Irish Illustrated Interviews: Matthias Farley, Former Notre Dame Captain & Eight-Year NFL Veteran

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3.9 • 669 Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

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Summary

Episode No. 4 of the Irish Illustrated Interviews podcast series features Matthias Farley, a former Notre Dame safety and team captain who played for the Fighting Irish from 2011-15. Despite going undrafted in 2016, he built an eight-year NFL career with the Arizona Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets, Tennessee Titans, Las Vegas Raiders, and Carolina Panthers. Before his gridiron dreams came to fruition, he was an overly contact-prone prep soccer player at Charlotte Christian School who decided to finally give football a try in his junior year, partially due to his older brother's encouragement, who had often told him he had what it takes to go to the NFL. We dive into all that, plus his five seasons at Notre Dame, going from wide receiver as a freshman to starting safety in the 2013 BCS National Championship game to serving as a backup and special teams player at the backend of his Irish tenure. The conversations also delve into other relevant topics, such as why he carried a photo of former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder with him in the NFL and his transition to life after football, following his retirement from the game in 2023. We also cover how Matthias remains connected to the current Notre Dame program, and why he's so fond of new defensive coordinator Chris Ash, who served as Farley's position coach with the Raiders.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Irish Illustrated insider subscribers.
0:06.0	This is Drew Mentock, and I'm here to bring you the fourth episode from our bi-weekly podcast series in the feed.
0:12.2	Irish Illustrated interviews.
0:14.2	Today, we're sharing my conversation with Matthias Farley, a former Nordheim Safety and Team Captain,
0:18.9	who played for the Fighting Irish from 2011 to 2015.
0:22.3	Despite going on drafted in 2016, he built an eight-year NFL career with the Arizona Cardinals,
0:28.1	Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets, Tennessee Titans, Las Vegas Raiders, and Carolina Panthers.
0:34.9	Before his gridiron dreams came to fruition, he was actually an overly contact
0:39.7	prone prep soccer player at Charlotte Christian School, who decided to finally give a football
0:44.4	a try his junior year. That was partially due to his older brother's encouragement, who even
0:50.1	then had often told him he had what it takes to go to the league.
0:59.2	We dive into all that, plus his five seasons at Nurtame, going from a wide receiver as a freshman to starting safety in the 2013 BCS National Championship game, to at times serving
1:05.5	as a backup and special teams player over the back half of his fighting Irish career.
1:10.8	The conversation also runs through his time in the NFL, while he carried around a reminder
1:15.2	of former Nordium defensive coordinator Brian Van Gorder for motivation and his transition to life
1:20.2	after football since he retired from the game in 2023.
1:24.4	Of course, we also cover how Matthias remains connected to the current Nerderdium program.
1:28.8	Why he's so fond of new defensive coordinator, Chris Ash, and more.
1:32.8	Here's my interview with Matthias.
1:35.2	Nerdame fans, I'm here with Matthias Farley.
1:38.0	He played at Nerd Aim from 2011 to 2015.
1:41.9	He was a captain, his final season, and then he had a seven-year NFL career.
	...

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