
Episode 181: Whisper Fights & Not Accepting Airplane Food - Greg Olsen Part 2
Calm Down with Erin and Charissa
Relaxing Mondays with Greg Olsen
The hosts discuss how Greg Olsen spends his Mondays after a game, emphasizing the importance of relaxation and quality time with his wife.
00:00
Transcript
Play full episode
Transcript
Episode notes
Speaker 2
Okay, Greg, you got to get back to your Aloha's and Mahalo since today. She's sleeping.
Speaker 1
I don't even know what I'm going to do. I'm going to. What
Speaker 5
are you going to go to? What
Speaker 2
do you do on Mondays after a game? Like, I don't even know this about you. We're always coaching. We're always with the kids. What do you do? You don't even like craft open like an article or two.
Speaker 1
No, Monday is my day. I on a typical Monday when I'm in Charlotte, which is 99% of my days. We for two days a year, my wife and I come down here by ourselves and we always do it the week of her birthday. So this is just by chance that two days. But 99% of our year on a Monday, we are in Charlotte. We'll get them off to school in the morning. Well, Karen, I will go to breakfast or we'll do something like that. And then we kind of go our separate ways. She does her tennis thing. I go do whatever. We just Monday is our day, my day. The kids don't have sports. We don't have practice. I don't read an article. I close out all my stuff from the week before, close out all those documents on my computer, put the save everything to the folder for future reference and just have a day. Just collect, regroup whatever, and then Tuesday morning I jump back into it. So Monday, I'm not doing nothing. I couldn't even tell you who we're calling this weekend. I need one day a week where I'm just like, I'm not worried about a sports scan article. I'm not worried about a PFF report about how Mac Jones does on third and seven plus. I don't give a shit for one day. I don't care. I'm giving a shit.
Speaker 2
Greg, you I say this and I know we all like joke, whatever, but you did win an Emmy for the best, I don't know the actual category, but the best newcomer, like whatever the actual title is on your Emmy, which isn't it bullshit. You have to buy your own Emmy. I think that's crazy. Like, here's the award. I have to go buy my I bought that. No, I bet they give it to you. I had to buy mine. I won one for extra and I've had to pay $450 for that thing. So congratulations.
Speaker 1
Congratulations to me when I'll call extra back and let them know I'm not interested, but maybe they payroll deducted it. To be honest with you, I have no idea probably. You probably paid for it. As you can see, my my shelves are empty.
Speaker 2
So thank you. No, and Ryan, our wonderful producer because it's a great producer. It's outstanding personality and emerging talent. Okay, so here's the question. Did you, when you were playing, did you because there's all these guys are like, oh, you know, I'll just get into broadcasting after like it's some foregone conclusion. Did you a know that you were interested in doing broadcasting after you play? Was it something that you were like, I'm going to be great at this? Or like sort of when did you and you won't pat yourself on the back because that's not who you are, but did it come naturally to you? Or has it been sort of this process? What's your experience so far been in broadcasting because the award has come, but how have you felt about the process?
Speaker 1
Yes. So there was there was no moment where I ever and this is the truth. There was no moment where I said to myself, you're like, you know what, my career is coming to an end. I think I can go do TV. It really it never it did not happen like that. It really was a very organic, natural kind of random process and it really all started. So it was like 2000. I think it was like 2015 off season either 2014 or 15 off season. I was out in LA. I was in Manhattan Beach by Aaron visiting my buddy Ryan and his wife Natalie and we were out there and I had done some stuff with a local regional network back when before Fox sold off all their regional networks. There was a regional network called Foxport South and it was in Charlotte and I did like ACC football on Mondays. I was still playing Mondays. I would go into like the random studio at the Fox office in Charlotte and I would do like a recap show that I'm sure nobody watched. I don't know if it then I don't know whoever watched it. I don't even know what channel was on but it was Foxport South was the network name and then Foxport South did a show called the panel which was like the year who was coming out of the draft. Sammy Watkins from Clemson was in the draft. Whoever was in it was like a bunch of draft guys who went down to Atlanta. Long story short, I did like some regional stuff with the Fox regional network and then that off season in 2015, they asked me to come in while I was out in LA visiting Ryan and his wife to come into the studio and do like an audition game and call a game in the studio. So I went and did that and I talked to Troy and I talked to a couple other people like trying to get myself prepared to do it. So I went in and did it blind and that was the end of it. And then in 2017, Fox asked me to come do a game on my bye week. So I joined Charles Davis and Kevin Burkhardt and I did a three-man booth with them for a game up in Minnesota. So that was when I was playing. In 2019, Fox asked me back to do a game and a two-man booth with Kenny Albert and I did a game in New York between the Giants and maybe like the Cardinals or something like that. So it really was just like little tiny small stuff with regional networks and digital stuff that no one ever saw. And then Fox said, hey, come on in which they do with a million guys, right? They do a million kind of audition type broadcast games behind closed doors that no one ever sees. And then they asked me, hey, you want to come in on your bye week? And I said, yeah. And really the rest was history. So really it was that 2017 game that I did with Kevin and Charles Davis at the time. And that was really my first moment where I was like, you know what, this call in the game thing might be my way in. You know, sitting at the studio desk is hard. You know, those guys have gold jackets. Those guys have resumes a lot different than mine. Those guys are different as far as their caliber of player, you know, from their career. But very few guys want to call games and very few guys can call games. And that was probably my first inclination to like, if you want to do this, calling games is probably your best avenue. And I kind of, that's, I just kind of dove into it. And here I am. You're really
Speaker 2
good at it. And that's, I mean, you know, I'm close to that. There's a lot of people that will just, you know, are more pedestrian sports fans and you make it easy to digest. But also you're good at speaking to the viewer, not like they're stupid, but also informing them. It's just you're very good at it. So just curious if that was something that you always were interested in doing. Yeah. Can I ask you and I know we need to let you go. But I was thinking about this. I fell going up my stairs last night as I should, because Kevin and I got bombed. But are you allowed when you come home in the middle of the night? Oh, from
Speaker 1
games? No, I'm not. I am. So like, the joke in our house is on the days that I'm up earlier, or I get home late, I'm like, no lights come on. I'm using the flashlight on my phone. I'm like, creeping in. I'm shutting every door super slow. I shut the bathroom door to take a shower. You know, I'm like, creeping. I'm like a burglar. The day is my wife's up before me. It's like a bomb goes off in my house. It's like, every door slams every lights on, the showers on, the hairdryers on that. I'm like, what? Why is she said, Oh, sorry. Did I wake you up? I'm like, what do you mean? Yeah, you woke me up. So no, I'm very, I love to sleep. So when other people are sleeping, I refuse to wake them up. It's like, it's like a thing. So I'm very quiet. I'm not waking anyone up. I'm checking all the kids' doors, shutting them. I'm not kissing them to say, Hey, daddy's home. Like, I'll see in the morning. Like you don't need to see me now. I'm very quiet and conscious of other people when they're sleeping. What
Speaker 2
are your thoughts on this? I fall asleep on the couch all the time. And I would write like, if I fall asleep on the couch, leave me there. Because now if you wake me up, now I'm going upstairs and I'm not going to fall back asleep. Like, so I probably spend five or seven nights on the couch. And Steve at some points, like, are we going to sleep in the bed together? And I'm like, look, I fell asleep down here. So leave me. So there's like a whole thing of like, when he should wake me up when he shouldn't, I'm like, never, never wake me up.
Speaker 5
So do you ever fall asleep on the couch?
Speaker 1
And no, no, no, am I the
Speaker 5
only one? No, my wife falls
Speaker 1
asleep 100 out of 100 nights. She has never seen the opening credits of a show and the fine and the conclusion of a show in her life. Yeah, that's me. She is she's a mother. She's a mother. I mean, she's a mother.
Speaker 5
I'm not a mother. And I fall asleep. So the joke
Speaker 1
is like, if I waited for her to watch a season of a show, it would take me three years, because I'd have to watch it. Then I'd have to explain to her what happened. Then I'd have to rewatch the show with her, but we'd only get through half of it. Then the next night we'd pick up the back half of it. I'd reexplained the first half of it. And then we'd start episode two. I'm like, it took me a week to get to episode two. I don't have time. I'm done. I'm getting so you don't have
Speaker 2
that. Yeah, you don't have that have to watch the show together thing, because it won't work. Yeah,
Speaker 1
it'll take me a year and a half to watch episode, you know, season one of Yellowstone, the rest of the world will be on season five and we're still sleeping through episode seven. Fair enough. It just is not going to happen.
Speaker 2
I'll tell you what we're not sleeping through your broadcast this coming Sunday. Can't wait for it. Don't know who's playing, but can't wait for it. We're going to Dallas.
Speaker 5
We're going
Speaker 1
to Dallas, but we don't worry about that on Mondays. We were about that on Tuesday morning. Okay,
Speaker 2
take the
Speaker 5
later. Eight AM.
Speaker 1
Take the later
Speaker 2
flight, by the way, you don't need to come so early. I did be with your kids. Okay, I
Speaker 3
booked. I
Speaker 1
booked. I booked. We're going
Speaker 2
to bring this. We're going to bring this podcast full circle because the story that everyone is interested in is Taylor and Travis. I need you to give me your best Travis story that you can tell that won't get him in trouble. It's not incriminating. It's just like a fun lighthearted Travis story because you guys have spent a lot of time together. You were, you know, the tight end community is very close. So give me your best Travis story before we let
Speaker 1
you go. And I don't know if it's really a Travis story, but it is a story from our little tight end thing that we do. So Travis and I and George Kittle, the three of us own this entity called Titan University. And every year we all come together in Nashville. And we do like a two night, three day, whatever you want to call it, like tight end camp. And it's a blast. Like it's in June. We look forward to it. So was it the first, either the first of the second year, Levi's did at our welcome party the night before. Welcome. And I promise this will come for full circle. They did like a, like a gene jacket custom shop. I don't know what the hell it's even called. They had like a, in the corner of the restaurant where we had the welcome party for all the guys, they had like a little like you go, you get fitted for your jacket, you can get patches, you can get logos, you can get whatever. And then you get a gene jacket. So picture 75, six, five guys. They all look exactly the same. They all look exactly the same. You know, throughout the course of the night, I don't want a jacket, but then they have a couple cocktails, they end up with a jacket. So Kittle has this idea that we're going to go to like Jason Aldean's bar, Blake, like one of the bars in downtown on the strip, you know, downtown Nashville. Well, so it's like Kelsey, Kittle, and 25, all their six, five guys. But we're all wearing matching gene jackets. So we're walking down Broadway. So good. And Kelsey, Kelsey's never had a bad time in his life. No. And Kittle's not far behind him. So like, I'm more of like, they call me dad. I'm the guy who like, make sure everybody shows up to practice on time. And I'll make sure everybody like, Hey guys, you know, we have Jeff, like do a meeting tomorrow and like teach these guys something like that's my job. They are social coordinators. They are the speech makers. They are the life of the party. And I'm cool with that. I'm making sure all the, you know, the trains run on time. And so here we are, we're walking we're walking into this bar. So picture 25, six, five, 250 pound guys all wearing matching gene jackets with like tight and you leave eyes. Like all these weird patches. It's a bizarre situation. Yeah. It's like, it's exactly. It's like, yeah, we're Eagle Scouts and we made our like seven iron arrow. And we walk into the bar and some guy taps him on the shoulder. He's like, is that Travis Kelsey? Like, yeah, like, is that George Kittle? Like, yeah, he's like, why the fuck are they wearing matching?
Speaker 4
So
Speaker 3
here I am. I'm wearing the
Speaker 1
same jacket. And I'm like, you know, dude, that's a great question. I don't know. Can I
Speaker 3
get
Speaker 2
a picture? Can I get an autograph? Why are they wearing the
Speaker 3
same?
Speaker 1
Okay, wearing magic. And then I'm standing next to this random guy at the door, wearing the same jacket with 20 other guys. Well, the birds are flocked together. That's a
Speaker 2
group right
Speaker 5
there. I would have loved to run into the event. I don't
Speaker 1
know. That it's just a great story. Oh, my God. It's a great time. They are quite the quite the duo. They're the best. All
Speaker 2
of you guys
Speaker 1
are tight ends, man. Tight ends are the best. Greg
Speaker 2
Olson, ladies and gentlemen, they really are. Thank you for your generous amount of time, especially on your brief holiday that you have. Thank you for being a great team meet to Aaron and Aaron. If you don't make us all those T shirts and you guys don't have those on your crew this Sunday, I don't know what to say to you.
Speaker 1
If I'm not wearing that in my open in Dallas, I quit Brady Brady can have my seat. I'm done.
Speaker 2
Hey, favorite tale. I know there's a lot of them. 1989, the year Travis was born, my favorite album of hers. Also your favorite album. You get one song off of that album. Wildest dreams. Whoa, really? Mine style. I don't
Speaker 5
hate that. You've
Speaker 4
got that dream dream dream. Look in your eyes. I got that red. I like red. I
Speaker 1
like wildest dream. I like red. I just love wildest dreams. I like, oh, we had a legit. We had a
Speaker 5
little bit
Speaker 2
of a
Speaker 1
jet. So many. So we in the clear.
Speaker 2
We were somewhere. We were screaming anti-hero in the car. Where were we? Oh, I think we're in San Fran. We were going to that Mexican restaurant. We were screaming at the top of
Speaker 1
our lungs. I love anti-hero. Yeah.
Speaker 3
I
Speaker 2
love you.
Speaker 5
We love you.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Greg Olsen is so incredible and we had so much to cover, we couldn’t fit everything into one episode! Erin and Charissa get Olsen’s thoughts on wearing socks to bed and who’s in charge of proper dress code when attending a wedding. You’ll find out what a “whisper fight” is, why refuses food and water while flying and his favorite thing about working with Erin on Sundays.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.