for I'm a true number one of course, y'all.

00:00:22
Speaker 3: This ain't the other Nerus boys talk that might've been that Pitch Tank.

00:00:27
Speaker 4: Welcome back to the Fish Tank presented by iHeartRadio right here on the Miami Dolphins podcast Network. Seth Levitt and the only podcaster to lead the NFL receptions and bowl a perfect game.

00:00:39
Speaker 1: He is oj McDuffie juice.

00:00:41
Speaker 4: I know you're fired up anytime there's a quarterback in the tank because you feel like you're gonna be getting the rung you dawn.

00:00:47
Speaker 5: Right, big Seth. I mean, especially guy like our next guest man. I mean, he's great at delivering the rock man. So when you got a guy that can get you open in space or even throw you open, I'm a hell a fan of that, and you know what I mean.

00:00:59
Speaker 6: And our next es man definitely does that for us, except.

00:01:02
Speaker 4: He definitely does. Gus Farott dives into the tank. We've been trying to get this one set up. He was kind enough to give us some time. Gus, how you doing, man.

00:01:10
Speaker 3: I'm doing wonderful up here in Pittsburgh, just you know, hanging out and uh, trying to stay busy.

00:01:15
Speaker 2: OJ. You know how it is when you're done, you try to find a bunch.

00:01:18
Speaker 3: Of things you gotta do. And and I got a bunch of irons in the fire.

00:01:22
Speaker 5: Yeah, no doubt about Pittsburgh. What the hell you doing in Pittsburgh?

00:01:25
Speaker 6: Man? You know, I get into grew up a couple of guys, you know, being a Penn State guy.

00:01:29
Speaker 5: Man being in Pittsburgh area and and and born and raised in Cleveland. I got a problem with Pittsburgh, Gus, What the hell is going on there?

00:01:35
Speaker 7: Man?

00:01:36
Speaker 3: Why you got a problems home town? You know, I talked to Bernie all the time. He didn't seem to have a problem.

00:01:42
Speaker 1: It's a tough way to start this show, man.

00:01:44
Speaker 6: Bertie doesn't. All right, Bertie doesn't, then I definitely can't have a problem with it.

00:01:48
Speaker 1: Man.

00:01:49
Speaker 2: No, Bernie, Bernie is week.

00:01:52
Speaker 6: So he's great, He's wonderful. Yeah, yeah, he's really Yeah.

00:01:57
Speaker 3: You know, the thing about Pittsburgh is is that it's a small city, but it's a great city. And we got incredible sports here, We've got incredible food, here.

00:02:06
Speaker 2: The people are wonderful. So it's just it's just an awesome little town.

00:02:10
Speaker 6: Yeah, it really it is.

00:02:12
Speaker 5: It really is Man and it's like a small town, big city like whatever.

00:02:16
Speaker 6: It might be. Man, but it's just great people.

00:02:18
Speaker 5: They love their sports, of course, and uh, you know I say that all the time, Gus, because playing against Pitton and college man, it just I used to love ragging people, and you know, and Marino I deal with his ass all the time that.

00:02:31
Speaker 2: I wonder how that went.

00:02:32
Speaker 5: Yeah, right, right, right, Well, Gus, you know, we know you only played one year here in Miami, you know, one season in and we really do have a ton to cover here what we're going to talk about and we're going to get into all that and a little bit. But anytime we have a former quarterback here in the tank, you know, I'm always curious about the same thing.

00:02:52
Speaker 6: I always want to know. And we just talked about this a little bit.

00:02:55
Speaker 5: How aware of you are, Damn Marino, you know, when you're in that position in this town when he's around, and you know, because Danny's my man, as you know, but I feel it's always this ghost hanging over other quarterbacks when they hear you know.

00:03:08
Speaker 3: Well, I'll give you a great example of that. When you're a quarterback for the Dolphins and you're not Damn Marino. When you when I would throw a touchdown, when I played for the Dolphins and we had a really good team, when I would throw a touchdown, they wouldn't even replay the touchdown. They'd put a highlight of Dan throwing the touchdown up on.

00:03:27
Speaker 2: The big screen. So that kind of gives you tells you what what what Miami's all about?

00:03:33
Speaker 3: Until somebody comes in and wins the super Bowl, it's gonna be you know, he's got Dan the man.

00:03:39
Speaker 2: It's gonna That's how it's gonna be.

00:03:41
Speaker 1: So you're saying you look up at the screen.

00:03:44
Speaker 6: I didn't look up my wife.

00:03:45
Speaker 3: I remember my wife told me like during the game, like after the game, you know we're leaving, she goes, oh, you threw a touchdown of Chris Chambers and ain't even played a highlight.

00:03:53
Speaker 2: We had to watch Dan throw a touchdown to you know whoever it was.

00:03:57
Speaker 7: You know, they had a bunch of somebody, you know. But I was like, oh, you know, you don't watch it. I don't watch that stuff during the game. But she told me. My kids told me it was pretty man.

00:04:09
Speaker 1: That is hilarious.

00:04:10
Speaker 4: Got Lee, that's you think Danny's Danny's got somebody in there.

00:04:17
Speaker 1: I don't think that's the case. I definitely don't think that's the case. That is hilarious. Well, well, right, we do have a lot to do.

00:04:26
Speaker 6: That is very proved. That person is Marin Ralph Stringer. He probably paid to run that booth during the game.

00:04:36
Speaker 4: Now it's all starting to come together. It's all starting to make a lot of sense, too, funny. Well, there is so much it is kind of crazy. I was talking to Juice about this before the show. I said, Man, I was hoping we'd have enough to talk about with Gus that was Dolphins related because it was only one season and there was so much and very excited about it. But I think it is also important that we that we cover a little bit of history before we get into all that dolphin stuff. And there is a very cool underdog story here that I don't think we can ignore. I remind Juice all the time, Gus, I remind him all the time that not everybody had that fairy tale experience of being the first round draft choice.

00:05:12
Speaker 6: Right, yeah, he.

00:05:15
Speaker 2: S in every episode seventh round.

00:05:18
Speaker 4: This man exactly some guys are seventh round picks. But to make it even more interesting, Juice, he's a seventh round pick by Washington in ninety four. But he's not just a seventh round pick. They draft number three overall, the third overall pick in the entire draft at his position. He Schuler gets drafted right. So I'm really curious as to what your mindset was heading into camp. When you're a seventh round pick. You know, that guy's the golden child when they drive you know, they draft him at that position, but then a year later you basically take his job. You never look back. The third year you're you're in the Pro Bowl. How rewarding was that for you? And just kind of what was the mindset to be able to accomplish?

00:06:00
Speaker 6: You know.

00:06:01
Speaker 2: It's kind of funny. After we left d C.

00:06:04
Speaker 3: Heath and I never really talked, and then when I started doing my own podcasting, I reached out to him and we reconnected and it was great. You know, when you're playing and you're competing and he's a first rounder and you take his job and you do things, you know, there is a little I wouldn't say hard feelings, but there's some animosity there and it's tough to kind of get over that when you're twenty two.

00:06:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what I mean, you're just young inexperience.

00:06:30
Speaker 3: But the whole thing about it was I came in with no expectations.

00:06:34
Speaker 2: I was a seventh rounder.

00:06:35
Speaker 3: I just wanted to make a team, and I just wanted to do everything I could. I mean, I ran special teams, I did everything, you know, like just so I.

00:06:46
Speaker 2: Learned how to hold.

00:06:47
Speaker 3: When I got to DC, Cam Cameron was my quarterback coach, and you know, I kind of worked on holding all the time, and.

00:06:56
Speaker 2: So I just tried to do as much as I could.

00:06:58
Speaker 3: And then through the off season all the practices, you know, Heath was there for most.

00:07:02
Speaker 2: Of the stuff.

00:07:03
Speaker 3: We were learning the North Turner system. And then when we get to training camp. We got to training camp, Heath held out for training camp. He wasn't there for two and a half weeks, so I basically took all his reps.

00:07:18
Speaker 1: Right, so it was.

00:07:18
Speaker 2: Myself, John Freeze and another quarterback.

00:07:21
Speaker 3: Named Pad O'Hara. You know, I got all his reps, and for some reason, all the Hogs loved me, you know, because I remember after the first day of training camp where they had a bar they went to in Carlisle, PA. And they go, hey, Rook, you're going with us, And I said, sure. You know, I'm just this kid from Pittsburgh. I don't know any better.

00:07:41
Speaker 2: So we go to the bar and we have a meeting in like a half hour. You know how that is.

00:07:46
Speaker 3: You got a nightly meeting, team meeting, and then you break off whatever, and it's getting close to meeting time, and I'm just I'm just like, okay, guys, we got to go. You know, I'm not saying anything. These are hogs, you know, they won Super Bowls, done everything. And it's like five TI and I'm like, god, we're going to be late. And they go, hey, Rook, pay the bill. We'll see at the meeting. Oh, I don't have any money, Like I'm from. I went to Tulsa. I'm from My dad worked in the mill in Pittsburgh. I don't have any money. So I went to the bartender and he said, don't worry about you know, he knew like the whole situation. You're gonna get paid at some point. Just come back and pay me. And so I hurry up and leave and it wasn't far from the where the meeting was. But I'm late for the meeting. You know, I'm a seventh round rookie. I'm gonna get cut, Like I'm sweating, nervous. I walk in and North Turner's like, where the you know where you?

00:08:37
Speaker 2: Like, what do you? Why are you late?

00:08:38
Speaker 3: And all this stuff, and I don't know who it was, but the Hogs just said from the back of the room, coach he was with us, and Norv just said okay, and that was it, Like those guys were my guys from then on.

00:08:52
Speaker 2: Wow, And you know, it was just.

00:08:55
Speaker 3: I don't know what it was, but I've kind of always related to Lineman for some reason, and they're just good dudes and and down to earth, and those are the guys you want, you know, to have your back for sure.

00:09:06
Speaker 6: That sounds like a big, a good business decision in my opinion.

00:09:11
Speaker 1: On your side.

00:09:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, those are the guys, like, you know, when there's two d Linemen laying on top of you, you want them pulling the d Lineman off, you know, they're not walking over top of you and walking away. So I always kind of connected with the line. But yeah, that was kind of it. You know, I got all the reps in practice and Heath missed a bunch and then you know, he gets hurt. At the point when he came back, I got to start. John Freese was playing. John was a little older, and I didn't even know. Nordon just came into the team meeting that week and he goes, hey, I got an announcement. We got a new quarterbacks starting this week. And it was just John and I sitting in the front row, you know, and and we knew Heath was hurt too, when he goes, yeah, Gus is going to be our starter this week.

00:09:53
Speaker 2: Man. So it's like, oh my god, like you know, that's how I heard.

00:09:57
Speaker 3: It wasn't like he'd let me know before the meeting or he just told me in there, and then yeah, the rest is history.

00:10:03
Speaker 6: No, man, that's wild. That's too while. Man, so good.

00:10:06
Speaker 5: So ninety seven, nineteen ninety seven, you're having a good year, but then you used to saying an injury that you know, one way or another, it's still haunts probably has still haunted you to this day. And things really break down the following season, and then you go through this run of playing for four different teams in six seasons, Detroit, Denver, Cincinnati, Minnesota primarily is a backup, But two thousand and five rolls around and Nick Saban jumps in the league and you signed with the Miami Dolphins. I mean, can you talk about the decision to come to Miami, because I love the decision, obviously, I'm a I'm a Dolphin homer, of course, but you know, you're thirty four years old at this point, and I imagine that you know, you you've grown tremendously after all the stuff that you've been through. But my question is why Miami at that point? That's I mean, I love it, but why Miami in your mind?

00:10:55
Speaker 2: Well it's a long kind of story for that.

00:10:59
Speaker 3: But you know, I was kind of recruited by Scott Lenehan and Mike Tice to Minnesota, and you know, they wanted me to come up.

00:11:09
Speaker 2: Beat Dante's backup.

00:11:10
Speaker 3: You know, that was one of the things I was always good with the other quarterbacks, Like, even if I started, I didn't care like I was going to teach everybody around me as much as I could teach them. If you were the starter, the backup, the third string, whoever it was, and not all quarterbacks that I've played with were like that, right, And I think I was good with everyone. If you were starting, I was going to be there to support you no matter what and try to do everything I could for us to win, because I knew if we won, it's better for everyone, right, we all keep our jobs, we all you know, do better. And that was what it's important. But not everybody sees it that way.

00:11:45
Speaker 2: So lo and behold.

00:11:47
Speaker 3: I get to Minnesota and Scott Lenahan and I become very good friends, and you know, we did a lot of stuff together. He was not only the offensive coordinator, but he was a QB coach and so you know, and I connected. For some reason, our families got along and then so we connected. So being there two years, I literally called the plays into Dante. Scott was in the booth. I was basically the quarterback coach on the sideline, So I would call the plays into Dante. Mike Tice would be screaming in the headphones, and I'd have to put that aside because he was yelling at the lineman for not blocking. And I'd be like, all right, pep here we go, and I'd call the play and I'd say, hey, look if it's cover two and if you know, think check down if it's two man take off. Literally that's how I was with Dante all the time, and we had a good rapport with that, and you know, Scott and I just got along. And then when he came to Miami, he's like, you want to go with me?

00:12:40
Speaker 2: And you know, we had a good connection. I'm like, yeah, I got a chance to start. Why wouldn't I, you know, and you.

00:12:46
Speaker 3: Know, because I'm not going to beat up Dante, who was a first rounder and he's proven that he can play and everything, so I wanted to, you know, go try again. That's that's what it's all about, competing and trying to get on the field. Nobody wants to be the guy standing there and with a clipboard all the time.

00:13:03
Speaker 6: You know.

00:13:03
Speaker 3: I played a lot of games in my career and was very grateful for that. But when I got to Miami, I felt a renewed energy. Worked really hard to do what I needed to do to be the starter, and Nick Saban, you know, gave me that opportunity. Scott lenahank I knew the offense really well, and you guys talked earlier about Jason Garrett he's a quarterback coach, you know. He Lenahan's not far off of North Turner's offense. So it was kind of all like worked out very.

00:13:32
Speaker 2: Well for me. It was an enjoyable experience.

00:13:36
Speaker 3: And there's some people there that I met that, you know, still really good friends with a lot of seth.

00:13:42
Speaker 5: I wanted to go back to something he just said, because there are some quarterbacks that don't mind being that number two guy, you know, which is strange to me because as as competitors as we are, I know, guys went long Toevity whatever, but how did some quarterbacks have the mentality that I'm okay being at number two guy and making you know, maybe get a ten year career after more after that. It's mind bothering to me that some guys would feel that it's okay to you know, not be the number one guy. I love that you said, I want to start, I want to play, this is what I want to do. But some guys don't feel that way. It's amazing to me.

00:14:18
Speaker 3: Well, how many oj how many guys if you've seen come in and part of my language, but they shit the bed, Yeah, you know what I mean.

00:14:25
Speaker 2: They got to go out and prove themselves.

00:14:27
Speaker 3: And when you're the backup and you're that guy that you're getting your chance now. If you don't show them you can do it, you're not gonna be around much longer. And you see it time in and time out, where guys come and they've been a backup for four or five years and they get their shot right and they go out and throw four interceptions.

00:14:46
Speaker 2: They just have a terrible day and you've never heard their name again.

00:14:50
Speaker 3: And I think it is what it is is that there's there's multiple factors to be in a backup. You got to be game ready and you got to be able to go in and do it at a moment's notice. You know there's no uh you know, yeah, there's gonna call time out. You can get a couple throws in, but mentally it's all is It's not like I'm pitching and I'm gonna get eight warm up throws and then be ready to go. This is all mental. You know, I got to understand what's going on. I got to know who's hot in the game. I gotta understand. You got to stay within the game. So good backups aren't just about being an athlete, right You got to come in and be able to go from cold to hot in an instant.

00:15:29
Speaker 4: I love that, And we had Matt Moore on recently Jews who talked about that as well. Right, you know, jump in and get everybody charged up and have to I love that cold to hot. So it's, uh, you know, you're you're definitely an experienced podcaster here, Guss. It's funny that I don't want to step into this thing, but I think I'm already in a juice. So you talk about back guys who are career backups and they finally get their chance and they shit the bed.

00:15:52
Speaker 1: The incumbent that.

00:15:53
Speaker 4: Year was was Aj Pheely. All right, so you you show up here. AJ Feely was here and two thousand and four was a little bit of a rough year for the team as all, for AJ didn't necessarily endear himself to Dolphins fans, and then our guy sayd Rosenfels was also in there. It wasn't necessarily a runaway at camp for anybody, Like nobody had a great preseason, if I recall, but I was gonna ask what I thought, what you thought? Pushed over the top, But it sounds like familiarity with the offense, the experience all you know, all of those things, and familiarity with coaching staff. But what do you remember from that quarterback room with aj and Sage and Jason Garrett who literally sat on the other side of the tesk in that room with those guys, you know, at the end of the previous year. Just really interesting stuff. And I'm wondering what you remember from that room.

00:16:42
Speaker 2: Well, starting off with I call him coach Garrett because you did coach me.

00:16:46
Speaker 3: But you know we're not far off into each right, But you know, he he was just so prepared.

00:16:53
Speaker 2: He handled everybody the same way.

00:16:55
Speaker 3: He never had animosity towards any one quarterback or another, love to go out early, you know, hey, you know he was always a good you know, lack of a better term, a raw rock guy. Let's go, let's get up, let's we got a good practice today, and all that. So he was great with all that. I think it's just his you know, football, you talk about football.

00:17:13
Speaker 2: In your blood. That guy and his family, it's just in their blood, you know what I mean, like it.

00:17:18
Speaker 3: And he's such a good dude. And every day was it was you learned a lot. And he was always super prepared, and then the other guys they were just so much younger than me. That was you know, you try to relate, you know, when you're thirty four, thirty five and you're trying to relate to a couple of kids who are twenty six, you know, twenty five, Yeah, and you know your kids are growing, they're just you know, they haven't even thought about that stuff yet. So it was just, you know, for me, it was just work, trying to be a good dude, but just just get in their work and try to win his job. And you know was able to do that. Aj obviously was the incumbent say just been there before, you know. Uh, it was just I just tried to kind of keep my head down and go about it and do what I needed to do to start, because I knew looking at the talent that we had that year, we had a really good team.

00:18:14
Speaker 2: Man.

00:18:14
Speaker 3: We had you talk about, you know, Hall of Famer Rest in Peace Junior Say being our leader. You know, I was pretty excited to play with him. Jason Taylor's act time. I mean, you talk about the guys, you know, Randy m Randy McMichael, Chris Chambers. I mean there are two running backs Ricky Williams, Rick and Ronnie Brown were just incredible, you know, and and it's just we were so close, you know, the only problem was there was a guy on the north up in the northeast.

00:18:44
Speaker 2: It was you know, pretty big. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:18:52
Speaker 6: The guy.

00:18:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, he wasn't that bad. So quick question, Jason Garrett. Question, he told us this still worry about Devour the strawberry? Did you ever hear the devour the strawberry story in the uh in the meeting?

00:19:06
Speaker 1: I don't.

00:19:06
Speaker 6: I don't remember that one, all right.

00:19:09
Speaker 2: He probably did.

00:19:10
Speaker 3: He probably did tell me like say that, But I've heard so many like Saturday night speeches, right, coaches come in and like one of my favorite, Brad Childress, he goes reach under your your your chair, you know, Sad, I forget who We're playing them in Minnesota. My second go round with them, and there was like everybody has like a chain. It's like a twelve it's eleven link chain, right, and you pull out this chain and he starts talking about how you can't break the chain if you're all together but one individual link, you can't do anything. But if you you know, so you've heard I've heard so many speeches, you know, And so Jason probably did tell me the de Vour of the Strawberry speech, but yeah, I don't remember it off the top of my head.

00:19:55
Speaker 4: All right, Well, I was just curious he told us this one, and we were like we were hanging on every wor heard and we didn't know where he was going with it.

00:20:01
Speaker 6: It was good stuff, and we're both stumped, like what he did?

00:20:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, what does it mean to you?

00:20:08
Speaker 4: And I We're like, oh, ship, Like I don't want to have the wrong answer.

00:20:11
Speaker 3: It's kind of yeah, you're like, I got juice running down my mouth, you know, and all kinds of stuff.

00:20:18
Speaker 2: What do you mean about his strawberry? But you know, the dude's been in football his whole life.

00:20:23
Speaker 3: He's probably heard every kind of I'm trying to think of the word right now, but you know that you could possibly have for football. Between his dad, his brothers, and then being a head coach and just being a part of such great organizations, he's probably heard every term, and that might be really one he really he loves.

00:20:42
Speaker 6: He does, he said, so that's he definitely loves it.

00:20:45
Speaker 5: If he If you ever were to write a book, that's gonna be probably his book titles.

00:20:49
Speaker 6: What he talked about.

00:20:50
Speaker 1: Man Devour the strawberry. So you got to follow up with him now story.

00:20:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have to have to follow up and get get the story. I love it definitely.

00:20:59
Speaker 5: Listen, let's go to the opening game in two thousand and five. We've got Denver at home. You're the opening day starter, begauins. The team you played for a few years, probably a little bit earlier than that, led by the same head coach, Mike Sanahan who you played under, and we blowed them out thirty four to ten. You go twenty four to thirty six, two hundred and seventy five yards, two touchdowns, including a sixty yarder to Marty Booker.

00:21:22
Speaker 6: What do you remember about that game?

00:21:23
Speaker 5: And at that point do you think you guys are like you got something special going on at that point?

00:21:28
Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:21:29
Speaker 3: You know, the thing about it was I knew a lot of those guys that played for the Broncos.

00:21:33
Speaker 6: I bet and the.

00:21:34
Speaker 3: One thing like, yeah, you're mile high, You're in pretty good shape. They had a great training program, the strengths. Coach was awesome there. But you know, Miami's just different, like the swamp, the heat, the humidity, like you got to practice in that. So before the game, I'm talking to a lot of the guys. They came out and they're like, I knew a bunch of them were already getting ivs before the game because they were they couldn't handle it, like, you know, it's drying denver Man that that that South Florida get you and it it's it just they couldn't handle it. And so just during the game, I mean, their athletes are going to play hard, but I just didn't, you know, I just didn't think they had the gas in the tank to compete with us. And plus we had some incredible players, uh and and the guys loved, you know, our team. We loved working hard.

00:22:24
Speaker 6: You know.

00:22:24
Speaker 3: That was the one thing. I was one of the captains that year, and we had there were a bunch of us. There were eight of us. I think the first two a day practice we own is Nick Saban's office and he goes, so, what do you guys think about practice? Right, And to every guy it was like, coach, we love working hard and all we want to do is win, right.

00:22:44
Speaker 2: So that was every guy, top to bottom.

00:22:46
Speaker 3: And then we worked hard, and you know, and we had some incredible, incredible players like you said, Marty Booker, Chris Chamber, Wes Welker, you know, And you know, yeah, I know, I know.

00:22:59
Speaker 2: I till talk to West a lot. He's he's an awesome dude.

00:23:02
Speaker 3: And you know he I can still hear him going in motion behind me and the sweat and running down.

00:23:11
Speaker 2: His shoes are full of sweat dripping and it's just like sounds like Squidward running behind me. Every time he went in motion. It was hilarious.

00:23:20
Speaker 1: I love it.

00:23:21
Speaker 2: It was hilarious.

00:23:22
Speaker 3: But that's how you know, That's what it was with the Broncos, and you know, we just I just remember it wasn't like we man handled him.

00:23:28
Speaker 2: I just think that they couldn't keep up with our tempo. You know, we were just fresh.

00:23:32
Speaker 3: We were just going at it, and we had the offense and you know Nick obviously Nick Saban, he put a good defensive plan together to go against that brought that, you know, the West Coast.

00:23:42
Speaker 5: You know what's so funny because we talked a book about this and books that actually that you know, he ran a wrong route one time, you still found him in that game.

00:23:50
Speaker 6: You know what I mean. You know, it's like well, I mean not everybody's perfect.

00:23:55
Speaker 2: You gotta be able to adjust.

00:23:59
Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:23:59
Speaker 3: I probably wasn't even on time. I probably had a scramble no offensive line.

00:24:05
Speaker 6: I believe, you know.

00:24:07
Speaker 2: But I'll tell you the thing I remember about that game.

00:24:10
Speaker 3: Champ Bailey was playing the you know, left corner or right corner for us O Jay and went to throw like a little you know, we had a hook flat on and went to throw it and the receiver slipped and or it went off his hands or something.

00:24:25
Speaker 2: Champ picked it off.

00:24:26
Speaker 3: So I'm naturally I had a step because remember Al Wilson, he was a linebacker. Yeah, so Al blitzed. They brought him up the middle. I side sept him through the ball, and then it got picked by Champs.

00:24:42
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm not gonna let him score a touchdown on me. So I run over there and Al had actually circled behind the line and then came back and Cole cocked me on the side and hit me.

00:24:54
Speaker 3: And I remember I landed on my tailbone so hard. I had like that tailbone in for like four games.

00:25:01
Speaker 2: Oh my god.

00:25:02
Speaker 3: It wasn't because he hit me like you used to get. I'm always us skin blindsided but it was just how I landed.

00:25:08
Speaker 2: Oh man, that hurt.

00:25:09
Speaker 3: Just starting off a lot of high expectations and be able to win, like your first game like that.

00:25:14
Speaker 2: That was big Ojay.

00:25:15
Speaker 5: You know I think also I think big sefan. Correct me again, because that's my guy. You know, we're talking about this the other day. That's my Google guy. You know, if I don't know what I asked, Seth, he's Google. But Mike McDaniel was a part of that staff, right, and never at that point, right, I mean he.

00:25:30
Speaker 4: Was a coaching intern. That was his first game ever in the NFL. Now he's a Dolphins head coach. But it was against you guys.

00:25:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was with Denver correct.

00:25:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean that's how we got to start.

00:25:42
Speaker 2: You know, we had no idea it was who he wasn't.

00:25:45
Speaker 1: Right, you know what some kid on the sidelines, right.

00:25:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:25:48
Speaker 3: We probably thought he was carrying a towsand and out of the water or something. You know, there was like you didn't even know, like there's a guru standing over there.

00:25:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so crazy.

00:25:57
Speaker 3: I love how he coaches, you know what I mean, Like, I love how he is enthusiasm, what he brings and and just kind of his whole swagger and demeanor that it doesn't have to be the same way that it's always been.

00:26:09
Speaker 1: That's cool, Yeah, that's it's been in.

00:26:11
Speaker 5: Effect, like these new school kids, I call these new school kids. He adapts well to these new school kids, you know what I mean. And they paying them well too.

00:26:21
Speaker 1: That's why they love them. He said, I want to get.

00:26:23
Speaker 2: Paid to of Gud. I was like, damn, I mean he's quarterbacks.

00:26:28
Speaker 6: I say the same thing, man.

00:26:29
Speaker 5: Slot receivers are making fifteen a year, man, you know, yeah, I mean takes seven hundred a year.

00:26:35
Speaker 3: You know, look at San Francisco, like to of their highest you know, Deebo's like their highest paid player.

00:26:41
Speaker 2: Right, what's he making like thirty two years or something? Is it that much?

00:26:44
Speaker 6: That's crazy?

00:26:46
Speaker 5: And then you know they got a bunch of I don't know how they make it all work, man, But hey, for all of them, Yeah.

00:26:52
Speaker 3: Exactly, I'm not I'm not mad at them at all. I'm just saying. My kids always tell me, Dad, you played in the wrong era.

00:26:58
Speaker 6: That's right. Be Born too soon, said all Born too soon?

00:27:02
Speaker 2: Too funny.

00:27:03
Speaker 1: That was a great game. Everybody was fired up. I mean, you know, and.

00:27:06
Speaker 2: It's at a lot of Marino highlights in that game.

00:27:09
Speaker 4: A lot of Danny was scoring left and right in that game from the owner's box.

00:27:15
Speaker 1: For sure, that is too funny.

00:27:17
Speaker 4: But but then we go on, you know, the wheels kind of fall off and we lose seven out of our next nine. I want to know how difficult it was to have those expectations, to have the roster that you have, and then to go on a losing streak like that with a head coach like Nick Saban. What what was it like during that nine week stretch? Because man, we we all know how difficult it is to work in an NFL building from one week to the next after a loss, let alone losing seven out of nine. And then what what turned things around after that disaster in Cleveland?

00:27:51
Speaker 3: Well, nobody likes to lose, and I think everyone knows, especially Nick Saban. You know, he wasn't a very happy camper with anyone that whole stretch. But I think we needed to grow as a team. I really think that. You know, it wasn't that you know, yeah, we had an off season together. I mean basically we're only with each other for six months, and there were.

00:28:15
Speaker 2: A lot of new parts.

00:28:16
Speaker 3: You know, there's new coaches, there's everything that's going on, and sometimes the best thing for your team is a little adversity, and you gotta you gotta figure out you're gonna find out who's gonna be there with you when you have some of that adversity.

00:28:30
Speaker 2: Are they gonna throw in the towel orre they gonna work harder?

00:28:33
Speaker 3: And I think it just took us a few, you know, weeks to figure that out and and really find out who's going to be in the trenches with us and who's going to do this. And then once we did, and once you know, when you when you lose like that, you know there is some finger pointing, guys get upset, and you got some veterans and all that, But you know, the real pros they they stick together. They go out and they work hard every day and their job is to kind of show everybody else what this is about. And as you know, if you're not a team, it's not all eleven of you aren't doing it together, you're not gonna win.

00:29:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was just a point to.

00:29:16
Speaker 3: That when we started turning around, we just finally started gelling together as a team.

00:29:24
Speaker 4: Well that Cleveland game. I bring that up for a couple of reasons. One, it's it's interestingly enough, the only game you didn't start all season, and Sage.

00:29:32
Speaker 1: You know, we're gonna talking about Sage more.

00:29:34
Speaker 4: But unfortunately that was one of those games that you know, was a rough one for a backup quarterback getting a start, and that was just a disaster all the way through. Is you probably saw from when I emailed you my boss. I run Jason Taylor's foundation have for the last twenty years, and there's that famous story in the locker room where he kind of told everybody, if you want to quit, quit now, and I'll pay your salary the rest of the year, but let's get things turned around.

00:29:55
Speaker 1: And you did. It.

00:29:55
Speaker 4: Seems like the veterans on that team kind of rallied the rest of the troops and got the Yeah.

00:30:00
Speaker 2: I mean, that's what it has to be.

00:30:02
Speaker 3: Every good team that I've ever been on, it's not the coaches. Coaches can say whatever they want, it's the guys in the locker room. And if your leaders aren't there to lead you and push you to be better, you know, I think Jason's right. You get to a point where it's like, Okay, I don't know what else to say to these guys, and you go out and you got to show it every day. But also at some point you got to be like, look, dude, you got you know I'm here. You know you're costing me money. And you know, we just talked about how much money guys make. It doesn't matter whatever you played, and it was it was that money at that time. And if you didn't have everybody playing with you and doing well, then you know, it costs everybody money. And and the goal was to go and be the best team we could be, and I think by the end of the season we ended up doing that.

00:30:47
Speaker 2: We went through a lot that year.

00:30:48
Speaker 3: We had a hurricane come through, we had to play at Chiefs in a short week, you know, where they knew it was coming. But we still had full padded practices to two days in a row before we even played them, you know what I mean. And the guys, so the guys had to get used to what Nick was like during the season, and then also gelling together, you know, because guys were upset about that, like you're making us two full padded practices and we got to play on a Friday and you knew the hurricane was like, I knew all this was happening. They're going to move the game up. You know, we had a lot of stuff and then we played the Saints and.

00:31:22
Speaker 2: L at LSU. You know that year.

00:31:25
Speaker 3: So so we had a lot of adversity going on, and I think that we just we just kind of worked our way through it and came came together at the end a little bit.

00:31:34
Speaker 6: Better than we started. Yeah, definitely caught fire.

00:31:37
Speaker 5: Like we talked about, man and you know, win the last six games in the row, and there were some great moments, say you. Of course says that's to remind us though of you know, one of those games that you might imagine December fourth. I mean, we just were having a tough time and we just can't get anything going. By the third quarter, you get sacked a safety, basically knocked out a game. Here comes Sage with one of those most epic comebacks and Dolphin history, and of course he has to tell us that he wants to thank you for getting knocked out.

00:32:04
Speaker 6: Basically what he wanted to do.

00:32:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, we play is that he's talking about the home game against Buffalo.

00:32:09
Speaker 1: That's it.

00:32:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we're we're coming out of the end zone and we couldn't get anything moving right. It was just like we couldn't figure it out. Like whatever we call the run game wasn't going the past game. And you know it's just at this point, let's but our defense was holding him as well. You know, it wasn't like they were they were killing us. But so we have a snap on on. You know, we're coming out of the end zone, so you're gonna go on a hard count, try to get him off side, get yourself some more room. So first I'm in shotgun, so give them. You know, we did the silent council. You lift your foot, lift my foot the first time, and now I know it's not coming. So I'm kind of looking around to see what the defense is doing, and the ball hits me in in in the chest and the next thing I know, London Fletcher hits me right under the chin like that. It happened that fat because you know the ball hitching, you're like looking for where.

00:33:02
Speaker 2: Is it and then London just knocked me out, hit me right under the chin.

00:33:07
Speaker 3: And that that's what led to that coming in because I'll never I couldn't remember anything at the time, but they give you five words to try and remember, and I couldn't remember the words until.

00:33:18
Speaker 2: After the game.

00:33:19
Speaker 3: So you know, at that point, they were changing all the concussion protocols. You know, probably when Juice was playing, you know, he could get knocked out three times in a game and still keep going.

00:33:29
Speaker 2: They'd be like, you know, you know, smelling salts all that stuff. Now, it's not like that.

00:33:33
Speaker 6: If I got two words, why, you're good, You're good to go? You got two?

00:33:37
Speaker 3: Two out of five's not man, Yeah, how many fingers are my hole?

00:33:41
Speaker 2: You know, it's like they just keep changing.

00:33:43
Speaker 4: You're good, get back in there, oh man.

00:33:47
Speaker 2: So yeah, so you know, and Sage's a good dude.

00:33:50
Speaker 6: You know, he was smart.

00:33:52
Speaker 2: He loved football too, had a lot of answers.

00:33:56
Speaker 5: So also because we heard that you always had a great quote man that anytime you got a concussion, a bunch of your friends will hit you up, you know, the next day and remind you about the five hundred dollars you owed him.

00:34:11
Speaker 6: Is that is that true?

00:34:12
Speaker 1: Remind him with air quotes the.

00:34:14
Speaker 3: Quotes, Yeah, yeah, always like that's how it was like, good friends will do that.

00:34:19
Speaker 1: To you, right, good stuff.

00:34:21
Speaker 2: So I lost a few card games in my time.

00:34:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, just knows all about those cards, like the good card games.

00:34:30
Speaker 2: Oh man, Ray got me a bunch.

00:34:32
Speaker 6: Yeah. Man, we've talked about so good, so good.

00:34:36
Speaker 2: Nothing, Ray, you know I played it. You know, Minnesota was the best.

00:34:40
Speaker 3: So Minnesota was great because Moss didn't play all the time, but he went he did play. He never went out, he never threw his cards, and he didn't care what it was.

00:34:51
Speaker 6: How much is in the pot?

00:34:52
Speaker 2: Thousand dollars? All right, I'm in You need a three year you know where were you staying in for? I just want to play?

00:35:04
Speaker 6: Wow? That was great.

00:35:05
Speaker 1: So so you guys. You know, you go on that run sixth straight.

00:35:08
Speaker 4: Then the season you finished nine and seven, and as I said, you started fifteen of the team sixteen games.

00:35:14
Speaker 1: Uh.

00:35:15
Speaker 4: It was maybe the best touchdown interception ratio of your entire career. Here you are at thirty four years old. It was like eighteen touchdowns twelve interceptions. And you help stabilize the team, like we've been talking about, You help stabilize get a new head coach, and you know kind of the mix of young guys and veteran guys, and you really I thought helped stabilize the team and the offense and when. But when the season ends, there's now as there tends to be speculation that the team might go in a different direction, you know, for quarterback. And they always have that end of the year presser, and you were quoted as saying something to the effect of like, look, I don't care what they do. I'm going to come in here and fight my ass off and this is my team. I'm going to be the starter. But yet in March they waive you and sign of all people, Dante Colepep the next day, and you had just spent two seasons right behind this.

00:36:06
Speaker 2: There's a lot that goes on between the end of the season and that point. There's a lot that goes on. So Lenehan leaves.

00:36:13
Speaker 3: Lenihan's not happy him and saving or fighting a lot during the year. So they're just not happy with Scott leaves to take the head coaching job at the Rams. And I'm like, go ahead, you know whatever, I'm here. I love the team, I love playing there. So Nick calls me in free you know, kind of when free agency's going on, and he's like, hey, I think we're gonna have to cut you and I'm like, what are you talking about. I got a two year deal. You know, I signed a two year deal and it was all my salary. The first year was minimum, and my whole contract was incentive based. I made every there were twenty five incentives in her I made every incentive.

00:36:56
Speaker 6: So Mike.

00:36:57
Speaker 3: That year, I made a pretty good amount of money, and then for my second year, my contract exponentially went up, right because I made all these incentives, which I always felt that's how the game should be.

00:37:08
Speaker 2: Right, you play well, you should get paid.

00:37:11
Speaker 3: And Nick basically said, nope, we're gonna cut you because there was there was always something prettier out there, right, There's always something better out there. So he asked he had the gall to ask me which quarterback I would take, Drew Hurley's or Dante Culpepper.

00:37:26
Speaker 2: Wow.

00:37:28
Speaker 6: So, needless to.

00:37:28
Speaker 3: Say, I'm not a Nick Saban fan at all. First he tells me I'm too old to play anymore, and then he asked me that question, and it's just like okay, like it was.

00:37:39
Speaker 6: It was.

00:37:39
Speaker 3: It was kind of heartbreaking for me because I felt like, I mean, I love Miami and I love playing there, and I felt like we had a really good team, and like you said, we haven't even been together a year and looked like what we came through and what we've done, and then now you're going to start all over again. You're going to start all over again with a new coreator and bringing a new quarterback. And obviously I told him you got to take Calpepper because he you know, he and I played together.

00:38:07
Speaker 2: I always loved Dante, but you know, it was it was just hard to take, you know.

00:38:11
Speaker 3: So I went to Minnesota or Saint Louis was Scott and spent two years there with him before you know, kind of it was. It was a rough time in Saint Louis, but he was my buddy, so I wanted to go there with him.

00:38:25
Speaker 5: That's kind of crazy to me, Gus, because you think about it, you guys went on that role at the end, like you finally got it, figure it out, it seems like to me. And that was the conversation because you think it was contract related or you think it was just you know what I mean both.

00:38:40
Speaker 3: You know, because he told me, he said, if I keep you, that means I got to cut two other people.

00:38:46
Speaker 2: And I'm like, well, that's not my problem.

00:38:47
Speaker 6: Coaching right, exactly right, you know what I mean.

00:38:49
Speaker 2: That's the most important, especial for you guys to figure it out.

00:38:52
Speaker 3: I said, do you want to win games or do you want to like bring somebody else in and be mediocre again?

00:38:58
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.

00:38:58
Speaker 3: We're built When you build something, you start a foundation. You don't just keep rebuilding it every year, you know what I mean. And I felt like, Okay, I said, look, I told him, I said, draft a quarterback. Go find a group good quarterback, draft him, let me play. I'll help him out. You know, at some point in the year you start him great like whatever, but I'll help him and we'll try to educate him as much as we can on how to play in the NFL and what to do and all the things that go into it, all the little nuances that nobody you know, everybody thinks it's just running place, you know and throwing the ball.

00:39:29
Speaker 2: But there's so much more than that.

00:39:31
Speaker 3: And you know, he wasn't, you know, And that's when he like he threw like speaking to Marty Booker, He's like, yeah, if I keep you, I got to cut Marty Booker. And I'm like, why are you putting it on me? Like that, like, that's terrible, you know what I mean, and that kind of stuff. I was like, that just made me realize what kind of guy he was.

00:39:51
Speaker 4: It's fascinating on so many levels. I think because you're gonna have to pay a court. Clearly, they were entering the free agent market for a quarterback. So whether it was Breeze or or Dante something, they were gonna get paid. So that position was still gonna have a lot of money invested into it. And I guess in a new contract they can kind of adjust the numbers and what have you.

00:40:09
Speaker 1: But that's interesting.

00:40:10
Speaker 4: But the idea that he asked you, and we've talked a lot about that trade. We actually just had this incredible story that Jason talked about it from his perspective as the quarterbacks coach and what they went through and and and you know, the whole dance with Drew Brees and what the doctor said and so on and so forth. But it's interesting that you were asked and then you answered. Even though you were upset with the question, you still gave your answer. It's all fascinating.

00:40:33
Speaker 2: I don't know Drew from Adam.

00:40:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I played with Dante for two years, and he was a good dude and we always got alan well, so I was always gonna, you know, stick up for my guy.

00:40:42
Speaker 2: But you know, at that point, you know, it probably came down and there was a game.

00:40:47
Speaker 3: I forget who we were playing. We got to turnover at midfield. We called double posts to try and score right away, and Chris had him to fall down and they pick it off in the end zone, right, I just, I mean, I got Chris Chambers one on one with the safety of course, you gonna throw it up there. Nick met me at the numbers and started screaming at me, and I just.

00:41:08
Speaker 2: You know, you're emotional.

00:41:09
Speaker 3: It's a game, you're you're you know, and I start screaming at him, and Lena Hans literally pulling me away.

00:41:14
Speaker 2: Saying you can't talk to him like that, don't say that stuff. And I'm like, you can't talk.

00:41:18
Speaker 6: To me like that.

00:41:19
Speaker 2: So probably from that point on, Nick Mayon had it in for me.

00:41:23
Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, you're a brown ass man, Gus, You're you're a brown ass man.

00:41:29
Speaker 6: You can't you know, you can't talk to certain people certain ways.

00:41:32
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, you just you just can't. You save it for after the game. You know, and I saw Mike Tye had a little problem with that when I was in Minnesota the first time, where his emotions got the best of him as a head coach, and we kind of rolled always as he rolled. He was a great dude. Everybody loved him. But when he went off, and you know, he's Mike's like six ' eight, he's just a massive, big yeah, you.

00:41:56
Speaker 2: Know, and it's just like sometimes you just can't.

00:41:59
Speaker 3: You gotta keep it to yourself, right, and you got to you got to do it after the game, or you know, even if you do that during the game, bring him in afterwards and say, hey, look, we've got emotional you know.

00:42:10
Speaker 2: I know you didn't mean anything about it. I didn't mean anything about it. We're just trying to win.

00:42:14
Speaker 3: But none of that ever happened, right, You've got to be bigger and you got to take the step ahead, especially if you're the head coach, because your job is to keep the team together. You know stuff's going to happen, and you've got to be able to handle it all. And I think that's why you see when a lot of coordinators get head coaching jobs, they can't handle it because they're not used to dealing with all those different nuances and pressures that go along with that.

00:42:38
Speaker 4: It's kind of like what you said about the career backup quarterback that not everybody's built to step into the role as being the guy.

00:42:44
Speaker 1: I mean, it seems similar.

00:42:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and it's it's just hard, like, you know, you just want to play like I was. I was so lucky just to be able to have my dream job for so long, you know what I mean, and just be able to do what I've always dreamed is doing.

00:42:58
Speaker 2: I mean, I ran in the freaking wing tea in high school.

00:43:01
Speaker 6: I threw it like.

00:43:02
Speaker 2: Twenty eight times in high school. That's it.

00:43:05
Speaker 3: I got to Toulson through it sixty times the first game, you know, so it was just like and then got to play play in the NFL. It's like, wow, man, this is crazy. And then I always wanted to be able to have my kids see me play. I was lucky to play long enough where they got to see me play, and then it still wasn't good enough.

00:43:21
Speaker 2: You're like, Dad, how come you.

00:43:22
Speaker 3: Couldn't play it when we got older and we can remember everything.

00:43:26
Speaker 2: Oh my, how long do you want me to play it on? I'm like forty eight.

00:43:31
Speaker 1: Brady did it You mentioned him earlier. He figured it out.

00:43:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's low numbers over forty.

00:43:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is for sure.

00:43:40
Speaker 4: And I think that they started to protect guys a little bit more than they did. You know, at the early stage is of your career. What is it the strike zone got smaller and smaller.

00:43:50
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, definitely for sure.

00:43:53
Speaker 4: Well, Gus, you know you said it. You live to dream, and it wasn't like a flash in the pan. Fifteen seasons in the NFL, and uh, we're gonna wrap this thing up. But if you have fifteen NFL seasons playing quarterback, you are familiar with a two minute drill, which is a really lucky thing for you because we end every episode with the fish Tank two minute drill. Basically, there's two minutes on the clock. We're gonna throw a few fast paced questions. Hopefully they're fun questions. I would say fast pace and fun juice, and I'm like, well, maybe they're more fun for us than they are. Hopefully they're fun for you as well, Gus. And then we'll see if you can put this thing in the end zone.

00:44:25
Speaker 6: And get you out of here.

00:44:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's let's go.

00:44:28
Speaker 1: All right, Juice, you're up.

00:44:29
Speaker 6: I'll start it off right.

00:44:31
Speaker 5: You handle the punting duties at Tulsa do your sophomore season. Looking back at your career now, would you rather have played fifteen season as an NFL quarterback or fifteen or more seasons as a punter?

00:44:44
Speaker 2: Oh? Quarterback for sure. You know how boring punting is.

00:44:47
Speaker 3: Like you gotta go a hole practice in the corner of the field by yourself that I'm taking quarterback all day.

00:44:55
Speaker 1: I love it.

00:44:55
Speaker 4: I love it, Juicer, tell us you something about him, right, the same guy who doesn't want to be a back up quarterbacks in the game. I think some guys might answer it differently.

00:45:03
Speaker 1: I love it. Not surprised that that was Gus's answer. Okay, well, keep it moving.

00:45:07
Speaker 4: You are one of thirteen quarterbacks in the history of the National Football League to have thrown a ninety nine yard touchdown pass. Now, the Dolphins have never been involved in one of those plays, but there are four former fins, including yourself, four former fins that were involved in those plays, just not with the Dolphins.

00:45:27
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if you can name any of the other three. And you actually mentioned one earlier.

00:45:31
Speaker 3: Wes Welare you did now that Wes Welker one from when he played for New England?

00:45:37
Speaker 6: Yep, and against US, wasn't it?

00:45:40
Speaker 1: Yes?

00:45:40
Speaker 2: It might have been, but it was like a little short throw. You know.

00:45:45
Speaker 3: I always say like I threw it the furthest out of all the ninety day artists.

00:45:48
Speaker 6: I threw at the furthest You threw it half the field?

00:45:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know where you seek some ninety nine yards.

00:45:53
Speaker 3: They throw a little swing pass and the gay breaks attack when he's gone.

00:45:56
Speaker 2: You know, I'll take that. I did have to work.

00:46:01
Speaker 1: What they say down here, you get drunk off. Yeah.

00:46:03
Speaker 4: Well the other two Trent Green was always here and then Tony Martin who OJ played with. Tony Martin caught one when he was with the Chargers. So good, but you got one.

00:46:13
Speaker 6: That's good? All right?

00:46:14
Speaker 1: Clock is running Jue?

00:46:15
Speaker 6: Oh, yes, yes, yes.

00:46:16
Speaker 5: You've had an active media career in retirement, which includes podcasting. Of course your role with Alumni Media. What is the toughest part for you about being a podcaster?

00:46:29
Speaker 3: Well, just you know, running this new Alumni Media network. It's great because we just partnered with Baron Davis's company and you know what we're doing is trying to support guys that want to tell their story but they have no idea how to use the technology, the technology social media, those kind of things, and how to do what you guys are doing. Like, creating the content is pretty easy, right, it's everything else that goes along with it that is hard about podcasting. You know, you have to be willing to do social media all right. I don't care which one you use, use one of them, just you got to be consistent. And then podcasting is I tell the guys, you know, you got to do your research. If you're talking to somebody, if you just want to talk about your passions, make sure you have good content. You know, I'm on Green and I've had a bunch of conversations about this. He does a great job of doing a run of show what it looks like. But I always felt like the hardest part of podcasting is is not being regimented and rigid. Right, you know, you have questions, but how do you flow that with letting the host lead the way or letting the guests lead the way so you can still add all those questions. So that's part of it, but it's just being consistent. I think when you podcast. Yeah, the Alumni Media Network has been awesome. We've been We've got a lot of guys, and we have a golf channel, we've got a boxing channel, doing a lot.

00:47:48
Speaker 2: For guys that want to tell their stories but have no clue how to do it.

00:47:52
Speaker 1: Great stuff, and we're probably over two minutes.

00:47:55
Speaker 4: I'm going to say I call a time out because I want to get one last play in here.

00:47:58
Speaker 1: Final question. You're probably like, oh damn it.

00:48:00
Speaker 4: We went an hour and we got through it without me having to answer this question and this Dirk's.

00:48:05
Speaker 1: Gonna do it.

00:48:05
Speaker 4: But we went this entire interview, Gus, we did not mention the head butt once. If you could go back to that exact moment in nineteen ninety seven, would you do anything differently?

00:48:14
Speaker 3: Well, obviously I think I would. I mean, what kind of question I wouldn't. I was dope, man, I was like this, dude, you know, I was excited because it's the same thing Ojay North Turner. I had a little little battle whatever, you know, it's just emotions. And I ran a touchdown in I think we ran a bootleg. I ran a touchdown in and I threw the ball against the wall. So excited. You know, we're playing the Giants, a massive rival, it's a national game. And I just went to run up and jump off the wall, you know, like people do. But you know, and I just went like this a little too much. Hit My had turned around and my tight end, Jamie Asher, he was so excited he just slapped me in the side.

00:48:52
Speaker 2: Of the head.

00:48:53
Speaker 3: So it was like a double yeah. And then I got a stinger. If it would have been in my left side, I would have been fine. But I got a stinger in my right side. But you know, I tell my kids, your Dad's gonna be on ESPN forever, So.

00:49:04
Speaker 1: There is you know.

00:49:06
Speaker 3: And and I always say, like, like I told you guys, before adversity comes your way, how you're going to handle it.

00:49:12
Speaker 6: You know.

00:49:12
Speaker 3: I could have just went in the tank and not ever played again, but it ended up playing ten years longer.

00:49:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, well that's a two minute drill and and that you know, I probably could have phrased the question better, but that's what I was curious because, like like Ju said, you know, you get a receiver, you get other ballplayers, and see a quarterback doing something like that, I feel like it speaks to them. Man, Yeah, that same mentality is probably why the Hogs loved it. It's probably why you always got along with your linemen, right that. It wasn't just the quarterback that went golfing and didn't talk to any of his teammates. So I think there was something there. But I just you know, it sounds like there was a lot of freak bad luck that was happening in the same Yeah.

00:49:48
Speaker 3: I mean it's bad luck. It is what it is, you know. But obviously you're in a market too. It's as massive as you know, you're you're on the front page sometimes with the President when you're in DC. Yeah, you know, the market, that market, it's crazy, and you know it's funny. I had a long talk with Joe Namath. Uh he came on my podcast. You know, Joe's from Pittsburgh. He went to Alabama, I went to Tall So we went to like these southern places and you know, he did what he did, he was great. And then we came to these big markets and you know, you had to deal with media you never dealt with like New York media, WASHINGT DC media and your kid and you say some stupid stuff and it's everywhere and you're just trying to figure.

00:50:25
Speaker 2: It all out.

00:50:26
Speaker 3: And you know, it's not like I had some big team behind me. You know, my I'd just go home. My wife be like, why'd you say that's super ship today? I'm like what I say, Like, you know what I mean? You kept me in check. But that's just kind of how it is, you know. And you see it every year in the NFL. Dudes are learning and they're coming in and you want to go out and you want to you want to tell them what to do or help them in some way, but it's it's just they got to live and learn.

00:50:50
Speaker 2: It's the only way to do it.

00:50:51
Speaker 5: Yeah, and Gus, you know, deal with like you said, man, dealing with this social media stuff nowadays. I cann't even imagine how much trouble my ass would get into because of my attitude.

00:51:00
Speaker 6: And you know what I mean with the social media thing going on.

00:51:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, all we do for you, Juice, we just play a damn Marino highlight every time.

00:51:10
Speaker 1: It's the great eraser. Yeah, I love it.

00:51:14
Speaker 2: Juice did something again a touchdown.

00:51:20
Speaker 1: That is too funny. Oh my god, Gus, this was great. You're a good sport. I appreciate you very much.

00:51:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, we appreciate you guys having me on and you know, and and if you can just tell everybody check out Alumni Media Network. It's Alumnimedia dot com and anybody can reach out to me at gus at Alumnimedia dot com.

00:51:39
Speaker 6: You know.

00:51:40
Speaker 2: And all I want to do we have we help every sport, every alumni.

00:51:43
Speaker 3: We got people from every sport on and it's just helping them share their passions because as OJ knows, when you're done, you have a hard time sometimes figuring out what you want to do.

00:51:54
Speaker 2: Like Fred McCrary and Treel Buckley.

00:51:57
Speaker 3: You know that they're running our whole golf channel because they have a and they love it and they're bringing all these guys into play. And we're starting a new tour up, a golf tour for for players, right, so we have a pool together they can come. It's just them. We do with so many charity events. You know, we're like, you're not gonna make a lot of money, but guys don't care. They just want to play against each other and they want to win some money. So we're starting to hold tour. Remember that tour that used to go on, Oh Jay, Yeah, Marina, those guys, Marino used to have it every year and all that.

00:52:25
Speaker 2: Well, we're bringing that.

00:52:26
Speaker 1: Back, so I'm sure it wasn't hard to sell tea buck on that one.

00:52:29
Speaker 2: No, no tea bucks something else. I'm like, can you speed.

00:52:33
Speaker 6: It up a little bit? Tea buck?

00:52:34
Speaker 2: You talk away too slow for me?

00:52:37
Speaker 4: That Mississippi comes out and guys, yeah, yeah, you know.

00:52:41
Speaker 2: And then you got Fred McCreary. I don't know if you guys know Fred. He's like ten times a speed of tea Bucks. So you got those two together.

00:52:47
Speaker 1: It's like it, which means he's just a little bit slow.

00:52:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. I appreciate you guys.

00:52:54
Speaker 6: Have me on the hey gus, thanks for diving in then, yeah.

00:52:57
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. You know, love the dolls. I wish them all the best this year. Hopefully this is the year they can they can go and get money.

00:53:04
Speaker 4: You're now diving into the fish tank, just like Jew said, 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