Meet Dan Koppen in his first Ask Me Anything (AMA) with SquadLocker. Dan talks about the mentality and preparation needed to succeed as a professional athlete plus answers need-to-know questions like: Ranch or Blue Cheese? in this lighthearted yet meaningful interview with Tip Fairchild.
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Jeanne Hopkins:
Hi everybody. We're ready to get started in a couple of minutes. We've got Dan Koppen with us today and Tip Fairchild. Tip has a lot of hard-hitting questions to ask Dan, so we're just waiting for everybody to come into the room and get their seats for this fun-filled webinar. Just give us a couple of minutes. It's the top of the hour. We're going to start at one minute after. Thanks.
Tip Fairchild:
Okay.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the start of our wonderful webinar with Dan Koppen. He's here with Tip Fairchild, our head of sales at SquadLocker, and Tip has some wonderful, hard-hitting questions, but before we get started, just wanted to have a basic couple of housekeeping rules. Everyone is currently muted. If you really want to ask a question and you haven't sent a question in via LinkedIn or Twitter earlier use the GoToWebinar questions pane in your instance of GoToWebinar. Tip is going to act as our host and ask Dan all of your questions. He can see your questions right now in his instance of GoToWebinar.
Jeanne Hopkins:
We are recording this and we're planning on sending out the recording tomorrow. So I'd like you to be able to meet Dan. Dan agreed to be able to put his email address at SquadLocker.
Jeanne Hopkins:
He's new to the team, he's willing to do just about anything here, because it's a great picture that Tip took in front of all these footballs. I want to ask you about the football's Dan, so what are all those footballs behind you? There was a lot of them.
Dan Koppen:
Fortunately I was lucky enough to earn a few game balls in my day. And those are a collection of 11 years worth of work, and when you go out and prepare throughout the week, Bill or Coach Fox, when I was in Denver, would come in on that Monday meeting, and if you had a good game and things went right and you won, he'd give out some game balls. So it's pretty cool thing.
Dan Koppen:
Funny story about that is when we were in Northern Rhode Island originally, usually my game balls ended up in a plastic trash bag.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Oh.
Dan Koppen:
That's just where I stored them and just kept them in there. And then we moved to a new house about half hour away, six years ago, and my wife found the bag. So she's like, "They're coming out of the bag. We're going to find a spot for them." So found a nice spot in the basement, and they look good, but that's when you're playing, you don't really think about that stuff.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Oh, that's fantastic. That's a great thing, Tip, that we should be doing for our sales team. We should have game balls, so when somebody has a really good month-
Tip Fairchild:
Absolutely, I like that.
Jeanne Hopkins:
That's a great thing to be able to do, so welcome. Welcome Tip. I did want to do just a very brief introduction to Dan other than being just a generally nice person. And I was telling him that I've dealt with a lot of talent in my career and he's the nicest person I've ever met. And so he has a couple of little fun factoids that his... If he could have dinner with any famous person, would you guess that it would be Paul McCartney? And his favorite movie, one movie he could watch over and over again is Top Gun, but those are just some very simple questions about who Dan is as a human being, and we've got Tip here and I know diddly about football other than being a cheerleader, and not a Patriots cheerleader, a high school cheerleader. I can do a, "Give me an L, give me an I." Kind of a thing for the line.
Tip Fairchild:
I can do that too, we can do it together.
Jeanne Hopkins:
We'll do it together. But Tips got some good questions. So I'm going to turn it over to Tip at this moment to ask these hard-hitting questions.
Dan Koppen:
Oh boy, go easy.
Tip Fairchild:
We're ready to go. So thank you people for submitting questions. I know we have some here that I have in front of me. I know you can put some through here when you're actually listening to this and enter them and I'll read them and read them off the Dan. So we'll start. I probably won't say the names because so many people send some things in and I don't have all the names in front of me, but first one Dan, you've got a couple of Super Bowl rings. We know you're a football player. You had a great long career there.
Dan Koppen:
Was.
Tip Fairchild:
What other sports did you play? Did you play them well? Pretty important too.
Dan Koppen:
Well, I like to think I played them well. Growing up I think I was pretty typical for where I grew up in Eastern Pennsylvania. A lot of us played football in the fall, we played basketball in the winter and then we'd play baseball in the spring. So it's kind of three sports go on through childhood, did a little track, little throwing in high school, little jumping. I do have some ups for a bigger gentlemen. So I think multi-sport athlete is the way to go.
Tip Fairchild:
Love it.
Dan Koppen:
Well-rounded.
Tip Fairchild:
Dan and I have worked out at the gym plenty of times together, and the ups thing I'm questioning right now. I've seen him jump a lot and it's not that high, but we'll jump to the next question for him.
Dan Koppen:
Biometrics is not my thing anymore.
Dan Koppen:
After you've put yourself five years in college and then 11 in the NFL, the knees just don't feel like they got jumped anymore.
Tip Fairchild:
Got you. While we're on the gym topic, we'll go with a softball question here for you. Max bench press in your prime. In your prime-
Dan Koppen:
How much I bench?
Tip Fairchild:
Yep. How much you bench, what do you put on the bar?
Dan Koppen:
You're going deep.
Tip Fairchild:
I am.
Dan Koppen:
Let's just throw it out and get it out there. 475.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Oh god.
Dan Koppen:
Back in college. And I that's where the one rep maxes stopped.
Tip Fairchild:
Okay.
Dan Koppen:
We did not do one rep maxes in with the Patriots.
Tip Fairchild:
We'll take it. You qualify. That qualifies.
Dan Koppen:
What was yours?
Tip Fairchild:
I'm not going to answer the question. Whatever the smallest weights you could put it on a bar.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Whatever beer weighs.
Tip Fairchild:
Yeah. 16 ounces on both ends.
Dan Koppen:
You were a pitcher, you should be able to throw some weight.
Tip Fairchild:
More bands, pliability. Have you heard that before?
Dan Koppen:
I have.
Tip Fairchild:
Yeah. Okay.
Dan Koppen:
They do.
Tip Fairchild:
Got it. All right, harder-hitting question. Biggest non-football kind of non-family member influence to you, like just who's an influence for you?
Dan Koppen:
That is a tough one. I've been around football people my whole life, and obviously been around my family my whole life. Yeah, I think growing up, I had a teacher, Mr. Novak. He was also a basketball coach, so that's considered non-football.
Tip Fairchild:
Right, that counts.
Dan Koppen:
He was just a really, really good dude, good teacher, good basketball coach, was a great player for Whitehall High School. They won the state title when he was playing, but just a guy who really just sort of put you on a right path and expected a lot out of you. Maybe when you didn't expect the most out of yourself. I think that's what a good coach does, expects more than you expect out of yourself. And really just turned into a friend too later on.
Tip Fairchild:
Awesome. Glenn Novak? Shout out to Glenn Novak, perfect.
Tip Fairchild:
Perfect. All right, next question. Another hard-hitting one here. Looks like this one's from Jimmy in Fall River. As a professional athlete, you face a ton of high pressure situations. Can you share some tips for getting mentally prepared in the face of high pressure moments?
Dan Koppen:
See, that's a good question, Jimmy. And really, I think it's not really about being in that situation or what you do in that moment. For me, and really for all, what was taught to us under Belichick with the Patriots is what do you put into it? What's your preparation like? He had the saying, "Practice, preparation makes game a reality."
Dan Koppen:
So he would put us through the paces in meetings, he would put us through the paces physically in practice, he would put us in those situations so when it came to game moments we were ready for him and we didn't have to think, we didn't have to worry about it. We didn't have to stress about it because we really emptied the tank and really put everything that we had into it. And you can apply that to life, you can apply that to business, as long as you come in prepared and, I'm going to say it, do your job, when those moments hit you're just going to react a lot better. You're not going to think about it.
Tip Fairchild:
Is it fair to say, if you started a hashtag, even though this one's already started, do your job is the good one. It's a good hashtag, right?
Dan Koppen:
It's a good one. But I think it's kind of generic, right? You know, you talk about hashtag or Patriot way, #Patriotway, #doyourjob, that's pretty much common sense. It's not something... I'm talking #redheadsarealwaysright.
Tip Fairchild:
I like that. That works.
Dan Koppen:
Let's go with that.
Tip Fairchild:
That works. Okay, I like this one. This is a Tip question. Who's the guy, you know the people that you beat a lot? Who's the person that had your number though? That just, you just couldn't beat. It could have been one-on-one situations, or a center, somebody just had you off the line all the time, whatever it is, who had your number?
Dan Koppen:
That's a tough question.
Tip Fairchild:
That came straight from me.
Dan Koppen:
Justin Tuck from the Giants, he graduated from Notre Dame. He was really a defensive end, and in their, I think they called it their NASCAR package with the Giants, we were in subgroups, so they would put their little guys, little D-backs out on the football field and they'd bring in all their fast athletic defense alignment. And they'd have four really, really good pass rushers. We were bigger guys. We weren't as fast as them, we weren't as athletic as them, we couldn't start and stop our motor as fast as them, so when he came inside in some situations, and with the paths we were also in a lot of man protections where we want our best pass blockers blocking their best rushers. So there'll be a lot of times where we'd be one-on-one with that guy and he'd have a two-way-go over me as a center.
Dan Koppen:
And it's hard to stop a guy that's got that ability. And he's a great football player. Won a few one-on-ones against me, I won a few, but it was good.
Dan Koppen:
He's one of those guys, the other guy is Kris Jenkins, who's a really big guy. He played in Carolina, he was also with the Jets later in his career, but he was one of those guys that could do a lot. He's a big 350 pound guy, but he could move, and he wanted to jump the snap count a few times. And I'm sorry, I don't care how big you are, if a 350 pound man starts to roll before you get going, it's hard to stop a guy like that.
Tip Fairchild:
I can imagine.
Dan Koppen:
So my wife did not like those weeks coming into game day, they knew when we were playing the Jets or the Giants that it was going to be a quiet weekend home.
Tip Fairchild:
Got it. So rolling into another tough one here. Toughest football loss. Now prereq here, I'm a New English fan-
Dan Koppen:
Is that a Tip question too?
Tip Fairchild:
This one was submitted. I'm a New England fan, been in New England, my whole life, so Patriots fan. Toughest, football loss, I think I know the answer here, but I might be wrong. So where are we?
Jeanne Hopkins:
Is it a multiple choice question?
Tip Fairchild:
No, I think there's only one thing that could come up, but never know. That's why we're asking Dan.
Dan Koppen:
It could be a multiple choice, really. All right, let's go top three, because we all know-
Tip Fairchild:
You know the top three, let us have them.
Dan Koppen:
We all know number one right? 2007 season, 18 and 0 going in the Super Bowl, playing the Giants. I don't think we won that game. From my recollection,
Tip Fairchild:
I don't either, I don't think you won it either.
Dan Koppen:
So let's just move on from that. We understand that, that's still... I don't get a lot of nightmares, and football players have a unbelievable ability to have short-term memory. So that one I haven't forgotten yet. So 2007 season, I would throw the 2011 season as well, where we lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl again. I did not play in that game. I had broken my ankle earlier in the year. It's still a tough loss when you don't have a chance to get the Super Bowl ring. And the third one, I would say the 2005 season and playoffs 2006. January of 2006, Indiana Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship game up 21 to 3 at the half, I believe, on our way to play Chicago and Miami. Colts came back and beat us. That was a tough one to swallow too.
Tip Fairchild:
I thought we might get a middle school or high school moment. The fact that you're going top three, but those all feel like big losses.
Dan Koppen:
Well middle school, yeah, you sort of move on from those pretty quick. High school, that last loss, we were in the state tournament my senior year, won our district title, and then we went to the states. We played out in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and we got beat by a team pretty good. So that was tough because you're taking off your pads, your high school uniform, your high school helmet, and that era is definitely ending. I remember walking off the field, seeing my parents there. That was an emotional moment. That's stank, but now it's been a while since I was... These other losses are much closer.
Tip Fairchild:
Got it.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Tip, I'm getting some other questions from some of our listeners today. Would it be okay if I interrupted you for a second?
Tip Fairchild:
Absolutely, let's hear them.
Jeanne Hopkins:
These are not my questions.
Dan Koppen:
That means you're doing a bad job, Tip.
Jeanne Hopkins:
No, not true at all. I'm trying to give him a little bit of a break. Rich Daniel said, this is a hard question I think. What do you think of women playing tackle football as adults, and do you see a women's version of the NFL in your lifetime happening?
Dan Koppen:
I have no problem with it, right? It's a free country. They've got pads on, they've got helmets on. If they want the women's league or whatever, but if they're fully capable and they're good enough to play on an NFL team or a college team, we've seen a bunch of... Not a bunch. I want to say we've seen a few kickers at the college level play, but if there's a woman out there that has the skills, I don't see a problem with it. I don't think anybody in this day and age would have a problem with it.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Okay, can I ask another question, Tip?
Tip Fairchild:
Go ahead.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Are you sure?
Tip Fairchild:
Absolutely.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Okay. Phil Slocum has a question. He says, "Hello, Dan-
Dan Koppen:
Hey Phil.
Jeanne Hopkins:
"Congratulations on your new position."
Dan Koppen:
Thank you, I'm excited.
Jeanne Hopkins:
"I've always enjoyed the stories from someone we both know and love who did his time in the NFL. Some of my faves were always the story about the moment when he was in game mode and just got overcome with the moment."
Dan Koppen:
Yeah.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Can you share with us if you had one or more of those moments where you just got caught up and it all hit you live?
Dan Koppen:
Yeah, if Phils speaking about my father-in-law, Mark Van Eeghen who played for the Raiders for eight years and then played with the New England Patriots for the final two years, and he got caught up in the moment every game where he would throw up before every game.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Stage fright?
Dan Koppen:
No, not stage fright, it's just he's got one of those triggers that just it just comes up. And a good story about that is that Coach Madden was his first coach there, wouldn't let the team go out on the field until Van threw up. So that's kind of a cool little thing that he has with those Raider days. My moment probably would be the first game, really, that I played in, because when you, and Tip knows this, when you're playing in a sport, it doesn't matter what age group, what level. I think there's some nervousness in you, there's some anxiety that you have, and that's all normal, that's all good stuff. So I think the most nervous I've been is my first start. And that was week two in my rookie year, in Philadelphia, about an hour from where I grew up, I had just, that moment almost came up. That I was really nervous.
Dan Koppen:
But then Tip can also tell you this, once that first snap happens, it's a game. And you just settle down, you get right into the flow of the game, and you just go. So that one, the Super Bowl was one of those moments, always is one of those moments. They say about the Super Bowl, the team that can treat it as just another game the soonest-
Tip Fairchild:
That's true.
Dan Koppen:
Has a really good shot of winning that game. And the first time you're in it you're like, "Okay, yeah." Now, at first snap, it will be normal. The nerves will go, the jitters will go, and we'll be fine. I'm not even joking, my hand was shaking midway through the second quarter, still in that game, because it's a spectacle.
Dan Koppen:
A hundred something million people watching, the stadium's packed, you have the flyover, you had, the first one was Beyonce singing the National Anthem. And the kickoff, some of the older guys were like, "Hey, just take a look around at the kickoff and just watch all the cameras and the phones, and people taking pictures." So you just look around and there's 70,000 people just taking a snapshot of that, and then you realize, ah, this isn't another game. And your body sort of takes a little bit more to settle down in that game. So I could have lost it there too.
Tip Fairchild:
The game butterflies are something that you don't get in normal...
Jeanne Hopkins:
Well Tip, you can talk a little bit about your time with the Houston Astros. You're a pro. Here you are.
Tip Fairchild:
My background is somewhat like Dan's, but not really. I played five years in the Minor Leagues for the Astros, but the game buzz that he's talking about is like, when you wake up and you know it's big and like something hits you quick, right?
Dan Koppen:
Yeah.
Tip Fairchild:
And your stomach, you feel your stomach go light. I don't get that for our golf matches that we have together, Dan, as much. Once in a while-
Dan Koppen:
We have not done the member guest yet.
Tip Fairchild:
We have not played member guest.
Dan Koppen:
We've got to grind it out for three days, and then it's possible.
Tip Fairchild:
You can't sleep, you're marking the balls and night before, you get the butterflies going, but-
Dan Koppen:
Laying your outfits out.
Tip Fairchild:
Yeah, laying the outfits out. But well, speaking of outfits, gear, we're gear guys now.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Right.
Tip Fairchild:
I've got a couple of gear questions.
Dan Koppen:
Yeah.
Tip Fairchild:
Best uniforms in the NFL right now. So it could be logo, could be look, we watched Seattle last night with the neon on, it's crazy. But-
Dan Koppen:
Fan of that uniform. I don't mind their blues. I'm more of a classic guy, Bears is an all time. We don't need to change that very much. Bears are awesome. I think the Raiders are awesome. Packers.
Tip Fairchild:
Those are classic.
Dan Koppen:
They're classic. All right, so I liked the new Titan ones too.
Tip Fairchild:
They look good. Last night, they were on last night. They look good. So during your playing time, your playing career, what brands did you like? What brands did you wear? I think it was Reebok at that time-
Dan Koppen:
Yeah.
Tip Fairchild:
... For the NFL. I can't remember, but it was. Is that what it was?
Dan Koppen:
It was Reebok. I'm not going to...
Tip Fairchild:
Who is it now?
Dan Koppen:
I like Nike. I like Nike.
Tip Fairchild:
For the brands, yep.
Dan Koppen:
I liked Nike. I had the opportunity to wear them my last two years with Denver. So I had a chance to have the, I think they call it NFL equipment. Right. But it was Reebok.
Tip Fairchild:
Yep.
Dan Koppen:
So we had both of them. I was a Nike guy with shoes because you could wear different shoes or gloves. Basically that was it. Or maybe even arm band... No, I don't think you could use different arm bands. So you could do Under Armour, you could do Nike, you could do Reebok, you could do... What else was out there? Adidas or something like that. So you'd have a shoe deal that you get your gloves and choose from. So I was always a Nike guy with that shoe deal.
Tip Fairchild:
Got it, so now you're getting ready to go to the golf course.
Dan Koppen:
Yeah.
Tip Fairchild:
What are you putting on? What's the brand now? There's some good ones out there. I love wearing Under Armour. I like wearing a lot of the brands that we have here for the company and stuff, but like what do you put on, what do you get ready to lay out the night before? As you said, right?
Dan Koppen:
Yeah.
Tip Fairchild:
You say, "I'm going to throw this on."
Dan Koppen:
My go-to, if it's a big round, Peter Millar.
Tip Fairchild:
Peter Millar.
Dan Koppen:
Peter Millar, outerwear, I'm going to throw Zero Restriction on. No doubt about that.
Tip Fairchild:
Bone dry, or matte?
Dan Koppen:
Bone dry, just the...
Tip Fairchild:
Pouring rain.
Dan Koppen:
If we're going to get into fashion talk right now, and especially for a bigger guy-
Tip Fairchild:
We're in the fashion industry.
Dan Koppen:
Okay, yeah. For a bigger guy, the way it feels on you and the motion it allows you, especially on my back splint, because it's so beautiful and-
Tip Fairchild:
If it weighs right on the bottom.
Dan Koppen:
It allows for the turn. And when they say Zero Restriction, it is zero restriction people.
Tip Fairchild:
There you go.
Dan Koppen:
That's what I'm saying.
Tip Fairchild:
Okay.
Jeanne Hopkins:
So there's an endorsement for you.
Tip Fairchild:
Wow. Yeah.
Dan Koppen:
For the bigger guy there's a lot of good stuff out there. There's no doubt.
Tip Fairchild:
Shoe size.
Dan Koppen:
13.
Tip Fairchild:
Favorite color Gatorade.
Dan Koppen:
Red.
Tip Fairchild:
Wow. Never heard red before.
Dan Koppen:
Red.
Tip Fairchild:
No one likes red.
Dan Koppen:
Everybody loves red.
Tip Fairchild:
I'm a yellow guy all day. Green, whatever you want to call it, I call it yellow. It's yellow.
Dan Koppen:
What is green? What are you, color blind?
Tip Fairchild:
Do you remember the color, did you get... They call it green sometimes.
Dan Koppen:
No they don't, it's yellow. It's lemon lime.
Tip Fairchild:
Do you remember the Gatorade for the Super Bowl?
Dan Koppen:
The what?
Tip Fairchild:
For the Super Bowl you guys won, do you remember the color of Gatorade? That's usually a [crosstalk 00:23:35].
Dan Koppen:
Yellow? Was it yellow?
Tip Fairchild:
I don't know, I'm just asking you. You were there.
Dan Koppen:
I didn't... I wasn't the one that-
Tip Fairchild:
Okay. I've got food questions coming up next.
Dan Koppen:
What's wrong with red? Fruit punch is a-
Jeanne Hopkins:
You better ask Des' buffalo wings question.
Tip Fairchild:
Yeah, so I got Matt-
Dan Koppen:
Fruit punch is a classic kids drink. So when you're growing up and Gatorade just comes out, you know what the best tip is? Here, this is for the parents out there. All right? If they don't do it already. So when you got a kid going to basketball camp or football camp in August or something like that, remember the old coolers, the Coleman coolers that you'd fill up, the spout comes out. The good ones when stuff was made right.
Tip Fairchild:
Yeah, that's right.
Dan Koppen:
You know?
Tip Fairchild:
Yeah.
Dan Koppen:
Here's the trick. You put the Gatorade in the ice cube tray the night before so you don't use regular ice cubes, because then you're going to water down the Gatorade. Now you're putting Gatorade ice cubes in that cooler, you don't water it down.
Tip Fairchild:
Got it. Non-watered down Gatorade. That's the key. You got it.
Dan Koppen:
Just like-
Jeanne Hopkins:
If you mixed the yellow and the red, how would that taste?
Tip Fairchild:
No, I don't know. I'm a one color guy.
Dan Koppen:
Jeanne, you never cross the streams.
Tip Fairchild:
Never, never, never.
Tip Fairchild:
All right, here's some food questions. Top city that you play in, and then where do you go to eat in that city when you were playing?
Dan Koppen:
See that's a trick question.
Tip Fairchild:
Okay.
Dan Koppen:
Okay? I'll tell you why. Bill doesn't like to leave... Some coaches, they treat it differently. Fox would go on Friday night for a game on Sunday. Bill would go Saturday afternoon. You're not going out to eat. You're there, it's a business trip, so you're in the hotel and you're going to the game, then you're getting on the airplane and you're coming home. So we didn't really go to a lot of cities and go out to eat. Some of them, we're out there for a week or something like that if it was a West Coast trip, or we're playing two West Coast games back-to-back.
Dan Koppen:
So there wasn't a lot of eating. The fun thing was, with Tommy with the last couple years, he got smart, because he's trying to take care of the guys and protect them, would actually get a restaurant in that area that he liked or whatever, and they would bring it in and catering too. The wide receivers, they're catching the balls and-
Tip Fairchild:
Yeah, the fat guys up front just like to eat.
Dan Koppen:
Yeah, I appreciate it.
Tip Fairchild:
But it could be a big bill that night.
Dan Koppen:
I think he could afford it.
Tip Fairchild:
Yes.
Dan Koppen:
I'm not really worried about the bill.
Tip Fairchild:
Gotcha.
Dan Koppen:
There's very few times that I went out to dinner with him that I ended up picking up the-
Tip Fairchild:
Yeah.
Dan Koppen:
I offer, that's just the polite thing to do.
Tip Fairchild:
So Matt-
Dan Koppen:
I was hoping he wouldn't take me up. Don't take me up on this.
Tip Fairchild:
Matt from Rochester said, so we're on the food questions here.
Dan Koppen:
Oh, I love food.
Tip Fairchild:
Buffalo wings.
Dan Koppen:
Yes.
Tip Fairchild:
Blue cheese or ranch?
Dan Koppen:
And you can't have both?
Tip Fairchild:
Both, I mean, I would want both. That's a good that's the answer Matt, from Rochester.
Dan Koppen:
Sometimes like a little variety. If I have one or the other, it's blue cheese.
Tip Fairchild:
Okay, blue cheese. Jeanne, what's your answer on that one?
Jeanne Hopkins:
Blu cheese.
Tip Fairchild:
Okay, blue cheese. Okay, let's see, a couple more. All right.
Jeanne Hopkins:
What's your answer on that?
Tip Fairchild:
I mean, both probably. I'd take ranch though, probably, one or the other.
Dan Koppen:
You're a ranch guy?
Tip Fairchild:
I think that Matt from Rochester is going to probably-
Jeanne Hopkins:
Shoot you?
Tip Fairchild:
... Send me a message on that one. Yeah. If he could. All right, what else do we have now?
Matt Desilet:
Blue.
Tip Fairchild:
Oh, there he is.
Matt Desilet:
Sorry, I'm a side producer everyone. I don't want to jump in this, but I'm going to jump in this. I appreciate the both answer. Tip, I'm a little disappointed. I'm a little salty at my Bills losing last night, I just had to get my two cents in on this webinar. That's it.
Tip Fairchild:
Got it.
Dan Koppen:
They lost big.
Matt Desilet:
It wasn't close. It was not close. It was not close.
Jeanne Hopkins:
That's a nice spin on it, Des.
Tip Fairchild:
The other day you were just saying 4 and 0, right?
Matt Desilet:
Well as a Bills fan I'm used to this.
Tip Fairchild:
You're not used to 4 and 1, come on, don't lie.
Matt Desilet:
No, I'm more used to 1 and 4.
Jeanne Hopkins:
We're going to try to wrap this up in three minutes, so if anybody else has a couple questions. I'm just going to bring this up, that one of the things that we're looking to do, this was sort of a slow roll effort to be able to have the chemistry between Tip and Dan in an effort for us to do SquadLocker TV with Dan and Tip, as you can tell, they've got a very good chemistry together. And one of the things, we would like to be able to answer questions on a regular basis, Jen asked this particular question. More about your business, because you graduated from BC with a degree in accounting, right. And it's a very important degree. I mean, it's a good one to be, it always is going to hold you in good stead. So not only on professional football, but in terms of your educational background, how does it given you a leg up as an entrepreneur, as a business person?
Dan Koppen:
You know, I think the education part has helped me just because I understand numbers, and actually I've always liked numbers. Especially Mr. Novak, who we spoke about earlier, was a guy who was like, "Hey, what do you want to do?" It's like, "I want to be an engineer." "No. You're probably going to be a businessman." So I was like, "Okay, all right, makes sense."
Dan Koppen:
So I think if you can understand numbers and you can understand what you can and can't afford, it's kind of hard. NFL careers are just different. Some hopefully are longer, and thankfully mine was. Most are just very short. And then those guys that have the long careers on like 12 retire when you're 34, which it's kind of not normal. So I think having that, number one, it allows me to do have a say and check of my own finances, which a lot of guys in the NFL probably don't do or worry about, which the NFL is trying to educate those guys on and give them good options for financial guys. But I always felt like I could have a handle on that a little bit. And then just in real life that I'm just starting to get to, having that background and that football mindset and discipline and determination and accountability, I think is really just a good thing wrapped into one.
Jeanne Hopkins:
I have one last question from Rich Daniel, he asked a question earlier about females playing ball.
Dan Koppen:
Yeah.
Jeanne Hopkins:
And he has another question about what's your takeaway from Bill's success, longterm, what really sticks with you today?
Dan Koppen:
His longterm, it's really what he says he's going to do, what's best for the team. It's one of those things like, Oh, okay, it's a media cliche that he says the reporters every time, but the biggest thing you want in a coach is honesty. And Bill is always going to be honest with you. Where you stand with him, how he stands with you and always putting the team first. And if you're not living up to your end of the bargain, you're gone. And I think guys that come into that facility and come into that team understand that well before they get there.
Jeanne Hopkins:
That's great. We're going to wrap it up. It's the bottom of the half hour right now, any last thoughts Tip?
Tip Fairchild:
Well, we're going to load up some more questions and you'll see some more of this with some things that Dan and I will be doing and we're excited about it. And I'm holding some of the hard-hitting questions until next time.
Dan Koppen:
I think we're going to have fun with it though.
Tip Fairchild:
I'm going to save this piece of paper that I wrote them on earlier today for the next time. So I appreciate everybody listening.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Well I just want to thank you, Dan, for coming here today and doing this.
Dan Koppen:
Yeah, thank you.
Jeanne Hopkins:
This was great. Thank you, Tip, for being our wonderful moderator on it. And thanks Des for breaking in with your Bill's story. So we appreciate it and we'll talk to you soon. Bye everybody.
Tip Fairchild:
Going to go get some of that Gatorade.
Jeanne Hopkins:
Okay.
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