Mike Pouncey – March 9, 2023
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Thursday, March 9, 2023
OL Mike Pouncey
Senior Vice President, Special Projects, Alumni Relations & Advisor to CEO Nat Moore:
(Opening statement) – “I want to thank you guys for being here today because today’s a very special day and we’re honored and excited to have Mike Pouncey with us today. Mike has signed a one-day contract and has officially now retired as a Miami Dolphin. As you can see, we already got him in a (aqua) jacket. (laughter) When I think about Mike and his days here, Mike was not only a great player. Mike was also a great community activist, and he exemplified leadership at its greatest. When you think of his career, you think of the offensive line and what he did to lead that group of men as each and every week offensively, we were extremely competitive, he was that leader. The way he prepared, the way he helped the South Florida community; all that is what Mike Pouncey was to South Florida, and it’s so good to have him back. He was drafted in 2011 as the 15th overall pick out of the University of Florida, and played seven seasons with the Dolphins, starting 93 games from 2011 through 2017. During that time, he was a three-time Pro Bowler – 2013, 2014, 2015. He’s the only Dolphin offensive lineman to ever be selected to the Pro Bowl at two different positions. And he showed us that at Florida when he played defense and offense. But in 2013 and 2015, he was a center Pro Bowl selection and 2014 at guard. So when you think of Mike Pouncey – his career and what he was able to accomplish here – there’s greatness. The (last Dolphins) offensive lineman to ever be selected to three Pro Bowls continuously was Keith Sims. So think about that. He was also a two-time winner of the team’s Don Shula Leadership Award voted on by his teammates. He finished his career with the Chargers playing two seasons – 2018 and ‘19 – and earning another Pro Bowl. He’s joined today by his family, including his brother Maurkice, who was also a great player in the NFL for the Pittsburgh Steelers. As Senior Vice President of Alumni Relations, on behalf of the organization, it is my honor to welcome Mike Pouncey to the lifelong fraternity of the Dolphins alumni. Mike, you’re now officially a Miami Dolphin again, for life. Welcome back, brother.”
Mike Pouncey:
“I’m excited to be back. I’ve waited for this day for the last two years just because the Dolphins just meant so much to me and my family. For my son to be at this age now, and to be able to see it and be able to appreciate it a little bit more because he was so young whenever I was playing here. I told him, I said, ‘this is something you got to work for, to be able to come back and be able to be wanted to a place that gave so much to you and changed your life.’ I’m glad he’s been able to see it. I brought my family here today. My brother, obviously without him, none of this is even possible. I’m happy to be back. I know this is two years past retirement but to be able to say I’m retired as a Miami Dolphin is one of the greatest achievements of my life.”
(When Nat Moore is going through your list of accomplishments in your career, what’s going through your mind?) – “It blows my mind. I still to this day – me and my brother laugh about it, like to be able to have the money that we have, to have all the accolades that we’ve accomplished, like how did two kids from Lakeland do that? Hard work, I guess.”
(How much does this day mean to you because I recall when you got that contract extension in 2015, you were saying you wanted to retire as a Miami Dolphin and now you are – what does this mean to you?) – “It means the world. Like I always said, I was going to be a Dolphin for life and I meant that. I waited around for two years to be able to come up here and retire a Dolphin and now to finally say I’m retiring as a Miami Dolphin, it’s just awesome. I can’t wait until we get to celebrate today.”
(How much have you been in touch with the organization over the last few years and how much more do you think you will now?) – “A bunch. I was in touch with them a bunch over the years even when I was playing with the Chargers. I still had a bunch of friends that worked here. I still knew all the ownership and a lot of the scouts and stuff. So the relationships have always been there. Since I’ve been retired, I’ve done different events – we did the (Dolphins Challenge Cancer) cycling challenge, me and my brother did one year. We stayed involved. But now that I’m back here and it’s whatever volume they want me around, I’ll be around. I came down for a couple of weeks during the season whenever Coach Flores was here and helped with the offensive line. I’m here. I’m retired. Me and my brother, we just opened a liqueur company now called J.F. Haden’s and other than that, my phone is always open for the Dolphins.”
(So you’re local then?) – “Yeah, we stay in Fort Lauderdale.”
(You made the Pro Bowl as a Dolphin for a number of years and then along the way, they tap you on the shoulder and they say you’re not a center, you’re a guard now. What do you remember about that year that you played guard?) – “It was harder getting out of bed. I am not going to lie to you; guard is one of the toughest positions in the NFL. But I was used to it. It was my natural position. I had played it so much throughout my career especially in college and was very successful at it, so to move over was just easy. And at that time, Samson Satele was back around. He was a good friend of mine and I had no problem moving over, but the Pro Bowls here were a lot tougher than the one in in California when Philip Rivers was slinging that thing around. It felt like sometimes you didn’t have to touch anybody, but that Pro Bowl there – I know that’s part of the resume, but a lot of times it comes off team success.”
(What position would you play now at your new weight?) – “(laughter) Which one ain’t getting in the game? (laughter) That’s the only position … No, I mean the only position I know is how to play is offensive line. So if I were to ever play again, it’d be that position. But I don’t see me ever going back on the football field. I run routes for my son now. He plays quarterback so I enjoy that more than anything.”
(I wanted to actually ask you about the weight loss. What motivated it and how much better do you feel now?) – “I feel awesome. You know what it was, me and my brother, we retired at the same time and a lot of times whenever you get so used to being in a routine, we just challenged ourselves. Let’s drop this weight and see how fast we can do it. I’ve had him by my side throughout my career and even post career, and he makes it easy. But the process for us was just stop eating like linemen. We stopped eating all the carbs. We stopped eating six, seven times a day and we just, yeah. (laughter) And honestly, everyone’s like, they ask us all the time, like ‘how do you guys eat?’ I say ‘like rabbits.’ You say ‘well, what do you mean, what’s the difference?’ I say, ‘back when we were playing, we ate like pigs.’ That’s the only difference I can explain.”
(How much have you lost?) – “We lost 70 pounds so now I weight about 228 pounds. When I was playing, I was 300, 303 pounds, around that weight. But a lot of weight in a year.”
(You said your phone is always going to be open to the Dolphins. Do you think you’ll ever have another future in football, maybe coaching or something else?) – “One thousand percent. I’m just waiting for my son to get to high school. Right now, I’m just enjoying his little league process, but as soon as he goes off to high school, I’ll start my coaching career.”
(Have you thought about the Honor Roll, the Dolphins Honor Roll or be up in the stadium? Have those thoughts gone through your head?) – “I mean, those are thoughts I had whenever I was playing. Right now, it’s just more of, man, if that ever happened, I’d just be appreciative, just like I am today, to be able to come back and sign a one-day contract. But that’s just part of just time passing and for me, whatever comes with it comes with it, but it’s not something I’m going to ask for. If it happens, it happens.”
(You’ve got an interesting legacy here through the years. How do you remember it and how do you want to be remembered as a Miami Dolphin?) – “I just want to be remembered as Nat announced, just as a guy that was here that gave everything he had, was a leader, was respected and loved by his teammates and the community. And outside of that, the rest of it is on tape. You just cut the tape on, it’ll show you what I was as a football player.”
(It seems like the Dolphins are often in that stage of having to rebuild the offensive line. It’s a tricky position to nail down obviously. When you look at the line that they have now, what do you see?) – “I love the offensive line. (Terron) Armstead was a big-time pickup for the offensive line. He’s really helped those young guys come along, but that’s a part of going through the NFL. A lot of times in our era, whenever you were drafted, you were expected to play right away. And nowadays they give guys a little leeway to develop guys because I think coaching sometimes has been dumbed down a little bit in college football to where guys don’t develop as fast as they used to because the process is a little bit different. The mindset is a little different. And outside of that, that’s pretty much how I feel about it.”
(Any thoughts on OL Connor Williams? He came here, he was a guard.) – “I think he did a real good job. I watched him all year long. I think he made the transition over to center, made it really smooth; but when you’re playing guard, it’s a lot easier to make that transition from guard over to center because a lot of times at center, you’re helping out instead of a lot of one-on-one blocks.”
(Tell us about the business.) – “Oh the business is doing awesome, man. I’m glad you asked. Thank God. (laughter) I haven’t talked about football in years other than little league football. I haven’t talked about football. But no, the business is doing awesome. We’ve been very, very thankful, grateful for Buzzy giving us the opportunity to be a part of this company. We own a liqueur company and the best thing – our pitch and sell about our company is that every other liqueur is made in Europe and other countries. We’re the only American-made liqueur company and it’s done really well for us. We have four different flavors – espresso, mango, citrus and lychee. But they do really, really well. We own a distillery down in Allapattah. It’s five blocks outside of Wynwood. And it’s been doing really, really well. But that part of what we’re doing now is just a little bit of a piece of what we’ve done over our careers. Me and my brother own a bunch of real estate throughout Columbus, Ohio. We hate to say it sometimes, but we own a hotel. There’s a bunch of different stuff that we got going on. But we’ve been very, very successful outside of football. And that was one of our things was that we wanted to be more than just an athlete. It was like, man, we’ve done so much as football players and to say that we’re retired at 30 years old just sounds ridiculous, so now it’s just time to prove ourselves as business entrepreneurs.”
(And you guys are so personable, you and Maurkice. Why don’t you have a podcast or anything?) – “(laughter) Everyone always asks that. We just go on a lot of different ones and we speak our mind a lot. But we did ‘The Pivot’ and everyone was like, they asked us ‘why don’t you guys start your own?’ Because we don’t have the time to build the content. He has three daughters and you know how that is. With one daughter, it’s a mess. But you got three and all of them are under 11 years old. I have a teenage daughter now that’s 15 years old. We had kids so young that when we were in our playing careers, we missed out on a lot of their younger days. And so now we’re just playing catch up with it. And honestly, we’re just very thankful that we have all of our real estate stuff and stuff that brings us in a lot of income that we can just be able to give our time to our family.”
(How do you feel like you grew as a person in your time in Miami? We always enjoyed your candor.) – “If I thought how I thought now, I’d still be with the Dolphins. (laughter) That’s part of just growth, man. I swear I look back and like, ‘dang, man, if I was just a little bit more mature when I was playing,’ but that’s part of what makes you a good player is that edge that you bring. So I have no regret over what I did here and I’m very proud of my career that I had here. And obviously now just trying to be looked at it in a different light in the business world and it’s been awesome. We’ve enjoyed the retirement life so far.”
(Is there anything that you maybe miss from the game?) – “I just miss – I still have all my friends, so it isn’t that. It’s more just that routine of doing something collectively with people and I miss being in a locker room. But other than that, I don’t miss going to practice. I don’t miss showing up to game day. There’s too much anxiety, you know what I’m saying? I love football. I’m telling my son now, we’re riding to football games. I’m like ‘why the hell am I nervous?’ (laughter) But that’s just part of just me, just my makeup and I try and teach him the same thing so hopefully one day he’s standing up here whatever team it may be and giving a speech.”
(What do you think about this new facility here?) – “Man, the facility has been awesome. Just to see it here – to see the old facility that we had behind Nova over there in Davie, man they could put six of those inside of here. It’s just a testament that Mr. (Stephen) Ross wants to see this organization win and wants it to be seen as one of the top teams in the NFL. He’s done a really, really good job. And what I will say is Coach (Mike) McDaniel has brought back excitement to the Dolphins. I was tailgating in the parking lot. I was doing it all. I was a real fan. We’re excited for this year because we’re going to be around a lot more. I’m excited for the direction of the football team.”
(I would imagine your paths crossed quite frequently with Jason Jenkins with your community work down here. I was curious about your relationship with him.) – “Jason was awesome. I always promised him one day that … damn. (emotional) Jason was a good man. I wish he was here today with us.”
(Anything planned with the Dolphins in the next few weeks? Appearances or anything like that?) – “Yeah. Tom (Garfinkel) got us connected with some people at Hard Rock so we’ll have our liqueur in Hard Rock soon throughout a couple of different spots in there. But outside of that, hopefully we can do a draft day party down there and use that venue.”
(What were your feelings driving up here today? A lot of memories coming? It’s a new facility but were there a lot of memories coming back?) – “Yeah, it was awesome. I took the same route that I used to take to the stadium. I went through my same routine. In the morning, I got up and had to go to the gym and get it off me a little bit. Everybody in the gym knows me in there so everyone was all excited for me and that was fun. Just to take that route with my family one more time.”
Maurkice Pouncey:
(What was it like to kind of watch Mike Pouncey’s career from a bit of afar?) – “It’s so crazy. People always ask that question. I always looked up to Mike. Mike was a better player in my eyes. I think Mike’s path was a lot harder than mine. I played with ‘Big Ben’ (Ben Roethlisberger). I had Antonio Brown, Le’Veon (Bell) and all these great players. I think for him to have the success that he had and the way he’s viewed down here, it meant a lot more to the family … I always looked up to Mike and I always thought Mike was the better player. I know I got a lot more recognition. That will be a part of any other speech I have down the line but I always looked to Mike as the biggest brother and the greatest figure in my life. Y’all take that for what it is and y’all go look at the film like Mike said. I used to go home and instead of watching my game, I used to go straight to watching Mike’s game to see how he played before I go judge myself. (laughter) Mike was a hell of a player. He had a lot more respect down here from the organization and the players. It still shows to the day how we carry our business when we go around places. He made that legacy possible for us so we didn’t have to move back to Lakeland and just have our Lakeland fans. (laughter)”
(What is it like getting to work beside Mike Pouncey now with the new business and all the stuff you get to do together?) – “It’s just been exciting because like Mike said, we retired at 30 years old and to have the success we had, I think Buzzy, his wife Kim and our liqueur business, it just gave us a brighter outlook in life just not to have real estate and say we own this building or own these apartments. I think it gives us more life to be around things and show our kids something, and aspire to be something in life. I think that’s really huge on me and Mike – and our family did it to us. They instilled on a day-to-day basis not just to have money but to go work, have a schedule, have something to look further in life for. That’s what we’re trying to instill in our kids because they’re blessed. They’re spoiled. They get every damn present they want. So more than anything, you better bring home those straight As kids, for sure.” (laughter)
(I believe I saw you guys in training camp. You guys have a little league football team?) – “Yeah, so Mike does the travel football team. His son’s the star quarterback man. He ain’t playing o-line, so he better be able to throw that football for sure. ‘Big Ben’ (Ben Roethlisberger) told him – he taught him as soon as we retired, he told him to put the quarter in the pocket. So that’s his little tip for him to make it down the line. But yeah, Mike has a travel football team. We’ve been involved in that part. We got the foundation that we’ve been having for 13 years now. We’re actually in discussion, I’m glad you asked about this – we’re actually bringing something to the University of Florida here at the end of the month. We wanted to put together a development branch, a skill development branch for the kids there, to have actual mentorship to bring back to the university to show the kids that we’re giving these kids hundreds of thousands of dollars and they don’t even know how to write a check. So let’s start teaching these kids a little bit something different in life.”
Mike Pouncey:
(How did the little one get to be a quarterback instead of a lineman?) – “He turned out a little bit like his mom. (laughter) She’s a little bit smaller. I feel like that position, especially at his age, it teaches you the game a little bit faster. I know he wants to be a wide receiver, but I’m like if you know the game at that position, it makes you a better football player and it gives you an advantage over everybody else on the football field. So just me going through this whole process from little league all the way to the NFL kind of just prepared me for me to have a son and be like, if I ever have a son, I’m going make sure he goes on this path to be successful, and I know that’s the best way to be.”
(Closing remarks) – “I do want to say this though, to Jason Jenkins’ family, I wish them the best. What Jason did for this community, what he did for the Miami Dolphins is irreplaceable. There’s nobody that’s going to be able to replace that man. And to his family, I want to say sorry and I hope you guys are doing well.”
