Andrew Luck

Published Mar 18, 2013, 4:00 AM

In 2012, Andrew Luck was in his final year at Stanford University when he learned he was the top NFL draft pick. Luck, a self-proclaimed nerd, talks with Alec about going from being an unknown high school football hero to replacing his childhood idol, Peyton Manning. Off the field, Luck is passionate about travel, architecture and movies.

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This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. Andrew Luck was the number one draft pick in the National Football League. Last year, he was hired to replace one of his heroes, Peyton Manning, as quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. The hype about Luck was enormous, and many doubted that the Stanford graduate could live up to it, but Luck delivered, setting a new NFL record for the most passing yards by any rookie. Luck also led his team to eleven victories and a spot in the playoffs. This was a team that won just two games the year before Luck arrived. Andrew Luck, a self described nerd, is nothing if not level headed when he talks about the transitions from high school to college to pro football. They're definitely large differences along the way. But but I also know a lot of the challenges are the same. I think fresh on my mind still. You know, first singer key year, you know what what what what was similar about rookie year to being a sophomore in high school and starting on varsity you know wants to to being in college and starting as a sophomore as well. I think you know the same things presents of how as a young kid, you know, how is a fifteen year old kid do you play with? Eighteen year olds? How is it? How is the nineteen year o kid do you play with twenty two years? That? What you did? And yeah? And how is the how? How was it? And it it's weird? You know, you want to remember what what do you remember about high school ball? So I just wanted to keep my mouth shut you in Houston, In Houston, which they do have like a somewhat of a religious cult following, you know of high school football and touch it truly is and you know it's sensationalized a bit with the movies in the in the books, but people get into I mean, we had we had fifteen thousand people watching games for for for a bunch of high school kids. Yeah, but but I do remember, you know, being a rookie, thinking back to you know, being a sophomore, how how do you how do you earn the respect to the guys older than you? You know, how do you how do you go there? And so would you say that's seen each step by the way, if he was proving yourself to people who when you show up, the vets are there or the guys who have a few more seasons under their belt and you want to show them you belong there. No, absolutely, I think describe it was like when you went from Houston to Stanford the same thing, you know, one it's it's it was. It was fun for me to be out in California and you were a scholar. You did very well in school. I did all right. I managed to get by. I studied architecture, which was fun for me and which I enjoyed, which you know, I don't much better I think on projects than writing papers, you know. So, so I'm glad I studied something I enjoyed. But do you think that that kind of pursued academically, like something that involves geometry and math and so forth, and measurements helped you at a quarterback? I don't know. People have asked me to compare the too it I you know, it can't hurt, But you know, realistically, how much could could solid a bath problem help at a football game? It might be just intrinsic. How you just see things, you know, when that guy's going deep over the middle, maybe you're saying this looks like the Louve to me, and then when you went to Stanford, what was that like you should have then when you talk about that idea of showing up and proving yourself, what was it like for you? It was great? Uh, you know a lot of a lot of great people at Stanford. Everybody has got such an amazing story. You know, you're you're meeting princes and princesses of royal families from midd the Middle East. You you know, you get classmates that are inventing you know, apps and and and and doing all these great enemating environment there it is and it really they cultivate the environment of creating great things and people. I think, and so I think, you know, as a as a football team, we wanted to be out there as well. And then in the athletic world, you showed up your freshman year and what was your first year like? The first year was great? Didn't play red shirt? And which was which was? Which was difficult describe for people exactly how red shirting works. So red shirting is a process where you know, you go to school and everybody has four years of eligibility to apply. Uh, but you can red shirt a year which doesn't take away your eligibility uh, one of those years. And but but you still practice with the team, you still do everything with the team. You're just not allowed to play in a game. So it's theoretically year. Yeah, and then you go to school for you know, be in school for five years, so it gives you a year too, and you read shirted your first year. I red scruted my first year. I wasn't ready to play h and I needed to get bigger, faster, stronger, you know, physically wise and also mentally just catch up today. So when you come to a school like that, when they take you there and they and they recruited you, correct, and when they recruit you to come, they recruit you. The red shirt thing was something they had in mind. So at that level, at the Stanford level, they have you come and they say we're gonna bring you here and we're going to develop you for the first year. Yeah, you know, and some guys in my class, we're we're good enough to play, you know, as freshman. But but I know in my recruiting process that that was a thought that came up. The muscle up and get stronger, and and and mentally too, I think mentally catch up to the playbook having to learn that, and you know, the game is faster in college than it is that it is in high school. So it definitely helped, and I enjoyed it. And what was that experience like because someone said that to me once, They said that, you know, you go from high school and you're a dominant player in high school. Then you go to college and you're in a room full of high school dominant players. It's uh. Was it really kind of inspiring to you to see that everybody was faster and stronger. It's humbling. Let's say that you get knocked off your high horse very very quickly to everybody's in all. So you go from being in you know, the top dogs, probably starting on every everything. Yeah, and everything you've ever played in the cheerleaders one a date, you know everybody. You go to college and you're just exactly so you read shirt that year and then you come back the second year and I'm assuming you were stronger and you had development and did you and you felt better? You felt strong? No, I think I put on like pounds. You know, my mind was working much quicker. When you're on the football side. I think we're getting ready, getting ready, And what happens in that second year coach Harbaugh, Who's who's whose coach? Game? Jim, he gave me a shot, managed to to roll with it, got got to play in all their games. I got hurt the last game of the season and miss miss down on a ball game. We had a We had a great running back to that year. Toby Gerhardt, who's backing Adrian Peterson up in Minnesota right now, did you get smacked around a lot? I mean you're playing football at Stanford. What was that like for you? That that threat every day and it's a pure adrenaline when you say to yourself, I can't think about that, I can't afford to think about that where every minute you're out there. Do you think these guys, man, they really if they hit me, it's really gonna hurt. Like no, I think that. You can't. You can't let yourself think about gun it. You have to. I think as soon as you start getting skittish about about being hit, then then your play is gonna plummet. Yeah, there's a little bit of pride involved in it too. I think it's a football player at least at least in my mind, I sort of enjoy getting hit every now and then and being able to stand back up and say, okay, you hit me whatever. Man, you know, yeah, I'm getting back off down right. You didn't get me down right. So so that I think, I think for a lot of players there's a bit of that. What did Hardball give you was a coach? What would you say distinguished him as a coach? I think, yeah, he built great relationships with players, everybody on the staff. And and he's he's an unbelievable motivator, you know, uh, And I think he doesn't and he feels guys you feel, you know, senses, you know what's going to motivate them. I think he was a great job of of of using different ways to motivate different guys. H You always on game day, you always felt like, you know, the guy was gonna, you know, run through hell and back with you if you had to. You felt like you had your back, if you wanted to be in a brawl in an alley you wanted, you want to coach hardball with you. And when you went into the pros, because I want to come back to when when you finished Stanford in in a minute, but when you were in the Pros, Pagana was very sick, and that was a big thing in the NFL. That's a big story this year. You know what was that like for you with you when you found out your coach was seriously, seriously ill. Yeah, it was. It was a little bit of an unprecedented situation. I think when coach Pagano went down, Uh in week three maybe had you seen it coming? No, no clue, So everybody kept it quiet. Yeah, we didn't know. We didn't know. We you know, we we had we had o we played a game, We had a bye weekend or an early week so you know, we were off for the weekend. Uh, we came back, you know, expecting to see coach Pagano. They find out, you know, there's a there's a doctor from from IU Health and and and our offensive coordinator we called the place sitting up there telling us, you know, coach Bagana sick, you know, seriously sick, you know, with lukemia, and uh, well you know see how it goes, and it was this is an odd It was tough too, you know, tough, but we were lucky. We had a lot of good coaches rally you know, rally us. We managed to win a couple of games, you know when when he was out and uh, I know, I know as as players, we felt like, you know, if we can just win, win this game, maybe it'll give coach bagan On something to be happy about this. So there was yeah, yeah, there is, I think and we didn't say that at the time because I don't think we wanted to admit you wanted to be exactly. I don't think we wanted to sensationalize, you know, I don't want to make it something it's not. But well, speaking of sensationalizing, so you get to to you finish out Stanford, how does what's it like when you leave standard? Because you you you you read shirted your first year, then played and you finished the Stanford We didn't leave three years. So I so I graduated. I had one year of eligibility left, but and you didn't and it was time to go. It was time to How did you know it was time to go? Uh? You know my degree? I got my degree exactly really didn't make any sense to stay? Yeah, it didn't. I had I had enough fun and then what happened? And then tell me where you're sitting when that when you find out what's going on for NFL. Was, how does that develop? Yeah, it's it's a it's it's actually sort of long process. And I was drafted before I graduated school, so you finish your college season. I took a We were on the quarter system at Stanford, so I took the winter quarter off to go train and prepare that they have a calm buying. Uh where in Indianapolis, which you know it was funny enough, was where I ended up. It's not the manning passing, that's not that's a camp and in Louisiana and Thibodeaux, but the combine it is. It a really interesting, weird sort of dynamic where they fly all these players and they have all the coaches, they have all the team doctors, and it's three days and you're there pick and you know this is before so this is a chance for all the teams to meet the players that to see NFL. It's not just Indie, It's it's it's it's league wise. It's all the teams flying in with all their personnel and I'll stay and then the players sort of cycle through. It's were like cattle in a meat market. Yeah, I remember, you know, walking up on stage with nothing but my little Skimpy's on and they announced, you know, Anthon's Secret runway exactly. You're you're you're gonna stage with strength coaches, head coaches and all these coaches sitting and bleachers around you that that you walk up in middle and it's you know Andrew Luck Stanford University, you know, six four, two thirty five, and guys are there with ads going, I don't like the ratio to his rib cage, that they don't let that rib ratio. God knows what they're saying. And then you turn around, you and you walk off. That's just one of the you know guys where you're getting a hundred X rays on every part of your body. They move your your knee this way. They have all your medical records. You know, they're going back to Hey and you know it says here in two thousand, six oh, sixteen years old, two thousands, you know, yeah, you sprained your right ankle. How did you find that you stole that candy bar from the drug store when you were a fourteen? We got that down here too. They do I I a lot of private detectives, but which which makes sense because there's so much money invested this teams and the model. Yeah, so way, what's you're there and you you take your clothes off and except your underwear, they size you up, You turn on, you leave. What happens next to the combine? Then you then you go do a bunch of physical you know, running a forty throwing about a bunch of physical tests, you know, a bunch of psychological tests, i Q tests, mental health tests. What's like, what's the what's the quiz they give you? Now? The test? Oh, what's it called the wonderlick? The wonderlick? The wonderlick? To do that because because because because it's presumed that the playbooks now were so complicated, they need people that can literally together. But I think some put it together better than others. Some do and then and then you know, some take stock in the wonder like some don't. You know. I think different teams have different ways of evaluating guys. So so that was an interesting experience. Uh, then you sort of then you leave the comment. And I had I had a fairly good sense that I would be drafted number one by Indianapolis just from the signals I was getting from the team and other things, and managed to you know, and then school started again for me. So if you go and going back to school and flying and you know, visiting teams and draft happens in New York, which is which is a which is a pretty neat experience. Describe what happened for you. I remember walking out on stage and some people applauding and some people booing. I don't know, you just NFL fans boo. How did you feel? I mean, you knew it was gonna happen kind of when everybody let you know that in advance, everybody put the cats out of the bag. But when it happens, at the moment happened, did you just feel great? You would number one in the draft that year? Man? Yeah, I felt on top of the world. I'm not gonna lie a little nervous. I didn't want a trip. Walking out on stage, she hugged the commissioners. He's into he's into these hugs. When you walk on, glad you're there. It's gonna make a lot of money. Yeah, So so that was fun. I remember I remember having a little a little pin that my mom was trying to you know, little pen and just trying to pin on my suit and she was really nervous because he took about two minutes to get you know, I don't go How did your dad feel? Your dad was a high school quarterback, he played for West Virginia, he played for the Oilers. How did he feel to see you do this? That's a great thing for a dad who's a scholar athlete as well to see his son. What did he say to you? I think he was very proud. He just said congratulations. I don't remember specifics, but he didn't. She just he just kept smiling. Yeah, he felt good. He did, and we have a great relationship. It's easier for me having a dad who played in the NFL and and and did a lot of couple of seasons where he played, and then he backed up Warren Moon for we did back up Warren. He also backed up Archie Manning his roop few years. So we have sort of a connection with the man and family. Now, as soon as you you the draft is over, I would assume there's a euphoria, But you snapped right out of it because like it's down to business now. Yeah, there wasn't for and then I wish you would would have been down to business. Had to go back to school. And finish up, and you try sitting in a lecture. You know, after you've been you've been drafted by a team, you have a job, you know where you're going. Honestly, I honestly don't feel sorry for you because I can't think of anything I'd like more than to go back to Stanford having been the number one draft again. So you go back. How long are you back there? Back for maybe a couple more months to finish that last finished Q? What time of year is then you got the draft? Is win? The draft is like April, right, and you gotta go back. Where's the summer quarter? It was the spring quarter and we finished up in mid June. So so you were in the quarter and you went to the draft and came back. So in the first it's draft, come back, and then you finish and you're dub with Stanford. You get your degree in architectic somehow right, they went me, they went me past. You were good for Stanford. And so now when do your report? Uh so we report late July was when training camp starts. When you know the actual that's the formal training, formal training. You show up for your first pro training camp. Now you are in the center ring in ain't high school? In eight college and ain't big ten and ain't it's professional football? What's that like? I mean, did you're asked tighten just a little bit? These guys are huge, they are They are the apex of physical freaks. You know. There are some guys that that are three hundred pounds that are running faster than you know, running than your high school running back, that are just that are just absolutely physical. And you know, some of the guys you're walking along a room, you're you're playing with thirty five year olds, thirty six year old with with you know, with three kids in it in the house, and you know a bunch of rookies are three years old that you know, I don't know right from left. So so it's it's it's a different dynamic than college, where you're sort of, well, everybody's with your yeah, with you, with your your buddies, you're going back to the dorm, you know, you're hanging out. In the NFL, it's different, which makes it fun when you win and come together as a team, you know, because you really do have so many different types of guys. And I would imagine that your teammates, I mean, on one hand, people in the pro like if you go to college, it's just assumed under ordinary circumstances, certainly things can change, but under ordinary circumstances, you're going to be there for the four years. This is your team, this is your this is your family. But in the pros where people move on, where the teams have only their loyalty to the players only extends so far. Do you walk in there and people feel you out and you earn your way into that family or do they treat you like family and everybody coheses right away. No, it doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen in the first day. I will say that people gotta get to know you. Yeah, you gotta get you know, I think you have personalities come out and you know, see what meshes that, especially during training camp where you're gonna have you know, a hundred guys that are in training camp and then one day you wake up and look and there's only fifty three guys left, you know, just under half gone, half or gone. And then that's when there there there is a little bit. But but once the final cuts are made, which is a those cut days are very sad days because you see buddies go. You see guys you built relationships, you know, guys you admired. Maybe, yeah, absolutely, guys you looked up to, guys that helped you out, you know when you first walked in the door, and then they're gone, and that fifty three players, that's when everything starts to cohes. Yeah, I think I think that's when that's when you come together a little more. But but still, you know, even guys are traded in the middle of the season. You know, guys are cut. Still guys are picked up. So it's it is it's a lot different, you know, just to what you said at that than than the you know, you know you're gonna be in college for four years. You know who's in your class, you know who's you know, you know guys on the lot of familiarity. Now, one thing I think about when I think about the NFL is this idea of the biggest, strongest, fastest men hitting each other in this very violent game. And the rules have been changed in order to protect players, the equipment has evolved. Obviously, there's a lot of discussion about concussions and so forth, over a lot of brain injury research and issues, and people donating the brains of their deceased suicide victims, a little lot of heavy duty stuff. But I want to ask you when you go out there. I mean, it's a competitive game and people want to win. But at the same time, guys don't necessarily want to hurt each other the way they wouldn't want to get hurt either. Do you find it's a weird balance of those two because football is as violent now on one hand as it was before, but because equipment changes and rule changes, it seemed more violent back then. Yeah, you know, I I don't think guys are any less aggressive when it when it comes to hitting. I no, no, it doesn't. And I think, you know, maybe there's a thought too that all these these equipment changes and and and you feel safer in it, so so you feel like you can hit harder. But there's also I think you know, guys are are being taught, especially at a young age now too. You know how to tackle correctly, to how to how to and I think there is a mutual respect between players where you know you're not going to try and take out someone's achilles or a cl you know, some guys maybe, do you know, I don't I don't know. Some guys play very aggressive and things happen. We understand, you know, we know what we sign up for. I think when you when you play football, and I like it and I of it. And as a quarterback, you know, I'm on the wrong side of the hit. You know, I don't ever get to dish it out per se. But you know that's fine with me. Right. Let's let's talk about quarterbacking. Let's talk about what it's like to have that job where I played touch football with my friends until I was forty years old. Be played every weekend during a season in the fall in New York in Central Park, and then that game moved to Los Angeles because almost all those guys I played with were my UH colleagues and the entertainment business. And of course, the difference between a sandlot game, the difference between a flag game and a bunch of geezers playing football, the difference between high school and cause is the speed and the velocity of the game. And you dropped back to pass, and on average, how much time do you have to throw the ball. I think a little between three and four seconds. You have that much time in a perfect world, So you have three to four seconds to read the defense. You know from the past play and you are this architecture student. We're not you know, you know, you know the trapezoids out there where, who's going where? And you have a couple of seconds to drop back and ascertain who you're going to throw the ball to, who's open, who's more likely going to be open, because sometimes you're throwing the ball to someone anticipating they're gonna be open. Once the ball gets there, you throw the ball to a spot very often, unless it's a broken play and they come back to you to come back, and then someone's improvising. What percentage of plays would you say, do you throw the ball at a spot that's a preordained route? And how many plays is it more improvised? What's the ratio? Well, every place is called you know, hopefully it's not taft him for ries. You know you're gonna the defense. Yeah, it breaks down probably a third of the time. Who drove you nuts this season? And the defensive backfeld? What team drove you insane? Read on the Baltimore Ravens, Because you know there's a you're you're taught there's a structure to defense. You know, if one guy's blitz in that someone else should be covering his spot. If if you're playing, you know, cover three three guys consequence for everything they do, then then you should have, you know, a corner on the right, a safety in the middle of the field, and another corner on the left. Everything. He's everywhere. You know, he's down on the box, he's on the line of scrimmage, he's running, he's responsible for the middle zone, and he's all the way over and he's a war lot. Yeah, he's he's he's he's a renegade. But but but he does it. I think because he understands football so well and studies the offense. You know, he says, okay, I know when they're in this formation, there's these these and that's innate skill people have. This is good God given skill. They have it. I think it is. But I also think he works at it and watches film and knows, you know, and and studies and and it's played for so long. But that's what I want to ask you. How much do you think that people it's innate? Like when you watch football, you see people do things that other people don't do. You see magic happen when you watch. I mean, I'm gonna talk. I'm gonna date myself obviously, because I'm talking about guys from from you know, the glory days. And when I was watching NFL, you know constantly, I got a lot of you know, a little less time to watch every Sunday now, but I catch a game every weekend or or or the highlights. But like if you watch Sanders and you watch someone moved the way sand where you say, nobody does that. When you watch Nameth what made name of the name of in spite of all of his notoriety, you never saw somebody throw the ball on the dead run to their receiver. Maynard never had to break stride and he and and that ball would hit him in the tips of his fingers on the dead run and he would take it into the ends, of which a lot of guys have to come back to the ball or whatever. They got to jump up and do the ballet move for the ball. You see people and it's work. But do you look at them sometimes and say, it's just God given, it's genetic with some of these people. They just have gifts the mental as well as physical. Yes, I think, and at least once a week it seems like you're watching film of and you stop and say, how did that person do that? You know, there's no hope for me in this guys, QBS. You grew up admiring Peyton, Manning love Peyton. Still a big fan of Peyton. Um Steve McNair, you know who whose since passed away. But but he was a tough guy who could sling the ball, oh all over the field. So those two. What do you admire most about Peyton? You you had the tough job obviously replacing Peyton. Yeah, you know, I always admired how how Payton commanded everything that Yeah. Never Quitton was like a general out there three minutes left down by Yeah, So it was fun to watch and he seemed like he knew where everybody was going all the time. There's no surprises for him. And you know it was like everything was so well rehearsed that that it happened and whatever the defense put out there, there's no there's no very young year. How old Now, I'm not supposed to laugh at that. You're I'm old enough to be your father. He's only twenty three. But Andrew Luck has been working towards this moment for more than a decade. In a minute, we'll hear about what kind of football Luck prefers and the strength training he thinks is most important. I think your core and your asses cannon out of a canoe were so much powers generated. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to. Here's the thing. Growing up, Andrew Luck went to school in Europe. His father, a former quarterback himself, led the World League of American Football, the NFL's experiment with starting a league abroad. When his father changed jobs in the family landed in Houston, Andrew was ready to play ball himself. At age four, team Andrew attended the Manning Passing Academy in Louisiana. So you know that the Manning family obviously sort of the first family of quarterbacks, you know, in the in this league. You know. So I was in eighth grade in Houston, and uh, I went to the camp as a as a camper, and it's this was this was it's in Louisiana. It used to be Hammond, Louisiana is where I went as a camper, and you stayed stayed in these dorms looked like a Soviet era, like old Gray, you know, like like the summertime. It was so summer in Louisiana and you're in the yeah, the cinder blocks exactly. But we had a blast. And I think I was on cloud nine when Archie Manning came up and said, how you doing sign I played with your dad. You know, I'm in heaven. Shoot me now I've lived. And then then you go to you go to college whatever, and they invite all these college quarterbacks come down and be counselors, and I think it's a great thing. It's like, it's a great way to meet, you know, thirty other quarterbacks around around you know, the n C A A and then get to know him. So I went down to the past and my last two years of college, and you know, I got to know the Manning family obviously a little better through that, and a bunch of bunch of quarterbacks from from from college. So it's Kapernick was at that camp. I got to I got to know call in there, a little bit, a lot of guys, a lot a lot of guys, and it's fun. It really is fun, and it's it's it's a unique opportunity because it's not often around your peers and in a relaxed setting like that when you want to work on your passing skills and but I don't mean the timing and reading offenses, the mechanics of you throw. What's your primary set of exercises and work. Did you have a coach when you got to the pros? Did they come in as they often do and dissect your throwing motion and get into the mechanics if you're throwing again? Not? Not in the pros. I think I think there's a thought that if you've made it this far, don't don't change your throw on motion. You They didn't, but not like Tebow where they're coming to you but you're not Tebow. But I'm saying people have the assumption that on the pros they want to strip you down and say okay, let's start all over again. That they didn't need to They didn't feel they needed to re teach you how to throw the football. No, absolutely not. What's I'm very thankful for because I I don't think I would have handled it very well. I think that I think quarterbacks are are very particular about their own motion and in a little bit anal you know, is this is the way? Because what do you think you had to develop and if you wanted to improve when you were younger, when you added pounds, when you wanted to muscle up and strengthen up. Because I said that Joe Montana once what I was doing a film and Montana came to visit the director on the set and I had the quickest, most fleeting conversation. It wasn't very real. Iz said to him, I go, what was your strength training? He said, I avoided weights as much as possible. I didn't want to get muscled up. He said. I took medical tubing like hose and I put a strap in a doorway and I just did the throwing motion over and over, you know, like a thousand times with this tension thing. Just to strength than the rotation. What exercises do you think it to strengthen your legs in your back as much as your upper body. I think I think your core and your asses is so much cannon out of a canoe. There where so much powers generated, and I think that's that's a lot of leg training, a lot of leg training, a lot of weight training, run training. I hate running, but yeah, you have to do. But I think it's more weight and just rotation it's almost like golfers. You know, you're very one boxing and boxing you're very one sided. It's almost like throwing a right cross, you know, could you throw that punch? You gotta punch absolutely and and you become very one sided. You're always torking in the same direction, so making sure your left, making sure you're evening out, you know, your right side of the body per se. But but I I and that's something that I that I learned more, you know of in college. And then the legs. You know how important your lower body is to throwing. I would play in sand a lot of pickup games with my friends. And of course when you play for fun with guys when you're you know, when I'm in my thirties and forties, just for fun. Half the guys bring their own favorite ball, and the ball is deflated or inflated to the level they prefer. The ball is scuffed to the level they prefer. And when you pick up a ball in the NFL, forget about weather conditions. Is the ball always a crisp, waxy, brand new ball or do they allow you to treat the ball the way you want to for your preference. I hate the crisp waxy. You can't stand it. There's a our our equipment managers for their colts, Frog Tea and Danny, the three great guys that work with their quarterbacks. They have it. They have a top secret protocol for for for them to treat the ball. Treating the balls, it's secret. They won't tell me. I don't think they tell Peyton when I know what it is by the women to tell you, it's they pee on it. It's their own urine. They use their own urine to strip the waxy film off. Who is the baseball player that used to pee on his hands to avoid Callus's There was a Cubbs player Like yeah, but I know I soon they have a patented top secret Theca cola and then the football is treated. But you do treat the ball. You do, and it's sat out of the box. It's not out of the box. And I've seen different stages of it, Like I know, I know they put the balls in the the sauna for like a couple of minutes that they're allowed to do something that allows them to treat the ball. They do. Did every team get to use their own ball? Like when when you come out on offense. We go get the box, we go open the crate of your opponents balls. Everyone brings their own ball on the field as long as it's the approved ball. Yes, and and for what I understand, it used to not be that way. It used to be like there's a certain you know, all the balls for game day were open an hour before and each team used the same ball. But I think, uh, I think Peyton and and Tom Brady sort of this was before my time. Let it. Let a coalition against that and got it change where teams can use you know, what about the inflation level of the ball. Does the ball have to be inflated to a certain Yeah, I think it does, and referees check it and they mark the balls off before the ball that we approved in one way. But you're allowed to treat the exterior of the ball. Yeah, that's amazing. So when you're there and you're throwing the ball, is it completely unconscious When you throw the ball and you think you're ineffective? Do you sometimes say to yourself, even at the pro level, that you've got to go back to a basic You got to remember, you're bringing the ball in behind your ear. What are you gonna do? What's the firing sequence in your mind of throwing a pass? I think you don't want to think about. No, you don't, And that's what I shouldn't say. Ever, when you if you if you're going on a string and balls are dying on you, and you say why what if you're having a shitty day and you're not throwing the ball? But yeah, I think that that's when you, when you, when you maybe not during the dead you have fresh button, you look at the film and you say, what am I doing different than than than you see sometimes you did? Yeah, I think, what did you do differently? I think, I look, you know, you're dropping the ball too low, and it's elong dating your whole wind up. You know, it's almost like a picture now instead of a quarterback, you know, instead of throwing a football. And that's what's causing you to be late on all your routes. You know, makes you know, so so that that we can practice. You're gonna work on keeping that ball, you know, higher and and and maybe shortening that that motion. Uh So, I think it's you're still tweak it every now and then if if it's not working out, if you feel like it, you know, it's inhibiting you from from doing, you know, from being better. Um for fans like myself, when we watch you play pro football and you're doing your job and you're just humming that ball out there, you're you're you're, you're hitting that ball, first downs, whatever, and the other guy drops the ball. Did he come back and apologize to you? Every now and then? Different guys are different. Uh. You know, I I probably apologize too much for throwing interceptions to the guys on the line because I know they get fed up when they're blocking their butts off against some werewolf of the defensive end and they're doing a great job. I know, Yeah, their quarterback throws an interception. Good job, QB. But you know, some guys apologize, some guys don't. It's just the nature of the game that we're humans, you know, human errors occur. Let's talk about the season, and I'll talk about it the season beginning, actually when the season ends. So your season ended and you I did not go to the Super Bowl, yes, and you were eliminated by the Super from playing in the Super Bowl. How we were limited in the first round of the playoffs by the Ravens, which is no fun. And you don't prepare for you know, the end of the season is there in the player. You want to go to the Super Bowl, so you think there's more to go. Yeah, so you show up. So you show up Monday and you have a few more blank pages on your schedule. Yeah you do, you really do. And you show up Monday and it's guys are cleaning their lockers out. He's very similar to the film business. Trash bags. You're saying, well, you know, all right, see you man. Maybe maybe maybe you're back next year. Maybe you're not. You know, you don't know, so so it's odd. And then I remember sitting around for a couple of days and you know, all right, I gotta get out of town. I gotta you know, I can't sit around. And I apartment and and leave. So I went to Sundance Film Festival. It was awesome. It no, I can't see actually that's no motorcyclists, but but had a great time. They're a nice way to sort of get away. It's not not not the crowd that wreck noises football players too much. So it's a nice way to get away. Which now I'm blowing my cover. I'm sure for next year be careful out of here, but hopefully next year we're in the Super Bowl. Uh, I'll travel a little bit overseas somewhere. I'm gonna say, do you still have a bug for Europe? I think I've lived in London too. I lived in London, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, some suburbs outside. Go over there, what do you like to do? I see the sites like any other tourists. I think I'm gonna go back and look at all. You know what you're trying to see? Friend over there? Is that what you're trying to know? The girlfriend's coming with. There's a couple of gondolas with your girl. We understand what you're saying. A couple of drinks here, it's very romantic. Covering a little shopping, Yeah, but no shopping. I can't stand for your girlfriend, so girl, maybe maybe. Andrew Luck has other things on his mind besides shopping. He wants to relearn German in the off season, and of course he's hoping to bring a championship back to Indianapolis. I'm still young, hopefully got some time and it gives you a little motivation for next seasons. A party that really is looking forward to getting back. Yeah, there is, and that will continue to grow as the off season sort of, after a few more gone to the trips with that girl, they will be sick with each other and ready to He'll work out again. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing.

Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin

Award-winning actor Alec Baldwin takes listeners into the lives of artists, policy makers and perfor 
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