You're listening to Draftkings Network.

This is the Dan Levator show with the Stu Guts podcast.

I'm having a pop tart.

Love it.

What flavor are we talking here?

Strawberry unfrosted?

And you seem like a room temp guy.

You know what? Let's start him right there. No, let's do this right now. Let's do it right now. Listen to me. Yes, listen, Peter King, this is.

I do not like the frosted Pop Tarts, Peter.

Just blasphemous. What? Listen, Peter King is going out on top, his way. He always did it his way. And at the end with punctuation. As a journalist, he's going out eating pop tarts, and he's going to be our pop tart expert right now and tell us why. He's the best of all the known pop tart eaters. But in the moment, this is what we're going to do. Peter King.

Yes, the last journalist.

Yes, the last great journalist. The last great football man from a different time when Lambeau field mattered. Frozen tundra eats pop tarts. Where real men reside in yesterday's America, Peter King has outlived every football culture and goes out at the very top. What an ending. Peter, I don't know how hard it was to hit send on that column, but I will tell you, you carried yourself with grace throughout, and it has been overwhelming to watch an outpouring for a media member from other media members saluting you for your kindness and for being a good person and trying to help others for protecting the craft and doing your job honorably. I don't know what the best compliments you've gotten over the last few days, but thank you for doing your job as professionally well as it can be done in the previous age or in the modern age. Thank you for your work, sir.

Well, thanks a million, Dan. And I'm just fortunate that I'm the son of Kenneth and Phyllis King of Enfield, Connecticut, who raised me to know a giving person whenever I could. And I'm grateful to be the husband of Anne King, who always put everybody in the family before her. So I had some great examples to follow, and it has been humbling the last 24 or so hours to hear from Everybody. It's just nice. And look, Dan never had a bad day in this job. It's the greatest job a sports writer could ever want to have. What could be better than sitting in Andy Reed's office for 10 minutes alone with me and my videographer, Andy Kobletz, just recording everything about Tom and Jerry the winning play in the Super bowl and then 5 hours later telling America about it in this mean, how could you want anything more in your life if you're a sports writer that likes to get things first? So anyway, I've had a fun run.

Oh, no. But being, I don't know if you're being modest or you don't want to be the story, but I just want to salute this part of you because to keep these relationships with the Andy Reeds, to keep the curiosity, to keep progressing the game, to keep loving the game and to have gratitude about your profession as it crumbles around you and you climb at every level to greater heights. As your magazine love falls apart, the Sports Illustrated brand becomes something that you can no longer take pride in. And you climb to the top of your career, retire on top, and then also get to say, and no one has an unkind word to say about this man's climb. Like, that's the rarest of things, Peter, nobody gets what you got yesterday, which is the eulogy while you're still living.

Yeah, I know I did. I felt like I was at my own funeral. Honestly, I couldn't believe some of these things. And Dan, I've done it for so long that a lot of the things I had forgotten, a lot of the stories that were told, I said, wow, I hadn't remembered that. And I just think also, honestly, I was really fortunate in 1989, Dan, you remember this? In 1989, Sports Illustrated was bigger than ESPN. My second year there, I went in to cover the Dallas Cowboys as they were starting to climb the ladder, and Michael Irvin said to me, my God, Peter King's here, man. And he yelled in the locker room, we're in a Sports Illustrated game. And that is something that I was fortunate to be able to be in on the ground floor with so many players who became great players, writing the first long piece about Brett Favre doing a lot of things like that. I met Andy Reed when he was a tight ends coach in 1995 in Green Bay. And he came up to me and he said, when I went to college, I wanted the job that you have now.

I wanted to cover football for Sports Illustrated. I understand, but getting all this praise, it's wonderful. I never would have been in a position to get that praise if I hadn't come along at the absolute perfect time in this business for somebody like me.

Peter, why now?

I've done it for so long. I've covered the NFL for 40 years and I have started to feel this fall, I started to feel I don't care anything about these coaching searches. I don't care. And I thought of, I had been thinking about doing this, actually, since last offseason, and I knew it was time when I thought to myself, oh, God, no, I do not want to go to the scouting combine. And it isn't that I don't like the scouting combine, okay, because you get FaceTime with the most important people in the game. But I loved it five years ago. But I have gotten to the point in life where you know what true enjoyment is? Being asleep at 915 at night because I'm tired. And when you're at the scouting combine, you're at a bar at 01:00 in the morning every night. You just are. And I said, oh, my God, I don't want to do that. So that's when I kind of knew it was time to go.

Peter, I noticed you're wearing a wake forest sweater there. Do you agree with Jay Billis that all those kids should be in prison?

Silent protest in prison. I mean, I just think the ultimate example of what a gelding organization the NCAA is is that everybody in college basketball says, oh, geez, there's nothing we can do about courtstorming. It's like in America now after there's a mass shooting. Oh, what can we do about mass shootings? This is the United States of America. People. You can do something about bad things. Do something about storming. Don't allow it. And the students who do it either get expelled or something happens to right now, everybody looks the other way. It's a dumb practice, and it's terrible that it takes somebody to get hurt. For people to really think about doing.

Peter King standing for something. Peter King wants it.

I feel like Clint Eastwood and Grand Torino.

You look like them, too.

I know. I mean, I'm an old man. Old men yell about things that they're mad about. So that's what I just did.

Speaking of old men, Peter, I have a question. As somebody who's of a retirement age himself, I want to ask you very honestly how difficult and how emotional was it for you to finally say, I'm done with the career that has defined me for 40 years?

I think it will definitely be difficult, because when July 30 comes around and I'm not going to training camps, which is really, that month is like my favorite time of the year. Going to training camps, traveling across the country, that'll be the hard time. But listen, I look at it this way. I haven't had any new, real new adventure in my life, and I have no idea what it's going to be. Maybe I'll drive a school bus. I have absolutely no idea. Maybe we'll move. My wife and I live in Brooklyn. We haven't really had time to process it and think about it. But I don't fear this at all. It's just the next chapter and I have had a lot of fun doing this job and we'll see what happens. But no, I don't have any real fear. I'm not crying about it. Anything. It's just. It's life.

Dan, you should invite Peter to Africa. I mean, on your safari with.

You asked my two daughters. Who? I haven't seen my grandkids enough. One is in Seattle, two are in Berkeley. I don't know that a trip to Africa would be pleasing to them when I've been ignoring my grandchildren too much.

Okay, but hold on. I'd like to go back a second, please. At Levitard show. Do you believe that Peter King is full of shit when he says he might drive a school bus in the future? At Levitard, of course.

I just mean. I just truly don't know what.

I'm not going to be driving a school bus. Look, you're a legend and you're grateful and you say all the right things, and you are so humble about your greatness and how grateful you are. But, lord, football made you a king, sir. King of content, king of money. Yes. King of empire building. And you are retiring at the top of your game. Stop with the humble nonsense. You built a brand that outlasted Sports Illustrated.

Yeah, well, Dan, that was another thing, 1997, when everybody at Sports Illustrated still feels like, oh, we are the great and powerful Oz here, still thinking they're more important than ESPN. And maybe at the time they were, but it was getting close. But I'll tell you, I got asked, would you do this column on this new website we have? I didn't even have an email address when I started this column Monday morning quarterback. I had to get one in order to deal with the Internet. But anyway, the one thing I would say is I said yes. And it's one of the things I try to tell young journalists now, if somebody asks you to do something, you should say yes, unless you absolutely cannot do it. And the reason is you have no idea in five years, seven years, nine years, how stories will be told in journalism. Is there going to be some new way? Will everyone out there, every media person, have a streaming channel? I don't know, but you better be open to wanting to do different things. And I was about the only person at Sports Illustrated who said yes when they said, would you do a column for this new thing called a website that we're going to have?

And I got lucky. It hit a jackpot.

Peter, I'm assuming that you are retiring but not necessarily from the business. You will do what you want. You will not be driving a school bus. But I'm guessing you might do some creative things because you have access to these football artifacts and you have an uncommon trust with the information that's been bestowed upon you because of the relationships over 44 years of doing this. But you've getting all of this praise from all over the journalism landscape. And Chris Cody, child nematism, child of Greg Cody, wants to ask you a tough question because we're tired of the softballs and everybody loving you up and we want an answer on this question as everyone's throwing you flowers today.

Yeah, I'm ready. All the kind things you heard from everyone that came out of the woodworks yesterday. And you heard from who? Didn't you hear from who were you sitting around and you're like, where's this?

This person should have reached out or more. This person needed to say more.

Name, name.

This person needed to say more. Did they not know that I.

Well, no, honestly, honestly, as of right now, I have 1400 emails and about 400 I have not looked at all of them. I've been busy.

That's disrespectful.

Hold on.

I'm sorry. Peter, we're here honoring you and Chris Cody feels the need to hit you with a look at me, Louie, because you told us how many emails you got in an interview about when I'm talking to him the whole time about how moving all this shit is.

I don't know. But honestly, Dan, I don't know the answer to the question because I don't really know everyone who has contacted me. So I don't know. Who hasn't contacted who didn't say enough.

Who didn't say enough? Did Shefter say enough? Did Rappaport say enough? Were you walking around your living room saying, I birthed all of you? You too, Florio. No one came before me. I'm the first. I'm the original. All the rest of you are imitators, poor copycats.

Now, I'll tell you one thing, those guys have advanced the ball. I mean, will McDonough started know me and a few others. Len Pascarelli and Fred Edelstein and a bunch of the.

Peter, come on.

Peter.

You were the best of them. Peter, can you say it at the end? Are you going to be Peter? This doesn't diminish anyone else. You were the best and the original gangster pioneer. All the football like that was McDonough.

McDonough was the OG. He was the OG.

So he always will be.

Good timing.

What happened, Greg?

What do you mean, what happened? It's just the genuine contributions of one Greg Cody. Ill time.

Who said too much? Peter, who said too much was over the top with their praise for you.

Too much. Just trying to get in the glory of. Hey, this is King's last day. Let me get some of these.

Hey, listen, you can't say too much about me. That's how great I am.

What? Wow.

You can't say too much about me. Dan, you've said it. I'm so incredibly wonderful. These things should continue for the next six months. All the praise, obviously.

Congratulations. 30 seconds or less. I'm glad you made time for us today. I mean, sports writer for 44 years for Sports Illustrated. I don't believe there will be another of these. I think he carved a very unique path. So thank you, Peter. And it's always good talking to you.

All the best, Dan, and all the best, guys. Great being on with you. Take care.

Thank you, Peter.

Happy trails, Peter.

Legend. Legend.

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Don Lebotard.

It's been a lovely cruise. Oh, man. That's my outro. As my casket is being lowered. Jesus. I'll have been cremated a week before, but we'll do the casket thing just for show. And as my casket is being lowered.

Empty casket?

Yeah, close. Just for show.

Well, what's the redundancy there?

We're going to put on a public display.

Yeah, naturally.

Stugats, what do you do with the ashes?

You're going on a lovely cruise.

Exactly. Maybe we'll throw them over. My wife will throw them overboard, I would assume, with her new husband.

This is the Don Levatar show with the stugats. Stugats. I am genuinely excited about a guest we're going to have here in a little bit. It's not just because Jimmy Graham is University of Miami royalty, really led a revolution at the position of. Okay, the tight ends are now going to be basketball power forwards, and Drew Brees is going to be so accurate that you're going to be able to send these power forwards across the middle. They're not basketball players, but they can play football. And it makes you wonder what LeBron and Shaq would have been as a tight end. Would they have been Kelsey squared? Because that's what Gronk became with Brady at this position. Look, this is an oversimplification, obviously, but the tight ends became. They morphed into these wide receiver bodies where all of them are like, okay, is this Julio Jones or is this something bigger? Tight ends aren't supposed to be. They're not guardable at the size. Jimmy Graham led that revolution.

He was one of those guys. Yes. Who led that revolution at that position.

Yes. No. Yes. Fair enough. Right before him, and there are plenty before him. We can go back to both Kellen Winslows. I'm just saying that as part of what became a revolution at the tight end position, this guy is doing that. But then I learned the other day that the five time Pro Bowler is also. And I didn't understand why he was doing this. He's going a million plus rowing yards nonstop across the Arctic Ocean. It takes 15 days. He's already done it, so he's returned from it. We were trying to get him to come on the show, and I think he was going to come on from the rowing. So I'd like to hear some of the details of what he's doing and why.

Second? Biggest calves I've ever seen in person.

Who's first, though?

No boog shambi.

What?

No Alonzo morning. No boog.

I'm with Mike on this.

No, you can't agree with Boog Shambi.

If you try to take a biopsy of that calf, it will break the instrument.

When Jamal Mashburn fell on the side of the court in a heat game where Alonzo morning was on Jeff van Gundy's ankle, he thought when he saw Alonzo morning from that angle that a police officer on a horse had been on the court.

Have you seen Boogshambi leaning over a bar?

You're not going to be Boog shambi's calves are not going to be bigger than Alonzo morning.

No, we respectfully disagree.

Yeah, come on.

Agree to disagree. Yeah.

I'm amazed you've noticed.

You haven't.

No, I haven't.

Seen those things from the front.

I think Pablo Torre raves about his own calves, don't you? Have you not heard Pablo Torrey? No way. Pablo has good calves.

See yourself out of this conversation. You don't belong Pablo.

Dan's right, though. Pablo does claim to have good.

Really?

Yeah, yeah.

They're good calves and then they're massive calves.

Right.

He's not in the company of Jimmy Graham and Bouquembi.

I have nice calves, right?

You do.

Surprisingly so. I mean, I'm not going to say he's among the biggest I've ever seen.

But you're in that Pablo class where.

It'S just like, whoa, I didn't know this guy was cooking quite like that.

They're chiseled, yes.

Definition, no.

You got kind of like meatbone cat.

Yeah.

There was a picture. You took a picture of him not too long ago.

Chiseled like the rock.

He's built them up, wandering grassy fields, following the dead in flip flops.

Yes.

Everybody's got good calves.

I have bad calves.

Everybody walks.

I'm fine with my bad calves. I have chicken legs.

Let me see your calves.

No, I don't want hereditary.

I got good calves.

You do, you do.

You have solid calves.

How's the knee?

Careful.

Yeah, he told me during the break. He told me during the break. He thinks he's going to give it a go, though.

Okay. But this leg is in bad shape. I'm seeing that there are bruises. This leg doesn't look like it's functional. He had genuine difficulty even throwing it up on there.

And an injured knee.

No, but you're in genuine pain. You got in pain because you were getting out of the car or getting off the sofa.

I was sitting down.

Okay. You weren't even getting up. No, I was sitting down.

No, that's what you do for relief.

I sat awkwardly.

When he got up, he said, ouch.

Where did you sit? Where did you sit?

On my couch.

The couch has been there without repair. For how long?

Well, jump and Charlie ate it. So they did get a new one. They got a new couch.

I'm asking, how did you injure yourself? Was it the fault of the couch or it was your fault? You're just old and broken.

It was my fault. I sat awkwardly.

Yeah.

I winced in pain and then didn't think anything of it. And then I woke up and said, ouch. And it's worsened a little bit now. Hopefully we're at the nader of pain and that by tomorrow night at bowling, $5, I'll be.

You owe about 20.

He doesn't have a cough button. No. He could have leaned away.

Thank you.

Sorry.

He thinks that's his intellectual property. I don't know what I'm going to do about that. Samson's enraged. Greg thinks he owns that.

We already have achu t shirts at the Greg Cody show podcast.

You own the sneeze.

His body falling apart one sound at a time. He wants the intellectual property. This is him throwing out his back. And this morning it's ouch when he gets up because his ankle and his calf hurt.

Ouch.

And his knee. What hurts?

Because I'd like somebody, a medical doctor in the audience, to explain to me. The pain is right in the back of my knee. It's on the back of my leg, right beneath the kneecap. And I don't know what muscle that would be. MCl, is that right?

Yeah.

Look at these two experts. Look at these two experts.

The MC five rock group.

Look at the two of them.

Look it up.

Okay, great.

I think that sounds right. Mcl.

One of you saying, look it up.

The other one sounds right.

A doctor in the audience. The thing on my knee. Can you give me a prognosis? I'm the laziest possible entertainer. Hey, doc, I don't want to call your office and check this out. Can one of our listeners just make me a quick diagnosis? Maybe send me some pills and Stu Gottz is over here. Mcl Dan.

Dr. Gotts.

Looks like pain in the back of the knee can be caused by arthritis or cysts, known as Baker's cysts.

Wow.

Oh, that happened to my mother. You should get that checked out, that you're an old person.

Baker's cyst, did that happen to her.

Sitting down on the couch?

No, she was a strong old woman.

Did she say ouch or ouch?

That's a key component.

Little ironic. The couch caused the ouch. You know, so close.

You know, I never thought of that.

Sometimes the cow.

The ouch causes the owl.

Sometimes the calf turns into a cow.

Almost always.

Yeah. Not ironic in any way, don't you think?

It could be arthritis.

You guys remember when Kemba Walker was the last piece for the Celtics? He scored 92 points in a game somewhere overseas. What?

It is biggie's tournament time.

Sorry.

Do you remember when he was going to be the last piece for the Celtics? Two guys? Because there's a funny argument going on right now where people are saying, why doesn't Jason Tatum get to be an MVP candidate? Draymond Green is saying, you didn't do this to Yannis. You didn't do it to embiid jokic. You make them win a championship. You move the goalposts. You make it harder and harder. Jason Tatum's the best player on what is clearly the best team. What's the argument against him being the mvp of the league when he says, when he tells Malik Andrews, I'm the best in the sport, I'm the best player in the sport. And then people point out the metrics of, well, no, you've got the least efficiencies among all your starters. Your jump shots not going great this season.

He's a kobe guy. That's Mamba mentality. Not be super efficient and have that mentality.

But the team's plus minus is better when you're off the court than when you're on the Celtics.

You think the Celtics are better without.

I just said plus minus. I just gave you numbers. Back off. Sorry.

I do think that Tatum does have some proving of himself to do. And we've seen, I think Steph Curry, to a degree, had some proving to do, and then he did it in the finals, I guess, against.

They're just.

He doesn't really have these big postseason moments. And there are weird stretches where you wonder aloud, hey, where's Jason Tatum here? So I do think that he has some narrative building in the postseason.

He's the next guy that needs to win a title.

But what I can't wait for, right? The Heat win, Jimmy Butler saying it's time. And Celtics fans are running for the mountains because they know they have the best team. There's only one they fear. It cometh this way. They only fear Jimmy Butler. He's the only one. Don Lebotard, if you lob a 30.

Miles an hour fastball to a major leaguer, of course they're going to hit a home run. The worst major leaguer in baseball is going to hit ten or twelve home runs under that format. Being pitched that way.

Be throwing curveballs.

No.

What's your solution here?

It's a fake event.

It's like, not even real stugats.

Dad, you had a.

Those were my deck shoes of long standing.

Real event. Real shoes.

Right.

Exactly.

No, no, I am with you, Greg. What's wrong with that?

He got me on that one.

This is the Don Levitar show with the stugats.

Jimmy, it is nice to see you. We'll get started right here. We have watched your career blossom here at the University of Miami. You've done Miami. A lot of pride watching your career seeing you again with the Saints, somehow we were talking about the revolutionizing of the position. So we'll talk to you about that in a second, because you must marvel at Kelsey and Gronk the same way that we do. But you're joining us right now from what looks like a boat, and you've been on a boat for about 15 straight days. Right. So can you tell me what it is that you guys. I think Billy Gill back there tends to question these things. What is a difficult, rugged boat ride. Yeah, that's unfair to have this in your past, Billy. Historically, you say these feats of crossing the ocean aren't that rugged because the boats know they're JJ Watts cabin, like it's a luxury liner, and that Jimmy Graham's not actually doing something that's hard. You think that's unreasonable skepticism.

I said no such thing about Jimmy.

All right, well, anyway, he waits till Jimmy's off the air.

Exactly.

Right.

I mean, Jimmy, honestly, if we're going to cross the ocean, just hop on a plane.

Jimmy, tell us, why did you decide to cross the Arctic Ocean? Thank you for joining us. And how did.

That's not the boat you cross on.

Right.

Jimmy, though, because that's.

Come on.

I could do.

One. Thank you for having me. And is. This is my sailboat. So eventually, this is the practice boat. I eventually, later in life, plan to sail around the world, but that'll be more of a carbon fiber boat with a lot more speed. What we're doing is going to be in a 30 foot boat that's an open ocean racer. So it has these two small cabins, and it's incredibly exposed when you're out there rowing, which is going to be obviously very different because the average temperatures, even in the summer there will be in the. Will be basically right above freezing. So it definitely has its difficulties.

Well, but explain this part to me, because why seek this misery, right? You have a very comfortable life. No matter how much we can question what you're doing, you're choosing 15 grueling days. Why?

Well, it first started at a pub in Cambridge. One of my really close friends, Andrew Trope. He's been a Navy Seal for 23 years. I believe he's been deployed 17 times. And it's always been a life goal of his to cross an ocean. So we were thrown back a few, and that's when it all kind of started. And then we were approached by Hannah and her husband about this opportunity. And for a. Everybody has their own reasons to do know I'm the type of person I love to push know, I love new experiences, I love to learn. But for me, the biggest part about this, besides doing it with one of my best friends, is the charities that are going to be involved that we're going to be donating to as we grow and raise money. One of them is called the Covenant House to New Orleans, and I think it houses annually and feeds 650 kids. And for me, I spent some time in some government facilities and I had a very interesting childhood and I always look back and wish somebody was rowing. For me, really, for me, that's what's important about this, is the cause and really to show these kids that anything is possible, I myself was right there where they were.

And if you believe it and dream it and work as hard as you can, then you can achieve it. So that's one of the biggest things and one of the reasons why I'm doing it.

Okay. And because this is so personal to you, you're choosing to go well outside the comforts of your life. You've arrived at great success. So you're doing this because this cause means something to you. And I'll ask you in a moment about raised by government. What does that mean? What are you rowing for here? But can you tell me the parts of this that you most fear, that people don't understand? How grueling it is to actually cross an ocean for 15 days in a rowboat, even if it's the smallest of the oceans, the Arctic Ocean? What you're choosing to do is dangerous. And also there are parts of this that would scare me and I would not do no matter what the science is and no matter what storm tracking is.

Are you saying do it in a real ocean?

No. Sound like you're ocean shaming. It's the only one that can be crossed this way in a boat of this size. I think. I think any other way would make it very hard. Even harder. Correct.

Well, it brings its own challenges. They do race across the Atlantic, they do race across the Pacific, depending on how this goes. And if we end up securing a couple of world records, then we might end up doing a campaign to do an open ocean race in the Pacific, which the reason why that's very difficult is that is between 40 to 50 days it takes to do that. You can track weather, but inevitably you're going to be hit by some type of front. For us, this brings its own issues because of how treacherous that ocean is. We're going to be leaving through the fjords at the top of Norway, and then we're going to basically be heading to a glacier island. And for us, obviously, weather cold and really just the toll that it takes in your body. Myself, I'll burn between 8000 calories a day. And so feeding the beast is definitely going to be number one. But also the sleep deprivation. We only get 2 hours off from rowing, so you get about 90 minutes of sleep at a time and then you're back rowing again for 2 hours. So it's very difficult in many ways and obviously very scary.

We will train in the gulf around some of the oil rigs out of New Orleans, and then we're going to bring the boat down here to Miami, and then we're going to go to the Bahamas and train as well on a couple of days. So we have to get a lot of certifications and do a lot raise some money for sponsors as it is to accomplish this because it is very expensive to do this as far as permitting and the boat itself and everything that goes into attempting something like this. But yeah, it's definitely going to be brutal, especially for someone like myself. I'm the only one on the team that's never rode before, so I have a lot to learn in a very short time.

Jimmy, what is the diet? The 8000 calorie a day diet? I suspect it's pretty specific.

Yeah, well, it's dehydrated food, so we'll be warming food up. It's almost like astronaut food, so we'll be warming food up and we have basically a water maker on board so we can turn salt into fresh water. That'll be. One of my jobs is being able to fix that if there's any issues. Obviously, if we can't produce water, then we will have to get picked up and rescued. And obviously, I'm lead navigator and comms, so keeping a clear line of communication with our weather team and with our land team to make sure that we stay away from something really big. But in case we do get hit by a storm, we will put out a drone shoot, a drogue shoot, which basically is a parachute under the water to basically slow you down and also keep you in the right direction so that the boat won't constantly flip over.

Jimmy, this doesn't seem fun. It seems like torture. It seems like a lot of work. How about just a little walkathon? Maybe a five k, something like that?

I just did 100 miles for cancer on Saturday on my bike. For me, I did that, too.

He did a nice thing.

Yeah, well, it was for cancer for the DCC. So we raised a lot of money. I believe we raised in the Miami health. Jimmy.

Ridiculous. You are five k. An american hero choosing unpleasantness because it's the right thing to do. I need people to understand just how difficult this is that you're choosing to do this ridiculous thing. What is sleep going to be like in stormy seas? How bad is it going to be that the boat is always going to feel like it's capsizing? How bad is it going to be that you're going to sleep 90 minutes a day, if maybe, and food is going to be hard to eat because the seas aren't going to ever be calm?

Yeah, well, I mean, we plan to do a lot of, obviously, testing on sleep, most likely also blood work before and after. We might pair with the Navy SEAL foundation and try to track all of these things. Or there's some other companies that have been reaching out to try and track our overall health through all this. Obviously, we'll be sleep deprived. With that comes hallucinations also. We're going to be working extremely hard, rowing 12 hours a day, each one of us, and in the cold, so we're going to burn even more calories. So figuring out who we are and what we need and how hard we can push ourselves individually is going to be a thing. And then it's obviously an amazing opportunity for teamwork. And we're going to be very close because there's no bathroom. It's a carbon fiber bucket, so we're going to get to know each other pretty well. This is about as extreme as it gets, but I definitely believe that once I do this and once we accomplish this great goal for a great cause, I think sailing around the world, for me, it'll make it a lot easier in a luxury yacht with bathrooms and with a cabin and with COVID and where we sleep, there's two individual pods, one at the bow, one at the stern, and they're not very big, so I got to figure out a way to get comfortable in that.

I'll be where the NAS station will be, so I think that one's a little bigger, but it's got all the calm, so it gets a little hot in there, but heat is probably going to help since it'll be so cold.

Jimmy, obviously, we all hope it doesn't come to this, but have you guys given any thought to, let's say something goes wrong, you're out there, you get marooned. None of these things that you send out there to get rescued, come.

This is dark. I'm just asking to make sure he has a plan? Yeah.

Do you look around at your crew with you and say, that's the one. That's the one we can.

Larry Zonka, he got lost at the Bering Sea. You football players, you don't have to do these things. You're choosing something that is life risking. And Billy's asking, why are you doing. No, he's asking.

He's asking who he eats.

I'm asking the least.

Yeah. Based on response. You're a navigator. That seems important. There's a bunch of rowers. Maybe you lose a third rower and do you base who you eat based on responsibility, based on body composition? Like, how do you choose?

No. We will definitely be in contact with the norwegian government for any type of emergency situation. And they understand those waters, obviously very treacherous. And they have the ability to come in with helicopters, but this is unassisted. So because of a world record, we can't have a boat follow us. We will be by ourselves and obviously communicating with our comms, our weather, and our trend navigator is going to be very important. But no one's going to be eaten ever.

We're just saying, don't speak an absolute.

You got to be prepared. Norwegian government shuts down. But, Jimmy, correct me, please. I feel like this is a bit flippant about life, isn't it? This is. You're doing this for a cause, because you are doing something that you know is very risky. It's hard to do. One of the reasons you're doing it is because it's hard to do, but it's not because you don't understand the risk. Hell, Jimmy, I'm listening to you, and I'm like, I wouldn't want to be that cold and wet for 15 days. Never mind everything else.

I'm cold in here.

He did play at Soldier Field and Green Bay. It's one of the things where I obviously live in Miami, I can't stand the cold. So that's probably going to be the most brutal part for me. But the reason why I'm doing this personally and the reason why this means so much to me is the first 18 years of my life, I went through many, many things. And when I turned 18, I said, I'm going to do whatever it takes to make every dream become a reality. And since I've turned 18 and became a man and had full control of my life, I've pushed myself in every way possible to maximize the life that I do have. I think life is beautiful. I think living in America is beautiful. I think being on this earth is beautiful. So I try to maximize every day. And my life isn't on autopilot. I live on a sailboat, I've got ten licenses. I run a foundation with a helicopter. I just want to show that same kid that at twelve years old was in this eleven and twelve years old that was dropped off at this facility that anything's possible.

And where I've gone from that point till today, it's almost surreal. And I'm constantly doing more. I'm constantly learning. It's an addiction, learning things and pushing yourself to the absolute limit for me, because for the first 18 I had no control. Things were just happening to me, very tragically being dropped off by everybody who was supposed to take care of me. So now I have this ability to show all those kids that are in that same situation what's possible between playing multiple sports through college and pros. And now on this new venture of pushing myself in a sport that I've never been a part of. I've never learned how to row. I hate the cold. For me, it's more about challenging myself and just living every bit of life that I have left to the fullest.

I would like to have a longer conversation with you about the amazing success story that is your life. We will do it the next time because I know you're short on time.

I want to talk about his skin.

What's your routine?

Skin care. You want to talk tight ends with.

Him as well, but shoulders all from rowing. You're going to have a bit of a caloric deficit. How are you going to build your body back up? Free weights.

We have a lot of questions, but moisturize a lot. The last of them from me, though, this time is just. Can you explain to us, because it obviously means a great deal to you. Can you explain to us your formative years that made you value life this way and want to live it to the fullest and be the toughest? How the government failed you, how the government helped you. Where are the scars and where is the strength?

Yeah, I wouldn't say that the government failed mean, I was lucky enough at times to know a military kid. So I lived on a lot of bases. I lived on Fort Bragg, I lived in Germany, and I had the ability to, even though we didn't have money, there are these subsidized programs for military kids to have. But in the end, my father left me at a very young age. My stepfather dropped me off on the side of the road and so did my mother. So through all those people who gave up on me and through all the people who didn't believe in me and all the people who said that. I remember one of my relatives told me when I believe I was seven, that one day you're going to need to learn how to beg for quarters at the age of 37. I'm always sitting here to prove them wrong and really just to prove to myself what I can do, what I can learn, how far I can push my body. I think I've been given this talent to be pretty athletic at my size. And so I know that I only have so much of that true athleticism left, and I'm going to take every ounce of it to try to do something special for others.

And then from there, I'll move on to more of kind of mental things to learn and do and push myself.

Good talking to you, Jimmy. We'll catch up again, sir.

Thank you. I'll come to the studio next time. I appreciate you guys having me. And thank you so much for shining a light on this arctic challenge 2025. I really appreciate it. And hopefully you guys can come down to the hangar and fly with my foundation. I'll take you guys up in the huey.

We would love to help you with.

Whatever your skincare routine is.

Bring that, bring that.

He'll be the new Jason Taylor, you know, he smells good on top of everything.

Not after shaking in a bucket for two months.

Yeah, that's the thing. Put that on the poll, please. Have you ever been friends enough with anybody to share a carbon fiber bucket to shit in with? That's deeply unpleasant. Thank you, Jimmy.

Thank you so much.

I think I did that at doke after, like, seven Miller life.

I've done it at a dead show.

Yeah.

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