July 7, 2022 • 43 mins
Brian’s friend and Green Bay Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb sits down for a special sports edition of Off The Beat. He talks about selling hot dogs at his hometown college football games, the first time he visited Green Bay, and how sometimes running the wrong path can still get you the touchdown.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
But I remember before that game, it was like right
before the trade deadline when we played the Factors, and
I remember going out for warm ups is just like
trying to go with everybody like please come get me, please,
let's go. Somebody I was going to like, I would
have to, like Mark Burphy like please, like Google everybody,
(00:23):
Uh like we can't. They couldn't do anything about that.
What's up. I'm Randall Cob for a Green Bay Packtor. Hello,
(00:46):
esteemed listeners. Yes, I'm talking to most of you. I'm
glad you're here with me for another episode of Off
the Beat Sports. I am your host, Brian baum Gartner,
and today I have a dear friend and an incredible
player from well my favorite football team. Randall Cobb of
(01:08):
the Green Bay Packers, is in studio today. He is
now a professional wide receiver in the National Football League.
But he was not a sports prodigy or even a
high school superstar, no, ma'am. Shockingly, he was a bench
warmer for a lot longer than you might think. We're
(01:28):
gonna get into that some of his favorite plays of
all time and some of mine, and we'll even bring
up the dark Ages, by which, of course I mean
when he moved to Houston for a period of time.
I don't like to think about it, but it's important
to learn the mistakes of history so we don't repeat them,
you know. So here he is my pal, Randall Cobb,
(01:55):
bub I love it, Bubble squeak on Bubble and squeaker
cook at every month left over from the Natyo well
(02:19):
sing boom Terrerol Randolph, What is happening my man? How
are you doing? I'm good. I wore the shirt, the
green and gold golf shirt today. I'm so excited to
talk to you. How have you been? And I'm great.
I'm great. I'm actually up here in Green day eight
right now, that's all. So you're there? Now? How long
(02:42):
have you been in June? You you get, you get
a little more time and then you come back right yeah, yeah,
so we uh, I've been up here for about five
weeks now. We got mini camp next week and then
another week of Oats Gays and then we'll have a
break before its training camp stars to late Tovive. Nice.
Are you excited? Oh yeah, oh yeah. Man. One of
(03:03):
the years, well believe at the time goes by fast.
I actually found a picture of us from at a
bar in Green Day Saturday. Yes, I think you were
hurt though, Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was out.
I was that you were not playing the next day.
I was not playing the next day. Let's let's make
(03:25):
sure yes that is and that's accurate. We're not fudging.
I remember that night very very well. I'm so happy
for you. I'm I want to go back a little
bit before we talk about the Packers. I want to
talk about your early start in sports back in Tennessee.
So you were born in Maryville and then grew up
(03:47):
in it's al Coha, right, alcohol, the Aluminium Company of America. Okay, Okay,
Now I read you were a letterman in football, basketball,
and track, So that means you were an athlete. Just
spoiler alert that that's what that means for you. Was
it just about being in sport or did you have
(04:10):
a particular interest early on growing up? Uh? Not really.
You know, I started playing sports when I was four,
and from age five until my senior in high school,
I played year round. It was like football season ended
played in the basketball, basketball season ended straight into baseball,
Baseball season ended straight into football. And it was just
(04:31):
this cycle that just every year. It just never ended,
and then like I got to the point where I
gave up baseball and then I started running tracks, which
track took place of baseball, and that was just me.
I just I love being outside. I love anything competitive,
like I just I love competing and having fun and
you know, living life. Yeah, when did it transition from
(04:55):
this is what I do. I love sports, I love competing,
to this is what I want to do in my life.
Do you remember was there a moment? I would say
that moment for me was probably like my eighth grade year.
I remember being in middle school and hearing about a
guy that went to Arrival School Maryville, where where I
(05:20):
was born, I was born in He was going to
Auburn to play football in college. And I was like,
oh man, that's cool, Like he used to go to
college and he's get to playing in SEC. Like I
grew up ten minute school University of Tennessee. I used
to sell hot dogs at the stadium as a kid,
you know, Like I used to go on Saturdays and
(05:41):
grab my hot dog fill, walk around the stadium, walk
up those stairs in Newland Stadium selling hot dogs. And
my my dream was always like to play college football.
Like that was just like, oh man, this is amazing.
But I think whenever I heard like, oh, this guy's
going to Auburn, that's an SEC school, like I would
go to school there. So in my mind, I was like,
(06:01):
I'm transferring to Maryville. I'm going to Marrable High School.
They had won a bunch of state championships. Alpha had
had some success here and there, but you know, my
my cousin and my brother, they wanted to state championship
in two thousands and you know, so it's like O
two oh three and I'm like, okay, well I want
to do this. So I'm gonna go where I know
(06:22):
a guy has done this. And the high school coach
at the time he came to me, it was like, hey, like,
I think you got a great opportunity here. If you
stay here, I think we can make something happen. And
uh so I stayed it out for we had a
great high school team. We ended up my four years
of high school, we won four state championship and we
had my sophomore year like two guys from between that
(06:45):
division one. So it became a reality when I started
like seeing it happen right around me, and I was like, wow,
like this is this is a real thing like that
could really like go to college. Yeah, now I want
to talk to you a little bit about this. This
guy Gary Ankin, right, this is this is your high
school coach. These statistics seem absolutely impossible. I mean, he
(07:10):
won he won thirteen state championships in sixteen years at
Alcoha High School. But it wasn't just what was in
the water in al CoA, because this dude won four
at Riverdale High School prior to that. And then this
(07:32):
is not There's got to be something going on here.
I mean, does he just does he just transferred to
the school, because then I heard he announced his retirement
right this year, and then three weeks later announced he
was going back to Boyd, Buchanan and Chattanooga. It sounds
like he's moving where he knows the athletes are. That's
what I'm saying. I don't know this for a fact.
(07:53):
I don't know this for a fact. I'm not gonna
say that, but I think he is very elective than
you know, the jobs that he takes and the places
that he goes. He walked into a situation when he
came to alcohol. So he wasn't my coach, My pfession
and sophomore year we had a coach, John who who
ended up going to Georgia and taking a job in Georgia.
(08:16):
So we had one two state championships already and he
comes into the program, you know, back to back state championships.
Going to my junior year, we had two receivers that
had five plus offers. We had myself at quarterback, who
I wasn't being highly recruited. Everybody didn't think I was
(08:36):
a quarterback, so I wasn't quite there yet. But we
had we had some players. We had a defensive ent
that was committed to Tennessee, had thirty plus offers. You know,
we had, we had some talent. So yeah, he I
think he knew very selective then where he's coming into.
But I mean when you go when you go back
to my hometown and you asked people around there, there's
(08:57):
a lot of talents, a lot of hidden gens coming
out of there, and we put a lot of a
lot of guys in college and you know, some have
panned out. I'm the only one that's the NFL, but
hopefully in the years. Yeah, okay, so you you start
thinking about eighth grade, maybe I could do this, maybe
I could play college ball. Was there a person or
(09:20):
people that you feel like helped you to get there?
For sure, there was a lot of people. I think
most importantly was my my dad. He was always there
to give me confidence and to instill the love of
the game for me. You know, he had coached me
from when I was a kid up until middle school,
(09:41):
and having him kind of helped me see things from
a different lens. I had a cousin, James Rayner. We
call the Stink I think. Uh. He ran track in college.
He was like a ten oh six hundred guys, so
he had speed and he had won Stage campionship in
two thousand. He was a big influence in my time there.
(10:04):
And then my coaches. You know, I had some I
had some great coaches that helped push me along and
gave me those opportunities. But yeah, my pops, I mean
I used to my junior year when it's my junior here,
I went on all kind of trips, so to these
summer camps at different colleges, and I had coaches telling
me that I've never played you one. I had you know,
(10:25):
people telling me that I should move the corner or
safety like this. Like that. I wanted to I wanted
to play offense, so you know, I always saw myself
touching the ball. So yeah, so I think I had
a lot of people and also my teammates in high school.
You know, they were some crazy athletic guys, and you
(10:45):
go back to my hometown and asked them, I probably
wouldn't be the one that they would think to be
in this position now, because that's how good the guys
in front of me were, right, So like they they
had situations with grades, not being able to get into college,
so being able to learn from other people's mistakes and
also having a support system around me. Yeah, I understand
(11:07):
your folks. You give them a tremendous amount of credit
really for financially supporting your dream and to get you know,
allowing you the opportunity to participate in sports. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah,
that was huge. I think that's the difference. Yeah. So,
but you continue through high school to play the other sports? Now,
(11:30):
was that to keep you active or were you still
thinking were you good enough in track or in basketball
to to make a run there or no, no, I
wasn't good enough in football at that time. You gotta
understand like I wasn't I wasn't seeing the field. My
freshman and sophomore year, I didn't play until we were
(11:50):
up by forty, and I would come in for you know,
the last offense, a series of the game or defensive
series whatever. Playing my freshman soft you know, I don't
think you understand how guilty were. But my junior year,
whenever I came into the starting role, that's kind of
where I started to flourish and really show what I
(12:12):
could do as a quarterback. And I played a little
bit of defense. But no, I mean it was I
was a high school kid. It wasn't like the pros
were like a real thing, you know what I mean.
It was like playing high school ball. Like my senior
year might be the last year I have a play sports.
So in my mind, it was like, I'm just going
to have fun. I love playing basketball, continue playing basketball,
(12:33):
ran track. I played. I just didn't put my senior
year high school, I didn't play basketball. And that's because
I had already committed to Kentucky and I was planning
on training and preparing myself. So whenever summer school started,
I could go right up and started summer school at
the end of school year. So talk to me a
little bit about the decision to go to Kentucky. Is
(12:54):
that where you felt they wanted you the most or
what was that opportunity for sure? So that was I
got offered by Middle Tennessee State University and then I
got offered by Tucky when the same week. Those were
my only two offer before my senior year. I committed
to Kentucky. Fast forward to December, like two weeks before
(13:15):
State Tennessee office, and I grew up there like you know,
of course, I can't say that. I never dreamed of
playing there. Like like I said, I sold hot dogs,
you know. I I thought that, like that's what was
going to happen. But again that's when that's when my
dad played a role. I went over to UT. I
went to Philip Former's office. He handed me to national
(13:37):
championship crystal ball and I'm holding it and he's telling
me how great of a quarterback I am. They're gonna
change their office for me. Is I'm gonna be the
the greatest player that ever come to University of Tennessee.
And we leave there and we get back in the
car and my dad's like, so, what do you think
I'm like, what do you team? What do you mean?
(13:57):
Like I'm getting ready to what kind of question is that?
And uh, you know, he goes on He's like, well
if you're if you're this great of a player, then
you know he has the pastor of house every single
night on his way home. I was like, yeah, okay,
It's like, well, why didn't you ever stop by? You're
just great of a player and he has all these
(14:18):
recruits that he goes and business them, and why wouldn't
he come to you a little sooner if it's great?
You know what I mean? So I was like, okay,
I'll see what you're saying, like and that that allowed me.
That was that was the first time that I was like,
you don't have to listen to what people say. You
have to see their actions and understand that their actions
(14:40):
beep louder than their words. Right. So that's why I
credit so much to my dad because he was there
to help guide me and kind of showed me what
was happening. And when when it came to Kentucky, I
just had so much faith in the coach of staff.
They have been so honest with me, so forth right,
we're gonna give you a chance at quarterback for most like,
if you're gonna read moved to receiver? You know, so
(15:01):
I just had a respect for a coaching staff and
made that decision. That's awesome. Well, I on a personal note,
as a fan of the University of Georgia, I'm really
glad you didn't join Philip Falmer Tennessee got those guys
just always annoyed the hell out of me. I'll be
honest with you. You do move to receiver your sophomore
(15:43):
year at Tennessee. Was that tough for you after having
your hands on the ball on every play? Uh, to
begin a transition to being a receiver? And and did
you did you agree with or support that decision? Or
was that tough for you? It was tough in the beginning.
I think that's where ego plays a role, right, It's like, no, like,
(16:05):
this is what I set out to do, this is
who I am, this is who I know I am,
I know what I can do, this, I'm going to
do it. And then you know, again, that's where you
have people in your life that play a role and
help me see the bigger picture. And I had a coach,
my quarterback coach, Randy Sanders. You know, he said to
me one day, he was like, hey, I want you
(16:27):
to go look up how many quarterbacks have been drafted
that's under six feet? You know. So I went and
looked it up, and remember the name. It was like
Doug Flooty and a few other guys. I was like,
footy Breeze probably maybe Breeze says he's six ft. I
don't know, right, I don't know, but yeah, so I go,
(16:47):
I go and look that up and then I come
back to him and I tell him what I found,
and he says, now, I want you to go look
up receivers has been drafted on the six foot. I
go and do that and come back and it's like
over a hundred guys. And he's like, you could go
to the NFL, have a team plus your career if
you make this move. If you do it now, you'll
be able to learn get crassed for the of what
(17:08):
you're trying to accomplish. You know, what the what the
position really means. And I just took that from there
and it was like, ask you what you're saying. And
you know, the NFL was always a goal, and uh,
I think you helped guide me into into making that
decision a little bit easier. And that was your quarterback coach.
That's my quarterback coach, Kentucky. Yeah, Randy Sanders, And I
(17:32):
think that it also was like we had to fourth
star quarterbacks still there. Like I mean, you threw like
five you throw five touchdowns as a quarterback, had a
few inter steps. It's just like so, but we we
still ran like the wildcat offense and uh you know
(17:54):
ran the ball at too. So yeah, do you do
you like that? I mean there's still some plays in
there for you, even even now where you play where
you're the wildcat. I did past it was yeah, you know, uh,
no one you know, run the front of between tackles,
(18:15):
the kick off. It turns a little different now what
it was, you know when I first came to leave. Yeah,
you're old. You're not like me. You're aged. I just
get younger every year. That's the difference. It's crazy in
my mind, I'm but my body says different. Yeah, well
that's a crazy thing. I mean, you reference at night
(18:35):
and I probably met you right then, right pretty shortly
after you got drafted. That doesn't seem like that long
ago to me, even now, nine ten years ago. No,
that was just it was a couple of years ago.
Well COVID, maybe it's four years You know, that's crazy. Yes,
your junior year against the undefeated Auburn Universe City team,
(19:02):
you score four touchdowns. Is that the game where the
light switch happens? No, you know, honestly I felt it
my freshman year playing Georgia. Actually I was Stafford A. J.
Green No Shan Marino. You know, we were we were
(19:22):
going we were going back and forth with them, and
they ended up going up on us late in the
in the fourth quarter. I go into quarterback drive down
the field. Well, what would be putting us in position
the tide of games? And I had a great game,
I think I think I had a couple of touchdowns
(19:42):
that game, but I, you know, fourth quarter, two minute drive,
take us all the way down the field. We get
into the red zone and run a screen and I
can't see over the d live and try to throw
a screen to the running back and throw a pick
to the D line. Uh. After that game, I was like, yeah,
(20:03):
I was distraught because I you know, I lost the
game after an interception the end the game to throw
us out of possession of winning in my mind after
that game. So I was like, and I just went
toe to toe with guys that I know are league, Like,
I'm playing against NFL caliber players and like I held
my own. So in my mind, I was like, man,
(20:24):
this could really be a reality. But any time, you know,
and I think that was like my motivation was, you know,
after playing in a game like that against SEC talent,
you see that talent that you're going to play against
and know that they're going to league, and it gives
you confidence. Yeah, and it's it's crazy, he's kind of
thinking about you, you know, primarily being a quarterback there
(20:46):
in the beginning. It's really two years. I think that's
why I was asking about your junior year. You start
getting a ton of attention and decide to leave college
early to go to the NFL. All talk to me
a little bit about that decision. Did you ever consider
giving it one more go or once you knew you
had the opportunity, was it was it go time? I did?
(21:09):
I did? I love kids like I love my time there.
It went by so fast. I thought about going back,
but in the end, it was like I gotta make
a business decision, right, Like I'm twenty years old and
I just touched the ball in a season probably average
twenty five touches a game. I was able to stay
(21:30):
healthy and I'm playing in the SEC where so I
feel like it's one of the more violent leaves. It's
really tough on the body. And I was like, man,
I don't know if I'm gonna get this opportunity again.
And you know what, what more could I do as
a team. We were losing a lot of players. We
didn't know who's gonna have moving forward. I had the
(21:52):
best season that I could have possibly had. I broke
the SEC record for all perfect yards. I have like
twenty three hundred yards. That season was like, I really
don't know what personally I can put myself in a
player position. And that was kind of the advice that
I had got from some of the people whenever I
started talking to agents, and I was kind of it
for me. It was like, Okay, well, I gotta make
(22:13):
this decision and make that joke. Right, do you make
the decision? You declare for the draft, and there's a
little team in a little town called Green Bay that
wins the Super Bowl, right, and you you get drafted
in the second round by the Packers coming off their
Super Bowl and you know they're gonna be good talk
(22:37):
to me about that day and finding out that that's
the team that that that drafted you, ah man, it was.
It was a crazy experience because I went to New
York with the draft. I was there. I was there
for the draft. My agent thought it was a chance
I could go in the first round. And honestly, it
was a free trip in New York that my family
(22:57):
had never been in New York. So I was like
gold through George, my mom and mom and dad and
Stepplings and we all went to New York for the draft.
It was an experience for us as a family. You know,
they get to get to see the Big Apple, which
that was everything. It was. It was unbelievable experience. But
then like when the draft rose around, you know, as
(23:19):
now it's into the second round, and I thought I
was going to Baltimore. That was like five picks before
green Bay, And then I thought I was going to Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh was heavy on me right before the draft when
I was going to business, so I thought I would
go to Pittsburgh tick before. And then when green Bay called,
I was just like and shocked because I was like, man,
(23:40):
like this they just want the super Bowl, like you said, like,
I'm going to the defending Super Bowl camps, and I
knew that they were gonna have another great team. I
was just trying to figure out, Okay, like now what
is my role? Like we have some really good receivers
of just like a guy who like what am I
supposed to do it? Right? So, but whenever, whenever I
(24:02):
got that call, I was it's no feeling like it
in the world. Like everything that you've ever worked for
in the dreams that bad as a kid are actually
becoming a reality. It's really happy, and you're going to
one of the most history teams in all the sports.
There's nothing like had you been? Yeah, you hadn't been
to Green Bay? Right? No, No, I've never been. Had
(24:24):
you been even to that area? No? Never I thought
Green Bay was like you know, I thought it was
like a New York or a Chicago. It was like
a million people there. The first time that I actually
found out was when I was landing in Green Bay. Right.
So I get drafted and then it's the lockout, so
(24:46):
like I don't get to there's no off season. We
go straight into training. So I get a call like
a Tuesday, like, hey, you gotta be here on Thursday.
So like I get there, like we're landing, and like
my first thought was like, how must have got on
the wrong plane, Like, I'm not a farce. There's no
(25:07):
way that there's a team. Uh you know, lad get
off the plane and the rest is history. Yeah, how
special is that place? The town of cream Bay. No
place like it, No place like it, live free, eat
football there. They love their teams, they love supporting their team.
(25:30):
It doesn't matter if it's uh charity basketball game, a
charity softball game, you know, it doesn't matter. They're supporting.
They're gonna be. There's pack always. You know, if you
have a charity event, they're they're coming, they're donating, you know.
And not only just city of Green Bay, but the
(25:51):
Packer fans in general. Like whenever I travel around the country,
always it doesn't matter what country I'm in, it'll be
a Packer fan will come up to the like, I mean, Spain,
how do you even like, how do you even know?
You know what I mean? It's nothing like, Yeah, you
have had so many amazing iconic moments for the franchise,
(26:15):
what's your favorite? I got I got to what she was.
I want to hear yours. One. I was there. I'm
sure we talk. I'm sure I hugged you and an
inappropriately a snug embrace. That one was the Hail Mary
against the Giants, uh in the in the playoffs, Hail
Mary at the end of the first half. That really,
(26:38):
for all intents and purposes, you just sort of felt
it in the stadium that just kind of took the
air out of them and ended up having a fairly
decent win there, that catch, and it was one of
those I mean, I'm sure you're better at it than
I am, but I've watched a lot of football, and
when you're live sometimes you see it happening, you know,
when you you you see all of the pieces of
(27:02):
the chessboard happening at one second, and I knew knew
where he was going. I saw it all. Whether there
was just i mean just the slightest of push offs,
I don't know, I don't care. It was so it
was that was so great that but by far for
(27:22):
me the game I remember so well, which was probably
quite frankly, probably a couple of weeks after the night
that you referenced you'd been injured, you broke your your leg,
and Aaron was out with you're out. We're at a
bar before a game in Green Bay because I had
(27:44):
planned to go and that game. Actually, I think I
have pictures of you and Aaron and me on the
sideline before the game for the only time because neither
of you were playing. And the last game of the season,
the Packers against the Bears, the winner goes to the
playoff and he hits you with about a fifty yard
(28:06):
forty eights what it says here, but about a fifty
yard just beautiful past run catch right up the seam
to win that game. That one, Yeah, that one, I'll
I don't know if I'll ever forget that one because
it was just so it was just so sweet, man.
That was That was a special one. That's that's one.
(28:29):
That's one B. That one, Okay, that's one B. And
the only reason is be is because one A my
first game coming out of the the lockout, first game back
football Saints, first Packers is the last two champions, Packers
one of the year four year before that, and it's
(28:52):
my first game in the NFL ever and ever catch
a touchdown and then I had kick off return that
tied the record at the time, and like it was
just so surreal, right, like everything that had happened up
until that point. I thought I was getting cut in
training because like I got like a thy contusion because
(29:13):
just a few days of practice, and I was like,
I'm get really get cut and then I make the
team and then that happens, right, So it was just like, yeah,
it was just like this coming out party from me
and this like moment that it was like you can
really do this, like not like you just made it
to the NFL, like you can you can be a
(29:34):
difference maker, you know what I mean. So that for me,
that was like a personal moment that was just like
solidified that I was right where I was supposed to be. Uh.
So that that's why it's one eight for me and
then one be Like you said the game in Chicago,
I was coming off of a broken leg that missed
ten weeks that season and before I get hurt, Before
(29:56):
I get hurt that season, like I was on page
for most fourteen hundred yards until I touchdowns. That's what
I was on paste for before I've heard uh. And
that's my third year and then I get hurt and
I remember the locker room this time for the game, right,
and I don't know. I hope I'm still the same
player that I loved before. And then I ended up
(30:17):
with a couple of touchdowns in that game and having
that play that sent us to the playoffs obviously, and
had missed most of that season. I had missed most
of that season. And for us to have that connection,
and I think that's a special thing about sports, right,
we have these moments in time that we all have
a different perspective of how it happened and seeing it
(30:40):
from a different land and being able to be a
part of that. Emmy Packer fan, that's like one thing
that they always read up. Yeah, yeah, that's that's so awesome.
You know, it occurs to me. It occurs to me now.
The lockout. I had forgotten about the lockout and the
fact that the lockout happened, and the fact that in
(31:00):
that first game the only game on no one else
is watching anything but that, and that Erin trusted you
enough to throw you the ball. I mean that that
that you had already. I'm not talking shit about you
know the story behind that, right, No, tell me so
(31:22):
on the play that he throws it for me. I
was I was actually my second catch of the game
on that play, my first ever touchdown in the NFL
from Aaron Rodgers. He checks the play, and he checks
the play to where I'm supposed to run a flat
route to the sideline James Shawn's is supposed to run
a slant. It's a simple check. It's a simple concept.
(31:42):
But like in my mind, he gave the signal and
I thought the signal was like, it's a slant and
a flat. So in my mind, I was thinking, oh,
he's giving me the slant. He wants me to run
a splint right now. So I run the slant under
own route just happened to be open. He sees the
open grows, I'll make a guy missed before staving in.
(32:03):
So I have absolutely no idea. I'm thinking, oh yeah,
like me and him are like this, like I'm here
with you. Uh. It wasn't until I got back to
the sidelines and I found out all route. Yeah, did
you get a pound on the back at least? Or
did you just get chewed out for running the wrong route? No,
(32:24):
I gotta I gotta pat on the back. I got
a pat on the back, and uh he was. He
was like, hey, we got a joke. From from that
point on, and it's always like, hey, run the wrong
route and get the ball until that pick comes right
over the middle and then you're in big drum. Oh yeah,
(33:03):
but you know, I gotta bring it up. In twenty nineteen,
you leave for the Cowboys. How was that? Were you
excited for a new opportunity in a new place or
was that was that really difficult for you? Uh? Well, first,
I'm I'm gonna say it, leaving wasn't. My contract was
up and it didn't get renewed or I didn't get
(33:25):
another offer, so it wasn't. I was like, okay, Well
free agency comes around and I don't hear anything from anybody,
and I was like, okay, is this is this? How
it all? It's for me? And then uh the Cowboys called.
I was like, man, okay, let's do this. They just
(33:45):
came off a playoff run. They got to mar It's
some opportunity for me. Good team, good scene. I was excited.
I think be hindsight, looking back on it, it was
the best thing that could happen from my career at
that time because I had been in Green Bay so
long that I think going somewhere else rejuvenated me and
(34:09):
gave me a different challenge, right because when you do
something for so long, it becomes kind of mundane, right,
Like that's just kind of what it is. And it's
like everybody knows who did, who you are, what you
what you do. And I had to rebuild all that
I had to. I had to show my teammates like, okay,
like who is Randall cop? Who was who is this
(34:30):
guy that's coming in? So I had to earn my
teammates trust, I had to show the coaches what I
could do. Every day. It was like a proved type
of day for me. And you know, I think I
think that was something that kind of kick started the
second part of my career. You know, I loved my
time to that. Was had a great time. Uh. Coach
Garrett was great. I really enjoyed the time with him.
(34:53):
The Jones family nothing but loved and respect for you know.
They they took me in and want to cowboy all
the cowboys what they say, and I'm very fortunate for
what opportunity they gave me down there. Tell them more
excellent play caller. I loved him. I think he's gonna
be a great head coach one day. Yeah, so that
(35:14):
was that was a fun year. That's awesome. We didn't
we didn't win. We didn't win, we didn't make it playoffs.
But it was a fun year. Yeah. I I had
not heard that from you before that that you know
that that rejuvenated you. And that totally makes sense, right.
I mean it's a change of environment, a new system.
(35:34):
You have to be adaptable and and changeable, and I
can understand how that gives you a renewed energy. You
go to Houston and then you get a call from
the packers about coming back to join them. Talk to
me a little bit about that. And the decision to go, well,
(35:55):
i'll call it home. The decision to go home, yeah, yeah,
to come back to come back where it all started again,
that wasn't a decision for me. It wasn't It wasn't
an option. I got traded and it was the biggest
blessing that I could I had the year that I
had in used to like all of us during COVID
that first year, we were all going to stuff right,
(36:16):
and I don't think that was in a great place.
It wasn't a It wasn't the environment that I thought
it was going to be. You know, it wasn't. It
wasn't what I what I thought that I was walking
through too, And uh, it was difficult. I had a
lot of tough talks with my wife about it, and
I honestly thought about retiring after that season. So I
(36:37):
was like, I just don't. I don't love the game anymore.
It wasn't fun. It was like nothing about it was fun. Yeah,
So that was that was very a very difficult place.
But we we actually played the Packers that season when
I was in US. Was actually when I was in
Dallas and played Packers and was used to play back up.
But I remember before that game it was like right
(36:58):
before the trade deadline what we played the pacts, and
I remember going out for warm up is just like
trying to go with everybody like please come get me, please,
somebody I was going to like I would have to,
like Mark Murphy like please, like I let's go up
to groop everybody. Uh obviously like we can't. They couldn't
(37:23):
do anything about that, but uh yeah, it all ended
up working out in and I was able to come
back last year. Then I loved enough here. I love
planning for this organization and and representing recundation, And like
I said, it's a special places, a special bond that
you have, and you know, I've been going away for
(37:45):
a couple of years. Just made me realize even more
what it meant to be a part of this organisation. Yeah. Yeah, Well,
I know a lot of people missed you when you
left and are glad that you're back. I am hoping
and praying for you and the Packers that that you
have just an absolutely awesome year. I Uh. I know
(38:10):
last year ended not the way everybody wanted it too.
But this year, I'm I'm optimistic and I'm ready. I'm excited.
Good you are, You're excited, You're ready. I'm excited for sure.
Now it's gonna be It's gonna be a fun year,
you know. I think it's it's gonna be some different
challenges for us, but I'm excited about it. I think
(38:31):
that it could be for the better. Our defense completely
stacked going into this season. You look at every level
of our defense and you just got to play makers,
you know, from from from Kenny and the rookie we
just drafted on the behind and the guys rotating in
their custon you know, coming back University of Georgia, Yeah,
(38:54):
basically Georgia North. Yeah, so we we got We've got
some guys in our defense. We got Aaron Jones and
j Tilling is gonna carry the low for us in
the backfield. And any time you got to well, you
get the opportunity. And what I've seen from a couple
of our rookies and from our receiver business off season,
(39:15):
I think we'll be in a good place. I'm confident
and in that and I think for our offense, it'll
it'll be great because you'll have so many guys that's
getting involved. You have see me that's coming in, Kemmy
Watkins and Alan coming back. AMR who's made some strides
this off season. I can't wait to see, you know,
(39:36):
what what happens with his career as this year goes on,
and the opportunity he said he's gonna get, you know,
And I'm really just trying to make sure that I
helped those guys understand what's in front of him. After
the career that I've had and the ups and downs
that I've went through, the valleys that I've I've been
(39:57):
in and the mountain peaks that I've touched, being able
to pass on the wisdom and learn have helped them
learn from the mistakes that I may have made my
earlier career and just see the big picture and understand
that we're we're all instead of puzzle. That's the that's
the the special thing about football is like, it don't
(40:20):
matter how good when person is, like, they can't go
by themselves. You know, even as great as Aaron is, Like,
you gotta have an offensive line protecting. You gotta have
receivers that catch the ball. That's right. You can't you
can't just throw Joe Smoke from Westford University out there
inspected that he's gonna make plays against plow corners, against
(40:42):
Jalen Ramses, you know, and and all these guys like,
we're still guys, we're still pros that you know can
get it done. So I look forward to the seeing
all those young guys coming to their own and myself
included being able to um make some plays and be
a piece at that puzzle and help put it all together. Well, listen,
(41:03):
you're truly one of the good guys. Like and I
mean that, I mean that sincerely. I respect you as
a person. I loved hearing your story today and your transition,
your decision to choose longevity and an amazing career. Thank
you so much for coming on and uh and talking
(41:23):
to me and to us and uh yeah uh go
pack go. Thanks Randolph Man. I appreciate all right. I'll
(41:47):
say it again. I'll say it a thousand times. Go
Pack go. Thank you Randall for joining me. I'm gonna
see you in Green Bay here in just a few months.
Have an amazing season. I know you will. As always, listeners,
if you like what you've heard, be sure to like
and subscribe, leave us comments or reviews, and then, more importantly,
(42:11):
come back next week for another exciting, in depth conversation
with someone very special. Off the Beat is hosted an
(42:33):
executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley.
Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and
Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and
our intern is Sammy Katz. Our theme song Bubble and
Squeak performed by my great friend Creed Bretton and the
(42:56):
episode was mixed by Seth O'landskip
But I remember before that game, it was like right
before the trade deadline when we played the Factors, and
I remember going out for warm ups is just like
trying to go with everybody like please come get me, please,
let's go. Somebody I was going to like, I would
have to, like Mark Burphy like please, like Google everybody,
(00:23):
Uh like we can't. They couldn't do anything about that.
What's up. I'm Randall Cob for a Green Bay Packtor. Hello,
(00:46):
esteemed listeners. Yes, I'm talking to most of you. I'm
glad you're here with me for another episode of Off
the Beat Sports. I am your host, Brian baum Gartner,
and today I have a dear friend and an incredible
player from well my favorite football team. Randall Cobb of
(01:08):
the Green Bay Packers, is in studio today. He is
now a professional wide receiver in the National Football League.
But he was not a sports prodigy or even a
high school superstar, no, ma'am. Shockingly, he was a bench
warmer for a lot longer than you might think. We're
(01:28):
gonna get into that some of his favorite plays of
all time and some of mine, and we'll even bring
up the dark Ages, by which, of course I mean
when he moved to Houston for a period of time.
I don't like to think about it, but it's important
to learn the mistakes of history so we don't repeat them,
you know. So here he is my pal, Randall Cobb,
(01:55):
bub I love it, Bubble squeak on Bubble and squeaker
cook at every month left over from the Natyo well
(02:19):
sing boom Terrerol Randolph, What is happening my man? How
are you doing? I'm good. I wore the shirt, the
green and gold golf shirt today. I'm so excited to
talk to you. How have you been? And I'm great.
I'm great. I'm actually up here in Green day eight
right now, that's all. So you're there? Now? How long
(02:42):
have you been in June? You you get, you get
a little more time and then you come back right yeah, yeah,
so we uh, I've been up here for about five
weeks now. We got mini camp next week and then
another week of Oats Gays and then we'll have a
break before its training camp stars to late Tovive. Nice.
Are you excited? Oh yeah, oh yeah. Man. One of
(03:03):
the years, well believe at the time goes by fast.
I actually found a picture of us from at a
bar in Green Day Saturday. Yes, I think you were
hurt though, Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was out.
I was that you were not playing the next day.
I was not playing the next day. Let's let's make
(03:25):
sure yes that is and that's accurate. We're not fudging.
I remember that night very very well. I'm so happy
for you. I'm I want to go back a little
bit before we talk about the Packers. I want to
talk about your early start in sports back in Tennessee.
So you were born in Maryville and then grew up
(03:47):
in it's al Coha, right, alcohol, the Aluminium Company of America. Okay, Okay,
Now I read you were a letterman in football, basketball,
and track, So that means you were an athlete. Just
spoiler alert that that's what that means for you. Was
it just about being in sport or did you have
(04:10):
a particular interest early on growing up? Uh? Not really.
You know, I started playing sports when I was four,
and from age five until my senior in high school,
I played year round. It was like football season ended
played in the basketball, basketball season ended straight into baseball,
Baseball season ended straight into football. And it was just
(04:31):
this cycle that just every year. It just never ended,
and then like I got to the point where I
gave up baseball and then I started running tracks, which
track took place of baseball, and that was just me.
I just I love being outside. I love anything competitive,
like I just I love competing and having fun and
you know, living life. Yeah, when did it transition from
(04:55):
this is what I do. I love sports, I love competing,
to this is what I want to do in my life.
Do you remember was there a moment? I would say
that moment for me was probably like my eighth grade year.
I remember being in middle school and hearing about a
guy that went to Arrival School Maryville, where where I
(05:20):
was born, I was born in He was going to
Auburn to play football in college. And I was like,
oh man, that's cool, Like he used to go to
college and he's get to playing in SEC. Like I
grew up ten minute school University of Tennessee. I used
to sell hot dogs at the stadium as a kid,
you know, Like I used to go on Saturdays and
(05:41):
grab my hot dog fill, walk around the stadium, walk
up those stairs in Newland Stadium selling hot dogs. And
my my dream was always like to play college football.
Like that was just like, oh man, this is amazing.
But I think whenever I heard like, oh, this guy's
going to Auburn, that's an SEC school, like I would
go to school there. So in my mind, I was like,
(06:01):
I'm transferring to Maryville. I'm going to Marrable High School.
They had won a bunch of state championships. Alpha had
had some success here and there, but you know, my
my cousin and my brother, they wanted to state championship
in two thousands and you know, so it's like O
two oh three and I'm like, okay, well I want
to do this. So I'm gonna go where I know
(06:22):
a guy has done this. And the high school coach
at the time he came to me, it was like, hey, like,
I think you got a great opportunity here. If you
stay here, I think we can make something happen. And
uh so I stayed it out for we had a
great high school team. We ended up my four years
of high school, we won four state championship and we
had my sophomore year like two guys from between that
(06:45):
division one. So it became a reality when I started
like seeing it happen right around me, and I was like, wow,
like this is this is a real thing like that
could really like go to college. Yeah, now I want
to talk to you a little bit about this. This
guy Gary Ankin, right, this is this is your high
school coach. These statistics seem absolutely impossible. I mean, he
(07:10):
won he won thirteen state championships in sixteen years at
Alcoha High School. But it wasn't just what was in
the water in al CoA, because this dude won four
at Riverdale High School prior to that. And then this
(07:32):
is not There's got to be something going on here.
I mean, does he just does he just transferred to
the school, because then I heard he announced his retirement
right this year, and then three weeks later announced he
was going back to Boyd, Buchanan and Chattanooga. It sounds
like he's moving where he knows the athletes are. That's
what I'm saying. I don't know this for a fact.
(07:53):
I don't know this for a fact. I'm not gonna
say that, but I think he is very elective than
you know, the jobs that he takes and the places
that he goes. He walked into a situation when he
came to alcohol. So he wasn't my coach, My pfession
and sophomore year we had a coach, John who who
ended up going to Georgia and taking a job in Georgia.
(08:16):
So we had one two state championships already and he
comes into the program, you know, back to back state championships.
Going to my junior year, we had two receivers that
had five plus offers. We had myself at quarterback, who
I wasn't being highly recruited. Everybody didn't think I was
(08:36):
a quarterback, so I wasn't quite there yet. But we
had we had some players. We had a defensive ent
that was committed to Tennessee, had thirty plus offers. You know,
we had, we had some talent. So yeah, he I
think he knew very selective then where he's coming into.
But I mean when you go when you go back
to my hometown and you asked people around there, there's
(08:57):
a lot of talents, a lot of hidden gens coming
out of there, and we put a lot of a
lot of guys in college and you know, some have
panned out. I'm the only one that's the NFL, but
hopefully in the years. Yeah, okay, so you you start
thinking about eighth grade, maybe I could do this, maybe
I could play college ball. Was there a person or
(09:20):
people that you feel like helped you to get there?
For sure, there was a lot of people. I think
most importantly was my my dad. He was always there
to give me confidence and to instill the love of
the game for me. You know, he had coached me
from when I was a kid up until middle school,
(09:41):
and having him kind of helped me see things from
a different lens. I had a cousin, James Rayner. We
call the Stink I think. Uh. He ran track in college.
He was like a ten oh six hundred guys, so
he had speed and he had won Stage campionship in
two thousand. He was a big influence in my time there.
(10:04):
And then my coaches. You know, I had some I
had some great coaches that helped push me along and
gave me those opportunities. But yeah, my pops, I mean
I used to my junior year when it's my junior here,
I went on all kind of trips, so to these
summer camps at different colleges, and I had coaches telling
me that I've never played you one. I had you know,
(10:25):
people telling me that I should move the corner or
safety like this. Like that. I wanted to I wanted
to play offense, so you know, I always saw myself
touching the ball. So yeah, so I think I had
a lot of people and also my teammates in high school.
You know, they were some crazy athletic guys, and you
(10:45):
go back to my hometown and asked them, I probably
wouldn't be the one that they would think to be
in this position now, because that's how good the guys
in front of me were, right, So like they they
had situations with grades, not being able to get into college,
so being able to learn from other people's mistakes and
also having a support system around me. Yeah, I understand
(11:07):
your folks. You give them a tremendous amount of credit
really for financially supporting your dream and to get you know,
allowing you the opportunity to participate in sports. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah,
that was huge. I think that's the difference. Yeah. So,
but you continue through high school to play the other sports? Now,
(11:30):
was that to keep you active or were you still
thinking were you good enough in track or in basketball
to to make a run there or no, no, I
wasn't good enough in football at that time. You gotta
understand like I wasn't I wasn't seeing the field. My
freshman and sophomore year, I didn't play until we were
(11:50):
up by forty, and I would come in for you know,
the last offense, a series of the game or defensive
series whatever. Playing my freshman soft you know, I don't
think you understand how guilty were. But my junior year,
whenever I came into the starting role, that's kind of
where I started to flourish and really show what I
(12:12):
could do as a quarterback. And I played a little
bit of defense. But no, I mean it was I
was a high school kid. It wasn't like the pros
were like a real thing, you know what I mean.
It was like playing high school ball. Like my senior
year might be the last year I have a play sports.
So in my mind, it was like, I'm just going
to have fun. I love playing basketball, continue playing basketball,
(12:33):
ran track. I played. I just didn't put my senior
year high school, I didn't play basketball. And that's because
I had already committed to Kentucky and I was planning
on training and preparing myself. So whenever summer school started,
I could go right up and started summer school at
the end of school year. So talk to me a
little bit about the decision to go to Kentucky. Is
(12:54):
that where you felt they wanted you the most or
what was that opportunity for sure? So that was I
got offered by Middle Tennessee State University and then I
got offered by Tucky when the same week. Those were
my only two offer before my senior year. I committed
to Kentucky. Fast forward to December, like two weeks before
(13:15):
State Tennessee office, and I grew up there like you know,
of course, I can't say that. I never dreamed of
playing there. Like like I said, I sold hot dogs,
you know. I I thought that, like that's what was
going to happen. But again that's when that's when my
dad played a role. I went over to UT. I
went to Philip Former's office. He handed me to national
(13:37):
championship crystal ball and I'm holding it and he's telling
me how great of a quarterback I am. They're gonna
change their office for me. Is I'm gonna be the
the greatest player that ever come to University of Tennessee.
And we leave there and we get back in the
car and my dad's like, so, what do you think
I'm like, what do you team? What do you mean?
(13:57):
Like I'm getting ready to what kind of question is that?
And uh, you know, he goes on He's like, well
if you're if you're this great of a player, then
you know he has the pastor of house every single
night on his way home. I was like, yeah, okay,
It's like, well, why didn't you ever stop by? You're
just great of a player and he has all these
(14:18):
recruits that he goes and business them, and why wouldn't
he come to you a little sooner if it's great?
You know what I mean? So I was like, okay,
I'll see what you're saying, like and that that allowed me.
That was that was the first time that I was like,
you don't have to listen to what people say. You
have to see their actions and understand that their actions
(14:40):
beep louder than their words. Right. So that's why I
credit so much to my dad because he was there
to help guide me and kind of showed me what
was happening. And when when it came to Kentucky, I
just had so much faith in the coach of staff.
They have been so honest with me, so forth right,
we're gonna give you a chance at quarterback for most like,
if you're gonna read moved to receiver? You know, so
(15:01):
I just had a respect for a coaching staff and
made that decision. That's awesome. Well, I on a personal note,
as a fan of the University of Georgia, I'm really
glad you didn't join Philip Falmer Tennessee got those guys
just always annoyed the hell out of me. I'll be
honest with you. You do move to receiver your sophomore
(15:43):
year at Tennessee. Was that tough for you after having
your hands on the ball on every play? Uh, to
begin a transition to being a receiver? And and did
you did you agree with or support that decision? Or
was that tough for you? It was tough in the beginning.
I think that's where ego plays a role, right, It's like, no, like,
(16:05):
this is what I set out to do, this is
who I am, this is who I know I am,
I know what I can do, this, I'm going to
do it. And then you know, again, that's where you
have people in your life that play a role and
help me see the bigger picture. And I had a coach,
my quarterback coach, Randy Sanders. You know, he said to
me one day, he was like, hey, I want you
(16:27):
to go look up how many quarterbacks have been drafted
that's under six feet? You know. So I went and
looked it up, and remember the name. It was like
Doug Flooty and a few other guys. I was like,
footy Breeze probably maybe Breeze says he's six ft. I
don't know, right, I don't know, but yeah, so I go,
(16:47):
I go and look that up and then I come
back to him and I tell him what I found,
and he says, now, I want you to go look
up receivers has been drafted on the six foot. I
go and do that and come back and it's like
over a hundred guys. And he's like, you could go
to the NFL, have a team plus your career if
you make this move. If you do it now, you'll
be able to learn get crassed for the of what
(17:08):
you're trying to accomplish. You know, what the what the
position really means. And I just took that from there
and it was like, ask you what you're saying. And
you know, the NFL was always a goal, and uh,
I think you helped guide me into into making that
decision a little bit easier. And that was your quarterback coach.
That's my quarterback coach, Kentucky. Yeah, Randy Sanders, And I
(17:32):
think that it also was like we had to fourth
star quarterbacks still there. Like I mean, you threw like
five you throw five touchdowns as a quarterback, had a
few inter steps. It's just like so, but we we
still ran like the wildcat offense and uh you know
(17:54):
ran the ball at too. So yeah, do you do
you like that? I mean there's still some plays in
there for you, even even now where you play where
you're the wildcat. I did past it was yeah, you know, uh,
no one you know, run the front of between tackles,
(18:15):
the kick off. It turns a little different now what
it was, you know when I first came to leave. Yeah,
you're old. You're not like me. You're aged. I just
get younger every year. That's the difference. It's crazy in
my mind, I'm but my body says different. Yeah, well
that's a crazy thing. I mean, you reference at night
(18:35):
and I probably met you right then, right pretty shortly
after you got drafted. That doesn't seem like that long
ago to me, even now, nine ten years ago. No,
that was just it was a couple of years ago.
Well COVID, maybe it's four years You know, that's crazy. Yes,
your junior year against the undefeated Auburn Universe City team,
(19:02):
you score four touchdowns. Is that the game where the
light switch happens? No, you know, honestly I felt it
my freshman year playing Georgia. Actually I was Stafford A. J.
Green No Shan Marino. You know, we were we were
(19:22):
going we were going back and forth with them, and
they ended up going up on us late in the
in the fourth quarter. I go into quarterback drive down
the field. Well, what would be putting us in position
the tide of games? And I had a great game,
I think I think I had a couple of touchdowns
(19:42):
that game, but I, you know, fourth quarter, two minute drive,
take us all the way down the field. We get
into the red zone and run a screen and I
can't see over the d live and try to throw
a screen to the running back and throw a pick
to the D line. Uh. After that game, I was like, yeah,
(20:03):
I was distraught because I you know, I lost the
game after an interception the end the game to throw
us out of possession of winning in my mind after
that game. So I was like, and I just went
toe to toe with guys that I know are league, Like,
I'm playing against NFL caliber players and like I held
my own. So in my mind, I was like, man,
(20:24):
this could really be a reality. But any time, you know,
and I think that was like my motivation was, you know,
after playing in a game like that against SEC talent,
you see that talent that you're going to play against
and know that they're going to league, and it gives
you confidence. Yeah, and it's it's crazy, he's kind of
thinking about you, you know, primarily being a quarterback there
(20:46):
in the beginning. It's really two years. I think that's
why I was asking about your junior year. You start
getting a ton of attention and decide to leave college
early to go to the NFL. All talk to me
a little bit about that decision. Did you ever consider
giving it one more go or once you knew you
had the opportunity, was it was it go time? I did?
(21:09):
I did? I love kids like I love my time there.
It went by so fast. I thought about going back,
but in the end, it was like I gotta make
a business decision, right, Like I'm twenty years old and
I just touched the ball in a season probably average
twenty five touches a game. I was able to stay
(21:30):
healthy and I'm playing in the SEC where so I
feel like it's one of the more violent leaves. It's
really tough on the body. And I was like, man,
I don't know if I'm gonna get this opportunity again.
And you know what, what more could I do as
a team. We were losing a lot of players. We
didn't know who's gonna have moving forward. I had the
(21:52):
best season that I could have possibly had. I broke
the SEC record for all perfect yards. I have like
twenty three hundred yards. That season was like, I really
don't know what personally I can put myself in a
player position. And that was kind of the advice that
I had got from some of the people whenever I
started talking to agents, and I was kind of it
for me. It was like, Okay, well, I gotta make
(22:13):
this decision and make that joke. Right, do you make
the decision? You declare for the draft, and there's a
little team in a little town called Green Bay that
wins the Super Bowl, right, and you you get drafted
in the second round by the Packers coming off their
Super Bowl and you know they're gonna be good talk
(22:37):
to me about that day and finding out that that's
the team that that that drafted you, ah man, it was.
It was a crazy experience because I went to New
York with the draft. I was there. I was there
for the draft. My agent thought it was a chance
I could go in the first round. And honestly, it
was a free trip in New York that my family
(22:57):
had never been in New York. So I was like
gold through George, my mom and mom and dad and
Stepplings and we all went to New York for the draft.
It was an experience for us as a family. You know,
they get to get to see the Big Apple, which
that was everything. It was. It was unbelievable experience. But
then like when the draft rose around, you know, as
(23:19):
now it's into the second round, and I thought I
was going to Baltimore. That was like five picks before
green Bay, And then I thought I was going to Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh was heavy on me right before the draft when
I was going to business, so I thought I would
go to Pittsburgh tick before. And then when green Bay called,
I was just like and shocked because I was like, man,
(23:40):
like this they just want the super Bowl, like you said, like,
I'm going to the defending Super Bowl camps, and I
knew that they were gonna have another great team. I
was just trying to figure out, Okay, like now what
is my role? Like we have some really good receivers
of just like a guy who like what am I
supposed to do it? Right? So, but whenever, whenever I
(24:02):
got that call, I was it's no feeling like it
in the world. Like everything that you've ever worked for
in the dreams that bad as a kid are actually
becoming a reality. It's really happy, and you're going to
one of the most history teams in all the sports.
There's nothing like had you been? Yeah, you hadn't been
to Green Bay? Right? No, No, I've never been. Had
(24:24):
you been even to that area? No? Never I thought
Green Bay was like you know, I thought it was
like a New York or a Chicago. It was like
a million people there. The first time that I actually
found out was when I was landing in Green Bay. Right.
So I get drafted and then it's the lockout, so
(24:46):
like I don't get to there's no off season. We
go straight into training. So I get a call like
a Tuesday, like, hey, you gotta be here on Thursday.
So like I get there, like we're landing, and like
my first thought was like, how must have got on
the wrong plane, Like, I'm not a farce. There's no
(25:07):
way that there's a team. Uh you know, lad get
off the plane and the rest is history. Yeah, how
special is that place? The town of cream Bay. No
place like it, No place like it, live free, eat
football there. They love their teams, they love supporting their team.
(25:30):
It doesn't matter if it's uh charity basketball game, a
charity softball game, you know, it doesn't matter. They're supporting.
They're gonna be. There's pack always. You know, if you
have a charity event, they're they're coming, they're donating, you know.
And not only just city of Green Bay, but the
(25:51):
Packer fans in general. Like whenever I travel around the country,
always it doesn't matter what country I'm in, it'll be
a Packer fan will come up to the like, I mean, Spain,
how do you even like, how do you even know?
You know what I mean? It's nothing like, Yeah, you
have had so many amazing iconic moments for the franchise,
(26:15):
what's your favorite? I got I got to what she was.
I want to hear yours. One. I was there. I'm
sure we talk. I'm sure I hugged you and an
inappropriately a snug embrace. That one was the Hail Mary
against the Giants, uh in the in the playoffs, Hail
Mary at the end of the first half. That really,
(26:38):
for all intents and purposes, you just sort of felt
it in the stadium that just kind of took the
air out of them and ended up having a fairly
decent win there, that catch, and it was one of
those I mean, I'm sure you're better at it than
I am, but I've watched a lot of football, and
when you're live sometimes you see it happening, you know,
when you you you see all of the pieces of
(27:02):
the chessboard happening at one second, and I knew knew
where he was going. I saw it all. Whether there
was just i mean just the slightest of push offs,
I don't know, I don't care. It was so it
was that was so great that but by far for
(27:22):
me the game I remember so well, which was probably
quite frankly, probably a couple of weeks after the night
that you referenced you'd been injured, you broke your your leg,
and Aaron was out with you're out. We're at a
bar before a game in Green Bay because I had
(27:44):
planned to go and that game. Actually, I think I
have pictures of you and Aaron and me on the
sideline before the game for the only time because neither
of you were playing. And the last game of the season,
the Packers against the Bears, the winner goes to the
playoff and he hits you with about a fifty yard
(28:06):
forty eights what it says here, but about a fifty
yard just beautiful past run catch right up the seam
to win that game. That one, Yeah, that one, I'll
I don't know if I'll ever forget that one because
it was just so it was just so sweet, man.
That was That was a special one. That's that's one.
(28:29):
That's one B. That one, Okay, that's one B. And
the only reason is be is because one A my
first game coming out of the the lockout, first game back
football Saints, first Packers is the last two champions, Packers
one of the year four year before that, and it's
(28:52):
my first game in the NFL ever and ever catch
a touchdown and then I had kick off return that
tied the record at the time, and like it was
just so surreal, right, like everything that had happened up
until that point. I thought I was getting cut in
training because like I got like a thy contusion because
(29:13):
just a few days of practice, and I was like,
I'm get really get cut and then I make the
team and then that happens, right, So it was just like, yeah,
it was just like this coming out party from me
and this like moment that it was like you can
really do this, like not like you just made it
to the NFL, like you can you can be a
(29:34):
difference maker, you know what I mean. So that for me,
that was like a personal moment that was just like
solidified that I was right where I was supposed to be. Uh.
So that that's why it's one eight for me and
then one be Like you said the game in Chicago,
I was coming off of a broken leg that missed
ten weeks that season and before I get hurt, Before
(29:56):
I get hurt that season, like I was on page
for most fourteen hundred yards until I touchdowns. That's what
I was on paste for before I've heard uh. And
that's my third year and then I get hurt and
I remember the locker room this time for the game, right,
and I don't know. I hope I'm still the same
player that I loved before. And then I ended up
(30:17):
with a couple of touchdowns in that game and having
that play that sent us to the playoffs obviously, and
had missed most of that season. I had missed most
of that season. And for us to have that connection,
and I think that's a special thing about sports, right,
we have these moments in time that we all have
a different perspective of how it happened and seeing it
(30:40):
from a different land and being able to be a
part of that. Emmy Packer fan, that's like one thing
that they always read up. Yeah, yeah, that's that's so awesome.
You know, it occurs to me. It occurs to me now.
The lockout. I had forgotten about the lockout and the
fact that the lockout happened, and the fact that in
(31:00):
that first game the only game on no one else
is watching anything but that, and that Erin trusted you
enough to throw you the ball. I mean that that
that you had already. I'm not talking shit about you
know the story behind that, right, No, tell me so
(31:22):
on the play that he throws it for me. I
was I was actually my second catch of the game
on that play, my first ever touchdown in the NFL
from Aaron Rodgers. He checks the play, and he checks
the play to where I'm supposed to run a flat
route to the sideline James Shawn's is supposed to run
a slant. It's a simple check. It's a simple concept.
(31:42):
But like in my mind, he gave the signal and
I thought the signal was like, it's a slant and
a flat. So in my mind, I was thinking, oh,
he's giving me the slant. He wants me to run
a splint right now. So I run the slant under
own route just happened to be open. He sees the
open grows, I'll make a guy missed before staving in.
(32:03):
So I have absolutely no idea. I'm thinking, oh yeah,
like me and him are like this, like I'm here
with you. Uh. It wasn't until I got back to
the sidelines and I found out all route. Yeah, did
you get a pound on the back at least? Or
did you just get chewed out for running the wrong route? No,
(32:24):
I gotta I gotta pat on the back. I got
a pat on the back, and uh he was. He
was like, hey, we got a joke. From from that
point on, and it's always like, hey, run the wrong
route and get the ball until that pick comes right
over the middle and then you're in big drum. Oh yeah,
(33:03):
but you know, I gotta bring it up. In twenty nineteen,
you leave for the Cowboys. How was that? Were you
excited for a new opportunity in a new place or
was that was that really difficult for you? Uh? Well, first,
I'm I'm gonna say it, leaving wasn't. My contract was
up and it didn't get renewed or I didn't get
(33:25):
another offer, so it wasn't. I was like, okay, Well
free agency comes around and I don't hear anything from anybody,
and I was like, okay, is this is this? How
it all? It's for me? And then uh the Cowboys called.
I was like, man, okay, let's do this. They just
(33:45):
came off a playoff run. They got to mar It's
some opportunity for me. Good team, good scene. I was excited.
I think be hindsight, looking back on it, it was
the best thing that could happen from my career at
that time because I had been in Green Bay so
long that I think going somewhere else rejuvenated me and
(34:09):
gave me a different challenge, right because when you do
something for so long, it becomes kind of mundane, right,
Like that's just kind of what it is. And it's
like everybody knows who did, who you are, what you
what you do. And I had to rebuild all that
I had to. I had to show my teammates like, okay,
like who is Randall cop? Who was who is this
(34:30):
guy that's coming in? So I had to earn my
teammates trust, I had to show the coaches what I
could do. Every day. It was like a proved type
of day for me. And you know, I think I
think that was something that kind of kick started the
second part of my career. You know, I loved my
time to that. Was had a great time. Uh. Coach
Garrett was great. I really enjoyed the time with him.
(34:53):
The Jones family nothing but loved and respect for you know.
They they took me in and want to cowboy all
the cowboys what they say, and I'm very fortunate for
what opportunity they gave me down there. Tell them more
excellent play caller. I loved him. I think he's gonna
be a great head coach one day. Yeah, so that
(35:14):
was that was a fun year. That's awesome. We didn't
we didn't win. We didn't win, we didn't make it playoffs.
But it was a fun year. Yeah. I I had
not heard that from you before that that you know
that that rejuvenated you. And that totally makes sense, right.
I mean it's a change of environment, a new system.
(35:34):
You have to be adaptable and and changeable, and I
can understand how that gives you a renewed energy. You
go to Houston and then you get a call from
the packers about coming back to join them. Talk to
me a little bit about that. And the decision to go, well,
(35:55):
i'll call it home. The decision to go home, yeah, yeah,
to come back to come back where it all started again,
that wasn't a decision for me. It wasn't It wasn't
an option. I got traded and it was the biggest
blessing that I could I had the year that I
had in used to like all of us during COVID
that first year, we were all going to stuff right,
(36:16):
and I don't think that was in a great place.
It wasn't a It wasn't the environment that I thought
it was going to be. You know, it wasn't. It
wasn't what I what I thought that I was walking
through too, And uh, it was difficult. I had a
lot of tough talks with my wife about it, and
I honestly thought about retiring after that season. So I
(36:37):
was like, I just don't. I don't love the game anymore.
It wasn't fun. It was like nothing about it was fun. Yeah,
So that was that was very a very difficult place.
But we we actually played the Packers that season when
I was in US. Was actually when I was in
Dallas and played Packers and was used to play back up.
But I remember before that game it was like right
(36:58):
before the trade deadline what we played the pacts, and
I remember going out for warm up is just like
trying to go with everybody like please come get me, please,
somebody I was going to like I would have to,
like Mark Murphy like please, like I let's go up
to groop everybody. Uh obviously like we can't. They couldn't
(37:23):
do anything about that, but uh yeah, it all ended
up working out in and I was able to come
back last year. Then I loved enough here. I love
planning for this organization and and representing recundation, And like
I said, it's a special places, a special bond that
you have, and you know, I've been going away for
(37:45):
a couple of years. Just made me realize even more
what it meant to be a part of this organisation. Yeah. Yeah, Well,
I know a lot of people missed you when you
left and are glad that you're back. I am hoping
and praying for you and the Packers that that you
have just an absolutely awesome year. I Uh. I know
(38:10):
last year ended not the way everybody wanted it too.
But this year, I'm I'm optimistic and I'm ready. I'm excited.
Good you are, You're excited, You're ready. I'm excited for sure.
Now it's gonna be It's gonna be a fun year,
you know. I think it's it's gonna be some different
challenges for us, but I'm excited about it. I think
(38:31):
that it could be for the better. Our defense completely
stacked going into this season. You look at every level
of our defense and you just got to play makers,
you know, from from from Kenny and the rookie we
just drafted on the behind and the guys rotating in
their custon you know, coming back University of Georgia, Yeah,
(38:54):
basically Georgia North. Yeah, so we we got We've got
some guys in our defense. We got Aaron Jones and
j Tilling is gonna carry the low for us in
the backfield. And any time you got to well, you
get the opportunity. And what I've seen from a couple
of our rookies and from our receiver business off season,
(39:15):
I think we'll be in a good place. I'm confident
and in that and I think for our offense, it'll
it'll be great because you'll have so many guys that's
getting involved. You have see me that's coming in, Kemmy
Watkins and Alan coming back. AMR who's made some strides
this off season. I can't wait to see, you know,
(39:36):
what what happens with his career as this year goes on,
and the opportunity he said he's gonna get, you know,
And I'm really just trying to make sure that I
helped those guys understand what's in front of him. After
the career that I've had and the ups and downs
that I've went through, the valleys that I've I've been
(39:57):
in and the mountain peaks that I've touched, being able
to pass on the wisdom and learn have helped them
learn from the mistakes that I may have made my
earlier career and just see the big picture and understand
that we're we're all instead of puzzle. That's the that's
the the special thing about football is like, it don't
(40:20):
matter how good when person is, like, they can't go
by themselves. You know, even as great as Aaron is, Like,
you gotta have an offensive line protecting. You gotta have
receivers that catch the ball. That's right. You can't you
can't just throw Joe Smoke from Westford University out there
inspected that he's gonna make plays against plow corners, against
(40:42):
Jalen Ramses, you know, and and all these guys like,
we're still guys, we're still pros that you know can
get it done. So I look forward to the seeing
all those young guys coming to their own and myself
included being able to um make some plays and be
a piece at that puzzle and help put it all together. Well, listen,
(41:03):
you're truly one of the good guys. Like and I
mean that, I mean that sincerely. I respect you as
a person. I loved hearing your story today and your transition,
your decision to choose longevity and an amazing career. Thank
you so much for coming on and uh and talking
(41:23):
to me and to us and uh yeah uh go
pack go. Thanks Randolph Man. I appreciate all right. I'll
(41:47):
say it again. I'll say it a thousand times. Go
Pack go. Thank you Randall for joining me. I'm gonna
see you in Green Bay here in just a few months.
Have an amazing season. I know you will. As always, listeners,
if you like what you've heard, be sure to like
and subscribe, leave us comments or reviews, and then, more importantly,
(42:11):
come back next week for another exciting, in depth conversation
with someone very special. Off the Beat is hosted an
(42:33):
executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley.
Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and
Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and
our intern is Sammy Katz. Our theme song Bubble and
Squeak performed by my great friend Creed Bretton and the
(42:56):
episode was mixed by Seth O'landskip
Host
Brian Baumgartner
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.