 Welcome to the Sherwood Forest and this edition of the OTP presented by Far Bureau Health Plans, protecting Tennesseans for 76 years. Get a quote today at FBHP.com. I'm Mike Keith, Jim Yerdo, NFL Network. Welcome, thanks for taking time. Thank you. How do you like England? Sherwood Forest, that's a good reference. We're in the middle of a forest, we're watching a walkthrough. England is great. This is my fifth or sixth trip over here for an NFL game. I came previously with CBS and now my second time with NFL Network and I think every year the show gets bigger, the games feel like the teams are here that are more prominent, so it's awesome. I'm having a great time. All right, so the question I have to ask you first, I want to get the NFL Network people away. Do you miss the SEC? Everybody wants to know that because that's how they first came to know you in our part of the country. Yes, I do. I feel so lucky that I got my four years on the SEC because my goodness, every NFL roster is just riddled with those guys. I can't escape them. It's crazy the turnover the SEC has now. You know, Jason McCordy had an Alabama game a couple weeks ago. I think they played Ole Miss. I'm watching the game to, you know, support Jason and I'm like, who are these guys out here? One year removed from the SEC and I feel like the turnover on those rosters is so crazy. That's what makes college football really challenging in my opinion and it makes the NFL, you know, you feel lucky just to look at a, you know, a sheet and have 53 names on the roster. Well, but for us, though, the points you just made is really strong. Yeah. Knowing the SEC really helps if you're covering the NFL. It's true. I actually just asked your PR staff how Roger McCreary was doing so random. I know he's a second-string guy and working through his rookie season, but my memory of Roger McCreary is eating his baked beans and sugar packets before his Auburn games. Allegedly, the nutritionist has gotten a hold of him now and changed that tune, which makes me sad because Roger McCreary has always been the baked beans and sugar packet guy. All right. How is it different doing sidelines on the NFL and doing sidelines in the SEC? Or is it different? Wow. Is it different doing college and pro-side? Approaching, it is. Approaching the athletes is very different in my opinion because you have to remember when you're in college, as a woman in her early 30s, a mother away from Minnesota, I was working with 18 to 22-year-olds predominantly from the southeastern part of the country and, you know, just making sure they felt like they could share their stories with me, making sure I felt relatable to them in some aspect. That takes a different, I think, social skill set than it does guys in the NFL. You know, they've been through media training. They go to broadcast boot camps. I think they see all the different television coverage that NFL Network and all the other networks provide, so they kind of know the name of the game. So it's a little bit more accessible if you will on the NFL. The SEC, you're kind of like, I want you to tell me your story because we're selling you. You know, we're putting you on in conversation in the afternoon on CBS. So it is different and it changed my skill set, I think, in a good way. We talked to you right before you started Good Morning Football. We had a conversation because we were excited about you coming on with Jason McCordie, who we obviously love. The door. Has it been what you thought it would be now that you've been doing it for well over a year? So to circle back, the challenging part of the SEC is there's so many guys, even though there are only 14 schools for us to keep an eye on. There's so many guys, there's so much change over so many storylines. Weirdly, coming back to the NFL for me was comforting because it just felt like everything was more uniform. You know, the teams are set, the coaches mostly stay put, the players stay put. There's just lesser guys to pay attention to. For Good Morning Football, you know, we really fly at a 3,000 foot view a lot of the time. So I've enjoyed just focusing on the NFL and getting back to that level. I've really enjoyed the fun we have on that show. I'm so proud and appreciative of the fact that Jason McCordie and I started on the same day. I think that's going to be one of the kind of timestamps in my career that, you know, he was new to TV and I was new to the show and we've really kind of forged this path together and then Peter and Kyle welcoming us into this brand that Good Morning Football had become. It's been awesome. It's been 14 months together now and this time last year feels very different. We feel just feel really comfortable and great around each other. From a broadcast standpoint, how big a factor is it in your mind that you and Jason started together to come in and sort of mold with the other two guys? It was huge. We, you know, we finally had this conversation a few months in last fall, which was, I said to Jason, you know, I really love listening and learning from you every day. The football perspective, I always say, we always introduce him as Super Bowl champion Jason McCordie, but he'll be the first one to say, you know, when I was with the Titans or when I was in Cleveland for that year, his range of humility and experience in the NFL is so incredible. And then on the flip side a year ago, he was turning to me and saying, I really enjoy watching you do television every day. He had no idea just the X's and O's of that and I have never received a compliment like that before. I've never, I mean, I'm nine or 10 years into television. I hadn't, at CBS, I was never the television veteran. I was still like the young book. So to be in a situation and in a working friendship with this person's looking at me and learning things was really cool. Not to leave out, Kyle and Peter, but you and Jason are almost the perfect partnership. Yeah. Yeah. We, I, and I just really respect so much his approach to people, to the game, his honesty of the game, his, his relationships that he has, his acknowledgement of if he doesn't have a relationship with a team or a player and what that looks like when he goes to watch film or anything. I just, I really respect everything he has brought to the table. And for Peter and Kyle, I know they do as well because they were around Nate Burleson for so long that I think them learning somebody else's style, especially a new person in media, it's just been such an awesome kind of growth. I know we're all really, really proud of Jason and what he's become. All right. The Good Morning Football Show has the perfect balance of the news and the fun. I believe. Yes, yes. How do you keep that balance between being able to cover the NFL and knowing people watching love the NFL and not being too goofy? Too goofy is, is a line that I think gets towed a little bit. Football inherently is entertainment. It's fun. I believe that I think they picked people to be on the show and to produce the show that believe that I think just as someone who's been around television and sports TV for so long, you just know those moments where it is news and you have to feel it, you know, everything that happened in Buffalo last year, you know, things that hard hit, you know, challenging topics that you have to cover. You understand that your tone has to change, but that doesn't mean it has to affect you the entire time. And so being able to have fun with, you know, McCordy doing the fit list now and he's dressing up as guys and, you know, Kyle's angry runs or anything like that. There's these pockets of like fun and entertainment that I think if we oftentimes lead the day to, you know, we're trying to set the tone for the NFL for the day and, you know, football is fun. It's fun to watch people go to the games to have fun. So there's no reason why from seven to 10 a.m. we can't have fun. The day Jason sang on the air. It seemed like you almost couldn't get it back together. You were laughing so hard. Fair. Fair. I was, I thought so many, so many things why I have to put myself back on that stool. He, I thought he was faking being that bad. And then I realized that there was no faking that like that's how that was going. It sounded just like some borderline between like a cat that was in pain. And he just couldn't hit a tone. There was no beat to it. I can't even remember the content of what he was speaking, but I was just in shock. Like, listen, I know sometimes if we're not really sure what we're doing in a segment, we'll bounce around and be goofy. But like, I was like, wait, pause. Are you, is this, oh, no, this is really that bad. So, yeah, it was, I was shocked, but he can't sing. He cannot sing. He was trying to sing. He was really trying. And I think he wrote that song too. Like, maybe his, maybe he's a songwriter. If he moved back to Nashville, he could be a songwriter, but not the singer. No, he could come back to Nashville. I'm looking straight in the camera. He could come back to Nashville anytime because we love Jason MacCordy. Don't go back because then you'd be off. We knew that he would be a complete natural at this. He may be as natural as anybody I've ever seen in media, but he cannot sing for anything. Here's the other thing I want to ask you about. When you guys do athletic things. Yes. Do you think people are surprised how good at those things you are? Because you're an athlete. Yes, I am. And more so than I am an athlete. I am just that much more competitive than anything else. I don't know if people are surprised. I guess maybe people are surprised. I think Jason is constantly surprised at how seriously I take things. Well, that's what I was talking about more so than the fans because, I mean, Brant and athlete, Traeger can hang, but that's actually, I think Peter takes the opportunity in those moments and segments on the show where I think that's where he has his fun and he like makes a goofy and that's his, that's his angle. I just always like that is like my moment to legitimize like why we are out there playing this game. And Brant is always good about like, let's make great television. Let's have this be good production moment. I'm like, no, I just want to win. And then Jason is just like, why are you, I'm always like rattled around and jumping and jumping and Jason is like, you need to chill. Jason and I probably would not have been good actual teammates. All right, so how much of a help is McCordy to you guys knowing the Titans? Oh, well, I feel like at times Jason feels the need to wave the Titans flag for us, you know, remind us about what's going on in your division and the fact that, you know, things are still early this season and up for grabs, up for grabs. He, you know, he came down to your training camp, which was awesome and we all were kind of spread around for back together weekend. So it was cool that he was able to touch in with you guys and come back and report back. But I like to think we, we all respect and know you guys fairly, but you're right. He does have a soft spot for you guys. That's why the OT people, as we call them, have so much respect for good morning football because they feel like they get an equal say. Whereas in a smaller market, the Titans don't always and that's part of the deal. Well, I'll tell you this, we do some segments throughout the week and one of them we did about a month ago was we were picking games heading into the weekend and it was really fast moving. I got thrown up. I think it was St. St's Titans, sorry, and McCordy was calling the game so I had to pick it and your GM sent me a message. I was like, I don't know what was just on because my TV was on mute, but I think you were talking a lot about the Saints and I was like, don't go back and watch it and unmute it because I am sorry to say I did pick against you guys, which I'm sorry to say, but it was just great because we take pride in. We actually have a list, a working list, every day we are told who we didn't talk about that day. Okay. So we like to get to all 32. All right, so what time do you get in in the mornings? 5.45. Okay, so the car picks you up at like 5? 5. 5 at my house. I get to ride in. I am in my pajamas when I arrive at 5.45. I have clothes there, hair and makeups there. It's so great. I am caffeinated there properly and then I get Jason and I, this is really X's and O's, Jason and I walk into the studio at the same time, 6.55. The amount of time it takes for Jason McCordy to get hair and makeup done is so frustrating. Hair was in quotes. It's so frustrating. Like I leave, he goes in and I'm like barely putting a sock on and he's like, hey, see you guys out there. And I'm like, that's how long it takes you. It's so frustrating. We get out there about five minutes before Kyle comes screaming in, three minutes before Shrager's out there 90 seconds before. We all get mic'd up and we rock and roll at 7 o'clock. Do they try to make you look different every day? Oh my gosh. You have so many looks. I do, thank you. I mean in a good way. And I mean this and I said this to hair or my hair and makeup team, Bradford and Ashley are fantastic. I said this to them last July 25th. I use the same people. I know they're the best. Last July 25th. I said I mean this in the best way possible but I don't care what you do. I just want to go out there and be on time and get mic'd up and go. You do you. You're good at this. I'm good at that. And that's what we're working with here. Because you're not the girly girl. No. That's you were an athlete. Yes. And I mean you obviously care about your appearance but that's not your big thing. Yes. No. And like you're asking me to care about very specific content that is very different from beauty and hair and makeup for three hours a day. I can't do both. I'm going to rely on professionals to take care of that part of it for me. So then when I walk out there I'm looking the way I'm supposed to look. I don't care because they're awesome at it. And I like not caring. It's great. It totally works for you. Thank you. Thank you. I feel like I'm in an island. It must be a comfortable thing though. It is. It is. Yeah. It's a very intimate to that process. Is there in your face. It's very early in the morning. You know it's all up in your business but uh yeah. Straight coffee or do you have a specific. Um I you know what I change it up almost every day. It depends on my mood. Yeah. I have a very rangy caffeine mood. I go I go iced tea. I go ice green tea. I go chai tea latte. I go coffee with milk every day. The the young man Eric who runs our coffee. It's he's like what do you need today because he knows he can't predict. It's bad. I wish it was like a Monday like on Monday she has this. No it's Diet Coke. Sometimes I sometimes I throw in the diet soda. It's not good. We got to go out in the Sherwood Forest and find Robin Hood so I got to let Jamie Erdahl go. Thanks for doing this. Thanks for having me. Good morning football is awesome. Thank you. It was a good show before. I think it's even better now. Oh that's kind. And the OT people really enjoy it. For Jamie Erdahl, I'm Mike Keith. Thanks for joining us for the official Titans podcast from England known as the OT.