Ballpark Food Debate, Masters Recap & Troy Aikman on NFL QB Play, Drafting Mendoza & More | Ep 187

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We blow this four man wedge up. It goes 106 yards to the house. Now to start it. I would have loved to have seen him not only run down the field, but run down the field and knee breaks. That's right. Welcome back to New Heights. Ladies and gentlemen, Boys and Girls, a wondry show brought to you by AT&T, the best service provider there is. You better believe it. We're your hosts. I'm Travis Kelsey. This is my big brother, Jason Kelsey. I'm Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Shout out to the Heights and shout out to the University of Cincinnati as we are alum from there. I did get a degree. I know a lot of you won't believe that, even Jason, but I do. And make sure you subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast and follow the show on all social media at New Heights show with one S for Funklist throughout the week. Jason, tell the people what we have coming up for this week's episode. We got another great episode for you. 90% as we're going to get out of the house with Travis at the Guardians Home opener. We're also going to get to the first ever on site edition of Out of the House. Yes, sir. At the Masters. And Paul the Famer, Troy Aikman is here. That's right. The one and only. The best. Troy is incredible. And he's great in this conversation. You guys are going to really want to stick around for that. And before we do get into that, we are going to get into some of that new news. New news coming in hot. New news is brought to you by American Express. Travis made his way back home to Cleveland for the Guardians Home opener last week. He saw Slider. Hey, is he still called Slider? Or it is Slider? Just don't even go down this road, Jason. Yeah, I saw Slider, man. I got to see everybody over there, progressive field man over there at what we call Jacobs field. Got to be a part of the guards home opener as we took the game 4-1, man. Here we go. You know, it's just something about getting my feet on the ground in Cleveland just energizes me, man. You got those nice loafers on. I like those things. The same sort of nice things, man. Did you get a look at any of the absurd food? The MOB has been coming out with a bunch of absurdly crazy items all across the country. I was just catching up with friends in the suite and just watching the game. I really didn't get outside, but we had some good food in the suite for sure. We got some wings. I was about to say, what is your ballpark food of choice since you're not a hot dog person? I'll eat a dog at a ballpark dog. Time out. You have said on the show and to me for many years that you do not eat hot dogs or tubular meats of any kind. Now you're telling me. One exception. You know what? I'm not going to lie. This makes sense. Ballpark dog, man. It's a special. It's the nostalgia. I'll sacrifice my ick for the fact of how it's made and how it smells. I'll just, I'll enjoy a ballpark dog, man. I don't know what it is about being at the ballpark that I need a dog with some ketchup on it and bang bang boom. I'm not going to eat more than one. No, no mustard. You're not putting mustard on a dog. That's the one condiment you have to have on it. That's a lie. Whoever told you that is an idiot. I disagree. I think you must have. Yeah. Listen, you can eat it however you want, but that's the one condiment I have to have. You don't like mustard on a hot dog? You can do like mustard in like a sauce or like in like a dry rub that the meat and like the other parts of the food like hide the taste of the like the melted crayon texture that is mustard. Melted crayon texture. What about a sauerkraut? No chance. Again, again, if it's hidden in like a ruben, like a like a ruben sandwich, yeah, or like a corned beef sandwich, maybe. The sourness could get a little too pungent. We should just like review all these crazy foods that have gone on. Do you see this one over here? I'm going to go to a Diamondbacks game this year solely to try this ice cream, peanut butter, sandwich, whipped cream, cracker jack, Kit Kat concoction. That thing is fucking insane. Does that not look delicious? It's insane. By the way, that's a nutter butter, right? That's not a nut. Nutter butter. Peanut butter, sandwich. Yeah, it's a nutter butter. Gosh, did the Kelsey household go through our fair share of nutter butters, dude? Holy shit. Right. Do you want to see some of the weird shit they've got out there real quick? Get the Kelsey Rose read on it. Now I'm getting some head shakes. You don't want to see the mini dessert chicken bucket at the Yankees game? I think they're pretty good. They're pretty cool. I'm not going to be a downer here. Let's see, Brandon, who else we got? You want to see a mini dessert chicken bucket? There we go. Dessert. What is this called? The. It's a Drowns and Dessert. A big shaped ice cream with a chocolate covered cookie bone center, a coating of white chocolate and candied cornflakes serve in a souvenir mini chicken bucket. What is the point of making it look like chicken? It looks like chicken. I think we just got there. I'm not a big fan of foods impersonating other foods. You're out on the chicken. I'm out on the chicken sandwich, ice cream sandwich thing. I just give me a fucking ice cream. I don't need to look like a chicken drumstick. Who are we fooling here? What are we doing at four? I would make sense if it was the New York chickens. Then I'd be like, oh, okay, they're doing something that's like a theme of. The New York. What is the. The New York chickens. Have a chicken bucket. Yes, but I don't, I don't understand this at all. Is it, is it the drumstick flavoring like the, the, the classic like drumstick that we all know that we get from like the grocery store? It's just covered with candied cornflakes to make it look like it's fried chicken, but I'm assuming it's probably like vanilla ice cream with a chocolate covered cookie bone center, which I don't. I'm out on this one. I've seen a lot of this doesn't make any sense at all. There has to be, there has to be something that's making sense to this. There's no way somebody was just like, all right, here, check this out guys. A drumstick. I think that's how they do it. I think we're over there. There's no way. I don't know where the chicken comes into like it's not chicken. Who I didn't, why didn't they just chicken isn't even known as being like a ballpark. Exactly. Why didn't they just make it like a baseball? Hot dog. Like make it. You know what I mean? Just make it like a baseball bat sandwich. Why the fuck is this? You guys didn't want to do this segment and now here we go. Is this like KFC like was like, hey, we can't get the fried chicken in the stadium. But why don't you make ice cream look like fried chicken? And they're like, oh yeah, sure. We'll do that for no fucking reason. All right, let's skip to the next. Next. Next. This one's, this one's made us mad. We're, we're, we're, we're. Next. I'll take the bucket. I'll take the bucket. No chicken. Red Sox. We're doing lobster poutine at Fenway park this year. The ballpark food features crispy fries, lobster meat, clam, chowder and crispy bacon all served in a custom lobster boat. Why are we doing chowder baseball is a fucking summer sport. Chowder is not a summer fucking food cuisine. Whatever I don't like. I don't like the idea of how where that chowder has been stored. I don't like the idea of where is it at the bottom? Is that the lobster? I like this. No, that's what I'm saying. I like the receptacle. I like the, I like the lobster. I like everything except the bacon. I have no idea why bacon is included in this and what the purpose is. It's not going to add much. Give it a little salty. Just like a little salty crud. It's got chowder in it. It's salty. It's crud. I do think if it's hot, I would question the integrity of that chowder, but I still give it a go. I'd still give it a go. The integrity of the chowder. See food and heat usually doesn't pair well. Especially, especially shellfish. Fucking 95 degree day at the ballpark. I'm out. I'm going to try any of these if you'll have me, but. I will not try the chicken jumpsuit. I'm boycotting the chicken jumpsuit. Cool. A Yankees fan or somebody in the Yankees organization, please tell us how this came to be. I will say this. They did give us a great moment. I'm going to share this. There was a man who constructed a chicken bucket hat tower. See, that's the thing. I like the button. I'm big into this. I'm big into the bucket. I'm fucking with the bucket. I fucking with the bucket. KFC brought to you by Travis Kelsey. I mean, if that's not next news. Brother, I just signed you a giant ad deal. I'm fucking with the bucket. Travis Kelsey. I'm fucking with it. Colonel Sanders, hit me up. Buckets might be the most underrated piece of equipment that any man can own or utilize. I think it's a, it's a, you can stack them. You can carry anything you want in them pretty much. I mean, it's a very youthful receptacle, but the fact that we're making chickens is, it just doesn't make any sense. I can't get past it. They had the buckets already ordered and they didn't know what to put in them. I'm, I'm drawn the conclusions. They're like, what goes in a bucket? Chicken. They had a new fried chicken chain that was going into the stadium. And then they had to back out on their contract but they had already bought all the chicken buckets. Cost of cooking oil went way up. And they said, I don't know if I get to make an ice cream. That's the only thing that makes sense. We've solved the mystery. All right. I'm going to show you a couple more. The Rangers have revealed a wearable nacho rally sombrero. The food vessel contains chip, cheese, lettuce, jalapeño, cucarabara, and whole butter. This is hilarious. Is this real? Is this real? Yes, this is dead Israel. The photo is incredible. All right. What do we think of the not the rally sombrero? I'm kind of into it. Outside the beans, I'm kind of into it. I think it's ridiculous. Oh no, it's beyond ridiculous. Yes, but I mean, it's kind of, I fucking love nachos at a game. I love nachos at a game. Can you imagine trying to wear that and utilize it? You're dumping that on your neighbors. You're dumping that on the sea next year. Yeah, this is getting everywhere. I think it's hilarious. Oh, hilarious. You have to go to the bathroom with that on your head. Can't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. I like the idea of sombreros. I just don't know that nachos was the best choice. That's great. What's the messiest food item that we can combine with a place that you can't access? You can't stand up and get excited. They should have just made like pretzel sombreros. They should have made little baby pieces off and dip it in cheese or something like that. But like sombreros shouldn't be large scale enough to where you could put it on your head. It should just be like the like the old ice cream cut batters helmets. You know those little small ones? They should have just made a little tiny sombrero like that in the size of where you would always get the nachos. You know what I mean? Like typically the size that you get is just like a four by four or five by five. You can hold it with one hand have a beer on the other hand. Like they should have made a sombrero that size. This is absolutely ridiculous. What's interesting about this item is that it probably is the only food item ever in a ballpark where the person buying it is the one not utilizing it. And in fact, probably putting themselves at the most risk of things going badly, right? Like the person wearing these nachos is going to end up eating the least amount of these nachos. The people behind them and to the right and left of them, like this is a very selfless maneuver if you're buying the sombrero nacho hat. You're getting this for the table. You're bringing the party for everybody else. Yeah. This is hilarious man. While also putting yourself most at risk. Just hot cheese sit on your head. All right. All right. I went to a guards game right after college and we're sitting on top of like that baby monster on the left field underneath the screen. And there's probably 10, 15 of the homies that were all up there getting hammered and having a fucking blast. And we go to get hot dogs and we're like, I mean, how many hot dogs can we get? And they're like, well, we can make as many as you want. We're like, all right, everybody gets like three, four hot dogs. We end up with a fucking crate full of hot dogs to carry them back to the back to the seats. And my guys, I think it was Steve Big Act. My guy Steve Big Act has it over his head as he's walking up and all the guys see him and start fucking going nuts. Like, yeah. Like he was like the hero of the day. And I think that's what this fucking big ass sombrero reminds me. I was like, you you bring this back to the home. You're just like, let's fucking go. You're down a run in this rally sombrero hits. I think this is going to be. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. Oh, there is last one Phillies the schwarbaum Sunday. It is a mini-serve ice cream topped with a funnel cake fried strawberry uncrustable fresh strawberry sauce and fruity cereal pieces. I am so everything outside of the fruity pebbles cereal. To be honest, I'm not a big fruity pebbles person. It's just sprinkling. I know, I know, but I'm going to try it. Don't get wrong. I'll get a full report. I'm a big fan of helmet ice cream. I love strawberries. I don't know what it is about strawberry sauce. Like strawberry. No, strawberry sauce. It says fresh strawberry sauce like the drizzle over. I don't know what it is about that. It makes me like it gives me like the egg like the fucking. Yeah. I'm in on that. Strawberry. Strawberry. Too sweet. No, it's sweet. I think it's the texture of it. It's like it's like texture to serve. Yeah, it's like that red syrup. It doesn't look like there's a lot. Yeah. I don't know what it is. I don't love it. But I love everything else about this. And I'm taking that souvenir home and Ohio. Deep fried and crustable. I was in when they when I read funnel cake fried strawberry uncrustable. I mean, that's the only thing I need to hear. I'm going to try this now. Dude, fried uncrustable is going to be incredible. Yeah. All right. That's ballpark food. It's called a schwarbaum. So I'm going to give it a go. Great name. Great player. Great name. 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All right, the last thing before we get to Troy, we gotta get to this out of the house from this past week at the Masters. We're currently filming this while we're in the house. So we're gonna toss to our own selves out of the house. This Masters edition of Out of the House is brought to you by AT&T. Oh, thanks guys. Appreciate you sending it to us down here in Augusta. I've been down here since Tuesday. Yeah, I just got down here yesterday. Saw Jason up at the course, had a few crows nests, had a few azaleas. Yeah. Saw a few azaleas. Saw a few good shots. We're out here in the front of the house that we're renting down here and saying hello to all the patrons outside of the course and gonna head up there for another fun day. Absolutely. How was the part three? Part three was great. I don't know that I helped Akshay out at all. I actually do think I gave him a good read. He told me it was a good read. So I will take it. A lot of fun, a lot of families, patrons are all just looking to have a good time. It's a way more relaxed day than the actual tournament. Yeah. And it's very unique in the way that like no other major especially, but really no other PGA event has something like that the day before you do it. This is one. You have pro-hams in the other events, but this thing was so unique and special in the way that their families are incorporated into it. That was my first time being a part of it. And it's just another example of, I think Augusta National just setting the example and the tone of what golf is, right? Yeah. No other sport do you partake in as much with your families, whether you belong to a club, whether you play with your kids. It's just, I think it's something that really matches up well. Yeah. And to do that right before the biggest tournament in golf is pretty remarkable. It's also not mandatory. So those guys signed up to do that. Yeah. They could be hitting balls. They could be getting more reps. Yeah, but it's a part of the show. It's a part of the fun. It's part of the excitement of the week. And I think it's an acknowledgement that this thing is bigger than themselves. Yeah. Right. It's an acknowledgement that the history of this, our families are going to be included in it. All of it, they really embrace it. So I think it was, it was awesome to be there and to have a lot of fun with those guys. Yeah. The one thing about this tournament is that it's, it's more than just a golf event. It's like, you don't necessarily have to be in the golf. You're going to see some amazing shots of the best players in the world, but it's an event that anybody can enjoy because of how beautiful the landscape is because of everything that goes into what that course is. I mean, you have different houses and places you can go while you're there. And you just get a full experience like none other. And it's why it's one of the best events in sports. The cool part about being there is that you're on these grounds that have been there and this tournament has been being played since 1934. The course was carved out and just feels like it was made to be a golf course. You don't have your phones. There's no digital scoreboard. Everything's manually being done. That's the hardest part. Yeah. No phones and understanding where the, the, the match is. Yeah. Because you don't know what a guy's got going on. Three holes over and whether they're making a push or they're throwing it all away. Yeah. You're there and you're trying to figure out where's the scoreboard. Oh, he, Freddie just got a quadruple, double, what was a quadruple bogey or four? Like what the heck happened? And so it's, there's this excitement in the fact that you don't really know what's happening when you're there. The way the grounds are handled, the way the faculty, the workers, everything's done there is just done at an insane level. I got to give a, from the course management to the workers and everybody that's really putting this thing on and making this thing go, they, they make it one of the cleanest places I've ever been, especially on a golf course. They do such a great job. Everybody says it's kind of like the Disney world of golf. They, everything, all the dirty work kind of happens in a way that you don't ever see. So everything looks pristine. The way they treat everybody, the way everybody treats you, whether it's the patrons, the workers, everybody's just there to have fun, to awesome time. They've somehow kept these prices down. I mean, the pimento cheese sandwich was a buck 50. I think a bottle of water is $2. You're not giving that thing out for free? If you have Berkman's passes, it's, it's for free after you pay us for however many thousands of dollars for the ticket. I don't know how that works, but no, they've, they could jack those prices up. Yeah. You go into an NFL stadium, you're paying what, like $8 for a beer? Yeah, but those are premium beers. So you're an asshole. But it was your favorite shot. I don't know. We saw, I'm trying to think of, my favorite hole is 13. I love 13. The par five, bend around the corner. Then you got to play over, raise creek. Okay, raise creek. You know the creeks. I think it's raise creek. And you got to make a decision on whether you want to go for it. And you got a long second shot, approach shot. You're going to lay up and pitch in, but if you ever got to play it, what would you do? What would I do? I'm going for it. You're going for it? I'm not trying to set a score. I'm trying to have a story. I'm trying to turn the corner and everything. There we go. Yeah. It's, that hole is awesome. I also, I just like the par fives, honestly. Par fives and par threes are the most fun ones to tee up because you're going to see somebody throw a dart at one of the par threes, like 16 or two coming down the hill. That's a fun one. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you see scoring. You're going to see somebody go for an eagle. You're going to see some birdies. Like there's a lot of action, I feel like on the par fives and threes. So those are the ones I like to post up at. You think Rory's running away with this thing or what? I mean, he's winning by six strokes right now. Yeah. So, for those of you that don't know, it is Saturday morning. The cut has just been made and Rory is winning by six strokes. He is going to be potentially the first person to repeat as master's champion since Tiger Woods did it in 2001 or two. Was he in 2001 or was 2001, 2002? Either way, he would be the fourth person ever to be back to back master's champions. I think that'd be awesome. Another guy that's up there right now, Justin Rose. I got to see him when the U.S. opened in Philly in 2014. Awesome dude. I watched him in Spieth and Kepka on the par three and then T-off and man, it's just crazy when you see these pros T-off with the driver, man. I mean, the sound, not only the sound of the club hitting the ball, but the swing. The placement and how tight it is. The velocity it comes off, it's crazy. How tight these some of these shots they have to hit, even on one. One is just a par four up the hill, but that bunker on the right, you got like a 15-yard landing strip really that you're trying to hit. If you don't get it in there, you can be in the trees and the straw on the left side and you can't reach the green. It's watching these guys navigate how precise they are with all the shots. It's just a blast to see in person when you can see the ball. That thing skyrockets off that face, so you got to have some UV protection to try and see it. But yeah, what was your favorite thing you ate? Favorite thing I ate? I know you're a big egg salad guy. Yeah, because who doesn't love mayonnaise mixed with eggs thrown on some white bread. I actually used to love egg salad. Mom used to make it. I don't know what it was. Once I found out that she was just like, don't do the salad. I walked in the kitchen at the wrong time. Please don't do the salad. But mom, you made the best egg salad sandwich. I'm going to be bougie and stay. There's a fried chicken in the Berkman's place that is to die for. I didn't get the fried chicken. I got the pizza in Berkman's. How was that? So for those of you that don't know, Berkman's place is another tier. Are we allowed to talk about Berkman's place? I don't know. Are we even allowed to be sitting here doing that? Probably not. We're going to get banned for life, I'm sure. I hope not because it's an incredible experience. You can watch the tournament better. I mean, listen, I like watching on Sunday, personally. All right, pimento cheese and egg salad combination was my favorite. Combo? Dude, it's called the Pomego. I found that out this week. That is... It's a lot. I don't think texturized you would be... I am so out on this. Oh my gosh. It's pretty darn good. There was also another combo people were saying, the pimento and the barbecue. To me, that was too many flavors happening. It was overkill. Pimento and the chicken, classic chicken, grilled chicken sandwich. That was good, but the pomego is my favorite combo of it. The ice cream peach sandwich. I'm glad you tried all this because I didn't... I was here longer. I was trying to watch some golf. They were also having me do it as a part of the broadcast, so I didn't have a choice. It was all delicious. That's it. Yeah, I got around to. Yeah, it was... You see Nance, you see Daly? I didn't see either of them. Me neither. I'm hoping I can maybe find Nance today. We called in to Top Dog. Who knows if... Oh, John Daly is still over there at Top Dog. He is. He's there right now, actually. We called Top Dog yesterday when we left the course, to see if he was still there and he had just left. But he is there this morning, and he'll be there this morning, Sunday as well, I believe. Interesting. So, yeah, for those of you that have never been, it's awesome. It's everything you've heard about. There's some of the best golfers in the world. The hospitality, the way it's run is second to none. The tradition to it, the history that's happened there. All of these gnomes, there's gnomes all over the place. Everybody's getting gnomed. Gotta get my hands on these. Yeah, there's the merch bag, and that's where they get you. It's a dollar fifty sandwich, but you're going to go into that merch store and spend some cash, for sure. But you love it. I don't know the way it was for you, but the moment people find out you're coming, I got my barber hitting me up, oh, can I get a hat? Can you get me this? So, it's an experience like none other, a tradition like no other. I don't know if we want to keep stealing Jim's lines, but I mean, Jim, we're stealing your lines. We love you. That's how good your lines are. That's right. But we'll give you the nod. We'll cite our sources. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. All right, that's it from us down here at Augusta, Georgia. Little out of the house. We'll see how the rest of it tees up this weekend, how it shapes up. That's all I got. Yeah. That's out of the house. See you guys. How about that? That's our segment. We don't know what that looks like yet, but hopefully it looks like we're having a great fucking time. Once again, that Masters edition of Out of the House is brought to you by AT&T. Let's get to our conversation with the legendary Hall of Famer Troy Aikman. This conversation is brought to you by Amazon, one of our favorites. Our guest today is six foot four quarterback from UCLA. He was the number one pick in the 1989 draft. He's a six-time pro-bore, three-time Super Bowl champion, 1993 Super Bowl MVP. Yes, sir. And a member of the pro football Hall of Fame. He's also the 1983 Oklahoma High School state typing champion. I did not know that. He's been in the broadcast booth for 25 years. He's also my co-worker on Monday Night Football. Please, welcome to the show, Mr. Troy Aikman. There we go. There we go. Yeah, why does Best Intro ever? I'm trying. I'm trying. That's easy. It's easy when you got that many accolades, Troy. Troy, I can't thank you enough for taking the time and hanging with us, man. You've been an icon in the Kelsey household for such a long time. Remember, I had the Dallas Cowboys action figures. It was all the stars. It was you, Irvin, Emmett, Deion. I remember having them as a kid, man. I've been such a big fan. You grew up a quarterback, wishin' I could one day be an acme, but you know, made my way into the quarterback's best friend world anyways. But appreciate the time, dog. And I got to hit you with the first question, man. What was your first impression of Jason on air? Oh, well, it was fantastic. I mean, I remember we did a production, we did a production call with Jason back when he was still playing with the Eagles. And someone asked, I don't think it was me, maybe it was Joe, maybe it was Aaron, asked him if Jason had an interest in getting into television when he was done. And he indicated that he might, that he had given it some thought, was gonna be doing some stuff. He talked about his grandfather. He got emotional talking about his grandfather. And it was one of those calls where we hung up and we said, wow, we just, you know, we just saw a side of Jason that we had never seen before. You know, we just saw this great competitor playin' center and dominatin', you know, and been an all pro player and all that. But then we saw this human side to him. Then we thought, wow, you know, if that can translate, the guy has a real future, you know, if he wants to go that route. And he did. And by that time, I was, I was at ESPN and just thrilled. I mean, it was the Kelsey Sweepstakes. It's a little bit, it's a little bit like what you're gonna be going through here, Travis. And so to get Jason, you know, to be a teammate at ESPN has been awesome. I mean, I'm not just saying this, I said this to others. I think Jason's an absolute superstar in this profession, you know, I mean, he can take this and go as far with it as he did his playing career. You know, we do that Monday night countdown hit that I come down and go on the set with him. The highest compliment that I can pay any former player or current player is by saying, you know, I would have loved to have been a teammate of yours. And Jason's one of those guys. And Travis, I can say the same thing about you. I've covered enough of your games. But now I am a teammate of Jason's and he makes us better. So it's awesome. And now if we get his brother, we get over to the world wide leader. We got something. I don't know, man. ESPN is a very polished organization. I don't know if I'm just kidding, man. I'm a fucking glass. Considering Jason's first time on air, he's screaming tits. And he still has a job. No. So do you think Jason could fit in on the 90s Cowboys? Oh, heck yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, he'd probably be hanging with me. You know, I mean, some of those guys, they, you know, they, they, they've had more extracurricular activities than what I don't. I don't claim to know what Jason was doing in his personal time, but I have a feeling he and I probably would have been hanging out together. Hell yeah. That would have been a blast. That's some good shit right there, man. I had to ask you what your opinion was or at least the first thought of Jason being a teammate. So that's awesome, man. I'm going to mention this too while we're still on like first impressions, going up in the booth with you and Joe for the first time. I didn't know what I was doing and just watching you guys play off of it and like the, the way you let me in there and just a great teammate you were there to try and guide me through that. I really appreciate that. And then you come down to the regular table while we're talking, me, you swag and the pre-show and you kill it there, man. I mean, you've been doing this. Is there anything you can't do in broadcast? How long you've been doing this for 25 years? Yeah, 25 years. That is amazing, man. Yeah, it's crazy. You know, it was a, first of all, when I, when I got into this and, you know, one, I was in a three man booth. So I, I first worked with Darryl Johnson, my former teammate. He had retired a year before me and then Dick Stockton. So the three of us, and then after one year, Madden left and when he went to money night football. And so then they were looking for a new number one booth. And that's when I got paired with Joe Buck and Chris Collinsworth. And I was in another three man booth with those guys for three more years. So my first four years I was in a three man booth. And I knew pretty early on that I didn't like the three man booth, but I learned a lot by going that route. And the other thing is too, there's, there's, there was no social media. So, you know, I said a lot of dumb things. But when you say something dumb, you're like, man, I hope, and you didn't have to hear about all the, all the people who heard you say it, you know, and, and now there's not much grace period, there's not much grace period in life period, but especially in broadcasting. So you don't really get a chance to kind of learn your way. You know, there's a, everyone has a quick opinion on guys as soon as they come into it. But like working with Collinsworth was, was good for me because he had been in television for a number of years prior to that. And Chris is one of those guys, there's a handful of these type of guys, there's not a lot of them. He could host a radio show, you know, he could, he could host a studio show. He can be the analyst, he could do, you know, he can do games, he can do all of it. He could do play by play, I think there was one time when they talked to him about maybe doing play by play with Madden and, and I could not, I wouldn't even attempt it. You know, I think what Joe Buck does and what play by play guys do is such a unique skill. You know, I've gotten more comfortable in front of the camera over the years, which is only natural, but I'm not as talented as, as a lot of other people that could really kind of do any type of medium that they wanted to. I don't know, man, I think you kill it every time. Every time we talk, me swag, Ryan, SVP, every time you're on the desk, it is amazing to us how quickly you snap into it, what you say, just like pierce us through all the nonsense. That that's one thing that I think you do such a good job, not just on the desk, but also calling games, where you talk about the quarterback position in particular, but really just football in general. There's a realness that doesn't come off like you're attacking anybody. It's just like a face value, what you're seeing that you articulate so well in every medium I hear you in. Jason, that's high praise. It means a lot to me. I'll be honest. I mean, what I'm most grateful for you saying is that it doesn't feel like I'm attacking anybody because there's times when somebody writes something that I said, yeah, and then it comes off as though I was being critical of the player and I get offended by that because the one thing that I've always tried to do, I've tried to be honest. I mean, everyone tries to do that. I think you owe it to the audience. I think you owe it to your employer to be honest, but at the same time, I have so much respect for the players and the coaches that participate in this game. I mean, the three of us, we know how hard the game is to play and I especially know how hard the quarterback position is to play. Doesn't mean every throw is perfect. Doesn't mean every time the quarterback plays, he plays well. And I will point that out, but I hope I do it in a respectful way and not in a way that tries to embarrass or be disrespectful to the people that are out there on the field doing it. For sure. And it doesn't come across that way to me, especially when you're watching it live. Anybody can write an article with a sound bite and frame it in whatever way they want. I was just saying, I think the players understand that the most. The guys that are seeing exactly what you're seeing and how you're describing get really appreciate your ability to put it into words and to give that to the viewers. And I think, we all are our biggest worst critics if we're the best. You just have to have that mentality. So if somebody is saying that I'm not doing something that I need to be doing, I'm the first one to point that out. So I think the players definitely see that first. And it's typically the viewers that have this love and desire that their quarterback or their players are the best and can never do anything wrong that have those kind of views on that. Especially Dallas. Because they, I'm sure, Jason, if you do games or if you were to say anything on a pregame show about the Eagles, immediately gets like, if I say, when I'm calling a Cowboys game, and I don't call as many now on Monday Night Football because we only get two games a year, whereas at Fox, I had many more. But if a call, if I didn't agree with a penalty that benefited the Cowboys, I mean, the one thing I do remember from when I was playing, I would be watching a Sunday Night game or a Monday Night game and a quarterback would make a throw. And the analysts would say, no one, he's the only guy in football that can make that throw or he's the best guy there is at that position. And then next week, another quarterback would do something that say, he's the best that, and I, and I'm like, there's 31 other quarterbacks that can make that exact same throw, you know, I mean, and so I never have been, and maybe at times this, this is not good, but I've never been prone to hyperbole. Like I just, if I do say something that's really strong, I mean, it's because I honestly believe that that's the only player that could have done whatever that was, you know, I mean, I just think it's, I think it's disrespectful to all of the other great players in the league. If you're only trying to sell that moment for television and not really being totally honest about the league overall. Absolutely. And it comes across for sure, because we're not going to name other announcers, but other guys get labeled almost as like super fans of like specific players, because they're always saying certain things. And I just feel like everything you say about a guy is very at face value. And I've always like loved hearing that perspective. Yeah, thank you. What do you think about the current state of quarterback play in the NFL? Like where are you at just holistically with where we're at? Well, I like it. I know going back to towards the end of my career, and I, you know, I played when we, when we played, I mean, I'm sure you guys feel the same. You feel like you played in the golden era of your position, you know, I mean, there were, I had Elway, Marino, Warren, Moon, Jim Kelly, Steve, John, you know, the list goes on and on. There were a lot of really great quarterbacks during the era that I was playing. And towards the end of my career, I was asked, Hey, where are all the great young quarterbacks is like, who's going to fill those shoes once everyone retires? But, but what you find is somebody always fills those shoes. You know, there's always more superstars that are coming along. And I think the league is in great hands. I mean, I really do, you know, we can look no further than Drake May of New England, a second year player and what, what he's been able to accomplish and a number of other quarterbacks as well. I mean, obviously, Travis's quarterback in Patrick Mahomes, what he's been able to accomplish. But there's Josh Allen, there's a number of great quarterbacks. Joe Burrow has always been one of my favorites. But I think the game itself, what I've, what I'd like to see here in the last couple of years, and Jason, you probably would agree, we got so into the spread sets and throwing the football, the rules favored the receivers, you know, it was tougher on the defensive backs. And that really goes back to Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and some of those games because New England just went after the Colts physically. And so they changed the rules and became more favorable for the receivers. So we saw this influx in teams wanting to throw the football and now it seems to kind of be coming back to the middle where teams are running the ball more. And I love that. You know, I mean, my career, I would have loved to have thrown the ball more than I did. But I'll, if I was a coach today, I would do it the same way we did the 90s Cowboys. I mean, a power running game, the play action game. And we see that, we see that from a lot of, we see that in San Francisco, we see it in, with the Rams. We've seen it with a lot of other teams, Chicago, and they're kind of coming back to that, which, which I really like, which is only going to benefit the quarterbacks. So I like where the league is right now. I love these young quarterbacks and all the greatness that we've been able to see from that position. I love to hear you talk about the 90s Cowboys, man. It's so fucking fun. I was just telling you how I was watching the documentary and how excited it felt like that organization, everybody in that building got when, when you guys got Norv Turner. Yeah. And I think I'm really just, I'm, I'm, I'm curious what was it about Norv's style and it really being suited for you because you kind of had that different world, a lot of, a lot of like, rough games and a lot of learning experiences through those first couple of years. There's so many quarterbacks that have come into this game that were, were, came in as high draft picks, high expectations, and then it just never quite happens for them. And, and my first two years in Dallas, I was on that path. I was on the path of being a bust. We were the worst offense in football, really both years, my first and second year in the league. Norv Turner then came in my third year with the same players, really pretty much the same offensive linemen, same skill players, Emmett, Michael, Novicek. And in our first year, we were a top 10 offense and we went to the playoffs for the first time, 111 games. And then the next two years with Norv, we, we were top five offensively and we won two Super Bowls. And so even in today's game, there's, there's not a lot of great offensive minds. And if you're one of these quarterbacks who's fortunate enough to play for one, you got a chance to be really successful. Everyone points to Sam Darnold and what he's gone through and where he's been the last two years. And that's a great example of it. He's been around really great coaching. He's excelled and we've seen his talents come out. And that's what happened to me. I mean, I, I credit, there's a reason why Norv Turner was my presenter when I went into the pro football hall of fame, Michael and Emmett, they both, they both credit Norv Turner for turning their careers around. And, and Jimmy Johnson, he deserves a ton of credit too because he was a tremendous motivator, but he was a great evaluator of talent. And so with those picks that we got from Herschel, the trade of Herschel, you know, we, we, we made the most of them and, or, or he made the most of them. I had nothing to do with it. Give me somebody, please. Give me somebody. It's fun to say we, it's fun to say we, that's our world as a team here. It's kind of fun to say we, you know, we picked some great players after we made the Herschel trade. But yeah, it was a fun time. And just as fun as it was, then, then Jimmy left and it just goes to show you that, man, there's a lot that goes into, to having success, you know, and when you have it, don't screw it up. And, and, and I think that the egos of Jimmy and Jerry, they, it happened too early for them in the NFL. They didn't realize really what they had. I think if it had been down the road years later, after a longer period of struggling, I think maybe everyone would have kind of taken a backseat and said, well, wait a minute, this is too good. Let's just enjoy it and let's not mess this up. But so, so be it. Yeah. The perspective makes all the difference. I remember 2017, when we went on to win the Strupple that year, Brent, we had a really good team. We could all sense in training camp. You just know when like you got the roster, everything's clicking. And Brent Selick stood up in front of the guys and said, guys, I went to the NFC championship game my rookie year and we lost. And I was like, God, we'll be back there next year. It's been 10 years since I've been back to that game. He's like, you don't know how hard it is to get there. And when you got it to take advantage of it, and that was like, it's watched the season. It really had us like take it off. But I mean, the perspective you don't really know until you have been through it and you've seen the down to realize how special it is to have all those pieces in place. Let me ask you this, because you brought up organizations failing quarterbacks, more than quarterbacks, failing organizations. If you're built an organization right now, I know you're helping out with Miami, you're trying to get a young quarterback. What is Troy Aikman's like pinnacle of putting this guy in a successful situation? First of all, I'll say this about quarterbacks. I'm sure you guys do it as well. I worked the draft in 2018, I think it was whenever Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield and those guys came out, Josh Allen. It's a great quarterback class. So, oh yeah, just the only year like fine wine. I worked that draft. So I went to some of these pro days and watch these guys throw. Now, I don't go to physically to the pro days, but I'll watch a number of them on NFL Network. And quite honestly, I watch them and I think to my, what do you evaluate? What do you get? Watch this isn't even football. It's just, hey, let me just show you how strong my arm is. And you get to see the ball come out. You get to see a little bit of accuracy. But there's to me, there's nothing that happens at a pro day for a quarterback that translates into whether or not this guy is going to be successful in the NFL. And it's all the intangibles because if you're looking at being drafted, you've got enough arm strength. You've got enough athleticism. And then, so okay, well, then what's going to determine it? Well, what kind of leader are you? Do you want to be the best there is? Are you the first one in the building? What are your work habits? Are you intelligent? I mean, there's just a number of things. And I feel it's easy. It's easy when you walk into production, meaning, and you're meeting Patrick Holmes, who's already won three Super Bowls. I mean, you know, he's got it, whatever that is. The trick is then finding that person who has it when they're still in college and they're getting ready to go to the NFL. That really becomes how you evaluate it. But I think as far as what would it look like to give a young quarterback success, it goes back to kind of what we talked about earlier. I would want him under center for the most part. I think that I think the college game has gotten to where these quarterbacks sit back, they're hold the ball, they're waiting for guys to get open. And then when they get open, they throw them the football. They don't read coverages. They don't understand coverages. There's no sense of timing. It's one of the reasons why I love watching Joe Burrow play so much because the ball comes out on time. He's an old school quarterback. I mean, he could have played, could have played Meyer in the 90s. You can feel that. Yeah. So I think getting under center, it forces a quarterback to kind of play in rhythm and get the ball out. So I'd want that. I'd want a running game, all those things that are really beneficial and helpful for a quarterback. But you're right. There's a number of teams, Dolphins included, that are looking for the next young quarterback that can be their guy for the next 10, 15 years. You brought up college. Where does Troy Eggman stand on NIL? When you talked about diving in on NIL one time and then the fucking kid didn't even write you a note and just bailed on UCLA. I hadn't been, I was already out on it. I was like, dude, these kids, these kids just get the opportunity to jump their jumping. And it's like, why even waste your time on it? Yeah. It's, and in fairness to the young player, you know, it's a collectibles thing. He's just collecting the checks. He doesn't know. Yeah, he doesn't even know. He doesn't even know. So it's no, no reflection of him. And, but with that said, I know a number of people, my daughters being two of them, that would have loved to have me to have given them that kind of money, you know, I mean, they would have written me a thank you note. You know, I never even met him. I never even met the guy. And, and then he didn't play. So it just, it's, and I speak for probably most people out there. I know that most alums have hardburn over this whole NIL program. And I, I don't know how it gets cleaned up, but I do feel that at least in the NFL, you've got a contract that if you take money, you know, you're obligated. That's what it feels like an easy to get to. You have to honor that, man. Yeah, you can't collect a check. And then the very next year, go back in the portal and then go collect another check. It just, it defies, you know, what, what this country is supposed to be about. I always thought players should be paid because you couldn't work in the off season, or you could work in the summers. You couldn't work during the school year back when I was playing. And, and I didn't come from a wealthy family at all. But there were a lot of teammates of mine who came from less money than even I did. And they were really struggling. And I thought, man, these guys should be getting paid something. And the NCAA, I think, just really dropped the ball. I mean, if they'd gotten out ahead of this and said, okay, here's what we're going to do. And they didn't do it. And, and, and now it's the Wild West out there, you know, so it is insane, man. And what also, what you don't hear about anymore is, is the quality of the education. Yeah, that's, I haven't heard that. I haven't heard education come by about college football since NIL came about. It's all of a sudden, it's not even discussed graduation rates, none of it. I've never heard a kid ask, Hey, how are my trans, how are my credits going to transfer if I, if I switch schools here? I haven't, haven't heard that one yet. But let's play, let's play a hypothetical because this is all funny games. If you were a college quarterback, and you had one more year of eligibility, but you knew you were a top top five lottery pick at a great university, but you know the NFL is waiting on you and everybody, everybody knows you're going to be a top pick. Would you stay an extra year or play for the worst or get drafted by the worst team in the league? Well, it says jets, Travis, you said jets. I'm not going to do the jets thing. We got, we got, we got an employee that works with us at New Heights. That's a huge jets fan. And the question was, would you get drafted by the jets? But I'm just going to say, but just would you, would you question whether or not to stay the extra year or get drafted by an argument like a rough situation? That's a hard one because typically, you know, for instance, when I came out in 89, I was first overall pick and the Cowboys, of course, were the worst team and they were the worst team in football. And, and we were the worst team in football even after my rookie year. We were grass. We went from three wins before I came to Dallas to one win when I joined. And, and so that didn't look like a great situation. But yet it became an amazing place to play. And, and so I, I think you got to be really guarded about saying, well, historically, this franchise hasn't done it. And so do I really want to go to that place? Or should I stay in college another year and maybe, you know, reshuffle the deck and I get a place chance to go play somewhere else. So I, you know, there's a lot of, you take paid manning going to Indianapolis, what he was able to do, you know, they all look good. Joe Burrow going to Cincinnati. I mean, all these programs start looking better, you know, when you start getting the people in place. So that's a, that's a hard one. I, I think it's so important that these quarterbacks to play, just play, play in college, play as many games. I mean, the chances of them then going on and having success in the NFL go up dramatically. I mean, you look at a guy like Bo Nix and what he was able to do. And it's so rare. A lot of these quarterbacks have only had 13, 14 starts in college. And that's a big jump. Then go into the NFL and expect them to play well. Is there anybody out there that's struggling in the league right now that you would say might be the next Sam Darnold? Not off hand, not off hand. You know, when I go back to that draft, Sam was my number one guy. I mean, when I evaluated him, I thought the one question mark with Sam and college was the turnovers. He turns the ball over a lot in college fumbles and interceptions. And he still has had some of that in the, in the NFL. But early on, it looked like, well, maybe it's just not going to work out for him. But like we said, he goes to San Francisco backs up, then he goes to Minnesota. And then what he's done this year in Seattle has, has been awesome. We've seen that from Baker Mayfield. Josh Allen was a bit of a project coming out of college. People thought he would take him longer than it did. And he's the one who had the most success right away. So I've talked to so many people who evaluate quarterbacks for a living. And, and I've said, Hey, when you walked in and met with Aaron Rogers coming out of college or Joe Burrow or whoever, did you know they had it? And, and it's about 50 50, you know, I mean, it's a coin flip as to whether or not what, what you think is what they're going to become. And, and that's why that's why there's so many people that have been wrong. It's not an exact science and getting these guys right. Well, quarterback is even the hardest one to judge, I feel like, because like you've been saying, there's so many intangibles that determine whether that guy pans out. We got a great one coming out this year. He took college football by storm this year with both his play and his, his personality, man. He's a bit of a unique individual and Fernando Mendoza over there to Indiana, obviously national champion. Everyone's saying he's going to be the number one pick. What's your what's your read on on him? If you've been able to catch him playing football? I haven't studied him. I've seen him play a little bit. You know, my, my college football viewing is really more or less the games on and I'm studying preparing for our broadcast or whatever. And so it's more, more background noise. So I don't really study him too hard. A big fan of what he's been able to do. A big fan of that university for that matter and what Kurt Signetti accomplished. I mean, it's just remarkable. I mean, it's just blows me away. Speaking of him, not to avoid your question, but they played UCLA a year ago, week three, I'm home on a Saturday, they're UCLA, Indiana at the Rose Bowl. And they start talking about Kurt Signetti and I've never heard him before. And they say he came from James Madison. They go through his whole thing. They played the sound bite of, you know, all I do is win, Google me. And, and so I got so, I got, I got, I got so locked in, like that's when television works, you know, like it hooked me. And it wasn't because of UCLA. It was because, man, I want to know more about this Kurt Signetti. This old ball coach, man. And I'm watching his team play. And you could tell they were just so well coached, you know, the, they'd catch the football, their three yards short of the first down, but the guy immediately catches it nice up the field, picks up the first down. I'm like, man, these guys, they've been well coached. So I've been following them ever since. And so I'm a huge fan of what he's done. Now Mendoza, I will say, I was just having this conversation with someone else that every year there is a best quarterback in the draft, right? There's always a best quarterback, but it doesn't mean that every year there's a franchise quarterback in the draft. And I think that, I think that that's what, and I'm not suggesting that Mendoza is not a franchise quarterback at all. I'm just saying that, you know, that's, that's what has to be evaluated. Is he the first overall pick? Should he maybe not be the first overall pick? It's just that as we've talked about the league is so starved for quarterbacks. And if you're one of those teams that needs one, man, they all look like franchise quarterbacks. You talk yourself into it. That's right. So I like him. I like his accuracy. I like, man, tough. He's played in big games. He's shown it on big stage. I think there's a lot to be said for that. And now it's a matter of can he get to the right place is Vegas that place where he can really excel? It's easy to say, yeah, because Tom Brady's an owner and he's got a vested interest and he's going to be right there, but he's not going to be right there, you know, and there's a lot that is happening within that organization. So, but I like the young man and I'll be pulling for, I pull for all these guys to play well. I'll be pulling for him when he gets his chance. That's awesome. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you to our partner, Liquid IV. 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That'll get you ticket. The only trip you're taking and that instance is to the tola. That's right. Yeah, checking first is smart. So check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Potential savings vary. Subjects to terms, conditions and availability. Allstate North American Insurance Company and affiliates Northbrook, Illinois. Let's get to this segment right here. Get off my turf. Get off my turf. We need to narrow these people. It's too easy to get people. We also out on these touch screens on the walls. I'm out on that too. I am out on that too. Oh, I want a smart house. What the f*** is wrong with morats? Get off my turf. Get off my turf. It's a new segment for us. Sick of this new wave, man. We've been we've been bitching about all types of shit on how the NFL has changed, man. We're huge. We love the f***ing wedge back in the day, man. Get the big boys out there locking arms, f***ing full on collisions. Like why change that? That's the most exciting f***. That's the start of the game right there. I get to see some action. The wedge. I haven't heard the wedge. You're talking to two wedge wedge guys right here. We f***ing love that shit. Crackback blocks being legal. Defenseless receiver rules, man. I just watched the Dockham and Michael Irvin is just out here just enjoying every single lick he's taken over the middle band. Just becoming bigger of more and more of a beast every time he catches one, man. And that's just it's just a different game. So Jason, go ahead. I was a wedge buster. I was a wedge buster in college before I started. I was running down in knee braces and they said, Jason, just take out this wedge. No joke. No joke. Me and Ricardo Matthews, the D-Lime, and they played in the league for a lockdown. They said we can get down there faster than anybody. Anyway, they said, hey, UCF had a really good kickoff for the, hey, guys, just go down there and take the wedge out. They do all middle returns. It'll be great. We go down there. We blow this four man wedge up. It goes 106 to the house. Now the sideline. Let's reevaluate this. Maybe have some savvy, maybe get to the ball. You would have fucking loved to see this dude running down because it was in his transition. You heard him say knee braces. Yeah. Well, that's what I was gonna say. I would have loved to have seen him not only run down the field, but run down the field and knee braces. That's right. He had just made the transition over to the offensive line. It was the rule to all line. He didn't wear knee braces. So he had this big old, it was like he had a yoga ball on his waist, man. He had this big old gut because he was trying to gain weight to play all line, had the knee braces on, but still had like that linebacker athleticism a little bit. Not quite. Nothing in that belly more than beer and subway, man. It was hilarious. He was a baller. We're going to give you 40 seconds, Troy. Air out any complaint you have with the modern game of football. Do you have anything that right off the top of your head you can think of? I guess what I don't like is, and I'm a former quarterback, of course, I don't like the extent of some of the protection on the quarterback is probably probably my biggest complaint just because it, man, it just the whole objective for a defense is obviously to get to the quarterback. I mean, if you do that, you get your chances of winning go up and, and these guys, man, I, I've never played defensive line or any of that, but I can only imagine that you're fighting through 300 pound offensive lineman, you're getting twisted and torqued in all kinds of directions. And yet you're trying to get to the quarterback. And, and if you get there and you don't do it exactly the right way, then there's a penalty. And I just, I don't like that. I don't like that at all. Now there's so much that's been done to try to protect players and, and I'm, I'm all for it. But you talk about a wide receiver back in the, in the, you know, going back prior to the 2000s. I mean, if you went over the middle, it was up to the quarterback to protect the receiver. And now they just, the quarterback, so just throw it anywhere. Cause they know the quarterback or the receiver is not going to get hit. And what I see a number of times is defenders, they don't know how to play it. Like they're caught in no man's land. They don't know whether to try to make a play on the ball, just, just try to tackle the receiver. I feel bad for the players, the gladiators that are in the arena, they don't really want the protection, you know, they're, the, the players are the ones always saying, Hey, we're good. Let us play. I signed the contract. I'm good. I'm ready. I, I, I agreed to this. That's right. So that's, that's what's kind of different and, and odd about the whole thing. Couldn't agree more. Yeah. I don't want to be the, get off, whatever the segment's called to get off my lawn guys. You don't want to be there. All right. We'll be those guys. Thank you for playing along. We'll get, we'll get you out of here after this last segment, man. We always end it with a little bit of, we got to ask, but you can clearly not answer. You can just tell us the fuck off Troy. But, but we, we got to ask these questions. I got to ask the first one. I got to, because this is the most impressive highlight I've ever seen in the NFL. Is Larry Allen chasing down that interception, the most impressive thing athletically you've ever seen in the NFL? Probably. I mean, this guy. I've seen the clip you're talking about. And I remember, I remember the play like it was yesterday. And, and yet he was so athletic that I didn't think anything of it at the time that it happened. Larry got to him before I did, you know, okay. I was pissed that it was an interception, but right, right. Then I see the clip and you're like, whoa, I mean, he, he was, he was a freak and he was the, he was the quietest shyest guy in the locker room. Oh my gosh. I mean, he, he, he wouldn't say two words. You know, I mean, he was so shy. Stylen assassin, man. And he'd get on the field and he would just destroy people. I mean, it was, he was, he was, he was amazing. I think of that clip. I think of that. What did he put up on the bench press at the Pro Bowl the one year? It was like some absurd number. Yeah, I might have been 800 pounds or something. It was after I had retired that, that, that he did that. And, and just a gentle giant. I mean, God rest his soul. You know, he passed a few years ago, but I'd reached out to him. I'd heard he was struggling a little bit and he was just a gentle giant. I mean, just, just an incredible, his, his son went to Harvard, Harvard or Yale, played football. I mean, he was a family man, raised great kids, everything he did, he invested back into his family. You know, the, the words goat gets thrown around a lot, you know, greatest of all time and all that. I mean, there's a lot of great Lyman and, and, and I'd put a lot of others on par with him, but I wouldn't say anyone that's ever played's been better than him. I know that and love, love having him as a teammate as well. Yeah, baby. Close friend of mine, Andy Reed, it says that he maybe have called you in 2002. Yeah. While you were, while you were on the Fox broadcast to see if you maybe be interested in playing for the Philadelphia Eagles. That's right. Yeah, we were, we were at old Jack Murphy Stadium. I was in the three man booth with Collins Worth and Joe Buck, and we had just done a game break that Donovan McNabb had just broke his leg. And the Eagles were playing really well. They were number one in the NFC at the time as mid season. We're getting ready to go to half time and my producer Richie Zion says, Hey, I've got a number that I need you to call at half time, which he had never done. And I was in my like third year, third year in the middle of a broadcast. And I'm trying to call from the booth at half time and there's no cell service. So I walk out onto the concourse because this was an old stadium was old Jack Murphy. So I'm not on the concourse, fans are walking by course. They're like, Hey, if you aekman cowboys boy. I got Andy, I said, Hey, he says, Hey, it's Andy. And I said, Andy Reed. He said, Yeah. And he says, you know, you heard what happened in you. And I said, Yeah, we just did a game break on it. And he goes, Well, I want to talk to you. I said, Andy, I'm in the middle of a broadcast. He said, I know you're, I said, you need to call me after the game. And I said, All right. So I called him after the game and he was selling me on why I should come out of retirement and go sign the form. They were playing Monday night. The following game was on Monday night against the 49ers. And, uh, Ty, Ty Detmer was the, he, I, I decide, obviously I didn't, I didn't do it. I said, I didn't go. You didn't pull the old man rivers. I was on my way up to Montecito, Santa Barbara after that game and I'm driving up and I said, I can either keep on going north and enjoy a week in Montecito, or I'm going to be on a plane in a blizzard in Philadelphia, you know, and Detmer goes down the very next week. He gets hurt against 49ers. A.J. Feely takes over. He wins five straight games. McNabb comes back from his injury, finishes out the season and the Eagles went to the NSE championship game that year. So it wound up being a still an amazing year form. There you go. That's what a fun story, man. That's crazy. I can only imagine trying to be on the main concourse. Well, why is it yelling at you? It's like, this is Andy. Oh man, that's too funny. Speaking of Philly, do you have any favorite stories from playing in Philly? I know they're good on defense now, but back when I played, it didn't matter if it was Buddy Ryan, Bud Carson, Ray Rhodes. I mean, it didn't matter who their defensive coordinator was. They beat the dog shit out of quarterbacks. I mean, it was 91. They were number one against the run, number one against pass, number one overall. They were knocking quarterbacks out every week. And my first game against them, I didn't know a lot about them my rookie year. Our first game was on Thanksgiving in Dallas. And at the end of that game, and that was the year obviously we weren't very good. And I, at the end of that game, they x-rayed both shoulders, both knees, my elbow. I thought I, I thought I had broken bones through my whole body. We, we had to play the Eagles two weeks later. And after they x-rayed me after the game, they said, yeah, no, everything's good. And I said, everything's good. I had to go back two weeks later and play against these animals. I mean, they were brutal. And that was a game they were throwing, you know, they had the snowballs with batteries and, you know, the Santa Claus throwing snowballs at him on his little tricycle. I mean, that stuff, that stuff was real. You know, I remember we were sitting around at a round table one off season as me, Farve, LA. And I think Warren Moon, they asked us where our least favorite place to play was, our toughest place to play. And they get to me and I said, said Philadelphia. I mean, it was hands down Philadelphia is the worst place to play. And, and Farve, and then you go to Farve and Farve says Philadelphia. And I said, what do you know about Philadelphia? He only played there one time in his career. And it was like four years earlier. I said, I got to go there every year. These guys are, I mean, that defense was so they were so good. I mean, Reggie and Clyde Simmons and, you know, the list goes on on Seth Joyner. Yeah, Eric Allen. I mean, they were just dominant. We got a running joke on here that an average, an average fan couldn't get a single yard in the NFL. But with the guy is as much football knowledge accumulated as Joe Buck, could Joe Buck get a get a yard in the NFL, get a yard doing what running, running the ball. There is no chance. Joe played football. I broke his neck playing, you know, when he was in high school. Broke his neck playing football. With the giggle is hilarious. Joe would not only not get a yard, he would not. He might not get up. I mean, maybe like, come on. My bad. So I said, Joe, for failure right there. Who's a better actor? You and Jerry Maguire or Jerry Jones and Landman? Jerry Jones and Landman. Did he not crush that? It's so fitting. Dude, that scene in the hospital is unreal. I've had a lot of meetings with Jerry over the years. I've had a lot of great conversations with him about his past. And, you know, when he gets into talking about some of the things that that he's lived through and that that he's done, it's pretty, pretty fascinating. And so I've heard variations of basically that story that he told in Landman. And so Joe and I were talking about it, Joe Buck, and he was saying, hey, did you see it? And I said, yeah, I saw it. It was phenomenal. I said, but I've heard him basically tell that story. I said, he wasn't acting. That's that's Jerry. I mean, that's Jerry telling the story. And, and Joe made a great point. He says, no, I hear you. I hear you that it's his story and all that. But, but he told it in a sound studio in front of 40 people with cameras and lights and an audience. You know, and, and he, and he sold it. He sold it for sure. That is acting. So I when he said that, I said, you know what, you're right, because we've all been on commercial shoots. And, you know, it's not as comfortable as what Jerry made it feel when he was delivering that. I thought I thought he was phenomenal. Couldn't agree more. Yeah, the cadence and like the way he the pauses and it just came off so real. And I've gotten to know Taylor shared and, and we were talking about that, that piece that Jerry did. And, and I agree. Taylor said if he wanted, you know, he could make a living as an actor, you know, and he could. I mean, I got a joke I could tell, but I don't want to tell it. So I'm not going to. We go for a role and then I got my hands full in the media for the next. I'll leave it at that. But when we stop recording, we're going to, we're going to hear this. All right. Yeah. Using a former teammate to fill in the blank, people forget that blank was a problem. Using a former teammate to fill in the blank that blank was a problem. People forget that, that this man was a problem. I mean, obviously we had some, we had some colorful figures and well documented, I might add. But the thing that, you know, there's a lot of people who point to Michael and it was in the documentary of all the things that he went through and dealt with in his personal life and away from the field. And, and I would say that Michael, like he and I have a relationship that's so unique and it's been that way forever. You know, my mom who's passed, Michael and I were on a on a cruise after my first year and I brought my mom and, and like my mom, Michael and the trouble and the things that he, he got into, like my mom would not have condoned those things. You know, a lot, a lot of people's moms wouldn't, a lot of people wouldn't, right? But my mom loved Michael Irvin because every time he saw her, he made her feel like a million dollars, you know, and I've met y'all's mom. And when people make your mom feel special, I mean, you can't put that into words. You can't put a price on that. And so, and, and my mom loved Michael right up until the day she passed. And Michael and I have that relationship to where he's for the longest time as, as I've gotten older, you're more willing to tell people what they mean to you and that you love them. And, but when you're in your 20s, Michael was the guy who had come over, seen me in public, he come over, give me a kiss and tell me he loves me and you know, and regardless of whatever was happening in his life, when we went out to practice, because people would say, how do you and Michael, or how are you and Michael so close? And I said, you know what, when we go out to practice, it doesn't like we live totally different lives. But he gets out there and he runs every route like he's preparing for the Super Bowl. It's never affected the way he prepares during the week. And that's all I cared about. I mean, if a guy, if a guy came and showed up to work and was ready to get better that day and help us win, man, it was go do whatever the hell you want. And that was Michael, I don't know how he did it because he ran hard away from the facility, but he, he ran hard at the facility as well. And, and that's why we were as close as we were. Man, I love Irv, man, he's the best dog. He's a piece. He's the one of one, for sure. Do you have a welcome to the NFL moment? You might have already named it with the Eagles game from your rookie year, it sounds like, but it was the Eagles and it was my rookie year. And it was Thanksgiving that I talked about that, you know, in college, a big guy breaks through the line. You know, I wasn't the fastest guy in the world, but, but I could run. I ran the Wisp on an OU when I was playing at Oklahoma. But, you know, you just run away from them, you know, you run away from them, you throw the ball and, you know, you go onto the next play and we're playing the Eagles and Reggie White got through them, got through the line. So I take off running and somebody, somebody tackled me from behind. And I was just like, who was that? I didn't know they brought a linebacker or something. When I got up, it was, it was Reggie. And that's when I, that's where I remember thinking, man, this, this league is, this league's different when you've got 300 pounders like Reggie White, who are running you down from behind. And yeah, so that was my, that was my welcome to the NFL moment. That's a mean guy chasing you for sure. Troy, we can't thank you enough, man. One of the best to do it on the field in the booth. Stand up, God, man. Thank you for all the nuggets of gold, the wisdom, the stories, brother. And of course the time, man, this is fun, man. You got it. You got it, man. I appreciate you guys having me. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you to Troy Akeman for stopping by, man. I still remember having those action figures when I was a kid, man. I, I, I even when I watched little giants, I was like, I kind of like the cowboys, man. Akeman had those cowboys jerseys looking fucking sweet in the nineties. Shout out to Akeman for all the stories, man. Obviously one of the best broadcasters out here, but for all you young bucks, man, go watch some Akeman highlights from the nineties, man. You won't regret it. Once again, that conversation is brought to you by Amazon. And that wraps up another episode of New Heights. Thank you to Troy Akeman. Make sure you're subscribed to the new ice channel on YouTube or wherever you're a Japan guest. Once again, New Heights, a wonder show brought to you by AT&T this week. Still got it. Follow the show on all social media, add new heights show with white-ass or fun clips throughout the week to our new heights production team. Thank you guys for always making us look good. And you guys are really the engine that keeps this thing going, man. We appreciate you guys. And thank you to the 92%ers for tuning in each and every week. Hopefully you enjoyed it as much as we did. And we'll see you next week. Peace. Does Intuitor Protects want to sponsor my trip to the zoo? The LA Zoo? No, I went to the living desert in Palm Springs. It's better zoo. Oh, you're full of shit. I'll take you. You're as close to San Diego as you are to the fucking desert. So I was in the desert looking at wedding venues. This was not a zoo trip. Oh, Brandon. Jay Travis. So nice. It was very nice. And here's what I've learned. It's expensive. Oh, fuck. Oh, yeah. I said, Lauren, how serious are we? Honey, there's an Applebee's right there. She'll say yes to that. Honey, you know, I love you. It's $3 margaritas. How much are we really looking to spend on people? Half off apps after 10, after nine, actually, they moved that up an hour. Something called a triple dipper. I think our guests will love that. Yeah. Let me know when you guys want to come out. I'll book it around your schedules. Are we invited? You guys are both invited. You skipped Jake's. So you got to come to mine. You're getting married at the zoo? Honestly, I would get fucking married at the zoo. I love a little wallaby running around. Dude, do not. Don't tempt me. Just come out on an elephant. That's happening. Dude, they had rhinos, man. If you fucking rhinos are sick. Bro, rhinos. They are fucking... Very intense. Did you go in the cage with them? No, they don't give me the Travis Kelsey tour. Don't do it. I'm with Gin Pop. They keep me behind the fence. It's terrifying. No, they're there, but they're like, you're looking at an alien when you see a fucking... Seeing them fucking trot around. Like, holy shit. I have a ridiculous AI algorithm right now of ionis. I, ionis, ioni, hyena, hyenas. Hyenas. Hyenas. Yeah, that one is hilarious. The one where he's just laughing in the front seat. That's one that I had to look up. Like, I'm like, I know this is fake, but I just like, let's just see if it says AI. Every time you kill his Jason, you had to look that up. You had to double check. I mean, I knew it. The hyena had a mascot. Brock, is this real? How hilarious. Just comment section. Just a quick glance. Making sure. You can't ask AI about another AI thing being real, because then they're on the same team. They're going to say, yeah, the robot's real. The robots get together. Yeah, they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's real. It's real. That's real. That's real. That's real. That's real. That's fine. Love it.