This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. NFL cover zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and I Heart podcast. Welcome into a new edition of NFL cover zero, Drew Franklin here with Billy Rullidge as we continue the look back on that San Francisco trip. Billy, it keeps getting farther and farther away on the calendar, but we don't care. We just have more content to put out and we're still smiling. I've got plenty more to talk about and I have not replaced Matt on the show. He's just doing his own thing right now. Just the way that we've lined up these recordings and his vacation time, he will be back. I have not Wally pipped Matt on this podcast yet. We're not yet. You know, we still got a few more to go while Matt's away, but we're having fun time doing these, these short conversations where we hit big news items and set up some of our interviews that lingered from that trip to the Super Bowl. Today, we'll have our interview with Eric Kendricks play for the 49ers and made one of the plays of the year for the 49ers when he helped seal their victory over the Eagles by breaking up that fourth down pass in the red zone to send them on to the next stage. Didn't reach their ultimate goal, but with a team riddled with injuries, he came in and made a huge play for him and had a big year. And as you'll hear in the interview, I wasn't sure where his career was heading before this season. So it's a fun interview. Yeah, all pro guy in Minnesota finds a home in San Francisco and makes a difference. That's another cool part of that. We're just talking all pro players, you know, and then, you know, talked a little bit about being a big car guy. Drew, could you change your own oil if I asked you to? I can do anything with YouTube. I'm one of those guys. I fixed a fireplace with YouTube. I've unfortunately had to change my tire more than I wanted. I've had several, three or four flats once on the side of the highway, handled it just fine, didn't need help, but oil. I've never given it an attempt. I bet I could figure it out though. What about you? You a car guy? No, no, I will go get it done by somebody else because I'll make the car worse somehow. I'll forget the Johnson Rod or whatever. Yeah, don't forget your Johnson Rod, really. That's right. But no, it was fun to hear from him. And, you know, we still got a couple more after this. So looking forward to hearing it again. That's right. And this one's kind of topical. I don't know if you saw this, but just yesterday, the San Francisco 49ers general manager, John Lynch, came out and said that they investigated the conspiracies about that substation leading to injuries, which we talked about with Eric Hendricks months ago. It's actually a headline today. Lynch said they looked into it and it's a big nothing burger, that there are no adverse effects on the players by that big electrical substation next to Levi's Stadium. Do you believe him or is that him just trying to push things away? You know, we just talked about him getting your boy Mike Evans. I know you're worried. Yeah, John's my guy, even though he's taken a legend away from Tampa Bay. Maybe he's covering for the training staff. Drew, I mean, you wouldn't want to just have it be their fault. So, you know, I'm not sure. I guess if he was covering for the training staff, he would have said it was the electrical station's fault. But you can't put that out there either. It's a tough spot. So, probably what we expected the answer to be, but nevertheless, there's still something going on in San Francisco with all those injuries. Yeah, they hired an independent scientist to come in and study it, and then to see if they contribute to their injuries. I would love to just see what they did. They probably walked in and did nothing. Just took that check from the 49ers. They're like, oh, you're good. Keep practicing. You're fine. Just walking around the facility a little bit. What if you just knock on the ground? You know, any kind of ghost hunters have those readers walking around checking things? What was that noise? Yeah, things got something like that. Probably. Yeah, I mean, you got to have something. Making sure that everything's working fine. Knocking on some things in the facility, just to see if it's hollow or not. I could definitely see a ghost hunter's reenactment there. We also have some kind of breaking news from the NFL. It came out this morning. Maybe if you're listening to Cover Zero on March 31st, you're hearing it for the first time, but we have our hard knocks team. Team Plurl this year. I don't know this. I'm going to be surprised by this. Who is it, Drew? Do you have any guesses? Or who would you like to see? You know, we've had some fun ones over the year. I'm the kind of person that just, whatever the team is, I just fall for them. The Jets that year, I'm like, Jets are winning the Super Bowl. They did not win the Super Bowl. Dan Campbell, that's kind of when we all learned about him. He actually did get the Lions going in the right direction, but that was a fun one to watch. No matter the team, no matter what their previous record was, for some reason, hard knocks convinces me that I love them and I want the best for them and that they're going to be good. I'd love to see Sean Payton in the Broncos a little bit behind the scenes. You know, bow-nicks drama at the end there. I wonder if any of that's still lingering. Or you could just go like dumpster fire. Let's see what Todd Monkin and the Browns are doing. Right. DeSean Watson, is he going to come back? Should there Sanders switching from 12 to 2? There's always going to be some drama there and some intrigue. Anything that jumps off for you? Anything? Oh, maybe all the bald coaches in Tennessee now? Yeah, I'd love for the Titans to get on there. I'd love for the Titans. I drove by the new stadium recently. Looking beautiful. Looking beautiful. Loving that. But it is not the Titans. It is drumroll, please. It's a good drumroll. How about for the first time since the first season of Hard Knocks, the defending Super Bowl champ will be the team. It is the Seattle Seahawks. And with a plot twist, we already know next year will be the Patriots. So we're getting both teams from the Super Bowl. Seattle will be this year next year, the Patriots, which is odd in itself because for years, Belichick wouldn't even let a, couldn't even take your phone in there with a camera. And now New England with Vrables going to open the doors. But ahead of us this year will be Seattle. Are you excited to see what's going on with the 12th man and all the fun they're having since winning the Lombardi? Maybe. Hopefully, Mike McDonald becomes more of a likeable character if we see more of them. How about Kenneth Walker, Super Bowl MVP leaving Seattle to go to Kansas City? That's a big blow for them. But I'm going to have to pull you away from the TV when the Patriots come on and all the Mike Vrable loving that you'll be doing watching that. It'll be weird. It'll be weird. But I'm glad we're getting two good teams. What was it, Kyle? We had the Bills end season last year. The end season's been throwing me off a little bit. I don't watch those as much as the ones with the lead up. It's just really that music is on. They get my juices flowing for football season. The one they did with the Raiders back in the day. It's like the what the wind is an autumn breeze. It just, it hits. It does. So looking forward to that. And you know, I don't think they're doing the, the preseason. What was it? The one with the GM and the Giants? I don't think they decided to do that again. Yeah, I think that might have been the end season version. I didn't watch that one live. A lot of clips came out from that where they had some pretty horrible takes about their feature in those backfired. Oh, I hope Saquon doesn't go to the Eagles. Well, with that work out. Yeah. We also, before we throw this Eric Hendricks interview, we also had what everybody loves in the offseason. You know, people think combine, they think draft offseason moves free agency. Now a lot of people just want to see the coaches photo from the league meetings. And you know, I know we're a podcast. We can't do visuals, but that came out yesterday for everyone that doesn't know. They all meet up somewhere in Florida, right? Looks like Florida. I should know. At the Arizona Arizona zone is where they're at. I just saw a lot of sunshine in guess, Florida, Arizona, even better. But all the coaches get together, they do meeting things. They complain about push pushes. They probably talk about each other. Some of them probably have to be separated, but they all get together and do that awkward photo where you have half of them in the front row sitting down with their hands on their knees. The other half standing behind them with their arms crossed. And that came out yesterday. You mentioned Robert Solomai guy, rocking a hoodie. I love it. I don't know why casual. I love, love these rocking the hoody. And he's back in this team photo. You know, he's there with jets a few years ago. Now he's back involved. Andy Reed got a little pattern, kind of a Hawaiian tight shirt, least surprising piece of a casual. Yeah. At least surprising wardrobe of all of it. But it's always fun watching these guys get together and take this awkward photo. It is. I mean, you've even got Liam Cohen looking cool over there on the side and the sunglasses, T-shirt combo. Only person in the entire photo wearing sunglasses and looks a little bit, a little space between him and Mike McCarthy. I think he's kind of doing his own thing. The trailblazer that he is. I look at the other side of the photo. I see Clint Kubiak's calf muscles over there. Wow. Do you see that? Oh, I do now. Now that you're pointed out, I mean, those pants are tight, but he's got some leg muscles to do it. Also, Joe Brady, look how big he is compared to Mike LaFleur, the new Arizona Cardinals coach. Joe Brady, middle, right there. I mean, he looks like it's a big boy over there. That, Siriani, looks like he's either weight or key stakes, looks a little big. And front and center, do the hard balls get to pick? Because I feel like it's a big spot being the middle seat, right there, front and center. I would have maybe guessed Andy Reed. He's probably the longest-tenured. I guess John Harbaugh's probably close. But you got Jim and John right there in the front. I lie, Jim's got on sunglasses. He and Liam Cohen are the two. But the hard balls get center stage. Yeah, I was looking at John's shoes. He's got kind of like the white sock, black, pennyloaf look going on right now. Everybody's got their own unique style. Andy Reed, I think, is my favorite out of this one, though, with the Hawaiian shirt. But Mike McCarthy over there, looking sharp with his button down, too. I don't know how he's going to do in Pittsburgh, Drew. I just don't know how that's going to work. You can also kind of tell how these guys feel about their teams. Aaron Glenn looks like he does not want to be there over there on the far end. That's a good point. The guys that are smiling, like Sean Payton, who just had a good run with the Broncos, Mike Vrable, it's almost like you could go through and do your season predictions based on facial expressions. Did you see Vrable putting guys through workouts recently? Yes. Or he is, I mean, he's putting his hands on these guys. Can all these coaches get that same evaluation like Vrable can? It just seems like the right guy for the job. I miss him so much. This came out, he went to Arizona State's pro day, and he just gets down on the three-point stance, and he's just hitting their draft prospect, whose name I do not know. But I mean, the offensive lineman's kind of got a whole Vrable shirt, and his shirt's pulling up a little bit. And he's just in there. Other coaches are on the sideline with their arms crossed and taking notes and Vrable's like, no, I want to get in there and hit him. I'm worried about his vest. Like, he could get his hand under his vest and that could rip. I just don't see like Zach Taylor doing something like that. So that's just unique Mike Vrable. I miss him so much. Well, don't worry. You'll get him on hard knocks in a couple years here. And I mean, I don't see the Patriots going away anytime soon. No, unfortunately not. Drake May shaved his head. That's big news. Tom Brady went with the buzz cut one year. So Patriots fans, I know they're trying to speak Drake May into existence as being the next Tom Brady, but he went and did the full buzz like Tom did. So maybe even he's leaning into it. But that's a good sign. That's like a no-nod sense. Not dealing with the outside noise. I'm only worried about football kind of cut, you know, that's right. And we're only worried about football here on NFL cover zero. Yes. And up next is Eric Hendricks. You mentioned fixing his own cars. We talked about the the big season the 49ers have with his big play and the injuries they had, but he really, you know, had the highs of his career and thought he was on the way out and then found new life in San Francisco. So it's fun talking to him and seeing him at the Super Bowl. Yeah, absolutely. And somebody that, you know, joined San Francisco late into the year and then made a big impact. So looking forward to hearing this again. Played Minnesota a little bit. We'll have that up for you next. After that, we'll have Justin Reed next week. And we're still counting down to my favorite, maybe of all of them, Orlando Brown from the Bengals. We're saving him from the end. He goes into so much about Joe Burrow and the Fossils and the Samurai Swords and the fun they have in Cincinnati. So we're excited about all of these. But up next on this episode is Eric Hendricks of the 49ers. Enjoy. All right. Having to be joined now from the this year, 49ers, Eric Hendricks, who, what an exceptional story this year, by the way, looked like you weren't going to play. You joined the 49ers at the end of the year and then made big play in the playoffs. That had to be an awesome well. First of all, did you feel like midway through the year you were going to play this season? No, actually, the people who I was closest to, they kind of, I feel like maybe they were a little bit more worried than I was, probably. Oh, they felt like you had been away so long. You were just kind of your bones are too creaky. They were just kind of like, so are you going to play or like, is that, you know, or are you going to get off the couch? You're working out really hard. So like, what are you going to put into use? Like, would it go, you know, got kind of shooing me off, you know, don't do something. And I was like, you know, I just got to, I just got away. I got to hold this. Were you waiting like for the right situation? Is that what it was? Definitely. I feel like, you know, once this, the season kind of started and kind of things didn't work out how I thought they were going to be in the off season this past year, especially after the last season with Dallas. I kind of was like, you know what, let me just wait and maybe someone, you know, a position will open up where they need me and I could fill in and I'm ready to go and shape. But then, you know, as the season progressed, it was kind of like, okay, if I'm sacrificing, you know, certain things on my end, you know what I mean? I need to focus on the things that are important to me. But we're family and friends. Like, we need you to get out of the house. Like, you're starting to like, you know, you're stinking up the place. We need you to go actually and get a job. I just think that it's more, I think it was more of the fact that they just knew that I, they know what I'm capable of and they've kind of watched me very closely. I know that a lot of people, you know, are thinking, oh man, this guy wasn't even playing and then he just comes into the game and he, and he balls out. And it's like really like, no, I've actually really been playing well. I mean, in my, I mean, obviously, you know, you, I want to see myself do better as a competitor. I can always do better, but I've really had 10 years of straight consistent work at linebacker. So they knew what I'm capable of. They know how, how healthy I was. They knew how hard I worked to get back from my shoulder surgery. So they were just kind of eager themselves to be like, no, man, like, trust me, you still got it. Like, you need to get back out there. You need to show the world what you can do. So they were just more, they just wanted it for me, you know, like more than even you wanted it for yourself. Yeah. Cause they just knew that people were kind of counting me out again. And you know, like, it's kind of crazy how it goes full circle, you know, from when I'm in college, it seemed like, but I think they were just eager to be like, no, we want you, we want to see, we want you to show the world that you still got it. Eric, you're gonna tell on us here, not a lot of athletic accomplishments between the three of us. That's not true. I won seventh grade golf tournament. Let's. Big moment. Explain to me the feeling on that fourth downstop in the playoffs to, to, to clinch that game and knowing you're moving on, what, what goes through? Is it just an instant relief when you all get that stop and you being the big part of it? I mean, it's crazy how you never know when your moment's going to kind of happen. To be honest with you, when everyone was asking me after the game, you know, man, how did it feel? I was like, I should have picked it off. I mean, I got, I got Stafford. I got, you know, I got Tom Brady. I got Russell Wilson. I got a couple, you know, Super Bowl quarterbacks. I'm like, I got to get, I had to get a Jalen Hertz ball. I'm kind of pissed about that still. So, you know, this kind of a murderous row of interceptions there. I just feel like, you know, to be in a position to like, not only, you know, help, help the team that I joined late succeed, but to just in the, in the, in the most crucial part of the game, when I could just, you know, show my ability and my talents, it was just pretty surreal and, you know, everything happens for a reason. Eric, you were born in California. You played in college at UCLA and then you're drafted and you play eight to nine years in Minnesota. Like, is there like, was there any part of you that you're you're feeling you're living your dream, but you're also in Minnesota? Get a little hold out there for you? Why you got to hate on Minnesota? It's freezing up there. It's a beautiful place here. It's cold. I tell people all the time, you know, I didn't own a jacket before I moved to Minnesota. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know that there was a city. I didn't really know anything about Minnesota. I knew it was cold and I knew that it was on a different part of the, different part of the coast and I'm, you know, not on any coast actually, but, you know, different part of the earth than I'm used to being on. So, it completely exceeded all my expectations as far as, you know, organization and just, just joining the team early and being able to contribute and the defense fit, you know, my style of play and, you know, just all the, all the things that are, that are great for a young rookie to come in and a linebacker and have success. They were, they were there for you. What did you do? Like, what do you do off the field in Minneapolis? Like, like, what, like, what's, you know, if you're in Miami, you go to South Beach, right? If you're in LA, maybe you go to the beach. What are you doing in Minnesota when things aren't going well? To be honest with you, during the season, you're really kind of locked in no matter where you are. You may, you may go out a little bit, you know, on, on a day off or you may, you know, enjoy a dinner in the town or, you know, try to have a little team camaraderie somewhere. But for the most part, everyone's really super locked in and focused for those six months or so. But in the off seasons, you know, when it was a lot nicer weather there, what I, one of my favorite things to do was get a bunch of the guys, we used to get bird scooters and kind of just ride down the river in downtown, the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis. We used to ride up and down. So you're telling me the Minnesota Vikings in their free time do the same thing like 16 year old girls do? I'm talking about the Neil Hunter. I'm talking about like, you know, we were all just rolling down and people would recognize us. We were kind of just like, all right, see, you know, but we would, we would all, you know, work out in the, in the like OTAs, you know, we would all be working out in the morning, we'd be done by 12, we would all go hang out downtown, we would all ride down the river together, we would all come back, eat dinner. It was, it was, it was really a good time. Now, I, if I understand correctly, you're a car guy, right? So is that, do you own a bunch of cars? You like to work on them? Are you a NASCAR fan? Like, what does that mean that you're a car guy? A little bit of everything, you know, I was more of a NASCAR fan when I was a kid. I just watched more sports in general as a kid. I don't really, I feel like I kind of fell off as I got into my profession as this became my job. I watch more game film now, but that being said, you know, I enjoy working on cars. I enjoy collecting cars. I enjoy going to car shows. I enjoy bringing my, you know, so you can, you could like change an alternator. I mean, I mean, I can if I just like watch a little YouTube video, you know, you got the wrench for sure. I got, I got, I got a whole set of tools set up to have a freight, you know, the Harbor freight hook me up with a whole set of tools. And you know, I think, I mean, what I did something recently that I'd like the other day that I do you have the thing like where you like you lay on it and you scoot under the car? I have everything you got all that I got a lift. You have your own oil. I change my own oil, you know, most times you change your own oil. Yeah, look at you. There's a there's sometimes where the oil filter is too in and I don't want to get my garage messy. So I'll be like, I'm not going to change that oil filter. Yeah, so to speak, and my GCR when I was growing up, my stepdad kept all his oil when he changed it, he keep the used oil in two liter Coke bottles. Yeah. And it was what do you do with your oil? You gotta turn it in. So you go like drive it down and recycle it. Look at this guy. I mean, there's some things on a car that like, I mean, I just changed I have a 2022 Cadillac blackwing and and my oil filled my not my oil filled my engine, my engine air filter, the light came on. And, you know, you take it to the shop, probably, probably cost you like 600, you know, I'm paying that I literally I literally pulled up to Cadillac, like I'm like, Oh, Cadillac dealership pulled up to the Cadillac, went to the parts department. They the lady gave me a discount on the part. So the part was 160 bucks. She gave me $100 part. I went into my garage and I changed the oil filter in 15 minutes. I mean, it was $100. I mean, it was really not that like, if you've played with Legos, if you've done this, like there's some things on the car where it's very there's some things that are intimidating. There's other things that are really more straightforward. Do you have a dream car or like a favorite car? Maybe you already have it. I got 1000 dream cars. But I mean, one of the dream cars that I have was the R34 like the Nissan GTR, the one that Paul Walker, you know, jumped over and we got an arrow where you know, Dominic Trito. I remember that when I remember watching that movie as a kid and you hear the Ludacris song playing and you hear you see Paul Walker with the blue glow underneath and he's sliding through traffic. I thought that was so cool. And it was a Japanese car. It was unattainable. And until it's 25 years old in the United States, which it just turned. So I got one. You got one. I have one. You hit the NOS button and I don't have any NOS. It's pretty stock for the most part. So what are we doing next year? Are you you planning on coming back? Yeah, you know, I'm I feel great, you know, I take extreme pride in taking care of my body. You know, I feel like after the Eagles game, I play 71 plays and they're kind of were like, how do you feel like, you know, you kind of just jumped in there and played a whole game. And I was like, hey, listen, this is my profession. Like I've been doing this. I do this. Like I take it seriously. I feel great. And on top of that, like, I feel like in high school, I was always like a late bloomer college. I was a late bloomer. And I just feel like that kind of like that youthful that youthfulness kind of just placed in my place in my advantage. Get some metamucil. Get yourself get those bones worked up and I look forward to seeing you next year. I appreciate it. All right. There you go. Eric Kendrick's car aficionado. And also he will come over and change your air filter if you need to hear our cover zero charge less than the dealership. But I can make a deal with you if you want to go to task, grab it and see Eric now. All right. That was NFL cover zeros interview with Eric Kendrick's at the Super Bowl in San Francisco. Loved meeting him had a great time talking to him learned about cars. Maybe Billy, do you think after all that you can go try to change your own oil if you had to? No, still not trying. Nothing in the last 30 minutes made you change your mind. No, I'm kind of going the other way. Like I think my next car is a Tesla. I don't even want to drive. Like, you know, I think that, you know, a hundred years from now, we'll probably treat cars like we do horses today where it's like, you know, kind of do your own thing, go on a track horses. Yeah. That's the comparison. We're going backwards. I did not think you were going to say horses there. I was with you on your point. I thought we're going to be more like the Jetsons and we just get in something and well, no, I'm saying like nobody uses horses today. So I don't think many people will use cars. I thought you were saying we're going towards horses. You're saying our current autumn of my Toyota Highlander right now that's about to turn 11 will be like a horse. Exactly. Yes. And we will, you know, we'll just be the cars will drive us to the destination. I don't know. But Jetsons future maybe after that. Yep. Well, after this next week, we'll be back for more of this banter on the latest news might have Matt might be mean Billy again, whatever the case. We'll have Justin Reed in that conversation from the Super Bowl as we continue on in the off season with NFL cover zero. Thanks for listening. NFL cover zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and I heart podcast for more podcasts from my heart radio visit the heart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. This is an I heart podcast guaranteed human.
