00:00:00
Speaker 1: So I'm saying, now, who's calling me from Canton? Now I wasn't just because I was just in a different zone and it was somebody here from Canton say hey, Andre, how you doing? I go, how am I doing? I go, dude, I'm like on pins and needles here, and he goes, well, the weight is over.
00:00:19
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Hall of Fame. That was it?
00:00:22
Speaker 3: Just like that, Just like that.
00:00:24
Speaker 1: It gives me chills because you know, it's something that the fifteen year old me would have never thought. Yeah, because I wasn't supposed to be there, and for that to happen in the manner it did, only God made it happen that way.
00:00:48
Speaker 3: What's up, everybody, I'm Peanuts Human and this is the NFL Player's Second Act podcast and with me, as always my trust to go host Roman. I'm gonna show my chest off hark.
00:00:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you.
00:01:02
Speaker 3: Don't have any tackle me, but you're showing a little.
00:01:04
Speaker 4: And I don't shave either.
00:01:06
Speaker 5: Let's let's keep it rolling, just talk about our guests, don't even worry about it.
00:01:10
Speaker 4: Keep it going, all right.
00:01:11
Speaker 3: This next littleman we got coming to the pods, a sixteen year NFL that he's in the Hall of Fame. He is a youth empowerment advocate. He is currently the Commissioner of the Entertainment Football Association. Ladies and gentlemen, please walk up to the pop, mister Andre Reid to the pop.
00:01:28
Speaker 2: As they say, what out?
00:01:29
Speaker 4: What out? What out?
00:01:30
Speaker 3: What what out?
00:01:30
Speaker 4: What up?
00:01:31
Speaker 3: So you know what you're gonna ask, So I'm gonna let you just get on right into it.
00:01:34
Speaker 4: Andre.
00:01:35
Speaker 5: What is the commissioner of the Entertainment Football Association.
00:01:39
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, let me let me rephrase all that right now.
00:01:42
Speaker 4: We did I say it wrong?
00:01:43
Speaker 2: No, you didn't. You didn't say it wrong. But what we're gonna what we're doing?
00:01:46
Speaker 4: Uh?
00:01:46
Speaker 1: Actually Tim Brown is a commissioner of another league.
00:01:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, the same thing.
00:01:51
Speaker 2: So I'm in the.
00:01:51
Speaker 1: Other division and we were supposed to start in June, but had a little mishaps or whatever you want to say with people.
00:02:00
Speaker 2: So we're going to start next June.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: Okay, so we have another you know, five how many months, another year, half a year, seven, eight months to get it right.
00:02:09
Speaker 2: But very excited about it.
00:02:12
Speaker 1: You know, football is is life, Yes, it's life for us and to be a part of something an organization that is going to empower other kids not only to play the game, but to have another chance. That's really what it's about. And for me to be a part of it and be that the commissioners is awesome.
00:02:30
Speaker 4: All right.
00:02:31
Speaker 3: I want to go back to nineteen eighty five your draft class. Do you or can you name the person drafted before you?
00:02:40
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a good one. Let's see.
00:02:43
Speaker 1: I was the eighty six pick, correct, So eighty five might have been. Was it a receiver from Missouri?
00:02:51
Speaker 3: Close? Close, close? They both used to be. I give you the initials g R. Wow, I give you the initials of the of the player of the person.
00:03:01
Speaker 2: And what what team did he get drafted by?
00:03:04
Speaker 4: Oh?
00:03:04
Speaker 3: Now you want to just tell you?
00:03:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly h g R.
00:03:08
Speaker 1: Greg Robinson George rhymes buster rhymes, yes, yeah rhymes. And you know what funny story about him? When we got to the combine that year and the combine wasn't like it is now, obviously, But I said to him, because I come from a little Teene school called Kutztown col tip and School, you know, nobody heard about it. He went to Oklahoma, where I wanted to go. But obviously that didn't happen, and I didn't need to go to Oklahoma. And I said, where'd you get the the bust of rhymes, the Buster? I said, you get it from the rapper, you know, Bust the Rhymes. He said, yeah, somebody started calling me that Bust the Rhymes, so he adopted that name, George Buster Rhymes.
00:03:47
Speaker 2: I didn't know that.
00:03:48
Speaker 4: I didn't either.
00:03:48
Speaker 5: I mean, it's a great story. I mean it's a cool names. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I didn't.
00:03:52
Speaker 1: He played with Minnesota for a couple of years. He was a great punt returner. I don't know what happened. I guess he probably and he was a decent receiver. But he was actually a running back at OU when they did the triple option with Thomas Slott and all those guys back in the day. But yeah, George Rhymes man busta Yeah.
00:04:12
Speaker 5: All right, Andre, What was your welcome to the NFL moment?
00:04:16
Speaker 1: Oh first training camp nineteen eighty five at for Donia State And I was just in for Donia playing in a charity golf.
00:04:24
Speaker 4: Where is state?
00:04:26
Speaker 3: For those it's not in Europe because it's sounded like it's from Europe.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's probably about forty five minutes from Buffalo. So if you go down ninety all the way down towards the lake, towards Cleveland, it's right around, you know, before Cleveland. Obviously it's in New York. But yeah, crazy for Donia. And I just was there and I told the people I was a rookie here forty years ago, so I was aging myself, you know what they knew. Yeah, yeah, I was a twenty one year old rookie at for Donia State in nineteen eighty five.
00:05:01
Speaker 3: And what made what what was that moment like for you though? That that first running camp.
00:05:05
Speaker 1: You know, training camps ain't like they used to be there. We were in pads a lot of the times and we hit Yeah, yeah, training camps out they don't do that.
00:05:14
Speaker 3: What was a how long was it practice?
00:05:17
Speaker 1: Probably about three and a half hours and you had two of them, two of them?
00:05:21
Speaker 3: And what times you start?
00:05:22
Speaker 4: One time? When you would you be finished?
00:05:24
Speaker 2: Started?
00:05:25
Speaker 1: You know, you gotta be on the field eight thirty, eight o'clock eight thirty warming up, practice starts at nine, don't get off to about eleven eleven thirty, Go eat lunch, get an app Even though I was twenty one, you know, you don't need an app but do you need a nap? Because I was running the next The next practice was like seven on seven and you know all that.
00:05:44
Speaker 2: Kind of stuff.
00:05:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it was uh, you know, coming from a small school, it wasn't like I was wasn't ready for it, but I just was.
00:05:53
Speaker 2: I just ran all day.
00:05:54
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:05:55
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:05:55
Speaker 4: So what was that part where you like, you know, was it a play.
00:05:59
Speaker 5: Was it a moment that I either like, man, I need to pick my game up.
00:06:03
Speaker 1: No, it was a cup. Well, like you said, welcome to the NFL. I was running deep dig. Okay, not from the slot, because that's what I was known for, the slot. I was on the outside running deep dig and Frank Wright threw me the ball. He was, you know, the backup to Jim. Jim wasn't even there yet. Jim came the next year.
00:06:20
Speaker 2: Ball was a.
00:06:20
Speaker 1: Little high, jumped up, got it feet from underneath me, landed, flipped, got up.
00:06:27
Speaker 2: Welcome to the NFL. Nobody helped me up.
00:06:32
Speaker 3: Nobody help up. My last question about this and we'll go on to the next one. Did you play special teams?
00:06:39
Speaker 4: I did?
00:06:39
Speaker 1: I played, uh did a little punk return And I was like, I don't think this is just no, No.
00:06:46
Speaker 3: It's not everybody. So you never like locked return teams.
00:06:49
Speaker 1: No, I was, yeah, I used to look at that ball coming down and look and see what's happening.
00:06:55
Speaker 2: It was one blocking and I was like, that's it for that. I don't want to do this. But you know what, A.
00:07:02
Speaker 1: Like you said, a welcome to the NFL moment My first training camp was because you know, we're grown man out there playing now. It wasn't just college kids. It was a grown man.
00:07:13
Speaker 3: So when I got I was always number five high school college. When I got to the league, I became thirty three. And my trainer or equipment manager teammate shout out to teammate.
00:07:24
Speaker 4: He called me.
00:07:25
Speaker 3: He's like, look we got thirty three, thirty six or thirty eight, forty one, forty two.
00:07:32
Speaker 4: Like he gave me a.
00:07:32
Speaker 3: Couple of different options, and I just was like. I was at Piccadilly with a friend and I was like, I don't know, what do you think I should do? Miss Bartel. She goes, well, baby, thirty three looks good, and we all just kind of were just I was just like, I don't know, thirty thirty three. I just was like he called me on the spot, and now was how I picked thirty three. I have nothing to compare to or connect with. You were eighty eight in college.
00:07:57
Speaker 1: Yes, Lynn Swan who's in the Hall of Fame was my guy Steelers. I was a big Steeler fan growing up and I was always beg my dad to watch a half of football when the Steelers were on and Swanna star wars with my guys the Lake Franco Harris, Me and Joe all the mel Blunt, all those guys. And I remember getting a training camp and they were like, well, there's a guy here that has eighty eight. We traded for Pete Metzelars from Seattle, remember tight end, and he wasn't giving up that number.
00:08:28
Speaker 2: So they said you got a choice.
00:08:31
Speaker 1: You want eighty three or eighty nine, And I was like, well eighty nine kind of eighty three I'll take. But during the preseason my number was forty six.
00:08:42
Speaker 6: Ooh ooh at receiver, Oh yeah that things, oh yeah, superstank and brouh.
00:08:50
Speaker 1: I was forty six and then made the team. All that got good stuff, and they gave me eighty three.
00:08:55
Speaker 3: So you had to make the team to get a number, to get a number, So how many guys did y'all going to camp.
00:08:59
Speaker 1: With twenty five and trim down to fifty three? Yep, one twenty five was on the field. Damn so one on ones, bro, you better get up there.
00:09:10
Speaker 5: I got a question though, So when you go outside and you're playing wide receiver and you line up at number with number forty six, you got left that, bro, I was gonna say, like, you're not getting any respect.
00:09:19
Speaker 2: This is what he said. I'm a fourth round pick. So I'm like, that's.
00:09:22
Speaker 3: Still pretty early, though, aren't you, because y'all y'all had like twelve rounds. Yeah, so the fourth round is still pretty damn good.
00:09:30
Speaker 2: Fourth round was like a first round.
00:09:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like that's still that's still amazing.
00:09:33
Speaker 2: Yeah. From a D two school, there was a lot of D.
00:09:35
Speaker 3: Two games in the league time amazing. Yeah.
00:09:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I was like, it just give me a chance. You know.
00:09:40
Speaker 1: I tell to a lot of people that how did you make the team? I said, well, when I got brought up in there front, you know, you had two lines and dbs against receivers in one on one you had ten minutes at the most.
00:09:52
Speaker 4: That's true.
00:09:53
Speaker 1: And the Vets would be like they do their one or two of them, and they would be like, get up in there. And it's ironic because eight years later I was telling them rookies, get up in there.
00:10:03
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:10:04
Speaker 5: Yeah, Okay. So you you went to Cutstown University. Yes, and it's in Pennsylvania, cuts Down, Pennsylvania.
00:10:11
Speaker 3: Yes, and sounds German. I had to look it up.
00:10:14
Speaker 4: I didn't.
00:10:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, actually look at it actually like amish Okay, this country central so central Pa.
00:10:21
Speaker 2: Pretty much.
00:10:22
Speaker 1: I mean about an hour and a half outside of Philly.
00:10:25
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, cool.
00:10:26
Speaker 5: Yeah, and coming from that university D two, not a lot of people probably had heard of it.
00:10:32
Speaker 2: Nobody.
00:10:33
Speaker 5: What was your football future at the beginning when you first get into the league, when you're coming from Cutsdown? Did you even have an idea of what it could be or what?
00:10:44
Speaker 1: I definitely did, And I was all about getting a chance, just like most kids are to get a chance. They drafted me in the fourth round for a reason. I could have went eighth round or ninth round or twelfth round. And I thought at one point I was going to go to Dallas or Denver, and Buffalo came out of nowhere.
00:11:07
Speaker 2: I don't even know where Buffalo was. Bro I didn't know where buff It was like New York.
00:11:12
Speaker 1: I go, is it by New York City or they're gonna know it's by this lake called Lake Erie and it snows a lot.
00:11:20
Speaker 4: Goodness.
00:11:20
Speaker 2: I got there. I got just scrapedot got there.
00:11:23
Speaker 1: My for Mini camp first year, it was two inches snow on the ground. Mini Camp first week in June. What, Yes, that sounds miserable and I go like this, I go, well, welcome into some craziness. And I spent sixteen years up there.
00:11:43
Speaker 3: I just couldn't imagine getting drafted by a team in day one. You're just like, i'ma hate it here, Like I never said if. I like, really, I'm in Green Bay right now.
00:11:51
Speaker 1: But being from Pennsylvania, I saw all that stuff, you know, but I didn't see the lake effect. I didn't know what lake effect snow was until I got up there and I saw it, and I.
00:11:59
Speaker 3: Go, oh, same Chicago didn't really know it. I mean, as a kid, you saw, but then you.
00:12:04
Speaker 6: Get sign you could see it and smell it confect yeah and Buffalo correct, Yes, So you like and kind of describe what this lake effect is because I've only seen it in pictures where the water rolls in and like it splits up the bridges right.
00:12:16
Speaker 1: Well, you got you know, Buffalo's on the corner of Lake Erie. Then you got Lake Ontario, which is right above it. So the wind that comes off of Lake Ontario, it comes off of there a different way and just goes across Lake Erie the right way. So Rochester, all those places they get some snow, but they don't get blasted. Western New York gets blasted.
00:12:38
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm getting a geography.
00:12:39
Speaker 4: Lesson right here.
00:12:40
Speaker 1: And if you live in if you live in the southtowns, you're gonna get You can sometimes get a foot and a half and you can see the cloud right the snow, you can see the cloud.
00:12:49
Speaker 5: So that's what I saw was a picture of like the clouds, the clouds, and then like to the right nothing, then on the left zero.
00:12:57
Speaker 1: Oh, it looks terrible, like it's a foot and a half, and then fifteen minutes away it's like a half an inch.
00:13:04
Speaker 3: All right.
00:13:05
Speaker 5: So I want to know about your experience of getting into the Hall of Fame. I've seen the videos, not specifically yours, but nowadays they always record the guys. And it took you nine times eight eight, and you got in on the ninth or.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: Actually it actually took me seven. I got in on the eighth.
00:13:23
Speaker 4: That's what it was.
00:13:24
Speaker 3: Okay, yes, So what was that waiting like?
00:13:28
Speaker 5: Oh, it was It was understandable, you know, because you had other guys in your draft class get in, people from your team, and.
00:13:36
Speaker 4: You had to wait.
00:13:37
Speaker 3: Well, it's a little bit different though, because you guys were and I'm just kind of describing to our listeners. You're in the hotel room, right, this is when you used to they used to bring all the finalists and you go in the hotel room and you're just waiting for that wait for that call, and you're just waiting. You're just waiting for that knock on the waiting for a call. Call, they knock on the door. They don't even do that.
00:13:56
Speaker 2: Now they go to the dude's house.
00:13:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, the player's house. Now a little bit better.
00:14:00
Speaker 2: It's more natural. Yeah, it's more natural.
00:14:03
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, So how many times? What was it like?
00:14:05
Speaker 5: You sit in the hotel room the first year You're like, okay, I'm going I was.
00:14:10
Speaker 1: I was a semifinalist the first two and then the last six I was in the finals. And unlike baseball, would I give you the percentage of what you get in football. They're not going to tell you, oh, you got you need eighty percent. Well you had seventy four this year, yeah, or hey you're close, you're seventy eight. Because every year it came around, it's like, yeah, it is your year, it is your year. I said, it's not up to me, right, it never was up to me. I did what I did on the field. I was only as good as the people around me. You guys know, somebody's gonna make you better. I had four or five other Hall of famers.
00:14:43
Speaker 2: That made me better.
00:14:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, And if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be sitting here talking about it like that. So and we're all we all were held accountable for everything. So that was really important to us, not only winning but as a team. I mean, you don't really see that nowadays, accountability. These these guys are on their own doing their own things.
00:15:04
Speaker 5: So when you retired, you were third all time and received receptions.
00:15:09
Speaker 1: Fifth and yard seventh and touchdown fourth fourth.
00:15:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you.
00:15:14
Speaker 5: Got the numbers to get in King of Yak and it takes you this time to get in. Do you think it's because of the lack of Super Bowl or what do you think it is or do you even you don't worry about I know you don't worry about anything.
00:15:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, but at the time, what was probably ratling.
00:15:30
Speaker 1: I think that probably had some kind of a man like a ten to fifteen percent that had a lot to do with it. But you know, once you get in, they don't even talk about that ten or fifteen They don't even talk about that no more. You know, just like Dion said, they say, hey, we're all in the same room, all our busts are in the same room, no matter what year you get in.
00:15:52
Speaker 4: Yeah. Great, and you know what a.
00:15:58
Speaker 1: Just what a ride it was for me to you know, being Buffalo and that happened there for those fans because you guys know, Bills fans are those mafia's.
00:16:07
Speaker 3: Crazy crazy, Yeah, in a good way.
00:16:10
Speaker 2: In a good way.
00:16:10
Speaker 3: Yes, Yes, who all was there when you got that that that knock on the door? Who all do you have with?
00:16:15
Speaker 1: I had I had my my two agents and you had two at the time.
00:16:22
Speaker 2: But they were a team.
00:16:23
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, I was they were like a team.
00:16:26
Speaker 1: Okay, an I got you got an agent two times. And it's funny how it happened because they sequester you in the hotel. So it was New York City. Remember Super Bowls in New York that year in twenty fourteen, And I was like, yeah, maybe and maybe, you know, maybe it's nothing meant to be, maybe it wasn't whatever. So I remember being in the room and it was the first year of the NFL Honors.
00:16:54
Speaker 2: It was going to be on TV.
00:16:55
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting in the room and my agents like, this is your year. I said, yeah, this is seven years now. I mean here, remember whatever. But I got a phone call from a You're looking for a three three oh number, which is here. Okay, So I'm looking for a three to three oh call and I get a two to one two call, and I'm like, who's calling me from New York right now? When I'm waiting for this three oh three to three year old call. It was remember Brian Burwell. Yeah, he was in the room while they were voting. So he goes, hey, Andre, just want you to know you're in the final ten. The go, yeah, I've been in the final ten like six seven years now, because I'll call you back in twenty minutes. He calls me back in twenty minutes, You're in the final five. So now I'm in, but I'm not officially in, so I have to get a yes from all the voters to say yes, yes, yes. He calls me back like twenty minutes later, and actually wasn't him. It was somebody from here. It was a three to three oh number. So I'm saying, now, who's calling me from campon?
00:17:58
Speaker 4: Now?
00:17:58
Speaker 1: I wasn't just because I was just in a different zone and it was somebody here from Canton said hey, Andre, how you doing?
00:18:06
Speaker 2: I go, how am I doing?
00:18:08
Speaker 1: I go, dude, I'm like on pins and needles here, and he goes, well, the weight is over, Welcome to the Hall of Fame.
00:18:17
Speaker 2: That was it?
00:18:18
Speaker 3: Just like that, Just like that? What was the first thing you thought? First emotion?
00:18:22
Speaker 1: When he said that, I saw myself as a little kid playing Pop Warner to the last time I played a game in the NFL that fast. It gives me chills because you know, it's something that the fifteen year old me would have never thought. Yeah, because I wasn't supposed to be there, and for that to happen in the manner it did, only God made it happen that way.
00:18:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, I don't know anybody that I've talked to or even on this podcast that has said, oh yeah, my goal was being in to be in a Hall of Fame.
00:19:01
Speaker 2: I never told my mom I wanted to play in the NFL.
00:19:03
Speaker 3: Everyone just was like, well you were like that. We had that conversation, just like I'm just playing. I didn't think I.
00:19:07
Speaker 4: Could go to the lead.
00:19:08
Speaker 1: I love the year, Yeah, I love That's what I love to do.
00:19:12
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:19:13
Speaker 1: So it's like your whole football life flashes before you and like half a second and you think about the first person that said something to you, and the first person that hit you over the top of the head said you're doing this wrong or this You think about all that that quick.
00:19:30
Speaker 5: Yep, why you said something? And I want to know why? And that was I wasn't supposed to be here? Why were you not supposed to be here?
00:19:39
Speaker 1: Because if you like, I'm going to write a book and it's going to be about just how I grew up and what I went through because nobody knows. They see you on TV and they they don't know about what you went through. And everybody has their own story, me included. So you know, I was destined not to even to go definitely make a right, said to make a left, yeah, because of home life and all this other stuff.
00:20:04
Speaker 2: And well I'm supposed to be there.
00:20:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, ye beat the odds.
00:20:09
Speaker 3: Definitely be the odds. So something that you and I have in common that I don't think you knew you would be in this conversation, but you actually won a Super Bowl. You can ask, I'm I'm I'm old for two.
00:20:21
Speaker 1: I'm oh for four, So but I'm here, what was it?
00:20:26
Speaker 3: And I know what it's like to be old for over two? What was oh for four?
00:20:29
Speaker 1: Like the first probably when I retired to first like five years. You know, it was like people are just, you know, ruthless.
00:20:37
Speaker 2: You guys went there four times.
00:20:39
Speaker 1: You know, people just what people are. But as the years went on, the ruthlessness became admiring. There was an admiration for all of us. There are those teams. Don Beebe won a Super Bowl.
00:20:56
Speaker 2: With the Packers.
00:20:57
Speaker 1: He was with us for three of those losses. And he said in an interview, if I can give a ring and a Super Bowl champion and all the bills, guys, I would, And that kind of chokes me up too, because it's like that's what you play the game for if you play the game, If you don't play the game for that reason, you shouldn't even be playing a game. And in this world right now, the kids are all about the dough and this and that. There's nothing wrong with that. But your legacy, that's what you want, that's what you want to uphold, and you want to put a stamp on.
00:21:31
Speaker 5: Why do you tell people that the first Super Bowl hurts the most?
00:21:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, it came down to that.
00:21:38
Speaker 6: Kick, Scott nor would he can fire the shot heard round the world.
00:21:43
Speaker 4: Now, what a fine game, What an absolutely fine game.
00:21:47
Speaker 5: There we go with eight seconds to play Hi drama hair on the Super Bowls.
00:22:08
Speaker 1: And I think as the years go on, I say, if we won that first one, he makes that kick, did we go to the next three?
00:22:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, everything's different. And I looked at you know that.
00:22:20
Speaker 5: I looked at you guys, that Buffalo team coming from Buffalo were you guys were stacked and you had fun. You guys were like swaggy before swag was a word. You guys had the shades on. Everybody had the high top.
00:22:37
Speaker 3: Doing your thing.
00:22:38
Speaker 5: And I don't think I appreciated it because I was a younger man younger kid at the time still had gray hair, though I probably did. But it was just like I didn't realize how swaggy Buffalo was and how much you guys did your thing.
00:22:51
Speaker 1: I mean, we used to have Holly people come from Hollywood in LA to come watch the games in rich Stadium. There'd be Hollywood stars in the stands. Yeah, and we didn't know until you know, the next day that they were there. But I think we we carried ourselves in a way where we kind of exuberated that, like they came to see us because they we were good.
00:23:14
Speaker 3: What were some of those stars? Who were some of those stars?
00:23:17
Speaker 4: Oh?
00:23:17
Speaker 1: Man, the stars back then, like oh gosh, in the nineties, you name, I can't even think about it.
00:23:25
Speaker 2: You name them, they were there.
00:23:27
Speaker 3: Okay, I got one for you. So there's there's one play in mind whatever super Bowl, my first one we lost where uh Riggie Wayne running down the sideline Scott Free. That's the one play that I still think about that kind of got away.
00:23:39
Speaker 4: Was it your fault?
00:23:40
Speaker 2: Yeah it was not.
00:23:41
Speaker 3: Well, well, it's still the one player I think about that, like it wasn't my fault though, like that, don't do me like that. It's the one play I think about that that Peyton Manning. They got on the hot, they got on the roll real quick, and we gave them a free play. Is there one play out of any of those four Super Bowls that just kind of sticks out in your mind? It's like, damn, I want that one play back.
00:24:05
Speaker 1: I think the first one against the Giants where we had played them during the year and is when it had LT and all them dudes. You know, it was just they were the phenomenal on defense. Their offense wasn't like they won on defense most of the time, and it's just I was like, we're gonna we're playing them again, and you know, how do we beat these guys? And we got to be sound, especially in a game like this, and we weren't sound even though it came down to a kick. You know, I dropped two passes. There was there was some things that could have went the other way where we could have won that game, down title, it missed the tackle.
00:24:45
Speaker 2: There's all kinds of things going.
00:24:47
Speaker 1: But I try to tell people the resolve of our team is that we went back next year, and it went back the year after that and the year after that. We don't get credit for that because they don't talk about it. But if we win two of those four, we're one of the greatest teams ever. Yeah, we win all four, we're like the forty nine Ers, the Steelers of the seventies and forty nine Ers of the eighties, the Patriots of the nineties, or whatever.
00:25:13
Speaker 2: You want to call it.
00:25:14
Speaker 4: Whatever.
00:25:14
Speaker 1: The two yeah, two thousands were in that conversation, but it just wasn't meant to be. But they still talk about us like that because it's a benchmark.
00:25:26
Speaker 3: I want to talk about the comeback that might be probably one of the if not the greatest crazy in history.
00:25:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely in the playoffs.
00:25:37
Speaker 3: I don't know, it might just be an the hole in the top two.
00:25:40
Speaker 1: I mean, even though they one a couple of years ago with the Vikings, you know, but.
00:25:45
Speaker 2: It didn't have that. It just didn't have that luster.
00:25:47
Speaker 4: I'm sorry.
00:25:48
Speaker 3: I'm kind of with you though, I'm with you.
00:25:50
Speaker 1: And this is when we played the game there it was blacked out on TV.
00:25:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they I forgot about yeah, because you were so bad they switched it right, stood up. They're just like, yeah, they.
00:26:01
Speaker 1: Put on they put on like the monsters, but you didn't know that when you were playing though, right.
00:26:05
Speaker 4: No, No, that's just a good story though.
00:26:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I remember one thing about that game that turned it around for us. Darryl Tally, who is our vocal leader.
00:26:14
Speaker 4: Guy.
00:26:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's on the sideline and he's going up and down the sideline in people, everybody's face. So we got them when we got them right where we want them. And we're like, we're down thirty five to three, and we come out the third quarter and Frank throws a ball and goes off McKellar's hands and Bubba mcdial picks it, goes six.
00:26:36
Speaker 2: It's thirty five to.
00:26:36
Speaker 1: Three with twelve minutes twelve minutes left in the third quarter, and he's going, we got him right where we need him. And it's not that we didn't believe it, but we had that crowd and dude, once that clicked and turned around, yeah, they were done.
00:26:54
Speaker 3: But did you come out No one wants No one starts a game like, all right, let's let's let's get down, let's spot them fourteen points. We had played come out like super flat or just what we played.
00:27:05
Speaker 1: In the week before down in Houston in an astrodome. We got beat twenty eight to three, had to come back and play them the next week in a wildcard game. So did we were familiar, of course, but we're like we got them at home, our fans and we were laying like the biggest egg you can imagine, Yes, And it took just one play, one little spark, and we looked in their eyes and they weren't. They were done. You know how you look at somebody's eyes and done. They they already were going to Pittsburgh the next week.
00:27:40
Speaker 5: I want to know one more thing about that, that comeback game. So as Darryl Talley said what he said on the sidelines, Yeah, like is that like becomes the mantra as we like of.
00:27:49
Speaker 4: Course, like, hey we got them right what we want.
00:27:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were because of the situation.
00:27:55
Speaker 3: Yes, it's these You don't I don't.
00:27:57
Speaker 2: Think you even would probably even hear that right now.
00:28:00
Speaker 1: No, because we were looking at him going up like what is this boob talking about?
00:28:04
Speaker 3: There's always that one guy who does that though, yeah he doesn't play or I'm not center, I didn't play, but I'm.
00:28:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then it just started going. We had an orange side kick. We covered that he threw moon through two picks, like he was like four touchdowns in the first half he threw he could have been He probably should have threw four more.
00:28:22
Speaker 3: You had three to exact game.
00:28:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had three tugs that game.
00:28:25
Speaker 4: You had a nice little game.
00:28:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were trying to double brou use a zone zone. If I had to say, that was a zone game in all the games in two hundred and fifty four games I played, I was in the zone like no other that game.
00:28:41
Speaker 3: Why do you think that was? And just for that specific game, just because the comeback the situation.
00:28:45
Speaker 1: I think the thing that Darryl said, and it's like, you know, I laugh about it, like really, but we all like heard it, and yeah, after maybe one or two plays, we started believing that, Yeah.
00:28:58
Speaker 4: Well minimum is real.
00:29:00
Speaker 5: You know, we call this the Second Acts NFL Player Second X podcast for a reason. And you know, we all get to we all got to hang up our cleats at some point. Yes, and you've been able to do a lot after football. What are some of those things that you're probably considered that you're most proud of.
00:29:17
Speaker 1: Well, my kids, Number one, I have a twenty nine and thirty one year old. When I retired, they were six and four.
00:29:25
Speaker 4: So they're babies.
00:29:26
Speaker 2: They were babies.
00:29:26
Speaker 4: They were like my kids.
00:29:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so and just you know what, you guys know, relationships are so precious in this game. You got to develop those relationships early because those will be the same guys and same people you see later when you're retired. Right, And I think the generation now they don't think of it that way. And I'm involved in you know a couple of things.
00:29:50
Speaker 4: And well, you got the the Andre Reid Foundation.
00:29:52
Speaker 5: Yes, you're on the Minority Coaching Fellowship with the Chiefs in two twenty fifteen.
00:29:59
Speaker 4: I'm sure that was kind of fun.
00:30:01
Speaker 2: Andy Reid's first year I was with him.
00:30:03
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, okay, I didn't realize that was any reads first year with the two year because yeah, we left Philly then went on over. It's crazy how fast that stuff happens. Then you get a quarterback and win a couple championships, seems like it's just been.
00:30:14
Speaker 6: Forever and it's like, yeah, right, like where did that go?
00:30:18
Speaker 3: And you did some mentalists work on TV.
00:30:20
Speaker 5: So out of all these things outside of your family, right, and your teammates, what was that? You know, what is what was that second chapter? Like was it hard making that transition and maybe kind of tell your struggles or how you tried to flourish and these I think.
00:30:36
Speaker 1: It's hard for all of us. It's harder for all of us to hang up the cleats. I mean, I played thirty one years of football straight from from six years old till I was thirty seven. Every every fall I was padded up. And then when it's all, when it's said and done and over, it's like, Okay, what do I do next?
00:30:57
Speaker 4: Now?
00:30:59
Speaker 1: And again, the relationships are really important. They've been important to me for thirty years, some of these relationships. And as a Hall of Famer now people are you're not Andre Reid played for the Bills. You are, but you're Andre Reid Pro Football Hall of Famer that played for the Bills, and that not only holds a lot of value, but you are in a position to do so many different things outside of the game now and make impacts outside of the game. And you're talking about my foundation with Boys and Girls Club so important to me. You know, Denzel Washington is the national ambassador. I'm an ambassador under Denzel. So many guys, so many people you don't even know, went through the club system that accredit them for who they are and what they do today.
00:31:50
Speaker 2: And that's really important to me.
00:31:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, what made you want to focus on literacy?
00:31:56
Speaker 1: I didn't get read at home. Mom and dad didn't have time to read to me. So I was library or Boys and Girls club. That's why I learned how to read. And again that chokes me up because.
00:32:11
Speaker 2: You know, it doesn't get any it doesn't get any better.
00:32:14
Speaker 1: It does, but we still have a literacary problem, literacy problem in this country.
00:32:19
Speaker 4: We do.
00:32:20
Speaker 1: And I always say it takes a village to get.
00:32:24
Speaker 4: It right right, and as.
00:32:27
Speaker 1: An athlete, we're in a position to make that village better. And you know that's what I'm doing.
00:32:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, it's always impressive when we hear these stories about people doing things for others. I learned this from a pastor friend of mine that once you're affected by something, you will become an advocate for it all the time. And because the lack of reading that you received at an early age, you're probably behind. And then you of course, these other things happened kept me behind right right, and then all of a sudden, you know, if you don't get this outside help, you're not getting to college.
00:33:00
Speaker 4: And you're not getting to where you are. And I just love that I've done.
00:33:04
Speaker 5: I've been involved in reading programs with my foundation for a long time and I don't know if you know this, Peanut shout out to everybody is a stat of working with United Ways that all of our kids in America we learned how to read. From kindergarten to third grade, you're learning how to read, and then from fourth grade on you learn from reading. And so if you're behind in those K through third grades, you're going to be stay behind from fourth grade to seventh grade, and your likeliness.
00:33:31
Speaker 4: To drop out they really rise. Ye.
00:33:34
Speaker 3: All these other things happen, and that that.
00:33:36
Speaker 2: Is across the board.
00:33:37
Speaker 1: Yes, and it's always been like that. I think it's a lot better than it was probably when I was a kid, because there's more out there, there's people doing more things. But you kind of keep that in the back of your mind that that's why you do it. Because every time I go in and I've been to She's over the past ten years, fifteen years, I've been to a boys and girls club from Alaska all the way down to Florida, telling him my story yea, and saying that you could be that kid too. They just need encouragement, right, And I think that's part of your resume.
00:34:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely yeah. I don't think you knew this though, but I got it. I was affected by golf by not playing it at a young age, and now you're just a kid for it. I try to play all the time.
00:34:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, all the time.
00:34:31
Speaker 4: That that was good. That was good. That was exactly exactly.
00:34:35
Speaker 3: I love that because.
00:34:36
Speaker 4: I'm a you know, I'm an avid golfer. Yeah. Yeah.
00:34:40
Speaker 3: My last one for you was Mount Rushmore. If you pick four people that have helped you become the man you are today, who would those four people be?
00:34:50
Speaker 1: Obviously my pops And quick story when I got inducted here, my pops had passed away in ninety six. Very emotional day. I wish he was there, but he was there. But he was my biggest fan, and I wasn't the person I am because my dad was rough. He was five eight, big hands, like if he put his hand on your shoulder, you knew it because it was heavy. You know, would get up at five o'clock in the morning to be at pour and concrete by seven and just was that kind of guy. We all have our faults. He had his faults too, but he always told me, if you don't work hard, you'll never know your potential. If you don't work hard, you'll never know your potential. And if you don't make an effort, you'll never know what effort means. If you don't make it, you got to make an effort first to know what it means.
00:35:52
Speaker 2: And that stuck with me.
00:35:54
Speaker 1: My whole life, because again, I wasn't supposed to be playing. I wasn't supposed to be a Hall of famer. He knew I was supposed to be a Hall of Famer. And that's what I try to tell kids, is you're only one person away from somebody telling you that there's a possibility, it's possible. Regardless of where are you from, how much money you got, where you live, all that kind of stuff. You need one person to change your life, and you got to be out there doing it, you know, seeing these people or whatever it is. But it's one person. You got to make the effort. So that's really what I tell kids. I said, don't sit back and say I should have, or I could have, or I would have.
00:36:35
Speaker 2: Do it.
00:36:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, all.
00:36:37
Speaker 3: Right, you got Pops as one you got three more.
00:36:43
Speaker 1: Probably my high school coach, Bruce Trotter, who recently passed away about two years ago, two three years ago. He always saw something in me. All those coaches there saw something in me. And I was a little guy. You know, I didn't start growing until I got a certain age, and he always new. He came to my they came to my Hall of Fame ceremony, and that was besides my family, those guys because I I was that guy. And it's not that they say, oh I knew this was going to happen.
00:37:14
Speaker 2: They just loved. They loved the journey.
00:37:17
Speaker 1: They'd love to see the journey that I was on, not only how I played, be how I carried myself too, because that's a reflection on them.
00:37:25
Speaker 4: Yes, got it?
00:37:26
Speaker 3: Okay, yep, Pops Trotter, he get two more.
00:37:30
Speaker 1: Obviously my mom, because she was she held the fort together. Our moms are kind of our backbones. Without them, we obviously we wouldn't be here. But my mom's eighty one now and she's going through health problems in this, but she never missed the game.
00:37:48
Speaker 2: My pops never missed the game. Yeah, I remember he.
00:37:53
Speaker 1: Slipped the disc in his back and didn't get surgery and came to the game with a slip disk in his back because he didn't.
00:37:59
Speaker 2: Want to miss the game. Dedication.
00:38:03
Speaker 1: All these words that I learned through my life. Throughout my life, my dad taught me what those words mean. So my mom, my, Pops, my high school coach, and my college coach, George Baldwin at cuts down former military guy, marines, hard nosed guy. At some point in your life you need that kind of stuff, need somebody to just pound you. So you know that it ain't easy. And there's probably more. But those four, especially my mom and dad, they they put in a lot of work.
00:38:37
Speaker 4: Man, they.
00:38:41
Speaker 1: They did a lot of stuff for me. They made sure I had not what I needed.
00:38:46
Speaker 4: Earlier.
00:38:46
Speaker 3: It takes a village.
00:38:47
Speaker 2: It takes a village.
00:38:48
Speaker 5: Yeah, I wanted to know about your nutritional company, Yes, Celibate, Celibate, Okay, good, I was.
00:38:54
Speaker 4: I didn't know how to say it.
00:38:56
Speaker 3: I was going to ask that question.
00:38:57
Speaker 4: Thank you, Salivate.
00:39:00
Speaker 1: They're out of Florida. And you guys know it's a fact, the older you get and all the hits you take, uh, you're gonna need some help. And these gummies are probably state of the art, the state of the art gummies. They taste good and what they do is they they train yourselves to heal themselves faster, to heal your body faster.
00:39:25
Speaker 3: Is any no th c.
00:39:27
Speaker 1: It's it's called s O D super oxide diamondtoose. It's called so with those words, it's got to do. Yeah, I can't spell that.
00:39:37
Speaker 2: Letting the take it.
00:39:38
Speaker 1: But I partner with them last year out of Florida, and I've been taking these gummies for a year now, and of course I have my little aches and pains, but these are a state of the art gummy and they're in a couple of teams in the NFL have it. There's college teams that have it.
00:39:56
Speaker 2: So it has changed me.
00:39:57
Speaker 3: What do we want to if we want to buy some? Even looking to that, I'm right there and.
00:40:01
Speaker 1: Well you can just go to their website Celebrate dot com. C E L L E V eight number eight dot com. Let me tell you to change your life. And this isn't just for athletes, just for the normal person too. If you want to call it that, you will feel better. Uh, everything about your life will be better. Do I have ags and pains?
00:40:22
Speaker 4: Yes?
00:40:23
Speaker 1: But this has done one thousand percent for me, way much better than anything I ever had.
00:40:29
Speaker 3: You heard it right here on the NFL player. Second, take these gummies. It'll be all your eggs and pains, everything else.
00:40:34
Speaker 1: Everything you've got, everything you got, and they they're they're fabulous, man.
00:40:38
Speaker 2: And they taste good too.
00:40:39
Speaker 4: That's good. That's good.
00:40:41
Speaker 5: Well go ahead, you know no, I was just gonna say thank you man, like uh And I.
00:40:46
Speaker 2: Told you guys earlier.
00:40:47
Speaker 1: I really love the way you guys talk on your podcast.
00:40:49
Speaker 4: Man.
00:40:49
Speaker 1: You keep it real because there's a lot of podcasts out there that anybody can have one, but you guys know what you're talking about and you keep it real.
00:40:57
Speaker 2: So I, you know, kudos to you guys.
00:40:59
Speaker 5: We we all just the product of our team around us, man, because our team does a great job. They look after us, they set up everything for us, they help us with the research.
00:41:09
Speaker 3: There's no it is a me sometimes Kobe said that, but you.
00:41:16
Speaker 5: Know, man, we are a product of everything else around us.
00:41:19
Speaker 4: Man.
00:41:20
Speaker 5: And look man, me and Peanut is just so excited about being here with you guys.
00:41:24
Speaker 2: You guys love the way you guys played the game of football.
00:41:26
Speaker 4: Thanks, man, appreciate it.
00:41:28
Speaker 5: But we're here to celebrate y'all and just to be in you guys space and share this opportunity you get to share your stories with us, and also congrats on having the stadium named after you as well.
00:41:38
Speaker 2: I got you know what I believe or not. I'm in seven Hall of Fames.
00:41:41
Speaker 3: Now, okay, this may be, this may be a new record.
00:41:46
Speaker 5: I want to start asking everybody this. You're in seven seven seven Hall of Fames? Can you name them for me?
00:41:52
Speaker 2: Okay?
00:41:52
Speaker 3: Because that's hard.
00:41:53
Speaker 2: That's hard.
00:41:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's hard.
00:41:55
Speaker 2: That's hard.
00:41:55
Speaker 4: You are in seventh okay, college okay?
00:41:59
Speaker 1: The Division two Football Hall of Fame, all right, The Lehigh Valley Sports Hall of Fame.
00:42:04
Speaker 4: Okay.
00:42:04
Speaker 2: Uh, the Boys and Girls Club Hall of Fame.
00:42:06
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, all this wouldn't happen without the Boys and Girls Club Hall of Fame.
00:42:12
Speaker 2: There's there's two or three more.
00:42:14
Speaker 4: I saw another one. I wrote it down.
00:42:15
Speaker 2: There's a couple of them more in area.
00:42:17
Speaker 4: There's a couple more.
00:42:19
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:42:19
Speaker 1: I just got in the Pennsylvania State.
00:42:23
Speaker 4: Hall of Fame. Yes, State of Pennsylvan, State.
00:42:25
Speaker 2: Of Pennsylvania last November.
00:42:26
Speaker 3: That's five Pro Football Hall of Fame.
00:42:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, I said that one.
00:42:30
Speaker 1: There's two more that one. No, I said that first. I said my high school, all that stuff, and yeah, there's two more. I think it's two more. Yeah, and I have a stadium, a park, and a street named after me.
00:42:44
Speaker 3: I just got a street.
00:42:46
Speaker 5: Not only that, but your Wikipedia page is elite.
00:42:51
Speaker 3: Elite, y'all looked up Audre reed.
00:42:55
Speaker 2: Elite.
00:42:56
Speaker 4: It's not just good, it's elite. Appreciate the Bill's Hall of Fame.
00:43:01
Speaker 1: Yes, hall of fame. There you go, there's sports Hall of Fame. Yeah, so there's there's seven there.
00:43:07
Speaker 3: It is.
00:43:08
Speaker 4: Okay, and here's a kid that.
00:43:11
Speaker 3: Who knows anything's possible. Shoot, what you got? Hall of Fame Alabama? It is not important?
00:43:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. It is.
00:43:19
Speaker 4: You're the same guy.
00:43:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm in like three, I'm like three, I'm gonna get.
00:43:23
Speaker 4: I'm saying, I'm like you get your flowers. Yeah, I take that, Then get your flowers.
00:43:28
Speaker 2: It was a good friend of Mineterrell Burgess is a good friend of mine.
00:43:30
Speaker 4: Oh realil's with the sat Yes, yeah.
00:43:33
Speaker 2: I know, really good guy.
00:43:35
Speaker 4: Okay, I have to make sure I say what's up here? What's up to them? Yes?
00:43:39
Speaker 5: Well look man, Andre man, appreciate it. Man, Hey for all of our listeners out there wherever you pick up your podcast with this Apple podcast the iHeartRadio app. Make sure you give us a follow, like subscribe, leave a couple of comments will hit you back man, Tell a friend to tell a friend that you you.
00:43:53
Speaker 3: Know tend man.
00:43:55
Speaker 4: Appreciate the friends there it is. Appreciate the love and get us out of here.
00:44:00
Speaker 3: NFL YouTube challenge. Check us you that listen man, that's my act. Takes a villain, Yes, it does, takes the village always does. We appreciate y'all tuning into this podcast. Paint That's Wrong, That's on? Great And this is the NFL Player's second podcast
Speaker 1: So I'm saying, now, who's calling me from Canton? Now I wasn't just because I was just in a different zone and it was somebody here from Canton say hey, Andre, how you doing? I go, how am I doing? I go, dude, I'm like on pins and needles here, and he goes, well, the weight is over.
00:00:19
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Hall of Fame. That was it?
00:00:22
Speaker 3: Just like that, Just like that.
00:00:24
Speaker 1: It gives me chills because you know, it's something that the fifteen year old me would have never thought. Yeah, because I wasn't supposed to be there, and for that to happen in the manner it did, only God made it happen that way.
00:00:48
Speaker 3: What's up, everybody, I'm Peanuts Human and this is the NFL Player's Second Act podcast and with me, as always my trust to go host Roman. I'm gonna show my chest off hark.
00:00:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you.
00:01:02
Speaker 3: Don't have any tackle me, but you're showing a little.
00:01:04
Speaker 4: And I don't shave either.
00:01:06
Speaker 5: Let's let's keep it rolling, just talk about our guests, don't even worry about it.
00:01:10
Speaker 4: Keep it going, all right.
00:01:11
Speaker 3: This next littleman we got coming to the pods, a sixteen year NFL that he's in the Hall of Fame. He is a youth empowerment advocate. He is currently the Commissioner of the Entertainment Football Association. Ladies and gentlemen, please walk up to the pop, mister Andre Reid to the pop.
00:01:28
Speaker 2: As they say, what out?
00:01:29
Speaker 4: What out? What out?
00:01:30
Speaker 3: What what out?
00:01:30
Speaker 4: What up?
00:01:31
Speaker 3: So you know what you're gonna ask, So I'm gonna let you just get on right into it.
00:01:34
Speaker 4: Andre.
00:01:35
Speaker 5: What is the commissioner of the Entertainment Football Association.
00:01:39
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, let me let me rephrase all that right now.
00:01:42
Speaker 4: We did I say it wrong?
00:01:43
Speaker 2: No, you didn't. You didn't say it wrong. But what we're gonna what we're doing?
00:01:46
Speaker 4: Uh?
00:01:46
Speaker 1: Actually Tim Brown is a commissioner of another league.
00:01:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, the same thing.
00:01:51
Speaker 2: So I'm in the.
00:01:51
Speaker 1: Other division and we were supposed to start in June, but had a little mishaps or whatever you want to say with people.
00:02:00
Speaker 2: So we're going to start next June.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: Okay, so we have another you know, five how many months, another year, half a year, seven, eight months to get it right.
00:02:09
Speaker 2: But very excited about it.
00:02:12
Speaker 1: You know, football is is life, Yes, it's life for us and to be a part of something an organization that is going to empower other kids not only to play the game, but to have another chance. That's really what it's about. And for me to be a part of it and be that the commissioners is awesome.
00:02:30
Speaker 4: All right.
00:02:31
Speaker 3: I want to go back to nineteen eighty five your draft class. Do you or can you name the person drafted before you?
00:02:40
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a good one. Let's see.
00:02:43
Speaker 1: I was the eighty six pick, correct, So eighty five might have been. Was it a receiver from Missouri?
00:02:51
Speaker 3: Close? Close, close? They both used to be. I give you the initials g R. Wow, I give you the initials of the of the player of the person.
00:03:01
Speaker 2: And what what team did he get drafted by?
00:03:04
Speaker 4: Oh?
00:03:04
Speaker 3: Now you want to just tell you?
00:03:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly h g R.
00:03:08
Speaker 1: Greg Robinson George rhymes buster rhymes, yes, yeah rhymes. And you know what funny story about him? When we got to the combine that year and the combine wasn't like it is now, obviously, But I said to him, because I come from a little Teene school called Kutztown col tip and School, you know, nobody heard about it. He went to Oklahoma, where I wanted to go. But obviously that didn't happen, and I didn't need to go to Oklahoma. And I said, where'd you get the the bust of rhymes, the Buster? I said, you get it from the rapper, you know, Bust the Rhymes. He said, yeah, somebody started calling me that Bust the Rhymes, so he adopted that name, George Buster Rhymes.
00:03:47
Speaker 2: I didn't know that.
00:03:48
Speaker 4: I didn't either.
00:03:48
Speaker 5: I mean, it's a great story. I mean it's a cool names. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I didn't.
00:03:52
Speaker 1: He played with Minnesota for a couple of years. He was a great punt returner. I don't know what happened. I guess he probably and he was a decent receiver. But he was actually a running back at OU when they did the triple option with Thomas Slott and all those guys back in the day. But yeah, George Rhymes man busta Yeah.
00:04:12
Speaker 5: All right, Andre, What was your welcome to the NFL moment?
00:04:16
Speaker 1: Oh first training camp nineteen eighty five at for Donia State And I was just in for Donia playing in a charity golf.
00:04:24
Speaker 4: Where is state?
00:04:26
Speaker 3: For those it's not in Europe because it's sounded like it's from Europe.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's probably about forty five minutes from Buffalo. So if you go down ninety all the way down towards the lake, towards Cleveland, it's right around, you know, before Cleveland. Obviously it's in New York. But yeah, crazy for Donia. And I just was there and I told the people I was a rookie here forty years ago, so I was aging myself, you know what they knew. Yeah, yeah, I was a twenty one year old rookie at for Donia State in nineteen eighty five.
00:05:01
Speaker 3: And what made what what was that moment like for you though? That that first running camp.
00:05:05
Speaker 1: You know, training camps ain't like they used to be there. We were in pads a lot of the times and we hit Yeah, yeah, training camps out they don't do that.
00:05:14
Speaker 3: What was a how long was it practice?
00:05:17
Speaker 1: Probably about three and a half hours and you had two of them, two of them?
00:05:21
Speaker 3: And what times you start?
00:05:22
Speaker 4: One time? When you would you be finished?
00:05:24
Speaker 2: Started?
00:05:25
Speaker 1: You know, you gotta be on the field eight thirty, eight o'clock eight thirty warming up, practice starts at nine, don't get off to about eleven eleven thirty, Go eat lunch, get an app Even though I was twenty one, you know, you don't need an app but do you need a nap? Because I was running the next The next practice was like seven on seven and you know all that.
00:05:44
Speaker 2: Kind of stuff.
00:05:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it was uh, you know, coming from a small school, it wasn't like I was wasn't ready for it, but I just was.
00:05:53
Speaker 2: I just ran all day.
00:05:54
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:05:55
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:05:55
Speaker 4: So what was that part where you like, you know, was it a play.
00:05:59
Speaker 5: Was it a moment that I either like, man, I need to pick my game up.
00:06:03
Speaker 1: No, it was a cup. Well, like you said, welcome to the NFL. I was running deep dig. Okay, not from the slot, because that's what I was known for, the slot. I was on the outside running deep dig and Frank Wright threw me the ball. He was, you know, the backup to Jim. Jim wasn't even there yet. Jim came the next year.
00:06:20
Speaker 2: Ball was a.
00:06:20
Speaker 1: Little high, jumped up, got it feet from underneath me, landed, flipped, got up.
00:06:27
Speaker 2: Welcome to the NFL. Nobody helped me up.
00:06:32
Speaker 3: Nobody help up. My last question about this and we'll go on to the next one. Did you play special teams?
00:06:39
Speaker 4: I did?
00:06:39
Speaker 1: I played, uh did a little punk return And I was like, I don't think this is just no, No.
00:06:46
Speaker 3: It's not everybody. So you never like locked return teams.
00:06:49
Speaker 1: No, I was, yeah, I used to look at that ball coming down and look and see what's happening.
00:06:55
Speaker 2: It was one blocking and I was like, that's it for that. I don't want to do this. But you know what, A.
00:07:02
Speaker 1: Like you said, a welcome to the NFL moment My first training camp was because you know, we're grown man out there playing now. It wasn't just college kids. It was a grown man.
00:07:13
Speaker 3: So when I got I was always number five high school college. When I got to the league, I became thirty three. And my trainer or equipment manager teammate shout out to teammate.
00:07:24
Speaker 4: He called me.
00:07:25
Speaker 3: He's like, look we got thirty three, thirty six or thirty eight, forty one, forty two.
00:07:32
Speaker 4: Like he gave me a.
00:07:32
Speaker 3: Couple of different options, and I just was like. I was at Piccadilly with a friend and I was like, I don't know, what do you think I should do? Miss Bartel. She goes, well, baby, thirty three looks good, and we all just kind of were just I was just like, I don't know, thirty thirty three. I just was like he called me on the spot, and now was how I picked thirty three. I have nothing to compare to or connect with. You were eighty eight in college.
00:07:57
Speaker 1: Yes, Lynn Swan who's in the Hall of Fame was my guy Steelers. I was a big Steeler fan growing up and I was always beg my dad to watch a half of football when the Steelers were on and Swanna star wars with my guys the Lake Franco Harris, Me and Joe all the mel Blunt, all those guys. And I remember getting a training camp and they were like, well, there's a guy here that has eighty eight. We traded for Pete Metzelars from Seattle, remember tight end, and he wasn't giving up that number.
00:08:28
Speaker 2: So they said you got a choice.
00:08:31
Speaker 1: You want eighty three or eighty nine, And I was like, well eighty nine kind of eighty three I'll take. But during the preseason my number was forty six.
00:08:42
Speaker 6: Ooh ooh at receiver, Oh yeah that things, oh yeah, superstank and brouh.
00:08:50
Speaker 1: I was forty six and then made the team. All that got good stuff, and they gave me eighty three.
00:08:55
Speaker 3: So you had to make the team to get a number, to get a number, So how many guys did y'all going to camp.
00:08:59
Speaker 1: With twenty five and trim down to fifty three? Yep, one twenty five was on the field. Damn so one on ones, bro, you better get up there.
00:09:10
Speaker 5: I got a question though, So when you go outside and you're playing wide receiver and you line up at number with number forty six, you got left that, bro, I was gonna say, like, you're not getting any respect.
00:09:19
Speaker 2: This is what he said. I'm a fourth round pick. So I'm like, that's.
00:09:22
Speaker 3: Still pretty early, though, aren't you, because y'all y'all had like twelve rounds. Yeah, so the fourth round is still pretty damn good.
00:09:30
Speaker 2: Fourth round was like a first round.
00:09:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like that's still that's still amazing.
00:09:33
Speaker 2: Yeah. From a D two school, there was a lot of D.
00:09:35
Speaker 3: Two games in the league time amazing. Yeah.
00:09:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I was like, it just give me a chance. You know.
00:09:40
Speaker 1: I tell to a lot of people that how did you make the team? I said, well, when I got brought up in there front, you know, you had two lines and dbs against receivers in one on one you had ten minutes at the most.
00:09:52
Speaker 4: That's true.
00:09:53
Speaker 1: And the Vets would be like they do their one or two of them, and they would be like, get up in there. And it's ironic because eight years later I was telling them rookies, get up in there.
00:10:03
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:10:04
Speaker 5: Yeah, Okay. So you you went to Cutstown University. Yes, and it's in Pennsylvania, cuts Down, Pennsylvania.
00:10:11
Speaker 3: Yes, and sounds German. I had to look it up.
00:10:14
Speaker 4: I didn't.
00:10:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, actually look at it actually like amish Okay, this country central so central Pa.
00:10:21
Speaker 2: Pretty much.
00:10:22
Speaker 1: I mean about an hour and a half outside of Philly.
00:10:25
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, cool.
00:10:26
Speaker 5: Yeah, and coming from that university D two, not a lot of people probably had heard of it.
00:10:32
Speaker 2: Nobody.
00:10:33
Speaker 5: What was your football future at the beginning when you first get into the league, when you're coming from Cutsdown? Did you even have an idea of what it could be or what?
00:10:44
Speaker 1: I definitely did, And I was all about getting a chance, just like most kids are to get a chance. They drafted me in the fourth round for a reason. I could have went eighth round or ninth round or twelfth round. And I thought at one point I was going to go to Dallas or Denver, and Buffalo came out of nowhere.
00:11:07
Speaker 2: I don't even know where Buffalo was. Bro I didn't know where buff It was like New York.
00:11:12
Speaker 1: I go, is it by New York City or they're gonna know it's by this lake called Lake Erie and it snows a lot.
00:11:20
Speaker 4: Goodness.
00:11:20
Speaker 2: I got there. I got just scrapedot got there.
00:11:23
Speaker 1: My for Mini camp first year, it was two inches snow on the ground. Mini Camp first week in June. What, Yes, that sounds miserable and I go like this, I go, well, welcome into some craziness. And I spent sixteen years up there.
00:11:43
Speaker 3: I just couldn't imagine getting drafted by a team in day one. You're just like, i'ma hate it here, Like I never said if. I like, really, I'm in Green Bay right now.
00:11:51
Speaker 1: But being from Pennsylvania, I saw all that stuff, you know, but I didn't see the lake effect. I didn't know what lake effect snow was until I got up there and I saw it, and I.
00:11:59
Speaker 3: Go, oh, same Chicago didn't really know it. I mean, as a kid, you saw, but then you.
00:12:04
Speaker 6: Get sign you could see it and smell it confect yeah and Buffalo correct, Yes, So you like and kind of describe what this lake effect is because I've only seen it in pictures where the water rolls in and like it splits up the bridges right.
00:12:16
Speaker 1: Well, you got you know, Buffalo's on the corner of Lake Erie. Then you got Lake Ontario, which is right above it. So the wind that comes off of Lake Ontario, it comes off of there a different way and just goes across Lake Erie the right way. So Rochester, all those places they get some snow, but they don't get blasted. Western New York gets blasted.
00:12:38
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm getting a geography.
00:12:39
Speaker 4: Lesson right here.
00:12:40
Speaker 1: And if you live in if you live in the southtowns, you're gonna get You can sometimes get a foot and a half and you can see the cloud right the snow, you can see the cloud.
00:12:49
Speaker 5: So that's what I saw was a picture of like the clouds, the clouds, and then like to the right nothing, then on the left zero.
00:12:57
Speaker 1: Oh, it looks terrible, like it's a foot and a half, and then fifteen minutes away it's like a half an inch.
00:13:04
Speaker 3: All right.
00:13:05
Speaker 5: So I want to know about your experience of getting into the Hall of Fame. I've seen the videos, not specifically yours, but nowadays they always record the guys. And it took you nine times eight eight, and you got in on the ninth or.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: Actually it actually took me seven. I got in on the eighth.
00:13:23
Speaker 4: That's what it was.
00:13:24
Speaker 3: Okay, yes, So what was that waiting like?
00:13:28
Speaker 5: Oh, it was It was understandable, you know, because you had other guys in your draft class get in, people from your team, and.
00:13:36
Speaker 4: You had to wait.
00:13:37
Speaker 3: Well, it's a little bit different though, because you guys were and I'm just kind of describing to our listeners. You're in the hotel room, right, this is when you used to they used to bring all the finalists and you go in the hotel room and you're just waiting for that wait for that call, and you're just waiting. You're just waiting for that knock on the waiting for a call. Call, they knock on the door. They don't even do that.
00:13:56
Speaker 2: Now they go to the dude's house.
00:13:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, the player's house. Now a little bit better.
00:14:00
Speaker 2: It's more natural. Yeah, it's more natural.
00:14:03
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, So how many times? What was it like?
00:14:05
Speaker 5: You sit in the hotel room the first year You're like, okay, I'm going I was.
00:14:10
Speaker 1: I was a semifinalist the first two and then the last six I was in the finals. And unlike baseball, would I give you the percentage of what you get in football. They're not going to tell you, oh, you got you need eighty percent. Well you had seventy four this year, yeah, or hey you're close, you're seventy eight. Because every year it came around, it's like, yeah, it is your year, it is your year. I said, it's not up to me, right, it never was up to me. I did what I did on the field. I was only as good as the people around me. You guys know, somebody's gonna make you better. I had four or five other Hall of famers.
00:14:43
Speaker 2: That made me better.
00:14:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, And if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be sitting here talking about it like that. So and we're all we all were held accountable for everything. So that was really important to us, not only winning but as a team. I mean, you don't really see that nowadays, accountability. These these guys are on their own doing their own things.
00:15:04
Speaker 5: So when you retired, you were third all time and received receptions.
00:15:09
Speaker 1: Fifth and yard seventh and touchdown fourth fourth.
00:15:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you.
00:15:14
Speaker 5: Got the numbers to get in King of Yak and it takes you this time to get in. Do you think it's because of the lack of Super Bowl or what do you think it is or do you even you don't worry about I know you don't worry about anything.
00:15:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, but at the time, what was probably ratling.
00:15:30
Speaker 1: I think that probably had some kind of a man like a ten to fifteen percent that had a lot to do with it. But you know, once you get in, they don't even talk about that ten or fifteen They don't even talk about that no more. You know, just like Dion said, they say, hey, we're all in the same room, all our busts are in the same room, no matter what year you get in.
00:15:52
Speaker 4: Yeah. Great, and you know what a.
00:15:58
Speaker 1: Just what a ride it was for me to you know, being Buffalo and that happened there for those fans because you guys know, Bills fans are those mafia's.
00:16:07
Speaker 3: Crazy crazy, Yeah, in a good way.
00:16:10
Speaker 2: In a good way.
00:16:10
Speaker 3: Yes, Yes, who all was there when you got that that that knock on the door? Who all do you have with?
00:16:15
Speaker 1: I had I had my my two agents and you had two at the time.
00:16:22
Speaker 2: But they were a team.
00:16:23
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, I was they were like a team.
00:16:26
Speaker 1: Okay, an I got you got an agent two times. And it's funny how it happened because they sequester you in the hotel. So it was New York City. Remember Super Bowls in New York that year in twenty fourteen, And I was like, yeah, maybe and maybe, you know, maybe it's nothing meant to be, maybe it wasn't whatever. So I remember being in the room and it was the first year of the NFL Honors.
00:16:54
Speaker 2: It was going to be on TV.
00:16:55
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting in the room and my agents like, this is your year. I said, yeah, this is seven years now. I mean here, remember whatever. But I got a phone call from a You're looking for a three three oh number, which is here. Okay, So I'm looking for a three to three oh call and I get a two to one two call, and I'm like, who's calling me from New York right now? When I'm waiting for this three oh three to three year old call. It was remember Brian Burwell. Yeah, he was in the room while they were voting. So he goes, hey, Andre, just want you to know you're in the final ten. The go, yeah, I've been in the final ten like six seven years now, because I'll call you back in twenty minutes. He calls me back in twenty minutes, You're in the final five. So now I'm in, but I'm not officially in, so I have to get a yes from all the voters to say yes, yes, yes. He calls me back like twenty minutes later, and actually wasn't him. It was somebody from here. It was a three to three oh number. So I'm saying, now, who's calling me from campon?
00:17:58
Speaker 4: Now?
00:17:58
Speaker 1: I wasn't just because I was just in a different zone and it was somebody here from Canton said hey, Andre, how you doing?
00:18:06
Speaker 2: I go, how am I doing?
00:18:08
Speaker 1: I go, dude, I'm like on pins and needles here, and he goes, well, the weight is over, Welcome to the Hall of Fame.
00:18:17
Speaker 2: That was it?
00:18:18
Speaker 3: Just like that, Just like that? What was the first thing you thought? First emotion?
00:18:22
Speaker 1: When he said that, I saw myself as a little kid playing Pop Warner to the last time I played a game in the NFL that fast. It gives me chills because you know, it's something that the fifteen year old me would have never thought. Yeah, because I wasn't supposed to be there, and for that to happen in the manner it did, only God made it happen that way.
00:18:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, I don't know anybody that I've talked to or even on this podcast that has said, oh yeah, my goal was being in to be in a Hall of Fame.
00:19:01
Speaker 2: I never told my mom I wanted to play in the NFL.
00:19:03
Speaker 3: Everyone just was like, well you were like that. We had that conversation, just like I'm just playing. I didn't think I.
00:19:07
Speaker 4: Could go to the lead.
00:19:08
Speaker 1: I love the year, Yeah, I love That's what I love to do.
00:19:12
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:19:13
Speaker 1: So it's like your whole football life flashes before you and like half a second and you think about the first person that said something to you, and the first person that hit you over the top of the head said you're doing this wrong or this You think about all that that quick.
00:19:30
Speaker 5: Yep, why you said something? And I want to know why? And that was I wasn't supposed to be here? Why were you not supposed to be here?
00:19:39
Speaker 1: Because if you like, I'm going to write a book and it's going to be about just how I grew up and what I went through because nobody knows. They see you on TV and they they don't know about what you went through. And everybody has their own story, me included. So you know, I was destined not to even to go definitely make a right, said to make a left, yeah, because of home life and all this other stuff.
00:20:04
Speaker 2: And well I'm supposed to be there.
00:20:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, ye beat the odds.
00:20:09
Speaker 3: Definitely be the odds. So something that you and I have in common that I don't think you knew you would be in this conversation, but you actually won a Super Bowl. You can ask, I'm I'm I'm old for two.
00:20:21
Speaker 1: I'm oh for four, So but I'm here, what was it?
00:20:26
Speaker 3: And I know what it's like to be old for over two? What was oh for four?
00:20:29
Speaker 1: Like the first probably when I retired to first like five years. You know, it was like people are just, you know, ruthless.
00:20:37
Speaker 2: You guys went there four times.
00:20:39
Speaker 1: You know, people just what people are. But as the years went on, the ruthlessness became admiring. There was an admiration for all of us. There are those teams. Don Beebe won a Super Bowl.
00:20:56
Speaker 2: With the Packers.
00:20:57
Speaker 1: He was with us for three of those losses. And he said in an interview, if I can give a ring and a Super Bowl champion and all the bills, guys, I would, And that kind of chokes me up too, because it's like that's what you play the game for if you play the game, If you don't play the game for that reason, you shouldn't even be playing a game. And in this world right now, the kids are all about the dough and this and that. There's nothing wrong with that. But your legacy, that's what you want, that's what you want to uphold, and you want to put a stamp on.
00:21:31
Speaker 5: Why do you tell people that the first Super Bowl hurts the most?
00:21:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, it came down to that.
00:21:38
Speaker 6: Kick, Scott nor would he can fire the shot heard round the world.
00:21:43
Speaker 4: Now, what a fine game, What an absolutely fine game.
00:21:47
Speaker 5: There we go with eight seconds to play Hi drama hair on the Super Bowls.
00:22:08
Speaker 1: And I think as the years go on, I say, if we won that first one, he makes that kick, did we go to the next three?
00:22:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, everything's different. And I looked at you know that.
00:22:20
Speaker 5: I looked at you guys, that Buffalo team coming from Buffalo were you guys were stacked and you had fun. You guys were like swaggy before swag was a word. You guys had the shades on. Everybody had the high top.
00:22:37
Speaker 3: Doing your thing.
00:22:38
Speaker 5: And I don't think I appreciated it because I was a younger man younger kid at the time still had gray hair, though I probably did. But it was just like I didn't realize how swaggy Buffalo was and how much you guys did your thing.
00:22:51
Speaker 1: I mean, we used to have Holly people come from Hollywood in LA to come watch the games in rich Stadium. There'd be Hollywood stars in the stands. Yeah, and we didn't know until you know, the next day that they were there. But I think we we carried ourselves in a way where we kind of exuberated that, like they came to see us because they we were good.
00:23:14
Speaker 3: What were some of those stars? Who were some of those stars?
00:23:17
Speaker 4: Oh?
00:23:17
Speaker 1: Man, the stars back then, like oh gosh, in the nineties, you name, I can't even think about it.
00:23:25
Speaker 2: You name them, they were there.
00:23:27
Speaker 3: Okay, I got one for you. So there's there's one play in mind whatever super Bowl, my first one we lost where uh Riggie Wayne running down the sideline Scott Free. That's the one play that I still think about that kind of got away.
00:23:39
Speaker 4: Was it your fault?
00:23:40
Speaker 2: Yeah it was not.
00:23:41
Speaker 3: Well, well, it's still the one player I think about that, like it wasn't my fault though, like that, don't do me like that. It's the one play I think about that that Peyton Manning. They got on the hot, they got on the roll real quick, and we gave them a free play. Is there one play out of any of those four Super Bowls that just kind of sticks out in your mind? It's like, damn, I want that one play back.
00:24:05
Speaker 1: I think the first one against the Giants where we had played them during the year and is when it had LT and all them dudes. You know, it was just they were the phenomenal on defense. Their offense wasn't like they won on defense most of the time, and it's just I was like, we're gonna we're playing them again, and you know, how do we beat these guys? And we got to be sound, especially in a game like this, and we weren't sound even though it came down to a kick. You know, I dropped two passes. There was there was some things that could have went the other way where we could have won that game, down title, it missed the tackle.
00:24:45
Speaker 2: There's all kinds of things going.
00:24:47
Speaker 1: But I try to tell people the resolve of our team is that we went back next year, and it went back the year after that and the year after that. We don't get credit for that because they don't talk about it. But if we win two of those four, we're one of the greatest teams ever. Yeah, we win all four, we're like the forty nine Ers, the Steelers of the seventies and forty nine Ers of the eighties, the Patriots of the nineties, or whatever.
00:25:13
Speaker 2: You want to call it.
00:25:14
Speaker 4: Whatever.
00:25:14
Speaker 1: The two yeah, two thousands were in that conversation, but it just wasn't meant to be. But they still talk about us like that because it's a benchmark.
00:25:26
Speaker 3: I want to talk about the comeback that might be probably one of the if not the greatest crazy in history.
00:25:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely in the playoffs.
00:25:37
Speaker 3: I don't know, it might just be an the hole in the top two.
00:25:40
Speaker 1: I mean, even though they one a couple of years ago with the Vikings, you know, but.
00:25:45
Speaker 2: It didn't have that. It just didn't have that luster.
00:25:47
Speaker 4: I'm sorry.
00:25:48
Speaker 3: I'm kind of with you though, I'm with you.
00:25:50
Speaker 1: And this is when we played the game there it was blacked out on TV.
00:25:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they I forgot about yeah, because you were so bad they switched it right, stood up. They're just like, yeah, they.
00:26:01
Speaker 1: Put on they put on like the monsters, but you didn't know that when you were playing though, right.
00:26:05
Speaker 4: No, No, that's just a good story though.
00:26:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I remember one thing about that game that turned it around for us. Darryl Tally, who is our vocal leader.
00:26:14
Speaker 4: Guy.
00:26:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's on the sideline and he's going up and down the sideline in people, everybody's face. So we got them when we got them right where we want them. And we're like, we're down thirty five to three, and we come out the third quarter and Frank throws a ball and goes off McKellar's hands and Bubba mcdial picks it, goes six.
00:26:36
Speaker 2: It's thirty five to.
00:26:36
Speaker 1: Three with twelve minutes twelve minutes left in the third quarter, and he's going, we got him right where we need him. And it's not that we didn't believe it, but we had that crowd and dude, once that clicked and turned around, yeah, they were done.
00:26:54
Speaker 3: But did you come out No one wants No one starts a game like, all right, let's let's let's get down, let's spot them fourteen points. We had played come out like super flat or just what we played.
00:27:05
Speaker 1: In the week before down in Houston in an astrodome. We got beat twenty eight to three, had to come back and play them the next week in a wildcard game. So did we were familiar, of course, but we're like we got them at home, our fans and we were laying like the biggest egg you can imagine, Yes, And it took just one play, one little spark, and we looked in their eyes and they weren't. They were done. You know how you look at somebody's eyes and done. They they already were going to Pittsburgh the next week.
00:27:40
Speaker 5: I want to know one more thing about that, that comeback game. So as Darryl Talley said what he said on the sidelines, Yeah, like is that like becomes the mantra as we like of.
00:27:49
Speaker 4: Course, like, hey we got them right what we want.
00:27:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were because of the situation.
00:27:55
Speaker 3: Yes, it's these You don't I don't.
00:27:57
Speaker 2: Think you even would probably even hear that right now.
00:28:00
Speaker 1: No, because we were looking at him going up like what is this boob talking about?
00:28:04
Speaker 3: There's always that one guy who does that though, yeah he doesn't play or I'm not center, I didn't play, but I'm.
00:28:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then it just started going. We had an orange side kick. We covered that he threw moon through two picks, like he was like four touchdowns in the first half he threw he could have been He probably should have threw four more.
00:28:22
Speaker 3: You had three to exact game.
00:28:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had three tugs that game.
00:28:25
Speaker 4: You had a nice little game.
00:28:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were trying to double brou use a zone zone. If I had to say, that was a zone game in all the games in two hundred and fifty four games I played, I was in the zone like no other that game.
00:28:41
Speaker 3: Why do you think that was? And just for that specific game, just because the comeback the situation.
00:28:45
Speaker 1: I think the thing that Darryl said, and it's like, you know, I laugh about it, like really, but we all like heard it, and yeah, after maybe one or two plays, we started believing that, Yeah.
00:28:58
Speaker 4: Well minimum is real.
00:29:00
Speaker 5: You know, we call this the Second Acts NFL Player Second X podcast for a reason. And you know, we all get to we all got to hang up our cleats at some point. Yes, and you've been able to do a lot after football. What are some of those things that you're probably considered that you're most proud of.
00:29:17
Speaker 1: Well, my kids, Number one, I have a twenty nine and thirty one year old. When I retired, they were six and four.
00:29:25
Speaker 4: So they're babies.
00:29:26
Speaker 2: They were babies.
00:29:26
Speaker 4: They were like my kids.
00:29:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so and just you know what, you guys know, relationships are so precious in this game. You got to develop those relationships early because those will be the same guys and same people you see later when you're retired. Right, And I think the generation now they don't think of it that way. And I'm involved in you know a couple of things.
00:29:50
Speaker 4: And well, you got the the Andre Reid Foundation.
00:29:52
Speaker 5: Yes, you're on the Minority Coaching Fellowship with the Chiefs in two twenty fifteen.
00:29:59
Speaker 4: I'm sure that was kind of fun.
00:30:01
Speaker 2: Andy Reid's first year I was with him.
00:30:03
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, okay, I didn't realize that was any reads first year with the two year because yeah, we left Philly then went on over. It's crazy how fast that stuff happens. Then you get a quarterback and win a couple championships, seems like it's just been.
00:30:14
Speaker 6: Forever and it's like, yeah, right, like where did that go?
00:30:18
Speaker 3: And you did some mentalists work on TV.
00:30:20
Speaker 5: So out of all these things outside of your family, right, and your teammates, what was that? You know, what is what was that second chapter? Like was it hard making that transition and maybe kind of tell your struggles or how you tried to flourish and these I think.
00:30:36
Speaker 1: It's hard for all of us. It's harder for all of us to hang up the cleats. I mean, I played thirty one years of football straight from from six years old till I was thirty seven. Every every fall I was padded up. And then when it's all, when it's said and done and over, it's like, Okay, what do I do next?
00:30:57
Speaker 4: Now?
00:30:59
Speaker 1: And again, the relationships are really important. They've been important to me for thirty years, some of these relationships. And as a Hall of Famer now people are you're not Andre Reid played for the Bills. You are, but you're Andre Reid Pro Football Hall of Famer that played for the Bills, and that not only holds a lot of value, but you are in a position to do so many different things outside of the game now and make impacts outside of the game. And you're talking about my foundation with Boys and Girls Club so important to me. You know, Denzel Washington is the national ambassador. I'm an ambassador under Denzel. So many guys, so many people you don't even know, went through the club system that accredit them for who they are and what they do today.
00:31:50
Speaker 2: And that's really important to me.
00:31:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, what made you want to focus on literacy?
00:31:56
Speaker 1: I didn't get read at home. Mom and dad didn't have time to read to me. So I was library or Boys and Girls club. That's why I learned how to read. And again that chokes me up because.
00:32:11
Speaker 2: You know, it doesn't get any it doesn't get any better.
00:32:14
Speaker 1: It does, but we still have a literacary problem, literacy problem in this country.
00:32:19
Speaker 4: We do.
00:32:20
Speaker 1: And I always say it takes a village to get.
00:32:24
Speaker 4: It right right, and as.
00:32:27
Speaker 1: An athlete, we're in a position to make that village better. And you know that's what I'm doing.
00:32:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, it's always impressive when we hear these stories about people doing things for others. I learned this from a pastor friend of mine that once you're affected by something, you will become an advocate for it all the time. And because the lack of reading that you received at an early age, you're probably behind. And then you of course, these other things happened kept me behind right right, and then all of a sudden, you know, if you don't get this outside help, you're not getting to college.
00:33:00
Speaker 4: And you're not getting to where you are. And I just love that I've done.
00:33:04
Speaker 5: I've been involved in reading programs with my foundation for a long time and I don't know if you know this, Peanut shout out to everybody is a stat of working with United Ways that all of our kids in America we learned how to read. From kindergarten to third grade, you're learning how to read, and then from fourth grade on you learn from reading. And so if you're behind in those K through third grades, you're going to be stay behind from fourth grade to seventh grade, and your likeliness.
00:33:31
Speaker 4: To drop out they really rise. Ye.
00:33:34
Speaker 3: All these other things happen, and that that.
00:33:36
Speaker 2: Is across the board.
00:33:37
Speaker 1: Yes, and it's always been like that. I think it's a lot better than it was probably when I was a kid, because there's more out there, there's people doing more things. But you kind of keep that in the back of your mind that that's why you do it. Because every time I go in and I've been to She's over the past ten years, fifteen years, I've been to a boys and girls club from Alaska all the way down to Florida, telling him my story yea, and saying that you could be that kid too. They just need encouragement, right, And I think that's part of your resume.
00:34:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely yeah. I don't think you knew this though, but I got it. I was affected by golf by not playing it at a young age, and now you're just a kid for it. I try to play all the time.
00:34:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, all the time.
00:34:31
Speaker 4: That that was good. That was good. That was exactly exactly.
00:34:35
Speaker 3: I love that because.
00:34:36
Speaker 4: I'm a you know, I'm an avid golfer. Yeah. Yeah.
00:34:40
Speaker 3: My last one for you was Mount Rushmore. If you pick four people that have helped you become the man you are today, who would those four people be?
00:34:50
Speaker 1: Obviously my pops And quick story when I got inducted here, my pops had passed away in ninety six. Very emotional day. I wish he was there, but he was there. But he was my biggest fan, and I wasn't the person I am because my dad was rough. He was five eight, big hands, like if he put his hand on your shoulder, you knew it because it was heavy. You know, would get up at five o'clock in the morning to be at pour and concrete by seven and just was that kind of guy. We all have our faults. He had his faults too, but he always told me, if you don't work hard, you'll never know your potential. If you don't work hard, you'll never know your potential. And if you don't make an effort, you'll never know what effort means. If you don't make it, you got to make an effort first to know what it means.
00:35:52
Speaker 2: And that stuck with me.
00:35:54
Speaker 1: My whole life, because again, I wasn't supposed to be playing. I wasn't supposed to be a Hall of famer. He knew I was supposed to be a Hall of Famer. And that's what I try to tell kids, is you're only one person away from somebody telling you that there's a possibility, it's possible. Regardless of where are you from, how much money you got, where you live, all that kind of stuff. You need one person to change your life, and you got to be out there doing it, you know, seeing these people or whatever it is. But it's one person. You got to make the effort. So that's really what I tell kids. I said, don't sit back and say I should have, or I could have, or I would have.
00:36:35
Speaker 2: Do it.
00:36:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, all.
00:36:37
Speaker 3: Right, you got Pops as one you got three more.
00:36:43
Speaker 1: Probably my high school coach, Bruce Trotter, who recently passed away about two years ago, two three years ago. He always saw something in me. All those coaches there saw something in me. And I was a little guy. You know, I didn't start growing until I got a certain age, and he always new. He came to my they came to my Hall of Fame ceremony, and that was besides my family, those guys because I I was that guy. And it's not that they say, oh I knew this was going to happen.
00:37:14
Speaker 2: They just loved. They loved the journey.
00:37:17
Speaker 1: They'd love to see the journey that I was on, not only how I played, be how I carried myself too, because that's a reflection on them.
00:37:25
Speaker 4: Yes, got it?
00:37:26
Speaker 3: Okay, yep, Pops Trotter, he get two more.
00:37:30
Speaker 1: Obviously my mom, because she was she held the fort together. Our moms are kind of our backbones. Without them, we obviously we wouldn't be here. But my mom's eighty one now and she's going through health problems in this, but she never missed the game.
00:37:48
Speaker 2: My pops never missed the game. Yeah, I remember he.
00:37:53
Speaker 1: Slipped the disc in his back and didn't get surgery and came to the game with a slip disk in his back because he didn't.
00:37:59
Speaker 2: Want to miss the game. Dedication.
00:38:03
Speaker 1: All these words that I learned through my life. Throughout my life, my dad taught me what those words mean. So my mom, my, Pops, my high school coach, and my college coach, George Baldwin at cuts down former military guy, marines, hard nosed guy. At some point in your life you need that kind of stuff, need somebody to just pound you. So you know that it ain't easy. And there's probably more. But those four, especially my mom and dad, they they put in a lot of work.
00:38:37
Speaker 4: Man, they.
00:38:41
Speaker 1: They did a lot of stuff for me. They made sure I had not what I needed.
00:38:46
Speaker 4: Earlier.
00:38:46
Speaker 3: It takes a village.
00:38:47
Speaker 2: It takes a village.
00:38:48
Speaker 5: Yeah, I wanted to know about your nutritional company, Yes, Celibate, Celibate, Okay, good, I was.
00:38:54
Speaker 4: I didn't know how to say it.
00:38:56
Speaker 3: I was going to ask that question.
00:38:57
Speaker 4: Thank you, Salivate.
00:39:00
Speaker 1: They're out of Florida. And you guys know it's a fact, the older you get and all the hits you take, uh, you're gonna need some help. And these gummies are probably state of the art, the state of the art gummies. They taste good and what they do is they they train yourselves to heal themselves faster, to heal your body faster.
00:39:25
Speaker 3: Is any no th c.
00:39:27
Speaker 1: It's it's called s O D super oxide diamondtoose. It's called so with those words, it's got to do. Yeah, I can't spell that.
00:39:37
Speaker 2: Letting the take it.
00:39:38
Speaker 1: But I partner with them last year out of Florida, and I've been taking these gummies for a year now, and of course I have my little aches and pains, but these are a state of the art gummy and they're in a couple of teams in the NFL have it. There's college teams that have it.
00:39:56
Speaker 2: So it has changed me.
00:39:57
Speaker 3: What do we want to if we want to buy some? Even looking to that, I'm right there and.
00:40:01
Speaker 1: Well you can just go to their website Celebrate dot com. C E L L E V eight number eight dot com. Let me tell you to change your life. And this isn't just for athletes, just for the normal person too. If you want to call it that, you will feel better. Uh, everything about your life will be better. Do I have ags and pains?
00:40:22
Speaker 4: Yes?
00:40:23
Speaker 1: But this has done one thousand percent for me, way much better than anything I ever had.
00:40:29
Speaker 3: You heard it right here on the NFL player. Second, take these gummies. It'll be all your eggs and pains, everything else.
00:40:34
Speaker 1: Everything you've got, everything you got, and they they're they're fabulous, man.
00:40:38
Speaker 2: And they taste good too.
00:40:39
Speaker 4: That's good. That's good.
00:40:41
Speaker 5: Well go ahead, you know no, I was just gonna say thank you man, like uh And I.
00:40:46
Speaker 2: Told you guys earlier.
00:40:47
Speaker 1: I really love the way you guys talk on your podcast.
00:40:49
Speaker 4: Man.
00:40:49
Speaker 1: You keep it real because there's a lot of podcasts out there that anybody can have one, but you guys know what you're talking about and you keep it real.
00:40:57
Speaker 2: So I, you know, kudos to you guys.
00:40:59
Speaker 5: We we all just the product of our team around us, man, because our team does a great job. They look after us, they set up everything for us, they help us with the research.
00:41:09
Speaker 3: There's no it is a me sometimes Kobe said that, but you.
00:41:16
Speaker 5: Know, man, we are a product of everything else around us.
00:41:19
Speaker 4: Man.
00:41:20
Speaker 5: And look man, me and Peanut is just so excited about being here with you guys.
00:41:24
Speaker 2: You guys love the way you guys played the game of football.
00:41:26
Speaker 4: Thanks, man, appreciate it.
00:41:28
Speaker 5: But we're here to celebrate y'all and just to be in you guys space and share this opportunity you get to share your stories with us, and also congrats on having the stadium named after you as well.
00:41:38
Speaker 2: I got you know what I believe or not. I'm in seven Hall of Fames.
00:41:41
Speaker 3: Now, okay, this may be, this may be a new record.
00:41:46
Speaker 5: I want to start asking everybody this. You're in seven seven seven Hall of Fames? Can you name them for me?
00:41:52
Speaker 2: Okay?
00:41:52
Speaker 3: Because that's hard.
00:41:53
Speaker 2: That's hard.
00:41:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's hard.
00:41:55
Speaker 2: That's hard.
00:41:55
Speaker 4: You are in seventh okay, college okay?
00:41:59
Speaker 1: The Division two Football Hall of Fame, all right, The Lehigh Valley Sports Hall of Fame.
00:42:04
Speaker 4: Okay.
00:42:04
Speaker 2: Uh, the Boys and Girls Club Hall of Fame.
00:42:06
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, all this wouldn't happen without the Boys and Girls Club Hall of Fame.
00:42:12
Speaker 2: There's there's two or three more.
00:42:14
Speaker 4: I saw another one. I wrote it down.
00:42:15
Speaker 2: There's a couple of them more in area.
00:42:17
Speaker 4: There's a couple more.
00:42:19
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:42:19
Speaker 1: I just got in the Pennsylvania State.
00:42:23
Speaker 4: Hall of Fame. Yes, State of Pennsylvan, State.
00:42:25
Speaker 2: Of Pennsylvania last November.
00:42:26
Speaker 3: That's five Pro Football Hall of Fame.
00:42:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, I said that one.
00:42:30
Speaker 1: There's two more that one. No, I said that first. I said my high school, all that stuff, and yeah, there's two more. I think it's two more. Yeah, and I have a stadium, a park, and a street named after me.
00:42:44
Speaker 3: I just got a street.
00:42:46
Speaker 5: Not only that, but your Wikipedia page is elite.
00:42:51
Speaker 3: Elite, y'all looked up Audre reed.
00:42:55
Speaker 2: Elite.
00:42:56
Speaker 4: It's not just good, it's elite. Appreciate the Bill's Hall of Fame.
00:43:01
Speaker 1: Yes, hall of fame. There you go, there's sports Hall of Fame. Yeah, so there's there's seven there.
00:43:07
Speaker 3: It is.
00:43:08
Speaker 4: Okay, and here's a kid that.
00:43:11
Speaker 3: Who knows anything's possible. Shoot, what you got? Hall of Fame Alabama? It is not important?
00:43:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. It is.
00:43:19
Speaker 4: You're the same guy.
00:43:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm in like three, I'm like three, I'm gonna get.
00:43:23
Speaker 4: I'm saying, I'm like you get your flowers. Yeah, I take that, Then get your flowers.
00:43:28
Speaker 2: It was a good friend of Mineterrell Burgess is a good friend of mine.
00:43:30
Speaker 4: Oh realil's with the sat Yes, yeah.
00:43:33
Speaker 2: I know, really good guy.
00:43:35
Speaker 4: Okay, I have to make sure I say what's up here? What's up to them? Yes?
00:43:39
Speaker 5: Well look man, Andre man, appreciate it. Man, Hey for all of our listeners out there wherever you pick up your podcast with this Apple podcast the iHeartRadio app. Make sure you give us a follow, like subscribe, leave a couple of comments will hit you back man, Tell a friend to tell a friend that you you.
00:43:53
Speaker 3: Know tend man.
00:43:55
Speaker 4: Appreciate the friends there it is. Appreciate the love and get us out of here.
00:44:00
Speaker 3: NFL YouTube challenge. Check us you that listen man, that's my act. Takes a villain, Yes, it does, takes the village always does. We appreciate y'all tuning into this podcast. Paint That's Wrong, That's on? Great And this is the NFL Player's second podcast
