Best of the Bus: Charles Woodson On Winning Heisman Over Peyton Manning + Almost Retiring Early

Bussin' With The Boys

Bussin' with the Boys

Sports, Football

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🗓️ 1 November 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

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Summary

Recorded: February 6th, 2024 | On this episode of Best of the Bus, The Boys were joined by NFL Hall of Famer — and arguably the greatest defensive player in college football history — Charles Woodson. The guys kicked things off by talking about Michigan winning the national championship, then dove into Charles’ legendary run at Michigan and the stories that came with it, including a few moments where he butted heads with coaches.

Of course, when you have the only defensive player to ever win the Heisman on the bus, The Boys had to relive that iconic moment and what it meant to him. After the college talk, the conversation shifted to his incredible NFL career with the Raiders and Packers. Charles shared stories from both stops, including the surprising moment he nearly hung up the cleats earlier than anyone knew.

This one was a true trip down memory lane — just talking ball with one of the best to ever do it.

Big hugs, tiny kisses.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:21.6	Charles Woodson. The Go, the defensive goat. I mean, you are one of the best of all time, bro. It is an absolute pleasure to have you on the podcast. I appreciate that, man. You guys are shaping up to be best of all time, too. Oh, damn. On the field? Like you're doing? Yeah. On the field, dude?
0:22.6	You really mean that? Right here. I was either, we were on Twitter going back and forth because you used a Nash one time. Yeah. I think we're trying to get you, but yeah, everything was way too tight. But man. Try to make it happen, but yeah. Yeah, the timing was off a little bit, but you know, we did it.
0:38.6	Finally got it done, man.
0:39.6	We got to obviously jump into Michigan. I tried to make it happen, but yeah, the timing was off a little bit, but, you know, we did it.
0:38.2	Finally got it done, man.
0:39.3	We got to obviously jump into Michigan.
0:41.4	Like, for how many years have we just been shitty?
0:46.4	And now finally, we put it all together this year, man.
0:50.0	What did that mean to you as an alumni?
0:52.0	Well, you know, what's crazy is that it wasn't that we were shitty. We just couldn't beat them guys. We couldn't beat Ohio State, man. Like, that's really what it was. Like, when you think about, you know, Jim when he came in, Jim was winning nine, ten games a year. But then we get to that last game and we could never get over that hump. You know, so when we think back to Michigan and we see that, we had a shitty year.
1:15.9	You know what I mean?
1:16.9	And so these last couple of years have just been like, dude, I don't even know how to explain it.
1:24.2	You know, it's just, it's not even that we won the game.
1:27.2	It's how we won the game.
1:28.2	Yeah.
1:28.9	And with all the,
1:29.7	all the storylines saw at the year, too. Yeah. It's not just that game. It's the season. Right. The Penn State, the hardball getting suspended right before the Penn State game as they're traveling. He's getting told while they're on the tarmac. Literally. And I was at that game because I was working with the big noon kickoff crew that weekend.
1:46.4	And we get there and they're like, yeah, I don't know if Jim's going to be able to coach today. We're like, what are you talking about? Like, yeah, you know, he was on the plane. He got the word that he might not be coaching. We're like, on the plane? Like literally on the plane to Happy Valley. You're talking about he can't play?
2:01.8	I mean, he can't coach.
2:03.2	So, it's just a lot of different storylines, you know, this particular season with him putting people in place.
2:11.0	Mike Hart was a coach winning game, head coach, and then Sharon Moore, who's got the job now.
	...

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