From January 26, 2022:
On the 73rd episode of “Great Dane Nation,” Morten is joined by his Pro Football Hall of Fame brother and Baltimore Ravens legend Ed Reed. But first, he checks in with TommyFreezePops (Tom Carroll) for this week’s edition of the “Opening Kick." This week, Morten reflects on the divisional round, and how the unlikely heroes of the weekend deserve our respect and attention.
We then move to our interview with Ed Reed, where he discusses a wide range of topics: the importance of playing multiple sports while growing up; why tackling has gotten worse across the sport in recent years; why his mentality on defense was always to put the ball in the end zone; the state of the Baltimore Ravens, and what he thinks of John Harbaugh’s decisions to go-for-the-win vs. play-for-overtime in key games down the stretch; what “made it work” in 2012 that led Ed to his first and only Super Bowl ring; the importance of watching a ton of film, getting everyone on defense on the same page; the “simple” base defense that everyone on the Ravens had to know; the amazing 2001 Miami Hurricanes, and why he thinks the program was unable to sustain its excellence; why leadership matters, and why the Ravens’ lack of playoff success since his core group left is a perfect example of that; what he thinks about Miami firing Manny Diaz, and why it’s going to take a mentality shift from the players for Miami to get back to a dominant level on the national stage; why he thinks Trevon Diggs is the best defensive back in the NFL today, and why Jalen Ramsey is not at the top of his list; why he thinks analytics and rule changes are watering down the NFL product; “The Name Game,” featuring Ray Lewis, Terrell Suggs, Jonathan Ogden, Steve McNair, Justin Tucker, John Harbaugh, Sean Taylor and Rex Ryan; why his relationship with Coach Harbaugh almost made him want to leave Baltimore; why the Houston Texans are a horrible organization run by terrible people, and why that “old southern mentality” doesn’t work anymore; his mentorship of Sean Taylor, and why he believes Taylor would have been a Hall of Famer; why he loved playing for Rex Ryan; and this week’s listener question from Scott on Twitter – Who was the player he hated tackling the most during his NFL career?
We then take a few minutes to talk about the career of Sean Payton, as news broke of his retirement during the recording of our episode. Morten has been a friend of Coach Payton’s for over 20 years, as they were together with the Giants when Sean was a young offensive coordinator in the early 2000s.
Then we move to a special edition of “Morten’s Fast 5,” where our Hall of Famer makes his picks for both the AFC and NFC Championship Games. Morten gives his picks for Bengals at Chiefs and 49ers at Rams.
Finally, we close things out with “Morten’s Game Winner” – a weekly monologue from The Great Dane on his biggest takeaway of the week. This week, Morten talks about Ed Reed, and the “heartbeat within the lines."
