From A Tiny Alpine Village To A Super Bowl Ring

There is a version of the American dream that almost nobody talks about. A kid in a small mountain village in northern Italy, watching a random football clip on his laptop in art class, gets pulled aside by his IT teacher, and nine years later he's holding a Super Bowl trophy on a field in Los Angeles.

In this conversation, I sit down with one of the most unlikely athletes in professional football to walk through how he actually did it. We talk about the freakish physical and mental combination that separates the men protecting your favorite quarterback from everyone else on the field, the diet reality that most Americans never think about (there's a fine if you lose too much weight), the moment he discovered American healthcare was nothing like the system he grew up with, and the secret weapon most professional athletes have but almost never mention publicly.

If you've ever felt like you started too late, if you love football, or if you're curious what life inside the NFL actually looks like from the trenches, this one will surprise you.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The unusual combination of traits an elite offensive lineman actually has, and why one of them matters more than size or strength
• The daily physical toll professional football players quietly absorb, and what they do to keep coming back
• The one relationship most professional athletes credit with the fact that they can perform at all

Connect with Max Pircher
 Instagram: @maxpircher

Chapters:

00:00 – Cold Open
 01:23 – From The Alps To The NFL By Accident
 02:32 – How American Football Is Growing In Europe
 03:05 – Inside The International Player Pathway
 05:09 – Starting A Sport At Nineteen
 07:16 – The Speed Of The Modern Game
 07:51 – Inside An Offseason Training Day
 09:25 – Why In-Season Recovery Is Everything
 10:19 – What A Hit Actually Feels Like
 11:35 – Why Offensive Linemen Play The Longest
 12:50 – The Super Bowl At Home
 15:09 – Life Across Five NFL Cities
 14:56 – The Shock Of American Healthcare
 16:58 – Why Every Country Runs It Differently
 18:52 – The Cultural Crossroads Of His Hometown
 20:04 – Italian Food Wins
 22:37 – Eating To Stay 340 Pounds
 23:47 – When Losing Weight Costs You Money
 24:27 – The Lambeau Experience
 27:11 – Advice For The Kid Who Wants To Get There
 28:09 – The Secret Weapon Behind Every Athlete

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_02 0:00

An NFL offensive tackle must have must meet strict criteria. He's got to be tall, 6'4 to 6'9, he's got to be big, 300 to 350 pounds, he's got to be strong, really strong upper body, hands, but he also has to be agile. He's got to be able to move quickly. But there's even something more important than all that. He's got to be focused. Because if that offensive tackle loses focus for one second, that person behind him is gonna get injured. And that could be the end of the season. Now you're looking at me and you think, do I meet any of those criteria? Absolutely not. But today's guest meets them all. At six foot seven and 335 pounds in two ounces. He never played football until age 19 in northern Italy, and yet he was able to come into the NFL as an offensive tackle. Please welcome Max Percher to the Real Doc Speaks podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Thanks.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

You're very welcome. And this podcast is for educational purposes only. It's not medical advice. Please seek the advice of a physician if you should have any problems. Max, thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Very excited. So, how did you go from a small, idyllic, beautiful mountain town in northern Italy to the NFL?

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Um I had a teacher in high school. It's actually a funny story. We were in our IT class. He was the IT uh teacher, and um I watched a video of uh OBJ. What's funny, he became my teammate later. Oh. And uh and he basically caught me watching the video, and he said, Yeah, just turn it off. And I said, Oh no, you got caught and all that stuff. And after the hour, he told me to stay there and talk to him. And I thought, oh, he's gonna tell me now something about that. I wasn't paying attention or something. But he actually told me that he played football and he said that I'm tall and I played hammer at the time. And if I move well and all that, I should come with him to a football game. And he took me to a football game in Austria where I went to college later, University of Innsbruck. And they have their town has a really good football team. And yeah, from there I just fell in love with the game and really liked it and became obsessed with it, worked out every day. Never thought I would make it to the NFL. At the time, I didn't even know about the NFL. But um, yeah, I just did my best to play there, and then from there on it worked out really well.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Is American football, and I'll just call it American football, is that big in Europe? I always think of soccer and you know other sports like that.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

It's not as big as soccer, but it's getting bigger and bigger. Um, they have professional leagues there now, and everybody follows the NFL. The NFL does a really good job with having international games who are sold out within hours. Um, I don't know the exact numbers, but for the game in Munich, they had four or five million or something like that, um, requests for tickets. And it's definitely like the NFL is doing a good job in growing it all over. That's perfect.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

And now you're on the NFL International Player Pathway Program. And could you tell us what that program is?

SPEAKER_00 3:12

So basically, um the NFL founded this program to scout players outside the United States who didn't grow up here, who didn't have the possibility to or didn't even hear about college football. Um and from there, you they have a big pool with players and who they bring the best, I don't I don't remember the exact number, like 11 or something, to the United States and uh pay basically for them to work out for three, four months at IMG Academy, or now they changed it somewhere else. And those players then can go to a team with a roster exemption basically, you know, an additional player, but those rules and everything changed now. I think they changed it. Like I'm now going my sixth year, and I think they changed everything after my second year or something. So it's basically uh and every team can carry an extra player who didn't play college football who is not from the United States.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

I love that they're mixing it up with international because when I was uh a child, my father was from Ireland, and he loved soccer like everybody does who's from Europe, and he'd always complain he loved American football, but he didn't like certain aspects of it, and it was so foreign to him when he came over. So it's great that people are being introduced to it, and then you don't have that sense. And I remember the first time that I think it was at Jags went over to London, and I was reading the English papers, and they were just amazed how big the people were, the players. Yeah, that was the part because you soccer players are much smaller.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Oh, yeah. Like we actually played this year or last season we played in Ireland. I was uh we played in Dublin and later on in in England, in London, and yeah, it was definitely cool and really good fans. Uh it was obviously sold out and everything, and the whole city was in NFL jerseys. It it was really cool, really good experience.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

It's fun in Ireland because they love sports, any sport. It doesn't matter, you know, it could be professional, amateur sport. They're out and they take it so serious. So it uh so I I love that. So that is perfect. Now you started late in the game, and has that been an issue for you in the NFL? Has that put you at a disadvantage, or were you able to overcome that?

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Um, you have to basically do a go the extra mile a little bit because you get thrown in there and all of a sudden you compete with people who played this sport their entire life, and you don't really have much time to um much time or much excuse to say, oh, I didn't play the game or whatever, because they just replace you. If somebody's better than you, they just replace you. So I would say you definitely have to work extra hard and stay longer in the in the um team, in the team or in the facility and learn more and learn more the playbook, and you have to teach a lot yourself too and always ask questions. I got lucky that I had a coach, uh Nick Jones, he's now the assistant offensive line coach at the Falcons. Um, he explained me a lot, and whenever I had questions, he stayed longer with me. And those coaches, they have really long days. Their days go sometimes from 4 a.m. till 9, 10 p.m. And then they sleep in their office, or they're really, really working hard. So it's it's definitely uh tough or a little bit harder. And I tell that the younger kids who who come now to the league or who text me and international players or rookies, and um, yeah, definitely have to just stay behind. But if you love the game and you like it, it's it's basically like an obsession you have, and then it's not as difficult.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

No, that's perfect. It was interesting, and I'm not an expert in the NFL. I'm a physician, so I'm not a sports guy. But as I was just doing some research, I really didn't understand what is involved with the offensive linemen. And I was thinking probably back to the 70s when they were kind of big, strong, slow-moving guys, it you know, like the refrigerator used to play in Chicago. And I thought of that. But it sounds like the games change. The players are much faster now.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Yeah, the game got really faster. Um, I would say some like linebackers and stuff, they smaller and faster, uh, very, very like smart players. And uh yeah, it's just you have to keep up with speed, and sometimes you have rule changes. Like back in the day, they used to only be allowed to block with the elbows and stuff like that. Now we can actually like grab them or use our hands and punch and stuff like that. So it's always uh moving and evaluating and makes it really uh evolving and it makes it really interesting, the game.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

That's perfect. The other thing is kind of interesting since you have to have so many different criteria, you have to train in so many different ways. So, first, just looking at the strength, what would an average like you wake up on Monday, you you've had a nice weekend, maybe you ate too much pizza, and it's Monday morning, you're like, okay, I gotta get back to my strength training. What does a workout? Could you walk us through what a workout will look like?

SPEAKER_00 8:12

You mean in the off-season or during the season? Oh, off-season will start. Yeah, in the off-season, I wouldn't even say you can even too much pizza. Like I'm now 340 pounds and I really gotta eat a lot to keep my weight. But um, Mondays for for me is uh is my lower body day where I do a lot of squats, uh a lot of other exercises. Um, my my wife Katie gives me great advice. Like she knows all the ins and outs about the whole fitness stuff, so that's nice for me when I got a question. I just ask, hey, what should I do? So I don't need to think twice about it. But um then um all the exercises, speed exercises, leather drills, um, coordination stuff with your with your feet, and then I go to the feet to the field, uh, get a little bit of a conditioning in, uh either run block or like run steps or passport steps, stuff like that, and then that's it for the off-season. Then you basically just need to keep eating. Um, and the rest of the day you basically just focus on recovering, uh, do all your recovery stuff so you're ready to go again on Tuesday with uh field workouts.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Gotcha. And then how's it different during the in the season?

SPEAKER_00 9:24

How does your workout in the season you have a lot of uh intense workouts and they two and a half hours long, and you have your lifts. So I would say what changes is during the season the recovery becomes even more important because now I can say Monday I do this, Tuesday I go lighter, Wednesday I go hard again. But during the season, it's hard every day. You have your one-off day, hard every day, and then you get the game in the weekend. So you literally need to max out everything you can get out of your uh sleep, your your recovery, everything you drink, everything turns so so important. But every team has like great uh great team, nutritionists, uh trainers, physios, everything. So they take care of you, but um, it's definitely you need to stay on top. Like you you feel every minute you go too late to bed, for example, stuff like that. You feel uh now.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

What's it like when you're playing? Because you're obviously you're a big guy, but so are the other people who are running into you, you know. And and I've heard it's tremendous trauma. It's like getting in a car accident every time you play.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

So, how how does it feel like after a tough game? Um so during the game with adrenaline, like you want that car wreck, you want to wreck the other players. So it's really, really I like that. That's the aspect I love about football. It's a lot of mental stuff, you gotta learn all your stuff, um, but then also like hit hard, and it's just it's fun. And afterwards, you definitely feel it. So a lot of times, let's say you have a short week, you have a Thursday night game, and then you play again on a Sunday. Um, you gotta start your recovery in the stadium, literally after the game, but you feel it, and everything hurts during season, and everything um, yeah, you get tired, but that's why you have the long off season. So your mentality is just don't worry about it during season, give your best, play football, don't think about it too much, and the off-season you you recover. And in my five years now in the league, I knocked on wood, but I never had an accident or never had any injuries.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Uh so that's perfect. No, that's great, Doctor. That's amazing. And an interesting thing about offensive linemen is they have a longer career on average than a lot of the other players. They can go up to their 30s and you know play there. So why do you think that is?

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Um, I don't know the exact numbers, uh, but there's some like really like really good examples. Andrew Whitworth, I played with him at the Rams. He's like one of the best linemen ever do it. And the year Witt retired, that was the year we won the Super Bowl. Um he was it like literally one of the fittest people on that field. Like I think he was 40 years old, and 40 or 41. That's amazing, and it was super impressive. So um just those people are just freakish athletes, I would say, and uh they're just really good genetics, and the way what they do is the right way, so they can have long careers. And then I've seen people who don't even make it through a whole season and they are basically done, or people who were really good in college, but because their their body just was done during college already, they don't didn't even make it to the NFL because their knee or anything else, and so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Now, where was that Super Bowl at?

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Where did you guys play at in LA, So Fi Stadium? We had it at home, so that was definitely great.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

I bet that was exciting. That had to be a highlight, other than your wedding, that had to be one of your highlights. Yes, exactly what I always say. Oh, that's good. That's good. Oh, that's exciting, then. Yeah, well, hopefully you'll you'll have some more Super Bowls in your future. And you played for four teams, is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Um let's see, I played for the Rams, um, then I went to Detroit, um, Seattle, Washington, and then uh Minnesota. Minnesota, then.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Okay. What was your favorite part of each city? Because it's kind of fun. You know, you come here uh from Italy, and then now you've gotten to live at least part of the year in many different parts of the United States. In fact, you've gone to more of the United States than probably most Native Americans have gone, you know. So what did you like in each place?

SPEAKER_00 13:50

So, yeah, that's a really cool part about football that you get around. Um, during season, you don't see much, but your house and the facility. Um, but what uh Katie and I do after the season, the team would just fly you home. But we um always depend doesn't matter where I play, we plan a road trip where we take two, three weeks and then we just stop everywhere and see everything, and that was really cool. And in every city where you play, um there's something cool to see. Obviously, LA, you see all the nice beaches, you see, you go to Venice. We lived like 20 minutes from Malibu, not even, and then you come to Seattle, what's also really beautiful nature. You go to the little island, and then uh you go to Washington, like you you see the White House, you see um you go to Minnesota, you see the Mall of America. So it's it's definitely really, really exciting and really cool to get around like that for for your work. So can't make an excuse not to travel.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

No, that I love with that. And what have you noticed about the healthcare system in the United States versus Italy?

SPEAKER_00 14:57

So that's that's pretty funny. Um because we I'm from an autonomous region in the north of Italy, like uh Alto South Tyro, it's called. And um we have like Italy has a free healthcare system. And we have in South Tyrol, we have like our independent um little government, I would say, who can has a bunch of where we can make our own decisions. So growing up, um, I mean, my sister is a doctor, my mom is a psychologist in the hospital, and I have a lot of doctors in the family and stuff. So I didn't even know until I came to the States that healthcare is even a thing. Because if something is wrong at home, you go to the hospital, doesn't matter what it is, they take care of you. It's like a I don't remember how much it is, like not even $50 ticket fee. Probably that you don't come just every day, but there's a little ticket fee, and then everything is they just take care of everything and you leave again. I really only had good experiences with that. And then I came to the States and I had this little a little uh stuff that I needed to get uh cut out, like nothing, just go there and leave. Yeah, and um I didn't know, and I just went to a hospital in Fort Lauderdale because my sister told me you just cut it out and it's over, like it was getting inflammatory, so we cut it out. And I just went to the hospital, I had no idea and went there, did it, and left. And then afterwards they kept calling me about I gotta pay, I don't know, a thousand dollars or whatever. And I was so confused, so I just ignored them for two years or one two years. I thought it's a scam. And then and then they finally call back and they say, hey, it's like going into collection or whatever. Okay, like you, and then they told me the name of the hospital is uh maybe they are right, so I just paid it and all that. So it was like out of network hospital or something. Yeah, but yeah, we have good health insurance through the NFL, but it's definitely not as easy, I would say, than it is back home.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

It's very, it's very confusing. And I would say honestly, it's confusing for most Americans. They don't know, and you know, Europe has such a different system, and Italy is kind of an interesting one because there's 22 autonomous regions within that central health, like you said, where they kind of run it, and the north is different than the south, and you know, supposedly the north is uh a better run system, you have more specialists, and the wait times are less than the south. So it's kind of fascinating how each country is so different.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. It's uh my older sister is working uh in Austria, and I think even there it's a little bit different than it's oh, I played football in Germany, and even there it was different with the health insurance than it was. So it's definitely interesting.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

They're supposed to say they have one of the best systems in the in the world, is in Germany. So they they rank very high. And one of my daughters had sprained her ankle when we were in London, and I just wanted to make sure it wasn't broke. So I was like, you know, let's go, we'll go to the hospital, get an x-ray. They were super nice, but the hospital looked like a disaster. You can't tell people were just waiting forever, and you know, people were frustrated with it. And but but they like I said, they were very nice to me. And I just wanted to look at the x-ray myself and read it, and they let me do it, and they're they're very nice about it. So and they wouldn't, and I said, Can I pay you? And they said, No, they were upset. I go, Well, well, I don't pay into your tax system. I should pay you. No, no, no. Yeah, but they wouldn't do it. So I they're just you know, they just said, no, this is free, and I I felt bad that so sorry, England, I I was using some free care there, but I didn't mean to do that. Maybe because you're Irish, so maybe it's Irish, so that that worked out good. So, no, that's perfect then. Now, when you the area you grew up in is kind of interesting because it's got it's in northern Italy, but there's a lot of German and Austrian influence there.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Yeah, so the region we got like moved back and forth throughout history. Maybe where with uh it was one like a Tyrol, but was a whole separate, and under the the Emperor it was different. And then after the First World War in Versailles, it it came to to uh Italy, and then um there were some um basically after long negotiating and all that, they came to an agreement that Sathy stays with Italy, but they get their independent um basically their autonomous status, and that they have their independent uh little government. We have in uh Boatsun in the capital, and yeah, and it's it's really really nice there, it's really well run. Uh, I would say really high uh quality of living. Um and I think the healthcare system and all that definitely plays a big role in that because I can be in the most beautiful place in the world, but if if I don't know if I survive a little flu or something, then that that's I don't know, that might be something stressful, like in some remote islands and all that. Um, but definitely it's really nice.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

And you like because you're probably gonna have a mix of German and Italian food there. And if you had to choose between one, which one would you prefer?

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Oh that's a that's a hard question. Um I asked the tough question. We we have basically our own little kitchen, uh the South Tirolan kitchen, like very famous things like uh I don't know if you're about Speck or Speck and um Um the little uh we call them Knadle, they like um pastries or you call it Canadal?

unknown 20:36

Like a dumpling.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Yeah, some type of dumpling. Sure. And um yeah, really. So I I don't know, I I couldn't decide, but I do like a lot of pizza, so I probably would have to go with the the the pizza there.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

More than Italian okay, yeah. Because looking at the map, you're kind of just underneath Austria. It looks like if you were just a cartographer, you'd put you in Austria, just the way things look then. It's very, very close.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

That sounds and you're close to the great skiing, it sounds like in the Alps and Yeah, in in Brixen, like where I'm from, the Plosa is one of the most beautiful skiing uh resorts in the in the entire world.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

So that's far from and how far are you from Switzerland?

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Uh it's not even an hour, I think. So by car. So very, very close. That's great then.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

So there's a lot of culture there in a small area. Yes. I I love that. I love that. And how long have you been in Jacksonville, Florida for?

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Um we've been here now. We used to live in Orlando to Fort Lauderdale. And in the off season we always lived in Florida. And now in Jacksonville we are since maybe three years.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

Three years, okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

And uh yeah, we love it here. Like this definitely the place in the United States where we wanna build are we building our like US home base and uh it's Jackson is really Nice, really like it. Oh, that's great. What's your favorite part about Jacksonville? Um you have the beach, so you have you you basically get the benefits of Florida and it's still a little bit laid back and relaxed, and you I think it's a great um place to raise a family. Yeah. Um nice areas, then uh obviously my wife's family lives here. So um yeah, like I really, really like it. And I've seen a lot, like you said, a lot from the United States and uh beautiful places everywhere. But absolutely, even like regardless of all that, if I would have to pick a place, I would say it is my favorite one. That's perfect, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

And I know diet is really crucial to NFL players. What do you have to do off-season and in-season for your diet to maintain weight and get the right mix of protein and carbohydrates and nutrients?

SPEAKER_00 22:51

So when I started playing football, I had to gain like I went from 190 to over 300 pounds, and I'm 340. So I was really looking what I was eating and the the protein and keep the carbs high and keep all micro and macros and this and that. And um after so many years of doing it, I literally just my body got a feeling. So now I I feel if I feel light, I know I go heavier in carbs. Um I'm trying to keep the protein always the same, just keep high, keep more than you need, and never have enough, and then just play around with your carbs and and fats, keep good fats always high and uh drink enough, like definitely always staying hydrated and uh lots of those things. So now it I kind of do it on my own, but it's always in the back of my mind, oh, I gotta eat now, or I haven't eaten in three hours. I gotta eat something.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

And well, that's interesting because almost everybody else, and 99.9% of Americans are trying to lose weight, and they're sitting there like, oh no, I gotta cut my carbs down. I need my GLP ones. So it's funny listening to somebody say, I gotta keep my weight up. And it uh what's kind of your minimum weight that you have to keep up?

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Um, they give you always the weight, like you talk with your nutritionist, and uh we had a really good nutritionist at the Vikings, he was awesome. And I think my weight, my weight range there was uh 330 and 340, something like that. Okay. Or sometimes it's even smaller, and they also fine you if you're not in your weight. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

So um it's like a stewardess back in the 60s. So that's that's funny. Wow, I didn't know that. That's interesting. And we talked a little bit beforehand about I was living for 25 years in Appleton, Wisconsin, and that's where they host the traveling teams who play up in Green Bay at the Paper Valley Hotel. Yeah, and it and it's kind of interesting because that's the I think that's the only part of the NFL where you're in a different, you're actually in a different county than the stadium. So it's kind of unique experience.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Yeah, yeah, it's it was really cool. And then from there, driving into the stadium, like I said, with uh you're in in that neighborhood and everybody's tailgating and you have all the Packers fans, and it was it was cool. Green Bay is uh very historic place to play Lambo Field, but uh you know it's a very, very high chance that you're gonna be really cold up there. Absolutely. Uh what makes it interesting, makes it fun, and but yeah, it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

The interesting thing for me, because I I grew up in Chicago, and yeah, obviously the Bears are there. And yeah, there's fans for the Bears, obviously, but there's a lot of people who really didn't care that much about them. I never met anybody in Wisconsin who didn't absolutely love the Packers. And they spoke about each player as if they knew them personally, and they knew everything about them. And we were talking a little bit earlier that the fans actually are owners of the team. And when they get a big snow, there's a lottery, and the fans shovel out the stadium. They get their snow shovels and get in line, and they do that. So it's next level of fandom there.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

Oh, yeah. I think it's really cool. It's like it's a football what connects the whole city, and it does. They are rooting for the same goal. And absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Yeah, I mean, the players are treated like royalty in there. I mean, it's it's it's gotta be pretty fun to be a uh Packers player in town, and you know, so and how do you think the Jags are gonna do this year? I have to ask you a Jags question.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Hopefully, hopefully they're doing good. I mean, I don't know yet where I'm gonna end up with team, yeah. But just because we live here and we have a lot of friends who are Jax player uh Jax fans, and uh my um my wife's grandma is also a big Jags fan. So it doesn't matter where I am. I always have to root for them a little bit. Oh, yeah, absolutely unless uh we play against them. That there's no friendship, but uh yeah, it's uh hope hopefully they're doing good. I mean, it's it's very, very promising.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Yeah, they did well last year. You know, they I think they're coming around, and obviously everybody's excited about the new stadium. And it uh I wish I could say I could make a call to the Jags and they'll pick you up, but I have no pool over there. So it uh and what would you say to somebody young from your hometown if they said, I you know, you're you're a hero to me. I want to be in the NFL. What do I do?

SPEAKER_00 27:11

I actually have a lot of uh kids, a lot of kids from Europe reach out to me and ask me these questions. And um, I just to be honest, always with them is just work as hard as you can, like control what you can control, and then a big piece is to be like you have to be uh lucky too, yeah, that they see you, that they have scouts at your game. But if you work enough and you outwork everybody else and you show up on the field, then they will see you. So that they have so many scouts now. I was talking to international scouts. I was a few years ago, they were scouting over 11,000 international kids, like so or uh who they had in the pot, who they scout, and all that. So the NFL will definitely see you. So there's it's a good thing because you have a goal that you can work for, and and even if it doesn't work out with NFL, or you at least have like learned how to work hard and how to be a good athlete and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

Absolutely, it'll translate into success in other parts of your life. Yeah. Now, is it hard being married and being in the NFL? It's gotta present some challenges.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

I think it makes it a lot, a lot easier. Okay. Like um, when, for example, we in Detroit, uh I during season you like you pre-season, you're in the team hotel, and then when you know that you made the team, they you have like a week and you gotta get out. And so and then you already have to prepare for week one, so you don't really have much time to find a place and all that. And the team's trying to help you, but it's still pretty stressful. So um, what what Katie did, uh, my wife, um, she literally just texts me address and like that's where we're going now. And I come home and don't need to worry about anything else, or um, I literally can focus on playing football 100%. And that's something what some teammates who don't have wives uh don't really have. Um, so I'm I'm grateful for that. And it's nice to support too. When it gets stressful during season, you go home, you see your wife, you can relax and talk about stuff and stone off.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

And you know, it's interesting. I'm an OBGY and so I've met lots of players, wives, both I practiced here for a little bit, and in Appleton, Wisconsin, a lot of the players were up there from Green Bay. So it is interesting just through the years, getting to meet the the wives, and it uh and they're all wonderful people. And like you said, that that's a part people don't think about too much with the NFL, but there's all these great wives, you know, helping the players out. And and I have to say that full disclosure that Katie, your wife, is a phenomenal trainer. She trains my wife and I, so we know her, and she's a phenomenal lady, great trainer. So, you know, I I agree you you've got a phenomenal wife. Yes, she is. So I think that's uh the best thing. I will leave the last word to you, Max. What would you like to add?

SPEAKER_00 30:09

Good question. I don't know. Maybe just have a nice have a nice uh nice week and enjoy the nice weather we have.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

And yeah. I think that's wonderful. Thank you so much, Max. Thank you for sharing your journey to the NFL. What a wonderful journey it's been from a small picturesque mountain town in Italy to all over the country playing top teams, won a Super Bowl. I mean, it's unbelievable. So I love that. And I love your journey of good nutrition and good health has helped you out here a lot. And you've got a powerful asset and a wonderful wife who can help you with training. That's your secret sauce, and nobody else can use the NFL. So it's uh well, and I hope all the NFL teams are listening in and especially the Jaguars. Let's let's get Max right here in in Jacksonville. I think that would be wonderful. And thank you so much for being on here today.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

Absolutely. And thank you for all my listeners. And please reach out if you have any questions. I'll pass them on to Max. You know, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, and I will see you next week. Thank you so much.