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April 3, 2025 - Triggered - Donald Trump Jr
01:22:12
New Era of Fair Trade Plus Interview with Brett Favre | TRIGGERED Ep.230
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Hey guys, welcome to another huge episode of Triggered on this Liberation Thursday.
What we're seeing this week is a fundamental fight between American industry and globalization.
This isn't about one day in the stock market or the endless stream of media hysteria.
This is about growth.
Long-term growth.
And frankly, we're already seeing positive results.
You'll obviously never hear about that.
People will do the immediate panic.
We've based our entire system on making stupid short-term decisions so a politician can get elected in three weeks, even if it screws us 30 years down the road.
It doesn't matter.
It's about a fundamental departure from the decades of open borders, globalization, multi-trillion dollar peacetime deficits, and taking this country in a different direction that puts American workers and American companies first.
So, we're going to get into all of that.
Plus, we're going to sit down with NFL Hall of Fame legend Brett Favre to discuss football, faith, and his battle with Parkinson's.
So make sure you guys are liking, sharing, subscribing, so you never miss one of these episodes.
That's a really big deal, guys.
You guys are how the algorithm gets out there.
You guys are the voice box beyond what I can do.
Get in there.
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Again, same thing.
Let's break through the wall.
Let's break through the mainstream media noise.
Let's break through the liberal BS.
Let's get it out there.
That's how you're going to do it.
And for all of the latest headlines that we cover here on the show, go over to my news app, MXM News, like minute by minute, MXM.
Where you can get the mainstream news without the mainstream bias.
And of course, it's all of you who make this show possible, along with our incredible sponsors.
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And now, with that, let's get into the top headlines.
Yesterday was Liberation Day, guys.
Where fair trade, America first, common sense policies were on full display.
And to be clear, What we saw yesterday was a message that we're investing heavily in our middle class.
We're not going to be an economy for international global oligarchs.
For the rest of the world, the gravy train is over.
For America, it's an upward shift to put money back into the pockets of the American workers.
And yes, guys, reversing decades of decline might not please Wall Street for a few days.
Totally get that.
But If it doesn't happen now, the consequences will be far, far worse.
There's a point of no return, and we're getting very near that.
We need to fix it now.
We got to start making long-term decisions, not short-term rapid ones to get some whatever person to donate to a politician while they sell our future down the river 50 years from now.
Here's J.D. Vance laying it all out.
Forty years, we've had an economy that rewards people who ship American jobs overseas and raises taxes on American workers, and we're flipping that on its head.
We're going to cut taxes for American workers and for American companies that build here.
We're going to make it harder to ship American jobs overseas.
It's a total shift in the way that we've done economic policy in the United States of America, but it was necessary.
So, yeah, we're going to cut your taxes.
You're going to have more money in your pocket, and that's, of course, going to help you deal with the cost of inflation.
But that's not about offsetting the tariffs.
They work together.
We want to penalize people for shipping our jobs overseas.
We want to reward hardworking Americans.
It's all part of the same policy.
And my father had what I think is frankly a great analogy, writing on Truth Social, quote, Kind of nails it.
No longer are we going to hollow out our heartland.
We're going to actually rebuild it.
And American companies are taking notice.
Just listen to a Ford executive on the good this will do for Americans.
Exactly right.
For the next couple of months, we're going to offer our customers the same deal that our employees get.
And as you say, that's w You come into our store, pricing.
This is kind of t bit of a time out.
We've from our customers and we to be assured that Ford, auto company is going to as our dealers.
We make t We export the most.
And we're in a good position concern and give them a And by the way, this is what my father said he was going to do.
He campaigned on this issue going all the way back to 2015, and was even saying it on Oprah back in the 1980s.
And as Fox Business host Charles Payne asked, Well guys, I don't know about you, but I think it's the latter.
President Trump ran on tariffs.
What we just saw was a president who did what he said he was going to do.
Every single day, the media said Trump is running on tariffs, and people said, we know that.
Trump is running on bringing back manufacturing.
People said, we know that.
And they went and pulled the lever for him.
This is mind-boggling to me that the media is focused on pain, pain, pain.
You know, listen to me.
I heard someone earlier today on another network say that countries send us wine, cheese, and Mercedes, and we give them a piece of paper.
As if, like, we're getting the better end of the bargain.
People sweat.
They work hard.
They sacrifice families.
Families are broken up.
People commit crimes for this piece of paper.
It represents an investment, our life, our energy.
It represents a lot.
So we send it over there.
We get all this plastic crap on this table.
You know how that money comes back to this country?
They buy this building.
They buy our farms.
This system is unsustainable.
It's unsustainable.
We have to figure it out.
So, if the American people can make a short-term You know, hey, that beach ball costs 50 cents more.
I won't buy it.
This is what's really amazing to me.
And unfortunately, I hear it on all our network and that line of networks that somehow we all want a good GDP.
We all want a good economy.
But does it have to come at the expense?
Is it patriotic to always stay in debt?
Is it patriotic to spend my entire paycheck so that the economy is good?
Is it patriotic so my kids can't afford to go to college?
I don't have a retirement.
I don't have a decent home.
Is that patriotic?
Is our patriotism tied to Wall Street?
Or should it be tied to our own personal ability to achieve the American dream?
We need to rethink all of this.
Just look at your screen.
Look at these trade deficits and tariffs that other countries are charging us.
They've been doing this for decades.
This is not something new.
This isn't the response.
This is the ailment that put us where we are.
From China, to the EU, to frankly pretty much every other country, Americans are getting, and have been getting, a raw deal.
Now, you've probably heard the media shriek about protectionism.
You know, the usual nonsense.
But as Palmer Luckey, It's very simple.
If they charge us, we charge them.
It's common sense.
It's sort of a no-brainer.
And remember this.
is also an example of national security.
For our energy sector, for our agriculture sector, and for our manufacturing sector, for too long we've given other nations, even hostile ones, frankly many hostile ones, unfettered access to the American marketplace.
But why?
Are Americans really benefiting from any of that?
For example, we've covered repeatedly the dangers of letting CCP link, that's the Chinese Communist Party, Linked entities buy up our farmland and infiltrate our food supply chains.
And according to a new report, the Trump administration is now ramping up its investigations and scrutiny of this nefarious behavior with companies that are linked to China.
HHS, the FBI, the Treasury Department, and many others are making it clear that business as usual is over.
We're not ceding our sovereignty and our critical supply chains and our infrastructure to the CCP or any third-party countries who are doing their bidding.
But, of course, Democrats are doing everything they can to stand in the way of all this.
The good news is, this week, Wisconsin voters did overwhelmingly vote to make voter ID the law in their state, which, of course, everyone knows is common sense.
The Supreme Court seat didn't go our way, but the voter ID law is massive.
By the way, for the future, guys, we all have to get in the game.
We all have to be involved.
The GOP, that party, needs to create the same machine that gets this Democrat ballot-harvesting nonsense going.
We have to play the same game.
Because if Donald Trump's not in the ticket in the future, we still have to win, or our country will be in just as much jeopardy as it was In 20, in 16, in 2024.
So we have to start playing that same game.
But how is the left responding?
As Senator Mike Lee pointed out, the DNC, along with Democrat leadership in Congress, have filed a lawsuit to allow non-citizens to vote in American elections.
Just so we're clear, they want illegals and non-citizens to vote.
to vote in American elections.
The further away from America that you can be, they probably want you voting in their elections.
They would love our enemies to vote in those elections, too, because they would all vote Democrat, because that would lead to the destruction of American hegemony, sovereignty, and everything else that we stand for.
And as Doge revealed, there are 5 million non-citizens who have Social Security numbers.
5 million, guys.
And thousands.
are registered to vote.
And that's just the ones we know about.
Check this out.
That's a jaw-dropping number.
Where'd all those people come from?
Well, it made my jaw drop, too, when I saw it.
You know, we were in Social Security looking for fraud, waste, and abuse.
And to do that, we actually looked at the enumeration system, the system by which people get numbers in America.
And we found that there were just about five-plus million of them that came to the country as illegals, were giving various forms of parole around the country, and they got through an automatic system, social security numbers, to get into our benefit systems.
And we tracked that through and found that they were on the benefit programs.
And just because we were curious, we then looked to see if they were on the voter rolls.
And we found in a handful of cooperative states that there were thousands of them on the voter rolls and that many of them had voted.
And as we close out the news rundown, we'll play this video.
The White House put out today laying out the $5 trillion in American investment secured under this administration.
Check this out.
President Trump pushing ahead with his America First agenda.
Breaking news, Apple announced it's going to work with Foxconn to build a server factory in Texas by 2026.
The company says it is now planning to invest $500 billion in the U.S. economy.
The CEO of SoftBank pledging to invest $100 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.
This is President Trump delivering on the promise he made to the American people on the campaign trail.
The idea is come to America, Build greatness in America.
Build for America.
American customers.
Project Stargate.
It's a joint venture between SoftBank, Oracle, and OpenAI, and they're going to create a data center that will eventually be expanded to other states.
Shows people are listening to Mr. Trump's pitch to bring new industry to America.
This is the latest pledge from a foreign business leader promising to spend big in the U.S. as a result of Trump's election victory.
Founder of the property development company, Demac Properties, is pledging the money.
President Trump announcing $100 billion investment NVIDIA says it will invest hundreds of billions of dollars over the next four years,
Part of the manufacturing renaissance under President Donald J. Trump.
Furniture maker Pre-Pack are shifting their operations from Canada to North Carolina.
Johnson & Johnson says it will invest more than $55 billion in the U.S.
over the next four years.
Hyundai announced a $20 billion investment.
With your leadership, Mr. President, Hyundai Motor Group is proud to be a stronger partner in America's industrial future.
It is the automobile industry.
Now those plans largely have stopped and they're moving on.
To our country, Honda is building one of the biggest plants.
The trade story is certainly picking up speed here and pushing more countries to make these bigger investments.
It's another example of the Trump effect.
GE Aerospace announcing a nearly $1 billion investment into American manufacturing.
Eli Lilly announcing plans to expand its manufacturing here in the United States.
$27 billion additional spend, bringing our total to more than $50 billion.
The money's rolling in, and this is in the past 60-some-odd days, Charles.
These are deep-pocketed folks who want the money.
To have a relationship and it's just smart moves.
We are CMACGM, one of the leaders.
...
in shipping and logistics around the world.
Today, we are investing $20 billion.
Foreign leaders from around the world, investors from Silicon Valley, to Wall Street, to Main Street, have confidence again in our economy, in our markets, and in President Trump.
The Trump effect this morning, a string of massive wins for American manufacturing.
The numbers speak for themselves.
Wisconsin-based Clarios is putting up $6 billion to expand its American operation.
And what's driving these decisions?
Well, President Trump's aggressive made-in-America policies and his commitment to bringing industry back to American soil.
This is exactly what Trump promised.
America first is back.
USA! USA!
USA! USA!
you Of course, guys, no one's going to talk about it.
$5 trillion in new American investment?
I promise you.
Whatever hysterionics you hear on TV, whatever you see in a short-term blip in the stock market, this is going to make up for it immensely, okay?
And with multiples, you just have to let it take its effect.
That doesn't happen overnight.
Remember, it was like January 20th My father gets sworn in and about seven seconds later, the Democrats are saying, egg prices haven't gone down yet.
Of course they haven't.
This stuff takes time.
Nothing's immediate.
But we live in an instant gratification society that makes that so much harder.
Let it take hold.
Trust it.
And guys, Brett Favre is coming up in just a few moments.
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And now, guys, we go to my interview with NFL legend, awesome patriot, Brett Favre.
you Okay guys, joining me now, NFL legend, Hall of Famer, Brett Favre.
Brett, thanks so much for being here.
I really appreciate it.
Well, thanks for having me, Don.
Appreciate it.
Well, I want to start by asking how we've seen sort of this intersection now between sports and politics.
We're actually having to debate whether boys should be competing in girls sports.
On the flip side, my father's administration is now making health, wellness, and protecting our athletes a priority.
How do you see it?
As someone that's competed at the most elite levels in professional sports, What do you see what's going on here?
Because it's almost hard for me to believe that we're even having these conversations.
No, I'm totally in agreement with you.
To have to even discuss this is beyond me.
But, you know, it's the state of our country right now.
And if we don't stand up and voice our opinion and get out and vote and do the things that we have to do, Then we're going to see more of this.
And so that's why I really got involved.
And I don't want to say too deep in politics, but enough.
You know, I'm not the smartest guy out there, but I know that men should not be dressing in girls' locker rooms or competing against girls.
I mean, it's hugely unfair.
It's not right.
And I have two daughters.
And you know, they're older now, but I would certainly not want a man going into the girl's restroom or locker room or competing against them.
It's totally unfair to the girls and absolutely absurd to even have to talk about it.
Yeah, no, I see it.
So, you know, I have five kids, but like, I always sort of joke, you know, my girls are sort of the athletes I wanted my boys to be.
They're just really good athletes.
But, you know, if I put my, you know, my daughter, either one of them against, you know, the comparably aged, you know, they play golf.
You know, whatever it may be.
I mean, there could be a 60-70 yard difference in an opening drive.
Easily. Easily.
And it's not to diminish the skills of one side, but it's crazy that you could see someone so dedicated, so this.
If I put my oldest son, if he makes contact, he's not as good as my daughter, but if he makes contact, he's not even much of a golfer.
He doesn't even care that much.
But if he makes contact, man, it's going.
And it's a whole different world.
You know, the mothers that go to these soccer matches and they watch, you know, a triple header of T-ball can just watch their daughter's scholarship get stripped away or whatever it may be, or just, you know, lose a state championship every day.
And even they're not willing to speak up.
It's sort of scary.
So I want to applaud you for having the guts to speak up against this stuff because you were one of the original guys to actually start talking about it.
And then you saw the wave of guys doing the, you know, Touchdown celebration, Trump dance thing.
I mean, you know, there does seem to be a pretty big switch in professional sports from from the competitors themselves that they're not just accepting the nonsense anymore as well.
Well, you know this better than anyone, Don.
People are scared.
They were afraid of the backlash.
The hate and look at Elon right now.
You know, Elon is.
I mean, if there was ever an example of.
Ridiculousness for a guy who and the same goes for your dad.
You know, you're taking a pay cut to help this country.
You know, Elon Musk is sleeping on a couch in the White House or in a Tesla outside to make this country better.
And the backlash that he has gotten now, I know it's a small minority in the big picture, but nonetheless, I think that in itself Is what scared a lot of people away.
Like I'm, you know, I'm with you, but I'm not going to say anything.
And that's part of, I was a big part of the problem.
I think now we're starting to see the wave, as you said, of people who are voicing their opinion for the good guys.
Yeah. And that's what it's going to take.
I think that's a good point.
I mean, Elon was a darling of the left until like, Two years ago when he decided to be like pro free speech and then he said, hey, I can make the government more efficient.
I mean, this guy was beloved.
And I think part of you're right.
It's it's not even a majority of the people, but the ones that are vocal get a majority of the attention.
That's sort of the clickbait society in which we live.
But I do sort of feel like there's a purpose.
It's designed to stop others from coming out and doing the same thing.
Uh, you know, others who, you know, if you have, you know, another Elon type that would say, Hey, I'll get into government.
I'll help for a little while.
Like that seems to me like if you attack the threat, it was the threats and the attacks and the lawfare against my father.
Same thing.
We don't want another Trump like person to emerge.
We want them to see what happens to Trump.
It's designed to stop them from ever even getting in the game.
Uh, you know, let, let alone participating.
And, you know, hopefully that's backfired.
But you're right.
I mean, what they're trying to do to Elon is, it's wild that it's happening in America right now.
But all the more reason, guys like you, people, I think, understand that it takes guts to come out.
And I think you've probably earned a lot of respect from a lot of people who were probably your fans anyway beforehand.
Have you have you dealt with a lot of hatred from that, though, by being vocal about it now or not so much?
Yeah, you know, I mean, social media and I really I've been vocal on I don't do a lot of interviews and TV stuff.
I don't cross paths with a lot of people in public because of where I live and the way the people are here.
I mean, they're good people.
They believe what we believe.
But I'm sure if I went to some of these rogue cities, I would catch some friendly banter from some of these people.
You know, I think the key is, again, you know this, your dad knows it, your family knows it, because you've dealt with it.
You have to be steadfast and not waver, because some of these people are evil, pure evil, and will stop at nothing to justify their cause or whatever you want to call it.
And so we have to be steadfast in our beliefs.
And stand by, you know, because a small minority, you know, what I do, I see, you know, someone sends a nasty comment to me.
I just block.
I don't even worry about dealing with it.
Yeah. You know, just block.
I mean, they're not worth my time.
Yeah. That's actually my superpower is that, you know, what people say about me doesn't bother me at all, which allows me to actually function in this world.
Not everyone has that.
If you're affected by all of that, you know, the hate, Uh, you know, that can change your whole outlook.
But, you know, I've been to some of those cities lately that you're talking about.
And honestly, you'd be surprised how much more willing they are to acknowledge that what's going on is actually really good.
So I think I think we've made a big shift.
And a lot of that has to do with, you know, again, guys like you stepping up and just being willing to open the door for others to be vocal.
Elon did that.
David Sachs did that.
Then you saw like all these other people like, OK, they're actually right about this.
This is nuts.
Let's do something about it.
So I just want to applaud you for that.
Thank you.
You're actually getting involved a little bit more now.
I saw you had a new op-ed out with your plan to create the Congressional Fitness Challenge.
I remember this from when I was in elementary school.
Then it sort of went away as they let boys become, I guess, soy blobs or whatever that they did.
But it also really sort of aligns with the Maha movement.
How did all of that come about?
Because so much of what we can do to help our kids is actually preventative, right?
I don't want to give them, you know, drugs to fix a problem afterwards, but like, being healthy can actually stop you from ever doing these things.
And we're just making sure, you know, they're active, exercising, you know, what can you tell us about all that that you're doing?
Well, to be real simple, Abe, we have a mutual friend, Arthur Schwartz, great guy, great friend.
And Abe reached out to him about me getting involved.
And, you know, I don't know a lot.
But I do know about exercise and staying fit.
As you know, I was diagnosed with Parkinson's about a year ago, and I've met with five different specialists, and all five have said the same thing.
Exercise, exercise, exercise.
We found that the best remedy for controlling Parkinson's, it doesn't stop the progression, but it seems to Maybe slow the effects, is exercise.
When you throw in the towel, get on the couch and say, my life's over.
That's when you're in trouble.
And I know there's a lot of people out there that used to exercise or eat right.
And look, I like my chocolate.
I like fried food from time to time.
I like to indulge.
And I'm not saying you can't do that.
I'm just saying, Be more confident.
My dad died at 56 of a massive heart attack.
And I can't tell you how many times not.
And he was an athlete growing up.
He played college baseball.
But, you know, as I think back to my growing up days with my father, if I would have said, Dad, let's go for a job.
I can't even tell you what he would probably say to me.
You know, I get out of your damn mind.
I know someone like that.
You know that.
To me, that temperament, that was really kind of the last generation.
I mean, now it's not uncommon to see 50 and 60 and 70 year old guys out on road bikes, biking.
I mean, we need more people to take the initiative to work out, eat better, be healthy, And set a better example for the next generation.
And we're all to blame.
We're the smartest country in the world.
We have the best technology, but we have to be the dumbest people in the world as well.
You know, what we eat, and you know, how we live.
So that's really what this is about, is maybe changing the culture.
Yeah, listen, I love that.
It's sort of amazing.
You see it with some of the people.
A couple of the big tech billionaires and everything like that, they discover, whether it's testosterone or lifting or maybe a little combination of both, a little testosterone boost and all of a sudden their entire worldview changes.
They become much more conservative.
Right, right.
So maybe not only we're starting a movement towards being You know, in better shape and taking care of yourself, but we're also adding to the movement of.
Coming to our side.
Yeah, listen, I think it's it's pretty clear the studies are there.
The correlation between increased testosterone and political ideology could not be more clear.
So yeah, listen, you get get them all a squat rack.
I think that that'll that'll do a lot.
Yeah, we just little boost there.
We could get rid of this.
Definitely some strange stuff that's going on.
But Brett, you mentioned, you know, you've been very open about your Parkinson's diagnosis.
And I think you've really been a source of hope and encouragement for so many families fighting that same battle.
What can you tell us about, you know, where the journey has taken you?
And, you know, are you optimistic that we can find You know, better treatments and ultimately a cure.
Now that you've done the research, you've spent the time, you have access to the best.
Right. What can you say about it?
Well, first and foremost, your dad, when I spoke in Green Bay at the rally, I had a chance to visit with him backstage.
You know, I've known your dad for quite a while.
I wouldn't consider us great friends, even though I think the world of him.
But he said to me in private, me and my wife, Deanna, we were We were sitting there talking with him and he said, Brett, if it's out there, we're going to find the treatments, the solutions, not only for you, but for everyone.
If at all possible, we're going to provide our country with what they need, not just medications.
And that was reassuring.
There is no cure for Parkinson's right now, but I would say since I retired in 2011, I was kind of on this passionate crusade to solve the concussion puzzle, come up with a solution.
Better helmets help to a certain degree, but look, concussions are going to keep happening.
I bring up concussions because every specialist I talked to, I said, where do you think I got Parkinson's?
And they, each one said, If it's not in the family, then I would say head trauma and or environmental chemicals, exposure to things you eat, you know, cellular waves, whatever.
But they all said, based on what you've done for so long, and the amount of head trauma is monumental, you know, whether it be small or big, would be the root cause of Parkinson's.
And so, Would I change things if I could go back?
Probably not.
It is what it is.
I'm gonna deal with it.
But as I'm trying to, you know, control the progression, if you will, I'm also trying to find a cure or something that would at least stop it in its tracks or the progression.
And so that's, you know, I'm trying to take a negative and make it into a positive.
It sucks to have Parkinson's.
I have to take medicine every four hours.
And, you know, if I'm slow to take my next dose, the rigidity and the shaking and stuff, you know, constantly remind me, hey, it's time for your medicine.
And, you know, it sucks, but it is what it is.
And I'm going to make something positive out of it.
Yeah. I mean, I know we've spoken offline.
You know, I lost my best friend to suicide, but, you know, it was, you know, Pro football player, played high-level college, he was an incredible athlete, but I think what he said to me, I didn't even know anything was going on, and then one day he shot himself.
We spoke eight minutes before it happened, and he was breaking my balls.
It was a regular day, and then someone else was in the driver's seat for that short instance.
He sort of said, Hey, listen, I was, I was fast, but there were guys that were better than me.
So I used what I had as a weapon to make a tackle.
And if I tackled someone and I didn't, wasn't seeing stars, I wasn't hitting hard enough.
And I was like that, you know, you know, they, they sort of blamed that one on CTE.
Uh, but what, what do you see, you know, with football, uh, with that, you know, obviously, you know, there's people complaining about some of the rules changes and it's, you know, and, you know, maybe, maybe rightfully so.
And then there's that intersection of like, Hey, If my kid wanted to play tackle football, I'd say maybe, hey, play soccer or something else that doesn't have the head trauma.
You know, how do you see how all of that relates to football?
Would you let your kids play the same way that you did?
How do you sort of take this cultural phenomenon that is football, like the most American thing there is, but also stop these things from happening?
Because there are a lot of those stories.
Like I said, one's really personal to me.
Obviously, yours Uh, you know, that's probably what it is.
Environmental factors are part of it.
Uh, you know, how do you see that whole combination of things going on right now?
Well, as you know, Don, football's not going away.
It's a multi-billion dollar industry and it's the American way.
Um, that being said, um, knowing that it's not going to go away, what I would like to see the NFL to do, and let me back up.
I got three grandsons, 14, 11, They have never, first of all, they've never played football.
They have never asked me would I help them or teach them how to play.
If they did ask, by all means I would help them.
But I don't think that a 14 or 15 year old kid, definitely younger than that, should play tackle football.
They should play flag football at least until high school.
And that should be across the country.
And that would eliminate some head trauma.
Not all, but you're protecting the kids.
Because an eight-year-old should not be playing tackle football when their head and their skull is not even close to being completely formed.
So that's one way that we can help with this whole concussion deal.
But I would like to see the league commit more to treatments, a solution.
Rule changes granted some of them help some of them are kind of head scratchers.
Yeah but at some point we got it we got to find a you know, you you have a Concussion or the trainer thinks you had a concussion you go to the sideline You know you take something you you Put something through the nose or whatever to stop the inflammation in the brain because that's basically Lack of a better term concussion is inflammation of the brain And so,
much like a sprained ankle, or where you put ice on it, or you take anti-inflammatories, there is nothing for concussions like that.
You know, sit out is the best solution.
So we need something, and there's a lot of money obviously going through the NFL, put some of that money into a treatment that can stop the inflammation in his traps.
Have you been involved in watching those sort of treatments manifest or mature, what those treatments could be, what's working or what could work?
Is there enough on that yet?
Because I'd love to see some of this waste, fraud and abuse that they're discovering.
You know, instead of funding circumcision procedures in Mozambique, maybe put it towards, hey, some of the biggest ailments, you know, that are happening in America.
You know, that'd be sort of nice.
It'd be nice to also watch then the NFL maybe match some of those things if it's a recurring theme, which it seems to be.
I'm totally with you.
I think a lot of the money that has been wasted could be better served for concussion or things in this country that matter.
I think there's a concussion drug that is in clinical trials in Australia that is in like 2B.
Phase 2B, and it's shown a lot of promise.
And, you know, where that goes, who knows?
You know, the process in which that all goes through is pretty detailed, as it should be.
So there's a chance that there'll be something in the near future.
At least, you know, there's hope that it will be.
Other than that, I really don't know of any You know, I'm sure there's people out there trying to, you know, much smarter than me are trying to come up with something, but I don't know of anything that's going to be readily available in the near future.
So I guess I got to ask you this one.
I mean, with the NFL draft coming up in April, you have perhaps the most iconic draft photo of all time.
Back in 1991.
I'll make sure they flash this up on the screen.
But what's the story behind that moment?
How is the draft process different today than it was back then?
Well, first of all, it's different because there were 12 rounds when I played.
Now I think there's seven.
Now it's a big spectacle.
You know, it's like the Super Bowl without the game.
The draft and it's in Green Bay this year.
It's going to be fantastic.
There's not a better place to have it, because that's football Mecca.
Yeah, my draft day photo.
I was in and I shared a bedroom with my two brothers.
And as you can see, if you look at that photo, the posters and sports memorabilia was all over the walls, the ceiling and our dad was a baseball and football coach.
So that's what we did.
That's what we gravitated to.
Um, and so everybody came over, you know, I didn't go to New York.
I wasn't invited to New York for the draft, not that I would have went anyway.
Uh, and we just had a, you know, a big party and, uh, uh, you know, later down the road, I never thought that an NFL player, of course it's Baker Mayfield would do a, a, you know, I thought he did a hell of a job of recreating that draft day photo.
To go through the trouble he went through.
It actually, I thought it was pretty cool.
Not knowing that jorks and the old cordless phone, which our kids have no clue about any of that.
Yeah, not even a little bit.
You know, they're carrying cell phones and we thought the coolest thing was we got rid of a cordless phone.
I mean, you got a cordless phone in the house, but you could walk in the next room and talk because you'd lose them.
Yeah, it's basically a corded, cordless phone.
Yeah, exactly.
But you were actually drafted by the Falcons, right?
But you ended up in Green Bay.
I guess Packers GM Ron Wolfe traded a first-round pick for you.
What sort of confidence did that inspire?
I mean, that's a pretty big deal.
And what do you remember about those first few years in Green Bay?
Because you were there a while.
Yeah, so I'll back up, and I was drafted.
With the 32nd pick by the Falcons.
The pick after was the 33rd pick was the New York Jets.
First, that was their first pick in the draft.
They had traded away their first round pick.
So their first pick in the draft was right after Atlanta's pick.
And they were going to take me.
Ron Wolfe was assistant GM at the time.
I didn't know him.
So Atlanta takes me.
I go to Atlanta and I always tell the story because I think it's it says a lot about my year in Atlanta.
So I was drafted on a Friday.
We had a mini camp the next morning in Atlanta, so I I was I was living at my mom and dad's house down on the Gulf Coast, Mississippi, and there was two flights out of Gulfport, Mississippi to Atlanta, one in the morning, one in the evening.
The morning when I was scheduled to be on, it was delayed a couple hours.
I get to Atlanta.
The guy picks me up.
Uh, one of the scouts, his name was Danny Mach, picks me up.
It's just he and I, we got a long drive to Suwannee, Georgia.
And I'm saying, uh, Danny, man, this, this is not good.
I'm late.
My first practice, he said, Brett, it was out of your control.
This is a mini camp.
It's no big deal.
Coach Glanville will be happy to see you.
So I get there, they're out on a practice field.
I run in, I grab my shorts, a red jersey, my helmet, I run out.
Danny, Wait for me when I walk out there.
Uh. Glanville's is got his back to me and he's got a windbreaker on.
I'll never forget.
He sure had the old coaches Bermuda shorts on.
He had a horn in his back pocket and a cowboy hat.
Danny said, hey coach coach.
So he turns around, he says, and he's got sunglasses on and he says I got your quarterback here and he said Mississippi.
I said yes Sir coach.
He says what school were you from?
And I said, yeah, I'm thinking to myself, hell, he just drafted me.
Surely he knows what school I'm from, you know?
And I say, I'm from Southern Miss coach.
And he says, damn it.
We drafted the wrong guy.
We wanted a guy from Mississippi state.
And I was like, am I supposed to laugh at this or is this a joke?
And it never got better from there.
It only got worse.
So needless to say, at the end of that year, I got traded to Green Bay who, um, Had hired or fired their head coach and GM prior to the end of that season.
And I didn't know this, but Ron Wolf, we played the Jets that year.
I was with Atlanta late in the year in Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta.
And Ron Wolf came down in pregame to watch me throw.
I had no clue.
I didn't know I was on, you know, on alert that that someone was potentially looking to trade for me.
Yeah. He gets the GM job at Green Bay and he said his first order of business after hiring Mike Holmgren as the head coach was to trade for me.
And I was, you know, what's so cool about the whole thing is I'm drafted in the second round.
I don't play my rookie year.
So I do nothing to earn the right to be traded for a first round pick.
So it's really like you're drafted in the second round.
You do nothing.
You end up getting back in the draft, but this time drafted in the first round.
It would have amounted to.
So. The best thing about Atlanta was it got me to Green Bay.
You know, you just never know.
Yeah, no, I mean.
Stranger things have happened, but yeah, that's it's a great one.
And yeah, I mean, obviously go down as a legend in Green Bay.
I know you have some funny stories about learning the nickel defense.
What was that process like?
How are you able to read defenses so well?
I started all four years at Southern Miss, and I don't say that braggingly.
I say that because we were not really a throwing team.
We threw at some, but I was never taught because our offense was not a complicated system.
Most of the time, we ran toss, sweep, option, and if we threw it, it was like a sprint out, you know, something that you didn't have to read.
So no one ever taught me The various defenses, you know, I knew what cover 2 was, I knew what cover 3 was, I knew what man coverage was, but it really, in the offense at Southern Miss, it didn't really matter because you called a play and you ran it, you didn't check out, very rarely did you have audibles and things of that nature.
So when I got to Green Bay in the West Coast offense and Mike Holmgren, who had coached Joe Montana and Steve Young before coaching me, It was what I considered very complicated.
The playbook was like this thick and formations, motions, check with me, audibles.
I mean, it was overwhelming.
So I ended up getting not really thrust into it.
Don McCaskill gets hurt in the second game.
They put me in.
Am I ready?
I would have told you, yeah, but I was far from ready.
So, you know, I'm running around, they're blitzing.
We had it picked up.
I didn't know we had it picked up.
You know, I wasn't waiting around.
I was just running around with like a chicken with his head cut off.
And I would always hear him, you know, I was not one to sit in the meeting rooms and coach would be going over stuff.
I would say, coach, coach, you talk about, you know, they're doing this and that.
I was never one to do that because I was really embarrassed.
I'm a starting quarterback.
How can I be asking questions?
About stuff that I don't know.
So I just played dumb and relied on ability.
But I would hear him talk about nickel and dime all the time.
And it was like, I hear this all the time.
And Ty Dettmer, a good friend of mine, you probably hunted with Ty.
You know, I felt comfortable asking him questions because he would ridicule me too much.
But one day I was like, Ty, I need to ask you a question.
He's like, yeah, what is it?
I said, I keep hearing him talk about nickel and dime.
This is like three or four years in.
Plenty of time to learn what it is.
But Ty's like, are you serious?
I'm like, yeah, I hear him talk about nickel.
They're bringing nickel in or dimes coming in.
And when you see dime coming in, we want to run to that side.
I'm like, I'm just curious.
What the hell are they talking about?
And he said, well, nickel is basically, You take a linebacker out, you put in a DB.
And I said, what's nine?
He said, you take out two linebackers and you put in two DBs.
And I go, that's it.
And he goes, that's it.
I go, who gives a shit?
You know, I'm complicated.
That's how that, that all played out.
But, uh, I'm proof that you don't have to know all the ins and outs of the game.
To be successful.
By the way, I think that's like anything else, whether it's, you know, banking or otherwise.
I mean, these guys talk and they talk in the acronyms, you know, ABC.
And like, if you just say the words, it's like, oh, I know exactly what you're talking about.
But, you know, they sort of make you feel foolish by not necessarily, you know, articulating what the actual stuff is and just, you know, talking in the, you know, banking speak.
So, yeah, I think that's probably pretty common.
And I'll tell you a funny story.
My freshman year at Southern Miss, I'm starting.
I'll never forget.
We're playing Memphis State.
This is 1987.
Now they're Memphis, but then they were Memphis State.
And my quarterback coach was a guy named Jack White.
Great guy.
Now, this kind of tells you what kind of offense, you know, our system.
So we're watching the film of Memphis State and they're blitzing like crazy.
And I'm like, I'm 18 years old, you know, I'm bulletproof, but I'm looking at this and I'm thinking, I mean, this is jailbreak every time they're playing someone.
And so I say, Coach White, what do I do if they blitz, if I see blitz?
And he said, I'll tell you what you do.
You make some shit happen.
And I was like, now that I can deal with.
That's the kind of coaching points I like.
Give me some, you need to check this, check that, move this guy around.
You make some shit happen.
And I said, I can do that.
That's amazing.
So speaking of an interesting coach, as you had mentioned, your dad was a coach in high school.
What was that like for you?
I mean, you know, I can't imagine that always being easy, although it obviously worked out.
I mean, you're an NFL legend.
How did that shape not just your football view, but perhaps your worldview?
Well, it was tough.
He was way tougher on me.
And I got two brothers, as I said earlier, my older brother, Uh, and my younger brother both played quarterback for my dad as well.
What's kind of funny about the whole thing is he threw the ball with my older brother.
He threw the ball with my younger brother, but we threw maybe once or twice a game with me.
So I'm like, what am I, a chopped liver?
Um, but he was so hard on me.
I can't, I can't speak for Scott or Jeff because I was not there, but I don't think he, maybe he saw something in me that he didn't and the other two, and the other two both got scholarships and played in college.
He was a hard ass on me.
And the good thing about that was the more he pushed me, you know, some, some kids will go the opposite direction.
They'll just say shit on it.
I, you know, it ain't worth it.
I'm tired of you riding my ass.
It drove me to, to work harder.
And maybe that's what he saw in me.
If he said, you know, you can't do this.
I'd say, oh yeah, well, I'll show you.
And we butted heads a lot.
I have a dad a little bit like that myself.
Luckily, he didn't fully break me, so I guess it worked out in the end.
But there were times it was probably pretty close to breaking.
Well, there's no doubt your success, my success, are due in large part because of our dads.
There's no question about it.
And like it or not, it's like this younger generation today, and I blame the parents rather than the kids.
They're a softer generation.
We want everything for our kids, you know, that we didn't have, or we always wanted.
And you don't want, you want to protect them from, you know, evil.
And granted, some of that is good, but you got, you got to kind of learn the ropes, the hard way.
You got to let them fail a little bit.
You got to let them fail.
You got to let them get their ass kicked every once in a while.
My dad, if I got in trouble at school, my mom and dad taught at the same, where I went, First through 12th was all right there together.
So I go 12 years without missing a day of school.
And everyone's like, holy crap, really?
It's kind of hard to skip when your mom and dad are driving you to school every day.
Exactly. But, you know, along with that and the discipline that my dad, you know, I can't tell you many times, Don, I would say, Dad, let's throw the ball.
And he says, look, you let me worry about running the plays and calling plays and running this team.
You do what the hell I tell you.
Now, I didn't like that.
But if he were here today, he would say, damn sure worked out pretty good, didn't it?
Yeah, sometimes they get the last word, even if they're not there to enjoy all of it.
But yeah, I can relate a lot.
Speaking of fathers, my father was at the NCAA Wrestling Championships recently in Philadelphia.
Uh, and so much of the greatness of America, I think, can be found in sports like wrestling or football or just something, you know, these, you know, contact aggressive, uh, sports.
Uh, what sort of lessons have you learned from sort of each chapter of your career from high school to then, you know, Southern Miss to, to playing professionally?
Yeah. You know, the, the, the different phases or times from high school To college is a, is a big leap socially, um, fitting in, but I, you know, I think with, with football, it really, you go onto a team.
If you walk into the locker room, first time I'm 17 years old and you were the big dog where you just left and you're just the guy you got tape on your helmet says far, they don't even spell it right.
Your name is not the easiest one they just come up with.
They still get it wrong.
And that's that.
I understand that, you know, and I think to your your question, the good thing about football in the team aspect of it.
So you know, when I came in to Southern Miss at 17 years old, I'm last on the totem pole.
Guys were busting my balls, you know, giving me shit.
And I didn't particularly like it, but it's part of the process.
But then all of a sudden I ended up starting the third game as a 17-year-old.
And they needed me to perform.
And all of a sudden I was one of the guys.
Yeah. And the same can be said as I went on to the next level.
And then to play 20 years, I really had a chance, Don.
Most guys It's over before they want it to be.
And they never had a chance or much time.
You know, the latter part of my career, I was actually, I'd be in a TV timeout, and people sometimes would say, Brett, what are y'all talking about in the huddle when they come back from a commercial break?
And I said, you'd be surprised.
Sometimes it's like, check out that dude over there on the front row.
You know, what a dipshit.
Or it may be.
The cheerleading squad.
Yeah, yeah.
Look at the girl as topless and it's 35 below.
Yeah, they're going to be gone the next day.
They're going to fall off.
You know, crazy stuff.
But oftentimes I was, especially in the latter part of my career, I would sit there and I'd be just thinking about it.
I'm like.
This may be the last year that you know I'm in this this stadium and being able to really just soak in the moment.
It never.
You know, it wasn't like when it was over, like, why didn't I enjoy it?
I had a chance to really, because of those 20 years, you think about grade school, first through 12th, how much first grade to senior year?
Dramatically different.
Now you go 20 years of National Football League as a rookie and a first year guy to, you know, all of a sudden you got kids.
I had a grandson at 40 and it's totally, it looks totally different.
But I was able to really soak it in, and when I look back, I don't go, I wish I would have done this, or I wish I would have done that, or I regret this.
Fortunately for me, I don't have those regrets because of the longevity.
So what helped you with that longevity?
I mean, 20 years in the NFL, I mean, that's almost unheard of.
I mean, it happens.
You know, but I mean, what's the average career spans like three, four years, right?
I think it's three years.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, what let you go five X?
Well, I think there's still I think there's there's two things.
The toughness that my father instilled in me.
I'll never forget.
I was playing little league baseball and I slid in the second and I got I got tagged out.
And I was embarrassed, so I laid there like I was hurt.
And. My dad was not my coach.
He was in the bleachers.
And of course he and my mom didn't come out there.
But after the game, my dad said, if you ever do that again, you'll sit out there until you rot.
Cause I will never come out there and get your ass off the field.
Now, if you're really hurt, that's a different thing.
But I, you know, and I can't tell you how many times after that, I, you know, that moment that them tell me that resonates just as if he just told me.
And I can't tell you how many times on the field, I was, you know, high school, college pros, where I was, yeah, I was dinged up.
And I really, that moment would be right there.
And it's like, get your ass up.
There's a difference between being hurt and injured.
And your team is counting on you.
The one thing I would say more than anything he instilled in me is the team is way more important than one guy.
And that is so true, especially in football.
And so I got my job because the guy in front of me hurt his ankle and came out.
And I come in and he's probably thinking I'll screw it up, which would have been a good assessment.
But I didn't.
And he never got his job back.
Nothing he did or didn't do.
He got injured.
So I can't tell you how many times I said, if you lay down on this field, you're giving someone else a chance to take your job.
And I would say, keep in mind how you got your job.
It can happen to you.
So I would get up off the turf every single time.
That's really, I mean, by the way, it's sort of what happened with, you know, another great, like Tom Brady.
I mean, I was watching, you know, that game when the Patriots were playing, when Drew Bledsoe was taken out.
And I was watching it with a bunch of guys, we were in like hunting camp, and I was watching it with a bunch of guys from Massachusetts, who I'll affectionately refer to as Mass Holes.
And, you know, for them, it was like the end of the world.
I'm like, well, I didn't really watch Patriots football, so it didn't matter.
I didn't think of Drew Bledsoe as this thing.
And this, you know, young kid quarterback comes in, Tom Brady, and, you know, who would have known that what was the most devastating things for these, like, diehard fans was actually, you know, the start of a dynasty.
Yeah. Well, you know, Kurt Warner's another one who's a friend of mine.
He was with me in Green Bay for a year.
Trent Green gets hurt.
They said, our season's over.
He leads them to the Super Bowl exactly like Tom Brady.
And there's two flies affected.
Yeah, I mean, that story about your dad is great.
I have some similar ones with mine like that, that they just You know, you don't know why, but it resonates and it's a driving force that makes you keep going.
So that's pretty amazing.
You had mentioned, sort of, obviously you have such a love for, you know, Wisconsin, you know, the fans over at, you know, for Green Bay.
You know, what was so special about playing at Lambeau Field for you?
Uh, I mean, it's really a sort of a small town with a football team.
Yeah. What is that like in Green Bay?
It's not like New York, right?
There's other things, you know, like that was, that's the epicenter of everything, isn't it?
Yeah. And it was, and I say this all the time.
It was, if you were there to play football, that was what you really wanted to do.
Yeah. Then there's no better place in the world to play football because they started off the evening news.
With the latest on the Packers.
They ended the news with the latest on the Packers.
What happened in the prior 15 minutes?
You know, everyone knew who you were.
I mean, it's a small town, so if you went out and ate, everyone knew about it.
But that was okay.
The people, and I think for me, it was a perfect fit because they're blue collar, I'm blue collar.
And, you know, I didn't play the game for them necessarily.
But I played it like they would have played it had they got a chance to play.
And I can't tell you how many times, more so today than any other time in my life, even though I'm 15 years removed from playing, I get this probably more than anything.
The game is missing the enthusiasm and the excitement that you brought.
It was like, I hear this one often.
Every touchdown pass you threw, and I threw 500 and something, every touchdown pass you threw, Seemed like Christmas morning to you.
It was the greatest thing.
And that's true.
You know, when I first heard that, I was like, you know, I never thought about it, but I was just excited about the last one as I was the first one.
And there doesn't seem to be that joy and excitement much in the league anymore.
But I think fans in general, whether you like me or not, could relate to that.
Yeah. You know,
it was a perfect fit.
Yeah. Do you think that, you know, sort of the money in the game?
Obviously, you did very well for yourself in the game, but it seems like, you know, every five years out, it's like an exponential shift, you know, towards, you know, more money when you look at some of these contracts being signed.
You know, do you think that has a role in sort of the change in the game to you?
Yeah, you know, I do, Don.
I really do.
So what?
What percentage?
I have no idea, but I think...
And the same can be said for college.
NIL, I can't say that I like it.
It is what it is.
But I think you take out of the equation the bonding of the team, the transfer portal, the $500 million contracts.
There's not a lot to strive for.
You know, if you get a guy that has a Tremendous contract like they're giving that, but plays the game like he's 12 years old.
You really found something special.
Yeah, you know, so I do think it's drastically, drastically affected the game today.
Yeah, you know, my daughter is a great athlete.
She's, you know, ranked, I think, in the top 75 in the NIL overall already.
So, you know, as a, you know, she's treating it sort of like a business as a way to monetize that for her future.
I like, I love that for her in a team sport.
It does seem like it's problematic, right?
You draft a great quarterback, you bring him to a college, he learns the game, someone offers him 10x the more money, you leave, you break up that entire dichotomy that the team was formed around this one player, and it does feel like it'll create a lot of chaos.
I get it.
I think the NCAA was definitely taking advantage of the name, image, and likeness of all of these people for a long period of time, but I don't know that what they came up with doesn't create Yeah,
absolutely. And I don't know Nick Saban personally, but his retiring press conference, he said it so clearly.
It used to be about Mentoring and seeing the maturation of, you know, a kid as he goes from a freshman to graduation and on to the pros.
And he said, you know, I would go into these homes and I would talk about what I would do with your son and how I would build him up over the years.
And he said, then it became, how much are you going to pay me coach?
It had nothing to do with all the stuff that led him to be a coach.
It was all about, what am I going to be paid?
Not even, am I going to start?
You know, just what kind of car are you going to give me?
And I just don't see any good in that.
Well, it also feels like it would, it's going to aggregate in, you know, you've forgotten more about this than I'll ever know, but it's also going to aggregate, you know, the top talent exclusively, you know, to the top, you know, five, 10 schools that can actually pay that.
And some of those other schools that could be great football schools, just, you know, Aren't going to even get a shot at that talent to be able to, so you're just going to have this sort of like three dominant teams that have all the, you know, best players.
And again, maybe it doesn't matter if they're not working as a team.
Uh, maybe, maybe that overrules, but you know, that talent per se.
Uh, but yeah, it feels like it's going to cause a lot of problems there as well for some of these smaller programs that have produced incredible players, uh, over the years, but it may not be, you know, it may not be Michigan.
Uh, you know, it may not be, you know, XYZ school.
I'll say it in relation to me.
I started as a true freshman at Southern Miss and it had the NIL been around and I got one off.
That one offer was Southern Miss, so it was an easy choice for me.
And I often think about or I get asked, what do you think you would have done had the NIL been in play then?
Let's just assume we were back in 1987 and I ended up starting and at the end of that year.
My body of work was good enough that Alabama or LSU or Ole Miss, Mississippi State, all the all the regional close teams said we're going to go for this kid.
We're going to give it.
We're offering 500,000 now.
My mom and dad were school teachers.
My mom taught special education in Mississippi for 35 years.
My dad was a driver's head and coach for 35 years.
And as you know, Mississippi's bottom tier and teacher.
Salaries. So that would have been a hard thing to not take.
Correct. But I may not be talking to you today because I may have gone there and just slipped through the cracks, wasting $500,000 like in three years or balling it maybe in a year, because that very easily could happen.
And then I'm scrambling around trying to find a job somewhere, teaching school and coaching high school football.
And what would have been is just a former dream.
Oh, yeah.
Well, there's something to be said about, like, not letting 19-year-olds have unlimited sums of money, because, like, I remember when I was 19, it was like, I think the best thing my parents did, and I'm not saying I wasn't blessed, I'm not saying I wasn't spoiled, but, like, it wasn't like, here's whatever you want, because, like, kids are going to make really bad decisions more often than not.
Yeah, you know, you're absolutely 100% correct.
You can't blame the kid.
A 19 year old kid just buys a, or is given a, you know, a Lamborghini.
You can't blame the kid, but what, what does that teach you now?
In a positive way?
I don't, I don't need to regulate.
I mean, it's the wild, wild west, uh, in CAA right now.
No question.
What role, if any, does faith play in all of this for you when you reflect on your successes and how you're fighting this battle now with Parkinson's and working nonstop for better treatments and a cure?
How hard is that?
Can you find peace sort of in this new calling?
Absolutely. And, you know, growing up, I'm a Catholic kid, my mother and father, we always went to church.
And it was, you know, as a young kid, sometimes it doesn't resonate with you.
I mean, it was like something we had to do as a chore.
And we would, oh, you know, we don't want to go to church.
But then experiences in your life.
Perfect example, your dad.
You know, it's not for me to say he was a Christian or he wasn't a Christian.
That's beside the point.
Your dad almost died.
But in my view, by the grace of God, he was saved.
Now, some people may look at that differently, and that's fine.
I'm with you.
No matter how much faith you have or don't have, you look at that moment and you say, that's not a coincidence.
There's never a better moment to show someone that if there was ever the grace of God stepping in and showing mercy, it's that.
And I think your dad certainly recognizes it.
For me, you know, I can point to several.
I had a very bad pain pill addiction that I was taking 16 Vicodin ES at once every night for years.
I had two seizures, one during the season that no one knew about except the doctors on the team and Mike Holmgren.
Easily could have lost my life, easily could have lost my job.
But yeah, I overcame and I I shouldn't say it that way.
God and I, really God, gave me the ability or the wherewithal or the strength to overcome it.
Because I can't tell you how many times, Don, I tried.
I'm like, I'm done.
I'm done.
I'm flushing them down the toilet.
And then two weeks later, I'd go get another script.
And in two days, I would go through a month's script.
I mean, think about that.
But the best example for me is when my father passed away and I played against Oakland that night, several nights before Christmas.
And I tell people this, you know, there was a lot of talk, will he or won't he play?
I was going to play.
But what I was really concerned about was I wanted to play better.
I wanted to do something that I've never done in the game of football.
Now, that was 2004.
I'd been playing in Green Bay.
Since 92. So I've accumulated some pretty good statistics and games.
Yeah. But I prayed.
It was a Monday night game, so we were out there two days prior, and I just prayed and prayed.
I want to honor my father by doing something I've never done before.
Now, that's a tall task.
We're going in at halftime.
My statistics at halftime were better than any four quarters in history for me.
And I knew as I walked off the field at halftime, God answered my prayers.
And that made me more at peace with the whole deal.
But, you know, I tell people this as well, like becoming a Christian doesn't mean you're going to be perfect.
In fact, you're going to become out harder by evil.
You're going to be attacked and you're going to fail.
No, there's only one perfect person that ever walked this earth, and that was Jesus Christ.
Don't think that you have to be perfect, or you're going to be perfect.
Being a Christian is not going to be cool anymore, because you're going to fail.
You're going to get knocked down.
You've got to get back up and stay with it.
When you recognize that, and then recognize different experiences in your life, you can say, I don't know if that was me.
I can't say that that was me that put up those statistics in two quarters.
That I've never even come close to in any game prior to.
So, you know, I hated that my father passed away, but there's always good that comes out of bad.
There's no question about it.
And that's God's lesson.
Well, that's really important.
I'm really glad you could honor him that way.
I'm sure he was very proud of you before then, but that was a little icing on the cake.
Right, right.
Well, Brett, thank you so much for the time, your incredible story.
Look forward to seeing what you continue to do with the administration as it relates to the health and well-being of our children and physical fitness and everything else that you're doing on Parkinson's Research.
So thank you so much for just staying involved, never giving up, never quitting, and fighting.
That takes a lot of guts and you're doing an awesome job with it.
My family loves your family and we think the world of all of you and where your dad is leading this country and what you're doing.
Thanks for having me on.
You know, we said this last time, we're going to hunt together.
Yeah, we got it.
We got to make that happen.
Yeah, this year was a little bit.
I lost so much of my hunting season because we were focusing on saving the free world with this election.
But next season, I'm in.
So let's get together this fall and make it happen, buddy.
You bet, Don.
Thank you.
Good to see you.
You too.
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