Not Just Football’s Cam Heyward and Hayden Walsh on Grief, Friendship, and Drafting the Summer House Cast
September 22, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readGrief, Friendship, and the Man Behind the Helmet
Cam Heyward, seven-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle and captain of the Pittsburgh Steelers, walked into a room at a Bravo NBC event and ran into Mike Tomlin. Tomlin got off the elevator, took a picture with him, and said, "Who the fuck's this guy?" It was a joke, but it captures something real about Heyward's life: he moves between worlds that rarely intersect. On one side, the NFL trenches. On the other, the reality TV universe his best friend Hayden Walsh has pulled him into. Their friendship, which started in middle school at Shorty Hall Park in Pittsburgh, has become the foundation of their podcast Not Just Football—and the subject of a wide-ranging conversation with Carl Radke on More Life.
The Friendship That Makes Honesty Possible
Heyward and Walsh met when their younger brothers were in kindergarten together. Walsh's first impression: Heyward walking toward him in football pants with a goatee, already the same size he is now. "I'm playing tight end, he's playing defensive end," Walsh recalled. "That's a horrible matchup."
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What you'll learn
- 1 More Life with Carl Radke: Cam Heyward & Hayden Walsh
- 2 Timestamped Outline
- 3 (00:45) **Welcome and Guest Introductions** - Carl introduces Cam Heyward (Pittsburgh Steelers captain, Walter Payton Award winner) and Hayden Walsh (his best friend and podcast co-host)
- 4 (05:00) **The Walter Payton Award** - Cam describes winning the NFL's top community service award and what it means to players
- 5 (07:21) **Origin Story of a 20-Year Friendship** - How Cam and Hayden met in middle school and built their bond
- 6 (09:58) **The Value of Brutal Honesty** - Why their friendship works because they tell each other hard truths
- 7 (11:55) **Podcast Highlights and Dream Guests** - Favorite moments from Not Just Football
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Cam Heyward is a seven-time Pro Bowler and captain of the Pittsburgh Steelers, but his friendship with Hayden Walsh goes way beyond football. The two childhood friends lost their fathers within a few years of each other, and that shared grief became part of what brought them together as co-hosts of their own podcast, Not Just Football.
They sit down with Carl to talk about losing their dads, what it actually looks like for men to be vulnerable with each other, and how Cam's mother helped guide his path to the NFL after his father passed. Then, because Hayden is a genuine Summer House superfan, the three of them draft the entire cast into starting NFL positions. There are some very strong opinions. It's a funny, surprisingly emotional hang with two longtime friends who've been through a lot together.
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