Episode 70: Mark Pattison & Remembering Dan Reeves
On the 70th episode of “Great Dane Nation,” Morten is joined by former Saints teammate Mark Pattison, as he talks about his journey of becoming the second NFL player ever to climb the Seven Summits (07:12 – 46:48). But first, he checks in with TommyFreezePops (Tom Carroll) for this week’s edition of the “Opening Kick” (01:20 – 06:27). This week, the guys talk about the bizarre situation with Antonio Brown and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. What’s really happening here?We then move to our interview with Mark Pattison where he discusses a wide range of topics: the difficulty of finding the right thing to channel his competitive energy after his NFL career came to an abrupt end (08:28); his success in business, and why he believes his work at Sports Illustrated will push them past ESPN in digital traffic within the next three years (15:25); how his NFL Films documentary “Searching for the Summit” came about, and how he turned his mountaineering goal into a charitable opportunity (20:27); how he almost died while summiting Denali in Alaska (25:44); a special edition of “The Name Game,” featuring some of the mountains from Mark’s Seven Summit journey – Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Elbrus, Mount Kosciuszko, Aconcagua, Denali and the Vinson Massif (26:24); his journey with Mount Everest, and how death was a real possibility on his way down the mountain (34:00); and why Mark is choosing to climb yet another enormous mountain to celebrate his 60th birthday (43:03).Morten spends some time on today’s episode honoring the life and legacy of the late Dan Reeves, who we lost on New Year’s Day at the age of 77. Morten played for Coach Reeves for four seasons with the Atlanta Falcons (47:01 – 49:38).Then we move to this week’s edition of “Morten’s Fast 5,” where our Hall of Famer makes picks for the five biggest games of the football weekend (50:52 – 57:43). Morten gives his picks for Chiefs at Broncos (51:40), Cowboys at Eagles (52:56), Chargers at Raiders (54:07), Patriots at Dolphins (55:00) and Saints at Falcons (55:44).Finally, we close things out with “Morten’s Game Winner” – a weekly monologue from The Great Dane on his biggest takeaway of the week. This week, Morten talks about Mark Pattison, and why he’s the embodiment of a modern-day renaissance man (57:43).