Training Camp Myths and Facts with J.J. Jansen

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. How do you turn 16 games, injury reports, team notes, betting lines, and matchup trends into one clear weekend preview? Chat GPT work can help. Give it the goal, plus real inputs like notes, files, data, and project plans. It can help turn them into an analysis, tracker, deck outline, or workflow you can keep shaping. You stay in control, reviewing the work, and choosing the final result. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting Work Mode, available on Plus and Pro Plans. Scams don't always look like scams anymore.

0:41AI can make a fake ticket offer look legit or a sportsbook text sound official. And once an identity thief gets your personal information, they can start using your name like it belongs to them. And then what? LifeLock helps detect potential identity threats and suspicious activity. And if identity theft happens, LifeLock's restoration specialist can help restore your identity, guaranteed, because only LifeLock truly protects your name and identity. Get LifeLock at LifeLock.com and use promo code FOOTBALL for up to 30 % off your first year. That's LifeLock.com, code FOOTBALL. Lowe's knows Sundays are for football.

1:19So tackle your home improvement projects by Saturday and earn your Sunday with great deals on LG and Bosch appliances. Select Ego, DeWalt, Filtrete products, and more. Then once your to-do list is done, get ready to kick back, relax, and enjoy the game. Shop in-store or online now and earn your Sunday with help from Lowe's, official partner of the NFL. Life moves fast. At American Military University, they're ready to help you keep up. AMU's flexible, affordable online programs in cybersecurity, IT, space studies, and more are designed for service members, veterans, and their families. AMU provides the support you need to take the next step wherever life takes you.

2:02American Military University. It is made for what's next. Learn more at amu.apus.edu.

2:16Welcome to NFL Daily, where only one person on today's show is preparing for his 18th NFL training camp. I'm your host today. I'm in the power chair. I am Jordan Rodrigue, also of The Athletic, and Greg Rosenthal, who normally hosts the show, whose dulcet tones you're so accustomed to hearing, is in Japan. And we would like Greg to have as much as time off as possible because it keeps him sane and it keeps him functional and healthy and running the show, which we love. So Eric Roberts is behind the glass today. Chris Babona. And we have a very special guest co-host, someone who I have spent a lot of time having the most absurd conversations about every topic possible in the locker room.

3:00somebody who's been in the league for going on 18 seasons, Carolina Panthers, long snapper, NFL Ironman, JJ Jansen. JJ, thank you so much for being my guest co-host today on NFL Daily. This is an absolute blast. I don't know if Ironman's a fair term. You only play seven or eight plays a game. I don't think you get full credit the way some of the greats are, but I'll gladly take the compliment for sure. One of the things that we loved doing before today's show was going over your ample amount of highlights. I mean, it is literally like watching the same clip over and over. I mean that in the most complimentary way because you don't mess up.

3:41You just do snap ball, you know, tackle, snap ball, tackle, snap ball a long way, tackle, sometimes run down the field, mostly not. I mean, it's incredible. You're just Mr. Consistent over time. My whole job is wash, rinse, repeat. So I've got the same routine. My aunt who lives in Atlanta would come to one game a year, usually in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. And she always has the same comment for me, which is, I feel like I've watched that game by you 17 times. It's the I mean, just this creature of habit, like in this endless loop of sip a glass of water, sit on the bench, snap two balls, run on the field.

4:21Just round and round. I go for four and a half hours and I've been doing that for a long time. So I've got that came down pretty well. Have you ever considered that you are in severance? You're in the, like the loop, right? I definitely in the loop. There is no doubt about it. The, the people around me have changed from time to time. The stadiums have changed a little bit. Although being in the NFC South for as long as I've been, I'm pretty well. I know some of the security guards at other stadiums. They're still used to seeing me come through the Carolina. They know me. I played in the Caesar Superdome like 18 times dating back to college.

5:01So I know that place as well as anybody. So there's definitely an endless loop going on with my football career. Yeah, I mean, I wasn't going to say this, but I think I just might say this. I was 11 when you first got into the league. So, you know, I'm so grateful that I got to know you in the Carolina Panthers locker room. We had some great talks there. you usually made Joe Person miss his deadline. I do just want to point that out because you know he loves to talk Little League baseball and you love to talk Little League baseball. And so he would often come like rolling, you know, ambling the way Joe Person, who for listeners is the fantastic beat writer for The Athletic, who covers the Carolina Panthers is an OG legend out there.

5:42And he would often stop by your locker and my God, would you guys get to talking and then lose all track of space and time? And then he'd come in and be like, wow. Miss my deadline again, talking to JJ at his locker. And I think I nailed the voice also, JJ. That's pretty hard. That was a good one. I knew exactly who that was. Well, I love that you're joining me today. I'm stoked to have you. You look like you're in a palace right now. I know that logistically, what you're doing in your life right now, it's not very palatial. We talked about this a little bit. Can you explain to the listeners and also go watch JJ on YouTube so he can explain this like Palace of Versailles background situation here.

6:22JJ, what the hell are you doing right now before your training camp? I do. I do look like I'm on the coast in France somewhere. I'm actually in Cooperstown, New York. I am a five minute walk from the baseball hall of fame. My, our head coach, I'm the assistant coach. Our head coach is Greg Olson. He and I have been coaching a group of now 12 year old boys since they were nine and we are in the Cooperstown, uh, dream park tournament. So there's 105 teams. Uh, we are down to the final 32. We'll play tonight at 7 PM. But, uh, as so all of Cooperstown is sort of like a relic to the past. You've got the baseball hall of fame and all the legendary stuff.

7:07The baseball tournament is equally relic-y. So we are in bunkers staying on campus. So Greg and I and our assistant coach, Tom, and the 13 boys are all staying in like barracks, like dorm style. There is no Wi-Fi in there. So people have service, but there is no Wi-Fi. So when you asked me to join you, I was thrilled, but I have four kids. My wife is home with the other three. We didn't ever plan on leaving the barracks. so I asked Greg's wife, Kara to book me a hotel room. I'm now in said hotel room with wifi, uh, also air conditioning, which is fantastic. And I haven't had that in four days and, uh, getting to talk some football and getting a little bit of reprieve before we make this final run in our, uh, 12 baseball tournament.

7:56Yeah. And so, and you guys are undefeated, correct? I've been sort of following along. Yes. They're undefeated so far. just to go back and paint a picture for the listener here. And JJ, we've talked about this before, but like two NFL players, one former NFL absolute elite tight end in Greg Olson. Now one of our favorite commenters, color analysts. We have had him on the show. He's a friend of the show and we are huge fans of him. We think he's the best there is. And he and JJ coach a little league baseball, highly competitive, by the way, extremely competitive, very, very talented youth baseball team.

8:35So it's like all the regular parents right out there and all the regular coaches who, yes, are great at their craft, I'm sure. But and then these two NFL players come walking up. And also, by the way, you sometimes have friends in tow, also former or current NFL players. I mean, it's the scene that in my mind of you slow motion walking, maybe there's a fire explosion behind you, you know, onto the field to go coach every day. It's just a delight in my brain. Yeah. We're going to talk about him a little bit later, but our good friend, Luke Keekly, he'll often show up kind of in disguise to some games to watch the boys.

9:12He, he's, he's not married. He doesn't have any kids. He just shows up to watch other people's kids, which is of course, the most Luke Keekly thing of all time. If you know Luke, yeah. He's obsessed with all things sport. Yes. And so, yeah, we are a sight to be seen. I am feeling my ego is a little bit inflated. Ninety eight percent of the conversation is, oh, there's Greg, there's Greg. The last like two days we've been here for five. The last two days I've been getting, aren't you, J.J. Jansen, the long snapper? So I'm getting a little bit more of that. Clearly, the cell phone services is working that they're kind of figuring out what's going on.

9:49This team from Charlotte that's up here in Cooperstown, New York. They're figuring it out slowly, but surely. They do trading pins. So every team brings like three or four pins. And then all the kids are trading like old baseball trading cards. And there's a Saquon Barkley one. There's a LaDainian Tomlinson one. There's a Patrick Mahomes one amongst the baseball. But our team pin, one of our parents, put both Greg and I's like jersey on it. So I think people are trying to figure out who's googling so that's i'm getting a little bit of of help there so 44 i remember right am i right still 44 yeah after all this time it's been 44 yeah you know jj it's cool i i i we're going to talk about another greg here who uh very auspiciously left a certain position group off of his list of 25 players of, of the last 25 years.

10:46And, um, I had to talk to you about this. Um, but before we get into it, cause I know you got takes, man, I know you, I know, you got takes, but I need your best Greg Olson, JJ Jansen co-coaching story. Like you did, you got, when have you guys gotten full baseball that have you yelled at umps? Has anyone been ejected? For example? You got a great story. So two quick stories. The first game we ever played, it was nine U. We didn't really know what was going on. And we go out to a tournament in kind of like Eastern North Carolina. And I get a text from my wife three minutes into the game. And she goes, Greg's already been ejected.

11:26I said, how did that happen? She goes, it had to do with your son. I said, what on earth has happened? So in nine U baseball, they drew a line in the dirt for that's how far you could lead well my son led past it he didn't know where he was going he was nine and he'd never done this before and the umpire called an out so greg defended my son and said there's a chalk line which was a hundred percent the rule three minutes later this happened like first pitch of the game three minutes later they bring out a chalk thing uh and they're lining the field again with these 10 foot lines and greg goes that would have been helpful three minutes ago and the umpire ejected him oh my god i was coming back from the last preseason game before i got out there i was gonna get that about an hour later greg had already been ejected now before you think oh greg gets ejected from every game greg has never since been ejected in any game but i have three weeks ago we were having a game there was not a single issue on the baseball field for an hour and 50 minutes we were in the top of the sixth inning on some other field a coach was running up and down down the third baseline trying to distract the pitcher there are some crazy coaches so the tournament sent out a rule that ump that umpires were to enforce every coach staying in the first base box.

12:54So I, the guy kind of threatens me to be like in the box, which is not really a rule. Of course, as you know, Jordan, I know all the rules. It's a major rule. So he's yelling at me. And I said, you can't speak to me. You have the rule wrong and you're yelling at me, which is totally inappropriate. Two minutes later, one of our kids gets a single. Now, if you've seen youth baseball at all, they've got all their elbow pads and gloves and sliding mitts. And so they got all this equipment. And at the last second, he like, one of the kids sticks the equipment out. I guess you can't like, just like quickly sticks it out in front of me.

13:29And I walk over to first and grab it. And the umpire ejects me from the game because I'm, I'm out of the box. The umpire throws me out of the game and our fans start saying he's going to get the gloves, basically like tell him he's wrong. Immediate reinstatement. I've never seen someone reinstated back into a baseball game. I was reinstated as quickly as I was ejected. So Greg and I each have one ejection, but I was the only one that got reinstated. So I have that on him. Oh, my God. You know, statistics in your field are hard to come by, JJ. And I am very proud of you that you've got this like unprecedented stat line now, you know, and honestly, I nothing surprised me about any of this.

14:15first of all, the comment, Greg Olson has to have that last comment. Gotta get the last word in. And you know what? When I was covering him as a writer, that's fantastic. Yes, Greg Cook, right? I want all of it, right? And then you, first of all, knowing the rule to the T, probably knows where all the commas are in the rule book also. But the crowd galvanized, getting behind you. I just love this for you. Justice for JJ. I love it. It's so great. We have fun. Greg and I have been coaching sports, but like we've been doing this stuff since we became teammates in 2011 and we love debating. We love strategizing.

14:56We're putting a lot of energy into baseball right now. As Jordan, as you know, like I've helped him a ton for his broadcast. We have a lot of fun chopping up the new strategies in the game, how analytics is coming into the game. Whether we're doing this in baseball or football or life, like this is all we do. So it's fun to have these different outlets. And baseball has been one that we get to do with our kids. And that's been a blast. TJ, who you know, who had open heart surgery, heart replacement surgery, he's on the team. He's one of our best pitchers, big, strong kid, my son, Luke, and all their buddies.

15:35And we get to be dads and coaches at the same time. It's what sports is all about. It's a fun, it's a fun time. I love that. That's elite dadding right there. And I, it just, whenever I think about you guys getting to still spend that time together, but also your sons watching you. I mean, I remember when those kids were coming in post game to the locker room and one of Greg's kids went and asked several of his teammates if they would dare to punch their, his dad in the stomach, by the way, that was a hilarious little moment. That feels like a TJ Olson move. I gotta be honest. It feels like TJ.

16:05And every, everyone goes, oh my God, no. No, I would not do that. Okay, speaking of people you've played with, JJ, first and foremost, I know you've been following, you're a friend of the show. I know you've been following kind of what Greg Rosenthal has been doing with the 25 players of the last 25 years. I personally noticed a lack of special teams players, especially with you coming on the show and Greg not being here. I felt like it was a perfect time to critique his work, right? And so first and foremost, who would you have on here? That position wasn't necessarily a part of the qualifiers besides yourself.

16:44Who would you have on here? And what did you think about some of these names overall? You've gotten to play with a lot of these guys. You've lined up across from them. You've been on opposite sidelines. You know them personally. Share your thoughts with me about this list, JJ. Yeah, my first notice is that Adam Venetari is not on this list. Four-time Super Bowl winner with two different teams, three-time All-Pro, legendary kicks in the playoffs and in the Super Bowl, legendary kicks in the regular season. If Tom Brady is going to be one somewhere on this, and obviously Peyton Manning at three, Adam Venetari, their kicker has got to be somewhere on this list.

17:25Now, usually you get the kicker at 25. So I don't know if I'm bouncing Travis Kelsey off the list, But I feel like Venetieri needs to be at least somewhere there in the bottom five or six and give him his just due. The playoff and Super Bowl kicks are that's that's why part of the reason why Tom's got seven championships and Peyton's got to one in Indianapolis. So it's such a big part of the game. And I certainly think Venetieri is on there. I have had the great pleasure of playing with a lot of these guys and against these guys. played with played with Luke for a long time I played with Julius two different times yes amazing yes I remember I was a rookie when Julius his last year with Carolina the first time and I remember sitting next to him he was on the franchise tag which I was still learning all about and I did the quick math in my locker and I said oh my gosh of course this guy is making 50 times what I'm making.

18:22And that's the day I figured out that third down pays a lot better than fourth down. Because if you can rush the passer and you can affect the passing game, they will give you all the money in the world. And the Panthers did, then the Bears did, then the Packers did, then the Panthers did it again. Julius had an uncanny ability to be both long and powerful and athletic. And I asked him one time, I said, Julius, you're never really hurt. Like, how do you do that? And he just kind of this big grin, he goes, I don't have to put my head in there because I'm so long. Like he just knew like it's such an athletic advantage, played basketball at North Carolina, um, would kill any of us in a, in a basketball game, a football game.

19:03I mean, he he's an all time great. The one area I kind of looked at it when, when you look at the top five there, I think JJ Watts been one of the most impressive defensive players of all time, but I don't know how you put him up there ahead of like Ray Lewis. Ray Lewis at middle linebacker is probably the greatest middle linebacker of all time. I'm certainly going to put Luke up there in my top five, maybe my top two, but Ray Lewis with the Super Bowls. I did think it was very kind of Greg to put Ray Lewis and Ed Reed right next to each other. Just clustering them? First time I ever, I thought that was, I mean, that's fair, right?

19:39So if it's, if Ray is going to be five, then maybe Ed needs to be five, You know, like their cluster there again, I probably put Ray ahead of Ed just, just because I feel like when you think Baltimore Ravens, you think Ray Lewis first and Ed Reed almost first, like they're, they're two special guys. I remember we played them in Carolina in 2010 and Ray intercepted a pass, ran about five yards and he was, he was going to be a little bit older. So he was still athletic, but not top speed. He immediately looked and found Ed Reed, who, of course, he pitches it to Ed Reed, who runs it in, which we saw that highlight.

20:13What feels like 100 times in the Ravens big runs as defenders is laterally scoring touchdowns. No argument for me on the top three. Tom's the best. Patrick's been fantastic. Peyton, those three earn all their accolades. But those were kind of my my three little my three little spots. I think you got to have a couple of Super Bowls to be in the top five of the last 25 years. But it's a good list and no real arguments from me. Yeah, Greg and I talked a little bit previously. One of the pushbacks that he got was no Troy Palamalu on the list. Steelers fans certainly let him know about that. And then I was asking him a little bit, just curious, out of a curiosity standpoint, because I really like this list too.

20:59Where did Bobby Wagner fall? because I remember being in those Carolina locker rooms and the first person Luke would always talk about is Bobby Wagner. And those two talking about each other and how they studied quarterbacks and how they went back and forth with quarterbacks. I don't think, it's very strange, JJ. I have to tell you, you know, I was so, I was such a young reporter back then covering you guys. And it never really struck me that Luke was this, is basically a kid, you know, in his early 20s. playing at this level because he always seemed larger than life. Like when Pep came back, it was like, yes, Julius MFing Peppers is back.

21:41Right. And he is like a deity at this point. And he's the largest human you've ever seen in your life, maybe outside of Cam Newton. And like people are not supposed to move like that at that size. But Luke, I always forgot how young he was when he was playing at such an elite level. And I sort of had this moment. Old people must have this all the time. But I had this moment where I was like, holy crap. Like, I got to watch Luke Keekly grow up, kind of, you know. And he's doing that again now, finding himself again in this retirement, although I think he still got it. But it's just crazy to me because you also, you were not old, but you were an elder statesman, a veteran in that locker room when he came in.

22:27And I guess I just wonder what that was like watching this, this young guy just be so obsessed and so focused and talented and able to tell his body to do these things that aren't supposed to be possible. Yeah. You know, Cam Newton was Superman, but Luke was really Clark Kent. The look for sure. The glasses, yeah. The personality and demeanor. I always giggle like at his introductory press conference. He's got kind of this like fro thing going on. He's got these glasses on and he looks straight out of the comic books. And you meet him and he's the kindest person of all time. And he's going above and beyond to just be a nice human being.

23:08And then you'd watch. The first time I ever really noticed it, they had done like a mic'd up segment. and the amount of trash talk and getting under the other team's skin and just he became Superman on the field. And then he'd come back to the sideline and he's like, hey, how's everyone doing? Like, are we doing good over here? I've never seen anyone be able to turn it on and off that way. Like there's some guys, a lot of guys in the NFL are really, really nice, but on game day, they're jerks you don't want to be around them luke could turn it on and off like inside the series come off the field be totally kind and then go back on the field and it was just the meanest stuff you'd ever heard and it wasn't like a lot of like swearing or anything it was just he knew everything about the opponent and he knew what you were doing strategically that was the toughest part he wasn't just he just wasn't a trash talker he knew the game inside out and i i I remember like we were eight games into his rookie year and Brad Nortman was our punter.

24:11They were in the same draft class. And we were kind of oohing and on over how good he was again, half a season in. And I said, I said, Brad, like, you ever talked to Luke about like, I didn't know him that well yet. He was still a rookie. I said, you ever talked to him about like how he's so good tackling? He goes, yeah, I actually did. We were talking about it a week ago. He goes, all he does is he just looks for the guy's belt and just hangs on for dear life. I go back and I watch. I was like, Like, now he did that violently. Yeah, sure. And I am really hanging on. He did it violently. But he was an expert in the simplicities of the game.

24:46And he loved violence. And he loved the intelligence. Like, if he had played any other position, he'd been great. Because he was the best athlete on defense that we had. And he was the smartest guy. But making him the middle linebacker, like the quarterback, and be able to – he elevated every other player. You remember Charles Johnson, who was a defensive end. We were in a we were in a training camp practice and the defensive line coach was getting on Charles for not reading his keys. And in the middle of like when they're breaking the huddle, coach is still yelling at him to read his keys. He stood.

25:21Charles stood up out of his stance and says, coach, I don't care what you say to me. I'm going exactly where Luke tells me to go. Oh, my gosh. So the players were ignoring the coaches just to listen to Luke because that's how that's how intelligent Luke was on the field. He elevated everyone he played with. Yeah, that's incredible. Thank you for sharing that, JJ. And obviously, you know him now, too, in his retired life. And I hope he's getting a lot of fishing in. We'll ask him about this. He's going to be on the show with us here coming up soon. And I won't say who told me this, an opponent one time.

25:56You know, we always did the deep dives on like what makes him so good and all this stuff. and an opponent was like well when he talks to you on the field it's not like normal trash talk like you said it's like he could tell you he'll roast you about the time you like peed your pants in school in third grade and then he'll tell you that you were wrong about the play like it's just the most defeating of trash talk um it's incredible the the people that you've been around uh you've seen it all we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back with more jj jansen

26:39Every player in the league has a scouting report, strengths, weaknesses, history, tendencies, everything an opponent wants to know. But what if somebody built a scouting report on you? Data brokers collect your personal stats, your name, address, phone number, family details, and other private information. Then they package it up and legally sell it to anyone willing to pay, sometimes just for pennies. And then what? The person buying your information may not be looking to draft you. They may be looking to scam you, steal your identity, and start using your name like it belongs to them. That's where LifeLock comes in.

27:12LifeLock's automatic data broker removal tool helps you find exposed personal information and remove it from those data brokers. If you fall victim to identity theft, LifeLock's restoration specialist will block and tackle for you. which means they'll handle your case from start to finish and restore your identity guaranteed. Because only LifeLock truly protects your name and your identity. So go get LifeLock at LifeLock.com and use promo code FOOTBALL for up to 30 % off your first year. That's LifeLock.com code FOOTBALL. Again, LifeLock.com code FOOTBALL. How do you turn 16 games, injury reports, team notes, betting lines, and matchup trends into one clear weekend preview?