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 John and this is cut
Speaker 1: to it. Good do it, Good do it. Let's getting
Speaker 1: down to do it. Good do it. We asked the
Speaker 1: questions you always want to know, but no one ever asked,
Speaker 1: let's cut to it. You ain't heard them about it?
Speaker 1: Then we're about to let you know. It's all you
Speaker 1: get to go. I'm good to go. All right, cool, cool,
Speaker 1: Let's cut right to it. Man, how you doing? Not
Speaker 1: too bad? How are you? Man? I'm doing great. No complaints. Man. Hey,
Speaker 1: so school me on this. This cameo app you got,
Speaker 1: I know it's it's this app right where people can
Speaker 1: make requests for you to do, like these personalized social messages,
Speaker 1: social video messages. How's the work? We're after a long
Speaker 1: period of time, about a year of cameo trying to
Speaker 1: get me to do it. I didn't want to do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were recruiting you, you pretty, and I was declining them.
Speaker 1: They reached out a few times. So basically, somebody can
Speaker 1: come on the cameo and the request for me to
Speaker 1: do something. All kinds of athletes, entertainers, every reality stars.
Speaker 1: There's a I think Steve Harvey like four hundred the message. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's gotta be some guys hot in that too. Oh
Speaker 1: it's the way my mind works. I'm not really sure
Speaker 1: how to do it, but one I just I don't
Speaker 1: know if I want to say, I don't have the time,
Speaker 1: but I want of those guys like I'm I'm either
Speaker 1: hot and I'll do it well I'm cold, and I'm
Speaker 1: like I'm okay, so yeah, and bro, some of this
Speaker 1: stuff that's in there, like okay, what kind of stuff
Speaker 1: do you like? Just just entertaining our listeners for what
Speaker 1: may seem normal for you, but some of us probably
Speaker 1: listen like what that really gets? People ask you with
Speaker 1: these certain things like so I have someone and say, hey,
Speaker 1: requestion the Mother's Day message for my mom, Like of
Speaker 1: course that's cool, right, And most of the time when
Speaker 1: I get someone that sent me something after I record
Speaker 1: always tell them, hey, thank you appreciate if you're allowing
Speaker 1: me to be a part be part of your you
Speaker 1: know whoever that individual special day, because I don't really
Speaker 1: see myself like that. But then there are some people
Speaker 1: like they right, like autobiography like a dissertation. Almost, yeah, dissertation,
Speaker 1: Like you want me to wish somebody happy birthday and
Speaker 1: then you're telling me what seat number they're in as
Speaker 1: they're watching the game. As they're watching the game, and
Speaker 1: then they get pissed at me. But I don't like
Speaker 1: repeat all that. It was like one guy, he wrote
Speaker 1: so much stuff. I literally text on the on the app,
Speaker 1: I said, what do you exactly want me to do?
Speaker 1: Because it was so much He gave you a smort
Speaker 1: board of options. Oh man, I mean it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: he's turning thirty, he's turning the age, and may please
Speaker 1: wish him a happy birthday from me. He's a huge
Speaker 1: Panther fan since since their first year on the team.
Speaker 1: Big fan of Smithy would be he's amazing father and husband, cool,
Speaker 1: no problem. And there are some people give me the
Speaker 1: ones that are I got to go back and a
Speaker 1: challenging to you, man, let me go down, let me
Speaker 1: go down yonder. There's somewhere I just gotta block. I
Speaker 1: just can't. I can't do it like I just like,
Speaker 1: I just can't give me a give me crazy one. Well,
Speaker 1: what's funny is every so after you get the um
Speaker 1: wrong black guy like they somebody they give me confused
Speaker 1: with somebody else? Right, somebody just they're like, hey, could
Speaker 1: you Oh my bad, I thought you were Nelly? Hey Rick?
Speaker 1: Can you got my picture of my name? Or you know, hey,
Speaker 1: can you what's the guy? This guy? He's he has
Speaker 1: a YouTube channel, okay, and he wants me to introduce
Speaker 1: him on his YouTube channel. But we don't know what
Speaker 1: YouTube channel is about. That dude can be creep. I
Speaker 1: don't know. Oh I'm not doing that. No tell him
Speaker 1: what he reviewing? No teller, no telling. I asked somebody.
Speaker 1: Let's this guy says, Hey, Steve, this blank has a
Speaker 1: listener league for fans. I'm trying to win a spot
Speaker 1: using cameos as recommendations. Little humor mixed with your reputation
Speaker 1: as a player and analysts will really help. This is
Speaker 1: something you could do via cameo. He gave you the
Speaker 1: full creative pri I say you want the truth of
Speaker 1: the lie it could be made up. Then saying you
Speaker 1: can win it. When you trold d J. Moore about
Speaker 1: your fantasy line up to kid made me think you're
Speaker 1: good for this. I could put together a loose script
Speaker 1: or something he's got the old graded. Whatever you think
Speaker 1: you can do to build me up, make it sound
Speaker 1: like you know me. I can I get some talking
Speaker 1: points loose script. Here's what I said. Sorry, I'll passed, Thanks,
Speaker 1: not interested, go up? But no. And I guess maybe
Speaker 1: because you can pay people that. That's what I was
Speaker 1: just about to say. Like, it's it's crazy how you
Speaker 1: can now have this connection to to anyone, athletes, entertainer, celebrities,
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be. But ten years ago, twenty
Speaker 1: years ago, thir you didn't have this much access. Now
Speaker 1: you sign up for an app, you can put in
Speaker 1: request and whether you fulfill it or not, they can
Speaker 1: send you a message that you can now have access
Speaker 1: to someone now again you can. You can decide whether
Speaker 1: or not you're gonna do it. Oh, here go, here go,
Speaker 1: Here goes one. Old college friends Fantasy League roast the
Speaker 1: out of someone but Joe, but Joe Joe one this
Speaker 1: year three times champ Avery never won it all, says
Speaker 1: he's cursed, just sucks, had bad trades. Jeremy went one
Speaker 1: and twelve, Thomas always one and done in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I hit him with decline and people will pay for
Speaker 1: It's all about Hey, do this for me, you know,
Speaker 1: let me show transactional man. So we talk about the
Speaker 1: transactional relationship that people have with athletes entertainers. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: even frustrated from me and I'm not even in your
Speaker 1: Here's the funniest thing. I wish someone a happy birthday
Speaker 1: who knew someone else, who knew someone else. And then
Speaker 1: a buddy that I actually knew so came back around
Speaker 1: to you, came back and was like look, and I
Speaker 1: just laughed and me and him said, Wow, the things
Speaker 1: people will pay for just to say, look what Steve
Speaker 1: did for me. There is some that I really enjoyed,
Speaker 1: Like somebody's coming out of surgery, somebody who's breast cancer,
Speaker 1: someone who's really hit hard times, who's depressed. You're really
Speaker 1: providing some hope for correct. So I had a lady,
Speaker 1: she got upset at me, send me a nasty little
Speaker 1: since your nasty graham. Nasty graham. Her husband's birthday was
Speaker 1: coming up, and she wanted me to wish I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have a birthday. Now. When you sign up, they they
Speaker 1: allowed you so many days to do it. So when
Speaker 1: she signs up, to complete the request, complete the request,
Speaker 1: I had six days. Now, it's not my fault. You
Speaker 1: signed me up four days before his birthday. That that
Speaker 1: is that my fault, same same day every year, right,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe he has a leap her birthday.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, but she was mad. She declined it
Speaker 1: and said false advertisement. You didn't answer it in Craigslist.
Speaker 1: Here's the problem. I have six days to complete it,
Speaker 1: or I have six days too ignore decline to do it.
Speaker 1: I still have a choice. You have offered me a
Speaker 1: message to you, and I have six days to complete it.
Speaker 1: Don't be matter me. If I completed on day five,
Speaker 1: I still technically got ahold twenty four hours. Then you
Speaker 1: should have picked me sooner. Now I have four dred
Speaker 1: eleven completed cameos. I have ninety eight percent completion. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I knocked him out. Other times, yeah, I'm one. Just
Speaker 1: get to him when I get Hey. Sometimes you gotta
Speaker 1: tell us if you want me be here at noon.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you gotta left right. Hey, who we got coming
Speaker 1: up on the Cut to It podcast? We've got Mike Golic,
Speaker 1: former NFL player. He was also known for being a
Speaker 1: host from Mike and Mike. A former NFL analyst and
Speaker 1: all around great guy Mike Golic on the Cut to
Speaker 1: It podcast. Oh man, my pleasure. I'm looking forward to this.
Speaker 1: I've been I have no outlet anymore to talk anymore.
Speaker 1: So I love taking opportunities. All right, well we're gonna
Speaker 1: get started on this opportunity. Our first segment is called
Speaker 1: get Iced Up. But give him the first of our
Speaker 1: get iced up questions. All right, if you can change
Speaker 1: your name to anything or to something, what would you
Speaker 1: change it to? I think Biff if it wasn't that
Speaker 1: all back to the future, Yes, it was and and
Speaker 1: and Biff wasn't wasn't a great character. But I just
Speaker 1: it would be a one syllable he was, he was.
Speaker 1: I would like to change that and be a better
Speaker 1: Biff than the Biff from back then. A great recall,
Speaker 1: by the way, Um, yeah, it was, it was. It
Speaker 1: would be exactly. It would be a it would be
Speaker 1: a quick name like that, like I named my daughter.
Speaker 1: We call quick names like it's Sydney, but we call
Speaker 1: her Shid, Jake, Mike, those are my kids. We like quick,
Speaker 1: one name or one syllable. Uh So I just figured
Speaker 1: out to go off a little bit and do Biff
Speaker 1: and and go down that road. Would you do so
Speaker 1: many things BI like the oh a neck, and and
Speaker 1: and and make yourself really rich? Or would you use
Speaker 1: it for good? You know this isn't a Bailock question.
Speaker 1: But couldn't I do both? I couldn't. I would have
Speaker 1: been on the World Series game. I would have definitely
Speaker 1: made a ton of money. But then I would have
Speaker 1: used some of that money for good so that I
Speaker 1: could morally justify why I was cheating the system. I'm okay, right,
Speaker 1: I'm doing good with it. So it's like, okay, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter how you got it. You didn't hurt anybody.
Speaker 1: You made a lot of money, and then I'll spend
Speaker 1: a lot of it on the good and also, you
Speaker 1: know then fly private everywhere as well. All right, um,
Speaker 1: so what will be your name? What? Oh? Is your name? Bishop?
Speaker 1: I don't know why. I love Bishop just like Bishop
Speaker 1: from Juice. No, just Bishop, not from Juice. This Bishop.
Speaker 1: I love the name Bishop. Wow. Okay, that's a pretty
Speaker 1: that's out of the box one. I think that's ubermanly, right.
Speaker 1: I think it's like just like like he held Smith,
Speaker 1: bishops Bishops Smith put it up bishops coming Now, would
Speaker 1: you wouldn't want anything you would want anybody to to
Speaker 1: shorten it to bish you want to do when you
Speaker 1: want to bishop, like you know, that would be to
Speaker 1: be like you're holding up the line. My serchs have
Speaker 1: my money. That's tomorrow. That's what my church says. My
Speaker 1: church says, beach better have my money. Yeah. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get a lot of trouble if you go bishop,
Speaker 1: because there's gonna be a whole lot of Let if
Speaker 1: my name is bishop and you're walking around refer to
Speaker 1: me as bishop, your life is worth Yeah, let's move
Speaker 1: on dirt bigs, all right. So this is an interesting conversation.
Speaker 1: You know we have prior to this. So I think
Speaker 1: this is excellent. Beach or mountains? Which one do you prefer? Wow?
Speaker 1: You know what I have been. I enjoy hiking in
Speaker 1: all honesty, so I I may go mountains, and I'm
Speaker 1: I'm more of a pool guy than a beach guy,
Speaker 1: you know, so I would probably out of that go mountains.
Speaker 1: Why are you a pool guy then beach guy? One
Speaker 1: of the reasons is um and and let me this
Speaker 1: is kind of a public service announcement as well. Most
Speaker 1: places where there's a beach, you want to get wet.
Speaker 1: And go on the water sharks lot in the water,
Speaker 1: and you know, then you get wet and you get
Speaker 1: sand on you a little bit. I'm not well into that.
Speaker 1: That's a I'll go hang out by the pool, put
Speaker 1: my phone on, you know, just kind of chill there,
Speaker 1: he said. And someone would say this, what's your pier
Speaker 1: to short back out? Yeah, no, I would go I
Speaker 1: would go mountain. I would go mountain, whether the biking
Speaker 1: in the mountain or hiking in the mountains. All right,
Speaker 1: So we're here in North Carolina. So can you do
Speaker 1: you believe have you ever been to like Kiowa or
Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach. Yes, I've been to boat. Do you consider
Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach a beach? No? No, I have just not
Speaker 1: been a Myrtle Myrtle Beach guy and not not really. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I go there in golf like Darius Rucker would have
Speaker 1: his Monday after the Master's tournament out there in Myrtle Beach,
Speaker 1: and so I go out there to golf. I never
Speaker 1: really never really hit hit the beaches. No, I've golf
Speaker 1: the Kia as well. That's very nice, but uh yeah,
Speaker 1: just just not really a beach guy. All right, So
Speaker 1: what did you have for breakfast this morning. Um so
Speaker 1: I got up first and I had oat mail with
Speaker 1: almonds in it and with some little grin ola in it.
Speaker 1: And then me and my wife work out. We work
Speaker 1: out at Orange Theory Fitness. And then after that, let
Speaker 1: me tell you what, and I made something for her.
Speaker 1: I make killer avocado toast, what kind of what kind
Speaker 1: of bread? So ill we'll do like wheat bread. But
Speaker 1: then what I'll do is I'll get turkey sausage and
Speaker 1: I'll cook up the turkey sausage and on the bread,
Speaker 1: I'll put the blockamoli on the bread. I'll put the
Speaker 1: turkey sausage over the bread, and then I'll do an
Speaker 1: eggs over easy and lay it right on top of
Speaker 1: the turkey sausage on the bread. On the avocado. He's
Speaker 1: pretty good. Oh yeah. I love to cook, big, big
Speaker 1: fan of cooking. So so that was our post workout meal,
Speaker 1: got our protein in. And if I didn't make that,
Speaker 1: then we would have had I would have had a
Speaker 1: done or something. You go from an avocado toast hitty green.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, listen, I'm versatile. All I tell something that
Speaker 1: you're grateful for today. You know a lot of people
Speaker 1: may not not think it because they ended up, you know,
Speaker 1: not renewing me. But but I am grateful for my
Speaker 1: time at ESPN because I we're we're a real big,
Speaker 1: tight family, and it allowed me for something I enjoy doing.
Speaker 1: It allowed me to bring my family along, you know.
Speaker 1: And like when I started doing the show, my Mike
Speaker 1: was ten, Jake was nine, and Sydney was five. And
Speaker 1: when I ended my time there, Mike was thirty one,
Speaker 1: Jake was thirty, and Sydney was twenty six. So it
Speaker 1: was a long time. So it was fun having them
Speaker 1: grow up kind of on air. Both my boys signed
Speaker 1: their letters have intend to Notre Dame on air. My
Speaker 1: daughter signed her let ever attend to Notre Dame to
Speaker 1: swim there. Um, So we've had them all on a lot,
Speaker 1: and now my son listened. Mike tried to make it up.
Speaker 1: They both played an or name. Mike was in a
Speaker 1: couple of camps at the NFL. Unfortunately, as Steve you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't work for everybody. He gave it a shot
Speaker 1: and for a couple of years and it didn't go.
Speaker 1: So he's in the business now and doing extremely well.
Speaker 1: I'm listening to him. He when you guys were you
Speaker 1: guys were on and having him. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: you know, Mike Julior is doing an excellent job. He's
Speaker 1: progressed and the confidence as well. And I saw him
Speaker 1: with one tattoo full sleeve. I'm like a test. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was always it was like it was like, okay,
Speaker 1: my hair is getting lost, let me get a tattoo. Here,
Speaker 1: he's getting back further and further, let me get the sleeve.
Speaker 1: Now he's fully ball hitted and sleeves. But man, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's doing a great job. He said he was going
Speaker 1: to get the other sleeve if he played any amount
Speaker 1: of time in the league. It felt better about getting
Speaker 1: the other sleep he just has the one, And it
Speaker 1: was I know, who knows? Who knows? You know, when
Speaker 1: he was doing the show with me or with others,
Speaker 1: he wasn't like, you know, the main person. He was
Speaker 1: one of like two or three. Now he does the
Speaker 1: show with Tene Boo McKay, who plays for the l
Speaker 1: A Sparks and and she was the number one pick.
Speaker 1: She went to Stanford. Well she's doing the show with
Speaker 1: Mike and the more in the afternoon, and you know, now,
Speaker 1: so they're both front and center, you know, these young
Speaker 1: thirty year old you know, doing their thing. It's it's cool.
Speaker 1: But but over going back to what I was saying, overall,
Speaker 1: it was just nice to bring my family along on
Speaker 1: this ride. It wasn't. I went to work and I
Speaker 1: came home, and you know, the two didn't mix. The
Speaker 1: two didn't mix pretty well, and it was it was
Speaker 1: cool because it lasted so long and was able to
Speaker 1: see them all grow up through it. So that was
Speaker 1: that was fun. Favorite sports teams growing up or favorite
Speaker 1: sports team when you're growing up. Interestingly enough, I grew
Speaker 1: up in Cleveland, so I was kind of a Browns fan.
Speaker 1: I was a big Leroy Kelly fan, and amazingly enough
Speaker 1: and all the young people out there Google and they
Speaker 1: running back with the Cleveland Browns years ago, and I
Speaker 1: got to meet him at a Super Bowl maybe ten
Speaker 1: years ago, and it was very cool. But interesting enough,
Speaker 1: growing up in Cleveland, I was a open Raidar fan.
Speaker 1: Kenny stabler otis sis drunk, I mean, all those crazy bastards,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean just just I just love the
Speaker 1: way they play. And I was like, man, if I
Speaker 1: play ball, that's that's the way I want to play,
Speaker 1: you know. So that was kind of. That was kind
Speaker 1: of the team I grew up watching just all those
Speaker 1: nutcases play ball. It's pretty pretty cool. So you said
Speaker 1: you were from Cleveland, but you know, so we always
Speaker 1: like to ask where are you from in a place
Speaker 1: you call your hometown. Where I'm from, uh is Cleveland obviously,
Speaker 1: Um the place I call home. You know, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be in two spots I'm gonna be. I have a
Speaker 1: place at Notre Dame where we all went to school,
Speaker 1: and I have a place out here in Arizona. And
Speaker 1: you know, people always ask me, you know, what's your
Speaker 1: favorite pro team? And I don't really have one. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't because I worked in the business. I mean
Speaker 1: I played for the Houston Oilers which is now the
Speaker 1: Tennessee Titans again for the youngsters out there, and then
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Eagles and then finished with the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1: Most of my years were in Philly, so I had
Speaker 1: the most appreciation there. But I don't nobody there was
Speaker 1: there when I was there now when I was there,
Speaker 1: So I don't really root for a protein. But you know,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of ties at Notre Dame. My
Speaker 1: brother Bob went there, My brother Greg went there. I
Speaker 1: went there, All three of my kids went there. I
Speaker 1: met my wife there, her sister went there, so there
Speaker 1: was a ton of us that went to school there.
Speaker 1: So that place is really close to my heart and
Speaker 1: our hearts for our family. So I'll probably spend a
Speaker 1: lot of time in Arizona because we love it out
Speaker 1: in Arizona, but we're will probably congregate the most will
Speaker 1: be at our place at Notre Dame, just because that
Speaker 1: place has been such a big part of our lives.
Speaker 1: We have to take a break in the morning. Anything.
Speaker 1: We gotta pay some bills. I love cut to It,
Speaker 1: and I love it even more when you download us
Speaker 1: and subscribe, and you can follow us on social media
Speaker 1: to Smithie where where at? That's at cut to It
Speaker 1: on Instagram, what about Twitter at cut to It Facebook?
Speaker 1: Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr. What about online?
Speaker 1: And you can follow us at cut to It podcast
Speaker 1: dot com where you can buy merch and you can
Speaker 1: subscribe to this wherever you listen to podcasts. I got
Speaker 1: all my answers questions, Um, yeah, I got all my
Speaker 1: questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother, cut
Speaker 1: to a Podcast dot com. So growing up in Ohio.
Speaker 1: How did this shape your perspective on how you see life,
Speaker 1: how you maneuver through life today. Well, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we were middle class, the lower middle class as far
Speaker 1: as income, probably more lower from from the money side.
Speaker 1: My dad, you know, worked he was a bricklayer and
Speaker 1: then he worked side jobs and my mom was a secretary,
Speaker 1: and he played ball in the Canadian Football League. He's
Speaker 1: a football player. He played in Indiana and then in
Speaker 1: the CFL. They there's a few NFL teams that wanted
Speaker 1: him to come play there. But my brother Bob was born,
Speaker 1: my brother Greg was born, and I was actually on
Speaker 1: the way. He decided, you know, back then football wasn't
Speaker 1: making a ton of money, so he decided he was
Speaker 1: going to retire and just start raising the family. So
Speaker 1: we learned from my parents a great work ethic, I
Speaker 1: mean a great work ethic, and they were my dad's
Speaker 1: best line to us. And you don't really understand a
Speaker 1: lot of things parents are doing until obviously later. Is
Speaker 1: in football. You know, before we went to practice, we
Speaker 1: would work out on the bags in the backyard, and
Speaker 1: then we go to practice, and then after practice we'd
Speaker 1: work a little bit extra and then he would say
Speaker 1: to us, now, whatever section you're on in schooled in
Speaker 1: a certain subject, go back on the section you were
Speaker 1: just on and make sure you understand it. Get on
Speaker 1: the section that you're on and peruse the section ahead,
Speaker 1: just so you know what's coming. He kind of applied it,
Speaker 1: and my parents applied the sports side to the academic side,
Speaker 1: and also said, you're not getting anywhere in sports without
Speaker 1: the academics. You know, we weren't going to play football,
Speaker 1: notre name unless we have the grades as well. So
Speaker 1: that was always a big part. But he taught us,
Speaker 1: both my parents, I should say, taught us sacrifice. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is your goal, this is what you want to do. Well,
Speaker 1: this is what it's gonna take. You may not be
Speaker 1: able to go out with your friends on the weekend,
Speaker 1: you may be up earlier and you want to, you
Speaker 1: may go to bed later than you want to, but
Speaker 1: this is what you need to do. And that's something
Speaker 1: I was able to pass on to my kids at
Speaker 1: a young age when they had their goals, you know,
Speaker 1: playing football to a certain level. And my daughter was
Speaker 1: really when I when a younger swimmer ranked nationally where
Speaker 1: she wanted to do and I kind of said the
Speaker 1: same things to them. Okay, you're gonna have to make
Speaker 1: some sacrifices. You know, you can't just do whatever you
Speaker 1: want and expect to have the outcome. You know there's
Speaker 1: gonna be sacrifice involved. So that really and my my
Speaker 1: wife came from the same type of a background. She
Speaker 1: was born and raised in Chicago, so the same kind
Speaker 1: of work ethic as well, so that we were able
Speaker 1: to pass on to the kids. So I would say
Speaker 1: that's one of the biggest things I got for my
Speaker 1: parents was was the work ethic in the versatility of
Speaker 1: how to apply it. I mean, you brought up discipline,
Speaker 1: you brought up sacrifice, and you already got into sports.
Speaker 1: But what's what impact does sports have on your life? Huge?
Speaker 1: Because especially in the team sports now again, the one
Speaker 1: I love right along with football was wrestling, and wrestling
Speaker 1: you are on a team, but that is pretty much
Speaker 1: an individual sport. When you're on the met you're and
Speaker 1: another guy. I loved wrestling. Me and my brother Bob
Speaker 1: wrestled in high school and in Notre Dame as well.
Speaker 1: But there's something about the team aspect to me. And
Speaker 1: then I even get more specific to football because in football,
Speaker 1: one thing that you know is going to happen, is
Speaker 1: you're going to get beat no one as as my
Speaker 1: dad would always as my dad would always say, nobody's
Speaker 1: ever played the perfect game. He goes, he goes, You're
Speaker 1: gonna get your ass knocked down. He said, how do
Speaker 1: you get up? You know, how do you get up?
Speaker 1: And how do you respond from that? He said, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get down of teammates gonna help you up. You're
Speaker 1: gonna see a teammate on the ground, You're gonna help
Speaker 1: them up. You're gonna learn to rely on the guy
Speaker 1: next to you that he's gonna get his job done
Speaker 1: um along with you. So you rely on one another
Speaker 1: and and Steve, as you know, as you go up
Speaker 1: the ranks, you always don't get along with everybody in
Speaker 1: the locker room. As I've always said, you know, even
Speaker 1: in the pros, there ain't fifty three guys singing at
Speaker 1: kumbaya every morning. You know, there are guys that you
Speaker 1: don't get along with, but you respect them for in
Speaker 1: what they're doing. And you take that to the field
Speaker 1: and you have mutual respect for one another and what
Speaker 1: you do the team aspect of football. And and my
Speaker 1: wife and I she's on the board for UH Pop
Speaker 1: Warner Football. I'm on the board for USA football. We're
Speaker 1: very big in the youth sports, football, especially when they
Speaker 1: were really going through a lot when the CT was
Speaker 1: you know, they became huge headlines years ago. So we
Speaker 1: are big on the the youth sports, especially football, and
Speaker 1: just the team value of what that brings you to
Speaker 1: and how how how can help you even out of football,
Speaker 1: because as we know, most football players aren't getting out
Speaker 1: of high school, you know, they got to go live
Speaker 1: their life after that. But playing football and preparing for
Speaker 1: football and the team aspect I think can help in
Speaker 1: so many other avenues of life. So that to me
Speaker 1: is one of the great motivators and great teachers is
Speaker 1: how are you as a teammate with each other. We
Speaker 1: had to the privilege now of having to Notre Dame, guys,
Speaker 1: and we had Jerome Bettison and he walked us through
Speaker 1: his recruiting process with coach Lou Hopes and not to
Speaker 1: date you, but you know, back in the eighties, I'm older,
Speaker 1: you know you had to you had the privilege of
Speaker 1: going to to Notre Dame. What was your experience like
Speaker 1: being recruited and and and being coached. Uh So mine
Speaker 1: was different, I think than most because my brother Bob
Speaker 1: went there first, and he's six years older. So when
Speaker 1: he went there in seventy nine, seventy five, I was
Speaker 1: like twelve years old and Dan Devine was the coach then,
Speaker 1: So I got to see the campus as a twelve
Speaker 1: year old, going in there and seeing you know, you know,
Speaker 1: uh Joe Montana and Ross Browner and Willie Fry and
Speaker 1: these other greats at Notre Dame as a twelve thirteen,
Speaker 1: fourteen year old, you know, just wide eyed and wow.
Speaker 1: And then my brother Greg went there. He was a
Speaker 1: year ahead of me, so when he went there as
Speaker 1: a freshman, I was a senior in high in high
Speaker 1: school and getting heavily recruited by everybody. But now when
Speaker 1: I saw him there, I'd see everybody as my peer. Then.
Speaker 1: Now these were guys that were kind of my age,
Speaker 1: guys that I would be playing with and or against.
Speaker 1: So it was kind of a different mindset. But I
Speaker 1: got to see Notre Dame in a couple of different ways.
Speaker 1: So that helped me a lot, and and and it
Speaker 1: gave me a lot about Notre Dame before I even
Speaker 1: you know, committed there. Now my rookie of my freshman year,
Speaker 1: Jerry Fauss was the coach. He was a coach at
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Mole or a big time high school, and they
Speaker 1: hired it Notre Dame, obviously a hindsight. Being didn't work out.
Speaker 1: He brought a lot of high school coaches. Listen, it didn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, we were the ones on the field not
Speaker 1: getting the job done. But he brought in like five
Speaker 1: high school coaches with him, and it was really weird.
Speaker 1: So he even realized it was over his head. And
Speaker 1: we obviously didn't perform well enough on the field because
Speaker 1: I never had a record better than seven and four.
Speaker 1: But one of the things I remember about recruiting now,
Speaker 1: when I was recruited, you didn't take your trips until
Speaker 1: after your senior year of football. So you're talking November
Speaker 1: of your senior year. You would take your five visits.
Speaker 1: Now these guys are committing freshman year sophomore. Ye're both
Speaker 1: my kids, you know committed their junior years. Well back down,
Speaker 1: you didn't. It was after your senior year of football.
Speaker 1: So I had trips set up to usc U, c
Speaker 1: l A, Tennessee, Miami, and I think one other place
Speaker 1: and Jerry Fauss called me on thank skiving after my
Speaker 1: senior football we had just ended, and he said, listen,
Speaker 1: you have a full, full scholarship to Notre Dame blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. And I said, coach, I said, this is
Speaker 1: where I'm coming. I'm coming to Notre Dame. Thank you,
Speaker 1: I said, But I said, you know I got these trips.
Speaker 1: Shut up. You know I'm eighteen years old. Then, you
Speaker 1: know I kind of you know, like for free exactly.
Speaker 1: I said, can you not really saying anything yet, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna go. You know, I'm coming to Notre Dame.
Speaker 1: I'm not not going to get swayed. And he's like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: no problem. But you know, it got out. It got
Speaker 1: out on the wire that that I was had committed
Speaker 1: Notre Dame and one call came in after the other
Speaker 1: just canceling my visit because they I was like, oh man,
Speaker 1: So my freshman year, we actually had the top ranked
Speaker 1: recruiting class that year. We were preseason number five and
Speaker 1: we played l s U my true freshman first game
Speaker 1: my true freshman year was smoked them. Um Me and
Speaker 1: a few other troops got in there and played a
Speaker 1: decent amount. A couple of teams in front of us lost.
Speaker 1: The second week of my true freshman year, we were
Speaker 1: number one in the country, and I'm like, this is awesome.
Speaker 1: My brother Bob won the title in seventy seven. We're
Speaker 1: gonna win two titles while I'm here, man, We're not
Speaker 1: gonna lose. We went to the Big House. We went
Speaker 1: to Michigan that next week and got our asses handed
Speaker 1: to us. I mean, and you want to reality said it.
Speaker 1: We won five and six at first year, and like
Speaker 1: I said, we didn't go better than seven and four
Speaker 1: by time there again. Wouldn't trade it, loved it, but
Speaker 1: it was from a record wise on the field, it wasn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the best were you brought up. You know,
Speaker 1: your teammates going back and looking at the roster and
Speaker 1: you play with Tim Brown, yeah, uh, Steve C. Burrowin,
Speaker 1: Yeah I think you know. Yeah, he played with some dudes.
Speaker 1: So my my year, um, we had a guy. Mark
Speaker 1: Varro was my year. He got drafted second off by
Speaker 1: the Giants. Giants. Yeah, Mike Kelly was the center. He
Speaker 1: got drafted by the Oil of the same team I did.
Speaker 1: Larry Williams, another old I got drafted by the Browns,
Speaker 1: my gandy and got drafted by Atlanta. Story about Tim Brown. So,
Speaker 1: Tim Brown was a freshman when I was a senior
Speaker 1: in a cap. So our first game was against Purdue
Speaker 1: on the road and he's back. There's a true returning
Speaker 1: the opening kickoff. This is first time stepping on the field.
Speaker 1: And what does he do. He fumbled. He fumbled the
Speaker 1: kickoff and Perdue recovered it on the three yard line
Speaker 1: and I remember running out, running out to see him,
Speaker 1: and like, you know, I'm supposed to be one of
Speaker 1: the leaders. So I grabbed my said, Tim, you gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta no worries, man, you just got here. Forget it,
Speaker 1: getting out of your head. We're gonna need you, I mean, what,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to do all the things I should
Speaker 1: be doing to build them up. And then he's like thanks, thanks, thanks,
Speaker 1: and he runs away, and I'm running on the field
Speaker 1: because he fumbled. We gotta go on defense. And I'm
Speaker 1: running on the field going, damn, that kid ain't never
Speaker 1: gonna make it. I think he did, I I know,
Speaker 1: but but you know, I mean, I mean in the
Speaker 1: moment there and I'm trying to pep give him the
Speaker 1: pep talking he's out of earshot. That the truth that office, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it really is that. Yeah, I would say it worked
Speaker 1: out pretty welcome immediately, just kind of Tim Brown, just
Speaker 1: like that's what happens, like you see a corner to
Speaker 1: give be hey, man, it's okay. Oh listen. We had
Speaker 1: a number of those years when I was in Philly,
Speaker 1: when the year we thought we were going to go
Speaker 1: to the super Bowl, it was nine one and Randall
Speaker 1: Cunningham got his knee blown out in the first game
Speaker 1: against the Packers. That year, our defense was number one
Speaker 1: rush passed and overall that we had a great defense
Speaker 1: like we normally did there with the Reggie White, your
Speaker 1: own Brown set Joiners of the world, and we ended
Speaker 1: up not even making the playoffs because the offense struggled
Speaker 1: going through multiple quarterbacks. And just like Steve said, man,
Speaker 1: there's an awful lot of going on when you try
Speaker 1: to face I beat them in practice. Look at they
Speaker 1: beat them too. Oh yeah. Are the our locker room
Speaker 1: the offenses, the offenses in the front part of the
Speaker 1: locker room, we'd always walked through them and you know
Speaker 1: there'd be some side ask comments made, and you know
Speaker 1: there were there were some eight personalities on that team. Man,
Speaker 1: there were more than a few confrontations went on in
Speaker 1: that locker room inside out of the So you were
Speaker 1: you were two sports athlete. You said it. You you
Speaker 1: play football, but you also wrestled. How were you able
Speaker 1: to have the balancing that? You know, obviously your dad
Speaker 1: is still some great things are you? But to play
Speaker 1: adding Notre Dame football back in the eighties, Notre Dame
Speaker 1: football is the crime den crime. And then you add
Speaker 1: wrestling to that and then obviously having uh good grades
Speaker 1: maintaining that, you know, how did you balance? So the
Speaker 1: thing that I found and I found that during football
Speaker 1: season my grades were better than not football season because
Speaker 1: your time is your time is regimented. You know, you
Speaker 1: actually see it. You know, you know the practices where
Speaker 1: you gotta be, when you gotta be there, what you
Speaker 1: have to do, so you know, you only have X
Speaker 1: amount of time then to get your school work done.
Speaker 1: Now you're in springtime where it's a spring ball and
Speaker 1: enough a lot of your time isn't taken from you.
Speaker 1: You're kind of do your own thing. You say, I
Speaker 1: got time to do it later. We're in during the season,
Speaker 1: you don't you gotta get shipped done. So wrestling. Wrestling
Speaker 1: took the place of winter workouts because you know, when
Speaker 1: the college season ended, you start those winter workouts. And
Speaker 1: I told Jerry coach Fauss when I was signing, I said,
Speaker 1: now I want to wrestle it notre him, and he said,
Speaker 1: no problem because help wrestling. Preparing for wrestling is way
Speaker 1: harder than preparing for football. Let me just say that
Speaker 1: right up front, walk me through because us two brothers,
Speaker 1: I no wrestlers. So yeah, no, let me tell now.
Speaker 1: I was lucky. I was back when when heavyweights, you know,
Speaker 1: could be way whatever they wanted, so I didn't have
Speaker 1: to cut these other guys that all had to make weight.
Speaker 1: I mean, you are busting your ass in the on
Speaker 1: the mat wrestling six minutes of wrestling. You can see
Speaker 1: guys boxing when they wear on and then they when
Speaker 1: they were up. Same in wrestling. Man, you go three
Speaker 1: periods of two minutes and you are freaking dead. And
Speaker 1: the amount of work it takes, the amount of lifting,
Speaker 1: the amount of running, the amount of cardio, the amount
Speaker 1: of wrestling on the mat, you are dead tired as
Speaker 1: compared in my estimation, and doing them both at that level,
Speaker 1: So to me, it was more difficult than football. So
Speaker 1: I would do that in the winter instead of winter workouts,
Speaker 1: and it would be done. The n c A tournament
Speaker 1: was always done in early March, so it was before
Speaker 1: we had our spring ball, so I would wrestle and
Speaker 1: then I would jump right into spring ball. So basically
Speaker 1: I was doing it kind of kind of year round.
Speaker 1: So it was I mean, listen, it was hard, but
Speaker 1: I easily loved wrestling as much as football. But you know,
Speaker 1: after there's no pro outside of the w W, and
Speaker 1: this wasn't it. While I respect the hell out of
Speaker 1: what w W W is and I loved it. You know,
Speaker 1: my type of wrestling, there was no pro thing for
Speaker 1: that was you go onto the Olympics or you know,
Speaker 1: you you do nothing, and pro football paid a lot
Speaker 1: more than that, so you know that that's the direction
Speaker 1: I wanted. But I love wrestling and it did it
Speaker 1: kept it kept school or regiment, you put your you
Speaker 1: put your boy through a lot when it comes to wrestling.
Speaker 1: So I see a lot of guys even in high school,
Speaker 1: who are on the wrestling team and them having to
Speaker 1: try to make weight. Right before Matt trash Bag, Oh
Speaker 1: the trash bag stuff. Listen, all that stuff. I mean,
Speaker 1: it almost isn't healthy when you see what happened. But
Speaker 1: this is what I would do. This is how a
Speaker 1: heavyweight would take advantage of this. So the lighter way
Speaker 1: guys obviously would do all this to cut weight. And
Speaker 1: then as soon as they made weight, they bring food.
Speaker 1: They had food so they could eat right away. Well,
Speaker 1: you always know when you're really really hungry what happens.
Speaker 1: Your eyes are bigger than your stomach. So they bring
Speaker 1: all this food, they eat some of it, and they
Speaker 1: get full, and they had this extra food and I
Speaker 1: would eat it. Don't worked out pretty well for me.
Speaker 1: That's pretty good. Yea. Yeah, So you graduated with a
Speaker 1: finance and make an man management. What did you What
Speaker 1: was your plan after after school to do with those things? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously the NFL was going to be first. Um.
Speaker 1: I thought after my soft right into my into my
Speaker 1: junior year, I thought I had a chance that I
Speaker 1: could that I could make it in the NFL. I
Speaker 1: got hurt my senior year the first game that for
Speaker 1: me game. I actually got hurt during that game, and hindsight,
Speaker 1: I should have had a shoulder operation and red shirt
Speaker 1: and come back the next year because I never played
Speaker 1: more than a half the rest of the year. When
Speaker 1: I went to the combine, I couldn't do any lifting
Speaker 1: because I had a surgery on that shoulder. I couldn't
Speaker 1: run or lift, and then I end up going in
Speaker 1: the tenth round. This was back when there were twelve
Speaker 1: rounds in the draft, so that was where all my
Speaker 1: effort was going. But the one thing I also when
Speaker 1: they make sure you know, to tell you that when
Speaker 1: you're Notre Dame, outside of braids being very important, you
Speaker 1: can't blow off classes. You gotta whatever the n c
Speaker 1: A line is, Notre Dames was above it as far
Speaker 1: as maintaining a great point average to play is one
Speaker 1: thing that Notre Dame was always known for and I
Speaker 1: think a lot of schools are, but Notre Dame really
Speaker 1: has it around the country. Was kind of their pipeline there.
Speaker 1: There are other people that are in the real world
Speaker 1: for lack of a better term, um in the real
Speaker 1: world with jobs that you could have help with a
Speaker 1: connection to help you get started. So that was it.
Speaker 1: And take my degree and use it and try and
Speaker 1: use you know, kind of the pipeline system to say, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, I have this degree. Where could I fit
Speaker 1: in here there and try and use a connection. But luckily,
Speaker 1: uh I luckily, I guess luckily I got wouldn't I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have mind it if I needed it, But it
Speaker 1: turns out I never never needed it. I think it's
Speaker 1: about that time, just so I'll take a little breathering,
Speaker 1: good good down. Hey there are did you get that
Speaker 1: T shirt? Oh? Yes, I got it from cut to
Speaker 1: a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout
Speaker 1: out to our guys at seven or four shot. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you can go on, buy you a T shirt, subscribe
Speaker 1: to us wherever you listen to podcasts. Getting draft in
Speaker 1: the tenth round and I you know, I heard I've
Speaker 1: heard a lot of stories about the twelve rounds and
Speaker 1: all that stuff and how long it was, you know,
Speaker 1: comparing the draft today and obviously you you know, you
Speaker 1: doing Mike and Mike for so many years and just
Speaker 1: killing that. Compare the league today. Obviously when you play,
Speaker 1: you're playing with Ju White, Jerome Brown, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Random Cuttingham, Keith Buyers. You have so many different personalities
Speaker 1: in the NFL. Houston, Jerry Glanville, Warren Moon, right. You
Speaker 1: even on the team with Steve Ye, these different personalities.
Speaker 1: You've seen the best of all these world's been you know,
Speaker 1: unfortunately been around a pro bowler who's drawing Brown lost life. Yep.
Speaker 1: And you have done television. You see the way ball
Speaker 1: is today, and sometimes it can come across. We've come
Speaker 1: across on television as older players come across. We come across,
Speaker 1: as NVIDIAs or said, But you really understand the gravity
Speaker 1: and what these young men have the opportunity to do
Speaker 1: and get with now at some degree, some of them,
Speaker 1: not all of them. Some of them I don't really
Speaker 1: have to do much anymore, don't have to prove themselves.
Speaker 1: They're instant celebrities, instant superstars and going to fifth and
Speaker 1: sixth round. Right. Compare the league as you see it,
Speaker 1: playing it, watching it, and commentating it. Well, while there
Speaker 1: are two really distinct differences from my time to now,
Speaker 1: and the first I'll go on the field and I
Speaker 1: think we all know this is different on how the
Speaker 1: game has played. And the one thing, the one thing
Speaker 1: I don't don't really like is when I hear and
Speaker 1: I heard about basketball as well, that the players are
Speaker 1: softer now than back in the day. And the reason
Speaker 1: it's not as physical in either sport is because the
Speaker 1: rules have dictated that. If people always say, oh, my god,
Speaker 1: Lebron never could have played in the eighties, that's bullshit.
Speaker 1: If Lebron, if Lebron, and I don't mean Lebron like
Speaker 1: he is now, if Lebron was born to where he
Speaker 1: was in the NBA and the eighties, then he would
Speaker 1: have grown up playing that way. You can't just take
Speaker 1: a guy and in this system and say put him
Speaker 1: in the eighties and how would he do. You can't
Speaker 1: do that. He would be born and and and bred
Speaker 1: to play that way. So he would have been playing
Speaker 1: eighties style of basketball or not, or he would have
Speaker 1: made it. Oh, it's exactly right. So the saying it's softer,
Speaker 1: and I know that's just the way they're calling it. Listen,
Speaker 1: I think it's so difficult to be a defender in
Speaker 1: the NFL now. The wide receivers, my god, you gotta
Speaker 1: made now. I mean, you can't be touched, you know.
Speaker 1: But they're still dropping the ball or not still drop
Speaker 1: a stale, stale tiptoe and pink panther across the middle,
Speaker 1: which and that's probably the biggest difference on the field
Speaker 1: is there's no more intimidation factor. And when I say intimidation,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't think people will be intimidated, but but some can,
Speaker 1: and some get the alligator arms when they get smoked,
Speaker 1: you know, running across the middle. But you can't do that.
Speaker 1: And I get it, though, I understand it to a
Speaker 1: point with head injuries, and you don't want to see
Speaker 1: people you know hurt, you know, especially that last a lifetime.
Speaker 1: But but also I think the NFL, they say you
Speaker 1: gotta break break a few eggs to make a to
Speaker 1: make an omelet, I think they went too far with
Speaker 1: how they in it. And the people that really got
Speaker 1: caught in the crosshairs were when they made the rule change,
Speaker 1: because you had guys in the league used to playing
Speaker 1: the way I played, or man you were you just
Speaker 1: knocked the funker out, you know, and and normally in
Speaker 1: the meeting the next day you got a hundred dollars
Speaker 1: for the big hit. You know too. I don't know
Speaker 1: anything about that, but yeah, well I'm gonna give you
Speaker 1: some real truth in a second. But that that would happen.
Speaker 1: And but nowadays, not only you get a flag forget
Speaker 1: the flag forget the fifteen yards, you get five and
Speaker 1: find at least thirty seven five. So now they're taking
Speaker 1: it out of your pocket as well. But again I
Speaker 1: understand the safety reason for it, but they went so
Speaker 1: far the other way and they're throwing flags and I'm
Speaker 1: just sitting home and going your flag and that I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, it didn't leave with his head or how
Speaker 1: they protect the quarterbacks. Sometimes I think it just goes
Speaker 1: went a little too far, and I think they got
Speaker 1: to find a little more of a happy medium. But
Speaker 1: I understand why they're doing it. So that's the biggest
Speaker 1: difference on the field field. And and the part I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, I get real about it when when
Speaker 1: they when they suspended Gregg Williams for bounty bounty gate ship.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on that that stuff, and I'm not
Speaker 1: saying they shouldn't try and get that out of the league.
Speaker 1: And this is gonna sound bad. It's gonna almost sound
Speaker 1: like there's there's honor amongst thieves. But we did that,
Speaker 1: and a lot of teams did that. Man, Dude, We'd
Speaker 1: be sitting there and being a meeting and it'd be like, okay,
Speaker 1: x amount end up on this guy. If he doesn't
Speaker 1: finish the game. But here's the thing, and this is
Speaker 1: again where people say, oh that that sounds horrible. It
Speaker 1: had to be a clean hit. If you hit a
Speaker 1: guy so so you didn't want to have a guy
Speaker 1: go head hunting, or you didn't want a guy twisting
Speaker 1: an ankle in a pile. You got flagged for a hit,
Speaker 1: you weren't gonna gonna get that. And I know there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of people listening to going, oh,
Speaker 1: that's still bullshit. You were trying to hurt somebody, And
Speaker 1: the answer is really no. I mean, I would go
Speaker 1: all the way back to see why old football when
Speaker 1: my dad coached me, and my dad's wanted to toughest
Speaker 1: people I've ever met, and he said, you'll learn the
Speaker 1: proper technique. You hit somebody like they're not there, and
Speaker 1: you drive them into the ground. And if they don't
Speaker 1: get up, that's part of the game because you may
Speaker 1: get hit like that and you may not get up,
Speaker 1: and if it's a legal hit, that's part of the game.
Speaker 1: And that that's the mantra I always lived with. And
Speaker 1: it just got put a little bit to that Steve,
Speaker 1: you know, in the locker room. Hey, you know this
Speaker 1: money here, this money here, if this guy will finish
Speaker 1: but if us but it had to be a clean hit.
Speaker 1: You weren't trying to knock him out. But if you
Speaker 1: hit him clean and they got they were hurt, then
Speaker 1: you know you got the money. And I know it
Speaker 1: sounds horrible. So the bounty gate all falling on Greg
Speaker 1: Williams is is amazing because that was happening in a
Speaker 1: lot of places. I mean, hit you know, no, you
Speaker 1: may have them, Well I don't. So I have a
Speaker 1: little history Meg Williams. And so when when he was
Speaker 1: in New Orleans and it was an individual, there was
Speaker 1: a safety who hit me out of bounds and his
Speaker 1: name is Darren Sharper. Darren Sharper. It goes to hit
Speaker 1: I go out, I step out of bounds, we throw
Speaker 1: a screen. I stepped out of the bounds. That he's
Speaker 1: going to finish me. And I kind of look back
Speaker 1: at him like, hey, and this is what Darren said.
Speaker 1: If I don't hit you, I'll get fined. Well, I
Speaker 1: said what because now I said some animated things to
Speaker 1: let him know. So he went to check himself because
Speaker 1: I was like hey, blankety blank blank blank blank He's like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: if I if I don't hit you, And that's how
Speaker 1: it led me to And then after that I called it.
Speaker 1: You know, a couple of times after that, I called
Speaker 1: a pass and I happened to be on on their sideline.
Speaker 1: I had a few words with Greg, and ever since
Speaker 1: then I had never really experienced that out and the
Speaker 1: open Now I knew because I played, and I played
Speaker 1: a certain way. There were times where if you get
Speaker 1: an opportunity to I don't want to say eliminate, but
Speaker 1: put a guy who can impact the game if you
Speaker 1: can put him on the shelf. Legally. When I say
Speaker 1: put him on the shelf, I'm talking about you're going
Speaker 1: across the middle and you have to be that impact player.
Speaker 1: And that other impact player happens to be a safety,
Speaker 1: and that ball is high. He's gonna hit you in
Speaker 1: your rims. And the difference between today's players, that player
Speaker 1: is gonna hit them low, because one they're afraid to
Speaker 1: They're they're afraid they're gonna get the fine. They're afraid
Speaker 1: to go fine. But back in the old days that
Speaker 1: Mike's talking about, you took that hit too. What they
Speaker 1: call you separate the ball and so when you do
Speaker 1: that is when that receiver catches the ball. And depending
Speaker 1: on how that ball is thrown, that ball is thrown
Speaker 1: in the numbers, and he's going across the middle, he
Speaker 1: knows he's about to get hit. That receiver is gonna
Speaker 1: catch him with his body, so that defender has to
Speaker 1: dislodge the person from the ball. And by doing that generally,
Speaker 1: us little div us, you know, we ain't built the
Speaker 1: same way as golden We ain't built that three hundred
Speaker 1: pounds right contact. You know, you you get up. I've
Speaker 1: seen guys get hit and hit so hard that when
Speaker 1: they get up, you can see them still clenched up
Speaker 1: as if they still have the ball, and the ball
Speaker 1: is not there. You know, guys are sleep or whatever
Speaker 1: the case may be. So that old school football, you know,
Speaker 1: and we didn't You didn't want to hurt people. This
Speaker 1: is back again when you could hit somebody as I
Speaker 1: hit Emmett Smith as hard as I ever hit anybody
Speaker 1: on the sideline when he was running on the sidelines,
Speaker 1: and I built up full speed and I dove, and
Speaker 1: I mean I tried to separate his his shoulders from
Speaker 1: his body, and dude hit the ground popped up and
Speaker 1: ran back the huddle lightest way. It's like one of
Speaker 1: those you know, if you were boxing and you gave
Speaker 1: somebody your best punch and they just flints and then
Speaker 1: we came right back at you. But I want to see,
Speaker 1: let me ask you because we asked like older and
Speaker 1: I mean back even further receivers, because I'm glad headshots
Speaker 1: are out of the game, especially defenders that are lunging
Speaker 1: and putting their head down. I mean, that's just that's
Speaker 1: just asking for for trouble. But would you rather get
Speaker 1: because you're right, what's happening now? And if I were
Speaker 1: a d V I'd be doing the same thing. I
Speaker 1: take someone out low. Now, as a receiver, would you
Speaker 1: rather get hit chester up or knees down, chest up?
Speaker 1: That's what every receiver says because they don't want to
Speaker 1: get their knee blown out. That's where every defenders going
Speaker 1: today because they don't want to lose your money maker.
Speaker 1: You get right, I always did this. When I'll crack
Speaker 1: back on the corner, I hit him high. But if
Speaker 1: I didn't respect you, I hit you low. And the
Speaker 1: reason why and I very few guys I ever tried
Speaker 1: to hit low but when you hit a player low,
Speaker 1: you're also letting that play the message that she isn't
Speaker 1: it even is It isn't a different though, Steve, because
Speaker 1: now the defenders are doing that because they know if
Speaker 1: they go chest her up there's a great chance of
Speaker 1: getting the flag and a great chance of getting fine.
Speaker 1: So it's not a necessity they gotta go down low.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying back there, it's it's a fine line
Speaker 1: because here's the problem. You can wrap up a guy.
Speaker 1: You don't have to hit him low. You don't have
Speaker 1: to shoot your shot hit hit a guy low. So
Speaker 1: I believe that that that's a I mean, I've told
Speaker 1: guys like I had an opportunity I think, um it
Speaker 1: was with the Jets one time and we was the Panthers.
Speaker 1: We were playing them, and I had an opportunity to
Speaker 1: peel back on him and I hit him high and
Speaker 1: he kind of looked at man. I said, he bro
Speaker 1: I respect you. I'm not gonna hit you low. And
Speaker 1: he was like, may appreciate that. There is a respect thing,
Speaker 1: because when you do believe when you're when you are
Speaker 1: an impact player. I'm not gonna say superstar impact player
Speaker 1: where you have to account for these individuals on the field,
Speaker 1: and you have that ability to impact the game, and
Speaker 1: that other impact player has the ability to impact the game,
Speaker 1: and you hit me low. Now you are basically saying
Speaker 1: to me and to other guys, you don't respect my
Speaker 1: craft and you're trying to eliminate me to make a living.
Speaker 1: So now what are you basically saying? You don't care
Speaker 1: about my family, you don't care about me. So now
Speaker 1: what is my meter saying I don't care about your
Speaker 1: family and I don't care about you or your career.
Speaker 1: With being on Mike and Mike, you have the opportunity
Speaker 1: because of ESPN. They call it the car wash you
Speaker 1: guys got. You guys have had the opportunity of having
Speaker 1: so many different personality, so many different point of views,
Speaker 1: and then also so many different stars that come through.
Speaker 1: Tell me, you know, obviously me being one of those
Speaker 1: people that had the opportunity to go through the car wash,
Speaker 1: you know, we've got to know each other and to
Speaker 1: some degree, and I and I don't mean this as
Speaker 1: derogatory towards you or you meant it towards me, But
Speaker 1: when I had the opportunity to go through the car washer,
Speaker 1: because of the way I played, and because of at
Speaker 1: times the way I gave off what kind of individual
Speaker 1: I was a lot of times I heard, either from
Speaker 1: Mike or a lot of different people, Oh, you are
Speaker 1: kind of different from what we expect or what we've
Speaker 1: seen from you as a player. Talk about why and
Speaker 1: what you have experiences seeing those guys come through the
Speaker 1: car washer, what you've learned about the persona or the
Speaker 1: or or the mirage of different players have come through
Speaker 1: the car wash of ESPN through Mike and Mike in
Speaker 1: the morning. The the some of the interesting things is
Speaker 1: the best thing you can do, and it sounds and
Speaker 1: you did it was just be who you are. Just
Speaker 1: be yourself, because whenever you get on air, if all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you have to change into a different
Speaker 1: persona and you can't sustain that. If if if the
Speaker 1: mic went on every morning at six am and for
Speaker 1: four hours, five days a week, twenty hours a week,
Speaker 1: I had to go into an act and that would
Speaker 1: have sucked. And you can figure it out really quick.
Speaker 1: So the best thing is just to be yourself. You
Speaker 1: need to get excepted for it or not. And that
Speaker 1: was the one thing, the piece of advice I would
Speaker 1: have For athletes that would come through, I would say,
Speaker 1: don't try too hard. You know the game you're You're
Speaker 1: not gonna get put out. You're not going to get
Speaker 1: thrown to the walls if you're if you're here from
Speaker 1: the NBA and on the car wash, you're gonna talk NBA.
Speaker 1: If you're here for NFL, you're gonna talk NFL. No
Speaker 1: one's gonna try and sideswipe you, make you look bad.
Speaker 1: We're here, we want you to come back, so we're
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna put you in a position to win.
Speaker 1: So just be natural, be who you are, conversational because
Speaker 1: the producers and such will try and every time, every
Speaker 1: now and then will say, okay, when you talk, this
Speaker 1: camera will be on you. You look at that camera
Speaker 1: and I'd be like, don't worry about that ship. Just
Speaker 1: talk to the person that's talking to you. Just have
Speaker 1: the conversation with them, and be yourself because you're gonna
Speaker 1: talk to a lot of different people who talk to
Speaker 1: you in different ways. Just be yourself. Just be conversational.
Speaker 1: Don't try and put on an act for anybody. Don't
Speaker 1: try and get two in depth because you know, while
Speaker 1: a lot of people want to think they know all
Speaker 1: the ins and out to the games. They don't. You
Speaker 1: don't have to dive into unbelievable breakdowns of offense or defense.
Speaker 1: Just do it enough so people understand what you're saying.
Speaker 1: And have fun. Man, if you want to crack a joke,
Speaker 1: crack joke. If you want to laugh a little bit,
Speaker 1: laugh a little bit. But that was really the biggest
Speaker 1: thing I would say, because a lot of times we
Speaker 1: had them first, because our show was in the morning
Speaker 1: before they would move on to the next radio show
Speaker 1: or the next you know, a noon sports center and
Speaker 1: then on to the NFL Live, then out to six
Speaker 1: o'clock Sports center. So we get him first. And that's
Speaker 1: what I would always say. Just do your thing, Just
Speaker 1: be yourself, just be your personality. But I've also had
Speaker 1: guys and they're great players. A great player who shall
Speaker 1: remain nameless, and unfortunately has passed away. He came in
Speaker 1: and I was talking to him before his audition for
Speaker 1: for one of the shows, and he said, Man, just
Speaker 1: tell me how to get through this. I don't really
Speaker 1: want to work too hard. I just want to kind
Speaker 1: of get through it and skate and just you know,
Speaker 1: have this as an easy second way to make some money.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, dude, that ain't gonna happen. I said,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna come here, be specific to a show,
Speaker 1: you gotta put your time in. You know. When I
Speaker 1: first started working NFL Live, you know, I called coaches
Speaker 1: and I called talk to players, you know, and I
Speaker 1: made sure because the one thing Steve and I know,
Speaker 1: as you find out, when you get out of the
Speaker 1: game and you start criticizing guys you just played with,
Speaker 1: and you know, you damn well better be right, because
Speaker 1: I would do that, and then I'd be out on
Speaker 1: the road for Sunday Countdown and a player would come
Speaker 1: up and be pissed at me, and I'd say, what
Speaker 1: did you hear? And of course you'd say, you know,
Speaker 1: my brother's friends, cousin dad heard you say this. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, come on, did you hear me say it?
Speaker 1: What did they hear you say? You know? And they
Speaker 1: would say, and I said, no, I didn't say that.
Speaker 1: This is what I said, you know, because you get
Speaker 1: some sensitive guys out there, so you had to know
Speaker 1: what you were saying. If you were going to criticize him,
Speaker 1: you had to you had to know that or just say, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure the coverage here or I'm not sure
Speaker 1: what the blocking scheme was, but it looks like this
Speaker 1: or it looks like that. But that was the biggest
Speaker 1: thing I think I would would tell the people is man,
Speaker 1: just just do your thing. And the best one of
Speaker 1: all that that I have ever been around. I knew
Speaker 1: him when he was with the Sixers and I was
Speaker 1: with the Eagles. I mean, he's been on my show
Speaker 1: a ton of Charles Park. I mean, you know, Chuck
Speaker 1: being Chuck is about as as as good as you
Speaker 1: can get. And some people like him, some people don't.
Speaker 1: But he's just himself. And I know, Steve, that's something
Speaker 1: that I noticed that you right away as you just
Speaker 1: you're just were yourself, you know, and that's what is
Speaker 1: going to carry some so you don't have to put
Speaker 1: on an act as you move up in the business. Well,
Speaker 1: our last segment here, Mike has called the D three.
Speaker 1: These are three questions that go beyond who you were
Speaker 1: in the football field, who you are and listen, just
Speaker 1: let's just get to know who Mike is. So, Steve,
Speaker 1: Oka are You've achieved so much, you know, being have
Speaker 1: an opportunity not just going on leven on the late
Speaker 1: night shows, eleven times, meeting the President, getting some emmies,
Speaker 1: doing all the stuff for success, getting paid the King's
Speaker 1: ransom to talk about sports. With that, all those achievements,
Speaker 1: and there are there any Moustowes left that you wish
Speaker 1: or still desire to reach. Um, that's a really good question.
Speaker 1: Thank you appreciate. Yeah, I guess. I mean I did
Speaker 1: a couple of years of where we did the extra
Speaker 1: Monday night football game. I would say that, you know,
Speaker 1: but we did that. Do a old easy would be nice,
Speaker 1: you know what I'd like to do, And I did
Speaker 1: it once with I've become good friends with Darius Rucker
Speaker 1: and he lost a bet to me and I actually
Speaker 1: got to sing a song on stage at one of
Speaker 1: his concerts in front of people. Let me tell you
Speaker 1: that I have a few beverages before that one. You
Speaker 1: was right, Yeah, he had to sing, He had to
Speaker 1: sing that, he had to sing the Notre Dame fights
Speaker 1: on him and I sang a song. He said he
Speaker 1: just can't sing any of my songs. I'm like, okay, thanks, Um.
Speaker 1: I love to try and sing. I karaoke a lot.
Speaker 1: I'd like to do that again. I'd like to sing.
Speaker 1: I'd like to and I've gotten to know a few,
Speaker 1: especially of the country guys. I'd like to win another
Speaker 1: bet and singing another concert. I enjoyed that a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was nerve wracking as hell, but man,
Speaker 1: did I like it. So I would like to do
Speaker 1: that again. So did they set you up with the
Speaker 1: earpiece and there? And they told me it was it
Speaker 1: was taken easy by the eagles, is what I sang.
Speaker 1: And it had was one of those um stages where
Speaker 1: it had you could walk out by the fans, but
Speaker 1: right where the crux wasn't and most of it where
Speaker 1: the two speakers. They said, stay between the two speakers.
Speaker 1: If you walk out, you're gonna get the reverb because
Speaker 1: you don't have those in you may be off on
Speaker 1: the song. So I got into it. I'm singing this
Speaker 1: song and I am I mean, I'm about six seven
Speaker 1: drinks in. I am singing the ship out of that song.
Speaker 1: I'm singing the ship out of this song, and I
Speaker 1: am feeling it, you know, But families in the audience,
Speaker 1: I'm like, at no point to him, yeah, singing, They
Speaker 1: told me afterward they all freaked out. They all went
Speaker 1: oh ship, and I walked out and and somehow I
Speaker 1: was fortunate enough to stay stay with the beat. But
Speaker 1: I mean, that was so much fun. I didn't care
Speaker 1: how I sounded. They said it sounded all right, you
Speaker 1: know again, I didn't care. So that was fun and
Speaker 1: I dig that. So that that's the old thing. I
Speaker 1: think athletes want to be entertainers, and entertainers always want
Speaker 1: to be athletes, So that would be something I would
Speaker 1: like to continue to live out is singing. I signed
Speaker 1: up performing with Darius Rooker. What do you think is
Speaker 1: your biggest non sports accomplishment in your life? You know, um, easily.
Speaker 1: To me, it's raising my three kids, you know, with
Speaker 1: my wife. I mean we we had said when we
Speaker 1: started having kids, everything was gonna be about them, um.
Speaker 1: And it was. Even with my my work, I was
Speaker 1: done at ten o'clock every day, so I was I
Speaker 1: was the lunch dad at school. I coached the kids
Speaker 1: in all their little league sports. And I was calling
Speaker 1: college games on the weekend then, and I told the
Speaker 1: ESPN one my oldest which was Mike, got to high school,
Speaker 1: I was gonna stop calling college games because I wanted
Speaker 1: to be around the weekend to see all their games,
Speaker 1: so I was able to coach him in little league,
Speaker 1: hang out at their school. I traveled to every one
Speaker 1: of the Mike and Jake's football games Homer away uh
Speaker 1: in high school and college, everyone of Sydney's national swim
Speaker 1: meets before she got to college, and all her swim meets.
Speaker 1: So um, you know, and I know that makes sound
Speaker 1: sappy and all that, but that was that's how we
Speaker 1: That's what we wanted, you know. We we wanted to
Speaker 1: be in our kids lives and and be there because
Speaker 1: my dad had to work two jobs. And my dad
Speaker 1: still found found time to coach me in all our
Speaker 1: little league stuff, some stuff he couldn't be at because
Speaker 1: he had to work two jobs. I was very fortunate
Speaker 1: in this profession between football and then broadcasting to be
Speaker 1: in a position where I could be there, and I
Speaker 1: was damn well going to be there. So that that's
Speaker 1: probably the biggest thing for me. I know, for me
Speaker 1: and my wife, that we were around a lot for
Speaker 1: our kids as they grew up, and now they're adults
Speaker 1: and so they're funked up. I guess it's not me.
Speaker 1: I love to ruin this from Mike. So the last
Speaker 1: question if you didn't do sports, What do you think
Speaker 1: you'd be doing right now? Boy, that that's a that
Speaker 1: is a million dollar question. I have to think I would.
Speaker 1: I would have used my degree for Notre Dame. I
Speaker 1: mean a lot of people do, and I do think
Speaker 1: and that's one of the things that I learned. Again.
Speaker 1: I got to see Notre Dame from twelve years old
Speaker 1: all the way through my years and then my kids years,
Speaker 1: So I know a lot of what it's about, and
Speaker 1: I know the pipeline and I know the connections that
Speaker 1: you can have. So I would imagine I would have
Speaker 1: been a guy that would have sought out those and
Speaker 1: I would have gone into the business world. I I
Speaker 1: did did well enough in school and what my major
Speaker 1: was where I could have gone into wherever that would
Speaker 1: have taken me. But that's probably what I would have done.
Speaker 1: I would have used a connection to try and get
Speaker 1: a job somewhere and then gone from there, um and
Speaker 1: see where that led me. Where that would have I
Speaker 1: don't know, um, but I certainly wouldn't trade what I
Speaker 1: did for the world, man, that's for sure. Well. We
Speaker 1: appreciate your time, man, It's been great to talk to you.
Speaker 1: Always admire you loved um. You know obviously because of
Speaker 1: our broadcasting. You know, the super Bowl is where the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl usually is where we all get to kind
Speaker 1: of meet and talk to each other. Then there's been
Speaker 1: so many times me and go Li we when I
Speaker 1: started off working with him as a player and then
Speaker 1: I got out. We see each other at different events
Speaker 1: and man, it was man missing you bro missing. We
Speaker 1: got l A. Let's hope we get back next year.
Speaker 1: L A is back to normal. We'll get to see
Speaker 1: everybody again. All right, Well, appreciate it. Thanks for your
Speaker 1: time you got guys. Thanks, 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 Senior, I'm Gerald
Speaker 1: Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to
Speaker 1: It with Steve Smith singing That Is Me is a
Speaker 1: production of Cut to It, LLC, Ball Tool, Creative Media,
Speaker 1: The Black Effect, and I Heart Radio. For more podcast
Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio, Apple
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Speaker 1: from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, SINGR co
Speaker 1: host Gerard Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci,
Speaker 1: Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto
Speaker 1: Creative Media cut To. It is produced by Brian Falka
Speaker 1: Chevitch and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrec
Speaker 1: Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics
Speaker 1: and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. And then we're about to
Speaker 1: let you know it's all