Chris Harris Jr.

The chip on Chris Harris Jr’s shoulder began to form in high school. He’d lettered in three sports, been All-State in football and basketball and was honored for his academics. Yet he hadn’t been offered a scholarship after his senior year of football. Finally during the basketball season, the University of Kansas gave him an offer. Once other schools head of KU’s scholarship, they jumped on the band wagon and started calling Chris. The chip started.  

After his career with the Jayhawks where he played 50 games and racked up nearly 300 tackles, there was no invite to the Senior Bowl, the East-West Shrine game or the Combine. Instead, he had a Pro Day which went well, but he still went undrafted. Then the 2011 NFL lockout started. The chip deepened.  

When the lockout lifted, Chris was with the Broncos, trying to make a team with some top-notch defensive backs. He balled out on special teams, got the attention of coaches and made the roster. Eventually he’d be a starter and a key component of the “No Fly Zone” which helped the Broncos win Super Bowl 50.  

In 2020, his contract was up with the Broncos and despite thinking he would be resigned, he wasn’t and instead went to the Chargers and later to the Saints. In 2023, teams stopped calling and Chris knew it was time to retire, which he did in October of 2024. Today he’s embarking on some new adventures and trying to ensure he and his wife don’t get overthrown by their 5 young daughters.


Listen to Chris’s story and conversation with @susiewargin on the Cut Traded Fired Retired Podcast. Links to listen on your favorite podcast platforms in the @ctfrpodcast bio!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We had to change our mindset that the years before
was like, Hey, it's all on Peyton. Peyton's gonna get
us the super Bowl, He's gonna win us the games.
You know, He's gonna do everything, you know, And we
just decided, hey, we're not going to put that pressure
on Peyton in We're going to go out there and
handle it ourselves. And that was our mentality that, hey,
it doesn't matter what Peyton and what the offense do.
We don't even care what they do, like, We're just

(00:20):
gonna go try to win the game ourselves. And that
was our mentality, and I think that's how we are
able to get over the hump.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Welcome to Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired. If this is your
first time listening, Welcome. If you're returning for more, Welcome back.
This podcast features conversations with professional athletes and coaches who
have faced a variety of challenges in their careers and lives.
I'm your host, Susie Wargen. When Broncos fans hear the
phrase no fly zone, one of the names that instantly

(00:46):
comes to mind is Chris Harris Junior. Chris grew up
in Oklahoma and was a stellar three sport athlete, but
he didn't get much love from the big colleges until
Kansas offered him a football scholarship after watching him play
a basketball game. His senior year as a Jayhawk, Chris
played in fifty games, racked up almost three hundred tackles,
and eventually went into their Ring of Honor. Yet he

(01:07):
went undrafted and fought his way onto the Broncos roster
by standing out on special teams and eventually in the
defensive backfield. He was a four time Pro bowler and
Super Bowl champion with Denver, but when his contract was
up in twenty twenty, he didn't get re signed, so
he went to the Chargers and then eventually to the Saints.
In twenty twenty three. When team stopped calling, Chris realized

(01:28):
it was time to retire, which he officially did in
October of twenty twenty four. Now it's time to work
on part two of his career and be a dad
to five young girls, ladies and gentlemen. Chris Harris Junior,
Cut Traded Fired Retired podcast with Susie Wargen. Chris Harris Junior,

(01:49):
how are you?

Speaker 3 (01:50):
I'm doing great?

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Definitely exciting weekend and you know now I'm covering mode now.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I know, I caught you the tail and we were
going to kind of do things in the middle, and
then I had so much stuff going on. You officially
retired this weekend, which is pretty cool. Whole family came in,
you and all the girls and grandparents and everything. That's
really neat.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, that was good, and you know, it's always good
to kind of close that chapter well, and I was
able to do that.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
It was a great.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Experience just reliving everything, you know, seeing all my pictures
on the walls, and I'm looking at the decade teams,
seeing when I'm a little kid, you know, twenty two
and then all the way up to I know, but
I was pretty much grown. So you know, it was
just it was good to see in my family, my
little girls to be able to see that too.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, because now they're older and they enjoy it more. Yeah,
and so speaking a little kid. The way this works
is we go way back to when you first started
and getting into sports. You're born in Oklahoma, Yeah, go
to Bixby, Yes high school. Okay, you're a letterman in football, basketball,
and track. How did you get into sports? Were there
other sports along the way? That you liked.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
My parents threw me out there in like age five,
you know, I was out there. You know, I'll never
forget one day just coming from school, come from kindergarten.
My mom just took me out there to football practice
and just kind of just threw me out there for
like tryouts and ever since then.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, yeah, it kind of just put me out there,
you know, and love it. But it worked out to
be great.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
You know, a lot of those same kids that I
started with at five, we played basketball and football together.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
That's cool to be able to grow up with a
group that you can do that with.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
After a while, you know, they started having middle school
football and things like that, so everybody kind of went
their separate ways football, but we still played basketball au
basketball together from five all the way up until I
graduated high school.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
You were a good basketball player too. What did you play?
Point guard?

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Point guard?

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah, yeah, point guard that I was just feisty, I
was quick, you know, and I could orchestrate the game.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
And that was not number one sport.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Basketball was okay. What'd you do in track the check?

Speaker 1 (03:52):
I think that was just like more of just maintaining
and just keep making sure you can run and keeping
speed and sprint. Yeah, I think I did, like the
I know I did one hundred four by one long jump,
but I don't think I think we get the farest
we got was.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Like third I think in the state long jump. Huh.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, I don't think it was some blazers at that
time of my you know, in Oklahoma, and now it's
even crazier and I'm not here in Texas, so you know,
it's a whole different world.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Oh yeah, absolutely, all right. And then your honor throughout
high school obviously for your athleticism, but also academically. Academics
are important to you.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Coming from where I'm from, you know, we only have
one person in my family that made it to college,
and that was my uncle really and he went to
TU and that's an academic school, so you know that
was always striving to be like him. You know, he
played collegeball, and so that's what I wanted to do.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
I wanted to go to college.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
I wanted to make sure I had enough grade to
be able to make it there. My school wasn't heavily
and recruiting yet, so I just meant to make sure
that I had everything lined up where they couldn't really
deny me.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
So were you getting scholarships for football and basketball?

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Just football?

Speaker 2 (04:56):
What happened both Okay and.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
I didn't get offered until Kansas coached man Gino. He
came and watched me at basketball practice.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
No kidding.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, I didn't have any offers after my senior year.
So even though I was one of the top players
in the state, I still had no offers.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Don't do any visits during your senior season or anything
like that. Oh wow, No.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
So I always had to fight, so it was always
it was always a battle.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
So you get an offer after a basketball practice.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, he comes to my basketball practice, he sees how
moving I guess, and on the floor moving around, and
the next day they literally offered me.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
So is Kansas your only offer?

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Well I would always say that, right, yeah, like Missouri State,
you know, tu try.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
To come around.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
Some of the Oklahoma schools tried to come around afterwards,
but it was already too late. It was like, y'all
came to my games play.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
Like I've came to your camps, Like, oh know who
I am. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
It was just always very I always felt very disrespected
from that, so that was always a chip on my
shoulder that that I brought with me to Kansas, and.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
They didn't come knock until Cam sitting there, like, oh
we got to do one.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah, I better get on it.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
And I'm facing guys that already have big time offers
and doing pretty well versus of these guys. So I
was very confused as a kid, you know, just like, man, like,
what's going on here?

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Why don't you get your chance?

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (06:14):
I'm a plus with the school, you know, off the field,
I'm not getting in trouble.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
You know, I'm doing my handle, my business.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
So it was just something that, you know, it was
part of my journey, you know, it was something that
kind of led to having that chip on my shoulder
and having that.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Worked well for you as life went on. Right, Yeah,
so you go to Kansas and what's that like? You
leave there with all kinds of accolades and awards and records.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah, it started out very great.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Did you play as a true freshman?

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (06:40):
I started as a true freshman, and able to come
in there as a true freshman and start opposite to leave.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
To leave at that time was all.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
American being able to start with him and get thrown
in the fire.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
Early. So that really got me ready for what was
to come.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
And did he mentor you a lot back then?

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah, you know he was always a big brother for sure. Yeah,
always you know, looking out for me. And he's all
been good at that. He's always been a good big
brother protector. You know, he had his young dvs you
know where I was a young dB. I'm starting with
him as a true freshman disciples. Yeah, so you know,
you know, you don't rather you really get that all America.
He's starting with a true freshman. You know, I'm not
the biggest kid either. You know, he definitely was a

(07:17):
great big brother for Shure.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
So had anybody told you back then that, hey, the
two of you are going to play together and win
a Super Bowl together, would you have even thought that
was a possibility.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Nah?

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Nah, not in us being able to come back and
play together. And you know, and people don't understand we had.
When you play with somebody that long, we kind of
know everything. We know, like he knows how I'm moving,
and I know how he moves, and I can tell Kay,
this is coming here. He has that trust and belief
that he knows what I'm seeing.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
That's why I wanted to see the other guy. You
almost exactly know what's happening, right, Yes, I think that's
so cool when two teammates can have that connection where
you just automatically know what the other is doing, and
that's hard to find and it's really special.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, and that's why we were able to you know,
have success in CODs, win the BCAS Championship and then
being able to win the Super Bowl, you know, and
then also you know, I think we're the only corner
duo to ever have first All pros together.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
I think we might be the only ones in history
that's done that.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
So, yeah, that's really cool.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, we're a pretty good tannl together.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yeah. So you get through Kansas and do you get
need invites to like the Senior Bowl or Huli Bowl.
I know the Combine didn't invite you.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah, Oh my coach skipped. Three years later in Kansas,
my coach got fired. And also five games in I
switched to safety. I did that because I wasn't getting
any action that corner, Like I couldn't make any plays.
So it's just like I'm just out here, you know. Yeah,
I was just I'm just out here. I can't affect
the games or so. So coach was like, hey, let's

(08:48):
put you at safety, and I think the scouts looked
at as a like, he's not he can't move, he
can't cover, Yeah, like a demotion.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
So I went from being pretty ranked. I was definitely
up there at corner to not.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Being anybody's radar, yeah, at safety at all.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
So I think that really hurt me, just switching those
last five games, because I had already started thirty something
games that corner and I've already faced Dead Bryant, Jordy Nelson,
Jamie Mackland, Crabtree, you know all these guys at Texas.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
Oh you guys.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
So I've already faced these guys at corner. So when
I look back at that, definitely wouldn't have done it.
I would have just stayed that corner and just.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Just coach that though I'm going to stay at corner. Yeah,
that's tough to do in college when the coach wants
you to switch positions.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, it's tough. But I think I could have kind
of fight.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
For that enough Boxy by then, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
I think I could have filed for it a little
bit more.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, So did you go to the Senior Bowl or
East West nothing and no Combine invites, So you have
to have a pro day at Kansas. That's your only shot.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
That's all I had. And it was different because it
was the lockout. Also, it was hard to communicate. It
wasn't like how it is now open communication with scouts
and how many.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Scouts came to your pro day?

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Then?

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Did you have very many?

Speaker 1 (10:02):
There?

Speaker 3 (10:02):
We had a lot though, I had like fifteen.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Then oh nice, But you go undrafted in twenty eleven.
The CBA does come together, you know, right around training camp.
I want to say, when you go undrafted, do you
have teams that call you aside from Denver? Because some
guys I talked to will say, actually, well it sucked
not to be drafted. I didn't mind because then I
got to choose where I wanted to go and where
I could best fit in and fill a need.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
It was all new to me because, you know, but
the new CBA and not really understanding.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
How it goes.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
I didn't realize guys are getting signed undrafted right after
the draft.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Literally.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, So it wasn't like.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
That with me in my situation because we had to wait, oh,
cause the draft was in April, I had to wait
all the way unto July.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Oh my gosh. Could teams call you during that since
there was a lockout?

Speaker 3 (10:48):
They couldn't, Okay, So it was I was just back
at home. It was no football, was no communication, and.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
You couldn't even really evaluate what a team had because
you didn't know.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
No, I couldn't. It was pretty much blinded. You know,
he's pretty much blinded. And then once the lockout was lifted,
I had got a call from the Dolphins, the Cowboys,
and Denver. My agent thought that Denver would be the
best place for me, just because it was a new regime.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
You know, Elway's first year.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
And Foxes Fox's first year, they didn't really have a
solidified spots in a nickel or the opposite of Champ.
They had good men, but he was more older at
that time.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
And Cashius was here too.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, they didn't have really anybody in the slot.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
We felt like that would been a great place to,
you know, go ahead and be able to try to
make the fifty three man.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Rush and you get a two thousand dollars signing bonus.
I believe that was big money then, right, Yeah. I mean,
as you look back you know, you put things in perspective,
but you're like, you're getting two k coming out of college.
And that was back when you couldn't get anything in college,
so that's a big deal. Would not be now.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
But they definitely thought that two thousand, you know, was
gonna run me a long long ways.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
But you know, they went away pretty fast.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
And you know, especially when I had to start finding
suits and for games because.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
You know, coach Fox had us we had to wear
suits all.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
The game, right, all the plane rides had to get suits.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yeah, and Kansas we didn't. They gave us suits. It
was like rent a suit for the game.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
You know. So coming to the league, I didn't have
a O.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
My gosh, how funny. And then when you do come in,
I mean you're a rookie and like you said, Champs here,
I mean, you've got some guys that are like veteran guys.
And it was a pretty big room then too. You
really had to fight, and it was impressive that you
made the final cuts.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, it was a lot of good corners. You know.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Champ Cash is goodie, goodman. Jalel White, Carter, I think
he came later. I think he came a little bit later.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
I feel like there were like eight or nine tons
of guys, you know, and it was it was definitely
hard to make it.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
I knew I had to make it on special teams.
I knew that would be a way that if I
can go and nominate on special teams and lead this
team in special teams in the preseason, then I had
a great chance to find a role on this team.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
And coaches love that if you'll go out there and
kick it on special teams, that shows them a whole
What did you do on special teams?

Speaker 1 (13:00):
I let us in tackles at that preseason at gunner
and especially a punt, I was just running past everybody
making a tackle, you know, so I was hunting man.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
That's how I made it. You know a lot of
people don't know how I did.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
I make the team Earlier it was special teams, you know,
finding a role there, and then eventually them seeing that
I was ready for us more champion of them. Guys
were fighting for me to play earlier. And then when
I came in, I think I started probably Week four
or five. No, what happened was the Dolphins game. It
was a struggling game, but we came back and won

(13:33):
that game with t Bow.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
And that was an overtime game in Miami, and that
was my first time. They threw me out there in
the fourth quarter and in overtime, and I had two
pass breakups.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
And then after that that was when they gave me
opportunity to start. So it was Week four I got
to play against the Dolphins in Miami. I made two
plays in the second half to help, you know, big
third downs to help win us the game. And then
after that it was just I'm not getting my spot back.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
So that year. Okay, so you're a rookie, you make
the team and you're starting to play, and then there's
this massive thing going on with the quarterbacks with Kyle
Orton and Tim Tebow. I mean, was your head kind
of spinning with just like I mean, there was so
much drama within the team and the media. I mean,
the media was all and everybody was Tim Tebow crazy.
How did you kind of manage through all that because

(14:23):
you're just trying to figure out what the heck you're doing.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
Yeah, it was crazy. It was definitely experience. You know, Kyle,
he was here, not like that. You know, he hated it.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
You know, I think he was definitely glad to be
traded or to get out of here for sure, but
especially I'll never.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
Forget man, he was so mad. Man. We won busus
the Chiefs. I think t Bow completed three passes, Like,
how the heck keep waiting? You complete three passes? Man?

Speaker 2 (14:46):
You know, it was crazy. That year was just wild.
I was hosting John Always Show with Dave Logan that year,
and we go in every Monday and we walk in
and David be like, and John, I'm just be shaking
his hand, like I don't know how we did it,
but we got to keep him in there. If we
keep winning, how does he keep winning? We just didn't
know how was he doing it?

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, I mean it definitely wasn't magic to it. Yeah,
it was because man, it was some crazy games and.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
H and you go to the playoffs your rookie year.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah, that was a great experience too, going to playoffs,
going to New England, you know, to go play I mean.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
They were loading Steelers game in overtime, those all those games.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, the Steelers games they had, I mean every receiver
they headed, Man Old ab Hind, the War contry, Mike Wallace,
they were loaded that year, and then going against Brady,
you know with Hernandez Gronk Welker. You know, I think
they had Oo Sinko that year too. They were just
you know, they were loaded that year. So it was
just great learning, great experience going against Brady and those guys,

(15:49):
Big Ben, because they gave me a lot of stuff
that I didn't see before you and got me ready
for definitely to be able to beat them.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
You know, but you needed because then you go to
the playoffs. I think I have straight years after that
first year, including the Super Bowl. So let's talk a
little bit about Super Bowl fifty. Oh. Actually, no, I
want to go back to twenty fourteen because you had
an injury that year. Yeah, you had the surgery in
the off season, right, Yes, what was that like?

Speaker 1 (16:14):
Man, that injury definitely hurt because it was I felt
like it was one of those times I was like
making a statement, like letting everybody know who I was,
and I was following them the top guys, and I
got hurt in the playoffs versus the Chargers in the
divisional round and I'm man, I mean the first half
I'm killing Keenan Allen, Like I don't think he catches

(16:34):
the ball, you know, so I'm playing really good and
then non contact injury.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
I had the worst.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah, it was a simple comeback, same route I covered
probably ten times earlier in that game. I just felt
something just didn't step right, and you know, I had
to miss the rest of the playoffs, and then that
Super Bowl bombas already hurt a couple of weeks before me,
so it was a way to now, you know, we
could kind of do our rehab together, probably like a

(17:01):
month later than him, so it was always me trying
to catch them, you know, the kind of had like
a rabbit to catch, you know.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, but that was tough because then you guys missed
forty eight and that Super Bowl was dismal. Do you
look back and go, man, if Vonn and I had
been there, I mean, I know Peyton had a rough
day too and it didn't start off great. But that
has to hurt along with being injured, which is just
such a lonely place to be. Anyway, at least you
had Vaughn to kind of go through things with you.
But when you look back on that, that's hard.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Oh yeah, that game definitely was embarrassing for sure, you know,
not being able to play in just being on the
sideline watching it and just seeing Seattle's intensity, it kind
of let us know what we need to do to
try to get to that level. You know, they were
on it. Shout to Shane and Cam Chancellor, Earl. They
was on it. They had a great game plan. It
was just embarrassing. We knew that we had to bounce
back and be able to help get us to that

(17:48):
Super Bowl, and we.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
Felt like the game would definitely be different.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
You know, me and Vn out there, I've always played
great against Percy and Doug Baldwin and Golden Tape. Those
are like the perfect match up for me, So I
would have been it would have been I think a
different game, you know, especially with Champ he was healthy
and DRC so then we have a nice, nice three,
you know tandem right there for those guys with Vaughn,

(18:13):
we had a lot of guys in play. I don't
think Wolf played. Wolf was out. Vickerson when are starting
the tackles, was out. We had like ten guys out
on that defense that year. It was a lot of guys,
But people don't ever talk about it, you know, they
just kind of, you know, we got embarrassed, you know,
but they don't realize like a lot of our team wasn't.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
They're pretty depleted. Yeah, which was almost the opposite of
Super Bowl fifty, where it was like it was defense, defense, defense,
and that's what helped win that game. What was it
like then to go two years later and be able
to get that victory then at Levi Stadium.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
We had to change our mindset that the years before
was like, Hey, it's all on Peyton.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
Payton's going to get us the Super Bowl. He's gonna
win us the games.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
You know, he's going to do everything, you know, And
we just decided, hey, we're not going to put that
pressure on Peyton and we're going to go out there
and handle it ourselves. And that was our mentality. Hey,
it doesn't matter what Peyton and what the offense do.
We don't even care what they do. Like, We're just
gonna go try to win the game ourselves. And that
was our mentality, and I think that's how we were
able to get.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Over the hump.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
How different was it with two different head coaches too?
You got Fox and one and Coops in the other.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah, it was definitely different. But I think Kobiak was
you know he was. He was a great coach for us.
You know, he fit the mentality that we all had.
He just fit perfect. I don't know how perfect he
felt with Peyton because you know he changed Pay's offense
a little bit, you know, but defensive wise, you know,
bringing in Wade was just perfect. You know, a guy

(19:34):
that gave us a lot of confidence. And then was
he listened to us. You know, if I had an
adjustment or whatever, he was listening, he would do it.
You know, he would do it all the time. So
he was just he was a great players coach and
that's what we needed. We needed somebody that was gonna
give us something that was just gonna be was very simple,
like we would just say, hey, we're gonna bring the
heat you.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
We're gonna play man.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
We're gonna just stick to your strengths, and we're gonna
do that every week. It doesn't matter what they do
versus us. They know what we're bringing and we're just
going to be dominant at it.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
You get four head coaches while you're with the Broncos,
between Foxy Coobs, VJ and then Fangio. How many dcs
did you have during that time. Oh that's more than four.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Way more than.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, yeah, Jack right, Dennis Allen with the Saints.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Now Jack del Rio Wade Advance or would you say
Joe Wood Advance called the place, so I will.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Go okay, all right, Vance was head coach and d
C Yeah, okay, So.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
I mean I would say him. You know, I think
Joe might have called it the next year, okay, so
I would say both of them, Joe Woods.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
And then remember who vis d ango a Donald Tel
Oh donal tell that's right? Okay.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
Yeah, So I had those guys, and then when I
got to charge, I got some more coaches. You know,
I've had a lot of definitely decoordinators and in this league,
so there's.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
A lot of head coaches too.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
All right, so let's go to when you do go
to the March of twenty twenty. COVID has just hit Yeah,
did you try and get back with the Broncos?

Speaker 3 (21:05):
Yeah, I mean we tried. You know. The thing was
I had been told you know that.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
You know, we started working out a new deal after
my third year when I signed my contract, So I
had did twenty fifteen, sixteen seventeen. I was pro bowing
all those years, and I think I had a couple
of all pros in those years and we.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Just couldn't get a deal done.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
So my deal didn't really People think it just started
in my last year. No, it had already been you know,
we had already supposed to have been doing this, you know,
after my third year on that contract, because I signed
a five year deal and I really didn't have to
sign it because if you really look at it, I
signed my deal two games into the season or at

(21:47):
the end of the season, so I would have been
a free agent, you see.

Speaker 3 (21:51):
So I kind of did a favor and with that,
I was you know home. Yeah. Yeah, I was told.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
I was told that after three years if I of
this deal, I would get another one. So that just
never happened, you know, and just never worked out, and
I was just kind of, you know, I was ready
to move on at that point, you know, I was
just you know, it was kind of hard to juggling
that and playing and then you know, it definitely brought
a lot of stress to me. You know, definitely did.
And it's hard to play like that when you guy

(22:19):
like me, because I'm used to having everything set in place,
you know, me and my wife are good. We set
in place, my kids, everything is set in place. But
this one issue that, Yeah, so it's hard to kind
of bet myself and play the game that I wanted.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
And I definitely brought anger and just stressed to me.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
You know, it just wasn't healthy, you know, So I
just thought it was, you know, just the time to
move on.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
And it was.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Great to go to lau just because it was kind
of like a breath of fresh air. I was definitely
welcomed Durnlin, James Bosa and those guys Keenan Allen. It
wasn't about the team going to the Chargers anything like that.
It was just, you know, it's just getting a new,
fresher breath there, and they just happened to be the
team that wanted me.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
And when you go through something like that, Chris, how
much do you get involved? Because guys a lot of
times say, I'll let my agent deal with all that,
but it does affect you. And it's still even if
your agent's doing all the stuff behind the scenes with
the front office, it's still gonna affect you.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
Oh yeah, yeah, And then you know it's you know,
even looking back, sometimes I felt like I was backstabbed
by my agents, you know, and you know, and how
the situation played out, that's the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
You know, it was kind of out of my hands.
And then you kind of kind of.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Spiraled no, no, no, no, because you know he you know,
especially because you know, I felt like I was he
done me dirty. That's how it felt. And then it
kind of the whole thing just kind of felt, you know,
feel right. Yeah, it didn't feel right because the next year,
they picked up Aj Buier and you know, Aj was

(23:51):
one of my agent's clients, and I trained Aj like
I brought Aj up, you know, So that right there,
that good that you know, that left a bad taste
in my mouth.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
So but after that, you know, I just kind of.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
We let everything go, just moved on and I needed
that fresh start just to try to go out there
and finish my career as best I could.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
And that was the first year. So fie, so you
get to go out to a brand new stadium, but
it's the COVID year, so it's weird. So you go
to a new team, but fans can be in the stands,
they can't be in the stands. Then nobody's in the stands.
And it's just a bizarre year. But what's it like
going to another team when you've been so used to
another team for so many seasons.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
It's definitely weird, you know, especially as you get used
to being in Denver here nine years.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
And knew everything.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
You know, Yeah, I knew everything. You know, every everywhere
it's different. You know, every block, you know, everywhere to go,
you know, and it's just you know where.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
The grocery story is.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
I got my chipract over here, my stretchers over here,
my trainers. You know, I had everything set here, you know.
So when you go to LA you got to find
a whole new team that's there, and you know, it's
definitely find a new place.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
And when you do that, does your family go with you?

Speaker 3 (24:59):
They did the first year, the first year.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
And that's hard. I you have four girls, you know,
and getting everybody and did you have all four of them?

Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah? I had four girls at that time.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Yeah, so it was you know, it was hard trying
to find them in school.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
You got to find them schools.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Just trying to find a safe place out there because
a lot of robberies happened with the Chargers, you know,
as soon as they go on trips, they were coming in.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
A weird stuff going on there.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yeah, they would try to come in and steal everybody's
stuff as soon as you know, we went out as
soon as we flew, so you know, I had to
find a great gated community, you know, extra security out there.
So it was just totally different mindset of living. You know,
that was probably the biggest change. The football wasn't that
big of a difference. You know, it was always sunny,
it was always hot, so I never had to worry
about snow or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
So that was a good one, nice plus, right, Yeah,
But just I mean changing your whole atmosphere that is,
and when you have a family, and that big of
a family, that's hard. Did everybody adjust? Was it tough
for them and tough on your wife too? I'm sure, Oh.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah, it was definitely adjustment, but I think you know,
more of just losing their friends, moving away from their friends. Yeah,
that was probably the biggest thing for them. And you know,
my wife loved it because you know, her sister's in California,
so she has a friend, so yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
So she loved it. But the kids, it was adjustment
for them. For sir, I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, in September of that year, you go on IR
for a little bit, so you have another little IR stint.
Are you starting at that point to think, crap, I'm
kind of near in the end or what are you thinking?

Speaker 3 (26:21):
Then? Oh?

Speaker 1 (26:22):
No, I just you know, I had a freak incident.
You know, one of my teammates, I think he's like
three hundred and forty pounds in Josephs. He just smashed
my toe, I like broke my metal tarsels, you know,
in my right foot.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
So it was just one of those freak injuries.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
And you can't play when it's.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Nah, you can't play on that and you couldn't even walk,
you know. I had to have a booit and everything
and the little scooter and it was hard, you know,
not being able to play. And I had started out
really good with them and you know, just able to
come back and finish. So I felt good to be
able to come back and finish, and I thought I
was gonna be able to play a lot longer. I
thought I would still be playing, just because I never

(26:59):
got a chance to go to safety, which is where
corners typically go, especially nickels, especially people that can play
I've seen Rynde do it, you know, pretty easy. You
know a lot of guys transfer it, but I just
never got the opportunity to transfer it. Like kJ he
got the opportunity to to play safety, you know, I
never got that chance. So that was probably one of
my biggest regrets of not being able to get that.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Did you ask them in LA with the Chargers if
you could.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Do that or I could still play corner? Then okay,
I was still sufficient that corner and still could make plays,
especially in the nickel.

Speaker 3 (27:28):
I could still make plays in the slot. So it
wasn't never.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Brought not Then Yeah about when you go to the
Saints in twenty two, No.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
They only wanted me to play corner, you know, so
I was only I could still play solid corner and
still was solid in the nickels. So I know I
would probably say after the Saints than I could probably
start playing more safeties, right. I just didn't get that
opportunity afterwards, you know. And uh, I mean the way
I could tackle and you know, understanding the game and

(27:56):
just playing center field, I think I would have been.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
Pretty solid as absolutely. Yeah, what was it like going
to New Orleans?

Speaker 1 (28:01):
It was great playing with those guys and playing for
Coach da there.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
It was great.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
It was a great experience and just seeing how they
run the show there. They needed me early, so right
when I got there, you know, I was pretty much
just training and then I was pretty much started the
next week.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
My gosh, and did the family move to New Orleans?

Speaker 3 (28:17):
Nah?

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Because it was so spontaneous and okay, no, my girls
were still in school, so I didn't want to move them.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
But it was a great experience.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Playing with Tyron Matthew is another guy that always competed again,
so it was good to play with him, Cam Jordan,
Tomio Davis. Just being on that defense it felt good.
And we had some young corners posting the debo, Lante Taylor.
Those are some of the young guys man that I
built relationships with and we got to do a lot together.
Roby was there, so we got to play again together,

(28:45):
so it was fun. It was really fun to play
with those guys.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Is it fun for you to watch now? Will hard
because you still thought you could, you know, maybe had
a few more years. But to see some of those
guys that you then mentored, I mean, you had a
key in college and in the pros and now you're
that guy.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
I got tons of players all over. You know, Jordan
Lewis with the Cowboys, you know, he was one of
the guys that came up training with me. Uh, like
an Isaac Guidam. He's with the Niners. I count Justin,
I count j as one, you know, sudden yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
You know, yeah, yeah, just doesn't have to just be dbs.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, not just dbs. You know, just love those young guys.
You know, we're putting a lot of work together, going
against each other.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
You get to know the wide receiver as well.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Yeah, and just competing and pushing him, you know, to
to be a better player. So, I mean, guys all over. Still,
it's just I have to go through a list. Trade
Brown with the Seattle corner. You know, I got guys
all over.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
You know that's cool.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
Which wide receivers made you a better corner?

Speaker 1 (29:41):
Oh, t Y Hilton, Antonio Brown, Crabtree, and Mary Cooper.

Speaker 3 (29:47):
Going against those guys.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
Uh, what about guys on the Broncos.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Broncos made you oh DT? Uh, you know, always battling
DT Emanuel. You know we had hard practices. Man, We're
almost out there ready to fight.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
You know, so and sometimes you Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
So it was the different you know, it's just a
different mentality. How we approached every day. It was pretty
much a fight someday. DT be like Strap just relaxed
a little.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
Bit today, you know. D T was funny, you know, hey,
just back off a little bit. Strap. I know you
want to fight today, but I'm not in that moved today.
So he kind of let me know, you know so.
But he couldn't do that. When Peyton got here. It
was Peyton, really guy. He was like, you're gonna have
to run every route hard time.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
I've heard Stokely talk about how like every practice was
like a game.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
Yeah, yeah, it was.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
I don't think Peyton would do well with the new
CBA where they break every once in a while, not
every once in a while, a lot for water and.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
Even hate it.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, would you would you like it like that? Or
do you look at it now like the get off
my lawn guy, where you're like, man, we had it.
We had so much tougher than you guys. You have
no idea what tough is.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
Oh, yeah, for sure, you know, and this generation is different,
you know, just training these kids and working with a
lot of these younger kids. They are different and you
have to have a different approach with them. Man, I
can understand why they have it like it is. And
there has been a lot of careless injuries in training camp.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Agreed.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Yeah, so I'm glad they were able to try to
find something, you know, that can try to eliminate those
injuries and training get.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
Guys to the season.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yes, right, it was happening where guys couldn't even make
it to the season. And I like it better now.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Absolutely. Okay, so let's go back to now in twenty
twenty three, no teams come calling. Yeah, so what do
you do that whole year?

Speaker 3 (31:29):
I was just really just staying ready. You know. I
had a couple of calls.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
It was about three teams, and it was just make
sure I stay ready, you know, and we.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Might need something, Yeah, they might. What did you do
to stay ready?

Speaker 1 (31:40):
I was already training kids and you know, working with
some kids, So I just worked out with them, you know,
did a lot of training with them, and then continue
to trade my girls.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
So I just did a lot of the same stuff
they were doing too. So just stay ready.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
You know.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
I think I had a good post on what I
needed to do because I had did it the year
before with the Saint, so I kind of understood what
I need to do to be ready, and just never happened,
you know, just never happened. And it was just I
didn't want to stay stuck in that. I feel like
I was stuck.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
In the middle of nowhere, like yeah, I'm just yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
So I was just ready to move on and you know,
start my next phase in line.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
And so how did you decide? Was there a moment
where he just said, you know what, I gotta retire.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
I was just ready, you know, I think it wasn't.
I think it was just time that was just ready
to move on.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
You didn't just wake up one morning and go yep.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
No, no, because I wanted, you know, because I definitely
still wanted to play.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
So I was feeling ready.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
And I think what happened after the offseason when I seen,
like I seen the list continue to grow and.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
Grow as all the veteran DBS that are not playing,
you know, it was just true. It was crazy.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
I'm justin. It takes forever for Justin to get side.
I'm like, are you kidding me? What?

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, he's Avian Howard still not leaving in the league,
and I'm it's playing teams that can use him at corner.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Oh yeah, you know, So it's just seeing a whole all.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
These vets not on a team. So I'm like, man,
they're younger than me and they're not even getting a shot.
So it's like, man, I've already pretty much had a
longer career than a lot of these guys. True, they're
not giving these guys a shot, So I'm like, man,
I might as well just.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
Call to day, stop working out so much, call to day,
and just hopefully, man, these guys can get on.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
They still there's still a lot of guys hanging out
there that could play.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
And it's just, you know, sad thing. I don't know
why it happened to the dv's, you know, they let
everybody else play for everybody. Something about the dvs.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
It's weird, and they could they could move them over
into safety and just have those longer careers like they
used to. It's really interesting. So you decide to retire,
come back over the weekend and you officially retire as
a Bronco. How special was that?

Speaker 1 (33:38):
I was very special, you know, just to come back
and relive the memories and Uh. It was great, you know,
be able to come here and see the fans and
you know, be in the stadium.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
And everybody still loves you here.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, just.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Sign all the autographs and pictures, you know, and uh
uh that's what I tried to do. I always try
to have bring that energy out there, that enthusiastic approach
to my game and try to be the hype man
whatsoever for the team. And uh that just drove me here,
you know, to continue to elevate every year. So it
was great to come back here and close this chapter.

(34:12):
And you know, we still got some more celebrations to come.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
You know, we still got Super Bowl fifty anniversary, so.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
I years next year.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
Yeah, you still got a.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Lot of hopefully one day I'll make it to the
Ring of Fame and potentially Hall of Fame things like that.
So we still got a long ways. You know, still
absolutely a lot of celebrations. So I'm excited for.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
When you say you train kids and you train your girls,
what are you doing, Oh.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
Man, We're wreaking a lot of the fundamentals techniques. Teach
them how to run, things like that, building up their speed,
you know, on track.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Give your own company that you do or just.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
Yeah, Chris has Junior LLC. You know.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Yeah, so just you know, and just being able to
just train kids. You know, I got a lot of
kids in Oklahoma that look up to me. I work
with out their younger kids, so.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
They don't have to be where you lived. You were
remotely too.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
No, No, because I'll go to Oklahoma because I'm from Tulsa.
So I'll go there probably like once a month, nice
work with the kids, and then come back. And then
I have kids in Texas that I work with and
teams softball teams, other baseball teams.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
And so it doesn't matter the sport, no training them all.
You're training them all how to be athletes.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
Yeah, yeah, just being the athletes.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
And then that was my specialties, you know, technique and fundamentals,
so kind of like the Tim Duncan.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
Of the DBS.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
You know, That's how I was able to play long
So just passing my knowledge to them and then helping them.
And then I started working with a softball team. Then
eventually saw other teams see me working with them, and
then they want me to work with their team.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
They know you're not just doing football. They're going to
grab you.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Yeah, yeah, so that's how what that's kind of how
it started, you know, trying to weary the mouth.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
And just cool.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
And now it's just, uh, you know, everybody's calling me
now where you're back today?

Speaker 3 (35:56):
You're back today?

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Because you know, I usually work with a lot of
them on the weekends too, so so everybody hit me up.
But it's fun, you know, be able to pass down
the knowledge to them and then see them go out
there and have success, and.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
Since I can't do it anymore, kind of.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
That live vicariously through them. Yeah, yeah, it's very cool.
What's your thought then, on being a multi sport athlete
for the younger athletes? Do you still think it's really important?

Speaker 3 (36:21):
Like you were, I think it is.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
It's good to play every sport. I have to put
a boundary on my kids just because I have so many.
But if I only had like one, and I'll be like,
y'all can play everything, you know, So I always I
limit them to two.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Sports, you know, and that's a lot of driving.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
Yeah, and then it's hard to make it to every game,
you know, every game they have games sometimes, you know,
I might have three games at once.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
Oh my god, what girls playing?

Speaker 3 (36:44):
Then?

Speaker 1 (36:44):
Soccer, softball, and basketball. It can get you know, especially
this time, you know, because my girls are doing softball
and soccer. I got two girls doing that at the
same time, so and they don't want to you know,
they're not letting go of either one of them.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
So it's like.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
They're they're not getting rid of softball, you know, they're not.
They don't want to get rid of soccer.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
So the ranges right now, what's your oldest to youngest?

Speaker 3 (37:08):
Nine?

Speaker 1 (37:08):
She'll be ten in November. I have an eight year old,
six four and one.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
So the one year old atleast isn't doing anything yet.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
No, not yet. She's gonna be ready though. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
The youngest my youngest too, are they're different. I don't
even really Yeah, especially my fourth child. She's just I mean,
it's pretty much cheating out there for It's unfair.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
It's how much for a four year old.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
She's that gifted, you can tell.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
Yeah, with her soccer she can already she's right left feet,
kick power, both feet, she can control it. She's pretty
far ahead of the game in soccer. You know, they're
always begging me to put her up like three grades,
but I'm like, no, I'm she's only four years old.
I'm not about to go out there and get her killed.
You know, I'm like, just let it dominate right now.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Oh my gosh, how fun it's gonna be. Man, you
guys are busy. Now it's gonna get even more. So
it's fun. I mean, it's it's great. And you're you're
a girl dad. You love being the girl dad. Do
we have any more that we're looking at to try
and get that boy in?

Speaker 3 (38:08):
Oh, we will take We're taking a good break right now.
You know, we're taking a good break. Our youngest kid
is probably the hardest kid out of all of them.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
You never know, every kid is different, you know. And
my last kid is she's like five and one.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
You know, she's tough.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
I have two and our second one, I always say
if i'd have had her first, I had no more. Yeah,
I'm like, man, she was a lot because our first
one was like, oh this is piece of cake.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Yeah, this is great first what was easy for me.
The last one was you know, she just adds a
whole other level to it. So parents, if you're trying
to have kids, just know every kid is different.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
You can raise them all the same and they're all
going to be totally different. Yeah, that's fun, all right, Chris.
So as you kind of look back, you've got so
many cool things that have happened to you, as far
as Super Bowl Championship, You've got your your Pro Bowls,
four time Pro Bowl or you're on the NFL All
Decades Team. What Accolador? Is there an acol or something
that's happened that's been the coolest for you as you

(39:03):
look back.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Oh, definitely all decade, you know, because it's hard to
kind of judge my career off All pros and probos
if you really look at it, because it took I
was probably having Pro Bowl years earlier, but you know,
it took a while for people to notice me.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
Yes, and that's a popularity come yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
And I was undrafted and then the All Pro selections
they started picking three corners probably like year eight in
my career, very late in my career. So all those
seven years I was the number one nickel, So I
missed out on like six All prosy because they didn't have.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
Three corners like they do now.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Okay, you know, so it's hard to judge me off
those years, you know, because the way the system was
set but then.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
The all decade brings in everything together.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
Yeah, so that's cool.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
I hadn't thought about it all decade, brought it together
and really showed that I was one of the top players.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
For that decade.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yeah, that's a huge honor to be on that. Okay,
so last question. Now, I ask all my guests, as
you do look back over your career and the ups
and downs that you had. You had that chip on
your shoulder from the get go in high school. Yeah,
what do you tell kids, and especially now that you
work with so many of them, how to keep moving
forward even when it seems like the odds are against you,
or you get the injury or something brings you down.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
There has to be something about you that people want
to keep you around. My thing that kind of separated
me was my competitiveness. If I got beat, I'm still
right in your face, you know. I was kind of
like that nagging that you know that just.

Speaker 3 (40:29):
Won't go away.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
And receivers hated that, but coaches love that, you know,
So yeah, one side might hate it, but the coaches
and the other players they love that.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
So people that matter.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
Yeah, that's how I.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Was able to make it from being a kid all
the way up is just being that competitor. I'll never
forget Brandon Lloyd, you know, just line up with him
every day and I'm going to fight you every day.
And he was a pro bowler, I think, coming off
a Pro Bowl or something like that. So those things
is how you kind of stay in the league. And
that's how I made it, you know, just having that mentality,

(41:02):
I'm gonna fight you every play, be competitive every play,
and you know, not change. And I think that's what
really kept me on the league.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
And when I made tackles, you know, be excited. You know.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
I think we kind of made the staple of the
end complete. You know, we kind of put that in
most of.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
Your time zone.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Yeah, you know, so it was always fun and that's
how I stayed in the league.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
It's just the competitive nature.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
And I've had Brandon Lloyd on the podcast too, and
I think twenty eleven when you came in, he got traded.
I think that year, yes, I think, or maybe the
next year mid season I think mid season. Yeah. Weird
to watch guys that you you know, get to know
and then all of a sudden they're gone. How quickly
did it take you to learn that this is a
business in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (41:45):
I learned pretty fast really.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
The next year really we just went to the playoffs
and then t Bow's gone and then now Peyton's in.
You know, that was quick, you know, And then I
had to learn it from a standpoint as I have
to battle still even though I'm all rookie team, even
though I had seventy something tackles. You know, the next year,
I had Tracy Porter I had to competing against. I
had to compete against Drake and Florence. So they paid

(42:09):
those two guys five million dollars. I was undrafted and
we still had Chad Bailey. So I seen the business
early that hey, you know, even though I'm all rookie team,
you still have to compete and still have worth.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
Prove your worth.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Yes, right, absolutely, Draken got like a free five million dollars,
you know, he got signed and got paid and then
you know he didn't make the team.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
I was able to.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
Get or keep my spot, right. But that right there
taught me that, hey, this is a business. You got
to be make sure you're ready every year, you know.
And every year.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
It was like that, so'll give you five million, not
keep you.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Yeah, they're just handing your money and just say say bye,
you know, if they don't want you.

Speaker 3 (42:42):
You know, so I learned that pretty early.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
Yeah, no kidding. All right, Hey, Chris, this was awesome.
I know I said last question and you brought up
Randon Lloyd's I brought up one more. But thank you
for taking the time. I know you had a crazy
busy weekend here. It is good to have you back.
Congratulations on retirement, and can't wait to keep seeing you
come back for more honors. You should be the Ring
of Fame, Hall of Fame, all of that stuff. It's
going to be cool to see what happens with your

(43:05):
your future years now. Now you know where you are.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Right yeah, yeah, you never know many you know, hoping
my girls get older, I can get on the coaching
scene and do that because I still want to coach.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
That's still something that I want to do.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
Uh, you know, definitely decoordinator start there and then work
my way up or whatever corners, whatever whatever the process is.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
But uh, you know, I got everybody's stuff.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
I got all this stuff. Now I'm adding a little
twist to my stuff. You know, I had great decordinators,
you know, Fanjo was a great decordinator. Jack was solid,
Wade was a phenomenal you know, even Dennis Allen.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
I got all their stuff.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
Get some great mentors along the yeah, great mentors, and
I would say that I'm gonna say all these guys
are my mentors, and I'm using I'm using a lot
of the stuff they they did in their philosophy.

Speaker 3 (43:45):
So I would be.

Speaker 1 (43:46):
Proud to say that, you know, because they were great coaches.
And you know, but I can't wait to get into
that field.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
We got to get you an opportunity somewhere, right I've
had a lot of opportunities come and you know, I
just had to turn them down right now. Get the
timing right, yeah, just the.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Kids are just a little bit too young right now.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
So and coaching can be brutal. Oh my gosh, the coaching. Yeah,
the schedule and around and the schedule and everything.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
Yeah, but that's probably coming though, So I'm going to
just continue to prepare for it. You know, It's something
that I'm preparing doing that and then also doing the
broadcast media stuff.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Yes, we can talk about that, yeah, Harris. I love
I love the podcast with you and Ryan and Shelby. Harris.
How fun and you're doing more than that too, You're
doing a lot of broadcasting.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Yeah, just and it's all practice, you know, it's all
you know, continue to get better and that you know,
you'll professionals.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
I'll been doing it for a long time and you've.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
Been talking for a long time.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
You're good.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
But it's different levels to what y'all do and how
y'all communicate, and you know, you do need training for that.
You still have to prepare to come on the media side,
you know, And it's hard because you don't want to
ruff away any feathers with the guys.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
I still want to work with some of these guys.
You never know. Riley Mass might hit me up and say, hey,
I want.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
To come to down Let's do some work with you,
So I I don't want to burn a lot of
those bridges.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
So it's it's different from a you know, player and eat.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
It differently that you have to be cautious of your
and think about your relationships at the same time doing
a job and you know, trying to entertain and do
what you do.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
Yeah, and the ain't give them the truth, you know,
because I'm going to I'm going to break down the
truth for you. So that's one thing. So and just
try to educate people. I want to educate people in
the game.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
You know.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
I don't think it's a lot of educators that truly
teach people the proper of the game or what's going on.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
Fundamental things like that.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
So I think that's one thing I could be, uh
be kind of separate than a lot of people in
the media or whatever and being able to kind of
break the game down for you.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Oh, I think you'll do a great job. Okay, this
is the last question. Where'd you get the nickname strap?

Speaker 3 (45:42):
Oh? Everybody just start calling where though?

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Where?

Speaker 3 (45:48):
I don't know. I might have been Vine, I don't
I think it might have been Vine. But everybody just
start coffee strapping.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Was there any reason anything to do with jock straps
stayed football?

Speaker 3 (45:57):
I guess I was just putting I was putting them
in the seat belt. So there you go.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
Okay, Okay, love it, Chris, Thank you, This is awesome.
Appreciate it. Thanks, Thank you, Chris. New episodes of Cut, Traded, Fired,
Retired are released on Tuesdays. Please follow, download, rate, and
review this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Keep up
on podcast releases and updates on Twitter and Instagram, at

(46:23):
ctf our Podcast and on the website ctfurpodcast dot com.
I'm your host, Susie Wargen. To find out more about me,
visit susiewargon dot com. Thanks for taking the time to
check out this episode and any others. There are so
many great stories out there. Until next time, please be careful,
be safe, and be kind. Take care