College football season has officially kicked off — and for Fox analyst and NFL alum, Matt Leinart, that means he’ll be on the road on and off until mid-December. The former University of Southern California quarterback, 40, is ready to take on game day, thanks to his partnership with Wendy’s, but he also knows the hurdles that come with it as a dad to three boys — Cayson, 4, and Cannon, 2, whom he shares with wife Josie Loren Leinart and Cole, 16, whom he shares with ex Brynn Cameron.
“My little ones are getting older and they’re starting to notice that daddy’s gone on the weekend during the fall, which is probably harder on my wife ’cause she’s there having to deal with them,” Leinart admitted. “It’s harder to leave because they’re getting older. My wife is a freaking rockstar and she holds down the fort. Every fall, we always talk and we always map out our fall and our goals and our intentions. She’s really the glue that keeps us together. She will come out to our first road trip at TCU [Texas Christian University] and her law firm is based out of Dallas, so she’ll come out there and we’re making that a little weekend.”
As for his oldest son, Cole, who is following in his dad’s footsteps as his high school’s quarterback this season, the scheduling obstacles are even greater.
“The high school one is really challenging because we usually leave on Thursdays to go where we’re going and then I come home late Saturday night, so I miss a lot of [his] games, which is a bummer,” he explained. “But I am watching, usually they’re always streaming. So, I’m staying up late at night on Friday nights to watch.”
Whether he’s on the road for games or just hitting a rut at home, Leinart shared his advice for making his marriage to the Make it or Break It alum, 36, work.
“I think like in any marriage — and my wife is the best at this too — it’s just balance. She has always said, ‘If you and I are good and happy, everybody else will be happy,’” he told Us. “The minute that we start to sort of get distracted by other things, whether it’s social media stuff we’re doing or football, and she’s a lawyer — we have a lot going on — then that’s when you can start to get in kind of those holes and those funks in a marriage, but also just in a household. I mean, that’s normal. That happens. So, we are very intentional about our time together — whether it’s date night, whether it’s getting the family together, but just constantly being together. And I always tell her, I say, ‘Sometimes it means we sacrifice having a night with our kids, and you and I are going to dinner just to get outta the house.’ Sometimes you just need to get outta the house, have a glass of wine.”
The Wendy’s superfan knows where he’ll be stopping for game day food when on the road this season and is excited for his ongoing partnership with the franchise and their new menu additions this fall.
“This transfer portal has been a big thing in college athletics and particularly college football. So, a lot of our campaign is trying to get people to jump over to team Wendy’s and be a part of the hamburger of the college football season, and that’s what Wendy’s is. [There are] two incredible [new] menu items — the loaded nacho cheeseburger and queso fries and I’m super fired up about it,” he said.
For more with Leinart, watch the exclusive video above.
