In here, we pour whiskey, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey.

You are that creature in the ginger beard. Sturdy and ginger. Like vampires, the ginger gene is a curse.

Gingers are beautiful.

You owe me $5 for the whiskey and $75 for the horse. Ginger's, oh, hell no. This whiskey is excellent. Ginger. I like ginger. Ladies, gentlemen, welcome back to Whisky Junior. My guest today is one of my favorite people on earth. I say that for all my guests, but I mean it once again today. It is the real Kelsey Brother. Or Kels. I should say Kels is the right way to say it.

Well, it depends on who you ask. For me, it's Kelsey.

It's the real Kelsey Brother. Jason Kelsi's in the house. Ladies and gentlemen, we don't want Travis around here anymore. This is the real big dog. I wish that was the case. The adult-size man. He flew in. He came straight here. So thank you so much. Thank you. Cheers to you. Let's have a little cheers. Let's do that. He has coffee, water, and whiskey. Cheers, my big dog. A lot of liquids. It feels so good. And I went to the gym this morning, so this feels like I deserve this. It's a reward. What did you do? I just went there. I went and looked around for an hour and a half, and then I took off. I don't ever do anything. I just go make sure it's still there. I go, Still a gym? And I got to go. Is your workout regimen the same now that you're retired?

So far, it's been the same. So I was doing, for most of the off-says, I'm doing similar to what the team has been doing. And then I just reverted back. I shot it out, my strength coach in my retirement speech from college, Paul Longo. And he used to You do this block 620, which is you do a weight that's pretty heavy that you struggle to get six times. And then you do a weight that's really light that you would struggle to get 20 times. And it's like a strength and hypertrophy block that we would go to every year after the season is over, we go to that. And I just feel like I always felt like after I do that, my body feels really good. So I'm in that block right now. So I haven't fully transitioned into full on non-athletic lifting. I'm still doing that. I think part of that's just like that's what I know and I've always done. Habit? Yeah.

It's got to be.

I haven't done a lot of running on the field, which is new.

Were you a big cardio guy when you were playing or no? I hate cardio. Yeah, me too. It's the worst thing in the world.

I would much rather... I've always been good in all out or walking. Those are my speeds. Like in a marathon, you're sprinting. I cannot pace myself. Yes, exactly. Sprint or walk. I do hit interval training I love that. Yeah, like Tabata, 20 on, 10 off. That's my jam. But if you're going to ask me to Coast for 20 minutes, I'm going to...

No, I don't feel like it.

It's not even fun.

I ran for years, and then when I had a back injury, I stopped running. I miss certain things about it, but the monotony sometimes of my brain was like, you have to run because you run a lot, so you should just keep doing it. Then I just got sick of the... It was a little bit mundane. It was the same nonsense. I I hate treadmill. Treadmills are like, blow those things up. I hate those.

I'll do like hills, walks on tread, but I don't want to run on them.

No, I don't want to just run. It's not fun. See, out here, everyone, this is hike country. Everyone likes to hike out here. I like it, but then I'm that douchebag who runs the hill and everyone's like, this guy. But I like it because I just don't want to walk it. I'm trying to impress everybody. Yeah, I'm trying to show off a little bit. No, I just... Every time I go on a hike, I'm like, I get the little kid anxiety where I'm like, Can I just run? I don't feel like walking Walking up slowly. I want to go. It feels like my body is like, you got to just get up to the top already.

Listen, running hills is tremendous for you. It's great.

It's one of the best exercises you can do. But you look like that guy.

If everybody else is walking, it's- Yeah, you're a dickhead.

Yeah, a little bit. Also, Whenever I see someone running downhill, you see these people running on a downhill. Yeah, I've never done that. You know the word for that. Yeah. You know the word for that. It's stupid. It's the word. Yeah, it's stupid as shit. Whenever I see someone running downhill, I'm like, Dude, not good for your knees or your back. Don't do that. Run up. Good chance you're going to fall. Walked out. Yeah, 100%. I want to say, retirement speech, fantastic. I knew you were going to retire. I didn't add no inside information, but I felt it in my bones, something in me. Now I think the second half of your life, how exciting. This new stage of you in the media. I don't know what's next to come. You don't have to give me any leaks, but I'm excited for you to see what's the next chunk. Because a lot of guys look, I'm friends with a fair amount of guys who used to play different sports. It's interesting to watch what some guys get into professionally. If they stay in the sports world and they go into coaching or training. Then some guys that go way in the other direction.

I have a couple of friends I know sell real estate.

Yeah, just completely get out of football.

They go way, way, way from sports. Nothing to do with it. Yeah. Do you already have a goal in mind or are you going where the wind takes you?

I have short term goals. Obviously, I just signed down with ESPN for Monday Night Football.

Huge. I know.

So my short term goal is really make sure I'm prepared and do that at a high level. I've talked to a lot of guys. I mean, a lot of this is talking to people that do it, right? I do a podcast, but this is much different, right? Yeah. Live and the time segments that you have to be in and out of or tighter. So there's less freeness or there's less freedom to say and really go into nuanced detail on something like that.

Are you afraid if you do that, if you're talking a little bit too much shit? For sure. Yeah.

Or talking too much shit or talking too much.

Talking too much. I mean, if you're just going into a diatrib and is that Because on the podcast, we can say whatever we want, do whatever we want. There is no length of cut off time. Well, that's the beauty of the podcast.

You can go into really big detail on complex things and go and give a good synopsis on the entire picture in the pre-shows and stuff like that because you're handcuffed with the time constraints and everybody needs to be able to get in things. You want to be respectful of all of it. You're trying to get in and out of things a little bit quicker. I do think the best shows feel like they're more conversational. Totally. It expands a little bit into that, but it's going to be a little bit more condensed than what a podcast would be.

Well, like what they did on Charles, Shaq, and Kenny, and it's just like... It's the best. But what's going to happen with that now? The future of that is in limbo, and it's so weird. But that is why... What's so annoying to me is that's what people like. They like that these guys are friends. They like that they have a relationship. They like that they goof with each other. What people don't take to is when it feels extremely so professional that these two things have nothing to do with each other.

Yeah, it feels so overproduced that it's pre-planned. It's weird. Yeah, you want those authentic reactions happening out there. You want... That's why, listen, Chuck is the magic as well as Shaq.

It's unbelievable.

But Ernie is the guy that really lets them do what they do and brings it all a structure to it. Obviously, Scott Van Pelt on Monday night, I think he has that same ability to bring that structure. Hopefully, we can be able to be ourselves. And Scott wrangle it back in a little bit as well.

Yeah, bring you down to Earth. You're not scared, though. You're not nervous. No, I'm nervous. You are? And I think it's good.

No, seriously. I think- You should be a little nervous. Every game I ever played in my life that I played really well, I was nervous for at least a healthy amount of it. Not to the point that you think that you can't do it, but there's a healthy amount of respect for what's your opponent, the guy that... Whenever I played a really good player, I always felt like I played better because all week I was really into preparing for this guy. I studied it more. I was more... I perseverated about it when I was sleeping. I'm like, Man, if I do this, I need to make sure I do this. Otherwise, he's going to take care of that. When you put more effort into it because of that nervousness, I think it usually results in a better product. Now, once you're out there, you can't be nervous. You just got to go. But I think it's healthy to be nervous with where I'm at right now. Hopefully, then I prepare more. Usually, the more prepared you are, the less nervous you are when you're actually out there.

Totally. You need to have a hand signal. You know how Carol Burnet tickled her ear to say hi to her family? We need to have a hand signal for you on Monday Night Football when we know you're in your groove. Oh, there we go. Or when we know you've cascaded over the nerves when you're just killing it. We got to have something that's like your... You can think about it, something that coins for you that's very much... Just a little. Yeah, just a little. Then someone's just like, We got to drug test him. We have to see what he's up to. He's flicked his He gets his nose six times on the show. He keeps rubbing his gums. What is he doing? No, but I'm excited for that, too, for you because I think that's it. Look, it's a big deal that a lot of athletes now have become the new faces of sports talk, whether it's podcasting or live broadcasting. In my personal dumb opinion, it's what we've always wanted. You're like, I'd rather hear it from the guy that did it. I don't want to hear it from, no offense, but sometimes there's guys that talk and you're like, Well, you didn't do it.

You don't know what that is. That bothers me sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes you want to just hear what the guy who did it did. Yeah.

I mean, listen, I vastly prefer listening to coaches and players. But I will say, I do think some people that are really good that didn't play offer a perspective that sometimes players and coaches don't have because we did play. It's always interesting when the fans have perspectives or sports sports media as perspectives that end up being more true than what the players or coaches think because they're looking at it from a lens that's removed from personal... That attachment. Yeah, the attachment to either the team or certain players or friendships or just the attachment to how everything's happened. When you're detached from that, you look at things from a little bit slightly different lens, and usually it's more wrong. The vast majority of time, it's more incorrect. But sometimes it's a perspective that warrants you to say, oh, man, that's a good point that they're bringing up there. I didn't think about it that way. That makes sense.

As a fan, we won't dive to keep going into football. There's so many other things I want to talk to about. But I do want to ask you because people get asked as comics, we get asked this all the time. You asked me on your show, least favorite city to go play to. What was a bummer every time you went to go play when you were like, God, I don't want play over there?

Man.

See, we get asked that question. We're always like, I don't know. There's a couple of cities, I guess.

Yeah. I mean, so the NFL, no matter where you play, is going to be packed, right? Yeah. In the places that aren't packed, You love playing there because they're packed with the Eagles fans because they travel well. Yeah, they do. And they buy up all the tickets. Whenever we play in LA, it was almost every single game. It's all green.

It's a home game. Yeah, it was all green. So crazy to see that.

So I think I'd probably go just from like, which I didn't like physically the most, which I hated MetLife. We had a lot of success there. We won a lot of games. That's great. The field was absolutely atrocious for years. They just redid the turf. It's a little bit better, but it was really, really bad.

Because turf sucks.

Turf sucks, but in particular, they had like, not only did they have turf, but they had bad turf.

That's so funny.

Even the turf is bad. Yeah, you would think this beautiful... It's not even that old.

No, it's It's relatively new, right?

Yeah. I don't know how they mess that up that bad, but it was really bad. They just redid. I think it's a little bit better. Then Green Bay has awful infrastructure, but it's the coolest place in the world.

From 1612.

That's why it's the coolest thing ever. You're walking down a hallway that you can't walk side by side with somebody because it's so narrow. When they designed it, it's like you're walking out single file. That's cool.

You can't walk side by side. That's right. I'm just fine. Normal humans are just fine walking out of there.

I mean, Dallas. I never like... Dallas just feels the least like you're at an NFL stadium.

Feels like Jerry Jones' house.

It feels like you're at this. It just feels the most different. It's like this You're more of an entertainer rather than a football player.

Totally. Did he ever come down? I feel like he's the guy that would come downstairs and say hi to you guys.

Jerry? Yeah. He never said hi to me. One time we got close a couple of times.

He seems like he would go to the opponent's locker and be like, You boys all right? He's got that very George Bush. Is everybody all right down here? Is AC okay? Yeah, he has that. He's being cordial, but he's also being condescending. He's like, Yeah, you like your facility? Yeah. Could have made it better. But we decided not to. Yeah, we decided not. We decided against it.

I will say probably the best visiting locker room. Really? It's enormous space. It's a good visiting locker. What about Buffalo? We got our asses kicked there a lot, unfortunately. We won early when they built that stadium, but then recently, Dallas has definitely had the upper hand at home.

Somebody told me, I can't say the player's name. I could say it to you off air. Or actually here, just blank this out. Yeah, he was... It's so funny. I cover my mouth and you said it right in the mic. Sorry. No, he's going to blank it out. No, but he said to me about going up there to Buffalo. He was like, I was like, how is that? How's Buffalo? I've been to Buffalo one time in my life. And he goes, facilities are better than you'd ever imagined. I was like, really? He's like, yeah, the training facilities, the work. He's like, all that stuff. And I said, Wow, that's interesting. And he's like, well, to keep a guy there, you got to give him something to be like, Yeah, this is nice, right? The food is good. We'll fly in whatever you want. But I thought that was like, because we get that same thing. You asked me on the show, and it's a tough question of where I don't like to play because it's not the people, it's never the fans in the city. Sometimes it's just the way that the place is laid out and the way to get to the venue because then the venue doesn't yield good traffic in terms of people coming and wanting to go to it.

If it's in a part of a city where people are like, We're not going over there.

That does actually feel the worst when you're not in a city. I think when you're in the city and I know Chicago right now is talking about taking the new stadium outside of the city.

We'll see if that happens. I hope it doesn't. I don't think it's going to.

I don't like when it gets outside of the city. It just feels like you're detached from everything.

Well, and the other hard part with Chicago, especially, is this is an iconic on the lake, by the park. It just does something something for the city. It's the same thing with why Wrigley is in the middle of the city. I think when you do remove that, I get some of the reasoning for it for them. Of course. But also, I don't know, man, there's something. Yeah, you're going to get traffic. You're going to get stuck. It's going to be a nightmare. It's part of it. Whatever. I've told this story, but one time I remember when I was touring with Rogan years ago, and we were doing arenas, and we went to play Chicago. We played the United Center in Chicago, and I remember feeling like it was just powerful because it's home for me. We're sitting on the highway, and it's crazy traffic. It's also rush hour. Joe's getting a little antsy, and I could tell he He's talking to the driver. He's like, Hey, man, can we not get off and go around? The guy's like, Sir, blah, blah, blah. Then we're sitting there, we're quiet. We don't say anything. And then finally Joe goes, Man, is this just rush hour?

What is going on? And the driver turns and looks back at him and goes, They're going to see you, sir. I was like, right. Perfect. He wasn't being rude. He was like, Sir, this is you. This is your fault. Yeah, you did this.

You're the reason we're here.

Because I used to think about that all the time whenever you'd see... Because a lot of kids will wait by... Why can't I think of the name now? Crypto, downtown, Staples Center. They wait where they know the players come out of. Would you guys have kids waiting to see you guys to come out and all that?

It wasn't a spot like that within the Eagle Stadium. There was a couple hotspots, but it really wasn't that big.

Because there, downtown, if you've ever gone after a Laker game, it is cool to watch people line up to see them come out in their cars. A lot of guys run on their window and do the whole thing. I remember feeling how that was such a cool thing. Absolutely. But as a kid in Chicago, they wouldn't let you anywhere near it, especially in the Jordan era. You couldn't even go. Yeah, nowhere. There was like a fence with a fence and a fence. You could maybe see some of the cars coming. But I see it in LA and I think, I know Los Angeles, and that is very deliberate that they make it so they can see them. Make it so they can take pictures. It's very interesting how that works.

The old, well, progressive field now, I think it is, but when it was the Jacob's field growing up, Travis and I, my dad, we would go wait. There's that little fence. That's right where all the players parked and you'd have a ball, and you'd beg for autogravs afterwards. Maybe one guy would come over and be the biggest thing on the planet. It's huge. On the planet. No way. Omar Pasquale came over here and was signing balls. Even Even if he didn't get to your ball. It didn't matter. He just came over here.

He signed that kid's ball. Yeah, he was just right there.

That kid right there has one.

What was like when you were a kid? Was there an athlete that you either got to meet or got near that was like one of those moments for you?

I mean, Omar, Kenny, the Indians of the '90s were the team in Cleveland. The Cavs are pretty good that Browns left. So that was unfortunate. But the '90s Indians were like the team for Cleveland. And anybody on that team, they were so stars. Kenny Lofton, Omar Vasquel, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thomey. Stacked. Jim Thomey was probably the iconic guy, probably from that era. For whatever reason, he just has been. Manny was certainly up there.

But Manny's career post that got even bigger. It did. Isn't that funny? When he left, it was like, then he became this other thing. Persona. Yes. He was like his own thing.

Right.

It was like for me, I met Frank Thomas as a kid, and that was like... Yes. I I wasn't even a White Sox fan. I was a North Side kid. But meeting Frank Thomas was still... I remember it pretty vividly because they would play this golf tournament. Michael Jordan hosted a golf tournament, and the day before was the practice round, and that's when they would talk to kids. So if you could get to the fence, they would chat with you. On the day of, there was so much media and stuff. They wouldn't let you anywhere near it. Yeah, sure. And this guy, I remember running up to the fence, and this guy, he It was just some older dude, some older white dude, and he sees me looking. He's like, look, and he's like, who are you looking for? I go, Somebody famous. And he goes, You see that group behind us? I go, Yeah, far away. He's like, That's Frank Thomas. I was like, Yeah, right. You know what I mean? I was like, We can't even see who it is. But I'm like, No, it's not. He's not there. Stop to be hurt.

No way. No chance. He goes, Let me tell you something, kid. One of you idiots better run home and go get a baseball card because that is Frank Thomas. Sure enough, my buddy Matt Mitchell and Matt and I were like, Do you think he's full of shit or do You know what I mean? We were like, Should we just go get a card maybe just in case? And he's like, All right, I'm going to go. I'll go. I'll run and get a card. He ran, got a card, and I waited because in the back of my head, I thought, That guy's a liar. He's fucking with us. We're kids. Sure enough, dude. He got it. In comes Frank Thomas. He got it. Yeah. And forever. What an idiot. What could have been. I know an idiot. He's not his. He's not his. But Frank came up in a golf cart and was the whole golf cart. He's enormous. He's by himself.

Still, I went on set with him, and I was on set with him, Alex Rodriguez, Big Papy for like a... They were at the Phillies for one of the playoff games, and I was still amazed at how gigantic that man is. It's unbelievable. He's enormous.

Each of his legs was like two human torsos, and he was half in the golf card, half out, and he had a huge, that beautiful Frank Thomas smile that he's got ear to ear. He goes, he gave just a little wave, and then we didn't say a word, and then they hit. It was a par three, and then he turned back at us. It's It's so funny. Neither of us said anything. We were too nervous, but we just were like doing the like, maybe if he comes over and he just came lumbering over and he just motioned his hand. He knew what was going on. He knew what was going on. Yeah. He was like, let's see. I'll do the thing. Because back then, When we were kids- There was no pictures. Yeah, you didn't take photos. It is so funny that that's got to be an easier thing for athletes now because you take a billion photos. Yeah. Fine. Great. But also, what would you You want to sign a million autographs or you want to take a million photos?

I don't know. Because usually it's one of the two, right?

They don't ask for both.

Yeah, usually it is one. I think I would rather do the autograph thing. I think maybe that's just Because when I was a kid, that's all I wanted. Me too. So I just identify with that more. I don't have a problem with the pictures. I think overall, whenever a kid comes up to you, for the most part, you're just like... Every professional player, for the most part, was That's what I was like, I was like, I'm not a kid at one point. So it's this ultimate moment where you realize you're going to be interacting with a child. And they look at you the same way I looked at Albert Bell, potentially. He asked who my favorite player was. It was Albert Bell, which not a lot of non-Indian fans know Albert Bell, I don't think.

No, I do.

But Albert Bell and then Travis is Carlos Bayer. That is the coolest thing ever.

Travis liked who?

Carlos Bayer.

Do you remember him? No. I forget what position he played. How very Travis to be such a position player.

He had a chain and he had the He almost was like a dance getting ready to hit the ball. He had a style to him. If you saw him play, you'd be like, that's why Travis liked doing it. This makes a ton of sense.

You liked it. You liked it. Traditional, by the book, hard working guys. Travis like the guy that had the first guy with an earring on the team. That's right. Yeah, exactly. Causing all the trouble. The guy that my dad, I can hear my dad now being like, and why does he got to wear the jewelry? It's going to hit him in the face when he runs. That is so funny. That's how my dad was, too. When we played sports, my dad, he loved the book. For him, it was like, You wear it the way it's supposed to be worn. We were not allowed to wear. I couldn't wear anything with my own vibe. Do you know what I mean? Absolutely.

I couldn't do it. If you look outside the rest of the team, that's selfish behavior.

My dad would be so mad. Guys would wear stirrups, and the whole deal was, if one guy wore stirrups, we all had to wear it. That was the whole thing, right? I remember my dad, there was like, some guys were trying to fight against it a little bit, and my dad was just like, you do whatever the coach says this week that you're supposed to be wearing. You don't try to be the guy who's standing out with the thing. You don't stand out. You blend in. It's like army mentality because he was an army kid. It's very much like you get in line and you shut up. If the coach, like even in basketball, we weren't supposed to touch the backboard in layup drills, and everybody wanted It was like such a thing because we weren't allowed to dunk. They were like, no touching the rim.

It was like, look, I could have if I wanted to.

Guys would touch the backward and my dad would be like, If you touch the fucking backward, I'll break your fingers. It was such a... I had that. Was your dad like that to you guys?

I was about to say my dad's biggest one, I still remember watching games, was when guys would show, which is so funny now because guys either show building before they scored or even dancing in the end zone, it would drive them crazy. Like, just give What's the ball to the official. What are we doing? What's with the show? And now Travis is like the... I know. He's never said one word about it. He has completely flip flops. He's all about the show, buddy, now.

Well, because times, I think at some point- It's much different now. It's just so different then. But yes, my dad with the dancing thing was like... Like when Terrell owns it, it was like my dad was like, This guy, he wants his own thing. I actually heard a fun argument. I think it was on I think it was on All the Smoke. I think they talked about this on that pod that those guys had said from that generation, when the old joke was the no fun league, the NFL no fun league, when they took away dances, he was like, We paid all these fines. And then now they reinstituted celebrations. He's like, All of that money that we paid should be calculated and then donated to charity. I was like, That's actually clever. Give it to a charity then. You owe that to somebody.

I could be wrong, but I do think, supposedly, I do think the fine money does go to It does it? I'm sure on that.

You do it. I have no idea.

The only reason I think I know this- I hope it does. I'm pretty sure that that money does go to charity. I don't know if all of it does, but I think that there is a charitable component to the NFL fines.

You don't think Roger Goodell has a Scrooge McD duck room at His house where he just- I'm not going to say he doesn't.

There was a weird thing. He's diving in money. There was a weird thing where during COVID, they increased the fines on very frivolous things. I was like, Are they trying to even out the money here?

What's happening? What was the most ridiculous fine thing that they- You It can show your knee, right?

But your sock has to come up to your pants. Sure. Okay? If there's any space, technically, that's a uniform violation. But if there's this much space, it's just normal that, Hey, my pants came up to my knee. I'm playing a sport. Yeah, my sock came down. So I got fined one time. I'm talking to you. What's going on, man? I've been doing this with my pants forever. Why am I all of a sudden getting fined? They really want us to make a push to stop this.

What's that fined cost?

I think I don't want to say it because I don't want to spread false. I ended up getting it reduced but still had to pay the fine, which was some thousands of dollars.

It's such an innocuous number, too. Yeah.

I mean, it's just weird that that has no bearing on player health and safety. It's obviously not on purpose. What are we doing this for? I don't understand the reasoning for it.

That's the opposite of what the NBA was. When the NBA went with length of shorts, at first they were like... I remember when they were talking about the length of shorts changing when I was a kid, and that was a big conversation. The Allen Iverson era of like, they were huge. And then the NBA realized fast, they were When these guys are going to do it, we're never going to be able to tell them what to... It's just never going to work. They're just going to wear whatever they're going to wear. Because if you make them shorter, they'll just wear shorts that are two sizes too big.

Yeah, or they'll wear them too short, and then they won't just have them halfway down.

You can't They find a way away from the rules.

A hundred %. This is where early on in traveling in the NFL, they used to be very buttoned up. You have to wear a suit and tie on every single plane, and you can't wear jeans, you can't wear tennis shoes. Now it's the point that the coach is like, let them wear tracksuits because nobody abides by the rules. People are coming in with half of them got jeans on, half of the guys got trees, which I love. I do not want to wear a three-piece suit on a plane for no reason. I never understood the point of But a lot of the teams have caved because they're like, what are we doing this for?

Well, my dad was in sales.

It serves no purpose.

Yeah, he used to wear suits.

It's a business trip. We're here for business. Like, Guys, I don't need to put a suit on to know that I'm here to win a football game.

I'm also going to the hotel to change anyway.

I'm going to wear this for four hours, be uncomfortable on a flight, and then change out of it.

I never understood that. Looking uncomfortable on a plane, I was always like, The only time I want to be at max comfort is on a flight. Exactly. Should be max comfort. Should be max. Those seats on you guys' planes because you took commercial, but it's commercial custom, right?

It's just a regular commercial plane, but they...

Make all the seats first class.

No. What? We're in regular seats, but a whole row, especially for a veteran player, I'd have a whole row.

But they're regular seats? Regular seats. Some teams have their own though.

Some teams have their own planes. The Eagles do not.

Philly should.

Philly's the rich enough. All the coaches are up in first class, which pisses off some of the guys.

That would piss me off. They should be in the back.

That's one of the reasons. They have that little report card, and they keep trying to get that as an A in any way they can. My God, it's only going to be an A if you give everybody first class.

Right. Make everyone have- I don't know what you want me to tell you.

You guys are doing a great job. The food's fantastic. You're going out of this world for services. But if the coaches are up in first class and the players are in coach, they're going to be pissed off. I don't know what to tell you.

Yeah, so you don't get to lay, lay out, or do you just lay down in the roadside?

I mean, honestly, it's fine. It It works, especially if you're not on a long flight. West Coast flights, I do think first class, especially for bigger guys. Jordan a lot of 6,9. His knees, it's just a very uncomfortable.

That's how uncomfortable. Yeah. He's got to sit in the aisle.

You have to lay in the aisle. This year, they did offer that, I think, on a West Coast trip, and a lot of guys didn't take it. I think Jordan was one of them. I don't know. But with Chip, they gave us first class, then they took it away with Doug, and it's still taken away with nick. Wow. That's one of the hot topics.

That's a big chat. That's a big deal. Locker room chat.

I can't believe what are the coaches aren't playing tomorrow?

Why are they in the first place? Yeah, it's true, though. Do you guys, was there text messages? Was there a good text stream with players? Did you have a good text crew or no?

There's different ones. You have your position group text crew. Then even within that, you have the starting five or whatever. We're texting all the time. Then you'll have the leadership committee, which really gets started by the coach. Then that turns into a whole text thread.

Does that cause his break-off text?

There's a couple of- Then there's break-off text. Those are my favorite. Back to the position group or back to like, Hey, we're all veterans, so me, Fletch, and these guys are in a text group because we've been there the longest.

This group is talking shit about that group, and that group's talking shit about that group, and you're joking about that guy. Someone says something in one group that you go, This dude.

What's this guy talking about?

What's this guy's deal? What's this? What do you want more homework? Shut up.

The big thing that's always talked about is the schedule. It's like all the older guys, we want to get in early because most of us live away from the city. We want to beat rush hour. We're not like going out the night before. Just let us go in, get it done, and be done with them for the rest of the day. I go home, play with my kids. That's what I want. But everybody else, let's push it off till nine o'clock. There's always this give and take of what the older guys want, what the younger guys want, what the coaches want. It's fun to watch that.

Yeah, to watch it go back and forth.

Who's going to win out here? Usually, I'm like, listen, what Whatever the fuck you guys want to do, I'll be here.

Yeah, you fold at some point. Like, I don't give a shit. I don't care that much. Well, because you are. I mean, your family man persona precedes you because your wife is arguably more famous at this point. Yeah, she's become. She should be. Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, for looks and talent and all that stuff. For definitely, without a doubt. It is funny. She's become like this. Does she like it? Because it seems she's very like, humble, like you, a family person. It seems like she doesn't really want any of the nonsense, but she's cool with it. Is it annoying to her or does she like some of the attention?

I think- Because she's gotten a lot...

People now are like, she's become just as big of a fixture of this.

I think Both. I think, so we did the documentary a couple of years ago, and that definitely, I think that she's a little bit uncomfortable with, I guess, how much it's become. Yeah, it's Our family's out there and people know what our kids look like. I think we're both a little bit, we've tried to retract from that a little bit. But I think she enjoys the fact that she gets to go and She gets to do charitable outings. She gets to get back to the community. She gets to do clinics with little girls with field hockey and all these other things. I think she enjoys that aspect of it. And I do think some of the other stuff she's a little bit more hesitant to. And I didn't really sign up for this. And I'm like, we're going to be all right. We're getting through it. Yeah, it gets to be too much at times, and it's hard to always be available. You know what I mean? But I think More often than not, it's such an awesome interaction whenever you're doing that stuff. And the vast majority of people are beyond just like, respectful and appreciative.

And you realize that we're in a position of great fortune to be able to be where we're at. It's all because of these people that are really, really big fans.

The nature of all of it is being as famous as you are. It's tough because it comes along with it. But I don't think it's deserved. I've always said this is when someone's like, Well, that's what they get for being famous. You're like, That's not what anybody gets. There is no that's what you get. That's a weird phrase.

It's part of the territory. Sure.

But it's not a that's what you get. I don't like that because it makes it feel like, You deserve to be annoyed. It's like, No, you that's crazy talk. In my mind, that's the same line of thinking when someone goes, Well, she wore it out to the club. She wasn't going to get harassed. It's like, Yeah, she didn't want to be harassed. Because you're drunk and annoying, she got harassed. But most people are cool, right? Most fans that we meet in our world are so cool. Yeah, it's totally fine. It doesn't bother me. But there are days like that where you just described you're in a weird space maybe, and then someone catches you. A woman pointed at me and her finger was quite close to my face, and she was drunk, and we were walking to meet someone for lunch, and she was like, You're famous. I didn't have any response. I just go, Yep. I just kept walking. It just felt weird. It was a weird. Then they were like, What's his deal?

He's an asshole. It's like, What? He doesn't have the time to deal with me.

How could I have done that? What else would you want me to do? But I We just see from afar, it's interesting now because your family is just such a fixture and a part of it. It's been crazy. Then your brother is really screwed up everything. Exactly. What a jerk.

Travis and Taylor have taken it to another level, and that's a whole other side of it. You know what I mean? Kyla and I think we have a bed, and then we go hang out with one of them for a second. That's insane. This is a whole another situation here. I don't even know how to... You can't be a normal person at that point. In here, we pour whiskey.

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There's no question. Which I think that's the only version of that that is good, where it's like, yeah, it's easy to change when you get in these wild situations. Some people do and some people don't. I don't blame people that do either. Some people do change because they have to because life is so different that you're like, privacy becomes a key and priority. But he's been the same. I'm sure with you guys, it's at least what it seems like is things are the same.

Yeah, I don't think that anybody has changed, really. Yeah, that's good. Listen, we're always getting older and wiser and evolving our opinions and whatnot.

You are. I don't know if he is. I think he's staying the same age. He is. He's like a forever.

No, he's getting there. But I do agree. I think Travis, he's a very comfortable person in almost any scenario. He's such a unique individual I've never seen him uncomfortable anywhere. So it's like- Yeah, he moves pretty seamless.

Yeah.

I haven't seen him change one bit.

That's good. Yeah.

I think it's a compliment. I think that he stayed true to himself. He's still humble. He treats everyone with the utmost respect like their equals, regardless of who they are.

When you told the story about when he got in trouble in college you went out of your way. Has he ever done anything like that for you? Either in the more latter years, maybe. Has he flipped on something where you're like, Wow, Trev really helped me get out of something that I...

I love that you're asking me this question.

Well, because the brother of it all, my brain always goes to, as we get older, my sister and I have gotten significantly closer as we've gotten older. When we were young, I hated her. I loved her, but I hated her. We always battled. Then we got older and we both realized that we're so much more in common than we ever thought. She's been such a great thing in my life. As we've gotten older, it's become more and more apparent as we've grown through trouble and problems and family stuff. You know what I mean? I see that with you guys, and I'm always like, has that flipped back to you?

See, Travis remembers that college situation differently than I do. I don't feel like it was his... I think he was the one going through it, so it sticks with him more like there was something. Sure. I think he overstates, I think, what I did more than what I feel like I did. I'm trying to remember. I would say that the biggest thing that just stands out is I ask Travis's opinion on a lot of things because Travis, and I really mean this, has probably some of the best instincts, just in general, of anybody I've ever talked to. And nine times out of ten, I'll come at something and I'm trying to think it out and I'm going somewhere with it. And he just says something so point blank. I'm like, Yeah, that's all it fucking comes out. And he has the ability to just think of things and cut away all the bullshit outside of what you're trying to figure out. It's just right here, man. And he's helped me make a lot of big decisions in my life that way. And I think-Was retirement one of them? Retirement, he hasn't ever pushed me in.

I think that he's fully known when... He knew I was going to retire this year. That was the first time that he felt like I was going to retire, I think. And I think part of it, just like your sister, we think about things differently, but we also... We think about things... So we know how each other think, so it's very easy for us to talk about something and have this back and forth dialog. But at the same time, he just has this ability to think about things from a different perspective that I'm not usually focused on. It ends up steering me in the right direction almost every single time.

That's so nice. The vision is so different. You know what I mean? You both It's just so funny to be so successful and so unique in the ways that you guys are successful, which is that's what's so interesting. Same sport, but not. You know what I mean?

No, absolutely. I think that the way we think actually helps for our specific sports. I've always thought like center, it helps to be an analytically type thinking person. It's like, listen, we have three guys over here or we have too many guys over here, so we need to point the protection this way, or we need to call this in a run game to account for that. It's like a math problem, almost, that you're solving. You're taking in space and numbers and leverage, and you're computing that to try and put the team in the best situation from a blocking schematic standpoint. Travis, he about things, and it's still analytical, but he thinks about it more, in my opinion, from an artist standpoint. He's creating, and he's doing things that this hasn't been talked about before. He just knows to do this based on what's happening. And my dad still, even when we were kids, he would tell this story all the time, how he thought Travis was smarter than me. He probably still does. He's probably right. We both got the same Lego set when we're kids. And I opened the box and I opened the instructions and I put the thing together piece by piece, following the instructions.

And by the time I got done, Travis's was already done. And he just looked at the box and put the thing together.

He didn't do any instruction.

Yeah, he didn't look at any instruction. He just put it together. It's that right brain, left brain. I don't know if that's a real thing, but he's much more of the creative minded totally. Like, instincts. Like, that's how he's lived his life, his whole life. And he's hounded that to perfection. I think, receiver and tight ends, people that carry the ball, it benefits them to think along those lines. Like, even soccer players. I think if you think about the game more like that, you're going to be less predictable, and it pans out a lot of times. If you're trying to be too analytical, it'll slow you down and you're going to get too bogged up. Football is a unique sport where there's still positions where I think analytical, evaluative thinking helps between center, quarterback, baseball, pitcher, catcher. There's certain sports where it benefits you. But for the most part, if you're thinking too much in sports, you're screw it up.

Bad news. Yeah.

Golf is probably one of them.

Well, they say that. I don't know if you're I don't remember who said this, but they said, To be a great golfer, you need to be a complete and utter moron or a genius.

You need to be so stupid and just deaf to fear, or you are so overt that it's almost a sickness.

I guess the example would be like, Bryson DeChambeau. Completely. He is so analytical. He's down to the... It's stuff that you couldn't even imagine.

It's almost like too much. You're like a robot right now.

Yeah, he's got that very like, and do you know that the ball flight on this is a 410 slower than? You're like, holy shit. Then there's guys I'm not going to name because I'm not going to take shots of anybody, but there's guys that are not... They're more They're just going with the flow. I think their brain doesn't get in the way. They're like, yeah, it's playing some great golf. Just doing some just technical golf. Just like, Yeah, I guess I know this. I know how this feels, and so I'm not going to do that that way every time. It's going to hit it like this. That's the problem with me is I'm not that dumb, but I'm not smart. I'm not smart. I'm not done. I'm right in the middle. That's why I'm an okay golfer. I'm not great. I'm not terrible.

I just got fitted for clubs for the first time in over a decade. Oh my God. I've had the same clubs for over a decade. It's the first time I've ever hit on a trackman Trackman, and I was like, What the fuck is this?

For people that don't know, trackman does all your statistics of your swing, and it gives you everything. I'm getting fitted by these TaylorMade guys, and they're like, Okay, the launch angle is this.

We're going to take the club, move it here. I'm like, Is this real? I was like, this is all that goes into it. Because the last time I got fitted, they had tape on the ground, and you would hit the tape, and I'm like, yeah, we're going to change it here. And then I come into this, and I'm like, how the fuck is this machine doing this? There's so many numbers, and I'm like, what does all this mean?

I like that you just had the brand new guy It's like, throw tape on the ground. Hit the tape, sir. Someone else is like, what the fuck is with the tape? Don't worry about it. I don't know. I'm trying something new. Taylormade, did you go down to the kingdom down here or did you go?

I got a buddy that was working for TaylorMade where I was going to get fitted out here. Last time I was in LA.

The kingdom is the best. I didn't make it. Oh, you got to go. If you ever get a chance, down in San Diego, we're talking about TaylorMade has this fitting facility, I should say, is what it's called. I don't even know. There's maybe six or seven bays, and they blessed me. I was able to go down there and do and go get fitted. Shout out to TaylorMade. It is incredible. I play the P7 MCs. P7 MCs? Yeah. Okay. 770, 70, 90s are the more standard one. The 7 MCs are just one above the Tiger Blades, the Tiger Tiger. Tiger Plate is the hardest club to hit for sure.

The TW or whatever.

Yeah. I was like, I want to hit that so bad, but there's no chance.

What are we talking about?

Why? Why do I need that pain? No. Then it's the next level. They're They feel a little bladey. They're not as cavity-backed, but they are a little bit... But they're beautiful. But when I got fitted, it is funny because I'm never nervous playing golf, but I was nervous there because there's a professional fitting you and you don't... I was like, God, if I make a bad swing, he's going to be like, All right, let's try. It was a little nerve-wracking at the beginning. Then when I calmed down, we finally got it right. But it is incredible how much tech that goes into dialing you in.

It It was crazy how just changing the- The lie?

Yeah.

I was hitting everything, not dead center. They fixed that? Oh, yeah. Everything. I know. Like, puring it. I'm like, How the hell does it work like this?

Also, it feels very placebo effect because you You're like, Is this going to be the same when I leave? Exactly. Or is this going to be... Am I going to get out there? I have a feeling it's not going to be the same. Of course not. That's how everything is. That you're like, Well, back there, I was doing this thing.

I was just murdering it.

Are you playing?

Little baby draws all day.

Yeah, just a little butter draw on the top. Are you playing a I've played more up to this point than I've ever played.

I'm doing that Tahoe event for the first time.

You are. You got in.

I'm trying not to embarrass myself.

No, you're going to be great. Put in a call for me, will you? I'm trying to get into that thing. I keep saying I want to get in it so bad. Oh, my gosh, we got to get you in. Michael Paine has said multiple times, I got to get you into that thing. I was like, I know. I want to get in there. I can't believe it. I'm not famous enough. You got to be a little bit above me. Then stop. Give me a little bit more time. I'll be there. I've taken your brother golfing a few times, and it is always funny to watch.

What do you think of... I actually haven't been golfing with Travis in a long time.

He's good. He hits it way too far, comically far. A lot of times it goes in the wrong direction, but he is good. Sounds like me and my brother. Too far in the wrong direction, but it's good.

When it goes straight, it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable.

But we had a guy one time- Percentages are low. We had a guy one time that made me laugh so hard. It's a rule that you don't bother... This is a little celebrity, and you leave people alone, and it's just like, Don't take pictures and just everyone gets to play golf and leave everybody alone. And this older gentleman, you know your brother. He's like the sweetest guy on Earth. And this older man, he comes walking up and he's like, I don't ever do this. It's like that phrase. Yeah. Yeah. And then he goes, But Mr. Kelsey, I am such a fan. May I have a photo? And I gave him a look like, Come on, man. You know the rules. Yeah. You know that you're not so fun as to... But he was an older guy, so whatever. Then Travis goes, Of course, bro. And doesn't even think twice because your brother doesn't think twice. He goes to get out of the golf cart and the guy takes a photo with his phone of just Travis in the golf cart. He doesn't want a photo with him. He just picks up his phone and goes like that, and he goes, Thank you, Mr.

Calci.

Just that.

Travis and I drove away. We were dying laughing. He goes, I thought he wanted a photo. I go, That would have made sense. Yeah, that would have made the most sense. He just took a photo. Has anybody just taken a photo of just you before?

Yes. Usually it is an older person. Yeah, right.

They just take a picture. They go, Thank you. See you later. Which I respect because I thought, I know my dad. He's not that old. My dad's going to hear this and be like, I know. But I know my dad. He probably- He doesn't want a photo of himself. He's like, I don't want to be in that photo. It's going to look stupid if I'm in it. He'll be like, Let me get it near you or I'm taking it of you. I get the old man mentality. I'm like, I don't want to look at myself in a photo. When was the first time? Because we said we'd get to whiskey. When When was the first time you got drunk? Do you remember the first time you got drunk when you were a young lad, a trouble boy?

High school.

We're talking freshman year?

Sophmore.

Sophmore year.

What is that?

15, 16, right around then?

I think I was 15. I might have been '16. It was right in between. So I was '15 at the start of the year. November fifth, I would have been '16. So I don't remember what part of the year it was in. But I remember there was a house party that one of the guys was throwing, and the first beer I ever had was a Milwaukee's Best. I was like, What in the fuck is this? People drink this fucking shit? Why?

Does it make me fly?

Yeah. I was like, I'm out on this. Then somebody handed me a Natty light and I was like, Oh, I get this.

There it is, baby. Dude, I wish I had a photo to show you on my phone because I would show you when we were in college, That was Natty was 899 a case in Arizona. You could buy a case for $9. We had so many of those that my roommate at the time, Mark, he was like, we had a bunch of holes in the wall from parties. He was like, oh, man, if the landlord comes by. Then Evan and Mark got this brilliant idea. They were like, we have so many cases in the garage. What if we cut up the Natty and put the cases on the wall as wallpaper? We had wallpaper of natty light cases lining our living room. Love it. Then people come over and be like, This is sick. I'm like, Do you see the holes behind it? It's going to cost us a bunch of money. There's a reason that's up there. It's going to cost us a bunch of money. There's a reason that's up there. Yeah. That was the first time you got lit up at the house party.

This is a little bit somber, but there was a big drunk driving accident. No. Right before I got into high school, three of the local hockey players that were heroes in our community ended up dying in it. The biggest thing that my parents wanted to avoid was drinking and driving. Their big rule was like, listen, we know you're in high school. We know you're going to have a couple every once in a while. We do not want you getting in a car with being under the influence or with somebody else being like, we will come pick you up. Nobody's going to be drinking at our house. But if you're out doing whatever, we just curfew. And then you don't drink and drive. Those are the two things we care about. Then you're good. Yeah.

And you probably broke curfew, though, for sure. A couple of times.

Where are you at? I'm like, I'm just around the corner.

I'm coming. The other side of town. I'm already here. We're getting there. I'm right outside the front door right now. You know that. Yeah. No, that was the first time we... Actually, that's the same guy Matt that we used to get autographs with. Matt and I got drunk. We stole his father's bottle of... It was Scotch, I think it was. And just vomit everywhere because we had no idea how to drink it.

You don't know what I don't know how to drink Scotch, to be honest. I don't know.

I'm not even figuring it out, apparently. Bourbon, yes. Scotch, not mine. What's your go-to liquor?

Go-to liquor, probably whiskey. Whisky is it. I would say whiskey, but I'm not... Whiskey, predominantly, especially if I'm drinking it out of a glass, just straight whiskey or bourbon or the whole genre.

We're sure.

But I'll drink tequila, I'll drink vodka, all that stuff.

What's the no-go? What's the no-fly zone? What do you not I'll absolutely not drink?

I don't know if there is like a no-fly zone. Really? Yeah, I'll drink.

See, mine is spiced rum. Captain Morgan and I, we had a breakup years ago, and I'll never go back. The smell of it.

I was like that with tequila for a while.

The smell of it. Sometimes my dad likes rum and Cokes. In his summertime drink, he'll drink rum and coke. All the other times, either winter, he likes martinis. But rum and coke, if he's sitting by my pool- I do love a good rum and coke. Oh, man, he loves it. The smell when he cracks a bottle, I'm always like, can't do it.

I was like that in college with tequila for about four years. I eventually got it back. But Jose Cuervo, drink a whole bottle of that too quickly one night.

Yeah, it teaches you bad.

Yeah, and just the smell of it would just ruin my night.

Yeah, That got me. That was for a long enough time where now it's okay, but I don't want to be near it enough where it's got the remnants in the back of my mind. The danger of going back to that time, the flashback.

I do want to ask you a question about I know you're a whiskey aficionado.

Bourbon-specific. I'm not as smart as many of my fans are smarter than I. She said rye.

Rye is like typical Irish whiskey, right?

Rye, which I'm not a huge rye guy. I know that's I like it just fine. Sure. A lot of people, a lot of people criticize that. It's like, well, rye should be a a part of your palate if you do like bourbon. If you're into it, you should be. Yeah, it's just a different chemical makeup, just a little bit different of a blend. But I like bourbon. Maybe it's the corn in me. Maybe it's like the old, the Midwest kid. I don't know what it is. But with Irish whiskey, which I don't particularly love. I know, and I should. The internet starts to shoot at you sometimes when people are like, What are you talking about? I don't know, man. I like what I like. Leave me alone. I like American- You got right there, though. How could you not? I like American Kentucky bourbon. I really like I like bourbon from Kentucky. I just have always been... Something about it always hit me in the right way. Like Scotch, I've tried a million different kinds of scotch, and I like it just fine. It's for you. Like you said before the show, when you asked about ice or not, rocks or not, I've said this a million times.

The master distiller at Buffalo Trace, I asked him, I said, Hey, can you clear up this controversy? And he says, How do you like it? I said, I like He's like, Great, then that's how you drink it. I said, I know, but what's the right way? He's like, That's not a real thing. There is no right way. Sure. How you like it is how it's... There is no like, You're supposed to drink it with it. That's not true. I love that. Every time I take that to people, there are some people that have snobbish thought about it. But the way I used to love it was my grandmother and my grandfather, they always drank Canadian whiskey, which tough.

That's a real another thing.

Real tough, yeah. They drank Canadian whiskey, Manhattan's, and My grandmother always would say, she'd go, a couple of cubes of ice is all the water I need for the day. It's going to water it down and I'll have a little bit softer of an evening. I thought, well, that's probably the smartest way. If you want to slow down the hits, put a little bit of water in there. Just a little touch of it.

There is some video I watched on YouTube one time where it's a guy drinking Scotch, and he said that the correct way to drink it is to have a small amount of cold water in it.

Oh, really? Just a little while. I know this.

It makes it more palatable and you get more notes in it. Sure. I was like, cool.

But I feel the same way. Once I've learned that there is no real rules, it's the same way I felt anxious about wine. I don't know if your wife likes wine, but every time we go out and she gets wine, I feel dumb because someone's like, How do you like that one?

I'm like, I- Tastes like the one I just had.

Yeah, dude, I have no idea.

Tastes like the other red one I just had.

No clue. And by the fourth one, I'm like, This is delicious. This is absolutely delicious. Where is this from? What region? I know. I like when I walked into a liquor store.

These grapes got way more tartness to them.

Yeah, is it notes of pine? They're like, No, of course it's not pine. I'm so dumb when I go to buy wine. I'm so bad. I go right up to the front desk and I just go, Tell me something that's within this price range. That's all I need. I don't know anything about it.

There are so many good wines, though, that are very affordable, right?

Yeah. Well, I mean, everything that she gets at the house, I'm always like, This is great. This is fantastic. Yeah, she knows how to pick it. With bourbon, I think it's easier to know.

There's a much bigger difference.

Right. You know. I think. Shitty bourbon, you know pretty quick. Right away. I'm not throwing anybody under the bus, but typically when you go to just a regular bar, and they have their front shelf or bottom shelf or whatever you want to see. Yeah, they're well. The difference of non-aged bourbon, non-aged whiskey, it tastes pretty, I hate to say flat, but it tastes quick. It tastes like it's just in and out. There is not a long depth of flavor.

It's like ethanol-heavy. It's like all you're getting is the alcohol.

It's gas. You're getting that gas. Put that gas in.

Which, hey, if that's what you need, you need, right?

Yeah. When I was a kid once, my dad is from North Carolina.

You're going to throw a bunch of Coca-Cola.

If you're going to drown it. One time I had moonshine. Have you ever had-Oh, yeah. Real moonshine from- West Virginia. Yeah, from toothless, ruthless. Honestly, it is unbelievable that people can I'm shocked people can drink it. Also, after this much, just like two fingers of it, I was like, holy God. I don't know. I was ripped. I was like, How do you drink this all day? Those dudes can drink that and go to work.

Just be like, man, I love it. He's rubbing alcohol, essentially, right?

Clean your arms with it and then take a shot of it. Yeah, it's insane.

Yeah. I was just at Old Smoky Distillery, which is a moonshine company down in Tennessee. I was just there doing a thing with them. The I didn't know this, but apparently, moonshine, you make it the same way you make whiskey, you just don't age it like it does.

Doesn't age, yeah.

That's the only difference. And that you don't pay taxes on it. It's illegal.

That part's good. That's the part I like the most. That's why it's usually clear. There's no color. There's no colorization because all whiskies are clear until you've thrown it in a barrel that's been charred and toasted. But when you get that, though, the alcohol content is so high. It's barely been touched. You're really drinking it right from the source. There's people that can handle it that really like it, and it's violent to me.

I did not experience this, but we have cousins in West Virginia. My dad, growing up, would go there onto the farm. They have a farm out there. He's playing pickup basketball one time. There's no running water. This is like true well water, like outhouse in the back. If you want water, you got to go to the fridge. You got to get it out of the jar that's in the fridge, or you got to go to the well.

Fill up that jar. You better replenish that jar. You better replace that jar, kid.

He's going there after he's playing basketball. He runs into the house to get some what he thinks is getting water out of the fridge. Oh, shit. Grabs the wrong jar of clear liquid, and that was his first encounter with it. Like, taking a big old swig of moonshine without asking questions.

Your dad goes permanently cross-side. Wait, he's from West Virginia, your old man?

No, we have relatives from Western PA, West Virginia, that we've lost touch with, to be honest with you. We had some cousins in West Virginia that we went to a couple of times that farm, and it was just awesome. I would never forget driving there in the middle of the night, and it was just the blackest of black that I had ever seen. There's no street lights, no nothing. And I'm like, Where the fuck are we going? All you see are two head light beams, and you're driving into the abyss. I love that. And we get there. And that was my first time ever experiencing anything like that. And it was awesome. They took us on. It was like winner, either that time or the second time. I still remember that they had an old tire tied with a rope to a four wheeler, and they would just take us around. We would be sitting on the tire and they'd be whipping us around the field. That's awesome. Yeah. It was fun. It was unlike anything I had ever been to. They had a bunch of animals and dogs and It was just like, Where the hell are we at right now?

You need that, by the way, those winter experiences. That's the one thing that if I ever have kids, I need to put them in a place that does still get winter because the days were like we would go, anybody we knew that had a car that was only rear wheel drive, which so many cars back in the day were. We'd load up and just do donuts. Spin that thing out. If you hit something, you hit something. We never hit a car, but you hit a curb a couple of times, maybe a pole. We're fine. We weren't going that fast. But those Those days were so much fun. It's like those winter days of causing trouble in the snow. It's so imperative, man, to your growth. The tire, I mean, come on. By the way, so dangerous, so great.

There is something in Travis. We were just debating seasons on the last episode. Winter, really, I I'm like, Are you fucking crazy? Winter in the city sucks. It's an inconvenience.

Yeah, it is.

But to your credit, football. Football, when snow comes down, it's like you're a kid again. I feel like snow, just in general, no matter where it's at, if it comes down, shit just changes.

Your attitude, something shift. Even in Philly, you'll see people...

If it's bad enough, you'll see people on skis going down Broad Street. I love that. The whole city is shut down because it's too much. It just turns into this equalizer of like, Hey, we're going to negate whatever anybody had planned for the rest of the day. We're all just going to be big kids. There's something beautiful in that.

I think there's something about that that's important. I agree. Well, because look, I've been living out here. I've been living in Sunshine for a long time, and it's great. But the thing that bad weather does is it bonds you to your peers inherently. We're all going through this kid from Minnesota, he knows. It's like you live in this shit together. It helps your community come together.

It's the same way in football or anything. When you go through adversity with other people, it just brings you closer. You're going to be closer.

Remember when we had to deal with that?

I climbed Mount Kilimandjaro with Chris Long. It was terrible. Especially last night, I I was like, why are we doing this?

Was it just you two, you and Chris?

No, sorry. He has a whole foundation, Water Boys. They do, well, they used to. I think they're still doing it, but they would climb Kilimandjaro every year with a bunch of Wounded Warriors and a bunch of NFL guys, and you'd make the trip up there.

Guys would climb Kilimajaro with missing limbs.

Yeah. I climbed with a guy with a missing leg.

He probably beat you. He did.

I got visibly like... The last day you're there is the big one Because then once you're above, I think it's 18,000, your body's officially no longer replenishing the oxygen unless you have an oxygen deal. You're losing oxygen slowly. So you're slowly, essentially dying. Dying.

Yeah, you're dying.

The trick is, once you get above that, you want to go as fast as possible. Get to the summit, take your picture, do your stuff, and get down. We're moving slow, and the big guys consume more oxygen. So all the big guys, we're gassed. And these dudes that don't play sports, but they're in the military for years, they're just crushing us. Right to the top. Yeah. God's loud legs. I'm like, Oh, my God, dude.

Come on, you guys. That guy's in a wheelchair and he's on top of Kilimanjaro. I can't get all the way up. That's something I never... I don't know how people do that. You could do it. Well, when we used to go, we had family that lived in Breck and Breck and Ridge, and their house was almost at 11,000 feet. We would sleep at 11,000.

That's really high for- So high.

Those first couple of days, even that, I'd have crazy nightmares or bad dreams or bad sleep. Sure. We go skiing the next morning, and I would be like, Dude, I am a sea level guy. This is bad. So 18,000 to me, that's That seems like I mean, I could do it. I just feel like I would need to train for it. Did you train or no?

I did zero training. What? They said, especially training your boots because you don't want to get blisters or whatnot. Because when you get blisters, you're done.

It's over.

But no, I didn't.

You didn't train. You got the phone. You're a pro athlete.

Well, I'm a pro athlete, but it was a very white collar climb. We had people helping us. They carried you.

Yeah.

There was a lot of assistance here. I was carrying my bag, and then there were two guys that were like locals, and they're hauling gallons of water up to the next stop. Chief and cigarettes on the side. I'm like, yeah, this is...

When you see the Sherpas that are smoking a butt, they're like, come on, let's go. Come on, guys.

You're taking forever.

What's the name of the foundation? Just so I know. Water Boys. Water Boys. You go check out Chris Long's Water Boys. I want to thank you. I could talk to you for hours, but I know you got to get on. I appreciate you so very much. Everyone is already aware of it, but go watch New Heights. Incredible. I can't wait to see you on Mondays. We end the episode the same way. Look in that camera right there. You say one word or one phrase that's going to cement the episode. We used to be a phrase, then it was a word. Some people like a It's a little something, or some people like one solid word. So whenever you're ready in that camera.

What time is it?

Is it one word or one phrase? You can pick. It's can pick.

It used to- Can I give an example?

Yeah. Some people say like keep on, keep on. Some people have a little coined phrase. Some people say stuff like tequila. It could be one word like that. Just something that you think would end the episode properly from your perspective.

End this episode?

Oh, my gosh. Something in your heart and soul. It can be very meaningful. It can be stupid. It doesn't really matter.

I'm going to steal this from a good friend of mine.

Do it.

Life is worth living. In here, we pour whiskey, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey.

Like vampires, the ginger gene is a curse.

Ginger's a fugival.

You owe me $5 for the whiskey and $75 for the horse. Ginger's, oh, hell no. This whiskey is excellent. Ginger. I like gingers.