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00:00 All you fantasy owners out there, just listen to this.
00:03 If you have me on your team, you're going to be okay.
00:05 Joining us now on behalf of the FedEx Air and Ground NFL Players of the Week Awards
00:10 is Austin Eckler.
00:11 NFL fans can vote weekly for the awards at nfl.com/fedex.
00:16 Fans can also vote on Twitter via the NFL's published polls.
00:19 Austin, we're going to get into your partnership with FedEx.
00:22 Avid FedEx consumer over here, so definitely want to talk to you about that.
00:26 What would you define as a successful season for the Chargers this year?
00:32 That is a great question because there's levels to it.
00:38 There's levels to the answer.
00:39 Top level, it's Super Bowl or bust.
00:42 But I don't necessarily think that means you had an unsuccessful season.
00:48 Because if that was the case, then 31 teams basically just had unsuccessful seasons.
00:52 And so I think it goes deeper than just Super Bowl or bust.
00:55 I also think it means looking at the progress of the team.
01:00 For us, obviously we lost in the first round of the playoffs last year.
01:03 Can we make it past that?
01:05 I see that as a success.
01:06 It's not the ultimate success, but I still see that as some type of victory.
01:11 We all set out in life to try to get to this vision or dream.
01:14 You might not get that dream, but if you get 70% of it, is that still pretty good?
01:17 You've got to set your metrics on that.
01:19 So I'll talk a lot of hypotheticals here.
01:22 On the outside, it's Super Bowl or bust, but I think there's some internal wins that we
01:25 can get along the way.
01:26 Can I ask you a quick question about your quarterback, Justin Herbert?
01:28 He's such a buttoned up guy.
01:30 I'm curious, is he like that in the locker room?
01:32 Or do you have a fun story you can share with us?
01:36 Buttoned up guy?
01:37 Yeah.
01:38 This man is like football, but he's everything football.
01:43 That is what I know about Justin.
01:44 And to be honest, that's what I want in my quarterback.
01:47 I kind of had the same thing.
01:48 I got lucky with my quarterbacks with Phillip Rivers as well, who was all football and family.
01:53 I think he just had his 10th kid, where Phillip did.
01:55 But with Justin, it's the same way.
01:57 This guy just obsessed with football.
01:58 And to play that position at a really high level, you kind of have to, because you got
02:02 to make sure that you can understand the defensive front.
02:04 You can understand the routes.
02:06 You can call the plays.
02:07 You can make the adjustments.
02:08 And so you got to be living, breathing football.
02:12 And as far as funny stories, there's not really any funny stories outside of football that
02:17 we have.
02:19 He's really good at ping pong, actually.
02:20 We had a ping pong table.
02:21 He could throw down on the ping pong table.
02:24 And apparently he's got this brisket boy thing.
02:26 I don't even know if he got the brisket boy still around, but he's got this big...
02:28 We haven't broke it out yet.
02:29 We got to see after we get a win, if he's got the victory briskets going again for this
02:33 year.
02:34 But no, Justin is a guy who is definitely going to be in the football field, either
02:39 coaching or playing.
02:40 So I'm glad he's my quarterback for sure.
02:43 One other thing that I know that you're super into outside of just playing football is fantasy
02:46 football.
02:47 Curious, who did you drop this year?
02:50 Who did I drop?
02:51 Ah, so I had the 14th pick in the draft.
02:56 So I ended up with Devontae Adams.
02:58 I say it like that because I wanted to draft myself.
03:01 Like obviously I want to get myself because that's the only thing I can really control
03:06 in fantasy.
03:07 But I did pick up Justin Herbert with I think my third pick, which maybe you say that's
03:11 a reach or not, but that was something that I can kind of control because he throws me
03:15 the ball a lot.
03:16 So I'm going to be scoring touchdowns, getting yards for him.
03:19 So you know, it's like another extension of me in the fantasy world.
03:22 But yeah, I'm looking forward to my team, Devontae Adams, Josh Jacobs, Brandon Ayuk,
03:27 Justin Herbert.
03:28 I had the Cowboys defense, shout out to the Cowboys defense for tearing it up in week
03:32 one.
03:33 And no, it's gonna be fun in the fantasy year.
03:35 Is there any words of hope that you can give fantasy football owners and fans heading into
03:42 the rest of the year?
03:44 Yes, absolutely.
03:45 I want to leave all you fantasy owners out there.
03:47 Just listen to this.
03:49 If you have me on your team, you're going to be okay.
03:51 All you other people, I don't know.
03:52 I don't know about all you other people.
03:53 But if you have me on your team, you're going to be all right.
03:57 We're going to do fine.
03:58 If you're joining us on behalf of FedEx, tell us about your partnership with them.
04:03 What they're doing for the entire year is donating $100,000 to HBCUs.
04:07 And they do it in a pretty cool way, which you should actually get involved because I
04:12 am nominated for the FedEx Air Ground Player of the Week.
04:17 Which that means if I am nominated and chosen as the person, then I get to donate some of
04:22 that $100,000 to an HBCU of my choice.
04:25 And so you can donate and or actually you can vote.
04:28 First, you got to vote at NFL.com/FedEx.
04:33 And then once we win, because you guys are going to vote for me, then we can make a difference.
04:37 So I would appreciate all the votes and they do that for the quarterbacks and the running
04:39 backs all the way out through the year, promoting more scholarships, like I said, more opportunities.
04:44 So it's a great cause to be involved in and couldn't be more excited to be doing it with
04:48 a great company like FedEx.
04:49 [MUSIC]