00:00Tony, I got to ask you, after all the, you know, I don't want to say bumps and bruises that
00:06you took in Green Bay.
00:07You were able to do something in your career that many guys weren't able to do.
00:12You rebounded and you went on to have a really good career in Indianapolis.
00:17I mean, you got to take some love into that.
00:20What happened in the early stages of your career where people were starting to call you a bust, then you
00:25would go on and be a 10-year guy.
00:27I mean, people don't realize that's 1% of 1%ers.
00:31So you had to really love the fact that it ended well for you.
00:35Yeah, and just to be correct, seven-year guy, four in Green Bay, three in Indy.
00:41I was lucky that Green Bay, I mean, that Indy gave me a chance.
00:45You know, I basically drank and drugged myself out of the league.
00:48After four years, Ron Wolfe, they were like, we're not going to, you know, renegotiate a contract.
00:54I felt at that time, you know, well, it's your guys' fault.
00:58Why should I play for you guys, right?
00:59It's the media's fault.
01:01It's the fans' fault.
01:03Heck, it was my wife's fault.
01:04It was my parents' fault.
01:05It was everybody's fault of mine, right?
01:07But I was the common denominator in all of the problems.
01:11So three years out of the league, still drinking and drugging, and then finally, the miracle of sobriety happens, and
01:18only by the grace of God.
01:19And so March 23rd, 1995, I put myself into treatment in Detroit, and I get myself sober, and I had
01:28no intentions of going back to play football.
01:30I just wanted to live a humble, modest, quiet life, and, you know, be outside and do outdoor things.
01:40And at about six months of sober, being sober, I started working out again, and by nine months, like, I
01:48left treatment at 255, pretty beat up physically, mentally, spiritually.
01:53You know, I still had a mullet, believe it or not.
01:56And in nine months, I was back up to 300 pounds, just, you know, no steroids, no nothing, naturally, sleeping,
02:05eating, and living right.
02:08And I was like, you know, maybe I can do this, because I created, or I did such a wrong
02:16to the NFL, to the fans, you know, to people personally, but as a general blanket, you know, I did
02:26a lot of things that were shitty.
02:28And I thought to myself, how can I make it right, you know, and you can't make all of it
02:35right, because of circumstance, some of it's impossible to make right, but there's a lot you can make right.
02:40So I kind of put my hat back into the ring, and my agent got me a workout with Philly,
02:47it worked out with Philly, they wanted to fly me out, they wouldn't even fly me out to the workout.
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