OBL 5/29: Friday Fan Mailbag, Dr. Desaree Festa On The Importance Of Addressing Mental Health
Chris Brown and Maddy Glab went around the NFL to discuss the latest news and notes from around the league. They opened up this week's Friday Fan Mailbag to answer the listeners most pressing questions. Bills head of performance psychology and mental wellness Dr. Desaree Festa joined the show to discuss the importance of addressing and raising awareness of mental health. As part of Mental Health Awareness Month in May, Dr. Festa re-establishes the importance of providing mental wellness and performance services for NFL players and coaches, the services she helps provide here with the Bills, and some tools one can use to better their mental health.
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Speaker 1: Yup boys today he is a feast for the Capitol.
Speaker 2: Fie the cook is in the kitchen, looks.
Speaker 3: Down the sideline.
Speaker 4: He's got kick Kade.
Speaker 3: For a twenty three yard touchdown and it's intercepted.
Speaker 2: Jumping up with the air is bad.
Speaker 4: Certain these these one Bills.
Speaker 3: Live all right, It's Friday.
Speaker 2: We made it to the end of the week.
Speaker 3: Wait a two day week for me. I don't know
Speaker 3: why I'm saying we made it. I didn't make it.
Speaker 3: Everybody else out there working every day made it. Chris Brown,
Speaker 3: Maddy glab with you here on a Friday. Obl Friday
Speaker 3: Fan mail bag is open for any and all questions
Speaker 3: you might have on the bills, the new stadium, oga's
Speaker 3: mini camp, free agency, how the draft picks are doing.
Speaker 3: Whatever you got on your mind, you can fire away
Speaker 3: us at One Bill's Live on Twitter, and Maddie and
Speaker 3: I will do our best to provide you with a
Speaker 3: coherent and thorough answer on any and all questions you
Speaker 3: might have. We have an interesting show today because in
Speaker 3: addition to answering all those questions that you have, it
Speaker 3: is also we are also quickly coming to the end
Speaker 3: of Mental Health Awareness Month, which is May every year,
Speaker 3: and we will have a special guest on with us today.
Speaker 3: It's a doctor Desiree Festa, our team sports psychologist. That's
Speaker 3: not our official title, but I've got it in here.
Speaker 2: She's the head of Performance Psychology and mental Wellness is
Speaker 2: her new title.
Speaker 3: I know, I wasn't going to remember that off the
Speaker 3: top of That's okay.
Speaker 2: I just had to thank you for having interview.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Maddie did an interview which you can find on
Speaker 3: Buffalo bills dot com by the way, with doctor Dez
Speaker 3: as she's commonly called around campus here at one Bill's
Speaker 3: Drive and five players just about the importance of it,
Speaker 3: what it means to them, how they incorporated into their
Speaker 3: day to day here at the facility with Doctor Dez,
Speaker 3: you know, and with teammates. And I thought it was
Speaker 3: a very self effacing interview. I thought guys really kind
Speaker 3: of showed their vulnerable side in sharing how it really
Speaker 3: does help them. And this is really only something that
Speaker 3: has I would say, kind of come on board in
Speaker 3: the league with an in house person probably in the
Speaker 3: last ten years, definitely, because I mean I remember covering
Speaker 3: this team and working for this team in like twenty ten,
Speaker 3: twenty eleven, didn't really have that person on staff as
Speaker 3: a full time employee. There were avenues to seek it out,
Speaker 3: but it wasn't in the building every day. We could
Speaker 3: just go down the hall, knock on the door and say, Doc,
Speaker 3: do you have him in it The fact that that's
Speaker 3: in place, and more importantly, this isn't this hadn't been
Speaker 3: a league wide thing until this year with some of
Speaker 3: the new regulations passed by the league and approved by
Speaker 3: the owners, which we'll get into with doctor Jas when
Speaker 3: she's here. So that's super encouraging to know that because
Speaker 3: in that area specifically, all teams were not created equal,
Speaker 3: so now they will be because they all have to
Speaker 3: have that kind of mental health representation in the building
Speaker 3: and on staff. So that's great to hear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, Doctor Does took that mandate as a
Speaker 2: big win for the league. She was hired by the
Speaker 2: Bills as a full time sports psychologist in twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: so the Bills were definitely ahead of the curve in
Speaker 2: terms of investing into mental health and wellness and what
Speaker 2: it can do for a team. So she feels, i know,
Speaker 2: really blessed to have been here for multiple seasons and
Speaker 2: is really happy now that it's a mandate amongst every
Speaker 2: single NFL team to have full time mental health care
Speaker 2: in the facilities. Now it means different things for different teams,
Speaker 2: So doctor does We'll get into all of that, but
Speaker 2: just having her in the building and around every single
Speaker 2: day of the week during the season, it's seventies a week.
Speaker 2: She is just a part of the team, a part
Speaker 2: of the process. It's not like there's this scary psychologist
Speaker 2: coming into the building who wants to talk to people.
Speaker 2: She's available for people to talk to when they want
Speaker 2: and having her a part of everything just makes her
Speaker 2: seem like another person in the building, another coach, another
Speaker 2: strength trainer, another dietitian. It's just a part of how
Speaker 2: the Bills do business.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and she travels with the team too, so she's
Speaker 3: available for the players on the road as well as
Speaker 3: at home game. So it's nice that the Bills have
Speaker 3: that as a resource for the players and have had
Speaker 3: it for several years. As Maddie match and she'll jo
Speaker 3: is at two thirty, last half hour of the show,
Speaker 3: so you'll want to tune in for that interview. I
Speaker 3: think it's going to be very informative for a lot
Speaker 3: of people. And really kind of give people a peek
Speaker 3: into what goes into that role and how she best
Speaker 3: facilitates the players mental well being. So we look forward
Speaker 3: to that conversation with her right here at two thirty.
Speaker 3: So we'll do that a little bit later on in
Speaker 3: the show. I wanted to mention this because I felt
Speaker 3: like it slipped through the cracks a little bit. We
Speaker 3: saw some at the most recent owners meeting some additional
Speaker 3: items that were passed with respect to the NFL's international schedule.
Speaker 3: They increase the total from nine or from eight to
Speaker 3: ten games counting the Jacksonville home game every year in London.
Speaker 3: They'll have eleven international games in twenty twenty seven, up
Speaker 3: from nine this year, counting the Jacksonville home game every year.
Speaker 3: So they continue to expand the international slate. And the
Speaker 3: one thing that they had done a couple of years
Speaker 3: ago that really didn't get a lot of attention or
Speaker 3: fanfare was the previous stipulation was every NFL team has
Speaker 3: to play at least one international game every eight years.
Speaker 3: A couple of years ago that was reduced to every
Speaker 3: four years, and as we know, the Bill's last international
Speaker 3: game in London against Jacksonville Bills where the home team
Speaker 3: was in twenty twenty three. Twenty twenty seven is year four,
Speaker 3: So the Bills, who have not played an international game
Speaker 3: since that twenty twenty three lost to the Jags at
Speaker 3: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, will be playing an international game somewhere
Speaker 3: next season. And people are already speculating, And I tweeted
Speaker 3: out this morning fans like, well, where's it gonna make.
Speaker 3: I was like, we don't know any of that, And
Speaker 3: people are already combing through the scheduled opponents that we
Speaker 3: do know and all of that, So.
Speaker 2: Wow, you've got a lot of traction on this time.
Speaker 3: I was, quite frankly, pretty surprised. But people are interested
Speaker 3: and want to know. And for those that don't know
Speaker 3: all of the nuts and bolts of this, I think
Speaker 3: it's worth noting that what typically happens is the conference
Speaker 3: that has the extra home game. For example, it's the
Speaker 3: NFC teams that have nine home games eight away games
Speaker 3: on their seventeen game schedule. Several of them are losing
Speaker 3: one of their home games to an international venue. The Rams,
Speaker 3: for example, are hosting in Australia and they're hosting the
Speaker 3: forty nine ers. The forty nine ers are going to
Speaker 3: Mexico City with one of their home games, et cetera,
Speaker 3: et cetera. Well, next year, when the AFC has nine
Speaker 3: home game, nine home games and eight away games, they'll
Speaker 3: be losing or ten teams will be losing a home game,
Speaker 3: and the Bills will be one of them, just by
Speaker 3: virtue of the fact that they haven't played an international
Speaker 3: game in the last three years. So it's fun to
Speaker 3: think about. And I also saw this Maddie and I
Speaker 3: had been completely off the map on this one too.
Speaker 3: But the two new international sites that they are now
Speaker 3: contemplating for future games Italy and Japan. And I'm of
Speaker 3: the belief that if it is Italy, it would be
Speaker 3: a northern city like Milan. First of all, there's more
Speaker 3: financial wealth in the northern part of that country, as
Speaker 3: has been historically the case. And then Japan, I think
Speaker 3: there's a number of options there. I mean, Tokyo is obvious,
Speaker 3: but you know, you've got Osaka and a bunch of
Speaker 3: other Kyoto, a bunch of other big cities that you
Speaker 3: could choose from. I was just kind of jokingly telling
Speaker 3: our control room people before we came over here to
Speaker 3: do the show. I said, if I'm doing that game
Speaker 3: in Japan, I could say on the air, you know,
Speaker 3: welcome to whatever Kyoto stadium, you know where the bills
Speaker 3: are taking on whomever. And I could say, we're broadcasting
Speaker 3: to you live from the future.
Speaker 2: You could say that, say that, like, let's just say
Speaker 2: it's a Sunday game.
Speaker 3: I'd be like, we're broadcasting to you from Monday the future.
Speaker 3: I just that's just wild to me that I'll that
Speaker 3: I could be calling a game on a different day
Speaker 3: than people are listening to it back home, and it's
Speaker 3: not taped, it's live. But I'm I'm on a Monday
Speaker 3: and they're on a Sunday. That would be absolutely bonkers.
Speaker 3: That would be one of those mind blowing kind of.
Speaker 2: I'd be cool with Japan. That would be fun. I'd
Speaker 2: go back there snowboard. My family went on a snowboarding
Speaker 2: trip to Japan last year. Was incredible. We had the
Speaker 2: time of our lives. My sister lives in South Korea,
Speaker 2: so it's an easy.
Speaker 3: Trip for her to make, not so easy for you.
Speaker 2: Not so easy for us. Man. That is a long
Speaker 2: flight to go over to Japan.
Speaker 3: Do you have to go on a sleeper plane for that,
Speaker 3: like the reclinable, we.
Speaker 2: We lined it up so that we would be sleeping
Speaker 2: for part of our time on the plane, and we
Speaker 2: we upgraded with some of our points that we saved
Speaker 2: up over years. Ever, almost half my back seats.
Speaker 3: Otherwise you get there and then you're not right for
Speaker 3: a day and a half two days.
Speaker 2: My parents didn't do that, and they were complaining it.
Speaker 2: Dad was like, I'm doing this next time I go.
Speaker 2: My dad, come on.
Speaker 3: Come on, gotta do it right.
Speaker 2: Listen to the pros.
Speaker 3: I'm the pro I gotta do it right. So that
Speaker 3: I thought that was a note worth mentioning that the Bills.
Speaker 3: One of the Bills home games next year, twenty twenty seven,
Speaker 3: will be played overseas, and we'll just have to find.
Speaker 2: A lot of people in the comments saying Toronto question mark.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't. I don't think that's going to qualify
Speaker 3: for what the league is after anyway. Yeah, I did
Speaker 3: find it interesting that Italy's marketing rights have already been
Speaker 3: handed to the Browns and the Saints. The Bills could
Speaker 3: play the Browns next year if they finish in the
Speaker 3: same position in their respective divisions at the end of
Speaker 3: this year, Like, if the Bills win the East and
Speaker 3: the Browns win the North, they could face them. But
Speaker 3: Cleveland and New Orleans are already the front runners to
Speaker 3: be the host team for the game in Italy if
Speaker 3: and when that comes to pass. May not be next year,
Speaker 3: might be in twenty eight, twenty nine, who knows, but
Speaker 3: people are already trying to work the numbers to try
Speaker 3: to figure it out.
Speaker 2: Do you find it interesting how the NFL kind of
Speaker 2: ties teams to certain countries, those teams who get the
Speaker 2: marketing rights in those countries. Some of it, and I'm
Speaker 2: not privy to what goes on behind the scenes, but
Speaker 2: sometimes when they announce, Okay, we're doing this game in
Speaker 2: this country and these are you know, these are the
Speaker 2: fan bases, or these are the teams that have marketing
Speaker 2: rights in this country, sometimes I'm like, Okay, that makes
Speaker 2: a lot of sense. And then other times I'm like,
Speaker 2: I wonder how this happens.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because a number of teams apply for the marketing
Speaker 3: rights and then they're awarded by the league to just
Speaker 3: one or two teams for a given international city. Like
Speaker 3: look the Saints sping in France this year. I get that,
Speaker 3: you know, New Orleans was settled by the French and
Speaker 3: then the floor delis the whole thing, you know, So
Speaker 3: that makes sense to me. A lot of the West
Speaker 3: Coast teams getting the marketing rights for the Pacific Rim
Speaker 3: countries and Australia. That makes sense just from a proximity standpoint.
Speaker 3: Some of the other ones seem a little haphazard, but
Speaker 3: I don't know who are we to judge or yeah,
Speaker 3: make a better decision anyway. So yeah, so something to
Speaker 3: just keep an eye on. I know, it's kind of
Speaker 3: off in the distance here, and we're all excited about
Speaker 3: new High Mark Stadium and fortunately they didn't lose a
Speaker 3: game in the first season to overseas as. The Bills
Speaker 3: do not have an international game this year, but thought
Speaker 3: it was worth bringing up something to keep an eye
Speaker 3: on for twenty twenty seven. Let's go around the NFL
Speaker 3: and forty nine Ers pass rusher Nick Bosa had his
Speaker 3: first press conference with the media since he tore his
Speaker 3: ACL early last fall. Still isn't participating in OTA practices
Speaker 3: with his teammates as have yet, but he said he's
Speaker 3: making progress believes he could be back for the start
Speaker 3: of training camp or shortly thereafter. Barring any setbacks, Bosa
Speaker 3: played in just three games last season before tearing his
Speaker 3: acl During the press conference, Mattie also asked about the
Speaker 3: plans for his free agent brother Joey Bosa, who as
Speaker 3: we know, played for the Bills last season, and Bosa
Speaker 3: was quoted as saying the following about his brother's football
Speaker 3: playing prospects for twenty twenty six. Quote, he is working
Speaker 3: on his golf game. I don't think he's too concerned
Speaker 3: with football right now.
Speaker 2: That's good. Good for you, Joey Bosa. That's awesome.
Speaker 3: I mean he's made enough money. Yeah, retire ten times over.
Speaker 2: Just got married to this off season as well, went
Speaker 2: on his honeymoon, So enjoying, enjoying life with his missus.
Speaker 3: Yeah, football, I would say for him, if there's an
Speaker 3: opportunity and the money is right, I think he would
Speaker 3: consider it. But I don't think he's got his agent
Speaker 3: ringing phones to land somewhere.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I could be wrong, but I think, you know, he's
Speaker 3: in a place now where he's put his ten eleven
Speaker 3: years in in the league. He's made his money. You know,
Speaker 3: he's always made good money because he was a first
Speaker 3: round pick and then backed that up with production some
Speaker 3: Pro Bowls. He's in a good place. I'm sure he'd
Speaker 3: like to have a Super Bowl ring, but I think
Speaker 3: he's kind of come around to the fact that if
Speaker 3: football's over for me, I'm good with it. So it's
Speaker 3: interesting to know that perspective from his younger brother Nick.
Speaker 3: Wide receiver Puka Nakua said he's grateful for the support
Speaker 3: from the Los Angeles RAMS organization after the civil lawsuit
Speaker 3: was filed against him back in March. Spoke for the
Speaker 3: first time since the lawsuit was filed by a woman
Speaker 3: in Los Angeles, alleging an anti Semitic statement by Nicouah
Speaker 3: was made, along with some other stuff assault and battery, negligence,
Speaker 3: not stuff you really like to see people getting accused of.
Speaker 3: Nikoua declined to address specifics about the lawsuit. He said
Speaker 3: he's just in an ongoing legal battle. His attorney said
Speaker 3: that they vehemently deny the charges in the strongest possible terms,
Speaker 3: but those are serious charges and they have to be
Speaker 3: taken seriously. It's just he kind of went off the
Speaker 3: rails last year off the field. There was a lot
Speaker 3: of stuff on social media with him, and it was
Speaker 3: not going in the right direction, to the point where
Speaker 3: some people were saying, I'm not surprised this happened because
Speaker 3: he was in a rehab program also for alcoholism. So
Speaker 3: it's been a tumultuous off season for him, to say
Speaker 3: the least. And you know, we're talking about a premier
Speaker 3: receiver in the league. He's got to get his stuff right. Yes,
Speaker 3: but it doesn't take much off the field to detract
Speaker 3: from your abilities on the field, knowing how competitive this
Speaker 3: league is. So hopefully for his sake, he's got himself
Speaker 3: on the right track again, because none of that is good,
Speaker 3: none of it. CJ. Stroud feels he has done his
Speaker 3: part to earn a contract extension, says he hasn't focused
Speaker 3: on his negotiations with the Texans. The Pro Bowl quarterback
Speaker 3: had his fifty year option picked up for twenty twenty
Speaker 3: seven back in April, but he's eligible for a contract extension.
Speaker 3: So this is that tricky area because the last year
Speaker 3: plus for Stroud has not been great. No, he's kind
Speaker 3: of regressed as a quarterback. They've gone through multiple coordinators
Speaker 3: to try to help fix him, so to speak. Did
Speaker 3: not look impressive in the playoffs last January, and now
Speaker 3: it's like the Texans are, like, well, after year one,
Speaker 3: we thought we had our franchise quarterback. Now it's not
Speaker 3: as certain, And it really wouldn't shock me if they
Speaker 3: unless he blows it up this year and gets back
Speaker 3: to the quarterback they thought he was, it wouldn't shock
Speaker 3: me if they just play out the fifty year option
Speaker 3: with him and try to buy as much time as
Speaker 3: they can to get as much information as they can,
Speaker 3: because you're talking about a multi hundred million dollar decision
Speaker 3: here on an extension.
Speaker 2: And you don't want to get that wrong. You want
Speaker 2: to know exactly what you're getting in a quarterback if
Speaker 2: you're going to extend him to a deal like that.
Speaker 2: I think he still has things to prove. I know,
Speaker 2: you know. CJ. Stroud feels like he's done his part
Speaker 2: to earn a contract extension, says he's not focused on
Speaker 2: negotiations right now with the Texans. But I think from
Speaker 2: the Texans part of it all, you need to see
Speaker 2: another season out of him and see what's going to
Speaker 2: happen and see what those numbers would be. Because a
Speaker 2: down year again, maybe the deal maybe they still want
Speaker 2: to keep them, but maybe the deal is less than
Speaker 2: than CJ. Stroud would want it to be the team
Speaker 2: is carried by their defense. It was that way last season.
Speaker 2: I expect it to be that way this season. Yes,
Speaker 2: they dealt with wide receiver injuries last year, which kind
Speaker 2: of nag was nagging to them throughout the season. But
Speaker 2: this is a team that is scary because of their defense,
Speaker 2: not because of the guy at quarterback.
Speaker 3: And that is a quarterback that the Bills. We'll see
Speaker 3: in Week one this fall. Bills open up at Houston
Speaker 3: and will face CJ. Stroud and the Texans week one,
Speaker 3: and I would say if there's one advantage for the
Speaker 3: Bills going into that game, it's their brand new defensive
Speaker 3: scheme which will be virtually site unseen until that game.
Speaker 3: So how much can they cross up c J. Stroud
Speaker 3: and make him look like an ordinary person? That'll be
Speaker 3: one of the main storylines for Buffalo's Week one matchup.
Speaker 3: In the regular season skipped over this, but the lone
Speaker 3: notable Kansas City chief starter who missed OTA's this week
Speaker 3: was obviously Rashi Rice, Chiefs number one receiver. It's because
Speaker 3: he's been in jail in Dallas since last week order
Speaker 3: to serve thirty days in jail last week after testing
Speaker 3: positive for marijuana in violation of the terms of his
Speaker 3: probation for his role in the crash two years ago
Speaker 3: that let multiple people injured on a Dallas highway. He's
Speaker 3: going to be released from custody June sixteenth, so that
Speaker 3: means he misses the rest of chiefs OTAs and their
Speaker 3: mandatory mini camp which runs June ninth to the eleventh.
Speaker 3: And on top of that, Maddie he had a knee
Speaker 3: scope right before he went into jail and have let's
Speaker 3: just say, medical professionals or athletic trainers helping him with
Speaker 3: that rehabilitation. No, not, He's doing it by himself in
Speaker 3: a jail.
Speaker 2: Cell, figuring out how to do it by yourself. You're
Speaker 2: not in the Uh, you're not in the facilities. Do
Speaker 2: you want to be in? Let me say. And the
Speaker 2: injury report of Rishie Rice has knee comma jail, which
Speaker 2: you don't see often in terms of players who are rehabbing.
Speaker 2: It's a new one from injury.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a new one for sure. Is jail an injury?
Speaker 3: I guess it could be.
Speaker 2: I think we remember this past year, or maybe it
Speaker 2: was two years ago. I don't I'm maybe it was
Speaker 2: with Russeul Douglas. He came two years ago. Okay, so
Speaker 2: it was with Rasoul Douglas. He came to the Bills
Speaker 2: and I think had a little bit of an injury
Speaker 2: that he was working on and didn't participate in maybe
Speaker 2: the first practice, and the injury report listed the injury
Speaker 2: and then it said Kama just got here. And I
Speaker 2: chuckled at that one, that that was a good one.
Speaker 3: Just got here. It's better than jail. But with that,
Speaker 3: that is around the NFL. As we mentioned, it's an
Speaker 3: obl Friday fan mail bag. Any question you've got that's
Speaker 3: on your mind about the Bills or anything ancillary or
Speaker 3: adjacent to the Bills, feel free to fire it off
Speaker 3: at us at one Bills Live on Twitter and we'll
Speaker 3: get to those questions in the mail bag in just
Speaker 3: a little bit. I will say that I haven't really
Speaker 3: seen much of OTAs because I've either been out of
Speaker 3: town or on the show when practice is going on.
Speaker 3: But I was interested to hear Jim Lennard's comments the
Speaker 3: other day, Maddie, especially when he talked about the hybrid
Speaker 3: nature of this scheme, particularly when they get into obvious
Speaker 3: passing downs because he mentioned it that, yes, they're going
Speaker 3: to be an odd man front, you know, a three
Speaker 3: four with two edge rushers at outside linebacker, but on
Speaker 3: obvious passing downs, it sounds like they might slide back
Speaker 3: into a four down look four men down on the line,
Speaker 3: I mean, and that intrigues me. And he also talked
Speaker 3: about how they try to flood the player's brains with
Speaker 3: as much information to see how much they could handle,
Speaker 3: which usually is a clue to the coordinator like how
Speaker 3: complex can I make this system? Because you could have
Speaker 3: the best system in the world, But if it's super
Speaker 3: complex and your players can't grasp it and they can't
Speaker 3: play fast, well, it's not going to be effective. So
Speaker 3: hearing that he force fed them kind of the old
Speaker 3: drinking out of a fire hose in an and put
Speaker 3: it on them to grasp it, and by all accounts
Speaker 3: it sounded like they were able to process most of it,
Speaker 3: if not all of it. I'm kind of excited to
Speaker 3: see just how varied and multiple the system is going
Speaker 3: to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was. I really enjoyed his press conference because
Speaker 2: the first press conference we had with Jim Leonard, he
Speaker 2: was like fresh into Buffalo. Maybe his first or second
Speaker 2: day on the job, really hadn't watched much tape on
Speaker 2: our current players, so really couldn't speak to how our
Speaker 2: players fit the defense and really what the defense would entail.
Speaker 2: So you figured this press conference was going to be
Speaker 2: full of information, but you're also wondering. He's a coordinator,
Speaker 2: he doesn't have to discuss every single thing. And I
Speaker 2: think he did a great job of really explaining what
Speaker 2: they want to do, explaining how certain players will fit
Speaker 2: within the system, what their roles will be. He kind
Speaker 2: of took us to football school too, and explaining a
Speaker 2: player like Landon Jackson, how he will be a four
Speaker 2: E and how that is looked at within the scope
Speaker 2: of defensive end, defensive tackle, outside linebacker, and really told us,
Speaker 2: you know, if you're thinking about defensive ends, those are
Speaker 2: really our outside linebackers in this scheme, which is very
Speaker 2: informational for fans and for people kind of learning what
Speaker 2: is this going to be. Another takeaway that I had
Speaker 2: from his press conference was him saying we may not
Speaker 2: get one hundred percent there in year one, so he's
Speaker 2: not looking at this new three four defense as something
Speaker 2: that needs to be one hundred percent accomplished in his
Speaker 2: first year's defensive coordinator. I think he's very understanding of
Speaker 2: let's see what we have in our players, Let's see
Speaker 2: how they fit when I move them around to different places,
Speaker 2: Let's see what kind of sticks, and we're going to
Speaker 2: go with that, and we're going to build as we
Speaker 2: go throughout the season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's going to be a feeling out process, and
Speaker 3: that's sometimes times can lead to some hard lessons in
Speaker 3: games that count. So I think that's the other part
Speaker 3: of this equation here that fans have to wrap their
Speaker 3: head around, and that is this is not going to
Speaker 3: look like a perfect defense in week one, two, three, four,
Speaker 3: maybe longer. And getting to a place where there's a
Speaker 3: base level of performance that the coordinators and the players
Speaker 3: feel they can hang their hat on will be important
Speaker 3: and then you build from there. But they have to
Speaker 3: get there first. And they can have all the grandiose
Speaker 3: plans in the world that they want, but what is
Speaker 3: it going to take to reach at least that floor
Speaker 3: so to speak, of competent defensive play that's going to
Speaker 3: help them win football games is probably the most critical
Speaker 3: thing and peace that has to fall into place if
Speaker 3: this team is going to realize its full potential in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: I think one thing that we're not thinking about or
Speaker 2: discussing as much that I think could play a pretty
Speaker 2: big impact on what the season is because of this
Speaker 2: offseason and the shift that the Bills are making on
Speaker 2: defense moving from four three to three four, is how
Speaker 2: it's going to affect our quarterback Josh Allen, who's going
Speaker 2: into his ninth NFL season. It's about finding ways to
Speaker 2: level up in your game once you become a veteran
Speaker 2: in the league. Josh Allen is one of the best
Speaker 2: quarterbacks in the game. I think one way Allan will
Speaker 2: level up this offseason is playing against a completely different
Speaker 2: defense every single day during OTA's and mandatory mini camp.
Speaker 2: I think that's going to help Alan diagnose some different things,
Speaker 2: continue to understand NFL defenses as random things are being
Speaker 2: thrown at him that he hasn't repped during practices since
Speaker 2: becoming a Buffalo Bill.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I And traditionally, you know, the three to four
Speaker 3: front offers more options two defensive coordinators in terms of
Speaker 3: the different looks you can provide an opposing quarterback. So
Speaker 3: just from a base standpoint, it offers the play caller
Speaker 3: more options to confuse the opposing signal caller. Gotta take
Speaker 3: a break here. When we come back, we will crack
Speaker 3: open thebl Friday fan mailback, see what questions you have
Speaker 3: there for us, and get those answered when we return
Speaker 3: here on a Friday edition at One Bill's Live. All
Speaker 3: right back here on One Bill's Live. From the first round,
Speaker 3: Daddy Glad, I will go with you. It's an OBL
Speaker 3: Friday fan mail day, open for any and all of
Speaker 3: your questions, and we're going to actually get to that
Speaker 3: right now. And I was woefully unprepared. I did not
Speaker 3: have my email open yet too see those questions. But
Speaker 3: the first one comes from Glenn who says, will there
Speaker 3: be regrets over Kincaid not getting surgery? What have been
Speaker 3: the doctor's opinions outside the organization that may have popped
Speaker 3: up around this topic. I know he's done interviews to
Speaker 3: address this, actually, I think he had one just this week.
Speaker 3: You can speak to that. Mattie Steve and I actually
Speaker 3: had a one on one conversation with him about it,
Speaker 3: and he basically told us that he got three separate
Speaker 3: opinions from doctors outside the facility, including some of the
Speaker 3: most renowned orthopedists in the country, and all of them said,
Speaker 3: all of them that surgery would not be necessary. I
Speaker 3: think a lot of people are of the belief that
Speaker 3: if there's something that's compromised in your body, it needs
Speaker 3: to be repaired through surgery and with pcls, as Steve
Speaker 3: has even stated, because he had a PCL knee injury
Speaker 3: as a player, never got it fixed and was fine.
Speaker 3: I think what gives fans pause is the fact that
Speaker 3: each of the last two years it has cropped up
Speaker 3: as an issue and he has missed games or has
Speaker 3: had to be paced through the practice week to be
Speaker 3: as good as he can be for games. And so
Speaker 3: people say, wow, if that's the case, well I was
Speaker 3: just going go in and fix it, you know. But
Speaker 3: when you have three specialists who all unilaterally agree that
Speaker 3: surgery is not necessary and just strengthening the muscles around
Speaker 3: that area will improve his condition, I think we have
Speaker 3: to trust the opinions of multiple doctors specialists in this area,
Speaker 3: because clearly Dalton did, and that's where we are.
Speaker 2: And sometimes when you go through these knee issues and
Speaker 2: you do these cleanups, they're taking parts out which can
Speaker 2: cause problems later in life. And if you have three
Speaker 2: specialists who tell you are okay, we recommend that you
Speaker 2: do not get surgery. Dalton was also asked in the
Speaker 2: press conference, like, if they would have said get surgery,
Speaker 2: would you have gotten surgery, and Kincaid said, yes, if
Speaker 2: they said get surgery, I would have gotten surgery. This
Speaker 2: is not because I'm just like anti getting surgery and
Speaker 2: I don't want to go under the knife. I would
Speaker 2: have if it would have been recommended to me that way,
Speaker 2: but it was not. You look at Don Kinkaid this offseason.
Speaker 2: Last offseason, it was about getting stronger. Dude is even
Speaker 2: stronger this off season. He visibly looks stronger and bigger.
Speaker 2: He says he's feeling the best he's felt yet in
Speaker 2: an off season. I believe that based on the way
Speaker 2: that he looks and based on the way that he's
Speaker 2: been able to participate within things. So Joe Brady also
Speaker 2: talked about the fact that Don Kinkaid was an anchor
Speaker 2: during their Tug of War competition that they did and
Speaker 2: joked around saying, you know, if you can do Tug
Speaker 2: a War and be an anchor in Tug a War
Speaker 2: with a bunch of other NFL players, your knee is
Speaker 2: probably feeling pretty good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and let's not forget when he was less than
Speaker 3: one hundred percent last year. He was pretty darn good
Speaker 3: in the playoffs. I mean he had a touchdown on
Speaker 3: each of the playoff games, one that put them ahead
Speaker 3: against Jacksonville. Actually the one he scored against Denver put
Speaker 3: them ahead also twenty four to twenty three. They erased
Speaker 3: a thirteen point a half time deficit, So he was
Speaker 3: instrumental in their success in the playoffs as well when
Speaker 3: he wasn't one hundred percent. So he feels great now,
Speaker 3: and the belief is he's bigger, stronger, maybe even a
Speaker 3: little faster. The arrow is definitely pointing up on Dalon
Speaker 3: King Kate. But I get the question. I understand the
Speaker 3: concern based on how the last two years went. So
Speaker 3: just cross your fingers and toes that all goes well
Speaker 3: in that department. Scott asks Josh looks to improve upon
Speaker 3: something every year, Chris, is there anything you would like
Speaker 3: to improve upon from a broadcast perspective this year? I
Speaker 3: think you do great passing judgment. Will there be a
Speaker 3: video showing the construction of the new stadium from start
Speaker 3: to end? I think they do have a time lapse video, right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: they've been leaving that up because we've seen excerpts of
Speaker 3: that already, Like I remember seeing the time lapse laying
Speaker 3: the turf down video. So I would imagine they have
Speaker 3: some video somewhere that's going to go soup to nuts
Speaker 3: on the construction right up until presumably kick off of
Speaker 3: the Thursday night game when the lights come on. To me,
Speaker 3: that would be a good way to finish it. Far
Speaker 3: be it for me to be the producer have said video,
Speaker 3: but that would be something I would suggest. Yeah, and yes,
Speaker 3: I am always looking to improve the broadcast to you know,
Speaker 3: provide the best possible product we can. I do like
Speaker 3: voice control stuff. I've done that with a vocal coach.
Speaker 3: I've done it on my own with different techniques, just
Speaker 3: to try to master the proper tonality. And in all
Speaker 3: situations it's easier said than done. When you get excited
Speaker 3: about something that's happening on the field, I believe it.
Speaker 3: But that's one thing I'm working on. And then I
Speaker 3: usually have a short list of two or three main
Speaker 3: things that, based on what I listened to last year,
Speaker 3: I want to do better than next year, and so
Speaker 3: hopefully those things add up with each passing year, and
Speaker 3: it gets better and better and better and better because
Speaker 3: you don't just want to idly sit by in anything
Speaker 3: that you do and just say that's good enough.
Speaker 2: No, we're good not at all. So and you watch
Speaker 2: it all. As broadcasters, we watch everything that we do,
Speaker 2: and that's one way that you get better. You don't
Speaker 2: just do a show and never touch it. You watch
Speaker 2: a lot of the things that you do, and that's
Speaker 2: how you hope to get better in your job. I
Speaker 2: have a broadcast coach who kicks my butt every single
Speaker 2: week when I see her. She makes it tough on me.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Uh. Connor asks non football related question today, If
Speaker 3: you could only watch one movie for the rest of
Speaker 3: your life, what would it be for me? It's Fool's Gold,
Speaker 3: a very underrated movie in my opinion, Go bills. That
Speaker 3: is an interesting choice. Fools Gold.
Speaker 2: Isn't that the trying to think of the movie poster?
Speaker 3: That's uh? Is that Goldie Hans's daughter help us out,
Speaker 3: harkey or we got our movie?
Speaker 2: But okay, this is what I thought it was. It's uh, Mattik,
Speaker 2: Matthew Conaughey, Kate Hudson, That's.
Speaker 3: What I was thinking of. I knew it was Goldie
Speaker 3: Hawns's daughter. Yeah, he's like some hopeless treasure seeker right
Speaker 3: in there. At the end he finally finds it. He's
Speaker 3: basically sacrificed every other part of his life and whatever.
Speaker 3: It was an interesting movie. I liked it. I did
Speaker 3: see that. I remember seeing that. I don't think it's
Speaker 3: one I'm watching the rest of my life for every day.
Speaker 3: This is that's not easy.
Speaker 2: Do you have a favorite movie that would like?
Speaker 3: I mean, I really like you know, I would have
Speaker 3: Good Fellows in my top three, But I don't know
Speaker 3: if that's something I want to watch every day.
Speaker 2: Could you pick a show? Maybe a show is easier
Speaker 2: to pick because it's different episode.
Speaker 3: I want to try to honor Connor's request here, what
Speaker 3: is a movie I would watch every day? Shosh Ank
Speaker 3: Redemption is a good one. I'm big on movies that
Speaker 3: are about the power of the human spirit, and that's
Speaker 3: what That's what shosh Ank Redemption is. So I think
Speaker 3: that's a movie that I could probably watch every you've
Speaker 3: never seen it. I don't think, Oh, you've got to
Speaker 3: you and Steve gotta dial that one up. You got
Speaker 3: to dial.
Speaker 2: That one.
Speaker 3: Is a that's a must That is a must see
Speaker 3: because again, and it's not the only movie that has
Speaker 3: portrayed that, but they do an excellent job of just
Speaker 3: kind of laying out the power of the human spirit,
Speaker 3: and that's something that everybody can relate to and get behind.
Speaker 3: So I would say that's probably what I would pick,
Speaker 3: just off the top of my head. I'm probably gonna
Speaker 3: think of another one that I would do, because there
Speaker 3: are times where I like some of the ridiculous, stupid,
Speaker 3: funny movies like but I but I think, what's watching
Speaker 3: it every day and knowing that the next Tali line
Speaker 3: is coming, It would take away from it a little bit.
Speaker 2: I would pick Sam sat Oh the Sandlot.
Speaker 3: That's a good take everybody back to their.
Speaker 2: Childhood, nostalgic and like, who doesn't like a Well maybe
Speaker 2: Steve Tasker wouldn't like a baseball movie because he hates baseball.
Speaker 3: So I don't know if even he could hate that movie.
Speaker 2: It's a great movie. It's wholesome, it's about a team,
Speaker 2: it's about sports, like check all the boxes for me.
Speaker 3: Yep, Yeah, that's a good pick. I like that one. Uh,
Speaker 3: Sarah says, question for you both. Chris what's the most
Speaker 3: challenging parts of being played by play caller with games Mattie,
Speaker 3: what's the hardest part about being a sideline reporter? Because
Speaker 3: Maddy does that during the preseason broadcasts that the Bill's
Speaker 3: air in August, why don't you start on that. What
Speaker 3: do you think is the toughest part.
Speaker 2: I think the toughest part is making sure you're seeing
Speaker 2: everything that's going on. It's really hard to multitask on
Speaker 2: the sidelines, but a lot of the times you have
Speaker 2: to do that because there could be a player going
Speaker 2: into the injury tent while a touchdown is happening, or
Speaker 2: while big play is happening, So you kind of have
Speaker 2: to have eyes in the back of your head, and
Speaker 2: you have to be sometimes communicating with multiple people at
Speaker 2: the same time, with your producer about what you want
Speaker 2: to say with your pr representative about what this injury
Speaker 2: is that you're allowed to kind of tell people over
Speaker 2: the broadcast, and then actually what is happening in game,
Speaker 2: So you kind of you have to be juggling multiple
Speaker 2: things sometimes, and sometimes you go through a game where
Speaker 2: there are just injuries after injuries after injuries, and you
Speaker 2: feel like you spend half the game, running back over
Speaker 2: to the tent to see who's going into the what
Speaker 2: they're doing on the sideline, and also kind of watch
Speaker 2: what's happening in game to see if you can add
Speaker 2: on anything that's happening in the game. That's the hardest part.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say for me, it's maintaining consistent vocal
Speaker 3: tonality because different things in different games elicit different emotions
Speaker 3: and you have to try to keep those emotions in
Speaker 3: check so they don't compromise your vocal tonality. And as
Speaker 3: I've said, I'm an excitable person, so that's easier said
Speaker 3: than done. And then the second thing I would say
Speaker 3: is communication also, but for me, I can't talk to
Speaker 3: anybody because I'm broadcasting the game, so all our communication
Speaker 3: has to be non verbal, and that can be challenging.
Speaker 3: While you're you know, you're calling a game, your producers
Speaker 3: over your shoulder, you're handing you a card, You've got
Speaker 3: your spotter trying to tell you, like this guy got
Speaker 3: pass pressure. So we have hand signals for things, and
Speaker 3: you know the fumble recovery. So we have all these
Speaker 3: nonverbal cues, and sometimes they'll be something that comes up
Speaker 3: that we don't have a hand signal for, like it's
Speaker 3: just inevitable, Like once every two games something will come
Speaker 3: up that we don't have a hand signal for, and
Speaker 3: they're trying to mouth it to me. Well, I'm trying
Speaker 3: to call a game, and it's important. I know it's important,
Speaker 3: but I don't know what the hell they're saying, and
Speaker 3: I got to figure it out. It's like a game
Speaker 3: of charades. It's like a game of charades while you're calling. Again,
Speaker 3: it's insanity. So I would like to say we have
Speaker 3: a full blown dictionary, nonverbal of everything, but it's impossible.
Speaker 2: And then what's your favorite one that gets used that's
Speaker 2: kind of funny or interesting or people.
Speaker 3: Think that this and I'm making this motion, like a
Speaker 3: grabbing motion with all five fingers. That's for fumble recovery.
Speaker 3: That's our signal for fumble recovery. And people think that
Speaker 3: it looks silly because it don't squeeze the sharman. I
Speaker 3: don't know what they're saying they're thinking, but they think
Speaker 3: that's funny for fumble recovery. That's probably the one that
Speaker 3: we use most often. And then I'm trying to think
Speaker 3: of some of the other ones that come up. A lot,
Speaker 3: but usually we use like a forearm shiver motion for
Speaker 3: pass pressure like that, you know, this guy got the pressure,
Speaker 3: didn't get the sack. So yeah, we have all of
Speaker 3: these nonverbal cues you know that we have to give
Speaker 3: to one another so we don't either step on each
Speaker 3: other or stay on the air too long because we
Speaker 3: should have gone to break five seconds ago. So that's
Speaker 3: that's the juggling that we have to do without using
Speaker 3: our voices. So yeah, we're all like charades people. It's
Speaker 3: kind of funny, like people that don't come into the
Speaker 3: booth very often, Like they come in there and they're like,
Speaker 3: there's a lot going on in there.
Speaker 2: You guys are weird? What's happening exactly?
Speaker 3: So that's the kind of the stuff that we go through.
Speaker 3: We're up against the clock, got to take a break.
Speaker 3: We'll get to more of the questions in the OBL
Speaker 3: Friday fan mail bag when we return here on one
Speaker 3: Bill's Live. All right back here on one BILS Live
Speaker 3: on a Friday. You're at the Bills.
Speaker 4: Store on Avid Road in the neighborhood.
Speaker 3: Gets in retail shopping to do gear up for the
Speaker 3: upcoming season. We'll be here and if you have a question,
Speaker 3: you can hop on our live mic and ask it
Speaker 3: here live on the show. But we'll get back to
Speaker 3: the mailbag now with some of the questions that are
Speaker 3: already in the queue, and say when asks from what
Speaker 3: you've seen at OTA's which drafted rookie do you think
Speaker 3: will have the biggest impact this season? I will let
Speaker 3: Maddie take that since she has seen far more than
Speaker 3: I have.
Speaker 2: I've seen this one practice so far and there wasn't
Speaker 2: too much action from the rookies in that one practice.
Speaker 2: But in the second practice, Davidson Igbinosen had an interception,
Speaker 2: So I think he has made the biggest impact so
Speaker 2: far in terms of making plays. Will he have the
Speaker 2: biggest impact this season? That's a good question. I know
Speaker 2: igb was drafted for depth, and general manager Brandon Bean
Speaker 2: was very open about that when they made that pick.
Speaker 2: Thought that cornerback depth was one of their largest areas
Speaker 2: of need because of how we've seen starting cornerbacks deal
Speaker 2: with injuries, go out of games, in big time games
Speaker 2: and in big time moments, and how that depth has
Speaker 2: been targeted right away and has resulted in the Bills
Speaker 2: giving up points at times. So they thought, let's draft
Speaker 2: somebody who can help with that depth, and that's Davison Igmunosen.
Speaker 2: What role will he play? I know they want to
Speaker 2: be multiple on defense, that includes on the back end
Speaker 2: of their defense, especially with Jim Leonard being a former
Speaker 2: defensive back himself a safety. I'm really excited to see
Speaker 2: kind of how they mix and match and use these
Speaker 2: different players in different packages.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think what the fans should know is
Speaker 3: the media only has access to a single OTA practice
Speaker 3: a week, so they have nine OTA practices. The media
Speaker 3: and Maddie as our senior team reporter, only see three
Speaker 3: of those practices. Those are the only ones open to
Speaker 3: the media, so the other six are sight unseen. So
Speaker 3: it's hard to make a determination in three non padded
Speaker 3: helmets only practices to get a feel for it. And
Speaker 3: I will say more often than not, in those kinds
Speaker 3: of practices, the players that tend to stand out the
Speaker 3: most are the receivers in the defensive backs because they're
Speaker 3: the ones that are around the ball the most. Because
Speaker 3: you're really not working full speed run game when your
Speaker 3: alignment don't have pads on, so you have to be
Speaker 3: mindful of that as well. It's really hard to make
Speaker 3: a lot of confident judgments and conclusions in the spring
Speaker 3: before the pads are on. So you just got a
Speaker 3: based on lack of exposure and lack of real football.
Speaker 3: That's kind of a hard one for any of us
Speaker 3: to really answer. Rick said, from aerial views of the
Speaker 3: new stadium that I've seen, it appears as though there's
Speaker 3: a shading of one sideline more than the other, similar
Speaker 3: to Miami's hard Rock Stadium. Am I correct with this?
Speaker 3: And was it designed to be that way? Well, the
Speaker 3: stadium is not exactly a ninety degree difference from that
Speaker 3: of former Hei Mark Stadium, but the field runs north
Speaker 3: to south, and so because of that, the sun will
Speaker 3: cross the top of the stadium east to west, obviously,
Speaker 3: but it'll go across the width of the stadium. So yes,
Speaker 3: for a one o'clock game by the time you get
Speaker 3: to the third or fourth quarter, and it might be
Speaker 3: even sooner than that, knowing you have a canopy on
Speaker 3: top of the building and there's a limited window in
Speaker 3: so to speak, the visiting side will get more of
Speaker 3: the sun, or they'll get the sun longer. I guess
Speaker 3: we should say for a one o'clock game, because the
Speaker 3: sun is already overhead for a one o'clock game, and
Speaker 3: then you know it'll head to it'll move off of
Speaker 3: the home sideline, which is on the west side of
Speaker 3: the stadium, and will linger on the east side as
Speaker 3: the sun kind of drifts towards the west. So yes,
Speaker 3: I don't know that it was necessarily by design, but
Speaker 3: knowing all the things that they considered and the details
Speaker 3: that they covered, it wouldn't surprise me if that was
Speaker 3: the case.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: But really, you don't have to worry about intense everything.
Speaker 3: You don't have to worry about intense heat for a
Speaker 3: football game in Buffalo.
Speaker 2: No, if you're not dealing with Miami temperatures in September here.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm sure it was probably considered. I don't
Speaker 3: know that it's a decided advantage in light of the
Speaker 3: climate that the team plays in up here as opposed
Speaker 3: to Miami. David asks logistical question, what is to be
Speaker 3: done with the old admin building? Will it be torn
Speaker 3: down or stay? Will those in the current executive offices
Speaker 3: stay or move into the new stadium? How will the
Speaker 3: players get from the field house to the new stadium?
Speaker 3: Are there any plans? Is there a Bill's museum. Coming.
Speaker 3: Don't know about the Bills Museum. I know it's something
Speaker 3: that's been rudiment rudimentory. There have been rudimentary discussions about it,
Speaker 3: but I don't think there's any plans in the works
Speaker 3: for that per se. The focus has been the new
Speaker 3: stadium obviously. Uh, the admin building is staying, as is
Speaker 3: the field house, and to a large degree, the team
Speaker 3: will continue to practice on the current side of Abbott
Speaker 3: Road where they reside. There might be a Friday practice
Speaker 3: or two during the season in the new stadium, presumably
Speaker 3: before the first home game. I would assume Joe Brady
Speaker 3: would want to take his team in there kind of
Speaker 3: get a feel for that and the playing surface before
Speaker 3: the first game. They will all they will have already
Speaker 3: done the Blue and Red scrimmage in two preseason games
Speaker 3: there as well, and they have everything they need in
Speaker 3: there in terms of a locker room warm up area
Speaker 3: to get ready for a practice if they decide to
Speaker 3: hold it in the stadium too. And yeah, they'd have
Speaker 3: to drive over I guess, or stop traffic and cross
Speaker 3: Abbod Road as a herd of Buffalo Bills. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Here comes the school class of kids I.
Speaker 3: Mean, we're gonna have to do that on game days
Speaker 3: as well, because our offices are in the administration building
Speaker 3: and we would have to you know, we're gonna park
Speaker 3: on this side of the street.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we'll be walking over walk over, So
Speaker 2: maybe maybe get a golf cart.
Speaker 3: Golf carts and.
Speaker 2: Got to protect the hair on game day, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know what you mean, but but yes, sure,
Speaker 3: but yeah, that's kind of how that's all gonna work.
Speaker 3: Executive offices will stay where they are. The stadium is
Speaker 3: largely a stadium only. I mean, there will be some
Speaker 3: offices over there, but that's mainly for people like security,
Speaker 3: stadium ops people like that, not for the general manager,
Speaker 3: personnel people, you know that kind of thing, or coaches.
Speaker 3: David asks or sorry Lauren, Lauren, do we have time? No,
Speaker 3: we actually have to take a break here. We'll get
Speaker 3: to Lauren's question in the second hour of our show.
Speaker 3: Don't forget. We also have the team sports psychologist doctor
Speaker 3: Dez joining us here at the close of Mental health
Speaker 3: Awareness Month. We'll catch up with her at two thirty,
Speaker 3: But more of your questions from the OBL Friday fan
Speaker 3: mailbag next here. On one Bill's Love.
Speaker 1: Love You All Boys Today is a feast for the
Speaker 1: Capitol Fie the cork is in the kitchen, looks.
Speaker 3: Down the sideline.
Speaker 2: He's got kick Kade for a.
Speaker 1: Twenty three yard touchdown and it's intercepted.
Speaker 3: Jumping up with the Air's Bedford.
Speaker 4: These one Bill's Live.
Speaker 3: All Right, our number two on a Friday, Chris Brown,
Speaker 3: Maddy Glad with you coming you live from the Bill's
Speaker 3: Store here in Orchard Park on Abbot Road, just across
Speaker 3: from New high Mark Stadium. So if you want to
Speaker 3: pop by, say hi, get on the mic, ask a question,
Speaker 3: feel free to do that. But we got to jump
Speaker 3: back into the OBL Friday fan mail bag as there
Speaker 3: are several questions still waiting for us there. And the
Speaker 3: next one comes from Lauren who asks, the last number
Speaker 3: of seasons we've had a low catch, run blocking innings
Speaker 3: eater type of receiver Gabe Davis, mccollins, Tyrrel shavers. Will
Speaker 3: the Bills incorporate that type of a wide out for
Speaker 3: such high snaps without McDermott. I think that's a wait
Speaker 3: and see, Lauren. I want to believe that after being
Speaker 3: the number one rushing team in football, last year that
Speaker 3: they're not going to just abandon it. But I do
Speaker 3: tend to think that more plays are going to be
Speaker 3: put in the hands of Josh Allen to throw the ball.
Speaker 3: I don't think they're going to be a fifty to
Speaker 3: fifty run pass team like they were the last couple
Speaker 3: of years. I think it's gonna drift more towards fifty
Speaker 3: five to forty five pass or fifty eight to forty
Speaker 3: two pass. In an extreme case, it'd probably be sixty
Speaker 3: forty pass. I don't know if they're gonna get that far,
Speaker 3: but I'm very curious to see if we notice a
Speaker 3: more aggressive tacked with the offense with Joe Brady as
Speaker 3: head coach, and whether or not we can make the
Speaker 3: conclusion that under Sean McDermott, Joe Brady had some restrictor
Speaker 3: plates on his play calling.
Speaker 2: And I think, look at the wide receiver room right now,
Speaker 2: to do any of those players within its signal that
Speaker 2: they're more of like the blocking wide receiver type. And
Speaker 2: she listed Tyrrel Shavers. While Shavers is still rehabbing from
Speaker 2: that ACL tear. You have a bigger bodied wide receiver
Speaker 2: in Keon Coleman, but he's he's working through what it
Speaker 2: takes to be an NFL player, and the team is
Speaker 2: believing in him and buying in to what he can
Speaker 2: provide them. He doesn't strike me as somebody who's just
Speaker 2: going to be blocking all the time. I think they
Speaker 2: want to use Keon as a past catching wide receiver.
Speaker 2: DJ Moore is going to be that as well, like
Speaker 2: i'd I don't know. I don't see anybody on a
Speaker 2: roster right now and think that's the Mac Collins of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, or that's the Gabe Davis of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty six. Not that that means we're not going to
Speaker 2: have a wide receiver's going to block at times. And
Speaker 2: I say this because Joe Brady, while he was the
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator, and I would say he's going to say
Speaker 2: the same thing as a head coach wants every wide
Speaker 2: receiver to learn every position and knows that you're not
Speaker 2: going to be catching a ball every time that you're
Speaker 2: out in the field. You're going to be helping your
Speaker 2: teammates get open, right, And to.
Speaker 3: Maddie's point, I think they want more out of Coleman
Speaker 3: than the description you provided, which was low catch run blocking.
Speaker 3: Any eaters type. I think they want him to be
Speaker 3: top three in the receiver pecking order from a production standpoint,
Speaker 3: but we saw keyon Coleman run block effectively last year.
Speaker 3: I distinctly remember a play in the red zone against
Speaker 3: the Patriots up there in week fifteen where I think
Speaker 3: it was Christian Gonzales and he he blocked him clean
Speaker 3: out of bounds over the sideline on a big play
Speaker 3: up the sideline there. So it's in him. He's more
Speaker 3: than strong enough to do that stuff at six three
Speaker 3: two thirteen, So I think if you're asking for candidates
Speaker 3: to fill that role, I think Coleman is more than
Speaker 3: capable of doing that. DJ Moore is solidly built. I
Speaker 3: think everybody's expected to block in the run game. Obviously
Speaker 3: some are more equipped physically to do that than others.
Speaker 3: You know, Khalil Shakir isn't going to be road grading people.
Speaker 3: I think that's safe to say. But I think he
Speaker 3: got you got options there, I guess is what I'm saying. Absent,
Speaker 3: you know, a true Mac Collins type where if somebody
Speaker 3: like Tyrrel Shavers isn't ready for the start of the
Speaker 3: regular season based on his ACL rehab, so they have options,
Speaker 3: I guess is the way I would put it. Uh,
Speaker 3: Neil asks, what do you think will be the hardest
Speaker 3: part of the twenty six to twenty seven schedule? Do
Speaker 3: you foresee us starting slow and catching our stride or
Speaker 3: up and down? The new coaching staff makes me believe
Speaker 3: the former go Bills. I would understand why you would
Speaker 3: feel that way, Neil, because the defense is an unknown.
Speaker 3: I think some of us are optimistic about what it
Speaker 3: could be, but as we said earlier in the show,
Speaker 3: it's a matter of when does that take shape. And
Speaker 3: if you look at the front of the schedule, it's
Speaker 3: super challenging. You got four playoff teams from last year
Speaker 3: in your first five games, and oh, by the way,
Speaker 3: the non playoff team is Detroit.
Speaker 2: It was basically a playoff team in my book.
Speaker 3: So yeah, nine and eight in the best division in
Speaker 3: football last year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's going to be a You know,
Speaker 2: you're stacked in the beginning of the season playing really
Speaker 2: talented opponents, and then toward the end of the season
Speaker 2: you face some really great opponents too. You don't the
Speaker 2: Bills don't really get a break in terms of facing
Speaker 2: playoff caliber teams throughout the season. It is not stacked
Speaker 2: like it was last year, where you basically had a
Speaker 2: month in between every huge game against the Chiefs and
Speaker 2: against the Eagles and other talented teams like that. It's
Speaker 2: throughout the year. They're going to be dealt hard, hard games.
Speaker 3: I think your soft pocket is Week nine to eleven
Speaker 3: Vikings Jets, Dolphins, and then at the end Dolphins Jets.
Speaker 3: That's it as far as quote unquote soft spots.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you get Raiders in a bye, sure, add that
Speaker 2: in there too, but then you come off.
Speaker 3: The buy and you have the race. Yes, But I
Speaker 3: think Vikings Jets, Dolphins, if you had to pick a
Speaker 3: soft spot in the schedule where you're expected to rack
Speaker 3: up victories and more importantly, two AFC conference victories and
Speaker 3: two AFC Division victories, that's the spot. I think we're
Speaker 3: all hoping that come week seventeen and eighteen, they don't
Speaker 3: absolutely positively have to have those games to get the
Speaker 3: top seed or win the division or whatever. But something
Speaker 3: tells me it's going to be nip and tuck, and
Speaker 3: I think they may very well need those games. So
Speaker 3: maybe it is a good thing that you have two
Speaker 3: quote unquote lesser opponents at the end of the season
Speaker 3: to get you over the finish line for a division
Speaker 3: title or maybe for the first time ever a top
Speaker 3: seed in the conference. ED asks what vibes are you
Speaker 3: sensing about the bills from the OTAs and how might
Speaker 3: it be from previous years. That's a good question. Well,
Speaker 3: I mean this time of year, everybody's saying all the
Speaker 3: right things right. Everybody's optimistic, hope springs eternal in the spring.
Speaker 3: Everybody likes everything they're seeing, everybody loves everybody they're lining
Speaker 3: up with. It's you know, when the stuff hits the
Speaker 3: fan in a performance that is either unexpected or substandard,
Speaker 3: where the test really shows up about what is your
Speaker 3: culture like, what is your team bonding like to get
Speaker 3: through the tough times.
Speaker 2: There is no stress right now for many on the team,
Speaker 2: including the coaching staff, because you're in the off season.
Speaker 2: You're not preparing for opponents, you're not trying to prove
Speaker 2: yourself every single minute of the day. Yes, you have
Speaker 2: rookies and some undrafted free agents who are fighting for
Speaker 2: a roster spot, and they might feel the stress of
Speaker 2: what the off season is, but right now it's good vibes.
Speaker 2: I would say the vibes are figuring out what Joe
Speaker 2: Brady's culture is and buying into what he wants out
Speaker 2: of his football team. I think that's what the team
Speaker 2: is busy doing right now, in addition to being out
Speaker 2: on the practice field for OTAs. We've heard some of
Speaker 2: Brady's sayings like put the ball down, you have to
Speaker 2: play us, and those are things that we've heard now
Speaker 2: players reiterate in press conferences. We've heard Josh Allen say, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Joe Brady's phrase, one of his phrases, put the ball down.
Speaker 2: It means you doesn't matter when we're playing or where
Speaker 2: we're playing, or who we're playing, or who we're playing,
Speaker 2: We're going to be ready to go, and we're going
Speaker 2: to be ready to play. So I think that's kind
Speaker 2: of the vibe right now is what is this culture
Speaker 2: and what is it about? And how do you adapt?
Speaker 3: Yeah, as far as the mailbag goes here, Andrew asks,
Speaker 3: with all this innovative new technology that we have in
Speaker 3: our new stadium, can you explain what type of new
Speaker 3: technology you will have in the booth that will make
Speaker 3: broadcasting even better? You guys are great now, just want
Speaker 3: to know what new technology there will be well, thank
Speaker 3: you for that, Andrew, and I will basically say the
Speaker 3: only new technology that I know might exist because this
Speaker 3: has been communicated to me. So we've had a camera.
Speaker 3: This doesn't necessarily help our ability to go all the game,
Speaker 3: but it does provide a window, an added window for
Speaker 3: the fans. But it's been communicated to me that this
Speaker 3: possibility exists. For game day presentation on the scoreboard, we've
Speaker 3: had a camera mounted in our booth, and you know,
Speaker 3: Jonathan Harkey, who is one of our show producers, puts
Speaker 3: together Best from the Booth every week with some of
Speaker 3: the more entertaining calls from victories and fans like watching
Speaker 3: that and seeing the goings on in the radio booth.
Speaker 3: From what's been communicated to me, they will have a
Speaker 3: camera in there permanently that is connected to the main
Speaker 3: server for game pres so after a big play and
Speaker 3: a touchdown, they not only will be able to rerack
Speaker 3: the play itself, but our call of it and maybe
Speaker 3: us being seen on the scoreboard calling it. So if
Speaker 3: I'm pumping my fist or acting like a lunatic, there's
Speaker 3: probably a good chance they're going to take advantage of
Speaker 3: that and use it in some form or fashion. See
Speaker 3: all these years of me popping off my couch and
Speaker 3: running around my living room when something great happens, maybe
Speaker 3: it pays off. Even though my family just shakes their
Speaker 3: head at me and thinks something that I'm absolutely lunatic.
Speaker 3: I just get a little into it sometimes. But beyond
Speaker 3: that though, I don't. I mean, I know, I think
Speaker 3: the most important technology in the new stadium for the
Speaker 3: fan experience is going to be the sounds. I think
Speaker 3: anybody's that had been in former high Mark Stadium knows
Speaker 3: the sound system wasn't state.
Speaker 2: Of the art.
Speaker 3: Some stuff would get a little garbled and muffled sometimes
Speaker 3: depending on where you're sitting. And the bills made a
Speaker 3: commitment to that that was one of their top priorities,
Speaker 3: and there is I've never seen this many speaker systems
Speaker 3: in one stadium in my life. I mean, you could
Speaker 3: have two, you know, rock bands road kits and it
Speaker 3: wouldn't add up to all that stuff in there. With
Speaker 3: all the speaker systems they have hanging from the rafters
Speaker 3: off the canopy, I think it's gonna be loud from
Speaker 3: a fan noise perspective, and I think it's gonna be
Speaker 3: crystal clear from an entertainment perspective for the fans in there.
Speaker 3: That's why everybody's so pumped to see it. But it's
Speaker 3: not only gonna be seeing it, it's gonna be hearing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I can't wait to be in there with the
Speaker 2: sound system on. I know they're starting to run through
Speaker 2: testing of like the video boards. We saw those photos
Speaker 2: go out and just kind of starting to put it
Speaker 2: all together. I mean, I look across the street right
Speaker 2: now and one thing that I'm realizing I don't know
Speaker 2: if it went in recently, but like the parking lot
Speaker 2: now has parking spaces, like you're putting on finishing times
Speaker 2: paint in this building. Yeah, I'm like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: there's paint lines for parking spots. No way. I know
Speaker 2: it's little, but it kind of signifies the completion of
Speaker 2: this project is coming soon.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So it's very exciting. And look, we all want
Speaker 3: to get in there and see everything that the building
Speaker 3: has to offer. And believe me when I say it,
Speaker 3: they quite literally thought of everything. And here's the other
Speaker 3: thing that's even more impressive. Some of the things in
Speaker 3: there that were part of the original design once they've
Speaker 3: been put in place, physically, if they don't feel they're
Speaker 3: serving the purpose for which they were originally intended. They
Speaker 3: have not been afraid to tweak it, remove it, come
Speaker 3: up with a better solution. It's like, oh, that looked
Speaker 3: a lot better on paper. It doesn't look so good here,
Speaker 3: we got to change that. They've made those changes too.
Speaker 3: It's like, hey, look, nobody's perfect. We didn't get every
Speaker 3: single detail of the thousands of decisions they had to
Speaker 3: make for this building one hundred percent on the money,
Speaker 3: So it looks good on paper, but from a practical sense,
Speaker 3: it doesn't work. How do we change it? How do
Speaker 3: we make it better? And they've sought feedback from all
Speaker 3: of the departments in our building to make sure that's
Speaker 3: the case. So kudos to them for, you know, not
Speaker 3: thinking their plan from the beginning was the end all
Speaker 3: be all. They've tweaked it, they've altered it, and it's
Speaker 3: made it better. So hopefully by the time they open,
Speaker 3: you know, it'll be as as perfect as perfect can get,
Speaker 3: because they've really gone the extra mile in a lot
Speaker 3: of different areas. I mean even in our area in
Speaker 3: the booth they had that lens catcher right rack yep,
Speaker 3: that was blocking the home sideline from our vantage point,
Speaker 3: and they already told us they're changing that. They're lowering it,
Speaker 3: they're making it smaller. But it's those practical things that
Speaker 3: will come up in terms of everyday use of the facility,
Speaker 3: and they want to change those things before we're off
Speaker 3: and running in this place. So I think that's really cool.
Speaker 3: Joe asks any news on the punter battle. My guess
Speaker 3: is the draft pick gets the job. So it's Mitch Wishnowski,
Speaker 3: the veteran who was here last year, the third of
Speaker 3: three punters that the Bills went through last season. Yeah,
Speaker 3: crazy year at punter in twenty twenty five. And then
Speaker 3: the rookie Tommy Dolman sixth round pick, seventh round pick.
Speaker 3: I can't remember, sixth or seventh round pick, Day three pick,
Speaker 3: and Wishnowski's thirty four years old, but I thought he
Speaker 3: had a good season for them, and especially coming in
Speaker 3: on the fly. So yeah, seventh round pick, thank you.
Speaker 3: Wishnowski's thirty four years old. He's not a spring chicken.
Speaker 3: I think the key for Dolmen is not how far
Speaker 3: he kicks it, how high he hangs it. It's how
Speaker 3: consistently does he do those things. I think he's more
Speaker 3: than capable, but the proof is in the pudding. So yeah,
Speaker 3: maybe some fans at training camp will be playing a
Speaker 3: little bit closer attention to, you know, the punting and
Speaker 3: stuff that goes on in camp. One guy goes three
Speaker 3: or four reps and then the other guy goes three
Speaker 3: or four reps. So who is you know, performing at
Speaker 3: a more consistent level. And quite frankly, Maddie, I think
Speaker 3: that's going to stretch right into the preseason games too,
Speaker 3: where the opportunities are probably going to be fewer and
Speaker 3: further between. I would anticipate that one guy punts one game,
Speaker 3: the other guy punts the second game, and if they
Speaker 3: still need more evidence, figure something out in the third game,
Speaker 3: whether they split the game or what have you. But
Speaker 3: I think it's going to go well into the preseason
Speaker 3: before they make a call, because, as we know, the
Speaker 3: most important things coaches want in a player is the
Speaker 3: ability to trust them to do their job. So consistency
Speaker 3: is what Doman has to strive for, and if he can, yeah,
Speaker 3: I think he would be probably the favorite to win
Speaker 3: the job.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's going to come down to, Yeah,
Speaker 2: consistency from the rookie. How good Mitch Wishnowski does this offseason.
Speaker 2: We're gonna have our timers out there. I know some
Speaker 2: people are gonna be time and hang time during practices
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. It gets fun. It's fun when
Speaker 2: you're watching a punter battle take place. So I'm interested
Speaker 2: to watch that. In talking about you know who's making
Speaker 2: the roster, it made me think of news that came
Speaker 2: out last night. It was or yesterday at some point
Speaker 2: during the day. Maybe you guys addressed it on the show,
Speaker 2: but Tom Pallisero said that NFL teams for cut Down
Speaker 2: Day to fifty three. It's gonna be six pm on Sunday,
Speaker 2: August thirtieth, not the following Tuesday as it's been in
Speaker 2: recent years. So a little bit of a change there.
Speaker 2: The first thing I thought when this news came out was, Oh,
Speaker 2: the NFL is trying to make a day out of
Speaker 2: cut Down Day because now you can put it in
Speaker 2: a window at night on TV and make this thing.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's the reasoning behind it. It
Speaker 2: was just Tuesday at four pm in the afternoon. Now
Speaker 2: it's a Sunday six pm thing.
Speaker 3: Here's my theory as to why it happened, although I
Speaker 3: don't think we should dismiss your thought out of hand
Speaker 3: because they try to make something bigger than it is
Speaker 3: in every facet. I think it's because of the Australia game,
Speaker 3: which is on a Wednesday, not a Thursday night, and
Speaker 3: with the time change and the day change, I think
Speaker 3: they're trying. They were trying to find on the calendar
Speaker 3: a way to build in two extra days for those
Speaker 3: teams that are traveling to get their ducks in a row.
Speaker 3: In terms of who's on their roster and who isn't.
Speaker 3: That's I don't know that for a fact. That's just
Speaker 3: a guess on my part because I was thinking they
Speaker 3: made this change, what else is different? Well, the Australian game,
Speaker 3: So that's to me, that was I think that might
Speaker 3: have been the impetus to move it up a couple
Speaker 3: of days. But man Sunday at six, I mean a
Speaker 3: lot of NFL reporters lose a lot of their weekends.
Speaker 3: As we know, that's another one they're gonna lose. They're
Speaker 3: gonna be busy, roster cutdown and all the decisions that
Speaker 3: are made across the league in terms of who makes
Speaker 3: the roster and who does not. We're going to take
Speaker 3: a break here even though we're a little bit ahead
Speaker 3: of schedule, and the reason we're going to do that
Speaker 3: is because coming up, we're gonna talk to our team psychologist,
Speaker 3: doctor desire Fested, wrapping up Mental Health Awareness Month, and
Speaker 3: we want to get some important information out to you
Speaker 3: about what the league has done at the league level
Speaker 3: to make sure any and all players for all thirty
Speaker 3: two teams are accommodated with their mental health, something that
Speaker 3: had not been the case before this edict came down.
Speaker 3: So we'll talk to her about that, among other things
Speaker 3: in terms of the day to day with the Bills.
Speaker 3: We'll do that next on One Bill's Live. All right
Speaker 3: back here on One Bill's Live on a Friday versus
Speaker 3: Brown Matting Lab if you live at the Bulls Store
Speaker 3: and joining us now here as a Mental Health Awareness
Speaker 3: Month comes to a close, it's already May twenty ninths.
Speaker 3: Crazy is our head of performance psychology and mental wellness,
Speaker 3: doctor Desiree Festa, better known at One Bill's Drive as
Speaker 3: doctor des Which incidentally, did you who gave Do you
Speaker 3: remember who gave you that nickname? Because it's stuck.
Speaker 5: Fast yeah, yeah, it was a coach McDermott at the Combine. Okay,
Speaker 5: day of working.
Speaker 3: Really, man, that's stuck because I like, I actually had
Speaker 3: to look up your full name, like not today, I
Speaker 3: knew it before today, but I'm saying, like just around
Speaker 3: the building, that's how you were referred to, and it's
Speaker 3: just like, what is her full name? I'm embarrassed to
Speaker 3: say I didn't. This is like a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3: But I was like embarrassed to say I don't know it,
Speaker 3: and then I had to go look it up because
Speaker 3: like that just became your moniker, like you were doctor Dez.
Speaker 3: But I guess there's like an informal nature that you
Speaker 3: kind of want to have to especially in the line
Speaker 3: of work that you're in. You want it to be
Speaker 3: open and free flowing and right like that's yeah, so
Speaker 3: that's a good thing.
Speaker 5: Yes, And I get a lot of nicknames like or
Speaker 5: just Dez or d d what does so there.
Speaker 3: Are multiple I say, I was unaware of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, wait, does Alec Anderson call you Dezi because
Speaker 2: that would make sense in my brain.
Speaker 5: It's probably a variety of Okay, yeah.
Speaker 3: Okay, so we wanted to get you on because there's
Speaker 3: there's some great league wide news that will get to
Speaker 3: in just a second here. But what do you think
Speaker 3: is was the impetus and how much did sports psychologists
Speaker 3: maybe that already existed around the league push for the
Speaker 3: NFL to require full time mental health care at all
Speaker 3: thirty two team facilities.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so, initially start in twenty nineteen, there was a
Speaker 5: minimum requirement put in a place that every team has
Speaker 5: to have eight to twelve hours of a mental health
Speaker 5: provider coming into their building. And then this year the
Speaker 5: league put in a place that every team has to
Speaker 5: have full time mental health coverage. And that came from
Speaker 5: the league, it came from the nfl PA, it came
Speaker 5: from the players. It was like unanimous. Everyone felt like
Speaker 5: this is the time to have the full time requirement
Speaker 5: of mental health coverage. So what that means is that
Speaker 5: there needs to be a mental health provider in the
Speaker 5: building full time. Now, some teams might be one person
Speaker 5: that's like myself right. Other teams it might be a
Speaker 5: mix and match between different providers splitting the work in
Speaker 5: the time, but they want a mental health provider in
Speaker 5: the building when players are in the building, and full
Speaker 5: time might look a little different, right than you're forty
Speaker 5: hour full time. So you know in season NFL schedule
Speaker 5: it's seven days a week, so for and travel and travel. Yes,
Speaker 5: So for me myself, I'm traveling with the team. I'm
Speaker 5: in the building. When the player in the building, I'm
Speaker 5: along for the ride with them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I know there were and I have even
Speaker 3: talked to you about this, there were press conferences that
Speaker 3: we would see around the league and you'd hear from
Speaker 3: these players and you could tell they were like struggling,
Speaker 3: And I know you would often lament the fact that
Speaker 3: not every team in the league had the same providers
Speaker 3: like we have here with you, and you almost you
Speaker 3: ache for them almost a little bit knowing that, And
Speaker 3: that's been It's great, it's been taken care of. Now
Speaker 3: everybody's got coverage and everybody can be taken care of
Speaker 3: as they need it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And having a mandate like this, having the NFL
Speaker 2: introduced something like this, why do you view this as
Speaker 2: such a big win for the NFL at large?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it just increases accessibility for players. It normalizes the
Speaker 5: mental health provider. So we have trainers at our full time,
Speaker 5: we have strength coaches are full time dietitians that are
Speaker 5: full time. Now your mental health provider is also full
Speaker 5: time part.
Speaker 2: Of the team.
Speaker 5: So it's just normalizing mental health as part of care
Speaker 5: for players, and it's just as important as the other
Speaker 5: roles that are on the team.
Speaker 3: And then I'm sure in the time that you've been here,
Speaker 3: you've seen the benefits. I mean, not to toot your
Speaker 3: own horn, but you know what I'm talking about, just
Speaker 3: you know, the benefits of you know, just being aware
Speaker 3: of your own mental health first of all, and then
Speaker 3: taking the steps to make sure you're in a place
Speaker 3: where there is that intercom piece whatever you want to
Speaker 3: put on it in your terms of your individual description.
Speaker 3: But over the multiple years that you have been here,
Speaker 3: how have you seen the team kind of reap the
Speaker 3: benefits from your presence.
Speaker 5: So when I first started in February of twenty twenty,
Speaker 5: so this is before all that like a Lottes with
Speaker 5: twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: That's timing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was more focused on one on one care
Speaker 5: with players. But now that I'm entering my seventh season
Speaker 5: with the organization of having a full time mental health
Speaker 5: provider present, it now has expanded to a program so
Speaker 5: it's one on one care. It's small groups for players,
Speaker 5: it's talking and team meeting. To the big groups, it's
Speaker 5: offering books and handouts and information. So however the player
Speaker 5: wants to engage with mental health, there's resources in all
Speaker 5: different types of way with whatever stage that they're at.
Speaker 3: Do you find that that's easier to get a player started?
Speaker 3: That might be still because there's a lot of people,
Speaker 3: you know, based on their upbringing, where that's still a
Speaker 3: stigma to a certain degree, and maybe the group setting
Speaker 3: maybe facilitates and encourages them to take a step into that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, some might do better in a group setting. They
Speaker 5: might feel there might be more social, they might feel
Speaker 5: more comfortable. Some come in more from the entry point
Speaker 5: of mental performance and strategies for themselves on the field
Speaker 5: to help optimize themselves as a performer, And then it
Speaker 5: can move into the area of mental health. Not with
Speaker 5: the mental health mandate, it's to have a mental health
Speaker 5: provider full time in the building. Not necessarily. Every team
Speaker 5: has someone like myself that is a sports psychologist. So
Speaker 5: as a sports psychologist, I have the highest level of
Speaker 5: training all psychologists do when it comes to mental health,
Speaker 5: the clinical component of it. But then I have an
Speaker 5: additional master's degree when it comes to the mental performance,
Speaker 5: like how to optimize these guys on the field, I'm
Speaker 5: pointing to the stadium.
Speaker 3: That I'm looking as hard too some of them.
Speaker 5: That's the entry point when you can help them and
Speaker 5: something they care about that they're doing every day to
Speaker 5: optimize that. And then it might turn into, Hey, I
Speaker 5: got some family stuff going on, or I'm about to
Speaker 5: have a baby, become a dad, or you know, it's
Speaker 5: hard to separate the performer for life from life and
Speaker 5: life from the performer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. I think to the conversation that you and
Speaker 2: I had with several different players as a part of
Speaker 2: Mental Health Awareness Month, we really say long form interview
Speaker 2: which you can find on Buffalo bills dot com and YouTube,
Speaker 2: where we talked to Ty Johnson, Reid Ferguson, Cedric Van Prin, Granger,
Speaker 2: Dwayne Carter, and Wande Owens. I don't think I'm missing anybody.
Speaker 2: It was a big group. It was five, okay, and
Speaker 2: it was amazing to see them as NFL athletes, like
Speaker 2: on top of the world because they are, you know,
Speaker 2: the one percenters who get to do something like this
Speaker 2: but be so open about mental health. How they have
Speaker 2: found mental strength and the struggles they've gone through. Like
Speaker 2: Ty Johnson talked about going through an injury and finding
Speaker 2: you through that and then feeling like when he overcame
Speaker 2: that injury, his mental fortitude was so strong and he
Speaker 2: felt like he was in a great place. Wanda Owens
Speaker 2: opened up about missing his entire rookie season because of
Speaker 2: an injury and kind of trying to figure out where
Speaker 2: feels like home, how can i adjust to this entirely
Speaker 2: new life while I'm also dealing with this really tough injury.
Speaker 2: And Cedric Van Prian Granger opened to us opened up
Speaker 2: to us about being a younger player in the NFL
Speaker 2: and having a lot of anxiety and kind of dealing
Speaker 2: with the pressures of being an NFL player and how
Speaker 2: you really helped him through a lot of that. It
Speaker 2: was amazing to hear them be so honest and humble
Speaker 2: and open about their struggles and how you have helped
Speaker 2: them in that and now kind of some of them
Speaker 2: sitting on the other side of what they went through
Speaker 2: and looking at those valleys in life as ways that
Speaker 2: they have grown a lot and feel like they're in
Speaker 2: a way better place because of going through something like that,
Speaker 2: but also learning tools to get them through some of
Speaker 2: those tough times.
Speaker 5: Yes, there's a lot I could say about what you
Speaker 5: just mentioned too. Okay, First is the entry point of injury, right.
Speaker 5: Players are when it comes to injury versus players injuries undefeated, right,
Speaker 5: meaning that every player is going to sustain an injury
Speaker 5: in the sport of football, especially at the NFL level,
Speaker 5: and injury is hard for a lot of these guys.
Speaker 5: When they're going through the injury process, it mirrors the
Speaker 5: same thing as a grief process. So if anyone knows
Speaker 5: is the five stages of grapes, Yes, they go through
Speaker 5: aspects of that, and helping them work through the injury components.
Speaker 5: Sometimes that could be the hardest thing they ever go through,
Speaker 5: is when the thing that has given them the most
Speaker 5: confidence is now being shut.
Speaker 3: Down, yeah, because they can't perform.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So getting support for that and that is something
Speaker 5: that the league really wanted to emphasize, helping players that
Speaker 5: are vulnerable. Injury is vulnerable. Providing support for guys that
Speaker 5: are in the injury process. I also want to highlight
Speaker 5: two that I can't bust into the doors here at
Speaker 5: the Bills. People have to invite me in and give
Speaker 5: me time and space. So this program that we've built
Speaker 5: over time. Fortunately leaders of our organization were on the
Speaker 5: forefront and we're proactive and knew that we needed a
Speaker 5: mental health resource way back in twenty twenty and open
Speaker 5: the doors and I continually getting doors open for me
Speaker 5: from our leadership to come on in. So that also
Speaker 5: requires having a full time mental health provider, but also
Speaker 5: the leaders opening the doors and giving you access in time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what do you think society as a whole still
Speaker 3: gets wrong about mental health? Because as I mentioned, like
Speaker 3: there are still places where it's a stigma or it's
Speaker 3: viewed as especially for you know, young men that are
Speaker 3: raised you know macho, alpha male sport and all that
Speaker 3: stuff that you know, Oh, if I'm tapping into my
Speaker 3: mental health, I'm soft, I'm not strong enough. What do
Speaker 3: we get wrong still even now about the values of
Speaker 3: mental health?
Speaker 5: So in that podcast that we did with Maddie, she
Speaker 5: had a great question where it's like, what's the one
Speaker 5: word that comes to mind when you hear mental health?
Speaker 5: So with your listeners here, I want them to think
Speaker 5: about that one word, and sometimes the initial connotation with
Speaker 5: it is something negative, problems, issues, and it's a more
Speaker 5: people have a more limited lens of understanding mental health,
Speaker 5: just like our physical health is on a continuum. Sometimes
Speaker 5: you're thriving and you're at peak performance, and other times
Speaker 5: you're just like surviving. You're getting through. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 5: you go to your annual checkups for your doctors, and
Speaker 5: then sometimes you have illness or you're sick or you
Speaker 5: need more intense care. It's the same spectrum when it
Speaker 5: comes to mental health. Your times that you're thriving in
Speaker 5: life and you're being super resilient and then life throws
Speaker 5: you some hard curveballs and then you're struggling, and then
Speaker 5: there's sometimes that you're really going through something and that
Speaker 5: you need to see a doctor, a physician, a specialist
Speaker 5: to help you through that situation. So equating mental health
Speaker 5: on the same continuum as physical health. And we all
Speaker 5: have mental health like you have a brain, you have
Speaker 5: a mind, like we all have a mind, we all
Speaker 5: have emotions, So there's a health state to those things.
Speaker 5: So I think just broadening the spectrum, which is what
Speaker 5: we're doing here in the NFL and here at the bills,
Speaker 5: is just broadening the spectrum of mental health and what
Speaker 5: that means and seeing it as a proactive tool that
Speaker 5: you can integrate. You can actually leverage this as something
Speaker 5: to optimize yourself and your performance and your relationships. It's
Speaker 5: not just a problem based resource.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes me think of what Reid Ferguson said
Speaker 2: in that interview. He said, when I came to the league,
Speaker 2: one of the veterans told me very early on was that,
Speaker 2: you know, making it in the NFL ten percent of
Speaker 2: is physical and ninety percent is mental. And learning about
Speaker 2: mental strength and how to use it and how to
Speaker 2: find that within my game has helped me be in
Speaker 2: the NFL for as long as I have. As you
Speaker 2: think about mental health and being proactive in that, what
Speaker 2: are some tools that we can all use to help
Speaker 2: our mental health, health and wellness.
Speaker 5: First, I really want to encourage the Buffalo fan base
Speaker 5: to really try out therapy. If you have not, you
Speaker 5: don't have to wait until there's a problem to go
Speaker 5: find a mental health specialist to start in therapy. Sometimes
Speaker 5: therapy is just nice to have a dedicated time and
Speaker 5: space to reflect on what am I thinking, what am
Speaker 5: I feeling, what I got going on, and having a
Speaker 5: mental game plan of how to move forward. But once
Speaker 5: you find that mental health provider that can that you
Speaker 5: connect with when life throws you hard things, because it
Speaker 5: will and it will it does to all of us.
Speaker 5: You have someone that understands you that you could reach
Speaker 5: out to. So I encourage people, you know, try therapy.
Speaker 5: Don't just don't try one session.
Speaker 2: And be like Okay, I'm done, you know, not.
Speaker 5: Give it like three It's kind of like try it
Speaker 5: three times, okay, and then sometimes you have to kind
Speaker 5: of search around for someone that's a good fit for you.
Speaker 5: So just give it time to find someone that could
Speaker 5: be that you feel like is good to understand you.
Speaker 5: We teach the players a lot of tools on the
Speaker 5: field that can apply to your everyday life. And I
Speaker 5: just talked to our rookies today about the skill of
Speaker 5: breathing and how to breathe. And you know, the term
Speaker 5: deep breathing is actually at a date. So you know
Speaker 5: those big breaths that you take when you think of
Speaker 5: breathing in you're filling up that chest. Well, research has
Speaker 5: showed science has showed that that stimulates more of a
Speaker 5: stress response in your nervous system and calming down it's
Speaker 5: the slow ex hit hill out is actually helps your
Speaker 5: nervous system, your mind, and your body recover and reset.
Speaker 3: So we're all regular breath in, extended breath out. Don't
Speaker 3: do the big heaving inhale.
Speaker 5: Yeah, try to avoid the big heaping inhale. It's just
Speaker 5: a nice slow calm out.
Speaker 3: All right. Yeah, because I've always because I had heard
Speaker 3: of the eight seven six breath where you breathe in
Speaker 3: for eight, which is hard for me to even do.
Speaker 3: Die is full, yeah, and then hold it for seven,
Speaker 3: exhale for six. But okay, I'm going to go shallower
Speaker 3: now because it was hard doing it for eight seconds.
Speaker 3: Does this really work? Sometimes you try to do it,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and sometimes the breath holds could actually create more
Speaker 5: of a stress response to so that they're holding it
Speaker 5: for it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So the magic's in the exhale.
Speaker 3: Okay, magic is.
Speaker 2: In the exhale. I love that you spoke about the
Speaker 2: buy in. I just wanted to reference this as we
Speaker 2: wrap up the interview, because Joe Brady has shown as
Speaker 2: our new head coach that he is bought in to
Speaker 2: you what you're doing to mental health and wellness and
Speaker 2: what it can do for a team, and he spoke
Speaker 2: on it, and we have we'll have a graphic go
Speaker 2: out I think later this weekend or maybe today about it.
Speaker 2: And he said, strong teams aren't built by pretending everything's okay.
Speaker 2: A connected football team is built by men who are
Speaker 2: willing to speak up, check in, and carry the weight together.
Speaker 2: You can't expect to perform at a high level physically
Speaker 2: if you ignore what's happening mentally. Take care of your mind,
Speaker 2: take of your team. And I thought that was a
Speaker 2: great way to kind of sum up what taking care
Speaker 2: of your mental health means to the bills.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and you know, earlier when I was talking about
Speaker 5: people need to open the door, one of the biggest
Speaker 5: real estates that we have inside the building is meeting time,
Speaker 5: you know. And Coach Brady has given me time in
Speaker 5: front like that's his time or coaches time, and opened
Speaker 5: up time for me to have with the players. That
Speaker 5: shows how much he values it and our coaching staff
Speaker 5: values it.
Speaker 3: I think that statement that he had said at all
Speaker 3: really in terms of how he feels about it. So
Speaker 3: great to hear that and a good one to end on.
Speaker 3: Maddie Doctor, Thanks you very much for the time. It
Speaker 3: was a nice way to finish up mental health awareness month.
Speaker 3: So thanks for joining us here on the show. That's
Speaker 3: head of Performance Psychology and mental wellness, doctor Desiree Festa
Speaker 3: joining us. We'll take a break and be back to
Speaker 3: wrap up a Friday edition of One Bill's Live Next
Speaker 3: All right, good conversation there with doctor Guez. It's mental
Speaker 3: health and Awareness Punks comes to close here over the weekend.
Speaker 3: His bag every year that we try to improve awareness
Speaker 3: about mental health. So do what you can to take
Speaker 3: care of your mentals. Like Marshaun Lynch used to say
Speaker 3: and probably still says, a lot of good questions in
Speaker 3: the mailbag. Thanks for all of those. We do have
Speaker 3: to thank Mel from down the street at the Big
Speaker 3: Tree for bringing some wings by for us here on
Speaker 3: a Friday. That was very nice of him to make
Speaker 3: the walk down the street here on Abbott Road and
Speaker 3: bring us some of his finest fare. So thanks to
Speaker 3: Mel and the folks a Big Tree for doing that.
Speaker 3: Appreciate it. And then I do have to get a
Speaker 3: birthday wish out. This one is for my firstborn and daughter,
Speaker 3: So happy birthday to Serena.
Speaker 2: It's today.
Speaker 3: It's today, amazing, big big number twenty four. I cannot
Speaker 3: believe it.
Speaker 2: So young but I'm just you probably feel like, wow,
Speaker 2: that's so old.
Speaker 3: It's crazy. Time really does fly. It's amazing and it's
Speaker 3: cool because at her office today, her coworkers got her
Speaker 3: a box of Levane cookies. Have you ever had that?
Speaker 2: I know what those are.
Speaker 3: They're pretty freaking amazing. So nice to know where coworkers
Speaker 3: are treating her well on her birthday. We'll be fortunate
Speaker 3: enough to see her tomorrow. So happy birthday, kiddo. I
Speaker 3: hope you have a great day. We will pretty much
Speaker 3: have a new run of OTA practices beginning next week.
Speaker 3: Those start on Monday, run through Wednesday, and then that
Speaker 3: is it for OTAs. June Mini camp will follow June
Speaker 3: ninth to the eleven. That's crazy, and then they will
Speaker 3: be done for the break before training camp. Maddie, we
Speaker 3: are going to blink.
Speaker 2: Then we're starting just set in that we're opening in
Speaker 2: new stadium.
Speaker 3: Panic.
Speaker 2: The panic is starting to set in. I feel like
Speaker 2: there's so much to do as we kind of as
Speaker 2: this new stadium finishes up, I'm like, this is going
Speaker 2: to be crazy. We're doing new things, new videos, new content.
Speaker 2: Is how do we do it? Justice? Opening it up
Speaker 2: in terms of articles that we need to write. I'm
Speaker 2: just I'm in panic mode right now. I'm like, oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, there's so much work to do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, magic being the people across the street, try to
Speaker 3: cross all the d's. It's out all the eyes before
Speaker 3: we're open for the return of the Blue and Red Scrimmage,
Speaker 3: which will be in early August, so the clock is
Speaker 3: ticking there as well. But as you said, there's a
Speaker 3: lot of finishing touches going up, and sometime in the
Speaker 3: month of June, Maddie the Bison will be rolling into
Speaker 3: Family Gold one at a time. It's coming in and
Speaker 3: they're not too distant future. But that's it for us. Everybody,
Speaker 3: have a good weekend. We'll catch you next week for
Speaker 3: ot