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Thanks for listening to Casey Sports Network, proudly presented by MPRISE Bank. If you're thinking about starting a business or know someone who is, check out MPRISE Bank's SBA loans. It's always good to know your options, and they can be your partner, impossible. What is up, Chiefs King? The welcome into this week's edition of "Ang Time" with Dusting Open. I am not, hey, they lose. I'm sure you guys probably know that already. I click it on to the show. Hey, Lewis, a little bit under the weather. I'm talking to Frank. I'm stepping in today, hanging out on "Ang Time" with Dusting Folk with Dusting. How are you doing this week, my man? Man, I'm doing great. Doing great. My balls won in Florida, which was huge. Oh, yeah. We had a little bit of a disappointing ending to the Royals season, but so pumped, so proud of them. I can't wait to see what they do through spring training coming up. They're going to be... I think the fire was lit, for sure. Yep. Very similar to like that 2013 year, right? Remember when they kind of eked into the playoffs, or they just missed out on the playoffs, this time they get into the playoffs, and they kind of sparked the run for 2014, 2015. Those two Worlds season kind of feels a little bit similar to that type of years in Kansas City, which, I mean, look, there was a lot of good things happening in Kansas City, that 2013, 2014, with, you know, the Chiefs and even the Royals, too. So, I feel like as players, we didn't get any sleep because, like, once it got into that October baseball, like, we were trying to prep for Monday night games, sometimes Thursday night games, but then we were having these, you know, digital series baseball games there. We would get home until one o'clock in the morning and have to be back over to the facility. I mean, it was great, right? Great problems. And, like, really, what I think about that, that Royals team is, they kind of like... Through the all-star break, they took a little break, took a little breather, and then... Boom! Like, nobody could touch. It was unreal. It's good. It's always fun when the City's buzzing with both teams. Like, that's always fun when both teams are playing at the same time. And we've had the opportunity that this year, and, look, now we're back all the saddle here with hangtime. We've got a big special guest coming on here for the, for the bi-week, coming out of the bi-week, coming up with a big matchup against San Francisco. But, Dustin, before we dive fully into your interview with Alan Wright, equipment manager for the Canadian Chiefs, talk about a bi-week as a player. I know a lot of times, sometimes, especially now we see Travis Kelsey Gallovane across the globe on his bi-week. What was it like for you? What was it like for players for these bi-week? Yeah, you know, it was a kind of a chance to kind of, you know, recharge your batteries, obviously get your body right as you had anything kind of going on. But also, the way Annie Reed does bi-weeks, especially during the season, you were gone all week. I mean, you come in for a team meeting on Monday, and then he'll say, I'll see you next Monday. I'm expecting nobody to have any issues, right? So, you were scared into deaths of enjoy yourself, but not unplugging too far. So, I enjoyed, you know, being down to the beach with my wife, kiddos. They'd usually leave like a week earlier back when we were homeschooling them. And that's just a great, great, great opportunity to recharge your batteries. When I see, you know, a back-to-back Super Bowl champion being 5-0, going to a bi-week where you can hit the reset button and recharge, I can't think of a better situation for us. I agree. We got a lot of, a lot of good stuff coming up in Chiefs Kingdom. Also got a really good interview, Dustin, you hanging out with Alan Wright, equivalent manager here. Over 700 games for him. And like, we were chatting beforehand. That is incredible to put him to perspective of how many games with a single team. And just in a career, that is. When you talk about having, you know, 17-game seasons now, looking like 20 games if you're making it all the way to the Super Bowl. But like, if you just think about that, divide that out. Like, if you're only doing 20 games max a year, and that's just a reason thing, a lot of years with one team, Dustin. Oh, absolutely, I think of, you know, Will Shields, like, as I got into my later years of Kansas City, looking at 230-something games that he played at. I'm like, I have to play here for 30 years. That's what the math seemed like. And then in 2013, when Andy got here, Alan was celebrating his 400th year with the Chiefs. And then, so you're going another decade plus, yeah, like 11 years, and all of a sudden, you got 700 games under your bell. And when I go back, and you'll see as this interview comes up, is he was life-giving. He would breathe lives under some of these guys that were marrying the lack of these leads. You know, just trying to win ball games, but also having young kids, families. And man, he and Miss Lisa were fun to watch, you know, how they did things, how they, because he always brought her around. And when she was in and out, Andrew grew up in the locker room. And what a good kid I got to see him last week in Arkansas. And so I'm really looking forward to catching up with Alan as I get to see him at the lake, too, over the summers. That's true. Let's go ahead. Let's get into it. Here's a Dustin's conversation with Chiefs Equipment Manager, Albright. Shop Chief Stickets and more with no fees. Plus, save big with code KCSN at ticketsforless.com. 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Learn more at americanexpress.com/forthemx. I know that backdrop all too well. It's spent a lot of time, a lot of time sitting in that seat. You still have the seats lining the wall right there. Yeah. A lot of unbelievable memorabilia in those back little slots in there from Tony Gonzalez. I mean, all the greats that you've been able to really be, I'll say equipment manager. Whatever, however you want to tell us, but really more of a father figure for a lot of these guys that came and went out of that building. Yeah, kind of time has changed my role a little bit over the years. You started here in the early 80s, you know, you was younger than all the players. And then you were the players age and you kind of ran a street with them a little bit. And then you got older and had kids and now they look at me more as a grandfather, which is not always a good thing. I'm not ready for that yet, but yes, the role has changed, but I really embrace it. Yeah, well, you're the best at it. And I got to spend 15 seasons with you. And I have to say one of your best qualities, and we're talking to Alan Wright, a long time equipment manager for the Chiefs just celebrated 700 plus games worked on. Oh, last year was your 40th season, which I couldn't believe that because now that means that I've known you for. I've known you for half of your time in Kansas City, which is amazing, but your mantra is not having something is not an option. And I remember in college, then this is one of those things where I all like just because of the stress and the heat of the moment and like everything. I remember being super stressed out that I was going to leave cleats. And on more than a number occasion, they would take a golf cart back from kneeling stadium, go down Phillip Full former drive, go to the complex and bring something back for me and like millions of players. Never. And you're probably going to correct me here, but never did I have to worry about it at least because there was everything was on deck. I'll say it like that. Well, I early in my tenure here, I was a third guy in the equipment room and we got on the road somewhere and we were missing something and everybody kind of pitched in and packed back then. And so, you know, nobody really wanted to own up to it. So, I went into the guy that was my boss at that time and I said, I want to pack everyone the travel bags from here out. So there's no question. Who's who is responsibility this? And I've continued to do that to this day. I have a little checklist and I go around each travel bag early in the morning before you guys get here. Right down, you know, all my all my little notes and update it as the week goes. Guys get elbow pads or or bubble braces or whatever it is that it's hailing them at that time. And I pack all that stuff ahead of time and I take a lot of pride in it. And that doesn't mean I'm not going to sit here and tell you I've never made a mistake because I have. But we've always been able to cover it up a little bit and and nobody figured out. But I take a lot of pride in that because I always look at it like the less the players have to worry about on game day, the more their thought processes towards what we're doing, which is which play in the game. And so we try to use that to this day. Yeah, I remember, you know, a lot of a lot of people spend a lot of time hanging out in the training room. It's not so much that way. I remember in Casey. I remember a lot of people hung out in that equipment room. I think it's because it's the people that you kept in there. I remember Mike Davidson being such a good, solid Catholic. You know, father guy, father figure type and you're the same way, but it seemed like there was a lot of traffic always, not just at your window and coming, but coming in and out of that place. Just because of that personality. Everybody wanted to be around you guys. Well, I've always looked at it like this. A lot of people think that. It's fitting in all the different things we do here in Nicaragua is the most important thing, but to be honest with you, being a people person, because you are dealing with so many different walks of life. You're dealing with kids right out of college that don't have two nickels right together to multi millionaires to the famous people, a lot of ego, a lot of testosterone in that locker room. So I always pride myself on trying to try to find a way to communicate with everybody. And really, I would tell you, I think that's the most important part of being an equipment. Yeah, that's tough. And I know you did such a good job of treating everybody the same way differently based on their personality. Yeah, I mean, you have to, you have to do that. There's countless times I've been in there, seen you on the phone, just with that father, white face, kind of like, oh my gosh, and it's just about, you know, helping some of your, your the teams, you're, you happen to be a team psychologist. I appreciate you saying that. I don't know how much I agree with part of that. I mean, I hate over the years. That's, that's, yeah, I've kind of got a little bit of a reputation for that but I just, I love the environment. I love the competition. I love the fact that we get to go out compete each week and, you know, with a guy that wasn't athletic enough to play and it's about as close as you can get to it. And I still enjoy it. I still enjoy game day. I still jump up and down and go crazy. I take the losses hard, but I enjoy every minute of it. I've been very, very blessed. Yeah. And you, I remember when you made the transition from spot in the ball, you were running up and down doing all that stuff and then it got to the point where you were like, Hey, it's like me. I share the same thing. Me, you, all the other equipment managers, and probably the kicker and the snapper share that same thing. You're saying we weren't quite athletic enough, but we could either kick snap or punt a ball. So we managed to find our way into that facility and you said something. The wins, losses, all that stuff. Really these, these last, if we just look at these last three years, the two Super Bowl, the back-to-back Super Bowl, this opportunity for a three-peat, which has never been done in the National Football League. And you guys start out of season five and oh, it's got to be the first time someone's gone back to back and been five and oh, going into their bi-week. And, you know, how are you feeling there? I believe I read that somewhere. Yeah. That was a first, but it's, it's gratifying. It's, I think I enjoyed a lot more than most because of the first 30 years of my time here. Well, you know, we, we, we got our heart broke a few times there in the Marty Schottenheimer here. And so I think I have a little bit better perspective of it and, and join it a little more. You know, I wouldn't, I would never bet against this group. And I don't matter what the, what happens going forward here, this, this group's battle tested. I, I like when we're at, I wouldn't want to trade, trade places to anybody, any other group management league. Oh, absolutely. We, you know, we talk, you know, every now and again on the, the 50s team, the 60th anniversary team, I got to be a pleasure on being on both of those teams, love all the decal patches, love when we, in 2010, we got to wear the state of Texas. You know, you're bringing it seems like you came from Dallas. You have been there so long and done such a great job there. When I think about some of the success that's been over there, that you've gotten to experience when teams come off of back to back Super Bowls, you usually have really huge key departures. Obviously, Sneed leaving. That was, that was a tough blow, but you have been able to gain guys in the draft and through agency, better than anybody else in the league. A guy and general managers have not been able to, to draft and, and for agency when to be able to beat you guys. And that speaks to the culture that you guys created in that equipment room, the training room, Mark Donovan, Brett Veach, and, and Coach Reed. Yeah, Coach Reed is, is a special at, obviously, him and Brett fine and talent and people that fit our culture. I can tell you I go out in that locker room right now, there is at one bad person in that locker room, and that's rare. That's where usually, you know, a couple guys slip through the cracks, you know, and then you get a couple of kids that they're kind of hard on you, but we have a wonderful locker room and culture. And I always say this starts to head coach works for a few other head coaches that were a little bit different. And the coaches, coaching staff treats us as the head coach treats us. So if the head coach gives you a lot of respect, then, then everyone else will too. And I appreciate that about Andy and he's been, you know, I was a huge Marty Sean Heimer guy. Marty was a good friend of mine and, and enjoyed working for him. But Andy's a special guy and, and I'm glad for this to be the end of my tenure and hopefully end with him. Yeah, for sure. And I know that he has talked you out of retirement and he's probably going to continue to do that until he's done, which I can kind of envision. I know that you have been there for a long time. You got really good dudes that can take over. Actually, matter of fact, I forgot to say, I got to see Andrew. I know you text, I text you a picture in Arkansas. I got to, yeah, I got to hang with your son a little bit. He's working for dragon seats, right? And man, what a great young man. I mean, came up, gave me a big hug and I asked him straight up. I said, man, I know every year, Andy's like, no, you're not, you're, you're not done. And he keeps on kicking your can down the road and saying you're not going to retire and not do this. Why don't you go back up there to Kansas City? And this would only come from your son. He said, man, kale, chop, jet, like he started going off the list of guys that have earned their way into like being that next guy. And I just thought that spoke volumes of, I am a true, I am a great staff. You know, it's just like any other business, the only as good as the people are that are around you. And I have a wonderful staff. I'm very blessed with that. And look, I look forward to retiring at some point. I'm getting close. You know, it's in the general facility, but not yet. I mean, I would like to be a part of a three P. If that's an opportunity and I still, like I told you before, I still really enjoy it. And I'm a little bit nervous the closer I get to it. Well, what I will do with all my time, because I do obviously spend a lot of time here and, you know, I'm one of those real early guys. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with all my time, but I won't be the first guy that ever went through that. So we'll figure it out. Well, I have a feeling what you're going to be doing in between May and Labor Day. Hopefully we spend a lot of time at the Lake of the Ozarks together during those retirement years. We got a great place in that. I agree. That's one of my favorite places to visit. We just got back from there this weekend, had a wonderful bye week down there. My wife and I, and we have a lot of friends down there at the Lake of the Ozarks that we consider almost family. It's one of those few places that I really enjoy going. My grandmother lived down there and my best friend lives down there. So I've got a lot of connections down there to keep taking me back down there. Probably more than I should, to be honest with you. No, I don't think that's such a thing. I know we started going down to the Ozarks. It's got to be 12, 13, 14 or so years ago. You probably much longer than that. But I remember going down there and you'd see a lot of KU flags, Mizzou flags, because it's an hour and 19 minutes straight down. And man, it, Chief's Kingdom has literally taken over that Lake. It was already there, but now everybody's shown. It's unbelievable to see all the red down there. Well, with core things I've seen recently, and I've never really thought about it before, but there's these people that they all tie up and cove out and watch the Chiefs game. No way. I mean, when we score, you can just hear them scream across the lake. It's, it's pretty cool. It really. That's, that's unreal. And it's, you know, I, I miss, uh, this is going to be a shout out to some other, some other lake people, uh, up north in the Northland, uh, Barry and Lisa Ginter. I know, um, we started a thing. I was back in 2020, not in the field up in the box. We started this thing like if it started out, you know, not so good. Not so rough. And it looked like, you know, things were going, we're taking a shot of fireball. We said, Hey, we missed fireball. So the other day we had a game that wasn't kind of going, I think it was Baltimore. And it just, just go back and forth, back and forth. You're going to have those games, but I get a video from the Ginter box right there. And they're like, coconut fireball. It's, I'm like, I'm like scrambling to get a shot. And I'll tell you what, we ended up pulling away. Hey, we all have our own superstitions. Hey, we all got them. Whatever it takes. Uh, uh, my favorite story, I think, from the Super Bowl, which is, I think you get a lot of mail. I've gotten a lot of mail. I know I can't imagine some of some of our players that offense defense, the three Super Bowl winner guys, you know, back to all this stuff. But I remember some of the, my favorite mail, uh, my favorite mail that I've gotten is stories about how like husbands or wives lock their husband or wife into a bathroom because they scored in the Super Bowl. We pulled ahead, they wouldn't let them leave. I mean, some of them with five minutes to go, but Super Bowl game and they're just watching game tracker on their phone because they're like, no, you're staying in there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We've had some players over the years. That's weird. Uh, superstitious. There's a swell. So I, I know exactly what you're talking about. We had a defensive lineman once it would eat, um, raw garlic in his locker before he would go out on the field and he did it. One, because it was superstitious about it. And two, he wanted the guy is crockling the Haiti. So nothing worse than having garlic press for three hours in your face. Yeah. That's the old school. It's the old school. The guy goes to the bathroom, I want you to follow him and, you know, wait until he gets back out and you're like, yeah, no, I get, I get that. You, you said, uh, Marty Schonheimer, um, which I am a huge, uh, friend of Brian Schonheimer. Love that family. I did not get to spend any time with, with Marty, but I remember one of the earliest stories that I heard you tell me, um, from River Falls, Wisconsin, uh, is about just, and it kind of, but I would imagine that it kind of formed how you treated people knowing that, Hey, there's going to be some people in the building that you like, you dislike, but you know, they may be a very viable way for us to push and win for a championship. And she got to kind of micromanage that in what's a top 100 company, the NFL. It's not maybe on that exchange, but it's considered that. And I remember you saying Marty Schonheimer, you know, you guys will be working hard and doing all the equipment stuff, you know, cleaning up the locker room, doing stuff. And then he's like, Hey, you know, we should, we should grab a beer or whatever. And you're like, you know, I can, yeah, I can go get very good notes in the cooler already. Like he like wasn't he known for like, no, no, no, we need to like hang out more than just Xs and those. Yeah. First of all, he was one of the most wonderful people you'll ever meet. Just no matter that he was a football coach or not, just as a man, just as a, uh, a Christian, on my dad, um, but his family, like you said, but all of them topped a bottom. His daughter, obviously Brian, I've known Brian since he was, he was, Ronald's probably 10, 11 years old when, when he started hanging around out here and working in the courtroom and it was a kid that was never, you would have never known his father was the head coach, whatever terrible jobs that we had, he did, you know, he, he never do up to this dad was head coach. And, uh, he's one of the nicest people and the family. I was very fortunate when they buried his ashes back here in Kansas city. Um, I was able to spend some time with them when they came back. It meant a lot to me that they included me in that. So I am extremely close to that family. Maybe, uh, maybe more on my side than the hunters, but, but they just met so much to me at the time when, um, you know, I was young and, and, um, you know, coming up in this business and I'm glad I got to do it through them. I really would have liked to want to super bowl with that group is because there were so many people that deserved it. And, um, you know, that's one of the things that you kind of feel, feel about. There's so many players that come through the doors here that I always say leave their soul out there on that field every Sunday. You know, there's a lot of wonderful players and people that, that, that left their soul out there and never got an opportunity to compete, not only for a Super Bowl for playoff games. And, um, so, you know, you, you feel like hopefully in some way, some of those people are able to live vicariously through us that, that are still there. I know a whole lot of former players that wear that chief spanner really, really, uh, proud. Oh man. And when we have the best, you know, the chiefs ambassadors are the, the best, you know, uh, post NFL career group, I think in the national football league, they do such a good job of one, the organization does a great job of utilizing them and the community and, and I mean, they're, they're giving Super Bowl rings every year. Just they still feel very much a part every, uh, year, you guys, you, I mean, you organize it with coach Reed, having those players back, giving them, you know, opportunities to come and kind of, uh, speak in, speak some life into these new players and let them, you know, they, they say their position, where they played, how much time they spent here in Kansas City. And it's amazing. Even through this hang, uh, this podcast hang time, you know, I've, I've gotten a chance to talk to Tamba. I talked to, uh, Dick Vermeil, uh, it's, it's fun. Dante Hall, guys that, you know, that all speak super highly of you that, that, like you said, blood, sweat, tears, you know, lost sleep over, you know, losses and winds and stuff and, you know, uh, Dick Vermeil, uh, was amazing a few weeks ago here on Hangtime and he was a little bit late to join us and that you're going to crack up if you hadn't already watched the episode, but as we're, as he finally, hey, I'm, I'm getting on right now, uh, he comes on and his shirt is two toned, like some kind of different, like it's different colored. You can see like a wave pattern like this. He puts a ball pack on a ball cap on and he goes, Hey, man, I'm sorry. I had two oak trees that fell down up here in, uh, in, in, in Pennsylvania. And I've been chainsawing with a couple of different chainsaws all morning. I, I had breakfast with Miss Carol. I told her I was going on with you and I just got lost out there cutting this tree down. He's like 87, right? Oh, no, he, he, he never slows down. He looks wonderful. Just for his age, um, I would tell you this to talk about the, the, the ambassador group, um, one of the highlights of my whole career, um, about two, three years ago, they had an ambassador event and, um, they asked me just to take, you know, they, they take a photo as a group every year and they included me on that. I thought that was pretty cool because, um, technically I'm still working and I'm not a player. So to, to be, uh, considered in that group was, uh, one of the highlights of my, my career. Yeah. And I, and I'm not surprised by that at all. Um, and it's, I love when you talk about stuff like that. There's some motion. I recently watched a video just preparing for, for you to come here on hangtime. And when people just speak the words of it being 40 years last year, I remember at, I tell you like a ton of bricks because you don't, when you're in the tall grass, like you've been for so long, as you know, you, you really don't want to, you try not to get caught up in it until you want to reflect and like look back. And during season, yeah, more as you get older and jump here, you know, oh man. I mean, every day I, I watch film cause I punt to these, I'm, I'm at, yeah, I'm a coach at the university of Tennessee. I work with the caregivers and partners. And man, I'm putting three days a week still. I mean, and I watch film and I'm like, I could, no, I couldn't say this last year or two years ago, but I could go in a game right now and get a team through that and, and be fine. Cause I'm kicking so much. I miss it. So I miss seeing you every day. I miss punting with Jay White every day. Um, and, and I don't know that every player can say that for every organization because it's just not like that all places. I remember, um, as a young married person with a couple kids, I remember that you went through something in an off season and I remember chatting with you about it. And you said, I said, Hey man, how's, how's Lisa? And you're like, this is the best part of our marriage. The best I've ever has the best I've ever felt. It's the best she's ever looked like you were pouring into your marriage. And I remember like, as you're playing that game and you're, you're flying LA and New York and you're so busy and you, you're, you haven't slept at home cause you got little kids and you're like, man, this is tough. I just wish it was me and Kristia. And I remember you had encouraging words and situations of like, man, it, it only gets better. And for that's unbelievable. Yeah. That's, I'm very, very blessed that I'm, it, as you can tell one thing about my life, um, I've kept the same job forever and I've kept the same wife forever. So apparently I don't like change. So, uh, so we've been together 33 years now and, and, uh, so she's been with me the majority of my time here and, uh, for see her to, in my son to enjoy the success that we'd got to have down the stretch. That's one thing about, you know, having children, they, they get caught up and all this thing too. And, and when the good's good, it's great, but when it's bad, it's really bad. And so for them to, to be on this end of it here at the end of my career means the most, like I'm having the blast with it. I know they are too. Yeah. And, uh, going back to the lake really quick because I know that like Kristia, this summer and last summer, like we really started hanging a lot. She started, you know, coming out because what, what people don't realize about the lake of the Ozarks, there's a great live music scene, great food, good pool decks. You know, the boats are fun to watch. So it's so big and everybody kind of goes down there to hit the reset button, right? Just kind of relax. I mean, you had a bye week and that's where you went. It's something that you're like, Hey, I, or you had some time. You're like, I'm going there. It's close, but it's also amazing. And I remember seeing you and your wife that the Wonderland camp thing that you do every year, you're kind enough to bring the, the Super Bowl, your Super Bowl rings and just share with people that want to give to that, uh, the adult, the, that can down there and what a worthy cause you do that with everything you do is if you have gear or an experience for somebody to experience chief kingdom that can't make it, you know, some of these people I've never been, I, we're at all the time in the lake. Never been to a game. Way to go to air. But you bring it there, which is really cool. Yeah. I enjoy doing that. And that's a wonderful cause that camp that is one that we've been involved with for a couple of years now. Um, when hope to be doing it, you know, a few more years going forward, but the, the problem of my deal is we get just like you, you get, we get invited to a lot of cheer. He said that you wish you had time for all of them. Um, but unfortunately we just have time to do that, but, um, I enjoy going to lake and I don't, I don't foresee the late not being in my future in somewhere or another. Um, I'd like to, like to buy a house down there at some point when this is all over. So, um, we'll, we'll, we'll see you down there quite a bit. I'm sure. That's right. Well, you don't have to buy one. You can just stay a month. I appreciate that. But being not being nine hours away, it's, it's awfully hard to get back there. So we, we do about 30 days a year now, uh, for the past like two years, which is still enough and still justifiable. Yeah. Well, you're just one thing about it. You won't lose any money down there. Well, I mean, not, not on a house. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. That's, that's the true. Um, I, I want to, I want to segue a little bit here because, um, watching the chiefs, they keep managing, uh, to, to win these really tight games, it reminds me, I remember I first out to Kansas city in 2005, and especially like start 2007, we really found a lot of ways to lose games that we were in sometimes, but, but, but we just couldn't get over that hump. And I think one year, um, with Tyler thick then in between those, you know, 2009, 2000, or 2006 to 2008, right, I mean, we had eight or nine games going into the two minute warning where we had the lead that we end up losing and you have seen kind of obviously the changing of the guard when Clark Hunt said, Hey, we're shaking this place up. This is not, I don't see this as a small market team. I see this is, uh, as a championship team, a city of champions, we've done it before, and we can do it again. And he made a huge decision in 2013 on your 400th game, right? After 400s, that started at the, the, the 2013s there and kind of speak to that. We've talked about Andy read a lot, but kind of speak to those big decisions where they plug a guy named Mark Donovan in. And then, uh, Andy says, Hey, like we, we've got the business side, uh, kind of, kind of rolling with a guy. We want a huge, like a great character guy. And then we need a talent evaluator because we're about to have to flip this roster over on it said, basically. Well, look, I, I give, uh, all of those individuals a ton of credit. There is no question, but you know, I'm, I'm, I know, I think, you know, Andy deserves, uh, majority of that edit, I think, uh, I think he's, uh, were his, his career is only going to get bigger from here. Um, I think he's on the cusp of doing some things. Other head coaches haven't done, um, of course, I can't do that without having a special roster. All right. And having the quarterback and, and, uh, and, uh, Brett Beach to get the players to turn this roster over. That's the thing. It's been so impressive about this is they've managed this roster through this, this salary cap. I don't think anybody's had this window, this large of window, uh, that we've been able to pull off. And I think that's all going to, all the lights going to get shed on that when they're down the road now and when this is all defined. But I think you're going to, you're going to hear about this team and a completely different light than, uh, than what people realize. I think, uh, I think we're on the cusp of doing some really special things, but, you know, that's the one thing about this group. We talk about winning games and it's a culture and, and this group, we've had some success at it. They've embraced it. Nobody hits the panic button. Nobody's, nobody's cussing and yelling and, and then it's the one to fit. And I mean, this group is they hang in there and play together and, and, uh, I think as long as we can keep doing that, that we'll, we'll always have an opportunity to win. Yeah. I, and I remember, uh, when Brett Beach first took over, I remember he had a little bit of a different style than most. And I remember he would be honest phone, laying down on the turf, honest, honest stomach, literally fully engaged, you know, seeing like who's sitting in the market, you know, what is our next move, watching guys work out, getting used to, you know, guys habits. You didn't know he was doing that at the time, but looking back and I, I, I was big on taking pictures and photos and stuff. I don't have all kinds of like videos like scrolling, making fun of Frank Zambo and some of these guys. And you see Brett Beach in the back, literally like sitting amongst us, evaluating the chemistry of our roster. I thought, I think that is wild looking back and sick because, and I still to this day send like Pat and James and guys, you know, funny videos or drawings, I did the quarterback room and all that stuff. And when they send that, they're like, Oh my gosh, look, beach is in the background working yeah, amongst all of us, I thought was wild to me. The other thing that here right now in the culture of the tier, there is no egos, there's, I can walk in anybody's office in this building and, and feel comfortable. And that's not always been that way. I mean, you know, you in an organization like this, sure, there's a lot of egos and, but we're in a wonderful spot right now and it's showing on the field. Yeah, coach, you're right. Players point to the coaches and say, you know, that they're drawn up everything, how it needs to be put this in the right places and the coaches are saying, man, I could do this without this guy and how he works on a daily basis. Now he comes every day to the weight row and what he's doing on the practice squad, he's not taking days off. There's no vet days off. No, they're still doing visual stuff. And like I said before, too, you know, when you're two artists worker, you're two best players as Travis Patrick, it forces everybody else to, to, to work harder. And it doesn't matter who you are. If they're going to be the hardest working guys, you, you have to also follow that same path. Yeah, no doubt it's, it was definitely a fun, a fun thing to see. And I know that coach Spaggs, I have a little bit of a special relationship with him as a defensive coordinator, your specialist or key, because they kind of create that long field. Tommy Townsend did a great job. And the new lefty you guys have in town is really kind of pomp in the ball. It's fun watching lefties anyway. I'm kind of biased, obviously. But I remember being in an event in downtown Kansas City one year, I'm probably two years post playing and I'm sitting right in front of Spaggs. We're chatting. We probably chatted for about a minute and somebody kind of pulls them and he's like, I gotta go DC goes in about 15 minutes later, he's up on stage taking a word for Chris Jones. Well, that next day I get a text. This is to your point here about ego. The next day I get a text. I didn't text him. I didn't call him. I just thought he was going to be gone and he said, Dustin, sorry, you know, how we get pulled in every which direction. I didn't mean it to interrupt our conversation, but just wanted to say it was great seeing you buddy and miss you and it floored me. But that's and these are head coaches become coordinators that absolutely they die for Kansas City. He's become one of my favorite as well. He's a guy that as much as I don't want him to see him get another opportunity. I want to see him get another opportunity. But he he's a very personal person that has wonderful relationships with not just as players with his coaches and with the equipment staff and the trainers. He's a very first person that I really enjoy and and we've had a lot of success with him. It's hard to even record there, obviously. So I again, it goes back to what we said in the very beginning. All of this to common thread is relationships and the more you can keep that atmosphere. I think the the the the successful will follow. Absolutely. You know, I I think of the success that has been in that building and I think of also a little bit of forgiveness is you have a guy and he's always great about second chances and cream, you know, seeing him run run the ball the other day and getting back in the action in Kansas City. I know the first go around, you know, what and what he wanted, how it ended. I remember though him being one of those guys that you wanted to be on the field at all cost. I remember he was at one point. He was my personal protector on punting. He'd go down and cut return guys in half. Yeah. And then once he started to return the ball, obviously Dave's like, Hey, we can't use them anymore. And I'm like, Oh, I get it. I knew that was only a matter of time. But speak about speak about their ability to plug a guy back in. They know familiar with before and and and and guys are going back. She's Trish Smith. Whoever that may be. Well, I think one thing about it, coach, he he doesn't burn any bridges. And to their credit, they didn't either, you know, which is important in that whole process. And they were people that fit in this this this environment really well the first time it was here. The cream thing is been fun. I mean, here's a guy that was winnily on the street, like at home, like didn't build up any camp, didn't walks in here in the second week, he runs around yards and and was was impressive the way he was running the ball. It was fun to see a very, very exciting on the sideline. Everybody was really into it. And he had a whole lot of cheerleaders the other day, excited to see him have success. Oh, I bet. I mean, I was pumped and I hadn't actually I was with him in Cleveland for a little while. And for the last five weeks of the 2021 season, and I remember chatting with him and man, all he I mean, other than being engaged with the guys in Cleveland and stuff like that, I mean, all he talked about was in time in Kansas City and his hope to get back. Yeah, my son is Cleveland for a couple of years and the equipment staff and and he spent a lot of time with with Kareem as well. And and they had a lot of conversations about Kansas City. So it's good to see it come full circle. It'd be nice to winning the Super Bowl. So I know man, I honestly think if he was running the ball in 2018, we would have said that we have already had like it would have we had a three feet already. There's no doubt about it. I would have liked to to had that opportunity. Yeah, that had been fun. Well, so we talked about your wife briefly. I know she's still she's still obviously doing the real estate and Reese Nichols. Uh huh. Yep, Reese Nichols. She, you know, she doesn't want to work full time. She wants to work when she wants to work and she's earned that right. So she she works a couple days a week, three days a week probably and she she enjoys it very much. She she loves working with a lot of work players and, you know, enjoys that side of it. Yeah, it's always it's always fun having like that that second thing to do to keep engaged my wife in 2020 in the height of the pandemic, she decided to jump back online on K state and do her masters. And now she is full time eighth grade honors math teacher in the Catholic school here in Knoxville, Tennessee. And I mean, it's amazing like that little bit of balance that she gets that that sense of worth and that time that she gets to put in and then that she can unplug when she gets home and kind of be as much as they they spend a lot of their time for our careers. Yeah. As it is. I agree with that. I enjoy seeing seeing her get do her own thing and enjoy it and take a lot of pride. That's fun. She does a great job. And man, I love I love getting to see her at Shady Gators and anytime I can anytime I can run into great people down there. I love doing that. Well, I do have a last question. I know you got to get back to to go and I'm glad that you guys got to five and oh going to this by week and you got you got a big test coming up. How do you see the rest of the season going? I mean, you guys have when I look at your target list, you Pat, he's so good at distributing the ball evenly. I mean, it's not strange to have 15 guys that have caught a ball or, you know, here and there you guys have managed, you know, to get Travis involved that last week right before the buy. But man, he had two and three, all kinds of people, you know, guarding him and sometimes that's what it takes from one of your best players is he takes the attention. Nobody was panicking here. No, but everybody outside here was panicking. So that's kind of the norm for us. It's not always going to look the same, it's it's always going to be a little bit different because that's the nature of the business, right? But that's the part I think Andy's so good at he adapts. I think I think I saw it at one point last week, we had four tight ends on the field at one time. Yeah, I don't know. I've ever seen that because, oh, you know, that's, that's, uh, that's how comfortable Andy is at his own skin and what he's doing and he's only getting better. Um, man, he's getting better at the same time. You got back to getting better and, and, uh, you know, our, our roster getting better. We just going to look a little different. We've had some injuries that, uh, we'll have to work around. Um, but, uh, I don't have any doubt that, uh, we won't find our way through it. And I think, I think his mentality to break it down to just be good on this play practice this week and, and have that ability to get everybody to focus in very rarely has this group ever been a group that ever looked ahead and, and made a mistake. He does a great job of keeping everybody on point. He's been there and done that so many times and then he's so good at being personal about how he's pushing us along and, and, um, and like I said, I give him all the credit. Um, he really is about one practice at a time and won't play at a time and that's exactly how we're, we're doing it. Yeah. I always loved how he won every day. It seemed he was telling all our, all the players that he wanted our personalities to show. Yeah. He, you have to have a healthy ego to play in this league. You can't let stuff kind of bog you down and let you, he's always the next play mentality. Um, I knew he was special, but I think we both figured out how elite he was when we were playing in London against Detroit and we were one in fives and I was expecting, you know, do we let a defensive coordinator to go? Do we figure out, you know, we don't, we don't have Joe Blamire in the building at that point in the current capacity and pass game coordinator. And I remember he stood up, he goes one in five. Look, let's just, we're, we got to focus on the next game. Yeah. We fly over to London. We beat Detroit. We didn't lose again, right? We 11 straight games and I remember, I would tell you too, I don't think very many people here could tell you what even the next game after that on the schedule is. I truly believe that I think I think most people in this building know who we're playing that next week and then we'll worry about that next opponent the week after that. I think he's done a great job of one, it's hard to coach the same guys over, every over, over every year where the message kind of gets lost a little bit, but that hasn't happened with him. He's done a good job of staying crut and I wouldn't met against this group. Well, no, last year, I remember, you know, you lose six games and I think it was Instagram or Twitter. I took to X and just said, believe when I say these guys are going to be right in the mix of the Super Bowl and I got laughing emojis, crying emojis, just on like whatever, except for probably chief's kingdom. But then I did, I was in a podcast, I was at the Super Bowl celebration, working it with Trent Green. Yeah. And I remember, I didn't even say I told you so, I just said, yeah, I had a feeling with this group. They weather all kinds of storms every week. And it will be easy, like we're five and oh no, it's not going to be easy. We're going to have our challenges going down the road, but I think this group is proven they're up to any of these challenges that we come across, no matter what happens with that roster. And we never going to use a roster is an excuse. Yeah, that's right. That is the 72 dolphins. I think this is the most nervous they've probably ever been because, you know, when you look at this crew, they find different ways to win. You know, they, they, the game plan is always changing. And if the offense isn't just elite one week, the defense is. And then you have special teams flipping over buck rarely misses. Yeah. He finishes drives for them all the time. I think the best thing that I can tell and for anybody watching here in Kansas City and a big word or just Chiefs Kingdom in general is Andy is exceptional at delegating jobs to where he can fully focus on, yeah, Patrick, who he ran into and said, look, anything that I put on paper, this kid can make happen. And we can, we can play tennis with each other into ball, back and forth and say, this we're doing, we got Dave Tubb on special teams, which always keeps the ball close, flipping the field or retaining Harrison Buck or this off season, you know, spags, like you said, I don't ever want him to see him leave. I hope he pulls, I hope he pulls the Dave Tubb and just says, Hey, you know, I could be a head coach, but I love what I'm doing here with the guys that I'm doing and with like it's a special place. Yeah. And I've never really asked him that question. It'd be interesting to, to hear his feelings on that. I know, I know it would have to be the right opportunity. It'd be a operative. And I think he'll, if he wants, if he wants that, he, he will probably get it at some point. If he keeps having success or what happened, looking forward to this weekend. No, I mean, we're, this is a good one. This is a good one. It, it, hey, you know, there's nothing better to go on the road and when it gets a good opponent. And this is an opponent that, that this would be a fun game. We have like Joe Montana out there, which is enjoy seeing and Steve Bono and there's a few old 49ers out there that, that come to all the games, which I really enjoy seeing the old guys. Oh, but yeah, and when you play for both organizations and the, the recent history that we have had with the 49ers as just, uh, it's played out like a, a storybook ending. Yeah. And you know, I know that I think it's both of that's said, you know, like he literally carves his off season program to beat the Chiefs. And it's, it's amazing. I remember you and I early on in our Kansas city days, when we were watching, you know, we're playing the in 2005, we're playing the three time three, the three of the last four NFL champions, the new Patriots come in and we beat them. Yeah. And you're going like, you know, cause Dick Vermeil and his office was unbelievable. You know, top 12 13ish defense and then I was just praying, I'm like, gosh, I mean, I got a punt well or like, you know, we don't have a chance. I'm the 12th defender as a punter. But as you see, as you see what Kansas city has done, I remember the same way we thought about New England now. Yeah. Now you guys, you guys have that huge target on your back. You're getting everybody's best every day, not Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Sunday and you're off day. You have guys training to beat you guys. Well, I would tell you this, this, I don't swear my civil ring of a lot, but this trip is wild where you have to. You have to. My first time out in San Francisco, um, when it kind of all clicked to me after being scared to death to be a third round drastic and failing in Kansas city and Carl Peterson was like, this is a defender. We look him as a defender and I was a lot of pressure. I remember going out to San Diego and, um, I remember talking to Lenny Dawson and, um, I remember him, him saying like, look, I love being the quarterback at the Chiefs. Like, I love one of my favorite roles and most important roles was a holder and it kind of woke me up because holding was just kind of like, I'm a punter and I also hold, but I remember him saying that and thinking about all the times that holding is way, way more important than I ever punted in a game and, um, you know, Dan was out there. I remember him, them getting out of car and talking with Lawrence times like it was just yesterday and you realize, you know, matter where we are when the chiefs are in town, it's an event. Oh no. So that way. That's for sure. I appreciate you coming on hang time today and it is well, I don't, I don't get a chance to do a lot of these. So I appreciate it. I give my little 15 minutes of fame. I appreciate it. Oh man. Hey, you got, you got almost 47 minutes going here, but, uh, we'll, we'll, we'll get this out for all of your friends, which are my friends to see, um, good luck along the way. I know you guys are going to have a lot of people, uh, you know, trying to knock you off the mountain, but I just don't see it happening. I love all the guys that you guys haven't placed there. It's taken a long time just to get it. Y'all corrected. And I have never seen and been more excited about a season and a team play so competitively through their bi week as a back to back Super Bowl champion. So go chiefs and man, say everybody, say hello to everybody in Kansas City, Missouri. Thank you. Appreciate it. Bye.
