Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Chris Harry with you on the Chargers Training
Speaker 1: Camp podcast. Today I sit down with offensive tackle Russell o'coon.
Speaker 1: O'coon discusses his move to LA from the division rival Broncos,
Speaker 1: spearheading the Chargers new look offensive line, and his many
Speaker 1: interests outside of football. It was a real fun conversation.
Speaker 1: So without further ado, here's Russell o'coon. Okay, Russell o'coon
Speaker 1: joins me on the Chargers Training Camp podcast. You follow
Speaker 1: him on Twitter at Russell o'coon. Russell, thanks for joining me. Man,
Speaker 1: how are you doing? I'm great, I'm great. How are
Speaker 1: you I'm doing well? How was how was practice today
Speaker 1: before you guys get ready for the Saints? Ah, Man,
Speaker 1: practice is great. Guys are flying around. We really responded,
Speaker 1: especially after our showing you in the preseason game. One
Speaker 1: to responded well in practice and said, hey, like how
Speaker 1: can we push yourselves to get better? Like how can
Speaker 1: we find our competitive advantage? And I was decided to
Speaker 1: see the guys flying around today and we're looking forward
Speaker 1: to practicing against the Saints. I was pumped to have
Speaker 1: you on, Russell, because you have so many interests beyond
Speaker 1: the field. Yeah. Yeah, but I do want to start
Speaker 1: with football, a few football questions, then we'll get to
Speaker 1: everything off the field. You come over from a division
Speaker 1: rival and the Denver Broncos. For fans who may not know,
Speaker 1: explain the process this offseason that ended up with you
Speaker 1: beingcoming an la georger. Yeah. I don't necessarily know where
Speaker 1: to start on that, but I mean I was zoom
Speaker 1: my own dale ended up leaving Seattle to go to
Speaker 1: Denver and sort of like a year with an option,
Speaker 1: and then we sort of worked through some things and
Speaker 1: decided the option wasn't necessarily going to work the best.
Speaker 1: And as I was released into free agency, I wanted
Speaker 1: to be with a team that I definitely thought had
Speaker 1: a tremendous upside that I had a good passer, a
Speaker 1: good running game, and I really solid defense, and the
Speaker 1: Chargers were at and uh now I'm a Charger and
Speaker 1: went through sign a deal, did it with me and
Speaker 1: my own team, and we found success and I'm pretty
Speaker 1: happy about it. Having spent that season with the Broncos
Speaker 1: last year. What is Week one going to be like
Speaker 1: for you on Monday Night football? Going back there at night?
Speaker 1: You have that stage on Monday Night Football and ESPN. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd be remissed to say I haven't really thought about it.
Speaker 1: I mean, those guys, especially their defense, are really good.
Speaker 1: They're they're really good, and and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: if if we are who we think we are as
Speaker 1: a Chargers, like, it'll be a tremendous task to go
Speaker 1: out there and beat them on the road. But I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, isn't that what football is? Right? Football is
Speaker 1: that feeling right that you're going up against a team
Speaker 1: that has, like, you know, the the repertoire and like
Speaker 1: they're supposed to be this and that, and you get
Speaker 1: to get to go into an environment and prove otherwise,
Speaker 1: you know, And I love football just for that. But
Speaker 1: for now, we got Saints coming in tomorrow. I got
Speaker 1: to practice. Well, got three more games a preseason we
Speaker 1: need to work through. We're trying to figure out who
Speaker 1: we're going to be as a team. You're entering your
Speaker 1: eighth season in the league. You have eighty eight starts,
Speaker 1: you played in twelve playoff games, two Super Bowls, you
Speaker 1: have a ring. How much confidence have those past experiences
Speaker 1: given you in terms of coming in here and really
Speaker 1: spear hitting this offensive line? Yeah? Yeah, I think you
Speaker 1: know one thing about me is I always wanted to
Speaker 1: be a professional. I wanted to be a professional about
Speaker 1: my work and how I went about my work, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to be respected in that sort of way.
Speaker 1: And just you know, with these years that have gone
Speaker 1: by and the experiences come with that, and I, by
Speaker 1: no meansick, I haven't figured out, but I'm pressing every
Speaker 1: day to find my best and find out. You know
Speaker 1: what can Russell o'cun do more? How can I sharpen
Speaker 1: this sort of tool and equip myself to be better
Speaker 1: or more helpful for the team. You know, So every
Speaker 1: days at grind, every days at battle, and everything matters.
Speaker 1: And I really pushed myself to really figure out. And
Speaker 1: I pushed the guys too, and they pushed me as well.
Speaker 1: So does it hurt that you know this division and
Speaker 1: you're familiar with all these pass rushers. You went up
Speaker 1: against Shane Ray and Von Miller last year. Every day
Speaker 1: in practice, you know what's going on in Kansas City
Speaker 1: with Ford and Tom bout Lee and justin those guys,
Speaker 1: so you know they're all really good. You know there's
Speaker 1: a division where these pass rushers are. There are perennial
Speaker 1: pro Bowlers. They all have a tremendous amount of talent
Speaker 1: and and that's great at all. You know, those guys
Speaker 1: are good. But again, you know they they're arguably some
Speaker 1: of the best rushers in NFL, and I think we
Speaker 1: have a chance to be some of the best blockers
Speaker 1: in NFL. And when it comes down to it, somebody
Speaker 1: has to win and somebody has to lose. Those six
Speaker 1: games though, against those AFC West opponents, you have a
Speaker 1: unique situation here where you go up against Melvin Gordon
Speaker 1: and Joey Bosa on a daily basis. How much does
Speaker 1: that make this offensive line better week and week out?
Speaker 1: Knowing that this is an offensive line in transition? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you know, the Charges were a team that
Speaker 1: it's going to be built off of competition, right and
Speaker 1: in order for us to really compete at a high level,
Speaker 1: you know, at all positions, at all phases of the team,
Speaker 1: you know, you want to have talents there and you
Speaker 1: want to be able to challenge each other to day
Speaker 1: in and day out to see, you know, where can
Speaker 1: I be better or how can this guy challenge me?
Speaker 1: And I'm fortunate because I get to play two of
Speaker 1: the top pass rushers in the game every single day
Speaker 1: and my task is to beat them and win every
Speaker 1: single day. And it's not a easy task. No, it's not. Again,
Speaker 1: you know, like I'm challenged with it and I just
Speaker 1: like I love it. You know, Young Joey's he's amazing
Speaker 1: and I think he has like the world in front
Speaker 1: of him. I think the kid can do anything. And
Speaker 1: Mail we all know who he is. He's proven, you know,
Speaker 1: just as a really good pass rusher as well and
Speaker 1: the guy who can play the run in the past,
Speaker 1: and we're challenging each other, and I think after Camp,
Speaker 1: I think it would definitely make it easier. I mean
Speaker 1: going throughout the rest of the playing other teams. I
Speaker 1: hate playing that comparison game. But the fact that you
Speaker 1: did have the Marcus Ware and Von Miller and Shane
Speaker 1: Ray in Denver and then your time in Seattle, we
Speaker 1: know what that defense was. Like, what do you see
Speaker 1: in Ingram and Bosa and how their careers have progressed
Speaker 1: and where they can go. Yeah, yeah, I think there
Speaker 1: are two guys that aren't taking any plays off to me,
Speaker 1: and that's amazing. That's to say things about like talented
Speaker 1: people and who really press to win every single play.
Speaker 1: I think that is what's going to make those guys
Speaker 1: really special is there's no playoff. There's never a time
Speaker 1: that you can't help your team succeed or have that
Speaker 1: play that sort of turns the game around and gives
Speaker 1: a team the momentum. And I think those two guys,
Speaker 1: they've really got to figure it out. And I'm glad.
Speaker 1: I'm glad I get to compractice against him because this
Speaker 1: is what I'm familiar with. You know, with Vonn and DeMarcus.
Speaker 1: It was the same way, and even when I was
Speaker 1: in Seattle with the rushers out there, the same thing.
Speaker 1: So I think I think the sort of theme of
Speaker 1: it's consistent, you know, like that sort of talent, that
Speaker 1: sort of work produces really good results. What do you
Speaker 1: want to accomplish as an offensive line as a unit
Speaker 1: over these next few days when the Saints are in town.
Speaker 1: You have them in town for Thursday, Friday, and then
Speaker 1: obviously the game on Sunday at StubHub Center. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: want to come out here work hard, right. Um, that's
Speaker 1: also important that we're clean and we re we're we're
Speaker 1: relying on our fundamentals, you know, I know as a group,
Speaker 1: we really put the challenge for ourselves to be the
Speaker 1: strongest group on the team. Sure you know, so every
Speaker 1: day is an opportunity to prove that. And it's Saint
Speaker 1: coming in and we get another shot at it. As
Speaker 1: I said at the beginning, you're a man of many
Speaker 1: interests and you couldn't be in a better place than LA. Right,
Speaker 1: there's so much to do. Man, I've lived here for
Speaker 1: eleven years. I don't think I've scratched the surface. Let's
Speaker 1: start with food, because I know your food guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you've been able to explore the space here in LA
Speaker 1: And then man, I know it's been a short time,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's been a short time. Like I've gone
Speaker 1: to some really cool places in Orange County. I like
Speaker 1: went to some random places out in LA. Like it
Speaker 1: seems like the hold on the walls are like the best,
Speaker 1: those are the best spots. Any chain restaurant I just
Speaker 1: can't deal. Oh there's this place called like I want
Speaker 1: to say, it's like Newport Seafood had like the best
Speaker 1: freaking Thai food I've ever had. Yeah, so hey, the
Speaker 1: best Thai food, like sort of Asian fusion, Like I
Speaker 1: can't remember exactly what it's called. But it was. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: Um what else is good? There's so many places out here,
Speaker 1: so many I'm having the time of my life eating
Speaker 1: out here. The thing is, there's and there's so many
Speaker 1: small little areas in LA that you know, you get
Speaker 1: the beach cities, you got up in the Valley, you
Speaker 1: got Hollywood, you got in Santa Monica, and I think
Speaker 1: every neighborhood here kind of has its own flavor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what's cool about it. Yeah, it's like you're like
Speaker 1: a little Saigon, or you're like, you want to go
Speaker 1: way out to Brent, Like I drive to eat. That's
Speaker 1: like what me and my wife do. Like we find
Speaker 1: a good place, we'll drive way out there, make a
Speaker 1: day trip out of it and stay in that area
Speaker 1: and just eat as much as we can. She'll probably
Speaker 1: kill me for saying that, but we love it, you know,
Speaker 1: So like, yeah, I'm down to see as many places
Speaker 1: as I can. Who has the best food? You spent
Speaker 1: time in Seattle, spend time in Denver, and then, like
Speaker 1: I said, you've been here for just a second. But
Speaker 1: I had to imagine those other cities had some pretty
Speaker 1: good spots as well. Yeah, Yeah, Seattle have some really
Speaker 1: good places. There's a lot of people really coming and
Speaker 1: flying in. They're hiring like some of the top chefs
Speaker 1: in the world. But I'm interested to like really take
Speaker 1: LA on so far, like I'm really pleased with it,
Speaker 1: but i want to go deeper. Man, Yeah, well you can't.
Speaker 1: That's the thing to Orange County. You're you're probably forty
Speaker 1: five minutes from like Santa Monica and Beverly Hills and
Speaker 1: all these these restaurants that are just so good. And
Speaker 1: the thing is new ones pop up every few months,
Speaker 1: so it's like you can continue to check things off
Speaker 1: the checklist and it's just like it's infinite. Yeah. Like
Speaker 1: and if anybody like was listening and they like want
Speaker 1: a taste tester, like, just hit me up on Twitter.
Speaker 1: I'll be over there. Let's do it. Let's make it happen.
Speaker 1: You know, speaking of podcasts, because this is the Chargers
Speaker 1: Training Camp podcast R. Also, I expect you to download
Speaker 1: this and get this in your your iTunes subscription. But
Speaker 1: I know your podcast guy too, what podcasts are you
Speaker 1: listening to? And and you know people are in their
Speaker 1: car all day in La. Man, they need some some
Speaker 1: ideas beyond the Chargers Training Camp podcast. Yeah, yeah, listen
Speaker 1: to one that's really cool about this guy who's like, um,
Speaker 1: you had to like this startup and he just like
Speaker 1: really started at inception, well really like sort of conceptual
Speaker 1: phases to inception to like going out and finding a
Speaker 1: co founder. It's called like startup and that's it's gimblet
Speaker 1: like media, you know. So that's awesome. There's another one
Speaker 1: called Crimetown, which is like this mob series that's amazing.
Speaker 1: There's one on NPR I just got on is Estown.
Speaker 1: Have you have you got that one? I heard it Estown.
Speaker 1: I was just about to listen to that one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I listened to it. It It was it was pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah it's Cereal. Did you listen to Cereal? I was
Speaker 1: just about to listen to that one too. You're jumping
Speaker 1: all like all of this. I'm sorry many I'm trying
Speaker 1: to give you. I'm trying to give you tips. Still
Speaker 1: we're gonna, you know, go back and forth with that.
Speaker 1: But no, Estown was good. Cereal was good. And then um,
Speaker 1: trying to think how I built this? Listen how I
Speaker 1: built this about Reid Hoffman. Yeah no, no, no, no no,
Speaker 1: no buy guy guy Guy Rosse, Yeah, Guy Rose Guy
Speaker 1: Ros is awesome. You know he's a Chargers fan, is
Speaker 1: he really? Yeah, you gotta get him on the Guy's
Speaker 1: been saying that he's gonna come out here with his son, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got connected with him, Like how I built this
Speaker 1: was awesome. Ried Hoffman has another one. I think it's
Speaker 1: called like Master of Something. I can't remember. Guy Ros
Speaker 1: is a Chargers fan. Guy Rose is a Chargers fan.
Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna do this. We're gonna tweet this
Speaker 1: out the Guy Rose and if he gets this, well,
Speaker 1: get him on the podcast and you'll be my co host. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, let's do that. Guys awesome. He said he
Speaker 1: has some really cool people coming on on the show.
Speaker 1: That's you know. He like Barbara Corcorane, the folks, mayor
Speaker 1: BnB and Old Foods, a lot of really cool inspiring starters. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot a lot of those people. Yeah. And your
Speaker 1: your mom was an entrepreneur. Yes, and you are a
Speaker 1: big computer guy. In fact, I read that you were
Speaker 1: coding at age seven. Yeah, man, how that's amazing. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know why. I just always had like an
Speaker 1: affinity for like the digital space, you know, and like
Speaker 1: my mom asked me, like oh, I need a website
Speaker 1: and she's like, figure it out, and like, so I
Speaker 1: go on, I figured it out or an HTML, and
Speaker 1: I'll I start learning like JavaScript, and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: let's go, let's go, let's get at it. Like next thing,
Speaker 1: I know, I was buying books and like C plus
Speaker 1: plus and probably you know, I was really getting into it,
Speaker 1: and then football came along and I had to stop.
Speaker 1: You know, do you still kind of keep it on
Speaker 1: the side and your yeah, yeah, I tried. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to get back into it now. Like I have a
Speaker 1: nonprofit that like we that's one of our focuses, you know,
Speaker 1: so I get involved all the time. I took like
Speaker 1: a once, like a coding boot camp, did like the
Speaker 1: code one on one. It was so much fun. That's cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's awesome. What's the nonprofit all about. Yeah, so it's
Speaker 1: called Greater right, and like we believe that we can
Speaker 1: buy the power of like sports and technology, we can
Speaker 1: mobilize the next generation of people to have computer skills.
Speaker 1: And there's this big problem going on right now where
Speaker 1: like you have like a large amount of jobs computer
Speaker 1: related jobs or engineering these sort of jobs, and the
Speaker 1: workforce hasn't necessarily been able to catch up to what
Speaker 1: that sort of need is, which to me is a
Speaker 1: real tragedy. And even within that, right, there's we have
Speaker 1: this huge tech ecosystem where a lot of our economies
Speaker 1: meet being made up of that, whether it's Amazon, Apple, Google,
Speaker 1: all these sort of big companies and need sort of
Speaker 1: look at their numbers and people that are working for them,
Speaker 1: and like, you don't necessarily see like this component of
Speaker 1: diversity there, you know, and assuming that our country would
Speaker 1: continue to grow the way it will grow, a lot
Speaker 1: of people who have been traditionally minorities are all of
Speaker 1: a sudden becoming becoming the majority, right, And there's this
Speaker 1: huge disconnect between the medium of getting people that um
Speaker 1: the right amount of education as well as the place
Speaker 1: of and entity sort of jobs. So greater is going
Speaker 1: to fulfill that need. We'ren be greater dot org. So
Speaker 1: be greater dot org or hit us up on on
Speaker 1: on all our social media and it's a greater movement.
Speaker 1: That's a greater movement. So yeah, they're good. George's fans
Speaker 1: check that out. I want to end with this, Russell,
Speaker 1: what do you want fans to know about you that
Speaker 1: they may not know. Now that you're in a new market,
Speaker 1: You're gonna have a lot of new football fans in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles and they want to get to know this team.
Speaker 1: What do you want them to know about Russell Coloon
Speaker 1: that we didn't cover here today. I think it's important
Speaker 1: that people know. I like, I love I'm gonna love
Speaker 1: the city, right, I love the city all right, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna love Long Beach. I'm gonna love Carson in Santa Anna.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna love Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Culbra City. Like
Speaker 1: I want people to know that, Like, I'm serious about
Speaker 1: this community and I'm here to stay, you know, Like
Speaker 1: this is where I'm gonna lay down my roots. That's
Speaker 1: where I mean my wife will be. And we're serious
Speaker 1: about serving the community. We're serious about being here, and
Speaker 1: we're serious about people come to these games and me
Speaker 1: and Chargers fans and that will be my mission. You
Speaker 1: couldn't have picked a better spot to be. We're glad
Speaker 1: you're part of this team and part of this community.
Speaker 1: He's Russell Coon. You could follow him on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Russell o'coon. Tweet him some some food recommendations, right, some
Speaker 1: restaurants places, to hit up in La. Get him into
Speaker 1: the the La vibe here, Laker game. Got to do
Speaker 1: a Laker game down, you know. Let's do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's do it, Himo Man, thanks so much, thank you.
Speaker 1: That'll do it for today's Chargers Training Camp podcast. My
Speaker 1: thanks to Russell o'coon for joining me. And a reminder
Speaker 1: that on Thursday and Friday, the Saints will be at
Speaker 1: the Jackhammet Sports Complex for joint practices. Practice starts at
Speaker 1: ten am on both days, so be sure to visit
Speaker 1: Chargers dot com for details and remember this podcast. It's
Speaker 1: now on iTunes and Google Play. You want to search
Speaker 1: Chargers podcasts to subscribe, and if you could, please leave
Speaker 1: a review. Until next time, we'll see you soon.