Speaker 1: This is cut to it with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm a little John and this
Speaker 1: is cut to it. Good do good do what they're
Speaker 1: getting down to? Do it? Good do it. We asked
Speaker 1: the questions you always want to know, but no one
Speaker 1: ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard about it,
Speaker 1: then we're about to let you know. It's all how
Speaker 1: you know we are going into Super Bowl week? What
Speaker 1: are the keys to victory for the Cincinnati Bengals. They've
Speaker 1: they've invested two hundred and thirty million dollars in their defense.
Speaker 1: They've done except and you can see their return there
Speaker 1: are I return there on their investment on defense is
Speaker 1: coming back there the way they shut down? Uh King Henry.
Speaker 1: Yes he wasn't, but that man ain't a tiptoe er.
Speaker 1: Now he was still even though he wasn't a hundred percent,
Speaker 1: he was still he was dropping a load on some flash.
Speaker 1: A different dynamic. He has a different dynamic. They played
Speaker 1: you have him ye a Woozier. Um, he was a
Speaker 1: free agent from the Cowboys. Um. They decided to go
Speaker 1: over to Anthony Brown. The Cowboys, and you can see
Speaker 1: a Wooziers paying dividends for that investment for the Cowboys
Speaker 1: and letting him walk. Um. Jesse based the third All Star.
Speaker 1: He's all Star. He's a guy. He's he's he's making plays.
Speaker 1: He's also he gets his head in the game so
Speaker 1: much that he's not afraid to get ran over. And
Speaker 1: he will get ran over a few times, but he
Speaker 1: shows up every plane. He's not afraid he'll pick one off.
Speaker 1: He will. So it's very smart. Um. From the shoulders up, Um,
Speaker 1: i q A football is outstanding from the shoulders down,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's remarkable as well. And so what are
Speaker 1: your keys to the game for the Los Angeles Rams?
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Rams? Uh? In their defense, maintain their dominance. Uh,
Speaker 1: Floyd Donald and Von Miller cannot have cannot have an
Speaker 1: off day. UM got my guy back. Who I saw
Speaker 1: him at the Rose Bowl. We were chit chatting and
Speaker 1: talking and then now he's playing right. So that's that's
Speaker 1: pretty remarkable. That's awesome. Uh. I love what you know.
Speaker 1: You have to address that that the elephant in the
Speaker 1: room is look at the explosiveness and um getting a
Speaker 1: man Uh, taking those handcuffs off and allowing him to
Speaker 1: be the Odell Beckham that we we we've loved to
Speaker 1: see that makes the the spectacular grabs, that makes the
Speaker 1: yards after catch. He's playing well and you got him
Speaker 1: with Cooper cups things a whole lot different. You could
Speaker 1: call him emmony and ivory. You can call him hot
Speaker 1: chocolate and and and marshmallows brick. Hey, them brothers are
Speaker 1: singing a good song and a great combination. Right. It's
Speaker 1: awesome right just watching them play. But you know, Matthew
Speaker 1: Stafford is battling a lot of injuries. The Rams have
Speaker 1: had some injuries. Uh you know a little bit with
Speaker 1: with Worth and some of those guys on offense line.
Speaker 1: But they're playing great and uh can make him coming back.
Speaker 1: He's been a spark plug. So there you have it.
Speaker 1: Those are the keys to victory for Super Bowl fifty six.
Speaker 1: Let's happened and you ordered to me? So cut cut cut,
Speaker 1: hey man, Welcome to the Cut to a podcast. Man,
Speaker 1: Chris Canty, former defensive tackle. Also you played into you
Speaker 1: played a lot of different things for a big man.
Speaker 1: You were very virtatile. Um, you know, the more you
Speaker 1: can do, the longer you can stay around. You know
Speaker 1: that absolutely Super Bowl champ with the g Man with
Speaker 1: the New York Giants and then also being drafted by
Speaker 1: the Star by the Dallas Cowboys attend the Universe Ship Virginia. Man.
Speaker 1: Welcome to to cut to a podcast with Steve Smith
Speaker 1: and draw a little John Man. Um, just thanks for
Speaker 1: taking the time. Um, you know at your busy schedule. Uh,
Speaker 1: you're in New York and traveling doing all the stuff
Speaker 1: you're doing. Uh, you know, going out and Bristol. So
Speaker 1: I know, uh, you know, you take your time as
Speaker 1: a privilege and we don't want to uh, we don't
Speaker 1: want to overlook that. Now. I appreciate you guys having
Speaker 1: me yard if I'm glad I'm finally having an opportunity
Speaker 1: and having the privilege to be Yard. I can't believe
Speaker 1: that you had My Colles might go to Junior before me.
Speaker 1: But that's a story for another day. We'll have to
Speaker 1: get that straight. That's my fault, Chris. I'm sorry you ran.
Speaker 1: You ran into that one on your We weren't gonna
Speaker 1: weren't with the That's what's up, man. I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: I can't say enough good things about what you've done
Speaker 1: in your post playing career, not only the stuff that
Speaker 1: you're doing the sports media, but the stuff that you're
Speaker 1: doing the community, man, and just that leadership that you've shown,
Speaker 1: that you've demonstrated, um is something to be admired and
Speaker 1: it's something that's also inspiring for the next generation of
Speaker 1: athletes following behind you. Well, I appreciate it, bro, I
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Man. Let's get let's let's let's get to
Speaker 1: the fun stuff. Man. So if you had one extra
Speaker 1: hour a free time a day, how would you use it?
Speaker 1: I use it to workout because I need to start
Speaker 1: getting back into working out. It's hard for me to
Speaker 1: get motivated to work out when it's not a check
Speaker 1: on the other end of it. And with the twenty
Speaker 1: four hours that I have between the business ventures that
Speaker 1: I got going on and then the sports media stuff
Speaker 1: making sure that I'm on top of the latest news
Speaker 1: and notes from around the sports world. UM, it just
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like I have enough time. Also, just got
Speaker 1: engaged or you got appreciate, appreciated. It's going it down
Speaker 1: in August and Chicago finally settled down a wonderful woman. Um.
Speaker 1: I also got to invest in that relationship too. So
Speaker 1: it's just like it doesn't seem like there's enough hours
Speaker 1: in the day to get everything that I need to
Speaker 1: get done. And so the one part that's kind of
Speaker 1: falling off since I stopped playing is making sure that
Speaker 1: I'm regularly in the gym. So if I had an
Speaker 1: extra hour every day, absolutely put that toward working out. Man.
Speaker 1: I I just think that man, when you work out
Speaker 1: and you push yourself through it and you're forced to
Speaker 1: do it. Man, when you have that that freedom, you
Speaker 1: just go, no, I'm good, you just go. Then something
Speaker 1: then something happens, like the mirror hit you that you
Speaker 1: got that mirror coming you look, you go, oh, I
Speaker 1: just ain't what I used to be. And then you
Speaker 1: get Then you get on the scale for further confirmation
Speaker 1: that scales say you fat boy, Yeah that's what got
Speaker 1: because you know I'm six eight, so you know I
Speaker 1: can stretch, Yeah, stretch. You think you can stretch ahead?
Speaker 1: I think, I think. But when I stepped on that
Speaker 1: scale and I saw a number, and going back to
Speaker 1: last year when we were in the middle of the pandemic,
Speaker 1: I saw a number that I've never seen before. I
Speaker 1: was like, wait a minute, dog, I was like those
Speaker 1: pandemic snaps different, yes, exactly. Like it's one thing to
Speaker 1: be in the Three Hunters, but when you start being
Speaker 1: on the other side of three fifty, that's when I realized.
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, we gotta problem. We gotta
Speaker 1: scale this thing way back. Hey bro, I got up
Speaker 1: to three. I got up to two too. I got
Speaker 1: up to to fifteen. Yeah, and I'm five nine, So
Speaker 1: to fifteen on five nine. You you out here looking
Speaker 1: like Maurice Jones. Leave my dog alone, man, leave stop it.
Speaker 1: So I got love for dog too. That's why I
Speaker 1: can keep it one h always love. Don't like that.
Speaker 1: I don't like that. That's always loved. Alright, alright, let's
Speaker 1: move on. We've digressed. Hey man, what are you most
Speaker 1: grateful for right now? I'm most grateful for the relationship
Speaker 1: that I'm in right now, Like this is a new
Speaker 1: chapter for me, getting engaged and Q chapter mel Melon.
Speaker 1: I have been together for four years now, and just
Speaker 1: it felt like this was the official start to my
Speaker 1: life after football, like meeting her and courting her and
Speaker 1: then just the growth that I've seen in her and
Speaker 1: the growth that I've seen in myself. Um, I'm grateful
Speaker 1: for that. Man, I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for
Speaker 1: my family. Everybody in my immediate family made it through
Speaker 1: the pandemic. You know, I know we're still kind of
Speaker 1: dealing with a couple of variants, but everybody is healthy,
Speaker 1: everybody's good, you know, all blessings on that front. Man.
Speaker 1: And that's not something that I take for granted, because
Speaker 1: there are a lot of friends, a lot of former
Speaker 1: teammates who lost family members at various points during the pandemic.
Speaker 1: And so I think that's that's been one of those
Speaker 1: things that's kind of gave me a new level of
Speaker 1: appreciation for just you know, health and strength and being
Speaker 1: able to to love on the people that you care
Speaker 1: about the most in this world, not missing those opportunities,
Speaker 1: trying not to get wrapped up when you follow up
Speaker 1: after what you just said and how you said it,
Speaker 1: and how you you know what you said is is
Speaker 1: sometimes we feel like we have to follow us something,
Speaker 1: you know, you try to. I'm just going back on
Speaker 1: my career and just seeing people of that I enjoyed,
Speaker 1: but then also like some bug a booze or like
Speaker 1: pet Peeves, and I think in the locker room a
Speaker 1: lot of times it happens the one upper right, because
Speaker 1: you know and so and so the way he said,
Speaker 1: I just I kind of went backwards, something like, Man,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be that. So I'm I'm grateful
Speaker 1: for life, right. I think that's that's plenty, right, like
Speaker 1: being great because there's a lot of people who maybe
Speaker 1: woke up and they didn't have that today. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just just after he said it, like I just
Speaker 1: going back in the cliche thing. Nah, but I just
Speaker 1: with with Chris is right now. With Chris is so
Speaker 1: different because we'll get into the football aspect. Man, me
Speaker 1: and Chris were teammates at the right time, at the
Speaker 1: right moment, with the right perspective. Right, our perspective was
Speaker 1: so we were so unapologetic on our pursuit of being
Speaker 1: a Raven and being a bully and plane and establishing
Speaker 1: ourselves but also raising our level of expectation because Troy
Speaker 1: was still playing at the time, Troy Polamalu, right, Big
Speaker 1: Bend was Big Ben. They had some good players. And
Speaker 1: that was my first time in Baltimore as a Raven,
Speaker 1: and I and and so much had transpired leading up
Speaker 1: to that of me proving myself as a Raven proving
Speaker 1: myself as still you know, a thirty six, thirty seven
Speaker 1: year old player. And Chris has known me for a
Speaker 1: long time, played against me, known me, and it was like, well,
Speaker 1: how much does he have left in the tank? And
Speaker 1: Chris like Chris, Hello, d uh doom. There's a few
Speaker 1: guys that they were like, you understand what we got.
Speaker 1: And then there were some guys that like doubted me,
Speaker 1: like y'all bet all right, y'all, y'all gonna doubt, y'all
Speaker 1: gonna doubt Smithy're gonna see him. You're gonna find out
Speaker 1: real quick. And so we'll get into later talking ball
Speaker 1: on that. Because I had to establish my physics county
Speaker 1: and stabs myself very early. But I also fell into
Speaker 1: some mont Cheesemo, some some guy interaction that even in Baltimore,
Speaker 1: it took him back a little bit. And and Hellot
Speaker 1: and Chris like some of those guys saw a part
Speaker 1: of me. They were like, see, I told you, y'all
Speaker 1: didn't poke the wrong Bann. No, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 1: But we do go way back. I mean even to
Speaker 1: when I was in college and you were with the
Speaker 1: Carolina Pathers. My parents still called the Charlotte Community Home,
Speaker 1: and so I had an opportunity to get to know
Speaker 1: Smitty before I even got into the league. And then
Speaker 1: my early days with the Dallas Cowboys. I remember you
Speaker 1: used to invite me out to your annual golf outing. Um.
Speaker 1: But just the way that you carried yourself and the
Speaker 1: classes that you you exhibited, but then the dog that
Speaker 1: you had on the field, Like I was just like,
Speaker 1: if there's anybody that's doing this the right way in
Speaker 1: terms of being a top competitor but also being a
Speaker 1: stalwart in the community that Steve Smith like that that
Speaker 1: was that was who he was. And so when he
Speaker 1: decided to to come to the Baltimore Ravens after his
Speaker 1: time with the Carolina Panthers, I was like, I know
Speaker 1: exactly what we're getting getting somebody that that embodies all
Speaker 1: of the things that we were proud to have on
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the ball, like the mentality in
Speaker 1: Baltimore with that organization, it's always been defense, it's always
Speaker 1: been rugged, it's always been dogs, and that was the
Speaker 1: element that we didn't have on that offensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball. The Ravens lost that when they lost an
Speaker 1: Kwan Bolder and so when they got Steve's when we
Speaker 1: got Steve Smith, like it was like, okay, now we're
Speaker 1: back on. Like that's why we were in the playoffs
Speaker 1: because we had that identity on both sides of the ball. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was, I mean from day one, Shocky Brown remember that,
Speaker 1: Oh I remember Say Brown had the hardware, had to
Speaker 1: learn the hardware. If anybody knows, you know, if you
Speaker 1: know football, there Big ten, Big twelve Man, Mountain, West
Speaker 1: Pac ten Pac twelve, Like we're considered the cousin. Right,
Speaker 1: we were in the family of football, but we're really
Speaker 1: not respected and rightfully so looking at the bowl season
Speaker 1: this year, like we literally only had I think we
Speaker 1: are owing five right in bowls for Pact twelve, so
Speaker 1: we weren't. We are not really looked at as a yeah,
Speaker 1: we're not right. But Shocky Brown, who We're good. Now
Speaker 1: we're cool. We were actually in a buddy of former
Speaker 1: teammates wedding together. But man, we get there and Shocky's
Speaker 1: a Texas dude, right, I'm talking about He's he went
Speaker 1: to Texas physicality all that stuff, and Shocky was was
Speaker 1: he was a talker, but he wasn't. All football players
Speaker 1: are talkers, right, there. They jabbed, they talked, They they're funny,
Speaker 1: but they also extremely competitive, right, vinegar and water. When
Speaker 1: it comes to competitive when they're in Baltimore, they keep
Speaker 1: it really competitive, like they keep counting and man, me
Speaker 1: and Shocky used to go at it. And I would
Speaker 1: come in and you've heard a lot of teammates I
Speaker 1: come in and in Baltimore, I had like I knew
Speaker 1: I had to earn my stripes. There was a question
Speaker 1: mark of can old dude still play? And I came
Speaker 1: in and Shocky tried me, and uh Ladarius tried me.
Speaker 1: There was a few dudes when I say tried me,
Speaker 1: We're sitting there and they would be in the cafeteria
Speaker 1: and just to say something, what you're doing today, old man?
Speaker 1: And I used to always time I say, listen, you
Speaker 1: can press me. Just don't hit me in my face
Speaker 1: mask remember in the in the calf don't hit me
Speaker 1: in my face. Man, Ninja, what you're gonna do if
Speaker 1: I hit you in your face? I'm just telling you,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna waste my eggs today. When I'm telling
Speaker 1: me when we get on that already prepping over over breakfast, right,
Speaker 1: And that's how it was Baltimore was. It was challenging
Speaker 1: when you walked in the room, when you walked in
Speaker 1: the facility, you better be on your piece and ques
Speaker 1: your game will be challenged. And so we would just
Speaker 1: go at it and show its Ladarius. It was a
Speaker 1: lot of those guys. They would challenge me, sis, who's
Speaker 1: my locker made? Man? They're talking about blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: Let me see what you got today? Eight nine? What
Speaker 1: you got? And so it's scissors. I'm in the middle.
Speaker 1: Scissors to the right. Knthy is one over? Doom was
Speaker 1: over there too, was over there, Elvis Doomerville, Um, hello
Speaker 1: Ti nada Um? Who else? Who else was? Who else
Speaker 1: was who? On Park Avenue? Oh Jimmy Jimmy smithe he
Speaker 1: was a lot of money on that. It was I
Speaker 1: just I was like, wait a minute, I got I
Speaker 1: got a simmer with that with that metaphor. Shoot, you'll
Speaker 1: probably about four hundred million dollars worth the earnest on there.
Speaker 1: Like Helloi was in his third contract. I was on
Speaker 1: my third or fourth contract. Six man, you know he
Speaker 1: was on his third. It was a third or four.
Speaker 1: It will hold bunch of us. It was shoot, I'm
Speaker 1: telling you probably you'll probably half a billion dollars worth
Speaker 1: the on that on there. But you know what's funny,
Speaker 1: Smithy you say that, But the way we went to work,
Speaker 1: we set the toe. You would have never you would
Speaker 1: have never known it. It was like it was like
Speaker 1: there was a lot of money, but guys grinded like
Speaker 1: we were on our rookie deals, like we were still
Speaker 1: trying to prove. The outlier was Shocky Brown, That's what
Speaker 1: it was. That was shot bround. He was. He was
Speaker 1: like trade Stree. He was over there, bro No, he
Speaker 1: was like public Works was probably sat James for right,
Speaker 1: I probably like st James right right. So he's sitting
Speaker 1: there and so in practice, so he hit. He hits
Speaker 1: me in my face mask and I said something and
Speaker 1: Spaggs was a dB coach at the time, spack noah,
Speaker 1: And I said something to him. I said, yo, you
Speaker 1: guy hit me and Spags looked at me. Chris looked
Speaker 1: at me. I was like, you ain't gonna do nothing.
Speaker 1: I he Chris saw, look at my eye. This is
Speaker 1: a middle train. He saw, look at my eye. I
Speaker 1: walked over there and I said, y'all, I'm fucked up
Speaker 1: now and walked back I put my red mouth piece
Speaker 1: in my mouth, button up my chin strap. The next play,
Speaker 1: we had to break down into wire receivers and DB's blocking,
Speaker 1: and a wide receiver was the running back. The receiver
Speaker 1: was the blocker corner. So I go up to go
Speaker 1: but uh, oklahoma drip, Yes, I go up. But one
Speaker 1: of the guys that was supposed to go up was
Speaker 1: a guy respected right he and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm not in the right frame of mind, and Shocky says, no,
Speaker 1: don't worry about a dog. I'll go next. Right here
Speaker 1: we go. We lined up, strap up, put my mouth
Speaker 1: piece in my mouth. Bobby Ingram heck the wire receivers coach,
Speaker 1: Now he's the Titans coach. Blows the whistle. We run boom.
Speaker 1: After we hit, Shocky helmet pops up. Now how does
Speaker 1: Chris No? First of all, it's buzzing around there. That
Speaker 1: Steve is hot. He's on a tangent. Then they also
Speaker 1: watched it as a unit, and the coaches on the
Speaker 1: iPad rewatched it because you know what happened after we collided.
Speaker 1: Guess what Shocky did not know we was about to do.
Speaker 1: What do you think we did? I mean, if this
Speaker 1: Oklahoma drial. He probably mad, right you are you ready
Speaker 1: to scrap? Okay, tell him what I did. Right after
Speaker 1: we hit collided, Shocky pulls down his helmet. What did
Speaker 1: I do? You just let him know what it was.
Speaker 1: I started boxing him. Literally, boom boom, boot started hitting him.
Speaker 1: Oh that's right. Helpt pops up, helmet pops up. He
Speaker 1: puts it down. And now I'm throwing haymakers underneath his
Speaker 1: chin strap and he's Paul's eating them. That that's right.
Speaker 1: Because we got back in the locker room. I remember
Speaker 1: we got back in the locker room because he got
Speaker 1: back about all we He com back saying was that
Speaker 1: that Mr. T Line, I pity the fool, And you
Speaker 1: just kept saying that about Brown. You got pity the
Speaker 1: food by Steve Smith. But see here the other that
Speaker 1: you got. He got pity the food by by by
Speaker 1: Steve Smith. But but I think in that moment he
Speaker 1: was Agent eighty nine. So what you gotta understand, like
Speaker 1: with Steve like he's got split personalities. It's like three
Speaker 1: or four different Steve Smith like you no no disrespect.
Speaker 1: They they none of them are offended. Right now, I'm
Speaker 1: not Steve. There's Mr Smith, there's the Smitty and then
Speaker 1: there's Agent eighty nine, and in that moment it was
Speaker 1: Agent eighty nine. When you put that mouthpiece in, it
Speaker 1: was something August Man. Here's the thing. I knew how
Speaker 1: it was gonna end. Shocky Brown didn't. But what Steve
Speaker 1: didn't tell you was Shocky was always one of those
Speaker 1: dudes that was popping off in the locker room. Was
Speaker 1: we felt like, and as veteran players, were like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's cool, but you're doing a lot of talking and
Speaker 1: we're not seeing the production. So we wanted to let
Speaker 1: it play out because we felt like this would be
Speaker 1: a lesson for Shocky so we can learn, so he
Speaker 1: could be a more productive player and help us win.
Speaker 1: Like this was a means too and there for us. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: SIS knew what's gonna happen, Like in other words, we
Speaker 1: can show you better than we can tell you. But
Speaker 1: the problem, the problem, See we had to but see
Speaker 1: we had told him that the ball, you gotta go
Speaker 1: out there ball, but when you pop off, you're gonna
Speaker 1: run up on the wrong one and you're gonna learn today.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what I talked. Here's the problem, though,
Speaker 1: No boys talking to me off the ledge because it
Speaker 1: was gonna go. It was going down in the locker
Speaker 1: room till this day, which is is sad and I'm
Speaker 1: not saying in a bragging way. Shocky was sitting in
Speaker 1: his locker in full uniform. Remember he had his helmet
Speaker 1: own because I told him they coach is like, hey,
Speaker 1: y'all taking the locker room. Since said no, coach with
Speaker 1: since like don't know, we we gotta keep practicing. Yeah, Bro,
Speaker 1: I sat. They literally hello, the few of them is like, man,
Speaker 1: keep it out of the locker room. Because Shocky was
Speaker 1: sitting in his locker with his pass on because he
Speaker 1: expected what I expected. It was gonna go there. It
Speaker 1: was gonna be as we say, it was not a
Speaker 1: little bit. It was gonna be a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: furniture moving and and sins. Actually it was one since
Speaker 1: like don't do it, bro, because I was at the
Speaker 1: point I was on red. I had the cold to
Speaker 1: the new button and I was pushing it and the
Speaker 1: boys like, don't do it. You already got two strikes, Steve,
Speaker 1: don't and we said we literally he sat, you want
Speaker 1: to see get put behind the wall. Oh it was
Speaker 1: gold as the season went on. Shocky's biggest encouragement, his
Speaker 1: biggest cheerleader was me when he made a play. I
Speaker 1: was the first person to let him know. It took
Speaker 1: me probably about three or four weeks, because I actually
Speaker 1: was so hot. I had put him in my phone.
Speaker 1: I had a little I had put a reminder on
Speaker 1: my phone. I said, moving forward, Now, bro, when when
Speaker 1: you check in, I'm putting you on notice my goal
Speaker 1: on Monday, whooped? Shock, He's asked. Wednesday, whoop? Shock, He's
Speaker 1: ask And I had actually put it in my calendar
Speaker 1: every day whoop. And he walked over and told him
Speaker 1: in his locker like we're going out of every day.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna whoop your ass. Ye. And finally, but after
Speaker 1: about three weeks, I was like, look, you can play
Speaker 1: in this league. Just keep your mouth closed, chopped wood.
Speaker 1: You'll be all right. And unfortunately we had sustained some injuries,
Speaker 1: like two games in that actually ended up or he
Speaker 1: had to make a play and if you go back
Speaker 1: that play I get I made against the Cincinnati Bengals
Speaker 1: to win the game, comes back and to play that
Speaker 1: A J. A J. Green made Guess who that corner was?
Speaker 1: Who was on Jack Brown, but instead of putting them down,
Speaker 1: we all encouraged them to let him know that he
Speaker 1: had earned his stripes to that mistake was not who
Speaker 1: he was moving forward. That A J. Brown is just
Speaker 1: a damn really cood player. H A J. Yeah, A J.
Speaker 1: Green And he is a pro bowler and he just
Speaker 1: had you to that. I love Cut to It and
Speaker 1: I love it even more when you download us and subscribe,
Speaker 1: and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie
Speaker 1: where where at? That's at? Cut to It on Instagram?
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Speaker 1: It featuring Steve Smith singr? What about online? And you
Speaker 1: can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to
Speaker 1: us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my
Speaker 1: answers questions. Uh yeah, I got all my questions answered.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm here for, a brother, cut to It
Speaker 1: Podcast dot Com. I would love to get your take
Speaker 1: on this. Chris is what's the psyche as as as
Speaker 1: Steve talks about the dynamic in the makeup of the
Speaker 1: locker room from your advantage point to Chris playing with
Speaker 1: not only the Baltimore Ravens, at that time. But with
Speaker 1: the Giants win the Super Bowl and with the Dallas Cowboys,
Speaker 1: what's the psyche of a playoff team in now is
Speaker 1: we're getting ready going to the playoffs and subsequently leading
Speaker 1: to the super Bowl. What's the psyche of then a
Speaker 1: super Bowl winning team? Like bringing it all together those
Speaker 1: different types of personality, traits and characters, well, the mentality
Speaker 1: is not the same. When I was with the Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboys and we were in the playoffs that that was
Speaker 1: arguably the most talented team that I've ever been a
Speaker 1: part of. In two thousand and seven, we were thirteen
Speaker 1: and three, the number one seed in the conference, and
Speaker 1: we were one and done. We lost to the eventual
Speaker 1: Super Bowl champion New York Giants. Now, that was a
Speaker 1: team in our division that we had boat race twice
Speaker 1: in the regular season. But when it comes to success
Speaker 1: in the postseason, and Steve can attest this, it's not
Speaker 1: just about being able to have talent. It's about the chemistry.
Speaker 1: It's about the culture that you have in the building.
Speaker 1: And that's what allowed my Giants team inven to win
Speaker 1: the Chip. Like to this day, that's the only team
Speaker 1: not to have double digit wins to actually win the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. And the reason for that, the reason why
Speaker 1: we were able to survive a stretched during the regular
Speaker 1: season where we lost four straight games, was because you
Speaker 1: had the right mix of guys in that locker room.
Speaker 1: You had a core players that had a confidence that
Speaker 1: they could get it done because a lot of them
Speaker 1: have done it before four years earlier. But then you
Speaker 1: also had some guys that were hungry and that we're
Speaker 1: trying to prove that they were elite players in this league.
Speaker 1: There were guys that were trying to establish themselves as
Speaker 1: young players. It was the right blend. It wasn't always
Speaker 1: sunshine and roses in that locker room. I didn't like
Speaker 1: every player in that locker room, but I loved every
Speaker 1: player in that locker room. And to Steve's point, that's
Speaker 1: why you ride. It's gotta be about something bigger than
Speaker 1: yourself when you go out there and play, especially in
Speaker 1: the biggest stages, in the biggest games in this league.
Speaker 1: If it's only about you, you can make selfish decisions,
Speaker 1: you can make business decisions that don't necessarily lead to
Speaker 1: team success. But when it's about the guy next to you,
Speaker 1: there's a certain sacrifice and the trust level. There's a
Speaker 1: certain trust that you're willing to repay with sacrificing your
Speaker 1: body for the greater good. Like Tom Coffley used to
Speaker 1: stand up in front of us all the time and
Speaker 1: he would say, my job as a coach is to
Speaker 1: be your mirror. All I do is tell you what
Speaker 1: I see. The other thing that I'm responsible for doing
Speaker 1: is trying to get you to do what you don't
Speaker 1: want to do so you can become what you want
Speaker 1: to become. I think that twenty eleven Giants team is
Speaker 1: a perfect example of that because we were not the
Speaker 1: most talented team in the NFL. We were not like
Speaker 1: you guys, hit it at the right moment. And it's
Speaker 1: also it's also hitting it at the right moment. You
Speaker 1: gotta think about it, y'all. Had I believe r J
Speaker 1: mccorters right as a dB No, R R W whatn't
Speaker 1: on that team he was on the two thousand and
Speaker 1: seventeen had Grant. Yes. Yeah, so you had you had
Speaker 1: some players basically where they at the elite level on paper. No,
Speaker 1: but when you win against them, man whom some with
Speaker 1: guns was elite. They could tell you what route you're running.
Speaker 1: They get they could watch this watch that they they had.
Speaker 1: They spent enough time studying, and when they played, they
Speaker 1: were well versed, well prepared, and the anticipation of the
Speaker 1: play calling was dynamic and they were able to execute
Speaker 1: it as well. Right as. I think that's one of
Speaker 1: the biggest things that I think young folks that are
Speaker 1: playing today lack, which is finishing and extra cusham because
Speaker 1: I am and noticed as you didn't say talent. Nope,
Speaker 1: because mom, you can be a high energy practice guy,
Speaker 1: but if on whatever designated day you're playing, if you
Speaker 1: don't execute, then that high energy doesn't mean anything. You
Speaker 1: can go to work and have a lot of high energy,
Speaker 1: but if you get fired, guess what, you ain't got
Speaker 1: a paycheck. Right soection and I think, and I believe
Speaker 1: sometimes people think about because this football stuff now, sports
Speaker 1: has become more too about personality and sometimes you can
Speaker 1: fool people. And I'm not gonna name no native, but
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I'm not trying to like talk around Caroline.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the league overall. You can have some
Speaker 1: players who are really good in the community, but pisspoort
Speaker 1: execution on Sunday and it takes you a while to
Speaker 1: figure out there they're fraudulent, that they're fakes CEO's that
Speaker 1: what they really are are managers, shift managers who can
Speaker 1: hide behind stuff. But when you're real. CEO C he
Speaker 1: was a D tackle, So he was a CEO of
Speaker 1: Chris knty LLC as a D tackle and he went
Speaker 1: against the guards and a center who were CEOs. And
Speaker 1: you found out real quickly that CEO that business, that
Speaker 1: company a lot better than that other company he was
Speaker 1: going up against. And and and that's the that's the
Speaker 1: difference these young these young guys. And there's guys like
Speaker 1: Cooper Cup, that young man, he figures it out and
Speaker 1: he's a great executor, right, great finisher man. But there's
Speaker 1: some players out there, and I'm not naming names or
Speaker 1: trying to say that, but I just I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be honest. Not all fifty three guys on the roster
Speaker 1: are great. Some of them are just buddass average, right,
Speaker 1: and it's nothing wrong with it. But because they have
Speaker 1: that star or that emblem, that shield, they get a
Speaker 1: hall pass man that shield, that star can't say you're
Speaker 1: asking on between the white lines and they say say,
Speaker 1: go it's four, it's four. Ft three playing against playing
Speaker 1: against him, is four ft three playing against Chris Canty.
Speaker 1: He's with whoever he's with. We're going four front three.
Speaker 1: They gotta pass it, Chris. Can you know they're gonna
Speaker 1: either run some kind of trickeration run the screen. But
Speaker 1: if they if they don't run this screen and they
Speaker 1: run in the past. And he knows I'm on the
Speaker 1: other side. He knows they're going to one guy. He's
Speaker 1: gonna be the first look. And that first look is
Speaker 1: gonna beat me. And so I'm looking at the Chris
Speaker 1: is looking at me. They all look at me. Check this,
Speaker 1: check that, and I'm looking going. I gotta answer because
Speaker 1: I can't let I can't let the men and women.
Speaker 1: And I said women, because all these men have women
Speaker 1: and children that depend on they're doing their job. And
Speaker 1: then when the quarterback delivers the ball, I can't let
Speaker 1: them down. I can't take food off the table, mix
Speaker 1: take gas out of their minivans. And so I'm going
Speaker 1: and I realize what it is. And so football, man,
Speaker 1: football is one of those things. It gives you so much.
Speaker 1: It can buy you and and and and free you
Speaker 1: up to do things that man, I I just feel
Speaker 1: it I feel me and Chris and a lot of
Speaker 1: guys we've had on this podcast as professional players professionals. Man,
Speaker 1: I lived a thousand kings lives. I'm living in palaces.
Speaker 1: I've been able to We've been able to travel the
Speaker 1: world do things. But that's because we execute. And I'm
Speaker 1: not saying it in a flex I'm not saying it now.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying what it is. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, it goes to if you can execute,
Speaker 1: and you can do it, and you can follow through,
Speaker 1: and you have that ability to keep everything together, and
Speaker 1: it's probably one of the things that you can never duplicate.
Speaker 1: And you can do it with men that you've swept
Speaker 1: with that they know your hustle, they know they grind,
Speaker 1: but they also know your failures, and they they know
Speaker 1: your skeletons because they've watched you suffering the weight room,
Speaker 1: get injured in the training room, bury your heart and
Speaker 1: your soul. Cry when you get injured, look in the
Speaker 1: eyes and the souls of men after they've lost and
Speaker 1: been defeated, and then do it all over again them all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the beautiful part about sports. But also football, man,
Speaker 1: and I think that football is the greatest team game
Speaker 1: because you got to have all the leven seed in
Speaker 1: the same way in order to be successful in any
Speaker 1: giving play. And the thing that you said, Steve, that
Speaker 1: really resonated right there is like the game of football
Speaker 1: paid you back. And when you say that, people automatically
Speaker 1: go to the money, but you also go to the relationship.
Speaker 1: Like I mean, there are guys that I played with
Speaker 1: college and pro those are gonna be lifelong brothers. And
Speaker 1: the reason why it's like that because they see the
Speaker 1: sacrifice that I was willing to make for them, not
Speaker 1: the fakes academics develop the bar that the that that developed,
Speaker 1: the bar that developed a trust level like that guy
Speaker 1: knew that he could depend on me, that how and
Speaker 1: how he feeds his family is depending on how I'm
Speaker 1: gonna play on Sunday. He knew he could depend on me.
Speaker 1: And that's important. And that's because we're in the weight room,
Speaker 1: we're on the field together, and he sees, man, Tuesday,
Speaker 1: we did it wrong. Ain't no off, that, ain't no Wednesday.
Speaker 1: We did Wednesday, we did it wrong. Thursday we did
Speaker 1: three out of five. Right Friday we walking through it.
Speaker 1: Saturday is our last opportunity I don't know, coach, look
Speaker 1: at him, he'll get it. And then on Sunday he
Speaker 1: got it. He didn't just get it, he blew it up.
Speaker 1: Tackle the guy calls the fumble, We picked it up.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden and I'm in the
Speaker 1: same weight room as him, maybe doing I know for
Speaker 1: a fact, doing a lot less weights than Chris and
Speaker 1: then giving a ball. So just just all of that. Man,
Speaker 1: you know, talk about you went to Dallas Cowboys. Man,
Speaker 1: talk about that star that start gives some guys, some
Speaker 1: average dudes. Man that started, that started like a that
Speaker 1: started like three billion dollars. Man, you see an ugly brother,
Speaker 1: that's you see. You know what they say is man,
Speaker 1: money is not everything, but it's right there. Up. What
Speaker 1: actually did you know? I take It's nice to happen.
Speaker 1: I turn it down and you go. You go fourth
Speaker 1: round hundred and thirty second overall pick out of Virginia,
Speaker 1: University of Virginia, and you go there and tell me
Speaker 1: to impact a plan for America's team with the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 1: And you guys wanted probably the most and most intriguing, intense, straightforward,
Speaker 1: but yet sometimes will play what's your mind with Bill Parcels.
Speaker 1: So for me, Um getting drafted Dallas was cool, but
Speaker 1: I wasn't excited about it because I went in the
Speaker 1: fourth round and I thought I was gonna be, you know,
Speaker 1: a first round pick or a second round pick. But
Speaker 1: I had some major injuries coming out of college. This
Speaker 1: located my knee towards three ligaments, and then I had
Speaker 1: a detached retina. So I'm getting the Dallas and then
Speaker 1: they got a ton of injury concerns around me. They
Speaker 1: don't even know if I might ever be able to
Speaker 1: play football again. So I'm pissed about the situation. But
Speaker 1: I go into it Um with a lot of experience.
Speaker 1: And I say a lot of experience because I played
Speaker 1: for al grow at the University of Virginia, and anybody
Speaker 1: that knows football knows that role was one of parts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: round of een. But he was one of bill ourselves
Speaker 1: lieutenants when he was with the New York Giants winning
Speaker 1: Super Bowls. So at the time, Bill was switching from
Speaker 1: a four three defense to a thirty four defense. And
Speaker 1: that's all I played in college. So when I get
Speaker 1: into the locker room, I'm with guys like le Roy
Speaker 1: Glover and Greg Ellis and um, you know they're trying
Speaker 1: to ask me about what we're doing defensively. Hell, even
Speaker 1: Mike Zimmers asking me about how the defensive front needs
Speaker 1: to be called in order to be able to play
Speaker 1: stack defense because I played stack defense for four years
Speaker 1: in college. And oh, by the way, one of my
Speaker 1: mentors while I was in Charlottesville was how we long
Speaker 1: because he lived there, so I knew pretty much everything
Speaker 1: there is to know about three or four defense. So
Speaker 1: with the che from that standpoint, it wasn't it wasn't
Speaker 1: a it wasn't a huge, huge learned curve for me.
Speaker 1: The biggest adjustment for me was going up against grown
Speaker 1: men and and the thing that going to Dallas did
Speaker 1: for me was I got a chance to practice against
Speaker 1: Larry Allen and flows Hell Adams every single day, every
Speaker 1: single day. I remember my first training camp practice. I
Speaker 1: had a one on one pass rush against Larry Allen.
Speaker 1: I try to I try to bullshit spin move and
Speaker 1: he caught me mid spin it chokes slamming and then
Speaker 1: started sea walking. And I looked at my defensive line coach,
Speaker 1: Casey Rodgers, and he said, I got good news, and
Speaker 1: I got bad news. I said well, hell, what's the
Speaker 1: what's the good news? The good news is that's about
Speaker 1: as best as you're gonna see for the rest of
Speaker 1: your career. I said, Okay, well, what's the bad news.
Speaker 1: The bad news is you're gonna practice again that song
Speaker 1: every day. But but, but, but but that was what
Speaker 1: allowed me to learn the NFL game, kind of like
Speaker 1: that teachable moment that Shocky Brown had with Steve Smith.
Speaker 1: That was my teachable moment in a much different way.
Speaker 1: But he was right because I never went into a
Speaker 1: game and felt overwhelmed by any of the opponents that
Speaker 1: I was going up again. Cut. Let's get down to it. Hey, Gerard,
Speaker 1: why did you get that T shirt? You mean, Oh, yes,
Speaker 1: I got it from cut to a podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys
Speaker 1: at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wheever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. Steve, I think you hit on something
Speaker 1: that not a lot of people talk about. But it's
Speaker 1: a real thing. Dallas does make guys stars literally and figuratively.
Speaker 1: The problem with that is guys think there are a
Speaker 1: lot better than they actually are, and That's that's why
Speaker 1: Cowboys haven't won a championship since n That's that's why
Speaker 1: they have this perception of what they are, and sometimes
Speaker 1: that gets in the way of doing the things that
Speaker 1: are hard in order to move your program forward, making
Speaker 1: sure that on a day in, day out basis, guys
Speaker 1: are grinding. It's too comfortable down there in Dallas. More
Speaker 1: often than not, it's too because everybody's praising you. Bill
Speaker 1: Parcelles to say, don't take the cheese. Don't take the cheese.
Speaker 1: But when you have an owner and Jerry Jones that
Speaker 1: loves stars and caters to them, it makes it tough
Speaker 1: to have the right mindset in order to compete and
Speaker 1: win at the highest levels of their sport. M I
Speaker 1: love Jered Jones. I'm just saying that's the reality. Well,
Speaker 1: the reason I brought it. I brought that up is
Speaker 1: because there are some players over the years. Das Bryant,
Speaker 1: he's a star, he's a hell of a player. He
Speaker 1: was a guy that you have to he kept offensive
Speaker 1: coordinators count. Oh yeah, absolutely. There's a guy like Miles
Speaker 1: Austin who he played well, but because he played for Dallas,
Speaker 1: he was a superstar. But then when you look at
Speaker 1: his statistics. You hear the word superstar and you look
Speaker 1: at the stats and my man is under ten thousand
Speaker 1: yards total. That ain't a superstar, right, and it's not shaded.
Speaker 1: But hey, but when we were playing down there, he's
Speaker 1: dat kept Kardashian, Let's see what I'm saying. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it's it's Tony Romo was just a consumption. He's a star.
Speaker 1: That's just what it is. But sometimes all of that
Speaker 1: stuff can get in the way of a team focusing
Speaker 1: on the things that's gonna help them do high of
Speaker 1: a winning steve. I'm telling you, man, fifteen Pro Bowlers
Speaker 1: and two thousand and seven, if you didn't make the
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl, you was an alternate. That That's how it
Speaker 1: was with the Cowboys because we were that good. So
Speaker 1: then how did you not take the cheese we did?
Speaker 1: Know I'm saying no, no, no, I'm talking about you.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about you individually. I know I'm not saying
Speaker 1: collect I'm talking about you you individually. Well, I was
Speaker 1: still I was still Poe. I was, you know, thinking
Speaker 1: body slam making two hundred dollars a year. You like,
Speaker 1: I ain't got tired. You brought it back up. I
Speaker 1: was gonna ask you, what was your viewer that seawalk like?
Speaker 1: Was it more snoopish or was it more like littleish?
Speaker 1: I don't know from my perspective, flat on my back,
Speaker 1: how it was your few of it that kind of
Speaker 1: DJ quick as as Less Brown would saying, when you
Speaker 1: get knocked down, if you could look up, get up
Speaker 1: boy Christmas Like I don't want to get up. I
Speaker 1: thought I thought he broke some Categorize your NFL experience. Um,
Speaker 1: you talked about Dallas. Now you you're transitioning to a
Speaker 1: you're not also now just in a historical organization. Now
Speaker 1: you're in with the Gotham city right now, you're in
Speaker 1: New York, New Jersey. High expectations. Right you're on the
Speaker 1: team with a Manning, You got Michael straight hand. You know,
Speaker 1: you got all of these guys on the team, and
Speaker 1: then you got the expectations, and y'all are kind of
Speaker 1: you're living in a little bit the expectation on football field,
Speaker 1: and you let them folks down, right, you give them
Speaker 1: a little bit, just just just a little taste, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you you know, you don't live
Speaker 1: up to the expectations. So what was your NFL experience
Speaker 1: after leaving Dallas becoming the free agent going to the
Speaker 1: to the Giants. Yeah, so for me, I'm I'm from
Speaker 1: New York. I was born in New New York. Um,
Speaker 1: so it was an opportunity to come back to the
Speaker 1: crib Um and that they gave me a monster contract,
Speaker 1: like and I remember being in Jerry Reese's office and
Speaker 1: being a contract offer and I was like, well, this
Speaker 1: ain't what I wanted, Like I wanted a certain number
Speaker 1: in my average annual value and Jerry Reese was like, well,
Speaker 1: I can't pay you that because we got guys that
Speaker 1: have made Pro Bowls and want Super Bowls that that
Speaker 1: aren't getting paid that. And I told Jerry reach that
Speaker 1: sounds like a youth problem. Like if you don't, if
Speaker 1: you can't give me my money, then I'm going somewhere else.
Speaker 1: And I already had another team that was on deck,
Speaker 1: and I was ready to fly me from New York
Speaker 1: to their place and get the deal done. And so
Speaker 1: they ended up doing the deal. And it was this
Speaker 1: huge relief because I and grinding for four years trying
Speaker 1: to get to this paper. And and so that first
Speaker 1: year in New York was kind of like a paid
Speaker 1: vacation for me, Like I wasn't the best version of myself.
Speaker 1: I was eating good. It was Del Frisco's, it was
Speaker 1: s t K. I'm partying in Greenhouse, Mr Child kicking
Speaker 1: I'm kicking it, Mr Child's, I'm kicking it with the
Speaker 1: Knicks players, the Yankees dudes, like you know, because everybody
Speaker 1: knows my name and I got that bag and I'm
Speaker 1: from the So it's just like I'm just living it
Speaker 1: up like you know them six in front of them too.
Speaker 1: That's what it was. Any giving day of the week,
Speaker 1: if you were trying to figure out what the night
Speaker 1: spot was, guys would come to me because I knew
Speaker 1: it was cracked. Like I knew I had a schedule.
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't about working out. It was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this club on this night? Is this club on this
Speaker 1: Like I was living it like that that first year.
Speaker 1: Jerry Rees absolutely did not get his money. When le
Speaker 1: give us a guerience, give me a good close. No
Speaker 1: oh no, no, man, he got illustrations. I love it. Yeah, yeah, photos.
Speaker 1: I ain't got no illustrations. I gotta plug my power
Speaker 1: for it. Yeah, it's getting white boy. I don't want.
Speaker 1: I thought he was getting an external hard drive. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you so, I can't let y'all get that evidence.
Speaker 1: Let me let me tell you something. I need permission.
Speaker 1: I need permission slipped from a lot of guys before
Speaker 1: I get to them. Store and my guest room. Ain't
Speaker 1: never had a six ft ay dude in the guest room.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what that band looks like compared
Speaker 1: to you, my my house, we got the band, imidges,
Speaker 1: it's compared to even We used to kick it. We
Speaker 1: used to kick it heavy. But after that first year, um,
Speaker 1: that was time for me to just kind of relax
Speaker 1: and enjoy having the financial security. But then I got
Speaker 1: refocused on Okay, this is my career. Let me make
Speaker 1: sure I'm a professional. We're trying to accomplish something here.
Speaker 1: We got a core guys that could actually do some winning,
Speaker 1: and I got back on my grind because I wanted
Speaker 1: Like every NFL player, they want to have that championship
Speaker 1: ring on their resume, and especially in a place like
Speaker 1: New York. Like you win in New York, they will
Speaker 1: never forget you. Like a part of why I'm working
Speaker 1: in sports media now is because I got that Super
Speaker 1: Bowl ring in two thousand and level, you know, So
Speaker 1: it's just one of those things like I got back
Speaker 1: on that type of grind Um. Two thousand and ten,
Speaker 1: we won ten games, but we didn't get into the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and then obviously to eleven we sneak into the playoffs,
Speaker 1: went into Division against the Cowboys in week seventeen, and
Speaker 1: then uh we went on a run from there in twelve.
Speaker 1: When the Giants decided that they were gonna cut me
Speaker 1: after that season, that was one of those things that
Speaker 1: was hard to swallow because it was the place that
Speaker 1: I wanted to be. It was the guys that I
Speaker 1: wanted to be working with UM, and for the first
Speaker 1: time in my football career, I was told I wasn't
Speaker 1: good enough. You know, I got fired UM. And that's
Speaker 1: kind of one of those things that drove me to
Speaker 1: want to go to Baltimore because that was a franchise
Speaker 1: that had a lot of cast offs, had a lot
Speaker 1: of misfits, a lot of guys that had the same mentality,
Speaker 1: and so I wanted to be a part of what
Speaker 1: IDIA put together just because I had my own acta grind,
Speaker 1: which was to try to prove the Jerry's and the
Speaker 1: New York Giants that they made a mistake in getting
Speaker 1: rid of it. Um. And that's where I actually rediscovered
Speaker 1: my passion for football. Um, you know, taking it back
Speaker 1: to when I first started playing in high school. Because
Speaker 1: it wasn't about the money, it wasn't about a quest
Speaker 1: for a ring, it wasn't about some agenda. It was
Speaker 1: about just enjoying the opportunity to dominate the man across
Speaker 1: from me every single play. And that was the collective
Speaker 1: mentality of the Raiders. What do you mean specifically your
Speaker 1: passion you you reignited your passion for football. People would
Speaker 1: naturally assume that as athletes, you guys eat, sleep, breathed,
Speaker 1: that's the only thing. And the business of corporate America,
Speaker 1: like everyone doesn't wake up like you know what, I
Speaker 1: can't wait to get to work, right, Like you have
Speaker 1: other things that you are that you have within your life.
Speaker 1: I would I would disagree you you have to do
Speaker 1: in the season, you have to eat, breathe football because
Speaker 1: outside of outside of plane. So that's what he's saying.
Speaker 1: He So, is that what you're saying when you lost
Speaker 1: your passion? No, No, that's not what I'm saying. It's
Speaker 1: like the business side of football can sometimes get in
Speaker 1: the way of your passion for the game. And so
Speaker 1: for me, like I was riding high after we won
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, but then I had to have a
Speaker 1: knee surgery, I had to have an eye surgery. Only
Speaker 1: played in eight games in twelve and then the Giants
Speaker 1: cut me. So when they cut me, it's like, damn,
Speaker 1: I got told for the first time I wasn't good enough,
Speaker 1: and that that that hurt me in a way that
Speaker 1: it wasn't kind of affected me. It wasn't yeah, it
Speaker 1: wasn't your fault. Like some of that you get it
Speaker 1: if you don't wake up and say, man, let me
Speaker 1: get a knee injury to day, right, especially especially microfractic,
Speaker 1: like I had to have microfractice. So it's just like
Speaker 1: it's one of those things like, man, like why is
Speaker 1: all of this happening to me? Why are they doing
Speaker 1: this to me? Why is this going down? Like that?
Speaker 1: It just it takes away from it because like there's
Speaker 1: an underbelly to the sport, and it's just like we
Speaker 1: don't we're getting rid of you. We don't want you
Speaker 1: here anymore. Like imagine this, you want a Super Bowl
Speaker 1: the year before. They called you in after the next
Speaker 1: year and they say, we appreciate everything you dove was,
Speaker 1: but we're cutting you today or we're firing you today.
Speaker 1: We got X, Y, and Z. They're gonna clear out
Speaker 1: the locker for you and this organization. Where do you
Speaker 1: want your stuff? Ship? Like what we want your whole life,
Speaker 1: your whole life of your locker and they box it
Speaker 1: up and they ask you where would you like it
Speaker 1: to be? What did you do with that stuff? How
Speaker 1: how did you handle that? It's still in a box
Speaker 1: in my crib in South Carolina? Now, man, it's still
Speaker 1: in the box. Bro. I still hadn't I still hadn't
Speaker 1: even gone through it. And it's crazy, man, because these
Speaker 1: are people that tried to frame it as this is family.
Speaker 1: We were all in this together, like this is you know,
Speaker 1: And yet when they fired me, I talked to the
Speaker 1: general manager, he fired me. I talked to Coach Coughlin,
Speaker 1: and then when I got back out of Coach Carflin's office,
Speaker 1: they had a security officer there escort me out of
Speaker 1: the building to my car like after we like that's
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like we worked together to put this
Speaker 1: trophy in the trophy case. And then this is how
Speaker 1: you treat me. So again, when I say rediscovering my
Speaker 1: passion for football, I don't necessarily mean it in the
Speaker 1: sense that I didn't love the game at some point.
Speaker 1: I just didn't like the business of the game. But
Speaker 1: I was able to put all that to the side
Speaker 1: in Baltimore just because of the mentality that the general manager,
Speaker 1: Ozzy K. Newsom had and the mentality that the guys
Speaker 1: in the locker room had, which which was, listen, all
Speaker 1: of us and misfits. All of us are rejects, and
Speaker 1: guess what, we're gonna shove it up. Everybody else is
Speaker 1: asking the NFL, and that's why we brought you here.
Speaker 1: What's funny? Mystery. They may still have all of my stuff.
Speaker 1: When I was in Baltimore, I had to. When I
Speaker 1: was in Carolina, I had two lockers, the locker of
Speaker 1: my of my stuff and then my shoes because my
Speaker 1: custom shoes, because of my feet and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: But when they cut me, I grabbed my photos, I
Speaker 1: grabbed my mouthpiece, I grabbed some significant things, and I
Speaker 1: grabbed my shoulder pats, all other panthers stuff that they had,
Speaker 1: all my cleats, I left it. The ship is still
Speaker 1: in there. Donny was like, hey, you know, if you
Speaker 1: want that, I'm good. You can have three four boxes
Speaker 1: of stuff still sitting in there, my name labeled on there,
Speaker 1: and I go, no, I don't want it. One it's
Speaker 1: not I don't want it because of I was upset.
Speaker 1: It was a transition of business. I'm not wearing that
Speaker 1: like back out in the community. Like you ain't gonna
Speaker 1: see me walking through the grocery stores. Some panther gear
Speaker 1: cleiks like to use them. Let me get this avocado right,
Speaker 1: And it's just because you're going on to the next team.
Speaker 1: So the only thing I had is my my stuff
Speaker 1: that was essential to me that I needed. And then
Speaker 1: my shoulder pass, my shoulder pass for the same shoulder
Speaker 1: pass I wore my whole career warm in Baltimore. They
Speaker 1: try to give me the change because of the color.
Speaker 1: I was like, no, I want those shoulder paths. But
Speaker 1: you just a business aspect of it. Man. It's so
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say grime me, but it's a business right,
Speaker 1: And it's man, we love you until you cannot work
Speaker 1: for us anymore. Will be cordial. Don't make a big scene. Right,
Speaker 1: security is gonna walk you down for me, and they
Speaker 1: cut me. Already knew that was cutting, all right. My
Speaker 1: deal was don't make me drive my ass down there
Speaker 1: at eight o'clock when you knew you was gonna know
Speaker 1: you're gonna do it. You knew he was gonna come
Speaker 1: me last night. Because now, man, I'm me. I told
Speaker 1: him Smitty Steve steven asian A nine, I'm at the fool.
Speaker 1: So if you cut me Saturday morning, and you knew
Speaker 1: Friday night or Thursday afternoon he was gonna cut me, yo,
Speaker 1: that's better cut me today. You know you're gonna cut
Speaker 1: me because if I drive trying made this extra trip,
Speaker 1: if I try, if I tried, if I get my
Speaker 1: cup of coffee, want my car run and I gotta
Speaker 1: turn back around, I got turn back around. Somebody gonna
Speaker 1: catch these hands. You exactly right. And not only did
Speaker 1: they make me burn my gas when I got cut
Speaker 1: by the but I had to pay that toll coming
Speaker 1: in New Jersey. I feel like that to be I
Speaker 1: need and you emotionally unstable. Still you drive past that
Speaker 1: hole like that five dollars they knew they could have saved. Man,
Speaker 1: I need to expense this man, that man, you gave us.
Speaker 1: You gave us all that we asked for and more. Brother,
Speaker 1: it's been a privileged only to talk to you, man, teammate,
Speaker 1: a brother, dude. I admire man. Uh a halfway Charlotte, Tim,
Speaker 1: but that my man is I love Charlotte. He loves Charlotte.
Speaker 1: But I'm from l a from Brooklyn man. At the
Speaker 1: end of the day, right and uh absolutely, Steve, It's
Speaker 1: an honor, the privilege to be on your podcast and
Speaker 1: the feeling the mutual in terms of your impact on
Speaker 1: my life. And I just want to continue to to
Speaker 1: to send good vibes and blessings over you and your family.
Speaker 1: And again I can't I can't say enough about the
Speaker 1: work that you're doing the community. Man. Keep doing that, man,
Speaker 1: and not a lot of people talk about it, but
Speaker 1: there's a need for that man, the work that you
Speaker 1: do with domestic violence and highlighting that man. Continue with that. Brother.
Speaker 1: We love you for that. Appreciate your brother. You are
Speaker 1: a unique person. You are well worth it, you are
Speaker 1: competent and most of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer,
Speaker 1: I'm Gerard little John and this is cut to it.
Speaker 1: Cut to it, with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me
Speaker 1: is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media,
Speaker 1: The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast
Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: From Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, SINGR co
Speaker 1: host Gerard Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci,
Speaker 1: Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto
Speaker 1: Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Ryan Falka
Speaker 1: Chevic and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrec.
Speaker 1: Production coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics
Speaker 1: and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. If you ain't heard about it,
Speaker 1: then we're about to let you know. It's all