And and we are thrilled to welcome in Viking safety
Theo Jackson, who's all smiles this offseason. Theo
, good morning to you, and a lot of
that does not have to do with the fact that
he's got a new baby at home. Uh,
he is spending more time with his family. It
might be because he signed a new extension with the
Minnesota Vikings, a defense to be feared in the
NFL. Theo, I know, right? The
Vikings, the Vikings invested in you, Theo.
How did that make you feel when you found out
about the deal that they presented to you? Honestly
, it was a surreal feeling because you know,
as a child, you, you work your whole
life to get to this, to get to the
moment and uh you know, I was just so
grateful and it was just a testament to, you
know, the work that I put in and the
people who have watched me work so it just shows
that my work hasn't gone unnoticed. You know,
Will Blackman here, we're gonna go right into football
, right? So let's go back to the Seahawks
game last year. Vikings are up 3 and Geno
, Geno Smith, he's trying to lead a game
winning or tying drive with less than a minute left
. You come in there, you crush your dreams
with a pick. What did that moment feel like
you, man? So, for my athletes out
there, like when, when you were a kid
, you always go in your backyard and you always
, you know, go through scenarios where you're catching
the game with a pick, catching the game with
a touchdown, and I just, and, and
before the game, I always tell myself to tap
back into that kid, to go out there,
have fun. Don't worry about mistakes, just go
out there and play free. And, and after
that moment, and you know, I kinda like
it was like a very like exciting moment like just
everything that, that, that I worked for and
it's just a testament to, you know, the
work that I put in and the people around me
to give me that opportunity. Theo Logan Ryan here
and I spent some time with your defensive coordinator Brian
Flores in the New England Patriot days and he's one
of the most aggressive and creative defensive play cards in
football. So what's something you like playing for him
and what's a story maybe or you know or a
concept you've learned from playing for a guy like Brian
Flores? I would say everybody on the field is
just an ex. Like you never know his defense
, what position you're gonna line up in. You
might line up outside on the edge, you might
line up deep in the half, you might line
up at linebacker. You never know with him,
so for him, just with, with, with
, with him teaching me all those spots and he
learned all those spots. I learned a lot more
football. I learned people where I learned where people
are supposed to be. I learned what, you
know, plays, you know, what, what
, what plays we're gonna get by, by the
defense that we're in it's just a lot of football
that you learn by learning different positions. Go ahead
. What's up? Hey, Drake. So I
have a question. I need some, I need
some help. I need some advice, right?
So I have a new teammate that you're pretty familiar
with, and it seemed like last year and the
year before you, Josh Mali, all of y'all
had every week y'all had a new choreographed dance.
I don't know where you got them, how you
got them, who chose them, but what went
into all of that. And how did y'all pull
those off every week? So picture this. It's
Saturday night, you just finished up your last meeting
of the day and then Cam hit you with a
text, like, you know, let's go practice
this dance. And we all get down there and
like we're just going through all these ideas and,
and by the way, Cam comes up with all
of these dances. So, and then if you
don't know, uh Cam's wife, she's a phenomenal
dancer. So she gives him these ideas and then
he and then he's, you know, he's into
Disney Channel and all these stuff, so he just
brings back memories with these dances and yo, like
he's, he's on point so he teaches us the
uh the, the dances and then we just have
, have fun with and then, you know,
and then, and then also like encourages us to
go and go out and make plays. Uh-huh,
uh-huh one of those videos that we just thought,
well, actually, let me, Nick, are
you gonna participate in this with Cam Bynum? You
see, I'm usually not, I'm not a big
, I'm not a big dancer. I'm not a
big dancer myself. I just go out there and
make the play and, you know, celebrate,
you know, the, the ra ra, and
then, you know, go back to the sideline
, but he might have to bring back my elements
. So Cam, if you're watching, you know
, I will say I am open to learning these
dances. Um, I might, I definitely will
not be as good as you are at them,
but I will be open to trying. But the
rest of the DBs in indie for sure will pick
up the slack that I, uh, lack in
my dancing. Theo, what was the one that
took you the longest to learn? Oh definitely the
camp prop. So that one, that one took
about an hour and 15 like we were in that
ballroom like sweating trying to learn that like, but
, but once we got it, it was,
it, it, it was like OK, like
now, now, now we got it and then
once the moment happened in the game. It was
, it was probably like a lot of thinking,
so we had to to figure out like who was
standing next to who, and it was just,
it was just such chaos, but 11, once
we got got in line and got it, it
was, it was perfect. Yeah, I wanna
say first of all, congratulations on your one year
wedding anniversary. After, oh yeah, after our
first year, I learned that. It wasn't like
gifts. It wasn't bags and flowers. Like she
loves all that stuff. For me it was like
, did I take out the trash, did I
feed the baby? Did I empty the dishwasher?
Did I take, did I put my shoes upstairs
? Like that was our love language. What did
you learn after one year of marriage? Well,
not only that, but, uh, uh,
but keeping your friendship alive, because, um,
you know, with, with us, like we
joke around 24/7. Yeah, we have our serious
talks here, here and there, but we joke
around 24/7, like if I wanna get on the
game, she'll get on the game. If,
if she wants to go outside and kick a ball
around, we, we would do that, you
know, like we, we just always keep our
friendship alive because you keep your friendship alive and you
keep your marriage alive. Did your wife play soccer
? No, no, I don't know what she
played, but she played, but she, she
ran track, but she just loves to do anything
sports. Yeah, that's awesome. That's a good
friend in life. It's a good advice, Theo
. We appreciate you so much. Thank you for
coming on the show this morning. Stay healthy.
Enjoy your offseason, and uh if you have any
dance tips for our new friend at the table,
Nick Cross, send him his way so he's prepared
for the Cam Bynum experience. I will stay loose 00:06:21.809 --> , Nick.