"Did that really just happen?" How Khari Blasingame fell back in love with football
He was never afraid to do the dirty work, and it paid off. Here's our full Q&A transcript with NFL fullback Khari Blasingame. He explains exactly what makes the Philadelphia Eagles different, too.
He thought he was finished. His love for football was waning.
Friends texted him as he had died.
And then? The Philadelphia Eagles called.
Here’s the full transcript of my conversation with NFL fullback Khari Blasingame. How he’s managed to stick in pro football supplies a life lesson for all. We also wouldn’t mind if the entire world reverted back to flip phones, and he offers some excellent book ideas.
You can listen or watch the Go Long Pod episode here.
Of course, we all prefer to read ‘round here. Words are below.
Thanks, all.
Dunne: Maybe it starts in Alabama. Maybe you want to jump to Vandy. When you introduce yourself to the world, to football fans — on the field, off the field — where do you start?
Blasingame: The football part, if you want to go back to the beginning beginning, it starts in Huntsville, Alabama. Stoner Field, Northern League, Little League. You know how city leagues have different teams based on the area. So the team I played for was Northern, started off at 10. I wanted to play earlier than that, but my mom and my grandmother didn't really want me to. But my dad when I was 10, took me, signed me up pretty much behind her back and I had played baseball and basketball. I really liked baseball and basketball, but when I started playing football, it just felt different. And so I grew up playing football, basketball, baseball, ran a little track in high school. But in high school — was it junior year? — I know I left basketball behind in the ninth grade. I was good at basketball, but just kind of OK. And then I played baseball and football and ran track my senior year. And I got my first offer from Minnesota. Jerry Kill and his staff in Minnesota offered me. They offered me as a free safety.
I started off my first starts on varsity were as a corner. Didn’t play much running back, but I played corner, I played safety and I did kick return. My junior year, I did kick return, corner, safety, running back. In my senior year, I did everything from safety, running back, a little bit of quarterback, so just really just playing a lot of things, trying to help my team. Played baseball. And I’ll tell you the story about baseball and how I got the Vanderbilt interest and offer from that. And then I ran a little track. And so from there, went to college.
So when I was in high school, I played baseball with a guy named Kyle Wright and Kyle went on to pitch for Vanderbilt, pitch for the Braves, won a World Series with the Braves, and his dad was the coach — coach Roger Wright. He was getting recruited by Vanderbilt and Coach Wright knew that I wanted to go to Vanderbilt. So I went to a camp my junior year. Had a great camp.
Maybe it was my sophomore year, but I had a good camp. A little bit of interest, no offer. One of the baseball coaches comes down to watch Kyle and Coach Wright puts a bug in his ear like, “Hey, my right fielder is a really good football player. Got a Minnesota offer. Wants to go to Vanderbilt. You guys should look him up.” And that really put some gas in my recruiting journey. And I had a great high school coach, too. Coach OC, he helped me a lot with my recruiting. So that was really what got me started with Vanderbilt. And so Coach Franklin was there. They had some guys in front of me. So I committed to Minnesota. I loved Coach Kill, loved his program, but Minnesota is kind of far for a kid from Alabama.
I ended up getting the offer when Franklin left and went to Penn State and the rest is history. De-committed and went to Vanderbilt as a free safety. I was probably 6-1, 200 pounds, 195. And I thought I was going to be kind of like a LaRon Landry, Kam Chancellor type of guy. Those are the safeties that I grew up on. The hard hitters. The box safeties. After that freshman year, I’m in the box, I’m playing linebacker. So I played linebacker and special teams, my redshirt freshman year. And after that, we had some really good linebackers on the team: Nigel Bowden, Zach Cunningham, Oren Burks. Zach and Oren were two NFL guys that I was playing behind. So my coach looked at my high school film and we needed some depth at running back. He was like, “We need you to play running back.” He was like, “That’s your best way on the field.” So gave it a spring and started off actually playing more fullback than running back because my coach, Andy Ludwig, in college, he ran that type of system: H-back, fullback type deal. But they let me tote the rock and it started to work out and I had three pretty good years at running back.
After that, go through the whole pro day thing, didn’t get invited to the Combine. Never really became the starter at Vanderbilt. Split time a couple years. But had put some good stuff on field from a pass protection standpoint, from special team standpoint, and ran the ball pretty well. So I got an opportunity with the Vikings as an undrafted free agent. Coach Kennedy Polamalu gave me my first shot and I pretty much got in there behind CJ (Ham) and just tried to learn as much as I could. Took a lot of lumps, but ended up by the grace of God, being able to stick around and make a home for myself in Tennessee. Played in Tennessee three years, had a couple of good runs there. Landed in Chicago. Had about 2 ½ good years there, and ended up just past year in Philadelphia and won a Super Bowl.
Dunne: You don’t really see kids today say, “Dammit, I want to be a fullback! I want to line up in the Power I formation and just ram my head through that four hole right at a linebacker.” You don’t think that at age 8. It happens in this Darwinian way.
Blasingame: Yeah, you want to run the ball, you want to score, you want to do all of that. But I loved the game and so I wanted to play. I wanted to play at a high level and that was my chance. And so with all the blocking and everything, I still got to catch the ball a few times, make a few plays. In all honesty, I wanted to do it a little bit more, but it is what it is.
Dunne: So do you know at the tip of your tongue, how many fullbacks are even alive in today’s NFL?
Blasingame: I don’t think it’s any more than 20. It can’t be any more than 20. The ones that really play a lot? There’s probably no more than eight. I think about guys like Alec Ingold, CJ Ham, Patrick Ricard, Kyle Juszczyk, the guy in New Orleans plays a pretty good bit. Denver uses one. I think Pittsburgh is about to start using. I think their guy was a tight end number last year, 83. Connor Heyward. And Philly, they’re going back to it. So it’s a good number, but it’s nowhere near what it was with the Lorenzo Neals and that age.
Dunne: First of all, you mentioned Tennessee, and my mind goes to a Titans football practice. I’m imagining you and (linebacker) David Long Jr. clashing like a couple of rams. I got to know him for a piece here. He is wired very different. A violent individual. Did you guys ever lock horns?
Blasingame: Absolutely. And he’s definitely violent. He plays with a violence that — and this is no offense to him — but, for his size, you would think he would be more finesse and he definitely uses angles to his advantage. When he’s spilling something, he definitely knows how to get skinny. But when it comes to making a decision and going, he’s going. And there's no hesitation in him. And so yeah, we definitely had a couple. We definitely had a couple. Those camps were some good camps.
Dunne: At Vanderbilt, you went to college not really thinking initially that the NFL is a career. For those who don’t know, you are exceptionally bright. I think you wanted to be a doctor? A surgeon?
Blasingame: Initially I did want to be a surgeon. So one of my role models, no pun intended, was Myron Rolle. Safety, went to Florida States from New Jersey, eventual Rhodes Scholar. Now, he's a neurosurgeon. And so I just always really liked his story. My Mom is a foot doctor, she’s a surgeon as well. And so I always thought that that would be something really cool to do. I always had an interest in biology and the sciences. I was on the pre-med track. Somewhere along the line, I ran into Calculus. I was good at the sciences, the neuro and stuff like that, but I ran into calculus and we weren’t allowed to use a calculator. So that hit me pretty hard. And that was about the time the football field started picking up.
I was doing Medicine, Health and Society. It’s kind of like a public health degree. And so I went the healthcare administration route and started taking more business classes, corporate strategy stuff, and saw that I really liked business a lot more than I liked the science side of pre-med and everything. And then I ended up getting my masters in leadership and organizational performance from the Peabody School of Education. And so from there, it just really shifted my whole mindset to being more interested in business and running business and looking at the markets.
Yeah, I came in wanting to be a physician, wanting to be a surgeon. I definitely thought that if I did everything I could have a shot at the NFL. I knew that you'll always have your drafted guys and stuff like that. Shout out to Coach Mason. He told me this when I was getting recruited. He told me, “You’ll have to cut your teeth on special teams first.” He told me that as a recruit. And that’s one of the things that made me excited about coming because I knew he was always going to be honest with me, so I knew special teams was going to have to be a big role in me getting on the field early. And then once you start to hear guys come back and talk to you and coaches who have been in the league, they say, “Oh man, special teams is huge.” And you realize, “OK, I’m pretty good at special teams. I can go make some plays.” I made a big play my redshirt freshman year, a big forced fumble vs. Mizzou even though they overturned it. So I always thought, “I have a chance.” And then you just keep chugging away and then you just get more confirmation that you’ll have a chance. And so it’s not like I was ever pessimistic about my chances. I just always was hedging my best. I always wanted to hedge against the fact that if I don’t make it, I still want to be OK.
Dunne: I can remember being an intern covering the Packers training camp. This would’ve been 2007, 2008, and talking to Brandon Miree and John Kuhn. A long time ago, we were talking to them about how their position is going extinct. That’s what we do in the media. It’s all fear-based and “Oh my God, how are you going to survive a 90-man training camp? Nobody wants you.” But if you’re unselfish, if you’re going to do stuff that nobody else wants to do, you can carve out an NFL career for yourself. You’ve got to have certain characteristics to you to survive. It seems like you found what those qualities need to be, and good coaches are going to find a way to give you a roster spot and, hell, suit you up in a Super Bowl down there in the Superdome against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Blasingame: One, I appreciate you saying that. And two, it is definitely about just finding those little spaces where you’ve got to give up some of that ego. Everybody wants to be the guy, everybody wants to touch the ball, but there's only one ball to go around. I had the opportunity to make some plays on special teams early in my career, and luckily I was locked in enough that I didn’t make very many mistakes. And so that’s something that's pretty valuable in the league. If a coach could put you in and know, “Hey, this guy can play.” For example, special teams. This guy can play punt, wing, he can play tackle, he’ll line up at PP and call the huddle because he knows the scheme. And he’s going to put his face in the fan on kickoff. That’s valuable. And so if you want to play, those are the things you’re doing. I was blessed enough to have the opportunities to show that I was willing to do it, and it paid off. It wasn’t always pretty, but it definitely paid off.
Dunne: I feel like there’s some wisdom that everybody can take from that in any industry. There’s probably so many college grads, so many people in the real world that instantly want to be Fortune 500 multimillionaires. But if you figure out something that nobody else can do and nobody else wants to do and you can make a living.
Blasingame: Yeah, definitely. I agree with that. And as you were bringing that up, I was kind of just thinking about some of the stuff that I’m reading right now in terms of business. And you’re definitely right. Not everybody’s going to be the private equity guy. But you can find a niche. Niches make money, too, and that’s with everything. That’s a big part of what I was able to do in college and able to do in my NFL career so far. And so we’ll just see how it goes and whatever’s next, keep having those same values and using that same system to try to be successful.
Dunne: Because at Vanderbilt, you could have told coaches to get bent: “I’m a safety. I’m Kam Chancellor. I’m going to take people out.” That competitiveness could come out and you could try to stick it to them — “watch me.” It is a fine line because as a professional athlete, you need some ego. You need some of that alpha, but also you need to adapt and evolve and adjust and figure out your position where, “OK, I’ll go to running back, fullback, figure it out there and look at you. You get to Vikings camp and you just keep going and going and going and going. What is that fine line too?
Blasingame: I think part of the ego was like, “Alright. You moved me here? I’m going to go do that and be great at it anyway.” And also, I’m a numbers guy. This is not me trying to toot my own horn, but I feel like I'm good at spotting trends and noticing trends, right? So yeah, Kam Chancellor, LaRon Landry, that was the early 2010s. That type of safety was that game. But the game changes. And so I can look at numbers and I can look at, “OK, the safeties that are getting drafted in today’s league or the league when I was in a freshman or going into my sophomore year, they’re a little bit smaller and a little bit faster.” You’re not really getting those big hard hitters. And then if you are, those guys are becoming box outside linebackers in the league.
And then I looked at a guy like Ryan Shazier. I always tried to find somebody in whatever position I moved to. Who has similar measurables to me and similar physical attributes? And I’m by no means saying I was a Ryan Shazier type of linebacker, but just in terms of speed, length of size at that time, you look at it and you say, “OK, well this guy’s had success. And then there’s other guys in that same model that have had success. I have a higher likelihood of having success here than I do there. OK, I’m cool moving there.” And then when it comes to running back, you look at the guys in front of you, I had some really great linebackers in front of me. A little bit longer arms. A little bit taller. I feel like I played very physically, but you need a little bit more than that. And then I looked at running back, OK, my size for running back in the league. I looked at guys like Jordan Howard who had good careers, one-cut downhill guys. And I was like, “OK, if I could do that and play special teams, I got a pretty good chance anyway. And if I need to go back to linebacker and it doesn’t work after the spring and go back to linebacker.” So it's really about playing the percentages and probabilities. Trying to give myself the best shot. And so I think it was pragmatic in that sense, but I think it was also a little bit of like, “Alright, you going to move me? I’m just going to go into this room and do my thing because I’m a dog anyway. And whether I’m a running back or a linebacker, I’m going to still get on special teams and clap something.” So you hand me the ball, I’m going to go hit something, I’m going to go run over something, run past something. I always had that, “Alright, whatever you say, I can do. Whatever gives you the best chance to play. I just want to play.” And so yeah, I think it was more so that too. I just wanted to touch the field. I just wanted to be on the field, help the team and not be the Kool-Aid drinker.
Dunne: I also love that moment where you said there was a Calculus class. So you’re going to be a surgeon and that is a totally different career trek you could have taken if you leaned into that 100 percent. But I’m just picturing you in this class. I was there at Syracuse in many classes like, “Shit, no thanks. Where’s my slip to get the hell out of this?” What class was it?
Blasingame: I was doing really well in school. I think hubris got me a little bit. I loaded up my schedule, I took neuro and calc at the same time.
Dunne: And we’re not talking about Alabama or LSU. This is Vanderbilt. A different world academically for athletes.
Blasingame: That was a mistake, man. So I was taking neuro and doing pretty good at that. … I loaded up my schedule up, man, and ran into a wall. Couldn’t use a calculator. We were doing some stuff that I didn’t know was involved in Calc I, and maybe it was just the professor I had, but I had already dropped one class that semester and I couldn’t drop another one. And so I ended up just having to take that L. It was tough. It was right around the time where I was like, “I got a chance at this football thing. Let me see what I could do. I can always go back and get those prerequisites.” The math one was what got me.
Dunne: I wonder what it’s like for kids today though. There’s a clip that was going viral last week. A kid graduated and held up the screen of his laptop thanking AI for giving him all the answers. How sad. I feel like a middle aged curmudgeony old man, but can people just use AI and cheat their way through college? It’s a different world. I’m thinking of our kids. Do we even want them in college?
Blasingame: It’s unfortunate. I think AI is cool in the sense that it’s a tool that can be an assister. But I think the technology too is growing in the sense that you’re going to be able to detect if somebody's using it. And it’s not like this foolproof thing. You could ask it for some research. If you’re using chat GPT or something, it makes errors. And so I was actually on a plane headed down to Miami for a wedding. I was sitting next to a professor and he was reading a book on AI. I took a picture of it if anybody wants to read it. It’s called Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor. But really it’s only as smart as the people using it. So you can ask it to write you this 15-page paper on Medieval Age Italy. But if you don’t know what you’re looking at, you’re probably going to get caught. There’s technology now that can say, “Oh, well they used AI to write 25 percent of this paper.” You really just did yourself a disservice if you paid for that degree. You didn’t really get much out of it. I definitely think it’ll balance itself out because everything’s a pendulum. You’ll get this big AI — “AI is the best thing that’s happened since sliced bread — and then people will get really hurt by it and they’ll bring the pitchforks and the shovels and the lanterns and we’ll want to kill it. So just like everything with phones. I’m sure as you know, having children, you think having a computer is the best thing. But all of a sudden we don’t want our kids exposed to that and having that, we see what it does to their attention span and their ability to emotionally regulate. So I think AI will have that same type of pendulum swing effect. I just think we're at the very beginning of it right now and people are just so hyped up about it too because of the money-making implications.
Dunne: Yeah, we’ve got three kids now here at HQ and I pray that by the time they’re teenagers, some type of digital nuke hits and eliminates most of social media and the way kids are living. If dumb phones are mainstream, great. But even no phones. Literally smell the roses. Let’s go outside and take in the world vs. looking at a screen of any kind. I get it. It’s a necessary evil. But it’s OK to be different. That’ll be our message to our kids. It’s OK to be different than all of your peers. Because it’s horrifying. You go to Starbucks, you sit down and there’s a Dad who comes in with a few kids and they’re all on screens. They’re not even talking to each other. What a great way to piss your life away. It’s heartbreaking to see.
Blasingame: It definitely is heartbreaking. Because I grew up with a phone probably since elementary school, but it was a flip phone just to call and get rides and stuff. And so I feel like I was on the beginning of the screens, and so I’m chronically online. But one of the things that I’m seeing now is that there is this pendulum where people are going to the dump phones. Some people are even going all the way back to a flip phone and just like, “Hey, I just need it to make calls.” So I think we’ll get there.
Dunne: So, it’s a good time to tell everyone to download the Substack app and read all of our stuff. Our business is on a phone. But I want the thing to go away.
Blasingame: It’s that digital marketplace. So I guess we should be careful what we ask for.
Dunne: If we went back to hard copy newspapers, I’d be all about that.
Blasingame: I have an app. There’s a Wall Street Journal print app. They have an app that looks like the newspaper, you can scroll through it and read through the newspaper. I found myself almost about to subscribe to get a real newspaper to read it. Almost. I didn’t do it.
Dunne: If we can dive right back into the football. What a pendulum swing for you to be living in the world of the Chicago Bears and then land on the Philadelphia Eagles and play in the playoffs and get to New Orleans and win a Super Bowl. What was this past year like for you?
Blasingame: It was a lot, man. It was a lot. It was a lot, dog. No offense to anybody in Chicago. I have a tremendous amount of respect for that whole organization from the top to the bottom and everybody that I got to play for got to play with. But that last year, you could see the writing on the wall. You’re fighting to stay alive, fighting to prove your value on special teams and on offense. I had a couple of things that sidelined me for a few weeks at a time. And in the NFL, sometimes that’s enough. All it takes is a few weeks. Especially when the OC doesn’t necessarily use it historically. Shane didn’t historically use the fullback a lot and credit to him and everybody who tried to work it in. It was just kind of fitting a round peg in a square hole. So that was a lot emotionally because then — where part of it’s out of your control — you feel like you have more control than you do. As athletes, you try to take 100 percent accountability and it is tough. It’s like, “What more can I do? What more can I do?” And so when you’re going through that emotionally, it’s tough. And eventually getting cut after the London game, that was tough. As football players, as athletes, every time we get laid off, it’s public news. So you got people calling you. People calling, “Hey man, I’m praying for you.” And while I appreciate it, it’s also like, “Man, I’m not dead. I’m not sick. I lost a job.”
Dunne: People are treating you like you literally died.
Blasingame: So having to deal with the ego bruise of that and learn from that. Before Philly called, I was like, “Hey, that’s it. I’m out.”
Dunne: Really? You were done?
Blasingame: I was going to be. We were visiting some of my wife’s family in South Carolina. My agent called and was like, “Hey man, do you want to go win a ring with Philly?” And I’m like, “Man, what are you talking about? They don’t even use a fullback.” And he was like, “Yeah, they just started trying to use one.” And I was about to say no honestly. Because my daughter was due in late December, and this was late November. So we’ve got about a month to go and I honestly was going to be like, “Man,” this is going to sound emotional, but man, you’re heartbroken. Your heart’s not in it anymore. You’re just ready to say no. But credit to my wife. She was like, “No, I’ve got a good feeling about this one.” Because we sat and gave it a day. It was maybe Saturday that they called. We watched them play the Ravens. I was like, “I like this brand of football.” It’s physical, nasty football. And she was like, “I’ve got a good feeling about this. I’m OK if you go. I’ve got my mom and my sister to help me with the pregnancy. You can just fly back.” And so I don’t know many women who would do that being damn near nine months pregnant.
Dunne: We just lived it. It’s a different world. I can’t imagine what they going through at the end.
Blasingame: And so I got there. Lived in a hotel. And once I got over that hump of not being home, it was amazing to feel like that playing football again, I mean just that team and just how close they were, how much fun they had. How much fun we had? I hadn’t felt that since college. I’ve been on some great teams. Tennessee was great. I loved a lot of the guys in Chicago that I played with. Built great relationships. But to see the whole team love each other like that and play hard like that and have fun? If I have an opportunity to play this year, cool. If not, that would be a great way to remember the game on. To be able to play with guys who love the game, play hard and just have a lot of fun doing it. Being able to have fun doing something you love when you haven’t been having fun. It’s something you can’t really pay for.
Dunne: Where were you in South Carolina? Paint the picture when you get this call. What’s going through your mind when you’re having that conversation with your agent?
Blasingame: So my agent is Blake Baratz. A great dude. He calls me. We’re in a hotel just hanging out. I had actually bought some eggnog. I guess it was that close to the holidays. I bought some eggnog. I’d never had eggnog before. I’m chilling. I’m reading a book, like a cool little fiction book, just relaxing, just kind of being done.
Dunne: Fiction, not even nonfiction. You’re taking yourself to fantasy land at that point.
Blasingame: I hadn’t read a fiction book in years, dog. That’s the kind of mind space I was in.
Dunne: What book was it?
Blasingame: It was called “The President’s Lawyer.” A book about a political murder plot. It was cool. But yeah, that’s what it was — visiting family. I had worked out here and there just to stay ready physically in case somebody called. But nothing extremely gritting my teeth. I was just taking some time and that’s kind of where I was, man. The rest is history.
Dunne: So at some point it clicks in your mind: “I’ve got to get there. I’ve got to join this team. I want to keep playing.” It’s not like other professions, though. You’re bashing into other 250-, 275-pound, 300-pound men for a living. Special teams, on offense. You’ve got to get to a place mentally to want to throw yourself back into that world one more time when you are contemplating retirement and these other interests outside of football.
Blasingame: That was honestly the tough part. Guys joke all the time about being in a hotel room for camp and OTAs. You get in that hotel room and the walls start closing in. So I definitely had to go through a process of amping myself back up to do that, to even play special teams. So I was on the practice squad. But when they brought me in — you know how the elevations work and everything — I was elevated for that first game. I didn’t know if I would be ready to play a whole four quarters. But it worked out. We ended up having to re-kick on punt one time and I was gassed. But it played out. It took a lot. The first few weeks was tough. I was having a 2-year-old, about to have an infant. There’s a lot in the mental space that made it pretty tough, but ended up pushing through, relying on faith heavy and made it through and the reward was definitely sweet at the end.
Dunne: When was your baby born?
Blasingame: New Year’s Eve. December 31st.
Dunne: How were you able to stay in touch with your wife and contribute and be there — if not physically, emotionally — as much as possible?
Blasingame: FaceTime all the time. Those phones we were just talking about. We’d FaceTime all the time. And then I flew back twice. So one time we thought it was about to happen, it didn’t happen, flew back and it didn’t happen for another six or seven days. I was flying back and trying to be there for her. A big shout out to Coach Sirianni and Howie and all the coaches there. Just the support of understanding: “Go do that.” Yeah, we got something big we’re doing here, but that’s family. That’s bigger. They were very supportive and all of my teammates were super supportive. It just made it a lot easier. That team had a lot of fun. They loved the game, but more importantly, they loved each other. And so that was a really fun experience to have and a really fun team to be a part of.
Dunne: How will you always remember that Philadelphia Eagles team? Is it that? There was something special to this group where you’re facing the best player on the planet — maybe the GOAT when it’s all said and done — and I think by the time he passed midfield, you guys were up by what, 30, 35 points? That was an ass-kicking in every sense.
Blasingame: It’s exactly what you said. There are not many games like that, let alone Super Bowls. And so being on the sideline with a couple minutes to go, knowing it’s yours? I can’t even think of the word. It wouldn’t even be “happiness.” But the elation, the joy that the team was experiencing when that clock was ticking down. The joy watching them hit that man all those times. I don’t think there’s much that gets close to that, man. I’ll always remember that. I think the word will be joy. Everybody played with so much joy and it came out during the Super Bowl.
Dunne: Joy… and a lot of violence. How is it different there in Philadelphia. It’s one thing to watch it on TV or up in the press box, but when you’re on the sideline — and you’re hearing it, you’re watching it, you’re witnessing it, whether it’s the offensive or defensive lines — how was it different in Philadelphia?
Blasingame: It was different because it was all the time. It was just so consistent and so overwhelming. Jalen Carter? I hate to be presumptive and I hate to jump the gun and I know a lot of people have said it. But if that guy continues to do what he does, he’ll wear a gold jacket. He’s going to wear a gold jacket. He’s that good. Nolan Smith is violent, bro. Talk about splattering pullers. Zack Baun — intense. The defensive backs. Even down to the special teams — Will Shipley. It was just so consistent all the way around the ball. Oren Burks. I played with him in college. That first hit vs. Green Bay? The forced fumble on the kickoff? That set the tone, man, that set the tone. So I think that would be the difference. It came from everywhere. It came from everywhere from special teams, from defense and then the offense. Just the sheer size and physicality of the O-Line. You’ve got tight ends running down the field, blocking for receivers, blocking for the running back. It was just so consistent and so all the time. Yeah, I’ve experienced it. I’ve seen overwhelming force from a defense and from an offense at times. But it was just all the time in Philadelphia.
Dunne: Jalen Carter in a gold jacket. It’s a different level of violence with him, isn’t it? I’m picturing him smacking Patrick Mahomes across the head. What makes him special?
Blasingame: Obviously it’s the physical tools. He’s built like a tank. He’s so solid. I hit him one time in practice by accident — kind of bumped into him — and I’m like, “God damn.” He’s a solid human. But the football IQ. The different things. Understanding, OK, there was a play vs. the Rams where his football IQ made the play. They were stunting him all game. He fakes the stunt, goes and makes the game-winning sack. Those two things: God-given ability and football IQ. Some of the things he does, you can’t coach. You love to watch it.
Dunne: And you’re a Super Bowl champ. That’s a hell of a way to go out. What was that feeling like?
Blasingame: After the year, it still feels like there’s a haze over it. I’ve got this locker plaque up here. Like, ‘Damn, did that really just happen after how the year started? Did that really just happen?” I’m staying ready. I’m lifting. I’m training. And if it happens, it happens. I’d love to go and play and be there for a team and do my job and have fun and win games. I would love to. But if it doesn’t, what can you say, man?
Dunne: You thought you were possibly done down there in South Carolina when Blake gave you a call. So you never know?
Blasingame: It might work out in a way that you can’t see. That’s how God works, right? He works things out to where you never see him playing out like that and then they play out like that. I could be sitting here saying, “I don’t know.” And he could be like, “Hey, go back. I’ve got more for you to do.” So we’ll see what opportunities pop up. If they do, I’m going to be the same me. I’m going to go in there, compete hard, stick my face in the fan, make some plays, and do whatever I can do to help a team. But if not, God has already been good.
Dunne: Where is home for you and what are you contemplating post-NFL? I imagine those thoughts are going through your mind.
Blasingame: I think about it every day. I live in Georgia now. Post-NFL life, I would give you the details of what I’m thinking. But sometimes I don't like to do that. I will say I do want to be in a position to help athletes financially. I think that I’ll have an opportunity to do that and to help athletes be solidified off the field. You see a lot of times — especially with all of this NIL — guys are signing bad contracts and they don’t really understand what it takes to project their future earnings realistically and to understand what making whatever they get, whether it’s $80,000, 90,000 or a couple hundred thousand per year in college. Whatever I do next, I’ll put myself in a position to help young athletes. And not even just young athletes, but to help people financially. Because I found throughout my time in the league that I’m really passionate about that and it kind of gives me the same feeling I had about football when I was young. I wake up, I read about it, I watch it on TV. I probably watch CNBC now more than I watch ESPN. I probably haven’t turned on ESPN in months. I think the only time I watch sports is during football season. I love baseball and I can watch it in person. I just can’t watch it on TV. Basketball, I didn’t even watch the Finals. I kept up with it through a group chat that I had with some of my boys. Watch more women’s basketball and softball than anything. So I’ve gotten really interested in it. I love keeping up with it and I think that I have the insights and the temperament to be able to help people. So we’ll see if I can find a lane and carve me out a niche like we talked about earlier. Find a niche and provide value in it.
Dunne: That’s your superpower. You know where you are needed. So many players across the NFL, where they come from, they’ve got cousins and uncles and aunts and parents and friends and brothers and sisters and friends and friends of friends who — once they even have an inkling of a shot at an opportunity at maybe they’ll be on a 90-man roster — their phones are blowing up. Whether it’s subtle or direct, it’s easy for somebody with a kind heart to send money to everybody. All the time.
Blasingame: Absolutely.
Dunne: And then it’s gone. This NFL contract that everybody thinks is a lot of money, it evaporates in thin air.
Blasingame: I don’t mean to sound out of touch, but it’s really easy to spend a couple hundred thousand dollars. It is really easy to run through it. You get you a car or two, you buy a house that maybe you can’t afford. That thing is gone in two years. My first year on practice squad, I probably walked away with a couple hundred thousand dollars. If I never played again from that point, yeah, it might look good when people read: Oh, he signs this three-year, one-point million whatever. But I don’t think people are factoring in just how long the lifespans have gotten, just how big of a factor inflation is, how much things cost. I think it’s really important that we get that information out and share that. And one thing my parents always said when they were giving me wisdom was like, “Hey, you can’t say I didn’t tell you.” There’s so much information out there. Some bad information. Some good information. But we just want to make sure that the good information is louder. And a lot of times, the good information is a lot quieter than the loud information. Part of my goal is — however I position myself in the future — is to make sure that the good information is a little bit louder than the bad information. A little bit more pointed. A little bit better marketed than it has been.
Dunne: Well, you're going to make a difference. We hope to see you on a football field, but you clearly have a vision and a lane and a way to change lives for the better.
Blasingame: Man, this is cool, man. Everybody always says “You want to get people talking, ask ‘em about themselves.” So I appreciate you giving me a little time to talk about some of the stuff that's important to me in my journey, man, I really appreciate it.
Dunne: Is there a book that people should read? We’ve got a lot of readers that listen to this and read at Go Long. Is there a book you want to steer them toward? You’ve got a lot behind you.
Blasingame: This is a really good one right here by Morgan Housel. It’s called “The Psychology of Money.” It’s a really good read. It’s a really easy read and he doesn’t just talk about money. He distills a lot of his thoughts and his themes from different historical ebbs and flows of the market. There was another one, it’s almost like a textbook. It’s called “Money Master the Game.” That’s Tony Robbins. That’s a good one. Oh, here’s another one, too. “Same as Ever” by Morgan Housel. “The Psychology of Money” and “Same as Ever,” those are two of my favorite books that I read last year. Same as Ever talks about the financial markets and the animal spirits and the ebbs and flows, but the tagline says: “A guide to what never changes.” So it really just talks about human psychology and how that affects how we operate inside of markets.
Dunne: Everybody check it out. Those are great recommendations. I just got into David Goggins’ second book: “Never Finished.” I feel like I should run through that wall over there. Are you into Goggins at all?
Blasingame: I am. I watch a lot of his videos. He’s an interesting dude. The 100-mile races, I don’t know if I’ll get there, but a lot of the stuff he talks about is spot on.
Dunne: Fantastic. Thanks so much for hanging out and you are welcome back any day, any time. You're obviously just at the start of a life where you’re going to be changing lives.
Blasingame: Appreciate you.