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00:00This is Damone Clark, after a day of practice in which, first of all, Sam Williams goes
00:07down.
00:08I'm sure you have some awareness of that.
00:09Everybody's crossing their fingers.
00:10You know, some of this is just football, but that doesn't mean it's always pleasant, does
00:14it?
00:15Right.
00:16Yeah, I mean, it's football, but like you say, you don't want nothing like that to happen.
00:18So we wish you for the best.
00:19Obviously, I'm going to go check on him when we get there.
00:22Good.
00:23One of the things that guys do, if they're smart, and I know you do this too because
00:27of our man, Chuck Stretchman, you do, to my knowledge, about every single thing that
00:33is known to man to get your legs ready and your feet ready.
00:37Can you talk about, first of all, kind of what you go through, but also, Damone Clark,
00:42how did you decide?
00:43How did you learn to do that?
00:44Because not everybody gets that.
00:46Yeah.
00:47Well, I mean, first of all, I really, you know, shout out to my dog, Chuck.
00:50He stretched me every day, you know, and the biggest thing, you know, just talking to the
00:54guys here, just coming off an injury myself, you got to take care of your body, take care
00:58of yourself.
00:59How do you expect somebody to take care of you if you don't take care of yourself?
01:00So, I mean, for myself, I went into this offseason with one plan in mind, to get bigger, stronger,
01:01and faster.
01:02And if it comes to getting bigger, stronger, and faster, you have to stretch, you know,
01:03you have to take care of your body.
01:04So that's the biggest thing that I've been doing.
01:05I do a lot of yoga, Pilates, you know, I get a lot of massages and different things like
01:06that.
01:07But that helps.
01:08What don't you, what won't you try?
01:09Is there some limit?
01:10No, I try everything, you know.
01:11At the start, and even here, our lockers are by each other, but at the start, that's
01:31my locker room.
01:32Right.
01:33So, our locker's right on side of each other, and, you know, he tell me about all the different
01:36things that he tries.
01:37So, you know, the biggest thing I want to do is to be better.
01:40And to be better, you have to take care of your things off the field and everything else
01:43to take care of yourself.
01:44And some of it's experimentation, right?
01:46You might try, I don't know, acupuncture and go out.
01:49That's something that I actually love, too.
01:50Actually, I just did yesterday.
01:51Oh, really?
01:52Yeah, I just did yesterday.
01:53Yeah.
01:54When you get the massage, you get the whole, is it a-
01:56I need a deep tissue sports massage, you know, that's the biggest thing that I like to do.
02:00Okay.
02:01Deep tissue sports massage.
02:02Is any of your, and you said having been injured when you made the leap to the NFL, that's
02:07part of your motivation.
02:08Is there anything that's directly tied to that?
02:10At the moment, and that seemed like it was going to be a nasty thing for you.
02:13And then, I don't know, medical miracle in part, right?
02:17Yeah.
02:18And maybe a miracle in terms of a more heavenly sense.
02:21Yeah.
02:22It's all coming together.
02:23You know, the biggest thing, you have to just take care of your body.
02:25You know, I've, in college, you know, you always, you know, had things, had people there
02:29like at LSU.
02:30Our training staff was phenomenal.
02:32You know what I'm saying?
02:33Our training staff here is phenomenal, but you got to do more.
02:36You know what I'm saying?
02:37It's your body.
02:38It's what you feel unless you tell me.
02:40And that's the biggest thing that I learned.
02:42At LSU, they gave you that number.
02:45And now you've got that number.
02:49Can you talk about the path, first of all, in school to what 18 means and how did it
02:53work out here?
02:54Well, it's to, you know, doing the right things on and off the field.
02:56That's just the guy who I am.
02:57You know, you don't have to worry about anything, you know, off the field or anything.
03:02I'm going to take care of myself on and off the field.
03:04And at LSU, they give 18 to that guy.
03:07It's more than just a football club.
03:09You obviously have to be a good football club.
03:11But also, you know, just somebody that is the standard.
03:14And I was honored to get the number 18.
03:16And, you know, the number 18 means more to me than some may know.
03:21But, you know, I was able to get the number back.
03:25Jalen Tolbert switched to number one.
03:27And I jumped right on it.
03:28Did you ever go to Jalen Tolbert and say...
03:30Oh, he already knew.
03:32We already talked about it.
03:34My rookie year, you know, at first I was number 53.
03:36Right.
03:37And I told him, like, man, look, if anything happens...
03:39Because he always wanted to see me get the number.
03:41And I'm like, if anything happens, bro, like, you switch your number, let me know.
03:45And when he did that, he let me know.
03:47The day he told me about him switching to number one...
03:50Good.
03:51I wouldn't switch to 18 that same exact day.
03:53Okay, is Ryan Flournoy also wearing 18?
03:56Yeah.
03:57Have you informed him that this isn't going to quite work this way?
03:59Oh, no.
04:01He asked me when we first got here, I'm not coming up out of 18.
04:06Yeah.
04:07I mean, I'm not coming out of 18.
04:09Right.
04:10It's your thing.
04:11Yeah.
04:12It's a thing.
04:13And now it's your cowboy thing.
04:14Yeah, exactly.
04:15Here comes Mike Zimmer, who I've known for, gosh, 30 years.
04:17And some of what he's doing is different in terms of his personal style.
04:21Then obviously some of what you guys are doing defensively is different, too.
04:25Your impressions of Zimmer so far?
04:27I love him, man.
04:28It's accountability.
04:29Yeah.
04:30When you're on the field and play, he holds everybody to a standard.
04:32If you don't want to be held to a standard, it's not the team for you.
04:35He's going to hold you to a standard.
04:37And that's the one thing that I love about him.
04:39People think it's, oh, then Dan Quinn must have been doing something wrong.
04:43Nah, I don't think that's it at all.
04:45And I don't want to say it in that way.
04:47Right.
04:48I don't want to say it in that way because Q's a phenomenal coach.
04:50Right.
04:51You know, that's someone that I have much love and respect for, but it's, you know,
04:54comes different coaches, comes different coaching styles.
04:56You know, Coach Zimmer, he's been, Coach Zimmer's been at the top before.
04:59He knows what it takes to get there.
05:00He has the blooper.
05:01We always just follow the blooper.
05:03Your linebacker core, especially if Micah, and he's doing some off ball.
05:07All of a sudden, Micah and Kendricks and yourself and a healthy Overshawn.
05:12That could be a group.
05:13Yeah, I mean, we all want each other to be great.
05:15You know, there's no hate in our room.
05:17We're all competitive.
05:18We all want all the reps to obviously, you know, when your numbers call you,
05:21you gotta go out there and just do it.
05:23Hey, team, good to see you.
05:24Yes, sir.
05:26We'll talk again.