The Franchise Ep. 2 | Chiefs 2025 Start: Bryan Cook, Mike Caliendo’s Journey & George Karlaftis

The Franchise Ep. 2 | Chiefs 2025 Start: Bryan Cook, Mike Caliendo’s Journey & George Karlaftis

Yeah, baby. Let this puppy rip, You know what I’m talking Whoa. Nope. Nope. You right there. It just landed on you. You’re good. You don’t have to move. You don’t have to move. You don’t have to move. Hey, are you familiar with cards? Okay. Hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades. Ace through king. You’re good. You’re good. There’s a line right here. Just think of any card you want to write it down, but don’t show me. Write it big. So, if it’s like, Example, if it’s a two hearts, just do a two and a heart. We’re going to show it later, but I don’t want to see it. Write it big so we can see it. Okay. go like behind you or hand it to somebody and then there 52. 52. Write a number between one and 52. I don’t care what it is. It’s whatever you want. If you want to write your jersey number, it’s predictable. It doesn’t matter. But just write a number big so that when you hold it up later, we can see it. Are we good? Yep. Okay. So, look. Are they all different? Are they all different? Yes. Okay, good. Uh, all you’re going to do is just touch the back of one like put your finger on it like I’ll go through. Okay, whatever. Do you want to keep it or change it? Keep it. Okay. I don’t want to look at it, but look at it. Here’s all I’m going to do. I’m going to attempt to read your mind. So, think about the size, the shape, the color of that card. Okay, we good? I’m just going to try and draw it. It’s very, very simple. [Music] So far so good, man. I’m crushing it. Crushing it. Think about it, coach. I ain’t going to let you down, man. We’re going to This is killer. Watch. Just think of that card. Size, shape, color. Nobody knows where it is but you, right? Come on, baby. Okay, I got it, dude. Unbelievable. Okay, starting this thing off with a bang, bro. You pick a card, could have changed your mind. I’m going to show this picture. They’re going to go nuts. The card that you picked that you’re holding on to, could have changed your mind. All the cards are different, is none other than the ace of clubs. Show that puppy up high loud and proud, baby. I ain’t letting you down. Come on. You let us down. Is it Okay, hold on. What was it? Right. I did not draw the ace of clubs. Clearly amateur hour. Instead, what I have done is brought the agame. And I will tell you this right now. I did not draw the ace of clubs. I drew the entire deck of cards. And your ace is inside. Get it? Yeah, killing it. I tell you what, hold on. Uh, [Music] watch the ace. What was the card you picked? Yeah, watch the ace. You all thought something was going to happen, huh? Me, that would have been sick. That would have been sick. Um, uh, but remember how I said it was inside? Homie, watch this. I’m looking for one card, one card only. You said your card’s inside, baby. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it, baby. And you know this. Hey, that motherfucker’s been drawn on there the whole time. Ain’t no ink, no tear, no paper, no glue. Bam. Right there, [Applause] This is kind of the dead week now in the NFL, right? It’s all, you know, done with the cuts. But I think all the attention this week now, rightfully so, begins with the college game. Big one tonight. Nebraska Cincinnati sold out at Arrowhead Stadium. We’re here. See see honor UC Bearcats versus Nebraska. I’ve hear a lot of good things about them when I came home. So I’m very excited for the season. Some players I want to see how they perform. I kind of worked out with him while I was home, too. So I’m looking forward to it. But it’s nice to come back and see like, you know, time pass on, how I affected, you know, the younger generation. So, I get a chance to see those guys who look up to me and able to do better than I did. Oh, there he goes. What’s happening? Mr. Ray, man, in your house, man. I feel like that’s a gift from God if I’m being honest with you. You know what I’m saying? Like, he’s able to watch some basketball in Kansas City. You feel me? And I get to watch some football and it’s actually my own monitor. So, it’s pretty dope. And it’s a season opener. So, let’s see how we rocking [Applause] [Music] now. What’s up now? Long. We need one. We need one. Bring this down. Come on now. Ah, I was at the big bro. How you doing, man? How you doing? Look, I want to meet you so long. You have the best personality I’ve ever seen. I see where he gets it from. I see it from Come on. We got to snag. We got to smash right here. Right here. Let’s do it, man. Yeah. Come on. You said what’s up to Bearcast. Get your Bearcast. Missing everything. Me and Arahead, you feel me? I play for the Chiefs. I’m an alma mater. You know what I’m saying? I’m a graduate. We trying to get this done today. You feel me? Hey, congrats to everybody. Go to school. You good grades, you feel me? And at the end of the day, believe in yourself. Believe in yourself. You feel me? Love y’all. Appcate. Yeah. No problem. [Applause] Thank you for being here. Hey, look. Welcome. It’s a good season. Yeah, I’m expecting one, too. Yeah. Aaron, uh, the head of training talks very highly about the program now. So, I’m excited. Came back home and see the new facility. So, very high hopes. So proud of you. I appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, I hope I keep I keep going. That’s all that matters. This to me is basically like a breath of fresh air. It’s like how like I’m doing something that’s bigger than myself. You know what I’m saying? Like people come back, they can I put a smile on people faces. So I think that it transcends anything else I do on the field as far as like the small things, but the the bigger aspect as far as like the the people I people I impact along the way. I think I think that makes the journey like that much better for me. Just start packing up, huh? We’re packing for Brazil. Just needs a few t-shirts, some shorts. We’re not there for too long, but got to be comfortable on the plane. I’m trying to treat it as much like a regular game as possible and just go with the flow and then just get ready to play. You do have like a consistent schedule on like you pack and then I always walk him out to his car in the morning and it’s like okay have to keep that. Yeah. As long as I’m around I take him out to the car. Keep some tradition. Yeah, for sure. So it feels normal. He always checks his outfit with me before the games too. So I get the approval. I try to put in my come up with an idea with for outfit for walking into the game and then if it’s really bad she’ll say something. Most of the time she just lets me go. But and she’ll have good ideas too. Buy me teamwork. Buy some outfits or whatever. He’s pretty stylish though. He’s got he’s got good sense of fashion and so I trust him which is nice for my brother. Yeah. Just do what do wear what he wears pretty much. We got this for when we went to Hawaii with the PA and then some some blue pants. Yeah, should be good. A nice Brazilian vibe. You got to figure out how to fit this in there. I’m not used to having this much clothes in that little suitcase. It’s been an incredible ride for me playing at a small school at Western Michigan um where we sometimes fill the stadium, not always. Just getting this type of media attention and things like that is definitely a little bit of a transition, but I mean it’s it’s everything I’ve dreamed of for sure. And it’s it’s fun though. I went to Wu. I majored in biomedical sciences and then ended up finishing that in like 3 and 1/2 years, my undergrad. And then had a couple more years left to play eligibility-wise in college. So, I started a master’s in biology, ended up finishing that the last semester I was playing football. My grandpa was a a doctor in Milwaukee and always looked up to him, would always see him doing his notes and reports at night when I was over at my grandma’s house and was always kind of just interested trying to figure out what he was doing. I was little back then, but it was always kind of interested me. And then my mom is a nurse. She’s always told stories about her work when she would come home and just always kind of fascinated me. So, I always enjoyed science throughout high school and and whatnot. So, I figured that would be something I’m passionate about, something I’d want to work hard uh to learn. Ended up my second to last year becoming a finalist for the William B. Campbell Trophy. People call it like the academic Heisman and it’s kind of combination of how you play on the field and also how you’re doing in school and GPA and things like that. I always enjoyed school. I loved all my teachers, all my professors at Western were awesome. So, it was kind of just just worked hard at and enjoyed it. So, it ended up working out pretty well once I realized like I maybe had a chance at playing in the NFL. I mean, that was plan A for sure. I put everything I could into making it here really. And then the plan B stuff, applying to med school during the draft process, did an interview um for a med school while I was in Boston in an apartment training for the draft. Um, so I was kind of working as hard as I could on plan A, making it to the NFL, but also trying to do what I could to be ready in case it didn’t work out, cuz you never really know. 10, 15 minutes after the draft ended. I remember my agent called me and he said, “Hey, the Chiefs want you as a undrafted.” As soon as they said that, I was immediately all in to come to Kansas City. Being undrafted going into rookie year, didn’t think I had it much of a chance to make the roster. So, I was working my butt off to make the practice squad. Thank god the opportunity came to be that I was able to be on the practice squad for that season. I learned so much. Being on the practice squad, who whatever team you’re playing that week, you’re running their offense. A lot of the times it’s us working together with the defensive line, asking them like what techniques are you seeing from when you’re watching film, like is there any way I can kind of emulate what their left guard does or what their center does? But at the same time, you also have to be locked in on the Chief’s offensive game plan and learning that. All the guys on the practice squad put a lot of work in during the week. we just don’t necessarily get to showcase it on game days and it’s that’s how it is all over the league. Like those guys are a crucial part uh to the team as a whole. That’s kind of what the vets taught me when I was on practice squad and I try to try to continue to do that as kind of a veteran I guess now. Outsiders looking in, you see big offensive linemen, big hairy guys, and you’re like, “Oh, he just he just hits people for a living.” But when you kind of zoom in and understand what we’re doing every single play, it’s extremely intricate. When you hear the play call in the huddle, when you’re walking from the huddle or running from the huddle to the line of scrimmage, that’s when all the thinking’s going on. Every single play, you’re using a different technique. You have a different assignment. You’re looking at the defense, seeing where they’re lined up, and then when the ball is snapped is immediately when it transitions to physical, as physical as you could possibly be. [Applause] You got to trust your training during the play. You’re not going to be able to think very much. Everything moves so fast. That’s now a short roll out and the throw. First down. Mike Caliendo makes the catch. The more you study during the week, the easier it is to react during the game. In our old line room, there’s a lot of smart guys. You have to be able to kind of comprehend things, learn on the fly, learn in the middle of a game. You walk me out. I’ll walk you out. Yeah. Let’s go. Go ahead. [Music] Thank you. [Music] Yeah, it’s a lot of a lot of brain activity. Um, as well as everything happens so quick, you don’t have much time to think. All right. I love you. Love you. See you. Good luck. stren. Oh yeah. [Music] Something that we’ve focused on for the last few years is becoming the world’s team. [Music] I an automatic fan city. [Applause] This morning tickets went on sale for the game in Frankfurt and they didn’t last long. We were lucky to get tickets. Last week I got one and uh two days ago we got one for him as well. Yeah. Wow. [Applause] It really goes back to the 1980s and 1990s when the NFL was first starting to try to grow the game internationally. The Chiefs were one of the teams that really led that charge. It was something that my dad cared a lot about. Lamar was identifying international growth in 1970 before anybody even thought about this. He’s like, “We have to grow internationally to grow this league. He was one of the leaders in this area as well as many others. But in this area was like we’ve got to grow the sport internationally. We got to create fans around the world. He took the team to Tokyo twice. He took the team to Monteray. He took the team to Berlin the year that the wall came down. When the league got focused on the opportunity again about 15 years ago, we were one of the first teams to put our hand up and said we would love to do that. The cheese kingdom meets the United Kingdom. Oh, I love Monday. Y’all know who we at. Mexico for the Monday Night Football. Estadio Aka, home to alltime classic World Cups. Welcome inside Frankfurt Stadium in Frankfurt, Germany. [Music] [Applause] My Germany is crazy. We will have the Kansas City Chiefs traveling to Brazil to play their division foe, the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chiefs are getting ready to board this flight that’s going to take 11 and 1 half hours roughly to get down to to Brazil. I didn’t realize it was that long of a flight, right? I popped it up on the like the the flight tracker today. 11 hours. Oh my god. Right. [Applause] Now the Chiefs are back at the 42. 17 seconds left to go. Delayed blitz pass right caught by Noah Gray. They’re going to say inbounds. He got hit inbounds. The clock is moving. 10 seconds. 9 seconds. The Chiefs will try a run-on field goal. 59 yds. Placement is down. But kick is up from 59 yds. And the kick is good. A runoff field goal. Takes the snap, looks left, wheel route left, wide open. First down Chiefs into Charger territory. Now they fake a quick slant. Now Mahomes is going to scramble to the right. 10 five to near front pylon. Give it to him. Touchdown Kansas City. Herbert is absolutely eaten alive. Let’s go. Throws for the end zone wide open on a corner out touchdown. Now Mahomes is stepping up to throw and he’s going to throw it late and it’s caught by G Smith Schustster. Short roll right side throw. It’s caught 15 yd line. 10 five touchdown. 518 to go in the game. 20 to 18. Herbert now he comes near side Quinton Johnston and it’s going to be a touchdown for the Chargers. Chiefs are going to go for it. Fourth and seven at their own 42. Down 2718. Rushing hard. Here they come on a big rush as Khalil Mack chasing Mahomes who unloads it down the field. He’s got a man at the 20. 15 down inside the 10 and the field goal is good. Second and eight Chargers at their own 39. Her Bert now will step up. He’ll get sacked back at the 34 yd line and the Chiefs call their last time out. Third and 13. Charges at their own 34. Arbert wants to throw. He’s scrambling to the near side being chased. 40 4550 first down Chargers. And that’ll take it to the two-minute warning. And the Chargers are going to win the game. [Applause] Certainly not the way you hope to start the season. Taught us that we have a lot of stuff to work on. You know, you try to look for the positives in that and I think it’ll make us stronger going forward. didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to, but it’s all right. Oh jeez. I don’t know. We just didn’t play good enough. It just It just wasn’t good enough. Outside of that, you know, it was a it was a good trip. Felt almost like a home game for us because of how many Chiefs fans were there, which was really cool. Ralph was initially Ka’s uh birthday present. Ralph’s personality, I would say, is kind of like our personality. Laidback, likes to entertain people. He’s a He’s a people dog, that’s for sure. Until the delivery guys come. That’s right. He gets upset. It was a big moment, not just uh for me, but for us, too. And it was only right that like our little uh family uh was there. Come on, dude. Stop. Um it it was only right that that we were all there. And uh you know, we were in St. Joe, so I had to ask if Kaya could be there. Then I I was like, should I ask if we could bring Ralph or should we just bring him? He knows him. Oh, there we go. It It was such a such a big moment for me and, you know, for our family. So, it was uh it was awesome to have him there. One, two, three. Couple more. What would it mean to be able to sign him to a long-term deal with this organization? Yeah, I think that’s already done. Just if you need some breaking news. Um, big big signing for the Kansas City Chiefs. We went out there and signed George Carlos to a longterm deal. They told him, “We believe in you. We want you around. We’re going to remove this kind of shadow of a doubt of what the future may hold. And now, dude, you can just go out there and play.” The play cat. Here comes a rush against Strow on fourth down. And he’s going to go down and chase hold. They get a sack. George Caroftus. Caroftus is just eating this team alive. He’s constantly striving to be the best that he can be, not only on his physical part of the game, but his mental part of the game. And George to me has excelled. He’s just going that way, and he’s only going to keep getting better. She’s trying to break down the pocket in the middle. He’s hit and sacked at the 15 yd line. George Carlos came screaming in. The one thing that’ll never betray you is your effort. Trying to go as hard as I can for as long as I can. That’s what I use as my separating factor, if you will. And I’m excited to watch George Caroftus unplugged go out there and dominate on defense this season. Ralph, that’s enough. It’s not small dogs. I mean, what kind of dog is it? It’s a Bouvier de Flanders mix. Bouvier de Flanders. Yeah, Kal Ka Ralph and I, you know, that’s like our little family right now. Just having the certainty that I’ll be here for another how many years. You know, it’s our home now. We love it here. First class organization, players, coaches, really the people of the organization. It’s it’s amazing. Mitch Holt is back here at GEA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Last two Super Bowl champions meet here at Andy’s Acre at the 39th parallel line. Or something like we bring whoever’s going to be like [Music] flew in from Philly just for the game. The tailgate in 14 years. Perfect attendance. Never missed a game in 14 season. This my corner and me and my friends. You know what I’m saying? It’s hard to think of Arrowhead without thinking about tailgating. And that’ll be the first place that I’ll get to experience the fans in Kansas City this year is that they’ll be out hours before the game tailgating. There’s very few things like it in sports. The one thing that we do better than anyone, in my opinion, is we unite this community. Heaven, man. It’s this is life right here. And it’s all one big family. Everybody Everybody knows everybody. Everybody and everybody shares the food, drinks, everything. So, hey, and he’s family, too. This is like my uncle. Everybody from the team to the organization to the fans are ready to get back to work. Ready for a new football season to get started. Great to be back at GEA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs kingdom has come out. It’s hot out there, but they are still in full force and I love it. I love being back here. You know, I know they keep saying that in the Dallas Cowboys, they open up that circle where God can look in, but we keep it open all the time. God looks in all the time on Earl. I’m a Chiefs fan to the day I die, baby. We got the grill. We rolling, baby. Let’s go. I was born in a small town [Music] in a small town of small [Music] town. Our fans are they’re proud. They want to show you what it’s like to tailgate here. That’s what gets me excited for the season and excited for games at airlines. [Applause] [Music] Every tailgate. Yeah. Every tailgate we make new friends and we always bring extra food because we know we’re going to be sharing. Yeah. First time I came to a tailgate, I didn’t know what to expect. So, I just walk up to some random people that I don’t know, pretend like I’ve been knowing forever. Hey, how y’all doing? What’s going on? They looking around and they be like, “Hey, you want something to eat?” You’re damn right I do. I noticed everybody at the tailgate is very welcoming whether you with the other team or this team or not from around here and they just going to invite you in and let you have a good time. I met them 6 7 8 years ago and I’m still coming back to their tailgate eating them out of house and home. [Music] [Music] The feel of football’s in the air. You just feel good, man. Everybody’s close. You You’re pretty much going to run into a neighbor, a coworker, or somebody you just seen out and you come together. So that’s the beauty of a of a small town. You got different walks of life coming together for one common bond. And that’s about, you know, the love of the Chiefs. That’s the purpose of a good tailgate. It’s the adults Disneyland. [Music] [Music] Well, today it’s the last two Super Bowl champions, the Eagles and the Chiefs. Two quarterbacks who have beaten each other. It’s an NFL record, but today it’ll going to be all about the fight. [Music] This is a fun defensive battle. It just feels like every yard is so hard today in the Super Bowl. The thing that changed the games were the offensive turnovers of the Chiefs. They played very good defensively for many parts of that game. And obviously Philly’s defense played great the entire game. What we’re seeing today is a very clean game in terms of turnovers, but a real defensive battle, which I love to see this early in the season. Mahomes throws a slant that’s going to be intercepted off the deflection in the end zone. It’s Makuba who’s got it and room to run. One man to beat and he’s taken out. And a huge play for the Eagles. You really have to believe and understand there’s a reason for it happening. [Music] You know, a lot of people can tend to point fingers and blame. thing that I’ve learned through coach Reed and and his message as a person, as a coach, and what he translates to the players and what we try to live by is believing in one another, trusting one another, and then starting with yourself when something doesn’t go right. And it just permeates through this building of of what he believes in and what we believe in, which is what can I do to be better? shoving his way in. He’s in. Touchdown, Philadelphia. What do we do to be better to help each other out? And you got to do it. You can’t just talk about it. And I think we live by that. Let’s get it. Let’s go get seven quick. Momes again surveying the field. Has some time. He’s going deep middle. He’s got Thornton again. Thon catches the ball this time. Touchdown Kansas City. Here we go. Oh, we got a game. KB not done yet. I think a lot of people will say, “Who’s the Chief’s biggest rival?” And some will say the Denver Broncos, of course, the Las Vegas Raiders. Others will tell you, “No, it’s the Buffalo Bills.” And some will say it’s the Cincinnati Bengals. Third and one. Push. Push her forward. He’s got the first down. And the Eagles are going to win this game. You got to get beat for a team to be your rival. Meanwhile, the Chiefs are about to start 0 and2 and hand Patrick Mahomes his first ever three-game losing streak in the NFL. The Chief’s biggest rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles certainly never bet against anything that Coach Reed or Patrick Mahomes or Travis Kelce have a say in it. No doubt be determined to come back and get things right. [Music]

The Franchise presented by G.E.H.A Season 6 Episode 2 gives you an inside look at the Kansas City Chiefs’ 2025 season — from Bryan Cook stopping by Cincinnati vs. Nebraska, to Mike Caliendo’s journey through school and football, George Karlaftis’ extension (and his dog Ralph), plus recaps of the Chargers and Eagles matchups. Episode 2 of The Franchise takes you deeper inside the Kansas City Chiefs’ 2025 NFL season. This episode features:
• A team meeting cold open with magician Jon Dorenbos, bringing energy and perspective to the locker room.
• Bryan Cook visits GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium—not as a player, but as a fan—as he watches his alma mater Cincinnati take on Nebraska on the Chiefs’ home field.
• An in-depth look at offensive lineman Mike Caliendo, whose dedication to academics sets him apart. With a master’s degree in biomedical science, Caliendo has balanced the demands of school and football while earning his place with the Chiefs.
• A recap of the Chiefs’ history playing games internationally, highlighting the goal to become “The World’s Team.”
• A personal feature on George Karlaftis, who just signed a multi-year extension with Kansas City. We go beyond the field, introducing his wife Kaia and their beloved dog Ralph—an important part of their Chiefs family story.
• The home opener vs. the Philadelphia Eagles. With John Mellencamp’s “Small Town” capturing the spirit of Kansas City, we spotlight the tradition of Chiefs tailgating and the unmatched atmosphere of Arrowhead.
• The episode closes with the reminder that even after starting 0–2, you can never count out Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, and the Kansas City Chiefs.

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