The defensive end-turned-podcast host on taking TV tips from his dad Howie, why he still feels like an Eagle, and the biggest difference between doing media and playing football.
Chris Long might be busier in football retirement than he was during his 11-year, two Super Bowl winning NFL career. Since hanging up his pads in 2019, the Charlottesville, Va. resident began hosting his now-three-times-a-week podcast, Green Light with Chris Long, and this season added television to his repertoire, appearing weekly alongside Jay Cutler, Channing Crowder, Ryan Clark and Chad Johnson on Inside the NFL. Last month, he announced the launch of his new media company, Yote House, a full-service production company and content studio that will continue with Long’s flagship pod alongside two new original series.
That’s the professional stuff. The married father of three also runs a robust foundation focused on clean water access and educational equity, and is committed to his adult softball league squad. We sat down with him in his Charlottesville, Va., studios to catch up on all the irons he’s got burning in the “retirement” fire.
GQ: We’re sitting in your podcast studio in downtown Charlottesville. You started the pod four years ago. Does it feel like it’s been that long?
Chris Long: It's kind of flown by. It has been fun, but not in the way of “time flies when you're having fun.” When I played football, it was year round. But the pressure would come off you in the off-season, because it would just be about the work. You weren't being graded on performance.
This is a different grind, where I haven't really poked my head out for more than a week until this past summer. We had our baby girl, June, this summer, and I took three weeks off, which felt like an eternity. Over the last four years, it's been Groundhog Day. Continuing to try to be consistent, to make little decisions that optimize our efficiency and our product. It's been nonstop learning and nonstop working. That's a little different from my last job.
You knew you were good at football to be a top draft pick [2nd overall pick in the 2008 Draft], and starting in the NFL. But when you began this pod, it's the unknown of, am I going to be good at this?
And even four years in, am I good at this? Football is a production business: did you play well? Did you do your job? Did you not do well? You have such an immediate criticism/praise cycle. But this is a very subjective thing. It's also something that when you push it out, it's hard to know what people are thinking as they're sitting there listening. Do they like it? Do they not? Sometimes your only window into feedback is yes, the numbers, but also reviews online or your mentions. That's a slippery slope, because I don't think that's representative of most people—I don't think most people are really as online as the minority of folks who are really loud.
You mentioned the preparation. What does that process look like?
To give you a rundown of football season: on Sunday, I'm in here at 11:30AM, 12PM. We do our live stream as the games start. I'm spending from noon to 2:00 AM working on Sunday. On Monday, I wake up, get here, we do the live show, which has been a really great addition. Then I get in an SUV and drive up to Philly to do Inside the NFL. On Tuesday, I wake up, do that show, fly back, do our Tuesday show, which airs on Wednesday, and hopefully get some sleep. On Wednesday, I'm watching games all day. We have another show Thursday. I kind of consider Friday and Saturday my days off.
A couple of years ago, you told a sports media class that while you loved podcasting, you weren’t going to do TV. What made you change your mind?
When I retired, I said, I want to live in Charlottesville. That's been my home since I was eight … I wanted to live my life and prioritize being here. And the only way I could do that was by doing a podcast. Our studio is downtown, it's a ten-minute drive from my house. On top of that, I just don't like myself on TV. I don't like performing. I don't like having to fit a thought that needs nuance and context, especially with football, into a five-second soundbite. I don't like being told what to say, and that's the way I've always looked at TV. And I don't like putting a suit on. So I was saying never, never, never.
But you never say never. Because the perfect TV job came along, where number one, I don't have to give up my weekends. Number two, Inside the NFL is a really storied, traditional piece of NFL pop culture, and a show that everybody respects. Real NFL fans are watching Inside the NFL throughout the week. There's less pressure. It's taped. It's in Philly.
I also think part of it is you have to challenge yourself to do something that's a bit outside your comfort zone. That keeps you sharp. The podcast is great, but sometimes I can get stale sitting in here.
Has your dad [Pro Football Hall of Famer Howie Long, now in his 29th season as an analyst on FOX NFL Sunday] given you any advice?
For sure. That's what dads do. He knows how much I'm studying ball, and he'll be like, “What do you think about these games?” It’s interesting to me that it has come full circle. For a guy that was helping me throughout my career and has a great football IQ, it is gratifying to know that we're doing a good enough job that my dad is watching the show and being like, “You guys do this as good as anybody.” It comes the other way where I'm going into TV. TV is a foreign land for me, and he calls and is like, “I thought you settled in really nicely here,” or “Sit up a little bit more,” or, “Do this more.” Now that I'm doing TV, I've grown to appreciate the consistency with which he's done it. It's so easy to come across the way you don't want to. I get in trouble sometimes because I can be very casual. This [podcast] is a very casual, authentic show. My dad's been so consistent and so respected and has done such a good job of having a code that he lives by, whether it’s don't criticize a player's effort, don't question injuries, don't get into the weeds on some topic that's just counterproductive.
You played for three teams, but I feel like people think of you with the Eagles. Why do you think that is?
A hard thing for me is like, hey, fuck, I had a great run in St. Louis and was very good at what I did, and had some years that were better than most guys in the league. But nobody saw that stuff. You're playing in St. Louis, we're on a 1-15 team or a 2-14 team. So by the time people started to figure out who I was, I was this rotational veteran pass rusher. But nobody thought of me as that guy that I was in St. Louis. I never played in a bunch of prime time games in St. Louis. So people figuring out who I am late in my career was a gift and a curse, because you're not who you were, but at least they know who you are now.
Also from a standpoint of where I identify as a player, I would be a St. Louis Ram. I would retire a St. Louis Ram. I would go back to the games, spend a lot of time in St. Louis. But that team moved, and they moved the year they released myself, James Laurinitis, Jared Cook—three central pieces. And I had no qualms about that. I knew I didn't deserve to stay. I was getting paid a lot, I was hurt. But I'm also pretty honest with myself. So I never harbored any ill will. I have Jeff Fisher on my show a lot of Mondays—he’s the coach who cut me. The only thing about the Rams that has kept me away from them is that they're in L.A. And I was not an L.A. Ram.
With the Patriots—I don't identify with them even though I had a great year there and I loved everything about it. Their fans will get mad and think I don't seem to pull for them. But the reality is, unless you're the Eagles, you're one of 31 other teams. The Eagles were a special experience. We made a pretty good first impression with being on a Super Bowl team and the work we did in the community. So I'm not sucking up to them when I tell them how much I love them. I was like a kid with no home, and they took me in and loved me and I loved them. I think they respect when you show up when you're called upon, if you make clutch plays, if you work your ass off, you play your ass off. That's what I had to offer late in my career, and I just stuck the landing.
So for me, it's not personal against the Rams, it's not personal against the Patriots, it's just personal with the Eagles in a really good way. I loved the city and I loved all the sporting events being right downtown. So yeah, I'm watching Philly's games. I'm taking my kids to Sixers games. My wife's from South Jersey. My parents went to Villanova. I had so much fun there.
Okay. All the Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift stuff. You met your wife, Meg, in college, so we’ve got to go back before then. But was there a singer where you’re like, “his is the one, she's just got to see me play and it'll be game over.”
Man, that's funny. There were phases. When I was 13, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears–they had a really good run. My parents told me my first crush was Vanessa Williams. She came on the TV when I was a kid and I used to give her a kiss through the TV. I was like three years old.
But I mean, whether you're thinking about celebrities or a guy who has a crush on somebody like Beyonce—playing in St. Louis, they're never going to see you play. Sometimes we'd play in New Orleans, and I went off against the Saints. I was like, I know Lil' Wayne's watching that game. But as far as who might be watching celebrity-wise, there won’t be too many Rams 12PM games that people are going to see.
2028, flag football at the L.A. Olympics. Who would you want on your roster?
It starts with Tyreek Hill.
Yep. He's already said he wants to do it. Though it’s 2023 now …
We've got to add in five years. I still think he'll be fast. At QB, I'd want Tua because there's no pass rush. Him and Tyreek, a nice connection, very clean pocket. The timing stuff that they're doing is great. If I'm going to other receivers, I need a big receiver, right? Justin Jefferson's real long, he's shifty, he’s young. Then do you even need a tight end for even more of a size mismatch? In five years, Kyle Pitts. Atlanta might figure out how to throw him the ball.
Which current NFL head coach would you want to play for?
I played for Bill [Belichick], I played for Doug [Pederson]. I always say Dan Campbell … When he came in, people were so quick to judge. Nowadays in the NFL, we kind of resent these football guy coaches, these big linemen that used to play or former players that aren’t offensive boy-geniuses like the McVays. Dan Campbell fits the bill of a guy that the new football fan hates—the analytics crowd, the internet. He gave his press conference and he said he wanted to bite kneecaps. The outrage that came out of that, it was so funny. In actuality, he's a very smart coach. He's a people person, he's socially intelligent and that is one of his biggest strengths—having been a player and knowing how to talk to people, knowing how to press buttons, but also being a smart delegator.
Who has surprised you the most this season in terms of you really wanting to watch them play that you didn't think that coming in?
The Texans and the Colts. The Texans are really fun. I'm always pulling for DeMeco Ryans, number one, he’s a defensive football coach. Number two, he’s a former player, a guy I played against, and I've heard great things about him, and also being a minority coach and getting that opportunity. Anytime a minority coach takes an opportunity and runs with it, I'm super psyched. I thought Stroud was going to be good. We called that one, and he's taken the league by storm.
And then Shane Steichen in Indy, he was the coordinator in Philly last year, and as bad as that Jeff Saturday thing was, and you're like, what are you doing, Jim [Irsay]? As wide open as Jim is, he hired probably the smartest offensive mind in this coaching cycle, and they just hung 38 on Cleveland with a backup quarterback. The concepts are great.
If you had to tell me right now, who's going to be in the Super Bowl?
As of week seven to eight, the Chiefs and the Eagles. My Super Bowl pick was the Niners out of the NFC, but the way they've played with some of their injuries ... they just played a game without Deebo Samuel, without Trent Williams, and you're going to lose games in the NFL. But they've sputtered a bit the last two weeks in the pass rush.
For the Eagles, it's like, pick your poison. They're really versatile. And the Chiefs have just been great so far. They just figure it out—they're like the new Patriots that way. They've completely changed who they are offensively. You got Patrick Mahomes and maybe the greatest coach of all time up there with Bill. Jacksonville, though, is a dark horse. They've quietly reeled off a bunch of wins.
Did you watch Quarterback, the Netflix show?
I watched it for a bit.
If we're going to produce the D-Ends version, who are we showing?
Maxx Crosby is one of my favorite players in the league, period. When you talk about elite rushers, it's Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt, and a whole group of guys like Maxx and Nick Bosa and those guys. The most interesting guys are Maxx Crosby, Myles Garrett. Myles is a big dinosaur guy. He's a big kid. The Quarterback show's great, but I want to see personality. Kirk's non-personality was compelling in a way. And Mahomes is compelling—he and Brittany are fun and they seem to have this great relationship. Mariota is a great guy, but he would tell you,”'I'm not that interesting.” So it's hard for those quarterbacks to take that on because you're going to be followed around during the season.
Would you and Meg have done that while you were playing?
No. No. Not even close. But I'm different.