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 Little John and this is
Speaker 1: cut to it. Cut do it, Cut do it. Let's
Speaker 1: get down to do it. God do it. We asked
Speaker 1: the questions you always want to know, but no one
Speaker 1: ever asked, let's cut to it. If you ain't heard
Speaker 1: about it, then we're about to let you know. It's
Speaker 1: all My uncle Phield used to tell me. Literally, I
Speaker 1: got an uncle nay Field, Philip Spears, and my grandfather's brother.
Speaker 1: He used to tell me all the time. The smartest
Speaker 1: men in the world know what they don't know like
Speaker 1: and you can't be you can't be um so immature
Speaker 1: and not the not acknowledge that. Like man, Listen, bro,
Speaker 1: I've spent the last four years with Dan Orloski. I've
Speaker 1: learned more about quarterback play in the last four years
Speaker 1: than I did mind Ticker in the NFL, because that's
Speaker 1: his area of expertise. And tell walkers, walk us through
Speaker 1: what you've learned and get and give Dan some credit
Speaker 1: walking through what you've learned over what he's he's giving you.
Speaker 1: Because people do look at Dan and I and and
Speaker 1: you could tell him. I said this because Dan is
Speaker 1: Dan's text someone that's text me to tell Dan said,
Speaker 1: stay off such as such. But you know the quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: But I just I'm on the quarterbacks a lot because
Speaker 1: they get paid so much money. I've said this. We
Speaker 1: had Doug Williams on and I asked him. You won't
Speaker 1: hire a receiver that can catch. You won't keep a
Speaker 1: running back that can't hit the whole your damn show,
Speaker 1: won't let the left tackle who can't block stay. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you'll give a quarterback a bonus, extend him for being
Speaker 1: a I. And then he goes, well, let's talk about
Speaker 1: just backups, right, and I, oh goodness, talk about back ups.
Speaker 1: You allow a backup who you hope, Let's be honest,
Speaker 1: you pray that backup never ever, ever, ever place unless
Speaker 1: you need folks. Right, So tell us about Dan, What
Speaker 1: what he's taught you, and why why has that been
Speaker 1: so good? And what what exactly? Just just big up
Speaker 1: Dan and just what he's done for you. Well, one thing, man,
Speaker 1: is you know we we never sit in quarters. Well
Speaker 1: I never said in a quarterback meeting, So to hear
Speaker 1: some of the verbis that go on, how those meetings
Speaker 1: are conducted, and then to just like quarterback play from
Speaker 1: you know, this meeting, like you were talking about Tyrek
Speaker 1: Hill crayon routes and all of that. Um, I didn't
Speaker 1: know how important it was to marry your feet with
Speaker 1: your upper body. Um, to have your shoulder pointing to
Speaker 1: your target. Yeah. You don't play golfer, No, not at all.
Speaker 1: That's why a lot of the quarterbacks are extremely well golfers.
Speaker 1: So a lot of the technique with it right, Um,
Speaker 1: A lot of the things that they have to see
Speaker 1: prior to a ball being snapped that that is either
Speaker 1: gonna help their team or put their team in the
Speaker 1: worst possible situation they can be in. Still a line,
Speaker 1: you want to get your line to use, quarterbacks must
Speaker 1: confirm where they're going with the ball before the snapper,
Speaker 1: before not discovering. If you're discovering and you that receiver, yeah,
Speaker 1: that bad news. We wanted you to be that way.
Speaker 1: I'm speaking as a defensive We wanted you to be
Speaker 1: that way. We didn't like what we talked about with
Speaker 1: Peyton and what we talked about with Tom is that
Speaker 1: they know where you're going before you know. Sometimes they're
Speaker 1: telling you the line of hey, shift, don't exactly like
Speaker 1: big fella. If you don't move, we're gonna run right there.
Speaker 1: But but but I'd have been up before with Peyton,
Speaker 1: like bro first year in Baltimore, Payton through six touchdowns
Speaker 1: on us when I was with the Ravens and me
Speaker 1: and me and Terrel so Sizzle was sitting on the bench.
Speaker 1: Sis said, they ain't nothing we can do. We we
Speaker 1: We called Dan ps who was out decordinator, said, Dean,
Speaker 1: you know everything we're doing, he said, he said, best
Speaker 1: to luck to y'alls. You're talking to. Dean is with
Speaker 1: the defense, courting that he's in Atlanta right now. Dean
Speaker 1: was in Baltimore to Dean, but he came to tell you, hey, well,
Speaker 1: all we can do is bless him. All we can
Speaker 1: do it. Thanks go or you come in the offense
Speaker 1: and defense they say, hey, office, we need some help
Speaker 1: from you. Yep, reality bro. So I think a lot
Speaker 1: of it, man, A lot of it. Um is just
Speaker 1: see kind of seeing the picture through a guy that
Speaker 1: was behind center. And honestly, like when I'm when I'm
Speaker 1: on set, like even with even with Ryan Clark RC,
Speaker 1: the secondary plate. Now I had a great idea of
Speaker 1: that because when I was at L s U, we
Speaker 1: did a lot of his own pressure. So I had
Speaker 1: to understand um coverages. I had understand where dudes would be,
Speaker 1: where my flat area was, where my drop hooks was,
Speaker 1: all of that type of stuff. But but just like
Speaker 1: seeing it from a safety who played downhill, like what
Speaker 1: it is like when you what it's like when when
Speaker 1: when Marvin Harrison running a running a crosser and you
Speaker 1: know that you can't run with it, Like what's the
Speaker 1: technique to try to intercept him? Not the ball, just
Speaker 1: to get him on the grounds, right. So it's just
Speaker 1: it's a it's a lot of stuff, man, And and
Speaker 1: I think that's why, Um, that's why for me, like
Speaker 1: being around on different different guys like and and to
Speaker 1: your point, different levels of expertise. Louis Riddick was in
Speaker 1: the front office is also you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like he had to break he had his job depended
Speaker 1: on getting the right guys, like making sure that the
Speaker 1: talent he was seeing allaying with what they was gonna
Speaker 1: do when they got to that team or he was
Speaker 1: out of them. Um, So it's just a lot, bro,
Speaker 1: It's a lot Man. Even Mina comes and I know
Speaker 1: people get crazy. Bro, I have the amount of film
Speaker 1: and breakdown in time that Mina puts into understanding football
Speaker 1: and really knowing by talking to players. If you ever
Speaker 1: with Mina comes around the NFL like people, why how
Speaker 1: many players show her respect? I met her? This is
Speaker 1: the first time I get I got the meter. We're
Speaker 1: at the combine and I said that was great me
Speaker 1: and you. I love what you do and your respect.
Speaker 1: And she came and gave me that look like yeah,
Speaker 1: sure you do right. But here's the problem. But here's
Speaker 1: the problem. I don't hand out those compliments to everybody
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of times I see a lot
Speaker 1: of people on television. I don't think they're great. I
Speaker 1: don't think they do a good job. I think sometimes
Speaker 1: they're lazy, right. And the reason I know is because
Speaker 1: there are times I've been lazy where I I know,
Speaker 1: I know I'm gonna be on a show where maybe
Speaker 1: my football knowledge is not required as much they want
Speaker 1: to store they want to They desire the storyteller, and
Speaker 1: I don't like the storyteller. I like the storytelling in
Speaker 1: in like this setting where we can we can mixture football,
Speaker 1: and the storytelling amplifies the conversation, but not where the
Speaker 1: storytelling and it minimizes the football knowledge because the people
Speaker 1: that are getting paid to represent a talk about football
Speaker 1: actually don't know any football. So I try to show
Speaker 1: sometimes I'm just kind of you to do that. I
Speaker 1: don't say this man like, I don't go that far.
Speaker 1: I just listened to the people. I think, you know
Speaker 1: what the hell they're talking about? Well, I like to
Speaker 1: I like to watch everybody because it gives me. It
Speaker 1: gives me a sense, right I And is so much
Speaker 1: sports out there that I also I stay out of
Speaker 1: it because you can get inundated. You can go down
Speaker 1: a worm hole, a false false like I mean, you
Speaker 1: can find some alternative facts. Yeah, you start getting, you
Speaker 1: get You get a post for sixteen seconds that people
Speaker 1: are following you. One point five million people view a
Speaker 1: sixteen second post because I'm in the New York Giants uniform,
Speaker 1: UH coaching staff and say, hey, I'm going to coach
Speaker 1: it on. Oh it must be real And it happens
Speaker 1: every summer for both of y'all being in this sports
Speaker 1: media game. What has changed that you're a fan of
Speaker 1: and then what would you like to see you change.
Speaker 1: I'm a fan of players having a voice, and they
Speaker 1: all platforms. I like that, um because when when smittic
Speaker 1: in the test when we was in the league, you
Speaker 1: only got what you gave a sound bite up. Um.
Speaker 1: You know this whole thing with Drake Muond and this
Speaker 1: podcast right now after after games and he's not playing
Speaker 1: well that that he not muted because he didn't play
Speaker 1: a good basketball game, Like you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like now, you could get into what he's doing spending
Speaker 1: this time. I don't care about that. That's a grown man, um.
Speaker 1: But ultimately I understand the other side is that you
Speaker 1: know people watching that, watching you playing the finals, and
Speaker 1: they yeah, they quote unquote had his expectation of what
Speaker 1: you should be doing when you're not playing, um, living
Speaker 1: your life. And I run into issues with that, But
Speaker 1: that's for a whole another podcast when we get into it. Um.
Speaker 1: But ultimately, for me, man, I like players having a voice. UM.
Speaker 1: I like I like when they say stuff because you
Speaker 1: get to you get to know how they really think it.
Speaker 1: Yeah they see. That's the other part too. It does
Speaker 1: give you a peek into who they are, right and
Speaker 1: and and the one thing I do love about podcasts
Speaker 1: that I love to listen to. It's how they transition.
Speaker 1: The transition tells you how they're thinking from the game
Speaker 1: to the podcast in the conversations. A great, great example
Speaker 1: Tarik Hill or Cheetah. I listened to it, how he transitioned,
Speaker 1: what he said, how he said it, his eyes, his
Speaker 1: his attire. Right, he's wearing his his jersey with a suit.
Speaker 1: He's trying to fix it and figure it out, and
Speaker 1: he's utilizing his stuff. The only advice I'll give him
Speaker 1: is when he's no longer, can he sustain it? And
Speaker 1: can he does he give hisself an opportunity and does
Speaker 1: he give his helf from the opportunity? Like we are
Speaker 1: where people are engaged and there's enough things to discuss
Speaker 1: in its organic And that's my that's my only thing
Speaker 1: is he's hot right now. But at some point will
Speaker 1: you be able with my coach? She always tells me,
Speaker 1: Jail Montgomery, right, shout out to Jail. Make it about
Speaker 1: the other person. Yeah, right, And so that that's the
Speaker 1: only thing right, even even you though, like right like
Speaker 1: I heard I heard, I heard M J. J. Reddy
Speaker 1: Uh say something that that that was intriguing to me.
Speaker 1: Y'all know, I love basketball, man, I love talking about it. Um.
Speaker 1: But he talked about um steps, competitive stamina right Like.
Speaker 1: I didn't accomplished all this, Bro, I canna walk away
Speaker 1: from the game as one of the top seven, if
Speaker 1: five players ever in the history of the NBA. That's
Speaker 1: why I have a tremendous amount of respect for Lebron.
Speaker 1: Tremendous amount of respect for use to me a career
Speaker 1: where you continue to elevate, but in the off season
Speaker 1: you approach it like you saw it right like, and
Speaker 1: sometimes that don't translate to being a Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: or great player. I work my ass off in the
Speaker 1: off season like I approached every off season like I
Speaker 1: had to earn a job because you went in saying right,
Speaker 1: I never went in saying I'm a first round pick
Speaker 1: them up. I'm gonna how this. They're gonna know. I
Speaker 1: gotta earn this job every single year. Um, And some
Speaker 1: dudes don't. Some dudes they stuff, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: They like the stuff. It ain't they run out of
Speaker 1: the energy to continue to prepare and get ready. Um.
Speaker 1: But for me, like to your point, having an inside
Speaker 1: view of how these guys not only operate when they balled,
Speaker 1: because we could see that they got the footage of
Speaker 1: that um, But like, you know, what's important tool what
Speaker 1: kind of stuff are they saying? You know, we could
Speaker 1: see the tend we could see the thirty second minute
Speaker 1: and a half workout clips, but is it translating to
Speaker 1: what we see when you play on Sunday or what
Speaker 1: we see when you're playing on the court. So I
Speaker 1: just like that. I like that they have a have
Speaker 1: a voice because for me, it says you can't lie
Speaker 1: to me through sound bites, and and so that leads
Speaker 1: that leads me to the one thing I dislike about
Speaker 1: working in media is former players have to when we
Speaker 1: when we break news, they have to verify. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: other media people who are not former players, there's no
Speaker 1: verification required, go with it. Yes, And that that's the
Speaker 1: one thing, and and and as a former player I
Speaker 1: dislike I the one thing. There's a few things I dislike.
Speaker 1: One of the other biggest things I dislike is beat
Speaker 1: writers who give a false a false security, a false
Speaker 1: sens to the fans that they actually do know the
Speaker 1: players they're covering because they don't like not every beat
Speaker 1: writer actually has a really good relationship, but understanding of
Speaker 1: that individual. They sometimes only know that individual for the
Speaker 1: fifteen or twenty minutes of open locker room based off
Speaker 1: if they even speak to him. They may see someone
Speaker 1: and say, oh, he's always upset. Sometimes maybe they just
Speaker 1: have that resting face, that's his demeanor. But oh, he's
Speaker 1: always angry. But have you ever spoke to him? Right,
Speaker 1: And then they go to, well, I have to write
Speaker 1: the article based on like my eight year old grandmother
Speaker 1: is reading it, meanings, I have to state all the
Speaker 1: bad things, not the good things, all the bad things
Speaker 1: to tell you how he got to today. And a
Speaker 1: lot of beat writers the fans stink, oh you know,
Speaker 1: I'm using to us an example. Gerard little John has
Speaker 1: a great relationship with all of the all of the
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers players here, So when he writes this article,
Speaker 1: he must have talked to several people. He may talk
Speaker 1: to one scout who may have a extra grind or
Speaker 1: a reason to talk about that individual, So there's a
Speaker 1: false narrative of that. They're all close ahead. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get an example. Let's tell you what I hate, all right,
Speaker 1: and it just happened I hated this Davante Aaron Rodgers thing.
Speaker 1: All right, bro, it's coming sense for Davante Adams not
Speaker 1: the one to be in Green Bay. He don't know
Speaker 1: if it's the quarterback coming back, but I said it
Speaker 1: on television and I'm hating you when you just don't
Speaker 1: like Aaron Rodgers. No, if if me, it's me to
Speaker 1: go into business together. And every day on summer he
Speaker 1: telling me, Man, I'm about to bow out. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say on my half, I'm gonna sell my share, and
Speaker 1: an opportunity comes along for me to have stability. And
Speaker 1: I've been on this roller coaster with Smitty, I probably
Speaker 1: should take that stable situation and the business with your
Speaker 1: best friend that you that you grew up with ya
Speaker 1: playing high school, so I had I had a big
Speaker 1: issue with the whole um. No, No, it's they. It's fine.
Speaker 1: They they love each other. They hug when he threw
Speaker 1: his hundred touchdown and look broke a lot of NFL
Speaker 1: relationships in locker rooms are necessity. It ain't real. Circumstantials,
Speaker 1: circumstantial ain't real. Friendships that ain't real. Brothers were cool.
Speaker 1: We go alone and get along at times, and sometimes
Speaker 1: we just flat out no, like some of our team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the reality. So that that's the part that that
Speaker 1: bothers me about some of the media now is that
Speaker 1: it's it's either because of the success that they see
Speaker 1: it happened in a three hour window. They assume that
Speaker 1: this alliance and brotherhood just exists, like we're doing dinner together. Bro.
Speaker 1: Majority of the NFL players go home to their family
Speaker 1: and don't talk to their team. They say it said
Speaker 1: the next day, are you serious? I know, dudes, but
Speaker 1: but yeah, man, like, but but you know something to
Speaker 1: your point, man, Sometimes it's this false narrative that that
Speaker 1: it's just this one structured way to have success. Like
Speaker 1: if a team win a championship, everybody is on the
Speaker 1: same page. That's a lie. No, they ain't. Like there's
Speaker 1: here's the thing that a lot of people don't know, man,
Speaker 1: that Baltimore Ravens team when they want to super Bowl,
Speaker 1: it was anarchy. It was beef and it was like
Speaker 1: inmates was about to overtake the press. I'm not even
Speaker 1: gonna get into it, but I'm just I just know
Speaker 1: it was bananas what I heard. But yet when I
Speaker 1: got to Baltimore, we had some issues oh, it's just
Speaker 1: like such a such year. We I was like, what yeah,
Speaker 1: and I heard and that just lets you know, well,
Speaker 1: I had a good I had a good time. Let
Speaker 1: me say this. I had a good time in Baltimore
Speaker 1: because I was still in checks. That was really all
Speaker 1: that investment I wanted the two gaps played first second down,
Speaker 1: get three or four tackles a game, and then let
Speaker 1: the young Bucks come in and get all that pass
Speaker 1: rushing and all that our new system. So I had
Speaker 1: a great time. I had agreed that I went downtown
Speaker 1: with Smidia after games and we got at the what
Speaker 1: it was that the Ritz and we would sit there
Speaker 1: at the ball and enjoy ourselves. And not for one
Speaker 1: minute of that season when I was in Baltimore that
Speaker 1: I think I need to I need to get I
Speaker 1: need to come out here and I need to be
Speaker 1: a great superstar player. Not one time, not one time.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to do my job and get my
Speaker 1: check and get the hell out of there. When the
Speaker 1: season was over, and and and and the Lord be
Speaker 1: knowing what we need, because they cut me week eight
Speaker 1: and submitted the next day. I was back in Dallas
Speaker 1: at my I love cut to it and I love
Speaker 1: it even more when you download us and subscribe, and
Speaker 1: you can follow us on social media too, Smithie, where
Speaker 1: where at? That's at? Cut to it on Instagram? What
Speaker 1: about Twitter? At? Cut to It Facebook? Cut to It
Speaker 1: featuring Steve Smith singr? What about online? And you can
Speaker 1: follow us at cut to It podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: you can buy merch and you can subscribe to us
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions. Uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for,
Speaker 1: a brother, cut to a podcast dot com. What did
Speaker 1: you think about retirement would be? Yeah? And and now
Speaker 1: you're retired, what has it been? Um? I thought retirement
Speaker 1: would be I want to just do whatever I want
Speaker 1: to do all the time, no schedule, I just wanna.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm fishing, hun, I'm a comfortable I fish. I
Speaker 1: thought that's what I was gonna be doing, and following
Speaker 1: my kids around because I figured they'd be athletes. My
Speaker 1: wife played in the w n b A, so we
Speaker 1: knew our kids was gonna be athletes and some some capacity. Um,
Speaker 1: but but then not realizing, Man, I think a lot
Speaker 1: of players I went through like I went through like
Speaker 1: two and a half three weeks of depression. Um, I
Speaker 1: didn't know how to define it at the time, but
Speaker 1: my wife was like, I think you need to gonna
Speaker 1: talk to somebody because but for real, bro, seriously, Like
Speaker 1: and I thought about it, man, after you know, after
Speaker 1: talking to the therapist. I thought about it. From the
Speaker 1: age of six until I was thirty one, I knew
Speaker 1: what my year was gonna look like. I knew football
Speaker 1: season was coming, basketball season, and then when you get
Speaker 1: to the pros, you know how structured we are. We
Speaker 1: got our times in the yield, what we decided to do,
Speaker 1: what we do, and then when it's gone. And that's
Speaker 1: what I tell everybody, Bro, they don't throw no parade,
Speaker 1: they don't throw like there's no there is no exit
Speaker 1: program that you go through to to get you ready
Speaker 1: for quote unquote normal civilian life. Um, Jared Jones ain't
Speaker 1: called me one time to check on me to see
Speaker 1: how I'm doing right. So it's it's just it's just
Speaker 1: one of them things where I went through that phase
Speaker 1: and then when I what I realized is and retirement
Speaker 1: holdamn overrated, bro, I gotta have something to do, Like,
Speaker 1: I gotta have something to do. I gotta have a
Speaker 1: purpose outside of my main purpose, which is to love
Speaker 1: my wife, take care of my kids, and let the
Speaker 1: Lord lead me where I need to be. Um, but
Speaker 1: from a work standpoint, doing what I'm doing in television now,
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time, bro, the reason why
Speaker 1: I have a great time is because this, this job
Speaker 1: is still not real to me. Like, I can't believe
Speaker 1: you can make this much money talking about football like that.
Speaker 1: I just didn't. I never equated potentially making more in
Speaker 1: a television career than I did in my football career.
Speaker 1: I never thought that was like something that was possible.
Speaker 1: And then and then the other part, man, is like
Speaker 1: I like structure as much as I can probably say
Speaker 1: it all my life. I want to be where I
Speaker 1: want to be. I don't wanta know about it telling
Speaker 1: me where I need to go. I do like having
Speaker 1: a having a having a calendar. I do like having
Speaker 1: things that I want to get accomplished, but also having
Speaker 1: a having a job structure of Look, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: doing this between September and February, right, and you got combined,
Speaker 1: and you got um the Super Bowl, and you got
Speaker 1: the Pro Bowl, and then to all of the experiences
Speaker 1: that TV has afforded me as well. Smitty, I met
Speaker 1: you in Charlotte because of television, like I was working
Speaker 1: at the SEC Network at the time. Um, So it's
Speaker 1: it's a lot of that, man. So I've I've enjoyed
Speaker 1: not only having you know, being able to work at
Speaker 1: ESPN and you know, ascending and have success in this
Speaker 1: in this arena, but also like the stuff that what
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time is the gnomes for
Speaker 1: me should be the nomes. I'm never gonna sacrifice time
Speaker 1: with my wife or my kids when when it doesn't
Speaker 1: need to be for any job because I don't have to, right,
Speaker 1: like the Good Lord gave me a long career to
Speaker 1: care my money and I'm fine, um, But also do
Speaker 1: value my responsibility to my job and to my co
Speaker 1: workers who depend on me to do what I do.
Speaker 1: So that to balance both of those things and still
Speaker 1: be able to live within those and give the proper
Speaker 1: amount of time and attention that they need is something
Speaker 1: that I enjoy doing. So the retirement thing is overrated
Speaker 1: to me. Bro and and and honestly, where I'm from,
Speaker 1: my mom lives with me, has been living with me
Speaker 1: since I started playing in the league. Um, and she would,
Speaker 1: she would, she would, she told, you know, told me
Speaker 1: when I was young. But tell me, like most people
Speaker 1: died when they were tired. Um, and they don't have
Speaker 1: a purpose to be living for. So I playing on working,
Speaker 1: you know, as long as I as long as they
Speaker 1: keep making these direct deposits, I'm gonna. I can tell
Speaker 1: you it's really interesting. Man. Just had a I want
Speaker 1: to say, epiphany, but I had a a thought. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, we go to Central up in Charlotte and
Speaker 1: Loran was it was killing it right, and he was
Speaker 1: just talking about um community and he's just talking about
Speaker 1: before the Lord comes and something that's happened with my
Speaker 1: wife family and they just got some Her parents are
Speaker 1: getting older. My wife is the youngest of seven, um.
Speaker 1: And so you know with her being the youngest of seven,
Speaker 1: we have a niece. We got nieces and nephews that
Speaker 1: are like two years younger than us. My wife's sister
Speaker 1: in law, God arrest her soul is almost is literally
Speaker 1: like a year the same age as my mother. Right,
Speaker 1: and my wife's uh Angie, her oldest brother sixty soon
Speaker 1: to be sixty one, and he's he's still working and grinding,
Speaker 1: and until I actually connected the dots right, I was
Speaker 1: just going, Wow, it's been a blessing that at forty three,
Speaker 1: sometimes I got to decide on to take off my plate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this, you know, my brother at sixty one is
Speaker 1: just trying to he just he's just trying to maintain right.
Speaker 1: And it's just such a different dynamic that in playing
Speaker 1: football is you know, we we we talked about a
Speaker 1: lot on the podcast. Geez from North Carolina is from
Speaker 1: lexing to and there are parts of him that I
Speaker 1: get jealous of because you grew up here in close proximity,
Speaker 1: but I didn't. I never, very rarely, I would never
Speaker 1: run into anybody that I went to high school with
Speaker 1: here that I know. I never run into somebody that
Speaker 1: knows me from back when I was little Steve On.
Speaker 1: They only know me from football. They don't know me
Speaker 1: from when I was when I'm still hungry, when I
Speaker 1: was when I was really really when when I was
Speaker 1: when my stomach was growling, right when I had stomach pains.
Speaker 1: And but yet I've been able to. I live here,
Speaker 1: my my kids, like my my oldest son roommates with
Speaker 1: his best friend from high school. He went to Walford,
Speaker 1: he went to Georgia, and now they're living here and
Speaker 1: he's complaining and talking about figuring out, you know, the
Speaker 1: prices of red here in Charlotte sho I buy and
Speaker 1: just all of those things that I've never had the
Speaker 1: advantage of experiences and tell them to the interest rates. Right.
Speaker 1: But but one of the cool things is is football
Speaker 1: has afforded us the opportunity to look at life at
Speaker 1: such a different perspective. Yeah, but we still deal with
Speaker 1: the same things. Stuff. Are we good enough? How long
Speaker 1: will it take for them to find out that maybe
Speaker 1: we are declining, right, or maybe we weren't as sharp
Speaker 1: as we used to be, or maybe the promotion they
Speaker 1: gave us they realized the new responsibilities are a little
Speaker 1: bit more then we can handle. Yeah. Right, And I
Speaker 1: explained to your point, bro, it's my sister is a
Speaker 1: police officer, and God bless her. Yeah, man, you know,
Speaker 1: especially having a having a black female police officer, with
Speaker 1: everything that's transpired in this country. And I know every day, bro,
Speaker 1: she goes to work to try to make a difference positively,
Speaker 1: right and um, but but you know, obviously, like us,
Speaker 1: she gets lumped into the negativity of the job as well.
Speaker 1: And you know, we've we've had a million discussions about
Speaker 1: you know, She's like she like, you play the game
Speaker 1: and you made this, and I'm I'm trying to protect
Speaker 1: the serve and I make this, and I'm like the kids,
Speaker 1: like how do you deal with them? And I get
Speaker 1: so tired of money being the answer for people that like,
Speaker 1: don't complain, don't have Like it ain't that serious, dude,
Speaker 1: we go it's the same. It's all relative, uh to
Speaker 1: to what you go through, what you deal with. My
Speaker 1: grandmother passed three years ago, really close with her. I
Speaker 1: ain't think about my bank account one time. Um my
Speaker 1: mom got say, hey COVID, I ain't think about my
Speaker 1: bank my bank account one time. Like real life, bro,
Speaker 1: don't give her a damn what you got or who
Speaker 1: you are, what you didn't accomplish or what you've done.
Speaker 1: So it's just hit home here and you talk about
Speaker 1: that submitted because a lot of times even in this job,
Speaker 1: right like you, I'm more quote unquote famous now because
Speaker 1: I'm visible. I don't have a helmet on, Like I'm
Speaker 1: more recognized. People see me, talk to me when I'm out. Um,
Speaker 1: and you know, I love having real, rich conversations about look,
Speaker 1: bro is relative, Like, yeah, I get to enjoy some
Speaker 1: things that most people can't, right, Like I get to
Speaker 1: travel certain ways, I get to do certain things. But
Speaker 1: when when, like the crux of life, ultimately we all
Speaker 1: gotta we're all going through the same name. It's as
Speaker 1: funny as my kids. My kids are my oldest who's
Speaker 1: and whatnot? My my seventh year old Boston, who's very
Speaker 1: much like me. It's I got four kids, but there's
Speaker 1: two just like they dad here. And some days that's good. Um.
Speaker 1: And some days my wife goes, she calls us the triplets, right,
Speaker 1: and sometimes my seventh year old. But he he'll say
Speaker 1: like me, he goes, m hmm mm hmm. And he
Speaker 1: finally said something. He uh I was. I was deposited
Speaker 1: of the check for one of my businesses, and uh
Speaker 1: I told him to hold this. I didn't say hold
Speaker 1: it to look at it, but hold it because I
Speaker 1: was reaching in the drive through and he looked at it.
Speaker 1: He goes, and you've been talking, MYO. We ain't got
Speaker 1: no money, right. And I realized, probably about a year
Speaker 1: and a half ago, I realized, even even though I
Speaker 1: played as long as I played and saved my money.
Speaker 1: I still operate as if I'm broke. Yes, Lord, ay
Speaker 1: the worst thing, bro. I my kids, I tell them
Speaker 1: all the time. And we were talking about being poor earlier,
Speaker 1: and I still believe that a lot of the values
Speaker 1: when when we didn't have much are the reason why
Speaker 1: I am what I am today. Your parenting, parenting or
Speaker 1: living out of fear of what you experience as a
Speaker 1: young bro. You don't want to go back exactly once
Speaker 1: you reach Once you get to a certain point, right
Speaker 1: you you don't want to go back to that. You
Speaker 1: start realizing how eft up it was in certain situations,
Speaker 1: like the naivete of being young and poor, and you're blessed.
Speaker 1: It's kind of blessed a little bit. It's parents operating
Speaker 1: in this me and that they've been in for so
Speaker 1: long that it's normal to them, and and that becomes
Speaker 1: your your normal. And then you reach a certain level
Speaker 1: and you see different and you're telling me, I gotta go, bro,
Speaker 1: I gotta go back to Southbound Rouge with a one
Speaker 1: and a half bedroom house and share it with my
Speaker 1: sister and and my mama come in sometimes and be like,
Speaker 1: do y'all want the lights on the water this month, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to go back to that. I learned
Speaker 1: some valuable lessons from that that that helps me, to
Speaker 1: your point, not get to the point where I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go splurge and be outlandish, but also like
Speaker 1: I don't want to go back. I don't go back
Speaker 1: because I've I've I've experienced things that you know, that
Speaker 1: that that lets me know that that that is not
Speaker 1: as enjoyable as I thought it was, but the lessons
Speaker 1: were those lessons were more valuable than anything I've learned.
Speaker 1: Since I attain a level of wealth, the only thing
Speaker 1: I've that I have for me that's always been a
Speaker 1: place that I, you know, have money, is I wanted
Speaker 1: to see the world, Yeah, and taking my family with
Speaker 1: me to see it. Like that's one thing that I
Speaker 1: personally have to be careful of because sometime I'm always like, uh,
Speaker 1: that's a that that's a sixteen hour flight, and I'm like, okay, right,
Speaker 1: but she's like that's not realistic, right, And so it's like,
Speaker 1: because I have so much hunger to see the world
Speaker 1: because I know that there's so many people who haven't, right,
Speaker 1: and I also know what I have learned and how
Speaker 1: my eyes have Like when I started traveling and investing,
Speaker 1: I found myself this maybe this t M I. I
Speaker 1: was using the bathroom in Israel and learned what who
Speaker 1: Kimberly Clark was. Do you know who Kimberly Clark is
Speaker 1: the only thing I know? It was a manufacturer like
Speaker 1: paper products. Yes, I'm from I'm from ath Carolina, exactly right.
Speaker 1: But I didn't know. So I text at the time
Speaker 1: I washed my hands after I text my guy app
Speaker 1: I know. I text my guy was like, Hey, we
Speaker 1: need to get some Kimberly Clark stock. He's like, where
Speaker 1: did that come from? Well, I didn't really I connected it.
Speaker 1: I so I was like, wow, I'm all the way
Speaker 1: to Israel and they made stuff here. Wow, And it
Speaker 1: just blew my mind. It was Nestlee similar to what
Speaker 1: Marcus was saying, like, Yeah, Kimberly Clark plant was up
Speaker 1: from where I grew up in in Lexington. So that's
Speaker 1: that is one though just learned. I don't even know that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's one of the that's one of the big employers.
Speaker 1: So you either go to Kimberly Clark, you either go
Speaker 1: to LFI, or you go to Dixie and if you
Speaker 1: don't know if you're work in one of those those factories,
Speaker 1: and if not, then you either on the streets or
Speaker 1: you're hoping that you're gonna make it out. So but
Speaker 1: that just kind of ties into we all have our ignorance, right,
Speaker 1: the true essence of ignorance lack of knowledge. And some
Speaker 1: of the things that I've learned about myself discovered about
Speaker 1: myself have been in those times where I'm sitting either
Speaker 1: in a different country or somewhere on a trip by myself,
Speaker 1: asking myself, what did I learn or what don't I know?
Speaker 1: And it's and it's been a lot of times. It's
Speaker 1: a hell of a lot of stuff I don't know
Speaker 1: that I'm just I'm just mat That's why, go bro,
Speaker 1: I'm just mature to it because because I I man,
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated with hearing you say that, because I've just learned, um,
Speaker 1: how how much, how important it is too, like experience
Speaker 1: outside of the things that you know. Now we all
Speaker 1: act like we know what it feels like, right, we
Speaker 1: could read and I'm I read. I just like as
Speaker 1: I've gotten old, I've started to read a lot more.
Speaker 1: Was not a fan of reading growing up. Um, but
Speaker 1: that's something from from a maturation that I've I've started
Speaker 1: to do because I haven't had those experiences of going
Speaker 1: to a lot of places outside of the US, outside
Speaker 1: of the normal Jamaica's and Kabo and all of that stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: but books have opened me up to the knowledge of
Speaker 1: those places. And now I'm like, man, I need to
Speaker 1: go see what I just read about. I need to go,
Speaker 1: you know, examine what I just read about. Um. I
Speaker 1: watched this documentary on Netflix called How on the Hall
Speaker 1: and it's about the historical like the cuisine and the
Speaker 1: historical um story of of black cooking and chefs in
Speaker 1: the origination of it. And man, this dude went to
Speaker 1: Sierra Leone, he went to and and just had those experiences.
Speaker 1: And I told my wife, I said, but we gotta,
Speaker 1: we gotta, we gotta do something different. Um. And And unfortunately, Bro,
Speaker 1: we're like, we're not like a lavish family. My kids
Speaker 1: are because they you know, they look at all of that,
Speaker 1: But we ain't. My one vice as shoes, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: buying shoes. I love tennis shoes. That's like my one
Speaker 1: thing that I do. But to your point, man, like
Speaker 1: I envy will will travel world travel people, and not
Speaker 1: in a negative way. I just be I'll be like, man,
Speaker 1: I gotta go there. Tell me why I need to
Speaker 1: go there? Cut do cut do. Let's getting down to
Speaker 1: do it. Hey, Gerard, why did you get that T shirt?
Speaker 1: You mean this thing? Oh? Yes, I got it from
Speaker 1: cut to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise.
Speaker 1: Shout out to our guys at seven or four shot.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you can go on, buy you a T shirt,
Speaker 1: subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts as much
Speaker 1: as you're traveling like me, you know, going get the
Speaker 1: was it a far? That book? I get that. I
Speaker 1: actually get that subscription to the house, and then I
Speaker 1: throw it in my bag and so when I'm on
Speaker 1: the airplane, I'm just reading, right, I see that, check
Speaker 1: it off and then just try I love travel books.
Speaker 1: I got this other book that someone gave me for
Speaker 1: my birthday long time ago, and it tells you, based
Speaker 1: on a month where they go, uh and so there's
Speaker 1: some places in there. I'm like, I don't even know, right,
Speaker 1: but I love It's not that I love to travel.
Speaker 1: To Brack. I talked about traveling a lot on here,
Speaker 1: it's because I've learned so much about so many different things,
Speaker 1: and I've had to sit and look at myself and go,
Speaker 1: you didn't know that? Why and why submitted to your point, man,
Speaker 1: I just probably four months ago I finished the auto
Speaker 1: biography of Malcolm X, and the part in that book
Speaker 1: to me, like of all the lessons that that that
Speaker 1: were being taught in that book and listening to Malcolm
Speaker 1: X's journey and all of that, the trip to Mecca
Speaker 1: had changed his changed his perception of the entire world right,
Speaker 1: And it's not something that's highlighted when we talk about Malcolm. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: they don't talk about the shift and the shift they
Speaker 1: exactly that that that was made about his his his
Speaker 1: his different connection two people of all nationalities and racist
Speaker 1: um and and man. When I got to that part,
Speaker 1: and I thought about all of the things that had
Speaker 1: transpired leading up to that, with what he went through
Speaker 1: with the Nation of Islam and for him to for
Speaker 1: what he preached about white devils and the white man
Speaker 1: and all of the things that that was attributed to
Speaker 1: Malcolm X. And one trip changed, one journey and he
Speaker 1: knew what he was going for, but still to pray
Speaker 1: with people of different nationality, skin code and realize like
Speaker 1: humanity is way bigger than what's going on in America.
Speaker 1: That's that's exactly two thousand and I think four or
Speaker 1: five two thousand six. Growing up in l A, someone
Speaker 1: that that helped raise me was talking about uh l
Speaker 1: A was primarily uh you know, obviously Latino, and they
Speaker 1: had bill boards in my town side of the town
Speaker 1: where it was, you know, it was an English and Spanish,
Speaker 1: and I remember uh someone saying, if you're in our country,
Speaker 1: you need to speak our language. And so I found myself.
Speaker 1: I went on the MRS trip to uh to Toko Lomi,
Speaker 1: which is a French colony, and on the way back,
Speaker 1: I got an opportunity to stop in Paris and our time,
Speaker 1: I had to go through all these all this stuff anyway,
Speaker 1: and I went to Nigeria as well, which is an
Speaker 1: English colony, and so I had to do all this
Speaker 1: stuff to get my password. Is I never had a passport,
Speaker 1: didn't any one never thought I'd go anywhere, and and
Speaker 1: I remember that. So I was in Paris and you know,
Speaker 1: just a ninja, I'm you know, what you don't do,
Speaker 1: Let's go to the mall, to the mall right, I'm
Speaker 1: all away in Paris, and all I want to do
Speaker 1: is go to the mall. So I go. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to find out how to go to the mall, have
Speaker 1: no idea how to get around, and so I try
Speaker 1: to talk to a few people, and you know, you
Speaker 1: speak friends, you know, and I'm looking at them, and
Speaker 1: I remember the individual who said that, who I respect
Speaker 1: to this day said and I replayed that individual's It
Speaker 1: was my grandpa. My grandpa said, if you're in our country,
Speaker 1: you need to speak our language. And my grandpa had
Speaker 1: in my head. My grandpa said, when you're in our country,
Speaker 1: need to speak their language. And I was like, I'm
Speaker 1: in their country and I have no idea how to
Speaker 1: speak their language. And I felt so ashamed. And then
Speaker 1: I realized how small we are in America. We're we're
Speaker 1: a financial powerhouse, but yet there's so many other countries,
Speaker 1: continents that have been around longer, longer than us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And after that, I saw how ignorant I was, how
Speaker 1: I thought America was the standard. And ever since then,
Speaker 1: I've been wanting to see the world because I know
Speaker 1: I'm in their country and I don't speak their language,
Speaker 1: and I want to and I want to adapt. I know,
Speaker 1: I barely, I'm I'm still figuring out this English, Stuy,
Speaker 1: but I I want to see. And one of the
Speaker 1: biggest things when I was a kid, you know, growing
Speaker 1: up in l A reading and Frank. I want to
Speaker 1: see and I've been, I've been to Poland, but I
Speaker 1: want to see in Denmark the museum that they have
Speaker 1: of her house because of what I just remember, the
Speaker 1: oppression of what I remember of that as a kid.
Speaker 1: That's challenged me to see so many parts of the
Speaker 1: world and to take my family because I'm learning at
Speaker 1: forty three and thirty five what the world looks like.
Speaker 1: But my kids have seven, one and seventeen. They know
Speaker 1: exactly the way the world looks and it's a lot different.
Speaker 1: Let me get this, man, because I gotta I tell
Speaker 1: like my kids man, um speaking of knowledge and people
Speaker 1: that I talked to um, you know when. And I'm
Speaker 1: not an excuses guy. I understand that things happen, circumstances happened,
Speaker 1: that you can't get stuff done. But I tell my
Speaker 1: kids all the time, man, and hopefully it registers to
Speaker 1: them as they get then older and listening and talking
Speaker 1: to you guys, which has been amazing. Bro. I'll tell
Speaker 1: people all the time. Nelson Della spent two decades in
Speaker 1: prison and became president. Why can't you do what you're
Speaker 1: trying to do right? Like? And that's the example that
Speaker 1: I use when I'm even in my head about like, Damn,
Speaker 1: I'm tired, man, I can't like, I just need to
Speaker 1: I need to take a couple of days off. Bromn
Speaker 1: Della spent two decades digging rocks and became the president
Speaker 1: and ended the part time n then the reason why
Speaker 1: behind it too? Yeah, exactly, and then we know we
Speaker 1: gotta let you go, man, We know you got your
Speaker 1: ready for the NFL. Love man, and make sure you
Speaker 1: go check out Marcus M. Spears ninety six on Twitter
Speaker 1: at m speed nine six on Instagram. Brother has been
Speaker 1: a pleasure. Happens, Hey, tell tell Mina and and Dan.
Speaker 1: I actually respect him, I really do. And all right,
Speaker 1: and then tell it till till will it mag when
Speaker 1: we get the end of for nationals in volleyball with
Speaker 1: our daughters, don't be walking around because he no long
Speaker 1: bech good right, tell him that and and then and
Speaker 1: and uh smack Ryan upside to head for me. Guys,
Speaker 1: you are a unique person. You are well worth it,
Speaker 1: you are competent, and most of all, your lovable. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Singer, I'm Gerard Little John and this is
Speaker 1: cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith singor
Speaker 1: That Is Me is a production of Cut to It, LLC,
Speaker 1: ball Told Creative Media, The Black Effect, and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer,
Speaker 1: co host Gerard Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci,
Speaker 1: Social media team Wesley Robinson and John show from Ball
Speaker 1: Told Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Brian
Speaker 1: Balta Chevic and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrec.
Speaker 1: Production coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics
Speaker 1: and vocals by Anthony Hamilton's if you ain't heard about it,
Speaker 1: then without to let you know, It's all. It's all