Well, Christian,
every year we're in Spartanburg,
you get asked about moving into the dorms,
the heat being down here.
You always come out with positive
rave reviews of being in Spartanburg.
Just because you get to bond with
the team and that kind of thing.
So what have you learned about
this group in week one? So far?
Lots of hard working group.
I think everybody on our team wants to win,
obviously. But you know,
they show it in their preparation
and the way they practice,
the way they train, the way they recover.
So I'm just excited to be around
such a great group of guys.
Great group of coaches.
And yeah, spartanburg's,
the best you know you come here.
Start a football season.
Officially, you gotta put the
pads on and play football.
So yeah, it's it's a lot of fun and
I know everyone wants to talk to you
about how you're feeling your help.
The last two seasons and that type of thing.
But I want to ask, what would
make 2022 successful for you?
You know I I stopped looking
in the future at all, you know,
I'm I honestly just try to take it one
day at a time and and check every box
I have to check for the for that day.
Whatever happens is meant to be and you know,
I just don't take a day for granted and
really just trying my best to to be present.
Be in the moment. Do the best I can.
Be a professional,
be you know a good leader to my teammates.
Hold myself accountable and
show up ready to go every day.
There's the physical aspect of football,
but there's also the mental last
season you shared an Instagram post.
And your year had ended just
about how disappointed you were,
how you would put everything
your heart and soul.
You put personal relationships on
whole family time on hold.
So when you have a season that
ends like it did last year,
how do you balance the mental aspect of that?
Yeah, you know it's football
is a a physical game,
an emotional game, and a mental game.
And all three of those could be
equally as important as important.
And you know, I think when
you go through adversity,
sometimes you need to experience
it in order to figure out how to
best go about it the next time.
And that's why experiences.
Obviously powerful,
but football is is a blessing you know
and and think good things happen,
bad things happen,
and if the bad things didn't happen,
the good things wouldn't feel as good.
And so you know,
I don't know a good story that's
just good all the time and
you know every book you read.
There's some sort of tragedy or something
happens that's that affects you,
know a character in it,
but it's an opportunity,
and it's it's a good metaphor for life.
And and I just try to put 1
foot in front of the other.
Don't overthink anything.
You know, bad stuff,
something bad happened.
Mission the mission just changes
a little bit and all my goals
are still ahead of me so.
That's really how I approach
it. Yeah, and looking back at our
first interview your rookie season,
some of the things we talked about,
Luke Keigley, and Greg Olsen at
that point in your career said
he's not really a true rookie.
He's already stepped into a leadership role,
but the last few years you've really
become the face of this franchise.
You are this leader.
Now you're having guys over for
late days and meals and throwing
and all of that type of stuff.
So what does it feel like now
heading into this season really?
Being that leader of this team.
Yeah,
you know, it's it's an honor.
We have one thing that's good.
We have a lot of leaders too,
which is which, you know,
makes a lot of guys.
Have easier is when the
majority of guys are bought in,
not the minority and every team is different.
You know some guys need need
different things and I think at
the end of the day as a leader
the first thing you have to worry
about is your own execution.
So me I just focus on making sure
I lead by example 1st and then if
somebody has a something that needs
to be said here there I'll do that.
But there's so many different
personalities on a football team and
so many different leaders on this
team specifically that makes it a
lot of fun to come to work every day.
You're 3 under head coach Matt Rule the term.
Heard from all the guys this week.
Is urgency like the time is
now to go out and get wins.
It's been 2/5 win seasons so
do you guys feel the heat?
Do you feel the pressure because
I feel like the vibe and
the energy is really good.
The energy is great.
You know our energy of practice is
great energy and the meetings is great.
Like I said, I think the whole
attitude of the team is amazing
right now and it's it's fun to come
to work every day which you know
obviously makes your job easier.
But yeah, I mean the sense of
urgency is at an all time high.
I think that's fair to say
DJ Moore told us. New OC Ben McAdoo.
He said the offense is tough.
He said he had to take a
test he had to, just like,
take a break and and come back to it.
Did you take the test and
and how did you grade out?
Oh yeah, we're tested all the time.
Just about every day,
so, but it's it's great.
I think it's it's good to you know
it's a tough offense, but you know,
in order to stay accountable and make
sure everybody knows what they're doing,
that's what those tests are for.
You know, taking a test in a in a
meeting room is easy compared to
having to come out here and not
knowing what you're doing so you
know they're all for a purpose.
And we have such a great staff of coaches.
This is, you know,
been a few years now with coach Jeff Nixon.
And so this has been great.
We got a new running back room,
a lot of new faces.
But you know,
it's just been fun going to work every day,
getting to know everybody and
and working our butts off.
Alright,
the first thing I saw on TV when I got
to camp ESPN talking about comeback
player of the year you were mentioned,
are you calling this year? Come
back. I'm once again, I'm.
I'm one day at a time I know that everything
will workout just as it's supposed to,
and I'm working as hard as I can.
And you know, I've I've done just
about everything I could do right now
up to this point and I can go to sleep
at night knowing that that's true.
Obviously, you hope for the best, but you,
but you know you prepare for everything
and have to have a plan for everything.
And so my sense of urgency, personally,
is is very high right now and
I'm just excited for this season.
Not looking to the past,
not looking to the future,
just trying to have a great
meeting this next meeting.
Switch to off the field because
you established your foundation
a few years ago, but you have a
really special project right now.
The Logan project that the story of how that
came together really meaningful to you.
What does it mean to use your
platform to to meet a fan like that?
Or hear his story? Unfortunately,
you didn't get to meet him,
but to meet his mom and then take his
hopes and then make it a reality.
Yeah, I mean that was such a special event
that occurred in such a tragic situation.
Obviously Logan's not with us anymore,
but everything I've heard about him from,
you know his family and his friends
was how eccentric of a person he was,
how much he cared about other people,
and so to be a small part of making a
young a young boy who who doesn't have
the opportunities dream come true is.
It was very special and I'm just
excited to get the whole entire
league hopefully involved.
Hopefully we can do this in in
all 32 NFL cities and provide.
Gaming systems to kids.
You know, I think that was the thing that
hit me is when he was in his hospital room,
he said, you know,
just to just to play some video games
with his friends throughout the day.
Would just would make his mind escape from
all the stuff that he's going through so.
You know that that hit me,
and obviously,
knowing that he was a fan of me,
I'm now a huge fan of him and I know he's
looking down at a lot of kids smiling.
So yeah,
hopefully we can have a an even bigger impact
and another role you recently
stepped into EP Unicorn Town.
What was it like stepping into that
and and having that experience?
That was a lot of fun.
You know, I wanted to, you know,
try to do something that was different
than anything I've ever done,
even though it was obviously
still regarding football.
But you know,
I had a buddy who named Nick out.
Nick Alfieri played at Georgetown.
He went to USC film school.
And after about seven months,
dropped out and recorded his
entire experience playing in
the German Football League.
I didn't know there was football
in Germany until then,
and you know,
he created this incredible
documentary and I just helped out
a little bit with it and now it's
coming to life and it's on Apple.
You can pre-order it.
It's called Unicorn town.
That was a fun experience
having to meet with,
you know some some big time people
in the film industry from a new
role and and just going through
that so that that was a lot of fun.
I'm excited about it and I hope
hopefully everybody enjoys.