Johnny Manziel Talks Heisman, NIL + Juan Soto's MEGADEAL w/ Mets & it's Almost Christmas!

There is more backyard football that goes on a little bit than people realize.

I know when I got in for my first time in an NFL game, we were playing in Buffalo.

We get under and I call the receivers routes one way, but I rolled the wrong way pretty much.

So I rolled two nobody.

So as I think to the right and Kyle Shanahan just motherf***ed me to the show, everybody. Another episode of Throwbacks presented

by Cash App. Sending, spending, saving, splitting, tipping, donating, gifting.
We're just typing

numbers all with the number one finance app in the app store. That's money.
That's Cash App. That's all the wonderful things I'm going to be doing this Christmas, which I've been doing, which is just money going out, not much coming in.
It's going good. It's going good.
I mean, you know, full commit to Elf on the Shelf. We're winding down there.
Kids are happy. I'm just ready now.
I'm ready. Let's go.
Let's play the game. By the way, you're winning the award for Elf on the Shelf.
There's no doubt about that. I saw a lane.
I feel like I've been sending you just every time I see Elf on the Shelf, I just send it to you. Great idea.
It's kind of my thing now. I've been walking in the streets, people shouting at me, love the Elf on the Shelf stuff.
So look, Matt, when I see a lane, I take it. I i saw a lane no one was killing it in that lane by

the way absolutely i i joe josie stepped up her game josie stepped up her game that i just i still think it's funny that you have been tasked with elf in the shelf in your house like just i don't know i don't know why it's a jedi mind trick it was starting it early and then just i gotta go to bed and disappearing and disappearing on me. I'm gearing up for a 130 person Christmas party this weekend at my house.
How does that sound? Does that sound fantastic? Yeah. Listen, you're talking to a guy who intentionally had his wedding in the most least desirable place to discourage people from coming.
That's exactly what I did. Where'd you get ready? Kent near the hall of fame hey come to the wedding you could stop at the hall of fame what time of the year did you get married it was summer but still i was trying so i'm like the my friends in la won't come and they all came wait you got married in canton ohio married in canton i'm a hall i'm i'm in i'm in the hall oh that's because she's how far is canton from Cleveland.
It's like 30 minutes, 35 minutes of Fame, essentially. How far is Canton from Cleveland?

It's like 30 minutes, 35 minutes.

Oh, okay.

That makes sense.

Yeah, so for Bree's family.

I saw an opportunity and I took it.

We have a really good show for you today.

Yeah, we do.

We are going to give you our interview.

We sat down not long ago with former Heisman Trophy winner.

So there's been two now with Matt and now Johnny. Johnny Manziel on the show.
He might be the most. He might be the most.
He was so much fun to watch. But, I mean, name a more polarizing Heisman Trophy winner or football player than Johnny Manziel.
And again, yeah, he talks about the path and journey and all that. And obviously, he has such a unique story.
But is there more of a polarizing athlete? No. As we go into this weekend, and we'll talk more about it in a bit, what that weekend is like, and we talk about it in the interview too, you realize Johnny Manziel was a comet, you know, just out of nowhere, lit up the sky,

shot past us quickly. But man, were we all watching.
Dude, he was incredible. I remember watching the Bama game and I was like, who is this kid? Who is this guy? The money sign.
He did. He was just, he was special, man.
He was special. And yeah, I think the conversation is great because as we've talked about so much on this, on this show, just quarterbacks and situations and all that.
And again, he, he's, he, you know, he's, he talks about all of the stuff, his regrets, the stuff he did, you know, that he didn't do, but, you know, talking about different offensive systems with them and what works and all that. It's like, I just, I just in another place or something maybe it would have been different and again i think about that with myself all the time as well too but johnny's the best man he's a great dude he's he's uh he's doing well and uh his pod's awesome his podcast yeah i was on his pod earlier he we he it's great he's he's a great dude man i'm.
And that's when I realized, too, that you two will now, and I don't know if you've had this with other Heisman winners, but wherever you guys go, you guys have this bond. You guys won this prestigious award, one of not many.
And I think I saw it firsthand. The two of you could speak a language that only a handful of people could speak so that was pretty cool so that was the third time i've ever met johnny when he came on our pod if you think about that the first time i ever met him because our because our pass didn't cross in the league because i was out when he came in the first time i met him was the year caleb uh won the heisman three what three years ago three years ago yeah and I went back because obviously SC and Johnny was there and we and in that time you like all the Heismans get on a bus and you go to these events and all that and I sat right behind him or right in front of him one of the other and that was like the first real time I met him again but to your point it's like what's up bro like like it doesn't like it's it's such a bond that you don't even need to know each other to know each other and yeah and we were talking and that was it and that was the first time and i'm like you know it was like hey big fan love watching you play and then you just shoot the shit and and then um obviously i did his podcast earlier this year and then he came on ours but great guy man great guy great deal well that we'll roll that in a minute and uh again that was in our la studio when we were in la week and then also throwback three we were debating a few we'll do it later in the show we were gonna maybe do christmas movies but then it hit me like everyone we've done the christ we we know essentially what there's really only like three or six right all-time christmas and i believe me i've been watching them give me a.
Give me a quick 20 second Christmas movie list. Well, Christmas Vacation's number one.
That's not even close. I do go pretty hard for Home Alone, although we try to watch it with our five-year-old.
The first 20 minutes, you cannot show to a five-year-old. They're so mean to Kevin.
And then Kevin is so mean. Come on, dude.
Our boys watched this the other day day kevin tells his mom i hope i never see you again for the rest of my life i hate all of you like for a five-year-old to hear another kid tell his mother like i hate all of you i can't wait to never see you again my five-year-old looked at me like that's not cool right like no buddy that's not so so was, so we were originally going to do movies. I looked up Christmas Vacation because I haven't seen, I haven't seen it in so long, but it's so good.
And the only thing that sticks out in my mind is the pool scene where Chevy Chase is visualizing the girl in the ring. That was like my first, like, initiation to be like, like, why am I feeling this way? This is kind of interesting.
That was your first? Wow. I don't know.
Dude, it was like, I was like. Tis the season.
Yeah. Like, think about it.
That movie came out, what, in the 80s? Like, oh yeah, you were. Yeah.
So I was, I mean, I was, when I was allowed to watch it, I was probably 10, 11. I don't even know.
But I actually, I YouTubed it and I rewatched it and I was dying laughing because then a little girl comes in and he's like, Santa Claus? I don't know. So Home Alone, by the way, my kids loved it.
It was a little bit harder, but they loved it when they started doing all the fun stuff. Yeah.
Once you get to the third act and all that stuff's happening. Anyways, we don't, yeah.
I think everyone has kind of the same top list. Last thing, I'm going to piss people off right here.
I was always a big proponent of Diehard as a christmas movie but it occurred to me the other day you know what i never watch over christmas break fucking diehard so maybe it's not a christmas movie i never reached to be like hey all right well there's the big debate is always is diehard a christmas movie but why is it why is it because it came out during well in the movie when bruce willisis is flying, it's Christmas. It's a Christmas party in the office, in Nakatomi Plaza, right? Now I have a machine gun.
Ho, ho, ho. One of the greatest debates in the history of our country is whether Die Hard.
Die Hard gets a lot of love this time of year. I will say, the first time ever, I used to ride hard for Die Hard.
Now I'm like, I don't ever watch Die Hard on Christmas, ever. I haven't seen Die Hard in 30 years.
Well, watch it over the break. You know who else Christmas came for? You know who else Christmas came for? One, Soto, is having a very strong holiday season.
I already told my kids that they're playing baseball. That's it.
Now, seeing all this, Matt, if you could be the ghost of Christmas past and go back and whisper to whatever, eight, nine, 10-year-old Matt, say, buddy, put the football down. I was pitching in the bigs, dude.
I was pitching in the bigs until I tore my shoulder up. It was my first love.
Is that true? Were you on a pack? For sure. Oh, yeah.
Dude, I was 6'4", 220 pounds and just throwing gas before- it? Like high school, junior. You want to hear a great story real quick.
So I'm pitching. I'm, I was baseball.
Number one, football was three. Basketball was two.
So I, I'm very lucky. Um, you know, as we've talked to Lush, I consider myself a good athlete.
Okay. You're a great athlete.
Baseball was my number one. I was a big pitcher.
I threw hard hard i was clocked at like 86 going into high school summer yeah because i'm telling you and then i um that summer i was pitching on varsity at modern day high school and my last one of my last games i'm going up against uh la quinta at this time they were the number one team in the country going in they had gerald la and they had Bobby Crosby. Bobby Crosby was the shortstop for the A's, rookie of the year.
Gerald Laird was a catcher, caught for a long time in the bigs. I was pitching without our best catcher, so I had the backup catcher.
The best catcher always made me feel good, whatever. I got shelved for eight runs in the first inning, dude.
Welcome to high school. I was 14.
I was good, but they just rocked. That whole lineup was like the number of teams.
Yeah, they rocked me. That was one of the last times that I've ever pitched, and then I hurt my shoulder that summer.
Baseball-related? How'd you hurt the shoulder? I just tore my labrum in my rotator cuff. All that being said ended up playing football is fine baseball lives is in my dna it was not in my older son's dna but i swear to god it's in my it's gonna be in your younger kids by the way i got i got half cubans dude i'm raising now so there's a lot of there's a lot of d there's a lot of a lot of baseball in that dna now are they worth 770 million dollars i don't I don't know, but if I can invest in your kids' baseball careers like a stock, I would go big in.
Just be like, Liner boys, get in early. They're going to the dance.
They're half Cuban. They got something.
Hey, listen, you might be raising some little Jose Altuves. I love that my kid's ceiling is Jose Altuve, and yours is probably Juan Soto.
Jose Altuve's a dog. He is a dog.
My son needs to work on his swing if he wants to be Juan Soto. Yeah, that's pretty wild, though.
What did you think when you, first of all, the numbers with Juan Soto, we don't have to recap it. We all know what they are, and I get lost in it.
Let's just call it a shit ton of money. I had a feeling in the back of my mind that it was going this way and the Mets were going to be heard.
And I think something that allows this to happen was the Mets' great run. They went on that great run.
They even took the Dodgers further than the Yankees did, right? They went six games with the Dodgers, I believe. So that opens up the, hey, we're closer than maybe we all even thought we were, and let's go all in on this guy.
Some of the stories that are coming out about, oh, Yankee security wouldn't let Soto's father and driver, and they wouldn't give him a suite, all that. I don't know.
That's fun to hear as backstory. Bottom line, I think Juan Soto got the more money, and I think he thinks the Mets have a better chance of winning for a longer period of time.
What are your thoughts? Do you think that? Do you really think that? I don't know, man. Well, I was reading some behind-the-scenes stuff, and apparently some managers who sat with soto basically said this kid is super dialed in like he's very smart so so to your point like i think he understands the landscape obviously these guys want to get paid but like what the yankees offered him five million less a year or something like that it was some crazy he still would have 700 million dollars whatever but um yeah i think i think like look i think when you're, I think when you're that young, like you want to go win, you want to go for, I don't know, but I just feel like the Yankees, like is the Yankees run over? Like if he reached, I mean, that team is still absolutely loaded.
Now, obviously you went and you got Max Fried. Now you probably wouldn't have got Max Fried if you would have retained Juan Soto, right? I, so, I don't know, man.
But the Mets, I mean, Alonzo, you got what, Lindor? I mean, they obviously... That's the real thing.
It's the Lindor, Soto, I don't know who's Batman, who's Robin, whatever. They can alternate.
But, and also you gotta think, once the Nationally gets the DH, if that doesn't happen, a deal like this probably doesn't happen because you got to think that as much as we love Juan Soto offensively, defensively, he's on the fast track to being a DH, you would think. This made me think of, well, I read this quote from the Padres.
One of the guys, I don't know if you saw this quote, Mike Schilt. He's on the Padres staff.
He coached Juan Soto there. He was talking about the amount of money, right? He goes, to her credit, Judge Judy was making $47 million a year.
Judge Judy. What a quote.
So it was some quote basically saying like how much money he's making a year and who else in this country. I actually looked at it like who makes 50 plus million dollars a year.
There's 205 people in this country that make over 50 million a year. That's it.
He's one of them. Think about that.
What, to me, I just, I can't, I don't know, man. Just like all of this money being thrown around,

it's ridiculous.

It made me think of like,

which position deserves to make the most money.

And it's definitely in all of sports.

I came up with two.

It has to be quarterback, obviously, right? One is quarterback by far and away.

What's your number two?

Because that's what I'm curious about.

I think everybody would say quarterback.

What would you put number two? Because I have a pitch for one. My number two, and I went for what is most important every day, impacts a game every day.
I put a hockey goalie. Why do you laugh? Think about it.
I laugh. You're right.
What's a more important position in hockey? Not goalie. Right.
You have a good point. That's a good point.
I, this is like, maybe point guard in the NBA, which is not anymore. Well, that's why I'm going to cheat with mine because it's not necessarily, it's, it's not a position, but I, I just think that when you know, you have your NBA super player, that justifies it.
Whether it was LeBron in his prime, Curry in his prime. Because not only are you getting a guy who will keep you competitive for all those years, it's just box office.
If you think about the business side of things, which is what I thought was so freaking smart of Cohen and the Mets to drop their season tickets right around this time. Ohtani was the greatest.
He's worth every penny he's getting. But yeah, I think the smart thing too, if you just look at it, oh, that's so much money.
Because the other things I want to quickly touch on is I talked to a lot of Mets fans and I had this conversation while Andrew Claudio does a lot of stuff with Knicks Film School. He produces a lot of podcasts.
Great dude. He's a lifelong Mets fan.
I said, okay, what for the Met fans will ever make this contract something he could live up to? and he said, look, I think he's younger than me. I think he's in his 30s.
I'm not quite sure. He said, all I could say is, to this point,

the Mets have two World Series appearances,

one World Series win when he was probably a baby. If you could better just what I've witnessed for the last 30 years, then it's a win.
Meaning, if you win this World Series and maybe make one or two more, contract is great. That's all they care about.
That's all it took for him. I'm trying to think.
There's no real way. I guess to live up to that contract, it's got to be multiple World Series.
But I don't know if the Mets fans are thinking that way. I think they're just like, get us there.
Get us there. We don't care.
I mean, do the Mets fans really care how much money was spent? They just got a top five player in the league. Well, that's my other- Wanswood is a great player.
Yeah, it's like just want to they just want to win or have a shot like this year obviously i think they overachieved but you know now they get a superstar in juan soto who he is box office man he is like he he is he's for sure he's got a little he's got that personality he's got that juice he's he's got a little bit of swag and he dude he's like you pay you pay a ticket to go see him play. There's a lot of Yankee fans this week who are going to be talking themselves into, that's a bad contract and yes, he's a great hitter.
Defense is poor. I was even doing it.
But make no mistake about it. Go back to that Guardian series.
That home run he hit. That's what you're paying top dollar for in the biggest moment.
Because not only was it the home run in that moment, but it was the way he slammed the bat down. He looked at his bench.
The bench was galvanized. He galvanized that whole Yankees team.
So Yankee fans like myself, we could talk ourselves into what a bad contract that is. Or maybe it will be a bad contract.
They don care and second thing matt if we were going to do a draft of sports owners who are the best sports owner steve cohen might have just jumped to the top i mean balmer is pretty great balmer will spend whatever and he's got the new building you could have said bob craft at one point one point years ago you could have said jerry jones it's no longer the case but uh bomber bomber by far is the he because he's like he's just he's all in you think you know like right but i think cohen is now too they they kind of laid patiently waiting to strike and they this was their this was their big thing so that's a little it's the other part of this that i think is fantastic. And again, Yankee fans can't maybe get themselves there.
We talk a lot on this show, especially over the last few weeks about pro sports rivalries are dying on the vine and college might be the only thing we have left, particularly that Ohio state, Michigan rivalry. This breathes new life into that.
It was always a little bit of a rivalry. Yankee fans never viewed it.
Like you hear Jeter in the documentary says, I mean, it's the Mets. You no longer can say it's the Mets.
It's that. And also like even Dodgers-Padres is now becoming an incredible like postseason, which by the way, it used to be Dodgers-Giants.
Giants have fallen off. Padres now, Dodgers.
That is a real rivalry. And that's a competitive respect.
Shit, that's a really good team that can knock us off rivalry. Could you imagine in some series in July when we're all watching baseball, but we're all waiting for the if it's Yankees

Mets out in Citi Field or the

Bronx and

Max Freed throws at

Juan Soto or something, right? A little

bow tie, like Roger Clemens used to say.

Maybe the benches

start chirping at each. I think that's

so good for baseball.

Do these pitchers have that

though now? I don't know. It's a little different.
That's my point. Baseball, lean into this.
Go heel. Lean into it.
Start fights. Lean into it.
Baumgartner had that shit. Yeah.
Lean into all this. I hated the Giants, but I love that, dude.
And I'm sorry. It would have been way worse if Juan Soto went to the Red Sox.
It's such an obvious thing. I never had nearly as much Mets hatred as I do for the Red Sox.
And also, they're in your division. So there's a chance that Juan Soto could knock you out of the playoffs before you even get there if he's with the Red Sox.
And luckily, I don't even think they were really contenders. So it's fun.
The moral of the story is we raise our kids to be baseball players. Nothing else.
Well, you for sure. Or a definitely me ah not so we'll see how it goes so now it's time for our wendy's let me you know i was thirsty after that rant our wendy's can't get enough sauce moment of the week brought to you by wendy's thank you very much matt i have an interesting one for us this week okay it's it's it is a saucy moment because you just don't see it all the time.
It's Brandon Graham. Okay.
Do you know what Brandon Graham did this week? Honestly, when I first heard what he did, when I first heard it, I was like, this can't be real. He spilled a little tea.
Is this a real quote? He spilled a little sauce. He basically commented on AJ Brown and Jalen Hurts.
He said, the person that's complaining needs to be accountable. Graham said, I don't know the whole story, but I know that Hurts, I think he was using players' numbers, Hurts is trying, and Brown could be a little better with how he responds to things.
They were friends before this, but things have changed. And I understand that because life happens in the business side.
What is Brandon Graham doing?

I love it because we get to talk about it.

But Matt,

isn't that like,

dude,

that's like one-on-one.

You don't say something like that.

Media training one-on-one.

Do not throw your teammates under the bus,

especially your,

your two star players,

dude.

Like when I heard this,

I was like,

and I,

and I,

Brandon Graham's a great dude.

Like,

and like,

this isn't like,

that's why like, he's very buttoned up. He's respected.
This isn't something that he would normally say or ever. And I think he actually walked it back.
He kind of backtracked in a quote later, like, oh, no. Obviously, because he knew what he did.
But the problem, it's just like this is just one. There's already enough pressure.
Eagles having a great year, but there's already enough pressure on the Eagles to win and the expectation, right? They're having a tremendous year. They're not throwing the football well.
Jalen Hurts isn't having a great year with that. They have Saquon who's kind of taken – there's a lot of good happening, right? They're not throwing the football well, but this is what happens when you have a diva-esque receiver who wants the ball.
It just is. Who wants the ball, who's a little upset that they're not getting the ball.
You got a quarterback who's very talented but been up and down really in the passing game ever since he entered the NFL. And now you're just stoking the fire.
And what this does, it just brings like, like I've been in locker rooms where you got a problem with someone, right? You just handle it in the locker room, anything. If you've been on a set, you handle it, you're, or you're professional, you go about doing your job.
When you start to say this out in the public and people like us talk and all that, it's like, this is all they're going to answer. Now there's going to be so many damn distractions around this football team between their star player, their quarterback, and their star wide receiver with what three or four weeks left before the playoffs.
And now it's like, we got a force fee. I'm just telling you like there's a long laundry list of things that can go wrong now that this, that the laundry is aired.
Any chance that he's parent trapping them and this was intentional to sort of get them talking? Because it's a vet move. You can only do this if you're a vet.
And he is a vet. He's a great vet.
He's an awesome eagle. I think the fact that it is him is what for me makes it saucy.
I don't know. Well, I'm making it saucy because he actually said the thing when we get only trained answers that don't ever say much and nothing to go off of.
He actually gave a quote in the moment that's happening in real time that we will now watch play out. So Brandon Graham, you are our saucy moment of the week brought to you by Wendy's.
Thank you, sir. We appreciate it.
Ballsy. Ballsy.
All right. Now it's time for something new that we're going to do, which I'm very excited about.
It's our defining moments brought to you by the National Highway Traffic Association, NHTSA. And this is going to be something where, look, it's going to be defining moments, sometimes from our careers, sometimes from life.
This is a big weekend coming up, as we know. So I ask you, Matt Leiner, what is your defining moment? Yeah, I think because of the Heisman coming up this weekend and just what that meant, that's probably a defining moment for me in my career.
And when this was the first thing that was said to me, and I might've told you this in the past, the minute you win the Heisman trophy, everyone there says your life is going to change. No matter what

you do or accomplish in sport life after this moment, you will always be known as Matt Leinert Heisman Trophy winner. Everywhere you go.
And when you're in the moment, you're like, yeah, cool, great. I was 22.
Like you're a kid. You're just, you know, you're trying to soak it up, but like, it's a really cool feeling.
And I'm 41. So 19 years later, it is still the number one thing that people say when they meet me or introduce me to something or introduce me for something, all that.
And it just, it just, it's such a unique, exclusive, just like elite club of really special football players. Some of the best to ever play the game at any level.
Some obviously the best to play at the collegiate level, great people. So that, that was a defining moment.
And obviously, you know, we have, you know, Johnny coming up who, who is incredible. And then the guys, you know, this weekend, the four, Travis Hunter, uh, Gentie, Cam Ward and Dylan Gabriel, just congratulations to those four for, for being finalists and, and, and really just a fun, unique year.
Like if you watch college football this year, um, to have a two-way star, most likely, most likely win. We haven't seen that.
I mean, Charles Woodson was on a two-way star. He was a one-way star that participated in special teams.
And he would tell you that, obviously. A top-tier running back at a lower-level conference that was absolutely a stud and going to be a top 10 to 15 draft pick.
And then two incredible quarterbacks. So it's always, it's a defining moment in all of these guys' career to be a finalist, but to win it, man, it just changes your life forever.
Well, I want to thank you to the national highway traffic association. I don't know if my defining moment is going to be nearly as good next week.
We'll do mine. I don't know if mine's going to be nearly as good as yours.
Uh, last thing before we go to Johnny Manziel, the other cool thing about winning the Heisman is you get a vote. I'm not going to ask you who you voted for.
I know when, but you must put a lot of thought because you're covering the game. So, well, actually, I want to, I want to say two things.
One, yes. Getting a vote.
It's got to be cool. I get a couple of different votes for a couple of different words and they all are equally as important because I take a lot of pride into really at least my opinion and and putting my opinion and be like this is why i think he wins not just like oh he's got the best numbers best stats um but the second thing i want to say is as i was looking at every year there's always like a heisman snub right and? And this year, two in particular,

so I want to give these two dudes some love.

Shador Sanders, and again,

probably overshadowed by his teammate, Travis Hunter,

and the full marketing push and promotion of Travis Hunter to win the Heisman Trophy.

Shador kind of took a backseat.

I'm telling you right now, this dude is the real deal.

And whether you like him or not,

and you like the flash or not,

or you're tired of him or not, whatever your reason is this dude is going to be a really good pro he might be on your giants not sure i might be a raider he might be a raider i think it's gonna be the raiders but he's tremendous and i want to give tyler warren some love and i was looking at this and you might not even know who tyler warren is okay he's the tight end. Okay.
He's a tight end for Penn state. He had 88 catches this year for over a thousand yards.
He had 23 carries for 200 yards and seven touchdowns. He was three for five passing with a touchdown.
He blocks his ass off. He run, he, he lined up at center and caught a touchdown pass against my Trojans.
This dude is going to be a top 10 pick. He's, he's, I said this on the show this year, outside of Travis Hunter, he's the most versatile player in all of college football.
He is a freaking star. And I don't know if we've ever had a tight end be a Heisman finalist.
He should have been a Heisman finalist. So shout out to Tyler Warren.
I don't know if Jeremy Shockey ever got there, but you know what? Giants should draft him and start. If there's ever been a tight end that was a Heisman finalist.
I don't think there's been. Anyway, we can move on.
After a while, without further ado, we give you the Johnny Manziel interview. Okay, it's March Madness and Wendy's is hyped.
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Fees apply if you have us file an amended return. All right, Johnny, thank you for coming in.
Yeah, I was talking to some of my boys back home, telling them that we were going to talk to you. And they're like, you know what? They wanted me to tell you, we watched the doc and they reminded me of this too.
You completely, we all thought that you grew up like a rich kid from like what was going on in college. Like it wasn't until your doc that when it came out, I'm like, oh my God, he didn't grow up with like some Texas oil money stuff.
Like you completely had us back in Brooklyn completely. Yeah.
I think it was something that, you know, around that time just made the most sense to kind of go with something like that. It worked.
It worked. It definitely did.
You know, I think the doc did a good job of kind of showing how it really was. But no, it came from a pretty normal family for the most part.
Yeah. Was, I love it.
When you were doing that and you were like, shit, we're just going to go along with this. Was there ever a time where you were like, did you ever worry about the consequences or you were just like, fuck it, I'm going to keep going? I mean, I always thought like, you know, I thought about it a little bit.
But at that point in time, I mean, as you're a broke kid in college, just trying to make some money,, there was probably no stopping it. And then getting around the compliance stuff

and being able to talk to compliance guys

and just pay for everything in cash type of thing.

It wasn't all that difficult, I guess.

Wait, you were paying the compliance guys?

No, they would ask you, how are you doing all this?

How are you going to this game?

Do you have a receipt? Do you have nothing? We paid in cash. That is baller, man.
And it worked. When you did the doc, was that something that you were stressed out about? Were you ready to talk a little bit more about stuff and do it in a way that you felt you wanted? Yeah, I think for to get a chance to just like kind of tell the story and just kind of like get that chapter and like that side of it over with a little bit you know i think there would have been a lot that i've been holding on to that for a long time and not really able to say much about it and it's kind of got to a point where you know i felt like i had good partners at untold felt like it was a great platform with netflix and like had an amazing director um who was made it really easy for me just to sit down and go through everything.
So it just made a lot of sense. It had been pretty much 10 years since I'd been in college.
So I felt like a lot of time had passed too. I thought it was great.
We talked about that. I thought you had a chance to tell your story.
What was the feedback like after it was out? Yeah, the like biggest thing i think for me whenever people you know really saw what it was and kind of you know watch the doc i think i got a lot more of a positive um reaction for the next oh it's been out a couple years you know since then you know i think just my interactions with people in the streets going around being different places i think it's been a lot more positive interaction than it was in the past I think it's also too like you like as football players especially like kind of like this fishbowl thing and you were obviously living that life and I understand what that life kind of feels like it's like kind of like just a relief of like this is who I was this is what I was going and it really opened up another layer to you I think that we all appreciate I appreciate that because I never really knew you up until like obviously knew who you were the Heisman all that and I know what it's like to just have those ups and downs in the NFL but no one really knew what you were going through off the field and all this stuff that you were dealing with and for you to be able to tell that story was awesome like it really was cool man I appreciate it yeah it was uh it was good it was definitely a good feeling to get that off my chest as well and just be able to kind of you know close a chapter be able to move on and be able to kind of have that story told and um just out there yeah i remember do you remember meeting me in cleveland or no it was a long time it's been a long time ago yeah it was i got invited yeah i got invited to come check out practice right i took a couple of my wife's Cleveland dudes who were super psyched. You weren't even the starter yet, but I remember walking around.
We met quickly. And then there was this beat reporter dudes waiting to just, we got to talk to Johnny.
I'm like, the dude's not even starting yet. And I feel like with Cleveland, I've spent a lot of time there.
I even talked to Stefanski about it. It is a little bit of a fishbowl in Cleveland because like the Browns are such a, a thing over there.
And I know you could say like, well, you're playing a big city or a bigger city. It must be hard.
I almost feel like Cleveland, like you're under almost like a, not like a microscope of football is such a, the Browns are such a thing there. I remember walking out of that practice still being like, dude's not even the starter yet.
And they're just like waiting to talk to him. Yeah.
I think obviously came in there with a lot of hype and a lot of, you know, after, especially right out of the college, couple of college seasons that I had. But I mean, it definitely was a fishbowl city.
There's every single person that's in that town as a Browns fan has been for, you know, generations and generations for the most part. So, you know, it's definitely, as you know, Cleveland's, it's all about the browns there really is how how were i remember like i had a hollywood perception and even going into arizona i was like liked by my teammates but i couldn't i couldn't just get rid of that like stigma and that was always attached and again i take some responsibility uh to that was there how were i i don't like how were you received by your teammates i think i was received great by my teammates you know especially coming in you know i made a lot of great friends that i still have to this day that were on those teams you know a guy that really took me under his wing joe hayden is a guy that always be super super thankful for i think he uh you know really came in and kind of showed me what the league was like you know showed me around the town know, didn't hesitate to kind of introduce me to a lot of people and be able to really be a big support system for me there.
And I think, you know, the teammates that I had there during the time, you know, I'll always, you know, remember and have a good relationship. You had Shanahan and do you have all those guys? They always show that clip where they did the fake play where you caught the ball.
I think Shanahan's right there and mcdaniels daniels yeah mcdaniels was our receivers coach and uh shanahan was roc was mcdaniels as cool i guess the word is like as he is now or was he like who is this kid no he because he's kind of exactly the same way that he's got so much is now but he was he was our run game coordinator so he was like so dialed in to our receivers coach which is weird he's our receivers coach but he's our run game like pretty much coordinator for the week yeah he was like dude i drew up a play for uh i drew up this is such bullshit i drew up a play for him yeah i drew up literally like 62 smack z drive like a drive concept and i try to i try to say i went to what i say f mode a bunch right 62 smack z drive i put x on the comeback pretty basic this dude could not draw i'm starting to explain to him my experience comes from madden so we don't and i let coach suggestions especially he put emotion in there on you i did but i did mo to bunch right and he was like what the hell does that mean i i? I want to ask you about NIL because I get asked this all the time. And not necessarily like how much money you would have made because you were making money, but we would have made a lot more money.
Would you have stayed longer in college, do you think? Like if you put yourself back and you're like, shit, I can make a couple million. Would you have stayed an extra year? Yeah, I think so.
Just because so just because i mean you know you get into your rookie contract if you're not taking high enough i mean no i could have stayed two more years in college and probably made what i made throughout the four years of your nfl deal for the most part so i think it would have given me the opportunity to still be at a place at a and m like that be able to make money and be able to you know still continue to go play the college football life you know i think there was it's tough for me looking back having left two years of eligibility on the table when you like watch nfl now i mean so many qbs are improvisational i think that that was like the most fun watching you in your career and how you just improv go back a little bit like. I really am curious what high school Johnny was like, especially the improvisational styles.
That's something that's just in you. Obviously, I don't think you get coached up to be like, just play breaks down, do what you got to do.
Where does that come from? Is it a young age? When I got to high school, we would play a game, like a rugby type game where you would pretty much just like toss it around the field for the most part it would be one of those things where you're you know running to the left full speed you have a guy all the way to the right and you're throwing you're just chunking the ball around the backyard and then um ninth grade when i got to high school we ran you know pretty much a texas tech air raid type of offense and you were in high school, like just five, four or five wide every single time. We'd never had a tight end once in four years of offense.
Never went under center one time. So I think it just set me up well playing in that kind of offense, in that kind of style.
And then luckily, I go to A&M and I get there my first year and i'm playing for mike sherman and it's all under center all pretty much your basic you know pro style as it gets and i really really struggled that first year being there and then got lucky to have kingsbury and that same kind of offense come in the next year dude so i was so at usc when i was there i had norm ch a great quarterback, West Coast, fit my style. He didn't believe in shotgun at the time.
So I- Didn't believe, like, it doesn't work. You can't win this way.
That's like a guy who doesn't believe in threes in the NBA. He always believed I need to be under center with my eyes up, getting the ball, right? Because in shotgun, sometimes you put your eyes down.
We had great teams. Had a great O-line.
So I didn't get hit a ton. But I just remember like third downs.
I'm like third and seven, double A gap blitz. I'm literally under center.
Like it was crazy. I was in shotgun maybe four plays in college.
And it was when I sprained my knee. I was like, because I couldn't move.
Because you couldn't get out of the snap. I couldn't get out of the snap to like hand off whatever.
But it was so opposite. That's crazy.
But I didn't see the thing. I felt fairly comfortable in shotgun.
But like under center was my whole thing. Your action all that stuff for me when i got to the league obviously it was like learning how to take a snap under center for the most part isn't that crazy it was we probably only ran you know 12 15 plays in both my years of college where we ever went under center it's like a real thing like so wait but was your high school team just putting up numbers we uh because not every defense in high school is ready for that we kind of look we had a special like high school where we would go pretty much play like some really good teams in san antonio so we like sought out our coaches were psychopaths they would go and look at the top 10 of of our area every year and pretty much go into it and try and schedule anybody that would play us and a lot of teams would I think we're just some crazy crazy white boys from outside of San Antonio and they and they we would schedule these games so you know the thing that that did for us we would go play these really hard teams from San Antonio and then when we get into our district and get a chance to really kind of you know let our team flow a little bit and it got us a lot better so you know as this offense they installed it pretty

much you know my freshman year and as it kept going on and getting through the seasons we we had a uh you know we had a pretty pretty firepower offense for sure we really didn't have a lot of talent though for the most part like you know we had guys who were good fit for the system but i think i was maybe the only person that really ever played you know maybe one other guy that ever played college football.

Was, is, Is Texas high school football as crazy as it sounds? Yeah, it is. It's as crazy as it's.
I mean, they have stadiums now that are 20,000, 30,000-seat stadiums. It's Friday Night Lights to the max.
It you know as crazy as you've kind of kind of heard about i we've we did a texas game texas tech game this year i got diverted because of weather to uh odessa or midland yeah and immediately i went to friday night lights i'm like where's permian yeah i was like this and it was in the middle of nowhere like i was like i felt like i was in a different world But it was I literally immediately thought of like this is what high school football like texas high school football is That makes me sad because growing up in new york my high school We didn't even have our own field. Did you play high school football? So what matt likes to do he likes to draw me into these athletic He actually asked me he asked me he's like if I was a foot if I was a football player, which position, like if I was a 45-year-old, which position? If every football team had to have one 45-year-old player on their team, it's a rule, new league rule.
I'm on your team. All right, we got, and you have to run one play.
I have to be on the field like a little league, like every kid has to have an at-bat. I have to be on for one play.
What what position and what are you having me do and then we'll tell you what matt told me he's gonna make me do i think you have to put i think you have to put you a slot see johnny's got faith he put me as a holder he's like you're gonna get and then we ran i didn't even think about i love it no johnny has the faith you're not you're the i'm like well i'm like and like have a zone coverage and just make him run a stick route and just put it on him. He asked me, he asked me, he's like, we were running a hitch earlier today.
And I was like, he's like, how far is a hitch? It's five yards, right? I said, yeah, roll the spot. I was confirming.
No wide receiver confirms with you. Larry Fitz didn't come up to you in a way just so you know, you want this five or you want this seven.
He used to come up to me and say, hey, what do I got on the backside of that again?

I tell everybody like, do you ever have guys in the huddle that were like, what do I got?

Yeah, sometimes I was like, shit, dude, I don't know.

What are we just want to go around or something?

Too much terminology.

I always say sometimes there's like there is more backyard football that goes on a little bit than people realize.

Yeah, I didn't have a lot of that go on throughout my time. But I know when i got in for my first time in an nfl game we were playing in buffalo and how you get into your play calls and your boots or yeah you know i sent we get under and i called the receivers routes one way but i rolled the wrong way pretty much so i rolled to nobody so as i think to the you're like, where's everybody? I see my two backside guys are running and I'm just running to nobody.
And I just, Kyle Shanahan just motherfuck me to the moon. Wait, so you rolled like, I did like, but they were like a play 18, like, you know, naked the other way.
And then my, both my ex and fucking slot receiver taken off on the overs. It was, it was brutal..
I just had to run as fast as I could and just throw it into the stands. Was it always football for you in high school? Did you play basketball, baseball? I played baseball.
I feel like, yeah. I thought growing up, it was always going to be a baseball route for me.
I started playing from a really young age, probably six, seven years old, and then did that travel baseball thing all the way. What was your position? I played middle infield.
I played shortstop mostly. You look like a baseball player.
You feel like you'd be a good shortstop. Yeah.
I kind of just got burnt out on it, though. I think once you play and do that travel circuit from the time you're like eight until you get to high school, you do it for six, seven years.
I think for me, I just started playing football, and it was just something new, something fun. I think it's chance to get on get a little bit more on the aggressive side of you know running around getting hit and being able to do that in baseball like slowly started to kind of you know slide slide into the back seat going back to the baseball that did did cole play a lot of baseball too so but he didn't he never really i hear as like now parent with kids like that travel baseball is the one like oh you're you're going to be on the baseball field for 12 hours in the summer.
It's a grind. Traveling all.
I'm sure in Texas, too, like, you know, just games all over the place. So I'm a little worried about the travel baseball with the kids.
It's fun, though. It's fun.
I had a great time being able to do it. Me and my mom went all around the state of Texas into Louisiana.
We played all over played all over the south texas high school legit too um i want to i want to ask about the heisman i don't think i've ever asked you this because when when i was able to win in 04 like it was like kind of pre-everything and you know we've talked about this like i got dinged a little bit by cameras and all that kind of stuff but like we were like here's a key to the city that night like go rage go do your thing so fun and everybody used to go out like everybody from all the guys that were doing the show the heisman guy it was just a party like i might not was a party did i know it changed at some point i i don't like what was that night like for you I've, when I, when I won and went the first year, I was maybe just turned 19. So I wasn't usually 12.
Yeah. So I wasn't even really able to like go out and do anything.
I'm sure at that time I was like really trying to find somewhere in New York. I couldn't even drink legally for the most part.
But, you know, I did have, you know, know my dad there and stuff they brought up a huge bucket of like budweiser's or something just got to sit in one of the big suites they upgrade you to a nice newer suite once you win it so i got to sit up there just with like three or four of my boys from from high school that came up with me for the trip and just you know sat in time square and just sat in between the trophy and all of us and just slammed beers until as late as we possibly could and then the next morning it's 6 30 a.m you got to go get on the espn that's messed up that you got my knife can't even give you one more day dude i was up till so we did um you take the trophy and go everywhere for the most part the next day like you did like cold pizza was that that gosh i want eight years it's take well as i was like i was just telling him like did you win it the next morning you're hung over shit and you got to do the whole media circuit and then like i think when i with those years we had to go speak to the tri-state all-star football like banquet that night and then the next night was the big night but i was telling jerry my my night was i was 22 i was older so i was like let's go i was 21 you brought like the no i don't call it that night. And then the next night was the big night.
But I was telling Jerry, my, my night was, I was 22. I was older.
So I was like, let's go. You brought like the, not losers, but the guys you beat, you brought with you for the night.
Like, my boys, my boys were there. Right.
Like the quarterback group, the room was there. And then, um, we had like a big limo.
And it was like all the guys that were like, Herbie was there. Like all the guys, like they wereler all those guys don't even those guys come out like where would you matt well you're funny with urban urban was there with alex smith so now i work with urban and somehow urban got like he tells a great story he got pushed into the to the limo it was me my brother adrian peterson i think his brother jason white i don't think went out but then like reggie was there and then um alex smith Alex Smith and urban and her, it was like 20 of us.
And we were just like, let's go. Like we're going and everyone is happy.
Urban like ducked out. We stopped right in front of the club and he just ducked out and left.
But we, it was, it was a rough long night. It was the best night ever.
It's such a unique award because. You know, my, I've been lucky enough to go to a few of the like golden Globe Emmy type award shows and 50 people win awards and you go out to all the parties and everyone has little trophies or whatever but it's one winner there's one person and then you get to go into the city I remember early in Entourage when we went to the Golden Globes our first day of shooting season two was the next day it was just a bummer the way it worked And we went out and hit all the parties.
And I remember coming home, sun coming up. We had a 6 a.m.
call time the next day, day one of work season two. And I hit my head hits the pillow.
I go, I'm about to fall asleep and the alarm clock goes off. I didn't even get the chance to fall asleep.
And let's just say the hair and makeup trailer, we were like, use all your powers. You got to fit.
Whatever you could do to get me to look. I just think the Heisman, though, is such a unique chore because it's just one person.
They're not doing a bunch of different awards for the night. It's just one guy.
What did you think when Reggie got his back? I thought it was awesome. Because you were pretty vocal.
Yeah, I thought it was awesome. I know when you go there and you get a chance to like go back now just never sat right with like anybody that he wasn't yeah you know able to be a part of it for things that guys are getting paid for right now to be able to do obviously it's different times and different yeah rules back then but in the reality of it you know i'm glad that they did what they did and i'm glad that it worked out the way that way.
Yeah, he deserves his bullshit. We all know.
I just got to feel weird, right? When you're watching something that, you know, is bullshit happening in front of your eyes and then such a big penalty and become such a story. And did you think that he did you guys or you particularly do you think he would one day get it back? Did ever yeah i did i yeah i think just because of the shift in college right you saw i just you kind of just felt like it should have never happened but you just felt like it was it was gonna happen um and right i reggie had to do some stuff too that he was a little like just like hey at some point you got to just let this go and like like, everyone's got to come together and like, you know, like kind of, he just, you know, he felt like he just got so slighted, which he did, but it was like, just let it go and move on.
These people want it back and let's, let's like, Hey, shake hands and move on. So he, he finally did.
And they did, and they did the right thing, obviously. But, um, it was a good, it was a good day for his family, man.
It was like, he got to show his kid. I remember I was talking to him.
He's like, dude, I got to show my kids the Heisman Trophy, which is all they're old enough to know that like what just kind of happened. You know, like he was, that's not like, you know, so it was good, man.
Well, listen, I'm a big nickname guy. Do you even remember? Who dubbed you Johnny Football? I have no idea.
I was trying to think of that the other day. I'm like, I have no idea.

Was it someone on like,

was it an ESP?

I can't remember,

but it just happened.

I think it was somebody through the Texas A&M side

to like that fan base a little bit.

But it happened in college.

It wasn't like a high school thing

or anything like that.

Not that I can remember.

No,

it didn't start until I got to A&M.

And you don't get to choose your nickname.

Were you always kind of like,

that's kind of cool one.

Or you're like,

ah,

we could have been better. I think it's one of the best ones.
We do nicknames a lot. I thought it was a great one.
Great one. You know, one that still sticks around a little bit.
I have people come up and call me Johnny Football probably more than they even. Would you rather be called Johnny Football or Turtle? Turtle's the greatest nickname.
Turtle's the unbelievable. I would say Turtle is like an iconic.
Well, Johnny, if you say Johnny Football, Johnny Football's way better than Turtle. Wait, wait, let's clear the record.
Johnny Football Football Johnny Football is way better anyone that's watched any TV and you just say dude that was Turtle you got an iconic character bro give yourself some credit I still don't know why the characters we know why you're called Johnny Football it's pretty self explanatory why on Johnny football is just why on earth is, is he, does he walk slow?

I mean, did he like Ninja turtle? I were, I thought in my mind,

maybe he was just a big Ninja turtle.

You were a little head rounder.

I'm not a shame. I'm just saying you were a little, I was a big boy.

Yeah. But you, you, you looked good at it.

Well, I always love when people are so people come up to you like Johnny football.

I get dudes come up to me and like, I'm the turtle in my group.

I'm like, yeah, I could see that. And then every now and then someone comes up and says i'm the vince i'm like really you okay all right vince sure i'll see you around and i'm like you think very highly of yourself that's amazing um there there's a big like young quarterbacks in the nfl now and and you've been through this and we had kurt Warner on who's someone that, um, I played with.
I learned a lot early on. It was more competitive, but I learned a lot from him.
And especially as I look back, I was like, he was, he was just great. You know, he's a hall of famer.
He, he had told us that he's like reaches out to young quarterbacks and just trying to help them and guide them and stuff. Did you have, and they, they never really yeah i think it's a different generation i think a lot of these young guys for the most part like kind of think they already know what they know and they really don't know what they don't know that makes sense it was there i mean there was a mentor you had or like do you wish going back like there was a guy because who did you have in cleveland you had hoyer uh-huh is.
Is there someone that you're like, man, that would have been cool to reach out and maybe learn something from? I got to learn a lot. I felt lucky when I was doing my pre-draft stuff.
I got a chance to learn from Kevin O'Connell. Yeah.
He was obviously with the Vikings now and doing an unbelievable job. But he was living in San Diego and had a ton of knowledge, obviously having been at the Patriots, and came and sat down with us every day pretty much through pre-draft stuff

and did a lot of my film work, a lot of my board work.

So I felt really lucky to be able to sit, be with him for that process,

and then get a chance to go and learn from Shanahan.

And then, funny thing, that staff kind of turned over.

And then the next year, he ended up being our quarterback coach.

Oh, he did?

Yeah.

Oh, so you had him. Yeah.
How great, how, I always try to explain like Shanahan's offense, how great it is. It's sick.
It's so sick. Sounds like a lot of terminology.
I feel like a lot of motion, bunch, whatever the hell you were saying before. It's just so like the scheme and they're just, he's a brilliant play caller and scheming and getting guys and then playing to your strengths.
it's just unbelievable i try to explain it in like simple terms of why because everyone's like why did why is jimmy garoppolo having these why are these quarterbacks playing a certain way it's just interesting how like um just like kirk cousins can run the exact same offense as what rg3 was doing and they're completely different players like yeah the same offense they do from the pistol and from you know side by side and shotgun as they do under center it's all just kind of tailor-made and timed out the exact same way and it's all just so you know predicated on the run game and like so technically sound so it really was you know getting a chance to learn from a guy like that and learn an offense like that was, was something. It does seem like, you know, cause I, I watch all sports and I do believe that situation.
And Matt's talked a lot about this too. Like the situation is really so important.
You know, sometimes players don't work out in whatever sport and it's not just, it's definitely not a lack of talent. It's just the situation.
And I think with basketball, you, you certainly see it. football, especially with the quarter, and maybe that's the sort of, not the secret, but the thing with the QB, it really does seem so situational where you end up.
I just couldn't imagine. You're talking about, you lit up when you just talked about Shanahan's system.
You had a look that I haven't seen. You just lit up when you talked about it.
Yeah, it was definitely one of those things that like once you see it and like look back at it now thinking about the football aspect and football side of things, you're just kind of like, whoa. Yeah.
That was to watch one guy be able to coach all 11 positions, you know, no problem was just, you know, it was interesting. Definitely like having some time in that offense and more years would have been something that like I could have really really enjoyed but um yeah it really is all situation depends on where you go and more than anything I think you need you know a coaching staff and organization and you really need pieces that believe in you I mean you look around the league now you got guys who have their guy and and like we were talking about Garoppolo for sure like yeah you got with Shanahan they loved him and it just kind of can be your story a little bit.
So it just, you know, it takes one or two guys really, really believing in you and helping you develop. I mean, you still have to develop these.
You'll see a lot of these, you know, young guys now. You just need time to be able to have somebody to trust you, give you the time to be able to develop into something great.
Who was your favorite quarterback growing up? Ooh, I loved watching Michael Vick play, just the mobile aspect of it. There was really nobody else that was moving like that, that was running and doing that.
But throwing to the football, Brett Favre was just a crazy, crazy gunslinger and just unbelievable arm strength. I played him actually my the week my oldest Cole was born I was a rookie he was born on Tuesday on our off day I flew home was there and then flew back and we played at Green Bay that week got our ass kicked we were terrible but I got to start against Favre it was my favorite quarterback growing up I was like you know how you find sometimes I don't know you find yourself like young and you're playing against like Tom Brady and you're like, I got to start against Favre.
It was my favorite quarterback growing up. I was like, you know how you find sometimes, I don't know if you find yourself like young and you're playing against like Tom Brady.
And you're like, I got to watch him play. Like I was like a kid in a candy store and they beat our ass.
But I was like watching number four in Green Bay play. It was like, it was so awesome, man.
We would play the, we would have a game obviously against the Steelers every year. And just to watch like Big Ben, you know, you would see him be kind of like up and down at times a little bit through the season but when he played the browns was like the most him and antonio brown were just like is it fucking those amc this is crazy like how because we played against ben a bunch and like how one how big he was he was one of the biggest dudes i've ever seen and he was like just kind of like frumpy a little bit you know but he was a dog like it was crazy in person and he can move and he was like not fast but like fast and he had a little shake to him it was just wow he has a wiggle he's an old like we'll never get another big band dude he was like six six two sixty five and like would run and like i was just it was just he was great man he was it was fun to watch in person for sure he was.
You ever think about does coaching interest you 1% or is it not something that you think about? I don't know, man. The college aspect I think would be fun, but then the recruiting trail and hitting that and doing that, it is like, I talk to Cliff Kingsbury a lot and I've brought it up to him a couple of times and he's like, bro, enjoy your fucking time.
Enjoy. Enjoy your life.
I don't know how they do it. I could play golf.
When he was at Texas Tech, he was just like, fuck, man. This is a real grind.
Dude, and by the way, now they're making, some are making millions of dollars. Now you're dealing with that shit.
Like you're recruiting kids who are already making a ton of money. And you're like, what am I doing, man? Yeah, it's a world you got to have you know either really strong program that like doesn't put up with the shit and is willing to like let guys you know walk and let them go or you know i think that's the thing that you see about really good programs right now it's a very like buy-in and like get all the way in and all that other shit that the money and everything else like it would would have been nice to make a lot of money though, back then.
I ain't gonna lie. As an outsider, even though the NIL money in, in, you know, LA probably doesn't probably wouldn't have gone that far.
Yeah. You would have been strapped a little bit.
Yeah. Cash, man.
I've been all cash under the tank. As a, as a complete outsider looking at that, like I, and I'm an old head now.
So I definitely, because i get frustrated with even like actors today and the way things are you didn't have to do this you didn't have to drive all over town submitting these it's like i would definitely be a little like this shit's crazy that it's happening now like i'm not saying bitter but i i would have some feelings about it i just i'm petty like that too i would have i don't know i get like are you there like, cause you always get like, oh, what would you would have made or make? How much do you guys get asked? How much money would you guys? I don't, I'm not really bitter for these kids make them. I don't know.
I know what you're saying, but like, it would have been cool to be in that era or in this era to make that. But like, I kind of feel like we paved the way for, I don't know, like, yeah, sure.
There had to be, there had to be a lot to happen to be able to even get to that point, to be able to be where it is today. You know? So I think, you know, I look at it now and I think it's, it's great.
You know, it's gotta be great for your son to be able to be going to SMU and be able to go to a place like that. That's.
It's, it's, it's what advice I need advice, man. I'm like the, I'm like, I live it, but now i'm a dad of like shielding him from nil because i'm like i want you to earn it i also don't want him to get the feeling of what it's like to like like it's weird man because it's like i want him to make the money it's an opportunity but he's also not smart enough to understand how all this shit works i understand but it's like so like i just had this conversation the other day and he's asking me and it's good but i'm like let me handle this like i want him to you know like it's weird it's a weird thing man with these kids because i don't want that to affect his overall goal or what he wants to accomplish you know like you and it's it's easy to do that you know he's a good kid and all that stuff but it's just like that's a challenge that i'm going through right now yeah it definitely is very easy to you know, focused on the money and you could go in with nothing, just your scholarship and everything else.

And just go grind.

And you're living, you're living a great life, you know, free tuition, you're playing

ball in Texas and that's good.

Do I have permission to nerd out with some golf stuff with Johnny for a minute?

Cause I know Johnny, first of all, how is the golf game these days?

The golf game's all right.

I think I'm hovering probably around a, I don't know, four handicap.

I haven't played that much this year though.

I'm going to go of, I don't know, four handicap. I haven't played that much this year, though.
This has been my least. This has been the least amount of golf I've played in a year.
When I first went to Scottsdale, I probably played, you know, 150 plus rounds. So good to go.
Scottsdale so far is the best. I'd say it a little bit.
That was good. I bet I've only got in like 10 or 15, 10 rounds this year, 15 rounds.
So I remember watching it. You did Bob Does Sports, right? Do you have plans? You must get approached all the time to start a golf YouTube channel.
I think you would crush it. I thought about it a little bit.
It's been fun to do the Bob Does Sports and go on a couple of those guys and just be able to go and have a day. Would you want to do your own? You just want to pop in on other guys for here.
I can see myself doing that for sure. That's something that definitely fits my lifestyle.
If you want a co-host, if you want someone to- Jerry is like hardcore selling golf to you, to me. What do they do? They just ride around the car.
What is this? See, I'm the old head and I'm telling you about Bob Does Sports and YouTube Golf. And I'm the old guy.
I'm not watching Bob Does Sports on YouTube at the house. Okay.
Pretty fucking good. It's with those guys, it's more about the hang, right? So they're just like, it's good.
Good. One good golfer.
And the rest of them, Joey Colcats gets a little high. He can get hot sometimes, but they're just, it's just boys talking shit, hanging during a, yeah.
What's wrong with that? Nothing. You would cry.
You would, I mean, your channel, I think would be a really, really really good we were talking about this i'm just going to throw this out there right now dream foursome golf anybody you could golf with love this question because you can go so many different and i got i actually got a different one for you after this living we'll do living we do live all right um i think you have to play with tiger god play with i think you have to play with tiger just to to see it tiger now is starting to do YouTube stuff like he'll do a lot of stuff with Scheffler and he'll watch Scheffler hit a shot and he gets so giddy no no he actually is like he like marvels at but you almost know he's like in his mind he's probably saying like I was doing that when I was 14 but good for you Tiger I'm with you on that you can't overlook our goat I think you have to have maybe john daly that's what i was gonna say i got to hang with daily a few a few months ago when he's doing the champions thing at firestone and his caddy was like you need any golf clubs why what do you mean he's like what do you i'm like i always need a three wood he went in the house and came out with the three wood head not on the shaft like this is what john hit today take it and he handed me this stealth bomber of a three wood that i can i brought to the golf shop to get a shaft put in they're like we haven't seen we don't have the adapters we haven't seen this yet how'd you get this they were interrogating me love it all right so tiger daily you now round it out probably jordan all right jordan big big big golf guy obviously likes to gamble i was gonna say So there'll be a lot of money won. All right.
My, big golf guy. Obviously likes to gamble.
I was going to say, there'd be a lot of money. My variation on that question is me and Scotty Scheffler challenge you and a PGA Tour player of your choice to a 2v2 money match.
You could pick any PGA golfer. I got Scotty.
I take the world number one. I'm like a 12 handicap.
So I'm the scrub. I get to pick.
I pick Scottie Scheffler. Who are you going in to battle with versus the two of us? You know, it would be an uphill climb for us, but I would go with one of my boys.
I would take Max Homa. Oh, Max Homa.
Max is a beast. Max is the man.
We've become good friends in Scottsdale. He's turned into a fucking hell of a guy, a real force on the tour.
Scotty, week in and week out, not a lot of guys beat him, but I think that'd be a hell of a day. Max, what I love about Max, first of all, he was awesome in the Ryder Cup too, even though USA got their ass kicked.
Max talks shit to people on Twitter all the time. Does he? Yeah.
Some dude posted a video of him hitting his three wood and saying, I hit my my three wood 10 yards past home and he's like, that's really cool that you do that. If you need discount tickets to any of the PGA Tour events, let me know.
I'll make sure I invite you as my guest. It's great you can hit your three wood 295 yards.
No, he goes at people. He does.
He does. See? Me and John, we're starting a YouTube channel.
Have you ever hit with like a real gallery with people on the side? It's single-handedly. I literally think I literally will shit my pants.
I'm thinking about shit my pants right now. Have you done that? Yeah, I did the good, good guys.
Did a tournament at this part three course. Yes.
The clippings, right? Yeah, the bass clippings. There was probably, I don't know, a couple thousand people out there.
And I got up on the first tee and i absolutely shanked it over the top of everybody that was it was par three course right so would you have like a eight iron probably a 50 degree wedge and still found a way to fucking shank it and luckily didn't kill anybody i uh i've done it a couple of times i played years ago uh the pro-am it used to be called the mer Mercedes-Benz. It's the first tour event of the year.
It's only 30 pros. And I get paired with Jeff Ogilvie, who at the time had won two US Opens.
By the way, Jeff Ogilvie, he didn't talk to me for the first four holes. And then his caddy finally comes up.
He's like, he's not going to talk to you until he makes a birdie. And he made a birdie and he was the coolest dude ever.
I'm like, oh, wish you had told me that hours ago. That first tee shot, because I had driver, to me, driver's the scariest club to have in your hand on a tee shot with all those people.
My hands were trembling. At least it's got the biggest, like, radius.
Yeah, it's got the biggest surface. But if you snap hook one into the gallery, like, it didn't, who on, Good Good did that.
Yeah. Was it, Garrett, garrett clark like snap hooked the driver into a dude's elbow and just blew up matt we gotta get you you know you're not invited on johnny and i's youtube channel you're not he's out matt's out okay before we let you go so we do i don't put you on the spot it's easy though we do a throwback three segment every pod and we just anything from movies to whatever um top three texas high school football legends i think i've heard stories about some of these guys but i can only imagine i think you probably have to put kyler on that list yeah i never i think he lost a game um stafford is a guy that's still very much still talked about from highland park and uh baker school baker school at lake travis was you know one of the most dominant runs in texas high school football history really they were unbelievable baker stafford and kyler was like i think he's all time like high school play like he's looked at like that right he's like yeah i really don't think he lost the game that's wild for a big big 5a school in dallas and where'd he go they ran he went to allen oh allen that's right yeah he went to allen before we let you go i know you got glory days now uh i listened to obviously i listened to matt's episode because i, this is my guy and I listened to the Odin episode.
The Odin episode was awesome. Did you know Odin much before you? I had met him one time before, but it was always like really interested in his story.
I think just two similar guys who had been like, you know, we obviously didn't get a chance to play in the league very long. His were because of injuries.
I mean, I think just getting to deal with certain things in life and you run into people like that, you're able to have a little bit of chemistry about getting back and being in a good place and the ups and downs of life. The show's great.
It's in the rotation for me. The show's great.
I was listening to him on the flight to LA and I look forward to now I'm already like, I'm all caught up kind of. So I'm like, when's the next batch of glory days coming? So I'm waiting on it.
So good luck with that. It's a really good one.
And thank you for doing this, man. That's a good story.
Johnny Football, baby. Johnny Football.
What a great nickname. Way better than Turtle, by the way.
Don't even dare make that comparison. Turtle's pretty good.
All right, welcome back to Throwbacks, presented by Cash App. It's now time for our money moments, presented by our good friends over at Cash App.
Sending, spending, saving, splitting, tipping, donating, gifting, or just typing numbers, all with the number one finance app in the App Store. That's money.
That's Cash App. So, Matt, here's someone I think is money.
Now, I know a lot of people think this person is money, but for other reasons, I'm going to highlight the reasons why I think he's money. All right.
You're not ready for this one. You're not ready for this one.
I'm definitely not. You're going to have to educate me.
Timothy Chalamet. We all know his wonderful performances in Dune and just a bunch of movies, right? Kid's a star.
He's a superstar. He's Juan Soto in the acting world.
He ain't going to get paid that much. But do you know what's really cool? Now, we learned last weekend that Tim knows a little bit about college football.
We learned that. That was cool.
And then this thing that's been floating around on Twitter from 2010, okay? Landry Fields of the New York Knicks back then. Now he's the GM of the Hawks and he's done a good job.
Landry Fields tweeted back in November, almost 14 years to the day, me and Andy Rottens will be in the city tonight starting at 5 p.m. The first person to find us and answer our trivia question wins two tickets to the Knicks game.
Who do you think wins that trivia? Your boy. And then he posts.
I didn't know this. I didn't know he had it.
He goes, Landry Shaman, the winner is Tim Chalamet. And he won the contest.
There's a picture of him that will post up.

I'm looking at the tweet you sent me.

He must be 12 years old, 11 years old.

He's putting up the peace signs.

He looks cool.

Tim, I knew you had.

You didn't know.

I didn't know.

Didn't you say you used to play pickup with him a little bit too?

So he is my money moment for the week.

But yes, I started a pickup basketball game in Hollywood years ago. It's still going on to this day, even though I don't live there.
A lot of actors, producers, writers, whatever. And one time, my good buddy Sherm, who I think produced the indie that Tim was in, and he was like 15 or 16 years old, brought him to our game.
And I was like, little kid and by the way could ball he could ball some of these some of these posts wtf the lore timmy had add this to add this to the lore as well he's getting an auto by amari stoudemire and you know what a stud i didn't i didn't know he had that in him and he's got some games he would come to the pickup game and he would put in some good work again he was a kid but then years later at a Knicks game Bree and I are at a Knicks game and I hear 8,000 young girls screaming so I'm like who just walked in what is it in sync who is it it was Timothy Chalamet walks in walks past us to his seats and like i i didn't even realize it was him i didn't realize it was the same kid from pickup and he goes hey jerry what's up man how you been and he daps me up and it's all hitting me i'm like oh my god that's little timo from the basketball game so that's what they were calling him so our money moment oh that's good presented by cash app timothy chalamet keep keep doing thing, man. The movies are great, but I want to have a sport.
I want to get you on this pod to strictly talk sports. I want to talk about doing two.
I think he gained a lot more fans over the past week just with the sports knowledge. Because if you look at him, you kind of think like, this kid doesn't know a lot about sports.
Oh, no. He's about that.
He's about that life. So thank you to Cash App for that.
And now it's time for the Throwback 3. All right.
So Throwback 3, top toys we received as kids for Christmas. Top Christmas gifts, toys, presents we got as kids.
This will probably be one of our last things we do for Christmas because I'm ready to be done now at this point. So, Matt, and again, we encourage all of you at throwback show tell us your top three christmas presents you received as a kid what did matt liner get as a kid that he loved so okay so the number three the original nintendo system okay i could have went every year with every new every new game you know game console that came out that was the OG original that introduced my brother.
My brother was five years older than me. So it came out in 83 the year I was born.
I'm pretty sure I started playing video games when I was four or five. But I remember we didn't really have those until I think I was five.
So that was the very first one. And obviously we've talked about it, like some of the RC Pro and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, Excitebike, like some of the greatest games that I like.
Just baseball, hockey, baseball, hockey. I could name a hundred different games, but the original NES system came out in 1983.
One of my favorite Christmas gifts of all time.

You probably went right for Duck Hunt

because that came with the game, right?

No, by the way, Zelda.

My brother and I played Zelda.

My brother beat Zelda with his friend,

which took him weeks to build or weeks to win.

That's something we got to ask.

I know we're going to have Justin Kroll on the show

in a few weeks or so.

I know there's a lot of rumblings

about a Zelda movie or a series. So we got to also check with Kroll on that stuff.
Okay. I hear you on that.
My number three is in the same ballpark, but different game. I went Sega Genesis because for me, I loved, I got Nintendo too for Christmas one year.
I was lucky kid kid. And when I got the Genesis, that opened up the sports video games for me in a much bigger way.
That's Madden. You know, that's NHL hockey for me.
Genesis was fire. So as much as I loved getting Nintendo and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, 0073735963, that's the code.
Sega Genesis meant more to me when I was like 10 year, whatever age I was on Christmas, like my mom really came through. So Sega Genesis for me.
All right. Number two, you're going to die.
I actually was going to put this number one, but I'm not going to put number two, the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. By the way, the original toy came out in 1979.
I got it. We were big, big, big Star Wars fans as kids.
So the Millennium Falcon, I remember it sat in the bottom of my dad's office. Again, we had a tiny house growing up.
It was so big. It just sat on the bottom there with like, we had He-Man figurines.
We had all our GI Joes. We had all sorts of shit.
But the Millennium Falcon was like this big thing. And we had all our Stark Chewbacca.
We had all the toys stuffed in there. By far.
By the way, people are going to love that shit because the Millennium Falcon was so fire when we were kids. So fire.
I did not get that as a kid. Friends of mine.
If you walked into someone's house and they had the Millennium Falcon, you're like, this kid is cool. But also the OG that I never got was the G.I.
Joe aircraft carrier, which I think was like $400. If you got that, you were just straight up rich.
Dude, we still light our G.I. Joe's on fire, my brother and I.
So you might be too young for, and I'm only four years older than you, but you might have missed the window on this. My number two, do you remember anything called Photon? Does that ring a bell to you? Of course.
It does, okay. The laser tag? Yes.
So there was some really cool at-home laser tag games back in the day. There was one called Laser Tag, and then there was one called Photon.
You get a helmet, a chest protector, and a weapon. And you could hit either of the targets, the chest protector, the weapon, or the helmet.
And with Photon, you were either red or green. Red was always the more popular one.
I got Photon for Christmas, and I walked my streets like a stormtrooper. I wore it everywhere I went.
And the only other kid, I had a bunch of

red teams on my side of the street. There was

one kid who was a green

team across the street.

You guys beat his ass. Hours of just

hunting this green team.

We had a photon place.

Remember, I had a brother

five years older.

He was 46.

I remember. That's a great one.
Photon. And they even made, and I can't find it anywhere.
Even on YouTube, it's hard to find. They made a supportive Photon TV show, which I don't think was any good, but that's how they did things back then.
So that's my number two. I wanted to think your number one was, hey, I got this football when I was a kid.
And when I just put it in my hand, it just felt i knew i was gonna i hope it's something like that it's probably what the the nerf football that just some kind of the vortex remember the vortex yeah i i don't think you're gonna put a listen i had to go again i had to go with a game console and again i i wanted to try and be original of three different things but it's just like nintendo 64 so so sega genesis for you was like it was 64 for you yeah mario kart still still to this day my probably my favorite like my i still play i played on nintendo switch like i'm still child and most kids that's their first game today so for goldeneye arguably the greatest game Wave Race i was thinking about this i was looking like wave race i used to play wave race for hours dude so that like original nintendo was great we never really had super nintendo it was weird we switched because i think super nintendo came out around the same time as sega genesis it was like yes sega or you went we had genesis we didn't have super nintendo and then nintendo 64 came out and that was like the one that i remember my brother and i were like saving up and like you had to wait in line outside of like best buy for like or whatever wherever target wherever my dad would like six in the morning and you wait two hours to get the line then because you couldn't order anything online back then so 64 was the one that just hits me the most because of the games that were yeah that console i love the all the wwe wrestling games on there they were fantastic and look do you ever miss any of this stuff it's so convenient what i mean is like it's so convenient now matt you want a game you just go click just go click on, you download it, right? And I know there's some novelty, not even Best Buy, GameStop stuff. Like you can go to a brick and mortar store.
But that feeling as a kid of going to the store and getting that thing that you wanted and bringing it home and fight, like to me, there was no better feeling. The same goes for Blockbuster.
Now I know it's easier. It's better today because we saved the time but that hype it's hard to build that hype anymore hype and opening up the yeah and also like these kids now and like we just like like you know they just they get almost whatever they want like it's like you just you have access to everything it was like nintendo's coming out nine months i can't wait to get it in 12 like that's all's all you look forward to.
It's all you look forward to. When you got it, it was like the greatest.
That's why Christmas is fun with our kids age now because they get so excited. But yeah, I mean, it's- Well, I'm going to throw you a curve ball right now, Matt Leiner, because my number one is not a toy.
It's not a gaming system. It's an article of clothing.
The thing that most kids hate to get on Christmas, an article of clothing. Socks.
No. I wanted more than anything a starter jacket when I was a kid.
They were expensive. Single mother, not going to lie.
We did not have it like that. Cannot go spend a buck 50 on a starter jacket.
And I remember looking at it in the store and just the first, that was like the moment I realized like, wow, we really don't have money like that. Cause my mom was like, we can't afford this, Jerry.
It's not happening. And to my mom's credit, she went back to the store.
I don't know if she put it on the credit card or did layaway, which was the thing back then. It was my Christmas gift.
She hid it at my aunt's house in the closet in the basin. We used to always play over there.
And to this day, it was a Ranger starter jacket. And to this day, I still have it back.
It's like it's packed in my mom's house. And that was the coolest thing I ever got because I wanted that so bad.
Starter jackets were so far. Starter jackets.
One of my consolation was Reebok pumps. Yeah.
Remember Reebok pumps? Like those who I remember. I just bought the Michael Chang tennis Reebok pumps where the ball is actually like the tennis material.
I just bought them on StockX. Did you? Just bought them last week.
Yeah. I'll wear them on the show next week.
Good, because we can see them on the video. I'll put them right here next to my Wendings cup.
The Reebok pumps, man. Yeah, dude, toys were the best growing up.
Well, everybody, please let us know your top Throwback 3 Christmas presents as a kid that you received. It doesn't matter the year you were born.
Hit us at throwback show.

We will be watching for that.

And Matt, we're going to get up out of here.

Thank you to Johnny Manziel.

Go listen to his podcast.

And yeah, just the man and way more to come.

We got a lot coming down the pipe for the rest of the year.