The Season with Peter Schrager: Richmond Flowers III

Peter goes on a deep dive into the magic that is a Travis Kelce / Taylor Swift potential romance. Peter is then joined by coaching agent and former NFL player and coach Richmond Flowers III. Richmond’s first ever client was Mike McDaniel.  Richmond helps tell Mike’s origins story and explains why McDaniel and the Dolphins are the perfect match.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Season with Peter Schreeger is a production of the
NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's up, everybody, It's this
Peter Schreger. This is the Season with Peter Schreger. I'm
smiling because we're having a blast here on a rainy,

(00:30):
rainy New York City day here in Gotham. Gotta go
Taylor Swift, and we got to discuss it. You could
turn off the microphones, you can shut off the podcast,
you could fast forward five minutes till our guests. That's fine,
but I just have to address it because I have
different takes and everyone else, and you got to hear
from the authority me. I got a tip Sunday morning
that Swift might be at the game. I didn't do

(00:53):
anything with that tip, because what's the report. I go
on Fox NFL Kickoff and I look into the camera
with a serious face. I mean talking about CJ. Gardner
Johnson injury news that Taylor Swift might be at a game.
I kind of love how it was revealed. Rich Russo
is the lead director for Fox Sports and a good
friend of mine. Like an awesome dude, Jersey guy originally

(01:15):
from Long Island, like a legend in the in the
broadcast industry. This wasn't a big thing. It was just like,
all right, game opens and they shoot to the box
and there she is with Kelsey's mom and it says
like twelve time Grammy winner, like she had a stat
I'm like, all right, And then it was just pandemonium.
And for me, who fancies himself a pop culture guy

(01:36):
and likes to consider myself like in the know, and
then for Kelsey, it's like this is like for the
for the NFL broadcaster who also enjoys like the Taylor
Swift like pop culture world, and where she's at in
New York, like this is the shaded part of the
then diagram. Baby, Like this is like right in my wheelhouse.
I come at this at a very what's the word,

(01:58):
Pollyanna view. I like it. I think every time I've
seen Taylor Swift dating one of these guys, some brooding
musician like you, Aaron, and it's like some British guy
who's in an indie band and she's and the guy's
got the shoveled hair and he's like writing, like writing
love songs about like misery or something. She's with the
jock she's with the jock. She's with Travis Kelcey, And

(02:21):
I was a little skeptical the whole thing. The whole time,
I'm like, what's the play here? Because of the way
it was unveiled and there is there a pr element
she's got. I'm like, what here? I love young love.
What if after all her trials and tribulations she fell
in love with a guy who I have fallen in
love with as a player and a personality in the NFL. Like,

(02:43):
you can't not like Travis Kelsey. He might be you
might think he's corny, you might think he's cheesy. He's
a good dude, he's a champion. He's maybe the greatest
tight end to ever played. Don't tell Gronk. And furthermore,
he's like positive, he's likable, he's fun. Uh, this is
a cool match to me. I like it. I'm not
obsessing over it. I don't think it's worthy of that.
But my favorite thing was what came out yesterday. So

(03:07):
the chiefs guys told me that they beefed up security
a little bit. They got worried that she was there
and like they didn't want a crowd or all the stuff.
She came with her backup dancers. She had a couple
of friends in there, and it was like in a
regular experience. But I don't know if you saw this, Aaron.
There were hundreds of fans outside the suite and they're
waiting for Taylor Swift to leave the suite so that

(03:29):
they can, you know, get a picture or take a photo.
And she never left the suite. You never saw her.
And yet later you'd see Jared Payton, who is Walter
Payton's son and the two thousand and four Rose Bowl MVP,
and he's got a video of Taylor Swift and Travis
Kelcey leaving the stadium together. And then there's this amazing
shot of them in a convertible, a Camaro that's just incredible,

(03:50):
and they like dripped off into the sunset like it's
like you know, the movie Grease or something. But she
never left that suite. Well, there's some next level stuff here.
We've got friends who are Philly folks, and yesterday we
spent some time with them. And our friend Dana is
a hardcore Swifty and a hardcore Eagles fan, and she

(04:13):
notified me of when Taylor Swift leaves her concerts, they'll
often put her in a custodial closet of sorts, and
they'll wheel her out in a custodial closet. There'll be
like a broom attached to this giant structure, and then
the fans don't see her. There is video of a
giant metal box with a big bag of popcorn on top,

(04:37):
leaving the suite and being wheeled out of Arrowhead Stadium
suitet level. There is one video that's out there of
a fan saying, at the top of her lungs, oh
my god, that's Taylor, Oh my god, that's her. They
wheeled her out in a giant popcorn box. They put
a giant metal box she slid in like the movie
The Prestige, or like the Trojan Horse, shout out to Homer,

(05:04):
and they wheeled her out in a giant steel box
with a popcorn bag over it so the fans wouldn't
see it. This is why you listen to the season.
You want to know what's really going on. I can't
confirm it, but I think Taylor Swift crouched, put her
six foot body into a metal box. They dropped a

(05:24):
bag of popcorn on top of that thing. They had
two people wheel it out. They went down the elevator.
She comes out of the box. Hello, cuckoockachew here I
am Piekaboo. She pops out, she sees Kelsey. They're not
holding hands. They go off. Now the next level to this.
Kelsey wore a shirt called I think Bedroom Painting?

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Was it?

Speaker 1 (05:45):
The makers of that outfit which is honestly just a
crazy outfit he was wearing, and I give him credit
that he could pull it off. They changed the name
of the outfit from bedroom Painting to nineteen eighty nine
bedroom Painting, so that when anytime anyone searched it, you
get the cloud of the tailor swift stuff to it.

(06:06):
One more thing. Michael Rubin, the godfather of fanatics and
the man who's actually running the world. He tweets out
the numbers that Kelsey's jersey sales are up four hundred
percent and it's the number one selling jersey in the NFL.
And everybody is winning from this thing. Now are they

(06:27):
going to be doing this week now? Rob Hyland is
the producer of Sunday Night Football's Game. It used to
be Freddie Goodelli. He moved on from NBC. Rob Hyland's
the guy now I text with Rob here and there.
I like their production. They do a nice job. I
already hit him up on like Tuesday morning. I'm like,
have you gotten word if Taylor Swift is going to
be in the box at MetLife. He's like, I have

(06:48):
not gotten word yet. We will monitor the situation. But Aaron,
I come at it with a I mean, I love
my wife, we had a storybook romance. We were meant
for each other. These things are possible. Aaron. Are you
in on Swift and Kelsey or are you a p miss, jaded,

(07:08):
miserable New Yorker who is so against everything and she
should be with a poet? What's your thought?

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Uh? Well, first of all, I just want to say
how thankful I am that I get to work on
a show where we can reference Christopher Nolan and Homer
all in the span of five minutes.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
We're gonna nothing but go on, go on.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
I think my feelings around it are wrapped up entirely
on the coverage of it and not about them at all.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
Media critique.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
Yeah, I'm very happy with the build up to this
rumor of Kelsey and Taylor Swift. It was fine, And
you know what, I bet he seems really happy, like
his brother seems happy when he talks about it. I'm
all in on that. That's great. And like you said,
she's been with kind of a host of guys who
like Matt Healey, Yes, John Mayer, the Jonas brother, the actor.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
She was with a guy from Tom h No No, no, no, no,
in between Hidelstein, Hidlstein. He's been bar Mitswa Hilstein, in
between Hittelstein and and the Matt Healey from the nineteen
seventy five. There was a guy she was with for
a long time.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
I think he's an actor, but again, brooding long hair,
I'm just throwing arrows and darts here.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
No no, so yeah, I think that that's the two
of them. If they're that's great. My gripe specifically, was
last night watching the Steelers game and the announcers go,
and I bet Taylor Swift would be happy with the
play right here because she might have been at the
Chiefs game. But Taylor Swift is a self proclaimed Steelers fan,

(08:39):
and it's like, she's not here, what do we need her?

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Breathings?

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Last night?

Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (08:46):
Sorry sorry, yeah, like about.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
And it's like, what are we bringing her up for
in this game. I mean that just it just seemed
like I know, I know, but then there were so
many like for yes, like bringing her song titles inside
wash my god, that's what I Garrett the hour. I
don't I don't need that. Yeah, if they you know,

(09:10):
I love that she's there. I think it's awesome. We
love when celebrities are at games, and like the Rob
Low NFL hat Bradley Cooper's there in the Stanley. I
think it's great that she was there. It was so
fun to see, like her sitting next to Kelsey's mom.
Loved all that. I just don't want like suddenly like
how many Taylor swift lyrics can we work into the
broadcast and then it's just gonna be that. I don't know.

(09:31):
That's that's my one take. It's nothing against her. It's
simply about like how she suddenly consumed the coverage. Also,
like Usher was announced.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Who cares done? No, Sorry, I'm employed by the NFL.
I might use my job for saying that. But like
that last you know, I think you got like four
hours in the Kardashians, like you know, you know she's
dating Odell. No one cares like all other News took
a back seat. What's her name? What's her name? Who's

(10:01):
saying Carrie Underwood was in the truck for NBC? No
one cared. It's like, it's what's it's Taylor Swift. It's
done all right. So there's multiple sides to the negative
on it. Now, there's that side. There's a lot of
critique of why did Rich Russo and the Fox cameras
go to her so many times? There's a lot. I
think Chris Russo was very vocal saying she could have
been nude in the botto. I don't need to see

(10:22):
her that many times. I won't go as far as
I would say it's forty one nothing. You've got a
pop culture moment. They're showing her as much as possible.
Second critique, which I gotta say, guilty pleasure. I love this.
Kelly Keegs on Barstool did you ever follow her? No,
she's a Taylor Swift obsessive, but like she she's got takes,

(10:43):
and her take is that Travis Kelcey's corny, and like,
you build up Taylor Swift so much and like here's
this corny guy that like all his content, she rolls.
If you want to go with that take. That's an opinion.
I'm for that. It's the it's the stuff that I
hat just like, she would never I don't like it

(11:05):
she would never fall in love with him, Like why not?
Kelsey's great dude.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, yeah, and he's he has so much energy. He's fun.
He seemed I mean, you've hung out with him. I've
never hung out with him. I feel like he would
be like just NonStop joy. He just seems like a
great guy.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
I have interviewed him. I'm not exaggerating. Probably a dozen times.
He's in my phone. I text with him. I'm that famous, Okay.
I didn't really get the Kelsey experience until this past summer.
Paul Rudd and Wriggle and Sedekis and Stone Street and

(11:45):
Heidi Gardner do this thing called the Big Slick Charity Classic,
and they invite all different people from all walks of
life to come play in a charity softball game. Then
we visit a children's hospital the next morning, which is incredible,
and then there's like a big event at night where
people perform. And Kelsey and Mahomes were a part of
it this year. Last year they were not. When I

(12:05):
my first time, but I got to go this year
and I was with Kelsey for much of the night.
He's wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots and this
guy is a sweetheart. And he's talking to everyone, and
he's talking to the parents of children with cancer, and
he's talking to Darius Rucker, and he's talking to the
people who work at the stadium and people who work
at the hospital. Kelsey is an awesome dude. He's got

(12:30):
just tons of joy and positivity. And oh, by the way,
if not the greatest, the second best player at the
tight end position in the history of the sport. It's
not like he's some nobody who's like trying to get caught.
He doesn't need this for celebrity status. He hosted Saturday
Live last year.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
Right, and he did well too. I mean, like, you know,
his SNL s get He had the one with Please
Don't Destroy where he throws them around and beats him up. Yeah,
he was good. I you know, as much as he's
you know, caused problems for the Bills throughout his career,
especially the last few years. I like him. He's great,
you know. Yeah, I'm I'm all on board with the

(13:07):
two of them having a great time and if it's
a long relationship, amazing, and if it's not, that's okay too.
Although I do hope that he can survive the fallout
because I do know a lot of time that's okay.
Her ex boyfriends tend to get punished online by her falling.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
But he's not okay a we're not one hundred percent
confirmed that they're an item. She went to a football game,
they weren't holding hands. The TMZ stories that they rented
out a place called I think bar so Seal or
Kansas City so Seal. They rented out the roof and
a couple of guys. But Mahomes is talking with Aaron
Andrews and Aaron's like, what did you think of Swift's
He's like, I haven't. I haven't met her, haven't met her,

(13:45):
so like it's not like they've been like hanging around
and you know, Kelsey Malmes are tight and like, it's
not like they So the word is that Kelsey gave
the Chiefs heads up that she might be coming on Friday,
told the players, and Mahomes said it in that interview.
He's like, I don't you know, okay, or like maybe
said postgameling. I didn't think anything of it, like Travis
says things like I have no idea, and then Sunday

(14:06):
warning like Chiefs building security in the Chiefs Organization was
given the heads up that yes, Taylor Swift will be
sitting in a suite with Donna Kelce. The whole thing
is fun. And in a season where we lost Nick
Chubb but we lost Aaron Rodgers, I'm watching teams lose
seventy to twenty and forty one to nothing. Hell, I'll

(14:27):
take some fun that seventy to twenty is a good,
good little intro for our guests. I think you're really
gonna dig this. If you're not familiar with him, you're
going to hear his story. And I don't know, We're
going with a different route here for this guest. This
is Richmond Flowers, the third one of the top coaching
agents in the NFL, but also a guy with quite

(14:48):
a story to tell himself. Here on the season with
Peter Schrager, we like to have the most interesting guests,
the most connected guests, and give you the story behind
the story. And for this week, after putting up seventy
points in a ballgame, my immediate thought was like, let's
get Mike mcdael on the show. Then I was like,
all right, I know, Mike, We'll get him on in

(15:09):
the off season when he could be truly candid. Who
is the closest person to Mike McDaniel that I can
bring on? Who is someone who knows his story from
the very start, and who is someone who has as
connected in this league as anybody when it comes to coach.
Isn't that person? He's the founder of Collective Sports Advisors
and the QB Collective. He's one of the premier identifiers

(15:30):
of Scout of coaching talent but also quarterback talent, and
I just think he's a fascinating story. Guys, you might
not know his name off it, you will love this guest.
And he is with me now Richmond Flowers the third Richmond,
how are you man?

Speaker 2 (15:43):
I'm good, Peter, how are you doing.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
I'm doing great. So I'm watching McDaniel pour it on
and then take call off the dogs, and then the
backups come in and they're pouring it on and he
tries to call the Eventually they had to take a
knee to end this thing, and I'm like, what a
story for Mike Mike was an assistant for Shanahan all
these years, waiting his turn, waiting his turn, blocked interview here,
blocked interview there. Finally gets an opportunity to interview for

(16:07):
the Dolphins head coaching job, gets it. There are skeptics.
They go to the playoffs last year and now it's
like he's the toast of the town. When did you
first meet Mike McDaniel, And then we're going to tell
the story of your connection with him to where you
both are right now.

Speaker 4 (16:22):
So I had been calling Mike Shanahan and Kyle for
about two to three years. At this point it was
twenty ten. I had just had my first child. My
wife was still in the hospital, and you know, after
again two years of calling Mike Shanahan, trying to be
ready if I could get an opportunity. So anyways, fast

(16:43):
forward twenty ten, Mike Shanahan calls me up. We're in
the middle of running around Cedar Sinai and Mike Shanahan says, Richmond,
meet me at the Combine and Mobile.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
And so I jumped on a plane.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
Kind of felt kind of bad for my wife at
the time, knowing that she was probably going to find
out what it's like to be a coach's wife very quickly,
and so I go down to Mobile. You know, my
interview was pretty seamless. It was Richmond, You're hired, and
Mike was there the whole time. Mike was there, you know,
he was in the Alliance at the time, you know,
I think the Sacramento team, and he was there around.

(17:22):
Kyle had been with him at the Texans obviously, and
he was running around. He had his sort of a
presentation and PowerPoint that he had done where he had
charted the run game efficiency and the correlation between the
playoffs and passing game and the run game and the
efficiencies of the system.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
And you could tell he was super smart.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
And he was down there the whole week and we
were hanging out for a little bit.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
This is Mobile, Alabama Senior Bowl. You're interviewing for a job,
and for the listeners, you had a prominent college career.
We remember you on Hard Knocks. You tried out for
the Cowboys. You didn't have a long NFL career, but
you were like, I still want to get into the league.
So you end up being a coach and when you
interview for the job, there's what twenty five year old
Mike McDaniel with his glasses interviewing you how's that going down.

Speaker 4 (18:07):
Mike was the you know, he was Kyle's ace at
the Texans. Widely documented he had some issues, so did
Gary Kubiak send him on a hiatus, and then Mike
was still at the the Sacramento team at the time.
When I did walk in there, again, I'd like to,
you know, tell you that I had some extensive interview.
But again, I was really Kyle's buddy from college that

(18:29):
played in the NFL and that would go home with
him back to the Broncos and Mike Shanahan's house in
college and trained with the Broncos.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
So I'd been around him.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
We were super close and the trust factor was there.
So I think the fact that I played in the
NFL meant that like he could get away with hiring.
In my case, I'm probably the one guy who was
like he did hire his friend.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
I played with Kyle at Duke, and I became the
coach with Kyle.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
I was I was the I am the guilty party
there when it comes to like Kyle hired his frint,
but you know, he knew I'd get out there and
and and kind of fight and figure it out.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
So you're coaching with Washington. Who's in that room in
twenty eleven.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
In that room is Sean McVay was the other quality
control coach with me. Matt Lafleur had his first quarterbacks
coaching job.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
You had obviously, Kyle.

Speaker 4 (19:22):
You had Chris Furster, You had John Embrey, Bobby Turner,
great running.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
Backs coach, legendary running backs coach.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah, right.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
And you had Chris Morgan who's currently the offensive line
coach of the Chicago Bears. He had come from working
with Tom Cable and became Chris Furster's assistant. And Keenan
mccartal j mc cardle. Actually, you know, he tracked back
to all the different times before even I was a
coaching agent. But Keenan and I were at the Jacksonville

(19:55):
Jaguars together, and you know, he was a savvy vett
and so I kind of walked up to Keenan at
the Senior Bowl that during that exact same time and said, hey, Kyle,
you needed me. Keenan he's the hell of a wide receiver,
knows the position. Good dude, talk to him. Kyle hires him.
So as Keenan, John Embry, Bobby Turner, Chris Furster, Sean McVay,

(20:18):
Matt Lafleure, Kyle myself, and I like to say, like
I walked into the building, and you know, it doesn't
take very long to realize that because you played in
the NFL, that you're a little bit behind and that
you've got a.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
Lot to learn.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
Yeah, Sean, I really couldn't probably turn on the copying
machine and Sean could take it apart and put it together.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
So the McDaniel thing, you guys start coaching together, when
do you make the change to say I don't want
to be an NFL coach, I want to actually be
an NFL agent and represent these guys.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
You know, the truth is my dad's remain college was
Jim Bates, so I'd grown up around Jeremy. We went
to the Johnny Major's football camp growing up, and you know,
I actually almost transferred to Severe County High to be
his wide receiver.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
Tells your kind of family come from where you're like a.

Speaker 4 (21:07):
Guy who moves up lives in Severe County alone to
catch footballs. So I was super close to tracked his career,
tracked Kyle's career. I think at the time, I was
slinging apartment buildings at LA for Howie Roseman's brother in law.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
Actually, Mindy's brother is who you were working for.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
They have all these brothers, and one of them went
to Duke with me.

Speaker 4 (21:29):
So I got connected to Matthew Friedman, and I was
slinging apartment buildings, sitting in a cubicle after selling luxury
real estate for Roger Staubach when the market tanked, And
so I'm sitting there going I'm pretty sure I need
to get back to what I know and love in football,
and I hate this desk and I just want Son
to hit me in the face.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
I got to get the hell out of here. Even
though the.

Speaker 4 (21:50):
One profession that I always kind of knew that I
wanted to stay away from was coaching. To be honest
with you, as a player, that's all I ever wanted
to do is play. I really never saw myself as coaching.
But I think sometimes it takes losing foot all, leaving
what you love and losing kind of a focus of
being around the thing that you really love and know

(22:11):
to really want it back. So really my strategy was
to go check it out, get thrown in the middle
of it all, it was obvious that you were going
to kind of be in the path of progress, and
so the opportunity to get down there and be around
Mike Shanahan and Kyle and all those guys, it was
more of a I believe I could be a really
good agent, and I know that I'll be a better

(22:32):
agent if I'm thrown into the middle of whatever Mike
Shanahan's going to do next. And so I kind of
had a hunch walking in. I figured out my path.
But ultimately you recognize what you're really good at and
what you can be really good at, and then you
know you have to be honest with yourself and assess
if you have a ceiling or not. Good things would
happen if you throw yourself into the middle of something

(22:53):
led by Mike Shanahan. I had so much respect for
him and had known him for a really long time,
and Kyle was really my best friend time who was.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
Your first client. When you leave coaching and you say
I'm going to be a coaching agent, I know that
there's you know, titans of the industry, whether it's Jimmy
Sexton or Bob Lamont. These guys have a stronghold on
all these head coaches and there's legends told about them.
Here's this young gun coming from being an active coach
to now I'm going to be an agent. Who was
the first client that said, I'll jump on that wing

(23:21):
with you?

Speaker 4 (23:22):
I mean, the first client was Mike McDaniel, because we
really sort of sat in the room together for two
years and we would just talk about all this stuff.
I mean, you know, we would talk about the vision
for our careers. We would talk about the build out
of collective and what it means and the importance of it.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
We would talk about where we're going to go.

Speaker 4 (23:42):
I had I'll be the first one to tell you,
because I think Mike's story is all about people needing
to see it before they can believe it, you know.
And I'll never forget one of the first times I
met Mike. Doesn't take it very long to show you
his resume, and at the top of his resume, it's
going to say I'm going to be a Super Bowl
winning head coach.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
And you know I and so I remember.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Wait a second, I'm the resid. It has that statement.
It doesn't say Yale undergrad and coaching Texans. It says
I'm gonna be a super bowling head coach. I mean,
that sounds awfully arrogant to me.

Speaker 4 (24:15):
It's absolutely arrogant. Didn't you see the play callers? That's Mike,
you know, I mean it, it's that belief in self
that separates him. I mean, but that is honest to gods,
truth went to Yale, you know basically that. I mean,
that's what it says at the top of his resume.
And I remember at the time thinking, all right, you know,

(24:39):
just like I said, Mike came in the second year.
And the funny part of that is Mike has probably
me to thank for coming in the second year, because
I was if you were to write down what I
was probably really not very good at, it would have
been the job description of the quality control that I
would have. And so, like, Kyle's tough, and I've experienced

(25:03):
a firsthand, well he's a lot tougher when you're his
buddy and you get hired. So my job was to
look at one picture and find it the little small
detail that was the mistake and then fix it.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
And I'd bring it to Kyle.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
And then he'd be and sitting back down the hallway,
and so like he made me enough that had opened
the door for Mike, and I think by the end
of year one, we should probably bring Mike in here.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Now we're not going to let him take Richmond's job.

Speaker 4 (25:29):
And so that's when he created himself into a run
gurgle because he went with Chris Furster at the O line.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
So yet Mike as a client, what year is that?
Because it doesn't happen overnight for Mike McDaniel. He's an
assistant for Kyle for a long ass time before he
finally gets an interview to be a head coach.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (25:46):
So first my two first clients were truly it was
Mike McDaniel and then Vic Fangio and that's another story.
But twenty eleven, Mike comes in there, and for me,
it's all about perspective and your experiences, and when you
have you gain a perspective by being in this one

(26:07):
of a kind environment and having experiences next to each other,
it changes you. And so like for me, I had
the perspective of getting to see Keenan mccartal come in there,
and then next year Kyle brought an Ike and I
think that that just like anything, when you get your
opportunity to be a coordinator. Kyle's kind of finding his
way and figuring out the dynamics of his staff and

(26:28):
what works and what doesn't and the importance of it. Man,
when Mike came in, you see this unassuming guy that
doesn't immediately strike you as this is the next Vnce Lombardi.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
But as a former player, I had so.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
Much appreciation for the way that somebody could kind of
distill in their mind how to teach a position, the
progression recall from plays that really aren't as hard to find,
because when you love something so much, you know how
to just piece it together. But Mike was so organized
and he had been collecting edits and building a library
to teach from. So I remember when I saw him

(27:04):
on his Exos computer one day and I walked over
there and he basically showed me how he breaks down
the wide receiver position. And I'll never forget I really
learned more in that discussion than I had learned in
the previous two years. But as a career trying to
be a professional wide receiver, because of the way that

(27:24):
he broke down the opponent, he broke down the different
techniques of the starting at the line with press coverage,
whether it's soft shoe man or it's cloud, how to
attack it, the different techniques, the minute detail when you're
running a route, whether you know how you're standing at
the line, whether you're you know, opening up to break
it down and then you know a false acceleration, and

(27:46):
the details of how you come out.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Of your breaks and catch the football. All of it
was right there.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
And the way that he organized it gave me this
picture and it was like, holy, okay, I now you know.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
I just learned so much.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:59):
It was that experience combined with Kyle walked into my
office one day when I was the pictures and basically said, Richmond,
you got a chance to be a Rian receivers coach
one day, but you got to.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Get these pictures right.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:12):
And then and he wasn't probably thinking at the time
that Mike was going to become the wide receivers coach.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
But when you're in the meeting.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
Room and you're watching the players and the way they
respond to him, and you have a comparison, and then
he walks in, this unassuming.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Guy who's super authentic, who's put.

Speaker 4 (28:30):
All this work in and has been staying up all
night long and can stay.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
Up all night long and you know, stay focused on
the task.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Man.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
Every word that he said, those guys listen to.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
They hung on everything he put them in a position
to succeed.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
He would give him tips.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
It was Pierre Garsan and Leonard Hankerson and Santana Moss
and those guys were so attentive, and you realized, I
don't care what anybody says, this guy is going to
be a good receivers coach.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
He's going to be a great coach, because.

Speaker 4 (28:59):
What is more important than the players just listening to
your every word, believing and knowing that investment that you're
making every time you walk into that meeting room. I mean,
and that's second to none.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
I met Mike when he was with Cleveland for that
year and then he was with Atlanta, and it was
always this. I was always tight with a lot of
those guys. But he had the flat brimmed hat. Always
before it was cool, he'd wear the giant hat. He'd
have his sunglasses on and before the game. He was,
you know, twenty something year old guy. And let's call
it like it is, unassuming, gangly guy with glasses coaching
elite NFL wide receivers, and yet they would respond to

(29:35):
him in such a way where it was like, Oh,
this guy's got swag, He's got something to him. Did
you know that right away when he walks in the
room that oh, immediately like he passes the eye test
of this deal. This dude's the real deal.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
I became friendly with Andrew Hawkins, and it's widely documented
how much he respects and loves Mike, and I mean,
you know, yes, absolutely, I mean, at the time, the
truth is, Mike was the only run game coordinator wide
receiver that probably ever existed in the NFL. Yeah, for
the Cleveland Browns, which it makes sense because you know,

(30:08):
Kyle was hired late and so there were some other
coaches on the staff, and you know, it gives you
a little insight into the importance of staff continuity. And
you know, it's also widely documented how what a great
job Kyle's done keeping his staff together and how he's
fiercely fighting for his people because you know, that investment
that you're making in the coaches on your staff, man,

(30:32):
this system is teaching you to look at the world differently,
not just the game, you know, because you're building based
on what you don't know, and I feel like, you know,
one of the.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
Things that became real apparent.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
And I was so fortunate to be around so many
people with a lot of great experiences in the league,
but you know, a bunch of young guys that felt
like innovation was the norm and everything everywhere else is
like this, which is not the case, really, not absolutely
not the case.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Now.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
I don't think those guys ever stopped to realize that
other places aren't like this. So it's a benefit to them,
but for me, not sure if I wanted to coach.
I was kind of looking for the next thing in
my path. And so when Chris Burster would always say, Richmond,
I've been in the league for a long time. I've
worked for Denny Green, I've worked for Tony Dungee, and
these are all amazing coaches, but this is different. This

(31:22):
is such a football focused environment. It's all about the
right things. You're getting empowered here. You're not just being
told what to do. You're serving with a real purpose
and the experience and how everybody was prepared to have success,
you knew. And so when Chris would say that to me,
I started thinking, wait a second, so we're learning something
super rare that you know, ninety eight percent of the

(31:43):
other organizations and staff probably aren't doing things exactly like.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
We're doing them.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
And that just kind of meant that I was building
equity in something by the time I left.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
I mean, you you know, when.

Speaker 4 (31:55):
You're a part of a one of a kind environment,
I mean you just know it, you feel it. And
that was exciting to me because I didn't know exactly
where things would go, but I knew whatever was happening
was special and you and you just had a gut,
so did everybody else. But ultimately, you know, when Kyle
brought Mike to Cleveland, that's so important to have someone
who's lived it, who's been there, who can teach the

(32:17):
other coaches and set the standards and you know, and
so that was a really big deal. And I think
Kyle would have brought some other people along with him,
but he was hired a little late.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
So Kyle then goes to Atlanta, brings Mike with him,
and then Kyle gets the head job in San Francisco,
brings Mike with him, and then for years Mike is
on staff and then finally finally a head coaching opportunity,
it's him or Kellen Moore. I'm not solving any secret.
You will know that what was the interview process for
Mike McDaniel at Post Brian Flores going into Miami And
how did you prep him for that? That meeting with

(32:49):
Steven Ross, who could be a pretty intimidating guy.

Speaker 4 (32:52):
You know, Mike had had actually had an opportunity to
basically have a kind of a virtual interview, and they
had a little exposure to him.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
I'll never forget.

Speaker 4 (33:02):
I got a phone call from Brandon Shore and Mike's
journey special to me because it did take him five
years And do you know if that's exactly how long
it took, But the bottom line is it took him
longer than it should have. And I think the timing
worked out, and everything you know in life is about timing.
And you look at kind of the situation of the

(33:23):
Miami Dolphins and the way they were transitioning, Mike became
the perfect fit kind of what they were looking for
at the time, and so like, it's probably not a
team in the NFL that that I hadn't spoken to
over the past five years or person to talk to
him about Mike and this was it.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
This was the opportunity.

Speaker 4 (33:41):
This was the one team that was going to believe
in him, and they were like, hey, Richmond, we're taking
a serious shot here.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
We mean business were interested.

Speaker 4 (33:49):
And the culmination of everything that's happened for Mike's been amazing.
I mean, you look back at Atlanta and I remember
even you know, you kind of look at Mike and
how you go from being this quality control coach or
this unassuming guy. You know, I used to say, look,
Mike's trajectory's pointing up. The guy was in the broom
closet at the Falcons and h and you look at

(34:12):
I got a phone call one day from Tom Pelliasero
and we were talking and and you know, Mike's alcohol
issues are also widely documented, and I think that this
is a league that it can be difficult if you
if you make certain decisions and you have some roadbumps.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Not everyone makes it back.

Speaker 4 (34:32):
I think it's a testament to Mike and his focus
and and his drive. But ultimately, you know, that was
lingering over Mike, rightfully so, and I think that there
was this moment where he needed to get that behind him,
and he was in this amazing place and I was
talking to Tom and I kind of just said, you
know what, Tom, you need to talk to Mike. You

(34:52):
need to to spend some time with him. You know,
he's going through some he's been through some interesting moments
and times and and he's growing. And and I kind
of left it at that and put those guys in
touch so they could talk, and Mike opened up.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
And and you look back.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
At the Super Bowl when the Falcons played the Patriots.
You know, Tom was at USA Today at the time,
and and and that's when he put that article out
there where Mike talked about his problems. And I think
he became, you know, a real guy then and and
you know, human, and and a little bit more eyes

(35:33):
were on him. And then you know, the reality is
the talent is undeniable, and the amount of work and
the relentless nature is there. And I think, you know,
the one element of when you think about Mike, you
think about what do.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
The players say?

Speaker 4 (35:49):
And those players they're not being asked to say anything,
they want to say something because they build a special
closeness and appreciation for those who can help impact their career.
Between Kyle and Chris Furster and Mike and and all
these guys that just invest in the development of those players.
Those guys are singing his praises and you ask them
and it sounds different, and I think it's it was

(36:09):
really easy once a team actually decided.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
You know what, we're really going to take a real
look here.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
We're not worried about what some people say, or we're
not worried about that, Oh, you know, Mike can't hold
a room, can he?

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (36:22):
You know all these things that you're seeing that Mike's
special qualities and what people are you know, all the
rage about you know, those were the elements that were
people were afraid to pull.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
This of course, you know, and eccentricity, if you will,
like sprinting from the steadycam guy on the Sunday night
for the most of Stark interview or with me last
year in Buffalo and we're having this like ridiculous interview
mid game and people are like, he's goofy. I'm like,
he's authentic. He is who he is. He's not trying
to impress anybody with like some like cliche or something

(36:52):
like Mike is funny as hell, but he's also smart
and he also is authentic. I think the players respect that.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
Well, there's no doubt, and you know he was a
part of that that situation. I mean, you look at Tua,
and you look at what he's doing with Tua, and
then you ask yourself, and as long as you're honest
with yourself and you say, who wanted that job at the.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Time and who was ready to take on Tua?

Speaker 4 (37:13):
Well, I mean it's widely documented that many people were
not ready to take on Tua. There were people who
wanted to bring in Tom Brady, there were people who
wanted to figure out other quarterbacks. Mike not only embraced
Tua but made it the centerpiece of his candidacy with
the Miami Dolphins and spent hours upon hours upon seeing
something that probably very few could see, found it knowing

(37:34):
not only the importance that he needs to sell this team,
but the importance of needing to sell Tua, that he
has someone who fully believes in him. And Mike just
knows the power of that. Why, Well, he's walked the
shoes of somebody that no one's ever believed in that
you know, that grew up with this vision for where
he wanted to go, and so much of Mike's career

(37:54):
has been preparing for it since he was, you know,
this kind of lonely kid raised by a single mom,
and you know, and then those experiences, whether it was
starting and building with Kyle and Houston and then having
it taken away, and then going back to Washington being
a part of this year in twenty twelve where all
these young, driven coaches, you know, at the beginning of

(38:16):
their careers were given the task of building a system
around the quarterback that.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
They didn't know how to use.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
And I think that Mike articulated it so amazingly when
we were preparing for his interview. That experience shaped them
all And it's really an extension of what's happening with
Tua is that they had been through, that they had
experienced it, they had come together in a really collaborative
way and shaped a system that allowed a player to

(38:46):
excel that other people weren't sure if he was fit
for the NFL. Well, Ta it is no different. And
Mike walked in and probably sat down with the Miami
Dolphins and you know, and told him that this was
a great investment. And then for them to see and
understand Mike, he's an innovator. You know. In this league today,

(39:07):
so many coaches pull up the big playrail and they
look at what's working. There's nothing wrong with that. I mean,
what invitation is the best form of flattery. But ultimately,
you know someone's creating, and there's other coaches that are
creating in this league. But there's no question that Mike
probably you know, was pretty confident in letting those that

(39:30):
organization know that he's going to bring innovation, he's going
to bring a culture, He's going to bring exactly what
they were looking for at the time. And it was
an amazing kind of one of those moments when you know,
I think in my career, you set these north stars
and things that you want to happen.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
That's how you well, you love what you do.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
And I actually didn't start by building a coaching agency
per se, because at the time, when you get into
this industry, one of the things that I noticed is
you would ask coaches about an agent, and most of
them really said the same things, Yeah, I have an agent.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
I don't really talk to them that often. Oh no,
they didn't help me get this job, and I'm not
really sure why I pay them.

Speaker 4 (40:16):
And so at the time I thought to myself, well,
that's one profession I'm going to stay away from I
don't think it has that much upside for my family,
And then was it was thinking about that and then
also having this great appreciation for living in the shoes
of a coach and commanding environments, and you know, just
realizing how much more opportunity that these coaches could provide

(40:40):
outside of just their day to day jobs. And you know,
Mike was such a big part of helping me build
some of the things that we did to build the agency,
the events outside to network with coaches, knowing that ten
teams would want to run that system in the next
five years, and so all the video and interviews and
things along the way, thinking.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
Man, one day, this guy is going to get an opportunity.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
Yeah, let's sell. You've got Mike as your first client,
and obviously he's your north star and it all but
for the listeners, just to name a few, you represent
Brandon Staley, You represent Robert Sala. You mentioned ever, Oh,
you've got a very deep client, right, So is there
a recruiting process of Hey, I'm identifying these talented guys

(41:28):
because you've been with Sala for a long time and
he was also a quality control guy in Houston.

Speaker 4 (41:34):
You could argue Sala was also my first client. It
was kind of Mike and Sala and Dan Geo. I
left after those three years in Washington and went to
the San Francisco forty nine ers. And that's always when
you're able to look back on. You know, you go
somewhere and you think one of two things, I'm super
prepared or I'm buying the eight ball. And I got

(41:56):
there and thought to myself, I'm super prepared. I went
from being what was probably the worst guy on the
staff to like elite NFL knowledge in my own mind.
But also I experienced an offensive staff who really didn't
want to hear my perspective even though we were trying
to engineer plays for Colin Kaepernick. Watching Washington Redskins film

(42:16):
and it struck me that.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
Chris Furster, this is what he was talking about.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
And you know, you knew at the time then that like,
I need to stay connected to all those guys because
something's really special. And I realized kind of two things. One,
it was obvious what I was going to do is
build a coaching agency, but only build with rules that
focused on the spawn of the coaches that came out
of the Shanahan Tree. And then when I went to

(42:42):
the forty nine ers, I realized that that was a
little close minded, because there was a guy on the
defensive side of the ball that reminded me of a
guy who would have been a perfect fit at the
Washington Redskins in Vic Fangio. And you know, Vic and
I became close without really knowing each other. I think
there's this like unspoken relationship that says, well, the best

(43:06):
defensive mind knows what the best offensive coaches are doing
and who they are.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
That's his job. And so there was a great appreciation, and.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
I think he knew that I came from a place
that kind of had a pretty good sense of what
good offense was, and so we had a great relationship.
I think it was probably around that same time that
you started seeing, you know, articles being written left and
right about from Shawn and Matt and Kyle about how
defense you know, Vic Bangio's best defensive coach that ever lived,

(43:37):
and and ultimately I became really super close with him,
and you know, to just be really honest with yeah,
I mean, you're around him and all your thinking is
that this guy's a head coach, and you look at Stamford,
and you look at forty nine ers, and you look
at the Bears, and you look at the Broncos, and
you look at the experience, and there's this thing that
binds a lot of these people together is especially the

(43:58):
guys that we represent, it didn't happen for them overnight.
And I think that that gives you a perspective and
an appreciate And what I kept hearing from different general
managers throughout the league, he's just a defensive coordinator.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
He's the best, but he's not a head coach in
my mind, Well, I mean, if you've got a defensive.

Speaker 4 (44:17):
Coordinator who gets you to number one every single time,
every single season, essentially within two to three years, I mean,
that's a head coach. And so you know, Vic ended
up making a transition and became one of my first
clients and I learned a lot from him, and really,
you know, he was the first guy became a head coach,
and it was super rewarding because you kind of, you know,

(44:39):
just like any other coach, you need someone to believe
in you. Yeah, you know, you just need someone to
believe in you. And then it's that two way street
working together with a commitment once you just see it
as long as it it means as much to both
of you. You know, it's super cool to watch Vic
get that opportunity.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
But you know, all right, so you got Vic as
your veteran guy, You've got Mike McDaniel as as your
junior guy, if you will. But one of the things
I love that you put together that always comes out
online in the offseason. You'll put all these guys together
and they're coaching what high school and college kids and
there's these like seminars and I'm watching in action Mike
McDaniel coach because you guys are filming it and the
QB Collective stuff. If you can't find this online, guys,

(45:20):
go look it up Mike McDaniel coaching or Sean McVay coaching.
You'll inter And I remember Hackett this summer was like,
got to go out to Vegas. I'm doing this thing
for Richmond. The Quarterback Collective, Like what is it? And
where was the genesis of that? Where you get all
these coaches together and then you film them actually coaching,
which ultimately leads to great content because we don't see
that on a day to day basis.

Speaker 4 (45:42):
Yeah, I mean that came as a result of my
experience as a player, and then combined with the experiences
in Washington Man. After those three years, all you could
think of was, God, I wish I had this stuff
as a player when I was a kid.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
I wanted it so badly.

Speaker 4 (45:55):
I didn't know where to find it, and I didn't
know it exists because it didn't. And you knew whatever
you learned and the way that you saw the world
at that point in life. It was too late for
me as a player, but it wasn't too late to
figure out, how, you know, to realize that this would
have changed my life, would have given me an opportunity
to have been half as talented and played twice as
long by having this access to this knowledge. And so I,

(46:18):
like I mentioned, it was a one of a kind experience.
I wanted to give that to someone else, and that
you knew that you needed to. If Chris Burster said
that no other staffs like this, and then you believed
that you were going to build out of the lineage
that would grow in the future. You also then at
that point know that, huh wait, a second Senior Bowl.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Combine that's two events, and if you don't go to those,
you're out of luck.

Speaker 4 (46:43):
And if you do go to them, if you're lucky
enough to grab a beer next to someone, that'll be
the catalyst for the rest of your career.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Could that could be the reason you get hired.

Speaker 4 (46:50):
So it wasn't very hard to get people hired, and
you needed an event where you could bring people together
that was had the context of what we experienced in Washington,
because you knew that was really powerful, so even if
you could get a taste of it, it could impact.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
And so what we did is really just started building.

Speaker 4 (47:09):
Brought in the top quarterbacks in the country, brought back
you know as a favor, Sean, Kyle Matt, We had
Kevin O'Connell's there the first year.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
You know, a great group.

Speaker 4 (47:20):
Of people, and then you know that these parents and
these coaches, these are the market experts. They've been taking
their kid all over the world to go see all
these events. They just needed to see this product. And
coaches were not impacting in that space. Private coaches were,
and people with social media were essentially exploiting parents and players.

(47:41):
And so in my mind, this was how you could
look at agency differently. Insert these coaches at the top
of the food chain and allow them to then insert
leadership into a space that really had none.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
That was the hunch.

Speaker 4 (47:55):
The only way you find out if you're onto something
is that you get those guys there, let him, let
them run the event, and then watch and these parents
and these coaches and everybody. It was almost like the
parents have found the founta of youth and they were
so excited and they.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
Were hanging on every word.

Speaker 4 (48:12):
We focused on the classroom versus the field because that
was something that you really couldn't get and see, and
it was just this amazing experience that kind of confirmed
that to a certain degree. Picking up on what Verster said,
if this was so rare, then we needed to build
the VIP room of coaching. We didn't need to tell
people that. We said it's the QB Collective, but it's

(48:32):
a development pipeline for coaches and quarterbacks to identify develop
represent led by the brightest minds in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
It's cool. It's like the Avengers. You watch these videos
and I hope we have the right I mean, Aaron,
can I toss to a some sound of McDaniel from
this we' got the approval right there. Richmond there we go, yeah,
and we'll play it. But like you hear mcdannil's talking
to high school kids, but he's really talking to the world.
Because this is a rare opportunity, and you guys smartly
turn the cameras on and we get an opportunity to
listen how these guys actually coach, not just their press conferences.

(49:03):
We show and then right when you get to the
to the Mesh Foyd.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
Google Tom Brady play action, you'll.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
See aggressive snaps that Ryan was awesome.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
So three s'soo all right, so we hear McDaniel there,
Well we hear McDaniel there, like, that's what it's like
being in the quarterbacks room.

Speaker 4 (49:26):
Yeah, oh man, I mean, and then you know, getting
all those guys. And the truth is, when we first started,
I didn't know exactly why.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
I knew.

Speaker 4 (49:37):
I truly did know. You did know that these guys
were all going somewhere. You knew that this system would
catch fire. You also knew that it would grow so
fast that the traditional way of building a coaching staff
was out the door because it was going to grow
so quickly that people were not going to hire people
they had actually worked with before, and so could this

(50:01):
event replace having worked with someone on a staff by
spending three days with them in the right kind. Absolutely,
and so you know, to a certain degree, you know
you're you put this forward knowing that let's capture it all.
In my mind, there was like maybe one day this
will turn into kind of the last dance the yeah,
you know, as the as the whole entire league goes

(50:22):
through this like transformation, at a bare minimum, will be.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
A footage of something yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
And then then you would go back and you would
look at this stuff and you would see Sean you know,
spitting fire to young kids that happened to have Caleb
Williams and Bryce Young and dj Angalele and Tanner McKee
and Matt corral Uh and and all these guys Year
one in twenty sixteen. Because that event was focused on development,
not trying to capture marketing opportunities as they enter college.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
It was truly about development.

Speaker 4 (50:54):
It was a truly authentic environment, and these coaches only
knew one way all in and so over time when
you would look at that content, you know, you didn't
realize that you were building equity by listening to coaches,
but at the same time you were starting to see.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
Like, God, this guy is so good.

Speaker 4 (51:11):
And when you're watching these guys back to back to back,
you know, you just kind of take a mental note
and build a library of you know, the immense talents
of some of the best teachers.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
If I'm a parent of a high school kid who
I think has a shot, like, is it one of
those deals where I can sign him up and he
could be a part of the Quarterback Collective or is
it you guys send invitations.

Speaker 4 (51:30):
It's invitation only, you know, I think long term, I
always viewed the QB Collective as the central nervous system
of intelligence and the sport of football to grow into
the future, and so that would be.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
Something and we've toyed with it.

Speaker 4 (51:44):
I think two years ago we ran forty six camps
and they were all sold out, and that was sort
of available to everyone. But I felt like it was
diluting the brand, and we needed to focus on this
high end invitation only a network of private coaches that
could kind of allow us to bring the best of
the best into an environment and then even make it
smaller and bring the future and really tutor and train

(52:07):
and develop and give these guys a perspective that shows
you very quickly that the value proposition is unlike anything
that they've ever experienced in that space, because it truly
would change their lives. When you get an opportunity to
work with you know, you're sitting there in high school
and it's Ben Johnson and then at Jiro is giving
you the perspective of the defensive coach, and Mike McDaniel

(52:30):
and Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay, and they're not just there,
they're investing in coaching.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
They're coaching.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
My last question as we wrap this up, I used
to get sent to the Senior Bowl for Foxsports dot
Com when I was a writer, and I'd say early
two thousands, and I have told the story in the
podcast before. I knew I was never going to be
John Fox's guy. I knew I was never going to
be Rex Ryan's guy. I knew I was never going
to be Sean Payton's guy. Those guys were of a
different generation. But I saw young coaches that's in and who

(52:57):
they were. So I would look at the staff of
each team and try to find the youngest coaches and
one of those guys was Sean McVay. Who was a
twenty seven year old tight ends coach with Washington, and
I emailed him literally like Sean dot McVeigh at Redskins
dot com and was like, Hey, I'm thirty or twenty seven,
let's get a beer. I'm gonna be in Mobile. He's like, yeah, sure,

(53:18):
let's do it. How just stress how important that Mobile
Alabama Senior Bowl thing is if you want to be
a coach or if you want to be immediate, if
you want, that's where you go. You don't go to
the Super Bowl to meet people. You go to the
Senior Bowl.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
There's no question.

Speaker 4 (53:30):
I mean that can be a pretty depressing environment as well,
a bunch of coaches walking around with their cell phones
and resumes.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
But coach Shanahan and Kyle the way that they.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
Picked that staff, and that's where I look back and
it's kind of like, gosh, it don't talk about it
enough for Mike Shanahan to allow, you know, a bunch
of young guys and twenty something to come together like
that that they knew what he knew what he was
looking for.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
And I met Sean down there and the Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
The Senior Bowl is an amazing place, opportunity to meet
a bunch of people. But whenever you mentioned just Sean,
I mean, like the that's not a who figured it
out later in life. That's a guy who also knew
exactly what he wanted to do, how he wanted to
go about it, was preparing for it since he was
in probably fourth grade. Went to the Miami of Ohio
because it's the cradle of creda. Yeah, he helped me

(54:19):
so much going in there realizing how little I knew.
I mean he literally started from scratch, did for me
probably what John Gruden did for him. He was training
me to draw x's and o's and the importance of
the detail. And and you know, again it doesn't take
very long when you're around all those people that it

(54:40):
just took these amazing individuals and then put them on
an accelerator that was looking at football differently and looking
at more because when you're building, you know, you've heard
the adage in football and coaching like.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
We're not really worried about what they're doing.

Speaker 4 (54:57):
We got answers for it, you know, And and that
was not this this was open minds.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
Figure it out.

Speaker 4 (55:05):
We're going to we're going to figure out we're gonna
build based on what's being presented, and we don't know
what's gonna happen, and then what happens forces you to
think in a way that you didn't and so really
you're seeing more.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
And I think that really that's sort of a good.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
Way of packaging up and saying, you know, how did
all these guys from the same staff have so much
success so fast? Well, those experiences and then coming together
and challenging one another.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
To build and create and one up the other guy.

Speaker 4 (55:31):
I think they were looking at things more deliberately, you know,
ten X, learning on a day to day basis, and
then over time, when you get your opportunity, you do
go to that next spot and you go, damn, I'm
super prepared. Sean was an amazing example of that. And
uh and it's always been pretty amazing the way that
he's support didn't come on out to our to our events,

(55:51):
and you know, he'll probably be sitting in your chair
one day, so he's probably learning from you.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Maybe maybe I know that that almost happened a little
earlier than expected. Richmond Flowers the third we didn't get
into your family's history of football. Incredible. You're a good man,
You're a busy man. I appreciate taking the time and
specifically giving us a little window into the beautiful mind.
That's Mike McDaniel absolutely in closing. This is not a brand,

(56:17):
like you must ask. I'm asking because I think there's
actually a cool story behind it. I see. You know,
if you're watching the video here, you're wearing a shirt
that says your Bay plant based energy, and I'm like,
half of me's like, all right, just let it go.
Half of me he's like, why is Richmond wearing a
shirt with a brand? And then you start talking to
you about it, and there's like there's a cool story
to be told, all right, So this is not a

(56:38):
brand product placement, but it kind of is explain why
you're wearing a shirt called your Bay and then let
the listener decide whether this is a roll your eyes
or this is okay.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
That's interesting, well interestingly enough.

Speaker 4 (56:50):
You know, first of all, a lady named Didegar who's
the head of sports and Entertainment at Goldman Sacks. She's
been there for thirty nine years. We're super close. She's
like immensely respected in the industry. She came out to
one of our events and it was the right event.
It was Mike McDaniel's and fire with Chris Furster and
Frank Smith next to him, and Brandon Staley in the background,
and Questiadolpho Mensa sitting on the fringe with Mike Silver

(57:13):
and Jordan Rodrick and Nikki Jababala and all these creator
reporters and some of the young future of coaching, letting
Mike McDaniel hold court. And she saw that and it
was super impressive. Fast forward two years and we'd built
a great relationship. She called me up and said, hey, look,
you were looking for a sponsor for your event, and

(57:35):
she introduced me to the founders of a company called
your Bank. Said it was an energy drink. Didn't think
much of it. She put me in touch with them,
and it was very clear that they were already engaged
on the value of coaching. And so now that's what
Collective represents is the innovative, brightest minds coming together.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
I'm the doorman so that.

Speaker 4 (57:56):
We can help the coach does not have them pick me,
and then it's like have them in there, and then
what's the best use for that?

Speaker 2 (58:03):
And in my mind when we got started, it was.

Speaker 4 (58:07):
Emerging technology brands using virtual coaching, and they're the new
influencers in the NFL. So we looked at this as
an incubator, and I was always sort of looking for.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
The right product fit, because it's got to be right.

Speaker 4 (58:20):
You looked at the product fit healthy energy, plant based energy,
you know, the crap that's in those other energy drinks,
and more importantly, then you thought to yourself, hold on,
this could work.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Coaches are always going.

Speaker 4 (58:32):
To be low and they're always going to be feel
fine with having an energy drink that's healthy for you
and it's plant based, et cetera. And so for us,
what this really was about was let's see if we
could partner up with a company like this that said
we don't do sponsorships, and so wow, that was the
real test.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
Would coaches invest.

Speaker 4 (58:52):
In a product because they really believed in it, because
they saw the product fit. And coaches will have a
certain appreciation for getting that opportunity because they don't do
sponsorship deals. They don't think they're worth you know, they're
not thinking about anything besides we believe and we like
the way it tastes. And the truth is, you went

(59:12):
and introduced yourself, you know, I introduced them to Lincoln
Riley and Kyle Shanahan and and uh and and this
amazing group of coaches, and they immediately all said the
same thing.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
We like the way it tastes. We believe in it.

Speaker 4 (59:25):
They hadn't invested in other products, but they invested in this.
And the truth is what we're doing as a company
is we've got these amazing coaches. But ultimately, can coaching
move the needle on emerging brands? Can coaching move the
needle on a publicly traded company through influence at the
highest level because they truly believe in the product and

(59:47):
we'll find out if So that's kind of where I also.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
Open the doors to the next thing, a running shoe
or if he a headset or whatever it is.

Speaker 4 (59:55):
So I like, hey, so maybe it's not a placement,
but at the end of the day, we felt like
just deserved the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
What's the word we use with McDaniel, it's authentic, that's it.
It's not like you're out here promoting an underwear brand
because they're giving you a couple hundred thousand dollars. You're like, no,
this is the product that these guys drink. Let's try
to do someone with it. I respect that. I respect
that your mind is always working that way, and I
respect that you gave us all this time.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Richmond, Thank you, bro, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
Interesting guests different Aaron, Like, Richmond's a character, he's smart
as hell, and his roster is as good as anybody
as far as coaches go. But like, I just wanted
to get a look inside the new the I guess
the origin story of Mike McDaniel.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
Yeah, I mean it was really cool hearing Mike's interview process,
and you know, like you said, he was a guy
who hadn't who had been up for jobs, hadn't had
the interviews, and then went in and he was he
said it later in the interview too, the right guy
for that job at that time. And clearly that's working
out for him now.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
No imagine, imagine you're an owner and you draft to
a fifth overall and everyone comes in and says, well
two is not your guy. I got plans for Tom
Brady or we've got to draft someone else. So there's
and then McDaniel comes in, as I've already driven, I've
already drawn up the entire offense around TUA, and this
is what's gonna work you'd like, all right, I'd like
to take the benefit of doubt, and I'll have to
start all over again. That was cool. That was different.

(01:01:17):
We'll see how the Dolphins finish out. But I figured
it as a three and oh team after just putting
seventy points up. If you can't get McDaniel, let's get
his closest friend and the guy who represents him in
his business affairs real quick.

Speaker 3 (01:01:27):
Not to call us out, but the three and old Dolphins,
who I think neither of us picked for Let's stop.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
What are you doing? We move right along. What's the
Kevin James meme? Like Peter, you didn't pick the Dolphins
to make the playoffs. And then that's the picture of
me with my hands in my pockets making that the
fetching look that Kevin James has. In closing, I did
want to hit on two little things. One Thursday night
football Lions versus Packers. I will not be watching live.

(01:01:55):
Can I tell you why?

Speaker 3 (01:01:57):
Because you'll be I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Melissa Ethridge, die hard Kansas City Chiefs fan, sent me
an invite to go to the premiere of her one
woman Broadway show that is premiering Thursday night and I
said yes, so I'll be in the house. I don't
even I don't know what it's called. I think it's
called like come to my window or something, but like

(01:02:20):
it's Ethridge. She did an off Broadway one Woman's show
this past spring. I think it got rave reviews, it
got picked up to be a Broadway show. And I've
known Etherage since she started watching Good Morning Football. We
DM We texted all this stuff. I get this lovely
invite from her, like, why don't you and your wife
come to the premiere. I don't know if this is

(01:02:40):
winning any Tony's. I don't know what I'm in for.
And this is a story that I come in pretty
blindly on. She's had some real tragedy in her life
in the last couple of years. She also was a groundbreaking
musician in a lot of ways, and I love her.
So I will be attending Melissa Ethridge's One Woman Broadway
Show Thursday night. If you want to talk about a
podcast that really hits all culture angles and the truth

(01:03:03):
of the matter is long before Taylor Swift was a
pop star repping the Chiefs, I go day one with Ethridge.

Speaker 3 (01:03:10):
Okay, I love it, so Homer Christopher Nolan most etherwards,
there we go. We got our trio right there.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
At it come to my window and you know what,
she's not gonna sue us. She's not because we're friends.
And the last thing, you know, the travel story that
my friend Jay gave last week, like the responses were
through the roof. But I'm tapering it back. I don't
want to be a complaining podcast. I don't want to
be a podcast that just makes you feel anxiety. I

(01:03:39):
don't want to be a podcast that suddenly we have
our niche and it's just a guy who gets paid
to fly and travel. Handsomely, it is about travel the
entire time. However, I sent you guys, and Jason English
is here from Iar. I sent you guys a photo
that was like the sneakiest photo I've ever sent Aaron,
did you see anything in the photo that I sent

(01:03:59):
or was it too blurry food to even see what
it was going on? And I sent you a photo
Saturday morning from my delta flight.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
There is no amount of blurriness that photo could have
had to hide the two bare feet on point.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
I'm seated next to a cretan, a caveman of a man.
I get seated in a seat and it's one of
those where you're sitting next to somebody. It's just a
two of us and I sit down and it's seven
in the morning and flying out to LA from New York.
All I want to do is close my eyes and
go to sleep. Well, I sit down, I start to

(01:04:37):
doze off a little bit, and I notice out of
the corner of my eye a toenail. In my vision.
This man might have been in his sixties seventies, and
I would say he is like a hippie type. And
when I say hippie type, he like kind of had
like free flowing gray hair. He thought he was like
a silver fox of some sort. I hope he's listening.
I didn't get his name. And he immediately sits down,

(01:05:00):
slips off his loafers, and he just is rocking barefoot.
So what would one do in the situation? Sit and
fester and be grossed out the entire No. I spoke up.
I said to him, sir, and he looked at me,
shocked that someone would even address me. Go, do you
mind putting on some socks or some slippers? This is

(01:05:22):
a long flight and I can't be looking at your
feet the whole time. And he said to me, excuse me,
I said no, in all honesty, I have my things,
and one of them is I am grossed out by
bare feet. If you don't mind, would you either put
a blanket over your feet or put on some slippers.
And he put on some slippers. Oh, I fell asleep.
I fall asleep. I hear some rustling. I see this

(01:05:44):
gentleman walking in the aisle to a bathroom on a plane, barefooted,
use the bathroom, and then come back slide into his
seat right next to me, still barefoot, and I just
I just closed my eyes and I said, I already
had my one. I spoke up. I'm not gonna do

(01:06:05):
it again.

Speaker 3 (01:06:05):
So he has slippers on and then intentionally took them up.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
I think he was waiting for me to fall asleep
so we can get those darned slippers off, Get those
get those mittens off my toes, let them be free.
And its feet were not well pedicured or manicured, whoever
the term is. It was disgusting. I mean, hairy toes
the whole thing. Just another week of travel, my friend.

Speaker 3 (01:06:26):
I mean, frankly, from that story, I'm not too concerned
with what was on top of his feet. Now I'm
worried about what was on the bottom of it. Right
into the bathroom.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
Didn't care, doesn't know what's been going on in that bathroom.
Just barefoot.

Speaker 3 (01:06:37):
Also, we've had some stories from flights in the past
month of disasters.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
No, my flight was smooth. I took off on time,
I got home on time. Everything was great. The airlines
did wonderful, Delta and Jet Blue, little combo deal. Delta
in the on the Saturday out, jet Blue on the
Sunday home so I can watch the games. All baseful.
You can't control who's flying your planes. Again, not gonna
go big on it. Don't want to complain. I'm paid
to fly. It's great. I had a lovely flight. The

(01:07:02):
in flight meal was delicious. Just a disgusting barefoot man
to me. And that's just lucky to draw sometimes.

Speaker 3 (01:07:08):
And just for clarification, this is because Jason's sitting next
to you barefoot right now, right here's.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
My guy, Jason. Jason, your feet are always welcome. Guys,
different kind of podcast, that's what we want. Thanks for listening,
Tell your friends, subscribe, write a review. If you hate this,
write a review if you like it, write a review.
I'm pretty proud of the work we're doing over here,
and I want to keep it rolling. So this Season

(01:07:35):
with Peter Schrager, let's get into one of those top
ten playlist things on Apple or Spotify or whatever it is.
Let's go up there with the New Heights podcast or
all the rest. We want to be the best football
podcast there is. I certainly know we're giving you the
most unique content. All Right, guys, thank you. The Season

(01:08:07):
with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL and
partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
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