Jason Garrett: I’m a Big Fan of Tua

Published Aug 6, 2024, 9:30 AM
Before Jason Garrett was head coach of the Dallas Cowboys or a broadcaster for NBC Sports, he finished his NFL playing career and began his coaching career with the Miami Dolphins. Dive in as Garrett shares his thoughts on Mike McDaniel, Tua Tagovailoa, the decision to pass on Drew Brees, and much more. Contributors to this episode include Sevach Melton and Dolphins Productions. Theme song created and performed by The Honorable SoLo D.

You're now diving, i'n have been.

That straight.

Who then.

Setting down with Seth living Oh, Jay ju jus well, and this is strictly for them true fans number one of course, y'all, this ain't the other nerus borts talk.

That might've been at this tank.

Welcome back to the Fish Tank, presented by iHeartRadio right here on the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network.

Seth Levitt, along with the pride and.

Joy of hawk in High school, he is Ojim McDuffie's and if that isn't good enough, we've got the pride and joy of University school as well, who also happens to be the former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys and the current studio analyst for NBC's Football Night in America. He is Jason Garrett. Juice, I'm here with two of Northeast Ohio's finest. It's a special day.

I mean, that's getting better than this man. We always talk about different things to get me excited, you know, off insve side of football course, former Penn Staters. But when you're talking about Northeast Ohio private school legends like Jason Garrett, I mean his whole family. John Jason, Jared, all of them. Man, they killed it in Northeast Ohio. Man, So I'm glad I played after them a little bit because I don't know what would have happened in that rivalry box, you know what I mean.

Hey, so let me tell you the rest of the story. Okay, I just was up in Ohio.

I went by Hawk and there's a statue that's forty feet high.

This is a Legends now.

He was like in eighth grade. And oh, there's this guy at Hawk and he's incredible. He's got this curveball, he shoots three pointers and he's His best sport is football.

Whatever. Don't even try it, don't even try. Like I said, big Set, I was just happy that those guys were gone by the time I got to Hawking, because they were dominating us. Man. They brought me in, you know, in case there was another Garrett brother that was waiting, you know what I mean, so I can go opposite him, you know what.

That's why, in case they had one hiding.

Yeah, I love that. I don't know, Jews, you're trying to be modest. But I just found that old News Herald article where they ranked the top fifty high school players in Northeast Ohio history, and you were number three all times.

Yeah, we know what, man, that's because the gard boys were going. Man, I'm trying to tell you this, Big Seth. You know, I had a chance to I had a chance to go out there and shine, man. You know, because that rivalry, Big Seth is second to none.

Man.

Now it's not even a ribby because US just kicks our button now because they're just bigger, stronger. You know, they recruit better than we do. Obviously get Jason, right, and so it's tough for us to compete against those guys now, man, But I mean, it was so much fun because Jason, I don't know, if you lose backstory why I didn't go to US, because those are my two schools that I was thinking about. But I was thinking about going to US. Yeah, I was going to US or Hawking And we were playing against US when I was at Warrensville Heights and one of the I don't know if it was your A, I think it was your ad came up from the stands and pretty much said that I was a dummy because I was out there throwing a lot of curve balls and fastballs. And Monarch your team down in the US in junior high. And that got back to me and I'm like, well, you know what, that made my decision a lot easier. So that's why I decided to go to Hawk instead of US. So yeah, you kidding, that's the fact they don't have any girls to just go either, too good. So, Jason, the last time, you know, the majority of listeners on it, you know, had an opportunity to really hear from you. It goes all the way back to January of this year when you called it that that game that really left the bad taste in our mouth. You know what we're talking about right here, right And for that reason, I'm not going to ask you about what happened from that frozen field, but there is a hilarious story about what happened in the booth when all the Kansas City Chief fans were so excited to see you in Mike to Rico, or at least you thought they were. Can you tell me about that.

Was it was so good?

You know, that game was freezing cold, as you know, I mean, we've all played in weather growing up in Ohio. We've been around this our whole life. But it was minus nine. I go down before the game, and you know, you're all dressed up, You're ready to go.

You know I had done.

They already done the makeup and the hair and the whole thing that they do before a telecast. So I wasn't gonna put a hat on. I was gonna run down there say hello to a few people. And I'm talking to Dave Tobe, the special teams coach of Kansas City, and he's given me so much great information about which way the wind's blowing and where the field is bad over here, it's icy over here, and we got to kick it this way, and it's it's it's gold the stuff he's sharing with me. But I am so damn cold. My ears are about to fall off.

And when he when he.

Stopped the conversation for a quick second, I was like, hey, coach, great to see you. And I ran back up to the booth. And so the booth was kind of our solitude. They were giving his chicken soup. They had the windows open, but they had heaters all around us. So Mike Tarico and I are up there and it's great, and like you said, the fans were so nice. Everybody's coming up and waving to us. I'm like, I'm staying right here. They're waving, they're taking selfies. We're ducking our head down into it. And then about the middle of the third quarter, Tarico's says, coming out of a commercial, i got a really funny story for you.

I'm going to hold it.

For the air, And so he gets back on the air and nobody does it like he does. He says, Hey, you know, it's been incredible day here. It has been so cold, but the spirit of the Kansas City fans has been unbelievable. They've been so welcoming to us. We've been taking selfies out the boot the whole time. And then he said, you know, we've done some of these Taylor Swift games before, and we always show Taylor in the suite, and they had some amazing shots of her in the suite with Kelsey's family and all of that, and he's like, you know, we show them, but we're looking at those shots in a monitor.

We never really know where she is. Come to find out that she was right.

Below us in the boot and all these really fun friendly Kansas City fans were in fact not taking selfies with us, taking selfies with Taylor Swift, the Kelsey family, and Toko and I were photo in the.

Oh my god, I want to see I want to see all the pictures of you and Mike like looking in, Oh my god.

Looking in.

Yeah, I can't believe these people are so nice. It's freezing out there. They're so friendly to.

Us, so good.

You know where you're stuck, right, that's too good.

That's true. That's a great pointing.

Yeah, there wasn't a whole lot for us to laugh about during that game, so it's it's.

Great to hear that story.

Uh.

And speaking of which, I don't think that that game was really reflective of who this Miami team was, you know, the entirety of last year. And I think that there were times early in the season, especially where Mike McDaniels Dolphins, I think you actually might have even said this at one point, but they kind of resembled that ninety nine Rams team, you know, the whole greatest show on turf. They were saying they were the greatest show on surf down here. But they truly appeared to be almost unstoppable on offense at times, but then at other times, particularly down to stretch. Unfortunately for us, as Dolphins fans, that wasn't necessarily the case. So I don't know how much Princeton guys like to talk about, you know, Yale guys, but I do want to ask you, as someone who spent a lifetime studying, playing coaching offensive football, especially and then obviously you led a team for a decade and had a whole bunch of winning seasons there, what do you see from Mike McDaniel as a head coach, as an offensive mind, and then kind of what are your expectations for this Dolphins team as they entered their third year under Mike mcdamm.

You know, I can't be more impressed with him and the Dolphins organization really from top to bottom. And something I've said publicly a lot is and OJ I think you'd.

Back me up on this.

The teams that have a chance to win in the NFL or teams that are aligned, and that's ownership, general manager, personnel people, head coach, coordinators, assistance down to the players. And there are very few teams that are truly aligned and their values and how they want to build the team, the kind of players they want to bring in, how they want to use those players, and because of that misalignment, they really don't have a chance. They might have talented coaches, they might have talented players, they might have talented personnel people, but if they're not together, truly aligned, it's too hard to win in the NFL. So you're not going to overcome the things that you need to overcome over the course of the season and through the playoffs. And I felt like the alignment that the Dolphins have in their organization between the personnel people and their coaching staff is fantastic. Okay, the kind of players they bring in on offense, think about the speed they have, it's ridiculous. And you talk about the greatest show on surf, I always think about the Santa Monica Track Club.

You know that, you know those.

Guys back in the eighties with the with the Royal Blue and it's Carl Lewis and all these guys. I mean, they were just beautiful athletes and they were faster than everybody. And I'm like, that's what these guys are. It's the Santa Monica Track Clubs. It's Waddle and Tyreeq, and I mean every guy they have is like and so they're bringing these kind of guys in and it's clearly intentional. And then Mike McDaniel uses them exactly how they need to be used, and it all fits together. So it's beautiful how that's done. There are too many organizations where they're at odds about bringing guys in how we're using them. They seem connected in the line to me, which gives them a great chance. Then when the games start, they're phenomenal on offense. I mean, it's ridiculous what they do. When I've said that out loud. The team that the Rams had in the late nineties, the Greatest Show on turn it was mind boggling how good they were. And again they were the same way, really fast, Mike Martz, aggressive mentality, Kurt Warner. It all fit together beautifully, and to me, this is the next iteration of that. There have been a lot of great offenses, but I'm not so sure I've seen one where speed was such a big factor like the Dolphins are relative to those ninety nine RAM teams. So I agree with your statement greatest show on surf. The big thing that they need to be able to do. This is not rocket science.

We all know this.

They need to play better at the end of the year. They need to play better in rougher conditions. You're gonna go to New England, You're gonna go to Buffalo, you're gonna go to Kansas City, You're gonna go to these places. Is their team built to do that? And obviously a record against against poor teams Last year they killed the teams that weren't very good with bad records. How did they do against the other teams when it was tough. The one example I think about a lot in sports was if you remember back in the eighties, the La Lakers were showtime. Magic Johnson comes in and nobody was like, I mean, it was the greatest show there was. You know, it's Kareem It's James Worthy, it's Michael Cooper, it's Norm These guys were incredible, right, They're scoring one hundred and twenty, one hundred and thirty points a night out there in the Western Conference. And then they would play the Celtics in the playoffs, and it's Robert Parrish, it's Larry Birds, it's Kevin McHale, it's Dennis Johnson, it's Cornbread Maxwell, it's all these guys, and they would slow them down. They would make him play half court. They would hammer them and they'd bully them, and they and the Lakers had a hard time. They had a hard time breaking through the Celtics. And for two or three years there was a mens frustration. Scoring all these points, best record in basketball, go play the Celtics, and they weren't. They weren't mentally tough enough to do it until they were. If you remember, there was this great Memorial Day massacre where the Lakers went to the Celtics and they got slaughtered. They lost by thirty and pat Riley very famously said, at some point, you got to stick your feet in the ground and you got to fight and show people who you are. And they did that, and Kareem abdul Jabbar became Kareem abdul Jabbar again, and they ended up becoming that team. And I always thought this was an important analogy for teams, especially the high flying teams, because it's easy when it's easy, right, you're up and down the field against bad teams, scoring all these points. We throw seventy on Denver, We do this, we do that, we do whatever. But now they slow us down. Now they make us play Celtic basketball in a half court situation, and they beat us up and those shots aren't coming off our hand quite as smoothly and easily and as confidently. How do you play? Then that's the stage where the Dolphins are in right now. For me, they have the alignment, the need, the organization to me is together. The head coach is fantastic. Offensively, they're off the charts. But can they go on the road against good teams in tough conditions or they built to be that because in the NFL you got to be that. And as high flying as the Chiefs have been over the last few years, they showed again last year that they have that kind of mental toughness. They struggled down the stretch. They were there at that minus nine degree weather Game two, right, the spirit that they've played with, they just figured it out. They're hammered Pacheco down your throat. They're a physical team. They're a high wire, vertical passing game team. But they showed they.

Could do that.

Then they go on the road and beat Baltimore. So they have that. So that's what differentiates it for me right now between the Dolphins and that next level. They have all the pieces in place. Can they be that team that can win in any condition against the tough opponents late in the year. That's why we play the games. We'll see soon enough if they can be What.

About too, with Jason You know, as we all know, man, the quarterback is typically the most talked about and of course oftentimes the most debated player on every team. So I mean, and to it seems to be especially polarized for some reason. We get a lot about it down here. And as a guy yourself that played the position, you know, got his first NFL coaching job, I guess you know here in Miami as a quarterback coach, what do you see when you evaluate two? I mean, what do you like about his game? How is a young player who you know, just had a career year doing success, you know, to take it to the next level, because that's what we need from him, right.

I love him, I absolutely love him. Just look at his track record as a player success he had at Alabama. Obviously a great environment for quarterback to play in, but he was a difference maker there and he has been for the Dolphins as well. I think he's a perfect fit with Mike McDaniel and how they play with the speed they have around him, he gets the ball out of his hand quickly.

He's a good decision maker.

He's accurate in the short areas where these guys can catch the ball on the run without breaking stride and go make big plays with run after catch. I think he has really good touch in the intermediate range. He can throw the ball down the field. All of that. So I'm a big fan of Tua. And then he liked what I was talking about before. As a leader of this offense and as the leader of this team, can he be the guy who helps them break through and do the things I talk about? Go play well when it's tough conditions in Kansas City, go up to Buffalo and get a big win at the end of the year. Can he do that? That's what he has to prove. But he's to me, he's among the better quarterbacks in the league. He's a guy the Dolphins should absolutely, absolutely double down on and say he's going to be our quarterback for a long time. It's too hard to find a quarterback in this league and to have a guy who has so much evidence of playing at a high level, and you got him in your building, you better keep them.

I agree, And you just alluded to it as far as Jason knows a little something about quarterbacks here, right, so absolutely so, you know, what you were referring to was from two thousand and five to two thousand and six under Nick Saban. And for our younger listeners who don't know, you actually arrived here the previous year, we were just talking about it before we, you know, started the show.

Here.

You showed up with your shoulder pads and your helmet for the final season of your playing career. Jay Fiedler's placed on IR on November twenty third. The next day, Jason Garrett shows up. Go give your brother a hug because he's in the building as well. Right, Jud's in the building, and you're sitting in a room with aj Feely, and so say Drosenfelds. What do you remember from that experience, which basically proved to be the final six weeks as a player in your sixteen year NFL career.

Yeah, it was a really interesting experience and one that I'm really grateful for.

It's amazing how life works.

You know.

I had played for the Cowboys for eight years, and I've played for the Giants for four and I was literally thirty seven, thirty eight years old, and I had opportunities to go coach in the NFL as a quarterback coach, and I said, you know something, I've worked really hard to try to be a player. I'm going to try to exhaust this as long as I can. Once you're done playing, you're done. So I had a chance to go sign with Tampa Bay and it wasn't a great quarterback situation for me. Brad Johnson was the starter, and Brian Greasie was there and Chris Simms was there, but it was a chance for me. At the first time. I kind of thought about what I might be doing after playing, and I said, you know, if I do go into coaching, what a great environment to be. And John Gruden is the head coach, Monti Kiffin, who just passed away, was the defensive coordinator. Rod Marinelli was there, Rich Pasaci was there. There was amazing coaches on that staff, and a couple of years earlier they had won the Super Bowl. So I felt like it was a good learning environment for me, regardless of what the playing situation was. Kind of graduate with school and football and it turned out to be that, uh, you know, the funny story is versus Pisacha became our assistant head coach and special teams coach in Dallas. We hired Monti Kiffin, we hired Rod Marinelli. So of all those guys from that experience came and coached with us in Dallas years later. But it was an amazing experience for me. And I didn't really get a chance to play there. I kind of watched for about six months. And there's a funny story. Uh, they released me at the end of training camp and and so I had a chance to broadcast a game for Fox. And it was about week four of the season. So the game that they wanted me to do was was Tampa Bay at New Orleans in the Superdome.

Oh my gosh.

So I go down there to do the game, and I go into the production meeting and I'm I'm talking to Grud and I want to cut him on the other side of it every weeks earlier, question the whole deal. And so I do the same thing with the Saints. It was just kind of an odd and odd situation. So I'm doing the game and Chris Sims got the start that week. In the middle of the second quarter, he rolls left, gets tackled and hurts his shoulder. And so he was going to be out and I got a text from from Bruce Allen. He said he's gonna be This is at halftime, he said, he's.

Going to be out for a month. We want to sign you back to want to come back on the plane, so I'll come back.

I can't come back on the plane. Let me go home and I'll come back. I'll come down there tomorrow.

So I ended up.

I ended up going to Tap and spending a month there, you know, on their team, and you know, as the third quarterback. And then soon after that, I think it was the next week Jay got hurt in Miami.

They released me in Tap.

I went down to Miami and finished it up down there, and you know, it was a great experience for me. I kind of in my mind was at peace with where I was and kind of getting ready for the next thing. But as we know, that year, Dave want Staf resigned in the middle of the year, Jim Bates took over, and then Nick Saban was hired and I got a chance really probably through Rick Spielman. He recommended me to have the opportunity to talk to coach Saban about the quarterback job, and that that's how that whole thing worked out. But it was a funny experience. Like you said, you know, I was I was a quarterback with Sage and aj you know, it was one of the quarterbacks. And then three weeks later I was their coach. I turned around and I came in with the with the notebooks. All right, guys, here we go, what's going on here? It was a great experience. I really enjoyed my time down there.

You know, that's the second time we've heard a story like that, Juice, right, because we had and another guy who does television, But Jay Feely was on the show and he was a kicker for a year and have one of the best years of his career. Coaching change was let go. And the Dolphins open up against the Jets and he's sitting at home, you know, twenty minutes from the stadium, and he's watching the game and he can't believe he's watching a game he hasn't, you know, his first time he's watching an NFL game in years. And then the kicker gets hurt and he gets a text from Mike Tannenbaum and it was the same kind of thing, and he's like, I can drive down to the stadium for the second half. He's like, well, no, you can't do that, but it's just a similar deal.

So God, I love that. That is so crazy.

And I also thought it was a really interesting time for the Dolphins because there was and especially you bridging that gap, spending all those years in Dallas like you did, and then we had almost a decade, you know, eight plus years of first four years of Jimmy, then four plus years with Dave Jim Bates, who was in Dallas at some point with you was the interim head coach. I think when you were signed here, and you know, there were people throughout the building that were there, you know, they were still kind of reeling after the wake of Ricky leaving. So it just was the end of one era and the beginning of another for the Dolphins at that time. And so just kind of interesting the way that you showed up when you did.

Yeah, And there were so many amazing stories for me, you know, having the opportunity there as a player at the end of my career and being around guys like Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas and Junior Seau and all of those guys who are just in my mind legends, and you know, at that point in my career, I was literally in year fifteen, but guys who had such a big impact on me, and just seeing how they handled themselves and conducting themselves each day, and how they were as leaders and interacting with other players. I mean, really an experience I'm truly grateful for. But then I start coaching, right and you know, it's two weeks after I finished playing. I'm on the other side of it, and Nick Saban's the head coach, and you know, my dad was a coach, and I grew up in football for a long time and all of that, But until you're truly on the other side. Now you're in the coaches meeting, you know you're not just you're not just a backup quarterback on his suggestions out there.

You know you're on the other side of it.

And to have that experience a guy who's obviously as highly regarded a coach as there is, Nick Saban, to have my first experience coaching under him and seeing how he did it and it didn't go exactly how he planned in Miami, but there was no doubt all of us who are around him knew how great a coach he was, and I have notebooks upon notebooks upon notebooks, you know, all my all my meeting room notes from being in those staff meetings with him, because there was just so much wisdom and so again, so fortunate to be able to finish my career there around amazing people and then start my coaching career under coach Saban, you know, down there and one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

In South far So yeah, really great the times, you know.

Jas, Let's talk about that transition a little bit from your sixteen year playing career and talk about some of these quarterbacks that you worked with me, you know, you know during the two years down here in two thousand and five you had Gusts and of course we talk about Sage, Gusta Rotten Sage, who you know was a teammate. And then the following year two thousand and six, we have that infamous decision that we always talk we're still talking about that down here, as you know, took to pass on Drew Brees and bringing in Dante Colepepper instead, and of course along with Joey Harrington and Cleil Lemon. I want to know if you could tell us were you part of the decision, Dave Jason or what was the decision? What happened there?

Man?

Because for me, I would have taken Dante Colepepper too, because you look at you when we talk about quarterbacks, you got an arm and the knee. I'm going with Dante Colepepper as well. So I'm wondering how you know, how the decision was made, But just talk about some of the guys you coached at that position.

Yeah, you know, ultimately I wasn't the decision maker on that. I mean I was the quarterback coach. That decision was way above my head. I mean I was an ownership and a head coach and a personnel person decision. But again, as a young coach, what an amazing process to be part of that. You know, if you remember, like you said, Gus Faratt did a fantastic job for us that first year. We went nine and seven, and candidly we were three and seven for the first part of the season. We won our final six, so you know, we have to be honest with where we were. But I think we all felt coming out of that season that we were making strides going in the right direction. That coach Saban was putting a program in place that we felt like could sustain winning for a long time. And you know, one of the big questions was, Okay, is Gus Farat the guy? Can he be as good a job as he did this year playing for us? Can he be our guy going forward? He had played for a long time, had been a backup for a long time. Was he a starting quarterback in the NFL that we could win with, go to the playoffs and win a Super Bowl with? And so you'll pull back as an organization and you say, Okay, maybe we need to make another decision here. And the two principal guys were Drew Brees and Donte Culpepper, both guys coming off injury. And it was a really fun and interesting process to go through because those guys come in. I can remember we flew to New Orleans on the plane and we picked up Drew Brees and we brought him to Miami and his wife is there, and my wife is there, and Coach Saban and his wife and you know, all the different people who were involved in this decision were there and we're recruiting him because that's what it was it was going to be. Can we get this guy to sign with us. And I can remember going to Grill sixty six. A whole group of us, including Wayne Heizenga and Wayne heizenge and Drew sat next to each other and talked the whole night, and Wayne candidly said afterwards, he said, you know, you guys got to make the football decision, but I want that guy. He's like, he's an amazing guy, and he was so impressed with who he was, and how can you not be. Drew Brees is literally one of the most legendary guys in the NFL and makes such a great oppression on everybody. So you know, you go through that process. We all were excited about Drew what he had done, you know in high school state championships in Austin, Texas, goes to Purdue, rewrites the record book there. You know, in San Diego, struggled early, but had a Pro Bowl season under his belt, then has the injuries, so there was so much there to like about him. But he was coming off a serious shoulder injury, and it seemed to me that we were all behind it when it got to that next step of the doctors and then how much we owe him. That's where the whole thing kind of fell apart. It was, Hey, he has an x percent Terris rotator cuff. We don't know if he's ever going to throw again. He wants X amount of dollars in guarantee. This doesn't all add up. And then all of a sudden we were onto the next thing. So you know, however, that decision was made among the higher ups. That's what it kind of came down to. There was a real consensus for him, and then all of a sudden it fell apart because they just didn't feel good about the injury relative to the money that we're going to have to spend. And if you think about that decision, how much that would have changed the complexion of the NFL.

Decision.

College football, I mean, I believe Nick Saban left because he felt like in order to win in the NFL you have to have an e lead quarterback. New England was in the middle of the Tom Brady years and he saw the impact that he had made up to that point, and it's like, can we get a guy like this? And it's not quite so easy when you're in college you go recruit the guy here as you have to draft and draft right and be at the high part of the draft or whatever it was. But you know, if Drew Brees had come to Miami, and there's no guarantee he would have had the same career that he had in New Orleans, but he probably would have been pretty good. And maybe Nick Saban doesn't leave, and maybe the complex of college football.

It's amazing, It is amazing. The story is amazing.

But I'm torn between, you know, being a podcast who is captivated by this story and sick to my stomach as a person's for all this time.

What an incredible, incredible story. God, that's great stuff.

Yes, you know, And the next part of the decision is the Dante Culpepper part.

And OJ you said it. I mean, Dante was a fantastic player in Minnesota and one of the real concerns with him, though, was such a big part of his game, as we all remember, was his ability to extend plays. Yeah, and run and move and stand back in the pocket and award guys off and launch the ball down the field. And he made five, six, seven, ten, twelve plays with his feet every game and there were dynamic plays. And he has he has a knee injury where his entire knee gets reconstructed and all of a sudden he's gonna have to be a pocket passer. So the question becomes, okay, we can have breeze. Is this the right thing to do for your team? Again, relative to his knee injury, when you put the tape on from two years ago, he was phenomenal. He's a Pro Bowl player through thirty nine touchdowns, he was off the charts. But is he the same guy? And and did the knee injury make him a completely different player and one that couldn't play at that same level? And that's really what we found out. He never was the same guy.

Oh Man, a better explanation of all that big step that is so good man, it makes it makes total sense, and it's nice to being.

It might be the best one we've ever heard. It might be the best. Thank you for sharing that.

Holy smokes man, I'm gathering myself here after that one.

Jason.

But but but again, the other part of it is that's one guy's perspective. That's from where I was sitting as the quarterback coach, sure us Nick Saban. He's in conversation that I'm not in if if we could bring Wayne Heyseanga back you know all those guys, they were in the high level conversations. But from my perspective, that's how the whole thing unfolded. And we're like, Okay, no, breeze.

Right, We're going to the next what's next? Yeah? Next? Man up.

It's funny.

I'm doing a little project with NFL Films about the evolution of throwing the football, and Drew Brees is a big part of it. And I was out there in California about a month and a half ago and we rehashed this whole thing.

Ye.

Well, he obviously has his own perspective on it too, but if you remember us flying to get him in the whole deal.

Wow, wow, craziness, absolutely craziness.

Well, I'm going to keep us rolling here.

So we spoke a little bit earlier about your brother jud right, And you know, I'm sure people have heard oftentimes the Garrett family they're a football family, but I don't know how many Dolphin fans really know the depths of what that statement means. You know, So your father spent a lifetime around the as a player, as a coach, as a personnel man. You and your brothers, the story of you and your and your brothers, Judd and John is incredible.

You know, going to Columbia.

First playing for your dad, then you all transfer over to Princeton and rewrite the record books there just they had it on lock. You want to talk about having a squad, so Jason m luyerback, Judd's killing it as a running back, John's you know, flying down the field, scoring touchdowns as a receiver.

All three of you guys have a pro career. And then you know.

Your dad's a scout for the Cowboys when you play there. John's is on your staff in Dallas, Judds in the scouting department. What is it meant for you? For all of you to not just build careers, like just to make it to this league and build a career in professional football is incredible, but to do it at the highest level and to spend so much time together, how special has that been?

Well, it's been really special. And the word that always comes to my mind is just grateful. I just have a tremendous amount of gratitude for the whole experience. And you know, I have seven brothers and sisters who all a year apart.

I have.

I have three brothers, four sisters, and football was just such a huge part of our life growing up, and and to be able to play in high school and then then have a chance to go to college and then you know, have careers in the NFL as players or coaches again doing stuff that we absolutely love to do, and the experiences that you have, and then to be able to do it together. You know, we spend a lot of time throwing footballs together in the backyard, My brothers and I like literally thousands and thousands and hundreds of thousands of balls.

You know, you're just out there and boom, boom boom.

And then get a chance to be able to put our uniforms on together in high school and then in college and beyond. You just feel really fortunate and you're grateful for those times. And I think you're grateful when you're doing it. You're really enjoying those times together. But then when you reflect back on it, you say, it's pretty unique that we're able to do that. And again, so much of it comes from, you know, the love and care and support from other people. My parents, my other brothers and sisters, coaches and teachers. There's so many people that allow those dreams to happen. But again, you just feel fortunate and we're just forever grateful for it.

Yeah, no doubt about it.

Man.

And obviously, Man, you know I know about the damn Garrett family. Man, they all legendary, especially your dad, man, and that's that's pretty cool. And I know he had a major influence on your journey. Well, you talked about a couple other coaches, but when I look at it, man, you had you talked about Nick, you talk about John Gruden, But man, you look at it. I mean, you got Jim Moore when you first entered with New Orleans Saints, and you got of course Jimmy Johnson and Barry Swizer through your Dallas days when they were really really good, Wade Phillips obviously. How all these guys shaped your experience as a coach and you know and as a human really, Jason.

You said that they have, And you know, I always thought about that. When you are coaching, you have such an opportunity to have an influence on your and I think you're missing the opportunity if you only try to influence them on the field.

To me, it's coach the man first.

That's something we always talked about in Dallas and not in a way that we're up on a pedestal.

We know more than the play. That's not what we're talking about.

It. It's care about the player, and it's care about them individually as people first and help them grow in every way in their life. And the reason I was so adamant about that as a coach because I felt that I felt that my life as a player, and it goes way back. I mean, it goes back to Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Saint Anne's School. You know, the guys I played for in Cyo football, I mean huge influence and then in high school and college and beyond that, and obviously my dad was a huge influence. My oldest brother Jim was a huge influence on me. But then I get in the NFL and you said it those names. I mean, Jim Moore is the head coach in New Orleans. That's my first playing experience, established coach who really knew how to do it. And a guy named Carl Smith was the offensive coordinator. Those guys have a huge impact on you and they shape you. And then obviously going to Dallas, Jimmy Johnson's the head coach, Norv Turners the offensive coordinator. Norv might be as important a coach as I've ever had in my life. And I think if you ask a lot of those cowboy players, the guys who have gold jackets on now, they would say the same thing. I mean, Troy Aikman's career was fledgling for the first couple of years, and Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith and these guys, and Norv comes in and you know, somehow instills belief in them and puts them in the right structure, and all of a sudden, they have these amazing careers. And my career obviously not like theirs, but I was trying to make teams, and Norv convinced me that, hey, you're capable of making a team. You can play at this level. And he was a guy who taught me so much and impacted me that way. And just to see how Jimmy Johnson ran that organization was incredible.

The energy of the leader pervades the group.

If you think about that statement, Jimmy Johnson may be embodied that more than anybody.

Right.

His energy, his jews, his swagger, that's what that team represented. And he's the guy that kind of drove that I can go on and on Barry Switzer, how he was such a contrast to Jimmy, but how he related and connected with players, And then Chan Gaily was there, and so many other guys and just really fortunately I played for Jim Fossel and Sean Payton in New York again, guys who were big influences on me. And you said, you know Nick, and then Wade Phillips. Wade's an amazing coach and I had a chance to work for him for four years and completely different. I went from Nick Saban to Wade Phillips. There's a spectrum of coaches, right they are. They're completely different and how they approach it, but both of them have been it forever and both of them been incredibly successful. And you'll learn that there are different ways to do things. And Wade loved football. He helped individual players become their best. His track record of influence and defensive players is like none other.

And he was such a selfless guy. It never was about him.

And you know, you'll learn all these things by observing these guys. And if you keep your eyes open and your ears open and you just listen, it's amazing the impact that they can have on you, and again I've been so so fortunate and all those names and then a thousand more names too, right, so many guys are behind the scene an impact on you as well.

Incredible incredible stuff. Man, Yeah, very good.

So all right, So we've talked about your playing career, We've talked about your coaching career, and now you are in your third NFL career, right and you're talking about football for NBC. I have always wondered, especially it's you know, the old pr geek in me. I've always wondered when a guy walks into the booth. You spent decades playing coaching, You're building relationships, as we just talked about. You've tried to do things the right way your entire life. You respect, you have this great respect for the game. You have great respect for your peers, and then you have to jump in front of the entire country and you have to talk about your contemporaries and you have to analyze their decisions and perhaps you might even need to be.

Critical at times. Is that a challenge for you?

Has that been something that you had to kind of find your comfort zone to do that, because there are probably things that your current job requires that you would never publicly have said when you know you were wearing a headset.

Yeah, no doubt.

You know, when you're a head coach, I believe you have to be really careful and measured with your words because your words have big implications, and so you have to really think about the impact of what you say, and you always have to put your team first. And when you're a head coach and someone asks you a question, as much as you want to respect the person who's asking the question, what goes through your mind first is what's best for the team.

And so that's the prison that you answer the question through. And I always tried to be disciplined to that. I thought that that was really important to me.

So when you're a broadcaster, that's the exact opposite thing that you want to do. You want to be honest and direct about what you see. And what I've tried to relate it to, and I think OJ you can understand this is I always tried to relate it to being in a meeting, say him in front of a meeting as the head coach of the Cowboys, and we're going through the tape of the game on Monday, and so the idea is Okay, Oj McDuffie's playing for us, and he's supposed to run an eighteen yard incut and he runs it at sixteen. We need Oja to run the route at eighteen yards. He can't run it at sixteen. The time is going to be off. But hey, Oj, hell of a job getting off the ball here. We're going to push it up here. We need to get you to eighteen when you come in there. Nice job working back into the ball. Okay, it's a big gain for us, but keep pushing that depth. So the idea is we have to get that information out that the route is short. We got to get it to eighteen. But there are other things in there that were good. The release was good. Attacking the ball at the end was good. So to me, you can be honest and direct about all of those things at the same time and be truthful. Okay, the release was good, the finish was good. We got to get the depth to eighteen. And so to me, as a coach, I always was tried to pride myself on being detailed about what we need to do and holding guys accountable and disciplining all of those things. But I think you can do it in a way that doesn't disparage the person that you're coaching. You're treating them with respect instead of saying damn it McDuffie. Hell, that's not what it's about, right, So to me as a broadcaster, I've tried to take that same attitude. I love football, I love the game, I love coaches, I love players. I do these Notre Dame games. Is there anything better than being in South Bend, Indiana on a Saturday afternoon?

You kidding me.

I'm there to celebrate the game, right, But you also have to be honest. You also have to say he's late with the ball, the ball's in, he's got to get the ball out. If he does that again, the ball is going to be intercepted. You've got to be able to say that too. And I'm learning how to say that better and better and better. And I think the people at NBC have been phenomenal helping me do this better and do it in a way that's still positive, still celebrating the game, but also honest and direct about what happened.

So I'm working on it. Hopefully I'm getting better at it.

It's been pretty dark good today, I can tell you that much.

Yeah, they still let you be you, you know what I mean, but just a little bit, a little bit harshing than Jason Garrett might be in real life.

Right.

I like it.

I like yeah, yeah, And you've got to be honest about it and and that, and that's something that's an important breakthrough for I think a lot of guys to make. On the other side of it, you have guys who almost revel in disparaging people. It's like it's it's like they contribute to all this noise out there in the world. And I'm not about that. I just think there's a better way to do it. And for me, the guy who's regarding as the best football analyst of all time is John Madden. And he did what I'm talking about better than anybody. He celebrated the game. He's celebrated coaches, he celebrated players, he made the game fun for everybody. But then when he needed to say something, he said it. So I'm trying to take his approach. And I think it's incredible that they celebrate John Madden on these Thanksgiving games. It's kind of John Madden, you know, Thanksgiving football. And and again I think he's a great role model for all of us in the profession.

All right, Well, look, Jason, you have not only been honest and candid here, but you've been incredibly gracious with your time. We're going to wrap this up momentarily, but we end every episode of the Fish Tank the same way. It's with our two minute drill. I have to imagine that you are no stranger to a two minute drill. So you've got two minutes on the clock in your head and we'll throw some fast paced, hopefully fun questions at you.

We'll see if we can put this thing in the end zone, and we'll get you out here.

I love it, all right, all right, all right, as we said earlier, you are a Princeton man, which makes you one of four Dolphins quarterbacks who played in the IVY League. Can you name the other three?

Jay Fiedler, we got one.

Huh that's Dartmouth. One is in your business now and play for eighteen hundred teams?

Oh, Ryan Fitzpatrick, it is so that check's Harvard Off. The last one's talk.

Yeah, Columbia nineteen sixty seven. Last Archie Roberts. Yeah, that's a tough one, right, Jeff. Jeff threw that one on the clumpy. Right, Yeah, that's right, Columbia. That's right.

You guys have shared something there, good stuff, all right. Speaking of the Ivy League.

We made a first down, Harriet, but we're working the ball.

It was definitely it was a plus play for sure. All right.

So, speaking of the Ivy League, you still hold the Ivy League's career record for completion percentage, connecting on sixty six point five some of your passes.

So you know what accuracy looks like.

Who do you feel in today's NFL is the most accurate passer in the game?

Oh? Wow, there are so many good ones. Most accurate? Yes, I think Joe Burrow is probably as accurate as anybody goes.

Ohio, I don't like it, but I like it. It's okay, that's okay, all right, all right. Your brother Jed, my man Jed running back and yeah, so I've did a lot of work with him down with the Dolphins. Published his first novel, No Win, several years ago. If you were to write a book, what would the title be?

It would be Devour the Strawberry.

Devour the strawberry.

Yeah.

From that, let's let's huddle up and talk about this, coach.

This is a very This is a very important story for me, so I don't want to use all my time in the two minute drill, but I'll share it with you. It's a story about a Buddhist monk friend of mine who was running, and he was running and running and running. He was running as fast as he can run. He didn't know why he was running, He just was running. And he looked back behind him. These lions and tigers were chasing after him, and they were getting closer and closer and closer. And he kept running and running and running. He got to the edge of a cliff. He looked out over the edge of the cliff and there was one hundred foot drop with snakes slithering down below. He looked back behind him. The lions and tigers are getting closer. Next thing you know, he goes over the edge of the cliff and as he's falling, he looks up.

He sees the lions and tigers. He looks down, he sees the snakes.

Then grabs onto a branch coming out of the side of the cliff, and he looks up and sees lions and tigers. He looks down, he sees the snakes. Then the branch starts to get a little rickety. He looks at the base of the branch. There are three rats gnawing away at the base of the branch. He looks up and sees the lions and tigers. He looks down, he sees the snakes. He looks at the base of the branch where he sees the three rats. For whatever reason, his eyes are on to the other edge of the branch, where he sees the most beautiful bushel of strawberries he's ever seen in his life.

He reaches out with two hands and he devours them.

Wow, how about that? Devour the strawberry?

Strawberry man?

Okay, okay, so so do you want to know what the devour of the strawberry story means?

To please? Please?

What does it mean to you? Guys?

Man?

He sees the moment, I think is what he did right with everything else around him. He sees the moment.

That's as otherwise. And that's probably the best possible out for you, is that. I don't know if Day's talk to us. Man.

Don't we all have lions and tigers in our past, things we have or haven't done.

For sure, right?

And oftentimes you think about these regrets all the time, right, We're focused on what's happened in the past, and don't we all have maybe some anxiety about the future, the snakes slithering down below, what's going to happen next? And don't we all have these rats in our everyday life who just kind of pester at us and jump at us all the time, and oftentimes we're focused on that or focused on this. We're focused on that. But hopefully we all have people we love and things we love to do. So instead of focused on the lions and tigers, being anxious about the snakes, being all hung up about these rats in our everyday life, we should focus, okay, on the people we love and things we.

Love to do and devour those experiences.

Oh wow, that's socially today. Man, That is so good. Man.

I tell you the story because I've told it to a lot of football teams.

I bet in my life.

I heard it years ago. I was still playing, and I shared it with teams when I was playing. Then when I became a coach. It's a great Ricky Williams story. By the way, I was coaching with the Dolphins and on a Saturday night, we had lost a couple of games and Scott Lenihan was our offsive coordinator and he used to have different position coaches come up and give the offensive group a little message before we broke our meeting, and he said, hey, do you want to talk to the team tonight.

And I was a young coach. I was nervous.

I didn't know what to say, but I'm like, this is the story we need to hear. So I kind of did my little thing on football and I said, guys, before I sit down, I want to share this story with you, and the point being, you know, hey, we lost a couple of games. Those games ain't coming back. Let's stop focusing on that. Hey, we may or may not make the playoffs. Who cares? Who cares what the press is saying about us. We got a chance tomorrow at one o'clock at Dolphin Stadium to go out there and do the thing we love to do. Since we're this high, right, let's go live out our dreams and enjoy this time together and go be pro football players and embrace the hell out of it. That's the idea. So I tell that story, and you know, I felt good about it. Again, I was a young coach, a little anxious about the whole thing. And Ricky Williams was on our team, and so afterwards he was kind of waiting for him. And I knew Ricky, you know, we were kind of buddies. He used to always get the quarterback tip sheet every week. So he comes up next to me. He's got the long hair, he's got the beard, he's wearing the long kind of yoga pants that he used to wear and bare feed and he said, Coach, you told that story very well. I really appreciate you sharing that with us. I said, thanks, Ricky, I appreciate you saying that. He's like, it's actually a Hindu story, not a Buddhist story. I've been studying it for the last year and a half.

Goodness, and he had the time to do it. He had time to study for sure.

Wow.

Wow is a great story. It was so good. I had another question on my plate.

Right, it's gonna be the title this episode.

Definitely, it's gonna be the title in this episode. And that's the end of the two minute drill. I don't need this last play. Great clock management by Jason Garrett. We just called the kicker out here for a little pooch.

Kick and we won this thing. This was incredible.

Thank you for that story and really just for everything, your time and as I said, your candor, it's been.

A good man, so good bro.

Man.

I mean we've gone about one hundred and eighty something of these, man, I don't. I mean, this is right up to the top with me. Bro, It's so good Man.

And Alzheimer Alzheimer, No.

You got you guys are great. Let's do it again.

Sounds good. Thanks for diving in Jason's man.

You got it. Great seeing you guys.

You're now diving.

Just like Jew said.

Thanks for diving into the fish Tank presented by iHeartRadio. Be sure to follow us on whatever streaming platform you're using, and don't be afraid to rate the show or leave us a comment. We love your feedback, and remember you can find us, as well as Drive Time with Travis Wingfield and all of our international partners, on Miami Dolphins dot com.

The Fish Tank: Miami Dolphins Tales From The Deep

Dive in with Miami Dolphins all-time great, OJ McDuffie, and co-host Seth Levit as the guys are join 
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