From Norwood to the NFL: Marc Edwards on Football, Fatherhood, and Life After the Game

Welcome to Hometown Jax, where hosts Aaron Bacus and Jason Kindler sit down with local leaders, entrepreneurs, and legends to explore their journeys, challenges, and the impact they make in Northeast Florida. Whether it’s sports, business, or personal transformation, this podcast highlights the stories that shape the people who shape Jacksonville.

In this episode, Aaron interviews Marc Edwards, a former Notre Dame standout and NFL fullback who now calls Jacksonville home. Marc shares his remarkable rise from small-town Ohio to college football stardom and a nine-year NFL career, including a Super Bowl win with the Patriots. He opens up about the recruiting chaos of the pre-cellphone era, learning from Lou Holtz, and the moment he unknowingly saved Drew Bledsoe’s life. Now an engaged father and businessman, Marc reflects on what he’s carried forward from football, what drives him today, and how he’s redefining life after the league.

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;14;29
Unknown
Where are your hosts, Aaron Backus and Jason Kindler? We like to sit down with our guests to hear their journey, their challenges, and how they impact the local community. So grab a seat. Tune in and let's get inspired by Jacksonville's everyday workforce. Welcome to Hometown Jacks.

00;00;14;29 - 00;00;17;14
Unknown
Mark Edwards, thank you for coming on the podcast.

00;00;17;14 - 00;00;36;10
Unknown
I appreciate it. I've been working on you for a long time, and you're trying to get through your people, your agents, and everything was really difficult. Well, you're you're you're, you know, exaggerating a little bit there. Yeah, there there are no agents anymore. Now. Now that I'm a business owner. Yes. But, yes, I travel a lot.

00;00;36;13 - 00;00;56;01
Unknown
I'm gone, you know, throughout the week. But fortunately, I'm able to, you know, kind of as my own boss can sometimes, you know, make some adjustments, and, and, plus, my son played in his spring football game last night, and I wasn't going to miss that. So that left me in town for today. Well, I'm glad to have you.

00;00;56;01 - 00;01;12;15
Unknown
I know I've been working on you for a while, and I appreciate you being patient. I know you're busy, so, really excited to have you on the podcast today. I want to go through, you know, kind of where you came from, your football career, kind of what you're doing now. Talk about your family a little bit.

00;01;12;15 - 00;01;33;12
Unknown
Man, you've really come a long way. I was doing my I thought I knew you over a couple cocktails in the basketball season many years ago, but I didn't know everything. Pretty interesting. Well, you know, I grew up in small town Norwood, which is a city within the city of Cincinnati. Right? You was about a three square foot, three, three square mile.

00;01;33;15 - 00;01;55;09
Unknown
Three square foot? It's not that. Right? Right. But three square mile, city and, you know, grew up there. Pretty humble beginnings. Lived with my and my grandmother. You know, my mom and, you know, stepdad live there with us. And, you know, everybody kind of pitched in to make ends meet. I never went hungry, but never had the luxuries, growing up, but, didn't know any better.

00;01;55;16 - 00;02;17;29
Unknown
Well. And would go right into Norway because I, I read and we'll talk a little bit about the book that was made about you or written about you, that you're very proud. You mean you always say, Norwood? A lot of people say, I'm from Cincinnati, which was close, but you're like Norwood. True and true, right? I absolutely, I think the, kind of blue collar upbringing.

00;02;17;29 - 00;02;37;20
Unknown
Yes, has a lot to do with my success. Not only during my football time I was playing football, but, kind of what I've transitioned into now. So, Yeah. Very happy and proud to be from my hometown. I mean, I love living here in Florida, you know, loved, growing up in Norwood. Love going back.

00;02;37;23 - 00;03;02;02
Unknown
But, but now Florida is home. Well, I saw they retired your jersey at the high school there. Yeah. Yeah. You must have done a few special things there, right? Well, yeah. You know, I had a pretty solid, high school career there. You know, started all four years. You know, first year we weren't so good when I went in, and then we actually transitioned, got a little bit better and went to the school, went to the playoffs for the first time in school history and won a playoff game my junior year.

00;03;02;02 - 00;03;22;02
Unknown
So we weren't, Norwood wasn't a powerhouse and really hasn't been a powerhouse since. Right, right. We were pretty good for a few years, and, Yeah. I was wind up being Mr. Football my senior year in Ohio. And, back in 1992. What is Mr. Football mean? I'm assuming Mr.. Football is like the Heisman Trophy.

00;03;22;04 - 00;03;43;17
Unknown
Yeah. But, Ohio. Okay. Yeah. Great honor for sure. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, it was exciting because, I was the first Cincinnati area, you know, or south east or southwest Ohio, athlete to, get that. And quite frankly, there hadn't been another one til about five years ago or so from like 92 to like, you know, 2000, 20.

00;03;43;19 - 00;04;07;27
Unknown
There was not another Cincinnati area player who, got that that. So what you're saying is Norwood isn't on the Ohio map. No, no, no. I missed the playoffs once or twice. Since when? The playoffs expanded. Yeah, in Ohio. But I think there has been I think there was one division one player for, ten years before me from Norwood High School.

00;04;07;28 - 00;04;35;11
Unknown
Okay. So in the early 80s and there's been one Division one player since I went to an FCS school. Okay. So. But yeah, there there have not been, any real, you know, Hollywood players is like, Mayberry, is not it? But just like that hard working, you know, you know, mid, mid, mid country town. I read something where, you know, the GM plant closed when you were there.

00;04;35;11 - 00;04;55;23
Unknown
So that was a major employer or a major, setback or event for Norwood. It was huge during that time. That was I think most like right around my seventh or eighth grade year. Yeah. And they were talking about eliminating sports in Norwood because that was the big tax base. You know, half the town worked at GM.

00;04;55;23 - 00;05;21;20
Unknown
Yeah. That was the major tax base there, you know, and when that closed down, people panicked, right? You know, we were going to become part of Cincinnati, perhaps, since they were going to gobble us up or whatever, and, or was going to lose identity. And fortunately, new business kind of came in, just about that time and just very big, a little bit of everything.

00;05;21;20 - 00;05;42;24
Unknown
Okay. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, slowly but surely, Norwood's rebounded and, still, they're thriving today. Yeah, yeah, I read that. That's awesome. Now, football. Did that start your interest. Start before high school. Were you playing in middle school and. Yeah, like North Norwood did not have a youth football program when I was growing up. So I had to go to a neighboring city, Redding, Ohio.

00;05;42;24 - 00;06;05;03
Unknown
So I played five years of Little League football. So my first year I played, I was six years old. I was the worst player on the team. Every time I got into a game, I came out crying. For some reason, I got my foot stepped on, I got knocked out, and I got poked in the eye. I know it's funny because I know your son Sander, who is an amazing athlete, but I can remember the first junior pros practice.

00;06;05;03 - 00;06;27;12
Unknown
He came to him. He did a little crying too. And then, I remember, your wife Darcy, get back in there and get after it. And now he's an amazing. Well, we'll get to the story about him his first year of football as well. But so I get through that first year of, football. At six years old, and I decide not to play as a seven, seven year old.

00;06;27;14 - 00;06;52;05
Unknown
I played soccer, which back then soccer wasn't very mainstream, played at a local wide team, and, then went back to football when I was eight and first game, I had like a 98, 99 yard touchdown run. And like, then I was I found new love. Yeah. So they, I played five years of, youth football at, with, a neighboring city, Redding.

00;06;52;05 - 00;07;13;13
Unknown
Yeah. Had a great time there and then transitioned. And I was number 43 then. Okay. So I transitioned to middle school. And they obviously they have, you know, they had a middle Norwood had a middle school team. And, they did not have the number 43, which I had worn all through my youth football. So got to the next number and they had 44 available.

00;07;13;13 - 00;07;29;20
Unknown
So that's when I became 44. There you go. And two, two good years in middle school and then high school, we talked about a little bit already and, Yeah. Well, what was interesting reading about you, were you a linebacker or full back? Both. Well, I mean, I was more of a running back. Did you play? Well?

00;07;29;27 - 00;07;47;13
Unknown
Play? Yeah, I played both sides. Yeah, yeah, we played both ways all the way through a youth football. All the way through high school. Okay. I played a little bit of safety in youth football, but I'm always pretty much a linebacker and a running back. Right. Now, I wasn't necessarily a fullback, but, you know, mainly, mainly a running backs.

00;07;47;13 - 00;08;07;24
Unknown
Right? Right. So you had an amazing, high school. You're highly recruited. I remember you telling me the story about how recruiting was back then. I remember this vividly about weren't they only allowed to call between 7 and 9 or. There were certain times. Yeah. Tell us about that. I remember that being so interesting. So these was pre cell phone days.

00;08;07;24 - 00;08;30;17
Unknown
Yes. Obviously. It was just when call waiting was introduced. Right. So you didn't like that you wouldn't get the busy signal when you know you're on the phone. Right. Get get the call waiting I remember so yeah. So from think it was like 6 to 9 p.m. during Monday through Thursday, schools were allowed to call you during the season.

00;08;30;18 - 00;09;05;12
Unknown
Right. So literally I would get home from football practice, I would eat, and I would literally spend the next three hours talking to coaches just about every day. Right. And it was a little bit stressful because I didn't know, because we didn't have experience with my my coach didn't really have experience with anybody being recruited before. So even though I was putting up these huge numbers my sophomore and junior year, we didn't know if I was going to be a Ohio State Notre Dame type recruit or Miami of Ohio, you know, Bowling Green, type of recruit.

00;09;05;15 - 00;09;27;16
Unknown
So I was talking to everybody, right? You know, because I didn't know at that time. So, yeah, I would get back and I'd be on the phone, you know, so it's a calling or what? Everybody's calling. Kind of like, I'm assuming, like, okay, well, I can I can go anywhere kind of thing. Once again, I was kind of leaning that way, but I wasn't taking anything for granted at the same time.

00;09;27;16 - 00;09;54;08
Unknown
Yeah, but yeah, I, I'd be on the phone with one, two, one team and somebody click in and I didn't want to miss anything, you know. So I click over and then I'm trying to, you know, talk to both coaches once. But I got calls from over 100 schools. I wrote them all down, eventually, you know, as the recruiting progressed, visited some of the bigger schools they started reaching out and saying, hey, you know, we want you to come for an official visit.

00;09;54;08 - 00;10;16;15
Unknown
And then I knew I was going to be. I could pretty much go, not anywhere I wanted, but a big time school. Right. And, you know, the ones that were pursuing me, the the, the hardest, obviously, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, you know, schools like that, oddly enough, like Michigan had no interest whatsoever.

00;10;16;15 - 00;10;37;12
Unknown
And I never called, anything. I went out there for an unofficial visit after my junior year, and they never, never called anything. So after I already had my visits set for Ohio State, Penn State, Notre Dame, you know, their rivals, basically, Michigan coach, you know, just happened to call my coach one day like, hey, whatever happened, that Edwards kid, he's like, oh, well, he's got visits here, here.

00;10;37;13 - 00;11;00;22
Unknown
It's like, well, what do you come to Michigan like? And you know, you little like that, that's that. That boat's already sailed. That's interesting. Yeah. So, obviously you went to Notre Dame. What what were the other top ones that was there any really close? Were like, man, I went to Notre Dame. Oh, you know, what's interesting is how my perspective changed from my freshman year to my senior year.

00;11;00;24 - 00;11;17;10
Unknown
Okay. So you were being highly recruited the whole time? Well, I started getting letters as a freshman. Okay. But it wasn't like it is now a social media. I mean, these kids are getting offers in eighth and ninth grade now. And they really didn't start offering until you're, you know, late in your junior year, summer into your senior year.

00;11;17;12 - 00;11;45;29
Unknown
But, you know, they were sending letters and, you know, they were they were they we knew there were some interest. But, it's the recruiting was just so different now. Right, right. So but but there were a bunch of schools that I was, I was really interested in, started kind of narrowing it down. And what I found was that my freshman year, because USC was the first school that all, sent me a letter.

00;11;46;02 - 00;12;00;03
Unknown
And this is like Southern California. I'm like, wow, you know, I want to go to Southern Cal. Like, they were the first ones to show any interest at all. Right? And then my sophomore year, I was really a big Michigan State fan. Like back then, they were pretty good. You know, they had Percy Snow. George Perlis was the coach.

00;12;00;03 - 00;12;16;19
Unknown
Yeah. Blake is or was a great running back there. And then my junior year I would have went to Penn State. You know, they were, you know, they won some national titles in the mid 80s when I was kind of watching and stuff like that. And then my junior year, I get there and like, no, Notre Dame is a no brainer for me.

00;12;16;19 - 00;12;39;29
Unknown
But with the offense that Holtz was running, I knew I played tailback in single back in college and high school, but I knew I wasn't going to be a tailback in college unless I went to, like, a smaller school. Right. So I did back tailback and fullback. Fullback, as you're mainly blocking for the tailback. Well, yes, but, you know, the fullback still, you know, he's getting out pass patterns.

00;12;40;01 - 00;13;00;15
Unknown
You know, catch some balls out in the flat, some screens get to get in, run the ball a little bit. And that's why Holtz as offense was so good for me because I was a very, athletic fullback. You know, I was I was a big, strong tailback running back in high school. And that translated to being an athletic kind of West Coast tight fullback.

00;13;00;15 - 00;13;18;20
Unknown
Right. And college under under Holtz is often so, with the fact that Notre Dame was I if I went to Notre Dame, I knew I was going to graduate. I knew I was going to be put into a great alumni association. I knew that I was going to, you know, be competing for a national title.

00;13;18;20 - 00;13;40;17
Unknown
I was going to be on national TV every week. And the offense really fit my skill set. Right. So when I say it's a no brainer at that point, those were that was the rationale behind my decision. Now, funny enough, when I was in eighth and ninth grade, I hated Notre Dame. That was right. When they were on in 88 and 89, they were on that 23 game win streak.

00;13;40;19 - 00;14;02;04
Unknown
And, you know, they were kind of like, you know, the Yankees to me. I was just so tired of seeing them win that when they lost that game. Miami in 1989 to end that 23 game win streak. Like I was cheering for Miami. And I tell the story Notre Dame all the time. And you know, funny enough, you know fast forward a couple of years later, Notre Dame is recruiting me.

00;14;02;07 - 00;14;19;00
Unknown
And, you know, I put all this together that I just talked about. And it just like this is a no brainer for me. And I'm looking back on some of my old folders and things like that. I had for my sophomore year high school, where I had written Notre Dame Sucks on one of them. So, yeah, yeah.

00;14;19;00 - 00;14;48;28
Unknown
But you know, once, once I started putting all those, those factors together, like I said, it was a no brainer for me. And that's awesome was I mean, obviously Lou Holtz was the coach. Was that a major factor too, like, yes. Because at the time he was the, you know, Nick Saban, he was the, you know, Kirby smart, you know, of the world and, you know, I knew that they were a top tier program, and I was going to have a chance to win a national title.

00;14;49;00 - 00;15;10;22
Unknown
I was going to be in a great offense for, an athletic running fullback, you know, because you were following the line of Rodney Culver and Jerome Bettis and, you know, rays Allen was there. I mean, all these guys were, you know, guys that were as full backs were getting, you know, 8 to 10 carries and catching 2 or 3 balls a game.

00;15;10;24 - 00;15;33;26
Unknown
So you were still involved in the offense. You just weren't a blocking the ball. Like, if I went to Ohio State, I would have been a blocking mule for Eddie George like they had. They had a kid named Nicky Sewell who, you know, he was built like an offensive guard. He was their fullback. You know, great player, you know, but just different, type of type of player as a fullback than I was.

00;15;33;28 - 00;15;49;29
Unknown
So yeah, it was just, all those factors and, you know, just all that that was probably obviously a little bit more work to get the information to make your decision. I mean, now you just go on. Yeah. Get everything there. But like a little bit of a leap of faith, too. I mean, you don't know everything.

00;15;49;29 - 00;16;11;01
Unknown
Yeah. You didn't I didn't have film widely available to watch or all that watch some of the games. You've heard of heard of Notre Dame. What's funny is I didn't know. Once again, you know, as I was the eighth or ninth grader, I wasn't a Notre Dame fan, but I didn't even know where South Bend, what Notre Dame was, until maybe my junior year.

00;16;11;02 - 00;16;36;05
Unknown
Yeah, like 24 hours away from Cincinnati or high school games. I didn't come to the games. They watched plenty of film, but they did come visit my high school. Okay. I think it was right after my official visit or right after. Right. And that was a pretty big game. But yeah, the running back coach, the recruiting coordinator and holes, came to Norwood, Ohio, and it was a big deal because, you know, Norwood isn't you know, it isn't a big, big, big place.

00;16;36;11 - 00;16;55;18
Unknown
So, yeah, there were some, some kids that met him in the hallway. He also, you know, signed autographs and did a couple, you know, man, old school pictures. They had to get developed. Yeah. You know, before the kids, you were saying you're comparing him to Saban and Kurt. Like, that's what he was in that time period from from 88 to 93.

00;16;55;18 - 00;17;14;14
Unknown
That time frame, Notre Dame shouldn't have lost a game. They were so good, so talented. They had three and four first round picks every year. You know, several second round picks. Just so much talent during that time frame. Was that part was it part of your drive to like, I know I'm going to go and I'm going to be challenged.

00;17;14;16 - 00;17;37;26
Unknown
Of course. Yes. But initially thinking I'm going to be challenged, you're thinking that, hey, I'm going to go there and compete. And like, you know, I'm I'm going to challenge everybody else, right, right, right. So, you know, and that's one thing I had a I had a high school coach, Gary Sexton, which he was the guy that I was talking about earlier, that he was the Division one recruit right before me.

00;17;37;26 - 00;17;54;04
Unknown
Oh, interesting. And I didn't in 82 out of Norway. Right, right. But he was a he was our DB coach and he, he was helping me out a little bit as well as my head coach, Jim Berry, because he, had some experience. You know, he played at the University of Kentucky. So, you know, he was talking to me.

00;17;54;04 - 00;18;11;04
Unknown
He's like, you know, Mark, you can you can go to a place like Notre Dame, get lost in the shuffle, never play it down and disappear right. You know, or you can go to, you know, a mid-major. You can go to Miami Ohio. And you know, you can start all four years and you can be a tailback right there.

00;18;11;04 - 00;18;30;13
Unknown
Right. So, you know, we talked through those scenarios. And once again, that's why I was talking to everybody, you know, at all different levels, because I really didn't know what level it's going to be at. But, you know, I decided, hey, I want to go play big time. And, you know, I've had a lot of confidence. Yeah.

00;18;30;14 - 00;18;53;02
Unknown
Yeah. And, you know, it worked out pretty nice. But I do remember, you know, as a, as a freshman, you go in for freshman camp, right? You get there 3 or 4 days before the upperclassman. And they had recruited another fullback and two tailbacks. So there were four of us in the running back room. Guy name, Ron Hardin out of, I think I think it's out of Atlanta or something like that.

00;18;53;04 - 00;19;18;16
Unknown
And you're both highly recruited and you know, that's where the challenge started. Yeah, I had to prove I was the best, you know, freshman year back before. Before anything. Right. And, I think that happened because he actually transferred out after training camp. Yes. But, two days, you know, a couple days after we, started freshman camp, then the upperclassman came in, so I'm welcoming to the freshmen, too, right?

00;19;18;19 - 00;19;32;24
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we had, like, you know, 26 in our class or something like that. So, but yeah, during freshman camp, you. I felt I started feeling pretty good about things, you know, we were we weren't in pads yet or anything, but we were running a pass routes against the linebackers that were all highly recruited guys as well.

00;19;32;24 - 00;19;50;07
Unknown
And I'm, you know, I'm I'm holding my own and looking pretty good and feeling pretty good about myself. And then the upperclassmen come in. Right? And I mean, it's like, hey, you're on the back of the bus now. So and it was really eye opening, like, wow, these are grown men. The level of talent. Oh, just just show like so much.

00;19;50;08 - 00;20;13;22
Unknown
You guys have been in the offseason program with these guys for several years. They all they're back then summer school for the student athletes where it was voluntarily mandatory. So, you know, you you you had to be there. Yeah. Even though it wasn't, you know, required. Right, right. So you know, these guys are all just coming off summer workouts, you know, a couple weeks home and then training camp.

00;20;13;22 - 00;20;33;15
Unknown
But being grown man Ryan Young and Jim Flanagan and I mean, these guy, Aaron Taylor, was on that team. His first round and future first round picks him like it was eye opening. And you know that was a very tough transition because all of a sudden after feeling pretty good about myself, I'm like, wow, I am way behind here.

00;20;33;15 - 00;20;52;24
Unknown
Right? Right. Did so your freshman year, did you get in? Did you play? Yeah, yeah. So I, you know, I eventually earned some playing time, end up being the starter, starter. Well, no, no, no, not that not. Hold on a second. Yeah. I so I, I beat out, a senior who was the backup.

00;20;52;24 - 00;21;15;20
Unknown
So, Ray Zellers was the starter, so I end up with the backup fullback position. And also, I was the starter in the two. Holtz ran the Te formation on the goal line. I was a starting fullback for the Te formation and short yardage and goal line situations. But, Holtz, we ran the ball so much that we rotated out a lot.

00;21;15;21 - 00;21;33;29
Unknown
So freshman year I got a significant amount of play time. I still hold the end because I was the fullback on the goal line. That was the guy who got the ball all the time. And I still have the freshman touchdown record at Notre Dame with eight. Wow. And, I started one game against Navy, had like 98 yards rushing and three touchdowns.

00;21;34;00 - 00;21;50;10
Unknown
Yeah. That played a significant amount of time, my freshman year that led to all that you do? Well, that that was the year we went 11 and one. We beat Florida State, number one verse number two, game of the century. And then we lose to BC the next week. So we were number one in the country.

00;21;50;13 - 00;22;06;29
Unknown
You know, we were, you know, ten and zero or you know, ten zero, 11. Yeah. Or undefeated, you know, ten or no number one in the country. Then we lose to BC. And then after all the bowl games we got, we go to the bowl, we go to the Cotton Bowl back when it was still one of the big games played against a ten and one Texas A&M team.

00;22;06;29 - 00;22;30;14
Unknown
Our slogan, the Wrecking Crew, they were really good back then. The the old Southwest Conference champ and, beat them in the Cotton Bowl. And after everything was said and done, we were number two. And Florida State, who we had beaten, just, you know, a month before was number one. So, you know, maybe we didn't deserve to be national champions, but they definitely didn't deserve that over.

00;22;30;15 - 00;22;52;17
Unknown
So when I got down to Florida and, 2001 or 2003, you know, play for the Jags, you know, like all that, all these Florida State people are coming around now and I'm just like, still it's still burns. Yes. That still burns right now I tell oh yeah yeah yeah yeah I mean they like I said, you know, maybe we didn't deserve to be number one, but they didn't deserve it over us.

00;22;52;18 - 00;23;07;29
Unknown
What should have happened is we should have won the coaches poll and they should have won the AP probably should have been a split national title. Yes. I was back there. Yeah. You didn't award no playoffs was all voted on. But yeah, there's still a lot of bitterness. Harbor and and so I end up having a dory go.

00;23;08;03 - 00;23;31;02
Unknown
I'm just going to say you brought it up. Graduated. So I actually, wore Florida State colors a few times. Oh, gosh. Yeah. And that that, you know, that burned my flesh. I was wondering if when you wrote that, tuition check, you put national champs in that year, 1993 national champs, not you. Well, I mean, Mark, that had to be, like, unbelievable.

00;23;31;02 - 00;23;48;00
Unknown
You go out of high school, you're getting tons of playing time as a freshman. You're competing for the national champ. Everything that you went there for is happening right off the bat. I didn't think I was going to lose a game in my four years at Notre Dame. The way that season started, right. But yeah, that was that was, pretty epic.

00;23;48;00 - 00;24;08;16
Unknown
And so congrats on pretty good. A sophomore, sophomore year was a big disappointment, right? Yeah. We started the year all pretty highly ranked. We win our first game against northwestern, and then, and then when we lose a last second field goal to Michigan and kind of up and down season, we end up six, five and one.

00;24;08;16 - 00;24;28;03
Unknown
We still go to a major bowl game. Got got our doors beat off by a great Colorado team. Kordell Stewart was a senior at Albany. They had a great great team. Holy moly. Right. So but I played more that year. Wrestlers were still the starter, but he was hurt for 3 or 4 games. I started four games that year, still played a significant role.

00;24;28;05 - 00;24;51;25
Unknown
And then we go to my transition my junior year. So coming off a very disappointing 1994, expectations are pretty high. And, I'm the starter that year now. Okay. We had a big time freshman recruit full back coming in and Jamie Spencer out of Louisiana. Everybody was telling me was the next Jerome Bettis. And you know, he I it was he was going to be a starter as a freshman over me.

00;24;51;27 - 00;25;14;06
Unknown
You know. So that spring balls I mean I really stepped it up and had I had a great spring had a great camp summer camp going into that that next year and, you know, shot that threat down three pretty quick. So end up having a really, really solid junior year. We got a nine and three, missed, went to the Orange Bowl, lost a couple of close games early.

00;25;14;08 - 00;25;38;08
Unknown
We lost our first game to northwestern. Gary Barnett years and, actually went past this. Gerald, the former head coach, was a linebacker. He had a great running back, Darnell Autry, and nobody knew northwestern was going to be good that year. They end up going to the Rose Bowl. And losing to USC. But, we lose that game and like, holy moly, we lost to northwestern.

00;25;38;08 - 00;25;57;23
Unknown
We're in trouble, right? So, you know, we we lose that game, we win a couple more, and then we go to Ohio State, which is an enormous game. Nationally televised game. We lose Ohio State were five and two or something like that. And you're like, oh, this is a pretty disappointing year. And, then USC is coming to town.

00;25;57;23 - 00;26;18;17
Unknown
USC is 607 and no number five in the country. We had beaten USC 11 years in a row. We tie them in 94. And so this is the year USC is finally going to beat us. John Robinson's back Keyshawn Johnson senior year. And they come into South Bend you know as as favorites. And we beat the tar out.

00;26;18;17 - 00;26;37;26
Unknown
Really. Yeah. And that was like you know one of my, you know, pretty big games, you know, NBC player of the game and things like that. And really, one of the games that, you know, people remember me playing and, you know, having a really big contribution. Was that the one the they carried you out? Yeah.

00;26;38;03 - 00;26;53;20
Unknown
Yeah, that was the one. Yeah. That was the one. Every time I do some read that pops up like you were the one since Rudy that gets carried off. Well, you know, the legend gets bigger and bigger as the years go on, but, Yeah, that that was the game, and I. I didn't really know what was going on at the time.

00;26;53;20 - 00;27;12;00
Unknown
Didn't think about anything. We were just all out on the field celebrating. It was a rushed the field type game for the fans. Yeah. And, you know, it was good. You know, first of all, USC is our biggest rival. Like we have. Navy is a rival, and we respect Navy. We hate USC. You know, it's no as Notre Dame fans.

00;27;12;00 - 00;27;28;22
Unknown
Right. So, but yeah, we had a had a big game there. And then went on we we won the rest of our games. Won out had a tough game in the Orange Bowl where we had like a ten point lead with about eight minutes to go. And Florida State scored two late touchdowns to beat us. So, you know, really good.

00;27;28;25 - 00;27;48;25
Unknown
1995 junior year. Then going into senior year, we had just about everybody back. We are really like, really highly, highly, ranked. That was going to be, you know, the nets next year. We were really competing for a national title. Come out the gate a little bit slow versus Vanderbilt. Still find a way to win the game.

00;27;48;27 - 00;28;07;04
Unknown
You know, we go Purdue. We got, Texas which was a huge game down on Austin. Beat them with three and zero four and oh whatever it was the time. And then we got Ohio State once again undefeated coming to South Bend. Huge game. Yeah. They end up beating us. And that one hurt a little bit.

00;28;07;07 - 00;28;23;14
Unknown
And then, you know, it was a year goes on. We, we got upset against, Air Force that year, and we lost to them in overtime. It was the first year. It was the first year for the overtime rule in 1996. Okay. So, and then, I get hurt late in my senior year to an MCL.

00;28;23;17 - 00;28;46;05
Unknown
Was about three games to go. So missed the last few games my senior year, but we end up, losing to USC in the final game of the season when, when I was hurt and we ended up eight and three that year and we declined a bowl game that year. Declined, declined. Yeah. Because Notre Dame at that point had been to 11 or 12 straight, major January 1st bowl games.

00;28;46;07 - 00;29;02;13
Unknown
And it just wasn't worth it to the players that were going on, to the combine and get ready for the NFL, which was like, hey, you know what? We're we're just we're good. We're good. That's funny. Well, what a what an amazing career. Do you still stay in touch with Lou Holtz? I mean, yeah, yeah, you really do.

00;29;02;14 - 00;29;21;29
Unknown
Yeah. Wow. And not only that, but, you know, I have a crew of about eight guys that are on a daily text thread that, you know, we're all, you know, 5051 now and, you know, went on that on that text thread, we act like we're 20. So, you know, like one of those, like. Yeah, you know, good thing nobody's reading this thing right?

00;29;22;01 - 00;29;41;21
Unknown
But. Yeah. But no, Lou Holtz, still has advanced. I go back for his. He lives down. Orlando. Down. Okay. He had an event at Notre Dame last year. Got him to meet my son and daughters and everything. Everything? He had, an event at the national championship game this past year in Atlanta and got to spend a little time with him as well.

00;29;41;21 - 00;29;59;06
Unknown
But, whenever he has an event, I try to, you know, still show up for him because, Yeah, he's he's getting up there. He's about 88. His mind still, you know, pretty sharp. His body's found a little bit, you know, he can still stand up a little bit, but he's he's all helped him get around. His wife died, you know, several years ago now.

00;29;59;06 - 00;30;19;02
Unknown
So, you know, he he's, he's he's still kicking around, but, you know, I'm, I'm afraid he's not going to be around much longer, so trying to, see him whenever I get the opportunity. So obviously, there's a ton of respect there that you loved. Love playing for him. Well, I, I wouldn't say I loved playing for him at the time, but it's one of those things that.

00;30;19;02 - 00;30;46;27
Unknown
So he was. And as time goes on, I respect it more and more and I look back more fondly of it. But as you're going through it, his philosophy was to put so much pressure on you during practice, especially as a young player, that come game time, it was a lot easier. Like he would I would go to practice as a freshman or sophomore when, I was playing and he he would literally I knew I was going to get my butt shoot out for something, right?

00;30;47;02 - 00;31;05;19
Unknown
I didn't know what it was going to be. But the one thing that he did was he focused on the little things. Right? So if I was in my stance and I was supposed to take a lead step out of my stance and instead I took a crossover step regardless if I scored a touchdown or whatever, he was out there yelling and screaming and belittling me in front of everybody, right?

00;31;05;23 - 00;31;25;04
Unknown
You know, it's the little things that matter, right? As little, you know, if you do the little things right, then everything else is going to be easier. So you really dreaded going to practice because he always used to do this thing where like so the offense would practice on one field. And Holtz was an offensive guy.

00;31;25;04 - 00;31;42;22
Unknown
So he was always with the offense defense with practice like two fields down. And he was like if you made a mistake, whether how how small it was or whatever, he's like, Mark, you're not good enough to play here with these starters. Like you need to get on down to the practice squad. So I had to go down to the scout team.

00;31;42;22 - 00;31;59;16
Unknown
You know, it was like the jug of shame because everybody knew that you messed up something right now. No, I'm just not on the defensive players ever had to do the jog ashamed to come to the offensive side, you know, because the defensive coordinator wouldn't do that. But holes would send us down there and then, you know, 2 or 3 minutes later, hey, get numbers back here.

00;31;59;19 - 00;32;24;15
Unknown
So yeah, that's Yeah. And so it was a little humiliating at the time, but like I said, I dreaded going to practice, and, didn't always appreciate him when you were going through it. But as the years go by, you can kind of see some of the things that he was doing, the life lessons that he was teaching and, you know, trying to not only make you a better football player, but a better man down the road as well.

00;32;24;15 - 00;32;42;08
Unknown
Well, he's obviously very successful. So you knew what he was doing. So four years are up. You do. Did you know right off the bat you can go to the NFL? Was that your goal. Is that what you do. Yes. Yes. You know, and once again, it was early in my college career. It was more kind of like it was early in recruiting.

00;32;42;08 - 00;33;01;01
Unknown
Like, yeah, I want to go play in the NFL, but am I going to be good enough? I don't know yet. You know, but I think after my junior year, after my junior year, Holtz made everybody write a letter to the NFL to see about, you know, you get an evaluation because the NFL is already you know, they have people who are evaluated.

00;33;01;01 - 00;33;17;24
Unknown
But and I got a letter back saying, if you left as a junior, you know, the earliest you could possibly be picked is probably the third round. Okay. Really? Yeah. Third round. That's not bad. Right? Right, right. So not not I'm not saying that I would have you got a letter but but that's what I got. So.

00;33;17;26 - 00;33;36;18
Unknown
All right, you know I have a chance. And you know I have to after my junior year, which I had a pretty, pretty solid campaign. You know, I was like, yeah, I have, I have the opportunity. So, yeah, after the senior year, you know, then it was combine and, and, you know, got invited to combine and I knew I was gonna get drafted.

00;33;36;18 - 00;33;58;04
Unknown
Then it was just a matter of when and where and and you went to the 40 Niners first. Yeah. Yeah. I ended up being the, 55th overall pick. So the 25th pick of the second round back when there were only 30 teams. That was before Houston and, it was, it was the latest. Yeah.

00;33;58;04 - 00;34;19;07
Unknown
I, I, I don't, I don't even remember who the, Yeah. Nashville. Right. So you're talking about. Well, no, because. Because Houston went to Tennessee. Okay. Okay. Yeah. But when I played for the Houston Texans and, maybe the Cleveland. Yeah, it was when the year before Cleveland came back. Was it a similar kind of thing where you're waiting for a phone call or did you go somewhere?

00;34;19;07 - 00;34;38;01
Unknown
Yeah. No, I had a, so the so the draft experience was, pretty stressful, right. So, you know, after I got done my senior year. Okay, I had finished up at Notre Dame in three and a half years because of summer school and stuff like that. So I had my, all the credits I needed to graduate.

00;34;38;01 - 00;35;03;09
Unknown
So, I remember on New Year's Day, I left for Bradenton, Florida to go to what is now the IMG facility. Back then, it was involuntary sports. Com okay. And they had a guy there, Mark for Stegen, who, started Exos, which is a huge sports wellness company. You know, now that, you know, works with corporations, he, he was really sharp.

00;35;03;17 - 00;35;29;00
Unknown
But we were working out three times a day. My agent was IMG at the time, which, I think now is seasick, creative. Artist agency or was CAA, I think, but Tom Condon, you had, you know, Peyton Manning and Joe Montana and guys like that. I end up going with him and my agent, and they had 3 or 4 other guys that were all pretty highly rated guys as well.

00;35;29;00 - 00;35;52;04
Unknown
So we were all down there training for it, you know, three times a day. So you went to go train and find your agent at the same time? No, no, no, I already had my oh yeah. The agent stuff kind of worked out like towards the end of my senior year, I interviewed 4 or 5 guys, and ended up, you know, going with, with Tom Condon and, but then they sent us down to that facility to train for the combine for six weeks.

00;35;52;07 - 00;36;09;12
Unknown
Because it made even longer than that. Yeah. Because till, February, early February, I think is when the combine was. Right. So, yeah. So I'm down there just training for weeks and weeks and months. My, my whole life was nothing but training. Yeah. So then. Yeah, go to the combine. Have a really good combine. Where were you married at that time.

00;36;09;12 - 00;36;14;25
Unknown
No no no no no no I was I was still young and single. Yes. All that good stuff. So. Yes.

00;36;14;25 - 00;36;29;07
Unknown
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Unknown
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00;36;45;15 - 00;36;55;18
Unknown
Go, go through the combine experience and then go back to Notre Dame. There's individual workouts where, you know, we had our, pro day and things like that. And then you just waiting for the draft.

00;36;55;18 - 00;37;17;09
Unknown
Right. So just continuing to work out. Yeah, I was kind of thought, you know, told projected to go mid second to mid third and that's, you know, and so we were happy at the 55. Oh yeah. Yeah. The second round. You're kidding me for a full back then. You know then not many go higher than that. So that was you know great experience.

00;37;17;12 - 00;37;43;16
Unknown
But on on draft day I mean back then it was only on ESPN, right? It was a Saturday and Sunday draft. First two rounds were on Saturday. The other six, five rounds were on Sunday. And you you had 15 minutes between picks in the first round. So I mean first round lasted you know first four picks our second four picks out.

00;37;43;19 - 00;38;05;27
Unknown
So we had a draft party down at Montgomery and Boathouse in downtown Cincinnati okay. I had somebody from college come to friends from home had a packed house. And just I'm waiting around all day, all day for that phone call. Right. When cell phones came out, I got my first cell phone, but. Well, so they had my cell phone and they had the number to the restaurant.

00;38;06;03 - 00;38;25;04
Unknown
All you know then and your agent sends out package to all of 30 teams at the time. So they all have your information and so forth and so on. And plus, you know, through out the combine experience and, and senior played in the Senior Bowl that year as well. You know, you're doing interviews with the teams. They're they're getting your contact info.

00;38;25;04 - 00;38;51;12
Unknown
They're talking to you. You're taking psych evaluations, Wonderlic test, all that stuff. And so all my friends are having a great time eating their drink in there. You know, they're they're getting hammered, right? And like, I'm not I I'm I'm waiting for the fall. Right? Right. Like, I'm nervous. Just waiting on the call. So 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, 7:00.

00;38;51;14 - 00;39;17;22
Unknown
Right. 7:00. We're like mid second round right now. And the place where we were watching the game only had ESPN, not ESPN two. The draft switch from ESPN to ESPN to at 7:00. And I'm like, Holy right. So the owner, Dean Gregory, is working frantically with the cable company to get the ESPN to on so we can see what happened.

00;39;17;22 - 00;39;44;12
Unknown
So, you know, it's probably 830 ish now and we still don't have the, the, the, the broadcast off yet. And Dean looks over at like, Mark, you got a call and it's getting in. The way it happened is pretty cool because nobody knew who it was except Dean at the time. And then when I picked up the phone, him and I were the only two who knew who the call was, right?

00;39;44;17 - 00;40;02;29
Unknown
Because we didn't see the draft. Right? Right. And I had, gotten 30 hats and three boxes of hats sitting in front of me at the table where the phone was. And, I take the call and it's like, oh, yeah. Hey, great. You know, I'm so excited. And everybody's screaming. Who is it? Who is, who is? I know nobody knows.

00;40;03;00 - 00;40;27;23
Unknown
Right. And I it was I don't there's a short call. You know I talked to the head coach. Talk to the GM, talk to the running back coach briefly. And so I hang up and everybody who has to do it. And it's kind of like I said, really cool the way it happened. Because then I started, I fingered through the first hat, I went through the second box of hats and kind of and I saw it and I went through the third box of hats, just, you know, for a little bit of drama and then, yeah.

00;40;27;23 - 00;40;50;23
Unknown
So I then I went back to the middle line and then popped on the 40 Niners hat and like, everybody went crazy was really cool. That is really. So at that point I was ready to go out. My buddies and, you know, hit the town and, you know, have a good time and celebrate. And, you know, at the end of that call, they were like, hey, well, we'll have our travel people call you and get you out here first thing tomorrow morning.

00;40;50;25 - 00;41;15;22
Unknown
What? So I end up having a 6 a.m. flight out of downtown Cincinnati, out to San Fran for the introductory press conference. Like I didn't bring. I just brought, like, you know, my going out clothes, like, jeans and stuff like that. I wasn't expecting to go right out there. So I ended up being the designated driver that night for all my friends who got hammered and had a great time, you know, celebrating.

00;41;15;24 - 00;41;36;18
Unknown
And I didn't sleep at all that night because I was just so wired up. Yeah, I got back to the hotel after, you know, bringing my friends back at 2 or 3 in the morning. And I basically went the hotel, I showered and went to the airport. And because I didn't have anything, I stopped, like in the PGA shopping there and like, bought a pair of slacks and, and a nice shirt.

00;41;36;18 - 00;41;53;23
Unknown
So for my introductory press conference out there. But yeah, I flew out there to San Fran, you know, had introduced you an introductory press conference with the fellow draft picks. Yeah. And then flew back to South Bend that night. Wow, what an experience. Awesome. So how long were you in San Francisco? Oh, I was there for two seasons.

00;41;53;23 - 00;42;20;04
Unknown
Two seasons? Yeah. And then. Wow. So. Yeah. So what happened was after two seasons, the Cleveland Browns franchise came back after they moved to Baltimore. After the 95 season. So Cleveland was an expansion franchise in 99, and they hired Carmen Policy and Dwight Clark, who were the GM. And, player personnel got people at San Fran. They're the guys that drafted me.

00;42;20;07 - 00;42;45;13
Unknown
So when they went to start up the Cleveland Browns franchise, they end up trading for me, along with a bunch of other 40 Niners. And, yeah, got shipped off to Cleveland after two pretty solid seasons in San Fran. Yeah. Wow. And how long were you in Cleveland? I was actually so San Fran in 97 and 98. Back in the Steve Young Jerry rice days, went to playoffs both years, went the NFC Championship game my rookie year.

00;42;45;13 - 00;43;06;25
Unknown
Yeah. And then, it was just but and I was back up behind William Floyd that year who's a great fullback. He was a free agent when played at Carolina. So I was a starter in 1998. And that's the game. That's the season where we're in the playoffs. In the wild card game against green Bay, where Terrell Owens catches that 27 yard pass over the middle with eight seconds left to win the game.

00;43;06;28 - 00;43;22;26
Unknown
Now it's very dramatic. People have seen it on NFL network and things like that. And the things they don't remember is that he dropped like five passes that game that he never would have been in that situation had he got those passes. Little tidbits. Yeah for sure. So so two years of San Fran and then I get traded to Cleveland.

00;43;22;26 - 00;43;42;02
Unknown
Yeah, I'm there for two seasons, that were not very successful. I love living in Cleveland. I love the fans. The franchise treated us fantastic, but we were 2 in 14 that first year and quite frankly, got lucky to win both of those games. One of them we won on a Hail Mary. We won our first game.

00;43;42;02 - 00;44;03;05
Unknown
Game seven or game eight. Yeah. On a Hail Mary. And then we won a second game against Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh in with a 45 yard field goal into a monsoon win that our guy cleared the bar by this much Phil Dawson, longtime kicker for the Browns. And I think you played on 40 Niners for a few years, too.

00;44;03;07 - 00;44;20;00
Unknown
So yeah. And then my, my second year, we go we start off start the year off two and one. We lose Tim Couch, who, you know, was kind of up and coming at that time. And end up he end up getting hurt and never that career never really took off. But great guy. They got hurt and we started the year off two and one.

00;44;20;00 - 00;44;40;27
Unknown
And we finished the year three and 13. So, two bad years here, then I'm. So then I'm a free agent and New England first in the bad years. So. Yeah, it was tough. Yeah. So, I'm a free agent in, New England. Was a first team to call me Charlie Weis was your offensive coordinator, and they called me first day of free agency, but said, hey, we're going to be patient, but just let you know.

00;44;40;28 - 00;45;02;04
Unknown
We're going to see how things play out, let the market set itself. But we are interested in you. So, free agent, I knew the Browns coach Chris Palmer, gets fired. And they bring in, gosh, who is the guy? Butch Davis from Indy. And they didn't use a fullback, so I knew I wasn't going to be back in Cleveland.

00;45;02;06 - 00;45;21;26
Unknown
So after a few weeks of free agency, New England comes back like, hey, this is what the market is. We want you to be our full back. Like, that's my best offer at the time. I guess that's where I'm going. So that first year, New England, we they just resigned Drew Bledsoe. He was a first hundred million dollar quarterback.

00;45;22;01 - 00;45;47;20
Unknown
They were five and 11 the year before under Bill Belichick's first season. Wow. So we start that season in Cincinnati and we lose the Bengals. Now this isn't the Joe Burrow Bengals we're talking about. This is the 90s Bengals 2001 right. They were bad right. So we lose the first game to the Bengals. Then 911 happened. So the next week it's postponed right.

00;45;47;23 - 00;46;08;10
Unknown
And then the following week we play the Jets in Foxborough. And most everybody that's a football fan remembers this head. But towards the end of the game Drew Bledsoe is running out of bounds scrambling. Mo Lewis hits him in the chest TV didn't do it justice. It sounded like he hit him with a shotgun barrel you know bam.

00;46;08;13 - 00;46;33;22
Unknown
And that's when Drew Bledsoe got knocked silly right. So the story goes everybody's seen it that the next series drew comes back. We're running a check with me play. Meaning you know depending on how their defense lines up, we're going to run a play to the right of the left depending on how they line up. So as we're walking up to he calls a play in the huddle.

00;46;33;22 - 00;46;48;12
Unknown
Drew Bledsoe did. And as we're walking up to the line of scrimmage we're lined up and split backs. And he's in the shotgun. He run a shovel pass to whichever side John Abraham is lined up on because he's their big pass rusher that's going to get upfield. We're not going to block and we're going to run a shovel pass underneath.

00;46;48;15 - 00;47;05;25
Unknown
And drew looks over at me and says, Mark, which way do I run this play? And drew is a super sharp guy. I'm like, if we run this way towards John. Sure, drew. So anyway, you know, we we go go out that series and I go over to the trainer like, hey, you got to look at drew.

00;47;05;25 - 00;47;29;16
Unknown
Something's not right. Right. And you know very well that may have saved his life because what happened when when Mo Lewis hit him a sheared a blood vessel on his heart cavity in his heart cavity was slowly, slowly filling with blood. So it's hard. Couldn't pump. He end up going to emergency surgery that night. Wow. So. But that's when a young fella named Tom Brady came in and became the starter.

00;47;29;23 - 00;47;47;08
Unknown
Well, I remember you saying about Tom Brady, but I didn't I didn't hear that about drew. Like you literally got him off the field to some degree. And that would've ended up well yeah. Yeah. I mean, he doesn't remember any of it. He says he doesn't even remember going into the game. And no no no no no no.

00;47;47;11 - 00;48;12;13
Unknown
And if you like some of those documentaries, you know, with Brady and Bledsoe, like, you know, they they tell the whole story. It's very interesting, of how it all went down. But, when I got to New England, like I said, they were five and 11 the year before. And Tom Brady was the fourth team quarterback when I arrived there that summer as a free agent or that, spring as a free agent.

00;48;12;15 - 00;48;30;27
Unknown
You had, you know, obviously Bledsoe there. They brought Damon Hewitt in from Miami, who was kind of a part time starter down there. And then you had, Oh, gosh, Bishop, I forget the kid's name, but a bishop from Kansas State who darn near won national title for Kansas State. You know, really good player.

00;48;30;27 - 00;48;58;13
Unknown
Brady was a 14 quarterback. Wow. Most NFL teams only keep three quarterbacks. Sometimes they keep two and a practice squad guy. New England had four active quarterbacks in 2000. So when I get there before the oh one season. But Brady is still the 14 quarterback. And then during training camp he looked so good he beat out both Bishop and, Damon Hewitt, who they brought in to be the backup.

00;48;58;15 - 00;49;18;23
Unknown
And like I said, drew already was the first one to sign that hundred million dollar contract, so he wasn't going to beat him out. But then fate had other ideas. Man, what a series, a coincidence. Like this guy game Tom Brady. So play the rest of that season out because you told me that story. Yeah. So we start the year off owing to we lose the franchise quarterback.

00;49;18;25 - 00;49;40;26
Unknown
Like I said, I thought we're going winless. Right okay. So Brady comes in, we go down, we play. I play Indy. Indy is two and oh, Peyton man, he's like third year or something like that. And they had won their first two games by a combined score of like 90 to 40 or something like that.

00;49;40;26 - 00;49;57;12
Unknown
We're thinking, wow, this is bad. So and he comes in we, we kind of rally as a team and we to beat the heck out of them. Right? So now we're one and two. We're feeling a little better about ourselves. We go down to Miami the next week, which happened all the time back then. We will go to Miami in September where was too dang hot.

00;49;57;14 - 00;50;16;00
Unknown
We get our butts kicked, so now we're one and three. And we're panicking a little bit, right? So the next week we it's kind of like everybody looked at each other, like, Bledsoe's not here to win the game for us anymore. Everybody's going to have to step up collectively. And that's kind of what happened. We became a team.

00;50;16;00 - 00;50;33;29
Unknown
We stopped getting introduced individually at that time and we came out as a team, introduces a team every single week, because that's the only way you're going to be able to win, right? So we slowly get back, we get back to three and three, then we get back to five and four when two games in a row, a couple games in a row.

00;50;34;01 - 00;50;51;03
Unknown
And then now we play the Rams week ten on a Sunday night. I think it is. And this is the greatest show on turf Rams right. Like they they were the best team in the league that year wasn't even close. So we end up losing them anyway. It was I think it's 2417. But it wasn't that close to the game.

00;50;51;05 - 00;51;11;00
Unknown
We scored a late touchdown to make it look a little bit better, right. So we're five and five at the time and you know really still don't have an identity. We're kind of, you know, banding banding together. And then all of a sudden we just go on this amazing win streak. You know we that that year we were number 18 in the league in offense.

00;51;11;00 - 00;51;39;05
Unknown
We were number 15 in the league in defense. But we were top five in turnover to for turnover differential and top five in red zone scoring. So we scored touchdowns held them to field goals. And that's how we won. We started finding in a way to innovative ways to win games. From basically week ten on we would score a touchdown on special teams or defense dang near every week.

00;51;39;08 - 00;52;02;17
Unknown
Right. And we were finding ways to win games 2421, you know, 17, ten just grinding out, playing situational football and winning games. So we get we we win. Our last six games were 11 and five. Now, and the way like Miami and the Jets were both, you know, right there with us like all I think all three teams made the playoffs that year.

00;52;02;19 - 00;52;24;03
Unknown
And just the way things fell together for us ended up giving us that first round bye because Miami had to lose to a bad Buffalo Bills team back then, like in week, you know, 15 or 16. And then we had to win our final game and then all of a sudden we're the AFC East champs and kind of fell into it.

00;52;24;06 - 00;52;41;26
Unknown
We played our way into it. We also kind of fell. And we had we had we didn't control our own destiny. We had to have teams playing a lot during this. Right. Oh yeah. That was starting fullback. And yeah, it was Tom. Did he start off really good? You know what, Tom? That that season there were a couple games where Tom threw for 300 yards and kind of really.

00;52;41;26 - 00;53;04;12
Unknown
But it wasn't like we were protecting Tom that. Yeah. We, we played a lot of two tight end, two running back, one receiver type formations, and we ran the ball and play action. You know, we would run the ball for 150 yards a game. We would you know, Brady's typical line that year 16 for 20 to 205 yards one touchdown.

00;53;04;12 - 00;53;26;00
Unknown
No picks okay. You know and we would run for, 150 yards and a touchdown. We'd have a defensive touchdown. We'd win. You know and field goal we win 2417. That kind of that was kind of the season that it went. So we get to the playoffs. You know I want to say it was about an even line game.

00;53;26;00 - 00;53;47;02
Unknown
Or the Raiders may have even been a favorite coming in to Foxborough. And you know they like I said we had the week off went up the number two seed back then the number two seed still had a bye one two had a bye. So they played the Jets a week before and then they came just they came to Foxboro.

00;53;47;08 - 00;54;14;17
Unknown
So it was the Saturday night divisional game okay. And at 4:00 there was not a flake of snow in the air. By the time we get there it's a blizzard. Oh my gosh. So everybody remembers the snowball game. Yes. Right. And that team for the Raiders was loaded. You know Jerry rice Tim Brown I forget the running back, but it was a big time running back.

00;54;14;19 - 00;54;31;23
Unknown
Rich Gannon, you know, good defensively. And they were they they were fantastic. And, you know, that's kind of when the legend of Brady really started taking off. And, you know, they they were beating us the whole game. We were down I want to say ten. Nothing going in you know to the fourth quarter or something like that.

00;54;31;23 - 00;54;50;09
Unknown
And then Brady engineers had come back obviously the tuck rule happened and that, that certainly, rule benefited us, you know, it and it was the right rule at the time, you know, was it a fumble? Yeah, it was a fumble. But that's the way the rule played out. I don't make the rules just play by right, right, right.

00;54;50;12 - 00;55;12;14
Unknown
So so you know, but but once again, we still had to get down there and make that field goal. And everybody seen that infinity field goal. The game, the field goal to tie it was definitely the most difficult kick in NFL history, bar none. I think it was you know, 40 yards into a win, into a snowstorm.

00;55;12;16 - 00;55;31;07
Unknown
Blizzard. And I distinctly remember that game. Like every TV timeout, they would come and blow off the five yard increments on the sidelines. And by the time the game kicked back off, it was already covered. Yeah, it was, you know, the Foxboro Stadium back then still had grass and the middle of the field was nothing but mud.

00;55;31;11 - 00;55;48;23
Unknown
And outside the house was is nothing but ice. Yeah. You know, it was just an iconic game all around. You know, we tie it up for the end and we win the when the, coin flip, take it down, kick a field goal. Game over. We go on to Pittsburgh the next week. So, you know, it was really cool to play in that iconic game.

00;55;48;23 - 00;56;11;01
Unknown
I got a bunch of pictures, of myself from that game. So that was that was, a heck of an experience. Yeah, I can imagine. And, so we go to Pittsburgh the following week, 60 degrees sunny. Yes. Still. And, you know, January. So a beautiful day in Pittsburgh. We have it once again. We, you know, scored on we blocked a punt.

00;56;11;03 - 00;56;35;03
Unknown
Oh, no. We blocked a field goal and took it back for a touchdown. We blocked a no. We got a, no, we we scored on defense twice. Oh no punt return. And we scored on a continuing with right. Continuing with with with nontraditional ways of winning. Right. And Brady gets hurt during that game. Bledsoe comes back in the end of the first half throws a touchdown pass.

00;56;35;05 - 00;56;59;18
Unknown
And he plays the entire second half okay. So but we end up you know fourth quarter Kordell Stewart kept throwing interceptions to us. So we close that game out. We beat Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh to go to to go to Super Bowl. Yeah. And because of 911 happened early in all NFL season getting moved back a week. We don't have a bye week in between the championship game and the Super Bowl.

00;56;59;18 - 00;57;22;08
Unknown
So literally we get back to Foxboro, we go home, we transition. We come back the next morning and we're in New Orleans Monday morning after winning in Pittsburgh on Sunday. Wow. So now we're playing the greatest show on turf. The team that that that that team was they were number one league number one in the league in offense.

00;57;22;14 - 00;57;37;25
Unknown
Number one in the league in scoring their number three in the league in defense. They lost two games that year. They should have lost one game. They turned the ball over seven times and lost by a touchdown. Okay. And then, they they had like a 2410 lead against a New Orleans that year. And somehow another blew that.

00;57;38;02 - 00;58;00;13
Unknown
But they were an a historically good team. Right. And this one we were at the time maybe the second largest underdog ever to go out and win when won a Super Bowl. So was there a little quarterback controversy. There was, there was just because they, we didn't know Bledsoe or if Brady was going to be able to play or not.

00;58;00;17 - 00;58;20;15
Unknown
He rolled his ankle. But you know, when we got there. So Brees was if he was ready if he was ready to play. Yeah he was he was going to play okay. And he was. Yes. So yeah. But yeah that that that Super Bowl game, it was it was so interesting. And when people ask me about Belichick the genius that he is.

00;58;20;17 - 00;58;46;11
Unknown
So rewind to week ten against the Rams on that Sunday night we play our defensive game plan. We blitz Kurt Warner 80% of the time right. They held him to 24 points. You know when they were averaging probably 32 or whatever it was that season. So me it was it was okay. But blitzing 80% of the time and really didn't get a lot of pressure on him.

00;58;46;11 - 00;59;12;07
Unknown
Right. So now I'm at practice and Louisiana and you know offense goes for, you know, ten plays or whatever. And then against defensive scout team and then the defense goes. So I'm watching the defense and what they're doing. Completely different game plan completely different strategy. So in a week I mean well well eight weeks later yeah yeah I get against the same team.

00;59;12;09 - 00;59;38;23
Unknown
So what they're doing is they're only rushing three guys. And whichever way Marshall Faulk releases that defensive end basically stops rushing and hits him tackling whatever they had to do to try to take their best weapon out of the game, which was Marshall Faulk at the time. I know that, but we had our corners just absolutely mugging, you know, Isaac, Bruce and Tory hold.

00;59;38;23 - 01;00;00;20
Unknown
I mean, just, you know, historic receivers that just mugging them the line of scrimmage. So I'm like completely different where we were blitzing 80% of the time. Now we're barely rushing. And during that game we held them to three points all the way to the fourth quarter, which was historic. Wow. And I mean, they were hitting receivers when they were just standing there, right?

01;00;00;21 - 01;00;26;03
Unknown
They were hitting Marshall Faulk when we were just standing there. Our first touchdown was a pick six where their, their right tackle, turned back and it was a blown pass protection. Mike Vrabel comes right off the end and clubs Kurt Warner right in the skull with a forearm. Which now not only would it be a penalty but he'd probably be a jet right.

01;00;26;10 - 01;00;44;24
Unknown
But it was it was just a it was a pick six Tyler Moore stepped in front of me because he threw a bad ball and pick six were up seven three. You know we get another turnover. We're up 14 three going into halftime against The Greatest Show on turf. Well yeah. And I would imagine they kind of thought in their minds that they would win this game without a problem.

01;00;44;26 - 01;01;06;18
Unknown
Absolutely, absolutely. They were 11.5 point favorites. The year most of the ESPN folks were predicting, you know, and if you remember, there were a lot of blowouts back then NFC versus AFC, right? AFC had just finally won a few games with Denver like the NFC had won 15 Super Bowls in a row until Denver in 97.

01;01;06;18 - 01;01;26;15
Unknown
So this is only 2001. So the NFC is still very dominant over the AFC as far as Super Bowl wins go. So yeah they were huge favorites. But you know we go in at halftime you know and then we just kind of continue that same conservative game plan. We're trying offensively not to screw it up right right.

01;01;26;15 - 01;01;57;21
Unknown
We're running the ball. We're getting 2 or 3 first downs. We're eating clock. We're keeping Kurt Warner and those guys off the field right. So fourth quarter eight minutes to go. We're up seven. No we're up we're up 14 to 3 still. No 17 to 3 okay. And the Rams finally start mounting a little bit. They're they're doing it untraditional for their offense instead of these big plays their grinding it out against our defense.

01;01;57;24 - 01;02;16;06
Unknown
And they're move the ball down the field move the ball down the field. We get them a fourth and two on the goal line. Fourth and goal in the two. And you know eight minutes left in the game we're up 14 points. And Kurt Warner's running around. He starts to scramble and he's trying to run it in on fourth and goal.

01;02;16;08 - 01;02;39;22
Unknown
One of our linebackers Roman five tackles in. He fumbles to Bucky Jones. Are are really fast safety picks it up goes 99 yards for a touchdown. Game over right flag on the field. Remember I talked about the defensive game plan of of tackling and hitting Marshall Faulk releasing first time all game. They called it Willie McGinest tackled him as he was coming out of the backfield.

01;02;39;24 - 01;03;00;22
Unknown
And they threw a flag defensive holding oh my gosh. So so they score. All right we get the ball again. We get a couple first downs. We we get stopped. They get the ball back. You know four minutes left they go three and out we get the ball go three. Now they get the ball with a minute 58 left.

01;03;00;24 - 01;03;21;13
Unknown
And what's the score then? 17. Ten. Okay. Yeah. So what happens is, you know, we're thinking, all right, we got to stop these guys. They scored three plays to tie it up. So we got a minute 26 left now man to me they let me just boom boom boom. Our defense is stopped them like Stonewall all game.

01;03;21;13 - 01;03;44;14
Unknown
Yeah three plays. Score touchdown. No problem. So that's when we they kick off we get tackled like on our own 16. It was a terrible return. They have all the momentum now. Tie ball game 126 left John Madden is saying I'll just take a knee. You take it over time. You got this. You know young starting quarterback who, you know, had an ankle injury the year before.

01;03;44;16 - 01;04;05;19
Unknown
And once again the legend of Tom Brady, you know slowly took us down the field. Got us in a field goal range Adam Bennett Terry 47 yard field goal to win it. And we go absolutely crazy. And it was, one heck of an experience. An amazing story. What what is it? What's it like to win a Super Bowl Mark I mean, like, it's real.

01;04;05;19 - 01;04;27;27
Unknown
There's not a handful of people in eternity that ever done it. Well, if you look at the numbers, you know, it's well where we were Super Bowl 55 or 57, whatever. But approximately 50 guys per team, you know, there's more than that. But let's just say 50 guys times, you know, 55 Super Bowls. You know, you're looking at 26, 2700 guys.

01;04;27;27 - 01;04;45;09
Unknown
Right. And some guys I like Brady. He only has, you know, two handfuls of them. You know Charles Haley has a handful of them. So it's a pretty unique fraternity. Like I said, one of maybe, you know, 3000 guys who have earned a Super Bowl ring or whatever goosebumps talking about it. You know, well, I it's fun.

01;04;45;09 - 01;05;03;24
Unknown
I've told the story so many times over and over. I don't know if I get goosebumps, but it's certainly a very, very vivid, though. Oh, well, you me. So I've been talking about how passionately and yeah, you know, how I've just kind of go through the scenarios just, like it was yesterday, but, but yeah, it's, you know, the Super Bowl ring game.

01;05;04;01 - 01;05;19;11
Unknown
I've brought it with me. I was hoping you. Yeah, yeah, just just in case you're okay, but, Yeah. Wow. So we got that right there. That's awesome. That is awesome. So I don't wear it much anymore because, you know, you walk into a place. The whole place season happens, for sure. Leave it there for the camera. That's awesome.

01;05;19;11 - 01;05;37;16
Unknown
But, yeah, it's, it's very surreal. I haven't, you know, after the game, I literally we went back to the stadium. It was already kind of late. It was. So you were you married at the time? Did you have some kids? Yeah. Yeah, we we had, we had that our two oldest at the time. Were they there.

01;05;37;18 - 01;05;56;02
Unknown
They were not. They were at home with grandma. But Darcy was there. Yeah. Yeah, Darcy was there. Her father was there. Her brother were there. My family was there. So it was, pretty, pretty cool experience. But after the game, we went back to the hotel. The team had a big party there, and I never even went down.

01;05;56;02 - 01;06;12;00
Unknown
I never left the hotel that night. All of a sudden, it's four in the morning. I'm still with the team party, like, not even realizing it's four in the morning because you're just so jacked and just still adrenaline running and, you know, I, I remember getting in bed and just saying, wow, we just won the Super Bowl. Wow.

01;06;12;04 - 01;06;36;17
Unknown
We just won in the how you did it. Yeah. That game and the whole season is just legit. Well, you know, it was one of those seasons that people think it was too perfect. Like they just the whole story, you know, the year of 911 a five and 11 team, the Patriots from the day before, you know, it was very patriotic, right.

01;06;36;17 - 01;07;00;04
Unknown
You know, with everybody, you know, all the nine over 11 attacks and everybody feels super patriotic about things. And then the Patriots go on this amazing run, right? Yeah. You know yeah. This is rigged. I'm like, bro, it's really not. It was too scripted to to be just perfect right. Oh my gosh I mean I'm feeling your your energy here is just unbelievable.

01;07;00;06 - 01;07;15;01
Unknown
Wow. And I'm so glad we told that story because I wanted to hear it. So after you had your stint with, New England, you had a stint with the Jags for a while. Yep, yep. Came down here to play for the Jags. For a couple of years. And then did you just love Jacksonville so much.

01;07;15;01 - 01;07;37;07
Unknown
That's why you stayed. Yeah for the most part but it was kind of a natural time to settle down. You know I played here for two years. It was towards the end of my career, my children were starting to get of school age. They were starting get into school, play soccer. My two oldest, have, you know, they had their friends and things like that.

01;07;37;09 - 01;07;57;26
Unknown
We obviously love Jacksonville. Loved the weather all about it. First year I was down here, I was playing golf on December 23rd and shorts and a golf shirt and one of our off days and, you know, after growing up in, you know, in Ohio, South Bend, I had a little standout in San Fran where it was nice weather, but then Cleveland, New England like it was.

01;07;57;28 - 01;08;13;10
Unknown
How do you get down here? You know, it was awesome down here. When it was over, did you make the decision? You just kind of. No, no. So so yeah, we we end up staying down here. I play for the Jags for two years. And then they were both okay seasons. You know, it was Del Rio last year.

01;08;13;15 - 01;08;28;20
Unknown
We went five and 11. But the second half of the season we went four and four. So we were kind of up and coming. Byron left which took over for Brunel. Yeah. After he got hurt like in the third game. And you know we got a little bit better year. And so the following season and 2002 there were a little higher expectations.

01;08;28;20 - 01;08;42;26
Unknown
So we started the year all three. And so we end up 9 or 7 and just missing the playoffs. There's a little bit of growth that year. But Del Rio gives me calls and hey, Mark, we're releasing you and I okay. Whatever. You know. So I know I have another opportunity and and I'm signing with the bears.

01;08;42;29 - 01;09;01;15
Unknown
But once again, because the kids were in school, the two oldest and having two friends and playing soccer and stuff, I went up there and lived in a hotel room for the season. Okay. And, I just commuted back and forth. Yeah, yeah. With the bears in 2005. Okay, so what happened was right before training camp started, I got a call from my agent.

01;09;01;15 - 01;09;17;07
Unknown
Hey, the bears are interested. They have two full backs on the roster. Both of them got hurt. They're going to be on the PUP list. The physically unable to perform list. So they're not going to be able to start training camp. So they they need somebody. All right. Cool. So I went up there end up winning the starting job.

01;09;17;09 - 01;09;37;11
Unknown
Played great for, for the first seven, eight games. But then the two full backs that were on the physically unable to perform list came back. One of them was, you know, like their starter or the guy they were paying, you know, some decent money. Their other guy was their young special teams guy. So after I started game, we win like we started the year all phone to one and three.

01;09;37;11 - 01;09;59;22
Unknown
And then we were five and three and we were getting some momentum. My tailback, Thomas Jones, was having a career year. They had a great offensive line. We were really starting to gain some momentum. And Lovie calls me in on a Tuesday right after I start and I got a couple touchdown catches. You know, they have a tailbacks playing great and say, hey, this is one of the really crappy things about the NFL.

01;09;59;22 - 01;10;15;14
Unknown
Mark, you have done everything we've asked you to do. You have played fantastic. But we got to release. Yeah. We can't have three full backs on the roster for the reasons I just mentioned. You know the one guys you know we're not going to cut for salary cap person reasons. The other guys are young. You know, minimum guy.

01;10;15;14 - 01;10;30;07
Unknown
That's a special teams guy. Just one of the things that's unfair about the NFL Mark. And I respect Lovie for that. You know he he was real and you know as like we were trying to find a way to keep all three of you. But just with the roster limits you know we had a couple linemen get hurt like we just can't do it.

01;10;30;09 - 01;10;55;11
Unknown
So I literally I had to wait that Tuesday, I had, Monday, after we got back from the game, I had taken my clothes to the dry cleaner air in Chicago. I literally had to wait till 5 p.m. the next day to get my clothes from the dry cleaner. One day dry cleaner I got in my car. I drove straight back to Jacksonville from Chicago, 15 17 hours.

01;10;55;11 - 01;11;31;01
Unknown
Whatever it was, it got back like at nine in the morning and, I enjoyed my first normal Thanksgiving and Christmas that year that I ever had. Now, the nice thing about, I guess, being released in the middle of the season is as a as a veteran, they still had to pay me the rest of the year. But it was like a it's called, I don't like a severance package or I forget, the, the official NFL term severance pay, but, it was they had to pay me a regular weekly, but they had to after the season was over, compensate me for all those weeks that I didn't know.

01;11;31;01 - 01;11;48;11
Unknown
It was like a one time severance pay or something like that. And then the next season, 2006 year, I got calls from a couple of teams like, hey, maybe come to training camp. I come workouts, people invite you to training camp to see if, you know, maybe we'll, you know, make the team or not. I'm like, like, I'm in my eighth year.

01;11;48;14 - 01;12;08;26
Unknown
Actually, I'd be my 10th year. At the time I played nine years, it would have been, just, my body couldn't take it anymore. And, like, I wasn't going to go to training camp, not to make the team, like, look, you guys know what I can do, all right? Like, I was having to see the chiropractor. You know, a couple of times we get a masseuse, and it wasn't that it hurt anymore late in my career.

01;12;08;26 - 01;12;28;26
Unknown
It just hurt longer, right? Yeah. It was tougher to heal up and get ready for the next, next game. And, but so, you know, nothing ended up working out the 2006 com agent and said, hey, time to file retirement papers. I think I'm done. So. So people always ask me, you know, well, why do you stop playing?

01;12;28;26 - 01;12;51;27
Unknown
Like, well, I really didn't stop playing. Teams didn't want me at that point. And that's probably how 90% of players finish their career, right? Right, right. Well, I mean, what an incredible story. Mark, you know, was funny on an article I read about you, though you stay to this day that those Friday night lights were still oh, probably the highlight.

01;12;51;29 - 01;13;20;07
Unknown
I mean, it's hard to say they're the highlight of right went through but like that's the most enjoyable. Yeah. That's the most enjoyable time you had a quote. It's like the higher you get the less enjoyable it's more and more bit more and more of a business. And like my college years were great, but I still have, you know, great friends from high school that I played football with and spent all that time in the weight room with that, you know, even if I don't talk to him for 2 or 3 years, if I was in a Mexican prison, they can bail me out, right?

01;13;20;09 - 01;13;35;25
Unknown
And I can call them and they would come bail me out. Same thing with college. Yeah, I got, I got my, my core guys that, you know, we were going out with and having a good time and chasing girls back in college and all that stuff with. Yeah. And and playing ball and, you know, all that time in the weight room together.

01;13;36;02 - 01;13;53;26
Unknown
Whereas when you transition to the NFL, it's like you just it's like your business partner. Yeah. You know, your, your, your coworkers. And like, I don't keep in touch regularly with anybody. I play with the NFL. Now if I see him out, you know, there's there's a lot of guys from Jacksonville that come here and play here and they stay here.

01;13;53;26 - 01;14;15;07
Unknown
So I see guys that some of the Jags events or you know out at the beach or you know wherever. And you know you will they'll we'll talk and you know reminisce and whatever. But I don't even to regular touch with him like I do my high school and my college friends and teammates. But but yeah, you know, there was nothing more pure than, than playing Friday night, you know, under the lights in high school.

01;14;15;07 - 01;14;31;25
Unknown
Just you know, football in its purest form. Yeah. And, yeah. And like last night now my son played in the spring game. Right. And bulls versus Mandarin and like that just, I just, you know, now the only thing that's missing is they all have this turf. Now, you don't you don't get to smell that fresh cut grass, right.

01;14;31;29 - 01;14;48;14
Unknown
That that that I missed so much as well. That reminds me of my high school days, you know, Friday night lights, you know, and we we had sweat the real grass back then, but that fresh cut grass, man, there's nothing like it. Well, speaking of your family, you have an amazing family, amazing wife, and three very accomplished daughters.

01;14;48;19 - 01;15;14;26
Unknown
And then Zander, who we were talking about, who is doing amazing things with football in school and always has been a great kid. That's how I got to know you. Wrapping it up, Mark, I wanted to talk a little bit about what you're doing now. So you kind of have a unique business, a you started and you kind of fell into it where you're you're maintaining, operating systems for forklifts for for companies all around the country.

01;15;14;26 - 01;15;36;28
Unknown
Right? Yeah, yeah. So one of these stories that I tell whenever I go back, Notre Dame, they, they still have me talk to the current players quite a bit. Right. And you know, my message to them is this that, you know, the reason I got my current job is because I wasn't a jerk. Right. So 1996 I it's after my senior year.

01;15;37;00 - 01;15;51;15
Unknown
I'm out at the, out at the bar after the game, the linebacker right across, you know, legendary linebacker right across from the stadium. And some guy comes up, hey, you're Mark Edwards, just watch your game. A great you know. And I sat there and I just, you know, talked to the game. I was just nice to him.

01;15;51;15 - 01;16;13;04
Unknown
You know I had a beer. Whatever I don't remember this interaction. So fast forward to when I finished playing. I'm back in 2006, year after I get done playing, at a Charlie Weis golf outing. I run to this guy that he owns a bunch, and he's there to play on the outing, and he owns a bunch of golf r, a bunch of, forklift dealerships.

01;16;13;06 - 01;16;29;21
Unknown
And he's like, hey, man, I remember, you know, you meet new linebacker in 1996, and I was I don't remember this, but but it was but it was influential for him and at the time. So when I got to the NFL, I got in, I tried to get into the financial industry. Right. And this is another this is another thing that I tell these kids, okay.

01;16;29;24 - 01;16;47;15
Unknown
So I, I gotta try to get into financially. I get my series seven, I get my insurance licenses and all those guys that were calling me asking for tickets all those years, all of a sudden are not returning my call when I need some help. And I'm trying to transition to, you know, hey, what am I going to do now that I'm not, you know, I'm not playing a game anymore.

01;16;47;15 - 01;17;15;04
Unknown
I'm I'm actually an adult now. And it is a challenging transition. You know, imagine some, you know, I, I try to transition in the financial world. And so there's this guy that I made the golf outing, you know, I'm trying to get his business, you know, to, to for, for employee benefits. Right. So, you know, we exchanged numbers and we tried to work some stuff out, but it didn't it didn't work out and that that, that side of the things.

01;17;15;04 - 01;17;33;05
Unknown
But I kept in touch with him then from that point on. And I'll go play golf with him when I go to be in South Bend. So fast forward, you know, it's maybe 2007 now. I'm a couple of years out. I'm kind of, you know, toiling in this insurance stuff, and I hate every second of it because all those years, I was playing football, I never heard the word no, you know.

01;17;33;05 - 01;17;52;09
Unknown
Hey, Skip the line at the club. You know, everybody wants to take you out for steak dinner. Everybody wants to hang out with you. And now all of a sudden, I'm here. No. And I'm getting ghosted by these guys and people that I had done favors for. And I had done speaking engagements for. I had gotten tickets for their ghosting me when I am reaching back out for some help.

01;17;52;09 - 01;18;09;00
Unknown
And it was interesting, it was first time I'm here no, in my life. And it was eye opening, right? So, you know, I keep in touch with this guy and, you know, 2007, 2008, he's like, hey, you know, I got this guy coming over from Australia. He's bringing this product over and he needs help. You know, he needs a face of the company, you know?

01;18;09;00 - 01;18;27;18
Unknown
So I was going to be the sales guy, kind of the face of this company for this product that it's basically a safety and efficiency device for forklifts, a black box type system that allows somebody to monitor their fleet on online. It basically makes it so somebody has to swipe a card or input a code before the forklift will even start.

01;18;27;18 - 01;18;53;25
Unknown
And you can assign whomever to whatever piece of equipment or not assign them. Right. So specific operators for specific pieces of equipment they're trained for. And then it's going to track all they're doing. You know moving time idle time. You know it's got a timeout. If they're not sitting on the lift those kind of things. If they hit something, it'll send out emails, let them know if they're, you know, if if they've if they've had an accident or if they're using the in a rough manner, they do the pre-trip OSHA checklist on it.

01;18;53;25 - 01;19;13;21
Unknown
If there's any faults, it sends out emails. Right. So I'm going to be selling this. But our business model was to sell it to forklift dealers, teach them and their technicians how to install it. Well, their technicians would mess that up because, you know, they wanted to do just a preventative maintenance and just a normal forklift stuff, on it.

01;19;13;23 - 01;19;36;24
Unknown
So we have all kinds of issues, and I would have to go out in the field and fix them, even though at the time I don't even know how to use a multimeter. And for the user for if anybody know what a multimeter is, way to read voltages, right? On on the forklift. Right. So, you know, I slowly go out in the field and I didn't know what I was doing at the time, but we had one old guy who really knew his stuff, and I was literally his body out there in the field.

01;19;36;25 - 01;19;55;17
Unknown
I was spent hours upon hours on the phone with him, fixing these issues. So eventually what happened? These dealers would be like, hey, Mark, you fixed all of our issues. Why don't you just install this for us to begin with? Right. Okay. Right. Duh. So I accidentally started a company, and slowly over the years, I. I was by myself for 4 or 5 years.

01;19;55;17 - 01;20;19;28
Unknown
Very slow growth. But you made it. It made an okay living. And, you know, now I've expanded, people I've done no marketing, no advertising, no cold calling. And slowly just my name got out there because I solve a issue for some of these companies. These so I yeah, I've expanded to a bunch of different products that we install.

01;20;19;29 - 01;20;42;13
Unknown
Wow. I got, you know, 7 or 8 guys. We just travel around the country every week. We go on job sites and basically rewire forklifts. So, I've been doing that since about 2008, 2009 now. And, you know, really, really taken off the last couple of years. What a what a I mean, because you, you said, well, you talk to the young guys when you go talk to them.

01;20;42;13 - 01;20;57;29
Unknown
I mean, it's kind of a lesson in humility a little bit. Yeah. It's like, hey, I mean, don't take anything for granted. Work hard. You never know where it's going to end up being. Well, not only that, but kind of getting back to where I was going with that original story was I have my business now because I was nice.

01;20;57;29 - 01;21;15;09
Unknown
You weren't a jerk because I was nice to that, you know, just student in 1996, right? You know, because if he sees me again in 2006 and I was a jerk back then, he probably doesn't even want to talk to me, right? You know, so, like, just little things like that. Like I tell him, hey, you know what?

01;21;15;09 - 01;21;35;18
Unknown
That nerd down the hallway like his dad may own, you know, some enormous company, and they're going to hire you. And, you know, and they want, former athletes because of the discipline that they've had to deal with, you know, their entire lives and structure and the hard work and, you know, the things like that. Plus, you got an interesting story.

01;21;35;22 - 01;22;01;08
Unknown
You know, it's easy to, you know, talk with people, transition, and, and different things because you have that experience and those things you talk about, like the mileage I get out of the Super Bowl ring. Oh, I'm sure you know. So typically I go into a job site. I don't tell anybody my background or whatever. I want them to see my work ethic and what we do and all that, and then eventually it gets brought up somehow or another, somebody looks my name up or somebody like, hey, that kind of sounds familiar.

01;22;01;13 - 01;22;19;01
Unknown
Yeah, he used to do something, you know, or, you know, one of the dealers that I work with that already know me and have known me for a long time will mention something to the insight use or something like that. They're like, hey. And then all of a sudden they start googling and, you know, find a bunch of pictures and articles and things like that.

01;22;19;04 - 01;22;35;23
Unknown
And, then all of a sudden, yeah, yeah, I'm bringing out the ring to, show the employees that work there and, you know, things like that, and then it makes life a little bit easier on the side. Everybody's a little more, willing to help in and, not be as difficult. So that is, that is really cool, Mark.

01;22;35;24 - 01;22;56;15
Unknown
Well, you know, I really enjoyed talking to you. I could go on for hours. But, thank you for coming on the podcast. I know people are going to love to hear your story. I just love the the beginning from, you know, the blue collar to the blue collar. But man, you just hit some incredible accomplishments. And it was a pleasure to talk to you.

01;22;56;21 - 01;23;13;24
Unknown
Yeah, I had a great time along the way as well, so I'm glad it finally worked out. We've been trying to make this happen for at least six months now, and due to my current job, I'm traveling. I'm every week. But, because my son had the spring game last night, I was in town, and, worked out, so I'm grateful.

01;23;13;24 - 01;23;15;13
Unknown
Thank you for that. Appreciate you.

01;23;15;13 - 01;23;29;19
Unknown
The Hometown Jack's podcast is recorded and produced by First Coast Mortgage Funding. Located in the heart of Jacksonville. Do you want to be our next guest? Visit our website at Hometown Jack's podcast.com. We can't wait to hear your story.