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 all.
Speaker 1: I'd like to welcome a workmate, a person who is
Speaker 1: she's pretty talented, UM reporter, television host for of course, NFL, networking,
Speaker 1: a lot of other things, and from Toronto, miss everything,
Speaker 1: cut to it. Please welcome Rachel, but I'll miss every boy.
Speaker 1: I think, thanks guys, thanks for having me. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at your career stuff because you know, obviously
Speaker 1: when you work with someone, you don't necessarily know all
Speaker 1: of the things they've done. And I mean, you've been
Speaker 1: in this game. You've been hustling since You've been hustling
Speaker 1: since toil. But I know you've been hustling toil, but
Speaker 1: you've been hustled a lot longer than that. I've been
Speaker 1: hustling since I've been twelve yea, because she's also she's
Speaker 1: also one of three other brothers, so that's she's one
Speaker 1: of three brothers. So that is like one of the
Speaker 1: only girl. I've got three older brothers. And as soon
Speaker 1: as I tell people that, they're like, oh, okay, now
Speaker 1: you make sense. Do you know why that is? I
Speaker 1: assume it's because I'm a I'm a tomboy and I'm tough,
Speaker 1: and you know, one of the guys. That's kind of
Speaker 1: how I've always taken it. Let me sit my tea.
Speaker 1: It has to do with more of your personality. And
Speaker 1: I'm a father of four and I got three boys
Speaker 1: and one girl, and so I can I know, you know,
Speaker 1: my daughter listens to this periodically. So where is the
Speaker 1: girl in the age spectrum? Well, before our last she
Speaker 1: was technically in the middle. She was the second oldest, okay,
Speaker 1: and so it's soon to be seventeen and seven. But
Speaker 1: she's a girl. So it's kind of that I don't
Speaker 1: want to say, like, what was me, but it's that
Speaker 1: you know, you're the girl, so you are used to
Speaker 1: the spotlight. Yeah, I guess. So there's also a huge
Speaker 1: age difference between me and my and all my brothers,
Speaker 1: Like the oldest one is thirteen years older than me.
Speaker 1: Then it goes ten years older than me, and then
Speaker 1: it goes eight years older than me, and then there's
Speaker 1: a huge gap between me and my youngest brother, um,
Speaker 1: and then there's me. So it's weird. It's like I
Speaker 1: was kind of an only child and the youngest because
Speaker 1: by the time I got to like high school or
Speaker 1: even middle school, they were all gone. So I got
Speaker 1: I got that like I was only the one in
Speaker 1: the house. And then I also got I was a
Speaker 1: part of a huge family. Yeah, generally the only girl
Speaker 1: gets the middle child syndrome without being the middle child.
Speaker 1: So does that mean that I just like I'm always
Speaker 1: trying to get attention because that doesn't check out. You
Speaker 1: snitch on yourself. I'm not dryt niche in the podcast
Speaker 1: that work with me, honest about that was the rule.
Speaker 1: You come across like you're very needy. Sorry, that's fine,
Speaker 1: not the first time I read that. So let me
Speaker 1: tell you our second interaction, and I have to I
Speaker 1: have to say it so you Obviously Rachel's been on
Speaker 1: for a while on the network. However, in COVID, we
Speaker 1: haven't been able to like actually introduce ourselves to each
Speaker 1: other in personal so you know, I worked from the house,
Speaker 1: she's working in studio or I'm in studio, you know,
Speaker 1: just missing each other. So I met Rachel second time
Speaker 1: I met you, because I don't remember the first time.
Speaker 1: It was very brief. So I said, hey, Rachel, Steve Smith,
Speaker 1: you go, I met you before. Okay, check that off
Speaker 1: the box, that's what you said. I was like, damn,
Speaker 1: that's fine. There's so many people that work here. But see,
Speaker 1: I'm intentional, like I don't ever want to come across
Speaker 1: like I'm snooty, like, oh, I don't speak to people,
Speaker 1: and so I was making sure I spoke. And also too,
Speaker 1: it's like being in the house for two you know,
Speaker 1: being ready for some interaction. Just you see all we
Speaker 1: we hired a few new people, so I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: they're new, he's new. I've never been a part of
Speaker 1: a company that has so many people working as like talent,
Speaker 1: Like I came from Fox and there's only you know,
Speaker 1: there's only our set lineup of so many shows. But
Speaker 1: NFL Network there's like reporters and hosts and analysts and
Speaker 1: all of these people. It's really cool to be a
Speaker 1: part of you don't need to employee, cook out or something.
Speaker 1: Got to meet something, pizza party, No we met. We
Speaker 1: know we met a six flags something. No we met,
Speaker 1: she said, I'll just talk. I blame you hr pizza
Speaker 1: party that we do. So I'm still like experiencing new
Speaker 1: things here. And apparently there's like a talent Summit. I
Speaker 1: think that they call it, and every literally all the
Speaker 1: every single person at NFL network gets together in the
Speaker 1: summer and does exactly this. We just haven't gotten to
Speaker 1: that yet. I'm book of my work exactly at those games.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm joking. I'm choking. But all right, here
Speaker 1: we go. Let's go. We're gonna start off with some
Speaker 1: some good little ice breakers. You ready, okay, Yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: A little quick quiz, like a little riddle, which is
Speaker 1: faster hotter cold, cold hot because you can easily catch
Speaker 1: a cold. That is Gerard, Gerard, damn you lying? And
Speaker 1: it was like it was it was terrible, It was,
Speaker 1: it was it was I'm on it all right. Um,
Speaker 1: what is the last play song on your playlist that
Speaker 1: you just you know, the last song you heard today
Speaker 1: or yesterday. Um. I recently downloaded TikTok, which has been
Speaker 1: the worst thing that I could have ever doubt I get.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I just need to turn my brain off. I
Speaker 1: have O c D, so my brain is just constantly going.
Speaker 1: So sometimes I just need to sit down and turn
Speaker 1: my brain off. And I do that by now TikTok.
Speaker 1: And that stupid Harry Styles song is all over TikTok.
Speaker 1: So whatever the new Harry Styles is, it's not stupid.
Speaker 1: It's a jam. But that's what I last listened to.
Speaker 1: I find it hard to believe that you don't like TikTok.
Speaker 1: You like, you're like a content creator, so why don't you?
Speaker 1: I know, I think I'm always so late to things
Speaker 1: like I think that I uh, like I started in
Speaker 1: YouTube and I was like, I'm not starting to my
Speaker 1: own YouTube channel, Like I just don't want to be
Speaker 1: you know, I just don't want that to be my things.
Speaker 1: I'm not no, I'm not saying that it's the right, okay,
Speaker 1: what you know. I was watching the Met the Red Carpet,
Speaker 1: like half of them are influencers. Such such an old
Speaker 1: school way of thinking, but I still have that mentality
Speaker 1: of being like, you know, I don't want to be
Speaker 1: like known as a TikTok or YouTuber, like I want
Speaker 1: to be all of these things. I think that I'm
Speaker 1: always just like hesitant to join. And also I know
Speaker 1: that I get sucked into these like wormholes of content
Speaker 1: and then I end up sitting back and watching instead
Speaker 1: of making that. That is something that I kind of
Speaker 1: get caught doing. So having TikTok on my phone just
Speaker 1: means that I'm always on it, which sucks. Since you
Speaker 1: play volleyball, favorite, what guys just really did some deep
Speaker 1: deep diving you obviously obviously you have not worked with
Speaker 1: I've never kind of we never really come in half
Speaker 1: as I love this. Yeah, So so what position did
Speaker 1: you play in volleyball? And what position did you what's
Speaker 1: your dream position to play? Okay, so, because of my height,
Speaker 1: I was always put in the libra position, which is
Speaker 1: basically a designated passer. You're always in the back court.
Speaker 1: But sometimes I would get to play power left side,
Speaker 1: which was like just the cranker hitter you have. I did.
Speaker 1: I couldn't really jump, so I would I would have
Speaker 1: this like amazing approach and then I'd get like this
Speaker 1: high off the ground and just slice it right into
Speaker 1: the net and then back to libra, back to Libra,
Speaker 1: you go, but I really had this. I would listen
Speaker 1: to like I remember my my pump up song with
Speaker 1: Gasolina back then, and I just went in warmups. I'd
Speaker 1: just go for these amazing hits and just net every time.
Speaker 1: So I was I was the designated pastor. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1: Did you pick? I think it was just like hot
Speaker 1: at the time, and it got my blood boiling. If
Speaker 1: you could redo, what song would you pick now? Gasolina?
Speaker 1: Probably classic still still gets me going. Why not? You're
Speaker 1: going going nowhere? Though? That is listening into the net athletically,
Speaker 1: just as a parent, because so my daughter played volleyball,
Speaker 1: so I'm yeah, so she was a liberal. You know,
Speaker 1: she's not actually killing in the height department, but she
Speaker 1: can jump serve. Did I say, Libra I met Libero.
Speaker 1: That's how it removed. I am definite. I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about Bross. I do too, but
Speaker 1: I just let it go. What about I haven't played
Speaker 1: in like ten years? Who I was just letting she
Speaker 1: got it? And uh, well that makes sense now why
Speaker 1: you can never hit it over the neck? Most Liberos
Speaker 1: they're they're not hitting it over the net, no man.
Speaker 1: But I loved watching I love watching um volleyball, also
Speaker 1: hate watching girls volleyball. Here here's the love and the hate.
Speaker 1: The love is I always loved watching like in the
Speaker 1: warm up because you see the ones that's coming, like,
Speaker 1: you know, just me being an athlete, I like to
Speaker 1: try to pick out can't play, can't play, can't play,
Speaker 1: you know, just because that's what No, no, it's it's
Speaker 1: for me. It's it's a good measuring stick of sometimes,
Speaker 1: especially in the football world and sports we're talking about
Speaker 1: how many how many Tarzan's have walked through the door
Speaker 1: and not played like Tarzan, right, So it gives me
Speaker 1: an opportunity. I love the home she looks like she
Speaker 1: could play, or he looks like he can, or she
Speaker 1: looked like she can't. And then you got the one
Speaker 1: that has all the gear, like all the fresh gear,
Speaker 1: can't play a lick. I had the like ankle brasis
Speaker 1: for what I had, the wrist guards, I had all
Speaker 1: my fingers, like I really wanted to show up in
Speaker 1: the gym and like people are probably like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this bro's gonna destroy us, and then I just like
Speaker 1: stay on the bench. I also notice in young sports
Speaker 1: and obviously and I'm speaking from a female's a female
Speaker 1: volleyball because my daughter is a female, and that's all
Speaker 1: I watched was female volleyball. Right. One thing I noticed
Speaker 1: by young girls, you can see the moment of shift
Speaker 1: quickly in a women's volleyball game. You can see it
Speaker 1: go back and forth, the momentum leaves so quickly, and
Speaker 1: the emotions of mistakes happening, and you can see how
Speaker 1: how a team can rally or not rally, or or
Speaker 1: emotionally they're spent. So I spent so many Saturdays and Sundays,
Speaker 1: you know, we played Big South. That was every year
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. Uh, even if it was Easter Sunday were
Speaker 1: they were playing, and just watch watching it. You know,
Speaker 1: I really learned a lot about people, right. And then
Speaker 1: you also, you know when you say an adults, you
Speaker 1: watch people you're watching, You're watching people that volleyball game.
Speaker 1: You get a real good, good sense of people right
Speaker 1: who they are, who they are. I also think it's
Speaker 1: interesting that you bring it up. It's kind of made
Speaker 1: me feel like when I was playing. But when I
Speaker 1: was playing for my college, we would always travel with
Speaker 1: the men's team, and the men's team was like just
Speaker 1: so on a totally different level than us. They were
Speaker 1: like winning things and they always just kept it together.
Speaker 1: And because we I just feel like, you know, females
Speaker 1: are inherently more emotional. If something started to shift, like
Speaker 1: that momentum change that you were talking about, we would
Speaker 1: just completely break down. We would start fighting with each
Speaker 1: other like we were just we wanted to be so
Speaker 1: good and we had that skill like in practice, and
Speaker 1: then when we went out on the field, you know,
Speaker 1: when we were actually playing games, it would just complete
Speaker 1: we fall apart because we were so emotional about it. Mhm.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you a mittnute. We'll talk about that later.
Speaker 1: Where are you from in a place you call your hometown.
Speaker 1: I am from this very very small town, like two
Speaker 1: and a half hours outside of Toronto. I grew up
Speaker 1: on forty six acres of land. I had many little
Speaker 1: I had a little four wheeler. I had a dirt bike.
Speaker 1: What's the name of what's the name of the town
Speaker 1: or no Ontario? It's Toronto without the teas or now okay,
Speaker 1: So that's where I grew up. I think also that's
Speaker 1: where I get a lot of my like creativity from.
Speaker 1: It is because there was literally nothing to do. There
Speaker 1: was no one around. We didn't have next door neighbors acres.
Speaker 1: Your neighbor is forty five acres. There was so we
Speaker 1: we had to you know, I had to create like
Speaker 1: my own world. So how and how was that growing
Speaker 1: up with all of your brothers gone? So it's just
Speaker 1: you and mom, dad, grandma. Yeah, it was me and
Speaker 1: my mom and my dad, and I was just My
Speaker 1: dad was a very like outdoorsy guy, and so I
Speaker 1: had a really special relationship with him. We would like build.
Speaker 1: I like I bought my house, um like two years
Speaker 1: ago now, at the beginning of the pandemic. I built
Speaker 1: a deck on my own deck. I built a sauna outside,
Speaker 1: Like I have all of these like back of my
Speaker 1: brain skills. Not a lot of people last I'm watching
Speaker 1: when I'm watching that work, I did not go she
Speaker 1: looks like she built a deck or two. Cool. I
Speaker 1: think when we bought this house, we were kind of like,
Speaker 1: you know, we could pay somebody to do all of
Speaker 1: these things, but it was the beginning of the pandemic
Speaker 1: and we were to do at home and there was
Speaker 1: nothing else to do. And so I faced one of
Speaker 1: my brothers, No, probably not, but we were like screw
Speaker 1: it FaceTime one of my brothers, and I was just like, hey,
Speaker 1: give me like the overall scope on how to do
Speaker 1: this and I'll go and do it. And he was
Speaker 1: like just do this, this and this, and I was
Speaker 1: like sweet. And I was at lows that afternoon buying wood.
Speaker 1: So acres, do you have animals? We always had dogs,
Speaker 1: but no, it wasn't like a farm. We had a
Speaker 1: big pond so we could go fishing, and we had
Speaker 1: creeks like streams running all throughout our properties, so we
Speaker 1: would fish a lot um, but no, none of our
Speaker 1: own like like cows or anything kind of dogs. My
Speaker 1: dad used to hunt, which is like but um, so
Speaker 1: he had hunting dogs, so he had um like bloodhounds
Speaker 1: and stuff. I have two little ships now that are
Speaker 1: not hunting dogs, and they got toms with it. What
Speaker 1: do you do? One's name lou sure for Lucifer. That
Speaker 1: gives you an idea of what these countries those dogs.
Speaker 1: The other one's name Lucifer was the other one Bentley.
Speaker 1: What what what breed are there? Once a Chihuahua psychotic
Speaker 1: and then the other is a terrier. But they're both rescued,
Speaker 1: so they just come with a whole slew of issues,
Speaker 1: you know, and you just kind of kind of work
Speaker 1: through them. You trying to say a thing. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think so. Yeah, that's why. That's why exactly what you
Speaker 1: call them, what you call them say, I love them.
Speaker 1: Rescue dogs. You gotta be careful of One of them
Speaker 1: used to bite me for about a year, but then
Speaker 1: we got past up. We all got to work the
Speaker 1: different but it was it was a chihuahua. Like his
Speaker 1: mouth is like the size of my thumb. We did
Speaker 1: the Lucifer name kick in before after ye six months
Speaker 1: into the bit or No, she's not the bier, she's
Speaker 1: not the fighter, she's just she was just like a
Speaker 1: little terror when we got her, and she wouldn't listen
Speaker 1: to us, So Lou became her name pretty quickly. 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 to 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 sing
Speaker 1: your what about online And you can follow us at
Speaker 1: cut to It podcast dot com where you can buy
Speaker 1: merch and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to podcasts. I got all my answers questions. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for.
Speaker 1: A brother, cut to a podcast dot com tell us
Speaker 1: your journey. I mean, I'm reading all the information. I
Speaker 1: don't want to skip over and and say which. I've
Speaker 1: got a really weird, really weird way of how I
Speaker 1: came into this. Basically when I was in high school.
Speaker 1: My whole life, I've always wanted to be an actress.
Speaker 1: And my dad died when I was sixteen, and that
Speaker 1: through It's okay, it's been a long time, it's through
Speaker 1: my whole life out of whack, and everything kind of
Speaker 1: got put on the back burner and I just started
Speaker 1: to be, I guess like scared of life. And so
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, I couldn't to get into
Speaker 1: theater school. You have to audition, and I was just like,
Speaker 1: I just can't do that right now. So I ended
Speaker 1: up going to school for broadcast journalism because I was like,
Speaker 1: what's the next best thing, what's the what's the way
Speaker 1: that I can still be in front of a camera
Speaker 1: and kind of like slowly work my way into that.
Speaker 1: So I went to school in Toronto for broadcast journalism. Um,
Speaker 1: And about two years in I went to Seneca College,
Speaker 1: just like a really just small, small school. Two years in,
Speaker 1: I was like, um, my favorite class in school is
Speaker 1: improv And I was like, I'm clearly still doing the
Speaker 1: wrong thing. So I dropped out of school and before
Speaker 1: I got to apply to go back to I was
Speaker 1: going to go back to school for theater. Finally got
Speaker 1: the courage to do it. Um. I was working at
Speaker 1: a bar at the time. I was so poor that
Speaker 1: I was having to steal toilet paper from the sushi
Speaker 1: restaurant that was down the street from my apartment. Like
Speaker 1: I was just so broke, And so I was applying
Speaker 1: for all of these jobs and on my Facebook was
Speaker 1: a job that said the Toronto FC Dream Job Contest.
Speaker 1: Toronto C was our major league soccer team in Toronto.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I don't know anything about soccer.
Speaker 1: I don't I'm not interested in covering sports. But I
Speaker 1: have two years of broadcast journalism experience under my belt.
Speaker 1: I know how to be on TV. Cannot stop you
Speaker 1: before that, though, because I want to you know, what
Speaker 1: was your what what was your mental state to the
Speaker 1: point of like I'll volunteer something. I I remember there
Speaker 1: were times I just still food right because we're struggling, right.
Speaker 1: I had me and my wife when we had our
Speaker 1: son in college, I had to literally I got up. Um,
Speaker 1: you haven't heard this story, but I actually got up,
Speaker 1: unscrewed the license plate off to our car, drove in
Speaker 1: like at five thirty in the morning, six o'clock in
Speaker 1: the morning, drove to the grocery store, told my wife
Speaker 1: make a list of all things we needed, which was
Speaker 1: diapers and all that stuff, loaded up the shopping cart
Speaker 1: and left through it in trunk and drove off. And
Speaker 1: I struggled. I didn't struggle to do it. I struggled
Speaker 1: after because I knew at some point I probably would
Speaker 1: have to do it again. And that's why I'm asking
Speaker 1: not to make fun, but just more to hear where
Speaker 1: you are. Because where you are today you don't have
Speaker 1: to think about toilet paper. But there's people listening that
Speaker 1: can identify with, that can identify with so much more.
Speaker 1: And so you, you out of your story, may not
Speaker 1: even realize that you can give somebody some hope. That
Speaker 1: So that's why that's why I'm asking not to make
Speaker 1: fun or make light of it, but really shine a
Speaker 1: light on where you started and how you got through it,
Speaker 1: especially if we're talking about all the people of mental
Speaker 1: health these days right now, they don't identify. The pandemic
Speaker 1: has shown us that we that what we think who
Speaker 1: we are, we're actually not right. Some people and then
Speaker 1: some people you exactly who you are. There are people
Speaker 1: in the pandemic. The relationships have strengthened, things have been
Speaker 1: weeded out and started to uproot and clarity throughout relationships,
Speaker 1: and there's other some other relationships. People have been Domestic
Speaker 1: violence numbers are up, suicide numbers were all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: So again, I'm not trying to make fun of you.
Speaker 1: I'm more of trying to sit down with you and
Speaker 1: go through that process because if you really think about it,
Speaker 1: where you are today. I watch you on TV. You're great.
Speaker 1: You do a hell of a job. But I would
Speaker 1: have never said I thought this girl that struggle so much.
Speaker 1: She dropped out of school, she also had to steal
Speaker 1: toilet paper, she lost her dad, she's built a deck,
Speaker 1: she's done a sana. Wow, that's impressive. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I think that it's when I was younger, my parents
Speaker 1: were We weren't you know, I wasn't. We weren't like
Speaker 1: rich by any means, but we were definitely comfortable and
Speaker 1: my dad was had his own company, and my mom
Speaker 1: was a school secretary. And then when my dad died, Um,
Speaker 1: we were all of a sudden on the other end
Speaker 1: of the spectrum. So the same as like me feeling
Speaker 1: like I was a part of a big family and
Speaker 1: also an only child old. I was once comfortable and
Speaker 1: felt like I was always going to be taken care of,
Speaker 1: and then that got totally taken away from me, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, I was having exactly exactly
Speaker 1: So still in the back of my mind, I feel
Speaker 1: so blessed that I'm able to own my own home
Speaker 1: and I have things. But because I went through that
Speaker 1: trauma as a child basically of sixteen, I have that
Speaker 1: fear of everything being taken away at any point in time.
Speaker 1: I still have that at three. Yeah. I think it's
Speaker 1: just like, if you have that trauma in your life,
Speaker 1: you'll always kind of have it, not by yourself, keep
Speaker 1: going by yourself. Um. So I think that there was
Speaker 1: a point in time where after my dad died, he
Speaker 1: died when like a couple of months before I graduated
Speaker 1: high school. UM, and so then I when I moved
Speaker 1: into the city that summer and my first semester, I
Speaker 1: totally failed every single class. I got pulled from my
Speaker 1: volleyball team. I wasn't able to place worts anymore. I
Speaker 1: was so depressed. I didn't know what to do. And
Speaker 1: my aunt was like having to pay my rent. My
Speaker 1: mom was like spending the little money that she had
Speaker 1: to like send me. I wasn't able to work because
Speaker 1: I was in an athlete and you know, in school.
Speaker 1: And it got to this point where I had to
Speaker 1: like show my mom my grades when I went home
Speaker 1: for like whatever the fall or Christmas, and she was
Speaker 1: so upset. And see seeing her be that upset, I
Speaker 1: was just like, I do not need to add to
Speaker 1: the ship that my mom is going through. When I
Speaker 1: came back, I just like I just like I shook
Speaker 1: myself and I was like, you can't do this to her,
Speaker 1: and you can't do this to my dad. Like I
Speaker 1: I sat down with my dad right before he died,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm gonna take care of mom
Speaker 1: in this family, Like I fucking got this. And I
Speaker 1: told him that, like he heard me say those words,
Speaker 1: and so I just like snapped it, just like that's
Speaker 1: the best way that I can put it. All of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you're talking to two brothers. We know what
Speaker 1: snap is now. Yeah, even I know where you're going
Speaker 1: with losing the parents, and I just went through that.
Speaker 1: Not to make this at all about me or to
Speaker 1: interrupt your story, but also it's very relatable to where
Speaker 1: when my father passed away last year, I had that
Speaker 1: same thing. And and not to again up end, but
Speaker 1: when you witness someone passed away and when they asked
Speaker 1: you a question of what they ever did, it snapped
Speaker 1: in me to to look within myself and say, I
Speaker 1: don't ever want my kids to have to I want
Speaker 1: to have to ask my kids at my end of
Speaker 1: life what did I do and what my impact was?
Speaker 1: And I've been and I literally snapped after that, So
Speaker 1: I know, like, and it's a perfect word because that
Speaker 1: is literally the feeling that you have when you lose
Speaker 1: a parent, whether you are close with them or whether
Speaker 1: you're not close with them. When you lose parents and
Speaker 1: when you have such raw emotions that are either tapped
Speaker 1: consciously or subconsciously, it will come out and you and
Speaker 1: you will snap. So that's the perfect you know adjective
Speaker 1: for that. You too. You too, I think are in
Speaker 1: the place two year at that age where you're things
Speaker 1: are still recoverable. And I think when things are still recoverable,
Speaker 1: when you lose your parents, it hits you different. You know, Um,
Speaker 1: you know what you guys are going through, what you
Speaker 1: went through, g and then what you went through. I
Speaker 1: went through it in the middle of my season when
Speaker 1: I lost my grandpa. Right, you know, the uh to
Speaker 1: lose someone that's a father figure, that that that pours
Speaker 1: into that gives you at times, right, you know, Ge
Speaker 1: you talking about you know, And we've had this conversation
Speaker 1: that Gee when he lost his proberty was like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't want to And I kept talking him off
Speaker 1: the ledge of saying, right, you're striving for something that
Speaker 1: you've already he surpassed. He's already surpassed that. Uh Tyson
Speaker 1: and me and his two kids always will know that
Speaker 1: they will get an unqualified compliment from their dad, right
Speaker 1: and me, I never got an unqualified compliment from my dad.
Speaker 1: My dad is still living. And I used that word
Speaker 1: unqualified as because especially for me, in a way, I
Speaker 1: was I grew up. I'm not sure about you two.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know about G, but I'm playing dumb
Speaker 1: completely for the context. I don't know me growing up
Speaker 1: what uh? I don't know exactly, but I do know today, unqualified,
Speaker 1: unqualified compliment, what that would have done to me and
Speaker 1: how it impacted me, because even today I still I
Speaker 1: have to diligently accept compliments mhm right. And hearing you snap,
Speaker 1: knowing G, hearing him snap, watching him snap. I know
Speaker 1: G went through what he went through with his dad
Speaker 1: and his watching his dad passed away, sitting on his bed,
Speaker 1: what driving up to see his dad every single day,
Speaker 1: And and you're talking to your dad right. There is
Speaker 1: the part that I struggle with is you both got
Speaker 1: an opportunity and most people don't get which is you
Speaker 1: get to see. Unfortunately I got on the airplane a
Speaker 1: couple of days later and I had to say my
Speaker 1: goodbye to my grandpa at the bottom of the hospital
Speaker 1: in the corner's office with a lifeless body. You guys
Speaker 1: got to kiss whole cry and you you beat it.
Speaker 1: You guys snapped and you beat it. Rachel, You're you're all.
Speaker 1: You're awesome. And to see and to know now after
Speaker 1: this to watch you on the show, it gives even
Speaker 1: more texture. Mm hmm, Well, how awesome you thanks guys,
Speaker 1: thank you. Yeah, it's been it's it's been a ride.
Speaker 1: But I do feel like ever since, and I don't
Speaker 1: know if you guys experienced the same moment, like post snapping,
Speaker 1: you just you put your head down, and that's exactly
Speaker 1: what I did. And I just like, I went to
Speaker 1: school every single day. I got my grades way up.
Speaker 1: I got to the point that I was so strong
Speaker 1: in what I was feeling and thinking. I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm not in school for the right thing. I didn't
Speaker 1: drop out because I was, you know, not wanting to
Speaker 1: go to school. I was like, I am not serving
Speaker 1: myself in the right way. Like that. That's how much
Speaker 1: like of a full turn that I had when I
Speaker 1: was in school, and so I I dropped out. I
Speaker 1: applied for this for this contest um because I was
Speaker 1: so desperate to work at this point. Because at this point,
Speaker 1: I was just like I want to I want to
Speaker 1: send money to my mom, I want to help her.
Speaker 1: I wanna help my brothers, like everyone who was going
Speaker 1: through their own thing. Also, all my brothers are artists,
Speaker 1: it's not you know, you're you're supporting yourself, and it's
Speaker 1: it's tough, it's a struggle. Um. And so I applied
Speaker 1: for this contest, I know, knowing nothing about soccer. You
Speaker 1: had to like send in a send in a video
Speaker 1: of yourself. Why should you be hired? And I wrote
Speaker 1: this comedy sketch and made my whole I went back
Speaker 1: to school and had such a great relationship with my professors.
Speaker 1: They shot it for me, and I had my old
Speaker 1: classmates be in it with me. And I beat out
Speaker 1: over five hundred people for this job. I even had
Speaker 1: when I went in for my final interview, I had
Speaker 1: the captain's name written down on my hand and ink like.
Speaker 1: I was like, fake it till you make it. I
Speaker 1: I won, and I still remember my mom was there
Speaker 1: when my name was called, and I was just like,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna make forty. I'm gonna make forty. It
Speaker 1: was a whole yearly salary, like what you want a
Speaker 1: career basically forty grand I was like, I can take
Speaker 1: care of myself. I can buy myself groceries. I can
Speaker 1: maybe even send money on to my mom. I can
Speaker 1: you know, pay my rent on time? My whole life
Speaker 1: change in a second. Just hearing my name get called
Speaker 1: my life change. And since that moment, I've like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do sports now, and I'm gonna do sports
Speaker 1: until I keep on climbing and climbing and climbing. And
Speaker 1: about a year later, I got an email from the
Speaker 1: head office because this was when YouTube was first starting,
Speaker 1: so Torontovious basically gave me the keys to their YouTube
Speaker 1: and was like, here's your new job. And so I
Speaker 1: started making weird videos. And then the head office called
Speaker 1: about a year later and they were like, would you
Speaker 1: ever consider moving to New York City and being the
Speaker 1: host of the entire league. We've been watching what you're doing.
Speaker 1: You're so fun, you're so different, Like, we think that
Speaker 1: would be perfect here. So then I moved to New
Speaker 1: York City. And then within six months of taking that
Speaker 1: job and doing the same thing YouTube, YouTube, YouTube, I
Speaker 1: had a call from Fox and ESPN. I had a
Speaker 1: job offer in both places, and I got to choose
Speaker 1: where I went. It's not a bad problem in half
Speaker 1: do all that? How are you able to keep reinventing
Speaker 1: yourself because there's always something new, There's always a new trend.
Speaker 1: There's always a new way to consume content. There's always
Speaker 1: you know, maybe something was shot at one way or
Speaker 1: something was um you know, sit nuances or whatever. So
Speaker 1: how are you able to continually reinvent yourself or stay
Speaker 1: not even with trends, but even it starts to anticipate
Speaker 1: what's coming out. I think I got really lucky because
Speaker 1: YouTube was so new and that was my thing. No competition,
Speaker 1: and so it was it was everyone was having to adapt,
Speaker 1: and that is how that's literally how I started. And
Speaker 1: I also think something that it's so cheesy. Everyone always
Speaker 1: asked me, like how did you break into this business?
Speaker 1: Like how are you continuously like growing, doing more and
Speaker 1: more and more. And I just think that I've never
Speaker 1: put myself in any kind of mold, like I've just
Speaker 1: like always been like I'm I don't know how to
Speaker 1: be anything. I know how stupid it sounds, but I
Speaker 1: don't know how to be anything else but who I am.
Speaker 1: And I don't care enough to I don't care enough
Speaker 1: about what people think to turn into something else. So
Speaker 1: I think that because I'm into acting, because I'm into comedy,
Speaker 1: I think that's always been a difference as well, because
Speaker 1: you know a little while ago. Sports and you know,
Speaker 1: comedy has always been on the peripherals, and I think
Speaker 1: it's been working its way in. But I think that
Speaker 1: that's also what set me apart as well, is that
Speaker 1: I've just always been doing something a little bit different
Speaker 1: than what everyone else has done. So I've been really
Speaker 1: lucky in that way. How are you balancing going from
Speaker 1: still in toilet paper to now you have a career,
Speaker 1: you're in New York. You gotta a sho mm hmm.
Speaker 1: First I had to learn how to handle money, which
Speaker 1: is I'm sure as a football player you know about
Speaker 1: as well. Like not that I was making millions of dollars,
Speaker 1: but I had such I had such a lack of
Speaker 1: how to handle finances because I didn't have any finances
Speaker 1: to handle for the longest time. And I think that
Speaker 1: happens to a lot of people, and they you know
Speaker 1: that always else financial literacy. You gotta gotta to get literate, right,
Speaker 1: But that's also I teach in school. They don't teach
Speaker 1: us how to pay taxes, Like the longest time, I
Speaker 1: didn't pay taxes and I didn't know for some reason.
Speaker 1: They teach us protaggy and theorem and stuff. Why do
Speaker 1: I know that? But I didn't know how to balance
Speaker 1: a Check's a great book, balance checkbook, but I don't
Speaker 1: know what the hell are you talking about. It's a
Speaker 1: great point. Um, So I think that that was kind
Speaker 1: of like the first hurdle, And um, I just I
Speaker 1: think that one time I had my my boss at
Speaker 1: Toronto FC. Once I had moved on and was working
Speaker 1: for Major League Soccer, I came back to Toronto because
Speaker 1: they were hosting the like the championship MLS Cup and that,
Speaker 1: which was a really cool moment for me because I
Speaker 1: got to come back and people were like, Wow, look
Speaker 1: at what you've done. And my boss pulled me aside
Speaker 1: and he was like, you keep climbing until you cannot
Speaker 1: climb anymore. And I still think about that to this
Speaker 1: day now that I'm like, you know, I'm going on
Speaker 1: auditions all the time, and I have three scripted television
Speaker 1: shows in development right now, and like, I just keep
Speaker 1: on climbing until someone says no, And even if they
Speaker 1: say no, I'm going to ignore it and I'm just
Speaker 1: going to keep on going and finding different ways to
Speaker 1: get in. And I just think that it's just that
Speaker 1: that I still have that you're right. Snapping is the
Speaker 1: perfect word, because I still have that mentality. I'm still
Speaker 1: in this mode, and it's not I love it. I
Speaker 1: love the work that I do, and I love hosting,
Speaker 1: and I love being a part of NFL Network. It
Speaker 1: has been such a nice change of pace. But it's just,
Speaker 1: you know, you've just got to want it more than
Speaker 1: anybody else in the room. So as you're approaching you've
Speaker 1: got all these different projects and development, how do you
Speaker 1: creatively approach these? Like what inspires you? What do you what? What?
Speaker 1: What do you pull from? So when you have a
Speaker 1: new opportunity, when you're sitting down, like what draws your
Speaker 1: inspiration for your creativity? I have a lightbulb tattooed on
Speaker 1: my wrist here because I had this idea and I
Speaker 1: just kept on thinking like this, this is really dumb,
Speaker 1: this is stupid, Like it just kind of popped into
Speaker 1: my head one day and it was um. It ended
Speaker 1: up being the show that I sold the TBS last year.
Speaker 1: I thought of this idea seven years ago, and I
Speaker 1: wrote it every which way, and I pitched pitched it
Speaker 1: and pitched it and pitched it and no one would
Speaker 1: buy it. And then finally somebody believed in me. All
Speaker 1: it takes is one person. And so I got this
Speaker 1: tattoo of an idea to remind myself that my ideas.
Speaker 1: Not all of them are good, but some of them
Speaker 1: are and I should roll with it. So sometimes, like um,
Speaker 1: things just like pop into my head. I get inspired
Speaker 1: by music or reading something or watching a movie. And
Speaker 1: I read this book a little while ago called Big
Speaker 1: Magic and the Whole. She writes about the meaning of ideas,
Speaker 1: and she talks about picture and idea as you know,
Speaker 1: a fairy, let's call it. And this fairy comes into
Speaker 1: your body. And if you don't give this creature your
Speaker 1: time and energy and effort, it's gonna leave your body
Speaker 1: and it's going to go to somebody else. And that's why,
Speaker 1: you know, she talks about if you see a commercial
Speaker 1: for an invention, you're like, oh, I had that idea
Speaker 1: a while ago, but you didn't do anything about it,
Speaker 1: so it left your body and it went to somebody else.
Speaker 1: So I give my time and energy to every idea
Speaker 1: that I have, and maybe a lot of ideas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have a lot of things. I write it down,
Speaker 1: I have journals filled with stuff. I give it time
Speaker 1: to see if it fits with me, and if it doesn't,
Speaker 1: I let it go. And if it does, I write
Speaker 1: it out and I pitch it and I try to
Speaker 1: make something of it. If it's something that stays in
Speaker 1: my brain and I can't stop thinking about it, that's
Speaker 1: what tells me that it's with me. Does that sound
Speaker 1: really hokey pokey I or No, No, it doesn't, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: It's just it leads me. Two. Assume you're not a
Speaker 1: very good sleeper. You're not the first. What's you're like
Speaker 1: the third person that said that to me this month?
Speaker 1: I actually am I'm okay, Rane turns off. It's off, Devin,
Speaker 1: I am till ten, I'm going. And I think that
Speaker 1: I think that because my like I mentioned, I have
Speaker 1: O C D. So when my head hits the pillow,
Speaker 1: I'm so exhausted from thinking about things all day that
Speaker 1: I'm just done. Good good, down to do it good.
Speaker 1: Hey Gerard, why did you get that T shirt? You
Speaker 1: mean this thing? Oh? Yes, I got it from cut
Speaker 1: to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise.
Speaker 1: Shout out to our guys at seven oh four shot.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you can go on buy you a T
Speaker 1: shirt subscribed to us whereever you listen to podcasts. What
Speaker 1: do you think is the good thing about being a
Speaker 1: female in sports? I think we're having a bit of
Speaker 1: a moment right now. I think that all of these
Speaker 1: doors and windows are starting to open, and I think
Speaker 1: that women have been so hungry to have a seat
Speaker 1: at the table for so long, they're just take grabbing
Speaker 1: it and taking it. Like. It makes me think of
Speaker 1: somebody like Cynthia Freeland who works at NFL Network, who
Speaker 1: is like, just has such a beautiful mind and she
Speaker 1: thinks in numbers and stats and a complete opposite way
Speaker 1: of the way that I think. And she's gotten this
Speaker 1: opportunity to be such a voice on the network and
Speaker 1: she has taken it, even though it means her working
Speaker 1: seven days a week, seven even in the off season.
Speaker 1: She has just absolutely taken it. So I think that
Speaker 1: as times are changing, we're getting these opportunities, and I
Speaker 1: think that that's really really cool. I think it's so
Speaker 1: awesome that, um, we're getting these seats at the table.
Speaker 1: So I think that that's the most exciting thing is
Speaker 1: that things are changing. Do you think it You believe
Speaker 1: that being a female you have to work harder and
Speaker 1: and and know your stuff versus a guy. So let
Speaker 1: me let me clarify. I think it's different for me
Speaker 1: because I didn't I've only been covering football for four years.
Speaker 1: Like like I said, I didn't even know about soccer,
Speaker 1: so I have constantly been put into these roles where
Speaker 1: I'm like just treading water. So I think that what
Speaker 1: I was on that show, that was the very first
Speaker 1: time in my life that I had ever talked about football,
Speaker 1: and I had to talk about it in a way
Speaker 1: that made it I feel like I belonged, that I
Speaker 1: have this seat, that I was supposed to be hosting
Speaker 1: that show. So I think that the reason why I
Speaker 1: said that was because I felt as one of three
Speaker 1: other you know, I was only There's Jenny Taft hosting Undisputed,
Speaker 1: There's Joy Taylor that was the co host of The Herd,
Speaker 1: and then there was me, And so those two women
Speaker 1: are really smart and know what they're talking about. I
Speaker 1: felt like I needed in order to meet for me
Speaker 1: to deserve that show and that podium, I had to
Speaker 1: know what I was talking about because there was only
Speaker 1: so few of us. And I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: because of the Cynthia freelance. That's going to open up
Speaker 1: the door for so many other Cynthia freelance. And if
Speaker 1: I do well at this table, that's going to open
Speaker 1: up the door for all of these other women to
Speaker 1: come in that maybe don't know a ton about sports,
Speaker 1: but are unique and creative and funny and and really
Speaker 1: smart and all of those things. So I think that
Speaker 1: for me, I just I couldn't be wrong about anything.
Speaker 1: I couldn't get anything wrong because I didn't want. Like
Speaker 1: I said, these opportunities are being open to us. We
Speaker 1: have to make the most of it because there's a
Speaker 1: whole lineup of ladies behind me who are wanting to
Speaker 1: seat next. And if I don't do a great job,
Speaker 1: well that maybe get a guy in here that we
Speaker 1: know that can do this job, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's that kind of feeling. But they think they know.
Speaker 1: You know, I've been doing it for five years and
Speaker 1: I've worked with people that I've realized that have come
Speaker 1: and go that they don't know football. Yeah, my guys
Speaker 1: who have played who don't. I've played with wide receivers
Speaker 1: who I've discovered in the middle of the game there
Speaker 1: in their fourth year. They can't recoverage this. I do
Speaker 1: think that you realize as soon as you get into
Speaker 1: TV there's a lot of bullshitting that happens, and I
Speaker 1: think did that was something that kind of made me realize, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I know how to bullshit, but you can't bullshit other
Speaker 1: people became bullshit and have the margin for error to
Speaker 1: bullshit and still be able to But that's another thing.
Speaker 1: It's like social media then comes into play as well,
Speaker 1: because there are so many like trolls online that I
Speaker 1: want to say like that's oh my god, she doesn't
Speaker 1: know what she's talking about. And that was my worst
Speaker 1: nightmare I was. I was just told I'm a slot receiver. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they probably do the exact same thing to you. Steve
Speaker 1: doesn't know I'm he's a slot. He doesn't know anything. Really,
Speaker 1: I didn't know I was a slot receiver. That's news
Speaker 1: to me. I've been wanting to be in a slot
Speaker 1: for Wow, you were a female or you were an
Speaker 1: individual who who got a job to some degree that
Speaker 1: you didn't know as much as you knew and not
Speaker 1: no slide or anything bad. You were unqualified, right, you
Speaker 1: didn't You didn't have the qualifications as far as the
Speaker 1: knowledge of the game that you knew what you didn't
Speaker 1: have the qualifications of the knowledge of the games. But
Speaker 1: I am. They knew that I would work harder and
Speaker 1: that was up for that job, and that is why
Speaker 1: I got the job because of who you are like
Speaker 1: who now? Who you are like and Rachel Blnetta, but
Speaker 1: who you are and the person the worker, who what
Speaker 1: you exude, how you doing, how you come into office,
Speaker 1: how you lead office, what you're doing outside of office.
Speaker 1: You showed that female or guy, you're either gonna make
Speaker 1: it or you're not. Either gonna adapt and figure out
Speaker 1: the sport. Like I knew football, I didn't know TV
Speaker 1: football mm hmm. And that's been adjustment for me. I
Speaker 1: think that I'm pretty knowledgeable about football now. I know
Speaker 1: how to talk about it, I know how to talk
Speaker 1: about it in an interesting way. But it's because I
Speaker 1: had three years of a show to work on it.
Speaker 1: That was one of three roles filled by a female
Speaker 1: at FS one. All the other roles are filled by men,
Speaker 1: which means there are more roles to fill, which means
Speaker 1: more men are getting those opportunities. I'm only where I
Speaker 1: am now because I had those three years on that show.
Speaker 1: If there were more shows, if there were more roles
Speaker 1: to fill, I could have started doing that six years ago,
Speaker 1: seven years ago, eight years ago. So I feel like
Speaker 1: now that there are more, we're inevitably going to see
Speaker 1: more women because there are just opening up these jobs
Speaker 1: to women, Whereas like before, even I mean, look at
Speaker 1: any broadcasts on any network, it's the majority of it
Speaker 1: is guys because guys have always gotten this opportunity. They've
Speaker 1: gotten the opportunity to learn, Like you know, the rich
Speaker 1: Eyses of the world have been doing this job for
Speaker 1: twenty plus years. Women haven't always gotten that opportunity. If
Speaker 1: we did, then there would be a lot more female
Speaker 1: rich Eyss around. So I feel like, you know, fast
Speaker 1: forward ten years from now, there are going to be
Speaker 1: way more women because there are just inherently more positions.
Speaker 1: But right now we have to still fight for those.
Speaker 1: So I do think think it is you know, it's
Speaker 1: just been more difficult for women to crack into this.
Speaker 1: All the different networks only have so many shows, right,
Speaker 1: bottom line, and how they feel them is it really
Speaker 1: depends on the lens of the people that are hiring
Speaker 1: and what they see and how they want to see it.
Speaker 1: But It also makes sense to hire X players because
Speaker 1: you guys have been in the next I haven't stuff
Speaker 1: foot on a football team are on the field. I
Speaker 1: don't know what that's like. You you share a completely different,
Speaker 1: you know, side of the game, which is fascinated, which
Speaker 1: makes excellent TV if you know how to do it.
Speaker 1: So it makes sense. Where do you see things trending
Speaker 1: in the next five years, ten years? Of course it
Speaker 1: changes so rapidly, but now repositioning that, where do you
Speaker 1: see yourself in the next ten years? Gosh, I I
Speaker 1: don't know. Hopefully happy, stupid, but as you know, settled
Speaker 1: and and just happy. Like I think that I at
Speaker 1: some point the snapping needs to like cool off a
Speaker 1: bit so that I can have a life. But right now,
Speaker 1: like I love being creative. I love being working for
Speaker 1: a company that lets me be who I am and
Speaker 1: be creative. And like, you know, ten years ago, if
Speaker 1: you were to ask me that question, I I wouldn't
Speaker 1: necessarily say where I am now, and ten years before
Speaker 1: that I would have never said sports ever, and that
Speaker 1: sports has given me every single thing in my life.
Speaker 1: So I think that I just want to be happy
Speaker 1: with what I'm doing, and I want to keep on.
Speaker 1: I want to have ownership over things. I really want
Speaker 1: to start my own production company. Um. I want to
Speaker 1: keep on, you know, lifting up other women that don't
Speaker 1: necessarily see themselves in sports like I didn't once upon
Speaker 1: a time, and now I love it and just keep on,
Speaker 1: you know, opening the door for people to make stuff
Speaker 1: and be themselves. What what? What do you love about
Speaker 1: the grind of television? Oh? Man? I used to hate
Speaker 1: live TV so much. It used to scare me because
Speaker 1: I was always fraid of saying the wrong thing. And
Speaker 1: now I just love it. Anything can happen. It's just
Speaker 1: such an adrenaline. The energy is so fun um and
Speaker 1: I still I just I still love writing things. I
Speaker 1: love writing sketches. I love seeing the my favorite thing
Speaker 1: to hear. And somebody like like Mooch always asked me this.
Speaker 1: Whenever I see Mooch, she goes, what is wrong with you?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, do you want the list? I'll give
Speaker 1: you a lift. But that tells me that I'm doing
Speaker 1: something so different that people have not seen that, you know.
Speaker 1: Ian Rappaport's like, you're a weird huh. I love that.
Speaker 1: Nothing makes me happier. That is like such a check
Speaker 1: of a box for me, because that just tells me
Speaker 1: I am doing something that people aren't used to seeing,
Speaker 1: and I need to lean into that. So I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna keep on trying to do new things and asking
Speaker 1: or say you're weird as you not looked in the mirror.
Speaker 1: How much do you get it? In a loving way?
Speaker 1: I just I just love you've talked about improv. How
Speaker 1: much you loved improv? Do you get to improv? Why
Speaker 1: are you doing some of the live stuff? Do you
Speaker 1: have restrictions on you? What do you enjoy? I'm something
Speaker 1: like just went viral at the draft and it was
Speaker 1: me handing this guy a five dollar bail. I literally
Speaker 1: asked somebody for a five on the way to our
Speaker 1: spot to shoot that, like I'm always When I was
Speaker 1: doing the before the pandemic, I was in an improv
Speaker 1: class for eight hours a week. I was going on
Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Thursdays for four hours each night. Thursday at football,
Speaker 1: I was having to put my you know, my phone,
Speaker 1: there's a football would be on my phone and I'd
Speaker 1: be an improv class like watching the scene and also
Speaker 1: watching football. Like I was just constantly trying to work
Speaker 1: on that part of my brain. And that's what I
Speaker 1: tell everybody that's like starting off in this business. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't care if you think you're funny, or if
Speaker 1: you're an actor or what being able to I mean, Steve,
Speaker 1: you know, just like anything can happen, breaking news can happen,
Speaker 1: you need to be thinking on your feet at all times. Um,
Speaker 1: even if it's a tape hit and you have a
Speaker 1: script in your head, somebody could fly by behind you,
Speaker 1: and if you try to ignore it, that's terrible. If
Speaker 1: you work with it, that makes you know viral moments.
Speaker 1: And so improv is such a huge part of my
Speaker 1: life and it's kind of sucked because of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: I haven't been able to do a lot of it.
Speaker 1: But also I have stage fright, so just putting me
Speaker 1: up on a stage in front of people acting like
Speaker 1: a complete idiot, UM really puts me out of my
Speaker 1: comfort zone. And it makes things like doing live television
Speaker 1: at the Draft not scary at all. Backstage, Joe does improv?
Speaker 1: Did you know it? I would love that for you.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Rachel. Do you can always get into it?
Speaker 1: Do you do you think? Uh? Sports broadcasters have superpowers? Um,
Speaker 1: some of them for sure. What's your superpower there? What's mine?
Speaker 1: My superpower? Right here? Now, right here, We're right here.
Speaker 1: No um. I think making uh one of the things
Speaker 1: that I'm mostly prideful about. I started a podcast a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago called Hall of Shame, and we
Speaker 1: talked about the biggest scandals that ever happened in the
Speaker 1: sports world, and we talked about it in a wet
Speaker 1: We did not have the sports audience. We had a
Speaker 1: mostly female audience that didn't give a shit about sports,
Speaker 1: and we talked about sports in a way just the
Speaker 1: way you said it. It was just like we were
Speaker 1: talking about sports. Nobody really cared you and the kids
Speaker 1: and keep cooking. No, no, Yeah, we spoke about it
Speaker 1: in a way that people got it. People. I think
Speaker 1: that a lot of people don't like sports because they
Speaker 1: don't understand it and it makes them feel um left out,
Speaker 1: like a lot of bullying stuff kind of comes up.
Speaker 1: I think when I first think about it, and the
Speaker 1: way that we were able to talk about sports is
Speaker 1: such a delicious thing to have been your life, Like,
Speaker 1: there is nothing better than I'm a huge Raptors fan.
Speaker 1: I got to watch them win a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: I was crying. That's one of my greatest memories I've
Speaker 1: ever had in my life. There's nothing better than that.
Speaker 1: It's it's like, it's it's humans being amazing and to
Speaker 1: be able to have a podcast it was about sports
Speaker 1: that was not for sports fans, and I have all
Speaker 1: of these women and all of these people that did
Speaker 1: not care about sports being like, I'm gonna watch football
Speaker 1: now because you have made it really fun. I think
Speaker 1: because I didn't start out being a football fan, and
Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily start up being a sports fan, I
Speaker 1: think I'm able to talk to people in a way
Speaker 1: because I get most sides. I get why you don't
Speaker 1: like sports, but also I've experienced it now and I
Speaker 1: want you to experience it. So I think that that,
Speaker 1: I guess that would be my superpower, is like pulling
Speaker 1: people in to love this thing that maybe they don't
Speaker 1: even know exists, and there's just so much energy and
Speaker 1: it's a pretty magical thing to be a part of.
Speaker 1: How would you if you have the opportunity, What do
Speaker 1: you think your papa say about you right now? Why
Speaker 1: are you gonna do this to me? You know why?
Speaker 1: Because I see I see how cool you are. And
Speaker 1: I think, um, I think you snapped for a reason
Speaker 1: and to be able to look into your dad's eyes
Speaker 1: and last kind of moments before sending his little girl
Speaker 1: in the world without him. It's always that question we
Speaker 1: always ask. I asked myself, well, my grandpa think of me, right?
Speaker 1: And when I played in my years, my grandpa always
Speaker 1: told me I was young boy, you want to play
Speaker 1: this game. You know I go by Steve, but you know, Steve,
Speaker 1: you want to play this game, you gotta play it
Speaker 1: bigger and better than everybody else. M hmm, okay. I
Speaker 1: think that he would be really proud of me for
Speaker 1: keeping my word, for for literally manifesting my entire life
Speaker 1: thirteen years ago or however long ago was. Um, And
Speaker 1: I'm proud of myself for for doing all of those things. Recently,
Speaker 1: I made a really big life decision, and my brother
Speaker 1: wrote me a song to help me make this decision
Speaker 1: because it was life life changing, and I decided not
Speaker 1: to do this thing. And I didn't do this thing
Speaker 1: because it didn't sit with my vision for my life
Speaker 1: and what I had promised my dad in that moment.
Speaker 1: It didn't sit with any of those things. It was
Speaker 1: a great opportunity, but I had passed, um, and part
Speaker 1: of the lyrics in it was like it was something
Speaker 1: along the lines of like he's standing with all of
Speaker 1: us and happy too. You guys didn't really just gonna
Speaker 1: cry on this podcast, not once but twice. Um. But
Speaker 1: he was talking about how he's my dad's with all
Speaker 1: three of my brothers and really proud, and he would
Speaker 1: be and he should be. Thank you kicking ass and
Speaker 1: taking names. Thank you, guys, you are a unique person.
Speaker 1: You are well worth it, you are competent, and most
Speaker 1: of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer, I'm Gerard
Speaker 1: Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to
Speaker 1: It with Steve Smith Singior That Is Me is a
Speaker 1: production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The
Speaker 1: Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the Heart Radio, Apple Apple Podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
Speaker 1: to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer, co host Gerard
Speaker 1: Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media
Speaker 1: team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media.
Speaker 1: Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter,
Speaker 1: with production assistance by Alex Lebrec, Production coordinator Taylor Robinson.
Speaker 1: Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You ain't heard about it, then, we're about to let
Speaker 1: you know. It's all