Inside The Inner Circle - Welcome to our world where we have every corner covered - Episode 1

In our very first episode, The Inner Circle Podcast goes behind the curtain of the NFL with voices you won’t hear anywhere else: Aaron Donald (3-time Defensive Player of the Year and 10-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle), Matt Ryan (NFL MVP and 4-time Pro Bowl quarterback), Todd France (NFL super agent with more than 25 years of experience and nearly $7 billion in negotiated contracts), and Zach Klein (Murrow Award and 5-time Emmy Award-winning sportscaster) come together to cover every corner of the game.

From training camp stories and game-day rituals to balancing family life and navigating the business side of the NFL, this debut episode has it all. Matt opens up about transitioning from quarterback to media, Aaron talks about his relentless film study and life after football, Todd reveals what it’s really like to be an agent on call 24/7, and Zach shares how credibility and accountability shape the media’s role.

The conversation is funny, honest, and unfiltered, from Aaron sneaking out of team hotels as a rookie, to Matt’s very first pass going for a touchdown, to the pressures of postgame interviews and sudden roster moves.

Whether you’re a player, a fan, or just curious about what life inside the NFL is really like, this episode sets the tone for a podcast that delivers perspectives from every corner of the game.

Thanks for joining us from the start, and please follow, rate, and share The Inner Circle Podcast for more inside access to the stories that shape the NFL.

Transcript

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I'm going to put you on the spot here, Zach. Okay. You, you, you are first in the first press conference there. You get the first question to ask Micha whatever you want to ask him. What are you asking him? And then I'm going to have Aaron. respond as though he's Micah. shit, okay, I'm getting ready. What's up everybody? Welcome into the debut episode of the Inner Circle podcast where we have every corner covered. Zach Klein, Todd France, Aaron Donald, Matt Ryan. Gentlemen, you know, there's a lot of hot take, hire and fire podcasts, TV shows out there. This is not one of them. We're not diving in X and O's each and every week we are going to have, you know, insights. and stories from two of the best that ever played the game, one of the most respected and dominant agents out there. And I'll try to steer this ship and provide some insight into the world of media, but we're gonna have amazing guests. We're gonna hear from other players, coaches, agents, managers, those in marketing and music, entertainment, looking forward to having a lot of fun guys. You're busy, both family men, your guys are running around, Matt, Aaron, know, what are you looking to get out of this? What do you want our audience to know about this show and you guys particular? Yeah, listen, I, you know, I've got three young boys, twins that are seven, a little two year old son. And, I think my wife told me she needed me out of the house more. was around too much, and needed some space. I screw things up when I'm at home. So, you know, that's why I settled on, the three of you guys, but no, I'm, looking forward to it. think, you know, Zach, you kind of mentioned it at the, uh, at the beginning. It's just, it's something unique and different, right? And, and You know, I haven't seen anything out there where you've got an offensive defensive player, an agent, that perspective, somebody who's been, you know, on the media side of it for, for 20 plus years. And so, uh, I'm looking forward to chatting with these guys. Zach, I know you really well, Todd. know you really well, Aaron played against you for a long time, but don't know you quite as well. So looking forward to hearing the stories, looking forward to hearing your perspective and just chopping it up with you guys. But I think it's something fresh. think it's something different. And, m You know, looking forward to kind of spending the season and seeing how this goes. Yeah, I think you hit it right on top of the head. Having some fun doing this. I'm excited about the untold stories though. oh I think our listeners is gonna enjoy that. You get it firsthand from our offensive side, defensive side, to the Asian side, even to the media side. Like you said, it's every corner covered, right? And we're not missing none. So I'm excited about knowing this, man, and see where it goes. So let's have some fun doing this shit, man. I love uh when Aaron and I were talking about this and doing the show and whether it made sense or what. And Aaron's like, I've been hit up by everybody for podcasts. goes, but this just gives me chills thinking about kind of showing everybody and telling everybody things that they don't know, not the stuff that you see all over the place and you hear all over the place. for me, you know, it's amazing to be able to spend 45 minutes a week. uh talking with Matt and Aaron, spending time with clients that not only do I value as clients, but as friends. Been together a long time and then obviously, the relationship with Zach. So excited to share that and bring people into the world of the agent side as well. You guys transition from your life on the football field to Matt, obviously in broadcasting now, AD, your family, man, keeping busy. Happy birthday, by the way. A birthday guy celebrating the Donald household today. my four year old, he turned four today, Eric, my middle boy. He turned four today, so I'm celebrating him. So we actually had his birthday party yesterday. He got a bunch of shit. He's big into like animal, dinosaurs, baseball, new clothes, new shoes. So he got to have fun yesterday. So today's more like just hanging with the family. You know, the grandparents came in town, so. um He really don't need nothing else, man. Damn, living room was filled with toys all over the place, so he don't need nothing. So we just adjoined him, let him eat some cake or something. oh We've got the one gift in, one toy out, right? So if you get something new, something else has gotta go. Because you said it, man, there's too much shit that piles up in the house and they don't need it. powers up in the living room. I'm like, why the living room? You got your big room, you got a playroom, but we got toys all over the place. I'm like, golly, but you know, that's exactly. And that's just being the father of four, I guess. So just getting used to that, training camp going on everywhere, right? Do you guys remember what was your first training camp moment like? AD, what was that like in the transition, you know, leaving Pitt into that first training camp moment? first training camp in St. Louis. I remember it was hot and humid as hell. I know that for a fact, but I'm just excited, man. Obviously, being a kid that dreamed about being in NFL, um you know, to fast forward to becoming the first round draft pick when a lot of people said, ain't the biggest guy. I don't think he can be able to transition what you did in college in a pros. He's only 6'1". And just go there, be confident. I remember walking to the locker room, seeing Chris Long, Robert Quinn. them guys we had already, you we wasn't the best team, but there was a lot of good guys you see that you respected from what they did from just watching as a kid, right? So I was excited, a little nervous at the same time, because it's like, it's new, right? You transition to something new, obviously going to pit, accomplishing things, and then it's like, all now you in the pros, now you playing with grown ass men that got families to feed. And just going with the mindset, man, don't change nothing out that I, you know. um did in college, just transitioned out to the NFL, had that same confidence, that same mindset, and went in there mean, making plays, and got in a bunch of fights too, so. eh What'd you guys do? Did you guys go away for training camp at that point or did you stay right there at the facility? at the facility, right, where we practiced at all year round. And we was just there grinding, hot as hell, sweating, humid. That's the one thing I didn't want to do when I got out. I was like, I just don't want to go nowhere where it's hot and humid. They said St. Louis. I'm like, that'd be cool. It ain't that hot out there, is it? I went out there. I said, god damn, man. It's so hot and humid, dude. So I went from, I went from training camps up in Boston when I was at BC, right? And so like a hot day up there, you're probably in the mid eighties, but there's very little humidity. But most days we practice in the morning. It's like 78 degrees is beautiful weather ah for training camp. And then I same reaction, man. I got to flowery branch and we were like in day, whatever the first day of pads was, it might've been like third day training camp. And we had doubles at the time. So we're in the morning and then the afternoon, we went to the afternoon practice. I was dying, dying out there. Just never hit the humidity like that before in my life, man. It was, that was the biggest adjustment for me was getting used to the Southern heat. When you guys got to camp, like your first camp, did you guys have roommates and all that type of stuff? Or did you guys stay in oh own spot? How did that work? So I had roommates. We stayed in a hotel and my roommate was Trey Mason. He was a, he got drafted from, he came from Auburn. So my roommate was Trey Mason. It was cool. But I'm a guy that like my own space. No, cause I'm a guy, I like my own space, man. I'm like real to myself and like, I like to, when I'm done with football, I like to watch my film and my room by myself. it was kind of like. You know, I used the bathroom, he used the bathroom. It's a little uncomfortable, man. I like my own space. I don't want nobody to be shi**ing the same way I sh*t. So that's all that was. We had a great setup, man. In Atlanta, we had unreal setup behind there, right? Like, uh, right in flowery branch, Arthur blank had built these kind of dorms, townhomes, right behind there. And so our setup was, kind of had this four bedroom apartment, uh, and you were with three other guys and, but you had your own bedroom. So it was, it was kind of cool. It was like, you know, you get your own space if you need it. But if you want to hang out and play cards and everything was was kind of together, which was nice, but I couldn't imagine, know, honestly, looking back at it now, here I am, I'm 40 years old. I couldn't imagine going to a training camp now and having somebody else in the room while you're trying to sleep. Like you got to get out of here. I got to get my rest. I got, I got to get ready to go. when another grown ass man snoring like hell. You like, God, leave man. Horrible. I hated it, so. that, was it always like that? Do you graduate and eventually earn your own room? as you become a little veteran, a little older, they give you your own room. you know, I ain't gonna lie. There you go. My rookie year, used to, what we did, we wasn't allowed to do this, so I'm about to, this is a little, I used to sneak out, because I had got me an apartment. So I already had my apartment. So I used to climb, you can get out the window and jump on the roof through a ladder. And I used to jump to the driveway to get to my car, and I used to drive to my own apartment. I couldn't do it, man. I needed my own space. have seen the security footage of that. Your big ass climbing over the fence. I want to go on the record. is against the advice of anything I would ever tell you to do. We never discussed that. That was never part of any strategy, but it's good to hear it now after the fact. that know I did that would. had the, I had the same thing, honestly, Harry Douglas, a former teammate of mine has told this story, but so we were rookies. And when I retired and had my Jersey retired by the Falcons, they did this little event and Harry hosted it. And Mike Smith, our first coach was there and Harry got on stage and was like, you know, it's Smitty can't find us. So I'm going to tell this little story about training camp when we were rookies, you know, he gave the vets the night off, but the rookies were supposed to stay. And we did like bed check at 11 o'clock, whatever it was. And both me and Harry waited until about like 1145, walked right across the field, got into our cars and drove home and slept in our old beds, man. It was a game changer. it's fantastic. I can't. often, like when y'all were in, when you guys played, obviously, both retired now, how often did you guys take work home after the fact? Like when you went back, football's over for the day, you're going home, we're past training camp, we're just in the season, whatever. How often do you take it home? I couldn't imagine what it was for a quarterback. For me, it was every day. It wasn't like, I was never like, you lead a facility and you're done with football. was like, taking film home, doing all this other stuff to take care And then as I got older, taking care of your body was like key to be able to make it every single week. But for me, I was always into the film, man. Studying myself, studying my opponents. Definitely when I came in as a rookie, I had to make a cut up of like Warren Sapp, John Randall, LaRoy Glover. Geno Atkins, guys that was like similar to like my body size, my body type, shorter defense alignment, they had success just to see what worked for them. So I was always just studying. And sometimes I would even leave the house and go back to the facility and be back in there by myself, even doing cold tub, hot tub, sauna, steam room, and just studying film. So I was truly committed to it, man. And that's why, you know, it was a true commitment. know, football wasn't like, okay, you here for five hours or six hours, whatever it is, and you done. It was like... um you did it and then after that you gotta keep working. To be where you wanna be, you gotta work and be consistent at it. Yeah, I mean, I was really the same way too. Like, um, I remember going home, uh, on like a Wednesday or a Thursday, whatever night and having, you know, the game plan laid out in front of us. And I used to have to like memorize the plays, right? So if, if things got screwed up coming into your headset, you had to be able to rattle off the rest of the play without hearing it. So my wife would have the call sheet out and she would say the formation, you know, she'd be like, all right, we're in third and two to five. Sarah Ryan can rip off some play calls, man. She would be sitting there like, we're in 11 personnel, it's on the left hash, we're in third and two to five, we're in 11 Julio personnel, what are we doing? And we've got three formations, three plays, rip them off. And if I got them wrong, she'd be all over me, Like if you didn't get a tag right or something like that. it was... m little boys in flag football then, She should be my records. My record's terrible right now. I think we had one, one or two wins last year in flag football. So I got to start winning some football games. got to tell you a funny story about that. So I ran into Mike Smith, who was my first coach last September, and we were kind of chopping it up, talking to him. And I was telling him that I was coaching my boys in flag football and Smitty dead pan. mean, Zach, you know him well, Todd, you know him a D probably don't know him as well, but like, I love Smitty, but he's not one for like chit chat, right? He cuts right to the point and we're going to get straight through it. So I tell him I'm coaching ah my boys in flag football and he looks dead at me he's like, what's your record? I'm like, what's my record? Smitty, there's six, right? Like we're trying, we're trying to teach them how to play. We're trying to teach him the rules, all this. He's like, no, really, what's your record? At that time we were like, and five. And he was like, and five, huh? Not very good coach, Matt. Not a very good coach. Stick to playing. video always getting right to the point and you do get to improve that record. But Todd, mean, uh games are over. Are you checking your phone guys hitting you up, you know, late at night? And when can you go to sleep when it's game day? How does it work with you and the balance? Yeah. it's 24-7, unfortunately. ah It's all the time and it's all year long. The NFL cycle is all season. You never know when a guy's gonna be traded. You never know when a new deal's getting done. You never know if someone that you read in the media, something happened to a player, whatever it may be. So you're always, I guess, on call and always thinking something might go down or waiting. because of the news cycle, it's just always something. And when you have a bunch of players, everything's sort of a ripple effect. like my wife will be like, why are you looking at Twitter? Like you look at Twitter because at any given moment something happens. Let's just say you're working on a contract for one player and another player at that same position got done. You want to know that in a timely manner so you can proactively reach out to your guy and share with him what the details of that deal are once you get it and stuff. it's just like always something happening. So I don't, unfortunately, never, never turn off. So how do you stay sharp though, man? Like if you've got no time to take for yourself, right? Or there's no, there's just no break in the action. What are your little pockets throughout the day? Where do you carve out time for yourself to stay? Number one, in such great shape. I see you in the gym, you know, working out in the mornings, but also just like mentally to be fresh, to be ready to go and provide great advice like you do for the athletes. It's really, you nailed it in the working out part. It's early in the morning working out and it's not to look good, it's to just stay in shape and mentally free your mind. ah And I mean, I don't even put the TV on or any of that kind of stuff. Although I did, I guess for about a two year window, have the TV on constantly when uh ESPN was talking about DAC and all that type of stuff. And that was real frustrating to pay attention to. But. I did get in really good shape because I'd work out even harder listening to all the media. So, ah you know, really early in the morning and then, you know, when it is time to crash and I do lay down, my head hits the pillow, I'm out. I mean, it's quick. ah And so there isn't a lot of downtime. ah When I am with the family, I do my hardest to try to like maybe during that 30, 45 minute window of dinner with the family, try not to be staring at the phone, try to put it away for 45 minutes, that type of thing. But it's hard to be present. It's something I'm always working on because obviously, you know, you have a bunch of players and a bunch of stuff and you want to be there for all the guys and things happen all the time. So you never know. And so, yeah, it's tough, but uh you just got to figure it out and make it happen. Just like you guys, tough for you guys to do what you do. But somehow, some way we kind of rise to the top with it. Zach, how about you, man? I'm always curious. you talk about the news cycle and all that for us and the 24 seven, just kind of life that it's just nonstop. One of the things I've found challenging, you know, transitioning from playing into media is, kind of that, right? Like when you're playing, you really are only focused on the opponent you're going against, the defense you're going against that kind of thing. And you don't really consume the NFL from like the total picture. But from the media standpoint, it's like, okay, you're 24 seven on the Atlanta Falcons being in the Atlanta market. There's a million different stories and directions you can go. Like how do you prioritize the stories you wanna tell, right? And go with. before you even answer that, like look, you know how Woj from ESPN retired in one of the quotes I saw from him, he was like, you know, I was just sick and tired of showering, you know, or whatever, having my phone by me when I'm showering because there's always something breaking. And that was obviously national news at NBA, but in your world, it's not just Falcons. It's United, it's Hawks, it's Georgia football, Georgia tech, it's, you know, all sports all the time. And while you're not necessarily breaking news all the time, you got to be on top of it. but the breaking news is so important to what you do because, you know, everybody doesn't need to wait up until 11 o'clock anymore to find out if their teams won or lost. You can look at your phone, you can find the scores immediately, you can find the stats, you can find the highlights. So you need to have breaking news to offer credibility. You need to interview the athletes to get the sound, to bring them into your newscast. In our business, especially at Channel 2 in Atlanta, the number one ABC station in the country, you got to be rather be... Half the people on this podcast are still working, working. So I got to give them a little shameless plug. No, but listen, man, I'd rather be second and right than first and wrong. mean, nobody out there remembers that. I mean, you mentioned Woj. You know, I was fortunate enough that day to break that Luka Doncic and Trey Young weren't gonna be on the Mavericks and Hawks respectively. We broke that at Channel 2. Nobody remembers that back how many six, seven years ago. But if I got it wrong, people, oh, Zach, he's the one that botched, you know, the freaking Trey Young trade. So they remember when you're wrong, they don't remember when you're right. So it's about credibility. It's about, you know, doing it the right way. It's about trustworthiness. And the hardest part of the job on the local front is you develop relationships like I have with you, Matt, over the years. And then it's a tough game and you got to ask tough questions. But that's the hardest part on the local front is developing relationships with guys. And then when it comes to business and it's go time, you know, pushing them, trying to get them to talk, trying to get them to open up and be honest and be accountable for what just happened. you guys obviously deal with the media all the time. Matt specifically, I'm sure you have stories with Zach and him in a locker room, but how difficult is it to deal with the media all the time? ah You know, after a game, or lose, good game, bad game, always having to have them right there in your face and deal with all that. I never liked it, honestly. The good games, I don't mind talking about the good. It's the bad games and the games that I felt like it wasn't the best game for me, but you gotta go out there and you gotta speak about it. But it come with the job, Even if you don't wanna do it, after losing the Super Bowl for me, that first one, I had to do media and sit there and talk about that shit. like, I just wanted to go high in the damn, pit myself in a box and not be bothered. I didn't wanna be on social media. I didn't wanna, but I had to go there and... keep my head hell high, talk about what I gotta do better next time I make it there and get the opportunity to play in another Super Bowl and things like that. It ain't easy, but it come with the territory. It's a part of the job. Even if you don't wanna do it, still gotta ask everybody gotta do their job, right? So you still gotta answer the tough questions when you don't wanna do it, right? So. Matt did it. He spoke twice. You probably did twice a week as well. know, we the mandatory guy during there with the Rams. We spoke on a Wednesday or Thursday and then also a game day. So yeah, we talked to Matt every single Wednesday and every single game. Now, but now Matt, so you're on the other side now. Now, is that hard for you when a quarterback, you know, makes a mistake? And can you call him out like that or different things? And I'm sure now you're like, now know what Zach was feeling like back in the day and kind of calling a spade a spade. always thought it was fair, you know, um to answer the tough questions. Like I felt like my role as quarterback, was kind of like being the CEO of a fortune 500 company, right? And sometimes you've got earnings reports that come out that aren't great and you have to sit there and you have to explain, you know, what is going on. But I always had the mindset of, you know what? I have a respect for what you're doing, Zach. You were asking the questions. uh D Orlando led better. A number of different guys, right? That I 14 years asking me questions and getting to know, but I felt like I had a level of respect for the job that you guys had to do. ah And I think it worked both ways because I felt like I stood up to the music when it was tough and answered questions as best I could, but always with the mindset of protecting. you know, the locker room, protecting the players, protecting the staff, protecting the organization. So I always felt that like weight and responsibility. Um, but I didn't, the criticism, like, I'm not going to say the criticism didn't bother me. You hear it right. And, and, and you feel it, but it wasn't my main motivator. Like I wasn't a bulletin board material, like looking for bulletin board material. I was, I was kind of locked in, just focused on trying to do the best job I could do for the guys that were around me. That was kind of my motivation. Being on the other end of it now though, I think I view it the same way I, having to criticize players or whatever, I view it the same way I viewed watching film on Mondays after a game, Aaron, right? Like you would go in there and if I would look at a play and say, listen, I gotta make that throw, right? The protection's good enough, the route was perfect, the ball was bad, right? Like that's a- I would make for myself right in my notes and getting ready for the next week and I think I think really good commentary is the same thing right it's it's fair and and critical when it needs to be and it's complementary in the right ways when it needs to be and You know, I just it hasn't been that hard the the one thing I pride myself on though um You know in terms of wearing the analyst hat is that I watch Uh, think it's huge, right? Because if I'm going to have an opinion or, or I'm going to have it, not a hot take, but just have a strong opinion about something. I feel like we owe it to the players, Aaron, or we owe it to the coaches to have watched all that you can. Right. And, to have reasons for why you're saying what you're saying. think, you know, sometimes you just see things that, kind of come out of left field and that would piss me off as a player. Uh, and I've kind of made this doubt myself that I'm never going to do that as an analyst. you mentioned how hard it was after games to talk. But the fact that you and your teammates and Matt and his teammates and everybody in professional sports, that's really all the journalists out there want is the accountability to not only talk obviously when things are going well. you could show up, Grady Jarrett was a great example of that. I know you, Todd, you represent Grady, he was with the Falcons. He'd have an unbelievable game and he would talk. that defense might give up north of 30 points and he would talk. that's the accountability, showing up when it's good, money. Showing up when it's bad, that's all respect. But Todd, you're stepping out your comfort zone for you. You've been pretty, from what I can tell over the years, I know you do a couple of radio interviews here in Atlanta, but for the most part, you've been media shy. Is that intentional or was it intentional? Yeah, it's a very intentional I prefer being behind the scenes and just working for the players. They're the ones that are the in the public eye. Obviously, people do care about agents and that type of stuff. And this was just unique, you know, to be able to do something like Zach and I mean, Matt and Aaron kind of mentioned when that when we started this podcast, just the different perspective and doing something that's unique. That's what got me excited about it. And the most exciting part was just doing something with Matt and Aaron and obviously you, Zach, just the friendships that I have with all of you guys. It makes it totally worth it. But So yeah, I am coming a little bit out of my comfort zone, but um I'll enjoy the process and love listening to all these stories for sure. We got stories, man. Yeah, I wanted to ask you, So if we played on a Sunday, was you a guy that had to watch film that same night, or was you a guy that can be able to have a full night's sleep and watch it the next day? Because I know me personally, like after a game, I'm up all night, I'm watching film at least multiple times before I even get in the building. Then once I get in the building, I'm watching it a million times, and then watching it on my couch before we watch it as a team. Was you that type of guy too? No, ah I would, I would not watch on Sunday night. And the reason was, you know, when I got into the league, we didn't have iPads, right? It didn't get pushed to your iPad via wifi. And so you didn't have, you didn't have the game tape on. Like, let me explain it you this way. When I first started in the NFL, I had two different laptops, uh, that, that went home with me and they got changed each week. So if I were playing the Rams one week, I would get that on Monday morning when I would come in. And I would take that laptop back, you know, Sunday when I checked into, you know, the locker room or whatever, they'd grab it and I'd grab the chief's, you know, laptop the next week. Right. And so it changed so much when, when the iPad came around and the film could just get pushed to you right away. But my routine was never that. So when I started early on, my routine was to kind of chill out on Sunday night. And I got used to that. Right. I got used to that rhythm of, Hey, we play this game. I kind of know how I played. you have your feeling about how you played. Uh, but I would, I would kind of decompress Sunday night and whether that was a road game and hanging out, playing cards, having fun on the back of a plane ride home with your teammates and kind of, you know, chilling that way, or it was with family after home games of going to get dinner, relaxing, whatever. I just wasn't a big film guy on Sunday night, but I would get up early Monday morning and I would be in that facility. You know, for four hours before everybody else to kind of grind away on that tape and to get started on the next week. But I kind of like putting it, putting it to bed Monday morning, but I chilled out Sunday night. I wish I was able to do that, man. I was up all night. I couldn't sleep. I was tossing and turning because no sleep. Even if I played a good game, you watch the film and it'd be like, it'd be the plays that I didn't do good and that I just keep harping on, right? And there's games that I thought I played great and then you watch the film and be like, damn, I made a lot of fucking mistakes this game. it's, and then I got to watch it multiple times and the game just keep going through my head. It's the plays that I missed or I didn't make that it's like keep going in my head. what was the best way for you? Like I'm always curious of this with players, right? You've got your mind racing, your mind is running. And what was your best way to get back to neutral, right? To get your brain back to neutral. Was it, you know, watching that film, getting all of that out of the system so you could finally come down or was it, you know, whatever it is, what was your process? the film and then obviously being with my kids, spending time with my kids and then, you know, getting that father time with my wife and then hanging with my wife. But I had to watch the film. I watched the film one time and OK, and then I go hang with the family. Then I go back to the office and watch it again. And then I break it down again. Then I go lay down and it's probably 12 o'clock at night or something like that. And it's just in my head just damn I missed that. I had to get my ass up and go watch film again, right? So I wasn't a guy that can sleep after the game. My mind was always racing. Then I wake up early as hell, I'm probably like three hours asleep, be the first one in the building. Then I watched the film with my D-line coach, just me and him before we even watch it as a team. Cause I just had to like, just break it down and be like, what you think I need to do better at this? Like, you know, I was just trying to always find ways to like be better or some shit like that. So. I wish I was able to relax. Even them games, it was even worse with the games. I didn't do good and I already lost bad. Cause now I'm mad and I'm grumpy. And then it's like, you got all the family there that want to just hang. And I'm like, I don't want to be bothered right now. Like leave me alone. Exactly. I'm sorry, man. Like football was like. about Aaron in his dorm room with his roommate, his first year in the league after a preseason game, just pacing back and forth and he can't sleep. by that time, you gotta think, we had an iPad, so I used to go back to the facility to watch the film at nighttime. So it can be late as hell. You can pick the code and go in there. I'm in the meeting room just studying the film, so. That's what it takes. Todd, tell me about your process after games, right? We're kind of talking about us coming down from it. So you would watch myself play, you'd watch Aaron play, you're all day. What is your Sunday? What does your Sunday look like, right? You're gearing up for the first one this coming week, this coming Sunday. How many different guys are we representing right now that are in the NFL? Rough number. And then what does your Sunday look like watching all of that? You know, it's funny. I have, we're all the different games on if I'm not at a game, but early on when I was an agent, when I was a little bit younger and I had kids that were younger and I was like, you know, I had to take my daughters to a birthday party. And it was during a game time. And I was like, all right, I'm just gonna, I got enough people watching games. They're gonna let me know if something's going on. So I just put my phone in my pocket and I was like, it was very uncomfortable for me, but I had to be the dad and go do this for a little bit and I'll catch. catch the rest of the games after, know, cause the birthday parties are what, an hour and a half long. so I'm there and all of a sudden my phone is just buzzing, buzzing, buzzing. I'm like, oh God, I just touched it, put it off, didn't look, buzz, It is going off so many times. Finally, I like took my phone and I look at it and I'm like, oh my gosh, oh my God. It was the game where my client, Akib Tlaib was playing, I can't remember if he was on the Broncos at the time, playing Harry Douglas. And I want to say Harry was on the Titans actually. And Harry did what they consider some sort of crack back block, something that wasn't good with the other team, right? So post game, Akib Tlaib in his interview says that he is gonna fight Harry Douglas and he's gonna fight him at his agent's office. And so everyone of course is blowing me up because I represent both guys. And so Akib, I'm calling him after the game and I'm trying to talk him off the ledge and say, no, know, HD is actually a really good guy. You'd love them. you would love him. He absolutely would love it. And then of course I'm calling Harry and I'm like, Harry, don't want to mess with the Keef. I'm telling you, like I I love the Keef. He's been at my wedding. He's amazing, but like, he's not the guy you want to mess with. And so ultimately it kind of fizzled and it was good, but uh you know, you, you, you have guys playing against each other. uh So everyone's like, well, who are you pulling for? I pull for individuals, not teams. And I pull for who it's going to impact contract wise more than the other person. If if Matt Ryan, you just got paid and Aaron Donald's playing you and he's we're trying to get him paid. You know what? I'm hoping he has a good game. And no, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't say I want the Rams to win. I don't care if the Rams lose 100 to zero. As long as Aaron has six, five sacks and 10 tackles for a lot like it's a great, a great day. And Matt walked away healthy. I'm good. But you know, you I am juggling and watching all the different games and then talking to different guys afterwards because, you know, guys, some guys are frustrated and some guys are are fine and just everyone has high expectations. I think that's kind why you guys are who you are is because your expectations of what you expect for yourself is so high. And so it's almost like, are you ever satisfied? And that leads me back to asking you guys something like, Matt, you said you're on the plane ride home, you're playing cards in the back, a win or a loss on the road and you're flying back. Is the mood on the plane totally different? Is it different if it's the beginning of the season versus the middle of the season? If you're a good team, not a good team, are different guys handle it different ways? Does it annoy you if you lost and everyone is like over here, like just laughing around and playing like it's no big deal as opposed to you who might take it more serious? How do you guys handle all that? And what were the plane rides like back? Well, mean, I would, they were different, right? Obviously, you know, after wins, it's great. Everybody comes on and you're kind of celebrating that victory. Honestly, I liked my favorite time in the NFL was the plane rides home after a road win, right? Because, uh, you know, in college you play your games and Everybody's still on campus, right? So everybody's hanging out after the games and you're going out, you're doing whatever you're doing, but everybody's kind of hanging out. It's different in the NFL where like you play your home game and say, Aaron's my teammate. Aaron might have 20 family members in for that game. I might have 20 family members in. So you get that moment in the locker room after a home game win. And it's like, Hey man, that was great. That was great. I got to rush out because we've got a dinner and we're going to spend time with them. And I haven't seen them in, in three weeks or a month or whatever it is. And I want to do that. But you're alone on the road, right? With, just your teammates. And if you get on that bus, I would always get on bus three, uh, on the road, I sit in the back of bus three and we had the same group that kind of sat in that spot. And so you would get on the back of that bus after a win and you're hanging out and you get on the plane and we would play cards and you were just enjoying it. Losses were completely different, right? Where You got on and some are different, you know, like you might have an early season loss. That was a really well played game and you fell just a little bit short and you're getting on and you're pissed off. But at the same time, you say, you know what? All right. You know, it's tough to win on the road in this league. Let's bounce back. Let's not hang our heads. Let's enjoy ourselves. Get back home, get back to work tomorrow. But then there's times where you just get your ass beat and those are quiet, man. Those, at least for us, those were quiet. And it would piss me off when guys, you know, that they didn't. they didn't kind of understand the gravity of some of the games, you know that we did lose. How about you, AD? It's the same exact thing. But the thing that bothered me, like you said, if you was a game we played fuc*ing horrible in, got our ass beat, and now we got to this long ass flight back home and guys is, ha ha, he, he, I'm like, man, that used to get me so mad. Like I had to just put my, cause I don't know, like I'm a nice guy, but I got like a real mean side to me. And like I get real aggressive when I want to put my hands, when I want to put my hands on somebody. So I gotta be like. I used just put my headphones on and put myself to sleep because I was just upset, mad or watching film. And definitely when you seen a film and the guys that's laughing, hee-hee-haw, just got beat a million times. I'm like, man, you know what saying? You ain't even did what you were supposed to do. So it's things like that. And like you said, when it's some good games you win, definitely them big games, like, and you away and then you having fun. you, them hee-hee-haw's is fun. Then that's when the coaches is coming up and they say they little things to you. yes. what you miss. I miss things like that when it pertains to football and one of them big games like that. Zach, I'm curious, you know, cause I've seen it. We're talking about game day experiences, post game to ask and Todd a little bit about, know, kind of his routine on Sundays. I've gotten to see it from the media world a little bit of the time it takes to get ready to, to do a hit or to call a game or to do a show. I'm curious on your end fall, Saturdays and Sundays doing Georgia then covering the Falcons. What does like Friday through Monday look like on your end? And like, again, How do you stay sane that time of the year? It's crazy, man. It's it's wash, rinse and to repeat just like you guys get into your schedule, just like Todd gets into his schedule, who's got a contact, who's got a call, who's got to make sure we're checking in just like you guys are going to the office on Monday. You know, every Monday, I'm in Athens, we have an NIL deal with KJ Bolden So I'm sitting down one on one with the All American Safety with him Tuesday, you're going over to Georgia Tech Wednesday, you're at Falcons talking to those guys there Thursday, you might get a day off Fridays, high school football Saturday, we got an hour long pregame show and then you got you know, eight hours of college football on ABC. And then we do a live SEC game day show that's coming out of prime time. But, know, having the SEC on ABC has really changed a lot of things because, you know, now Georgia football, mean, Matt, you know, in Atlanta, in the state of Georgia, you said it. I said it. said it. Listen, I love the Falcons and obviously I'm biased, it is, you college football rules the South. It rules the Southeast and that's just kind of uh the way it is. I mean, let's, we can be honest about that. I think that's fair. yeah, when they're on your air, like last year at Kentucky, at Alabama, at Texas, that's our lead in going into our SEC live postgame show. You know, the audience in Atlanta is a half a million people. You know, so if we lose half of that audience to watch our SEC show, you're talking about 250,000 people watching your show. You know, that's what four Mercedes-Benz stadiums watching you guys on a Sunday. So the eyeballs are there. Then we turn it over the next day, and you want to be at the Falcon game early because that's what I know a lot of journalists pride themselves on is seen be seen. If you're gonna ask a tough question or you take a shot, make sure you go and I love talking, you know to the players and the coaches are giving them a knuckle. You know, pregame saying hello, making that eye contact showing your visible. You're visible on the field and you have the game. Then you're in the locker room You're doing something for the six o'clock and the 11 o'clock and your late night Sunday show. So and it's back into Athens on Monday. So it's a wild week, but this is kind what they pay you for. I love it. One traded for the world. No, definitely blessed to cover the Falcons and then the Bulldogs. And then you mentioned the Braves when they're good. And in 2021, you're covering them in the World Series. You got that mad run. And then Georgia's winning back to back national championships. So I think we counted it up. Like in your world, there's not many off days. It was like 75 straight days, but. It was an unbelievable run for sure. I'm curious, so calling my first game for CBS, this is a couple of years ago, our play-by-play was Andrew Catalon, and he's awesome, fantastic, right? Really, really sharp, great, great when he's on air. But he does these vocal exercises before the game. And I'm sitting here, right, like getting ready to call my first game. I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm sitting there, my headphones on, they're telling us we're like 30 seconds from being live. And he comes on and he's doing these like, like these vocal exercises. So I'm curious, what do you do? Right? Like before a live hit, they're counting you down. They're counting in your ear. You're getting ready to go. Are you a vocal exercise guy? Are you yelling at the set? Like what, what, is your kind of lead into, to, go on live? get nervous just like you guys would, but they're good feelings. They're good. You know, when you're getting ready to broadcast in front of all these people, you take a deep breath and you're, the heart is not pumping and the juices aren't flowing. You're not, you don't care. And, just like your craft guys, and if you're prepared, then you're ready to go. If I didn't cover, if I didn't read anything, if I didn't talk to anybody and I start doing a six o'clock live shot, not knowing the hell what happened, I look like an ass. And so, to get back to the answer. What are the voice exercises? Right. uh No, I don't. It's. Yeah. Brown, before we come on, and JB is the best, right? Like an absolute legend, absolute legend. Maybe the greatest teleprompter reader I have ever seen in my life, right? Like unbelievable to start a show. And there's a lot of verbiage in there, but we're like eight seconds out and he's in there. He's like, yeah. And then goes, and I'm sitting over there like laughing on the corner. I love it, but it's kind of my cue to get ready. Like, hey, we're coming in live. Do you do the same? You don't do anything, you just sit there looking around? just go man. Brown. It works for James Brown. He's incredible. No, because my voice is so bad, right? Like it cracks. It's all this stuff. I don't do any of the exercises before. Tiki Barbara used to sing a little bit. Like we had all kinds of weird stuff and I'd just be sitting there quiet. Like, my gosh, here we go. That's your that's your ritual for for on set for TV. What did you guys have game day rituals for like a one o'clock game? uh Matt and AD. What did you have anything you were like habitual with, like whether it be music that you did like ah in everything like that? the outline. We're not gonna lie. There was some kind of outline for this show, right? So we sent out the outline. I saw this one. I wrote out my little thing right here because I was maniacal about the timing of kind of my pregame routine. So I would, whatever, get up. I would usually get up. What's that, Todd? we do have an outline. That is true. I'm not wearing my glasses. The font is so small. I can't see anything anyway. So I'm just, that's why I'm all over the board. here like this. He's looking at his, where is it? Where is it? Exactly. So I, for we'll just say it's a one o'clock game. Um, you know, East coast one o'clock game. I was always at around seven o'clock, right? The alarm would go off at seven. Uh, so always threw on shorts and a t-shirt, went down and got a cup of coffee to start the day and always had a big bottle of water. We'll get back to the room. Kind of shower change. or away? uh And then I was always getting over to the stadium, uh especially for a home game. Road games were a little different because the timing of the buses, but for a home game, rolling into Mercedes Benz around 9.45. And again, had a cup of coffee, big bottle of water. I would unload my stuff and I would go sit in the equipment room. I always like to kind of get out of the locker room uh and sit in the equipment room with our equipment guys. So we used to have uh like a college pick them thing on Saturday with the equipment guys and a bunch of, so the first 10 minutes or 15 minutes of, getting to the stadium was reviewing what happened in the picks yesterday in the college, you know, college football stuff, seeing who won and going through that and just, you know, cutting it up with them. But I would always lay out my game plan in front of me. And that time in that space was one last kind of review of any, you know, checks, cans, kills, notes that I had kind of reminders or whatever. That stuff would get put to bed at 10 45 or, then I would walk back to my locker room and I would have my kind of uniform laid out. Right. I don't know how you were a D, but I liked, I liked my pants kind of laid out on the ground. I liked my pads down off of the top thing. I liked them on the bottom of the locker, my helmet in the right spot, socks laid out. So I would start to get dressed, uh, you know, a little bit before 11 at 11 o'clock. I would walk in and I would like to have my pants and all that stuff on before I get my ankles taped. Yep. Yep. that. So then I get my ankles taped, walk back out and I started, you know, kind of my stretching slash movement prep stuff at 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 30 was my stretching and movement prep. 10, 30, I'd go back to my locker. I'd start to put on my shoulder pads. You know, I'd start to have a little Gatorade or whatever I was having before at, excuse me, at. What time? I'm in, I'm in the 11 o'clock hour. However, whatever I said, I'm in the 11 o'clock hour. at 1140, 1140, 1141, I would walk out onto the field and my throwing routine started at 1142 because we took QB center exchange at 1205. ah and that kind of led me in right to 1205. And then it was all on the team schedule after that, but that was, that was kind of how I set mine up. That's it right here. That started at 1142. Yeah, there you go. them, get the shoulders right. And then I threw the same 18 routes, nine to the right, nine to the left, and then turn around and come in and throw the red zone routes right before we go to quarterback center. So that, that, was mine to a T to a T to a T. real basic. Wake up early. If it was an early game, I'd wake up, call my kids, shower, play a little music to get me a little woke up a little bit more, get dressed, go eat, and I'd be at the damn stadium. It depends what the times were. If it was a one o'clock game, I'd just be over there early as hell. Get over there early, get all my tape, all my stuff that I need together in my locker, go in the training room, get myself together. I'll have my pants, I'll be the first one in there, already got my pants on, get my ankles taped and then I'm out in the field early as hell, warming up and then I'm in there in the locker room just in my own little world. I ain't a big music guy, I'm more talking to myself, visualizing what I'm gonna do. And I don't remember none of the damn times, I just know I was always early as hell, because I could not just sit at the hotel and wait, I had to get my ass out there, I was ready to play. And if it was a night game, it was even worse, because I'm I'm anxious. I'm like, golly man, like. You know, so I was real basic. an away game mess up the routine when you can't control when you're leaving for the stadium? Yeah, bus times. Yup, exactly. like, I knew my kind of little schedule and our bus times never really, it was one that was, we had like the early, early bus, which probably AD went on, which was like way too early on my end. But I think my lights just went out in here. But ah then we had three buses and none of the buses kind of fit my time schedule, but I would always go on the middle bus and it was close enough. So that was the only difference was now you wake up, you eat breakfast, now you gotta hang around the hotel a little longer to the damn bus leave, but um that was the only difference. favorite stories of all time, Tony Gonzalez, one of my favorite teammates. He's the best, right? Unbelievable. But we're playing the jets up in New York on the road and the bus times are laid out like Aaron, how many times do they remind you what time the buses are leaving in the morning? Right? The first bus leaves at, whatever the second, this, the third. So Tony misses all three of the buses. And if it was any other player, you would have, you would have been reprimanded in some kind of way, but Tony misses the buses. This is before Uber. Thank a taxi to the game, right? Shows up to the stadium in a taxi, gets dressed, warms up, whatever. Nobody says a word to him, goes out there, balls, catches a game winning touchdown with like six seconds left, gets back on the bus. Smitty the next day in the team meeting was like, hey, listen, if anybody else misses a team bus, there's gonna be hell to pay. But Tony, great game yesterday. Like, well done. You played your ass off, man. Good job. There you go. It came up and showed out. That's all. There you go. Yeah. home games, did you guys get to sleep at home or did they make you stay at hotels and in curfews and all that or how was that? I was in a hotel. We had to go hotel. So if it was a home game, you had to check in by like 730 at night. You check in, you eat, probably do like a team meeting at nighttime. And then curfew was like 11 o'clock. But by that time I eat after team meeting. I take my little cranberry juice, my sleeping pills. I'm in a bed and I'm out. Like I was a guy to try to go to sleep early. I wanted to be fresh as I can in the morning. uh I was the same way. Yeah. We stayed in a hotel. We, I think for 10 years we were at the Georgia tech hotel and conference center room. 7 31 was mine for the, for the home game. So I spent a lot of time in that hotel room and then we, kind of switched over to a different spot, the JW Marriott over and, uh, in Buckhead, but yeah, same way. mean, we were probably similar time. I think we had to be there by about seven, whatever. I always got there a little bit earlier than that. I didn't like kind of. four o'clock at five o'clock in the afternoon, I was ready to kind of get over and, you know, get my own space. Uh, but honestly, after those, you know, the team meeting or whatever, I'd never even made it to curfew dude. The best night of sleep I would get all week was Saturday night. It was, it was the most sleep I got the entire week and I would hit that, that pillow and be out. under Matt Ryan or was it under a different name? Now I wasn't that big of a deal. It was, was, was, there was no alias. All right. It was, it was just under Matt Ryan. We would have our numbers laid out. Your card would be right there. you say it again? wouldn't check for the people who listen like they don't know how you guys show up and like are your room keys ready or do have to go to the front desk to check in just like a regular person does? Like how does all that work? you a desk and everything, satellite. If it was a way game, you got your desk, you got it laid out and you just pick your key up. If it's a home game, same concept. You got a desk, you you park in the garage, before you walk in the door, all your keys are laid out to give you everything you need and you walk in. We went through the back way, went to our elevator, went up. Sometimes I used the hotel service um elevators so you wouldn't be bothered or nothing like that. that was that. Like in and out, like. get myself there early, get myself settled, situated. I'll get my game day clothes out, lay that out, put my socks out, get the shoes set right there, call the family, total. m pick out? When did you pick out your outfit during the week? And did you have help? Later in my career, started having a little help. I had somebody helping me or my wife was like, I put my clothes on, asked my wife, what you think about this? She'd be like, change this or change that. But that was that. But early in my career, I just throw anything, a t-shirt and some big ass jeans on and just go, you get older, you gotta start trying to clean it up a little bit, look a certain type of way. What about you? uh man? hold on Matt, time out. How was your swag? How did you get ready? How you put your outfit on? Let's Saturday, Saturday afternoon was the first time I gave that any thought. But the suit game is different. Like going on TV or whatnot, it's because the lighting too, I didn't realize all of this when I went into it too. Like you can't just pick anything out, right? It's gotta fit with the lighting. It's gotta fit with your skin tone in the lighting. how much makeup they're putting on you. How much makeup do you use that? Cause you look good when you're on there. gotta have the shine, you gotta have the Mac makeup, you gotta have that, it's not fun, it's part of the deal to your point, you having the brushes and I don't look forward to it, but you know, I remember I was walking in Atlanta and this woman came up to me and she was very nice, Zach, I watch you all the time, thank you very much, she grabs my cheeks, you look much fatter on television. I'm like, thanks, I really appreciate it, camera does that. So Zach, this is funny, but my first year calling games, ah I didn't know about, you know, that you've got to put makeup on before you go on camera until kind of the pre-season. And so everything that I had ever done up until this point, there was a makeup artist there for you. So if you were shooting like a commercial shoot, AD, you've done it, right? They kind of do your makeup. get, make sure you're, you know, you're not shining when you're on camera. So I get to the first pre-season game we're calling and I'm like, all right, like, where's the makeup artist? And they're like, dude, there's no makeup artist here. You gotta do it yourself. So I think this is something nobody realizes is these guys who are going on calling games on TV are like in the little bathroom doing your own makeup. I had to have my wife like show me how to put like the eye stuff on and all of this different stuff, but I'm okay at it now. Now I'm really lucky with the NFL today. We've got makeup artists there before the show. Little blush. The blush, that's right. I don't want to be so red on the screen, man. It's got to come down a little bit. Yeah, game day fit. It's just, you know, usually a hoodie jacket, Jordan one lows and some jeans. Keep it simple. It's kind of in my style here. Todd, he's a shoe guy. He's a sneaker head. He's a, yeah, every time I see him on the sidelines, dapping up his guys. Yeah. We kind of compete for who's got the best Jordans or something like that. I I'm sorry. That's true. You do, you do. rolling, keep it rolling. You're good. getting ready to go week one of the 2025 NFL season. Now for the vets, the heart will be racing guys, but as expected. But for the rookies, they'll probably be on steroids. So take me back, both Matt and Aaron, to week one, year one, and what the emotions were like getting ready to live out your dreams and play in the NFL. so I knew I was starting kind of midway through training camp, but I remember just being nervous, right? You don't know what to expect the speed, all of these different things. And I remember I used to have these, you know, Friday afternoon meetings with our coordinator, Mike Malarkey, uh, and go sit in his office after kind of after Friday practice when everybody gets out of there early. And I sat in there we were going through kind of the opening calls and I'm like, Mike, listen, you know, I'm nervous, man. Uh, like if you can just get me a completion, like any kind of flat route, just something out of my hands on the first pass of the game, that would be, that'd be helpful for me, right? Just to get into a rhythm. He's like, we got it. We got it. We're going to run zero strong 62 Comet sync, which is curl flat on the front side, right? Day one install. Probably the first route you learn how to throw as a quarterback is, is kind of a curl in a flat that goes with it. He was like, they play like 99%, you know, cover four on first down versus 21 personnel. All you're going to do is read hook flat. You're going to throw, you know, to, to, to the flat route, get it out of your hands, keep moving. He's like, but they have this 1 % that they roll down and they play three week and we've got the skinny post on the back. He's like, if they rotate down, don't even worry about it. Throw the flat and just move on. So I'm like, all right, perfect. I've got this. So we get out there. We run the ball twice. We get a first down with Micha Turner and Mike Malarkey comes into my head side. calls zero strong 62 comet sink. go up under center. It looks like cover four. Then I see this safety kind of rotating down at the last second to go to three week. You know, my head, I'm like, all right, maybe I could just throw the flat, throw the flat. And I'm like, F it. I'm going to throw that skinny post on the backside. These are the rules. Five and a plant ripped it out of my hand. Mike Jenkins comes right out the back end, 62 yard touchdown. So was a cool way to, kind of start my career. But I think that's I think that speaks to it though, right? AD is like, you are nervous, you're all of these things, but then you get into it. And when you're out there and the bullets are flying and it's live, you go into that mode of what you know, and you just go out there and you do what you've trained yourself to do. the of the day, football is football, right? Obviously the butter, that's what I tell people all the time. It's just the bigger stage because the meat and all that. That's the one thing I told myself as a rookie year, I'm like, don't make it bigger than what it is. It's only football. The same thing I've been doing my whole life. It's just on a bigger stage now. So that's one thing that I did, even though I got the butterflies, I was nervous, didn't know what to expect. I'm like, all right, I'm prepared, I'm ready. I'm just gonna go out there and play my game how I play my game. We going against the Vikings, got AP. I remember as a kid watching this guy run people over, making all these crazy runs. I'm I'm just, when I get my hands on him, I make sure I'm gonna get his ass down. I remember the first big play I got, right? I line up and I see, I know that they used to pull this guard and trying to crack down with the tackle and they ain't got no center. I'm like, if I see this play, there's no way in the way they're gonna be able to block down on me. I'm just gonna tighten down and shoot that shit and get upfield. I seen it, I tightened down, I seen that guard light. I shot back there, my fucking, grabbed him for like a six yard loss. I couldn't believe it. said, hey, this is, and I was like, I can do this. I can play at this level at the highest level. Everything I did in college, I can do this at this level. And it was like, a confident boost right away. Boom, making a big play like that. And then I made another tackle for loss. And then you get in some good plays, some good rushes. I'm like, all right, football is football until today, man. Don't make it bigger than what it is. You prepare yourself, you get yourself ready. You go out there, you still gotta put up, perform and dominate, man. You know, I think half the battle is having that confidence going into the game, right? You gonna have the butterfly, but once you go out there, you start playing, you get that little contact and you start making your plays, then it's like, all right, I'm ready now, let's go. I can do this shit all day. You know what mean? So. I had Aaron four tackles in that game against the Vikings, two tackles for a loss, 36 for loss to, or 36 loss to the Vikings. Nah, my bad. Well, I got Matt at the 34-21 win over Detroit, but you know, AD, just mentioned you shot through the gap. You got AD, you you got him down on the ground. You're feeling it. Matt's one for one. His first ever pass in the league is a touchdown. Did both of you at those moments. right, man, that shit's easy. We got this. I wouldn't say easy, it's like, it's the same thing I've been doing, right? Don't make it bigger than what it is. Football is football. So it was just more of that confident boost. So I think there was definitely the confidence boost. And then there's also like the week to come back to reality boost. I went down to Tampa the next week and started like three for 17 in the first half in game two. So the NFL comes at you fast, man. It's definitely hard, but like AD said, it's the thing you got to realize, right? I we've got so many rookies who are playing, you know, coming in and going to make impacts and you see it more now than ever, right? Younger players. being thrust into it faster and faster. It's just football, right? And it's, it's a little bit faster. may be a little bit more complex, but at the end of the day, it's the same thing you've been doing your entire life. And, uh, you know, you get used to that pretty quick. So when you're, Todd, when you've got guys who have been doing this in their entire life, they're rookies, they're getting ready to play and they don't really contribute week one. They don't really get involved. Are they hitting you up? What are you telling them to tell, has this a long process? What is your advice to your clients out there? It's exactly right. I mean, it is a long season and everyone's expectations are different. So yeah, you got to tell them, I mean, whether it's a starter, you know, and I always kind of use the guys that I've had in the years past where they tell me how they, from year one to year two and from year two to year three, how the game slows down and whether that'd be an offensive guy or a defensive guy and kind of keep them motivated and sometimes trying to get a younger guy to talk to an older guy. because they can talk more football direct with each other than even I can. I can share the stories of what past guys have had and what they've said, but you know, and the guys that aren't playing, again, it is a long season and there are a lot of injuries and you do have to stay ready because the worst thing that could happen is you finally do get your number called and you're not ready. Not just physically ready, but you're not there mentally because you've already just beat yourself down so much. So it's just like anybody, you gotta maintain confidence, you gotta maintain focus and you gotta put all the work in because you never know when you're gonna be getting that call. And it's like next man up, so. uh A lot of conversations with the clients and with the players and everyone has different mindsets, whether it's an Aaron mindset or a Matt mindset or a guy who's more of a special teams guy. At the end of the day, they're all in the NFL and they all have high expectations for themselves. you just got to come, you don't coach everyone the same, just like you don't sort of agent everybody the same. You kind of talk to them all and work through it with everybody for sure. point are you like, all right, man, I mean, he was supposed to be playing, he's not getting his run. At what point do you start talking to your client and then maybe make a phone call to one of the guys in the front office or in the team? Yeah, I mean, look, you always are keeping tabs and knowing what's going on. so it's situational, whether you're advising your guy to kind of talk to his coach as opposed to you going to talk for him. And then he's the guy that's got to go in the building every day. So if I'm over there as his voice and the coach is going to then come to him like, why is your agent calling and talking to us for that? So you got to understand. Remember one time we did that with Sonya Michelle and Bill. Bill Belichick was not a happy camper about the agent calling. that didn't happen. work? So you could just call Bill directly and say, Listen, Sony's given the rock. Yeah, I think we called the front office, it might as well have been Bill. But yes, as the years went on, all the conversations were directly with Coach Belichick, for sure. But ah a lot of times you are calling just to check on the player and how they're doing and how they're progressing and just to get some feel for it. And if the player has some concerns, they might not necessarily ask you to go do that. But it's good for me to be able to know what's going on from the perspective of the team. So when I am having those conversations with the player or even with their family, and trying to give updates because a lot of times the players aren't necessarily communicating with the families. So you just want to make sure you're in the know to be able to best represent the player and their family in the best way you can and put him in the best spot for success for sure. I think our, I think anybody who's listening, we want to know about how much movement there is between the end of training camp, right? And your roster week one and all that goes in and all that you guys provide for families, you know, say you get cut from Atlanta at the end of training camp and you get picked up by the Los Angeles Rams a couple of days later, you got to go in, you've got to fly out. What do you guys do? Like, how do you navigate that space for these? was never, it never happened to me. And I've always I've had so much respect for guys who were able to handle that and then perform, you know, perform well on Sunday after going through all that. It's a great question and it's true because like you said, you haven't gone through that. AD hasn't gone through that, but there's a lot of guys that may have never gone through that for a while and then end up getting cut and end up getting claimed or picked up by a different team. And those teams expect you there. Like if you find out that you're claimed or a team wants to sign you, I mean, it's instant. You're up and out. you're... What do you got like 24 hours? It depends if the guy's a vested veteran depends on how long he's been in the league, whether he's going to be subject to waivers or if he's just can immediately sign somewhere else. So a guy who's been in the league a little bit longer can immediately sign with someone else. Another one could get claimed. And if they're claimed, which is, you know, I guess roughly 24 hour period from the last cut. Yeah, they're flying out that that next day, the second they find out where they are. If there's a flight that night, they're flying out and. So let me give you an example of how this phone call would look, right? I'm the player, hey man, I just got cut. You know, whatever's gonna happen. I've got three young kids. Todd, I gotta get there. You need to figure out the rest of it with my family. And where do you start? And talk about your team that you have that goes ahead and does that for you. Oh, you just nailed it right there because you're like, what do you do? I'm like, I don't know what I do because I call the guy. I yell Jennifer, Julie in my office and say, hey, guys, I need you to help me transition this family. and it's funny because it depends. Not everyone necessarily moves their entire family there. If they have kids, some some will say, hey, you know what? I'm going to I'm going to have you. The family is going to come in on like a Thursday ah and come for the weekend. And I'm only going to rent an apartment as opposed to buying something ah because the kids are at a certain age. Maybe they're in school. And so they don't want to uproot them and take them take them with them. You know, and I don't know how that transition was for you, Matt. uh I mean, I do, but others don't. But for you know, when we yes, I actually do know from when we went from Atlanta to Indianapolis and how you did it. And you know, everything changes in there. And you know how it is. You have kids like you don't necessarily like there are different ages. You don't want to just uproot them from from school and disrupt everything. But at the same time, you don't want to also be apart from your family. So it's kind of that fine line. And people don't understand that. Like these people are They're football players, but they're also dads and they're real people and you're trying to work through all of that. And so what we try to do, and you guys know this, is I try to eliminate as much of that distraction from the player so they can go focus on what they need to focus on. Because it's in a big enough adjustment for them after they just got cut to go sign somewhere else and then pick up and learn a whole new system, whole new playbook. And it's not like it's automatic, right? They gotta not only make the team, they gotta be productive and stay on that team. So what we're gonna do in our office is we're gonna do our best to just help the players family make that transition with whether it be moving and everyone is going or whether it be schools. And if they are coming with a family, I our people are down to like finding the doctors, pediatricians, things like that for the players family. I mean, there's a lot to do as you can imagine because it's not something you were planning on and it's not a city you were necessarily picking. You could literally just be like, I'm out of Atlanta and not wait, I'm in where? Green Bay, Wisconsin, like never been here before. And you gotta like. say green Bay. Let's go there. Let's go to a guy. Let's go to a guy that's dealing with that transition right now and heading to green Bay. was not the media guy who brought up Micah Parsons on this podcast for the first time. think, listen, I think this is our first time doing it. We've got to have at least one current event that's going on. Right. think a lot of this is an excuse me to who we are and kind of what we're going to talk about, but I think this is what we're going to talk about. Right. Like this is the biggest, at least from my perspective, the biggest news story of, of the NFL off season training camp, whatever is, is Mike Parsons going to the, to the green bed Packers and you know, I want to start, AD, you're the closest to this, right? You know, playing D-line. What is he got to do in that short amount of time? You know, because I've often said, like, if there's one position that I think you could just get inserted into in one week and go be productive is defensive line and it's a pass rusher, you know, more exclusively. That's similar to what I had to go through in 2017 with my first holdout year. We just had got Sean McVay. He was a new coach. D, we had D. did Todd make you hold out? This is what I'm curious about. You want it to go. remember, I remember, but Todd, Todd told you to hold out. Wade, we ain't gonna talk about that right now. We had Wade, it was a whole new defense for me. So um once I got in the building, I actually came in the day before the first game of the season. I didn't play the first game and I played the second week. The only thing they gonna do is they gonna allow him to be him, right? Because they just paid this guy a lot of money anyway. they gonna line him up, make sure he know the basics of what they need to do and let him work. And then as he go, gonna, you put him in with the schemes. think anything for him, it's gonna be, you know, building that relationship with the guys. He's new in the locker room. He's new in that room, building a relationship with them, understanding how to play off each other. That come with time though, but I don't think they're gonna... us through, take us through like, you know, for him, a defensive call comes in, give us an example of like, you know, we're playing over cover three, how would you call that? basic, can go over cover, you can go gold front, can go a test game, it's basic, it's just terminology if anything. You can have the same thing like, so say if. a teammate next to them, are you reminded them, Hey, you know, you've got this gap and this gap in the run game pass rush. Go do your thing. for the most part, sometimes you do gotta do that with guys, but I think that it's gonna be basic for him. If anything, I think the terminology is gonna be different for him, because it went from, like say if you're doing a text game, a text game, you say text game, sometimes they might call it Rambo. Terminology, so a text game is a game with your defensive tackles getting upfield, your defense is setting it up, and then he's wrapping inside. So it's just games like that, you got your twist games. But everybody use different terminology. They might call it a test game Rambo or um I'm making that up, an um exit game, um Texas, whatever. It's just him picking up the terminology, understanding certain checks from the guys and so y'all can be able to play fast. you don't want him to be out there thinking too much. Because when you out there thinking too much. I'm saying like, I were a DC for him for the first week, we're not running any games, right? I wouldn't expect many stunts, crossing patterns or any. Just pin your ears back and go. you gonna let him work, but it's not like a quarterback. You don't got a whole big ass game plan. So it's basic. It's like, uh so it's gonna be the same stuff for him. They gonna make sure that he's good, he's comfortable, two a tee. He got time um to pick that up through this whole week. He's gonna be fine. If anything, it's just picking up certain, the terminologies with whatever they're using with that defense and things like that. I'm with you. kind of feel like I feel like the terminology or the scheme or all of that stuff. I think that's a little bit overdone, right? Like I think he's going to be fine there. Whatever everybody plays similar type stuff, right? Your timing and rhythm on those games gets a little bit better the more you play with guys, but that's going to come, but he'll know what to do. I'm curious to you. You held out, right? And it's similar to what Mike is doing right now. Talk, talk to me about like conditioning levels. Going into that game, right? Because it's different. It's different playing that first game. feel like everybody's gassed in that first game that we played the first time you're playing into that second half, third quarter into the fourth quarter. But it's gotta be more difficult when you haven't been out there practicing, right? Like you can do all the training you want on the side, but it's not the same. you, like I felt like I was in, I was in amazing shape, but being in amazing shape is different than football shape. It's different when you got a hammer and a shoulder pads on, you got to hold a double team, then try to split a double team, then you got a third down, try to rush. So he gonna have to work himself back in football shape too. And I know it don't, it don't matter how hard you work, how great a shape you in, football shape is different than regular shape. I tell people all the whole, all the time about that. Like I train my, I train every single day. Boom. I was in amazing shape. it. We've all seen it. The shirt is off. You're out there. Do it. We've seen it. You put the hammer and the shoulder pads on, the first couple's good. And then it's like, that shit start getting on your back a little bit. Your legs is little wormy a little bit. So it's gonna take some time, but that come with playing the game. But he gonna be able to. think one of the things that, uh, you know, people don't take into account enough for week one too, is, is I think getting hit fatigues you more than people realize, right? Like it's, it's not necessarily the running, right? But it's the constant, it's the constant, like you were saying, the pushing, the, getting hit, the getting chipped, getting hit in the ribs. For me, it was always like trying to breathe after you've just been smashed in the ribs and then calling a play 65 times in a game. Azure exhaust it like that stuff. just takes you can't replicate it. You can't replicate it. like, you, you gotta think, you bench pressing 600 pounds, just think holding a double team, and then you gotta get back and do it again. And then you gotta rush. Like, it depends how hot the damn game is that day. It could be a hot ass day. Like all that, all that add up, man. And it's like, all right, let's, I gotta push through. All right. You gotta find a way, find a way. That's what you thinking. So. It all tied into it, man. It's like, them first games ain't easy. That's why I like to get to that third and our fourth game where you kind of get your feet under you in a lot better football shape. And that's when I should start, you know, really clicking. So. AD says, Mike, can go from the jump. Matt for a quarterback to switch systems, switch teams, learn terminology and go? Obviously, it could never be done in one week, but how long would it take to be comfortable in your new surroundings? I mean, Baker did it that one week. I mean, I, I remember watching that game. I remember watching that game being like, I cannot believe what I'm seeing. Like that's so hard to be able to go. He had to have had no idea what was going on, but I think, you know, one of the things, one of the things that can help you right is, is as a quarterback, if you're a veteran guy, the terminology, all those things is going to be different. Um, But concepts are similar, right? Like passing game concepts are similar. The communicator is key, right? So like for new guys coming in, is the coach, if the coach can call the play and then tell you what to do, like, hey man, we're going to run whatever the play call is. This is curl flat to the right. And it's this on the backside, one high, two high, go for it. Like that's helpful, you know? And I think you can do that in a lot of different ways, but I think that's only piecemeal in it together for a week or two. Right? Like if you're going to have long-term success, I think you need a foundation of timing and rhythm, uh, and, and, and a knowing of the receivers that you're playing with. If you want to be successful, you know, for, for the long-term. So I think it's, it's not really that feasible. I always had so much respect for quarterbacks, you know, that, that, that may have gotten cut, and brought in a week one or two that were backups for me and how quickly they would pick up system much faster than I did. Right. It took me. a while to kind of digest the system and learn it and know it the way that I would. And I always had so much respect for the guys that could do it without getting reps too, right? And go out there and perform. I think it's really difficult, but I think that's why you don't see it, Zach, right? Like you just, you don't see blockbuster trades like Micah Parsons is the equivalent of Joe Burrow leaving and going somewhere different. I just think that position is so different. What would be the biggest challenge and your client in such a short term? know, is it just logistics? As you mentioned, you got a great team around you at Athletes First helping everybody out. from your point of view, the agent, you know, what are your responsibilities to get your client to this new team in such a short time span? I mean, a lot of it takes care of itself. mean, the packers are going to obviously be communicating with the Cowboys. He's going to have his proper equipment all over back, you know, in the things that he likes to have is all going to be there. And it's just adjusting himself to the city and to the locker room and all of that type of stuff. I think it's an adjustment for the player period because you're going to you're going from whatever nice house you lived in to some temporary housing, right? You're either be staying in a hotel or you're being an apartment until you can find that house. And there is logistics that are going on. He can't really be dealing with a lot of that right now because he's really getting ready like you guys were talking about the playbook and get ready for the season. But meanwhile, somebody is going to be having to move all his stuff there and family and all that stuff. So there's a lot of logistics and a lot of moving parts for him. But, you know, at the end of the day, he's locked in and obviously, you know, wants to go out there and crush it to show everyone he's worth the contract and then some. So I'm glad that saga is over. was probably, you know, a lot in the media, which is typical with anything that seems to be going on with the Cowboys. It's just a lot of public stuff. What'd you think? What from your perspective, the compensation, right? Like forget the contract, you know, I'm going to sit on here and tell you, I think every guy should make as much money as they can possibly make. I'm for that for every player. I'm pro player on, all of this. Yes. I'm sure you do agree. And AD, I think that's how we all felt as players. I'd never had a jealous bone in my body of another guy signing a big deal, right? Like good for him. That's awesome. Uh, you know, you've earned every penny of it. Uh, I'm more curious though, Todd, about the two ones, right? And one player uh in Kenny Clark. Like, I thought it was gonna be bigger than that. You know, I haven't studied the, no, mean, obviously Micah could command whatever you want to do. You can look back. I don't remember exactly what Khalil Mack went for back in the day, but that's probably the one that comes to mind as far as like the closest big name guy in history. And I want to say it was three ones back in the day for him, if I'm not mistaken. So I think people could probably see that, but maybe that wasn't there. And at the end of the day, if Dallas didn't want to keep him and they ultimately wanted to move them, then you take. what the market will bear, right? And so they not only got the first round picks, but they badly needed some interior rush help. And so to them, they added a probable type player with Kenny Clark. And for them, that's that was the value. Yeah. Like, he's really good. He's one of them guys I used to watch and see on film and like watching his film. If I was playing like, if I was playing the Falcons, y'all played against him. I was I would enjoy watching that film and watching him. oh he got, he got some technique and got some stuff with him for sure. how does this work then, Zach, for somebody like you, say, put yourself in whoever's channel two up in Green Bay, right? Wisconsin. And you just had this guy come in. What does this week look like on y'all's end of trying to sort out this massive story and how we're going to tell it? where you go having arguably, you know, one of the number one players in the National Football League to the smallest television market in the National Football League. But fortunately for Micah, he was used to all the coverage coming from Dallas where the Cowboys ruled that state and wherever he would go in that city, I'm sure he was recognized and there was always some visibility around him in the Dallas market. And that's what it be like in Green Bay. It will be nonstop. I'm sure when the plane landed in Green Bay from Dallas, all the TV stations broke in and took live coverage of that. I mean, their late night news in Green Bay, if somebody tweaks an ankle or hits the waiver wire or is cut, that's leading their newscast. It's the number one thing in town. It always has been and always will be and deservedly so. But I think having that microscope underneath him in Dallas, he'll be ready for it. He'll handle that easily, right? But it's from the, you you got Aaron Rodgers, you have Brett Favre, and you have now Micah Parsons as legends in that city. and they love their football. mean, Matt, you played there a couple of times, AD as well. I had a beautiful moment covering you guys when you played there and it was the perfect Green Bay Lambo conditions. had snowflakes the sides of silver dollars. And it was just this beautiful snow globe type atmosphere. think Julio had with three touchdowns in that game, Julio Jones, think receiving. wasn't, that's what I, you remember the losses. remember. oh And then it was also the COVID year going up there covering you guys. thing of all time, man. That, that stadium played either a Sunday or Monday night game in Lambeau completely empty. was the strangest. That was the strangest time. I've the strangest venue I've ever seen, man. But I'm going to put you on the spot. I'm going to put you on the spot here, Zach. Okay. You, you, you are first in the first press conference there. You get the first question to ask Micha whatever you want to ask him. What are you asking him? And then I'm going to have Aaron. respond as though he's Micah. shit, okay, I'm getting ready. All right? Hey, Micah, Jerry Jones said recently that he thinks the Dallas Cowboys are a better team now that you're in Green Bay than they were when you were on the team. Do you agree with that? And why do things break down with you and Jerry Jones? All we can do is see now, but I'm happy where I'm at. I'm just gonna go out there and play football. I'm with a great team. We're trying to find a way to help my team to be successful. Trying to win a lot of games this year. So the past is the past. I'm looking to the future. So I appreciate everything Dallas did for me, but I'm here in Green Bay now. My main focus is doing everything I gotta do to help Green Bay win games. And that's just trying to hold up a trophy at the end of the year. So I don't wanna... keep hoping on the past, I'm more oh in the present thinking about what I gotta do to help my team to be successful in the future. So oh my main focus is here in Green Bay. So. uh Zach. No, no click. Oh my God. Yes. No clicks for you, Zach. Sorry about that. That's amazing. Great job, AD. a great question though, Zach. Oh, exactly. Yes. That's your that's your public answer. Give us the real what was going through your head. No, no, don't don't don't. flip the roles, if you guys were in the media and Micah Parsons had to answer with truth serum, what would be your question? What would you want to know? Did you and Jerry Jones relationship become bad? y'all really, was it a lot of conflict between you guys? Were you guys still conversating? Were y'all in good terms or how was that relationship between you two guys? When y'all seen each other, did y'all speak? How was that? I think that is kind of the interesting one. and then also like, what was the point of no return, right? Because there's, there's back and forth that goes on and Todd, I mean, you've been, you've been a part of, all of these, right. And there's posturing that goes on, uh, during contract negotiations. And I was always a proponent of, you know, don't say anything good, bad, indifferent. just don't say anything and you let it shake out, but You know, this, this one shook out different. And when he made the comments, like, you know, he, didn't want, uh, they were having, you conversations without his representation and he wanted out. Right. It wasn't, it just sounded different from the start when he made those comments during training camp. Cause we, we, we have all heard, you know, I want to be traded. Terry McLaurin said the same thing. We work it out. Right. His sounded different and I would want to know what was the point of no return? What was the thing? You know the the final straw and it's none of our business and so you know we're not going to get it but that would be the thing I would be interested in. What was the last thing that happened that said you know no more I'm done. give up. I don't want to be here no more. Like I'm fed up. I'm ready to move on kind of thing. Yeah. If we go ahead, yeah. No, I'm just saying I'm glad I worked out for Mike. I a great contract and I'm happy for him and happy for David, his agent. He's with a good team too. he was your teammate, are you thinking and you looking differently towards management and saying, the hell did we let this guy go? And is that bringing you guys together to try to kind of us versus them, or is it always an us versus them? How would that dynamic work if you were a cowboy right now? I'll be disappointed because he's a big piece to the puzzle for that defense. They built that defense around him. He's the guy and then you don't do right by that guy for whatever reason it is. um I don't know, I think it could cause some problems. Guys looking at front office a little different, I don't know how they really feelin', but uh I think it started, I know a lot of them guys are upset about that because it. You need certain pieces to the puzzle to become a team you want to be, to get to you want to get to. And that's the end goal is to win a Super Bowl. And you talk about you losing your best pass rush, you're one of your best defensive player you got. Now you're going backwards, even though you brung a guy in that's a pretty good defensive player, but uh it's different, right? It's different. You you got a guy that you can get you 15 sacks a year. he were to have been traded to the Rams, would you have come out of retirement? Nah man, never, listen, I would have been happy, uh I would have loved to see that, cause that Ram D-Line is loaded and they add a piece to the puzzle like that. I would have wished that I was still playing with that damn D-Line though, I could tell you that, but no, my days is up man. I would have retired, like if I could have, if I was still, I would have retired had I had to play the Rams twice a year and you got Aaron and Micah on the same D line. Just, that'd be difficult, difficult to go against. But I think about this, right? Like, so we think about it from different perspectives, ah you know, and kind of sliding around, but what impact does that make on, on now like the NFC North, you know, and if you're, if you're JJ McCarthy and if you're Caleb Williams and now twice a year. Right? You're seeing him twice a year. You're seeing Aiden Hutchinson and you're trying to get your feet wet in the NFL and become a consistent player. Like the two most pissed off people on the planet were Caleb Williams and JJ McCarthy. In my opinion, where you're like, no anywhere, like anywhere, but in division and as young players. But the trickle down on these kinds of things I think is always so fascinating to watch. All right, gents, I think it's gonna put a bow on the debut episode of the Inner Circle podcast for everybody listening or watching. Thank you so much and be sure to hit the like button, leave a comment, follow along this amazing journey with two of best ever played. Todd France and the agent game and yours truly Zach Klein. It's been a pleasure guys. Looking forward to see you next week. Later.