Peyton and Eli Manning, Super Bowl 59 Preview and Sucking on Crawfish Heads in New Orleans | Ep 123

30:21And so I've kept up with Patrick and Jalen throughout their careers. Jalen reached out a couple of years ago about kind of the routine of the Super Bowl. And I sort of gave him my tips and pointers. He kind of knows that routine now. Mahomes, you know, gets his mail sent to the Super Bowl every year because he knows he's going to be there. So Travis does as well. So they don't have to ask me too many questions anymore about the Super Bowl routine. Well, you always got the best advice, big guy. I remember getting my first shot at SNL and getting the text from you to just enjoy the ride, man. I loved – I appreciated that.

30:58That made me feel so much more at home, knowing that you believed in me to have fun and to do it the right way. So I appreciate that. But Eli, you actually had somebody come up to you at the Pro Bowl and tell you that he was actually in the Manning camp. Yeah. Wide receiver from Atlanta, right? Yeah. Hodge. Hodge. Hodge, there it is. Yeah, he came up and said he was a camper. He came his junior year, he was a quarterback, and he came to the camp. That's crazy. Obviously, we told him, I think he should try a receiver. uh and so we saw we saw right there it's like uh yeah seven on seven he was playing receiver some made some plays and now he's you know he's uh making making the pro bowl as a special team guy but you know you know he's a receiver also in the nfl and um and so this is a great story so we've had a couple guys uh a couple guys uh a couple quarterbacks in the nfl also i think russell Wilson was a camper.

31:56He, you know, not as a counselor, became as a camper in high school. The new coach of the Jaguars, Liam Cohen, was a camper. Liam Cohen. How about that? Nice. Oh. So, that's how old we are. We got coaches. We got coaches that were campers now. That's crazy, man. You guys have been doing it for a while, man. Me and Hodge have a similar story. I was actually recruited at Tennessee. David Cutcliffe was working me out. thought I had some potential to be a football player, not to be a quarterback. So Tennessee never offered me. But yeah, eventually made the transition over. If Thomas would have been a camper, you would have sped his career up quite a bit getting him away from the quarterback position.

32:36Exactly. No, that's awesome stuff you guys do with the young guys, man. And always paving the way for the future, man. That's always good stuff. Thanks. Eli, you were talking about your former teammate, Saquon Barkley. And when we had Saquon on the show, So we do a lot of the welcome to your NFL moments. And his welcome to the NFL moment was when, or at least he said, you shoved grass in his mouth. Yeah. Is this a confirmed story? Yeah, this is a confirmed story. Every year before the first preseason game, a lot of these years, the starters aren't playing much. And they're really going over a little bit that first game, what the routine is before the first preseason game.

33:23How do we line up? How do we stretch? How do you run out of the tunnel? All the pat and go. So we're kind of doing those things. And I'm kind of sitting on the sideline a long time. And I always kind of walk up to a few of the rookies and I'm kind of holding my mouth and I'm going, man, I got to get my mouth, my teeth been bothering me. I got to get my wisdom teeth pulled after the game. and they're kind of asking questions. I ask them if they've ever had their – if they have or had their wisdom teeth pulled, whether they say yes or no, I say, you know, can I see? Can I either see your wisdom teeth or do you still have holes in your mouth?

34:01And so when they kind of open up and look up and open their mouth, I got a big chump or clump of grass and dirt in my hand, and I just throw it in there. And, you know, I've gotten like three or four guys on that first practice. I've gotten a few coaches. So good. One time the best – Sean O 'Hara and I were trying to get a rookie, and Imani Toomer came over. Imani is like in his ninth year, and he just like jumped in the conversation. Like we're not talking to him. And he opened up, and O 'Hara put a couple of grass in his mouth. That's so bad. We weren't trying to get you. You offered up this information.

34:44I didn't resist. You volunteered yourself. Yeah, it's amazing. Since we're on the Super Bowl, do you guys, either of you, have a welcome to the Super Bowl moment? I mean, I think it was my ninth year playing in it for the first year. And just, you know, down in Miami, it was raining that year. It was the only Super Bowl that it really had rained. But I think, you know, Billy Joel saying the national anthem, I think there's something about being on the sideline when that national anthem plays. He's watching it all those years as a kid. Travis, my first Super Bowls as a kid were in New Orleans, obviously.

35:23I saw Montana beat the Broncos in the 89-90 season, whatever that was. That was in New Orleans. I actually was in college, came back and saw the Packers beat the Patriots in the Super Bowls. So there have obviously been some great ones there in New Orleans. It would be another great one with your Chiefs and the Eagles. But that national anthem is a – I still get emotional watching it as a fan, as an ex-player sitting at home. But I think we were on the sidelines knowing this game is about to happen. That's something that kind of jumped out to me that I'm really here and I'm really playing in a Super Bowl.

36:04It was a pretty cool moment. Woo-hoo, you're firing me up just thinking, just talking about it, man. A hundred percent. You had the worst start to a Super Bowl with Hester just running back the opening kick. It was an emotional moment that kind of ended pretty quickly with Hester. We got to lock in, boys. That's too good. Eli, you got one for us? You know, I think it's just for me, it was just trying to get that first completion. And I just remember, you know, you're just nervous. I mean, kind of a new nerve. And you played a whole season. You play playoff games. You play the NFC Championship.

36:40Also, it's like a Super Bowl. Just all the lights and the national anthem and everything going on. And I just remember, you know, the coach was kind of going through some of the plays. And I was just like, Coach, I'm just a little nervous. I need a handoff the first play. Like, I don't want to, you know, I'm just, I don't know. I just got to get, like, breathe a little bit. So we got a handoff. And I got my first completion next play. and had a nice kind of 10 play, long drive, got a field goal. And then it was kind of back to normal. But it's definitely a different intensity and just two weeks to think about it.

37:19And there's so much coming on on this game and what it means to your team, your fans, your family, so many people coming in town for it. So the heart's pumping a little bit harder that first series that was Super Bowl for sure. 100%. I still don't remember the first half of the one that I was in. I have no idea. I remember we started the game down 10s in my mind. I'm just like, how did this happen? Where did this? We all have our holes. I need more now than ever. Travis, you've been running the wrong plays for the first entire half now. I'm locked in, coach. I got it. I got it. I got to ask you guys as a center.

37:59Peyton, you brought up Sean O 'Harris. So I'm going to come back to you, Eli, because I do know Sean O 'Hare very well. I also know Jeff Saturday very well. There is a moment on the sideline between you and Jeff. Legendary. And you, I think everyone knows which moment I'm talking about. It's one of my favorite interactions of a quarterback center of all time. How quickly did you realize you were mic'd up? The whole time? Or it was just like mid-fury of just like, I'm tired of this guy bitching. I need to like – go ahead. I mean, look, when you're mic'd up, to me, the sooner you can forget about it, the better, right?

38:33For sure. I kind of knew I was mic'd up in pregame warm-ups because you put your pads on, you can see the tape over the mic, so you're just kind of thinking about it, and hopefully once the game goes. But we had run the ball all the way down there. Jason had a good run game. We were playing a Monday night game against the Rams, ran it down there, and the Rams, inside the five-yard line, basically said, okay, enough's enough. They loaded the box. We had a run play called first down and second down. They were blitzing everybody. We audibled, throw, throw, incomplete. Now it's third and goal, throw again.

39:08So naturally, Jeff and the offensive line, just like all of you, are not happy. Why do you run it to get down there? And now we're going to throw it. So we sit on our separate sides of the bench, but I can hear them talking. I can hear them, you know, why are we throwing it? Just run the rock, run the rock. I kind of let it breathe, let it breathe, and finally I just snapped. And I go down there, and I'm all fired up. Then I realize, Travis, I mean, I am in enemy territory. The entire offensive line is ready to support their center and come right in the alley. Okay, let me kind of back off of this.

39:45But I'll tell you a good Super Bowl story about Jeff Saturday real quick. Every Thursday during our entire career in Indianapolis, Jeff and I played together forever. We always did wet ball drills, right, where, you know, we're taking snaps before practice, and the equipment guy is spraying the water bottle on the football, creating the environment. And Jeff would get so mad, Travis, because he'd say, Peyton, we're playing in the RCA dome this week. There's no chance of rain. I'm like, you never know. There could be a leak. You never know. It's ritual at this point. You're going to prepare. Anyway, we do that for eight years, right?

40:24and every Thursday, no matter what, we get to the Super Bowl. It's raining like just cats and dogs, and we have zero fumbled snaps. The Bears have three fumbled snaps, and I say that's why we've been doing the wet ball snap drill all these years. So those little things pay off in the Super Bowl. They pay off when you're a dome team, baby. That's good shit right there. Eli, do you have any of those stories with Sean? Yeah. All of your centers? Well, I had wet ball drill with Sean every single day. It's a shredder. It would shred so badly. It wasn't rain. It was just swamp ass, huh? Yeah. I mean, this is before you're in shotgun every playoff.

41:07We're under center, eye formation, and we're under center on first and second down every series. Even third down sometimes we were under center and dropping back and throwing the ball. So, I mean, I was getting the wet ball. I made him change his pants at halftime, which is a, you know, a couple of times. That's not easy. That's not, I mean, they basically have to cut the pants off because you got your shoes are spanish. You can just take off your shoes. You're taped up. You're taped up. Yeah. Everything else. I mean, he's on his back, this laying there and people are ripping them off. It's not that hard to get the pants on, but putting dry pants on a wet body is not an easy feat, especially open sleeves.

41:48so he was happy about that he was he was ready for november to hit the cooler weather i didn't make him change the pants but uh we didn't have any fumbled snaps just because of all the wet ball drill every just standard wet ball drill so good all right let's uh let's get off the centers and get on some tight ends baby you guys both played with some great ones uh jeremy shockey my guy dallas clark uh absolute legends man um i remember coming in and wanting to be like shockey He was such an energy. Like, he looked like a force to be reckoned with every single time he played the game. And Dallas Clark, I mean, his fearlessness over the middle, Peyton.

42:24I don't know how many times I saw you guys throw a bender in cover two, and he just went up there and just got smoked for the team. He's just no gloves on, just going up, just running through a wall for a guy. Shockey's bender is a little bit different than Dallas. Shockey, when you have a bender, that word means something different to Shockey. Yes. I was I had to ask though what uh what do you think it is about tight end and quarterback like relationship that that that really gets the best out of the offense I mean to me look they're closer to the quarterback than than the Z or the X or the slot they're right there uh just you know just kind of three players away right guard tackle tight end so they're kind of one of the last guys that you kind of almost break the huddle with, I feel like, Travis.

43:12You could always – I mean, I see Travis and Patrick talking as they're breaking the huddle. And so you can kind of get the last word in, hey, if they blitz, you know, break hot. Hey, look, watch out for cover two-man. Give the guy a little stick to the outside before you bend it. And so I think just that little extra conversation, maybe that closer proximity kind of creates that tight end quarterback bond. And I always felt like I knew where Dallas was going to be. Look, what Patrick and Travis have created is a whole different level, but it's just a real comfort zone. And I love Dallas. Like you said, he was fearless across the middle.

43:50We were down there with Kittle. He was talking about tight end you. Oh, it's so much fun. How Dallas still comes back and works it. So it's a special connection when you have a quarterback and tight end that have that feel for each other. There's a confidence there, and I felt that way with Dallas. Obviously, you and Patrick have had that forever. I think the other thing with the tight ends and quarterback, it's harder for a team to double a tight end. You might have a receiver on the outside. Hey, we've got to take away this receiver. We're going to play two-man or we're going to double him in different ways or play certain zones to take him away.

44:29Some of your staple plays on first and second down, you know, hey, you're going to have a matchup in the offensive favor of a tight end on a linebacker, possibly where, hey, we can run a stick route. We can get our completion. So I think you just have a lot of your high percentage completion plays are kind of the tight ends, the number one read. And if they do take him away or they have bad leverage, you should have one on one with your receivers and get through your progression. But I just think kind of some of your staples and your comfort plays it starts with the tight end being that first read nice and we can all confirm that you you got to get that bond off the field and have some beers how many times you go on a bender with shockey no benders with shockey but definitely you know we hit the town in new york new york city a few times those first couple years he showed me some spots i definitely haven't been to since let's say that so i love it man shout out to shockey baby i gotta ask this i don't know if he's going to, but what would you guys, I mean, you guys know that Travis is kind of known for not running the route on the page.

45:37I'd assume. How would you guys have liked playing with a tight end that freelance like that? Would you have been in favor of that? I'm not running the wrong route. I'm running what the quarterback wants me to run. It might not be what's on paper. He might not even know he wants you to run it. You see, I would agree with Travis. I feel like Travis keeps the offensive coordinator from kind of being one play away, right? You know, if you have outside leverage and you have an out route, I see Travis, you know, kind of just curl it in. And Mahomes sees that and he throws it to him as opposed to saying, man, I wish we would have had the inside curl route on that play.

46:18So he's kind of a coordinator's best friend. And look, as long as the quarterback knows that he might do that, I think that makes it okay, right? If all of a sudden you're just going to surprise the quarterback and just make stuff up, that's one thing. But it doesn't look like to me Travis has ever surprised Patrick out there. He's just finding those kind of soft spots in the zone. And like I said, the coordinator looks like a genius. Wow, what an unbelievable play call created the perfect location for Travis to be open. Meanwhile, Travis should have co-offensive coordinator as part of his title.

46:57Can you believe they called a hook and ladder play right there? I can't believe they did. Exactly. Eli, we talked about it. You'd chew me out if I turned inside on stick, on a wide stick. I would not have. No. You wouldn't have thrown it? Absolutely. Absolutely. I disagree with Eli. I see teams doubling you all the time. They just don't do it very well. They don't really take you away. They still kind of somehow leave you open. I don't really know why or how they do that, but I mean, you beat the double teams. And like I said, if they're doubling you, that means somebody else has got to be single.

47:37That's a good thing. Well, we'll get to our last segment here. It's called, we got to ask, but you don't have to answer. You guys can tell us to fuck off if you guys don't want to answer these. Feel free. It's always fun, man. And we closed all our convos with this segment. And I'll get to the first one. Who got into the most trouble growing up? And you guys can even throw Cooper into this. Yeah, definitely Coop. Coop. Yeah, Coop.

48:02He's pretty strong. So one brother that's not able to defend himself is immediately there. Yeah, Coop kind of set the tone. And so we kind of knew, you know, maybe to do the same things without getting caught. You know, Coop was the one that got caught. and so Eli and I can kind of learn from there. There's something about them older brothers not knowing how to not get caught. You got to flank. You got to learn the art of flanking. I got suspended every freaking year of elementary school for getting in a fight. Travis got into a fight and then went to the principal's office and got tickets to the Cavs game because everybody loved him so much.

48:35That's because I was such a good artist, Jason. I won a contest. That was besides the fact. But, yeah, it was cool seeing Cooper up at the Super Bowl opening night last night. Was he in the marching band growing up? I mean, he wore that outfit pretty goddamn good. Absolutely not. I don't know where he got that costume. Zero band experience, I can promise. That's good. He likes the harmonica, though. If you give him the opportunity. Is he a harmonica? Oh, I would love to hear that. That's a lost talent right there. Can he bend the notes? Can he, like, do, like, blues harmonica? Is he straight? you got our band geek all fired up over here I'd say he's new to it it's all new he's like a Bob Dylan Travis Brown running alright your pops Archie was also a quarterback in the NFL for 13 years what advice did he give both of you guys slide slide he also told us we're not very fast so don't run and first of all, he couldn't run.

49:40He had to kill it. And he said, don't do that. Y 'all are not fast. And when you get out there, get down, don't take hits. And, you know, we learned that the hard way. You know, it only takes one hit in the NFL. And you're like, yeah, I should have listened to Dad. He's definitely right. I'm going to go back. Yeah. Definitely slide. Have fun. You always kind of the last thing you used to text us or if we talked to him the night before the game was don't forget to have fun out there, which I think is a good reminder, especially in a game like this, right? You work so hard, you know, have fun. And also just kind of off the field, you know, be sure you have a great relationship and respect with your equipment manager, the video director, the people behind the scenes that you guys know that don't get nearly enough credit or attention on a television broadcast but are sort of integral to the culture of a team.

50:32You know, just little things like that. It was nice having a guy who played in the NFL that can tell you about little things like that. Did you guys have any pressure to live up to, I guess, what Archie did? Because Travis and I, like, we didn't have a lot to live up with Ed Kelsey. I'm just letting you know. There was a bar that was very low for Ed Kelsey. Don't you dare do that to me again. Well, for football, for football. No, there'd be an athlete bar. Dad bar is set high for Ed Kelsey. Extremely high, yeah. You know, my dad didn't sort of try to create an environment where he was just trying to raise kids.

51:05He wasn't trying to raise NFL quarterbacks. And maybe that's why it ended up happening because, you know, he encourages us to play sports because of the valuable lessons that sports teaches. But, you know, never once did we talk about, this is what you have to do if you want to play in the NFL. It was, Hey, work hard to be the starting quarterback on the JV. And after that, you know, maybe see if he can start on the varsity the next year. And his rule, Jason and Travis was, if we wanted his help, we had to go and ask him, Hey dad, will you come to the school on Sunday afternoon and throw with our receivers?

51:37It wasn't him going, hey, we're going to run two miles today. And I think it was a healthy approach because we wanted his help because he played the game. And I think that was a good approach that he took. And it made it fun growing up and never felt like pressure. Yeah, there's definitely more pressure than me trying to follow in Peyton's footsteps. He was five years older than me. You know, I go into the high school. He set every record. I'm going into college. He was just up for the Heisman. He was the first pick in the NFL draft. And it's like, geez, Louise, you feel like I didn't have to do the best at everything that I enter into and follow your footsteps.

52:14But he was a great big brother as I got older. And he definitely picked on me and gave me wedgies and noogies and all those things, which I think helped me. It toughened me up and got me prepared for the NFL. But he always did, like in college, he would come back and teach me the things he was learning in college. Hey, we're doing this on the three-step drop. And hey, this is some of the drills we're doing in college. You should be doing these now. Like get a head start on these things. So he did look out for me all the time and probably put more pressure on me to do some of these drills than my dad did.

52:53Well, you guys got the formula. You guys got it figured out. Arch Manning is having an unbelievable start to his college career. But also, I remember I saw you guys playing knockout on TV when I was a kid, and I was like, I'm brother and right, because that's exactly how me and Jason played knockout growing up. Let's keep this thing moving, though. Who has the most buns career stat? Eli with the most career fumbles or Peyton with the most interceptions by a rookie? Oh, wow. I guess mine sounds worse. It's over career. or his is just I would agree. I would agree. It's because of Sean Sweaty-Ans.

53:32We already figured this out. Fucking Sean. Although my interception record, the 17 games, I thought for sure it just would get broken. I mean, nobody's coming close to it. I'm disappointed. And they're throwing more now than you were throwing. Your game is throwing more and less interceptions. Something's not right. They got to get to the kid in the first three games. If they can get to the kid in the first three games. You got to get off to a good start. That's insane. You guys have a new documentary coming out, Razor's Edge on Vice. Omaha's forthcoming follow doc on Coach Calipari. Oh, that's awesome.

54:14Arkansas's man's basketball team. What can you guys tell us about the doc? Yeah, it's just a cool behind the scenes. You know, Coach Cal's done it a long time. and obviously making the big move to Arkansas. Just wanted to kind of document, you know, his first season. It's a changing landscape with NIL. You know, Coach Cal was kind of known for just sort of coaching freshmen, right? Kind of the one and done. And, you know, now he's kind of changed his approach where he wants, you know, kind of older players. He doesn't have that many players. He's like, if I'm going to pay these guys, I'm going to have a limited amount of players and play them all.

54:49So just to kind of take people behind the scenes of what it's like to be an SEC, head basketball coach. He went back to Kentucky two nights ago and won, which was incredible because of all that he accomplished there, winning a national championship. Got kind of, you know, some fans were clapping when he came back. Some fans were booing and hadn't gotten over it, but he went in there and won. So look, all these behind the scenes shows just give the audience a different view. So we're excited about it. Razor's edge coming out on Vice. Hell yeah. That's awesome, man. I'm so intrigued in that. I'm definitely going to be dialed in.

55:22Fuck yeah. If you were both playing college football today, who has the higher NIL deals? I mean, you got to go with Peyton again. I mean, the guy's, you know, he's a great spokesman. He's just – He could sell a product or what? Yeah. I wouldn't have accepted any of it. I would have given it all to my centers and my tight ends. There we go. There we go. You can just lie to the camera like that.

55:56Oh, my gosh. So good. How has the NIL stuff changed the landscape? Because you guys both have kids coming up. The documentary with Calipari, I'm sure, touches on the NIL. What are your guys' thoughts on NIL just in general? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's probably a better question for Travis. I mean, Travis, are you seeing any change in the demeanor of college players coming to the NFL? Because, I mean, to me, that's the biggest thing that I was worried about. You know, are guys coming in as hungry, you know, to try to make the team, to try to, you know, obviously win a championship hopefully, but, you know, make some money as well.

56:33Are you seeing that, Travis? It probably just depends on the individual. I think it has a lot to do with the culture in KC. I haven't seen that. Our number one pick, Xavier Worthy, has been nothing but the hardest worker on the team. He's just spent every single day grinding out, trying to figure out ways to implement himself in the offense more and get better at the things that Coach Reed asked him to do. So I definitely haven't seen it in the rookies we've got, at least. But, yeah, who knows? Yeah. I mean, to me, that's the thing that I want to keep is keep guys coming in hungry and trying to accomplish new goals and, you know, obviously help teams win.

57:07So as long as we got that going, you know, I'm okay. I'm with you. Love it. Nice. Well, last question. hypothetically um if there had been an official manning bowl who would have won wow i'll answer he don't want to say it he's too nice i mean he is he in the in in the nfl games i have not beat him in a real game now you know flag football pro bowl i got that mastered but he uh i'm 0 for 3 anytime we faced them in a real game. And so, but, you know, that's just the way it went those years. It would have been – I guess it would have been – I don't know if it would have been fun to play you in a Super Bowl or not.

57:50I mean, y 'all did it. It's got to be awesome. I can tell you right now, it was not fun at all, Eli. It was fucking terrible. The one thing – I had a pretty good time. I don't know. Yeah, you enjoyed yourself, I'm sure. Yeah. No hypothetical on this end, guys. I mean, no. That's a hypothetical. Hip-hop, hip-hop, hip-hop. Hey, Travis, Jason, the one thing Eli has no clue and no understanding, and believe me, he's proud of it, is what it's like to lose a Super Bowl, right? And it's a horrible feeling. Obviously, winning is as great as you think it is, and losing is as bad as you think it is. And so I'm kind of glad that it didn't happen, because I know that was tough on you two, tough on your family.

58:33and Eli and I played three times in the regular season. My parents were an absolute wreck and just in a regular season game. And now you take that to the Super Bowl and knowing, you know, obviously the attention a quarterback's going to get in a Super Bowl, win or lose, knowing that, you know, one had to win and one had to lose. I probably wouldn't wish that on my family. So I'm probably glad that it didn't happen. And I think the way y 'all handled that several years ago and the way your family handled it was first class. I know that was not easy. Yeah, well, I mean, I had lost one. I hear what you're saying, Peyton.

59:08I had lost a Super Bowl going into the game that we lost, so I just had to make sure that Jason felt that misery. That was just being a good brother. You guys know about being good brothers. Did you feel bad going out that night and celebrating, like just knowing that your brother is crying in his hotel room and you were just fine just going out there and just – Well, you know, once you have a few beers, you forget about everything. I was not, I wasn't crying. I was pulling a Jeremy Shockey is what I was doing. Eli, you brought up Spaggs. Eagles are playing one of the best defense coordinators in the history of the NFL at this point, it feels like.

59:46What would you do? What would your game plan be going up against that? Blitz packaging and like everything that he can throw at you. Like what would your game plan be? Don't give it away. Don't give it away. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Not that I give away. Spaggs. Spaggs is the best. And, I mean, we saw it. It's the first time I've ever seen it in our first Super Bowl going against the Patriots where, you know, every time he had a strong side blitz and Brady made a call, hey, I'm going to pick it up, he had the defense reverse it and just kind of make a call. And all of a sudden it came from the weak side and getting them to throw hot, getting them, you know, really just kind of causing some issues saying, hey, I can't be right with my protections.

1:00:25They're flip-flopping it sometimes. And so you just see it, you know, unbelievable. And last week's game, the last play, the fourth down against the Bills, where it's an empty formation of a four by one. He brings a wheel corner blitz on the biggest, you know, biggest play of the game and gets, you know, has a free runner going. So, I mean, that's his mentality. He wants the blitz, but it's not just, hey, we're bringing blitz zero. It's going to be some exotic blitz, some blitz. He has it done all game long. All game long. He's not showing this blitz. When do you bring it? Fourth and five on the last drive in the most critical moment of the game.

1:01:03And so that's what makes him hard to prepare for is that, hey, how do I prepare for something I haven't seen yet or something they haven't done this year yet that he's not, you know, draw up for these critical moments? And and just and then when you think he is a blitz, he fakes the blitz and going back to coverage. So just when you think you got him, he's a mastermind. He's a great leader. He's a great human being. This is one of the great, you know, people. And so happy for him, all his success. And, you know, I think, Travis, you know how lucky you are to have him on that defensive side, just, you know, being the leader over there.

1:01:40One of my favorite coaches of all time, baby. I'm right there with you, brother. Well, fellas, thank you guys for your time, man. The Mannings have came through, man. One good brother to another, man. We love you guys. Thank you guys for leading the way, doing things the right way, and always lending a helping hand, man. We love you guys, man. Best of luck in the field goal kicks. I can't wait to see this field goal kick. Yeah. I don't know what I'm more fired up to watch. I've seen enough Super Bowls. I want to watch this field goal kick. That's what I want to watch. Our second food review. Was this gumbo or jambalaya?

1:02:13Gumbo. Gumbo and crawfish. Or, depending on where you're from, crayfish. All right, Jason, dive in. Well, there's two spoons. I think there's two for your right and left hand. Are you not going to eat any gumbo? I'm not eating that, no. What kind of gumbo is this? Chicken and sausage. Chicken and sausage. Another reason why I'm not eating it right there. You don't like chicken and sausage? I'm not a sausage guy. You're not a sausage? Oh, that's right. Even when it's cut up? I thought that was just a phallic thing. No. It's just a whole, like... The way you ate that was disgusting. That's fucking delicious.

1:02:48Oh my God, that sound. It's so good. What the fuck was that, like, slurp? I could use a little hot sauce.

1:02:57who eats like that somebody wearing a white t-shirt eating gumbo make sure you don't get any extra juice i mean you you didn't hesitate one second you went back for you went back for like it's fucking it's delicious it's chicken and sausage in soup form with rice all right i'm not gonna lie i don't even know how to fucking attack this i've never had a crawfish outside of like, what do you mean? I got a great motherfucker open. Am I eating the belly? I got Greg. Locals helping. Tail, pop a tail off. That's the fuck you mean other way. That's a tail. There it is. Thank you. Of the tail or the body?

1:03:43Tail. So I'm only eating the tail. Optional to suck the head. Optional to suck the head. I'm going to suck that motherfucker's head if it's optional. how do i get this in i know i have no idea i'm not even getting any fucking meat out of this thing just you've never ate a shrimp before i'll tell you what it's a bad idea to eat fucking crawfish on your goddamn lap and a white t-shirt this is a fucking awful desire dude you look great i'm struggling you gotta put your superhero mask on that's why am i fucking doing this right is somebody telling me how to do 100 you are you're getting it there you go see you did it it tastes great but i'm kind of feeling the same thing i feel towards crab which is just like it's a lot of work for like not that much meat this is better than crab though i dig that flavor what i do suck the head there you go this way i was gonna suck no go 45 two seats baby that's all we need when you go to the bar after dark smoke that crawfish hair nice shout out to Afro man so you only eat the fucking tails of this thing the fuck that just seems like such a waste look at how small its tail is oh yeah well I need to see what your rhythm's like man cause I'm getting no rhythm and I feel like this is a lot to throw away

1:05:14that's why i'm sucking that head dog

1:05:29it's all in your beard this is great i mean on flavors alone 10 out of 10 nice it is fucking delicious but on difficulty of obtaining the meat and just pure waste i'm going like four. But it's absolutely wonderful. If I knew what I was doing, I think it'd be a ten. We are here for a reason. There is the 59th Super Bowl in the history of the NFL being played. 59. Yeah. That's a lot of Super Bowls. If I'm reading my Roman numerals correct, it's 59. It is correct. It continually gets more confusing when they start editing L's. The L's always get you. At what point are we just going to have to abandon Roman numeralist because nobody's going to have a fucking clue what the Roman numeral means.

1:06:13It's like cursive. Yeah. They don't even teach the kids anymore. What is, so X is five, one. Ten. Ten. Yeah. That's right. I is one. V is five. X is ten. L is fifty. Seven. What's the most complicated Roman numeral number you can, like, long, we can come up with? It would be like – so couldn't it be like subtract like 500 as just five Cs? Or is 500 – I don't know if this is the Super Bowl talk everyone wants to hear. The largest number that can be represented in Roman numerals is 3 ,999, which is written M-M-M-C-M-X-C-I-X. Well, there you have it. We're going to have to abandon Roman numerals at Super Bowl 3 ,999 to 99 because good luck selling that merchandise um all right with this being your fifth super bowl has any change with how you approach this game are you gonna abandon all the other things that have allowed you to win uh no i'm gonna stay stay true to those uh particularly the second half of those games uh try and start this one nice and fast i gotta say this because i get okay so everybody brings up the halftime being longer whenever somebody goes so for those of you that don't know the halftime is longer and typically it's like 15 minutes it's not that much longer it's 10 minutes more i don't know if i am just like so anti-organized have me do anything on game day you're preaching to the choir i cannot stay like when they're like okay we need to stretch at this and do this like motherfucker it's 10 more minutes i'm pretty sure i'm not getting a cold down i'm gonna eat an uncrustable and get my mind right for the second half i don't need you to tell me to stretch my quads make sure everybody knows that is the key at halftime is the uncrustable get you an uncrustable a capri sun and go ahead and enjoy yourself i think a lot of the times it gets over well i guess i'm one and one you are clearly a better record do you feel like people overthink that portion of the super bowl you know what uh selfishly thinking yes but in the grand scheme of things people do like structure and people do like to kind of be under you know some sort of regimen I think it helps guys in their first couple years or at least it did in my first Super Bowl to just relax understand this is how much time's going going on and it gave me something to do did I stretch the next time no but I you know I understood what I was capable of doing at that point.

1:08:54I understood the system. I understood like what was happening. It was, I was more familiar with the, yeah, the entire Super Bowl system. So it's just like, I didn't do a lot of the stuff I did my first year. Maybe it's because I played a position that mentally you were making calls and trying to like discern, like, what do we do? What's the plan? But I think you're very much wired that same way. I would have much rather taken the more allocated time and be like, hey, let's talk about what we're going to do in the second half, even more than we get. allotted in a regular halftime because a regular halftime you're speeding through you're like okay this is what they're giving us these are the coverages we're seeing these are the runs we're getting to these are the concepts we like on third down yada yada let's go out there and play ball it's like no let's actually talk about like what are the first 10 plays we might run coming out of the second half and like really dial in on this stuff rather than you know do a quad stretch Somebody might need that quad stretch.

1:09:47You're right. And if Jason Kelsey doesn't need it, Jason Kelsey ain't going to fucking do it. I just feel like just drink yourself a fucking water and sodium. Get you some pickle juice. Yeah. Get you. Eat you an Uncrustable. Maybe snag an orange. Jog back out to the field. Guess what? You'll be warm again. I'm also just anti-stretching in general, so I'm not the person to ask. Two World Wars. Two World Wars. I played in fucking world record consecutive games for the Eagles. maybe I'm on to something. Stretching is overrated. Push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks. The only two times I've pulled a muscle, and I'm not making this up, is when I was doing yoga.

1:10:28Like, I was in a yoga class in college, pulled a muscle. Then I started doing some yoga in the NFL one year. I did like a yoga class, very same week, pulled a muscle. And I'm like, this stretching shit is for the birds, dog. It ain't for me. But to answer your question, I think over the The last four Super Bowls that I've been to, I am at a completely different place as a leader. So I feel like getting everyone comfortable is my biggest thing. Because I'm going to go out there and I'm going to be, you know, I'm going to play my style of football because I'm confident in where I've been and how I've gotten here and things like that.

1:11:07But we got a lot of new faces that haven't been in the Super Bowl yet. And I'm sure it'll hit them like it hit me my first really two Super Bowls. And it'll surprise them how emotional it'll be for them. So trying to weather that storm and make sure they feel comfortable. And the biggest thing, man, is if adversity hits, man, band together, man. This is a team sport, brother. You didn't get here alone and you got guys fighting right there with you. You hit the nail on the head. I think having the structure is nice for the guys that want it there. And then if you don't want to do it, most of the coaches realize the older guys that want to get something else accomplished.

1:11:43Yeah, go do your thing. They're not going to push back on it. We're just making sure everybody feels comfortable and not letting the moment get too big. Yeah, that's going to be my biggest concern is just making sure everybody feels comfortable and playing our style of football, man. I think we're playing the best team that we've played yet. And that's it makes sense going into the Super Bowl. I think offensively, defensively, special teams wise, both teams match up really good. And at the same time, you know, I got all the confidence in the formula that we've had under Coach Reed and just how we do things in KC.

1:12:16And I just, you know, I believe in the guys next to me. And if we play our style of football, man, we're going to put ourselves in a good situation. That's the biggest thing. The emotions of the game can cause people to do uncharacteristic things that they normally wouldn't. Yeah. So how do we avoid? It can either make you timid or make you way too ballsy. Yeah. Or it can make you just right. If you weather it right, it can be perfect. It's like, oh, this is the biggest game. I got to be great. I got to go do something crazy. Or you can weigh over a thing. I've done both. I've done all of these.

1:12:43Yeah. I've done absolutely all of these. A lot of fans are asking if Pat is okay after the Mavericks traded his favorite player, Luka Doncic. Oh, yeah. They trade him to the Lakers in case you live in a sewer. Pat's tweets almost gave the Chiefs a heart attack. he said i'm sick right now and everybody's like wait what yeah i knew exactly what it was because yeah you were probably with him well yeah i'm in a few different group chats with him and uh everybody was like pat what the fuck is going on in dallas obviously a dallas kid and grew up a huge dallas sports fan and it's been at countless games we're actually at a game and i got to say what's up to luke we talked about it on the show and did pat say what's wrong with uh what happened I don't, I'm pretty sure nobody knows exactly what happened other than the GM.

1:13:31Even Mark Cuban came out and I was listening to my guy, Jan Parsons, talk about it. He said, yeah, I don't have any idea what's going on. It's still up in the air on if it was the good move, the right move to make. Did you see, what was the... What do you think the equivalent, well, you don't even watch the NBA, so I gotta... I watched some of it. All right. I've not watched any this year. Who's in the number one seed for the East? I've just told you I've not watched any this year. I know it's not the Sixers. You're right. They are shrugging. It's the team that honored you and gave you a jersey that you sat courtside at, Jason.

1:14:06Nice. They're balling like that. I knew they had a good start to the year. I have not followed them. Damn it. Go Cavs, baby. It's our year. Let's go. But at the same time, yeah, that tweet and everything kind of got confusing, but Pat's good. Pat's all good. He's not actually sick. He's healthy. All right. This is if I could go. So I can't wait for this Sunday, man. I'm so freaking fired up. If it wasn't for the Mannings getting me fired up talking about the National Anthem or Jason talking about how he'll be happy if the Eagles win. I am so fired up for this game. I love it. And I just want to.

1:14:39I relish in these moments, man. I've been waiting all year to fast forward to this game, man. What's the most electric National Anthem? You already know it. Chris Stapleton. There's just no one even close. Fucking killed it. I, on a sad day, I will put that video on. I'll go to YouTube. Just to watch me and Nick Sirianni cry and then revel in the fact that you beat us? Hmm. I never looked at it like that. Chris Jones cried, too, to be fair. Chris Jones. I cried, but I kept my composure. Yeah. That's. But more so, Chris did his thing in one of my favorite performances ever. Yeah. It was very electric.

1:15:17Nice. Well, let's get to our last food review. And you make folks feel what you feel inside. All right, Brandon, bring the king cake and the beignets in. Oh, yeah. Trav, are you allowed to eat this? No, but I am. What? Wait, are you allowed to eat or are you not allowed to eat it? No, I'm not allowed to eat this, Jason. But for the sake of the show, I will eat this. You're willing to do something like that? what if Andy came in right because you were about to take a bite and take it out of here I'd fucking offer him one and see what happens

1:15:56alright which one are we going at first king cake or the benet the benet is going to be messy it's the closest one I love the texture of that cheese so what is a king cake

1:16:14cinnamon roll Yeah. Gladiator cinnamon roll. Gladiator cinnamon roll. There's a little bit of like a minty frosting in there. It's not your typical frosting. There's something in the frosting for sure. I think it's sprinkles. You think it's minty sprinkles? I'm not going to lie. I'm getting zero mint. It tastes like something from Philly, to be honest. Like something I would get at Wawa's. It tastes like a cinnamon roll with frosting and sprinkles on it. I'm giving it a good seven. Yeah, I mean, it's very good. I would eat this. Yeah. It's almost like a honey bun. I was going with Tasty Cake. It's kind of like a tasty cake with frosting.

1:16:47It's a good loaf of bread for sure. Good bake. Good bake. Yeah, good bake. Good rise on it. Where are you going? I went 7 out of 10. It's no tasty cake honeycomb. It's hard to give like a number when you don't even know what like. Are we rating it on just like a baked goods? Yeah, we're rating. 7 out of 10. There you go. Beignet, let's go. How do you spell beignet? B-E-I-G-N-E-T. You just read it. Cheater. All right. I hope there's enough sugar. This is my crib tonight. I will eat all of those. So what is, are you supposed to do anything with a beignet other than like, I've never, first of all, these fucking beignets are huge.

1:17:28I've never seen beignets this big. That's my kind of shit right here. Are you supposed to like dip them in something or just eat it? Eat it. Do you typically have these with coffee in the morning, like a donut? Are these good beignets? These are fucking, these are good beignets. Oh, dude. It's just a funnel cake in a donut fashion. I can get on with this. One more week, Travis. I love funnel cakes. One more week. Get me out of there. Get me out before it's too late. Beignets are really hard for somebody with facial hair. I don't know if you can tell. I feel like I'm wearing it. You're good. You already have white in your beard, though, so it just blends.

1:18:08It just blends in. I can't wait till my beard is fully white. Dude, it's almost there. It's getting there. You're going to be Tim Allen and Santa Claus in like a year. I mean, I'll be Tim Allen and Santa Claus this year. If Santa Claus dies, I'm in the front yard.

1:18:24If you guys caught that, that was a good one. Dude, if you become Santa Claus, you've got to invite me to the North Pole. I've got to go. Because if it's anything like the movie with The Rock. I can't. I've got to uplive. It's going to be just me and Bernard. and Kyle's going to have to raise the kids on her own. Out of 10. Out of 10. We got to rate it out of 10. I'm going to put... I'm going 9 out of 10. The bread was a little, but it's probably just because it was baked in the morning and we're eating them now. You can tell that thing freshly fried and hot.

1:18:59I'll take a dozen. Funnel cake. It's basically just a funnel cake that's susceptible to eat at any time. Which I can get on board with New Orleans. I'll be at all, baby. Shout out to the beignets. Compared to sucking the backside of a crawfish head, Beignet gets an 8 out of 10. Nice. No Dumb Question time. No Dumb Questions is brought to you by Mint Mobile. The smart answer to saving money on premium wireless. No Dumb Question. Did Travis use a DeLorean or a hot tub time machine to travel back in time and invent the Pony Express? Alexander Major is my ass. you can't convince me that this is not Travis in a top hat.

1:19:42I mean, if I'm looking at myself in the mirror, that's pretty damn good. Yeah, it's pretty solid. I will say that they couldn't be me because I would never be seen with that fucking hat on. Travis, you need to go. This needs to be your pregame Super Bowl fit. Top hat? I remember wearing a top hat. Not too long ago. Where'd you wear a top hat to? I don't remember that one. When I was in London. Oh. i do remember that so i got caught in my own lie i uh i enjoy wearing those but only in front of 80 000 people you pulled it off well there's a lot more people than 80 000 people that saw that but that you pulled it off really well thanks it's always scary have you ever came across like a really like travis we are the most generic white looking people on the planet it is so many people There were just 25 of them in downtown New Orleans.

1:20:38And you could not pick me out of a fucking lineup. You're a where's Waldo, dude. I could take that salt and pepper beard out of fucking anybody. I look like... I could take one good look at those tits and know exactly who it is. I look like 12 former presidents, including Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and any other ones that are white with a beard. All right. All right. i remember jonas valanchunas yeah i remember you telling me the story from lithuania getting drafted in the nba and i was like holy shit i'm lithuanian i mean we're not far off it's close i mean dude you can't tell me that i don't have eastern europe i mean it's definitely in eastern europe but is it northeastern or is it like slavic area it's slavic for sure i'm lying i have no idea For some reason, I feel like it's up north.

1:21:26Is it by Serbia? No, it's not that. Yeah, see, that's higher north. That's way up there. That's a different area than where our ancestors are. I feel like our ancestors just fucked their way across Europe. It feels like we have a little bit of everything. Yeah. Which is why we look like everybody. True American mutt. Yeah. I guess I'll pass the tone. Oh, we need a little bit of this over here. We have our Ashkenazi over here. Our Irish over here. Our Slavic down here. Our Serbian here. We actually don't have any clue what we are on dad's side because he's the only one that didn't get the 23 and me or whatever.

1:22:01It's true. It's true. We got to get that out of him. He just always says he's American. I'm American. Didn't matter. Yeah. We have ancestors in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. I guess that's accurate, Pop. So, yeah. Solid photo. What was the question there? There was no question. Is Travis a time traveler? That was a question. Are you a time traveler? I have some Marty McFly's, but that's about as close as I get to time traveling. If you could time travel, where would you go back to? Ooh, man, I'm trying to see some dinosaurs. Trying to figure out how the fuck they made those pyramids. Yeah. Yeah?

1:22:40All right. If I could time travel, I'd go back to Super Bowl 57 and make sure that we win that fucking game. So then I wouldn't be depressed about not having lost that game. Hmm. yeah i really don't feel that bad about my super bowl i lost to tom brady i mean yeah i we won against tom brady i didn't do much but it was fun all right let's get to this next one from tati i need to know the history uh behind this picture on do we don't we don't know the fucking history i played football for a living my memory goes I know that I was strong as fuck as a baby. Look at that dude. I'm fucking doing curls with Travis Kelsey.

1:23:29That's a pro-bo-center right there. And he's only two years younger than me. That's a pro-bo-center right there. So Travis is probably, he's not even a year old in that photo. That means I'm not even three yet. Look at that head of hair. And I'm doing curls with my off hand, peanut butter and jelly in my right. I don't know if you saw that. I'm fucking yoked. Dude, dude. That's impressive. This might be the most impressive photo of my life. Captured in two and a half years. you gotta get that outfit dude that is your kind of outfit it's my outfit dig the socks got a nice bulge going

1:24:05i hate you for making me look at your bars

1:24:12i didn't want to do it man all right let me get out of this fucking thing thank you for the picture You guys want to do a voicemail? Let's do one voicemail. All right, let's do one voicemail. You can just press it. Press Facebook. Hi. My question is, since we know that the winning Super Bowl team gets like a big party after, what happens to the losing team? The fuck is so funny about that? Why are you laughing? Why are you laughing? The fuck? It's psychopath? These are fucking dreams from your childhood that you built up and you lose them. That was harsh. Yeah. To answer your question, the losing team, they both have parties.

1:24:57And the one I lost actually was COVID year. So we just jumped back on the plane and went to fuck home. And I thought about jumping out the plane, honestly. It's very weird. So they already have the parties set up in advance. So you still have the party. It's just the saddest party I've ever been to. picture a birthday party combined with a funeral and that's what a super bowl losing party feels like the funeral always overrides it for sure yeah no it's like well there's like because there's a bunch of like happiness that it's themed with but everybody feels like somebody just died yeah kind of trying to justify what happened and oh yeah like that was it was a fun season you remember like we if we would have done this if we would have done that and coaches are leaving and you're saying goodbyes to teammates who aren't going to be there next year.

1:25:51Just going on a Jeremy Shockey. A Shockey, man. I was on a Shockey for a good two years. The good thing about the Super Bowl is you're going to go on a Jeremy Shockey. You don't know which kind of Jeremy Shockey you're going on. Oh, you know. But if you win, you're going on a Jeremy Shockey. And if you lose, you're going on a Jeremy Shockey. Shout out to Jeremy Shockey. For being the best of both worlds, man. For being the tight end of Travis Giles who looked up to his entire life. Oh, my God, I still do. I still do, Jerry. I got to meet you with Shockey, man. Fuck. You've never met Shockey? Dude, he's literally the only one.

1:26:26I haven't caught him at any of the NFL. What is he doing now? I'm pretty sure he's hanging out around Miami football. He went to the U, so I think he helps those guys out and just enjoys South Florida. It's not a bad life. Yeah. All right. That's it for No Dumb Questions. brought to you by Mint Mobile. Yes, sir. Well, that does it for this episode of New Heights. Good luck to the Big Yeti and the Big Game. Make sure you subscribe on YouTube to the New Heights channel and follow New Heights in the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen to new episodes of New Heights early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

1:27:04Once again, New Heights, a Wondery show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment and brought to you by Buffalo Wild Wings Go! Let's go Sports Bar. Sorry. We were supposed to do some harmonies too. Follow the show on all social media. Add New Heights Show with 1S for fun clips throughout the week. Thank you guys. The production and crew, another amazing season. Complete. And we appreciate the 92 %ers for always tuning in. You guys are the best. And we'll see you guys after the Super Bowl. Oh, yeah. Enjoy Super Bowl Sunday, baby. Let's go, baby. Peace.

1:27:47No matter how hard I try. He's in the zone. You keep pushing me inside and I can't break through. Ooh, I like the hands. No talking to you. Ooh, don't give me that. Stand at the sleeper. Oh, you gotta sit up. Stand at the believer. but after all you see how he lets it build I'm gonna be the lonely one oh do you believe after love after love feel something inside me saying I really don't think you're strong enough that was beautiful