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. That's
Speaker 1: just scooch on over, scooch. I'm glad to be back
Speaker 1: in the studio today. I gotta get some stuff off
Speaker 1: my chest. Right. Um, So we were the other day.
Speaker 1: We were at a cover right, a little fat fast
Speaker 1: casual dining right, social distancing. Um in her dining room
Speaker 1: or the dining room is not allowed to be open.
Speaker 1: So men you we were at the office. So we
Speaker 1: scampered across the street, not jaywalking. Okay, yeah, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to die this. Yeah. So we go
Speaker 1: and order our food, grab our food, and until we're
Speaker 1: standing there and we're getting some stuff and h wonderful
Speaker 1: young lady was making a food. We already grabbed our
Speaker 1: food and she headed out. No, we were paid for
Speaker 1: we were getting something else because they forgot something, and
Speaker 1: the great cashiers was like, hey, you forgot something. So
Speaker 1: it was cool. Then we're going and she she didn't
Speaker 1: make our food. But then she notices it was me,
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Sr. And she goes, hey, Steve loud yeah,
Speaker 1: And then I had a look. I had a look
Speaker 1: because it was she was just so loud she was,
Speaker 1: And it wasn't a lot of people in there, but
Speaker 1: it was more than it was, including the staff. It
Speaker 1: was so I love the one benefit or if there's
Speaker 1: anything good out of this covid um this virus issue
Speaker 1: is Man, some sunglasses I had in the face mask.
Speaker 1: I'm all over. You didn't, man, But I can't breathe
Speaker 1: too hard because they'll fall to my glasses and I
Speaker 1: can't see the w into a door anyway. Um, so
Speaker 1: she yells, and so I had to look like, why
Speaker 1: are you yelling my name? And she goes, oh, you
Speaker 1: don't want to be bothered? Can I just rent that
Speaker 1: this is your per It's not that I don't like
Speaker 1: to be bothered one, it's where are we when you
Speaker 1: are bothering me too? Yelling my name in the middle
Speaker 1: of a store. And now everybody looks at me, right like,
Speaker 1: I'm not yelling. Imagine if I was the cashier and
Speaker 1: you you, you went to use your debit card and
Speaker 1: in the debit card it is declined. Is it okay
Speaker 1: for me to go decline debit card declined car? No,
Speaker 1: you don't want that, right then I'll be super rude
Speaker 1: and putting their business industry. Yes, so just stop yelling.
Speaker 1: That's like a pet peever mind like that and the
Speaker 1: other pet peeves. Gentlemen, when you're in the restroom, don't
Speaker 1: try to adapt. Nobody up or just have random conversation
Speaker 1: right that. That Now that one's mine too, I'll admit
Speaker 1: that's a pet peever. Mill like if we're in the bathroom, like,
Speaker 1: that's not really the that's not the time to talk that.
Speaker 1: I want to have conversation, right like, I just want
Speaker 1: to handle my business. Move forward? No, no, stop, don't
Speaker 1: move forward. Wash your hands then move forward. Well, I
Speaker 1: got I gotta leave, but yeah, move forward. I just
Speaker 1: don't want to. I'm just make you're sure you wash
Speaker 1: your hands. My hygiene isn't what's in question. We're just
Speaker 1: talking about how it was because you look like you
Speaker 1: don't wash your hands. Why are you profiling? See that's
Speaker 1: the problem. After this rant? Who is our guests? Our
Speaker 1: guest today is Malcolm Jenkins. He's in his tenth year
Speaker 1: in the NFL. He's a three time pro bowler. He's
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl winner with two different teams, the Saints
Speaker 1: and the Eagles, and he's just made a return back
Speaker 1: to the New Orleans Saints. I think what's most impressive
Speaker 1: is he is a contributor now to CNN. He's also
Speaker 1: the founder of the Player's Coalition and the Malcolm Jenkins Foundation.
Speaker 1: Let's cut to it right now. You're about to get
Speaker 1: ice It's our version of ice breakers, and so we
Speaker 1: have a series of questions. They may or may not
Speaker 1: have follow up. It just depends on how we feel
Speaker 1: and how you answer and how you answer. Absolutely, Fox
Speaker 1: and Friends or CNN actually obligated. So you're going to
Speaker 1: the movies? Do you grab popcorn or candy? I grab popcorn?
Speaker 1: Why is that? I usually do? Like I get like
Speaker 1: a drinking in popcorn. It's just like you know candy
Speaker 1: too much? Man, you gotta you gotta touch it every time.
Speaker 1: You'd be dropping it as dark you can't see when
Speaker 1: you get that large popcorn you can just grab and go. Okay,
Speaker 1: summer or winter. I'm going in December, man, and I
Speaker 1: do not like being hot, so I like the winter
Speaker 1: time better December again, me too, Me too, sad, sagittarious, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we go. See. I don't care about y'all, Sagittarius. I
Speaker 1: have no idea what it means. I know none of
Speaker 1: That's why I said that exactly. You get out of here,
Speaker 1: all right? If I go to your web browser history,
Speaker 1: what would I find? That's that's the dangerous that's like
Speaker 1: the most thing you asked somebody is the web browser.
Speaker 1: I might delete my stuff, right, I'm all right, So
Speaker 1: you go to Snap, You're going to You're going in
Speaker 1: the pantry right now. You you I want to say
Speaker 1: you're hungry, but you're just like, I'm bored. What my
Speaker 1: go to is gonna be tostitos, hint of lin my
Speaker 1: that's my goal to I eat them all day every day.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna surprise you. That's what I like. Some hint
Speaker 1: of lion tortilla chips as well. Malcolm. Yeah, man, look
Speaker 1: at you. You're on the light skiing train. I like,
Speaker 1: do you either? Do you eat a with saucer or
Speaker 1: just dry? Was the media savage? I know he was sauso. No,
Speaker 1: I actually don't bro some saucer right now. I used
Speaker 1: to be on this saucer with um avocado. I looked
Speaker 1: at ingredients. Man, some of that stuff in there kill you,
Speaker 1: all right, madam? So I man, you just really appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Coming on, We want to talk about the person inside
Speaker 1: to Jersey. We want to go through just chronologically of
Speaker 1: who Malcolm Jenkins is. And we did a little research
Speaker 1: on you. All right, I know the answer, but I
Speaker 1: have to ask, as if I don't know the answer,
Speaker 1: where did you grow up? So I was. I was
Speaker 1: born in uh East Starns, New Jersey's right next to
Speaker 1: Nork uh and I lived there for until I was
Speaker 1: probably in the third grade, and then I moved to
Speaker 1: uh Piscataway, New Jersey, which is actually where my dad's from,
Speaker 1: maybe like forty five minutes away. But my whole family
Speaker 1: uh is still in Jersey. The majority of them are
Speaker 1: in North and East. How would your mom or dad
Speaker 1: describe young Malcolm as a kid growing up in East Orange,
Speaker 1: New Jersey? Uh? They say I was a good kid,
Speaker 1: Like they laughed. They you know, I'm the oldest and
Speaker 1: three boys and so uh, and I got plenty of cousins.
Speaker 1: You know, we we got a lot of us in
Speaker 1: my generation of the family. But I was a good kid.
Speaker 1: But you could as as you can imagine with all
Speaker 1: of these boys, you know, we get in trouble a lot.
Speaker 1: But they would say I was the smart one who
Speaker 1: knew how to not to get a whoopan so everybody else,
Speaker 1: you know, your kids don't know how to stop having fun,
Speaker 1: Like right before you get to that point where you
Speaker 1: you're about to get the attention to your parents. I'll
Speaker 1: be the one. I'll be right right and locks that
Speaker 1: with everybody until I'm like, ah, y'all get a little
Speaker 1: too loud and I sit down. By time the adults
Speaker 1: come in the room, I'm the only one, you know,
Speaker 1: chilling and everybody else going crazy. They get a woman
Speaker 1: and I'll just be laughing. I was a smart one.
Speaker 1: For show. You had three generation of of Jenkins in
Speaker 1: the same household growing up. YEA, what was that time?
Speaker 1: So that's pretty cool, like break that down for us. Yeah, so, uh, Piscattaway,
Speaker 1: New Jersey. Uh, you know, my grandmother owned the house
Speaker 1: that my dad grew up in and so you know,
Speaker 1: he went to North Carolina and t when he got out,
Speaker 1: him and my mom met there. We lived in you know,
Speaker 1: up in North Jersey, so East Tharn's, North Irbanton. We
Speaker 1: bounced around a little bit, but once we got back
Speaker 1: to Scataway, we moved back into that to that house.
Speaker 1: So my grandmother was still living there. Um and my
Speaker 1: my uncle, so they were downstairs, and then upstairs was me,
Speaker 1: my two brothers and then my parents. So you really
Speaker 1: had you know, three generations between my grandfather, my grandmother, Uh,
Speaker 1: my father and you know, his sons till to my
Speaker 1: grandmother retired and she moved to Virginia, sold the house
Speaker 1: to my to my dad because she didn't given no discounts,
Speaker 1: and then, uh, they're still there. You went to a
Speaker 1: all black elementary school from pre king till about third grade.
Speaker 1: I didn't I really didn't realize how different my experience
Speaker 1: was until recently as an adult, like as people have
Speaker 1: been kind of having these conversations about you know, when
Speaker 1: did they kind of notice that they were black? And
Speaker 1: for me, when I started schools called Chad School, uh
Speaker 1: in North New Jersey, my aunt was actually one of
Speaker 1: the first She was in the inaugle kind of the
Speaker 1: first class of that school, and all of the teachers,
Speaker 1: majority of students were black. And it's a private school,
Speaker 1: and so because it was private, they you know, you
Speaker 1: get hit with a ruler. Uh you know, everybody. You
Speaker 1: we had to address each other and our teachers as
Speaker 1: uh sister and brother. We someng lift every voice. Every
Speaker 1: single day. Every Friday was we had a play. You know,
Speaker 1: one of the classes would do a black history kind
Speaker 1: of uh play and tell different stories throughout history every
Speaker 1: single Friday. And you had pre k all the way
Speaker 1: in the twelfth grade. And so it really created a
Speaker 1: sense of community and pride in your blackness, your heritage,
Speaker 1: your history. And then once I got to the third grade,
Speaker 1: I moved to Proscattawat and went to public school. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't until then that I realized, you know how different,
Speaker 1: you know though the curriculum was of the traditions and
Speaker 1: and you know, really kind of the blackness was nowhere
Speaker 1: to really to be found. What it did prepare me though,
Speaker 1: was when I was in those environments, I was very
Speaker 1: very comfortable with who I was, my heritage and my
Speaker 1: family and all those things where I think it's been
Speaker 1: when I talked to people, it's been like the opposite.
Speaker 1: You know, they didn't really recognize, you know, they had
Speaker 1: to learn later in life, like how to be proud
Speaker 1: about who they were because they saw immediately when they
Speaker 1: went to school that they were different. Um. And I've
Speaker 1: had a different experience, and so like it's one thing
Speaker 1: I've been talking to about a lot recently because we
Speaker 1: need more of those types of spaces where you know,
Speaker 1: you know, not to jump off on a tangent, but
Speaker 1: I'm talking to a lot of black educators and less.
Speaker 1: I think it's like two percent of all educators are
Speaker 1: black men. And so to go, you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of us will go through preschool all the way to
Speaker 1: high school and not have a black man at the
Speaker 1: front of in your classroom. Yeah. And what that does
Speaker 1: is like you you never see yourself and that as
Speaker 1: a teacher, You never see yourself as a leader. You
Speaker 1: can you can go your whole you know time through
Speaker 1: school and never have a black principle. Um. And so
Speaker 1: you don't have these examples that are in front of
Speaker 1: you that tells you you can be a leader, that
Speaker 1: you're smart, that you can teach that you can, you know,
Speaker 1: do all of these things and you see white people
Speaker 1: in those spots, and for white kids, they never see
Speaker 1: a black person in those spots either, And so without
Speaker 1: being you know, overt or anything, these are kind of
Speaker 1: the messages that kids take in. And you know, like
Speaker 1: I said, I didn't even really notice the difference until
Speaker 1: you know, much later as an adult when I'm talking
Speaker 1: to people with different backgrounds. But there's it's no coincidence
Speaker 1: that I still have a lot of friends that went
Speaker 1: to Chad School with me. Uh and we're all very
Speaker 1: like minded when it comes to you know, what we're with.
Speaker 1: Our business interests are, what what we are fighting for,
Speaker 1: how we raise our kids are pride and kind of
Speaker 1: our heritage. And it's no surprise that it started, you know,
Speaker 1: at such a young age. I mean, I can as
Speaker 1: you were talking, Malcolm, I'm I'm thinking back and I
Speaker 1: didn't have a black male teacher until I was in
Speaker 1: the eighth grade and he was our defensive backs coach
Speaker 1: and that was that was literally it. So it's it's
Speaker 1: one thing to hear the statistic, it's another thing to
Speaker 1: see it in your life. And it's almost as if
Speaker 1: a lot of those things were planted in you as
Speaker 1: a child, where to be from your family or being
Speaker 1: at that school. Why do you think that was important
Speaker 1: to you? Why do you think it's played a part
Speaker 1: into who you are today? Well, I think my parents
Speaker 1: were very intentional you know about it, And they never
Speaker 1: really taught me or at least I couldn't really remember
Speaker 1: any you know, real specific lessons about being black, but
Speaker 1: they definitely created an environment in which always, like I
Speaker 1: felt comfortable in it and always was around it and
Speaker 1: learning things. But also my dad did a really good
Speaker 1: job of, um, exposing me to other cultures as well.
Speaker 1: Um you know, we we go visit my grandmother and
Speaker 1: Virginia and we stopped at different places, historical markers, and
Speaker 1: you talk about the battle Gettysburg and all these different things, um,
Speaker 1: you know. And as a kid sometimes these lessons you
Speaker 1: they're boring and you don't think you understand them until
Speaker 1: you become an adult and and all of these things,
Speaker 1: you know, are just ingrained in who you are. And
Speaker 1: so I think for me now as a as a parent,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to you know, replicate some of those same
Speaker 1: lessons that that my parents, um, you know, taught me,
Speaker 1: and and not just about again you know, your own
Speaker 1: blackness and their heritage and history, but others as well.
Speaker 1: I also understand that those lessons were I would never
Speaker 1: talk to those lessons outside of Chad School in my home.
Speaker 1: And so, yeah, I don't want my kids, you know,
Speaker 1: to go through these school systems and never learn about
Speaker 1: their own history and never learned about uh, you know,
Speaker 1: their their heritage, where they come from, what they've been through,
Speaker 1: who they are as you know, as people, and who
Speaker 1: they who, what their what their lineage is, what they're
Speaker 1: cut from. Because I know that the world's not gonna
Speaker 1: tell them, so I think it's it's important, you know,
Speaker 1: for me, that's it becomes really important. And I also
Speaker 1: believe that it's important for all of us to understand
Speaker 1: it because I know if I'm not getting it, that
Speaker 1: means also my white counterpart, my teammates whoever, they didn't
Speaker 1: get it either. And so it's no surprise where we
Speaker 1: are right now is a country where we're having to
Speaker 1: have these you know, really basic conversations about American history
Speaker 1: and how we got to where we are because we
Speaker 1: just haven't even learned half of you know, the history. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's such a gap in the in the system. Huge
Speaker 1: game as you go through your experiences as at Chad
Speaker 1: School as a private black school. I, in the other hand,
Speaker 1: grew up in Los Angeles, and I remember I'm going
Speaker 1: to kindergarten in Los Angeles Unified School District and walking
Speaker 1: to school and in the first grade, they bust us
Speaker 1: out growing up in l A and knowing and seeing
Speaker 1: the pictures of l A. You know, traffic is a blank, right,
Speaker 1: It's a beast. So they sent us out to the valley.
Speaker 1: So at the time when they sent us out the valley,
Speaker 1: I was living on seventy nine in Avalon, which is
Speaker 1: literally across the street from like from Freemont High School.
Speaker 1: And how I got my passion football was on Friday
Speaker 1: nights when we stayed in our apartments. That was like Fridays.
Speaker 1: I loved it because I got to watch football and
Speaker 1: I got to eat a TV dinner, right, and being
Speaker 1: poor TV dinner, you know, like the treat that's a treat,
Speaker 1: and you didn't eat everything. My mom put that TV
Speaker 1: dinner on a bucket, and on that bucket I would
Speaker 1: watch them playball. And I always dreamed a plot about
Speaker 1: playing ball But what was crazy is, as you were talking, Malcolm,
Speaker 1: I remember us getting bust two I'm using air quotes
Speaker 1: because nobody can see me to the high school mm hmm.
Speaker 1: And it was and I hate to say this way,
Speaker 1: but it was a yellow bus full of people of
Speaker 1: color and we go out to this school. And I
Speaker 1: don't know why I remember this. It was this girl
Speaker 1: name Elizabeth that I thought was really cute, but she
Speaker 1: didn't want no parts of me, right. But the fact
Speaker 1: of the matter is, I just remember in the first grade,
Speaker 1: as Michael was talking, we got busted and we spent
Speaker 1: like an hour on the bus each way to go
Speaker 1: to school. And we did that for the school year,
Speaker 1: and then next year Mama was like, Nah, that ain't happening.
Speaker 1: You're going back to the school that you was going
Speaker 1: on because she had to literally I would get out
Speaker 1: of school. You know, you gotta school to fifteen. Man,
Speaker 1: we weren't getting back home to like four or five o'clock.
Speaker 1: And I just remember that. I hate to say this way,
Speaker 1: but what were they doing. They were getting us out
Speaker 1: of the hood to get a better education in the valley. Now,
Speaker 1: as an adult, I look at it. You don't need
Speaker 1: to bust us to give us a better education. Just
Speaker 1: give us better education, to us, bring it to not
Speaker 1: even bring it to us, Bring it to that area.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. Bring it, bring it to where
Speaker 1: the people are. And and it's just interesting that you
Speaker 1: say that. And that's why I use the word disadvantage
Speaker 1: because all the years that we played against each other,
Speaker 1: Now doing this podcast, I get the I get the
Speaker 1: honest honestly, I get to learn the individuals. And it's
Speaker 1: really cool to learn the individuals because you get to
Speaker 1: see the layers of them versus in football, you're just
Speaker 1: playing ball. You're going at each other, you're cursing, you're
Speaker 1: spitting your you're in the heat of battle. You don't
Speaker 1: have time. I want to break bread and just to conversate,
Speaker 1: to dialogue. And so this is really giving me a
Speaker 1: great perspective of Malcolm Jenkings, because I don't I didn't
Speaker 1: really have this perspective when I'm running a whatever route,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get and see you and your coverage
Speaker 1: and we're not discussing. Hey man, you know I want
Speaker 1: to I went to all black private school Bay Bang.
Speaker 1: Let me you know, he ain't exactly top of mind
Speaker 1: right right now, it's not not not quite the priority
Speaker 1: of that. We have to take a break and the
Speaker 1: morning a thing. We gotta pay some bill. You got checks.
Speaker 1: You went to high school just to kind of move
Speaker 1: it along. But you went to high school, you played
Speaker 1: D D and wide receiver. How did you pick playing
Speaker 1: dB versus wide receiver? I think, Uh, it had to
Speaker 1: be my junior year I had I think I had
Speaker 1: seven touchdowns on offense, but I had like five drops
Speaker 1: that could have been touchdowns. But I had eight picks.
Speaker 1: So for whatever reason, I could catch them all on defense,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't catch it on offense. So I think
Speaker 1: real quick I was at dB. But uh, the way
Speaker 1: I got my scholarship as well was after my This
Speaker 1: had to be. Yeah, after my junior season, we my
Speaker 1: aunt moved to Westerville, Ohio, and my mom wanted to
Speaker 1: go visit her sister. So for two weeks we went
Speaker 1: up there and my parents paid to put me, uh
Speaker 1: and my brother at Ohio States football camp that they
Speaker 1: do every year. Now, at the time, I didn't realize
Speaker 1: that recruits don't pay to go to these camps. Uh,
Speaker 1: And obviously I was not a recruit. So my parents
Speaker 1: paid the full four hours or whatever it was for
Speaker 1: each of us to stay on campus for four days.
Speaker 1: And at that camp I registered to be you know,
Speaker 1: a corner. And one of the days they were doing
Speaker 1: one on ones, and uh, you know, I started in
Speaker 1: kind of the line. They had like four or five
Speaker 1: different lines. I started in one where the receivers are
Speaker 1: kind of scrubs, and I down locked everybody up in
Speaker 1: that line, and I moved to the next one, did
Speaker 1: the same thing, the same thing, and I noticed that
Speaker 1: like all the way the end of the field, there
Speaker 1: was one particular line where all of the coaches were
Speaker 1: at Jim Trust. It was over there, and mel Tucker
Speaker 1: was the decordinator at the time. He was there a
Speaker 1: couple of other people. So eventually I made myself to
Speaker 1: that line, and I realized, like, okay, these receivers are different,
Speaker 1: you know, these and I had I didn't even know
Speaker 1: who they were. I didn't recognize him from the count,
Speaker 1: but these were all of their recruits and guys that
Speaker 1: were actually coming in on a scholarship from all over Ohio.
Speaker 1: And so I just you know, I jumped in line.
Speaker 1: I'm competing. You know, if if a DBS acted nervous
Speaker 1: to go against somebody else. I cut him in line.
Speaker 1: I go to three times in a row, and eventually
Speaker 1: melt Tucker just pulled me to the side and he's like,
Speaker 1: you know, like who are you with your name? You know,
Speaker 1: He's giving me little techniques and I'm applying him and
Speaker 1: I'm just competing, competing with people. He took me into
Speaker 1: the back room, he said, uh, he turns on so
Speaker 1: he tries to find my tape and he's like, you
Speaker 1: might be the best corner in the in the country.
Speaker 1: And at that point, I was a one star, you know,
Speaker 1: recruit my rivals profiles trash and so he kind of
Speaker 1: caught me off guard when he said that. But you know,
Speaker 1: we kept talking, watching some take and he gave me
Speaker 1: some some tips and uh we left. I spent the
Speaker 1: rest of you know, a couple of weeks in Ohio.
Speaker 1: When I got back, I had a scholarship and so
Speaker 1: for me, that was when I was like, Okay, dv
Speaker 1: is this is clearly you know with my focus is
Speaker 1: gonna be. You mentioned that you were lightly recruited, and
Speaker 1: you know your your rivals profile wasn't what you wanted
Speaker 1: to be, but you end up finishing your career at
Speaker 1: Ohio State, three time first team All Big Ten, you
Speaker 1: won the Gym Thorpe Award for being the best dB.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you this question and make it
Speaker 1: a little bit more timely to right to right now.
Speaker 1: What do you think about the challenges that college students
Speaker 1: student athletes are gonna face today given COVID nineteen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think, you know, everybody's trying to adjust
Speaker 1: and I think you know, for one, it's it's just
Speaker 1: the safety of even dealing with the virus um. You know,
Speaker 1: that's that is so many unknowns, especially at college athletes.
Speaker 1: You know, they're bringing they're bringing them back early just
Speaker 1: to do workouts, and you're getting you know, all of
Speaker 1: these college students and college athletes you know, exposed to
Speaker 1: the virus. Uh. The n C double A didn't put in,
Speaker 1: you know, a standard protocol for everybody, so they're allowing
Speaker 1: the schools to kind of do their own thing. Um
Speaker 1: and unfortunately saw a lot of student athletes get sick. Um.
Speaker 1: But then I think with just any college student put
Speaker 1: the sports down, I think everybody is trying to understand,
Speaker 1: you know, how do I continue to get my education?
Speaker 1: But also stay safe. You know they're gonna open schools,
Speaker 1: is they're going to be a virtual you know experience.
Speaker 1: I think everybody is trying to figure out how to adjust,
Speaker 1: but mainly how to stay engaged, how you don't want
Speaker 1: to lose you know, their attention, especially on the academics.
Speaker 1: Let's talk ball, and so played against you a number
Speaker 1: of times, and I remember I think an article came
Speaker 1: out um that U has stated playing against me, one
Speaker 1: play was good, the next player was bad. He definitely
Speaker 1: skis a printic bro. So, like, I let me go ahead,
Speaker 1: do talking? Yes, please expound on that. Yeah, yeah, Like
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a trash talker, like and I like
Speaker 1: to get in people's minds because I'm like, if I
Speaker 1: can get you mad at me and more worried about
Speaker 1: the little stuff I'm doing, not worried about your route.
Speaker 1: You're not worried about nothing, I got you. But I
Speaker 1: learned real quick when it came to Steve, Like, for one,
Speaker 1: don't piss him off because he plays better when he
Speaker 1: gets mad. Two, don't believe him when he's being a
Speaker 1: nice guy, because I've seen this base switch move. I've
Speaker 1: seen this guy literally after one play he's talking to you, man,
Speaker 1: how are you doing man? You know, laughing, make a joke,
Speaker 1: good job, you know, pat you on the back in
Speaker 1: the very next play, who's got his hands around your throat?
Speaker 1: And no exaggeration, this is literal. And so I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I just I tell young guys we get
Speaker 1: ready to play the Panthers. I'm like, I'm like, look,
Speaker 1: if Steve out there talking to you nice, don't believe it,
Speaker 1: like you keep your guard up because he will choke
Speaker 1: you out bag. But the sting here's the thing. I
Speaker 1: don't even know what to say to like try to
Speaker 1: help my case. Right like, right now, if if my
Speaker 1: defense team put Malcolm Jakins on the stand, as is
Speaker 1: going to jail, Hey nothing. You remember when we did
Speaker 1: uh when you was in Baltimore, we did that joy practice.
Speaker 1: I was a Eagles Oh you know. I remember walking
Speaker 1: up We're getting ready to do one on ones. I
Speaker 1: was hot that he was on the knee and I
Speaker 1: just already like, I'm like, we got joint practices. I
Speaker 1: already know what is about to be. And so I
Speaker 1: walk up. I don't say nothing. I just kind of
Speaker 1: walked past, and he's like, hey, Jack, I turned around.
Speaker 1: He was like, we're good. I said, we're straight. It's
Speaker 1: all right. You get Joe guys and I got mine.
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, right, here we go. Then one
Speaker 1: of my one of them young boys, I ain't gonna
Speaker 1: repeat what you said to him, but he didn't get
Speaker 1: the memo about who Steve Smith was. They had to
Speaker 1: learn the hard way. But uh yeah, man, it's it's
Speaker 1: always always a lot of respect man, you know, because
Speaker 1: it's it's like that on the field. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think I think that's what made you a great player. Man.
Speaker 1: That's you know, I had a lot of I used
Speaker 1: to enjoy those battles. I enjoyed those battles with you
Speaker 1: as well because you were one of those guys. I
Speaker 1: always had to know where he was on the field.
Speaker 1: He was smart, he was intelligent. And Malcolm helped me
Speaker 1: out with this one too, because we talked to a
Speaker 1: lot of different people and I'm always intrigued with whatever
Speaker 1: that sport is. I Q hm, would you say with
Speaker 1: eight guys one not all of them are the best
Speaker 1: of the best that everybody claims, not at all? Okay,
Speaker 1: and football, i Q you can have some dudes that
Speaker 1: literally are extremely intelligent outside of falls off the field
Speaker 1: and dumb as a box of rocks to the xs
Speaker 1: and ohs right, and it's like they have no either
Speaker 1: or they're really smart own a football field high football,
Speaker 1: I Q and do some of the dumbest no oh
Speaker 1: no the field, Like what what would you say over
Speaker 1: the years that you've played that makes a dB really good?
Speaker 1: I think for me, you know, And I think what
Speaker 1: guys sometimes get confused is I've seen guys with phenomenal
Speaker 1: athletic ability, like could get in and out of breaks
Speaker 1: better than anybody. I've seen our ball skills, you know,
Speaker 1: instincts whatever, but MHM can't understand the simple concepts of defense.
Speaker 1: And so for me, I don't think I'm the fastest,
Speaker 1: I ain't the strongest, and the uh you know, can't
Speaker 1: jump the highest. But I know leverage, you know, I know, okay,
Speaker 1: if I got discoverage, all of my help is inside.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stay outside if you beat me. You know,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna beat me anywhere, you're gonna beat me
Speaker 1: away from my leverage, I tackle you and we'll play
Speaker 1: the next down. You know, Just simple concepts like that
Speaker 1: on how to put yourself in the best position. And
Speaker 1: you've seen you know, guys who aren't the fastest, you know,
Speaker 1: but can cover everything and ended up being the top
Speaker 1: of the game. And so I think, you know, the
Speaker 1: ones who lasts and have really long careers learned to
Speaker 1: adjust their aim and most of it it comes with,
Speaker 1: you know, what's between their ears. You went from corner
Speaker 1: to safety. So you've got to be able to play
Speaker 1: the game from a cerebral level almost as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: man and man, that's why. And I enjoyed the you know,
Speaker 1: the move, and I think that's what makes really I
Speaker 1: was able to build my career on that right, being
Speaker 1: able to have play corner, you know, on all levels
Speaker 1: and have that skill set to be able to just
Speaker 1: line up and play man and man, but have enough
Speaker 1: you know, I q to to be able to transition
Speaker 1: to the safety position you know, and control, you know,
Speaker 1: be air traffic control, get guys lined up, understand what's coming,
Speaker 1: and be able to put myself really on any spot
Speaker 1: on the defense and actually be able to do it well. Um,
Speaker 1: you know. So that versatility, I think is what is
Speaker 1: the unique part about my game. It's not you know,
Speaker 1: my physical attributes or anything like that. It's my ability
Speaker 1: to understand the game um and constantly kind of build
Speaker 1: on what I know, but the the ability to also
Speaker 1: be versatile, you know, and be able to play all
Speaker 1: of these different spots because I don't look at defenses
Speaker 1: by position, So I don't want to just know what
Speaker 1: the corners are doing. I don't want to just know
Speaker 1: what the nickel or the safety is doing. I just like,
Speaker 1: put everybody in the next and what is the concept
Speaker 1: of the defense? How does this work? So if at
Speaker 1: any point in time, I can switch my position and
Speaker 1: know what to do. If you are playing a guy
Speaker 1: like Malcolm and you understand what he's doing and how
Speaker 1: he looks at your concepts and look at the route
Speaker 1: and look at splits and formations, emotions and Caton's I
Speaker 1: would come in and if I saw Malcolm seeing something
Speaker 1: that he knew was a tendency, I would line up
Speaker 1: watch him. Then I would tend to see break by
Speaker 1: widening or cutting my split down, and it would screw
Speaker 1: the whole defense up, because that's not what you're supposed
Speaker 1: to do. And that's the thing I love about defensive players.
Speaker 1: You're not supposed to do that, Like that'd be like,
Speaker 1: you ain't supposed to run down. I'm like, bro, how
Speaker 1: you gonna tell me I can't run that? That's not
Speaker 1: what we've seen on film. That the game is not
Speaker 1: always about what you see on film. Sometimes you gotta
Speaker 1: read and react. Yes, But defensive players, I hate to
Speaker 1: say it this way, defensive players are cheaters. They got
Speaker 1: y'all know where y'are running. I was gonna say, you
Speaker 1: have a competitive advantage because you have you know the
Speaker 1: play you got. A defensive player has to read and react. Right,
Speaker 1: shut up my back. We're moving on the last football question.
Speaker 1: Then we're gonna really get into all the things that
Speaker 1: you're doing when you're drafted in two thousand nine. What
Speaker 1: if Malcolm Jenkins want to do in the league? You know,
Speaker 1: you know, I think, honestly, I think I put too
Speaker 1: much pressure on myself as a first round draft pick.
Speaker 1: You know, I want to you know, everybody has these goals.
Speaker 1: I want to be a Hall of Fame player, to
Speaker 1: make Pro Bowls and all these different things. Um and
Speaker 1: I remember looking around at other guys. I think it
Speaker 1: was Vante Davis was the next corner and got drafted
Speaker 1: after me. He was starting in Miami a couple other dbs,
Speaker 1: you know that were rookies were we're playing. I'm looking
Speaker 1: at you know, who the tops in the game were,
Speaker 1: you know, the the rell Rivises and those guys, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, you know, I'm I think my first
Speaker 1: six games, I was playing special teams, and so I
Speaker 1: remember getting you know, kind of you know, sidetrack by
Speaker 1: looking at everybody else comparing myself that I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm falling short, you know, I'm feeling like I'm a
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a bus. And it wasn't until I
Speaker 1: started to really focus on, maybe like my second third
Speaker 1: year in the league, when I started to focus on
Speaker 1: what made me the player I am, did I actually
Speaker 1: begin to even, you know, be able to visualize kind
Speaker 1: of who I wanted to be as a player, Like
Speaker 1: what what do I want my career to look like?
Speaker 1: But I think I started out with the generic I
Speaker 1: want to be a Hall of Famer. I want to
Speaker 1: be you know, I want to make a Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: every year, and X Y and z UM. But I
Speaker 1: think those started to change as as I got better,
Speaker 1: and so for me, I'm like, I want to obviously
Speaker 1: want to be recognized as one of the best to
Speaker 1: play the game. Everybody who lines up and puts on
Speaker 1: some cleats should have that idea. But I wanted to
Speaker 1: be more about the way I played the game then
Speaker 1: just you know, making just just being a name that
Speaker 1: you know, it is constantly the Pro Bowls. Don't you
Speaker 1: start really recognizing to a lot of the stuff is
Speaker 1: a popularity contest. It's like, but but what are people
Speaker 1: saying to you after the game? Do you have to
Speaker 1: respect to your opponents? Do you have to respect to
Speaker 1: your teammates? Are coaches noticing you know, the value you
Speaker 1: bring to the game. Are you changing the game in
Speaker 1: any way? You're making it better, changing how the position
Speaker 1: is played. Those are the things that the types of
Speaker 1: impacts that you know, I started to focus on and
Speaker 1: and really just honing in on what I do best.
Speaker 1: I think it's about that time just take a little breather,
Speaker 1: good doing a good do it? Get down, do it?
Speaker 1: You focused on changing the game on the field, are
Speaker 1: you also doing a lot of great things off the field. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's actually at ten year anniversary. We started in two
Speaker 1: thousand and ten, we started the Malcolm Jenkins Foundation in
Speaker 1: New Orleans with the program called the Project rewards. And
Speaker 1: what we did was we paired it with an organization
Speaker 1: that was already doing academic supports. It's called College Tracks,
Speaker 1: and so they was giving kids it's after school program.
Speaker 1: They got tutoring, a C, T and S, a T
Speaker 1: prep um, you know, all of the academic supports that
Speaker 1: they need. But I realized that what made me who
Speaker 1: I am, uh was experiences. And it was the ability
Speaker 1: to get out of New Jersey and go to Ohio
Speaker 1: and be under somebody like the Jim Trusso who taught
Speaker 1: me what integrity was, who taught me what it meant
Speaker 1: to be you know, uh, responsible citizen, which taught me
Speaker 1: about leadership. Um, to be able to get into you know,
Speaker 1: a place like New Orleans, uh, which is night and
Speaker 1: day from New Jersey. Um. It's it's these experiences that
Speaker 1: really made me who I am. And so what I
Speaker 1: wanted to do was add on top of the academics
Speaker 1: those life skills. So, how do we teach kids about
Speaker 1: health and willness? How do we teach them how to
Speaker 1: build their communication skills, their leadership skills? Uh? And that's
Speaker 1: and that's kind of how it started. And we've since
Speaker 1: expanded over four states all of the states that I
Speaker 1: called home at some point. So we operate in New Jersey, Ohio, Louisiana,
Speaker 1: and Pennsylvania. So we're doing it for ten years and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the impact has been wild way way and
Speaker 1: I've ever you know thought in a lot of it
Speaker 1: is because of my mother. But we've done you know,
Speaker 1: over a hundred thousand dollars and scholarships, were giving away,
Speaker 1: you know, food, clothes, stem programs, Uh, you name it.
Speaker 1: We're doing it and you know a lot of it,
Speaker 1: like I said, is is some of is my ideas.
Speaker 1: But the feet on the ground, Uh is my mom
Speaker 1: first and foremost. She's the president. And then our our
Speaker 1: board that is still down in the world and still
Speaker 1: the original board that we started with. It been doing
Speaker 1: the time. You know, I just I'm when I sit
Speaker 1: back and think of kind of what we've done over
Speaker 1: the last ten years, I'm really really humble about it.
Speaker 1: Business Wise, how are you using business also to help?
Speaker 1: And also i'd say, to some degree maker profit. But
Speaker 1: the way you're not making a profit money wise, you're
Speaker 1: making a profit by investing in people. I've got a
Speaker 1: few business mentors, you know, I'm I'm a franchise e
Speaker 1: owned franchises, UM franchises of war. So I owned ten
Speaker 1: Papa John's ten in Damn where all they look at it. Uh,
Speaker 1: all of them are in North Jersey and then up
Speaker 1: in like the Boston area, Massachusetts main UM. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a funny story too. We got into Papa John's
Speaker 1: right before the CEO decided to go off the hinges,
Speaker 1: the former CEO, So we kind of had the weather
Speaker 1: that storm. But it's been it's been one of those
Speaker 1: things where you know, even in those you see an
Speaker 1: opportunity where most of these most of these franchises are
Speaker 1: the people who work in them are people of color,
Speaker 1: and all the ones that we own are in black communities,
Speaker 1: and so we got an opportunity to really you know,
Speaker 1: kind of infiltrate from within where we you know, like
Speaker 1: nent of our employees are black. We serve those communities.
Speaker 1: So we served the school systems that are there UM
Speaker 1: and and are able to employ people, especially in a
Speaker 1: time where you know, job security is tough. UM. So
Speaker 1: that's been something that's has been you know, awesome. And
Speaker 1: my I started a production company last year called Listen
Speaker 1: Up Media. So we're into the film industry and and
Speaker 1: uh just been putting the finishing touches on a documentary
Speaker 1: that I'm an executive producer on called Black Boys. I'm
Speaker 1: working on a few other projects. So that's been you know,
Speaker 1: something for me that has been you know great, something
Speaker 1: that is my passion to be able to storytell outside
Speaker 1: of kind of these sports platforms UM and be able
Speaker 1: to take narrative, take my own narrative, my own voice,
Speaker 1: and on it. And that's I think that's very important,
Speaker 1: especially UM right now. And then you know, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: passionate about fashion as well. So I have my own
Speaker 1: men student company UM with a brick and mortar here
Speaker 1: in Philly called Marsonville. We've had that for three years now.
Speaker 1: That's been that's been you know cool, not only to
Speaker 1: be able to design my own clothing, but really to
Speaker 1: see it on you know, other athletes and entertainers see
Speaker 1: it on a red carpets. UM. That that's been a
Speaker 1: fun passion project for me. But you know, it's a
Speaker 1: there's a lot of there's different kind of buckets of
Speaker 1: different business ventures that I'm into, and what was important
Speaker 1: to me was to surround myself with UM, you know,
Speaker 1: a team that I can trust. And so when I
Speaker 1: talked about Chad School, um, one of my partners who's
Speaker 1: kind of she helps me run all of these different things.
Speaker 1: My name is Rolanda Johnson. Her and her husband are
Speaker 1: on my team. I've known Rolanda since uh preschool, since
Speaker 1: Chad school. Both of us went to Chad, ended up
Speaker 1: both in Piscataway, went through high school together. And she's
Speaker 1: you know, full time on my you know, on my staff,
Speaker 1: and it's helping with that. And so to be able
Speaker 1: to kind of build these things with people, you know,
Speaker 1: to be be able to empower you know, those who
Speaker 1: are around you, put them in positions where you know
Speaker 1: they become the CEO, the CFOs and of of your
Speaker 1: own stuff. Man. To me, that is like that's what
Speaker 1: I call success, Like that is those are the goals.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't really care about making the most
Speaker 1: money in the world for myself because as we know,
Speaker 1: you know, especially in football or sports, often times we're
Speaker 1: the only ones in our family that has that kind
Speaker 1: of success. And then we're ended up, you know, trying
Speaker 1: to funnel our money and our hard owned you know
Speaker 1: kind of dollars that are already dwindling to try to
Speaker 1: support everybody else. And so for me, I changed, you know,
Speaker 1: while ago, I told myself only invest in the people
Speaker 1: around me and put them in a position, you know,
Speaker 1: where they you teach them how to fix right, you
Speaker 1: teach them how to you know, become CEO, how to
Speaker 1: be a CFO. And unfortunately for me, I've been around
Speaker 1: talented people with those same that same mentality, that same
Speaker 1: principle UM, and we've just been building, man, and been
Speaker 1: really excited about some of the opportunities that have been coming,
Speaker 1: some of the platforms that have been coming. So we're
Speaker 1: just gonna keep riding away. You're gonna add another feather
Speaker 1: in your cap as you are now the first professional
Speaker 1: football player to join CNN while still playing in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Why is that important to you? And then what can
Speaker 1: we expect seeing you on CNN? Yeah, man, it's it's
Speaker 1: important because anytime you're the first, right, it's it's always important.
Speaker 1: But UM, athletes oftentimes, and it's been the most frustrating
Speaker 1: thing for me in this this you know the last
Speaker 1: few years of this social awareness around you know, social
Speaker 1: justice and things like that, is athletes are only given
Speaker 1: platforms that are you know, around sports and Sports center.
Speaker 1: So when I want to talk about systemic racism and
Speaker 1: our criminal justice system and all of these things, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm at the mercy of sports writers who you know,
Speaker 1: are tasked by whoever is employing them to write about
Speaker 1: the national anthem and the flag and Trump and who's
Speaker 1: on what um And it's just so hard to to
Speaker 1: maintain the integrity of your voice and maintain your message.
Speaker 1: And so to have access to a platform like CE
Speaker 1: and them, that's a whole new you know, audience. It's
Speaker 1: another opportunity to showcase that voice and own your own narrative.
Speaker 1: And so myself, I always I want to challenge people
Speaker 1: to think. I don't want people to just listen to
Speaker 1: me and do what I say. I want people to
Speaker 1: think about the information and come up with their own
Speaker 1: conclusions and think for themselves. And so you know, that's
Speaker 1: what I, you know, hope to do is want to
Speaker 1: be very very authentic with my voice and always speak
Speaker 1: my truth, but to always be a thought leader and
Speaker 1: somebody who challenges others to think critically um and to analyze,
Speaker 1: you know the context of where we are right now
Speaker 1: as a society. Is it fair to say, because you're
Speaker 1: a football player, where you play sports that the sports
Speaker 1: writers are only interested in, you're discussing the things that
Speaker 1: that are around ball like they it almost seems like
Speaker 1: people don't want like you. You kind of hear everybody
Speaker 1: just catch the ball and dribble, ball, ball, shut up
Speaker 1: and dribble. How do we get out of that to
Speaker 1: say that we're not just dumb jocks? Right, because you
Speaker 1: go back and think about when we look at old movies,
Speaker 1: old sitcoms, and they talk about when they talk about athletes,
Speaker 1: they always are highlighting or he can't do this, or
Speaker 1: he can't do that, he's just the dumb jock, or
Speaker 1: he's only at that school because he plays ball and
Speaker 1: it brings nothing else to the table. I think that
Speaker 1: I think the bad part about all of that is
Speaker 1: that we believe that sometimes, you know, and so I
Speaker 1: think the first part is and that's why you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm really excited about, you know, being kind of
Speaker 1: the first is just to be able to see it
Speaker 1: right like, oh, if this is a football player, active
Speaker 1: player who has another job, just even that in and
Speaker 1: of itself, it's something that's you know, I've never seen
Speaker 1: somebody who has an active job outside of sports and
Speaker 1: so and they'll be able to be on those platforms
Speaker 1: and speaking is you know, important for us to at
Speaker 1: least see it first. But I think a large personal
Speaker 1: portion of like how do we continue it is guys
Speaker 1: have to You can't believe the things that society tell you, right,
Speaker 1: they want to tell you or belittle your voice or
Speaker 1: make you think that this is all you're good at
Speaker 1: when I'm like a lot of us, the majority of
Speaker 1: us are college graduates, like who have found a way
Speaker 1: to navigate, uh in a locker room with people from
Speaker 1: different backgrounds from all over all kinds of races, religions, economic,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, makeups and and somehow you know, run
Speaker 1: the business. You you manage your own money. We have
Speaker 1: a union that managed that that negotiates on behalf of
Speaker 1: his players, Like, we are equipped for this, and most
Speaker 1: of us you know, are have are better leaders and
Speaker 1: have been doing these things since we were in the
Speaker 1: third fourth grade. And so when we talk about the
Speaker 1: intangible skills that we have uniquely, you know, as athletes,
Speaker 1: we're better equipped to do a lot of this work
Speaker 1: than than people who have these jobs. But it's until
Speaker 1: we change the narrative and our you know, amongst ourselves
Speaker 1: and in our own minds, that that we can actually operate.
Speaker 1: And you started the Players Coalition back in two seventeen,
Speaker 1: U and N Kuan Bolden, What was the moment in
Speaker 1: which you decided you needed to start that? Like, what
Speaker 1: was that aha moment right after Kaepernick in teen, right
Speaker 1: at the Kaepernet took a knee. You recognize that, like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm somebody who's who doing work kind of
Speaker 1: in my own silo right and and been on kind
Speaker 1: of doing social justice stuff on my own, but that
Speaker 1: that gesture really sparked, you know, this movement. And what
Speaker 1: we realized was there's a lot of us in the
Speaker 1: league that have these same passions. And so a Kan
Speaker 1: later that that fall, he had been to Capitol Hill
Speaker 1: to lobby for some other, you know things that that
Speaker 1: had not to do with social justice, but he had
Speaker 1: the experience of actually going and speaking to legislators. So
Speaker 1: he organized the trip invited some guys to go um
Speaker 1: and that was one of them. And when I realized
Speaker 1: that these politicians and all these people their sports fans too, right,
Speaker 1: and they want to they want to meet us just
Speaker 1: as much as any other fan, And so I'm like,
Speaker 1: we got a unique you know ability to convene or
Speaker 1: get the ear of these politicians. Well, let's bring this message,
Speaker 1: you know, and we can do it even louder when
Speaker 1: we do it collectively as opposed to each guy who
Speaker 1: has their own foundation is doing it kind of in
Speaker 1: a silo. So how do we how do we pull
Speaker 1: our funds together? Then how do we pull our voices
Speaker 1: together and collectively you know, push for these things. And honestly,
Speaker 1: like I knew what we were, what we were doing
Speaker 1: was unique and gonna be big. But where we are
Speaker 1: today and how much we've done as a as a
Speaker 1: group has been It's been. I'm I'm proud of it.
Speaker 1: I'm proud of it because guys have been taking you know,
Speaker 1: taking it amongst themselves to really like dive into their communities,
Speaker 1: their cities, pushing for not only just awareness, but literally
Speaker 1: getting laws change, helping them push the work that these
Speaker 1: grass roots organizations are doing. They dedicate their lives to it,
Speaker 1: but can't get the same meetings or the same you know,
Speaker 1: attention that we can draw to it. So be able
Speaker 1: to be able to assist that and be a part
Speaker 1: of kind of this active movement has been, you know,
Speaker 1: something that I'm super proud of. We just um and
Speaker 1: more and more guys are coming in, whether it's current players,
Speaker 1: former players, UM and and and really making it their
Speaker 1: own and so, you know, hopefully this is something that
Speaker 1: we can continue, you know, for the next generations of
Speaker 1: of of athletes. How do you remember who you are
Speaker 1: and stay centered in yourself? It's it's tough. I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I would be doing everybody a disservice if I, you know,
Speaker 1: put all of the good stuff out and didn't you know,
Speaker 1: talk about what what it actually feels like to carry
Speaker 1: kind of all of those things. It's definitely something you know,
Speaker 1: for me, for the last like three years, I've had
Speaker 1: to learn how to, like you said, center yourself and
Speaker 1: make sure that even though I'm doing all of these
Speaker 1: things and I'm in a leadership role in all of
Speaker 1: those things, right, people depending on your voice, people depending
Speaker 1: on you to provide your family, you know, and all
Speaker 1: of these priorities. So you have to also be able
Speaker 1: to prioritize yourself. And it was about three years ago,
Speaker 1: probably two thousand seventeen, we're getting coalition started, and yeah,
Speaker 1: that was also the Super Bowl years, I'm balancing being
Speaker 1: a captain, all these things. You know, I almost had
Speaker 1: like a meltdown and and I'm like you I could
Speaker 1: physically feel like the stress and attention that I was carrying,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, you know, I got to talk
Speaker 1: to somebody, and so, um, since then, I've been talking
Speaker 1: every week to you know, a therapist and being able
Speaker 1: to uh really balance or at least find the tools
Speaker 1: to balance all of these things. So you know, every
Speaker 1: now and then and like stuff gets too crazy, taking
Speaker 1: a break is okay, all right, I don't have to
Speaker 1: fight this thing every single day, taking a break, you know, delegating, um,
Speaker 1: spending time with my family, you know, setting a calendar, um,
Speaker 1: but also putting people in place to hold me accountable
Speaker 1: to you know, people I can talk to, people that's
Speaker 1: gonna check up on me to make sure my mental
Speaker 1: you know, it is good because that's the part that
Speaker 1: that we we forget about. And so you know that's
Speaker 1: really been my uh safe place is you know, therapy
Speaker 1: and then my friends and family who who are there
Speaker 1: to really check on me. And that's really what allows
Speaker 1: me to kind of juggle all of these different um,
Speaker 1: you know, entities and and and interest. How long did
Speaker 1: it take for you to set a land or even
Speaker 1: just take that first step of reaching out knowing that
Speaker 1: you needed to talk to a therapist. Um, it was
Speaker 1: to the point where I was like, I'm I'm gonna break,
Speaker 1: Like I couldn't do it no more. I remember we
Speaker 1: were getting rid to play the seat don't see Hawks
Speaker 1: in this, like the night before the game, and like
Speaker 1: I was in my body felt like it was in
Speaker 1: fight or flight for a week straight, like that that
Speaker 1: feeling you get right before you about to hit a
Speaker 1: roller coaster or something. I hit that drop. My body
Speaker 1: felt like that for a week straight, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't do this anymore. And it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, and I remember Chick Kelly when he was
Speaker 1: the head coach. He had a sports psychologist that used
Speaker 1: to come, you know, talk to the guys every now
Speaker 1: and then. She was around. So I just reached out
Speaker 1: to her and like, and I think that now she's
Speaker 1: at Temple University, so she wasn't on a team anymore,
Speaker 1: but I reached out. Luckily she was still in the city. Um,
Speaker 1: and so I've been meeting with her for three years
Speaker 1: and you know every week we were on there, and
Speaker 1: it's something that I prioritized because I know if I
Speaker 1: don't take care of myself, I'm not gonna be worth
Speaker 1: anything to anybody else. You you built a carry a lot,
Speaker 1: but you don't built a carry everything. All right, Malcolm,
Speaker 1: We're about to go into a segment of our podcast
Speaker 1: we like to call the deep three. So we know
Speaker 1: this is in the three route. It's it's it's not
Speaker 1: a deep route, but let us be great. Uh, the
Speaker 1: next three questions just allow us to take a deeper thing.
Speaker 1: I thought you were talking about like cover three, you know,
Speaker 1: saying no, no, no, no no, just the deep three. So
Speaker 1: this is gonna these are these are just three questions
Speaker 1: that are coming up. It's gonna allow us to take
Speaker 1: a deeper dive into you as a person beyond your
Speaker 1: jersey man. So it is gonna have and myself, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have three questions. So smythe I'll let you ask
Speaker 1: the first one. Do you fear retirement? No? This is
Speaker 1: this will be year twelve from me, and uh, I
Speaker 1: don't feel I don't fear retirement, you know at all,
Speaker 1: because I'm I have so many other interests now that
Speaker 1: I know about myself that I'm like, I'm I know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be passionate about some other things outside of
Speaker 1: this game. The thing I am worried about, though, is
Speaker 1: the one thing that football provides for me. And I
Speaker 1: know a lot of athletes like this. It is structure, right,
Speaker 1: you know when to wake up, you know where you
Speaker 1: gotta be, meeting times, people holding your accountable like that.
Speaker 1: Structure is something that is hard to adjust to, and
Speaker 1: I know it just even in the off seasons. A
Speaker 1: right to be able to make yourself get up when
Speaker 1: nobody's telling you to work out or get up, and
Speaker 1: you know, meet deadlines and to go through your weekly
Speaker 1: routine and started all over again and just stay regimented.
Speaker 1: That's the part that I'm a little bit nervous about losing,
Speaker 1: you know when that time comes, because I've had that
Speaker 1: structure literally since the third grade. What does Malcolm get
Speaker 1: out of giving back? Man? I see the impact and
Speaker 1: so you know, for me that is all of it matters,
Speaker 1: Like I feel responsible for it. And and because I've
Speaker 1: seen my dad um right there on Third Street where
Speaker 1: he grew up, he influence just the people in his sphere, right,
Speaker 1: So all of the kids who are around there, the boys,
Speaker 1: he he'd be the steady quarterback. He showed us all
Speaker 1: how to play football, how to run routes, signed us
Speaker 1: up for pop Warner, took us to and from practice,
Speaker 1: and we're just talking about literally the kids within two
Speaker 1: square blocks and three of us made it to the
Speaker 1: NFL M And I'm like, if he can have that impact,
Speaker 1: you know, no, Accolades is not gonna get any awards
Speaker 1: for just doing just affecting the people around him. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what responsibility do I have with all the resources and
Speaker 1: platform the eye. So for me, it's part of To me,
Speaker 1: it feels more so part of fulfilling my purpose than
Speaker 1: it does you know, kind of feeling good because I
Speaker 1: did something nice for somebody. I'm like, this is who
Speaker 1: I am. I've seen this, you know, since I was little,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, this is what I'm responsible to doing.
Speaker 1: And so for me, this is part of my purpose
Speaker 1: to walk this earth. When it's all said and done,
Speaker 1: what does Malcolm Jenkins want to be remembered or known for.
Speaker 1: I want to be remembered for having a true impact
Speaker 1: on whatever it is I touch. So whether it's a
Speaker 1: game of football. I want my the impact that I
Speaker 1: had on the game to be remembered, whatever that looks like,
Speaker 1: if it's in business, if it's in my community, when
Speaker 1: I'm when it's all said and done, I want people
Speaker 1: to be able to look back and be able to
Speaker 1: measure the impact you know that I've had and and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna take it as deep as I
Speaker 1: can get it. And so for me, you know, I
Speaker 1: could care less about the awards and and all of
Speaker 1: the things that come and go that that the next
Speaker 1: generation is probably gonna outshine anyway, because we forget all
Speaker 1: those records they get broken. But it's like who changed
Speaker 1: the game, who changed the world? Who you know was
Speaker 1: bold enough to be different and maximize their ability to
Speaker 1: impact the environments around them. That's that's really where I
Speaker 1: hold the most value. We appreciate you coming on my podcast.
Speaker 1: I love to tell you this. It's been a long
Speaker 1: time coming. But obviously, when you were at the New
Speaker 1: Orleans Saints, I had a professional dislike for you because
Speaker 1: of playing in the NFC South. But my dislike and
Speaker 1: my hatred for you was not because you weren't a
Speaker 1: good player. It was because you always made me think
Speaker 1: when I played against you, I had to watch extra film.
Speaker 1: I had to pay attention a lot more because I
Speaker 1: knew obviously the gentleman, the man, the philanthropists, you would
Speaker 1: knock me in the dirt. But you did it strategically.
Speaker 1: You did it with your brain, not just with your body.
Speaker 1: And Man, one of the things playing against you that um,
Speaker 1: now that I retired, that I'm that, I'm glad I
Speaker 1: don't have to deal with man playing against guys like you.
Speaker 1: You always kept me on my toes Man, and and
Speaker 1: I expect the same thing coming out of you as
Speaker 1: a CNN contributre. Man, I can't. I couldn't be more
Speaker 1: excited to see you bring to the table what you bring,
Speaker 1: just like what you bring to the football field. So
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, man, brother to brother, man, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: But that's about the highest, uh you know, award or
Speaker 1: acknowledgement I could get in this game. Is that kind
Speaker 1: of respects. I appreciate that when you earned it, and
Speaker 1: and unfortunately I got some scars to prove it. These
Speaker 1: an onion, Yes, so many different layers spread analogy that
Speaker 1: really just you. I don't want to say it this way,
Speaker 1: but you just don't see from a football player, but
Speaker 1: you do see from a football player and other athletes.
Speaker 1: We just have to give them the opportunity, and not
Speaker 1: all of them will be successful because at times you
Speaker 1: you really just have to have the inner g and
Speaker 1: have the diligence. But but what he's doing, how he's
Speaker 1: doing it um so many different layers. And then he
Speaker 1: also plays on Sunday as well, Right, That's what that's
Speaker 1: the thing. The other six days a week he's doing
Speaker 1: nine billion other things and he's still the Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: safety directing traffic, directing traffic. So that's literally my thoughts
Speaker 1: on our interview with Malcolm is that you you look
Speaker 1: at all the things he's done from the brother was
Speaker 1: just on the SPS opening up talking about social justice stuff,
Speaker 1: from his film work with this Black Boys documentary that's
Speaker 1: gonna come out soon, to his foundation work that's been
Speaker 1: out for ten years, has an impact across four states.
Speaker 1: It is amazing to see started the players Coalition, like
Speaker 1: he has a Kwambola two thousand seven to all these
Speaker 1: accolades while still maintaining a successful NFL career, that's gone
Speaker 1: for got something? What else did I forget? Ten Papa
Speaker 1: John's ten. Papa John's exactly ten, Papa John's that employed
Speaker 1: people brings jobs to the community. Malcolm is the first,
Speaker 1: and then I believe there will be many other guys
Speaker 1: that followed to show trail blazer, trail blazer, to show
Speaker 1: he is playing ball, but there are six there's other
Speaker 1: six days of the week that he's doing other things.
Speaker 1: And also oh yeah, on the side, practicing and directing
Speaker 1: traffic and getting guys lined up. So to be able
Speaker 1: to hold and sustain that amount of requirement responsibility. The
Speaker 1: only way you can do that is one having a
Speaker 1: good head on your shoulders and also understanding when you've
Speaker 1: reached your limit, when you are making this much impact.
Speaker 1: And he talks about he talked about and and and
Speaker 1: reaching out and saying enough is enough with the community,
Speaker 1: but also enough is enough with myself that I have
Speaker 1: to slow down. You have to take a breath, take
Speaker 1: a break. I gotta put people around me, one that
Speaker 1: I trust, right, and a team of excellence. And excellence
Speaker 1: doesn't always mean you're gonna score points. Excellence just means
Speaker 1: sometimes screw some stuff up, just being okay with screwing
Speaker 1: it up, but having people around you that go how
Speaker 1: we're gonna make this better? And and that's tough to do. Man.
Speaker 1: That's that is why sometimes it is very difficult to
Speaker 1: play football or to be an athlete and also try
Speaker 1: to put yourself in other areas that it doesn't always
Speaker 1: equal up to success. But he's he's very successful. Cut
Speaker 1: to It with Steve Smith Senior, That Is Me is
Speaker 1: a production of Cut to It, LLC, Ball Told 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 producers Steve Smith Singr And
Speaker 1: Gerard little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, social
Speaker 1: media manager Peyton Smith from Balto Creative Media. Cut to
Speaker 1: It is produced by Brian Balta Chevic and Meredith Carter,
Speaker 1: with production assistance by Alex Lebrec, Production manager Sarah Pollock,
Speaker 1: Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You haven't heard about it, then we're about to let
Speaker 1: you know. It's all