Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm Little John, and this is
Speaker 1: cut to it. Good do it, Good do it. Let's
Speaker 1: get down to do it. Good do it. We asked
Speaker 1: the questions you always want to know, but no one
Speaker 1: ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard about it,
Speaker 1: then we're about to let you. Now it's all. I
Speaker 1: have a special guest of friend, a collaborator, show runner
Speaker 1: of the NFL Networks Emmy A winning original series NFL
Speaker 1: three sixty, Trent Cooper. Welcome to the cut to a podcast.
Speaker 1: Oh I hear the applause. They are artificial appause. Here
Speaker 1: a body of producers. Fantastic, Thank you for the warm welcome.
Speaker 1: Excited to be here, by Well, why are you so
Speaker 1: excited to be here? Gus Man, you said, collaborator, We
Speaker 1: got a big collaboration. Our latest. We've had a few
Speaker 1: good ones. This is our latest. Uh, it might be.
Speaker 1: It might be my favorite piece ever that that NFL
Speaker 1: three sixties ever done. I just giddy about this piece.
Speaker 1: You and you and I got to work together. It's
Speaker 1: coming out today. When this thing airs, which is Tuesday,
Speaker 1: uh April. It's coming out on all platforms, uh and
Speaker 1: it is called NFL three sixty Devin Lloyd and we're
Speaker 1: we're gonna chop it up about that. Huh. So let's
Speaker 1: let's jump right into it. What is the premise in
Speaker 1: and what's the premise of NFL three sixty. Look, NFL
Speaker 1: three sixty is NFL Networks premium storytelling brand. So these
Speaker 1: are the deep, deep stories that are human interest stories
Speaker 1: that happened to be set in the world of football,
Speaker 1: but they they really kind of unpack, uh, some some
Speaker 1: bigger issues and things that that we that we always
Speaker 1: say are bigger than football. And I know that you're
Speaker 1: your show, your podcast is very much in the line
Speaker 1: with that as well. You know you guys are you
Speaker 1: guys are working to kind of figure out who the
Speaker 1: guy is behind the jersey and that's what we do
Speaker 1: or girl or girl or girl or girl. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: we gotta look at both sides of the coin. You
Speaker 1: just can't look at it on the heads. You gotta
Speaker 1: look at the tail, absolutely absolutely, So that's what we do,
Speaker 1: that's what you do. That's why we love working with
Speaker 1: you on NFL three sixty the show, I get to
Speaker 1: brag a little bit. We Uh, we just found out
Speaker 1: last week that we have we are leading the entire
Speaker 1: sports industry and Emmy nominations with twelve. That is more
Speaker 1: than the Olympics, which is hard to do. Uh as
Speaker 1: long as I've been in this business, the Olympics have
Speaker 1: just steamrolled everyone to be able to get more than them.
Speaker 1: As a big deal, We're more than double our primary competitor,
Speaker 1: which is uh, ESPN E sixty. And your producer, Brian
Speaker 1: will say, don't ever mention the name of your competitor
Speaker 1: when you're on. There's a lot of people, not just Brian,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people. I say, you never, So
Speaker 1: why did I do that? I feel ever give you
Speaker 1: never give people free advertisement, right, except that we had
Speaker 1: double the Emmy nominations of that other entity, which makes
Speaker 1: me very proud and happy. Why is why is the
Speaker 1: Emmy winning something that needs to be on the tie
Speaker 1: those of of series or or shows or you know, documentaries.
Speaker 1: What's their importance of that? I think it just I
Speaker 1: think it just kind of helps your your audience understand that, hey,
Speaker 1: this is this is something that that that is that
Speaker 1: people are recognizing and that we need to you know,
Speaker 1: we need to take seriously and we were in for
Speaker 1: something great. You know obviously it's it's uh, it's making
Speaker 1: some noise in the industry and let's let's let's pay
Speaker 1: attention to this is like when you know you'd be
Speaker 1: all pro or or or you'd be um, you know
Speaker 1: all start. You know, just just makes people, you know,
Speaker 1: take notice, which is cool. And honestly, it's really good
Speaker 1: for for morale with our team because you know, his
Speaker 1: team is working eighty hours a week and just killing
Speaker 1: it and for them to get that kind of recognition
Speaker 1: just makes me happy for them and us and you
Speaker 1: and it's just cool. So how how does a so?
Speaker 1: How does it? How does it cooper decide on which story?
Speaker 1: There's an NFL three sixty? But how does something get
Speaker 1: green light? Yeah? How does something to get green land?
Speaker 1: And how do you guys even come up with the
Speaker 1: concepts or thoughts like take us, take us inside, take
Speaker 1: us inside of the mission, you know, the mission statement,
Speaker 1: just the vision board of the NFL three sixty. These
Speaker 1: are the people you have to meet, the stories you
Speaker 1: have to hear. These are the stories that are bigger
Speaker 1: than football. And the standard is really really high for
Speaker 1: what gets green light for a couple of reasons, we
Speaker 1: don't do that many of them, right, I mean, how
Speaker 1: many times have you called me and said, Hey, I
Speaker 1: got an idea, let's do something, and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: we would truly answer that or lie a couple I
Speaker 1: remember you called me. You call me like four in
Speaker 1: the morning, and Steve, do you realize I live in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, US. You're calling me at four in the
Speaker 1: morning with an idea. I wouldn't wear that. I was
Speaker 1: on the West Coast. I'm sorry, Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: was on the East Coast. I forgot. But I love this.
Speaker 1: I love this question because it it's at the heart
Speaker 1: of everything we do. Right. So, the standards really high,
Speaker 1: and we have a team. It's a small team, eight
Speaker 1: to ten people who are working on you know, wearing
Speaker 1: different hats and working in different capacities. But everyone is
Speaker 1: responsible for development, which means that you constantly have to
Speaker 1: be looking for our next big story. And it could
Speaker 1: be something that was that we found a year ago,
Speaker 1: it could be something we found last night. There's pitch
Speaker 1: meetings weekly. Sometimes a production assistant who was a year
Speaker 1: out of college uh, it gets hot and sells three
Speaker 1: pitches in a row. When I say sell that I'm
Speaker 1: making any money. But these things get green light, and
Speaker 1: it's a really proud moment when somebody brings us an
Speaker 1: idea to get three let Uh. Sometimes an agent brings
Speaker 1: us something. Sometimes it's just something that that I've seen
Speaker 1: or you know, the my boss, the guy that Headstar Department,
Speaker 1: Dallas Hitchcock, is you know, stuff that he's seen or heard.
Speaker 1: So they come from everywhere. Um and this one. Uh
Speaker 1: So basically, you know, once a year is the NFL
Speaker 1: Draft and that is just an awesome time of year
Speaker 1: for us because we love our NFL Draft special Uh.
Speaker 1: We love finding what we you know, we take a
Speaker 1: lot of pride in finding what we think is the
Speaker 1: best story in this year's draft, the best story. That's
Speaker 1: the story that everybody should be standing around their water
Speaker 1: cooler talking about. We found it, and we we want
Speaker 1: to believe that we told it in a way that
Speaker 1: no one else I would think to tell it. So
Speaker 1: the artistry and craft and how we tell stories is
Speaker 1: a big deal to us, but finding that story is great.
Speaker 1: So so this particular one came to me from our
Speaker 1: writing consultant. Uh and and my my good buddy who's
Speaker 1: worked with us forever. His name is Phil Guidry, and
Speaker 1: he pitched it a couple of months ago and we
Speaker 1: liked it and he kept pitching. Finally just kind of
Speaker 1: hit me, yeah, pitched you how many how many times? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, we're in season, so we're busy doing other
Speaker 1: but we're also hearing draft pitches. So you know, he
Speaker 1: probably pitched it six weeks before and we we we
Speaker 1: we we said, oh, that's a great one. Put it on.
Speaker 1: Put it over here for a minute because we're focused
Speaker 1: on the Super Bowl and Black History Month and all that.
Speaker 1: But we know when it's draft time, we're gonna that
Speaker 1: that's gonna be one we love. So so he probably
Speaker 1: pitched it right around the time Utah was was winning
Speaker 1: the Pack Throwel Championship, and um, he saw it first
Speaker 1: and brought it to our attention. And so we're gonna
Speaker 1: tell your audience what this pitch is now so they
Speaker 1: can they can have some context here trying to get there.
Speaker 1: But you know that's all right. You want you want
Speaker 1: me to drive this bus, so you want to drive
Speaker 1: you know what. I'm just honored to be here. Maybe
Speaker 1: I'll just im I'll say last say lest my night,
Speaker 1: senior old say lest Yes, yes, listen, I I love
Speaker 1: this role that we have right now because you've directed me,
Speaker 1: you've produced me, you've angled me, you've made you the
Speaker 1: man that you are today. That's that would be my
Speaker 1: mom and daddy, my mom and daddy my wife. After
Speaker 1: after those, there's track Cooper. Okay, you almost can put
Speaker 1: us in the same sentence. But but I'll take the
Speaker 1: second and sence. Listen, you could bring a horse to water,
Speaker 1: but you can't make him drink, Okay, but you damn
Speaker 1: sure sure can put some salt in his mouth and
Speaker 1: make them pretty thirsty. This is role reversal. Today. You
Speaker 1: get to three sixty, you have all the team, the
Speaker 1: eight to ten, and they're constantly pitching concepts ideas given
Speaker 1: a text textual understanding of these young men come that
Speaker 1: are going to be drafted, and you know, there's what
Speaker 1: three something guys, there's gonna be thirty five the forty
Speaker 1: guys drafted here in draft because of all of the
Speaker 1: madness of the NFL, and we have a top ten
Speaker 1: draft pick who's coming out of a school that generally
Speaker 1: there's not necessarily always have this caliber of player. Devin Lloyd,
Speaker 1: linebacker from the University of Utah, my school. He's going
Speaker 1: to save that your school part for the end of
Speaker 1: the pitch because that's what made it. That was the
Speaker 1: cherry on top for us. But let's should we get
Speaker 1: into what the pitch is. Absolutely, let's get into the pitch,
Speaker 1: all right. So here's Devin Lloyd. He after his junior season,
Speaker 1: which is COVID year. After his junior season, he could
Speaker 1: have come out in the NFL Draft probably, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people thought he would have been a
Speaker 1: first rounder, might have been a second rounder. He was
Speaker 1: a top prospect in that on that on those draft boards.
Speaker 1: And he makes a decision to go back and uh
Speaker 1: and play his senior year, and and that gets everyone's attention.
Speaker 1: But the the why behind that decision is what's really
Speaker 1: what's driving this pitch, and that is that they had uh.
Speaker 1: You know, this is a school that has has never
Speaker 1: won a Pack twelfth championship before. He wanted to win,
Speaker 1: helped lead that team and have that experience with and
Speaker 1: for his brothers. But the bigger part of that story
Speaker 1: is that they had tragically lost. They're superstar freshman running
Speaker 1: back Tied Jordan's who in a COVID shortened season, had
Speaker 1: lit the college football world on fire and had shown
Speaker 1: the world that holy cow, Utah has a dude playing
Speaker 1: running back, that this could be a Heisman candidate. This
Speaker 1: guy has he has it all and and on top
Speaker 1: of that hell of a kid freshman and he's a
Speaker 1: hell of a kid with the biggest smile you had
Speaker 1: ever seen, and just is transforming this this this program.
Speaker 1: That kid is tragically killed Christmas night of six days
Speaker 1: after their last game of the season. That oh, by
Speaker 1: the way, he had succored three touchdowns and led a
Speaker 1: thirty h point come back, the most electrifying game of
Speaker 1: the year. So so this kid is tragically killed. It
Speaker 1: was a accidental discharge of a firearm. It was an accident.
Speaker 1: Uh you know, somehow he shot himself and and he dies,
Speaker 1: and it devastates the Utah football program, particularly the leaders
Speaker 1: of that program, the entire community. And you I was
Speaker 1: an alumni. I was, you know, it was the middle
Speaker 1: of COVID, so I was I was working from home,
Speaker 1: uh in my makeshift studio at the house on air
Speaker 1: doing a pre show and uh, all Wartsy says, check
Speaker 1: your phone. And usually on you know, he usually doesn't
Speaker 1: tell me to check my phone, he says. Producer, He says,
Speaker 1: check your phone. I don't, I don't, I don't. I
Speaker 1: know you haven't seen it. So just check your phone
Speaker 1: and and behold text message from the a D. Text
Speaker 1: message from uh Jeff Rudy, text message from from my
Speaker 1: son Peyton. It's true that you can't believe it. Oh no, um.
Speaker 1: And so we had a break and I called some
Speaker 1: people and they said, it's true, uh kid that everybody
Speaker 1: loves that kind of represents hope for the entire organization
Speaker 1: has been killed. And now our guy, Devin Lloyd, the
Speaker 1: All World linebacker, decides he's going to come back for
Speaker 1: his senior season and and they want to win a
Speaker 1: championship and they want to do it in honor of
Speaker 1: thy Jordan's. So that's the first leg of the story.
Speaker 1: Now that that alone is probably enough to get this
Speaker 1: thing Greenland, because that's killing. I mean, come on, I mean,
Speaker 1: this is what leadership is, right, be selfless and go
Speaker 1: go uh go, try to do something bigger than yourself
Speaker 1: with your brothers, for something bigger than all of us.
Speaker 1: It's one of those stories that people make movies out
Speaker 1: of that that hadn't really happened. You know, he didn't
Speaker 1: really sacrifice that. And the caveatough to Devin Lloyd coming
Speaker 1: back is I spoke to some scouts heading into I
Speaker 1: spoke to some scouts a couple of weeks ago, and
Speaker 1: I asked what was Devin Lloyd's prospect as a junior.
Speaker 1: He said, he's pretty good. I said, well, why is
Speaker 1: he a top ten today compared to what he was
Speaker 1: a year ago? They said, because everything that Devin what
Speaker 1: we call is a weakness, right, his lack of ability
Speaker 1: to share, blocks, his his his his ability to recognize
Speaker 1: things defensively fast enough. They said, everything that was a
Speaker 1: weakness that was on his his scouting report coming out
Speaker 1: if you came out, he actually worked on every single
Speaker 1: one of those and turn him into positives. No mastered
Speaker 1: his craft. Mm hmm. He mastered his craft, which made him,
Speaker 1: which makes us we make which makes this story even
Speaker 1: sweeters for a kid who was a unfinished product, he
Speaker 1: actually went back and start chiseling and working on himself
Speaker 1: through all through all the things that possibly probably people
Speaker 1: would say, why should you work on it? You know,
Speaker 1: you got your team just lost one of your superstars,
Speaker 1: young kids. The best time, the end is now, and
Speaker 1: instead he took the He took the road let's traveled.
Speaker 1: You have a decision to make at the end of
Speaker 1: your junior year to declare for the draft. I had
Speaker 1: just passed away, and deep down in my heart, I
Speaker 1: just felt like staying for another year and accomplishing everything
Speaker 1: that I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to come back
Speaker 1: and help them win that championship. We've never won a
Speaker 1: Pack twelve championship. He didn't come back to better his
Speaker 1: draft status. He came back to twin and Pack twelve championship.
Speaker 1: You know, he talked to the guys that he was
Speaker 1: gonna go to war Withood. He liked, dude, this is
Speaker 1: my plan. I'm coming back because I want to do this,
Speaker 1: this and this. I want to win. And he wanted
Speaker 1: to win that Pack twelve. Right, So consider what we
Speaker 1: what we've just pitched. Act one a three acts story.
Speaker 1: Act two is the start of the season, which was
Speaker 1: is the last college football season. Um, you know, yep,
Speaker 1: six months ago, six months ago. Uh. They they have
Speaker 1: one of the things they're doing to honor Ty Jordan's
Speaker 1: they have a first ever Thy Jordan Memorial scholarship at
Speaker 1: the school. University is funding and the team and the
Speaker 1: leadership of the team get to vote on who would
Speaker 1: who would be the the winner of that scholarship, and
Speaker 1: they pick a kid named Aaron Lowe. Aaron Lowe happens
Speaker 1: to be from thy Jordan's hometown. They played high school
Speaker 1: football together. But more importantly, he embodies everything Ty Jordan's embodied,
Speaker 1: which is is this this ridict work ethic, this competitive
Speaker 1: fire burning desired to compete and win. And then on
Speaker 1: top of all that, he has that same larger than
Speaker 1: life smile that lights up the locker room. You know,
Speaker 1: the reason Ty came no Utah was because of air.
Speaker 1: Because Aaron, Aaron's a year two older. Yes, he was
Speaker 1: making a big brother figure to Tie. So Aaron gets
Speaker 1: this scholarship and it just feels right right, and everybody,
Speaker 1: of course Aaron gets this. And and one of the
Speaker 1: things Aaron does to kind of honor Tie and to
Speaker 1: just you know, set this thing in motion is he
Speaker 1: changes his number to twenty two, which is the number
Speaker 1: that that Taie war So now he's wearing Ties number.
Speaker 1: He's got the scholarship, Uh, you know, the let's get
Speaker 1: back to football, right. So so they have a big
Speaker 1: win in week four of the season and uh, and
Speaker 1: some guys are celebrating the big win. They're going into
Speaker 1: a bye weeks and you know in college, you know
Speaker 1: you go to a little house party. Crazy. Let's set
Speaker 1: the stage though, because I think it is something that
Speaker 1: we've missed. Ties last game is again to Washington State,
Speaker 1: and this was the game. He scored three touchdowns, they
Speaker 1: came back from seven halftime deficit, had thirty eight unanswered points,
Speaker 1: most of them were his, and they finished the season
Speaker 1: on this incredible high. So here we are a year later,
Speaker 1: also playing wash quh wazoo. What we're gonna call it
Speaker 1: this time they blow him out. They blow out washed
Speaker 1: doors off of the Devin Lloyd's on fire of that game. Um.
Speaker 1: By the way, he had a ridiculous senior year. Like
Speaker 1: they said, he didn't have a bad game. He just
Speaker 1: every day, week after week. So some kids go to
Speaker 1: a house party and uh, something happens. It ship gets
Speaker 1: out of control and Aaron Lowe is shot and killed.
Speaker 1: So now the kid that embodies the spirit of Thy Jordan,
Speaker 1: it's wearing his number. That that literally runs onto the
Speaker 1: field each game, rock and a flag and ties number
Speaker 1: to honor Tie has now also been killed in a
Speaker 1: matter of how many months, nine months later, I mean
Speaker 1: tim months later. You're talking about two guys, two guys
Speaker 1: from the same neighborhood, at the same school, trying to
Speaker 1: do the same things, both tragically die by gunfire. So now, Steve,
Speaker 1: you've probably got another text, right, got another text. And
Speaker 1: it's crazy because in his Texas you won't even believe it, y,
Speaker 1: I mean I it's hard to even talked about. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't I didn't go through it. But it's just you
Speaker 1: know this, these kids represent hope and and it's bad.
Speaker 1: It's horrific to lose one, then to lose two. And
Speaker 1: you know you, I love you in the piece and
Speaker 1: by the way, this is you know you guys can
Speaker 1: see this piece today. You can go to NFL dot
Speaker 1: com forward slash NFL three sixty. You can see it
Speaker 1: right there. You can see it on TV tonight on
Speaker 1: on NFL three CC. But but Steve talks to the
Speaker 1: head coach, UH Kyle Whittingham, and and Kyle says, you know,
Speaker 1: we were so devastated that we thought are we going
Speaker 1: to cancel the season, Like, how do we how much
Speaker 1: more can we put our kids through? Can you imagine that?
Speaker 1: Can you actually canceling a college football season halfway through
Speaker 1: because the kids are so devastated and heartbroke? Yeah? I can't.
Speaker 1: I can. And here's why. The reason I can everything
Speaker 1: that we've went through in the last couple of years
Speaker 1: just as a society. Right. And and here's the part
Speaker 1: that you know we didn't get into on the NFL
Speaker 1: three sixties just because of time. If you go back chronologically,
Speaker 1: this is this Pack twelve decided they weren't gonna play.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you had kids like ty Aaron oh Devin
Speaker 1: Lloyd who they're going into their junior year and they're
Speaker 1: told come to school. Then they told, well, we won't
Speaker 1: go to school. Uh, come to school. Well they're canceling school.
Speaker 1: So you have families and and I know this because
Speaker 1: just having ties to the school. I remember talking to
Speaker 1: them when they were talking to UM officials at the
Speaker 1: University of Utah, and they were saying they literally had
Speaker 1: kids that their parents just came to drop them off
Speaker 1: and they were told that they got to come back
Speaker 1: and pick them up. And the school had to help
Speaker 1: some of these young men and women because a lot
Speaker 1: of these young men and women, their parents spent a
Speaker 1: lot of money that they didn't have getting them to college.
Speaker 1: And now you got to pack them up. And then
Speaker 1: they come back in in November and they have to test,
Speaker 1: They have to have fourteen days of isolation in the
Speaker 1: in the in the hotels. Then they come back and play.
Speaker 1: They lose the player right after that, Jordan's passes. Now,
Speaker 1: these young men who, let's be honest, as as as fans,
Speaker 1: we don't really look at them as human beings. We
Speaker 1: look at them as our superheroes, and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden are superheroes. Now there's a chink in their armor.
Speaker 1: They're human, They're they're not even human. They really are
Speaker 1: what they are, which are young men who are trying
Speaker 1: to figure out life. And in this case, you know
Speaker 1: you want to go behind the jersey. These are young
Speaker 1: men that light up the locker room. These are the
Speaker 1: two guys you can't lose. These are the guys with
Speaker 1: that that that that bring the love and the hope
Speaker 1: and the joy and the smile and they just make
Speaker 1: everything better. The joy makers in football, there's energy takers, yes,
Speaker 1: and full ball. There's tone setters, but you rarely hear
Speaker 1: about it. Joy center and tie and air we're joy centers. Man,
Speaker 1: that's different when you're talking about football. That's usually not
Speaker 1: words to associated football players. Right, you know you've got
Speaker 1: your ship talkers. Never heard almost one of them is
Speaker 1: on the call with me. But no, man, Joy listen.
Speaker 1: Energy giver not energy taker. Joy is that's what we
Speaker 1: need right now, especially in that year. And to lose
Speaker 1: both of those guys, it's just ridiculous. And so here's
Speaker 1: a here's a program that was as devastated as as
Speaker 1: any has ever been. And there was a turning point. Uh.
Speaker 1: Aaron Lowe's mother, just a day or two after the death,
Speaker 1: made her way from Texas to Utah and she spoke
Speaker 1: to the team he loved. I don't know. That woman
Speaker 1: is strong. She came in and she just told us
Speaker 1: to keep on going. That's what Aaron would have wanted.
Speaker 1: You know. That sort of gave Devin Lloyd and the
Speaker 1: other leaders of the team, because there's a great leadership
Speaker 1: group there wasn't just Devan, but the other captains and
Speaker 1: the team permission to to to kind of put this
Speaker 1: in a place where that they that they could could
Speaker 1: move forward. I mean, the coach says, we're never gonna
Speaker 1: get over this, but we're gonna try to get through it.
Speaker 1: And they basically used this as fuel and they went
Speaker 1: on a run, a historic run where they just whipped
Speaker 1: ass and and destroyed the Pack twelve, and they made
Speaker 1: it all the way through UH and end up winning
Speaker 1: that Pactrol Championship playing a team that you generally don't
Speaker 1: beat twice in a row, Oregon, who's kind of had
Speaker 1: their number. Oh yeah, I mean two years a couple
Speaker 1: of years before that, we needed to beat Oregon to
Speaker 1: get into um the college playoffs in and you know, hey,
Speaker 1: he's in the league now, justin Herbert. So it wasn't
Speaker 1: like it was just right, it's pretty good right out.
Speaker 1: He's all right right, doing pretty darn good. So that
Speaker 1: listen that That is as clean a pitch as I've
Speaker 1: ever heard for NFL three six. I mean, you hear
Speaker 1: that if you gave that pit and we just gave
Speaker 1: the twenty minute version, but if you gave the nine
Speaker 1: version and an elevator, you'd see somebody's face light up
Speaker 1: and they go, when's that coming out? I love cut
Speaker 1: to it. And I love it even more when you
Speaker 1: download us and subscribe, and you can follow us on
Speaker 1: social media too, Smithy where where at? That's at? Cut
Speaker 1: to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At? Cut to
Speaker 1: It Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr? What
Speaker 1: about online? And you can follow us at cut to
Speaker 1: It podcast dot com where you can buy merch and
Speaker 1: you can subscribe to this wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: I got all my answers questions. Um, yeah, I got
Speaker 1: all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother,
Speaker 1: cut to a podcast dot Com. So here's the here's
Speaker 1: the kicker, and I'm happy to give away some of this,
Speaker 1: but you have to watch this, like, I'm so proud
Speaker 1: of the way our team put this together and it
Speaker 1: just goosebump city and I have to shout out you
Speaker 1: taught football? Yes you do, so you taught football. Is
Speaker 1: not only Steve's alma mater, but they are are producing
Speaker 1: partners on this, so they you know, they were there
Speaker 1: the whole time filming as this was happening. So they
Speaker 1: very generously gave us access to their footage and then
Speaker 1: when we came to town, they open doors for us
Speaker 1: I'm tiny man. I've been doing this a while. I've
Speaker 1: never been treated like this by by a university like
Speaker 1: they just made sure we had everything we needed to
Speaker 1: tell the best story we've ever told. And part of
Speaker 1: all of that is because of your relationship with them
Speaker 1: and the respect they have for you. And I just
Speaker 1: want to thank you for that, because you you trusted
Speaker 1: me with your relationship and they trusted you, and it's
Speaker 1: just it's just a cool thing that happened. But huge
Speaker 1: props to them. There's a lady there named Maddie Ford
Speaker 1: who put her heart and soul into filming this you had.
Speaker 1: They have their own docs series all the twenty two
Speaker 1: forever that you can see on YouTube YouTube that very
Speaker 1: much supports what we've done. But anyway, so, uh, here's
Speaker 1: the kicker. If if that pitch wasn't an off. You
Speaker 1: know our boy Devin Lloyd, who goes to places that
Speaker 1: you know emotionally that you can't imagine. He leads, Uh,
Speaker 1: he dominates. They get what they need to get done
Speaker 1: in honor of Tie and Err and he's right at
Speaker 1: the heart of it. M v P of of the
Speaker 1: Pack twelve Championship Game and the Defensen blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: every award you can get, all American. So now it's
Speaker 1: time to go to the NFL. Right, and and you
Speaker 1: finish your college season, and a couple of months later
Speaker 1: you gotta go to the NFL combin and and and
Speaker 1: at the combine, you you don't get to pick your number.
Speaker 1: It's not that kind of thing. They just they start
Speaker 1: pulling numbers out of a box based on probably alphabetical
Speaker 1: or something, and they hand him a number for him
Speaker 1: for the combine, and and what's the number? Two? Baby two?
Speaker 1: So all of a sudden, the tech start lightening up.
Speaker 1: You're never gonna believe this. They did Devon's rocking the
Speaker 1: twenty two, which is the same number. Tie War stand
Speaker 1: over Aaron War and dude, if you go to a
Speaker 1: Utah game, two is at the absolute center of everything
Speaker 1: they do. Now. It is their heart, soul brand. They
Speaker 1: have a motto of mantra called better. They want more effort,
Speaker 1: more love, more passion and every single thing they do.
Speaker 1: And it's not just the team, the entire university, the
Speaker 1: entire city has bought into it. It is a movement
Speaker 1: and for that too, organically mystically, divinely inspired whatever you
Speaker 1: wanna call it for that for Devon to have that
Speaker 1: number is just goose Bump City. And that's your third act.
Speaker 1: So that's our story. Um, you gotta see it, you
Speaker 1: gotta feel it, you've got to experience it. And Steve,
Speaker 1: you know, the cherry on top for us is that
Speaker 1: holy ship. This is Steve Smith's alma mater. This is
Speaker 1: personal to Steve. He knows this better than any of us.
Speaker 1: He went through it in his own way, and it
Speaker 1: was just a joy for us to be able to
Speaker 1: get you to lead this story, to go back and
Speaker 1: be the correspondent that drives the narrative, that does all
Speaker 1: the interviews, uh, and that helps us shape the story.
Speaker 1: And I gotta tell you my favorite piece of that
Speaker 1: is your contribution to the overall theme and the visuals
Speaker 1: of it. You said to me on the phone, just
Speaker 1: so much to talk about. I love this ship. This
Speaker 1: is why I love podcast because you could just Yeah,
Speaker 1: I couldn't wait to call you. I couldn't wait to
Speaker 1: call you on a Saturday morning saying hey man, we
Speaker 1: want to do this and we want to do it
Speaker 1: with you because we hadn't talked yet and it was
Speaker 1: really early on a Saturday, and I remember texting you
Speaker 1: and I wrote this long ass text and I almost
Speaker 1: hit sin and I was like, I'm just gonna call him.
Speaker 1: He always calls me early. I'm just gonna call him.
Speaker 1: I was up and and and so I erased the text.
Speaker 1: I hit call instead, and you answer the phone saying
Speaker 1: what do you got for me? I know it's got
Speaker 1: to be good if you're calling me this early. And
Speaker 1: I was like, dude, I think this is the best
Speaker 1: story in college football, and it is uniquely yours to tell.
Speaker 1: No one else in the world can tell it. And
Speaker 1: when he was when you were telling me this, I
Speaker 1: am walking around the house right as you're telling because
Speaker 1: you're You're like you're telling me, and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: Like I'm sitting there, like because I just finished working out,
Speaker 1: so I still have my still have my pre workout.
Speaker 1: I still have my pre workout going in my veins,
Speaker 1: so I'm like, my my my skins still tingling. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, okay, shoot, all right, let's go. So
Speaker 1: he's pitching me, telling me all this stuff, right, He's
Speaker 1: telling me all this stuff. So now I have to
Speaker 1: tell the story on my end because you don't know
Speaker 1: what's going on at the house. My wife is like,
Speaker 1: what are y'all who? First of all, she else, who
Speaker 1: are you talking to? It's a little bit of profanity, right,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I'm just out of love, and I'm
Speaker 1: like okay. So I'm walking around and I'm like, right
Speaker 1: and something. I'm I'm lathering up, like I can go
Speaker 1: work out again. And as he's telling me, you know,
Speaker 1: he's kind of filling me out and trying to get
Speaker 1: me hey, you only you can do this, I'm like okay.
Speaker 1: And so he just trenches, goes and goes and goes,
Speaker 1: and I love it. And I said, okay, you you're
Speaker 1: ready for me now? Yeah. He goes, well, what do
Speaker 1: you have? I said, well, if we do it, first
Speaker 1: of all, I'm only gonna wear Utah stuff. So let's
Speaker 1: just get that out the way, right. We have a
Speaker 1: long history of me telling you what what I want
Speaker 1: you to wear, yes, he does. We have a long history, well,
Speaker 1: a long history of trick telling you know, don't wear
Speaker 1: the hat, No, you can't do this. And I'm like okay, right,
Speaker 1: and so he's like, I said, first of all, I'm
Speaker 1: wearing all Utah stuff. So let's get that out of
Speaker 1: the way right now. Are you cool with it? That's right,
Speaker 1: let's rock the you yeah, and then he goes. I said, however,
Speaker 1: it all must be on the campus. I don't know, Trip.
Speaker 1: When we get off the phone, I will call Utah
Speaker 1: and I'll get this ready. Now. I would give Trent credit.
Speaker 1: Trent has been doing this a long time. Trent, how
Speaker 1: long have you been in the game of doing production
Speaker 1: like this? I've been messing around for twenty eight years? Okay,
Speaker 1: twenty eight years. How twenty eight years. Let's just let's
Speaker 1: round it up. Let's go thirty in thirty years. It's
Speaker 1: not that much. Sorry, making myself older than in twenty
Speaker 1: five years? And you should edit that out and make
Speaker 1: it fourteen years. The young man's business? How many? How
Speaker 1: how many times have you listened to talent over promise
Speaker 1: and significantly under deliver? Be honest, Um, it does happen.
Speaker 1: You know what it is? Man? Is is like a
Speaker 1: lot of people, UH feel burned and they don't want
Speaker 1: to they don't want to use their because all of
Speaker 1: you guys have this incredible influence because you know, you
Speaker 1: were who you were in the league. You have the status,
Speaker 1: you have the relationships, and a lot of times it's
Speaker 1: the opposite. You guys use your influence to make stuff happen,
Speaker 1: and then you on the other side, the other guys
Speaker 1: don't deliver, and you feel like, well, I'm never doing
Speaker 1: that again. But you and I have like this trust.
Speaker 1: You know, you know, if you vouch for me, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna deliver, and if I vouched for you. I learned
Speaker 1: that very I learned that quickly. Yeah, so we're you know,
Speaker 1: we we have that. But and so we he said.
Speaker 1: I said, all right, so what do you need? I say, okay,
Speaker 1: and then I start remember I started producing, Hey, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have We're gonna have mountains, right, He's like, And
Speaker 1: then I'm trying to get off the phone as big
Speaker 1: as before. You start laying out to many ideas that
Speaker 1: I gotta deal with. Yes, He's like, well, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: they got a great mounds of schools right here. You know,
Speaker 1: let's do this, I said, but hold on, it has
Speaker 1: to all be filmed on the campus. Well, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: I think you know, we'll work it out. When I
Speaker 1: and I told you, I told him, I told Trimp.
Speaker 1: When we get off the phone, I'm gonna call you
Speaker 1: VERSU of Utah. I'm actually gonna call the A D
Speaker 1: and we're gonna make this happen. Trey has that Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean I figured you'd call him it's Saturday morning
Speaker 1: at seven am, or we really call him this guy
Speaker 1: at seven am. So then I got a at Taxed
Speaker 1: at seven ten am that says are you available for
Speaker 1: a zoom in fifteen minutes? I'm like, what time is on?
Speaker 1: Are you at? This is a Saturday. So I jump
Speaker 1: on this zoom and I figured it would be Steve
Speaker 1: and one of his buddies from Utah. There were nine
Speaker 1: people on this zoom. There's like a D, the president
Speaker 1: of the school, and they had a football and I'm like,
Speaker 1: are you guys, is this like some board meeting that
Speaker 1: you're normally having? Just had me jump on it to
Speaker 1: steal an agenda item. This is all for us because
Speaker 1: on a Saturday morning, because one of the things that
Speaker 1: we do do at the University of Utah, and this
Speaker 1: is bragging on my school. It is not a destination place.
Speaker 1: University of us Tall is a place where they developed
Speaker 1: they enhanced teach technique because it's cold, right, is Mountainee
Speaker 1: High elevation. And when you think of Utah, you don't
Speaker 1: think of football. They don't have a perfect They only
Speaker 1: have a h a basketball team. They you know, the
Speaker 1: last great basketball team it had a had a mailman
Speaker 1: in it, right, John Stockton called Malone, Brian Russell. It
Speaker 1: did not have You know, when you think about football,
Speaker 1: you don't think about the University of Utah. And so,
Speaker 1: by the way you are now, you are now and
Speaker 1: so and so when it was an outstanding season, Devin
Speaker 1: Lloyd gets m v P PAC twelve Player Defensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Game Pact twelve Championship after a hundred All
Speaker 1: Americans and also goes down to Los Angeles and not
Speaker 1: and for the first time trent a hundred and five trips,
Speaker 1: we finally win at the Coliseum. And so it's with
Speaker 1: this opportunity to whoop up on usc U c l
Speaker 1: A Wazoo, let's leets messed around and beat Oregon twice.
Speaker 1: Tw Molly, we would like to use the word molly
Speaker 1: wap on the West Coast. Yeah, I got a new
Speaker 1: favorite team. Man, I'm in We're going out there and
Speaker 1: sold me and I just said, I said, true, you
Speaker 1: just got to make sure you follow through. We'll follow
Speaker 1: through on our end. Get on a zoom call and
Speaker 1: it was outstanding. Yeah, and so try you when did
Speaker 1: you go out there? When when did you fly out
Speaker 1: to really start doing it? Well? So I know you guys.
Speaker 1: One of the cool things about this is we can
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about process because people love to
Speaker 1: hear how things are made. So there's yeah, there's the pitch,
Speaker 1: and then there's the thing that to multiple things are
Speaker 1: happening simultaneously as we prepare for a shoot. So we're
Speaker 1: there's just logistics out of Lazoo, figuring out how to
Speaker 1: get who where, what are we doing, where are we
Speaker 1: doing at locations? All that crap that's born. Then there's
Speaker 1: all these interviews. Who are we going to talk to
Speaker 1: to tell the story and what the heck are we
Speaker 1: gonna ask? So you and I have this process where
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey man, I want to stop if you're
Speaker 1: thing and you know you asked the questions, but I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna give you sample questions. You're gonna give me
Speaker 1: a sample question you can make your own. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you, it's never the truth with Trip when it
Speaker 1: comes to writing the questions everything's bullshit. I'm working you, twin,
Speaker 1: I'm working you right now for the next piece of
Speaker 1: good do it, good it. Let's get down to do
Speaker 1: it good. Hey Gerard, why did you get that T shirt?
Speaker 1: You mean this thing? Oh yes, I got it from
Speaker 1: cut to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise.
Speaker 1: Shout out to our guys at seven or four shot.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you can go on by with T shirts
Speaker 1: subscribed to us wherever you listen to podcasts. One of
Speaker 1: the things that sets us, sets us apart is our
Speaker 1: visual storytelling. I mean this in my own um inflated,
Speaker 1: but it's the truth. Is the truth because I hate
Speaker 1: to use the word, but it's the devil is in
Speaker 1: the details and and the details that NFL three sixty
Speaker 1: uses and does is they allow the stories and the
Speaker 1: visuals and images to tell the story on top of
Speaker 1: the people and the storyline. Like you never are your
Speaker 1: mind and your heart. In NFL three sixty, I believe
Speaker 1: is never resting. There's never a low period because even
Speaker 1: if they're someone is not speaking, yeah, there is a
Speaker 1: vision that's showing you what we're trying to get across. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: listen your piece on Darren Waller. I gotta just detour
Speaker 1: for a second here. If anybody hasn't seen that piece yet,
Speaker 1: this is a piece that Steve did a year and
Speaker 1: a half ago. It was actually two years ago. Well yeah,
Speaker 1: but okay, fine, So it was it was shot a
Speaker 1: while like it was shot before COVID and then it
Speaker 1: you know, we did more shooting. We released that was
Speaker 1: nominated for an Emmy last year. Didn't win. I can't
Speaker 1: believe it didn't that. It's so good. That's why, because
Speaker 1: we beat ourselves because they knew was gonna be up
Speaker 1: in them. They didn't. They were trying to hold me back. Man.
Speaker 1: So Steve, Steve does this piece with one of our producers,
Speaker 1: Julian Gooden, and it is so well done on Darren Waller,
Speaker 1: and it is so revealing and so personal. I've never
Speaker 1: seen a sports feature cut that deep. And that's that
Speaker 1: kind of goes. This is me propping you up a
Speaker 1: little bit. So put your ear muffs on. But like
Speaker 1: when Steve talks to an NFL player, it's different. It's
Speaker 1: just different than when a regular correspondent does, or a
Speaker 1: producer like me, Like they the level of respect they
Speaker 1: have for you based on who you are what you
Speaker 1: did in that league and the fire in your heart
Speaker 1: and the level of passion that you played, and you said, listen,
Speaker 1: I'm four ft tall, but I'm gonna whoop everybody's ass.
Speaker 1: And you watch these players, it's just different. Man. When
Speaker 1: you talk to them, they just the level of respect
Speaker 1: they have. It's like truth ser so. But here's the
Speaker 1: difference though that I think I have to I appreciate
Speaker 1: the credit, but I also have to get know. I
Speaker 1: called you four ft tall and you didn't say that's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Did you not hear that we're editing that out. No,
Speaker 1: you're keeping his name. You talk about the respect that
Speaker 1: people have for me. I think the respect they have
Speaker 1: for me is because also quietly, I'm just I'm I
Speaker 1: have I'm damaged goods just like to I think that's
Speaker 1: one of the biggest That's one of the coolest things
Speaker 1: that I have to do, but is giving me an
Speaker 1: opportunity to sit with these men, these young men, and
Speaker 1: we just get to talk about who we are and
Speaker 1: what we've been through. When I look back at this
Speaker 1: piece on Devin Lloyd and what happened surrounding the Utah
Speaker 1: football program, like your your contribute your performance in this.
Speaker 1: Your contribution in it is very tender. It is not
Speaker 1: it's not the Steve that we see on Thursday Night football.
Speaker 1: This you actually let this, You let these guys tell
Speaker 1: the story without sort of inserting yourself into it. In it,
Speaker 1: you kind of checked your ego at the door and
Speaker 1: just let let this unfold in the most tender, understated way.
Speaker 1: It was. It's really lovely to watch you in this.
Speaker 1: P I just think it's I think he killed it
Speaker 1: and in a very unexpected tone. And can I tell
Speaker 1: you why? Very very happy with it. Can I tell
Speaker 1: you why? And I'm I'm getting emotional thinking about it
Speaker 1: that I never told you. The only reason I went
Speaker 1: to University of Utah there was a guy named Demetrius Posy.
Speaker 1: The year before Fred Grays recruited him at Santa Monica
Speaker 1: Community College. And when they were recruiting Demetrius, that's how
Speaker 1: they saw me. Demetrius commits to the University of Utah.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately he did not make it there because he didn't
Speaker 1: get his grace together. I follow my big brother to
Speaker 1: University of Utah the same way, except he never gets
Speaker 1: his grace together, so he does it actually make it
Speaker 1: to the University of Utah. I go on to get
Speaker 1: drafted by the Carolina Panthers. In my second year. I
Speaker 1: get a phone call from at the time Robert Taylor
Speaker 1: Rested soul our head coach who had been there since
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven until he passed two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1: From Robert Taylor. He calls me and says, Demetrius dies
Speaker 1: m on his way driving from San Diego to l
Speaker 1: A fell asleep at the will, crashing past. The only
Speaker 1: reason I was going to the reversal of Utah, well,
Speaker 1: other than the option free college, is I was following
Speaker 1: my big brother, a guy who took me under the
Speaker 1: his wings. And if he wouldn't have got that opportunity,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have got my opportunity. And so for me,
Speaker 1: you know, it was very much understood. And sometimes we
Speaker 1: only get places because of other other people, right, which
Speaker 1: is at the heart of this man. Todd Jordan is
Speaker 1: not at Utah if it isn't for Aaron and same
Speaker 1: thing and for those guys to to be lost. And
Speaker 1: then you know, we think about Devin, what if he
Speaker 1: didn't come back, What what does happen to this team?
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. I mean, you know, he
Speaker 1: Devin didn't do it all. It's a team. You know,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't make this piece by myself. It's
Speaker 1: my it's you, it's my my boy. Johnny Oh, the
Speaker 1: editor who's amazing, has done all of our our big
Speaker 1: pieces the last few years. It's the kid that shot
Speaker 1: this thing. I would say he's fifteen years old. He's
Speaker 1: probably twenty five now, but he's might be the best
Speaker 1: photographer in our business. His name is Dakota Deal. So
Speaker 1: so look like team, team, team, right, So so here
Speaker 1: it's not just Devin, it's all those team captains, all
Speaker 1: those kids. But what if Devin doesn't come back, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean that dude was the heart and
Speaker 1: soul of what happened in that locker room and in
Speaker 1: that in that season. And people need leaders, man, people
Speaker 1: need leaders And I think, if that's my takeaway from
Speaker 1: this piece, you know, I dig humble leadership. That's that's
Speaker 1: a I learned that term from when we worked on
Speaker 1: the Pat Tilman project. They said when they when when
Speaker 1: they're looking for kids for for Tillman Scholarship, they're looking
Speaker 1: for humble leaders And that was pretty cool. What's a
Speaker 1: humble because you think leader is the guy that's yelling
Speaker 1: and screaming and all that. Man, humble leadership is what
Speaker 1: Pat Tillman was. Uh and that to me, that's what
Speaker 1: Devin Lloyd is. And Uh. I love to find those stories,
Speaker 1: find those people and then shine a light on it
Speaker 1: because we need more dudes like that. And Devin is
Speaker 1: a great kid. We're excited about his you know, Thursday night,
Speaker 1: he's gonna go call it early and let this dude
Speaker 1: transform a locker room. Let him let him go, you know,
Speaker 1: mess around and have a fifteen year career. I mean,
Speaker 1: he is a he is a special kid, and I'm
Speaker 1: excited about you know, his ability to carry on this
Speaker 1: legacy of tie and air and it's going to follow
Speaker 1: him into the NFL. It's gonna follow him forever. And um,
Speaker 1: he didn't ask for that, but it's happened, man. And
Speaker 1: hopefully it does a couple of nice things for for
Speaker 1: the school too, because it's about time to school gets
Speaker 1: a little uh, a little more recognition and notoriety. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a great piece. It's the emotional piece, super emotional.
Speaker 1: We've done some emotional pieces. This is right at the
Speaker 1: top of the list. You're gonna cry, You're gonna get
Speaker 1: goosey um. But yeah, I did a great job, and
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you doing it and the trust, and
Speaker 1: you know, I look forward to doing whatever we're gonna
Speaker 1: do next year. I'll find another one. As crazy as
Speaker 1: you say, trust, I was gonna tell you I appreciate
Speaker 1: you trust in me. Cool. Well, that's earned my man.
Speaker 1: For the first time, I told you can't wear that
Speaker 1: hat flipped up. Remember so our our first job five
Speaker 1: years ago, Steve's first ever feature. We went to uh Foxborough,
Speaker 1: the home of home of the New England Patriots. Interview.
Speaker 1: You're interviewing this Brandon Brandon Brandon Cooks who just from
Speaker 1: Oregon State. He did not go to Oregon. And Steve
Speaker 1: is fresh off the boat and he says to me, Hey, listen, man,
Speaker 1: I want to get really good at features, and I'm
Speaker 1: used to being coached up. Just you know, tell me
Speaker 1: what I need. Don't don't beat around the bush. Just
Speaker 1: you need to give me it. Give me some tough love,
Speaker 1: tell me I can handle it. And I said, okay, great,
Speaker 1: you can't wear that hat the hat the way it's
Speaker 1: flipped up. You look like an idiot. You said that exactly.
Speaker 1: You look like an idiot. You look like an idiot.
Speaker 1: And you said, I'm gonna wear the hat. You told me,
Speaker 1: you told me to tell you want to be coached up,
Speaker 1: your tough love, tough love, don't wear the hat, used
Speaker 1: to Trent all due respect, this is my thing. I'm
Speaker 1: wearing the hat, alright, fine, And I'm on the phone
Speaker 1: with my boss. I'm like, it's difficult, man, It's just difficult.
Speaker 1: I told him not to wear the hat. Wearing the hat.
Speaker 1: So we get home and people start looking at the
Speaker 1: footage and there's just like this this ground swell around
Speaker 1: NFL network going Steve Smith is rocking his hat. Whose
Speaker 1: idea was it for Steve Smith to wear that hat?
Speaker 1: I'm like, that was my I was like, I'm like, Steve,
Speaker 1: you need a thing. It's like your it could be
Speaker 1: your thing, right, I need a thing. Let's Paul, is
Speaker 1: it right there? You want to know the best thing
Speaker 1: about what you just said. You never heard your story,
Speaker 1: did you? When they when they that was war that
Speaker 1: was in my deal, not in my deal. Like it
Speaker 1: was in my deal. I said, if I'm not wearing
Speaker 1: a suit, I'm wearing a hat, but when I'm wearing
Speaker 1: a suit, don't worry about it. I will I will
Speaker 1: not wear a hat, but if it's not a suit,
Speaker 1: don't ask me, don't request. I am wearing the hat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: nobody showed me your contract. So what did they do
Speaker 1: after I signed? I get back to Charlotte. We're excited,
Speaker 1: they say. The NFL network says, hey, we don't have
Speaker 1: a problem with you wearing hats, but just k you
Speaker 1: wear an NFL shield hat. I said, send him. They said, okay,
Speaker 1: I have every color with the NFL shield hat, but
Speaker 1: in this piece, you're rocking the Utah hat. But the thing,
Speaker 1: it's not the hat, it's the flipped up bill that
Speaker 1: I was, you know, my you know, because I have
Speaker 1: no style. I was. I was going, I don't know
Speaker 1: about that flipped up bill, And suddenly the flipped up
Speaker 1: bill is the coolest thing in sports. I've been wearing
Speaker 1: this flipped up bill since like oh six. I go
Speaker 1: back and look at I actually went back and looked
Speaker 1: at pictures. I used to outwear the visor with it
Speaker 1: backwards flipped up. I wore it upside down, was flipped up.
Speaker 1: I always had to flipped up hat, and so several
Speaker 1: people have said, man, will you just lose the hat?
Speaker 1: And I looked at him square now like I looked
Speaker 1: at you. Nope, no, smile hard, no, no, you would
Speaker 1: have fought me over that. We would It would have
Speaker 1: come down the blows. I don't know, because I didn't
Speaker 1: think it was really a blow worthy. It's not blowworth.
Speaker 1: I didn't think we needed to fight over my hat
Speaker 1: since technically it was my hat. All right, let's do
Speaker 1: some selling, man, I'm always selling. Where can we see
Speaker 1: this feature? Man? We can see this tonight? Is it tonight?
Speaker 1: We can see this feature at nine eastern tonight, NFL
Speaker 1: three sixty on NFL dot Com, No, NFL network. Let's
Speaker 1: watch it on TV. You can watch you can watch
Speaker 1: it on TV at nine o'clock NFL network. But wait
Speaker 1: a minute, podcast or forever. So what if they're watching
Speaker 1: this pilot? You know what's the date? It's It's April
Speaker 1: is April twenty six, nine pm eastern, NFL three sixty
Speaker 1: on NFL network. If you're listening to this later, it's
Speaker 1: NFL dot com, slash, NFL three six, NFL YouTube, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Twitter. It's everywhere anywhere you consume NFL network digitally,
Speaker 1: we got you cover. How about Melissa's arc who hosts
Speaker 1: his who hosts NFL three six. He does an amazing job.
Speaker 1: She's back on the sidelines for Sunday Night Football, and
Speaker 1: that's the day that's the biggest show in sports. They
Speaker 1: pull a huge audience. And what does she say. She says,
Speaker 1: I'm only coming back if I can still do NFL
Speaker 1: three six. So she's still jamming with us and doing
Speaker 1: Sunday Night Football. That's a that's pretty cool. That's that's
Speaker 1: part of the Steve Smith school of don't forget where
Speaker 1: you came from. You although she came from she came
Speaker 1: from Monday night Football, John Man. So I can't really
Speaker 1: use the Steve Smith don't forget where he came from
Speaker 1: philosophy on it. I can tell you she's awesome. Three
Speaker 1: sixty three NFL three six. He does a hell of
Speaker 1: a job, and just telling the stories of graphics not
Speaker 1: doing everything, not not oversaturated in the market with everything
Speaker 1: every week, doing it where you just just give them
Speaker 1: a little bit of taste of great quality and then
Speaker 1: down the back and give them thirty forty more days
Speaker 1: to think about what's the next we're gonna look like
Speaker 1: right part of that because our budgets so small, we
Speaker 1: were doing more. We had a bigger Now I'm kidding.
Speaker 1: I like it too, man, It's it's a good Listen.
Speaker 1: Nothing gets watered down when when you start trying to
Speaker 1: do too much and too many, it's not special in it,
Speaker 1: and you start to lower your standards. You start to
Speaker 1: lower your standards because you're just you're just looking for
Speaker 1: any story in every story. But when you when you
Speaker 1: you're mass produced and stuff. Yeah, when you don't mass reduced,
Speaker 1: you get to like this. You get to put it aside,
Speaker 1: stew on it and go it is it worth it?
Speaker 1: And how do we make it graphically? Textually? How do
Speaker 1: we make it worth it? How do we make people
Speaker 1: sit here? And let's be honest, people are sitting down
Speaker 1: watching television anymore, so you have to really make too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you, and I appreciate the school, and uh,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to share this with people. So thanks,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me on, and we'll give you a
Speaker 1: little little behind the scenes to send this audience off with.
Speaker 1: This thing is recorded Friday before the Tuesday it comes out,
Speaker 1: and we're not done with the piece yet, So I
Speaker 1: got I got an edit base. He's still you guys
Speaker 1: are still up. They've sent me two different edits. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know what, we got one percent better in
Speaker 1: the last thirty six hours. And this is this is
Speaker 1: why I make my living off the last one percent.
Speaker 1: Where do you see the last one? Well on Tuesday
Speaker 1: when I watch it, and you better be better. M Eastern.
Speaker 1: Don't be messing up the time zone and people are
Speaker 1: gonna flip on and then they're going to be watching
Speaker 1: the rerun of the Bucks Rams game. Yeah, we don't
Speaker 1: want to I PM Eastern Tuesday. Well appreciate it. Yes, man,
Speaker 1: thanks you. Let's do this again. Absolutely. You are a
Speaker 1: unique person. You are well worth it. You are competent
Speaker 1: and most of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singior,
Speaker 1: I'm Gerard Little John and this is cut to It.
Speaker 1: Cut to It with Steve Smith singor That Is Me
Speaker 1: is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto 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 app,
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 and booking manager Joe Fusci.
Speaker 1: Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto
Speaker 1: Creative Me You Cut Too. It is produced by Brian
Speaker 1: Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek,
Speaker 1: Production coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics
Speaker 1: and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it,
Speaker 1: then we're about to let you know. It's all