Is it the secondary? Stingley's supposed to be this amazing, Lasseter, but same personnel, 0-4 start, as a great like you to think, my goodness, like CeeDee Lamb is going to break a franchise record on my watch? What is going on?

You know, I'm just as baffled as you are.

I just don't see the playmaking that we've seen from this Houston defense in the past.

Now, first three games of the year, you don't have Nico Collins.

You know, they just, they're not...

I don't feel like their intensity is the same as they finished the year last year.

And what I mean is it just doesn't feel like they have that strong belief of who they are right now.

Are you calling the Chargers upsetting the Broncos?

... and they're specializing in a sport, do, do you, um, w- where do you land on that? Is it, are you happy with the fact that you played all s- different sports and you see value in that, or, um, do you kind of lean towards the sport specialization model that most kids are growing up with today?

Yeah, I did everything because if, when we played football, we were playing football.

It was no other sport.

There was no fall baseball.

There was none of that.

When basketball season came around, we played basketball.

If we, if the football players didn't play basketball, we had no basketball season.

So, like, what's that, what's that like? And, uh, you know, is it hard to be on the sideline, uh, as a sports parent these days?

Mm-hmm.

Like, I'm putting them on the pedestal.

I'm like, "Yeah, they starting.

I'm go- I'm definitely playing in the slot.

They not going in there." You know, so I thought that was gonna be the case.

Well, that wasn't the case.

Coach made it clear, like, "No, you starting.

Yep.

Which, which one sticks out to you? Do, I mean, uh, y- I'm sure you have love for all of them, but who do you think's going to have like a breakout year?

year?Well, I, I, I love Witherspoon in, in Seattle.

He's, I mean, playmaker.

I mean, he reminds me of a mix of Charles Woodson, Antoine Winfield, I mean, just a lot of the greats that just always in the mix making plays.

So I'm look- I'm looking forward to seeing, you know, how he, you know, breaks the bank, so to speak.

But, uh, I was happy to see PS2 get that bump in his salary this year.

So, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm looking forward to seeing him continue to set the bar high.

Right.

How did you feel when you walked into the locker room, I mean, in the DB room for the first time, and Deion and Dale Green was in the room?

Well, let me remind you, it was only Darryl at the time.

All right, all right, all right.

Yeah, yeah.

So Deion came my second year.

But what was crazy is Darryl was really my coach.

Now, Tom Hayes was the coach at the time, but he always allowed me and Darryl to just go sit in the corner and just talk.

What do you remember from your time here in D.C.?

How much film? How much off the field stuff, taking care of your body, or was it just natural ability? I know you say you practiced hard.

Uh, 90% natural.

Uh, honestly, I, I didn't really start, like, doing extra stuff like as far as, you know, just, just core and things like that until I s- started getting these soft tissue injuries.

Um, I always, you know, dealt with something, maybe an ankle here or there.

But I ne- like I said, I never missed a game until my sixth year in the league.

So that's when that all kind of started coming about, 'cause I, I used to watch John Lynch do it.

He was on his way out the league, and he would do all these little extra things, core, all this stuff, you know, just, just body maintenance.

Yeah.

How much film? How much off the field stuff, taking care of your body, or was it just natural ability? I know you say you practiced hard.

Uh, 90% natural.

Uh, honestly, I, I didn't really start like doing extra stuff like as far as, you know, just, just core and things like that until I s- started getting these soft tissue injuries.

Um, I always, you know, dealt with something, maybe a ankle here or there.

But I ne- like I said, I never missed a game until my sixth year in the league, so that's when that all kind of started coming about 'cause I w- I used to watch John Lynch do it.

He was on his way out the league, and he would do all these little extra things, core, all this stuff, you know, just, just body maintenance, and I didn't adopt that until after he left.

Before that, like when, those years when I was really doing it, maybe from my fourth year, mayb- maybe my third year all the way to about my eighth and ninth year, it was just a lot of film, you know.

Yeah.

I'm curious, what was the culture and the vibe like in your DB room during your prime years in Denver?

Denver?Well, it was, uh, on the up and up.

You know, uh, I think we were d- definitely the standard.

You know, I was fortunate enough when I- fortunate enough when I got to Denver, John Lynch was in the locker room with me.

He came from Tampa that same year, and then shortly when he left, Brian Dawkins came into the locker room.

So we always had high standards because these two are, two of the hardest working safeties to ever play the game, but they're also Hall of Famers.

Hall of Fame men, Hall of Fame leaders.

What is that? How does that work?

So what does this movie shed light on in the current state of college football today?

Oh, man, it's the challenges that coaches face trying to sign the best kids in the country.

And, you know, it's based off a lot of true events, you know, and situations from stories we've heard over the years.

And I got to say, man, there are so many different things that go into trying to get the best talent.

And you'll see a lot of that.

It's always family, the neighborhood.

And you're talking about a small town.

Would you have gone there knowing what this climate of NIL looks like? And more importantly, would you have stayed there because there is this transfer portal thing that it looks like one-year contracts for these young men that they go to one school, jump to another school? How would you have navigated that world back in your day?

I'm like, okay.

Yeah, like, you know, to be talking like that in the preseason, yeah, okay.

But not even the preseason.

This was early in the offseason.

He was like, obviously, we got to go work, but we got the tools to do it.

And I'm like, yeah.

All right.

So

Yes, sir.

Right? You know, the, the next round of playoffs.

So here's James Madison and Tulane with a chance to silence all the critics, because I gotta admit, I'm one of those people that say we need the 12 best.

I said this long before they even qualified for a playoff spot, and I still believe that.

Now they can go prove themselves as worthy of that spot, and they are based off the criteria that exists.

But I think ultimately, we want to sort of have what the NFL has.

The NFL always has the best of the best, right? It, it's, it- it- there's never no- a question of, you know, should this team make the playoffs or not? That's, that's never in question.

Or is somebody an invention?