Former Oilers tackle Brad Hopkins joins The Drive LIVE from Radio Row

KILT-AM / SportsRadio 610

Former Oilers offensive tackle Brad Hopkins joined The Drive from Radio Row to discuss the glory days in Houston, the transition to Tennessee and more.

Transcript

00:00Out to Brad Hopkins who just dropped in. There we go, there we go.

00:03Man, damn you look good. I mean, I didn't mean to jump like that.

00:10Fellas, y'all got me in the big chair.

00:13There you go, get comfortable in there.

00:15We got to delay a game waiting on you, man.

00:17I'm sorry, I was doing San Antonio, doing San Antonio.

00:19Hey, them good old boys over here.

00:20Remembering the love your blue days, bruh. That's what we were doing there, reminiscing.

00:24Well, hey, the people here, because they don't...

00:26Oh, my man got an oiler, Derek, on his arm.

00:29Give me some right there, man.

00:30There you go, please, Scott, in a minute, as Brad Hopkins joins us.

00:33You're in the exclusive furniture hot seat, baby.

00:36Oh, well, I see.

00:37And hot seat, lean back in that thing.

00:38Exclusive.

00:39Yeah, they'd like to use an oiler's portion of your career outside of that other place

00:48that you moved to. Is that what we're doing?

00:51Now, listen, I have no dog in that fight because I have just as much love for the city of Houston

00:56as I do for the city of Nashville.

00:57It's a good start.

00:58If you've actually broke bread and lived in that city, you understand the complete unique

01:04environment and how lovely it is. Both my sons were born in Houston. My grandson was born in

01:10Houston. My daughter-in-law grew up a Texans fan. She doesn't know anything about the Houston or

01:16the love your blue era, right? Because she wasn't even born when we left. So just to remember those

01:23days of whipping on Westheimer. That's what it was about. You know what I mean? Living off

01:28Southwest Freeway. I don't care what they call it now. Was it 69? I have a healthy amount of

01:37respect for the transition that the city of Houston had to make to basically forget about

01:44the pre-existing Houston oiler era and usher in a new era of Houston Texans.

01:49They've done a good job of that.

01:50What was that like? What was that in that time as you're being right in the middle of it?

01:56Honestly, we've got a couple of hosts here. John Lopez, who's been here for a long time.

02:00It is still deep ingrained into him. I'm sure you remember John McClain.

02:07There's that smile that he brings. What was it like being in the middle of that transition,

02:14that move from Houston and then going up to Nashville?

02:19I realized early that the city had with Bud Adams. Those that are listening that went back

02:27in that far, they know what I'm talking about. There've been a number of times where Bud had

02:32threatened to move the team because he wanted to remain competitive in the market that was

02:38now starting to exist and getting free agents to come to Houston. The Astrodome wasn't it, man.

02:43Nobody wanted to play in that thing. It's still there.

02:46Exactly. It probably looks the exact same as when we first left it. I remember the last game that we

02:53played in the Houston Astrodome when we set an attendance record low for 24,000 people. Probably

03:00less than that. They were actually in the dome. The dome seats like 70,000 people or whatever it

03:04was. It was like a ghost town. You knew at that moment that, hey, it was bad. I remember us

03:10playing the Washington Redskins. Yes, I said the Redskins because they weren't the commanders then.

03:15We were playing them in a preseason game in Knoxville. Then somebody said, hey,

03:20you might want to start looking for property up here in Tennessee because that's where we're

03:24moving. I thought it was just barking, the same kind of fluff that we heard before.

03:30Then it wasn't even six months later that they were talking about Mayor Phil Bredesen and Bud

03:36Adams coming to an agreement for us to move. It's different when you're a free agent and you

03:42move from one city to another, whatever else, but then to have the whole support cast,

03:47your trainers, the entire staff goes with you. We left Houston

03:54before we had anything built. We were literally in trailers, bro.

04:00We were practicing. We were in the back of a mall when it comes to our playing field and trying to

04:09make an adjustment. At that time, I'm thinking, you got to be kidding me, right? This is the NFL?

04:12But that's what it was. That was a transition for us. Now, we played our second game in Vanderbilt

04:18Stadium, our second season, rather, in Tennessee in Vanderbilt Stadium. That still wasn't the best

04:22environment. It was terrible. You know what I mean? Then they opened up this brand new stadium

04:26called Adelphia Coliseum. We had never experienced that kind of support. Think about the way we left

04:32Houston. Now, we're in a new state that has never even experienced pro sports. They came out and

04:39drove to see us. Then as we put together the kind of magical season that takes you to a Super Bowl

04:44in the first year we played in that stadium, we submitted history right there, man. We come a yard

04:51short from giving them their first Super Bowl in that short period of time. Damn, Mike Jones. Yeah.

04:56Damn, Mike Jones is right. But people don't talk about just what we're doing, what we could

05:04have done. Now, going back to the Houston days, the whole Buffalo Bills debacle, okay? That was

05:10the year we should have won a championship. The next year when we rattled off 11 straight after

05:15starting one and four, we got to division a round against Joe Montana's Chiefs. That's the year we

05:19should have won the Super Bowl. We should have won the Super Bowl in 1999, year 2000 that we went

05:24to the Super Bowl, right? And then there were two more AFC championship games that we could have won

05:29and then gone to the Super Bowl, which we kind of fell short. So, we could be talking about

05:34that weird ball bouncing in a different direction. We could be talking about a franchise that has had

05:38five championships almost.

05:42Stephen, unequivocally, Eddie George would have been a Hall of Famer had that happened,

05:47unequivocally. You know? So, you're talking about just an era of football, an era between

05:53these two franchises, the Houston Oilers and the Tennessee Titans that produced great players and

05:57great seasons to boot. So, it was a, you asked me what it was like? It was absolutely crazy.

06:04It was a crazy time to be playing for a franchise that moved from Texas to Tennessee.

06:10Crazy. Tell us a little bit about Lote Center. I know my man Clint here has got a lot of

06:16experience with Lote Center and how it helps. What's your experience? My man's jacked over here,

06:22by the way. You know what I'm saying? What's going on here? Well, first off, it's really under the

06:26premise of what? Men's health, wellness. Something that we're just not used to being vulnerable about.

06:32You know what I mean? It's okay to admit you need help in something. You know, when you're walking

06:37around and your head's foggy or you're feeling lethargic or you're just moody and people around

06:42you, you've got a short temper because you're just agitated for no reason. You're tired.

06:46There may be something to that. Go get tested. That's all we ask you to do. Go get tested.

06:52Figure out where your levels are. Get a baseline description of how you can actually better

06:56yourself. Get on a TRT. Some of that therapy when it comes to testosterone that would allow you to

07:02address those issues and you might be amazed at how much better you feel. It'll affect your

07:08performance on the field and off the field. There you go. That's fine. You know what I'm saying?

07:12No. Hey, Brad, what I always tell folks, man, is like, just real talk. Like, if you're a grown-ass

07:18man, you should know your testosterone. It's winning, right? It's going to hit us all at some

07:26point in time. Some in the late 30s, some in the mid-40s. Lucky ones get to 50 and maybe it's not

07:30a problem. But at some point in time, it's going to be a problem and it impacts so many parts of

07:35your life, whether it's your work life or your health, your marriage, your ability to be a

07:40father or grandfather and to just sit around and just not even take this step. 20 minutes

07:47to know your number is crazy to think that there's the percentage of men out there that do that.

07:52Yeah, you should start sooner than we're actually talking on average, right? You say you should have

07:56your prostate checked by the time you're 50. Nah, it's earlier than that, especially if you're an

07:59African-American, man. Yeah, because we're dealing with a lot of issues that, you know, genetically

08:04have happened to us sooner than other situations, right? But it's okay to go see the doctor when

08:10there's nothing wrong to make sure there's nothing wrong because it's that kind of screening that

08:14allows you to take advantage of the therapies and procedures that are out there available to you.

08:20If you catch things soon enough, if you realize your levels are so low that you need some, you

08:25need a boost, then you obviously are aware of that. Same thing can be said about cancer screening.

08:31You know, you, the worst thing to hear is that you caught it in stage four when you could have

08:36caught it in stage one. You know what I mean? So those are, those are just some things that we need

08:40to really take full advantage of. I know that there's even talking medicine and crazy and

08:46the big pharma and all this stuff is crazy nowadays. And there are a lot of holistic

08:51remedies that don't involve taking medicines. Study some of those, but then again, don't wait

08:56till you're sick to do it. Appreciate you jumping on with us, Brad.

09:05There you go. Exclusive furniture right there. That's a, that's what the hot seat is for.

Category

Transcript

Recommended