yeah I'm I'm a huge Canadian basketball fan Rick Fox sgaa but let's go back to the table here because one of our favorite people in the NFL is here former head coach of the Carolina Panthers former head coach of the Washington commanders Mr Ron Rivera congratulations on the return thank you so happy to be back can you tell us what's the latest what are you up to and if you're just seeing the show for the first time they're like whoa Coach Ron is there what's going on in your world well for the most part is this um there's an opportunity for me to do some work for the NFL Network and I'm going to be uh part of this every now and then so this is kind of cool awesome d right it is you know coach I got to ask I know you're uh a big big fan of football you love football you come from football you've been through a lot of different locker rooms you're friends with Andy Reid what's the biggest challenge when it comes to three peating like oh go this is Uncharted Territory well you know first foremost because it is Uncharted Territory the biggest thing really is just the focus being able to keep the guys interested in the regular season don't get ahead of what everybody's expectations are I heard montz is not a big fan of the word expectations which I don't disagree with but that's what the big thing is is you got to be able to control what the expectations are going to be keep it realistic for your players what they do in the locker room that's up to them nobody else so the key is really just keeping the players focus on what's important you know what what's important this time of the year is training camp getting better every rep but Ron it's changed a lot we love you cuz you're totally plugged in League now but you're also old school and you went through training camps as a player in the 80s what is the difference between those camps even the ones you coached and the ones happening now well you know back then you had true true two a days and you didn't have a ramp up period where you didn't have pads for almost a full week um you went right into pads and you went Double Days right away and there really wasn't a limit as far as how much time you could spend inside the locker room or so than I mean excuse on the practice field and in the locker rooms now today there's a limit you know you get to that 11 hours in the facility now the players are out so there's a big difference as far as those things are concerned it's a little bit of different type of uh uh Team Building team bonding um because once you know back in the day and you know this everybody used to go away you would go somewhere and spend a month you know at at some University like we went to University of Platville Wisconsin and there everything was different everything we were basically in lockdown oh my gosh coach I don't know if you saw over the weekend social media Kyle said he's about to run through a wall for this show and I really want to team up here let's talk the Bears in the mid to late Kyle let's cook shall we yeah I already want to hear what was Dick's thoughts on Dan Hampton's podcast back in the day no no so so coach you just said if you were in Wisconsin Platville on campus I went there as f as a kid there you go so take us back when social media didn't exist what were you guys getting into or getting after at training camp in Platville you know we got into a lot we really did and and ESS interally because it became a challenge and and really one of the great challenges was being able to get away with breaking curfew okay get away with breaking Cur oh buddy buddy Ryan didn't have the tape on the door what do we got here well one of the really great stories that I was part of was uh one evening Dan Hampton Richard D and Steve McMichael felt a few of us needed to get out so we did you know uh Dale hop defensive line coach he does bed check we finish bed check and then all of a sudden here come the guys let's go we're going next thing you know we're at the VFW okay they let us in we go in we're playing p shooting full it's about 11:30 11:45 had a you know we used to be a proper Country BMW so now here comes the waitress she drops off a a picture of beer I give her 20 she goes oh no no it's from the coach oh oh yes get out of here oh no true story there he is with his group of that's amazing so put quarters Stacks him right right on the pool table goes I got next yeah he's got next so now he's shooting pool Richard Dent Dan Hampton you know just hanging out with us and the whole time I'm dreading this just going oh he's gonna kill us tomorrow so he looks at us watching it's it's one o'clock he goes you know what I don't know about you boys so we got practice tomorrow so he leaves we leave okay now we show up 8:30 in the morning or we just finished warm-ups he calls the team together he looks at each and every one of us and he goes you know if you're going to go out and Hoot with the owls at night you better soar with the Eagles during day one of the best practices we ever had phenomenal practice okay so now comes the dread cuz usually when you come back to your locker room after the morning practice that's when all the notifications are up there whether you're fined or not there wasn't a pink slip I love that so I'm sitting there what the heck so a couple days later goes by and I go up to the coach I said you know maybe I'm stupid or something but you know you didn't find anybody and he looks at me and he goes let me tell you something tonnie what you guys were doing was bonding yes I said he said I had a group of my guys they were hanging out together just being guys and I thought H that's cool he goes but don't let it happen again I got a great followup here because there's a bunch of guys who are hanging out being guys in Rhode Island this summer and you you coached all of them did you see the pictures from the kley mcaffrey Greg Olson hang the mcaffrey Copo wedding did you see the pictures and Were you invited coach no no I didn't get the invite you know it was it was a limited menu probably for the most part but was really cool though was the pictures cuz when you see those th those were guys that you know when we were together all those guys there some really cool cool pictures I really appreciate them I thought it was really neat to see these guys because these guys shared a lot they really did you know we went through some really good highs and then a couple of really good lows but they know what it's like and they were able to bond over that well they were sharing it they really were well the cool picture that we got to talk about though is so I'm gonna Ron brought something in today okay years ago Ron you would have a tradition when you would wear different t-shirts at your press conference and they had phrases or whatever I was a really cool thing he did so us at good morning football we're like we love Ron let's make him some T-shirts that are kind of in our brand one of them in particular you brought in today would you want to hold that up to the camera this this is the one right here what is this unbelievable this hey that isic uh very close to the Sun on that one an album that was actually made in this part here it's not called the ronic but we and he still has that from years ago that quite a few of them I really do um you know and it it's it's really kind of the neat thing about the tradition is you know was to celebrate something like I've got the Olympic one on right now again celebrating the Olympics but you know like during the uh during the election I'll wear one that says vote it's important you know and and because I I do believe that messaging is important use your platform absolutely and that's you know that's probably the biggest thing too is today's athlete has a trauma but it's true and so again getting positive messages out there getting things that need to be said there's nothing wrong with that and so that's kind of why I was doing that um just to kind of show little support it's awesome so we used to have you in the fancy box but now you're with us at the table and we're it's going to be a weekly occurrence and hopefully more than that so you'll understand we really like to strip it down here you wrote vet days on your card here today why is that well I was listening everybody talk about what Andy Reid did and and and you know that's one of the things that you have to be aware of is you have veteran players and and especially guys that are important and and do make an impact for you you want to be able to take care of them it sends the right message to the to the veteran players that hey I do care about you you know and and and again so you know hey you got a little bit of groin let's don't push through it let's just take the vet day you have to do that way yeah and and especially based on what they're trying to do you know you know what it's like because you have these guys that you're going to need and you're going to need in week 12 and 13 and 14 you want to have them around so at the beginning of training camp in the middle of the training camp you want to be aware you want to be able to take care of those guys you know we took care of the Thomas is we took care of the Luke Key we took care of Greg olon you know cam we took care of and cam never wanted to take time off he want to play yeah um Christian was another one of those guys we tried take no he'd find a way to get on the practice that makes guys want to run through the brick wall for you man especially if there's a picture of beer on the other side I'm say look at this look at this look at oh yeah there it is that's that's the one he wore originally and he held the ronic for when he knew gmfb was going to be coming La you held it perfect uh Ron Rivera right uh we're in