Travis Justice and Dr. Rob Zatechka sit down with Rob’s former teammate and original pipeline member Brenden Stai.
Brenden was an offensive lineman at Nebraska from 1991-1994 where he was apart of the 1994 National Championship team. After college he was drafted into the NFL where he spent 8 seasons with stops in Pittsburg, Detroit, Jacksonville, and Washington.
The Husker Doc Talk podcast is presented by BetFred Sports.
Stop your complaining I know it’s been a while in fact it’s been over a month since we’ve been in the basement and the reason behind that is Dr Rob zisa has been a busy busy father you’ve been a busy father right you had all the wrestling [ __ ] you had to take care had
To get it done with I shouldn’t say get it done with we it’s happening I got to go it’s the thing how did the state wrestling tournament go my friend it was you know when solid got upset in the quarterfinals which I think is going to
Nod her for a while knowing her but the came back finished fourth she actually she and the number one overall seed both got upset in the quarters oh wow and they ended up meeting in the third fourth place match so so now is it uh a
Whole year off or is she going to be wrestling I said she made it some national team right or it’s like yeah so NE BR USA Wrestling so it’s like the governing body for any sport I mean it’s there’s USA swimming USA wrestling USA Track and Field it’s the governing body
For youth all the way through up to the Olympics so Nebraska’s I don’t know if chapter is the right word but the the Nebraska Coalition for the for USA Wrestling um is putting together they’re trying to essentially trying to grow it on the whole especially in terms of getting kids towards the international
Competition your PanAm games Olympic Games World Championships Etc uh and so they’re to one of the things their the leadership within the state has done is basically putting together uh a a training team so they’re kind of establishing a training center for wrestling in the state of Nebraska
For a lot of these younger kids junior high high school kids who are thinking about a wrestling in college but also have an interest in doing it for USA Wrestling on a national or International level um and so so they’re going to basically it’ll be kind of like I said
Just that it’s essentially a a a Statewide training center for for wrestlers in the state of Nebraska and uh coach pack who’s the head wrestling coach down at Southeast Community College and they’ve got the wrestling is down on the beatric campus but they’re going to they’ve got scheduled practices
And training sessions that are going to happen down there uh going on here over the next several months basically up until when the high school season starts but it’s all geared towards kind of developing the sport a little bit more with an emphasis on getting more Nebraskans onto those national teams all
Right before we bring in our guest I do want to tell everybody if you have not started uh subscribing to our YouTube channel uh please do so if you’re watching on YouTube thank you if you have not subscribed yet just hit the Subscribe button uh if you don’t follow
Dr Rob on Twitter you can do that at docsports you can also follow me on on Twitter at Travis creates now into the basement for officially the second time but the first time for the doc Talk podcast look who it is a former teammate Brendon sty what’s up man how are you
Good good do you guys hang meat down here it’s a little cold see now see that’s your Arizona blood coming out dude call C is it C thin blood well Arizona two years and then C so all right there we got it so yeah it’s all
Warm yeah it is I don’t think there’s any insulation in this so ow wants to the Visionary wants to tear all the walls out put insulation up and and make it like a really goodlooking Studio but Owen what what are we lacking uh when it comes to making that happen um your
Willingness no no no that would be my money is what what we’re lacking I the two guys sitting here could probably pay for it with one paycheck I I have to work like two years to get it done so you were out raising money today before you came here
And I thought it was interesting because you the first thing you said when you walked in was was you guys got quite a following oh yeah yeah you know I mentioned the fact that I was going to be visiting you guys this afternoon and they’re like wow they haven’t been on in
A while I’m like Doc talk yeah it’s a it’s a thing has it actually been a month yeah matter of fact I posted the Bruce chub interview on January 28th wow okay yeah that was right before subd districts yeah so it it’s we took a
Whole month off I I promised I was going to try to do two a month but I wanted to be respectful of your of your fatherhood and and not call you all the time and give you time well the thing I mean so there was the wrestling thing there was
Other stuff to like so I didn’t I broke my ankle what now it was it was a minor fracture but I mean that kind of slowed me down a little bit self-medicated though you’re good well I know a bunch of orthopedic surgeons which is really really helpful here’s the funny part
Brandon he fell on the bleachers he was walking down and fell in front of everybody I was at we were at a big wrestling tournament down in OA OA South and uh I’m walking I get up to go walk down to the gym floor and it’s I look
Down the rad and I’m like well I can make six people stand up and get out of my way to go to the stairs which would have been smart or I look in front of me there’s nobody it’s just you know you like walk on top of the bleachers I’m
Like I’ll just do that it’ll be great take I don’t know what three steps and Kaboom and it’s those old school uh like high school wooden bleachers so when you land on them it just Mak this ear shattering bang oh yeah and I I mean I look up and there’s
Probably 300 people in the gym and at least a hundred of them are looking at me did you get an Applause did you land gracefully oh no it like a lot of dear Gods like how are we going to get how are we going to get that thing up off
The you’re not you’re not small no I’m not neither one of you guys are so the the rules of the basement are we just uh we we talk about just about anything we and we drink now Rob and I are drinking beer and we want to thank Steve swanstrom from centrus Federal Credit
Union the president CEO there who was his daughter goes to uh Dental College up in uh up at Marquette and he always brings back the new glaris you’re drinking the Seltzer I text I emailed you the other day I said hey what kind of beer do you like and you’re like yeah
I’m only going to do the tequila or the seltzers because you got the diver turul is that what it is yeah yeah and it’s uh it’s the irony of it is you know I’m part owner in a brewery and I can’t drink it which one you which one you part owner
We were the first micro that stayed in Nebraska now we’re in 12 different states but yeah it’s it’s a shame cuz I I absolutely love beer uh especially the micros the ipas and just come to find out you know I was having some issues uh
With my stomach and you know I went in and saw a doctor and he’s like well what’s your diet what do you eat and he goes let’s let’s try you on some Fiber and then let’s see if you can kind of figure out what’s irritating it and sure
Enough uh any sort of smaller seed or yeast in the beer here is what was upsetting my St so what kind of paint is it like you’re passing a stone what the hell is it feels like it it feels very sharp um it’s down in kind of like your
Lower abdomen area and come to find out I had some tests done and I’ve got diverticuli throughout my entire stomach really yeah and so typically it happens like in areas you know you’ll get inflamed there’s little pockets where um you know you get the infection and it gets inflamed I’ve got those Pockets
Throughout so um you know you figure it out popcorn’s another one I gosh darn it man I Love Popcorn that’s a like that’s a religion for me right watching the movie you got to have popcorn don’t eat it anymore sucks so what can you I mean how come the because tequila has no
Grain in it right right it’s a white alcohol um tequila non-irritant You Know M matter of fact it’s like a I guess a probiotic for your stomach helps you digest oh there you go wow okay yeah the probiotic tequila yeah you know he sounded more like a doctor than you are
Little bit right there all of a sudden sitting here going like okay tequila it’s good for you it is it’s a white alcohol it’s good for you you got it now everything in moderation Rob right well if a Little’s good A lot’s got to be better now you’ve hung out with Rob Rob
Doesn’t do anything in moderation no no you how many times he’s been been here in the basement we get we record for two hours he’s like I got to stick around for about three hours more cuz it’s like an hour Can’t Get Enough Rob You’ have
Passed out here before that was a nap good I took a nap tired it was a nap I work hard I took a nap that’s it you know I I podcast super hard yes you do we mentioned it your second time to the basement and we had the here’s what I’ve
Never talked about this because I thought it was going to be like this big secret release but we recorded what three or four podcasts with the entire pop pipeline minus Zach cuz Zach just doesn’t show up I’m just having fun with that you guys he’s hard to track down he
Is he’s a busy guy he’s got a really big one in the hopper right now I don’t know if you read about it Iowa State oh really Golden Rod U they’re doing a huge $250 million project how much do you ask him for money say hey dude yeah oh
Yeah hey dude um but uh whatever happened to all those pod we did like four podcasts yeah what happened I don’t know I got to talk to Joel and Aon I think we’re still planning on doing sort of like a a timed release with them they’re outdated now yeah a little bit
How can they be outdated we were talking about us in the 19 90 little retro it’s it’s Timeless it’s thank you yeah there all right Timeless yeah but I always wondered what happened to those because we recorded them like last August well don’t you have them on
Your stack well I I don’t because we get we sent them all to Joel oh Joel’s got him Joel’s got him all I know is Joel’s got a plan Owen’s got he he got paid for him I know that because he got the engineering fee I don’t know if he put
That in the savings or in the band account but he’s he got he got paid bird strings yeah but you but what you’ll find is you had the best intentions and Rob knows this doing this podcast how long we’ve been going like 11 years right wow yeah I mean well for the Pod
Because I thought it was 2013 and you guys I remember when I first came out in 2007 and8 you were doing something with him on TV May yeah yeah so we were doing sound off on Sunday nights on Channel 3 that started I started with Tommy and
Then he yeah then he went to work for Steve Peterson and Steve Peterson just let you know hates my [ __ ] guts oh wow well you know I’m sure the feelings are mutual uh well it was weird and then I thought I was in the clear weird kind of defines that whole situation it
Really does and then the crowning moment came when I went up to pitch up in Dundee and I’m just sitting there having dinner with my wife and his wife came up and just accosted me what oh yeah in front of everybody just just laid into
Me so I felt you know I kept my cool and then she had her whole family there cuz and then I bought the whole table drinks I said hey Maya Copa here I bought spent like $200 on drinks she didn’t thank me she didn’t she just whatever I’m like
That’s bad juju it is bad ju guu but but he went to work for Steve and Steve was like yeah you can’t do that show anymore we don’t want you on there Rob came on and that was 2003 no that was like no it was cuz I was still five or
Six no no my you know what actually probably it was probably like 0203 yeah so him and I have been together since 2003 doing stuff and then when when I retired from television I said hey you want to do a podcast actually it’s Dave Remington who goes you guys thought
About podcasting we’re like sure so Dave was like I’m like what’s a podcast yeah we were podcasting before podcasting was cool and we’ve been going for what you know 11 years awesome yeah it’s grown and thanks to Owen we’ve got the YouTube channels now we got cameras all over the
Place and it’s and but we we never did the offseason podcast and last year we started doing some interviews and they just were a lot of fun it was just fun to bring people in Aaron Graham came in uh I forget who else oh God my brother
We brother came in Joe mowley has been in here a couple times but it’s just been a lot of fun so we we usually get people to to let their guard down and have a little bit of fun so you have to open up with us today you You Gotta Be
You Got You gota just he gives me that look like screw you man I’m not open to I’ve been there before I don’t know uh well first of all let’s just start off simple one how the hell do you end up at Nebraska good question um so this goes
Back to my sophomore year Well actually actually goes to my freshman year uh and where are you at this point I’m in esper I’m at esparon in Anaheim California which is y Belinda where I grew up Richard Nixon’s Hometown okay um that’s where the library is and whatnot so as a
Freshman coming in in the football program you have to take shop right you have to take U you know you know you weld stuff together and whatnot and you have to build your own squat rack so we did as a freshman and we worked out in
That for four years back when it was legal to advertise for colleges with um posters and whatnot that the schools would send schools high schools advertisement for you know their universities in my squat rack above the mirror where I worked out there was a picture of the old weit room and had a
Little bubble picture of boy Epley Dean Stein cooler and Dave Remington and then the old uh you know the old um ventilation uh whatever you call that that had Nebraska football on it remember that old one yep like one of the steel tubes that just yeah okay
You’re talking about yeah yeah so the duck work the big old tubes um and before they had the platform it was more like of an Olympic um artwork that they had up there it was speed strength and Agility remember that it was like yeah it hadit like the the ring pictures yeah
So I worked out literally in front of this for 4 years years squatting in this rack doing everything that I had to do as a football player in this rack my 10th grade year my first letter I ever got was from Purdue um and back then
They used to they used to advertise or not advertise but they would recruit by sending coaches questionnaires do you have any players that we would be interested in send back this questionnaire that was how recruiting used to happen especially out of state nationally and so Purdue I get this
Letter from Purdue and the next letter I got was from Nebraska and of course back then I didn’t know anything about these schools right Nebraska the the most I ever got from Nebraska was Thanksgiving versus Oklahoma or a bowl game and so as my junior year started the recruiting
Got a little bit heavier uh I was a pack 10 guy right UCLA USC Arizona Arizona state Washington Oregon Oregon state Washington State uh little San Diego State in there um and then some random ones nationally I got some from Miami I got the Purdue one and Nebraska and
Really that was kind of the core of the people that were recruiting me Nebraska never really blipped on my radar so then the guy that uh I actually played with Keith naiti he was the number one defensive tackle in southern section California Nebraska really loved him
Washington was really high on me and so turned out one summer it was before Keith and I’s Senior Year we’re working out in the same weight room you and Keith were the same class yeah same class coach Darlington came to a workout in the summer walks in the weight room
And Keith and I are in that squat rack getting after it and looks at my coach and says that’s Keith who’s that and he’s like well you’ve been recruiting you’ve been sending me you you were asking about that’s Brendan sty and this and that and the other and he goes can I
Watch this film so they go into the uh the portable football office that we had there and George tells the story is it took two minutes for me to watch Brendan and then I knew that’s who we needed and so it was interesting you know that that level of
Recruiting it amped up with with George he was around he was calling me my junior was going into my senior year they I want to say no it was my senior year they played Florida state in the Fiesta Bowl and they were losing at Halftime by like four touchdowns he
Called me at halftime to say hey that was on a rotary phone by the way we really like you uh don’t look at the score things are changing around here that kind of thing and so you know be because I was from Arizona right I was born in Phoenix grew
Up in Southern California my mom’s family they’re from Arizona right I grew up a sundevil fan and at the time uh marmy coach Mary uh their offensive line coach I I don’t remember his name but he would come to my practices during the season during the middle of the week
Excusing himself from his own preparation for the next game flying in to see me so they were heavy heavy on me and I had committed verbally to them cuz they just were graduating a guy named Rand McDaniel who played for pretty good player he was okay little Hall of Fame
Action there the unique Randall stance right um that’s a that’s a cool story by the way if you’ve ever heard we’ll talk about it later but and then a guy named Todd Kaya so they ran the same system that we ran in high school running the
Football and so it really to me it seemed like a perfect fit it was comfortable right my family was over there um you know I was close to my girlfriend who’s now my wife been with her since I was 16 so you and I have a lot in common that’s
What my wife yeah and so as it as it shakes out um you know Arizona state was My verbal commitment I only took three official visits and the rest of them were I would go to games I mean everything was in close proximity it’s kind of what happens when you’re you
Know in an area where there’s a lot of schools yeah doesn’t count against a recruiting visit to the USC games um you know Oregon would come down zukas their oine coach there you know I do a UCLA organ game and get the best of both worlds and so anyhow um came down to
Basically verbal verbally committing to Arizona State and then it was about three weeks before Signing Day okay three weeks I’m sitting in a portable classroom our high school is getting too big so they had a bunch of these portable classrooms my coach comes in and excuses me from class and at the
Time they had an ADA ramp and it was a morning class and my coach says I want to introduce you to somebody and I look I look down this portable ramp and at the bottom of the ramp there’s this gentleman with red hair the Sun’s
Shining his eyes he’s got one eye open I can picture he’s got he’s got a red vest on with gray slacks we go to the bottom of it and I really didn’t know who it was and my coach my coach introduces me to Dr Tom Osborne the coach football coach of
Nebraska and I’m like now I know who you are you know I mean back then you’d have to go to the library and pull up fish on articles to find out anything there was no internet nothing except Thanksgiving or a bowl game where they were getting
Beat for you young kids at home that’s micro fish the way we have to used to do term papers yeah that was your research right that was that was the Google of the day so we walked across campus and here I am walking with a living legend
Knowing who he is now going to our portable our football office there and we start to watch some film and then he proceeds to tell me everybody that he’s got from the state of Nebraska in that recruiting class coming up the Rob attit because of the World Cory Slingers the
Zack weager the Terry caneles right and so at the at the at that time you know even though Washington really wanted me um Nebraska really wanted Keith they switched that and Washington went after Keith and it was weird it was ironic the only reason why Nebraska stopped recruiting Keith is because they had
Signed or verbally committed Terry canele who was a d tackle out of out pretty well yeah and at the same time Washington had a commit from a guard named Jeff Garcia who played 12 years in the league pan something like that so we kind of Switched right and um after my
Visit with Coach Osborne he convinced me to take a visit because I had two trips left and he’s like if you don’t take a visit to Nebraska I think you’ll regret not doing it because you don’t know you haven’t seen it it’s totally different from anything you’ve seen convince me
With all their resources their tradition everything and so I did I ended up taking a trip that next week with my mom during a blizzard in over in over 48 Hours experienced um the Lance lewises of the world the uh Steve Carmen uh Terry uh Terrence chy those were kind of my guys
And a guy named Chrissy Bara who was from Fontana who was you know he was slated to be a great one for him he ended up having a really bad knee injury that was nerve damag and he had to quit yeah I mean he was around but just after that injury he
Never he was done so I go through the whole recruiting visit and at the end of the visit uh simply what happens is you have a brunch um you know everybody gets together all the recruits whoever’s handling parents what have you then you meet one-on-one with the head coach and
So I went and met one one with coach Osborne and of course he grilled me on you know my experience uh what I thought of the facilities uh the people the program all of that and at the end of the conversation he said you know Brenan
We really we really want you here we have one offensive line SL dline scholarship left we want to give it to you but if you leave here today and you don’t decommit from Arizona State and recommit to us we’re going to give it to somebody else that’s sales right there
That’s years old my and that was from coach pressure that was from coach here’s a guy and I give him although although I will say this wow he was Pro that’s probably 100% true if he he he had somebody else he was going to give it to yeah oh yeah no
Doubt and you know who that was he wouldn’t lie to her still that’s who take one guess who walked on our freshman year of the pipeline Joel wils was Joel was Joel wils you took your buddy’s scholarship I didn’t take anything it was given to me no but they
Ended up uh you know I mean obviously they ran out of scholarships and Joel ended up getting a scholarship the next year his first year was a walk- on year and then even then I mean even then though cuz I think when we hit the door
It was still 10 is it 95 or was it 105 it was 105 thought it was 105 cuz it got dropped to 95 now it’s 85 yeah while we were there wow so yeah that that’s I mean pretty much it and it was so weird
Because I did this and it made the wire right back then I mean I still have I don’t know if youve kept anything from those guys did they ever send you like telegrams oh yeah remember uh the digital one that would print out like true like coming from yeah Cong or
Whatever it was cell phones didn’t exist freaking internet didn’t exist did a fax machine exist back then yeah you had fa machine faes were there so let’s go back though I I need to backtrack you welded your own squat rack were you always a freaking nature back then no I mean it
Was dude I saw you lift weights you were like this quote unquote 20 what 55b true freshman mhm and he would still go into the weight room oh yeah and could outlift probably damn near anybody on the old line I mean I’m talking the junior seniors now you were a freak did
You guys have competitions in the weight room I I think the competition was friendly yeah I mean it was there was always a pride thing but God we always had fun with that [ __ ] it was always who could come up with the most painful workout that I I enjoyed watching Rob
Because I knew that whatever he was doing was scientific well beyond his years you know of anybody in strength and conditioning even Boyd hepley so everything that he did was calculated and believe me I mean I used to actually the great story about Rob when I first met him
Is um I was uh interested in physical therapy and so Jerry Weber was kind of the guy to to retired right yeah yeah um and so they were in the shrine bowl at the time at Memorial Stadium and I came in like two weeks early I stayed with
George Darlington out on his farm and um you know I was just trying to get settled in and I was visiting with Jerry Weber in the uh training room so I walk in and training room as you walked in the door there was a bunch of bunch of
Tables for uh treatment and getting taped and there was this giant man sitting there two bags of ice with wires coming out of them 5:00 shadow flat top look like a senior offensive lineman like a Nebraska lineman should look like right and I’m like oh [ __ ] so I walk by
Him and I go and I talk to Jerry and and a couple minutes goes by and I hear this Brandon and I turn around and there’s Rob and he’s like I’m Rob zadka how are you and the only thing I remember about Rob at the time I knew Rob zadka name
But the only picture I ever saw of him was this like nerd little bubble picture in the what was the magazine was super PR super prep super prep yeah so here’s Rob I mean Rob at the time you were 290 probably 285 yeah so this would have been what like August before our
Freshman year you guys were prepping for the shrine B were 290 already as a freshman yeah he was he was a large man y I did not know that damn damn damn so that that you know that whole experience for me was it it happened fast and
Really the only reason why I’m at Nebraska is because obviously I’ll give George Darlington credit but the closer was coach osor coming to my high school and convincing me to take a trip how hard was it to make the phone call to Arizona State I was going to say that
Was my question you got to give Larry marmy a call that didn’t happen what happened was it hit the wire and then so the o line coach calls my house and my mom answers and he’s [ __ ] my mom up and down which was way out of
Line right so my mom ended up calling the ad well long story short that whole entire staff got fired that next year really oh yeah that wasn’t because of me who was the old line coach there at the time do you remember remember he owned a bar there man everything seemed so great
Like you know the system that they ran I’d be able to hang out at the bar you remember I had my brother’s 3 years older than me yeah Heath so I had I had a fake ID right at the gate which 21 going into college by way we look Alik
And sound alike yeah it that that’s an easy one right there like my older brother yeah that idea would not well you know what I went to the our first bowl game which was in Orlando I had my mom FedEx me my brother’s license so Zach and I could go out oh that’s
Awesome yeah see you could do that cuz I that that actually happened like when I went to I didn’t go to Nebraska I went to Grand View but I remember back then I could just take in my brother’s birth certificate they didn’t ask for anything
You’d be like here it is oh I got a fake ID thank you hey when I got to Nebraska this is the trip so being in California I had a driver’s license for a motorcycle okay and a a normal driver’s license and it was like serious testing
Right I get to Nebraska and first and foremost if you were out of state you had to register to vote and you had to get a license whether was probably what five or six of us that coach Osborne got in front of the whole team and said now
If you guys don’t get this done before we go for our bll trip you’re not going to be able to go it saves them money right out of state to instate so I go and I take this test dude and it’s polaroid pictures like literally polaroid
Pictures that you would look at and flip through and then answer all the sheet over here everything with the DMV where I came from was Scantron everything was on a computer I polaroid pictures well hey we didn’t have apple we didn’t we didn’t have Bill Gates and I know Steve
Jobs wh whipping stuff up in their garages here in Nebraska that was a California thing yeah so you come from Orange County that that mean you come uh you that means you’re just loaded right you’re loaded loaded with what money [ __ ] h no hell no no I came from
Really nothing my mom and dad um you know they got by my mom and dad got divorced when I was about 11 so it was really hard on my mom so did your mom stay in Arizona or should go to California so so they met in Minnesota got married in Minnesota moved to
Arizona my dad was in banking and then my dad split from my mom when I was like one and then I ended up going to Southern California and called her and said I made a mistake come and live with me in Southern California so we moved to
Huntington Beach and we were there for about a year and a half and then we moved Inland to a brand new neighborhood in a very old agriculture Orange Grove if you will a uh y Belinda and that’s where I lived for roughly what 12 years um 13 years right so that was my
Existence and then boom I go to Nebraska back back up you your your dad called and said I made a mistake yeah your mom moved back mhm and then and then when I was 11 he left her again yeah wow how how does how do you deal with that it was tough I
Mean especially at that age you know you’re going through a lot as a young individual and um you know God bless my mom she she did everything she could she was in the medical field um they made medical devices actually um heart valves so she worked for a company and um was a
Part of their whole marketing of the heart valve matter of fact the company she worked for made a heart valve for John Wayne anyhow so she did everything she could and back then it wasn’t as expensive as it is now cost of living in Orange County um but it was meager I
Mean we almost moved in towards Huntington Beach in a very low uh socioeconomic area um because she couldn’t afford to stay in your Belinda thankfully she had some friends that kept me in that high school that would give me an opportunity and to be honest with you I didn’t I didn’t really dream
About getting a scholarship until I was in 10th Grade where my high school coach said you know you you got some some ability here and you might want to think about you know planning for the future taking all the appropriate classes to be eligible to go to college and so with
That being said you know my high school years were um interesting um there was a lot of uh situations that I could have went down the wrong path but because of sports it kept me on the straight and narrow grew up in a very hard neighborhood um a lot of Mexicans uh my
High School uh we had I think two black people at our high school and it was Mexicans and whites and and so um I was fortunate because I was in a structure my mom did everything she could to keep me in that structure um you know I was I
Was born Catholic raised Catholic when my my dad left my mom the Catholic Church told my mom she couldn’t come back see I don’t get that and I’m Catholic too right and and I I just I want to go stop it you you’re losing so many people because of the stupidness
Right why do you hate the Catholic church I don’t hate the Catholic church right I S all my kids to Catholic High School you know so do you have a relationship with your dad today my dad passed away four years ago thank you very much um always had he never left me
Some guys completely vacate he pulled me aside when it happened he just he Lov my mom but he wasn’t in love with her and you know the industry that he was in he he was he was in banking and then he went into sales for Xerox right so he
Was in sales for a while and then all of a sudden he found a job um in bartending industry and so now he was really good at what he did uh he was number one bartender in Orange County like three years you know Newport 17 that’s an interesting career route by the way
Right no he lived on the opposite end of the clock right and so he was around a lot of things that happened at that late at night so I mean legit question like like cocktail like Tom Cruz like that kind of bartending kind of sort of I mean
Um not necessarily that tropical kind of fantasy type of flipping bottles around and everything else but he actually you know he he would manage the entire restaurant got and then run the bar as well and it was a very high-end restaurant bar if you will at night um
Yeah so I mean it was and it’s still there today and then he kind of bopped around in a couple different restaurants Bango was another big one down there it was a a really successful Italian restaurant and then got into another one called Pino uh had some ownership in
That and that was in La Habra but you know my upbringing was was interesting because as soon as my dad left the picture there was no real fist no Hammer right no Father Figure no father no man so my mom ended up like here she is raising two young men my brother’s three
Years older than me basically having to figure out how to be our friend and not our mom because I mean she’d tell us to do something be like really you know so there was that I mean without structure my brother was really good at at kind of toning me down and he
Kept me on the straight and narrow but uh for a while there I mean it could have went completely south I mean I was in a lot of different situations where you know I’m lucky to be here let’s just put it that way cuz I remember when we were in
College your mom had a presence oh yeah I mean you’re talking about somebody who’s living in California and it’s interesting how you get to know certain teammates family members your mom was somebody everybody on the old line knew everybody your mom stop oh yeah yeah red we called her red
Big red yeah she’s overweight you know uh red hair um struggle with her weight her whole are you in the ni90 sh my wife doesn’t know thank God Anette doesn’t listen to the podcast so you know I mean as far as uh the opportunities um they were meager as
Far as finances are concerned I never owned a car not even in college I I rode a bike my we were talking about this hold on you like at Green Bay Packers at at the training camp where you riding the bike everywhere everywhere even with a broken dislocated ankle you know dead
Of winter yep watching you you would come like plowing through 8 Ines of snow on your bike y well everybody knew I had a bike because I’d walk into the training table or wherever we were the back side of my shirt would just be mud
You know you know if you go to the players lot now it’s all like BMWs and tahos and Suburbans absolutely it is it’s like it’s a different world my friend so you would have loved nil when you were in when you were in college absolutely we dipped into it a little
Bit right at the end when we were eligible to do it yeah we got into the phone card and some T-shirts and autographs but I mean that was something that I think a lot of it came about because of the national champion absolutely absolutely so I mean if it
Wasn’t for that I mean I I think we would have seen little bits and pieces of it but it wouldn’t have been like it truly was for us tell the story of the gift package that that you remember Brandon get so this is so this is kind
Of like one of these like I I always have like like seminal images and memories of people and times and did it have anything to do with Skittles was it a care package from my mom yeah oh yeah oh we love the care package from dude well one she’d send
Yeah there’d be food in there too that was I forgot about the food but I remember what like she sent this it was this giant it was big old cardboard box that was it gets delivered to the locker room and I mean you were like ecstatic
Like this is going to be the greatest gift of all [ __ ] time no doubt what did I have in there and and I remember you ripped the and we’re all sitting like what is it dude this going to be a video game system and a TV what is it
This going to be freaking awesome comes in and it’s like it was like three pairs of jeans y a including a black pair of jeans a dress shirt a tie like a couple of packages of socks and then I forgot about the Skittles Skittles [ __ ] ton of snack food oh yeah big
Time and I pretzels you bet and I remember like Hol lines in there and I remember like that might have been the single happiest any of us had seen you and it’s not like you weren’t a happy guy like I was looking at you like you were this guy that was incredibly
Grounded in my mind but I remember you opening up and you were like oh my God I [ __ ] love my mom so much and we’re receiving was like it’s jeans socks and Skittles dude remember and then $100 a month1 100 we the here the key thing is
Is that I mean everybody on the o line like I said I grew up in Lincoln Nebraska and I mean it’s like we were good solid middle class family parents were both in education mom was a teacher dad’s a university administrator but I mean cost of living is it’s nothing but
Every I mean every Sunday what are you going to do I want to go to my parents house and eat a whole bunch of free food mhm easy Zach you know what if I want to buzz back up to Fremont I’ll see the folks up there I mean whatever it’s um
Now when you’re in state it’s it’s a lot easier so easy and I just remember how happy you were and I remember like kind of this Collective realization on the o line looking at you how happy you were in that moment and we’re like yeah here’s a guy who gets it appreciates you
Know 100% see That’s a classic example of you go out and play in front of 70,000 people they have no idea what’s going on in your personal life they don’t they think oh you you’re this All-American and and life’s great but you’re riding a [ __ ] bicycle and
Happy to get a pair of jeans that’s right but I mean I think times are a little I shouldn’t say l they’re a lot different they’re a lot different they’re a lot different now but I mean for the I mean for the majority of the history of college football
That was the reality well do you know what nil stands for name iage likeness no no now it’s legal so no seriously I mean there were other stories in college football not at Nebraska well like Johnny Manzel just said he goes did you watch the Johnny Manel in the club Shay
Um podcast he’s bagging on his coach from Texas A&M well but but he also talked about listen there was a bagman at Alabama he goes yeah he goes there’s a bagman everywhere big time I I mean I’m sure you guys we didn’t have a bagman you didn’t have a bag man not
That I knew of no no now I had heard some things that had happened you know in the 70s and ‘ 80s but rumors um I will tell you this when I got to Pittsburgh and was playing for the Steelers they had a guy named Leon
Cersei he told me flat out he took he took a pay cut coming to the pros from Miami yep and matter of fact the uh I want to say was the FBI came to interview him about his nefarious finan Cal backers if you will yeah wow you know there was the
Most I ever got maybe at Nebraska was a $20 handshake of you know maybe that was it $20 and believe me when that happened that was awesome that was awesome but I was scared to death I was like because coach Osborne was always like you can’t
Accept any gifts she which I I will say I mean I’m sure there were stuff that happened that I didn’t see but I I mean I think osbor legitimately tried as hard as he could to run a clean ship I really do think and when he if he
Knew of something it was not happening anymore and and that’s like you didn’t want to let your dad down exactly yeah yeah I but I mean I think Osburn had enough connections that if if it was coming from a booster a local business somebody like that he would go talk to
Them and say like hey knock it off knock it off yeah yep do you like n nil now I mean as a former player I mean you are you mixed about it you like it’s finally happening right I I like the idea of athletes um making money on their name
Image and likeness what I don’t like is the structure I think it’s unsustainable I don’t think that uh uh the environment that we are in now um is going to be around um it might last a little bit longer uh but I believe we’re heading in
The direction uh where it’s going to be institutionalized with a third party involved um nil is not going to go away it’s an agency right so uh these collectives uh what will probably happen is they’ll still exist um but it’ll be this is a grander kind of example but if
You think about Michael Jordan and his tenure with the bulls he had a paragraph five he made x amount of dollars contract wise he made thousand times more than that on his name image and likeness with businesses outside of that so you’ll have an opportunity of these Collective agencies that provide an
Opportunity to make a little bit more money and maybe there’s there’s money there that is uh for guys that don’t make a whole lot with the system institutionally um but the you know nil as it sits right now is a great opportunity for athletes um to number one make money number two educate
Themselves um surround themselves with like kinded Minds um you know and and really the financial literacy the entrepreneurship um the idea of uh while you’re going to college College learning about it where what I don’t like is when uh there’s no guard rails on it and these kids aren’t being protected it
Doesn’t happen in my belief at Nebraska I think 1890 does a really good job but there are nefarious characters out there oh um throughout the country that are making money off of these kids and a lot of these kids don’t even know how to open up a bank account right um let
Alone you know how to file for taxes and they get into trouble and some of these collectives run out of money remember these These are collectives that in perpetuity has to keep happening right every month there’s withdrawals from that account there has to be deposits every single month and so there’s a lot
Of false promises out there um and then you put uh the portal into that picture right there’s this the grass is greener there’s more opportunity and think about over 3,000 kids get put into a portal with the idea that a team is going to spend the time energy and money to
Re-recruit a kid um you’re in the portal for a reason right unless unless you’re the top 5% of the kids in that portal where there’s real opportunity and there’s money out there for you to go get they’re being sold a a a bogus bag of goods and most of them don’t end up
On teams so I think there’s good and there’s bad to it um I think that it’s definitely not sustainable um but the opportunity um for student athletes now to you know if they’re in the right structure put themselves the situation to where it’s kind of like when we first
Got in the league we had opportunities to be vested right after well it was our first year it was still five and then it went to three but you had your 401k as long as you made a 53 man roster one game you got a vested year you’re not
Spending that money it’s money that you won’t miss you put it away in 25 to 30 years that money is going to be exponentially more right so you’re going to have an opportunity to invest in yourself if you put a kid in the situation if they did it the right way
Right off the get-go uh you put put together some sort of trust and there was a a vested interest there um skin in the game for the student athlete number one your grades right you’re showing up you’re doing everything you’re supposed to do right number two right in order
For you to get any of that money you have to actually step out on the field and play otherwise that money gets put into this trust and you’re watching it and you’re learning about it growing by the time you’re done now you got a nice little nesting if you need it to start
Your life so be it if not keep it in there and let it grow for 15 to 20 to 25 years right the compounding interest alone I mean I don’t know about you but I mean shoot my 401k which went from a dollar for dollar up to the orisa max
When I first got in went to two to one after my third year right fully vested on that I mean think about the compounding interest there fully vested at the orisa max I mean it’s it’s a no-brainer so I think it’s a great opportunity for these kids now to learn
About money how money works also put them in a situation where you know you have um the vested uh part of this is the education piece and offering classes to teach about entrepreneurship to teach about financial literacy about teach about taxes how to open up a bank
Account I mean some of these kids have no clue right so with all that there’s that vested as well that little Nest Egg what the money that they’re getting you know they’re going to have all this knowledge this education as by the time they’re done nine times out of 10 these
Kids don’t make it in the pros right and if they do it’s 9.9% of the time exactly I mean yeah exactly so it’s a you know if you do get the opportunity you know to have longevity there is still the average I think tenure of a NFL player
Is like less than three years it’s like 2.7 years or something like that you know so again make it why you can but doing it in a way that is um you know it’s responsible to the student athlete uh you’re looking out for their best interest putting them in positions to
Where they’re setting themselves up for their future and not solely thinking about I need to go you know spend this money right now right I need to invest this money I need to focus on getting a great education that’s hard to do for a 19-year-old you know because hell I’m 53
And I want to spend money I know I know and there’s the education piece of it right it’s you know putting some of that money aside and putting a majority of that money aside and and and really investing in your future or your families yeah the other thing I like
About nil is if you think about um and I and I love the pitch from 1890 right now and it’s it’s a it’s a good one because think about most of the players where they come from think about my situation I didn’t have any money right if I could
Think about how much I love my mom what he was talking about if I had the opportunity to help my mom and put her in a better situation have her fly out every weekend to watch when we’re at home um you know making a car payment making a house payment those type of
Things I think that there’s a lot of greatness that is in that that with nil how much did your mom get to watch you play when you gr when you were inbr well I only played for two years and half of one of those years I broke my leg and
Dislocated my ankle right so she came to every home game that we were there um uh I can’t so she didn’t yeah she went no she didn’t even go to the national championship game she wasn’t there my dad was there yeah my dad came she couldn’t afford it no
Way wow so the see there is a case where I think the schools should be able to help parents in a situation like that right or or in this situation nil right the kid has the the resource to put his parents his family his brothers sisters
Cousins his uncles whoever he wants in a position to where you know what I’m going to you guys gave me everything I’m here because of you now I want to give back that’s the I think the the really special thing about nil and what it provides wow I I I can’t believe your
Mom wasn’t at the national CH that almosts my heart dad was my dad actually drove uh cross country to be there yep a bicycle yeah yeah tricycle oh when did you guys this is for both of you when you guys both show up as freshman did you know
You were something special at that point and two-part question did you know you’re something special and the truth is I think I’ve been around college football a long time now a good portion of my career I don’t know if there’s ever been a better offensive line I know
People are going to and you know me bro I’m an Iowa fan but I I was there to cover you guys there’s never been a better line has there you know it was a unique situation where you had I mean Rob actually was the first one to get an
Opportunity to play he was the first one out the game I didn’t You’ never told me that yeah you he was the first one to get on the on the field out of all five of us I am the first Nebraska football player in history to play as a play as a freshman
To start a game as a freshman I did not know that that was a red shirt redirt freshman it was one game one game here’s the unique thing about what we did so Rob myself Ed Stewart Zack weager Terry canel that’s it our freshman year they still had the
Freshman team oh Dante Dante Red sharded Dante so we had six guys right so six guys that did not play freshman ball it was the last year of the frh the last one even though what was it cucher what was his name he wanted us to practice
Of other stff with so what was interesting was if you played freshman football the next year you red shirted and then you had three years to compete Rob and those five other guys yeah the freshman team that was a year of Eligibility well I didn’t know that yeah
You played freshman ball you’re playing games that burns a even though you’re playing Ellsworth Community College Air Force junior varsity snow mhm I did not know that was year so we collectively you know I mean outside of Joel you know we we got a head start on everybody and
So we kind of we knew and think about this we had to practice against the number one defense in the country at that time the pat tyrants is of the world Kenny Kenny Walkers croll Mike Petco I mean he was a badass linebacker kind of wild California guy he’s coming
Back actually uh mid-march he’s going he’s going to get involved with the program I always liked Mike yeah yeah he’s going to he’s going to help us got drafted by the Patriots yeah he’s doing he’s he’s doing a lot of great things out in western Nebraska so he and his
Son both are coming um but yeah so that opportunity to go against the number one defense in the country sharpen our swords against something like that uh gave us again another advantage of having an opportunity to develop a little bit quicker if you will than those guys that didn’t get a chance to
Red shirt their because they were playing freshman ball so the uniqueness I think there was a lot of great talent it kind of changed the model of how they did that now again the freshman team went away because of restrictions on coaching numbers at the time right but
It kind of changed the model in how people did it I mean all of a sudden that first year red shirt became a thing yeah no it was it was so again you ask did you guys know I think the realization of we we had something potentially um not only just as an
Offensive line but as a team probably was going into our junior year and I think we had all the makings um probably missing a couple different things um maybe scheme-wise um maybe getting over a hump in one game but that whole 93 season we go and we lose wide left to
Florida State then we knew we knew we had something we knew we beat Florida State we got bogus calls on a block in the back on a punt return Cory Dixon uh William Floyd fumbles on the goal line should have been a fumble and then we
Had a a mishap happen in our kicking game right at the end of the game when we were up with a minute 16 left if you remember this Byron Bennett just kicked a extra point to take the lead he’s excited as all get out jumping up and
Down on the sideline we had a two Kicker uh combination scenario going on with our football team Tommy seeler would kick uh short ones Byron would kick long ones and then they would go back and forth depending on who had the kick to kick it off for the next play so coach
Young had Byron Bennett go out after he’s all psyched up jumping up and down bomie gets out there kicks it off and kicks it out of bounds Florida state gets it on the 45 Charlie Ward single-handedly goes down the field and that was a game we had one more shot
With one second but you know if you go back I mean there’s so many things that happened in that game we knew I’ll never forget sitting on that bus going back to the hotel looking at Mark Gilman and just going we should have won that game we’re
Coming back I mean there’s no doubt in my mind we have something special here and truly I mean we had kind of a good mix that year too of offensive line we had Kenny man we had Lance Lumberg Rob myself Zach um I’m trying to think who
Else Joel played a little bit I believe so Joel actually so I was the backup I was the not even the I’m not sure backup’s the right word rotat I was the swing guy at tackle yeah I was the quote unquote starting left guard but I was
The guy who gave Lance and Zach like breaks a tackle so I’d go in that’s right play a series or two at left guard then I’d go to left tackle for a series or two right tackle for a series or two I’d go take a breather come in hit the
Repeat button yep Joel wils played more snaps at left guard that year than I did see I didn’t I didn’t realize that yeah he he was essentially the starting left guard I was well well what happened was though so I mean I I might have started
The game but yeah Joel had more snaps at left guard than I did you got your name on Husker Vision but you know why that happened Rob do you remember what happened versus Missouri well yeah there was a couple of bang-ups there so earlier in that year
We played Missouri we were up by four touchdowns on them maybe in the first half and I was at the bottom of the pile this junior or senior year Junior and Rob was the right tackle I was the starting right guard I’m under the pile on the goal line and I’m not [ __ ]
You it felt like my my foot was kind of jammed into the ground like this it felt like somebody took my foot slow like this and just turned it and and he heard it he heard me screaming I remember robs specifically looking up and robs pulling
Guys off get off of them I get up and I remember my ankle flipping back in I’m like man I just sprained my ankle pretty good yeah and I literally walked off the field I remember walking by coach Osborne he’s like you okay and I said I
Sprayed my ankle pretty good went over the sideline the story’s been told Aaron likes to tell it but I’m sitting there and GE uh George Sullivan our old trainer he’s got the Hat with the smelling salts on it and his glasses like this and his big old gut out like
This and what’d you do I’m like oh man hurt my ankle pretty good so he takes my shoe off takes my sock off and that hole that sits at your ankle when they tap the hole was all the way in the front right so my my ankle was this and the
Hole was like sitting like that and his glasses went like this and here’s a guy that invented Gatorade he’d never seen that before right and at that point Aaron Graham walks over you’re all right slaps my ankle W oh God I remember that so so then
George cuts the tape off and of course there’s nothing holding my ankle together it just my foot goes one way my my ankle stays just like that so dislocated it and then I broke so when that happens not a compound though pop the that tape saved it yeah the tape
Saved it so you know you break the an or I dislocated the ankle and I broke my fibula and I should have blown my knee cuz that’s usually the process ankle fibula knee and you know so broke the fibula and it was right in front of the
Colorado game right and at the same game it was re really weird John Peterson was really his son plays tight end for CLA John Peterson big old Center out of Grand Island a quarter later does the same thing but he’s in the middle of the
Field and it stayed out like they had to come back and pop it back into place so John and I are in the hospital room we both had surgery the same day we’re like in the same hospital room with the same exact injury his was a little worse and
He never was able to come back from it I think because I don’t know he dislocated and and messed some nerves up or something in his ankle but yeah it was a weird deal and never forget the first guy that came to the room was Trev I
Woke up and Trev was standing there he was a great Captain great leader back then but you know so now you’re looking at Colorado all the way to the end right and they went on this run and that’s when the line had to shuffle up our offensive yardage I will claim this our
Offensive yardage decreased by 25% which was insane that’s significant it was significant you know in the running game in particular that’s all we did was run the ball you know but uh yeah so you know and I didn’t come back until the first day down at the bowl
Game so I was in the pool every day riding my bike going through rehab you know in the winter slipping and falling with a broken dislocated ankle and a broken leg in the ice you know at on campus we get down to um the bowl game
The first practice we had was my first day back and Coach tener looked at me and says you ready I said sure So we go one-on ones and and right out the gates I think it was pesterfield I went one-on ones and I just lifted him up and put
Him on his back and I remember Christian yelling he’s back so but because of that injury Honestly though there was Shuffle there was Shuffle Honestly though like there’s no way you you should have come back from that in a in a season seven weeks so this I mean for the medical peeps who
Listen to this it it was a Liz Frank fracture mhm you know nobody knows what the hell Liz Frank called spiral a spiral yeah techically technically be a leaf the technical pronoun it’s a leaf fron fracture coupled with a a distal fibular fracture as well it’s a spiral
Right the only reason I know spiral because I’ll never forget this Greta my my my youngest daughter well it’s more than a spiral even it’s it’s a spiral plus more stuff yeah I dislocated the ankle and then as it dislocates that fibula yeah it does one of those so it
So it’s so I had I had a plate and nine screws with a repaired ankle and you played played you’re like Aaron Rogers com back from ailles after he didn’t seven weeks yeah this was not even two months later so it’s I mean it’s still
One of the things it’s like this is one of the toughest things I’ve ever seen somebody do as you doing that but it’s um the uh nobody really ever talks about it either yeah Lea Lea Fran is the you want credit for that don’t you yeah Dam
It so okay I got to go nerd on you here so Lee Fran or lesz Frank whatever it is he was a he was a surgeon in the Napoleonic armies oh great Jes have you seen Napoleon the movie n don’t spoil it I haven’t watched it yet so anyway he
Was a surgeon in the Napoleonic armies who described this injury and it’s the type of injury when you get as a Cavalry Rider when you get unhorsed unhorsed unhorsed and you come over but one foot stays in the stup and it and it dislocates and fractures the Foot and
Ankle there you go and his prescription for it because at the time in the death in 1807 or whatever it was GL amputation oh Jesus that was the treatment for that type of fracture because there was no way to fix it then they would just all
This is back in the day at the training table I would sit there and listen to Rob at the training table like oh my God I’d always ask this guy’s gonna like cure cancer well it’s funny because I always asked Rob did you roid he’s like I knew science I knew science knew
Science I knew protein the okay the best part so you mentioned terrorist chny earlier so terorists so he was a he was he was a kuk uh big old Center on the team from uh sasot one yeah from Southern Saskatchewan so what was it he he was uh
Fromit tuna oh yeah and played prep school ball in Regina I love it those are towns in Canada Regina Regina Regina ituna and Regina ituna can I ituna your Regina towns in Canada it’s Canada you definitely find ituna in the Regina so I’m just saying it’s Canada what do you
Expect anyway um Terrence and I we would we would sit down in the training room and watch Jeopardy oh oh this isun and then they and then they would repeat this exact same episode The Following half hour so Terence and I would watch it in the training room and then Terence
And I would go up to Milt tener’s office with the wholeo line and for the next half hour we’d all watch Jeopardy together and Terence and I are like barking ansers like all the answers like left you guys are freaking geniuses which Terrence actually the guy was an
Engineering major he’s had a really smart he is and he’s had literally gas yeah 30-year career as an engineer in Canada running running petrol wow so no but any digress yeah that’s what we do here by there are no rules on this but that but that injury yeah it was
Significant man to do that less than to do that less than two months later it was insane that is freaking insane and I remember so the thing that was funny about it do you remember then Steve did it Mar senior year K State so he does it
The next year and I remember Steve does it and it’s again basically the same injury and I in hindsight I kind of feel bad because when it happened with Steve we’re all sitting there going like well you’re going to be ready for the national title game orange I mean we
Need you dude yeah and he’s like my ankle is broken and we’re like didn’t stop sty it’s like what like what the hell stop they just put some plates and screws in there he was fine let’s go like rub dirt on it as George solivan it was he seemed perfectly okay were you
Determined to do that was it one of those things where again coach Osborne right so I had this business writing class and wait how did we go from a broken ankle to a bus right I’ll tell you why so the the teacher in this class um she she couldn’t stand athletes right
Really yeah and I you mean help pay your salary because the department makes Mone exactly right probably the smartest student you had right exactly so you know it was a great class um but I didn’t enjoy her she didn’t enjoy me and it was the one class remember I didn’t
Have a car I Liv with two roommates Mark had a truck Tommy had a truck and they both had to use it they couldn’t like take the time out every day to take me a class so here I am in a boot after I had
A cast on it for 3 weeks I’m in a boot and I’m going to class and it’s just getting to be winter I’m riding my mountain bike in ice across the campus and you know how slippery that [ __ ] is so I’m like screw it I’m not going to go
To this class I can’t stand from 12th and G to campus yeah yeah so I’m walking from our locker room to go to the training table um I got the boot on and Coach Osborne’s coming over and this is South Stadium right so he’s going to his
Office I’m going to the training table in the west and he stops me and you know he’s like hey Brennan I heard things are going really good with your with your treatment coming along ahead of what anybody thought and he goes here’s the thing if we stay on this run and we
Don’t lose we’re going to have a chance to play in the national championship and he goes Dennis is telling me that you’re not passing a class cuz you’re not going and this is business writing class he goes I really want you to think about this because if you’re not eligible to
Play you can’t play in the game and you’re ready to go because semester’s over at that time that’s right so if I had kept doing what I was doing at the time I wouldn’t have been a eligible to play in that game so I’m like you know it just takes
One or two comments a pat on the back a a bolt of energy I’m like I’m going to do this so I ended up going actually licking my wounds with her and I ended up getting a c minus in the class right and I retook the class CU I wanted a
Better experience it was a great class but I was eligible and he was right on he was spot on like he always was always was and and he brought levity to it you know he made sense of it he wasn’t forcing me but he was nudging me and
Saying you know yeah you’re not it’s this not going to ruin your college career but think about it right if if you have the ability to come back and you’re not eligible you’re going to be kicking yourself in in the ass for not doing it so because of him that
Motivated me even more I was in that swimming pool I’d watch these guys walk over to the Cook and they’re waving at me and I’m in the swimming pool with a weighted vest with do gter garden getting my conditioning in you know nonweightbearing in the water like I
Mean every day you guys remember doing walking by me cuz when you’re injured you’re probably away from the team I mean when you get injured you’re cancer dude you’re literally you feel like people don’t want to talk to you look at you touch you be around you because oh
Jesus I can’t you know if he’s hurt if I interact with him I might get hurt that’s how you feel which it’s it’s a weird dynamic on sports teams because it’s although you guys didn’t do that to me you were supportive the whole time I
How you feel problem well and part of it is too is that it’s it’s like there’s kind of this we love you but there’s all these other goals over here we got to keep we got keep going we got keep working on this [ __ ] keep doing what you’re doing we
Love you get your ass back to us as soon as we can as soon as you can yeah and it’s kind of weird because when when high level athletes get injured some guys you you see some guys for lack of a better phrase they kind of embrace the
Injury MH and the treatment the rehab you have to you go into this different environment yeah you get depressed at all or were you just well when it happened my mom and dad at the game I looked up and I had dreams I wanted to
Play in the pros and at that point I was like in the zone if you can imagine an offensive lineman being in the zone I was playing at a high level you’re playing good that year cuz I was at the other guard spot and I was like I’m
Going to get so many more pancakes than brandan no [ __ ] I’m not getting any more pancakes than Brandon but you know in a zone right up to that point and I remember thinking I’m sitting on the sideline and the night before I had so much great luck my brother was in town
Too so so my whole family was there I won for that Missouri game yeah you know the little Punch Cards at the gas station I won like $125 on a punch card all plums I’ll never forget it so you doubled your salary in a punch card I
Look at my brother I’m like dude we’re going to win we’re going to kick ass I’m going have a great game boom it’s going to be great next day crushed I look up in the I never forget I look up in the stands my mom you can imagine I’m
Looking for my mom cuz I know she’s worried I just look at her and I go that really and at that point I felt like my career was over that’s how depressive and down in the dumps you get when you get injured and on top of that
My girlfriend and I wife now we had broken up right so I was in the basement as far as my psych my psyche it was it was terrible so did Jack help you through that no no not at that point Jack really kind of plugged in I think
Our senior year was more uh Unity counsil uh he started that and then he actually great story about Jack we’re digressing yeah that’s all we do that’s all we do Jack uh and I tell this when I give tours uh because we do have five full-time psychologists um at the time you know
Jack I think recognized well coach Osborne recognized there was a problem on the team when it came to blacks and whites there was there was a split there was you would go to the training table and it was all black on one side and all white on one side and Coach didn’t like
That so he addressed it and then I think that ultimately led to a Unity Council which was not necessarily senior leadership but leadership on the team that got together and policed themselves and it still is in existence today I think in some shape or form Nebraska has
Um really kind of revolutionized a lot of things right along the years of being in existence in athletics and coach osor was a big part of that Innovation but that’s just one little piece of it so Jack came in our senior year but the one thing that I will I do remember with
Jack was before uh the national championship game we all met in my room Aon and I’s room and we got together and this is what seven eight hours in front of the game and jack it is the first time that I ever was introduced to visualization so he brought us into this
Environment in the room everything’s quiet everything’s dark in football in particular on offense you script plays and so what he wanted us to do was come there prepared in our minds with the first 10 plays and then he wanted us to go through each play systematically but not only that
But in front of that he got us to the game right he brought us all the way down almost to where we were hypnotized like I felt Just In This Very mellow quiet place and then it’s like get to the game and visualize all of this you’re getting to the game you’re
Putting your pads on going out you’re warming up you’re in the first series here’s the first play you’re in the Huddle you see the quarterback you hear the play you go to the line of scrimmage you see the the defensive formation you run the play all the way to seeing
Yourselves winning the game and then by that time he’s like bom okay now you’re at this level of e at that point to Consciousness right Bill Murray quote CAD Shake any I’m gonna drink one of your to of Chas do it man sorry Dr oh Owen came and took my last that’s cuz
Owen hates you he does he does but I used I use that visualization the rest of my career really yeah even through the pros oh yeah yeah absolutely the the mental so at once you get to that level it’s 90% mental right you have all the
Ability to play the game but the ability to overcome uh some of the demons that that creep in there when you’re playing whether it’s it’s prepping and watching a guy that you’re going against or during a game you get beat you know having the ability to overcome that not
A lot of guys can a lot of guys go into the dump or a lot of guys can’t get themselves it is such a unique experience playing football especially at a high level College included and even high school you wake up the day of a game things look different they smell
Different everything’s different it’s like you’re going into a fist fight right and it is a premeditated event that you’re going to you know what’s going to happen it’s coming right and so you’re it is a bizarre correct me if I’m wrong I mean it’s it’s an incredible experience it
Really is um you know and then having the ability to kind of visualize yourself through some of those things uh and seeing yourself has success that to me outside of having injury that creates longevity that creates a person that’s consistent and those are the guys that have without injuries those are the guys
That have long careers better relationships in college or Pros College 100% thousand times over yeah just because of the business transaction of everything it’s the transactional part of it is a business um a lot of guys won’t even engage in relationships Pro level yeah because you get you get invested with people and
Then all of a sudden they’re gone my family we’re hanging out we’re having Christmases together kids everything next thing they’re gone it’s which I yeah although I feel bad because I had some amazing in relationships with guys at the NFL level I really did and it’s
It’s it’s one of those things now that I look back on and I think about um relationships that I have with people like you Zach Joel Aaron um and even I mean there’s guys like Brady casy Brian PR guys that will mess think how how short of a time that was yeah I
Mean but it was the intensity of the experience over that four five year span it is kind of what I think builds that I I feel bad because I think about with at the NFL level because there was a there was a handful of guys that I was with
For a similar period of time 3 four five years um that was maybe the max because that’s how long I played but there’s a few guys I played with for for that whole time period there there’s not that anchor there there and I mean for the guys that for
The for the at the college level you’ve always got the school you played for the place you were at but and we talked about this the last time the difference is and I feel bad for the players in the last 25 years at Nebraska they haven’t
Shared what we shared I would agree two years in a row having an opportunity to do that and then winning it that that type of experience and reflecting on what it took to get there and then winning it that relationship never goes away so when you see somebody if I saw
Troy Dumis who I haven’t seen in maybe 25 years if I saw him tomorrow I’d be like Troy what is up TR Troy talks really soft he does he was a badass right no I never what I remember about troyo talk that way then talks that way now and you’re like
I remember going to the press conferences Stadium like what are you saying I can’t hear you yeah Troy’s a great follow on Twitter by the way is that right yeah but we used to work so Troy and I um along with a bunch of guys we never left the stadium
In the summer right we would we would get there in the morning we do our workouts right usually in the weight room in the morning because it was hot in the afternoon you wanted to get your conditioning and when it was hot and then in between all of that we would
Work in the stadium we’d scrape r rails paint steps I mean it was just a joke of a job um but those relationships and some of we played the Alphabet game right so A through Z movies and you know call them [ __ ] on guys all the time
That’s not a movie what are you talking about you couldn’t google it back then but he you know Troy troy’d be like 25 flights of stairs down right painting the stair and Mark Gilman be over here and I don’t know Larry Townson be over
Here and we just I mean we had a just a an array of characters but we’re yelling at each other and those type of experiences I’ll never forget and then you you bond that at the end with a championship so the relationships like Rob was talking about the longest I was
At one team was five years which was Steelers right the Steelers and we played in the Super Bowl so the the relationships I had the relationships I had with those guys because of that even though it was one year you know having that experience like I mean think about
How much I appreciate the national Championship versus this is that a AFC championship AFC Championship stolen Ring We yes that is the stolen ring that’s right so take me through that because that that was gone for nine years right n years yeah that’s a great
Story I got to let you know because I’m like I I need to know what to kind of pull out of you for this interview so I go to your Wikipedia page it’s like it’s very short then big old write up on the cash for gold yeah it’s it’s
Unbelievable like a stolen ring I didn’t I had no idea yeah so when I was in Kansas City I had signed with the Chiefs that’s a whole another story the irony there was Will Shields hadn’t signed his tender and I had played behind will Shields at Nebraska here I was they
Signed me they needed another starting guard they had zot myself so they signed me Aaron Graham was there and that was really to be honest with you they were paying me starter money decent contract good signing bonus but AG was already there and I was like [ __ ] I’m going to
Go play with ag let’s go right so anyhow go to City and we buy a house in Overland Park okay which was one of the I believe the fastest growing cities in the nation at the time he’s just like house after house after house we get there I’m there for about four months
Right offseason workouts all this stuff we get to Camp go through camp and all the while in Camp and I think Rob was actually at their camp at the time uh Jacksonville was having issues with offensive lineman belli was coming back from a knee injury uh John Wade had a
Broken foot they had a rookie left Garden Brad Meer they had another guy and Rob wasn’t there um he was a free agent guy um Anthony something I can’t remember Cesario Cesario and then Cesario their right tackle guess who it was I forget Z weager but the only
Reason why Zach was in there is because Leon who I played next to for one year in Pittsburgh had blew out his triceps so Zach moves to to right tackle this other guy comes in there and then Zach ends up dislocating his elbow a little
Bit so it was all the the news right out of out of Jacksonville and nobody wanted to play there cam Coughlin tons of non-injury grievances coming out of Jacksonville just Coughlin the way he ran his ship was you had to get used to him right so but nobody wanted to play
There plus there was this I think a lot of people thought it was um a cult like a religious cult down there with Brunell and bsel but it was completely far from the truth fake news right so didn’t know that but then so I go to Kansas City we
Go to training camp it’s up in Minnesota um the whole entire Camp I’m having the newspapers are basically like saying will Who and we just played San Francisco and I played against probably the best three technique in the league in Bryant Young and I handled them and
So because of that you know the papers were like well okay he’s not going to sign his tender but we’re okay and then they signed another guy named Black Shear and he was a beast of a man came from Baltimore Ravens so we were okay at
The guard position but it was the second to last day in Minnesota here I am again on a bike they had bikes up there in training camp and I used to ride a bike in the evening to kind of get the lactic acid out I’m coming back and there’s will and Will
Was Notorious he wore a black leather like trench coat and he was standing in the lobby in Minnesota at trainy cam I’m like [ __ ] something’s got to give you got four starting guards there’s no way so we literally we went back 2 days later and we get into Kansas City that
Morning practice we still had one two a day left that morning practice I got one snap yeah shot H with the coach at this point who’s the coach no um Gunther [ __ ] oh wow Gunther you forget about gun he’s the only reason why I was there
We played him three years in a row in Kansas City on Monday night and yeah he liked what he saw and he was a d coordinator at that time so anyhow so we’re there we’re in Kansas City that morning practice I get one snap the second practice I get zero and
Nobody’s talking to me not one and I’m like so there’s the transactional part of everything going on I’m going okay all right this is kind of cool right I don’t know what’s happening but in the back of my mind I’m like [ __ ] something’s going to give something has
To and it has to be me so you have snack in the evening right and I’m walking towards solar’s office who was the o line coach at the time he stick his head out his office door and salari was an okay guy whatever you know they ran West
Coast offense you know he thought he was the next best thing yeah and he was really smart but so he sticks his head out and he says Hey brenon Gunther wants to see you and at that point I just was like oh no and it was like the longest
Walk I’d ever had up to that point in my career thinking about everything right so I had a great Camp right everything was good will signs something’s going to give I kind of forgot about the Jacksonville thing I get up into Gunther’s office and first and foremost
I love the guy he passed away yeah but uh Aaron Graham and I we would play guitar every night in my room right um and our neighbor was Elvis gerbach so my neighbor at that time in training camp was Elvis gerbach and gerbach want so
They had like a talent show and it was for rookies and gerb back’s like dude you guys come on you guys gotta get up on stage and play and so we did and actually will Shields bought us the CD to get uh the the strumming right and
The the lyrics right because we did we did two songs we did Green Day time of your life and we did um usang we all did oh really yeah and we and Aon and I both played and then we had a defensive lineman get up and because we did Dixie
Land Delight as well yeah so I walk into Gunther’s office and it was great right I mean the whole uh rookie show was awesome Gunther’s like man still my favorite part of Camp oh my God you guys getting up there and doing that [ __ ] and
He goes I got here’s a problem he goes I got four guards and there’s Jacksonville Jaguars and I go and he goes they only want one they want you and he goes I got uh Tom Coughlin and Zack weager on the phone I’m like no way I could not even like I
Dreamt this yeah it was bizarre next thinging you know dude I am in Jacksonville the next day my wife and my person I invested with in Lincoln he joined Jennifer my mom stayed behind she was in Kansas City I had two kids my mom had one of those disposable cameras y so
She went to that game that we just played against San Francisco had a bunch of pictures of me with Kansas City uniform on number 77 by the way um I go to Jacksonville and I show up I practice two days down there I’m ingesting A playbook that big luckily for me it was
Like kind language it was a number system and we ran kind of the same stuff in Pittsburgh so two days to get ready for this game we turn around and go to Kansas City we go to Kansas City which is nuts and the the funniest thing about
This whole story was me walking so I get there right of course you know Camp Coughlin all that stuff I mean I’m just like it’s a whirlwind of things is happening in my life I’m getting traded to go to Jacksonville um we had to sell
Our house we sold it in one day by the way it was a beautiful house good real estate market just like that oh it incredible get down there my mom stays behind Jen’s down there we’re looking for a place to live um two days to get
Ready for this um I could not stand the offensive line coach he and I have mended ways I used to work those um uh combines um what the hell they’re the guys that don’t get drafted Regional camps I used to work that for the NFL
And he was that one so he and I kind of mended our ways but I mean the guy was a screamer that’s all he did Mike merer you remember he was a complete spaz in the meeting rooms he was fine but on the field I mean the guy was I I called him
Pig vomit he had a he had a birth mark on his face right and he would just the whole practice right so I get there remember learning this Playbook two days the first week with him was okay but he forgot to mention one thing they had an
Audible system and it was based on bodies of water on the left and Celestial on the right so Moon Star sun on the right audible this way River Lake Ocean on the left so Coughlin tells me I’m not going to play more than eight to
12 snaps a game no the first game okay back in Kansas City okay I go into the locker room right before the game it was it was classic I walk in there and I’ve got Jack Jacksonville stuff on and all the guys are going sty what’s up I’m
Getting ready to play these guys in the last preseason game that was cool get in the game right first series they call play they want to see me pull and trap and again I’m coming up the line of scrimmage and everybody’s like St what
Up St you know this [ __ ] so we get down and of course it wasn’t Brunell that was playing in this game was the last preseason game so he wasn’t playing can’t remember the guy he was Mississippi State quarterback remember his name taller dude nobody ever remembers the Mississippi State
Court see his face I am blanking on say Dak Prescott’s the only Mississippi State I got Quint I got Quinton Newar at center right K State yep there you go Brad Nebraska kidal high school that guy really so here he is I’m pulling to the left it’s a short little inside trap get
Down and of course quarterback calls an audible and my coach hadn’t gone over that with me so I’m geared up I’m ready to go and I pull out of there and it’s a three-step drop for him I pancake the quarterback luckily he doesn’t fumble pancake him and of course I’m in
My mind going oh [ __ ] I’m not even I’m gonna get fired before I even get on the field in regular season I look over the sideline and even Coughlin all of the coaches are laughing their asses off I didn’t think it was that funny but so
You know the game plays out and next thing you know um you know here I was in Jacksonville and it was just like in a blink of an eye that’s your life right it just it was crazy okay that’s kind of weird because how’d your ring get stolen
Oh oh we gotta go back to the ring that was the story by the way okay so the ring so remember we had the house yeah I left all of my stuff um had to get shipped down to Jacksonville and before I left I remember looking at it on my
Rolodex thinking I’m not going to bring it that’s that was my memory so we go everything’s in storage and down there it’s got to be climate control and we had maybe four boxes cuz the house that we rented was on the ocean Jack Beach was nice right but we
Only had what we needed um it was maybe three weeks into it I woke up one night I’m like my rain like literally like what so I spent the next couple days when I had time to go through these boxes I’m like [ __ ] I’m G to have to
Wait until the end of the season when we move into a house right they sign me a new contract we’re going to stay and go through everything to find my ring so I mean everything unfolds I’m not going to get into everything that happened after
That but I never found it right and then nine years later nine years later I get a call from my mother-in-law and it is the Fort Lauderdale Police Department who was contacted by cash for gold and so cash for gold now right exactly so what they they had a system to where um
They would screen things coming in right and a lot of people were stealing [ __ ] and trying to get money for it I mean that’s that was just what was happening so anytime Rings would come in they would verify right making sure that they weren’t stolen and they had three at the
Time and one of them was mine so they they contacted Fort Lauderdale Police the the only number that Fort Lauderdale could come up with was through the Steelers and it was my mother-in-law’s house in yinda California so they called the Steelers ended up calling well the Lauderdale police called the Steelers
Steelers call my mother-in-law my mother-in-law calls me and says they found your ring and so then what happened was because of that the owner of cash for gold knowing that you know I guess celebrity whatever NFL uh I was very happy that they found it the only
Thing that was left of all of it was just the ring they had hawked the the uh what is that Onyx yeah and these were real diamonds these aren’t these this is a replica so they had the just the ring itself with with no jewels in it and the
The owner of cash for gold called me and said hey would you do me a favor and um talk about what happened with your ring cuz there were some things that happened after that somebody had stolen it and it was a maid at the hotel we stayed at in
Jacksonville she sold it to a jewelry store in I I can’t remember where somewhere in Florida and then somebody ended up buying it and then they were using that ring to uh make people believe that they were me really and then so right but I knew that because I
Had a feeling that that happened cuz when I was in Detroit we had just so remember we were 0 and 11 my rookie year in Detro not my Rook my first year in Detroit oh in 11 our first game we beat the Vikings at home we’re celebrating in the shower and
Everything the head of security comes in the shower and just rains like on My Parade he goes hey I got to let you know um the uh Jacksonville uh police or somebody had called in a um identity theft they’re using your name image and likeness because they have your ring I’m
Like what and they’re swindling money out of old people and the only reason why is there was a a girl there whose sister was being courted by this guy and she knew that he was claiming that he was me and she was a Jacksonville Jaguar fan that’s not brenen sty remember
Internet was just kind of w crazy so I knew that happened like again so then down the road so I never found it there but then down the road both they find my ring I get it back I still have it right a cash for gold bag on it and everything
Um and so I got on ESPN and it was when actually Aon and I were working together with Cabella’s um Trophy Properties Premier outdoor properties I had the Hat on I was like advertising for recreational grounds selling property on ESPN so long story and I talked about
The identity theft you know and that was a big deal and it still is that’s crazy there’s all sorts of ways people can use your identity so your career comes to an end do you have to work again I I honest question did you have to work
Absolutely absolutely yep so I was smart enough to put my money away and invest but my Jen and I our our goal was to build enough to where when we’re 55 and 60 you never have to work again but the the TR close dude yeah the truth of it
Is you always have to work no matter what and it’s so amazing to me because you know people say they retire especially at an early age dude there’s no way you can retire I I walked away from football I quit football but in essence you know it never leaves you and
Then you got to [ __ ] find something to reinvent yourself because you’re that that person a doctor yeah be a doctor well think about he unplugged from football because the time was running out for him to take advantage of the medical I I forget that I Go why’d you
Come back there he goes because they weren’t going to hold my spot anymore exactly exactly you know and so you know you set yourself up you I was a player rep for five years um did everything that I preached to these guys when I was playing how to manage your
Money make sure you understand you know the way money work did you want to do that because you didn’t come from money I mean was that a conscious thing well to be honest with you um I didn’t have the financial literacy my wife did my wife her mom’s CPA wealth management and
She still is to this day practicing she’s 76 years old and she manages over $400 million of money oh she does quite well for herself yeah no she she’s done very well but then you know with my wife I was a guy that wanted to stuff my
Money under my pillow you know I didn’t really understand the the investment side of things and I’ll never forget my second contract which was going into my third year with the Steelers oh [ __ ] my second contract what was your biggest but Detroit that was my biggest Detroit Detroit was a $15 million
Contract again it’s not the contract it’s the signing bonus yeah and the only reason why I signed with him um you know was because they stepped up and you know I was representing myself at the time I was getting on a plane to go to the
Giants right and uh I was maybe not getting on the plane we were driving to Orange County airport I was in med school at the time but that was long gone right I’m getting on a plane driving to the airport right so and it’s who was the the Big 10 commissioner
Warren uh well yeah was yeah what’s his name his full name Moren come on I’m drawing a blank he was the he was the pro contract negotiator for the Detroit Lions at the time and because he’s the president of the Bears now he’s the president of the Bears uh he he was a
Nice enough guy but he was easy you know he was he was kind of Meek in his approach in contract negotiating Kevin waren so I just told Kevin I said like purged him from my memory I know yeah after the mishandling of the co stuff I’ve se he like gone so I just
Told him I said listen if you want if you want this to get done you better in the next two hours come up with the money that I want to sign and he’s like we’re not going to be able to do it he like I’m getting on a plane and going
Seeing the Giants they want to pay me and of course the general manager at the time of the Detroit Lions Matt Millan oh yeah yeah Matt uh talk about uh you know I’m a guy that uh had no business doing what he was doing even though he was
Passionate I mean he just he he was not in over his head in over his head um so anyhow again driving to the airport boom Warren calls me he’s like you got it and I was like we pull over I never forget pulling into Mimi’s Cafe parking lot
Give my mom a hug and yeah so it was that was for me that was the big one uh so do you take care of your did you take care of your mom with all your money oh yeah good absolutely good yeah so you get done you got it you know you’re
Going to retire at 55 or whenever yeah um you come back you sell land with with graham right you you end up the Husker athletic office is that where you want to be I mean is that yeah I I absolutely enjoy what I do right now and you know
The thing about um what I do is I give back to a university that gave me everything incredible incredible opportunity if I would have not made the decision to come to Nebraska who knows what would have happened in my life so I feel like I owe the University some of
That and it’s enjoyable it wasn’t enjoyable through Co um but you know I’m on track to do some other things um of course you know we’re in real estate as well I have my license you know my wife has her own uh real estate team she does
Very well help her on the side you know so we have our passions you know we we uh we invest outside of the state you know we’re in California as well and in Arizona and you know there’s just there’s there’s also I always tell people I like don’t you know if you if
You have the ability to invest in real estate don’t hesitate and start early start building your portfolio you hear that Owen you hear that Owen yeah he want me to buy property all the time it’s too late for me oh just takes one it really does um so you know we’ve
Invested in Lincoln we’ve got a bunch of units in Lincoln and it’s a little bit of a headache because I manage them you know but you need a property manager we’ve tried that and they rip you off it’s unbelievable they Nick cheap is what I hear not cheap not cheap but my
My bik you the you are the most frugal man I know you have to be it’s self-preservation yeah look out for yourself absolutely so I tell you what uh Brendan fabulous conver I appreciate you coming up I know I was pestering you a lot so I appreciate it was fine and it
Worked out like I said I had you know I I wanted to be able to kind of kill two birds with one stone and so it worked out great glad to be here excellent rob you got a catch up with a buddy too hello I love
You you’re a large bald that’s a great impersonation I got him down pat brother hey uh make sure to download the BET FR Sports app wherever you’re at and uh use bet Fred when you make your sports Wagers big thanks to Husker hounds two locations in the Omaha area so make sure
To frequent Husker hounds when you need your Husker gear um Connor or I we got to get with Connor stuff’s going on I don’t I’m not going to send you to a website right now because he doesn’t have one I don’t think he does but if
You need he’s a busy guy he’s a guy’s a lawyer he’s an agent uh you know reach out and I’ll give you Conor’s information and centr Federal Credit Union as well Steve swansom who gave beer Steve that’s right for Brendan stey for Dr Rob zanis for Owen Justice I’m
Travis Justice we will talk to you next time on the doc Talk podcast presented by betfred Sports
6 Comments
pipeline reunion!!! its a must
Lance Lewis. What a beast man. Who wins the 100, 200, 4 x 100, and shot put in the same track meet?
No better podcast…thanks
The CFL team in Regina is known as the Roughriders. Yes really, the Regina Roughriders…..
Absolutely amazing interview
I listened to the last podcast 2x while shoveling my driveway and breaking up the ice. Appreciate you guys! Quality stuff!