00:00I'll be announcing the Chargers' second-day pick.
00:03So I'm guessing at that point they've already got a defensive player,
00:07so I might be announcing offense.
00:09Let's see.
00:10Now, do you get a – I know we were just talking about this off-air,
00:13but for the audience, do you get a heads-up on that,
00:16or is it just a, hey, here you go, five seconds ahead of time,
00:20go walk up there and tell them?
00:22No, they're more gracious than that.
00:23It's ten seconds.
00:24Oh, great!
00:27It's ten seconds.
00:27And, you know, I was just saying this before we got on there,
00:30I said the only thing you hope for is that you get a name that you can pronounce.
00:34Steve Johnson or something?
00:36Yeah, I got you.
00:38Yeah, give me a Craig Jones.
00:39Give me a Tom Wilson.
00:41Give me one of those because the other names can be a bit tricky.
00:45Do they give you a phonetic guide or anything if it's maybe not one of those players?
00:52No, no.
00:52I mean, you literally, as you're walking on stage, you're handed an envelope.
00:57And you're looking at it on the way.
01:02Yeah, and then you're looking at it on the way.
01:06Man.
01:07That's a little nerve-wracking.
01:09Yeah, that's a little bit of a terrifying thing.
01:11Well, you know, like I said, that's one part of it.
01:15Until you walk out on stage and there's 50-plus thousand people
01:18and make it worse, 100,000 in Tennessee in 2017.
01:21Yeah, we were talking a little bit earlier.
01:24I think Babe told us they're expecting 700,000, so good luck.
01:28Holy moly!
01:29But we were talking about it a little earlier regarding the mindset of where you are
01:37whenever you are on that stage.
01:39And whenever the players come out and they get to be part of it,
01:42you get to be part of that moment whenever the player walks out.
01:46And do you get to talk to that guy later on after the draft's been done?
01:51Yeah, so you spend a little bit of time back in the green room
01:54and you meet a lot of the guys, mostly their families, you know,
01:57because, you know, a lot of these kids are getting drafted now.
01:59They were literally kids, right, when I played.
02:02So, you know, you have the parents as more of the fans.
02:05They watch me, you know, as they were growing up.
02:08So, but I think that's the coolest part for me anyway,
02:11is just get a chance to meet everybody's family
02:12and talk to them about what's coming up.
02:15You know, you see the young deer in the headlights.
02:17They got these, hey, man, what am I supposed to be doing, right?
02:20What's going to happen in training camp?
02:22What should I be working on?
02:23But it's refreshing, man.
02:25It's really cool, especially, you know, when you got some of these guys
02:29that's going to be making a lot of money.
02:30They're going early in the draft, and they still got these questions.
02:33They're still curious on how to get better, man.
02:35Those are the guys I see that they really excel in their career.
02:39Kevin also brought up a little bit earlier the idea
02:42that maybe Roger Goodell in this first round,
02:44the bet was, what, three and a half boos or something like that?
02:47No, it's between four and seven times he'll get booed.
02:50That feels low.
02:51When you walk out there, do people start booing?
02:54And how do you respond to that?
02:57Well, I'm fine in here in Steelers Nation.
03:01It's the Raiders that I would have a problem with going.
03:03So when they have it back in Vegas.
03:05I got my booze over, I got my booze way over seven, that's for sure.
03:12I'm definitely with you on that.
03:14That was always my, when, was it a, it was Drew Pearson goes out there
03:18in front of Philadelphia fans and just starts giving the Cowboys speech.
03:22And it was just one of those glorious moments.
03:24Do you have anything like that prepared?
03:26I got a little something cooked up, but I'm going to take it easy on it
03:29because I actually like the Steelers fan base.
03:32But yeah, they got a, I got a nice poll going
03:35whether I'm going to do the lights out dance or not.
03:37So we'll see.
03:38I got to check and see if I get my knees warmed up first.
03:41I can't just jump right into it anymore.
03:43Yeah.
03:43Help.
03:43Give us a heads up ahead of time for those prediction markets.
03:47So what we obviously, people have been really focused on pick number two,
03:52Arvel Reese, David Bailey.
03:54Do you have a strong feeling about either who's going to go there
03:57or how do you feel about the players themselves?
04:00You know, it's so weird around this time, right?
04:03Because you have the last media push, either positive or negative, right?
04:09Right.
04:10You know, draft week, right?
04:11We hear about Blaine, the defensive end down in Miami, right?
04:18So all of a sudden now his arms are short, right?
04:21We're bringing up the accident he had that was over, you know,
04:25about a year or so ago.
04:26So it gets weird right around this time because you got a lot of teams
04:30that's pushing for their guy.
04:32You got agents that's trying to jump the draft boards and get their guy
04:35to get drafted early.
04:36I mean, there's a lot of movement around this time.
04:39There's always a lot of – we talk about Arvel Reese.
04:42That's a good name.
04:43And he's still got this raw – he still has things to learn.
04:47And then you talk about a Bain.
04:49And that guy is pretty much a complete product, ready to step into the NFL.
04:53How much of a difference from that last level of college to that next level is there?
05:00And for Arise, is there going to be that learning curve?
05:02Well, you know, as far as Arise and Bain, you got to look at this.
05:08As a pass rusher in general, you can transition to the NFL faster than any other position
05:15because you're talking about explosion, pad level, using your hands, being relentless.
05:20Those things, you can get it done pretty early.
05:23Now, the problem they're going to have is, you know, they might have some games,
05:26some conferences where they play to get some tackles that wasn't so good.
05:30That wasn't – you know, the talent level wasn't there.
05:33You get to the NFL, everybody's good.
05:35You got some that's great, but everybody's at least good.
05:38So that's the last push you got to see if a guy can take that next step when he gets
05:44to the NFL.
05:45I think you've shared this experience with us before, but if not,
05:49and we have new listeners all the time, can you walk us through what your draft was like in 2005?
05:55And did you think the Cowboys were taking you at 11?
05:58Well, let me say this.
06:00I got a good – the good Cowboys story, of course.
06:04But all the work is done for these young guys, right?
06:07So you get – when you get done with your college football season, you get right into training for the
06:12combine.
06:12You go into the combine.
06:13Then you go right into all your interviews, pro day, and everything else.
06:17The work is done.
06:18So now you're kind of just sitting back waiting for your name to be called.
06:20All the stress is out.
06:21Now, the work is going to start back up.
06:24So when your name is called, you've got to go back out there to the team, and they jump in
06:28the OTAs, rookie minicamp.
06:30So it'll start back up again.
06:31But this is the week, man, to sit back and take it all in.
06:34And I told you it gets weird around this draft period.
06:37Well, my experience, I was supposed to be a Cowboy.
06:39So, you know, me with Jerry Jones and Bill Parcells and, you know, even to the point where I left
06:47a meeting after them telling me they were going to draft me, texting my family, saying I'm going to be
06:51a Cowboy.
06:52And I got half of my family who's happy as hell, and I got the other ones who pissed off.
06:56So, you know, because back in Maryland, you're a lot of then Redskins, now Washington Commanders fans.
07:03So I had half and half.
07:05I had half of them ready to burn a jersey.
07:06I had half of them ready to go get custom-made ones.
07:08That still feels right.
07:10To this day, that still feels about right.
07:13It is.
07:14It is, too.
07:14It is.
07:15It is.
07:15You know, but either way, I knew I was going to go somewhere between the third and 15th pick.
07:21I was hoping that if I didn't go to the Chargers, because Chargers also told me that they were going
07:25to draft me when I went to go meet with them pre-draft, that I wanted to be a Cowboy
07:29or Charger.
07:30Those are the two teams I really wanted to go to.
07:32You know, Cleveland was at three.
07:34No knock against the city of Cleveland, but they just wasn't any good at that time.
07:38He had the Lions at 10.
07:40So it was some of those cities that I just didn't want to play for, teams I didn't want to
07:44play for, because they weren't really that good at the time.
07:47Well, I'm kind of curious, because we got to know DeMarcus Ware, too, obviously, over all this time.
07:51Did you get to know him before the draft?
07:54Did you know him a little more, obviously, after and in the league?
07:58And did you kind of keep track of what he was doing versus what you were doing while you were
08:02playing?
08:03Oh, yeah.
08:03I mean, before the draft, especially when he went first, I mean, I made it a point of mine to
08:09just outplay DeMarcus.
08:11And I wanted in every in every way, because I thought I was going to be a Cowboy.
08:14But all of us athletes, we all have this.
08:17We all we all want to kind of show people who passed up one of us and things like that.
08:22Right. When they did actually when they did DeMarcus draft after the after our rookie year, I was big number
08:28one going to San Fran.
08:29But, you know, I developed a great relationship with DeMarcus over the years.
08:33Man, in fact, you know, I actually came out there a few years back and worked out with him.
08:38He still keeps in really good shape, man.
08:40And yeah, you know, we developed a really good friendship along the way.
08:45You were just talking about, like, for the prospects, this is a great time to enjoy it.
08:49But looking back, did you take the appropriate amount of time to enjoy the accomplishment of, like, being a first
08:56round draft pick?
08:58Well, yeah, because I held out of camp.
09:01So I had I had a little bit more a little bit more time than anybody else.
09:08So I'll say that that is that is something that I will admit my co-host is not very good
09:12at.
09:12Whenever success happens, he's like, well, that should have happened.
09:15And he doesn't celebrate. Right.
09:17Do you have any advice for him on celebrating success?
09:21Yeah.
09:22Eat as much as you can.
09:24Find some good alcohol somewhere.
09:25Cheers it up.
09:26Because that's what I did the whole time I was holding out.
09:31But, you know, it was it was it was good in a sense because the Chargers, they were already a
09:37pretty good team before I got there.
09:39Right.
09:39So I think they were 12 and 40.
09:41I got there.
09:41You walk into a locker room with LT and Philip Rivers, Antonio Gates, Lorenzo Neal, Donnie Edwards, Randall.
09:47The list goes on.
09:48So you walk into a locker room full of seasoned vets and big name guys already.
09:54So I had to come prepared.
09:56I recently just pulled a one of one LaDainian Tomlinson card.
10:01Oh, wow.
10:02Did you love that guy playing with that dude on your team?
10:05It's it's it's hard to put into words because a lot of people saw him on game day.
10:11But I got a chance to watch his body work during the week.
10:13I mean, some of these some of the things he was doing the game, he would do it on a
10:16regular Wednesday or Thursday in practice.
10:17So at that point, we were already used to seeing it, you know, the the one hand catch out the
10:21backfield, a jump cut off the right foot.
10:23I mean, it was just and he worked hard, man.
10:26And that that's really when you have guys like that setting the tone, it'll be hard to slack off any
10:32other place.
10:33When when you talk to Philip Rivers, did you ever go, hey, do you think someday you'll have 10 kids?
10:40I think he was already.
10:41So when Phil was at NC State, obviously, I went to University of Maryland.
10:45I hated him.
10:46I hated Phil.
10:48I'll be the first one to tell you.
10:50And I think he was already working on those kids back in college.
10:52And they just kind of, you know, spiraled out of control.
10:55I said, you know, forget the MVP for Phil, Tiffany, his wife.
11:00She needs she needs the MVP trophy.
11:03But it was it was great, man.
11:05Like I said, we had we just had such a good group of guys that we play with.
11:11Well, and so just as an aside, talk to Sean Merriman right here on 105 through the fan over the
11:15years.
11:16We've talked to you so many times about football things, but also MMA things.
11:21And I am clearly out of the loop here.
11:23Can you tell us at all what happened with you and lights out?
11:28Yeah.
11:29So we're trying to get back started now.
11:31Obviously, the business is business and trying to get that back going.
11:33But we're looking to make an announcement here probably in the next month or so.
11:37But, man, we were flying.
11:38I mean, we were the fastest going to make promotion in a country that wasn't UFC.
11:42We just got to deal with ESPN Latin America.
11:45And so we're trying to work out, work this out now to get us back going because, you know, actually
11:50three or four of my fighters are fighting on Jake Paul card at MVP.
11:54And so, you know, they can't wait to come back.
11:56And we just sent our heavyweight champion Tyrell Fortune to the UFC.
12:01In fact, I don't know if you guys saw that fight when Bruce Buffer accidentally called the wrong person.
12:06Yes, the wrong winner.
12:07Yes, so so so that Tyrell Fortune, the one he called, that's that's our heavyweight from lights out that did
12:13he did he mess that up?
12:14And we don't see Bruce mess up too often.
12:16But, yeah, he was our heavyweight champion.
12:18Well, obviously, when you guys do get everything squared away, you know, give us a call.
12:22We'd love to chat to you and see see how we can help out in the future there, man.
12:27You got it, man.
12:28I appreciate it.
12:28Absolutely.
12:29Thank you very much.
12:29Sean Merriman right here on a one oh five three.
12:33The fan.
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