- PNC is proud to support "Business Forward", where local leaders discuss the challenges and opportunities in how we do business in Central Illinois.

(uplifting instrumental music) (uplifting instrumental music ends) - Welcome to Business Forward.

I'm your host, Matt George.

Joining me tonight, Brad Hopkins.

Brad is a former Illini great, longtime NFL great with the Tennessee Titans.

Welcome, Brad.

- Thank you Matt for having me.

You look so official.

- Oh, I'm real official (laughing).

Hey, let's start off with you.

I know you weren't born in Illinois.

You were born in South Carolina, is that correct?

And then you somehow got to Illinois?

What was that?

What's that backstory there?

- My dad served in the military and I was born in Fort Jackson, Columbia, South Carolina.

We flew over to Germany right after I was born.

My dad was deployed over in Germany.

So we lived over in Germany for about 13, 14 months.

And my dad is from the Quad Cities area where the John Deere plant is, and he worked there for 32 years after coming out of the service.

And actually, after getting his degree at Western, he went to work there.

And that's where my dad's family's from and that's where I was raised.

- So did you get some of your, not talent, but I don't know, grit, so to speak, your process of staying in shape and knowing and that drive, I guess, so to speak from your dad?

- I would have to agree with that.

I think it's super important, Matt, to have a male structure in the house, and I was blessed to have a father that was committed to his family and he instilled a lot of those values in me and my brother and my sister.

So I was, you know, fortunate enough to have that kind of nucleus around me, the support of love.

And, you know, it just kind of made me kind of put the things that were important to me in focus and, you know, I had somebody to help me kind of do those things, guide me.

- Yeah.

- mom and Dad, of course.

- Yeah.

I mean, you were an all around athlete.

I mean, you played basketball, football, you were one of those guys that could do anything.

And so did you know, growing up, was there a certain time that you actually knew that you had potential to either play basketball at another level or football at another level?

When did that hit you?

Because you went to Moline High School, correct?

- Mm-hmm.

So my passion was basketball, still is basketball, Matt.

I envisioned myself as a basketball player before I saw myself as a football player.

But the level of education that I would receive, you know, with a scholarship playing football, was going to be greater than the one I would've received playing basketball.

So I had to take those things into consideration, not thinking that professional sports was going to be my future, because I really hadn't planned on it being my future.

It was going to pay for my college.

- Okay.

- But what happened was, it ended up just turning into, you know, 13 year NFL career.

So it wasn't by chance, it wasn't by structure, it was just by, I guess sheer luck of it all.

Because as a matter of fact, Matt, I went to college as a tight end.

I didn't go to college as a lineman.

I got moved to tight end or moved to tackle, you know, because your brother's passes were just too, I couldn't keep up.

So, you know, basically they moved me to tackle to block for him, rather than catch passes from him, so.

That was my story getting to Illinois.

But it just turned, you know, a competitive situation into one that I parlayed into a professional career.

- Yeah.

And it's funny because, so the viewers know, we did go to Illinois at the same time, I think I'm a year older than you.

And we would have pickup games at place called Empy and we would have all, there were a ton of Illini football players that were great basketball players.

That's what's, I think, funny about the whole thing.

And we'd have these pickup games and who could dunk and who could, you know, who could do all these things.

I mean, those were the fun days.

- Oh yeah.

For sure.

But the thing is, you're right.

You tapped into something there, though.

I think there are a lot of kids, Matt, whose story is like mine.

They were good at a lot of different things.

Football was maybe a conduit to something greater, but maybe their passions, their dreams, their visions were of being on the hardwood, like mine.

- Yeah.

- I look at Kyler Murray.

The leadership intangibles that he's having struggles with are the fact that he's good at so many different things, it's hard for him to be passionate about just football.

I mean, he could have been a pro baseball player, maybe he's more passionate about playing baseball than he was football.

But the point is, our direction really wasn't laid out in front of us.

You know?

And sometimes, you have to make adjustments.

And some of us had to, and I did.

- Yeah, I think that's interesting because most people just assume that football players go and you play at at a high level, big tens, high level, no matter what team it is.

And you go in there and people, the average person thinks, well that person's, you know, a great quarterback, or that person's a great offensive lineman, whatever.

But these coaches move you around and they test because you're a great athlete maybe at your high school.

But for the University of Illinois, when you played and Coach Mackovic was the coach, there were 50 good athletes or 60 good athletes.

- Absolutely.

You remember Jeff Finke?

- Oh, Finke.

- Tight end?

- Yeah.

- The years that we were there.

Way better basketball player than I was and he ended up playing tight end in the Big 10.

Now he was all conference, and his athleticism definitely helped him.

But I would imagine if you gave him an option, and he's what, 6'6", 6'6" 1/2?

Had the height, but maybe just not the, you know, the above the rim game that is so pertinent in today's basketball, right?

- Yeah.

- But you're right, there's so many athletes that could throw a hundred mile an hour fast ball or, you know, I mean, something that, you know, didn't necessarily say football skill, but it was applicable someplace else.

Yeah, you're right.

- So let's talk about, you know, Illinois was a great time.

And then you go to the Titans, and what I find amazing, and it is a true testament to you, but also to your career, is you were with that team your whole career.

And that's not how things happened in this day and age.

I think that's pretty impressive.

- Well, first off, Matt, I was terrified when I got drafted to the Oilers.

Unfamiliar situation, veteran roster where I am the youngest cat on the offensive line by almost 10 years.

- Wow.

- You know, they've played more in the pros than I had played collectively the game of football.

So that's what I graduated to, and it was terrifying for me.

It took a while for me to get adjusted, but fortunately, I listened to the guys around me to help me transition, but you know, by design, it wasn't something that I was gonna, you know, Houston?

I'm slated to go to the Cleveland Browns if you listen to Mel Kiper and all the draft and kind of punditry, you know, the pundits that, you know, pick where you're supposed to go.

I was the 14th player of the draft, supposed to go to the Cleveland Browns.

Well, the Oilers, I guess they heard that news, traded with the Philadelphia Eagles at 13 and took me before the Browns could at 14.

So I ended up in Houston playing an offense I'd never even heard of until we moved here to Nashville and then, you know, made a name for ourselves by going to the Super Bowl.

But yeah, that was a crazy time there.

- I mean, think about that.

You go from the Houston Oilers, they transitioned to Nashville, which, I mean, became your home.

I mean, you were a star there and your family's there and you have businesses there and you know, so I think that's an interesting transition.

But let me ask you something about your transition to there and how do you have a family that's growing?

How do you sit there and know?

What is the game plan for Brad Hopkins to be able to have a family, have a business, play football, keep my money straight, do all of those things that happens and at the same time, you're getting beat up each week?

- It's really not about your net worth, it's about your network.

Your network of resources, the people that you can rely on to help you transition, those that kind of help give you expertise in an area that you don't have expertise in.

I didn't necessarily do that the best way.

It was through trial and error that I ended up finding my direction, but I always made sure that I made those connections that I thought might help me in the future.

You know, maybe a golf outing, taking a lunch, maybe a phone call.

We didn't have Zoom back in that day, back in those days.

But anytime you can have a conversation with someone that could give you guidance, maybe someone else, an expert in the field that you were interested in, you gotta reach out and start connecting those dots early so that way, the transition to your next career isn't, you know, deadly.

Let's just put it that way.

And it happens.

You know all they do is tell you that you need to focus on being the best athlete you can, the best player you can.

This is true, but it comes to an end.

If you're not thinking about your future, which a lot of young people aren't, it can get you into trouble.

So for me, I have so many examples of athletes that didn't make it.

You know, you don't have to go far nowadays to find the story of the guy that whatever.

And to me, I never judge a person's situation because first off, financial situations are usually emotional and we don't know people's backstory.

You know, we don't know where they came from to help culminate the ideas they have about money, or we don't know what their futures are, their plans or whatever happened to them in life that might have been crazy.

Because I made tons of mistakes as far as I think I am about my money.

I made tons of mistakes trying to be a philanthroper.

Trying to be something that I wasn't versed in.

I didn't have an MBA, Matt.

You know, I wasn't versed in business, but I got into business with people that were, they taught me what they know and then kind of brought me along.

And then don't stray too far from what you're good at.

So while I'm not necessarily playing football, I'm in and around the sport because that is something that I have expertise in, the sport, right?

And those that play it.

So I'm not gonna like, you know, grow feathers and start flying all of a sudden.

I'm just gonna try and stay within my wheelhouse and find something in this vast industry of athletics, you know, that I can make money on.

- I think for young people, I think what I just took out of what you said is a great example of surrounding yourself with the right people.

And I think that is something- - It's old stuff.

- Yeah, and so maybe talk about that because when you come outta college, you have to hire an agent, you have to hire financial advisors and all that.

How is that process?

What does that look like?

- Well, my dad was my financial advisor when I first got drafted.

And we really weren't sophisticated at all, so we just sunk it in some simple stuff that would gain interest and not lose money.

Can't put it in a mattress.

You know, inflation'll eat you, right?

So you gotta put it in something that, if you're risk avert, you don't wanna be, you know, into some, you know, high potential.

You wanna do something that's maybe low level, mid-level that can give you some just nominal gains.

And that's what we found.

I like insurance, you know?

I like whole life insurance.

I like things that have a death benefit plus, you know, cash value that grows and, you know, kind of parallels the market, right?

Without the risk, you know?

So I think through trial and error, talking to different people, watching their portfolios, giving advice, those kind of help you create a structure.

And if you see something in somebody that you want that's, you know, "Hey look, how are you so successful at 55?

Those are the things that I wanna know" you know?

So then you can put together a game plan, but you have to have a plan.

I'll share a story with you, Matt.

Remember John Wright Jr?

- Oh yeah.

- He is a Northwestern Mutual demigod, he is a monster.

We came outta college at the same time.

I got drafted in the first round, he didn't.

He didn't last in the pros, I think he went to a couple of camps, started his office with his dad, right?

In Champaign.

- Yep.

- 13 years later, this guy's a managing partner in Atlanta.

So if you think about it, we both were captains at Illinois at the same time, extrapolate our careers over time, the next decade or so, and see where we both are.

I made a lot of money in the NFL, which then covered up some of the mistakes that I made, you know, to where I'm still standing here, right?

But if I had the structure and planning process and network that John had or was creating at the same time in the business that he's actually going to be doing until retirement, think of that.

Think of the benefit in that.

So I had this great, illustrious, you know, football career all pro and all this go to school and all this stuff.

Think of where he's at right now with a staff of 50 people, you know, and an office that in a book a business that could last him until he decides to make retirement an option.

He can do whatever he wants, versus having to make a structure and a plan to parachute out of my life into another one once it's done.

It's kind of crazy sometimes.

- Yeah, I like that lesson too.

I mean, I interview a lot of entrepreneurs and I've discussed it many times in shows where people wanna start a business and they think, you know, money's the first thing.

And really it's actually the process or the strategy, the business plan, so to speak.

And it's really no different in your life.

So you're coming in the pros, and I think every pro, no matter who you are, you know, Jeff was the same way.

You go in a little anxious, a little scared.

And as you get your feet wet over time, you start building that confidence, become a good person, a good father, whatever it may be.

And I think that's what's interesting about the business that you were in, is because you were in the spotlight.

And so, when you talk about some of the players that you played with, you're talking about some of the greats.

I mean, Eddie George, when he was in college, I would sit there and cringe when we'd play Ohio State because Eddie George was a man playing against little boys.

(Matt laughing) I mean, he could run over, I know what you're grabbing right now.

There he is.

I mean, I love Eddie George.

He was awesome.

And think about you are blocking for Eddie, but you're also blocking for a guy like Steve McNair, who McNair was a quarterback who, I use the word grit all the time, probably too much.

But he was just one of those guys you just didn't mess with.

I mean, he had a swag when he walked.

Do you just like, sit back sometimes and think football and think, "My goodness, Eddie was just unbelievable"?

But you played against a lot of good guys too.

- Yeah.

Those were the puppy dogs, Stevie and Eddie, 'cause they came in after I did.

My guys wore yellow jackets.

Bruce Matthews, Hall of Famer.

Mike Munchak, Hall of Famer.

These were my guards, my line mates.

Mike was my left guard when I got drafted.

Bruce played alongside of me for 10 years after Mike retired.

And my first quarterback I blocked for was Warren Moon.

- So I'm one of those very few guys that blocked for Warren Moon and Steve McNair.

Totally different personalities, but great quarterbacks nonetheless.

- Yeah.

I actually knew Warren Moon.

That guy could throw a ball like no other.

He was unbelievable.

Yeah.

He had a little.

- Prettiest spiral you'll ever see.

- Yeah.

- Ever.

I think, he could still throw it today, Matt.

Right now he could pick up a pig skin and throw it through a hoop.

- Guaranteed.

Jeff's the same way.

I mean, I think some of these- - I don't know.

I couldn't get it outta my mouth.

There's only one other ball that I saw that was as pretty as Warrens.

I mean, one dog.

Golly.

Jeff can spin that thing, boy.

Yeah.

And it came out so bad.

Pow!

From the side sometimes.

I remember one time, see, before I even got started getting recruited at Illinois, they were telling me about your brother.

It was Quentin Parker, as a matter of fact.

We had, and he's like, "Dude, you should see this guy we got down here, Jeff George, man.

I can't even get out my break fast enough.

This guy got the ball, you know, already out of his hands."

They were going on about him so much.

The sheriff came to town, and I remember how exciting that was.

But getting back to our conversation real quick.

John Mackovic said two things that I took with me and carried through the rest of my life.

One was, when you get on television, don't be a goony bird.

Act like you've been there, you know?

When you see like, you know, the NBA coverage and all the fans and standing behind and doing and doing the stupid stuff?

Is that what you want America to remember you by?

Is that what you want the world to remember you by?

You doing something stupid 'cause you're on TV?

So don't be a goony bird.

I remember that one.

And two, luck favors the prepared.

- Huh.

- And it made so much sense.

You gotta study.

You have to prepare yourself for these moments that you're going to be in.

If you have a business meeting the next day, do you just go into it unprepared?

No, you go in there and you do the research that's necessary.

You find out who the partners and people are gonna be in attendance are, and get familiar with, you know, processes and all these things just like you would, you're studying defenses or you're studying offenses in your playbook.

So these are the things that are applicable in life, you know, that I learned as a football player, particularly from guys like John Mackovic.

- Yeah, that's good stuff because you played for a lot of really good coaches.

I mean, so talk about your Oilers or Titan coaches.

What influence did they have on you?

- So Jeff Fisher got the job as head coach the year after I got there.

Jack Pardee was our actual head coach.

They fired him after we started a 14 game losing streak the next year.

And we go to the playoffs, we lose in the divisional round to Joe Montana and the Chiefs after winning 11 games straight.

It was great and then they sent Warren to Minnesota after that, and our team really just went downhill from there.

Changed up the offense, changed up a lot of the defense, but Jeff was the guy.

And then it was a year after that that they started talking about us moving, you know?

So in '90, well two years after that, in '96 was when the last season that the Oilers was played in the Astrodome and in the city of Houston before we moved to Nashville.

And we were just the band of vagabonds, you know what I mean?

- Yeah.

- Just homeless guys.

The stadium wasn't even built.

We were practicing in the back of a mall, you know?

There weren't even good field conditions.

We had to play our home games in Memphis in the Liberty Bowl.

And then the next year we played in Vanderbilt Stadium, which was turf, wasn't even grass.

So you talk about just a crazy period of time there, the fourth, fifth year into my career, I'm like, "What is going on?"

But the coaches that we had helped you and they kind of helped temper any sort of anxiety, sort of the weirdness or the craziness, especially for those older veterans that knew what the NFL was about and what we were experiencing was a complete anomaly.

It was crazy.

But for us young guys, it's like, "Oh, this is going on?"

Like imagine a guy that got drafted during that period.

He didn't know what a real NFL locker room looked like.

Right.

- 'Cause he didn't have one.

Nice facilities.

The stadium, we didn't have any of that.

When Kevin Dyson, you know, the Music City Miracle?

The one that scored that touchdown?

When he got drafted, Matt, we were practicing in the Bellevue Mall, literally.

Our training facility was in a makeshift hospital office.

I'm not even kidding.

It was crazy.

We would sit there sometimes, oh, our office were in trailers.

You know, those little trailers, the construction trailers they put around building structures?

- Yeah.

- We were literally meeting in trailers.

So that was a crazy experience of which our coaches helped temper the whole thing.

We had Greg Williams was our defense coordinator.

Jim Schwartz was his assistant, you know, so we had tons of dudes.

Bruce Dern or Mike was my position coach Mike Munchak, who then ended up becoming the head coach after Jeff left.

So there was a lot of craziness going on, but I would say it made me a better person for having gone through all that.

- Think about this.

Every one of those coaches you mentioned are all head coaches first of all.

But you mentioned something that just brought back a memory.

So I think Jeff was on the Raiders at the time.

At first I was just thinking as you were talking, he was the Falcons, but, so Jeff played against you guys down in Memphis.

And so this is another Eddie George story.

So the night before, so a good friend of mine, one of my best buddies, Matt Wessels is also a good friend of yours, is- - I know Matt, yes.

- So Matt and I go down to Memphis three days ahead of time.

And the reason why is because of the Rendezvous restaurant.

We ate there four straight nights.

- Oh my God.

- But the part of the story was, I remember sitting and talking to Wessels and I said, "Hey, you know Eddie is going to eat us alive tomorrow."

And he goes, "I know he's probably gonna have 150."

I go, "I wouldn't doubt if he had 300."

And the next day, he ran for 233.

233 yards.

- Remember that.

- I'll never forget it.

- Yeah, and listen, in front of a fan base that was there more so for the Raiders than us.

- [Matt] That's exactly right.

- Because if you remember that year in Memphis, so many fans came to see the teams that they grew up watching.

It's like, "H my gosh, the Commanders!"

Well, they were the Redskins back then.

But you know, "Redskins are in town.

I grew watching them.

They're in Memphis.

We're going!"

You know, "The Steelers are in town, we're going."

"The Bears, we're going."

We would get booed at a home game because we had less of a fan presence than the teams that we were playing against.

So I'm guaranteed because the Raiders travel like no other, right?

- Right.

- I guarantee there was more Raider representation in Liberty Bowl than there was for Oilers fans.

And we were Tennessee Oilers then.

We weren't even Titans yet.

- That's exactly right.

Yeah.

I'll never forget it, but I thought you'd get a kick outta that story about the Rendezvous.

We had ribs every night.

- Terrible.

Yeah.

- For four straight nights (laughing).

- So good though, right?

Oh, nice, oh good lord!

- Oh man, it's so funny.

So I do wanna mention somebody, I wanna mention your son Bryson, because you know, I remember going to an Illinois game a few years back, and Bryson is at Purdue and he had, I don't know how many catches, but I wanna say like three or four catches that game.

And you just looked at his body.

I saw you guys after the game and you just look at this kid and you go, wow.

He is built like NFL and there's some people that are just built different and Bryson's one of those guys.

And so here you are as a dad, you played in a Super Bowl, which is crazy within itself.

And now you have a son that not only plays for the Rams, but he wins a Super Bowl.

And so as a dad, what is the feeling of just, I'm so glad my son is doing more than me, so to speak?

You know?

You want your son just to be better.

- Yeah.

- Right?

- Right, you do.

That's the goal of a parent, right?

- Yeah.

- For them to have a better life and to be better people than we are as parents.

I couldn't stand wearing Ram's gear and stuff for the longest, 'cause think about that.

The team that kept me from hoisting Lombardi myself, was a team that drafted him.

Are you kidding me?

I gotta go root for the Rams, the team that beat us in the last few minutes of Super Bowl 34?

That's my life, right?

Bryson was a relative slow starter in football, like I was.

He didn't start playing football till he was a junior, he was a basketball player just like me.

He just had more discipline.

He didn't eat his way to tackle like I did.

- Yeah.

- You know?

So he ended up using his athleticism, his god-given talent and size to put himself in position to have an NFL career.

Now it's been relatively quiet for the first three years.

He's going to his fourth year and he did have a huge game in the Super Bowl, but you'll hear his name this year.

You'll hear a lot more because of the system and the differences offensively from a philosophical standpoint that Sean's going to be employing.

Sean McVay, head coach of the Rams.

So yeah, you'll hear his name a lot more, but it's great.

It was good.

- All right, man.

Well, I appreciate you.

I was at that Super Bowl that you lost, by the way.

Not to- - I know you were.

- I was there.

- I know you were.

- But anyway, thank you so much for coming on, Brad Hopkins.

Not only a friend but a great guy.

- You too.

- And thank you.

My name's Matt George and this is another episode of "Business Forward".

(uplifting instrumental music) (uplifting instrumental music continues) (uplifting instrumental music continues) (uplifting instrumental music continues) (uplifting instrumental music continues) (uplifting instrumental music continues) (uplifting instrumental music continues) (uplifting instrumental music continues) (uplifting instrumental music ends) - Thanks for tuning in to "Business Forward", brought to you by PNC.

PNC Bank National Association member FDIC.

(stirring instrumental jingle fades)