Shawne Merriman, Lights Out Xtreme Fighting

Evan Matt talks with Matt Hardy. The biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl, is on Odyssey. And Westwood One brings it to you, streaming live for free, Sunday, February 12th on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown, Travis Kelsey. It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs.

The Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl, your Odyssey. Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. Inside radio row, Super Bowl 57.

We just counted down the days until Sunday, so you may as well pass some time with a good friend to the show. That, of course, is former NFL linebacker. This dude was a menace on the field for the Los Angeles Chargers. San Diego at the time. Now we've got to call him Los Angeles. You never get him right.

And also wrapped up his career with the Buffalo Bills. That, of course, is Sean Merriman, who's now running this Lights Out XF.com Extreme Fighting League, which is, for my ear, unbelievable. And we've always been talking to you about it throughout the year, so it's nice to see you in person. Sean, how you been? Yeah, same here, man. It's been great. I'm trying to remember how many times I've been in radio row. I'm like, you say 57.

I'm like, okay, hold on. I've been to probably 10 or 15 of these things. Did you come a lot as a player here? I did.

I did, actually. Because I've always felt that the media was very important as a player, especially when you're looking to transition to that when you're done. Like, what better way to get your reps in by doing radio row if you're looking to transition to that when you get done playing? It's such an interesting point that you bring up. Because, hey, you play in the NFL, whether you're good or bad, you could have a career in media.

As long as you're opinionated, you give us a good perspective. But I feel like it's so tough to think about the future, like years ago, when you're in the moment. But now, I think with a newer athlete, people start thinking about the future a lot earlier. Well, yeah. The thing is, there's so many different outlets and ways to do it. Back when I was playing, podcasts wasn't big. You can shoot podcasts from your living room. You can shoot a podcast from... How about Jason and Travis Kelce? That's some of the most entertaining thing I've ever seen. And it's a podcast between two guys that are playing. It's a podcast, you're right, between two guys playing.

And they're not even in the same location. That's where media and this digital era has gone now. And so, just to get a taste of being here and all the different outlets from the world. You're not just seeing local stuff here.

By Wednesday or Thursday, you'll get outlets from everywhere in the world here in this building. When you look back at your career, what's the first thing that comes to mind when you look back, Sean, and you go, that's what I'm most proud about with my NFL career? You know, being a contributor to a team that already have four or five different Hall of Famers. You know, like... You guys had a lot of talent. You know, so you walk into a locker room, and I'm 20 years old, I'm 20 years old and I got drafted. And you don't think like this at the time. You're like, hey, I just want to go play football and be the best at what I'm doing. But you don't really relish the moments of playing on a team with Daniel Thompson, Antonio Gates, Philip Rivers, Lorenzo Neal, Jamal Williams, Nick Hart.

I mean, you can just go on and on. Lorenzo's a character. You guys had a lot of characters. I've never met someone like Lorenzo Neal. Lorenzo Neal took me under his wing. And he spent a lot of time with me when I was younger, when I walked in. He was 12 or 13 years in, I believe, at the time. And I could not keep up with him in the gym sometimes. It doesn't surprise me. He was on another level. And so at the time when you're young, you don't relish those moments. And they were looking for me to come in and contribute, right?

I'm like, hold on. I remember the rookie dinner. I got hit for $32,000 in rookie dinner.

They hit me. LT set up on a chair at the end of their dinner at that paid-out enormous bill. And he said, guys, all jokes aside, we're going to need Sean to come in and help us take over the edge. At the $32,000, they better respect you. Well, he better give me a nice speech at the $32,000, because I was pretty pissed off.

But, you know, you're contributing to a team that already has great players. And so that, to me, walking into the locker room, walking into that situation, I'll never forget. How many people were at that dinner around? Well, if you were four years in, you got invited. So if you were four years up, meaning you were invested, you were four years in, you got it. And so I didn't know that alcohol was that expensive at that time. Was it Louis the 13 shots?

That's exactly what it was. Thousand percent. I'm trying to think how you get to it. No, not shots. Three bottles. So, you know, I'm 20 years old. I just turned 21. What do I know about Louis the 13?

I'm from Prince George County, Maryland. And Louis the 13 looks like just any other, you know, $25 bottle that's up on the shelf. I don't know. When I see Louis the 13 on the menu at a restaurant, I always, like, mess with the waiter. I'll get a few of those shots. And they're always looking at me like, really? And I'm like, nah, I actually want to be able to afford this meal.

But that's what? $32,000 at dinner. I can't even imagine how you get the number that bleeped out. I was just waiting on my credit card to decline so I could run out of the restaurant.

But it went right through. And they didn't even call me. And I said, damn, you know, I got to get rid of this black card.

And I did after that. Your teams were so fun, Sean Merriman. And I know now it's kind of did you win a Super Bowl or not? And you forget about the teams that don't win a Super Bowl. But the talent, like you were saying, it felt like you guys should have at least bare minimum got to a Super Bowl. Yeah.

And, you know, I don't have many regrets over my career, but that is one of them. And so I'm not really affected as much as, let's say, Phillip Rivers, right? Yes. So the whole theme, it's only the quarterback position where we say, do you have a Super Bowl ring or not? Not any other position.

That's exactly where I was going with it. And so with me, it's like, oh, you know, defensive rookie of the year, Pro Bowl, all pro, you know, led the league. It's like the accolades in my position you're OK with, right? But when you're talking about a quarterback and how much we value Super Bowl champions now and rings, somebody asked me a few weeks ago and said, hey, do you think Phillip Rivers is a Hall of Famer? And I said, well, look at his stats. He said, yeah, well, his stats are in the top five through almost, or top seven through every category. So I said, aren't those Hall of Fame numbers? And the first thing they said, without me saying anything, but he doesn't have a ring. And I said, that's not fair.

It's just really not. That or he played in an era where it was all about throwing the football in high octane offenses. And now the quarterback gets protected like no other.

That's the other thing that people say. Oh, well, he's in the top 10 for passing yards and passing touchdowns. What does that mean in this day and age of football? Yeah, I mean, because the game has changed, right? I remember playing Kansas City, and they would just line up and power offset and run 40 times downhill. And they just don't play that type of football anymore.

And it's different. And the game has evolved where it's 70 to 75% passing now. And also, you're so right on the Rivers point, because I can't tell you how many shows we've done where I think the two most debated players that have played in the last 15 years at the quarterback position, Eli Manning and Phillip Rivers. And Eli, when you get to two Super Bowls and win two Super Bowl MVPs, and you're in the top 10 of those categories, you don't get into Hall of Fame, even though individually those regular seasons, I don't know how many great years he had in the regular season. But for Phillip Rivers, the guy's what made eight or nine Pro Bowls or something like that? Yeah, the Pro Bowls.

He should be in Hall of Fame. The Pro Bowls, the streak. I think Phillip missed like one game or something, two games his whole career.

I mean, that's his, and look at now, and some of these guys. Eight Pro Bowls. Eight Pro Bowls. And look at now, some of these guys that go down and they get hurt and miss games. You know, Lamar Jackson goes down, he missed what, three or four games, missed a playoff game. Phillip Rivers played with a partially torn ACL.

The AFC title game. The week of, I watched him have surgery. When he walked back in the training room, he had a partially torn ACL. He had surgery on the play in the game.

That was his dedication. So when anybody talked to me about Phillip Rivers and Super Bowls, this, that, and the third, I'm like, look at his longevity. Look at his numbers. You tell me, should he be in a Super Bowl or not?

Sean Merriman here with us to talk about LightsOutXF.com in just a second. This game, defensively, if you were getting ready to go up against Mahomes, how would you be game planning? How would you be preparing for Patrick Mahomes? Well, you know, the one thing about the Philadelphia Eagles, they line up and they just play football. There is no- And they're athletic on defense. They're athletic. They're not bringing safeties down in a box. They're lining up and saying, hey, we are better than you.

We're going to line up and tell you what we're doing, and you got to beat us. And so when they have a defensive line, it's like a revolving door. One guy gets tired.

Two guys get tired. You got an all-pro coming off the bench that's also able to rush the passer. And so when you have a stacked team like that, it's hard to beat. The Brandon Graham story doesn't get enough attention and love. Guy had an Achilles injury last year, comes back, isn't playing as much, coming off the bench, and he has 11 sacks, the most in his career.

That, to me, is just a wonderful story. And no one talks about him for comeback player of the year. Well, you know, I think, well, did you win it or supposed to win it? He'll eventually win it. Yeah, he'll eventually. We'll find out in a few days. Yeah, so I think that when you look at the overall picture- I'm not saying win it.

Just be a finalist. I tore my Achilles, right? And that's ultimately why I end up retiring. The worst injury. You're not the same player after you tear your Achilles, especially when you had an explosive position like he is. When you get to the Eagles with Jalen Hurts, the threat to run has to just keep defenders up all night, not even when he tucks it and goes, because we know he could do that, but just the threat when you don't know if a passer run's coming. Well, as a passer, you hate it, right?

Because you want to pin your ears back and go. And so when you know you can't do that, you have to stay in your rush lanes, you got to be responsible, play within the scheme, and you can't go and make the play, the big play that you know you think you can make, it's frustrating for a defensive player. Now, the only thing that's going to help these guys in any situation if the game gets 7-0, 10-0, now you know they have to pass.

They have to pass. And that's when you can go and pin your ears back and get out to the quarterback. And I'll just wonder, and all throughout the year, I said the Chiefs aren't going to miss Tyree Kill as much as people think. You have Mahomes.

You know how great Mahomes is. The great quarterback makes up when you lose a great player. But I wonder if they're in a spot, and I've said this all throughout the class, we haven't seen it yet, where they're down like 10-0.

The last few years, they've been down a lot in these playoff games, not having that big play ability so quickly to get it back and expedite that process. I wonder if they end up missing Tyree. Well, they're going to miss Tyree anyway. I mean, they battled through this year. The thing is, as long as you got Patrick Mahomes, you got a shot.

And Kelsey, too. And Kelsey, as long as you have Patrick Mahomes and that option to have Kelsey, that you have a shot, there's no way in hell they should have won that last game. With the amount of Patrick Mahomes being hurt, that mild ankle sprain ain't that mild.

I mean, it's a two-to-four-week deal, even what he had. And they're starting receivers down. In a normal situation, that is a guaranteed loss, but not when you got Patrick Mahomes. And also, the reason why I thought they won the game, and I hear what you're saying with Patrick Mahomes totally and always gives you a shot, but that defense did what Buffalo couldn't do, and that was take advantage of that Bengals offense. The line was completely banged up. It should be criminal that Buffalo wasn't in the AFC title game. I know they got blown out against Cincinnati, going up against three backup linemen, and you can't touch Joe Burrow.

It's a disgrace. I think the weather played a big part of that, because as a pass rush, you hate those conditions. You can't just really get out of your footing.

You're slipping around the place. But, yeah, I don't think that none of us, media fans, we're not talking about Chris Jones enough. Oh, he's a thug. There's only two guys at that position that you say that if we don't block him or we don't double team or do something, he's going to lose the game for us. It's him and Aaron Donald.

Those are the only two guys at that position who can step in and change the game, because that's a hard position to play, let alone a hard position to take the game over. And when he moved over to that left spot and going against that right tackle in the game, he basically told them, I'm going to end the game. This is how it's going to happen.

There's nothing you or anybody can do about it. You know what he said? He said, lights out. That's what he said.

That's what he said. It was the ultimate walk-off from just a great player. All right, tell me about the lights out extreme fighting. Go ahead.

Yeah, so lights out extreme fighting. We are live on FUBO Sports, FUBO TV. We had a big fight January 14th, a couple weeks ago. We moved into the top 10 all the time.

Most of you. Congrats. Program, thank you, at FUBO. So if you don't have FUBO Sports, get it. We got a big fight coming up here in April. I'm just locking down now. The date, putting the card together.

We're going to announce it sometime next week. But yeah, I've been around this sport for 17 years. And training myself also, but now on the other side of it where you got to worry about production, the satellite trucks, and tickets, and venues, and that stuff.

But not too many times do you get a chance to grow up and say, I'm going to play in the NFL, then kind of transition into the life I live now in the building lights out extreme fighting. So it's been fun. Before we let you run, what have you learned about yourself?

What's totally different than what you've ever done before? I'm very headstrong, man. And I'm very disciplined. And when I want to be great at something, I'm going to do it. And I'm very picky.

The staff will look at me like, why do you care so much about the lights? And I'm picking everything. It's a habit for me. Little things matter.

And the little things matter. And what did I learn that from? That's from playing football. That's from the platform and discipline I've had since I was 11 years old.

It's the only thing I know. Where are we going out for dinner tonight? If you were paying for a $32,000 meal, you got to take me out for dinner now.

Well, look, 32,000 pesos. I got you. No problem. If you need that, I got it all day. You got it.

Sean Merriman once again. Check it out. LightsOutXF.com. Always great to see you.

Thanks for having me. The biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl, is on Odyssey. And Westwood One brings it to you, streaming live for free, Sunday, February 12th, on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown, Travis Kelce. It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs. The Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl.

Again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl, your Odyssey.

Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. 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. Maxx. Subscribe now on the Odyssey app, or ever you get your podcast. The biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl, is on Odyssey.

And Westwood One brings it to you, streaming live for free, Sunday, February 12th, on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown, Travis Kelce. It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs. The Philadelphia Eagles. Are going to the Super Bowl.

Again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl, your Odyssey. Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today.