Stroy Holmes of Fancied joined now by two-time college football
champion and a man who runs better routes than the
mailman, Ladd McConkie. Ladd, how are you
? I'm good, I'm good. Thanks for having
me. First and foremost, uh, let's be
friends here. You're Georgia, I'm Mizzou. You
always beat me, so quite frankly, you should
have no sort of ill will towards my kind,
OK? Gotta get that out here. But you
have a really, really cool partnership with Doctor Pepper
. What are you doing with those delicious 23 flavors
? Yeah, Doctor Pepper's, Doctor Pepper's awesome,
uh, obviously the flavor and stuff, but,
well, also what they do, like in college
football, bringing the fans experience together, getting everybody
to, you know, buy in. They're having
like little pepper portal, uh, from, you
know, with the game coming up this week in
Athens, and, uh, so they have one
in Athens, one in Texas, and fans can
kind of go back and forth. Dogs fans can
, you know, show them what Dog Nation is
all about, call the dogs, bark at them
a little bit. Um, so yeah, it's
a, it's just a cool experience. I'm excited
to be able to partner with them. That is
, that is awesome. I know for me personally
, Doctor Pepper is my go to. All those
flavors just coalesce so deliciously in my mouth. But
I, I wanna know this because I'm here in
Kansas City. Again, let's be friends here,
lad, OK? KC LA, we're not so
different, you and I. But I've always wondered
, did the Chiefs ever reach out in the draft
process because KC got Xavier Worthy, we knew they
were looking for, for a wide receiver. Was
there ever a conversation with KC? Uh, honestly
, I literally, I think I talked to,
you know, every single team, probably from the
, from the Senior Bowl to the combine, um
, to just the pre-draft process. I feel like
I definitely, you know, I had a conversation
with them, but also with all 31 other teams
, so I didn't know what was going to happen
come draft day. All kind of blended in.
All I know is, I, I was calling
for, for Ladd to KC. It didn't happen
. And so I'm sitting here going, OK,
well, as long as he doesn't go to an
AFC West rival, and yet this is what happened
, because my thought goes, OK, finally,
Keenan. Allen's leaving. Keenan Allen had killed the
Chiefs for so long, and little, little did
I know, Ladd McConkie is very much like Keenan
Allen. Well, now Keenan Allen's back in LA
with you. What's it like playing with such a
phenomenal wily veteran like Keenan? It's been great.
Just, uh, you know, him being able
to share his knowledge with me and, you know
, all the other guys in the room, just
his presence, uh, being a leader, and
he's, uh, been around this league for a
long time. Like you said, he's played,
played in this division, played for the Chargers for
so long. So it's just cool to be able
to play with him and he's a future Hall of
Famer. So it's, uh, it's a pretty
cool deal. When, when you got to Georgia
or got to the Chargers, did anyone ever think
you were going to speak with an Irish accent?
Uh, I don't think so. I don't know
. If they, if they did, they didn't
tell me, but, uh, maybe I had
to break something out. I like that. Uh
, in high school, you were basically a souped
up Travis Hunter. You played quarterback, running back
, defensive back, and punter. First, how
did you never get tired? And two, why
did you choose wide receiver over any of the other
positions? Oh, I for sure got tired.
I was, I would be gassed. I'd be
gassed out there on the field. Um, but
no, I just, I just knew that was
probably my best opportunity. Uh, I'm not the
, you know, biggest guy. I don't have
the strongest arm. So as much as I love
quarterback, uh, I knew I'd probably have a
, have a better path playing receiver. Like when
I would go to camps and stuff, I'd,
I'd go play receiver. So, uh, I
kind of knew that would be my, my calling
. So you knew fairly early on that that that
was the smart, and by the way, I
think you made the smart shorts there, by the
way, getting drafted thirty-fourth overall. Yeah, that's
, I think so. It worked out. Did
you ever have a welcome to the NFL moment where
you either took a big hit or you had a
move that you're like, this always worked in college
. I'm gonna bust it out, and then you're
like, OK, this no longer works in the
NFL. Did you ever have a moment that stood
out to you? I'll take it a little,
uh, take it a little kind of opposite direction
. It's like we were sitting there. I don't
know if it would have been, you know,
OTAs. It was early on, and we do
, uh, like a player, Coach Harbaugh call
a player to come like talk to the team after
practice. And Kh Khalil Mack got up there and
talked to me. I was like, oh shoot
, like me and him are on the same team
. This is crazy. So that's a, that's
a pretty cool moment for me. Yeah, that's
awesome. That has to be so fun watching some
of these guys that you're, you, you grow
up watching these guys and now you're playing with them
on the same team. That has to be a
really cool experience. Speaking of Harbaugh, do you
have a good Harbaugh impersonation? Um, I don't
know if I can do any impersonations, but he's
got some, he's definitely had some, you know
, funny quotes, whether he's, you know,
writing us a poem or, or whatever it may
be. Coach, uh, coach is awesome.
He's always, always keeps you on your toes.
He's a Robert Frost out there writing your poems.
I like that. What, what stands out about
Harbaugh that makes him such a great head coach?
Yeah, he just has a great way of getting
everybody to rally together, um, and just,
you know, unite as, as a team and
really play for one another. He's an ultimate competitor
, um, but he's always just trying to do
more, and I think people respect that and respect
what he's all about. I know. How,
how strong is the Georgia brotherhood in the NFL?
Obviously, there's a ton of Bulldogs that are throughout
the NFL. It is insane. Do you guys
still talk a lot, or when it's football season
, you're like, Dude, I'm leaving you on
red. I'm not, I'm, I'm, I
can't do this right now. No, if we
get some texts, like you, you definitely try
to check in on guys and, you know,
hit them up, they, you know, have
a good game or whatever it is, like dang
, you're balling or, or whatever it would be
. And then also like before games, I feel
like every team I play, there's at least 11
or 2 Georgia guys on the, on the other
team. So just going up saying what's up to
them, checking in on them. And then Bama
guys, you're like, no, I'm not talking
to you. A little something extra for Bama DBs
, huh? Uh, yeah, they've, uh
, they got, I mean, I've lost 4
times in college and Bama beat 3, so.
Uh, yeah, it is what it is,
but we got, we got them when it counted
. We got them when it counted. Got it
when it mattered most. See, I would like
that sometime again. Let Missouri do something, expand
it to however many games it, it, it
needs to be, however many teams, let Missouri
in. Uh, is the rookie wall a real
thing? And if so, when did it hit
you? You know, I feel like it's like
everyone always talks about it, but then if there
is a wall, you just gotta, you gotta
bust right through it cause what are you gonna do
? It's like, OK, we're here playing.
Am I just gonna You know, fade out and
, and stop. But, so I, I
don't know if it's rookie wall, but I remember
having, you know, week 5 was our bye
week last year, and then, um, so
we had the early bye, and then I'm like
, OK, we've already played 4 games, but
now we have a college season. So it's like
, I've already done all this, but it's just
tough too because you go straight from the season to
combine training to getting drafted to OTAs to the season
. It's, uh, it's definitely long, but
He hit the wall. He just bust right through
and keep going. And you don't have the FCS
teams in the middle to maybe ease up a little
bit. No, none of those. You,
you, I mean, every, every week in
the NFL is a challenge. So before I let
you go, lad, what is phenomenal is Doctor
Pepper, Pepper Portal. We're talking Texas. We're
talking Georgia. One more time, what all is
going on with this? Yeah, the pepper portal
, there's gonna be, you know, like a
virtual Doctor Pepper can and turned into a portal in
Athens, in, in Texas, um, and
all the fans can go up and just, you
know, speak their mind however they feel, however
they feel about the game, what they're most excited
for, um, have some friendly banter. It's
all, you know, fun and games at the
end of the day. Um, but yeah,
get a little barking in and show, you know
, show everybody what Dog Nation's all about. Absolutely
love that. Ladd McConkey, ladd, really appreciate
the time. Yes, sir. Thank you.