SEASON 3 EPISODE 15 | Former NFL Player Doc Blevins

In this episode of Vetted Conversations, football coach and media personality Dr. Anthony Blevins joins us from Radio Row at the Super Bowl to discuss his coaching journey across high school, college, the NFL, and spring leagues. As the son of an Army veteran and part of a multi-generational military family, Blevins reflects on how military values shaped his leadership style, discipline, and career in sports. With a deep appreciation for those who serve, he shares insights into the parallels between football and military culture, and how both fields demand commitment, structure, and resilience.
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Transcript

Welcome to Vetted Conversations, where we delve into the foundations, workings, and current challenges facing our American experiment. In today's confusing world, it's more important than ever to understand what keeps our nation strong and how we, as patriotic citizens, can actively participate. 

Our mission is to ensure that you, the listener, gain the knowledge and insights alongside us, your veteran and military family member hosts, to become more informed and engaged citizens. 

In a world of partisan noise, we lead with a bias of patriotism, cutting through the static with clarity, insight, and action. Join us as we learn together and help equip you with the tools to protect and preserve what matters most our shared American ideals. 

So maybe to start, what brings you to New Orleans this week? How's the week been? What's your take on everything for the past few days? 

Well, the week's been good. It's been busy. I'm tired. 

Yeah, right. It's Thursday. It's Thursday. New Orleans, I was handed a shot early this morning. I'm not from here. I can't start drinking at eight o'clock in the morning. I'm not a big drinker anyway, so eight in the morning is really early for me. Yeah, that's a little aggressive. Yeah, I might say so. So it's been good though. It's been really fun being here on Super Bowl, Meteor Road, first time here. 

So I've really enjoyed myself. I got some oysters last night, which that's what I come to New Orleans for. The food is unbelievable. The culture here in the city. New Orleans is just a vibe by itself. 

But then when you add the Super Bowl to it, it's like five on overload. You know what I mean? That's great. So you hear kind of talking about some specific you're working on. Tell us a little bit about what you're bringing to everybody's attention while you're here. 

Well, I've just been in the media space for over the last six months. So that's where I'm at. Doing a bunch of interviews, just kind of hanging out, meeting people, networking, in that type of space. 

Very cool. Very cool. Any kind of conversations you've had over the past few days that stuck out to you or anything interesting from just being in New Orleans over the past few days? 

Well, it's just everybody, just keep going, keep doing what you're doing. Everybody's super encouraging, super nice about everything. Everybody's just super engaged. And notice I keep using Super Bowl. 

Yeah, it's a super week. It's a super week. But just being here in this media space is my first time. So this is kind of, it can be kind of overwhelming, kind of some of the people you see on TV, and just watching them kind of how they interact live. But it's been really a good atmosphere to be in. That's great. A lot of good people. 

Yeah, 100%. So maybe tell us a little bit about your career. I know obviously you were coached with a couple different teams and how you transitioned from coaching world to now and kind of the media world. How has that played out? 

Well, it's been good. But I started off coaching. I started off in college actually, went to high school and then back to college. So I've done all three levels, high school, NFL, college, I've done it all. But started off really in high school at Middle Creek High School over in Atlanta, Georgia or Gwynette, Georgia, which is like a sober north of Atlanta. And then went on to Mississippi State as a grad assistant. That's where I completed all my graduate work. And in Tennessee State, UAB, my alma mater went back there and then got a chance in 2013 to go to Arizona with the Cardinals, Bruce Harriens and that complete staff. Everybody in New Orleans knows Bruce. He was in Tampa, playing New Orleans twice a year. So that's been good. 

And then went on to New York, went to New York with the Giants, was there for five years, three head coaches, two GMs. So you just survive, you know what I mean? Like it's surviving advance year to year there. And then I left in 2013, took a head job in the XFL, took over the Vegas Vipers and then in the Spring League, truly volatile situation. 

Sure. The leagues merged, formed the leagues, the XFL, USFL, they merged, formed the UFL. UFL, right, yeah. And my team was merged out. Got it. 

So here I am, you know, being in this media space, you know, I've done some things, you know, NFL, contacts, coaching, but really, really engaged in the media space now. 

Got it. That's great. Yeah. Sounds like a lot, a lot of different experiences over the course. Like you said, all three levels and getting to see a bunch of different angles of the football world. So, you know, maybe as you've gone through that, I mean, we're an organization of veterans and military military family members were celebrating the 250th birthday of the Army Navy and Marine Corps. As you've kind of gone through your career, have you had, well, personally any connections in your family to the military, people who have served, or as you kind of coached, had players that had either served or kind of had connections there? 

Yeah, I've got a bunch. My dad was in the Army. Oh, amazing. He was in a reserve for over 40 years, just retired probably. Oh, wow. Eight years ago, maybe close to 10 years ago now. Okay. Yeah, my uncle, Navy, I mean, not in a Navy, but Marines, grandfather, Army. So I've got a bunch of 

Connections, a bunch of family, you know, like we're kind of a military family, if you will. Oh, that's great. Yeah. I mean, so I mean, from a young age then, if your dad served 40 plus years, it's just incredible to have that long of a career. Thank you for his service. Thank you for all your family service. 

Thank you. How has that experience being around the military and kind of, you know, being raised in kind of a military household? You know, has that shaped you or changed you the way that you thought about service, the way you thought about your career? Any of those things that you reflect on? 

Well, growing up, you don't really think about it as just a way of life. Sure. But as you get older, you think about the structure that you had, the discipline that you had, which serves me well playing sports. Yeah. The military and sports to me, they have some similar crossover. 

Obviously, in the military, you know, you play, playing for keeps, really. Right. You know, we'll have all those cliches in sports. You know, we're going to play for keeps. We're going to do this. 

We're going to do this. No, we're not playing for keeps. We're playing to keep score. You know, we're not playing for keeps like you do in the military. It's a true life or death situation in the military. So I want to say thank you to all the veterans out of there out in the world, wherever you are, wherever you can hear this. But also the people that are serving, not just the veterans that are out, but the people that are in right now that are active in the military. So thank you for all that you do. 

No, I appreciate that. And yeah, it's a it is I grew up in a military household. My dad served for 24 years on active duty. And like you said, maybe in the moment, you don't appreciate it except maybe when you see kids who didn't grow up in a military household, you're like, why do you have so much liberty? Yeah. 

I can't do that. But I think you appreciate it later on in life. Being home at 12, be home at 12, not at 12, 0, 1, not at 12, you know, 12, 59. Like you be home at 12. 

A lot of time is 15 minutes early. Absolutely. Awesome. Well, you know, is there any kind of information or things that you want to put out there to people to kind of follow you on what you're doing with your career and as you kind of expand or anything else that's helpful to share with folks? 

People can keep up with me on Instagram, ab518, again, ab518. LinkedIn, I'm big on LinkedIn, Anthony Blevins, PhD. That's where you can find me on social media. Awesome. 

Well, great. Well, before I let you go, I got to ask, you know, how you see the game playing, you know, playing on Sunday, who you're picking or if you got a routine interest? 

Well, I was in New York for five years with Shake One. We drafted him in 2018. So, you know, I'm biased to 26. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm biased to an incredible player. He's an incredible player. But beyond the player, you know, the talent is evident. We all see the talent. But who he is as a person, off the field, in the building, every day to his teammates, like I'm really a fan just because of him. So I'm kind of pulling for the Eagles because of 26. You know, and then it's his birthday, so I'd like to see him get a really good birthday present. 

That'd be the ultimate birthday present. So, yeah, so I'm really pulling for him from a personal note. But I do think the game itself, the game's going to be a good game. We're not in for a game of 38, 35, which it was two years ago. I think it's going to be 24-20, somewhere along that line. And really, I think the two defenses are really going to make a play. That's going to win the game. One of the two is going to make a play to win the game. 

You know, whether it's Chris Jones, Jaylen Carter, I think one of those two players could make a play on the final drive to win the game for their team. All right. Well, yeah, we'll see how it plays out outside of what you said. 

I think everybody's expecting to be a really good team of goals. So, well, thank you so much, Doc, for joining us and appreciate, like I said, your family service and excited to see where everything takes you next. 

Well, thank you. I think thank you for your platform and how you're using your platform. So thank you. Appreciate it. All right, have a go.