#399 - Colt McCoy - The Story

Colt McCoy: So is this where you film all of them? 

Chris Powers: Well, I used to have a studio. And then when we moved out of that office, when I was across the street from you, I've probably been filming here for the last... 

Colt McCoy: You know there's a podcast studio in our office. 

Chris Powers: Is it legit? Is it as legit as this? 

Colt McCoy: It's about half this size. 

Chris Powers: In your office or just in the building? 

Colt McCoy: In our office. 

Chris Powers: Really? 

Colt McCoy: It's legit. 

Chris Powers: Does it have equipment? 

Colt McCoy: Now my equipment's there. Like the stuff that I- like when I got to log on to like ESPN or whatever. 

Chris Powers: How often do you have to get on? How often do you use it? 

Colt McCoy: It just kind of varies by season. This football season, I haven't done near as much. Like last year, I was doing it like every day. And it's been nice. I mean, I probably do it once a week. 

Chris Powers: Cause that's all you say yes to? 

Colt McCoy: Yeah, basically. It is different networks or special games or stuff. I haven't done very much NFL stuff at all. What I'll do now is like I have buddies in the media who, for example, like A.Q. Shipley, he is paid by McAfee to go on every Wednesday. It's like every Wednesday, he's on the show and he's talking like O-line play, and it's like the, I don't know what they call it, like the big boys interior or something. And that's kind of A.Q.’s segment. And then like Thursdays is like J.J. Watts, like defensive whatever. It's cool that McAfee and I were the same class. We got the same draft class. So he pays those guys to come in, they fly to Indy. I think J.J. does like half and half. But A.Q. flies to Indy late Tuesday night, is there all a Wednesday, flies home Wednesday night. He lives in Phoenix. But for like A.Q., A.Q. will call me on Tuesdays and walk through like, here's the things I need your help. Like, what is this route? Because he's an old line guy. So he's talking about this, and he'll always show like four or five of the big plays of the week or whatever that I've like given him or talked through with him. So, I'm doing a little bit more of like that than I am hosting a show or being a guest on a show. 

Chris Powers: Do you have to study what he tells you on Tuesday? You know exactly what you're seeing? 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. He shows me, and I'm like, okay, let me talk you through this. This is what this means. Here's the read. Here's the routes. Here's the depths. Here's what... Just because I've done that forever. So, that's pretty fun. And I'll do two or three things like that. 

Chris Powers: Do they pay you to do it? 

Colt McCoy: For A.Q., no, but like, if I'm going to go on to a show...

Chris Powers: They'll pay you. 

Colt McCoy: Like an ESPN contract, ESPN offered me a contract. And it's all based on days. They do day contracts. So like, they'll say, we need you for 30 days. And then you're subject to like, one day might be one hour. It might be a full day in Bristol. And so I said no... But they'll say like 30 days and we'll pay you 300 grand, which is great, but it's like, okay. So, I'm at the expense, for a whole month, I'm at your expense to like drop everything I'm doing. It might be in my studio. It might be... it might be calling a game, and it might be doing first take. I'm like, that's not my deal. But those will always be there. I'm really enjoying what I'm doing now. It's fun. I'm energized. I enjoy where we are and putting this team together. That's just fun for me. So, I told... I got hired by NBC to be a broadcast analyst, like to be the color guy. And that was awesome. I really enjoyed it. The hardest part was like there's a lot of prep in the week that I didn't know about. You got to interview both coaches, both coordinators on both teams. So, that's coordinators on both teams, that's four separate interviews during the week, defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator, both teams, then the head coaches on both teams. And then generally you do like one to three players off of each team. So now you're at eight, like separate, like zoom in, log in, interviews, taking notes. Like you need to know what they're saying. Brutal. 

Chris Powers: And that's just for one game? And you're having to cover multiple?

Colt McCoy: Every week. So, you look at that, and it's like, okay, that really is like... half these coaches are never on time. So, you're just kind of sitting around waiting on them to log in, whatever. So that's like a day and a half at least, two days probably worth of like being kind of ready or prepared. Then you got to watch the tape to like understand scheme on both sides and put your own talking points together. Like if you see something, you remind yourself, then you got to study guy's names. Because the cardinal sin is a guy makes a play in real time and like you butcher his name. Like that's a big no- because every fan knows that guy's name. And then as a color guy you have to know, you got to know storylines of like okay, where is this team right now? They're five and three. They should have won two of those three losses. Why did they lose them? Who's playing good? Who's injured? Who's out? What's the... because you can't like walk in and call a game and not know, oh, there's some drama between the quarterback receiver here. So, you got to kind of immerse yourself in some of that. It takes up your- it takes up a lot of time. Then you fly out on Thursdays, and you fly home Sunday night, and it's an away game every week. 

Chris Powers: You did that all last...? 

Colt McCoy: I did 12 games last year. 

Chris Powers: You think Saban's doing all that shit? 

Colt McCoy: No, because Saban's not in the booth. Saban just goes to game day. 

Chris Powers: But he just shows up and just kind of rolls with it, or do you think he's doing a lot of prep? 

Colt McCoy: He's probably got a team around him. Like they challenged me to not have somebody like do the work for me, which was probably smart. I think like, as you get- you start getting into- I was the number two crew at NBC, which is great. I mean, that's like a legit starting job if you want to be in that business. Like I probably could have got the number one chair probably next year. But I just told NBC, I was like, look, it's not about how much money you pay me. You could write me, I mean, I guess at a certain point. But because of all this, like I love doing it, the same thing, but also I would love coaching. Like, I love being on a team. Like I love the game. But why I left was because of these reasons, and this, what I'm doing is taking away from all these things. Like I'm gone every weekend. I missed all my kids’ games last year. I missed Thanksgiving and Halloween, and it just all adds up. It's like if I do that every year, what's the point? I said call me in 15 years when my kids are out of school, and I'd freaking be glad to jump back in the booth. I mean, it's natural for me. It's easy. And I would probably enjoy it a lot more. And you'd probably get a little bit more out of me because I wouldn't be missing anything. 

Chris Powers: Because at least during football season, you had eight home games and the kids could travel to a game. They're not going to go travel to the booth. 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. I took my- the kids came with- I took one kid with me one time. But that was like, it was added stress. I mean, I have my kid playing on an iPad in the booth back behind me, like stay right here, don't say a word. And they were cool to let me do that. But like, it's just a lot. 

Chris Powers: All right. So, to get to like the position where you could call games, I kind of just want to go back to like how it all started. Like what's your earliest memories of football? 

Colt McCoy: My earliest memories of football? I have lived a football life. 

Chris Powers: What's a football life?

Colt McCoy: I'll go back even farther. My granddad, my hero, he was a farmer and a great athlete, women's basketball coach of like 30 years at Abilene Christian and also a track coach. And my mom actually played for my granddad at Abilene Christian. She was a point guard and a two guard. And my dad played football at Abilene Christian. And that's where my parents met. And so, when they graduated, my dad became a football coach. My earliest memories of football, I was like the water boy at three years old on my dad's sideline of the football games. And from three years old till I retired last year, like I was on sidelines. And so, when I say it's a lot, I mean, that's all I've done. It's been amazing. It's like, you really have like a PhD in all things football from being in a locker room, from understanding offenses, defenses, players, leadership, coaching styles, I mean, travel, big games, district games, playoff games, conference, you name it. I've literally been in every situation in football. The only thing I never did was play in a Super Bowl. But I remember I was like six years old and I didn't get out of the way on time on the sidelines being the ball boy. I got run over and broke my collarbone. So, like I had an injury before I even played football. The first time I ever played a game was seventh grade. And my dad just was a big believer in I want you to be developed to the point where like you can carry your pads and your helmet and you can tackle somebody with your head up and you can defend yourself and you can get coached by coaches who know what they're- like real coaches, not that dads can't coach football, but that was kind of his way of saying- And so my dad and his staff... I grew up in a small town in West Texas, like those coaches coached the junior high, they coached the freshmen, they coached the JV, and they coached the varsity. It was all part of it. 

Chris Powers: You didn't play flag or anything? 

Colt McCoy: No. 

Chris Powers: What'd you do all those years? 

Colt McCoy: I played a little bit of basketball. I love basketball. Basketball was probably my favorite sport until I got an offer to go play at UT, and then I was like, okay, well, I'll go play football. But also, a little bit of that is that I grew up in a small town, so there wasn't- it's not like we had a flag football team to go play on. And so, part of like what I look back on is that, of course, I wanted to play. Some of the guys that I grew up with would like drive into Abilene, which was like the biggest town, and play little league, Pop Warner, whatever. We just didn't have that in our town. But I wanted to play that. I think looking back... what I try to explain to my kids is there's a little bit of like, there's a meaningfulness to making those games matter. Like I love youth sports. I think they're great. But there's a difference between, and I'm not saying one is right or wrong, but there's a difference between, I waited until seventh grade to play football. So like, you can imagine the first time I get to go play a game, like it was the most unbelievable experience ever. Whereas some kids nowadays will get to seventh grade football and they've played a hundred games and it's just another day. And so, for me, youth sports is awesome. But it's finding the balance of like my favorite memories of all sports was like junior high and high school football.

Chris Powers: Really? 

Colt McCoy: Yeah, you're playing with your buddies, your boys, like we've all kind of waited to do this and like it matters, and every game is like... first game of my life, I'm in seventh grade...

Chris Powers: Were you the quarterback?

Colt McCoy: Yeah, I'm quarterback and safety. I likes to hit people. We left school early at like two o'clock. We played the five o'clock game on the road in Albany, the Albany Lions. What a cool stadium. Zach Jones... We got on the bus. We're all in our slacks and our button ups and our jerseys over our white collared shirts. And we all look the same. We're all nervous. We get to Albany, it was about an hour bus ride, maybe a little longer. We're carrying all our bags, all of our equipment. We're in like some little locker room smaller than this. And I remember I go to the bathroom and I yak. And I'm like, I'm not sick. Like, I don't- I was so nervous. Like I've never done this before. And then we go out there and play and it's awesome. And we win and like celebrating, I mean, everything led up to that. And so, I've just loved football ever since. Like, it's been an amazing journey. And if you would ask me in seventh grade, do you want to play in college? Sure. Like no clue what that meant. Do you want to play in the NFL? Sure. Every kid who plays football wants to go to the NFL. But I didn't- that wasn't like my goal. My goal was to go play with my buddies. And like, I always tried to treat games like that because that was my first memory. It was like, I’m in my 14th year in the NFL and I'm playing the LA Rams in SoFi, it's like it's still a kid's game. I still get to do this. And it's hard to keep that perspective, but I did my best to try that. 

Chris Powers: We'll get into middle school and high school for a second. I know your dad was a coach, but sometimes like your parents can like burn you out. What did your dad do to like make you love the game? Like what did he do well? On one hand, like you couldn't play that first game till you were in seventh grade because there was no other options. But like, what did he do as a coach to keep you like inspired and wanting it? And maybe it's just like the gifts God gave you early on, but that can go both ways where you're like, I don't actually want any of this. And how did he impact all that? 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. I mean, obviously, like growing up, the star players on my dad's football team were like my heroes. They were also my babysitters. I was just around it all the time. My dad did a wonderful job of, I always knew that he had high expectations for me because he was a coach and because he was my dad. And I think naturally as a dad, like you're going to have high expectations for your kids. It may not be in sports, but maybe in school, it may be in how you treat people, it may be in being respectful everywhere we go or whatever it is. So, I always felt that there was an expectation from, I can just feel. But I also would say that he did a really good job of kind of separating, hey, I'm talking to you as your dad right now about whatever, or, hey man, sit down, son, I'm your coach right now. But there was always a clear- he did a good job of there was a distinction between both. So, sometimes I'd be like dad, are you talking to me like a dad or are you talking to me like my coach right now? And he always made me earn everything way more than anybody else, which is fine. I mean, I think, I wanted to play quarterback in high school when I was- or varsity when I was a freshman, but he didn't let it happen, and so I went and played basketball. I was a starting point guard on the varsity basketball team as a freshman. So, I was like, I think I'm a basketball player now. And then sophomore year, it was like, I think the assistant coaches had to convince my dad that like, hey, he's the guy. But you grow up in a small town, there's politics, there's, oh, it's the coach's son, he's going to- So I think he was cognizant of that and he had high expectations for me. And so, I sensed that. I felt it. And so, I also think I loved football forever, but growing up in a small town, in a small school, I played five sports in high school. You played football, basketball, you ran track, played golf, played tennis, we had enough guys for the baseball team. So, I kind of stopped playing baseball when I got into high school. You just kind of did it all. And there was a beauty in that. That was a ton of fun. But one of the things that I respect about my dad is that he was a great football coach. And I mentioned earlier that my granddad was a farmer and that was part of our lifestyle too. And I didn't learn this until a few years ago, but my dad was offered big jobs to come to the Metroplex or go to Houston or Austin, big towns, he was a good football coach, but he raised us out in West Texas in small towns so that we could be close to having to work the farm in the summers and the weekends that were free, like we were out there. That was my memory. I was playing football or sports or I was working. And I didn't pick up on that until later in life. But I'll always respect that about kind of my roots and the morals and the values and the foundation that my parents and grandparents gave me growing up in West Texas. 

Chris Powers: Okay. So, you can say it humbly, but like, when did you kind of know you were better than most at football? If you didn't even get to start quarterback till sophomore year, were you already good at that point? 

Colt McCoy: We didn't lose a game in junior high. But I also had like good teammates. I had good guys around me. We all worked hard and we all- it meant something to us. We just now got to do it. I would say that I felt like I sensed something about me like my junior year and I got recruited late. But during my junior year, I felt like, not that things came easy, but that like we were winning by a bunch. I just felt like I could- I was controlling some things out there. Like I could run. I could throw it. I could kind of control the game a little bit. I didn't know what that really meant. But one of my goals was to play college football and I had been offered a scholarship to go play basketball at Abilene Christian. And I thought, well, my mom did that and granddad coached there. And I think, if I get the chance, I'm going to go play football and basketball at Abilene Christian. That would be perfect with me. And so, I think the first time I really felt like I can do this is when I got a scholarship to go play like at a big school and somebody saw something in me that was not my- the small town in West Texas where I grew up. 

Chris Powers: Keep going. 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. Like, I qualified for the district. I had got first or second place in the district track meet in the high hurdles. I hated track by the way. And I got a letter in the mail from the University of Texas, and I'll keep this story short, but basically, I took it to my dad or maybe my dad had the letter. He showed it to me, and it was Texas invited me to go to a one day mini camp. So back in the day, during that, recruiting is totally changed now, but back in the day, they would invite you to a one day camp. They’d get your height, your weight, your measurements, you run a 40, and then you go outside and you throw routes on air, and you compete against everybody else out there, and they'd fill your day, and then you go home. And it was schools’ ways of- I think they could do like one or two of those a spring. So, I get that letter from Texas saying...

 Chris Powers: Junior year? 

Colt McCoy: Yeah, junior year, like end of junior year, like May of my junior year, like come to our one day mini camp. And it was the same day as the regional track meet. And nobody else on my track team- we weren't competing as a team at regionals. I think only a few guys made certain events. And so, my dad was like, hey, bud, this is up to you. I'll take you to the one day camp if you want, or you can go run track. It's like, I'm not going to make this decision for you. And so, I slept on it, and I loved football. I was like, you know what, I want a crack at it. So, I ended up not going to the regional track meet, ended up going... with my dad, we woke up early, we were like four in the morning, drove to Austin, which is about three and a half, four hours, spent the day at camp. There was a ton of kids there. And the quarterbacks in my class were Mark Sanchez, he had been offered a scholarship to UT, and a guy named Ryan Perrilloux, who ended up going to LSU. And so, the people who had been offered scholarships were like on one field, these are the prize ponies over here. And the rest of us went to like another field. And I was like, man, I should have... I see where this is going. But I did all my stuff. I started throwing the ball over there. Eventually I worked my way over to this field towards the end of the day and kind of started throwing head to head with these guys. And I thought I did a pretty good job. I thought it was worth my time. And we ended up, camp ends and we're walking back out to the car, and one of the assistants says, hey, can you guys come back inside? Coach Brown wants to meet you. And I look at my dad and I'm like... and he's like, yeah, let's go. So, we go back in, and Coach Brown and Miss Sally are there. And Coach Brown sits me down and was like, son, where are you from? I'm like, I'm from Buffalo Gap, Texas. I go to Jim Ned high school. And he's like, son, I'm head coach of the University of Texas. And I have no idea where that's at. And your dad's your coach? Yes, sir, my dad's my coach. And we've had a couple of good years, we lost in the state championship game my junior year, which was our only loss that year. And anyways, we just kind of start talking back and forth, and they're able to pull up some of my tape and they start watching that a little bit. And they saw me throw head to head against these other guys, and it was good. And then we go back to the car and go home. I remember getting in the car and telling Coach Brown or telling my dad, like Dad... if I get a chance to come to the University of Texas, like nothing else matters to me. Like, I am going here. And I remember my dad kind of chuckling and looks at me. He's like, yeah, son, like you and everybody else in the world. And so, we drive home, and I was wiped. It was a long day, and we get home late, and we wake up for church the next morning. And we're all getting dressed for church and go out the front door. And there was an overnight FedEx, handwritten note from Coach Brown that says, thanks for coming to camp, loved getting to meet you. Here's your full scholarship to come to the University of Texas. 

Chris Powers: What?

Colt McCoy: Yes. And that's how it happened. And so we're all celebrating, me and my mom's crying, and I'm like, I don't know what to... nobody at my school had ever been, boy or girl had ever been, at least for a really long period of time was not on like a full scholarship to go play a sport. And then, a week later, I had like 100 scholarship offers... Yeah, because Texas offered me. So, every school in the country like started coming, they started coming, like we want to watch you do spring practice. And my dad's like, we're a 2A high school, like we don't have spring practice. Everybody's playing baseball and golf and tennis and track. We don't have an offseason program. So, I mean, I told Coach Brown, I'm in. And Coach Brown said, well, I'd like to sign two of the three guys that I've offered. I said, I don't care. I'm in. Like, bring them. I just threw head to head against them. I'm in. And so, I never went and visited anywhere else. I didn't travel anywhere else. Like I went to Texas. 

Chris Powers: You get a call randomly to go down to Texas. They had seen your film somehow. I guess they were doing film. This would have been what, ’04? 

Colt McCoy: This was ’04. I graduated in ’05. 

Chris Powers: So how would Texas have even known? They just know there was this great team up in Buffalo Gap that was winning by a lot. And they had maybe heard there's a quarterback there that's kind of running hot. 

Colt McCoy: I'm sure there was like a GA or an analyst or somebody that like got wind or something and just sent out a flyer to like, hey, come to camp. 

Chris Powers: So you go to camp, obviously have a good throwing day. So basically, like within 48 hours, your whole world was completely turned upside down. Okay, so that's May. So, you go into summer. I'm assuming you have a good senior year.

Colt McCoy: Yeah, I mean, listen, I played 2A high school football. I mean, you play both ways. I remember the big deal for Coach Brown was like, we don't want him playing defense. I'm like, no, I love to play defense. And so that was, we played my senior year and I had the opportunity to go early and graduate early. And I just said no, like I want to play basketball. Like I love basketball. Our team was good. We ended up getting beat in the state tournament in Austin. So, we went to the state championship, got beat by a team by like four, so finished out my senior year, then I came in for summer school and started. But yeah, the story's wild and I think if you were to ask anybody in my hometown of 700 people, like Colt’s going to the University of Texas, like I don’t think anybody would have assumed that I would like actually go be the quarterback there. I mean, I did. Deep down somewhere in there, I was like, I got a chance. But this doesn't happen. This never happened. And so I felt like Coach Brown gave me an opportunity and went out on a limb for me, which he did, but like I will always be grateful for that, and I also felt like I'm representing all my buddies that I played football with, I'm representing West Texas, I'm representing all the small town kids who play football who never got the chance that I got, and I would imagine there's better guys, better athletes, better players than me, but somehow I got picked and I have always tried to honor that. 

Chris Powers: One more question, then we'll get to arrival day. So that day camp, how many total- there was Mark and the guy that played at LSU. There was you. Was there anybody else or was it just the three of y’all? 

Colt McCoy: It was just us three. There was some other guys that like never made it to this field. There was like other quarterbacks over here. 

Chris Powers: They kind of moved you to the good field after they saw you throw a few. Were you throwing them long, just direct? 

Colt McCoy: You're throwing to guys you've never thrown before. You don't know how fast this guy is. I think they're just doing, they're doing drills, footwork drills, take a five-step drop or do a roll out, give me three and a hitch, those sort of things. And I think I just, I'd been playing the game my whole life, like I've been doing that since I was three. And so, I think there was things I needed to work on and get better at, but I think just overall... if I'm nothing, like being around the game forever, like I am a really good evaluator of talent. Like I can go out and watch a high school football game, and I can tell you if anybody on that field, no matter what position they play, like have a chance. Because I've just seen it forever. And so I think it was the same thing that day, like okay let's put you over here so I can kind of evaluate you with like what I already know, Mark and Ryan and those guys are like, I think Ryan was the number one recruit in the country and I think Mark was number two. And so that was- I knew who those guys were. Now I get to go throw to them, I'm going to give you my best shot. 

Chris Powers: So you get to Texas. What is it? I guess summer two a days. 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. I get to Texas. 

Chris Powers: And did you kind of arrive, you in your heart knew I'm going to make it on that starting squad, but did the world... were you arriving as like third string, second string, first string, or were you arriving as like end of bench? 

Colt McCoy: Yeah, I was arriving and no one knew who I was. I think people thought I had a cool name and that's about it. Like nobody knew anything about me. 

Chris Powers: It's a pretty football name. 

Colt McCoy: I wasn't even- I wasn't really like ranked on like any website until Texas offered me a scholarship. And then I became like a low ranked, like I think I was a three star, if that rings a bell for anybody. And so, we had the smallest recruiting class in UC history. So, my 2005 signing class was 13 guys. I think like nine of us made it, got drafted, which is pretty awesome. But I remember... 

Chris Powers: Nine of 13 guys got drafted? 

Colt McCoy: Yeah, maybe more. I remember getting onto campus, all the guys, like you don't really know anybody, but it was like Jamaal Charles and Jermichael Finley and Roy Miller and a bunch of these like household names. And after a few days in, the dudes were like upset at me. Like, hey, listen, because we were like the number three class in the country, four class in the country. And then, it's all based on what your ranking is. And so, when I came in as like the only three star, like we went from like the number three class to like the number 10 or 11 class. And so they were all like, come on, man... Trust me, if I get out... like, if I get a chance... trust me. I'm here for a reason. And so that was always like the running joke around our recruiting class was like, man, Colt ruined this for us. 

Chris Powers: Then the next question just becomes, when did you figure out you had a chance at Texas, that you weren't just going to...? 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. So, this turned into be, I ended up red shirting that year and I needed it bad. Man, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me because I came from a small town in West Texas. We didn't really have an off season program. You just went from- we lost in a state championship game in football on a Friday night, and Tuesday night we had a district basketball game. So, it was like take the helmets and cleats off, put your basketball shoes on, go shoot a couple of free throws, and like let's go play. So... I was little, like I was six foot. I think when I checked into campus, I was like 169 pounds, just a little athlete. And I remember checking in and getting on campus, and it still amazes me that I got a scholarship, like knowing what I was, but I guess whatever potential they saw in me to take a flyer on me, but I needed a year. And I actually hit a growth spurt my freshman year. My first start... after my redshirt freshman year, I was 6 '2", 195 pounds. So, I put on 25 pounds. I actually grew two inches, which is crazy. But that whole year, I was at 5 am workouts every day with Mad Dog. I mean, every single day, squatting, benching, power clean, running, just anything to put meat on my bones. And at the same time, it was meetings and meetings and meetings, like learning the offense, learning the system, learning protections, learning coverages and defenses. And just, it was a constant, just like first time in my life where I was just consumed with one thing. Like I wasn't going to basketball practice and baseball and track. Like, it was football all day long. And I loved it, but I knew I had a long ways to go. And so, it was just a full on commitment of if I ever want to have a chance, like I got to do this. And so, that whole year, I technically was the backup probably. Vince was the starter. So, I mean, we went 13 and 0 and won the national championship, which was incredible. 

Chris Powers: That was ’05. 

Colt McCoy: That was ’05. So back then, if you played one play, you burned your redshirt. Now you can play like four games and still redshirt. So the whole goal was to not play, but I traveled and I dressed every game. I was holding a clipboard and I was tracking. I was on the headphones. I was listening. I mean, I got a front row seat to like what this needs to look like. And Vince never got hurt. 

Chris Powers: You were second string? 

Colt McCoy: I was running the scout team. I was technically third string because we had a fifth year senior who traveled and was the backup and like clean up duties. But I think if something catastrophic would have happened to Vince, I think I probably would have burned the redshirt, but I'm glad that didn't happen. And it's like, it was a great way for me to not only put on some weight and physically get stronger and mentally get dialed in more of like how we call plays, what it looks like, how we execute, how we operate, but also to see it. Like I'm a visual learner, I always have been. So... and the one thing I remember was like there was a lot of self-doubt in me. Like I'm here, like I'm here for a reason, I think, but like, I can't go do that. I can't run like that. I can't do these things that Vince Young is doing. And so, I was always... I had this back and forth in my head all the time of like, if I'm ever going to play here, it's not going to look like that. And so what can it look like? Like, what are my strengths? And I learned real quickly that I was never going to be the biggest, the fastest, the strongest. But in order to play high level college football, you got to have an edge somewhere. And my edge ultimately ended up being in my head, mentally, like understanding structures and coverages and defenses, understanding offensively, like where the ball needs to go, checks, audibles, alerts, packages, like to just operate the thing flawlessly and trust what I'm seeing to go do that. And so, that's where I just dove in. And I remember walking up to Coach Brown's office after Vince left and went to the NFL, every year we brought in a five-star quarterback, and I remember Coach Brown sitting there looking at me. He's like, son, listen, and Coach Brown and I are super tight now. And we always have been, but it's different when he's your coach and day to day. He was like, nothing's ever going to be given here, especially to you. Everything's going to be earned... Exactly, but I was used to that. I mean, I was used to that. And so like, it was just a daily, like somebody's coming to take my job today, and I'm not going to let it happen. And I played that way my whole life, especially at UT. Because I had to go earn the job my next year. I had to go earn the job the next year. Like I kind of felt safe after my junior year, like going into my senior year that like, I still got to go get it, but like I don't think anybody's going to take my job right now. And I've just always had that mentality. 

Chris Powers: So you started your sophomore year. 

Colt McCoy: I started all four years. 

Chris Powers: ...Just a little, like walking onto the field for the first time. 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. My first game, we played North Texas. And I had had a really good training camp, and similar to my dad in how like some of the assistant coaches had to convince him that like, okay, he's our best guy. I think I got voted captain four years in a row. And that's probably one of my proudest accomplishments, because it's all about the players. Like the coaches are amazing. Coaches can call great plays. Coaches can help in a lot of different ways. But like if you don't have the respect of your team and the guys that you're doing this stuff with, and you're around them all day, every day, you got to earn that. 

Chris Powers: So let me ask you a question. Were you voted captain leading into your freshman year, or you voted on that at the beginning of the year? 

Colt McCoy: Yes and no. So, at UT, there was never like a- we never had a- captains were voted on, you got that at the end of the year at an awards banquet. But there was like... captains to like walk on the field and do the coin toss changed. It's mostly like seniors and we rotated that out. That's how Coach Brown did it. But there was an understood like who's calling the shots around here. And I know a lot of my teammates advocated for me to be the guy, but I was competing against a five-star, a guy named Jevan Sneed who was like Mr. All-world and he was a great quarterback, and it was head-to-head. I mean, head-to-head every day. And I remember going into the first game at North Texas, Coach Brown called me in on a Thursday night. And I'm thinking like I've done everything I can possibly do. I hadn't even really thought about North Texas. I've thought about like being the quarterback. And he says, listen, I think you've done a good job. I'm proud of you. He's like, but like you're going to start this game, but Jevan's going to play too, and he's probably going to play in the third series. He's like, so depending on how it goes, what this looks like, y'all are both going to play. And I was like, all right. Like if that's where we're at, that's where we're at. And I remember going out and never coming off the field against North Texas, and just I threw four touchdowns, we rolled, and it was like, you asked like when did you think you could do it? Like, I probably didn't think I could do it before that game, but going out there and like feeling it and smelling it and executing and doing it, then it was like, okay, like games are going to get harder. But like, I got that one under my belt and... at that point, everybody's comparing you to, you just want to natty. And I'm three inches shorter and not as fast, but I did some good things and things that I could build off of and things I could get some confidence in, and we went. 

Chris Powers: Not only did you come off the natty, you said it was the greatest college football game maybe of all time, was the 2005 natty that you also got to watch firsthand. 

Colt McCoy: I think if you ask a lot of people, I think most people would say that's one of the greatest games of all time. 

Chris Powers: You know what's funny, I had Steve on yesterday. He went to USC, he said tell Colt everybody in Texas probably says that. Everybody at USC has forgotten that game. 

Colt McCoy: Yeah, but there was stars galore in that game, Reggie White- I mean, Reggie Bush, Matt Liner, LenDale White. I mean, their whole defense got drafted. You look at our 2005 team, the defense we had, the guys we had on offense, I mean, it was a game. And not only was there so much talent on the field, like the game was epic. We stopped them on fourth down at midfield with a couple minutes left. We go down and score. Vince runs it in. You're like what? We just won? Pretty awesome. 

Chris Powers: Is that a fun night? 

Colt McCoy: It was a fun night. I mean, really fun night. But afterwards, Vince is like, I'm out. I'm headed to the league. I'm like, yeah, you're the best player in the world. It just immediately became real. Like, okay, now what? 

Chris Powers: So, a few more things in college. So, you start all four years. What is like your greatest memory? Is it a game? Is there a moment? Like Texas football is such a big deal. It's just a big deal. Was it- maybe like what was the pinnacle of it all for you? 

Colt McCoy: Yeah, I think I had the opportunity to leave after my junior year, really was torn up about it because I was getting feedback from the NFL that I was going to be a mid to late first round pick, maybe early second round pick. 

Chris Powers: End of junior year? 

Colt McCoy: Yeah, that's hard to turn down. I'd been in school for four years, played three years. And I think at the end of the day, what mattered most to me was graduating from Texas. But more important than that, honestly, was the guys that I had been playing with, like all my teammates. And I didn't know if we'd be as good as 2008, but I knew we had a chance to go back to the Rose Bowl in 2009. And I just loved college, and I loved our coaching staff was the same. It was just, it was set up in a way that like I really was convinced that we could go win a national championship. And I experienced that my freshman year, but I wasn't- I was a part of it, but I didn't play, and I wanted that. And I knew it was going to be back at the Rose Bowl. And so, it was like, it allowed me to kind of do all that. And it became a pretty easy decision for me, was to come back. And I think if you asked me like what my favorite memories were... there's rivalries at Texas that are really fun. Oklahoma's a big rivalry, playing the Cotton Bowl in that environment, split down the middle, same tunnel, generally whoever wins that game is going to go to the Big 12 championship and have a shot at the national championship. Like all those things were, it was awesome. And I played good in that game every year. It was fun. The A&M game is great, and it's kind of the big in-state rivalry. But it's still like playing at Kyle Field is an awesome experience. And so, those are kind of the two games you circle on the calendar every year. But I think probably the game that everybody remembers the most is, we made it, we made it to the National Championship. Like that was the goal. There was no other goal that year. Like if I was coming back, like that was it. Everybody, it was almost like we didn't have to talk about it. And we got there. It's hard to do. We were playing a lot of young receivers. We had a lot of young guys playing in different spots. There was some close games in the year where the year before, but we were kind of blowing out people, but we were still winning. And we were kind of learning along the way and bringing these young guys up. And so, there was times where it was a little bit frustrating, but we made it. And going into that game, it was, I mean, we were underdogs, but the expectation and everyone knew we were going to win that game. Like, we just knew. And then to have that taken away by injury was awful. And you can't go back and change anything in time, and I've certainly had many years now to like dwell on that and think about that, and that was a tough blow, not just to me but to, like I didn't even care about me in that moment really. I cared about my coaches. I cared about my teammates. Like no quarterback had stepped in the huddle and called a play for the last four years. It was just was chaos... it was awful. And that hurt. That still hurts. But at the same time, like when you look at the totality of everything, would I have loved to finish that game and win that game? Of course. Absolutely. But that didn't happen and that was taken away, and I've learned a bunch from it and still deal with it at times physically, but also grew up a lot after that. That was a really tough deal. 

Chris Powers: What do you remember about that play? In the moment, like do you remember... you black out over it? 

Colt McCoy: You're so locked in, very routine play, like nothing, not even like that hard of a hit. Like, it wasn't like a massive collision. It was just... he caught me the right way and landed on me the right way. And it didn't hurt. And I remember I'm at the bottom of the pile. I'm trying to get up. I'm trying to push myself up off the ground. Like, I have nothing on the right side of my body. And I'd had stingers. Everybody who plays football has stingers before. Kind of like, it kind of burns and it doesn't feel good, but you kind of shake it off, and like a few minutes later, it comes back. And so that's kind of what I was... Yeah. That's what I was, for sure. But like, I came off the sidelines, and when I say it was turned off, it was turned off for three months. Like, I got drafted late in the third round. I was supposed to be a first round pick because no doctors could say he's going to be all right at this date. The feedback was he may never be right. Like it's different on every person. It was a cervical, in my neck, everybody thought it was a shoulder injury. It's your neck that goes through your shoulder and down. Like, for a month, I couldn't like control my hand and like go pick up something. It was a freaky deal. If I had any ounce of anything, it would never come off that field. It was one of those deals. I remember at the end of the game, I couldn't take my shoulder pads off at halftime, so I just walked back out and did my best to be a cheerleader for everybody. And I'm trying to get back to the locker room after the game and there's never been an instance where the sideline reporter, Lisa Salters comes and interviews the losing quarterback who didn't play in the game. You go interview Saban, you go interview... like you go straight there, hold the trophy. I'm trying to get- She catches me right before I'm walking in the locker room, like what happened? Talk to us, whatever. I had read Isaiah 26:3 the night before. It said, Trust in the Lord, for the Lord is the rock eternal. I went to bed that night, like I do every night before a game, just excited, pray, and wake up, and it's ready to go. And when she caught me in that moment, that's what came out of my mouth. And that's what I believe. And this one was taken away from me, and it was the biggest stage of my life. And it's what I worked for, for not only me, but everybody for forever. And I didn't get to do it. But you know what, I still know that God has a wonderful plan and it wasn't part of the plan tonight. And you just move on. 

Chris Powers: Were you like, dude?

Colt McCoy: I mean, you're frustrated. You're aggravated. You're pissed. You're a competitor. You don't know what's going on. I couldn't like control this. I mean, I had nothing... nothing. I mean, there was like a little fractured rib in here. So he did, he caught me good. But I didn't feel that. I couldn't. It was gone. And I think being able in that moment to, that's what comes out of my heart. I think looking back, I'm very thankful that that's what came across, because that's what, I think amongst all the emotions I was experiencing for myself and for everyone else, it was like, I stand on the rock because that's the most important thing. 

Chris Powers: I can't fully, I don't think many people on this planet get to feel the gravity of something like that. That's a big deal, man. And that's a great way to walk away from it. Even if in the moment you're like, I trust the Lord, and it's hard right now. This is not what I was planning on. 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. I mean, that's the last time I wore the orange and white. I mean, that was it. Like I walked off. 

Chris Powers: And you were kind of the storyline of the game. 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. It was the culmination of like all of our goals. We had it. We were there. 

Chris Powers: That's something that kind of sucks about college football right now. Like you said, I got to play with these guys for four years. The coaches were the same. You see these teams right now, they're just trading each other all the time. It's hard to build that camaraderie in that team like they used to. 

Colt McCoy: Yeah, it's certainly changed. I mean, I think being a former college football player, like my hope is that we can somehow keep the sanctity of college football, the rivalries, the traditions, the fans, like there's so much awesome stuff there. And right now, it just feels like it's pretty corporate. And my hope is that there can be folks who can figure that out for all of us. 

Chris Powers: Before we get to the NFL real quick, I told you this the other day, I put out something on the internet, I said, what do you want me to ask Colt? And your boys from Tech were like, ask him about Crabtree in Lubbock, Texas. And you had a funny story. So, tell us the three... how you and Crabtree became buddies. 

Colt McCoy: Yeah, obviously 2008, we kind of had everything we wanted right in front of us and we get beat late in the game in Lubbock primetime. Crabtree catches a ball in the sidelines. I'm standing right there. Like, I'm on the end of the field, kind of watching the play. Like all we got to do is keep them in bounds, game over. People forget we got the- we played horrible the first half. We made this epic comeback in the second half. I get the ball with like three minutes left. We marched 80 yards and score. And as I handed off the ball to like- and our guy runs into the end zone, I look up at the scoreboard, and there's like a little over a minute left, and I'm like, did we just score too early? But you can't really, in the moment, it's like did we just score- We just made a crazy comeback, and our defense was good that year. And so, I go down on the sidelines, like the far end, just like, all right, one stop, baby, like we got this. And then Crabtree catches in front of me, walks in and scores. It was brutal. So, I'm playing for the Cleveland Browns for my first- I get drafted by the Browns, play my first three years. I had gone through three head coaches, three general managers, and now an ownership change. So, the owner ended up selling the team to Jimmy Haslam. And I remember Jimmy comes in, who's a great friend of mine, and it's his first day, and he brings his dad, and it's got to be an awesome experience for the Haslam family. They're wonderful people. And at that point, it's been rough. Like, I've played decent football, but we just- and I've given it everything I had. And I was prepared to be a Cleveland Brown my whole career. I mean, you don't go into the NFL expecting to like bounce around and play on different teams, and like I'm fully committed to- I loved Cleveland. I remember having a conversation with Mr. Haslam and just like hey, how's Cleveland treated you? What do you like? And I was like, look, I love it all. It's been hard. Now, I'm going on another coach, like been through a lockout. There's just a lot here. I was like, and if you want me to be a Cleveland Brown, like I'm all in, but if not, like it might be best for all of us if I got a fresh start somewhere. And he said, I'm not going to make any personnel decisions this whole first year. Like, I don't know. I'm just going to evaluate... Great. And I remember, he called me back and just said, hey, why don't you come see me in the morning? Something like that. And so, I did. And long story short, through that whole process, he says, let's get you a fresh start. And I got traded to the 49ers. So, I'm like at the facility at like eight in the morning, meeting with the owner, and at three o'clock, I'm like landing in San Francisco to be... So what happens when you're under your rookie contract, it's a four year contract. So, you get traded at- you're going into your fourth year. The Niners just picked up the last year of my rookie contract, which was guaranteed. And so, I get to go...  I just get a fresh start. And it ultimately was like the best thing that- it's sad and you're confused and kind of excited at the same time. And so I get there, and they pick me up, they bring me to the facility. I'm with Harbaugh and the GM and you go sign your contract and you're meeting everybody. And Harbaugh's like hey, why don't we just show you the locker room, come down there, the lights were off. And I'm like, great, I'm getting the whole tour. And we go in, and he flips the lights on, and my lockers like right around the corner. And I look over there. And Crabtree is sitting at his locker, and Harbaugh puts me in the locker right next to Crabtree. He's like, hey, I think you might know this guy. And I'm like, you got to be kidding me right now. But Crabtree comes over, high fives, like big ol' smile on his face. I hadn't talked to him since that happened. And we were locker buddies for a whole year in San Francisco. He's awesome. But that's... I mean, I remember exactly where I was standing when he scored, and like that ultimately knocked us out of the national championship and probably a Heisman and probably, just it was brutal. But that's also football. That's why we all love it. And so, we obviously got our stuff out of the way and became boys, and I threw him a bunch of balls that year, and it was fun. 

Chris Powers: Yeah. I was in Vegas, TCU played UNLV that weekend. So we were watching it from the Bellagio Sports Book. I remember it too. 

Colt McCoy: Yeah, it was... people ask me like, what are some of the toughest places to play? Back then it was, you played Nebraska... in ’08 and ’09, seven of the top 15 teams in the country were in the Big 12. Say what you want about the SEC, but like seven of the top 15 teams, sometimes eight, I mean, Kansas won the Orange Bowl 2007. 

Chris Powers: Really? 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. So, everybody was decent. But like, playing at Oklahoma State on Halloween was like ridiculously hard and loud, like crazy. 

Chris Powers: And that field’s so tight. 

Colt McCoy: Zach Robinson and Dez Bryant and great defense. But playing at eight o'clock in Lubbock on primetime, I mean, that's one of the hardest environments. People are throwing stuff at you. And like we walked in the stadium and the entire student section was full at four o'clock. You walk out for warm-ups, and everything you could imagine. I had guys from my high school class, like I always told you how much I loved where I grew up. I mean, I had high school teammates of mine on the front row, like we're going to get after you tonight, boy.

Chris Powers: And you can hear it. You pretend like you don't, but you can hear it. 

Colt McCoy: Of course. That was awesome. I mean, when I say the sanctity of college football, that's what I'm talking about. Like that is incredible. It's what I remember, playing in Nebraska, playing at A&M, like all these places were crazy hard to play. 

Chris Powers: And away versus home is a big deal. Like it really is a change of psychology to be away. 

Colt McCoy: Big deal. I never had more fun in my entire career than going on the road and beating somebody. I took massive amounts of pride in that. 

Chris Powers: You said one thing real quick. You said Jimmy Haslam saved your career. Did he save your career by letting you go? 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. 

Chris Powers: What would have happened if you hadn't? 

Colt McCoy: Who knows? I mean, listen, I loved Cleveland. Cleveland's a really hard place to play. And I gave it- I have no regrets on like, I mean, I learned a ton. I grew up a ton. I mean, I gave it everything. And when I played there, it was like Pittsburgh was winning Super Bowls, Baltimore was winning Super Bowls. You played them twice a year. Cincinnati was good. Like that's your division, you play six games like that. It was tough and it was the weather and it was cold. Like I loved it, and all that was a great experience and learning curve for me. But sitting down with Mr. Haslam and him kind of understanding and looking at the totality of what had gone- I mean, listen, you get drafted by a certain regime. They get fired after the first year, a new one comes in. They're not the people who drafted you, but you play a year with them. Then you get a new one, then you get a lockout, then you get a new owner. I mean, it was just like, what's next? And if it's the best thing for me to like kind of, I don't want to be selfish here, but if there's another better- if somebody's going to offer you a good amount of picks for me, like we should think about it. And ultimately when I got to San Francisco, that was a great football team. I mean, there was Hall of Famers all around me, made great friends. You're talking Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman and Justin Smith and Alden Smith and Frank Gore and Vernon Davis and a stud offensive line. I mean, you go down the list. I learned to love football again that year, big time. I was like, oh, this is fun. We ended up getting beat in the NFC Championship game by Seattle, in Seattle. It was the whole Crabtree, Richard Sherman scuffle in the back of the end zone, last play of the game. We were that close to making a Super Bowl. And from then I became a free agent, could have stayed in San Francisco. I think that was a real opportunity. And I think just, I kind of weighed my options, and I felt like Washington was a better place for me. I ended up playing seven seasons there, loved it. And so... it just re-energized me on football again. 

Chris Powers: What is the biggest learning curve NCAA to NFL? 

Colt McCoy: I was trying to explain this to my kids the other day. Listen to this. I took my kids to the All Saints Regents state semifinal playoff game last week. And my son is seven. I have four kids. I have three girls and a boy. My oldest girl's 10. My second child, my second girl's eight, my son is seven, and my little girl's four. After the game's over, you got one side that's like holding up the trophy, pumped, we're going to state. I've been there and it's a beautiful feeling. So, you're like, that's awesome. You look across the field and everyone's crying – fans, parents, cheerleaders, band, players, just devastated. And they start playing Kenny Chesney's song Boys of Fall, which is like... And so, I'm caught up in this moment because I know both sides. Like, nothing in my- I didn't love anything more than high school football. So, we get back in the car, and Judd, my son, says like, why were those boys crying? And I was like, where do I start? Like, how do I- Because what my son has seen is that like, oh, you want to go play college football? You can go play. My daddy did. You want to go play in the NFL. We can all go play, like go play in the NFL. That's what he's seeing. He's seen me, he watched five seasons of his life was at NFL games. And so, trying to break that down for him of like, hey, for 99% of those guys that were crying after the game, like football is now a memory. It's over. They won't ever put their pads on again. And he was like, why don't they just go play in college? I said, because like you have to be outrageously better than everyone else to even sniff the opportunity to go play in college. It's so hard to go to college, I mean, it's less than 1% go play college football. And it's getting worse now. I mean, high school athletes aren't hardly getting recruited now because you got the portal. I was like, and not only that, if you get to go play in the NFL, less than 1% of those guys in college get the chance to go play in the NFL. I was like... you have to have so many things go your way. You have to stay healthy and you have to be so good to even think about having the opportunity to go to the next level. And I could just see him thinking, like dang. Like dang. And my girls are in the back seat, like, wow, I've never thought about that. And that's the truth. I hate that I'm not playing football now. Like, every part of me outside of my elbow right now knows I could still be playing. But at the same time, like my heart is so full for what I got to do because I know how hard that is. And I know it wasn't just me. I had people praying for me. I had people help me. I had people encourage me. I mean, it's so hard. I got to play 14 years. I didn't accomplish all my goals and dreams. I mean, I didn't even come close. Like I'm a competitor. But at the same time, I'm so grateful that my kids got to see me play and it kind of gave me a good runway to go be a great dad and husband and go start a business. And it's unbelievable. I just told you where I came from. And so I'd be crazy to not wake up every day and just legitimately count my blessings. 

Chris Powers: And we're going to talk about the decision you made to leave in a second. I do want to go back to just when you leave the NCAA and you're at the top, and now the 1% is going to the 1%, do you have to change as a player? Do you have to become a new player? Like what's the learning curve? Because it's a business now, also. You're getting paid, the game's a little different, maybe, I don't know. Are you having to relearn the game again when you get into the NFL? 

Colt McCoy: Yes. The way that I played in college was not going to translate to the NFL because like I led our team in rushing my junior and senior year in college. 

Chris Powers: I didn't know that. 

Colt McCoy: Not by choice, but just like that was our personnel, and that's how we- that's what was asked of me, and I had to do it. Never in the NFL would that happen.  And so like, I remember playing the Patriots my rookie year, Tom Brady and crew coming to town, and we beat them 34 to 14. And I had like a 17 yard touchdown run, which was... I mean, like that's about as good as I can do. There's no way I'm getting 20. And I remember like getting out of the pocket, it's kind of a broken play, and like I'm watching- I'm looking at the pylon, the front pylon because I ended up like diving and barely clipping the front pylon. But I remember like there was dudes that were like 6’5 300 plus like gaining ground on me that entire time and like come on, come on, like I can do it. And the speed of the game is guys you've never heard of, ever, are like the biggest, fastest, strongest guys that God's ever created coming at you. And so, it's just a different game. The speed's different. The size is different. The way you get hit is different. And so, the way you play the game has to change. Like ball’s got to come out. You got to make quick decisions. You got to be accurate with the football. You got to throw in between guys at the line of scrim 6’2. 

Chris Powers: You got to have the no look throw. 

Colt McCoy: It has to be part of your game. It has to be. Because I got to get the ball in that guy's hands to go make a play. That's my job. In rhythm, on time, accurately, so it's a catch and run. And you got to do it over and over and over. And the difference between college and NFL is that the complexities of the scheme is different. Like there's no oh, I got to go to class for six hours, break and then come back and do football. It's football all day, and you're playing against the Rex Ryan's and the Bill Belichick's and the Mike Tomans of the world who are drawing up coverages and defenses that like, I mean hard, hard to like understand and execute against. And it's week in, week out, week in, week out. I mean, the teams who are two and nine right now in the NFL are full of great players. And if you're not on your game, like they're going to get you. And it's just a high-level competitive environment. I would say I was thinking about this the other day, if you asked me what I missed the most about the NFL, knowing how hard it is to get there, was that for 14 years, I would get in my car early in the morning, I’d drive to work, and like when I turn off the truck and I walk in that building, it is like, if you're not- if you aren't like competitively geared up to like go compete and win your job and do it at a high level, you're done like immediately. 

Chris Powers: There's no grace. 

Colt McCoy: There's grace for a few people, and there's grace for guys who are just unbelievable God-given talent. And there's some of those out there... The greatest athletic freak I've ever been privileged to and I've played against him... name names in San Francisco... but Trent Williams is the best athlete I've ever been around.

Chris Powers: Really? I was not expecting that.

Colt McCoy: Trent Williams played Oklahoma, but he's a Texas boy from Longview. He walked- It would take him five minutes to walk from here to that door right there... It would take him 10 minutes to walk out on the practice field. It'd take him 20 minutes to put his gear on. Like I'm talking like slow, slow. The moment he got in his stance and like no stretching, no warmups, like incredible. I watched him in a 10 yard sprint with no warmup be a full body length ahead of Deshaun Jackson, who's one of the fastest guys I've played against. In a 10 yard sprint, Trent beat him by a full body at 330 pounds. And I watched him walk into a weight room, no warmup, put 515 on the bench. How many do you want, coach? I don't need to be in here. You know what I can do. Like just completely- There's guys like that, not a whole lot, but there's guys like that. But if you ask me what I miss the most about the NFL, I would say like my favorite part, number one, is scheme. It's the Xs and Os. It's the grind all week of like motioning and shifting formations and creating mismatches and switching up your personnel groups to like get the look you want and then you get them. Like, man, it feels good. And I love that about the game. But the second piece I would say, and this one was hard for me to kind of figure out, was like I miss the violence of the game. I miss coaches yelling, players yelling, pads popping, blood, like sweat, fights, all because you are in a like dog eat dog world at all times. And if you don't bring it, you're out. And like living in that world for five years in college and 14 years in the NFL and like not knowing anything different, when you walk away from that, you're like, everything's different. You can't- It’s really hard to recreate that. And I know for me as a quarterback, you're like violence, it's like I don't love getting hit, but I'm in it. I'm around it. And it's hard to... you're in the locker room and you're picking on each other, and like you walk in and you're taking your ankle tape off and you got a bet with your guy next- I can hit this in the bucket right here. How much, you want a hundred? Boom. Like it just never stops. And like I miss that. 

Chris Powers: So, when you're taking a snap in the NFL or in college and you're looking at these defensive end and linebackers whose only goal is to destroy you at least at the beginning of the play, do you ever even- like are you ever thinking about, like are you nervous?

Colt McCoy: No, I can't be.

Chris Powers: You can't be. You have to... Did you ever play, I don't know, who was like the scariest line, was it Urlacher or was... 

Colt McCoy: Ray Lewis.

Chris Powers: Okay, if Ray Lewis is like on the other side, you're just thinking past him. 

Colt McCoy: I lined up my rookie year, my rookie year or second year, I can't remember. I may have been hurt my rookie year when we played Baltimore. But in Baltimore, if you've never been to a Baltimore Ravens game, it's worth it. Like, their intros at the time, it was Ed Reed. It was Ray Lewis. It was Haloti Ngata. It was Terrell Suggs. I mean, they had everybody, Anquan Bolden. And every time one of them comes out, fire shoots up, and the lights are off, fans are going crazy. Ray Lewis comes out and does this like dance. And if you're not like fully locked in, you're kind of already beat. Because you just- I mean, that's the whole goal there. And we won, we beat Baltimore a couple of times. But I'm under center. Ray Lewis is playing middle linebacker, and the linebackers, they're like four or five yards off the ball. I'm under center. He walks up there, and he goes, son, I'm not going to say what he said, essentially he said...

Chris Powers: I'm going to kill you. 

Colt McCoy: Hey, Rook, it's going to be a long day. And it was. It's like, that's fair. But yeah, looking back, I got to play against a lot of- you were in the NFL, and you're playing against guys where you say their names, everybody knows who that is. And it's a different beast when you're inside the white lines on a Sunday, it's just a different beast. 

Chris Powers: Okay. We talked about the hit in college, but you said it really didn't hurt, the Alabama in ’09. You said it didn't really hurt. What is the actual hit you took that you felt, like the hardest hit that to this day, you're like, I don't ever want to get hit...

Colt McCoy: The hardest hit I ever felt was like playing in Pittsburgh on a Thursday night, they're really good. It was one of those just like ridiculously cold nights. It may have snowed a little bit, but like cold, cold, like bone chilling cold. And we're like late in the, I think late in the third quarter. And we're in the game. It's a tight ball game. We're driving. I get out of the pocket and I flip it. I'm like looking downfield, and I flip it to my running back on the side. And like flip it, and all of a sudden, this guy, James Harrison comes out of nowhere and completely, I mean, completely knocked out, knocked out, like blacked out. Don't know where I'm at. Nothing. And I remember trying to like, I remember like kind of coming to. Like, whoa. And thinking like, where am I? What just happened? And why does like everything on my body hurt? When I threw it, he kind of came around, and I didn't really see him, and I tried to protect myself, and he hit his helmet, hit me, knocked me out, but my hand was in there somehow. And I got a little like fracture in my hand at the same time. So, when I came to, I kind of held my hand up to the trainers, like, so they looked at this. Long story short, I ended up going back in and playing like 17 plays or something like that. Played awful. Like we were in the game. And then when I came- I mean, I was throwing to guys who weren't even in the route progression. I was doing bad stuff. And I don't- I mean, to this day, like if you turn the tape on, like any game I played in, I could kind of tell you what was going on. No idea in that game, which is really scary. But that was by far the hardest... I was generally like, I got popped a few times, but I was generally pretty good at falling down or getting out of the way. And that was... 

Chris Powers: You're a free target. 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. And he's a brick wall. 

Chris Powers: If it's Ray Lewis, he might be right there. All right. So, you're there 14 years. You're in Arizona. I actually recall, was it the year that you decided to leave or the year before, you played when what's his name was hurt, and you played well. And you even said right now, you said, if it wasn't for my elbow, I could still be out there. You probably have every option in the world to stay in the game in different capacities. And you're here in Fort Worth, which is awesome. But I kind of just want to maybe this last part of the conversation kind of talk about how you came to that decision. 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. You and I have talked a lot about this. 

Chris Powers: A ton. 

Colt McCoy: So I ended up having surgery on my elbow. It was a tough deal. I tried to come back and play. It just wasn't the same. And I would practice a day and have to sit three days. And I wasn't accurate with football. Like accuracy was probably my number one trait as a quarterback. Like, I could just, I could put it where I wanted to put it. And I kind of lost it. I lost some grip stuff. I lost, like I lost my touch when you're dealing with the outside of your elbow and... it ended it. 

Chris Powers: And you knew that? Did everybody know that, or just did you know that? 

Colt McCoy: We went through a coaching change, and so it was hard to communicate that with my new coaching staff. Like guys, I'm not what I was. Players knew it. I mean, all my receivers and teammates were like, he just, he ain't got it no more. So, I actually had to go to the team and be like, look, yeah, I ain't got it no more. Which was good. I mean, I'm getting put on IR, and I had a whole year to kind of... Rachel and I kept our kids in school in Phoenix because this thing's over with, and I wasn't necessarily prepared for it, but I knew at some point it's going to come to an end. And that just started this journey of what's next. And I think everyone in my life at the time probably thought I was just going to transition into being a coach and take that route and be great at that. Like all my teammates, all my former coaches, all my former owners, the position that I played, the service time that I had, the relationships that I made, the markets that I played in, it was there for me to go be a coach. And I think if you asked me in that moment, it was like, yeah, I mean, that's probably what I'm going to do. But I started praying about it and Rachel and I were really intentional about it. And I think for me, I had to put my priorities in line. Like, okay, I've always said that football wasn't the most important thing, but it sure feels like it right now. And so, peeling back the layers of my heart to like get down to like, what is the most important thing? And I mean, Rachel and I brought like a whiteboard into our room. And we would write like the pros and cons of, what would it look like if we stayed in the game and how would it affect our family? And you probably have to move a couple of times and kids would have to change schools, which they'd already done a couple of times. And I think it was one of the first times where my whole life up to that point was like I was on a mission. Like if I wanted to sign as a free agent to Washington, I moved to Washington and told Rachel to pick up the pieces and meet us there and find a house and find a school for the kids. Like I'm working. And then we moved to Phoenix or whatever, moved to New York, like that's how I operated. And so, it was really important for me to- and you kind of had to, you had to do it that way. It was really important for me to bring Rachel into this and let's go through this process together and let's not make any quick decisions. Like we're here for a year and let's figure out exactly what I'm supposed to do, where God wants us to be. And let's just walk through this together. And it became over time really apparent to me that like I wanted to be present for my kids with my time. And if it had just been me, then I'd be trying to be a head coach somewhere. But with a wife and four kids and young kids, like I never want my... I don't want to see my kids like walk out of the house, go on with their life, and like I don't know much about them. That was a huge fear of mine. And so, we started praying, we started praying intentionally, like, okay, God, if it's not football, what do you want me to do? And didn't really get any clear answers. So, we backed up and said like, okay, well, where do you want us to live? If I'm not going to go be a coach, where do you want us to live? Let's start there. And it was amazing what I identified as like what was important to Rachel and what was important to me on the whiteboard, and things were very different, but also some things were very similar. And we started just kind of doing that and then praying together and then praying on our own and then coming back and like, hey, where are you at on this? And dude, like not easy, not easy. Hard, really hard because it's like I've done one thing my whole life. I've told you that. So, to think about doing something else is like, it's a foreign planet. And so like all these things just over and over through a ton of prayer, and I mean, ultimately getting on my knees and being like, all right, like what, where, when, and I went back to when I was in my third year in the NFL, this is a quick story, but like I watched two of my closest teammates get cut. The GM comes in and says, hey, man, you guys pack your stuff up, come see me in the office. Over. And I realized like, hey, at some point, football is coming to an end for me. I hope it's not today. This is my third year in the NFL, but like it's going to come to an end. And so, I would go home in the off seasons to Austin. We had a place in Austin, and I would sit with like big CEOs of different companies, private equity, real estate, some family office guys, some oil and gas. And I learned a bunch. Really, I was looking at like different leadership styles. How does he operate here? And you're learning bits and pieces of what they do along the way. And you might invest a little bit in some of their companies and deals if they allowed you to. And like, it was awesome. I did it for like six to eight weeks every year. Then I'd go back because I wasn't good enough to not go back and start practicing football. And I would leave. But I made all these awesome relationships. And so, during that year, I would fly back to Texas and I'd go sit with each one of those guys. Like, what do you think I should do? And to a man, every one of them was like, I think you should go... If that's how you feel about football and you've got this, you and your wife are aligned in this, you need to go start your own deal. It doesn't matter what you do, but you're wired to go do that. Which was foreign to me. So, then it became like, well, what did I enjoy most? And that was real estate. I loved being in the real estate environment. I thought there's just so many different parts of it, people and relationships, and I enjoyed it. And so, I said to Rachel, we got to figure out where do we want to raise our- if I'm leaving the game, like it's the first time in our life we get to pick wherever we want to go. Like anywhere, even to Alaska. I'm not going to, but... 

Chris Powers: Not a good real estate market. 

Colt McCoy: But you got to think, like before I didn't know I was... I knew I liked real estate, but I didn't know that's what I was going to do. I wanted to get settled in a place because I could do that. I didn't have to go get a job right away. And so, we prayed through it and started visiting different places. We thought about staying in Phoenix, we visited San Antonio and back to Austin. And we always thought we'd move back to Austin. We had built a house in Austin, but that didn't feel right. We came to Fort Worth. My brother lives here. I wanted to be closer to family and we kind of fell in love with Fort Worth, but it was also like, is this the right thing? Like we've never lived there before. I think both of our hearts were probably geared towards moving back to Austin. And then it was like, well, let's just sit on it for a little bit. And just literally like kept climbing, like it hit all the things, geographically, amongst our family, good schools, good people, like kind of how I grew up, like it was the biggest town for me in West Texas, where like if you needed to go to a Rangers game or you got a new pair of shoes for school, like you came to Fort Worth. And so, like it started being that. And I remember sitting on my knees and praying with my wife, and it just became clear to both of us, like there's no doubt that's where this is headed. And we just got to trust that that's the case. So, we planted our flag in Fort Worth and moved here. And I didn't know what I was going to do. So, I broadcasted some games and was kind of doing that deal for a little bit. And that was a really cool experience. I learned that I loved it, but it was a big chunk of my time and kind of, it was almost like I was a coach again. It kind of defeated the purpose of- And I started leaning into the real estate world and jumped in. And after a lot of interviews and job opportunities and different things, I kind of trusted a lot of my mentors who were like, why don't you just go do it? And so, I did. I hired a bunch of guys who are a lot smarter than me, that are high character, best in class, have been great executors at their job for a long time, that are all around my age, that have good families, and they saw the vision of what I wanted to do and what I wanted to build and why I think we can do it. And I mean, this has been amazing. I tell you, I count my blessings from 14 years of playing in the NFL. To be able to go do what I'm doing now with the guys that I get to do it with, it's incredible. Fort Worth has been an awesome place, and my wife has been with me every step of the way. She said, go be a coach if you want to be a coach. We can do it. This is where you think God's calling you? We're all in. Go do it. And it's just been a really- nothing's been easy. It goes back to what Coach Brown said, nothing's going to be given to you, boy. Like, you have to earn everything. And I feel that way now. But at the same time, I know that through tons of prayer and through like this sacred pace of decision making, that regardless of what happens for me, I know that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be and doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I have a whole lot of confidence in that, and I have a whole lot of faith and trust in that. Because when you look at my priorities, God is first, my faith is the most important thing to me. And then it's my wife and my kids and my family, and like taking care of them and being a good dad and being present and giving back some time that I hadn't really done for a long time. And then it comes to work. And I want to be a picture to my kids of, hey, it was awesome. You got to watch me play football. You saw the ups and downs, you saw the injuries, you saw the broken legs and the broken thumbs and the big games that we won and what I had to go through. And now it's over. But now you get to go see me- like life doesn't stop. I want to be a picture to them of, it's a restart and I'm learning something new and I'm going to go build a team. I'm going to challenge myself and I'm going to work hard, and I'm going to surround myself with good people. And I want to be that for them. And so, that's where I'm at now, but it wouldn't have happened without just deep, deep intentional, like I don't know what this next phase of my life looks like. I'm giving it- I'm open-handed, and I'm asking you to like show me. And that doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen without tears, without like struggles, without like sacrifice, without... that whole process I just laid out is, I mean, it's like a nightmare, but it's in a way that I think is the only way that I got where I'm at right now. And I mean, if you talk to my friends in the NFL or my old coaches, like they don't understand. Because it's like, dude, you were... You got your PhD here, you're walking away from it. And that's okay. They also know my heart and they know what I believe and they know what my priorities are and they're proud of me. And I want to go do this to the best of my ability and go create something that's going to last and that's going to help Fort Worth. It's going to help all of our families and we're going to leave it better than what we found it as. 

Chris Powers: Selfishly, I'm so glad you made that decision. It's been, one, awesome to have you here. Two, just the most fun part was knowing you were recruiting. Obviously I'm in the industry, like Colt’s recruiting right now. Everybody had ideas, but that like, there was like that two week window where everybody started announcing, and it was probably one of the best real estate weeks in Fort Worth. Maybe that final kind of thought is like, how long was that? Was that a year long process? Was that six months? I know it's not a time thing. God tends to... 

Colt McCoy: It was definitely over a year before I decided that I want to go start my own company... It was probably a eight to nine month like process of where do we want to live? I mean, that took a lot. And I didn't move to Fort Worth knowing that I was going to go start a real estate company. Like, that came next, which is probably unique. But since I've started my company, I've really focused on 90 day increments. Like, okay, this 90 days, I'm going to do X, Y, Z, and then I'm going to pivot to like these 90 days. And so like, that's how I've always done it in football. It's like, all right, I got the summer to train. I've got spring training. Now I've got a season. Okay. Now, how did that go? Where did I do wrong? I would stand in front of the mirror in the off seasons and mimic my throwing motion and be like, how does this need to tweak? Ball needs to be up, down, like details. And so that's the only way I know how to do- like, I'm doing the same thing now. And the honest truth, I learned so much from the guys I'm around every day that I can't even tell you. Like, I'm asking questions like over and over and over and I'm learning by watching. I'm a visual guy. And so, I think I'm in a phase of like, it's really fun. Like I get up in the morning, I take my kids to school, and I go to work. And when I'm on that drive to work, I am pumped. I am legitimately like, all right, what are we getting into today? Like, we got meetings, we got stuff, we got deals, we got... like, let's go get it. And I think in that period of time where I went through this full trust process of like, man, I don't know what this is going to look like, but I hope that I can find something that gets me going like 14 years in the NFL did for me. And I've said count my blessings a lot, but like, I do genuinely because I have a lot of old teammates that haven’t found that yet. And I got to watch that and I got to learn from that. And so, I'm very thankful for the ability to get to do this. Like that's unique too. And I'm giving it all I got and excited about it. 

Chris Powers: Well, I'm grateful for you. I mean, you said, we've talked about it a lot. I'm in an interesting season where I'm thinking about a lot. I think the most I've learned from you is every time I try and like force the answer and I'm not at peace about it, I know God's telling me to slow down, and my nature is not to slow down. And you've just been a huge source of inspiration of like, just be patient, like pray about it, think about it. And it's not easy. It hadn't been easy, and I'm not through it yet. So, I'm just going to keep leaning on you. 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. Like, and patience. Also, you've been a highly, highly successful guy in life, in business, in all that you've done. And to turn that off, like to turn a high performer off for a little bit and like sit in this sort of process of like, well, what do I want to do? I mean, I've kind of crushed it here. I'm still confused. To turn that off and to allow yourself the time to grow and make good choices and decisions, like it is a hard process. My advice would be, go there. And if you go there and you're open-handed with it, like truly get to like, I'm holding everything loosely because I trust that whatever comes out of this is the right thing, led by God. And if you can get there, that's a beautiful place. 

Chris Powers: And I will tell you, I come home and some days Micca’s like, what's up? I'm like, I'm exhausted. She's like, what are you exhausted about? I’m like, the mental grind of thinking about this. And no, but it's been a huge blessing, and similar to you, it's taught me things about my life, even with the kids. Like I used to think I spent a lot of time at home. Well, you don't know how much time you're spending at home until you have more time to spend at home or how present you are. For me, my mind never really turns off. So, coming home and not having as much to think about. All that to be said, I have more energy than I've ever had to go climb the next mountain. And I'm in that, I have some ideas. I'm not totally at ground zero. 

Colt McCoy: For sure. You're going to have tons of opportunities, tons of ideas. You don't got to like go pick one right now. Like, that one that you ultimately pick, it will slowly become the one. 

Chris Powers: What's funny, and I'll end it on this... and we'll have more to talk about here, some ideas have been outside of real estate in the last like 45 days. A lot of peace has been coming with playing back in the real estate world in maybe a little bit different capacity than I was. And we'll see what next year brings. 

Colt McCoy: Can't wait to see. 

Chris Powers: Maybe we'll work on something together. 

Colt McCoy: I got an open chair. 

Chris Powers: You do? 

Colt McCoy: Yeah. Think about it. Put that in your prayer list. 

Chris Powers: I want to come play with the dream team. 

Colt McCoy: We got a long ways to go, but we're getting after it. 

Chris Powers: Well, dude, like I said, it's been awesome having you here this year, become really good friends. I'm super pumped to have you here, but really today's like story was awesome. I learned a lot about you that I didn't know. So, thanks for spending a couple hours with me. 

Colt McCoy: Man, I enjoyed it. Thanks for having me on.