 Welcome to the OTP, presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Go to FBHP.com to learn more about Farm Bureau Health Plans' 77-year history in Tennessee and to get a quote today. That's FBHP.com for Farm Bureau Health Plans. Happy New Year, everyone. Glad to have you with us on the OTP. And going to share a really special conversation that I had with one of the Titans greats in recent years, that's punter Brett Kern. He was something else during his time with this football team and means a lot to the people in the community. And I got to take him as part of our Follow Me Through Tennessee series to Manchester, Tennessee and Jiffy Burger, where I had the Bonnaroo Burger. That's another story. If you've never been to Jiffy Burger, you must go. And if you like something crazy, the Bonnaroo Burger Outstanding, the Fry's Outstanding, everything they do at Jiffy Burger is phenomenal. Tell them we sent you when you go by, and I have a feeling they'll take extra good care of you. But as we rode down in my truck, I got a chance to talk with Brett Kern at length about his career. He told some funny stories. And we wanted to share that entire conversation with you on the OTP. So here's Titans great, Brett Kern on the road following me through Tennessee to Jiffy Burger in Manchester on the OTP. I know you're just starting it, but how's retirement going? It's going great. You know, I kind of had in my mind, you know, up in Philly, just experiencing being away from family. And I'm a man of rhythm and routine. And you know, you could probably call my wife on a Wednesday at 11 o'clock and say, Hey, what's Brett doing right now? And she'd be able to tell you, right? So going up to Philly, great spot, great organization. But everything was just, it was different. You had a new rhythm, new routine, things that I've been used to for so long for, you know, 13 years in Tennessee, right? It was just totally kind of flipped upside down. And so I knew that if I wanted to keep playing football, you know, I'd be in a different city. I'm going to be at home in Nashville. And so that's when, you know, I kind of started thinking about, you know, being done and, you know, I'm also always told myself and you were to ask other guys, you know, that I play with that the day that I don't feel like I'm punting at the elite level that I know I can punt, you know, it's kind of the day that I need to be done because I don't want to be out there just punting and kind of surviving. If people know me for the type of puns that I had and, you know, the consistency, and if I'm not there, then, you know, it's time to move on. So I think another big decision for that was, you know, family. My kids are older, you know, 13, 11, 7, right? So they're the sports, all that kind of stuff, right? And I want to be there for all of it. I want to start, you know, coaching and helping out and, you know, as, you know, football, your weekends are kind of tied up for half the year. So what's funny because people always said to me, they say, do you hunt or fish? And I tell them, no, I don't do either. And oh, you don't like that or against that. It's like, no, no, no, it doesn't have anything to do with that. It's how I work weekends. Right. I mean, you don't generally go out Tuesday afternoon, you know. Right. And so that's, yeah, it is a life change because the commitment to anything related to sports, and I tell college kids this to, if you want to work in anything in sports, it's going to be nights and weekends. That's right. Yeah. And that's the hardest part of it really. Right. Yeah. Because it's hard on a family. It is. And so, you know, you get to the point where it's just, I mean, if you were to ask me in college, hey, you're going to play in the NFL for 15 years, I would have, I mean, I would have laughed and I said, I mean, that will be unbelievable if that happens. But, you know, I mean, the chances, the percentages of that happening is so slim, right? Unbelievable. And so I've been blessed for 15 years and it just felt like it was time to, to hang them up and just kind of see what the next chapter of life brings. And more importantly, you know, just spending more time with family and you know, get the coaching hat on for the kids, you know, so. Your son Bryce is 13. What sports is he involved with? He's, he's doing flag football. I got him into golf and so we're, we're trying to play golf a little bit more and honestly, you know, we go, we go over to the little course there in Franklin, right, right there by legends and I love it because it's not a difficult course. Like it's, it always keeps him engaged, right? And it's working on, you know, parts of, of his game that he, you know, needs to work on, but just to be able to walk and talk, you know, from whole to whole, it's a lot of fun and it's time that I just want to cherish right now, you know, because we need, it's got five years left, which seems like a lot. But I mean, you know how fast things go, right? And I just want to be able to, to make the most of those years that I have left with him before he goes off to college. Any interest in punting or kicking? Yeah, we fool around in the front yard. So he's, he's, he's natural. He's got longer legs. So I think that'll cater more towards punting. And I think he's just a little bit more interested in punting. But his thing is he's growing so fast that his, his foot, his foot size is growing as well. And for the size of football that they would kick, it's just kind of, it's difficult for him, but it works out well for punting. So, yeah, I mean, I give him, I give him pointers here and there and sometimes they're taken well. And other times it's the, oh, dad, come on, like, I got a dad and like, okay. Welcome to being a dad, right? Yeah, I just hope I don't have to send him to a camp to learn punting when, you know, he's got a pretty good resource in his home. So, but we'll see how that goes. So my neighborhood, I had my son out one day and we were working on punting. And at the time, Craig Hancher clipped in the back of my neighborhood. That's good. That's good. Well, it was, it was really great. So Craig comes by one day, Matthew's probably 10 or 11. And Craig just pulls over and he says, show me one. And so he, he hit 20, he's like, okay, try this. And it was something that I had just shown Matthew, not five minutes before, which he of course had not listened to at all. And Matthew did exactly what Craig told him and then hit a spiral that went, you know, 25 or 30 yards, which was a really good kick. Right. And Craig gets back in the truck and says, okay, see you later. Thanks. And so, That's so great. And I was so Craig, he was so underwhelming. He's like, hey, try that. I mean, he said like six words. Right. But it was Craig Hancher. So my son was like, that's Craig Hancher. Yeah. And that was one of the neat things for my kids growing up around the team is they have all these pictures where Javon Curse palmed their heads, you know, with his massive hands. That's right. Albert Hainesworth had them in bear hugs and, you know, Kerry Collins was doing stuff with them. And I mean, it's just what a, what a blessed way for them to grow up. Yeah. So fun. And they thought everybody was like that, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, that's, you know, for Bryce Bielder to go on the field after games or in the locker room. Or at the Pro Bowl. Pro Bowl. Yeah. I mean, he's, you know, in the Pro Bowl, you know, playing catch with Lamar Jackson. And, you know, Mark Ingram's trying to teach him a dance. And, you know, it's, you know, being able to hang out with Mahomes and some of those guys and just play catch with them and yeah. I mean, it's been a huge blessing. I mean, you got, you know, kids that obviously look up to Derek Henry and, you know, Kevin Byrd, some of the, you know, Jeffery, the guys on the team that are just phenomenal role models, right? And I always tell people, you know, don't buy a jersey unless, of somebody unless you know they're somebody that you want to, you know, have their last name that you're representing. And, you know, thankfully the Titans have a lot of those guys, right? But, you know, but Bryce and Derek are, you know, buddies, right? That's so great. And so it's sometimes, sometimes you got to pinch yourself, you know, sometimes even through my whole career, I've just been, you know, to go in when I was in Denver and John Lynch was the locker across from mine, right? And I just remember thinking, this is John Lynch, right? And Brian Dawkins was, you know, two lockers down to the left. Crazy. Yeah, it's all throughout the years that the guys have been able to play with and, you know, to be in a locker room with Randy Moss and, you know, huge blessings. Who was the most excited guy? Who was the guy you were most excited to meet? Excited to meet. Or that floored you the most. Well, probably Randy. Cause I had a Randy Moss Vikings jersey growing up. Wow. Right? And so, and I remember I was on the verge of my agent and the Titans were talking about an extension. Cause I was right on that cusp of, hey, we can get him locked up for four years, three, four years, maybe five, whatever it was that my agent and the Titans were talking to. And, you know, it didn't happen for two, three weeks. Which is not the easiest thing to do during the season. I definitely wouldn't recommend that to any youngster out there. But the Titans called my agent and said, hey, we're going to have to put this deal on hold till after the season because we're signing Randy Moss. And my agent calls me and he tells me and I remember being frustrated for about five seconds. And then I thought, oh wait a second, we're signing Randy Moss. This is somebody that I've looked up to, you know, since I was in high school when he came to the league and seeing how we played and now I'm going to be a teammate with Randy Moss. And so I was okay with that. And he ended up being as advertised and heck of a teammate and there's always like story time by Randy's locker, you know, before practice, after practice, and you just tell stories. So it's, Randy Moss is definitely, that's definitely the top one. I got a call during a funeral that we were signing Kim. I'm sitting in a funeral. Wow. And I don't usually bring my phone into things like that. Right. You're always afraid your phone will ring. Right. As much as you try to. Don't worry, how many times you check too. Right, yeah. It's on silent. I don't bring it into church and I try not to bring it into like weddings or funerals or anything or school performance or anything important. Right. So I had it in my coat and I didn't realize it. And then it was just like buzzing and this was 2010. Right. And so the buzz wasn't terribly subtle at that time. It was like, you know, and so it wasn't ringing. Right. But it just kept going off. And so I'm sitting there and of course I'm not answering but it just keeps going off. And then we're in like the receiving line to give condolences and get up to the folks. And it's like, oh gosh, this is so embarrassing. It's so, I get outside and, you know, they've, you know, I could have gotten a text message at the time, but everybody at that point still called. It's like nobody calls on the phone anymore now. Was that still, now that wasn't, when did it switch where your text messaging? Cause I remember you had to pay like five, 10 cents per text message. No, this was 2010. So, but we're in that, we're in that spot. We're a tweeter. We're in a tweeter. So I walk outside. I tell my wife, I said, I gotta go outside and see what this is. And so I listened to the voicemail. We're signing Randy Moss and we had to do a live hit. I'm standing in the parking lot under an underhang. It's pouring rain and I'm doing an interview because this is a huge deal. It's Randy Moss. Right. And, you know, at that point in the 2010 season, we're still in it. Yeah. You know, cause that was the year we started five and two. Yep. And then ended up six and 10 and everything kind of went crazy down the stretch. But yeah, we added him and you're thinking, okay, this is going to be great. And he was so different than when he was being recruited. He's one of the most bizarre recruits I ever covered. And I didn't have the primary role for the radio station. Another friend of mine, Brent Hubs, dealt with him more, but he was bizarre. Just completely baffling. And I think now maybe he was just messing with people. 100%. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. But then he ends up being almost positively delightful when he was here and then, you know, he's great on TV. Yeah. And we still, I mean, you know, I took Bryce down to the Super Bowl when Ryan Suckup was playing in it. And we drove out, you know, cause Matt Hasselback was on that countdown as well. And so we, I was texting Matt. He said, hey, come out to the beach that's where we're at. And so we drove out there and got to see the set. And, you know, anytime I see Randy, he's always been so nice and friendly and smart. Smart guy. Yeah. Very smart. Yeah, he's, he was fun to be around. I wish it was for longer, but yeah, what a teammate. You ever counted up how many different teammates you had? You know, my wife thought, you know, playing with, with Fitsie, you know, and what he did. Remember how he listed every teammate that he played with? And I thought about doing that. I just didn't know where to start. But it's a lot. It's a lot of really good guys that I've been able to play with. A lot of guys I've been able to get close with. Where does Ryan Fitzpatrick rank on your list of characters that you play with? Yeah. He's in that Matt Castle, Ryan Fitzpatrick. It's like this, this category of guys that are just, they're smart. And very witty and extremely funny and quick. Like Ryan was, his humor is, it's quick. And so you felt like if you got into some type of, I don't say argument, but you know, the jabs, right? That happened in the locker room, you weren't gonna win. Cause he was so quick and witty with it that it just left you kind of, I don't know how to respond to that. I don't know what to say. While you're laughing hysterically as he made fun of you, right? Did you rank Matt Castle in there too? Yeah, Matt's up there. I wouldn't have thought of that. Yeah. Yep. Well, he's certainly a bright guy who had a really good career too. He played for a really long time too. Yeah, I've been really fortunate, blessed with that row, you know, that kind of that quarterback row that I've been a part of, you know, with Marcus and you know, Marcus is one of my favorite teammates I've ever played. Some of those quarterbacks that have come through have been, she and I remember being next to Cary Collins and how awesome he was to be around. And, you know, I had Craig on one side and Cary on the other side and you know, after I got cut in Denver, to be able to come here and have those two guys, Craig to your left and then Cary on your right was, I mean, that alone right there helped me kind of recover and bounce back from, you know, from getting cut and to you guys, to be around those two guys, for as young as I was, to be able to pick their brain and talk and what you like, what you said earlier, Craig, it was just, you'd come out to practice and, you know, I'd hit three or four balls in a row that I didn't like and he would just say, hey, why don't you move your drop inside an inch? You know, he's back there and I'm thinking, I didn't even know he was really paying attention that much and, okay, yeah, you got it, Craig. And I knew it, bam. Four in a row, five in a row and I would look back and Craig would be gone. He'd be headed back to the training room, just, you know, he didn't say much, but, you know, his advice was just so on point. We never wanted anything. No, he didn't. He just wanted to give his opinion and what he thought and he was right, off he went, you know. He didn't need the attention. He didn't need the, hey, thank you so much. I appreciate it. I mean, he would stop you before you even got started to compliment him. How lucky was Rob Veronis that he had Craig Hendrick when he made the Titans, when he became an NFL kicker? Yeah, you know, I've had a lot of conversations with guys over the years that I've played and, you know, with kickers and just how important holding is and how important your holder is as a person, because the things that you say, you're kind of like, you know, suck up and I always used to talk about like, I mean, he's the golfer, right? And the holder is the caddy. Right. The golfer's the one that's gonna get all the attention. Look at that shot, look what you did. But the work kind of leading up to it, you know, the caddy is just as important, right? Sure. So... That's great in golf now. They are giving us those conversations more on TV. Yeah, it's fascinating. It is fascinating. And just to see really how much detail goes into every shot. More of our conversation with Brett Kern coming up, but we remind you that Titans fans, it's always game on with Duncan. So grab a coffee, kick off the action. Whether that's drinking a cup of coffee on your way to the game or grabbing one to go before watching the game at home, Duncan is always there to help you get your game on. Just like the pros, we need to be at our best-come game time, which is why Duncan is the most important part of your pre-game ritual, because it's always the best call for football. America runs on Duncan. Now here's more of my conversation on the way to Manchester in Jiffy Burger with Brett Kern on the OTP. Because there's, I mean, there's so much. It's such a finite, you know, a shot here or there. I mean, it's just like a football game, right? Play here, play there, it can cost you a ball game. Well, you know, a shot here, a shot there throughout a tournament. And, you know, you go from winning a tournament to, you know, now you're not even top 10 and all that kind of stuff that goes along with it. But yeah, I mean, for Rob to have Craig, not only as a person, right? For Rob coming to the league, anytime you can get just a veteran leader. And I know there's a couple of times here, you know, in Tennessee, where we had some young guys that would, you know, they're gonna battle it out. They're gonna let them, you know, battle out to see who can do it, right? And, you know, I just felt like it was part of my responsibility to help them out mentally and really take a lot of the pressure off of them, you know, as far as holding. Like, hey, I'm gonna be as consistent as I can be. And I'm gonna help you out as much as I can so that you don't even have to think about all that. Because there are times where, you know, the holding's not great. And sometimes you get a veteran kicker that gets a young punter in there and they don't understand the finite details. But then that's something else that the kicker now has to think about on top of everything else that's going on. And if you can just go out there and just know, just, hey, all I have to worry about is just kicking it through these yellow things, right? Getting three points or an extra point that makes their job a lot easier. So when you were suck-ups caddy at Kansas City in 2016 when he hit the kick at the end of the ball game, so what are you telling him leading up to that? I've always wanted to know that. Yeah, I mean, it's, the hard part was, is that in warm-ups, I don't know if Ryan got past 42. He did, right. I thought I had him, because I watch to get a gauge. I thought I had him at like 47, maybe, barely kinda sorta. I mean, he went anywhere near 50. Right, because Dustin and I, I remember Dustin Colquitt and I talking to warm-ups and punting that I don't think I got a ball over 45, right? And he hit one that was 50, but it was, I mean, that thing looked like a Aaron Rodgers, you know, Mary, it didn't even, you know, barely got off the ground. And so, so I remember Ryan in the warm-ups and he was just, he's like, he's like, Brad, I think an extra point's even gonna be, you know, a tall task in this game. And, because the ball, I mean, it was so cold and that ball was so hard that the sweet spot just shrunk. And you had to hit it perfectly. On top of your body, just, you know, you can only be by the heater so much, right? Because if you're by the heater, then all of a sudden your muscles are staying really, really loose. And then when you go to the cold, it's just, it's not, it's not great. But I just remember us talking and, you know, the thing is is, you know, you get that far back, you know, to get a little extra distance, sometimes you can lean the ball forward, right? But in doing that, it lowers your trajectory. And so there's kind of a finite, the detail of what's too much, what's not enough. I mean, do you want to hold it straight up and down? You know, so we kind of had that conversation and, you know, if anything, we just kind of kept it a little bit straighter than normal for him, just so he can maybe get a little bit more withdrawn to maybe try to get an extra yard or two. And I just remember jogging out there thinking how I cannot believe we're attempting this thing, but we have no other option, right? So he got that first crack at it and it was short, barely, I don't, you know, from my view it looked like he barely missed it. I'm not sure where your view was, but... I'll tell you this, it was apparent when he hit it, it wasn't gonna have enough. I mean, sometimes you can see from where we are and where our booth was was a great angle. We were closer to that yard line than the other side of the field. And so when it came off his foot and Andy Reed had called the timeout, you're like, well, did he not hit it as hard as he could because of the timeout or I think he took a full swing though, didn't he? I think he did too, but I also know, I know with Ryan that when he really, really goes after it, he tends to hook it and he'll miss it left. And so I think there was, in his mind, okay, I know I have to go after this really hard, but if I do, you know, what, I at least want to give it a chance, right? And so, I mean, he gave it all he had and it was straight as an arrow. And then they called the timeout and I just remember him bending over and retying his kicking shoe. And he's like, well, I better give this all I got. I said, Ryan, you better give this all you got, buddy. And then the next one, he just, he smoked it. And it went in and he went right to the chief's bench to celebrate. And I'm not sure if that was kind of a, hey, I played here for a long time. This is, he's had some game winners before in chief uniforms, right? But or if it was more or less like, we called him the chief killer. Cause that's what he does. I remember his first game as a Titan opened up an arrowhead and he went like four for four, five for five, right? And, you know, we won the game. The rest of that season is something not to talk about. But, you know, we started wanting to know. 2014. Started wanting to know. He's chief killer and he did it in the Super Bowl. He did it in 2016. And that's something I'll never, never, ever forget. One of my favorite guys I ever covered, Brian Suckham. Yeah. Quality human being. One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. I mean, but a true professional. Talked to you after he hit him, talked to you after he missed him, understood everybody had a job to do. Yeah. One of my big thrills was getting to see him when we practiced against Tampa in 2021 down there and to just congratulate him on being a Super Bowl champion. Yeah. To go other places, I mean, we certainly want to win one desperately. Right. But you're happy for those people who do it the right way. Yeah. And that's, I think that's why Bryce and I drove down there is I just didn't want to miss that, you know, ease. We were brought together through football, but obviously we're brothers, you know, for life outside of that. And that's something that you want to be there for. So I was excited for him to win a Super Bowl. And I remember the conversation that we had. It was training camp and he was like, he was down at Tampa. He's like, man, I got this workout down here. I just don't know if I should do it. I don't know if I should sign here. And I was like, dude, you're with Tom Brady. Like you got a chance with me. What do you have to lose, right? So what? And so that's worked out well for him. Yeah, he did okay. Yeah. He did good. Heck of a career is one of the most accurate guys that I've seen. He'd be one of those guys where if you tell him for 40 yards, you know, I want you to aim and hit this crossbar or this field goal post every time he's gonna hit it. So sometimes it almost became boring. It was just so straight and just down the middle. And he's like, why are we even, right? You're gonna put it right down the middle every time. Can we just move on and do something else? Were you surprised he came to your retirement announcement? Yeah, I mean, I was just thankful that he was able to come. I knew if he could come that he was gonna be there for Bo to fly in. Obviously, Morgan to come a lot because those three guys right there are my favorite teammates really of all time. Guys that I've gotten, they're guys that are, they're just more than teammates, you know, hang out as families and just close. And so for the three of them to be there. What, you probably, by the way, that day couldn't have gone any better. Yeah, you, I see you're not the sling anymore either, which is great. You're healthy. You're healthy. Trained staff. That's it. Got you through a good rehab program. You gotta be ready for, hey, availability. That's what they say. That's what the, you know, you walk into the training room and that's the best availability is. Hey, we live by that too. I mean, when you get the opportunity to work for an NFL team, you know, there aren't a lot of people that are lucky enough to get to do that. So you don't miss stuff. Availability is the best ability. I think that's what it says. That's right. That's a Vrapalism, right? Yeah, there's a lot of sayings up in the building. I haven't written down in a notebook. Do you really? Because you never know or you never knew when Vrapal was gonna either show a teammate on the board and ask, hey, who's this teammate, right? And of course it was great because it was like a high school throwback or a college throwback and it was pretty anything. That's awesome. Yeah, you know, stretch would find these pictures that were just gold, right? But you never knew when he was gonna ask a question of what does it say in the training room? What does it say outside the locker room line four, right? And there might be five lines and you have to, what's line four? Better or no? Well, I think I have one, two and three memorized but four and five are a little sketchy. So I just remember when he came, when he came in 2018 he started doing that. And I just thought to myself, I better go around the building and write this stuff down. I don't know if he'll ever call me, right? Yeah, I went through and wrote it all down and I think I still have the notebook in my office at the house. That's so great. You got nervous during team meetings. Yeah, like I started, special teams meetings, totally fine. I was obviously, I knew all the calls, I knew all the returns, all that kind of stuff, right? But, you know, team meetings is when you started, you know, hands got a little cold, start to sweat a little bit because, I mean, you just did not know what he was gonna ask. So, I mean, you played for all of the Titans head coaches? Fisher? I did. To Munchak? Yeah. To Wizenhunt? To Malarkey and Net-Avray? Yeah, I did. And it was, each one was, you know, I kind of learned from each one kind of, you know, how they taught, how their expectations, you know, kind of for each coach you played for, you knew, like, when the next one came up, kind of what to expect and different situations, styles that they liked. And it was hard. I mean, every time you got a new coach, you feel, you have to prove yourself to somebody that you don't know, right? Munchak was a little bit easier because he was under Coach Fisher's staff, right? And so he'd seen you, you know, he'd seen a lot of the guys over there. He saw me play before, all that, but you still have to prove yourself, right? You have to prove yourself every year, regardless if you make a pro bowl or, you know, obviously you maybe don't have a great year. And so, because I remember 2016 year was, I mean, I didn't have a great year. It wasn't hit the ball great. It wasn't as consistent as I wanted to. And I knew 2017 had to be a really, really good year. And thankfully, I was, you know, the first pro bowl I went to, but it was a good bounce back here, right? Absolutely. But yeah, every time you get a new coach, new GM, there's just that extra pressure to perform for somebody that, you know, I don't know who Ken Wisun was. I knew that he'd coach, but, you know, he doesn't know me. I don't know him. You have to go out there and prove yourself. And that can take, that can take a lot out of you mentally and physically. And, you know, I remember us chatting on the podcast, you know, kind of about biggest accomplishment. And I think to be able to play for all the GMs, all the coaches that the Titans have had, you know, that's probably been my biggest. Yeah. That's probably the thing I'm probably most proud of. Look at that. I do remember about when they let Wisun Hunt go at Malarkey, but it came to the head coach. What do you remember about that week? I'm trying to remember what game he got. Was it after the Texans? Was. Yeah. I'll give you a setup on that. So, Jimmy Stanton is our director of media relations or is over all of our communications at the time. Right. And we had wondered if we lose this game, do they make a change? Because it was in Houston. There's something about going to Houston though. Like I remember Coach Fisher and Coach Munch really preaching about, we're going to Houston. Do you know what this means? Yeah. I don't know. Every player needs to understand that to our ownership, the Houston game is significant. Very significant. We played particularly poorly in that game. Marcus took a beating. So Jimmy gets on the plane and sits his seat is next to mine and I said, so what do you think? He goes, I don't think any decision's been made. So normally if you're going to fire a coach in season, you fire the coach on Monday. Right. And they, you know, we get to Monday and I walk by Jimmy's office Monday morning and he goes, I'm not hearing anything. And the reason we're talking about it is we have TV shows to do. Right. Got the radio show. Yeah, you got a lot. But the Monday night radio show is one thing. But we have to put out TV shows for later in the week and we have to shoot them early in the week because if we're in a situation where somebody's going to get fired, you don't want to send out a show with somebody in the show who's not there by the time the show airs. That's right. So we're going to film Titans All Access Monday afternoon. And I looked at Jimmy again. He goes, I said, I think there's some talk but he goes, I don't know. And so we go and film the show. Well, Rustin Webster is our general manager. And we do this late Monday afternoon, five o'clock and we film his segment and he says, walk outside with me here for a second. I'm like, okay, the segment was great. I was hoping I didn't ask a question that he didn't like. Right. He said, I just got the call before I walked in here. We're making a change first thing in the morning. And ownership, Amy Adams-Strump wanted to take the day to not be emotional because of the Houston game and to make, well, it says a lot about who she is. You know, because she knew she wasn't making the decision for the New Orleans game that Sunday. She was making a decision for the whole franchise. Right. And he said, we are, we're making a change first thing in the morning. He said, I just wanted you to know that. So I have to walk back in and film the rest of this show. That I know is not gonna air. That we're gonna have to go back and reshoot. And I can't tell anybody. Because, you know, that's one of the areas I very rarely know things because honestly, Brett, I don't ask. It's easier not to know because then when somebody asks you, you can say truthfully, I don't know because I'm not interested in lying to anybody. Right. And so Tuesday morning comes down and they call Wizz and Hunt in at eight o'clock and he's fired then. And we think it's gonna be malarkey as the interim coach, but quite frankly, we don't know if he's gonna take it. Yeah, I remember that. So then you pick up the story from there from the player's perspective. Yeah, I just, you know, like I said earlier about the Houston, like, you know, obviously, you know, you have to perform every Sunday. That's just part of your job, but there's something extra when you go down to Houston. This, and I really didn't understand it the first year or two. And then it finally, you know, it's like, yeah, this is a very, very important game. It's a thing. Regardless of what your record is, like, this is important. And so, and we lost bad, really bad. And so, guys were kind of talking like, is there gonna be a change? Do we need to make a change? Oh, you thought that was possible at that point? Yeah, okay. Yeah, because I mean, I remember Coach Fisher and Coach Bunchek, they would always talk about, hey, if we don't perform down here at Houston, there's gonna be a change made in some way, shape, or form, right? Right, so you didn't know, probably not coaching maybe, but whoever maybe didn't play well, whoever didn't perform, like, you're probably gonna get cut, right? And so, the guys that have been there that have been through the transition, they understood that. And so, guys thought, well, it could be some players, we'd have, you know, things with Coach Whiz aren't really going how we thought they would or how they probably should. That's pretty crazy to make a change right now. There's just all kinds of thoughts, and then nothing happened Monday, and then we just, okay, well, let's just keep plugging along, because you're at the building Monday, you're working out, you're doing all kinds of things for post-game recovery, you know that? You don't really hear anything. And so, for it to go down Tuesday, it was, it's like, wow, okay, so who on the staff can take over? And I remember texting some guys, and they were like, man, I hope it's Coach Malarkey, I hope it's Coach Malarkey, I think he's got experience, you know, kind of like the way he conducts things and, you know, talks at the tight ends, and they were all like, yeah, I really, I really hope it's him, right? So, I found out it was him, and, you know, to come back the following week, and win how we did in overtime in New Orleans, right? Was it Fasano? Was it Anthony Fasano? Anthony Fasano. Yeah, that was, and I remember celebrating, and I remember going down in the end zone, celebrating, and it got a little too crowded for me, because I remember thinking if someone steps on my foot, I'm in trouble. So, I did a couple helmet taps, and I remember just getting out of there quickly. So, but yeah, that's not an easy thing to go through, coaching changes like that. So, it just puts, there's already enough pressure to perform and to do your job, you know, every Sunday, when you throw on a coaching change, you know that there's a little instability kind of going on, and if you're willing to make a change with a head coach, right? You know, what does that tell you for the players? And so, yeah, that was a tough year. That was a tough season. Thanks so much to Brett Kern for taking time with me to go to Jiffy Burger in Manchester and to share some good stories in the truck, as he followed me through Tennessee. Reminds you that Seat Geek is now the official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans. Whether you're buying or selling tickets to Titans Games or any other live event in Nashville, Seat Geek is the place to do it. Seat Geek, the new official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans, so Titans fans can fan. Again, thanking Brett Kern and our entire staff, and thanking you, the OT people, while wishing you happy new year. I'm Mike Keith. Thanks for joining us for the OT people.