Alejandro Villanueva on his NFL Career, Serving in Afghanistan and Blocking James Harrison | EP 46
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Wondery
4.8 • 17.2K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2023
⏱️ 96 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
92%ers we are a little late but we are back with another episode of New Heights presented by our friends at Fireball.
In this episode, we are joined by maybe the most interesting man in the world, former Army Ranger turned Pro-Bowl left tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers Alejandro Villanueva.
In our incredible conversation with Alejandro, we get the back story on what happened when he was cut from the Eagles (17:55), why he thinks the NFL Regional Combine is a scam (31:00), how he gained almost 100lbs to play for the Steelers (37:02), what is was really like going up against Jame Harrison in practice every day (49:20), and why Mike Tomlin might be selling himself short (56:26).
We also touch on his time in the US Army and his path to playing football at West Point (58:02), what it was really like to serve three tours in Afghanistan (01:06:45), and how he became an Army Ranger (01:18:00).
As always, watch and listen to new episodes of New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce every Wednesday & check us out on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show.
One final programming note. We will be dropping our video from the first ever New Heights Beer Bowl next week, so subscribe and turn your notifications on so you don't miss it.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by Royal London, the UK's largest mutual, life, pensions and investment company. |
| 0:08.0 | What even is a mutual anywhere? Well, Royal London is customer owned. It has been since 1861. |
| 0:14.0 | They work to support customers and wider society, to help build financial resilience, |
| 0:19.0 | while investing responsibly, to help build a future worth returning into. |
| 0:23.0 | It really is, everyone's business. Learn more at RoyalLondon.com slash mutuality. |
| 0:30.0 | So we get not wearing a duodeness, I smell very badly. |
| 0:33.0 | So are you going to go put some on? |
| 0:36.0 | I think honestly the reason I smell those, because I've been using the dove body wash that's in the shower at the beach house. |
| 0:41.0 | I don't have my dial bar. |
| 0:43.0 | You're a bar man. |
| 0:44.0 | Yeah, I'm a man. I'm not wearing dove body wash and with lotion built into it. |
| 0:50.0 | All right, let's get into the sketch. |
| 0:56.0 | Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to New Heights. |
| 0:59.0 | Presented by Waysports Entertainment. It brought to you by our friends over at Fireball. |
| 1:03.0 | Man, you guys, you guys bring this to everybody and we want to bring Fireball to everywhere we go. |
| 1:09.0 | Because it's so goddamn good. I said, Goddamn good, I got damn good. |
| 1:14.0 | We are your hosts. I'm Travis Kelsey. He's my big brother, Jason Kelsey. |
| 1:17.0 | I'm Cleveland Heights. Oh, hi, you. |
| 1:20.0 | You're nothing so high. Shut up. |
| 1:22.0 | New episodes come to you every single Wednesday. |
| 1:24.0 | We're a little late this week because we're in Philly and we're getting ready for beer bowl. |
| 1:28.0 | So sorry we're getting this to you a little late, but I'm glad we got it to you. |
... |
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