Unbreakable with Jay Glazer: A Mental Wealth PodcastWelcome to Unbreakable! A mental wealth podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. Ever wonder what really goes on behind the scenes at the NFL Combine and behind closed teams’ doors? Well, you are in luck, because on today’s episode, Jay welcomes Seattle Seahawks General Manager John Schneider back in for his second visit on the podcast. Schnied’s shares some amazing combine tales and paints an incredible picture of the entire process from the general managers perspective. Truly fascinating!!
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This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental wealth podcast build you from the inside out.
Now Here's Jay Glacier.
Welcome into Unbreakable mental Wealth podcast with Jay Glazer. I'm Jay Glazer, and my vacation's over. Went to the Combine this past week, and I was like, you know, who could I have on to really explain what the NFL scount and Combine is, what the intricacies are, how you really kind of figure out who you want to invest in, how you get in between the six inches between.
Your ears of these players.
Who better to bring on than the first general manager I ever had on the show ever, Seattle Seahawks general manager, My little buddy, Josh Sneider.
How are we doing? Stuts?
How the going, buddy?
It's so funny, Shines.
I became friends in like ninety seven, and when you have your friends out here you've been friends with forever, you.
Just do not introduce them.
Yeah, it's weird, Right's kind of weird.
Right.
US TV hosts have a very high time with that shit.
But those of you who can't see this, you're listening in audio before even start. Those who can't see this, right behind Schneider's head is this big painting that his son bended right.
And all over the wall, all over the wall.
And his son bend is autistic. Tell people real quick before we even start on this podcast about that, how you figured it out and what he's doing now, because his I have I think what five of his paintings something like that.
Yeah, yeah, you have a bunch.
So he's a genius.
It's incredible and so twenty three years old and they're supposed to look kind of like Jackson Pollock ish and.
Yeah, he loves it, and so you had.
No idea he was like this until about four years ago.
He always loved art and then when we hired Nicole his mentor, full time, they really just dove into it.
And it's been great.
So yeah, he has his own company, Small Ego art dot Com. And he does shoes too, so like, uh, it's like Air Force ones and stuff. So yeah, yeah, the majority of it goes to help families that can't afford treatments for autism, which you know, as you know, Jame, my wife Tracy has been doing it for since twenty eleven here and she's raised with everybody's hell perio at the Seahawks she's raised you know, probably over six million dollars for families so grant so for iPads and heavy blankets and you know, retreats and counselors and anything.
And then that's one of the.
Things to you and I have talked about it, like, man, when it first happened, You're like, man, why did this happen to me? And then you realize, wow, it happened to me, so it could happen for others that I could help them.
You know.
Yeah, It's one of those things.
God, you know, gives you what you can handle, right, so yep, yeah.
You know I never have to.
You know, what was your reaction the first time you saw this first painting like this?
I know my reaction was oh.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. There was a lot of crying involved.
Yeah yeah, yeah, of a lot of proud tears and and uh would take me to and then and then the it's the excitement of it, and then okay, what are we gonna do?
How are we gonna do it?
So then he's able to live on his own, so you know, gett him into his house and like getting his own studio set up, and you know, having you know, Tracy run the business and then.
Answer my question.
My question was tell me like, I don't know when you first saw it or like how when I first saw it?
Like did she bring it into show you? Like, oh my god, look what's happened to her? Did he bring it?
Yeah?
No, I think I think they basically just sent me, you know, a pictures and showed up on my iPhone, you know, and when it was done. And then she showed me, you know, in fast time, the process of it and how they got to that point. So yeah, it was like, holy cow, this is amazing. I can't believe he's doing this. Yeah, and then the wall. The wall was basically like I didn't know if he'd want to do it, and and uh, my assistant Sarah asked Tracy about it, and they both talked to him and he was he was into it.
So yeah, it took him about four hours, so he was to do it.
Folks, small ego Art go to small ego art dot com or go to Instagram small ego Art. All right, So we just got back to the company and back of the day. He used to be able to just tearing the guys when you're interviewing them, right, say the most hateous shit, and see who's going to crack, who's not going to crack, who's going to respond certain guys who get a reaction of you can't do that anymore. Now you gotta be real sensitive to you know, what you say to these guys. And I was talking to guy down there or the other I said that if I had one question to ask these guys, it would be what's the biggest adversity you've overcome? He said, Jane, it's a great thing, but these guys have been so coached up on it, it's so.
Hard to get a real answer. That's where our work really begins.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Our first when I started with the Packers, that was our first question. That's the biggest to obscleen that I'd overcome, really, And you know, we used to we used to pull guys to the side. And so there was a I almost said his name, I can't can't say. It was the defensive tackle from Notre Dame that I was interviewing, and I hadn't gone into the school that year, so I didn't know his full story. And I was like, it was the biggest obscle've had overcome. And he said well, you know for the opening game. You know, my parents were both killed and had on collision, you know, and I was able to get through the season and I was like, holy cow, man, like I'm so sorry, and I hugged him and he's like, oh man, I'm just fucking.
With you, dude, that none's mess with No really. Yeah.
So then I'm like, I'm going back to these guys like we're not gonna we are definitely not drafting this guy.
There's so much more to it.
And you remember sitting next to you know, like all the questions you can and cannot ask now, and you know, sitting next to Ray Rhodes as like a twenty two year old young man like I can't believe we're this guy gonna come across the table and kill us.
Like I can't weave.
He's staring into this guy right now.
Did you ever see a guy jump over to tack, get physical to coach?
No, no, but get up and leave, Get up and leave.
Yeah, So it is interesting. How do you get the answers you're looking for now? And look, I coached guys right I was trending guys with a combine and I would be like, hey, listen when the answer comes up. The question comes up, and this sounds hard. The question was and I think I got.
I forget what.
Team's questions I got, but one of them was like, hey, do you want to be an NFL player because you want to be rich, you want to be famous, you want to buy your mom house or something else.
Almost every one of the four answers like I want to buy my mama house. I'm like, nope, no one gives a fuck about your mom. You want to want to shoot?
That is it?
Like, well, that's not what the answer that's going to be your answer, right, So you know my answer is not on here.
Right. Yeah.
When the guys when they say, hey, you don't want to be you know, I want to be the you know, pro bowler and be the highest paid player at my position in four or five years, it's kind of like, okay, well that's great. What about the championships and the yeah yeah, but yeah, no, it's it's definitely, it's definitely. It's it's changed a ton, Jay, So like that fifteen minutes is really our coaches didn't go last year. So last year we were hyper focused on the character and how like the background and the person, and we've really concentrated on that over the last several years, like who's the person, who's the competitor and the nil stuff and the trade portal has actually really helped us with that. So the information you're getting from the guy's been to three different schools, like what are the sources? All the scouts have to really be working as one and working as a team to collect all the information.
This year, going down with the coaches, we were able.
To get like, look, let's get right to the football because we feel like our scouts do an amazing job of figuring out who the person is throughout the process and we'll continue to do that all the way through the spring. So it's hard to get to know somebody in fifteen minutes. And to your point, they're kind of they're pretty much coached up right and usually gotten their best behavior. But it's really more about spending as much quality time as you can when that's the thirty visits or going through the informals, or you know, having the scouts spend time with the guys at the produce.
You're talking about the fifteen minutes and again you and I know it, but for the fans that are. I think most fans don't understand the process. Talk about that process fifteen minutes and then the fight for it.
So we used to we used to have a vague rule where it was like, you know, you had to One of my first jobs was standing outside the Raiders room waiting for Prospect to come out, and we basically get in line like it'd be you know, Detroit, Chicago.
I'd be third with.
The Packers, right, and then you'd wait for the player to come out. So we tried to keep him like okay. It was kind of a vague rule like twenty to thirty minutes, but then people would go over time. Soud be like knocking on the door trying to like come on, you know, let's get going, like let's.
Get this guy. I gotta I gotta get going.
And so there'd be a lot of like arguments, fights number two guys like going into the pool fighting one night over a player, you know, like like from two helps from different teams. Yeah, and now the Jeff Foster's did an amazing job of of uh really, I'm sorry, yeah, really organizing it where the interview process, you know, we're primarily there for the medical The Jets drafted receiver you know named Wesley Walker, famous receiver you know, ended up like very talented, great player, but ended up being blind in one eye. And so there's really the jets that were like, I got all the teams together and we're like, hey, let's let's combine this. Let's get all all our docks here and check people out. And then from that came the interviews and the you know, the workout portion. Instead of just having a tryouts that you know, the pro days in the spring, let's get her together and have them go through like back to back so we can watch them go through all the same drills and everything.
So that's really you know why it started with.
Jeff's done a great job of like streamlining everything the medical, we interviews, the workouts, and then you know the media time that the.
Guys have to.
Yeah, so now now instead of going standing at a door waiting for a prospect, you basically schedule the interviews ahead of time, and.
There's you know, sixty guys.
You schedule it out, and then the combine goes through and makes the schedule for you, Jeff and his group, and then just you know, we have a big, a big clock in there just to count down from fifteen minutes, just starts hitting and then once it hits Once it hits one, you're up and they're up and gone.
And then the next that's where it comes in.
The guy.
How they have like a date card, they have a scheduled card with them. Maybe that's just you.
That's cool how it is. Yeah, it's not just this league.
And usually you know you will because you know the majority of teams have an area guy in the room.
So usually you'll have an area guy. I still go outside and wait, like, hey, this guy's gonna get next. I know he's down at the Raiders. He'll come down.
I'll go get them and walk them down our room so they know where to go.
People off. When do you start preparing? How far in advanced do you start preparing for the combine?
For the combine, Well, the whole process starts about a month after the draft, you know, at the national meetings. So we say that, yeah, so you sort through that, and and everybody sorts through those grades, the grades the national scouts have given guys or blessed oh you know, the other scouting group. We go through that and then the team, the guys, the scouts with the players, I'm sorry, the scouts that are responsible for their areas. They'll put grades on guys and then they kind of know how to sort, you know, how they're gonna prioritize their fall, how they're gonna schedule their area. You know, how how many times they're going to go into Ohio State or Michigan and you know basically what it's going to look like, right like scheduling my scheduling a week of where I'm gonna go.
Okay, I'm gonna go Notre Dame and Purdue Indiana. You know what I mean? Like, how am I going to schedule my fault.
One is it starts right after the draft for.
The about month, yeah, about a month after and then you know there's a there's a selection committee, right that that ends up, you know, deciding okay, here we go. And then now you know that usually that that you know intensifies probably like you know, maybe around December and they call them like there's winter meetings, so they'll go back and have you know, some more winter meetings, and then you're going on that and then and then they have to do a really good job with Okay, the guys that are declaring and not clearing and then who's going to get in and who's not going to get in.
So uh yeah, but I.
Think people don't really.
It's not like you guys start getting ready for the draft right after your previous draft.
I don't think anybody.
Realize, Yeah, it's a month. Yeah it's a month.
So really really, our area, guys, the way we do it, and every team does it differently, the way we structure it is, you know, as soon as the national meetings are over at the end of May, as soon as we get those grades, and then you know, we go the area. You guys go through their schools as soon as they turn their grades in their summer begins so they can have that as much time with their family as they possibly can as they organize themselves for the fall.
What's the let's say, coolest thing you heard one of the coolest things you heard in an interview with one of those kids.
Doesn't have to be this year?
Oh doesn't that to do this year? Oh man? Two amazing, two amazing ones that always come to mind as you know, as.
A running back that our coaches were asking them, Hey, do you feel like you're like a more comfortable inside runner? Or outside runner and he's like, you kidd me, you guys been doing our new door facility.
That's a good one.
I know exactly what I love.
Then there was then there was a running back that you know, get kicked out of a school for you know, too many positive marijuana tests and had transferred to another school and then had another positive tests. I had to miss four games, and you know one of our one of the people in the room was like kind of getting down on him, and one of the older gentlemen in the room was like kind of like, I don't understand it sounded like why would you do that? Like I don't, I don't get it, and kind of panicked. At the end, He's like I was, I was sitting in the middle of the couch.
And I was next. I never heard that one really, Yeah, yeah, so it's funny of those. Yeah, yeah, pretty famous player. Yeah, oh my.
God, that one is hilarious. I yeah, I've heard some beauties over the years, but give.
Me the guy.
Then who had an interview where you're like, oh, this so impressive and.
Oh man, when yeah, when I met Troy Polamalu, who I felt like I was meeting a disciple really.
Yeah.
He was my interview and it was you know, maybe the fact that he was like wearing birks and you know, had the long flowing hair, and it's like, hey, brother, you know, like I'm like, this is the same guy that I saw make fourteen straight tackles and start.
Did you see LA game? You know, like wow, I couldn't believe that.
They're like really such an impressive human being and communicator and leader and like knew what was important to him.
He always stands that out to me. You know, his uncle, you know, Kenny is a running back coach. I was keep telling about it.
He's like, Okay, you've told me the story enough, you know, so yeah, no, great guy. You know, Jay, The week is really the interviews are a huge portion of it. But it's really like like the week is very structured, you know, so like I have league stuff, you know, Monday, Tuesday, part of Wednesday, you know, all the media stuff.
The majority of general managers don't.
Do a ton of media stuff, and that's like the biggest kind of media day for you know a lot of my colleagues in the league.
And we're not all that fired up about it, as like we're.
Well look speakers as the as the head coaches are because they have to speak so much every week, you know, so there's a lot of us that you know, I think Jason.
Would say you the same thing.
We were talking the afternoon, right Like, once you kind of get through that portion, you're like, Okay, now I can get on to.
Meeting, meeting with all the agents, meeting with.
As many teams as he possibly can, you know, getting to the workouts, uh, you know, going through the uh you know, just figuring out like who the cap catl the guys are going to be, and what free agency is going to look like. Really just trying to get like a global feel for what the landscape's going to look like throughout the spring.
It's all look it also folks, to be honest with Also, he is like our family reunion. We all get to see our friends. You got my brothers.
You know.
It's like, it's funny because I used it's so funny. I used to get ripped in the early days. But when I was doing this for not being objective, because I was friends with the players and coaches and gms, and when the truth was I just needed you guys for my mental health, Like I need teams.
Like it wasn't like doing anything to take care of like, oh, I'm not gonna be objective.
Well you've noted out of a little less aggressive with the approach. I would say.
They used to be, no doubt, but it's but it really was I needed, I need my teams.
And that's what it is.
The family part of it, the family reunion part is really cool because you don't you know, like you know the coaches.
You can see guys on the road and you're scouting.
We had a really cool late night uh you know, toast for the late Regie Cob and then was really close with a lot of people.
And and then Tommy Hecker one of the nights.
You know, really late night like get together with all and that that that's cool like that that that what you're talking about, that brotherhood.
So we need to combine here, take us down the next steps from now to what happens you get pro dage like basically leaned.
Up to the week of the draft.
You know, we just got back last night, so we got back in the office this morning, kind of meeting getting with everybody.
Hey, what did you learn? What did you learn? Whether you know coaches scouts, pro guys, you know, everybody like, what did we learn this week? And then from what what what? What do we learn?
How do we can'd of form our spring, not kind of how do we form our spring? And what are the what are the questions that we need to still get answered? How do we strategize for free agency? You know, do we you know, from a trade standpoint, do we really think about considering you know, working with that team? Are we you know, how do that player going to fit in that this team wants to trade for with what free agency looks like or can compensate.
In a draft?
And and then you know, taking this week before free agency starts to really get organized for you know, how you're gonna account for your spending. You know, you want to be able to Ted Thompson wuld say, right, you want to be able to keep your powder dry as you come all the way around the corner into the uh you know, to the trade deadline, so you can still be able to improve your team at the at the latest possible moment with trades you know, during the season. So it's really like, okay, how do we how do we figure out you know, like an extension standpoint what does that look like on restricted free agency going out and trying to fill some needs trades and then at getting all the medical information. I just came from a meeting where you know, we went through all the medical information you talk about, you know, a kick to the growing, Like you have all these guys that were like you can't have that guy, can't have that guy. I can't have that guy.
We're gonna have to do more research on those guys. So the football these guys over is about like, you know, I got it right now.
We got about like say one hundred and sixty guys on our board, and we probably had like one hundred and eighty. We probably had like about forty of them, Like they're like the of those forty to fifty, Okay, you know, we'll go with the medical staff and figure out, Okay, who do we need to bring in on a thirty visit and have our docs spend more time with and reevaluate.
So yeah, you know, my other part of that question was like the schedule going up to the draft.
The reason why I say it because I try and tell people all the time, like if there's reports out there right now that this is such a nuch team has this guy in the top ten. They're so full of ship because your boards are nowhere near sets no or even put up no no.
I think I think last year, I think I freaked out Mike McDonald out, you know, like first time head coach. You know, you come like, oh, cool, Yeah, the Seahawks are supposed to be pretty good at drafting and stuff, and you walked into the draft room after after the comp.
Basically the gap to the comment.
What we do is we were like, if they had a good combine, how they worked out, so we slide them up, slide the tags up or down, and then we just know, like to okay that we're going to spend more time just evaluating the combine to we really seen the right thing, you know, just from studying the film, from the workouts, and then you know, so it looks like it's a total disaster.
He started, he's I think he was kind of looking at us like, oh my god, this is going to be a nightmare. You know.
This now what happens.
Yeah.
The other thing happens to JA when when you're talking about that is you know you go through that week and you're like, you know, oh yeah, you know you meet with people, and you meet with teams and stuff, and and then you know you've never trade for whatever call whatever the position is, No, no, no, we like our guys there. And then you talk to a team and they're like hey, or you know, throughout the week. Later in the week you're like hey, I you know, what do you think about this guy? And you're like, man, maybe maybe we should do that, you know. And then so then you know, you end up making a trade that you just told people you would never you wouldn't do, right, So then you know, so there's just a lot of there's just a lot of uncertainty at this time of the year, and it's really like, okay, it feels like it really feels like you're like in between home plate in first place.
Yeah, no, it's it's again. I think the process is well through it and I can't say enough like a goat folks. Draft wise, these guys, even when they do set their board, they reset it the Monday of the draft.
Right you guys. You guys then have mock draft to see what they want to do.
And it I mean for some teams goes rap till the data draft where they're just changing the order of things and they and I think there's a huge misconception because a lot of it is what's up, oh Seahawks of this guy in the top ten, Like Seahawks don't.
Even have ten guys there yet, Like we don't do Monck drafts. I hear you say Monck drafts.
Like one of the worst drafts we did was we did like a rehearsal mock draft, like where everybody had a team, right and so, and then he was kind of it was like, I'm like, okay, We're never ever doing that again.
Why what happened?
What you just your brain's all over the place.
Then you're like, okay, well that's really not the way I view it coming off right, And you have to be so pliable throughout the draft weekend, like where you're going to try to acquire people in what areas? It's like, holy cow, we were just we were a little too scattered that year.
So yeah, we will we will do that.
The uh again.
We were talking about having then with Chasing Light and there's a couple of questions that came up. Come on to hit a couple of these, and one of them was, what's the thing about being a general manager that you you weren't expecting, Like if you knew then, well, you know now it would be a lot easier for you.
Oh man, what for you as a GM.
We're getting the first sixteenth draft, so really blessed in Washington too.
Yeah.
So you know, I think, maybe not from a draft standpoint, but I think the job, the job, Yeah, yeah, I think. I think. I think the behind the scenes stuff that people don't see, the personal things that you can't talk about publicly that you go through personally with players, coaches, staff, that we're not necessarily prepared for.
Uh.
You know, coaches go to a lot of you know, coaching clinics and they share a lot more you know, coaching information, you know schematically, you know, we we we tend to not do that as as going up in the scouting industry and you try to kind of, you know, keep things much.
More to the best.
And there's things that when you're in that position and there's things that come up every single day and we're builda polly and tell me and make sure to make sure, you know, when you show up for work, you don't let people keep putting those monkeys on your back because all of a sudden if every keeps coming in your office and giving you their monkeys by noon, you're gonna have twelve monkeys on your shoulders and you're gonna have to work your tail off fall out.
You're needing to fix it.
You got to be able to learn to delegate and not try to fix everything yourself, and help people grow and and just lead. And I think just like your communication skills and have never changed, and you know as a person, or do things, do things the way you know other people would do them. I mean, I think the world of obviously Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson and Terry Bradway and people would have been my direct bosses.
But I'm not.
I know I'm not them, and I've always when we got fired in Washington, I always thought like, hey, if ever get back in this, I'm not going to try to.
Do it a specific way.
If I was able to get into that role again, and then hooking up with Pete, he just made it so evident because he went through you know himself haven't been fired twice, you know, in the NFL, and then having all that success, you'd like, hey, we're just going to make us the best marriage we could possibly make it. And we're going to lead the way we lead as as the people we are. So that part of it, and then I would say, you know, the heart the hardest thing really is the contractual part, and you know, the casually part like every year like kind of resetting and every.
Year the new year, and you have to make decisions to like, you know, move on, you know, and.
I mean everybody's human, right, you know, these guys you become so close like I don't want to say personally close with the guys, but you care so much about them.
You know.
It's not as that's the now eighty to ninety per of the job is amazing and we're all like it's it's we're all very very blessed to be doing this. And Jason and I were talking about today, like the longevity that's been amazing and we feel very thankful for that. But that that stuff is, like that human element is still very hard.
Well.
It's interesting because I whatever coach you get in there, I was telling him, man, you have no idea what to come about to come across your desk, right the stuff because you're playing because everybody in your building's messed up. It's just the bottom line, you can't be great and not have some crazy and to everybody.
Right, it's crazy.
But then there's family, and then you have agents and baby mine and this and that, and all these people are taking all this stuff and it all comes on your plate across your desk, whether you're the head coach or general manager, and there's no there's no schooling anybody can go to to deal with it because you're dealing with mental health issues, you're dealing with cheating issues, family stealing, I mean, just really tough stuff, you know, violence, things, things that you didn't No one went to school for it, for this stuff. It's just like and all of a sudden, now everybody suddenly has become a psychologist. Everybody has to be a psychiatrist. Everybody has to be a therapy and you have to learn on the fly how to do that, which is amazing.
Yeah, I think that maybe the first or second year we were playing down into Alice and one of us starting offensive. Lineman's uh like his loss's best friend, and uh, you know he's in my room and I'm sitting there hugging this big guy, trying to help him out, you know.
And yeah, to your point, you're not trained for that.
Yeah, no, there's no. And even we did go to school for it, we're still not trayed for it. It's not no what's normal in this lot of work?
Right?
Yeah?
I mean you should see the resumes. I get those there, like I have my doctorate in sports management and I'm like, well, where where did you get that?
I mean, you know when we were in college, they're like the sports management stuff didn't didn't exist. And there's so many there's so many talented people out there that just you just need that op to.
Get in the door.
Last person I got for you, what's I wore.
A colored shirt for you today? By the way, No, thank you very much. When when was the last time or something the color.
Comfortable with it? To be honest with you. Last question got for you?
What traits you think you learned from being a GM or let's say the GM hash but you think could equate to anybody trying to run a business.
For me, personally, it's pretty easy. It's it's a communication and empathy.
Always trying to put yourself in somebody else's promission and how are they feeling? And you know, how are you, you know, doing what's best for the club, Like first and foremost, like what's best, what's what's best for the for the organization, whether it's employees or agents, or players or coaches or doctor and the trainer and their fields crew. Like having that like direct communication and level of empathy and appreciation for what everybody and then you can take that, you know, anywhere you want. You know, you know Mike Gerva, doctor Gervey pretty well right and he you know, work with Microsoft and Satia and everything and they you know, Satia, I built a whole, you know, I want to say it's like two hundred and you know, sixty thousand people basically that you know, he's in charge of that.
He runs you know, the organization through empathy, like first and foremost. So that's that's it.
Love it, Snods. I appreciate your brother.
Get small Ego art dot com or on Instagram. Thanks for that, Jay, absolutely brother, Love you man, and uh appreciate it.
Thanks thanks for having me, man,
