Ed Reed

All right, bud.

Yeah, don't worry. I'm not contagious. So says the doctor. By the way, we're also presented by Smirnoff. We do game days. We do, yes. Please drink responsibly. The Smirnoff Company, New York, New York. Who is joining us on this episode, Billy? A lot of people are joining us.

How do you feel when you're hosting, I guess, like a hometown Super Bowl? We were talking to Deuce McAllister about it earlier. it's kind of annoying because you still have all the other stuff you got to get going on. And then everyone's like, oh, let's do this. Let's do that for the Super Bowl. It's like, I still need to, like, I have to see my family. I have to do all this other stuff.

Like, people just think you have an endless amount of time.

Well, knowing because of who you are, I'm sure they're all asking, like, oh, man, get me tickets to the game, can you do this, reservations.

Yeah, they already know.

A little crazy, though.

Basically, everyone is joining us. Hold on a second. Hold on. Let's not put the cart before the horse here. Okay, we don't want to do that. Which, by the way, if you're listening later on, you're going to hear about chicken farms and horse farms probably.

He is crazy. So he was on this show years ago, and he was talking to us about one of his favorite songs. It was like this song from the 1940s, and it was about a shipwreck. A shipwreck? Yeah, and he said it was a toe-tapper.

He was saying how great the song was, and then we, like, played it. Like, this is a slow song. You can't really move to this at all. And it was depressing. It was about a shipwreck. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Unless you hear about it tomorrow because, again, I don't know what day it is. I don't know what time it is. I do know this, though.

Now, being someone from here, you were able to win the national championship with LSU. Yeah. Is there anyone more New Orleans than Ed Orgeron? No. He's the most New Orleans.

He's another one that it seems like for other reasons you have to pay attention to everything he's saying because you get lost very quickly.

I do have a stye in my eye, which, by the way, is a good name for it. Stye in the eye? Stye, yeah, because it's in your eye. Yeah. Now we're talking about. It is a good time to remind you guys that if you want to, for the last time this season, you can compete against us in fantasy. You go to dkng.co slash Smirnoff. And this is the big one. This is the big one.

Alabama, maybe.

This is the last time that you can do this this year. And guys. I was going to say I think that this is the week for me. I don't know that this is the week for me because there's only two teams. So many of the teams are going to be so similar that I don't know how I'm going to be able to find a roster that sticks out. Right. I'm taking Kenny Pickett.

Look, there's your quarterback right there walking by. Say what's up to Joe. Hey, Joe.

After LSU, he sleeps like a baby.

That's impressive. Hey, man, look, guys. How much time do you realistically need to get back in to get going, do you think?

I think you said you'd take Wentz, and he just looked at you like you were a fool.

And they just embarrass everyone at tennis.

How does that make you feel?

Okay, good. All right. Anyway, so we have a billion interviews today, or was it a billion and one interviews today? It's a billion and one today. It's a billion tomorrow. I think we're going to get things started with Ed Reed, who's dubbed the coolest person That he's ever met?

That's crazy. When you were in the league, you've had a great transition after the NFL. You have a show coming out now that you just mentioned. You hosted, and this isn't high on your list, faculty, but you hosted the challenge reunions. You've done all kinds of different things. Did you know when you were...

kind of wrapping up your career on the field that you wanted to get into doing different things like that?

So this will sound ridiculous, but because of how much time you put into playing football and how many years you devoted to that craft, was acting harder for you, I guess, at a certain point in time? Because you had to start over. It was like starting football from the beginning.

You know what's not torture? What? World's biggest tailgate. Yeah. You're right. Tell us. You're right, exactly.

I got to be honest with you. I don't know how you feel about this, but I feel like you're always Joey Porter, not Joey Porter Sr. just because of Joey Porter Jr. now.

I feel like you roll with it.

You do not look 50 years old.

All right. With Fonz.

A little bit for you is a lot for a lot of other people.

Because you're Ed Reed, man. Is there an age, Edward, you're going to stop being cool or no? Right.

Well, it's because you feel like you can't control the outcome.

Looking at it from the other side now that you're a coach, is there things that you go back and go, like, coach is right about this. Like, I didn't realize how hard it was coaching. Now I understand what you're talking about. Like, your career, I'm sure you had things you're like, okay, get out of here.

You wouldn't think that he – Well, you also don't really need to do that for football, so.

You're lying a little bit at the moment. Right.

Yeah, you're better than your son. Oh, yeah, right now.

Sometimes when he starts getting a little loud, you let him know.

Yeah. It's crazy how you go from an environment like New England, where I imagine you're almost taught, like, yeah, that's the devil. You don't want to deal with the media, too. Then you go to Tennessee, like you said, and it's like, well, we need to do a little bit more here. We need to give these speeches. We need to do some media appearances. It's like a 180 that you have to do.

We've done a lot of interviews so far. By the way, today's episode of God Bless Football is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Who's who, man?

Was it surprising to you to see him do the media this year?

I like the idea now for the story you told us about Bill and the Marshmallows is, like, while you guys are, like, stressed, like, I don't know how we're going to come back, Bill's just pranking people. He's like –

He doesn't seem like a human. He's kind of like a robot.

So when you get there, it's just the two of them are like, what are you doing here? Why are you showing up so early?

Maybe Tom's just parking his car there overnight.

Because Tom comes out and he has, you know, he's in the sauna, whatever. I mean, you can fake that. But he comes out and he has, like, the towel, like, Bill's dressed like a slob all the time. He could have been showing up whenever.

What's going on here?

Because I don't like what you're doing to Puka.

All right, so Puka, you won't remember this at all. Last year we spoke to you. He remembers the song. No, he doesn't. Last year we spoke to you, Puka, and we were your first interview of the day on your first day doing Radio Row. And when we met you, we said, you know what? This Puka. He's going to be a star. Forget the field. Who cares about the field?

He's going to be a star at this media game. He's going to be a star at Radio Row.

You're going around doing things. You've already learned, get out of town before the Super Bowl actually happens.

All right, Puka, you throw it straight or you got the curve action going?

Bowling class in high school is crazy.

I'm wondering what other classes he took. Bowling class sounds like something you do in college just to get the credits to be able to stay on the field.

I like how you say we have an NFL player as though you're not an NFL player. And a damn good one. What a breakout year for you, by the way. Like, last year was a surprise year. Everybody... You were robbed rookie of the year, but we don't need to get into that today. We don't need to rehash and open those wounds for you. But, you know, sophomore slump is something that happens all the time.

And you had a better year this year than you had last year, which I think not to surprise people, but it was great to see the development continue.

Well, and this year you became the go-to guy, right? To the point, and obviously the news has come out the past couple days, that your team has told Cooper we're probably going to move on from you, we'll probably send you to another team. So next year, not that you weren't already, but you're the guy next year.

You know what I think you need to do next year, Puka? I think next year you need to pull that card and say, you know what, I don't know if I'm retiring or not, because it seems to be the thing that your team is doing. Sean McVay does it one year. Matthew Stafford does it one year. How about we all stay together?

Why are things so miserable for them over there that everybody's pretending they're going to retire every year?

Maybe all of a sudden they're like, you know this Puka.

I mean, of all things, you get the shoes.

You're a chalk guy. You have, like, the rosin bag or whatever.

Hold on a second. What does this sound like?

Hold on a second. This is how I think this is going to have to work, Stugac. You're going to have to say something to him to insult him, to motivate him to come back at you. Because he says that he doesn't start it. So you're going to have to start it with him.

It's okay. Don't feel bad. It seems like you're like, I don't feel bad.

All right. Are you a regular chip or a scoop guy? Oh, I love it. I'm a scoop guy. I'm a scoop guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The little bowls you go in there. Oh, it's like a little pool for salsa. Oh, delicious.

Can I tell you? Can I tell you? I love Tostitos. One of the saddest days of my life. was this couple months ago where I was watching the Fiesta Bowl, and it was no longer the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. And I said, what is the point of having a Fiesta Bowl if it's not the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl?

It just makes sense. I haven't been the same ever since, to be honest with you. I haven't fully recovered.

Were you excited about NCAA coming back this year, the video game? I don't know how much. You were playing real life. I was playing as you. As a child, I was playing as you in the video game. A cheat code. Unstoppable character. So I don't know how excited you were, how much you played. When you played as yourself, was that cool?

That's all I'm saying. Mikey, so I sprained my ankle last week, as I told you guys, and then you saw me with a sprained ankle. Then I caught... Not technically the flu, but I got very sick earlier this week, and I had to take medicine. I thought I was out of the woods. Now, today I'm wearing my glasses. I don't know if you noticed that I was wearing my glasses. I brought contacts for the trip.

I ran three kickoff returns against Vince. What a game that was.

He's got too much energy. I'm not going to have that amount of energy when I'm saying, I'm not going to get to 77. Get out of here.

Exactly. He earned it. He took over that team and he got a job that honestly, I think when they gave him the interim job, they had no intention of hiring me as head coach. And he got the job because of the job that he did for the half season. Exactly. Then he only gets a year and it's like, eh, never mind.

He doesn't want to immediately go into promoting merch. He's talking about all the good work that he's done. Walter Payton, man of the year.

I was going to ask, do you like Dicker the Kicker? I love it. It's been around since seventh grade. He seems to embrace it.

Yep. Mr. G, be careful, because if Mr. G is still with us and you start selling things that say Dicker the Kicker, Mr. G may come after you.

Be careful.

Okay, good.

I don't know why I'm asking so much about Mr. G. Because we love Mr. G. You and I, really what we want to do now is get Mr. G on the show. I kind of want to talk to Mr. G and see what he says.

I don't understand this level of relax and level of cool to be perfectly honest. It's weird.

Are you more of a home or road kicker? Like, do you like to kick the one that shuts the crowd up or the one that gets the crowd going?

I think we were talking to Christian Fulton earlier who was telling us, yeah, you need to pay really close attention when he's talking because you never know exactly where it's going to end or how he's going to tie it all together.

No, I feel like if I was there for one game and then I wasn't, I would want them to suffer.

Look at this guy.

You know what? It's not up to me. In my book, Walter Payton, Man of the Year, right here.

I've given it to you. You win. How about this? If you don't win the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, I'm going to give you the Billy Gil Man of the Year Award. Thank you. I appreciate it. That's awesome. We do it every year here at God Bless Football. Yes, let's go. The first one ever, bud.

And I don't want to get on your bad side, but we were talking to Christian Fulton a little while ago, and he was saying that the greatest college football team of all time was his LSU football team that won the national championship. No. And someone may have agreed with that. No. And I was taken aback.

I actually have a question for you once we get going from a story that we've been told. And we've heard multiple versions of this story.

Absolutely false. I believe that it was you that was involved.

We can.

No, it's not a probing and pressing question.

Yes, I'm a little nervous, but lay it on me. This is not something that would put you in a bad position at all, and I'm pretty positive from the story that we've been told by multiple people now. You were involved in the story, but it was not anything that you did. We were told, you know Jessica Smetana. Have you met Jessica? So she's friends with the Goliks. She stayed at the Goliks.

They were there for the Notre Dame, the first playoff game.

And the story goes that – I know where this is going. Now you're nervous. No, no, no. I know where this is going. The story goes that she was under the understanding – that the Goliks were having, I guess, like a victory party at the house. She was staying at the house. She goes. She was excited. And then you showed up, and you showed up with Shane Gillis, and none of the Goliks were there.

They all left to go to the airport and just head out of town. So everybody thought they were going to a nice victory party at the Golik household, and the Golik household, the Goliks just abandoned you guys.

Yeah, that needed some clarification because that could have gone a number of different ways, but it also sounded like you were in his bed for some reason. We're in a college room.

I stacked it up for a pretty good team.

Was Neighbors on that team? I don't even know. I think it's time to just say, okay, it wasn't them. No, it ain't.

They didn't say that about them. Well, Christian Fulton was making it sound like they could beat any NFL team, to be honest with you. No, they couldn't, dude. But the Bengals are struggling to beat some NFL teams.

Do you, when you see what the Chiefs are doing now, coming off of kind of what the Patriots did, do you have fatigue in the type of dynasty, things like that? Do you want to see a team like the Eagles come up and overtake, I guess, the Chiefs to some sense? Or do you like the history that we're watching with the Chiefs?

When you see, I guess, the current landscape of quarterbacks out there in the NFL now, Mahomes obviously has kind of like a stranglehold on the Super Bowls and the winning and all that stuff. There are the Josh Allens out there, the Joe Burrows, the Lamar Jacksons. It seems like, and we've talked about it all year long, Unfortunately, it seems like they're just all so great at the same time.

At least one of them is probably going to get cut out of winning championships just because there's only one championship every year.

And they're all roughly the same age, too.

When I come on Radio Row, I want to wear my contacts. Right.

Careful, he's going to ask.

You are not a double XL.

Yeah, I know. Well, Trey hasn't been an XL probably since you were, what, like 14 years old or something?

He did not say a UM team specifically. I'm not. He did not say a UM team specifically. He said any team.

I'm having trouble looking at you, Trey. I'm not going to lie. Why? Because he's so good looking? No, because he went to FIU, and he's an owl. Yeah, and I went to FIU.

Yeah, yeah. Shula Bowl rivals, if you will. Yeah, yeah. Shula Bowl is always a special game. Well, for you guys more than us, as of late. Shula Bowl has been amazing. What's that?

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

And then coming back down and having his best season so far in Miami has to be cool for him.

What's coaching been like for you?

It's working out for you. Oh, he's doing great, yes. Don't listen to – look, let me ask you something. No, I'm saying you have to love him. I love him for it. As respectfully as possible.

Because you don't feel like you're cool enough in the glasses? I mean, what's going on there?

Does it give you a new appreciation from, like, when you were a player now seeing all the other stuff? Yeah.

Like, come on. What are we doing?

Have you met the Old Spice guy yet? He was wandering around here yesterday.

Yeah. Well, the guy. The guy from the commercial. The guy who sits on the set door. Wandering around here. Really? Yeah. He just stood here and we're like, well, come on up here. Because Cam Jordan was up here talking Old Spice, too. Talked to the Old Spice guy for like 10 minutes. Thrill of a lifetime. Wow. Yeah. Check box. Exactly right. I hope you meet him one day.

I'm going to be honest with you. That would be a wacky day for him. That would be. We're getting wild, guys.

It's a big day. You may have to take a long nap today, Trey.

Referee Ed Reed is crazy.

Well, I have a question for you for Trey. So, Stugatz has... politely been calling Trey boring, essentially. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. But that's how he's been positioning it, right?

I don't think you are. What? You like the golf? I love the golf.

Well, he's been criticizing Trey and saying he should be doing more things as a worldly traveled man such as yourself. What do you think Trey should try to do that he hasn't done yet?

Well, the level we were at was scary movies, so it was just going to scary movies.

I had someone, Taylor, reach out to me and say, this week is you dressing for the job that you want. I was like, thank you, Taylor, I guess. But Taylor's just always insulting me anyways. Anyways, today I'm rocking the glasses. You know why? Because I woke up with a swollen eyeball. Really? Yeah. Well, I guess not my eyeball. How does that happen? It's my eyelid.

Is it a chicken farm? Yeah, chicken farm. Wait, you have a chicken farm? You have a chicken farm?

I think that I got a stye from recovering from fighting off the virus or whatever. Basically, whenever I think it can't get worse, I wake up and it has somehow gotten worse the next day, which is a fun little game to kind of see exactly how tomorrow will be worse than today.