Yeah, I guess so definitely do. And damned like Nike buying you
damn piece of chains or diamond on the holy crap. Oh, that's
when you know you've made it. I'm here in Cincinnati with the
Bangles and one reason I'm here look at the man over there. Joe
Borough Joe be taking some pictures big time
and over there I got to wait my turn. That's just the way it is
when it's jobber. Oh, so you got to do is big time you
start. It's the Bangles there. Cool now because it's Joe
burrow. I want to like, break down a
little bit of everything. Joe. All right, first off. Thanks for
coming. You go you. The man. I really wish up to you a lot in
a lot of ways. Enjoy watching you. All right, grit. First thing I want to talk
to you first off. Let me see your hands. Do you mind if
we play this game? A little do little guys. I know they're not
that little, but I have big hands to what were you at the combine 9
inches? 9 inches? Big deal, right? I know it's a big deal.
You were like, why is it a big deal? Yeah, but it's not as a
big deal anymore at least to me, like, Like because you you
and like other guys and your Generations, the way you grip
the ball. So can I guy kind of see that in
person you pay attention to that? Like you know, always on
second place and under five. Yeah, you're out to an
under-five. Always grip the ball that way. Always you did. So it didn't change
from College High School. I thought about changing it when
I got to the lead. Yeah, and I tried to, I just couldn't
quite spin it the way I want to
dry. So I just went back to it,
right? But I got figured out a way when
it gets cold and dry to hold it. Well, yeah, right. So, we would like, when you got
to the League, what were you doing with like a little but I
tried to go pinky on. Okay, that's what for yeah, for
when it's windy, right? And it's dry. So you can just get a
little better grip, right? But you just didn't feel right in
without no, right? Yeah. To too thick in that area, right? All
right. Now, talk about just a little bit like the ball itself.
How do you? I know we got some equipment guys here, so
it's like both. So tell me about the week of like, getting the ball. Ready for the game or
how did that process go, but we always got them. Go in and make
sure all we have our game ball bag, right? That we always use
and you'll usually have to pick one or two every week. Yeah
because somebody breaks a record or
somebody scores a touchdown wants to keep it. So you always
got to pick one or two but I mean for Camp you got to pump them up outside.
We just talked about this the other day, right?
Because you pump it up, inside to the PSI that you want. And
then you bring it outside and it's really hot and it blows up
and it gets round, right? So you got to Pump It Up outside,
so it doesn't you say, you know, messed up? Yeah, so it's
just right there. Okay. So that's one of your new
on. And then like you got them like
mud in the ball, doing all that kind of stuff during the week to
get it the way you want it. Yeah. They're good at that. I
don't know about whole process. Ya get it. The way I want it.
They do. I like the laces kind of sticking out. I don't
like the laces down, so you look for the balls with the
laces coming and lace is coming out, right? Sure. No doubt.
Yeah, I hear you. I was the same way. Any thoughts that go through
your mind when you're talking to like, wet ball? I got to play
a game in the rain. Do you? Do you adjust the grip or
grip it lighter or harder anything? When you do that? Yeah, I have a little secret.
For the rain but I think I have figured out and I don't know if
anybody else does. So I'm going to keep that one to myself.
Okay. All right cool. Maybe I'll tell you afterwards.
All right fine. You definitely got to think about it. If it's
windy, if it's dry. Yeah, you're going to hold the ball
differently and throw it differently depending on right
elements outside. I always had a grip it. A little less that I was Joe burrow or played
as much as you did, but I grew up that less when it was
wet and I felt like definitely grip it a little less. Right?
Because you get scared and I squeezed out of your hand if
it's too wet, right? Yeah. Yeah. This is the other thing
people can't get over when I am gone. We talked to Joe
Borough. Oh, I need a jobber. Oh, he's so
cute. Blah, blah, blah. Yes, I got all that, you know,
my Aunt Wendy and my you know my kids. They all want to say hi
to you but I don't think they realize what a big guy you
are like like you're always very
surprised when they see me out. All right, I would think so. I
mean you're what 64 and a half 6464, right? All right. And then like
weight-wise I'm not as that big I'm to Ten to Ten Eleven. Yeah
well somewhere around there you lose weight from college though
like to me it looks like from year one to year two you thinned out. And a good way, I'm not trying
to did you put it after like effort
in that it just kind of just happened
naturally. And you know, with the rehab after the surgery.
After my rookie year, I'd lost a ton of weight. Right? And so I had to put that back
on. I just wasn't able to put on all the weight that I wanted
to write and then I was like, well I'm playing better than I
ever have and I lighter. So I'm just going to keep this
going. Stay with it. Yeah, and I'm feeling great healthy. Yeah,
only reason I would need to be heavier, is to take all
these hits but taking the hits just fine. Yeah. What I'm aware of Matt? Yes.
Yeah, you To well yeah, you're very good
at it. Yeah. All right. If you don't mind I'm intrigued by I'd
watch some of your warm ups before games and I know you've got it's an
extensive warm up but like take me through it like
a little bit. If you don't mind me and you have a little
catch, maybe ten yards apart, do it. All right, take me
through it. I know it's extensive and I know I don't
want you to work too hard here, but just tell me a little bit
about what you do, how you start kind of the thought
process? What goes into, like preparing for the game, just
starting out. Yeah, I'm just starting out 10 yards apart
usually. Getting everything activated and this is like the warm up to
the warm-up, right? You know, trying to get my body balanced to do what I need to do
in the next section of the warm-up, right? Just get the
feel of being 50/50, trying different arm angles, got you. And then 50/50 you talking about
wait in the legs, you know where it is? You should
write used to be more saw on my back, right? And I felt like I couldn't get
my front foot down the way I really wanted to.
Yeah. And so I shifted it 50/50, right? So I can get that
front foot down faster and get my back hip through faster, and
it just makes everything faster and quicker more compact, right?
More powerful. Right. So that's something you've
really thought about over the last year and a half or so.
Oh, yeah. And adjusting and it also, after my knee injury, Putting a little more weight on
that front foot. Makes it a little more stable and I'm not
just kind of sticking it out there. Okay, waiting to get hit,
right? So, it's all coming together now, like, you, how you
line up, you have a thing, how you line up, like, do you look at it
like, okay, shoulders, and you try to aim like slightly
left of me a little bit, just in this part, right? You know, I'm not
really thinking about that when I'm throwing, but You know, I always start the
warm-up with the optimal throwing position.
Yeah. Right. And so just trying to close my shoulder off to my
target 50/50 right knee. Bend. Yeah, straight up athletic back as well. Get all that ready to
go, right? What was your Idols? Like, who's cool? The Joe Cool. Drew Brees is my favorite
quarterback growing up, right? I was more of a college fan than an NFL fan, right on my family played in Nebraska.
So I loved watching the Cornhuskers right, Taylor
Martinez loved him, right? Thought I was going to be a
basketball guy. Yeah. So obviously LeBron James coming
from Ohio, right? Played his high school and when I was in
high school and basketball twice. Yeah. How'd you do? We lost both times
but I put up some good numbers. All right, that's good. Yeah, I was more. I mean, I like football. I like
college. Ball. But I was more of a
basketball guy. Got you. What about music? What are you
listening to? Who you jamming? Well, Kid Cudi growing up. Oh yeah,
he's my guy Cleveland guy. We've had a relationship. He, we hung out after the after the Super Bowl. We haven't
were good friends now, so that's been awesome. Tame Impala. Ben listen to a ton of tame.
Yeah, I know, I know it. My wife likes
that right there. Yeah, it's very good. Yeah, future.
Gonna Young Thug. So you're so you're a hip-hop
guy for the. I don't have my guy for sure. Right? Yeah. I'm
with you there. You got that kind of pizzazz. You dress like
that. I got it. Yeah, I guess so. Definitely do a damn like
Nike buying you damn piece and chains or diamond on the holy
crap. Oh, that's when you know, you've made it when they Nike buys you a
jewelry. That's when you know you're the man. Alright, so now for the
Superbowl I saw you doing like an extensive For lack of a better way to say
it. Like oh s***, I'm going to be under pressure in this game.
I need to get the ball out of my hands after you always do
that laughter, I do. Yeah. After I do, all my pocket stuff
by doing my outside the pocket stuff. So I'm doing my nakeds. I'm doing
my scrambled drill short
intermediate, deep throws the high Corners, right. Each side, just trying to get my body ready to go. In case
it becomes a game. Yeah, I'm gonna have to get out and
make plays with my feet. Yeah. Right. So that's always part of
the process, always? Yeah. So your ball boy. That we had out
here. What's his name? Trunk, trunk. Trunk is always
your hands. That's my God. That's your catch your caii your
guy, okay? Alright. Alright. Trunk your on, we got
you out here and your documented. All right. I can't escape it.
You're on NBC Sports forever. Yeah, we brought you in my bring you in again. All right. If you don't mind
just getting back into the little bit more than
mechanics because I'm like
intrigued with the fact that you're a jobber.
Oh you're the number one. Pick of the draft. You were having a
great rookie year. You came away from the year gone. I got to get better. A few things and you know you made a lot of
comments and I saw it. I heard your coaches kind of but your
arm strength and just talking about putting a little more
power on the football so kind of just what went into
that. Like, what brought you
there? What was the point where you
went? I need to throw the ball a little harder. Yeah. And then
kind of what did you do to the fix? It was really some of
the elements in the AFC North
realizing, because I grew up in Ohio played High
School football in Ohio. But then I play my college ball in
Baton Rouge and there's always great when you Here and it's windy. And it
could be cold and I couldn't cut the ball through the wind
the way I really wanted to write and then I had the knee injury
and I thought it was a great opportunity to kind of start
from the ground up, with my throwing motion, got you?
Because I'm going to at some point, I'm going to just have to
sit here and throw because I'm not gonna be able to move
around, right? And so that was the beginning of the entire
process. Just being more connected with
my body and my legs, when I was just standing and
throwing coming off that surgery and trying to figure out
ways to get a little more power and torque, just standing there and then it
just continued to grow and then you're doing rehab and getting
your hips. Yeah, I mean, my hips were
stronger than they had ever been right. Just because of all
the rehab. I was doing for my knee and it translated to two more
power on the football who coaches, you, this stuff who
watches you over over. You, are you doing this by yourself or
you got somebody? You trust? So, Jordan Palmer helps me a lot.
Yep. Right on. Kelly's the man I tried to go there for a week
every year, right? Get a little tune-up before Camp. Yep, try to
get one right after the season and then a lot of its
on my own, you know, I take stuff from him and apply it
to my game and then I'll find some stuff that I think I
can apply to myself and find that. And just tweak little
things here and there every year. So you you talked about like to
get more RPMs. You seem like you're more about the hips
thinking about the hips and that would that Station of that
pop. You get right there. Yeah it's not so much thinking about
the hips is more. So thinking about that front leg. Okay down.
Yeah. Because how are you going to get your
hips through? Its right front. Leg is not bad. Sure.
Sure. You get all those cleats in the
ground. I get a forceful stop at this shirt. This left hip, so
you can go through it that right back hip and get more
power on it, right? And you know, like I said before, I'm
lighter than I've ever been, but I'm throwing it as hard as I've ever. No doubt it popped him The Super Bowl
because I saw you, you're a rookie year and I went his
arm. Got noticeably strong.
Yeah, and even your I don't know am I
crazy to think your follow-through got a little
different. Why are you not sweating? And I'm sweating
first. This is why he's Joe cool. And
I'm freaking Chris Simms working on TV. All right. But
you're our mango like even when I go back and watch film from
your friend, you're a rookie year. The arm might have come down
this way more to where I noticed like you're
almost a little more across them. After think it's I mean my
rookie year I was more like Back here and I was following through with my whole body and I
wasn't sitting back on it and letting
this hip dictate everything. And so I think when you doing this
you're going to come over the top a little more and if you're sitting back it's
just kind of natural. Yeah, I didn't really think about
that. Just kind of happened. It happened with that. Yeah. Okay.
All right. So that's really interesting that way. Alright like the offseason How much we throw like you Super
Bowl was over? How much time did you take off
before? You kind of got back into throwing a little? I didn't
throw it all, until OTAs. Okay, because I dislocated
my finger against the Chargers think that was week, 14 or 15,
right? And that was kind of bothering
me throughout the whole rest of the year, so I needed to let
that rest. So I didn't the ankle and from the game, the
Super Bowl. Yeah. And so I didn't I took a lot of time off. Ya
didn't start throwing until we started OTAs. All right, your
accuracy, it's off the freaking charts. Is there any key to it to you?
There. Is there something you think about, you know, me and
her is is active. She just always been natural, is always
something I've been good. You've been good at something. I never really had to think
about, you know, I never had the strongest, armor was the fastest, but I could
always put it where I wanted it, no matter what sport it
sounds like. Because I know you were good basketball players, I
can hand. You can hoop a little bit hoop. A little bit good
golfer to know. It's no. Yeah, your Clavin much. No, no, I'm kind of with you
because I know if I like that, if I play and I
stink, I'm going to get obsessed with it and want to do
it. I'm going to put way too much time in it and neglect. The thing that I need to put time in
so I just don't really mess with it. Yeah, I just saw you.
You had a pre ate lunch. You had a pre-meal, somebody made it
for you. You had the shake like what's kind of our goal
eating every day? We're not only TB 12 total diet yet are
we? I mean they're I'm not I don't
exactly know, Tom's entire deal but figured out something that works
for me and makes me feel good. Yeah I don't really eat dairy, right?
I need a ton of red meat. Okay, I think it's just different for
everybody. Yeah, sure, fine. I tried a lot of different
things, cutting out certain things. Adam things back
in to see what makes me feel the best,
right? And so I've got a pretty dialed to what makes my
body and keeps the inflammation out and keeps the swelling out.
If I do get an injury to allow me to feel as good as I can the next
week, right? Right. Then like you weight
training. Like I'll be moving weights or are you like what
kind of thing you do there? I still lift heavy. You do.
Uh-huh. Yeah, it's something that I enjoy, right? Some people don't really like
lift, yeah, b-but. That's something that I've always, I've
always done that. I kind of relaxes me and makes me feel
good. Yeah, and so I keep that, but when you do that, you got to
maintain your Mobility. So we do a lot of Mobility to my like
stretching out and making sure that the joints are not become
accessible bulky and not necessarily thinking about becoming too bulky. I'd love to
be bulky, right? I still have all the mobility that I that I
need. And you don't want to be too Mobile in your trunk because
if your to mobile is going to take a lot, To get that torque that you need to
throw the football. You want to be Mobile in your shoulders,
but if your to Mobile in your trunk then you're going to have
to get way back here to get that torture. That you need right trunk Mobility is definitely, you need it but you don't want
too much of it at the same time. You like that? Tightness a
little bit like the feeling that lifting weights gives you a
little bit like your responsive right away. Exactly.
Yeah, I understand that. I had a little bit of that myself. Alright, like last last few
things I want to ask you about just as far as like you the human And I'm amazed by
you. I see you hear, you've changed
this organization. It's cool to be here in
Cincinnati now because Joe
Burrows here and I know, I'm not trying to be mean to The Bangles. I'm just
saying. That's the way it is. My kid now is
like a jobber on the Bangles. I mean, that's just that's what
it is. But you have this way about you have you? And I don't, I know
it's weird to talk about it but like your ability to lead people
and not be to rah. Rah, I guess I'm very impressed by it
and I just I want to say is just like, were
you always this way? Is something you had a think of a
little bit, you know, how to carry yourself or just come very
natural. No, I just always try to be
myself. Yeah, whether you're talking to when you're
playing football, you're talking to a lot of different
kinds of pea definitely and what I realized pretty early is
if you just yourself, you know, people are going to want to be around, you accept
it. And you I mean everyone's been
around those guys. That try too hard to lead and comes off corny. Yeah, I got
they say something like. Okay,
so right, he's saying something
again but you know I try to keep those moments and don't say anything unless I
actually have something to say. So it's powerful when I do say
it right, you know, I'm not just out there. I'm the
quarterback, I gotta say something in front of everybody.
It's not I don't think that's the way to
go about it. I think if you have something to say say it, if you don't have
anything to say don't manufacture something.
Yeah. You think people want to hear, right? It's pure self. Yeah. Right. All right. So like
when it comes to pressure moments, Ever have to, like, did
you ever have to think about it there? I mean, Joe
cool. I've never seen you blink Under Pressure yet, right? I mean, did you have to work on that
aspect? Like, let me let me cuz I know I faked it a few times
where I was, probably a little like, oh, she got, this is a big
moment, but let me act like I'm cool.
And, like, whatever. I definitely thought about it a
little, you don't seem to know that's that's when I get in
my zone, that's when everything's kind of Closes in and your focus more intensely focused than you
ever. Alright, the rest of the time it just feels different when
those big moments at the end of the game come and it's do or die. It's like, what are you going to do? If the coverage takes away the play
that you have, right? You're gonna have to do
something. Yeah. And so, if you're thinking freely and, you know,
you put in the prep to not be worried about seeing
Safety rotation and getting that nickel. You just see it and
you make the change and you go play. You're not thinking
about all this stuff is reacting reacting because, you
know, the confidence in your prep that
you have right? And so, that allows me to play. Yeah,
free in those situation reactionary position. I know
people forget that about quarterback since I got too many
things to worry about to actually think about, oh, wait,
this is a big play in a big game. All right. But self-doubt that
you ever had self-doubt, did you ever like you have? Yeah. One. When was that like I
look at Man would like when you had to
leave Ohio state did. Yeah, I was wondering play. I was
putting in the same work that I always put in. I've gone,
what's going on wasn't playing? Yeah, of course there was
self-doubt in that moment. It's I mean when you don't play for 3
years and you're putting in the work
and you feel like you're practicing really well and you
feel like you could go out there and make
plays and do what you've always done. But you're not getting the
opportunity to show what you can do. It's frustrating and you know there were times where
I started updating that resume? Sure. Sure. I'm thinking about
being an From Baker or something like that. But fortunately, the work that I put in during those
three years, really paid off and I got better each year and, you know, I was very worried about Getting on the field and
playing. But at the same time, I had people around me that
really allowed me to focus on getting better every single day,
in the weight room worked really hard in the weight room,
kept gettin better during practice. And, you know, the rest took care of
itself. Just unfortunately, not, not there. Do you talk to
yourself like you, are you one of the even talk to yourself,
like, you're talking about the end of the game and a big
moment before you go in this series, you will, for sure you
taught like, like, like you unlike. Hey Joe, like, let's like, what are we? What are we
saying to ourselves? If you don't mind, call me, call me
Mike tups. Yes, talking to me. Of every now and then. Right? I
think just whatever. Depends depends on the moment. Yeah, I'm
not. Don't have one. One thing that I
say to myself. But whatever comes to me in the moment I maybe I'll talk to myself. Yeah.
Over back on the bike or some. Right. Right. All right.
We already established that you're Cooler Than Me. Like in a
lot of ways, like, cooler and life and I'm sweating and your cooler. Actually, but does
this make me any cooler? Yeah, it does. I thought I would
say so okay. I The sweat dripping down the
glasses. Yeah, I could give you a couple pointers. Yeah. Get you
right. But it's not my glasses. It's a decent start.
It's a decent start. Yeah. All right, good because I'm like I'm
going into 42 year old dad territory. Yeah,
I'm not very cool anymore. Well, it's official got this. I
like the shoes. Like the shoes and jeans are fitting fitting.
Well you like my wife to watch. Okay, the plane T. All right,
I'm impressed. All right, thanks man. s*** boom. That's Maverick. No, I'm, I'm
Maverick. He's he's the main guy. I don't know
that I can remember either your Maverick. I'm Iceman. I don't know what that means.
You know, Top Gun Not Innocent. Gosh that you're
young. Holy cow, are the new ones good, though? That's how everybody says it is.
