 What's up everybody and welcome to the latest edition of Falcons in Focus. I'm Scott Bayer. That's Troy McElaney, the gentleman to my left, Mr. Drake London. Welcome to the program. Uh, the program. Ooh, that sounds more, more official than what this is. Yeah. What this conversation is going to be, especially because I'm just going to lead off, not with a football question, not with the fact that I went to UCLA and you went to USC and it's going to be a point of contention at some point during this interview. Tell them what your friends say all the time when you're tweeting about it. Yeah, I constantly get texts whenever because I've written some nice things about you before and they say, how can you do that? How can you promote a USC guy? At first, it was hard. Now I'm used to it. He does so many good things that I don't have a choice part of the job. Do you also have a similar disdain for UCLA? Yeah, I feel like you have to. If you went there, well, it's like everything since I've been going up, I never really liked them. So that really hurts me deep down. Deep down, but somehow I think we're going to find a way to be friends. First question, though, is not about football. It's about Drake betting on Drake. This is my favorite thing that's ever happened like draft wise. Right. So I'm so curious about it. Right. So let's have you tell the story, but just Drake, the rapper bet a hundred thousand dollars that Drake London would be the first wide receiver taken for those who don't recall he was. Yep. And Drake cashed in big and you woke up to a billion texts saying Drake bet on you and one also taken in the draft. I should say, yeah, take it right. Take it in the draft. So take me through it from your perspective. And that's pretty crazy. He bet a hundred grand on you. Yeah, yeah. Um, honestly, I just woke up to like, oh, you saw this. You see this. And I'm like, what are you guys talking about? You know, I see this thing on Twitter talking about Drake bet on Drake. And I go to the thing and it has my name on it. You know, supposedly he bet on me to be the first wide receiver taken off the board, which I think was a smart idea and got it through. But, um, if Drake sees this, I'm waiting on you. I need, I need half of that. Yeah. I was going to say, you deserve a cut of that. Yeah. I know you got a lot of money, man. I'm going to need half of that like a certain percentage. I think that we were flying to Los Angeles or something and on that private charter tarmac was Drake's plane. Yeah. You should have walked over there and been like, dude, pay up. Just like knock on the door of the plane. Just be like, hey, man, it's me. Exactly, exactly. Have you ever crossed paths with him, even through like an Instagram DM or anything like that? No, no, no, no. I think he's too, he's too up there to get a contact. I would have to go through a couple of people. Yeah. Drake, if you're listening to the Falcons and Focus podcast, this Drake deserves a cut of that money. Let me know. Let me know. I'll be Graham. Yeah. I don't know if it's Drake on Drake, but let me know. He made like over $200,000 off of that bet. Like that's just crazy. Now, speaking of bets, Arnold Abaketti has set in this seat that you've been sitting in for the last few minutes and talked some serious trash about you. Did he? Yeah. It wasn't, I wouldn't say serious trash, but he did say and I quote, I could beat Drake in one-on-one. On what? Basketball? Yeah. Of course he said that. I'm going to put this on record for you. Arnold Abaketti, AKA AK runs his mouth about everything. He thinks he does that, everything. And everybody in that locker room knows that I'll get him on that one-on-one and anything, we could do anything. I don't care what it is. I'm going to beat him. Horse dunk contest, actual one-on-one. Yeah. No chance. Do you think you could beat him as a pass rusher though? That's maybe the one thing. He got his doctor degree for me. Right. Is that it? You taught him everything he knows? Yeah. Yeah. That's nice. So I think on draft night, this video really got circulated. Yeah, that was where I saw it. 540 slam in high school, in high school. Yeah. Can you still do it? Yes. When's the last time you tried it? Last time I tried it, I think it was probably about a year ago. Kind of just toying around, seeing if I could do it again. Just messing around, throwing down a 540 dunk in high school. What was the reaction of the other certainly smaller and less athletic high school athletes on the court at the time? Did everybody just go nuts? Yeah, you watched that video. Everyone freaks out. Yeah, it was just pretty crazy. The story behind that was like, you know, going there. It was like an all-star game for my county or whatever. And it was that Sierra Canyon. We was just dunking in worms. And it kind of felt different. Like, something was in the air. Everybody was really, really bouncy. Everybody was getting up there. And they told me I wasn't going to do the dunk contest because they had people in there like KJ Martin. I didn't know if Cass Stanley was going to be in there. And here, you're thinking that these are all guys who are like these little high schoolers in there? No, they are all big time. Yeah, these are your guys. A close friend of mine, Jaime Jaquez, who I battled against within high school a lot. Some real jumpers. And I was like, no, I'm not going to be in there. I'm just going to go out there and play in the all-star game. Then I was feeling it during warm-ups. And I was like, you know what? I'm just going to try 540. Whatever happens happens. I'm just going to see what it does. Had he done it before then? No, I've never even attempted to do it before that. And I was just like, you know, I'm just going to keep on rotating and I see what happens. It flushed, though. Wow. That's impressive. I love that. That gives me the jitters. I love it. And the coffee. I have so many questions about being a two-sport athlete, especially at the level that you did it. Like obviously being good enough to play both sports is one thing, but just all of the logistics around, especially if you play football and you play baseball, there's some separation in college sports. Basketball's right up against it, right? Like were there some crazy situations that you're going from one practice to another or from a game back and forth? Like how did that situation work? Yeah, so in the front half of everything, so I was on football scholarship. Right. Because they're the money makers of the school. So I was fully football and then I was technically a walk-on on basketball. Okay. But they already offered me before that. So it was kind of like, you know. Well, and basketball teams are smaller. So they only have so many roster spots, scholarship spots and like football that has a little bit more. Yeah, exactly. So I would say probably the craziest time for me was freshman year coming back from a bowl game and I was the only one on the team. Everybody's finished. Everybody gets to go home. You know, how did a little break? I was the only one on the team who had to hop on a plane the next day and go to Washington Pullman to go try to catch up with the basketball team and figure out what they were doing and figure out what type of offense they were running. And it was a whole lot of stuff. And getting to Pullman for those of us who have been on Pac-12 road trips. That's not easy. That's an outpost. Yeah, it's really kind of out there. And of course, it had to be Pullman. Yeah, right. It was just, it was during the cold. It was snowing out there like it was a bunch of stuff but I wouldn't change anything, you know, about it. I love that. And something that I was, when we were doing our preliminary research on before this podcast, there was a quote that I came across and I believe it was your high school basketball coach. And he was talking, he was asked the question of, you know, he was saying I was talking to Drake one time and he was talking and I was asking him like, do you really want to do this? Do you really want to do football and basketball and try and do it all and be a student athlete and all that. And his, your response to him and this is through him, what he said is that you said, Coach, what else am I going to do? I don't have a big social circle. I don't really go out. I'm pretty much a homebody. Yeah. Is that still who you are now? Like five, six years later? To the T. Yeah. Really? I mean, nothing against people. Like I love everybody. I don't have anything wrong with it, but it's just, I like my alone time. I like to be by myself. I got a little puppy who I'm with all the time. You have a puppy? Yeah. What, okay. Name of the puppy, what the puppy is. Yeah. So her name is Stella. Stella. She just turned two years, two years old. Probably, I think it was last month. Yeah. She's a little pit bull. Oh. Like 55, 60 pounds. And she's a delinquent, but I love her. I love it. I love, I love pits too, because they have such a reputation with I think a lot of people. But if you've never been around a pit bull, you don't know how like sweet they are. Yeah. Is she a sweetie? Oh, she's such a sweetie. And she don't play about hers at all. But yeah, anybody who comes around the crib, I mean, all the play, all of my teammates know who I've been to my house. You know, she's, she's a sweet dog. Yeah. She don't do nothing crazy. She just acts crazy to me. Yeah. Did you get her before the draft? I assume like a year, like maybe around the time that you... Any college students watching this don't get a dog while you're in college. The worst thing you could do. I know you lonely and stuff like that, but don't do it. I got her in college. Okay. Nice. That's a lot. I feel like I couldn't even take care of a dog now. I was like an adult. That's why she's a little crazy because she was college raised. She's raised in a college town. Yeah, that's right. That's so funny. So your parents have been very supportive going to all your games. That's a lot of games between football and basketball for 10 plus years probably. I mean, but like how cool is that to have that, that kind of support system? Like they were out here for the draft, right? It just seems like they've always kind of been there for you. How, like how big of an influence have they been? How important was that that despite the fact you were doing everything, they were always like right there with you? That meant the world to me. And it helped me keep me in a good mental space. It was just, it's everything to have your parents there. And like I said, the mental space too, like I'm not doing it for anybody else but them. And but for my mom's approval, my dad's approval, my sister's approval, like, oh, you did a good job today. Then that's all that matters is to hear it from their voice, you know? So when they come down and they support me and they show love, it just means the world. Are they still traveling a lot? Yeah, I got a tone to chill out sometimes. It's like, man, flying back and forth to Cali, you know? That's a long flight. It's a five hour flight. And then you still got to wake up. They're still going to work. They're still doing their regular jobs and all that stuff. You know, I told them, you know, you don't have to do that no more. But they still willing to do it. But yeah, I just thank them every day. I'm just blessed to have them. Well, that's so sweet. I mean, I think I relate, I think too, to what you're talking about, like their approval. I know anytime I write something really good, it's like, I really don't care about what anybody else thinks as long as my dad reads it and he's like, yeah, I like that. So I feel that. But I also found, I ran across another quote from your mom and this was probably a few years ago. It may have been even before you even went to college or anything, but she was talking about how you are a very different person on the field and on the court than you are at home. And she was talking about how she was like, he's a funny kid. And she was like, he loves to laugh. He loves pulling pranks. And she kind of made the comment that most people never see that side of him. Now, my question isn't necessarily like, why don't people say that side of you? I don't care that people don't say that. What I'm actually curious about, you're a little brother and your sister, for those that don't know, his sister's a boss and I want to be her friend. But I would love to have her on the podcast. Not that we don't want you, but I'd also love for her to be on the podcast. But what little brother, little annoying brother things did you pull growing up with her? Anything you could imagine. Just constantly nagging her, opening up her door just to see what she's doing and then leaving it open and walking away. Like just just anything I could possibly do, but it was giving back to me full force. Oh yeah. Yeah, it was just back and forth our whole life, but it was all love there. That's my best friend. Yeah, I was gonna ask about your relationship with her because as a big sister, myself I have two little sisters, I don't have brothers, but I know how close like we are. Talk a little bit about like your sister and how influential she's been for you. Not just like in your life, but especially at this point of time, because she's popular and fantastic in her own right and to kind of help you along in that way. Yeah, I mean ever since we were little, I mean my sister's been so independent. I mean, all of our parents are there, they're both supportive of us and loved us, but she always just want to do stuff by herself and then get it done by herself. And for me to see that at a young age, a young independent woman doing what she wants to do and succeeding at it was something really, really big for me and something I want to follow in her footsteps and figure it out for myself too. And then on top of that, you know, how you say she's boss and she's doing all that stuff. I'm not the big one in my family, she is. Yeah, she has 270,000 more Instagram followers. Yeah, so she be traveling the world, she be doing her thing and it's really inspiring for me to see that. And then also too, she gives me game about all that stuff. Right. Just how to navigate yourself through the social media world and to put yourself out there on a good platform. So it kind of go hand in hand, hand in hand and we kind of just piggyback off of each other. Yeah, that's really cool. And something else I was reading, she did, I think it was an interview or something with, I think it was Beauty by Us. And I will say, she's very popular amongst like, a lot of my girlfriends. Like they don't, not to badger the point, but they're like, oh, like Drake Linden, isn't he the sister of, it's Makayla, right? Yeah, Makayla. And they were like, are you talking to him today? And I was like, yeah. And they're like, ask about this. And I was like, I'm not going to continue to ask about this. Or we got to talk about him too. But I will say she did this interview and she was talking, they're talking about like her vibe, like her fashion vibe and all that kind of stuff. And they're asking like what she wears and how she decides what she wears. And she's like, well, it's a hundred percent on my mood, but I like to think that my vibe is like, quote, like cool older sister on the block is how she dresses. And I loved that first of all. Now you actually are, she actually is the older sister on your block. She is your older sister. Does she ever give you grief about anything that you wear? You know what? No, she doesn't. Does she ever help you out? Yeah, she tries to. Okay, nice. Nice. Does she like, I feel like I would be, I would be badgering all the time and be like, yo, wear these shoes with this shirt, please. And thank you. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't like that too bad because my mom made sure, you know, that I wasn't wearing nothing dingy or you know, really after anything like that. And I was color coordinated. And everything like that. So it wasn't too big, but I had a couple of times where she was looking at me a little bit like, what are you wearing? Bro, so I think if I read this right, how tall were you in the eighth grade? Five, five, six, five, seven. Okay, which is how tall I am now for reference. Here's, here's the rough part for me. I was also five, six in the eighth grade. And then now all these years later, I'm still five, six. Drake, you're not. You're, you're a little bit taller. So I mean, like, like, did you come in kind of and like, did the growth spurt kind of turn you into athlete? I mean, like, did you grow like crazy? Like as a freshman or? Yeah, it was, um, so I mean, I wasn't on the short side. It's kind of funny how it went. So like when I was younger, elementary, I was bigger than everybody else. Yeah. I was probably like five, three, like just. As a fourth grader. That's what I'm saying. Like I was, I was bigger than everybody else and then everybody caught up to me in middle school and then I was on the shorter side eight, eight, five, six. And then when I hit like freshman year, I got up to like six, two and then it just went up to like six, four, six, five around sophomore year. So it was, it was a crazy time. I was like a little deer out there. I don't know how to move my body or anything like that. You know? I just imagine like, you know how dogs when they like are around six or seven months, all those big dogs and they're kind of like long and lanky and don't really, don't know what to do with like their bodies. That's kind of what I pictured. It was exactly like that. I was, I was going through it. I mean, I had growing pains. I had a bunch of stuff. It was crazy. And then he ends up at a basketball all-star game throwing down a 540. You know, a whole circle. Yeah, I found myself. You ended up okay, man. It's all right. Now fast forward to draft night. Draft night was really crazy. And I think what a lot of people don't know is the draft has been very different for a lot of people going through it the last couple of years because of COVID and because of pandemic and a lot of people didn't even get to go to the draft and be there in person. For you, it was actually really interesting because I felt like, and Scott and I have talked about this. We felt like we were experiencing the draft and draft night and draft day through the lens of your family and kind of seeing how they reacted to you being drafted and how awesome a moment it was for them. Now, what people don't know is how busy you are after you get drafted. Like crazy busy, right? That's what I don't think people realize when you go to the draft how busy you are the moment your name is called and then boom, you're gone the rest of the day. Walk us through for the people who don't know what that night is really like. Yeah. Honestly, that's probably, I mean, it was one of the best nights of my life but at the same time one of the most stressful nights of my life just because it was just so much stuff that was going on after the fact of everything happened and everybody wants to talk to you. Everybody wants to know how you're feeling. Everybody wants to just know everything about the situation, you know? But yeah, I even cut it short after my whole draft night. Like I wanted to go hang out with my friends. I wanted to go hang out with my family and just celebrate, you know, what just happened. But yeah, you're there literally after you drafted until I don't know how long it was probably like some people was there for like four hours, five hours after just talking. And it's like the same questions over and over and over again, right? By the same people, there's boost that's set up, you know? I mean, which was really, really cool. You get to go in there and you get to do different things but at the same time like your dream just happened. You want to soak it all in and just, you know, and enjoy it. Yeah, especially for somebody who has already said that you like being at home by yourself. Right? Right. Like I was really, really over it. I had a call. I think it was my agent or somebody and let them know like I'm not going to the next booth because I want to go. Yeah. I just want to be with my family. Yeah. So, I mean, sorry to anybody who boothed. Sorry about that, but I just wanted to hang out with my family. So then, okay, so you're going through this crazy car while you're flying in a charter jet across the country and all that stuff. When could you kind of be like, I really did it. Yeah, when did you like relax? When you're kind of like maybe by yourself and then you could have that moment like, oh my gosh, I'm the eighth freaking pick in the draft. Yeah, I think it was when I woke up from the draft night and I had to get on the plane and do that and fly over here. Coach called me early in the morning talking about what number do you want? And I was like, what do you mean what number do I want? And he's like, well, 15 is not going to be there. So I think five is going to, you know. And I was like, I'm still trying to wake up like, who is calling me? I'm actually on the phone with you right now. And then so after I hung up the phone, it kind of hit me and I was like, wow, I really like just accomplished one of my dreams and that's when it all sunk in. Okay, one more question about draft. I don't know if you remember this, but this was the funniest thing to me. It was a video of you getting out of the car for your first steps into the building at Flowery Branch and you get out of the car and you're walking in and it's like really exciting. And everyone was talking about how gimpy you looked when you walked. Like, was he hurt? And you're like, no, that's how Drake walks. That was the funniest thing to me because I was like, everybody was asking me. He's like, is he hurt? Is he okay? And I'm like, no, I think that's just how he walks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you have to say that to a lot of people? Yeah, but I quoted it on Twitter or did a quoted tweet or however you say it. It was all getting on my head about the walk. I literally like, when I say I'm not lying about this, people have asked me for so long, like, why are you limping? It's not that I'm limping. It's just how I walk. I don't know what it is, where I got it from. I don't know if it's a pimp walk or not. It's just like, it's just, it's how I walk. So some people take it the wrong way and especially I can understand the circumstances. I just broke my ankle. Right, right, right. But yeah, it's just how I am. I literally just walked like this. Please calm down, everybody. Oh my gosh, that's so funny. I had to bring that up because it made me laugh. I was like crying, laughing. They're like, did you see this? It's like, yes, I did. No, that's just how he walks. That's just how he walks, everybody. Now, to everyone's favorite part of the podcast, we do a rapid fire question. Where everybody basically gets the same questions. Yeah. Are you ready? Yeah. Okay. Question numero uno. What is your favorite play of your career? Now, I do want to throw in a nomination because... Because she wants to upset me. I want to upset you. Nah, I was going straight there. Where are you right now? Okay, wait, wait, wait. Is it the multiple broken tackles touchdown against UCL? I was so mad at you in that moment. Yeah, I loved it. No, but I would say that had to be one of my favorite plays just because, first off, it was a start to a huge comeback. And then second of all is, I'm sorry, it was against the Bruins. And a team that I never really liked at all. And so I'm sorry. It's never going to get, it's never going to sound better. The knife is just continuing to just twist. Yeah, it was kind of just everything that I thought college football would be in that specific play. Like, you know, all eyes on you, you're just running through a team and you're making it happen for your own team. I kind of felt like that was like a staple in my college career or just a career in general. I mean, it must have been six tackles, right? Yeah. I felt like every defender took a shot and nobody brought you down. It was fantastic. I felt like I was getting, like, Charmin toilet paper thrown at me. Yeah, Charmin soft. It's still coming. You know, I'm almost sorry that I told you that I went to UCLA, especially because especially because the Trojans just went for about 700 yards in the rivalry game. It was payback though. Y'all got us in the year before. It's fine. It's really good, yeah. Moving on to a point where I'm where I wasn't a point of humiliation for me. Is there a TV show that you're binging right now? One that you just got done with that you really like? Anything like that. A TV show that I'm binging right now? I don't really watch too much TV. Maybe a movie then? Anything like that? No. Not a big watcher of things. Outside of football, I guess. No. I mean, I would say I did watch a this is new show. I don't know. It's called White Lotus. Yes. I just finished it. That show is awesome. Yeah, it was great. Okay, did y'all watch the first season and second season? I liked the first season more. You liked the first season more. Interesting. Well, I haven't really like, I mean, I've watched a little bit of the second season, but it was kind of all for background noise. Right. I was kind of like, I wasn't. It gets intense. But yeah, I just finished it like last week. Excellent choice. I'm a big White Lotus fan. It's a great movie. I like those. Yeah. Okay. Oh, sorry. My turn. Yeah. The third question. Where is your favorite place to eat? And this can be in California, or it can be in Atlanta. The choice is yours. So I'm sorry, Atlanta. I haven't ventured out that much to find a great spot. It's okay. You're kind of a busy dude. Sorry. But I would say in LA, our receiver group at SE would go to Harold and Bell's before every training camp. It's nice, a little Southern. Sorry. What is it? Southern food. Yeah. So like fried catfish, fried oysters, you got fried chicken, mac and cheese, greens, all that good stuff. Wow. Yeah. So I really like that place. And then another one is in and out. I'm just going to have that. Yeah. It's interesting too that this place was very Southern and you ended up in Atlanta. Yeah. It's like another full circle moment. Now, this is not a question. I'm just curious. What was kind of being from California and then coming to middle of Georgia? What's kind of been the biggest difference in Southern culture? Weather. Weather. Yeah. 100%. There are seasons here. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I'm not used to either. Freaking track and hot with the humidity and yeah. But it's cool though. It's just a little bit more. I mean, not a lot more intense than California weather. You kind of get everything. Everything is kind of just stays in the middle. Right. It's not too high or too low. Yeah, you kind of feel every season. I remember one of the first times we talked to you in rookie mini camp and it was in May and it was like a beautiful like 78, 77 degree weather and you came over and you was like, it's hot. I think I even said like, just wait. When we get to August, it'll be hurting. You'll be hurting. And it got like that. Yeah. I was right. Yeah, don't worry. It most certainly did. Who is the Falcon that you hang out with the most? I got to say this one on this Desmond Desmond Tyler fits. Okay, I saw on I don't know which Instagram of y'all's but y'all went bowling one time. Who's the best bowler? Oh, no, that's a good question. Yeah, I'll probably have to give it. I'm gonna say me, but I'll probably have to give it to Tyler. Really? Yeah. He's like a little bowling ball in and of himself when he's like running on the field. Yeah, literally. You can tell him is a good bowler in the final one, which sometimes people struggle with. Yeah, but we've gotten some good answers from from this one too. What is your biggest pet peeve? Oh, I just went over this. So we've had a few answers that I really like. One of my favorites was every Williams. He said that he doesn't like it when people say salmon instead of salmon, which was one of the most like specific. Yeah, specific pet peeves I've ever heard. Caleb McGarry talked about like guys paying on the toilet. Yeah, a very typical Caleb McGarry answer if you ask me. Richie Grant talked about like slow drivers and like terrible drivers. So those are some of the ones that that we've had on the pod. Yeah, I'm probably have to go Richie on that one. Really? That's one of my biggest pet peeves. If you're in the left lane and you're not going to speed limit. I would say that right now. Then you got to go you got to you got to you got to move over to the right or something. Will they get a tap on the horn from Drake London? No, I don't touch my horn. Really? Just okay. So I'm super passive aggressive and I'll just I'll ride them and just like literally just be like move over because if you're going 65 in the left hand lane, like you deserve to be ridden like your tail deserves to be ridden because it's just it's unacceptable to me. I get really like mad about it. No, it does infuriate me. Yeah, but hopefully no one will be infuriated after listening to this fun podcast. Thank you guys. What a transition, right? I was like how many I'm going to get to that get to the exit. But anyway, I think we get paid for this or something amazing, man. Can y'all do us a big favor rate review subscribe to the Atlanta Falcons podcast network and definitely listen to this one and all the other awesome guests we got coming up after Drake London Drake. Thanks for stopping by and we will talk to y'all next week.