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00:00Live on Radio Rose, Super Bowl 59, ready to go.
00:04It's Amon Green, it's Donnie Wrightside.
00:06So nice to have you on set, Amon.
00:07Thanks for stopping by.
00:08Hey, thanks for having me, Donnie.
00:09I appreciate you.
00:10We got a lot of talk here.
00:11Super Bowl, big game on Sunday.
00:13We get that.
00:14But I need to go over and see what's what.
00:15Because how does a freshman go to college
00:19and play for a national championship team
00:21and run for 1,000 yards with Tommy Frazier
00:24and also Lawrence Phillips?
00:25How does that happen?
00:26It happens because I say I was ready for the moment,
00:31I would say.
00:33I got asked this question earlier.
00:35The only pressure I had that year was choosing my number.
00:39And it was the fact that Mike Rozier
00:42was the last person to wear number 30
00:43for the Nebraska uniform.
00:45That was the only pressure I felt.
00:48But it got extinguished once my older brother, Jerry,
00:51I called him, I went to my dorm room that night,
00:53Frank Solich, they sent me, set it up again.
00:57Frank Solich?
00:57Yep.
00:58Offensive coordinator for Frank Solich back then?
00:59Running back.
01:00Running back, go ahead.
01:01He was the running back coach.
01:02So he brought me in his office at Amman.
01:03You had a good camp.
01:04Yeah.
01:05Asked me the question, do you want a red shirt?
01:07Yeah.
01:08And right away, no.
01:09Yeah.
01:10All right, I kind of figured that.
01:13Next question, what number do you want to wear?
01:15Yeah.
01:16And he's like, I said, what's available?
01:18Because I think I had like 34 up until that time.
01:21Sure.
01:22And then I was like, I'll keep this
01:23because I wore this in high school.
01:25But he said, well, we're thinking about you guys,
01:27you know, you wearing this number.
01:29And he, I'm like 30.
01:32I'm like, okay.
01:34He said, you don't have to give me an answer now.
01:37Give me, when you come in the morning at meetings,
01:39it was during tour days, you can give me an answer then.
01:42I'm like, all right.
01:43So like I said, only pressure I had all year.
01:45Yep.
01:46So I go back to my dorm room, Abel Hall.
01:49I called my older brother, Jerry, and I'm like, bro,
01:52you know, they asked me if I wanted a, you know,
01:55a red shirt or not.
01:56And he's like, what'd you tell him?
01:56I said, no, I want to play now.
01:57Yeah.
01:58Good.
01:59He's like, what else?
02:00He's like, they asked me to wear a number 30.
02:01Yeah.
02:03And my brother goes, he kind of paused this.
02:06What's the problem?
02:08I'm like, him just saying that right there
02:11kind of took all the air out of the pressure
02:13that I had on myself.
02:14And I'm like, yeah, you know what?
02:16Well, I was thinking about, you know, Michael Regere,
02:18he wore this before me and he won the Heisman.
02:21He was part of their national title run back in 84, 83.
02:24He's like, and?
02:26He said, don't worry about what he did.
02:30You feel your own shoes.
02:31We know Michael Regere, a fantastic running back,
02:34great NFL career, great career at Nebraska.
02:37But you feel your own shoes.
02:39And once he said that, it's kind of just like,
02:42it took all the pressure away.
02:44So that's why my freshman year,
02:46that was the start of my freshman year
02:47because I was just out there playing football
02:49with my friends, my new friends, Lawrence, Tommy,
02:52Aaron Graham, Aaron Taylor, Chris Dishman,
02:55the guys that, those guys were a block for me.
02:57And then the guys on defense,
02:58that was that black shirt defense
03:00that I got an education every day in practice
03:03of not giving up running the ball
03:06because even though against that black shirt defense,
03:08I don't think we gained 15 yards in the practice.
03:10It's incredible.
03:11It's absolutely incredible.
03:11It got us ready for Saturday.
03:13Really did.
03:14So we're excited to play Kansas and everybody else
03:16because we knew that defense,
03:18they weren't going to give us a yard.
03:20Now, if we talk about getting to Nebraska,
03:22was that your top choice?
03:23No.
03:24What were the options for you?
03:25I love this.
03:26That wasn't my top choice.
03:28Notre Dame, Nebraska, Arizona,
03:31because if you remember Arizona,
03:32they had Dick Tomey as a head coach,
03:34Teddy Bruschi led their defense.
03:36There were Desert Swarm.
03:38Yes, absolutely.
03:39Antoine Smith was their running back.
03:41Danny White's son was the quarterback.
03:43So they were ranked number two.
03:45And then Michigan and Penn State.
03:48So that was my top five.
03:49Wow, you had a good top five.
03:50That was my good top five.
03:53And what actually narrowed it down to four,
03:55Penn State wanted me to verbally commit
03:58before I took a visit.
03:59And so I was like, no, I don't.
04:03I talked to my dad about that.
04:05He's like, no, because that could probably come back on you
04:08if you say you're going there,
04:09then you don't go there
04:10because you haven't took your other visits.
04:12Because my dad was like, this whole recruiting thing,
04:14you get to go kick the tires.
04:15Absolutely.
04:16Go to Notre Dame, go to Michigan, go to Arizona,
04:18even go to Lincoln.
04:19Even if you know you've been there,
04:21as an underclassman in high school to go watch games,
04:25you still got to find out if it's a good fit.
04:28And so the two visits that actually kind of determined
04:31where I was going, one was Arizona,
04:34where I was like, oh man, this was a fun trip.
04:37A lot of those players,
04:38I grew up in California, in Los Angeles,
04:41in Crenshaw area, Dorsey High, Emmanuel Arts,
04:44Crenshaw High School as well.
04:47A lot of those guys for Arizona were from those areas.
04:50Some of the guys were on my little league football,
04:52little league baseball team.
04:53So I knew them.
04:54So I'm like, man, this is going to be tough.
04:58I got my Lincoln visits next weekend
05:00and I'm coming from here where I'm like 20% of the roster,
05:05I knew them.
05:06And it felt like I was back in LA again.
05:08So I'm like, this is going to be tough.
05:09So I go to Lincoln, great visit.
05:13And I was the last recruit to commit.
05:15And the story behind that, like I said,
05:18I was in the dark.
05:21And so the night of the national title game,
05:23Miami versus Nebraska, it's in the Orange Bowl.
05:26Warren Sapp, Ray Lewis, Tommy Frazier, Lawrence Phillips.
05:30Those guys are playing in the game.
05:33During that game, my mom calls me,
05:35meet us at the hospital, your dad just had a heart attack.
05:38So he's recovering, but meet us at the hospital.
05:40So I was at a friend's house watching the game.
05:44Get in the car, drive over to the hospital.
05:46So he's stabilized, he's okay.
05:50My brother, Jerry, older sister, Tasha,
05:54and my other brother, Nicky, we're all there.
05:56And they got the game on in the family room.
05:59And I think Nebraska just scored Corey Schlesinger,
06:02got the one touchdown to take the lead.
06:04And we're all cheering.
06:06And after we got cheering, it kind of just kind of
06:08hit me then like, this is where I need to be.
06:11Because like, if something like this happens,
06:15I'm not a plane ride away.
06:16I'm 45 minutes from home.
06:19So that kind of like,
06:20made the perspective choice right there.
06:25It's like, I'm coming to Lincoln.
06:26So finally, Coach Osborne tells the story too.
06:28From his point of view, he's like,
06:31he told every coach, do not give that scholarship
06:33to anybody, we're saving it.
06:35This is for Amon, and if he doesn't come here, okay.
06:38But this one is for him.
06:40He said, Amon, you had me sitting on pins and needles.
06:45I said, Coach, I really didn't know,
06:46but when I told him how I made my decision,
06:48he was like, okay, that's fair enough.
06:50But that's how it happened,
06:53and that's where I knew I needed to be.
06:56Now, you get drafted into the NFL, you go to Seattle,
06:58but the Green Bay years are what I remember the most.
07:00Six out of seven years, 1,000 yards,
07:02but this is so great we talk about it in this season.
07:05Saquon had the ability, goes over 2,000.
07:07Has the chance to break the record in Week 18,
07:09they rest him here.
07:10You got close, 1883 in 2003.
07:14Man, talk about that season.
07:15Me and Jamal Lewis had fun.
07:17Just going toe to toe?
07:18Yeah, we were going back and forth,
07:20but he actually had a couple stretches
07:21where he had a little bit over 200 yards.
07:23And what was about that for us, for me and my unit,
07:28my offensive line, Marco Rivera, Mike Wall,
07:30Mark Towshio, Chad Clifton, Bubba Franks,
07:33tight end, Robert Ferguson, Donald Driver,
07:35Javon Walker, Robert Ferguson, and then Brett.
07:39William Henderson, Nick Lucci.
07:42That was the unit for most of the season.
07:43Kevin Barry.
07:45Those are the guys that we together,
07:48because that's how I look at it,
07:49because I've been a running back since I was eight years old
07:52and from that moment, my brothers and my dad told me
07:55that a running back is nothing without the guys,
07:57the other guys on the field.
07:58Sorry, went the old line.
08:00They block for you, they sacrifice,
08:02they hit guys to open up the hole.
08:05So those guys I just mentioned for the Packers,
08:08our journey, even, so it was even them.
08:11I remember Mike Wall, Marco, Mike Flanagan
08:14coming up to me after one game
08:16where we're neck and neck with Jamal Lewis and his O-line.
08:19Hey man, we averaged this, we gonna get 2,000,
08:22we could do this.
08:24And I loved it, because it was like we.
08:26And I grew up playing baseball,
08:28I grew up playing basketball, playing football,
08:29playing other, and it was always, when I heard we,
08:32then I was like, we're locked in.
08:34Not only did we have a fantastic season,
08:36but then yardage-wise, we knew we could do that.
08:40Well, we came up a little bit short,
08:41but they were still, the guys were still proud
08:44of us accomplishing what we did.
08:46I know I was, because I know I had goals
08:51that I have still written down on pieces of paper
08:53that I still have today that for,
08:56I wanted to break or accomplish or even get close to,
08:59and some of them, a lot of them records happened that year.
09:02Let me talk to you about 03,
09:03because I was an Eagles fan, season ticket holder.
09:05I was there in 03 in the divisional round.
09:07Guys got up two touchdowns early.
09:09You're in for a buck 56 that day.
09:11Two plays, I remember.
09:12Fourth and goal, you got tripped up in the back
09:14because somebody stumbled there.
09:16You were gonna walk into the end zone,
09:17but you got tripped up.
09:18And another one, I believe it was Brett Favre
09:20late in the game to clinch it.
09:21You guys, I think, elected to punt on fourth and inches.
09:25What was going through your mind?
09:26Like, you win, you hand it off, you win that game.
09:28So this is the one and only time that whenever I got,
09:32I need to call my coach back, Coach Sherman.
09:35He called me during the summer, I gotta call him back.
09:37But this will be one instance where I was upset at him
09:41because I don't care what happened on fourth and one
09:45before halftime.
09:45Correct, yep.
09:47They gotta do it again.
09:47Correct.
09:48And I'm gonna be wary of that.
09:50If that means I'm gonna lift my legs up a little higher,
09:52I could fall for a yard.
09:54And we could close this thing out
09:55and go play Carolina for the NFC Championship game.
09:58And you would have beaten them.
09:58Right, so that's the confidence we had.
10:01And so I came to that sign line.
10:03I know I said some explicit words.
10:06So what Philly fans are used to, I said that to my coach
10:09because I knew even after that,
10:11okay, they got a good play on that fourth down.
10:14But before our fourth down, I mean,
10:15a goal line right before the halftime.
10:18Hey, that was just a good play.
10:19Gotta make it again.
10:21So give me the ball one more time.
10:23As I sat there in the stands praying
10:25you didn't get the carry,
10:26I couldn't believe that they punted at that time.
10:28But it's one of those memories I remember
10:29how good that season was.
10:31And yes, you probably would have went on to the Super Bowl
10:32with a great chance to win it with a lot of great players.
10:34Now, post-career, you're doing big things now.
10:37Tell the people out here where we can catch you
10:38and what you're doing right now.
10:40Oh, all right, Philly.
10:41Woosah, all right.
10:43I do every Wednesday at 2 p.m. Central Standard Time.
10:47I'm a gamer now.
10:48I mean, I've always been a gamer.
10:50But I'm an esports coach now.
10:51Actually used to teach at Nebraska.
10:53Wow.
10:54Lecture, intro to esports.
10:55Awesome.
10:56So I do a gamers lounge show called
10:58Mind Green's Gamers Lounge.
10:59That's Wednesdays at 2 p.m. on Twitch and Kick.
11:02And then also with some of my old Packer teammates,
11:05Tuesday morning at 10.30.
11:07So this next following Tuesday morning,
11:09Super Bowl recap.
11:11Myself, Gilbert Brown, and Dorsey Levin
11:13at 10.30 a.m. on my Twitch channel
11:15on Mind Green TV there.
11:17But it's called Green and Go G Lounge.
11:19And then Believe in, actually Believe in Packers too.
11:22That's why I'm here in this place today, Radio West.
11:25So Believe in Packers too.
11:26Also, you know, Packer football,
11:28breaking down every game throughout the season.
11:30And then I have an everyday show
11:32that I do from Lincoln, Nebraska,
11:35which is 93.7 The Ticket FM.
11:37Fantastic.
11:38The Drive, that one's called The Drive
11:40with some of my old, one of my former teammates,
11:42Adrian Johnson, or Adrian Davis, sorry.
11:45Aaron Davis, sorry.
11:47Aaron Davis, he's gonna mess with me on that one.
11:50Aaron Davis, new teammate Chris Raff and Nick Sainert.
11:54Great show we do every morning covering Nebraska sports
11:56and some NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball
11:59throughout the week of the year
12:00and throughout the seasons.
12:01Fantastic, man.
12:02Busy.
12:03Doing big things.
12:04I'm on green.
12:05NFL great, college great.
12:06Joining us here on Radio Row, Super Bowl 59,
12:09Field of Eagles, and the Kansas City Chiefs.
12:11Amon, thanks for joining us today.
12:12Thanks for having me, Donnie.
12:13Oh, one more.
12:14Alumni Media Network.
12:16I can't go without saying that.
12:18Alumni Media Network, that's what we do at a podcast
12:21with Green and Go G Lounge.
12:22There you go.
12:23I'm on green, he said it all.