Fletcher Cox, Philadelphia Eagles Defensive Lineman

Now joining us, man, this dude's just unbelievable for the Philadelphia Eagles star defensive lineman. And I'll tell you when I covered the Eagles for a year or two and they did bring me in and obviously I won a Super Bowl. So you could probably thank me for it, even though I did grow up as a Patriot fan. Anytime this guy would hold court in the locker room, it was always a show. It was always something. And you were right next to Chris Long in the locker, Brandon Graham as well. Jason Kelsey.

I always learned a lot of stuff. They're joining us on behalf of Tide, of course, is Fletcher Cox. How are you? I'm doing good. How you doing?

I'm doing fantastic. So here's why I like Tide. And here's why I like Philadelphia to I tend to temple. I lived there for seven years only.

I went through college in four and then stayed three years afterwards and did some local radio there. But Philadelphia respects the big fellas like and tied those as well. My lot of Kelsey, you got to show some respect to the big fellas. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. I think that, you know, doing that commercial with Todd early in the season, right before camp with three big dudes, I mean, especially being under a pile of laundry, which, you know, everybody know that obviously, you know, it was for Todd. And, you know, there was a lot of work going into it. And, you know, I had a chance to partner with him, you know, and, you know, obviously, you know, it was a great thing. And we're still continuing with continuing with that. So it's been a lot of fun. Are you playing next year? You plan to play, I'm assuming, man, dang, we're going straight off the rip, right? We're going straight for the guts. So one of my best friends in Eagles fan and go birds.

That's all I can tell you. He wasn't all that happy going into the playoff game, but he kind of felt he goes, man, you Brandon Graham's getting up there in age. You know, Fletcher Cox has been here forever.

You got Jason Kelsey. There's all this retirement speculation. I'm just wondering if you're gonna play. Let's just keep it all speculations and just gonna leave it at that. All right.

It is all spec. Everything is speculation these days. So, you know, you know, just, you know, there's nothing I've thought about, you know, there's nothing that that's crossed my mind. So I'm just, you know, just taking this time to myself and just reflect back on, you know, number one, making sure physically, you know, you know, I'm good and mentally, you know, that's the biggest part about it, you know, make sure I'm mentally good to go. So, you know, like I said, let's keep it all speculations and, you know, we're see where we head to.

Well, you guys are warriors, right? And sometimes the way that athletes are covered, it's fair, it's unfair. But I do think what you brought up, the mental health side is big. Like, what do you do in the off season to kind of decompress? And I know you got to focus on football, but kind of get away from football and kind of clear your mind.

I go to my happy place, you know, my happy place is obviously my, you know, my, my, I got a big ranch in North Texas. So then that's my happy place where, you know, I just forget about everything, right? I just forget about ball, forget about, you know, a schedule that, you know, that I got to stick by, you know, you know, I kind of get out of my routine things. Obviously, and during the season, you have those routine things that you do daily, you know, in and out. So I kind of get out, get out of that schedule and, and just get into a totally different world.

And that's definitely, you know, has helped me a lot in these last, you know, you know, six years that I've owned the place. So if I came over to the ranch in Texas, what are we eating? What's for dinner? What are you cooking up?

What are you serving? Oh, yeah, we only serve beef there. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. We eat steaks every night, burgers, whatever you want. You know, we may throw, you know, a salad in there. Oh, I mean, that's your choice. If you want that, that's your choice. You know, you can get a salad, but I tell you what, the big man ain't eating no salad.

You know, just give me some beef and taters and I'm good. That's unbelievable. Fletcher Cox is here with us. What's the lasting memory for you from the Super Bowl, Super Bowl 52?

Oh man, the lasting memory for me was, you know, obviously it was probably the biggest play of the game. You know, defense, you know, obviously, you know, if you go in and if a lot of people, if there was a mic on me and I tell the story over and over, if there was a mic on me, you know, when I, you know, had this conversation on the, on the sideline with BG about, you know, Hey man, like, you know, I'm gonna go to the right, which I normally don't play the right side of defense. I said, you go to the left and I said, they're going to slide to me.

I need you to win a one-on-one. And he said, okay, I got you. And that's all I needed, you know, from him.

I, you know, there was no reassurance like, man, should I, should I not trust him to go over there? Which, you know, he was going against a really good player, Shaq Mason. And I said, you know, BG, I said, man, listen, if I go to the right, they're probably going to slide to protection to me. Um, and you know, and in, in a passing situation, so I need you to go win it. And, uh, you know, he, he, he, you know, he answered that bell and, uh, you know, Derek got it and, you know, um, it was, it was good. And, you know, there was a lot of special moments in that game. Uh, so it's the biggest play in, in Eagles history. And I know some people will say it's the Philly special, but that game was an offensive shootout, but ultimately defense wins championships. And that was the biggest play of the game to me.

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I talk, the thing is I talked to, you know, Maddie P about, about that game. He was like, Hey, look, you know, I was like, you know, we were both, you know, me and Matt, you know, we, we've become like really close over this, over this past season. And, you know, we still talk about that thing and about the game and, you know, our biggest conversation, I look, you know, both defenses gave up 500 yards, you know, of offense and, you know, the, the defense that got the last turnover is, is the one that won the game. And, and, you know, you gotta believe in that.

And, uh, you know, I got a lot of respect for, you know, for Maddie P. Talking to Fletcher Cox right now. So from afar, you guys start out 10 and one, they're humming. I know that some people are like, Oh, they're sloppy victories.

Doesn't matter. You guys were 10 and one coming off a Superbowl loss. You got off to a really good start and then down the stretch, you know, you only won one game from afar.

It feels like there were problems in that locker room. What was the truth on why you guys couldn't find the way to get the ship back, moved in the right direction down the stretch? I mean, if you really go back and look at us, um, you know, early in the season when, you know, we were, we were, when we were, you know, you know, winning games, you know, if you go back and look at every game, we will die away to win all of those games. You know, I think the only game where I was at the bills game, where we, where we completely like dominated was when we play Miami, you know, where we dominated a team, right. You know, you gotta look at, we went in overtime with the commanders, you know, we were close game with Dallas, you know, um, you know, we, we will die away to a lot of those wins and you know, that's what good football teams do, you know, and down the stretch, you know, just one of them things where, you know, you can't put your hand on what happened, um, you know, obviously, um, but you know, it just, you know, it sucks the way that it ended, you know, I feel, you know, that, you know, I feel like as a team that, you know, and as a player, we probably could have done better.

Um, and you know, obviously, you know, we, we went in the first round of playoffs and, you know, got eliminated and that's not so much you want to do for a team that started 10 and one. So, I mean, as a player and you, you know, you learn from, from those mistakes and he's really trying to still try to put your figure on what went wrong. Everyone's going to talk about Nick Sirianni. I think we've spent a month talking about Nick Sirianni. I know you have defended him. You just tell me why Nick Sirianni is the right coach for this team moving forward.

He's the guy, you know, there's no question about it. I think he's the guy, um, in this year and going forward, you know, the guy, I mean, coach, you know, Nick has, you know, took the organization into, you know, three playoff appearance, one Super Bowl appearance and his, his, his few years there. Uh, and you know, everybody, every great team, and I said all the time, every great team go through, you know, faces adversity. You know, some teams respond, some don't.

And, and, and that's, that's the biggest thing. And no matter how good you are, um, you're going to go to go through that adversity. You know, I just take, for example, you know, I take for, you know, the 49ers, you know, they lost three in a row in the regular season and you know, they're, they're a really good team. I respect that team. Right.

And, and they're a really good team and they went through that adversity and they, but they, they dug their way out of it. Does it annoy you when Deebo says that the Eagles and 49ers, uh, isn't a rivalry because you guys couldn't keep it close this year? Um, I respect Deebo, you know, he doesn't like me hanging up the phone. So, uh, you know, I respect Deebo and you know, he, you, you could definitely voice your opinion on anything.

Um, and, uh, you know, um, I, I, I wish him luck and you know, he's a great player and you know, he's, he, he got a chance to play in this league for a long time. Who wins the game on Sunday? I mean, I don't care.

It don't matter. It don't, it don't, it don't affect me, you know, but the biggest thing is, um, you just want to see Jason Kelce ripping his shirt off. I'm assuming, man, I just, you know, I'm really, I'm really rooting for it from Mississippi state guys, you know, all the guys from Mississippi, you know, like Chris Jones and Willie Gay and you know, those guys that, that represent our state, um, you know, again, um, you know, in, you know, in, in, in the super bowl. So you got to pull for your home state guys.

Tell me what you're doing today on behalf of tide, just to have a time, man, just tackling every pod on and off the field, baby. You already know if I trust him, you should too. All right. And here's the last thing I got to ask you. It's our biggest question of the week. Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift, are they going to eventually get engaged?

Oh, that sounds like a damn problem. So you're like a, a, maybe you're like a, maybe I mean, I like Travis, I respect him. You know, um, I think that, you know, he's found a love life and you know that eventually, you know, he'll, he'll probably feel the pressure and get it done.

You know, well, he's focused probably on another ring and that's on Sunday. Fletcher Cox. Great to see you. Thanks so much for doing this. Yes, sir. Thank you. There he is.

Fletcher Cox joining us on radio row. When something happens to your car, you might say, but what you really need to say is something that can actually help like a good neighbor state farm is there. And just like that state farm is there to help you file your claim, right on the state farm mobile app. So just remember like a good neighbor state farm is there state farm Bloomington, Illinois.