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 It, Good do It.
Speaker 1: That's getting down to do it with Good do It.
Speaker 1: We asked the questions you always want to know, but
Speaker 1: no one ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't
Speaker 1: heard about it, then we're about to let you know
Speaker 1: it's all coming up. On the cut to a podcast,
Speaker 1: we've got Lorenz O'Neil, a four time pro bowler and
Speaker 1: All Pro, a member of the two thousand's NFL All
Speaker 1: Decade Team, but more importantly, just a fountain of wisdom.
Speaker 1: Lorenz O'Neil on the Cut to a Podcast, A guy
Speaker 1: you blocked for two gave us a great story when
Speaker 1: we asked this, um is where are you from? In
Speaker 1: a place you call your hometown. The more the L
Speaker 1: the move the big L town La Moore, California, where
Speaker 1: I'm from. So if you look at California, you guys
Speaker 1: know how long it is, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: longest states to travel to California. We're in the Central Valley,
Speaker 1: so we're dead smack in the middle. We're three hundred
Speaker 1: miles south going down to l A. We're three hundred
Speaker 1: miles north going up to the Bay San Francisco. So
Speaker 1: we're in the middle. And those so Fresno, Bakersfield, by Saia,
Speaker 1: by Saiah, bakers for all those town those little those
Speaker 1: little towns by the way, related to Tommy Smith, member
Speaker 1: the sixty four Olympics up there when you know, so
Speaker 1: he's from the more Steve Perry just a long just
Speaker 1: a small town boy living in a lonely world. He's
Speaker 1: you know, you know, dang your journey. He's more to
Speaker 1: Steve Perry. So small town, but it's just a country,
Speaker 1: a lot of egg form laying around, you know. So,
Speaker 1: but we are centrally in the Central Valley. So that's
Speaker 1: why they call it the cent Valley, where the raising
Speaker 1: capital of the world. We produced over seventy five billion
Speaker 1: dollars a year in in aggon and food. We feed
Speaker 1: the majority of the world. Central Valley is so rich
Speaker 1: in farm land, so that's where it's at. So three
Speaker 1: miles south you go to l A, three hundred miles
Speaker 1: north you go to San Francisco. So we're kind of
Speaker 1: we're dead smack in the middle growing up there. How
Speaker 1: did that shape your view in the world today. Well,
Speaker 1: I think that, you know what, you were blind a
Speaker 1: little bit, but you were also it made you see
Speaker 1: things differently because you're a young man growing up in
Speaker 1: a town like that. Lots of Portuguese, a lot of
Speaker 1: majority of Portuguese, and you know, and in white and
Speaker 1: you know, blacks were kind of not necessarily a majority.
Speaker 1: A lot of the blacks came from you know, the
Speaker 1: South and moved to Lamore, the Central Valley because you know,
Speaker 1: in the sixties and fifties, a lot of people left,
Speaker 1: you know, far as leading getting out of the the
Speaker 1: you know, Texas and stuff. So a lot of them
Speaker 1: came out to California. My dad and grandmother my grandmother
Speaker 1: was a Biola and Oliver was my grandfather, and they
Speaker 1: came from Texas on the back of a truck, my
Speaker 1: dad and his six brothers and my aunt Bernice, and
Speaker 1: so it was a guy, a Cunneyman, they called him Cunneyman,
Speaker 1: and he would drive people and families out to California.
Speaker 1: And they took him out to the Island District and
Speaker 1: now the Island District. It was quoted like a a
Speaker 1: not a plantation, but it can a community almost, yes,
Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely where all the blacks lived on on the
Speaker 1: land and they shared and they work worked on different
Speaker 1: forms and chopped cotton, picked cotton, and everyone says, chopp cotton.
Speaker 1: You don't chop cotton. What you do is you chopped
Speaker 1: the weeds. So I grew up and we had we
Speaker 1: had fifty acres and we still have it now I'm
Speaker 1: developing that now residential. But so I had to I
Speaker 1: had to chop cotton growing up. So you chopped the
Speaker 1: weeds that are around the cotton. You gotta get a
Speaker 1: hole and you go down the roads and you just
Speaker 1: you hold the weeds from around the cotton. Um so
Speaker 1: for it won't won't struck before it won't strangle the
Speaker 1: cotton for to grow. So those are some of the things.
Speaker 1: And then my grandparents, my dad, my mom, they also
Speaker 1: we had to pick cotton. So you pick the cotton,
Speaker 1: you make sure picking your the sacks that you pick,
Speaker 1: you wait them and you got paid for that. I
Speaker 1: didn't pick cotton, but you know, my my thing was
Speaker 1: I did chop, you know, the weeds from around it.
Speaker 1: But we had a cotton picker so we didn't have
Speaker 1: to do that with my grandparents, and my mom and
Speaker 1: dad had to do. So those kind of things kind
Speaker 1: of they kind of molded me and kind of you asked,
Speaker 1: you know, what did it bring for me? It taught
Speaker 1: me how to work. You taught me about hard work.
Speaker 1: I still go out and cut grass. I you know,
Speaker 1: I have rental properties and latle more. I got a
Speaker 1: hammer and nail like and sheet rock. I try to
Speaker 1: tell my kids, I said, look, when dad gone was
Speaker 1: Dad's gone. That's why I try to get you guys
Speaker 1: to come out here and work, because you need to know, well, dad,
Speaker 1: we can hire someone. I said, yeah, but if you
Speaker 1: got a room and you gotta you know, tend by
Speaker 1: ten by ten room, you know that's four how many?
Speaker 1: You know? Where's the stud you got? Your two before
Speaker 1: is every sixteen or every twelve inches? So I can
Speaker 1: tell you even though you don't have to be going
Speaker 1: out going out and doing the work, at least I
Speaker 1: want you guys to know how many sheet how many
Speaker 1: two before is you need to by? So if you
Speaker 1: learn that stuff now, no one can't beat you. So
Speaker 1: those those are the certain things that really really that
Speaker 1: I gravitated towards that kind of you know, still keep
Speaker 1: me and keeps me molded. Who I am? My grandmother,
Speaker 1: like I said, she was nineties seven when she died.
Speaker 1: And I remember my senior year. I was the League
Speaker 1: Player of the year. I was the Central Section player
Speaker 1: of the year. I was the valley player, the athletic
Speaker 1: of the year, and I was Northern California Athlete of
Speaker 1: the Year. And I was California Athlete of the Year.
Speaker 1: And Janet Evans says, Lorenzo is the King, and Janets
Speaker 1: the Queen. Janet EVTs who won the Olympics. And I
Speaker 1: beat out Michael Kim who was a tennis player, UM
Speaker 1: for Athlete of the Year, Curtis Conaway, all the greats.
Speaker 1: And I remember sitting with my grandmother and she said,
Speaker 1: come here. What she said, sit down? And said, oh, grandma,
Speaker 1: she's like she's going to sit and talk to me.
Speaker 1: She had an old beat up station one and said,
Speaker 1: don't worry, I'm not gonna give you the station where again.
Speaker 1: I said, oh, thank god? And so he said down.
Speaker 1: You know what, sudden she goes, you can do all
Speaker 1: those things she calls you know what, you're all these athletes,
Speaker 1: all these you know, accolades you're getting and people are
Speaker 1: bragging about you, she said. But let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: She said, I came from Fort Worth, Texas. I had
Speaker 1: your I was I was picking cotton. As she said,
Speaker 1: she was a forming over twenty people. That she was
Speaker 1: you know you still she was picking cotton, but she
Speaker 1: was forming over twenty people, making sure they picked and
Speaker 1: did the things that they need to do. She said,
Speaker 1: I was pregnantly druncle Joe. I went into labor on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: I went worked Thursday, I had your uncle. Friday, I
Speaker 1: went back to work and I said, Grandma, why don't
Speaker 1: you just take the weekend. You're already gonna be off
Speaker 1: for the weekend, and you just could have took Friday
Speaker 1: and then been off and go back Monday. She said, son,
Speaker 1: she goes, I'll tell you this, never take a vacation
Speaker 1: when the bosses around, she I said, why not? She said,
Speaker 1: they'll realize how much they don't need you. And at
Speaker 1: that time, I really know, as a senior in high school,
Speaker 1: but you know, all those times and she how was
Speaker 1: she even got to see me play in the pros.
Speaker 1: She lived a great life, But all that time I
Speaker 1: didn't know until you know got in college and then
Speaker 1: the heighs the pros. She was telling me something. You
Speaker 1: could be as good, You could be the best. But
Speaker 1: if you take a vacation when the bosson around, they'll
Speaker 1: realized they don't know need you. Someone else is gonna
Speaker 1: take your price. Someone else is just as wrong. Someone
Speaker 1: else wants to be that supervisor. Someone else wants to
Speaker 1: be that supervisor over twenty someone else wants to be
Speaker 1: that starting fullback. Someone else wants your job. So never
Speaker 1: take a vacation when the boston around, because they will
Speaker 1: realize how much they don't need you. And those are
Speaker 1: the things that I still tell my kids. Those are
Speaker 1: things that I tell people when I go and talk
Speaker 1: to them. Those are so important for not just not
Speaker 1: just not just in sports, but just in life in general.
Speaker 1: It's fun is when hearing you say all of this
Speaker 1: with the same enthusiasm. Is how you taught a lot
Speaker 1: of players. Why you why you were on teams with
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Bengals with the obviously on that um Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame career where la Damian Thomas and and and
Speaker 1: just what you did and meeting a guy named Steve
Speaker 1: Smith before he became senior at the Pro Bowl. Um,
Speaker 1: just all of that stuff that you've taught so many
Speaker 1: players that have so many high um admirations for you. Man,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. My thing, Stephen, You know it, man,
Speaker 1: you're that guy that everyone in the league. They knew,
Speaker 1: whether you know, watching you play in the attitude and
Speaker 1: which you went about it and you demanded respect and
Speaker 1: it wasn't You didn't have to talk about it. They
Speaker 1: just knew Steve was gonna be playing. I don't care.
Speaker 1: They knew that they were gonna go into the meeting.
Speaker 1: They don't care how big, how small, hall or whatever.
Speaker 1: They knew that they had the game playing for you.
Speaker 1: You can't teach that. That's something that you have inside you.
Speaker 1: That's something that's been instilled. That's just your heart. That's
Speaker 1: just your termination. No size or nothing determines who you are.
Speaker 1: That doesn't define you. Steve is you know we're talking
Speaker 1: about me and I don't mean you. That's what we
Speaker 1: have a kind of spirit. We love each other, love
Speaker 1: each other family. But the biggest thing, man, it's like,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. It could be the biggest dude in
Speaker 1: the world. Steve. You ain't backing down even if they
Speaker 1: whipped your ass, that's just not who you are. I'm
Speaker 1: being you know. You know that, bro, that's just but
Speaker 1: a lot of people we pit bulls, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't have that. They don't have that in factor.
Speaker 1: It's you gotta you gotta kill us. And that's what
Speaker 1: makes that's the difference between good and great. That's the
Speaker 1: difference that separated you. And that's the difference that separate you.
Speaker 1: That you can wait, Okay, you no way, not on
Speaker 1: my watch, no way. You might beat me. You might
Speaker 1: win the game, but you ain't beating Steve. That that's
Speaker 1: just how you're built. You wasn't beating you. You might
Speaker 1: win the team, your team might have lost. You might
Speaker 1: your team might have struggled. But something inside of you
Speaker 1: that you're gonna say, I'm whooping your ass today, you ain't.
Speaker 1: You might, you might, you guys might win. But I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you right now, y'all don't know that I'm here.
Speaker 1: You would block, you would hit guys. You would. It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what your job was. That's what made you great, bro,
Speaker 1: That's what made you great. I don't know if the
Speaker 1: sounds how do how do you feel hearing that from Lorenzo,
Speaker 1: it's hard to digest the bill what that's just it
Speaker 1: allows you, I believe. One of the reasons why I
Speaker 1: have such a hard time hearing compliments, especially from people
Speaker 1: I admire or respect or I really value, including you
Speaker 1: and a lot of you know people are our production
Speaker 1: team and that we work with, is because it allows
Speaker 1: me to take my card down. And I don't like
Speaker 1: taking my card down, because if I take my guard down,
Speaker 1: the fear of more of being emotionally hurt because of
Speaker 1: I know, you know you can physically hurt me. And okay,
Speaker 1: I you know I have a high threshold of pain.
Speaker 1: You know, I've been through some things emotionally that that's
Speaker 1: hard to get through, right you You've seen people who
Speaker 1: have dealt with things emotionally as children, and you can,
Speaker 1: you can talk to someone long enough you realize, Man,
Speaker 1: their childhood screwed them up. I don't want to be that, right.
Speaker 1: I think some of my childhood already wounded me. Sure,
Speaker 1: And so that's why, you know it's it. It has
Speaker 1: taken a lot of years to create a smile for me.
Speaker 1: Along For a long time, it was easier to frown,
Speaker 1: you know, because if you keep yourself close guarded, like
Speaker 1: if you look like you're unapproachable, people want to approach you, exactly.
Speaker 1: And if people don't approach you, you you don't have to talk.
Speaker 1: So it just goes down the whole thing. And so
Speaker 1: you know that really that isolation, right, Um, for a
Speaker 1: long time, isolation was where I thrived, right, It's where
Speaker 1: I felt comfortable. So you know, so and with that,
Speaker 1: with that, you know, even though you were loved, then
Speaker 1: you find it hard to really submit or to be
Speaker 1: just okay, I'm a very I'm a bear who aream
Speaker 1: because you're used to being on this island and people
Speaker 1: might say they can help you, they might tell you
Speaker 1: they love you and all those different things, but it's
Speaker 1: just it's it's it's a it's a place that you
Speaker 1: just like you. You want to believe it, but anytime
Speaker 1: things happen, if you don't have you, yeah, it's you.
Speaker 1: It's like a mental prison. Almost, No, it's not, it's not.
Speaker 1: It's not a mental prison. What's the prisoner is having
Speaker 1: a friendship with someone that it isn't really a true friendship.
Speaker 1: That's because because then what are you left with your
Speaker 1: left You're left sitting there picking up your own emotional pieces,
Speaker 1: going see and you start to digest or you start
Speaker 1: to piece together, well, they don't want to really be
Speaker 1: my friend. That you don't say they aren't my friend,
Speaker 1: or the relationship wasn't good because they are someone who's wounded,
Speaker 1: or didn't know this or that it's or was it
Speaker 1: I said this that that that made them feel this way?
Speaker 1: Did I do this and and some of it? So
Speaker 1: you start to figure out and then you start putting
Speaker 1: putting the piece together, so you're having a conversation with
Speaker 1: yourself ultimately says I did something wrong, that's why it
Speaker 1: didn't work out. So if you don't have that, then
Speaker 1: you're safe. So it's not it's not that prison that
Speaker 1: you know. You're feeling safe this. People who don't run
Speaker 1: would not get this. There's a place where it's called
Speaker 1: no man's land, where the slow runners are, where they
Speaker 1: are then the fast runners, or where they are if
Speaker 1: you're stuck in the middle. So if you if you
Speaker 1: hang with the slow people, right, y'all go at the
Speaker 1: pace that's comfortable for you, guys. But if you're if
Speaker 1: you're a slow person trying to run with a fast
Speaker 1: pace and you can't keep up your body. Your mind
Speaker 1: say your mind's telling you legs, just say no, right,
Speaker 1: your legs like acid build up, you start heading a
Speaker 1: breathing and so you start to back up. You're in
Speaker 1: the middle. You're in between the fast people, but you're
Speaker 1: you're not fast enough to be with for the for
Speaker 1: the for the six minute mile pace, but you're faster,
Speaker 1: You're faster than the fifteen minute mile pace. So you're
Speaker 1: stuck in the middle. So you have to maintain chase
Speaker 1: but keep off the slow people. So you're you're in
Speaker 1: the middle and you're dog low and that if you
Speaker 1: are not prepared and ready to run a marathon by yourself,
Speaker 1: come on, it's a struggle. I mean, it is a struggle.
Speaker 1: And some people and I'm not saying this and and
Speaker 1: a negative I'm just I'm just being honest. I'm throwing
Speaker 1: it out there. This is where some people commit suicide.
Speaker 1: This is where some people, uh slip the risk. This
Speaker 1: is where some people do not know how you're being
Speaker 1: real deal with some of what's going on. And there
Speaker 1: have been times pretty much a lot of my career,
Speaker 1: I would say about seven right at first, first eight
Speaker 1: or nine years, man, I was okay with being No
Speaker 1: Man's Land. I preferred being in No Man's Land because
Speaker 1: you couldn't tell me I was too slow. Hell, I
Speaker 1: knew I couldn't run fast. So I was okay with
Speaker 1: being No Man's Land because it gave me a place
Speaker 1: there was. I was my judge, jury, and executioner. And
Speaker 1: I was happy with it. Because some nights I went
Speaker 1: to bed terrible day, I was okay with I'll just
Speaker 1: go to sleep, wake up, try again. I trusted no
Speaker 1: one to really give me anything that was really beneficial.
Speaker 1: And that's why Michael Jackson said it best. Stuck in
Speaker 1: the middle. You got to get over. You can't get up. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: y'all like, but it's just you know, and that's where
Speaker 1: it is. And and I think that No Man's Land
Speaker 1: is a really good place, but it is a very
Speaker 1: dangerous place without some some good counseling, without some some
Speaker 1: good mentor ship, without some people that really can love
Speaker 1: on you and you also can love on them back,
Speaker 1: Like Zow is one of those guys. You know, when
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl happens, um, when some big event that
Speaker 1: requires us former players are current players to get around
Speaker 1: each other. We see each other that's he's one of
Speaker 1: those guys where I'm okay if he's a slow runner,
Speaker 1: a fast paced running, I'm okay with sprinting with him
Speaker 1: because he just lifts you up. You see someone, it's
Speaker 1: like it's like going to an event or you're the
Speaker 1: new employee at a huge corporation and you're going to
Speaker 1: the cafeteria and you see that one person you know
Speaker 1: and you are belining to them. Yeah, I'm comfortable, Yes,
Speaker 1: but it's not comfortable because I feel safe. It's comfortable
Speaker 1: because of who he is or who she is, and
Speaker 1: those one Lorenzo is wanted as those guys he texts.
Speaker 1: Um you ask and they say, well, it's for Lorenzo.
Speaker 1: I've been on the show a few times and that's
Speaker 1: some days I'm like, it's West Coast Mathematics today. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like Lorenzo. Oh yeah, that big dog. Absolutely, And
Speaker 1: that's what that's who he is that he like he
Speaker 1: loses the confidence of true friendship. Really like me and
Speaker 1: you're bomb. You get on my nerves, I get on
Speaker 1: your nerves, but ultimately you're one of my closest friends
Speaker 1: and I would lose if I would lose you in
Speaker 1: our friendship. It would take me a long time to
Speaker 1: get over. I could buy some friends, but bro, you
Speaker 1: are you You're not one of those friends. That that's
Speaker 1: I don't have the amount of money in my bank
Speaker 1: account because of what you brain. You know, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Well, man, that's that's a that's that's heavy.
Speaker 1: But even with that, Lorenzo, how how do you how
Speaker 1: did you landed that place that Steve is described as being,
Speaker 1: for lack of a better words, being an o G.
Speaker 1: Being the person that looks out for other people, you
Speaker 1: know a lot of it. Like Steve, we've we've been hurt,
Speaker 1: we've been but you still love people. And for me,
Speaker 1: my dad he was just my dad, you know, as
Speaker 1: a pastor and you know you'd be passed five years ago,
Speaker 1: and uh he was a good man. Was he perfect? No?
Speaker 1: And I think that you know, growing up sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: being a you know, a set of a preacher, you
Speaker 1: stray and I'm a lie, I'm a chieved, I'm you
Speaker 1: name it, I'm not I'm that person. And and then
Speaker 1: something I thought, like like Steve talked about, you know,
Speaker 1: have I'm not saying to speaking for Steve, but I'll
Speaker 1: speak for me. Have we have I thought about that?
Speaker 1: I get a gun and put it, pull it out
Speaker 1: and say I'm gonna commit suicide? No? Have we all
Speaker 1: thought of Have we thought about it? Have we thought
Speaker 1: about relationships? All those different things? Yes? I think that
Speaker 1: if you people that say that they haven't, I think
Speaker 1: they're not. They're lying to themselves. We we we are,
Speaker 1: we are humans. We are human beings and in those
Speaker 1: nature and those things that we're talking about, love and
Speaker 1: respect and knowing who one another is. My dad told
Speaker 1: me a couple of things, and one of them that
Speaker 1: just stuck out with me and he said, he said, son,
Speaker 1: you know, I got out of college running while gotten
Speaker 1: pros doing my thing. And he said, son, he goes
Speaker 1: he got to sow down, and he just but he knew.
Speaker 1: But he talked me in a way, he says, son.
Speaker 1: He said, Look, if you hang out with four people
Speaker 1: that make a dollar, he says, son, pretty soon there'll
Speaker 1: be five. And wow, and you just I mean, and
Speaker 1: it's and it's your timing. So when you're asking. Was
Speaker 1: always good to people, Yeah, all the time, wasn't crazier
Speaker 1: and assis when I was drunk, But far As just
Speaker 1: being a good person. I was always a good person.
Speaker 1: I've done some bad things, and we all have. And
Speaker 1: that's why for me, I had to learn how to forgive, forgive,
Speaker 1: forgetting that, you know, because we can do other people,
Speaker 1: you know, low money and do things and be there.
Speaker 1: But then sometimes we do all these things because we're
Speaker 1: not willing to forgive U forgive ourselves. And that's what
Speaker 1: I had recently. And that's why, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: I depend more on a higher power, and you know,
Speaker 1: I get up and try to pray more. I get
Speaker 1: up and try to do things for not that I'm
Speaker 1: some Bible thumper, you know, I still understand it, because
Speaker 1: what happens is we have been taught a lot of
Speaker 1: black churches and a lot of black that, hey, you
Speaker 1: gotta do this, you gotta give more money, you gotta tie,
Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta go you know what, you gotta go,
Speaker 1: do this, you gotta do this. No, and Exodus Jesus said,
Speaker 1: he said, you know, God, he said, I'm the guy
Speaker 1: who brought the children of Israel for forty I brought
Speaker 1: you out of Egypt, he says, So hear me. See
Speaker 1: so many people in churches, and I think that's what
Speaker 1: we that's why people turn from God that like he's
Speaker 1: a genie in a bottle and they rubbed a bloom.
Speaker 1: Ah need a new car, Oh God, I need a
Speaker 1: new house, or I needed this, I need that, and
Speaker 1: it's but they're not, they're not. That's not what he
Speaker 1: that's not what he came for, Kim and show. It's
Speaker 1: just how to live, how to treat people, how to
Speaker 1: be good to people. That's what and and and that's what.
Speaker 1: We don't want to do that because that's not our nature.
Speaker 1: Our nature is the lie, to cheat, to steal, to
Speaker 1: do those things, because that's what he said, don't give
Speaker 1: any man no praise. So until you asked me, so
Speaker 1: until recently learning just to forgive and learning that hey,
Speaker 1: look I'm okay, you know what doctor gave me. Because
Speaker 1: because we go through we might sin, we might do
Speaker 1: those things, and we feel so we feel so disconnected
Speaker 1: because of things that we've done in our past or
Speaker 1: you know, we did something or we felt a certain way,
Speaker 1: we said some things, we did something we hated, we
Speaker 1: talked about some when we did things that we didn't
Speaker 1: speak like, and it's like you feel so guilty, but
Speaker 1: you know what it's okay. That's why it's only one
Speaker 1: good and that's God. We gotta stop, you know, we
Speaker 1: gotta stop always holding ourselves and looking at ourselves and
Speaker 1: judging ourselves. And because when you get to that point,
Speaker 1: sometimes you're just like, man, you'll go down this endless
Speaker 1: path and the spiral because of the fact you're continuing
Speaker 1: to hold yourself and it's never gonna be good enough.
Speaker 1: We'll always search for perfection. And that's why we always
Speaker 1: post a chase after Christ to be more like what
Speaker 1: he was on this service, not like because because man,
Speaker 1: we get we get it mixed up, we mess up
Speaker 1: because we're human, and that's what we got. So I
Speaker 1: just tried to learn to let God they look, You're
Speaker 1: in control, whether I lie, whether I still, whether I
Speaker 1: do I'm still gonna you know, I still, I don't
Speaker 1: do it, don't do it intentionally. The least to know, man,
Speaker 1: that God knows and he's forgiven, he knows our hard.
Speaker 1: So that's what's been the biggest thing for me. When
Speaker 1: you're asked, what, how how do I get to that place?
Speaker 1: Is I can't do it, man. It's trying to trying
Speaker 1: to hold it up and trying to do all the
Speaker 1: things for you. You'll go crazy trying to take care
Speaker 1: of it. We weren't trying to be everything to everybody.
Speaker 1: You'll go crazy. We're not We're not capable. How do
Speaker 1: you deal with self care? Then? You know? For me?
Speaker 1: You know, for me, I have a a guy named
Speaker 1: Ron passed Ron who I talked to you. But it's
Speaker 1: not about it's not about judgment and Steve, I have lied.
Speaker 1: I lived a lie. I lived a lie for a
Speaker 1: lot part of my life. That you say, you get
Speaker 1: to a certain age, supposed to be married, get to
Speaker 1: a certain age, post have kids, you posed to say,
Speaker 1: this is what you supposed to do. You want that
Speaker 1: trophy wife, You want to do those things and nothing
Speaker 1: that they have done. Nothing. That's not that they're not
Speaker 1: a great person. It's not that they treat you us,
Speaker 1: not that they're all those things. But if you're a
Speaker 1: pepsi and all of a sudden you you try to
Speaker 1: be a coming orange soda, it doesn't work. You'll never
Speaker 1: become an orang Solda because you're a pepsi. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: sometimes we force we do things out of this is oh,
Speaker 1: chief fine, or this is that, or and and and
Speaker 1: that person is nothing. They did nothing wrong, but because
Speaker 1: you went into it because it was something that you
Speaker 1: felt that you need to do. It's something you feel.
Speaker 1: Feeling is the emotion. It's not that necessarily the truth.
Speaker 1: And sometimes you hurt kids, you hurt generations because you
Speaker 1: hurt you write, you hurt whether you hurt because you
Speaker 1: won't tell them the truth. You won't let them know
Speaker 1: who you really are. And you did something. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe you want to go camping, but you know what,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't know. It's all about Louis and it's never
Speaker 1: it's never been about that. And that's but that's who
Speaker 1: they've been. They you got married to him. Hey I
Speaker 1: don't want to run to camp. They would never do
Speaker 1: those some of the things that you or go fish
Speaker 1: or do the things that you want to do. And
Speaker 1: you did it because you felt that I needed to
Speaker 1: feel a void. And we then when you have the
Speaker 1: things that we have to disposal income, we can fix
Speaker 1: the problem despite throwing money and you throw it. It's
Speaker 1: it's a temporary solution and and and it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: the truth. We have to take a break, and we
Speaker 1: gotta pay some bills. 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?
Speaker 1: What about Twitter? At? Cut to It Facebook? Cut to
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: questions answered. That's what I'm here for a brother, cut
Speaker 1: to It podcast dot Com. Coming up on the Cut
Speaker 1: to It Podcast, we've got Tori Smith, two times Super
Speaker 1: Bowl Champion, eight year NFL veteran with the Ravens for
Speaker 1: the Honors Eagles, Panthers, and he's the founder of the
Speaker 1: Tory Smith Family Fund with his wife Shania. Tori Smith
Speaker 1: on the cut to It Podcast, Where Where did you
Speaker 1: grow up? Where are you from? Just like give us
Speaker 1: the rundown of James Toys, he pulled out the government name, man.
Speaker 1: He put the government name out there, man. I grew
Speaker 1: up in a small town in Virginia, A small town
Speaker 1: called Colonial Beach, Virginia is known for two things. The
Speaker 1: first president of the United States from the area, George
Speaker 1: Washington and also the General of the South Robberty lead.
Speaker 1: Look at that count there isn't really too much going
Speaker 1: on where I'm from his country, small town. All my
Speaker 1: families from there, and I was raised by my mother
Speaker 1: from the oldest of seven. I was raised my mother
Speaker 1: and my grandmother, and you know, we kind of we
Speaker 1: went through a lot going up. You know, my mother
Speaker 1: had been when she was sixteen years old, so we
Speaker 1: really grew up together. A lot of misteaks she made.
Speaker 1: You know, I was right there along with her for
Speaker 1: the ride she's She's had times, you know, where she
Speaker 1: was in arserrated, she was in a very abusive marriage
Speaker 1: at one point, and you know, I was right along
Speaker 1: with on that journey. So all of the things that
Speaker 1: we went through really made me who I am. Um.
Speaker 1: I had to mature and grow up a lot earlier
Speaker 1: than a lot of my peers. And because of that,
Speaker 1: you know, I was able to handle and and everything
Speaker 1: that came my way. You know, I tell people all
Speaker 1: the time, I knew everything there was about being a
Speaker 1: parent besides actually working. And you know, I know there
Speaker 1: were some tough moments and things that you know, most
Speaker 1: kids really shouldn't go through our experience. But for me
Speaker 1: now being an adult, I was sure made me who
Speaker 1: I am. Your mom got a caution ready, where you
Speaker 1: were when you were young? You know how young were
Speaker 1: you when she was in Cartion? Ready? Yeah, my mom was.
Speaker 1: She was in out of jail um a lot because
Speaker 1: of the relationship that she was in. They would fight
Speaker 1: all the time, and fight all the time. You know,
Speaker 1: she used to fight when she was younger. You know,
Speaker 1: in her childhood wasn't the best either, So it really
Speaker 1: it was just kind of generational curses in my family
Speaker 1: that I you know, my whole goal was to learn
Speaker 1: from my personal experience and try to break them as
Speaker 1: an adult. And I remember when I was in probably
Speaker 1: second grader, so it was probably the last time she
Speaker 1: was in car show. I take that back. It was
Speaker 1: in third grade and she shot her ex husband. She
Speaker 1: shot him. She said she was aiming for his body
Speaker 1: and she hit him in the knee. So good things
Speaker 1: she can't shoot because you know, she probably wouldn't be
Speaker 1: out here right now. But she had had enough and
Speaker 1: that was probably one of the longest things she had
Speaker 1: and you know, it wasn't over a year, but she
Speaker 1: spent some months behind bars, for sure, but I just
Speaker 1: remember being there and visiting her one time, and to
Speaker 1: be honest, that was probably one of the last times
Speaker 1: I had actually been in a prison to visit a
Speaker 1: family member. There, I take that, but there was maybe
Speaker 1: two other times. But I never liked it that that
Speaker 1: was the last time I saw my mother behind bars,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't the last time that she was actually
Speaker 1: behind bars. And I just couldn't put it in my
Speaker 1: my mind to to see her in that condition, you know,
Speaker 1: to see her behind bars, because I know she's a
Speaker 1: flawed woman, just like I'm a flawed man. But that's
Speaker 1: my mom. I know, I know her heart, and so
Speaker 1: it was tough for me to see that, which is
Speaker 1: probably sounds crazy for me saying that, because we we've
Speaker 1: been to prisons together, Um, you know, visiting people, and
Speaker 1: I can do that all day, but to me, it's tough,
Speaker 1: you know, looking at my own family member, you know,
Speaker 1: in that situation, and it's something that I told her
Speaker 1: that I wouldn't do, and I hadn't. To this day.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll get over it a little bit, but to me,
Speaker 1: that's honestly a little bit of trauma there that I've
Speaker 1: I've tried to stay away from. But you know, it's
Speaker 1: like I said, it wasn't the last time that it happened,
Speaker 1: but it was the last time for a long time
Speaker 1: before she had another incident. You're saying that you're still traumatized.
Speaker 1: What what are some of the things that you're dealing with,
Speaker 1: you know obviously as a man, a father, a husband,
Speaker 1: you know, and then ultimately a son that you're still
Speaker 1: trying to get through. Yeah, that's probably one of the
Speaker 1: biggest things for me as an adult. You know, you're
Speaker 1: you don't realize things when when it happens to you, right,
Speaker 1: and as men, especially black men, you're kind of taught
Speaker 1: to just suck it up, holding in, stay to yourself
Speaker 1: and keep going. You know, I found myself as a
Speaker 1: young and you know, being angry um about certain things,
Speaker 1: and I didn't really know how to communicate it. And
Speaker 1: so I understand when I see a kid now that's
Speaker 1: lashing out, and I'm like, man, like, I see that
Speaker 1: because I've been in your shoes, um, as an adult
Speaker 1: looking at my kids now, you know, whether it's abused,
Speaker 1: whether it's the way I communicate with my wife, these
Speaker 1: are all things that I had to learn, Like, you
Speaker 1: don't know that you have issues until you're around somebody
Speaker 1: that lets you know that you're wrong. Yeah, well you
Speaker 1: didn't have a playbook, right, And and experiencing that kind
Speaker 1: of trauma, it's it's it's definitely big. And I think
Speaker 1: for all three of us. I know, you know, Smithy
Speaker 1: has his own background. My mom has been through and
Speaker 1: it's a survivor of domestic violence as well, and so
Speaker 1: it is a lot. And while I didn't witness my mom,
Speaker 1: you see the reverberations and how you just deal with her.
Speaker 1: And so just sharing that of you know, how you
Speaker 1: deal with your mom and and and the and the
Speaker 1: trauma that you've dealt with it, that's man, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's tough because we all are you know, we all
Speaker 1: are taught just kind of deal with it, go on.
Speaker 1: We we we process it and we move on. But
Speaker 1: we really don't process you do it? No, we don't
Speaker 1: at all. And that's the bro I just thinking about it,
Speaker 1: going back and some of the stuff that I witnessed
Speaker 1: as as a as a youngster, watching my mom deal
Speaker 1: with some of the stuff that she's she dealt with
Speaker 1: with her her husband when he was, when he was alive,
Speaker 1: when I was younger. I can I can literally go
Speaker 1: back and close my eyes and see those times that
Speaker 1: like midnight one a young when the when my mom's
Speaker 1: you know, now he's passed away. Husband, you should just
Speaker 1: be raided and talk down to her, and she was.
Speaker 1: I remember specifically one time she was. He was standing
Speaker 1: over her, calling her all these calling the names, and
Speaker 1: she was crouched down and just fearing for her life.
Speaker 1: And we were living on Cambridge Avenue in a duplex.
Speaker 1: And I just remember that even at forty one. Right now,
Speaker 1: I can remember that. You remember the smell, remember I can't.
Speaker 1: I can remember the pain, color, I remember the remember
Speaker 1: the crazy, the what they don't even now that I'm
Speaker 1: I guess now that I'm I'm an adult and got
Speaker 1: a little change in my pocket, like they don't even
Speaker 1: we call them armed wars, but they were like TV stands,
Speaker 1: And I remember the TV standing like I can visualize everything,
Speaker 1: and so hearing what you said, I can't imagine. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I guess for me, is there some shows
Speaker 1: that I watched today that I have to turn off
Speaker 1: because it triggers something in me that stirs something up
Speaker 1: in me that's just like overwhelming. So I'm I can't imagine.
Speaker 1: Do you go through that now, toy? Do you did?
Speaker 1: You know, if you watch and obviously how violent shows
Speaker 1: are you when you see someone, especially a woman that
Speaker 1: is maybe pulling the trigger of a of a significant other,
Speaker 1: do you go back in time a little bit? Do
Speaker 1: you have that trauma or you just kind of like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's just a TV show. No, it's for sure brings
Speaker 1: you back to that moment, you know, just listening to y'all, like,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a thousand in cents that I can
Speaker 1: think of where I remember the smell of the car,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's just like you remember
Speaker 1: every single thing, and that to me isn't something that
Speaker 1: I realized, like it's stuck with me. Not because it
Speaker 1: was a great memory, but it was a traumatic experience.
Speaker 1: And so when you're watching TV and you see a
Speaker 1: story comes up, or you're looking at a kid that's
Speaker 1: curled up that feels like they're powerless, you know, like
Speaker 1: you remember what it was like to be in that situation.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're watching a man and his tone
Speaker 1: dealing with the woman, you realize, dang, like that's an issue,
Speaker 1: you know, And and even in myself, like I try
Speaker 1: to make sure that even when I'm talking to my
Speaker 1: wife that I'm not letting my tone get to a place.
Speaker 1: I will never physically put my hand my hands on
Speaker 1: my wife, but I know that the way my tone
Speaker 1: could be could be just as dangerous as putting my
Speaker 1: hands on my wife. And so that that's important for
Speaker 1: me to know. But I come from a family where
Speaker 1: communication between my mother and my grandmother was hot stop.
Speaker 1: You know, my mother in the way we communicate that time,
Speaker 1: and she talked to us because of her own pain
Speaker 1: was hot style, and so you have to learn like
Speaker 1: if that's all you know, you think that's just how
Speaker 1: people communicate, right, And it's introduced me to the fact
Speaker 1: that I know, like, yeah, I' about to talk to
Speaker 1: me like that just thing, okay, all right? Like and
Speaker 1: so there's things that I seriously like my wife, like
Speaker 1: people talk about being woke now about social issues, like
Speaker 1: my wife made me woke and aware of my own
Speaker 1: issues that I haven't dealt with or that I needed
Speaker 1: to deal with. How are you dealing with those right now?
Speaker 1: And I've I've had to talk to counselors. In the past,
Speaker 1: I've had to talk to my peers. I've had to
Speaker 1: talk to Steve Smith. I've had to talk to Aunt Kwanbo.
Speaker 1: Then you know, I've had to talk to some of
Speaker 1: my receiver coaches, Jim Hustler, Bobby Ingraham, you know, like
Speaker 1: there are some some great men um that I've I've
Speaker 1: had the Adam Henry, you know, he's down there in
Speaker 1: Dallas right now. The received goes for the cowboys, like
Speaker 1: these are men that I was able to talk to
Speaker 1: about real issues. But guess what they all had experiences too,
Speaker 1: which is something that to me and being in an
Speaker 1: environment where, like I said, as young black men, and
Speaker 1: even mental health in the black community in general, it's
Speaker 1: like a stigma, like it's negative to go get help. Yep.
Speaker 1: The reality of it is like no one if you
Speaker 1: continue to hold all this stuff in, like you're never
Speaker 1: gonna be able to heal and move on. Why do
Speaker 1: you think it is? It's such a big stigma, and
Speaker 1: obviously in the black community. And the reason I say
Speaker 1: the black community is because you're listening to Tory Smith
Speaker 1: and cut to it, and this is an audio podcast
Speaker 1: and we're black, so That's why we're saying black men,
Speaker 1: because I don't know what it's like to not be
Speaker 1: a black man. But I also don't act like I
Speaker 1: know what it's like two be a non black man.
Speaker 1: And so there is especially right now in this climate,
Speaker 1: that there is a little bit of times people are like, well,
Speaker 1: why does it all you have to be black? You know?
Speaker 1: Or why does it have to be race? You know?
Speaker 1: Sometimes racists just used as a you know, as a
Speaker 1: measuring stick, or also just to to paint a picture
Speaker 1: of what people experience. Like I mean, you know, I
Speaker 1: hate to say this way, but a short guy has
Speaker 1: no idea what it's like to deal with being a
Speaker 1: seven foot tall guy trying to get into a small car.
Speaker 1: Like there are things that you have to deal with
Speaker 1: that other people don't have to deal with. So that's
Speaker 1: why I say, as a black man or black men,
Speaker 1: why is mental health such a stigma in the community,
Speaker 1: Where when you really think about it, when you just
Speaker 1: strip away all of everything, Bro, you gotta imagine, tory,
Speaker 1: you what you've dealt with as a young man, watching
Speaker 1: your mother shoot her husband, me, watching my mom get
Speaker 1: beat by her husband. Gerard watching his mom get beat
Speaker 1: by her husband. And to say that this doesn't have
Speaker 1: an impact on you. You don't see the world a
Speaker 1: little bit with apprehension. Man, you gotta be blank and
Speaker 1: kid me. It's what we have experienced as young men.
Speaker 1: There's some people are walking in that are walking around
Speaker 1: having never experienced that will never experience it. And thankfully
Speaker 1: my kids will never experience having to watch me put
Speaker 1: my hands on my wife. The only thing I put
Speaker 1: my hands on is a gentle hand on my wife.
Speaker 1: But you know what I'm saying, But just it's it's experiences, man,
Speaker 1: And I think what all of us we're saying is
Speaker 1: that we're just so often taught as black men and
Speaker 1: maybe as men in general, but our experiences are as
Speaker 1: black men, we're taught suck it up, don't say nothing,
Speaker 1: don't tell the family secrets. We're gonna talk about uncle
Speaker 1: Uncle Earl down the street and what he's done. Right
Speaker 1: like we just we we always and to elaborate on it.
Speaker 1: We just always keep it within. We keep all our
Speaker 1: family business within the family. That's just it just seems
Speaker 1: you don't hear your dirty laundry. It's about to me,
Speaker 1: and I think that's truming itself. One thing that in
Speaker 1: the black community that we've struggled with, specifically along the
Speaker 1: lines of mental health is that it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: everyone around you is dealing with it, right, and that's
Speaker 1: that's like generalizing it. But what people are saying is that, okay, uncle,
Speaker 1: uncle Earl was dealing with it. You know. You you
Speaker 1: can talk to your peers that some people are dealing
Speaker 1: with the exact same things. But it's like you want
Speaker 1: to protect the people in your home still in spite
Speaker 1: of their flaws, you know. And and we are consistently
Speaker 1: told and taught as men too tough, and like it's
Speaker 1: about being masculine and strong, like you're weak if you
Speaker 1: have to reach out and you can't control what your
Speaker 1: thoughts are in your mind, you know. And in other communities,
Speaker 1: you know, it's important to speak of like I know
Speaker 1: people who are you know, some of our wife friends
Speaker 1: from high school who were dealing with issues with sports,
Speaker 1: dealing with losing, and it was okay for them and
Speaker 1: their parents were willing to have them reach out to
Speaker 1: a counselor or to a therapist. In the black community,
Speaker 1: oh you're talking to the crazy folks. You're gonna you
Speaker 1: gotta go to the crazy house. You know, you kind
Speaker 1: of get judged for wanting to reach out to get help.
Speaker 1: So that's why it's important for men like us to
Speaker 1: speak out about it, because people are dealing with issues.
Speaker 1: A lot of the issues we see now, whether it's
Speaker 1: crime really specifically talking about crime. When you see it,
Speaker 1: you know, I see the kid who witnessed abuse, who
Speaker 1: had no guidance, who couldn't trust people like I couldn't
Speaker 1: trust people because that the people who are responsible for
Speaker 1: providing for you are putting you in environments that you know,
Speaker 1: as a child you shouldn't even be in, Like you're
Speaker 1: gonna have some trust issues. You know, you may follow
Speaker 1: the wrong crowd because of that. And that's not to
Speaker 1: make excuse for everyone's issues, but I understand, and so
Speaker 1: to me, like, that's a big thing that we had
Speaker 1: to continue to talk about because again, we all have
Speaker 1: these problems. And I would have never known Steve had
Speaker 1: these problems if I didn't talk to Steve about it, right,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I wouldn't know g had it. We didn't
Speaker 1: talk about it. So it's important for us to continue
Speaker 1: that conversation, man and to be better and to break
Speaker 1: that because we have our issues dealing with your trauma
Speaker 1: and negative experiences. You can't do it alone. I think
Speaker 1: it's about that time. Just take a little breather. Good good,
Speaker 1: let's get down to do it. Hey, Gerard, why did
Speaker 1: you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes, I got it
Speaker 1: from cut to a podcast dot com where we have
Speaker 1: exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at seven or
Speaker 1: four shot. But yeah, you can go on, buy you
Speaker 1: a T shirt, subscribe to us whereever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: Our guest today is Malcolm Jenkins. He's in his tenth
Speaker 1: year in the NFL. He's a three time Pro Bowler.
Speaker 1: He's a Super Bowl winner with two different teams, the
Speaker 1: Saints and the Eagles, and he's just made a return
Speaker 1: back to the New Orleans Saints. I think what's most
Speaker 1: impressive is he is a contributor now to CNN. He's
Speaker 1: also the founder of the Player's Coalition and the Malcolm
Speaker 1: Jenkins Foundation. Where did you grow up? So I was.
Speaker 1: I was born in East Starns, New Jersey, is right
Speaker 1: next to North UH and I lived there for until
Speaker 1: I was properly in the third grade, and then I
Speaker 1: moved to UH. Piscataway, New Jersey, which is actually where
Speaker 1: my dad's from, maybe like forty five minutes away. But
Speaker 1: my whole family uh is still in Jersey. The majority
Speaker 1: of them are in North and East. How would your
Speaker 1: mom or dad describe young Malcolm as a kid growing
Speaker 1: up in East Orange, New Jersey. Uh, they say I
Speaker 1: was a good kid. Like they laughed. They you know,
Speaker 1: I'm the oldest of three boys and so uh and
Speaker 1: I got plenty of cousins. You know, we we got
Speaker 1: a lot of us in my generation of the family.
Speaker 1: But I was a good kid. But you can, as
Speaker 1: as you can imagine with all of these boys, you know,
Speaker 1: we get in trouble a lot. But they would say
Speaker 1: I was the smart one who knew how to not
Speaker 1: to get a whooping. So everybody else, you know, your
Speaker 1: kids don't know how to stop having fun. Like right
Speaker 1: before you get to that point where you you're about
Speaker 1: to get the attention to your parents, I'll be the one.
Speaker 1: I'll be right right and locks that with everybody until
Speaker 1: I'm like, ah, y'all get a little too loud and
Speaker 1: I sit down. By time the adults come in the room,
Speaker 1: I'm the only one, you know, chilling and everybody else
Speaker 1: going crazy. They get a woman and I'll just be laughing.
Speaker 1: I was a smart one for show. You had three
Speaker 1: generation of of Jenkins in the same household growing up. Yep,
Speaker 1: what was that? Three generations one time? That's pretty cool,
Speaker 1: like break that down for us. Yeah, So, uh, Piscottaway,
Speaker 1: New Jersey. Uh, you know, my grandmother owned the house
Speaker 1: that my dad grew up in, and so you know,
Speaker 1: he went to North Carolina and t when he got out,
Speaker 1: him and my mom met there. We lived in you know,
Speaker 1: up in North Jersey, so East Tharn's, North Urban Ton.
Speaker 1: We bounced around a little bit, but once we got
Speaker 1: back to Scataway, we moved back into that to that house.
Speaker 1: So my grandmother was still living there. Um and my
Speaker 1: my uncle, so they were downstairs and then upstairs was me,
Speaker 1: my two brothers and then my parents. So you really had,
Speaker 1: you know, three generations between my grandfather, my grandmother, Uh,
Speaker 1: my father then you know, his sons until to my
Speaker 1: grandmother retired and she moved to Virginia, sold the house
Speaker 1: to my to my dad because she didn't given no discounts,
Speaker 1: and then uh, they're still there. You went to a
Speaker 1: all black elementary school. I believe from pre king till
Speaker 1: about third grade, I didn't. I really didn't realize how
Speaker 1: different my experience was until recently as an adult, Like
Speaker 1: as people have been kind of having these conversations about
Speaker 1: you know, when did they kind of notice that they
Speaker 1: were black? And for me, when I started schools called
Speaker 1: Chad School uh in North New Jersey. My aunt was
Speaker 1: actually one of the first She was in the inaugle
Speaker 1: kind of the first class of that school, and all
Speaker 1: of the teachers, majority of students were black. And it's
Speaker 1: a private school. And so because it was private, they
Speaker 1: you know, you get hit with a ruler. Uh, you know, everybody.
Speaker 1: You we had to address each other and our teachers
Speaker 1: as uh sister and brother. We someng lift every voice.
Speaker 1: Every single day. Every Friday was we had a play,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the classes would do a black
Speaker 1: history kind of uh play and tell different stories throughout
Speaker 1: history every single Friday. And you had pre k all
Speaker 1: the way in the twelfth grade. And so it really
Speaker 1: created a sense of community and pride in your blackness,
Speaker 1: your heritage, your history. And then once I got to
Speaker 1: the third grade, I moved to Proscottawat and went to
Speaker 1: public school. And it wasn't until then that I realized,
Speaker 1: you know, how different, you know, though the curriculum was
Speaker 1: of the traditions and and you know, really kind of
Speaker 1: the blackness was nowhere to really to be found. What
Speaker 1: it did prepare me, though, was when I was in
Speaker 1: those environments, I was very, very comfortable with who I was,
Speaker 1: my heritage and my family and all of those things.
Speaker 1: Where I think it's been when I talk to people,
Speaker 1: it's been like the opposite. You know, they didn't really recognize,
Speaker 1: you know, they had to learn later in life, like
Speaker 1: how to be proud about who they were because they
Speaker 1: saw immediately when they went to school that they were different. Um,
Speaker 1: and I've had a different experience, and so like it's
Speaker 1: one thing I've been talking about a lot recently because
Speaker 1: we need more of those types of spaces where you know,
Speaker 1: you know, not to jump off on a tangent, but
Speaker 1: I'm talking to a lot of black educators and less.
Speaker 1: I think it's like two percent of all educators are
Speaker 1: black men, and so to go, you know a lot
Speaker 1: of us will go through preschool all the way to
Speaker 1: high school and not have a black man at the
Speaker 1: front of in your classroom. Yeah, And what that does
Speaker 1: is like you you never see yourself and that as
Speaker 1: a teacher, you never see yourself as a leader. You
Speaker 1: can you can go your whole you know, time through
Speaker 1: school and never have a black principle, um. And so
Speaker 1: you don't have these examples that are in front of
Speaker 1: you that tells you you can be a leader, that
Speaker 1: you're smart, that you can teach, that you can you know,
Speaker 1: do all of these things. And you see white people
Speaker 1: in those spots, and for white kids, they never see
Speaker 1: a black person in those spots either. And so without
Speaker 1: being you know, overt or anything, these are kind of
Speaker 1: the messages that kids take in. And you know, like
Speaker 1: I said, I didn't even really notice the difference until
Speaker 1: you know, much later as an adult when I'm talking
Speaker 1: to people with different backgrounds. But there's it's no coincidence
Speaker 1: that I still have a lot of friends that went
Speaker 1: to Chad School with me, uh and we're all very
Speaker 1: like minded when it comes to you know, what we're with.
Speaker 1: Our business interests are what we are fighting for, how
Speaker 1: we raise our kids, our pride and kind of our heritage.
Speaker 1: And it's no surprise that it started, you know, at
Speaker 1: such a young age. I mean I can. As you
Speaker 1: were talking, Malcolm, I'm I'm thinking back, and I didn't
Speaker 1: have a male teacher until I was in the eighth
Speaker 1: grade and he was our defensive backs coach, and that
Speaker 1: was that was literally it. So it's it's profound for
Speaker 1: you to bring that up, because it's one thing to
Speaker 1: hear the statistic. It's another thing to see it in
Speaker 1: your life. And you jumped into a lot of the
Speaker 1: things I think we wanted to talk about in terms
Speaker 1: of some of the work that you're doing today, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk about a lot of that, But it's almost
Speaker 1: as if a lot of those things were planted in
Speaker 1: you as a child, whether it be from your family
Speaker 1: or being at that school. Why do you think that
Speaker 1: was important to you? Why do you think it's played
Speaker 1: a part into who you are today? Well, I think
Speaker 1: my parents are very intentional, you know about it, And
Speaker 1: they never really taught me, or at least I couldn't
Speaker 1: really remember any you know, real specific lessons about being black,
Speaker 1: but they definitely created an environment in which always, like
Speaker 1: I felt comfortable in it and always was around it
Speaker 1: and learning things. But also my dad did a really
Speaker 1: good job of um exposing me to other cultures as well. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we we go visit my grandmother and Virginia
Speaker 1: and we stopped at different places, historical markers, and you
Speaker 1: talk about the Battle Gettysburg and all these different things, um,
Speaker 1: you know. And as a kid, sometimes these lessons you
Speaker 1: they're boring and you don't think you understand them until
Speaker 1: you become an adult. And then all of these things,
Speaker 1: you know, are just ingrained in who you are. And
Speaker 1: so I think for me now as a as a parent,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to you know, replicate some of those same
Speaker 1: lessons that that my parents, um, you know, taught me.
Speaker 1: And and not just about again you know, your own
Speaker 1: blackness and their heritage and history, but others as well.
Speaker 1: I also understand that those lessons were I would never
Speaker 1: talk to those lessons outside of Chad School in my home.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I don't want my kids, you know,
Speaker 1: to go through these school systems and never learn about
Speaker 1: their own history and never learned about, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: their their heritage, where they come from, what they've been through,
Speaker 1: who they are as you know, as people, and who
Speaker 1: they who, what their what their lineage is, what they're
Speaker 1: cut from. Because I know that the world's not gonna
Speaker 1: tell them. So I think it's it's important, you know,
Speaker 1: for me, that's it becomes really important. And I also
Speaker 1: I believe that it's important for all of us to
Speaker 1: understand it, because I know if I'm not getting it,
Speaker 1: that that means also my white counterpart, my teammates, whoever,
Speaker 1: they didn't get it either. And so it's no surprise
Speaker 1: where we are right now as a country where we're
Speaker 1: having to have these, you know, really basic conversations about
Speaker 1: American history and how we got to where we are
Speaker 1: because we just haven't even learned half of you know,
Speaker 1: the history. Yeah, there's such a gap in the in
Speaker 1: the system, huge as you go through your experiences as
Speaker 1: at Chad School as a private black school. I in
Speaker 1: the other hand, grew up in Los Angeles, and I
Speaker 1: remember I'm going to kindergarten in Los Angeles Unified school
Speaker 1: district and walking to school and in the first grade,
Speaker 1: they bust us out growing up in l A and
Speaker 1: knowing and seeing the pictures of l A. You know,
Speaker 1: traffic is blank, right, it's a beast. So they sent
Speaker 1: us out to the valley. So at the time when
Speaker 1: they sent us out the valley, I was living on
Speaker 1: seventy nine and Avalon, which is literally across the street
Speaker 1: from like from Freemont High School. And how I got
Speaker 1: my passion football was on Friday nights when we stayed
Speaker 1: in our apartments. That was like Fridays. I loved it
Speaker 1: because I got to watch football and I got to
Speaker 1: eat a TV dinner, right, and being poor TV dinner,
Speaker 1: you know, like the treat that's a treat, and you
Speaker 1: didn't eat everything. My mom put that TV dinner on
Speaker 1: a bucket, and on that bucket I would watch them playball.
Speaker 1: And I always dreamed a plot about playing ball. But
Speaker 1: what was crazy is, as you were talking, Malcolm, I
Speaker 1: remember us getting bust two. I'm using air quotes because
Speaker 1: nobody can see me to the white school mm hmm.
Speaker 1: And it was and I hate to say it this way,
Speaker 1: but it was a yellow bus full of people of
Speaker 1: color and we go out to this school. And I
Speaker 1: don't know why I remember this. It was this girl
Speaker 1: name Elizabeth that I thought was really cute, but she
Speaker 1: didn't want no parts of me, right. But the fact
Speaker 1: of the matter is, I just remember in the first grade,
Speaker 1: as Michael was talking, we got busted and we spent
Speaker 1: like an hour on the bus each way to go
Speaker 1: to school. And we did that for the school year,
Speaker 1: and then next year Mama was like, Nah, that ain't happening.
Speaker 1: You're going back to the school that you was going
Speaker 1: because she had to literally I would get out of school.
Speaker 1: You know, you gotta school to fifteen. Man, we weren't
Speaker 1: getting back home to like four or five o'clock. And
Speaker 1: I just remember that. I hate to say this way,
Speaker 1: but what were they doing. They were getting us out
Speaker 1: of the hood to get a better education in the valley.
Speaker 1: Now as an adult, now look at it. You don't
Speaker 1: need to bust us to give us a better education.
Speaker 1: Just give us better education. Bring it to us, bring
Speaker 1: it to not even bring it to us, Bring it
Speaker 1: to that area. That's what I'm saying. Bring it, bring
Speaker 1: it to where the people are. And and it's just
Speaker 1: interesting that you say that. And that's why I use
Speaker 1: the word disadvantage because all the years that we played
Speaker 1: against each other. Now doing this podcast, I get the
Speaker 1: I get the honest honestly, I get to learn the individuals.
Speaker 1: And it's really cool to learn the individuals because you
Speaker 1: get to see the layers of them versus in football,
Speaker 1: you're just playing ball. You're going at each other, you're cursing,
Speaker 1: you're spitting your your You're in the heat of battle.
Speaker 1: You don't have time. I want to break bread and
Speaker 1: just to conversate, to dialogue. And so this is really
Speaker 1: giving me a great perspective of Malcolm Jenkings because I
Speaker 1: don't I didn't really have this perspective. When I'm running
Speaker 1: a whatever route, I'm going against it, you and your coverage,
Speaker 1: and you're not discussing. Hey man, you know I want
Speaker 1: to I went to all black private school by bang
Speaker 1: let me. You know, he ain't exactly top of mind.
Speaker 1: It's not not not quite the priority of that. Also
Speaker 1: learned when you you went to high school, just to
Speaker 1: kind of move it along. But you went to high school,
Speaker 1: you play D D and wide receiver. How did you
Speaker 1: pick playing dB versus wide receiver? I think, uh, it
Speaker 1: had to be my junior year I had I think
Speaker 1: I had seven touchdowns on offense, but I had like
Speaker 1: five drops that could have been touchdowns, but I had
Speaker 1: eight picks. So for whatever reason, I could catch the
Speaker 1: ball on defense, but I couldn't catch it on offense.
Speaker 1: So I figured real quick I was at dB. But uh,
Speaker 1: the way I got my scholarship as well. Was um
Speaker 1: after my this had to be. Yeah, after my junior season,
Speaker 1: we my aunt moved to Westerville, Ohio, and my mom
Speaker 1: wanted to go visit her sister. So for two weeks
Speaker 1: we went up there, and my parents paid to put me,
Speaker 1: uh and my brother at Ohio States football camp that
Speaker 1: they do every year. Now, at the time, I didn't
Speaker 1: realize that recruits don't pay to go to these camps. Uh,
Speaker 1: and obviously I was not a recruit. So my parents
Speaker 1: paid the full fours whatever it was for each of
Speaker 1: us to stay on campus for four days. And at
Speaker 1: that camp, I reagistered to be, you know, a corner.
Speaker 1: And one of the days they were doing one on
Speaker 1: ones and uh, you know, I started in kind of
Speaker 1: the line. They had like four or five different lines.
Speaker 1: I started in one where the receivers are kind of scrubs,
Speaker 1: and I down locked everybody up in that line, and
Speaker 1: I moved to the next one, did the same thing,
Speaker 1: the same thing, and I noticed that like all the
Speaker 1: way the end of the field, there was one particular
Speaker 1: line where all of the coaches were at. Jim Trust
Speaker 1: was over there and Mel Tucker was the decordinator at
Speaker 1: the time. He was there a couple of other people.
Speaker 1: So eventually I made myself to that line and I realized, like, okay,
Speaker 1: these receivers are different, you know, these and I had
Speaker 1: I didn't even know who they were. I didn't recognize
Speaker 1: them from the camp, but these were all of their
Speaker 1: recruits and guys that were actually coming in on a
Speaker 1: scholarship from all over Ohio. And so I just, you know,
Speaker 1: I jumped in line. I'm competing, you know, if if
Speaker 1: the DBS, I can nervous to go against somebody else.
Speaker 1: I cut in the line. I go three times in
Speaker 1: a row, and eventually melt Tucker just pulled me to
Speaker 1: the side and he's like, you know, like who are you,
Speaker 1: what's your name? You know, He's giving me little techniques
Speaker 1: and I'm applying him and I'm just competing, compete with people.
Speaker 1: He took me into the back room, he said, uh
Speaker 1: we he turns on so he tries to find my
Speaker 1: tape and he's like, you might be the best corner
Speaker 1: in in in the country. And at that point, I
Speaker 1: was a one star, you know, recruit my rivals, profiles trash,
Speaker 1: and so he kind of caught me off guard when
Speaker 1: he said that. But you know, we kept talking watching
Speaker 1: some take and he gave me some some tips and
Speaker 1: uh we left. I spent the rest of you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks in Ohio. When I got back,
Speaker 1: I had a scholarship and so for me, that was
Speaker 1: when I was like, Okay, dv is this is clearly
Speaker 1: you know with my focus is on be You mentioned
Speaker 1: that you were lightly recruited, and you know your your
Speaker 1: rivals profile wasn't what you wanted to be, but you
Speaker 1: end up finishing your career at Ohio State, three time
Speaker 1: first team All Big Ten, you won the Gym Thorpe
Speaker 1: Award for being the best dB. I wanna ask you
Speaker 1: this question and make it a little bit more timely
Speaker 1: to right to right now. What do you think about
Speaker 1: the challenges that college students, student athletes are gonna face
Speaker 1: today given COVID nineteen. Yeah, I mean, I think you know,
Speaker 1: everybody is trying to adjust and I think you know,
Speaker 1: for one, it's it's just the safety of even dealing
Speaker 1: with the virus um. You know, that's that is so
Speaker 1: many unknowns, especially at college athletes. You know, they're bringing
Speaker 1: they're bringing them back early just to do workouts and
Speaker 1: you're getting you know, all of these uh college students
Speaker 1: and college athletes you know, exposed to the virus. Uh.
Speaker 1: The n C double A didn't put in, you know,
Speaker 1: a standard protocol for everybody, so they're allowing the schools
Speaker 1: to kind of do their own thing. Um and unfortunately
Speaker 1: you saw a lot of student athletes get sick. Um.
Speaker 1: But then I think with just any college student put
Speaker 1: the sports down. I think everybody is trying to understand,
Speaker 1: you know, how do I continue to get my education
Speaker 1: but also stay safe. You know they're gonna open schools,
Speaker 1: is they're gonna be a virtual you know experience. I
Speaker 1: think everybody's trying to figure out, um, how to adjust,
Speaker 1: but mainly how to stay engaged. You don't want to
Speaker 1: lose you know, their attention, especially on the academics. Let's
Speaker 1: talk ball and so played against you a number of times,
Speaker 1: and I remember I think an article came out, um
Speaker 1: that U has stated playing against me, one play was good,
Speaker 1: the next play was bad. You definitely skied aprintic bro.
Speaker 1: So like, let me go ahead do talking, yes, please
Speaker 1: expound on that. Yeah, yeah, like I'm a I'm a
Speaker 1: trash talker, like and I like to get in people's
Speaker 1: minds because I'm like, if I can get you mad
Speaker 1: at me and more worried about the little stuff I'm doing,
Speaker 1: not worried about your route, You're not worried about nothing.
Speaker 1: I got you. But I learned real quick when it
Speaker 1: came to Steve, Like, for one, don't piss him off,
Speaker 1: because he plays better when he gets mad. Two, don't
Speaker 1: believe him when he's being a nice guy, because I've
Speaker 1: seen this base which move. I've seen this guy literally
Speaker 1: after one play, he's talking to you, man, how are
Speaker 1: you doing? Man? It's crazy, you know, laughing, make a joke,
Speaker 1: good job, you know, pat you on the back. In
Speaker 1: the very next play, who's got his hands around your throat?
Speaker 1: And no exaggeration, this is literal. It sounds like, you know.
Speaker 1: I I tell young guys we get ready to play
Speaker 1: the Panthers. I'm like, I'm like, look, it's Steve out
Speaker 1: there talking to you nice. Don't believe it, like you
Speaker 1: keep your guard up because he will choke you out. Bag.
Speaker 1: But the state is here's the thing. I don't even
Speaker 1: know what to say too, Like try to help my
Speaker 1: case right like right now, if if my defense team
Speaker 1: put Malcolm Jakins on the stand. Lass is going to jail.
Speaker 1: Hey nothing. You remember when we did uh when you
Speaker 1: was in Baltimore, we did that joint practice. I was
Speaker 1: an Eagles, you know. I remember walking up. We're getting
Speaker 1: ready to do the one on ones. I was hot
Speaker 1: and he was on the knee and uh, I just
Speaker 1: already like, I'm like, we got joint practices. I already
Speaker 1: know what this is about to be. And so I
Speaker 1: walk up. I don't say, man, I just kind of
Speaker 1: walked past, and he was like, hey Jack. I turned around.
Speaker 1: He was like, we're good. I said, we're straight. All right.
Speaker 1: You get Joe guys and I got mine. I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, right here we go. Then one of my
Speaker 1: one of them young boys, I ain't gonna repeat what
Speaker 1: you said to him. But he didn't get the memo
Speaker 1: about who Steve Smith was. They had to learn the
Speaker 1: hard way. But uh yeah, man, it's it's always always
Speaker 1: a lot of respect man, you know, because it's it's
Speaker 1: like that on the field. But you know, I think
Speaker 1: I think that's what made you a great player. Man.
Speaker 1: That's you know, I had a lot of I used
Speaker 1: to enjoy those battles. I enjoyed those battlies with you
Speaker 1: as well, because you're one of those guys. I always
Speaker 1: had to know where he was on the field. He
Speaker 1: was smart, he was intelligent. And Malcolm helped me out
Speaker 1: with this one too, because we we've had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to talk to some basketball players. We talked to a
Speaker 1: lot of different people, and I'm always intrigued with whatever
Speaker 1: that sport is. I Q. Hmm, but would you say
Speaker 1: with eight guys one not all of them are the
Speaker 1: best of the best that everybody claims, not at all? Okay,
Speaker 1: and football, i Q. You can have some dudes that
Speaker 1: literally are extremely intelligent outside of off the field and
Speaker 1: dumb as a box of rocks to the xs and ohs,
Speaker 1: and it's like they have no either or they're really
Speaker 1: smart own a football field high football i Q, and
Speaker 1: dude some of the dumbest, oh no, the field, Like,
Speaker 1: what what would you say over the years that you've
Speaker 1: played that makes a dB really good? I think for me,
Speaker 1: you know, And I think what guys sometimes get confused
Speaker 1: is I've seen guys with phenomenal athletic ability, like could
Speaker 1: get in and out of breaks better than anybody I've
Speaker 1: seen ball skills, you know, instincts, whatever, but M can't
Speaker 1: understand the simple concepts of defense. And so for me,
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm the fastest, I ain't strongest, and
Speaker 1: the uh you know, can't jump the highest. But I
Speaker 1: know leverage, you know, I know, okay, if I got discoverage,
Speaker 1: all of my help is inside. I'm gonna stay outside
Speaker 1: if you beat me, you know, if you're gonna beat
Speaker 1: me anywhere, you're gonna beat me away from my leverage,
Speaker 1: I tackle you and we'll play the next down. You know,
Speaker 1: Just simple concepts like that on how to put yourself
Speaker 1: in the best position. And you've seen, you know, guys
Speaker 1: who aren't the fastest, you know, but can cover everything
Speaker 1: and ended up being the top of the game. And
Speaker 1: so I think, you know, the ones who lasts and
Speaker 1: have really long careers learned to adjust their game and
Speaker 1: most of it it comes with, you know, what's between
Speaker 1: their ears. You went from corner to safety. So you've
Speaker 1: got to be able to play the game from us
Speaker 1: for Rebro level almost as well. Yeah, man, and man,
Speaker 1: that's why. And I enjoyed the you know, the move,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what makes really I was able
Speaker 1: to build my career on that right, being able to
Speaker 1: have play corner you know, on all levels and have
Speaker 1: that skill set to be able to just line up
Speaker 1: and play man and man, but have enough you know,
Speaker 1: i q to to be able to transition to the
Speaker 1: safety position you know, and control you know, be air
Speaker 1: traffic control, get guys lined up, understand what's coming, and
Speaker 1: be able to put myself really on any spot on
Speaker 1: the defense and actually be able to do it well. Um,
Speaker 1: you know. So that versatility, I think is what is
Speaker 1: the unique part about my game. It's not you know,
Speaker 1: my physical attributes or anything like that. It's my ability
Speaker 1: to understand the game, um and constantly kind of build
Speaker 1: on what I know. But the the ability to also
Speaker 1: be versatile, you know, and be able to play all
Speaker 1: of these different spots because I don't look at defenses
Speaker 1: by position, so I don't want to just know what
Speaker 1: the corners are doing. I don't want to just know
Speaker 1: what the nickel or the safety is doing. I just like,
Speaker 1: put everybody in the next and what is the concept
Speaker 1: of the defense. How does this work? So if at
Speaker 1: any point in time, I can switch my position and
Speaker 1: know what to do. If you are playing a guy
Speaker 1: like Malcolm, and you understand what he's doing and how
Speaker 1: he looks at your concepts and look at the route
Speaker 1: and look at splits and formations, emotions and Caton's. I
Speaker 1: would come in and if I saw Malcolm seeing something
Speaker 1: that he knew was a tendency, I would line up
Speaker 1: watch him. Then I would tend to see break by
Speaker 1: widening or cutting my split down, and it would screw
Speaker 1: the whole defense up. Because that's not what you're supposed
Speaker 1: to do. And that's the thing I love about defensive players.
Speaker 1: You're not supposed to do that, Like that'll be like
Speaker 1: you ain't supposed to run now. I'm like, bro, how
Speaker 1: you gonna tell me I can't run that? That's not
Speaker 1: what we've seen on film. That the game is not
Speaker 1: always about what you see on film. Sometimes you gotta react, yes,
Speaker 1: But defensive players, I hate to say it this way,
Speaker 1: defensive players are cheaters. Y'all know where you're running that.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, you have a competitive advantage because
Speaker 1: you have you know the play you got. A defensive
Speaker 1: player has to read and react, right, shut up? Okay,
Speaker 1: my bad, We're moving on the last football question. Then
Speaker 1: we're gonna really get into all the things that you're
Speaker 1: doing when you were drafted in two thousand ninh What
Speaker 1: if Malcolm Jenkins want to do in the league, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I think, honestly, I think I put too
Speaker 1: much pressure on myself. Uh as a first round draft pick.
Speaker 1: You know, I want to you know, everybody has these goals.
Speaker 1: I want to be a Hall of Fame player. I
Speaker 1: want to make Pro Bowls and all these different things. Um.
Speaker 1: And I remember looking around at other guys. I think
Speaker 1: it was Vante Davis was the next corner we got
Speaker 1: drafted after me. He was starting in Miami. A couple
Speaker 1: of other dbs you know that were rookies We're playing.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at you know who the tops in the
Speaker 1: game were, you know, the drell Rivises and those guys,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, you know, um, I think my
Speaker 1: first six games, I was playing special teams, and so
Speaker 1: I remember getting you know kind of you know, I
Speaker 1: attracted by looking at everybody else comparing myself that I
Speaker 1: was like, man, I'm falling short. You know, I'm feeling
Speaker 1: like I'm a I'm a I'm a bus. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't until I started to really focus on maybe like
Speaker 1: my second third year in the league, when I started
Speaker 1: to focus on what made me the player I am.
Speaker 1: Did I actually begin to even, you know, be able
Speaker 1: to visualize kind of who I wanted to be as
Speaker 1: a player, Like what what do I want my career
Speaker 1: to look like? But I think I started out with
Speaker 1: the generic I want to be a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1: I want to be you know, I want to make
Speaker 1: a Pro Bowl every year, and X Y and z um.
Speaker 1: But I think those started to change as as I
Speaker 1: got better, and so for me, I'm like, I want
Speaker 1: to obviously, I want to be recognized as one of
Speaker 1: the best to play the game. Everybody who lines up
Speaker 1: and puts on some cleats should have that idea. But
Speaker 1: I wanted to be more about the way I played
Speaker 1: the game then just you know, making just just being
Speaker 1: a name that you know it is constantly in the
Speaker 1: Pro Bowls. Don't you start really recognizing to a lot
Speaker 1: of this stuff is a popularity contest. It's like, but
Speaker 1: what are people saying to you after the game? Do
Speaker 1: you have to respect to your opponents? Do you have
Speaker 1: to respect to your teammates? Are coaches noticing you know
Speaker 1: the value you bring to the game. Are you changing
Speaker 1: the game in any way, you're making it better, changing
Speaker 1: how the position is played. Those are the things that
Speaker 1: the types of impacts that you know, I started to
Speaker 1: focus on and and really just honing in on what
Speaker 1: I do best. You are a unique person, you are
Speaker 1: well worth it, you are competent, and most of all,
Speaker 1: your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Senior, I'm Gerald Little John
Speaker 1: and this is cut to It. Cut to It with
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production of
Speaker 1: Cut to It, LLC Balltold Creative Media, The Black Effect
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It.
Speaker 1: Executive producer Steve Smith, SINGR co host Gerard Little John,
Speaker 1: talent and booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley
Speaker 1: Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to
Speaker 1: It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter, with
Speaker 1: production assistance by Alex Lebrek. Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme
Speaker 1: music by Alex Johnson, Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You ain't heard about it, then We're about to let
Speaker 1: you know it's all