B Scar TV Podcast
Hi-Quality conversations with your favorite athletes, entertainers, thought leaders, and cultural tastemakers - hosted by NFL Linebacker Brennan Scarlett.
B Scar TV Podcast
S2 E19: Bengals Stars Jake Browning & DJ Reader | Resilience, Betting on Yourself, and Leadership
Cincinnati Bengals breakout star QB Jake Browning and highly respected DT DJ Reader join host Brennan Scarlett for a conversation rich with wisdom, entertainment, and inspiration. As the Bengals have bounced back from a slow start during the 2023 season, storylines abound have popped up in Cincinnati, from superstar Joe Burrow's season-ending injury, which made way for Browning's impressive takeover, to DJ Reader's stellar performance throughout the year -- cut short by a torn quad against the Vikings. Listen as Browning & Reader break down team dynamics, how they battle adversity, and what it takes to be a great leader.
0:00 | Intro
2:30 | East Coast vs. West Coast
9:00 | Navigating Adversity & Staying Positive
15:00 | Injuries & Stepping Up
19:00 | Motivation & Rock Bottom
23:05 | Stoicism & Resilience
30:30 | What Makes a Great Quarterback
43:35 | How to "Pin the Moment"
Full-length video episodes are available on YouTube.
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Created and Produced by Scarlett Creative.
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’Til next time... Peace ✌️
Welcome to the Beast Guard TV podcast, the home of high quality conversation. And we're back with another episode of Beast Guard TV, and I have two very, very special guests today. The first DJ reader, my guy AKA Grave Dave, aka Deesh from Beach, and Deesh, what's up, deesh? What's up man? Hey, big dog.
Speaker 2:Dog got a commission right now, but I'm here.
Speaker 1:We're here, we're here, we're fighting. I also have with me today the man himself, jake Browning. Aka Jake, aka Jake Browning. I'm Jay B.
Speaker 2:Jake the Snake.
Speaker 1:Jake the Snake. There's a lot of Jake's show.
Speaker 3:I'm just getting thrown around Big.
Speaker 2:Jake's show guy. Man Big Jake's show guy. I love it. That was Cheeto Cheeto's thing. I've been watching the Jake's show for a minute though, so I've been seeing it. I've been seeing it.
Speaker 1:The Jake's show. Has that been a nickname?
Speaker 3:Yeah, our corner Cheeto. What's always going to say that? Just from scout team? Yeah. Get into like two plays Every eight plays of scout team, I'd have like two. So I'm not handing the ball off on our PO's, I'm not checking down, I'm launching it, taking the shot.
Speaker 1:I'm taking the shot, taking the shot.
Speaker 3:I'm not leaving any bullets in the whole show.
Speaker 1:I'm just letting that rip.
Speaker 3:So that always kind of turned into something Cheeto would say. So I think it kind of stuck the.
Speaker 1:Jake's show the fucking. Jake's show I like that, I like that.
Speaker 2:It's the best in pre-season, because I'm like, oh, jake going to take chances, like I'm like hell yeah, like pre-season, he's out there. I'm like we know it's about to happen. We got a chance, because he's going to take some shots.
Speaker 1:Was that pouring over? Was that spilling over into pre-season?
Speaker 3:I mean, I think for me it's like I came in this league undrafted I've been on practice squads for a long time Like I was kind of feeling like I don't really have anything to lose here, so let's just let it rip. And I'm never going to stop being aggressive and pre-season or regular season, whenever it is. Once you get a quarterback, that's not being aggressive. It becomes significantly easier to defend. So you just can never lose your fastball. You got to have it, that's right.
Speaker 1:That's right. I feel that Before we really dive in here, dj and I, we go way back. We played with the Texans together. We were in the same rookie class and early on in our relationship we had a little bit of conflict. North Carolina guy Portland Oregon guy grew up on the West coast, and so our vocabularies are a little different, and so I would like to just put some things on the table just to get your thoughts. Number one these hats that the two of us are wearing Beanie's or toboggan's Beanie's.
Speaker 3:I'm not even going to hurt you Toboggan's, it's a toboggan, thank you. Thank you, I'm going to wear these down in South Carolina. North Carolina, north Carolina.
Speaker 1:It's a.
Speaker 2:Carolina thing. We sell our, say, toboggan. Go to the locker room. Ask any of the guys from Carolina. I promise you they're going to tell you this is a toboggan. So I don't know where it started, how we got there, but that's where we at.
Speaker 3:Yes, definitely Beanie's. It's Beanie's. I'm also from California, so it's C. We're riding right here.
Speaker 1:Book bags or backpacks, backpacks, backpacks.
Speaker 3:I'm over two Over two. This isn't fair.
Speaker 2:But you're crossing two states, so I don't know if people outside of North Carolina call them book bags too. I just know my state. I got to get somebody else to confirm that it's both ways.
Speaker 1:We don't know if this is a Southern thing a North Carolina thing maybe a East Coast thing. It's interesting to see you, the folks in Cincinnati, what they're saying. But this last one I've heard all over the place Basketball hoop or basketball goal Hoop.
Speaker 2:Hoop Hoop makes sense, he's changing them.
Speaker 3:It makes sense. I don't even know where we got goal from but we all say basketball goal.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Don't even know where to go.
Speaker 3:I've never heard that either.
Speaker 2:I don't even. I think that's a dumb one. So I try to say hoop.
Speaker 3:Now I've tried to conform and say hoop more, I got one for you. People in Portland say hella and hecca, hella, yeah, that's like a North Cal thing. So I'm from Sacramento, northern California. If you go to Southern California, like Orange County, you say hella, yeah, you can roast it. Why, hella, go back to Northern California, yeah. So I just double down and say, like every other word, I don't want to be from Southern California. Stand on your guns, hella and hecca. That is crazy.
Speaker 1:That's hella tight. Yeah, that's hella tight, damn.
Speaker 3:And then the other Sacramento thing was everybody wears like a set of a belt. They shoe string it. So they put a shoe string through the belt, loop and tie it.
Speaker 1:That was a big.
Speaker 3:Sacramento thing we like that. And then Jim Schwartz underneath the pants.
Speaker 2:Jim Schwartz underneath the pants are a big thing for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like that was a cultural moment.
Speaker 2:My homeboy used to tell me he's like you never know when a pickup game is going to break out. I said that's a dumb one, come on bro, I feel like the logic was always it was just cooler to wear basketball shirts than under wear.
Speaker 1:Like under wear wasn't cool.
Speaker 2:I'm going to tell you dude we talked about this over there my jeans, the whole. I've been a big guy. You know you find very few jeans that are your size and big enough for you to have basketball shorts on, or another.
Speaker 3:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So I was always under.
Speaker 3:I would never do that now. Never wore the basketball shorts, but like growing up, that was, you know, the shoe string. The basketball shorts underneath the jeans, yeah. So I didn't know if that was like a NorCal thing or West Coast thing. No, people did it.
Speaker 2:People did it At school. If you ever got caught sagging you immediately was going to get that shoestring, they're going to put that shoestring so tight on you in the office. Oh bro, it was embarrassing.
Speaker 3:That was punishment. It might as well wear a belt.
Speaker 2:Might as well wear a belt, bro. They was going to go crazy.
Speaker 1:The funny thing about Sacramento and the Bay Area is, since Portland is just right north, I feel like all the trends, the slang, the fashion just really came right up the I-5. Yeah, and we'd see all the Bay Area, the Yay Area, the Thiz movement, all of that music, e-40, and then that all came right up to Portland.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, the Bay Area definitely runs a show from NorCal a little bit like with all the style and the fashion and all that. But everybody from Sacramento, they're like, oh no, we're Central Valley.
Speaker 1:Central Valley. We're not Bay Area.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So it's always. I don't know why. It's just one of those things. Yeah, if somebody moved to my hometown from the Bay Area, it's like, oh, they're from the Bay Area not the Central Valley.
Speaker 1:They're not as tough or something I don't know. Whatever it is, it's rough out there in Sacktown.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's not rough, it's just it's a little calloused out there A little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have the little Central Valley. There's an edge.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's all the football, basketball, like all the Bay Area teams, and they're the bigger cities get a little bit more love probably, and so you always have that chip on your shoulder, like Sacramento Fresno, even out of, say, even down to, like Bakersfield.
Speaker 1:Stockton right Stockton, south Stockton.
Speaker 3:We played a bunch of Stockton teams. Yeah, no, I still grew up in like the suburbs so it wasn't like it's not like a rough area. But yeah, you definitely have the chip on your shoulder, a little bit like feeling, I feel like everybody, no matter where they grew up, they're like man, people don't recruit this area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they just got a general. I'm sure y'all just get generalized in the Bay Area and it's just like you saying it's just so much more ball, yeah, and stuff outside that little. I mean not little, but what you consider the Bay like y'all you know, there's a lot more things going on if people really came down there to see more.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's funny too, like now. I live in the Midwest, and so when I say, oh, I'm from California, it's immediately like oh, do you surf?
Speaker 1:And that's like nope, Never been on a surfboard I like.
Speaker 3:never grew up near the ocean or anything like that?
Speaker 2:How far are you?
Speaker 3:from the water. I mean, like there's the beach in San Francisco, so that's like two hours without traffic, but you're not going to the beach in San Francisco to like get in the water. It's cold.
Speaker 1:It's not really surf culture up in SAC, no, no, it's more like there's more lakes like Lake Tahoe's right there.
Speaker 3:So a lot of people go snowboarding, skiing, all that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so DJ and I we do our segment called Beach and Deech. Every week We'll talk about timely news events and if you heard the barking during the intro, DJ always has a dog of the week Because DJ, if you don't know, is one of the best scouts of talent that I've ever been around from across sports.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dj quietly knows a lot about like punters.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I don't know.
Speaker 3:I know nothing about special teams. Yeah, like if somebody said, hey, here's the best special teams coach job in the world, will pay you all the money in the world, I wouldn't know what to do. We would play hard and we would have dumb scheme. But I'll always say, like you know the team we're playing against, they'll have man their punters. Good yeah. Yeah, the punters are really good. They kicked that shit.
Speaker 2:I'm a big field position guy bro.
Speaker 1:I look at the game and it's literally like a game of inches.
Speaker 2:So field position, those type of things I care about Like and I watch it. So you know I spent all those years with Lek. We had Shane Lek who was like historic punter.
Speaker 3:Oh, I know I grew up a raider fan. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So, like, lek is a good man and like just listen to him talk the game and the way he saw it. I was like just I was in camp my whole work year. He's taking bus rides back and forth with us. He's like ripping beers doing whatever he's doing. But just listen to him talk about the game. Being on the sideline watching him heckle refs and talk about it just more. I was like damn, this is really important. It's like a whole other world. He's the home of the world.
Speaker 3:We haven't been in football forever. I know nothing about special teams.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting, Just it's fascinating to me how DJ like picks up certain things. And so this week my nomination for dog of the week, DJ, is you. Oh man, you are the dog of the week because on Saturday you had an injury that you know it's cost you the season, and when you're getting carted off, it wasn't a towel over the head, you were on that cart, Like pumping up your guys. I think Josh maybe came in for you, for you, Like it was like come on, let's go, and he was watching the game from the tunnel.
Speaker 1:And then you know, I've been staying with you the last couple of days, like to see the positive mind frame that you operate in. It's inspiring, man, and this is like a moment of true adversity, from like you were playing at an all pro level, pro bowl, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, then the figurative bottom, but the way that you just operate through it positively is inspiring to me, man, and I'm just curious, just for me and for the people. It's like, how are you able to continue with that positivity, that upbeat nature? That cause then just spreads, I feel like, probably to the team, Jake, I'm sure you can attest to it, but even just like here with us kicking it in the crib. You know like we all feel like, yeah, everything's gonna be okay because you operate with that.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean honestly, like I kind of look at life as like a glass half full. Anyway, I've always just kind of been that person and like I have my negative times. Like you know, when I got back in that time I'm crying, I'm all blown to shits cause I'm like damn, I just know how hard the other one was, like rehab is just shitty for the other one, but it just is what it is. And you know, you kind of you don't really have a choice.
Speaker 2:I look at life as a if you start feeding yourself so many negative thoughts, like you're just a dead person walking and you keep feeding yourself that many negative thoughts over and over and over and over and over, and then like y'all are here, my mom's here, everybody like my support system's here so it's like how could you be depressed in those moments?
Speaker 2:The only thing I don't really have is my son and everything just so positive around and the team got to win. Everything I could ask for still is in play. So it's like you know to be selfish and be worried about me in that moment and be so negative which it can happen. It's just it serves me nothing, like I get nothing out of it, it's just emptiness. And so you, you go through those, obviously, those beginning emotions, and they're human. But after that part, you kind of like you realize, like this is the work, this is what life requires. I'm always lived by Luke 1248, man to who much is given, much is required, and so, therefore, I've been giving a lot of and blessedness life, and if these are the little speed bumps are in the way, then I just got to go over, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I always remember. Something that stuck with me that you shared is that it beats the alternative.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it beats the alternative.
Speaker 1:It beats the alternative. That's what.
Speaker 2:I'm saying it beats the alternative, bro. And then you, I remember you were like what's the alternative? I was like you could be dead and then it's all like you know it's all whatever Like. So I mean whatever man, it is what it is. I'm living, breathing. I'll get through this shit and be better because of it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 3:It's cool to hear that too, cause that's, that's, that's every day, dj, not just you know we got a mic and cameras and all that Like there's the positivity every day. And if I can get on my DJ soap box, like how you said he knows football, Like if you know football and you really watch it, and like I don't even have as much of a like understanding of what goes on O line, d line, what those battles are like, but if you really know O line and D line play, if you ask Ted Karris, like this guy's one of the best in the league, and if nose guards interior defensive line we were talked about like quarterbacks, like everybody would know that and it's there's no debate like one of the best in the league. And and then on top of that, like I'm somebody that I came in when Joe got hurt and and then I remember after that game he had his final press conference and he just had, like that, that valve confidence in me, like it's going to go well. You know Jake's worked really hard, he's a really good player, blah, blah, blah. And so you have DJ go down.
Speaker 3:He's hyping up Josh Zach and later in the game we got a third and one, they stop it. Fourth and inches, they stop it. And then we get the ball back. And so you know, just I think I don't want to speak for Zach or Josh, but you know, when you have that, that valve confidence from kind of the main guy in the room, that goes a long way, and I think you'll be able to see that. And so I just had to get on my DJ soapbox, real quick, appreciate it, appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Because let me tell you, there's not enough love. That goes on for the interior D line and interior O line, but there's some battles there are some battles there are those trenches and I know. Ted Karris would say you know, dj Reader is a dog.
Speaker 2:There's some battles that go on there and it's tough work but it's fun, man, and, like you said, I'm so happy for those young guys that got behind me. Like we had that battle of like play time throughout the beginning of the year and like I always told Coach Harbors, coach Harbors or D line coach, I would tell them, like look, we got to get those young guys in dude. Like they got to get warm, they got to get warm to play. I was just telling Jake that, like, if they don't have plays, then like they're not warm. Yeah Right, those type of things pay dividend throughout the year and I got complete trust in me. Yeah, they may mess up, but like, let them mess up on their own time and grow up and, like, learn from these mistakes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, there's something to be said about having that runway like where, if I only went and played one game, I would have played against the Steelers and like I didn't play very well that game, but I had the runway because it wasn't like Joe was only out for one game. Yeah, so having that runway to kind of like, okay, see yourself on tape making some mistakes and get the chance to, you know, circle back and address those mistakes and then get another shot at it, and so one of the hardest things to do in the NFL and just football or any sports in general, is come off the bench cold, not have that runway and play well.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That is so hard.
Speaker 3:And you just don't have a feel for the game really, and you, you know, like I hadn't played live football since training camp, I'm like that's a different. Right, there's three levels, there's three speeds in the NFL. That's preseason, regular season and playoffs yeah, and so I'd only really done the preseason speed and so, like, like he said, I'm excited for for some of those young guys to get a shot, and you know, it's always kind of one of those weirder things because you know he, they're getting a shot because DJ can't be out there. Right, and everybody knows there's, there's the business side, but like there's just on the human level and like the type of culture we got with the Bengals, you're, you're excited if you're, if you're DJ or like Joe, I've always felt throughout this whole thing has been very excited for me. Yeah, and so it's. It's a unique work environment because it's a zero sum game a little bit, but you're still happy for a guy to get the chance because you see how hard people work and to get an opportunity.
Speaker 2:So that was a cool way to explain the runway because, like most people don't get, that's how a starter becomes a starter, like in any position. You get the runway, you get a couple of plays to go out there and mess up, you start doing better and better and better and you have more good plays than you have bad plays.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Fans, people up top, even teammates, sometimes are so unrealistic about the expectations of the one shot Like, oh, you went out there one play and messed up. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3:I'm sure he did.
Speaker 2:Like those type of things happen all the time. So it's kind of like he says cool to see him get this opportunity one because I've been seeing the workers ass off and I'm so confident in these young guys are now getting opportunities because I know they've been working hard in silence and they've been in these moments and they'll be ready. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And to that point, jake, like you have made the most of your opportunity. I mean you've been balling the last few weeks, but the first couple of years of your career, I mean you're undrafted guy and this is coming off of an incredible college career breaking records at University of Washington, a great high school career breaking records and at Folsom High School in Sacktown. But then you know, bouncing around practice squads, the waiver wire, you know, being a backup quarterback. For the first couple of years you had kind of, you know, felt the top and a lot of success, and then maybe it hit the figurative bottom of the first couple of years. But you kept going. And now you've gotten your opportunity and you're making the most of it. And I'm curious, with those couple of years when you did hit that adversity, what kept you going? What kept you being like, yeah, I'm gonna keep pushing, I'm gonna keep doing the things that need to be done behind the scenes, et cetera.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think there was. Any time you have some adversity and especially for the amount of time I spent on practice, there's a lot that goes into it. So there's a lot of different moments come to mind. First one is I remember one of the first things Kirk Cousin said to me as a rookie. He's like hey, you gotta have a 10-year time horizon, which is completely different than most people think. Like you think NFL career, if you play three years in the NFL, like you're in the top percent of NFL players. And so it was a unique perspective. And I think he really said that because of the position, like if you're playing your best ball as a quarterback at 23 versus 27, like there's so much that happens and so many reps you can see just in practice. And on that note, part of the reason I stuck with it so much and really had a lot of confidence myself is I did have a lot of success in practices. It just wasn't the super public thing.
Speaker 1:I was playing really well. Look at the team side.
Speaker 3:And so in Minnesota I had a lot of positive people, like Gary Kubiak was there my first two years and hall of fame coach. In my opinion, he would always give me a little like I mean, you can do this, like you're good enough, and so you had that. And then I think at the last big part of going through all that was I know my dad has always kind of mentioned this, like certain players that maybe something happens or whatever. But he said when you get to my age, he's 54. So when you get to my age, different things happen throughout your life, right, like people are gonna hit adversity and some people are gonna have things fall their way, but at the end of the day you could have this whole narrative to everybody else. But when you wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, you're gonna know like all right, like I worked as hard as I could and maybe it worked out, maybe it didn't, but I did everything I possibly could to maximize and fulfill my potential. Like we all have different potential.
Speaker 3:My potential as a D-Lieman dog shit Genetically it wasn't in the cards. But if for somebody is I grew up playing D-Line and I worked as hard as I could playing D-Line and I probably would have flamed out. Probably like high school I would have been a shifty high school interior D-Line man.
Speaker 1:That would have been it A lot of games.
Speaker 3:I would have woke up with kids and a career at 55 or whatever age and be like yeah, I put it on the line Like at least.
Speaker 1:I worked my ass off, you know.
Speaker 3:Look that I didn't pick interior D-Line at all line and picked quarterback, and so I just every single off season and every week during the season, every chance I had, I was trying to make the most of practice reps and checking different boxes, of making sure I'm getting better while also providing some value to the team, whether that's helping defense, scout, team looks, whatever it is Just trying to get the most out of it. And I think the main goal of that was just peace of mind, like I didn't want to have regrets of. You know, guys can say, oh, I got screwed. And like my second year we had COVID, there's no preseason.
Speaker 3:That is objectively a hard thing to process through when you go through your whole rookie year of like I'm just grinding my ass off for that second year preseason and then all of a sudden it's like, yeah, no, it doesn't exist and so it's just really wanting to have that peace of mind of like I put everything I have into this and if it does work out, doesn't work out. I got that peace of mind and that ability to look myself in the mirror and be like I put it on the line. That's real. Yeah, that's real.
Speaker 1:I like that. I know that you in your interview after the game yesterday you said something that I thought was really profound. They were asking because it started to get a little loud in the stadium Paycore Stadium started to get a little rowdy in there and one of the reporters asked you like you know how that influences or affects your game? And you were like the louder that it gets in the stadium, the quieter that it gets in my head, and they just let that slide.
Speaker 3:But I was like damn bro.
Speaker 1:And I shared with DJ this last night. We were talking about, you know, this interview and this conversation. He was like, yeah, there's a. Jake has something stoic about him and I think that's a good word for it. I'm a big fan of stoicism.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like I was just telling him, I was like he's just, I was in certain people who kind of have that look, and like you know, I say you like Joe, like y'all have that what. I even said a little bit about Joe Fleco.
Speaker 2:Like you just have that look about you, that you're not going to be bothered whether it goes this way or that way, and you can be internally bothered, yeah, but it's just the emotions of the position. I think we talked about this earlier on our show when we talked in the BGD set, when we talked about your boy at USC, I was just like there's nothing wrong with being emotional. You just can't do that.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can't go up in the stands and do that Like you just got to ride the wave, but whatever it is, because you are looked at at this position. I don't think that that is just a front. The more and more you do it, it carries over into mentality, it becomes you, it becomes you and therefore you aren't wavered by these little things that go this way or that way. And there's one of my favorite movies, the Rookie baseball movie. But he just like, locks in. Like he locks in and just clears the mechanism. You know what I'm saying? Like he just he locks in as loud as it is, no matter what time. You've been through this routine so many times, over and over and over.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And now, when it is loud, when it is tough, my body and my mindset set up for me to go succeed right now, Right, and to go kill and do what I need to do Right, hell yeah.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, have you read some of the stoicism stuff? Are you? Are you into?
Speaker 3:that, yeah, epictetus, okay, meditations, marcus Aurelius yeah, I was big on those in really like two years ago when I first got here. That was by far like if you want to talk about like a rock bottom, that was. I was probably it. I had a really good training camp and practice. I was. We had all the COVID rules. So I was only quarterback for like five days, took every single rep at practice and played really well, and then got into preseason games and just hadn't played real football, been live for a while and just really played like shit at the end of the day.
Speaker 3:And then the way it all went down there they drafted a guy wanted to go a different route, got cut in kind of a weird way and then told like oh, we didn't think you wanted to come back. So you know, we'll see if we have a spot for you on practice squad. Go wait at the hotel, spent like four or five hours just sitting at the hotel like ask my agent, like what's going on here? And then the GM texted my agent like hey, we're going in a different direction, damn. So I just the rollercoaster of that. Like I remember thinking I had this opportunity. I didn't play well enough. Like you know, there's, there's.
Speaker 3:It wasn't lack of effort, but at some point it is. You know you're tearing up in the car like man, this is over Right, cause I wasn't getting any other calls for really any P squad spots or anything, and so then fast forward a couple of days. I get to try out here. I move here. I don't know anybody on the team. Really I don't know a couple of guys, but you know everybody's in season. I'm living here by myself. I got rented furniture in an apartment. I'm on a month a month lease. I wonder if I'm. The first game we played was against the Viking, so I'm like, is this one of?
Speaker 2:those things where I'm here for like a week to try and win this game or am I out?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they were trying to pick your brain yeah.
Speaker 2:Those happen. I forget those.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Lee Shiesty something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so just I remember, and our girlfriend was working full time back in Idaho, where we were living at the time, and so she couldn't come out of town. I was just here, but isolated it's all by myself, yeah.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, leaned on guys in the locker room, tried to get around the defense as much as possible. Always enjoyed those times. But the stoicism stuff kind of came into my life at the right time and I just remember, like you know, kind of the main, one of the main things about it is, no matter what happens to me, like no one will take my mental, like no one will take my choice, my freedom of choice, yeah Right, and I just remember reading some of those things Like it hit home and I think it hit at the right time for where I was at and you got to have a certain level of maturity and have gone through some certain things to read that and really resonate with it. So, yeah, it's been good. Daily stoic discourses, meditations, those have kind of been the main three. But you know, always a work in progress, nobody's perfect, but I kind of like just having those little reminders every day. Have you read?
Speaker 1:Ego's the Enemy.
Speaker 3:I have To go on. Yeah, some of the Ryan Holiday books.
Speaker 1:Holiday or holiday Holiday? I can't remember.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's got some good ones. I'm going to check that one. Yeah, that's a good one. Especially, going through an injury and some adversity, it's like every day you wake up you got a choice and, like I said, that's the timing of my life where I kind of found that it hit home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I was reading meditations earlier this year. It just like it's good. It's really good and really crazy that the most powerful dude in the whole world was spending some time writing in a diary and at the time where he was the emperor of Rome or whatever his position was, and he was talking about like how to live your life and going to real war, real war, real war.
Speaker 3:There's not a lot of intelligence going back and forth, there's no communication going blind.
Speaker 2:We're pulling up. Hey, this is war. Yeah, yo Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, swords coming out.
Speaker 3:What's crazy is how dense that is. You can't really just sit there and just read 20 pages of it at once, you kind of got to break it up. It's like all right, I'm going to read like a page a day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because if you just I think if you read too much of it at once, you kind of blurs yeah, it kind of blurs and there's a lot to digest Like the guy was very insightful and pretty reflective for somebody with that much power at that time, For sure.
Speaker 1:For sure. It then became like it became a toilet book.
Speaker 3:So I'm sitting on the shitter in the morning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I read, like you know, a couple of pages and like, all right, I like this line, let me think about this line for this day, kind of set my intention for the day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's good. You should get the daily stoke. There's like I got the daily, you got the daily. That's a good one.
Speaker 2:I like how it breaks up. Like you said, you can just sit there and you can read. All right, this one for the day, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:Good little outline. Yeah Well, I think that's a good segue into because I wanted to talk to was just talk about was the role of the quarterback at large. We kind of talk about stoicism, the ability to, like you know, have emotions but maybe appear emotionless at times to lead your team, etc. And you've played behind two great quarterbacks, been around great quarterbacks Kirk Cousins, joe Burrow I mean you were, we were around Dishon at a time and I'm curious, you guys this kind of perspective on the patterns of great quarterbacks, and then when you think about, like the ideal prototype quarterback, what is their role on the team, like outside of winning games, like who is that? What is that ideal profile of a quarterback?
Speaker 3:I mean, there's a lot of people that you paid a lot of money to figure out what that the answer to that question is? And they still miss.
Speaker 1:you know, that's a fact, it's it's really hard to evaluate quarterbacks.
Speaker 3:I think most of my opinions come from, you know, my own experiences. But then also I learned a lot, like you said, learning from Kirk and Joe, and I think really the first thing is like they got to be authentic, Like you got to be comfortable in your own skin and you know it's a unique position because we're doing a lot mentally but, like you know, physically I'm I'm not as much pain as everybody else. Like it's not as physical of a position, yeah, and so I think everybody can spot a fraud. Like if you're trying to be something you're not, you will not last. Like locker rooms are ruthless and so if all of a sudden I showed up trying to be something I'm not, I think people can see through that and they can't figure out why they don't like it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but like they're just kind of like, just like some's wrong or like everything sounds scripted and so like I do a quarterback camp every last off season was my first one, but I'm going to do it every year. Now it's kind of my thing Like camps and all that Elite 11 is great and they're teaching great character stuff, but like I don't need to talk to 10 different quarterbacks and feel like I had the same. I'm talking to the same person, like don't, don't be the guy or something's happening with the team and you're saying something that just feels scripted yeah, be yourself, yeah. So I think that's like whatever. That is like Kirk and Joe could not be more different personalities right.
Speaker 3:But they both very comfortable in their own skin and they're not going to and everything comes across very authentic, yeah, and I think that's that goes a long way. It's like Kirk, very religious, you know, kind of has like a dorky personality in a likable way, yeah, and he's totally comfortable with that. Like, if you watch the quarterback show, that is him to a tee, like he is and he was awesome to be around. But we have very different personalities. And then Joe, like I've seen before where there's a bunch of conversation going on and, like you know, joe doesn't. Joe's kind of a quiet guy. Like he's, he's got opinions and all that, but like he's, you know he's going to be pretty quiet and he feels no pressure to step outside of himself, like and I think that is something I learned a lot from to just as far as like the ebbs and flows of a game, just completely detaching and not feeling like you got to be the emotional leader.
Speaker 3:I think sometimes in college I felt like when we weren't playing well and I'm the quarterback and I've been there forever and everybody else, you know, is maybe not as experienced Like all of a sudden I'm the one like trying to get the team pumped up a halftime when we had a bad first half Right, and I just never played well when I did that. So now it's kind of like I'm let you know, like on offense for us it's Ted Keres, joe Mixon, you know, jamar, some of these different guys. I'm going to let them be the emotional leaders and I'm just going to detach yeah and let them be good at that, cause that's it comes across authentic. Joe Mixon gets in front of the team from the offense and like says something. It comes across authentic and then so I think, just the emotional part, personality part, you get. You definitely have to have those.
Speaker 3:And then skill set wise, like I think you can develop a quarterback much more than is giving credit to If you couldn't develop a quarterback. Like I had a great high school career, college career, but then in the day, like my skill set coming out was not good enough, like a need to be better, and so I worked for a lot of years to do that. And if in some way there's the narrative of like I was overlooked or whatever. But I think this opportunity is coming out of time, where I've spent four years investing in myself and getting a lot better, I'm kind of fortunate that it didn't come in year one or year two, just cause I'm putting out better tape and it's kind of hard to rewrite the tape.
Speaker 1:If you put out bad tape early, they do not get handed things you do not deserve in the NFL and they will cut your eyes so quickly.
Speaker 3:So it's a really hard position. Should DJ might be a better evaluator, but I don't know, my thing is, like you said, just being authentic.
Speaker 2:Like I played with Tars Boyd in college, who's great in college, I played with Deshaun in college, then played with Deshaun, lee got here, played with Joe, played with you, just, and I'm playing with some other quarterbacks along the way. And the one thing I can say about all the guys who usually stick and are good, like he said, they're authentic, like most guys that have been playing quarterback for a long time, so they got kind of the skill set to throw the ball a little bit. And this and the third, I can't do the developing part for you. I don't, I don't know much about it Like I, you know, I, I know when you're fucking up, but I don't I can't tell you how to get better at it. Honestly, I just know what I see and if you can't do, I couldn't help you on that.
Speaker 2:But the locker room part is like guys respond to people who are authentic. We don't everybody doesn't need you to your quarterback to be rah rah. Don't gotta be the hype man Like you, don't gotta be the guy bringing everybody together at all times. And those moments come. I think that people who are authentic, you had those moments because you you've sat back, you've listened to enough to people who you respect as leaders or things that that you've seen go on to the point that now you're comfortable and you do step into those roles, but being pushed into them and feeling like you got to do them, I think that comes off as you just doing shit for the camera.
Speaker 2:And so, like I think the guys are successful, the guys who come in, they're comfortable with who they are and that gets them out of the way of learning everything else.
Speaker 2:Like I feel like once you're comfortable with you, I can now go on to develop and play my best ball, because I'm not worried about what they have to say about my personality, I'm not worried about winning them over, I'm not being a dickhead, I'm just being me and I'm being respectful and I'm saying, like I'm not, you don't got to be just one of the guys all the time, but like, be a locker room guy, that's what everybody's looking for and we're not actually the most popular.
Speaker 2:Like, just be a part of the glue that everybody else is is making this shit stick, let's be good, and then you, then you can develop on your own what you need to develop and that's that's what I see a lot of times, I feel like in quarterbacks, because especially guys who are like drafted high things like that, they get so much pushed on them that they feel like they got to be this or that, and that goes over a lot of positions but, that position mainly right, that it's almost unfair to them, because then they don't understand it, like, oh, there's got to have some been in this league 10, 12, 13,.
Speaker 2:they don't need you in there trying to tell them what to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Like shut up relax.
Speaker 2:Let's all, let's work on this together. Everybody, let's work together. We don't need you giving speeches. Nobody wants to hear what your ass has to say right now. Let's you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:So I think that I'm a little bit of scrap to like yeah if you're, if you got, you got to have a little bit of an edge. Like yeah and like if you don't have that and you've made it this far, then you're probably talented as hell yeah. And so yeah, I think definitely got to have something, got to have an edge, and that's the part we'd like I don't need you raw raw giving a speech. Show me.
Speaker 2:I want you to go out there when you pick up whatever it is that you did, you dropped, say you dropped a dime in there, you threw, you went and pick up that first down. Maybe got rocked, got back up. Give me a little juice, then give me like, or you come to the sideline after big play, All right defense gets about like those.
Speaker 2:those are the moments, those are the edge that we're looking for and like don't fall when you do something bad, like as a defender, that's my but, that that's the worst thing I can say. When I look at a quarterback on the other side, like you throw a pick, you do something, you're fucking hanging your head, you're on the sideline bitching like look, bro, it happens. Like you're back dropping back 40 times a game. Probably if you throw in a couple in a season, like it's probably on that side like yeah, that's going to happen, Like it is what it is Like.
Speaker 3:I, I think.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be like. I'm going to be like yeah, and so I don't. I don't like one quarterback, so I look at it as like a pitcher. You got to throw the next pitch, so if a guy had a home run off of you and you fucking hang your head like you're like, yeah, it sucks, Can't lose your fastball though, yeah but, you can't go out there, can't lose your fastball.
Speaker 3:You can't go out there. I can't lose your fastball. I can't lose your fastball alive. It'll kill you.
Speaker 2:It'll kill your career. Like it'll ruin you forever. Like it's it's no me.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 3:No I think the last thing I'll say on the development side like having gone through that, you kind of see guys that maybe hit some adversity and they need to get better. And there's the fine line of like you don't want to lose your confidence, but you don't want to be the guy that's just thinking he's getting screwed, like those guys that say like oh, the coaches doesn't like me, like they never lose their confidence because they just kind of blame but they also never get better and so you want to have. But then there's the guys that know they need to get better, work super hard at trying to get better and just, but they don't have that confidence.
Speaker 3:Like it's almost like they're trying to compensate for the lack of confidence with work ethic. Right, right, right. And then you just also don't want to be the guy that's just bitter to be around, yeah, but you also don't want to be a guy that's just happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Because there's three little pockets.
Speaker 3:You got to avoid, you got to navigate, you want to have the work ethic, you want to have the confidence and you want to have the positive attitude. And that's kind of hard to do the trifecta of that and navigate that emotionally. Yeah, finding that balance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's so important also to have an environment in which it's okay to be yourself, your authentic self. Yeah, especially as a quarterback when I was in Miami, I saw the change that Tua made from having the Flores regime to then having McDaniel come in and to just totally different approaches to catering or fostering an environment that allowed Tua to be as comfortable as he possibly could be in being him. Yeah, and McDaniel was very intentional Like bro, have fun, have some swagger. I know you got some swagger, have some swagger. You see how Tua just if you watch his post game or pre-get any of his interviews from over the past like three seasons, you'll see this trajectory of just like him, being more and more comfortable than being himself and being less feeling like he has to imitate or replicate Tom Brady, which is, I feel like what kind of that regime was pushing him towards which. That's just not him, yeah.
Speaker 3:I see so many offensive coaches getting head coaching jobs because you see, like what's the number one, highest paid, most important position quarterback, yeah. And so if you develop the quarterback, then you're going to have a better team. Especially if you can draft one early, a guy on a rookie contract and get the most out of them, yeah, you're going to have a good team. And so you just see, on the offensive side, head coaching wise, a lot of offensive guys are getting opportunities because of that, because of the ability to develop quarterbacks, yeah. And so offensive staffs like our head coach, offense coordinator and quarterback coach all played quarterback at some level. And so just having that insight and having played the position in some capacity, I think really helps you in coaching. And that's because your ability to develop and create an environment that makes it easier on the quarterback.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I want to say this is the least like toxic work environment I've ever been in. That's nice man. I think it's honestly, like you said, just because of the nature of the and I don't know if it's maybe just younger coaches different different styles.
Speaker 2:It's. I've never thought about the way Jake just said. I do think about it in that instance. I know it's harder for defensive coaches to coach the offense. Yeah, just because of, I mean, our mentality, the way we look at certain things and like shit, the way we call it, just as like defensive play at certain times, like every, some quarterback is going to handle that for sure, every quarterback is in you'll lose a player Like I. So I think it's. I think it's good for the league, but also, you know, I think there's a there's a weird balance.
Speaker 3:We're still defensive coaches that can do it. You just got to be able to have that range Like you can't just be like yeah, you can't yeah For sure you got to have that, that range to be able to handle like a wide variety. I think yeah.
Speaker 1:I had a conversation with a friend of mine. His name is DeSarte. He's also on my financial team. We're talking about the podcast and how it's been developing. You know we're in season two.
Speaker 1:We've seen, you know, a lot of growth in in season two and we had one of our big, our biggest episode a few weeks back with Christian McCaffrey and and DeSarte was. He was asking me about it and we were talking like you know the budget and expenses and this and that and he congratulates like bro, great, you know, great job on the McCaffrey interview. Which is like I didn't really have to do shit. I mean McCaffrey is incredible speaker. Like I kind of just asked the question. He took it away but it was a moment for us and he was. He had DeSarte asked me.
Speaker 1:It was like how are you pinning the moment? It's like what do you mean? Yeah, what do you mean? It's like, well, this moment that could potentially be like an inflection point of your podcast or this thing that you're building, how are you pinning that? I was like, damn, I totally understood his question and I would like thought to myself with pause and I was like, you know, I'm like really kind of just thinking about like how to use the momentum, to like keep it going, thinking about the next thing, like have I taken a moment to really like think about this moment that I'm in now and taking that time Like I don't know that I have, and you know he just his suggestions, like I would recommend or suggest, and not telling me what to do, but just like you know, whether that's you getting in your notebook or a voice memo or something to like almost commemorate this moment, because you know things may be changed, will change from here, you know, and hopefully for the better, and you can always refer back to this moment. And then when I was responded to him, it was like it sounded a lot like how I would basically reflect on my playing career.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did game. It's like turn the pages, next game, you know, I mean you, you, you make the team, but it's like now I'm trying to be a starter, you know, and it's like this kind of perpetual cycle which I think is necessary to reach greatness, it's necessary to be the best that you can possibly be. But I also now reflecting back and like having more time to think about it. Pinning moments is important, yeah, you know, and the you know meditations, marcus, really is like what's the best At it, right? Yeah, pinning the moments and I mean both of you are, you have your own moments individually right now, and I'd be curious if that's something that you guys have thought about, or that's something that you practice, jake, regular DJ, how you do that, or if that makes sense to you.
Speaker 2:I know for me I was actually talking about it with Caroline I didn't kind of didn't get the, I didn't document any of like the Super Bowl run, like you said, all this stuff, or even this first knee Like. So this moment, I guess, is kind of one of those moments where I'll be able to document how this happened, the recovery from this. It's something that you know I've had plenty of moments in my career that I could have like chosen those moments and like it was very pivotal and like did that, but I didn't think about until you just said it and I always kind of you kind of always had that thought, yeah, but I've never actually like been like yo, I'm going to truly like. You know, I'm going to truly like this is one of those moments for me and like it propels like things are going to be different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, be able to refer back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think maybe when I had my son, like having Rocky probably was like one of the biggest ones for me, just because my thought process and how intentional I was with life after that it's pushed me in my career and my life just, you know, in a great trajectory that I couldn't even have thought of. It's like those moments when I, when I found out I was going to have him be a dad, all those steps that I took and I was serious about everything I had going on. It's really changed my life for the better a lot, yeah.
Speaker 3:I would say, for me it's like I'm not like a daily journal. It's funny, we're talking about this. Where I was at dinner last night I got some friends in town Um, my girlfriend has a couple of friends in town too, so we're all at dinner and just kind of talking about it and somehow journaling came up and, uh, for me it's I've never been, like I said, a daily journal person, but whenever something was like any type of adversity is hit, like I want to be intentional, uh, with what the narrative is in my head, like you're going to have a narrative in your head when something happens regardless. And so sitting down for like 15, 20 minutes and typing out, like just send a word doc for myself, like just to kind of organize my thoughts and like create like a jump off point, like whatever happened, like here's the base, here's how I'm going to process it, and like here's the jump off point. And so I would say, like that's how I use journaling, a little bit Like I shared on one of my social media, like Instagram, whenever I made the team this year, when I got cut in Minnesota and I was flying home Um, no-transcript to Seattle to go basically like train and stay with my girlfriend's family for a little bit and figure out, like what the hell am I gonna do now?
Speaker 3:You know, I just kind of typed through like here's my thoughts and and Helped me kind of process that and I think was a big reason I was able to respond the way I did. It's just reflecting on what went wrong, but like what I'm still proud of, like I was proud of how hard I worked at Minnesota, yeah, but I I think the big control, the narrative in your head, is so hard to do and there's always gonna be a narrative, and sometimes it's just, you know, you kind of roll with whatever you're thinking about when you're in bed, like Like your brain's working. So you might as well like Kind of control where it's going a little bit, and so I think I think that's been something that has really benefited me, yeah, and but I could, you know we all we're on sports, so it's like you, you have a good game against, you know, whoever like there's one coming. Then there's a brand new test the next week.
Speaker 3:Yeah and so you kind of get you know, you just take the positives and stride and really focus on the negatives. And so I think when you're for me, like in season, you have to be like that. I can't. I can't be sitting here thinking about the Vikings. When we got Pittsburgh coming, it's like boom, boom, boom. But I will take some time at some point in the offseason. You know, going on vacation with my girl and and sit there with my Mac, that I got like my sophomore year of college and I'll try something out and try and be insightful, like to how much this man and like what the jump-off point is. But it that is kind of like the growth mindset and all of us where athletes you're always like what's the next thing?
Speaker 1:So that's kind of cool to hear you say that no, it's dope, man, that's dope.
Speaker 2:Play performance gonna look nice for you. I can get a new Mac might be coming. Maybe Apple see this. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:DJ teach you what to do with your money.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna do that one of the pregame. He's just full cowboy head to toe. I mean I'm just looking at this, this we're talking about the coffee table books. I mean we got, this is one of the better.
Speaker 2:These are inspirations, bro. You gotta have like people who've done it better than you to have be out there for inspiration.
Speaker 3:Yeah that's real, all time spread.
Speaker 1:Fellas, I appreciate you, man. Yeah, thanks so much for me on. This is a great conversation, yeah. The Jake show, the Jake show, and deeds grave, dave. There you have it, folks, another episode of B scar TV where we are serving up inspiration for lifestyle innovation through high quality conversation. That's my first time dropping that.
Speaker 1:I wrote that on the fly over. Y'all, tune in for the next one. Please give us some feedback. This pursuit of high quality content is a never-ending pursuit. Smash the subscribe button, some constructive criticism and we'll keep this thing rolling till next time. Y'all peace. This episode of B scar TV has been brought to you by scarlet creative, with a full-length video episode and more content, find us on Instagram, youtube and tiktok at B scar TV and Plus. Leave us a review. Drop a comment. What do you want to see? What do you want to hear? Who do you want to hear from? We would love to hear from you. This is your host with the most Brennan. Scarlett. Sign in Peace.