Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz are joined by former NFL center Ryan Kalil to discuss his Carolina Panthers teammate Cam Newton’s Hall of Fame case and spotlight his new documentary “We Are Osos.” Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.
Video Transcript
Cam Newton isn’t eligible for the Hall of Fame until 2027, but he’s already represented with this exhibit in Canton.
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We’re gonna be joined now by somebody who knows all about Cam and the Panthers, Ryan Kalil, one of the stars of a new documentary series, We Are Osos.
Can’t wait to hear more about that in just a little bit.
You’re joined in that documentary by Luke Kuechly, who just went into the Hall of Fame.
We were talking about that, on air.
So, should Cam be inducted next season?
Do you see Cam as a first ballot guy?
Wow.
Right out the gate you’re gonna throw that at me.
I don’t, I don’t know.
I, I still am trying to wrap my head around what, sort of, the criteria is.
You know, obviously, winning Super Bowls and a couple more All-Pros, would’ve been helpful.
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But, yeah, I think he’s a game-changing, game-defining, player, who obviously we had that incredible run and that incredible era there.
And, and, I think the kind of caliber guys that go in should be the kind of guys that change the game, and he’s definitely one, that changed how a lot of defenses played and, and now you’re seeing a lot of offenses, that look similar to that, that offense that we ran when we were all there together.
So yeah, I definitely think my guy should go.
All right, let’s go back to your college days.
When I say USC story, what’s the big one?
What’s the first moment that comes to your mind from your college days?
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Just going from, everybody hugging and shaking hands, at your home, and excited for you to be there, to, 1,000 assistant coaches Pete Carroll hired just screaming at us, telling us that, uh- we’re not back home anymore and that this is gonna be how it goes the rest of the time you’re here.
K- I don’t think colleges do that anymore because of transfer portal, because of NIL.
I’ve heard a lot of coaches, kinda scared of players.
And hopefully with some of the rule changes, that’s settled down a little bit.
But yeah, I just remember how intense, those practices were.
But, one of Pete’s goals was we were gonna make practices harder than the games, and the games were gonna be a cakewalk, and for the most part, that’s, that’s how it was, throughout those college years when we had those great teams.
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So you’re part of the new documentary series, We Are Osos.
Tell me about it.
What’s it been like to own a pro football team?
It’s been a lot of work.
It’s been a lot of work.
We, we almost paid just as much as Iger did, for the Lakers.
As you can imagine.
But yeah, we, we took for granted how much, is involved in not only trying to run a winning football team, but an entire organization and all the moving parts, and, player personnel, and marketing, and s- and stadium venues, and, it’s, it’s, it’s a ton.
But it’s been, incredibly, fulfilling and, and rewarding, and we just have been having a blast, and fell in love with these guys down there.
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But it’s funny, you guys have been talking about money in sports and what the ceiling for that looks like, and I think it’s part of why we fell in love with this league.
One, we had no idea that American football, was so massive down in Mexico, but they’ve had a love affair with American football going back to the ’20s, starting with college football, and they still play.
These kids play at the club level, they play in college, and then there’s this league that’s been around for about 10 years.
And, you know, the fact that we didn’t know about it was what brought us in and why we wanted to tell the story of these guys.
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But we just felt like, in a world where, you know, sports now, there’s so much money in it, and these guys are not making that much every week to still hang on and play the game, and, and really play for the love of the game, there was just something romantic about that that we wanted to tell that story.
And, and while we were in the process of doing it, we just kinda fell in love with the idea of us maybe owning the team and, and, and running it as well as documenting it.
But yeah, it’s, it’s been fun and, and, and these guys, these guys are really, really, really just great humans who, who are great football players and love the game, and we felt like their stories deserved to be told.
