Ronde Barber, Bucs Legend

Bright lights on set inside of Radio Row, and now joining me, is he my favorite barber? I work with Tiki each and every day, and Tiki used to be on CBS Sports Radio, now doing a kickass job with WFAN. But Rondé Barber joins us.

Rondé, how you been? I should definitely be your favorite barber. And after these next five minutes, you'll realize that I'm so much better than Tiki. Well, why are you better than Tiki?

Well, I mean, for a lot of reasons. You weren't on Real Housewives of New Jersey? I was the first barber twin, just so everybody knows. I was the one that came out first.

Mom barber delivered me first, so I always have that over him. I'm cooler than him. He's kind of a nerd, you know that. Hang out with him long enough and he'll start talking about, you know, astrology and the way the planets align. Oh, his conversations are just too intelligent for me.

Before games, he'd be sitting in his locker reading Wall Street Journal or something. He's one of those guys. I definitely have the cool factor over the dude. Well, it's not really what mom and dad think.

No. Bruce Arians, I think, is the perfect one. Whoever Bruce says is a Tiki or Rondé is his favorite. Because you always know family is going to be like, oh, we love every child the same.

The same thing with my family. Who's the favorite? Who's the favorite? I think Bruce has the truth. This is a good question to ask, Bruce, and this is a two-pronged answer. Bruce used to babysit us back in the day and he tells me now that Tiki was always sick and at the hospital because we were both premature babies. He said Tiki was always going to hospital, so I was always babysitting you.

And you were definitely the easier one to deal with. And now Bruce lives in Tampa after retiring from the Bucks and we play golf like once or twice a week. He's awesome.

He's the best, man. Bruce joined us like right after they won the NFC title game. He did like one or two interviews. He joined us. He's just such a great guy, but I loved it.

We reached out to him after they won the Super Bowl. I'm like, hey, do you have like five to ten minutes? He goes, brother, I'm going to be enjoying a lot of whiskey the next few days.

A cup full of Crown Royal and ice. That's what he was going to be doing. Rondé Barber here with us on behalf of Church of Chicken.

We'll talk about them in just a second. So this game this weekend, if you were playing corner up against A.J. Brown, up against Devante Smith, what would you really be stressing?

Oh, man. A.J. just his side, his speed.

He has that component that you're looking for. He's a strong catcher, right? When he goes up for the football, he's almost always going to wrestle it away from you. So if I'm trying to defend a guy like A.J., you have to always be on top of him.

And you have to be able to intersect the catch point. Not a lot of corners even know how to work that or even know what that means. They always think you just go out there and be an athlete and just kind of play the ball. There's a science to beating big guys.

I remember, let's see, what year was it? Plexo Burress was playing for the Steelers, and they were going to run a takeoff. He was going to try to outrun me and be bigger down the field. And I knew that if I didn't get on his top hip and come underneath him, I was never going to be able to make this play.

It's one of those things you just visualize in your head. And so he just started running down the field, this takeoff, and I'm like, okay, get to his top hip, kind of around behind him, and intersect the ball. So it ended up being a jump ball, and I came away with it because I was inside of his frame.

So a guy like A.J., you have to find little ways like that to deal. Devontae, you just got to be able to run. He's long, he's fast. He'll be out of the picture frame most of the game.

Exactly. If you are not a guy that can match his speed, you can't deal with him. The good thing about, if I'm a defender, if I'm these young corners for the Kansas City Chiefs, Devontae is a little unpolished still as a route runner.

And so if you can get him off his track, you can kind of take advantage of him. And to be honest with you, this team runs the ball so much, Philadelphia, that there's not a lot on their route tree for the receivers because it's all play action. You only get so many route combinations and plays out of play action.

If they're heady enough and can understand that, they'll be able to kind of narrow it down to what plays are going to come at them. And then Ron DeBarber here with us on the Chiefs side of things. Going up against Mahomes.

I think the Eagles are going to win this game, but the only analysis that I have when I start to think, okay, could I be wrong, is 1587. Like Mahomes, Kelsey, that's just what I think. How do you kind of prepare for Mahomes?

Because he does something each and every week where you go, I could prepare 24-7, I've never seen something like that. So I'm inclined to agree with you because I think the best roster in football is Philadelphia. They've made all the right moves in the offseason. They added three or four game-changing players.

A.J. Brown, obviously, they get James Bradbury, corner. They had two already good secondary.

They get Hassan Reddick on the edge. All of a sudden you're like, this is a really good football team. If the quarterback plays good, they're going to be really good. And the quarterback played really good.

He's an MVP candidate. But when you look at Kansas City, it doesn't matter to me who Patrick Mahomes is throwing a football to. Obviously, they're a tight-end-centric, Kelsey-centric offense. It's very Brady Gronk.

Yeah, but different. He gets 70% of the throws because they scheme up so many passes towards him. I was actually listening to an interview with Kelsey from when he had to talk to the media.

They're like, how do you get open so much? And he's like, Andy Reid, big red. He designs plays just for him. And to me, that's the X factor in this game is Andy Reid's ability to throw wrinkles at you.

Obviously, they have the globe thing. They have all these different plays in their playbook that they usually only use one time. And in this game is where they'll bring those out. To me, them being in the AFC Championship game five years in a row, they're there for a reason.

The other best teams in football were all in the AFC, and Kansas City beat them because Patrick Mahomes has that relationship with one of the best tight ends ever. All right, let's get to Church's Chickens. You guys brought me some food.

This is awesome. All right, let's go. Come bearing gifts. I'm the good chicken tender. It's a great chicken tender.

Oh, my God. If you're talking about traditions of football, you have to talk Church's Chicken, right? You have the party pack for Super Bowl 57. This is phenomenal. You can order it on the app. I've been eating those honey glazed biscuits all morning for breakfast. Oh, my God. Yeah, it's the best chicken in town, and they're available on Sunday, man.

It's a great, great organization to be associated with because they're big and they're bold and their food is delicious, and you'll love it. And if you like hot, try those jalapeno peppers, buddy. Oh, okay. That'll fire you up a little bit earlier. Can Tiki handle these? I think Tiki is not as good with peppers as I am, so you got the right.

Oh, wow. You got the right mix right there. Use the honey mustard and the jalapeno pepper, and you're going to be thanking me like an hour from now. Well, here's the thing.

You seem like a regular guy. You would use the honey mustard. Tiki, I feel like you'd have some caviar or something.

Oh, my God, right. Tiki, he's a little bougie. He's New York.

I'm Tampa. There's a big difference. Were you surprised Brady retired? I was a little surprised, but it wasn't unexpected to me. The only reason I was surprised because so many people were saying that he had other opportunities, but when you look at what he's going through in his life, now is probably a good time. It was a hard year in Tampa for him.

He's 46 years old next football season. You can tell this season wore on him for a lot of different reasons, and it was hard for them to get to eight wins. It's not like he played terrible. He played pretty good. Fourth in the league in passing, 20-plus touchdowns again. He's got 2,000-yard receivers, but it was hard, and I think this year wore on him, so I'm not surprised at all that he retired. I've got to swallow here just because I don't want to keep on stuffing my face with this chicken.

Last thing I'll ask you. Who should be playing quarterback coming up for the Buccaneers this year? So there's only one on the roster right now, and that's Kyle Trask.

Whether or not it will be him, I don't know, because Kyle hasn't really gotten many reps. I'm not talking about play reps because obviously Tom Brady is going to play in a game. He didn't get many reps in practice. He played well in a preseason.

I do the Bucs preseason. He played pretty well. If it's a rebuild year, and I hate saying that, but if it's a rebuild year, I bet you they give him an opportunity. But if there's a guy out there that maybe they could go get, they still have great weapons on offense, great weapons on offense that any quarterback would love to throw to.

So they might be an enticing place for a free agent. So we'll see. You made a good push. Yeah. I still may have to go to Tiki's side just a little bit more because I see him more often. Right.

Yeah. But we talk a few more times. We hang out through Lebseltari. I could be bought. I got bought with chicken tonight. I tried to buy you a chicken. I guess it didn't work. Ron DeBarber, good to see you.

Thanks, man. Kevin Matt talks with Matt Hardy. There's nothing like a wrestling fan, you know, for better or for worse. How do you handle that though? We're talking about people talking about your family, what they don't know about your family or your brother or you. How does one handle that from a day-to-day basis? Something I joke about with the young bucks all the time. I said if you would vanity search Matt Hardy on Twitter, I said after you got through a hundred replies, you'd want to quit the business and never be seen again.

It's just, you just learn to deal with it. You know what I mean? It's the Kick Rocks! Wrestling Podcast with Evan T. Matt.

Subscribe now on the Odyssey app or ever you get your podcast. Evan Matt talks with Matt Hardy. There's nothing like a wrestling fan, you know, for better or for worse. How do you handle that though? We're talking about people talking about your family, what they don't know about your family or your brother or you. How does one handle that from a day-to-day basis? Something I joke about with the young bucks all the time. I said if you would vanity search Matt Hardy on Twitter, I said after you got through a hundred replies, you'd want to quit the business and never be seen again.

It's just, you just learn to deal with it. You know what I mean? It's the Kick Rocks! Wrestling Podcast with Evan T. Matt.

Subscribe now on the Odyssey app or ever you get your podcast. Evan Matt talks with Matt Hardy. There's nothing like a wrestling fan, you know, for better or for worse. How do you handle that though? We're talking about people talking about your family, what they don't know about your family or your brother or you. How does one handle that from a day-to-day basis? Something I joke about with the young bucks all the time. I said if you would vanity search Matt Hardy on Twitter, I said after you got through a hundred replies, you'd want to quit the business and never be seen again.

It's just, you just learn to deal with it. You know what I mean? It's the Kick Rocks! Wrestling Podcast with Evan T. Matt. Subscribe now on the Odyssey app or ever you get your podcast.