Davante Adams Part 1

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tom Brady, would you Brady House Brady Brady fella, Yes,
Oh you ain't.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Let me put it the question to take it.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
I know exactly, Hey, when you said Tom Brady, I
knew what you said. Let me see what he's gonna say.
And then you got to talk about Odie Is. I
don't care.

Speaker 4 (00:17):
All my life, grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle, p
price wan slice the broa all my life, poppy grinding
all my life, all my life, grinning all my life, sacrifice,
hustle paid the price, One slice got the bronc Geysa
all my life, poppy, grinding all my life.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Hello, Welcome to another episode of Club Sha Shay. I
am your host, Shannon Sharp. I'm also the propriud of
Club Shasha. The guy that's stopping buy for conversation on
the drink today is one of the NFL best receiver.
He displayed generational talents and his ability leading the leaving
and receiving touchdowns twice. He's the three time first team
All Pro, a six time Pro Bowl, a Hall of
Fame level talent. Once recorded twenty four touchdown in a

(01:04):
single college season. Fresno State thought so much of him
they retired as number fifteen. A superstar. Davante Adams app.

Speaker 5 (01:12):
Said, you had me, Bro, Bro appreciate that great man.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Hey, you know what, Bro, after what you've done your
first ten years in the league, six Pro Bowls, three
first team All Pro, leading the league in touchdown, Bro,
we gotta we got a toast toes Man and we
were talking out camera earlier. You're not done yet.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
I'm not done, man. We gonna tell you, Bro, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
This is my personal Kangnac shay Bal Lapotier Vsop.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Let me know what you think.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
All right, that's that's some good stuff right there. I'm
not a big drinker. That's right here. Some good stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
That's what I'm talking you'd.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
I'm not gonna lie because I've seen I've seen you
talk about Henny, and I'm not gonna lie to you.
I don't like Hennessy at all.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
We bust.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
We we don't talk, we don't talk bad about the competition,
but we feel feel good with what we got.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
But this right here is that's that's him. I appreciate
that's him. I thought I thought forty my uncle e forty.
He sent me some uh, some of that type. I
don't know if you had that, that's pretty good.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
But this, y'all all right here with this, Okay, I
appreciate that, So yard go ahead and get you a
botted that shave bout forty a bsop best chasing vsop
on the market. You know what, Let's get right into it,
enter into your level. Season the first ten BRO six
Pro Bowls, three first team All Pro led the league
and receiver. But you've heard some of the critics. Davante

(02:34):
Yay had one hundred catches, his fourth straight hunderd catch season,
another thousand yard season.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
You know, the separation is not what it used to be.
Yards per catch is not what they used to be.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Man, Davante is starting to slow down. How do you
answer your critics?

Speaker 5 (02:50):
I just I don't. Honestly, I don't answer him. I don't.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
I don't give an answer because I don't play. For
the reason why people ask me what I attributed a
lot of my success too, and it's two main things.
Just the fact that I keep my life real simple,
real predictable. The things that I'm into. I don't got
a million hobbies. I don't let my mind get all
over the place. I got a few things I do
business wise, you know, and I enjoy doing that. But
for the most part, I just keep it real simple.

(03:14):
And the other part is I'm a self pleaser, man,
I'm not really worried about my own expectation far exceeds
what anybody else expects of me on the field. So
when they say that, I'm already thinking that about myself,
about not the separation and the details and things like that,
but you know, as far as what I have and

(03:34):
what I can give to the game. If I'm not
able to show that, I'm extreme and you ask any
of my teammates coaches that I've had, I'm a real
passionate dude. So they you know, they talk about this
and that, you know, I always tell them, Man, don't
tell me we got a whole lot of season left
after two bad weeks or two lackluster weeks on offense
or you know, because it's not just about me, it's
not just my show. I'm not expecting to get out

(03:56):
there and be the only one making plays and you
know this and that. But if I'm out there and
we can't get it going on offense, and I'm not giving,
you know, being given my opportunities or the right type
of opportunities, Well, then I have something to say about that,
because if one day I'm not gonna be the at
the top of my game, but that ain't two days.

Speaker 5 (04:16):
So it's gonna be like that one day.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
But if it ain't me, then then I look, I
can't have nothing else hindering my ability to affect each
and every game and each and every snap that I
get out there. So that's my mentality. So whatever anybody
gotta say that really got nothing to do with me.
They that's their job. They supposed to go ahead and
do that hate or comment on it or whatever it is.
But you know, the truth is in the film too.

(04:39):
So if you watch the film and you're not just
looking at the numbers all the time, which I mean
were talking about it, I had, you know, still twelve
hundred over one hundred catches and you know, and that
was a down year a touch down. If that's a
down year, then you know, I feel like we're gonna
be all right.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
How much you bound do you do from week to week,
year to year.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Do you go back, say you play a game, do
you watch yourself critique yourself during the ye or do
you wait to do an entire body of work after
the season, where you go back game by game, route
by route and break yourself down, or do you do
it week to week, day by day, wow, day by day?

Speaker 3 (05:11):
You ask anybody like you talk about the consistency over
the course of you know, ten You know, maybe the
first few years wasn't what we wanted it to be,
but then once once I got rolling, it's just because
of the way that I prepare man, and the way
that I critique myself. What I expect from myself is
like I said, is I expect a lot. You know,
I know what I can provide. So you know, I

(05:31):
may go out there and lead the league in touchdowns,
I still feel like that wasn't enough because what do
what you're doing on the field got to do with me?
Just because I led the league don't mean that I
did my best. Oh okay, you know, okay, Yeah, I
can go out there and have you know, one hundred
and fifty yards and really it could have been a
two udred and you know, twenty yard game. So we
can talk about it like it's good when you look
at the stats. But that's why I'd say the stats

(05:52):
don't always tell the story. You can sit here and
look at it and say one to fifty and that
looked like you talk come out of a game and
say Okay, good game, tap, and I'm like, okay, I'm
always acknowledged the love. But at the end of the day,
if I'm not able to maximize what I can do,
it ain't got nothing to do with a hundred Who
decided that a hundred yards is a good game?

Speaker 5 (06:09):
Yeah right, I didn't, right, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
So for me, it's maximizing every every opportunity and every
moment that I got in this league. Because like we
were just talking about, it's gonna be gone for you
know it, you know, And I'm going in the eleven.
People like, damn, it's eleven for you. I'm like, bro,
like you went back quick the first tien, right, so,
and I don't know if it's gonna be another ten,
but but we ain't done yet, Tay.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
What I used to do, like when I played, I
would go leave a game kind of like what you said,
have one hundred and fifty, and I was like, damn,
but those two drops, that's probably another ten fifteen right there. Now,
I got one sixty five, Okay, if I come out
of this, if I just did this, I could have
broke that tackle, probably got another fifteen.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Right, do you constantly like it's never good?

Speaker 1 (06:52):
You know, you're you're you're satisfied, but you're not but
you're not satisfied.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah, No, I know exactly what you're saying, and it's
it's a tough game to play because you dry yourself
crazy doing that will. But the other side of it
is that I don't mind being a little crazy if
it mean it. I'm demanding what I should for myself regardless,
you know, and if you're a lesser player, your mind
won't even take you there because you don't have that
expectation for yourself. But when you know what you can
give to the game and help your team with. For me,

(07:20):
I've been in this league for a minute now and
I still haven't been to a super Bowl.

Speaker 5 (07:23):
So I feel like.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Cool, you could say that I had a great career
this and that, but I haven't been able to affect
the game enough to win a super Bowl yet. So
I feel like that must mean that I'm not doing
as much as what I can or as much as
what I need to, you know.

Speaker 5 (07:35):
Even so that's the way I look at it.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
Like, sometimes it may be a good day, and sometimes
you do have those games where you say, look, I had,
you know, fourteen targets, thirteen catches, and that one was
way behind me and I couldn't do nothing about that, right,
But every time I caught the ball, got busy and
I made the dude tack. I didn't get tackled. I
made get tackle, you know what I'm saying. So it's
days like that. But if you're really thinking about the
game the right way, and if you're hard enough on yourself,

(07:58):
you should have a lot of moments you say I
left something out there one way or the other.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
When I look at the talented receiver pool that we
have now, it's as good as far as depth wise
as we've had at any point in time, I look
at yourself, Justin Jefferson, Reeed Diggs, aj CD, Chase Saint Brown,
Cup Davonte DK, Deep, Debo McLaurin, Jaylen wall Keenan Allen
Pook in the court. Yeah, when people talk about receivers,

(08:25):
Davante Adams is still in that list. Are you as
high as you want to be? Or when you evaluate
when the people start talking about receivers. You like, hey,
you know some teams still here.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
Now, Well, this this is the reality, man. The And
it's funny because I was just talking to my cousin
about this. This league is and just the and when
I say the league, I mean the NFL culture. So
the fans, the the some of the players, you know,
they just they want they want to crown a new
king every year, every year, you know what I'm saying.
And the reality is they haven't been able to do

(08:59):
that for a real long time. Right, So so as
soon as you see a little chink in the armor,
you know, as far as you know, I come, I
come to the Raiders, and we're not able to keep
it rolling and go to the NFC Championship. After the
NFC Championship, like how I did in Green Bay with
Aaron and you know, we had we had what we
had there and then they want to compare it and
this and that. But I say, look, man, I like,
if you watch the tape, I'm not a different player whatsoever.

(09:22):
I'm still I believe I'm still getting better. So sometimes
the circumstance doesn't allow you to express that totally and true.
I truly believe and I'm not. That's why I say
I'm not gonna hate on you for hating on me,
Because if you want to say you the best, you
got to play like the best. You can't just say
that so and then.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
But you got to do it on a period of
time that you just can't have one good year a
couple of good games.

Speaker 5 (09:42):
Correct.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
But the good part about it and why I love
this league is that now you are getting some dudes.
That's some young dudes coming in going crazy like JJ
and and doing it consistently where you know, his first year,
we say, all right, bro, you're a rookie like whatever,
Like sure you've alled out and it looked good, but
we'll see. Second year it's like a he coming around.
We gonna see and then third year he do it again.
You're like, all right, man, all right, he might be

(10:06):
the real deal. So we do got some dudes that's
like that Chase and and you know, Pookah is another
one that came on the scene and we're gonna see
what he continued to do. And I believe that it's
gonna continue to happen. So I'm always rooting for these guys.
I never sit here and watch and be like drop that,
drop that like I want you. I want to see
you do it because at the end of the day,
like I said, I'm not judging how my season went
based off how you played.

Speaker 5 (10:27):
I'm judging it off what I did.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
That's just like if you come in and you know,
if everybody just competing and like what they think. The
NFL is like, I'm sitting here, I'm the line up
and I ain't gonna tell the young buck to call
like that's hurting me.

Speaker 5 (10:38):
I need him to know the call.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
I need him to know what to do because we
got to all want him to ball out that way,
it's gonna make it easier on me, you know, and
that it may not make it easier on me when
somebody on another team does. But as a as a
fan of the sport and the wide out position, I
still love. That's why I watch the games. I want
to see those big players. I want to see all
my favorite white house going ball out and I know
I'm gonna do the same, so you know, hopefully we

(10:59):
all just keep battling at the top. I don't want
it to be where I got, you know, nineteen hundred
yards and then everybody else sitting at eleven like I wanted.
I wanted to you know, if you want to be pushed,
I want to be pushed. I wanted you know, I
want to continue to have my peers and the guys
that I see and I get to work with and
I'm cheering for. I want to see them going balved
and then that that makes me say, okay, well then

(11:20):
now I got to go do you know even better
than that?

Speaker 5 (11:21):
Year after year and I've done that, and I think.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
Some guys haven't gotten to that point where they've solidified that.
But like I said, they just want to crown somebody else.
So not that certain people are not worthy of high praise,
but like like you said, I'm still here.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
You were in Green Bay for eight years, You had
Aaron Rodgers, a generational talent. Four times he was an MVP,
and we know what he represents. How hard was it
for you to leave that? Because the likelihood of you
going somewhere and finding that elsewhere is not especially the
relationship that you guys have built. This is over a
period of time. Y'all didn't develop this over one year

(12:00):
or two training camp. This is year after year, after conversation,
after conversation game after game, how hard was it for
you to leave Green Bay and go to another situation,
even though you were joining your ex college teammate.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
It was difficult, man, And honestly, I could be I
could be real and tell you that I knew it
was gonna be hard, but it was. It was a
lot harder than what I even imagine, because you know,
it kind of felt like you, you know, everybody had
been in a situation where you got your girlfriend, whether
it's middle school, high school, college or whatever, and you know,
it's not a good this, This ain't this ain't what
it need to be. And that wasn't based off our relationship.

(12:34):
That's not what I'm equating it to. I'm saying more
of the picture of the Green Bay situation at that time,
and I felt like that wasn't necessarily what was best
for me at that at that moment, especially with Aaron's
you know, his future in Green Bay kind of being
up in the air the way it was and him
ultimately leaving, I didn't want to be there. And you know,
in hindsight, obviously Jordan love balling out and yeah, you know,
it'd have been great to do that, but I'm the

(12:55):
type of guy. Once I make a decision, I live
with it. You know, I'll draw yourself crazy to sit
here and be worried about did I do that? I
wish I would have did this and did that. Like,
you can't live life like that, man. It ain't no
rewind button. So you got to make decisions and live
with it. But it was definitely difficult.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
Man.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
It's you know, there's a dear friend of mine that
it's tough to just not even be able to see
somebody that you used to seeing for eight years every day,
you know, having that go to where you can only
see each other every few few times in the off season,
it's just not the same. So it was hard, but
it was something that needed to happen, just just based
off the situation. And you know, still here trying to
make the best of it. But anytime you go from

(13:32):
you know, having the best quarterback ever throwing you the
ball to any type of change, it's gonna it's gonna
be an adjustment. So it wasn't wasn't easy, but we
still manage it.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
You watched Jordan Love every day in practice. I think
you I think he played one game with you if
I'm not mistaken. I think that the Kansas City he
played that game, Aaron didn't play right. You kind of
watched it, had you known what you know now, like
because he balled.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Down he did you did you see this? Did you
see this look?

Speaker 3 (14:03):
I will say based off of the potential you know,
we we don't. I don't like using that word because
I feel like that's a that's a high school word.

Speaker 5 (14:10):
Yeah about potential.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Potential You ain't done nothing correct exactly.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
So based off what I've seen, you know, it was
there was he had the potential to do what he's doing,
but there was nothing. Until you see somebody in Live Bully,
they well snaps, It's hard to really determine if somebody
got that, you know, that it factor, which he's shown
at this point that he has. You know, it's we
talked about the consistency. He hasn't been able to show
that consistently. But when you look at the play style
and just the I mean that boy be cool at

(14:35):
the other side of the pillow out there too, And
that's one thing that people don't be giving him enough
credit for.

Speaker 5 (14:40):
I mean, the release points. A lot of these throws
he's making.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
He reminds your aeron. I mean I saw him throwing
the ball. That was the thing that I saw when
he played Philip. Yeah, I say, man, when he came in,
I say, dude, remind he wasn't.

Speaker 5 (14:52):
He wasn't just sitting back there playing around. I'll tell
you that.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
One thing I will say, I don't think that, you know,
based off of Aaron being a guy in Green Bay,
they don't.

Speaker 5 (15:00):
Always try to.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
Get the guy behind him all the way, right, because
then it's a you know, some issues of.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Well being, the process up with getting me up out.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
Of dal that type of deal, right, So you know
what I'm saying. So I kind of felt like I
didn't get to really see it because they never were
He wasn't being showcased or really like coach coach like that,
because when you're in season, you got to worry about
the guy that's playing. So you know, you're obviously going
through your drills and all of that, but it's more
getting you ready for the game that's about to be played.
So being in Green Bay having him, you know, just

(15:32):
throwing jump balls to you know, the one on one
practice squad versus JayR and seeing Jay go up and
pick it off like seeing that doesn't let you know
for sure this guy's gonna be a baller, But being
a scout team quarterback, that's some of the things that
you gotta do. And then he just took advantage of
the opportunity as soon as he got it, which is
I mean, now it's.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
His You're making the decision. Obviously it's gonna come down
because you got your pick or where you want to go.
For the most part, everybody's not going to be able
to afford your salary. Comes down to the Raiders obviously.
Derek Carr, you played with him in college, so there's
a relationship although you hadn't played in a number of years. Yeah,
how instrumental was he for you coming to the Raiders

(16:12):
and then to see all of a sudden after year.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
Yeah, it's going well. I mean he played a huge
part of that, man. I mean I grew up a
Raiders fan, being from the Bay and my whole family
being Raiders fans, So in a sense it was kind
of written. But at the same time, I don't know
if I would have made the move had it not
been him, you know, under center when I when I
got there, and then I talked about Obviously, when they
got rid of him, I was I was not happy

(16:35):
about that at all, but just based off the business
and knowing how you know, at that point it was
I was going into two year ten, you know, once
they got rid of him. So I'm thinking about it,
and I'm like, man, this is this ain't this ain't
the first, and it definite ain't gonna be the last.
Person that, you know, means a lot to me and
my career that I'm not gonna be able to be around.
So you got to you gotta roll with the punches

(16:57):
and figure it out. And I'm not really in the
businesses jumping around trying to skate around the states, trying
to find a home, you know, so I'm just had
we got a great team and great potential to be
a great team. So really for me, it was easy
to say I'm gonna stick here and try to try
to figure this out with these guys and going to
work with guys like Max Crosby and you know, having

(17:17):
these type of dudes that it was a different level
of competition. When I came to the Raiders the Packers,
we won all these games and thirteen games, you know,
three times in a row under mattla floor. But it
was just a different type of feeling when I walked
into that Raiders and went into that first OTA practice,
it was a different level of competition that I never
really felt in the league yet, and it made me

(17:39):
feel a way about this team, and I kind of
was locked in from that point.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Right, had you known, and it's easy to say now,
so hell now wouldn't come. But had you known what
you've known? But could you see the riding on the wall,
because a lot from the outside, a lot of people
were like, man, Gruton really ain't really embraced though. Boy
he always talking about everybody else quarterback, But damn, you
can't keep saying somebody else girl beautifull.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
You got a girl sitting right next to you.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
And it seemed like he kept saying somebody else girl
was more beautiful than what he had.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yeah, they had an interesting relationship relationship to say the least,
and I know he was on board with him and
he loved Grew and Grew loved me too. And that
was another reason why I was real fired up about
potentially being a Raider, was that I knew that, you know,
he had strong feelings about me as a player.

Speaker 5 (18:22):
So and then once he left, that was like the
first piece of it where I was.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
Like, I don't now are they even gonna want me?
You know, because you know, I am who I am.
But that don't mean that every GM is like, I'm
he's worth this, you know, investment, And like we said,
obviously you know it's no secret that it's gonna be
a pretty you have to dig pretty deep in the pocket,
you know. So so just being unsure about how he
felt about that, I didn't I didn't know if Josh

(18:47):
me Daniels and and Dave Zigler were gonna come in
and decide, yeah, we want to invest this money in
this guy. And then when it worked out, it just
it seemed like it was it was meant to be,
and unfortunately we weren't able to take advantage of it
the way, you know, in a really weird season too,
because we lost I want to say, basically all those
games that year other than one by like less than

(19:08):
six points.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Yeah, there were like one score game that it normally
came down to the last possession, right.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
Which one way or another exactly, which equates to not
being a great team because you're not finishing it. But
when you look at it like we wasn't no team
that people was like, We're about to come in here
and roll over these boys. Like we just wasn't figuring
it out and finishing the games the way we needed to.

Speaker 5 (19:27):
So we had the chance to do it.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
So based off what I've seen, even losing those games
my first year, it gave me a good feeling about
moving forward with the squad, just provided we could fill
in a few gaps to make this team really be
the team he was supposed to be.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
You see all the success that Josh McDaniels has as
the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, And then he was like, man, he got a
great mind.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
I see the way what he does with well, because
I saw what he did with mass I saw what
he did with Gronk and YadA, YadA, YadA, And he
was like, man, what is it about him that for
whatever reason, obviously Tom Brady's date Tom Brady out on,
but still schematically you should be able to scheme things
and make things happen, right, what what.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Is it about him?

Speaker 1 (20:09):
Because he's been at a couple of locations that wasn't
New England and it went.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Horrible yeah, this is what I would say. And I
actually had this conversation with him during the season at
first that first year, because we had some things going
where dudes was messing up assignments. They wouldn't they didn't
really seem all the way locked in like how they
were supposed to. So I went and sat in there
with him, and it would just coincidentally have to be
after a game where I had like two catches or
something like that. So I go in his office and

(20:35):
it's the first of the time. As soon as I
walk in there, he I know, I know, Tay, you know,
getting ready to like starting off like I know, we
got to get you the ball, this and that. I said,
that's not even what I'm here for. I want to
have like a real man and man talk with you.
And what I basically taught him was like, I think
we don't need to change our standard because you and
I both used to winning games and we were aligned
on a lot of stuff we were talking. I was

(20:55):
actually a big advocate for him, you know, just because
he I felt like maybe the way the offense went
didn't work great with us, but what he believed in
I truly believed in as well. And he was old school,
and I always had old school coaches, So you know,
him being hard on this and practice stuff like that
never bothered me because you know, I'm just I know
what it is that he's trying to get out of us,
so greatness, Yeah, exactly, and that's all that it was.

(21:18):
So I go in there and I say, we shouldn't
change our standard, but I think you and I, just
to save our mental we might have to change our
expectation a little bit because here's the reality. You've had
success in this offense and many many years super Bowl
I think he won six super Bowls. But the only
difference is every single human being that walked through those

(21:38):
doors and was sitting on the other side of him
in those team meetings, they had a hand in every
soul that was in there. So when you picking and
you got this super complex, you know, slides and all
these things for this old line, you getting these Harvard
grads and all these dudes that could really process this.
We got dudes that grew and you know, and them

(22:01):
brought in and good talent. But these dudes are not
the same. They may not be as intellectual, they may
not be as disciplined as what you would have chose yourself.
So that's like you walking into a room and coaching
up a bunch of kids versus your own AAU team,
and you expecting that they're gonna do the exact same thing.
You don't know these kids like that, you haven't been
able to really put your blessing on them, you know,

(22:22):
put your hand on them and shape them to be
the type of player or person that you want them
to be, you know, as it pertains to the to
the football game. So when you come out here, we
should still keep the same standard is how hard we
push them, but maybe let's ease up a little bit
as far as the frustration and leaving out of every
practice so pissed off that there was a few mental

(22:42):
errors when you're not realizing that these are not These
ain't dudes that got PhDs like some of the guys
you had and just even fit that system the way
that you know, So we got guys that may be
better in the system that we have now. And I've
seen I've been in multiple systems, so I've seen it.
So I just basically tell them, I said, look, you
you've had a lot of success, but I think maybe

(23:03):
we should start gearing to understand that these dudes are
a little bit different and find out the best way
to coach them up, best way to.

Speaker 5 (23:11):
Run this offense.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
That way it'll it'll work best versus trying to shove
these guys into this molde that you want to have
us fit into. Because the ultimate name of the game
is win the game. It's not win a certain type
of way. Yeah, you know so, I think what's most
important when you a coach is shaping it around who
you who you know.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
Because a lot of times it takes to your point.
A lot of times what coaches do and the really
good coaches can do it. They'll fit their system around
the players that they have, correct and they don't say
you fit my system. And I think he had a
system at New England. This is the way it was,
coach Butlercheck says this is it. Yeah, and guys, and
they drafted guys accordingly. But when you go elsewhere, you've

(23:50):
got to all of a sudden, you ain't got Tom,
you ain't got grownk, you don't have this, you don't
have that. Well, you got to fit a system to
the talent level that you have, correct and if you
don't you're gonna be frustrated, and then guy's gonna start
being frustrated with you because you're gonna mL them so
much they just gonna shut you out.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
And that's exactly what happened. That's exactly it. So you
you completely understand how that goes. And that's that's how
I feel, genuinely, like, if you come in and you're
trying to make something work, it shouldn't just be about
what it is that you believe in, because you should
believe in winning, and you you're used to that, right
and it's worked in the past. So I get to
a certain extent that he in his mind, he probably
puzzled because he like, I've been with all these dudes

(24:29):
and we.

Speaker 5 (24:29):
Got all these guys.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
But once you got to send somebody down sometime and say,
think about this part of it, like this you you
didn't these are not all you.

Speaker 5 (24:36):
You didn't draft these guys.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
So even if you have a little bit of time
with them, like, you gotta work with them differently. Even
if you if I'm running a team, I'm not gonna
sit here and coach every guy the same way. Correct,
you know, you gotta you gotta coach him However, if
I got if one of my best players is gonna
sit there and cry when as soon as you voice
at them, it may be unfortunate. I may be in
my office like, man, this boy's soft, but I'm gonna
I'm gonna do what I gotta do so we make
it work. Yes, you know, especially when it's some of

(24:59):
your guys. Guys, you know, you gotta do what you
gotta do to get that end result you want.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
I think Andy Reid is a great example of that.
You look at the way Andy Reid coach when he
had Alex Smith. You look at the way he coached
Patrick Mahomes, You look at the way he coached Donald mcdale.
Each situation was different based on the player he had
at quarterback, based on the players that he had around him,
and the really good coaches can adapt and not say, man,
is my system your system made worth a hill of

(25:24):
bee If them guys can't.

Speaker 5 (25:25):
Run it, hey, and it can't be that good.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
If I mean we got good players, yes, so it
ain't like we lacking talent or you done went to
a D three from from from the youth, right, you
know what I'm saying. Like we're talking about were talking
about high level athletes, and you look at that offense
that that we had and for it to not work,
you know, for on on different levels. Whereas it was
you know, the receivers wasn't getting it done enough for him,

(25:48):
or the you know, the tight ends wasn't figuring out
the blocking assignments or whatever it is. Sometimes you got
to do a little self scout and figure out what
it is and what's leading to that, what can I
do different?

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Speaker 2 (27:21):
Did it make you up? Because it made me upset?

Speaker 1 (27:23):
And I'm gonna see what you think about this and
I'll give you my point of view. When you left
Aaron people automatically as soon. Man, he ain't fn put
up dumb numbers. Man, come on, man, who y'all kid,
y'all know who it was, right, And so now you
feel like, Bro, yes, I appreciate Aaron.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
We know he's the generational talent.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Now, yeah, we know he's transcended, correct, But bro, I'm
I'm on the other end of this now.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yeah, Yeah, that's the curse. And I talked to Aaron
about this multiple timesh We joke about it, and I'm like,
that's the curse of being with a player that's that Like,
it's much more of a gift because you're gonna be
able to you know.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
He can read you. He knows what you're thinking.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
You know what he's thinking, and and he gonna make
you so much of a better player just by being
around too.

Speaker 5 (28:12):
Like you you didn't have those times where you at O.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
Ta's and then there's a day where you're not there
or whatever, like and I've heard this from you know,
some of our guys with the Raiders. Now when days
where I wasn't there, like days that Aaron was present,
the way that team was flying around and looked out
out there versus the days that he was in the
training room during the you know whatever. Absolutely, Scott guy
still working. It ain't like they're out there telling jokes
and just like walking in between. But it's a different

(28:36):
level intensity, is execution and all of that. So not
even just his ability to throw the ball, but just
his presence brings a different type of it gets out
of you essentially kind of I would I would equate
it to how a coach.

Speaker 5 (28:48):
Like ap coming in you.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
You look at that next week after we you know,
did what we did in Detroit, and then we come
back and then we did what we did to the Giants.
You can say whatever you want about the Giants, They're
still the NFL team. We went in there and certain
guys that maybe weren't playing the way that they should
one week later looked like different players. And that's because
of the presence of a human being and what they

(29:11):
can do to get to maximize what you have in you,
maybe you don't even need new personnel. Sometimes you need
somebody else to come in and get make make Shannon
go a little bit better than and then now that
player is the player that you wanted to go get
at the same price.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Right.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
The thing was like me playing with John Is that
what I took for granted? And I knew he was
a great player, he had been to Super Bowls, he
had been an MVP. Is that what you take for granted?
Is that the ball place?

Speaker 5 (29:36):
Man?

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Like if he put the ball between the eight and
the four, he's telling me shying to get up in
your shadow. There's danger on the left or the right, right,
So if you go left, you're gonna get your car cleaned.
You go right. If he puts it in front of me,
he's telling him I can continue to run. If you
put it on my back shoulder, he's telling me, I'm
stopping you from you from a headache. You take things
like that for granted because he's been doing like, oh,
everybody gonna be doing it like this, and the moment

(29:58):
you failed, like ro you didn't.

Speaker 5 (30:00):
See that guy. See that's the thing.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
And honestly, the placement is one piece of it, but
the even more important is the timing haspeace of it,
you know, like having a dude like Aaron I was
able to get away with some things that maybe wouldn't
be able to work with another quarterback, Like we have
a stop route or a puma is what we called
it in Green Bay where it's fifteen yards, basically a comeback,

(30:23):
but you turn it back inside. It's almost like a curl,
but you're coming back down your stem. That route was
run at nine yards, that route was run at ten yards.
That was run at fifteen to seventeen yards, just based
off what I needed to do and having a dude
like that pulling the trigger, having the ability to just
whip that ball over there, not sit here and just
look me down the whole way, but fill it out,

(30:44):
hold the safety, and just fill my body language. Know
that based off where guys are that this is typically
when he takes it a little bit deeper and not
sitting there like it wasn't a whole lot of times
he's doing this and I'm not ready or vice versa.
So having those reps, Yes, obviously that happened over time,
but even the timing of a simple out off coverage,
we got a dagger concept and I'm running an en
route just knowing when to release that ball to where Now,

(31:06):
like I've had a couple of instances this past year
where I'll come down the middle and the ball is
where it needs to be, But it wasn't thrown when
it was supposed to be thrown. So now that headache
were talking about, Like you know, I'm sitting there trying
to convince these people in the tent that I'm okay
when it shouldn't even happen because that could have been
a catch and run.

Speaker 5 (31:24):
So that's the part where.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
I talk about where you talk about the people saying, oh,
you know, he didn't had a year that we were
seeing seeing him have and they didn't got and they
got spoiled over the years too because they seen you know,
fifteen hundred a few times and you know, almost twenty
touchdowns in twenty twenty, Like they see this, so now
they think that that's the standard, which which it is.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
But they got to that's hard, bro.

Speaker 5 (31:46):
It's not easy to do.

Speaker 3 (31:47):
It's hard to score one touchdown, yes, league, but you know,
to get almost one hundred in my career that don't
happen by own accidents. So when people talk about a
regression and this and that, I'm saying, you're just not
watching the tape because if you would have known anything
about ball, you would have known that, you know, in
that game I just played that I had seventy one
yards if I would have got the ball a little
quicker on that dig. That would have been another sixty, right,

(32:08):
because if you look at two weeks before that, I
got it earlier and it was sixty.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
I go back to the Monday night game that you
guys ended up winning. I think you kicked the last
second field goal and he threw that dagger around. He
threw that over out and Fred warn't. I mean he
threw it over the top of yes, spinning pair. Yes,
And Fred got depth everything the line. He couldn't play it, no, perfect.

Speaker 5 (32:28):
Couldn't, couldn't.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
But when Aaron released it and when you came out
of that break, the perfect throw will beat the perfect cover.

Speaker 5 (32:35):
Every time, every time, every time.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
And that's that's one of the ones that you know,
the same when you when you're breaking up with your
girl and you say, it's not you, it's me. That's
what That's what you got to say to Fred at
that moment. It's not you, bro, A hell of a job,
it ain't don't worry about it ain't on you, guess
it's us. And I had the easy job there, you know,

(32:58):
just going and grabbing it, putting that ball over the
top to him. When Fred is probably the most athletic
linebacker in the NFL. I mean you definitely miss those
type of you know, drives and those type of catches alone.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
No better, no one is better. Ask than you. What
does shanningh What do I Shanning Sharp and the national
media get wrong about Aaron Rodger?

Speaker 3 (33:23):
Well, I think see when you when you're a person
and me and Aaron are a lot of liking this,
when you are a person that's secure enough to not
have to worry about clearing stuff up, like like Aaron's
not you don't see him going on TV and on
social media saying trying to deny any of the stuff

(33:43):
that people saying. Like when you're so solid with yourself,
sometimes it leads to people that's like your girl come
and say, are you cheating on me?

Speaker 5 (33:50):
And you just go.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
She gonna be like, oh, he must be cheating on Yeah. Yeah,
when in your head you like, I'm not worried about you.

Speaker 5 (33:57):
I ain't. I'm all about you, I ain't chripping off
no old body, but.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
You would deserve a response.

Speaker 5 (34:03):
I'm not even gonna give that no attention.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
So I think sometimes his his approach with that is,
you know, he's a very a private person and with
a lot of his his life being put in the
in the in the light like that, it's tough to
you know, and we all got our things too, we
all got you know, different situations that that are hard
to explain unless you truly know what's going on. And

(34:27):
the good thing for me and why I love him
so much, is that he's a dear friend of mine.
So I do know a lot about the details of
you know, the things behind of what people say and
what's led to you know, why why people get that perception.
But what I love about him is that he's not
concerned with sitting here trying to, you know, change that
and change it in your mind. If you feel a way,
then that's just how you're gonna feel, right and and

(34:47):
if and if that that hurts you, it shouldn't because
it has nothing to do with you, and more people
should approach it that way and and honestly minded business
as it pertains to to his personal life, you know,
because what the man doing with his vaccinations or non vaccinations,
immunations and capitalization, whatever it is, that ain't got none
of that ain't changing nobody's life but his right. So

(35:09):
at the end of the day, Like people would ask me, like,
do you how do you come to Aaron? What do
you say to him in a situation where he's in
the media and y'all in there trying to focus for
that were like, man, we go in there and lab
just like we do every other day. That man is
a grown man. If he need to speak to me
about anything, he know, I'm here. I'm not getting in
his business, just like I don't want anybody else to
get in it.

Speaker 5 (35:27):
But you know that there's pieces.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Obviously, some things come out, you know, here and there,
and people gonna speculate. But I just love that he's
secure enough to be himself and the people that truly
know him understand him a lot better than what's being
you know, put on the outside. And I'm just glad
I'm not that level of celebrity. I gotta i gotta
deal with it on everything. Yeah, I was part ninety
percent of what people talk about they don't know about.

(35:50):
So you know, he just try to keep it moving
and we all do the same with him.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
And you're two years with the Raiders, You've gone fourteen
and twenty, haven't made the playoffs. Derek Carr Jared Still,
Jimmy g Brian Horrior, Aidan O'Connell. Now it looks seems
like aid and O'Connor and Garnamentchew gonna be fighting for
the starting quarterback. Do you have the pieces at that position?
Because it doesn't matter. You can go out there and
you can run the best routes in the world. You

(36:16):
can run the end, cut, the dig, the dagger to
shake all that.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
Good man.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
You see Davarte run that rock, animal skates, But if
that ball sails out of bounds, eventually they gonna get frustrated.

Speaker 5 (36:30):
Bro.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
I'm putting in this work, I'm getting open, I'm winning,
and I ain't gonna get no looks.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
Yeah, man, it's it's a it's always a tough conversation
because when you talk about having the for sure answer,
we don't know because we haven't we haven't seen Gardner
in a in a raided uniform. We've seen him make
some plays, and you know, we've seen it to a
certain extent.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Jacksonville and exactly.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
He's definitely been out there and had some experience. Aiding,
on the other hand, hasn't had near as much experience.
He had to pick up you know, in a in
an offense that's fit for Tom Brady. It's an offense
that you have to have extremely high level execution to
be able to make it work. You know, it's a
lot of dink and duck. It wasn't a lot of
you know, it wasn't a million shots down the field.

(37:12):
You know, I did catch. I had much longer touchdowns
in that offense. But it was honestly as a result
of us figuring out on the fly, like we said,
trying to adjust and make it work.

Speaker 5 (37:22):
It was a lot of that. So when you got a.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Guy and me and Aiden talked about it at the
end of last year because I think we were in
a hot tub and somebody asked him, like, what do
you think about this offense? And he said himself, he said,
this offense just requires a really high level execution. You
got to be able to really sustain a drive like
you don't get just because you went you know three,
you capitalize on fourth down twice, you don't get five

(37:45):
downs on the next one. You still got to move.
So if you only didn't got twenty yards with two
first downs, that's a lot of work you still got
to do to get down there, especially you know, the
ball get kneled an end zone, you starting way back there,
you can still get three first downs and punt the ball,
So you know it's not And a lot of offenses
in these you know, especially today, these offense explosive. Man,
you get three first downs, y'all ask them scored. So

(38:08):
you know it's tough to do. You got to pick
up in the middle of that as a as a
young buck, and then you come in, you know, the
game that Jimmy gets hurt. He got to jump in
and play against the Chargers, get sacked six times by
the same freaking person, like like, that's not easy, and
he kind of got thrown into the fire a little bit.
So I do believe in Aiden, and I think he's
gonna he's gonna be able to feel a lot more comfortable.

(38:28):
He looked he looked pretty good in OTAs And we
just gonna continue to grow and learn from each other.
And I've always been a big advocate for him because
when he first came in, he came in real confident
balling in the OTA period and in preseason and showed
everybody what he has the potential to do.

Speaker 5 (38:43):
So we just got to keep working, just like with
me and Aaron.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
I think, I mean, if you if you're trying to
count your chickens before they hatch with me, then you
you wouldn't have had no eggs because my first two
years wasn't excited nobody to think that it was.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
Going to be turned out exactly.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
So you know, I'm I'm I'm the main person sitting
there saying everybody relaxed. You know, you gotta you gotta
give it, give it, give time for the for the
flyer to grow. You know, we we watering it right now.
We're gonna, you know, ultimately see what what what happens
with it, but it's hard to say for sure, like
we're gonna win the super Bowl right now.

Speaker 5 (39:13):
But we got a lot of work.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
To put in still, and I think we uh, we
got we got a good chance to get a lot better.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
So you would say that the offense under Josh it
required a lot of patience and a lot of precision
correct big cause you know, hey, if you miss, but
you gotta be able to come back and do it
over and over and over and over again. And a
lot of times you're doing that without taking shots exactly.

Speaker 5 (39:34):
And this game is about and that's a lot of
snaps too.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
So at the end of the day, when when you
got your team on the field for you know, almost
eighty plays, you know you're gonna be out there with
a lot of so folks and and maybe hurt folks.
Right now, if you can get out there and get
some explosives and your defenses out there and getting the
ball back and putting it in it, then then now
that's less plays.

Speaker 5 (39:54):
You you stretching the field.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
The morale of the team is different because now you
you done got more confidence getting the first down. You know,
on fourth down it's cool and that can give you
confidence and you want to have that in your bag
of being able to But you ain't trying to go
down there just scoring on.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yeah, you ain't gonna make a whole lot of living
fourth down. Oh they oh this, This team goes for
it the most on fourth down and all that's gonna
get you in trouble.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
That's gonna bit you in the butt.

Speaker 3 (40:16):
B in Philly that work because they're doing it different
over there with the way they do it. But you know,
when it's fourth and three and you done ran the
ball thirty six to get it shorter, to do it
like that, Like, that's just not the type of ball
I believe in. I believe in being aggressive, and especially
when you had a person that.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
To do so I'm looking at you guys had some
issues the Raiders, man, I remember, like, I don't care
what you guys. Oh Al Davis, who's the owner of
the Raiders, his philosophy was just wearing baby, so he
didn't really care about the off field stuff. But this
is a new age, this is a new time, Devonte,
and you guys had some issues that kind of maybe

(40:49):
I don't know how much that impacted what you did
on the field, but it can't be easy dealing with
some of the things that you had to deal with
that wasn't football relate.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Right, Yeah, I mean it's it's never it's never gonna
make it easier anytime you got any type of distractions
on the outside.

Speaker 5 (41:05):
So we try to limit that. And the other reality
is if it's.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
If it's player related, coach related, whatever it is, like
you want to ultimately if people can't, like, nobody's perfect.

Speaker 5 (41:14):
So things are gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
Every so often, but you gotta look at the type
of things that's happening obviously. And if people don't fit
that mold and they start to create too many distractions
and hold the team back from you know, realizing they
full potential, then you gotta do what you gotta do.
Man like this, this is this thing gonna keep rolling regardless.
So and that's the mindset that I got too. Like,
I got plenty of friends and I and I love
continuing to grow bonds. And I feel like, you know,

(41:36):
you hear about you know, the guys like you that
played and not any no more. I feel like the
main thing I always hear is that what I miss
most is that connection and that that locker room feel,
you know, playing the games. They a lot of dudes
that haven't played for a long time. They say, I
don't miss playing. I'm good on that, but but that
camaraderie being together every day is it's just a that's
a whole different thing. So I'm I got plenty of friends,

(41:57):
like I said, So, if you don't fit the mold,
and you don't bring us same type of attention and
intention when you come in to you know, the facility,
practice the game every single time you come out there,
and you out here doing this and that, and you
can't stay focused within And that's that's how I would
do it if I was the coach, you know. And
like I said, it ain't it ain't a one shot

(42:17):
dealing you out. But if it's to a point where
you are consistent and it ain't, you ain't bringing enough
positive and it's the baddest out weigh in the good,
then you serve no purpose here.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
So it's funny that you said that, is that do
you feel like sometimes like the Raiders? Because of the
Raiders's kind of like if I was born a priorate.
I think my job is a natural pillage and loot,
and it's uff you get drafted to the Raiders. It's
almost like I'm supposed to be a bad boy. I'm
supposed to be bad. I'm supposed to get get in
trouble as long as I knock yell a lot of

(42:48):
people on the field, I catch a few touchdowns.

Speaker 5 (42:52):
That that may that may be.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
I never really thought about it like that, But like
you said, you grow up, you grew up in that
and or you get you know, into that culture that
the thing is. I think that that's kind of the
older thing. I don't know if that's the Raider culture
as much as it's definitely that hard nose, tough you
know you.

Speaker 5 (43:08):
Want to be.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
You want you want people to fear you coming in right,
they don't want to They don't want you don't want
them to fear that you're about to shoot them or
rob them, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (43:16):
Nothing like that.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
So we can't be getting too out of controling with it.
But but we try to, you know, definitely have that
same type of mentality, that's what he said. I mean,
we watched videos throughout the year, you know, a little
hype videos they put together for you week in and
week out, and we get to see some of the
stuff that that that Jack Tatum the boys was bad and.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
You going to jail for that. Even on the field today.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
I'm telling you John Madden too, them boys saying yeah
we wed, yeah, we're gonna were gonna punch in them out.
What you're gonna do about it? And we want you
to We want you to worry about that. We don't
want you to worry about, Oh, this man about to
get a du out of that, you know what I mean.
So so so hopefully we can stay away from that
type of stuff and just keep it about the hard note.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
You said something very interesting.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
You said, Okay, guys, you're doing things and maybe getting
pilegies here or there. And this is what I always
tell guys, I could. It's called production and tolerance, and
as long as production is up here, tolerance could be
right here with it. But tolerance is never going to
get higher than production. So you gotta make a choice
if you want, if you want to be on the
team as long as production and tolerance, as long as

(44:14):
production is here, tolerance could.

Speaker 5 (44:15):
Be here one hundred percent. You gotta be.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
But once you get there, it's gonna be tough finding
the home. And the other hard part about it is
now these coaches talking, so they gonna say, well, well
you got rid of them, what was the situation? Well,
he was He was a knucklehead and you don't want
that following you around.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
And then people get mad to about well man, he
blackball but he o.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
Yeah that when they bring the politics and all that
into it, it's like, man, are you being real? What
did what did you do? Yes, that's what I need
to know. What did your ass do that led to you,
you know, getting kicked off the team, Because especially the
guys that's that's good.

Speaker 5 (44:47):
Players like three teams. I'm telling you that.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Okay, one time, you're like, you know what made you
know what? We had a disagreement. He saw it one way.
I saw it a different way. Okay, that's that happened
that Just like a job. We can be on the job,
me and the boss, me and the supervisors. We didn't
get along. We bump ahead. I go somewhere, never have
that problem again. Right, But if I go somewhere, leave
that job. Oh it was the boss. I go to
another place, it was the boss. I go to another job,

(45:13):
it's the boss and the only common de nominator. I
got three different bosses, and I'm the only common.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
And that's the person that when I see that, and
then I see in the media that you know round
three that's still on the same thing. That let me
know a lot of what I need to know. And
then I say that, you know, I move, I move
accordingly from there. But you make a little mental note
about certain people that that you know, got that following
them around everywhere.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
Yeah, at some point in time, you got to stop
being a victim in a situation you created. Correct, So
Tom Brady, would you Brady House Brady Brady fella, yes,
oh d you you ain't let me put it the
question to take.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
I know exactly, Hey, I knew when you said Tom Brady,
I knew what you're saying. Let me see what you're
gonna say. And then you got to talk about Odie
is I don't care.

Speaker 5 (46:02):
I don't care.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
You would take Tom at forty seven, forty.

Speaker 5 (46:05):
Eight fifty eight right now? Nah?

Speaker 3 (46:08):
Tom, look Tom know about I feel about it, man.
And the other part is I think I'll be the
first person that played with Tom and Aaron that that'd
be pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (46:16):
I mean, he ain't getting older, but I.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
Mean you gotta still be able to throw it better
than you know, half these dudes in the league.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
He can't spend it, you know, so you better be
able to protect him because he ain't gonna be able
to take them.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
He is better, and he ain't going nowhere either. He's
gonna sit right there in that pocket. So you better
have a nice, secure home for a be there.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
That's the sure.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
So what about these internet about you reunited with Aaron?
Is that something that's something you would be open to,
admenable to if this had happened, this offseason. If a
package that just offered the package big enough to satisfy
the Raiders' need and you be reunited with Aaron, would
that been something you'd have been open to.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Well, I'll answer like this, if I'm be reunited with anybody,
it would be Aaron, but or be you know, relocated
and be anywhere, it would be with Aaron. But that's
that's not really my you know, it's a lot of
that stuff going on last year in the media and
them asking, you know, what are you gonna do about this?
Are you are you thinking about going here? And they

(47:10):
talk about whatever without even being involved in it, and
it ended up getting all the way to the point
where it got in the locker room and people was
thinking that it was you know, I was doing having
force and I'm like, y'all just don't understand man like
when you and you know, I hate to say it
like this because it makes me sound like I'm trying
to put myself on a on a pedestal. But when
you're the level a certain level of player, you don't

(47:31):
have to come from you, and it most oftentimes it
is not coming from from you. And I'm not the
type of person that I enjoy going and putting that
type of stuff out there. When I'm I'm actively on
the Raiders. What do I look like sitting here talking
to other people about being on another team, you know.
And that's how I still feel about it right now,
Like I'm locked in with the Raiders, and I really
feel good about this team, and and you know, as far.

Speaker 5 (47:53):
As I know, they feel good about me.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
And if that ever changed, if that got to a
point where they weren't feeling the same way, you know,
I ain't done playing, so obviously we will figure out
whatever we needed to figure out. But and the thought
of playing with Aaron, it's obviously amazing, Like I already
know what that's like, you know, which was similar to
why I came here and and reunited with Derek, was
because I had familiarity with it, you know, And anytime

(48:16):
you have that gives you a little bit more confidence
than starting fresh with somebody that you never played with before.
And it helps that when they're the best to ever
play the game, you know, or at least that's how
I feel. I don't know how you feel about that,
but that's certainly how I feel. He's clearly one of
the best and He's given me an opportunity to, you know,
show the world what I can do. And and you know,
having him to start out with, I'm sure you know

(48:38):
that what we was talking about earlier about you know,
people say, did Aaron create you or this and that. No,
but naturally, if you have a player that's a generational talent,
you know exactly, and you looked at the next year
when I wasn't there with him, it didn't.

Speaker 5 (48:52):
Look the same.

Speaker 3 (48:52):
So if if you got a tandem, anytime that you
got somebody with some talent, they're gonna make each other better.
So I'm not afraid to say that he definitely made
me better, but he didn't. He definitely didn't correct me.
You see, it was the same numbers that the very
next year in in uh in Vegas. So obviously I
didn't quote unquote need him. But it's it makes.

Speaker 5 (49:13):
Life a hell of a lot easier, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
Given the level of player that you are, given the
level of player that Aaron el is, Given what you
had with the Smith Boy, the Smith Brothers and that team,
did you guys underachieve in Green Bay?

Speaker 5 (49:32):
I believe so, I believe we did.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
I think anytime you have that level and consistently can
dominate the way that we did and then just find
a way to not do it when you really really
need to. I think you can. You can say that
I wouldn't consider it a failure. I know people would
like to use that, So the way you said it,
I would agree with more that way. It was definitely
an underachievement because we didn't we didn't maximize it. We

(49:55):
were the best team in football for a few years
and I J I truly believe that, and we weren
able to hoist that trophy, not even once. I didn't
even get to play in the game. So, you know,
any any time you could say that your your personnel
and the system, everything was great, and then you don't
have nothing.

Speaker 5 (50:09):
To show for it. You know.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
It's it's I feel like, if you're being real enough
with yourself, you can comfortably say, yeah, we didn't, we
didn't achieve what we were supposed to do.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
It does it keep you up at night knowing what
you had?

Speaker 1 (50:20):
You look at Jaire, you look at Preston and Zadarius,
you look at yourself, you look at Aaron, you look
at what you guys had right, you got had not
only just like good players you got had Pro Bowl,
all pro level players all over the field for a
good for let's just say, for a good four year period.
You guys had as good a talent as anybody. And

(50:43):
for you guys not to have not even forget when
the Super Bowl, to even play in that game. Does
that keep Tay awake at night knowing what could have been,
what should have been?

Speaker 3 (50:53):
It used to? It definitely used to. I think once
I came to the Raiders. That's that was another reason.
Why is that being in four or five NFC championship
games in eight years, and two of those years we
didn't go to the playoffs, so every base almost every
year we went to the playoffs, we went deep in
the playoffs and just didn't get to the dance. So,
you know, it used to hurt me a lot, And

(51:14):
that's a big reason I was like, it kind of
felt like that situation where you know, whether it's a
friend or somebody you know, a family member, whatever, you know,
you know it's bad, but you like, you know it
may not work with the next one, but it's worth
at least moving on from this. You know, like winning
those games, it almost made it hurt a little bit
more like versus just being a like I was hurt

(51:34):
more after those Packer ones than I was, you know,
last year, not going because you didn't even like we
didn't show that we were a team that should have
been there, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
But we after my week ten on eleven ten, You're like,
we're not going to the playoffs. Yeah, but in Green Bay,
You're like, hold on, we got the MVP. I'm an
All Pro. We got five, six, seven, eight Pro.

Speaker 5 (51:53):
Bowlers that first round by three times, and they got.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
To come through Lampo and got ass whooped by the
most West Coast team that it was. So I don't
think that the Packers can ever use that got to
come up. We was practicing I'm talking about it was
I think it was minus one in that game. But
that we played in the in the in the playoffs,
and I'm thinking, you know, and we came out firing too.

Speaker 5 (52:16):
The first drive. I think I had like like five catch.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
That night game.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
Yeah, I'm thinking we got this with and I'm feeling
good because we mind you somehow, for eight years in
Green Bay, every single time throughout the week it was
always colder, and then in the game it be cold as.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Hell, but it was like it wasn't cold like during
the week.

Speaker 3 (52:35):
We have minus twenty in practice outside and people think
that we just out there like just labbing, just you know,
indoor whatever. We were stretching there, get get a little sweat,
come out, and then hit it running.

Speaker 5 (52:44):
You know, it's hard when.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
It's cold to get loosese right, So we start inside
and then when practice start right outside, we out there labbing.
And I'm out there in that so come game time,
I didn't got the adrenaline the game time field and
it's not as cold as it was, so I'm flying
around thinking it's gonna be when the games and lo
and behold, we come up short after being ahead the
entire game once again. Now we're in the same situation

(53:08):
and ended up missing the NFC Championship game my last year.
And I think that one was essentially the straw that
broke the camel's back.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
Did that hurt more than the Tampa lost because Tampa
got I just knew you guys, had I put all
my I shield all my chips in heay, I shoved
all my chips. I say, dif the year right here,
I say, I know Tom this is Tom's first year.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Hey they got this one.

Speaker 5 (53:31):
Man. Look I say this.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
That I don't know which of those hurt more, but
I'll say the one that hurt the most was my
very first year. We I mean we're talking about I
don't I don't know how well you remember that one
with the whole fumble on side kick.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Oh yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:45):
Yesterday the Seattle we was up fifteen points with basically
no time left in the game.

Speaker 5 (53:50):
So we we damned the're doing this to the crowd.
We all go home now, so over with we to
the cer.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
Got that last pick of and.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
I'm and I'm uh yeah, we got a picking the
middle of the field. And then I think Julius told
ha or Morgan slide down. We end up giving the
ball back to him.

Speaker 5 (54:07):
They go down.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
They didn't fake the field, goals scored it with alignment.
I'm like, what is going on, bro? So then that happened.
I'm thinking my rookie year, we all were on a
Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
This is easy. This is how the league is.

Speaker 3 (54:19):
And I ain't even barely do shit this year like that.
I ain't like you playing with two Pro bowlers Like
I came in and held my own, but it wasn't
no justin Jefferson, Odell Beckham, you know, Jamar Chase rookie
year by no means I felt good about what I
was doing, and I felt like I didn't have the
same pressure as those guys, not being the first rounder.
But you know, I feel like I was doing enough
to feel good about it, and then boom just ganked

(54:41):
it right up underneath it. So I had a real
harsh introduction to the league as far as how hard
it is to win in the playoffs, you know that
first year, and then next year we go, you know,
we're doing it again. I'm thinking we got it, and
then another time. Then it keep happening later. So it
just got to a point where I was like, all right, well,
maybe it's just not meant to be. You know here
I did. I gave this place everything I got. Maybe

(55:03):
it's time to try to figure it out somewhere else.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
Do you wish you had gone for it on that
far down when Matt Laflour, because you guys had like
you had like first and goal, you had like three
I think you had like three three cracks had like
first and goal because.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
You got a first dive like Okay.

Speaker 5 (55:17):
Yeah, I do. I do, and I don't.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
It's always hard for me to say that because I
don't want to make it seem like I don't trust
the code or this and that. But you asking me,
and I do because and I ain't on defense saying
you know whatever, like I got something to directly do
with that, and it ain't no surprise that if it was,
if we did, it was probably coming to me, right So,
and if you tell me you got the opportunity to
change this game right now, I've done that over the

(55:42):
course of my career many times. So if you ask
me in the moment, hey, Davante, what should we do
right now? Should we throw you this ball? You know what,
well my answer gonna be, you know, especially at that point,
I'm we doing this too, Like that was That was
a great year as far as the way.

Speaker 5 (55:55):
We were rolling Aaron and I.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
So you know, it hurt me to to not have
the opportunity to be a little bit more aggressive in
that moment. But like I said, sometimes you make decisions
or decisions are made, you got to live with them.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
Josh Jacobs joins your former team and he's trying to
recruit you to come back to your former team. Would
that be something you would ever revisit. Would you revisit
going back to Green Bay?

Speaker 3 (56:19):
I don't look, I'll never say never. But I gave
the big part about this now, and it's a piece
that I know you'll understand, But I don't know if
most of the world out there that watches football would
understand because they look at the opportunity as we're lucky
to have this, not we are blessed and we put
all this work in to do it, but we're lucky

(56:40):
to have it. So for me, the quality of life
at this point is another piece of it. You know,
have it being in Green Bay, seeing that my daughters
can't go outside, you know, after Halloween damn there because
of how cold it is.

Speaker 5 (56:56):
She's sitting here.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
I got a picture of my daughter like literally, I
think it was like November, like like fifth, like it's
it's still it ain't late late like that. She's sitting
there with her hand on the window, just staring outside
of the play structure, looking like the saddest little girl
in the world.

Speaker 5 (57:11):
And I'm like, this sucks, man.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
And now it could be Christmas night and they could
be outside playing on the play structure out in Vegas now,
So having that ability when when now I don't play
for a long time, I've given everything that I can
to this game. Being able to give something to my
kids like that is another piece of it, you know,
Like I put being a dad over anything, Like I

(57:33):
think I could play this position pretty good, but being
a dad ain't nobody better. So I'm so I prioritize
that my kids being in school and all this thing.
I'm not one of them dudes that you know, if
I was to get moved to another team, like it
would really hurt me to have my kids be in
school in Vegas and me being in another city playing
a game.

Speaker 5 (57:53):
I'm going three days somewhere.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
I dam't feel like I want to cry leaving my kids,
you know, especially having two little girls. Like that's just
the I'm wired. I really like spending time in being
around my kids.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
And you got a new born on the way, little boy.

Speaker 5 (58:04):
And got my boy on the ways.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
You ain't going nowhere, That's what.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
I'm saying, thinking about doing all of that, like like
that's just just a lot on my on my wife
in which she you know, dropped everything. She's an esthetician
and wanted to pursue her career a little bit harder
and to drop it for you know, obviously, you know
it's a pretty good deal for her too.

Speaker 5 (58:22):
She ain't losing out on too much.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
But yeah, but you know her being that unselfish, and
you know, I just tried to do the same for them,
and also it's a lot to enjoy for me here
as well.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
How much, Dad, Look, there's no secret, Divonte, you wanted
to contract extension for the Packers before they was willing
to give you one. You come out that great season
and they was like, okay, hey, hey, we got these.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
Numbers for you.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
How much did that play a fact a factor in
you leaving? Because you felt like, Bro, I've been to
I've been asking y'all for two years and now y'all
wait now and somebody and I'm a free ache.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
Oh no, that's that's basically how it went coming into
that year. Before you know, I had that unanimous All
Pro and you know, and the trend was basically ever
since my first Pro Bowl, it just got better.

Speaker 5 (59:12):
So it wasn't gonna make it easier on them.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
So I'm saying, look, right now, you know the type
of player that you're getting, So what are you waiting on?
And right now I'm telling you this is this was
like so obviously going into the twenty one season. This
is the off season going into that where Aaron was
having his stuff in the media about whether or not
he was even gonna be there. So I'm telling you, like, look,
right now, Aaron Rodgers' future here is uncertain. I'm willing

(59:36):
if you do this now early, give me this extension
like what I've earned. I'm not asking for I'm not
somebody here, no bread. I'm saying, give me what I
earned just a little bit early, which is not nothing
that ain't new. This is something that happens for you know,
generational players. You do that and it can benefit the
club too. So I'm trying to tell him here, and

(59:56):
I approached the right way. I said, we will, I
won't even take into account that he may not be here.
If we can do this right now, I'll be I'll
be a packer. And they said, okay, well this is
what we value right now, and they threw a number
out there and it was absolutely laughable. So for me,
I told my agent, I said, don't we don't even
need to talk about nothing. Else, I'm gonna be there
in camp. I didn't. I wasn't there in the OTA period.

(01:00:17):
I showed up for mandatory mini.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
Camp because I ain't giving no money back.

Speaker 5 (01:00:23):
I wasn't. I ain't doing no reps.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Now, I ain't no reps. But you you was holding
in I.

Speaker 5 (01:00:31):
Was holding it. I ain't never heard that one. I
was holding in man.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
And I told them boys, I said, look, I really
love this place and I've given my all to it.
So if you want to, if you want me to
continue to be here, you know ten years plus, this
is the way to do it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:45):
Let's do it now. They said that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
They all, right, well, this is what this is what
we see right now, and it just didn't make no sense.
So I said, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna be there,
and I'm gonna give everything I got to this team.
They not gonna know this. They ain't gonna feel none
of the drama and all this.

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
Stuff that I have towards you, because they y'all know,
y'all doing me wrong because I got to go navigat
an entire season, stay healthy.

Speaker 3 (01:01:08):
Under and I was the twelfth highest paid in the
league at that point. Like you talking about dudes that's
coming in that I haven't even really done anything like
at all yet that's that's getting you know, they're getting
paid off potential. So I'm sitting here like what are
we thinking? And you could talk about like a lot
of dudes don't want to play under these these tags
these days. It was worse than that. I had no security,

(01:01:31):
so I had to go get Alloyd's of London policy
to make sure just in case anything happens that that's
gonna give me something close to what my value would
be correct, you know. So I didn't win and spend money,
and when you get insurance, you hoping that you're wasting
the money. And yeah, so now I didn't put more
money at so I'm losing more money by being here, right,
But I got to do whatever to protect myself because.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
You got a wife, got a family, so you need that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
And not to mention, I'm not the type of dude
that's gonna go out there, you know it's and I
ain't gonna mention no names. But some dudes out there
that get on that field just to be out there,
and they ain't gonna go across that middle fearless, Like
how I do I'm going across, opening up, doing what
I gotta do to make the play like like I
like I got security, which I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
And they sleep real good at night. They never gonna
have to worry about a Devonte got in some trouble.

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
Never not not, I mean, nose clean the whole time,
and like nothing even came up. I got one thing
that's happened, and it was the cameraman little Fluke situation
in Kansas City City, which I think everybody came to
realize was I'm not the big bad wolf the way
that they thought they would.

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
Be, like, oh, there it is, Yeah, he a bad dude.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
Yeah, And then they realized, okay, we was tripping. We
would you know, we you know, whatever you want to
say about it. But I did everything that I that
I could for that organization to where I felt like
I was deserving of something to make it happen to
where we could, you know, make it work, and ultimately
got to a point where I said, look, I'm gonna
go and see what the market's talking about. And then
they tagged me and I just said that's not gonna

(01:02:59):
work for me. And you know, we ended up you know,
working together and figured it out and here we are
now quick math.

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into one platform, slashing manual task and errors. Over thirty

(01:03:51):
seven thousand companies have already made the move. So do
the math and see how you'll profit with netsweek. By
popular demand, nextweek has extended it's one of a kind
flexible financing program for a few more weeks. Head to
nextweek dot com slash shahing. This concludes the first half
of my conversation. Part two is also posted and you

(01:04:11):
can access it to whichever podcast platform you just listen
to Part one on. Just simply go back to Club
Shashay profile and I'll see you there

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Host

Shannon Sharpe

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