Speaker 1: Friend of the show, former All Pro linebacker, host of
Speaker 1: the Lights Out podcast. We welcome to the couple of
Speaker 1: Shawn Merriman. What's up, brother, what's up Sean? What's up? Fellas?
Speaker 1: How you doing? We are great, man, great to have you.
Speaker 1: Happy holidays to you and your family. And uh, let's
Speaker 1: before we get into the sports. Now. You are trying
Speaker 1: to get Congress working. You're working with this initiative to
Speaker 1: help local gems that are close to being closed. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's called Jim co Jim's Coalition dot org. Can you
Speaker 1: kind of tell us about that? Yeah, you know, there's
Speaker 1: something I've been very passionate about. Man. As you guys know,
Speaker 1: I'm still gonna beat here, right, I still work out
Speaker 1: as much as possible. And there's a lot of other
Speaker 1: people out there too. Um. And I know we're talking
Speaker 1: about the restaurants being shut down in some sential businesses.
Speaker 1: But to me, in my opinion and how I always
Speaker 1: shoked by the gym, is the gyms are essential not
Speaker 1: just to look up, but to feel good man. And
Speaker 1: look look at the uh you know, the mental health
Speaker 1: uh and the depression anxiety that's raised over these last
Speaker 1: ten months. And you're telling me that the gyms aren't
Speaker 1: essential enough to have people working in there. And there's
Speaker 1: gonna be thousands of gyms here man closing in the
Speaker 1: next sixty days or so. Um and four already closed
Speaker 1: down and not going to open up permanently. So it's
Speaker 1: just a shame that Congress isn't doing more to help
Speaker 1: these local gyms out. Man. I'm really trying to get
Speaker 1: it out there so people signed, um you know, sign
Speaker 1: this petition and get Congress moving on it. Yeah. It's
Speaker 1: it's like that spirit tire that Chris has, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like we need these gyms back open
Speaker 1: six you know eight, back that cag you carried around,
Speaker 1: ay Sean, we need we need to definitely talk about
Speaker 1: and um on on a lighter note, Uh, the fight
Speaker 1: where Nate Robertson got uh smashed there? What were you
Speaker 1: surprised by that? Not surprised? What did you make of
Speaker 1: that whole thing? Uh? Christ and I always talk about
Speaker 1: a lot of guys think they're tough, but that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you can box or get in the ring with
Speaker 1: somebody who's skilled. Right. No, you know when I came
Speaker 1: on on the show to you guys, and I said,
Speaker 1: he was gonna get knocked out sometime in the early
Speaker 1: second what we talked last time, and it happened early second.
Speaker 1: And the reason why I said this right, because Nate
Speaker 1: Robinson is still an athlete, so you always have an
Speaker 1: athlete's chance to be successful, just be beating or something.
Speaker 1: So I knew he was gonna get out of the
Speaker 1: first round. Um, but I watched Jake Jake Paul trained
Speaker 1: for a year and I see this guy, I see
Speaker 1: the due sparring other professional fighters and go and tell them,
Speaker 1: tell him actually looking pretty good. So I I knew
Speaker 1: that it was gonna end very bad for Nate Robinson,
Speaker 1: whether it was in the second round, third rounds. This,
Speaker 1: I knew something was gonna happen. And I tell these
Speaker 1: guys all the time, and I and I kind of
Speaker 1: transitioned in their combat sports over twelve thirteen years ago.
Speaker 1: You can play football, you can run some rounds, you
Speaker 1: can play back pick up in the basketball, you can
Speaker 1: go play sock and have fun. You can't play fighting.
Speaker 1: And I try to tell these guys that unless you
Speaker 1: you're sparring, you have the repetition going in there, Um,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna have any success. And look what happened.
Speaker 1: I mean, he he was the meme of this decade probably,
Speaker 1: I mean it was, it was everywhere. And I feel
Speaker 1: bad for him. I feel bad form, but not that
Speaker 1: much because you can't go in there just thinking because
Speaker 1: you're an athlete, you're gonna have some success. But Sean,
Speaker 1: when you get knocked out put to sleep like that,
Speaker 1: when I mean, that's going to be what he's remembered for,
Speaker 1: not that he was an NBA dunk champion, slam dunk champion,
Speaker 1: or you know what I mean, like like people will
Speaker 1: never forget that. That video will last forever, won't it.
Speaker 1: And and the unfortunate part is about it is that
Speaker 1: it is the fight game, right even some of the
Speaker 1: best who's ever done it, Muhammed Ali has been knocked
Speaker 1: down before. You know it just it's bound to happen
Speaker 1: at some point in time. But if you get in
Speaker 1: there and you don't have a good showing, then it's
Speaker 1: really gonna look bad. Um. And you know, I'm in
Speaker 1: the process right now. And and transitioning six former UH
Speaker 1: athletes from others sports, four NFL players, two track stars
Speaker 1: and rugby, starting two big YouTubers into m M A
Speaker 1: UM we we actually I started shooting the show on
Speaker 1: it in about a month and a half. Um, and
Speaker 1: so it's gonna watch them to be kind of like
Speaker 1: that type of thing. Yeah, yeah, because it's gonna it's
Speaker 1: gonna be showing. It's gonna be showing, um, you know,
Speaker 1: the transition and what it takes to go into M
Speaker 1: M A and the combat sports and show that you
Speaker 1: can't just walk off the street and think that you're
Speaker 1: an athlete and have to uh to success. But guys, listen,
Speaker 1: there's there's real guys. And I hate that this happened,
Speaker 1: right because there's real former athletes out there who can go,
Speaker 1: who can scrap. I've seen him in the gym. I've
Speaker 1: either sparred against them or I've watched them work. And
Speaker 1: I just hope that the general public don't get this
Speaker 1: whole um, you know, mindset about former athletes transitioning into
Speaker 1: a former sports. But that's interesting because I see now,
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I've people are looking at Nate
Speaker 1: Robinson as representative of let's just say football and basketball
Speaker 1: players like man, none of them could step in there
Speaker 1: and look good talking to remember Johnny Moreton. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: you know what we we always we always remember the
Speaker 1: ones gett knocked out, right, I mean even back when?
Speaker 1: Do we even back when they was? When I was
Speaker 1: talking about fighting some years ago, the first thing people
Speaker 1: were saying, what about Johnny Moore. I'm not Johnny Moore,
Speaker 1: don't that's it. But that's what we remember. We forget
Speaker 1: the Herschel Walker at forty some years old, came and
Speaker 1: want to come to right. Somebody needs to knock Kdall
Speaker 1: Gil Kimdall Gill. I don't know if you remember kimda
Speaker 1: to get a basketball. Dad. Remember Michael Westbrook that played
Speaker 1: while receiving for the Redskins. He was he was a
Speaker 1: damn good fighter. So we we always, we always remember
Speaker 1: the ones getting knocked out. And it's even worse now
Speaker 1: because they're social media. Like that knocked out for name opposite.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna be able to go to the club
Speaker 1: in the year or two. He's not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to go nowhere because that thing is gonna be looming
Speaker 1: over his head for a long time now there. And
Speaker 1: you I don't do you do? You? I know you
Speaker 1: do kind of everything? Mmm may boxing? I mean you
Speaker 1: even looking at bare knuckle fighting, like I want to
Speaker 1: add throw this out at you because you know these
Speaker 1: celebrity fights. I mean, now Floyd Mayweather's gonna fight Logan Paul,
Speaker 1: which obviously is kind of a joke, and and Jake
Speaker 1: Paul's challenging everybody in their mother to a fight. It
Speaker 1: seems like celebrity fights where the guys aren't really experienced
Speaker 1: or necessarily great fighters, you know, but but they're known
Speaker 1: people want to see that. Does that interest you at all,
Speaker 1: like maybe a celebrity, like if you follow another former
Speaker 1: football player or you know, would you be interested in
Speaker 1: anything like that If it's just because of your celebrity,
Speaker 1: people would probably want to see you fight. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: I've been saying, wow, I mean, I've talked about fighting
Speaker 1: other w W guys. I've been talking about fighting other
Speaker 1: football former athlete. And you want to box, It'll be
Speaker 1: m m A, It'll be m bazing because boxing boxing
Speaker 1: for me, I'm I'm past the stage they're gonna gonna
Speaker 1: do a box I've been training mm A, you know,
Speaker 1: practically for you know, over ten years. But I do think,
Speaker 1: I do think it's gonna be a thing. And I've
Speaker 1: said this for the past couple of years, right, there's
Speaker 1: nothing wrong, and it's gonna be frowned upon by real
Speaker 1: boxers and the real boxing fans. It's gonna be frowned upon,
Speaker 1: like the fact that Floyd made whether it's fighting Logan Paul,
Speaker 1: people can't stand it and and I and I get it.
Speaker 1: But times has changed, you know. So if you put
Speaker 1: Floyd maybe Weather against Logan Paul, but you're feeling that
Speaker 1: card up with other up and coming boxers. Now not
Speaker 1: only is it a great fight with that one, but
Speaker 1: now you're putting these other boxes on the map. So
Speaker 1: it's all about the promotion side of it. Uh. Me, personally,
Speaker 1: I've always been down will fight another athlete or another
Speaker 1: w W guy or another actor or somebody another I'm
Speaker 1: always down with that. I've been saying up for years
Speaker 1: if it comes about. But until then, man, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna keep promoting lights out of Traine fighting and growing up.
Speaker 1: All Right, I got one last question before you go,
Speaker 1: and and you know, be honest. I know you're honest. Guy,
Speaker 1: Drew Brees is coming back, uh this Sunday, And um,
Speaker 1: I've seen some players on TV say this like, look
Speaker 1: it's football baby, and you know his ribs, you know,
Speaker 1: we know the situation levin fracture ribs. Are dudes going
Speaker 1: to be going for his ribs? Well? Okay, So I
Speaker 1: so I played with Drew right in two thousand five
Speaker 1: when he was with the Charges and I was about
Speaker 1: forty ft the way when he dislocated his shoulder. I
Speaker 1: mean it was one of the nastiest injuries. I mean
Speaker 1: it's literally get hurt like it sounds like a tree branch.
Speaker 1: That was just a snap and it was gruesome and
Speaker 1: he was walking over and me personally and a lot
Speaker 1: of other people thought that he would never play again.
Speaker 1: So personally, I think the Drew is gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: I think they're probably gonna hit him up with some
Speaker 1: quarter zone the light of cane or something that just
Speaker 1: makes sure the pain is not there once you're tore
Speaker 1: it all. Make sure the pain is not there. But
Speaker 1: you have to think as a defensive player, Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I might land on them and lay on them a
Speaker 1: little bit longer, you know, like that's that's definitely gonna
Speaker 1: cross your mind. But more importantly, going into this game,
Speaker 1: the game plan is hit get the ball out of
Speaker 1: Drew Breese hands. So if I'm a defensive play a
Speaker 1: pass rush or de tackle. I'm stopping at the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmag You're getting my hands up because I know
Speaker 1: that there's gonna be flats and out routes and quick patterns.
Speaker 1: They don't want to get through hit And shouldn't they
Speaker 1: be called at this point barbecue ribs since they have
Speaker 1: blood on them? Just now, I call him the mcribb
Speaker 1: McDonald's and make ribs back. And I'll never eat ribs
Speaker 1: with no bones. That's why I don't eat the McRib
Speaker 1: What kind of ribs have no bones in them? The
Speaker 1: one Drew brees gotta they keep slaying on them. That's
Speaker 1: our man, Shan Mary, and we always love having you
Speaker 1: lights Out host of the Lights Out podcast. To check
Speaker 1: it out, and good luck with your initiatives to man
Speaker 1: with the gym. I appreciate it, alright, alright, Happy holidays.
Speaker 1: That's Sean Merriman.