A potential Hall of Famer in studio!

We just got better in studio, Victoria.

We did, hi! Future Hall of Famer, Tory Holt in studio. Yeah, yeah. Alright, first of all, the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame last night spit out their finalists.

Yeah. Now you're a finalist again, this is what, the sixth, seventh time? So this is my fourth time as a finalist and it's my tenth nomination.

Okay. 10-11. Were you nervous at all about this part? Yeah, every year I am. Every year you're nervous?

Every year. It's overdue. You know how I feel about this.

No doubt. I've been telling you this for, I don't know, since you first, this became a reality. Yeah.

What can you, at this point, what can you do? You used to use the St. Louis writers. Yeah, yeah. Is that still, it's a weird process.

Yeah, it is a weird process. My presenter is Howard Balzer. Okay. He was out in St. Louis when I was there. He covered me for a decade.

Right. And now he's out in Arizona. I think he's doing some work with Sports Illustrated and some other. Long time football writer. Long time football writer.

And he's doing some, he does some work with Sirius XM with their NFL Hall of Fame channel as well. But no, he has to go in and make the case. And I told him, look man, you gotta get naked, get up on the table. I would get naked for you. Whatever you gotta do.

That would scare him. Make it happen, man. But he's working hard in trying to put together the best case for me and the best argument. Look, I mean, there's so many great guys that are part of this class. And everyone is equally deserving.

But I've waited a while. I felt like I played the game at a very high level for a long time at a Hall of Fame level. Exceeded all expectations. I was the sixth overall draft pick in 1999 to the St. Louis Rams.

And I think I exceeded all of those expectations of what a sixth round draft pick or a sixth pick is supposed to do in the league. And so my work is done. So now it's up to the voters to continue to think all over my career and hopefully they get it right at some point, Adam. I'm with you.

If Howard ever needs help, I will be there to help. Here's the thing about it. This is the weird part about the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In other sports, there's just a voting panel and they vote. In baseball, there's 400 some-odd baseball writers and they vote. End of story.

Get 75% of the votes, you're in. But in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, they ask you, all right, somebody has to argue on your behalf. You are constantly having somebody else make your case. Would you rather make your own case? Yeah, I would. I wouldn't mind making my own case, certainly.

It would be a little challenging for me because I don't talk about myself a lot and what I've accomplished in the game. But for this particular case, certainly would go in hard for myself and what I've accomplished in this league or what I accomplished in the league when I played for the 11 years that I played, accumulated a lot of records, individual records, team records. Team accomplishments, divisional titles. It's the greatest show on turf. Greatest show on turf, world titles. The whole team is going to be in the Hall of Fame.

Seriously. So I'm, you know, and I was the young guy out of all of those guys. You know, Marshall is in, Kurt's in, Orlando's in, Isaac is in. Coach Vermeil is now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame who drafted me. So he saw firsthand on what he was getting. And I don't know if you all saw the piece last night on the NFL network, but Coach Vermeil talked about when he first laid eyes on me and then watching me in practice and watching me in games. He said he knew they knew that they had something special, a special player.

And it was really good to hear him echo those sentiments that say those things about me because a lot of times you don't hear the things that your teammates feel about you until after the fact. Because we're all competing and you're going through it. So no one's with alpha. So no one really gives that up. Especially at your position. Everybody's in alpha at your position.

No question. I mean, and you have to be. And when you play the receiver position, any position in the National Football League, you have to feel like you're the guy. And I certainly felt like that. I didn't feel like I was a number two or number three.

I felt like I was a 1-1A from the time that I got drafted and I went out and handled my business in that fashion. So eight year peak, 94 catches a year. Yeah. 1384 yards, almost 15 yards a catch, which is kind of unheard of today. And eight touchdowns. But there was so many. I mean, there was only so many balls to go around because Marshall Faulk was not only good running, but he was a great receiver. Isaac Bruce, who just just went in a couple of years ago.

Right. So, yeah, you're Ricky Prol, Isaac Kimo, our tight ends. I mean, it was a lot of guys on that team that was asking for the ball. So when I when I was playing at him, was there a salary cap?

What was it? It was it worked out. It worked out well when I and when I was playing and I knew when I got my opportunity, I had to make the most of the opportunity because there was other guys that they can go to. There were other guys that Coach Marks can throw the ball to. And and I think for the most part, I did that every single opportunity I played. The position, though, is so loaded. It seems like every year.

Oh, yeah. Wide receivers. You look at the wide receivers in the ballot going, well, that guy's a Hall of Famer. They're all Hall of Famers. Andre Johnson's a Hall of Famer.

Reggie Wayne's a Hall of Famer. Those are the two wide receivers on the ballot with you. You should all go in. Maybe we should just have a wide receiver.

Be great. All the wide receivers go in. Get it out of the way. It's because the game became such a pass happy league at that point that I mean, it's all you guys stood out. You guys will all eventually get in. But it's a it's a crowded ballot.

See, Darryl Reavis is on the ballot. Did you guys ever? No, I caught the rail in the latter part of my career. I was I was those high moments of my career were kind of coming towards towards the end. But, you know, watching the really was he was a man on the island that could that could lock down any your star receiver.

Play me. He was an excellent tackler. Yeah. Really good in the punt return game against solid on the corner. Can match up with your best player. So, again, another guy that's that's very well deserving. But you talk about the wide receiver backlog. And then you after after our group, you got Fitzgerald and you got in quan bold and you got Steve Smith. And I mean, the list goes Heinz Ward.

Heck, I can't even forget my coach to coach me, Henry Eller. Wow. Who's who's been on the back on the Rams have had some wide receiver. The Rams history of our the history of our organization at the wide receiver position is very, very strong and very, very deep. It's crazy. I'm just an extension of them as an extension of that.

So I'm very, very thankful to be in this position, just waiting to get that knock. That's right. You have to go to the hotel. Now, this happens this Saturday before the Super Bowl, right? It does. It does.

It does. So, you know, you you're typically in your hotel. So if you weren't going to go to the Super Bowl, you have to now.

Yeah, exactly. And with me working with the NFL Legends community, I've been working with the NFL Legends community, supporting our current and former players that played. I've been now working with them for now. This is my sixth year. So I've been going to the Super Bowl for the last six years on behalf of the legends community. So I would have been there.

OK, there. But now I'm there for the legends. Now I'm there for the hall.

I'm there for appearances, et cetera, et cetera. So it's good, man. It's good to be still to be involved in the game. But, you know, this is the pinnacle. Yeah.

Of your career. If you're if you're inducted into the Pro Football if they may not get a chance to share with my son and my girls. Last night, we sat down for the first time I sat down with them and actually went through the NFL Network had a special.

Right. And I was part of that part of the Hall of Fame special. And I actually sat down and went through each catch with my kids.

Oh, no. Explaining to them the mindset that I was in during that particular time during that particular highlight. Right. And it was it was really fascinating.

It was really fun to be able to have that exercise with them and really share with them my passion, my mentality of what it took for me to play it to be now a Hall of Fame finalist. That's the fourth time you've done that. Yes.

Hopefully it'll be the last time. And I don't mean it in that, you know, you know, I mean, yeah. All right. Let me ask you this, because I know you spent some time in Europe this year, right? So did you also go to Germany or were you just I was just in London, just in London. All right. How is the NFL game consumed by Londoners?

I know there's a lot of Americans leaving living over there. Yeah. Is it a big deal?

I know it's a big deal in Germany, too. But yeah. So what was your experience like? Incredible, incredible experience. I was over there working with Sky Sports and and I was covering you know, we had our Sunday shows, had a podcast every week. We had a we had a highlight show every single week highlighting each each week. So I was over there from week five to eight.

OK. Incredible experience. You know, the fans come from everywhere in the U.K. Everywhere to to get to an NFL game. And you see every jersey, every player represented over there, which is really cool. The love that they show American football players to come over is just it's just outstanding. The love that I got. Great restaurants I ate at.

Had an opportunity to go over to Paris for a week and come back. And the and I came back on a Sunday that it was the Jaguars. And I forgot who it was they were playing. And to see all of the fans in the airport coming from Italy, coming from all over the world, moving to come to London to game was was was phenomenal to see. And not only that, their education on American football is phenomenal, too. They know about the sport, you know, about the players, rules, et cetera. And they're I mean, they're bought in.

They're all in. It's the best league in the world for American football. Yeah.

Like their football league, their side, the Premier League is the best league in the world for soccer. That's right. Did you get a chance to catch any? I didn't go there. I didn't go in any games, but it was on TV every day.

So I watched it every day. I mean, it's mad. I mean, but it's I was telling telling my family, my kids and it's the best soccer that I've ever seen in my life. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. The things that they do with the ball, the strategy, the skills. It's on the coaching. It is unbelievable to watch that type of soccer.

And I had an opportunity to see it every single day. Here's the funny thing. Tory Holt's in studio with us because there are there are ninety four. Professional. Football teams, football clubs, they're called clubs, right? Yeah. In the English Football League, in their system, in the top four levels of football in either England or Wales. Well, ninety four.

Wow. In London, there are seventeen. Seven of them right now are playing in the Premier League.

So in the top 20. Could you imagine London's not that big? No. Could you imagine seven NFL teams calling New York? Could you imagine it? Crazy.

It'd be crazy. But that's but that's what it is. Yeah. And and and and they are like the pubs there are incredible because everybody's there.

Right. They're hanging out. They got a paint and they're talking and they're watching their favorite team. And everybody there is represent. You mentioned the seven teams. Those seven teams are represented in those pubs. And it's pubs throughout the city, everywhere you go in London. So that was really cool to have interaction with those with the fans about about the Premier Leagues and the soccer over there.

And then them asking me questions about American football and everything. It's just it's a really cool dynamic, man. And it's it's a it's a great deal of collaboration that's happening with the folks over in London in regards to their participation with the NFL.

And then vice versa. The NFL has given them everything that they can do to make sure that they the game stays healthy and the game stays appreciated. And the fans are showing love over there. Do you think they could have a franchise of their own? No.

No, it's just and we and we we talk about player safety in the National Football League. It'd be too much. The travel and the time is just too much. Right. It's it's it'd be ridiculous. So, no, I don't think it would happen. Yes.

I think the way I think the way that is set up now, Adam, is perfect. Right. Now, if they want to add on more games, I think right now we're playing four games over there. OK. I thought you made more games to the to the regular season.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. If they want to add more games over in the UK, in Germany and whatnot, I get that. I think that will work. But an actual team in London, in Germany? No, I don't think that it would put that team at a major disadvantage to get players. Right. I mean, they don't really want to go because the careers are not very long.

Yeah. So I think guys in the National Football League, the notion of traveling over there to play a game, but returning back to the states, I think they're totally fine. And that's no knock on the UK. No knock on one.

But I think that's what the guys feel more comfortable doing. What about other countries? You know, Germany, they finally got into Germany and they rocked out in Germany.

Germany loves as you know, you were too good to ever play in the World League. Was it the NFL Europe? Yeah. But Steve Logan coached there. Yeah.

Yeah. And Germany loves American football. They love it, man. Like it was they they rolled it when Tampa went over there to play, they that game was rolled out. Super Bowl like fans were everywhere tailgated. They it was incredible. People came in droves to get to that game in Germany.

And then, you know, it was a good game. Tom Brady played in that game, but one in five countries. They love NFL football. Right.

They love NFL football. There, bro. He has one and he has legitimately won a game in five countries. Yeah. Let's do that.

They're going to show you how long he's played and how good he really is. He was good, man. There's no question. All right. Couple of things about this particular year.

And then I'm going to ask you, actually, let me let me do this first so I don't run out of time with Tori Holt. What were your what was going through your head Monday? Oh, man, that was a rough, rough. I barely slept that night and just playing all kinds of scenarios in my head of what Hamlin must have felt like.

And then his teammates, the Bills, as well as the Bengals. It was a tough night. It really was. And then I had to get up the next morning because I'm on Sirius XM NFL radio every Tuesday morning from 7 to 10. Myself and Solomon Wilcox from Channel 88.

You guys get an opportunity to check us out. Oh, wait a second. So I was listening Tuesday morning, but I only heard Solomon. I heard him talking about kind of blasting the NFL for being like unsure about what was going to happen. Week 18.

I listen to him talk. I didn't realize you were there. Yeah, I was I was on. I got to where I was going and we were on. We were on six o'clock that morning and we were and we stayed on to 10 o'clock.

Four straight hours talking about the more Hamlin in that situation, it was probably one. And I've been around radio and done radio for years. It's probably one of the toughest, toughest days of my radio career. You did radio here for a while. Yeah, exactly.

And to go on there and to talk about that situation for four straight hours, it was really tough. But I was really. But I will say this. And I applaud the medical staff. And for all of those fans that follow the game. Let's let's give a round of applause. And let's give an appreciation to the medical staff and the trainers for the job that they have to do when they got to the young man.

The young man had no pulse. Right. And immediately they kicked in the action.

Yeah, the action plan. What I said on the radio show, we as football players, we practice and we we watch tape and we train and we run and we watch our bodies and we do everything at an elite level. And a very high concentration level is at a very high level. The trainers do the same thing. They practice, they go through the exercises, they get ready for moments like this. And when it's time when it was time for them to act, they acted really quickly and very responsibly. And that's why because they did that, that's why the more Hamlin still has life, still has an opportunity to fight for his life and to recover. So shout out to all of our trainers that are listening now.

And if you had aspirations to be a trainer, thank you for the job. Just to put a postscript on that, the latest news is he what he woke up last night, opened his eyes last night. He is responsive. I didn't see in the story where they brought him out of the coma, but I'm guessing they did because his eyes are open. They still don't know about the full return to his cognitive abilities, but we'll find that out over the next few days.

But yeah, he's response. Oh, man, that's very good. I'm so, so, so happy. And I'm glad that our NFL, my NFL brothers can hear that news because it's going to be very challenging for them going forward here. The next couple of days to try to get themselves in the mental space to play our game. Adam, it's a it's a very physical game, as we all know. But the mentality that you have, the sharpness that you have, the attention to detail that you have to have, the awareness that you have to have that you have to have to play this game.

Yeah. Right now, I don't know if they're there, but hearing the good news about them or Hamlin day to day, guys can slowly get there. And I said to on the radio show, the National Football League, the owners, the fans, the players, they have to give each other the grace that they need to get to that space. To resume football. We see bad injuries, sometimes catastrophic injuries, spinal injuries. We see that root the spinal injuries, not routinely, but we see big injuries routinely in the NFL. And the guys are expected and they expected of each other to set that aside and go back and continue the game.

Right. It was pretty obvious watching Monday night that there was no chance to to continue that game. It took a while.

I have no look. I have no idea how the process worked. And I and I said this on Tuesday, I'm not going to criticize the NFL because I don't know how the whole thing worked. It's a lot of moving parts that were happening when that happened. But I knew those guys can't play.

Yeah, not us either team. And typically we're calluses to any situation that we that we see because we deal with a lot. We see a lot. And normally you stop play. You move the ball up.

Trainers get to the player. Make sure that he's OK. And we resume. But this was different. Yeah, he wasn't moving.

Right. When breathing, it wasn't breathing at that point. And the guys were visually seeing that the trauma from that in itself, again, is something that the league, the players, coaches, owners have to consider as they work up a plan to resume playing again to to perform CPR. And I think they brought out a defibrillator, I think is what it's called.

They need a battle. Are you kidding? And his teammates are watching it. It was no way it was no way in the world could the players go back and play? Nor, as Sean McDermott said to Coach Taylor, I have to go be by my by my players side. Yeah, there was no way that he could put himself into the space to go back out into the coach to call a blitz or forget it. Yeah, forget it.

Forget it. It was it was all the attention immediately turned to the well-being of the Marham and it should have been right. And his physical well-being and then the the emotional and mental well-being of all the players that had to also deal with that. We mean, it's obviously it's not the same, but it is still dealing with a traumatic event.

And you could just tell him the faces of those guys. Football went out the window. It was now a human being. Yeah, it was now DeMar Hamlin, the man was fighting for his life.

So for for the players that football or anything regarding football totally went out the window. It was about prayers. Yeah, you saw the tears. You saw I mean, you saw the emotion of of the guys just hoping that he was going to be OK. Yeah, there are players. I mean, just crying.

Oh, my goodness. And the stadium was and I talked to Solomon who Solomon Wilcox, who's my co-host, who was there. And he said the stadium stadium came to a complete hush.

This is quiet. And everyone was, again, just praying and focused on hoping that DeMar Hamlin, you know, was going to be OK. Well, the certainly the early news is is promising. Week 18 is going to happen.

I don't know how a lot. It'll be easier now that we're seeing some really good news. It'll be easier now for those players to get back to the business of playing. So week 18 will happen. We'll see what kind of preparation, all that, how that was impacted. Are they going to get back and play, finish the Bengals and the Bills? I don't think that game happens. I don't know.

There's so much. There's so many bad memories if they step back out on that football field that it's going to come up again. Regarding to what they just saw.

Sure. So I don't think you revisit that game again. The league has a difficult decision, decisions to make on how week 18 moves forward as well as the playoffs.

And I think everybody should understand that and give them the give them the grace and give them the respect to to make whatever decision that is being what we just saw on Monday night. But I don't think they revisit that that that bills being was game. I think that's over and done with.

Now, maybe it'll work itself out in week 18, and there are results in week 18 that would make that game unnecessary to get back and play. But I asked this trivia question yesterday. Do you know how many games the NFL has canceled since World War Two for non strike purposes? Zero. That's the correct answer.

We have two years of covid issues. All of those games got played. Yeah. All of them got played. So they played when the towers were attacked and the Pentagon.

I was I was in the league. OK. They played that at the end of the season. Right. Right.

You they took that Sunday off, but they played the next Sunday and the games that were wiped out. They just tacked on to the end of the season. So, yeah, this will be a first.

It will be. And they you know, there's all kinds of scenarios we've been hearing all morning long. You know, so again, Troy Vincent, Roger Goodell, the owners, they got it. They got some some real decisions that they have to make. But but we have to be whatever decision is made. Some some folks will be happy about it. Some won't. I would say that nobody should be unhappy about it.

But you should. Right. Right.

Should be happy with whatever this is that they come up with. Again, being after watching what we watched on on Monday night and, you know, Troy Vincent, who will play a major role in and whatever decision comes about. He played. Yeah. So he's a good player, too. It was a heck of a player.

I played against him. Big, strong physical can run. So you got to believe that he has his players hat on while also trying to make the decision. But ultimately. It's got to be in the best interests of our players, because our players drive our league and it's got to be in the best interests of our players.

I talk a lot about the the fact that. For a 15 billion dollar industry and those popular league in the maybe in the world, to be honest, I don't know if it's probably premier league, but premier league. But but but in in American sports, there's nothing that comes close to the NFL. No doubt. The the fact and there's really no way around it.

You guys have the worst collective bargaining agreement in the sport. And I wish there was a way to make that different. Yeah. But there just there just isn't. Let me before I let you go, because I know you've got to go and we have things to do, too. Let me ask you this.

We got we haven't really talked about games. Who's the best team in the NFC? Right now, I would say the San Francisco 49ers. Give me a healthy Jalen Hurts on Philadelphia. Is it still the San Francisco 49ers for me right now?

It is OK. I think the I think the Eagles are wounded in areas for sure. OK. And in the San Francisco 49ers are pretty solid. They got a really, really good defense. Their defense, their defense has not wavered. Their defense hasn't felt fell off. The Eagles in certain aspects of their defense has. They don't have the same secondary run on them. You can run the football on them. Offensive line, Mr. Lane Johnson, some other guys are kind of up in the air.

You kind of saw some of that last weekend. San Francisco 49ers are pretty solid up front, both offensively and defensively. The secondary is very talented.

They get turnovers. Brock Purdy is playing out of his mind. Chris McCaffrey is a stud. He's amazing.

He's amazing. They got wide receivers. They got tight. They're tight in now. Over the last four weeks, it's come alive.

George Kittle. To me, the San Francisco 49ers have the type of squad and mentality to play at home and go on the road. Yeah, no question. And in the AFC, who is it?

Wow. AFC, for me, I've been talking about this football team and we was going to see more of them Monday night, but we didn't. Cincinnati Bengals.

Right. Football team that's young, talented. Defense is playing out of his mind. Joe Burrows is phenomenal.

T. Higgins, Jamal Chase. They got they got a ton of guys that have championship pedigree on their team from their college ranks, the high school ranks. Sure. That spilled over to the National Football League. And they're not scared. And they're not scared because they got a quarterback in Joe Burrows who will stand down the barrel with anyone. Amazing.

Anywhere. It's funny. He transferred to LSU and really only had one great year. Yeah. And people.

Well, it's probably a flash. No, no, he's good. His his his mentality and the way that he sees the game, the way he goes about the game. You can just listen to him in his pressers. This guy's locked in for a young player. He is locked in. He understands the importance of winning, understands the type of legacy that he can write, that he can lead.

And he's all about it. And he's got guys around him. He's got a coaching staff. He's got players around him that have the same mentality. It reminds me when I was in St. Louis, we had guys with a Hall of Fame.

We didn't know it at the time, but we had that kind of mentality, that professional mentality, that competitive mentality to go out and get it done. And Joe Burrow right now stood man. I know Patrick Holmes is outstanding and they'll be there. Josh Allen and the Bills and other teams in the AFC will be there.

But I like what the Cincinnati Bengals mentality, as well as San Francisco men, San Francisco 49ers, I like those two teams mentalities right now. Well, if they meet in the Super Bowl, it'll be three times that those two teams have met. No doubt. In the Super Bowl. And it will be a good one. Oh, there's no question about it.

Tori Holt, future Pro Football Hall of Famer. I hope it's Saturday. I hope it's the Saturday Super Bowl weekend.

I'm hoping so, man. And look, and thanks to everyone out there that's sent me direct messages, that's tweeted out to me. Thank you for the love. Thank you for the... All hands now on Twitter? All hands now on Twitter. OK. This is one of the things we was watching the clips last night.

I was like, what is one of the common things that I see your dad was doing? My daughters, you caught the ball. I caught the ball with my hands. Right.

Every single, for the most part, every single time. So all hands, some folks still call me big game. But thanks to everyone that showed me love throughout this process. I greatly appreciate it. And go Wolfpack, man. We had a big win last night over the Dukies.

Amazing. That was a great night. They shot 49 percent from the field.

40 some over 40. Were you at the game? We were at the game.

Oh, man. 47 percent from the threes. We had amazing seats. Thanks to Coach Keats. Had amazing seats. And we watched our Wolfpack man play really good basketball. If they can play that level of ball consistently, they'll be in every game. They'll compete and be in every game.

Oh, no question. But a good win by the Wolfpack last night. The Dukies, man, it's not the same Dukies I've seen. They got a lot of great players. They do.

But what they don't have, they're not a quick team at this point. They're not. And my son broke it down to me. He was like, Dad, I got two. They got three.

Was it three break? Top 10 players in high school that was in high school ball came over. I didn't see a lot of that last night. And typically you see Dukes high profile players really doing it.

I didn't see a lot of that last night. We had Derek Whitehead is the number one guy. Yeah, yeah. He can shoot.

Or number two. And he played well last night. Yeah, he did. He did it. He did. But there's another level for him.

Yeah. Even for him, there's another level that he has to get to. He's built really well. I was impressed by how he's very solid.

He's very solid. So go, Pat. All right. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much for coming in. Thank you, man. Always for having me. That is Tory Holt. He's going to go in the Pro Football Hall of Fame hopefully the Saturday of Super Bowl weekend. Yeah, exactly.