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: Let's get down to do it. Good do it. We
Speaker 1: asked the questions you always want to know, but no
Speaker 1: one ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard
Speaker 1: about it, then we're about to let you. Now it's
Speaker 1: all man. I'm I'm a pleasure to walk into Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Native graduate of Stanford University, proud, proud husband and father,
Speaker 1: and led the Seattle Seahawks in this part of a
Speaker 1: legion of boom. Welcome to the cut to a podcast.
Speaker 1: Richard used to get on my nerves corner Sherman. Of
Speaker 1: course we gotta jump straight in there while you get
Speaker 1: on your nerves right right right, because it was good, Okay,
Speaker 1: Like I studied so much film on Sherman. I just
Speaker 1: couldn't get him. He wasn't necessarily fast. Um, he wasn't
Speaker 1: slow either. He knew his technique. Um, it was just difficult.
Speaker 1: That sounds pesky as hell. That is a great word.
Speaker 1: And and this pet bowl doesn't take kindly to pet
Speaker 1: so it didn't go well. Sometimes just boom right right,
Speaker 1: right right. It was it was like a fleet and
Speaker 1: sometimes he would just you know, after play real quick. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I've seen it. I've seen it right right right right
Speaker 1: after the game fits. It was like, why are you
Speaker 1: let him do it like that? He's like, what you
Speaker 1: mean many but I have had a chance. I think
Speaker 1: it was when we were in Baltimore and you were hurt,
Speaker 1: and I saw y'all meet up right on the sidelines
Speaker 1: and there was nothing but love. So I think that
Speaker 1: was really really dope to where both of y'all are
Speaker 1: amazing competitors, but there was nothing but love between y'all
Speaker 1: two even between the lines. I know it's it's it's harsh,
Speaker 1: but I know off of it like mutual respects. So
Speaker 1: that was really dope to see when I saw y'all
Speaker 1: embrace in Baltimore, when when you were hurting and y'all
Speaker 1: were coming in from Seattle. Man. One of the things
Speaker 1: though I always respected, love about Sherman's you know, Sherman went,
Speaker 1: Sherman doesn't know we're right down the street from each other, right,
Speaker 1: Because I grew up on a hundred and six and avalon.
Speaker 1: Yeah at exactly see a lot like a lot of
Speaker 1: the lot of the A lot of guys don't know
Speaker 1: how you know, just you know where I grew up,
Speaker 1: especially you know some of other players like yourself. But
Speaker 1: then even some of the young Bucks, like the young
Speaker 1: Bucks is from Calabasas and Sherman Oaks and yeah, we's
Speaker 1: goes here, Man, I'm from l A. And then I
Speaker 1: tell them I'm from l A too, because I've been
Speaker 1: in Charlotte so long, right, And then then when I
Speaker 1: tell them, they go, oh, and then they have that
Speaker 1: face like they connect the dots. They're like, oh, now
Speaker 1: I get it. It all makes sense. So let's we
Speaker 1: we let's get into that um later. But man, we're
Speaker 1: gonna start off with some little ice breakers. These are
Speaker 1: random questions that I thought up and thought up for
Speaker 1: each each guest because I I want to poking proud
Speaker 1: and also just kind of seeing this one. I particularly
Speaker 1: picked out for you because I know, uh, you're a thinker,
Speaker 1: but I also know you get lazy sometimes like myself.
Speaker 1: That competent comes out right. So if you were a
Speaker 1: time traveler, would you go in the past or would
Speaker 1: you go forward? I think having the knowledge I have now,
Speaker 1: it's always go back, you know, I don't know what's
Speaker 1: the future or so so unknown. Um, and I feel
Speaker 1: like I have more like I'm more excited to see
Speaker 1: the surprise than I am. You know, I want to
Speaker 1: go up there and make sure stuff is whatever. You know,
Speaker 1: i'd have impacted out. Now I'm going back and I
Speaker 1: can do something. I'm just going back to see it again.
Speaker 1: And this is your time trouble, Okay, that's why I asked.
Speaker 1: I knew he was gonna go down this rapping right right?
Speaker 1: How can I mean, you don't know what to say time,
Speaker 1: And if you go back and do something and change something,
Speaker 1: isn't gonna change something from when you catch up. See
Speaker 1: my mom will go down that rep. Oh yeah, Butterfly,
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna we're gonna be We're gonna be
Speaker 1: here six days. So so if I could go back
Speaker 1: and change something, you know, I you know, I guess
Speaker 1: you know, it makes me feel limited because it would
Speaker 1: always have to do with sports and always have to
Speaker 1: do with that. Because for the rest, for the most part,
Speaker 1: you know, I accept the good bad and indifferent from
Speaker 1: everything else. You know, I felt like that kind of
Speaker 1: made me and built me into who I am. Um.
Speaker 1: But in sports, you know, it's always a play here
Speaker 1: and play there that you wish you could have back. Hey, man,
Speaker 1: I wish I would have did this. I wish I
Speaker 1: would have Man, I wish I wouldn't have guessed on
Speaker 1: that that double move. I wish I would have wished
Speaker 1: I would have made that tackle or you know, and
Speaker 1: so you second guess yourself all all day. So I
Speaker 1: think I go back into the past and and and
Speaker 1: play a few of these games over and do a
Speaker 1: few different things different. I go forward, Man, that the
Speaker 1: past bumped bumped the past, I go forward. I really would.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, the past is what it is,
Speaker 1: good batter or indifferent. But I'm I'm intrigued of what's
Speaker 1: coming up, what's coming forward? You have all of the things, um,
Speaker 1: more than anything for me. While I would go forward,
Speaker 1: I won't see my I wouldn't see my kids, what
Speaker 1: what has happened and the things that I've talked tom
Speaker 1: right like at like at like forty five years old, Peyton,
Speaker 1: my oldest at thirty seven, my daughter, you know, my
Speaker 1: youngest is seven. What what is you know, what is
Speaker 1: he doing? Right before graduation? Right where am I? Right
Speaker 1: before graduation? Did I make it? I would go. I
Speaker 1: would go forward completely and just and just be a
Speaker 1: fly on the wall. Like I'm getting emotional just thinking
Speaker 1: about it, just because that's why I wouldn't go in
Speaker 1: the future. But see, but I want to because if
Speaker 1: we just jump right into it, man, you know this
Speaker 1: is the first. Like you know, I always ask where
Speaker 1: you from? What your own town? Man? You you're from
Speaker 1: me from the same hotel in l A. And we're
Speaker 1: not supposed to be here. We're not supposed to I'm
Speaker 1: not supposed to be forty three years old, right, I
Speaker 1: got a podcast, just got just got off a flight,
Speaker 1: right and seeing the world in a in a way,
Speaker 1: in a place I wasn't supposed to make it past one.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's that's a people always ask why we
Speaker 1: say that. It's because that's what you see. You're not
Speaker 1: your reality every day. Like the guys I the guys
Speaker 1: I grew up with on Womanton and Komp m hm
Speaker 1: m hmm. It's about three of us left, kah and
Speaker 1: when I was my one of them is my cousin
Speaker 1: dion Um, who's a police officer in Memphis. Like one
Speaker 1: of the other dudes, Mark Mark got Mark got caught
Speaker 1: before we're sixty years old. Yeah, that's it. That It's
Speaker 1: just it's just heartbreaking because you know, like there's very
Speaker 1: few people that make it out that ever go back
Speaker 1: and not be successful. You know what I mean that
Speaker 1: that that ever go back, because usually when you make
Speaker 1: it out, you go blossom somewhere else. You know. We
Speaker 1: we end up having eleven dudes go be one from
Speaker 1: my high school, and majority of them stay where they're at.
Speaker 1: You know, they stay in Utah, went to Utah, University
Speaker 1: of Utah there in Utah, they went to Oregon. It's
Speaker 1: still in order. They and and they graduated. They did
Speaker 1: everything they were supposed to do. But on the other
Speaker 1: side of the coin, a lot of the dudes that
Speaker 1: stayed it's like a weekly text of like bang such
Speaker 1: and such got hit. My best friend my freshman year
Speaker 1: in college, Um got hit on some random bs in
Speaker 1: the neighborhood. He stayed in his holding probably half of
Speaker 1: his life, and walking across the street there had been
Speaker 1: a shooting in the neighborhood. They actud me warriors from me.
Speaker 1: Wasn't he wasn't from nowhere. I don't bang. I'm walking
Speaker 1: to the gas station. Just get some some chats, snacks
Speaker 1: and chips and stuff. Bro, I don't want no problems.
Speaker 1: They catch him on the way back home, a bullets
Speaker 1: in his chest to in the head, and the dudes
Speaker 1: are like forty years old, like you know, and it's
Speaker 1: like bro like like for some people, that's the only lifestyle.
Speaker 1: So it's like in the box that we were we
Speaker 1: were raised in. It's a very dangerous place. And some
Speaker 1: people never leave that box and the things they take
Speaker 1: serious and value and will lose their lives over seem
Speaker 1: trivial to everybody else. But inside that box, everything that's
Speaker 1: that's the whole box. You know, it's it's it's it's crazy.
Speaker 1: So you know, man, where are you from in the
Speaker 1: place you call your home town? Um? Well, should I'm
Speaker 1: from Compton, Watts. I mean we're either one. You know.
Speaker 1: I was born I should. I was born in near
Speaker 1: king Um at Cincinnella in Inglewood, and we were raised
Speaker 1: in Watts till I was ten, and then we moved around,
Speaker 1: got to Compton to go to high school, and then
Speaker 1: when Stanford went up to Stanford, but my parents lived
Speaker 1: in Compton all the way until like my third year
Speaker 1: in the league, and I moved him out to Orange County.
Speaker 1: And so that's that's been a you know, been a
Speaker 1: blessing for them, you know, because it's just just peace
Speaker 1: of mind. You know. People have so much pride in
Speaker 1: the city. They're like, man, I don't want to leave,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, you don't want to be a sellout.
Speaker 1: It's like, I feel you. But on the other hand,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, y'all go back and drive and visit.
Speaker 1: You know, we're gonna we're gonna put you on, you know,
Speaker 1: move you on up to the east side. It is different. Man, Mom,
Speaker 1: when I first got to probably about third or fourth
Speaker 1: year in the league, off for the um bring her
Speaker 1: out in the short ships, like for what you know,
Speaker 1: and and and Moms is like she said, ain't nobody.
Speaker 1: Then she goes, ain't nobody in North Carolina. I know.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, okay, damn all right, my bad
Speaker 1: one person. We you know, we had we had two
Speaker 1: kids at that time, right right here, come to your
Speaker 1: grand baby. You know what is so attractive about the
Speaker 1: high prices, the terrible traffic that you're unwilling unwilling to
Speaker 1: go somewhere else. This is like this podcast, but just
Speaker 1: because it's ridiculous. It's like, Bro, look, I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: for the money I'm within to pay for your house,
Speaker 1: you could have a castle somewhere else. You are really
Speaker 1: willing to take this small house versus the castle you
Speaker 1: can have somewhere else, minus the traffic, minus the craziness. Oh,
Speaker 1: my family, the family that gives you all this brahma
Speaker 1: all the time. Those are the people that you want
Speaker 1: to stay close to, even though you ain't gonna see
Speaker 1: that when you're close to him, Why are you talking
Speaker 1: about my family? You know, it looked the same everywhere.
Speaker 1: It looked the same everywhere. And that's the it's the
Speaker 1: frustrating part, because you know, as soon as you pop
Speaker 1: that bubble for him, as soon as they find out
Speaker 1: like what the other side looks like, and they'll love it,
Speaker 1: but they ain't willing to take that risk to see.
Speaker 1: And I think we we have taken risks our whole careers.
Speaker 1: You know, playing sports, being ambitious is a risk in itself.
Speaker 1: The first time I really left the city was was
Speaker 1: a college visit. You know, and as soon as you
Speaker 1: get out there you're like, bro that the that'st of
Speaker 1: the world is a real place. I went to. I
Speaker 1: went to Starkville, Mississippi and watch Mississippi play Old miss
Speaker 1: which was interesting. It was interesting because my dad wanted
Speaker 1: me to see every black head coach and Chroom was
Speaker 1: one of them. And so and I'm there, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm there with my quarterback and it was it was wild.
Speaker 1: It was it was like it was in the fifties,
Speaker 1: but it was a story for a different day, but
Speaker 1: it was. It was an eye opening experience because it
Speaker 1: really just proves me like the rest of the world
Speaker 1: wasn't like a figment about imagine that It's not just
Speaker 1: what you see on TV. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's tangible. I can touch it. And it sounds stupid
Speaker 1: when I say it now, but in reality, back then,
Speaker 1: it almost was like the rest of the world was
Speaker 1: a fairy tale outside of my box. Like cool, I
Speaker 1: see it on TV. I know people are out there,
Speaker 1: but it don't exist to me until I touched That's
Speaker 1: how my first we played in a Blue Gray game
Speaker 1: and I was first of all when I went off
Speaker 1: to the universe of Utah. That was my second plane,
Speaker 1: right second plane ride ever in life. Okay, got there
Speaker 1: now the first time, so so so the first time
Speaker 1: we go play Washington Wazoo, we play them. Uh. I
Speaker 1: got off the airplane. I threw up because that was
Speaker 1: like my fourth time. That was like my third or
Speaker 1: fourth time being on the airplane. I was not I
Speaker 1: just I've barfed right after. I mean we got after
Speaker 1: right and so it just but we played in uh
Speaker 1: the Blue uh uh Blue Gray All Star Game because
Speaker 1: we didn't make it. That was a Christmas game. Man
Speaker 1: Mobile Alabama, who I remember. I got on a continental
Speaker 1: flight that airlines and just seeing the other part of
Speaker 1: the world. It was. It was crazy, just seen all
Speaker 1: the things that I saw. And the crazy part is
Speaker 1: I didn't see a whole bunch of craziness. I just
Speaker 1: saw a different part of the world that I thought
Speaker 1: I'd never see. Hell. I got drafted by the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 1: I had never been that far before in the United States.
Speaker 1: Before that, the closest places I've ever been from l A.
Speaker 1: Drove to San Diego, took a Greyhound bust to Vegas.
Speaker 1: We drove to see my great great grandparents in Arizona.
Speaker 1: And that was it. That was the furthest and the
Speaker 1: extent of my travels ever in my life. Until I
Speaker 1: was nineteen years old, I went on a trip and
Speaker 1: it's it's it's mind blowing. It's really mind blowing because
Speaker 1: because if people don't understand how scary that is, Like
Speaker 1: people think, oh man, you got drafted, that's your dreams.
Speaker 1: It's it's the unknown again, Like I don't really know
Speaker 1: how this is gonna go. I don't know how the
Speaker 1: heat is, I don't know how anything is. And Carolina
Speaker 1: is a whole different climate than what you used to
Speaker 1: and so yeah, it just changed. It just changes, and
Speaker 1: you gotta relocate. And then you gotta put on a
Speaker 1: brave face tact like hey, there's none of this. Don't
Speaker 1: bother me. I'm good. You know what I mean. It
Speaker 1: is what it is on me. I'm in Carolina. They
Speaker 1: got me, they know what they're getting. I'm the man.
Speaker 1: And it's like in your head, you're like, man, we
Speaker 1: gotta figure out what this is gonna look like, you know.
Speaker 1: And and then I was thankful I always stayed on
Speaker 1: the West Coast. I was blessed, you know. I went
Speaker 1: to to you know, from Compton, went up to Stanford.
Speaker 1: Then went to the Seahawks. You know, in Seattle. I
Speaker 1: never left the West Coast, so it was always I'm
Speaker 1: pretty much staying in my comfort zone. This year in
Speaker 1: Tampa was the weirdest for me in my career because
Speaker 1: I had to leave m I had to leave the
Speaker 1: comfort zone. I have to leave what I knew. I'm
Speaker 1: in Florida, Tampa, Tampa, Florida. But you're so intelligent, you
Speaker 1: you've you see the game and you see life so differently.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you were. You were kind of weirded out
Speaker 1: by going to Tampa, no question, no question. It was
Speaker 1: the times. It was also my family didn't come, you know,
Speaker 1: the wife and kids didn't come. So it's totally different.
Speaker 1: You know, it's you got the three hour time difference.
Speaker 1: You want to see your wife and kids. You can't
Speaker 1: just call whenever you want to call. You got practice,
Speaker 1: and that made it different for me. Just being able
Speaker 1: to watch my teams, you know what I mean, Simple
Speaker 1: stuff like that, like the Lakers. I gotta wait till
Speaker 1: Tim thirty. The Lakers watch your college Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they were watching you play, right watch my so growing
Speaker 1: so growing up though, growing up in Compton, what was
Speaker 1: your experience as young Richard Sherman, Well, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean it was it was what you expected, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess you've never known nothing different than
Speaker 1: what you get, um, so growing up and starting in Watts,
Speaker 1: it was just, you know, it was you what I
Speaker 1: recognized as normal wasn't normal. You know, crack fiends walking
Speaker 1: down the street, you know. But but my parents made
Speaker 1: everybody seem like people, so I never thought about like
Speaker 1: the person we help and giving giving our leftovers too,
Speaker 1: is a crack fiend in a homeless person, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's just her name was Silver. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's just miss Silver. You know, she's coming there get
Speaker 1: some some food. We we ate steaks, are we ate
Speaker 1: pork chops last night? She's coming to get something. Give
Speaker 1: them to her and and and say thank you, and
Speaker 1: YadA YadA YadA. And it's like the homeless dude who
Speaker 1: lives across the street and then the drug next door.
Speaker 1: You know, you see the small little plastic ziplock bags.
Speaker 1: You don't never I didn't. I've never seen one since
Speaker 1: and I didn't even know they made him that small.
Speaker 1: And I ain't gonna tell you what was in them.
Speaker 1: But as a kid, you know, we plut putting dirt
Speaker 1: in them, you know, playing games because I'm not knowing
Speaker 1: what's going on. I didn't I didn't see the environment.
Speaker 1: That's a bad place, you know, I didn't see. It's like,
Speaker 1: oh man, you're in a terrible You're in a hood,
Speaker 1: like like she can go back at any time. You know,
Speaker 1: my dad's trucks getting stolen, getting robbed, people getting shot
Speaker 1: all the time. It's like, oh man, it's just where
Speaker 1: you from. And so so as I grew up, you know,
Speaker 1: my parents shielded us from that by making it a
Speaker 1: welcoming neighborhood. You know, they they sitting there, you know,
Speaker 1: we haven't we go to we go play baseball or
Speaker 1: play football at at will Rogers Park on ninety nine um.
Speaker 1: And we we come home and it's freaking twelve kids.
Speaker 1: And first off, I don't know how my parents was
Speaker 1: doing that. We didn't have no money, you know, we
Speaker 1: had no fool and we're bringing home all this. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't bring home twelve kids right now. But my parents
Speaker 1: made it a community. You know, kids would start spending Christmas,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, because they didn't have their
Speaker 1: parents so they spend Christmas at our houses like that's
Speaker 1: how comfortable people were. And so the neighborhood became like
Speaker 1: a family. And so we run into situations where it's
Speaker 1: like just sticky, it got dicey. It's dicey right now,
Speaker 1: and and do to I can not my parents, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean me for my parents and be like hey,
Speaker 1: get up out of here, like like this ain't for
Speaker 1: your for you, we're about to deal with this, and
Speaker 1: be like all right, you know what I mean, like cool,
Speaker 1: and like a lot of times I wouldn't get to
Speaker 1: make bad decisions. I'd be about to make a bad decision,
Speaker 1: so I can't give myself credit like that where I
Speaker 1: was like, man, I just made every right decision. No,
Speaker 1: I'm about to make a bad decision. And somebody said,
Speaker 1: now you ain't go over there. It's like no, I
Speaker 1: think I'm with y'all, like no you ain't, but all right,
Speaker 1: I ain't. And then you go home. But I think
Speaker 1: that's that's why I gotta give a lot of parents.
Speaker 1: Credit to my parents. You know, my dad drove a
Speaker 1: trash truck for thirty years. You know that's that's that
Speaker 1: job sucks, Like he did it and he only got
Speaker 1: one eye, and so you know, you have a fair
Speaker 1: share of accidents. But that's the story for a different day,
Speaker 1: hiring the man with one eye. But he did it. Um,
Speaker 1: But my mom worked mentally and physically disabled kids. And
Speaker 1: it's like I went to work with him one day
Speaker 1: one time, bring you something to work day, and I
Speaker 1: never go again because I was like that, I don't
Speaker 1: know how the hell you sit in at this stinky
Speaker 1: trash truck and pick up trash all day long. It's hot,
Speaker 1: it's traffic, people being rude, you can't even drive fast,
Speaker 1: like what is this? And you did it for thirty years.
Speaker 1: But it helped me recognize his sacrifice, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, like what he was doing for us and
Speaker 1: so so a lot of times that that like pushed
Speaker 1: me over the edge, you know what I mean. Anytime
Speaker 1: to ship you're tough with with sports, are at school
Speaker 1: or missing meals or it's just like bro, bro, he grunted,
Speaker 1: he doing what you gotta do for us, Like like
Speaker 1: one day I'm a paying back. There's a a myth
Speaker 1: or legend tells it is true back home and said
Speaker 1: when your pops came home from work, when that trash
Speaker 1: truck was there. Nobody was leaving the house, no question,
Speaker 1: no question. That was your story. So that was your
Speaker 1: stories like Sharon's pop drove a trash truck and when
Speaker 1: you can do whatever you want, but when when Pops
Speaker 1: came home, the boys is in the house for the night,
Speaker 1: in the house and your friends don't even come asked,
Speaker 1: may come to ask now, you know? You know I
Speaker 1: love cut to It and I love it even more
Speaker 1: when you download us and subscribe and you can follow
Speaker 1: us on social media too, Smithie, where where at that's at?
Speaker 1: Cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At? Cut
Speaker 1: to It Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr?
Speaker 1: What about online? And you can follow us at cut
Speaker 1: to It podcast dot com where you can buy merch
Speaker 1: and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: I got all my answers questions. Um, yeah, I got
Speaker 1: all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother,
Speaker 1: cut to a Podcast dot Com. You go backwards and
Speaker 1: you look at everything you've accomplished, how you've gotten there.
Speaker 1: You know, what what is something you know talking about
Speaker 1: time travel? What is something you can go back that
Speaker 1: you think you would. I think you would have taken
Speaker 1: more time with not change, but just kind of sitting
Speaker 1: taking more time with. For me, I'm a numbers guy,
Speaker 1: so I wish I would have took my mathematics to
Speaker 1: a too, another level, just one more level, because I'm
Speaker 1: good at math. I can see numbers, I can look
Speaker 1: at I can look at some numbers and figure it out. Right.
Speaker 1: If I would have took just another two classes, man,
Speaker 1: i'd be a dangerous dude. I guess I think I
Speaker 1: think I would have taken I took more people with me.
Speaker 1: I tried to take people with me in high school,
Speaker 1: but I didn't. I wasn't as convicted as I needed
Speaker 1: to be. Really, what do you mean by take take
Speaker 1: it more, take take more people with you? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean in high school, you you know s a
Speaker 1: T was a was a was a barrier. Uh. And
Speaker 1: some dudes, it's just like you said, it's cyclical, it's
Speaker 1: a box, it's mentality, it's you you've grown. It's like
Speaker 1: people don't want to go to the class. It's like
Speaker 1: not cool, you know what, I mean, to go to class,
Speaker 1: which is the stupidest thing in the world, you know,
Speaker 1: And it was stupid to me back then. But but
Speaker 1: it always felt like the stork dropped me off in Compton.
Speaker 1: Like I wasn't like a compete kid sagging my pants,
Speaker 1: I'm banging on everybody was like, like, I'm a regular
Speaker 1: jagular dude that somebody dropped off in the hood and
Speaker 1: was like, hey, make it all right. Well, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. I'd like to read books. I'd like
Speaker 1: to do this. I don't a lot of these dudes
Speaker 1: don't like to do what I do. But I better
Speaker 1: find my way through this neighborhood. I better navigate the
Speaker 1: way I need to to make it out. And so
Speaker 1: I felt like at times I would talk to those dudes,
Speaker 1: and some dudes I got through to it. It It was like, bro,
Speaker 1: y'all need to go to class, Like I help you
Speaker 1: with your work. I'll help you with this. I hope
Speaker 1: you with this. If you get this g p A No,
Speaker 1: we can figure the s A t out. You know,
Speaker 1: those ways to get figured out. You know, some people
Speaker 1: people better test takers than others, you know, but that's
Speaker 1: the story for a different thing. We're not one of
Speaker 1: my one of my kids is one of my kids
Speaker 1: is really smart. Put the test in front of him,
Speaker 1: and they just they struggle. They just don't test well,
Speaker 1: right everybody, don't you take the test away and you
Speaker 1: just grill them. It's automatic. They know the information. And
Speaker 1: so so there were a couple of kids and back
Speaker 1: to what we talked about, like that we could have
Speaker 1: got out. That that could have got out if they
Speaker 1: would have if I would have just pushed them a
Speaker 1: little harder. They spreaking ditch in school and it's like
Speaker 1: my senior year. You know, I'm the cool kid, I'm
Speaker 1: the big man on campus. I'm doing everything, and now
Speaker 1: they're listening. But it's the senior year. You know. They
Speaker 1: got that first and second years too late, and it's
Speaker 1: like if I would have got them earlier, then it
Speaker 1: would have been better. But then we get out and
Speaker 1: the rest of us go to college. They stayed there,
Speaker 1: they get killed, they're gone, and so it's like it's like,
Speaker 1: damn is it you know what I mean? Should I
Speaker 1: have been doing more? And so that's that's some of
Speaker 1: the stuff you think about when you think about going
Speaker 1: back and like what you could have did different and
Speaker 1: what you would change, And it's like I would have
Speaker 1: tried to pull they would have tried to put more
Speaker 1: pressure on him, because it's just like, bro, I see
Speaker 1: what y'all don't see you know what I mean, not
Speaker 1: that I'm crazy smarter than y'all, but I see you
Speaker 1: coming to class. I mean you coming to school to
Speaker 1: ditch class. Yeah, it's the most asinine thing I've ever
Speaker 1: heard of. That requires a lot of work. You actually
Speaker 1: from the security. Yeah. So when you look back on it,
Speaker 1: how were you able to balance football? I know you're
Speaker 1: in track above four point o g p AOL track events.
Speaker 1: He'd run no track. Hey, hey you, I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: him talk for himself. I ain't even gonna I'm not
Speaker 1: even going all American? So how were you able to
Speaker 1: balance all of that? And even on top of that,
Speaker 1: how was all of that instilled and you could just
Speaker 1: like you said, it's almost like you were a story
Speaker 1: dropped off. Those are your words, but really this whole
Speaker 1: embodiment of books book smart, street smart. So how are
Speaker 1: you able to navigate and balance all of those things? Well?
Speaker 1: Should if my parents and my parents made it very
Speaker 1: clear early on, like it's it's school first and then
Speaker 1: everything else. Like if you don't get your school work done,
Speaker 1: your grade's not right. You're not playing that goddamn thing.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be in that house and then doing your
Speaker 1: school work. So if you want to play and you
Speaker 1: want to go mess around, you want to play sports,
Speaker 1: get your school work though, and so that was always paramounts.
Speaker 1: So once it's ingrained in you, it's like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: so it's like, hey, get my work done, and I'm
Speaker 1: I felt like I was really sharp kid Like. We
Speaker 1: didn't have the resources necessarily, Like, you know, the internet
Speaker 1: wasn't crazy going on crazes back there, so it wasn't
Speaker 1: like you could just google stuff. You know, you have
Speaker 1: to really go to a library. You have to really
Speaker 1: try to go. Encyclopedias. Man encyclopedias, oh my god, you
Speaker 1: live them. And then even the encyclopedias were sometimes outdated
Speaker 1: for the information you need. You know, it's not like
Speaker 1: we got the most recent encyclopedias. You don't get every years.
Speaker 1: It's nine. It's I'm looking at encyclopedias from ninety five.
Speaker 1: That's not I'm not even making a joke. That's where
Speaker 1: that's what. That's what it was. We only had a few,
Speaker 1: We didn't have all alphabets, had a few. My uncle
Speaker 1: bought us something. My uncle bought us something from the
Speaker 1: yard sale. Yeah we had the old ones. True story,
Speaker 1: I just had a few. I don't had a whole
Speaker 1: and you have something mess you got and in the
Speaker 1: end was supposed to be together and them drop off like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't have no cues disease. I will tell you
Speaker 1: that right now. A little smaller books. Actually, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure you've never seen him, but that's what was messed up.
Speaker 1: It's like, to really acquire information and knowledge, you gotta
Speaker 1: go search for it like like, and no offense to
Speaker 1: the teachers, because there were some good teachers in the school,
Speaker 1: teachers out there that that loved on us right and
Speaker 1: was trying to help us because they saw the disadvantages
Speaker 1: that we had. But then you got enough bad kids
Speaker 1: that are wearing them down. My my my teacher was
Speaker 1: Mr Russell. That changed everything for me. He found my
Speaker 1: competitive juice was my answer to to academics um and
Speaker 1: that the four fifth grade, I mean at school wasn't
Speaker 1: really I mean, I was just a hood kid. I'm
Speaker 1: just wanting to I'm smart, so I'm gonna finish my work.
Speaker 1: But I'm really gonna lilly gag and do everything. But
Speaker 1: one day he realized if he made everything a competition,
Speaker 1: I'd win. Like, hey, making a competition, I don't care
Speaker 1: what it is. I don't care if it's math science,
Speaker 1: making a competition, I would do everything I can to win.
Speaker 1: And so he challenged me academically through competitiveness. And so
Speaker 1: he made everything a competition, and which made me challenge me.
Speaker 1: He you better read these books because I'm about to
Speaker 1: win it. Like like he just knew how to get
Speaker 1: it up out of me. But um, back to Stanford.
Speaker 1: So I was I was a receiver. I was averaging
Speaker 1: seventeen yards to catch my sophomore year, you know, And
Speaker 1: and me and hardball had had a had a We
Speaker 1: really didn't have a disagreement until we were playing you
Speaker 1: Dub my sophomore year and like I'm on pace for
Speaker 1: a thousand yards, I'm I'm killing and we are getting
Speaker 1: our faces kicked in by you Dub, like like they
Speaker 1: are destroying us. And we won't throw the ball. We
Speaker 1: won't throw it for nothing. We won't throw we won't
Speaker 1: throw a pass. And I'm like, bro, throw a pass,
Speaker 1: Like try a pass? You know what I mean? The
Speaker 1: quarterback um tc O stranger at the time, so we
Speaker 1: we but we didn't have a quarter We only had
Speaker 1: two quarterbacks that were great my time here, it was
Speaker 1: it was Trent Edwards was pretty good, and then Andrew
Speaker 1: Luck was good at the end. So yeah, right and
Speaker 1: so so, but in between it was just a lot
Speaker 1: of let me tell you as I throw you off.
Speaker 1: In Carolina, I played with the Stanford quarterback, Randy Andy
Speaker 1: fa back. He's a police officer up in there, back
Speaker 1: up back home. Yeah, good, shi, not a football player.
Speaker 1: Everybody ain't everybody. They gave me a chance, but yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, right right right. So they didn't throw the ball.
Speaker 1: They didn't throw the ball like I'm black a fellow
Speaker 1: receiver whose job is to catch the football I'm throwing
Speaker 1: you you don't get an attempt because you know, especially hardballs,
Speaker 1: they're gonna point out everything and everybody went wrong. They're
Speaker 1: not gonna state why it went wrong, all right, all right, continue.
Speaker 1: So so so he suspensing me for the game for
Speaker 1: the next game because I'm spasms. Don't like, bro, you're
Speaker 1: not trying to win, like, like, what are we doing?
Speaker 1: And so he's suspending for the next game. We played
Speaker 1: the w s U. We lose because I'm the leading
Speaker 1: receiver at the time. It's not gonna go. So who's
Speaker 1: the other receiver on another side? Um, we had Mark Bradford.
Speaker 1: We had Um, we have Mark Bradford. I think Evan
Speaker 1: Moore was hurt, but they were they were seniors. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: so they still I'm trying to get the landscape. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to paint the pick. Yeah, we were who's the
Speaker 1: running work we we literally had moved the corner to
Speaker 1: running back that game. That's another reason why I was frustrated,
Speaker 1: because we were so beat up at running back that
Speaker 1: we moved the corner to running back and we want
Speaker 1: to run the ball. Yeah, that's kind of like that
Speaker 1: sounds like you taw on the Rose Bowl. This plast year,
Speaker 1: we had a running back scored a touchdown but also
Speaker 1: gave up a touchdown because our starting corner broke his
Speaker 1: leg in a Patrol championship. I did not know that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that then, so they was that's why they was
Speaker 1: picking on picking on one side and then we tried
Speaker 1: to we tried to switch sides. Yeah, they switched to
Speaker 1: play on the other side too. Yeah, Who's Who's tragic? Continue? Sorry?
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's so so so the rest of the year,
Speaker 1: I'm in the doghouse. We only we only got two
Speaker 1: games left the rest of the year. The doghouse with
Speaker 1: the hardball is not a good thing. It's not the
Speaker 1: it's worst place. You can never be in the and
Speaker 1: so so the next year during um during before winning
Speaker 1: conditions during like spring ball, but I ran track during Okay,
Speaker 1: so you got you. So you're talking about winner, you're
Speaker 1: talking about what you gotta get up early. They want
Speaker 1: to make sure you get up early to work out.
Speaker 1: You can showers right the six workouts that were held,
Speaker 1: and so we go through the winter conditioning. I messed
Speaker 1: up my knee a little bit, like nothing crazy and
Speaker 1: nothing serious. I go run track. I messed it up
Speaker 1: a little more. We're getting the training camp. I'm the
Speaker 1: number one receiver. The seniors is gone, like I'm I'm
Speaker 1: going to my junior year. I'm on the bullet in
Speaker 1: the cough watch list like it's time. And but my
Speaker 1: knees messed up, like I got my my patella is
Speaker 1: starting to tear, like it's a tear in it and
Speaker 1: it's just starting to split. And they're like, hey, it's
Speaker 1: a ticket time bomb. You make one bad cut, it corruptures.
Speaker 1: And so I'm limping my way through the first couple
Speaker 1: of games, and I'm like ineffective because I can barely run,
Speaker 1: I can barely do anything, can't I can't really practice.
Speaker 1: And they're like, hey, you need to you need to
Speaker 1: get the surgery. Are you're gonna rupt your patella And
Speaker 1: I'm like okay. So we're meeting weekly with the whole
Speaker 1: training staff and Hardballs in there. So by the fourth game,
Speaker 1: they're like, Hey, if you don't sit down now and
Speaker 1: get surgery, you're gonna lose this whole year. And so
Speaker 1: they all agree, Hardball agrees, sit down, get the surgery.
Speaker 1: The next week, I get a text I got I
Speaker 1: get next day, I get a text, Hey, come to
Speaker 1: me in my office. So I go to his office
Speaker 1: and he's like, you quit on team. He's like, you
Speaker 1: get on team. Like I've never seen a player quit
Speaker 1: on the team the way you just quit on team.
Speaker 1: He's like, he's like, you will never play wide receiver
Speaker 1: here again, He's like, and then he gave me a contract.
Speaker 1: He gave me a contract with um a list of
Speaker 1: things on it that I needed to do in order
Speaker 1: to not get kicked off team. And it was it
Speaker 1: was it was paid back all my loans. It was
Speaker 1: um take twenty units, which was excessive because I was over.
Speaker 1: I was above, I was ahead of where I need
Speaker 1: to be to graduate. But he just wanted me to
Speaker 1: quit take twenty units, sublect because I was living off campus,
Speaker 1: so I had sup let my lease. I just pay
Speaker 1: my lease off, moved back on the campus. And if
Speaker 1: I didn't do all those things by the end of
Speaker 1: the quarter, you can kick what's going on in your
Speaker 1: mind when you when you sit down and you read
Speaker 1: all those terms, what's going on in your mind? I
Speaker 1: can tell you a few things were very off colored
Speaker 1: a lot of things to you saying that we cannot
Speaker 1: repeat on this podcast. We all lose a lot of things,
Speaker 1: no question, but but it was it was a situation
Speaker 1: where you're so powerless, you know what I mean. First off,
Speaker 1: I'm at Stanford place nobody thought I would get to.
Speaker 1: Now I'm risk and getting kicked out for something that
Speaker 1: that really wasn't in my control for you thought he
Speaker 1: was in agreement. This isn't you quit, this is I'm
Speaker 1: injured and I'm actually during the team of dis service
Speaker 1: by hobbling out there, out there like I had. I
Speaker 1: had a hundred and a hundred eight yards in four games,
Speaker 1: like I can't move at all. And he and you're
Speaker 1: literally in every meeting what the doctors are sitting there
Speaker 1: saying he needs to get surgery. He needs to get surgery.
Speaker 1: He needs to get surgery. So when it happens, he's like,
Speaker 1: He's like, bro, Um, so you put on team. You
Speaker 1: did all that, If you do all this, you'll stay
Speaker 1: on team, but you will never play wide receiver here again.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, bro, I'm on the belit like watch this,
Speaker 1: like bro, what like what are we doing? And so
Speaker 1: I just had to So thankfully we had some great
Speaker 1: people around and I was able to get those things done.
Speaker 1: So I go back to him, turn the contract in.
Speaker 1: He says exactly what he said, you never play well
Speaker 1: receiver here again. Okay. I said, well, can I play defense?
Speaker 1: He said, I don't give a damn. I don't call
Speaker 1: the defense. I don't I don't care. He didn't want
Speaker 1: to deal with you anymore. He didn't want to deal
Speaker 1: with me anymore. So ron Lan, who was decordinator at
Speaker 1: the time, takes me on defense. I'm the load of
Speaker 1: walk on. I'm playing corner. But Steve, as you know,
Speaker 1: if you play wide receiver and you're the number one option,
Speaker 1: you know every spot in the offense. You should learn
Speaker 1: learn it like the back of your hand. And so
Speaker 1: when you move over the defense, Steve, if you went
Speaker 1: over the defense and played against Baltimore Ravens or the
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers in the offense that you knew, you could
Speaker 1: tell their signals. You can tell they plays, they splits
Speaker 1: the alignments on third down. Oh that motion, Oh I
Speaker 1: know that motion. He's about to do this. So imagine
Speaker 1: how tragic it was for all this first spring. I am.
Speaker 1: I don't know how the pedal really, I don't really
Speaker 1: know how the pedal. I don't really know how to
Speaker 1: press and do all that. But you know, and I
Speaker 1: know the play. You already cerebral at that moment. It's
Speaker 1: like you got a cheat code and he's piste off
Speaker 1: and this. So every practice I'm out there, Hey, alert
Speaker 1: the curl and sit right there and curls coming right there. Hey,
Speaker 1: alert to slap. Hey it's a flat route, push out.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pick this and I would walk to places
Speaker 1: they're going, yeah, absolutely, playing offense in reverse, I was
Speaker 1: the starter before this ring was over. I couldn't paddle.
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to press good, but I knew
Speaker 1: the place they could not complete the pass. So so
Speaker 1: fast forward, I'm in games and I'm using the same
Speaker 1: information now by by then, I've been had enough practice.
Speaker 1: I'm peddling decent. My press is gotten a lot better.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm more patient at line scrimmage. But my my,
Speaker 1: my gift right now is still the understanding of what
Speaker 1: officers are trying to do to attack. So that's where
Speaker 1: I put myself in position. So when we would so
Speaker 1: as I progressed in my career, that was always my
Speaker 1: my saving grace. I didn't have to be the most
Speaker 1: athletic if I know the play. Like as you're talking,
Speaker 1: in my mind, I'm going back at some of the
Speaker 1: times that we're playing. I was like, he is a
Speaker 1: horrible backpedaler. I like, and then we used to press,
Speaker 1: Like a few times you go against me, you would
Speaker 1: you would like throw them, but you wouldn't really throw them,
Speaker 1: and then your base was wide. And so I'm literally
Speaker 1: sitting here, Yeah, I was getting beat from a dude
Speaker 1: that really wasn't even I was a technical quarter. I
Speaker 1: didn't become a technical quarter. I feel so dirty. But
Speaker 1: like by my third year in the league, I was no.
Speaker 1: But but you still had you still have some some
Speaker 1: things that me in my mind. That's why the way
Speaker 1: you played, that's why they cover three the way you played,
Speaker 1: how you played it. Because sometimes I will run routes
Speaker 1: and try to get in your blind spot and then
Speaker 1: you would panic. Now I'm going I don't why, right,
Speaker 1: because it wasn't It wasn't as natural for you it was.
Speaker 1: It was it was in eight because you're an athlete.
Speaker 1: But it was not like sleeping. It was like, even
Speaker 1: though I'm older and don't play ball anymore, I can
Speaker 1: still run routes and I can close my eyes and
Speaker 1: do things I can back of my hand, right. But
Speaker 1: you know, I played corner in the high school, and
Speaker 1: so there's some things that as even as a corner,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm a lot rusty on that. So but
Speaker 1: so I'm just going back in my mind, like, huh
Speaker 1: makes sense now. So so a lot of times if
Speaker 1: you if you ran into my blind spot, the reason
Speaker 1: I panic is because I thought to play was something different.
Speaker 1: It's because you're selling me something I'm not feeling like
Speaker 1: like I'm thinking you're about to run a dig. You
Speaker 1: went blind spot and came back to the den or
Speaker 1: you went, you know, and it was like, oh what
Speaker 1: is this? What is this? And then you were grabbed
Speaker 1: me right right right right where I need you to
Speaker 1: be re secured. This situation, I ain't gonna ain't hurt nobody.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you. That's what you're talking about getting
Speaker 1: me frustrated. Man, When Corners grabbed me, I was snapped dog.
Speaker 1: I would just snap like I was going to get
Speaker 1: Reevis one time and this when he was with New
Speaker 1: England Patriots and he grabbed me. And you know, I
Speaker 1: went against Reevers and with the Jets. And I'm not
Speaker 1: throwing shade the Reevers, but I'm telling you, when you
Speaker 1: have and just like Richard, when you have a dominant
Speaker 1: defensive line or a defensive line that gets penetration early,
Speaker 1: it rushes everything. The receipt I'm talking about. I'm like
Speaker 1: a ten year old kid one a hundred dollars in
Speaker 1: the video game store. I can't I can't remember what right.
Speaker 1: And so anytime like Reevers grabbing one time and said man,
Speaker 1: stop grabbing me. He said, met's stop complaining. So the
Speaker 1: next place he grabbed me again and I pulled him
Speaker 1: by his face masks all the way down. I said,
Speaker 1: you grabbed me again. This is gonna be the whole game.
Speaker 1: But it just it makes so much sense now because
Speaker 1: this podcast is just turned upside down. I'm going back
Speaker 1: at time now like stranger things. I'm going back in
Speaker 1: time and I'm being a receiver. Look, it was one
Speaker 1: time you you end up like wrestling with me on
Speaker 1: the plate. I knew the plate and you didn't run
Speaker 1: the rout and you were told Cam I told him,
Speaker 1: don't throw me the ball. He threw it. He knew it.
Speaker 1: He threw it. It was like an out route. I've
Speaker 1: seen you the clip. It was like an out route
Speaker 1: you were supposed to and you like stuttered and I
Speaker 1: broke forward. I broke because I knew the play and
Speaker 1: you just ran through me like hit the ball hits
Speaker 1: you on the side. I'm like, bro Steve, that was
Speaker 1: my pick. You can't do me Like what did I say? Oh?
Speaker 1: You was going on. It was a whole lot of
Speaker 1: things you can't say on there. You didn't get scripture,
Speaker 1: just quoting the scripture. If this is the different part
Speaker 1: of oh before they hand ink bright, before before they
Speaker 1: used let's getting down. Hey Gerard, why did you get
Speaker 1: that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh? Yes, I
Speaker 1: got it from cut to a podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at
Speaker 1: seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. Let's talk about Legion of Boom. Just
Speaker 1: all those guys back there. I just got to tell
Speaker 1: you this, though, I have to say it. Brandon Browner
Speaker 1: bro tattoo knees used to rub so close again, can't
Speaker 1: not need knock, need not need go google it, Brandon
Speaker 1: brown and knees and google when I tell you that
Speaker 1: was one time. I'm gonna say, super Pauls. Pauls. I
Speaker 1: was standing, he was standing, I was standing behind and
Speaker 1: I was just looking at him, going, how is that
Speaker 1: physically possible? How was he backpealing where while he's standing
Speaker 1: right now, his inner knees are touching each other, not
Speaker 1: his thigs, his inner knees like a little dimple in
Speaker 1: your knee, you know, so you got the knee you
Speaker 1: got the knee cap. Now when you're going, I'm touching
Speaker 1: my right knee. So when you go on left right
Speaker 1: there it's a little it's a little sweet spot. Those
Speaker 1: was touching each other like so for some people that cankles.
Speaker 1: He had cankles in his kneecaps, and they was touching,
Speaker 1: and he was backpedal knees and Bro, he was tall.
Speaker 1: His genetic disposition did not say he was a pro
Speaker 1: Bowl corner. Corner did not. His disposition did not say
Speaker 1: he should be able to run. But he did a
Speaker 1: hell of a job. Bro, Bro, if he got his
Speaker 1: hands on you, yes, over. But I was too, I was.
Speaker 1: I was watching. It was like I had of out
Speaker 1: of body experience. How is this bowtlegged knock knee brother
Speaker 1: covering you, Steve, I'm not I'm not sure. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I was talking to myself out of body experience, looking
Speaker 1: at myself, shaking my head and smacking my teeth and
Speaker 1: then still frustrated, trying to figure out this puzzle. It
Speaker 1: was like I was playing checkers with no board or pieces,
Speaker 1: but we was in the game and then I'm over here,
Speaker 1: so I got I got Bobby Fisher, Richard Sherman and
Speaker 1: I got I got his coach over here, molly wapping me.
Speaker 1: And then and then when I think I gotta pass,
Speaker 1: I'll go across the middle. Bam, Bam, Cam Chancellor, Man,
Speaker 1: Cam Cam, throw a pass to me. One time across
Speaker 1: the middle that camp Chancellor had an opportunity hit me.
Speaker 1: I dove just to get out of the way of
Speaker 1: Camp Chancellor business cession. It wasn't a business session. I
Speaker 1: got the hell out the way a business is like, no,
Speaker 1: I get it. Next time, I said, you probably saved
Speaker 1: yourself a surgery. Look, Cam Bro that you don't talk
Speaker 1: about the legion to Boom like first off, we all
Speaker 1: we all had a few screws loose from the beginning,
Speaker 1: like but but we're all type A alpha males. But
Speaker 1: there was enough humility in the within the group that
Speaker 1: that is yet to be said when I hear about
Speaker 1: the legion of Boom, that there was enough humility because
Speaker 1: because nobody knew us, there's no way like type A
Speaker 1: alpha alpha's come together in one group, you know, with
Speaker 1: Bobby Wagner and with Mike Bennett and with all this
Speaker 1: and don't have clash. We never really had a clash
Speaker 1: like that. Because everybody was like if somebody, if somebody
Speaker 1: need to say I'm the best, I'm gonna best out here,
Speaker 1: your best, Like we're gonna encourage it, like he the best.
Speaker 1: Like it ain't gonna be like, oh, he think he's
Speaker 1: the best, Like I'm gonna be jealous, Like I put
Speaker 1: it on tape every week, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: It don't really matter. I'm like, I don't have to
Speaker 1: measure to anybody. If it helps us win, if that
Speaker 1: helps everybody feel good, I'm happy to encourage it. And
Speaker 1: we had enough dudes comfortable and that within their own
Speaker 1: skin to be like, I'm not offended by any of them,
Speaker 1: like I need. That is very rare to hear and
Speaker 1: I and I'm just calling out see it. That's very
Speaker 1: rare for I think a lot of black athletes, right,
Speaker 1: a lot of men who are from the bottom to
Speaker 1: be able to set to be able to sit aside
Speaker 1: and says man, my boy Rich, he's the one, the best,
Speaker 1: my boy Browner, he's one of the best. Earl, he's
Speaker 1: one of the best. Bam, Bam, he's one of the best.
Speaker 1: Bobby Wacken, Like you don't you don't generally get that
Speaker 1: cheerleader mentality out of alpha males on a football team, right,
Speaker 1: and you guys actually didn't. There was no chinking armor.
Speaker 1: You guys were tightly net like guys got married, y'all's
Speaker 1: best days weddings just like it was like three or
Speaker 1: four weddings back to back, and it was grade or
Speaker 1: four groomsmen back to back with new outfits back to back.
Speaker 1: And and like you guys, the groomsman's suits were fired,
Speaker 1: then the next one was was better. And it just
Speaker 1: there was the showmanship in every area of you guys
Speaker 1: lives football and off the field, and yet in every
Speaker 1: picture you guys were there, right. It's it was it
Speaker 1: was I think Chris Rashard, r DV coach really really
Speaker 1: did a great job because he worked with but he
Speaker 1: he was a great leader of men for us because
Speaker 1: he had he had certain pillars that we had to
Speaker 1: buy an accountability. It had to be loved, respect accountability,
Speaker 1: and and so when you're getting held accountable, it's not
Speaker 1: it's not like hey you suck, like what happened in
Speaker 1: this play. It's like, hey, you're better than this. We
Speaker 1: need to be better than this, and we need you
Speaker 1: to be better than this. So when whenever we're on
Speaker 1: the field and we come together, that's why you see
Speaker 1: we celebrate with each other every goddamn like you see
Speaker 1: us in practice. Our offense hated us because it could
Speaker 1: be incomplete pass on the other side of the field.
Speaker 1: You know, thought we want a super Bowl. And it's
Speaker 1: like Earl bat in the past, you see every single
Speaker 1: one of us slapping hands and then we go line
Speaker 1: it up again. A d lineman gotta sack. We got
Speaker 1: damn spreading them there. And we're having a blast every day,
Speaker 1: celebrating each other's victories and celebrating each other's work. And
Speaker 1: so when somebody made a mistake, it wasn't like, hey,
Speaker 1: Earl man, you don't freaking suck, Like what are you doing?
Speaker 1: It was like, hey, you better than that, Like, hey
Speaker 1: you got him, you got him, and we next time
Speaker 1: we're gonna Kelly, like come on. And so every time
Speaker 1: a mistake happened, it wasn't like, man, you gotta hold
Speaker 1: your head. It was like, hold your head up high.
Speaker 1: You'll see Earl come up. If I gave up a
Speaker 1: grab or something here, come up and he's just and
Speaker 1: that's all you got to say. And it's like I'm
Speaker 1: not taking that as disrespect or him. I'm telling him, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know I can be better than that, and I
Speaker 1: can be better than that, and I don't want to
Speaker 1: let him down again. I know his babies, I know
Speaker 1: his wife, I know his kids, and I don't want
Speaker 1: to let them down. I know he gotta put food
Speaker 1: on the table. I'm gonna help he put food on
Speaker 1: the table. I'm not gonna let him down again. The
Speaker 1: same It's true, Cam b B still keep up with
Speaker 1: BB and his kids. Um. Cam, We literally just had
Speaker 1: a charity basketball game yesterday and all our kids playing
Speaker 1: kJ right, Bobby Wagner like it's Bobby's birthday today. Um.
Speaker 1: And So when you have that love and respect, it's
Speaker 1: like playing with your brothers. She's like playing with your
Speaker 1: real family. And so when you play with your real family,
Speaker 1: you you rarely ever come at them with from a
Speaker 1: place of malice, you know what I mean. You always
Speaker 1: come from a place of love. So it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm coming here, but you know I love you, So
Speaker 1: when I get on you, you know it's from a
Speaker 1: place of love. When when two's go at each other
Speaker 1: and you don't think it's a place of love, it's
Speaker 1: a place of disrespect. And then it's like, that's where
Speaker 1: the friction, that's where the friction happens. That's where the
Speaker 1: that's where locker rooms are fragmented. So what have you
Speaker 1: learned about the NFL business now that you're that, that
Speaker 1: you're older, Um, that that's intriguing. Well, it's dangerous to
Speaker 1: have that, to have that mentality because you feel like family.
Speaker 1: But the front office controlled everything. So it's like we
Speaker 1: were willing to do what it took to stay together
Speaker 1: as long as we could, but we didn't get that out.
Speaker 1: So it's like the year I tore my key leaves
Speaker 1: the same game, Camp had his nick ind and his
Speaker 1: career ended. So our our times in Seattle, Arizona is
Speaker 1: the worst stadium in the world for us. It's like
Speaker 1: the House Awards. We lost the Super Bowl there. My
Speaker 1: career in Seattle ended there. Camp's career in Seattle ended there.
Speaker 1: Earl's career in Seattle ended there. That's he flicked everybody off,
Speaker 1: he broke his leg and as the last game he
Speaker 1: ever played in Settle, literally all three three of us
Speaker 1: and we lost Super Bolter. It was just one stadium.
Speaker 1: But um, but I've learned that you you you have
Speaker 1: to separate two. You have to separate your love for
Speaker 1: the game and your love for the team and your
Speaker 1: love for the environment from the business. You had an
Speaker 1: agent most of your career, and then you go to
Speaker 1: Sevcisco and you negotiate your own contract, and people are
Speaker 1: saying that you're an idiot walking through that process of
Speaker 1: why you decided to negotiate your contract. What was the
Speaker 1: premise and the reasoning behind all of that. Well, first off,
Speaker 1: it it was the right time. And what I mean,
Speaker 1: what was the right time. It was the right time
Speaker 1: in my career. It was the right time in terms
Speaker 1: of knowledge and information I had uh and the maturity
Speaker 1: that I had as a as a player, and my
Speaker 1: knowledge of the business. You know what I mean. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're seven, now you're your your three my knowledge Still
Speaker 1: I'm still in love, you know I mean, I'm in
Speaker 1: love with the team, you know what I mean. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, like whatever, I'll do whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'll take I'll take it. You know what
Speaker 1: i mean? Do we get to stay together? So, like,
Speaker 1: you know what i mean, I'm still in a honeymoon phase.
Speaker 1: And so at that point, I could separate two. And
Speaker 1: what had happened was my agent at the time got
Speaker 1: suspended and fifteen I think it was fifteen sixteen, and
Speaker 1: I needed him and he literally could not do business
Speaker 1: for me, and I had to pay. Oh smell, I
Speaker 1: don't make you re evaluate some things. And so I
Speaker 1: was sitting there like how is this life? Speed? And
Speaker 1: the suspension was based on something he's done that somebody else, Yes,
Speaker 1: that affected his job and his creditation with the NFL,
Speaker 1: right damn. And so it was deep. But it was
Speaker 1: one of his other clients that he got suspended dinner,
Speaker 1: but but it still affected you, but represent you, but
Speaker 1: he could eat off of you, right, And so I'm
Speaker 1: I'm calling p A. I'm like, hey, what is how
Speaker 1: is this life? Bro? I need him to do certain
Speaker 1: things that he cannot do, and I have to pay him,
Speaker 1: Like he cannot do the job, but I still have
Speaker 1: to pay him. But I'm paying him to do the
Speaker 1: job that he can't do. That he cannot do that
Speaker 1: y'all have suspended him from doing, but you still have
Speaker 1: to pay him? Yeah, you high? I was lived and
Speaker 1: I'm like, bro, what is the point of having an
Speaker 1: agent if I have to pay him for a job
Speaker 1: that he may not be able to do. And most
Speaker 1: of the time they're not doing anything after the initial negotiation,
Speaker 1: What has he done for you? And so I said,
Speaker 1: I called the p A and I said, how did
Speaker 1: contract negotiations work? They said, every single agent that negotiated
Speaker 1: a contract has to send it through them before it
Speaker 1: ever gets approved, and they will look through contract language
Speaker 1: and and that's and that's why and how that's why
Speaker 1: sometimes players are like the kid the linebacker Smith from
Speaker 1: Chicago because detrimental to the team when they started trying
Speaker 1: to implement those the languages, that language into the contracts.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm one of the very last few guys who
Speaker 1: was able to double dimp because Caroline had to pay
Speaker 1: me and Baltimore was paying me. And so they started
Speaker 1: to take those that do will dipping out. And so
Speaker 1: they allowed it to where if you get cut and
Speaker 1: have guaranteed the mute, the new team has to take that,
Speaker 1: not the old team. And so so so the every
Speaker 1: agent is the agent of the union, like they have
Speaker 1: to be certified by the union, so they have to
Speaker 1: send the contract through them so they can be like, oh,
Speaker 1: we agreed, because that the NFL, the NFL p A
Speaker 1: wants to stay abreast on and some of the new language.
Speaker 1: You know, like any lawyer, all lawyers, they they're they're
Speaker 1: paid to be creative, right, and if the language is bad,
Speaker 1: they're going up, hey, hey, this language, these two paragraphs
Speaker 1: need come out, or or if they if they slip
Speaker 1: through the cracks. Now it's precedent for everybody moving forward. Correct,
Speaker 1: And it's like, hey, you created this cool caveat let
Speaker 1: me let everybody else know. So every every contract NFL
Speaker 1: contract can be if if a player wants it. You
Speaker 1: you want all the comps, they'll send them to you
Speaker 1: right now. That email them to you right now. You ask,
Speaker 1: you asked for tim, they'll send your team. You ask
Speaker 1: for a hunter, they'll send your hunter. And so everything
Speaker 1: an agent can do, a player can do for the
Speaker 1: most part in terms of like getting the information. And
Speaker 1: then once my we were agreeing in terms of the contract,
Speaker 1: I send it to the PA just like every agent does.
Speaker 1: That's why the stuff Florio said, He's like, oh, the
Speaker 1: p A really saved Sherman. It's like they didn't really
Speaker 1: save me. They just said the language that was in
Speaker 1: this contract is this is language from um because Jimmy
Speaker 1: Garoppolo's language was the best language, and say, Eric Armsteads
Speaker 1: language now probably the second best language on the forty niners.
Speaker 1: And so he was like, hey, this is like the
Speaker 1: fifth best language. These are the reasons it's the fifth
Speaker 1: best language. They have this where they can avoid this,
Speaker 1: they can avoid this, So you're gonna want to carve
Speaker 1: these three things out and then the contract is fine.
Speaker 1: And so then I go back and say, hey, carve
Speaker 1: these three things out and we gotta deal. And then
Speaker 1: they say, oh, oh, look the p a safe rich
Speaker 1: to term. It's like, no, they did the same thing
Speaker 1: they do for every single one of these agents, but
Speaker 1: y'all don't want us disrupt in the industry of these agents.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna make a team like the player didn't
Speaker 1: know what he was doing when the same process I
Speaker 1: went through every single agent for every single player has
Speaker 1: to go through. Some agents are obviously with the experience
Speaker 1: in more years, they're more they're more savvy, they understand
Speaker 1: what's going on. Then there's also other areas that as
Speaker 1: a player that you're going to experience, whether it's uh
Speaker 1: injuredy settlements, or there's little things that happened that a
Speaker 1: young a new agent isn't gonna necessarily be up on
Speaker 1: like second opinions that the teams have to give you
Speaker 1: a second opinion. A lot of times if you represent
Speaker 1: yourself getting a second opinion, it becomes a little fickle
Speaker 1: because basically a second opinion saying, hey, doctor or team
Speaker 1: doctor or her team trainer, I really like you. However, however,
Speaker 1: I don't trust you're thinking, and I just want to
Speaker 1: make sure that someone else has a new set of
Speaker 1: pair of eyes because of at times it happens, not
Speaker 1: all the time, but when you have financially invested perspective,
Speaker 1: you're gonna look at this injury based on the economics
Speaker 1: and how it impacts your team, and also how your
Speaker 1: employment impacts how you look at this X ray. That
Speaker 1: is m R I. Right, So if you if you,
Speaker 1: if you work for a team and you look at
Speaker 1: this X ray the wrong way and it cost the
Speaker 1: team twenty million dollars, that that could be problematic. So
Speaker 1: you know, so it's it's it's it's it's loopoles. It's
Speaker 1: things that happened, and there's reasons why, right, But it's
Speaker 1: also like a lot of players, you know, and and
Speaker 1: this is the tough part of just being a black
Speaker 1: athlete and being a black you've been for so long
Speaker 1: cater to like you've always had somebody to call to
Speaker 1: do things. We don't necessarily know all the information. So
Speaker 1: it's like, hey, my agent handles that. So whatever he's
Speaker 1: handling I have no knowledge of. It could be anything.
Speaker 1: It could be buying airplane tickets, it could be renting cards,
Speaker 1: it could be paying my bills. I think I think
Speaker 1: that's a lot of I just think that's a lot
Speaker 1: of athletes in general general. Um, But I had the
Speaker 1: same I had the same agent for my whole career. However,
Speaker 1: I was negotiating me my agent from two thousand and
Speaker 1: four every contract after that. So we sat down like
Speaker 1: I wanted to know the knowledge of you know, like
Speaker 1: I was a weirdough in this regard. I would do
Speaker 1: whatever they offer me. I would do the calculation after taxes. No,
Speaker 1: they were like, man, that's you know, I'm throwing out
Speaker 1: a number. It just isn't the number. So I'm just
Speaker 1: throwing out, oh, that's twenty MILLI you know you getting
Speaker 1: paid twenty MILLI dollars? Right, man, that's tim five right,
Speaker 1: I's how I would look at it, and so we
Speaker 1: would talk and look at it based on that, and
Speaker 1: then the sentives, hey, I had a workout bonus never
Speaker 1: went I don't care. You can put you can put
Speaker 1: fifty million dollars in there, still ain't showing up. Don't
Speaker 1: want it right Just so that that was that was
Speaker 1: the uniqueness of me. But I had my team, my agent,
Speaker 1: financial guys. They walked me through the steps. They were
Speaker 1: willing to teach me because I was also willing to ask,
Speaker 1: and I was, I was, I want to learn. And
Speaker 1: then I became Hue and then I became an NFL
Speaker 1: play NFL rep. So then I learned about all the
Speaker 1: other stuff as well, and so I was I was
Speaker 1: all over. Yeah, you were all And if we had
Speaker 1: the full lead full of us, we wouldn't. It's tough.
Speaker 1: It's it's too much money out there, right, and it's
Speaker 1: and it's but it's guys. It's it's a bit of laziness,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of laziness and and that. But that's
Speaker 1: the problem guys have when they transition out. It's because
Speaker 1: you don't have anybody cater until you don't have anybody
Speaker 1: to be like hey, go do this. Then you have
Speaker 1: to figure out how to rent a car on your own.
Speaker 1: Then you got to figure out how to pay the
Speaker 1: bills on your own. Then you got to figure out
Speaker 1: how to navigate that I can't get nobody don't do that,
Speaker 1: and a lot of dude but but Steve as you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of dudes do. So that's that's something that
Speaker 1: I'm I tried anytime I talked to young guys, it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: take accountability, to take responsibility for your own damn life.
Speaker 1: Like I hear you saying your agent said this. You
Speaker 1: agent said that, double checket, double checket, just like if
Speaker 1: you get the third down presentation from your coat and
Speaker 1: he's like, he's like, they run this on third unit,
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna go ahead and go ahead and check
Speaker 1: to take myself and double check outside of these four
Speaker 1: games you didn't check out because if they ran some
Speaker 1: other stuff, they probably gonna run that. It's just it's
Speaker 1: gonna be the time. Oh man, they went outside of
Speaker 1: the break that. Oh man, we I was ready. I'll
Speaker 1: check the tape or the coach that man, we went
Speaker 1: over it apple and I will say, young men are
Speaker 1: getting better, you know, they're taking more responsibility. You're hearing
Speaker 1: young men way more informed than they were ten fifteen
Speaker 1: years ago. And it's like, just keep pushing the envelope,
Speaker 1: last one and then we will let you go. Man,
Speaker 1: appreciate your time. What's next for Richard Sherman? For you know,
Speaker 1: in the next ten years, what are you looking forward
Speaker 1: to impact? I'm and forward to have a greater impact
Speaker 1: than I have the past ten years. And I mean,
Speaker 1: how are you going to impact? I'm going to speak more.
Speaker 1: I'm going to use my platform more, you know, obviously
Speaker 1: the platform I've been given and the voice I've been
Speaker 1: given um with the podcast and Thursday Night Football, I'm
Speaker 1: going to use it to empower and educate more young people.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a better dad, and you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make an impact on kids, my own dad kids,
Speaker 1: and and be at every track meet and every football
Speaker 1: game and every soccer game that I can make and
Speaker 1: make sure that I teach them the lessons that I
Speaker 1: know are essential going forward. And that's that's some of
Speaker 1: the most fun I ever have. Man, It's just being
Speaker 1: there and seeing the growth of your own kids and
Speaker 1: your own see it and seeing them like put forward
Speaker 1: and use the things that you taught them. Hey, man,
Speaker 1: we worked on this a couple of days ago, and
Speaker 1: then you go to the game and you see the
Speaker 1: things you worked on. Man, I tell you what it's
Speaker 1: It's a super Bowl. Every time you see you're like, bro,
Speaker 1: that's the movie we work on. That's it. And and
Speaker 1: so I find a lot of fulfillment in that, UM,
Speaker 1: and also continue to get back to the underprivileged. Uh,
Speaker 1: the underprivileged with the kids that didn't have a choice,
Speaker 1: and you know, they were born into a situation in
Speaker 1: which they couldn't control, and it's it's being able to
Speaker 1: supplement that and try to make their life experience better
Speaker 1: and give them the tools, um, and the resources that
Speaker 1: are necessary for them to throw. That's awesome, man, Well
Speaker 1: appreciate you, appreciate your time. I look forward to the
Speaker 1: invite to come on a Richard Sherman podcast as well
Speaker 1: and give you the same energy you gave me, um,
Speaker 1: and so man, look forward to it. God bless you, man,
Speaker 1: and look forward to watch you on Thursday night football.
Speaker 1: Appreciate and Uh, when you you know, I'll be I'll
Speaker 1: be in studio going on before you guys. Um. It
Speaker 1: with with the network. So if you throw any anything
Speaker 1: out there that seems like a shade or a cap,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call you out. I'm stealing everything you say.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna taking notes and be like, oh, that's a
Speaker 1: great point. Appreciate that, alright, Appreciate it, alright, appreciate all right.
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 Singior, I'm Gerard Little John and this is
Speaker 1: cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior.
Speaker 1: That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC,
Speaker 1: Balto 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
Speaker 1: Smith SINGR, co host Gerard Little John, talent and booking
Speaker 1: manager Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley Robinson and John
Speaker 1: Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut Too It is produced
Speaker 1: by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by
Speaker 1: Alex Lebrek, Production coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson.
Speaker 1: Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it,
Speaker 1: then we're about to let you know. It's all