00:00Starting yesterday, the internet doctors have seen an issue in Drake May's shoulder
00:05following a hit during the AFC Championship game.
00:09Is he 100% healthy today as you guys get ready?
00:12There's not a player on our team that's 100% healthy.
00:16Is he healthy enough to play at a high level?
00:19I would imagine we'll go through the injury report,
00:21and whenever we have to turn that in, we'll turn it in.
00:24But nobody's 100%.
00:26This will be our 21st game.
00:27You talk about that all the time.
00:31Everybody's journey's different.
00:33Where did that come from?
00:34Because I think that really resonates with players.
00:37It's the truth.
00:38All I try to do is look at things that are actually factual and talk about them
00:42and bring them to life and say, somebody was drafted in the first round,
00:45somebody drafted in the third round, somebody got cut,
00:48somebody played four years for the Steelers, didn't start a game,
00:50and then started the next 10 years of his career.
00:53Just go on and look at it.
00:55It's all different.
00:56And that's what the reality is.
01:00And sometimes it takes a second or third place,
01:03or sometimes it takes getting cut and saying, you know what, that sucks,
01:06and I'm lucky that I got another opportunity.
01:07I'm never going to let that happen.
01:09Or, hey, I got traded.
01:10Or, hey, this happened.
01:11Or, I got called up from the practice squad,
01:14and I didn't think that I was going to get called up from the practice squad,
01:16but I was ready to go.
01:18And then they kept calling me up, or then they signed me onto the roster.
01:22That's just the facts.
01:24It wasn't like I made that up.
01:25That really happens.
01:27Well, I mean, I played in the league a long time, and I feel like...
01:29You said you've been to two Super Bowls.
01:31You played in the league a really long time.
01:33Like, is this your resume here?
01:34I'm not signing you this week.
01:35I feel like I've never heard that.
01:37You know, I'm like, you don't want to sign me?
01:40Are you sure?
01:41You could use the third string tight end.
01:43I'm not going to do it.
01:44Third string?
01:44Or fourth string?
01:45Oh, I'm back at it.
01:46Fifth string?
01:46Yeah.
01:47Third down specialist.
01:48Okay.
01:50Third and one, that's about it.
01:52The wiggle.
01:54Steph Diggs had an interesting path to get to where he is right now.
01:58He said that you were the best coach he's ever played for.
02:00Do you feel like that relationship is helping him get back to where he is?
02:07Or is that just all on him?
02:08I know you don't like to give yourself credit, but everybody else gives you a lot of credit.
02:11Well, I appreciate that.
02:14Again, he's been a great addition to our football team with his energy, his attitude, his demeanor,
02:21and then obviously his performance.
02:23So it's been fun having him around, and I love coaching him.
02:29And so, again, I try to have a relationship with everybody here and somehow try to help him.
02:35And Cardi B, of course.
02:36Cardi B.
02:37Take them to Tulum.
02:40Delta.
02:40Delta.
02:41I can't stop laughing.
02:44Delta should pay her.
02:46No question.
02:47Wiggy suggested yesterday on the show that Cardi B should be the queen of New England,
02:51but I believe that that role is already taken by Ann Michael May.
02:56There's room for a couple.
02:58What I said, I said you're going to have two queens.
03:00New England's big enough.
03:01Okay.
03:01All right.
03:03Mike, and the only reason why I ask these things is because when I see you talk.
03:09No, no.
03:09But to me, it's like when I see you and I said, man, I played for a bunch of different
03:15coaches, unfortunately, because, you know, that was my career, right?
03:18That was the journey.
03:19And some of the messages that you tell these guys, I'm like, man, I wish I had a coach
03:23like that, that communicated like that, that, you know, coached like that.
03:29So when I ask these questions, I feel like if I was a player right now, I would be willing
03:34to, you know, run through brick walls for you.
03:37And so I'm asking like where that comes from.
03:39Yeah, I just try to give them all the information that I think is going to help them and then
03:47hold them accountable and then coach them and try to teach them.
03:51And so along that is just, you know, things that I think is going to help them.
03:54I know that there's only so many opportunities that you get in this league.
03:58And whether that's going to a different team or, you know, being an active one week
04:04or being, getting an injury and coming back or getting an opportunity to step in because
04:08somebody is down, I just try to tell them that these things don't come along all that
04:13often.
04:13Probably hard, probably hard to pick one, but who's been the most influential coach when
04:18it comes to your life?
04:19Oh gosh, I've been, again, I've been lucky.
04:21I've been a lot of great places.
04:22I mean, Pittsburgh, to start my career, Pittsburgh and great people at Ohio State.
04:25Obviously, this organization and Bill and all the great assistants that he had, Romeo
04:30Cornell and Dean Pease and, you know, Matt Patricia.
04:33And again, going to be with Bill O'Brien and Urban Meyer after I finished playing, these
04:39are all great people and things to learn from.
04:41So hard to pick one.
04:42It is.
04:42I really try to take something from each and every guy.
04:44I thought you sit down with Bill Cowher before the game was awesome.
04:48And the story he told about you reaching free agency and you're negotiating.
04:52And he said, you know, we can probably get close on the money, but not the opportunity.
04:56And how that has sort of been a sort of part guiding how you communicate with your players
05:01that tough lesson.
05:01I think so.
05:02Yeah.
05:02And so it was, again, I remember it was less than I got coming out of the draft.
05:06When I got drafted, you get a signing bonus.
05:08And then my free agency signing bonus was less than that.
05:10So it wasn't very much.
05:13And he just said, we could probably pay you the same thing to be a backup here, but they
05:20are offering you an opportunity to go up and earn a position.
05:23He's like, you know, it didn't take me long to figure out that that's what he was just
05:26saying.
05:27I think you should probably take it.
05:28And again, we went back into Pittsburgh and beat them that first year that I was here.
05:35So that was pretty cool.
05:35So looking ahead to a week from Sunday, some of the kind of some of the problems that these
05:39guys can can cause for you.
05:41Well, they're excellent, really, in all three phases.
05:45And the special teams have broken games open.
05:49It was a tie game in Atlanta, opening half for the second half, and they take one to the
05:53house.
05:54Defense creates two turnovers, and then that kind of gets out of hand.
05:57So defensively, they're big along the front, very active, number one scoring defense in the
06:04league, offensively, big offensive line, you know, multiple different run schemes.
06:10Obviously, JSN is an issue.
06:13Sam Darnold, we talk about journeys and things like that.
06:18No better example than him.
06:21And talented and is obviously figuring it out.
06:25Well, 2019 on Bussin' with the Boys, you said you would be willing to cut off the most important
06:34male appendage to win a Super Bowl.
06:36Is that?
06:37I mean, maybe I'll cut it in half, but I ain't cut the whole thing off.
06:40I was going to say, is that still the plan?
06:43That was just to get that young fledgling group, Taylor and Will, get them to fly in the podcast
06:52game, and it took off.
06:53So you would not part with the whole thing?
06:55No, don't.
06:56You know what I mean?
06:56I say a lot of things I don't mean.
06:58You do?
06:59All right.
07:00Yeah, I do.
07:00All right.
07:01Well, listen.
07:01This is way too long, too.
07:03Congrats.
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